Article: The Line Between Giving Up and Acceptance

Here's an interesting article I chanced upon early this morning. The title pretty much says it all: The Line Between Giving Up and Acceptance

Here's a two paragraph excerpt that pretty much sums up the whole article.

It became clear to me when I was recently talking with a friend who was agonizing over what to do about a two-year relationship she was in that was laced with conflict and overall pain. She voiced the elevated mantra that so many of us live by as she was debating on what to do next. She said, “I just think that this is worth fighting for, and that if we really love each other it will all work out in the end.” It kind of sounds like those Idol wannabes who think their singing careers are warpaths to be fought rather than elegance to be revealed. It sounds so noble; how can you argue with that kind of fierce desire and commitment?

Well never fear, I found a way. I looked at her with total clarity in my eyes and said, “There comes a point in life when what we are pursuing stops becoming an investment of our time and instead becomes a waste of our time. And it is our responsibility to figure out where that point is and do what needs to be done to change courses.” She looked at me kind of like someone who just saw a possum in the middle of the road with it’s big pink eyes staring in their headlights. You may not know what look I’m talking about, but it’s not a good one.

One may agree or disagree with the author's point. Me, coming from a somewhat similar situation, I can relate to it and I do slightly agree with it. But I think as women though, we are more inclined to be emotionally attached to the whole relationship. We are stronger, thus we attempt to make it work more so, than men. When a man says no, that's probably the end of it. When a woman says no, you can still work your way around to changing her mind. I may be wrong though.

Ultimately in the end, these things, it's always easier said than done. And if getting out of a stagnant and unhealthy relationship means getting hurt, maybe that's what we really have to experience first hand, head on. I did.

Stop fighting for them when all you’re doing is fighting. And start fighting for them when all you’re doing is waiting for the life you long for to magically land in your lap.

To be honest, I do miss being in a relationship at times. But I don't really see the need to get into one now. I meet new people. I can work on myself, prepare myself so that when the right one comes passing by, I will be ready this time around.

In the meantime, I can live my jetsetter life without having to worry about leaving someone behind over and over again. :) Planning to do some nice trips this year - East Coast Canada, Australia are my targets.

Looking forward to a good and fruitful 2011! Cheers!

Long PAL Flight

Couple of things that either irked me, or I found funny during my try flight home last December 21.

1. My flight got delayed for almost an hour and a half. The flight was scheduled at 9:50 PM. When we got to the airport, we found out it was delayed to 11:00 PM. By 11:00 PM, we were just called to board and we actually left the airport at 11:30 PM.

2. Once you're on board, they don't let you sleep at once and it's because the crew will serve you a midnight dinner soon. Not only was the food not good, it was almost 1:30 AM Pacific when we finished. Too sleepy at this point.

3. You can't really sleep soundly in an airplane anyway. So you make do with what you have and you can. But when you are sitting beside this friendly lady, who constantly bumps you with her left elbow, I don't think you can really have any good sleep at all.

4. PAL Flights to and from Vancouver still uses these old model airbuses - they still don't have the lcd screens per seat. You'd have to watch from the center monitors. I personally think they should upgrade the fleet. Manila-Vancouver-Las Vegas flights are usually full anyway.

5. PAL airport design is not good. After disembarking from the plane, you have to walk towards immigration first. The thing is, you have to go down these two long flight of stairs. And take note, only stairs. No escalator. How about if your hand carry is a small luggage? It just doesn't seem right. The engineer or the architect should have thought of considering passengers with luggages when they were designing this building.

6. Carousels in the airport are poorly designed too. Only a few can actually stand by the carousel to wait for their luggages. I had to stand way back, and then take peeks every now and then to see if my luggage is out.

7. But the good thing about the airport? They have porters to help you out, even when trying to get your luggage from the carousel. I just approach a friendly personnel and they get my luggage for me - without asking for any tip! They even put the heavy luggages into my cart.

8. While waiting for my luggage to come out, I heard these two gentlemen standing beside me talking about the flight. One of the men was ranting and said: "Itong PAL talaga, dapat i upgrade na nila yung mga airplane nila. Napakaluma na itong plane na to! Tapos yung mga stewardess, matanda na, masusungit pa!"

Travelling by air isn't always perfect, but it's still something we have to be grateful for. Even though it was a tough 14 hour flight, I'm still thankful that because of them, I was able to come home and be with my family for Christmas. There's still no place like home.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Going home...

My last weekend here in Canada. Oh how I'll miss this place. How fast time flies. It's already been a month.

Finished my initial packing last night. Finally. I have a lot more space and around 5kgs left to spare. Not bad. I'm usually tight with the weight so this is definitely a welcome relief. I cannot wait to go back home. See my family. See my friends.

I will leave my Canada journey with this picture and quote to sum up what I've learned from my one month "hiatus" from the "real world":

To New Adventures

Liz Gilbert:

In the end, I've come to believe in something I call "The Physics of the Quest." A force in nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity. The rule of Quest Physics goes something like this: If you're brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting, which can be anything from your house to bitter, old resentments, and set out on a truth-seeking journey, either externally or internally, and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher and if you are prepared, most of all, to face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from you.

Jollibee @ Seattle

For some reason, I've always wanted to try and visit a Jollibee store here in North America. I tried to last May at Las Vegas, but due to time constraints, we couldn't go. And so this time, when I came here, I heard that there was a new Jollibee that opened in Seafood City somewhere in Seattle. Apparently, from what I gathered, there was even a Chowking, Tokyo Tokyo and Red Ribbon beside it. And... when they opened last October or September, the line was so long.

I know we have a ton of these stores back in Manila. But I think it's just different when you're in a foreign land. There's just something about genuine Filipino that makes you want to see it, try it out, and just be plain proud of it.

And so my aunt, together with a couple more relatives went all the way to Seattle, which by they way is around a three hour drive one way to see Jollibee. So almost 6 hours back and forth. And here it is!!

Jollibee!

I love it. I was so excited to see Jollibee. I don't know why. Must be something about how reachable it is now, even if you're so away from the Philippines.

And there's more! Chowking... And Red Ribbon!

Red Ribbon!

Chowking and Tokyo Tokyo

Anyway, we ended up of course eating at Jollibee and mostly the menu is pretty much the same. Except... here it is.... check this menu out! It's a bit blurry though (just used the ipod touch camera for this shot), but you'll notice that they don't have a 1 piece chicken meal, unlike ours where we have a 1 piece chickenjoy meal. Instead... they only have 2-piece and 3 piece!!! chickenjoy meal! As in! Ang tatakaw talaga ng mga tao dito.

Big drinks too, different presentation...

They do have rice, but you'd have to request it. By default, the meals come with mashed potatoes instead of rice.

