Christmas is coming.
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i can't feel the christmas season yet, but it surely is nearby. next week is already november, unfortunately, it is not celebrated here in singapore, so yes, we do have to work. i suddenly envy other ASEAN nations, they have more holidays than us - especially, thailand and indonesia. they can close for a week to celebrate festivals and holidays, while singapore closes for 2 days maximum.

i have started buying christmas presents last weekend, though am not really buying a lot. am just buying for my family only. i really have to learn to balance my money, cause i have been spending quite a bit lately, with trips, shopping, dinner and drinks and contributions in the office(for farewell gifs, birthdays, etc). arg! anyway, i have a price ceiling now versus last christmas - funny as it is. i think i only have around 8 to 10 people in my list (including our maid), cause i'd still rather go with quality presents. i think the reason why im like this, is i dont want to receive a present that i cannot use at all, or worse, if i dont really like it.

i heard some pinoy officemates thinking about giving gifts here in the office, some would give a little something to everyone, and special presents to their close friends. i dont know what to do - i might decide not to give anything at all, or i might give to a few people only, not yet decided.

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we celebrated deepavali, they say its like indian christmas of some sort. am not really good at indian history, and i have no interest at all, but its like celebrating a woman-saint. oh my, just google it if you want to find out more on the festivities.


complete group shot at chiro's house, some people were not able to make it though.

happy birthday tracy!
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tracy decided to celebrate her birthday on a sunday night, para birthday salubong daw. she researched for a place over the net and decided to go altazaag. i mean, she should have asked me na lang cause ive been there like a couple of times before. she reserved a table for 12 or more at the second floor. there were a lot of people (friends of hers, and friends of friends) who came and chatted the night.

i saw a lot of tracy's friends, saw being the word cause i have not met them, and even if we were introduced, i will not be able to recognize them next time. i have this weird thing, where if i just met someone, i tend to forget how they look the day after. im no good at it.


happy brithday trace. cy came and surprised tracy for her birthday.


julette and me with our signature pose.


julette and cy are instant best friends. L to R, cheryl, cy, me and julette.

as for me, i would never go to the 2nd floor again, ang init, i could have died of suffocation there. it was so hot that i was craving for ice cream, so after dinner, we went clark quay. i went there to meet my office friends and go to pump room. that will need to have a separate post. while they went to zouk after our ice cream.


i convinced cy to get ice cream. 2 scoops @ $8 (thank you for the promo, it did not cost me an arm and a leg this time to get ice cream).


julette and i love our ice cream.

deepavali 2008 long weekend.
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thank GOD for the long weekend, an extra days rest is always a good one. for the past 2 days, i slept past 5am, since i watched ugly betty and gossip girl (thanks to ryan, for passing all his goods. haha!) yesterday, i woke up at 230pm and prepared lunch - after which i did my laundry and ironed clothes. i waited for the owners to come in and fix the 3rd room which tracy will stay in next week.


saturday lunch, mac and cheese, plus corned beef sandwich.

i have to do tons of errands, on my list are the following:
1. pay credit card bill
2. pay my PUB and handphone bill
3. go to lucky plaza and do some remittances to settle my bill back home
4. renew my OWWA certificate

OMG, just thinking about it, i have a lot of things to pay, life is such. i hope tracy gets her salary already, so she can pay me na. HAHA!

its tracy's birthday tomorrow, but we are celebrating tonight, she chose to go to altazaag, which i havent been to in a long time, but am not really craving for it. i want chinese food for some stupid reason. i remember hating chinese food back in manila cause that is all that dad eats - plus pinoy and jap food, but most of our sunday family dinners is always chinese. after dinner, they plan to go zouk. i dont think i can join..

its pat's birthday today, she messaged me that she wanted to party tonight, and if we wanted to go butter factory - she wants to dance daw. so this is the reason why i wont be goin go zouk wiht them tonight.

its mom's birthday tomorrow, i hope she would have a good one. happy birthday mom, love you. oh, its also the birthday of paulo's mom, happy birthday!

