Category Archives: Me, Myself & I

Cutest & Bravest

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At a very young age, I knew how it was to be very sick.  I was too sickly, I could be considered a regular “customer” of hospitals.  If hospitals and clinics would have a promo like Starbucks – earn enough points to get your free coffee on your next visit – I would be one who can easily earn the required hospital points to avail of a free confinement in the next visit. 

i remember this! my elder sister took this photo and i was just discharged from (as usual) the hospital.  too weak to smile! hahaha!

During my childhood, nurses and doctors are no longer surprised to find and see my name on their medical charts.  Nengkoy (my mother) in fact have loads of stories and anecdotes about her experiences in hospitals and during medical emergency situations that involves none other than, me.

I know how it is to be very very sick.  That is why every time I see a young child at odds and is battling an illness and medical circumstance, my heart would just melt.

I am in tears when I encounter this trending news about John Oliver Zippay, the young kid who battled and won a war against cancer.

The video washed my eyes!  I am super happy for J.O. (his nickname).  What is good to know is that aside from being sickly at a young age, both I and J.O. were tagged “STRONG” by our respective fathers.  The hashtag in J.O.’s GoFundMe page created by his dad was #JOStrong.  My Tatay (Dad) on the other hand named me after Neil Armstrong.

got this from cnn photos!  super happy for this boy! so brave, so brave!

There’s one big difference though between me and J.O.  Aside from his infectious charm, the difference is that J.O. is the cutest and the bravest!

Ten Year Anniversary of My Morocco Adventure

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Ten years ago I clearly remember we were all praying and wishing to own the coolest Blackberry phone.  It was the time when lifestyle magazine editors were the arbiters of taste telling readers what to see, shop and do.  Now our lives are ruled by the social media influencers!

me 10 long years ago inside our budget hotel in casablanca

Ten years ago, Alexa, Bixby and Siri may just be the names of your neighbor’s pets.  Now they are your reliable artificial intelligence who can help you with your missions and commissions.  It was also the time when watches were simply used to tell time and you have to manually count the number of steps you had for the day and need to go to the doctor to monitor your calorie intake.  Now these 3 aspects are just minor features of your smart watch!  

In fact this blog, ten years ago was still being powered under Friendster Blogging site prior to my switching to WordPress!  I switched/transferred Nengkoy blog to WordPress in 2011.

Ten years ago was my first long haul adventure out of the country.  Ten years ago was my Morocco adventure!  Though I spent my Morocco exploits with Australian friends, this was my first solo airplane long haul experience!  This I guess gave birth to my loving going solo on travels abroad.

me with joesel, the travel-savant

sahara dessert adventure!

inside a tannery in fes

And can you just imagine how backward technology was during that time?  So solo travel then was more difficult and more challenging.  Internet info then was a bit limited. I can still remember the countless times I personally called Qatar Airways to inquire and ensure that there is no transit visa needed during my lay over in Doha.

I have no idea about the existence of mobile wifi then!  Though internet was existing already, I clearly remember that me, Joesel and Charles had to go the nearest internet shop inside a medina so as to connect online and message love ones from other parts of the world. 

My cellphone was okay then but the camera I was using then was the compact digital camera type! Chinese has not invented selfie sticks and gorilla pods during that time so can you just imagine how we take turns in taking our photos and smiling on camera multiple times so as to get the best selfie angle?

a rest day at merzouga

casablanca mosque

Ten years ago, my Morocco experience was the start of the expansion of my viewpoints of the world.  My learnings of the world were no longer just sourced from the pages of the book I read.  It was the time when my comfort zone was ultimately tested.  It was the adventure that made me realize that I can actually do and accomplish things I never imagine I could do.  It was the start of my different way of growing. 

Wow! It was actually ten years ago and no way will I forget my Morocco adventure!

Visa Application: The Expensive Way of Proving My Being a Human Being

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My comment on a Facebook post by Business Insider “Hahaha! No need to read the article.  I know this so well… (Filipino here)” is gaining semi-popularity.  This article written by a Syrian was about how difficult it is to travel when you don’t have the power of a privileged passport.

