|tiendesitas_asia's 1st and largest flea market|
another shopping haven on the rise along c5 and ortigas avenue. this time, it's asia's first and largest flea market and theme part. hmmm, a new concept in shopping and merchandise retailing. malls such as robinson's place pioneer and market! market! have been sprawling in the metro recently and according to an article, mall retailing will be a boom this year. does this mean that we're finally picking up and things are getting better for the country?
The Department of Tourism (DoT) is in the frontline in the WOW Philippines campaign to attract more tourists and foreign guests. Tourism Secretary Ace Durano�s advocacy is to promote the Philippine Islands not only to tourists but to the Filipino people as well. �I love the Philippines: Biyahe Na!� is the 2005 theme that aspires to promote not only the natural resources, but also the diverse culture, exceptional native cuisine and rich traditions of the land.
To view complete story, click here
|nice.day_friday|
slight changes of plans made me cancel my mountain climbing trip with liz. among unforseen circumstances, i just opted to join them some other time. there will always be other climbs.
things turned out relatively pleasant today. i watched some dvds early on in the morning while checking my work email from home. among my favorites are 'under the tuscan sun' and 'love actually'. these are really feel good movies...highly recommended. with all this, i was munching on my usual morning snack, ROLD GOLD Classic Style Pretzel Thins which are absolutely salty that i'm not yet halfway done with the bag...it's on its fifth day today.
since it's a holiday, we had our family lunch together with dave, tess and my charming little niece carissa. she still takes delight playing with chuckie and the house cats which she loves chasing around the house. they dropped by for lunch shortly after coming from the butterfly farm. lunch today was prepared by dad which comprised bangus fish fillet and fresh green salad. the vinigarette dressing had basil, thyme, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and other spices blended into an olive green paste-like consistency. salad wasn't like the one served in italianni's but it's a working progress. 'lost in translation' was on hbo during lunch.
since i was in a movie junkie mood, i met my friend allan for a friday movie treat in rockwell in the afternoon. since the movie wouldn't start till 7:45pm, we strolled around the mall, bought the latest album released by the company, 'mahal kong radyo' and the ryan cayabyab 'great original pilipino music' cd featuring the san miguel master chorale and the san miguel philharmonic orchestra. nice cds! two additional albums to be uploaded to my iPod. we then went on to fully booked for the february issue of mph magazine and real living for my personal reading pleasure. we also got some stuff from the grocery store and had a quick bite at kfc then went on to see the movie. nothing interesting enough about constantine worth blogging about. i'd say it was a bad choice of movie made on my part. it was not even close to what i was expecting. it was an absolute waste of good money.
somewhere between meeting allan and going to rockwell, i indulged on my favorite confection at the moment, belgian bites which was a peso cheaper than the one in our building cafeteria. actually everything was one-peso less. couldn't explain why but couldn't care less. this one i didn't know until now. this is odd.
|slow.wednesdy_midweek|
i like this particular picture (among many others) that i uploded to my flickr site.
can anyone tell where this picture was taken? =)
wednesday, the second to the last day of the work week since friday is a non-working holiday. so nice. i'm so looking forward to going mountain trekking and camping with liz and her mountaineering friends this friday till saturday.
while preparing baon, chuck lied down on my feet, rolled over and asked for his tummy to be rubbed. such a sweet dog as for his big and scary looks. we just miss each others company i guess. i'm starting to miss him dearly.
got stuck in traffic...traffic will always be traffic along ortigas, edsa, buendia, paseo, everywhere! grrrr!
i received news that nikki got promoted again at work. really proud of her to be the site quality manager and to be promoted for that matter in less than a year. i'm so happy for you! congratulations nikki girl!
my food fiesta: corndog, thin pretzels and grape juice for brunch. had a quiet lunch with colleagues then ran off to philamlife to pay my insurance premium...thank god for 1 1/2 hour lunch breaks. scorching heat outside the office as i walked a couple of blocks from our building up to the philamlife building in paseo. belgian bites for desert...ummmm a truly sumptuous treat. ang takaw! =) continues with work till the early evening while sipping cups of vendo coffee to prevent me from dozing off while staring at the computer monitor.
reading general designs...setting test conditions...formulating test scripts...validating processes...another day, another life.
What's blaring in my iPod right now?
