The 2007 of An Apple a Day

This is the only week that I've really managed to sit down and think about what happened the whole year. I celebrated New Year's day this year in another country and I'd say that my year did not really start well, but like to say that it's ending way beyond what I imagined where I would be at this point.

TRAVEL

Since I started this year somewhere far, far away, I'd like to start looking back at where my feet have brought me this year (for full recount on my travels, please visit Lakwatsera Ako).

Beaches: Bali, Puerto Galera, Samal Island, Tambuli Beach, Punta Fuego, Panglao Island, La Union, Boracay

Local: Bataan and Pampanga, Bohol, Cebu (lost count how many times), Davao, Laoag, Vigan, Lucban, Capiz, Iloilo, Baguio

International: Hongkong, Singapore (thrice), California and Washington

I am amazed at how I managed to do all that. I hope 2008 would bring me to more places I have not been to.

FRIENDSHIP

I met so many people this year. Throngs of people believe me and I don't think I'd be able to remember everybody's names - so sorry! I used to have a very good memory and I just get so embarrassed now whenever I can't remember a person's name.

Because of unfortunate incidents I learned a valuable lesson on trust. I know my best friend warned me about it back in 2006, but I've always been open with everybody. She was right about the fact that I am open to being abused. Sadly, I met some people who did just that. It's a good thing I have a very solid support group who managed to bring back my sunshine immediately. So, I learned to be wary. I don't regret anything though coz each and every thing that happens to you is something you can learn from.

On the other hand, I am happy to note that I've managed to strengthen old friendships and forge new ones. To my old friends from my community/neighborhood, high school, college, grad school and work; plus new friends from the blogging community and the industry, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for bearing with me and for always being there. I'm not going to name names anymore, lest I miss out someone (iwas tampuhan!), you guys know who you are anyway.

LOVE

I just want to give a huge mega-watt-terrabyte smile about this. I just want to keep what I've been through this year close to my heart. There were a lot of mishaps (series-es of unfortunate incidents LOL) and drama, but I'd like to chalk those up to experience. And Brother Bo's right, you do need to meet more guys, not to have more choices, but so you'd be able to discern who's right for you. It was a long journey alright with a Valentine search, then defaulting because I did not have a Valentine, thoughts on whether it's better to be single or married, thoughts about THE one, longing for my ideal and type of guy and more rants about being single. I gave up. I really did.

Well, you just really got to have faith. Two years ago I wrote an article for our parish newsletter, "When God Writes Your Love Story" and I waited, waited and waited. On the 12-hour flight back from the US, I told God that I was giving up already and that I already accepted the fact that I'd just remain single forever. I already planned on enrolling in post-graduate studies since I made that deal with Him early this year. No BF by the second term, I'm going to go get a doctoral degree already. And I wasn't joking, I have emails to prove that I was already working on taking the exam and enrolling if I passed.

Well, whaddya know, less than 24 hours after I touched down NAIA's tarmac, I was tulala over having a Sweetie. I think it took two weeks for it to sink in. Poor Sweetie. LOL. Wanna know more? Go read "When God Writes Your Love Story (part 2)".

FAMILY

I thank God no one in my immediate family had to be hospitalized this year. The past few years has been grueling for me. My brother and sister are far away and most of my relatives live far away as well and it's just really difficult whenever someone's sick. You may have a great career, fabulous friends and what-not, but the most important aspect of one's life should be your family. It was really great seeing my Ate after 5 years and I just cannot help but cry whenever my brother leaves after a visit. Bunso ako eh. And Miguel, I just cannot imagine my life without him. It was this year that he began to outweigh me and he's taller than me already. Yikes! No girlfriends muna ha, please remember what I told you (why it's illogical to have a girlfriend at 13). And Mom and Dad, you guys are simply the best.

Good health and a prosperous new year and more love is what I wish for my family. Who knows, maybe there would be an addition next year.

IN SUMMARY

I only managed to do half of what I targeted to do this year. I wasn't able to do the other stuff because they were dependent on other people and I probably lost focus in some of the things I wanted to do. I'll think about my New Year's resolution and targets tomorrow (or maybe the day after since tomorrow's our family reunon). I'd say though that 2007 may not have started on the right foot, but it definitely steered towards a better path at the last quarter of the year. All of these are blessings from God.

And as my dear friend, Maui, SMSd a while ago, "Remember, life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile."

'Do not take life seriously. After all, no one has ever come out of it alive.' --- Bugs Bunny

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

Yehey! Heads Up!

