My Pink Shoelace

Off to the streets to enjoy Sinulog 2011 with friends

Teacher: How do you say, “pls. wait a moment” in Mandarin?
Me: Chotto Matte Kudasai.
Teacher: You’re in the wrong class.
Me: Dui Bu Qi.

Must be the side effects of all those anime series I’ve been watching. My Mandarin and Japanese are getting very mixed up.

I was told that having a permanent tattoo is not a good idea. Several people said that I would not be able to work abroad with a tattoo but I find that idea pretty senseless. I guess that just shows how close minded some people could be especially those from the older generation. Some even suggested that I get them lasered off or find the best tattoo removal cream in the market. Since creams like that are not easily available in the city they suggested I search the web for stores that carry them. As if I’d want to remove my tattoos in the first place.

In no particular order:

- jog at least 4 times a week
- add another 100 to existing time deposit
- continue my Mandarin lessons
- start my fascination with music

I’ve been having this annoying flu off and on since the 24th which leaves me no choice but to see a doctor first thing on Monday. Definitely now my idea of greeting the new year but just the same I’m thankful to be here and I look forward to a prosperous 2011.

~ here goes my demonoid profile sig ~

Yep, am having too much time on my hands to come up with this GIF. My two favorite actors of all time … Vic Zhou [Zai Zai] and Kenichi Matsuyama. Both are just amazing actors not to mention gorgeous to boot! LOL

I have always wanted to go on one of those much talked about celebrity cruise deals. Imagine going on board a ship like Poseidon … of course for it sinking who wants that. It would be utterly magical to go on board such a powerful ship and experience all the delights it has to offer. But then again all these cruise ship packages are pretty expensive and I have still yet to save up if I seriously want to go on one.

I should have posted this sooner but well I got really busy doing other stuff … posting this entry kinda took a back seat. The five of us [me, Rose, RJ, Vince and Jepoy] have been planning to watch Harry Potter together and have dinner in celebration of my birthday last 23rd but since RJ got sick, we had to reschedule. We watched the movie on the 29th, ate at Kublai Khan [its a first for RJ and Vince] and after the movie we had yogurt at Teriyaki Boy. It was a blast, Rose had fun fooling around with my camera and took the pics which means she wasn’t in most of them. Nyahahaha

~ After watching the movie and off to Teriyaki Boy | Photo taken by Rose ~

~ League of Evil as RJ puts it. LOL. The people who mattered ~

~ Silly Faces | Photo taken by Rose ~

~ Mango Yogato ~

~ Ichigo Yogato ~

~ Serious kunohay | Photo taken by Rose ~

~ Teriyaki Boy | Photo taken by Rose ~

Teriyaki Boy is located at the second floor level of the Terraces, Ayala Center Cebu and they serve the best yogurt I have ever tasted ever.  I look forward to another gathering with the “League of Evil” nyahahaha seriously I have no idea why RJ calls our small rag tag team “League of Evil” … oh well whatever goes I guess. Hehehe

I have always been fascinated with Sakura or Cherry Blossoms and whenever I am lucid my head is always full of images of a huge Cherry Blossoms tree with a bench beside it and a beautiful woman wearing a gorgeous kimono and a fan standing next to it. If only I have the talent to paint or to draw I would have produced this image in my head into something tangible.

Now for my second ink … since I have always been fascinated with Cherry Blossoms I finally got one on my left foot. It looks really really really nice! Though it was painful it was all worth it, the pain is completely different from that of the one on my neck with kokopelli. But with the first tattoo it was just one color and no shading so their was no pain afterwards. But with my sakura … the area where it was tattooed swelled for several days and its painful too. The pain let up after awhile though and it started peeling off like it should.

Now let’s take a look at below:

I’ve made a mental promise to myself that I would only have 8 tattoos and mentally I have already plotted out the areas to be inked. The next one would be on my left wrist … hopefully my name in Farsi or in Aramaic that is if I could get someone to do the translation for me. lol

I turned a year older yesterday ….

This is one those dates in the year where I am reminded of how mom would use to greet me the moment I wake up instead now … I woke up like I always did feeling old and empty. *sigh*

A close neighbor of ours cooked three dishes for me and I had a good fill during lunch. She’s quite an accomplished cook. After lunch headed to church, bought some flowers, got home and then went to visit mom.

One of the friends I never expected to remember sent me a nice ecard via email … it was rather surprising that she remembered without Facebook to remind her.

I’m quite pleased with how I spent my birthday, fancy parties were never my thing. If I was still working I’d probably have dinner with a few people … but now I think this celebration is pretty much what I liked best.

I am not a devotee, I was not raised one. I was raised a Catholic but my mom was not the type of mother who would wake up their kids early Sunday morning to prepare and go to church. She used to tell me that God is everywhere but most importantly HE is in our hearts and we can talk to him wherever and whenever we want to. If not attending a mass is a sin it is a much bigger sin to attend one because you see it as an obligation. She said quite a huge percentage of people attending the mass must have only been half listening at the sermon and that is a much bigger sin.

