Fuk Tak Chi Museum

Opening Hours

10am - 10pm Daily

Saw this museum on our way to lunch at the Far East Plaza.
Took some pictures for my mom to see, but decided to upload them here so that everybody else could see them as well.

Christmas @ Orchard Road

Orchard Road is the shopping mecca of Singapore so it is where the most extravagant Christmas decors can be seen in all of Singapore.

my singapore adventure: isang ganap na OFW

actually this post is long overdue. i am already on my 3rd week at work.  im currently working for the american international assurance co. its the insurance arm of aig. been busy with work so i was not able to post my blog sooner. ill be making updates on this blog from time to time. for now i will just be posting my spass, for security reasons my company's info and personal information were deleted. just to be sure that i will not be violating any company or government policies.

since my brain cells are on hiatus & im really pressed for time, magtatagalog na lang ako. tutal miss ko na rin naman magsalita ng tagalog. nosebleed to the max talaga sa work kasi mega english. e di bale sana kung normal english e dapat "tailor fit"english pa. otherwise hindi kayo magkakaintindihan hehehehe

sabi nga nila "it will come when you last expect it" at yun na nga ang nagyari sa akin. around 7pm habang nasa sim lim kami nila jing shopping for their digicams, i received a call. it was from bee kim of aia. i was thinking, "what aia?" she was inviting me for an interview on monday. however i already had a previous appointment with crown. it's another company at faraway boon lay that im really interested in. it would be my 2nd interview with them so i made them my first priority. at that time i was really set on taking in the offer from crown. aliw na aliw ako sa kanila kasi very professional silang lahat, magaling magenglish yung interviewer ko. so nagparesked pa ako ng tuesday 9am (antaray di ba nagpareseked hahahaha).

my interview with boon lay went well. although hindi ko nakuha yung post dahil super urgent yung need nila, sabi sa akin ni emily they are looking for a position for me from other departments. so okay lang. kinabukasan sa aia parang di ko talaga mashado feel. pinagsubmit ako ng 3 pics. yung pinili ko pa yung pinakachuckie pic ko (ma, yun yung passport pic na kuha ni kuya carling nung pagparenew tau ng passport).


okay rin yung interview masaya. 2 interviewers ko si bee kim (my boss) & julia (her boss) . the interview went well and they said that if i was qualified the 2nd interview would be with HR. so okay lang ako, keri lang kasi di ko nga mashado feel. still hoping pa rin ako dun sa position sa boon lay. pero si ate amy gus2 niya talaga d2 ako sa aia, kasi 15min lang ang travel time from our place while yung boonlay 45 mins.

the next day i got a call from angie, she's the asst hr manager for aia. she invited me for the my 2nd interview at 3pm the same day. tuwang tuwa si ate kasi tingin niya pasok na yun since HR na yun. normally naman daw ang mga 2nd interview for formalities na lang. i thought the interview went well, diniscuss pa niya sa akin ang benefits. ng malaman ko yung package nainooffer sa akin nagustuhan ko na sila (hahahaha materyosa!). 1 year contract as admin asst for the billing department. okay lang naman sa akin yun basta may work. the salary that was given was more than my asking price so sobrang tuwa ko talaga. she asked for photocopies of my credentials (diploma, transcript, COE, passport & EPEC). but then after the interview she said that they will get in touch. i was like "ha!? teka lang..." sa lahat kasi ng interviews ko which turned out ok (meaning i was called for a 2nd round) may time frame kung kelan ako tatawagan at binibigay sa akin ang contact number nila. d2 yun lang...wala na. tapos nakita ko pa na may hawak siyang papel na "application...job...something" na feeling ko dapat pinapirmahan niya sa akin kung nagustuhan niya ako =( habang naglalakad ako pababa ng mrt naiyak ako. mukha nga akong eng2 kasi iniisip ko "what did i do wrong???" "trabaho na naging bato pa" nagtxt agad ako kay ate na sabi ko mukhang negative.

friday the same week around 9pm i saw 3 missed calls from an unregistered number. i called the number which turned out to be AIA. but then i couldnt reach anybody. good thing bee kim gave me here direct line when she first called me. so i called her and left a message on her voice mail. after an hour she called me back and advised me that angie was trying to get in touch with. she gave me her direct line and when i reached her she said that she's inviting me for a job offer on monday, dec 18 at 3pm. she asked me to download the EP/Spass application form from MOM's website & to fill it out. after signing the offer, she gave a lot of paper work to fill out and advised me to submit them on my 1st day (aliw! totoo na pala toh). pati yung list ng dokies at hospitals na accredited sa mediguard ko.  be fore i left she said that she will get in touch with me again within 2 weeks regarding the status of my EP application. i told her that my current svp would expire by dec 4 (which was a monday), she assured me not to worry because they would sponsor a 2 week extension for me, but she's very hopeful that my pass would be approved by then. she gave me a medical test request for an accredited clinic to take my med tests for free. so on the same day i had the test.

a week after i got a call from sahlee. she's a filipino epec holder that i met while processing my ltsvp application. we previously agreed to have the medical exam & submit it to ICA together. unfortunately she has no spass application yet, so she really has to go thru the whole process of getting her ltsvp. she then reminded me that our svp expires on the 2nd and not the 4th. waaaaaaaaaaaa that's a sunday. so i panicked. i called angie but could not reach her, tried it 2x. i just left her a voice mail. since she did not call me back, i decided to go to aia instead. she gave me the endorsement letter and i got the extension the following day.

