I was in Trinoma last night at around 7 pm. I was supposed to meet Rey in front of Cyma at the top floor so I took the escalators near the entrance facing the restaurant area. The escalators were inside the mall but this set of elevators was located in a very quiet location - it faced a wall and was away from the view of the shoppers and the guards. 

When I got there, 3 men were just getting off the escalator. When they were near me, one of them suddenly said that they needed to go back to the 4th floor. He immediately went back to the escalator. I slowed down to allow the 2 others to go ahead of me but they stopped to chat. I went ahead. Suddenly, I felt that something was wrong, so I looked around. I noticed that aside from the 3 men, there was nobody else in that section of Trinoma. All of us were on the escalator with their "leader" 4 steps ahead of me, and the 2 guys who were then 2 steps down. I felt so uneasy that I ran past their leader without no logical reason (wala nang isip-isip, kunwari na lang may hinahabol akong guwapo). When I reached the top and looked back, I noticed that they did not complete their escalator ride (so I guess hindi sila nabulag sa aking kagandahan). For some reason (maybe I'm really just paranoid every Christmas/tuition/election season,) I felt that I just escaped an attack. I was relieved but I was still shaken that instead of turning left towards Cyma, I mistakenly turned right and took the longer route (nakita ko tuloy and Siomal by Hussein's. Doon kami kumain. Masarap pero para na rin kaming na-hold up sa mahal ng binayad namin.)

Nothing really happened to me. The 3 guys may just have been friends who were hanging out at Trinoma and had no intentions of robbing people. It may have just been coincidence that no one else was using the escalators. But I'd rather be paranoid and look silly/crazy than be robbed or hurt (mahirap kumita ng pera!!!).

So, I will take what happened as a reason to share with you what motherlily always told me: (a) when in public places, always be aware of your surroundings; and (b) don't ignore your gut feel, it may be your guardian angel (or in my case, fatherlily!) warning you of dangers.

More tips can be found at:

How to avoid an attack - http://www.ehow.com/how_2213835_avoid-an-attack.html
How to avoid purse snatching - http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-Purse-Snatching and http://www.ehow.com/how_1889_avoid-purse-snatchers.html

Stay safe!

B has a new toy - a black MSI Wind! It's nice and cute and it serves its purpose as a portable book reader and dvd player. The 6-cell battery really powers the Wind for at least 5 hours. The only complaint we had was that it couldn't connect to our Netgear wireless router at home while it didn't have any problems connecting to the wifi in Coffeebean and Tea Leaf, Kozui and the Complink branches in SM North Edsa and SM Megamall. I knew that our router was working fine as my Dell-ing masira office laptop could connect to it without any fuss.

I've checked out the manuals, googled it, browsed through countless of forums, inquired with the tech people of Complink, and still didn't get the solution. But after getting a talking fuschia rubber-covered heart-shaped mouse, I got inspired to be creative and experimented with the router settings myself. Nope, I'm not a tech-y person (M, Deng and Janina can attest to the number of times that they got an email from me asking for help on Excel, our internal website and even Powerpoint), but I'm a brave fool. And this brave fool finally found the settings that allowed the MSI Wind to connect to our router. Woohoo! (For those who want to know, I changed the settings of the Netgear router by: (a) logging in at http://www.routerlogin.net; (b)  clicked on Wireless Settings at the left menu; and (c) just changed the channel to 01 and set the mode to B and G. Whatever that means.)

And speaking of my talking fuschia rubber-covered heart-shaped mouse, I also have a purple extension cord! Don't they look perfect with my laptop bag?

Hay, wala na talagang maniniwalang abogado ako. And I haven't even mentioned that my mouse says "I love you" when you click the scroll button (even I have to shiver at that.)

Yup - got tagged in Facebook several times. I meant to complete this 2 weeks ago but never got to start drafting until I got stuck in traffic along C-5 on my way to work this morning.

1. i seldom drink coffee but i make brewed coffee everyday.

2. brewing coffee is the only kitchen-related task that i do for B.


3. i don't go to the kitchen to make coffee. our coffee maker is in our bedroom, beside the electric kettle. I use the hotwater from the kettle for my tea.

4. i love loose-leaf teas.

5. tea is supposed to help digestion and keep weight down. i've been drinking tea for 2 decades but i just keep on gaining weight specially around my stomach.

6. which is why people always think i'm pregnant.

7. i don't mind when people think i'm pregnant, i'm quite used to it.

8. and i hope they don't mind if i use their misconception to my advantage - i get good bargains (people seem to think that they will get lucky if they sell stuff to a preggie), i don't have to run when flying on budget airlines, and i didn't have to climb the stairs of arc de triomphe (B and i got to take the elevator!)

