It came upon a midnight clear...

I stumbled into this really amazing photo, on nationalgeographic.com. It's the number 1 of the top 10 most viewed space photo for the year 2008. Surprisingly, this shot is taken from Manila last Dec 1, 2008. Some big SMILE from the sky huh? maybe because mr. smog gave way for this once in a lifetime sight to see! Way to go Mr. smog!

Here's the link of the TOP 10 space photos of 2008:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/photogalleries/top-ten-space-photos/index.html

Laters!

My 2008 Christmas Day

 

Today is Dec 25th 2008, thankfully this non-Christian dominated nation also marks this day as a red letter day. Well it should, since Singapore is also a melting pot of cultures and religion on both Western and Asian. 

I woke up early today just to make use of the no-work time I have, first thing I did was to look out the window and took photo of how my 2008 Christmas day looks like and it was like this...

Gray skies...and my room is all a mess from last night's should I say modest celebration.

The "bisperas" (eve) yesterday rained the whole day and it was cold too. Which made me and 'le boyfriend decide to indulge ourselves with a Toffe Nut Latte and a Dark Cherry mocha (which I forgot not to order any mocha drinks again). We just sat there at it's Cathay branch hiding both from the rain and the cold, silently sipping on our mugs as he played Fight Night while I was finishing another Gregory Mcguire book. 

I do hope mr. sun will be up today...there's nothing like a perfect holiday than a bright blue-skied breezy sunshiny day.  That's it for my "happy" 2008 Christmas.  

again MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Happy Christmas and have A Cool Yule!!!

It's that time of the year again! I can imagine all those excited faces and festive mood going here and there as early as September. Yeah, for sure since the "BER" month stepped in, Megamall, Galleria, Greenhills (Oh! who wouldn't want to miss the night market and the TIANGGE!) has probably been jam-packed with shoppers who either REALLY shop, or for some who just wants to snoop around and if they're lucky, they could buy whatever-it-is they saw "ON SALE" during the payday.

Surprisingly, although not as early as September but when the red and green month took over the calendar, Singaporeans have been busy with their Christmas shopping too! Yeah, for a Non-Christian dominated nation, it is indeed surprising. There's been sale everywhere. From clothing, furniture, fragrance, electronics, etc! And when it's on sale IT IS ON SALE! much much better than Pinas! I mean, we really didn't want to buy anything that day but we found ourselves, making an impulsive purchase of a rice cooker all because there's a FREE all-in-one Epson Printer (scanner and copier too!) that comes with it.             Rice cooker with FREE printer!!! offer is good while supplies last...  

good deal isn't it?! argh!

BUT STILL, I wouldn't switch the Pinoy Christmas spirit for any items on sale in every corner of Singapore. I just remembered when I went home last October, the minute I stepped in the van (going to terminal 2 for my Bacolod flight) the song "Iba talaga ang pasko sa Pinas" suddenly played (as early as October!), as if it's been cued all along until I boarded the vehicle. 

Anyway, I would rather just sit in front of this monitor and movie marathon the night away while sipping on my only immunity to alcohol (yeah, we got us a Chilean Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc)...not so fancy, I know but what the heck! right? it's the "what are we celebrating for" that counts and person next to you is what matters. Yeah, my present for 'le boyfriend is all prepped up, can't wait for tomorrow!                                                                                              

Of course, we will be chatting with mine and 'le boyfriend's family over Yahoo Messenger. sort of a virtual celebration...anyway, this is by far the simplest Christmas I've had. Nevertheless, I'm still blessed all throughout the year and that's something I should be toasting for tomorrow. 

Cheers to everyone!!! and Happy Yuletide!

Downtime

"I used to love Recess!!!

"Recess is a general term for a period of time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties. In parliamentary procedure, a recess is initiated by a motion to recess.It was invented by Bronson Alcott who wanted his students to have active physical play and time to talk."

Education - "recess" is the North American term (known as "playtime" or "break"

Great Britain - sometimes "playlunch" or "little lunch"

Australia - or "interval" or "morning tea"

New Zealand - for a daily period, typically ten to thirty minutes in elementary school where students are allowed to leave the school's interior to enter its adjacent outdoor playground
source: from Wikipedia.org

Oh! I could very well recall how we all would give a sigh of relief once we hear that 9:00 am (which now on those hours I'm still not back from slumberland when there's an opportunity) bell. Recess time!

