Nova

My brother bought my dad a new Toyota Innova. Initially, I was supposed to take care of the downpayment while he takes care of the monthly payments. But then again, he realized that such amount would be too big an expense for me. Well, he just said that I can pay him whatever I can, and whenever I can. Baet!

My dad is excited and at the same time too scared to drive.. nakakatawa siya talaga. Dad, being Dad of course, would have lots of negative things in his mind. Sanay na kami. Nevertheless, I know that he's happy with this little gift.

Mr Rockefeller by Oyster Boy

I went to the Ayala mall sale yesterday, just to buy an item or two for myself. I had to take the train because Titan was already in Makati. Kahit mahirap, the early xmas shopping was nice, for after the longest time, I finally had a time for myself. Sakit lang sa bulsa, but it's all worth it.

Right after the shopping, met up with the hubby and had dinner at Mr. Rockefeller in Greenbelt 3.
5 stars for food
5 stars for the ambience
5 stars for Price
3 stars for capacity. We had to wait for a few minutes to be seated.

I tried their popular oysters, ordered cheese and garlic. Yummy!! good thing Titan doesnt eat oysters so I finished all 6 pcs! (Php155, not bad).

For the main dish, I had fish and chips for a light dinner. But realized I should have ordered the sumptuous Grandma's steak because I saw it on the other table. Next time perhaps. Titan got the boneless spareribs meal, which is great at Php195 only! It came with java rice and coleslaw. The meat was so tender, parang steak na rin hehe. "Isipin mo na lang, steak yan!"

Definitely a new fave.

Friday Night

Christmas is already in the air.
Makati traffic, mall-wide sales, xmas lists, xmas bonuses.. well, despite the chaos, it's a great feeling.

Starbucks Planner

Oh no, the Starbucks planner is back. THis means, my favorite Toffee nut latte is back. I promised myself I would quit this bad habit. I managed to avoid Starbucks for more than a month now, but when I saw the planner this morning, it's really hard to NOT buy a Toffee nut. *Sigh*. This means 21 stickers for a planner I wont use and double my consumption due to the buy 1 take 1 coupons.

What makes me buy Starbucks drinks for a silly planner?
I'd like to think of it as a help to charity - because on your 21st drink, they will be donating money to Spark Hope something.

Yeah right.

Magpakatotoo ka.

I am aiming for that planner because it's really nice, yes, but more than that, it reflects the relationship I have with coffee. Ah ewan. I just know I want it.

Stress level

aarrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

From Singapore

As much as I would love to document all the nitty gritty details of my Singapore trip, I realized I just cant. I was swamped with work, both in Sing and Manila office, and I wasnt able to really list down everything.

But just to give the highlights of my trip...

1. Night Safari - a really interesting place to go. I realized that the last time I've been to the zoo was during one of the field trips. I should bring Bianca to the Avilon zoo. It's such an amazing thing to see real elephants, tigers, hyenas, hippos, and of course, the King of the Jungle! (duh, Not Tarzan, but the Lion). I got a stuffed lion for Bianca! The moment she saw it, she said "meow-meow". pwede na.

We ate inside the tram, btw, the Lobster soup was oh-so-good. I munched on my steak while looking at the giraffe. hmm, Kinda lost my appetite there when I realized I'm eating an animal..

2. Michael Angelo's Italian and Seafood Restaurant - a cozy place...but I found the food ordinary. Presentation of food was great, but service was slow. Mr. ER made everybody's day.. he did the loud "Haka" inside the sosy restau!! He's such a funny guy! Never realized that a geeky job like mine could also include people who are kinda cool and funny... hehe a little too hard on myself..

3. VNC - way less expensive than VNC in Manila. Bought myself a pair of sandals for just P600.Saw the same pair in Manila and it's P1,350 yahoo yahoo.

4. Da Paolo, Rochester Park - had dinner with the workmom, workbro, and workgramps. We had wine, salad, pasta and italian flan (yum!). Nice choice of restau, kudos to gramps. One of the best meals I've had. The filipino-waiter also helped a lot in ordering the best stuff.

5. Sim Lim - 7 floors of high tech gadgets for a very very low price. Heavenly! I got a 1GB mobile memory card for just P1,600. In Phils it's around 3k! alrayt. My work bro got 2 Ipod Videos 80GB (P18k each) and a compaq laptop with great specs (only P60k). Hindi naman siya galit.

6. Changi Airport - Really nice shopping place. We spent 2 hours routing the nice stores. Just bought chocolates, some stuff are really expensive. Shouldve bought some from Bugis street.

7. Hotel Intercon - Breakfast buffet made the stay all worthy. Great menu for guests.

8. CIgarettes - GREAT shots/pictures showing side effects of smoking are pasted on all the packs being sold in Singapore, regardless of brand. I bought one for friendship K, showing the effects on teeth. I aws surprised when workbro saw the picture yet continued on smoking. One said they had to buy those metal cases so that they wont look at the picture everytime they will pull out the sticks.

Wont work in the Phils.

