Lavender & Coffee Stains

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game and leave a comment on their comments box or the like saying they've been tagged.

Dear Me,

Currently, I am at the office and when I am obviously here and being lax, that means I don't have any projects tumbling one after the other. But guess what? I am busy. *winks*

• I am reading through tons of digests of global and domestic trade and industry. I am sort of prepping myself for this job-related exam this week. Honestly, I do not have any idea what the exam is all about. Maybe those so-called entrance/application exams those companies require just for formality's sake. I am making the effort of reviewing and studying now to lessen the pressure.
  
  
• I am browsing through summer promo packages from Island Cove. I am planning to bring my folks and my siblings there next month. I have been wanting this elusive family get-away since last year. I want my father to join us and since he lives now in Cavite, the nearest escape would be the Cove. I emailed the Cavite Sales Office but their inbox is already full. I resorted to emailing their Makati Sales Office and hopefully, I would be able to get a feedback soon.
  
  
• For credits, I am surfing BE. When I am busy but not-that-kind-of-busy type (when I have projects), this surfing thing is becoming a part of my internet routine.
  
  
• I am updating my planner, too. For once, I am rabidly jotting down schedules that excludes work. This thing only happens when the summer and holiday months commence.
  
  
• I am also exchanging emails with 2 people right now. Basically, they are my prospects - people who will fill up the 2 recommendation forms required for my admission in graduate school.
  
  
• Hmm. What else? I am checking, reading, replying, deleting messages from my 2 personal inboxes. Sometimes, I forward worthwhile messages to concerned recipients.

Boracay eyed as hotel hub
Ritz Carlton, Shangri-La see boom in RP tourism

CEBU CITY — Major players in the international hotel industry like the Ritz Carlton and Shangri-La are now eyeing Boracay as a prospective site for their upscale hotels, said Sammie Lim, chairman for tourism of the PCCI Tourism Committee during a press briefing for the BizTour 5.

The BizTour program aims to boost the local economy and alleviate poverty by developing the tourism potentials of the country.

According to Lim, with the world-class quality of beaches in the Philippines, it is no wonder that potential investors are coming in by the bunch to infuse fresh capital into the country’s tourism industry.

Cebu Plus, one of the programs that resulted from the BizTour initiative, is a five-year program aimed at attracting five million tourists to Cebu annually by 2010.

Proponents of the program have assured that Cebu, and its surrounding clusters, is highly suitable for tourists who have a penchant for gaming, adventure, sightseeing and wellness as it offers a wide variety of activities for them to choose from.

It also assures tourists of 3.5 million annual international air seats in Cebu Plus and the world-class condition of the Mactan International Airport, which operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

It also boasts of the high visibility, friendly and knowledgeable tourism police, which eliminates security as an issue in visiting the province.

Other parts of the Cebu Plus cluster are Mactan, South East Cebu, South West Cebu, North Cebu, North East Cebu, Bohol, Dumaguete, Siquijor, Boracay, Bacolod , Iloilo, Palawan, Tacloban and Guiuan, while it also offers access to Palawan, Surigao, Siargao, Iligan, Dipolog, Zamboanga, Cagayan. Camiguin, Legaspi and Sorsogon.

The target of five million tourists annually within a five year period is actually a very modest figure considering that Malaysia has been securing tens of millions of tourists, along with Thailand, which has a number of beaches considered by industry leaders as a far cry from Boracay.

According to Lim, also president of Automatic Appliances, Inc., the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has mobilized its network of 110 chambers and 35 foreign bilateral business councils nationwide to help out in this ambitious program.

The tourism plan is anchored on the country’s five major international gateways — Laoag, Subic Clark, Manila, Cebu and Davao.

By 2010, the planners believe they could secure $5 billion annually in tourism receipts. They aspire to create five million jobs on the fifth year of the program.

"Before, the country has continuously failed to surpass the two million tourist per year mark. Since the program was launched two years ago, the country now has 2.3 million visitors coming in annually," he said.

He attributed the increase to the program’s drive to promote medical tourism, gaming and other opportunities in the country, even as they continue to push the Philippines to be included in major cruises and tour packages like its other Asian counterparts.

Cebu Pacific adds HK flights

Cebu Pacific (CEB) will add another frequency to its Manila-Hong Kong route, increasing its flights from 14 to 17 times weekly, starting April 3, 2006. The additional service is scheduled to operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The Manila- Hong Kong flight departs at 7:25 p.m. while the Hong Kong – Manila flight leaves at 10:10 p.m. 'Go' fares for Hong Kong start at P1,999 one way and are available year-round. "The additional service is brought about by market growth and the constant increase in CEB passenger loads since the introduction of the Hong Kong 'Go' fares in January 2006," said Cebu Pacific General Manager, Danilo Mojica II. He emphasized that the re-launch of their website (http://www. cebupacificair.com) with real time booking had a major impact on their market growth. The airline opened its first regional office in Kowloon, Hong Kong last October 2005 to facilitate ticket sales and function as a customer service desk for the large OFW market in Hong Kong. CEB’s Hong Kong office also handles the airline’s promotion and marketing efforts in HK, China, Macao, Taiwan and Japan.

