Vox’s posts tagged holiday

Shopping or Food

nobody@vox.com(niko) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:35:56 +0000

Here's what I like to hear from you. If are you going on a holiday do you forward for shopping places or food to eat? Well frankly speaking I will be looking forward for shopping but of course I do check whether I can afford to buy the item or not. As for food I never thought about it at all.

I am sure you can find the branded fast food in many countries. So do you go eat at the fast food restaurant or find some other food to eat? My friend told me that it was a mistake for him to go overseas to eat at fast food restaurant. Why? He can eat them too in his country.

Have you thought about that before? I think I would prefer to try something else and not fast food restaurant that we have tried before.

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World Youth Day 08 - There's always one!

nobody@vox.com(Melisa) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:35:44 +0000

World Youth Day

This pic is going around via emails (and in Internet somewhere). I thought I just share it here.

LOLOL....

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More on our trip to ....

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:16:09 +0000

100_2021

WOLLONGONG!

Yes, that was the mystery location of the Chinese temple in my other photos. I took the kids on a little overnight trip down there. We had planned to holiday a bit further afield but my husband was unable to take leave from work because he works in an area affected by the World (Catholic) Youth Day (week!) mayhem in Sydney. Wollongong was just the right distance (51km from Sydney) for a trip on my own with the kids. It is also one of those places that I had always meant to go to but never got around to probably because it is so close to home. The idea of staying at the temple was really serendipitous. I had always been intrigued by the sight of the temple which we often pass on our way further south. It kind of just appears out of nowhere beside the freeway in the middle of an industrial area. I didn't even know you could stay there until I looked at the website on Sunday to see about visiting during the day. I thought it would be an interesting cultural experience for the kids who are already quite interested in Chinese culture through their Kung Fu associations.

On the way down on Monday, we stopped off for a few hours to visit an old friend of mine who lives in a little seaside village called Scarborough. This entailed driving over the incredibly scenic but hair-raising Sea Cliff Bridge. We had a lovely lunch at my friends place and then took all the kids to the beach. We deliberately didn't let them change into swimsuits as we didn't want them going in swimming in mid-Winter. This didn't stop them though! Two got soaked in their clothes and my son just stripped off all his clothes and went in naked!

Scarb beach boys

The sun goes down pretty early in Scarborough because of the escarpment so we headed off for Wollongong and the Nan Tien Temple shortly after 5pm, arriving just in time for dinner. This was held in the Dining Hall in the middle of the temple complex and was a vegetarian Chinese steamboat meal eaten with the Buddhist 'reverends' (I would have called them nuns). The food was delicious although the kids mainly filled up on rice and fruit. The reverends were very impressed at the kids attempts to use chop sticks (even though their technique was terrible). A couple of friends also joined us for dinner and to spend the night at the Pilgrim Lodge.

Here are some pictures of the Lodge.

100_2020

Entrance to Pilgrim Lodge:

100_2019

I hadn't known what to expect when I booked it but it was really very comfortable, ie, the rooms just like motel rooms and quite reasonably priced. The dinner was also great value at $10 for adults and $5 for kids.

The next morning we had breakfast in the dining room. The kids were thrilled at this as they again got to serve themselves and they had quite an interesting selection of food including cereal, fruit, mini croissants, milo etc. We then spent the entire morning wandering around the temple complex. There was so much to see and the kids had a great time playing and also had an opportunity to participate in temple activities such as placing candles on the altar of one temple, learning to pray to the Buddha, ringing bells and joining in a calligraphy class. The reverends recognised us from dinner the previous night so gave the kids special attention. Most were Chinese (from various countries including one we spoke to who was from Malaysia) but there were also quite a few Westerners working at the complex and even one Western reverend.

Here are some more photos we took.

