THE ADVENTURE that is my life... it's waiting to begin :)

Catching up

incadiaz — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:45:37 +0000

I haven’t updated this blog with posts of substance in like, 2 months. I open it every day though, wanting to post something interesting but I always end up surfing someplace else on the web. What have I been up to lately? Not much actually, not much. Or not much I could probably blog about… (I have a feeling this post is gonna be a long one though)

I got a black iPhone 16GB 3GS about 3 weeks ago, finally! I’ve been wanting to have one since it came out but it’s been too pricey here in the Philippines, this thing sells for about 35k locked on Globe and even more expensive when unlocked! I got mine really cheap at 25k– brand new, unlocked from Aileen, the front desk receptionist at Microtel Tarlac (where I stay every week). I don’t know how the hell she was able to sell it to me cheap (it came from her brother in the US), or how it was already unlocked when I got it, but it’s brand new I even removed the plastic myself though it didn’t come in its box. Ah well! It’s a pretty good phone if not for its really fast battery draining and overheating. I also couldn’t text that quick as with my Nokia E63 but I just use the iPhone for Sun anyway. I also have a lot of apps on it which I update pretty much every week. Sometimes though I think 25k is too big a sum for a phone, and that I could have used the money to buy a lot of other stuff, pay off my credit cards, or get an iPod Touch instead which works all the same save for the phone functionality– but it’s already there and I just gotta enjoy the fruit of what I worked hard for last quarter in CP!

As for work things are going pretty steady– still handling Central Luzon (Bataan-Olongapo-Pampanga-Tarlac-Nueva Ecija-Pangasinan), and soon I’ll have a branch in La Union, gaaaaaah, so far! I still have the same mobile itinerary every week:

Monday: From home, drive to Bataan-Olongapo, spend the night in Angeles
Tuesday: Angeles, spend the night in Tarlac
Wednesday: Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac, spend the night in Tarlac
Thursday: Tarlac, then if I’m done with work go home to Manila
Friday: admin work at home

The driving, I couldn’t stress harder, is really challenging as I spend most of the time traveling, with only about 20-30 minutes per store to pick up POs and discuss some stuff with the managers. And though at first it seems tiring, I’ve gotten used to it and now have my own workarounds :) What’s good about my area is that I’m really independent with my own schedule, and I get to decide how I want to spend my days or week. After work I can either just relax in the hotel alone or call up my co-Sales friends to meet up, get some drinks or just hang out.

On weekends– I’ve been pretty busy lately just tinkering with my iPhone (haha!), surfing the net, and downloading new music for the long drives. I have a lot of the new albums released lately (thank you Mininova, but boo you for shutting down this week!) and I’m always updated with Gossip Girl episodes! The weekend evenings I spend mostly hanging out with my friends– Saturday drinking is a must! Some of the good times (steady or not steady) gimmicks I’ve had in the past months–

Friday night with the (un)usual CP attendees at 180 in the Fort

Halloween weekend! Cream Halloween Ball with Ed & Jannah, Halloween Party with CP at Ponti

Ian’s despedida at Cafe Attivo– great catching up with the Maersk and MCC folks!

Friday night dinner and impromptu drinking with Angeli and Karlo– please don’t drive drunk or sleepy Angeli!

Steady Saturday night at Sidebar with CP (after I watched the Pyrolympics)

All in all save for a few emotional lapses here and there I’m doing great– have a steady, ok-paying job where I can’t complain about my perks (what the future holds for all of us in CP is still quite a blur though)– when else can you spend weekday breakfast by the beach in La Union! Haha! No seriously, I have good friends (but I still haven’t found my clubbing buddies yet!) I can have quality conversations with, and my family is never better as we hang out together more often on the weekends now.

And of course I should never miss to update, HB– HB is still… there. After the rollercoaster that I went through last September, things are fine for me now. Things will never be back to before, the way I want them to be, but it’s much easier being friends than carrying that big burden around, especially that we will always, always run into each other. We can always forgive, but we should never, ever forget. I’m still in the process of moving on and I’ve never had the stronger resolve to, but it’s a gradual process.

Now I can go on with updating this blog regularly! I feel like I’ve unloaded quite a lot haha. I will be posting some stuff on 2009, the year that’s about to end, soon!

