Swamped...

Yes.. December must be a wonderful time of the year to celebrate and just relax. But I can't! :p Unforeseen requirement changes (or should I say expected?) and email exchanges here and there dragged the schedule that made the start of the busiest month to December.

I have been with my company for 3 Decembers now, and I noticed that we pretty much start to get busy during December. Haayyysss...

It will really be fun to spend Decembers just thinking of gifts and celebrations with family/friends. Haaaaayyyys again.. I so yearn for a stress-free December come 2010.

Read more...

First Wedding Anniversary! (NOW with PICS)

We had our first wedding anniversary here! We haven't realized how much we've grown, how much we've learned, and how much we had accomplished in our first year.

Anyway, since our first anniversary was a Monday, and I can't take any leaves yet, it had to be a dinner and a movie!

We had dinner at Marché Vivocity, as recommended by Cel. (Thanks Cel!) This is the first Swiss restaurant we tried -- and it's great! Let's just wait for Che to put it the pictures here (the new "career woman" is busy today.. :) hint hint). Anyway, the full review of the place is here.

Outside Marche and the guest card

Aliw table availability indicator..

Simply yummy!

After that, we watched a movie at Golden Village VivoCity. Funny story. Earlier at work, I printed out the movies available. When I got home, I showed Che the list and asked her which of the movies she wanted to watch. Jokingly (I guess), she pointed at Stardust - at that time, she had no idea what the movie was about and I had no idea that she had no idea what the movie was about. Knowing her, I knew she'd go for the fantasy flick Stardust over the action-packed Beowulf (which I was also looking forward to watch as well). So when she pointed at Stardust, I had the mindset "After dinner, we'll watch Stardust". On the other hand, she thought that since I was looking forward to Beowulf, she had the mindset "After dinner, we'll watch Beowulf."

After dinner, she called her folks home since they greeted us through text and we were touched that they remembered. While she was talking to them, I had bought the tickets for Stardust at 9:25PM. She was expecting Beowulf at 9:00PM. By 8:50PM, we went up to the cinema but the crew said that they will only admit people 10 minutes before the show. She was surprised that the movie was moved to 9:25PM from 9:00PM. I guess because we were talking and she trusted me, she didn't question it any further and just waited for 9:15PM. Shortly before 9:15PM, I went to the restroom first before going in to the cinema. While waiting for me, she took a picture of the movie tickets using her phone. She saw "STARDUST" and was confused for a while. "Stardust? Why Stardust? What's Stardust??" It only sank in seconds later that I did not buy Beowulf tickets! Hahaha...

Well, we had no choice but to watch Stardust of course so we went in. She really didn't have any idea what the movie was about so she was teasing me about our misunderstanding. The dialogue was somewhere along the lines "What made you think I want to watch this? I don't even know this movie." Good thing is, it really is a good movie, and it is the type of movie that she watches. Hehehe. :) Lesson learned: "Clarification, it's a beautiful thing." - Dr. House M.D.

The movie was finished around 11:30PM. We hurried to the MRT to catch the very last train. We got in the NE train in HarbourFront several minutes before departing. At the next stop, Outram Park Interchange, we were worried that we may not catch the EW train, also the last train for the night. When we saw the ticker sayig "Last train to Boon Lay-ARRIVED", we made a run for it. We got it just in time -- the doors closed seconds after we got in. Hehehe.. Phew!

The only time when MRTs are not JAMPACKED...

Great day, great nightout! Not the best or the most expensive celebration I had hoped for, but since we're just in the "build up" phase here in Singapore, I guess it's the best that we could hope for here. Important thing is I'm happy, she's happy, we're happy. :)

HAPPY

FIRST

ANNIVERSARY

Read more...

Hey, Let's Do The Limbo Rock!

My officemate, Marhgil, compiled our limbo rock game during our teambuilding and placed it in youtube. Kenis, ang pangit ng itsura ko dun hahaha.. But come to think of it, I can bend that low pa pala! (tabachingching kasi ko eh) Aliw naman sya kasi game lahat kami eh... Here goes!

Read more...

50, 550 for 50!

Very intriguing title indeed. :) Yesterday marked our 50th monthsary as a couple . And thinking about the 50 months that we shared together, I know we still have a long way to go. It even made me look fast forward to our 50th year as a couple. I did a little math and figured out that we have a long long way to go.. 550 more months! Probably and hopefully by that time, our family grew already. Imagining things like we have a very close-knit family, raised our children as very good people/citizen, that they have their own families already, that we have lots of grandchildren sitting on our lap. :) That we live a very comfortable and wonderful life despite of the ups and downs. Haayyy, wishful thinking! :p

I just hope and pray that Mon and I grow stronger each day. Apart from other things, I think a very strong relationship and partnership will bring forth a very good future ahead of us. To 550 more months! Cheers Baby! :x

Read more...

Happy MonCheri!

We weren't able to post last Feb 19 (3rd month namen as husband and wife) but today's our MonCheri (Yan daw eh monthsary sabi ni Gina) as couple. :) Hehehe.. It's been 4 years, 1 month that we're together and I'd say we are really happy about it.

Everyday is a new day for us, a chance to discover more of each other and an opportunity to express more love for each other. I really am thankful to God for bringing Mon into my life... my kakulitan, my pc games opponent, my movie buddy, my eating partner, my shopping companion, my bestfriend, my soulmate, my fafi, my tabachoichoi, my baby, my labs, my destiny, my life, my everything!

Read more...

Love is in the Air...

