G'bye 2011! :)

HK with family.  Herbert's vacay (CORON!!!).  Dolphin.  GUAM!!  Mandarin lessons.  Curly hair.  A!!  TEACHING!!  21K!!!  TAIWAN!!

The Holiday Look

Happy Everything!!! :D

Red + Blue = Purple

Shoesies update.. :)


Red oxfords from Dorothy Perkins. 

Blue strappy shoes with killer heels from Aldo ( a remembrance from an Aldo outlet in Taiwan  :p)

And lastly, falling head over Coach-wedge heels in love with these purple satin beauties. :)  Ordered from this website.

Remember the color wheel equation: Red + Blue = Purple :)  Have a colorful holidays everyone. :)

VJ's Wedding

For some other people, this is the perfect season to get married.  While for some, like me, it's the time to uhmmm attend their weddings.  :P  ( No drama in here, lol!)

Last Friday, I had to run to make it to my friend's wedding reception at H20 Hotel in Manila.  I came all the way from the south - an overnight stay at my bestie Joy's house, went home to change, rushed to the mall to prepare the gift then finally made a dash to the hotel.  Whew!!  As tweeted, running is turning out to be not only a hobby of mine, but is already the story of my life.  When did life start to become so busy??? 0_0

Anyway, VJ and I started to become friends during our sophomore year in high school.  My first impression of her wasn't that good because on the very first day of our 2nd year, she took my desired seat and transferred my bag to the vacant seat which happened to be right infront of the teacher's table while I was out of the classroom.  LOL!!  But being both transferees to the first section (we were both acers from our respective freshman's section, naks!), we eventually got along well and were later known to be David and Goliath.  :P  I also have fond memories of our gaga days over our varsity players in MIT High.  ;-)  We got separated in our senior year and went out with different set of friends during college but got reunited for a thesis in college which if I remember correctly is about Microwave Transmission (????).  Haha!!  During project overnight days, we were both accompanied by our uhmm respective boyfriends then, who is now her husband Louie.  (Again, no drama in here.  Haha!!)

10 years of being together (and still counting), ain't that amazing??? :)  I was actually touched that she remembered to invite me.  She had to remind me like really really way ahead of time so as to make sure that I don't make any plans.  Hehe.  I believe she's somewhat updated with my life through this blog. :)

I believe I read in a book before that etiquette suggests that if it is possible, you should align the color of your dress to the motif of the wedding.  And for that, I can only be too happy to oblige and wear my favorite purple silk chiffon dress.  :)

Okay, please don't hold it against me.  It's just that I often see people wear all black in a wedding.  For me, okay I repeat for me, I believe it is not appropriate.  Black is such a mourning color and that's why I don't think it should be worn for joyous occasions like that in my humble opinion.  This stems from an experience when I was younger.  I was supposed to attend a funeral of a relative somewhere in Bataan and I was only able to pack an orange dress (Yes, an orange!!  Forgive me what did I know then I was I think 9 yo?).  In the end, I decided not to join the funeral 'coz I only have with me a happy color.  There.

Anyway, it was so nice to be reunited with my high school/ college friends again. :)

Ruel, Me, Anna & Vaughn

That huge aquarium behind us is one of the out-of-the-box experience (according to the blurb :p) of this hotel.  Someday I hope I get to try their hotel's Aqua room. ;-)

Congratulations and Best Wishes to the couple Louie & VJ Salud.  :) I don't have a shot of them from my cam as I was ashamed to go around taking pics so I stole this very nice photo of 'em from their FB.  :P  Lurve her gown's details, it's Veejay Floresca's design. :)

I accessorized my dress with clear glass stones. :)

Angelito

We interrupt your regular "KC programming" (lol!) to give way to some #shameless plugging.  Hahaha!!!  And so, spoken like a seasoned pro,

"Mga kapamilya, patuloy niyo pong subaybayan ang Angelito.  330-4PM po pagkatapos ng Helena's Promise."

Hahaha!!  Why do they always say it like that??  Anyway, I finally saw one of my brother's episode in the said show this afternoon and so I now have the right to blog about it.  :P  He's been airing since  last Thursday I heard and he portrays Arthur, a friend of Angelito (JM De Guzman).

