Magnum Opus....

Okay this is going to sound embarrassing, you guys know the Magnum Ice Cream right? The one Eva Longoria Modeled for.

Tonight, is the second time I've had it. YES! The first time was during a free sampling last year, and I just had lunch so I really didn't paid attention to it, I just took a couple bites and threw it away.

Anyway, it was just a while ago, when I really ate it and I mean savoured it like a foodie. Wow! The crust was a Magnum Opus -- of butter! I can imagine a truckload of butter being mixed into a huge steaming tank of chocolate mix for the crust.

I can even hear myself screaming and cussing me "don't load it up! B*itch" and me arguing, "ooohhhh burn!" Though the real question here now is, will Indulge myself again? Hell yeah, I just said the crust was just too buttery that's all.

Besides, I was thinking of writing about food tonight and I couldn't think of any except for my short trip to 7-Eleven which eventually led me to indulge (i'm starting to feel the guilt creeping up now, I shouldn't have bought those).

Talking about Ice cream. I love to have:

- Vanilla / Double Dutch

- Sliced strawberries

- Sliced bananas

- Cornflakes

(if the flavor is rocky road or coffee Crumble just get rid of Cornflakes and bananas)

Mix 'em all up...Grab the remote / Grab a book...Enjoy!

Where was I?

I was flipping through my passport yesterday after we arrived from Penggerang, and I saw three special dates on my passport stamps, I thought it would be nice to document this -- yeah maybe I should.

Sept. 11, 2009

- The Annual memorial of the 9/11 attack

- The Husband's birthday

- Our Engagement date

Jan 1, 2010

New Year's Day. I just started my year somewhere in the globe, and its nice to have it captured on one of the most important legal document you have. Wow, I just marked my year right!

Oct 10, 2010

Well, it's THE 10-10-10, this year's auspicious date. I was stranded in the sky for 3 boring hours and was travelling the whole day. Might not be a good way to spend this once in ones lifetime occurence but at least I got my passport stamped with it! Awesome!

Its funny how mundane things become special just because it was stamped and captured at the right moment at the right time....Interesting!

Kopi, Curry, Briyani and Me.

Here we go! here we go!

Itineraries here we go!

-- "We missed trudging with Trudge while I'm on my Chucks, chuckling while dragging my dirty, dusty and muddy bag...and so the series of epic "trudging(s)" shall resume." --

First stop countdown here we go...tic toc tic toc tic toc!!!!

It'll be just right at our backyard.

Quickly, quickly hope to catch up with you sunny.

Beached, beachy, beaching no longer my thing.

Don't get me wrong!

Sandy, dandy, duney still is lovely.

Like those in Mali.

Though old, cold, moldy bricks

Now gives me the kick.

In the meantime let me just say,

Happy Deepavali!

Photos taken just this afternoon at Little India. I just have to drag myself there, hoping to spot a few opportunities to shoot.

Unfortunately, the smell of curries, briyanis and cutlets are everywhere, it was just too distracting (in a good way!). Long story short, the tongue ruled over art this time.

I "trudged" inside Taj Samudra (Rotti Prata here rocks!) while waiting for The Husband I pondered on the menu but my thoughts drifted away again (daydream ruled over the mind-ha!). Instead, I was reminded of our trip this weekend to Malaysia and our upcoming trip to Indonesia soon after but no so soon (duh?).

Evidently, the silly poem above is the (embarrassing) proof....ooooppps! thoughts driftng again....Namaste!

Wedding Posts: “The Day” September 18, 2010.

5:00am

L'Fisher Hotel

I heard a soft knock – or it was a doorbell, was it? can't remember, I was really sleepy that I dozed back to slumberland. I heard the knock/doorbell again. This is it! It’s our big day. Half asleep I trudged towards the door and opened it, as expected the wedding people. “Staff kami ni Tipay” they politely introduced themselves and so I let them in. This is really it!

