Saturday, December 12, 2009

Rumbling thoughts in HK

- Over my short stopover time in Hong Kong (in which I'm still at), which was further shortened by a 1 1/2 hour technical delay in Johannesburg (!), the places that I decided to go to were the Big Buddha and Monastery in Nung Trung, plus a side trip on any mall or two on the side.
- Since it's my first time (!) to go outside Hong Kong, I wanted to visit its landmark, which is the Buddha, since it's quite near the airport, and there's a Cable Car station to go there.
- My original budget for transportation is around 500 HKD and it turned out I only spent 43 HKD (!) because there is a bus terminal outside airport to the cable car terminal, so I did not have to take a taxi.
- Plus, unluckily though, it turned out the cable car is under maintenance (!) for September, that's why I had to settle for a round trip bus to the Buddha from Tung Chung.
- While at the steps towards the Buddha, since I was alone, I need someone to take a picture of me with the landmark as the background, and voila!, there is a semi-hot Latina (!) alone as well (!!), so I just waited her to ask me to take a picture of her so that I could return the favor.
- Well so it went that way, we took pictures of each other. It was nothing, not until I was at the bust terminal queue back to Tung Chung, she was the girl in front of me (!). We talked a bit.
- And so the bus boarded, she was at the left frontmost window seat, I decided not to seat beside her, I sat on the right frontmost window seat, it had been 20 people (!) since somebody sat beside our respective seats. An old Chinese lady was beside her and a man sat beside me, so naturally, I slept.
- I woke up when I heard the Latina & the old lady talking. A surprised old lady said, "You don't have a husband or even boyfriend?" (!) The Latina replied, "For a loooong time now!" (!!!)
- Actually, it was really no big deal, I'm just wasting my time now because I am waiting for the plane. (!) Continuing, so I was back in the mall in Tung Chung. Shopping for cheap Esprit clothes (!) in the factory outlet made my day and made me forget that Latina girl.
- Then I ate at McDonalds, after an hour searching for a KFC (!!). Obviously I am unhappy to eat at McDonals, Then I decided to go back to the airport, because I have to buy a Hong Kong Starbucks City Mug since I officially stepped foot (!) to Hong Kong and also, have to upgrade my Macau City Mug since the mugs now have a different design.
- I don't want to buy at the arrival area because I didn't wat to check the mugs in. Besides, I know there is one store at the transfer desk area. I checked in the airport and went to straight to the Departures Area (!).
- Even I am officially a transit passenger, since I went out at Hong Kong, I now do not have access to the transfer area. The situation, I have HKD to spare (!), and I couldn't go to Starbucks, where I forego going to the big arrival area Starbucks outlet (!!!). I'm not sure if when will I come back again. So the HKD will be sleeping.
- I asked the information girl if there is a starbucks at the departure area, and she was very agitated to say there is. Go straight the OTHER wing (!).
- I went far the other wing, I caught Starbucks hiding in the corner, there were around 1,000 Macau mugs and 987 China mugs, but HK mugs were ZIlch, Nada, Nil (!!!!!!!). Even the smaller ones were sold out.
- So I just bought a Hong Kong Starbucks tumbler, yeah, TUMBLER (!). The barista albeit calmed me by saying that the tumbler has a free drink and the mug has none, well, I would really still prefer the mug, obviously. But at least, I tasted the Ice Blended coffee from Hong Kong (as if there's a difference).
- I didn't bought the new Macau mug because I'll be having 2 of those where I don't have a HK mug.
- Going to the Cathay Pacific lounge, I realized that its Sept 10 already, meaning I spent 09/09/09 waiting for the Johannesburg flight and 13 (!) hours in mid-air watching Secret (a good Chinese Movie though), Shawshank Redemption, and The Proposal(!!!), and also listening to Leona Lewis & Jording Sparks dominated playlist.

- Logging-in at Facebook, I saw Greenarchers.ph waving goodbye at the Green Archers 2009 Final 4 aspirations, so I immediately thought that UE gave away the game to UST...
...but...
...NU 63, DLSU 61...

- Then I saw and greeted again the Latina girl again here at the lounge... As the saying goes, the third time is a charm...
... apparently, it was a case of a mistaken identity, she just looked and dressed almost exactly like the earlier Latina...
... then immediately lip-locked his man...

... the boarding gate has just been announced... And oh by the way! It's straight on the OTHER wing, besides Starbucks...

...I just can't wait to go home.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Kiss of Life...

With the recent news of my friend leaving the Philippines... after around 8-10 years of searching her... it's just appropriate to list down all my friends (old & new) who immediately left after we became acquainted (or reacquainted). I'm like a walking immigration, hook me up and sure you'll leave wherever you want to go...

