I just got home from Makati and im blogging cause i have the office laptop with me...i am cursed! Cursed with the Holiday support! This means that even though GMA declared Monday to be a non-working holiday so that Filipinos can take time out to listen to her SONA (or the real reason being there might be bombings in Metro Manila or she might get assasinated or she could get overthrown from her throne, etc) i still have to go to the office and dosupport work!

I get paid extra but im not really after the money. Anyway, i guess im used to it already, i just don't like it when stuff suddenly go wrong when they shouldn't cause usually, during these unscheduled holidays, i plan something out...simple, destressing stuff like having coffee with friends or go malling or working out at the gym which will get bumped off to a later time or worst, later date if work at the office goes haywire.

So anyway, another reason why im blogging is cause i can't sleep yet. The food i ate still has to get digested a bit more before i hit the sack or i might get nightmares or more realistically speaking, get extra tricep flab or thigh flab, hehehe. Aldrich (the boyfriend!) and I had a late dinner at Teriyaki Boy cause we got so caught up with ceramic painting at Color Me Mine inside the Hobbes store at Greenbelt 3! Accenture peeps get to paint for free (yey!)--at least that makes me happy despite all the stressfull workload! Each one of us can choose an unpainted ceramic with the maximum worth of 1000 pesos per visit, meaning we can even paint two little ceramics in one day! Cool!

Anyway, we bumped into Nina, another officemate, while we were there at the store, then my team lead Michi followed. So there were four of us happily painting and pointing at each other's work in one table. Aldrich and I chose a baby rhinoceros, Nina got a birdhouse and Michi a vase with fruit drawing.

I, of course, planned to make my little rhino look girly and babyish as possible--para cute! hehehe. I chose pink, violet, flesh and all those pastel colors--we get to choose 5 colors. Aldrich, on the other hand, wanted to make his rhino look dark and menacing, which hmmmm, i can say came out kinda warrior-like at the end. The store ran out black paint so we had to make do with what's available, Aldrich's rhino reminded me of E.Honda from StreetFighter coz it had colorful face paint which made it kinda mean looking; while, my rhino had nail polish and lipstick, oh and eye shadow, hahhahaha!

I took a picture of the unpainted ones, i'll post the finished product when we get them two weeks from now since they still have to be baked and glazed to achieve that 'ceramic' look.


ALDRICH & GRACIE'S RHINO

I'll leave this post hanging for the moment coz im sleepy already...zzzzzzz

I've not updated in months and this isn't a decent update either....i'm feeling grumpy coz im hungry (sheesh, im rhyming now) so i just want to broadcast that to the whole world hehehe...

About a gazillion things have happened and changed in my life in the span of 2 months and i just don't know where to start the story!!

I will just list down what i remember and try not to expound as much as i can. I want to give the details in a different post when im in a better mood.

The list below is not in order of importance...or any other order.

1. I have pierced ears already! (after 22 years)
2. I have a credit card already!
3. I've enrolled in Fitness First!
4. I'm really, really, really, extremely fat (Read: gained around 15 lbs!)
5. Got myself decent rubber shoes..and bought it with my own money
6. Got a VCD player in my room..finally!!
7. Im in a relationship again, heheheh :) --> this actually branches off into a lot of sub-stories like the romantic dates and places that i've gone too, and why i love this guy so much, and the numerous things that we have in common, etc. ( i promised i wont' expound too much :-P)
8. Oh! and im gonna watch the Beauty and the Beast play this Friday!
9. Got involved in an auction. hehe.

That's it for now...my stomach is grumbling, but i'll workout first. Hopefully, i'll lose some solid fat with this sacrifice.

Everything under the Sun…

Is it scorching hot or what?? I think it’s almost 40 degrees outside and it’s already nighttime!! Aww, I think I will give in and finally turn on the ac for tonight, just for tonight! I’ve made a resolution since last November or December not use the airconditioning anymore and I astonishingly was able to do it! That is, until tonight, haha! I came home from playing Mini-golf at PAR 43 at The Fort with Nanah and Aldrich and the air was really humid. So when I entered my room, gloriously cool air enveloped my entire body, wow, ang sarap ng malamig!

Anyways this post will be about the three straight weekends that I’ve gone on an outing or gimik!

Office Teambuilding
The week after Splash Island was our project’s overnight team building activity at Splendido Suites somewhere in Makati. It seems that that month’s team building was the most prepared for and thought of of all team buildings that I’ve attended since I was rolled into the project! Haha! My officemates and I were divided into two groups and each group had to prepare a presentation, “no presentation no food!” Well of course, that was not followed coz once we got to the function room, we happily lined up for the buffet and gorged down our food.