the same week fri 9am, i got a call from angie. she told me the good news that my spass application was approved and that i had to come to the office to get it and process the card request so that i could start the following mon. reached the office at 10am ang went to MOM right away. unfortunately MOM's system was down, they said to come back early the next day (office hours 8am - 12nn). since i had to go 2 different offices to finish the whole process, i asked them how long it would take if i would wait. she said another 4 - 5 hrs. bummer! so i went home and went online. at 3pm i went back to MOM, lo & behold they're system was back online. got the Q number and went to the 2nd floor, although there was a slight glitch evrything went out well. i got the In Principal Approval (IPA) letter and had to bring it to the Tanjong Pagar office the next day to request for my ID. had to bring 2 passport pictures. since im all out of passport pics & the one's that zar printed for me from the philippines won't do. i had my picture taken. so chuckie my picture ha!? i looked so harassed as in! oilyness to the highest level & if u can notice di pa naka ayos yung necklace ko wahahaha


at 8:30 am i was already at the Tanjong Pagar office of MOM. went to the queue at the reception area to have my docs checked. unfortunately this chuckie picture wont do because its glossy, it had to be in matte finish. good thing they had a photo service there which was very quick. this picture was much better though because i was prepared for it.

was done with the whole process in 30 mins. i got a call from angie in the afternoon asking if i was able to finish the whole process. i confirmed that i will be able to work on mon =) and will just get the pass itself on thursday.

waaaa haba na. sabo ko di ba magtatagalog na ako hahaha

AIA Dinner & Dance Party 2007: Phantasm

attended my 1st D&D here in Singapore at the Ritz Carlton Hotel
here are some pics with my new friends & the party invitation

Yong Tau Foo

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

According to http://www.goodfood.sg, Yong Tau Foo, which is also spelled 'Yong Tau Hu', 'Yong Tow Foo' and 'Yong Tow Hu', is an assortment of pre-cooked ingredients mostly made from a soya beancurd base (tau hu, tau kwa) and vegetables such as kangkong and mushrooms. The customer selects the individual ingredients in an a la carte manner and the server reheats them with the choice of noodles in hot boiling soup. The most common noodles are thick yellow noodles and bee hoon (vermicelli), served in the soup, or in a separate bowl with the ingredients.

The only term that I could think of to accurately describe it is "it's a dimsum lover's perfect meal." Every person's yong tau fu can be different. For a standard order that usually costs $3.50 you would need to choose a minimum of 6 ingredients from a wide variety of dimsum, fresh or stuffed veggies, noodles & seaweeds. If you wish to add more, then you would have to pay a small sum for each ingredient that would be added, which is around 70cents.

I normally pick mushrooms, bean sprouts, kikiam, blackpepper squidballs, stuffed bellpepper/ampalaya & kuay teow noodles with the regular soup. Some people use Laksa (spicy coconut milk soup), which is also tasty but I prefer the regular soup base because it's more healthy.

This is what I eat most of the time whenever I out of the house. So for those who really know me well, this would mean that it's about 90% of the time =D
I highly recommend that you give it a try when you guys visit Singapore.

Singapore pictures

inside the great world city female comfort room

- 21nov -
uploaded additional pictures from diane's cam
(matagal na mga kuha na to, ngayun ko nga lang naupload)

finally after almost 2 months nakapagpapicture na ako sa singapore =)

K24/7 clipping

my sister found this in one of our old Seventeen magazines dated december 2001, while she was making paper cranes

my sister found this in one of our old Seventeen magazines dated december 2001, while she was making paper cranes

EPEC, LTSVP & SPASS

i decided to make a blog about the difference of these three for everybody's benefit 

Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate (EPEC)
* If you are not a Singapore citizen and wish to work in Singapore, you have to first secure a job offer here. To spend some time in Singapore to look for a job, you can apply for the Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate (EPEC). EPEC grants the holder a Social Visit Pass valid for up to one year. The EPEC is issued on a one-time basis and is strictly non-renewable.

* You may apply for EPEC if you hold any of the selected university qualifications or if you are a current or former holder of selected skilled migrant visas You should apply for an EPEC only when you are ready to come to Singapore. You will still require the relevant visa to enter Singapore (if a visa is required) even if you hold a valid EPEC.

* With effect from 2 May 07, all EPEC applications must be submitted online thru this website http://epec.mom.gov.sg/epec/

(Source: http://www.contactsingapore.org.sg/)

>> this was what i got before i planned to come to singapore. after filling out the online application form, you would have to wait 5 - 7 days for the notification via email where you would be advised whether your application was rejected or if you can go to the next step of the process, which is to upload jpeg files of your credentials : passport particulars (1st page), passport photo & school certificates (diploma or transcript). after 3 - 5 days you will receive the APPROVAL email, afterwhich you would have to wait for the hardcopy via snailmail. mine took almost 3 weeks to reach me, thanks to the efficiency of the postal system in our town. this is valid for 2 years from the date of approval.

the epec in itself has no use, it would only be useful once you apply for LTSVP.

Long Term Social Visit Pass (LTSVP)
Foreigners visiting Singapore for the purpose of social visit or to attend short business negotiations and discussions which require a longer stay needs to apply for a Long Term Social Visit Pass (LTSVP), which is commonly termed as tourist VISA in other countries.

for more details pls visit the ICA website: http://app.ica.gov.sg/serv_visitor/social_visit/social_visit_app.asp

>> as an EPEC holder, you are now entitled to get LTSVP without any sponsorship by a Permanent Resident or Company. based on my personal experience, the application itself was hassle free. before your current Social Visit Pass (SVP) --- which is normally 14 - 30 days max, for tourists --- expires, you would have to apply for LTSVP, after submitting the documents you would be given a 2-month extension to have a medical examination. upon getting the results, this should be submitted to ICA along with the letter and your passport, to get the LTSVP card and stamp on your passport.

SPASS
The S Pass is for foreigners who earn a fixed monthly salary of at least $1,800 (EP for above $2500). S Pass applicants will be assessed on a points system, taking into account multiple criteria including salary, education qualifications, skills, job type and work experience.

