Four hours after I have washed my face, brushed my teeth and changed into sleeping attire, I knew that I already slept after a stupendous 2009 New Year’s Eve celebration.  However, I thought I was brought back in time when I kept hearing a loud noise similar to blasting whistle bomb, detonating fire crackers, exploding super lolo, plapla and bawang.  Was I just dreaming or was I back in time to the New Year’s Eve celebration?  With all my strength I unbolted the locks of my eyelids to find my sister SNORING!  That’s when I returned to consciousness and remembered that I slept inside my sister’s room in Pasay.

Unable to go back to sleep due to rigorous diaphragm and pulmonary calisthenics of my sleeping sister, the first thing I did for this year was to say a silent prayer thanking God for a wonderful year that passed and asking for a peaceful yet breathtaking year ahead.

After saying a prayer, I took my mobile phone to check on what time it was – 6:37 a.m.  Letting loose the childish in me I searched my phone’s feature for a sound recorder to chronicle the sound of my sister’s snore.  After a couple of minutes my sister was awaken by my movements and let her hear what I just recorded.  But she seems disinterested and went back to her sleep.  She was so nonchalant about it – “deadma” in other words.  I was reminded by the cool female characters in the movies who also snore – KC Concepcion in “For the First Time” and Claudine Barreto in “Milan”.  O ‘di ba ka level ng bruha?!

I stood up to check on my e-mail messages and went down the dining area joined by Nengkoy to have our first breakfast this year.

Happy New Year everyone!  Thanks for everything and sorry for my lapses for the past year.  I hope and pray that 2009 would be a year of full positivity – like the way my sister Jocel took my sound recording – and prosperity for all of us.

Hapi Nyu Yir!

Every year at least 2 weeks before Christmas day, I would ‘text’ my younger sister (Jocel) to send me a list of names of all my nephews and nieces. I would usually ask her for the list for me to have a reference when I go shopping for presents that they would open during the Christmas Eve. Every year, I am blown away with the long list of names that my sister would send me!

Never did a Christmas season pass that I fail to give a Christmas present to all these monster pamangkins. This year, apart from my usual wish for peace of mind and healthy being, my other Christmas wish is for these monsters to visit me at “Golden Acres” or “Home for the Aged” when I grow old and turn grey.

Hoy! Bisitahin nyo ko dun. Kung hinde, pandidilatan ko kayo!

1. Dr. Jing Perez and Muy Muy (ang doktorang cool at ang taba-ching-ching)
2. Berna Asunto (ang kulot kong casino-mate)
3. Matet Arranguez (ang sosyal ng Marketing)
4. Kuki Catindig (ang Reina Delas Flores)
5. Erwin Miranda (ang pare, bro at dude)
6. Betchay Teodoro and AR (ang mag-syotang seldom magkita)
7. Mimi Quibedo (ang maingay na reyna ng text-load)
8. Chef Onille Caballero (ang mommy ng bayan)
9. Karla Ann Sulit (ang hopeless romantic)
10. Chef Diony Oguing (ang maton ng Trinoma)
11. Frankie De Vera (ang piratang hearth-throb)
12. Gie Abainza (ang sexing matanda)
13. EBB (ang sexing mas matanda)
14. LCA (ang boss)
15. NMH (ang maingay)
16. Grasya Villadolid (ang totoong Survivor)
17. Eds Tenioso (ang gentle giant ng resto)
18. Tito Galvez (ang gentle giant ng hotel)
19. Baby Angeles (ang byahera sa madaling araw)
20. Karengkeng Teotico (ang wacky usual tourmate)
21. Joeselia Javier (ang diwata ng Qantas)
22. Ariel Ycong (ang hari ng kalsada)
23. Willie, Ate Gaying and Louie Clamor (ang pamilyang mayaman)
24. Vice Mayor Emie Calixto (ang susunod na mayor ng Pasay)
25. Jhun, Jojo amd Angel Abubo (ang simple pero rock na pamilya)
26. Ikang Langit (ang gimikerang pamangkin)
27. Lito Salamanca (ang yosi king)
28. Avi (ang Italyanang negra)
29. +63919***7102 (kung sino ka man, salamat)
30. +63915***8339 (kung sino ka din, salamat)
31. Edgar Ong (ang singkit na classmate)
32. Vlad (ang bata sa katawan ng hunk)
33. Benedict Casimiro (ang best apprentice ever)
34. Ayee Montano (ang kolokoy)
35. Suzette Cuerpo (ang empress under-the-sea)
36. Erick Angeles (ang reyna ng disyeto)
37. Chanky Tiangco (ang sweet devilish)
38. Rico Panghulan (ang kusinerong cool)
39. Jo Cerrera (ang prinsesa ng Graphics)
40. Honey Ballesil (ang madre sa hotel)
41. Dr. Beth Alo (ang full-time world traveler & part-time doctor)
42. Avic & Bokyo’s Angels (ang mga babae at kambal ni Kuya Bogis)

I would also like to thank all those who greeted me personally.  You know who you are…  You just don’t know how much it meant to me.

Salamat Lord! 

Pasay City has just loss its most delicious resident.  I am no longer a resident of splendid Pasay.  Last September 14, I officially moved to the bravura City of Manila, one of the zaniest cities of the country.

