2012 Goals

Photo courtesy

Lately I've been tweeting about my New Year's Resolution! So far here are my resolutions:

1. Workout

• Yes. I belong to that huge part of the statistics who wanted to lose weight after gaining some pounds from the holidays. I know this is tough not only for me but I guess to many people also who are trying so hard to lose or maintain their weight

2. Diet seriously

• Ok ok... this is another toughie! I would cry if I get a sight of chocolates, burger, fries, and ice cream! Maybe I can set a cheat day every month? You think that's ok? Just so I won't look so kawawa if I pass by a fast food, lean my hands on the glass teary-eyed while watching the people having a feast on burgers and fries! Haha! Oh well, Diet + Workout = Sexy Bodeh! Right

3.  Think positive as much as possible

• Been reading negative tweets and facebook statuses of friends. I want to at least post happy or positive thoughts, it makes me feel good plus it is contagious as well.

4.  Update my blog regularly

• I will make sure I'll be updating this every day or every week (at the very least) and my new "kikay" blog All Dolled Up where you can read about makeup, fashion, and other hip and trendy stuff!

So what are you guy's resolution or goals for the year 2012? Share it! ^_^

Under the Leaky Ceiling

It's a gloomy weather since yesterday. It was raining so hard. Got home tired from shopping last night, opened the door of my room and shocked to see that there was a little puddle underneath my TV stand! I immediately grabbed all the rags that I can use to sweep off the water from my TV! I tried to switch it on, there was still an audio but no more picture. I already told my landlady about the leak on my ceiling about a month ago and told me that she'll get it fixed and I just now discovered that she haven't had it fixed yet! It was really upsetting. So I just put an empty pale underneath the leak.

Typhoon Juaning gate-crashed in Manila and classes are suspended for elementary and high school. If you're inside a tall building you will get a view of very low, dark clouds. If you don't see anything except fog, you are most likely already inside those rain clouds.

It feels good waking up with this cool weather, the big challenge is getting up to get ready for work. In my case, I'm still bothered with the leak on my ceiling! Argh!

Hectic Season

Ho ho ho! Well well well! It has been quite a while huh? It is that time of the year and everyone is very busy christmas shopping, decorating, and organizing christmas parties! Wow, people are hectic these season! How's yours?


I owe you guys so many stories since last month! Here are some of the things I have been busy with for the past few days:


Last month, we went to Puerto Princesa in Palawan. We have been there before but the place is just so amazing that we don't mind coming back for a vacation!



A couple of weeks ago we went to Tuguegarao then Cagayan and explored Callao Cave which has seven (7) chambers but since we do not have a guide we only reached to the 2nd chamber. We also had a boat ride in the Pinakanawan River which is awesome!



Ok guys, I promise to post the whole stories very soon!

Surprise Party for Dad

Our most makulit, strict, but ever loving daddy is turning 80 on October 27! The best that we can think of for his birthday is to give him a surprise party! An early celebration that is.

Daddy

Dad likes the food in Max's restaurant. The branch along Quezon Avenue is a great place to set our party.
We arrived there earlier (before all the guests) to prepare, but noticed that the room seems small and we thought of getting a bigger room. The supervisor of the restaurant, sir Tom (who was very nice and accommodating to us by the way), is OK with our request but he was a bit hesitant because it is UPSTAIRS. He asked me "kakayanin pa po ba kaya ng celebrant na umakyat ng hagdan? Masyado po mataas", yes my dad is 80 but I told him "Malakas pa po siya mag-jog at mag-golf hanggang ngayon kaya OK lang po." he was surprised so he immediately sent his crew to prepare the bigger function room upstairs for us.

Maximo Room

Everyone arrived before 6PM, which is great! Just what we planned. I asked all of our guests to park at the back of the restaurant so that dad won't see any familiar vehicles once he gets there.

James Santos and Sam Mubarak

When mom texted me that they are near the venue already, we went all excited! We turned off the lights and looked outside the window to check. Then from the window, we finally saw them parked in front. Everyone were ready in their positions while holding up the party poppers and... SURPRISE!

Dad was really surprised.

Dad stood there frozen and looking at everyone in the room! He was genuinely surprised! Mom told him that they are attending a co-workers birthday, but he had no idea that it will be his birthday party. We all rushed to him, give him our greetings with hugs and kisses. I approached dad and told him to have a seat, but he was just so overwhelmed that he just wanted to stand for a while and look at everyone around him. Then he gave a little speech about how thankful and surprised he is.
Then he saw the cake and went there to have a closer look at it. We sang Happy Birthday as he blew the candles.