Jeanne (2009) - will leave 3 months upon our reacquaintance in Facebook. She's a some kind of a college special friend.

Levy (2008) - on the day that when we were introduced by Sweet, she immediately got the news that she'll be going to Canada. Immediately, just over a little over a month, she flew.

Ionna (2008) - we were reacquainted after she (Deloitte) audited me (P&G) in 2005-06. On the day that we met (again), she just received a job offer from Dubai... By Jan this year, she flew.

Tin & Irene (2008) - Tin introduced me to her because Tin wanted me as Irene's boyfriend. Then apparently, Irene was just waiting for her migration to Australia around March-April. Then in an ironic twist, Tin followed Irene a few months later and I ended up taking her job temporarily.

Greys (2008) - Greys has been one of my good friends in my disastrous stint in YAM. She knows most of my secrets within YAM, and we're on the same boat when it comes to point of views... She's just more patient that me that's why she stayed the for the longest time... She left for Malaysia to join her boyfriend in working there.

Roxan (2007) - I consider her as my 1st self-made friend @ Chevron, in which I joined in June. By December of the same year, she left for BVI.

Janice (2007) - Well, at least I saw this one coming... we have been talking about her plans to go to London... Well, she took the Singapore route to make it even faster...

Monica (2007) - at the time before me met, we were textmates for more than six years, though we live within the same vicinity and batchmates in DLSU, we never met until late 2006. Then by Feb '07, she left for Singapore.

Camille (2006) - my coffee buddy at the Fort. Left for Singapore within the year that we met. Hanging out @ the Fort has never been the same.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Week of April 13-19 '09 learnings...

I think last week I've learned a lot in my life. The most since I was on my formative years... Well, it's not because I didn't want to learn all this time, but because I always thought that I know everything... Here are some of my learnings, in no particular order of importance.

1.) "Ichan" turned out to be a good nick.
2.) Hyper is Ichan.
3.) There are friends that are truly concerned with me.
4.) When stressed, count 10-20-30, say a little prayer, then let out a big exhale.
5.) I can excel in physical activities if I put my mind into working out.
6.) I can put my gameface on in every game of life.
7.) You cannot say you enjoy until you could define enjoy.
8.) Don't accept friends in social networking sites unless you have true connections... or face the consequences.
9.) What you don't know won't hurt you (Note: I am against this argument all my life!).
10.) I have great instincts... I hope I could trust/follow it next time.
11) When it's freakin' hot in a summer day... Expect rain to fall in the evening...
12.) I should be sticking on my pessimism because...
12a.) As CPA's, we were taught the theory of conservatism.
14.) ...Always remember when it rained.
15.) Focus! Focus! Focus!
16.) Waiting is really overrated.
17.) It's great when you're always preoccupied. You don't think of the unnecessaries.
18.) My bi-weekly FootSpa/Pedicure sessions has become a part of me (not anymore out of necessity).
19.) Missing a few episodes of your favorite TV shows won't hurt especially if you're having vodka sessions.
20.) There is such a thing called AIP Vigil.
21.) Chamomile tea is the best!
22.) Never, ever, ever expect nor assume.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Thirteen

For some reason... 13 has been like a plague to me... and today 04/13/09 is no different...

I tried to avoid #13 but it was always coming at me...
So I tried to embraced #13, but it didn't hug me back...
Then I fought #13, but it got back at me thirteen-fold...
I even tried a monthsary on a 13th of the month...

Then today... from subconsciously wearing all black to being in a depressed mood by the time I woke up earlier... I totally forgot that today is the 13th and I was so being indifferent to the number...

...then at around approximately 1313 hrs, #13 (April, that is) resurfaced in front of my face and reminded me that I shouldn't be indifferent because it will haunt me anyway...

Notables:
Favorite #13s - Dan Marino, Wilt Chamberlain, Steve Nash, Alex Rodriguez, Kurt Warner...
Mathemagic - Add the digits of my B-day, and it's 13
Add the digits of the plate # of my car and it's 13
Coincidences - I took the Board Exam at Room #130, Seat #13
The worst job I had, I started Jan 13
The only year that I was not at the 1st section, was during 1st year HS, I was 13.

Though nothing of those compares to what I'm having almost every 13th of the month... well, most especially earlier...

enigmatism strikes again...

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Not-So-Good Friday

It's not because I worked on a sacred holiday that I had an atrocious Good Friday. Working doesn't bother me. I work whenever I like to work anyway... anytime, any place...

