A Bum's weekend

Served my last working day at the plant and I'm officially unemployed. I'm a BUM. Well, at least for 4 whole days.

How did this bum spend her time?

Well, I went home to the province to celebrate my grandma's 85th bday. There was a party infact. Aside from that I did some entertaining and so went and had lunch at the famous Tatoy's Manokan. And of course I slept. hehe. Then we visited some relatives at Guimaras Island and bought some sweet sweet mangoes and ate a feast again.. and of course I slept.

Coming back to Manila, I was scheduled to fix my stuff (the ones I hauled back home!) but again I slept. hehe. I just made sure that the "stuff" were all hidden from my mother's obsessive compulsive view! haha! BUT I also did some driving ha! and it'll be just a while till I can finish this driving thing..that's an accomplishment!

Starting my new job will be a real change and I just wanted to enjoy being a bum for a short short while. How can you not enjoy such moments? After all, you have nothing work-related to think about, yet you know that you will still have a job in a few days.

And so I slept. So soundly at that. hehe.

Why?-- a poem by Lollipop

Just wanted to share a poem emailed by a colleague. Wag nyo na kilalanin si Lollipop baka madismaya pa kayo. haha!

"You don't have to answer why,

If you have to leave, but, say goodbye.

I am sure the reason is too personal,

But I am your friend, and my asking is normal.

All I can say before you leave,

Thanks for the memories, they're great, indeed.

If there is one thing that I hate,

No longer will we can work together, well that's fate.

But then again, I want you to leave happy,

So I will always pray for you,

my thoughts of you will never be empty.

I know God will always be upon you. "

Moving on..

I've got one more post left to cover the BKK trip but this needs to be posted. I submitted my resignation letter last week and I'm moving on.

Last week I didn't really feel the pressure (how would you if your boss seemed to take it lightly and talked to you for a grand total of ONLY 5 mins?), but its slowly creeping up. This week word has already been out and colleagues from other departments are now asking the 4 Ws: What? Why? When? and Where?!! Though the first W isnt exactly a question, its more of an exclamation.

How exactly do I feel about this at the moment? Hmmn.. Sad, uncertain, melancholy.. and yet excited. But dont get me wrong, it was a decision to be made and I take time and a lot of thought in making any decision.

I'm officially TV-less right now since I took it out this afternoon. Got a lot of things to pack, several things still left to endorse at work. Thinking about it, I'm probably using blogging as a distraction to keep myself from pondering on "im-leaving-soon" thoughts. Oh well. Time's a ticking...and next week I'm moving.

Fishy Oh!

When I was 3, I would stare at our neighbor's fishtank and shout "Fishy-oh, lipad!" thinking that fish flew to get around. This was probably my first known fascination for fin friends. Then later later on, one of my X's gave me an aquarium and gifted me with several fishes. X turned out to be a piranha and since then I've never really been fond of fin pets. Anyhow, the closest most recent facination for fish pets I remember now would be the "relationship" that developed between K Landi and that certain fish we had at the staffhouse. I would call it that since he claimed the fish allegedly "jumped-for-joy" everytime he came home. Go figure.

At BKK one of our itineraries was Ocean World. Since this was located under a mall, I figured this would probably be just a place full of aquaria. I was shocked to see that upon entering, it was like we were inside an aquarium! It's all coming back to me now, me chanting, "Fishy-oh! Lipad!"


Their collections of specimens were outstanding, just as their set-ups were. There were parts where you were above the fish, beside the fish, and even BELOW the fishes! Specimens ranged from crustaceans, freshwater fishes, deep sea fishes and even jellyfishes. I liked the way they illuminated the jellyfish tanks, it seemed like you were at the deep sea red light district! haha!



I was likewise in awe of the 2-storey deep tank where a diver actually submerged while everyone watched as if he was also a fish in a tank.. a fish with a microphone who answers questions of visitors from outside the tank! cool!