Then I would spend the 45-minute break by (literally) chatting with my friends, rubber necking on the school corridors hoping our crushes might pass by while munching on Mr. Chips, Chippy and sipping Coke.
.

..then another bell, and we're back inside the classroom, with a tormenting pop-quiz greeting us or just plainly another subject where we could pretend to stick or faces in the book and hitch a nap. Then somewhere in between there's one subject (or was it the teacher) that (who) perks up everyone just in time, right before our (then) young digestive system would react to hunger....

...yeah..school days...

I do wish economic recess (ion) shares the same definition as the one mentioned above. unfortunately,with the suffix "ion" completely changed the entire word. I just can't help, but feel threatened about it...."

Erase! erase! erase!

It's a Friday, I'm already done with what I have to do and still a long way to go before 6:00pm.

I guess I'm having that downtime, you know, one of those fridays where you just want to sit down, tap that dirty office keyboard and make words out of it.  Pretentiously making clacking sounds as if you really are a guru in using those Autocad shortcut keys, when in fact you are indulge in something else. Like for me for instance, this blog, just to have an entry today (making up for the lost time in blogging haha!) since the silence at this very moment is very deafening.

Yeah there's only four of us here now, Siew Kuan our secretary, Hashima, one of the seniors in the technical department and of course the ever-silent Siaoje (if I spellled that right) and well, me. Everyone is on a meeting, and it's very quiet that maybe my two colleagues (Hashima and Siaoje behind me) has been hearing the grumbling of my stomach out of hunger. The only thing that breaks the silence is the random ringing of the office phone and, well, Siaoje's (reeeally) old radio playing "Merry Christmas Darling" by the Carpenters in that really old unremastered quality as if it's still a cartridge playing (oh! you have no idea!)...Geez it's so friday-like today, really.

If I were to write something substantial and insightful, I would finish the recession (draft) entry above but I chose not to. I've had enough bad news already about the global financial recession for the past months and I don't want to entertain anymore bad newsesses. I just want to linger on this downtime for a while and do some thinking (about what?). It's psychologically healthy anyway (am I going crazy? yeah pun intended) . So, okay, here I  go...liiiiingeeeeerrrrriiiinngggg...

If there's somewhere I wanna be right now, I wanna be in this virtual lakeside park I created (for a project pitch) and stroll with Tom Welling (yeah he's that guy in blue) by that beautiful serene river...and probably ask him if he gets ridiculed by playing Clark Kent....and is he willing to topple down Brandon Routh in red briefs and blue tights? (some fan huh?).

Hold on? what does, this lakeside park and strolling with Tom Welling has to do with recession?...wierd!...oh! okay, like i said I'm liiingeerrrrinnng to this downtime moment so leave me be...

Laters!

A Slipperly Advice

Earlier today (errr...yesterday) while I was doing my usual start-the-weekend-by-cleaning routine, I was reminded about what happened to me three weeks ago.

I was closing the front door as I was leaving for work when something caught my eye in the shoe rack beside our front doorstep, my Gold-slim-purple-and-teal-stripped Havaianas. The left flop was half-contained in the rack, almost touching the floor while the right flop was well-situated on the spray painted bars of the shoe rack. 

I don't know why I have to do it but I took a few precious seconds to glance at my summer companion then turned away and head to the lift. It was wierd because, it's been there all along since we moved here a couple of months ago. Everytime I leave for work, that thing don't usually catch my attention.

When I came back from work that night, I noticed Yana (yeah, I give names to my fave possesions...who doesn't?! who doesn't?!) wasn't there anymore and I thought maybe Kim (one of my flatmates) borrowed it, 'oh it's fine, I seldom use it these days anyway' I thought.  Days after, still no sign of Yana on the shoe rack. That's when I became concerned, 'we (me and my flatmates) usually  let each other know if we borrowed or used something important from someone'...(uh-oh! semi-panic mode!)  so I told Eric about it. When he asked Joyce (our flatmate, who's also the main tenant) if they had a prior experience of their footwear disappearing outside the door and it was confirmed...someone stole Yana...was Yana saying goodbye that morning? was that the last time I'll ever see 'Yana'? why do I have to stare at her that long that morning?...suddenly, the thought sinked in...