1. Maroon5 - She Will Be Loved
2. Mike Francis - Let Me In
3. Basia - London, Warsaw, New York
4. Frou Frou - Breathe In
5. Nena - 99LuftBalloons
6. Beverly Knight - Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda
7. Shawn Colvin - Sunny Came Home
8. Atomic Kitten - Love Doesn't Have To Hurt
9. Usher - Yeah
10. Keane - Everbody's Changing
11. Standfast - Carcrashes
12. KC and the Sunshine Band - Do The Hustle
|i'm_lovin_it|
this slogan was borrowed from a McDonald's advertisment. it's been over a month when i started with a new company. not exactly bed of roses but very challenging indeed. as mentioned before, there were lots of sacrifices made on my part but i fervently believe that it will be for the best of everyone concerned. moving forward, i tell people that it's my investment for the future. even to my friend cecille, it's to be my mantra for 2005!
for the first time after getting out of school, i'm spending the february 25 non-working holiday like no other. and with this, i'll go up the mountains with my uber chic outdoor friend liz and take pictures of the surrounding wonders of the taal lake and batangas. i have yet to know where exactly we're going but part of the excitement is the thrill of having no idea of what's in store for us. well for liz who made all the plans, she knows every bit of detail for this trip.
for now, you won't hear me complainin' of no-holiday pay no more. i'm looking forward to this trip for the longest time. when i come back, i'll post pics of the picturesque view of the place.
|tick-tock_goes.the_clock|
i am one of the multitude of people who get stuck in traffic everyday almost anywhere going to work. since traffic is a perennial problem that will not be resolved anytime soon, i thought of either: 1) getting an apartment near work so i can just trot my way or 2) cut travel time by leaving the house before the road gets congested. for now i opted to choose option 2 due to my financial crisis but that will have to start with having a reliable timepiece that will ever remind me of time. having worked for an american company defintely paid off where they instilled the discipline in me to be ever mindful of time. with that, i just thought of coming up with a work around for issues that i myself have no control of...traffic.
onto my story...
then i thought of getting a watch. of what kind? i don't know. a couple of watches popped up my puny little head. the first few i thought were funny. in my list was a POP swatch that was fairly popular in the late 80's among kids. it's a bubble gum watch, i just thought. a flik-flak was another watch that was swiss made for kids. ahhh, my heart of a kid overwhelemes me up to this day. but then again, not appropriate for my boring (i love using this term loosely) personality. then i thought something in the lines of Fossil, Swiss Army, IWC, etc. nah, too expensive for me. though i liked how they look, as always i have to see how it will look good on my wrist rather than a piece of welded metal dangling and waiting to slip off my wrist.
then again i had a mental note of having two cellphones that give me time, my ipod that has a built-in clock and so does my sony clie that reliably gives me...uhm time. my work PC has a clock and we have clocks in several time zones as well. this blog has a java script for a clock to appear on the lower right-hand side! so i just brushed off the idea of getting a watch initially thinking that it will validate its use by giving the time plus possibly attracting robbers to steal it from my skimpy arms.
not a wise investment at this time. so should i consider option 1 all the more? hmmm, for now i'll just return to work
x's: shortly after this blog was published, he went to the so-called cafetria of the building and munched on four belgian bites. what a sugar rush!
|valentine_postmortem|
two days after valentine's, a friend emailed me about something tragic that happened recently. so, so sad that bad things happen to good people.
From: xxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
To: Quitoriano, Daniel Q.
Cc:
Subject: tatlumpong baldeng luha at sipon
Kagabi nag-usap kami. Nag break tapos... iyak ako ng sobrang dami. Yung tipong hindi na matatapos na iyak. Yung tipong sa buong buhay ko hindi pa ko nakaiyak. Hindi ko alam kung ano mashado yung nangyari dahil sa nabibingi na ko sa agos ng luha ko. Hindi ko na mashado maintindihan ang mga sinasabi nya. Tinalikuran ko na sha sa kama at nagbaluktot na parang bola. Niyakap nya ko. Nagmakaawa sha na harapin ko sha. Biglang wala na kong maramdaman. Parang bigla lang naubos lahat ng kahit anong damdamin sa dibdib ko. Pinalutang ko ang utak ko hanggang sa wala na kong marinig sa kanya.
Kung ano anong pumasok sa isip ko na walang kaugnayan sa aming dalawa. Yung pakiramdam siguro ng parang namatay ka na lang basta? Yung walang pakiramdam. Hanggan sa sinabi nya sa akin ulit na hindi na sha bibitaw. Hindi na nya ko pakakawalan. Sa huling pagkakataon, tumulo ang luha ko ng di ko namamalayan. Napaisip ako, "Kung ganon magtatagal pa rin ang aking paghihirap."
