Weekend Shopping List

Yehey... I'm finally spending a full weekend in Manila this coming weekend. The period of my life known as Re.S.P.O.D. (The Refinery Shutdown plus Other Duties) is officially over.

Shopping list:

1. Civilizations IV - PC game
2. RF Online - Disc
3. Gym shorts
4. Board shorts for the beach
5. Linen shorts for the beach
6. a new book to read from Powerbooks
7. new socks and "tighty-whities"
8. healthy snacks
9. gold leaf green tea
10. a wedding gift for Kira and Tadashi

Probably I'll treat my family to Super Bowl of China on saturday night for dinner. Post-birthday celebration and get updated on what I've missed so far from the clan's grapevine.

According to the Signs

... I should consider to be an actor, charity worker, chemist, designer, photographer, poet, secret agent, shoe repairer, shoe maker, social worker, spriritualist or window dresser. [Definitely I want to be a secret agent!]

... I can be everything my woman wants me to be -- or everything else she does not want me to be.

... It is difficult for me to let go of my dreams, so I try to work out a nice compromise.

... In relationships, giving is paramount in my mind, yet sometimes I risk giving too much, thanks to my selfless nature.

... I appreciate art.

... When I am hurt, I do not show it but am depressed all the same.

... I am not hesitant of going for the old-fashioned serenade routine.

... I am stylish, but I need to look at my feet and indulge in a pedicure.

... Money comes easy to me.

... I simply cannot say no when someone asks me for money, yet I never keep track of where it went! (Well, that really depends...)

Whoever or whatever mystic entity guided the writer of this year's Zodiac guide must really know what it's doing... or saying.

The above are excerpts of "Recognise the Signs" for the Piscean. Thanks to Carmela (a fellow Piscean) for providing me a copy. :D

Other Pisceans in my circle include Carmela, RG, Papi Honds, Kaye, Vanessa, Jayjay and Chie.

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OUCH! I got to listen to a catchy tune yesterday. To my horror, the song's theme is exactly how I feel about a certain someone. But anyway, I still bought a CD of it. It's now on my iPod's playlist.

"I've waited all my life to cross this line to the only thing that's true. So I will not hide it's time to try anything be with you. All my life I've waited... this is true."

To all those sentimental guys and girls out there, get yourselves a copy of "You're Beautiful -- a collection of acoustic love songs".

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I need to be at a beach really SOON or otherwise I'll freak out. Summer is too precious to just let it pass by.

So tentatively, I'll be planning a trip to Boracay or Camiguin by myself after Holy Week and probably a side trip to Cebu to see my denstist, meet a friend and go wall-climbing. Potentially, I might also find myself doing some house-painting activities for a female friend while I'm there.

Of Ladders, Cakes, Drinks and Gossip

In my personal hilarious involvement with what we all know to be "My Mortal Life", I have just ended my 26th year of existence and moving sluggishly with my 27th.

Or for those who can't appreciate a literary approach with declaring that one has just celebrated his 27th birthday, I JUST TURNED 27 a few days ago.

Hahaha...

I really felt like a loser on my birthdate for various reasons: (1) I had to work on that night; (2) there was too much work that night; and (3) because I was too tired after work, I opted to sleep the remainder of the day. I had to climb so may vertical ladders to go inspect this column or check out that fin-fan heat exchanger or crawl into a manhole and get all grimey with sludge and oil. My work for that period has the physical equivalent of my whole weekly gym program compressed into 12 hours.



If only I had the powers that I so often fantasize about every time I played a Final Fantasy game, I would have casted a "Sleep" spell on the whole refinery so I can celebrate my birthday with decency. Let the refinery sleep so Stip can party! Wahahaha...

Even if my hectic work schedule is conspiring against the social animal that I am, I still made it a point to welcome my birthday outside my workplace. Had dinner at Red Crab (in ATC) with a selection of my workmates. Sumptuous food and cold beer with great people -- it felt so great to be in a civilized and stress-free atmosphere. And I get to blow my first birthday 'cake' for my 27th year celebration.



A few days later on a Friday night (despite the fact that I have work at 6 am the following day back at the refinery), I travelled to Manila to celebrate it with friends at East of St Louis bar in The Fort Strip. I invited the week-end-warriors group, TMS, officemates and college friends. We bantered, hollered, guffawed and smiled here-and-there. Nuks... I felt like I'm NOT a geek. It was also a great occassion to touch base with some of my friends whom last I've seen were last Christmas (topics ranged from wedding bells to the latest syoting to the next game).



One of my friends (Niks) also had to entertain some of his office guests that night and decided to bring them over to the same place. It turns out that his Chicago roommate is a schoolmate of mine way back in college. Six years have passed and it's surprising that both of us are still familiar with each other's names and faces.



As I do have to go to work at 6 am, I had to say goodbye at around 1 am because I still have to drive back to Batangas. This is the best goodbye scene I've ever been in. Hehehehe...



Thanks guys and girls. Great people, great party!

Only two persons could have made the occasion better but both have prior commitments to attend to. Anyway, they did promise to make it up to me . :D

See you on my party next year, that is if I'm not married yet. Bwahahahaaha.

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postscript:

In an informal poll, 10 out of 11 people believed that Chie will get married before Syo. And that Jayjay and Annelle will make an announcement soon. And that Marijo is nearing the deadline to snag a boyfriend.

