My 28th year begins

Thank you for all the advaned greetings making you all the first ones to greet me on my very special day. But the one who greeted me personally on time was Marl. As we were busy packing things up, he closed the backstage door and gave me a huge hug & kiss. Kinda different from the past birthdays I've had when they'd play birthday song & let me blow my birthday cake. Because we finish here before 12midnight & so they don’t have the chance to greet me onstage. Nway, thanks again to all of you for you messages & birthday call!

My princessette at 7

Seven years ago, I was in the delivery room of Manila Doctors Hospital, in severe pain, waiting for my delivery at 32 weeks. Marlou was in Bangkok and I made an overseas call thinking that it might be our last conversation because I felt like I was dying with the pain I was suffering. But after an hour, a 1.6 kilograms baby girl was born. I didn't even have the chance to even hold her, just like what I see in movies, because she was taken away from me. She was delivered as a preterm baby and they had to do some tests and put her in an incubator right away. I never had a chance to embrace or kiss her to tell her everything will be alright, that Mommy's just right there...

Hmmm... don't want to be all mushy and emotional again... it's my princessette's birthday... and she's seven... and mommy's all mushy now... gotta go...

NOTE: Thanks doc, for the correction!

It will be a big night!

We've just finished a Korean function at the ballroom. No, that's not the reason why I call this a big night. It's because we have a big party tonight after work... AN ADVANCE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR ME & FAREWELL PARTY as well. But it's just Shangri-La staff and we'll be dancing the whole night long. Will tell you more about it tomorrow. We're starting our 1st set in a few minutes. By the way, it's our 2nd to the last Saturday in Cebu!

U.R.B. Band site updated

Whew!!! At last!!! The U.R.B. Band site has already been revised after a month-long working on it.
www.urbband.com

or if you can't access it, try it's root address:
www.freewebs.com/urb

Please take time to sign our guestbook or post on its shoutout box. Thanks!

... now I can sleep peacefully!

10 more days

I love cramming up. It gets the adrenalins rushing in me. I can get very panicky and quirky. And it's what I'm feeling now I've realized that we only have 10 more days left here. Indeed, time flies so fast.

24 hours in Manila

MANILA... VOILA!

I had one of these rare chances to go back to Manila to attend a very important affair. Given the chance to fly to Manila and back to Cebu for free, I grabbed it without thinking twice (or did I?) and flew out on Sunday morning, September 17. I wasn't sent off by Marl to the airport so I just took an airport shuttle from the hotel, but I was picked up by my mom and Selena at the airport in Manila.

It was scorchingly hot on that day - a literal "Sun"day. The taxi queue was long, but luckily there were lots of taxis on the queue, too, so we didn't have to be burnt for long by the noontime sun. I dropped off my mom to Aristocrat to buy me my favorite chicken barbeque for lunch, while Selena and I headed back home because I was carrying a heavy luggage. Got home and just took a rest for a while. When my mom got back home, I had a quick lunch because I was getting late for the event.

I got to the venue and just did what I had to do (don't ask me what it was! LOL). Although I was dog-tired from lack of sleep and short travel, I was suprisingly quirky and charged-up all through out. The affair lasted for merely 3 hours and so, I just headed back home to spend quality time with my family and most especially, Selena.

THE MOST FREQUENT DESTINATION... HOME

My family is going through a big trial right now and my mom is the one mostly affected. My stepfather has been diagnosed with lung cancer a few months ago and has been undergoing chemotherapy since then. Obtaining the incredible strength and great optimism from my her, I know that my mother will be able to cope with it. I have offered her my moral support through this difficult time and I'm sure it meant a lot to her when I came back to Manila to just spend time with them. She phoned her close friends and my aunts to come over to just have a small gathering. Once the whole gang was already in, it was karaoke time for us. I know you wouldn't believe me, but my aunts haven't heard me sing for such a long time. Sure, they saw the videos I sent through the course of my gigs overseas but they actually missed the way it used to be - letting me sing and perform in front of them in our small living room. So eventhough I was already knackered, I tried my best to jam with them, making them laugh so hard with my old funny antics. One moment that they will surely cherish among their fondest memories and I'm happy I was part of it - mainly.

The karaoke session and showdown among my aunts and my mom lasted until midnight - no dinner was served! I just remembered that I haven't eaten when my stomach rumbled. I used "showdown" because they'd let me sing a song then all of them will render their own versions. Of course, evethough my mom has a tendency to let her notes go offshore, she was the best ecause of her funny showmanship. The song that's been played and sung all through the night till it got stuck in our player was "I Who Have Nothing". When I was being trained as a young performer, they used to let me sing Shirley Bassey songs and so on that night, they let me sing all her songs, which brought good ol' memories when I used to compete in singing contests singing Bassey songs with my mom teaching me the fundamentals of stage performance. So one after another, they'd take turns giving their best version of the song and getting distracted by the other "contenders".

