Friday, January 24, 2014
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Happily whatever after
Lately I've been waking up earlier than the usual like 6 am I usually get cranky when I have to come to work early and wake up around that time but these days I'm thankful it gives me some time to pray and evaluate the past day - what I have I accomplished and my goals for today. Like I have just said my little prayer, how I am grateful for all the blessings, - the family and friends, my job and the likes. I prayed for my bestfriend when she's going thru some heartbreaks and some transitions in her life. I prayed for those who are sick and of course I pray for my health, my love life and career. I also said in my prayer that I am looking forward to whatever the days are in store for me and that these uncertainties excites me. I don't have some big new years resolution that becomes overwhelming like losing x lbs, dating Kelan Lutz or Bradley Cooper ( I kid) . Saving x amount . But I swore to be thankful everyday, pray some more, put on SPF, sleep early, give back and spend less time on the net so far I have difficulty doing because even my journal is online/ digital. ( I'm not good in writing cursive, that's an accepted fact) I have my own notes I make in a haste sometimes I have difficulty reading after. Let go of past hurts, let go of counter productive thoughts and toxic people and situations. I will still have to walk with my dog as usual as an exercise.
As I've said, if new years signify some new beginnings, a clean slate if you may, I'll just play it by ear, take everyday as it comes, get excited for what's in store. I'll go to work and serve our customers with a smile on my face and be of service to the community outside of work . I want to be able to find time for that. I will also try to be religious and not just spiritual. Finding a religion is not really all about going to church and believing in something . True religion ( not the brand) should be about goodness, I believe.
I do have some major goals I wish to accomplish in 2014 (and beyond) ( like in some contract there is the fine print or a disclaimer I have mine , in other words it's not really cast in stone in 2014 ) The biz venture with my bestfriend we are finally making it materialize. My workmate teased me that he has been hearing same thing from me every new year , like I'll save more, pay my credit card have a biz venture. Told him this time, fingers crossed . We have been putting it off the past years, it's high time. I mean we have all these ideas, we even have to meet up several,times like when she's based in Cebu and me in Iloilo we have to schedule a meeting in Manila and each time we just ended up partying, shopping and eating its actually long over due. Curiously, I have to be reminded of that entrepreneurial push January 1, I messaged my bestfriend about it ('enough bout me) and she was actually thinking the same. Then a few days after some situation happened to her like she has to cancel her plans of going to London to be with the boyfie not to mention she resigned from her fab job to pursue that plan which is now iffy and now she has all the time in the world to actually brainstorm and coordinate with suppliers and set meeting with me and our other friend for the said biz. As of this writing we have decided to call our biz Love ventures because its born out of love. How ironic when this biz was spawned out of the time she was breaking up with some guy. I guess its more of our inspired effort, our zest and love for life itself and how we want that biz to be able to give back to a community when it's able. The timing has never been perfect. That is thinking on the positive of course. I know its not as easy as it seems but she is a strong independent woman I believe that shell transcend all the trials she said she could even become a motivatioal speaker if she wants to. I told her she could becomea life coach she have a rich material after all her experiences. She could even join the Pbb which incidentally has their auditions now, if she wants to. We would always joke her that she could join the Big Brother and become a celebrity if she wants to. It could be a great exposure for our plannned biz if ever. She could become a stylist in case, after. going back to my plans, in 2014 ( and beyond) I want to travel to Europe and US, hopefully afford to go to all the music festivals, like coachella, wonderland, tommorow land . This is a life long dream after I do it , I can settle down, ( or not) have kids maybe Retire and travel all of the Philippines as well , but not necessarily in that order. ( the disclaimer). I want to get married, have a baby, if that's still possible (tick tock bio clock hello!) if that's still in the cards or if the stars align for that. ( I'm being ridiculous here) But I do pray for that along with finally making an online account in that dating site. Prayer should be paired with work as they say. I know I have become so jaded marriage has lost its appeal on me but I still have a little flicker of hope that I could still become a parent or a mother marriage or no marriage. Meantime, I have to check my email and see if here's someone interested in me and make it happen - as the tagline of that site goes....
