Weekend activities

There's not much to do today. I think I need to control my shopping urges. Singapore is a place where people's past time would be shopping, simply because, there's a lot of sales in all its malls. Right now, I decided to stay at home.

Things I usually do when at home is have some movie series marathon. Last Saturday, I just finished season 1 of Merlin. Then I watched the third season of Avatar. I also read the Naruto Manga online. And right now, I'm viewing House MD season two. I have watched the first season when I was in the Philippines so I just am continuing right now where I left off of this great series.

I think the availability of good movie series, thanks to sponsors, helped me not to go out and shop. I need to save since I am planning to have a vacation in Cebu in the near future. And we all know that vacations would mean that I have to have extra money for all the purchases and services I want to avail. I have actually bought my round trip air tickets with SilkAir online and I am just waiting for my project lead to approve my vacation leave application.

Anyway, I was also watching some of Leona Lewis video and really loved her Summertime rendition. Go see:


Got to continue my House MD marathon. Ciao!

What happened on Sunday?

Olga had to go earlier to catch good stuff at West Coast and I was there in my room, enjoying "Legened of the Seeker" series or LOTS. My housemates went to church and I was still on my room with eyes glued on my laptop monitor and ears plugged with my two neon green ear phones. After some few minutes my phone rang which was actually connected to my laptop via USB to be power-charged. I answered the call immediately as it was from Olga's. She told me that the Nike Store in West Coast is really having a good mark down on their merchandise. I did not have to second guess as I myself would want to buy a new Nike shoes. I did not know how to get there so I asked Olga what bus should I take. Well it was kind of simple because I just needed to take the MRT and then stop at Clementi station then go to the bus station at the right when facing forward to Jurong East. I had to take bus 189 and it was two stops away from that station. That was it! I turned my laptop off after finishing LOTS episode 9 and hurriedly went to the shower. After the shower I blasted off my way to West Coast Plaza.

There was a lost moment like I crossed the other side of the road and was walking my way to West Coast market. I sensed that I was walking the wrong direction so I called up Olga and she told me not to cross, instead, go straight and I should see the sign. I cross back and then walked straight ahead and there you go, I found myself at West Coast Plaza.

I searched for the Nike Factory Store and saw Olga at the entrance. We went in and checkout their displays. I checked the racks of shoes towering almost to the ceiling, and there were five of them. I was having difficulty of choosing which one to buy because most of them looked cool to me. I said to myself if I have the luxury then I will have to buy most of those pairs but I have to just pick a pair for a tight budget like mine. I found this high cut top sider I think and was choosing which color. I tried both of them and both looked good. So I was thinking really which one to buy and asked Olga a lot of times which one should I pick.... It boiled down to buying the first pick priced at 79 SGD. After deciding what shoes, Olga and I checked some shirts and I bought one priced at 20 SGD. Olga bought the waffles limited edition of Nike at 18SGD for a price of two. I just thought that if I buy something from Nike, I should go check that store and see if they have what I like.

After that mini shopping, we went to this bookstore nearby where Olga bought two books. I needed a bookstand so I went around looking for it. But, prior to that, I checked some books of Paulo Coehlo and found two new issues which I don't have yet in my collection and also found a new cover of Dan Brown's. Well I still have like 15 books to read so opted not to buy and went on looking for that book stand. I found one located at the far east of the store and it was at the lowest rack so it proved really a bit hard looking for that. I thank God that I had more patience now to go on and search for that. You see, my books were in dump on top of my cabinet drawer and really in a bit of chaos. Olga wanted to have one so we bought two. Then we saw this store with bags and check it out but did not buy. I mean that was it for the day. I have like many bags with their corresponding functions and I needed not one anymore.

We went down of the mall from the second level and then tried looking around something. I went to the Guardian pharmacy and the nearby competitor to look for a facial wash and some shampoos. After that, I saw Subway and realized I was hungry. I only took lunch as I woke up really late. Olga and I got a good seat we thought as the table was wobbly and we had to transfer, and once settled with our orders, we ate and talk a lot. We were not noisy though.

After that dinner so called dinner? Hehehehe. We went home. I tell you the walk was long it's as if I was doing a tread mill. It was good by the way as I was not able to visit the gym last Saturday as we went to Johor Bahru Malaysia.

That's for now, good day!

Johor Bahru, Malaysia with Friends

I was so flat when I arrived home. I did not even notice that I have slept thus, leaving my laptop on in my bed. Good thing I did not damage it. You see my bed is of a single size that truly fits just a person (obviously in my case).