Don’t hold back

incadiaz — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:26:57 +0000

Got this from my friend Ziggie… made it my desktop wallpaper :)

The operative word being “WILD”

incadiaz — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:03:00 +0000

…But the stories I have for this month are absolutely TOO WILD to be even posted here so I’ll try to be wholesome…

Rum + Coke + Pineapple Juice = ONE STRONG TRAITOR DRINK. Took me down twice this month. Both times I was drunk– the one time I did something crazy, and one time I puked it all out. Gaaah! Learned it from some new friends I’ll probably be having more drinking times with in my area… Good times.

CP invades Boracay! September 11-13. The rest of the publicly available photos here!

It was a super wild 3D2N trip! There were 21 of us total, just enough to be the party in Bora! We partied, partied some more, and partied even more :P Super fun while it lasted…

Wild Wild Wes: The Despedida, September 18 at Muruve. CP Team Luzon Direct Trade’s send-off party for our dear boss who’s resigned and is moving to KC :(

Ashleigh and Sushil in Manila!!! September 19-21. My dear friends from Singapore were here in town for the weekend for a taste of Manila– shopping, food trips, drinks! I was able to get them a free room at Sofitel c/o my Dad, and it was fancyyy! Lunch at Kabisera High Street, shopping at Greenhills, sushi dinner bonding with Ashleigh, Club Bureau, relaxing pool time, shopping at MOA, Spiral buffet dinner, Barcino, and lots of catching up time! From the whirlwind week before I was low batt, but it was worth exhausting more of the remaining energy for two of my closest MISE friends!

Sessions in Cabanatuan, September 30. Me, Jannah and Ed in Cabanatuan on a Wednesday night. Drinks and good conversations. Even steadier times when Ziggie arrived late because of work… then the night turned creepy wild when I had a close call… Such a wild way to end the month!

Hah. Most of this post is cryptic I know. But let’s just say that this month, I…

Tried new things
Got into intimate physical contact with members of the opposite sex, short of saying I kissed two boys (waha ha haaaa…)
Impulsively spiraled out of control with my actions and emotions– don’t ever make a drunk call!
Went through more drama in my life… drama I actually cooked up myself (it’s my fault I know)
Realized how much of an asshole someone was… (this one’s for real)
…So much that it made me finally WANT TO let go and actually do it
Got into a close call with my new adventures. Scary.

And funny that this month got so wild my other friends aren’t used to it. They now ask me if I’m liking the person I’m becoming. Ummm, actually I do. I’d just like to say at a later stage in my life that I’ve been through all of that shit, this shit I’m going through now.

I feel like it’s an entire year’s worth of emotions, happenings and feelings all mashed up into one September. There are more things I should really regret doing, but my motto is: just live and learn, baby. Let go if you have to. Life is short and you only live once!

September…

incadiaz — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:37:24 +0000

… was ABSOLUTELY WILD, as how August was absolutely steady. Will write about it more soon :)

August

incadiaz — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:56:49 +0000

Some steady month it was! No significant happenings whatsoever– but I hit my sales goal, had lots of fun with my friends, and have the whole month of September to look forward to :) Here are some pics:

Drinks with Colgate at Hai Bar one Friday night after the August cycle meeting. Welcome to the new sales trainees Carrie, Joanna, and Joyce!

Semi-R2 and DP reunion at Jake’s birthday party. We took a lot of photobooth pics! I tried to catch up with the CP girls at Embassy after but they were too drunk and left early… so I hung around alone then just joined Jay and his friends in Merville that night!

Distillery with Jannah, Edric, Liel and Jay (not in photo) one Friday night. Steady drinks… I missed Heineken. Cool place– you can get the drinks at shelf price, get tables to drink them, and have food delivered too… with a mish mash of music in the background!

Singapore with JC to visit my friends Ashleigh and Sushil. Shopping and relaxing trip– read my blog entry here!

Videoke night at Platinum with Colgate during the last long weekend. The Visayas boys and Jay were in town… a party of 20+ in Platinum = a 10k bill = fun! I didn’t get to sing as much as I wanted though, but just spent time catching up. I was down with only 3 beers… and I slept on the way home, got back at 5:30AM!

Videoke night with the Joy Luck Club at Bea’s house. We haven’t got together since my birthday party last June. Lots of pasta, hotdog, squid balls, chips, jello shots (!), and gin apple. Catching up and games of “shit shit” and “ping pong pang”. Almost all of us were asleep before going home!