Niyakap nya ko ng mahigpit. Ang mga braso ko ay nakalagay sa aking dibdib na parang ayaw ko ng madikitan nya, na kahit balutin nya ako ng kanyang katawan, hinding hindi ko na pababayaang masaktan nya ulit ang puso ko.
Nagsiping kami pagkatapos pero sa unang pagkakataon, luha lang ang umapaw sa kin. Para shang nakipagtalik sa isang bangkay. Wala na akong maramdaman. Ginawa ko na lang kung ano ang nais nya. Nang matapos yon, pinilit kong matulog. Hanggang ngayon, wala par in akong pakiramdam. Para akong isang bangkay.
|valentine's.day_madness&mayhem|
belgian bites (thanks may for telling me what they're called) was a usual order of the day and briefly panicked thinking that there was a shortage. so much with that.
as i'm typing this blog shortly after having lunch, i'm anticipating three munchies to melt inside my mouth. yummy!
i wasn't expecting anything special come valentine's nor did i expect something as gruesome as one would imagine either. it was absolutely senseless and downright st*pid. i really don't know what to make of the events that transpired last tuesday. after my good friend allie texted me if i knew about the bomb that exploded under the ayala MRT station, it made me realize how fragile life can be and to be ever mindful of those who are victimized by these things. it just irks me that up to now, nothing is being done and no one can put these things to a stop.
valentine's evening came and had dinner in kitaro at the podium and had coffee afterwards. starbucks gave a small valentine chocolate truffle treat in a small gold box. amidst the tragic events that evening, this is truly a valentine like no other.
only in the philippines **pun intended**
|happy_heart's_day|
my so-called work area is slowly taking shape. my pc arrived this morning and was ready to be set up. everything had twister wires and plastic...totally out of the box. i love the smell of new electronic equipment. as i plugged the color coded cables and peripherals into the back of the tower, i could truly smell it out of the box. it smelled toasty warm which reminded me that solvent used for cleaning the circuit board of the motherboard is toxic and i had to stop. the black and silver desktop from hp compaq sat proudly on my table waiting for the keys of the keyboard to be lightly pressed and the mouse to be tugged along with the annoying clickers to be clicked on. the 17 inch CRT suits me well but all i did was to change the resolution to 1280 x 1024 and make the screen size the smallest it can go.
my heart's day is doing well but to my utter dismay, there was a shortage of the little munchies i buy from mister donut shortly after lunch. i searched the mini-stop and 7-11 stores around gt tower until i discovered that there was a booth in the cafeteria of the buiding. dang! with a bunch of munchies (i hardly know what this confection is called) in a small plastic bag, i'm all set to much away the afternoon.
|so.many.things_so.little.time|
the week started pretty usual-- meeting with the boss. meeting with the team. reading through tons of work related documents. maling and tikoy for brunch while working on the eve of the chinese new year =) more meetings followed and more work. but everything is okay. i had to work late nights and i'm on flexi sched.
no time to go to Fifi anymore and it feels like throwing away hard erned money.
NOTE TO SELF: weigh things out thoroughly (money, schedule, workload, time, etc.) and terminate the membership if necessary. remember it's time to save up. now is always a good time to start.
there's a ministop near gt tower and i eat their corn dog for breakfast well before i start my day. thursday was townhall meeting in the afternoon at work. spag, barbeque, buko pandan, potato salad, chicken-ala-king and brownies for merienda from josiah's catering services. they serve good food!
friday was team gimmick night. KFC one-piece chicken original (thigh part) and salad. redbox videoke, lots of singing and dancing. bonding galore!
the week that passed was a fine one. dimsum, maling and tikoy, dinuguan, pinakbet, chicken curry. what a food trip it was. food fusion! pinoy talaga! i'm craving for the mister donut munchies dipped in chocolate rolled in chocolate sprinkles, peanuts, etc. so good! still singing in my head long after i've gotten home. i need more practice...next time i'll sing more tagalog songs (totoy bibbo, bulaklak, and all). the work week is over and i'm looking foward to a busy not work-related weekend. take more pics, suriya, o'mer's birthday bash tonight.