It was indeed a comical evening and I really enjoyed and surely missed being in a house full of wacky people. Not to mention the great time I had during the affair earlier. And eventhough I just spent less than a day in Manila, I retired to bed having a big smile on my face realizing that making people happy is one of the greatest fulfilments in my blessed simple life.

MOTHERLY DUTY

One of the things I enjoyed most during my unforeseen trip to Manila was being a mother to my lovely daughter, Selena. She's already in the first grade in school and she's really enjoying it. She was proud to tell me that she's one of the Top 10 students in her class. We've been inseparable the whole day, except when I had to attend an important affair. After the function, I wanted to take her and my brothers to the mall but it was a bit late and drizzling too. Besides, I don't think I'd enjoy walking around the mall when all I wanted to do was to just sit or lie down - except for proving my singing prowess during the little karaoke showdown we had. Selena also joined us by giving an intermission number - her famous Peng You. My Aunty Susan brought along her daughter LJ so Selena wouldn't feel bored.

I tucked Selena to sleep at 11PM before surrendering myself from the karaoke showdown at 2AM. I even didn't want to let her sleep because my time was too short and I know that I'd be asleep when she goes to school the next day. But I had a great yet simple idea that I know would make my trip more memorable.

A WALK TO REMEMBER

For some people, they think I already have almost everything. Not really true, because they didn't know I still have some simple desires and wishes. And one of them is to bring my daughter to school even just once. And I told my mom about it before I retired to bed.

At 6:30AM, I was awaken by Selena bidding me goodbye and telling me that I don't need to send her to school because she knows that I'm tired. Without brushing my teeth or washing my
face, I tied my uncombed hair in a bun, put on my jeans and sunglasses and did what I've been wanting to do all these years - to send Selena to her school. It's one motherly duty that I regret not having the opportunity to do so, aside from not being there when she's sick or hurt when I'm away.

Her school is just 5 minutes walk from our house and she was dragging her Barbie school trolley bag or whatever you call that. I tried helping her out with her bag and she calmly told me that she can do it by herself and that she's used to it, besides it wouldn't look good on me, she said. And there was my little consultant telling me off.

As we reached the gate of her school, she warned me that parents are not allowed inside the premises. So I squeezed her hand tightly and told her that mommy has to go back to Cebu after sending her to school. She asked what time my flight would be because she would constantly check her watch, she said, and she was hoping that she would hear my plane fly over her school, which I didn't promise her at all because I'm not aeronautically & geographically schooled.

I can say that I was proud of sending her to school. But what made me more proud was that she's my daughter and she's mine and there I was, in the gates of her school, realizing all those things. The moment became even more intense to me, something I wasn't prepared to feel at all, when I let go off her hand & asked her to give me the biggest and tightest hug. I gave off a big sigh and bid her goodbye. As she went in the gate, she saw one of her classmates and smiled back at me. I gave a big smile and a wave and as her classmate looked on, I saw my daughter say to her classmate, "Mommy ko yun!" ("That's my mom!"). The feeling was priceless. Luckily I was wearing my shades to hide the tears I've been trying to hold back.

That 5 minute walk was indeed a walk to remember that I will remember forever. I can still remember every single detail of it and I can play it on my mind in slow motion. I might have done lots of wrong things in the past, but I'm glad that I have done something right this time. Now I'm more inspired in so many ways that I realized that life, though it's short, is filled with lots of suprises. Therefore, it must be lived to its fullest - like what I'm doing now.

BEHIND THE BIGGER PICTURE

I'm grateful to my friend Mac for making it possible for me to come to Manila, which made the 24 hours that I spent in Manila one of the best times in my life. Each and evey minute of those 24 hours was all worth the trip and weariness. Sa uulitin ha! LOL

Today: 100 days before Christmas

The countdown of 100 days till Christmas starts today. No, I won't be making a daily countdown so as not to bore you. We've been very busy nowadays running here and there, processing this and that, packing & getting prepared before we finish our gig here in Cebu. I have so much things to write about but time isn't enough. But keep posted and keep visiting my blog... or else...

LOL

3 more weeks to go

Time flies so fast. I remember getting hospitalized and operated for my hernia - and that was already 5 months ago! So now we're very busy because it's our last month here in the Philippines. We're ready to attack KL again! Hahaha!

