Bangkok itinerary

2 days to go and we are off to the airport and on our way to Thailand. Yesterday, I helped Kim research on the must do and must see in Bangkok for our 4 days 3 nights stay. Though literally we'll only have 2 and 1/2 days to enjoy this country since we'll be arriving there around 12 noon of the 24th and depart on 27th around 1pm.

So what's on our itinerary? We actually have full-packed activities and will need to forego 1 or two of the optional activities. Koh Samet is already out of the picture since it will eat up our whole day. Aside from Erwin's recommended restaurants, we will also shop and hopefully we won't drop (like we did in Hong Kong last year) at Chatuchak and MBK and other shops around Siam. After our City Tour, we are going to Safari World. I'm looking forward to our Ayuthaya Cruise and hope to be able to experience an authentic Thai massage. Trip to Bangkok will not be complete without going to the infamous Patpong.

I said to myself that I won't be using all my pocket money for shopping but you'll never know right? Good Luck to the shopaholic in me . . .

P.S. Thanks Erwin for all your help.. wish you are still working in Bangkok so we have a guide :D and probably extend our stay a little bit longer (free lodging eh!)

10 ways to make love to your woman

posted by Senior Thinking

This is to all my male friends,who sometimes take their women forgranted. I hope you can pickup a thing or two. As Michael said, its not me, me, me but should be we,we,we.

These aren’t sex techniques; they are ways you show your love. There is no order to them nor is one more important than the other.

1. A body rub with oil, she picks the oil. It can be scented. A good rub takes about an hour. It should include the toes and feet, the hands, the neck, and all the joints. Slow and topical to start, slower and deeper as you go on, rub each area until the oil disappears and move along. Use enough oil.



2. Run your fingers through her hair. Slowly comb it and gently add pressure to the skin and scalp. The hair on the head runs a certain way, so it will take time to find the way the hair and scalp want it. Do it with your eyes closed is the best way, so you can feel it. Use your fingertips as they are very sensitive.



3. An irregular routine of gifts. I use flowers mostly. Every so often, 2 or three times a month. I never bring flowers on a birthday, Mothers Day or Valentines Day. Usually not but then every so often I will. Don’t do it every Wednesday or when you leave town. Just do it every so often.



4. Be there for her when she is ill. Today, it was just such a day. It may mean pain pills, or having the damn bucket ready if she is that kind of ill and washing it out. And don’t say anything about it, just do it. She feels bad enough, save any guilt or noise for sunny days.



5. Let her have the remote every so often. And watch what she wants to watch. Life isn’t about me, me, me. It is about we, we, we. The most important we you have is with her, let her surf too, no matter how badly she does it in your humble opinion.



6. Go to see her movies every so often. Some of them really are good. Discuss which ones she would like, offer an opinion, don’t just roll over, add some discourse, then go and eat your popcorn. Bring a tissue if it is a tear jerker and notice if it gets to her.



7. Spend some time each day really listening to her. Just listening, not adding in, not “solving the issue”, just listen. Look her in the eyes for periods of time (I know this may be tough but practice). This one is hard and I am working on it.



8. Hold her hand in public every so often, even if it is for brief moments. Even if you have three kids and been married for ages, she is still your girlfriend. You don’t have to do it for a mile, even 30-40 feet is fun.



9. Let her drive the car every so often. She can lead pretty well. She probably can get around just fine on her own, so be a passenger. You can still give directional advice, it is what we are good at but let go of the control.



10. Kiss her unexpectedly, like when you are headed into the laundry room to get something or when she is stirring something on the counter. Nothing fancy, just a nice peck. Now you in all likelihood won’t get these back in the quantity you give them. Tell her you love her and the use of some pet name is appreciated. Once a day is nice but be random and use judgment. 10 times a day is annoying, twice a day is a surprise.

Confirmation Day

Finally the time has come. It’s my confirmation day. Well, me, my brother, almost a hundred more 6th grader and some other college students and a few other professionals received the Sacrament of Confirmation today.

