Hail to my personal favorite quartets!

IL DIVO


F4


The beatles!


98 Degrees (I remember watching you guys live in Manila!)


Hey! Thanks for the pic of F4.

My Birthday Wishlists

Camille Bloch chocolates
--The best thing is when they put liquor on it. I first had a try of Blochs when I was a kid and started loving it. It's a hard-find. Swiss chocolates have always been creamy, not too sweet and very smooth to swallow. The taste lingers like heaven. My second favorite is Lyndt. Godiva, Cadbury and Ferrero Rocher share the 3rd spot. That's it. Hershey's and Sees??? Come on...Give me a break!

Lacoste tennis shirts
--I admire the simplicity and it suits my preppy personality. I swear, I can wear it even when I'm old and gray. It doesn't go out of style--very basic. Some tennis shirts are so thick like RL and Eddie Bauer. I want Lacoste's material better. Off: Gin Tonic clothing apparel from Germany ist gutte too.

Books
--It's an addiction especially self-help books. I can live without a television. I love Architecture and travel books.

Johnny Walker BLUE LABEL
--I just want to know why the Former President of the Philippines was so addicted to it. What the heck?

My list of two most beautiful Filipinos for 2005

Donita


TJ

To Rissa, Nobel, Iynah, Kris, Kat, Cathy and Philip

Merry Christmas to you guys. Missed you soooooo much.

All I want for Christmas is chocolate covered cherries. I dreamt of it last night. Now you know.

As it gets fader through the years

When I was still a kid in our small town in the Philippines, Christmas is something that I really look forward to every year. No matter how meager my allowance was, I would go shopping for my grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, auntie and big sis and watch them open my gifts under our plastic Christmas tree after going to church in the early morning of Dec. 25. It's a nice practice that all of us were just literally exchanging our gifts since we buy gifts for each family member. That's the fun of it. Isn't it? I would often await what Santa would give me and that made me awake the whole night of Christmas eve to spy for him whom I later found out to be my parents sneaking out when we're soundly sleeping. I would recall writing Santa Claus or Nikolaus or Father Christmas of my wishlists. I wouldn't care how expensive the gifts so long as I have been a good kid (at home and school). One time, I asked for a train where I can sit down and ride. I got influenced by the movie Annie and her toys after her reunion with her family. Instead of the train, I got a robot, a small robot that I could grab my hands on. If I were not mistaken, this was the time of Transformers or Voltes 5. But anyhow, that fantasy ended after I punched a playmate and gave him a shiner for squealing who the real Santa was. Disappointed as I was, I rushed to my dad and confronted him. And finally, that playmate was right. My make believed world with my Santa Claus was over from then on. Christmas was made more fun with our Christmas carols. We would sing Christmas songs from each house and in return residents/friends would give us candies or cash(coins most of the time). Yes, I guess it's the our local version of trick or treat only that it was done on the Yuletide season. We would sometimes earn Php 200 in one night (eq. to $4) and divide the cash or candies among the 5 of us. It's rigorous, the rehearsals and performance that is. Next day, I won't have a voice anymore producing that guttural sound like cookie monster. I would chuckle and grin in silence how we would compete with other kids by singing English Christmas Songs--those popularized by the Jackson 5 are on the top of our chart. hehe. Sometimes, we would scare ourselves of some unoccupied old colonial houses, sing some lines in front of it and scamper(at the count of 3!) after the bark or howling of dogs as they chased us. We were kids, about 7 or 8 yo, I reckon. Yes, ghosts stories are famous in our town. I won't forget the times when all of my childhood friends would come home from Manila to celebrate Christmas with their families in the province. I was one of the returnees. For us, Christmas is about family. But when my grandparents died, I missed the times of choosing, buying and giving gifts to them. That lead to fewer reasons to celebrate Christmas. The two empty seats in the "Noche Buena"(a Filipino tradition adapted from the Spanish conquistadors meaning...the dinner banquet at 12 midnight of dec. 25) table, the cash gifts that I receive are nothing but a memory. Now that I am away from my family, friends and country, I guess there is no reason to celebrate Christmas. I do not discount that it's the birthday of the Messiah, the one who offered his life for us. But those "accessories" that come with my every Christmas are missing. Or is it me, who's missing?

An ordinary day

I rushed to beat the morning traffic to be on time for my appointment at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. It's kinda huge campus. Suddenly I had a feeling of nostalgia for my old university, the oldest in Asia: The University of Santo Tomas where you have a community inside the campus--dorms, hospital, post office, bank, football field, gym, church...awww..I can't get enough of it. Moving on, it was very motivating to hear from the Nursing Department Administrator that they would want me to be in their program(after looking on my grades, I guess). She sounded as if she was bribing me to join them. UH Manoa has an 18th month program for Nursing students who previously had their Bachelor's degree(of any field) completed. The only thing that pissed me off was I got a parking ticket and had to pay 15 bucks. I was really in a hurry and wasn't able to care about where to park. That was the last thing in my mind, the least priority, the dust of the day.

Karaoke night with my friends

Fall Semester is over!

I just finished my finals tonight and I was already smiling as soon as I walked out the door. I feel free from my daily obligations of endless reading. It's time to take a breather for 3 weeks(or less).

Chronicles of Narnia

After my final exam this afternoon, I headed to the movie theater, stood in line to watch the first day showing of the movie: Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

As I was growing up, I have watched Willows, The Never Ending Story 1&2, The Labyrinthe, and the most recent Harry Potter. I would say that of all these fantasy movies I was drawn by the every captured emotion of Narnia.

True, there is a subliminal resemblance between this movie and the life of Jesus Christ. I wasn't surprise when my Catholic Church had a bookfair and sold out a lot of Narnia books.

But hey, after the movie, it left a warm reception of appreciation from the audience.

Jasmine Trias

I went to church last Sunday in Mililani and Jasmine Trias was sitting right beside me. Plain and Simple.