I mentioned in my previous post that I attended a couple of parties this Christmas and one of the big bashes I went to was Yehey.com's Heads Up party. I wish though I had more time to fix up a real party hat - that was my chance to wear my red wig again! My Mom probably kept it somewhere I wouldn't be able to find it because I've been looking since Halloween. Pffftt! I ended up going with just a simple cap on my head. Shy ako eh!

Yehey.com really knows how to party and had several bands provide entertainment. One of my favorite bands, Moonstar88 sang one of my favorite songs and Sweetie recorded and uploaded it in his Youtube channel. Here's Moonstar88's rendition of Apo Hiking Society's Panalangin (which is my Sunday video for tonight) -

Rudy Project

I've been bitten by the lazy blogger bug this whole month (lazy blogger blog AND the love bug, LOL) because I've been so busy and when things got light I ended up being a couch potato and got busy doing offline stuff.

Well, what can I say, Christmas is the time of the year when you just have to see all of your family and friends again. It's the time to get gain more weight (by leaps and bounds if possible). After my stint in Cebu and Davao I finally had time to attend a blogger event. I also, unfortunately, missed the blogger party at Red Box (got tied up with my best friends). It would probably have rained though if I joined in the singing!

Anyway back to the only blogger event I managed to go to this quarter... I was surprised to see a Rudy Project box on our dining table - that's where all the mail goes when it comes in. I know I'm a bit ignorant about branded stuff because I consciously steer away from those stuff - unless I'm looking for something that I'm going to invest in (I have not changed my TV for 10 years already and I never had any problems with it). I didn't realize the box was addressed to me until I picked it up and made uzi. It was from Geiser Maclang and it was an invitation for a dinner with Rudy Project managing director, Cristiano Barbazza. I was highly surprised to find a hammer (yes, a martilyo) inside. That got me curious, so I confirmed my attendance for the event.

After dinner at Burgoo, Cristiano spoke about Rudy Project's unbreakable lens - ImpactX. I listened intently to his talk because I was curious about Rudy Project's business. Cristiano's father, Rudy Barbazza, founded Rudy Project in Teviso, Italy and started off making eyewear (they have a whole line of other stuff) and sports gear for elite athletes. Aside from athletes, Rudy Project also provides eyewear for the Italian military (and a lot of them are stationed in other countries fighting terrorism, so imagine how sturdy their eyewear should be).

I was fascinated on how Markku was using the hammer on the lens. It looked like the table was going to break instead of the lens. Juned tried using his Swiss army knife, to no avail. Ricowums tried breaking the lens with his hands as well. I therefore conclude, this eyewear ain't going to break and would be a good item to include in one's last will (want to inherit one Miguel?), but then again it'll probably take me a long time to save up to buy one.

Photo credits: first one from the press kit, second and third photos are by Sweetie.

For My Best Friends

Happy birthday J.C.! This day would not have existed without you!

I couldn't help but smile yesterday while talking with my best friend, Anne. I asked her if she it crossed her mind early this year that I would be what I am now. She replied, "Not in my wildest dreams." Of course, being my best friend (and most accessible one), she got the brunt of all my rants and woes. When my schedule wasn't as hectic, we always found time to go to Wendy's and talk. It always took us at least 3 hours to finish a burger and a salad (what are biggie iced teas for? hehehe). So, that's the story behind Songs from Wendy's.

Anne knows how crazily girly I could get too and managed to hold me together a lot of times in the past 2 years. My long-time best friend, Darwin, for almost 2 decades kept that in check and always provided tongue-in-cheek advise, that I'd always end up laughing and that makes me forget why I was lamenting in the first place. Far-away best friend, Tappy, is the out-of-the-box soulful thinker among other things. And the Sweetie-best friend filled up an "opening" that was vacated 12 years ago. And Miguel, believe me, I sometimes mistake that 13-year old to be my guardian angel.

Point is, it takes a lot to keep me together at times. My roller-coaster life demands that I have that many best friends and each of them hold a very special place in my heart. They have seen me through a lot of mishaps and trouble (especially Darwin who's been around since I was a kid). And I thought I'd give them huge, bear hugs this Christmas for always being there for me.

Thank you very much my dearest best friends. I love you guys!

