N More Islands to Go...

this certainly beats maps with pushpins. :-)

My Lakbayan grade is C!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Tita Yaya :-)

Originally, Texas wasn't part of my itinerary in my trip to the US (actually I didn't have any itinerary at all--it was anything goes hahaha). But when my tito called up to say that my tita in Texas (she was also vacationing there and staying with her son--my cuz) had to have an emergency operation and needed someone to help take care of my nieces after the operation, I jumped at the chance. And oh, how I jumped at the chance! I practically pounced on it like a tiger, I was that excited. =) Though I was going there mainly to help out, it still seemed like a good idea as I haven't seen my cousin and his family for quite some time. Besides, it would be my first time to go to Texas. ;-)

Here are some pictures of my nieces:

Kate and Ella at the play/media room. This is where they play in the afternoon while my tita and I keep an eye on them--and while trying to watch a movie at the same time--mostly Kate's countless Barbie and Disney Princesses flicks! I did more kid-watching of course, as Ella might cry and needed a nap or Kate might suddenly ask for milk (or ask me to play with her or answer her countless questions or...). Quite tiring, yes, but fun.

Tell me, who can resist this cute little girl's charming smile? Certainly not I! :-) This was one of those rare times she smiled at me. Ahh, priceless. Most of the time she just stared at me with a funny/wondering look, probably thinking, "Who is this crazy lady trying to be funny?" Hehehe. Honestly, I didn't even know how to hold her properly the first time when she was crying. It took me a couple of days to get the hang of it as it has been a long time since I held a baby. But hey, I became an expert in putting her to sleep after those couple of days! Take note that I'm an expert in putting her to SLEEP, not in making her LAUGH. ;-P

Kate et moi fooling around at Herrmann Park in Downtown Houston. My tita was a whole lot better by this time, and my cousin had the day off so he had the opportunity to show me the sights. Oh yeah, the pool behind us is called the Mary Gibbs and Jesse H. Jones Reflection Pool.

add-on:

see more of my Texas adventures:

http://palaboy-lamonster.blogspot.com/2007/05/les-pics-1.html

http://palaboy-lamonster.blogspot.com/2007/05/les-pics-2.html
http://palaboy-lamonster.blogspot.com/2007/05/les-poissons.html
http://palaboy-lamonster.blogspot.com/2007/05/la-madeleine.html
http://palaboy-lamonster.blogspot.com/2007/05/downtown-houston-sights.html
http://palaboy-lamonster.blogspot.com/2007/05/nasa-nasa-ako.html
http://palaboy-lamonster.blogspot.com/2007/05/nasa-adventure.html

Texas Sunset

In the days that followed after I arrived in Houston, I saw that the land seems to stretch on forever. There are a lot of new subdivisions springing up just outside of downtown Houston, and even more ranches surrounding them. With all this space, we can easily fit the whole of Metro Manila in the state of Texas and still have more land area to spare. No wonder Texas is one of the biggest states in the US. And even the sunset there is big. This was taken at the parking lot of Wal-Mart on a rare sunny day.

:-)

Song for the day:

Advance Happy Father's Day =)

I am posting this now as most probably I won't be able to go online on Sunday.

The songs here are mostly from the '50s and '60s, during the time of my pa's youth (naks! ü). I remember him bringing home tapes of artists such as Ricky Nelson, Frank Sinatra, Beatles, etc. whenever he gets back from his flights when I was younger. My brothers and I grew up listening to those songs and we (I) even used to imitate how they sang (you just gotta love Frankie Valli's lovely shrieking falsetto ü). Now it's only me and my pa who do. Hehehe.

And so to my beloved pa and all the fathers out there, here's to you. Happy Father's Day! Love you pa! =)

song survey

got this survey from friendster =)

Name 13 songs in ur mind and answer the following questions.

1. nothing in my way - keane
2. romance for journey - daishi dance
3. put a little love away
4. i'm no angel - dido
5. stranger in paradise - sarah brightman
6. abot kamay - orange and lemons
7. hanggang kailan - orange and lemons
8. para sa akin - sitti
9. for your eyes only - sheena easton
10. if i didn't care - jack lawrence/the inkspots
11. somewhere only we know - keane
12. bad day - daniel powter
13. honneur à tous - mulan

who do u remember when u hear no. 4?
erm... secret

does no.8 make u happy?
- of course, it relaxes me as well and i don't get tired of listening to this song.

has no. 3 made u cry?
nope, but it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling

in what occasion did you hear no. 9?
when i looked it up on youtube hehehe. the first time i heard this was when i listened to sitti live! CD

do u miss no.10?
this song was released in 1939 but it was only last week that i first heard this song, from my cousin's oldies tape that he gave me

which lyrics do u like the best from no.1?
it's just another day, nothing in my way

do u imagine something when u hear no.2?
i imagine something warm and fuzzy

who do u remember when u hear no. 6?
this question should start with "what"... i remember manila.

