Trese now available in digital print!

Cover of Book 1 in print, but the cover of the digital books are different

While browsing through my Facebook feed, I found exciting news from the official Trese Facebook page. Trese 1: At the Intersection of Balete and 13th Street is now available on Kindle! As I mentioned in my review of the Trese graphic novels, they are fantastic and have quickly become one of my favorites. If you're living abroad and have been wanting to get your hands on these, or have been wondering why people are raving about this, now's your chance to grab a copy.

Update: Trese 2: Rules of the Game is also now available via Amazon for Kindle. 

Alternatively, you can also purchase EPUB copies of Trese 1 and Trese 2 from Flipreads for only P50.00.

Enjoy reading. Happy musings! :)

That One Line #11

Welcome to the That One Line meme! 'That One Line' is a weekly meme I created, which is about a particular sentence/phrase/paragraph that I found particularly striking. It should be from a book although quotes related to reading are also welcome. It doesn’t have to be a book that I just finished but can be something that I read before and I just want to share it. If you’re doing this meme too, post a comment with a link to your post so we can read it! :)

I finally created a button, based on the awesome tutorial of Small Review. Grab the button if you want to join in! Excuse it's plain look, I really have no graphic design skills, but I just don't know who to ask for a button :))

This week's That One Line is taken from a book I just finished reading, A Cast-Off Coven by Juliet Blackwell. Lily narrates:

Review: A Cast-Off Coven [A Witchcraft Mystery, book 2]

Title:      A Cast-Off Coven [A Witchcraft Mystery, book 2]
Author:  Juliet Blackwell
Rating:  ★★★★
 

I finally finished Juliet Blackwell’s sequel to Secondhand Spirits. I enjoyed A Cast-Off Coven as much as I did the first book in the A Witchcraft Mystery series.

While this book did not leave me filled with adrenaline rush and grinning from ear-to-ear (has that ever happened to you after reading a particularly good book? I know I have!), or having that just-finished-reading-on-to-the-sequel feeling, I do feel mellow after reading the book, and know that I will pick up the next book, Hexes and Hemlines.

Okay, enough dilly-dallying! Here’s the brief plot…

-o0o-

Students are spooked at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, and Lily is called in to search for possible paranormal activity. In return she's been promised a trunkful of Victorian-era clothes recently discovered in a school storage closet.

But Lily finds something else: the body of a wealthy patron of the school. In between running the store and seeing her new boyfriend, Max—a "mythbuster" who is uncomfortable with her witchcraft—she uses her sleuthing skills to try to solve the murder. Soon Lily senses something from the school's vintage clothes, but it's not the smell of mothballs—it's the unmistakable aura of evil intent.

-o0o-

Feature & Follow #08

Welcome to My Book Musings! Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read. It’s purpose is to gain and meet new friends and followers. I'm so glad I found this meme!

You can follow me via e-mail, Goodreads, Google Friend Connect (GFC), Linky, Bloglovin' and RSS. Do add me on your Flipboard account as well!

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The question for today is:


Q:  What is the last book that kept you up late into the night just to finish it?    The last book that I stayed up late to finish (just this morning, in fact) was When the Duke Found Love by Isabella Bradford (click on the book title to read my review). Sadly, it wasn't what I expected.    How about you?   Check out my own meme, That One Line!

Review: When the Duke Found Love [Wylder Sisters, book 3]

Title:        When the Duke Found Love [Wylder Sisters, book 3]
Author:     Isabella Bradford (real name: Susan Holloway Scott)
Rating:     ★★★

I waited so long for this book because I really enjoyed the first two books in the Wylder Sisters series, but I found that When the Duke Found Love did not live up to my expectations.

-o0o-

The plot:

The spirited Wylder sisters continue to scandalize the ton in Isabella Bradford’s witty and winsome trilogy. This time, the most impulsive of the siblings meets her match: a charming rake determined to save her from an arranged marriage.

The youngest of the Wylder girls—and the last left unwed—Lady Diana is also the most willful, a trait that’s leading her ever closer to dishonorable disaster. While her family’s solution is a fast and excruciatingly respectable marriage, Diana can’t imagine being wed to the very staid and dull Lord Crump. But while wedding plans are being made, a chance meeting at a gala turns Diana’s world upside down.

