Bonne Année!

Happy New Year Everyone!

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Last two holiday events to blog about...

Last Dec 29-30 we checked-in at The Pearl Manila Hotel for an overnighter with my college barkada. It was unfortunate that preggy Mem and hubby were not able to join us. Masama daw ang pakiramdam ni buntis.

So far, this has been the "most attended" of the past get-togethers. Since Andrew has been seriously studying Medicine (Hehe!), he didn't have much time to go out and socialize. =P Now that he is a full-fledged doctor, he only has the USMLE in mind. Plus, Lalaine's been in town so this is really something we're looking forward to.

The day started with a serious Risk match between Benj, Beej, Andrew and moi. Andrew won on the merit that he is very serious in destroying my empire. He hates me because luck was on my side. =P I hope that somebody will study the manual and teach us how to play the Star Wars mode. Hehe!

Cri-c arrived and was giving us hell because she was not included in the game. At least she acquired a new best friend in Benj. Hehe!

Anne arrived a few minutes after with boyfriend, Joseph. *Kilig!*

Soon after, Cri-c and Anne were updating each other with what's happening in their lives.

We got tired with Risk and switched to Guesstures. We were odd-numbered so we decided that Andrew should act out all the words. And boy, can he act! Wow! Most of us were in awe watching him, we forget to guess the word. Andrew acted the words until Lalaine got to the hotel. He was acting for more than two hours, dinner lang pahinga. Hihi!

Manuel joined us close to midnight. Being the booze carrier, he was worth the wait. But, it seems that age are getting to us because soon after, people were switching to Pepsi and water.

To ward off sleepiness, we decided to switch to the classic Pinoy Henyo. (BTW, did you know that there is an online Pinoy Henyo??? Haha! Weird!) We finally gave up fighting sleep after 2AM.

Later morning, we still didn't have enough of Guesstures and played some more. After we got tired, we moved to videoke singing. Cri-c belted her college winning piece. Walang kupas!

We decided to part ways at 12 noon - check out time na kasi. Hehe!

*Sigh* I miss college, where life was less complicated and when we say overnighter - nobody really sleeps. =P

Pics here.

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New Year Party

We have an annual tradition to invite relatives and friends to join us for a simple get-together at home. My mom turns into a kitchen whiz and prepares delicious food for everyone.

Thanks for those who came: Con (with Arjahn & Luiz), Mavis (with pretty Angel), Beej & Benj, Lalaine (with Ninang, Ate, Kuya & Kulit), Allan, Bon, OJ, Ate Malou, Nanay (with kids), Kuya Mel (with Tisha and kids), Annie & Tony... at marami pang iba. Hope to see you again next year, same venue, same time. =)

Pics here.

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How come the clock spins fast every time one is on vacation?

I'm already anticipating the next long one. Kelan kaya yung susunod? Nuninu.

'Tis the Season to be busy... 2

We had a crazy, busy December. Just like last year. But, who's complaining? =D

December 13

FSI Christmas Party

Allan and I ended up hosting the event. Our day started as early as 9AM and ended at 4PM. Parang children's party. Hehe! I was dead tired but had a really great time.

Our intention for hosting the event was to get away from performing that day. Although I also ended up as the choreographer of our dance presentation, it was less stressful for me. After teaching them the steps, that was it for me. =D

We won second place! For the past years, we always had the worst presentation. At least second na ngayon! =D

Dinner at Tokyo Cafe

Together with my office barkada, we had dinner at Tokyo Cafe in MOA. Since Irish, Allan and I had lunch there a few days ago, we thought of bringing the other peeps there. Joven joined us after work. After loads of laughter and kwentuhan, we decided to call it a night. Joven and I went around shopping but were unsuccessful with what we want.


December 16

Last minute errands and more shopping

We started the day with a few errands - meeting his Tita and accompanying my mom for some of her holiday shopping.

As a surprise, we brought her to the appliance center to buy our gift for her. My sister and I (of course with Joven) decided to get her a brand new television. Since our TV broke down a month ago, my mom has been watching her favorite teleseryes in a 14" TV. We got her a 29" TV this time. At least di na nya huhulaan yung tao. Hehe!

Joven and I decided to get our own 29" TV as well. Now we can watch DVDs at the comfort of our bedroom. Nice! That was our big gift for each other. =D


December 17

More Shopping

Joven asked me a life-changing question a few weeks back: "Magic Sing or PS2?" Aaaaaargh! I said I needed to think about it. I ended up asking people around me.

Magic Sing it is! Haha!

We bought ours after dropping off at Nanay's. Shempre, tinest agad! I think it took them four hours to make me stop. Hahaha!


December 19

Lunch at Krua Thai

Our boss treated for us for a sumptuous lunch. The whole group went to Blue Wave and ended up at Krua Thai. Parang last meal, super busog! Minsan lang 'to, kaya dapat i-blog. Haha!