when was the last time u heard no .11?
i think that was last month

who told u about no. 8?
just heard it on the radio

do u often sing no.11?
only when i listen to it

have u sung no.7 to anyone?
there's no one to sing this song to =)

does no. 10 inspire ur life?
it inspires me to learn more about the past

does no. 5 tell about ur feelings?
heehee i think so... take my hand, i'm a stranger in paradise... =)

what do u feel wen u hear no.7?
i really love old manila

do u smile when u hear no 11?
not really

when was the first time u heard no.1?
earlier this year

if u could dedicate no. 9 to someone,who would it be?
my goodness, this question hits the mark... i'll just leave this to the imagination of whoever reads this hehehe. ;)

does no 7 mean a lot to u?
of course

what’s so special about no 2?
it makes me dance

would u sing no.1 to anyone? to whom?
no, and anyway there's no one for me to sing this song to.

does no.8 remind u of someone?
nope

what memory comes to ur mind when u hear no.5?
when i watched sarah brightman in june 2004!!!!!!!! yaaayyyy!!!!!!!!!!!

do u want to hear no 12 right now?
maybe later

can u remember clearly the first time u heard no 13?
sometime last year in the office on youtube (on breaktime, dearies, on breaktime. ü). oh yeah, this is the french version of "honor to us all." (Chers ancêtres, aidez-moi! Je ne doi pas faire un seul faux pas! lalalala...)

the adventure's over...

or maybe not.

hello, manila. =)

coolness

after the balmy-sultry-warmy-schmoozy-woozy-me-likey weather in florida, i am now officially a frozen delight back here in LA. honestly, the weather in florida is more to my liking. the weather here in LA is actually not that cold, but i guess warm weather suits me more.

tick tock

the hours slip by so slowly... before i know it, i would be on another Continental flight bound for LA tomorrow morning. i'm gonna miss florida a lot.

on the bright side, though, that means the time draws nearer for me to go home to my beloved manila. =)

this also means that this is probably my last post from the US coz it'll be difficult for me to get in front of a computer in my relative's place in LA. not that it matters a lot, though. hehe.

manila, manila... i keep coming back to manila

it seems that i will be going back to my beloved manila sooner than i expected. i'm excited to go back to manila, yet at the same time i know i'm going to miss all the new experiences i've had here in the US. every time i come here, there's always new places to go, things to do, and each is an unforgettable experience worth putting down on paper (or in this case, chronicling in this here blog. ü).

oh well. at any rate i will still be "chronicling" each experience even when i'm back in the philippines so it will still feel like i'm still living it. until then, there would be more writeups until i'm done, and then there would be new things to discover, more things to write about. hah-ha! =)

i'm coming home to stayyy... ;-)

biking pics

these pics are taken at the rock garden trail.

summit!

yeah!

we're about to go down this hill.

moi with me cuzes

miss lamon the mountain biker...?

as i type this, i must have lost about a million pounds already. this morning my tito and cousins took me to a mountain biking adventure at the alafia river state park. and when i say adventure, i mean adventure. i might know how to ride a mountain bike, but to really ride a mountain bike through rutty and rooty trails (not to mention overhanging branches, lots of bugs, and scratches) takes a lot of hard work, at least for me. i'm just glad that before i agreed to come along, i have been biking around the subdivision ever since i arrived here in my tito's place. at least that gave me the warm-up/exercise i needed or else i would be dead and not writing this by now. ;-)

the first trail we took was sand pine. it's the easiest trail in the park and it was no sweat for me. it was nice just cruising around the twists and turns of the flat trail, going over some roots that jut out and basically just enjoying the scene. but on one part of the trail, i suddenly saw a snake that moved as i passed by! it was black with white or yellow stripes. that was really scary coz i had no idea whether it was poisonous or not. this is the first time i've ever seen a snake that's in the wild and not just in a zoo. scary but exciting as well. i think i've never pedaled so hard in my life to get away.

the second trail was rock garden. you may think that i thought we'd be going around serene zen-like rock gardens with birds twittering about, but no. i just wondered how the trail came to be named rock garden, and i found out soon enough.

we had to ride on a trail that's full of roots that have jutted out from the ground, and it's so much trickier as we had to go uphill then downhill most of the time, with all those roots around. well, nevertheless, this was where i started to poop out because instead of riding down the hill, i just walked the bike down and then uphill. yes, and i'm not ashamed that i did that or else i might have ended up with a broken bone or worse, dead. ok, i'm just exaggerating here, but then i really had no intention of riding down the higher hills and though this is uncharacteristic of me, i just made the excuse that "i'm a girl." yuck, yuck, yuck but yes, i did. üüüüü

but even with that, i enjoyed the mountain biking a lot and if i just have a lot of time, i'd do this every weekend. then maybe i'd really lose the pounds. ;-)

pics to come soon. =)

my visual DNA

no relation whatsoever to my so-called "travel and food blog." just felt like adding this. =)

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

NASA Adventure

Over breakfast last Friday, I asked my cousin all sorts of questions before we left for the Space Center Houston. "Where will the tram ride take us?" "Are there shows?" "Are there any other rides?"

