The Great SG Challenge

Five years of riding the LRT every single day gives you really good train-riding skills. I rarely ride the MRT or LRT now (coz I'm lazy to go up the stairs), but I was definitely challenged this week when I had to commute to work (I just usually wake up and work is just about 10-steps away from my bed). I could take a taxi, but I decided to take the more "adventurous" route by taking the MRT. 

When you become as lazy as me when it comes to commuting, you'd realize that commuting is HARD. It took me an hour to get to work the first two days, but one of my colleagues challenged me to find a better (that means less walk) route and I'm happy to say that I've cut my commute time by 15 minutes and the route home is much better since there are more sites (meaning SHOPS) to see.

I also realized that I probably stood out from everyone else here in Singapore because:

1. I'm not wearing black or any of their regular colors.
2. I don't have bangs and I certainly stood out more when I had my hair up.
3. I've been wearing sneakers the past few days coz my feet were sore from walking on my first day.
4. I carry this huge bulky bag with my laptop, unlike all the girls who seem to be carrying stylish bags.
5. I'm FAT! All the girls seem to be just half of me (boo!). I wonder if they eat at all.

Oh well... and I'm feeling a bit homesick huhuhu.

LPG Tanked Taxis Harmful?

Experiencing pneumonia is no walk in the park. I've had a difficult time recovering from it and I lost 10 precious pounds because of it. When I got out of the hospital and was well enough to read more about it I wanted to know a couple of things: (1) is it contagious (2) what causes it and (3) what I can do to prevent a recurrence (this is very important because I have a higher risk of developing it).

I made a very startling discovery while doing some research. Inhalation of chemical substances such as gas, wax, paint or other chemical products may trigger pneumonia. And this got me thinking... 

(1) I've never been admitted to the hospital for an illness.

(2) I rarely get sick and if I do it's just usually tonsilitis.

(3) I rarely get the sniffles, cold or cough.

I do tend to overwork myself, but I do rest especially during weekends (that's when I oversleep). I travel a lot too, but I usually end up gaining weight whenever I do so and don't have any problems going back to work immediately after a trip.

So did I have "chemical pneumonia"? I dunno, that I'll have to consult with my doctor when I go back for my follow-up. 

Anyway, I am very sensitive to the smell of gas and I'm the only one at home who can smell it whenever someone forgets to turn off fully the stove. I've been exposed lately to a lot of LPG-tanked cabs, re-painting at home, and the super alikabok bathroom renovation. My worst experience though were some cabs I took going around the metro. My friend's doctor also said to stay away from LPG-tanked taxis.

I'll surely do. I do hope someone from the Department of Health would check if there's a higher incidence of pneumonia in the past few weeks, those poor cab drivers are surely going to suffer much more than what they'll be able to save.

You can't have it all

A few weeks ago Fr. Dandee asked during his homily, "Have you ever thought about your death?"

It was an early Sunday morning and I was in a daze (this was the week before I got admitted to the hospital) and when he asked the question I just went blank. Coz I never really thought about my death. I do worry about losing any of my love ones and I've only so far lost my Mama Lola and my favorite Tito and despite my heart condition, my own death never crossed my mind.

When I found myself gasping for breath hours after hauling all the stuff from the event I started thinking about it. I stopped myself though from thinking such horrid thoughts because I had to focus on getting some air in and hopefully get myself to sleep. It was a very painful experience and I thought that it was just going to pass.

It didn't, so I found myself asking my Mom via SMS (coz I could barely talk) to bring me to the hospital on Monday. It took awhile since all of my regular doctors were out of the country (hindi tama yun!) and I've never been admitted to the hospital coz I don't get sick (never had chicken pox, measles etc.) and I usually respond to meds anyway.

I admit I overworked myself last October, almost getting myself killed in the process since the doctor had to calm down my heart. I'm healthy now save for my usual leaky heart that needs attention soon. My good friend Honey told me earlier, "Sometimes God finds a way to make you stop, to force you to rest and then you realize that despite that everything just goes on."

And my other friend Jihan said, "Hoy di nabibili ang puso sa Glorietta!" Very true indeed. So before God boinks me on the head harder, I'm going to just sit down and listen to what He is trying to tell me.

There's something very important I'm going to do next week. Please pray for me.