Soon enough, Gernie the entourage make-up artist was in the room as well. Omg this is soooo it! I went to my Groom next door, guess what?! He was still asleep, as in snoring asleep! So I woke him up and dragged him for breakfast at the hotel resto (the breakfast buffet wasn't so good btw!). That was the last time we spoke and looked into our just-woke-and-still-want-some-more-sleep faces that morning. I could barely recall the turn of events, the next thing I know, Julius Dinorog was already air-brushing my face. All was running smoothly and everyone was having fun prepping up, then my coordinator's staff assigned to us asked me (in the middle of my make-up!) if where were the bridal car flowers? As I was to provide them. Bang! Le angry bride strike 1 (after 12 months)! So I asked my sis to hand me the contract and read it aloud in front of everyone -- The contract clearly states bla-bla-bla....geeezzz! *i heard excuses*

Anyways, she realized her innocent mistake, she was probably not oriented well by her boss - poor thing. The chitty-chats and whatevers continued. Next thing I know, my pretty bridesmaids were all dressed and they all looked gorgeous. Lito (Lito Inso Photography) and Alvin (Mayad Studios) were taking their turns in directing our poses. Till it was time to leave for the church.

Wait! What about my vows?! Omg my vows!

I have been finding my “me time” to write my vows since we arrived in Bacolod but I had no luck! It’s either me and ‘le fiancé had to be somewhere else or my moody writing mind won’t just cooperate. I remembered I grabbed my pen and mini planner while I was having my make-up with Julius but it’s just impossible to concentrate.

Here we are leaving the room and approaching the Hotel lobby. ‘Le angry bride had a strike 2 and thankfully the last! 'cause I hate getting angry at people. There was only one staff to attend to about 10 people left in the hotel and she seem to not know what to do. Anyway, like I always say, there is no perfect wedding, so whatever!

The moment I saw that it was a bright-sunshiny Saturday just as I have always imagined my wedding day would be, my chest started hammering! Omg! Omg! Omg! And a thousand more of Omg’s.

I thought when Eric proposed, it was going to be the most nervous moment in my life. Well, I was right it was just BY FAR coz the moment I stepped out of L’fisher Hotel, I felt there were excavation, piling and demolition works taking place inside my chest all the same time. I was nervously excited to describe it in two words. I was even distracting myself as tears might come out any minute. I hate crying too by the way.

Wow! This brings back the feeling, man! *deep breath*.

...off to the church.

Anyway, my parents were talking about something while I grabbed my pen and mini planner and started writing. I have no idea how long was the drive from the hotel to the church but I finished it just a few kilometres away, near enough that I could see the cross from afar. My chest starts hammering again like I wanted to get married in private and don’t want everyone to see me cry. A tiny lump starts growing my throat the moment our car entered the church’s driveway and again a thousand – no, this time a gajillion of omg’s!

My parents finally alighted the car to greet the guests and I was left there alone, I tried reviewing my *sigh* cheesy vow intro but I could no longer get my mind to work. All of a sudden the car door opened, it was Julius D. My make-up artist. I tried to casually talk to them and jokingly sang with the weird music that’s playing in the car just to ease the—my tension out.

*Retouches’, laughter, jokes* *Retouches’, laughter, jokes**Retouches’, laughter, jokes*...

Finally, my biggest and the “many(est)” OMGs of all time! The car door opened and Tipay my coordinator and these guys were helping me get out of the car. I feel like a piece of ornamental vase wrapped with lots and lots of butter paper and styro chunks, thank God for my wedding flats it somehow eased out my nervousness!

10:00am

Triumph of the Holy Cross Church

*wedding march*

All were finally settled and me, I am yet to march. Suddenly all eyes are on me *gajillion omgs* I smiled, smiled bigger and smiled a lot while I began marching- slowly slowly. Do not cry!
I saw my parents waiting for me in the middle of the aisle. And so this is really it! -- no tears.

*Bridal march*

Until time for my parents to give me away, *Hugs & kisses* more *Hugs & kisses* finally, I’m on my boyfriend’s arm and spent our last minutes together.