>> once i get hired, the employer would have to apply for my spass. it normally takes a minimum of 2 weeks for this to be processed, once approved i would have to go thru a medical exam and then submit the results to MOM along with the approval letter. Once i get the spass id, i can now start working in singapore =)

Pinoy SG Coffee EB

15sept2007
my 1st cofi EB

pictures with my PSG buddies

my singapore adventure: haaaay buhay parang life

just had brunch after my morning jog, which is part of my morning ritual here in sg. since i am still unemployed, pending the approval of my spass c/o frasers suites, i still have a lot of time to spare. my day starts at around 8am, i drink my daily dose of camomille tea or yakult, wash my face, brush my teeth and change into my sporty attire. since saturday i have been shooting some hoops in the nearby park, got bored with it since i do it alone. today i decided to go farther. i was planning to go to the park near bukit merah, but kuya ben told me that there is a better option near henderson road. he just gave me instructions on how to get there and i went on my way.

as always its easy to find your way here in singapore as long as you know where to go and you know how to read. after 3 pedestrian lanes and a few turns i saw the inclined road going to the Telok Blangah Hill Park. it was just an easy walk although you can see that its an uphill climb. i was already drenched with sweat on my way up. i was so delighted to see that they had an area there with equipment for different exercises. so i don't have to go to the gym anymore. it's not complete though, but these would do as my only concern is to keep myself healthy. after an hour i went back down but thru the other side of the mountain towards telok blangah rise. as i was walking back home, an uncle in smart casual attire walked past me and then walked back and asked:

"are u malay?"
"no im filipino uncle"
"ahhh i thought u are malay. why are u walking?"
"exercise, good for the body"
"ahhh i thought u were malay..."

and then he went his own way. i just found it weird why he had to ask why i was walking when it was totally obvious from what i was wearing that i went jogging. maybe he just wanted to start a conversation with a malay

around 10:30am i ate breakfast and went online. most days are like this. i go online until about 4pm. once the kids wake up from their nap we would either play or watch tv together while i cook rice (using a rice cooker hehehe) and take out the meat from the freezer for ate amy to cook for supper.

today im planning to go somewhere. where to? i haven't decided yet. an online buddy of mine told me to try ang go to the areas near each MRT station. might do that today. im also going to call my employer to follow up on my spass application. hopefully i would get a positive response to cheer me up a bit. depression is now kicking in thats why im keeping myself busy. i need to exercise & get busy to get my daily dose of endorphins. as legally blond star elle once said "endorphins make people happy..."

paalam pilipinas

irvin & kyle, with popet

just a few pictures of my family before i left for singapore

my singapore adventure: the plight of the unemployed

after more than a week of sending applications online, i came across 3 job postings that requires a walk-in application. since they were all located in the same building, the international plaza at 10 anson road, i decided to give it a try. slept early the previous night, but woke up later than my usual 8am. had no trouble in going there thru bus #131 --- apart from the memorable bus #65, i have already experienced going home via bus #s 131, 123 and 124 --- and alighted at the bus stop right in front of the international plaza at 10:30am.

the area where anson road is located is the business district of singapore. so it's like our makati in the philippines. i had a difficulty in finding my way because they were renovating the 1st & 2nd floors. unlike most of the places here in singapore, this building did not have ample signs to show you your way. the first office that i needed to go to was on the 32nd floor and all i could see was an escalator waaaaaa. on the 2nd floor i saw one of the indian laborers and i asked him for directions. it was funny that althogh i did not understand half of what he was saying, i somehow understood through his hand gestures. he told me to go down to the 1st floor and go "inside inside" where there are many lifts. he was even kind enough to follow me to see if i understood his directions and when i stopped to check out the building directory, he told me to follow him. he probably thought that i did not understand him.

just like most of the buildings in makati there are different elevators, or lifts as they call it here, that would only take u to certain floors and you would have to alight and move to another lift. so it took me a while to go the offices as they were on different floors. of the 3 agencies that i went to, only 1 had a slight positive result. at the moment they did not have any jobs open to foreigners but the person in charge asked me for a copy of my resume and advised me that she would be calling once a suitable position would be available. it only took me around 30 minutes to see all 3 offices and then there was nothing else to do. i was thinking of going to suntec city and do some window shopping or just go home. then i remembered the building directory, if this building housed 3 recruitment agencies, there could be more and i just said to myself: aja aja fighting!

i went to checkout the directory from a-z and i listed down the names and office numbers of those that appeared to be recruitment agencies. i saw that most of them were on the 16th floor including the one that i prioritized which was called kelly recruitment: call center staffing. bingo! dee (the receptionist) asked me for a hard copy of my resume and asked if i was keen in telemarketing/sales. ive tried it before and i have proven that i was not. so i said no. she then went inside the office and came back after about 5 mins. she advised me that there would be an opening for market research. she gave me her card and told me to email my resume if i was interested and she will be getting in touch once the post is available.  apart from kelly recruitment, there was another agency that accepted foreigners without any posts available. the receptionist just gave me a piece of paper after checking the box beside the email address for foreign applicants and advised me to send my cv. then for the rest, it did not take me more that 2 minutes:

hi, i would like to apply for any customer service or call center job openings that you have.
are u PR or Singaporean?
No
oh we only accept PR/Singaporean. Sorry for that. (Some of them would say, Good luck)

by 12noon i was done with my list of 18 agencies. it may seem sad because i am not used to being rejected for job applications. but i was not disheartened by this because i was already expecting that this would happen. hopefully dee and the other 2 people who gave me hope today could find me a suitable position. but if not, then so be it. i've just been in singapore for almost 2 weeks, so there's still a lot of time. as i always, i trust in the saying that all things happen for a reason and in God's time.