After eating, we had a mini-survivor kind of activity. It was a mixture of charades, pass the message, eating contest, obstacle course and finding clues type of game! It’s kinda complicated to explain but anyway, our group won that game! We had to stuff ourselves with huge huge bananas, polvoron and then rush to another room in the condotel and look for strips of paper with clues---leaving the room as if a hurricane passed through it! After finding all the clues, we had to rush back to the function room and one of our teammates had to memorize the words written on the strips of paper in a particular order! Boy, was that hard! (I wasn’t the one who had to memorize it by the way, hehe) but was really worth it coz we won! The other team spent a lot of time looking for a strip of paper wedged between the pages of the yellow pages directory and they came back to the room without finding it, hehehe. However, it was the other group that became the overall champion in the team building activity coz they edged over us in the Bring Me and Guess What games.

Those games really left us pooped or maybe just me coz after much excitement, I crashed on the bed and went to sleep! We checked out at the hotel at noon and I had lunch with Aldrich at Oliver’s Super Sandwiches, dessert at Cheesecake, Etc then finally went home! What a weekend!

The BEACH!!!

My wish of going to the beach finally came true!! I went to OceanaDive resort, Puerto Galera with a bunch of my officemates last April 23-24! We met up at around 6am somewhere in Buendia-Taft and rode 2 vans going Batangas Pier. There, we waited till 12:30 to get a boat ride to Oceana Dive! The place was really nice! There were was a recreation area with billiards, darts, chess, pingpong and a ministore; a hut like place with pillows and comforters to lounge around, white sun bathing chairs, a hammock, a beach volleyball area, swimming pool, and a place to rent snorkeling and diving gear! The rooms were also comfy, they had towels and toiletries that the guests could use. The room I stayed in had 2 double deck beds and I stayed at the lower level.

The beach itself wasn’t really spectacular like Boracay or something. The sand was light tan in color and had lots of stones. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed snorkeling there especially in the afternoon since it was low tide. We could go to the places where there were a lot of beautiful corals and colorful fishes and still be able to reach the ground when we get tired! Oh and another astonishing realization I had there—I can float without much effort! I really don’t know how to swim and I usually panic but since the snorkeling gear allowed me to breath, I didn’t worry or panic about drowing. I just floated naturally and it felt so good! I was even able to go the deeper areas where I couldn’t reach the ground anymore but my companions called me back to the shallower grounds for safety, hehehe. I miss snorkeling already! I could snorkel every single day! I’m a water lover as long as it doesn’t pose any danger to my health and existence, hehehe. We weren’t able to go kayaking coz the place only had 2 kayak boats and there were some guests who were hogging the boats! Oh well, I just immersed myself with snorkeling!

When night fell, we went to White Beach to have dinner and enjoy the soft sand! We even lay down on the sand and I got a really relaxing massage! I even asked Richard to bury me in the sand just for fun, haha, but he stopped halfway since I didn’t have a change of clothes with me. Lying down on the beach, feeling the sand in your toes, watching the cloudy sky and looking for stars, listening to the sound of the waves while chatting merrily with friends was such a wonderful experience! I could live in the beach my whole life! Nakaka-high! Hahaha!

The next morning, I woke up at 7am to prepare to sunbathe but the sun was hinding behind the clouds! Awwww. So we decided to do some snorkeling again but it was high tide already so we couldn’t go very far. The areas where the water only reached our knees the day before already submerged us to the necks that morning! Wow! Fact of nature that I only experienced that day. When we got tired of snorkeling, Richard and I played billiards then I sunbathed at around 11am. My sunbathing was cut short because of a news report that a typhoon was on the way in the area and the time of the departure of the Ro-ros was advanced to thirty minutes! All of us rushed to take a shower and prepare to go home! Luckily, we made it just in time and managed to squeeze ourselves in a ro-ro even when there were no more seats around. Hehehe. I miss the beach already!

Tripping with Friends

Last Saturday was the day that I had waited for such a long time because it was the day when my friend Richard and I were set to raid Saisaki!! We absolutely love Japanese food, most especially sashimi! We actually stayed there for 2 hours, hahaha! We even felt that the waiters there were trying to shoo us away coz they were already giving us the glass of water even before we were done! And there was also a time when Richard hadn’t even put his bowl down and the waiter took it away from his hand already, and we just laughed it off coz we knew that we managed to maximize our buffet fee!
Here’s what we had in our crossover Saisaki, Dad’s and Kamayan buffet.