I was teasing him that the role of a construction worker suits him.  Nyahaha!!  Angelito: Batang Ama's story revolves around a young man, Angelito (JM De Guzman) who becomes an under-aged father and  his obstacles in life.  Please like the show's fan page here to know more details about the show and also if you'd like to meet the cast in their mall tours.  :P  I remember Lem talking about how nervous he was when his name was called and the crowd was cheering for him at SM Nova. ;-)

And for the last photo,

Oh em.  JM is soooooooo gwapo noh sometimes I'd like to ask my brother to take me to the set.  LOL!!  I already had a chance to meet Jason last time and I was surprised how he can be the quiet and reserved type in person as opposed to the character he usually portrays.  :P  If you have a little time as well, can I just ask a teeny favor??  Please report this account as fake to FB.  Thank you. :)

Keep on watching Mga Kapamilya. :)

Bits of My Thursday

Though most of what happened last Thursday were already published in my FB account (P.S. Mobile uploads can be very addicting.  LOL!), I'd still like to keep an account here in my blog.  It all started with this controversial status update about how the driver told me this "Ma'am sa'n po ba ang fashion show natin?" in the morning.  I didn't take it too negatively though.  I was just wearing a dress for crying out loud.  :))  I mean, 90% of the time you'd see me in a dress.  They flatter me more than jeans/shirts or slacks/collared blouse combo do for a corporate attire.  And yes, the colors and style may be non-corporate but I didn't wear it for work.  I was going to buy a gift for a friend's wedding in Powerplant Mall, it's just that I had to pass through Joy's office in HTC Makati first.  

Upon arrival at the 12th floor of their building, I finally understood the reason for the extra effort in dressing up that morning.  Hihihi.  Rov F. was in the house.  I knew it!!!  It was intuition!!! Yay!!!!  The girls had to wait for the meeting to get over before..............

Yiheeeeeeee!!!  Hahaha!!!  In less than the time it takes to pronounce his name Rovilson Fernandez, I was already hailing a cab going to Rockwell after the photo-op to meet someone who'll help me pick the gift for my friend's wedding.  There's a cooking shop at the ground floor where I've got vouchers for and given the fact that I'm useless in the kitchen, it's for certain that I need someone else's help.  Cue in NJ.  LOL!! But tell me, how cute are these utensils being sold at Cook's Exchange???  Just the mere sight of them makes me wanna get married learn how to cook already!!!  LOL!!!

I die at the chopsticks!!!! Soooooooo cute!!!! :))

We had lunch at Kulinarya while I was waiting for someone to deliver me my first designer brand shoes!!  Ayeeeeeeeee!!!  So excited to show it to you but prolly in the next posts. ;-)  Afterwards, we went to see Tom Cruise's Ghost Protocol which had me coughing up a few laughs and had me wow-ing at the feature on Burj Khalifa (aaaah someday, someday!!!) oh and on Cruise's stunts as well. ;-)

After bumping into some friends from the gym, I had to call it a day as I had to go straight to Laguna to meet up my bestie Joyeeeeeee who's here for a vacay and NJ had to attend his couz's wedding (who's also a member of my org in college!!  Small world right?).  Sigh, so many things happening this December!!  Always a crazy happy month! :))

And for my final picture, be the judge.  Come on tell me, manong driver was just exaggerating with his statement diba???? ;-)

Enjoy the weekend you guys!! :D

When You Travel Alone :P

Here are some bits and pieces of my Taiwan trip since I haven't really decided how to "travelogue" it. :P

#1  Be a map expert.  I remember before I used to be so useless with maps, haha!!  But since I had to rely on myself on this trip, I made sure to really focus on the directions and be extra attentive to my surroundings.  Specially during my arrival since we landed Taiwan at around 1AM in the morning.  And I opted not to take the taxi from the airport to the city since it'd cost me an arm and a leg.  LOL!!! It'd been easier if all the people speak English but even if I took some Mandarin lessons months ago, I never really get to practice the language and can only speak the useful phrases.  And get this, when people would speak to me in long and fast Mandarin, I give up on trying to understand them and would just reply with a very simple, "wo bu zhi dao" which means I don't know.  Classic!! Hahaha!!!

