Looking for the Wedding Dress

I'm now searching the net for wedding dresses. I showed my mother the design I've already chosen but she says that the style won't flatter my body type and my height. I trust her with these things so I'm now back to searching for a style that will suit me. I won't be having my wedding dress done by a couturier so it's like I'm all on my own (with the help of my mother and some friends) to look out for the design. We'll have my wedding dress, the mothers' gowns and entourage's gowns sewed by a trusty modista. As for the design and feel of the gown, I'm leaning towards the lacy and romantic styles. No ballskirts for me as I think it would just make me look smaller. I don't want it to seem that the gown is bigger than me. No long trains as well because our church has a short aisle. I would prefer a dramatic back because this is the most viewed part of the dress during the ceremony. As of now, I've saved some designs by Reem Acra, Jenny Packham, Angel Sanchez and Claire Pettibone to name a few. I'm using the gallery of brides.com for a more organized search. Yuck how OC!

Busog Biyernes

Last Friday was just full of food, food and more food. I ate lunch past lunchtime and only ate smoked salmon sandwich. I guess it's a wise decision to eat sandwich for lunch because by 3pm we had merienda of pansit, cake, doughnuts and ice cream. Yummy! It was Ge's birthday and Rita's and Riza's children were there so they bought the desserts.

Dinner time I met up with the flyfish gang and ate at Secret Recipe. Janice and Penny picked me up at the office. By around 830pm we're already at The Fort. Like the usual dinner dates with them, it was filled with good food and good conversation. I ordered their Thai fried rice which is so good. Their lamb is also good. I'm not that excited with their desserts but it's okay. We talked about Jose's health, Janice's new job, Steve's lovelife, Penny's and my wedding preps, Charline and Allan's lovelife as well. We then had coffee at Krispy Kreme's at Bonifacio High Street where Mands followed. He then told us about his budding "relationship". I'm really happy for Steve and Mands. I hope this is their chance to find true love haha. As cheesy as that may sound I really hope this is it for them.

Tagaytay Higlands

Our division had its summer outing last April 5. We went to Tagaytay Highlands. As customary, we can pick any of the venues the SWR committee have for us - Tagaytay Highlands, La Luz and Mandarin Oriental. I have been to La Luz before and I didn't want to go to another hotel outing like last year so I opted for Tagaytay Highlands.

There were only a number of us who joined this venue so they arranged for our tranportation in a coaster. We met up at 6am at the bank and then we're on our way down south. Raffy who was a member of the SWR committee kept us awake during the ride. He was telling us stories and got us to join a game. The mechanics of the game is that we all have to guess the time of the our arrival at the gate of Tagaytay Highlands. It was so traffic at the South Luzon Expressway that most of us guessed the time around 9:15 - 9:45am. I think by 8:30am we are already at the Sta. Rosa tollgate and if you're frequent in Tagaytay you know that it wouldn't take an entire hour to get to Tagaytay proper from the tollgate. So most of us we're hoping it would be traffic along the way and we're happy when some vehicle gets in our way just so our guess will be the right time. Someone even offered to buy everyone corn in the cob so that she can buy time haha. Talk about people not wanting to get to their destination early just so they can win the prize. Anyway, we arrived at the gate at 9:05am and Lorena won the game. In case you're wondering my guess was at 8:45am. She won a $100 wahahaha.

Raffy giving the mechanics

With my seatmate, Melanie

Lorena winning the $100 hehe

Look how foggy it was when we got there

Our first activity for the day was bowling. I was teamed up with Lorena, Gigi, Alona and James.

Our team with Alona's son, Arlo.


And we won! Look at our scores. Yey! I scored 121 which was really great because I haven't played in a while. I was even the 2nd top scorer. :)

After the game, we were supposed to ride the cable car and funicular ride but it was raining so hard that the cable car wasn't operational and they opted to go to the funicular ride after lunch instead. Before eating they gave out the special awards. Our prize for winning the bowling game and my prize for being the 2nd top scorer. I have a confession to make I ate pork when I was there - lechon and grilled pork chop. Gah! I wasn't able to stick to my diet. But that's okay because I had oatmeal that same night hihi. Excuses excuses!

