Hell and Heaven

...or their equivalent in hardware stores.

As I’ve blogged previously, we’ve been preparing to ready our condo for Joema’s transfer. Since we're in a hurry, one early evening when I got home, my parents and I went to the nearby Handyman in Robinsons Metroeast. We were there before 8pm, their store closes at 9pm. I told my parents we can just buy the bathroom fixtures there because on our previous visit I already saw some items that I liked. There was no one to assist us in the aisle for the bathroom mirrors and vanity shelves. We had to ask someone (who was chatting with his co-worker) to help us and show us if they still have stocks for the mirror I liked. Okay, he was able to help us there but he kept on telling us to get the more expensive one blah blah blah. I don’t like people telling me to buy the more expensive things especially if they can’t justify why the expensive one is better than the cheaper one. And that guy CAN NOT give us a proper explanation. As for the vanity shelf, he told us that it’s better to buy the oblong one because the mirror we’re buying is oblong too. What the?!?! Why can’t he let us choose no! He asked a girl to help us instead for the vanity shelf. The girl doesn’t even want to show us the other shelves available. And then when we were asking her about shower curtain rods she just gave us a blank stare and then proceeded to go to the other aisle. We were left there to fend for our ourselves. We asked an attendant who happened to pass by but he didn't help us either. OMG! So even if they already gave us a cart with the mirror and the shelf I told my parents to just leave it there and I don’t want to buy anymore! Haller! Their customer service sucks! In the two times I’ve been there, their service attendants are always chatting with each other. You have to pry them away from each other to get some help. That is, if they can really help you. Grrr!!!

Now on the other hand, Ace Hardware in SM Megamall (and other branches I believe) is heaven. You can ask anything and they can answer you. Joema and I went there to buy the bathroom fixures, our light fixtures, even the exhaust fan that needs to be installed in our bathroom. See the architect from the condo told us what we need to buy for the installation. When we went to Ace, we didn’t know that there were exhaust fans for ceiling and wall installations – and they are two different things. Joema and I were insisting that we should buy the one for the wall because that has the flaps at the back (we remember distinctly that the architect told us to buy the ones with the flaps). But the very good attendant at Ace told us to buy the one for the ceiling and explained to us why. So helpful and so knowledgeable on what he’s doing! I can almost hear the angels singing hahaha!

Showing us the different types of exhaust fan. That's an aluminum flexiduct right there - the silver cylindrical thingy

When we went to buy our lights, the guy there was extremely helpful as well. He had to assemble four light fixtures but we didn’t hear any complaint from him. This is why when we went to Antipolo city hall to apply for our marriage license, Joema was joking that there should be someone from Ace hardware there to answer our questions hehehe.

You light up my life :)

Eagerly assembling the light fixture

So finally when we had to buy the vanity mirror and shelf for our bathroom. The attendant at Ace showed us the different selections that they have. And when we told him the size that we needed he showed what we can buy. And then he showed us the different designs we can choose from. For the vanity shelf, he showed us the different colors and then suggested the colors of the holders as well. For the shampoo and soap holder, we were choosing the cheaper ones and the attendant there just gave us what we needed. He didn’t insist on us buying the stainless ones that are really expensive. In the end even if we paid a lot for those things we bought, we were really excited to make the condo look like our home. My family and I even went back to Ace the following weekend to buy other things that we forgot to buy.

Singapore Gig

I've been getting some hits from people based in Singapore. I suppose there are other people from SG aside from Steph who gets to visit my blog so I'm hoping this will help our wedding photographer promote their SG gig this coming August. Go go go book now! They still have available slots :)

While Waiting

Dahil sa tagal naming nag-intay para magsimula ang DSWD family planning seminar kung ano-ano na napag-usapan namin ni Joema

- Habang nakaupo ako sa sasakyan ng mga pulis (?) sa harap ng POSD (Public Order and Safety Dept.) building; yung sasakyan nila yung ang upuan sa likod na parang jeepney pero instead na harapan magkatalikuran
Joema: Sumama ka na lang kaya sa kanila mag-ronda
Cris: Nyek! May driver na pala baka nga masama 'ko

Pagbalik ng sasakyan after a few minutes (ang dami nilang dalang bilao ng gulay – siguro ni-ransack nila yung mga vendor sa may palengke)

Joema: Tingnan mo dapat sumama ka na lang sa kanila e. Andito pa rin naman ako pagbalik nila dahil hindi pa rin nagsisimula yung seminar.
Cris: Tado!