Get-Together with Lalaine from UK

My high school best friends, Con (with hubby, Arjahn), Lalaine and I (with Joven) met at SM San Lazaro. Lalaine went home for the holidays and to try to make arrangements for her wedding on 2008. Dinner was at Congo Grille and, since we cannot get a decent seat at Starbucks, coffee was at Coffee Dream. Laughter and chika non-stop. *Sigh* Miss the simple life of high school.


December 20

Vidoeke at Music Match with Office Barkada

Much awaited! We prepared for it (with matching exchange gifts) for almost a month. Videokes are never the same without these people. They sure know how to have fun. We really had a great time! =D

Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera at hand so we ended up begging for pics instead. =P

Here are the ones from Yax and Dhang.


December 21

Videoke with SML

What?? Videoke again? Haha! You'd think that partying till 1AM will stop us? Nah. I even came to the office before 9AM. Joven was in his office earlier. =D

The night was for SML this time. Richie came home after a year of studies in the US (he'll be back there in January though). We haven't had any videoke session when Richie was away. So what would be best but to welcome him with one. Ryan, Cors, The Bs were also present. It was great to hear Cors singing this time. =)


December 22

Dinner with Frenchies & Japs

There was a Frenchies dinner at Crazy Roll a few weeks back but Joven and I weren't able to join them. That was the time Joven got sick. It was great of them to fix their schedules and have dinner with us again.

Dinner this time was at Burgoo in MOA. Coffee was at Starbucks. Jera brought along her friend from Japan. It was nice how they teach her bad words. Haha!


December 24

Noche Buena

My sisters from Pasig trooped to our place for our annual Noche Buena. Mommie was busy in the kitchen all day. I took the liberty of baking a chocolate cake (which didn't stay long in the fridge. naks!) and fixing the chocolate for the fondue.

My 5-year-old nephew, Jef was soo excited in opening his gifts. He was shrieking and laughing while he was tearing off the gift wrappers. He got his ultimate dream this Christmas: WWE action figures.

I got three bags from my two sisters and mom this Christmas. I wonder why. =P I also got a shirt from Jef. A Coelho and a Micheal V DVD from Joven. Hihi! Aliw! Joven and I got Chritsmas money from my dad which will turn into a love seat one of these days. Thanks thanks everyone!


December 25

Christmas Day!

We woke up mid-morning and were immediately swamped by inaanaks and neighborhood children. After our ninang duties, we went to mass at Lourdes church.

We were expected at Tita Nene's place by lunch time. We asked Jef if he'd come with us, surprisingly he said yes. I guess it was after enticing him with duguan (what he calls dinuguan) - his favorite viand.

When we got there, the elders were already eating lunch while the young girls were upstairs and the young boys were playing PS2. Jef immediately took his place with the boys but I urged him to eat duguan first. I guess the call of PS2 was louder because after three spoonfuls of food, he told me he was already full. He immediately made his way to the group of boys as if he'd known them since he was born.

Of course we were asked the question again, "Wala pa ba?" Ahm, I told them we're trying to get there. Insert *sigh* here.


December 26

MMFF

With nothing better to do, Joven and I, together with my mom, decided to watch a movie. We were weighing our options (nothing much really), and ended up with Ligalig. It was supposed to be rated A by the cinema board, for Joven and I it was quite predictable. There were certain scenes that were unnecessary, some scenes produced a "duh!" from me, some effects were not really that good. Oh well.


December 27

The day was spent with Lalaine, Merc, Cheche, and Tantan. I won't spill the beans. I'm keeping my mouth shut since I signed a contract. =P

We ate lunch at Tokyo Cafe. Yeah, yeah. I recommended the place. I can't help it. If we were on the north side, I would've recommended Crazy Rolls. =P

ArtBag

Joven told me he has a surprise for me when he gets home. Apparently, Leslie (Fol's wife) dropped off our finished album to his office. Of course, with our own ArtBag. Woohoo! Thanks Fol and Leslie!


Whew! That was a busy December indeed. We still have an overnight thingy tomorrow. Kwentos on that on our next blog entry.

BTW, I'm a winner again! I just got it from the mail. Apparently, I'm one of the five lucky poll voters who won gift certificates from Sanctuario Spa. Many thanks to Manila Bulletin's About Weddings and of course to Benz because it was her who e-mailed us about the poll. I've yet to get it though. =P

On a high (note)

Friday was spelled C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-I-O-N for us. It was the birthdays of my office friends, Irish and Dhang. We started off the day with some gift giving and a quick lunch at Sbarro in MOA.

Since we were psyched for the day, we also bought "matching shirts." Mine read like this:

Here are some of the other shirts:

Later that night, Joven and I plus my office friends went to Music Match in Tomas Morato to sing our lungs out. Since we are RedBox regulars, this was the first time we're trying something new. We were not disappointed!

We were given a big room (i.e., big space to dance around) and our own comfort room. The staff were very courteous... even the owner was surprisingly "game" in our little surprise. You see, we bought two cakes from Kink Cakes for our friends. One with a pair of big b**bs (because she can only dream of having such... hehe!) and the other with huge behind (she has one!).

