These Past Month & A Half

Dear Me,

How did these days, weeks, months pass me by? Let me count the ways.

  • Dinners were shared with papi at the foodcourt of Enterprise, Wendy's at G4 & GB1, Tokyo Tokyo at Metropoint Mall, Goldilocks at Glorietta, McDo at Paseo Center. No fancy dinners at the moment.

  • Most of the time I took the shuttle/van (located at the Makati Stock Exchange parking lot) when going home because it offered the easiest, shortest and most convenient route.

  • I went along with papi to attend the regular monthly MFPI meetings not because I wanted to but I had to - the sports climb, BMC, etc. Usually, papi & I meet somewhere and have dinner first - like last time at Shakey's located at Robinson's Pioneer.

  • That I was really shocked and surprised that former Senator Raul Roco died. It was papi who texted me but I thought he meant the actor named Roco, not the Senator, though.

  • I had to attend to these 2 consecutive meetings without any idea of the purpose of the meeting during one drizzly Friday morning. But it felt great to see my beloved UP bustling with college students. I remembered the days.

  • If papi did not pick me up at the office, our meeting place were likely to be at Potato Corner in Glorietta, National Bookstore at Glorietta/SM MegaMall/Coastal Mall/Metropoint Mall. I chose these places so I wouldn't get bored waiting for papi (most of the, he is late).

  • When I was in the office, my usual visitors were account executives from various hotels. Good thing that I was not so busy because I had the time to ask questions and request for a lower corporate rate.

  • I got an international SMS from Freckles and that she would be coming to Manila by December this year. I sense another reunion with BWI peepz. Wonder if this will be the first time for me to join? Hehehe.

  • Papi loves me and wants me to be happy. Why? Oh, because of him, I was able to watch the 1st-4th seasons of 24, 1st season of Numbers, 1st season of Empire and 1st season of Jake 2.0.



  • I really could not help but get pissed off everytime I got excluded in a meeting I was supposed to be involved in - just like that MS Proj.

  • I attended the usual PEx Congo Grille event at El Pueblo but I was a little disappointed because only few people came and my close buddies were not there. Though there were some good friends, it would have been a lot more fun if they were there.

    This was taken in 2004.


  • Hehehe. Because I am a sucker for books, I finally decided to get a Laking National Card. =)

  • I slept late till the wee hours of the morning and woke up in the afternoon during Saturdays. Sleep was such a relaxing luxury.

  • I had been telling Mamu for the nth time to leave home for Cavite during Saturday mornings and not the afternoons because she would be wasted by the time she reached Papa's house.

  • Papi climbed Mt. Talamitam (again) but without me. I did the chick-emote. *me grins* It worked. =)

  • That the first time I rode the bus after the fare increase, I was so shocked to pay a freaking 45 pesos from the usual 25 pesos. My goodness. That was twice the usual fare. I tried to take different bus liners for a week and they only charged me between 35-38 pesos. I would never ride Philippine Corinthian buses from now on.

  • I won 2 movie premiere tickets of Must Love Dogs which was shown at GB3. A question was posted and I made unconventional answers. To get the tickets, papi & I met Jenn at Fuzion Cafe but since Jenn was a little late because of traffic, we played at Timezone first. I thought Papi would not come with me because he was taking the graveyard shift. He did and he was late for work. But you know what? He did enjoy the movie because he was laughing hilariously. *evil grin*

  • I missed doing major groceries' shopping at the supermarket. All I can afford right now is buying the essentials without forgetting my Gardenia bread and my favorite bacon spread + sour-cream flavored Pringles.

  • I got a salary increase but it did not feel like it was. It was not enough.

  • I am really a book sucker. I recently bought James Patterson's Along Came A Spider at NBS Glorietta; Mario Puzo's Dark Arena at NBS Metropoint.



  • It was 2 Friday nights already that I did not sleep a wink; I was too preoccupied and energized to do the laundry, clean the house, wash the dishes, mop the floor, clean my room, cook food. It was only Saturday afternoon that I was able to finish everything. Mind you, I pride myself everytime I feel like this. I get something worthwhile done.

