separate ways

 

Chen, Joon, me, and Jae have all parted ways. Chen is back in Taiwan (moved to Taipei from his province), Jae is back in Korea, in his hometown, and Joon, the nomad, went back to Seoul for a month, back to Manila for a quick minute, before heading  to Sydney, Aus – for good.

Last fall, I visited Chen in Taipei and Taichung

night market in chen’s hometown. what a dick, haha!

It was my first time in Taiwan and the flight was HORRIBLE. Altho Philippine Airlines was a pleasant surprise, turbulence was just crazy. I was dizzy the whole day and almost asked the attendant for vallium and a shot of anything (and everything) they could find.

J left Manila in winter, later January. He didnt want any fuss as he doesnt really want to go (i suppose). I was in shock when i found out he had already left Manila – for good. Joon was also going back and forth Korea as his college buds are getting married and he is already contemplating on moving to Sydney. So spring came and so did i (that sounds nasty). Flew to Seoul with my family (its ok as long as i get to freeload on my parents, haha). Joon went with us to Korea and just basically hang out with us (he’s family already, haha), showed us around. J was acting like a VIP so we had to go and fetch him up at his hometown (Suwon) and bring him to Seoul. and in typical korean fashion, we were, i mean, i was drunk every night.

i miss you guys. and yeah, i dyed my hair.

Joon stayed behind, and a month after, went back to Manila to wrap things up before heading to Sydney (only to come back a few days later because of some nasty scandal which deserves another post). I miss you guys. except for Chen as he always visit here, he was here just last July with the usual suspects. That was a riot.

Im probably getting burned out from work thats why im doing this reminisce shit. too stressfull. specially next week. im transferred to the prime hours – meaning I get to open AND close the market. no more Asian markets for me. only angry, stressed out, scared white boys worried about their investments.

 

 

wino forever

been meaning to go back to this page and write again but was just way too lazy to do so. what made me go back and revisit this site? seeing photos of my one greatest love story. i was so happy when johnny and vanessa broke up. no offense, i like vanessa, she seems like a nice girl (but not the boring nice ones), but winona is my one true love. i mean depp’s one true love.

this is my romeo & juliet, jack & rose,  my love story.

 

winona forever

we broke up

 

photo creds: http://www.desicomments.com/hearts/broken-heart-2/

we broke up exactly a month after we celebrated our anniversary.

i actually saw it coming and was honestly waiting for it…but the moment it hits you is different.

its like getting hit by a car ; you saw it coming, you know its going to hit you whether you move or not, and yet you still get shocked when it hits you. all in all, i’d say it was a good break up (like i have a lot, haha)…so this is how adults do it, huh?

all im taking are good memories (which we have a ton of!)

and if in the future we meet again, i’d smile and give you a hug. like old friends do

lost and found and shopping fail

Last year, Levi’s sent me a really cool ID tag. I thought i lost it until I found it yesterday buried among a pile of papers and mails

instinct tells me to get up and get dressed and head to the mall. it was already sunday 3pm and last time i went out of the house was 10am – saturday – when i got home from bfast with my coworkers. i was too lazy to get my ass off the bed when my phone rang and it was ryan calling me to get my ass off the bed because he’s in taft waiting for his sister and i thought, WTF?! i thought your sister graduated already, our sisters are batchmates! well, suprisingly, there were 5 of them, hehe…anyway, so i met him at holly’s cafe and had my first meal of the day, err… my first food in 30hrs = red velvet cake (DAMN GOOD!!!)

so after we met, went home and decided. THIS IS IT, im heading to the mall, get myself 2 pairs of Levi’s, a Tado X Gola flipflops, and shaving paraphernalia.

Let’s just say when i got to the mall, i forgot why i went there and went home with this:

i was supposed to go home with 2 pairs of Nike’s but for some unknown reason pair after pair, they dont have my size! only one was in my size  (thank god tho)

and a L’oreal ADS moisturizing fluid. What irks me the most is that, its already freakin beside the shaving stuff and yet i FORGOT to get the thing! i blame that bitch last week who said my my skin is too dry and sensitive and that i should take care of the dark pimple marks i have. uhm, yeah…

and when i got home, i just realized, CRAP! what happened to my jeans!  WTF are these things that im holding? *sigh i never learn.

so i went to my, uhm, cabinet to look for stuff since i always complain that i keep wearing the same thing over and over again even tho i have lots of other stuff, most even have tags on ’em! lo and behold, under a sea of unworn shirts (w/ tags still on them), i found this sole pair of jeans:

UNIQLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!  i almost forgot about this!  i got this thing almost a year ago in tokyo! DAMN!

i still want to buy a new pair of jeans tho 🙂

 

dip it low – your weight, that is

so my weight soared (more like DIPPED) to new heights. I got food poisoning from an egg salad a few weeks ago and i keep either shitting or throwing up every time i put food in my mouth, which then conditioned my brain to not feel hungry for fear of shitting myself. For the first two days, I barely ate anything. I just ate light breakfast on the first day then it was shithell for me. on my second day, i just survived on redbull, pocari sweat, and vitamins. on my third day, i was able to eat little dinner. fourth day, just dinner again. My appetite was on an extended vacation. I was starting to worry when i noticed one thing:

my abs decided to pay me a visit! you couldnt really see much (thanks to my wonderful phone cam) but DAMN! my stomach was flat like Marian’s acting! I didnt know if i should be happy or worried! i havent seen him in ages, and here he is now, paying me a visit!

and of course, just like before, the more i lose weight, the more i wanted to buy/wear XL clothes… i dont really know why

     

this one’s very lose, i just bunched it at the back

and yes, i have a thing for wearing loose or over-sized shirts… one time chen asked me why i keep on wearing shirts at least 2 sizes too big, and i couldnt really answer him. i do have some nice fitting shirts,  i just like wearing big ones! thats my style! but its not true for jeans tho. i like my jeans snug and nice fitting, specially around the ass. i think its one of my best assets, haha! i always gets complimented for it shishhhhhhhh,….

and now, i dont know what to do. forcefully stuff my face with big servings of greasy fatty foods (which wasnt really doing anything for me anymore), or embrace my long lost friend and werq that thang? ah decisions, decisions…

P.S. i made the egg salad.

Manila streets as seen from my phone

theres no doubt about it, i love Manila.. and would love it even more if it was CLEAN and has big sidewalks and efficient Mass Rail Transit… although most of the pics here are in Makati, still part of Metro Manila tho. Makati might be nice and pretty, same as Fort Boni, but one thing it doesnt have (unlike Manila) is character. Makati/Fort is too cookie-cutter-ish. If you walk around Manila, you will feel its history, how it evolved to what it is today – dirty, gritty, but AWESOME.

Paseo de Roxas ave

ayala ave

Roxas boulevard (ft Joon)

Vito Cruz (my hood)

rockwell (i hated this 'hood)

rockwell *i hated this neighborhood pt2

Sta. Mesa! (Chinatown area)

ayala station saturday afternoon

Salcedo Village aka Chen's hood

makati ave @ 5am(?) - not w/ my phone

makati ave/de la rosa (from ayala museum lobby)

nothingness

and finally, makati skyline… Manila has some good skyline (from roxas blvd) but to get a good one, you need to be on a yatch in the bay. I also haven’t seen the manila skyline from Makati or other parts of the Metro

makati skyline (view from Vito Cruz)

the way we were

here we are during the long weekend. a few years ago, i was here almost every weekend, but now, i just go here once a year.  things have changed, and i am going to miss this. we are selling our property here and by the looks of it, it might get sold by the end of the year.

Anyway, went with my 2 best buddies, Joon & Chen. Chen  & parents met each other for the first time, while Joon, of course, is a regular fixture in our house.

*I feel little rush of emotion while typing this:

What made me even happier is that my dad is ok now. no sign of relapse, oddities, anxiety, etc. and as far as i know, he already stopped taking his medications. I didnt even have to ask my mom, it was really obvious. he was very “alive”, chatting lively with Chen and Joon. He even asked why Joon was not “himself” . I just told him Joon is very tired, and hasnt had a bit of sleep. He drove us all to San Juan, and my mom tagged along .

and this is what we had for “dinner”: chocolate, breadpan, house favorite “Tanduay Ice” (Joon calls it white beer), and our new discovery, Boracay Rum – coconut flavor. it smells HEAVENLY, ohmygod, i can smell it all day. THATS ABOUT IT. no comment about the taste. its too strong for us.

howd you like my new haircut? i cut it myself 🙂

Anyway, i wish JaMasterJae was here.  we could use a little naiveness around, haha! He had an ear operation last week and he’s now recovering. he needs some more weekly treatment and no airplanes for at least 3 months, so that means he wont be in manila for about 4 months. sucks. get well soon master!