Round 1:
Tempura first since both us didn’t eat breakfast in preparation for the binge.
Round 2:
Sashimi galore! We took lots and lots of tuna and salmon sashimi and let our taste buds savor the soft texture of the fish meat dipped in soy sauce with calamansi and wasabi.
Round 3:
Meat platter and Egg soup. We tried out some of the dishes offered by Dad’s that tickled our curiosity and also had the egg soup thing from Saisaki. I sooo love that soup, whatever it’s called! It actually looks like crème brulee that’s only egg flavored and with a crabstick on top and Shitake mushrooms at the bottom! Absolute heaven!!
Round 4:
Sushi platter. I tried out the new sushi offerings of Saisaki but didn’t really like it that much. I’m still sticking with my old time favorites: California maki but also discovered something new and delicious: California temaki—that’s the one wrapped in a cone shaped seaweed covering with rice, crabmeat, Japanese mayo and a slice of mango inside! Another window to heaven!
Round 5:
Dessert! I got tiny slaces of each of the cakes served at Dads and also the profiteroles and puff pastries! That’s when I went on a sugar high from the sweet ecstasy of the puffed pastries. I can still taste it now, hehehe.
Round 6:
Ice cream! I had a combination of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice cream! I like vanilla the best coz it was so milky and creamy! I was sure that Aldrich would also love that type of ice cream.
Round 7:
Fruit round and a slice of leche flan, hehehe. I had papaya, watermelon and orange. The leche flan was delicious too and after I finished off the plate, I finally enjoyed my bottomless iced tea to fill up what remaining space I had left in my very very satisfied and contented stomach!

Two days after, which is May 2, a non working holiday as decreed by the President was supposedly ‘tripping day’. Aldrich and I planned to have a seafood lunch at Rockwell after our support tasks, go to Starbucks, then go wall climbing there then take a shower at his condo afterwards. We’d then head off to The Fort to play mini golf and have dinner at the grill beside it (Jaymi’s). But somehow, the odds were against me coz there was an emergency at work and everything! that could go wrong probably went wrong already! So I finished all the tasks I had to do at 6pm and we had no choice but to just continue with the latter part of our plan! Well, I was really sad at first but there’s no use crying over spilled milk as they say. I really enjoyed playing mini-golf even if I was the lowest scorer, haha! Oh and the food at Jaymi’s Grill wasn’t bad! We orderd baked tahong and the inihaw platter which consisted of grilled squid, chicken, pork (liempo) and fish! I, of course, concentrated on the baked tahong and grilled squid, hehehe. I also tried the Tequila Sunrise but found it too harsh so I mellowed it down with some water.

There! Now I’m home already and finished writing a blog entry before finishing the ‘homework’ that I brought home, hehehe, oops! ;p

Ang ganda ng moral booster sa akin ng friend ko...napa-smile ako :)

"nde mo kailangang maging sad..."
"maghanap ka ng way para nde..."
"kasi pinapahirapan mo lang sarili mo"
" walng thing na deserving para palungkutin ka..."
" so dapat wag ka malungkot... :) "

Awww....:)

Wala akong makausap about this...busy ang mga tao.

Bakit ba ganun?

Why do i feel sad when my reason tells me that i shouldn't?

Ano ang susundin ko?

Sabi ng utak ko, di naman dapat kasi wala lang un. Alam ko naman eh.

Pero whenever it happens i feel sad. I get hurt, though ngayon medyo na-nunumb na sya from too much occurrences...

This is so weird..

It's almost the end of lunchtime...i'm just feeling weird again. That unplaceable feeling--when i don't know now to react. Should i feel okay, should i feel slightly irritated, or maybe i shouldn't feel anything at all. I know im being very vague, hahaha, but that's all you're gonna get from me for the meantime.

I'm gonna update soon on the recent outings and events in our office but as soon as the pictures come out! One thing, i finally went to the beach!

Anyway, back to being moody and strange... a thought passed my mind last night. I was hoping that the time wouldnt come that i'd have to choose between someone i love but doesn't love me back that much and someone who loves me but i don't love that much. Maybe i shouldn't choose at all. I'll just sit and wait for my perfect match...if that someone really exists.

Is my Superman born or is he made? There are people whom you get along with in an instant and there are those that you have negative vibes once you see them. There are those that you don't really mind at first until you get to talk and find out that you really enjoy each other's company. Life is complex, why do i keep on trying to understand it? Why do i make myself feel miserable when i can't fathom what's in store for me?

I remember my friend who had a traumatic 'love' experience. At times of frustration maybe, this friend of mine prefers to live in a controlled environment. Sometimes i wish to have same scenario too. Of course, anyone knows this isn't possible. You can control what happens around you for some time but then there comes a point where you just have to let it be. ...

Life is weird.

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Summer Fun!

Here I am again after two weeks! (This only means that I’m on primary support again) I’ve moved cube space at work—I made myself nearer to my start group buddies Karen, Arvin and Jane! Karen and I are cubemates again, so those around us will probably be startled with hearing us talk to ourselves again, hehehe.

