Why I love Belle

Emma Watson caught my heart when she brought Hermione to life, like, on point. Now, she is playing as Belle for Beauty and the Beast and I'm psyched!

Growing up, Belle has always been my favorite Disney Princess and, apparently, I am not the only one. Buzzfeed asked their readers to rank their Disney Princesses and Belle "beasted the rest"! You can check here for yourself. :)

I grew up in the time of 2D animation, but even when there are new animated wonders now like Frozen, Happy Feet, Shrek etc. Beauty and the Beast still has a special spot in my heart and Belle, too! Let me tell you why:

She's a hard-worker and a dreamer. Yeah, yeah, the other princesses were hard-working too, but Belle bad big dreams! She wasn't working hard because she had a mean stepmom, she worked hard because she wanted to pursue her dreams; a life outside of their little town, a better life for her and her dad.

She reads! Nobody could tear Belle away from her books, not her nosy neighbors who thought girls need not have any big ideas in their pretty little heads, not even the macho Gaston. Belle was smart. No one could ever fool a reader.

She didn't need saving. She was the one who saved her dad from the ghastly beast. Yas! She bravely went to the dark palace and confronted her own fears to save her father. Attagirl!

She stood her ground even in front of a big, ugly, smelly, growling Beast. She was obviously scared but that didn't stop her from fighting back. She made it clear with the Beast that she was no sissy and that she wouldn't easily back down. Rockstar, I tell you.

There was no love-at-first-sight for Belle. It didn't happen fast. I KNOW Beast wasn't really the love-at-first-sight kind of guy, but still, while other Disney Princesses were falling head-over-heels in love with men they've met for the first time (this was before Elsa, okay?) Belle took her time.

Her love for Beast wasn't based on his appearance, like, AT ALL. I mean how would it be possible, right? But she still loved him because she chose to see beyond his frightening exterior. Gaston was macho and handsome but she couldn't be fooled because she saw past appearances. She was rewarded in the end but I bet that was just a bonus for her because having Beast stay alive would have been enough and when it turned out that he was a handsome prince, oh boy!

You could tell I can't wait for the new Beauty and the Beast movie! For now, here's the teaser trailer I love watching over and over. Click on the picture.

MEMA: If Brangelina couldn't make it...

Well hello! Sorry if I haven't been updating my blog. I am currently a part of a film production for Cinema One Originals hence the lack of time to write. It's an exciting project! It's very different from Pamilya Ordinaryo but, in my humble opinion, it's just as awesome! The characters are amazing and the script is quite a page-turner; it made me LOL, gasp, and grip my seat. Ang galing! You guys have to watch it.

Anyhoo! The internet exploded with the news of #Brangelina's split! People are affected all over the world, crying that love is dead! WHUT? What did you expect? It's Hollywood!! Their 12 year relationship is actually the equivalent of a lifetime-and-a-half in Hollywood. Because: Hollywood.

Pero dahil tayo-tayo lang naman 'to, aaminin kong nagulat din ako. Tsaka nanghinayang. Sayang mainly because they look good together. Huwag na tayong mag-plastikan, kung hindi sila good-looking people, wala tayong pakialam sa buhay nila HAHAHA! Peg ko pa naman dati yung motorcycle photos nila sa Vogue for our Trash-the-Dress photoshoot next year on our wedding anniv. Huwag na lang, baka malas. Choss.

Brangelina no more

What makes a couple turn away from their vow, anyway? I'm sure Brangelina started out happy, I mean we all saw them on those youtube videos, I'm sure they started out as the usual inseparable couple; couldn't take their hands off each other, couldn't get their eyes off of each other. What changes that? What takes it away? What tampers with it? I want to know. I want to know so we can avoid it, so we can veer our marriage away from the same fate, so we can preserve our love. So we can protect our family. I guess I'm more affected than I thought haha! People be like, "if they couldn't make it, paano pa kami?" Hahaha! I guess we'll never know. We just have to love each other as much as we can, trust each other as much as we can, and work on our marriage as hard and as lovingly as we can. Brangelina or not, the world goes on.w

Anyway #mema na masyado 'tong post ko. Na-miss ko lang mag-blog hahah! Until then! Mwuah!