tomorrow, chiro, a colleague is celebrating deepavali and invited all of us to his home for a party. well, its not all of us, as only selected people in the office were invited, but most of theses are the friends. his wife, piu is a very nice lady and is 7 months pregnant, thats why we also planned a surprise baby shower for her. helen, cheryl, vic and i shopped last week to get the presents, am really excited to see her reaction. she is a nicde lady and she deserves to get a super nice baby shower.

anyway, i will prepare to leave in a moment, i need to at least do some of my errands.

see you...
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its always sad to have someone leaving, but i think as one grows older, they learn to be more realistic and open to different situations. and fortunately, am not the type of person who dwells on these things, issues or whatever, some people might not understand and find it very insincere of me, but i move on. i try to block it away, i dont want to deal with things, i would always hope for the better, but i am prepared for the worst. this is how i deal with all the aspects in life.

sandip, is the one of the best AMDs in CCT, and he is leaving for UM handling mastercard. he is a very funny guy without trying to be one, he is a natural. we will miss his antics, bloopers, and just his plain action and all. though am sure we will still see him around, he promised to visit us and join us in far east.



last shot of the beautycare team with sandip. there were 2 new AMDs who joined.


sarah is an aussie, but worked in ireland before transfering to singapore. she is my dorothy the dinosaur, long story there.



filipinos and malaysians in the photo.


skincare team. L to R - esther, satya, helen, me and cheryl. oh, there is a new girl coming in, she is thai and i forgot her name.


one of them is sid, indian lineage but grew up in dubai, stayed there for the past 24 years. he is just 28, and arrived just last week. he seems cool, though he has big shoes to fill in, he is replacing sandip.


last wacky group shot with sandip.


this is the other haircare team - L to R sid(replacing sandip), jazreel, tony and sarah.


jack(center) is from starcom brisbane, and is one of the AMDs for haircare with sid. they arrives at the same time, last monday. L to R, chiro, satya, jack, eileen, helen.


here is a group shot with charlotte, she is from starcom NZ, and now works in our team.


haircare and fine fragrances team.


there are really no goodbyes, there's always the next round. and even if there is none, there are good memories that we will always treasure.

butter factory
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i haven't been to butter factory since i was in crush. nas introduced me to the place, and it was mel's birthday then - kev p, kev a, d, nas, alice, mel, joey and i went to get some drinks. some left early, but since mel was in a partying mood and begged us to stay and dance - we did, to celebrate her birthday.

since then, i have not returned until last friday. it was no one's birthday, but we had to celebrate the end of the week, a tiring week especially for some people. i was just there as a DK - dakilang kaladkarin.

so it was me, kristine, helen, vic, joyce and suyesh. the latter 3 are actually from the 7th floor, managing other accounts, but vic worked in starcom malaysia previously, and i kind of worked with her. so it was all good. i just hope pat, and more people were there, but nonetheless, it was a lot of fun.



L to R: me, helen, vic, suyesh and kristine.


a wackier photo, skincare really rocked it. - though it was just me and helen in the photo.


suyesh took a picture of us, since he was sooo tall, with joyce in the picture. she is actually a filipino as well, worked in CARAT previously.


helen, me and vic.


after butter, we tried to go pump room in clark quaye, unfortunately base on this picture, i already couldn't make it. :(

until the next one.

emial thread.
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we ex-crush people, usually does email threads, just for updates, invites and etc, and we had this crazy email thread that cheered me this morning while checking my gmail.

FROM NAS:
Hi Guys,
Please reply to this thread instead i've added LEONARD KANG!
(the previous emails had a diffferent leonard in it! *paiseh)

So far only:
Alluring Alice
Joyful Joey
An-knowledgeable Anton (i dont know any other adjective with 'an' besides annoying'
Nasty Nas

For those of you going overseas -- TO BAD! (sour grapes here). Please come back and arrange for another get-together IMMEDIATELY.

KEVIN P replied:
Any slot for Kinky Kev? Count me in, until work takes me out.
How bout Angsty Anton? Has a nice ring to it.

