hay naku... brushing with the people from the past...

yung unang syota ko, panay ang pangungulit saken sa facebook.  iniignore ko na nga, panay pa sya magdrama sa messages. gusto ko na nga syang iblock... pero so far nakokonsensya pa ko. hehe.  parang gusto pa atang makipagbalikan, or basta nag-eenjoy sya sa kabaliwan nya. wag na no! wa type. kinalimutan ko na lahat ng relationships ko sa pinas.

then last week nagconcert ang up dharma down dito.. saan ka pa, andun si last ex. o di ba? kasama nya pa syota nya, yung kasunod ko. deadmahan talaga kame. as in isang dipa na lang layo namin sa isa't isa pero parang hangin lang kame to each other.  completely fine. wala talagang panghihinayang. walang crazy moment for me. ang inisip ko lang, buti na lang sexy ako that night. maganda din naman si girl... pero at least di ako mukhang basahan. nagkita pa kame sa banyo nung girl. hahaha! ilang beses kong pinaplano sa utak ko dati kung anong gagawin ko kung magkita kame.. pero when the moment came, wala smile lang ako. this is what maturity can do to you, you know?  minsan ayaw mo na ng drama.  masaya na sila. masaya naman ako. di namin kailangan maging friends, pero di rin kailangan magsiraan ng buhay. i dont wish them well... but i can say good for them.

then eto na naman si b. alam mo ba tumawag sya last december. namali ng tawag at nagpipilit ng hook up! my goodness!! douchiest move! sya ang favorite ex ko at mas prefer kong we parted ng walang hatred to each other. we dont have to be friends pero at least pag tinanong ako ng mga tao sa kanya di ako sisimangot. syempre sya pinakaminahal ko no! then ayan! putek, super douche! i was waiting for him to apologize the next day kahit text man lang. pero wala talaga. oki lang nananahimik na naman ako, biglang a few weeks ago nagtext yung friend nya saken at sasama daw sa hikes ko.. at sasama daw sya. sabi ko ok lang.
at syempre ang lola mo, nag-attempt magdiet para sa aming pagkikita. na di naman napanindigan, hahahaha! iniisip ko kung sinasama ko nga newly met friends sa hikes, bakit di naman yung naging buhay ko for a couple of years? ang sagot... kase itong taong to may painful history. at recently may kagaguhan syang ginawa.  better concentrate on the new friends than go back to the past which took me more than a year to get over with.  alam mo naman kung ano'ng ordeal dinaanan ko makamove on lang. in the end di rin sila natuloy. which i think is for the better. alam mo bang for weeks iniistalk ko sya sa fb, pati yung mga kaibigan nya na tingin ko kasama nya sa activity nya.

so ayan blocked na sya ulit. tinanggal ko na din yung 2 bestfriend nya. pag kase nakita kong kumain sila sa cheung chau, tignan ko ulit profile nya. everyday. sabi ko hindi na yun healthy.  tama na. dadaan na naman ba ako sa long period of moving on. antagal ko tinrabaho to get to be an emotionally stable person.   so better remove all the resources that can connect me with him. like i said to myself, i do it for me.

2012... what a year!

2012 is all about me. how to make me happy. how to enjoy new friends and new hobbies. how to make me love life even more. and i love it.

for the entire year i am single and i only got myself to love. i did plenty of things that i wanted to do at the time that i wanted to do them. yes, having a boyfriend would have been nice, but really (i honestly say this without being defensive), my 2012 wasn't so bad. it's splendid to say the least. i can absolutely say it's my best year so far. this year didn't disappoint and it followed the pattern of beating the previous year on being the best year of my life.

it started with a life-changing bangkok and cambodia trip. then i was sent again to spain and my jaw dropped when i saw valencia and i finally got to see salamanca. as a growing child in the PH during my time you'd be familiar with this place from the famous morning cartoons.