Temple grounds

Waiting for temple to open:

100_1986

100_1994

In the gardens near the Lodge:

Thoghtful me

Funny faces

100_2009

One thing I loved about the temple was how open it was to the surrounding community. Apart from the accommodation in the lodge and the meals which are open to everyone, they also run things like meditation and cooking classes, HSC study camps, baby blessings etc etc. They also have plans to build a university which will host students from all over the world. It is great that something like this exists in Wollongong which is really a very traditional, working class Aussie kind of place.

Hello again

nobody@vox.com(Snaggletooth) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:24:01 +0000

Am back. V busy now so writing this v quickly. Had a lovely time. V restful in the countryside. Turtle doves whirring, other assorted birds chirping away. Four cows in the field next door, two mothers and two calves. Much munching of grass and blowing great soft sighs through the nostrils. (The cows; not us.) Girls played nicely. May have helped that we bought them some small toys - hotwheels cars and a miniature basketball. Went to the beach on the 14th of July, as did many others. Merlimont plage - beautiful. Part of the Opal Coast. Lots of very fine, very light-coloured sand, sea far out. Windy, mind. Wonderful scenic drive back. The Pas de Calais can be much prettier than one might imagine. French roads are ace, too. So smooth.

Right. Better go. About to start final proofs on the book of doom, getting stuff ready for the typesetter. Manic.

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a little work, and a little play

nobody@vox.com(Tintenfisch) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:13:35 +0000

Harbour sunset

have i mentioned before that i love the south island?

the conference went well - good talks, well organized, good food. always nice to catch up with others in the field and make some new acquaintances. in this case, some of whom could be imminently useful career connections, but we won't dwell on that.

just to do things out of order, i'm posting weekend photos first, even though there will be a whole separate entry about friday's activities. but i've had a request for banks peninsula pics, so here they are. we were not lucky enough to have snow (probably a good thing, given our stunner of a rental car, whom we soon dubbed 'craphonso'), but i can't really complain about the weather.

Akaroa harbour

Calm harbour

Banks peninsula farmland

it was perfect for holidaying at our friends' bach in wainui, being both cool enough for a wood fire most of the time, and sunny enough for that classic kiwi holiday pastime, backyard cricket.

six!

it was also good for observing local wildlife, some of which was pleasantly minding its own business, and some of which drew our attention by flying into the window. i'll let you guess which was which.

Spider

Waxeye, Zosterops lateralis

luckily the little guy was all right - when we first checked him out, he wouldn't move one of his feet, but we gave him a rest in a safe, warm spot and he gripped strongly with both before we released him into a local grapevine.

Waxeye

Released

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At the station

nobody@vox.com(Francisco) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:11:21 +0000

I'm making this post at Sydney Central Station to update you all with the photos taken so far, enjoy!

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Summer vacation was a bit long this year... or was it??!

nobody@vox.com(Miss Liss) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:27:20 +0000

This year I have had probably the longest summer vacation since I was in youth school. Well, that isn't so difficult considering I've usually worked during my summer vacation previous years, but yet this year I have had nearly 2 months. I've had some small work jobs now and again in June and I was only suppose to take 4 weeks off... Well since I started with my new employer in June, it turned out a bit hard to find a new project in June so hence not been working so much. I was expecting this to be honest as usually no new IT projects starts in June or July as most of Norway go on holiday then. But I never thought I would end up getting the entire month off :-) I am happy, and have had time to get some new profile pictures for my online pages... Facebook, Last.fm and here on Vox.

I have not made any big plans for this summer... was hoping for nice weather in Oslo and just enjoying time here. It has been pretty good so far... some heavy rain and thunderstorms but also a lot of blue sky and sun. So I thought it was time to change the theme of my Vox. I choose Blue to symbolise all the fantastic blue sky that we've had in Oslo. I guess I should also put in a big yellow sun as we've had some REALLY HOT days here as well. So I choose Brage as the symbol for the Sun. He is definitely the shining sun in my life. Always happy and he has a smile that will melt even John into brake a smile. Hahahaha... and not even I can do that!

