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...