A post about future posts

Because of lousy internet service, I couldn't update my blog huhu! But I'm here, I'm here my whopping ten beloved readers! Keep coming back okay? Will definitely post something more worthy of your time soon! Here are some entries I have in store:

1. More fun facts about Pamilya Ordinaryo.

2. A pretty handmade flower pot.

3. Old and new friends.

4. A new movie where I'm an Assoc. Producer for. It's for CinemaOne Originals.

5. About stuff I have now that I only used to dream of. Nothing big, just stuff like being more confident to walk into restaurants with menus. Haha! I used to be soooo intimidated by them, a PromDi that I am!

Anyway, there! Check back again soon okay? Tayo-tayo pa ba? ;)

How to cook Chicken Curry

Growing up, food was never an issue at home. Not that we’re rich, it’s just that my Mama is a very creative cook. She can make even the simplest of dishes taste really good. Funny thing is, I thought we WERE rich. Nakalagay kasi sa mga libro na binabasa ko dati, when describing someone rich, laging kasama ang “nakakakain ng masasarap na pagkain”, at dahil masasarap ang ulam namin feeling ko mayaman kami HAHAHA!

Now that I’m married, I’m lucky I found someone who is also good in the kitchen. Among eight children, my husband is the second from the eldest that’s why he learned his way in the kitchen early on, unlike me who’s the youngest of three. Among his language of love is cooking so I figured that he would also appreciate someone (me) preparing him food.

I planned to cook dinner for him yesterday but of course I had to enlist his help HAHAHA! Because I’m a newb in the kitchen department, I asked him to come with me to the grocery for the ingredients of chicken curry! Naaaks napaka-ambitious! Acutally, the only reason I had the confidence to even try cooking such a daunting-sounding dish (for me lang okay? Haha!) is because I have the aid of DeLonghi Multrifry.

This is how they described the product from their website:

Multifry is an innovative cooking appliance combining a low-oil fryer and a multicooker to meet each and every need for all the kitchens of the world. It enables you to rapidly fry tasty fresh potatoes in a healthier way with minimum oil and to prepare a variety of recipes: from risottos to cous cous, from stews to ratatouilles. Multifry even allows you to bake pizzas, cakes and pies.

They really brought “multi” to a whole new level! What’s better is they have a DeLonghi app that I only had to download into my phone with all the recipes of the dishes I can do with my DeLonghi Multifry! Super exciting!

Here are the ingredients:

Chicken breast 600g

Onion 1

Carrots 1

Chicken broth 150ml

Cooking cream 200ml

Coconut Milk (I used this as a substitute for milk because I’m a big gata lover)

Salt

Curry

Olive oil

All-purpose flour

I also just added my own ingredients:

Potato (1)

Faith (3 cups)

Confidence (3 ½ cups)

Determination (5 cups)

I only took photos of the what I think are the most important ingredients hihi

Here’s how it’s done:

1.     Mix the cups of faith, confidence, and determination in one bowl and drink in one big gulp.

2.     Put the oil in the bowl and arrange the cut up onions, carrots, and potatoes evenly on the bottom. Close the lid, set the thermostat dial to position 4, press the bottom heating element button and press the on/off button. This will sautee in 5 mins.

3.     Add the chicken that’s been cut in pieces and floured along with the broth and salt. Cook for another 5 mins.

4.     Pour the cream and coconut milk and set the timer to 15mins.

Aaaand it’s done!! I didn’t expect it to be so quick. I prepared my chicken curry as early as 3PM while Mr. L was at his basketball game. Akala ko kasi gagabihin ako hahaha! Napa-meryenda tuloy ako ng kanin hihihi!

When the husband came home that night, he was delighted that food was already waiting for him J Kitchen is made much less of an intimidating place for me with DeLonghi Multifry.

Can’t wait to try more dishes!

