Help? May 4, 2008

I just noticed that almost all the pictures in my posts is replaced by a note from photobucket saying “The image or video has been moved or deleted” but I didn’t move or delete them, what happened?! When I go on edit mode though they appear together with the body of the post… I know that once I post the pictures here (with the URL) I can’t move the photos in any other subfolders in photobucket because it will ruin the link but there’s still something wrong. I tried viewing my blog in Internet Explorer & in Mozilla and it appears the same way on both..

Things I Want To Buy Right Now April 20, 2008

Inspired by the thread in Girltalk “Things You Want To Buy Right Now” here are the things that I, umm, want to buy right now

Teacup Yorkshire Terrier

Macbook

iPhone

I’m sure I have a lot more to add to this list but as of now these are the top 3 things I want to buy.

Back to Reality April 19, 2008

I went to Boracay with friends last April 11-14. It was super fun! This trip was 2 years in the making. I was with BF and I’s close circle of friends from college. My bestfriend was there also! No trip could’ve been more fun! We had a 2pm flight out of Manila on Friday (April 11) and an 8 am flight out of Caticlan on Monday (April 14). We stayed at Ole, yes, it’s the Mexican/Cuban/Spanish restaurant in D Mall. They really have nice rooms. They had 3 rooms in all and we rented all of them, hehe, we were 8 in the group eh. The 1st room was good for 2 then the 2nd was good for 3 then the 3rd room was good for 4 but if you’re a tight group I’m sure it’ll fit more. BF and I were in the 2nd room. The group was supposed to be 9 but 1 friend backed out at the last minute because he was sick with fever for 3 days already. We got settled in the room at around 5pm already so the 1st day wasn’t really filled with activities. We just had dinner at Gasthoff - yummy ribs - then we had drinks at Paraw after.

We really went there just to relax so we just had steady days. Sleep, eat, drink, sleep, eat, drink & so on and so forth. And we didn’t do any water activities any more (snorkeling, parasailing, etc). We just lounged at the beach and drank shakes. Oh, it rained! But we were swimming at the time so it was fun! I met a girl from the Czech republic, her name’s Marcela. One of my friends wanted her braids so I asked Marcela where she got hers (it had beads kase). We had lunch at Shenna’s (near Rock & Roll crepes) - I ordered their Carbonara which was literally a plate full of pasta. For P125, it wasn’t bad. Though the service will take long. Whether you come early or during lunch hours - which will take longer. For happy hour we drank in Guilly’s Island but before we got their me, BF and one friend ate ihaw ihaw first. I had 1 isaw and a hotdog, hehe There was an event going on it was Myx at the Paraw area while it was Campus 99.5 RT at Guilly’s. The bands over at Myx were nice but the crowd wasn’t. It was too much so we just stayed at Guilly’s. I have a picture with Ramon Bautista! Haha he was a host at the event since he’s also a DJ for 99.5 RT. He’s sooo funny in person! And he’s really nice & accommodating. Kamikaze was the main band of the night and when they started playing the crowd came flooding in! As in children, manongs, bangkeros, everyone! We almost got trampled on! Good thing we weren’t sitting on the mats & pillows on the sand. 2 of our friends were asked to join a game in between bands, the guys who invited them were sitting just behind us (inside the ropes) so we just crossed to the ropes and stayed with them. Kamikaze was sooo good! Jay was so entertaining! He got the crowd hooked! After they performed we just stayed at Guilly’s and partied!