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My Holiday

nobody@vox.com(Francisco) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:09:48 +0000

I'm going to World Youth Day tommorow, I leave at 6:30 in the morning and I'll make atleast 1 post per day with photos. For today's photo I'll send one of my new phone's box.

P130708_14.09.JPG

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The break!

nobody@vox.com(April Tay) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:44:02 +0000

Music in the making...

Exams finally over and i am so happy to look forward to the break. Even through it is only a week plus break but i'm happy... the new semster starts 21 July. Next semster, i'm determine to do regular revision on the 2 new modules so that it won't be so stress when exams come.

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Vacances

nobody@vox.com(Snaggletooth) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:50:05 +0000

French Maid

We're all off to France tomorrow. I may send the odd update from my phone if I can, but then again I may not. Where we're going is rather rural, so I'm not sure what the network coverage will be like. There will be cows. Right outside our front door.

We'll be there for the 14th of July, so I expect we'll pootle down into the village to see the celebrations. This probably means fireworks and firewater. Hon hi hon.

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Chapter 64: Elle

nobody@vox.com(whyte-books) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:29:18 +0000

"Hey Elle," Elise yelled half-way across the self.

"Wot?" I replied, hardly bothering to look up at her from the book I was trying to read. She bounded over to my desk and plopped herself into the chair next to me.

"I've been thinking..." she started, propping her elbows up on the desk, while resting her chin on her knuckles.

"That's dangerous to your health."

"... and I believe I've decided what to do with the rest of the money you gave me for Chrimbo," she finished, barely even taking notice that I had insulted her.

She still hasn't spent all the damn money?

I sighed heavily, slammed my book shut and plucked a cigarette out of the open package on the desk.

"An' wot's that?" I asked, leaning forward as she lit the ciggy for me.

"We'll go on holiday! The three of us! No customers, no creatures, no... no competition; no nothing," she replied, looking hard at me for a facial response. She didn't get one. "Anyways, I've been looking at websites and visiting travelling agencies..."

"What about the shop?" I asked suddenly, surprising myself a little.

"Oh, we could get Penny to look after it or something. Anyways..."

"Ah, yes, Penny," I replied, uncertainly.

Who in the name of Beezlebub's shorts is Penny?

Ten minutes later, Elise was showing me pamphlets of holiday destinations, while I was still trying to think of who the hell Penny was.

"This place here would be perfect! See here, it says there's a beach, a jungle and the only English bookshop...," she began to say, when Bert burst in the front door, startling customers with his flashy tracksuit.

"You'll never believe who's in my yoga class!" he blurted, sitting himself down daintily in the chair in front of the desk.

He didn't even give me time to reply. Lousy bugger. "Fran!" he exclaimed, slapping his hands down on the desktop, making Elise, myself and the computer moniter jump at the same time. He glanced between the two of us, waiting for a reply.

"Ahh, that's g-," was all Elise got out before the walking disco ball leant over the desk and plucked the cigarette right out of my mouth and dropped it into my glass of wine.

"What the HELL is wrong with you?!" I yelled, grabbing the glass.

"Smoking and drinking is really bad for you. Your chakras are all over the place, Elle! You need to relax and..."

"Your chakras are to be hanging out your nose if you try that again!" I growled at him. He looked slightly startled, but that didn't stop him from continuing his preaching.

"Penny and Eva said that...," he began, but I had had it.

"Just who the bleedin' hell is Penny?!" I shouted, thumping the glass back down on the desk, sloshing ashy wine all over my book and some of Elise's pamphlets.

"Penny's his girlfriend," Elise informed me, gathering up the pamphlets that weren't soggy and attempting to salvage the ones that were.

"Girlfriend?" I echoed.

"Yeh," Bert replied, smoothing out the front of his tracksuit. "She's a bartender at the club I work at."

"Oooooo, Penny. Penny. Penny Penny Henny."

"Come on Elle, you're being childish."

"Am not."

