Sydney FAQs v.2008

Where are you now?
I have been living in Sydney since Feb 2005.
I currently live with my cousin and 2 nice Mexican housemates in Leichhardt, in the italian district close to the city

What do you do?
I work in IT doing consulting and auditing.

Are you done with school?
Yes, I finished a double Masters in International Business & Business Information Systems in 2006.

Please do not ask me this question on a regular basis. Thank you.

When are you coming back to the Philippines?
I was last there in Jan 2008. I tend to come back after a year or two to visit, so we'll see.

Do you have a boyfriend?
No.

Also: No, I don't mind. No, I'm not a hermit, I do date on occasion. No, I'm not in a hurry there are many things I still want to do with my life.  Yes, being single is fun.  In short, if it happens, it happens.

You may also find me on multiply or facebook! If there are any more questions you think I should include here, leave a note.

 

Hello, is anyone out there?

I haven't posted in so long. I don't know if anyone reads this anymore. Hello? Is anyone out there?

I was going to post a photo essay of my trip to europe but I realised that it is already here.

The complete albums are on flickr.

Have been doing fine, should post un updated FAQs next. Let's see. Ha ha ha.

Manila 2008

Yes, I'm back from the dead. Thanks to my friend Naz who revitalized my header. Am back in Manila for the holidays. Will be working on fixing my links and such but for now here is a picture summary of the highlights so far. The rest of the pictures are
here And there are even more pictures on my facebook!

Bohol


My Best Friend Jen & Me & the Chocolate Hills



Mum on her broomstick


Bohol Bee Farm


The Food at Bohol Bee Farm

Reunions


With my grade school classmates, cw: Jill (with Toby!), Cecile & Cara


With college friends San, Ciara, Krissy & Tin


With X-Mktg people from my first job at Citibank
(Carl, Donny, Russ, Paul, Daph & Car)


Singing in the Rain with Falx & Carlos (who did their crying in the rain)


The Spice Girls. I just felt like saying that even if they will kill me.


My Puputs! John, Jason & JP


My Former Big Boss, Mahiar


My ex Roomie, Maui!

Family


My godson Miggy


Attack of the children! (on cousin edouard)

Everyone had a baby


Toby with his mum at his first birthday party


With Baby A at his baptism


Marcus being eaten by Tito JR

Dammit, I know its been ages... have asked my friend JJ to do some revamping and hopefully we'll get a new template/background up and I can start updating soon.

Cheers!

These are the plates from when we were done eating dessert. Also spanish hot chocolate, bwahahaha 

Jenny, Me & Cara at dessert last night. Cara is an old friend from grade school who went to the same uni that I did for college. We saw each other every now and then but I haven't really seen her in at least five years. Nice to catch up and chat about what we were doing. Cara now works for NEDA, the govt economic authority and is about to apply to take her masters somewhere. We also bumped into Flordeliz, an old high school classmate who is now a dentist. We all remember her grad ball dress, which was ahead of his time as its halterneck was made of fur. She is doing very well, and is also teaching anatomy and physiology! 

12/15/06 01:04 pm - So far...

(cos im tamad to retype)

dear sacha, andee, carolina, kat & miel,

greetings from the humidity of manila!

so far i have done nothing but eat. my tummy isn't used to eating that much so its protesting a bit. i shouldn't go into detail cos its kinda gross. So far I've had adobo, pancit bihon and lumpia (sacha you like lumpia!). Mum has gotten me soy milk so I'm still having cereal for brekkie. I have a prepaid mobile and yesterday I finished my first load of PhP 300 (about 8 dollars aus) in two hours just telling everyone what my number was and calling. Its been really fun to call these people who don't know the number and are all like, who's this and go "Poooopieeeeee" or "heeeelllllooooo its meeee" and have everyone scream.