The wedding went really smooth and it was full of laughter with Fr. Mitch’s funny but true sermon. Finally "I Do’s" have been exchanged and Ring’s have been slipped onto each other’s ring fingers. Now time to kiss the bride. No wait! What about the vows. Eric silently told Fr. Mitch, that the exchanges of vows have been skipped. uh-oh!

*Whispers between the the three of us: me, Eric & Fr. Mitch.*

And so the vows we’re said..Eric first.

Need I say more? It wall all captured on Mayad’s SDE. One revelation though, I cried a bit (hehe!) lucky it wasn’t so obvious. So my big smile and laughter still prevailed.

...and so he kissed his bride. *pictorials* more *pictorials and finally off to the reception.*

12:00noon

La Proa Ballroom-main, L'Fisher Hotel

Awesome on-the-spot dance with our awesome ento and my beloved cousins! (thank you paks!),

Programme, lunch, more pictorials and videos followed. Then the remarkable speeches from 5 special people the literally Best man on the planet Mike Logarta, my Father, Manong Bong, Tita Telit and Arch. Aguillon one of our special ninongs.

More greetings, hugs, kisses, handshakes and laughter! Man, that day was just heartfelt...

One of the most awaited parts of every wedding are the video/photo presentation. It was outstanding! *clap* *clap* *clap* Call it bragging but our wedding SDE was one of the best wedding vid by Mayad Studios I have seen. One special moment that kept repeating in my head was when the Mayad Studios logo appeared at the end of the video it was felt strangely familiar like I’m finally looking into Mariah Carey performing live -- too bad I missed her concert at the F1.

As all this time, I would just see Mayad’s name on other people’s wedding vid and now our wedding vid is has the Mayad logo at the end! DAMN!!!! Unbelievable!

The AVP too! Ohhh yes the AVP. I heard cheers, laughter while it was playing and a slight embarrassment as well with my photos back then until it flashed in slow-mo...

You don’t marry someone you can live

You marry someone you can live without

The first photo flashed and the "Ohhhhhhhhs" and "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhs" were non-stop, everyone applauded at the end of the slideshow. Again, it all felt surreal as we are actually looking at Lito Inso’s god-like shots with us on it! DAMN!!!

Geezz! I just could not get over that day. Now here we are, living happily on our ever after, forever and always!

Wedding Posts: A month later.

31 days ago since our wedding...(click the image above -- that's the front cover of our wedding website).

As the cliché goes, “Time flies so fast” (in fact, the whole statement itself is the mother of all clichés), yeah sue me now! But undeniably and ironically, time is the most selfish (and generous) thing in this world and even in galaxies far far away. *wink*

Months and months ago, I and my then fiancé were keeping our weekends busy, besides the normal routine, laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping sat-sun. For a year, we have squeezed-in new tasks on our to do list: clipping inspirations from stacks and stacks of bridal magazines we bought everywhere. Browsing useful wedding websites, making choppy long distance calls back home and deciding if which vendor isn't ink-worthy hence it remains on the shortlist, until we have decided and contacted a few great and talented people for their great wedding stuff! (eeeheem!! you guys know who you are, it was such a privilege!). It was like a "whirlwindy" rollercoaster ride, one minute you have a lot of things in mind then next thing you know it is all over!

(As in worry-free over! Proud to say that when we woke up the day after our wedding, our only worry is what to do with our 3 week vacation as our supposedly post wedding sabbatical for a week in Beijing was cancelled. No loans and no over-budget to worry about! Most of all, none of our parents spent a single cent for the wedding!)

...and so It Happened on September 18, 2010.

Indeed! Our wedding was -- I'd say memorably heartfelt and intimate. Not to mention, the creative minds who worked with us was just overflowing with outstanding skills -- what can we say. Nothing! Hence, not only was the fun double but everyone had a blast and they couldn't get over the event – as this new song by Diana Vickers goes: our wedding was “♫♪stuck like glue♫♪” on everyone’s hearts.

The best part of it all, was when our families and friends were all gathered inside one church, putting aside their individual beliefs. They all prayed, laughed and shared the same faith as Christians with us on that day. This is by far the most touching and overwhelming part of our wedding day. The support, love and most all the blessings of those who spent their entire Saturday with us. It was just a day to be cherished...sooo meaningful.

