Fashion Watch

I don't really consider myself a fashionista. In fact the closest I'd get to being one is when you see me browsing some fashion magazines or watching makeover shows on Velvet or Lifestyle channels... You can say I'm not the type to want to be first in sporting the latest trend since I'm already comfy in my jeans and shirt and basic footwear.

So... when I received an invite for Fitness.Fashion, at the Waterfront Hotel (Lahug), I was confused. Hahaha. What do I wear to such an event??? The dress code said: "Wear something chic". Right... What's chic these days? That's very ambiguous.

After deciding on a top I already had and a good pair of jeans (yep, dark skinny denims) and stilletos, off I went with my friend Dahlia.

The show was a mixture of collections from several designers, the likes of Joey Samson, Louis Claparols, Tonichi Nocom, Protacio Empaces, Jun Escario, Rajo Laurel, Philip Rodriquez, Vic Barba, Rhett Eala, Arcy Gayatin, Randy Ortiz, Cary Santiago, James Reyes, Lord Maturan, and Edwin Ao (list of designers lifted from StyleCebu.com).

There were really nice clothes on the ramp but Dahlia and I, along with our other lady-companions on the "green section" were aww-ing and ahh-ing at the buff and lovely (male and female and Cebu celebrity) models more than the collection. Hihihi.

So much for fashion watching. It was a new experience for me and taught me a bit about style (which needs to be put to practice I suppose). I hope I don't see myself in pictures with a blacked out face and labelled "what not to wear to a fashion event" or "caught by fashion police". ;)

Playing Catch Up (2) - A Night with Marcel

With friends distributed around the globe, every chance we get to meet up with a good friend, we really give time for it. One such occasion was when Marcel Fernan flew in (Cebu) from the US a few days back.

We all met up at the Tinder Box for wine and pica-pica and then moved to Z Bar where the men had a few more drinks, hmm, as usual. They had the perfect excuse.

Funny that (almost) everyone (except for myself and Monica Climaco), were in black garb that night.... Trying to show a slimmer silhouette perhaps? Try harder guys, just kidding.



From left to right: Rene Ybanez, Henry Lopio, Marcel Fernan, Jerry Rapes, Manny Climaco

Kyle's 12th

It was a no-brainer birthday planning event that turned out really great. An afternoon of internet-gaming session with lots of pizza for snacks for Kyle's friends for the 2nd time (or is it 3rd?) is still the popular choice for us.

It was a good thing there was a newly opened internet cafe near our workplace. Reservation was a breeze as the people manning the outlet sees me often. They gave me a good price for 10 computers reserved for 3 hours. That should be enough, I thought.

On the day itself, it turned out we had to pay for at least 15 computers as Kyle's guests were more than we expected! LOL. They were all excited to the point that a few of Kyle's friends even arrived at the venue ahead of us. Haha. Judging from the looks on their faces, it was well worth it.

So, tip for today, for a hassle-free tweener birthday celeb, ditch the balloons, the loot bags, the pinata, and the birthday clowns. Or better yet, invite the birthday clowns for some gaming session instead.
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Venue: eNGy Cafe and Da Vinci Pizza at Asiatown IT Park

Spa treat for good friend Ann

Looking sleepy refreshed after an hour of foot pampering, originally uploaded by gratitude.

August 31 was Ann's birthday. It was a Sunday, but being moms with Sundays reserved for family, we chose to meet up on a Saturday instead. For lunch we tried the new barbecue place (was it Barbecue Joe?) at The Walk then dessert and tea at nearby La Marea.

To complete the afternoon bonding, we hied off to The Forum for some serious foot massage.

Buwan ng Wika

Jake, Andre, DD

To celebrate the last school day for the Buwan ng Wika (month of the Filipino language), Jake wore Barong Tagalog (national costume for men) to school this morning. My crazy imagination gave me a visual of how my boy would look like in about 20-25 years, when he decides to wear the same type of outfit for his wedding. Eep... Erase! Erase!

So anyway...

There may be a high percentage of non-Filipino students in his school, but, to the delight of parents, that didn't stop them from singing Filipino songs and dancing to Filipino music. :) They even re-enacted the "bayanihan" spirit where an assigned group of high school students jointly carried on their shoulders a hut made of nipa around the gym.

It was a short affair that lasted for about 2 hours max, just enough time for me to get back to work right after. To cap the morning session, Jake's class had a feast of all-Filipino food that the parents were requested to bring. We contributed pansit palabok, heheh... Is that even Filipino? On our way home, just like the rest of the mommies, I managed to bring pieces of budbud and bibingka that I wasn't able to finish.

In the Company of Friends

This has been a long delayed entry about the Sinulog get-together we cooked up at the last minute. Yes, about 7 months delayed. Haha.

Mike was flying in from Davao to participate in last January's Sinulog festivities and has offered to cook his special pasta if I could provide the venue for lunch. Instant reunion with friends and specially prepared food for and by the same group, WHY should I resist?