my flight was slightly uneventful. I watched three movies (yes, three!) scoop, los dos lados de la cama (its the sequel to los otros lados, sacha it wasn't as good and the actresses changed! they made everyone gay.) and stormbreaker with this really hot 14 year old. I also saw the end of step it up the channing tatum movie and project runway. i was soooo bored during my layover in singapore i kept going on line. there was a 15 minute limit for the internet so i would go, walk around and come back. i have had the shittiest coffee ever - the place i got my coffee from had bad coffee but a really good cranberry-orange cake.

when i got to manila it was really humid. from the air, before landing you can see SM Mall of Asia, the biggest mall in southeast asia. as you descend, tis like this big blue SM sign is looming up at you from the ground next to all these lights from the fishermen's boats on the bay. my cousin anthony, who works in the airport met me at the gate. he saw my name on the manifest and went to say hi. of course the first thing he said was, "lumaki ka ha" (you've gotten bigger) so far my family has been considerate enough not to mention this, although mum throws it in every now and then in a fake discreet way.

when i got home everything was the same but different. they got a new giant jelly bean shaped car because my cousin vanessa studies in UST where it floods and she has to be picked up there. its a bit ungainly and it seats seven (perfect for kat and co!) but i am from a family of two so that doesn't really make sense to me. mum had packed up a lot of stuff in my room but all my books are still there. i am surprised that there are less books that i haven't read than i thought. all my romance novels are on the top shelf which is the biggest and they are very dusty. i am rereading some old ones now.

i still have some jetlag. it is three hours ahead and i am quite sleepy by 9 o'clock. i still however get up at 830 which is the equivalent of 1130 australia time bwahahaha. i looked through my closet. mom has always said that she can't send me anymore stuff because none of it will fit me anymore but hello they're all t-shirts and i fit!!! yesterday i tried to wear one of them but you know how there's always a strip of skin that shows between your low rise pants and your shirt, mom goes, its not uso anymore (that's not what people wear here anymore) and i think she thought i looked fat so i rolled my eyes and changed. otherwise mum has been quite nice and strangely we have been bonding.

yesterday i had lunch in cibo my favorite restaurant with my friend therese. we had gorgonzola & spinach dip, penne al telefono (cream, cheese, tomatoes) and red grape shake. i knew what to order before we even sat down. I also wandered around the malll quite a bit. i almost walked up the wrong escalator. i also kept going to the wrong sections, and i would remember when i was almost there, its good to know that the mall (glorietta) hasn't changed so much and that i still remember how to get around.

i tried to get my nbi clearance for my visa but they wouldn't let me cos i didn't have the original so i have to go to carriendo which is like in old manila, in the trafficky part of the city. i also went to the giant Zara flagship store (carolina! the clothes are soooo nice!!!). i want to get a suit and a pair of jeans and maybe a mini skirt. the skirts here are kinda long, its only zara and mango that have short ones. i also saw this really nice winter coat, but not like i need another one.

my best friend joey came over for dinner and i fell asleep at nine while he was downloading my music. the broadband here is a bit wonky, you have to double click on something to connect and get the internet!!! my cousin's internet connection is sooo complicated, she has one cpu, another machine, a dsl box, a ups and you have to have the fan automatically opened pointing at the cpu battery thingy or else it overheats!!! and you don't always get to connect to dsl. its quite strange. i had to go on dial up yesterday and of course i ran out in like an hour.

today i am having lunch with a family friend, having coffee with my old persian boss who is visiting from the states and then watching casino royale with my cousin and having coffeee with my friend john. (okay im loaded up till i leave!)

Okay at this point suddenly my cousin's monitor just blacked out and i have had to go to my room and get into the dial up!!! i have tried to fix it but the myriad of connections are too much for my patience. (I miss our broadband connection. siiigh)

Andee: my cousin has this really nice bag for 150 pesos bought in divy i think i know where to get your present hahaha also how do i get in touch w/ your mom/dad re crossword puzzles
Miel: i told my mom about the house and she is very interested. will talk to you about it later.

hope you are all doing well!

cheers!