9. SIngapore Airlines - 5 stars for food, for the white wine, and of course Super Mario 1. :)

Places to visit/Things to do on my next Singapore trip:
1. Orchard road
2. Sentosa Island
3. Longer stay at the Bugis Street
4. Supermarket visits

AND I MUST SAY, THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS WHOLE TRIP WOULD PROBABLY BE THE FACT THAT I DIDNT HAVE TO PAY A SINGLE DIME.

Singapore Trip - Day1 of 5

I'm now here in Hotel Intercontinental still working my a** off. Well, I wasnt able to finish the homework assigned months ago in preparation for the seminar this week so I'm doing all the cramming I can.

This morning, I was scheduled to fly with the bosses. But I've decided to move my flight to a later schedule to have enough rest and recover from the puyat, stay longer with Bianca, not pressure titan to bring me to the airport very early morning, and most of all experience traveling alone. I miss the good 'ol days when I was going to Baguio and other provinces alone to feel what it's like to be independent and adventurous. I remember bringing my knapsack with lots of food and water to keep me alive, not bringing any map, nor not worrying if I was traveling very late in the evening. For me then it was all fun and discovering things. But not today, I am a little scared actually. I am more like my dad who should-be-careful-always-because-there-are-so-many-bad-people-out-there type...waaah.

Anyhu, It's my first time to be here, first time to try out Singapore Airlines. Snaps for SIA for Super Mario1! weee. I think I played for two straight hours! I only stopped when the great food was served -- bread, butter, nuts for appetizer; Main course - fish fillet, rice, potato chicken salad; And for dessert - ice cream. I enjoyed my meal totally. I'm beginning to miss the asian biscuits of PAL and the chips and curls of Cebu Pacific. heheee.

From the airport, I met Bernard Tan (not a kalaguyo mind you) but the hotel shuttle driver. Kaya pala hindi kami nagkita kasi sa sign niya "Mr. Cosette Cruz".

As we traveled, I asked him soooo many questions about Singapore. I learned,
1. That when he said "far" he only meant a 30-min drive (given that the country is quite small).
2. That to live comfortably in Singapore, a family man should earn at least 3,000 SD a month (so thats approx Php100k). A fresh graduate earns 1,200SD on the average.
3. Primary and Secondary schooling is just 20SD a month! (Php7k a year) All because it's subsidized by the government (galing!)
4. Universities are more expensive at 1k -2k SD a year.

I was also impressed with the hotel. It's right across Bugis Street (Tiangge), just like the night market in HK, but cleaner and nicer. It reminded me of the Eastwood Night Market. One super cute pen is like 150 pesoses. mahal!
Also, right beside the hotel is one big mall. At the other side it's a tall bldg (Accdg to GR it's the National Library).

GR and I had a light dinner at tcc (The Coffee Connoisseur). Really nice cozy place (para hindi naman puro starbucks). I got a pizza baguette (yummy at 10 SD) and a TCC premium coffee (I really cant live without coffee). But I just had 2 sips and I stopped drinking it. The coffee was soooo acidic and strong. Probably the reason why i'm still up this time of the day.

Oh well, back to my cramming.

I miss bianca and Titan terribly. I bet those two are snoring right this very moment.

Sick on a Vacation Leave

Been sick for the past 3 days, dammit. I just filed a 3-day vacation leave, hoping I could spend the whole week with bianca coz I'll be out of country Nov 5-9. This will be the longest so far that I will be away from home.

PROS
1. I will be able to visit Singapore, MIGHT be able to do some shopping.
2. I will be able to spend some time with myself, no worries, no responsibilities (my bad!)
3. The conference will be a good learning experience, and pogi points to my career.
4. I will be able to catch up on my reading, and of course cable TV.

CONS
1. No bianca and Titan for the whole week.
2. Tambak of work in the office.

Not that bad I guess. Especially the shopping thing. :)

Imagine, I'm making a big deal out of this 5-day trip. To think that other moms out there spend their whole lives working abroad, seeing their kids only on webcams and pictures, or some even dont see their kids at all. Take the case of my kid's nanny... She has 4 kids, 2 of which are with her mom in law, and the younger 2 are with her sister in law. She thought they are living under one roof but she discovered this setup just recently. Apparently, her husband has a girlfriend, and has escaped his responsibilities to look over the kids. *sigh* And the fact that she doesnt know this happening-- does this make her a bad mom? Given that she's working her ass off taking care of bianca so that her 4 kids will survive? hmmm...

As for me, life is what you make it. I still believe that everything you do, whether it be big or small, can affect your life significantly. Say for example this vacation leave and this blogging, I still dont see NOW the consequences of abusing this luxurious time to my fast-paced workplace tomorrow...But at least I know I should be ready. :)

Brewin here for the first time

After reading a friend's blog, I envied how she documents her life in so much detail. Gaya-gaya puto-maya, I would like to start with a new blog site, this time giving focus and importance to small things - because I said so and that this is my blog..

Here's (raising my coffee mug) to great and nonsense blogs!