K

NAS replied:
Kinky Kevin??
what about Kevin ang? Kool Kevin heh

Anton is not angsty..... hmmmm Agent Anton. Allergic Anton? Adorable Anton! Analog Anton.. analyse anton? ANIMAL ANTON.. anti-anton hahaha

okay for the rest of you who are not coming, i'll leave you out from this mail onwards.

loves ! // nas

FINALLY, i say..
oh i know, for kevin ang -> koala kev (since we call him papa bear anyways)...
i like angsty anton -> its very rock&roll. hahahaha, makes me want to go butter factory. (does that make sense) ** and thanks guys for playing with my name **

joey is not joyful, can we have jarring joey instead?
im fine with the rest. kinky kev has a cool twist to it. (hey, thats what copywriters do anyways) how about roarring rebecca????? hahahaha.

see you guys.

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mom called me this morning, my angkong is in the hospital with tubes in and out of his system, 2 to be exact -> one in the lungs to take out the phlegm as he cannot breathe. the other one in his nose, directly to his stomach to feed him, as he is not eating anymore. i am feeling a bit floaty right now, i dont know, mind is blank.

mom is funny, she messaged me, i finished the john paul smith perfume you gave me, and i gave her a paul smith perfume. ok. ganda.

murder by food
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i am back to eating rice, especially if i have a good ulam/sauce that goes with it. i think the rice crisis naman is over. so now, that there is a financial crisis, i think i should stop spending money - i kinda feel that this is possible. yesterday, i went orchard to meet deepa, to pass her some stuff. i never even looked at things inside the store, i was shocked actually.

okay, i dont really shop in singapore - bulk of my spending goes to my travels (shopping on location) and food. i spend a lot of money on lunch, dinner and drinks, that i am prohibiting myself to do that for the next few months. i'll try anyway since this is kinda impossible.

i missed din tai fung, and i have grown to love it. helen and pat loves DTF too, this restaurant originated from taiwan and according to them, they are ranked by the new york times as one of the top 10 best restaurants in the world. they serve really good xiao long bao or dumplings.


din tai fung's pork chop rice, S$8.50


some veggie for health purposes, S$8.50


pork dumpling, xiao long bao, S$9.00, we ordered 2 trays.


marmalade pantry's nutella cupcake, S$4 - it was so good, i can cry while eating it.


harry's butter chicken - cheryl and helen likes this, but i will not order it again, it was so-so.

love, rosie
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love, rosie

pat, one of my pinoy officemates here lent me this book last monday. she said it was a very good read, and the author cecelia ahern, was the author of ps. i love you, too. i liked that movie, not your normal american setting, i get too tired of reading american novels and movies, that having this european flair is kind of cute in a way - and one of my favorite movies is LOVE ACTUALLY. :)

its a very girly book, thats all i can say. its a good and entertaining read, but its not one of my best reads, but i would recommend it if you dont have anything better to do.


synopsis:

rosie and alex are destined for each other and everyone seems to kow it but them. best friends since childhood, they separate as teenagers when alex and his family relocatre from dublin to boston. like two ships always passing in the night, rosie and alex stay friends, and though years pass and weddings, funerals, and baptisms take place, the two remain firmly attached via emails and letters. heartbroken, they learn to live without each other. but destiny is a funny thingm and in this novel of several missed opportunities, rosie and alex learn that fate isn't done with them quite yet.

meet ups
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last weekend was the F1 night race, and a lot of people came to visit sunny old singapore. we have kate and his friend paolo, and trace's friend mon (i think thats the name, forgot na)

we went to anchorpoint, a mall that sells sale stuff, everyday sale of past season merchandise, etc - they have giordano, billabong, charles and keith, G2000, at marame pang iba, we had late lunch at TCC, and here is a picture of us.


che, me, paolo, kate and trace (clockwise)


traces' friend joins in.

the next day we met up at orchard and had lunch at sakura, that was it. we didn't do anything at all kundi magmeet up lang and maglunch actually. i went back to anchorpoint with teri yesterdauy, since it was a holiday. we went to ikea too, but unfortunately we didnt get any stuff -- so i should say fortunately. my bank account is dying cause the numbers just depletes by itself. arg!

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i have to save up and pay for my hotel in phuket, i hope we find one, medyo expensive kasi peak season sa december, but am definitely excited to go. yay!

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my boss is on leave until 3rd week of october, so goodluck to me. :(