My brother and I were late for the rehearsal this morning or should I say we didn’t rehearse at all because when we arrive at the cathedral, everyone was leaving already. I can’t believe I noted a wrong time… but it cant be.. I’m so positive I heard the announcement that it will be at 9 am not 8 am. But I didn’t dwell on it.. so we were advised to be in the cathedral, 1 hour before the ceremony starts at 2pm. Around 10:30 am,I went to the mall to make my last minute shopping. Bought a light blue slip-on with heels at rusty lopez and had my hair blow-dried at the salon. We arrived at the cathedral 15 minutes past 1 p.m. There were so many people, parents and godparents are everywhere. We were 2nd in line for the registration,It was so humid that I could feel my make-up melt.

I’m glad Ninang Charing and Ninong Bien (my mom’s Attorney) was there to pose as my God Parents. The confirmation lasted for about 2 hours ( 4:30 p.m. to be exact) and I was so hungry by the time it ended because my last meal was breakfast at 8 am. So, My parents, my brother Dave and Ninang Charing went to SM and ate at Chef de Angelo to celebrate our confirmation.. We ordered 4 variants of pasta (baked ziti, spaghetti meatball, chicken fettuccini and alfredo carbonara), a yummy All White Pizza (seafood) ~ a MUST for seafood pizza lovers and a slice of tiramisu and chocolate marble. I was so stuffed when we finish that I want to sleep right there and then...

Requirements for Church Wedding: 2 down, 6 to go. Time Check: 196 days left.

Tickets and Dollars

Finally our plane tickets have arrived. When Baet announced that its already with her... we scrambled beside her as she read the names aloud and distributes each of the ticket. I’m so elated to see another plane ticket that bears my name. This is the second trip abroad of the company. Last year, we went to Hong Kong as our incentive for exceeding our target for 2003. And next week, we are off to Bangkok as our incentive for exceeding (again) our 2004 target. My second all expense paid trip abroad! How about that?! Hahaha!

Everyone’s excited for the trip. Earlier today, Kim, Kimchi and I went to the bank to buy dollars for our pocket money. The exchange rate is so unstable that we fear it will increase further if we wait until next week to buy them. I bought US$300 for food, transpo, shopping and fees for our planned activities which includes a sunset cruise, Safari World, authentic Thai Massage and shows at Patpong (just for the experience and fun of it!).

My friend Erwin, who worked in Bangkok a few years back, told me some best places to shop and dine. So we just need to research on how to get there and then we are off! My officemate, Raffy have already downloaded the city map of Bangkok in his PDA, so getting lost is not a problem...right?!

I’ve also separated my travel clothes from my work clothes so I won’t be mistaken to wear any of them next week. Before leaving the office, I carefully tacked my ticket into my bag and excitedly show it to my mom as soon as I got home. Sana Thursday na!

Mabuhay Miles

I received my credit card bill last night not minding the current balance (its still in 5 digits, hay! ) and an insert of the Singapore Airline Miles caught my attention. I have a total of 2,855 points from my purchases for the holidays last December and I really don't want these points to go to waste. I remembered that the same credit card company also offers to convert points to Mabuhay Miles for PAL. So I called up my fiancé and ask him if he prefers Singapore Airlines or Philippine Airlines. Logically, he chose PAL (though most of the time delayed) so I can also use the earned miles for local destinations and not just international trips...hummm, why didn't I think of that!? Free airfare to local tourist destinations is always welcome anytime of the day. I can already see the beautiful beaches of Boracay, Palawan, Siargao and Bohol.

So, today I called up the customer hotline of the credit card company and informed the customer rep that I want to redeem my earned points for Mabuhay Miles. He told me to register first at Mabuhay Miles so that I can get my member number that I need to indicate in the redemption form that he'll be sending via fax. And so I registered online and so excited to print my tempo card. Have I mentioned that I'm fond of collecting all these kinds of discount cards and debit cards that bear my name on it? Yes, it’s another obsession of mine. I waited for the customer rep's fax but I couldn't wait any longer... I checked my stacks of previous bills in my drawer and luckily, I had a redemption form from last year's bill. Thank Goodness! I don't have the habit of throwing things away (immediately). So I fill up the form and fax it to them.

And so now I await for my 2,855 points be converted to 1000 miles and be credited to my Mabuhay Miles account. And another thing is that I can use my tempo miles card for the up coming trip to Bangkok on Feb 24. And that's an additional 2736 miles credit to my account. That's a total of 3736 miles :) Yahoo! I'm so excited!!!

