My husband and I like to travel. Before we got married, we said that we will try to travel as much as we could before the baby comes along. So far, our wanderlust has only taken us to a couple of places. Not much considering that we've been married for almost 2 years. Anyway, seeing the Amazing Race Asia auditions, we talked about the possibility of joining. Possibility lang. There is only one thing that's stopping us. When we are in the car, we seem to be arguing about directions most of the time. My husband is a patient man, but he tends to NOT listen when I give directions and I tend to be very short with him if he does not listen. So to preserve our marriage, we decided not to join the Amazing Race.

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/30/2006 09:54:00 PM

This is a perfect example of me overanalyzing. I had a dream last night. In that dream, I was with DA POGI, his friend J, The Bomb, L and C in a Victory Liner station. We were on our way to Baguio. We bump into my friends C and K and they are on their way to Sta Rosa. Which got me thinking, J, The Bomb, L and C are some of my closest friends. We talk to each other constantly and I know that they are just a text message away. Whereas I have lost touch with C and K over the years. Is this the reason why I'm going to one place with the others and the others are going in a whole different direction? Does being in a Victory Liner terminal mean anything? -------------------- I love my new skin color. The beach has added some color to me, I am usually as pale as a ghost (at least as pale as my Asian skin will allow me to be) and now I am a little reddish, looking a little healthier because of the sun. I can't say that summer hasn't started for me, I have been to a beach once. That should count right? Even if all I did was sit in the beach front and not really swim in the waters. :D

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/19/2006 05:41:00 PM

I went to the beach today. I sat under the sun for about 2 hours talking to some guys from work that I met earlier today at breakfast. I was so appreciative of them joining me at the beach though I was quite prepared for another day alone with my book and a bottle of water. Since both guys are pros in terms of travelling to Malaysia, they thought me a couple of things about the hotel. One, they told me that I don't need to go out to go to the malls. The hotel actually has an exit in the third floor directly going to the mall. See if I had known that I wouldn't have had to encounter the drunk guy. They also told me that nothing is worth seeing here and that the beach is nothing compared to the beaches in the Philippines. This I found true, as I was quite disappointed with the beach I saw earlier. The sand was not fine as Boracay or Pagudpud, nor was the water clear. I actually thought that it looked a little brown, and yet there were a couple of Europeans swimming in the sea. There are also no bodies worth seeing in the beach as most of the people there are retirees which have been burned under the sun too long that their skin look raw. Tomorrow, I don't know if I'll see them again or if they will join me again for the day. But I'm sure glad that I at least had someone to talk to, even if it's just for a day. -------------------- Giving a shout out to T, ang nanay ng lahat ng nagpupunta ng FM. She says she likes it when I add detail into my stories. Nakaktuwa naman that she reads my entries pala.

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/18/2006 02:39:00 AM

With my iced venti vanilla non-fat decaf latte next to me, I suddenly feel the inspiration to blog about my current adventures in Malaysia. Or rather the lack thereof. I've been here since Sunday afternoon, checked into the Shangrila (by the way the rooms in the Makati Shangrila are WAAAAYYYY better thatn my room now). Since I didn't have any ringgits with me I decided to scout the malls (there are 2 malls) near the hotel for the bank. I managed to find one after 30 minutes. The malls are about the size of Podium only there are so many tiangges cramped inside. Or maybe I am exagerrating about the size. But still I wandered around for 30 minutes before I found a bank. So having found the bank, I got money and started to walk back to the hotel. On my way back I passed 2 drunk men who greeted me with a very sleazy "Hi Miss". One of my friends said that I should just be glad that they think I'm a Miss. But no, those 2 men zapped out the adventuruous in me. From that day I was too scared to wander around by myself. And my current situation of not knowing anyone outside of those that I work with has made it even worse. It has been 4 days since that day. I have finally managed to get out of the hotel simply because I have gotten tired of room service. I ate at the local Sushi King, walked around and bought A's Nasi Goreng Paste and went to a local Starbucks to get my coffee. I figured if I don't see anything similar to the men that I bumped into last Sunday that I might be safe. I didn't bump into anyone. I had a wonderful experience eating sushi alone, watching the sushi train pass by me. I had a nice chat with the lady in the grocery when she was explaining to me the different types of nasi goreng paste. I giggled with the Starbucks Barista because it was his first day and he was having a hard time figuring out which is the vanilla syrup. But of course with the apprehension that was initially there, I was back in the hotel before dark. And now I am looking forward to the weekend. I'm looking forward to meeting more people. I'm looking forward to seeing more things and not being confined to the 4 corners of my hotel room. I can make it through this trip. I just know it.

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/16/2006 03:30:00 AM

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/13/2006 06:56:00 PM

Sometimes, thinking about how life is going can make things seem bleak. Positivism is the new buzzword but it's sometimes very hard to be positive if life keeps on throwing fast balls so fast you're brain can't keep track.

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/11/2006 10:28:00 PM

Yesterday was our first official volleyball game. We played against the defending champions. We lost, but it doesn't matter. Considering we're a newly formed team with more than 50% of our players playing volleyball for the first time, we did good. We were ahead by, at most, 5 in the second set. We lost the second set, 25-23. Practice lang to.

