In your face

I was supposed to write about our Wensha Spa experience but my friend beat me to it. I don't mind really because she summed up our evening perfectly. I enjoyed the food, the massage and the dip at the jacuzzi. Never mind that the pressure points on my back ached the next day, I'm thinking that this is evidence that the massage was effective. I still yearn for the most relaxing massage though. Maybe the hydrotherapy massage at Ace Water Spa will do the trick. But that's for another post.

What I do want to write about right now is how busy I've been ... with facebook. When before I would just log in when I receive email notifications for friend requests and wall announcements, now I find myself logging in everyday, sometimes even several times a day! It all started with the Hatchlings game application. I'd collect the eggs in my profile, and in my friends' profiles, hoping that I could acquire the those with limited edition designs. I soon grew tired of searching for eggs, then I got invited to Sorority Life and that's when I got really hooked. From then on, I started trying out what my friends are also playing: Mafia Wars, FarmVille and Restaurant City. I haven't tried Farm Town and Barn Buddy but I'm guessing they're pretty much similar with FarmVille. I'm hoping that I won't get addicted to the point that I start neglecting my tasks for the day. I'd like to think that I have better self-control than that. But just in case you're looking for me and I'm nowhere to be found, just login to facebook and you'll find me there ;-)

Your radio is not defective

As if in response to my "Good morning sunshine!" post, RT shuffled their radio programs' timeslots. Now, I have something to listen to on my morning drive, which is The Brewrats Show hosted by DJ Tado, DJ Ramon and DJ Angel. I used to catch them when I drive home late at night because their timeslot is 9pm-12mn. They have now been moved to the 6am-9am timeslot so I get to listen to them spread the bubonic plague every morning! And here's another good news, Sam and Gibb have been moved to 6pm-9pm timeslot, which gives me listening pleasure on my drive back home. Perfect!

Going back to the Brewrats, I was just listening this morning and they were interviewing someone who was going to share the not-yet-released Tie a Yellow Ribbon President's Remix. This version of the 1973 song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" was commissioned by Kris Aquino to a group of local music artists because she was putting together a tribute album for her mom. One interesting trivia is that the Tie a Yellow Ribbon President's Remix was completed just a few minutes after President Cory Aquino passed away. Right now, it is not yet clear how the song is going to be released commercially but everyone involved in the production agreed that it should be aired first on the radio. So it was really fortunate that I was listening to RT this morning because I got to be one of the first few people to hear it! The remix starts with a sound byte of Tita Cory saying her farewell speech during her last SONA. Then the lyrics of the original song is sung to a catchy beat with a short rap portion in the middle. The remix version gives the song a fresh and updated vibe and is something that I'm sure the Filipinos of today would appreciate. I hope that more radio stations would get to play it, especially now that Ninoy Aquino Day (Aug. 21) is fast approaching. It would be a fitting tribute to the man who said that the Filipinos are worth dying for, and who did.

Like sheep lost

Former President Corazon Aquino was laid to rest yesterday. It was declared a special non-working holiday so I was able to watch the last funeral rites on TV. Before that, I was able to see her coffin up close when her remains were transported last Monday from De la Salle Greenhills to Manila Cathedral. The funeral cortege passed by Ayala Ave. so I just went down from the office to join the procession if front of our building. I offered a little prayer for Tita Cory then flashed the 'Laban' sign while chanting her name together with the crowd.

I felt sad the first time I heard that she passed away last Saturday. Although everybody knew that she was battling with cancer, it still came as a shock because news reports said that she was already in a stable condition. I guess we always assumed that Tita Cory would always be there to lead us in protest and prayer, especially when there are scandals brewing in the government or there are threats to our democracy. Now that she is gone, I'm afraid that we would all be like lost sheep, following the mob but never really knowing where to go. I'd like to believe that after witnessing the Cory magic that brought the whole nation together in unity and prayer, the Filipinos would step up and take it up on themselves to continue what Ninoy and Cory started. With the Filipinos' short term memory, there's a big probability that this will never come to be but I'm still hoping that we would be able to rise above ourselves and make our nation great once again. Let the spirit of Edsa live on!