I would only attend mass when my heart tells me too and it hasn’t been frequent but I talk to God before I go to sleep and when I wake up, thanking HIM for giving me another day. There was a time when I felt extremely guilty at having read so many books but could never get past “In the beginning” whenever I try to read the Bible. The font is just so small, it is in two columns and the onion skin does not really make it very conducive to reading. When I shared this dilemma to a friend she said I should get a Picture Bible and I did. So now am on to reading the Bible both the old and the new testament.

I have been wanting a tattoo since I was 15, when I first saw the image of kokopelli. I finally had it done … on my nape. Isn’t it beautiful?

The image below is of me … a crazy looking me with a very huge grin happy to finally have my hot choco. Hot choco is the next best beverage God ever gave man kind next to coffee that is and I have been addicted to Signature Hot Choco from Starbucks.

- image courtesy of Doi @ doiSpeaks.com -

Doi and I went to Figaro a couple of weeks back to work on pending projects while I work on my Mandarin assignment. Figaro serves an amazingly delicious Chef’s Salad and Doi and I cannot wait to sample it again.

I was cleaning up my closet earlier when I saw two boxes and realized that they were boxes for my digital cameras, one pink and one black. I have not seen these boxes in a very long time and I thought I have disposed of them. I readily took out the manuals, the cds that came along with it and stored them somewhere else. I then threw the boxes so I could have more room on my closet.

Teacher: Ni zai na li?
Me: Not here … [we both burst out laughing]
Teacher: Create two sentences using the words we learned today.
Me: Ni … ni hen chou.
Wo … wo piao liang.
Teacher: (laughing out loud)

I haven’t been blogging for a while as I have been extremely busy. My hours are spent working on various projects and what little time I have left I use it to jog, attend my Mandarin class, visit mom and see friends. It has been a very tight squeeze and I am expecting to be a whole lot busier next week. Instead of the weekly class, starting Monday it will be on a daily basis.

Sometimes I wonder what have I gotten myself into …

Last Monday, our neighborhood was almost caught on fire. The fire started at a neighboring area which was way too far from where I live but the strong winds carried its flame to our direction. The people in my neighborhood were on panic mode and for the life of me I did not bother to pack as much. My neighbors all took their things out of their houses, appliances, bedsheets, clothes and just about anything you could think of.

The only things I secure for myself were my laptops, external hard drives, cameras, photo albums with photos of mom, my family’s closest friend helped me out in carrying all my boxes [containing my collection of books and manga] while I took my piggy bank. When the fire was too close say 4 houses away from my house I had no choice but to move out and stay on safer grounds. Panicking won’t do me any good, it’s not like if I panic the fire would stop right? So I took photos instead … someone actually mistook me as part of the media lol

And oh … the fire brigade managed to put out the fire and my house was saved. All Hail Buddha!

August 2, 1948 was mom’s birthday. She would have been 62 years old today had she still been alive. Together with mom’s closest friend and together with another neighbor we went to the cemetery to pay our respects. It has been close to 3 years since she passed away and I still haven’t gotten over it fully. I guess it would some time … but I kept telling myself that where ever she is right now … she is in a much better place and someday soon I’ll see her again.

I have been working as a full time freelancer now for over a month and I gotta tell you my work schedule is downright crazy. lol. Let me outline what I have been doing … this is the schedule I posted on the cork board in my make shift office.

8AM – 4PM : I work as a Virtual Assistant for a developer based in the US.

4PM – 8PM : I used this hours to write articles for clients based in Poland and India. Yes I have two clients who provide me continuous writing projects.

8PM – 4AM : I work again as a Virtual Assistant for an Internet Marketer based in UK.

5AM – 5:30AM : I use this time to follow a video workout which is a fusion of belly dancing and yoga.

5:30 AM – 7:30 AM : Sleep

7:30 AM – 8:00 AM – shower then breakfast

And the cycle repeats … I am only free on Friday and Saturdays. Now I use these days to cater to personal affairs [char!]. I have my Mandarin classes on Fridays at 5PM to 7PM and on Saturdays I try my hardest to jog around Abellana, offer my prayers and visit mom and chill out with friends.

Waaaaaaaaaa. I can no longer remember the last time I sat down and read a book!

I have ran out of ink again huhuhuhu. I hate going for refills as I was told they might damage the printer and buying the original ink is just expensive. *sigh* I have been printing out those ESL materials I have used with Monica last year so I could compile them in one folder but without ink, color printing right now using my HP printer is impossible.

So it’s either I finally take a leap of faith and use refilled ink or close my eyes and just go head buy brand new cartridges. Which is which Weng? Should I do this with a coin toss?!!! lol

Kokopelli is a fetility deity shown as a humpbacked flute player and is venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States. Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture.

The image of Kokopelli is very famous and can be seen in almost every type of crafts, from vases to necklaces. It is also a famous design in tattoos and I got one on my right wrist.

Let’s take a look below:

Kokopelli On My Right Wrist

Kokopelli On My Right Wrist

What do you think?