How did I end up being nice?

Showgirl!

Today I went to see Kylie with my friend Jaya. Our seats were quite good, on the floor section near the ramp where she well, makes rampa. The first half of the show I didn't know most of the songs, except for Come Inside, Kids and Spinning Around. Security also stopped us from taking pictures, "at Kylie's request". After the 20 min intermission - where I bought myself a " I am a Showgirl" shirt that I quite possibly may never wear in the philippines for fear of misinterpretation - we managed to squeeze to the floor section near the ramp which was on the end of the row where we were and that's where I took these pictures.

Kylie came back singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while sitting on a moon, but my pictures of her there are so fuzzy so you're getting the picture of the back of her neck!!!

You can tell why Kylie is much loved by the gay community - all the male dancers were 90% of the time in swim trunk type undies and were shirtless. At some point they wore trunks and giant peacock style wings - which caused me and my friend (who is gay herself) to burst into laughter and for her to say, "I can see why Kylie is such a fag hag!". To be fair she had excellent dancers. I really admire their stamina, skill and their ability to dance around in their underwear. I don't think that would have been easy particularly for the men.

She changed outfits at least 6 times, and more often than not the dancers had to change quicker and get on and prance about first. They also had quite a few complicated moves. And at one point, where they were all dressed like robots, the guys had giant metal nose shaped triangles stuck to wear their dicks were supposed to be. (Gaultier designed, perhaps, like Madonna's cone boobs?)

One of the ladies in line at the bar during the intermission remarked to a gay man, "One of them has to be straight. You can have the rest, but one of them has to be a straight man!!!" In fairness quite a few of them looked straight, especially the guy with a lot of tattoos, but I guess you'd have to be pretty open to allow yourself to parade in your underthings and touch other men as well through the course of your dancing. Most straight men I know are rather squeamish about that part.

There was a middle aged woman in front of us who had brought her daughters and was just screaming "Kylie! Kylie!" the whole time. I tried to be considerate as I thought, she must be this woman's Bono but my friend just wanted to kill her. Also the lady next to her had this fluffy feather duster like thing that she kept waving in the air, which makes quite an appearance in my Can't Get You Out of My Head Video.

Kylie did two encores, the first doing CGYOMH and two other songs dressed like a cross between an Egyptian and a butterfly. Then she did the last one in a rhinestone studded bustier type top with funky graffiti printed pants and a coat, none of which matched. The back of the coat said "Kylie Says Relax. She's back!" and one of the signs on her pants - next to a pic of Keanu, of all things - said, "Kylie likes tea better than sex"

My favorite renditions were of "Locomotion" - which she did cabaret style with a Vogue intro - "Lucky" (yes, 80s!) and CGYOMH. She also sang "Especially For You" in the end as a tribute to the fans who waited for her to come back. Was especially horrified that I knew all the lyrics, thanks to pinoy radio. At some point she said, "Thank you to all of you who kept your old tickets from the last shows " - she had to postpone because of her cancer and old tix were still valid but could also be refunded if not used. She also asked, so where have you been keeping them? Anywhere interesting? Tell me! And I said "Underwear Drawer!" cos that's where I keep all my tickets! And she heard me! In the end she said so far the knickers drawer was the most interesting one (Go Me!).

My Weekend

Here are some snapshots of my weekend.

Happy Birthday to Toby the dog!

Toby is 7!!!



Andee and Hazel the boxer. They both want cookies.



Kartini in a wig & Sacha at Kartini's house party
(The theme was colour, and just for effect, she wore a wig)


Thanksgiving

Me stuffing the turkey


The finished product, complete with meat thermometer. Cooked for three hours. Nicknamed "Morales" by Nic, the ultimate Paquiao fan because Manny Pacquiao our champion beat the Mexican boxer Morales again. (In short, luto si Morales)



Thanks to everyone for coming! I think Ala & Nic might have other pics as well...the rest of mine will go up soon.