My 2 piece chicken joy meal

Of course, what Jollibee will be complete without Jollibee himself?

So all in all... this was really a fun trip. I can't get over how many Filipinos there are here, and that Jollibee is really an institution by itself. Even in North America, hinahanap hanap pa din natin siya. When we were parking, I already saw a couple of Filipinos holding Jollibee take outs! And in the store itself, what's also interesting is that you see non Filipinos (only a few when we were there earlier) trying it out too! Makes you really proud that this is a true blue Filipino product.

I don't really eat much Jollibee back in Manila (I like KFC better). But I was really just excited to go eat here this time around. And it was definitely worth the trip. In fact, nag take out pa ako ng cheeseburger, not for me though, for my coworker here.

Work work work!

Work's been super crazy ever since I got here. The reason I'm here in the first place was because of the urgency of the project. And it's actually a good thing because I have to work closely with Harry because we're refactoring a whole bunch of applications for our upgrade project. Lots and lots of changes. He mostly designs the changes, but I learn anyway. Busy from that end. And then, there's the other tasks. When you're here, you're easily approachable - meaning, anyone can ask you to do something, especially urgent ones. Just as an example, during the past two days, there's been a couple of urgent changes that they need to get in before the lockdown (no changes during the holiday season), and they're rushing me to figure out what's wrong, fix it, get it tested, support testing and finish all these request for change documents! I've been going home late at night the past days.

But you know what, for some reason, when I'm here, even though I have too much work, when I get home, I'm not as tired. Maybe that means I'm finally enjoying the work again, the collaboration, and the opportunities they've given me. It actually feels good. Don't you ever get that feeling? I love it. It's nice to finally feel the excitement to work again. Work's something you should love and enjoy. Or maybe it's really just because my life here is totally relaxed compared to back in Manila.

And who wouldn't want to go to work if you have a view like this when you look up from your desk:

How can you not be inspired to work right? Luckily, it was sunny earlier so I was able to capture some nice photos using my ipod. The quality's not the best, but it works :) My desk it facing the north (mountains are in the North of Vancouver) so lucky me I got this spot. It's probably one of the best seats in the house.

On a different note...

In line with my Yes girl persona (Leda.. check this out), I will be attending a Telus gala event this Saturday with a couple of friends. It's a formal event. Though I didn't bring any formal wear, my friend Christine got me a nice short skirt and tube top to wear. She couldn't let me borrow her other stuff daw kasi it's too revealing! Hahaha I'm not sure if it's really a formal attire, but it works for me. Fits me well. But I'm not used to these types of attires! But have to be able to try it out at least once right?

Almost Christmas!

In line with the Christmas spirit, I've downloaded a ton of Christmas music to my ipod to keep me company on my day to day life. I feel Christmas already. The weather is cool, the house is all lit up, and everyone's in a good mood!

And another thing:

Christmas = gift giving.

And gift giving = shopping.

And so earlier I went to Toys R Us Coquitlam to look at its huge selection of toys. And holey moley! Ang ganda doon sa loob. So big! I feel very Christmassy. So we looked around and these are the toys we got (see below picture). Actually, I only bought two toys for my nephew and inaanak. The rest, my aunt bought at ipapadala sa akin.

Here's my surprise for my nephew Grant - this is a special request from my sister.

I'll worry about how I will try to squeeze in all these (and my) stuff in my two luggages. Hehe. My packing skills will be put to test!!!

Of course, work work work muna this week. Pero next week, the plan is on Saturday, we're going to try out this Japanese Shabu Shabu. And then on Sunday - going to the US. I've been wanting to go there just for the Harry and David stores. And then will try to go to Seafood City in Seattle, apparently may newly opened Jollibee and Chowking doon!

Old Times

I was browsing through old facebook pictures... and I found these!

I believe this was 4th year college. Somewhere in Luneta area. Can't remember the name. It's a small butterfly place yata. We should go back there some time and have coffee. May mini cafe siya sa loob. I don't know if it's still there though. Do you know I still have Jansport bag? I still use it every now and then. That's actually not mine, it's my sister's, but I use it anyway.

And then here's another one. I remember this, one of the last few days in college. We had a huge lunch out in KFC to celebrate! Yes, those were the days.

And now... look at us.

I think si Marcy ata ang biggest change (physically anyway!) haha. Compare mo naman to before and after.

It's nice to reminisce knowing that it's been a long road since. A lot has changed in us through the years and hopefully we've become a better and wiser person too. Who would've thought that we'd end up in this place right now? I wonder what we'll be like in the next 5 years.

I ask myself that, where will I be in the next 5 years? All the paths seem to tell me that I need to make a drastic change, maybe a drastic decision even. I am very confused. So much things to think about. I'd just have to continue praying to God that He will guide me to the right path. Sabi nga nila, all you have to do is trust Him. We may not know why things are the way they are right now, but just trust Him. He knows what he's doing.

Laptop = Waldas

My waldas days is not yet over, apparently.

And I finally got to buy my new laptop!

So the plan was just to buy a netbook. Something to play around with, and surf, chat, the usual. So while at Best Buy store earlier, I just couldn't get myself to buy the little netbooks there. For some reason, I'm just not impressed and convinced.  So I ended up getting the way pricier piece of toy - HP Pavillion dm4.

14 inches
2 kg (with battery)
i5!!
4 gig memory
500 gb HD

Pretty good specs. Hopefully this'll last me for the next 5 years or so. I'm sick and tired of my Acer Aspire. From day one may problema na. And mukhang nasisira na yung USB ports nito and I just don't like it anymore. Mainit pa!

So that's another thing crossed out from my list of "things to buy". I better start saving again. Been purchasing stuff here and there. Walang kapaguran.

Examining one's self

I was listening to the homily during this week's Sunday mass and the topic was about examining one's self. It was really interesting because the priest told a story about (ok, I missed the first part - not listening attentively).. something about... this guy, had to do something... then due to events that happened, he ended up in this house where he had to spend the night. He was pissed off because he was supposed to be somewhere else. But in that house, there he saw a library, picked up some books and read, and read, and this eventually became the reason why he was converted into a devout Catholic and became a priest (basta something to this extent) or maybe a saint perhaps? Can't remember.

For me though, the point is, there are events in our life, might even be bad events, that will change the course of our lives forever. These are turning point in our lives that force us to re-examine ourselves.

I think this is one of those years for me. I know it's a repeating topic for me how things have changed for me this year. But I just can't get over the fact that everything's so different now. Everything's different in my personal life, and everything's different in my career as well! My work now is doing pretty great. Because of a stupid thing I did (which is partly an aftermath of the "event"), our work schedule have actually improved! And look, our project's on the go and I'm back here in Vancouver. Time here in Vancouver is a blessing in disguise. I have more time just for myself, to again - re examine things.