The following day was a really slow once since it was a Sunday. A friend of ours is staying in Boracay already because he’s fixing something for work there. He works for a company that has ferry deliveries to Caticlan and he’s in Boracay because he’s fixing the delivery route there. Anyway, he took us to this amazing place near Panoly & Shangri-La already (super dulo), waaay past Station 1 already. It was also near the Balinghai residential condominiums. The beach front had, I think, around 4 hug cabanas where you can just lounge. Eat, drink, sleep, smoke or what have you. We bought liempo on the way there and we had it bbq’d for us. I think this is private property so it’s not something really accessible to anyone. Our friend knows the manager (I think) of the area. We stayed there the whole afternoon until early evening, BF and I joined our group around 7:30-8pm already. We just had dinner at Ole and bought drinks to drink upstairs. Since we had an early flight the next day we just decided to stay in and drink in the biggest room. We left Ole at around 6:30am and we were settled in the pre-departure area by 7:15-7:20. When we arrived in Manila we had brunch at Lin Lu restaurant, it’s one of the little eateries beside the Domestic airport. Since some of them had shift that night, we all hailed cabs and went on our merry way.

I didn’t have shift Monday night anymore because technically I was a “bum” already. I resigned from Accenture already and I’m now working for Globe Telecom. I’m officially starting on Monday (April 21). My first day was last April 16 but the 3 days were just for orientation so I start work on Monday. Good luck to me! I’m really excited! My first time ever since I started working to work during “normal” hours. I’m still adjusting to the rush hour traffic and the huge amounts of people. I didn’t get to experience this at night. This is also my 1st time to work at an “office”. After working in a call center, I worked in a BPO setup, pretty much the same except we didn’t have calls.

I am welcoming the change. I’m even embracing it! I can’t really say much about it yet since I haven’t officially started but we’ll see by the end of next week if I’m still alive, haha!

I’m welcoming myself to the real world.

Long Weekend April 9, 2008

At work, we follow US holidays so the long weekend that just passed doesn’t apply to us but we still get carried away by the hype. F invited BF and I to go with his family to Canyon Woods to celebrate his parents’ 35th wedding anniversary. He was worried since he’ll be stuck with his family he wouldn’t have anything to so he invites us along. It was such a fun day! Now I’m wondering why he thinks he’ll get bored - his family’s wonderful! Maybe because he’s been living with them since birth, he has seen past the wonderfulness of them already. Anyway, the baby of the family was with us so that was extra fun (baby of his older brother). We had sooo much food! We had CPA (Chicken Pork Adobo), rice (of course), salad (balsamic vinaigrette with strawberries & grapes), bread (focaccia, ciabatta, with herbs, w/o herbs, wheat bread loaf) - which we dipped in balsamic vinegar, olive oil & Parmesan cheese, & lasagna (instead of using ground beef F’s sis in law used meatballs) - this was just lunch! After lunch, we all had siesta. Then when I woke up at around 7 the table was set for dinner already!!! Buhay baboy! For dinner, we still had the bread, rice (of course), eggplant with tomatoes, garlic & balsamic vinegar - super yummy! - fried fish (it was tilapia, I think), steamed okra with bagoong, ensaladang mangga (also w/ bagoong, syempre), pork binagoongan, & left over lasagna. I didn’t eat too much since I was still full from lunch.

After dinner drinks consisted of a 5L mini-keg of Heineken draft beer - which I found too sweet, by the way - red & white wine & juice, hehe. I had both red & white wine and guess what, there was pica pica on the table ready to be devoured! F’s sis in law set up a beautiful cheese plate. It had strawberries, grapes (green & violet), Gorgonzola (love!), cheddar cheese and another cheese that I wasn’t able to get the name of. We also had fish crackers and more bread. I played poker (Texas Hold ‘Em) with BF, F, F’s brother & dad. The first round was just a ‘trial’ round while the next one we had a buy in of P50, hehe. The kuya was joking around that he bets the game will end up with the girl (me!) winning the game, guess what? I did! Hahaha! I joked to BF that we now had money to pay the toll - which is where we actually spent the money on.

It wasn’t that cold in Tagaytay maybe because it’s the summer, I’m not really sure, but it was cooler that night. We slept with the windows open but we still opened the fan, it wasn’t really “Tagaytay cold” enough. Of course, when we woke up food was on the table again. We had sunny side up eggs (I only ate the whites, of course), tapa, leftover eggplant (with garlic, tomatoes & balsamic vinegar) from last night, chili con carne & garlic fried rice. I had a little of everything though I finished up all the leftover eggplant.