And like Syrians, Filipinos like me has to face expensive challenges and time-consuming process of obtaining a travel visa.  Like Syrians, Filipino-world travelers has very weak passports.  We are not privileged to travel easily like the French, the Norwegians and the Singaporeans to name a few.

new zealand: visa fee usd 140

shanghai, china: visa fee usd 27.50

Belgians and South Koreans and other nationalities with powerful passport need not plan so much ahead of time.  They can easily go and hop on the next flight available to another country if they wish to.  But Syrians and Filipinos need months in advance of processing our visit visa.  We need to prepare a long list of proofs of our being human beings as well as present our capability to finance ourselves during our travel.

We have to pay the expensive visa fees which Australians, Americans and Canadians can already apportion to their room accommodations or meal expense during their travel.  We have to allot a separate budget for that. Hahaha!  And these pricy visa fees does not actually assure us of securing our needed visit visa.  We need to do loads of prayers to the heavens plus tons of luck!

mexico: visa-free entry if you have japanese or us visa

israel: visa free (yohooo!!!)

turkey: need to have US visa + usd 20 for evisa

As of this writing I have to pay 60 euros to secure a Schengen visa, 160 US dollars to obtain an American visa and 832 US dollars to acquire a 5-year UK visa.  And according to 2018 schengenvisainfo.com report, Schengen embassies and consulates in the Philippines processed 175,700 visa applications.  UK on the other hand processed 78,482 applications.  And these are just Schengen and UK, we Filipinos love USA so do the math on how much these embassies profited from travel-loving Filipinos.

Wealthy Malaysians, Japanese and Singaporeans has to pay nothing.  Zero.  Thus, Schengen, UK and US embassies and consulates don’t earn from them considering that they can effortlessly afford it. 

If for some people getting lost in a foreign country is the most tough, Syrians for and Filipinos on the other hand, the process of obtaining visa is the most difficult.  Hahaha!  It is actually the very element that hinders me from going to places I want to explore.  It is one sad truth that a travel lover like me has to endure and undertake.

Tocando Em Frente

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I can’t remember the number of times I wrote that the sound of the Portuguese language seem to be the most emotive and most passionate.  I don’t know anybody from Brazil nor Portugal but every time I hear someone speaks this language, I feel nothing but awe and amazement.  There must be something in the resonance and reverberation of the Portuguese language that stirs my nerves and neurotransmitters to get impassioned, kindled and go raving.

you? what language your don’t speak and understand yet move you? comment down below…

I felt this weird feeling again when I recently saw a YouTube vlog post of a well-admired social media content creator who used a touchy background music in his wedding video.  And upon researching about the song, I was not surprised to find out that the song was in Portuguese.

I don’t understand a single word of the jingle, yet it moved me.  Here’s the poignant and moving song entitled Tocando Em Frente as sang by Anavitoria.

Happy January 3

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If not your birthday or the death anniversary of a loved one, January 3 can be considered the most neglected day of any year. Who would want to celebrate anything significant on such a day when all the Hallmark-level type of revelry has just been concluded?  Who on earth would try to go out and shop or even dine outside when there are so much gifts you received last Christmas-peak-week and there are so much leftover inside your fridge? 

I bet my skinny pwet (translation: butt) you don’t remember January 3 last year and the year before that!  But you definitely remember the annually stirring, exhilarating and superlative January 1.

happy january 3 (this post is such a waste of internet space. hahaha!)

 But what about January 2? You remember January 2 because it is one of the worst days of the year.  It is the day you usually commence your New Year’s resolution, the day you start recuperating from a very bad hangover, the day you feel like you are a new you.  You remember January 2 because it is the day you would usually spend all day and all night on your bed.

But for January 3, it is usually be the understated, trifling and negligible day.  There are even times when such day is considered the most mundane because it is the day when everyone would go back to their ordinary, routinary and lackluster life — work, school and of course the usual wicked vice.

I guess it is only me who would greet you “Happy January 3!” (with exclamation point) and no one else.  No one else.

2020 New Year Advice: Moisturize!

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While the internet is now bombarded with New Year predictions and resolutions, I want to instead give an advice to all folks this coming New Year.  I only have one word (repeated 3 times) as an advice. It’s “Moisturize! Moisturize! Moisturize!” 

I want all human beings to look good and look young for the rest of the New Year! So moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!

But seriously, aside from its awesome aesthetic benefit, the act and process of skin moisturizing can actually be multi-yielding.  The rubbing of cream on your skin can be paralleled to being a “Me Time” concept.  It is an opportunity to have time for yourself so as to reduce stress and restore energy.  Thus, moisturizing is one circumstance of thinking and caring for oneself. It can be a way to enrich ones self-esteem!

can’t imagine a world without moisturizer!