  • Papi and I went to Robinson's Galleria one Saturday afternoon for the mere purpose of buying a new pair of formal shoes for myself since my project schedule (hotel-based) is about to start. Papi was the one who guided me through each shoe shops at the mall. *lolz* He knew me to be very choosy and for all he expect, it would take us eons before I find a comfortable and likeable pair. Fortunately, after 3-4 shops, we nailed it at Janylin. With the mission accomplished, we wandered at the ladies' department store. Hehehe. I was able to buy a new pink blouse from Meg. Papi was tempting me to buy the gypsy skirt but I said not that day. I told him to wait and be surprised. Hehehe. From the ladies' dept store, we skimmed through the toy section.

    We just had a good time checking the toys and I asked papi where was the miniature model of the military chopper that I saw in the 24 series which Jack Bauer usually rides in. After which, we slowed down and had chit-chat at Starbucks with our own favorite frappes and bread/croissants. The next thing we knew we were about to go home but we tracked in at Bratpack and bought a pair of The North Face (TNF) shirts each. Mine were baby tees - one was pink, the other orange.

  • My pc was really playing tricks with me. The first time it got busted, got well, the next, busted again. I just wonder what the h*** is wrong with it.

    Luckily, I had set aside the plan of having a broadband internet connection from PLDT.

  • I was cooped up at Dusit Hotel for 6 days straight.

  • Papi and I checked out the new Starbucks Insular branch beside my office building. I ordered caramel frappe and him, a grande rhumba. I could not remember now who ordered empanada and the other one; though we shared both. Hehehe. I then realized that I was starting to shift from mocha to caramel frappe. Talk about reducing weight & added calories. *toink*

  • Also, papi got a surprise for Sakura, my dog. He bought him a sack of dog food. Sakura only fed on it if I was the one preparing it for him. She shooed and snobbed away when my mom did it for her. That dog!

  • I watched Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. The movie made me realized something: I did not exactly grow up in tight bond of friendship with any girls. I envy the type of closeness that Carmen, Tibby, Lena and Bridget shared. I just grew up; thankful that there were friends who came along.

  • Sir Elmer of MFPI flew to Tokyo during the 4th week of August to climb Mt. Fuji. It reminded me of my memorable visit at Tokyo and the snow-capped view of the famous Mt. Fuji. *kainggit*

  • One time, papi & I passed by Digital Exchange at Glorietta to check new cellphones and the PDA I was pinning on.

  • I almost bought a new pair of kikay shoes at Landmark but there were 2 problems: a) I was at a dilemma either to choose pink or blue; b) Since I was undecided because of the color, I searched for another design and when I found it, the size did not fit me at all. I promised myself I would have a new pair soon. Come what may.

  • Papi brought a VCD copy of Jennifer Love Hewitt's TV series Ghost Whispers. I liked it. I wondered how it really felt having the 6th sense, you know? Would it be that bothersome or a blessing at the same time. What would it feel like helping a lost soul trapped in our world find his way past the living? It would be refreshing to help someone like that but how would the living people around us be able to accept that? Just a thought. Oops, this series is showing this September in the US.

  • I was supposed to man our company booth at an exhibition at WTC during the 4th week of August but since I had to attend to chemical industry-related projects, I was spared from the task. Good thing that I was able to pre-arranged the documents required in our participation in the event.

  • It was my sister's birthday and my father arrived. Well, this was one of those times that I miss my family being together. =)

  • I came back to the office from a workshop at the hotel one Monday night. My 2 officemates spoke of the "bad things" happening in the office.

  • After the long stay in the hotel, I spent 2 weeks on being out in the field, visiting chemical plants.

  • It was a Tuesday. I did something horribly stupid. Curse boredom and my sleepy brain. I sent an SMS to the wrong person, to my boss. *what a blooper*

  • Because of the shame and guilt, I could not go back to the office unless she had left the building premises. I even took undertime, lying about going to UP. Luckily, I did not have any pending work to do and my boss said ok. Nyuknyuk.