Mike in green, Prime in blue, Ann and Jerry (standing on the right), myself, and Dahlia

The busy bodies doing the food prep, minus myself as I am more an expert in eating than cooking. :P


It's good to be able to do this every now and then.

One of the Perks

I'm a busy full-time mom, not a SAHM*, nor a WAHM*, but a regular working mom with flexible work hours. Thanks to my job at M. One thing I love about my kind of work is that it enables me to spend time with my youngest. Not so much now with the 2 elder boys since they're at school for most of the day, but spending at least 2 precious waking hours with my bub is cathartic to me.

In the middle of being online, I get comic intermissions viewing this...


My Jake as Superman and his friend Zach as the Flash

and these...



It definitely made my day today! :)

*SAHM - Stay at home mom; WAHM - Work at home mom

Mothers' (Day) Weekend

This was how my Mothers (Day) Weekend was spent...



Friday evening - An hour of foot pampering at my favorite (cheap) spa
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Saturday - outing with family and friends from work
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Sunday - 6pm mass at Sacred Heart Church (yay for aircon'ed places of worship), Kenny Rogers feast of slabs of ribs, roasted chicken, muffins, several sidings and roast chicken sandwich (this last item was my dinner) and... couch potato-ing for most of the day watching the Desperate Housewives marathon!

It was a simple celeb but a great one at that. On the whole, I had a lovely Mothers' Day weekend!



Kyle, Jake and Jerry... not in pic is Matt, who is presently in Xiamen, China until 3rd week of May

Palm Sunday and Teambuilding @ Bravio

Today, we...

... attended the 7am mass at Redemptorist Church to take part in the Palm Sunday festivities.
... bought Jollibee breakfast treats for the boys.
... together with our 4yo and 14yo sons, spent the morning being with colleagues at work...to watch the Pacquiao-Marquez match at Bravio. It was intended to be a teambuilding / R&E sort of activity as the development / technical teams of our company have been toiling and spending long days (and nights) at work beating the deadline for our product release.
... were made proud (to be Pinoys) after seeing another victory from the Pacman.
... were made proud by Kyle's 3rd place victory (along with 2 friends from school) in the robotics competition. He is now guaranteed a grade of 100 in his computer class. Wee! Perhaps he might be interested to pursue a career in IT in the future.

Today, I...

... was amused to see Jake undistracted as he played with Lani's PSP for 2 hours (!) while everyone was busy having buffet brunch and waiting for the big boxing match.
... was screaming the loudest as I watched the exchange of punches.
... realized I could never get used to watching boxing.
... felt glad the activity we prepared at the spur of the moment was well-attended.

The day was spent differently in a good way. Care to share how your Sunday went?

Jake's 4th Birthday

March 11 was a weekday and we surprised Jake in school with treats for all his classmates and teachers. Regulation food was Jollibee's spaghetti and chicken combo meal. We prepared loot bags filled with goodies and stickers and small thingamagigs plus colored squiggly balloons to the delight of his friends. :D

While everyone was eating... I snuck behind Jake to give him a hug and a kiss. He was smiling at me, his joy was evident though he was mildly nursing a cough. "Are you happy Jake?", I asked trying to validate his reaction to all this. With bits of chicken sticking out of his mouth, he nodded and beamed a wide smile.

He then moved his face closer to mine... Aw he was going to kiss me back! Sweet thing...

"Ma, where's the cake?", he whispered.

Dang!

Alegre Beach Resort

"Alegre" literally means happy, glad, merry, joyful, gay, cheerful, blithe, lively, jolly, cheery, hilarious, mirthful, gleeful in Spanish. Exactly the same feelings everyone in the team had when we spent 4 days and 3 nights in that resort in Sogod town, 1.5 hours north of Cebu City.... Preparations for this event caused the (in)frequency of my posts too. :D

*Most of the shots are mine but photo credits go to ...Lani Sara, Cris Factolerin, Chico Barretto, and Bronson Espinosa...

Password: Apat na numero ng aking kaarawan

A few months ago, we watched a kiddie presentation where everyone wore pink tops, white bottoms and wings while they danced to the tune of "Paro-Parong Bukid". Jake was at the back of the formation.

As the music was playing, Jake was seriously executing his moves while M and A were in a scuffle. When M & A bumped the dancing Jake, Jake tried to pull the two boys apart. While doing that, C, who was on the other side, went over to the 3 boys. And without any provocation, C gave Jake a quick jab on the face. My boy wasn't intimidated at all and retaliated by shoving C away from him. I was in a semi-shock watching the incident. Jake was actually fending for himself!

.... (Freeze)...Then my memory stick ran out of space in capturing what would be a short melee.

No worries there... M, A, C and Jake are actually friends before and even after that incident.

If only adults were just as forgiving....





*You have to have a fast connection to be able to view this 20mb short video...
*Password is to prevent unauthorized viewing of innocent kids in this video

Life Begins....