He answered all my questions with equal seriousness: "To the Lyndon Johnson Space Center where blah, blah, blah..." "Yes." "Yes." Then I fired off my last question: "Is there some kind of ride which has zero gravity?"

His answer: Yes. Only I have to ride an airplane that goes up higher than the normal plane that will go up and then down, like a roller coaster, in order to achieve zero gravity. And only people who are training to be astronauts can go on this. Oh, oh-kay. Zero gravity cannot be achieved on the ground (uh, so sue me. i just thought that with the superior technology of NASA, they have already invented some zero gravity room on earth. apparently, it's on air ü). Moving on, I was able to learn later on that the plane that's used in achieving zero gravity is called the C9B, or otherwise known as the "Vomit Comet." It is so nicknamed because of its parabolic trajectory path. (Wow, do I sound so professional! ;-)) On earth, they have a diving pool in the Astronaut Training Facility in order to simulate zero-g.

Astronaut Training Facility

The rocket Saturn V is kept in a large storage in Rocket Park. It is the last rocket made, and because of the advent of the space shuttles, it was never launched.

Saturn V

ain't this Saturn V rocket long?

rocket boosters of Saturn V

take a closer look

Inside the Space Center is the Starship Gallery, where there's a space time line, exhibits (such as the Apollo 17 Command Module, space suits, the inside of the Space Lab, etc.) as well as a display of moon rocks.

l-r: basalt, breccia, anorthosite, breccia

touchable moon rock. =)

this is me and another astronaut on the moon. i'm the one on the right. ;-)

Apollo 17 Command Module

Space Center Houston also has theaters, one of which is the Blast Off. It's actually a new attraction at the Center, and it features a simulation of a launch---"over 7 million pounds of thrust pushes a 4 1/2 million pound vehicle skyward." It was an awesome feeling. After the lunch... er, launch, people go straight to the Blast Off Theater where they are updated on the latest news in space exploration. This is also where they enlightened the clueless visitors about the zero gravity room. There is, however, a real zero gravity room---the Zero-G Diner. =)

I watched another film in another theater, which is called the Northrop Grumman Theater. The film takes longer than the first one, about 30 minutes, but it was so worth it. It's about the people who undergo training before they can be sent to missions up in outer space. When the real shuttle was being launched, I felt I was also in it. The view of the earth from outer space is very beautiful; the five-storey screen made the experience even more incredible. Oh yeah, and the film's title? It's "To be an Astronaut." I definitely wanted to be an astronaut after watching it. =)

There are more pics in my multiply page, so if you'd like to see my ugly fesz as well, click here and here. Be warned! ;-)

yeah

i am now officially ensconced here in my cousin's room in tampa, florida. new adventures coming up! =)

the flight coming here was awesome. it's just about an hour and a half plane ride fron houston, and no matter how tired i was from last night's picture-posting on this here blog, it was worth it--the flight was short and smooth, the sky was very clear, and i could see different types of boats on the gulf of mexico below. i especially loved two things on this flight: first, when the plane took off, all i could see are fields of green--trees, trees and more trees, with patches of buildings here and there. the state of texas seems to go on forever, with vast terrains that still needed to be explored. and then second, on the plane's final approach to the airport, i saw this really, really majestic sunset. the glow of the setting sun reflecting from the water's surface as seen from the air is more spectacular than seen on land. tampa's many waterways transformed into golden pools of sunlight. it was simply dazzling, literally and figuratively.

i remember that when i was flying to houston, the flight was different. it was a bit bumpy as the plane was flying over land, and we also encountered a thunderstorm two hours into the flight. (the flight was about three and a half hours from los angeles). we were actually just above the clouds, and it was so amazing to see the force of nature literally light up under us... lances of lightning slicing through the dark sky. (it was night time, obviously. ü)

the flight coming to the US is a different story, though. i'll write about it real soon.

and i'm really happy that on all three flights, i sat by the right wing of the plane. the seats by the plane's wings are my most favorite!

and yeah, i'm a-going to the beach tomorrow! woohoo! =)

nasa NASA ako

"Houston, we have a problem."

Ahh, the most memorable line by Tom Hanks from the movie Apollo 13 (and which also became included in the list of cliches). But hey, I certainly didn't have a problem at all in touring the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Houston.

the names of the five space shuttles

a model of a space station

this is the only McDonald's that has an astronaut on top.


this is my weight on jupiter. my weight on earth? you do the maths. =)

Ooh, so many pictures... I'm getting sleepy now. =) More pics will be posted here and in my Multiply page soon and on the moon.