  • That undertime made me walk from Dusit Hotel to SM Makati. Since Papi's shift was 6am-2pm, I texted him. While waiting for him, I checked the ladies shoes' section. I could not find any kikay shoes I like. I checked the blouses and the pants afterwards. After an internal battle, I decided to buy only the blouses I fitted except for the pants (though it suited me fine). Buying them all at the same time was too much. And so, I acquired 2 new blouses, one was a printed purple and the other a pink 3/4-sleeved with a knitted flower at the left top. I just did not want to think how much it cost. I was already done with the mini-shopping and papi was still nowhere to be found. I forced myself to stay away from that area and wandered along. I came upon this native craft shop offering our very own products. I was thinking of buying something for our consultant but decided against it. While on my way out, I saw at my right a charming shop that offered choco batirol. I was already thinking of something. When I saw papi, I invited him to dine there at Tsoko.Nut. From the shop's name, I was right to deduce that they offer the local cacao as a chocolate drink. I ordered the cacao drink batirol type and papi's was that of banana spritz. Their pandesal with corned beef was really yummy. Check it out, you will not regret it. After the filling snack at Tsoko.Nut, I told papi that I wanted to check out the Manila International BookFair at the World Trade Center. It was the first day and ran till the 4th of September. Compared to last year's, I only bought a few titles this year. Most of the books that were on display, well, I had bought them last year.

  • I attended the BMC lecture last July at UA&P. Sir Elmer opted for the practicum climb to materialize during the first Saturday of September. So we did trek up Mt. Manalmon in the course of one day. Our assembly point was at the Baliwag bus station in Cubao at 6:30 in the morning. I thought I would be late so I took a cab. I asked the cab driver to drop me off at the 7-11 convenience store nearby. I bought some chips, bread, Gatorade & C2. I bumped with one of the guys from the group. We were thinking if were going to buy a packed lunch from Chowking. I called papi and he requested me to buy for him and JR. I bought something for myself, too. Papi & JR met up with me at Chowking and afterwards we headed back to the bus station. We boarded the bus and off we went. I had a few good hours of slumber in the bus.

    The trek was just fine, saved for the mud and a few slips. It was a new experience to ride on a raft just to cross the river. Another experience was to wade in the breast-high river just to cross again. The boys had a fun time crossing the river via a hanged cable wire. I wanted to try but I thought my legs would give up on me. Hehehe. Sir Elmer taught us some new things on the trail and reminded us of the old things that we knew. I had fun learning about the compass. Hehehe. While at the peak, it was awesome. It was low but the view was nice. I cherished bathing in the heavy rain as well. In fact, I was praying for the rain to fall harder. Hehehe.

    On the way back to Manila, papi & I got off at SM West since it was raining and our shoes were wet. I saw that there was a Bo's Coffee Club so we made ourselves comfortable there. I had hot cafe latte and papi ordered something cold. Nyak.

  • Papi flew to Cebu for quite a week the next day to attend his grandpa's burial and to be with his sister on her birthday. Happy Birthday, Virgo! =)

  • I was supposed to join the other Manila-based BWI peepz in a get-together organized by Sir Willy in his Golden Horizon Resto. Unfortunately, I could not due to a prior commitment.

  • My left contact lens was such a bothersome one Monday morning that I had to remove it afterwards. It was already Thursday when I was able to acquire a new one and for just one piece it cost me 925 pesos. Fortunately, I had it at 750 pesos. Curse my long nails.

  • I was in a chemical plant that I was able to finish my letter to someone. I had another someone hand-delivered it to her.

  • The next day, I opted for a leave and stayed home and watched the following: The Empire series (it was touching with a sense of history); Man of the House (this was the 2nd time that I watched it) and the last one was Racing Stripes (you want animal talk, watch this).

  • It was almost past 7 in the evening when I reached Makati after the visit in a chemical plant in Laguna. I met with Jon and Jary at Glorietta. They were having dinner at Burger King when I arrived. I told them about my SMS stupidity. I gave the Ghost Whisperer's VCD to Jon (he likes Jennifer Love Hewitt) per papi's intruction. Jon handed me these boxer shorts and to have them fitted by Papi.