Three of our friends picked it up from their branch in Timog. I was surprised when I was called by one of the staff because of a "phone call." The owner was in the hallway and instructed me to proceed to the front desk. Voila! The cakes and my friends were there. To make the timing right, we had (the staff & owner included) to call Joven for another "phone call" (I wonder why nobody questioned that... hehe!).

In the end, the timing was perfect. The birthday girls were very surprised (one even cried!). After the candles were blown, the real party started!

We sang and danced our hearts out. Food and drinks kept pouring in. Ansaya!!!

We capped the night with a cup of vanilla latté in our favorite café.

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Joven and I were supposed to go shopping for gifts at 168 on Saturday morning. But, because of a very tiring night, we weren't able to get ourselves out of bed early. Shopping was moved to the afternoon. We're almost done with our shopping but we still need to go back next week. We also need to go to the mall for additional gifts. Mahirap maraming kaibigan. Haha! It was definitely tiring. But for women, shopping is shopping. Hihi! The fun part - my husband was so kind to carry most of the stuff. =D

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Since my friend mentioned to me that she's addicted to Prime Suspects. I got curious. I begged Joven to download me a copy (with the crack, of course!).

Yesterday, Joven and I were playing it together. We finally stopped after 5 hours! Call that addiction. Maybe we'd get Huntsville too. Hehe!

Halo-Halloween!

Last Friday, Joven and I together with Bon, Dhang, Irish, OJ, Jera, Allan, Malou plus Dave (Dulce came late) went to see Little Miss Sofia Roxanne for the first time. =)

She's sooo cute! Jon's mini-me according to most of us (for the time being according to the dad). When we saw her first photos we thought that she's a big baby. But since she's a premie, she's really small in actual size. Kakatuwa. =)

We were, of course, teased to make our own. =P

While waiting for dinner, we were in our especially hyper mood and were horsing around. Hehe!

Yax and Jon served great food for the guests. Sarap!

Since most of us live far from Yax and Jon's place, we had to leave early. But not without a photo-op with Sofia. =)

More pics here.

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A few weeks ago, Fol emailed us the album lay-out for our approval. To our surprise and excitement, he e-mailed us last friday that the album's done and ready for pick-up!

Saturday mid-afternoon, we headed to Fol's place to pick it up. We loved it! It was beautiful!

We dropped by my sister's place to show it off. They loved it too. =)

Here's the album layout. =)

Unfortunately, none of us noticed that in the album spine it says "Jove and Dionne." Fol said he's very sorry and to return it to them immediately. Haay. I have to put off showing it to my other friends. Excited pa naman ako. Hehe!

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We haven't met up with the frenchies for the longest time. Or at least that's how we all feel. Hehe!

That's why last Saturday night, we (Joven and I, Christophe, Jera, Dax) trooped to Michelle's condo to watch scary movies, chat with Lu, kwentuhan, and eat ourselves to death. It was our halloween party, so to speak.

We stressed ourselves screaming, eating too much, and laughing. =D

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Lastly, Happy Halloween everyone!

Weekend G's

Friday was in celebration of Bon's birthday.

Bon is one of my favorite people on earth. We became really good friends when I came back from France two years ago. She's one person I can unabashedly share my frustrations, opinions and goofiness. =D

Her birthday was of course a special occasion for us. The pre-planned dinner at MOA became a videoke-all-nighter at RedBox. The birthday girl, Irish, Francis, Dulce, Ara, Malou, and our new recruit, OJ partied the night away.

We went home with sore throats and happy hearts. Happy birthday VC Bon!

More pics here.

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Saturday was set for a movie-dinner date with Benj, Beej and Cors. (Get well soon Ryan!)

Joven and I wanted to go to Greenhills earlier to shop, but because of unforeseen circumstances (i.e., I was late), we got there just in time for dinner. On our way to the Promenade, we were sooo amazed on how much Greenhills has changed. Ganda na! It was a mix of Gateway, Market! Market! and Greenbelt. We hope to come back and explore some more. =D

Dinner was at Cibo. Yummy! Food pics here.

I should have brought the camera to the bathroom. Wala lang aliw kasi! Hehe!

Ever since I saw on TV that they're making The Departed, I asked Joven if we could watch it as soon as it's shown here.

Being a fan of mob movies, I enjoyed it immensely, the blood and gore included. I don't have much words to describe the film. It will really leave you speechless. I just loved it. I hope they'd get to show more of these stuff as they do back in the old days. Hehe!

I looked up the movie in IMDB (I only do that only after I've seen it to avoid spoilers), and learned that it was based on a HK film, Infernal Affairs.


Which got me interested too.

Andy Lau and Tony Leung! My HK action star crushes! It's really like Caprio and Damon! Hehe!

I hope we'd be able to get a copy of the movie. Help!