5 Hours till 2009

It's 6:36pm, Philippine time, and we are here at home preparing for the big bang! We have food and drinks being prepared, we also have the firecrackers (can't let go 2008 without it) I still have to get some fruits from the supermarket, go for that 9:30 evening mass at the San Agustin Church and finally head home for the big twelve, It's been a great year 2008 for me and sure for all of us, and hoping for a greater 2009, HAPPY NEW YEAR y'all...

Christmas Feast

There's nothing like celebrating Christmas in the Philippines, well, forget about the snow and all, (who needs that cold and damp weather anyways?), It's more of spending the best holiday season with the family, relatives and friends! It's the time of year where we gather all together and share our blessings with each other and enjoy the great feast! For us working abroad, it's one heck of a break from the usual routine! Haaah! My version of it was, plainly prepared Filipino dishes and served them on bamboo plates with banana leaf, ala-fiesta filipiñana style :-) We had a great time, everyone enjoyed and we did felt the spirit of Christmas that day, Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Dirty Money

One of the things that caught my attention when I first came here was these Peso bills, I can't believe they're still using this filthy rotten paper, it's worse than a used toilet paper! I wouldn't dare touch one of these, simply because it's soo old, soo dirty and soo sh*tty, (never forget the ecoli that comes with it) Dayumn! I wish the Central bank would recall all of these dirty and aged bills and have them replaced with fresh ones, or better yet phase them out totally and use coins instead? Aaarrgghh!!!

Antique Images

These were the pics I have taken in Tibiao, Antique using my Canon EOS Rebel xsi :) More to follow.

Lovely Lambunao

We arrive in Iloilo at 6ish in the am, my friend, colleague and kumpare Erik Tabuena picked us up. They prepared Lechon, Grabeeee!!! We spent the night at their house (nice crib!), Met with Jing's parents and family, we drank JDs, We had Karaoke (lost my voice), we simply had the greatest time! Lovely place, wonderful people, Thanks Jing & Erik!

Last snap we had together was at the KAA Awards in Kuwait, Now posing ilonggo style!

Jing & Pinky preparing breakfast at the kitchen, Lumpiang Ubod, Ibus, Suman, Fresh fruits, mann... there's a lot!

Little girls (Aliyah & Daniela) making their "potion" made of soil, gumamela juice and a little bit of magic!

G in action, well not quite, lol. Priceless pic :-)

A couple of 40s, to jump start the fun, Drink in moderation (?)

Cholesterol in disguise! Who needs Mang Tomas when we have Lechon de Lambunao? Lol.

Trip to Iloilo

Our clock was set at 2:30 am, we have to leave Laguna at 3 in the morning on our way to the airport for that 5am flight to Iloilo. We arrived half past 3, it was packed already, with foreigners, mostly Koreans, a lot of Europeans also, en route to Boracay, reminds me of the last flight we had going to Puerto Princesa in Palawan, where Aliyah approached a chinky-eyed asian and say "Excuse me, Are you Chinese?" and the lady answered her back, "No, Honey, I am Korean.." Lol. Anywho, we stayed in cue for about an hour and a half (that's how long the line was), and we boarded around 5:10am, Funny thing that confused me about PAL's system was, when a man approached me with the same seat number, I had a seat with 27A and this guy came up to me with the same boarding pass seat number, I was like, WTF?! How did that happen? I'm like, could someone please fix this? Then a flight attendant tried arranging him a seat, grabe! Then finally, when all was ready, an official came inside the plane and called some names, the guy was one of them and called them out of the plane, we were like Whaat?! We found out that these people were on the wrong plane! They were going to cabanatuan city and boarded the plane going to iloilo, what's happening here?! How did these people got through the counter? What do these people in PAL uniforms are doing? Just freaking standing there and not checking every freaking pass? Maybe they need to drink their morning coffee :-(

Our PAL flight PR144 at the newly built iloilo airport in Cabatuan.

I love the new airport, with its high contrast, simply awesome!

Ukay-Ukay at Mumsie's

What to do with your unused clothes aging in your closet? Sell them, Ukay-ukay style! We've emptied our closet filled with old, used and unused clothes and sent them over and sold them from PhP100 to PhP200, it was a sell out!

A bit of teaser posters won't hurt, actually. They did help a lot :-)

Even the guards at the compound sink in looking for the perfect fit.

This was the 3rd wave of customers that came in that morning, around 11ish.

The crowd at Mumsie's Ukay-ukay, snatch, check, fit and pay :-)

Hiding between the shirts, Lol!
Trying to convince herself, asking questions, looking for more, wth?!

A Visit at Nanay's Place

It was last week when we had a surprise visit at Nanay's house in Cavite, They have no whatsoever idea that we were coming over! Anyway, we spent the night there and of course, my old folks were so happy to have Elijah and Aliyah around, spoiled them a lot, lol!

Must be tired from running around? I guess.

I got this one off that night, turned out to be an interesting snap, Pinky & Elijah's bonding moments :-)

Nanay and Auntie working it out at the kitchen, I think it was Sinigang na Tanigue with Lechon Kawali? Yum!

