I’m a Star Wars fan and here’s my Easter “story” of the year, using some of the cute and delicious stuff at home.

(Click here to zoom)
Princess Leia’s mission is to save the Easter eggs from the dinosaurs. She’ll meet different creatures along the way, most of them are there to distract her. One of the bunnies shall tell her that she must go to the post office (painted red) to meet R2-D2 (yes, the robot from Star Wars) to help her fight the dinosaurs.

(First dilemma: To ride the jeepney or the British bus? If she wants a smooth ride, she must ride the Philippine jeepney. Heehee.)

(The eggs hostaged by the dinosaurs.)

(She must triumph this mission the soonest possible time. The biggest bunny’s the time keeper.)

Do you also like happy endings? If yes, Princess Leia triumphed. And she ate all the Easter eggs (chocolates)!

If you like sad endings, here’s an alternate: No, she and R2-D2 came too late to save the eggs. Instead, they ate all the Easter bunnies. They are also chocolates, anyway.

Happy Easter everyone!

(Here’s another story: When a Muslim greets me, “Happy Easter!” and asks for THE Gossip)

I think I want to print this out and will have several use to it, some of which are to entertain the bored, make the crazy people crazier, the insensitive sensitive, laugh out half of the reality, and just because.

Though I don’t agree with the entirety, this is one clever and entertaining documentation.

Wonderful things are just around the corner, if you happened to be at the right place, at a right time. It is not everyday that we do catch a wedding… inside a zoo.

While Jurong Bird Park is amazing, I found our visit to Singapore Zoo to be three times more captivating. If I am to write my 10 best experiences in Singapore (to date), the whole day spent in this zoo will probably make it to the first spot. To think that I was not that keen in visiting it. While I am halfway sorting the plenty of photos, here is one of the reasons why I immensely enjoyed that day.

(In the morning, we initially passed by in this area and randomly snapped this intriguing cocktail setting. Now, we know why.)

I cannot adequately stress in words that Singapore Zoo is sooooo huge. And while we were passing by (and lost alike) at 5:00 PM that day, we found ourselves in this almost temporarily blocked area because a wedding was happening. The bride (who looks very Asian) and the groom was atop a maharaja-styled elephant. Really, I can not be thankful enough about the zooming capabilities of the cameras. While I probably understand how the paparazzi do feel, I felt the ultra sense of belongingness that minute (*winks*).

We learned that on very rare occasions, the “residents” of the zoo also engage in other types of wedding (e.g. horse carriage on white Victorian wedding, butterfly themed wedding, and more).

Photo from Gulf News. A group of diners at a Dubai restaurant were given a 25% discount after they found four bugs crawling around in their food (in March 2008 though). I think discounts attract almost everyone. But for this reason? No, thanks. It is funny that the receipt actually indicated the words, “Insect on the food”. If I were the manager of the restaurant, I probably had termed it as “Allowance for fortuitous events”. (j/k) And if I were one of the diners, I might have insisted on not paying at all and strategically stated my justification.

Yesterday, it was reported that half a lizard was found in a can of baked beans in a store in Dubai. Representatives from the Food Inspection Section of Dubai Municipality pulled all Kimball (Malaysian brand) baked beans cans with the same manufacturing date and lot number. It is interesting to note that the inspectors are actually doing just random sampling of imported food products. Hence, this can happen everywhere. And if you are not very mindful of what you are eating or munching on in the dark, chances are the foreign matter is going to taste like a normal edible or one group of the beans (in this particular case) is going to be more delicious and exotic tasting.

I think that this is the most serious (and hilarious) part of the statement issued by the inspectors:

“I’m just letting people know about this. It’s your job to tell your friends about this, because the other half of the lizard might be in their can.”

I eat frogs, sheep and other selected exotic animals. But it is going to be a nightmare to find any of them in a canned product or on, within, or subdued to a pizza or anything. So far, I have just found a staple wire in my Greenwich lasagna many years ago. I have long forgotten the extent of my complain (but I am sure we called the manager’s attention), if we were given a “staple wire discount”, or another piece of lasagna. I can just imagine how my digestive system is going to struggle if I have took in the wire. What we do not know is not going to bother us. But we better be informed eh?