September– two long weekends, Boracay 11-13, Ash and Sushil in Manila on 19-21!!! I already have memorable stuff to tell to boot, which I will save for next time :)

May ganon. Kilig factor :)

incadiaz — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:45:30 +0000

Aren’t Taylor Swift’s videos just too kilig? Loves it!!!

You Belong With Me

Love Story

Sing, sing, Singapore!

incadiaz — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:45:50 +0000

Back after 3 years! This is the first time I traveled abroad in ‘09, and with my high school friend JC as well. I got super cheap roundtrip tickets via Cebu Pacific for Php 3,771… such a bargain! Last time I was in Singapore was during the MISE ‘06 induction and teambuilding, but I wasn’t really able to go around except do a little shopping here and there. This time I planned for my trip to be a bit more touristy, aside from just flying 3 hours long to visit my friends Ashleigh, an American MISE expat, and Sushil, my co-SEA MISE working in Singapore. We stayed at Ashleigh’s place in The Sail @ Marina Bay, right in the heart of the business district. Such a nice condo, super fancy!

When we arrived on Thursday night, we had chili crabs at Jumbo Seafood Resto in Boat Quay–Ash was crazy about them, and man were they hot! The dinner was a bit pricey at SGD 30 (well for travelers on a shoestring) but it was well worth it! Plus I was super happy to catch up and reminisce good old MISE times with two of my closest friends from the program, Ashleigh and Sushil :) We headed back to hang around and prepare for the more touristy days to come!

Friday was basically tourist day… we walked around a hell lot in Singapore! Left Ashleigh’s place at noon, had brunch at Lau Pa Sat, walked to Chinatown (man it was raining so hard we had to stop to buy an umbrella at 7-11), then to Clarke Quay to do some shopping. Charles & Keith was having a 3-day sale and man, was it crazy!!!! It’s also cheaper in Singapore than in Manila, and what’s great is that they have my size (40)!!! Giordano was cheap too so I bought some casual clothes I could wear to work. We headed back to the condo to meet Ashleigh, then walked to Esplanade to have Thai dinner and go see the Merlion. This pic is of me and Ash doing the Asian pose, haha!

For our Friday night-out we checked out Backstage Bar in Chinatown (a different kind of bar!)– on travel guides this place kinda said it but didn’t! Funny to see older tourists dancing with young Singaporean guys, something you won’t usually see in the more populated nightlife areas of Singapore! Ash and me headed to Zirca in Clarke Quay for a better clubbing scene (only for me coz she enjoyed the previous place so much), and I have to say I was fulfilled! We initially entered this hip hop bar called Rebel, but it was full of young Singaporeans, so we stayed at the interconnected club beside it called Zirca, which looked utterly familiar when I entered because it used to be the old Ministry of Sound (I have memories of that night in MOS 3 years ago)! Loved it totally! The DJ played a lot of the house/dance tracks I loved from MOS and Hed Kandi, and I was totally feeling it! Guess what he played “When Love Takes Over” and “Infinity”, among many of the other songs I would love to hear!!! :)

Saturday was shopping day! JC went out alone on his own doing the touristy stuff while me and Ashleigh went to Orchard Road to do some shopping, I went crazy over Charles & Keith again! Got 2 pairs of shoes and 2 bags. The highlight of the shopping day– mochi ice cream balls in Takashimaya, a Japanese department store in Singapore that sells uber cool novelty items and imported food! We then headed to Bugis to try the best murtavak in Singapore at Zam Zam Restaurant, then headed back home to prepare for the pirate party later that night.

ARRRRRRR! Aye aye captain! The MISE expats were having a send-off party for Jorge, a Panamanian MISE expat, who was going back home after his contract. Was glad to see Anders, Myllena, Roxana, Anne, Peter and Meghan… and we were all in pirate costumes! We had a pre-party to load up at Meg’s apartment, then headed to Cafe del Mar in Sentosa to hang out a bit before heading to Highlander Bar in Clarke Quay to party some more. It was hilarious, everyone was in the pirate character and we got a lot of people go up to us in both Sentosa and Clarke Quay asking to take photos! We were referred to that night as “the pirates from Highlander”. Haha! For sure we all looked crazy in pirate costumes and I would never really do that in Manila, but I loved it that we were a big group and we just didn’t care since we were having our own party, arrrrrrrrrr! Good fun and great times!