9. i have never been pregnant and i don't think i'll ever be. we're child-free by choice. (this is a nicer way of saying that i have no plans of losing sleep over a 3-month old tyrant.)

10. but i don't mind helping B take care of his 17-year old daughter, G. (she doesn't give me sleepless nights and i don't have to wash her when she poops!)

11. i first met G when she was 2. B and I were a couple for 10 years before we got married (it took him that long to convince me that he wouldn't wear my underwear.)

12. we were gimmick buddies for a year and a half before we got together. we've been married for 4 years (thankfully, even if i gained so much weight since the wedding, he still wouldn't fit in my underwear.)

13. we've been living with B's mom for all those 4 years. i don't mind living with my mother-in-law. She runs the house like a hotel (we have room service every breakfast!) and cooks really delicious food.

14. i love good food and it shows - it goes straight to my stomach and never leaves it.

15. B's my eating buddy. we often try out new restos and for the past 5 years, we give each other a point for each good resto that we recommend. the score's at 64-63, in B's favor. i don't mind losing to him on this for as long as he's fatter than me.

16. the last point I received was for Cely's carinderia in Angeles City, Pampanga. for P385, B and I had really good bulalo, the best chicken barbecue that B has ever tasted, the best sisig I've ever tasted, rice and 7-up. the food we ordered was good for 4 people but we finished everything anyway.

17. we were in Pampanga to check out the hot air balloon festival but we ended spending most of our time eating, sleeping and biking. that's how we are when we travel - we make detailed plans but we don't mind setting aside our plans if we feel like doing something else. (actually, what really happened was that we were horrified when we saw the number of people trying to enter the site!)

18. i just learned how to ride a bike last December using a bike that Marian gave me (thanks, Marian!). I've been riding a bike at least twice a week since then. I'm now using Gen's (pronounced as "Jen") bike (thanks, Ojai and Gen!) I love the feel of the wind on my face when I'm biking, it reminds me of distant places with flowers, rivers and fresh air.

19. i love going to distant places with flowers, rivers and fresh air. forget the flowers, rivers and fresh air - i love going to distant places.

20. i seldom shop when i travel. i'm happy to just keep on looking at the pictures that i took. pero di ako nagwagi sa New York - if satan used outlet shops to tempt people to sin, i'd definitely go to hell.

21. i love pictures! we had 3 photographers at our wedding and i didn't regret getting all of them. i bought an entry level dslr (olympus e-500) a couple of years ago so that i could have good pictures when i travel, only to realize that if i was taking the picture, i wouldn't be on it.

22. i think that i take good pictures (hey, my entry just won first place at the Olyclub's monthly contest!) but i'll never be a brilliant photographer. i just don't have the patience to carry all the necessary gears and wait for the perfect moment.

23. photography is just like my other skills/talents - i'm a jill of all trades but master of none. i sing (sang with the Ateneo Glee Club in college), play the piano and the violin (achieved level 4 as certified by the British School of Music), write, act (i studied Creative Writing in high school but graduated as a Theater Arts major), dance, organize events, eat a whole spring chicken with 2 plates of rice, fall on a bike when I wasn't moving in the first place, get drunk on fruit juice, and hide my jewelry so well that i couldn't find them again.

24. the only skill i am really good at is sleeping - i can sleep anytime, anywhere! B thinks I'm narcoleptic.

25. i think that my chow, Porkchop, is narcoleptic, but still find her adorable even if she's asleep most of the day. i treat her like a baby except when she gets on my nerves in which case i kick her out of the house and let her sleep at the garage.

ex-boyfriend na childhood friend: . . .Ginagawa mo lang bang past time si Laine?

current boyfriend: We both know she's way too special for that. Jepoy . . . you're the only one who's holding her back. Do the right thing.

ex-boyfriend na childhood friend: Sige, just so we're clear - you break her heart and I'll break her neck.

Ano raw???

Since I'm pretending to be good this Christmas season, I decided to join some of the members of Newlyweds@Work (N@W) extend some help to Concordia Children's Services.

Concordia is a small orphanage that takes care of 22 kids and supports the education of 34 other urban poor children. Marj wrote about them in an email and a lot of N@wies picked up her plea for help. A few emails later, volunteer N@wies were already organizing a party for the urban poor kids. Many others volunteered to send donations. I was one of them.

Initially, I just pledged a little money. It was the easiest thing to do. But after attending several Christmas parties, indulging myself in food and alcohol and tremendously enjoying the company of friends, I felt like doing something different. So, I volunteered to take pictures at the Concordia party.

When I mentioned my plans to some officemates, they too got excited and offered to donate goods. Thinking that more people would be interested in helping out the kids, I sent out an email to almost everyone in my address books. The response was overwhelming. I could hardly pack all the donations that I was able to gather in our car!