5 facts you should know about Pamilya Ordinaryo

Have you seen it yet? If you haven't, you should. The system is like this: film commercial screenings in cinemas are only given one week. HOWEVER, if your movie doesn't sell, if no one watches, it can and will be pulled out even after just the first day. I am confident in the screenplay and the quality of our film, which I have talked about before, I am sure that anyone who's seen the film can attest to how good it is. Nakakakaba lang din dahil alam niyo naman, sanay tayong mga Pilipino sa mga pa-tweetums at "groomed" protagonists. Hindi naman ganun sina Jane at Aries. I really hope our little-film-that-could will last in the vicious world of commercial screenings.

We really had fun while doing the film, although admittedly we also had a challenging time, and I want to share some fun facts with you. There are no spoilers here pero mas makaka-relate ka kapag nakapanood ka na, so if hindi pa, nood ka muna! :D

Here they are!

1. Auditions were already officially closed when we found Hasmine Killip.

It's not a secret that she was recommended to us by Carlo Manatad, our editor (who won at Cinemalaya 2016 btw) and also her first film director. We went to Tondo, to CCP, and held several auditions at direk's building. We had a lot of girls vying for the role of Jane; some were good, some needed practice. All audition schedules were already done when Carlo said he has a girl in mind. Hasmine went to Direk's condo at 9PM all the way from Paranaque, and, as they say, the rest is history.

Our gorgeous Mrs. Hasmine Killip

2. The people in Delpan thought a man was really being beaten

May baklang naka-pink na binugbog ng taong-bayan sa Delpan because they thought he was Ertha. He was our Make-up Artist Extraordinaire Juvan Molina. Because he was so good in that scene, the people in Delpan (and some of the prod staff: aka me) thought he was getting hurt for real. He kept saying "tama na, tama na!" that made the bystanders super freaked-out haha!

Here was Juvan right after the bugbugan scene.
PM Weng (in gray hoodie) and I (in white) telling him how we thought
he was already crying for real.

3. The jeepney that was hailed by the crowd to take the bloody kid to the hospital didn't know it was all made-up.

So we were filming this scene where a kid was hit by a car. The crowd gathered around her. She is bloody. Her sister is screaming and crying. It was a crazy scene with a crazy energy and someone says the kid has to be taken to the hospital! Someone call a cab or a jeepney or whatever! A passenger jeep passes by with its driver and passengers eager to help not knowing it was a staged scene. Tulong sila, biglang harurot ang jeep papuntang ospital. Kinailangan naming sumigaw nang sumigaw para huminto sila ulit haha! We later had to explain and apologize to the shaken driver and passengers. We still think, however, that them not knowing they were being filmed, helped the scene to be more organic. Hehe!

4. The woman who kissed the priest's hand really did think he was a real priest.

I'm sure you're already seeing a pattern here. Direk really wanted the film to be organic and hyper-realistic. That's why most people around the locations we were filming at didn't know there was a shooting going on. We didn't want to attract too much attention and it worked naman. You can see (if napanood mo na) how the characters just blended into the environment. At Quiapo, when Jane was talking to a priest (who was played by one of our producers and also Ronwaldo Martin's manager, Ferdie Lapuz), a woman went ahead to Ferdie and kissed his hand. Everyone on the set had to use every ounce of their energy not laugh and break character.

Manager Ferdie Lapuz as Father.

5. Jane wasn't supposed to drop her slippers at the "gate scene".

You know that edge-of-your-seat scene where Aries and Jane were running away from the subdivision guards? Yung part na napapatili ka na sa sobrang kaba? The one just before they climbed up the subdivision gate? Yung sobrang lapit na nilang makatakas tapos nakakainis kasi binalikan pa ni Jane yung tsinelas niya kasi nahulog? Wala po yun sa script, nahulog talaga ni Hasmine yung tsinelas at hindi na nag-cut si direk kasi nag-work naman HAHAHA!

The hardworking camera team working during the "habulan sa subdivision" scene

We sure had a great time making the film and we're glad that it is being given a chance to be enjoyed by more people. I hope you guys catch it while it's still showing!

More fun facts to come! :)

*BTS photos by Michael Lacambra and are owned by Pamilya Ordinaryo.