The days in between holidays

I've been up to a lot since I arrived back. Generally, it's fleshing out what the rest of the vacation would look like.

There's going to be a lot of family things, friends things and me things.

Family Things:

• Spend Christmas Day at home
  
• Visit my grandfather (and Lola Madre) in Bulacan
• Go to mass

Friends Things:

• Lunches, Dinners, and catchups
• Go to Tagaytay
• Basketball - not happening this time

Me Things:

• Have jeans altered - DONE
• Buy shirts
• Buy (Filipino) DVDs
• Buy OPM albums
• Buy toiletries/groceries

Also, I need to be reacquainted with the food I haven't had in almost a year:

• Jollibee
• KFC
• Max's - DONE
• Teriyaki Boy
• Charlie Wanton Special
• North Park - DONE
• Dunkin Donuts - DONE
• Shakey's
• Yellow Cab
• Italianni's
• Superbowl
• Goldilock's/Red Ribbon
  
• Razon's of Guagua
  
• Various other eating places

All these activites could be a permanent "when-I-go-home" list so I'm keeping it somewhere.

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However, next year might be quite different if plans to spend Christmas in the U.S. push through. It would be the first of its kind, a real winter Christmas.

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Happy Holidays from our family!

Sa May Bahay

I just got back here in Manila. I really have to say, it's good to be back home. Not only would I get breakfast every morning, but I also don't need to wash the dishes, do the laundry, or iron clothes.

Two hours before the flight, the check-in queue was already snaking all over the departure area. 21kgs of luggage (all clothes) and I was good to go. Aside from that episode, the flight was relatively smooth. On the plane, I also got to watch perhaps the best blockbuster movie of 2007, The Bourne Ultimatum. [Spoiler] I loved that part at the very end where they reported that they haven't found his body and then the Moby music ("Extreme Ways") kicks in [End Spoiler]. You just knew you watched an excellent movie.

NAIA Terminal 2 surprised me in the sense that I didn't really expect it to be (just about) as orderly as it was. Luggage came out quick. There was no hassle at all at customs. Outside, the wind has that Christmas feel. And the best part was that there weren't a lot of people in the meet and greet area, unlike last year.

Traffic was hell, however. But I did spend a great time gawking at the billboards at EDSA, and looking at what buildings were newly-built.

I'll be using my old Globeline for now, until I have the line cancelled before I leave.

See you when I see you.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Winter Solstice

Me: that's the thing around here. it's not a Christmas party, it's a last party of the year
Office-mate (from another part of the world): so they decided to do a peter pan theme!?
Me: exactly, who knows for what reason

So much for our Christmas Party Last Party of the Year. I accept that I cannot celebrate a proper office Christmas party while I work in Singapore. The mix of cultures, and sometimes the dominance of some, makes it difficult to pull off such an event. Everybody has to be accommodated.

I didn't like the party too much. In fact some aspects to it are annoying, especially people who can't hold their drink and act downright stupid. Case in point some idiot who took to the stage and demanded that the entire firm wanted to dance to a lot of Indian music. Rightfully, he was booed off the stage. I mean -- shit -- I don't impose Pinoy novelty dances on everyone ["OK, everybody, let's do the ocho-ocho"], much less the tinikling.

In Singapore, you learn about other cultures and share your own. But you have to know you bounds. These people clearly don't.

Fucking ruining Christmas.



Not even Tinkerbell can save Christmas.

--

A too-little-too-late internal announcement that reminded everyone of holiday behaviour in office functions came a day too late.

The worst part is that I haven't heard any outrage regarding behaviour in the party. If anything, I think they want more Indian dancing music next time. Verrrry Christmas-sy.

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I've seen The Golden Compass and while I believe that the mythology is rich, I didn't feel that I was really amazed by the movie. I don't think it was presented too well. Dakota Blue Richards would make a fine actress. But she has that smug in the movie that says "I've got two more sequels, so you can't kill me".