Downtown Houston Sights

I can't believe it... this is my third post for today! Yay! =) Anyhow, the following are some more of what I've seen on my jaunt to Houston yesterday. (May 3)

part of the Houston skyline from the Downtown Aquarium
Toyota Center, the home of the Houston Rockets

Reliant Stadium, home of the... home of Houston's football team. =)

Here's an interesting fact about Reliant Stadium: it's roof is retractable, so when it's raining the roof closes so everyone doesn't get soaked by the rain. Of course when it's sunny, the roof's open. Think convertible.

la Madeleine

After the fishy adventure at the Downtown Aquarium, my cousin and his family took me to la Madeleine, this quaint French cafe and bakery. All of us had a taste of what we ordered -- quiche lorraine, chocolate crepe, strawberry white chocolate cheesecake (I chose this one... m-mmm...), le pot pie (not pictured) and chicken friand (not pictured... it was attacked before I could snap a picture of it). French cuisine is one of my favorites as the food is mostly creamy with just the right amount of spices and a splash of wine. The atmosphere is also very cozy, with muted shades and light music. It was raining too, so it added just a touch of... romance. =)

the incredible hand

strawberry white chocolate mousse...

quiche lorraine

chocolate crepe

les poissons

The Downtown Aquarium in Houston was built in 2001 and it took 18 months to complete. It houses about 400 species of marine life in more than 500,000 gallons of underwater tanks. Within the six acre complex is the Houston Central Waterworks (not pictured), where you can see many species of sharks in yet another huge tank with 200,000 gallons of water. Visitors would not only enjoy the food in the restaurant, but the ambience as well, as one can have a full view of the tank teeming with different kinds of fishes, rays, and even corals. For more info, check out their website here.

pampano??

i saw a sawfish in this shark exhibit!

anuzzer fish

and more fishes!

and another sawfish... this time in the tank in the restaurant

les pics 2

more pics from inside the houston museum of natural science.

my niece kate at the earthquake table

kate with the panther and zebra's butt =)

les pics 1

these pictures were taken in front of the sam houston memorial as well as from the houston museum of natural science. yep, i'm a fan of science, as well as museums! =) the pics aren't that good though, but still, enjoy! =)

with my tita and nieces (the other one's in the stroller =p)

c'est moi in front of sam houston's memorial

le zebra

Books, Treats, and a Rat

One boring day in Baldwin Park about two weeks ago, I got so... bored in my lola's house so I decided to take a walk. As usual, I didn't have any clue on where to go so the first thing that came to my mind was the nearby Morgan Park. I'd planned on just walking over there and stay put for a while in one of the benches and just go people-watching. But when I rounded the corner to the park, I saw the library across the street and, ding! I decided to go there instead in the hopes of being able to go online and check my email.

When I arrived at the library, I found out there was something better--a bake and book sale! Now, where else can I find an event such as this? The prospect of buying a good book (the older, the better) that's cheap as well as yummy, gooey treats beckoned more than getting my hands on a keyboard. Baldwin Park's Friends of the Library organized this event for the benefit of the... well, the library, of course. =) As I entered the door, the baked goodies on the table greeted me first. I chatted a bit with the woman on the table and bought a brownie before entering the book sale.

Oh, there were lots of books to choose from--paperbacks, hardcovers, novels, self-help, romance, religious, children's books, and so on. It took me quite some time to choose a book, though the promo was 10 paperbacks for $1 or 15 cents if you buy just one; for hardcovers, it's only 5o cents per book or $1 for 4 unless it's individually priced. I finally chose one paperback (religious) that came from the library of a certain Mr. Charles ... (I forgot his surname but it's on the seal on the book's cover). As of now I haven't finished reading the book but it's a really good one.

Anyway, I came out with my purchase and chatted for a bit more with the baked goodies lady before finally heading for home, but not until after I bought a homemade chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate frosting and tiny sugar flowers.

You might think it weird, but as I walked home, I saw some kids going home from school and for some reason I didn't want to walk past them so I crossed the street to avoid them. *sigh of relief*

It seems that my sigh of relief was too soon, because by then there were two new kids walking towards me. It'll be too much if I cross the street again to avoid them so I walked on. I haven't so much as walked past the two guys when one of them asked me the strangest thing I've ever heard, that I didn't have the time to react:

"You want a rat?"

