i could not believe myself either. so i have survived a whole month without going out – january and starting this new month doing the same thing. woohoo!!! i have to tap my shoulders everytime i decline an invitation to go out, good girl! all because of the rescession. haha! alex told me that am just exaggerating since our company’s not really affected by it, same salary, same position, no layoffs to be scared for… but better be safe than sorry. :p i don’t want to end up broke and bankcrupt (like there is much for me to be bankcrupt for) for living a rather frivolous life which is not at all required. chubby said that there are lots of “superficial” people here in dubai who lives beyond their limits just to keep up with what’s happening round and about and yeah, i totally agree coz i was one of them once. but i never go way beyond my limits, i have my boundaries and well…. there’s really not much for me go way beyond. hahaha! but anyway, am proud that i have not been asking for my parental units (eg. my mom and aunt) any financial assistance like i have before, even when i only got 100dirhams on  my current account due to the atm fraud i encountered and i could not withdraw any money from my savings because my atm card was captured by the machine (just how lucky can you be?) – i never asked for their help. ‘coz i don’t want to be an additional burden for them and well, i just want them to think that am no longer the spoiled brat that i used to be. hehehe. figured that by living “independently”, it will be the only way to prove that to them. so i painfully lived my life for 2 weeks trying to get by with just the 100dirhams as cash and thank goodness for the credit card. haha! henceforth… the total annihilation of my social life for over a month. which is fine since i have partied last year too much that it could last me this lifetime and next.

rewind 2 weeks ago – 5days after our payday, me and my college friend aila went to city center to give us our fix of good food and a movie. we always get together during our day offs and just update each other with the gossip going on around our company and about our UST classmates. :p so anyway, it was dubai sale festival and well, i should know better not to go inside the malls during this time if i really want to save up. so the result was – a hefty meal, a ticket to YES man (which was not good), new set of make-ups, a dress from Forever21 (which was not on sale – oh boy!) and 2 pairs of bikini from roxy as an incredulous act of saving up for the summer when all the bikinis will be overpriced. instead of giving a pat on my shoulder i gave myself a big blow of a beer bottle on my head. the compulsive shopper striked again. but hey! i’ve already paid my credit card bills (which is not enough, am trying to settle a 5-figure bill from my 2 credit cards which both got a 5-figure credit limit, trying to close the account of the visa and just keep for myself the mastercard, but that’s not happening anytime soon i suppose) so i guess am still being a wise-spender? haha. whatever noemi.

am also trying to figure out how to lessen my expenditures for a month. the monthly membership fee with fitness first, my twice a month visit to dragonfly spa (which gave me a voucher for a dinner for two at some restaurant in dubai media city which i have to talk about later on this blog) is making me poorer than my already poor state right now. there’s the manicure and pedicure (coz my stupid nails grow too fast and i could not afford to have long nails because of my contact lens – trust me, long nails and contact lenses are not very good to each other, specially when you’re trying to remove the contact lens. i always end up poking my eye with my nails and the contact lens will remain untouched and unmoved) every 2 weeks, there’s the eyebrow, upper lip and another part of the body which i’d rather not say (haha) waxing every 3 weeks, there’s the change of the contact lens every month (i was too stubborn to use my glasses and contact lens for over a year and when i was having vertigos almost everyday and me feeling so dizzy every night i had my eye checked and voila! from -1.50 am already a -2.00 for both eyes, thus the need to wear the contact lens to keep headaches away). 2 days ago, chubby told me that am not vain because i don’t pull out my make up kit every 5 minutes, i thanked him for thinking that am not vain but was chuckling thinking about these things that i do every month – out of vanity. i have yet to decide which one is not “needed”. oh boy!!! there’s a tough one.

i have a lot of things lined up for this month – there’s deny’s pre and actual birthday celebration (we’re still keeping our new year’s resolution that we’ll only go out once every month to keep our expenditures from harm’s way hehehe and this is our “once” for this month, we have to celebrate a birthday right?) pre birthday celebration will be at the chi (which is her favorite club in the whole of dubai, mona’s fave is boudoir and mine will be jambase – we had a meeting the other day over outlook emails about it hahaha) and the actual celebration will be a house party. :p so 2 parties to attend to this month. march will be the post-celebration for mona’s birthday at jambase. woo hoo!!!!!!! can’t wait for all these things to happen. an event which will let me wear the new dress i bought from Forever 21 haha!