A kiss from a dazzling stranger gives Diana a most intimate introduction to one of the ton’s most resolute and scandalous bachelors, the Duke of Sheffield. Torn between family duty and her heart’s desire, Diana recklessly surrenders to the headiest of passions, recognizing that she has found a kindred soul in the handsome young duke. Soon it’s clear that seduction is no longer the game: Something deep and lasting has come to bind their hearts, and the stakes are nothing less than true love.

-o0o-

Happy birthday to me!

Yesterday, January 23, was my birthday, and I really had a blast! Plus, my family and boyfriend gave me a lot of books. And I mean a lot.

My sweet family gave me the Giver, Messenger, and Gathering Blue, which is part of my wish list. The only one missing now is the fourth book, Son!

The boyfriend, on the other hand, gave me free rein on which books to buy, as long as they’re within his price limit. Hurrah! Looking around online bookstores, I managed to buy:

Jerry Spinelli’s Picklemania (with a free Report to the Principal’s Office book!) | If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late by Bosch | The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon | Ally Carter’s Heist Society | James Patterson’s Private and Sunday’s at Tiffany’s | and Beth Harbison’s Secrets of a Shoe Addict.

I also managed to buy George du Maurier’s Trilby, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and Archie Marries from Fully Booked. I was supposed to pay for these but the sweet boyfriend didn’t accept my payment. Isn’t that sweet? <3

Last, but not the least, I got a book for review,From This Day Forward by Marla Miniano.

I’m so excited to get cracking on all my books! I don’t know when I’ll finally finish my TBR pile as I have work, study several voluntary online classes, trying to finish War and Peace, finish watching The Mentalist (hurray for Patrick Jane!), and spend time with friends and family. But I’m really happy that I got so many books crossed off my wish list.

That One Line #10

Welcome to the That One Line meme! ‘That One Line’ is a weekly meme I created, which is about a particular sentence/phrase/paragraph that I found particularly striking. It should be from a book although quotes related to reading are also welcome. It doesn’t have to be a book that I just finished but can be something that I read before and I just want to share it. If you’re doing this meme too, post a comment with a link to your post so we can read it! :)

For this week, I actually just stumbled upon quotes by Anaïs Nin. I am quite in a thrall with her words, although I have actually never read any of her works. Not that I'm not interested. I am, actually, but I'm not sure yet if I'm ready now to read her works. And since today is my birthday, I decided to share one of her quotes that I really felt applicable to me.

“There were always in me, two women at least, one woman desperate and bewildered, who felt she was drowning and another who would leap into a scene, as upon a stage, conceal her true emotions because they were weaknesses, helplessness, despair, and present to the world only a smile, an eagerness, curiosity, enthusiasm, interest.”

― Anaïs Nin

Happy musings. :)

Review: Secondhand Spirits [A Witchcraft Mystery book 1]

Title:        Secondhand Spirits [A Witchcraft Mystery book 1]
Author:     Juliet Blackwell
Rating:     ★★★★

This is my first book review under the 2013 Witches and Witchcraft Reading Challenge. Today, I took out a book from my humongous TBR pile, Secondhand Spirits, by Juliet Blackwell. I have had this on my shelf for a while, but I never got around to reading it because…well the cover wasn’t too enticing for me. Now that I finished it, however, I’m glad I did pick it up. It was a good starter for the series and definitely piqued my curiosity enough to read the second book (and perhaps the whole series if the second one is even better!).

The plot summary is as follows:

Lily Ivory is not your average witch. Her spell-casting powers tend to draw mischievous spirits while keeping normal humans at a distance. But now her vintage clothing store could give her a chance to make friends in San Francisco....

Lily hopes for a normal life when she opens Aunt Cora's Closet. With her magical knack for vintage fashion -she can sense vibrations of the past from clothing and jewelry—her store becomes a big hit.