I know that I will not miss much in Pasay since the City of Manila possesses the same character that Pasay has.  I wish to enjoy my stay in Manila for it basically has the same polluted air, crime rate and it’s as dirty as Pasay.  The streets are also filled and surrounded by wicked thieves, hold-uppers, drug infused mendicants and psychotic taong-grasa.  Population explosion is so current in my new city for I can see bunch of asim-smelling street kids unminded by their idiotic parents.  Similar to Pasay, walking the street of Manila is like an obstacle course due to the presence of stinky poop left behind by flea-infested anorexic-looking street dogs.

At least now, the City of Manila can brag that it has the most delicious soul to step on the face of earth… Me.

Parang walang nabago… ganon pa rin… Tsing!

Normally, I would know a friend but would not personally know to whom he or she will get or got married to.  It’s a rare occurrence when I personally know both mister groom and miss bride prior to their marriage.  Since its Valentines let me pay tribute to these rare twosome friends by enumerating them one by one…

• Neil & Ness Lumacad (my students from Manila Doctors College)
• Tony & Maya Castillo (my friends during college days)
• Jun & Jojon Abubo (my co-employees during Glicos days)
• Harry & Pinky (my co-employees during Glicos days)
• Mario & Marilyn Bautista (my classmates in high school)
• Derek & Nelita Enghoy (my classmates in high school)
• Richard & Frelyn Delos Reyes (my co-employees at present)

Hoping you have a solid loving relationship ’till the end of time!

Maligayang araw ng mga puso!

It is a season of Christmas parties.  So far I have attended 9 Christmas parties already.  It has been a tradition that Christmas revelries would have parlor games.  I can’t believe it! I won a beer drinking contest in one of the parties I attended.  Me, a very moderate alcohol drinker using a straw was able to sip one big glass of San Miguel beer beating all the other contestants.

In a separate gathering, me and my associate Beth won second place in a dance contest strutting to the tune of Madonna’s Music Inferno.  Flashing in an LCD projector the concert video of Madonna’s recent world tour concert, we amazed the spectators for we dance the same steps that Madonna did in the concert video.  It’s like watching the queen of pop do her grooves in the video and us live on the dance floor performing the same thing.

In a Christmas Lunch with my co-officers, I won a cell phone and a gift certificate worth one thousand pesos.

Also, in this season, I would receive plenty of gifts from close friends and associates.  So far I have received a box of cookies, a violet shirt, a yellow shirt, a brown shirt, a white shirt, a box of skin and body regimen formulas, a 2008 calendar, a bottle of perfume, a cassava cake, a fruit cake and (of course) a chocolate cake.

Merry Christmas everyone…

When feaks of terror strike, what do you do? Me?

While I hear and receive apocalyptic news and conspiracy theories about the bombing that  happened in Glorietta 2 early this afternoon, the first thing I did when I heard the news was to call home.  After numerous rings and no one answered, I decided to call Ate Gaying (my elder sister) since she often goes to that mall (I suppose for lunch or a quick shopping).  It gave me a big relief when she answered her phone.  I summoned her to call Denden and Erika my eldest pamangkins (nephew and niece) for they are often mall-going geeks.

Late in the afternoon, I received a text message from Erika asking where I am.  I called her right away to make sure if everything was okay.  Erika answered her phone relaying that they were home.  She gave the phone to my younger sister (Jocelyn) asking if I would drop by Nengkoy’s place to hang-out and have dinner.  Upon knowing that everybody was safe, I felt relieved.

One thing dawned on me during my afternoon phone conversation with Ate Gaying.  She expressed that my being a “kuya” (big brother) has surfaced.

It maybe my being Kuya or na praning nanaman ako…

Economists define GDP (gross domestic product) as a measuring tool for a region’s economy.  It is the total market value of all  final goods and services produced within a region or country in a given period of time.

If things will go well, growth will continue and will be consistent, Metro Manila will be on the 30th rank being the richest urban area in world based on its GDP among the 151 urban metros in the world.  This will put Metro Manila on top spot as the richest in Southeast Asia’s GDP.  This is according to the March 2007 research and study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to the study, mega-Manila in 2020 will have an estimated GDP worth US$257 billion.  Imagine, Metro Manila will surpass the GDP of Sydney (being on the 32nd spot) and Singapore (on the 40th spot) in 2020?

Based on my knowledge in Inferential Statistics I learned during college days, thirteen years is a long time for estimate.  But! I want to be positive. I want to be auspicious.  I want to be hopeful.  I will be 13 years older during that time and will be on my late 40’s.  The obvious solution so as to convert this survey into reality is by keeping the politicians, the armed forces, the leftists, the rebel groups, the taxi drivers (special mention since I deal with them daily) and the whole metro’s population is to be "behave" until 2020.

Paluin sa pwet ang salbahe!

It’s been a year that I have started onto this blog.  It was never a plan, just a spur of the moment.  There were a lot that I shouldda, wouldda and couldda have written.  But just like what others say… you have to live for the day in the present and what is done is done.

A year has passed and I hope I’m right in deciding to continue on with this.  Expect more exciting and thought-provoking random thoughts from yours truly!

Cheers!