Last Sunday of August

It's our off & we'll be going home to Talisay. We\'re having lunch with our friends & having our reflexology later in the afternoon. We\'re going back to the hotel tonight. Hopefully, I can stay up late til 3AM because there's a Sessionista reunion on Yahoo! at 12PM PST (L.A. time) and I'd love to see them all again!

Mars on the sky

Let's all watch and witness as Mars soar up in the sky tonight. If this is true as what the circulating emails said, we will be able to witness a once-in-lifetime event. But judging with our starless skies right now and after a heavy rain the whole day, guess we here in the Philippines will have to forget about it. What a waste! If you see it, let me know, ok?

URB on Friendster

If you have Friendster accounts, please add URB Band to your friends. I'm still currently working on our MySpace account so watch out for that. Add urb@saritac.com to your Friendster list!

As you already know, I also have a Friendster account. Add me up mailme@saritac.com and be my friendster!

The New URB '06

This October, URB will have a new look - more sophisticated and elegant. Of course, with the same energy and vibrance that URB has been known for. Our new member, Janiz, will join us as we return to our favorite place - The Shangri-La KL - for the 5th time. Check out the beautiful photos of NEW URB '06 under the Philippines 2006 gallery.

Touch my PBase!

Showtime!

Unbelievable!

It was unexpectedly crowded and crazy at the lobby lounge for a normal Thursday. We had large crowds - yes, in plural form because they came in separate groups - the whole night. It was started by a big Korean group who have waited for our 1st set. They were in the mood for dancing so we've been pumping and jumping and grinding since the 1st set. There were couple of funny "dancers" who have unique moves. But they really enjoyed their time.

Midway through the evening, a large group of Japanese guests came and had an equally great time until we finished. Of course, there were also other guests who have stayed glued on their seats since our 1st set.

It was indeed a drenching evening. The dress that I wore tonight has been dripping wet and my ponytail-tied hair has stuck on my wet nape & face most of the time. But it was one of the busy nights in the lobby lounge which I really enjoyed.

Leaking

No, not THAT kind of leaking! We are moving to another room because there are some leaks in our bathroom. It's been there since we moved in there, but we didn't complain at all because we know that they will ask us to move. And now we're really moving! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

U.R.B. Pictorial

Today was a very hectic day for us. We headed to Ayala Mall to have our pictorial - the URB 2006 pictorial. The session lasted for an hour and a half due to costume changes & checking the shots on the digital camera. It was fun & very comfortable shoot because our personalities came out. We wanted a more mature & elegant image and that's exactly the outcome of our photos. Will surely post them here right away as soon as I get it.

Alas!

After having an off on a Friday almost a week and a half ago, we're thankful that our bodies & voices can rest today. The past 9 days have been pretty hectic: Selena & my mom were in town, practising with our new singer, going for medical checkup and managing the small business we have.

I know I haven't told you about this small business but Marl and I sell beauty products from soaps & lotions to food supplements like Glutathione, which is selling like hot cakes to vain people like me! Glutathione is an anti-oxidant that cleanses the toxins in the liver. If taken in large doses, it has the only side effect known from using it, it whitens the skin. Glutathione is used by most celebrities who wish to have fairer skin. It's normal for Pinoys to wish for a fairer skin, as it is normal for the whites to have a tanner complexion.

We're in Talisay now, it's our off so just chilling out here. Been editing some photos so watch out for that. We'll be going back to the hotel later.

Aspiration

It was a pretty hectic day for me - and painful, too. Today was my follow-up checkup with my endocrinologist. I submitted my ultrasound report to her & she of course read it along with my laboratory report, two things I did last week when I last saw her. She said that aside from the thyroid nodules that were detected before from right lobe (whole right lobe) & left lobe (a small nodule) - they found out a suspicious third nodule on my left lobe. But the two nodules on my left thyroidal lobe are not palpable at all. So the doctor decided to aspirate from my right thyroidal lobe to lessen the size or bulge. The method was called fine needle biopsy and wasn't really painful at all. As you can see on the pic, I was still able to aim & shoot myself while lying on the bed. Even the doctor might have thought how vain I was. 4cc's of blood with a mixture of colloid substance was extracted from it.

The doctor, like the other doctors who have checked my thyroid in the past, asked me for the nth time to do a thyroidectomy. No, it's different from anatomy & astronomy! LOL... Let me get my medical dictionary... hmmm... there! Thyroidectomy is the surgical removal of the thyroid gland. And for nth time, I said I'll think about it. I know it's the only choice I have other than just letting it inhabit my neck & have the risk of a scary medical word - cancer. But singing is my livelihood so I hate the fact of having a knife cut my throat and having the risk to lose my voice forever. I know there's nothing much to lose in my voice anyway, but man, I don't want to sound like Macy Gray, Rod Stewart or Louis Armstrong. But on the other hand, I can still earn from being an impersonator! LOL... Seriously, I don't want to have it removed unless it's really bothering me aesthetically. But since it's not yet doing that, let's just shelve the thyroidectomy back into the medical dictionary together with its rhyming words!