Weekend Wrap Up

I have been longing to post something but for the past 5 days but I really am busy and I can’t even make myself browse through my daily blog reads. So what I have been up to for the past 5 days? Well here are some highlights and some moments captured by Maya’s digi cam.

Friday: It’s the grand despedida for our 3 officemates, Tiara, Maya and Emmy. After office, we headed to Giligan’s Island Bar and Resto to enjoy our remaining hours with our ex-officemates. I just had a bottle of Vodka Cruiser (cranberry flavor)… no tequila for me this time. 2 more ex-officemates, Ruth and Camille also joined us that night. Just for fun, all the departing ladies were asked to do a Body Shot with Raffy (the only one in the bunch of male officemates that doesn’t have a girlfriend)… and Irish ( a new recruit) also was pressured to do it too : ) Don’t worry every one was sober when we went home... at least as far as I know..

The Gangs all here at Giligan’s Island Bar and Restaurant, Glorietta.

Oh, BTW, before leaving the office. Kim, Baet and I are cramming to finish up a special memento that we are going to give to Maya the next day at the exclusive despedida lunch date with the A-holics. We made a scrapbook of things that remind us of her… its true that our creativity flourished under pressure. Hehehe!

Saturday: Adrian and I went to Papemelrotti to buy the scrapbook for Maya and went to Galleria to have our masterpieces printed at Photoline. We meet up with Baet, Winnie and Kim to do the finishing touches in our memento at Dimsum and Dumplings while Maya’s in the gym. Kimchi picked us up and drove to Eastwood City for lunch. After a rundown of places to eat in Eastwood, we decided to eat at Super Bowl... Since Maya is in a budget, she’ll just be paying for the first PhP1,500 of our meal and the rest of the bill will be shared by everyone.. and to our surprise.. without even calculating the food that we ordered.. our bill was exactly PhP1,450...hehehehe! After lunch we went to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for dessert. The Oreo Vanilla cake was to die for! This is also where we gave our gift, and we actually made Maya cry (she was so touched by it)... which was our objective ( to make her cry ...hahaha!).

Yummy food to enjoy….After 20 minutes…its all gone!

the a-holics: L-R: Winnie, Kim, Baet, Maya, Shiena, Adrian, Kimchi, Fritz (seated)

We left Eastwood City around 4 p.m. and Adrian and I went to a Bridal Fair in Megamall. Details are in the True Wedding Story Blog.

Just for the fun of it and the experience, around 9 pm Adrian and I went to Lovapalooza –The Kissing Festival (part 2) at Baywalk. An overwhelming number of people were there, as the traffic gets heavier by the second. Roadblocks were everywhere thus we walked more than 1 km to get to Baywalk. We squeezed ourselves through the people watching Bamboo perform on stage. We finally reached the other part of Roxas Blvd and looked for a place to eat dinner. We ended up having a tuna sandwich, carrot loaf and frap at Figaro. Around 10:30 pm I was too tired and sleepy to stay and wait for the kissing countdown so we decided to go home. We still kissed during the countdown.. in the comfort of his apartment in front of the TV (it was simulcast at Studio 23) while I was sleeping. Adrian actually woke me up so we can be part of the Lovapalooza 10 minutes kiss, but I hardly remember it since I was already unconscious and dreamingly sleeping.

To be continued ...I’m too sleepy to finish this. Will post the rest tomorrow (if I have the time)

Till we meet again

Today is Maya's last day at work. Together with two of our Corp Care Officers, Emmy and Tiara are leaving the company. We gave them a despedida lunch party at Chef de Angelo where after the meal, each was asked to give a speech. Tiara is funny as ever in giving her speech, showing off her deep dimples. Maya was teary eyed, she's consciously trying to keep her tears from falling. Emmy was all smiles while she did her speech.

