Even though we already stopped the tradition of going from Bacolod all the way to Toboso to visit our dead relatives, All Saints’ Day still sucks the energy out of me. Especially when we go at noon. The blistering, midday sun, the glaring whiteness of the cemetery and the heat from burning candles (and small fires) equal a very unpleasant experience.

Whiteness...

Paying respects

It was a relief when we finally arrived at the family mausoleum in Cadiz. Where there was an actual roof above our heads shielding us from the heat of the sun (Thank God!).

Candles and Flowers

After adorning my grandmother’s and uncle’s final resting places with flowers and lighted candles, we went to my aunt’s residence nearby for lunch. After a satisfying meal of turbo broiled chicken (love the sauce) and lumpia shanghai, we headed back to the cemetery for the Mass. The Cousins’ Guild (or at least, the few who were present) held a short meeting when the Mass was done to discuss current issues and upcoming events, including plans for the Dinagsa Festival. We stayed until evening, keeping the remains of our loved ones company. People resorted to other stuff (like drinking, Yanggaw and Alvic) to keep themselves entertained.

Alvic, my nephew

Guess what's getting all the attention

After a few hours, we again went to my aunt’s house for a tasty dinner before heading back to Bacolod to pay a visit to my mom in Rolling Hills to complete the occasion.

12

‘me’-self lives within a cocoon
woven on the loom of its stories

biological structure is the warp, experience is the weft

image-ination is the technology ‘me’-self
uses to patch up the rips in the cocoon

but these are the rips “through which Grace might pass”

Simone Weil was onto it

source – the nth notes

23

the grip of the identified ‘me’-self
is a death-grip

when that death-grip relaxed -
relaxed for a millisecond,
just long enough
for a rip in the cocoon to open -
there was immediate
understanding of its
cause

the fundamental illusion
in the living of a life
is the conviction that there is an
object
(me)
that does it . . .

when there is only the quiet flow
of a life being lived by Life

source – the nth notes

Holaa im beck from a long vacation, (its my wedding actually).Quite some times for me to update this blog as the busy situation im facing right now as a husband.Lot of thing and lot of responsibility need to carry on, but its keep me more alert on all situation.My prior right now not only my family ,carrier also my wife are under my responsible.

Let me introduce my little family:

My wife name is sue born in Perlis but stayed in Kuantan with her family. We first met when we were study at Some Kolej in KL. As at kolej both of us “Jual Mahal” didnt care for each other.My relationship started when me and my friends Ayen,Kerul,Amin Lutut,Syed,Raja decided to go road vacation when we on semester break years 2002 and that time were chinese new year.

We decide to go to 4 different Country in just 4 days which is Terengganu,Kuantan,Kelantan,Malacca with Proton iswara sedan and datsun 202 muscle car. So we pitt stop at kuantan, at there we try to memorize who was in mind that live in Kuantan, first thing accross our mind is sue.so we give a phone call and stated we want to visit her family.at first met sue was very shock that transformation on me was very ridicalous, as before my body is fat and untill i go there my body is very thin like “Papan”.(But now back to normal back ahahhaa).so that is when i saw her face and my eyes meet her eyes.So i decided in my heart that “she is the one” the one and only untill the end of time. one thing i like bout my wife now is she very kind and a polite person. she always make me happy.

Hopefully our marriage will long last untill the last of our breath

I am kind of Perfume lover .I start crazy about perfume when i start to work and depend on myself. i love to collect them and wear them, as now here is my collection untill today:

First Perfume

Second Perfume

 Third Perfume

Forth Perfume

Fifth Perfume

Sixth Perfume

Seven and newest one

The Best perfume ever i wear is Dunhill red desire as for its “Long Lasting essence” and when we wear it , it will attract girls arounds us.Seriously i dont want to lie to you guys. ermm…i wonder which perfume will be next

Counting day…my big day is 14/ March 2009 ..ermm..make me nervous

To get rid of my nervous .. i play Need For Speed “most wanted”..now progress is 80 % hahahha ( I am the master of need for speed) Want to challenge me bring it on!!!!

NFS

Tonight will my last night working and then i will be on holiday until 27th March 2009…Yehaaaa….areba..areba..areba

ermm im so scred right now…coz my wedding day is around the corner..now wondering how is gonna happen …may god bless me

Today as 5th march 2009 i start my shift at night from 8 PM – 8AM

very relaxing one ..hurmmm

Lunch time me and my housemate go to eat at Restoran Ratu that serve “Nasi Padang” at Dataran Glomac Petaling Jaya. Because this is my first time eat there we order :

1) Daging Kerutuk

2) Ayam Kampung

3) Bergedil

4) Sayur

5) Kerepek Jawa

6) Rice for 4 person

the food were not very good as its appearance but still ok ok i guest. Overal its ok base on my experience

But the thing is i want to highlight is the Price!!!.Very unreasonable

for 4 person the price is RM80.00 !!!!!!!!….Walaweiiiiiii… So “Cheap” aaa???

maybe that is the first and my last visit over there ehehehe.There is much more stall that offer better food and better prices…Think before act..Cheerss!!!!