"I think if you tried yoga, you may be able to see the lighter side of life," Bert stated, smugly.

"I'm not trying your yogi," I retorted, picking up my book and shaking it.

"Yo-ga."

"That neither."

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Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Carnival

nobody@vox.com(Holiday Traveler) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:27:51 +0000

Indulge on Dunedin’s delicious event this July 12 to 18, the Cadbury Chocolate Carnival!

A carnival choc-full of Cadbury chocolate delights to suit a range of tastes! Everything for everyone from chocolate butterflies, chocolate sculpting and costume, chocolate here and there, everywhere! Carnival goers will have the opportunity to participate in a broad range of chocolate activities to beat the cold winter!

The Cadbury Jaffa Race will be at the world’s steepest street, Baldwin Street, Dunedin. The kids will enjoy “Glenfalloch’s Gnaughty Gnomes and Fabulous Fairies Party” where they can join fairies, pixies, elves in costume and dresses! To continue, click Campervan hire New Zealand

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I hate singing patriotic songs in church

nobody@vox.com(Lady Readsalot) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:35:50 +0000

From Jesus for President
Mixing the church and state is kind of like mixing ice cream and manure. The manure doesn't change much, but the ice cream gets real messed up.
Guess which one is which.

03 A King A Kingdom

Derek Webb

And....photos from the weekend!

First was my extended family's fourth of July. My Grandpa and all his siblings and all their kids and grandkids and cousins and associated persons get together every year. The 4th is a popular holiday, so not everyone comes, but this year was a good turnout. We played "name that distant relative."

Michael hasn't had much experience with little babies. I thought it was time he learn the ropes of soft spots, bouncing, and burping. Sadly, there was no diaper changing involved.
My cousin Alisha hands off our cousin's 6 week old Ariel to Michael. Both look thrilled. After a few minutes, MIchael looks a bit more relaxed. But Ariel is still unsure.

After cozying up with Ariel, Michael apparently needed more manly pursuits. A game of football was in order: adults vs. kids. The kids were squirrelly, but even though the the adults couldn't climb under the picnic tables to retrieve stray balls, I think the adults triumped in the end.

Sunday we went up to Columbus to see Michael's Grandma Betsy and Aunt Lori. We played a bitterly fought game of pitch. I biffed it big a couple of times for the team, so that even though we were ahead most of the game, Michael, Ted and Sonia won in the end.

I was sad, but it didn't last long. Because soon we took Jessie, Lori's dog, on a walk in the beautiful Columbus park. Who knew a relatively small Nebraska town had such a huge, gorgeous park? Paths led right down to the river, and besides a bit of excitement when two other dogs decided to say hello to

Jessie (and by "Hello" I mean bolting over across the sandy river), it was a relaxing walk.

It was a long weekend, full of family and friends, laughing, eating too much, enjoying fireworks, singing corny songs off tune, and enjoying Nebraska.

T-minus 2 weeks until I move to Denver.

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Fantastic Fourth

nobody@vox.com(Just Jenni) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:40:57 +0000

We had an awesome holiday weekend. Very busy and very fun. The kids camped out in our back yard in a tent, we grilled three days in a row, of course the kids made way too many smores, we spent the afternoon at the pool, we went to the fireworks and we had friends over Saturday night for drinks and sat around our fire pit talked until the early A.M.

Good times! How about you, how was your weekend?

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Vanessa Hudgens: Home for the Holiday

nobody@vox.com(theprissykitty) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:24:39 +0000

Vanessa Hudgens

On July 3rd, Vanessa Hudgens was spotted making her way through a bunch of onlookers at one of the LAX airports as she arrived home just in time for the holiday.

She was excorted by security through the airport and stopped briefly to sign an autograph for a fan (shown above).

Full Post: Celebrity Gossip

Original Website: Celebrity News

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Belated Happy Independence Day

nobody@vox.com(Justin) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:47:01 +0000

I hope everyone had safe and happy Independence Day celebration and weekend. I know we did.

