Kasalan, Kabuhayan, Kalokohan... :D

war at home article - wtf!!! (read on...)

2009-04-02T09:41:00.000+08:00

The War at Home
By Chip Tsao

The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen onboard. We can live with that-—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That's no big problem-—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.

But hold on-—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: There are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as HK$3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell everyone of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.

Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her Government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.

Oh yes. The Government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout 'China, Madam/Sir' loudly whenever they hear the word "Spratly". They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, "Long live Chairman Mao!" at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that's going a bit too far, at least for the time being.

kahit na di mo to mababasa...

2009-04-02T07:17:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA! :D

mama is the coolest mom eveeeehhhh. hahaha sino pa bang mom ang pupuntang HK disneyland for chicken wings? haha yep thats my mom. mana ata ako sa kanya lol. takaw din. hehe

im always thankful for my mom kasi she always let us have the finer things in life - which i am grateful for. laging branded lol... ganun kasi si mama. no brand - no quality lol. she was may fashion consultant before and she would always buy me clothes from topshop, kamiseta, kashieca etc. o diva? :D haha sosyal si mama.

basta happy birthday mom! :D lovee yaahhh see yah next week! :D

one-eyed jack

2009-03-31T07:11:00.000+08:00

hayyyy naku tlaga katangahan ko tlaga kagabi.

went to yoga class last night and hit the shower right after. as i was hanging my towels, natamaan yung mata ko ng towel and i knew immediately that my contact lens was gone!!!

argh and i was in the shower room na!!!! i wanted to cry. i knew the possibility of finding my contacts is really really slim. meron kasi sa sahig yung parang butas butas na plastic (ano tawag dun?). i kept thinking "how am i supposed to go home with one eye!?"

for those who know me well, you'll know that i am as good as blind without my contacts... so you can just imagine the dilemma i was in!!! i mean, i wouldnt have a problem if i lost it at home (touch wood) coz i can ask my mom to have a new set made from phils and send to me and i can wear glasses to work everday. but the real problem was - how to get home?!

eventually i had to squat, kneel and basically made kapa to the floor (yuckyyyyyy). i kept looking for almost 5 mins ata and i really really wanted to cry na... finally i gave up. i stood up and started dusting my hands and lo and behold, it's there! somehow, it stuck to my hand when i knelt and felt the floor (i think)

hay tlaga. so i washed it very carefully and for a long time with hot water (i hope i dont get any eye infections).

grabe tlaga last night. argh.

coldplay concert

2009-03-26T06:23:00.000+08:00

okay, im not really prepared to blog about this just yet - i was going to wait for lui's photos and videos to be uploaded before i blog.

BUT was listening to Magic89.9 on the net and "Viva La Vida" played and omg, i kid you not, i got goosebumps and all the wonderful memories of the concert just came rushing in!!!

omg it was fanstastic! it is the GREATEST and most AMAZING concert i've been to... i was lucky enough to watch the corrs, mandy moore and maroon 5 but this concert just tops it all!!!

from the yellow balloons that came out during the song, the mexican wave, the costumes, the production, the confetti and most especially the live feed. grabe... i think if they render the entire live feed, they can immediately sell it na as DVD - it was that amazing. even the live feed was extremely thougth of! galing tlaga! super audience participation pa! there was one point where they moved from the stage to the audience area (as in audience no bars in between) and we were soo green with envy... wahhhhhhh... will post videos soon so you'll know what im talking about :)

lui and i loved every moment of it. to think we didnt know most of the songs ha. just the really popular ones. but we loved it sulit talaga!

pa-b happy, ma-b happy that pa-b loved his 'magsyota' anniversary gift!!! :D

will post pics and videos soon!

budget budget

2009-03-25T12:09:00.000+08:00

mitchie and i was talking about budgeting and saving up for our ultimate goals. she sent me a copy of the budget template that she uses.

i used it and really really tried to be as realistic as possible (what's the purpose of a budget if you wont be able to follow it anyway?)

anywayzzz, based on the result of the computation, if you combine my salary and lui' salary and minus all expenses. we can actually save approx $1500+++ per month!!! wtf! where does all that money go? huhuhu and that's on top of the 1500 monthly amortization that we need to pay!! meaning dapat net savings e nasa 3000+++ !!!! whhhaaaattttt huhuhuhu. but i dont save much every month. huhuhu

im blaming my credit cards. sh*t im throwing those cards away!!!! huhuhuhu... :(

buono bread

2009-03-24T17:29:00.000+08:00

discovered this thru mama benz - i swear mas marami pang alam si mama benz na masarap kainin dito sa singapore kesa sa akin! lol.