Mushy Message

Errr... a past acquaintance of mine literally made me jump out of my bed very early this morning with this message. It's half-and-half that I found it amusing and surprising. I think I blushed when I read that message.

"I had you once but I let you slipped away from me. I called on you but you just smiled and walked further. I shouted I LOVE YOU but you were already too far to hear me."

I had a 'short' interest on the sender before but I was too torpe back then.

What made me laugh was another SMS a couple of minutes later:

"Hi stephen! Wrong send ako earlier."

I called her up, made some small talk, laughed a lot, and finally hung up. Apparently, the message was sent to her by one of her current suitors and she was forwarding it to her best friend Stef. Instead of forwarding it to Stef, she sent it to me by mistake.

We promised to have dinner together sometime in the future to catch up on each other.

Fate seems to be toying with me today. :D

Bakasyon Rewind

Currently on night-shift, so I'm using this blog-post to de-stress. :D

Memorable bakasyon moments, in no particular order:

1. "Open your mouth", sabi ni Thai-girl sa 'kin from the makeshift stage. May balak siyang i-shoot yata sa bibig ko yung saging na i-la-launch niya from her *toot*toot* as part of the SHOW. Naturally I kept my mouth firmly shut while the rest of my friends had their mouths wide open from laughing too hard. [Phuket/Bangkok trip - July 2005]

2. Glenn tulog. Tapos biglang napaupo sa hinihigaan and goes "Ehek-ehek-ehm-ehek-cough-kaf..." na akala mo nakalulon ng butiki habang natutulog. [Re-enactment by Richard]. [Bantayan-Bohol vacation - May 2004]

3. How I forgot our cottage number in Puerto Azul and thought that "this cottage must be it" and opened the door, and how I stumbled upon a naked couple on the couch, and how I said "Oooops...". [Puerto Azul - summer 1994]

4. Gotten stranded for two days at HKIAirport because Cathay Pacific went on a blitz strike. At least I got to use their VIP lounge (it's got a damn jacuzzi!). [Hanoi, Vietnam - October 1998]

5. Finding myself asleep on top of a rock about 15 meters away from the shoreline after a drinking session with Quito the previous night. [Nasugbu - August 1996]

6. Bungee jumped from 230 feet. So that's how it feels to be very near death. [Phuket - July 2005]

7. Two names: Maria (Canadian-Chinese) and Angela (from Alaska). My firsthand experience on confirming that Westerners are fairly 'liberated' people. [Big Bear Lake, California - July 1997]

8. First banana boat ride wipe-out = swallowing a lot of seawater = vomiting in the middle of the sea. Uwwwaaaakkkk.... [Boracay - May 2003]

9. "Polar bear" swim. Swam for 10 minutes in 6 deg C weather. Brrrrr... [Alaska - July 1998]

10. Vandal-writing "I was here -- S.M.C." at the northenmost base leg of the Eiffel tower. Hahaha... I asked a friend of mine to check it on his trip a year later but he reported back that it was clean (apparently, it gets cleaned once-a-year). [Eurotour - November 1999]

Kaleidoscope Saturday

I had a kaleidoscope-type Saturday night. It's been a month since I last stayed in Manila for more than 12 hours.

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Rumor Mill: According to some sources, a certain female friend of mine has a new guy in tow. Moreover, people are thinking that they are already an 'item'. And to think that I've seen the two of them together two or three times already but I dismissed it as purely a 'barkada' relationship. Some photos are out there in the web and some of my friends thought that I was that guy. :D

People around are waiting for the 'official' announcement.

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I hooked up with Chard at Ortigas Home Depot for a bike/car show at 11 pm, just in time for the awarding ceremonies. Chard entered his Honda Jazz in the 600-something-something-yada-yada-watts-or-higher Car Audio category. I never really appreciated car modifications even for sound system upgrades.

It was a first of several sorts for me: (1) attending a car show competition (2) knowing actually somebody in the show with an entry and (3) being mistaken for one of the car owners with an official entry.

It was an interesting experience because of an interesting crowd. Car enthusiasts are human din pala! I had this predisposition that car enthusiasts are either super-rich coño looking guys and spoiled bodacious ladies. But I learned, felt, touched and smelled that they are no different from you or me. No need to be intimidated by them! I've made friends (better term = FUTURE CONTACTS) with a number of them.

Chard won first place in his category (for his 50k something sound system, winning over another audio set-up that reportedly costed the owner about 200k).

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RE-ACQUAINTED: At around 1 am, our small group (Chard, Roms, myself and Chard's car-show friends) celebrated Chard's win at nearby PierOne. We took a table at the second floor.

Just behind our table were two girls and guy. Chard recognized one of them and went to their table. Small chit-chat. Then he called me to their table.

"Stip, remember Crista?"

Holy shit. Admittedly, I was caught off-guard. When we got back to our table, kawawa ako kay Chard and Roms.

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MR HITCH: Among myself, Roms and Chard, part of the night was spent discussing how to make 'diskarte' to our respective potential girls. If we were animals, Chard's an aggressive carnivore, Roms is a docile herbivore and I'm a whatever-behavior-is-appropriate-omnivore.

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And without knowing it, I consumed five and a half bottles of beer that night. Hehehe... was tipsy on the way home night. I had to drive really slow... all the streetlights and rearlights of the vehicles passing me by had a kaleidoscope effect on me.

Batman Alone

This is what Batman does in the batcave to keep his reflexes sharp for his martial arts moves. Wahahaha...