As I've said, if new years signify some new beginnings, a clean slate if you may, I'll just play it by ear, take everyday as it comes, get excited for what's in store. I'll go to work and serve our customers with a smile on my face and be of service to the community outside of work . I want to be able to find time for that. I will also try to be religious and not just spiritual. Finding a religion is not really all about going to church and believing in something . True religion ( not the brand) should be about goodness, I believe.
I do have some major goals I wish to accomplish in 2014 (and beyond) ( like in some contract there is the fine print or a disclaimer I have mine , in other words it's not really cast in stone in 2014 ) The biz venture with my bestfriend we are finally making it materialize. My workmate teased me that he has been hearing same thing from me every new year , like I'll save more, pay my credit card have a biz venture. Told him this time, fingers crossed . We have been putting it off the past years, it's high time. I mean we have all these ideas, we even have to meet up several,times like when she's based in Cebu and me in Iloilo we have to schedule a meeting in Manila and each time we just ended up partying, shopping and eating its actually long over due. Curiously, I have to be reminded of that entrepreneurial push January 1, I messaged my bestfriend about it ('enough bout me) and she was actually thinking the same. Then a few days after some situation happened to her like she has to cancel her plans of going to London to be with the boyfie not to mention she resigned from her fab job to pursue that plan which is now iffy and now she has all the time in the world to actually brainstorm and coordinate with suppliers and set meeting with me and our other friend for the said biz. As of this writing we have decided to call our biz Love ventures because its born out of love. How ironic when this biz was spawned out of the time she was breaking up with some guy. I guess its more of our inspired effort, our zest and love for life itself and how we want that biz to be able to give back to a community when it's able. The timing has never been perfect. That is thinking on the positive of course. I know its not as easy as it seems but she is a strong independent woman I believe that shell transcend all the trials she said she could even become a motivatioal speaker if she wants to. I told her she could becomea life coach she have a rich material after all her experiences. She could even join the Pbb which incidentally has their auditions now, if she wants to. We would always joke her that she could join the Big Brother and become a celebrity if she wants to. It could be a great exposure for our plannned biz if ever. She could become a stylist in case, after. going back to my plans, in 2014 ( and beyond) I want to travel to Europe and US, hopefully afford to go to all the music festivals, like coachella, wonderland, tommorow land . This is a life long dream after I do it , I can settle down, ( or not) have kids maybe Retire and travel all of the Philippines as well , but not necessarily in that order. ( the disclaimer). I want to get married, have a baby, if that's still possible (tick tock bio clock hello!) if that's still in the cards or if the stars align for that. ( I'm being ridiculous here) But I do pray for that along with finally making an online account in that dating site. Prayer should be paired with work as they say. I know I have become so jaded marriage has lost its appeal on me but I still have a little flicker of hope that I could still become a parent or a mother marriage or no marriage. Meantime, I have to check my email and see if here's someone interested in me and make it happen - as the tagline of that site goes....