at first, i didn't understand what the craze is about. it's just bread for heaven' sake! and it's $19 per loaf!!! what?!!!!!!!

but i guess you have to try it to appreciate it :) they give out samples in takashimaya and it was really really nice. ended up buying one loaf for myself and buying some for mama benz (besos!). you can taste the great blend of bread and margarine in every bite. yummy tlaga!!! and it's not a small loaf... i swear my hand got tired of bringing two loaves! it was sooo heavy!

argh there goes my 'diet' hahaha. i oath to not to take more than two slices in a day... 1 for bfast and 1 for merienda lang dapat! haha i wish i can keep to that. yummy tlaga... even lui liked it. if not for the steep price, lui would have loved it! :D

so sg peeps, head on down to takashimaya and try it. :)

blogger's block

2009-03-24T12:10:00.000+08:00

whats wrong with me?

i have so many things that i want to write about but i just can't seem to start writing!!!

wahhh... am i getting so lazy that i can't even start my brain's engine for a measly blog? huhuhuhu...

wala lang... siguro if i start writing ill start losing weight? hahhaha. nangarap.

i will blog again. i will lose weight too!

coming up: coldplay...

quiet...

2009-03-07T05:57:00.000+08:00

been quiet for a looonnnggg time. i can't even remember when was the last time i posted a blog entry. yikes... parang di ako. :(

it's not that im busy at work coz really, im not busy. work has started to dwindle down and we have more time on our hands. maybe that's why... nothing has been happening ergo no blog entry hahaha :)

what have i been up to? nothing much really... just lying low and resting - been sick a lot of times. oh! i started golfing! woot i didnt know i'll have a natural knack for it!! lol thinking of getting pro classes with a bunch of my officemates.

travels are in the pipeline - going back to hk for holy week (if everything goes as planned), going to ho chi mihn for labor day weekend (cresta, hotel, dont forget), and several trips back to ph! (sorry mama benz, i really cant go back for the 10th waw anniv).

oh! we're watching coldplay!! woot! with m+k! double woot! :D

several movies that i loved: curious case, slumdog, watchmen (yes i liked it), marley & me (i cried still! i cried reading the book and i still cried over the movie. what a total crybaby), hmm what else... oh! he's just not into you. loved it. :) im waiting for confessions to come out, hopefully that will be good. (i dont like the actress though)

american idol is such a blah this year. i havent seen a really great singer, unlike last season...

ready "there's no place like here" by cecelia ahern... we'll see how that goes :)

oh im trying to be a pescataria (tama ba steph?). im trying to lose weight... need to lose at least 5kgs. hmmmmm achievable? errr... dunno. hahaha. another "we'll see how that goes"

hmmm i guess that's all for the update. hehe hopefully ill be more active starting now :D

my new idol bet - danny gokey

2009-02-05T12:02:00.000+08:00

... just because he looks so much like my robert downey jr. :D

and it doesn't hurt that he has a nice voice. teehee :)

January 27, 2008

2009-02-02T17:50:00.000+08:00

it's been a year... a year of joy and tears and love :)

cant believe how time flies... parang kelan lang i was preparing for our wedding, now we're one year na!!! :)

it had truly been a wonderful year. i still can't believe how easy it had been. i guess when you're really meant for each other, you dont need to try hard to be happy with each other.

so to my dearest pa-b, i love you for so many reasons but mainly i love you because:
- you are my laughter when the world seems like hell
- you bring out the child in me :) ang kulit natin pare!
- you are my sounding board whenever i want to scream
- you wait for me on those nights that i had to stay late at work
- you always hug me when i am down; actually you always hug rregardless if im down or not hahahaha
- you take care of me and treat me like a princess even if you say you won't :P
- you make me get away with almost everything
- you say i am beautiful and mean it - i can be at my ugliest but you still see the beauty in me :)

I can't believe that i can love you more than the way i loved you on the day i married you... but I do. I love you thousand times more now and will love you million times more :)

here's to more happy moments, more travels and a new house! :) and hopefully a baby soon ;)

xoxo.... ma-b :)

W@W videofest + Jason m + kendz = amazing

2009-02-02T16:41:00.000+08:00

yuck love your own hahaha :)

the story behind it all is... mama benz asked me to meet up with THE Jason Magbanua last week so that he can interview me about W@Wsg and W@W-Kanchiu. i was thrilllleeedd (to say the least). i've always been a magbanua fan, unfortunately, he was way over our budget :( (but i still love threelogy mwahs!)

