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Credits: Steve McCurry

Are you familiar with this famous National Geographic cover?

The picture was taken by Steve McCurry in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan in December 1984. The portrait which was called the "Afghan Girl" appeared on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985. Those haunting green eyes captivated the world.

Anyway, during the weekend I was sick I was doing rounds of my movie marathon and I stumbled to this documentary on finding the "Afghan Girl." After 17 years, the National Geographic finally found her. Her name is Sharbat Gula. She's a mother of three daughters and she now lives in a remote region of Afghanistan.

The "Afghan Girl" photo was selected as the cover of National Geographic 100 Best Pictures.

Here is before and after photo of the Afghan Girl (Sharbat Gula).

Get your copy of the National Geographic Search for the Afghan Girl DVD from the link below.

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It was the year of the Bieber and Justin Bieber fanatics would be delighted with these Justin Bieber singing dolls and collectibles. These dolls will be available on December 1 online and major retailers between $27 and $53. Aside from the dolls, fanatics can also get Justin's book titled "First Step 2 Forever" and his two CDs.

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I am on Sick Leave today and I have thought of cooking Chicken Adobo for lunch then changed my mind of cooking Chicken Tinola instead. After my visit to the doctor, I went to the market near our block and bought the ingredients to Tinola. Chicken Tinola is just a simple dish which can be done in 45 minutes or less.

Anyway, here are the ingredients to the famous Filipino Chicken Tinola recipe:
1. Chicken cut in parts
2. ginger
3. onion
4. garlic
5. young papaya or chayote
6. chili leaves
7. fish sauce
8. salt and pepper

Here are the easy steps:
1. Sautee the garlic, onion and ginger in a casserole.
2. Add the chicken and water and wait until the chicken is cooked.
3. Add the fish sauce, chayote and wait until chayote is cooked.
4. Mix the chili leaves and set the flame off.
4. Add more fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve it with hot rice and fish sauce as dip. I have tried it with brown rice and it wasn't as good with white rice.

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This is the Bee Hoon kiosk in our office cafeteria. Well apparently according to their signage they were on a business vacation and they were saying sorry for any "invenience" caused. LOL!

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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of November 21, 2010

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
2. Megamind
3. Unstoppable
4. Due Date
5. The Next Three Days
6. Morning Glory
7. Skyline
8. Red
9. For Colored Girls
10. Fair Game (2010)
11. Secretariat
12. Paranormal Activity 2
13. The Social Network
14. 127 Hours
15. Saw 3D

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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of November 14, 2010

1. Megamind
2. Unstoppable
3. Due Date
4. Skyline
5. Morning Glory
6. For Colored Girls
7. Red
8. Paranormal Activity 2
9. Saw 3D
10. Jackass 3-D
11. Secretariat
12. The Social Network
13. Hereafter
14. Life as We Know It
15. Fair Game (2010)

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It was weeks ago that I have been informed by my friend that there's a Sundown Marathon next year. What's so nice about this marathon is that there was an early reservation to those NTUC members. Aside from a guaranteed slot, there's a bulk discount for us members. I reserved for the half marathon and I'm very anxious if I can handle the 21 kilometers run.

The marathon by the way is on May 28, 2011 and according to the press release of NTUC, the half marathon will start at 9 PM. Good luck with that! Based from my last 10 km run from Nike, my pace is 8.04 minutes per kilometers. If I run 7 minutes per kilometer, that will take me 2.45 hours. I need to be with that pace at least.

Anyway, this week I have started doing my half marathon training. I have signed up with my Nike+ Half Marathon training and it's just scary that tomorrow I need to run at least 9.65 kilometers. The training by the way is three times a week with different distances and some additional instructions for strength training.

Wish me luck that I can finish the 12-weeks training from Nike!

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I was in Sunway Lagoon Malaysia this weekend and I think I had enough with my short trips. I was so sleepy and tired at work since I arrived home past 1 AM today. Anyway, my Sunway Lagoon Malaysia trip will be out this week.

Now to my Jurong Bird Park visit. We went there on October 31st and it was all our first time there. By the way, if you're interested to visit Jurong Bird Park you can alight at Boon Lay MRT and walk towards the Bus Interchange and ride bus number 194 or 251. You will alight at the Jurong Bird Park bus stop.

We arrived the Bird Park at 11 AM and since we had our late breakfast, we went on walking towards the park. Our first stop was the Birds n Buddies Show at the Pools Amphitheatre. There were birds mascot and real birds that can fly on an obstacle course. After the show, you can take photos of the parrots up close. After that show, we visited other beautiful birds that are caged. I had a lot of fun at the Lory Loft where I got to feed the birds. By 2 PM, I was quiet and grumpy. We then headed for lunch at the expensive Bongo Burgers where I had the Beef Pepper Burger. After our lunch, we all felt lazy.