Dad blew the candles as we sang "Happy Birthday".

As we were waiting for our dinner to be served, Jhoanne and I showed everyone the AVP that we made for dad. I'll try again to upload the video soon (blogger sent me an error message when I uploaded earlier).

Watching the AVP.

Later on we went online to chat with my sister, Le-ai. The laptop was connected to the LCD projector, so everyone can see her on the webcam. Plus out tito Tommy called, using 3G, to greet my dad. Technology is just so great!

My sister online.

The surprise party for my dad was just a simple gathering with the whole family but really fun. It's a great feeling that everything went smoothly.

Here the other pictures:

Sam Mubarak, James Santos, Chie Sapinoso, Dad, and Marilyn Sapinoso.

Silly Cellophane.

The Stubborn Generals

Fun and Excitement in Star City

Star City is the longest-running and one of the popular amusement parks in the Philippines. They started in 1991. It is packed with exciting rides for kids, adults, and for the whole family. The park is also known for their Zyclone Loop and Wild River.

Zyclone Loop and Wild River

First time I've been to Star City was way back when I was about 10-years old. And that is the very first time that I rode the Zyclone Loop. I was too young to get in alone, so my mom had no other choice but to accompany me. And she didn't ride any of such ever again! Hehe

The second time was like 3 years ago with my nephew and nieces. The Flying Carpet (no longer featured in the park) became my favorite.

Flying Carpet

Now they have a new featured attraction that the whole family will surely enjoy, the Winter Funland (former Snow World site)! Race and slide down the 68-meter ice slide with others, plus you can also play ice bowling after that!

The bowling ball and the pins are fragile given the fact that they are all made of ice. But no worries, because they can make bowling balls and pins in just minutes so they will not run out of it.
Everything is made of ice! So make sure you are wearing something to keep you warm aside from the coat that they distribute to the visitors.

Just outside near the Winter Funland is the Star Flyer and I immediately got more excited!
Star Flyer is the Philippines' first and only inverted roller-coaster with loops. I swear that this ride is fun and guaranteed to make you scream! Perfect for thrill junkies!

Loop on the Star Flyer

After alighting from the Star Flyer, we ran towards the Surf Dancer. I was just like "c'mon let's go!" when in fact I had no idea what it does... seriously. I just thought, probably it just swings around like the "Viking" ride

Viking

or something like that. Not quite scary at all, right?

The Surf Dance doesn't look scary here.


Ok, it probably doesn't look convincingly scary in these pictures. :)

But oh my goodness! The whole thing goes CRAZY, I tell you! That's the only word I can find to describe it, crazy. It swings, goes around, tilts upward and downward. OK OK, fun but still "crazy". My advice: don't ride it yet if you just ate.

The good thing about Star City is that they also have rides indoors, so rain or shine you can still enjoy your visit. It's the "ber" months so expect a lot of people in the park.

Stop Boredom

It's one of those dreadful Sunday afternoon, nothing much to do!

Towed

Paeng failed its engine on me just when I was already SO CLOSE to our badminton tournament's venue! The engine wouldn't start and I was already in panic. Especially when an unknown tow truck approached and a man looked out of the window and asked (in an intimidating way) "anong problema niyan?!". I tried to manage a little smile as I dropped the hood, "Ay, wala po! Ok na! Ok na!"... I lied nervously. I don't want them to tow my car! Plus, I don't know if their towing service is even legal (there are some fake towing services, so be careful). So I phoned the Wheelers Club instead (after letting my parents know, of course).

My knight-in-shining-armor and my co-workers came to the rescue. So I made it to the tournament. I really thought that I will not be able to play which will make me feel more devastated!

Right after the game, I immediately called the Wheelers Club to send me a truck to finally tow Paeng. It took us 3 hours from Mandaluyong all the way to Novaliches. Why? The tow truck that they sent us is a Wheel-Lift type and the driver needs to check the hooks and chains every now and then. He says that it's slipping and that the car might fall if he will not check and fix it. I was getting a bit upset already because I was so tired and I wanted to go home early. They should have sent us a flatbed type. Grrr!

Here's Paeng at the back of the Wheel Lift tow truck.

Sixplosive: Badminton Tournament

This is the sixth year that URC is having their Inter-BU Sportsfest (B.U. for Business Unit henceforth, shall we?). Sixth year, so they came up with "Sixplosive". The sports are basketball, volleyball, badminton and this year they included bowling in the list of sports that you can join in as well.

We had our badminton tournament this morning, which was held in Metro Badminton in Mandaluyong. It was nice to say "hello" again with some good old participants that we have competed with last year. We are all quite familiar with each other already. The badminton team for our BU is bigger now compared last year that there were only six (6) of us.