...we are now husband and wife.

Marriage isn't going to be a 100% smooth ride but it felt great and reassuring to know that someone will constantly hold your hand, wipe your tears or cry with you and will whisper things like “Don’t worry”, ”I’m here”, “I forgive you”, “I’m sorry” when the road gets all bumpy, dusty and hazy.

...and as I have vowed to my husband 31 days ago, I will hold on to my vows and will keep on reminding myself whenever a rough road is up ahead.

(“I may not be a princess on a fairy tale book but I am in our story – our love story and I thank God for the prince charming who is standing in front of me right now.)

"....From this day forth, I will be your missing piece of the puzzle. I Will be the first one to be there for you whether you are happy of you are upset, I will be the warmth you seek for at the end of the day when everyone seems cold, I will be the #1 critic (and fan!) of your matte paintings, beginning now, (counting the imperfections) things will be perfect, just as God had planned our lives, Forever and Always. Palangga-on ta gid ka!”

Happy Monthsary Husband! Palanggaon ta gid ka!

Wedding Posts: The Preperation. A little over a year ago.

I would always compare wedding planning to a graduating student's Thesis or a Board Exam review. I was totally wrong! My two (as my ex-boss would say) amateurish comparisons were definitely the understatements of all time. (geeky quote zooms-in my face “with great power comes great responsibilities”...in 3D text!). Okay! I got it spidey, now shooo!

READY. Sums up the Ghandi-like virtues one can think of and practice in order to pull through those two major achievements on one’s younger (ouch! But true!) days. Am I? Is he? Without a doubt! YES, has been the only answer for both of us.

Yey! we are getting married! ...wedding preps commencing...

I have concluded some unnecessary (for some) but necessary (for me) pointers while planning our BIG day! which might be helpful to some brides-to-be as well. Though my primary purpose is to keep every bit of memory fresh out of the 12-long-months of wedding preps.

It was exhausting(ly fun!) -- specially a week before the wedding, goodness, had it not for the photos and vids and more photos and vids we wouldn't have recalled what happened!

It was frustrating(ly fun) too, we could have gotten ourselves a trip to Italy or Greece or Maldives or USA heck! We could go anywhere we want, with the budget we put aside for the wedding but nope! We would not trade THAT one day for any trips in the world, not even to the moon besides that, there isn't anything to see in the moon anyway (hardy-har-har tickle me)!

But seriously, it was just fun preparing for that one special day! Shopping for rings, shopping for shoes, flipping through magazine pages, doodles and sketches that you later realized it looked horrible so you have to do it again, conceptualizing the theme, decor ideas, cake designs, dress designs, spying (hehe!) on online wedding vids -- some are cheezy, some are cute, some are heartwarming (ours, we have decided to let experts do their thing!), surfing for other people's wedding photos (we sooo loathe too much HDRI's and lomo-like shots! I mean come on! Use a lomo cam then! Instead of your D90 or EOS7D or 5D, that's just ridiculous!).

*sigh* I already miss those days (and nights). This is the real once in a lifetime experience that sadly, not everyone had the privilege to share and talk about. So! here goes my few documented pointers during the wedding preparations.

1. Are you both READY? Are you sure? -- you know what the answer should be.

2. (This is reeally necessary) "THE" Plan B, as sometimes this can be way better and exciting than plan A.

3. Bridal Magazine - Lots and lots of it! You can never have enough. One mag more often than not just have one inspiration that is clip-worthy. Trust me!

4. IDEAS! And I mean original ideas. No one can stop you from admiring someone’s wedding but take note, there is a HUGE difference between admiration and imitation. You don’t want someone describing your day as “very much like so-and-so’s wedding” or you don’t want to hear someone saying “wow! This is all so familiar, remember our friend’s wedding?”. That would be awkward and – what’s the word? “Yucky?”

