Visit

Finally, R’s vacation leave was approved and he was able to come back to the Philippines for 5 days! In case you don’t remember, R left the PH last December 2015 as he had to go back to his home country of Japan. Anyway, this is his first time back in a year and a half, and though it was short, it was lots and lots of fun!

I could go on and on about how fun it was, but I think photos tell a better story (on the Internet, anyway), so viola!

At The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (ATC Branch) – Actually, he arrived last Thursday, but it was late at night so effectively, he got here last Friday and we did go to Draft (Molito Branch) that night to meet a few of his friends, but I unfortunately, forgot to take pictures of that, so this is my first picture of his visit. We went to ATC on Saturday afternoon to get his money exchanged and buy a present for his friend’s kids. Since we finished early, we had a bit of time before we had to go to his friend’s house so we chose to spend the time at a coffee shop. He actually wanted to eat crepes and I had to apologize for the lack of it at the mall. I was disappointed, too. 😦 Not to mention, that that lemon pistachio cake we got at CBTL was also disappointing. But, oh well, we enjoyed our drinks, anyway. 🙂

Saturday Night Videoke – After going to his friend’s house and swinging by TAS Roofdeck a bit (for free beer!), we went to this super amazing bar/videoke/billiards place near the office of one of his friends. This is my first time to meet everyone in his college barkada (I mean, I already met most of them last year but only virtually), and I have to say, they are super duper nice. They didn’t give me a hard time at all fitting in, even though they’ve all known each other for a really long time. Everyone talked to me and made me feel as though I’d always been a part of their group. 🙂 They even asked me to still hangout with them, even on the days when R isn’t here. Isn’t that sweet?

All-Nighter at My House – Keeping with the “tradition” of our friendship, the Sunday night dinner we had with our friends and former co-workers at my place turned into an all-nighter with these two girls, M and C not leaving until at least 4 a.m. the next day. There is a picture that was taken earlier that night and it has more people in it, but I kind of wanted to highlight this one as it shows the change that after everyone had left, it was no longer just me, M and C who had a kind of debriefing about what just happened, but R as well. Because we’re together! 😛 But seriously, I had lots of fun this night, catching up with people we hadn’t seen for a long time and spending time with new friends M2 and D, who brought their cute son along with them.

Anniversary Dinner at The Black Pig – Happy 1st Anniversary to us! If you’ve been wondering how long we’ve been together (I have a question: Why? Haha!), here it is! It’s been a year! 😀 To celebrate, we had dinner at this restaurant at the Commercenter in Alabang. R wanted to eat steak and though I guess their specialty is actually pork (Iberico Ham!), their beef dishes weren’t bad either. R had the US Angus Choice Striploin and I had the Prime Angus Short Ribs. We enjoyed both dishes as well as the wine and cocktail we ordered. 🙂

Also, look at R in his かっこいい blue shirt. He’s not really the type to dress up, so it was such a kilig moment when I saw that he’d prepared an outfit for our anniversary dinner. ❤ I sincerely wish I wore a better dress as I think the one I’m wearing is more appropriate for a brunch date, but a dress is a dress is a dress, isn’t it? Also, he did say that I looked nice in it, so I guess that means it’s fine. 😀

And one last one:

Photo taken outside the bar/billiards/videoke place because I thought the lighting was nice and bright, except it turned out to be too bright so I had to turn this into a black & white photo. Strange lighting aside, I really like our smiles here. 🙂

Until next time, which hopefully won’t take too long.

 

Rant about rants

So many things went wrong today. I don’t want to go into detail as that will only annoy me again. Don’t get me wrong, the reason I’m here is because I really wanted to rant about them. Isn’t that what blogs are for? But I really do feel bad whenever I write something negative in here and then see it again a couple of weeks/months/years later and I realize that I no longer feel the same way and mainit lang talaga ulo ko at the time and that’s why I said those things. Even though ngayon, I really feel like I have valid points. I mean, you don’t keep a hungry person hungry. And when you charge the wrong amount to someone’s credit card, and you admit it because it’s true, you’re supposed to correct your mistake immediately. Not, almost a week later and it actually hasn’t even been corrected yet and kung hindi pa’ko tumawag ni hindi ako makakakuha ng sagot n’yo, ano?

Right. How did people get rid of their bad feelings before the Internet? I should know because I existed before the Internet did, right? Or, actually, maybe not. Technically, I think, the Internet and I were born the same year. Not the Internet as we know it now, of course. But like, the very first version of it. I think. I can’t really remember. Masyadong mainit ulo ko to remember. Next time na lang ang historically accurate history lesson. Matutulog muna ako.

My Niece’s Wedding

Surely, this is the mark of a true old maid: when you attend your niece’s wedding as a bridesmaid. And yes, I know, the fact of the matter is, we’re an unconventional aunt&niece pair as she is only five years younger than I, but still, she is my cousin’s daughter, and she does call me “Tita.” And though I expected it, I still found it kind of funny that all my aunts asked me, “Ikaw? Kelan ka?” One aunt even said, after she found out what my job is, “‘Wag ka nang mag-homebased na trabaho! Paano ka makakahanap [ng asawa] niyan kung nakatago ka lang sa bahay?” to which, by the way, my own mother replied, “‘Eh ‘di online!”

Since I know better than to take those things seriously and didn’t feel like going into the intricacies of my long-distance relationship with R, I just faked a laugh and continued eating my chocolate-covered marshmallow from the dessert bar.

Sincerely, I am very happy for my niece and her husband and am quite flattered she still asked me to be her bridesmaid even though we’re not as close as we used to be. Perhaps she enjoyed that time when she was 7 and my sister and I brought her to SM Storyland and did all the rides with her and bought her some stationery from the bookstore afterwards more than I thought. Or maybe I’m the one who enjoyed it more as that is still my most distinct memory of her, even though that was literally 20 years ago, SM Storyland doesn’t even exist anymore and if it did, we wouldn’t be allowed on the rides anymore we’ve grown too big.

Anyway, one more story about the wedding:

I was seated next to another one of the bridesmaids and she asked me: Cousin mo si Pau?
I answered: Pamangkin ko siya.
She said: Ah… Talaga po?

And then she and the rest of the bridesmaids proceeded to call me “Ate” for the rest of the night. I guess, that’s a little better than “Tita” from people whom I know are only five years younger than me. And at least nobody actually called me an old maid. At least not to my face. Except my brother. But he’s a jerk so it doesn’t count. Right?

Best wishes to my beautiful, beautiful niece! #IkzAndPau4Ever!!!

This Place

Like a good movie, I never get tired of seeing this view.

I always like coming here. Perhaps, because I always have good memories of this place. From when we used to have picnics here when I was a kid, to the high school retreats, to the day or overnight trips with my family and friends. You could even say that this is where I fell in love.

Or, okay, of course, I’m being melodramatic. But shouldn’t you be, when talking about love?

This was the backdrop when he and I first looked into each other’s eyes and knew. And perhaps we’ll never know if it was the reason why we felt the things we did–I mean, who looks at this view and feels the cool breeze and hears the quiet in this place without thinking of romantic things? But does it really matter?

I am a bit saddened by the fact that it seems they’re overdeveloping this place (if they haven’t already, and really, I might say the same for the rest of the world). And the next time I come here, or the next time anyone comes here, the atmosphere of wanting to fall in love would be gone. Already, instead of respite from the city, I can hear the screams of people on the roller coaster at the amusement park next-door. Not that that can’t be a good backdrop for two people falling in love either.

So, yeah. I always like coming here.