When I think of "years", I usually label it with a significant happening in my life.  Usually achievements which I consider as my badges of honors.  2002 was the year I graduated, 2003 was when I passed the boards, 2004 was when I had my first legit job, 2005 was when I went back to school for a second degree, 2006 was when I finished the requirements for the degree and 2007 was when I passed the boards for that 2nd degree, (2008?! err, my sister got married? I took my first (non-credit) master's class), 2009 was when I formally entered grad school.  What the hell did I do for 2010, 2011, 2012?  Life stopped happening due to grad school.  Haha.

But really, what happened in 2012?  The blur of 2010 and 2011 were brought about by not so pleasant events.  It had been scary, depressing and utterly life changing to say the least.  It had been a struggle since then.  I share a Chinese zodiac with my mom, since she gave birth to me @24.  Come new year we talk about astrology, luck, horoscopes and the like.  She mentioned an 8-year cycle thingy I did not understand.  Then I realized I had 8 years of bliss before the challenges.  Would that mean this cycle of struggling would continue in the next 6 years?! NO!  I refuse to believe that because it's depressing!  This is how most Filipinos take astrology and predictions.  We believe what we want and what appears to be good and reject the bad.  The Chinese on the other hand, take both, enhances the good and work around the bad.  Just maybe I should do that.

So before I leap into the coming year with positivity and good vibes in mind, let me do a meme I copied from a friend and summarize my year that was 2012.


What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?

Resign and go through the painful and difficult last month at work.

Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I did not commit to any I think ( will check)

Did anyone close to you give birth?

as in 'close'? none  Got married? A LOT.

Did anyone close to you die?

Thank God, none.

What countries did you visit?

None!  Philippines? lols

What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012 ?

Lots and lots of cash.  Haha.  A license maybe and a car.  Dream big, why not.

What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

12.21.12 need not explain why.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Simbang gabi! Punctuality (slight, haha). bum, what a loser year. hahaha

What was your biggest failure?

Supposedly career shift?

Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing serious.

What was the best thing you bought?

Peace of mind and nude flats. *wink*

Whose behavior appalled you and made you depressed?

unprofessional people, ehem.  adam lanza. CJCorona and tito sotto.

Where did most of your money go?

Boracay trip, Bills! Clothes? and Food.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Summer in Boracay!

What song/s will always remind you of 2012?

Call me maybe, gangnam style, A thousand years(twilight)

Compared to this time last year, are you:

a. Happier or sadder? Same
b. Thinner or fatter? Same.  Ok maybe a little fatter.. ugh!
c. Richer or poorer? Embarrasingly poorer. waaahh!

What do you wish you'd done more of? 

Pretend jogging in the treadmill, badminton, swimming
reading, reading, reading (both scholarly and recreational)

What do you wish you'd done less of?

Staying up late, taking cab rides, procrastinating.

How will you be spending Christmas?

A quick trip to the province for the ze grandpa and the fam, noche buena, xmas day lunch, sadly no parlor games :(

Did you fall in love in 2010?

Romantic: No, Non-romantic: Yes, Idea:Yes

What was your favorite TV program?

Game of Thrones, Survivor, Grey's, HIMYM and Once upon a time

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Yes. No. Confused.

What was the best book you read?

The Host. 

What was your greatest musical discovery?

One Direction? bwahaha

What did you want and get?

Time, peace of mind and breathing space.  Haha

What did you want and not get? 

An ipad mini.  And a job I really, really liked.

Favorite film of this year?

The Hobbit. Hunger Games!

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

32, went to Manila Cathedral for mass and heritage tour, spent half of it in Ace water spa with ze sister, ze cousin and ze aunt.  Pigged out on DQ ice cream cake.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Travel.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?

Recycled.

What kept you sane?

Wongfu, tv, documentaries and romcoms

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Will&Kate, Azkals, Wongfu, Zach Levi, Ellen, David Nolan, Anderson Cooper.