Good morning sunshine!

My boyfriend recently started in a new job and it's conveniently located near my place of work. We decided to have a carpool together with my sister who works in Ortigas, which is just along the way to Makati, where we work. Unfortunately, we have different office hours so there are major adjustments to be made, mostly on my part. My sister needs to be at the office by 7am, my boyfriend starts at 8am and I can come in any time at work, but I usually am in around 10:30am. When before I set my alarm to 6am and get up from bed at 8am, now I set it at 4:30am and get up at 4:30am. The last time that I had to wake up this early everyday was probably when I was still in elementary! Just this morning, my alarm went off while I was dreaming so I woke up with a huge headache and it felt like I never went to sleep at all. Good thing this kind of headache goes away once I've hit the shower. I think the reason is because the pain is replaced by another, in the form of bathing with very cold water. But once I've taken a bath and eaten breakfast then I'm ok. My sister and I then leave the house at 5:30am; we arrive at my boyfriend's house at 6:00am; my boyfriend takes my place as designated driver; we drop off my sister in Ortigas at 6:30am; we arrive in Makati at 7:00am. Whew! Thank God I'm a morning person so I'm not bothered by all the early morning activities. I even enjoy getting to the office early because I can concentrate and get a lot of things done before everybody else arrives.

And the list goes on

The second ANC Leadership Forum is interesting on a very different level than the first. In this round, the guests were Former President Joseph Estrada, Sen. Loren Legarda, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando. Sen. Panfilo Lacson was supposed to be there but he backed out again and this time he also announced that he was withdrawing his presidential bid for 2010, citing his lack of funds as his reason. However, many are speculating that he struck a deal with the government that he would back out from running for president in exchange for easing him out of the Dacer-Corbito murder case. I wouldn't be surprised if this is true because of the timing of his announcement -- Cesar Mancao, who is supposed to be the state witness for the trial just arrived in the country then. Anyhow, the leadership forum pushed through without Ping and the University of the Philippines School of Economics was jampacked with students and teachers alike wanting to witness the forum live. If you haven't seen it yet, you can do so here.

Listening to the guests, you would really see their different visions for the country.

The race is on!

I saw the ANC Leadership Forum being aired in ABS-CBN last night, which reminded me that I haven't blogged about it yet, which I should have done right after I watched it on ANC when it was first aired. Anyway, for those who didn't know about it, ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel), together with the Ateneo School of Government, hosted a leadership forum on May 11 for the aspiring presidential candidates of the 2010 Philippine elections. The guests were Senators Francis Escudero, Richard Gordon, and Mar Roxas; Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio; and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. Senator Panfilo Lacson confirmed his attendance but backed out before the event. They also invited Vice President Noli de Castro, and Senators Manuel Villar and Loren Legarda but the three probably didn't confirm. If you haven't seen it and you want to get an idea of what transpired, visit the following links:

• Countdown to 2010 - An ANC Leadership Forum part 1


• Countdown to 2010 - An ANC Leadership Forum part 2


• Countdown to 2010 - An ANC Leadership Forum part 3


• Countdown to 2010 - An ANC Leadership Forum part 4


• Countdown to 2010 - An ANC Leadership Forum part 5

Now for my opinions.

Shameless plug

I am going to promote it here mainly because it's our site. My boyfriend and I created a website called personalads.com.ph and we want you to be the first to use it. It's a site where people can create personal ads for free and it's perfect for all the pinoys out there are looking for new people to connect with. Whether you're looking for textmates or for new friends to add to your friendster/facebook/multiply account or, if you're more daring, for new peeps to meet and hook up with, you'll find it here. That is, if someone has the courage to post his or her ad first! You see, we don't want to put any dummy data in and we don't want to spam other people's sites and forums either. So I'll just encourage you, my dear readers, to post your personal ads and hope that when I visit the site again tomorrow, there will be a long list of pinoys wanting to socialize and interact with each other. :)

Farewell Francis

A great Filipino was laid to rest yesterday. I didn't get to write about his death and it's impact on me earlier because I was catching up with work. So I'm taking my time now to write down my thoughts.

