What Happened in December

This December has been a pretty hectic month (as it is for everyone, I guess.)

The Hong Kong-Macau trip at the end of November with my teammates was fun, but it also meant I had some catching up to do at work as soon as I got back. Once December came though, the company Christmas parties came one after the other. First was the company-wide party/charity fundraiser at PTTC beside the Manila World Trade Center (it was originally supposed to be at the Megatent in Ortigas, but was moved to PTTC less than a week from the event because of some, uh, trouble? in Megatent.) Next, there was my team's planning session/team building/holiday party at the really nice Punta de Fabian resort in Baras, Rizal. It also served as our farewell party for our teammate Mel, who's leaving to take up her Masters in Australia.

In between those two events, I went up to Baguio to attend Karon and Wayne's wedding. This was the third destination-wedding-care-of-former-teammates that I attended this year, after Camille and Marlon's Baguio wedding and Mich and James' Iloilo wedding. Baguio at this time of the year is just so nice. The weather, the food and the sights are awesome, and of course, Wayne and Karon's wedding was really nice too (the food was GREAT!)

Congratulations, Karon and Wayne!

After that, there was the AMG (our group) year-ender party at the New World Hotel, where everyone was dressed well, and the food was great and the party was nice. It's probably the best HP party without alcoholic drinks I've been to (because for some reason, alcoholic drinks aren't allowed at official company parties anymore, effectively killing any chances of the HP Beer Bash ever coming back... Boooooo!)

And that's why a day away from Christmas eve, I'm still not done buying Christmas gifts for my godkids and housemates. (Actually, it's really because I'm not a big fan of Christmas shopping and I'm a lazy shopper... but why say that when you can claim to be busy attending parties?)

Camille & Marlon's Baguio Wedding, pt 2

[April 24]

Kasal na nila Marlon and Camille! Let me just start by saying that it was a really fun wedding, from watching Marlon and then Camille marching down the aisle to the cocktails and the fotoloco booth to the wedding reception/party to the after dinner drinks.

I woke up at around 8 am, and had breakfast at the PNKY Cafe where we finally met up with the rest of our office friends, who left Manila the previous night and arrived in Baguio a couple of hours after midnight. The girls went to get their hair done somewhere in the city while some of the guys went to the Good Shepherd Convent to buy bottles of ube jam, peanut brittle, and other stuff you buy from a convent filled with pastry and dessert-making experts for pasalubong. Some of us went to Session Road to have lunch. We decided to eat at Pizza Volante because we heard that the pizza was pretty good there.

At around 1PM, we all* proceeded to the Baguio Cathedral (aka Our Lady of Atonement Cathedral) for the wedding. The wedding ceremony itself was really nice. Baguio Cathedral is big and looks really nice, and the mass went by quickly.

*all except Marj, na naiwanan pala sa kwarto kasi ang tagal magbihis... LOL

After the mass, we taxied our way to the Baguio Country Club where cocktails were being served. Since the reception wasn't gonna start until 6 pm, we went up to BCC's restaurant to hang out, and then we grilled Enzo about hot topics involving him (oo, kasama na ang sweldo dun. lol)

We also went crazy on the fotoloco booth, halos 20% ng pics jan sa album are pictures of our group haha.

The reception started at about 6pm, when the entourage danced their way to the middle of the ballroom (except kay Sheryl Tan na naglakad lang, boooo!)

The food was great, I think I ate about a plateful of the fish fillet.

Then, games! The guys had to blow balloons up until they popped. The guy who doesn't pop his balloon gets to be the one to put on the garter to the girl who "won" the girls' game. The "winning" guy was Philip, who we suspected of pretending to not be able to blow the balloon hahaha...

The girls' game was Trip to Jerusalem/Musical Chairs, but instead of racing each other to sit on the chairs, the girls had to race each other to grab a banana that was placed in between the guys' legs. Daisie was extra excited for the game, she squeezed two(2!) bananas into mush. Don't use your imagination too much. Anyway, the twist was that right before Philip was to put the garter on the winning girl's leg, they blindfolded him and the girl was replaced by someone's grandma. We were all very happy about this. (Well, all except for Philip I guess.)

