One thing that I have always been particular about is my skincare routine. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I tend to have my tried and tested products, but I do switch them up when I feel the need to. It was during one of these switch-ups that I discovered Ever Organics.
I must be honest: the reason I decided to watch Kill Boksoon on Netflix was because I saw the Netflix ad on this starring Ruffa Mae Quinto. I was laughing so hard watching it and I was so amused by her take on the lead character that I became curious about the show. One weekend I was trying to lull myself to sleep with some videos on TV and thought I’d try this movie. I ended up NOT falling asleep but getting hooked to this one from start to finish.
Very few people probably know that Chrissy Teigen, model, TV celebrity, wife of John Legend, and the person behind the website Cravings by Chrissy Teigen, used to have a food blog on WordPress. I think that the first time I learned about her was not that she was John Legend’s wife or that she was a model, but that she was a food blogger. I loved reading about the food that she blogged about and the recipes that she shared.
As I have mentioned in a couple of earlier posts on this blog, I am a fan of NCIS. I have watched it since it started but I have missed out on some seasons because they were no longer available on our cable TV service. It was a good thing that I had signed up for Disney+ because the seasons I missed were all there.
Sleep. I have a love-hate relationship with it. For a time, I had difficulty going to sleep, and it had gotten to the point where I had to ask my doctor for a prescription so that I could get enough sleep. These days though, it has been easy for me to fall asleep. It’s been staying asleep that I have a problem with.
My social media timeline will almost always have some sort of post or update from some of the people I follow about royals. Particularly, about the British royals. I think that while there was already a lot of news about them in the past, it seems that there have been even more after Queen Elizabeth passed away. It’s like her death made everyone else go nuts with the whole publicity thing, like she was the one reigning everyone in all along and now that she’s gone, it’s a free for all on their attempts to be in the news and relevant. The question is, how relevant is royalty nowadays?
In an episode of the Fandesals Podcast, Judith and I shared some of the memorable celebrity encounters that we had in the past. When I look back, I think that I have had a reasonably fair share of celebrity encounters compared to most. It’s not that I plan on them, some things just happened naturally.
White hat. Gladiators. Command. These are the words that come to mind when the TV show Scandal starring Kerry Washington is mentioned to me. I remember being a fan of this show when it was on TV, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was available to stream on Disney+.
Books have been a part of my life since I was a young girl. I’ve loved reading all my life. There are times when I tend to be on a reader’s block and I can’t get myself to read anything (like these past few months/years, I blame the pandemic), but I still enjoy the magic of reading and having all these people and places come to life in my imagination. It’s such a welcome concept for me to have a book adapted for the screen (both big and small), but I think that it is an idea that is not always a win for book lovers like me.
Take a top romance actor who hates women and a woman who goes after cheating men to turn the tables on them and show them what they’ve been doing to other women and what do you get? Romance? You’d probably say no, but YES, for the Korean series on Netflix called Love to Hate You, that is EXACTLY what happened.
Yeo Miran is a new lawyer for an entertainment company and Nam Kang Ho is a top drama/romance actor who meets at a party thrown by the law firm for their clients. Miran is convinced that Kangho is a bad guy who takes advantage of women and is determined to find out how she can out him, making the extra effort to get closer to him to do so. Kangho, on the other hand, takes Miran on as a fight instructor for his movie after discovering her street-smart fighting skills, using the fact that she is also a lawyer assigned to him to his advantage. In the process, the two learn more about each other and eventually fall in love.
Looking back on this series, I don’t think that it made that much sense to me how these two fell in love. I don’t think that they put in enough scenes to justify exactly how it happened. It seemed like with Kangho being a woman hater to the point that he can’t stand even touching them, it was enough to say he fell in love just because he can touch her. That was so weird for me. If a man told me that he fell in love with me because he realized he could touch me without feeling like he would throw up, I would be running in the opposite direction. Wouldn’t you?