my singapore adventure: globe kababayan sim & bus #65

tuesday sept. 11 was my baptism of fire in singapore. just found out from my cousin edwin that our landline number here at home was no longer available and since i have proven that maintaining my globe roaming number was impractical i then decided to buy an sg sim. thanks to my dear pinoysg friends, i learned that there was a singtel/globe partnership that provides a singtel prepaid phoneline that allows us to txt P1 to & from the philippines for globe/TM subscribers. they call it globe kababayan (pldt also has smart pinoy, but automatically charges a daily rate for idd calls even if u dont use it).

so after my morning routine of sending out online applications, i went to out to go to Lucky Plaza. i was quite confident because i know that all i need to do is board bus #65 at the bus stop in front of the st. therese convent. going there was a breeze since the stop where im going to alight was just in front of the mall.



lesson #3: never trust a fellow filipino because some of them will still rip you off wherever in the world they are.

i went to the basement first to look for a reliable money changer. almost forgot that in singapore all of th money changers here are legit. they even have the digital screen that shows the exchange rates of different currencies that i normally see in sm forex counters

as i was not able to check online what the globe kababayan sim looks like, i went around the shops first to ask how much the sim was. my friends told me that it sells for around $18. most of the shops at the 1st & 2nd levels sold it for $20. so i went up to the 3rd level where most of the filipino shops sold it for $25 waaaaaaa. so i went back to the 2nd level. there i found a singaporean uncle who asked me "ano hanap?" with really cute chinese accent. he was really friendly and looked like he really wanted to help. so i asked him how much a globe kababayan sim costs. he sold it for $20 as well and he even explained that the load or top up as they call it here is also $20. i went ahead and bought the sim from him which he then gave to his assistant who is a filipina. to my surprise she asked for my passport, uncle then explained to me that prepaid sims are registered here in singapore. so i gave her my passport, she entered all the necessary details. it took a while for the registration to push thru. she said that it normally takes just a few minutes, mine took about 15 - 20 mins. so she cancelled the transaction and repeated the registration. this time the registration was completed. everything seems to be fine, until we tried making an outgoing call. i can receive & send sms and receive phone calls but whenever we try doing an outgoing call an error message: check caller id sending service appears. the filipina auntie told me that it was because my fone was from the philippines and that it was locked to a certain network. so i needed to buy a new fone in sg. just i explained to here that it was not the case since my fone is open to all networks and that if it were the case no signal would appear and we will not be able to use the sim for sms or incoming calls. so the uncle called customer service on my behalf. unfortunately i have to bring it to the nearest  singtel shop so that they could take a look at it and see what the problem is. it took us around 2 hrs until i finally decided to just go to the shop the next day. uncle was really nice while we were waiting for the reps that were helping us out, he constantly told me "don't fret, everything will be fine." before i left uncle was telling me to pay for service charges because he did a lot for me, when i asked him how much it was, he said $10. i told him that i don't have anymore money. he then smiled and told me to just buy him halo2 from the filipino  eatery just a few shops away. i asked him how much it was, he said $2. i said ok and he told me to buy 2 but when i was about to leave he laughed and said that one was enough. when i came back i told him that i bought him the special kind, the with with ice cream on top, which was for $3, he laughed out loud and told me "you're very kind u know, very mabait." but i think is the one who was very kind because he actually gave the halo2 to his assistant. i would have protested because she was not able to help me out nor was willing to extend her help. but i just went away and txted uncle "thank you so much 4 ur help uncle" to which he sent me a smiley as his reply.

so off i went around the 3 malls interconnected by an underpass. i was enjoying the experience and was texting my family & friends in the  philippines.  since i was indoors and was having a blast, i lost track of the time.  i just noticed that it was already late, when ate amy txted me. so i rushed towards nearest exit to know which mall i was in. waaaaaa  i got confused. where was that bus stop again???

the bus stop that i should go to is at the back of wisma atria, but since i can't find my way thru the underpass i decided to just board the bus at the stop where i alighted earlier. since sg is such a small country,  i guess it would still pass by the convent in no time.  but guess what, what should have been a 10 min trip home, lasted for about an hour & a half because  the route that i took went back to the central bus station in tampines where i took another bus #65 going the opposite route . good thing edwin gave me a bus & a street directory of sg earlier. i used it as my guide if i was near my bus stop or not. fortunately the transportation system here in sg is very organized and as long as u know the bus #s and the bus station where you would alight, you're safe. it was only then that i found out that the area where i will alight is called lower delta and not telok blangah hehehe. by 11:30pm i was safe at home.

lesson #4: experience is the best teacher

although i got lost, i was still very proud of the experience because i was able to have a grand tour of the tampines, harbour view area hahaha and was able to understand how to use the directories that were given to me. along with the appreciation of how beautiful this country is.

my singapore adventure: newbie in the country

from the plane i immediately went to immigration. since i was alone i just silently observed the people ahead of me and followed them so that i won't get lost. i guess as in all airports there were long lines, but this time its now called queues (naks! im now picking up their jargon). i received a txt from my cousin that he was already in the area. on one of the queues there was a man with his face flat on the floor. i was scared at first, but later on i heard that he has a spine disorder. as the queue was moving i noticed that there were filipinas being called to the immigration office and that most of them were from my own queue. i got nervous... i was thinking what the reason could be and how i could avoid the experience...  when it was my turn, bingo! i was asked by the immigration officer on the number of days that i would be staying in singapore, i said 30. and then she checked my return ticket. she asked me how much money i had & to show it to her. then she escorted me to the immigration office =( of course i was so scared. there were 6 of us detained then, all of which were filipinas. 4 of them were acting really fishy, as if they are really guilty of doing something illegal and only 2 of us were legit tourists. after almost an hour another immigration officer called us, took out finger prints and asked for supporting documents. i showed my epec hard copy, ids & my tita's contact details. after a few minutes 2 of us were lead to the immigration front desk and was welcomed to singapore =) whew!

my luggage was no longer in the conveyor since it took me almost an hour to get out of immigration. good thing a saw a man getting the luggage and was heading towards the lost & found. it was there that i found my check in luggage. when i turned towards the exit i immediately saw my cousin edwin waving at me. i was so excited to see him but i was still in a daze...