What political issue stirred you the most?

Impeachment, RH Bill.  other issues: Newtown killings, plagiarism

Who did you miss?

A lot of bestest friends who were MIA.

What did i miss?  A lot of milestone events.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.

Saving is important.  If only I'd been faithful to my savings and financially wise, I should probably be half way the 'savings goal' I promised myself the year I graduated. :(

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

"Welcome to the fallout. Welcome to resistance. The tension is here. Between who you are and who you could be.  Between how it is and how it should be..  Dare you to move."

The most touching experience you've had this year?

?

What did you like most about yourself this year?

I had been brave, more compassionate and more accepting.  I liked my ombre hair and curls (babaw)

What did you hate most about yourself this year?

Staying up so late (like 4am), being lethargic (I loved the concept of doing nothing), accumulating debt (bad,bad, bad)

Was 2012 a good year for you?

It was so-so, not on the list of my favorites.

There were only 2 things that could have been reasons why I was not able to sustain the simbang gabi posts..
     1)  holiday rush
     2)  exhaustion

It's actually the second one.  This simbang gabi routine messed up my body clock big time.  Being most active beyond midnight, I was not able to force myself to sleep before 12 hence a very bad sleep cycle.  I used to sleep 1am the latest and wake up 6am on a work day.  On a regular day, I figured my system wakes at 7am.  I knew this by making a simple experiment of sleeping and waking on the same hour for 5days then sleeping at the same time but forgoing the alarm for the next days.  The time you wake without the alarm is when your system is up and about (ideally).  This bothers me big time because if I snooze at 1am and wake up at 7am, that's just 6 hours of sleep! Oh no!  Well maybe my body just needs 6 hours of sleep to recharge.

So what happened..  Let me try my best to remember..

Day 4:
Church had been same every morning hence.  Same faces I see, same amount of people.  At this time I'm starting to feel the difficulty to wake up.  I really really thank my trusty alarm.  Decided to change routes going home to stop by jollibee.  The 24 hour store nearby was deserted at 5:30am.  I even thought it was closed for the day!  Gladly I was brave enough to walk-in.  I love quiet dine-ins, I'm weird like that.  I like the calmness of being alone.  I guess I'm really anti-social.

Jollibee wins over Ronald in terms of food choices ( and hot chocolate by default).  Because of that I had a hard time deciding what to order. And so.. I had pancakes, rice and longganisa.. bwahaha.. I'm using the excuse that breakfast should be the heaviest meal of the day :)

Day 5
The nights are getting longer and longer.. This day I went directly home after mass and it was still dark!  I was also way too sleepy to think about food so straight to bed!

Day 6
My cousin informed me that the bishop is saying mass on another nearby church today.  And so I decided to go to this church instead.  Fyi, the church mentioned is actually our parish church.  It's nearer (walking distance actually for non-lazy people unlike me) BUT mass starts 30mins earlier!  The time was one of my biggest considerations.  Although I rarely go to sunday mass here because it's more crowded and humid.  My family had been attending mass in the 'farther' church because of parking concerns so I technically think of it as our 'community'.  Another weird fact is that the mentioned cousin is the only other person who attends dawn masses BUT he goes to the 'nearer' church.  Haha.  Funny we leave the house separately everyday and people think we actually go to mass together yet it happened only once!  The mentioned cousin is a teen so this set-up is actually not weird.  Go figure. (clue:simbang socials)

And did I mention? The world supposedly ends today.  No mention at all in the mass.  We just joked that if in case, at least both of us are blessed by the bishop.

Day 7
I can see the finish line, and it keeps me going!  The dawn mass pilgrimage is actually not a huge sacrifice on my part.  I do not have to go to work or rush somewhere on any day.  My to-go-to's are all flexi time.  I can sleep all I want after mass except for 1 or 2 days I think on which I had errands.  But because I'm a night owl, it's always a debate whether I sleep or just do an all-nighter and sleep after.  All the time I snooze before the alarm rings.  Ergo I'm a groggy mass goer every single day, fueled only by 1-2 hrs of nap.  There were days when I wanted to just quit my promise and succumb to the wonderfulness that is my bed.  But I know that there are things greater than me.  And this sacrifice is way way smaller than what I always ask and receive from God.  That simple thought and the knowledge that I can sleep afterwards is what got me going.  Haha.