Anyway, at around 9AM yesterday, I woke up and went to the shower room immediately. My friends had to wake up sooner so I began to make some bit of noise. Actually, I was singing different songs while having my bath. After I finished the shower, my housemates woke up. Good thing they did because the time that we have to meet at Woodlands was 11 AM. Well people were in queue so it was a bit slow in progress and we a had to rush. At around 10AM, I sent a message to Kay and Olga asked me if I sent a message to her and told her nope. She clarified if the message to Kay was a broadcast and told her otherwise, so I checked my phone and there you go I sent it to Olga and not to Kay. My housemates were in hurry already as we have to meet Kay at Woodlands. It did not help much as the rain came pouring hard. When we got out of the flat, we decided to take a cab going to Buona Vista MRT station. The ride took us around 45 minutes and Kay while waiting for us at Woodlands decided to have a coffee break. When we arrived at Woodlands, I sent an mms to Kay and we met at the exit area. There was this Lutheran guy asking for donation and asked him if any amount will do, so I gave him 5 SGD. He then rounded up my friends. Anyway, some of them just pretended to be doing something else, as the guy was a bit persistent.

The five of us went to the bus terminal for Johor Bahru and we got lost a bit. This was my third time and we still got lost. Anyway we found it and then took the short trip to the end of the Singapore border. The process was just fine when entering Singapore. Since we were citizens of the ASEAN member countries, we need not have any visa at all. After the filing of immigration documents, and checking with the officer, we were in. We need to hurry to get to the bus again. After a short ride, we arrived at the Malaysian terminal and it was another round of immigration check. Everything went smoothly.

Since it was lunch time, the first order of the day was to check for Stone Grill restaurant after we had our money changed to the local currency. We looked for the restaurant in their food court and found it. Kay and I tried the New Zealand steak. Olga and Yayen had the grilled chicked while Jason had the spicy spaghetti with tuna and a vegetable salad. He's on a diet I guess. Well light flashes before we started to eat (cam whoring).... The food was fun to eat and do as we were actually grilling it in our table with this super hot stone grill. After that lunch, we decided to look around and agreed to meet at Starbucks coffee after two hours and so we set our alarms at 4PM.

I went around and found this factory outlet store and bought like 4 shirts after choosing and fitting one by one of which one was nice. I was thinking of buying another one but I had to stop myself. I walked around and found this underwear shop. I bought two renoma trunks. I walked around again and saw Olga at the bossini boutique so I called her and told her of the factory outlet store to check it for themselves as it was selling nice stuff at super low prices. Well Olga and Kay together with me went to this FOS. They had purchases and lots of them specially Olga. Actually, those buys were expensive if bought in Singapore. When we checked it was past four and we thought of meeting Jason and Yayen at Starbucks as agreed and so we hurried ourselves to get there. There was no Jason or Yayen. I don't know if we were late or they were late. The three Gemaltians decided to take a coffee break of some sort and while checking on what to order, Jason and Yayen came out. They were later than us. Hehehehe.... Since we got tired of all the roaming around the mall, we had to sit down and ordered stuff. We had an hour or chit-chat. It was fun talking about office bloopers.... When the break was over, we agreed to meet at around 7PM in that same place and off we fled and started roaming again.

Kay had wanted to buy a bag and so we went to Padini. I like their displays there but I need to control myself not to burn my cash. Somehow I did not give in to the whole lot of temptation and Kay, was able to get that nice bag for a good price. I would have wanted to buy the Lee Cooper shoes but it turned out that I was not convinced with it. So we went round and about at inner city for the Converse shop. We were a bit lost actually of where the Converse shop was. I knew it was there but I couldn't recall where exactly the store was located. After some minutes of looking, we found it. Olga had to choose with utmost scrutiny of the shoes she wanted to buy so Kay and I went out of Converse and check out the nearby shops. Olga did not have to buy any as nothing had a good fit to her liking. The three of us went around and Kay bought a dress. Olga bough also some stuff. Since it was around 7PM we need to go back to our rendezvous. We arrived there and after a few minutes Jason and Yayen were there too. We decided for dinner at this Japanese restaurant at Innercity.

We found ourselves at Nippon. I ordered Ramen with Kimchi plus Gyouza, Kay had Ramen with Kimchi, Olga had the udon, I think Yayen had an udon too but of a different type and Jason had the udon set. I'm not just sure hundred percet about the orders if I got them right. We were having some photo ops, and when our orders came, another set of cam whoring. The food was good, and I found myself really full. I think my friends had a great dinner too. We were kind of laughing as our cash ran out and we need to keep track of the prices of the ordered meals. After some fun dinner and fun talk, we decided to go back to Singapore. But since people wanted to check the Karaoke, we got up of the mall where the cinema was and checkout the Karaoke schedule and price. After that, we decided to call it a day.