But when a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area, Lily may be the only one who can unravel the crime. She tries to keep her identity a secret while investigating, but it's not easy—especially under the spells of sexy "mythbuster" Max Carmichael and powerful witch Aidan Rhodes. Will Lily's witchy ways be forced out of the closet?

Graphic novel launch of Anak Bathala: Kalem

I was invited to attend the relaunch of the book one of the five-book series Filipino graphic novel Anak Bathala: Kalem, held last Friday, January 18, 2013, at Fully Booked, Bonifacio Global City.The creators are Norman de los Santos, Bernard H. Morillo, and Edsel L. Africa, and they have been friends since high school. As Edsel mentioned to yours truly during the book launch, this was already an idea that they had in high school, that Norman mentioned again when they grew up. It was just an idea that they tossed around in their youth that they have worked hard to realize.

As the title suggests, Anak Bathala: Kalem revolves around the self-discovery of Kalem and why he is called “Anak Bathala”. Norman is quick to point out during the forum that it is different from “Anak ng Bathala”, as “Anak Bathala” pertains to demi-gods, while “Anak ng Bathala” refers to pure gods. He also states that he coined the term “Anak Bathala”.

Feature & Follow Friday #07

Welcome to My Book Musings! Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read. It’s purpose is to gain and meet new friends and followers.
This week's question is interesting, as usual!

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Q: Who is your favorite villain from a book?

Can I get a hands up for all who loved Snape? I mean, he was a really loathsome character in the first few books of Harry Potter. Then, when I got to know him and his story, and his incredible intelligence as shown in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, he intrigued me. And when I read the last book and he died and his true character was revealed, I was just devastated. I loved Harry Potter, but the character of Snape is also a huge factor for my being a fan of the series/film. "Always" is now eternally marked in my mind, and I usually say it with a dramatic sigh.

Aside from the character itself, I have to give props to Alan Rickman himself. Such a good actor! Plus, his voice lent real credibility to the villain-ness of the character. I liked Rickman even more when I heard him reading one of my favorite poems, Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare (enjoy listening!).

How about you, who's your favorite villain?

Review: A Night Like This [Smythe-Smith Quartet #02]

Title:        A Night Like This [Smythe-Smith Quartet #02] 
Author:     Julia Quinn
Rating:     ★★★1/2

I was really looking forward to this book because the first book in the Smythe-Smith Quartet, Just Like Heaven, was just hilarious. But I found myself laughing less than I did, and not quite as enthralled with the book.

The plot summary is:

Anne Wynter might not be who she says she is...

But she's managing quite well as a governess to three highborn young ladies. Her job can be a challenge— in a single week she finds herself hiding in a closet full of tubas, playing an evil queen in a play that might be a tragedy (or might be a comedy— no one is sure), and tending to the wounds of the oh-so-dashing Earl of Winstead. After years of dodging unwanted advances, he's the first man who has truly tempted her, and it's getting harder and harder to remind herself that a governess has no business flirting with a nobleman.

Daniel Smythe-Smith might be in mortal danger...

But that's not going to stop the young earl from falling in love. And when he spies a mysterious woman at his family's annual musicale, he vows to pursue her, even if that means spending his days with a ten-year-old who thinks she's a unicorn. But Daniel has an enemy, one who has vowed to see him dead. And when Anne is thrown into peril, he will stop at nothing to ensure their happy ending...

That One Line #09

Welcome to the That One Line meme! ‘That One Line’ is a weekly meme I created, which is about a particular sentence/phrase/paragraph that I found particularly striking. It should be from a book although quotes related to reading are also welcome. It doesn’t have to be a book that I just finished but can be something that I read before and I just want to share it. If you’re doing this meme too, post a comment with a link to your post so we can read it! :) Unfortunately, I don’t have a logo yet! Still in the works, hopefully (*cross my fingers!*) done soon.

It’s been a long time since I last made a That One Line post, but I’m back! Plus, I even made a linky tools for you guys. I hope you try this one out!

So the other day, I was reading A Night Like This by Julia Quinn, and out of all the lines in all the books I’ve ever read, I think this one is the funniest by far! Anne said,

“Oh my God,” she whispered. She did not think she’d ever said those words so many times as she had in the last few minutes, but if there had ever been a time to praise the Lord’s creation, this had to be it.”