A Strange Dialogue

i spent the past weekend at my friend k's house in van nuys. she's one of my oldest friends--we go way back in elementary, and we attended the same schools up until college. we were also neighbors until she moved here to the US three years ago.

by the time she picked me up at the metrolink van nuys station last friday, our conversation was peppered with lots of do-you-remembers as well as newsbits about our other high school classmates. this was how it went (not verbatim, though):

k: alam mo ba na si j me asawa na't anak?
me: hindi. talaga? ilang taon na?
k: one month old pa lang. sila a, jo at m me mga anak narin. nagkikita kami palagi nga nung mga wala pa silang anak.
me: hah? grabe naman!
k: eh mga tpg boys? naalala mo me mga bansag sila sa isa't isa?
me: oo naman noh. eh kamusta nman sila?
k: kasama sila sa liga ng basketball. nagkikita-kita parin silang lahat, pero si jo wala na.
me: eh nasan na sya?
k: nasa canada na, me asawa narin. ang taba!
me: talaga? ok ah! hindi ko alam yun. dami narin pala me mga pamilya sa batch natin no?
k: oo nga! eh ikaw, me alam ka pa ba sa mga ibang classmates natin?
me: wala eh. kaw na lang magkwento.
k: wala kang alam?! eh kaw yung nasa pinas! ano na lang alam mo?
me: sorry wala talaga eh.

yeah, i really didn't know what was happening with a lot of my batchmates in high school. strange? i think not. but maybe.

=p

Houston, we have...

miss lamon. hehe.

finally, after ten, loooooooooooooooong days of not having any contact with any computer with internet access whatsoever, i am back on the blogosphere! woohoo!

ok. so now i am in houston, texas. since my aunt had an operation, she won't be able to help my cuz baby sit for my super duper over mega cute nieces. i'll be here for a week or so. and i intend to update this blog o' mine before i forget everything! =)

just arrived here tonight, actually, so i didn't see anything that much except for the baseball stadium and the toyota center, home of the houston rockets.

oh yeah. i've done a lot of things since my last post here so i'll start with that, and then some extra. oh well. pics will be posted when i get back to manila. i have a confession to make... i don't have a digicam! ;-P yes, people, all i have is the point-and-shoot-and wind type... hehe.

all right this will be all for now, me eyes are droooooooooooping already.

till me next post. =)

Just Breezing Through...

i'm really glad my cousin here in the states has internet, though i can't use it for as long as i did back at work... (and it's dial-up...)

anyhow, i was supposed to leave for the states (LA) last wednesday but since i'm a chance passenger, i wasn't able to ride until i got a seat on a plane bound for san francisco. and the chance passenger that i am, i had to be conent with a crew seat, which means i have to sit (and try to sleep) on the jump seat where the crew sits during taxi, take-off and landing (but i won'e sit there until after dinner). but still, i'm already used to that so i just talked to another co-chance passenger who's traveling for the first time on a jump seat.

the weather in san francisco is cold... too cold for someone who came from a tropical country. it's like i'm in a freezer. actually, i stayed with my tito and tita who lives in vallejo, a 45-minute drive from sanfo, and it's colder there. at night, i wrapped myself in a warm blanket and my sarong. my feet were cold so i wore socks. my hands were also cold so i just wrapped them along in my sarong. my nose was also cold, so...

had a fun time with my friend when we went to the city. from vallejo we rode a ferry going to the port of san francisco. guess where i went? chinatown! hahaha! i actually wanted to go to japantown but my friend doesn't know where it is in san francisco. we ate in a japanese restaurant where i ordered my usual tonkatsu bento. oh yeah, we also went to metreon, this futuristic type of electronics mall with loews cinemas on the top floor and an arcade on the second floor. the second floor also has this "walk of game" similar to hollywood's walk of fame, only it's dedicated to super mario, starcraft, legend of zelda, and other bastions of the video gaming world.

on wednesday i took the train (amtrak) to go to LA. actually the train is just up until bakersfield, then i had to transfer to a train going to LA union station. it was pretty uneventful--just changing landscapes, from rolling hills, to flat meadowlands, farms, orchards, and finally, the desert.

sorry for the incomplete rambles as i'm just using my cousin's computer with dial-up internet. but still, better with something than none! anyway, pictures will be posted soon!

till my next rambling. hopefully more informative. i miss manila!

Bye-bye Manila...

for now.

While browsing through Iskoo's photoblog, I came across one of his pictures with this quote:
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

*sigh*

How right he is.

That is why tonight, I will fly to a place far, far away from the maddening crowd... er, work. And I hope when I come back, I will feel energized and refreshed, ready to tackle whatever challenges that lay ahead.

ok, enough of this drama. hehe.