  • I joined a meeting with our consultant together with the safety officers at the corporate office of Petron Corporation. I did not actually expect them to be that interested with our project. But I was wrong. In fact, they were very positive about it. Translated: it meant huge!

  • I know I live by the moment, through my cravings for something. So, when it comes to food of any type, I usually satisfy my appetite for it. So, for the past few weeks, I had been munching Tomi. Yummy.

  • I missed checking out the Philippine Travel Mart Expo as well as the Asia Food Expo. It has been an annual habit of mine to attend these 2 expositions along side with the Manila International BookFair.

  • Since I had been reporting less in the office, I had to be reminded of filing my OT slips, OB/LOA forms.

  • At the last minute, I decided to join the group at JR's place (to celebrate his birthday) last Saturday. It was already past 8 in the evening when we (I was with papi, Marlon & Angel) reached Cavite. So who were there? Aside from JR and his family and the 3 people I was with when I came there, I saw Carol, Ryu, Richard (my, I was really surprised to see you ha =) and John. Of course, there was chit-chat, laughing, kodakan, planning, jokes, music jamming. It was fun. By the way, I loved the taste of inihaw na tahong. Also, for the record, I felt a little whoozy after 6 shots of tequila. It had been a long time.

  • Last Monday, I was stuck for 1 and 1/2 hours standing in front of the Makati Stock Exchange seeking shelter against the heavy downpour and the strong wind. I was about to cross the street when the rain fell...like it was forever. It never stopped even for a second. Thinking that I would be standing there forever, I made a mad dash to the other side and hopped in at McDo. I bought my favorite meal for take-out and waited at the shed for a bus ride.

    Whew! It took me forever to ride one. I had to stand at the bus because there were few ones passing by. Fortunately, I was able to grab a seat later on. I changed seats twice because it was so cold. I was shivering cold, even praying that somebody will sit beside me. Somebody did but after an hour.

  • Because I woke up with a head ache and a coldness enveloping me, I decided to take a half-day off. I reported for work in the afternoon and my travel to the office was a whiz. Before heading to the office, I dropped by at the Fresh Break convenience store along Ayala Avenue and bought 2 asado siopaos. Hehehe. I love siopaos, you know. Upon entering the office building, I headed straight to BPI to pay my credit card debt before I fail to pay it again.

  • There was this someone from Holiday Inn Clark Hotel who called me up regarding hotel privileges for members. Well, she went blah-blah, like this, like that. She was so eager to present her packages that I did not even have the second to cut her out; to tell her that I was not interested. I just told her that I would be leaving the company soon but it did not stop her. Did I have any plans of going overseas? Then, I could still use my privilege card. All perks at a whopping 6,000 pesos.

  • Papi & I failed to attend the MFPI meeting at Pioneer Grill due to the heavy, nonstop rain. Even at the last minute, we were considering of going there but the rain prohibited us. So while waiting for the rain to stop, we checked the toy sections of Landmark and SM Makati. It was in SM Makati that papi was able to buy this chopper and car models for his officemates who will be celebrating their birthdays this month. Guess where we headed afterwards? Since I was still full and my diet schedule digressed again, I told him that I wanted to eat light. We tried Tsoko.Nut again. Mine was the same order as last time and papi had the banana spritz again for his drink and he had the chorizong hubad with rice. Same comment as before, masarap pa din! Anyway, we decided to go home and we were already in the bus when we noticed that the rain stopped.

  • For the past 2 consecutive nights, I had been watching the first few episodes of the 1st season of Jake 2.0.

  • I had been avoiding the calls made by the gym where I was planning to work-out. Arnold was pushing me to do it soon but I just could not because of my erratic work schedules.

  • I have a new violet umbrella, which was bought yesterday.

  • Ok, I think this is enough. =)

2 comments:

  1. Ivan haha I read until the end... grabe nabilib ako sa haba nun. Talagang chronicled. Cheers!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. tanda, hindi kasi ako makapag-blog eh.
    Na-miss ko kaya sinulat ko muna tapos
    tinaype ko na lang ulit...hehehe =D

    ReplyDelete


My Instagram