Dimpled Tiara doing her speech; Hold on to those tears Maya; Emmy's all smile during her speech

As they say, when leaving one company, your not just leaving a physical office but you're also going to leave behind friends that you consider family that you have been with more than 8 hours a day 5 days a week. And no matter how much you tell yourself that its ok and that life will move on... yes, life will move on but it will never be the same again. Especially if those people leaving have touched your life one way or the other. So, I bid not goodbye to them but, till we meet again. The world is too small for all of us and surely we will all cross each others path. I will miss you all.. Maya, Emmy and Tiara. This one is for all of you.

Kong Hei Fat Choi

Celebrating the Year of the Wooden Rooster,
some of us wore red in the office for goodluck :)
clockwise L-R: Pen, Kim and Me.

It's Maya's last day at work tomorrow so we took some souvenir shots with her.

My eating buddy Maya and Me,
all smiles but deep down ... a sad face.

The Shopaholics. L-R: Kim, Baet, Me, Maya (standing)

BTW, this is our new office, Looks like a call center :D
L-R: Louie, Raffy (standing), Maya, Kim and Me.

Before I left for my last day of seminar, we had some coffee klatch at Starbucks.
That strawberry frap is just ohh soo delisyoso!

Ritual on Fat Tuesday

A little weird but i don't know why time passes so quickly in our new office. Seems like hours have already passed but I have not done anything significant yet. Not even a sale. Or maybe it just because I’m out on a client call the whole morning and when I get back to the office its already lunch time and by the time I return to the office, I'm set to leave after an hour and forty five minutes because I’m on half day leave until tomorrow due to my confirmation seminar.

So yesterday was about Ten Commandments and today, it was the 7 Sacraments. A seminarian from Ateneo, Brother Rene, did a talk on the importance of 7 Sacraments. I won't go into details about it anymore. After the talk we were asked to group ourselves and re in act the 1 of the Seven Sacraments. Through a draw lots we were asked to do the Sacrament of the Holy Orders. The problem is, none of us have ever witnessed this kind of sacrament. But by the help of divine intervention, during the 4th sacrament being demonstrated, Msgr. Romy entered the hall and instructed us to take part and witness the burning of the old palms for tomorrow's Ash Wednesday Mass.

It was a first time for me and my bro to witness this kind of ritual made by Catholics. I didn't know that the Burning of the Palms also has its own rituals. Msgr. Romy said that today is a Fat Tuesday, you can eat all the meat and fatty food that you can eat since tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, start of the 40 day fasting and abstinence for us Christians. During the ritual, 7 people shared their experiences on the 7 Capital Sins. And I was so surprised that gluttony is one of the capital sins. I'm so guilty of this and I can't believe that I'm committing this sin almost every week. I'm also guilty of all the other six but not as much as gluttony. After arriving at home, I called my fiancé immediately and told him about it... and yes he new about the capital sin. And we promised (or was that me only) to eat at a minimal from now on.

New office; New sacrament

Bright sunny day it is…woke up early and was actually looking forward to go to the office. Take note of the word “office”, I didn’t say go to “work”. So this means that I didn’t actually look forward to working but to see our new office (Hey Echa, I didn’t forget that our office is already 1 floor down.. Thank God!).

I sorted all my things in my new place, small but I can manage. I placed the picture frames of my favorite people in the desk, put up my small corkboard, my glittery red butterfly goes on top of my monitor, my Kerokerokeroppi pencil holder stands beside my phone, place my desk calendar in the center and then whala! My little office space has come to life again. I’ve got a new chair too :) So moving along, we had the usual Monday meeting which took almost 3 hrs.. arrgh! My butt hurts from seating. Maya and I are busy updating our Starbucks planner while in the meeting. Updating what you may ask? Our gimmicks for the week and the rest of the weekend…hehehe! We are physically there but mentally absent. I guess this is a common scenario in meetings.

Me and My new cubicle in the office.

The afternoon just pasts by like a wind. I didn’t even notice that it was time to go. I took a half-day leave today until Wednesday to attend a seminar for the Sacrament of Confirmation that I’ll be taking on Saturday, Feb 19. But before leaving the Galleria, I tagged along Maya and Claude who are going to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and meeting on Maya’s endorsements (her last day is on Thursday you know) I ordered my favorite Caramel Latte and a slice of Oreo Cheesecake (yummy!) .