Anyway, when I got to work today, I was surprised to see a Hershey’s chocolate kiss sitting on top of my monitor! Mababaw, I know, pero natuwa ako! I’m like that eh, I like those sweet little things—I really appreciate them coz I’m actually like that , too. I like giving people little nothings, usually out of impulse and hope that they’d appreciate the thought, too. I’m one mushy person, hehehe.

I got a KISS!

First time ko…

I had so many firsts lasts Saturday!! It was my first time to go to Splash Island! I went with a different set of officemates—Tabs, She, Richard, Jerwin, Gilbert, Domz and Jerome. Our meeting place was at McDonald’s Quezon Ave and McDonald’s Taft. I didn’t really want to be at Taft but my mom was going to Cavite so it was the more convenient place to be dropped off, hehehe. Domz brought his Starex and drove us all the way to Laguna :)

Oh I also met my friend Ria while waiting in line at the entrance coz Globe Solutions was doing some promotions thing for the company that was having an outing at Splash Island on that same day, too. So expectedly, there was a crowd there; nevertheless, it only took a little while to line up at the slides :)



I think I was able to ride all the slides! But I chose the ones with the slower drop, hehehe. The slides weren’t really scary since you’d either just get dizzy or scratch your back from the friction but the depth of the water that you were gonna be dropped into was only 3 and a half feet and most of the slides even had ‘salbabidas’ or rubber mats to ride on so I felt that there was really nothing major to worry about :) . Isnt’ it kinda humiliating to drown in water that’s only 3.5 feet deep?!? HEHEHE.

Another one of my firsts was wearing a 2 piece bikini—and only that! My goal was to get an even tan as much as possible. Okay, maybe not a tan, but get a bit of flesh color on my pale complexion J I was of course, awfully conscious when I was about to go out of the dressing room, but it’s good that Tabs also wore a 2 piece bikini so that helped boost my confidence (a.k.a. kapal ng mukha) a bit. :)

After wading in ther river (with a current), trying to walk past and keep my bikini in place against the strong machine-powered waves at the recreated beach, sliding down 4-5 different twists and turns of slides, we decided to head off somewhere to eat a late lunch. We actually tried to eat lunch at lunchtime but the food court didn’t have enough food to serve all their customers! They told us that we had to wait 1.5 hours for the Kenny Rogers chicken to arrive so we just took a few more rides then headed of to Alabang Town Center to eat. This is another one of my firsts—going to ATC! Hahaha, very pathetic, but hey, I lived in the North part of Metro Manila for a majority of my life so that’s my excuse, hehehe.

The Girls!

The place wasn’t really big but what striked me was the design of the place where I think the roof wasn’t entirely closed. While eating, I’d get startled by birds (mayas, I presume) swooping down from the sky into the food court. It was a really nice sight for me, it made me smile everytime I’d see a bird fly by :) After hoarding down a lot of food, the group had dessert at Ice Monstor care of Domz, I think that was the change from our entrance fee at the water park. I had my staple half mandarin orange and half strawberry ice. It was actually my first time to go on an outing with these set of officemates although ive been with them to numerous lunchouts aldready. They’re really fun to be with, with the typical joking around and somehow they made me feel really welcome in their group. :)

In two weeks time, my next sun stop would be at OceanaDive, Puerto Galera!! I can’t wait! I have to get back to watching what I eat again so I’d look at least presentable in my 2 piece outfit, hehehe.

Pasalubongs Galore

I just have to mention the tons of pasalubongs I got from my friends who went out of town in the past two weeks! As a mentioned earlier, I like receiving stuff so it’s just right that I show my appreciation for all the pasalabongs I got by showing them here in my blog! They made my days really really brighter with the cute pasalubongs!

From Dublin, Ireland


Leprechaun Keychain with my name on it!


Guinness Dark Beer Coaster


Britney Spears' Perfume "Curious" Postacard


and a Cadbury Creme Egg chocolate straight from the Easter bunny!!!


From Boracay Island

Beach accessories and clothing!


Cute bag that absolutely everyone compliments!


Intricately designed colorful sarong


Beautiful orange colored stone necklace, bracelet and earrings!


Multi-colored chunky wooden bracelet


Cool black marble bracelet


Cute shell keychain with preserved crablet


Funky violet slippers


Reversible shorts with cool summer designs

I'm feeling kinda down right now and there's no one to talk to about it coz i don't think anyone in particular will be interested to hear about my problem coz frankly, i'm not really into the topic either that's why it's one of my problems...ang gulo ko!

Anyways, here's the thing. I was the newly appointed Training Coordinator for our project at work and there are tons of paperwork and surveys and metrics and stuff to do which i couldn't really grasp and understand when the role and its correspoding tasks were transitioned to me last December...so i guess i put off understanding the role completely..