==========
Additional Christmas Post

This Christmas has been very different from all the other Christmases I've had. I mentioned last night that I missed a lot of stuff - mostly routine - my family (Ate and Kuya) and friends, but the bottomline is, it's not a blue Christmas and here are some more recounts:

Christmas Photos
Christmas Lunch at Good Earth Tea Room
Miguel's Christmas Scavenger Hunt

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

It's a little past midnight and I'm unbelievably in front of George (my desktop) [and don't ask why it's George, maybe Miguel will blog about that someday].

Before I go blah, blah... MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A year ago today I was hearing mass at one of my Kuya's friend's house in Jakarta. We just got in from Bali, dropped our bags at my Kuya's home and went straight out to hear mass. I'd say it's one of the most meaningful Christmas masses I've had in my life. Being far away from home multiplies the effect you see, by the end of the mass everyone was bawling while singing "Ang Pasko ay Sumapit". I'm pretty sure a lot of Filipino communities all over the world are longing to be home for this very special occasion. (My heart goes out to all those hard-working OFWs and Filipino expats who are far away from home, hugs to all and may you have a happy Christmas).

Christmas is quite incomplete this year because my brother and his family did not make it home from Jakarta. I miss my nephews and nieces and all their kakulitan. A lot of my friends are also far away since a number of them are already abroad. I miss hopping from one house to another just to greet my Titos and Titas after hearing Christmas mass. I'll miss having to wake up early for the morning service as well.

I'd say this is one of my quieter Christmases. A lot of my Christmas routines may have been broken this year (add the fact that I wasn't able to go to Divisoria and Greenhills) because of a lot of circumstances, I'd say (and that's why I got all teary-eyed while hearing mass earlier) that it's been truly a blessed year (details on a year-end post which I'll do later this week) and this is a very different Christmas from all the Christmases I've had the past decade (a decade worth of Christmas blues).

Happy Christmas to you and Happy Birthday to the one who saved us all, J.C.

Blog Reading Level

I was sifting through my Google Reader feeds when I saw Noel's post about his blog's reading level - meaning "What level of education is required to understand your blog". I got curious so I tried it out for my blog. I thought that my blog's fairly easy to understand so it'd probably get the same rating Noel got (high school), but much to my surprise this is the result -

LOL... this thing's probably a random thingy. Well, if it's true and your reading my blog (and enjoying it), then it just means you're a genius! Huwaaawww!

Paskong Pinoy

Christmas is just around the corner! And I'm so happy that I'll be spending Christmas here and not in another country. I don't think I'd want to spend Christmas elsewhere. Why? Because Christmas is where your home is, and my home is here in the Philippines.

So, I thought of spreading the Christmas cheer by starting off this meme to showcase why Christmas is best spent here.

What to do: Just share a warm, fuzzy Pinoy Christmas story or anecdote or photo or whatever it is you love about Christmas (as a Filipino). Link to this blog post so I can share your story in my compilation. Copy & paste the instructions (this paragraph) and then leave a comment so I can check out your post.


I must admit, inasmuch as I spent most of Christmas last year in Bali and Jakarta with my family, I went crazy because it is so much different. It was the nth time that I spent Christmas offshore, but I got so depressed. Why? Because the following elements were missing:

1. Simbang Gabi - I've never completed the novena. I almost did, twice when I was a kid. Waking up at 4 in the morning to hear mass, stretching your vocal chords to the limit to sing during mass and then lining up for bibingka and puto bungbong and having some hot chocolate after brings a totally different kind of joy. You won't experience that elsewhere. Attending one at the Philippine embassy in the evening just doesn't work for me.

2. Midnight Mass - I've been part of our choir since I was in high school (now don't start computing) and singing Christmas carols during mass makes me feel complete. I couldn't help but cry last year when we sang "Ang Pasko ay Sumapit" after the midnight mass hosted by a Pinoy in his house in Jakarta. I missed our church, our community and my friends terribly.



3. Cardiac Delights - Nobody loses weight in our country during Christmas. All those yummy noche buena handa tastes different when you are in another country. You will surely miss the delectable Purefoods ham cooked in Del Monte Pineapple juice with brown sugar, Mang Tomas sarsa over lechon kawali or the Baliwag chicken with lots of atsara and Tita Olive's sweet spaghetti swimming with red tomato sauce and Purefoods hotdog. (I'm not endorsing those brands okay, that's just what we use). I can feel my waistline growing by leaps and bounds just thinking about all those food.