All these things that have been happening, reminds me of a quote from Eat, Pray, Love:

"People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.

A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.

A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master..."
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

I think I have an idea. haha

Anyways...

And here I am right, examining myself. I've been thinking about the things I need to do before I jump into another relationship. I've also been thinking about what were the bad things I did before, and how should I change those. So much lessons learned and I feel like I've grown older bigla. But I still need to make a lot of changes in me. Long way to go. But still very thankful of all blessings received.

For example, I now have to really think about what I really want to do with my life. I don't think I can sustain a relationship any longer if I keep on going back and forth to Canada and Manila. What do I really want? What's my priority now?

I can list a lot more here. And the list will go on and on and on... the important this is that we stop every now and then to re-examine ourselves. We need these as sanity checks. Are we still on the right track? How are we doing now? Have we prayed and said thank you for all the blessings? Have we changed our bad habits? Have we changed for the better?

But at least this is a start already right? The fact that I'm acknowledging my mistakes in the past, and trying to figure out what to do or change.

As a good friend once told me...

"We're both still works-in-progress. And I'm happy that you've gone so far. Everyone needs a little help once in a while. I'm just an email/text away. "

We're all works-in-progress. We become works-in-progress because we want to improve ourselves. And in order to improve ourself, we need to examine our self. :)

Grouse Mountain

Been here for a couple of days. Missing Manila, friends, my family. Ganoon talaga. Sometimes I feel like this is a blessing and a curse at the same time, especially when you get lonely. But I should always look at the bright side of things - I do get to experience something totally new, I earn more, and I get to meet a lot of different people of different cultures. I get to forge new bonds of friendships too!

Saturday - Grouse Mountain Day

I joined some friends to Grouse Mountain last Saturday. During winter, Grouse Mountain is jam packed with winter activities. The ski slopes were open so people of all ages are brining their skis, snow shoes, ice skates, snowboards, etc up to the mountains. You only get to play with snow for a couple months in a year anyway! Kind of nice how families enjoy doing this activity so much. You see parents and their 5 year olds already skiing! So cute.

As for us, we didn't do the usual winter sports (you'd have to have the attire and equipment - though you can rent), but we did however get to meet Santa Clause and his reindeer at Santa's workshop!

Here we are with Mr. Santa.

And here's Santa's reindeer. I think he's in a bad mood though.

What snow activity won't be complete without snowman building? We did create our own snow woman instead though. With boobs. Pinaghirapan namin iyan! Took us a long time to build it up!

I got home around 6:30 pm yesterday, and boy was I so tired. Alam mo yun, hindi ka naman pinagpawisan sa taas ng mountain habang lakad ka nang lakad, pero afterwards pala, sobrang pagod ka. But it was fun. And... important pala to bring shades when going to a snowy mountain - sobrang nakakasilaw yung snow. It's too white, and then you have the sun too. That's a lesson learned for me!

Oh, and so far nasulit ko na yung snow shoes ko! Yehey!

Winter @ Vancouver Part II

Here's what I woke up to today:

And it's still snowing!! I knew it, I should've brought my laptop home yesterday so I can work from home. Now I need to go to the office.

Good thing I bought those nasty expensive winter boots last night. I'm going to use them for the next n years (If I get to experience another winter) or maybe just forever.

I have my bonnet, scarf, jackets, gloves, warmers, boots ready. I'm off to go to work.

Update

My new boots worked perfectly fine! My feet was warm, and dry. And it wasn't slippery so it's worth the $124 so far. You get to eat chunks of ice every now and then when you're walking, so I opted to use my umbrella to shield me from the droplets. Right now, from my office view (where I'm sitting at - I'll post pictures later), seems like the snow is getting more intense. It's like raining hard, except snow. So vision's pretty.

New experience for me again! I love it when we travel. We always experience something new.

Winter @ Vancouver

I'm back in Vancouver. This is a very welcome blessing for me. Gives me a chance to get a "relaxation" out of it. I'll just be here for a month, for work. When they asked me if I wanted to go back, I didn't hesitate. It would be nice to go away and experience something new again.

My flight was delayed for an hour, and then when I arrived in Vancouver airport, I couldn't find my other luggage! No luggages were coming out of the carousel so I was in panic mode. That missing bag contained all my clothes! Good thing I heard someone say that there were still some luggages on a different area. Whew, lo and behold, my luggage was there!

When I got here, snow everywhere! Very cold temperatures. And so I ended up having to buy leg warmers and body warmer. Had to borrow my friend's bonnet and wear gloves too. Next is to buy my boots! Yehey, nagkarason ulit bumili. hahaha By 5 pm, it's already like 10 pm. Too dark outside.

So here's the one picture I have of the snow... this is the view from my room:

Snow's melting, but they say it's going to snow some more in a couple of days. Not really looking forward to it.

Dual Voltage Hair Dryer

I finally found a hairdryer that's 110/220 volts! The problem with travelling in North America is that they have a totally different voltage compared to us. You cannot just buy any appliance there, or here, and then bring it back to Philippines/North America. Totally different.

And you'll need a hairdryer when you're going to live in a cold place. Your hair will freeze once you get out of the house!

Cecille's Wedding / Subic Trip

I like attending weddings. The only time I don't like attending weddings is when I am not particularly close to the couple getting married. And so when a close friend of ours invited us for her wedding to be held at Subic, I didn't make any excuses of not attending. Even if we were busy prior to the event and practically no one planned this out beforehand, the girls and I still pushed through. And the whole weekend actually went well.

Saturday morning, November 06, 2010, started with us meeting up at, as usual, Balintawak LRT station. It's no surprise that both girls Mae and Sally are on time, but the other girl, Marcy, is late, as usual. Apparently, she decided to go to LRT2 instead of LRT1. Haha I think we left around 7:30 am, and then had a nice breakfast at Tropical Hut in one of the gas stations along NLEX.

Going to Subic is fun fun fun! I loooved driving in SCTEX. Road is beautiful, scenery is awesome, and there's pretty much no traffic. Hindi nakakapagod mag drive! It just took us around 2-2.5 hours to reach Subic itself. The only irk I had was that you had to go through 3 toll stations altogether! And that's just one way!

Now at Subic Freeport, surprisingly, the hotel Sally picked was very nice. It's huge, it's clean, it's cheap, and the location was nice. Getting there was half the battle, the next one was preparing for the wedding and it was fun fun fun! Si Sally ang official taga plantsa. Mae helped me with the eye makeup!

The wedding itself took place in a small chapel also around the area. Ang ganda ganda ng mood, tapos itong pari, nagmamadali, kept on saying "buksan na mga pinto para makapasok". Siyempre close yung pinto para may drama effect!