Then, of course, there was Miran, who hated the guy so much because of what she assumed of him. Then suddenly, once she found out she was wrong, she was in love(?). Again, so weird! Despite all that, however, I did like seeing these two when they were already in the relationship phase. I think that the writers did better with that part, to be fair.
As with any drama, this romance needed some complications. Kangho was starring in a movie with his ex-girlfriend. The press found out that Miran had been with a lot of men before Kangho, and it affected both their careers. He wanted to marry her, but she didn’t want to get married. It caused a strain in their relationship. Not to worry though, as with most dramas, everything worked out for everyone in the end.
I found some good supporting characters for this show and some back stories interesting. I wish they could have tackled the part about Miran’s parents more because it seems there was more to that story that made her the kind of woman that she was. That whole dynamic with her father is very telling about her opinion of men in general. It would have also been good to see more about the romance between Miran’s best friend and Kangho’s manager/best friend. I felt that this happened a little too late in the show so there wasn’t much about them to see because the show was already ending by that time. If the series had more than ten episodes, they probably could have done that.
Love to Hate You was a good enough drama to watch if you were just passing the time doing something else. It’s not as good as some of the romantic comedies (or dramas) I’ve seen so far but it’s not that bad either. I thought it was cute, casting-wise, that Kangho’s best friend/manager was played by Kim Jihoon while Kangho’s ex was played by Lee Joobin. Both actors worked together on another Netflix series: Money Heist Korea. I recognized both right away and I thought it was amusing to see them in this show together in roles very far from the ones they had in Money Heist.
This series is cute and entertaining, but don’t expect too much from it when you start watching. It was nice, even if it did not give me the kilig feels that I wanted in a rom-com. It did, however, give me the inspiration to start watching rom-com Korean dramas again, which I’ve given up on lately. So, if only for that, this is an OK show to watch!
The Bridgerton series is one of the shows that I have followed through the years since it came on Netflix. It’s not a favorite, but there are certain elements about the concept that I have enjoyed watching so far. One of those favorite elements for me has been the soundtrack, where they make use of pop music that is given a classic twist using instrumental music that fits the period of the show.
The first time I heard the songs in the show I was amused not only by how the songs were transformed to fit the era that the show is set in but also by how the themes of these songs fit into the scenes that they were placed into. I think it helps that the songs that were chosen have lyrics that are familiar to a lot of people that you don’t need to hear them to recognize the message they were giving a scene when the song is played.
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| Image by Freepik |
In an off-season episode of the Fandesals Podcast, my friend and co-host Judith took our viewers on a day of walking and window-shopping. It got me thinking about what my personal preferences are when it comes to shopping, something that I decided to share in this post.
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| Image by gonghuimin468 from Pixabay |
From what I’ve been able to tell from how my friends do their shopping, I am not as “girly” of a shopper. In fact, I think that my shopping style is more like that of my male friends or relatives.
One of the recent videos that I’ve seen on TikTok was about people in England (if I’m not mistaken) being asked how much they think it costs for medical assistance/attention in the United States. It blew my mind to see how surprised they were about how expensive everything was and how apparently, they were enjoying a lot of free medical services as part of their healthcare system. It seemed that they had it better than the US in that department. Obviously, they are miles away different from our situation in the Philippines as well. Plus, a lot of services for them are free!
As much as I would like to praise our country in terms of health care, I just can’t. There is still a lot of room for improvement. As someone who deals with health care in a rural part of our province, I can’t help but wonder if things are any better in the city (probably). I once had to go to the ER for difficulty breathing and the doctor just snapped the band of my bra, brushing me off by saying I was just wearing it too tight. Another time I needed to get blood tests done to figure out what was happening to me – but it was already early evening, and the lab was closed. Plus, some lab tests cannot be conducted there. My sample would have to be taken somewhere else so the results would be days later. I guess this is why when what is happening to them is a serious emergency, most people I know would rather travel to the city to get medical attention.
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| Image by Tung Nguyen from Pixabay |