4. Twinkling Christmas Decor and the Belen - inasmuch as sometimes I get annoyed with my Mom's decor of twinkling lights and the unending piercing Christmas jingles coming from the tree, you won't actually see much of those elsewhere. You'd also miss the Belen (look at the nice one in our photo above).

5. Gift-wrapping and Shopping - my list has dramatically shortened in the past two years, but I do miss gift-wrapping loads and loads of stuff since I had a lot of mommies in my past work. I always go to Divisoria, but I unfortunately didn't have anytime to do so this year. Good thing I bought 2 years worth of gift-wrappers and ribbons last year.

Everything would be really great, sana lang traffic's not heavy!

I'd like to tag the following to start off the Christmas cheer: Juned, Markku, Jayvee, Anne, Harry, Sweetie, Sorsi, Jehzeel, Winston, Blogie, Andrew, Migs, Ria, Janette, LadyCess, Gibbs, Jake, Tappy, Noemi, SexyMom and Lianne. You are also welcome to join in the Paskong Pinoy sharing, just leave a comment with the URL of your post so I can include your blog.

Maligayang Pasko!

Paskong Pinoy Stories

Christmas in Davao, Blogie Robillo
Christmas in the Philippines, Jake de Asis
Christmas Memories, Ria Jose
Paskong Pinoy (Christmas in the Philippines), Migs
Christmas in Australia, Janette Toral
Christmas Away from Home, Sorsi Soriano
Holiday Season - Philippine Style, Reggie
Maligayang Pasko, Tina
Missing Filipino Christmas from Tokyo, Reyian
The Real Meaning of Christmas, SexyMom
Real Stories of Christmases Past, Anna
Paskong Pinoy - Christmas Date Tradition, Noemi
Christmas is Here!, Jeric
Pasko na Naman!, Juned

I'm Alive!

My best friend sent me a harried message early this morning asking if I was okay. I've been quiet the past week (been offline) and that's probably why he got so worried. Some of my other friends have also been pinging me about my whereabouts.

So sorry, I was just recuperating from all of my activities and had to do a little housecleaning a.k.a. pagninilay-nilay and other mental calisthenics.

I got that comic from Karlo's newest BlogComics blog, do check it out. Bumped into him last Friday and he said he's going somewhere for a vacation. Ingat ka!

1st OPM Songhits Music Awards

Songhits is what probably pushed me to love OPM (original pilipino music). We always had those when I was a kid and I remember saving some of my allowance to buy a copy. It was the only way to get lyrics of your favorite song (unless you buy the tape or write it down yourself). Remember? Well, if you're a child of the 80s you'd know what I mean.


I've been tagging along with Sweetie in the music events he's been attending and I couldn't help but be awed when we attended the 1st OPM Songhits Music Awards. There were music artists all over the place - from MYMP to Cueshe to Rivermaya, Ely Buendia and many others. I just got extremely shy to have a photo taken with them, hehehe.

Anyway, Sweetie did a full coverage of the event, check out Titikpilipino.com's photo gallery and the list of winners. I was there as a fan and I forgot to take any notes.

Here are a couple of videos I took -

The New Rivermaya



Pupil (Ely Buendia singing "Sala")



Other videos

Cueshe - Ulan
Itchyworms - Beer
Kyla - Love Will Lead You Back
Mark Bautista - Break it to Me Gently
Ronnie Liang - Ngiti
Yeng Constantino - Hawak Kamay (she won three awards)
Hale - Shooting Star
Miguel Escueta - Isipin
Christian Bautista and Rachelle Ann Go - Pag-ibig na Kaya

My Lamp Art

I always wished I had talent for the arts. My nephews, nieces and my son can draw really well and I can't even make recognizable stick figures. Pfffttt!

So moving on... I wished too that I had talent in the realm of design. The most I've done is design a curio and simple furniture when my Mom and I were exporting. That didn't work out well either.

And, then again, I love taking photos, but the photos don't love me. Asa pa. So, I've been sticking to the standards and some strange patterns I seem to love taking photos of - and those things I just keep buried in my Picasa Web Album (offline).

I will always be a frustrated artist...

And so while I was in Davao I took some photos of lamps, you'd never guess what they really look like in real life. The Usual Suspects thought they looked interesting and encouraged me to post them in my blog. So here it is and I've also taken the liberty to give them titles -

Blue Rings

Jellyfish

Red Eye

Green Eyed Monster

Lighted Avocado

A Clean Moon

Exhaustion and boredom, that's why I took those photos =)

What it Feels Like to be in a Race (my Cebu and Davao trip)

I must say I've been living a horrendously crazy schedule the past few weeks and that's the main reason why I haven't had the time to blog. My Davao-based friend, Migs, noticed that I've been making "summary posts" the past few weeks. Ahhh, sowee, I've been just really extra busy.