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/09/2006 03:46:00 PM

Now I'm really confused. On normal days, people will tell me to smile more. And then on the day that I did smile more, people are asking what was wrong with me. It even came to a point wherein someone told me to stop smiling too much since it was scaring her. Make up your minds people!

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/07/2006 04:21:00 PM

It's a very sad feeling when you know that another person's friendship is valued over yours. It has come to a point that I even asked myself what I did wrong to be treated the way she has treated me. I didn't blog about this because there were still some items left hanging in the air. But now, I just don't care. I don't care if she reads this nor do I care about how people will feel about me when they read this. I was just so hurt of being mistreated that I just want to scream. L and the Bomb have been really supportive in that, I know, sometimes, they feel that I am a broken record but they still answer my phonecalls. It all started with money. You know when they say that don't lend money to your friends because it might be the start of something bad, I now consider this as true. I know most of you will say that it's just money, not worth losing a friendship over. I agree. But when a person treats you badly because of money, that's a different matter. To make a long story short, I lost a friend over money. I would've understood if she just told me that she couldn't afford to pay me but to be lied to and to lie to our friends is just unacceptable. At the same time she owed me money, she owed our other friend money. She paid our friend in full whereas she left me hanging for several months with several promises broken. As most of you know, I am not the most patient person. I try to be, but this time, my patience was really tested. She told me promises that I believed and even told our friends that she has already paid me and that I was the one who made a mistake. I had to ask friends to help me get in touch with her because she was no longer answering my phonecalls or my text messages. She made me wait for a phonecall that never happened last Saturday when I told her to call me any time to let me know where I can pick up the money. Finally, on Sunday, I asked a friend to send her an SMS. This was the same friend that she paid in full. And you know what, that same day, I got half of my money. It made me realize that she valued that friendship over ours. She paid her in full, and she readily reacted when she sent her a message. I think I know where I stand.

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/06/2006 03:23:00 PM

This is where I will be going next. The last time I was here was in 2003. I'm both excited and nervous to go. Excited because I know that I will be learning new things and nervous because the last time I was here, I nearly starved to death (I was eating papayas for 1 whole week.)

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/05/2006 07:06:00 PM

I read Sophie Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess in 2 days (technically just 2 nights). I've always liked reading Sophie Kinsella since her books are always light hearted and very easy to read. I've read the whole Shopaholic Series (even Shopaholic and Sister) and Can You Keep a Secret. I was waiting for the time that The Undomestic Goddess goes into paperback before I finally get a copy. The book was very easy to read. There were no laugh out moments as there had been in Can You Keep a Secret. However, I can very much relate to Samantha Sweeting's character. I am an email addict and my mobile phone is permanently attached to my hip. I don't have a blackberry, but I have push email. Basically, like Samantha, I think my world revolves around my job. The only thing where we're different, is that, I have found my Nathaniel even without losing my job. Anyway, for me the story is not really something to be excited about. If you have a couple of hours to sit down and read, it might be ok to pour sometime into it. I still think that Can You Keep a Secret is still the best Kinsella book I've read. -------------------- I'm halfway through Memoirs of a Geisha. This book I find so hard to put down. I loved books by Amy Tan because they explore the Asian culture. And I am loving this book because it brings me to explore Old Japan.

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/05/2006 04:25:00 PM

I went a little insane last night and bought 2 books at the same time. And I bought them at full price!

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/02/2006 04:56:00 PM

Very busy TV night last night. It started at 6PM with the American Idol telecast on Star World. Didn't like the girls performance, only Melissa McGhee and Mandisa stuck to my mind after the show. And then there was the Amazing Race 9 Season premiere at Studio 23. Had fun watching the show and laughing at how bad the old couple messed up looking for the clue box in the bridge. I know I'm evil, but they passed the box a couple of times before they saw it! And loved the Maverick and Ariel looking dudes. Not so hot about the Surfer Boys. One day, I will get their names right. :D Then a little of Extreme Makeover Home Edition at Channel 9, before finally switching over to PBB at Channel 2 to watch Rustom's coming out. :) Oh yes! He's still in the house but he has come out. Kung ako siguro si Keanna, nainis na lang ako na nun pa ako tinawag ng pantog ko. :D Anyways, it really wasn't a surprise, but it was VERY good TV. I think everyone I know was watching it. Everyone except probably The Bomb. Then it was CSI Wednesday at AXN. No matter how many episodes I watch of CSI, it never fails to amuse me. DA POGI had one comment though, How come in a couple of episodes, the kid always kills the victim? Di ba, they had one baby being suffocated by his 3 year old brother, then another episode wherein another kid kills his baby brother because he was mocking him of peeing in bed, and then another wherein drunk schoolboys had some fun in the dryer at a laundromat, plus another who killed her own mother because of Electra Complex. I went to bed at midnight. Woke up just in time to call into my meeting. I hope Wednesdays are not always this good, TV wise. :D

DA GANDA blogged @ 3/01/2006 06:52:00 PM