I would ended my bachelor year next week. So sad but at the same time were so happy

Everyone is invited to the wedding

Today me and my housemate go makan2 at area Kota Damansara we found a nice place call Dangau Rumbia…A nice place where everyone can go ’santai2′ and feel the evironment as at ‘Kampung’.

They offer a lot of kampung food such ‘Kerabu Mangga’ , ‘Sontam’, ‘Sambal Belachan tok’, ‘Ulam2′ etc.

The price are affordable compare to other place that offer same concept.

Out of 10 i give 7 for that place in term of environment.

JUst come back from playing futsal at 2.30 A.M..exhausted  but feel happy.After futsal we all stop by food stall near flaminggo eating some bubur nasi that came with telur masin, sayur kankung , Ikan bilis ( yummy yummy yummy) hhuhu

Then straight back home

today 10.00 PM play futsal courts 6 at sports planet ampang , we thread tonite as my bachelor party as i would end my “Bujang” time .i will play with:

1) Dzulamin ( My brother)

2) Ayen ( My friend since college)

3) Syed ( My friends Since college)

4) Other friends from City Bank + Public Bank + Hong Leong Bank + CIMB

we will play untill satisfied. For notes if anyone would love to join us just comes play every monday 10 Pm every weeks courts 6

There’s nothing like a dip in the pool at night to give you a chilly feeling. Especially if it’s on the top floor of a 30-plus-storey building. We had the pool all to ourselves. Nice. It was the first time I ever used this facility in the near four years I’ve been living in this building. If it wasn’t for Beryl, I wouldn’t have gone swimming in this pool.

The water was cold and with the open air calling the equally cold night breeze, I found myself shivering and my teeth rattling when I plunged into the pool. After a few minutes of standing still against the concrete edge of the pool, I guess my body temperature adjusted and I was able to move around freely like a puppy on steroids.

Karen arrived and saw this as an opportunity to practice photography. With the following results:

Floating Bodies

You're not alone.

There's something in the water.

Award-winning, right? Maybe we should do a sequel to The Ring. The Ring 3: Samara Learns To Swim. How does that sound?

Wow. Our family Christmas party this year probably had the most brief and (forgive me for saying this) boring program I can ever remember. The gift giving lasted for, like, 10 seconds and if it wasn’t for the kids there wouldn’t have been any program at all. Even so, the after-happenings were pretty enjoyable. Of course, The Guild had a meeting again concerning funds, money, debt and you know, money. I just like being cramped in a room full of people. No, seriously. It’s good for taking pictures. The downside? The presence of my archenemy: dust. So, I left the room with my eyes watering and nose itching to sneeze.

The Guild

A few hours later, April and I find ourselves in the garage with a handful of other cousins doing, well, what else? But we decided The Gathering hadn’t reached its peak yet, so we went back inside the house, sat, talk and waited, took pictures, made various animal sounds, the usual. Then, one cousin from The Gathering invited us to join them in the garage and told us something about Christmas lights. Sensing that The Gathering had finally reached its peak, we followed, traipsing through muddy ground. We were right. Inebriated conversation. Inappropriate dancing. Boisterous laughter. The peak has been reached. Now, let’s see how long it lasts. April and I have officially joined The Gathering and my Christmas party fun-o-meter is quickly rising. Digital camera in hand, I snap pictures and occasional videos of this amusing affair in between sneezing spells.

The Gathering

Particularly interesting tidbits of The Gathering: Shiela’s ragaraga-like attraction to the Christmas lights. Thankfully, there were no electric shocks (it was also raining). Beryl’s random dance showdowns (she really comes out of nowhere). The Warlee-Bar-c game of ‘boy-and-girl-on-the-dance-floor’ which ends up with the ‘man-girl’ feeling hot and going topless. The Gathering’s denouement happened at around 5 AM. By then, I’ve been forced to dance, April’s textmate had stopped texting, Bar-c’s shirt stuck to her skin, Christmas lights were tangled, breaths smelled of Generoso and slowly, people began shambling out of the garage looking like they were thrown off a moving Ceres liner. Then run over by a dump truck.
MERRY CHRISTMAS.
More pictures of the Christmas Party and the After-Party.

That’s Ebenezer Scrooge’s favorite thing to say. I initially watched The Rep’s A Christmas Carol for a school incentive in my Lit class. But it turned out to be quite enjoyable…with a few, ahem, incidents. Which I am not going to discuss here since those involved might, by some unfortunate chance, come across this page [Dear God, no!]. Details of the play will come later in this same post since I am pressed with time as of this moment. I have my Strategic Finance finals later in the evening [yet here I am blogging].
Everyone was great and I didn’t feel disappointed. The kids were especially adorable. So cute. They looked even smaller on stage from where I was sitting. Some parts of the play reminded me of Sweeney Todd for some reason. Maybe it’s all the singing and the unmistakable something-century London setting. I mentioned this to my cousin and we both agreed that if ever they were going to do Sweeney Todd, we were definitely watching. I was especially curious how they were going to do the “cutting” scenes. Well, after the play, I found out that The Rep was doing Sweeney Todd [saw it at the back of the program] and my cousin and I laughed about this coincidence. We looked at the playdates and it coincided with those of A Christmas Carol. That left me wondering. This seems like a big production. Why hadn’t I heard of this? And why would they do two shows simultaneously? Silly me, despite all these doubts, I thought that Sweeney Todd was really running and I was so psyched, I’ve already planned to get details about the tickets and the show when I got home. But guess what? I couldn’t find any. And why? I just looked at the months and days of the dates, but not the year. Sweeney Todd’s playdates are for next year, 2009! My heart sank. I was getting so excited. Plus, I might not be here in Manila during that time and I really, really wanted to go. I guess I will have to busy myself with other obsessions in the meantime. Still…
I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait…