Apparently, there were also tons of generous Nawies that we just had too much donations for 1 beneficiary. The organizers then decided to donate the overflow to St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital.

A week before the party, I sent out an invite to the members of the Olyclub and the GSM PhotoClub to help me take pictures. I was happy when Mot, Honey, Oli and Rodge volunteered to cover the party with me.

The night before the party, I charged my batteries and prepared my memory cards. I was so excited that I didn't have enough sleep. I fell asleep at 2 AM but by 7:30 AM, I was ready to leave. I passed by Mot on my way to Concordia. Traffic was a bit heavy because of the hundreds of people who were going home to their provinces for the Christmas holidays. We arrived at Concordia 30 minutes before the start of the party.

Concordia was nestled in between Ligaya Lodge and Gardenia Terrace Motel. The entrance was a gate right beside a huge banner advertising taxi rooms for P599. We wondered if the babies in the orphanage were products of the activities in these motels.

As soon as we got there, we unloaded the donations from my car and started preparations for the party. I helped set up the table for the prizes, which was useless as more donations arrived after I set it up so they ended up fixing everything again. There were just so many donations!

The program started promptly and I was impressed by the host, Ate Ayie. She chose games that were appropriate for the kids and she even made animals out of balloons. 3 crew members of Jollibee were there to help her out. They were all great with the kids!

But the star of the show was Danie - she read a story to the children. She was able to capture the attention of all the kids with her story that they almost looked hypnotized! When it was time for the Q&A after the story, everyone knew the answers (except for me, hehe). I was really so amazed by her talent in story-telling. Tinalo niya talaga si Kuya Bodjie at si Ate Sienna.

The children also got excited when Jollibee performed. Jollibee was just so charming that even the adults (photographers included) wanted to have a picture taken with him. After watching him and taking pictures of him for 30 minutes, I was half in love with him!

I so enjoyed the program that I didn't notice the heat, the dozens of children running around and screaming and the fact that we were having the party at a parking lot. I was also having so much fun with the other N@wies that I ended up posing for a lot of pictures with them. We even had a picture taken with Jollibee! It surprised me how we all gelled and had fun together even if it was my first time to see most of them. I was also amazed at how everything was efficiently organized.

After the program, a handful of us went to St. Martin to turn over the donations. The administrator was visibly touched and she promised to make sure that the donations would benefit the patients and the staff. She also requested the head nurse to give us a tour of the hospital. At one point, someone asked if we were actresses (apparently because only actresses went around hospitals to give out free stuff). We wanted to answer that we were actresses but we weren't famous because: (a) we were never launched; or (b) our soap operas were televised at 3 AM and got axed after 1 airing.

Even after giving out slippers to the kids in St. Martin, we realized that we still had 2 full boxes of slippers with us. Wanting to ensure that the slippers were donated to less-fortunate children, we thought of institutions that would have children who may appreciate having new slippers. We decided to make an impromptu visit to the municipal hospital of San Juan. Right outside the hospital were 2 street kids. One of them was running around with bare feet but he still refused the slippers we were giving him! We were so desperate to give him the slippers that we were almost begging him to receive it. Hindi kami nagwagi.

The people in the hospital were a different story, they were so grateful for the slippers and showered us with thanks. One of the kids confined in the hospital was the sibling of the kid playing in front of the hospital. We left a pair of slippers for him. Ha!

Unfortunately, there were only a handful of kids at the hospital so we still had several dozens of slippers with us. Since we were on a mission to hand out those slippers, we discussed our next step. We thought about standing in a busy corner and give out the slippers to the kids who knocked on car windows to beg. We decided against it, natakot kaming pagkaguluhan (naks, feeling artista!) After a few minutes, we decided to distribute it at the nearest depressed area.

And so, we trekked to the nearest barangay hall and found ourselves talking to the people of Brgy. Balongbato (in English, Rockwell!) We told them that we had slippers to give out and that we would appreciate it if they invited children between ages 2-8 to get their slippers from us. After 5 minutes, at least 100 kids were swarming the place. We all felt like we hit the jackpot! We had the kids fall in line and gave out the rest of the slippers. we ran out of slippers halfway through the line. Once again, I was amazed at the efficiency of the Nawies - they not only gave out the slippers, they were also able to give the right size to the kids. Ang galing!

We finished at around 2 PM - I was tired and thirsty, my legs felt heavy after standing for hours and walking around with my gear (I really have to start working on becoming physically fit!) but I actually got a little sad when our adventure ended and said goodbye to my fellow N@wies. It would take some time before I see them again in person.