Mae was standing in the aisle area so she was holding my camera, unfortunately, puros malabo! This is one of those that was clear. Nakatalikod nga lang! Peace Mae!

So reception followed afterwards... best part was the Photo booth! after taking this picture, hindi na kami matigil sa kakatawa... literally! Halos maiyak na kami ni Sally.

All in all, that weekend was memorable. And I won't forget Sally breaking the strap of her 3 inch heel shoes. Who's next?

SNES and Secret of Mana

The past few days, I've come back to the kid in me and decided to play one of the best Role Playing Games ever made in the history of the Nintendo game console - Secret of Mana. We don't have our Super Nintendo (SNES) anymore so my brother taught me how to setup an emulator, including using an actual playstation controller to simulate the original SNES controller.

I love this game, even before Final Fantasy VII (This is the only version of Final Fantasy that I enjoyed playing). I always enjoyed naming the three main characters of this game! I also liked the level up, skill up concept.

For some reason, this game comes to my mind when we talk about SNES. SNES was a popular game console that came out right after Nintendo, and right before the Sony Play Station (PS1). I still remember the days when my brother and I will fight for who plays the game console. The last game console we had was PS1. I guess we all got over game consoles after that. It's either we're getting older, or that personal computers just took over our lives.

+ 1

I am now officially +1 year old.

My birthday was spent with family and friends. Celebration started way back a week ago when our friend Del invited us to spend Halloween at Haven for Children and participate in an out reach program. It was a very nice way to celebrate my pre birth day!

And then as tradition calls for it - my officemate and good friend Melvin and I celebrated our birthday together by treating our colleagues to a nice sumptuous dinner at Gloria Maris last November 04. After all, we have the same birthday! Why not celebrate it together?

Of course during the day itself, I spent it with my family. They gave me a new badminton racket as I've been complaining for quite some time that I don't have one (Mind you, my younger sister borrowed it and she broke it - that's how hard she hits!). Finally they got me one! I hope I can use it at least once, before I go leave for Canada.

Speaking of Canada, that's another blessing from the Lord I wanted to share. I shared this with a couple of friend already. Way back during the crazy and disastrous months, I wished and hoped that I get sent back to Canada, just to get away from everything that's been happening. I considered it as an escape from all the emotional troubles I've been experiencing. As we know, it never materialized then, after all, I just came back from a 4 month stint there. But the Lord is good.

Just recently, my team lead asked if I wanted to go back to Canada for even just a month to work on this new project we're working on. It'll be easier if my teammate and I work side by side (since it has a pretty tight deadline too). So I said yes. And what I realized then was that, this was what I was asking for before. Except the Lord waited for the right time, when I'm in the best state in my life, to go there. Now, I am not escaping reality. But instead, I'm actually going on a nice relaxing, vacation. There are no excess baggage left behind. And I have only good things to look forward to.

Now, before I end this entry - I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who celebrated this birthday with me, and to everyone who made sure I am genuinely happy when this day comes. The Lord is indeed good.

new camera

I've been a materialistic person for the past few weeks and one of the things I had on my list was to buy a new camera. Our old digital camera, which is around 5 years old already, has been losing its touch. Focus isn't any good anymore so I've decided to buy the family a new one! It's my gift to myself, and to the family! It's not the top of the line, but it's pretty slick.

I have no idea how to take a picture of the camera given that I need a camera to take a picture of it.

At least starting today, I can take my own pictures and not rely on my friends' cameras all the time!

What to buy next?

Another update

I have been absent from the blogging world for quite a while. Work's been keeping me busy. Stock market's been generous for the past two weeks, so that's also taking up my much of my time in the mornings. And then I have some other extra activities to do, plus, I still need my bum time!

I can't even recall everything that's happened!

Happy Birthday City! (October 20, 2010)

My very own Honda City has finally turned 1! One year old, 8000+ km in mileage, two more years of payments left! This year alone, my City has brought me to places I never thought I would've driven to. He has provided me comfort each day I go out of the house. As my gift to him, I will give him a much needed cleaning day. He needs to be vacuumed!

I remember, just a year ago, I was supposed to get just a second hand car, just to help me out when going to the office (since I work at nights), and then Ondoy came and we all know there were a lot of cars eaten up by Ondoy. And so we decided to just buy a new one. And City came about. It's truly a blessing to get City. I remember writing the down payment check! Biggest purchase ever, but after a year, definitely worth it.

Unfortunately, my City has been the cause of some nasty events in my life, but you know what, I wouldn't change anything. People come and go, but my City, he'll be accompanying me through my trips for a long long time.

Adidas King of the Road (October 24, 2010)

I try to join an event at least once a month just for fun. Adidas had their annual run last October 24. The fee was a whopping 850 pesos as they included free breakfast and the timing chip. Unfortunately, for me, there was just too many people who joined. The first part of the run was terrible, you had to dodge the slow people and that's a bit tiring. And the food afterwards? I thought it would have been at least rice + egg + tocino or some protein. But it was just two pandesals, banana, hotdog, and butter/jam. Medyo not worth the 850 I had to pay.

But nonetheless, running is still fun. I was not able to crack into my goal though, to run the 5km in less than 30 minutes. But definitely it's a work in progress. Here are my results:

2 minutes. I think I can improve on that, provided I try to go to the gym again more often (I am only going once or twice a week now! huhu). I have another up coming run this Nov 21 - the UNILAB run. I've already registered but unfortunately, I'm not yet sure if I can run it since some things came up in work and I might need to fly to Canada for a month. But we'll see, there's no final word yet.

More balanced life

I have promised myself that I will maintain a work-life balance, even if it takes much more effort to do so. As Leda teaches me, be a Yes girl! I've been missing in action before, but now I'm not. When my friends invite me to go out, if I have time, I go. Laziness is not a valid reason anymore. :)

For instance, last Friday night, I decided to go to my friend's birthday celebration at Bardeli's in San Juan. And to think I was going to go to work afterwards! Good thing my redness has subsided after I got to the office. Or else it would've looked like I've been drinking (which I was... but just a little!)

And then the next day, we went to the Haven for Children outreach program that our friend Del has organized for us. It's an interesting and very different way to celebrate Halloween's. Instead of just going to parties, why not celebrate it with the less fortunate? Even though I hardly had any sleep, and I had to travel from North to South just to attend this event, all I could say is that it's definitely worth the time and trip. Just seeing those kids very happy, you'd already know it's worth it. Next year ulit!

I can't even recall the last time I joined an outreach! It's always nice to give something back! After all, grabe grabe na ang blessings na binibigay sa atin ni Lord.

Starbucks Card!