On Sunday we all stayed home since we were hammered from the night before– Ash got home drunk and JC was out until late as well! We just had brunch at Lau Pa Sat and I headed to Charles & Keith again to do the last minute no regrets shopping :P After which Sushil dropped by Ash’s place to see us off, and we said goodbye to Singapore :( I was gonna miss my friends, but I’m so excited now coz they’re coming to Manila in September– less than a month from now!!! I loved that the trip wasn’t too tiring for me in terms of visiting the touristy places, not much to see and do anyway, I wasn’t too keen on going to the zoo or to the night safari. I love that I was able to see my friends, go crazy at Charles & Keith (I arrived in Singapore at the right time!), go clubbing, see the rest of the MISEs, and just hang around without doing too much. I only spent about Php 15K total with all the shopping but excluding the airfare, which regardless is already very cheap… thank God for Ashleigh that we were able to get free accommodation at her place :)

And of course I won’t forget the food, good thing I always made the right menu choices–

Chili crabs at Jumbo Seafood, Boat Quay

Peppered beef, soup and bubble tea at Lau Pa Sat

Ice cream sandwich at Chinatown– good business idea for Manila I think!

Pad Thai dinner at Thai Express in Esplanade

Yummmmmyyyy!!! Mochi ice cream balls in Takashimaya

Chicken murtavak at Zam Zam Restaurant in Bugis

And of course… McDonald’s!!! In every country I visit, it’s a staple ;)

Loves it!!! It was a great long weekend. I might have gained some weight with all the food and drinks but I walked a hell lot too :) The rest of the pics are here!

Not again

incadiaz — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:24:34 +0000

Seriously… am I that forgiving??? Especially to the person that caused my emotions to go haywire, and me to get cynical about everything?

Seriously??? That fast? What an effing lucky HB. But in all fairness, maybe this is what needs to happen to break the ice… again. I just have to be super careful of what I’m capable of.

Baguio, Take 2

incadiaz — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:23:51 +0000

I’ve been to Baguio three times last month. The first one was my self-reflection trip, the second was an impromptu weekday slumber party with Jannah and Jay, the third one was a weekend roadtrip with Patti. She was jealous when I told her about my trips, so we decided to go one weekend and stay at Jay’s place. Since it was raining too hard we weren’t able to do much but stay in, drink, talk, and watch DVDs!

Green tea chai latte in Starbucks John Hay + Marlboro Black = CHILL. Though there’s not much places to go in Baguio, the point is to do the same things– only in much cooler weather. Trust me, it’s different.

On Friday evening we drank and watched MJ’s Live in Bucharest concert (for the nth time for me!). I was so drunk I puked! On Saturday we had lunch at Teriyaki Boy SM and walked around, then to Mines View Park and Good Shepherd to get pasalubong. In the evening while Patti and me were having dinner at Don Hen, Jay joined Starr and her friends and we followed after for some drinks at the Athletic Bowl.

On Sunday we had the buffet lunch in Camp John Hay Manor. Sumptuous! Pricey at 850, but it’s one thing you can’t not do:

With Jay and Starr

Picture taking for Patti’s tourist mode after– day off mode! I won’t even post the incriminating photos here. Haha. We left Baguio at 3:30 and I got home at about 9pm. Phew! What a weekend. I missed a CP get together at Ziggie’s house but I enjoyed the Baguio chill nonetheless!

I also heard that HB was here in Manila but… out of sight out of mind? Ha. Never mind. :P Baguio is kind of a novel thing for me but it’s one place I think I’d like to get familiar with. Good thing it’s only 3 hours away from Tarlac, my second home :)

Before I sleep

incadiaz — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:02:46 +0000

I’m an ambitious girl.

I feel like there’s so much more that I can do. Much much more that I can be.

I don’t wanna live a simple life. I want to live a high profile, glamorous, materialistic, affluent life. In all honesty, and without being ashamed to admit it.

I know I’m much better than what I am now. I haven’t reached my full potential, nor discovered it yet.

I feel limited by the life I’m living now. I know it’s not an excuse and therefore I’ll just have to fight hard.

Hey, knowing is half the battle.