Balik Kampung KK

 

balik kampung simply means going back to you home village.

since my first trip to Malaysia in 2004 for paintball i had always considered it my second home. then January 2007, I and 14 other outdoor enthusiasts were invited to explore Kota Kinabalu (KK). now, 8 trips more after that and a 2 month immersion in this city its not a surprise that my friends are referring to it as my kampung (village).

so this is my second balik kampung for the year and by far the shortest trip ever (3 days only)but also a very different one in a great way. as my kaka mary says, this trip is a "time to recharge our batteries for the new year." indeed there were a few changes to the usual visits. this time there were no guests to take care of, no new tours to take,; it was simply me coming for a dose of home.

i watched movies and went to the beach with my KK family, spent time to catch up with friends and the juicy bits of their lives, spent time to eat the not-so-pedas dishes i've missed and simply walked the streets of KK while eating ais krim or drinking lemon ping.

then of course there's the sort of tradition of the-night-before-the-flight party!!! a sending off karaoke night at Hawuuz (a bar near the Beverly Hills Area) where people drink and sing the night away- literally.

even this was a 'lil off the usual. this time there was more to celebrate for and more people to celebrate with. that night everything was set aside so that everyone came together for the sake of fun.

i have my kaka mary to thank for almost everything...from the roof on my head, a comfortable bed and for the bringing the dearest people of my life together. thank you for usual dose of love and sisterhood.

to my kuyas, ates, old friends and new friends...i know this was a quick trip but nevertheless it was a trip that reminded me that life is good!

believe. hope. accept.

photo from: http://staree.info/page/4

digital scrapbooking

finaly got my hands wet in scrapbooking using photos shop...

resources i used:

stiching frame from marie (http://freedigitalscrapbooking.com/)

natural paper texture by cloaks (http://cloaks.deviantart.com/)

beer embellishment from a website; still looking for the site.

lists and maps

no more complaining. gotta start doing! it's never too late! so i start off with this:

1. taking the trip to the world cup in KL as a volunteer
2. acquiring the money to make the trip to KL in November
3. spending time with my KL sisters and brothers
4. having more than enough to pay the rent, bills, weekend adventures and a yearly out-of-the-country trip plus have some stash for a rainy day.
5. being able to pay everything on my card
6. finding a career that is a match with my personality, values and way of life
7. always having fun wherever and whenever!
8. being able to live in europe for a year; ohhh the weekend escapade and cultural learning...yum!
9. taking my parents on a vacation

i'll be making a collage of my 2010 -2011 vision. i'll post that up soon! welcome back sunshine!!!

Selamat Berpuasa

a filipino by birth and malaysian sabahan by heart
jadi, i join my abangs, kakas, adiks,
and everyone else in my second home

a happy ramadhan!

this too shall pass...

she feels the chaos break open the gates
spreading numbness inch by inch,
drowning that which enables coherence of thought
its toxic aura making its way to core of her being
strength seems to have leaked out
with it, the draining of will and passion

she kneels and pray
guard my heart oh Great Spirit, she cries
sheild it from the poison of conformity
or the lies of defeat
let it not break with the pressure
instead let it pound loudly
to beat of my dream's drum
and remind me of the power in believing, she appeals

let her fathom the wisdom of knowing
that despite the failure of all her senses
she can trust in one thing that remains pure
the essence of all that she is
sans the dictations of the world
from this, she can gather her desire to continue her journey

hear her song Great Spirit
in this twilight of her existence
let her reach out and hold on to faith
that this too shall pass

Safe Habour

my gypsy spirit craves for a sense of family of which I found it in these people.

each an individual with their own life journey and a safe harbour where everyone can come together to share their stories, clink glasses and offer up the next leg to life!

thank you for the friendship and the bond that will always make me feel that I am home.

Our Angel Has Gone Back to Heaven

while the other tita's are cooking or talking, we play.

i remember sitting you on the table so that we can play with your birthday cake's characters. or that the morning in Los Banos when you pulled down each of our blankets just to make sure you'd say good morning to right tita. our first born always eager to experience life.

then i got busy and limited my involvement with talks on the phone that became further and further apart till almost none. then i get a phone call from your ninang that i had to see you today, cause you had said goodnight to this life.

oh how i cried to the years i could have spent with you. i know you would have hushed me and would assure me that you are in a better place anyway.

my dear Io, no words can express the spectrum of emotions i feel. i can go on with i would have wanted clauses but all that wouldn't matter anymore. all i can give now is a promise that you will never be forgotten! and that you have knocked me to the conciousness that opportunities can never be relived so we need to enjoy them when the moment is offered.

goodnight my Io, you will always be remembered...