URC Flour Badminton Team 2009

URC Flour Badminton Team 2010
(Photo from JB Clavecillas)

I was nervous and excited at the same time. This is the second year that I joined and paired with Mian for the Women's Double category. We won in our first game! YES!

My partner Mian for Women's Double
(Photo by JB Clavecillas)

The girls of our team.
(Photo by JB Clavecillas)

Not Every Day is a Sunny Day

If you’ve already found the person that you can spend the rest of your life with, what happens when you get tired/bored? It's just a random thought which I suddenly blurted out...A friend answered, "not everyday is sunny day".

PATTY: so pag nagsawa ka na “the end” na?
M. SANTOS : hindi naman. Sawa lang and then enjoy ulit. Cycle lang yun!
PATTY: ok, so pwede ka magsawa and yet you still choose to stay with that person?
M. SANTOS : yup, part ng love yun …bakit emotera ka ngaun? hehe!

Well, it must be the weather!

A co-worker’s boyfriend picks her up devotedly everyday after work for almost 2 years now. She told me that she was getting tired of it before, but eventually she got used to it since her boyfriend told her “hindi kumpleto ang araw ko pag hindi kita nakikita”. So there! Kainggit? We often tease her “wala pa talagang absent ang boyfriend mo ha”.

When things starts to be a routine, most of us gets bored. Well, it's not a problem if both of you likes it and used to it, apparently. Doing something different every now and then sounds great. Maybe try some extreme sports, share new hobbies, dinning or going to a place that both of you haven't been to before, those sort of stuff.

Ok, so when we get tired of our partner it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the end of the relationship, right? "Love" makes us stay.

Out with Typhoon Basyang

Last Tuesday night after we had dinner and watched Richard Poon in Eastwood, my friends and I thought about staying in Starbucks for a while.

We were strolling along the “Walk of Fame” in Citywalk 2 while there was a little rain already with a gust of wind. Then just exactly when we reached a passageway (near the fountain) towards Starbucks. We were surprised when we heard a couple of people screamed in panic behind us, we turned around and saw a collapsed tent, a few umbrellas and store signs muddled on the ground. We just passed by that part, geez! What if we passed a bit late? We would definitely be caught by the tent falling down on us!

Moving on, we cautiously went to Starbucks and sat comfortably on the couches. The view outside was already scary because of the strong wind. All of the sudden, the lights went out. After a few seconds, it went back again, then out again. Total darkness! Good thing I always have my flashlight with me. We were talking and laughing in the dark as if there was no storm! Fortunately, after a short while, the lights went back again and we enjoyed our coffees and pastries.

In the parking lot, there were 3 cars in front of us which were not moving, the passengers were out of their cars and standing beside the window of the parking lot. Curious of what was going on, we went down and also had a look, I was really scared because I was thinking could it be flood? (the Pakil incident suddenly flashed back in my thoughts, but that’s a different story), or something blocked the whole driveway of the parking lot and we’re all trapped? This is what we saw:

The two ticket booths fell on their sides blocking one lane of the driveway. But the other lane was made passable. I got more scared when we finally made our way out from the parking lot. We have to drive 2 of our friends to Cubao first. The rain and the wind were raging! There were a lot of debris and tree branches cluttered on the side of the road. I thought it’s much better to take EDSA than C-5 on our way back to Pasig . C-5 has lots of trees which might have blocked some part of the roads, while there’s isn’t much in EDSA. Well, except for the billboards probably! Yikes!

We managed to get home but the electricity was out. Fortunately, my roommate was already home too. I can’t stand the dark plus the scary noise made by the strong wind, so I fell asleep while holding on to my flashlight.

Surviving Mondays

Last Monday was the busiest ever at work. Aside from the usual reports, paper works and meetings, a certain alarming concern was raised. It has been really difficult to leave for lunch just because I want to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Everytime my boss will call for a meeting, it feels like a death march towards his office. If only there's a pause button somewhere in my workstation. Breathe in... Breathe out... Oh gosh, it felt like my head's going to explode!

My co-worker, Ritchelle, left me a really yummy chocolate cupcake on my desk. It was really sweet of her. I was so hungry but was still so busy on my computer and the documents. I feasted on the cupcake when I got home.

Did it ever happen to you at night, that maybe due to stress, you're starting to dream about those certain issues at work? Then you wake up and think that you don't want the morning to come yet.

A lot of people hate Mondays. Well, except siguro kung ang birthday mo ay pumatak ng Monday, masaya nga 'yun!