After the wedding, we all went back to PNKY to change before heading out to have some drinks at the nearby bar. We were supposed to go to Nevada Square but we Karon and Wayne found out that their dress code didn't allow people to wear shorts or slippers, which more than half of us were wearing that night (hindi gaanong malamig sa Baguio nun eh.) After the drinks, some went to sleep, while the rest of us stayed at PNKY's front porch and drank the bignay wine that we got as a souvenir from the wedding, all along exchanging ghost stories, since Baguio at night is scary, and did I mention that the creepy white house in Baguio was right there in front of us?

Congratulations ulit, Camille and Marlon! That was definitely a great, memorable way to start your married life! Cheers!

More pics over here: http://bloodsportandriot.multiply.com/photos/album/83/Camille_and_Marlons_Baguio_Wedding_part_2

Camille & Marlon's Baguio Wedding, pt 1

[April 23] Our first day in Baguio for Camille and Marlon's wedding. We took the 1:15 AM Vicotry Liner bus, which left the Edsa-Pasay station at about 1:45 AM. The bus ride was really quick, we arrived in Baguio just 4 hours and some minutes later at around 6am. We went straight to PNKY:

(an awesome bed and breakfast with the Baguio haunted house* right in front of it, and our home for the next 2 nights) to leave our bags. Check in time wasn't until 2pm in the afternoon, so we decided to grab a nice breakfast at the first place we saw that was open, Glenn 50's Diner, just a block away from PNKY.

I ordered Fish and Chips, and it felt like I was eating a whole school of dory. For 100-something pesos, it was a lot.

We lucked out on Joseph's mom's friend having their house blessed that day, so we went to Joseph's mom's friend's house to join the house blessing, including the best part of ceremony: free lunch. We also went to SM Baguio because Airis (aka The Face) wanted to look for a place where the girls could get their hair done before the wedding. After SM Baguio, we took a quick stroll along Session Road, where we had a cone of ice cream (we had Razon's halo-halo earlier at SM.) We burned off the calories by biking at Burnham Park.

I haven't biked in a really loooong time (grade school pa yata ako nung huli akong nagbike.) I think I know why I haven't ridden a bike for such a long time. Those bike seats aren't very comfortable. Now I know what it feels like to be raped. Masakit.

Anyway.

After an hour of biking, we headed straight to Forest House for late dinner. The food was great, and the place was really nice too. I had sesame crusted fish fillet with Asian mango salsa. I got a surprise birthday cake to end the meal. Thanks Forest House and friends!

After that, we went back to PNKY, all tired but full. Great first day! Ikakasal na sila Camille and Marlon bukas!

More pics here:

http://bloodsportandriot.multiply.com/photos/album/82/Camille_and_Marlons_Baguio_Wedding_part_1

*a quick google search says that it's actually the Laperal House, built in the 1920/30's by the Laperal (duh) clan. It has since been abandoned but some sources say that the house was bought by Tito Lucio (Tan) about 3 years ago. Even saw some pics of the house's interiors. It looks nice from the inside!

25 Isn't Quarter Life When You're Crawling Fast Enough

I was trying to think of something witty to say about turning 25 but I just can't squeeze anything out of my brain right now. I guess I'm just thankful that I didn't spend my birthday at the doctor's clinic or in the ER like last year.

Oh, and my dad sent me a greeting and his birthday wish for me via text (and I quote): I wish u will find ur lifetime partner soon." HAHAHA. Jeez dad, I turned 25, not 40.

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In last year's birthday blog post, I was congratulating Camille and Marlon on their engagement. This year, I'm congratulating them for getting married last Saturday! It was a fun wedding and I had a great time in Baguio. I'll talk about that and post pics in the next few days.

Up next will be Mich and James in another destination wedding! Ang daming ikakasal! I guess my dad does have a point...