#2 Buy silly stuffs in night markets.  :P  I'm so guilty at this, I remember I also did the same thing when I was in Bangkok.  I wasn't satisfied with my night shopping though coz most of the stuffs they sell when I was there were winter clothing.  :(  I wasn't even able to find a miniature Taipei 101 building for my personal souvenir.  But tell me how cute are these sunnies?  Haha!!  It screams Lady Gaga in her video Paparazzi.  :P

#3  Look the part.  Hahaha!! My face is so Asian that most of the countries I've visited to often mistake me for a local (even my Japanese students tell me I look Japanese (????), so this time I opted for a Korean look.  Why?  Because there were a lot of Korean tourists during my stay in Taipei.  They're omnipresent!!  Why???  :P

Actually, I was just goofin' around with the camera in the above photos after resting from a tiresome temple visit and just thought of sharing them here.  LOL!  Don't take my  tips seriously.  :))  Until the next proper blogging! ;-)

35th Milo Marathon: My 10K Run

Oh-kay.  So the new style now for guys to be noticed by a girl in a fun run is to STAY BESIDE her and keep up with her pace.  XD  I swear there was this one guy who kept on positioning himself beside me during this run.  It'd almost appear in the photos (if there are any) that we are doing a "buddy" run.  Heck, we could've been considered a couple to some other runners!!  I don't know what was his purpose as my "small talk" capability is totally blocked by my pink Sony mp3 player. :P

To make things more fun, I tried to do some tests.  During the first water station we passed by, I didn't get myself a drink so as to actually leave him.  :P  After a few seconds, he emerged successfully and re-appeared beside me.  Hmmm...okay.  I noticed upon the sight of the second water station, he tried to run a bit faster thereby overtaking me prolly to buy him some time to drink and perhaps to still keep up with me by the time I pass through it.  Hmmm, smart move I guess.  I still didn't stop to drink.  :P  I also observed that whenever we would overtake a group of runners infront of us, he'd actually make a way for me to pass through so that we could still run together.  What was up with that????  But ALAS, on the third water station, somewhere pass the 7km mark, he stopped for some thirst quenchers (I still didn't) and he didn't resurface anymore.  HAHAHA!!!  SUCCESS!!!  :))

Not that I actually hate him for what he was doing.  It was just fun challenging him.  Haha!!  I hope feminism won't strike me down but I still believe that men have the edge when it comes to running.  (I've seen it with two of the men I've run with).  Initially I was thinking that this guy was actually just downgrading his pace by keeping up with mine.  And I'm not a fast runner I promise.  But it seems that his stamina wasn't enough to beat mine (lol!) and for that he failed my test.  :))  If it's my attention that he was aiming for though, obviously he got mine simply for smelling so good.  LOL!  Yes, I give him credits for that.  Hahaha!!!

Further credence that I'm not a fast runner, my official time logged is 1:07.  Aaargh!!  Why is it so hard to get a sub-1 on a 10k????? :-|  I never stopped on all the water stations you know!!!  But the worst thing is, I was supposed to run a half-marathon for this event and so my time was logged in the 21k category that I actually belonged to the top 5 finishers.  Yikes!!  This is so embarrassing!  I don't know how to ask them to remove my name in there.  Hahaha!!!

My coach NJ stood me up on this run.  :P  He wasn't able to wake up on time??  Seriously, what kind of coach is that??  Hahaha, kidding!! :))

This would probably me my last run for the year.  Second 21k, I'll prepare for you on 2012! ;-)

Senti Saturday: If You're Not Here

Haish.  Pardon the mushiness of this post, I officially blame it on this rainy weather.  But  I've said it again and again, I always love it when all of a sudden you hear a song that perfectly captures your exact emotions at that very moment.  Just like when I unearthed this "unnamed" file from my documents while doing files back-up.  I know it was one of those errr, recordings of mine which I can see from the Date Modified file that was saved two years ago but I wasn't sure of the title of the song.  Only to find out it was my take on Menudo's If You're Not Here.  And the lyrics says it all.  :(

Despite my failure on some most of the notes (haha!!), I can't stop list'nin to it.  Love your own diba?  Haha!!  If you're gonna listen (not really recommended, lol!), please use a headset as I might be discovered.  Nyahaha!!  But it's the thought that counts right so I have provided the lyrics below just for you to recall what is it about.  It's a famous song, of course it's from Menudo. ;-)

Gotta catch that plane at 7:30
Why haven't you come to say goodbye
Time is running out and I'm still waiting
I'm so lost without you, I could die
Yesterday you said you loved me
Everything seemed to be fine
Today you're not here, I'm so lonely
It's the waiting that's driving me out of my mind

Don't know how I'll sing in that big city
How can I perform if you're not there
This will be the worst of all my journeys
The image of your face will follow me everywhere

I need your tender kisses
The feel of your hands, your caress
Your perfume has me burning
My heart is yearning to touch you
I need you so much

If you're not here, by my side
Can't hold back the tears
I try to hide
Don't think I can take it
I know I won't make it
Make it without you

If you're not here, by my side
Only your love keeps me alive
No sense in dreaming
My life has no meaning
If you're not here

I need your tender kisses
The feel of your hands, your caress
Your perfume has me burning
My heart is yearning to touch you
I need you so much

If you're not here, by my side
Can't hold back the tears
I try to hide
Don't think I can take it
I know I won't make it
Make it withou you

If you're not here, by my side
Only your love keeps me alive
No sense in dreaming
My life has no meaning
If you're not here 

HTC Year-End Party!!