5. Great and Talented Vendors. Ahhhh...I’ve been dying to blog about this.

I was given a heads up by a friend who got married in Bacolod last September 2008 that SOME local vendors in Bacolod are quite non-responsive over emails. Lo-and-behold, I had my own taste of a snail's pace work ethics of some vendors. After 3-4 weeks ( even longer than that) of waiting -- I got replies that usually begin with “SORRY...”

“I was busy with my other client...”. Talking about business ethics, I have never, not even once said this to my clients and would never say this, ever!

“...Our computer was down” – OMG! I actually don’t know what say except, Soooo? No back-up plan? Some experienced vendor huh???

“ the staff-in-charge went AWOL” -- I shall quote Miranda Priestly “details of your incompetence does not interest me”

And many (I’d say) other LAME excuses...

It’s as if you, as a client would have to beg them to be your vendor. Yes! You got that right – YOU(client)-BEG-THEM(vendors). Well in our case, nope! That’s not how it works. Too bad they were not able to work with the easiest client on earth!

No offense but I'm just stating my own opinion based on my first hand experience.

Though there were two vendors I really admired! They were the perfect examples of working like pros!

Ysabelles' Bridal, Tita Lynette Villanueva was very accommodating and keeps you posted for any changes or better suggestions she might have! hence many loved my gown and the ento dresses! In fact the ento dresses were not according to my original design due to some constraints on the , cut, hems and other tailor whatchamacallits but turned out more prettier and more original besides that the ladies who wore the dresses were already pretty!

Honey Grace Cakes! (Thanks Ivz!) Honey Grace herself attended to me and patiently answered all my innocent queries! As I have zero know-how about cakes! The moment I stepped into her store, I haven't left till way beyond closing hours till all queries and doubts were settled! She even took time to do the mock-up of the cake layer set-up as my idea was kinda experimental but we later on pulled it off! By the way I later found out she is one of the local TV personalities in Bacolod. How cool is that?!

So bride’s-to-be out there, better have someone whom you can really ask to do things for you if you can’t be physically around on the early stages the wedding planning. Had it not for my dearest sis Vannie (she is indeed the real maid-of-honor!) and bestfwend Ivy (my own personal Bride’s maid), I could not imagine what the output would be. You guys can actually start a wedding coordination partnership!

Albeit some internal mishaps during the wedding day, we pulled it off! There is no such thing as the perfect wedding anyway. Everyone loved and enjoyed the whole event and that’s what matters. Looking back, it seemed like it was all dream, so surreal that we even ask ourselves

“How on earth did we do it?!” -- here goes the answer...

...and the most important tip of all time...

6. Leave it to the experts! They know better best! Quit being the all-knowing-yet-knows-nothing "expert"!

September 11, 2009: Life Changing Day

I have finally drifted onto “my space” and I mean me and my mind working together in silence, travelling back through time and picking up bits and pieces of breadcrumbs (not for solving crimes, this ain’t CSI!) that can feed my mind.

12 months and 27 days ago in Amari Coral Beach Resort wharf in Phuket, Thailand. I was asked a life changing question which I suppose there should be 2 choices for an answer, a YES and a NO where the former awaits a happy ever-after while the latter will devastate not only me and Eric but the people who knew us as well.

Anyway, back to The Question -- there has been only one answer for me.

Just Y-E-S...

It was not like in the movies where everything was all perfect -- zoom-in-slow-mo shot-like moment where the guy have John Cusack’s perfect soft spoken voice as he is uttering his proposal speech that melted the girl’s heart and got her all choked up while cupping her nose and mouth, then she finally says yes in tears as the guy slips the ring on her finger and then another staring-onto-each-other’s-eye-moment where the world stopped revolving while slow melancholic music starts playing. Nope! Not even close.

Ours was just purely spontaneous and fun topped with (cute) blooper moments BUT despite of those “moments”, I would not (ever!) trade it for anything expensive in the universe. Those few precious minutes were just priceless and could never be equal to the diamond ring being slipped onto my finger.

That windy sunset with its golden rays peeking through the clouds and waves drifting beneath the wharf shall be kept fresh on a vacuum tight compartment in our now united hearts and shall be later re-lived in time we re-tell this funny story to our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

***