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I'm on training now for a new role, and I'm actually excited about it. I'll be managing a new application (you know, managing it in a technical way. Heh.) I just hope I don't bring any bad luck to this role/application. In other work-related news, I am now an OCA (Oracle Certified Associate)!

Gotta update that resume then.

Traveling and Budgeting

Funny how last January, I was complaining about not having enough trips planned yet for the year. Fast forward to now, and I've got Boracay, Baguio, Singapore, Iloilo and Guimaras, Batanes, and Baguio all lined up.

Woot! Cheers to airline promos! Ubos na naman ang pera ko!

The Iloilo (with a planned sidetrip to Guimaras) and two Baguio trips are actually for weddings of friends/current & former officemates (Mich and James, Marlon and Camille, and Karon and Wayne), so those are pretty much planned out. The Iloilo flight is probably the cheapest flight I've ever paid for at 300 pesos (round trip!!!) from Cebu Pacific. And Guimaras is less than an hour's boat ride from Iloilo City, so that trip is definitely a steal. Baguio is a 7-hour bus ride, so we actually haven't planned those ones yet.

Last January when Cebu Pac had another seat sale, I was asking (a.k.a. begging) my office friends to go to Bohol/Singapore with me, but not enough people bit the offer for various different reasons... So when we heard that another team in the office was going to Boracay for their team building activity, Pat, Mats & Becca, Rommel, and I decided to tag along with them (we're crashing in on the other team's team building trip since they found discounted PAL flights and cheap accommodations there. LOL.)

And then last week, my college/office friend Mia was planning for a Singapore trip and found discounted flights on Singapore Airlines, so when she told me about it and found that an IT Fair and the Great Singapore Sale was going to happen around the same dates of the trip, and Mike confirmed that Universal Studios SG is now open, I jumped in on it too. We're planning on just crashing at our former officemates/currently Singapore-based friends' apartment to save on costs. Thanks for not objecting to our planned invasion, Ben, Jyue, Mike and Geebee!

Finally, we've been planning/trying to plan a trip to Batanes for several months now. We even have a discussion on Google Wave for it (because we're dripping with technogeeky hipster coolness as it is. Heh.), but found most travel options either too expensive (14k + on Seair, or a chartered flight from Tuguegarao), or too um, hardcore (boat from Curimao, Ilocos Norte, anyone?) So when Seair released their promo fares in time for this year's Philippine Travel Expo, we were finally able to finalize the dates of the trip. Woohoo!

So... now I really have to work hard to stay on my monthly budget (also: I guess now have to start setting a monthly budget) and reduce unnecessary expenses. As a first step, magce-Century Tuna at Ligo Sardines na lang ako araw-araw.

Also, kailangang humanap ng role na malaki ang on-call pay.

Baguio, Feb 2007

Last weekend was one of my few free-from-work weekends, and when my parents told me that they were going to Baguio for the weekend, and since I, by nature, am a free loader, I didn't hesitate to tag along. We were supposed to stay at the Camp John Hay Manor but it was fully booked, so we stayed at the John Hay Suites instead (my dad knew some people who gave us company discounts) . John Hay Suites is a yet to be finished hotel right beside the Manor. And since it was half finished, room rates were still low, and they were still a little bit in the process of "smoothening out" their operations. We found this out the nice way when they mistakenly led us the deluxe suite instead of the regular room that we had reserved :D

They eventually discovered their mistake, and we moved to a room that was still pretty nice and had a great view (smaller bathroom and no dining table and a mini-kitchen, but still good.)

Baguio in February is really nice. The weather is great, just the right dose of coolness, there's fog everywhere during the early morning, the sun is out in the afternoon but it never really scorches the way it does in Manila, and the evening air is just so cool and crisp, making coffee sips twice as soothing. And did I mention that the yearly Panagbenga is just round the corner? So yeah, the flowers were all out in bloom.

This weekend sure was enjoyable and relaxing.

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And there's no better way to get back from a short weekend vacation than to get great news from work! Great news for the moment at least. :-P