We spent Friday with some family friends, grilling and hanging out by the pool. Kaylee pretty much spent the whole day outside. That little girl sures loves to run around, back and forth, here, there and everywhere. She also got to swim some. After spending a week at home alone with her mom and me, we could tell she was happy to get out around other people.

Other than that, not much has been going on. Kaylee was "sick" last week with Hand Foot and Mouth so Danielle and I stayed home with her all week. It was really nice to spend that much time with Kaylee doing fun things. It would have been nicer if we didn't have to worry about work.

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Holiday is fun

nobody@vox.com(niko) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:06:09 +0000

Well, I don't think anyone will say that holiday is boring it's always fun. I am sure most people will say that working is boring as you don't get to go for holiday. Unless you are working in a company that allow you to go oversea for business trip and you could get some holiday time at the same time. Get what I mean? I know some friends are like that. They were telling me about Stockholm Hotels and they like to book hotels on Internet it's much easier for them.

I think it depends if their company are the one that arranging the hotels and accommodation for them. Indeed it's their company that do so. They don't have to worry about no place to sleep and eat. How nice is that? They get to work there and after work they get to do anything they like. If I am going for holiday I have many places in mind and one of them would be staying at Switzerland Hotels . The site has 356 hotels in Switzerland and I am sure there's one that fit in my budget.

Who doesn't like discount? The site has discount up to 80% for hotels. My friends tried before on online hotel reservation and its easy and you don't have to call them at all. One couple that I know, they just got back from a holiday. They staying at Portugal Hotels and it's really up to their expectation. One of my friend on the other hand, didn't get what she expected. She thought she's booking for 3 rooms but instead it was only 2 rooms. Actually she didn't ask probably whether the beds are in the same rooms she just say that how many of them that coming.

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4th of July

nobody@vox.com(bandemom) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:48:53 +0000

Happy 4th of July! I hope you all had a great weekend. I know we sure did. On Friday, we went out to breakfast and then took the kids to see Wall-e. Bryce really liked it, Emma was bored and fell asleep. Chad and I both thought the movie was a little slow at first but overall, was a pretty good movie. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, Chad and Bryce went on a bike ride, and then barbequing before we met the T family to see the fireworks. The kids had a great time and I wished we had remembered our video camera as the kids watched the fireworks. They were really cute with their arms around each other and just in awe of the show. Both B and E were exhausted by the time we got home and B said he was glad he didn't stay up this late every night. :-)

4th of july

The rest of the weekend was very low key but it was nice to have some days where we just hung around, did some shopping, ran a few errands, went to church, and just had fun.

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Busy Vacation Time

nobody@vox.com(Tonya) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:01:42 +0000

I hope everyone has thus far had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend. I've been keeping myself busy over my vacation...

We Ski Trailer (Wii)

My family had a small surprise party for me on my 30th birthday. It was nice to get together and enjoy a pleasant summer day... made even better with presents for me! I spent most of my birthday night playing one of my gifts. (Angel got me We Ski for the Wii.) I highly recommend the game to anyone who likes the Wii sports-type games. Even without the balance board, it gets you moving.

Ross and I did some shopping the next day. I had gotten some gift cards among my presents and it was fun to spend. The cool part is that they were gift cards for where I work, so with my discount the money went much further. (The clearance event helped too!)

Fireworks

For the holiday, Angel and the girls, Mom, Ross and I went out to a man-made lake and spent several hours swimming and playing on the beach. We followed that up with a cookout in the park. We all stuffed ourselves to the gills and then burned off a few calories playing in the park. We ended up heading out to Fire over the Fox about two hours early. It was the first time any of us had been there, but the crowds we encountered had us expecting quite a show. We managed to find a decent spot to spread our blankets and kicked back for the two hour wait. To be honest, it wasn't worth the wait. The fireworks themselves were nice, but there were long gaps between each segment. Without the gaps, the show would have only been about 10 to 15 minutes long. The highlight of the evening were the fireworks that came out shaped like the Packers logo along with ones shaped like hearts. Those got the crowd cheering!