Breakfast was bacon and eggs!  Been craving for the longest time.  Afterwards I felt too guilty with all the bad cholesterol I consumed.

Day 8
I was lucky to have a mass celebrant who has tons of humor in him even in the wee hours of the morning.   When we almost falter, he reminds us everyday of how harder it is to be the celebrant and a servant of Christ.  Of how tedious the journey of Jesus' family on the days prior to his birth.  We should always be reminded of how privileged we are to share the blessings brought about by Jesus' birth.

Day 9
Maybe I skipped to church this day.  Upon waking all I thought of was 'I made it!' Thanks to the Lord's guidance I was able to make a sacrifice.  The church was also at its happiest today.  All of us felt accomplished and worthy of all of the blessings to come.  By the end of the mass, the sacristans asked for an audience and did a mini(?) concert for the mass goers.  They sang, danced, joked.  Yes for fund raising but they did a good job to entertain the people.  Whatever they got from the baskets they definitely deserve in my opinion.  What I didn't like was that when they were about to perform, teens who usually are the ones who appear lazy, distracted and/or socializing rushed to the front to find a good spot.  These girls were looking for their crushes!  And the teen boys of course were sizing their competition.  Teens, teens, teens.  I am aware that the fact that I am annoyed by them is brought about by a widening age-gap and being a boring adult.  This actually scares me but how can you prevent it?  Age definitely makes you wiser but not 'cooler'

So that folks concludes my 9-day dawn mass promise.  It's the least I can do for Jesus' birthday.  Definitely it was one of my greatest accomplishments of 2012. 

Posting this 14 days after Christmas, day after my birthday.  My commitment to post more is a little fail.  The holidays definitely is the busiest time of the year.  After this I still have a backlog on 1) year in review / holidays post 2) my new year resolutions and my 2013 goals 3) my birthday post.

Late, late, late.  Let's change that one step at a time.  Haha.
 

Day 2

Obviously I was too groggy to post yesterday I completely forgot about it.  Therefore I'm writing a double day post today. :)

Day 2 was a success.  Except that I'd been sprinting to the tricycle terminal and then to church again.  It's disappointing too that I shell out P32 because again nobody to share the trike with.  Seeing XPJ parked conveniently at where I start sprinting doesn't help too.  I need to bond with that car asap. 

A noticeable 10% decrease on attendance was probably brought about by 1) 1st day being a Sunday ergo free day for most peeps  2) day 2 was a hectic Monday and 3) as expected the lure of the bed gets stronger.  For me though everyday is a free day! So sleep can wait.  And because of that my regular night sleep is becoming a nap.  And I sleep longer after breakfast.  Messing the body clock all the more.  Very bad.

Gospel was about the genealogy of Christ.  Well actually 'genes' are not involved since Joseph was not Christ's biological father.  But you all know about the mystery of Christ's divinity and humanity so let's not confuse ourselves further.  (insert thoughts on dan brown's da vinci code --> if I'm damned to hell I'm blaming this haha)

Take the challenge then and trace your own roots and see if your ancestors paved the way to your destiny and if you carry a little bit of the family in you. Worth another post! :)

Breakfast today was c/o my wallet and McDonald's.

That of course is their Big Breakfast in California.  My dream nomnom.  Here we get the pancakes and the sausage, that's it.  Bacon is non-existent in McDonald's PH breakfast.  You can customize your big breakfast though by ordering : hotcake meal + big breakfast + hash brown = empty wallet

The saddest thing though is that there is no hot chocolate in Mcdo PH. :((  This could have made everything perfect!