the video - which includes fellow wawies and nawies was shown last Jan 30 in Rockwell Cinemas. (sosyal ng lola benz and lolo john diba???) too bad i was not able to watch most of the videos. after phoeben's video, we had to leave coz i was not feeling well and i had to meet my family for dinner.

soooo i bugged mama benz to tell me once the video has been posted. and i watched it in facebook.

it was awesome. it rocked. it ruled. weeeee to quote ever lovable veluz... "aylavet!!!!" hihihi...

here's the link... hope you can watch it :) http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=52410595893

our laoag - vigan - pagudpud IT

2009-01-16T10:13:00.000+08:00

so far, these are the places i've listed down.... okay na ba to? suggestions are needed please! :)

Day 1: City Tour

Laoag City Museum
Fort Ilocandia
Sinking Bell Tower
Malacanang of the North
Paoay Church
Marcos Museum
#Empanada
#Carbonara pizza
# Sta. Monica Church in Sarrat
#Vigan -CALLE CRISOLOGO , Plaza Salcedo, Bantay, Plaza Burgos, Pinagburnayan,

Day 2: Tour on the way to Pagudpud

Cape Bojeador Lighthouse
Agua Grande / Paraiso ni Anton
Patapat Bridge
Pagudpud Beach
Bangui Windmills
Bantay Abot Cave
# Kabigan Falls
# La Paz Sand dunes

#are not part of the original tour IT, i just added them in.

ekshayted!

addicted...

2008-12-22T05:30:00.000+08:00

to bobbi brown cosmetics!

arggghhh.....

i've always been a huge fan of bobbi brown blushes (can't live without it... have at least 4 colors). converted my friend che to a bobbi brown blush fan as well hehe.

but when i tried their gel eyeliner, i got hooked with the brand (ayayay!!!) all over again. i was a bit apprehensive at first because i thought the gel eyeliner is difficult to use. but actually it's not! amazing! and the best thing about it is that it DOES NOT smudge! perfect hahaha. :p (goes well with benefit's "gee that was fast" makeup remover - loving this products sooo much as well)

so went on a makeup shopping spree for my bday / christmas gift. lui was nice enough to sit back and watch AND not say anything. (but he did tell me that my next makeup purchase should be in June na. hihi)

i love their products tlaga! from their brushes, blushes, eyeshadow, concealer, face base, eyeliner, shimmer brick and stick foundation!!! but i don't like their lipgloss still. too sticky. i think i'll stick with MAC :p

okay that's it. hehe. my pagiging makeup junkie just got the better of me. hehehe

Johor bahru + twilight movie = ???

2008-11-29T18:56:00.000+08:00

note: this is my own personal opinion. eveybody has one right? hehehe

so... i loved the book, but did i love the movie? hmmm...

oki a little background before i start my reviews on the movie:

last weekend, my singapore friendships decided to watch Twilight in Johor Bahru today - since the movie will not be shown until dec 18 in singapore, i thought why not - i havent been to JB anyway so it would be a good chance to visit and have a look see. so why not give it a try?

i will tell you why NOT- because a trip to JB can be your most horrible out of country trip evah! OMG. you know how im sooo into travelling and trying out new things right? but this trip, this trip is a different level altogether. today is just too much for me. i wanted to throw a tantrum at the JB checkpoint. we queued for what i thought was ages. i was in pure misery. it was so f*cking hot and there was no ventilation whatsoever. it was so crowded - which is really bad for a claustrophobic person like me - it was misery to the highest level. as in when i finally reached the 'finish line' i couldnt help but swear my heart out. "p*tang ina!!!!!!! p*tang ina talaga!!!!!!" sighs. how that experience made me APPRECIATE singapore better. sighs.

anyway, so we finally arrived at the mall (after 10 years). good thing there were still some decent seats for the 4:20pm movie (we originally booked for 1:40pm good thing we didnt have to pay for that coz we totally missed the movie argh talga)

(sorry had to just include the ranting bit coz it might have influenced my take on the movie)

okay so back to the movie. so... how did i find it?

good parts first:
bella was awfully pretty! i heart her :); her dad's character was awesome haha funny and added a bit of life to the movie; the cars were fab! how i wish i can get a RED mercedes convertible as well! (drool); i love the location. it gave the right amount of gloom - just like in the book; and the cullen's house was just beautiful! i never would have thought that it would be that fantastic! glass windows all over oh my god my ideal home!!!!