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Kuala Lumpur in time of Yolanda
Our annual bestie trip scheduled in 2013 year is a long time coming. As early as January we have been planning a trip for Japan - deciding whether it is Tokyo or Kyoto. My bestfriend, Sheree already travelled to Japan once last year but she wants to come back because it has become here favorite place to visit. Our scheduled travel would be in November in time for the autumn where color of the trees is great and the foliage is amazing . We became super excited when news broke out that Japan was open for Philippines with no Visa requirement some time in May but turned out to be false. The up side however was that they already issue a multiple entry visa - that is you only get a visa once and travel for the next 6 years. I was already planning to meet up with my cousin who was very excited to host us in Japan. My cousin is married to a US serviceman who is a navy retired based in Japan US Naval base. But due to Sheree's hectic schedule and the strain of a corporate job we have to cancel that trip to Japan since our plan is to have a weeklong stay in the land of the rising sun since we know it's quite an expensive trip and it should at least worth our while. And when we have the time it's going to be December and it's not anymore autumn so our next best option for December is Singapore in time for the Zoukout EDM festival. Since we both already been to Singapore I suggested that we should have have another country we could pass thru before going to Zoukout. So we booked a one way flight to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and our plan was to stay for a few days and proceed to Singapore in time for the festival. We were so lucky to get a promo flight from Cebu Pacific to kuala lumpur but when we were about to booked flights back from Singapore to Manila or Cebu & even Iloilo it's quite expensive. Maybe a lot of Filipinos are already booked to Singapore since it such a no brainer place, quoting my bestfriend. So we waited a while before really booking flights. My bestfriend , Sheree, is quite the traveller (she has travelled to Europe, Japan & all the major Asian countries ) so I gave her the floor to arrange all the bookings. A month before our scheduled trip came Yolanda. In the wake of all that happened, we decided not to party. It was in consideration of Sheree since her family were survivors of the tragedy. At first our decision was that we will go to Singapore but we won't go to Zoukout anymore. It's a good thing we haven't paid for the tickets and not booked for the fly out. So we will just pushed thru with Kl and have a budget wise travel as possible. She has helped her relatives and we don't want to be insensitive as well for what's happening in our country. But since this trip has been planned anyway we decided to just pursue KL
In Kuala Lumpur, we were booked thru AirBnb, in this high rise condo owned by a guy named Steven who is at 40 resigned the corporate world and travelled the world. He's got a dog named Papi. We got thrilled to finally meet that dog and make a joke that he is Masters Steven's dragon in his kingdom as a reference to our Game of Thrones obsession. On the first night, we were welcomed by Steve & Papi who licked us like we were his long lost masters or ladies for that matter. We were also briefed by Steve's house rules. His word that stick was "careful with the walls" . We have to follow his house rules after all it's not a hotel but his home, that's AirBnb, at least you have some kind of a host who is a local, who can tell you what places to go and how to get there. Since we don't really know where to have dinner that night we decided to walk around the neighborhood not actually following the right direction that our host told us. So we were able to walk far enough and reached a place called the black district we learned after. It was a place inhabited by mostly Indians and we had the scare when a police called us and ask some questions and told us that it's not safe for us to walk in that area. Maybe we were peculiar because of our get ups or that we look touristy. Sheree, in her usual confident stance was able to answer the police who was giving a kind of shady vibe. We had that little scare, we walk quite a distance but we had a very authentic Indian food for dinner it was good. We didn't realize that the building actually got a resto, we decided to have our meals there the next day. It turned out we have meals from all the food court of the malls in KL and also snacks and coffee from MacDonalds because of the Paul Frank merchandise of their happy meal and Starbucks for the wifi. Except in genting we have to eat in a few restaurants. As I always say, food is the highlight of our days. We visited the Batu Caves, where there is the giant morrogan statue I would call the monkey - my bestfriend have to shush me since it's actually a God.Meant no disrespect though it's just my usual childlike candor.
Arm with the map of KL we ventured into the city riding mostly their MRT and LRTs and of course the taxis. I have difficulty reading maps but Twitty she is an expert. We visited almost all the malls but noted that Kl is not an ideal shopping destination. We even went to their china town but it's a far cry from our own divi with all the 168 and lucky china town mall. But they have big sprawling malls with all the signature brands store and with beautiful vegetation maintained in its surrounding. There are still some forested area especially in the Batu area where there are animals everywhere freely roaming. Even in the city we could see and hear crows, we would joke and tell each other," that's a message from our kingdom, my lady". Again its Our GOT private joke (game of thrones) we would then call each other , my lady . They also have beautiful museums and tourists center all for free for the public and with very easy access and very few restrictions you can even take some photo inside. The taxi drivers are mostly professionals they even have calling cards. One driver who took us to and from Genting to the airport is a guy named Ahmid he's a Malaysian Muslim who is a great guy who knows basically everything in Malaysia, the places, where to take his guests, he can even talk about current events and politics.
