Memories in Pixels

God, I haven't traveled for the longest time. The last trip I took was to Baguio in June and since then I have been stagnating in the urban jungle. I desperately need to take one short trip soon. But soon is definitely impossible. I'm so poor as a rat right now.

In the absence of any recent travel, I'm posting here a few pics of some of my most memorable trips in 2005.

Taken in Dakak in May 2005. I took that trip with Grace and Michiko, which was actually an official business trip to Dapitan. Of course we sneaked into Dakak for three days where we spent most of our time in their large and deep swimming pool. I do not really find Dakak that impressing. If anything, it is manufactured. The sand is even imported from Camiguin, I heard. But the company was fun, fun, fun. Grace is such a trooper. This was already my second trip to Dakak with Grace. The first one (another "official travel") was a year prior to when this picture was taken. Farah was with us in that trip. We had a great time posing in front of the camera with Grace at the helm.

This obviously is at the foot of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, July 2005. This is such an obligatory shot for any tourist in KL. The trip was my first time abroad, which I took with Peter (our German consultant from MBC). We had a series of meetings with the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce for two days. After the meetings, we had time to go around the city. I took off alone, armed with Lonely Planet and a map because KL is very easy to navigate. I saw how KL beautifully preserved their old architecture while at the same time buidling such modern architectural wonders.

My second trip to Malaysia was in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah in September 2006. This time it was for a workshop on culture with delegates from the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia (duh BIMP-EAGA, sabay puke). I truly, truly loved this experience - especially meeting the all the other participants who had wonderful stories to tell. The facilitators were just as superb. We stayed in KK for a week but we did not have much time to go around the city. We stayed in the workshop the whole day and evenings were mostly spent at the waterfront for some beer (which are way too expensive!). We went to KK's only gay bar, which was more of a videoke place and nothing much. The picture above was taken in the surrounding area of Mt. Kinabalu, the highest peak in Southeast Asia. With me are Chris and Patricia. This was on our last day in KK. We took a bus ride to the Kinabalu National Park on a rather wet day my balls practically froze!

Taken inside the Suhoton Cove in Bucas Grande Island (near Siargao Island). This was one my most memorable trips ever. We took a six-seater plane from Davao to Siargao (in two hours!) courtesy of a, ehem, rich friend. With me were Daisy, Mickay, Amie, and Mr Friend (for delicadeza, let's not name him na uy). The tiny plane did not fly that high so definitely we had a good view of the towns, ricefields, marshes, and islands below. I had a great time taking photographs! Siargao on the other hand was not new to me anymore so I became the tourist guide by default.

Above are pictures from various business trips, namely (1) Philippine Business Conference, Manila, October 2006; (2) Mindanao ICT Congress, General Santos City, November 2006; (3) MinBizCon Launching, Zamboanga City, December 2006; and (4) Tawi-tawi, August 2005. One of my most memorable trips was Tawi-tawi coz I have been wanting to go there for the longest time. And indeed it did not disappoint me. The place was so island living and definitely peaceful.My previous job took me all over Mindanao, which is the best part of the job if you ask me. I was practically traveling at least twice a month.

And now I'm in this type of work that requires me to sit in front of a computer the whole day. No meetings, and absolutely no travels. Hay, I can only dream of traveling as of now.

For more pictures see my friendster blog.


On the Shelf

Since I moved here in Manila in late January I have been living without tv. I have always been a serious tv addict and lasting so many months without tv is a noteworthy feat. My sister and I certainly cannot afford to buy one right now but we have somehow decided that this circumstance has been working well anyhow.

To entertain us, my sister and I filled our shelves with books and a basketful of magazines. It helps that we live in Evangelista where cheap books and magazines abound. I’ve also frequented Booksale lately so our collection has been regularly filled up.

God, I’m just so embarrassed about the books we have amassed so far. I’m such an Oprah Book Club freak and it does not look good. But to be fair, some of her selections are worth reading such as “A Fine Balance”, “Fall On Your Knees”, and “The Corrections” to name a few. But I did not appreciate “Gap Creek” and “A Lesson Before Dying”. Currently, I don’t want to add one more Oprah Book Club selection in our little collection because it just does not seem balanced at all.

Needless to say I have found several gay books as well, such as “The Swimming Pool Library”, “Edinburgh”, and a few others that I bought in Davao. One interesting book I stumbled upon is “Misadventures in the (213)”, quite funny on its satire about celebrity-obsessed Los Angeles, with a gay slant of course.

I have a number of unknown books I just grabbed from Evangelista or Booksale coz they are cheap. Surprisingly I have been satisfied with these unknowns such as “The Giant’s House” and “Whitebirds”.

