The operative word being “WILD”

…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.

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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…

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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 :(

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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!

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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!

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

1. Tried new things
2. Got into intimate physical contact with members of the opposite sex, short of saying I kissed two boys (waha ha haaaa…)
3. Impulsively spiraled out of control with my actions and emotions– don’t ever make a drunk call!
4. Went through more drama in my life… drama I actually cooked up myself (it’s my fault I know)
5. Realized how much of an asshole someone was… (this one’s for real)
6. …So much that it made me finally WANT TO let go and actually do it
7. 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!

August

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 :)

Sing, sing, Singapore!

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!

Highlights of 2008 (Long post)

 

1. Being assigned in Davao for 10 months for my third job rotation. I moved in January and moved back to Manila in November– this is where I spent majority of my year. I lived in my own small apartment, did the groceries and cooked for myself, and spent the weekends alone. I was out clubbing every Saturday night, seeing the same people in the same place. I learned to drink a whole lot of beer (especially if it’s ice cold) and resurrected my craving for chicharon bulaklak, yech! I took swimming lessons, caught up on the TV series I missed, and started going to the gym and dieting. Of course for the first half of my stay I spent most of the time preparing for the upcoming Module 4 exams. I didn’t really have a group of friends I hung out with but I met a couple of people I went out with from time to time. I actually got to explore the city more when I took my visitor friends around– John Rae, Cy, Angeli, Anna, Lotte, Bea, Mark, Edward, and Cathie.

   

  

Overall being in Davao was a great experience since the city was very safe, clean, and everything was near to each other. People were also very warm and accommodating. However living by myself and being alone most of the time magnified my feelings to the nth level! Haha. I was away from my family and friends, and had so much time to think and dwell on things I probably should not have dwelled upon. I’m glad to be back now– and I’m not ready to be away from everyone important to me yet again…

2. Travel. This year was probably the last I’m gonna travel as extensively as I did. Since I’m done with my MISE training and won’t have any more Modules in Europe (hence no more opportunities for Euro sidetrips), I don’t see myself travelling too far anytime soon. In February me and Angeli attended our friend Meryl’s wedding in Jakarta, spent the weekend with our fellow SEA MISEs touring around the city, and went to Bandung to go shopping at factory outlets!

   

In May I went to Copenhagen to attend Module 4, then took a graduation sidetrip with Jason, Sushil, Li’en, Kim, Zi and Meryl to Greece– Athens, Santorini, and Mykonos. Santorini was great, I could get married there! We drove around in a rent-a-car (I drove!), and the highlight was going up to this place called Oia to watch the sunset– apparently the best in the world– on my birthday… where they surprised me with a cake, flowers and gifts! We partied and spent time at the beach in Mykonos, Greece’s party island, for 2 days. Then I spent a night and met up with my Dutch MISE friends in Amsterdam, my favorite city– my third time there! 

   

  

For the latter part of the year I went local! :P I went to General Santos and Cotabato for business to attend meetings with our key clients. Well they were just a 3-hour drive away from Davao so maybe they’re not counted? :P In September I spent 4 days in Iloilo, and took a 3-hour per way roadtrip to Roxas. This December I finally went to Tagaytay again, after 5 years! I would have wanted to spend the last days of the year with Angeli in Ho Chi Minh (sorry dear!), but I figured I’d save the travel for ‘09.

   

3. Graduation from the MISE program. I finally graduated from the 2-year program! After 3 job rotations, 4 Modules, a whole lot of travel and meeting a big bunch of people from different cultures and nationalities, I got through! There were big bumps along the road– humbling ones, at that, but I got through them and I’m proud to say this is one of my major achievements. But I also went through… (read on to the next item)

 

4. A major career change. A month after getting back in Manila, being into my Process Excellence position at MCC and before pursuing expatriation for a MISE graduate, I decided to resign from the company and pursue a career in fast-moving consumer goods. Beginning January 5, I’ll be working as a Sales Trainee/ Account Manager for Colgate-Palmolive– new year, new job, new life! FMCG has always been the industry I wanted to be in, and now that my applications materialized, there’s no better time to grab the opportunity while I’m still young and haven’t stayed too long in the company to find it harder to leave. Ultimately I will want to be in Marketing, but Sales is a good springboard into getting more holistic experience– especially now that one foot’s already in. I also wanted to find an industry and a job I know I will be passionate about, something I know I will put my heart and soul into and push me to the limit. So there. I’ll be starting my new career in a few days ;)

And now on to the more dramatic things…

5. Goodbyes (and airports and airplanes). I’ve said more goodbyes this year than I ever have; I have a feeling I’m already numb to it. I said goodbye to my family and friends before I moved to Davao, to my MISE friends after Module 4, my close friends who left Maersk, my Davao family when I moved back to Manila, and to everyone I’ve worked with when I resigned this month.

  

 

But like I already said before, I really don’t like the feeling of goodbyes anymore. I’ve said many other tearful goodbyes this year, and most of them related to saying goodbye in airports– with me moping about them on lonely flights home! When I said my last major goodbye this year to the company I’ve been 2.5 years with and with colleagues who’ve seen me through my weight transitions (LOL!), I didn’t really feel anything. I felt that after all, real friends will keep in touch.

6. Rejection. Just like goodbyes, I’ve experienced more rejections this year than I have in my life! When I was having a career crisis towards the beginning of the year, applying to jobs in FMCG and not receiving any feedback– that was a lot. Unsuccessful applications for expat positions I was interested in also made up for more of those. The biggest one though was more related to feelings for someone, eeeeek! The gist: I felt things I’ve never felt, did things I never did before, and said things I never thought would come out of my mouth! Looking back I probably just overestimated. Well, expectation management probably got the best of me. And though things didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to, there’s no better thing to do but move on and start with a clean slate in ‘09. Nevertheless, I don’t have any regrets since it can all be charged to experience!

