2007….The Year That Was

"You don't do the right thing because of the consequences. If you're wise, you do it regardless of the consequences." - Jeannette Rankin

It was in general, a fruitful year for me. I was able to buy my dream house, my bio-fueled car and travelled Europe. Or at least, what my dream was about before the sound of the alarm shattered them and woke me back to reality. I’m in Brunei. It’s a day after Christmas. I have work. Bahumbag!

But no scrooge attitude here; My Christmas Eve and Christmas were actually fun. I had dinner at my officemate Thelma’s house and I brought fruits for potluck share. We had exchange gifts afterwards and I got a Stich minus Lilo car décor. Then my officemate Amor invited me to their flat for lunch Christmas day and watched a Migrant Xmas Party at the Church’s ground. I was with our consultant from Taiwan and didn’t know we needed tickets for food stab. We sat there, under the tree just a few feet away from the Bishop’s table. He must have read our minds or our face gave us away (mukang gutom?) that he approached us and asked one of his assistants to usher us to the line upon learning that we didn’t have tickets. God bless his soul. We later went to Brunei’s one and only 24 hours café for dessert and that was how Christmas went for me.

Here’s what I’ll remember 2007 for:
1. Went home to PH and met my sister and her husband whom I haven’t seen in 10 years and my mom whom I haven’t seen in 5 years. Distance was kind to us and we actually feel closer than we were growing up.

2. Took driving lessons, got my driver’s license here in Brunei and bought a car. Special kasi it’s right hand drive here. Feeling ‘Mr. Bean’ every time I have to go thru roundabouts, hihi.

3. Went back to gym. I miss my gym buddies in PH but I like Fitness Zone and the Les Mills classes. I’m currently crazy about Yoga and Body Balance.

4. Bought my own ref. Now, I can do panic buying without ever worrying about space. Sabi ko nga, bawal magutom. And food is every woman’s bestfriend, especially bcoz diamonds are quite expensive, hehe.

5. Travelled to Phuket, Thailand and Singapore with Shawie (who’s getting married, finally!). Went island hopping and saw Fantasea and Simon Cabaret show, both are must-see shows.

6. Dinner reunion with close ex-Trenders: Jojo minus the bf, Pedro minus the gf, super Mario and Jupee and Shawie(also getting married next year). Too bad I missed Jaja but I also met some of Jupee’s friends. So nice to see them again and to know that they have each a happy and healthy relationship.

7. Took IETLS exam. It’s long overdue if you asked me but it was quite an experience mainly because it’s my first time to talk with and be interviewed by an Australian. Umikot ata tenga ko trying to understand her accent, lol.

8. Met Dinky and her friends in Kota Kinabalu. I also got to meet a Filipina local girl there and her friend. She has Filipino parents but was born and raised in Borneo. She speaks fluent Tagalog and Nihonggo which is quite impressive. Filipino kids here in Brunei are like the Filipino kids in the States – can hardly speak Tagalog, sad. They are so friendly and now we are friendster friends ^_^.

9. Bought 4 books and finished reading 3 (Freakonomics due next year) – Paulo Coehlo’s ‘The Witch of Portobello’ and ‘The Zahir’, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt’s ‘Freakonomics’, and the book of the year (at least for me!) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

10. Discovered ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, ‘For One More Day’ and ‘The Tipping Point’ and actually liked them. Although I like Mitch Albom’s first novel better.

11. Discovered the blog of Wanda Ilusyonada and eventually bought her book – uniquely beautiful and superbly entertaining! Di ba pang critic ang feedback?!

12. Got the latest Pugad Baboy 19 and as usual, the humor is worth the maximum star rating.

13. Got Howie Severino’s DVD compilation of his 10 best documentaries (so far). This kind of show should rule the primetime shows of Philippine TV instead of all those telenovelas. Inspiring, intriguing, intellectually stimulating and witty topics. Truly an eye opener.

Now if I can only put anything relating to romance at number 14, it would be complete. But for that, I might need to go back to sleep.