...Wha?! I just got robbed! (some serious term huh?)...in (freakin') Singapore!...(rewind!) freakin' Singapore! This was the funny part. I wasn't focused on the thought that I lost my favorite Flip Flops, my old fading stripped Yana who was my ultimate companion (after Eric of course!) the entire summer this year...argh!

Back to the thought..."I got robbed in freakin Singapore!"...Yana got stolen in Singapore. I've been living in Manila for four years and never have I experienced being stolen from. Well, almost, my k500i Sony Ericsson (Homer...don't ask why this name!). I left Homer in the common area when I was still staying in Makati Pension but it was returned to me. The person who found it just "tucked" it away for a while. The point is I got my phone back. As for Yana, it's zero chances of me finding her again which means, I am being stolen from this time.  


Good thing I took photos of her during our trip, at least, I will still get to see her (photo) every once in a while. Anyway, she was prettier in the picture as when I first spotted her on its Greenbelt 5 store. 

 

Gold Yana, you will be remembered, from where you were stolen...

Okay! I admit it, I wasn't too trusting when I was in Manila and now I am (a bit). Ironically, on our office complex, I always pass by a huge tarp hanging by the hawker market saying "Low Crime, Doesn't Mean No Crime"

..."Definitely sooo TRUE!" (a famous line from 27 Dresses)...That's a lesson for me.

Thankfully! I brought my Pink Yana inside for a cleaning weeks before, or else I could have lost both. I'd rather loose the one I bought than the one given to me. The pink one was given to me by Eric's younger brother. He really took the time to call us when he was in Brazil and ask for our foot sizes. It's not a good impression for someone finding out that you don't take care of what they give you...another lesson for me right there!.

Pink Yana, straight from a Brazilian store...

Wow! lesson(s) learned all from 2 pairs of slippers. what about that?   
 

Stuck in The Moment...um....

11:09 a.m., Tuesday, 2nd December 2008, listening to "Clubbed to Death by Robert Dougan (Ministry of Sound Chillout Classic Album). I've been having a hard time, using this frustrating Photoshop Essentials (this is all my office can afford...pathetic I know...)

I wanted to get this rendering done already, but this little Digital tool is more of a hassle than a help. Thus here I am ending up working on something else (this blog...shush!). Speaking of December, it's already the second day of the month! which means...29 days more and another year arrives (ooohhhh scary).That also implies another feat (ahem!...fear) to take which (so far) I don't know what. Travel plans too (this one I am looking forward!) though I also don't know where to.

One thing's for sure though, Eric's brother and his wife will be coming over for the chinese New Year and then they'll make a detour and visit Siem Reap (hopefully Eric and I can tag along). And on either June or September, my parents will visit me here as soon as pap comes back from UB (Ulaan Bator) and we'll head off to KL.

I'm still not content with my 2009 itinerary though, I mean at least the travel plans have a draft, what about work?...opt for a higher responsibility? master's degree? what?...I don't know...(may day! may day!)...It's just that my year 2008 was quite a blast and I want my 2009 to be much better. I guess I just have to wait life is full of surprises anyway...

Happy Thoughts...

Ahhhhhh....I can already smell the saturday morning soap suds on my laundry, woohoo! it's the weekend! Yeah, I'm gathering all my thoughts tonight 'coz it's been reeeeally long since I practiced my writing skills (hopefully it didin't die on me). Everything was just too hectic that I just didn't have the time to really sit down and make words out of this keyboard (sigh). Tomorrow  I'll be doing the usual stuff: laundry, cleanng up and do some self-pampering (to dye or not to dye...).

The past weeks (errrr months) has been pretty much intense. Thankfully, Someone's been watching over me and protecting me. Thus, I was able to get through things. I'm just missing home (surprisingly I miss Manila more than Bacolod). Now that Christmas is just around the corner, and the cool december air is begining to blow, I had a minor surge of homesickness. I missed Eastwood, the smell or Sumthin'Fishy Sisig, the buttered popcorn in the cinema. I missed all those smiling, irritated and sleepy faces inside the FX while being stuck in the traffic going to either Megamall, Galleria or Ayala. 