Right off the bat, my mind was messed from the get go since someone started to give me a cold treatment since Thursday night as I uttered one wrong joke to her... As of the last second, things are still never the same... and I wonder what it will gonna be like next week, when we're on the same day shift... Needless to say, I was still on the night shift, and I carried that emotion into the sunrise, workday seven and all... I said sorry and slept abruptly as I went home at 8 am...

I missed the 3 pm Good Friday mass because I was asleep and just starting to get into the earth again at the time, after all, I was on the penultimate night of my Night Shift career (assuming I'll be having my visa over the next two weeks). Officially woke up 3:15 pm, thus I didn't went to mass because I still have to fix myself and beat the heat... So I decided to log-in on my laptop instead, and voila(!), the connection is so slow, I can't access Yahoo Mail, Facebook, and ESPN! I'm stuck with Friendster and playing Pac-Man. I guess it was divine intervention... By 4:30, I decided to log-off and go back to bed..

Not sure if got more sleep, but @ 6 pm, I decided to take a bath and prepare for my final night shift (I hope) for quite sometime. It's really a Christian-Oliver way of ending my night shift... on a Good Friday...

I had to drop by the Church where the remains of the fallen Christ was embarked. While lying there, I prayed and asked for forgiveness on not attending most of the Holy Week's festivities... and also prayed for the enlightenment of... everybody (haha!), especially me (more of looking for a sign!). I also prayed on my other intentions... I'm not sure if I'm being selfish on that regard...

By 8 pm, I started to go to my so-called sanctuary, with the moon staring brightly at me like she's gonna eat me... Nobody's dancing Cha-Cha-Cha in the highway with my car... Even the delivery trucks were kneeling and praying on those times... It has been a 10-minute journey to the office that seemed to be going for hours... I recalled childhood memories, when people are not advised to go out, nor even move, during holy week, much more "the Good Friday", and 5 hours into Jesus Christ's last of his seven final words... It's different now, some people are working, errr, more and more people are working... and some, errr, most people were in Boracay, Galera, Pagudpod, Baguio, or anywhere that they could hide in this year's summer solstice. Globalization, tourism, and recession working out well to break old traditions, but I was curious to find out myself, that's why I found myself driving to work...

Safely into my sanctuary, I was craving for something... food that can be eaten on this kind of day... So I went down and crossed the street only to found out that Kopi Roti and my favorite Kopi Bun was closed... though I saw a lovely couple walking on the hallway of Columns... made me feel nostalgic again... why not me, at this place, at this moment... how mighty have I fallen when it terms on the matters of my heart... it used to be my strong point, but I'm very fragile now... every happy couple I see is considered a travesty... especially with what happened to me the night before, and all these months...

Fillet-O-Fish... a food that I could only remember during Good Fridays... and it came as no surprise that I crossed three streets just to get to the nearest golden arch... as I queue, there were two lovely ladies were in front of me... ordering only one fillet-o-fish meal... then I overheard that the meal will be available in five minutes... and when it was my turn, I agreed likewise to wait for it... Then I went to the farthest isolated corner, where I thought nobody will dare to get there... but those same two ladies sat on the next table... in front of me... side-by-side together... with one meal... waiting as well for maybe 3 minutes... 'Ole Fillet-O-Fish finally came... one for me, and one for the other table... As I disrobed the sandwich, simultaneously, the ladies disrobed theirs as well... and I... I couldn't take it anymore... as I put a huge bite on my sandwich, simultaneously the two girls made simultaneous huge bites on theirs, getting some sandwich, and getting more skin... and they went on and on as if I was not 2 meters in front of them... Again, why not me doing the kissing, to any of those two... at this very Good Friday, at this very McDonalds...

I don't believe it's a coincidence anymore... I guess it's really my fate... to be alone & watching... It was supposed to be my alone-in-the-corner-of-the-golden-arch moment... but it turned out to be my rubbing-it-in-to-the-lowest-level moment...

Well, I had no choice but to come back to my sanctuary... good thing that my WBS clean-up project was still ongoing and I kept myself busy the whole night... nostalgic and all... waited for the sunrise of the "Glorious Saturday"... waiting for Easter... Where I'm pondering right now (to the tune of Enya, no less) on what moment will get resurrected? The "March Madness" moment or "The Empty Road Leading to March Madness"...

Friday, April 10, 2009

Bloggin' the Easter's eve away...

After weeks of hibernation, I've decided to blog again... maybe because I enjoyed so much my so-called happiness, my march madness, my best month in years... And now it's already April, the usual drop-off (happiness trade-off) is what I'm feeling.