I learned about his death last Friday while I was at work. I was in a meeting when my bf sent me a message saying Francis M. has died. Of course I couldn't reply to him that instant but the minute the meeting was over, I messaged him back. He said it was announced at Eat Bulaga that Francis passed away at 12 noon that day. I found myself in a state of shock really because I had just visited his blog the day before. Yes, you could say that I was a bit of a fan. Growing up, I found it totally inspiring listening to his music. I don't have all his albums though; I just have a cassette tape of FrancisM and that's it. But I followed his career, from Eat Bulaga, to his photography, to his directing of music videos, to his t-shirt company, to his fight with cancer. I guess this is why I was saddened by his death, he shared so much of himself when he was alive, it's such a shame it will all now come to an end. He still had so much to give, so much love, joy and hope to share but sadly his time is up. So now, it's up to his children to continue his legacy, and up to the Filipino people to remember and never forget what his life and his music has been about. If all of us could just live out the same love of country that this great man has shown in his life then his death would not have been in vain and we would emerge a better people and a better nation.

Thank you Francis for teaching us how to be truly Filipinos!

Health is truly wealth

There were 2 winners in last night's lotto draw so they will have to divide between them the jackpot prize of 347M, the highest pot amount reached ever since PCSO started the national lottery. I bought a ticket for that draw but I didn't win. Even so, I find myself feeling very grateful because my sister has undergone a successful cataract surgery. Just an update on my post last week, it was really fortunate that her thyroid tests did not reveal any problem so she was cleared for operation by her endocrinologist and was admitted last Thursday. She had her operation last Friday and she was discharged from the hospital last Saturday. Now she still has to wear goggles to protect her eyes from dirt and prevent her from rubbing her eyes, but she can already see clearly. She walks even faster now because she can already see where she's going and she doesn't have to worry about bumping into furniture and other things. I also noticed that her posture has improved, she walks more upright and now looks directly at the person talking to her. Another good news revealed by the ophthalmologist was that her retinas are still intact and does not seem to be affected yet by her diabetes. Tomorrow she will have a follow-up checkup and by next week she probably won't need her goggles anymore.

So even if I still have to look for money to pay for the debts we incurred for the operation, seeing the smile on my sister's face makes it all worth it. Of course, a little help from winning in the lottery wouldn't have hurt. ;-)

Weathering the weather

Let me just note that I'm loving the weather we are having lately. Quite a bit chilly and without the excessive humidity. Kinda like not being in the Philippines at all. Or maybe this is how the weather is like in the northern provinces and other places in the country with high altitude. But there's a catch with having this kind of weather in the lowlands -- the food crops get "confused" and the whole harvest cycle gets messed up. So as much as I like this weather, I'd rather have food on my table than a perfect weather. I'll just enjoy it as much as I can before everything gets back to normal, I hope.

Just trying something out

I saw this in my PayPerPost qualified opportunities and I just thought I'd try it out. It's a site where you can get blog photos that are high-quality and free which you can put on your webpage without having to worry about the images eating up your webhost's disk quota. That's because the images are hosted at www.acobox.com!

I looked for an image I can try out on this post and I saw this. It reminded me of my elementary days at Montessori where we learned geography by putting together a wooden puzzle of the world map. If you're wondering where the Philippines is, it's the red group of islands just above the blue group of islands (Indonesia), located at the south east :)

Happy New Year!

I know, it's a little too late for that. But hey, the Chinese New Year is still upcoming (Jan. 26) so I'll just shout out an advanced greeting for that. Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Now that that's out of the way, you may be wondering where I've been. Let me see.