We were out of the house by 11am since the owners of the house will arrive after lunch and the caretaker would still have to clean up the house. It was really traffic going back to Tagaytay. We decided to have lunch at Leslie’s - it was super packed! I think we waited around an hour to an hour and a half before we finally got a table. You could just imagine the waiting time before your food is served. We ordered 2 Special Bulalo, 2 orders of Lechon Kawali, 2 orders of Ensaladang Mangga, 3 orders of the Crispy Fried Tawilis, 2 orders of Laing & rice - of course.

While having lunch, another friend of ours I and his girlfriend K texted us that they were in Laiya (Batangas) and asked us if we liked to follow. Since F, BF and I were kinda bitin with the Canyon Woods overnight we replied and confirmed that we’ll follow - not knowing how far Laiya is!!! No one knew it was that far. Anyway, after Leslie’s we made our way to Startoll then Lipa then San Juan then to a dirt road going to the different resorts you can go to in Laiya. I and K were in Pahiyas, so of course, that’s where we went. We got there at 6:22pm already so we didn’t swim anymore, we just waded by the shore and wet our feet. There was a tent of Chowking there so that’s what we had for dinner plus halo halo for dessert, yummy. The boys drank a few rounds of beers and then we settled in the little room. F, BF & I decided to leave Laiya around 2am so as not to get stuck with everyone else who’ll go home the next morning. I was on the bed with I & K then F and BF were on the floor (on cushions). BF was facing towards the bed so he was staring at the space under the bed. He asked F if he wanted to switch places, F asked him if he’s feeling something “funny” that’s why he wants to trade places then BF told him no, he just wanted F’s spot because that’s where the vent of the aircon was. Then F started making up stories about red eyes peeking out from the bed, etc. BF jokingly sat up and pretended to see something then F stood up, opened the lights & panicked because he though BF saw something! It was sooo funny! 2 grown men trying to make themselves one with the corner of the room! Haha! Then and there F decided that he was awake enough to make the drive back to Manila. He was thinking that he didn’t want to travel at 2 in the morning when there was a long dirt road with trees on the side as his only view. I told them its their call, for me I was asleep at the back and didn’t wake up until we were at F’s house already.

My Live Signature April 2, 2008

I was browsing through some blogs here in wordpress when I came across this blog (sorry I’m still trying to find it) and when I scrolled down I saw that she had a signature after every post. I’m not really sure if she’s directly connected with wordpress but she gives tips about wordpress. I saw something about how to add a signature. I think I tried to follow that and didn’t succeed, I forgot already, but, what I did was I just googled about how to add signatures to blogs and came across the site named MyLiveSignature. They can do real signatures but you’ll have to send them a copy of your signature, of course, and I’m not sure how long before they’ll send back the file. There’s also a feature in the site where you’ll write with your mouse and they’ll create the signature for you but it was quite hard because it didn’t really look like my handwriting.

You’ll go through several pages of options - what your signature actually is, font, size, color, etc. And this is what I came up with.. Tada!

*Edit:  I was going through the different themes of wordpress and as I opened each theme to view how my blogs would look the “eternally pink” signature kept on popping out because of the bright pink color. As much as I looove pink this particular shade was too bright for me and I wanted something really elegant & neat so I created a new one which is smaller and more subtle.

Project Blog #1: Media Habits March 28, 2008

I just recently made ‘public’ this blog to my fellow Girltalkers. There’s a thread there entitled Support Group for GT Bloggers. After reading through the posts, it inspired me to share my own blog. Though I haven’t really shared my real name this blog will still let them know me more as a person. From that thread, a fellow GTalker (Mindy), was kind enough to create a blogring for all of us GT Bloggers. I’m proud to say I’m part of that blogring. The Project Blog was born from there - something for the group to do & update and it will also help each other know more about how the other GT bloggers think & feel about certain topics. A new project will be posted every Sunday, it’s now Friday and I haven’t done the project yet. Don’t get me wrong it’s not something I have to do, I want to do it. I’m actually excited about what the next projects would be. I just can’t believe it that it’s taken me this long to do this particular project.