Pics fresh from the oven :P

The year-end launch was held at Skye Roof Deck of W Building at The Fort.  It was for me a fresh discovery for a lounge party, a perfect place to chill out on a regular night what with the rainy weather recently.  Very nice ambiance I must say. ;-)

Me, Joy & Hannah chilling out :)

I noticed there weren't too much available photos of the place in the web.  It was too bad as the high-rising condos around the area and the festive lights of the season could provide for a good backdrop for the photos.  But alas, the big tent that was set-up in anticipation of some drizzle was a distraction.  I wasn't able to take many photos as well since I arrived late what with the coincidental visit of my Singaporean colleagues. :P  


The theme was lounge chic and I don't have any appropriate attire so I went for some rock chic vibe (if you'll allow me to call it that way, haha!!) instead.  

Wearing a body con dress from Kamiseta, leather vest from Terranova, Tory Burch handcuffs, Charles n Keith bag and shoes from People R People as will be seen below.  And just in case you were wondering who my date for the night was,

Oh why it was Rovilson Fernandez of The Amazing Race Asia Season 2.  Hahaha!!! Ansabeee ng ilusyonadang froglet like me?  Hahaha!!!  He was so kind and warm though that he even invited us to hop on to his next party at 7th High.


Thank you so much HTC Philippines for the invite! :)

'Til We Meet Again

With Snoop Dogg.. :))

His one of too many look-alikes!!  It's confusing you know - the different celebrities people are telling me. :))

Anyway, maybe that's one way to humor this picture despite the fact that he might not come back.  And I guess this qualifies for a travel Tuesday, as he's already left for Tehran. :(

"تا دیدار مجدد اشکان

Fashion Friday: VS Girls

Literally a fashion show for today, haha!  This is a perfect weekender clip for all of you.

1.  An upbeat song that will make you dance to this Friday night - Moves Like Jagger.  P.S.  Still is my current ringtone and wake-up tone. :P

2.  Sexy Victoria's Secret bombshells in swimsuits!!  Thin-spiration for girls and will surely elicit an ooooh-lala expression for men out there. :))

3.  ADAM LEVINE!  My other BOYFRIEND!!!!  Hahaha!!!  I lost count how much I tweeted I love you to him in Twitter!!!  HAHAHA!!!  P.S.  Ryan said he's not jealous.  LOL!!! :))))))))

4.  Adam planting a kiss on his girlfriend at 2:03 mark!  Awww, how cute and sweet was that???  Don't you just love sudden display of affections like that???  I soooooo love you ADAM!!  Hahaha!!!

Happy weekend y'all!!!! :D

Teachers' Gathering :)

Mabuhay!!! I'm back in Pinas! :)  Just in time for me to attend a gathering with my co-teachers for my Japanese company at Golden Fortune restaurant in Manila. :)

And as seen from below the highlight of the night was - me belting out to Out Here On My Own by Irene Cara.  Hahaha!!! No, it was actually meeting my other co-teachers.  It was a very good opportunity since we all work from home.  So I was able to make some new friends. :)

Haha, okay so I did sing for the contest I badly miss the karaoke.  :P  And I figured it's one good way for the other 60+ teachers out there to remember you. ;-)  I was shaking during the song though 'coz I really didn't volunteer myself you know. :P  But I had fun meeting all these pretty ladies and got amazed with their wits during the games.  The best for the night was a game of translation of profound Tagalog salawikain (naks!!!) or proverbs in English.  The time was limited to 10 seconds so the others just came up with their best lines.  And the winner for me was:

Tagalog proverb:  Ako ang nagtanim, ako ang nagbayo at nagsaing, nang maluto'y iba ang kumain.

In English it would've been something like (according to a reference :p) "I did the threshing, I did the cooking, but once served, someone else eats it."  And during the game, one of the tutors answered:

Tutor:  No Other Woman.

Aylavit!!  Hahaha!!! WINNER statement.  LOL!  It would take time before this gathering happens again. 

Last photo.  I wore my orange combo for the night.  Happy annoying orange.  Hehe. :P