In traveling food is always a part of the adventure and KL is one foodie haven. Malaysian food as I observed are comfort food. But if you prefer the spicy there are also lots of Indian foods and halal certified where according to our friend non-halal offering is a minority like only a few pork or beef are sold in some groceries it has a special area. So if you're also on a diet and would like to try the vegetarian diet, there are also a lot of options for you.
Another highlight of the trip is our night out in Marinis, the tallest bar in KL, atop the 57th floor of the lower bldg of the Petronas twin tower. It was our observation that we haven't seen any cute guy in Malaysia save for that night out in Marinis where there are some expats and some foreigners and maybe a few A list locals. It is a savvy, quite pricey place even our host Steven do not recommend the place since some of his guest spent a fortune in a night out in that place. Sheree and I joked that we would just share a drink in case. There is another place called Skybar which is not as expensive. Alas, our Half Malaysian, half Pinoy friend, who grew up and based in Malaysia took us to Marinis. It's a good thing he made a reservation and we were there before sunset to see the whole of Kl in a birds eye view and witness it while they slowly become lighted, and did I mention that the twin tower is in our face? It was a fun night, we,we're at Marinis from 6 to 930 and actually go down and walk a few meters to go malling and have dinner while we were dressed to the nines. Alvin said, upon seeing us when he fetch us from our place that " wow, you guys are dressed up for Marinis" . Well, that's our usual get up, especially on a night out. But he said that people in Malaysia are often casually dressed and true enough we have the same observation. And he said that , that's just us being Filipinas, always fashionable and he said it always in a good way. He's happy to see colleague from Japan or HK since these people really dressed up even in going to the office. But not his Malaysian counterparts. Alvin works as a corporate planner and he handles events. He drives a Peugeot and swears a lot especially in traffic jams, he is funny. But we know that the traffic jam in Kl is nothing like in Manila, it is jelly I would joke. Tweety and I were relaxed the whole time and enjoying the scene since its not traffic to us. We talked about Malaysia and all the new constructions that's happening everywhere, the economy and it's government. Malaysia has five kingdoms we learned and that every 5 years they have to take turns in being the King. So Alvin said that they have to pay taxes to maintain the 5 kingdoms. He also said that the wife of the prime minister has an Imelda syndrome, that is she has a lavish lifestyle. She got a lot of flak from the media when she went to NY and when she flashed a very expensive ring. I guess at some point the dissatisfaction with your own government I tend to believe is a universal feeling. Pun intended! Twitty has to argue that Imelda is at least beautiful and has charisma. I would agree.
Some travel tips I learned from my travel savvy buddy - always bring your universal charger , don't argue with the locals , follow traffic rules ( and all rules for that matter) because you will have the difficulty to have an arguing case. I am known as a traffic violator sometimes..(tongue in cheek). Don't hassle others esp your host as much as possible, Do not carry passport with you as it has a tendency to be lost instead bring a photocopy you can carry as you roam around the place. I have a heartache when I learned I lost one paper bag I must have left in the airport that contained my water bottle with fruit strainer, a Xmas toblerone with my name she gifted me with along with a few organic beauty items also a gift from her. She has also stressed and made me realize the importance of insurance, and investing in a big sturdy luggage so that I won't carry a few other small stuff. We laughed at our host reactions upon seeing us with a lot of bags he ask us how many days we are staying because it is as if we were staying for a month. He didnt know and realize after a few days that we actually save some spaces for our shopping since everyday we are passing a mall. And he again made a comment when we were leaving that we have such colorful luggage. Sheree and I have to giggle.
In the highlands, we stayed in New world hotel, it's a largest hotel from the number of rooms we learned. We checked in early since we travelled earlier because we thought its far. since we took a cab it's a 2 hour drive from the city. Checking in and out of the hotel is easy breezy since you do it over the machine. We have a day unlimited rides from our hotels amusement rides we felt like 12 year olds. These are mini rides inside the hotel since the area outside is still under construction for the 20th century park which will open in 2016.