we arrived ate amy's HDB at 5:30pm. i was planning to go to the career fair in suntec city but since it was already late and i was still tensed because of what happened in the airport, he just took me to orchard road instead, to meet his singaporean friend. we met lorraine in breadtalk and they took me around the 3 malls, takashimaya, wisma & the lucky plaza. lucky plaza is like liana's/ever gotesco in the philippines. they were telling me that this is where most Filipino OFWs hangout every sunday afternoon. wisma & takashimaya is more like sm/robinson's. we went home late and was welcomed by my ate amy.

my mornings are usually spent online looking for jobs and sending out email applications. thru the straits time that i borrowed from kuya ben, i got a lot of job openings for my qualifications. i normally send out 7 emails a day. monday afternoon i just went around the telok blangah area to get myself acquainted with the bus stops and the landmarks. the next day, i got lost hehehehe details on my next post... bitinin ba hehehe

my singapore adventure: travelling alone for the 1st time

slept late because my sisters & i along with kuya jun & kyle all slept in mom's bedroom. everyone was so excited about my trip and we had our last minute bonding =). woke up at 6am, left the house at around 8am and we arrived at naia at around 10am. hannah, mark, sam, noemi, jerry & jan came to send me of as well.

went to check in my luggage at 10:30am. since my flight was at 12:20, i was thinking that i still had a lot of time right? as i approached the check in counter for jetstar, 2 people from the airport authority (im not sure what they're called actually) asked me if i was an ofw or  a tourist. when i said tourist, they asked me for my ticket and told me that i needed to pay  P1620 for travel tax. i asked if it already included the P750 terminal fee & they said no. huwaaaaaaat!? so i immediately texted my mom to go back because i only had P1000 for the terminal fee. 

lesson #1: whenever you book jetstar tickets online, you would have to pay the travel tax in cash at the airport. so check first if it would be cheaper if you purchase ur tickets from booking offices.

it took a while for my mom to come back so by the time that i checked in it was already 11am. after i got my boarding pass i went straight to immigration wherein of course there were long lines =). so i waited for almost 1 hour. according to my boarding pass, the gate (G1) will close at 12:00. however by 11:50 my boarding gate was already flashed as closed on the tv monitor. so i panicked. i texted my mom and sked her if it was fine, and she said that once u have a boardng pass it should be okay. so calmed down a little. by 12:00 there was still another person in line before it was my turn. he was a caucasian who really looked nice, or maybe i just thought he looked nice because he looked like samwise gamgee =). too scared of missing the flight, i asked him if he could let me go first since my boarding gate was about to close. he was kind enough to let me go first.

lesson#2:  go to the check in counter earlier than 2 hours before the flight because you'll never know what may happen.

at the pre-departure area i still had about 5 mins to rest and calm my nerves because they were boarding rows 1- 20 and i was assigned seat 9B. so i texted my mom that i was fine and that they could go back home. once on the plane i took a nap, woke up when the food was offered. i ate fish lenguini & water for S$13. unfortunately no free food is served in jetstar flights. after eating i took a nap again and when i woke up we were about to land.

paalam pilipinas

in a few hours i will be leaving the philippines. right now i am soooo excited. people have been asking me if feel sad, not a bit....at the moment hehehehe. i would just like to thank those who prayed for thi strip to push through and for my family & friends for being very supportive of my endeavor. keep in touch guys. paalam pilipinas...paalam sa pangalan kong pearl (i will be using my 2nd name ailene because this is the name  that i am using for my passport. )... please continue praying for my success.

i'm done packing

finally i'm done! never thought that packing my stuff would be a long tedious process. it took me whole week to prepare everything and now my room looks like a bedroom again. it was really hard for me to choose which clothes i'm going to bring with me. was only able to pack clothes good for 2 weeks, 2 pairs of shoes and a few personal stuff.

thanks to the wonders of technology as well i was able to pack more than what usually fits in my luggage. i was so amazed with the airtight bag that i bought from the japan surplus all for P88 store that compresses your clothes by sucking the air out using a regular vacuum cleaner. it was a great help for me.

waaaa its already 4:17am. need to sleep now. today is daddy's 3rd death anniv =( by the way

My Bestfriend's Wedding

posted nini & richman's wedding pics on December 18, 2004 for reference
The wedding was held at the St. Jerome Emiliani Church Alabang while the reception was at the The Bellevue Hotel. Photographed by Dino Lara www.dinolara.com

excommunicado

im almost done with my packing. cleaned a big portion of my room as well. all things that should not be touched by unauthorised people are now sealed and boxed up.still have to decide which of my clothes & shoes im going to leave behind . just realized that i have a lot of clothes after all, i just didn't pay much attention to them before.

mom was right. i didn't prepare that much for my trip and now i am cramming all the things that needs be done in just 1 week. waaaaaaa. but since im almost done, i finally had the time to post something for my dear friends to read.

to all those who texted me the past few days, im sorry that i was not able to reply. apart from being busy, zarah's BL chuva celfone battery (the one that nokia was pulling out) is no longer functioning and since i am just at home i lent her mine for 2 days. by tomorrow i will be able to use it again.

pipay HBD on the 3rd! i sent u a chikka greeting dunno if u got it. musta naman embassy?

tita mabel. finally i have the POA i'll be giving ur number to my sis zarah so that she could txt u to meet her before shift. tnx so much girl. musta embassy?

irish! made some copies of my new jdorama 4 u. just get it from mabel in a weeks time ok? join ka ba sa embassy?

marshee glad to know that u already have a digicam. congrats! when are u moving to makati? musta shiftbid?

my party girls gracie, jen & martha, mishu na so much! sorry if im not always online. so little time so much to do pa rin

miss ko na FS!!!!

and to all of  my friends reading this, i love u all. sorry im just so busy at the moment. i'll just make up for it next time.