PS: I'm not really sure you understood my story, but just carry on reading! LOL

Send off

Have just been to the airport to send off Selena & my mom. They're going back to Manila today. We had a mistake looking at the time, it's 17:45, I thought it was 15:45. But had to go back to the hotel to rehearse our new singer. My mom enjoys strolling around & so she doesn't mind waiting up. It was really great having my mom & Selena around for the weekend. Exhausting, but amazing!

Semi-hiatus

I felt so guilty leaving the cyberspace for a while. Sorry about that. One reason was I couldn't access the wireless internet from the room anymore. They might have detected my "intrusion". Welll at least, I didn't care to hack them! (As if I know how to hack! LOL!)... Well, not really an intrusion, but I’d rather put it as - cyber climbing. You know how social climbers use people, right? Well I can call myself as a CYBER CLIMBER... oohhh, what a new word!

Another reason was because my princessette & queen motherette arrived in Cebu last Friday for Marlou's 36th birthday on Aug 12.

It was a special affair although we didn't have anything special prepared. It's the 1st time for Marlou to celebrate his birthday in Cebu with his family and close friends after 15 years! It's also the 1st time for Selena to celebrate her dad's birthday - ever! Remember when I told about the plans of island hopping on Marlou's birthday? Well it didn’t push through because of the bad weather. What we did last Saturday was unexpected. Marlou phoned his brother Leo to buy some lechon manok (roasted chicken) & lechon baboy (roasted pork) for lunch. Our house in Talisay is just 10 minutes away by drive from the beach resorts there. So we then decided to get a cottage on the beach, despite the bad weather & high tide waters, and we did our little salo-salo or get-together with Marlou's family. It was a fun lunch made exciting by the large waves that reached our cottage & the occasional rain, too. It's special in a way because it was the 1st time for them to meet my mom, who really enjoyed the kind of setting we had for lunch.

I guess I forgot to mention that we had an off last Friday because there was an affair of the DFA going on at the Lobby Lounge wherein Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was the special guest in Shangri-La Mactan. They had their own entertainment (band, singers & cultural dancers) & so we were asked not to play. But instead of having an off on Sunday (yesterday), they switched to last Friday, so we did play yesterday. On Saturday, after President Arroyo left, former President Fidel Ramos arrived in Shangri-La Mactan. It was indeed a very busy weekend for the hotel, full of the usual tourists, delegates & dignitaries from different countries.

It was a busy weekend, too. Being a mother, a daughter and a wife. my job was very hard, you know - letting my mom do the chores, letting Marlou drive the van & letting Selena bathe herself! It wasn't really easy sitting down & lying down at all! And I should know better because I do that almost everyday of my life! LOL

Simply unpredictable

The weather's been unpredictable during the past few days. Although it's the monsoon season in the northern part of the Philippines, we'd also get some heavy rains & strong winds here in Cebu.

In fact, we have planned our island hopping this coming Sunday for Marl's birthday. We have made the guest list, invited some friends & relatives. In fact, it's such a great bonus that Selena will be coming back to Cebu on Friday, with my mom, for Marl's birthday. Finalized everything but sadly, we had to cancel it because of the unpredictable weather. A lot of them backed out, they're afraid of being in the sea on a pump boat with strong winds and not-so-big waves. So maybe we'll just have something special this weekend.

Although not yet confirmed, we were also told that we might perform this Sunday & switch our day off on this coming Friday instead. Not very excited about it because we won't be able to have a night out on that night. But I'm equally excited because my unica hija will be coming to visit us! Yipee!

No more shoutbox for the blog

Since I already have a shoutbox on my main page where most of my visitors would interact with me or just lurk around, I decided to delete the shoutbox I have on this blog page. Since I put the shoutbox on both pages - home page & blog page - months ago, there was only one person who's consistent in shouting out on my boxes... my (almost)sister in Perth, Australia, Linty! Hihihi!

Thanks Sis Linty for always checking my website out and leaving comments, but I have to delete my shoutbox on this blog page. I will just keep in touch with you - as always - on the main page, okidoks?

Look-a-like?


It's Eat Bulaga's Pauleen Luna. A lot of people would often tell me that I look like her, though she's 10 years my junior! She has lots of pictures posted on the net but this is the only picture that I have to agree with. I tried sending it to my friend Chona and she said, "Oh it's Ate Sarita!" over the Yahoo! Voice Chat. I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Coz it's really not me!

July reflection

It has been a great month of July for me. Work was great, made new friends especially from the local music scene, and we were moved to the hotel for a more convenient stay. We also found a new singer and very busy practising her for the next booking. Of course, Brice will be finishing her contract with the URB Band until the end of September.

Only thing I hate about July was the endless moving Shangri-La put us through therefore I can't really just sit back and relax like I used to when we were first moved in to the hotel. Also, my things are all packed in suitcases, only getting what I need for a particular time. Some of our things were sent to our house in BF Betterhomes for storage and some of them are in the storage of the hotel's concierge. Even until, we can't simply just feel at home in our respective rooms because we know that we can be called anytime to be moved to another room if need ours. Damn!

But what I enjoyed most during the month of July was searching for our new singer. It took us places in Cebu I've never been to and made new friends. July was an awesome month indeed!