you know i am a beach and water lover. but somehow i couldn't swim. i have a constant fear of drowning so when i swim i usually just go to the kiddie pool. but the stubborn me says it's time to conquer the fear and just do it. i signed up for a swimming class and i was able to use the skill in my phuket, pagudpud and puerto galera getaways. now i go for a weekly swim and i go to the main pools. it's a liberating feeling being able to swim for a few meters and get back to the shore on your own.

our family getaway this year was in northern PH and we were able to see a lot of nice places. i came up close to windmills, camped with my family and our dog, and i swam to my heart's content at the beach and falls. come the month of may i signed up for scuba diving, windsurfing, stand up paddling and squash lessons. im an open water diver now! my first real dive outside the class was during my birthday. best.bday.gift.to.myself...ever.

when i returned from our easter outing i found out my flat was broken into. they got plenty of material stuff. i wallowed over it by a week, but after a while it's just one of those bad experiences that you tell your friends but you know deep inside that you've moved on from it faster than they could absorb the fact that it happens in HK. that's when i realized i am not too attached to them afterall. and that's a good thing. when a gadget is more important that your sanity then you have to think about your life. the first thing i checked when i saw my flat in a mess was my hard drive. imagine all 5 years of pictures and memories. when i found out it's still there, i didn't feel like i lost a lot. i can buy two new computers. i can earn back all the cash stolen... but i can never replace the memories of all those years of travels, those good times.

july was an important month. apart from seeing 3 ex's in 2 weeeks, this is the month that my bestfriend got married. it's a simple civil wedding, but it's full of love nonetheless. i saw all the friends and families that attended the reception and i am happy that their union is supported by every one. i am happy she found her happiness.

as i mentioned i went to puerto galera to dive. it's my first bday in 6 years that i was with my family. yeba! then my friends surprised me and other august celebrators on a beach camping weekend. it's so apt! there was a mishap but im glad no one was seriously hurt.

on september my sister and i went on a hardcore backpacking trip on southern PH. i shed a tear when i saw the tinuy-an falls. our country is sooo beautiful! the enchanted river is also giving it a run for it's money. it's the first time that i was diving into water (putting my newly acquired swimming skills to use) and it's beyond liberating. those few seconds of floating mid-air... priceless. and splashing on clear blue freshwater isn't so bad either.

october, november and december were spent on weekend hikes. i've gotten serious about it now that I sometimes go alone on some saturdays. on mondays im already looking forward to where we'd go on sunday. i have a sunday hiking group and they are the sweetest bunch of women. they are purely nice and very brave. i like being around with them. i know im the weakest link in their group when we go out and i hope they dont get tired of looking out for me. i like being with them because for a few hours every week i feel invincible. they go for extreme trails, the ones that make me cry out to heavens because i could feel that it’s my end… then we finish every time and i always come out a different person. just before the year ended i climbed kota kinabalu. it’s one of my greatest achievement. i’ve had more difficult trails in HK than this, but it holds a special place in my heart.

so 2013… you have a lot of things to do to top 2012. im sure you’re going to be one hell of an exciting ride. im ready!!!

the HK yogathon 2012

i come from a province known for people who have themselves crucified on wooden crosses as in what is told to have happened to jesus christ. i went when i was 12 and almost twenty years hence i still remember one man's face as he was hanging up there with his palms pierced and bleeding. he looked up and was uttering something. i saw peace in his eyes. he put himself up there voluntarily. years later i saw the same man in tv being featured for an easter theme episode. he said that his daughter was sick once and he prayed really hard. he made a promise to god that he would do the crucifixion every year if his daughters recovers. lo and behold, his daughter made it and he's been fulfilling his promise every year.

sometimes we find faith in one activity. at least once in our lives we find something that makes us devoted and one way or another we always make room for it despite our busy schedule. that activity for me is YOGA.