i also have a lot of things lined up for me to do for the first quarter of this year – musandam trip, hot air balloon ride and the beach trips for the summer – all these will be availed by yours truly on a staff discount. YEY!!!! worshipping the sun once more, getting tanned/dark/brown and hopefully after that, i need not use the spray-on tans – which again will lessen my expenditures. hahahaha. whatever. i went to a free beauty consultation session somewhere and was told that my skin complexion is between fair and slightly brown, that’s why using earth colors are not suitable for me and i have to use the shades of orange coz that’s what suits me best. yeah, like i don’t know that. that’s why i have about 3 bottles of spray-on tanner stocked inside my wardrobe. haha. guess the secret is out and i should not be proud of that. :p

anyway, am all about saving up for now and yes, am still accepting alms from any good souls who are reading my blogs. :p

oh and by the way, i watched slumdog millionaire, if you have not seen or hear about this movie yet, you have to ask yourself if you’re a hermit or something. go and watch it. and i hate to admit it but it was chubby’s reccomendation to watch the film and he made a very very good reccomendation. took me a lot of deep breathes to type that. :p

From [08.10.25] Five Year Anniversary

Can you believe Sean and I have been together for five years? I certainly can’t.

It’s been five long and wonderful, adventurous years since Sealleen, as some of my friends have deemed us, came into being. You can read about how we met on my City Weekend blog, so I’ll spare the details and get right to how we celebrated.

Since GRE studies were consuming Sean’s life — he took the test on the morning of our anniversary — I happily made the plans. When it comes to planning, my A-type personality shines. After Sean returned home and lamented the annoying person playing guitar just outside the testing room’s window — I believe he was singing “Daisy, Daisy” — we headed into the heart of the hutongs, Nanluoguxiang. Every fall, the street hosts a festival featuring lots of handicrafts vendors, colorful red paper lanterns lining the “Lao Beijing” (Old Beijing) street and even some wilder events like a hutong catwalk put on by Plastered T-Shirts. We strolled the street for the afternoon, stopping at a tapas bar for a beer and my first Shandy (lemonade and beer).

From [08.10.25] Five Year Anniversary

While sipping our afternoon aperitifs, we were surprised by troupes of brightly-clad traditional dancers, the highlight of which was our first glimpses of the red dogs puppet-costumes usually associated with the Spring Festival (known to us as Chinese New Year). Most of the performers were rather old, leaving me to wonder if Chinese young people in my generation will one day carry on these traditions with such fervor and excitement. The China they know is quite different from the China in which these older folks came of age. It is amazing how much this country has grown and changed in just a few generations.

While lounging at the window, I also experienced another very different but distinctly Chinese occurrence: becoming a sudden celebrity. As I was drinking and gazing out the window, I started noticing people with large cameras stealthily slithering between the shadows to snap a picture of me. Eventually, the photog’s actions became more brazen, a few even expanding their tripods directly across from me. I don’t fancy myself a glamour model, and I also know that the shot must have been nicely set up, with the golden afternoon light spilling perfectly over the bar’s yellow facade, my face cocked out the window watching the passersby. But it isn’t an infrequent occurrence. Whenever I am anywhere that might attract some Chinese tourists, I get photographed. Sean, too. At first, it was odd. But, as anyone that knows me can attest, I’m a ham. So eventually, I just took it as normal. In this instance, I was so keenly aware of the photographers that I even made sure they got a clear shot. I may be a nobody back in the States, but it’s kind of fun to feel like a little bit of a star here.

From [08.10.25] Five Year Anniversary

Next up was our luxury 2.5 hours of perfectly pampering spa treatments. Massage is a big part of traditional Chinese medicine. In fact, it is believed that blind masseuses provide the best massages, and as a result there are a number of massage parlors in Beijing at which you can feel the supposedly healing touch of the blind masseuse. We went the more mainstream route, with an hour of full body Chinese massage followed by an hour of foot massage in a private room at Dragonfly, one of the nicer spas in Beijing.

For dinner, we went to a Beijing staple: The Courtyard. We indulged in three delicious courses and a nice bottle of wine — a rarity in Beijing — next to a beautiful nighttime view of the Forbidden City. We topped off the night with champagne at a beautiful new restaurant called Domus.

It was a lovely night that smacked of Beijing’s best. Cheers!

[08.10.25] Five Year Anniversary