 

Media Habits

• What do you read, watch, download, listen to? Why do you prefer those?
  • I actually read a lot but most of them are non-fiction books. I like the romantic, sappy, cheesy, corny, tear-jerker kind of novels, hehe. I was introduced to this type of books when my bestfriend offered to lend me one, and the rest is history. Now my mom is telling me to dispose of these books because we’ll soon move to another house and my precious books will just be kalat.
  • Watching movies is BF and I’s past time. When we still had the same schedule before (get out of work at 11am), we would catch new movies every Wednesday. But now, we just watch on the weekends. TV, I loooove watching CSI! Las Vegas and New York to be exact but I’m starting to love Miami, I just like it now. I also like watching sitcoms like Everybody Loves Raymond, Will & Grace, Friends, etc - obviously these are reruns, hehe. I only get to watch a little TV before going to sleep this is around 10am-2pm so there’s not much on. Oh! I also have this thing with cooking shows! I watch it every chance I get. With music, I can say I like all of the genres. I just like techno/house/chill out more. May it be old school (as in Beatles, even The Platters), hip hop, RnB, rock, even country, I like ‘em! The one thing I can’t stand is the really hard rock type of music - like the screaming, scary ones.

• What do you do on the internet?
  • I surf! Hehe at work Girltalk is almost always open the whole shift - I just refresh once in a while to check if there are new replies (I’m not being biased :P). When I get home, I automatically check my accounts in multiply, friendster, & facebook. Sometimes myspace when I remember to. Of course, I also check my email.

• How much have you spent/save on this habit?
  • Hmmm, I can’t really say I’ve saved on buying books because the authors that I like doesn’t come cheap in National Bookstore - they usually price it at P359! But I always check out Booksale and Chapters & Pages because they usually carry the authors that I like.

 

Supernatural March 28, 2008

My friend (& officemate), G, brought up the TV series Supernatural saying how she can’t watch it by herself because it’s really creepy. The DVD she has was borrowed from our other officemate (& friend) C. He actually told us to watch it because he said that it’s really nice. Since G doesn’t want to watch it at home we decided to watch a couple of episodes in her car. Her car has this stock radio that’s über nice, as in it has a touch-screen-TV-in-it-nice. Anyway, she was telling me that she wasn’t even able to finish the 1st episode because it was too creepy for her. So we went down to the parking lot and watched. We were screaming!!! Hahaha! Each of us were hugging a pillow to just hug and also to help cover our eyes in the really scary scenes. I can’t really say at which parts we were screaming. The whole series is so kick ass! We finished 2 straight episodes then the CD started acting up on the 3rd (pirated eh :P). Oh yeah, C was supposed to come with us but he was still doing something upstairs so G and I went ahead. On our way up again, C was telling us how he was supposed to scare us by appearing out of nowhere on the windows of the car but while he was walking towards the car he heard us screaming! Haha! He thought he might give us a heart attack already if he still scared us so he said that he just approached the car slowly so we’ll see him. We couldn’t see him through the windshield because we put up a sun shade because it was difficult to watch with the glare from outside. I now love Supernatural and can’t wait to watch the whole Season 1 - I know, I’m kinda late, well I am late but better than never actually watching it at all, right? It also helps with the scary factor that the actor (who plays Dean, one of the brothers) is sooo hot! He portrays this bad ass character but also has a soft spot when it comes to family. I will definitely by my own copy of Season 1, hehe, Season 2’s still running now I’ll just wait until that’s done before I buy my copy but I don’t think I can wait, haha!

Black Saturday March 23, 2008

Since we follow US holidays at work this week was just any other ordinary work week for us. The only difference is we get to be paid double because we still worked during the declared non working holidays whatever. And also, there’s no traffic!