i went through the most difficult 2 years of my life and yoga helped me a lot to move on. it didnt come to me as a fad. some people are just enticed by the thought of being able to lose weight in a non intense way that's why they sign up at yoga centers then lose interest one or two months later. i see yoga as a retreat for my hectic life. three to five hours of my week are spent doing meditation, stretching my dull body and somewhat satisfying my competitive nature. there is always a new posture to do and it's always nice to learn and advance to a higher level. the good thing is you only have yourself to make it or break it. there are no outside forces to blame and no luck to depend on. you do it because you can. you dont do it because you cannot yet. after regular practice you get the hang of it and you feel happy about yourself because you could do it afterall.

so i went again to the HK yogathon this year. it's still organized by the HK breast cancer foundation. do you know that there are 8 women diagnosed every day in HK, and that one person die from it everyday? that's one scary statistics!

this time i am determined to finish 8 hours again. i did it last year, there's no reason i cannot do it now. needless to say i made it and im so proud of myself for the achievement. this year there were more people who stayed eight hours and i am very happy that more and more people are appreciating the benefits of yoga. dont think of it as a way to lose weight. you cannot be seriously expecting to lose weight when you do twistings for 10 seconds every time, can you? think of it as a retreat and as an opportunity to meditate. it's different when you just sit and do nothing. i always think of something whenever i do something. i may be crossing the road but i am thinking of what to have for dinner. i may be brushing my teeth but im thinking if i responded to all my work queries for the day. even when i sleep i still dream about my orders at work.

but whenever i go yoga, everything is erased. i feel bitterness when i remember i didnt have a nice pencil case when i was eight. i feel sad that i didnt make it to one field trip when i was in college. there are some shallow bits of sadness that just pop out of nowhere and when i meditate i forget them after the 1 hour session. i always feel refreshed after shavasana even if im sweating all over. i may be exhausted during the 8 hour yogathon, but it's the most peaceful 8 continuous hours that i had had after more than a year. and to top it all off, i did it for breast cancer patients.

i will keep doing yogathon until im here in HK! i will keep doing yoga until my bones are brittle. that's the cross i'd gladly bear!

stole this from the hk yogathon facebook page. find me!

the image of the philippines

we filipino expats are like ambassadors of our country in our little ways. yes we know the problems of our country blah blah but im pretty sure that when we talk about our country to foreigners we always try to say the best things. if youre watching the tv show 'community' you will remember their episode when they had to defend their school. they say it's a trashy school but no one can trash it but them. it's still afterall the same school where they met their close friends and where they learn something. yeah yeah you should get they gyst by now.


personally speaking my de facto sales pitch for PH would be our beaches. i always say that we have the world's most beautiful beaches. i usually ask them if they have been to thailand, i would give them the reassurance that ours are way prettier. that is true, i have been to phuket last march and i would still go for palawan or bohol.

last week was a good and bad week for me on my being a tourist ambassadress:

scenario 1:
i was in china with 2 customers and they were talking about wanting to go to PH. then came my usual spiel about the beauty of our country. we were with a chinese furniture boss and he relayed this story when he used to have a travel agency with some customers in the PH maybe more than 10 years ago.
he was mentioning about being not paid on time, about how he had to fly just to get the money personally, etc. then one time he was bringing a lot of money and he was tapped by customs. he said the folded 2k pesos and slid the bills into the hands of the customs officer and he managed to leave the area unscathed. he stopped his business from then on.

scenario 2:
i participated in a hikeathon and i bumped into an indian teenager (im guessing he's 11-13 years old). usual chitchat, he correctly guessed that i am from PH. he asked if PH is really dangerous for a tourist (every one here still remembers the bus incident), i answered that accidents can happen anywhere you travel. it's just blown out of proportion by the media. he said he feels sorry that it had to happen but i was glad that he's very open minded about the issue. he knows it's a big deal in hk because the victims were hk tourists. and he ended up saying he'll go to PH when he can with his parents.



every one has their good and bad images of different places. so we filipino expats will just continue to spread the good images, then try to warn them on the bad ones with a little tips on how to avoid them.

guess who's reporting for duty?

ahemm ahemm...