That Once in a Lifetime

Today's Thought: "Time eases all things." - Sophocles

A thriving career and a blessed relationship with a man you will soon be married to and spend the rest of your life with. Practically living the life you’ve always wanted. But acting like a thief in the middle of the night, fate took them all away. All people can say to you probably is that it is a test of faith. But must it really hurt you that bad – strip you of all your dreams while you feel like you’re on top of the world? I felt numb after knowing what happened. All the heartbreaks I felt was nothing compared to your pain right now. I know that whatever I say, it cannot heal you as fast as you want. Only time will or maybe not. I don’t know.

I won’t even try to console you with words; just know that you are always in my prayer. When you are healed, I hope you will come to enjoy and embrace every single moment in life, just like before. If this phase in your life gives a reality check in life – that is to always love like there is no tomorrow and embrace each journey as a once in a lifetime experience. You did, and that’s all that matters.

For Lala who recently lost her fiance 2 weeks after he proposed to her....

Oh Sweet Liberty!

Today's Thought: "It is not impossibilities which fill us with the deepest despair, but possibilities which we have failed to realize." - Robert Mallet

Mineral Water delivery does not exist here. You have to buy bottles in boxes or those containers that goes with a hot & cold dispenser. It's arms exercise and endurance everytime I buy a box and carry at most 3 bottles at 1 go. I live on the 3rd floor and there's no elevator. I might be a gym rat but the body's not build to carry boxes (even a guy would complain!).

It's just interesting and never fails to make me smile every time I got to read the box. I never thought this country is under siege and crying of liberation, hehehe.

In sickness and in health....There's Always a Medicine You Can Take

Today's Thought: “I'm so ugly - My mother had morning sickness - After I was born” - Rodney Dangerfield


I had slight flu and cold just last month, my first time to get sick while I'm based here. I went to our company doctor and was given these meds, 1 sachet for cold and 1 sachet for fever. I think the plastics' pretty cool, hehe. It's not a practice here to hand out any prescription paper so you can go buy them yourself. Instead, the meds are covered under sick leave (provided it was approved and signed by the boss) and are provided by government hospitals. All details are written in 3 languages - English, Malay and Chinese. The picture's a little blurd but these two just say that I should take 2 paracetamol tablets 4x a day & when necessary & before meals and 1 fedar(?) 3x a day & when necessary. If you ask me, the 'x a day' conflicts with 'when necessary' but who am I to question the doc? The result? I was sick for 1 more week and finally felt good after taking Neozep from a Pinoy friend. Pati ba naman sakit, brand concious?

Phuket Adventure Part II: Island Tour and Simon Cabaret

Today’s Thought: “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt


It was a cloudy morning and it actually rained quite hard before we left the pier. But it didn’t dampen our 2^nd day adventure as we head off towards the sea and on to our sea canoeing adventure. I know PH also has beautiful caves but, as it was my first time to have a sea canoeing adventure, it was marvelous! I like the idea of lying flat on the canoe as we enter the caves. The flashlights were close to useless as it was totally dark inside. But as flashes of camera never ceased to pop up, we got a glimpse of how the caves looked like – totally eerie yet beautiful works of art. But it smelled bat poop everywhere that I breathed thru my mouth while inside these caves. I also was not sure if the water dripping from the ceiling were bat poop or just moist water. I honestly didn’t want to know. My disgust for the smell was easily lost to the breathtaking lagoon at the center of the island. There were mangrove trees and monkeys abound. One white guy said that God is truly the best architect of all – amen to that.