Take a look at the photo from Iskoo's blog. Beautiful!

miss lamon goes to...

all my bags are packed
and i'm ready to go...
not yet!

coz i'm leavin' on a jet plane...
hopefully this wednesday

i don't know when i'll be back again...
maybe mid or end of may.

yeah, i'm a-leaving this wednesday (hopefully), as soon as my bags are all packed. (which i still haven't started yet)

i'll miss the sun
the cloudless sky
the beach
watering the plants
the heat... a little
walking in manila
hanging out with friends
bloghopping
online 9/5 ('',)

and among other things.

but i'll be back.

oh, yeah, i'll come back.

l'aventure

my friend lay asked me to come with her to the mbrs lines ticket office at north harbor yesterday to buy a ticket to boracay for our friend heidz. as there's nothing else to do at home after work (i finish work at 2pm), i eagerly accepted.

after a long, lethargic bus ride from ortigas, i met lay at stop and shop. she treated me first to a cheeseburger at jollibee, seeing how spaced out i was. one cheeseburger and three glasses of ice-cold water later, i was ready to go. ;-)

to get to north harbor entails us to ride a jeepney to divisoria, then get on another jeepney just after tutuban that passes through moriones in tondo. the jeep will then drop us off in front of the gate leading to piers 8 to 12. (the mbrs ticket office was in pier 8)

for reasons totally unexplainable, we encountered traffic at the top of the flyover going to legarda. oh, well. i guess it's another case of what i call senseless traffic--lots of jeeps with little or no passengers at all crowding the stretch of legarda up until mendiola, waiting for imaginary passengers. grrr.

recto was no different. in there, however, concentrated volumes of smoke and fumes from the countless jeepneys pervaded the atmosphere, making it difficult to breathe. it's a totally new experience for me, though i've ridden the jeep to divisoria before (that one doesn't count, though, coz it wasn't traffic at the time). at any rate, we got off the street just before reina regente and walked the rest to the next jeepney terminal. there are people everywhere--kids playing on the sidewalk, kids begging, people rushing to their destinations, more people selling their wares from the sidewalk, and even more people just hanging around. "itaktak mo" by joey de leon was blaring from the speakers at different intervals. ooh, the place was so crowded, noisy, dirty, and the divisoria "scent" permeating the whole scene. this may sound strange and please don't think i'm being sarcastic here but i was actually enjoying everything. i don't know why myself, but i just do.

it was a bit scary when the jeepney finally dropped us off at the gate to piers 8 to 12. i'll just put it this way: there are just too many "temporary settlers." we decided right then and there to ride a taxi after buying the ticket.

the walk from the gate to pier 8 was surreal. there were trailer trucks and container vans everywhere, forklifts, kargadors etc. (i even saw a guy urinating on one side of one of the trucks parked on the sidewalk! eep! but then again...) it's like being transported to a different dimension.

the trip to pier 8 took an hour and a half. we only spent ten minutes in the ticket office. ain't it just.

thank God we got a taxi immediately.

thank God the driver was nice and kind and didn't mind it at all that he had to drop two passengers off at sta. mesa and san juan.

the taxi ride back home was nice, too.

random sunrise thoughts

This is what I see every God-blessed morning (read: crack of dawn) from my office.

the sun begins its timeless ascent above the dark green hills
enveloped in the warm cocoon of clouds

it still emanates a golden glow

illuminating the sleepy town below

;-)

usapang kamatis

Monday, October 16, 2006

last night we had a late-night grocery spree. my brother and i went to the veggies section to get some tomatoes. the tomatoes were the native kind and... dirty. as in with bits of dirt.

"dirty, dirty, dirty," i muttered to my bro in my best british accent while i took my place beside a short guy wearing a green polo shirt and proceeded to pick out tomatoes.

the short guy turned to look at me a few beats later and said, "if they still have dirt on them, it means that they're still fresh as they came straight from the farm."

ooh, ooh-kay. "oh, ok." i smiled at him and continued to choose firm ones. fresh. farm. yeah, right. i rolled my eyes inwardly. kung hindi ka lang cute jan...

my mum came over, took one look at the tomatoes and announced, "ano ba yan, ang liliit! magkano?"

54 pesos a kilo.

"ano?! ibalik mo yan. merong malalaki sa kabila na mas mura pa."

i made sure to look around first for the short green guy before pouring the tomatoes back into the basket. he wasn't around anymore.

goodbye, tomatoes.

lakaran galore ramblings

i've been dying to walk along the streets of quiapo once more even though i didn't have an exact plan where to go. i saw my chance yesterday when my friend heidz asked me to accompany her to the salon earlier in the afternoon. i warned her to wear comfy shoes as we're going to walk... not really aimlessly, but ya know, just walk wherever our feet bring us. =)

LOST IN QUIAPO
on the fx ride to quiapo, i told heidz about globe lumpia house which serves really good fresh lumpia for over 50 years. we instantly craved for it and i immediately texted my pa where the eatery is located. he replied that it's just on the street behind quiapo church but he doesn't know the name. i should have listened to him right then and there and went directly to that street. but noooooo. there were just too many people and stalls around that we did not see where the lumpia house is exactly. or maybe it's just me and my semi-bad sense of direction. anyway, we passed by ma mon luk--and we went back and forth along quezon ave. asking people where it is, and they all replied, "banda roon pa." eh san nga yung "banda roon"? we were so hungry by then that we just gave up looking for it and just walked over to carriedo by way of sales street (where we saw the philippine school of criminology) and bought these japanese cakes with cheese filling. back on familiar ground (at least, for me), we passed plaza lacson and went over to escolta where we went on to the promenade. we saw one of the new boats on the river just leaving the escolta station and for fun, we decided to ride the boat on our way home.