Moisturizing cream does not simply fall from the heavens or can be picked incessantly from a fruit bearing tree.  These pricy facial serum, night creams and body lotions are not basic human needs.  These may actually be the last item you may want to buy out from your hard-earned money.  Thus, you need to have extra money to moist and nourish the largest organ of your body.  Therefore, my one-worded advice can be construed as folks needing to work harder this New Year to earn the needed extra gravy for your skin. Work hard!

Lastly, the end result of moisturizing can make you feel good.  And when you feel good, you can effortlessly establish inner confidence and upbeat attitude which will eventually exude and radiate to other people.  You can then be a channel of positive thinking and optimistic attitude this year.     

So follow my advice, “moisturize, moisturize, moisturize”.  Because if you do, I am so sure, you will be happy and laugh the loudest at the end of the year! Hahaha!

Christmas Socks From Miggy & Gabby

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I love receiving gifts and I had loads of it this Christmas!  This blog post would become too long if I am to actually list each awesome gift one by one.  Let me nevertheless show my heartfelt appreciation by extending my sincere thanks and gratitude to all of you amazing people.  You know who you are.

But have you ever contemplated on which gift you receive this Christmas as the weirdest and most eccentric?  The gift that is so bizarre it makes you laugh and chuckle because it is so you?  I got one this year!

got my face printed on those socks! who on earth would think of doing that?!

hahaha! perfect fit!

My nephews Miguel and Gabriel gave me the weirdest looking pair of socks this year.  Both of them I guess knows that I have the strange tendency for an excessive egotism and high-level of self-adulation! And as soon as I opened their gift and saw what it was, I was laughing so hard!  These pair of socks is so me literally and figuratively!

Thank you Miggy and Gabby.  I looove it!

Notes On My Desk Calendar 2020

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With a couple of days to go, I guess everybody now are contemplating on how the year 2019 had been.  This is now the typical time when people are thrilled and excited on what the New Year has to offer.

be in style in 2020

This also is the usual time when people receive gifts from friends and colleagues for a desk calendar, a notebook organizer or a journal planner.  I for one has been receiving these items every single year.  Yet regrettably it fail to organize my life!  I still chase those big dreams and pursue the pursuit of happiness.

And like every year, I again received a planner, a desk calendar in particular.  And while doing my long and arduous skin care, I happen to notice a small portion on this desk calendar where you got to write down your goals for each month.

With inflated optimism and pent up enthusiasm, I filled out the first 3 months of the desk calendar.  With scoops of anti-aging facial moisturizer dirtying my pen, this is what I have written….

january 2020

february 2020

march 2020

Let me greet you this early a very awesome New Year.  I hope everyone will Be In Style this New Year!

Free Entry at the Grand Winter Palace & the Hermitage

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Craving, salivating and hankering.  These are the major emotions and sensations that builds up when I had to control myself from entering the Winter Palace and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Though just a stone throw away from my hotel, I had to postpone my entry into the former winter residence of Catherine the Great as well as the world’s second largest art museum.  I had to wait and properly time myself so that my entry would basically be FREE and complimentary.  Thus, in the first few days of my stay in St. Petersburg, I was left to drool and gaze outside the magnificent palace.

I was lucky enough that my journey to St Petersburg, Russia fell on the 3rd week of the month.  And very few tourists know that on every 3rd Thursday of each month, entrance to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage is free.  Thus, I had to wait and postpone my visit for me to avail of the free entry.

i was one with the locals

grand!!!

majestic!!!

And when the 3rd Thursday of the month arrived, I was one with the multitudes of people who patiently lined up so as to get inside the famous palace.  And what is so amusing and amazing about my queuing and falling in line is that I was with the many locals who well-planned their visit.  I guess only the locals knew about the free entrance.

I was unlike the usual and clueless tourist who paid for their expensive ticket online so as to cut through the queue and enter right away.  Patient and unwearied locals lined-up were actually telling me (in broken English) to simply show my printed online ticket to the guard so that I can pass through and enter the palace right away.  I simply smiled and told them that just like them, I am without a ticket.

regal!!!

imperial!!!

opulent!!!

And upon entry, you would really feel the true sophisticated Russian vibe.  Its aristocracy, its grandness as well as the splendor of Russian elegance indeed resonates within the walls and exhibits of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage.

Here’s a glimpse of the free yet super grand Winter Palace & the Hermitage.