As I journeyed back to real life, I browsed through the pictures on my camera and smiled. I was pretending to be good but the fun and adventure that I had with the N@wies and my photographer friends were all real. Their smiles were saved on my memory cards. I just hope that my smile was saved on theirs - lalo na yung picture ko with Jollibee!!!

More pictures are posted at:
My pics - http://abieco.multiply.com/photos/album/50/Act_NW
Pics by Mot Rasay - http://stellared.multiply.com/photos/album/257/12202008_Act_Now_with_NWies#
Pics by Oli Gozar - http://olibluespy.multiply.com/photos/album/133/Concordia_Childrens_Services_Xmas_Party
Pics by Rodge Maclang - http://rodgemac.multiply.com/photos/album/68/NW_Newlywed_Work

The Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) is currently accepting applicants to the 2009 Annual Nationwide Search for Young Arts Scholars (ANSYAS).

PHSA is a government run secondary school for artistically gifted and talented children and youth located in Mt. Makiling, Laguna. It implements a special secondary education curriculum oriented to the arts while offering the Basic Education subjects prescribed by the Department of Education (DepEd). The specialized curriculum of the PHSA is focused on the disciplines of Creative Writing, Dance, Music, Theater, and the Visual Arts.

Applicants must be Filipino citizens with outstanding ability in any of the following disciplines—Music (instrument and voice), Dance (ballet and folk), Theater Arts, Visual Arts, and Creative Writing. Applicants must be graduating Grade VI or VII pupils for the school year 2008-2009; of above average intelligence, proficient in oral and written Filipino and English; without any debilitating illness; and willing to study in a residential high school.

Likewise, applicants must be determined to pursue a college degree in Architecture, Fine Arts, Music, Dance, Theater Arts, Journalism or any related courses upon graduation from the PHSA.

Successful applicants will receive free tuition, board and lodging, classes with master teachers, a monthly stipend plus the chance to represent the country and the school in international festivals, competitions and exchange programs. Application is also free.

Established in 1977, the PHSA has a distinguished roster of graduates that include singer Grace Nono (Theater), filmmaker Raymond Red (Visual Arts), painter and installation artist Gerry Leonardo (Visual Arts), stage and film actress Shamaine Buencamino (Theater), pianist Hiyas Hila (Music), stage and film actor Soliman Cruz (Theater), bass baritone Jonathan Zaens (Music), Biag Gaongen (Theater) and dancer Candice Adea (Ballet).

The PHSA boasts of an impressive faculty as well. PHSA teachers, according to PHSA Executive Director Fernando C. Josef, are among the best of the country’s artists, practitioners and educators. “PHSA is the only national arts institution that provides a four-year scholarship to exceptionally talented young Filipino artists. It offers these young artists a comprehensive and highly specialized training supported by excellent facilities and in the idyllic and beautiful setting of Mt. Makiling.”

Application forms and the list of requirements per art discipline may be downloaded from the PHSA website www.phsa.edu.ph. All documents and requirements must be sent directly to ANSYAS 2009, c/o Assistant Reynaldo O. Wong, PHSA, National Arts Center, Mt. Makiling, Los Baños 4030 Laguna.

For inquiries, please email phsa@laguna.net or call telefax (+6349)5365971 to 73 and 536-2862.

*re-posted from ClickTheCity.com

After years of not watching plays, I finally got a good excuse to watch one - my officemates were selling tickets! (I wanted to watch Wicked in NY but by the time I had a good idea of what my free days were, the shows were already sold out.) I was just too happy that Marian, Mich and Dette were also interested in watching Hairspray.

The only version of Hairspray I watched was the original (1980's) version. I just came across it while cable-surfing one evening and was instantly entertained by Tracy's dancing - she looked so huge but she was light on her feet and she danced with so much energy. She was so positive and bouncy that I really wanted her to succeed. Up til now, I still couldn't believe that Ricki Lake played Tracy in that movie.

The Manila version was also entertaining.

Mabel Ching was an acceptable Tracy. She also gave a positive vibe, was bouncy and she was effective in playing a love-struck teenager. She could dance but there were steps that she couldn't pull off. There were times when she was graceful and energetic but they weren't enough to convince me that she was the best dancer on stage. She was mostly in tune but her long notes made me cringe a bit when she lost control over her vibrato and she had the tendency to over-act the little-girl voice making her sound like a 4-year old instead of a high school student.

In contrast, Dulce really gave Motormouth Maybell a powerful singing voice but she couldn't pull off the role of a black diva. She just looked like a contestant for a Tina Turner-dance alike contest. But at least she had her moments and really took command of the stage when she sang I Know Where I've Been, unlike Tim Espinosa who was such a disappointment as Link Larkin. His voice was too thin, his dancing was average and he was never able to convince me that he was a hunk that girls would swoon for. It didn't help that he looked so ordinary.