Oh well papel, hot chocolate can wait.  I have 7 more breakfasts to look forward to. :)

------------------------------------------------
Day 3

Mornings are getting groggier and sleep is turning into (power) naps.  I slept for less than  2 hours today.  At church I was so afraid I might faint given that I took a long walk, hasn't eaten yet, in a crowded and humid area and had been standing the whole time.  I had too shift my weight on my feet alternately and make small steps to keep alert.  Que horror!  I promise to get a proper sleep today.

No noticeable decrease on church attendance.  Might even had increased slightly.  Hmmm, I wonder why?  Perhaps the teeners are free of school.  Sunrise was earlier too.  I enjoyed the service today.  As a good catholic I shouldn't have a preference on the celebrant but one of our priests is more animated and relatable than the other.  Anyways I don't plan my attendance based on that.

The gospel was about Joseph and the role he played on Christ's birth.  Extraordinary man of sacrifice and obedience too same as Mary.  Jesus had wonderful parents, well duh they were handpicked by God.  What am I thinking all of us are handpicked by God!  Not all of us had been lucky though.  Some had parents as the cross they had to carry through life.  One of the things that are hard to fathom about our faith but we trust that God's wisdom is beyond ours.
                                      


Breakfast today was c/o my wallet again and 7-eleven.  I had to get over the hot chocolate craving from yesterday thus I walked beyond McDonald's to 7-eleven.  Yey! for Hershey's hot chocolate.  Add hotdogs to that and my morning is complete.  Simple joys.

As I'm writing this post, it's 12:58 am and I have to be up and about again in 3 hours for day 2 dawn mass vigil.  I have 2 options now: 1) stop this and sleep right away or 2) write a long post (as I always do) and don't sleep.  The second one looks appealing and seems to be a good choice but it's feeding a bad habit of inducing insomnia.  Ergo I'm writing a short post and then will go nap. You can't call 3 hours 'sleep'.

So, yesterday was day 1 of 2012 dawn masses.  It's not that cold at dawn this time so waking up was a tiny bit less difficult.  My unpredictable fone alarm did it's job this time thus it was up to me and my lazy butt to go move.  There was not a single soul in our street when I went out and public transport was rare, maybe because it was a sunday.  No choice but to walk.  A 24-hour tricycle terminal is about 3 blocks away but commuters are nowhere to be found so I had to take a special trip (P32).  I wish I had a bicycle.  From the opposite end of the terminal was the church, with a little walk again.  As expected the church was a blockbuster.  It was the first day of the traditional dawn masses and it was a sunday, perfect.

Same old scenarios in the church, teenagers with friends who were either dozing off or chatting too much.  Families tagging along even the small ones who were dozing of too or being too rowdy.  And the usual churchgoers.  The mass was RH Bill centered, the church has really strong opinions about this bill.  I wonder how many of the people really did care or had similar/opposing stands.  The mass ended with a production number from the youth org and the traditional Christmas songs ( noticeably always the abscbn Christmas song of the year)

Day 1 was cheery and very encouraging.  I did not explore the food booths around.  Surprisingly I wasn't hungry yet.  Haha.  So no breakfast for today.  Walking home it was just the break of dawn and I noticed that despite the pollution, the skies still turns pink and orange and peach.  It was indeed a beautiful morning to behold.

My morning ended when I reunited with my bed.  Haha, there goes my early morning routine.  I have a feeling tomorrow would be no different except maybe I'll have the appetite for breakfast.  :)

why am i awake at 3:39AM?

Well, I had a full blown fit around midnight brought about by stupidity.  When things don't go my way, I turn into an ugly monster.  There fyi lies my weakness.  That's one trait I am aware I should work on, but obviously I haven't manage it.  Good thing awareness/acceptance is the first/second step to change (N.Branden).  I am on the right track then.