...Grand-pa entertains you with very funny and sometimes pretty lame jokes, interesting, motivational or educational stories and also teaches you fun facts to improve your general knowledge and offers tips on how to stay healthy."

• Your solid grounding in the practicalities of life, along with your self-assuredness and your willingness to appreciate new things make you a leader.
  
  
• You're in touch with what is going on around you and adept at remaining down-to-earth and logical.
  
  
• Although you're detail-oriented, this doesn't mean that you lose the big picture.
  
  
• You tend to find beauty in form and efficiency, as opposed to finding it in broad-based, abstract concepts.
  
  
• Never one to pass on an adventure, you're consistently seeking and finding new things, even in your immediate surroundings.
  
  
• Because of this eagerness to pursue new experiences, you've learned a lot; your attention to detail means that you gain a great deal from your adventures.
  
  
• The intellectual curiosity that drives you leads you to seek out causes of and reasons behind things.
  
  
• Your confidence gives you the potential to take your general awareness and channel it into leadership.
  
  
• You're not set on one way of doing things and you often have the skills and persistence to find innovative ways of facing challenges.
  
  
• You are well-attuned to your talents and can deal with most problems that you face.
  
  
• Generally, you believe that you control your life and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.

• You do not have a hard time meeting new people and you have a bunch of close friends.
  
  
• You are not overly concerned with what others may think about you, which leaves you free to be thoroughly involved in the world around you.
  
  
• There are those who find being around people exhausting — but not you! Interacting with others, whether at a party or in conversation, gives you energy.
  
  
• You have a strong sense of what the world is like and how it should be.
  
  
• You have enormous respect for those who have earned their success and have little patience for those who try to bend the rules or ride on the coattails of others' hard work.
  
  
• Believing in the importance of integrity and hard work doesn't stop you from believing that people will do the right thing — you know that people are good at heart.
  
  
• You sometimes have trouble understanding why others feel the way they do, but it doesn't stop you from having faith and trust in those around you.
  
  
• Part of what makes engaging with people so interesting for you is that you occasionally learn something new about yourself or about a problem you're having when discussing things with others.
  
  
• Your strong worldview leads you to believe that people shouldn't rely on their emotions so much when making decisions.

Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?

I've realized that sometimes you get no second chance and that it's best to accept the gifts the world offers you. If I must be faithful to someone or something, then I have, first of all, to be faithful to myself. If I'm looking for true love, I first have to get the mediocre love out of my system. The little experience of life I've had has taught me that no one owns anything, that everything is an illusion - and that applies to material as well as spiritual things. Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realize that nothing really belongs to them.

And if nothing belongs to me, then there's no point wasting my time looking after things that aren't mine; it's best to live as if today were the first (or last) day of my life.

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end.
If we insist on staying longer than the necessary
time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the
other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles,
shutting doors, ending chapters - whatever name we
give it, what matters is to leave in the past the
moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship
come to an end? Did you leave your parents' house?
Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship
ended all of a sudden? You can spend a long time
wondering why this has happened. You can tell
yourself you won't take another step until you find
out why certain things that were so important and so
solid in your life have turned into dust, just like
that. But such an attitude will be awfully stressing
for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or
wife, your friends, your children, your sister,
everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over
new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all
feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the
same time, not even when we try to understand the
things that happen to us. What has passed will not
return: we cannot for ever be children, late
adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards
our parents, lovers who day and night relive an
affair with someone who has gone away and has not
the least intention of coming back. Things pass, and
the best we can do is to let them really go away.
That is why it is so important (however painful it
may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of
things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books
you have at home.

Everything in this visible world is a manifestation
of the invisible world, of what is going on in our
hearts - and getting rid of certain memories also
means making some room for other memories to take
their place. Let things go. Release them. Detach
yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with
marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we
lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not
expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius
to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop
turning on your emotional television to watch the
same program over and over again, the one that shows
how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is
only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love
relationships that are broken off, work that is
promised but there is no starting date, decisions
that are always put off waiting for the "ideal
moment." Before a new chapter is begun, the old
one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has
passed will never come back. Remember that there was
a time when you could live without that thing or
that person - nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is
not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even
be difficult, but it is very important. Closing
cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or
arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits
your life.

Shut the door, change the record, clean the house,
shake off the dust. Stop being who you were, and
change into who you are.

"Love is a commitment of the heart that will stand
the test of wavering emotions, intellectual
rationalizing, circumstantial allure, hormonal
infatuation, and even the wounds of your lover.
Anything less is not true love."