Nyoy Violante as Seaweed also looked ordinary (and I'm being generous when I say this as he really looks like a troll) but his singing and dancing were impressive. I expected him to sing well but I was surprised that he could dance so gracefully and execute complicated dance moves. His moonwalk was amazing. He wasn't able to convice me that he was black (I didn't see the groove), but he was pleasant to watch.

Another person who was pleasant to watch was Christine Allado who played the scheming Amber. She was utterly convincing as a racist bitch. She had a powerful voice and she was a charming dancer. If Amber weren't so scheming, I would have voted her as Ms. Hairspray.

I also liked the performances of Leo Rialp as Tracy's father, Wilbur, and Monica Reynoso as the nerdy Penny, but the show-stealers were Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo as Velmo von Tussle and Michael de Mesa as Edna. Menchu and Michael were the obvious veterans - you could understand each word that they uttered and when it was their turn to shine, they dazzled me with their presence.

Menchu was amazing - I could really feel the venom in her voice when she sang, she was beautifully devious and she seemed to have complete control over her whole body, including her vocal chords. I really was convinced that she was a fame-hungry ex-beauty-queen who would use her body and connections to win. I found her performance of Ms. Baltimore Crabs more compelling than Dulce's I Know Where I've Been, because Menchu didn't only sing it powerfully, she also sang every line in character.

Michael was even more amazing. He didn't sing as well as Menchu but he really looked and acted like a doting mother to Tracy and a loving wife to Wilbur. I could almost forget that he was male. Of course, he wouldn't allow me to forget his masculinity when he deliberately switched to his deep male voice.

His acting alone was enough to keep me entertained the whole evening.

Hairspray was also a visual feast - the set was simple but the costumes were really beautiful - I've never seen so many colorful and beautifully patterned polka-dots in my entire life. All the dresses were so pretty that I wanted to wear them myself. I so covet the 2-toned raincoats that the girls were wearing in one scene!

Taken as a whole, the Manila version of Hairspray wasn't perfect but my experience was positive enough that I suppose I'll be watching plays regularly again.

We've always talked about taking up accounting but we never acted on it. But on Monday morning, encouraged by his officemates, B decided to go ahead and get his third degree. He researched on Quezon City schools and checked which ones had evening classes. He went home around noon to get copies of his transcripts and other documents. He finished his registration by 4PM. He had his first free cut on Tuesday, got a scientific calculator yesterday and had a quiz today.

Up to now, I still can't believe that at my age, I'm sleeping with a college freshman!

Every time people learn that I'm taking Asiana Airlines for my New York trip, they would grimace, give me a concerned look and ask me why. I used to answer that I had no choice as Asiana offered the cheapest airfare.

If they ask me again now, I'd say "why not?"

I've tried flying Business Class on Lufthansa, KLM and Asiana over the past year and a half and among the three, Asiana is the best for me.

Both Lufthansa's and KLM's flight menus boasted of chefs on board. Asiana's menu was the simplest - it just provided the meal choices. But it served the best tasting food. The tenderloin was not as good as that served in Prince Albert's but it was good enough. I didn't get to choose how it will be cooked but since they served it medium well, I was happy. It was soft and tender and perfectly seasoned with just salt and pepper. It was served with sculpted creamy mashed potatoes. My other main meal was a delicious Bibimbap (translated as: Mixing and Harmonizing) which came with instructions on how to enoy it. It was as good as those served in the Korean restos in Manila, minus the heated bowl and the side dishes. They did serve kimchi with it, though.

In addition to this, I loved that they served salted butter in a dish. It was much easier scooping butter from a solid dish rather than trying to squeeze tasteless unsalted butter from the small packets that Lufthansa and KLM (and other restos in Manila) provide. I just held the piece of bread with my left hand, and scooped and spread the butter with a knife on my right hand.

I also loved the fact that in addition to the usual US movies, I also got to watch Japanese, Korean and Chinese movies. I enjoyed watching Korea's Princess Mighty during the Manila-Seoul leg. I attempted to watch Iron Man on the Seoul-New York leg but failed, as I was asleep most of the time!

And this was the real reason why I love Asiana - they had the best seats for me. Lufthansa had some nice chairs but the headrest was too high for me making me nod a little. the KLM seat also felt weird. But the Asia chair was so perfect! It fit my hips perfectly, gave my back ample support and it had the perfect space for my head! Even if I wanted to stay awake and watch a movie, I ended up dozing off.