... since it was hearts day yesterday. And because of that, I have a very long kwento.

I have been in so much anticipation since Mon had me guess his plan. I was restless and can hardly concentrate with what I do. Probably because I can sense that almost everyone in our office personally feels that the day is really special. We even have an officemate who celebrated his birthday. :) Belated hbd Ding!

Lunch time, I just picked up my gift (airbrushed Batman shirt) for Mon at Robinson's Place. Got excited that the colors were taken from the original one. I also dropped by handyman to buy a new steering wheel cover for Mon. Sometime this week, he had a bruise and he suspects that it is due to the worn out cover. For me, it was another gift idea. Hehehe...

Back to the office, my teammates and I went to the pantry to eat lunch. That is when I was told by my co-February celebrant that our manager requests if we could schedule our treat the same day since our 6 Chinese Alagas are going back to China to celebrate Chinese New Year. We agreed on it and our officemate arranged the ordering for us. After some time, a delivery man entered our work area carrying a box of roses and it for Gnet! :) Sweet sweet Ronnie! Hehehe... Come 430pm, our orders from Amber came - spaghetti, pancit bihon, lumpiang shanghai, pichi-pichi and barbecue! We even have double dutch ice cream as dessert. So much for diet. Hehehe..

While eating/chatting at the pantry, I noticed that Mon has been calling me (3 missed calls =). Third time I was able to answer his call, he asked me to go outside. I got out and saw him with a bouquet of pink roses! How sweet! Hehehe.. I savored the moment for a while (minsan lang to eh! hahaha) and told him I'll be out before 7pm. He just went down and waited for me.

Gnet gave me an idea of just putting the shirt that I'll give him. To add a bit of surprise, I put on my red jacket. Funny thing he was not bothered by me wearing a jacket when it was not even cold. Haha... Since I can't take wearing 3 layers of top, I asked Mon just when I was about to ride the car, "Be, pakitanggal mo naman jacket ko." The look on his face showed he found my request a bit odd. Hehehe.. When he unzipped the jacket, his face glowed. Good thing he liked the shirt!. :D

We went to Baywalk for our date! hahaha... But we had the Manila Bay Cruise and the boat (M/V Tennesee Walk) docks there. I saw the reservation ticket and my jaw dropped! It's a whooping 1990 pesos! The cruise only tickets are 250/pax while with dinner is 495/pax. Since I know that we'll have dinner, it should just be P990. Mon said I'll figure out why there's an additional 1k when we board the boat.

Anyways, it took a while for the boat to arrive so we just chatted and took pictures of ourselves. I learned that the trip is an hour and a half long and there are four trips per day. The sunset cruise which starts at around 6pm, the dinner cruise (the one that we got), the next one I forgot (starts at 9++pm) and the last is the midnight cruise (11++pm). Then finally, the boat arrived! We noticed that there are two cameramen covering the first cruise (kapuso yata) while approaching the dock area. Sayang! Hahaha... Then came our turn...

We are in the "special arrangement" area pala, guaranteed seating. Dun napunta ung 1k. Grabeng extortion ito! Haayyy... Anyways, we are near the stage and it has a more romantic mood since there's a nice table setup for two. We have to wait for another 30mins for the boat to finally sail. But that 30mins is worthwhile. First off, appreciating the view. Tingin tingin lang kami sa paligid, noticing that all who availed the special arrangement are couples. There are some who brought their kids with them but nonetheless, panay lovebirds. :) Second, more time for picture taking. And lastly, few moments of warfreak guests. A couple with their little son, occupied a reserved table. They ignored the label in the table and when the couple actually assigned to the table arrived, the waiters asked if they can be transferred to another table. The couple started to raise their voices out of anger insisting that they stay at that table. The commotion added more attention when the operators came and asked the same thing. They got so angry they left the boat. In fairness to the operators and waiters, they are polite when they informed them that they will be transferred to a different table. The other one was when the boat started moving. The table in front of us seems to be a foursome but the other one is missing. The man called someone on his celfone and shouted, "wala na, ang tagal tagal mo.. umaandar na!" and the rest is !@#$%!. Hahaha..

The food came from Barbara's. I was expecting it will be superb since they are well-known to serve best-tasting food. But I was wrong. Only the fish fillet got a thumbs up for me. The rest is just so-so. We had mushroom soup and then the main course (with the dessert). Fish fillet, Fettucine in tomato-based sauce, fried "mojos" (better yet kamote! hahaha) and blueberry cheesecake. So much for a P245 meal.

As for the ambiance, it's great! I thought cruisin' in manila bay will be stinky but it's not. It got colder when we boarded. There's a band who sang many oldies songs (parang combo sila haha!) but familiar ones naman. Some of the songs that I remembered: how can i tell her, words, pretty woman, wonderful tonight. Oh, there was a point when we are far from the seawall, and the surroundings are in pitch black. It was a bit scary at first, but we saw occassional small boats that are sailing too. We also passed by a marine boat (i think).

When the boat is coming back at baywalk, we saw a fireworks display somewhere in Buendia, probably at Hotel Philippine Plaza. Some of the displays where the bow and arrow of cupid and hearts which added more appeal to us.

We really enjoyed the night. I think it's quite expensive for that cruise considering that the food served is of a very small portion (antakaw talaga! tama na din para diet haha!) and that among the dishes, I can only recommend one -- thie fish fillet. But come to think of it, I am with my hubby, that made the cruise really awesome and special. Added factor na lang yung mood and ambiance. ;) Saya!

Read more...