It was really tiring but had a great fun with our Johor Bahru adventure. Hope to doing it anytime soon. I think I'm going to shop to Malaysia and not in Singapore.

P.S. Pictures to follow.

Long weekend, it's Singapore National Day

I had a long weekend and I needed to have some activities. I don't want to stock myself to a pile of people to the venues where Singapore is celebrating the National Day. For one thing, I am not a Singaporean and another one, their parade do not looked fun at all. I guess to some extent yes but not most of the time.

Well, what better way to do it is go to the mall and buy some stuff. Right after some fun stuff at home like facebooking, watching some funny episodes of the geeky Big Bang Theory and also some cleaning stuff (not so fun at all), I decided to take a quick bath and headed to Orchard district. I had to send money by the way to the Philippines since it's examination time for my brother and also some bills they needed to pay there, so that was the first order of the day outside the premise of our flat. After queuing at the money remittance center, I went to Wisma mall to check a good travelling bag. There's Esprit and they sell a travelling bag which was actually on bargain but I think it was too bulky. So I just walked around and then found myself at the Nike shop. There were less choices so I went out and checked the other Nike store. Since I had to pass by at Takashimaya, I also checked there and found none of my taste. Since my friends and I are planning for a beach vacation, I decided to check some board shorts. The one I had was old and has holes on it which one could peep. Anyway, I bought this nice and simple looking board short from Speedo. After that, I went out of this huge Takashimaya store and went to venture out to this newly opened Nike shop. There was nobody in the store except for the two attendants. I just proceeded where the bags were and saw nothing of my type. Then walk around and about and saw this nice sling bag. I did not care for the price and just told the attendant that I will get it. And when he checked that there was no stock, I opted to look for another bag. I then found this another bag which was in acid gray color which looked to me, nice. I don't know what has gotten me but the color of the bag and the board short I bought were all in the shades of gray. I got all things in.... It was actually a planned purchase somehow as I have said I will be traveling.

Anyway, I saw on posters that G.I Joe is showing in cinemas so, I proceeded to Plaza Singapura and got a ticket for myself. Since the movie will start at 9PM and my tummy is growling already, I went to the food court. I ordered food from this Indonesian stall. It was actually chicken in barbecue sauce with rice in a honey glazed gravy. It's good and had fun with that meal. I still had a lot of time to savour before the movie started so I went around and found myself in this otaku store. I bought a pair of naruto slippers wahahhaha. I find them cool and cute so I bought a pair. When the clock struck near 9, I went to the cinema and the movie has not started yet. It's a bit eerie as I was the first viewer to have come in. Literally, the place is empty. In order for my imagination not to run wild, I decided to play bowling on mobile. Suddenly, there was a rush of viewers already. People were starting to pack this small movie house. The movie was in cinema 1. I had fun with the movie but there was this OA scene. I guess all movies have this certain OAness or a bit of some corny part. Overall, the movie was interesting. I am not sure if the movie followed the original part but I could see there parts that sounded familiar. Anyway, for two hours and 10SGD it was worth it because I got excited and had a laugh at some part. Good thing they have billed this funny Marlon Wayans. After the movie, it was the time to go home. I rode a bus and arrived around 12.... I got hungry so I ate again.

Zara versus Savings ?

I shop at Zara again. I promised myself to buy a new jacket three weeks ago and since I already received my salary, it's a good thing to buy it I thought but for real I did buy it. It was a bit expensive for a jacket but I loved the cloth, the feel and fit on me looks good too. I have two old jackets which I brought from the Philippines. They are still functional but looked so old already. The first jacket I have is already 4 years old and the other one is 1 year old.

Anyway, I was thinking if I should be guilty or just be happy with it. I don't know exactly. Maybe the pressure to save made it a bit discomforting. I have already opened up a fixed deposit savings account here in Singapore and it's in my second month already. I have also provided some financial support or assistance to my family. So what else can I do with this sum? I thought of buying again for myself. Hehehehe.

Rationale is, as long as you can afford and it is still within the boundaries of your finances then go ahead and spend something that will make you feel good or will give you a bit of satisfaction.

Thanks Olga-san for making me decide better. I love the new jacket and I think I won't feel cold in the office with this one.

A new pair of Zara

Wahahaha! In this times of crisis I am so extravagant.