Time for Eli's grapes break :-)

Pacquiao Stops Dela Hoya at Round 8

The crowd roars inside the jammed packed Fiesta Mall Cinema in Alabang everytime Manny Pacquiao lands his punches into the golden boy's face! Grabee! Every round was so tight, that made me move to the edge of my seat, Pinky was enjoying every second of the fight, It was a great experience kasi nga, it was shown in a cinema, andaming tao! Pacman made us proud again! I was just wondering what made Karylle choke for a sec, hmmm, hindi kaya si Dingdong? Lol!

Pacquiao V Dela Hoya Tickets

Imagine watching the Pacquiao/Dela Hoya "dream match"on a big screen? I mean like a movie screen? Yep, we will be watching the match at the Festival Mall theater in Alabang, Sunday morning. Each one priced at PhP600.00, I bought 4 premier tickets, and I will take Pinky, Ruby & Inday (my sis in laws) along, can't wait! Nicey nice! Go Pacman, Go!

Our Trip Home

This is kinda late, should've posted this earlier but, we need to wait to settle down a bit as there was so much things going on these past few days. Okay, after that long trip from Dubai (took almost 8 hours) thanks to those 3 passengers who didn't make it to the plane boarding that made us (and the whole flight 334) wait for a freakin' 45 minutes, Aaarrggh! We arrived safely in Manila at half past midnight, Elijah's asleep and obviously tired from the flight, Aliyah's fully charged and pretty excited, I was having a bad headache, must be from the red wine :-( There were a whole lot of people at the arrivals! The Immigration section was packed with OFWs coming from different parts of the world! There were 4 flights at that hour with mostly Filipinos on board, Wow! The scene at the airport is pretty much the same, except for some Christmas accents, the "band" that used to play there wasn't around (obviously, who'd play at that time of the day?) I tried squeezing myself inside that 2 layer crowd at the conveyor for our luggage, It was so difficult to reach for the bags that weighed 34kgs each, so there I stood watching (helplessly) those bags passed me by, Uuggh!! I finally got them (after 3 attempts, Lol) but unfortunately, Eli's trolley wasn't there, so Pinky and I have to go to the checking office at the airport to file a missing luggage and we have to fill in some papers and wait for about 15 to 25 minutes, after all was done, it was already 1:30am! We reached home at 2:15 in the morning. What a trip...


There's some Christmas at the NAIA, well, not much though.

Dubai Airport terminal 3, Amazingly huuuggee!

Pangga and Aliyah posing for a pic, still inside Dubai airport, while having coffee at Håagen Daaz.

We really felt the Christmas spirit at the new Dubai Airport, there were these white christmas trees every where!

Gate 224, where both PAL and Emirates flights bound for manila are boarding.

At the world-famous duty free! We had a nice time buying (should I say, spending? lol)

I loved this Christmas tree, right at the center of the Airport Mall, sweet!

And Off We GO!

It's 10:42pm, Tuesday, the 2nd of December. We're all packed up and ready for our flight to Manila via Dubai. We got loads of pasalubong for Christmas! I hope we won't break the 120kgs mark:-) Anywho, We have to hit the road to the airport and check in at 12 midnight, we have a 3:40am flight. Oh, we're flying Emirates btw. Will have the chance to see their newly built terminal 3. Will be posting new stuff soon:))

Chillin' at Starbucks Kuwait airport, with Arnold and Mario (taking the photo), Guys thanks so much for the help, We owe you!

My New Toy!

Last night, I bought a Canon EOS rebel XSi (450D) SLR with 12.2 megapixels, this one's got amazing features for stunning photography with point and shoot ease! I got the EF lense separate along with the 16GB memory card. Altogether, it was quite a good deal! I can't wait to put this baby in action! Thanks Pangga for this pre-christmas gift:-)

The Left Brain vs The Right Brain

This one's so cool! Test yourself if you're a left-brainer or a right-brainer, perhaps all-brainer?! Check this one out!

Do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

Diamonds in the Rough

It's a cold afternoon and I felt like a lazy potato stuck on the couch watching a movie, My wife Pinky asked me to go out with her to check a digital cam and some shoes she would wear for our trip, I really hate going out, just wanted to sleep. So we went to the store and while she was browsing the shoes at the ladies section, I saw a square poster-like calendar graphics on the far end of the shoe rack and when i went closer to pick it up, I couldn't believe what I saw: It was the best of the ROLLING STONES VINYL!!! Shiny new and all wrapped with its original plastic! I mean what the Eff is a 12" record doing in a shoe rack? It was so strange because the store doesn't sell vinyls or any discs! I thought someone must have left it there, but I came to ask the salesperson and they said it's for sale and that it's the only piece they have there, It took me seconds to pay it to the counter and boy I was so very happy to have it! I didn't find one when I was digging at a record store back in London, this one is a collector's item, I remember it was first released in 1971 and remastered in 1993. This one is a gem! I'm opening it now and will play it on my Technics SL1210 M5Gs, Thanks Pangga :-)

This is a strange find, indeed a diamond in the rough!

Still in its original wrap, tagged with a KD3.500 price (who cares about the price? It's rare)