- Habang nakatayo at pinapanood ang mga lespu na nasa sasakyan ulit handa ng rumonda for the second time pero ngayon may dala silang mga baril

Cris: Ano kaya habang nag-iintay tayo biglang may magwala tapos babarilin nila…magkakagulo
Joema: Ako na lang kaya ang magwala dahil hindi pa rin nagsisimula ang seminar
Cris: Sige kunyari magwawala ka tapos i-hohostage mo ko...Okay go!

Cris: Ako na lang kaya ang manghostage sayo (akmang sasakalin si Joema sa leeg taipong manghohostage)
Joema: Di mo nga abot yung leeg ko e
Cris: E di luluhod ka para abot ko…halatang acting na acting lang talaga.
Joema: Tapos sisigaw ka “pag hindi nyo pa sinimulan ang seminar..papatayin ko ‘to”…ay hindi, pag tinanong nila kung anong mga demands mo sasabihin mo “una: maglabas kayo ng upuan dito para nakaupo kami habang nag-iintay magsimula ang seminar, pangalawa: simulan nyo na yung family planning seminar….”


Di ko na maalala kung ano yung pangatlo dahil umiiyak na ko nyan kakakatawa!

- Habang nakaupo sa bench sa labas pa rin ng POSD building

Joema: Ang swerte naman nila Rey noh (fiancé ni Pam na doctor) hindi na nila kailangan mag-seminar
Cris: Oo nga e
Joema: Yun kayang mga dentista excempted na rin sa seminar?
Cris: Hahaha kaw minamaliit mo mga denstista ha
Joema: Hindi nga…kasi sasabihin nila doctor din sila
Cris: Parang si Ross..I’m Ross Geller, Dr. Ross Geller
Joema: Tapos si Rachel “Ross, that actually means something here”

Finally, after namin mag-intay ng isang oras...dumating din ang bruhang magpapa-seminar hehe

Rural Bank of Cainta sa bayan ng Antipolo

You Noticed It

Yes! My new template. Did you? Did you notice it? hehe I just wanted to use our wedding colors that's all. At first, all I really wanted was to use our prenup pic as header. The last template I have left aligns the picture and I was starting to get pissed because I couldn't figure out how to center it. So I just changed the template and then decided to change the colors as well. :)

Weekend Celebrations

The weekend is just around the corner. It seemed like this week just whizzed by. Anyhow, before I go through this coming weekend let me share with you what I did last weekend:

Saturday

We had our surprise baby shower for Joy. It was just us, Tric and Heili, and EJ and TJ, and their kids. 'Twas a simple celebration and we were successful in making it a surprise for Joy. Everything was short-noticed so I guess that's what kept it a surprise. If we had planned for it for weeks, someone might have spilled the beans to her hehe. We bought drop-ins for Joy, which I discovered from Rhoda. It was in her wishlist last Christmas party and I was curious on how to use it. I hope Joy gets to use it for Yohann Alfredo Miguel or was it Alredo Yohann Miguel. I'm not really sure about the succession of the names (I'm not even sure with the spelling of Yohann) but that Miguel is the third name and we'll nickname him Migs (even with Joy's protests haha!). And that Joy and Mek didn't agree with the other first name so they threw both names in, thus three names for their baby. Whew!

We saw all of them the last time during Patrick's birthday last April (yikes! 3 months!). And what better way (actually, there's no other way) to spend time by playing poker. Joema and I both lost. And we were both hoping that our winnings will help us fund for our wedding invites haha! Oh, speaking of invites, EJ showed me the prototype of our invitation. I loved it! I love the pattern she did for our invite. I'm planning to use it as the unifiying theme for all the wedding stationaries - invitation, misalettes, menu, maybe even placecards. I never knew I'll be this excited about wedding invitations. I just hope I'll still be this excited once I found out how much it will cost us hehe.