Anyway, I have counted my savings and it's pretty fine to spend for myself. The last pair I had was bought third quarter last year. I still like them but sometimes they looked boring already which for some reason I haven't have any clues. Should I know these reasons ? I was actually planning to buy a new pair like two weeks ago. Everytime I went out and passed by the malls at Orchard, Singapore, I would surely visit some shops and checkout some shoes. Yeah, the new pair is shoes. Last Monday, I was conquered and went to buy a new pair of shoes from Zara.


Am I so extravagant? Maybe yes and maybe not :P It was just a treat for myself. Anyway I am a little happy with my new pair :)

Vacation, Shopping, Frank, Alien abduction?

I forgot to tell you that I was on leave last Friday and last Monday, June 20 and 23. It's because Ate Mars or Tmars is coming over to Manila again. I did not have plans really as to what to do but she emailed me that she wanted to go to Tagaytay, visit the Manila Ocean Park and do some shopping at Greenhills center.

Well on that Friday, her flight was delayed for an hour or two so instead of fetching her to the airport early in the morning I went there at around 12noon already. The plane arrived at around 1pm. I was waiting at the mouth of Manila Domestic while noticing the crowd so busy toiling their own businesses. At last I saw a glimpse of her and hurriedly took her luggage and went ahead to the taxi stand.

We got our turn and rode the taxi. He, the driver or as Jackson would have uttered it, "the it", was a little testing the waters just checking you know if we were strangers. After a few meters of riding he said that the old route was closed and so we will be taking a different one and there is traffic so might as well do so and he said that he will charge us a whooping 300 pesos for it. Blood rushed to my head and was annoyed by his stupid suggestion. I told him that we will take for a meter charge. He explained but I was not listening or rather Tmars and I talked in Ceblish (Cebuano and English). We pretended he was not there. When we arrived in front of the gate, ofcourse we paid the exact amount which was displayed on his meter. We then briskly unload our stuff and got out from the cab. Hehehehehe. I think he was afraid of the guard who came out off the gate to let us in.

We were really hungry so after we set the things including the goodies fresh from Cebu, we went to KFC to take our lunch which was way too late already. Anyhooo the hot and spicy chicken meal plus the refreshing strawberry fizz normalized everything.

We decided to go to MOA and watch a movie. We chose Kung Fu Panda in MOA's IMAX cinema. It was kind of okay and the sound was great and comfortable. The movie was very entertaining and full of lessons and I quote, “Yesterday was history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift. That's why its called the present.” The movie was all about believing in oneself. And I so loved it! After the movie we went to a hobby shop and Tmars bought some stuff. We then went home.

It was a little exciting. We did not know what to do the next day. Ofcourse in our list it was going to Tagaytay but we don't know how to get there by bus. So we searched any information that might help us in where else the internet. Well I found a blog about how to get there and so the instruction goes like there are bus stations in LRT Baclaran. But the problem there is that I haven't been to Baclaran. I searched the web check for maps and all.

So the next morning it was drizzling and we took a jeepney ride to LRT Gil Puyat. Paid at the counter two cards for Baclaran worth 24pesos. Off we go. We even took pictures inside the LRT station. After a few minutes, Baclaran signboard were shouting right infront of us. Still no clue where the stations were situated. The place was rumored to be like Colon so we did not bother to ask any stranger and we paced our walks a little faster that normal. We went north and noticed that there was not any station. We asked a woman as to where we can get a bus and she pointed west and told us near McDonalds' so we followed her direction. We came to the highway of which I dont have any clues where but then I noticed that the signages of the bus there were not bound to Tagaytay. Okay I am a little freakish already. So we turned left and saw some buses and same thing still not bound for Tagaytay. It's already 12 noon. We can't take it anymore so we got to a nearby trisikad driver (a bicycle with a side car - it has three wheels and you need to pedal (sikad) for it to move which is why its called trisikad. ) and we asked him to take us to the bus station bound for Tagaytay. So he did took us to a bus station and there was only one passenger. I was wondering if we were to wait or what. After some 10 minutes of waiting the bus departured. We pass MOA then edsa then Pasay then a road which I am strange about. Anyway, little by little more passengers hop in as the bus was stopping from time to time. The bus wasn't enclosed and air conditioned. I can even still remember how the city smelled and thanks for the drizzle there was no dust on the road which sometimes is a desert storm in manila.