Our next stop was the Birds of Prey Show at the Fuji Hawk Walk. It was an awesome show where I got to see flying predators live in action. It was fun to watch especially the part where a shy kid had to handle a heavy owl. More walking towards the park followed.

We left the bird park when it was about to close and I was so exhausted. We had our diner at Express Thai in Jurong Point.

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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of November 7, 2010

1. Megamind
2. Due Date
3. For Colored Girls
4. Red
5. Saw 3D
6. Paranormal Activity 2
7. Jackass 3-D
8. Secretariat
9. Hereafter
10. The Social Network
11. Life as We Know It
12. Conviction
13. The Town
14. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
15. Fair Game (2010)

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Over the weekend, may gal pal and I went on to our first Bangkok trip. We bought our air tickets and reserved our hotel months ago. The problem was we're overbooked with all the places that we wanted to go. The night before our flight, we have decided to just stop editing our itinerary and hoped it would be fine.

Saturday morning, I was supposed to wake up around 3:45 AM but I somehow missed my alarm and was sound asleep until I heard the text message of my friend. I'm supposed to leave my house around 4:30 AM and at that time I was about to take a shower. After ten minutes of shower and preparation, I was on our block's bus stop and waited for a cab. I immediately called my friend for directions since I was fetching her. We reached the Budget Terminal early 5 AM and after we have checked-in, we went to McDonald's and had our breakfast.

We departed Singapore on time and we reached Bangkok past 7 in the morning, Bangkok time. The Bangkok International Suvarnabhumi Airport was impressive compared to the airport in the Philippines. I just don't like the long queue in the Immigration. They should open more counters since there are a lot of tourists visiting Bangkok. Anyway, after we were cleared in the Immigration, our target was to get a Bangkok map. After we got our maps, we went to the Public Taxi exit and managed to reached our castle like hotel in less than an hour. Our taxi fare costs 420 baht including the 2 toll fees and the airport taxi charge. Not that bad.

Since we arrived the hotel before the check-in time we have decided to go straight to Chatuchak Weekend Market and just leave our luggages in the hotel. Thankfully the receptionist was fluent in English and she helped us in the directions. Thanks Ms. Tong! We took the taxi again to the Weekend Market and our first destination was the food section. It was 11 in the morning Bangkok time and since Bangkok is delayed one hour, we felt our hunger. We can't find the food section so went to the nearby mall and ate a Western meal. We're in Bangkok and still having Western food. LOL.

After our lunch, we went back to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Our goal was to buy clothes, the tamarind delicacy and a hand carry luggage. At first we got lost but we find our way to the Information counter and got our Chatuchak map. If you're looking for clothes, you need to go to Section 21 until the Clock Tower. Since we only have three hours for Chatuchak, I only bought 1 shirt, 2 shorts and 1 vest. By 2 PM, we went back to the hotel to check-in. When we got our keys, it just annoyed me that they were still fixing our room and I was standing in the room waiting for them to finish the bed. After 10 minutes, I finally managed to sit on the bed and fix my things.

To be continued...

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Top 20 Hollywood Movies as of October 31, 2010

1. Saw 3D
2. Paranormal Activity 2
3. Red
4. Jackass 3-D
5. Hereafter
6. Secretariat
7. The Social Network
8. Life as We Know It
9. The Town
10. Conviction
11. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
12. Easy A
13. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
14. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
15. Devil

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Hours from now I'll be on the plane for my first ever Bangkok trip. Before that I'm going to tell my Macau trip last year. It is almost a year now and I have just started uploading photos in Macau. So here goes...

Macau was our last destination in our Hong Kong-Macau trip. From Hong Kong, we went to Kowloon City where the China Ferry Terminal is located. It was a smooth ride and I was so excited to see Macau. When we reached the ferry terminal in Macau, I immediately saw one casino. Our first destination in Macau was the Ruins of St. Paul's. It was magnificent even the only thing left is the entrance of the church. Going there you can see magnificent structures which were all inspired by the Portuguese. Even the McDonald's branch reside on an old Portuguese building.

After visiting two churches, we finally decided to have lunch at Pizza Hut. It was our first encounter with a local. Their accent is a mixture of Chinese and Portuguese. After lunch, we took the bus back to the ferry terminal. Early that day, we saw shuttle buses to the casinos. We went first to the Venetian followed by the City of Dreams. It was my first time to play in the casino and I only spent 20 HKD if I can recall. The casino experience was amazing especially the free show at the City of Dreams.

You can see my Macau photos here.

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Advance Happy Christmas everyone! Everyone should start feeling the Christmas spirit. Wow, it would be my third Christmas here in Singapore. I hope I won't be lonely that day.

Here is the Station ID of ABS-CBN for 2010. Enjoy!

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Prayers to the departed especially to my father, Amang and Lola Conchita. We will remember all of you forever.