Arrived at home around 5:30 p.m. and waited for my brother (who is also taking the confirmation). While waiting, I uploaded our photos from the Despedida part 2 party. Have you seen how drunk we look?

Anyway, our first seminar was a very enlightening one. Reviewing the 10 Commandments and doing an activity that refreshes your memory on what the real meaning of these commandments are ... I feel pretty angelic already.

Despedida Party Part 2

Yes it’s the time of the week again where you kick back and relax and wait till office hours are over so you can enjoy and have fun with friends. But sometimes, life can be so unfair. We have to sacrifice a little to gain more. And that is what exactly happened last night.

Yesterday was the day of our office transfer. All things are packed and boxed. Old files are thrown in the trash and picture frames, penholders, candy box, cardholder are kept in the pedestal drawers. And 5:00 pm came and computers are being shutdown one by one to be carried to our new office. (We are just moving 1 floor down). Everyone is excited to get it going for there is a despedida (going away) party part 2 tonight. Baet and Emmy are the ones who were assigned to oversee the transfer by our (uninvited) managers. The managers left before we even noticed that its already 7:30 pm. 1st batch of the group went ahead to Makati to have dinner and will just meet us (the 2nd batch) for drinks afterwards.

Baet, Emmy, Kim, Maya, Winnie and I had dinner at Jolibee and on our way to go to Makati when the bad news came. Baet and Emmy need to stay until all computers were set up. And that’s not all, the IT people will be able to finish it around 10:30 pm. Shit! This is not going well as planned. We phoned our officemates and told them about it and that we’ll go there as soon as everything is finished in the office. Silently, I was discussing to myself whether to go or not. But this would be the second time (in a row) that I’ll miss the despedida party. I’m sure they won’t allow me to leave, not this time. It’s 10:30 p.m. and we are all so tired, Emmy was even so tired to drive to Makati, so we just decided to have our drinks over at Oody’s bar and restaurant. I went along and told myself, I’ll just leave around 11:30.

We arrived at Oody’s Bar to see that there is only 1 table being occupied by 3 guys. Which is odd on a Friday night, since they are usually full and its not even midnight yet. And so we chose to be seated at the corner of the room, and ordered some drinks and nuts and shrimp crackers. I orderd a bottle of Vodka Ice (a first time for me) and so did Maya, Baet and Kim. While Emmy orderd a drink that I cant remember the name… all I know is it’s in a cocktail glass. And guess what? We had a Blast! We just laugh and laughed with tears. We toast for Emmy and Maya’s new careers and laughed at Baet’s funny antics. Emmy orderd one round of tequila shot for all of us. And since Maya is the youngest of the bunch (don’t worry, she’s old enough to drink), we have to convince her to take a shot at it. The first and last time she did it was on her birthday party last year (that was July). I’m already tipsy when Fritz arrived to join us. Good thing he had a camera phone and took a picture of this special event. And you might think the night is over but your wrong. Its 12 midnight and Emmy is still in the mood for dancing so they called up our officemates who are still in Makati and decided to go and meet with them at Temple Bar. I decided not to come along but when I saw my face in the washroom, all reddish and even have eye bugs. I obviously looked like a person who is tipsy and had some drinks. I was scared to go home alone in a bus. Then, I thought of just staying at my fiancé’s apartment for the night in Makati. So I went along with Maya, Kim and Emmy to Makati. Temple Bar was packed. So we just settled with some great conversations with our officemates who were already there, seated outside the bar and having drinks. I didn’t drink anymore, coz I know if I take in another amount (even a sip) of alcohol, I’ll surely puke. We stayed until 2 am and Rico was kind enough to drop me off at Adrian’s place. I sure did have a great sleep.

Looking forward to the Grand Despedida Party next Friday. It’s a “drop everything what you’re doing at 7:30pm” kinda party. So this means a whole lot of drinking and party all night till dawn.

Laughing trip ito! Obvious ba na lasing na si baet? She's laughing like Fran Drescher of "The Nanny".

L-R: Baet, Kim, me, Maya and Emmy. Di halata na namumula na ang mukha namin ni Maya. Who wants an Eyebugs??!!