Oops. Another reason to take Asiana was that their washrooms were always clean!!! In Lufthansa and KLM, there were times when the washrooms weren't clean. In Asiana, an attendant regularly cleaned them so they looked and smelled clean all throughout the flight.

Oh, and there's one more reason.(I feel like I'm in a home tv shopping show.) They have reasonable airfare!

I haven't scrapped in months - but since I was home this weekend and I've already promised my friends to create the invites for their kids, I looked through my materials and started scrapping.

I've forgotten how time-consuming it was to finish a lay-out but since my friends are happy with the designs that I made for my godchildren, I feel that I've spent my weekend wisely (even if I didn't get to see Kimura Takuya the whole time!)

Here's the invite for Jia - her baptism had to be pushed a few weeks later and the reception venue had to be changed because I'll be out of the country.


Her mom wanted the invite to be colorful (in pastel shades) with lots of digi-scrap layers. I also needed to include a Precious Moments element as this will be the theme for the reception. Clarice and I both got so excited that we're thinking of using a variation for a second page with the names of the godparents and a smaller version for the photo magnets. But before that, we have to insert the venue for the reception! Ok, back to Photoshop.

Speaking of Jia, before she was born, I helped organize a couple of maternity shoots for Clarice. We viewed hundreds of maternity photos online to get ideas and to see what types of clothes she needs to wear. The day before the shoot, we went shopping for clothes - we had very limited time, the clothes that matched our requirements (no prints, empress cut and in happy colors, didn't make Clarice look like the Marshmallow Man) were limited, but we still were able to get a couple of sets. As we munched on tacos and quesadillas, her husband bought matching polos for the dresses that we bought. There was a typhoon the next day so the shoot got cancelled, but Clarice still got to wear her clothes a few days later. Here are a couple of shots from Metrophoto:




Clarice, being Clarice, planned to have 3 maternity portrait sessions. The second was held at our house as we wanted the i'm-pregnant-and-i'm-proud-of-my-tummy phots. Mimi Abesamis and Karl de Leon took the shots. Here are a couple of my favorites (I actually liked the other shots better but my friendship with Clarice will end if I post them here.)




The third shoot didn't happen as Clarice was already in labor at that time. And that was supposed to be done in the studio.

Hindi rin siya addict sa picture, 'no?

Last Saturday, someone from Hyundai called me up to remind me of the car's 5KM check. As soon as I got inside the car, I looked at the odometer and noticed that it was already at 4,920+ kilometers. The Hyundai guys have excellent timing!

So I sent the car to Hyundai on Monday morning. I had power locks installed so it took them longer to service the car. Mang Al left the car at the casa and Jojo, our service representative just promised to call him when the maintenance check and the installation were done. I also called up Jojo to check up on things and aside from giving a report (everything's fine) he also gave me the amount that I need to pay.

Mang Al said that everything was hassle-free.

I am so loving Hyundai!

And for those curious about the fuel consumption of the Accent - it's an average of 13.5 kilometers per liter. It hit 14 kilometers per liter before the rains and the flooding. Fuel consumption would probably be a lot better if I didn't have to pass through the bottle neck in Tandang Sora and the terrible traffic in EDSA from Kalayaan to Quezon Avenue 5 days in a week.

Kimura Takuya is now king of my time.

[Picture obviously not taken by me]


He's sweet in Beautiful Life, adorable and charismatic in Change, lovable in Engine and absolutely hot in Pride. I can't wait to watch his other dramas. Sigh.

It's 2 AM and I survived Thursday. I'm alive!!!

I'm admittedly tipsy after having drank several glasses of screwdriver. Nope, not the tool, but the drink. I can't sleep until I lose the buzz, because if I do, I'd have a massive hangover in the morning. I could not afford a hangover because the Boss nicely told me exactly an hour ago that he would be touring the foreign visitors to our floor tomorrow afternoon.

So why did I have survive to Thursday and why am I drunk before Friday?

First, I had to sing at a wedding. No, we're not just talking about 2 or 3 songs. I sang the bridal march, the songs for the offertory, communion, the Ama Namin and all the songs during the picture taking. I used to sing with the Ateneo Glee Club and I've sang for weddings before - but never on my own. And so, I was a nervous wreck the whole morning. I couldn't even finish my favorite hotdog sandwich that I was served for lunch. I had to file a leave as I coudn't complete any task. I arrived at the church early (despite the fact that St. James is actually a whole province away from the gate of Ayala Alabang.) Unfortunately, my accompanist (cousin of the groom) arrived late - just 20 minutes before the wedding. I still got to practice, though.

I suppose that it went well except for 1 song - "You" by the Carpenters. Yeah, it was a cop out because it was too easy. But I needed to rest my voice after singing the more emotional songs. I gave the signal for the coda except that the pianist and I had different ideas about what the coda was (we practiced the song Wednesday, but I guess we forgot.)