====================

Oh BTW, please do watch "Laughs and Gasps" a benefit show by our blogger-magician-official-event-host Marcelle and Jay with Ms. Giselle Sanchez.

November 22, 2008, Saturday
7:30 p.m.
Vibal Publishing Rooftop
G. Araneta Avenue
(near Sto. Domingo Church)

Just contact Marcelle for tickets.

Dad's Miracle Spaghetti

I tell you, the only thing that will really make me 100% well is my Dad's spaghetti! So yesterday after a trip to the clinic for some tests I asked my Mom if we could drop by the supermarket to buy some tissue. Of course, bring me to the supermarket and I'm definitely not just going to buy tissue (even though I felt I was just crawling around in a daze). We ended up buying ingredients for spaghetti.

By late afternoon Aling Leoning woke me up and asked if I wanted to eat some spaghetti. I never say no to spaghetti and I got served a huge heap. I still can't imagine how I managed to finish it (serving is probably equivalent to 4 Jolly spags!). 

I lost so much weight anyway, so that's my excuse. LOL. Well, here's my spaghetti recipe in case you get hungry.

Oh do expect me to just ramble on the next few days, I'm still recuperating and haven't been able to go out. Keep warm guys, seems like there's a lot of people getting sick lately. Rest!

Alive!

I got very sick after my last post and experienced being admitted to the hospital for the very first time in my entire life. I don't normally get sick and normally I get over things quickly with some meds.

After the DevFest I felt the exhaustion and all the stress that I went through to prepare for it. I hadn't planned anything for the weekend and thought that I'd manage to get some rest before another hectic week. Or so I thought.

So anyway, I ended up spending an entire week in the hospital. Horrendous (and very expensive) thing to do I tell you! Anyway, I just wanted to say I'm kinda back and will hopefully fully recover within the week.

Special thanks to my family, my friends, my doctors and nurses (yes even the evil nurse from hell) for nursing me back to almost good health!

DevFest Manila

DevFest Manila was a blast! A team of developers from Google, Globant, ExoPlatform, Friendster (from all over the world!) arrived in Manila to host one of the biggest developer events this year. Now I wouldn't even dare explain what was discussed since I was very busy doing back-end stuff during the event and well I think I was one of the handful of non-techies present during the event (even all the volunteers were techies!). 

So, I share with you the fun part of the DevFest -

And if you are a techie reading this post, you might want to shimmy over to the APAC DevFest Manila page.

Of course, photos!

I wasn't feeling well the whole week and just survived the event with pure adrenaline. Special thanks and big hugs to:

UP-ITTC (Dr. Caro, Prof. Rom, Rhea and Joeboy for bridging for me, you know what I mean)

University of the Philippines unPLUG for volunteering and tirelessly handling on-the-day logistics (especially Mikko for rounding up volunteers for me!)

Globe (Blue and Sherwin and their engineers) and Smart (Debby and their engineers) for agreeing to cooperate to provide internet (I know we drove you guys crazy during the first few hours)

BuddyRealityTV for the video coverage (you're the best Buddy!)

Max's Restaurant for the perfect food (but I have not yet forgotten the torture you put me through!!! You will definitely hear from me! Grrrr!)

and the other suppliers who also drove me crazy =)

Most special thanks to -

Sweetie for accompanying me countless of times to Elliptical Road and UP and for keeping me up and running the whole time (couldn't have done it without you)

And I would like to extend my sincerest thank you, gratitude and appreciation to Jason, Patrick, Pamela, Conway, Vinny, Jeremi, Benjamin, Jeff, Bruno and Eric for coming to Manila. I hope you guys come back soon!

The Clear Black Night Party

It was definitely a different kind of party for bloggers. Clear set-up Taste Asia like a dance club and here's a glimpse of how bloggers looked that night -

JayDJ, me and Miguel

Optimus Prime also wearing a mask!

The Juned and Azrael

Billycoy and Mistervader (Watch out for Marcelle's magic show with Giselle Sanchez on November 22!)

The elevator rockstar and Mr. Gensan

My photo op with THE REYNA

Eilanna and Jake

With my best friend, Anne

Oh and for bloggers don't forget there's an ongoing contest. Check out the mechancis here.

Thank you Unilever and SM Hypermarket for the halloween party! It was a blast!

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Earthly Explorations

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Ed Arevalo's Photos

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