TASTY DUMPLINGS (AND PORK CHOP RICE)
one japanese rice cake for each of us ain't enough so we ate dinner at tasty dumplings in ongpin. both of us got the humongous pork chop rice and i ordered an extra of kuchay dumplings. yum-yum! after polishing off our food and an hour of chika, we walked along ongpin as heidz wanted to buy a mooncake. i bought red monggo hopia and ube hopia (for my mum) at eng bee tin, then we went on to salazar bakery. it was my first time inside salazar bakery and i can say that i sooooooo love the chinese music pouring out from the speakers. heidz finally bought a lotus cream with 1 egg mooncake while i bought lao po pia (sweet heat cake... don't ask, i don't know what this means either ü). i asked the girl at the counter where i can buy a cd of chinese music and this chinese woman who's manning the cash register answered "galing yan sa china." oh ok. i really wanted to buy one ever since i was bombarded with chinese music at the malls in KL (which was about to celebrate the chinese new year at the time).

CRUISE IN THE DARK
we were just in time for the next trip going to guadalupe (8.15pm). the station in escolta is well-lighted. and inside the boat? FREEZING. it's like we stepped into an industrial-size freezer where the meat is kept. the seats are also made of hard plastic so... it's very cold... ^^;;
the boat also reminds me of the supercat i rode going to ormoc, leyte from cebu as it looks exactly the same except for the seats. i would have loved to look out the window and see the sights, but as it was already night time there wasn't much to see except for places that were lighted--and there weren't many lighted places anyway.
the trip took longer than i expected because the boat was running slower than its maximum speed of 17 knots. the officer i spoke to said that it's due to the speed requirement when plying the river--to make way for the other barges as well as to prevent creating large waves that might cause the smaller boats to capsize.
out of the six stations from guadalupe to escolta, four are already operational: guadalupe, hulo, sta. ana and escolta. the other two--lambingan and pureza will open mid-2007. hopefully the ones extending up to the marikina river will open at the end of this year or early next year.
the trip from escolta to guadalupe took 55 minutes. it's quite longer than i expected, but then it was a good experience. there were only a few passengers (8 in all) so it wasn't like rush hour at all. it was actually like mrt and lrt2 when they first opened. i sincerely hope that this river scheme would click with the commuters.

SHANGRI-LA MALL
heidz and i separated at mrt shaw and i met up with my family at shangri-la. where was my family eating dinner? mong kok express!

THE ARTICLE

antabayanan... abangan... watch out.

:-)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Here are a couple of pics I took on a trip to KL, Malaysia three years ago (was that really three years ago? my, my, how time does fly!!!). These are my favorites. I would have posted one of me with the Petronas Towers but decided against it. Hehehe.


This was taken from the cable car going up to Genting Highlands. It's the longest cable car network. It took us about 15 minutes to get to the top. Woot! It was very cold, colder than Baguio. The fog even rolled in the lobby of the hotel. And I thought it's just like Tagaytay.



The reason why I took this one is because it's so beautiful. If our highways were only like this one, travel time would be cut in half. And there would be NO tricycles to slow us down!

Kiong Hee Huat Chai!

I was supposed to post a picture of me taken with a lion here. But since my family and I arrived in Binondo so late on Sunday, there wasn't anything left except for all the unsold boxes of tikoy on the sidewalk and pieces of firecracker paper left over from the previous day's festivities. (Man, it was actually on Saturday and not Sunday as I thought.)

At any rate, we ate at Mr. Ube's latest resto in Ongpin, where different kinds of noodles and rice dishes are on the menu. Here's what we ordered: maki (pa), Singaporean Laksa (mum), beef noodle soup (bro) and beef sate (moi).

Everything was delicious, if not a tad oily. I just could not finish mine as it was sooooooo spicy. Think: red face.

It was in Mr. Ube's that they offered to take free pictures of their customers with the lion in front of the restaurant with a minimum purchase of P300. Oh, I was so excited at the prospect of having a Chinese New Year souvenir but before we even finished our food, the guys who took the picture already hid the lion.

Aww, shucks.

Well, there's still next year. And I'll make sure to go to Chinatown on the eve. Take lots of pictures, too!

Oh, well...

Kiong hee huat chai!

Gong xi fa cai!

Kung hei fat choy!

sun, sand, surf and sunscreen

Last weekend I had the time of my life as my friends and I went to Crystal Beach Resort located in San Narciso, Zambales. The trip was supposed to take place three weeks ago, but the wait was definitely worth it. We were invited by my friends' schoolmate, Mac Ramos, who is also the resort's operations manager.