I felt good after the mass and it was nice to hear that the groom cried and claimed that it was because my voice. Of course, I knew that what he said was crap because he started tearing up when I started testing the mic and I couldn't find anything touching about singing half of a song, stopping in the middle and saying, "Manong, paki-dagdagan po ng mid."

Anyway, during the reception, one of the groom's relatives approached me and thanked me for singing during the mass. I said that he was welcome and managed to smile, but inside my head, I was thinking that I wouldn't do it again unless I get paid (and yes, if the bride or the groom was a really close friend.)

After the reception, we proceeded to Strumm's to celebrate the birthday of the Boss. We had guests from Chicago and Europe (I knew that we had a guest from Indonesia, I'm guessing that he flew out of Manila this afternoon.) It was fun dancing to 70's music as performed by Route 70, and 60's and 80s music as performed by the Authority. Having experienced a challenging day, I decided to indulge in a few drinks (or was that several? I suppose I lost count!)

And this is why I'm buzzed. So why am I blogging at this state? For one, I really need to get rid of the buzz before I go to sleep. But more importantly, I think that it would be fun to read this blog entry when I'm sober.

My office friends and I are starting our diet tomorrow, but I already started mine today.

Dieting has always been torture for me - I love food. I feel so happy when I'm eating good food that I sometimes wiggle my butt the way Porkchop wiggles hers every time I get home. I get cranky when I'm hungry. Eating good food can make a bad day turn golden. I can be bribed with food.

But since I'm cheap and I refuse to spend on a new wardrobe due to my weight gain, I'll have to stop pigging out. Still, I'm not willing to go on diets that I can't keep up with. So, when we were talking about our diet goals last Friday, they asked me what my goal was - I said that I will now start eating for one. Now the challenge is finding out what a normal person would eat for meals.

Two meals and I already feel like half my brain cells died. Sigh.

Mix 1 part soju with 4 parts Zesto Twist.


It's perfect with Jack & Jill's Tostillas with homemade salsa, which is really just a mix of a can of Hunt's Diced Tomatoes, 2 small green peppers, 1 medium white onion, 1 chili, some cilantro leaves, the juice of half a lemon and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

I never imagined that I will be posting recipes on this blog but all these TV dramas are making me spend so much time at home!

I watch movies and TV series the way I read books - from beginning to end. I always try to see and feel how the writers introduce the characters, establish the relationship among them, build the tension and whack my head with an awesome resolution or ending. I'm admittedly sappy so with effective writers, I always get to cry, laugh, scream and even dream with the characters. If the storyline gives me sufficient tension, I would just go on and watch the next episode, forgetting about sleep, food and skipping on conditioning my hair. For this reason, I really get disappointed, angry even, when good concepts go bad.

Here's my list of crappy endings.

1. Angels and Demons - I am NEVER going to read any of Dan Brown's books after reading Angels and Demons. I loved this book from page 1 to 500 - I loved the puzzles that they needed to solve, I even checked the net for pictures of the churches and the statues mentioned once in a while and turned the book upside down to appreciate the beauty of the ambigrams. Unfortunately for me, I wasted a night's sleep getting to page 500. As soon as I reached it, I felt like I headed into a dead-end after traveling for days and had no choice but to go back without reaching my intended destination. The last 70 pages of the book was just too painful to read that it took me 3 days to go through it when it only took me a few hours to get excited by the first 500 pages. The twist at the end was so dumb that Dan Brown had to justify it with 70 more pages. Robert Langdon surviving the fall from a helicopter was just too unbelievable but I guess Dan Brown needed the miracle of life as Robert Langdon was still the lead in the Da Vinci Code which was supposed to happen a year later. This book made me so angry that I wanted to tear it in half (or somewhere near page 500 to be exact) - the only thing that stopped me was that I just borrowed the book from my sister. It's a good thing that I didn't pay sh!t for this book.