Our awesome project manager from Canada sent us a wonderful present - starbucks card with $20 CAD initial load. Unfortunately, they won't work here, only works in North America. But, what the heck, a gift is a gift, and it's very much appreciated. This doesn't expire anyway, so I'd still be able to use it some time.

haircut na naman

I've been thinking of having longer hair, for a change. But I couldn't help myself and decided to get a haircut. But I did not expect my hair to be this short!!! Argh!

A reflection

4 months has passed since my life was drastically turned upside down. I went home from Canada with excitement, but was met with terrible and awful news. I remember those nights when I can't even sleep because all I kept thinking about was what happened? Why did this happen? What did I do? Too many what ifs. Too many thoughts running through my mind. I cried, I wept, I was angry, I was in denial, you name it.

“Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun.” - Matt Groening

Things change. I made mistakes, he made mistakes. It just wasn't right anymore. Too many reasons why things ended the way it did, but you know, each passing day is a moment of new beginnings. Time is indeed a great healer.

I have to be honest, I was a disaster then. But I'm not the type of person who would let these bad things control my life. After some time, I made a conscious effort and a brave decision - to start my new life. There is no point on dwelling on the past. I cannot live in the past. But, I can learn from it and be a better person. And it has paid off so much.

Since then, I've met new people, became more active, focused more on myself. I've realized that being happy doesn't depend on having a special someone in your life. In fact, I have been taking this time to reflect on myself. I want to make myself a better person. A broken me isn't any good. I remember looking like hell before, but now, I look so much happier compared to then. I feel so much better too! There's this feeling of relief perhaps? That I'm finally ok.

As I was reading one of the articles from Relevant Magazine, here's something that struck me the most:

"My wife and I found that when looking for a future spouse, most people tend to put the focus on the other person, instead of themselves. The issue isn’t about finding the one, it’s about being the one."

This reminded me that be happy on your own first. We have our family who supports us, friends who cares for us. Use these love to inspire yourself to be a better person.

There are still a lot of things in my to do list that I have to do. I'd still like to look for a more regular shift job, something that'll be a better fit for me. A change of environment is good. I think it's about time I go for it. I'd also like to continue learning more about stock trading. I've been meeting new faces in the trading world, and it's been a great ride so far.

There's just so much that I want, and I want to do. So much more. Maybe I ought to list it down to make it more concrete. Bo Sanchez suggests writing these down to. And then crossing it out one at a time. Next thing you know, you've accomplished them all already.

I'd like to give myself a pat on the back. I think I deserve it. :)

Dinner with Sheila

My very good friend Sheila came home from China around two weeks ago and last night, we were finally able to meet up! I have not seen her for 1.5 - 2 years and boy was I surprised to see that she lost a ton of weight! Lost around 40+ pounds over a span of a year! Way to go girl! Good for her. Not only does she look great, she feels awesome too! It's good she finally worked on it because she wasn't healthy at all before. Naglabasan na mga iba't ibang sakit. I hope this is the start of a new and healthier lifestyle for Sheila.

Sheila is the one right smack in the middle.

Great dinner at Trinoma. Sa uulitin!

an interesting october 5 day

Yesterday, October 5 was quite an eventful day for me.

Item #1
Since it was a Tuesday work day, I went in to the office instead of working from home. Since I've had my City, I've always driven to work, parked my car in the basement, and go out mid morning to go home. I usually park in the basement because it's cheaper even though the parking space is way too crowded and small. It's always deserted from people but I always felt secured there. So imagine my surprise when I got to my car the morning after and found a note tucked in the driver's seat window. I opened it and this is what it contains:

This is just the first time it happened to me here, it might be just some stupid prank or stupid person putting that note there. So for me, it was nothing and I got in the car, and went home. Surprise surprise, when I showed it to my parents, they immediately got worried and we ended up going back to Discovery building and reporting it to the security staff there. As they say, it's better to be safe than sorry. Now my parents don't want me parking or even driving to the office! They'll bring me to work and pick me up every week from now on. I appreciate the gesture but for me it's probably too much of a waste of time for them. I think I can manage (very independent!). But, I don't think I can appeal much with that decision. Parents are usually right. They just want to be assured.

Item #2
I got a surprise text earlier from Andrei, one of the stock trader guru I usually follow whose seminar I paid for and joined a couple of months ago with my friend Rhys. As a background, I joined the seminar to gain some additional knowledge of different stock trading strategies. During the seminar, for some reason, he remembers me, calls me during the seminar, and even posts a picture of our group, with a caption that has something to do with me. I guess I made an impression? Haha. Anyway, he was asking me to join this seminar happening this coming Friday. It is a special seminar, where, the one and only JAP is going to be there!! For those of you who don't know JAP, he is otherwise known as Jerry Angping. A hugeeee businessman, owns a lot of the stocks that is high risk-reward (simply because most of the time it is jockeyed!).

Of course, why would I say no to this opportunity? Apparently, pretty Chinese ladies are very much welcome to this seminar. So I told him I was bringing my friend Rhys, who happens to be a Chinese too - but a guy! And he was asking me to invite some more girl friends. I don't know anyone else in my circle of friends who are into stock market trading anyway, so I just told him to just reserve another +1 seat, aside from Rhys and me. I think Rhys is inviting another friend along as well. Andrei's paying for everything so headcount was important.

That was an interesting conversation. What I'm really looking forward to is meeting new people and expanding the network. Remember, this is the business people I might meet. So Rhys and I didn't even hesitate to say no. We're going and we will hopefully even have a picture with Jap!

Item #3
A friend of mine from work, split up with her ex a couple of days ago. She's been talking to me a lot lately, and as her friend, I am just there to support her. During our conversations, what I realized is that what I was telling her, was something I was already slowly doing for myself! Ang daming realization. Those thoughts and realizations deserve another post. But as we all have our happy endings, I just found out they got back together :) Oh love. I hope more and more people around me are getting happier by the minute.

Item #4
I had to cancel a movie date with the girls because of some things I need to prioritize (right Leda?). Unfortunately it didn't push through, however at least I did get the chance to have my second boxing session at Elorde's last night. For some reason, I just can't get the hook and uppercuts. Mali daw porma ko eh. But one thing's for sure, boxing is a great cardio. Tagaktak pawis ko the whole time. I'm still thinking of instead of going to Elorde at Shaw, I might try out the one in Tektite. It's more convenient for me, especially if I schedule it on Wednesdays after work. The only problem with that boxing gym, it's way more expensive than the one in Shaw. Pero sabi nila madaming artista dun and celebrity. Plus points sa akin yun, I'm a sucker for celebrities. Haha

Quote of my day

"To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy . . . is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Active living

I've signed up again for another set of sessions with my personal trainer last Monday. I have to do this. If I don't sign up for a PT, I'm pretty sure I won't be going to the gym anymore. At least this way I'm forced to do my sets! I did four sets of the whole routine Sir Jon showed me. We're supposed to do 8-10 sets of the whole routine, but I only did 4. Puyat eh! Haha couldn't do anymore. The triceps exercise was painful!