Anyways, I felt like I was a contestant for the Amazing Race last week. I'd say it's one of my busiest weeks for the year, having 2 sets of visitors, an event for educators (another one of my backlogs), the 1st OPM Songhits awards, dinner with Sweetie's friends, and speaking engagements in Cebu and Davao, plus a whole lot of other stuff. I had to talk really fast for my gig for STI in Cebu to catch my flight to Davao. I arrived at the airport just before the counter closed (whew!).

At STI's National Youth Convention in Cebu. Photos by Mhel and Kim.



Check out the full album at the STI Picasa Web Album.

I was quite overwhelmed with the number of students present at the Mindanao Students IT Education Conference. I had to psyche myself up not to hyperventilate over speaking in front of 3,000+ students. Here's a short glimpse -



After speaking at the MSITE I was feeling quite dizzy and slipped out just before the event ended. I had dinner later on with Davao friends, The Usual Suspects - Blogie, Migs, Winston and Jun and met Ted Padova (Adobe evangelizer) and Rodney at the Fwendz Diner.

This is me with Fwendz Diner owner, Tope. More about Fwendz Diner at my Lakwatsera Ako blog.


After eating a hefty dinner, we proceeded to the Nokia party and enjoyed taking photos -



So, we thought we took more than enough photos, and moved to Basti's Brew for a late night cup of coffee and then called it a night.

The next evening was a really interesting one. After eating a late merienda at Basti's Brew, Andrew, Migs, Ria and I proceeded to Hairzone and indulged ourselves with a foot spa/massage. It was Andrew's first time to have one and the look he had on his face when the attendant asked if he wanted colorless cutex to be painted on his toes was priceless. And it's only in Davao that I've experienced having foot blush wiped on my talampakan. (Methinks I need the works to really feel relaxed).



It took the whole session for us to finally decide where to head for dinner and we ended up at Red Moon Chinese Cuisines & Delicacies and was joined by Blogie. For more in-depth coverage about Red Moon, head to my Lakwatsera Ako blog.

Things just got more fun after dinner. We moved to Studio Onnie, located just a few steps away from Red Moon. Studio Onnie, owned by Onnie (who's really cute and funny, and a local celeb for ABS-CBN-Davao), is a comedy bar with Ahbet as its most popular host. I was quite lucky to meet them since everyone is Blogie's friend. Take a look at the photos and find out what transpired while we were there.



Here's me and Winston being grilled by Ahbet.



Check out Blogie and Migs' song numbers.

As if hanging out at Studio Onnie wasn't enough, Blogie insisted on giving me a tour of some new stuff in Davao, so we went to see David in all his glory at Seawall and the fabulous, wonderfully decorated Davao City Hall.



Whew! I just conked out the whole day yesterday after celebrating Mom's birthday when I got back.

Here's some posts about the weekend by The Usual Suspects -
Winston
Blogie

And coverage at my Lakwatsera Ako blog.

Your Soul's Music

So it's early in the morning and Juned buzzes me to inform me that he tagged me for the "Naked Meme: What's on Your iPod?" by Jayvee, the bug.

This is how the meme goes -

1. Take a screen shot of either your Top 25 Most Played / 25 Recently Played / Top Rated songs on your music device.

2. Post them on your blog and explain yourself.

3. Copy these instructions and tag 6 audiophiles to do the same thing.

Fine fine... so here's my top 25 most played list:

Now to explain myself:

1. I obviously love OPM. I do and it's what primarily brought me and Sweetie together as friends. We started hanging out because he'd invite me to tag along with him to some music events - the first was Christian Bautista's album launch last January - and the rest is history.

2. I like listening to love songs, but I do have a sawi list too. My top 25 list is worth 2 years of playing. #19 ramped up only recently, bakit kaya? Hmmm...

3. Since I love OPM, I love Pinoy artists. Quite a number of my friends would always chide me for preferring OPM artists over foreign artists. I'm Filipino and proud to be one. I am not ashamed over preferring local music and don't really care if my friends have to be dragged around to accompany me to watch local concerts.

4. The list culminates from different playlists in my iPod and I have really funny names for it, I just choose the playlist that best describes my mood. I've been playing my Christmas list for the past month and my friends on Gtalk have noticed it (to show what your current music track just download the Gtalk console).