 

 

My shift starts at around 10pm; M used to be at the 2nd shift (starts at 3am) but she got transferred to the 1st shift (starts at 5pm). BF is also at the 1st shift. So when M got out of her shift early Saturday morning she kinda made jokes of going to Tagaytay. Being the kaladkarin that I am, I said yes! Haha!

BF, M, and I went down to the parking lot to talk about it. Wasn’t sure yet of whether to go to Tagaytay or Antipolo. We texted C to come down too because we invited him to go with us but he just started his shift! Haha he told us that he’s “nega” (as in negative) but after 5 minutes he rushed back upstairs to get his stuff.

We left the office around 3:30am to go to Tagaytay! Yey! I love these impromptu trips! We arrived in Tagaytay around 5am. Luckily, Starbucks is open 24 hours so we just stayed there to wait for sunrise. C, BF and I all had Caramel Macchiatos while M had a Cafe Masto (brewed coffee w/ milk, I think) then I ordered a slice of Oreo Cheesecake, BF had the Tuna Dill something sandwich and M had a Cinnamon Swirl. It was sooo cold! Good thing I brought a jacket. We just talked about random stuff and laughed at C because he was the only one without a jacket.

We just waited for sunrise and since the sun was fully up by 6:10 am the restaurants weren’t open yet we decided to drive around to look for food. We ended up eating at Mushroom Burger! Yey! Hehe I had the Mushroom Sandwich with Cheese, BF had the Pancit Canton, C had the Tuna Sandwich and M just had some Sago’t Gulaman. We headed back after eating. We were back at the office by 8:30 am. I just got my car in the parking lot and went home.

It’s now 7:08am on a Sunday. I woke up so early because I was asleep since 5pm yesterday! Haha that was looong!

Happy Easter everyone!

Marlboro Lights Blue March 11, 2008

I smoke. A lot, I believe. I’m at the point where when I don’t smoke my throat starts acting up. Tsk tsk, bad I know but it’s hard to quit - I know other smokers can relate to this. And to be honest, I’m not yet ready. I don’t want to quit. If I forced myself I’ll just end up smoking more after being deprived of it.

 

I’ve always smoked Winston Lights - well, for the longest time that is. But I did learn to smoke with Lucky Strikes - thinking about it now, yikes! I can’t imagine how I did that. After that, during highschool, I distinctly remember smoking Marlboro Lights, Reds and then Winston Lights - ahhh that was way better. It was just right for me, it slides down my throat real smooth. I can take Marlboro Reds (really strong for my taste) but I cannot take Menthols! Ugh, I really can’t. I can’t imagine my dad smoking them for 35 years. :X

 

Anyway, last Friday BF showed me this new cigarettes that Marlboro came up with. The box says Lights but after tasting it, it was like Winston Lights. It was way lighter than Marlboro Lights (Gold). And as you can see, the box is Blue & White - it’s like an “in your face” to Winston, haha. It wasn’t until this morning, before heading home, that I bought my own pack of Marlboro Blue. They don’t sell it as just a pack yet; it still comes in a nice box with a lighter. It’s priced at P38 (about $0.95!) but that’s because there’s still a lighter; but Marlboros have been more expensive than Winstons eversince so I’m assuming that eventually this will be priced at P30 (like other Marlboros). I think I’ll still stick to my Winstons, its cheaper by, at the most, P5.

 

BF and I have been talking about smoking and he always brings it up that what if we stop. Cold turkey? I don’t think I can. I told him that if I want to do something, I’ll do it on my own because the more you keep on pestering me about something the more I won’t budge. So there, I don’t think I’ll be quitting anytime soon.

 

Yosi break, anyone?