One of the highlights for me, aside from the diver-in-the-tank was seeing the sharks. It amazed me how close I was to them..just a glass away..so near yet so far..hehehe.

I would definitely recommend going to Bangkok Ocean World. No, its not just for kids and fishy people.. Its like getting a feel of how it would be like if you visited Nemo and Spongebob. And then you could also shout, "Fishy-oh! Lipad!!!"

I'm a B- Philippine Traveller

My Lakbayan grade is B-!

Barbie was browsing through Glo's site and came across her Lakbayan post. Minutes later we're taking the test ourselves! di naman masyadong excited! haha!

Since my folks are Visayans, I considered myself well-travelled compared to my mostly Luzon-hailing friends. But upon taking the test and seeing which places in the Phil map I've been to, it just made me realize that there's so much more places in our country that I haven't visited kahit na passing through lang. Mental note: got to save up for those trips. Buti na lang may Piso fare.

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Anak ni Zuma!

FIRST... I was EXCITED....

THEN.... I was HAPPY to have finally taken this photo opportunity..

AND THEN.... I was APPREHENSIVE...

These next pictures are rare ones as I dont normally get panicky. However, I believe I have enough reason as the snake won't let go of me.. YIKES!!!! Ano pa kaya ang nararamdaman ng anak ni Zuma?

But overall, I was really pleased with our trip to the Snake farm at the W.H.O Collaborating Center for Venomous Snake Toxicology and Research, Bangkok, Thailand. This was one of the places I was really sorry to have missed out on during my last year's trip. I was really intent on visiting this place this time and really requested that we go there.

I wasn't disappointed. They had a very informative and well spoken english demo and lecture. The discussions were very lively and their specimens really interesting. They even demonstrated how to extract venom from snakes. The snake handlers were amazing, particularly the one handling and taunting the cobras. He WAS taunting the cobras, with no protective gear at that!


Needless to say, I will NEVER look at those plastic containers in the same way again after this trip...

Serious daw o...

In order for us to see the "real us", we sometimes need to see through the eyes of another. I always considered myself as a "point-and-shoot" kind of person (in the context of photography).. hence my choice of a digicam: nothing fussy as long as the unit is fast, the battery life long and the color and image quality are ok. But as the evidence show, it seems I take photography more seriously than I thought I did. Ganyan pala itsura ko pag serious ako???!! Take note, bading na bading pa rin at tumitilamsik pa ang mga fingers! Bwahahaha!

(photo credits from rV and Barbie)

The AWESOME Thai Trip

Last year I swore that when I went back to Bangkok, I would shun my uniform and go to the places worth going.. And so earlier this month I did just that with some of my best buddies "forever friend barbie" and "roomie V". But of course we wouldnt have done this adventure without the support of MJ!

Where exactly did we bring our feet? We rode the river boat along the Chao Phraya river where almost all of the tourist spots worth going were...

Then we went to see all the relevant Wats (temples) that we could muster walking (and riding)to. Of course the Grand Palace was a must to be visited.

Though a just chip off the floating market, the Bangkok Flower market was still quite interesting. Its really just like our local flower market, however most of their wares were garlands and other floral preparations used as offerings. It was also a first time for me to actually see a lotus flower. Too bad we didnt have time to really go to the floating market.. well, maybe next time..

We didn't pass off the chance to shop at the Chatuchak weekend market where rV and I bought silk sheets for our moms, and at Panthip "electronic gadget heaven" I bought several memory cards while Barbie bought the MP4 requested by our officemate. We rode the Tuktuk to the Jim Thompson House Museum (this guy revived the Thai silk industry) and we also went to the Snake farm and the really cool Ocean World. I'll most probably be blogging separately about the last two ones I mentioned.

And Oh!!! of course, we rode the subway to meet up with Khun Landi and Khun Didith who joined us to watch the Thai cultural show "Siam Niramit" and later treated us to an authentic Thai dinner. I'll be blogging about that separately too....

too many things to blog, so little time...