Moving on, this whole day I've been feeling so emo.  I had been carrying this heavy heart not knowing how to lighten it.  I am aware that I'm such a toughie.. side story: In highschool, there was an instance when the whole class was in tears over something I can't even remember now.  The whole class except me!  I was laughing at my seat mates due to the silliness of it all when alas! I got scolded by the teacher for making fun of the issue.  Yep, that's me.  The seemingly cold hearted batch of the group.

I don't know if it's a Capricornian thing, but I tend to keep my feelings in check.  I detach from the emotional quite successfully.  Oh wow, I just realize I'm such a male.  Haha.  It must have been the testosterone then.  *pauses to check if I'm starting to grow a mustache*

Yes I am quite aware that I am like this.  I'm not the cray cray type.  I have ways on how to put myself in check.  I forecast, infer and psych myself of the things that are about to (or not) happen.  Detach is the operative word.  If you don't allow yourself to relate then it can't affect you.  I can't possible say that it's voluntary.  I've known myself to be like this since I can't remember when.  In fact, in the latter years I lose some ability to detach.  I get teary eyed now while watching touchy, emotional videos.  And since I am not used to being craycray, I hate it.  Haha.

Today though was different.  At one point I was trying to induce myself to cry just to feel better.  It's this "heavy heart" feeling that messes me up today.  I've been thinking a lot, and those worries that I keep tucked in the corner of my mind suddenly steps forward all at once.  Haaay, how to get rid of this.

I have a plan for tomorrow.  I certainly hope I lose this emo feeling.  For god's sake it's the holiday season!

Damon-might-be-Christian vs Edward

Nope, at this moment I'm starting this post I haven't yet watched the final twilight movie.  But of course I would watch it.  How can I miss out on extreme cheesiness?  I feed on that.  Haha.

I admit I am a closet twihard.  Embarrassing as it maybe for adults like me, I rode the bandwagon.  I read (and bought) all the books.. and read even the rewritten twilight book in edward's pov.  Forgive me, cheesiness runs through my veins.  For a hopeless romantic as I am, twilight is a great read.  Except that the girl lead is the worst characterization of what a 21st century girl should be.  She's weak, needy, and irritating.  Thus a whole lot of gag is made mainly on her.  Which relates to the other half topic of this post, Anastasia Steele.  In my opinion Isabella Swan = Anastasia Steele.  See that parallel based merely on their names?  In fact they are similar in most ways.  You would definitely get it if you've read both sagas.  I can't help but postulate that Edward Cullen - vampire = Christian Grey - quirky sex life.  Both handsome, rich, powerful men who fell in love and seems can't resist plain janes who are almost always helpless. What isn't a ripoff nowadays anyway.

I'd probably take Edward Cullen - vampire over Christian Grey - quirkiness given a choice.

The fact that I  bought the twilight books meant that I planned to loan it to my younger cousins.  In fact since I only borrowed the first book way back, I bought them a new one and hard bound at that since a copy is hard to get at that time. My only disclaimer then was that the narrative is poorly written grammatically.  In fact a site is dedicated to mocking the book's text and doing corrections.  I guess it's written in slang or maybe conversation language much the same as how I write in this blog.  I try as much as I can to follow the rules of grammar but trying to sync your thoughts to your typing skills is a quite a challenge.  In short I'm lazy like that.  (Note to self: Fix your writing skills!)