My Saturday March 9, 2008

Yesterday was a very looong day. My friend M is getting married in April so we went to the manang who would make the gowns for the entourage to have me (together with a cousin & an aunt) measured for the gown. We both came from a shift Friday night so we didn’t have any sleep. Saturday morning, we left the office at 7am to go home to her house to leave my car & to meet up with M’s aunt & cousin. Thank God they were taking a driver because I wouldn’t have any energy to drive anymore. Divisoria is an area in Manila where you see all kinds of people from different walks of life. This is like the source of everything - fabrics, baking ingredients, baking stuff, ribbons, pans, pots, as in everything at 250% less the price outside (like department stores, boutiques or malls). But you could just imagine how crowded this place is. Don’t take me wrong, I like it here, not only because your thousand bucks can go a long way but you’d be surprised at the things you’ll see & experience. We walked to the manang then had ourselves measured then walked back out. Oh, we brought along 1 of the flower girls (she’s 6 years old) and she was mesmerized! Haha she kept on looking around and taking in the sites - I think she enjoyed herself! We had snacks in KFC but this was inside Tutuban Center already - airconditioned mall type center but with still low prices. We all slept on the way back to M’s house.

 

There’s a new Petron across the highway from M’s place that just opened and it’s like of the many gas stations in the metro that has coffee shops/establishments that was built in it. We stayed at Gonuts Donuts for a while. We were waiting for BF’s text so that we’ll know what time to leave for Mall of Asia. I had a Hazelnut Crunch cupcake (described in their website as walnuts and crunch swimming in smoky choco-hazel frost over chocolate cake) and a Choc-o-hazelnut frappe of some kind. The cupcake was yummy; it wasn’t too sweet and I liked how it was true to its name and had some crunch in the icing. The drink was a different story! It was sooo sweet I didn’t even finish it. M and I were saying that since the cupcake wasn’t sweet it was pretty balanced but no, it wasn’t. The drink was really too sweet for me - and to think I like sweets! M had hot coffee and a Butterscotch sticky roll (no picture in their website yet, tsk tsk) - that was too sweet for me too but she liked it so, good, because that was hers anyway.

 

M’s fiance works at Dell in their Mall Of Asia (MOA) site so she was still with me when I went to MOA. We just walked around when we got there. We attempted to look at Havaianas flip flops in All Flip Flops but there were sooo many people! You couldn’t even get close to the slippers on the wall because there was a crowd gathered in front already so we just decided to go to Crocs and look at their stuff instead. I am in love with the Malindi! It’s like the Prima but the style of this one is its a slingback! I WILL buy one! I will just have to save for it I want to buy one in Mango, Silver or in Turquoise. I want one in Gold but I’m not sure if it’s available, didn’t see it in their website. It’s priced at P1,850 (about $45.6 here. When M’s fiance, N, got out of his shift we decided to have dinner at Gerry’s Grill since M has a coupon that we can use. They ordered a Beef Casserole (P220) and rice while I had Tahong (Mussels) ala Pobre - P135) - now this was yummy! Every time we eat at Gerry’s (BF and I or with friends), I always eye this dish but never got to order it until yesterday. So now, every time we’ll eat at Gerry’s, I will have to order this. After dinner, we just stayed there to wait for BF to arrive. There’s a fireworks display in MOA every 7pm on weekends so we just waited for that. After the fireworks we went our separate ways already. BF and I decided to watch 10,000 B.C. - we caught the 7:50 pm screening - my take on this movie on a separate post. Since BF hadn’t eaten dinner yet, he did so after the movie. We ate at President Tea House over at the new “Baywalk” in front (or back) of MOA. It’s a row of restaurants by the bay. We ordered this yummy beef with rice noodles, siomai and mini siopao (pork buns). At this point, I was so tired already. I’ve been up for 24 hours (and counting) already. BF met up with our friends in Metrowalk but I called it a night already and headed home. I texted my friend who’s older brother put up a home service massage thing and I scheduled for one at midnight; we left MOA around 11pm. The massage was sooo good! The manang that they sent over was so nice. I like massages but I never liked the hard ones. And this manang had the right touch. Ahhh, pure bliss! I fell asleep immediately after that, haha!