Down the Rabbit Hole

I absolutely love flying kites. As a kid, I used to fly a dual-line delta stunt kite with my siblings on a sugarcane field right across our house. So, when I'm given the opportunity to fly a kite (even a single-line toy kite ), I easily drop photography and can have fun for hours under the sun with the kite and the wind... and tangled strings (but untangling string is less fun, of course). There was even a time I chased my kite through the exhibit airplanes' parking lot in Clark Field, Pampanga because the kite's line snapped with the strong wind (and the kite reached the airport hangar)! One Sunday, Matty took out his dual-line power kite because this was more of a relaxation and try-something-new day, rather than a wakeboarding day. The conditions were just right for kite-flying too: lots of wind, no trees or electric lines where the kite would get entangled on.  I've never flown a power kite before, nor a kite with two lines attached to a control bar, so it

Chaotic. That's how I describe the protagonist's mind. The music suggested a very active mind, coupled with that raspy voice egging him along. The ever narrowing and darkening corridors of the theatre were closing in on him just before he hit the stage. After all, the hero of the movie was a has-been. He was an actor who's claim to fame was his stint as the superhero character Birdman. Of course there's some humour underneath the surface. Michael Keaton, in no way a has-been, used to play another winged superhero, Batman. I'm sure that the Bat's not haunting him straight to the theatre though. Other characters were portrayed by actors who were castmembers of other superhero movies too.  What's blindingly obvious was the absence of the castmembers of The Avengers franchise; so, the Avengers themselves made a cameo. Hahaha! The way the movie ended still has me baffled. Did he or did he not... Fly? To me, this ending is akin to Inception

Almost four weeks after my snowboarding misadventure, my left wrist was still swollen and bruised. I was really puzzled and concerned about this because my previous sprain was nothing like this: I was able to walk without crutches after a few days and was traveling to Bangkok within a week of the injury. Therefore, my hand must have sustained a more serious issue. I had talked with my orthopaedic doctor about this, which was why he had recommended MRI be done on my hand. This might be ligamentous injury, he had said. The MRI machine must have been taken straight out of Avatar or Interstellar . As I was being conveyed into the machine, I had to remember that I wasn't allowed to move over the duration of the scan. I think I fell asleep at some point, thanks to the calming effect of the steady beeping sounds (which I could hear despite the ear plugs). I was told that the results would be sent directly to my doctor and off I went. A few days later, during my check-up, the d

James Bond, Austin Powers, and Ethan Hunt, movie over. There's a new secret agent in town and he's also in a bespoke suit. He is code-named after one of the knights of Arthur's round table and he's a perfect gentleman. Kingsman, that's what he is, after all. The Kingsmen are part of a top-secret organisation; so top-secret that even government intelligence agencies apparently didn't know of them. Their weapons include guns, lighters, and the gentleman's walking cane and oxfords. They communicate with each other remotely through their eyeglasses. They are masters of fighting skills. When a Kingsman dies, the round table isn't complete and so training a replacement commences. And what a physically and mentally difficult and seemingly deadly training course it is. At the end of the course, only one becomes a new Kingsman but the second runner-up could take home his very own bespoke suit. What a consolation prize, right? In the movie, the Kingsmen had a new

The day after  my bad fall , Jay (our tour guide from Ski Korea) kindly brought me to the hospital. Since Matty wanted to swap his snowboard with skis, we made a pit stop at the rental shop before dropping him off at Yongpyong Ski Resort and driving to the city. I was taking lots of pictures using my mobile phone while Jay drove and he was puzzled because he didn't see anything worth the fuss. Everything's ordinary, he said. (But not to me... tropical  country mouse  landed in the wintry city, see?)    Hoenggye, where Matty and I stayed for the week, is a  village  in Pyeongchang. The hospital where Jay took me was in Gangneung, a  city  on the east coast of the Korean peninsula. For a  probinsyana  who's been to Korea for five days and has stayed only in a quiet village, I found my trip to the city quite a jar to my senses.  On our way to the city, Jay initially drove on the scenic route, which is quite comparable to California's coast-hugging Pa