5. I am in love. `Nuff said. LOL.

If you love OPM you should check out my Youtube channel since I feature a number of artists I've watched perform live. And watch out for my post about the 1st OPM Songhits Awards.

Most of my friends love listening to music too, bestfriend Anne though prefers listening to another type of music (you'd witness this on our Songs from Wendy's blog) and it would be interesting to see how she'd answer this meme. Well, I'm tagging the following:

Anne, Harry, Janette, Jehz, Markku, and Winston

Kainan Ulit! (Eating Time Again!)

Yehey.com and the Ayala Malls are inviting 100 bloggers for a food tour at the Trinoma Mall. Here are the details:

What: Trinoma Food Tour for Bloggers
Where: Trinoma Food Court
When: December 13, 2007, Thursday
Time: 2:00 - 7:00 p.m.

For details on how to join shimmy over to Jonas' blog or through Yehey.com.

Kindly check the Google spreadsheet if you've been registered.

Brrrrr Baguio!

Too little time to blog, but here's a rundown of my freezing Baguio experience:

November 29, 2007
1:00 a.m.
Hopped on a Victory Liner bus to Baguio

1:00 - 6:30 a.m.
Zzzzzzzz (yes it's my talent, I can sleep anywhere)

6:30 a.m.
Tulala

7:00 a.m.
Stuck in Baguio Traffic

7:30 a.m.
Crashed at event organizer's hotel

10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Work work work!!!



In-between: Panicking over the Makati siege and kept bugging Mom and Dad and Miguel's guidance counselor.



More STI photos here.

7:00 p.m. onwards
Eat and zzzzzzzz

November 30, 2007
Bonifacio Day (holiday)

So, you thought I'd manage to go around Baguio? Nahhh. The only thing I actually managed to see were: SM Baguio, Session Road, Camp John Hay - that small strip between the CJH Convention Center and the Filling Station (walked back after eating lunch), and food. Check out though what made me gain a couple of pounds overnight at Lakwatsera Ako.

12:00 to 6:30 p.m.
Bus back to Manila
What I did? Zzzzzzz. Natulog siyempre.

And so I thought I'd manage to do some work, but... I conked out when I got home. The bumpy ride really did me in.

*Photos by Sweetie and Mhel Garrido/Kim.

Digitalfilipino Christmas Party and Culmination of the Filipina Writing Project

It's been a really hectic week and if you noticed I haven't blogged for sometime now. I got loads of stuff to blog about, but I'm just so busy lately that it's been pushed back again and again.

Anyway, last Wednesday before heading for Baguio I managed to squeeze in attending the culmination of the Filipina Writing Project and the Digitalfilipino Christmas party (an all-in-one event) which was held at Ponciana's Restaurant somewhere in Quezon City (I'm not from that area, but I think it's somewhere near Timog, bah don't ask me).

I think I started gaining weight at the party because of this -

Photo by Sweetie.

And Joan's tipsy leche flan was indeed something that could make you tipsy -

Photo by Sweetie.

And since my best friend, Anne, and AngLoloNiyo Harry and Chel were late, we had a grand time presenting Harry's birthday gift after the party. Look at the photos and you'll know why I was so bungisngis about the gift -

Photos by Sweetie.

Photo by Dennis Rito (nenok from Janette's Facebook).

After the party, we joined some of the Digitalfilipino oldies (hehe, they don't read my blog anyway!) and Sweetie and I were put on a hot seat. Lusot pa rin though!

Here's some photos from the party:

Can't Stop Christmas!

Brrrrrr!!!

That was my first thought when I arrived the other day from Baguio. I thought I already escaped the cold Baguio weather. And I soon realized after seeing all the blinking lights and the red, green and gold decor at the Gateway Mall that Christmas is just around the corner!

I have a confession to make... I have not even made my Christmas list and have not started shopping for anything. I have, however, managed to put up a mini-Christmas tree at my basement (okay... so it was actually Miguel who put it up, but hey at least I made him do it, hehehe) and since my Mom wanted a new tree Sweetie was really kind enough to accompany me to find one, so last weekend we ended up at this huge store in Sucat and found this really scary Santa -


Much as it was inexpensive I didn't want to scare myself and the kids who'd be visiting home, so I dropped the idea of buying any decor at that store. Perhaps it'd work for a Halloween Christmas spoof eh? LOL.