Sunday

Early morning we had breakfast at Chowking. Joema slept at our house the night before because we're going to one of our Ninongs that morning. After breakfast, we went to Tita Ening and Tito Rudy's house. We wanted to personally go there to ask Tito Rudy to be our Ninong. So we now have a complete list of our principal sponsors. Tito Rudy is one of those funny guys. He was telling us that he was already willing to sell his cellphone, a Nokia 3310, for P300 with free P500 load but still no one will buy it from him haha!

After lunch, we went home and then Joema had to leave already. He was supposed to come with me to Quino's baptism but he had to be up early for his work the following day.

I didn't really go to Quino's baptism at the church but we were all supposed to go to the reception which was supposed to be at 6pm. I say "supposed to" because I was already at the restaurant at 6pm but Rhoda's family wasn't there yet. I just left and roamed around the mall a bit to while away the time. At around 630pm, some people started arriving so I went back to the restaurant. But the food was not served until around 830pm. Hay! They were waiting for some relatives and didn't want to start without them. Good thing the food was really good that we forgot all about the waiting haha.

Missing Them

A simple email from Jose containing these started the ball rolling.

I don't know why flickr cuts the whole picture. But it's supposed to be a calendar.

They gave me the calendar when I left Philam Life. This is the original one.

Credit: Chou-tuay @ F4 Bo & Zai Zhou Club Thailand, http://www.f4bo-thailand.com, http://www.zaizhouclub.net, and http://www.f4forever.pantipmember.com

Aren’t they sweet? They know how much I love Zaizai then, they were willing to pose like him. I’m still keeping the calendar they gave me.

We suddenly realized we missed each others banters and witty remarks so we agreed to have dinner that same night. Too bad it was just the usual fellows plus a very “relaxed” Ms. Rina V. All the other peeps had commitments to attend to or had to be home with their families. Anyway, we had dinner at Solihiya in Greenbelt 5. We ordered their binagoongang pork belly, kangkong con lechon kawali, salt and garlic shrimp and yangchow fried rice. Everything was delicious. And surprisingly, the prices were not that expensive, they were all reasonable. And then we had desserts at Max Brenner courtesy of Jose. He just felt like celebrating. J He ordered the fondue and cheesecake for all of us to share. Then for our drinks Janice and I shared a Colima, it’s a milk chocolate drink with vodka. We talked about the people who didn’t join us (hehe), GSIS providing car insurance policies (most of them are actuaries after all), the Lucida DS scandal, Jose’s car accident, Mands’ and his drinking problem (LOL I can’t believe, he’s finally drinking alcohol!), and more yada yada yada.

I miss those days when we had outings/gimiks every month – sort of our bonding sessions. Everyone is required to join. It was one of the things Candy implemented in our little unit but everyone in the department was welcome to join. Well, some of us still go out atleast once a month – Janice, Mands, Jose, Steve, Charline and Penny – but we also miss the rest of them.

Manic Monday 126

What's your favorite beach in the world?

I’ve never been to that many beaches around the world. Outside the Philppines, I’ve only been to Manukan Island in Kota Kinabalu and Sentosa Island in Singapore (was that a beach where they have the dolphin show?). Anyway, the beaches here in the Philippines are way better. We have white, powdery sands on our beaches and crystal clear waters. My top three beaches in the Philippines:

Snake Island, Honda Bay, Palawan


White Beach, Camiguin Island



Boracay Island, Aklan




What's the next country you want to visit?

The next country I’m visiting is Thailand.


What one thing are you craving today?


I’m craving for chocolate cake. Yum!


Manic Monday Meme

Breathe In, Breathe Out

I'm stressing out right now because Joema wants to move in ASAP to the condo because of his fucking schedule. Argh! And we can't just transfer because we have to settle some dues for Meralco and the water meter, etc. Plus we haven't installed lighting fixtures yet. We have to issue post-dated checks for the monthly dues and I've just ordered a fresh checkbook because the one I have now has only 8 leaves so that's not enough, obviously!

I hate it when things happen that are unexpected and I hate it when I expect things to happen but they don't!!!!