Up until now, i still don't really grasp all the stuff that i have to do, what i hoped was that i'd gradually get it as time goes by..but that would mean missing an number of requirements...but i just kept it at the end of my priority list..

Then suddenly, there are these sets of interviews ongoing this week to assess how the project is doing and i, as the training coordinator, am going to be interviewed tomorrow! Basically, the team measuring the project's performance is gonna ask me if i have been doing my tasks and if the team members are amply aware of the trainings they have to take and some basic procedures, etc.

The thing is, i am not ready and the team members are not aware. Hayyy, this really makes me feel so bad!!! After cramming for the interview, i found out just tonight that there are so many documents and stuff that i'm not updating! I'm gonna get killed in tomorrow's interview no matter how nice the interviewer is.

I dont' really wanna tell any of co-workers about this in detail coz i feel that this topic is kinda boring to them, i dont' wanna tell Richard either coz he's going to Boracay tomorrow and these things will probably be just dust in the wind to him or something. Maybe i could tell Aldrich but he's not around anymore and i just dont' wanna bother him right now, coz i just bothered him last night...so there, no one to tell...but my blog.

I'm still at the office and i'm still feeling crappy about myself. There's nothing i can do anyway to salvage what i didn't do. I guess i'd just tell them that everything's in progress and i'll make up for the tasks in the future...boohoo!

I just finished watching the delayed telecast of the Morales vs. Pacquiao game and because I am a cheesy person , I got affected by the post game interview with the Pacman, hehehehe. Those idealistic/nationalistic cries of the interviewer, “Ngayon walang reli-relihiyon, lahat tayo isang bayan na sumusuporta kay Manny Pacquiao…”. I feel stupid but hey, I like those kinds of stuff.

It makes you feel that somehow a sense of nationality, a sense of oneness is still present even with all clashes arising from different cultures, different beliefs, and different people in the country. Yes, there is still unity among the Filipinos—and it only comes when Pacquiao has a boxing match! Hahahahahah! Kakaiba talaga ang Pilipinas noh?

Okay enough of my cheesiness. I owe whoever still reads my blog around two months worth of posts! Of course, now, it’s all condensed! Tadaa…

Two Months in a Flash

FEB 1: CHOCOLATE MAKING DEMO

It was only this year that I found out that Powerbooks gives free cooking demos! I attended their Chocolate Making Demo in preparation for Valentine’s Day—not that I have anyone to give the chocolate to on that day, anyway! (haha, bitter :p)

“So that’s what the oven and kitchen looking countertop is for!”—that was one of the first things that came to my mind when I got to the class held at Powerbooks Greenbelt 4. I thought the kitchen-looking setup of the cooking section was just a creative way of thematizing the bookstore! Apparently, it’s functional, too!

Anyway, it was French Kiss who gave the demo and well, it was okay. Not really anything spectacular and the demonstration was a bit disorganized but overall, I guess I’d give it an 8 out of 10 for presentation. I also noticed that the recipes were awfully whipped cream-heavy, I’m semi-allergic to whipped cream unfortunately—my chest tightens and I have trouble breathing when I take whipped cream-- so maybe that’s one reason why I wasn’t able to appreciate the class that much.

Here’s the list of recipes, they call it “Real Easy Romantic Valentine’s Day Recipes”

Orange Hot Chocolate, Rocket Sundae, Extra Rich Hot Chocolate, Warm Chocolate Sauce, Easy, Chocolate Pudding, Chocolate Pudding Trifle. What’s nice was that they had free samples for everything, although not for everyone, hehehe. I think I tasted the Extra Rich Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Pudding Trifle. After the demo, I headed straight to the gym to burn off what I ate!


FEB 6: LUNCH @ LESLIE’S TAGAYTAY

I can say that I enjoyed having lunch with my family. I wasn’t worrying about what time it was already, or if there’s a signal on my phone, or if I’d feel my phone vibrate or beep when someone calls or sends me a message. I had no worries, zilch! I simply enjoyed being there, eating the delicious food, and basking in the beautiful view of Taal lake. Hey, I just realized that I’m actually less tense and stressed nowadays in the personal life department! Ah, the joys of being single, heheheh.


FEB 12: LONG GONE ANYBODY

Read this book if you want to be disturbed. Well, i was very much disturbed just halfway through the book. Maybe because I could relate my life at times to what the character is feeling—wandering aimlessly, searching, running away, hiding? Nonetheless, the ending is nice, that’s why I recommend it! Here’s a short write-up:

Long Gone Anybody by Susannah Waters

'This humane novel of a teenager desperately seeking her runaway mother has an edge and a sexiness that keeps you turning the pages'
Suzannah Dunn

Where do people go when they disappear?

The boy you went to school with, the girl who shared your university room for a term, the neighbour you glimpsed through the curtains - where did they go when they left?