Looking into the future

After almost a month of waiting (27 days to be exact). I received an invitation (again) for an interview from a well-known financial institution. But my intuition is so strong, it actually came true. My intuition says that He might cancel on me again. And true enough, I got an SMS message saying "...can we cancel interview later ...sorry for this.. Will get in touch with you again". I was disappointed for this is the second time that he cancelled my interview. Though I know that I don’t have the right to complain because I’m the one who needs him ...(to free me from my current employer), but its just so depressing that your looking forward to something and when its already with in hours reach, it just goes the other way. If this is a test of patience, oh I’m surely passed with flying colors. I just hope and pray that in the end of it all, everyone is happy.

I texted my fiancé and ask him to meet me after work because I’m depressed. And to release my depression, I roam around the mall (our office is inside a shopping mall. how convenient for a Shopaholic like me!). And I was excited when I saw this shirt on a mannequin at SPACE boutique. Is says: "I Can’t Work All Day, I Have A Lot of Shopping to Do". Haha! Its sooo for me! So I fitted the shirt in all its colors (except for white, they don’t allow fitting of white colored shits), fuchsia, black and orange. I bought the one in orange because it goes well with my khaki colored string pants. For a moment I felt okie.

After office, I went to Glorietta to meet Adrian. We ate at Subway because he’s collecting these stickers so he can get a free sandwich and gift. He already completed the gift card so he’s entitle to get the final gift, a book written by Subway’s Co-Founder Fred DeLuca entitled: START SMALL FINISH BIG, Fifteen Key Lessons to Start-and Run-Your Own Successful Business. Here is a review on the book from a reader:

"Since my business ran into problems, I found this book to be the inspirational "pick me up" that I needed. After reading it, I found the courage to restructure my business, continue and increase sales. The book reminds one how to simplify things and how to keep your eye on the ball. This book is a must read for all aspiring entrepreneurs!"

review written by: An inspired reader, March 16, 2002 for Amazon.com

Last year, Maya’s mom did a palm reading on me and Adrian. She said that I’m more inclined to get into my own business in the future. This might be the start of it. I’m so excited to read this book, can’t wait to finish up Shopaholic and Sister.

The perfect Job for me is...

Want to know the Perfect JOB for you? check this out!

Thanks Echa for sharing this one.

Wedding Count Down

exactly 7 months to go before I thee Wed. Looking forward to the bridal fair in Megamall on Feb 12...be sure to visit the True Wedding Story blog on Feb 13 to know the details :)

saving files can save you

Disaster took hold of me last night. I accidentally deleted my blog template. It happened so fast, I didn’t even realize what I have done until I previewed my blog. The only thing I saw was the heading and the html code (<$BloogerSomething$> and the rest are blank. No menu bar, no side links, no post, nothing. And what’s worst is that I don’t have a back up file of my precious masterpiece. Panic ran over me and instinct said to call my fiancé and ask him to download the template again (there’s something wrong with my winzip, I get an error message every time I open the file). I had a flicker of hope for a second and it all disappeared when he said that he’s playing (the never ending online game – Khan) and he needs a level up. Arrgh! I was so angry but couldn’t do anything since he’s thousands of kilometers away from my home. It was around 11pm and the clock is ticking, so I did everything in what I thought could possibly bring my blog back to life. I tried downloading the html codes of the template again for the nth time but still receiving the same errors over and over again. I then downloaded an updated version of winzip (thinking thatI might be using the lower version)but still the errors kept on coming. As my left and right brain worked hand in hand to solve my problem, I got an idea to view the source of a sample ad template which had the same layout as mine. Though in different color combination, it was the least of my problem. I then opened a standard blogger template and compared both side by side so I can get the exact placement of each html commands. And after 4 long ghastly hours of trial and error preview and clear edits and undos. I’ve finally got the right codes in place and my blog is back to normal.

[Sorry to Echa, who browsed through my blog last night and saw the error]Now, you guys know what happened last night. I know there’s no one to be blamed for what happened but me. But I’m only human, I commit mistakes you know and besides it was an unfortunate accident. I’m not an IT person, so saving online data on a local file is not a second nature to me. It doesn’t come naturally. So now, every time I’m editing my template, a notepad is always open for saving the new file.

So, SAVE your Files! It can save you from sleepless nights.