After a hearty meal, we went to the funicular ride.

It was free time for all after that. Some went for a swim while a few like me just chilled out near the pool. And what a coincidence I even saw Joel there. Apparently their division was having their outing there as well.

So where have you been this summer? I hope your summer is more exciting than mine.

We're next?

Was browsing through my photos when I saw these.

They say when you catch the bouquet or garter at a wedding, you're bound to get married next. Well, it wasn't true for us because this was almost three years ago. Within the barkada, Jo and David was married next to EJ and TJ...and there was Osne and Mark. It might also be because the bouquet and garter was technically just handed to us haha!

www.tutors.ph

If you have a kid or nephew/niece or grandchild who needs help studying and he/she has an internet connection then head on to www.tutors.ph.



I'm helping my friend, Heili, promote this. She works in this company, owned by her MBA classmates, and they are tutoring students all over the world.

Gender Bender

My friend Rhoda recently gave birth to her second baby boy. Before she knew it was a boy, she was really excited to know the gender of her baby. She wanted a baby girl so that they'll have one of each gender. After the sonography that revealed the gender of the baby, she underwent another one. She was telling the ultrasound technician that she still doesn't know the gender but in truth she already knows. She just wants to make sure that the baby's really a boy. Well I guess both ultrasound tech graduated in one of the reputable ultrasound schools because they're both right. Of course, she was very happy with their second boy, Quino. Maybe the next one will be a girl.

When I get pregnant I will be very excited too to ask the ultrasound tech to tell me the gender of my baby. Just like my other friend Joy who is now 5 months pregnant and was so thrilled to tell us the their baby's gender. When we saw her a few days ago she showed us an ultrasound photo of her baby. It's a boy for Joy and Mek. Congratulations! We can't wait to see Alfredo Miguel :)

Michael Johns?!?!?!

Seriously??!?!?! I'm so upset he was the one who left tonight. Huhuhu. First off, I wasn't able to watch the performance show because I went to a friend's birthday dinner. But was he really that bad? That he had the lowest vote and has to leave the show so early??? All the while I thought he would be safe. For sure he must have a following already. Well, obviously I thought wrong! Tonight, when I got home my mom immediately told me that Michael Johns was the one who was voted off. She already read it on the internet. I was shocked! I still am! I caught the last few minutes of the show when the judges were saying things to Michael and it was true! OMG! I'm really upset! First Ramiele and now Michael. I heard Kristy had a good performance but when will she go?! I can't believe Michael left before her! Gggrrrrr!!!!

Universal Studios

This morning while listening to the Morning Rush, I heard the good news that Universal Studios will be built here in Manila . I can't wait for this. First, there's Manila Ocean Park and now Universal Studios. Wow! This is really good news. This will generate employment for the Filipinos and hopefully this will attract more tourists to visit the country. I just hope we'll have a more tourist-friendly transport system like the MTR of Hong Kong or MRT of Singapore. Yes we have our own MRT but it's not very tourist-friendly. Even Filipinos who are first time users of the LRT or MRT will be a bit confused on how the system works. There are no directions on how to buy the tickets and no maps that will tell you where you are going. Althought the MRT Line 2-purple line is the most user-friendly with machines that dispenses single-journey tickets and there are maps that show the connecting routes of the three LRT/MRT lines.

Anyways, back to Universal Studios. I haven't been to the US so the things I know about Universal Studios are all from the internet or from stories of people who've been there. I heard from a Singaporean that the construction of the Universal Studios in Singapore is already on-going. I googled about this and found this site. And I quote from the site.. The park is reported to be a "one-of-its-kind theme park in Asia" as Universal Studios has promised that this will be the only park it would have in Southeast Asia for the next 30 years. Now, this is a bit confusing.