I’m so happy. I finally figured out how to take macro shots with my poor, wittle point and shoot camera. [It really is poor and wittle. It has suffered numerous falls and, as a result, is now full of scratches. Its lens cover is nowhere to be found and it goes on trips to camera repair shops in Quiapo or Divisoria every once in a while. Still, somehow it manages to take decent pictures. And now that I have found my new love [for the moment], macrophotography, my Flickr mania is back! Armed with a flashlight and my trusty point and shoot camera, I photographed whatever stuff I could find in the house.

Light Discs

I got to experimenting with the reflections of DVD-ROMs I use to burn my downloaded TV shows in. The shadows are from the backrest of our wooden dining room chair.

Makati Panorama

This was taken before the Light Discs. This was what I was shooting before I had my macro-epiphany. It still fits in the category of ’shot inside the house’, though, because this is the view from our balcony. By the way, the picture’s not really panoramic. Just sounds like a catchy title.

Time

My first macro subject: my watch! I was surprised how this turned out…it actually looks kind of nice. I placed the watch on a book with a plastic cover, hence, the reflection. The book also had a clock on its cover, but you can’t really see it in the picture.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas balls from our Christmas tree. Our mini-plastic-Christmas tree bought from National Bookstore. Sigh. The fakeness is so apparent.

POLISCI

I have two final exams tomorrow: Political Science and Strategic Finance. While reading the handouts for my Political Science class, the phrase “go to war and kill” just struck me. So I took a picture of it. Too bad nothing struck me in my Finance handouts. It could have been another ‘artistic outlet.’

So that’s about it. I have to sleep now. I do have finals tomorrow plus a final presentation for my Lit class. And it’s nearing 3 AM. And I still have to wake up and study tomorrow. I need to get some rest. I need to…

By the way, visit my Flickr page for more photographs. There’s some semi-artwork stuff, too.

Before saying anything else, let me greet my dear friend and fellow T.H.E.M.er, KR, a happy, happy birthday!

Okay, now, I’ll move on to sharing my thoughts about a restaurant and a bar we went to on the night before KR’s birthday.

PEPE’S RESTOBAR

Pepe’s is a place where friends and family gather and share a meal (something that can be done in a dinner table at home, but somehow rarely happens). I haven’t tried this place, but thanks to KR’s invitation, that has changed. Located on the second floor of Piazza Sorrento along Lacson St., it’s part of a group of restaurants and bars where (if Bacolod is your hometown) you will often run into friends and acquaintances on weekend nights. The place isn’t big, but the food is good, the ambience modern (with a touch of Bacolodnon influence) and at a price that’s cheaper compared to usual fine dining prices. Anything on their menu is worth the price. Or so I’ve heard. Here’s what Joyce ordered for dinner:

Pepe's Food

I forgot the name of the dish in the picture (if anybody knows, enlighten me), but it looks tasty enough. I’ve heard that the margaritas are great, too, but I have yet to try them. Next time, next time.

KOREAN GRILL BAR

One of the more popular hangouts of local college students (for some reason). If you want a tame and pseudo-classy bar where you can satisfy your craving for alcohol, then head on over to Korean Grill Bar (or KGB, as it is most commonly called). It’s just the right place for a girls’ night out. They have a place for playing a game of pool, a place to enjoy the Mongolian grill, and a place for just chilling out. And as for a place to sit and talk in the dark to avoid awkward facial expressions? They have those, too. And for those of you who aren’t into chugging down consecutive bottles of Red Horse, they also serve cocktails. These colorful drinks will amuse you, although they probably won’t give you the high you want. Maybe if you gulp it down like orange juice on a hot summer day…who knows? But a girls’ night out isn’t really for getting drunk, is it? It’s for sharing secrets and chismis and other chitchat guys could never ever comprehend. So, I could go on describing the intricacies of KGB, but when you’re with your best buds, where you are doesn’t matter. It’s who you’re with. Cheers!

A toast to friends!

I’m so bummed that April couldn’t come. Screw tonsillitis. Not that it wasn’t fun without her (but it would be fun-er). The dancing was like an epidemic and the CG Christmas Party once again managed to produce more than a bunch of hearty laughs from me.

Hala Bira

Like an epidemic, alright. If you’re wondering what that wet stuff is on the concrete ground, that’s from the ice. Spilled on the ground and thrown around.

Slow Dancing

Taking turns with the singer of the hired band. Eighteen roses, anyone?

5th Cousins' Guild Christmas Party

Happy Anniversary. G***** Family. More pictures of the annual event in Flickr.