The Year Ahead...

Long time no blog. The Holidays have come and gone. Now it's time to look ahead. I'm setting new goals for this year and I'm keeping this blog as some sort of a score card. :-) hehe

[ ] Vacation in Cebu/Bohol

The tickets are reserved; now, just waiting for the date itself. Hope the weather will be fine. I just wish I had a better camera to bring with us. Things to prepare:

- clothes, toiletries, everything - the works
- CAMERA! (see below)
- itinerary
- tons of loads (Globe cellphone loads, that is)
- few Cebuano/Visayan phrases

[ ] Sell camera / Replace camera with a videocam

My camera was hardly used so no question about the quality here. In comics/card collector terms, my camera is in "Near Mint" quality. However, I just need a videocam with a decent resolution. I like videos better than pictures. And by "decent", I mean something around 5 megapixels. I have a printer dock for this cam as well, so I would most likely sell these two as a package.

[ ] Fix Gray/Grey

Gray/Grey (haven't decided the spelling yet; okay, let's stick with "Graey" for now) is my dad's 1992 Toyota Corolla XE that I'm using most of the time; I use it around 6 days in a week; can go for 7 days straight if I wake up early enough to avoid the Color Coding ban here in Metro Manila. Uhm, Graey is, well, gray in color. If my math is correct, Graey is already 15 years old, as old as a junior/senior high school student. Wow.. How time flies.

Anyway, Graey had its clutch lining replaced last Christmas. Next, we'll observe for other leaks and the strange noises the engine is making during warm-ups. Here's a partial list of the things we need to do:

- replace the shock absorbers (especially the front-left shocks; we can feel every tiny bump on the road)
- replace the tires (too soft and they haven't been replaced for several years)
- replace signal lights (busted for sometime, but the lightbulb itself is still working)
- paintjob (Graey went through a lot of, uhm, scrapes over the past few years)
- fix the muffler (too noisy and shaky)

[ ] Landscape our garden

Right now, the garden is a desolate wilderness lined dotted by a few piña-like plants and a single pine-like tree.. Hehe.. Well, not really a wilderness; small santan plants line the fence and some yellow-green-leaf plants (I have no idea what they are called) line the walls of the front side of the house.

At the side, we have a suha and calamansi which were revived successfully. We forgot to water them for three straight days and they dried up -- practically flooding them every single day after that resurrected these plants.

Orchids are there, but we have nowhere to permanently place them. I guess I'll just have to pick up one of those larger logs brought down by Milenyo recently, set them on a specific side of the house then hang the orchids there. :-)

We also need some gravel for landscaping. I wonder if I can take some of the gravel left behind by the JB sidewalk workers along Sucat? >:) Mayor Jun Bernabe recently cemented the sidewalks of Sucat Road (Dr. A. Santos Avenue) and placed his trademark JB butterfly logo on the said sidewalks.

Nah, too dumb and too risky. Scratch that plan out. I'll just buy some from one of the construction stores along Sucat (Elite, Roxan, among others) or at "Koi Mo, Koi Ko" located in front of Manila Memorial Park. Good place to start your garden - several kinds of plants, gravel, tiles, and -- as the name implies -- Koi, the "goodluck" fish, choice of owners-who-own-gardens-so-large-that-fishponds-can-fit-in-it. No plans for a pond yet though -- water is too scarce in Parañaque; no NAWASA yet.

Other ideas:
- grotto
- tiles/stone/pebble path
- a huge chunk of rock from out of nowhere to be placed anywhere just for the sake of having it placed there
- lamppost / stone lantern (Japanese style)
- wood/kawayan fence (to cover the neighbor's firewall, and to hang some of the orchids)

In BF Homes market, there is a store that sells some wood and bamboo ideal for fences and other landscaping needs.

Suggested reading: Real Living. Buy back issues at 50% off at Booksale and other bookstore and magazine stands! ;-)

[ ] Get a new dog or two

I want another dog or two to patrol around the house alongside our Pinscher Jessie. Doesn't have to be a Pinscher or any purebreed dog. A mongrel would be fine, if not better. Nothing like another set of fangs to sink in to the arms and legs of would-be robbers! :-) Harharhar!

[ ] Get more furniture

Too many things to display, very few places to display them on. 'Nuff said! Things to display:

- Carebears - none bought; all acquired from Timezone!
- Transformers - origs and japeks
- Books - Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Reference, Comics, and kick-ass books like 48 Laws of Power ;-)
- Souvenirs from weddings, baptisms, and birthdays
- Pictures (fine, so there aren't much pictures; we'll get more later)

[ ] Deposit a certain amount in the bank by the end of the year

Well, well, well... We'll see how this goes. It's actually doable, but a lot of sacrifices would be made. I guess No Pain no Gain....

I'll update this list as I go along. These are just some of the things that are on top of my head.