The 50 Shades series I never bought.  One, because I discovered the awesomeness of a gadget and ebooks put together and also because I felt it was not worth it.  I haven't even finished half of the series ( also because the gadget gave up on me..)  My sister had prior knowledge about this book before me.  That is because she works with adult thinking adults while I work with kid thinking kids and adults.  She dislike the book saying it's too much like porn.  This coming from a married person I was hesitant to get in the bandwagon.  Curious as I was though I had to gauge it myself so I dive in.  My first impression is that it is actually porn literature.  Then in my head I instantly correlated it to twilight.  What struck a cord on me though was the fact that teens dig this.  This definitely is adult literature!  50 more shades darker than twilight.  To think that S.Meyer admitted then that she wrote twilight for adults like her and not teens.  EL James probably wrote 50 shades for married women , therefore I shouldn't be even reading it.  And yet the kids?! I see posts like "Christian Grey ♥ " and hear kids compare their boy classmates to him makes me see red.  What kind of men would they be attracted to?  What kind of expectations would they have on relationships?  Christian Grey is definitely not the ideal.  He's the flaw.  But teens see that as a good thing.  I fear for this would-be-adults.  My younger cousins knows about my dislike to which this book caters.  I threaten to tell their parents what it is about, hence they continue reading it and talking about it in secret.  Damage I guess is done.  This is how social media tricks issues of morality and righteousness.  See, this is how affected I am of the situation I turn preachy.  

Anyways I managed to just be sensitized about it and vow not to have children if these things I can't control.  Haha

Back to twilight.  Since the books and the movies were such huge phenomenon, production had money to spend on great add-ons.  And the soundtrack is something to rave about.  Check it out.  The most iconic of which would probably be Christina Perri's A thousand years.  I heard this over the radio and thought this would be a great Edward song for Bella.  Then I discovered it was in fact written for breaking dawn and with the Edward-Bella wedding in mind.  Hence I liked the covers sung by guys better.  It makes oit more meaningful that way because you kinda think of Edward.  Haha cheesy...

So with that note, I end this post with by far my favorite cover.

I am at a food binge this week.  One day I ate a Mcdo full meal, make that large fries, iced coffee, cheeseburger and caramel sundae.  A little after Dunkin bunwich (just because I miss it), doughnut (I can't resist!) and hot chocolate. Then there was siomai, tapa, eggplant omellete and sisig for dinner!  Yes I ate all.  The only thing I let pass was guinatan bilo-bilo, which is really all I'm supposed to eat that afternoon because my mom knew it is a favorite.  She never knew I chose to bingefest over her thoughtfulness.

I went out Wednesday to do some errands.  Since it was near where my sister work, I txted her so we could go home together.  But since we cannot agree on who goes where, we decided to meet-up on a nearby mall.  It took her ages to arrive, actually mass had ended way before she came.  Hence, it was dinner so I convinced her to eat first.  Lo and behold in front of us was Yabu.  I've always wanted to try out the best katsu place in town, as was claimed by its patronage.  I guess then was my chance..so there we dine.

As per info on their website, they only have 1 branch : Megamall.  I am not sure though cause I've heard too much of this place, there must be one in Makati.  They occupy a huge space in the Atrium, but during its initial hype there was a waiting list!  Imagine that, definitely a craze.  When we went it was weekday dinner, the place had a lot of patrons but a lot of tables are still available.  It was our first time to dine there, maybe it was quite obvious to the staff because they were extremely gracious and helpful.  I like Japanese restaurants, the sole thing I order though is Gyudon because I love Gyudon.  So first thing I look for was 'gyu' (beef), there was none.  Of course it was a Katsu house!

Actually katsu is a shortcut of katsuresu which means 'cutlet'.  Nothing at all to do with having no beef in the menu.  In fact katsudon dish originated when Japan started opening its doors to Western culture.  Hence katsudon was originally beef cutlet.  But pork was way better as katsu so that it became what it was known for.  It was not all pork katsu in the menu though, they do have chicken and seafood.  Yabu prides itself to having a master katsu chef for a consultant, Chef Takeda of Japan.  This better be good.

So what did we order?

We started with appetizers.  Not customary but we can't resist to taste the tofu and potato salad which where on different sets.  But they indulged us and paired them instead. Yey!
Verdict: Tofu was yum, potato salad had literally chunks of egg and potato; that's it.  Nothing too different.

I ordered Rosu katsudon.  Rosu is pork with fat, Hire was tenderloin pork.  I am not health conscious obviously.  My dish was yummy.  This can take the pedestal from my beloved gyudon!

