Sophie's new bestseller

So tired from yesterday’s road trip and the lack of sleep from last Friday’s gimmick at Xaymaca, I again cancelled my yoga session to catch up with some sleep. I also finished reading Sophie Kinsella’s "Undomestic Goddess". A very well written chick lit and a true girl power guide to our competitive corporate world and homemakers world at the same time. A realization of Samantha Sweeting’s character of how important it is to stop and smell the flowers and look out the window to appreciate the wonders around you is sure to be an eye opener to workaholic people who doesn’t have life after work because they work 24 hours a day. And people who will make you realize this are those you least expect.

I cried at : 'I thought about spreading my wings'. Nathaniel suddenly speaks, his voice stiff. There’s a nursery in Cornwall I'd die to own. Fantastic piece of land, fantastic business... but I didn’t look at it. I preferred not to be six hours' drive away from you'.

~ aohh! if this was said to me.. I’d melt right there and then...

Food for thought: 'Sometimes you don’t need a goal in life'. You don't need to know the big picture. You just need to know what your going to do next'.

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33 days to go before the BIG EVENT and how do I fee? An overwhelming excitement, pressure and anxiety rolled into one, that’s how I describe stress nowadays. This is no joke I tell you. If you are not ready for this kind of stress level, don’t get married. You’ll get insane in a matter of days. I can’t wait for the day to come and get this over with.

But don’t get me wrong.. I’m so looking forward to be a wife to my fiancé..

It’s this wedding prep that is giving me all these jitters. Is this some kind of test or something to get you ready on what lays ahead?

People say that relationships are put to test during the last weeks before the wedding. Because this is were problems, misunderstandings, and other forces of nature arises. Which is actually very true and I myself experience this yesterday when Adrian and I were talking about our RSVP arrangements. Since Filipino culture is not really accustomed to RSVPs. They just show up as long as they are invited and they even bring some of their friends with them. But since we are in a budget and we are being billed per head, we have to be strict on this. Which Adrian is apprehensive because it’s hard to get RSVPs from his relatives in the province. I felt angry when he said that we’d just confirm all that we invited even without RSVPs. That of course I cannot agree with.

We are on a budget for heaven’s sake!
I just can’t let our money go to waste if I’ll confirm all 391 guests! And will have a turnout of only 300.

Thus, this has to be done the hard way... ask them one by one if they don’t reply on our deadline. Just to make sure everyone who will attend will have a place to sit and a plate for dinner.

Nobody said this was gonna be this hard. But then again, nobody said its gonna be easy either.

as posted on diary of a bride to be

our road trip with the entourage

At long last, the entourage’s dresses are done. Today, me and Adrian together with my Mom, Janess, Kim and Baet went on a road trip to Manila. We then met with Nancy and Jakikay, Weng and Mimaw at the shop. Since Maya need to do some work related stuff, she was unable to join us. I just took her dress home. Anyway, the entourage’s dresses were very pretty. Some were just right, others needed to be altered but Mom’s pink dress needed an overhauled so badly as well as Ellie’s who would need six inches high-heeled shoes so she can wear it. I don’t know what happened, whether I took the wrong measurements or the dressmaker made a mistake. Since the dress is already made, they just have to do something about that length to fit it to Ellie...Gosh, I hope the repair won’t be as disastrous as this. I’m definitely praying for divine intervention here.

...34 days and still counting..

as posted on diary of a bride to be

everybody loves (our labor of love)

Another weekend has passed that means we again accomplish something for our wedding prep. And its not just any something... its the THING! I'm talking about the invitations. We went to Ezra's place to assemble our invitations. The night before, Adrian and I started cutting the inserts and the invitations (the one we printed at Kuya Noel's computer shop last week). We even bought a paper cutter to make sure that the papers are cut, equally straight. We kept cutting our eyelids gave up on us around 2 a.m.

Anyway, while at Ezra's place, Adrian finished the rest of the cutting while me and Ezra did the assembly of the invites. I collated what inserts to be included in each invitation - depending on the guests' role in the wedding, (making sure the number of reserve seats in the dinner reception card is in sync with guest list head count) while Ezra compiled them and knot the invites with potpourri flowers. The finish product is simply marvelous.