Couldn't Resist a Free Ticket

so Ms. K came up to me and asked if I could go with her and J to the Usher concert cause she scored free tickets. the typical response would be a shriek and "oh my goodness of course!"

guess typical could never be an adjective to describe me.

cause what i did was paused from what I was doing, looked up and told her " sorry dear, I still have work till 7PM" then went back to the excel sheet I was working on. she tried to plead and yet I was firm. a minute after that I got up went to the HR office and ask Mahlabs, "am i crazy to turn down free tickets to Usher?"

out of reflex she jerked her head towards my direction and said " BUT OF COURSE!"

so i found Ms. K and asked if the opportunity was still on the table. she smiled and asked what time I can get of work.

i'm not a real big fan of Usher but he's gorgeous and has those puppy eyes that seem to make a woman feel that he'd do anything for them.



i knew the traffic would be terrible so I decided that we should take the MRT to Taft then take a cab to SM Mall of Asia. a very street smart decision that saved us an hour's worth of time.

we got there just in time for his 2nd song.



we enjoyed it despite our being tired and sleepy from an early day at work.

thank you Ms. K for the awesome tickets that put us in the leagues of the VIPs and would have been worth about 3000php.

A Touch of Swiss Please

so much chatter about this secret or hidden restaurant in antipolo with great food and a nice view. since I had to take out this client friend anyway, i decide to hit two birds with one stone.

Vieux Chalet was indeed hidden somewhere towards hinulugang tatak because the address read taktak road. i loved the area even from the driveway. the chalet was a vintage style house turned into a restaurant. i liked looking at all the little trinkets and the paintings were so personal and colorful. it was like one big sala that had windows that framed a beautiful am-out-of-the-city view add in the smell of fresh air with an it-just-rained ambience.

i did my homework before heading out to this place. and all of the blogs or sites say that you can't go wrong with your food order. i would have to agree. anything on the menu is good and organic using available ingredients from their garden. it can be a bit pricey though and i would confess I didn't bring enough that day which made me skip a glass of wine. Good thing though is that most of the dishes can be shared so roughly if you go there just bring about Php 1000. This will get you a solo dish plus an order of something you need to split and share and a must have glass of wine to go with the food and ambience. you need to try the carabao's milk icecream it was just rich and full of flavor.

my client friend, my paduan and my indian IT collegue enjoyed the vieux chalet experience.

i on the other hand...wanted to live there.

Weekends Are to Reboot

i've always believed that weekends were made for personal time. For J, K and myself we wanted to spend it just loitering, eating whatever strikes our fancy and of course what I do best - documenting our lives spontaneously.

Going Korean for Dinner

decided to finaly try this korean restaurant that had a funny name.

since my friend S is into food trips as well, she agreed to come and figure out the menu that read mmmbops and sssmbops...or something like.

Kogi Bulgogi as the sign read is on the 2nd floor of the Eastwood Mall. their prices were unusually affordable.

they give you a range of appetizers here free of charge together with your dose of kimchi. it'll never be a korean resto if they don't serve such I guess. I got the beef wrap and some ramen. i totally forgot the name of what S ordered but it was one of those with the "bop" at the end and serves on a heated marble bowl.

verdict the "bop" dish turned out to be so delish and the ramen was well, nothing fancy. so I will make it a point to come back try out more of those "bop" dishes. great value too since it won't even be over the Php 300 mark together with drinks.

Resurrecting the Sharing Spirit

Oh dear, so much has happend in my life that I dont even know how to where to start. It seems that I have abandoned the art of my writing and that itself has killed part of my spirit that loves to share stories.

And so I shall get back on this road starting tomorrow. Either through my own personal ramdom clicks or by photos of others that just made my day, I want to start blogging again.

Then maybe in that small gesture I get to find my voice back.