My sister opted for Chicken and Seafood Katsu set.  The chicken was really, really tender.  Never ever have I tasted chicken that soft.  It was also yummy.  The prawn was ordinary, squid was nicely cooked too, the oyster was weird.  Note though that we don't fancy oysters, only the fresh ones.  Obviously serving was huge we were able to share!  It was actually more than enough.  I felt guilty I wasted a bowl of miso soup (which I really don't like) and the cabbage salad.  The dressing was so good I wanted to eat more but there's no more place to put it.  Cabbage and rice was unlimited.  I ordered house iced tea and it was as well yummy.

My katsu experience was great I definitely would bring friends to try it out.  Price was a little steep than usual  but actually I think at par with specialty restaurants of the like.  It was worth it anyways in my opinion.

We went home so full, any other food we see was unappealing.  Haha.

Next stop: the Vikings buffet.

Bingefest! And I think it's appropriate to say YOLO!

credits:
http://www.yabuhouseofkatsu.com/
ManilaShopper.com

I really really want to go back to blogging...so I have to post this (probably nonsense) entry so I'll just go ahead and do it...

So...my last post was pre-olympics...that was freaking JULY!

What was I up to the last 3 months...

Well, I don't think I've blogged about any of this...so here goes 1) i had a family-career dilemma 2) i quit my job 3) i braced myself for major career change 4) #3 didn't work out 5) taught in college 6) did a little 'makibaka' thing 7) and bum around

I still am bumming around.  Actually all that I mentioned happened way way back the start of the year.  It took me a year before all of that to take a great leap of change.  I know I'm lucky I had the time...well until it ran out.  What would you expect..that's me and my fear of change.  But as it happens, you don't get to plan anything really when you don't know what to anticipate.  Thus, for majority of the year I plunge in blindly and just go with the flow.  As much as I hate change, I want to believe I'm quite resilient.  It's just the initial step I fear.  When I'm on it I just float.

It would be too lengthy of a post if I get into details.  In summary, what I got from all of it is that 1) its hard for me not to look back 2) i love the experience of teaching in college ( but actually it felt like high school anyways) 3) i can stand by my principles but its not in my nature to act passionately on it 4) shamelessly I love doing nothing and anything I like 5) in relation to #4...sucks though not to have enough money.

So there...that's what just happened in my life.
My to-do list pretty much remains the same.. at least the big deal ones.  On a daily basis, it's what to eat, what to watch, where to go, what artsy/productive thing to do. Haha.

It would be all perfect...if I would win the lottery.

Success! Blog done. Plan accomplished.  Writing this blog entry probably is the highlight of my day.  On hindsight...I watched a cheesy pinoy movie todayand enjoyed it.. and I dL'ed the new TSwift album Red ... and I'm done with HIMYM season 1.. haha.  I didn't realize I'm so accomplished today! =)

That was sarcasm, but the happy kind. =)

This photo is part of my *fangirl* background template...*blushes*

4 years past, I had an obsession on olympics and all that related to it.  It started with too much discovery channel watching on olympic trivia, fueled by beijing's awesome architectural plans.  From then on I got hooked and followed every bit of update (website, news, publicity etc.)  As expected hotness athletes were part of some publicity stint, and there I was in love at first sight with that half(?) naked guy I placed on my dash...haha

Eamon Sullivan, swimmer, Australia.  Olympic medalist, Masterchef Champion, Underwear Model and (used to be) half of the gorgeous olympic swimmer love birds.  Now cafe owner...and still is a London olympian...yey!..*insert ra-ra cheer*

I have a wallet size picture of him stashed in my purse before.  The crazy me acknowledges him as the pseudo boyfriend if anyone asks. Haha.  4 years had passed and he aged considerably, and I'd like to think I matured too...or did I? Haha.  Nevertheless...look at that hot guy?! He is my Finnick.  Read the book and without a hint of reservation made him the picture of my Finnick.  Doesn't hurt that he would fit the role, being an excellent swimmer at that.  Ergo still cheering for aussie, aussie, oi!, oi! when swim meets are on. Yey! London Olympics 2012. Bring it ON!