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Family in red, originally uploaded by gratitude.

It was a simple birthday get-together for me last Oct. 30. Family, relatives and a few friends joined me at Cafe Georg for dinner.

So many wonderful things to be thankful for, one of them is being surrounded by loved ones on this special day... :)

With my Paparazzi, Ma, niece Zia and the family of Cong. Matugas, my maternal uncle..., originally uploaded by gratitude.

My paternal aunt and cousins, Mimi and Stella and niece Marti..., originally uploaded by gratitude.

Close family friends - The Ongs and the Khos, originally uploaded by gratitude.

Netopia and Yellow Cab

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Kyle's friends fresh from internet gaming at Netopia...., originally uploaded by gratitude.

As is the trend nowadays for boys' parties... 1st part is usually internet gaming for 1 to 2 hours at Netopia to be followed by a scrumptious snack of Yellow Cab pizza.

The 10-11 year olds were just too happy to be spending a Saturday afternoon together playing and sharing some snacks.

This is my idea of no-fuss partying. And I'm glad that everyone enjoyed.

The bigger boys...Matt's mafia too were there to share in the fun..., originally uploaded by gratitude.

Here are 2 of my amigas too as Kyle's guests... :D, originally uploaded by gratitude.

Fiery Friday

fire truck at the IT Park, our office building in the background
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It took a total of 45 minutes. When the fire alarm blared inside the building, we all ran in a single file to the stairwell, ran down the ramp to exit to the parking area and proceeded to the evacuation spot. Looking around, I saw road barricades on both sides to try to keep motorists from blocking the escape route. People in jeepneys and cars that were blocked entry ogled at the hundreds of employees coming out of our office building. Firemen were assisting a few seemingly injured people into the open area. It was midday but we didn't mind the sweltering heat as we rushed out.





smiling faces under the sun
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This could be real-life and seriously more life-threatening. Good thing this was just a fire drill and everyone else knew what to do.

On Being Appreciated...

One of my first jobs when I got to Cebu 15 years ago was as Accounting Officer of then new SM (Cebu) department store. There were about 10 members under me who handled voluminous transactions on a daily basis. I had to review all their work on a daily basis too. Work was tedious owing to the nature of retail. Plus the work environment was pretty rigid. Nevertheless, the group bonded well and even up to now some are still in touch with each other.

Genny was one of the girls who followed me even up to the next job I had. In this next job, she became an even more trusted colleague and friend who was loyal to the point of putting her job on the line just to show her support. Of course I was talking about an incident that happened about 3 years ago that caused me to move on out of delicadeza after fighting for what I believed in (in futility). Since then, Genny and the team had a new manager on top of them.

Two Fridays ago, Genny and Hazel, another former Accounting "angel", paid me a visit. Genny will be flying to Singapore in a few week's time as she has already passed the EPEC. She intends to invite Hazel as well, as the latter tries to find her luck there too. For hardworking people like them in this dog-eat-dog work environment, I wish them both success in their pursuits.

While in my office, we talked animatedly about the past. It was an afternoon full of reminiscing about the times spent together. I was truly touched when they said they missed the good old days when I was there to lead them, to mentor them, to defend them, to cover for them, and to make the work load bearable even while meeting hectic deadlines. Imagine hearing that and how it made my heart swell with elation. I guess it's an accomplishment for me to be able to have that effect on them, to be acknowledged for something, even when I thought I was just doing my job...



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Hazel, moi, Genny
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House Deliverance

Do Thou, O Lord, enter graciously into the home that belongs to Thee...
...and may all who now come into this house receive Thy blessing and protection,
and may they glorify Thy name.


We didn't just have the regular house blessing last Monday 8/20. We called on the help of Father Ralph and Ms. Cora to perform a special deliverance and to pray over our entire family. We are deeply grateful to some friends and relatives who deliberately had to forego previous plans just to share with us this special moment.

Morph Launch

This post was antedated...

Jerry was in Manila for his regular weekly trip. I joined him for my new company's launch. Junnie was still in town (Manila). And Pa and Ma were free for the weekend...

Perfect timing for yet another chance to meet up. Business mixed with personal stuff sure did us good.

Cheers!

pic taken @ Tinder Box
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Last July 15, I had folks from Manila, Bicol, Bohol, and US flying over to Cebu for the week-long company (new one, will relay in another post) kick-off meeting. What's a better way to cap a day of introductions and planning than to have wine and cheese at Tinder Box?

Yup...and consumed several bottles of white, blush, red and shiraz wine, we did.



Cheers to an exciting new company!
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Birthday A Week After

eat-all-you-can Mongolian dinner at Kublai Khan's (photo taken by a camphone)
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How does a new 14 year old lad celebrate his birthday with friends?

a) watch a movie (Simpson's)
b) internet gaming sessions (@ EGG)
c) eat-all-you-can dinner (@ Kublai Khan's)

In Matt's case, you guessed it right, it was all of the above. :D