Wedding rings

Ross and I had a wedding to go to last night. It's been quite some time since I've been to a wedding that large. Ross has a big family (it was his cousin's wedding) and the bride also has a big family... so it was inevitable that the reception would be quite large. They did a very cute fishing-themed grand march. Everyone was in typical wedding-induced happy mode. Thankfully no comments asking when Ross and I are going to get engaged already... but one aunt joked that we should get married on the upcoming cruise. (Another member of Ross' family is tying the knot mid-cruise.)

Railroad Sock (Toe)

Today will simply be homework time for me. Ross has his game, so I'll have a nice quiet house to study. I'm also planning on finishing the last few rows remaining on the second of my Railroad socks. I'll be sure to post the completed picture when I'm done. And, of course, there is always some cleaning or laundry to be done.

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Happenings this July 2008 . . .

nobody@vox.com(.黒幕メイコ) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:19:04 +0000

1st Week

I was wearing the dress I bought last month and my wavemates liked it. They said it suited me well. That made me feel really good. ^_^

We just experienced taking in calls and I didn't like it. The first call I got was an irate customer and I never got to resolve the issue. Nonetheless, I survived the first day. Hahah!

Dada fetched me from my office because we're gonna spend the night together. He was angry because he got lost due to the directions I gave him. I told him that I am not really familiar with Makati so I couldn't give him accurate information yet. My officemates wanted to meet him but he declined... I felt bad about it but I didn't bother asking him anymore because I know he's angry. Besides, he told me lots of times already about his reasons.

Saturday, I went home and I felt so glad that the internet is working again. I also bought a new headset coz my previous one was busted by my siblings. #_#

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2nd Week

We had our finals Monday morning and I failed it by .67% thus I am gonna be in the ILP (monitoring program for non-performing trainees). I really did not expect to fail training. I thought I was doing good! Anyway, after the finals, we took in calls until the end of our shift.

I received most of my stats during the mid-week and I am pretty pleased because I passed all of them. Mosft of my wavemates also did good with their evaluations, making us one of the best trainees for our account (as said by our trainer). Most of us survived the Fishbowling stage and next week we'll be in production.

Still, I have not been too close with my wavemates. I don't mind. I want to be alone sometimes especially when I want to concentrate on my work. I still manage to speak and crack jokes with them, though. Some tease me and call me "baon lafang" ... whatever that means!

Friday night, Dada and I went to his office together. We rode the MRT going to Ortigas and it was quite romantic. There was only one available seat left so he asked me to sit down. He stood in front of me and I held his right hand. I was blushing whenever he responded with a smile or when he'd caress my hands.

Though, we had a bit of an argument when we reached his office. He got angry because I still "talk to strangers" even though I already have issues with stalkers and all sorts of annoying people. I told him that I just want to get a hobby but it seems that he always has a negative comment about that. We stayed quiet for several minutes and he caught me teary-eyed already. He explained that he's just worried about me that's why he advises me to be careful when meeting new people. He gave me a hug and everything went fine afterwards.

Saturday morning, I went home to have my 4-day long day-off. The phone's still out but the good thing is that the Internet is still working. Yey! Popay, my youngest sibling, requested me to play Wonderland Online so that's what I did. It's an MMORPG that has quite a similar aura as pRO and the game system of Final Fantasy 8.

Sunday afternoon, Dada and I watched "Hancock" in SM Megamall. The movie has an awesome start but the unfolding of events turned so ugly that I wondered why Will Smith took this role. It's not at par with his "I Am Legend" and "M.I.B." blockbusters. The concept of the movie is awesome but the rendition kinda sucked big time!

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3nd Week

It's our first week in Production and I already had a sore throat! I got about 20 calls on the first day and I had no sleep at all.

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