I can really say that the Filipino warmth (in the Philippines) is way different than anywhere else in the world (as far as I know). My pap and I chat (oh yeah! he's hooked with YM, his favorite icon, "BUZZ" haha!) almost everyday and he's been missing home too (a lot). But I guess knowing that you still have constant connection with your family lessens homesickness. He and mama would go online as early as 9:00 or 9:30 and they would both  BUZZ me (while I'm at work) and ask "hi anak are you busy?" (shaking my head & smiling), and we would just talk about nothings and whatevers. Funny things in the family, bloopers, bad habits, basically everything! When I'm offline they would just say "ok anak, just concentrate on your work if you're busy" 

It's amazing how things turn out differently, as time flew by. The people whom you're used to be "scared" of (one way to put it) are now the ones you crack a joke at and even laugh with. I guess it goes with the adage, "we age like fine wine, the older it gets, the more fermented the taste becomes". It's really heartwarming knowing that you made your parents proud of you. That they are confident and happy of what you have and where you are.

Looking forward to be with 'Ma Famille' one of these days...okay! homesickness gone (poof!), time for a warm shower and lenghty sleep! nytie nyt....splash, splash, sprinkle, sprinkle.........Zzzzzzzzzzzzz....

 

Why do I miss you?

In order for us to really appreciate and interpret a painting, we look at it from a distance. Looking at it too closely makes us see minute details that turns us off on a supposedly stunning artwork.

I must say, this is the essence of distance in every human's lives. Being literally away from someone we really care about makes us realize how more important that person is.

The feeling sucks...big time! You feel lazy and you are uninterested with beautiful things thats happening around you. Smiling, becomes a sugar-coating once you're in front of people. Pretending that you are enjoying a conversation about a drunk colleague but deep down inside you know that you felt void and you're thinking about how that person is doing. You force yourself to sing "Happy" by the squareheads but secretly your soul (in tears) sings "The Distance" by Evan and Jaron.

When you are just by yourself, you are unconsciously smiling at the thought of his ways that actually annoy you. Like, it takes him more that fifteen minutes before he finishes his meal with just literally one spoonful of food on his plate. You find yourself in a grocery aisle where that's were his favorite Skittles "sours" are then you pay for it but you don't even eat them. You find yourself reading all of his love letters before hitting the sack. Things that you haven't felt altogether in a very long time came rushing back all at the same time.

Nevertheless, being away from the person you care about the most is also a worthwhile experience. You are able to see your relationship as a whole and you are able to understand deeply what "you complete me" means. Then the love you felt for that person grows much much deeper and the thrill waiting for you to be reunited is as exciting as when you first met and you are counting down the days before your first monthsery.

The Kid in me

When I was a kid, my parents would always take us to different places around Negros Occidental (the province where I grew up). Then at the start of every school year everybody in class would share about how ones summer vacation go. And of course I would share which beach in Negros we went or which mountain resort we were. Once I'm home I would always ask my parents during dinner, "how come we don't go to Boracay or HongKong or Bohol or Palawan?" then my father would answer "We don't have enough money but after you finished school, you can go to those places as many time as you want" And so I would just quietly finish my dinner and wonder if how long would it take for me to finish school so mama and papa won't have to pay for our tuition so we can go to those places...kids... Now that I am done with school, earning on my own I realized, being in an average family was a blessing in disguise. The thrill of visiting places we've never been before is just like when I was a kid. No comparison about how this and that changed and that awe-feeling and surprise about how beautiful a place is very fresh. Also the idea of going to a certain place for the very first time in many many years is exciting. Like when I went to Pagudpud with my friends. My father is from Pangasinan and almost every two years we go and visit his province, then when I moved in Manila, I spent my summer in Pangasinan every year for four years. It seemed like a routine and not as thrilling as it was. Yet we never had the chance to visit the province of Ilocos Norte (which is 5 - 6 hrs away from Pangasinan) and so when my friends decided to check out the beaches there then the feeling was very nostalgic. I'm seeing a new place just like my childhood days. This is why I love to travel so much! Currently the whole gang is thinking of which place to visit next...and I'll be a kid again by then coz I'm visiting another place for the very first time!