Late though it may be, the whole family tropped to the cinemas to watch the latest Harry Potter movie, HP and the Half-Blood Prince.

The younger children were behaved in the movie house. They have watched all earlier HP movies. I have read all seven books myself.

Since it has been a looong time when I have read the book, I knew there was something amiss in  the movie.

The obsessive-compulsive in me had to look up the book, particularly during the ending part. Then I saw it: the “funeral” or tribute to Dumbledore.

I knew how the ending will be but a tear or two still managed to escape my eyes. Drama queen not, am just a cry-baby.

The kids were a bit disappointed we were not able to go to their favorite toy store because we only had a few minutes to spare before the movie started and had no time to look around. I was planning to see the lcd monitors on sale in one of the stores.

Oh well, next time, when we have more time, we definitely will spend more time to look around.

The kids and I were fortunate to have been invited to join the launching of TriNoma Mall’s DIgital Cinema to watch an advanced screening of Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

The movie was fun, fun fun!

The TriNoma Digital Cinema is also a great venue for movies like these because the Digital 3D experience was simply wonderful and unforgettable!

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The most awaited movie has been shown and our young family all trooped to the movie house yesterday to watch it.

The verdicts have been out whether it lived up to the book’s storyline or not, and of course, as it always happen, “we can not please everyone”

Here are my two cents worth of thoughts:

Robert Pattinson is a cool Edward, I mean, not because he is supposed to be “cold”. I was skeptical at first because he seemed “thin” for the role. His wary smiles, the way he looked at Bella, its as if one can feel the tension and the passion building up. His sparkling body did not really sparkle much or maybe my eyesight was just a bit blurry even when looking at the big screen.

Kristen Stewart as Bella looks like she can’t possibly drive a humongous truck that she must have trained at a truck driving school back in Arizona. Her passion lacks in the movie like she was just there for the thrill in being with a vampire. I like her reaction though when she was in the hospital and she was shaking her head, saying “No” or something like that. I also liked when she was shouting at Edward as they “broke up”.

Sure, the tender moments were enough to make one giddy but there seems to be something lacking, and I can’t exactly pinpoint what it was. The meadow seems was not what I had in mind though.

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Every Saturday, participants post photos based on a theme. the theme for this Saturday, August 9, 2008 is DARK.

There are many ways to interpret dark. This can be interpreted literally meaning without light. This can also be referred to as a time of day where sunlight can no longer be seen. This can also be interpreted philosophically meaning different things depending on the person interpreting the word. Click here for the different interpretations.

It is dark inside a movie house. This was at an IMAX Theater when we watched The Alps, documenting about conquering one’s fears and facing these fears. There is a correlation here to being in the dark and not facing our fears.

Have you ever experienced traveling on a long road on a very dark night with heavy rains and fogs? The sight of the lights welcoming one back to civilization is both a relief and unwelcome. A relief because the travel has almost come to an end and unwelcome especially when one has to face “reality” upon arriving at the destination.

People have many dark moments in their lives. With so many problems one has to encounter day in and day out, it is easy to give up and not do anything at all.

But let us remember that God had His dark hour too, when His Son Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the people.

That is more than enough reason to get out of the dark and see the Light.

photohunt

Hubby and I went to the premier showing of The Alps movie at the IMAX Theater in SM Mall of Asia last night. Thanks to Noemi, I won two invites for the event which was sponsored by Holcim.

Watching The Alps made me nostalgic about my childhood dreams of living in Switzerland, breathing fresh clean air while walking on green grass that can be seen as far as the eyes can see. I used to read a lot about Switzerland when I was younger. Hubby was quite surprised I was able to name one mountain that they featured.

I even went there once. No, not in my dreams for I have been there in my dreams a countless times. I have been there through hypnosis. When I came to, I felt cold and happy.

The film is about John Harlin III’s ascent to the Alps, particularly the North Face of Mt. Eiger where his father, alpinist John Harlin II met his end during a climb back in 1966.

When my daughter Trixie asked me a while ago what the movie was all about, I had to explain to her about the story of the Harlins. I also told her that climbing mountains is not just about proving that one has the physical capabilities to maneuver dangerous crevices and nooks. Climbing a mountain is about conquering one’s fears, symbolic of facing life’s challenges.

To be a climber, one has to be not just strong but organized and mentally and physically prepared.

We do not need to climb mountains to be able to face our fears and conquer them. Of course, going up would be the extra for the view would be a euphoric and life-changing experience.

I admit I may not have the physical capabilities to climb any mountains for that would mean lots of preparations on my part to be physically fit. Thinking about it makes me want to achieve a certain level of being a physically fit person through exercise and proper diet, with fenphedra or none at all. And that perhaps would be comparable to climbing a mountain itself

You won the raffle for the The Alps ticket for two at the SM Imax Theater on August 4 at 5:30PM

That was a part of the email I got from Noemi. Now this got me very excited for two reasons.

First reason would be because this is the first time I have actually won in a raffle! Yeah, pathetic it may seem.

Oh, I did win some packs of soup during a Taste Asia blog event last year. Not that I really won but they had so many things to give away, I just had to be given one.

And there was this shirt raffled off during the iBlog4 event. The shirt I got was the second to the last to be given away. How did my name surface? It was because the name called for that shirt left already so my name was called instead.

I don’t even win in cake raffles.

Not even when in one school that i used to teach, they had so many gifts to be raffled during the teachers’ Christmas Party. The other preschool teachers won big prizes like a television set, and an oven toaster. What did I get? A fruit cake inside a wonderfully and cheerfully decorated golden box.

To say that I do not even eat fruit cake should give a hint at how I felt during that time. No kidding.

Second reason for me to be excited is because I haven’t been to the SM Mall of Asia IMAX Theater. Yeah, poor me, who confesses to love watching movies.

We do love movies but since movie watching has become expensive these days and there are five of us who will watch, we just have to be content waiting for the DVD release. Its not just the movie tickets that we have to buy. There’s food, parking fee, gasoline and other stuff that the kids might ask from hubby or me. We could have paid for acne treatments for my eldest daughter with those expenses.

Even if we are the last persons on earth who haven’t watch a specific movie everyone except us is raving about. still we wait.

Of course, there are movies worth watching on the big screen so we just have to wait for the right movie if we have to watch our budget.

I can’t wait to watch The Alps on August 4, at the IMAX Theater in SM Mall of Asia.