EK with my sibs

5 hours of picture taking. laughing & bonding with my sibs.
sa wakas nagamit ko na rin yung free at wizard money ng HSBC.
good thing may promo tickets din si lianne na nabili niya from moonlight before pa at may nakasama ako.

of themes & character

hmmmm though really really sad, i have to face the fact that there would be a lot of changes  in my life this coming week. so to welcome these changes i revised my multiply theme.

it's not that i don't love prison break anymore, i just thought that i had to brighten up my world every once in a while. there were a lot of customized themes to choose from & i couldn't make up my mind. would i want my site to look funky? cute? or just simple? i wanted to make one for myself, but i don't have the time anymore. wanted to try out the disney princesses theme, but decided that its for little girls (makes it look funny knowing that i am old enough to have little girls of my own hehehe).

i tried out 3 themes and decided on the light blue one with blue hearts. though my favorite color is red/pink i chose this theme because it gave a sense of calmness & cheerfulness at the same time. but then i saw this dance theme in pink. i chose this one instead and just modified it a bit because this is the best theme that describes me.

i wanted to write more but my brain is literally challenged today =)

with FS at Baga Pasig & Jay-J's

my last party with Da Gang before i leave =(
thanks for the happy memories, i'll be coming back soon...
i'll bring the Sexy Back!!!! party on!

-- photos grabbed from martha, jen & jinky --

HSBC Family Day

Freestyle 19East 15aug2007

thanks 4 taking the pic jinky!

dami ko na backlog sa posting grabe

Log Off!!!

ganito kami noon kapag downtime at end shift, pero ngayun bawal na =(

HSBC Despedida

ill be missing you guys!

with my dear friends in HSBC

Happy Birthday Joshua - Freestyle @ 19East 03july2007

yey! no more irate days! happy days are here again because they are back!
celebrated Joshua's birthday as well
thanks to martha & jen (in advance) for bringing their cameras

most improved associate for the month of may

just when i thought that my performance suck and that there is no reason for me to stay, i was awarded most improved associate for the month of may hahaha. talk about ironic!

when they mentioned in the monthly town hall last night that the most improved associate was coming from team anne (my team), we were already pointing fingers. of course knowing that my numbers suck compared to the stats that were being shown on the slides, it never crossed my mind that it would be me. even before PEARL was fully flashed on the screen, my tranche mates & teammates were already screaming at the top of their lungs and i was like "what!? how could it be me?" when i went up the stage to accept the award, i was looking at my boss with this weird feeling "how could it be me?" so the people who greeted me as i went down were asking "bakit ka nakasimangot? sa lahat naman ng awardees, parang di ka masaya?" maybe they thought that i was overwhelmed. i wasn't, i was actually confused. then gladys pointed out that this award was for the month of may when i applied for my core leave (mandatory annual 5-day leave) and upon my return, they were teasing me because i was at the top of the team ranking. so i guess a lot of rest really does well for one's stats hehehe

in memory of tito bing

6 weird things about me

Tagged by jenoa

Each player of this game starts with 6 weird things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

--- hmmm this is quite hard because there are a lot weird things about me, or the things that i find weird about me are quite normal to others. so asked the help of my sibs & friends and i ranked the weirdest from the least based on the number of votes hehehehe and the results are ---
1. i am fascinated with aliens! --- not so weird huh!?---

---here's the weird part ---
when i was a kid i wanted to be abducted hehehehe

my dad is a wide reader, his book collection is like a mini library wherein you could get at least 1 reference for any given topic that ur "psycho prof" could think of. one of his favorite topics is the outer space. he has this collection of Zecharia Sitchin books --- which i have yet to finish reading --- that tells about alien influences on earth's ancient civilization, he says that ancient myths are not myths but are actually historical and scientific texts/thingies. like the egyptian pyramids are portals or transmitters to another world because each pyramid's apex is directed to a specific star, or the Stonehenge is like a portal or a landing site for alien space craft. i believed him in some way, because it's quite impossible for ancient men to form such perfect structures given limited resources that they had back then.

then as u grow old u get to watch movies like ET, lost in space, contact, star wars and tv series like alien nation, taken, star trek: the next generation & my fave of all roswell, that shows that aliens are not that bad, they could also look gorgeous hehehe

2. im not scared of ghosts or spirits, but more terrified of what live people could do


im not that brave in the dark or the cemetery, not because im scared of spirits or ghosts but because bad people might be lurking behind the shadows. if ghosts or spirits are true, i don't think they can hurt u the way real people or wild animals can. besides you could just pray for them to go away while bad people nowadays act as if they don't believe in God anymore.

3. my ears are lopsided, my right ear has a bigger lobe than the left one.


my sibs have always teased me about my ears, it all started when we were comparing my dad's with my mom's ears and who among us took after which parent. we then discovered that although i took after my dad, my left ear is bigger and that it's more detached than the right one =(

4. i love eating kiamoy
my sisters find it weird because most people like the black one, champoy. as for me i have developed a liking for kiamoy because it tastes different as you eat it. you eat it as salty, then it slowly turns sour & by the time that it melts in your mouth its already sweet. fascinating isn't it!? it looks weird & tastes weird, but i love it! besides its a good remedy for my motion sickness =)