Thanks for sharing this photo through twitter. Photo originally uploaded by @pawv here.

In case you’re like me, who did miss last night’s romantic view of the crescent moon and Venus, the occultation is going to happen on 13 of August 2012 again. I hope I am at the right place by then. Incidentally, the visibility depends on the location and timing. Last night it was more visible in Southeast Asia (i.e. Sumatra to Philippines). We had a little sandstorm and rainshowers yesterday, hence, the more it made the sighting remote in the UAE.

Although it is not really unusual since the moon passes near Venus once a month, only a crescent moon ever passes it. Several adjectives have been regarded to the sighting, but what does it have to do with Venus (associated with women) and not with the other planets? The explanation here is that because Venus is inferior, in the sense that it is lower than the Earth in relation to the sun. Venus sometimes appears in the twilight of evening or dawn. On the other hand, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn are considered superior. Hence, the lesser chances of being occulted.

Here’s an interesting video of the actual occultation, taken in the Philippines. Thanks for sharing the link, bursky.

(Video source)

I have missed the last two photo hunts (themes:sweet and vertical) because I forgot to set the posts to auto-publish before I went on a short vacation. I am photohunting again with the theme: covered. I took this photo in a theme park last year. These lovely women were covered by leaves as they were depicting the character of “the walking trees”. Yes, after this kiddo, I had my photo taken with them, too.

More photo hunters here.

I tend to associate some colloquial adjectives to a character. I normally say “Garfield eyes” when I am or someone else is sleepy, “Cinderella time” referring to midnight, and others. With the recent addition of fish-y look, not to mean smelly or malicious.

Did you notice that a fish, in general, has that less than blank but so serious look? While Buhi technology (to make them hibernate/sleep for up to 24 hours) was invented by a Filipino last year, something to make them giggle is far from reality. I am sure you wouldn’t want to meet fish-y (as in seriously serious) faces like theirs when the day and/or week has just begun. In a speech bubble, you want to ask “hey, why so serious?”

Have a fun and fulfilling week ahead!

The shiny and uniquely shaped building there is the main office of the leading real estate developer in Abu Dhabi. I wonder if they just wanted to be very different from the rest or it has something to do with the symbolism that the shape is representing. Although it has a lot of meanings, I opt to associate the spiral shape with continuity.

This is my entry for this week’s photo hunt (theme: spiral).

I think this camel stuffed toy is absolutely unique. Not your typical bear around the corner. I took photos before sending this to a blogger pal as a housewarming/birthday present, together with another UAE memorabilia.

And yes, her name is Sandy (as in Sandy from the Land of Sun and Sands). I wonder what are the names of the real camels we met during the Desert Safari last year.

This is my entry for this week’s photo hunt (theme: foreign).

One of the stores in Dubai Mall that would probably catch one’s attention is Desigual (the multichannel concept came from Barcelona). It’s obviously unorthodox, just as you can see the hanging of clothes. Parang sinampay lang sa bakuran.

For a time, I am fond of statement (and non-traditional) tees. In the Philippines, the kookiest and most strange things are normal.  But in UAE, you can get arrested for (unintentionally) wearing an unacceptable tee. Last year, a set of t-shirts displaying stick drawings of naked man and woman were removed from this Spanish shop. The same year, Harvey Nichols, a British department store in the Mall of the Emirates, was forced to close for a few hours to remove t-shirts considered obscene after a customer complained to a local radio station. The t-shirts had the image of a British bulldog standing on top of a UAE flag. The store quickly apologised. In another incident, an expatriate was jailed for a month before being deported after he was arrested for wearing a Marc Jacob t-shirt depicting a naked Victoria Beckham with the slogan “protect the skin you’re in” as part of a cancer-awareness campaign. The man was charged with offending public decency.

This serves as a gentle reminder when you’re traveling in this part of the globe, whether you’re a tourist or not.

Siguro naman hindi nila ako huhulihin, pag suot ko ang menu shirt ko.