Mirror, mirror in my dream

Last night, I had a nasty dream. I was in front of a mirror and my reflection told me

“you will never amount to anything……”

its all too real for me. it hit close to home. and looking at my present situation… i cant help but maybe agree. When I was 20, i had this urge to quit school and just go volunteer in africa. that time i thought i will never be anything great and it was the only way for me to redeem myself. it was fueled more when i met this classmate who grew up in africa. her parents were volunteers there and she was shocked to find out what i wanted to do. she shook my hand because she said she never met anyone (rather, any young filipino) who wanted to do that. that, and i should learn french as it is widely used in africa. i lost contact with her, and forgot about my dream. now im thinking i shouldve just hopped on a plane to africa and followed my dream. i might be someone great now.

To Joey,

Wherever you are, I cant even remember your full name, I think your last name starts with R and its hard to pronounce. Sorry I cant really remember, but I still know how you look like. You and your funny theater prod gang. Funny thing I remember all their full names, except yours. Anyway, I wish I could’ve done what your parents did. The stories (and scandals) about UNICEF and UN employees you confided with me, the realities you’ve witnessed. I remember it all.  How funny it is that a happy-go-lucky guy like me once thought about doing those kind of things?

Hope to bump into you one of this days.

too school for cool

i saw this article and thought it was cool.

i had a boss before who would often say “where is this guy from? where did he study? can you make a list of all the employees and include their school? can you make a database of all the applicants and include their school so what when we check, we can sort which came from this school?”

I would CRINGE every time she would say that. i mean, lady you didnt even graduate from UP or The Arrheneo OR DLSU! not even UST! I never “look” at school, I check courses, but not school! I may come from a “stupid” school, i know its reputation, and i am not ashamed to have graduated from it. uh…. thats it.

anyway,

some artsy fashionable guy is the blogger. pretty cool guy. wish i was that cool when i was in college….

hmmmm, OK! wish i was that cool.

http://flat20a.blogspot.com/2011/04/whatcrapisit.html

chchcheck it out. funny read 🙂

will help you if you are deciding which school to go to, haha

new book, big fire, and failed attempt at wearing Arena

Chen was in town and so we met up  during the weekend. The schedule was to go have a drink in Malate, run a few miles on sunday morning, then roast under the sun after. The Malate trip didnt push through and  Joon was too busy with work that he was a tired mess so we just let him be – and yes, he has work on a Saturday – 12 hour work day.

Sunday morning, we were just too lazy to get up at 5am… or 6… or 7…. or 9am. we made breakfast and by the time we were ready to sunbathe, it was almost 12pm.

the 12 o’clock sun is upon us! wrinkles see you in a few years!

happy camper 🙂

Tip of the day:

Always wear skimpy Speedos under your boardshorts to prevent any waldrobe malfunction. you never know when someone will pull your shorts down or when it will decide to just  run away.

Why does it have to be skimpy? Well, for the simple fact that it doesnt leave any traces. You see, if you wear tighty whites under your board shorts? NOT COOL. a regular trunk would leave a “mark” and would drag too much. while skimpy tight speedo? as if nothings there! its like youre daring someone to pull your pants down only to find theres the MTRCB underneath.

Personally, I wouldnt be caught dead wearing (skimpy) Speedos in public but this was a special case. You see, I was planning on using my running shorts for swimming but then i realized, i forgot to bring a belt and the jeans that i had on was really sagging hard (no to sagging pants!) it wasnt sagging, it was literally falling off! it wouldnt hold on its own! so I decided, I will just use my running shorts going home or to run around with Chen, and since it was just me and Chen, I’d just use my skimpy suit to swim.

Bad call because the same night, this was posted on my Facebook:

oh crap!

I was fockin betrayed!

I thought I had it good when I took a picture of Chen marinating under the sun, but i was beaten

well this sucks… I’ll just get hime next time!

So anyway, I got myself 2 new books yesterday

and this one which i thought was really cool

Just short reads, just the way I like it 🙂

–

And speaking of burning under the sun, earlier today, there was this major fire in Guadalupe. You can see big black smokes in Rockwell

I even saw Chinatown firetrucks!  Hope nobody got hurt. News report said it started from a rice cooker. a rice cooker. WTF?!

So everyone take care, specially nobody’s going to be home this holyweek

PS.

You know how much I fantasize being a japanese guy? part of it is being able to pull off arena swimwear! i dont know how this people can pull this off! i mean, if Speedo is for Europeans, Arena is definitely Japanese, and the Japanese wears these banana hammocks 1000000000000% better than any other race. No matter how skimpy it is, it doesnt look gay if a Japanese wears it. That is talent.