5. i like bathing but i don't like swimming


i normally bathe 2x a day and 3x during the summer, i also usually take my sweet time in bathing. however, i have a very strong aversion towards swimming, be it in swimming pools or the beach. people find it weird because i grew up in calamba laguna, which is very famous for hot springs and resorts. i used to think that it was because every year for grade school & high school our sem-ender would be a swimming party and i got tired of it. then as i grew old i rationalized that i don't like bringing wet clothes home because they're too heavy. but when we recently went to galera, i discovered that i have fear of the water, or was it open water? after being tossed off the banana boat i found it hard to breathe & get my balance so i panicked. being hypertensive i was scared more for my heart than my lungs and when i felt my chest hurt, i just didn't go for the 2nd toss, i just switched places with jesse and took their pictures while i was on the speed boat. maybe you'll think it was the ride that got me scared, no it wasn't. because when we went snorkeling it was another disaster for me. even if i was wearing a life vest it couldn't get my balance so i had to rely on mary carr & darwin to help me through the trip. while all of my friends were having fun, i was busy crying because i scrapped my left shin when i tried to step on a big coral to get my balance while i was on panic mode. waaaaaaaaaaaaa

6. i love eating at KFC not just for the chicken but for the sweet chili sauce as well


whenever i go to the mall, i almost always eat at KFC and order hot and crispy chicken with sweet chili sauce, if don't have it, i would order a zinger. what i'll do is to pour the gravy on rice and get sweet chili sauce as my dip for the already hot chicken. my friends find it weird because i normally consume 1/2 cup of chili sauce whenever i'm eating, considering that i am hyperacidic hehehe

--- yey! i'm done! now i'm tagging joshua, gracie, jen, martha, paul & erwin ---

Kyle's 7th Birthday

Start:

Jun 10, '07

my tito bing's demise

his full name is sergio diokno silo, to his military subordinates he was maj. silo, to his siblings he was the "kuya" but to me & my cousins, although he wanted us to call him uncle serg, he was simply our funny tito bing.

tito bing died of colon cancer on may 10, 2007 until now it all seems so surreal, just like what i felt when my own dad died 2 years ago. at that time, uncle boy, tita ni, tito lito, tito bing & his wife tita da (my mom's sister) were with me waiting at the funeral parlor until my dad was ready to be taken home for his wake. i remembered that i was not able to bring my dad briefs so he went out in the wee hours of the morning to buy him one. tito bing was always like that, dependable.

its quite ironic how fast his disease progressed, when he was always slow in doing things. tito bing always takes his sweet time in doing things. he takes long baths, long trips to the toilet, walks, talks & dances slowly too. when we were young, we never liked riding in his car because he drives so slow that we always end up arriving last at the destination whenever we have a family gathering some place far away. he drove so slow that it has been a perennial joke in the family about the PUJ that he once owned that was smashed by a train because they said that he was too slow in crossing the railway it's also ironic that he is now dead & is lying in a coffin, because he was always scared of the dead. he never looks at dead people in coffins. he said that he stopped doing that since his dead kumpare winked at him.

being sick did not stop tito bing from being funny. although tito bing was in pain, he still cracked jokes. i never saw him at the hospital because of my work schedule. but his sisters were telling us about his last few days of confinement. apart from tita da & their son shernan, his 2 sisters, tita espie (their bunso) & tita susan (eldest sis, next to him) were also staying with him. tita susan was with him day in & day out, while tita espie had to go home to laguna from time to time to attend to her patients (the silos are a family of dentists). so for conversation sake, they asked tito bing "sino love mo?" he then replied: "si espie" "sino pa?" "si eda" "sino pa?" silence... thinking maybe he just forgot about tita susan, they asked him the same question, but got the same answers. so tita susan felt bad about it because she was already absent from work for 3 wks, and yet he still does not love her. so they asked him again, "sino love mo?" & he again replied: "si espie at si eda" so my tita da then asked him "e si susan?" tito bing replied: (after a moment of silence) "sige na nga love na rin." hahahaha that's my tito bing, even in the midst darkness he can still make us laugh.

but the best thing that i remember about him is how affectionate he was with us, especially to us girls. all of our uncles & titos call us by our first names, but not tito bing. he would call us "my niece/ my nephew" in this really funny tone that is distinctly his. he also calls by younger sister lianne, "my daughter" because he always teases her that she is really his daughter and that he only lent her to my parents when we were young, but she never gave her back. so lianne in turn calls him "De" which is how his 3 sons call him. maybe he is like that because he never had a daughter, so he treats us all like daughters. whenever we paid him a visit when we were kids and he sees us for the first time, he'll tell us to kiss him by saying "my niece akitykitkitkitkit sa tito bing..." and he would say that to each & every one of us until were all done in kissing him. so when we were already teenagers he would now tease us "my niece dalaga na, hindi na akitykitkitkitkit sa tito bing" to which our response would be

of course whenever i talk/write about my family i could go on all day & night.... too many memories to document... but i guess this would be good for now. i hope my tito bing is happy wherever he is, i hope that he finds peace there, he made a lot of people happy when he was alive, so i pray that he is safe & happy with the Lord.

freestyle send off gift

something to keep us fs addicts happy while they're away

Freestyle & Side A Send Off Party @ Bagaberde Roxas 12may2007

pinagpilitan na magkasya sa cam hehehe

selected pics from Gracie's & Martha's cam - Rated GP
missed u jen & kay! hanap nila kayo
waaaaaaaaaaa we're gonna miss you much!

galera07 - sunshine & summertime

song: sunshine & summertime
artist: faith hill
video created by pearl 07may2007

galera07 - summer girls

glam nation

Puerto Galera 30april2007

HSBC friends summer getaway!!!!
thanks to ichie & darwin for the pics

fun time with the girls

a simple dinner, a few fraps, long chats ... it really takes very little effort to make us happy -- photos courtesy of jen

changes...

hay life!!!! it's not that i don't like changes, i'm just that type of person who is very attached to my comfort zone. like the brand of shampoo & soap that i am using are the same brands that i have been using since high school. i may change the variants but it would still be the same 2 brands. i only get to shift to new brands if i was not the one who bought it or just to avoid product build up on my scalp.