2. Last Friends - This Japanese TV series had potential as it had some of my favorite actors from Nodame Cantabile and was supposed to be brave enough to deal with domestic violence, child abuse and lesbianism. The first few episodes did not disappoint. I got affected with all of it - hating Masami for being such a wimp, feeling Ruka's pain in not being able to open up to anyone with her gender issues and cheering Takeru as he goes through life being nice even if he had a traumatic childhood. In the end, I just hated them all. Masami remained a wimp until the end - I was so disappointed that the violent Sosuke committed suicide as I felt that Masami needed to be beaten every day of her life until she grew a backbone and developed a brain.I was so disappointed with Ruka's speech when she won first in the race - it was the perfect opportunity to shout out loud that she was a lesbian and to hell with everyone who objected as everyone who mattered already accepted her as she was anyway. Instead, she went on and on about winning the race and being supported by her friends and family not as a male or a female but as a human being. She never even once admitted that she was a lesbian. As for Takeru, he never really blurted out what happened to him when he was a child, he just said that his sister tried to win him over to her side. What the hell was that? After all 11 episodes, they were all reduced to wimps. For all their speeches about fighting against violence, Takeru and Ruka did not even go to the police even after Sosuke beat Takeru with his cane and attempted to rape Ruka. By the 10th episode, the script writers lost their balls so all the controversial issues that the TV series promised to tackle were all swept under the rug. The only good thing about it was that it showed that Ueno Juri could act. Oh, speaking of acting, I heard that Nishikido Ryo got an award for this movie. WTF? How can someone with only 2 expressions win an award (unless it is for the most constipated driftwood in a tv series)?

3. Memories of Bali - No one who watched this Korean TV series would ever forget the ending. After having the characters go through so much pain, the writers just couldn't find a way to resolve all the tangles they created and opted for the easy way out - kill them all!

4. Coffee Prince - I loved Coffee Prince but the ending was really anti-climactic. They really should have ended it when Han Kyul and Eun Chan got together. Everything after that was not as interesting. I would have been happier if they just requested Gong Yoo to walk around topless and sing lullabies to Eun Hye for an hour.

5. Princess Hours - Just like Coffee Prince, I loved this Korean TV series but felt a bit disappointed with the ending. I felt like they wanted to squeeze out more money from a high-rating series by adding flimsy plots and minor issues even after the main storyline has ended. The last 2 episodes just confused the hell out of everyone even if they spent so much money bringing the cast to Macau.

Underlined sentence from an Acknowledgment Receipt issued by the Office of the Bar Confidant of the Supreme Court of the Philippines:

"Please bring with you this receipt whenever you make follow-up of your petition."

I just realized that my long weekend was all about food.

On Saturday, we celebrated Ate Janet's birthday at Dampa at Farmer's - we enjoyed pigging out on prawns in lemon-butter sauce, chili crabs, grilled squid, grilled fish, pakbet and sinigang na maya-maya. No one was surprised when Ate Cecile and I were the last to finish our meal as we tried to finish off all the crabs.

The next day, Nina, Frank and I travelled all the way to Batangas to enjoy a barrio fiesta. For breakfast, we had home-made suman, dinuguan and puto. A few hours later, we had buko salad. Lunch was literally a feast as we had binutuhan, menudo, habanera, chicken, mixed vegetables, leche flan, ube halaya and more buko salad.

From Batangas, we travelled to Tagaytay just to get the egg tarts that we reserved from Rowena's. And since we were already in Tagaytay, we passed by Massimo's to take home a serving of their artichoke dip.



Today, seeing that we had lots of nacho-tasting chips, I made my first home-made salsa! And for dinner, we had our own version of lettuce wraps - we grilled some pork, sliced some garlic and wrapped them in lettuce leaves that were smeared with red bean paste. We still need to perfect the marinade for the pork, but it was still fun eating our version of sam gyup sal at home.



I probably gained at least 3 lbs this weekend, but each bite I had these past 3 days was definitely worth the weight!!!

*******

More on the Batangas-Tagaytay trip -



I never realized that barrio fiestas can be so entertaining - marching bands took turns parading on the main road, there were lots of vendors selling balloons and cheap trinkets, but the star of the fiesta was the ati-atihan.



Batangas' version of the ati-atihan cannot be ignored - it started with a slim trannie going door-to-door wearing only a pink 2-piece swimsuit, I got the shock of my life when I saw one knocking at my friend's window. He actually succeeded in stopping me from taking my next bite. Then came the rest of the trannie gang wearing black skin-tight clothes. They performed modern dance moves in tune to ati-atihan music. Unfortunately, each of them had his own choreography. The best part of their performance was the duo of fire-eaters - they both ate and breathed fire with lust in their eyes. Scary, but still entertaining.



Inside the house, we entertained ourselves by watching the Olympic games (the athletes from Argentina were cute!), competed in our own Olympic game - jackstones (unfortunately, one of the stars broke before we even finished one game), and watched the US version of My Sassy Girl (really awful, as we expected.)



From Batangas, we took the Star Toll (a really beautiful stretch of road!) and passed through Tanauan. The road that brought us up to Tagaytay was pretty rough and steep. There were stretches that were cemented but most of the 30-minute drive was either cracked asphalt or just plain dirt. This national road was already narrow but it was 2-way. It gave us beautiful views of Taal volcano, though. So like the ati-atihan in Batangas, the road was scary, but still entertaining.