We went to 4 islands – Phanak Island, Hong Island, James Bond Island and Lawaya. We only had cave trips in the first two islands so I’m not sure if the popular James Bond has its caves as well. What I saw was souvenir stores within the island! We didn’t bother to check the goods they were selling as Shawie and I were busy taking pictures of ourselves. It was such a fun and hilarious moment as we took turns trying to catch each other’s jumping moment through camera. Our buffet lunch at the boat was also a delight although we didn’t have seafood except for fish. The last island, Lawaya Island, was quite a disappointment though. We spent almost an hour in Lawaya, the longest in any other islands we went to. We’re supposed to stay there for more canoeing and swimming. But my goggles and the underwater camera we bought were useless as the water was not clear and the sand had a mixture mostly of crushed pieces of shell. I don’t know whether it was because of the tsunami or because October was still a rainy season. We just contented ourselves babysitting for baby Diego, a 14 month baby of a Filipina and an Italian guy. Diego is such a cutie and so well engrossed with our colorful bright blue and yellow underwater camera. We used the film to shot Diego instead.

Went home tired and all dried up from the sea water. For dinner, we were craving for seafood and the whole place was packed with seafood choices. So the only thing we had to agree on was the ambiance to go for. It didn’t take us that long to agree that we wanted to dine in Banana Phuket. It was an open air restaurant at the back of the street and it looked cozy. It was and we weren’t disappointed with our food either. Thank goodness!

Last stop was the Simon Cabaret show. We got VIP tickets and same luck like last time; we were seated in front center. Yehey! Being picture addicts, we started taking pictures as soon as we got to the place. It’s just weird that there’s a Chinese altar by the gate entrance and a picture of their king at the hall entrance. I guess they always want Buddha and their King to bless their show and give them energy to entertain the crowd. And finally, the show every one was waiting for. It was a total cabaret show but too bad they just lip synch the songs. I’m used to gay performers in Manila belting out songs from their idols live so I was a little dismay. Most of their songs were slow and local songs. I didn’t mind it for the Fantasea cultural show but I was hoping here at Cabaret that they will imitate gay icons – Cher, Madonna, Cristina Aguilera and heck, even Britney Spears. They did a Gloria Gaynor song with mild applaud and Tina Turner to the delight of the crowd (okay, she was also my favorite). A nod on the show was the dance and song number from 2 funny gays. They weren’t sexy and pretty like the rest and that’s what their number was all about. They walked through the crowds and kissed guys and their heavy lipstick marks were left on the guys’ face. That sent the crowd to the roof laughing. As the show ended, all the lady boy performers lined up at the exit. They were encouraging people to take pictures with them, but they also asked for some money after. I didn’t have much so I just tried to take group pictures while they were busy poising for a shot with some foreigners. Kuripot, hehe.

I think the lady boys earn more in Phuket than real women whose job mostly is 200 baht worth of 1 hr Thai massage.

Phuket Adventure Part I: City Tour & Fantasea

Todays’s Thought: “To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.” - Katherine Paterson

I woke up to a beautiful Thursday morning, ready and excited about my trip to SG & Phuket. Only to be told at the airport that my multiple visa was already expired. To my shock and horror…and my fault, I just checked my working visa which is valid until April next year. The rush of blood I tell you! Felt like I’m part of Amazing Race Asia and I had to catch the next and last flight to SG that day and get my multiple entry before the immigration closes (until 2PM only since it's Ramadan). It was already 10AM and there was just no way I could make my 10:40AM flight. I had to call Shawie and tell her to reschedule our flight to Phuket as well. I guess, luck was still on my side that day so I manage to get my multiple by 1PM and just waited in my flat for the 9PM flight. Sayang, I could have been in SG that afternoon. I wanted to by a new SD for my camera before Phuket since mine always prompts an error (yes, parang PC may error message).

Shawie picked me up at Changi by midnight. And before 7am, we were at budget airport. T’was my first time to take budget airlines. It had an open tarmac so going inside the plane felt like a dramatic entrance for me. But we had to buy drinks and food inside the plane, hahaha. In fairness, the mushroom soup tasted nice, parang hindi galing sachet, lol.