State of Thankfulness

sometimes when things are not going the way we want it to be,
being thankful become a challenge.
the notes above I found on this blog
are Leah Dietrich's thank you notes
to anything and everything in her life

multi-tasking- good or bad?

so many things are simultaneously happening in my life. so many thoughts wanting attention that priority seems to be the consitent cry of all of them. i want to take a step back. but it seems that I don't have that luxury of time. to survive they say, we need to have the ability to multi-task.

doing 2 or more things simultaneously seem to be the norm in this generation. i take a vacation and try to squeeze in a day for meetings in that country, which makes me feel like so it was work after all. fix up a powerpoint while researching for the next presentation only to ask so which part was I in again. oh and last saturday's scheduled time out with a friend that I conveniently placed in eastwood so that it'll be easier to go to the office and turn in the time sheets. which ended up with me not seeing the friend at all because of the other emails that I had to check.

does it really have to be that way? can't we just do one thing at a time and make sure all efforts on it thus making it easier for us?

i am leaning on the side that people need to start unlearning the practice of multi-friggin-tasking. I feel that it robs us of savoring the learnings - be it the success or things to work on- of life. slowly we are forgetting what it is to focus. this lack of ability to be "in the moment" then trinkles down to other aspects of our lives- especially in relationships.

so for you is all about the quantity? Or is all about the quality of interaction?

Countdown to Happyness

9 days to go!!!

Scream!

There’s a weird feeling that comes after being screamed at in public.

A part of me wants to scream back.
A part that wants to just cry.
And the part that wins is for me to do the right thing and speak to him and get to the bottom of things.

Yes the proper thing is to take a step back and think things through. Although fighting back the tears is slowly draining the fight out of me.
I need to acknowledge that I could have something to deserve that to which I need to own up and maybe even say sorry.

A take away is introspection that if that happens to me what will be my initial reaction.

If there is anything I do want to talk to him and just sort through the emotions. I don’t have to suck it up to him. But I also know that things like this is a 2-way street and being the older one need to initiate better teamwork.

spoondoolicks crunching

yeah spoondolicks!
a new term I got off of our British IT guy
it means moolah or datung to us Filipinos.

a month has passed since I moved into my own place
and there is so much to absorb for me.
everyday I am learning how to schedule and recently budget.
I have a long way to go with being successful with the latter.

calculated risks and i'll get there..

Adjustments

new people means adjustments.

for a day I felt how it was to hate a person.
the way that person sounded, dressed up
and even how that person tapped on the desk when they wanted to make a point.

i have been feeling exhausted lately,
plus my sleep time is rationed to the point the my body is complaining.
So you giving more work just as I am about to leave the office,
doesnt really help.

when you talk to me, I can feel that nothing I do will ever be good for you.
I hope it's just my paranoia talking

so to you, I have nothing personal against you.
but I do hope that you realize that we need to make this relationship work.

You agitate me with all the lists and seemingly random solutions that you present.
so, i'll make the first step to adjust and will be praying that we can meet halfway.

A Not So Different Valentines Day

It has been 2 weeks since I packed all my things in boxes and moved in to my very own apartment. Things have been changing in my life since 2009 and the emotions are sliding the scale. Moving into a new home has by far been the biggest growing up move I have made.

Yes I feel like a big girl now. I’ve been telling those close to me that the Peter-Pan-me is growing up and I am both enjoying the journey and terrified as to what is in store for me.

Even my heart had gone through its own maturing. Last year I found myself finally letting go of a man that I thought I would do anything for. Like those people that had to give up addictions, I found myself with the need to constantly keep myself occupied. I had to be very busy; otherwise I feel the withdrawal symptoms would catch up with me. The need for constant movement was solved with focusing work. Auspiciously, it was here that I recognized that with the last man gone, my heart now had the space and the right prayer. So I heard 2 knocks on its door.

I responded and found 2 messengers that have unselfishly been sharing their stories and lives to me. The message being sent was never to lose hope. All was good until I found myself wanting too much.

Valentines this year, I thought would be different. That somehow the DreamGiver heard my prayer for a twist to the usual yearly moping. Yet here I am, sitting in my empty living room still alone.

Days back I wrote that I was giving my heart a week to take the lead. Done deal. Now my head will step in and decide on what will be better for the moment. I need to be able to function and with my heart in the driver seat I know I am bound to lose focus and the concentrate on the valuable balance I need.

I am not exclusively dating any of them and it hurts my head when I try to analyze what is actually happening. Or if there is more to the friendship that we have. All I know that at this point I should not give up the fight for love. There will be a someone and a family in my life. I should not lose faith in that promise.

As for Valentines, I need to steer clear of the notion that for it to be great I should have flowers or go out with someone. It should not be just about loving others; but is should also be about making sure you are capable of giving out love.

No more assumptions. No more doubts. But rather to just thankful for the blessing sent my way. I shall let myself enjoy each day, this way I can fill myself with more and more of that energy that makes me capable of sharing more of who I am to anyone that comes into my life.

So indeed a sincere Happy Valentines Day!