Read the entire news of Universal Studios in Manila here. Is the news article simply stating that the developers of Universal Studios in Asia are building a theme park here in the Philippines and not necessarily Universal Studios?

Malubay says Bye-Bye

I know this is kind of a delayed reaction. But anyway, here are my thoughts on Ramiele's elimination from American Idol. First of all, I think she hasn't given any amazing performance in all the top 12 episodes she's been in - from the two Beatles' weeks, and then the week they did a song from the year they were born and then from Dolly Parton's collection. The girl dosn't know how to choose a song. Last week was a good song choice for her but she didn't sing it well enough (saying that she's sick). Well, I didn't think she would go this early thinking that the Filipino-Americans are all behind her. And we know how crazy Filipinos are about texting and singing. Plus she really is a much better singer than Jasmine Trias. Too bad the Filipno-Americans didn't vote for her as much as they voted for Jasmine. Although, Jasmine probably had the vote of the whole of Hawaii and not just the Filipino voters. Okay, these are just my opinions. I'm not saying that Ramiele didn't have American fans but since from the start they were comparing her to Jasmine, I'm just assuming that she had a solid vote from the Fil-Ams as well. Anyway, Ramiele's elimination was really emotional. I was crying too when she sang her last song. Although, I felt a little relieved because atleast now I didn't have to worry about her every week if she's going to get booted out or not (haha affected!). And now I can concentrate on Michael Johns haha. Two weeks running baby! Oh and can I just say that that Kristy Lee is really lucky! She should have been the first one out of there and she knows it!

Drive Me Crazy

I don’t drive anymore because I don’t have a car. But two years ago, I was able to drive my father’s car. I didn’t have the courage to drive it before we renewed the insurance coverage for it. It was actually a good thing that it was covered because the first time I drove it on my own (I usually drive with my brother with me so he can guide me) I bumped the car and worst I was about to park it already. Imagine that! I was able to drive it from our house, ply a major highway and get to our destination but when I was about to park I bumped it with another car that was parked there. Gah!

I’m hoping to buy a car of my own maybe after a year or two. And of course I have to buy insurance for it as well. I can search for online car insurance. I don’t need to leave the comforts of my home or call several insurance companies to get a quote. I just need my computer and an online connection. This site is really helpful because they have several articles regarding cars like the 10 easiest cars to get insured or the 10 most stolen cars. Aside from car insurance they can also quote home insurance, life insurance, health insurance and renter’s insurance. But of course the site specializes in car insurance. They have a thorough guide that gives all the information to help you to get lower premiums for your car insurance. The site is mainly for United States based residents and they give in depth information for every state in the US. Now if you still have questions that are not answered in their site, you can simply fill out their form to ask them your question. They guarantee that an insurance expert will answer your query within 24 hours. They also quote the lowest insurance rates and all of their quotes are for free. You can compare them and then get insured. They need to ask you a few questions regarding your car or your driving skills but you need not worry because all of these information are kept confidential.

Do You Have a Credit Card?

Almost everyone have credit cards. I have two credit cards myself. But even up to now, I still get calls from other credit card companies to avail of their services. I am fully satisfied with the ones I have but if you haven’t gotten any or are contemplating on getting one then it's time to learn about your choices. There is a site where they list some features of the credit cards and from there you can choose which features you want. These features include low interest, instant approval, bad credit, rewards, cash back, student, business, balance transfer, hotel/airline and prepaid credit cards. After choosing on the features that you want for your card, you can then head on to the list of their credit card issuers. They have a summary list of the credit cards for each specific feature. The summary includes the features of the card, intro and regular APR, annual fee and reward type. Just click on the credit card and you’ll be lead to a thorough review. The summary also includes the rate that they give the credit card like 3 out of 5 or 5 out of 5. So if you get impatient reading all of them then you can just read the full reviews of those with high rates. Now, if you have already made up your mind on what to get, then applying for the credit card is one click away.

After applying or even before, read on their tips on how to use your credit card wisely. Even if the website is for credit card application, they actually tell you not to spend more than you can afford and to use your credit card responsibly.