I have this mobile phone that carries two active sim cards, my Smart sim which I’ve been using since college and my Sun sim for texting all those peeps at work. Just about two hours ago, it has been ringing full blast non-stop. Some guy said he wanted a friend … like I bloody care. He kept texting stating that he was only trying the number as we both have close to similar mobile numbers … the only difference is the last digit. And he’d like to have a friend.

Great! So this f^ck!ng idiot has been calling my number since 11PM … what a great way to make friends. Annoy someone in the middle of the night. Don’t you have a life or something? Grrrrrrrr ….

And oh … a friend said, that it could be a sign and a potential boyfriend. Riggghhhhtt …. I’d rather join the convent!!! Pissed Off mode.

I have been wanting to get a sassy laptop bag since last year. I’ve had crumpler before when I got my mac but I realized it was too … typical. I gave it away to the owner who bought my macbook. So just last Thursday I convinced MJ to buy a Bratty Bonita Bag so we could both order it together. I showed her pictures of the ones I really like and we ended up ordering the following:

Pink Fashionista Travel Mate

Yellow Fashionista Travel Mate

- images taken from Bratty Bonita’s Website -

Size: 14x12x4

Since I am too lazy to photograph my bag, I am posting the images taken from the Bratty Bonita website. If you are looking for a laptop bag better check them out. They have tons of other designs … I chose the Travel Mate line as I intend to bring my notebook with me wherever I go … in future trips. I chose the Pink Fashionista Travel Mate and MJ got the Yellow Fashionista Travel Mate.

- LG Cookie -

I’d love to have this phone … its just so piiiiiiinnnnkkk. But at the moment that is out of the question. I am the epitome of “no work” slackey. lol At the moment all I can do is just look at it from the web … *sigh*

He died two days after I was born and he was never a good topic for dinner conversations. Let’s just say mom was never comfortable talking about him and I was not one to press on … so to the Dad I never met, Happy Father’s Day wherever you are now.

Partially eaten muffin, a glass of iced tea, my notebook and unlimited wi-fi … hmmm … just like any other day

- Chillin @ Starbucks -

I took this prolly on my third day in Singapore; somewhere near Sunshine Plaza, ground floor of the Kaplan Building. I was waiting for KKnM to open; by the time I got to Sunshine Plaza it was close to 12 noon and I realized KKnM doesn’t open till 1:30 PM. With nothing to do … I saw my favorite coffee shop back home and decided to take a sip as I watch the “world go by”. I ordered what I always order back home, Signature Hot Chocolate – Venti [see? am an addict lol] and waited … watched and ponder on things I’ve never had time to think about.

Somethings just don’t change wherever I go, seeing Starbucks is like coming home after a stressful day …

I said goodbye to my second family earlier today. I handed my resignation letter effective immediately and I am just glad that the big boss accepted it … otherwise my four years tenure would go down the drain. People were surprised, they knew that at some point I would leave they just didn’t expect it to be so soon.

I filed a leave for the first two weeks of June last April and there no feedback whatsoever and no response to the follow up I made, I only knew last Wednesday that it was disapproved because of staffing issues.  For personal reasons I have to be overseas for these dates and I chose to leave … what I didn’t expect was it to hurt the way it did and I cried, cried like I did when mom died. Anj told me not to cry much, she said it’s not a loss but an opportunity for me to venture out on something new.

I guess I wasn’t ready emotionally to let go of the people I have come to love … it sucks and a part of me is afraid that with the separation I made with the company comes the separation of the friendship I have with so many people. I have become rather clingy ever since mom left after all friends are all I have right now and I hate the thought of losing them.

Before I went to the office to tender my resignation I made a promise to myself that I won’t cry … my friends would always be around no matter where I work and we’re just one text away from each other.  But that changed when I said goodbye to dodong and cried, I cried when I talked to Te Kate yesterday and I’m just glad I didn’t see Mitchy on the floor earlier otherwise it would have been too difficult to stop the tears from coming.

Weng, you are such a crybaby! I mentally scolded myself over and over … but you my dear reader must understand, this is my first job, a job I held for four years and leaving all these people behind was harder than I could ever possibly imagine. We said we’d keep in touch and am holding that thought close to my heart; my comfort words.

**Sayonara – It Has Been Sweet‏**

I suck at saying Goodbyes … so I’d do it in writing.

It has been an amazing four years with you guys, I’ve found my second family here and it’s painful for me to leave but the circumstances forced me to choose … I’m at the point where no matter how I want to compromise I can’t seem to have both.

I cannot begin to describe how thankful I am to have met all of you … so I guess this it …  and I’ll see you guys around.

 —-

 Weng

————– end of chapter 1

————– looking forward to starting chapter 2

I found this image while browsing through google and I fell instantly in love with it. I mean I’d love one on my right foot … weeeee I hope the pain would be minimal. *sigh* It’d be so cute to have this kind of tattoo … the butterflies are just so so pretty. Oh well … let’s wait and see. I’ve already showed this image to Junovie and she thinks its cute too … I’d love to have her friend do it. Weeeeee