All boxed up

If you happen to see our house in Talisay, it's a total mess. Finally, we have rearranged our stuff & put them in their respective labeled boxes. We need to get it done this weekend as this is our last month & this is the only chance we can do it. I know we should have done it before but we love cramming. Hehehe!

The other reason why we are house clearing is because we are planning to rent out our house, hopefully to somebody who can take good care of it while living in it. We realized that we could have earned couple of hundred thousand pesos already had we rented it out since we bought it 4 years ago. And now reality's kicking in since we never have stayed in that house for longer than a month.

Even if we will be posting it up in the classified ads, it would surely be nice if I know the people who will rent from us. So anyone interested?

PS: Our house is located at BF Betterhomes, Lawaan 1, Talisay City, Cebu (along SRP Hi-way).

469 visits in a day

I know that's not a lot of visits compared to other websites which has lots of things to offer. But for a personal website like mine that's full of non-sense stuff, that's a whole lot of visits for a day. Told you, September is a great month and starting off the month with lots of visits on my site, I'm sure there will be a lot more in store for me. And I can't wait!

PS: The 469 visits on my site were logged in on Sept.1, 2006... THANKS GUYS!

It's OK to be paranoid

Last night, I went to Mactan Grill along National Hi-way with Marl and Jay, our business partner. The band has just finished when we went in, I didn't even know that they have a band there. But I was really taken aback when the singer passed by our tables. It's Analiza of Sound Forge and Yza, one of the girls we auditioned for the URB slot. Found out that they're just sessionists from their respective bands and just formed the band for the night for the Mactan Grill gig. It's a just a waste, I wasn't able to hear and see them perform.

I had Tapsilog (Tapa-Sinangag-Itlog), a Filipino set of beef strips, garlic rice and sunny side-up egg. I was delighted when I saw my sunny side-up egg - it's heart-shaped!!! Of course, you will see that soon on my Cebu Scenes series of pics. And of course, my ever favorite Mountain Dew as panulak.

After our meal, we were busy talking about the business when I noticed 2 average looking men, in their early 30's maybe, walked in. They looked more presentable with jacket, pants and shoes on compared to the other patrons who were in their worn-out tees, sandals or slippers and shorts. They sat on the table behind me and I noticed them looking at me all the time. They moved to the table behind Marlou as Marlou was sitting in front of me (so he had his back on them). As were having business talk, those 2 men were staring at me most of the time as I was facing their table. It intimidated me and made me nervous at the same time. Being looked at by men usually, I can feel and tell the difference if they have an ulterior motive or just simply appreciating or admiring. But those 2 men's look on their faces were not only intimidating, but frightening.

At 3AM, we decided to get the bill and leave. As Marl was calling the waitress, I saw the other guy eyed on his companion as he was twirling his mobile phone on the table. I don't know if they have some secret body language or whatever but I didn't bother to let Marl know about it because there's no way I can whisper to him (but I realized that I could have just simply sent Marl an SMS about it - stupid!) because the 2 men were watching the 3 of us in the table. The service was a bit slow so we just decided to get up and go to the counter to pay. We passed by the men's table and I saw that they still have beers, so I was quite relieved knowing that we would be going ahead of them.

To my surprise, I saw the 2 men stood up and approached the counter. At this time, being the panicky me, my hands were already trembling and couldn't even open my mouth to speak. Marl and Jay were clueless about what I have observed. I wanted to pretend that I've got headache and needed to sit for a while but everything was too late. I grabbed Marl's arm and headed out of the grill at once. He was asking me why I was acting so strange and I told him I'll just explain in the van. I was kinda relieved when we left the place and saw the 2 men still waiting for their bill. Somehow, my paranoia subsided when their Pajero took a different turn from our direction.

I might have just over-reacted or have just been paranoid, but it's better to be safe than indulging into a situation that I only see in movies.

August gallery up!

I've just uploaded the August gallery, along with Cebu Scenes 3 into the Philippines 2006 gallery. Check them out and feel free to comment!

Touch my PBase!

Cebu Scenes series

Few months ago, I used to shoot photos whenever I'm in a vehicle - for fun. Uploaded them & received good comments (mainly from my PBase fans LOL) about it. They inspired to make better in taking "real" photos & capturing the real essence of Cebu's current lifestyle.

Now, the notable gallery - Cebu Scenes - is on its 3rd season! Hahaha! So if you haven't been to Cebu, these galleries will surely bring you here.

Cebu Scenes
Cebu Scenes 2
Cebu Scenes 3

September morn

It's the 1st day of September. What's so significant about it? First, it's our last month here in Shangri-La Mactan. Second, it's my birth month and Selena's, too. Need I say more?