We distributed some invites at Nasugbu yesterday and today at our respective offices (my mom also delivered to her friends in our village) and it’s a unanimous comment... It's beautiful, elegant, very unique and looks expensive.

All we can say is its our labor of love.

as posted on diary of a bride to be

An impromptu reunion

L-R:Maya, Baet, Me, Adrian, Fritz, Kimchi & Kim

Me and Baet where suppose to join Kim and Maya for a Bikram Yoga session last night but due to our deadlines and deliverables which are already overdue, we have to postpone our plans. I have been looking forward to experience the Bikram Yoga which I first took notice when it was featured in one of the episodes of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I've been doing Hatha Yoga for a year and a half now and it has been great and I enjoy every session. Anyway, Maya and Kim went through as planned and we just decided to meet them up after their yoga session for dinner.

An impromptu reunion of the a-holics was assembled. Called up Adrian and Fritz to meet us for dinner at Oody’s Bar and Resto. While Baet informed Kimchi about it over the phone while he was at the hospital, because his stiches are due for removal already.

Around 8:00pm, still no word from Kim and Maya, Winnie and JR can’t wait for them any longer so they decided to just join us on the next gimmick. After a while, Adrian arrived fresh (and sweating) from the gym and we headed to Oody’s. Met with Fritz over there and after a few minutes, Maya and Kim arrived as well. We ordered the food that we know tastes good as well as gambled on those that are not familiar to our taste buds. While waiting for the food, Maya and Kim went to Gold’s Gym for a quick bath (which they needed after sweating so hard during the yoga session…hhehehe!)

We enjoyed some laughs and stories while enjoying our food. The evening was really fun being able to spend time with old friends and the food didn’t fail us either. Thai food are really really good. Kimchi, joined us around 10:30 p.m. and was able to rummage into some of our left-overs… to capped the night, we ordered for desserts (Sticky Rice).

Before leaving, (of course) we asked for our bill, not knowing that a surprise is waiting for us. Maya, received the bill and it only shows the charges for the desserts (P170+) and when we asked the waitress if there was some mistake on our bill, she said that our dinner have been paid already… by who? Well, I haven’t mention earlier, that during dinner, the owner of our company (a daughter of one of the wealthy families in the country) with his husband, dined in there too that night. [We waved at her when they arrived and she waved back. And we went on our own business. We didn’t even noticed them leave the restaurant.] It really took all of us by surprise and it was absolutely not expected. Though the amount she paid may be just a penny on her wallet (P1,000++), but it was enough for us to be humbled and be grateful to her generosity.

Can't get enough...

...of my new phonecam!

...These are the people who makes my life at work ...FUN!

...They are all crazy (",)

got a new phone

Yes, its true..your eyes are not deceiving you. I do have an update today because my PC is back online. It’s windows crashed a week ago and my beloved fiancé fixed it for me yesterday. We went to SM Fairview to look for an installer for my PC to work but we can’t find any. While at the mall, Adrian suggested to pass by the SMART Wireless Center (our mobile service provider) and check out if they already have phones available for retention package. Actually I have been passing this off for months now because I can’t decide on what model I’m gonna buy. There is this Motorola V3 that I dreamed of owning (because its what Sydney Bristow is using in the TV series Alias). The N6230i that Adrian is eyeing and wanted to pay for and exchange it with his 2 months old N6230. And the N6020 which was within my budget and it has a built in camera (which is the most important feature of a phone that I’m looking for.)

After waiting for almost an hour (50 minutes to be exact) for my number to be called, my time has come. I have to decide what mobile unit to get. We asked what phones are available and all are out of stock except for N6020. This is it. I have to make a decision. Well its obvious that I decided to get the only model available which is the N6020. And so far I’m so glad I finally got this phone. The picture resolution is very good, user friendly (of course, it’s a Nokia). But above all, it can take pictures. Period.