By the way, here are some of the reasons I've enjoyed my March...

I'm going to an extended business trip in Angola...
My 1st ever domestic flight... to Naga... to CWC and Caramoan...
I (finally) formally pursue a girl that I wanted...
I've started a new hobby by buying an SLR camera...
MSSC Volleyball is here again...
DLSU won the Volleyball championship...
Duke won the ACC Basketball championship...
Gained new friends...

But As always, all good things that I'm getting comes with a catch... which is the reason why I'm blogging again...

My passport had to be renewed ASAP because Angolan Visa requires 20-month
passport eligibility...
We didn't really had a chance to swim at Caramoan... and no wakeboarding at all @ CWC...
Of course, there's no certainty in pursuing a girl...
I learned that buying a camera is not enough... need to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade...
Lack of playing time in Volleyball... Winless so far...
End of UAAP Volleyball season, end of Volleyball dates...
UNC won the NCAA championship...
Gaining new friends have been controversial, as always...

So the enigmatic self that I am is signing on again... It's been a great March ride...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

An Unpredictable Sunday

How do you define a day? I can't define mine...

3:00 am - Found myself awake with an ant bite in my stomach... slept again...
4:30 am - Found myself awake again with an ant bite on the other side of my stomach... checked if there were live NBA/NCAA games! None... so I went back to bed..
5:50 am - Got up from bed as 4 ants were biting me non-stop in the stomach, left elbow, right elbow, and... there... yes, down there!
6:00 am - checked Facebook & ESPN - North Carolina lost to Florida State! Duke was winning against Maryland! D-Wade with another superhuman performance, 50-10-9-4-2!
7:30 am - After the holy mass, checked ESPN again and Duke won!
***by the way, I've checked the scores thru my laptop without plugging the power cord!***
9:40 am - Left home for Definition in Makati Cinema Square to buy an SLR camera. Surprised that there were no traffic in Bicutan SLEX!
10:00 am - Arrived in MCS, and was out of myself when I learned that the outside parking was Fifty freakin' Pesos! Yeah, at Makati Cinema Square! I am not kidding!
10:45 am - After searching the old-school mall, I found Definition... and it was closed on a Sunday!
11:15 am - Took a right turn from Pasay Road to Paseo de Roxas... gosh there were MAPPSA (tama ba?) waiting. Apparently, the left turn arrow was not green... Well, it's not red either! But I was still apprehended!
11:30 am - The MAPPSA officers still haven't given me a ticket, and they were standing like beggars by my window until something came up... P200 wrapped in tissue!
12:00 noon - My pedicure session, Lyn, my pedicurista was not there. Nail Spa suggested Leah to be my pedicurista for the day... I was very nervous because I'm feeling a little ingrown nail already on my right toe... But I had to accept her!
12:30 pm - Pedicure session was done! I was so nervous at 1st because of her different approach on my toenails, but in the end, she pulled it thru!

Fast Forward
4:00 pm - since I was going to QC in the evening, i decided to go to McDonalds El Pueblo for free parking and wi-fi (for wasting time)... Apparently, McDo does not allow laptop battery charging! ^$&^%#$@, why did I logged-in at the house without using the power cord!
5:00 - Battery exhausted! Bad thing there was a hot chick on a green dress sitting next to my table. I ran out of pa-cute actions! So I decided to get-off to QC and meet a friend for dinner instead.
6:00 - @ Gateway! Starbucks = full, Gloria Jeans = full, KK = full, Coffee Bean = full. We settled at Taco Bell... I wouldn't go to Gateway/Araneta unless I eat at Taco Bell anyway...
7:00 - My other friend that I was supposed to meet did not came! Given our circumstances, &^$^%$%^$^&%$!
7:15 - Decided to go to Timog ahead of time to meet a new-found friend =), Coffee Bean (with free wi-fi) didn't have any parking within the vicinity... So I had to relocate at Burger King for the free wi-fi!
8:30 - My new found friend arrived at BK, we then took off to relocate somewhere else.
9:00 - Starbucks - no parking, another Starbucks - no parking, Coffee Bean - still no parking, so we had to settle for a coffee shop near ABS-CBN. It's coffee tasted mediocre that's why I forgot it's name...
10:00 - While in the middle of a nice conversation, the coffee shop closed! Yes, the coffee shop closed @ 10:00 pm!!!
10:30 - In the middle of a fast EDSA, there was a build-up from Ayala to Magallanes fly-over. At 10:30 in the evening on a Sunday! Wow!

And then I decided to write this down... for rubbing-it-in sake!