parts of the movie were so familiar that i couldnt help feel giddy. they tried to be as accurate to the book as possible.

bad parts:
some of the castings are off... edward seemed a bit gay (too much lipstick!!), and his eyes looked like it was about to pop out most of the time (a bit hard to look at actually. feels like looking at an owl); jasper was just too painful. OMG poor jasper. i thought he'd look tougher and more brooding, but all he looked like was a consitpated guy. panget tlaga. they didnt even say what his power was.; carlisle - he was just too white. period; jacob - oh my poor jacob. he looked a bit lost. how i wish they'd cut off all that hair!

there were also some parts of the book that they didnt include. i was looking forward to the how edward showed the effect of the sun to his skin to bella the first time. because i loved that part. it was too romantic. but the movie was so condensed that everything happened all at the same time (you'll see what i mean when you watch the movie). i also missed the part where edward hugged bella in bed the first time (while bella was sleeping) that was so sweet. but it wasnt as sweet in the movie.

there were scenes that i thought they could have removed instead (was a bit flat for me - or maybe that's just my exhaustion)

so what's MY verdict?

it's still a decent enough movie to watch. a bit of a chick flick. but i wouldnt recommend that you watch it in JB - it's just so not worth it.

too much HOUSE is bad for you

2008-11-22T17:12:00.000+08:00

that's it. no more house for me and lui (well maybe until we get over the trauma of today)

it all started when, after body combat and 30 mins in treadmill, i saw lui's shirt had blood on it! blood! oh my f-ing sh*t!!! he had blood at both sides of his front shirt and on the back as well. i was in total shock. i demanded that he rush to the locker and see what's bleeding...

the time i waited for him outside the locker room was sheer hell. my imagination was running wild. a specific episode of house - where the patient perspired blood- kept running through my head. ghad... it wasnt the best thing to think about but i just couldnt seem to help myself. (apparently lui thought of the same thing and it scared him to death!)

after some time (thanks lui for making me wait in agony) lui came out of the locker room with a pained look on his face... apparently the blood came from his nipples

ghak. nightmare talaga. i was in total shock and was a nervous wreck. we immediately aborted all plans of pushing some weights and headed home ASAP. on our way home we were thinking of every possible thing that can happen... (we even decided that lui will have to go back to the phils asap to have some more tests done) blame it on dr house. argh

so eventually we arrived at our doctor-next-door's clinic... (the laughing hienna - coz he laughs at every illness) so we were there and i started by telling him that we went to the gym earlier (he laughs) and we noticed that lui's nipple were bleeding (he laughs again). lui and i couldnt understand what was so funny... until he asked us "did you run on th treadmill?" we were like "yah..." and then you know what he did? yup he laughed again.

so what's the prognosis? apparently, nipple bleeding is a normal fiasco (if i may call it that) and it happens mostly to male runners. apparently too much friction will give you bloody nipples. arghh...

but im glad that we finally know what happened and that there's nothing internally wrong with lui. i really THANK GOD for that.

what a day... stress na nga weekdays... stress pa din weekend ko! tsk.

love you pa-b!!!

too much HOUSE is bad for you

2008-11-22T17:09:00.000+08:00

too much HOUSE is bad for you

2008-11-22T15:43:00.001+08:00

too much HOUSE is bad for you

2008-11-22T15:43:00.000+08:00

in search for the dress

2008-11-21T11:17:00.000+08:00

i just realized that you're lucky if you're invited to a wedding as part of the entourage. coz you dont need to worry about your dress! (except for the design of the dress na lang hahahaha)

you see... I am attending 3 weddings from december to may (not that i'm complaining ha) and im having problems finding the right dresses! 3 different dresses!!!

why 3? well aside from different kinds of weddings (one is a beach wedding!), two weddings have almost the same crowd (wont look good if i wear the same dress will it?). sighs. gastos!

niko and i are drawing plans where he would create a gown for me to wear to one of the weddings and re-create the same gown so that it will look different enough that i can wear to another wedding. gets nyo hahaha.... but we'll see how that goes.

oh well, at least im looking forward to shopping for a bora dress hehe

parokya is the best evah!!!