2008 was such a growing pains year for me. I’ve experienced all sorts of emotions– from being over the top happy, excited, kilig, to being devastated, sad, lonely, disappointed, depressed, and bitter. I’ve been through major successes and failures, realizing that I’m only human, I’m no island, and that once things hit rock bottom there’s no other way to go but up. I’ve learned so much about life, other people, and most of all about myself– how I am when I’m alone, when I’m sad, when I go through failure, and the lengths I’d go and the things I’d do. I’m sure that this is not yet the worst, but at least I experienced all this to prepare me for when that time comes– I just have to get through these things to make me stronger. I would say I didn’t like this year, but it’s probably the best one so far in terms of teaching me about life, being mature, and realizing that anything that happens will be the result of my deeds and decisions. I’m sure in 2009 I’ll see the fruits of my “hardships”. I can’t wait to start with a clean slate ;)

And moving on to more interesting things, here are some of my resolutions for 2009:

• Save save save! I didn’t get to save much due to all my travels and expenses, but I’d like to take this seriously in 2009. If 2007 and 2008 were spending years, 2009 will be my saving year.
• NO MORE OF THEM SHORTIES!!!
• Lose more weight… at least 10 more pounds before the year ends
• Take my work seriously
• Enjoy the single life– do all the clubbing, parties and drinking I want… I’ve only got 3 years before my ideal marrying age, hahaha!
• Meet as much people as possible and expand my network

I’m sure 2009 will rock. I will make it. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

An MCC Christmas

If only I still liked my job and wanted to pursue my shipping career, I’d definitely stay. I just LOVE my office crowd now. Kung kelan naman ako paalis eh, saka pa that I met them and we all clicked! Someone told me before I got back to Manila that I wasn’t really gonna jibe with the MCC crowd. True enough I didn’t jibe with ALL of them but some of us actually did get along, enough to hang out as friends. :) We had our MCC Christmas Party last night–dinner at Oki-Oki in A Venue, drinks at Attica, and videoke at Platinum until 3am!!! After all the “let’s donate 30% of the winnings to charity” drama (which I oh so strongly opposed), not everyone was there but at least it’s the people that mattered ;)

TJ, Acey, Naresh, Marc, Me, Ian, Jeaf, Archie, Kristine, Carlo, Nasseir

The food at Oki Oki was great! I wasn’t able to appreciate it that much since I had colds, but I could taste it a bit nevertheless. I love their crazy (fried) maki. We had drinks at Attica after, and of course I taught everyone my staple drinking game (learned it from my friends in Shanghai!)– where you’d have to burn the tissue with a cigarette without dropping the coin inside the glass:

Nasseir dropped the 10 centavo coin during the first round, and I dropped the 5 peso coin during the second round– bottoms up lang naman! Haha. I love this game I play it everytime I go drinking! Anyway after drinks we finally got our room at Platinum KTV in Jupiter, after waiting for 2 hours! All the places were just jam-packed. We tried to go to Top Grill first but it was reserved and so we had to find other places and have dinner first while waiting. Buti nalang Top Grill was full because I loved our choice of places for the night. I wouldn’t have had it any other way!

Jeaf, Me, TJ, Acey, Ian, Alvin, Kristine, Archie

My voice is soooo husky now from the sing-off. I had sore throat, cough and colds to start with, and it even got worse after all the singing! We had a sing-off in pairs of 4 songs each, and the pair with the lowest average score has to do a bottom’s up. Pairings: Acey & Ian, Me & TJ, Kristine & Archie, Jeaf & Nasseir (in order of final standing). Second place kami ni TJ! Haha. Our winning pieces: Never Gonna Let You Go, Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, and I forgot the other one– or maybe we only did 3?! Pero basta it was super fun, everyone’s scores were in the 90’s range!

I hope this won’t be the last time I’ll hang out with these people at the office– though most likely it will be the last! I’ll be having my despedida early next year before I start work at Colgate-Palmolive so hope it’s gonna be as fun– and I hope I’ll have the same fun with my new officemates! :) In the meantime I’ll be maximizing my time with my MCC crowd while we’re still all together since it’s gonna be less convenient once I’m gone :( Last 2 days at the office next week!!!

Ay lav it!

Office Christmas party last Friday. 80’s theme. BADUY mode! I didn’t come as anyone but I came in a polka dot headband. LOL! I was one of the emcees with Ian and Jorge. My second time to emcee. I think I did pretty good also this time!

The highlight of the night: the departmental performances. Ok, I thought my department’s (MCC) performance was gonna be a super fail! Practice sucked and we were so lax about it. We sang “Carol of the Bells” and “Head Over Heels” by The Go-Go’s. Guess what– we won first place!!! 15K!!! Never would have expected it! Despite some major screw-ups in other aspects for the rest of the party, this totally made up for everything! Here’s the winning team in our “Carol of the Bells” glory…

We didn’t even have costumes and props like the others did. Oh, just imagine if we actually took this seriously. Haha!

In other news… I’ve already said this before. I have a crush at the office. Hahaha! I’m smiling from ear to ear!!! Now I’m sad that I’ve got 6 more days to go!!! :( I’ll miss my new friends! But hey, I’ll be gaining more once I get to C-P anyway.

Good times.