how many times have i gone to wendy's to order anything other than bacon mushroom melt, ham & cheese, baked potato with cheese & bacon? or eat at kfc and not order hot & crispy chicken or hot shots with rice and sweet chili sauce or a zinger? NONE! i would always consider buying other things would always end up buying those that i have been accustomed to...tsk tsk tsk. dunno if its part of my being OC or it's because im always uncomfy in trying out new things.

these past few days a lot of changes happened around me, some good, some not so good & there are those that i really do not like: BST is up so we came to work an hour earlier, instead of working from 8pm - 5am its now 7pm - 4am, not much of a big deal to me since i was carpooling with darwin. last week zar & i, along with carr & tess, moved to a new apartment in rizal village, alabang to avoid the summer traffic in laguna. coming from the resort paradise of the philippines, we just had to do it or otherwise take the chance of being late for work every single day or losing hours of good sleep =( this is a good change for me because now i get to sleep for 8 hrs uninterrupted. our room is just so conducive for sleeping. its also great that i get to leave the apartment at 6:30pm & be at the office by 6:45pm, so cool!

now this week is the big change that i am still not prepared for, nor do i know how to deal with...yet. my shift changes from 7pm - 4am (sat/sun or split off) to 3pm - 12am (fixed mon/tues off), quite drastic don't u think? unfortunately our team did not rank good enough for us to get our preferred sked, which is still a big puzzle to us considering that the our numbers were good, so we were stuck with the left over choices. i was upset at first but then my friends were able to provide me good points about this change that is worth considering. one major perk is that i get to sleep at night! yey! it's as if i just stayed up late to watch tv; i can still have a night life, i could still catch freestyle at 19east or bellevue for their 2nd set after my shift ends; and my rest days would actually be in the day as in with sunlight & my family also awake. the only downside it that its on a week day so i don't get to spend much time with them, especially for family occasions which is normally done on weekends =( but the major pain in the butt is...tenen! our team, along with 2 others would be moving from the 4th to the 2nd floor! it's a major pain because our lockers are on the 4th floor, considering that we are only allowed to bring our headsets, pencils & mugs on the floor we would have to come to work earlier than usual for a trek from the ground floor to the 4th to keep our bags amd get our things & then back down again to the 2nd. just thinking about doing it 2x a day already stresses me out. plus we don't have permanent stations there, so that would mean that i would have to sacrifice my wrap time after calls because my handy notepad for copying & pasting my documentation records will not be readily available and for someone who has a big issue about my comfort zone, i hope you could understand if i would be cranky almost everyday. right now the only thing that makes me hold on to this job are my friends, seeing my my tranchemates everyday just to vent out & laugh out loud...but they're taking that away from me as well. good thing gladys would be moving to our team by next week at least i'll have one more tranchemate on the team...

depressing ain't it? well there's nothing much that i could do about it but to abide by the great decision of our really smart management team who always considers their employees welfare

kyle's 7th birthday v2 full

using be my baby as the bg music

addiction

a few days back i read my friend gracie's blog about her addiction to grey's anatomy. have yet to see this series which is also a favorite of my workmates. so i'm putting it in my "to watch list."

i guess everyone of us has an addiction to something, either to material things or habits --- coffeeholics, alcoholics, shopaholics... joshuaholics hehehe

i for one was an asian novela addict. bought vcds from people that i only knew online for P350/set. i'll either send them an email or txt them what my order was and then we'll set a date to meet up & trade. i ended up buying a lot of them so that both my mom and i would have the latest or the best korean series/movie to share with our friends. if having copies of almost 50 vcd + dvds of korean series is not being an addict, i don't know what to call it anymore.

then i became a joshuaholic! after seeing the new freestyle perform live for the first time last nov 2006 at bagaberde, i constantly visited their site and stalked them every single moment that i can and made a fan club/yg for joshua, where i met my lovely party gals gracie, jen, martha & kay. thanks to the yg i ended up getting to know joshua & the rest of the band personally. we're real friends now and nothing could get better than that.

and now tenen! if u'll be browsing through my friendster www.friendster.com/pearlailene and this multiply profile, u can see what my new addiction is. obviously it's wentworth miller!!! as influenced by my dear tranchemate moonlight (with abdul as our pusher) i have gotten a liking to watching american series once more. have been hooked with beverly hills 90210, charmed, dawson's creek, gilmore girls, smallville & roswell in my younger days, so i guess this is just a major comeback of sorts hahaha. since the great innovation of pirated dvds broke out, my viewing addiction was never the same again. now u can buy a whole season of ur favorite series in just 1 dvd and that's for only P40 - 50/dvd at Q! got addicted to one tree hill first, bought all 3 seasons from abdul c/o of moonlight. then moonlight started convincing me to watch prison break. i'm not a big action fan. i don't like the sight of blood and people beating each other. as the title itself suggest the series is about breaking out of a prison, so what would u expect? it's a lot of big guys beating each other to death in prison. there are some scenes there that i really can't watch, especially when the main character michael scofield is getting hurt. but them the storyline is one of a kind. you just can't help but be amazed of the turn of events and the twists in the story that it's brilliant writer has thought of. it's awesome! u just can't guess what the ending of each episode would be. it's a perfect blend of suspense, action, drama, romance & some comedy rolled into one helluva roller coaster ride. the season 1 ender left me breathless cheering the them on to run away from the cops that were chasing them after they escaped and now the season 2 ender left me wondering what's next. yes i have already seen the last episode sweet caroline just right after it was shown in the states. thank goodness for the wonders of technology! now mIRC, teqn33x, smartbro, nero & my ever dependable lg dvd writer are my new best friends. i wonder if there would ever be another series that could top my addiction for prison break, just like no other teenage drama has topped my love for roswell, if there is, i hope that i could buy a dvd of it soon because i am in need of a rehab asap

post script: i stand corrected, the season 2 did not end with sweet caroline, there 3 more that i have not seen. i am currently downloading the real season ender ep22: SONA. just hope i could finish the download today & convert it by tonight so that i could also share it to my friends.