|i_went_caving_DetailsFollow|
i think i don't need much to elaborate that i went spelunking with liz and her mountaineering friends last weekend. it was helluva fun! everyone was very gracious in accomodating a visitor to the group and i made friends easily. i didn't know the specifics of the trip up until the leader briefed us. liz made it pretty mysterious so that i won't know what to look forward to. since this is a mountaineering group comprising of member from different offices in makati, everyone was all buffed and prepared for the trip...even the lady climbers! i had arms of a little girl...dang!
from what i was able to squeeze in my puny little head, there are numerous caves in Norzagaray, Bulacan (spellcheck please). we went to two caves where their names i couldn't recall. after a few kms of trek, we finally got there.
the first cave we went to was considered a dead one. it was a pretty easy cave. i think i'd give it a difficulty rating of 4 out of 10. the opening was pretty steep but other than the entrance and exit to the cave, everything's easy.
after a few hours we were out from the other end of the cave and stopped for lunch in which the details i wish not to blog. hehehehe. all i can say is that it's an experience i'll never forget. we had some usual lectures in climbing safety but i after resting a bit, i took some shots of the surroundings and had a photo op with my friend, liz. the very next picture i absolutely love. this is my fave picture from this trip.
i can't believe how this dude (or dudette, i didn't check) can endure the unforgiving hot scorching sun. no trees and no water nearby to drink. people are so vicious to animals, i'd say. but then again i may be exaggerating on things.
we went on and trekked again to the second cave. this one was much difficult. i'd say it was a 7 and we didn't even go all the way in since there would be crawling involved. there was an underground stream (a first for me!) up to the waist deep. i was concerned about my camera getting wet hence i didn't get to get pictures much of the cave. it was totally dark inside weren't it for our headlamps. these were just a few i managed to capture. both interesting and mysterious are the two words i'll use to describe the pictures here. notice the hazy picture? it was absolutely dark when i took this and i just relied on the flash to capture whatever it can. i ended up with this? remember that this is a cave where water runs through it. the cave walls and floor were slippery and wet and it's not smoke either.
|add.ons_from.the_comments|
May: Hey, Dan! Grabe adventures mo ha! Parang ang saya na nakakatakot! ->that is so true! dangerous but fun!
tinggay: Wow! Cool pics.. must've been a helluva spelunking trip! ->yeah it was. and a lot tiring as well but it was all worth the trouble.
what's blaring in my iPod now?
Talkin' Talk by D'Sound
Treat Me Good by Bachelor Girl
Heart For Hire by Swing Out Sister
|work.work.spaghetti_house.work|
the week is almost over and as i reminisce and reflect on how my week went, there weren�t much significant events that transpired but still worth bloggin�. monday was nothing out of the ordinary. things picked up as the week went on. i got rolled-into my project-- finally after a 12-day intensive crash course cum training I�m given tons of user names and passwords to access tons of stuff that i�ll need with work. there also comes the tons of reading materials to be familiarized with the project and the specifics of my work. i have my own computer, a spacious cubicle that boasts of a phone and a rolling bin. what would be of a cubicle if i don�t have a seat to sit on? i forgot that one.
for moi who thrives in pasta dishes, i discovered this, The Old Spaghetti House along Valero that serves nothing but, spaghetti. the food is priced reasonably and the ambiance is exquisite. there�s a vast array of pasta to choose from. and if you feel really like an italian, you can order some vino to go with your food as well. go check it out one of these days.
|friday_looking.forward.to_spelunking.on.saturday|
the work week is almost over now and i have some things planned for the weekend. i�ll be going out of town and go caving with Liz from the Swiss Embassy. i�m so happy that: 1) i get weekends off nowadays and 2) that i can go with Liz and her mountaineering friends not to trek but to explore a cave in Bulacan this weekend.
spelunking? i encountered this word answering a physics problem in college. it�s the hobby of exploring caves. i�m so excited since it�s not that often that i get to go spelunking and Liz or anyone for that matter and she had been making kulit for ages when i�ll go and join her in her misadventures. also, from what i know, as long as the time and whether condition would permit, we�ll go trekking next to mt. maculot in batangas. another photo trip to look forward to. =)
everything had been set already. all i have to do is to be there tomorrow morning in our meeting place. i�m so excited. i�ll bring my cam and take lots of pics of the trip and post them here when i get back.
what's playing in my iPod now?
The Girl from Ipanema by Serio Mendes
Turn Back Time by Aqua
Sunshine by Keane
Goodbye Columbus by The Company