How about you, read any interesting quotes lately?

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Joining the 2013 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge!

I love reading books about witches, especially if they’re the fun, chick-lit variety such as Kimberly Frosts’ books, or the tweeny and light Sabrina Spellman books, or the slightly serious Charmed series books. That’s why I am so happy that today I found this reading challenge that would be right up my ally! I don’t usually do reading challenges (except that of Goodreads’ because I like challenging myself to reading new books), but this one just excites me, and I knew I had to do it.

Welcome to the 2013 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge, hosted by Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf. The purpose is to read books with a witch hero/heroine or with major witchcraft themes.

Challenge Rules:

1. This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2013 - Dec 31, 2013.  I will be posting a place to link up a sign-up post (below), reviews and a wrap-up post. (Note: You do not have to review the books to participate, but only those who link up reviews will be entered for the prize)
2. Grab the reading challenge button (code & button below) and post this reading challenge on your blog to track your progress. Please include a link back to this sign-up post so others can join the reading challenge too. You do not have to be a book blogger to participate- you could track your progress and post reviews on  Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, etc.
3. Any full length book that includes a witch as a main character or major witchcraft elements counts.  They may be fiction or non-fiction.  However, they should not be reference books which are not read cover to cover-I will leave this to your discretion.
4. Books can be any format (bound, eBook, audio).
5. Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed.
6. You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.
7. When you sign up in the linky put the direct link to your post about joining the 2013 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge.
8. You can move up levels, but no moving down.
9. Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2013, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.
10. Have some Witchy Good Fun !!!

I’m hoping that my Buffy and Charmed comics could be counted, but if not, I’m going to have to start hunting more witchy books.

The Levels:

Initiate:  Read 1 - 5 Witchy Books

Maiden:  Read 6 - 10 Witchy Books

Mother:  Read 11 - 15 Witchy Books

Crone:  Read 16 - 20 Witchy Books

This is a first: I am so hoping to be a crone! You can become one too, by signing up through the sign-up post. If you already have a book review for January, you can also link up your ‘bewitching’ review. I think there’s a prize for that :) But really, discovering new interesting witchy books is a prize unto itself! Thanks for hosting this, Melissa! :)

Feature & Follow Friday #06

Welcome to My Book Musings. This is my sixth time to do Feature & Follow, which has quickly become one of my favorite memes to do and read. Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read. It’s purpose is to gain and meet new friends and followers.

I love the question for this week! The question is:

Q: If you could choose one supernatural being/creature to really exists what would it be and why? ex. fae { submitted by @SeeingNight }

The very, very first thing that popped into my mind would be witches from Hogwarts. Or at least the whole Hogwarts community would be real. Errr, except for the Death Eaters, Voldemort, and other unsavory characters of course. We already have those in real life! But I’m wondering if they are considered supernatural, because there are real-life practicing witches.

So I had to think of a second option I would love to exist. A unicorn. No kidding. They just bring to mind peace and fun and colors. Or maybe my perception of unicorns is just greatly influenced by Lisa Frank. But nonetheless, that’s the most non-evil and colorful, happy creature that I could think of. (And I would sooo want to ride a flying horse!)

What’s your supernatural creature wish?

 

***Just a little update: I now have a Linky, so you can follow me via that if you’re not into GFC or RSS! :) I installed one so I can follow Wordpress blogs. Hope to hear from you soon!

Changing emails

Just a quick update!

Today, I finally decided to change my email address for my blog. Mad About Books was the name of my now-defunct online bookstore and I originally named my blog as such. To best reflect my blog brand, I have decided to snatch up the mybookmusings gmail address. So for all those whom I have emailed, and who plans to email me, please refer to my updated About Me section. :)

I am now in the lengthy process of re-following all the blogs in my GFC under my new email address.

Update: I think Google thinks I'm a spammer because of the number of blogs I've been following. I am now asked to type in a captcha code everytime I try to follow someone. Oh Google!