I just wish I have extra money to buy books at National Bookstore or Powerbooks. It would be interesting to read the latest from Micheal Cunningham and Alan Holinghurst. Both are gay writers. I just need to read that latest from Jessica Hagedorn called “Dream Jungle”!

Currently I’m reading “Land of Smiles”, which is about a Laotian refugee in Thailand and later in the US.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Memories of daddy...

… my sister and I perched on his shoulder as he read us the comics strip of the Manila Bulletin. Sometimes he would also read us fairy tales or bible stories. We got our love of reading from such an early introduction.

… I’m wearing orange-colored life vests and daddy, who was in the sea, was coaxing me to dive from the side of a lantsa. I was dead scared of the deep water but he assured me that he was going to catch me. After several attempts I closed my eyes and plunged into the water.

… I’m outside the bedroom, ears on the door. Inside, Daddy was supposedly praying in front of the Sto Nino so my sister and I could have Hi-ro cookies. When Daddy opened the door, he would tell us that Sto Nino had hidden our heaven-sent cookies in some nooks of the room. My sister and I would rummage throughout and we’d find cookies in the hamper or the closet or the bookshelves.

… before bedtime, he would tell us for the hundredth time the story of how he met my mom in the town fiesta. How that night he danced with my mom in the bayle.

… I walked on his back to give him a massage. Or sometimes I gave him a head massage when he arrived from work.

Nearly three years ago, my daddy suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed. It’s harrowing to see him devastated, not just physically but psychologically as well. Little by little he has regained some of his mobility. Lately I heard he could make out of town trips already or attend meetings of the Masons.

I do miss my dad. Sometimes I wish I could just go home and take care of him. But it has been agreed that I would be of more help to my family if I work here. And naturally, my father would not allow us to stall our lives for him.

Today, my daddy turns 67.

TO DADDY, I LOVE YOU.

***

Memories in the MRT

Itago na lang natin siya sa pangalang W-2. He was someone really special in my life. That was about three years ago.

I thought I saw him last night in the MRT. The guy was wearing shades in the middle of the night so it took me some time to realize that it was not anyone I know at all (thank god).

It’s just strange suddenly remembering W-2, in the most unlikely place no less.

But more than anything else, I realized it has been such a long time since I fell madly deep in love with anyone. I haven’t had a relationship since W-2!

But I still have memories of the feeling. And dahling, that feeling was damn goooood. Yes, I’m missing it. Duh, I’m not talking about that nasty “it”, but I’m referring to the whole experience.

I’m not sure if I’m ready for another relationship though, nor am I sure if I'll ever be willing to fall in love again.

New York Minute

I am living in a separate time zone. More than a month after leaving a job that required me to work on graveyard shift, my body clock is still inconveniently graveyard.

And at this rate, I'm so heading for the grave.

This is how I felt when I was still also adjusting my system to working in the evening up to early morning. I felt so groggy during the the first two months, I felt like i was floating all the time, almost similar to being intoxicated. I was just ready to die coz it seems like I was going to break down any time then. That was several months back.

But now, I'm back to the "real" world. I need to be up when this side of the world functions normally.

Unfortunately I'm stuck in the New York's time zone. I usually sleep at around 8pm but would just wake up at around 1am and never go back to sleep again. Last night was worse, I slept at 11pm and woke up at 1am. By 3am I was having breakfast. At 6am I was back to sleep, only to wake up at 7am to leave for work.

I'm now at the office. Coffee sustains me, otherwise my head would crash on the keyboard.

I Failed as a Whore

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The Fag is a Dyke

I sat in a hair dresser's chair for the first time in about eight months. Three days ago I decided to have my long hair chopped off.

I have been wearing my hair long for three years already and I just became so obsessed with grooming it. I decided to get rid of it completely to put an end to such an irrational undertaking (the last word being used here for lack of a better term... hahaha).

I saw snippets of my hair fall on my lap, my shoulder, or the floor. It's like being reborn coz for the longest time I've somehow (but not completely) attached my identity and how I act with my long hair.

And I decided I'm going to be Twiggy (god, that's what watching America's Next Top Model is bringing on me). Far from resembling Twiggy, I left the beauty parlor feeling like a new person. I doned on my new persona in a heart beat.

But when I reached home and checked my self in the mirror I realized that I was more of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo going butch, which incidentally Luan pointed out the next night. I even went as far as buying that hair press thing that supposedly "irons" one's hair. But it was of no help at all. If anything, I looked like Aiza Seguerra at the prime of her butch-ness.

Last night, I decided to cut a couple inches more from my crown. Yup, I did it my self. And I came out feeling better. With hardly any hair to speak of I do not have anything to fuss about.

I'm going to post pics of my new hair soon.

And by the way, I do have a job now. :)