A nineteen-year-old runs away from her life and keeps on running. Haunted by the unexplained departure of her mother four years earlier, she is looking and not looking. Adopting one identity after another - female escort, apple-picker, cashier, canvas girl in a travelling circus - she is afraid to slow down for fear of what, or who, may catch up with her. When anonymous postcards start to arrive at every place she goes, she is finally forced to confront the fate of her long-gone mother. Can this runaway-girl escape the same end?

In a compulsive and moving novel riddled with family secrets, a predictably happy ending is never a guarantee. But one thing becomes certain; people can only ever save themselves.

'A diverting, characterful voice.'
Daily Mail

FEB 14: VALENTINE’S DAY

After 5 years of having someone special to share the day of hearts with, i found myself single on Valentine's Day. Of course, reminiscing simply can't be helped...The dinner dates, the concerts, the presents, the memories....
This year's valentines day was really different not only because i was single but because of the things that happened. Yes, the explosion of the RRCG bus right under the Ayala MRT was one of them! On a more personal note, i was feeling kinda sad when i went to work coz of some foiled plans but eventually went home quite happy! =)

Wine Tasting 101
My officemates and I planned to take one of the company-sponsored self-improvement classes: WINE TASTING 101. I was sooo excited! I was the one who told my officemates to sign up on Feb 14 since we didn’t have dates anyway, so why not enjoy the night with friends, right? Well, it turned out that every single one of my friends were enrolled into the class except moi! Why? Well, for the simple reason that I already took the class before! I didn’t know you couldn’t take a class twice!! Hahaha! It really never passed my mind when I was so busy and excited gathering people to sign up for the class. Grabe, sobrang sama talaga ng loob ko nun!

I guess the policy is to give chance to others. The class I attended was the pilot class for wine tasting. I think I took it mid-December with Aldrich. We tasted 3 white wines first followed by 3 red wines. There were soda crackers in between to either keep us sober longer or to wash away the taste of the previous wine tasted. Going to that Wine Tasting class was an absolute adventure! The class was slated to start at 7:00pm and if we were late after the grace period of 30 minutes, we had to pay the actual course fee!! That’s P1200 off our already tax and miscellaneous deduction-laden paychecks!

Anyway, Aldrich and I planned to leave the office (GT Tower, end of Ayala Ave) an hour before the class in 6750 building (beside Glorietta). However, due to unforeseen events, we weren’t able to stick to our time. I think we left the office at 6:30pm and that was rush hour already! The initial plan was to ride the shuttle (a.k.a. colorum FX) but then the line was too long. So the next option was to ride a taxi, but there were no vacant taxi’s! We rode the bus instead, but the traffic was so heavy that the bus was moving at a rate of a feet per five minutes! That’s when we decided to get off the bus and brisk walk, but the bus conductor wouldn’t let us off! At a rate of one feet per 5 minutes, the bus was able to inch away from the Loading/Unloading zone! We had to wait until we got to the next Unloading terminal till we could get off! Argh! After another five minutes of waiting, we hopped off the bus and walked our way to 6750. Aldrich didn’t have much of a problem but I was wearing heels! Kitty heels but they’re still heels! We even jaywalked crossing the wide, wide stretch of Ayala Ave. and Makati Ave.! We had to run so the MMDAs won’t apprehend us, hahahah! We finally got to the class tired and out of breath, and the coordinator even took a picture of us! We got there just in time by the way, around 2 minutes to spare before we got fined with a thousand plus pesos, whew!

Valentine Kringle
Aldrich, the ever scheming jokester at work, initiated this exchanging of gifts during Valentines. Guys were supposed to give the girls flowers while the girls would give the guys chocolates. I don’t know why I suddenly backed out. I think a wave of grumpiness came over me and I acted out of impulse. So there, on the big day, I was expecting to go home without anything at all while most of the girls would get bouquets of flowers, awwww….

But hey, I was wrong!

The first memorable thing that marked my Valentine’s Day this year was that around 11 am at work, the messenger came up to me with a delivery of flowers! Wow! Of course I was flattered, and excited to know who gave it. So I scrambled to open the card…but there was no signature!! It just said: “Grace, Happy Valentine’s Day!” Gosh! I was given 3 beautiful tulips wrapped in nice green cloth-paper, with some leaves around and a ribbon to tie them all together. They were in the most beautiful color of orange that I’ve seen—the mixture of deep orange and a tinge of yellow just like the sky when the sun starts to set.