While on the bus I took some naps. We reached Tagaytay at around 2PM already. We were not planning to actually go overnight. We stopped in a nearby jeepney and tricycle terminal. We rented one of the parked tricycle and we headed to Picnic Groove(PG). The rain was still falling and thanks goodness we brought with us an umbrella. When we reached PG, there were sort of tour guides offering us some rooms to stay for an overnight but we told them that we won't be staying overnight. We just hurried to the tourist post which was just at the entrance and paid a 50 pesos for a fee to get into the facility. Since we did not have our lunch yet, we then went to the Pineapple restaurant and there ordered three courses and ate with gusto. We took some pictures. But prior to that there was this band who walks in beside your dining table and sing songs from OPM to some old school tunes to some latest ones. We were very hungry but did not eat just to make sure that we were not trying to insult them but the truth was we were really hungry - beast like hunger if I may describe. Well after two songs, thank goodness amen they went to the other table and for courtesy we thank them. Tmars and I shared the food which we ordered. After the meal we directly went out and look for this good view of the Taal Volcano. The rain actually stopped then. After some five minutes of walking we reached a sport were there was a trail. It was a 500 - 700 meter trail going to the view deck. It was actually at a mountain side where cottages are located for picnic goers. Before we followed the trail, we had a bit of photo-capturing session :P. Well, after a few minutes it rained hard and the wind blew towards us so we hurriedly went to the waiting shed. We stayed there for a cruel 15 minutes. After the rain became less and less violent we decided to follow the trail. Unfortunately Taal volcano was already covered with a misty fog but that did not stop us from enjoying the place and as usual we captured all the nice sceneries there. We passed by their mini bridge and took some pictures again. We then proceeded and followed the trail up until we reached a picturesque view and so we did take some shots and captured those moments. The weather was so bad that after a few minutes the rain fell terribly again. We just took the short way and went ahead to a nearby open cottage instead of following the trail to the endpoint of it. We took some pictures again in the cottage and the rain did not stop us. We were actually imagining that Taal volcano was just there at the background. After some few minutes of waiting, we felt that the rain won't stop, so we decided to just went up ahead and look for a souvenir shop and we did find one. I purchased some key chains which I will give to my housemates and a coin purse for myself. Tmars bought some shirts for her family in Cebu. After which we then went home. The bus ride took us two hours back to the city and we just hired a taxi going back to our condo. We were a little bit soaked and were also very hungry. We cooked noodle soup and ate. On the news the rain was actually a storm already and it's signal number one in Manila.

We slept at around 12midnight. I was actually awaken at around 2Am because the screens which were left open were banging because of the wind. I was kind of scared and had a palpitation as there was a strange sound. So I got up and closed everything. The weird sound was still there. I couldn't sleep anymore and my imagination went so wild. I stood up and reached for my self what was happening outside. We were located on the third floor and we have a mini porch so I went there and check the sky if there was a spaceship. There was none, yet still, it felt weird. I went back to my bed. I was going to wake Tmars up but she was already awakened because of that strange noise. I was actually just covering my body with my blanket except for my head as I was staring at the glass door what was going on outside. I can see the clouds outside and felt that it was like war of the world movies scene. I was really scared at that time. I thought of an alien abduction. I just prayed that things will be okay. I was able to sleep at around 4am. I woke up and it's already 12noon. I was so hungry. We cooked for our breakfast in lunch a.k.a. brunch. We ate and I went to sleep again as I was still so tired. It was a Sunday and the rain still poured. At around 5pm I took a bath after Tmars used the room for we will watch a movie in Glorieta. We arrived at Glorieta around 7pm. We shop some cheap shirts and after that had our dinner at Man Hann. Delicioso! The bill was a lump in my throat but it was worth it. We then went to the movie house and watched, "The Happening". It's another weird moview from Shyamalan. After the movie we went back home. We planned the next day to go to Greenhills shopping mall.

We woke up at around 8AM, Monday June 23, 2008. Tmars will be leaving for Cebu and her flight will be at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. So after we prepared ourselves, we went first to Kingswood McDonalds for our breakfast. After that, we went to LBC center to send Tmars' airbed to Cebu first for her stuff were getting bulkier and heavy. Then we took a PUJ to MRT Magallanes. We headed for the Ortigas station. It was a 15-minute ride. We then rent a cab going to Greenhills. There, Tmars splurged her cash for her "pasalubong" or gifts for her parents and her siblings. It took us around 2 hours to have bought everything. After that we went to Krispy Kremes and Tmars purchased 5-box of six of KK. We then went to KFC for lunch. After that, we went home.

We watched TV while waiting the 3pm mark for Tmars will be going back to Cebu then. Ding - dong! It was 3PM already and I accompanied Tmars to get a cab going to the airport.

Our next destination will probably be Hong Kong or somewhere out of the country.