Boxing
Rach has been inviting me to join her and her friend Nikki to go boxing on either Wednesday or Thursday night at Elorde gym near Shaw boulevard. So finally, I did try it out earlier. Slept whole afternoon, drove to Shangrila first to buy my own hand wraps (boxers wear this for added padding I think, before you wear the actual gloves). Generic brand hand wraps were supposed to cost around 200 pesos, but in Toby's Shang, they only had the branded one, which will cost me 495 pesos!! Unfortunately, Shangrila only had Toby's. They didn't have any other sports store, and I didn't want to borrow some used hand wraps from the boxing gym, so I ended up buying them.

I tried a one session for beginners. And my arms and shoulders are already aching. I'm pretty sure it'll ache more tomorrow. It was fun though. You have a trainer, who's your sparring mate as well, and you get to punch the hell out of everything you can hit on. Very good stress reliever indeed. And now I know how to do jab, straight, hook. Medyo nalilito pa, pero masasanay din. I'm thinking of going back next week.

And the best thing about boxing, right after boxing, I had one of the best bbqs there is. It's a eatery called Ihawan ni Speed. Reminds me of La Salle days when we used to eat at those small eatery cheapy place. Yummy.

Badminton
I've also been trying to kick start playing badminton again. My parents play every Wednesday and Friday nights so I try joining them at least during Fridays. I play a couple of games only since I need to wake up around 4 am for work (ugh!).

Running
Of course, running! I've been into running since last year, when I was in Canada and some friends from Canada persuaded me to try and run a 5km race. And then next thing I know, I was running a 10 km race around Stanley Park, under tremendous heat (hindi na bumalik yung kulay ko pagkatapos ng run na yun)!

After finishing last week's 5km run - roughly around 35 minutes, I have two more runs to look forward to this coming October. The Pink Run on the weekend of October 17, which I'll be running with my hs friends, and which I'm probably not going to take as seriously as I want to. And the Adidas King of the Road run the following weekend, which I will attempt to get to < 30 minutes time for my 5km. Disadvantaged ata ako, ang liit ko, smaller strides! haha  

Being Active
Initially this gym thing started out because #1 I didn't feel good about myself and #2 I had to find some distraction. But now, it's more of getting fit now and what I realized was, when I started going to the gym, I'd thought I'd be more tired for the day, but in fact, I actually have more energy now. Compared to before when I needed to sleep for almost 10 hours just to get me through the day (night shift work). Now, I can manage my time and do a lot more, and not feeling tired all day long. Good effects! And I even lost weight and gained some muscle. Not bad at all!

The running, boxing and badminton are really good sports to play every now and then. It's different from the usual routine in gym, which is good! These activities are something to add energy to my life. It makes me happy and energized. You get to interact with different people and have fun at the same time! It beats having to just sleep the rest of the day away or bum and do nothing right?

Hope my friends start living the active lifestyle too! And I hope this isn't just a phase for me. I hope to continue it as much as I can.

Youtube comment

There's just something about going through youtube trying to look for some nice videos to watch. And this one video I stumbled upon - some person placed this comment there that just made me laugh! I found this in one of Journey videos (Any Way You Want It)!

Yeah - why the hell is Justin Bieber always being talked about, everywhere, anywhere. Sikat naman!

Glee!

I bummed around for the weekend and ended up watching Glee's season 1! I haven't finished it yet, a couple more episodes left. Funny thing is, I ended up scouring youtube for some pretty funny glee moments that I absolutely loved (took so much time from me!). Aside from the wonderful music, the comedy here is just fantastic. They have these one-two liners that are just out of this league!

Sue Sylvester:


That's how Sue sees it!
I will go to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat. And then on some dark cold night, I will steal away into your home and punch you in the face.

Brittany, she's not given much screen time, but she's just hilarious!


You guys, it's like cool epilepsy!
Ms. Sylvester didn't tell me to do this.

random thoughts

Kuya: 24 hours na ba trabaho mo?
Me: Hindi naman, nagkataon this week grabe ang busy sobra
Kuya: Parang hindi na kita nakitang natulog eh

Napaisip ako dun ah. Think about it. Example this Friday, After lunch, went to have my monthly foot spa, worked, sleep, late dinner, played badminton, back to work, and in the next few hours, I'll be running a 5km marathon in the fort. Good luck to me!

HS Friends

I've been hanging out with my high school friends more the past couple of weeks. I've already tried a couple of new restaurants because of them! I even went to CDO with one of them (not in the picture though). And one of my closest friends is coming back from China, so another get together really soon! BBQ at KO's place!

5th wheel!



5th wheeler no more!

HIMYM Quotes

***Just took the picture from the web. If it shouldn't be here, just let me know and I'll gladly remove it.

How I Met Your Mother has been my staple food for the past few weeks, trying to squeeze in a couple of episodes per day to watch. I'm already down to halfway of season 5 and it's not only been entertaining, but it's almost always hits home with their "food for thoughts" every now and then. If you're a regular viewer, you'll probably pick a thing or two. But if you are like me who just came off from a long term relationship, each quote, each conversations the characters say is much much more valuable.

So as a tribute to this great show who has taught me a lot over the past weeks, here are some of the favorite "food for thoughts" that I got from this sitcom.

Barney [about how easy it is to run a marathon]: Step one, you start running. There is no step two

Things happen in our life that don't usually turn out the way we planned it to. Regrets often clog our minds that we find it hard to move forward. Barney tells us that life can be comparable to running a marathon, you just go ahead and run. There's no other way to look at our lives than forward. Moving on is getting on with our lives, and not looking back any longer.

Barney: So he stays home all the time not getting laid? No, see, that's what you do when you have a fiancée. He should be out here celebrating! He's free! He got that red-headed tumor removed.

My best friend did something for me which I appreciated so much. It was a simple gesture but it just said so much.

Future Ted: The great moments of your life won't necessarily be the things you do. They'll also be the things that happen to you. Now, I'm not saying you can't take action to affect the outcome of your life. You have to take action. And you will! But never forget, that on any day, you could step out the front door, and your whole life could change forever. You see the Universe has a plan kids; and that plan is always in motion. A butterfly flaps its wings, and it starts to rain. It's a scary thought, but it's also kind of wonderful. All these little parts of the machine constantly working... Making sure that you end up exactly where you're supposed to be.. exactly when you're supposed to be there. The right place. At the right time.