My Sunset-Orange Tulips

I’m not an expert on flowers since I usually just receive roses. So when I first got the flowers, I was like, “Hmm, what flower is this and why is it orange?” Hahahah, but after some researching and some gushing from office mates (“Wow, tulips! Mahal yan ah!”) I was like, “Ohhhh” And they are pretty! I even asked one of my officemates who had a digicam handy to take a picture of them for posterity. Whoever gave those flowers to me, I just hope he knows how much I appreciate the flowers and how it turned my day around! Thank you!


Free Concert
Sometime in December, Ayala Corporation along with Starbucks sponsored a free concert at Philippine Stock Exchange in Makati. This time around, it was Freestyle who played during Valentine’s Day! Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for the world! I went with a bunch of my friends at work..We walked from GT Tower to PSE and luckily got there a few minutes before the concert started =) It’s just kind of weird though, the people watching were kinda stiff. I mean they weren’t swaying to the music or anything. They just sat down there watching, listening! Hmm, I think The Company was able to loosen up the public more than Freestyle? Or could it be coz when it’s Christmas, everyone seems nicer, but during Valentine’s….some are bitter? Hahahaha. Anyway, I still enjoyed the concert! It just hit me that most of their songs that I like are the sad ones: Before I Let You Go, Bakit Ngayon Ka lang. I also like So Slow. The songs actually reminded me of someone…heheheh. After all, the first concent I went to was Freestyle’s Valentine’s Conert at the Araneta Colisem in 2001.


FEB 18: Overnight Team Building Activity

This was absolutely fun!!! I bought a 2 piece swimsuit and board shorts for this event! The actual team building activity was dinner at Gerry’s Grill in Glorietta then afterwards, around 23 of us went to May Lani’s place at Cainta. I think they owned the clubhouse! I spent around 70% of the time soaking in the pool, walking and wading around…coz I don’t know how to swim! Richard tried to teach me how to float but I couldn’t coordinate my movements to do it right, clumsy ol’ me! They also had a karaoke machine there so we crooned our hearts out but it was more like shouted our lungs out coz the neighbors called up around three or four times to ask us to tone down a bit, hahahahah!





FEB 22: Dinner @ the Tavern

In case I didn’t write about our office Christmas Party, there was a kind of a Pera or Bayong game there and I won a dinner date for 2 at Tavern on the Square in Greenbelt! I took Richard with me there, he’s my closest friend at work, after all J It was Nyoy Volante and the Mannos playing that night and Richard bought 3 of Nyoy’s CDs to have them signed. We got there a bit early so we decided to have dinner before the band arrived. The budget given to us was P1500 and here’s what we ordered:
Gindara Teriyaki with buttered veggies& rice and Mango Barbecue Chicken with buttered veggies & rice for our main course, two glasses of Cranberry juice to wash it down, Chocolate Chip Cheesecake for dessert, then Calamares for pica-pica while the band was playing and Mineral water and Iced tea! I went home really full!

Nyoy Volante and the Mannos

At the Tavern with Richard


I like the music the band played. Of course, there were signature Nyoy Volante songs but most of the other songs were requests from the audience. There was even this Japanese guy who jammed with them at the drums. We only stayed for the first set coz it was a work day the next day. When the band took a break, I went up to Nyoy and asked him to sign Richard’s CDs. Use my charms daw, sabi niya, haha. The thing is, I didn’t tell Nyoy that the CD’s weren’t mine, so when he came back from the dressing room to change his shirt, he gave me back the CDs with his short message and signature on the CD jackets…”Thanks for the support!, Love, Nyoy” “God Bless, Love, Nyoy” Hahahahahaha! It might as well have been written: To Richard, Love Nyoy! Hahahaaha! I am writing this incident down for posterity!


FEB 26: Perm Wave

I got my perm wave at Bench Fix for P1250! I think the procedure took about 3 hours, here are shots of the before, during, and the after. It’s good that Richard was there to take pictures of my Medusa look.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Oh and why was I not surprised that the stylist recommended maintenance products and even an extra hot oil treatment to me? I didn’t fall for the hot oil but gave in to the products. I know after all that my hair needs extra maintenance after a perm

PhP2100 worth of hair goop!

Here’s what I bought (from left to right): L’Oreal Perm Energy Shampoo (smells like Avocado with a hint of Lemon), Kerastase Masquintense (smells nice and creamy), and the most expensive of all—even more expensive than the perm wave procedure itself—Kerastase Oleo Relax No Rinse Anti-Frizz Hair Gloss @ 1290!


MAR 6: Baby Shower

My sister-in-law, wife of my second brother had a baby shower! It’s my first time to go to one! We didn’t do anything much but eat and take pictures and I really like the souvenir, heheh, that’s why im writing about this event!

Baby Minnie trying to be a Bunny!