Well, going back to my PC, we found the installer being sold in the mall right across our village and after Adrian fixed it, he helped me transfer all my contacts, photos, calendar and ring tones to my new phone. I can’t stop navigating the menu and familiarizing myself with this new gadget of mine. I can’t also stop taking pictures. I’ve taken pictures of my officemates so I can load them in my contact list so it flashes every time they call me. Hehehe! This is FUN STUFF!

Our Invitation...a Labor of Love

this is Adrian's masterpiece

Last weekend we had our wedding invites printed. We went to Kuya Noel’s computer shop so we can print for free. I thought it would be an easy task just like printing an ordinary document from a computer. Which I have done tons of time in the office. But it actually took us 8 hours to do the template and the actual printing for another 1 hour.

Before we began, I updated our guest list. Mom had some additional guest that she wanted to invite and also took out some people in the list who couldn’t make it to the wedding. After which, we started editing the template that Ezra made in Photoshop but after printing a sample, it looked distorted. It wasn’t what we expected it to be. So Adrian have to re-do the template all over again using PowerPoint. After some stressful and excruciating hours that seems like forever, we have finally finish the template for the invites, dinner reception and the entourage around 11p.m. When we printed the sample, it was a beauty. All the hard work definitely paid off. I told him that if I receive an invitation as nice as this, I’ll definitely attend. (sounds bias, huh? Hehehe ). But its true, really I’m so proud of our invitation and its truly is labor of love and hard work.

Adrian also did a great job on re-constructing a caleruega map that I got via google.com. Placing some images of the reception venue and the chapel that we took during the ocular visit. We actually finish printing everything around 1:00am. After which we headed home and let him sleep over our house since we already arrived at home around 1:30am.

But there are more things to do... so we just divided the task among our selves. He’ll print the name tags for the invites, while I’ll do the tracing for the location map because the roads on the other copies are not clear.

Next weekend, we’ll be heading to Cavite to assemble the invitations and come Sunday, we can deliver them to Adrian’s relatives in Nasugbu.

Countdown... 47 Days to go.

Trivia

Did you know that today is the anniversay of my engagement?

Script Survey

Which script would be nice for our wedding invites?

Bridal Registry

After reading Shopaholic Ties the Knot (by Sophie Kinsella, which by the way, started my addiction to this chick lit series), I thought that doing my bridal registry would be a walk in the park. At first it was. Adrian and I started at Regalong Pambahay, where you can find a lot of very good items to accessorize your home. I felt like a class-A shopper where one doesn’t look at the prize tag anymore… just point your finger on the item that you want and your personal shopper would jot it down in the list and have it delivered in your home. I just hope that my guest will actually buy those items that I chose. But of course, not all that I want for our soon to be home was included in the list. Adrian reminded me that our (would be) apartment is just small, so space and size of the items should be considered. So I just picked out things that would actually fit in our apartment (with his approval of course). Even so, we left the store with delight and excitement.

Afterwards, we headed to SM Department Store. We surveyed first the items that we like to include in our list so as to save some time. We found this nice sofa bed and dinner set. To our dismay, we were advised by one of the sales assistant that their Bridal Registry was already scrapped so time ago. WHAT?! I can’t believe what I was hearing. Is this true? We went to the customer service to confirm it and its true. They no longer have the bridal registry service. Now, what are we gonna do? We tried to look for the store named AREA in Megamall but we couldn’t find it, so we just went to Glorietta.

Adrian and I were both tried already since we walked around Megamall in search for the AREA store and not to mention the tour we made around the home department of SM, we decided to take a break and watched the movie Fantastic 4 at Glorietta. The movie was okay and the actors were alright but I was expecting more fight scenes. After the movie, we went to Rustan’s and checked out their items. They have a bridal registry but we are apprehensive to register because the items are expensive. We are worried that our guest might not buy there because of this reason. So we left Rustan’s and headed to Powerbooks to check out some books. We stayed in the coffee shop and read some books while waiting for the 6 p.m. mass at Greenbelt.