Anyway, I just felt unprepared for absorbing the entire thing at one go. Maybe subsequent viewings will help? I don't feel like reading the book, so nuts to that.

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I've posted a calendar event on Jan 31, 2008 about Switchfoot performing here in Singapore. Should be good. I think SISTIC will begin selling tickets on the 26th. Looking forward to that.

Homecoming

This weekend, our high school batch of 1997 will have our 10th year homecoming. What can I say about it?

For starters, I was in danger of being sent to Aquinas School. No, this wasn't like when I started school, having a choice between Lourdes School Mandaluyong and Ateneo since I passed the tests for both. In this case, I was wait-listed in Ateneo High School (AHS) and we had to have a backup plan. Recovering from chicken pox, I worked hard to get the necessary grades to be reconsidered for eligibility. Then one day, they published the list of those that have been reconsidered. I was in that list of thirty-something names. Welcome to high school.

High school didn't start off well, academically, an effect of resting on my laurels. Eventually, I picked it up in later years to boost my chances of getting into college in the course I wanted.

There's barely anything I regret about high school. Well, at least nothing that turned out to be important. I mean, I don't regret the amount of effort I put in my studies. I felt that I had the right amount of fun and study. I remember that there is a gauge as to how to differentiate normal students to upperclassmen, measured by the amount of hours of study per day they do. (2 for normal, 3 for upperclassman. I think I was doing one and a half before attention-deficit kicked in.)

All in all, high school was pretty great. Everyday is a learning experience whether inside or outside the classroom.

With that, I leave to you, dear reader, to imagine how we went from pipsqueaks then...



...to fat fucks now.



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Incidentally, my dad will receive the award for both of us being a Father & Son Jubilarian Pair

Dad: Grade School 1963, High School 1967, College 1971
Me: Grade School 1993, High School 1997, College 2001

Stupendous! It's even better than being valedictorian! (Not that I'd have a clue how that'd feel like)

28

Northeastern monsoon has arrived. It's been windy in the recent days. For the first time, since I've been here, it's been comfortably cool, without the accompanying rains.

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I don't know, I guess I just lost it.

The will to blog, that is.

The trip to the U.S. was a big milestone in life, and scratched a big itch, as I mentioned. There's probably nothing that could top it in the near future. So everyday just feels ordinary, events not so blogworthy, and pictures not flickr-worthy.

Nonetheless, I will attempt a post today just because I just celebrated (or not celebrated) my 28th birthday last weekend. This should cover most of the weeks I have missed blogging.

A special mention however to the trip two of my bestest friends took in Singapore. I haven't seen them in almost a year and I was glad to see them.

Jimelle, Me, Kat and gracious host, Dondi

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It's not out of the ordinary to give yourself a gift on your special day. And for me, by virtue of good timing coinciding with SITEX, it only makes sense that I march off to Singapore Expo and buy something for myself. And that something turned out to be a Seagate FreeAgent Desktop Drive.

Sorry if I can't contain the excitement.

But like I said earlier, I've given as a no-occasion gift to myself that trip to visit my family in the U.S. How can I beat that?

I can't and I won't. Not in a long time.

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I watched Enchanted this weekend. No spoilers this time. But I just like to say that I've known Amy Adams to be hot since Catch Me If You Can.

Ok, what I'd really like to say was that this movie had the potential to be the fairy tale to end all fairy tales. Unfortunately, it falters a bit at the end, to the cliche it came from. Still, it makes for a pretty entertaining movie, and Manhattan itself is ever enchanting.

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Looking ahead to 2008, we're in talks to go to either Korea or Japan for a vacation. As it stands, Korea seems to be where we're headed.

I can't seem to get excited about a trip to Korea no matter how much browsing I do on Times (bookstore) or online in wikitravel.

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God Delusion and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. These are two of the books I have bought but not read yet.

D'oh.