MAR 8: Women’s Day Cooking Demo

I never knew there was a Women’s Day or Women’s Month until this year! Is this a newly appointed celebration or something? Or was I simply hiding in my shell for the past how many years? Anyway, I signed up Richard and me for the cooking demo, I even made sure that guys could come since well, it’s Women’s Day, hehehehe. The demo was at Powerbooks Greenbelt again, but this time, the place was jam-packed. We ended up standing while watching the demo. This time’s class was a lot more professional, educational and entertaining compared to the last one I attended--probably because it’s The Maya Kitchen who did the demonstration.

The theme was more on the healthy side so the recipes were Fresh Fruit Plate with Cottage Cheese, Tofu Dip, Pork and Lettuce Rolls and Low Fat Brownies. They used pureed prunes as substitute for butter in the brownies and well for a low-fat dessert, it came out pretty tasty--sweet fruitish tasting brownies! Ah and the reason why I said that this demo was more organized because they prepared ready made small servings of all the stuff they demonstrated for the audience to taste! What made me chuckle was after putting the brownies in the oven, they took another one out that was all done—just like those cooking shows on TV! :p


MAR 10: EGA SAI

Ega Sai 2005, that’s the free Japanese Filmfest that’s held every year in celebration of the Philippines-Japan Festival. Again, it’s the first time that I’ve learned about this. I chanced upon an article about Kurosawa, a well-known Japanese director , whose films are featured in this year’s filmfest and I remembered that Richard likes watching foreign films so I mentioned this to him. It turns out that Kurosawa is really really famous and Nands, my office cubemate even said that Kurosawa is like the Lino Broka of Japan! It’s just too bad that it was already the last week of the filmfest and on a weekday, so there was only one film that could fit both our schedules.

Here’s some stuff about Kurosawa..

Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) was the first Japanese director “discovered” abroad.
He achieved worldwide prominence when Rashomon (1950) won the grand price at the1951 Venice International Film Festival, thereby opening the way for the
appreciation of the Japanese cinema beyond the border of Japan.
Because he was quickly accepted in foreign countries, the Japanese often considered
Kurosawa as the “least Japanese” director. No matter how problematic this
assertion is, Kurosawa’s works represent a break in the tradition of the
Japanese film This break, however, does not discredit him as one of the greatest
filmmakers in the history of Japanese cinema. As Kurosawa himself said, “If a
work can’t have meaning to Japanese audiences, I , as a Japanese artist, am
simply not interested.”

EGA SAI 2005 AKIRA KUROSAWA

We ended up watching Stray Dog (Norainu) by Akira Kurosawa at the Equitable Tower in Makati. It’s about this police officer who rides a really, really jam packed bus in the middle of a scorching hot summer day and loses his gun in the process. The whole film is about his effort to try to get back his gun, but before he gets it back, a number of people get killed with his gun and this makes him extremely guilt-striken. He has to work with a senior officer (who has a semblance to our current driver, hehe) to hunt down the killer. Oh and I noticed that during the latter part of the movie, it was raining extremely hard…maybe the weather is a mood-setter for the scenes. A lot of parts in the film also made me laugh or chuckle but I’m not really sure if this was the intention of the director, hehehehe. I would’ve wanted to watch Seven Samurais and Rashomon, two of the more popular films of the director, but there’s always next year, anyway :)


MAR 18: PHONE GETS STOLEN

BOOHOOO! See the previous post for this. It’s back to my trusty ol’ Nokia 8250 again.

There, 2 months in a flash, all done!

SHAME ON ME

Before the updates on everything...I just want to say that I feel ashamed of myself...

I lost my cellphone! No, it’s not my 4-year-old Nokia 8250; it’s the phone that my brother handed down to me since he got a new phone.—a Nokia 6610. It’s been barely a month that the phone was with me and I lost it already!! I feel so irresponsible!!

And I used to think that I’m not the type of person who would lose a cellphone. I thought I was responsible enough, careful enough...it turns out that my 8250 was simply not within "stealable" value.

I feel that my family is disappointed at me, most especially my brother and his wife. Do you know the story of that 6610? My sister-in-law won that phone from Globe. She joined those text contests that Globe just sends you out of the blue, and she was picked! I think that phone is around 2-3 years old already, and I just lost it, haayyyy, how depressing!!

I wonder if they still think that I’m a spoiled, irresponsible kid. Argh, I just sooo hate this feeling!!! I can’t seem to think of any way to make up for what I’ve done huhuhuh, I’m soo sad. It doesn’t really matter what I lost, but that I lost something. I might not have had my previous cellphones stolen before but I lost a bracelet before and broken a necklace. Oh and I lost my wallet last year, too, around this time of year. My boyfriend at that time gave me those valuables...how sad!

I just feel so stupid, so careless, and so useless. ..

I just broke a promise recently, then I lost the cellphone, and I feel that something’s wrong with how I do things and how I react to situations. My life is messed up, again.

I wish I could do something right.