Just to give you an idea how close Mac and my friends are, Mac has mentioned that sleeping is going to be a bit of a hassle. We actually felt a bit worried about the place as we drove to the resort, but all nervous thoughts flew out the window when we arrived. It was such a beautiful place--no, it's paradise. It's the perfect getaway for the adventure seekers, honeymooners, families, or even those who simply want to relax. The beach was a wide stretch of sand, and the water was a clear blue-green. There are swings on the trees that sway gently in the breeze and as for the cottage we were provided, it's definitely sleepable. It even has a kitchen but we didn't have to do the cooking anymore since we could ask the resort's cook to cook the food we bought at the nearby market.




The place was so beautiful that one can actually spend the whole day outside. As we were waiting for our lunch to be cooked, we all hung out at one of the huts nearest the beach. Everything was so beautiful that I drank everything in: the warm sand, clear azure waters, the blue, blue sky, the sun shining down on all of us and the cool sea breeze blowing. I closed my eyes and smiled to myself. Ahh, this is the life! I could stay like this forever.

We had a delicious lunch of hot rice, inihaw na tilapia, ensaladang talong and ripe mangoes. It was so delicious that everyone had seconds. After lunch, we sang (actually just my friends) on the videoke until the time was right for swimming.




The resort is also known as a surfing destination, so there were many surfers on that fine Saturday afternoon trying to catch a wave. Unfortunately it wasn't that windy enough so they spent most of their time paddling and practicing their moves near the shore.

Aside from swimming, we also got free surfing lessons from Mac, who is also a certified surfer. He taught us the basics of surfing which are quite simple, but difficult to execute. If you haven't exercised for a long time like me, you'd understand. I think out of the four times I've tried to stand on the surfboard, the first one was the most ok and that wasn't even very ok as I've wiped out on step two (crouching). As for the rest? Well, I wiped out on all of them. But hey, I still had a lot of fun even though I didn't get to stand up on the board. That only means that I have to exercise more. ^^




Pine trees... at the beach? Mac says they're good as windbreakers.

Since it was such a spectacular day, the sunset was equally spectacular. It was a cloudless day and so you can easily see the blazing ball of fire dipping oh, so gently into the azure sea, making way for the first stars of the evening. The time was so perfect for walking along the shore just thinking about life and how beautiful it can be.

I would have joined the others for the bonfire after dinner but I was so wiped out (literally and figuratively) and crashed in the cottage at about 9pm. The others came back a little bit before 12. For some reason it was so cold inside the cottage that we all woke up at about 4am, arguing and laughing about the blankets, makeshift blankets and having no blankets until finally one of us got up to turn off the electric fan. Aah, peace.

Sunday was a replay of Saturday, and I couldn't ask for more. But instead of swimming, I opted to hang out in the hut nearest to the shore and just watched the people as they swam, surfed and whatnot.

I didn't want to leave the place, but go home we must. But before we went home, we had lunch at dude's pizza which is owned by Mac's brother (who's also the resort manager). the place was small but intimate, and it screamed SURFING! there was a counter with a real shortboard top, the wall on the left was a mural of a surfer riding a big wave, and the right wall was covered with messages from the celebrity surfers who came to their resort: Jericho Rosales, Heart Evangelista, China Cojuango, Jackie and Dyan Castillejo, etc. There were even pictures of them as they signed the wall.

We had three large pizzas: Dude's Special, Bacon, and Pepperoni Overload. We also had some potato fries with gravy and an order of Longboard Pizzadog, all washed down with ice-cold glasses of coke. our bunch was as hungry as hungry can be, and all the food were wiped out within a matter of minutes. But even we're not that hungry, well... ;-)

Acknowledgement: The pictures posted here are courtesy of my friend Layla. Thanks girl! ^^

Promotion, promotion! Crystal Beach Resort is perfect for family and company outings, surfers/adventure seekers, camps/retreats, beach weddings, conferences, alumni homecomings, and a whole lot more. Entrance fee is 100PHP per person, and accommodation ranges from 900 to 2,500PHP. Bring your tents if you're more adventurous--you'll only have to pay for the entrance fee, and that already includes the free use of the showers, toilets, parking, basketball and volleyball courts, and obstacle course. Other amenities such as billiards, pingpong, darts, internet and videoke include a minimal fee.
Surfing lessons are 200PHP per hour, per person. Surfboard rentals are 800PHP available for the whole day.
For more information, log on to www.crystalbeach.com.ph. It is advisable to book in advance (especially in the summer). Call (02) 941-9004, and look for Ms. Jean Ramos.

a very fast post

hi there! sorry for not posting that much (especially those pics which i'm still waiting for up to now) here but yeaanyywayy if you'd like, go and visit me other blog here which is more on random thoughts, kalokohan and other stuff if the latest post here is still this one. hehe.

cheers!