Review: Just Like Heaven [Smythe-Smith Quartet 01]

Title:        Just Like Heaven [Smythe-Smith Quartet #01] 
Author:     Julia Quinn
Rating:     ★★★★1/2

It’s not everyday that you find a historical romance book that will make you laugh out loud. Historical romance is more about passion than comedy, but Just Like Heaven was such a treat. I found myself actually laughing out loud at various times, which is a rare experience for me when reading a historical romance novel.

The back of the book is as follows:

Honoria Smythe-Smith is:

A) a really bad violinist
B) still miffed at being nicknamed "Bug" as a child
C) not in love with her older brother's best friend
D) all of the above

Marcus Holroyd is:

A) the Earl of Chatteris
B) regrettably prone to sprained ankles
C) not in love with his best friend's younger sister
D) all of the above

Together they:

A) eat quite a bit of chocolate cake
B) survive a deadly fever and the world's worst musical performance
C) fall quite desperately in love
It's Julia Quinn at her best, so you know the answer is . . .
D) all of the above

I have to admit that I let this sit on my shelf for about a year before I actually picked it up to read. I know, I know, it had so many good reviews, but the words above just bored me. I felt like it was too…common. Like it was nothing different from the numerous historical romance books I’ve already read.

My Book Catalogue

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I have promised to myself to catalogue my books to avoid buying the same books twice (as of current count, I have three books twice bought). Today, I will show you how I have been achieving this so far. It’s not really the perfect method for me because apparently I cannot export the photos to excel. I know there are a lot of apps that are available, both for computers and mobile, but I’m really…finicky.

For my book catalogue, I am looking for the following:

• Completely customizable (I can change the size, data to be inserted, type of data, type of menus, title of menus, etc)
• Can attach photos or can download photos (like with Calibre)
• Can be exported (either to Excel or other formats) with all the complete inputs and attached photos
• Can be viewed by image, title, etc (like in ebook readers)

As I said…finicky.

Because my boyfriend has not yet gotten around to doing something that will fit to my tastes (he’s in IT), I have settled down to doing things manually. I have tried Excel but it was such a hassle going back and forth across several columns. I then tried Microsoft Access. It was my first time to play around with it extensively but now I’m quite comfortable with my form.

If you’re unfamiliar with Access, I suggest giving yourself a couple of hours to familiarize yourself with it. You can play around with it and navigate until you’re familiar with it. Anyway, after hours (or maybe days) of playing around with it, I finally ended up with this:



I wish I can show you how I ended up with this but it has taken a lot of fiddling around and just testing out every tab in there until I ended up with this. I wish I can make a tutorial (I actually tried while writing this) until I realized I don’t know how to teach you exactly since I’m a noob myself. I’m also thinking of turning this into a template but I don’t know how to do that yet.

Basically, what I can do with my current template is resize everything, tweak the type of input data menu thing, change the titles of the input boxes (i.e. Book Code, Author 1) etc and include an image. It also has an Item History. I think I actually downloaded a template before but I cannot for the life of me remember where. But I do remember I heavily tweaked it to get to this. However, my current template is limited as it cannot export the images attached, only the data, and I cannot isolate any of the entries to only show all images or just titles or authors. I think I’ll just finish cataloguing my books and pass them all off to my boyfriend and let him worry about that hehe.

How about you, what do you use to keep track of all your books? Would sure love to get some tips!

Feature & Follow Friday #05

Hello! I haven’t done this in quite a while so I’m excited to blog about this again. Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read. It’s purpose is to gain and meet new friends and followers.

Q: What New Years Blogging or Writing resolution have you placed on yourself?

Well, I have several! I want to blog more this year and write more reviews. I also want to be more interactive with fellow book bloggers and to attend more book events. I wish I can find someone to do a logo or banner for my blog for free, but that remains on the backburner for now. I’m also thinking of getting a bigger tablet for comfortable typing, because really, I’m too lazy to boot up my laptop at the end of a long workday where I already sit in front of the computer all day.

As for writing, I want to find time to sit down and gather all my thoughts and write down an outline. I don’t really know how the whole writing process for a novel works, but it has always been a dream of mine!