2008-10-26T20:03:00.000+08:00

just came back from parokya's concert here in singapore and i still have the best hang over (from too much parokya). all the way back from clarke quay i keep gushing about them to lui. i kept singing their songs and keep laughing at the same funny moment over and over. lol. lui thought i was drunk. but im not!!! i just have this adrenaline rush that i cant get rid of. they are sooooooo incredible! i loved every moment of it!!! plus it doesn't hurt that we got the best seats everrrr!! woot woot!!!

ill post the videos soon! sorry - not so good quality coz i used my e71 lang. cresta!!! post pics asap! lol

i must say it's the most sulit 50 bucks i ever spent!!!!

travel plans

2008-10-22T12:37:00.000+08:00

obviously, lui and i love to travel and we can't seem to stop coming up with places that we just HAVE TO visit :)

since we got together in 2005, so far, these are the places we've been to: (in no particular order)
1. puerto galera

2. nurture spa (tagaytay)

3. nasugbu batangas

4. villa escudero

5. xiamen - china

6. el nido - palawan

7. cebu

8. bohol

9. davao

10. hong kong

11. malacca - malaysia

12. singapore (where we are now)

13. bintan - indonesia

and the places we want to visit soon are:
1. australia: sydney, melbourne, gold coast etc - big bang for next year
2. boracay - going in december!
3. laoag / vigan / pagudpud - going for our anniversary :p
4. US - probably 2010 hehe
5. vietnam - 2008 pwede pa ba?? hmmm
6. cambodia
7. redang malaysia
8. camsur
9. thailand - phuket / bangkok
10. bali indonesia

and many many more... hay if only i can travel everyday!

cinderelly cinderelly

2008-10-20T18:29:00.000+08:00

im ecstatic!

cinderella is coming to sg!

im not excited about the play per se. im more excited to see my idol lea salonga on stage again! :) - the last time i watched her on stage was for the play "they're playing our song"

im really a HUGE FAN. i think i had watched aladdin and mulan (disney movies) for the nth time already - especially mulan!!

hayyyy cant wait for january!

oink

2008-10-07T05:40:00.000+08:00

these past few days, i've been salivating over lechon. yes lechon. wahhhh. this is bad. there is nowhere in singapore i can get my hands on lechon. sighs. i have to settle with pictures muna i guess. hehe.

this craving for lechon started last september, when my cousin charlie announced (through multiply) about their native lechon - LECHON SABROSO

and then, just like that, they were all over! mama benz was raving about the lechon - they even posted in weddings@work newsblog, it was discussed in newlyweds@work yahoogroup, and my mom is raving about it! hahaha.

apparently, Charlie sent a sampler to my mom's house and the rest is history. haha i got several text messages from my mom, as well as a call just to share with me her delight with the lechon lol. she said she'll definitely order soon :)

what struck me the most was what she said: "sana meron na sila lechon dati, para nung wedding mo, eto na lang hinanda natin"

o diva? i think mom is in love.

and im still salivating. :s i guess i have to wait till december to try this oh so famous lechon... i already ordered two pigs! :) haha one for noche buena and one for new year's eve. hihihi

reminiscing...

2008-10-06T18:47:00.000+08:00

earlier this evening, lui asked what were we doing this time last year. and it made me think and decide to go back memory lane :)

apparently, this time last year, i was defending my fabulous VELUZ gown. an anonymous person left a not so nice comment on my gown sketch. i didnt have to explain neither did i have to defend VELUZ but i wanted to :) coz no other bride loved their gown as much as I did. (including all of ms v's gown hehehe)

here's the link http://kendznilui.blogspot.com/2007/10/my-gown-sketch.html

(oh,dlsu won last year's uaap game. i totally forgot about that... but we lost to our archrival/nemesis this year. tsk)

+++++++++++++++

someone sent me an email earlier as well, she said that she read my entire blog and had fun reading my preps :) well, that's the main reason i made it as detailed as possible. i want people to share the fun that i went through during my preps and also, to have something to look back to in the future :)

++++++++++++++++

i had a nice good long chat with my bestfriend dave earlier. i sure miss him... i admit that i failed to show up or call my friends when im in the phils, but i intend to do better. kasi i miss all of them na :(

so you guys, i'll see you in december okay? :)

problem solved

2008-09-30T18:43:00.000+08:00

i havent been blogging lately coz my compaq died on me. yes it died. well not really... it just suddenly wont connect to the internet na - in addition to other problems. which reminds me - i need to visit the customer centre on sat. pfffttt...

but now my problem is solved, so happy days are here again! :)

watch out for pics on our little india trip, our chinatown exposure and of course, F1!!! (im a convert!!!)

tomorrow is a holiday! thank God! i need a break. i know it's only tuesday but i neeeeedddd a break! :p