I loooove this quote. I believe in this, that everything that's happening, it's happening for a reason. We grow from it, we learn from it, and we get to exactly where fate wanted us to be.

Ted: Okay, I'm going to say something out loud that I've been doing a pretty good job of not saying out loud lately. What you and Tony have, what I thought for a second you and I had, what I know that Marshall and Lily have, I want that. I do. I keep waiting for it to happen. I'm waiting for it to happen. I guess I'm just tired of waiting. And that is all I'm going to say on that subject.
....
Stella: I know that you're tired of waiting. And you might have to wait a little while more but, she's on her way, Ted. And she's getting here as fast as she can.

This is probably one of the best lines from season 4!

Let me know if you have other favorite How I Met Your Mother quotes!

CDO + Bukidnon

My friend Stella and I had a planned overnight trip to Cagayan de Oro last weekend. She booked us the tickets about a month ago when Air Philippines had a seat sale - the tickets just cost us ~2000 pesos per head round trip. This is the first time Stella and I went on an out of town trip. For the longest time, the farthest we went to together is just Tagaytay. She actually planned everything. I didn't do one thing. Yehey!! That's a change from the usual!

White Water Rafting
This was my second time trying out CDO's white water rafting. The first one was way back 3 - 4 years ago? We were thinking of doing the extreme rafting this time (more rapids, plus a rapid that's a kilometer long!) but due to time constraint, we couldn't book that one. So we decided to just do the advance level.

Since there were only two of us, we had to join in with some other group. So we met this group who half are from Manila, and the other half from Cagayan de Oro. One of them opened a new hotel in CDO so they invited some of the relatives from Manila to try it out. And they were going white water rafting with us too. We ended up sharing the raft with a couple of people from that group. The part I loved the most was riding the kayak. Feel na feel namin ang rapids! And by the second half of the ride, bumabagyo na! Masmasarap mag white water rafting when it's raining. More rapids and mas exciting!

* all pictures are on my friends camera. I really need to buy a new one! Hindi na nakakafocus nang maayos yung camera namin

Bukidnon Trip


There's a new adventure park in Bukidnon which just opened last quarter of 2009. They offer the longest dual zip line in the whole of Asia so of course, we had to try it out! We hired a driver for one whole day to bring us everywhere we want to go for the day.


Nakakatawa talaga itong driver namin.

While we were waiting for our turn for the zip line (they have to drive you all the way up first), our driver, lucky for him, was given a free zip line ride (dahil first driver of the day daw na dumating sa Dahilayan Adventure Park). While he was up there somewhere waiting for his time to ride the zip line, nag text sa amin, ang sabi "ma'am, baka pwede po kuhaan niyo ako ng picture habang nag zip line". Hahaha lol. kakaibang driver ito!

And then when it was our time to go up, we left our camera to the driver, asked him to take a picture of us this time when we ride the line. And he did take our pictures. So when we reviewed our pictures - lo and behold, I knew he'd do that - he took a picture of himself. Tapos may another picture na nag papicture pa siya (with posing eh). Laugh trip! And that doesn't end there, sa kakakalikot yata niya nung camera, he didn't take a still photo of us, instead, naka set to video na pala yung camera! Crap! Video yung nakuha nung posing ni Stella.

Before I forget, nasapawan kasi ng katatawanan ng driver - The zip line was awesome, by the way. I loved it there. Weather was cool. Reminds me of Baguio's weather. Maganda kung ma develop pa yung place na yun. Dadami ang pupunta dun. In fact, there were a lot of people going to the Dahilayan Adventure Park. When we left there around 10 am, there were already probably around 20 who already rode the line and a lot more in line, and then we saw a couple more cars going towards the park. This is pretty good business. And think about it, per head is around 500-600 pesos, depending on which lines you'd be taking.

For lunch, we dropped by Del Monte Country Club. Going to del monte country club, magsawa ka sa pineapples. Of course, we had to buy some pineapples to bring home!

I love it here. When I grow old, I would really love to go live in the province, somewhere quiet and more relaxed than the busy and crazy Manila.

Food
Of course, what trip would be complete without food tripping. Whenever Stella and I go out, food is always the focus of our activities. Number one priority. Just take a look at what we did last Saturday. Right after the white water rafting (roughly around 5-5:30 pm, they provided us with a full meal - barbecue plus rice and drinks). Hindi pa kami nakontento diyan. After getting home and cleaning up, we went to Countryside Steakhouse!

This restaurant is located in Limketkai center. It's pretty nice there, reminds me somewhat of Greenbelt where there are a lot of restaurant choices around. Countryside restaurant, we heard, is popular for their steaks. Stella ordered Beef:


While I ordered... the Ostrich Steak!!


Ostrich steak was really good. I ordered medium rare, but I initially got it as rare. I think sa sobrang kapal nung meat hindi na talaga maluto yung loob. I did ask them to cook it a little bit further and turned out pretty good. The ostrich steak is tasty!

By the end of the meal, masakit na ngipin ko sa kakanguya.

But our food trip didn't end there. Even if we were so full at this point, we saw this restaurant Candy. It's owned by a friend's aunt. The chef trained in France or something so we decided to try out their desserts. We ordered the "sinful" cake slice. Akala ko "senfol" kasi yun ang sabi ng waiter. Sinful naman pala. :)

Look at that cake! It's brownie + some white cream. Yung white cream napakasarap.


Grabeng kabusugan that night.

Back to reality
Unfortunately, vacation is just vacation and it always has to end. We packed up our stuff and headed home. But if there's one thing I learned from this trip, it's that we really need to go have fun once in a while. Do something out of the ordinary! Be free from all problems and headaches. Times like these, not only do we get to rejuvenate, but we end up making new memories!

New Things...

"There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better. "
- Oscar Wilde

Comedy Cartel at Aruba

My friend Kat invited us to watch Comedy Cartel at Aruba Bar in Metrowalk last Thursday night. One of the stand up comics is her friend so she wanted to support him. It's a different brand of comedy. It's not like the ones you see in Punchline or Laughline (spell check) where the brand of comedy is basically insulting other people. This is more in line with stand up comics you may have seen in the Last Comic Standing show. It was actually interesting, but also painful to watch. The show is as follows: they have a list of comics that goes one after the other. I am guessing the first few are the not so popular ones yet. Take for instance the first guy, literally no one was laughing. It was so painful to watch him on stage trying to make people laugh. Eventually, the show picked up. I can't remember how many they were though. I think it ran for an hour and a half.

We didn't go at once after the comics were finished. We stayed up until 1:30 am there... listening to accoustic music! Parang nag jajamming na lang mga tao doon. The main guy - Lei is really good with his guitar. We even requested a couple of songs and even met the guy!