Another resolution of mine, not related to blogging or writing, but related to books is that I really want to finish my book catalogue. I’m on day three now but I was only able to do about a hundred books so far. And work starts next week! I have to be able to do this.

How about you?

Review: A Notorious Countess Confesses [Pennyroyal Green 7]

Title:        A Notorious Countess Confesses [Pennyroyal Green 7] 
Author:     Julie Anne Long
Rating:     ★★★★★
I’ve always enjoyed Ms. Julie Anne Long’s books and the latest Pennyroyal Green, book 7, The Notorious Countess Confesses, certainly does not disappoint. If I would describe it in one word, it would be ‘delicious’.
The plot is as follows:

She rose to spectacular heights…
From Covent Garden to courtesan to countess, beautiful, fearless, shamelessly ambitious Evie Duggan has riveted London in every role she plays. But the ton never could forgive her scandalous —if shockingly short—marriage, and when her star plummets amid gleefully vicious gossip, the countess escapes to the only legacy left to her: a manor house in Pennyroyal Green.
He never expected to fall so hard…
He has the face of a fallen angel and a smolder the devil would envy, but Vicar Adam Sylvaine walks a precarious line: resisting temptation…and the wild Eversea blood in his veins. Adam’s strength is tested when scandal, aka the countess, moves to Sussex. But when a woman who fiercely guards her heart and a man entrusted with the souls of an entire town surrender to a forbidden desire, will the sweetest sin lead them to Heaven...or make outcasts of them forever?

I really felt like Julie was at the top of her game while writing this. The plot is fresh for me because I have never read yet of a love story between an actress-turned-courtesan-turned-countess and a very virile priest. Moreover, this time, the woman is the rich one with a title while the guy does not have a title. Evie Duggan and Adam Sylvaine are just likeable and believable, and I can’t help but root for them despite the odds. Plus, you’ll keep waiting with baited breath on what happens next. It was very hard for me to put the book down because I just wanted to find out if they will be together or not.

Going back to my bookish roots

With the release of Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later, interest in the Sweet Valley series has been re-sparked. Indeed, I went out and scoured bookstores for the missing books in my collection. But looking at the books, I found I do not have the appetite to read the kids and twins’ books again (although I’m still on the lookout for College editions). I browsed through several forums and websites and realized that the Sweet Valley series has been getting a lot of flak. I think I understand. Going through the books again made me realize how crazy Jessica seems to be…or that the twins seemed to take the sixth grade for about five years. Or that their days are just so action-packed. It seems that the Sweet Valley charm has faded in my life.

But not totally.

Settling down with books and technology

Who here has a problem keeping track with their book catalogue?

I do!

I don't know how many times I've tried to list down the books I have in my computer. My laptop is a little on the heavy side and lugging it around the house is not really ideal for me (or maybe I'm just trying to justify to myself buying a new tablet this year... :p). But this year, I've decided to set time and sit in my library to really go over the books I have. I'm already having trouble going to bookstores and not buying a book because I'm not sure if I already have it or not. There was also a time wherein I bought two copies of a book because I haven't read my original copy yet. Tsk tsk.

I tried to find a good app, either for iOS or Android, so I can easily add to my database when I don't have my laptop with me, but the ones I found don't really seem to fit my taste. I'm still trying to bug my boyfriend into making an app for me (he's an IT guy) but I don't know if he'll ever end up doing one since he's never made an app before.

If anyone has anything to share about this dilemma on cataloguing books, or just to share your experience, feel free to post in the comments!

Happy New Year! :)

Happy New Year!

How did you spend New Year's Eve?

In the Philippines, we usually have a big feast, similar as to how we celebrate Christmas Day, minus the gifts, and with lots of fireworks! Fireworks are usually something I look forward to every start of the year. I just love those twinkling lights!

In our family, we have several traditions such as eating as one big family, having several dishes (this year we had baked spareribs, spaghetti, creamy pesto, roast chicken, casava cake, leche flan, different kinds of fruits, wine, gin punch, and Coca-Cola), and jumping up and down when the clock strikes 12. The funny thing in the Philippines is that we don't really have one standard time so we celebrate 12:00 at different times! But it's all good. It's very noisy and just all good fun.