Our 2014 travel plan is not yet decided as to when or where but Japan is still on the list. The hanaman festival is in March. Sheree has already processed her Uk visa as we speak. Although she is still iffy about actually going to London. I still have to apply for the us visa in case we have the budget to go to California in time for the Coachella in April. Coachella ticket is $500 for the weeklong festival . But in May we will be applying formthe schengen visa and hopefully travel to Denmark for their annual family reunion The northern lights has become a part of the bucket list but that has to come later or we save up a great deal for that. The Malaysia trip is not complete because there are still some places we wanted to explore like Penang or Malaca, however it was the most cost effective and budgeted travel we had but enjoyed at the same time. It only proves that you don't really need to sell your limbs to have a great time and have fun traveling. It's who you're with and how you enjoy each moment because traveling is always a learning experience.
In Kuala Lumpur, we were booked thru AirBnb, in this high rise condo owned by a guy named Steven who is at 40 resigned the corporate world and travelled the world. He's got a dog named Papi. We got thrilled to finally meet that dog and make a joke that he is Masters Steven's dragon in his kingdom as a reference to our Game of Thrones obsession. On the first night, we were welcomed by Steve & Papi who licked us like we were his long lost masters or ladies for that matter. We were also briefed by Steve's house rules. His word that stick was "careful with the walls" . We have to follow his house rules after all it's not a hotel but his home, that's AirBnb, at least you have some kind of a host who is a local, who can tell you what places to go and how to get there. Since we don't really know where to have dinner that night we decided to walk around the neighborhood not actually following the right direction that our host told us. So we were able to walk far enough and reached a place called the black district we learned after. It was a place inhabited by mostly Indians and we had the scare when a police called us and ask some questions and told us that it's not safe for us to walk in that area. Maybe we were peculiar because of our get ups or that we look touristy. Sheree, in her usual confident stance was able to answer the police who was giving a kind of shady vibe. We had that little scare, we walk quite a distance but we had a very authentic Indian food for dinner it was good. We didn't realize that the building actually got a resto, we decided to have our meals there the next day. It turned out we have meals from all the food court of the malls in KL and also snacks and coffee from MacDonalds because of the Paul Frank merchandise of their happy meal and Starbucks for the wifi. Except in genting we have to eat in a few restaurants. As I always say, food is the highlight of our days. We visited the Batu Caves, where there is the giant morrogan statue I would call the monkey - my bestfriend have to shush me since it's actually a God.Meant no disrespect though it's just my usual childlike candor.
Arm with the map of KL we ventured into the city riding mostly their MRT and LRTs and of course the taxis. I have difficulty reading maps but Twitty she is an expert. We visited almost all the malls but noted that Kl is not an ideal shopping destination. We even went to their china town but it's a far cry from our own divi with all the 168 and lucky china town mall. But they have big sprawling malls with all the signature brands store and with beautiful vegetation maintained in its surrounding. There are still some forested area especially in the Batu area where there are animals everywhere freely roaming. Even in the city we could see and hear crows, we would joke and tell each other," that's a message from our kingdom, my lady". Again its Our GOT private joke (game of thrones) we would then call each other , my lady . They also have beautiful museums and tourists center all for free for the public and with very easy access and very few restrictions you can even take some photo inside. The taxi drivers are mostly professionals they even have calling cards. One driver who took us to and from Genting to the airport is a guy named Ahmid he's a Malaysian Muslim who is a great guy who knows basically everything in Malaysia, the places, where to take his guests, he can even talk about current events and politics.
In traveling food is always a part of the adventure and KL is one foodie haven. Malaysian food as I observed are comfort food. But if you prefer the spicy there are also lots of Indian foods and halal certified where according to our friend non-halal offering is a minority like only a few pork or beef are sold in some groceries it has a special area. So if you're also on a diet and would like to try the vegetarian diet, there are also a lot of options for you.