After the mass, we decided to go back to Rustan’s so we can already finish our bridal registry. The personnel in the Bridal Registry office informed us that we have the option to choose our own gifts or we can just make a checklist of what we want and the guest can buy anything in the list that are within their budget. There was a spark of hope. At least we don’t have to impose to our guest to buy expensive gifts that are out of their budget. And the good thing is that, if we get duplicate gifts, we can exchange it with a Gift Certificate equal to the amount of the returned item and buy a different item. And so Adrian and I registered at Rustan’s. We were also given a 10% card exclusive for the Bride and Groom.

Hayy, finally we are done with our gift registry.

54 days and counting...

54 days to go before the BIG EVENT. This is like the Super Bowl of my life. The most awaited day of my girlfriends. Why? Because it’s the day that I would say…"Yes, I Do" to the man I was born to love in front of all of them. The jitters and the butterflies won’t go away.

My weekends have never been so hectic in my entire existence. Since May, Adrian and me have been out on weekends to prepare for the wedding. Today was the best part of all…food tasting. We were joined by the food experts, my mom, my brother Dave, and Ezra. I did not invite too many people for the food tasting because I was informed that food were just good for 2 persons, but when they served the soup, it was in a big bowl good for 6-8 people. And as the entrées are being brought in and placed in our table, we were surprised to see so many food. It was not a food tasting at all, but rather a complete meal in it self. We were glad that we didn't have to leave the clubhouse to have our lunch, because the food tasting was enough to fill our bellies. Well anyway, all the food taste good, except for the balsamic salad, which we replaced with a tossed vinaigrette salad. The grilled blue marlin with broccoli and oyster was the best course of all. Ok enough of the food. Just the thought of it makes me hungry.

So we have already arranged with the reception personnel what we want the grand ballroom to look like. Ezra even draw the flower arrangements and the table settings that we want and asked them sign it. Just to make sure it will come out, as we want it to be. I also made the deposit and reservation for our room on the day before the wedding.

Afterwards, we headed to Caleruega to pay for our balance and so that my mom and bro can see the chapel in person. Though Caleruega is giving copies of the missalette from the previous weddings that took place there, I still bought a wedding missalette booklet as guide so I can already finish my missalette. We also took some more pictures of the serene landscape of the place. (Additional pre-nup pics..hahaha!). We also stopped by some florista and plant growers in Tagaytay along its highway and asked for their rates. We are planning to get the flowers from Tagaytay rather than transporting flowers from Dangwa.

Before leaving Tagaytay, we pampered ourselves with Yellow Cab Pizza. It was a great way to end our trip. And as the fog gets lower and lower and the rain is waiting to fall, we headed home. And tomorrow, its wedding gift registry day...another (most) anticipated part of the preparation. This will be exciting!

When is your blog's birthday?

I'll be celebrating my 1 year in this blogspere community on July 12,2005. Here's to more blogging years to come!

Power of Books

I woke up late today (9am). Thank God for my 10 a.m. client call which was only a 10 minute ride from where I live. I took a little longer to get ready and after putting my new beaded necklace (courtesy of Kim.. thanks dear!) I was off. I was late! But that's ok, the meeting with the client went good and was quick so I was already done by 11a.m. I then decided to bring some lunch to my fiancé who was sick.

After which, I dropped by PowerBooks in Shangri-La Plaza to pick up the book that I reserved last Monday. Yes, It's my most awaited book, Sophie Kinsella's Undomestic Goddess. Her follow up to her Can You Keep A Secret? novel. I decided that I have to have this book when I dreamt of it some nights back. And for me to be able to get the PowerBooks' PowerCard ( a point card + discount card in one) I should accumulate 1,000 worth of stamps. Buying Undomestic Goddess leaves me with a deficit of 300. I over hear two people talking about Wei Hui's novel, Marrying Buddha. As I checked out the book, the cover says: from the writer of the controversial book "Shanghai Baby". I was curious why Shanghai Baby was controversial so I bought the book. And it covered for my deficit.

After filling up the application form for the PowerCard, I went on my way back to the office. I can't wait to get home and cover my newly purchased books and start reading.

I searched the net and learned that the book (Shanghai Baby) was originally published (and subsequently banned) in China in 1999. Forty thousand copies of it were burned by the Chinese government.