yo bitch, im back! xoxo!


glad to be writing silly what have yous, rants and gossips and perhaps some relevant updates again. i've been extremely busy for as long as i could remember and honestly i didnt have the heart to write. i visit the site once in a while during those blue moments and narcissistic as it my sound it always brings smile to my face. i still feel the excitement that i felt when i tell story of a certain trip, or a little happy-embarassed that i got drunk here and there or when i read those crappy lovelife posts. aaaakkkk!!!

so what the heck, let the blogging resume!

i just came from another backpack trip with my sister in the southern part of the phils and i really loved it. i always say im a hardcore traveler but i guess you really cannot claim that phrase until you plan to have no plan and just go with it. yep, we went ahead and went with it.

i've always wanted to go to the south of the philippines. i grew up in the north and spent my uni years in the capital. i only went down to the central part of the country when i started working but the thought of the south always puzzled me. are they all sorta terrorists? will we be kidnapped there? do they really have a mayor that is glorified in cheesy action movies? are the people as passive as they were portrayed in the media?

well let me tell you what i could assess in the four days that we were there:

- they are not 'garapal'. i dont know what's the proper term in english. but it's something like getting something aggressively without really thinking of the person whom youre getting it from. yes most of them are not well off, but they wont say something behind your back if you dont give them tip or if you let them do their sales talk for half hour but you end up not using their service.

- they have cable, electricity, pricey over the hill restos, high end malls and all other luxuries of a middle to middle higher class life. whoever thinks they are still primitive is totally mistaken.

- they are very helpful and well mannered. they will not try to rip you off just because youre a tourist.

- when you tell them you come from another place that is not the capital, they would think that it is so far, even though it's just 50km away from the big city.

- like any other pinoy, they feel proud when they are featured in the media and they will keep talking about it over and over again. every body talked about the tv feature about their city that was shot 2 weeks prior.

- THEY HAVE THE MOST MAJESTIC WATERFALLS. we've only been to tinuy-an falls but it's enough to say that it is the most incredibly awesome waterfalls i've seen in my life.

- they have maniac bus drivers. like the crazy bus drivers in manila. you would be forced to stay awake the whole ride so you can avoid being swayed from one side to another. you'd be forced to pray for your safety too. hehe.

- honesty is their best policy. we usually had to use public toilet and you had to pay different amounts for pee, poo poo and bathing. people pay for the more expensive second even though no one can really prove that they did just that.

- when they say 'enchanting', it takes a while for you to appreciate the enchantment. but when it finally sinks in, you are enchanted forever!!! this is what i felt when i saw the Enchanted River in Surigao.


i will post photos soon. i put them in facebook but i promise i will put them here also!

i will make this site pretty again!

photo of the day: 60 - 61

some photos from my halong bay tour package. i went overnight on a boat with a busload of other foreigners. they were all crazy! i was too tired to join them in their merry making. the place is a beauty nonetheless. it's not as majestic as the karst of el nido, nor as exotic as guilin's... but the sunset is just superb.

photo of the day: 56 - 59

in july of last year the ex and i used one of the vouchers i bought from groupon for a 1 night hotel stay in a dongguan hotel, plus a bit sightseeing of successfulland, a little venue which is used vastly for prenup photos. it's a fun day, i must say. Heeeey, im not reminiscing, ok? Just sharing you the photos, which are actually quite nice. the area was crazy. you got windmills, church, castles, garden, fountain, all within a few feet from each other. it's really just for taking photos. but the most memorable part of this trip was when an acrobat who was traversing a thin wire a few meters above us suddenly just fell a couple of feet away from me. he really just plunged infront of me. my lord, it was really scary. he's still awake but im not sure if he got his mobility completely after that accident. life is short, accidents can happen anytime, you might be gone the next second. live life to the fullest, treat it as if it's your last day to live or to have your body parts full functioning. it's a win win situation. you're happy that you did what you want at that moment, and if you happen to breathe your last breath, at least you died doing what you wanted.