We love Bugis!

This is me being weird in Liang Seah street...

What used to be renowned for nightly gathering of transgendered women, is now a tourist haven. Vesak day was spent traipsing around Bugis area where there are lots of places to keep busy. I had a Friday off so Michael got himself a 4 day vacation to visit me. It was less than a week when he decided to do so, that left me immediately hunting for a good hotel to stay at. Not too cheap, not too expensive, and should be right in the city. Bugis was the first that google suggested to me and it sounded promising, so I immediately went off to the city to check the place out. I immediately feel in love with the place. It had the same vibe as Mongkok, reminiscent of our HK trip late last year. Lots of places to shop, things to look at, food to eat... there was a big mall (Bugis Junction), a night market (New Bugis street), and a street chok full of quaint little restaurants (Liang Seah).

Photobooth!

Uso pa pala ang photobooth?

I found a new hobby... shopping!

Err ok thats not really a new hobby. More like a long-time addiction of mine. How about I rephrase it as scavenger-hunt-bargain to copy celebrity looks?

Its pretty boring here in Singapore so I find myself strolling around malls often. I've improved now such that I'm able to stay away from buying from actual shops inside the mall, but every so often I come across tiangge stalls. Stuff there are dirt cheap, it's like I'll just have to skip 2 meals and I can already buy an outfit.

Here's one for example. Isla Fisher's shopaholic poster look. Replicated with a SGD10 shirt/dress from Tampines Mall. To tone down the severity of the look such that I can go out of the house without looking too costume-y, I ditched the knee high socks and replaced the red shoes and black belt with white ones. I also put on a miniskirt underneath (I hate the i-think-you-forgot-your-pants-look)

Red shirt - Tampines Mall SGD 10

Black pleated mini skirt - H&M HK$ 30

White pumps - Matthews Php1900

White belt - Market Market Php100

Boracay!

One last hurrah before I leave... 4 days of r&r with Michael! This was his anniv gift / time-alone-before-send-off for me.

LESSONS LEARNED:
1) Book your flight going to/from CATICLAN instead of KALIBO. We got them mixed up so we ended up sitting through the 2 hour bus ride from Kalibo to Caticlan. This ate up some of our precious beach time.

2) Food sold inside the domestic airport terminal is not only terribly expensive, its terribly yucky! If your plane leaves on a weird time such during breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and like me you can not and will not miss meals, grabe some takeout from Jollibee. It's just right across the domestic airport. Canteen-style food (think turo turo meals) are sold at roughly 170 pesos inside the terminal... no drinks yet!

3) IMO Station 1 is the best place to stay. Its much quieter than other stations, less number of annoying peddlers. A wide beach area where you can play volleyball, frisbee, or sunbathe. No boats parked on the shoreline. Sand is whiter and cleaner. The only downside is the looong walk if you want to visit the other stations.

4) Get good shades. Don't buy the cheap ones that do not reflect the light back out. 2 main reasons - first is the UV protection. Second is that if you don't get good shades, when you do people-watching (hey its bora) they can see you looking at them.

5) Bring credit card. We ordered lobsters, mistaking the price of 2500 per kilo as 250 per kilo. When the bill came we were like WHOOOA!!! It was yummy though. Michael asked me if I thoroughly enjoyed it. I nodded (not being able to talk with my mouth full). He smiled and then said that I was worth it after all.

Does God have a plan?

Have you ever wondered what God really wants from you? I do. Right now.

What's God's plan for me?
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).

So God knows his plan for me, how do I know about it?

"When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth...and he will tell you what is yet to come" (John 16:13). So the key to knowing God's will is to be obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit of truth. If you are willing to trust and obey God and live a holy life, God will reveal Himself to you and direct your steps as a way of life.

What if you do something against God's plans, will everything go haywire? Can once screw up God's plans?
The prophet Micah (also in the Bible) stated that the reason people go astray is that they do not understand God’s thoughts and plans (Micah 4:12). Job recognized that God did have a plan for him and acknowledged that God’s plans cannot be thwarted (Job 42:2).