9ish AM, Thailand time: The fun begins. But it was raining and the road was stiff and slippery. Shawie and I gave a sigh of relief coz we didn’t have to be driven to the hotel at midnight seeing how the road is. Kakatakot din and the driver of the van who picked us up drove like he’s having an LBM moment - lumilipad, sumisingit, parang jeep sa madaling araw! It was a 45mins drive so we just tried to enjoy the rainy scenery and chatted our way. It’s been a long while since we saw each other, bulk na ang chikka, hahaha. Halfway to our hotel, the sun welcomed us with its warmth. Yehey! So we were able to walk around a bit. It rained again but we were already on our way back to Royal Palm for a Thai massage. So relaxing at a cheap price – only 17BND.

After that soothing massage, we just changed clothes and was picked up by our tour van for buffet dinner and Fantasea show. It’s a good thing that we had a packaged tour since the van that picked us up also had to get the other tourists from other hotels. So we got to see other places in Phuket which we normally wouldn’t see coz there’s just far from us. Phuket has some of the amazing hotels ^_^.

Finally, Fantasea! Just seeing the entrance and the ticket booth is enough to take your breath away, so shinny and magnificent. Of course, Disneyland entrance is still better but Fantasea offers a different show. And EK has no chance to compete. It only has 1 wizard statue welcoming the guests where Fantasea has this Hollywood style sign and golden elephant displays at each corner of the entrance booth. And the painted ceiling tells of so many local stories pero di ko kinarir masyado, stiff neck ang magiging kapalit e.

We look around and took pictures and then headed to the Golden Kinnaree Buffet restaurant, the biggest buffet restaurant I’ve been to. It has 4,000 seating capacity. Shawie and I joked that our wedding or birthday should be held here. Bongga! Inside are statues of the mythical Kinnarees, half-bird and half-woman of legendary beauty and graciousness. So we had our dinner in a Thai mythology inspired atmosphere. Divine.

Few minutes before 9PM, the entrance at the Palace of the Elephants where the ‘Fantasy of a Kingdom’ will be shown opened. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed and it had to be deposited at the entrance counter. On our way inside, we passed by a 2-3 booths that let you cradle baby tigers while they suck milk from a milk bottle (yes, kelangan i-mention saan) and have your picture taken. Wag n lang, takot pa din ako, hehehe. And finally the show: True to what it says in the internet, it was worth the money and the effort going there – a true Vegas style theater show with magical illusions, 4D effects, aerial performance, acrobatics, indoor pyrotechnics, special effects, elephant circus and stunts (in no particular order ha kasi minsan sama2x, ang saya!). And the stage is huge that it still has space left when all 16 elephants did their stunts. The whole show was one for the books, galing talaga. Then we felt sad realizing that PH does not have this kind of show when I’m sure we have so many talented artists. Baka walang makuhang elephants?

Lilet

Today's Thought: "It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that infinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations" - Khalil Gibra

She was an 80’s singing child sensation that faded from the limelight as soon as she hit her teens. A picture of sweetness and innocence, but to be called as her namesake? Kebarbaridad! Hard as I look at myself in the mirror, I couldn’t see the girl, hahahaha. But that was how I was described by the pips who were at Michelle’s birthday party. She’s one of the instructors at FZ and my favorite at that. This woman kicks ass! But that’s beside the point. Me? Lilet? Should I take it as a complement or does it simply mean that I was so tame compared to the other guests there? Let me tell you the highlights of the party – daring photo shoots and body shots. Either of which I took part of but I didn’t deny that I enjoyed watching them and I had the loudest laugh (tawang bragunda sabi nga ni pareng willy). Don’t get the wrong idea coz it was clean fun regardless of the game. They were all friends there and I’m a newbie. One third of the guests were gay and the girls had an all gay attitude for fun and the guys were contented to drink and smoke and chat on the veranda, away from the photo shoots. They had to drag them one at a time and they were actually prey not predator, at least, on this party.

By 2am, the birthday girl was too drunk and begun to puke. It was time to go home for me. They had been pouring drinks non-stop since 11PM while I busy myself with the food (we had shrimp and sisig!). I didn’t want to get drunk since I still have to drive and I might get wasted that next thing I know, I’m doing body shots myself! Kebarbaridad (ulit)! hahahaha.

So I guess for that night, I was indeed Lilet.