I'm not used to going to doing this thing at nights. I'm a homebody person so it took a lot of effort from my end to really go to this event and you know what? It was worth it (aside from my City getting scratched while parking there!). Not only did I end up listening to good comedy and awesome music, but I actually got to see an very old friend too and hang out with the girls! Romana - I cant' believe we haven't seen each other since who knows when!

Badminton

I always had an excuse not to play.

"I'm too tired"
"I have work later"
"I'd rather sleep"
"I'm not good at that anymore"

You name it... all possible excuses. But finally, my parents were able to drag me off the bed and got me to play. I told them I would only play one or two games because I still have work the following morning (4am) but lo and behold, I ended up playing 4 games, and staying there 'till around 11:30 pm! In fact, aside from my gym, which has slowly been getting less attention from me, I think I'm about to engage more into other sports from now on. I was thinking of making this a regular Friday night activity for me.

Quiz Nights #7 or 8 at Murphy's

After skipping a week from our weekly quiz nights affair, the gang and I came prepared this time around! Or at least Marcy did. I still can't believe she answered Congo River and Tanzania right. How in the world would you know those things? My brother's team went as well and being newbies there, they actually did pretty good.

Our score was pretty decent this time around 62 (yehey first time in the line of 6) and they got 74! They would've gotten something better had they chosen the right category to jokerize. I still can't believe one of the logos we missed was Pizza Hut! Argh

Papa's Surprise Birthday Bash

On another note, my dad is celebrating his 60th (Yes! Senior na! May discounts na!) his birthday September 10, 2010. And as a surprise for him, we have cooked up a pretty nice surprise party for him this coming Sunday. He doesn't know it yet, but we are throwing him a surprise lunch this coming Sunday at Saisaki! Eat all you can siyempre. We've invited a total of around 40 guests all in all. He still doesn't know it. He thinks we're going to have lunch with my brother in law, who's celebrating his birthday on the 12th. We have some videos prepared for him as well. I'm looking forward to Sunday!

Bev's work area

Since I work from home almost 4x a week, I setup my own "workstation" at home! Not the best picture as I only used my camera phone for it. Anyway, about a year or so ago, I decided to buy a new 19 inch monitor so that I can work dual monitor - Laptop + Monitor. And then recently, I noticed that my brother has not been using his other 19 inch monitor for his desktop computer. That desktop has been out of order for quite a while so I decided to borrow that monitor, plus some other peripherals so that I can set up my new work area! Complete with 2 19-inch monitors, with keyboards, headset and mouse. He even suggested I also borrow is wireless mouse!

This setup is awesome. I can honestly say that I can do more work this time around! This setup is actually the same as how my workstation looks like when I'm working in Burnaby. I guess that's why I decided to set something similar because it really made a difference. Dual screens definitely increases productivity.

However when I'm in Manila office, there's a huge difference. Here, I only use my laptop, plus I have another desktop computer. Helps me with other work processing I need to do. Since these are separate computers, I use a tool called Synergy to sync up both machines. Meaning, I can use one set of mouse and keyboard (the one's in my laptop) to move the mouse and type on the other desktop machine! Helps a lot because you won't need to keep on switching mouse/keyboards all the time between those machines.

What I really want next is to have a better work table, work chair for my mini office at home. I did buy a nice desk around 2 years ago, but that one's stuck in my room. Ever since I started working from home, my brother moved to sleep at my room with my sister, and I ended up using his room as my mini office. Actually, my bro's the one who's making good use of my desk! I on the other hand, ended up with his old huge office desk, not really ideal for computer setup like mine.

That's it! Just wanted to show you, my readers, where I do most of my work!

weekend rush

Saturday

Saturday early morning started out with me driving all the way to the office to go to work. I usually just go to the office just once a week so a Saturday (or Friday in North America time) was an exception because our team had new members coming in as their first day. Welcome to the team Sally and JD! I'm glad I did too as I had a lot of work I was able to finish that day.

I don't know how I got by that Saturday because I went home around 10:30 am, slept for around 2 hours? And then headed off to Powerplant mall in Rockwell. You see, an old friend just happen to buy a new Honda Civic! Top of the line model pa! He was supposed to buy a Subaru about a month ago, but that didn't push through. So I was surprised to get a text message from him last Friday informing me that he finally bought a new car! Not Subaru as intended, but a Honda Civic instead! Not bad at all. So he invited me to go for a joy ride. We were thinking of driving around the metro but since I had dinner appointments that night, we just decided to meet up around 4pm at powerplant and then drove all the way to Mall of Asia and had merienda there to talk about anything under the sun. Interesting as I never really talked to him much before (ok, I never really bothered talking to anyone before!).

So he did bring me back to Powerplant just in time so I can meet up with my girl friends that night for dinner. Before we went to dinner, the girls and I dropped by Urban Bazaar there. They have some pretty nice stuff there. We did end up going back later on that evening so my other friend who came later could check it out. Lo and behold, nakita namin si Marian Rivera and Roxanne Barcelo (spell check). They're both very pretty and petite girls.

Sunday

Woke up pretty early Sunday (after only sleeping for a couple of hours) and dragged myself to pack up for our girls overnight and go to EDSA Shangri La Hotel by 9 am to attend free yoga class! Who can say no to that? The best part of it is that, we finally got to go Chi Spa! Pagpasok mo pala doon para kang nasa ibang mundo! Very solemn, ang bango, you name it! The yoga session itself ran for 2 hours... but it seemed so short! I was just learning the Koshas! And trying the various poses that I couldn't figure out. Hahaha But it was fun! I sure hope there are yoga classes near my place, that would be better. Good thing though that I got a yoga book from Leda. I should start reading it.

The only thing I didn't like was walking in the hotel and in the mall wearing my house shirt looking like I just woke up.

Malayan Overnight

My college friends and I decided to have our overnight after n years again last sunday to monday. We stayed in Malayan, which is just in front of Podium. Not a bad place for the price, but not the best as well. I think I remember Astoria was better.

Anyway, we went to Megamall to check out Forever 21. That store is huge! But we ended up shopping at Cinderella! Hahaha I think everyone bought something right? I didn't realize how fun it was to shop with these ladies! Ang hindi ko makakalimutan were the times we were in the dressing room. I will not forget Marcy's catwalk with her new blue blouse! Grabe payat ng tiyan ng lola mo!

In general, it's always nice to hangout with friends. That's what the girls and I just did in Malayan. Although, madaming plans na hindi natuloy, paano ba naman, sobrang antok na! Ganoon na ba tayo na tumatanda? Hindi na kaya mag stay up till wee hours of the morning doing nothing? hahaha We love our sleep more these days.

We're getting older!!