PBSI National Bonsai Exhibition At Sky Garden, SM City North Edsa, The Priest, And Friday the 13th

 For six straight months, going to the movie theater never crossed my mind probably because I’m absorbed with commitments to school, horseplay(ing) with my son and wife and saving for my climb.

While heading home last Friday the 13th, inside our shuttle, I scanned the newspaper I borrowed from a seatmate to busy myself from the not so good atmosphere inside the vehicle. I always consider the seats of the office’s bus as the gateway to the slumber world. So rather than lollygagging I leafed hastily through the pages up to a time I bumped into the “now showing” pages of the newspaper in the entertainment column. All of sudden, I thought of seeing the movie and after doing some serious computation of cash budget, I decided to watch “The Priest” starring Paul Bettany and, the hottest chick to walk the earth, Maggie Q.

I had three reasons for picking the movie:

First, I have a penchant for movies about vampires and considering that it’s Friday the 13th, the best choice and most relevant among the choices was The Priest.

Second, I just love Maggie Q.

And third, I know nothing about “Thor”.

Upon dismounting at the drop off point, I rushed to the ticket booth of SM North Edsa like the Juggernaut to catch the 8 p.m. schedule. I did, luckily, for just 3 minutes.

Let’s get to the bottomline: I liked the movie. I liked it not only because of the three reasons stated above but because the movie left something to watch out for: the Queen Vampire who’s, for sure, going to be one hell of a caitiff. Another is it introduced a different breed of vampire villains that’s similar to Chiroptera of the 2000 anime film, Blood: The Last Vampire. Story wise, I still like it because the emphases for faith and hope are there.

On my way out of the theater, I decided to use the mall’s Sky Garden since it is more accessible to the bus bay bound for our place. When I was about to step on the escalator going downstairs, I noticed bonsai displayed on the canopied walkways of Sky Garden like there’s some kind of exhibit going on. The sight of these tiny plants drew my feet to get closer to them. I succumbed because it’s my first time to see real bonsai, and the first time the word reached my vocabulary was when I watched The Karate Kid where Mr. Miyagi was doing some pruning to his tiny tree. That was twenty years ago. I have been to the mountains for 15 times now but I’ve never seen a dwarf tree on the wilderness neither to several other places I’ve visited. Somehow, these creatures evoked the philomath in me that I took time to photograph them eventhough I was only armed with a camera phone. I didn’t know that there’s actually an exhibit and competition going on (The Sixth PBSI National Bonsai Open Exhibition and Competition, May 6-30, 2011) until I reached that part of the Sky Garden where I’ve photographed the first photo below.

“The Skygarden is a long, elevated curvilinear park, which offers much needed green space, not only for the mall, but also for the city as a whole. Opened in May 2009, it shielded all from the busy Edsa intersection, and serves as a living, organic link between the diverse components of the mall — The Block, the City Center and The Annex. Lifted from the road, like a floating green ribbon, this elevated garden softens the hard urban environment with lush land and waterscapes, while its organic form complements the new wavy cladding of the mall. Canopied walkways meander amid undulating lawns, ponds and trees, while tunnels with shops are sculpted out of the earth, giving visitors a new dimension to the traditional park experience. This roof garden has about 55 species of plants, grass and trees that grow on a special type of soil that offers a lightweight effect on the structure. It has a special type of drainage system that allows it to conserve water. The Skygarden’s water features include two bubblers, a simulated river flowing at the center, and waterfalls at the end of the second floor, which was as a monumental screen onto which promotional montages can be projected, giving the park an added presence at the street level. One of Skygarden’s attractions is the Sky Dome, which became a premiere entertainment destination for its events” (wikipedia).

Species: Gmelina Sp.

At home, when I reflected on what happened that day, I’ve realized that Friday the 13th is actually a lucky day. With a nice movie, a close and wonderful encounter of the dwarf kind, and a sumptuous supper courtesy of my equally hot wife I had that day, how can’t I be lucky.

Come to think of it. All those documented accidents that fell on Friday the 13th (Trivia:According to the Skeptic’s Dictionary, Friggatriskaidekaphobia is the term used to describe that morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th) are just but coincidences. We should be reminded that the more disastrous catastrophes did not occur on the 13th like the quakes in Japan (11th) and Haiti (12th).

For more information about the Sky Garden and SM City North Edsa, visit this blogsite: smnorth.blogspot.com.

PS: iPhone 2G

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