Another highlight of the trip is our night out in Marinis, the tallest bar in KL, atop the 57th floor of the lower bldg of the Petronas twin tower. It was our observation that we haven't seen any cute guy in Malaysia save for that night out in Marinis where there are some expats and some foreigners and maybe a few A list locals. It is a savvy, quite pricey place even our host Steven do not recommend the place since some of his guest spent a fortune in a night out in that place. Sheree and I joked that we would just share a drink in case. There is another place called Skybar which is not as expensive. Alas, our Half Malaysian, half Pinoy friend, who grew up and based in Malaysia took us to Marinis. It's a good thing he made a reservation and we were there before sunset to see the whole of Kl in a birds eye view and witness it while they slowly become lighted, and did I mention that the twin tower is in our face? It was a fun night, we,we're at Marinis from 6 to 930 and actually go down and walk a few meters to go malling and have dinner while we were dressed to the nines. Alvin said, upon seeing us when he fetch us from our place that " wow, you guys are dressed up for Marinis" . Well, that's our usual get up, especially on a night out. But he said that people in Malaysia are often casually dressed and true enough we have the same observation. And he said that , that's just us being Filipinas, always fashionable and he said it always in a good way. He's happy to see colleague from Japan or HK since these people really dressed up even in going to the office. But not his Malaysian counterparts. Alvin works as a corporate planner and he handles events. He drives a Peugeot and swears a lot especially in traffic jams, he is funny. But we know that the traffic jam in Kl is nothing like in Manila, it is jelly I would joke. Tweety and I were relaxed the whole time and enjoying the scene since its not traffic to us. We talked about Malaysia and all the new constructions that's happening everywhere, the economy and it's government. Malaysia has five kingdoms we learned and that every 5 years they have to take turns in being the King. So Alvin said that they have to pay taxes to maintain the 5 kingdoms. He also said that the wife of the prime minister has an Imelda syndrome, that is she has a lavish lifestyle. She got a lot of flak from the media when she went to NY and when she flashed a very expensive ring. I guess at some point the dissatisfaction with your own government I tend to believe is a universal feeling. Pun intended! Twitty has to argue that Imelda is at least beautiful and has charisma. I would agree.
Some travel tips I learned from my travel savvy buddy - always bring your universal charger , don't argue with the locals , follow traffic rules ( and all rules for that matter) because you will have the difficulty to have an arguing case. I am known as a traffic violator sometimes..(tongue in cheek). Don't hassle others esp your host as much as possible, Do not carry passport with you as it has a tendency to be lost instead bring a photocopy you can carry as you roam around the place. I have a heartache when I learned I lost one paper bag I must have left in the airport that contained my water bottle with fruit strainer, a Xmas toblerone with my name she gifted me with along with a few organic beauty items also a gift from her. She has also stressed and made me realize the importance of insurance, and investing in a big sturdy luggage so that I won't carry a few other small stuff. We laughed at our host reactions upon seeing us with a lot of bags he ask us how many days we are staying because it is as if we were staying for a month. He didnt know and realize after a few days that we actually save some spaces for our shopping since everyday we are passing a mall. And he again made a comment when we were leaving that we have such colorful luggage. Sheree and I have to giggle.
In the highlands, we stayed in New world hotel, it's a largest hotel from the number of rooms we learned. We checked in early since we travelled earlier because we thought its far. since we took a cab it's a 2 hour drive from the city. Checking in and out of the hotel is easy breezy since you do it over the machine. We have a day unlimited rides from our hotels amusement rides we felt like 12 year olds. These are mini rides inside the hotel since the area outside is still under construction for the 20th century park which will open in 2016.
Our 2014 travel plan is not yet decided as to when or where but Japan is still on the list. The hanaman festival is in March. Sheree has already processed her Uk visa as we speak. Although she is still iffy about actually going to London. I still have to apply for the us visa in case we have the budget to go to California in time for the Coachella in April. Coachella ticket is $500 for the weeklong festival . But in May we will be applying formthe schengen visa and hopefully travel to Denmark for their annual family reunion The northern lights has become a part of the bucket list but that has to come later or we save up a great deal for that. The Malaysia trip is not complete because there are still some places we wanted to explore like Penang or Malaca, however it was the most cost effective and budgeted travel we had but enjoyed at the same time. It only proves that you don't really need to sell your limbs to have a great time and have fun traveling. It's who you're with and how you enjoy each moment because traveling is always a learning experience.
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