Manila, Manila

Annie is loving manila weather right now. Every morning I wake up from the soft light streaming from my window. Its chilly-breezy with a hint of warmth. It's a sign for me to get my ass off my bed and have breakfast. The sun would shine brightly late in the morning to early afternoon. I'd usually take a nap around this time (yes, buhay baboy). After a few hours around 4-ish, winds will steadily blow. By this time I'd open the windows, wrap myself in a light blanket, and snuggle in my bed with a good book. It would start to get chilly around 7pm when sun has set. By 9pm winds would be blowing really hard that I'd have to to close some of my windows (to keep my stuff near them from being knocked over). Past 12 it would be super chilly.

How I love december manila weather! Dreading going back to the chilly winter weather when I'd rather starve myself inside the house than brave the stinging cold outdoors to get some food.

Impromptu Trip!

The funny thing was, we was supposed to go to China during the long weekend. October 31, we woke up to a very very gloomy day. No, let me rephrase that... we only half-slept because of the howling winds. That morning Santi decided to make its landfall. PAL then decided to cancel all its outbound flights. Still very hopeful we could catch an afternoon flight to Xiamen, we went to the airport anyway. PAL ticketing office was jampacked with distraught people who were anxious to get their rebookings/refunds. I got in line for rebooking, but when I finally got to the counter the guy says that my ticket was not valid for rebooking, but valid for a refund (wah???). A new booking to anywhere in Asia costs around 50k per person (a bigger wahh???). I huffed and puffed complaining that it was unfair, other airplanes took off in spite of the storm (storm had very well ended come our supposed flight schedule, PAL was just a scaredly cat).

I went over to JM and suggested we go home and call it a loss. His sulky face made me think twice. I suddenly remember how we were talking about taking an impromptu trip, the kind where we just go to the airport and let fate take us to anywhere. Not much convincing was needed, elbowed our way to the ticketing booth and cooly said "When's the next flight to... well, anywhere?". In a couple of hours we were sitting on plane, off to see the the asian Mickey Mouse!

Fast-forward a few more hours. It's 10.30pm we are roaming the streets of Mongkok, looking for a place to stay. Armed only with the HK-guide Dharil sent to me few months ago... we were viewing it in softcopy with JM's N97. All we had was the name of the place "Dragon Hostel", a vague address with no directions, and my broken mandarin. Heaven knows what would have happened to us if we arrived in there and then realized there are no rooms available -- but luckily that did not happen. After checking in, we started scouring the streets of Mongkok for a very late dinner.

The next day we got to know the Mongkok street life by eating, shopping, taking pictures!

Mongkok Streetlife


OMG the food!!!

One of the to-do's in my checklist is to actually stay in HK Disneyland. Well... CHECK! =) Very expensive, but after couple of days we were walking around Mongkok it was worth the relaxation. The room was large, cozy, and filled with hidden-mickeys. The exterior was just as amazing.





Chef Mickey was on a promotion, we loved it so much we ate there for dinner and for breakfast. Eat-all-you-can salmon, steak, shrimp, shaolongpao... yum!!!

Because it was impromptu, we ended up spending probably twice the amount but it was well worth the experience... never to be repeated again, however!

Another long weekend entry. Spent it watching movies.

UP -
District 9 -
Obsessed -

Funny how I never watched movies much before, now it's like a regular weekly thing (well, funny how I never go to concerts before and now I'll be head-banging with scary people... trash metal... err I mean thrash metal of all kinds of music!)

I also spent some time preparing for my high-school-musical kiddie party event. Went to 168 to buy some gift bag goodies and I was astounded... it was like a HSM haven!!! They've got everything there - loot bags, stickers, tattoos, bags, colored hair spray, tumblers... I even bought a blonde wig ala-Sharpay.




Oh and I didn't know about the paper I was supposed to be making for my macro-eco class. I went cut my classes last week. Good thing Simon the foreign student texted me about it.

On a different note... I woke up today with the sounds of CHRISTMAS SONGS!!! Oh happiness! I love Christmas! I don't know why, my mother is deeply puzzled about it seeing that I'm already 25 years old. She had hoped that I would have grown out of it since a decade ago. But I have not (I don't think I will).

116 days before Christmas! =)

It runs in the family

I went to my sister's office yesterday. She's a professor at UA&P, where's I'll be taking my graduate studies soon.

Now who's the messier sister? =P

Been sick the whole long weekend. Woke up today feeling sick and sneezy and just plain icky... and who came a-knocking on my door to see me?

Now, I have never been the publicly-cheesy kinda girl. My friends would think I'm a complete sell-out, from cynicism to mushiness. But what the hell, I have the best boyfriend in the world!