PS

Fangirl aside...I'm cheering just as passionately for my fellowmen

Rene Herrera - long distance running
Marestella Torres - long jump
Jhasmine Alkhaldi -100m freestyle swimming
Brian Rosario - skeet shooting
Jessie Khing Lacuna - 200m freestyle swimming
Mark Barriga- boxing
Hidilyn Diaz-weightlifting
Tomohiko Hoshima -judo
Daniel Caluag -bmx rider
Rachel Anne Cabral -archery
Mark Javier -archery

Bring home the Gold kababayans! =)

Last week friday, I finally had the opportunity to finally visit the 2nd best beach of the world (as per DOT).  I personally planned this trip as early as January which supposedly would be with only an aunt and a cousin.  Our group ballooned to 10 come travel date! Well the more the merrier.

I secured promo seats (not as cheap as I wanted them to be, hehe).  Airphil Express, the budget airline of the flag carrier Philippine Airlines opened it's Clark-Kalibo flights just this March, hence the promo.



Must I say, Airphil had good leg room, better than Cebu Pac in my opinion.  Also up to 15kg check-in baggage was free.  Flight was smooth too and most of all flights are as much as 30 minutes advance.  I'm not kidding!  We almost missed both to and fro flights!

The fact that we still had to travel Kalibo-Caticlan was no hassle at all, at least for me.  For some though it pose a little discomfort especially if you are the "ride-alight" type of passenger.  I was able to ride the fast craft to Boracay and the regular motorboats from Boracay.  For a difference of 5 pesos I'd take the fastcraft any day.  It's seats were cushioned, it was spacey, air-conditioned and was fast.  I was told that the only setback is that it docks for 15 minutes before leaving, hence a 30-minute interval on departures.  The motor boat experience was tolerable though.  Only that it's quite cramped, open to all elements ergo splashes of water and a tad more turbulent.

My first impression of Boracay is that it's too commercialized.  Shops everywhere! The whole strip of beach literally is full of business.  Obviously the first thing I did in Boracay was walk.  I actually walked too much it parallels my Sg record.  And when finally I hit the famous sand, oh my!  Definitely note worthy!  I could attest it indeed is the finest sand there is.  My personal comparison would be flour and sand.  I relate it to the feel of flour when I'm sifting.  Yes, it was that impressive.  The beach was clear, not too salty, calm and very swimmable (depth gradation was on the safe side).  That moss ruins the sand-sea  combo.  The moss was just yucky and unpleasant.  Good thing that on our side of the beach there was almost no moss.  It is concentrated near the famous Willy's rock.

I made quite a list of to-do / to-see / to-eat in Boracay.  Since I have 9 other people in tow, my time is not entirely mine.  Here's a shortlist of the "checks" I had on the list:
     To-do
     - island hopping
     - helmet diving
     To-see
     - the sand
     - willy's rock
     - puka beach
     - shangri la
     - manny's property
    To-eat
     - smoke's
     - jonah's shakes

The frown's on my list : (this were things I vowed to do but was not able to)
     - see Marc Nelson
     - visit Bolabog beach (the other side of the island)
     - parasail
     - barhop
     - eat lobster

I had no intention of going back.  Too many places to go to, so little time and resources.  But looking at my list of frowns I think I want to go back.  I just might.

This travel made me realize these things
     1)  The Philippines indeed offer a lot more beautiful places to see
     2)  This was as far as I traveled distance wise
     3)  It pays to plan well
     4)  The company you travel with affects the experience
     5)  I just might have an adventurous side, travel wise

P.S.
These are the places I have on my list: Coron, ElNido, Batanes, Caramoan, Vigan.  For now that is.  I certainly wish I get to cross out as much as I can...so I can make new lists! yay! :)