To keep my mind at ease (for a few seconds), let me list down the things (more things!) we need to accomplish for the church requirements.

Marriage License
a. certificate of no marriage (b&g)
b. birth certificate (b&g)
c. DSWD family planning seminar certificate
d. 1 x 1 pic (b & g)

We only need to go to city hall to attend the seminar and file for the license. If only Joema's day off will fall on either a Tuesday or a Thursday (that's when the family planning seminar is held)

Pre-Cana Seminar
a. Christian doctrine seminar - every Saturday (8am-12nn)
b. Parenthood seminar - every 4th Saturday of the month (8:30am - 12nn)

We have to attend the seminars at EDSA Shrine. If only I could foresee Joema's schedule.

Do they really have to give out schedules the day before the new schedule for the week starts?!?!?! Don't they know they're people have fucking social lives!?!?!?!

Sorry for the foul language but not sorry enought to not say those things hehe.

Life is About Creating New Memories

I splurged for our Boracay trip.

I splurged for the pink tulips.

But it was all worth it.

I was still investing. But of a different kind.

I was investing on memories.

I now believe that life is about creating memories.

When we’ll be both happy ninety years olds, still holding hands in the sunset of our lives, we’ll look back at our tenth wedding anniversary. And we’ll cherish the fantastic moment of getting married all over again on the beach of Boracay, surrounded by the special people we love.

And we’ll say, as we do now, “It was all worth it.”

More of Bo Sanchez' blog here.

Awww such a lovely lovely thing to do. Maybe we can do that too on our 10th wedding anniversary. But before that..our wedding first hehe. I can't wait to create beautiful memories with my soon-to-be husband.

Manic Monday 125

What do you do when you are feeling very sad or depressed?

I've blogged about this before.

Who was your first crush?

My grade 1 classmate. His name is Ansel or was it Owen. I'm totally forgetting who's my first crush back then. But it's either of the two boys.

If given a chance to skip work for a day (without repercussions), how would you spend the entire day?

I will probably just sleep the whole day. Or these days, I'll probably do something related to wedding preparations. So many things to do, so many documents that need to be filed. Whew!

Manic Monday Meme

Wedding Rings

Joema and I ordered our wedding rings already. Janice recommended Denden as they also got their wedding rings from her. She didn’t have a shop so we went to her house instead. When we met her last weekend, she showed us some samples she has with her – plain white gold bands, plain yellow gold bands, some two-toned bands, some in platinum, some in gold. She asked us if there’s a style that we wanted but we didn’t really give much thought to what we like our wedding bands to look like as we both wanted simple ones. As for me I was leaning towards the two-toned bands because my engagement ring is yellow gold and I like white gold as well. I fell in love with the eternity ring she showed me but the price of that is over our budget so she told me we can just have stones at the top of the ring instead of all around it. Joema on the other hand had his eye on a white gold ring with a design. Denden showed him other styles on his ring size and from there he chose the one he liked. I wanted something else for him, but he will be the one wearing the ring so might as well let him pick his own. Since his wedding ring will be white gold, I didn’t want to get a yellow gold wedding ring. I wanted us to have the same wedding ring actually but I really liked the idea of having some stones on mine. Denden suggested two options: paptubog my engagement ring in white gold or have my ring two-toned like the previous samples she showed us. But Joema’s ring will only be white gold and I really wanted white gold as well from the very beginning so we opted to have my engagement ring done in white gold. She advised me na every two years dapat ipatubog para magstay na white gold, although kailangan naman daw talaga ipatubog ang jewelry every now and then para laging mukhang bago. So friends, if you see me donning a white gold engagement ring instead of a yellow gold one, it’s the same ring. I’m just maarte like that.

Denden’s lola was there while we were choosing our rings. She was so talkative and funny. She told us stories while Denden was away getting some rings. Lola asked us where we graduated, and when we told her we’re both from UP she was very proud – as if we were her apos. She said she was from UP too from batch 1939 (I think) and she was the same batch as Marcos – he’s from Law while she’s BSBA. And then she told us the story when he met Marcos after they have graduated and that Marcos remembers her and told her “I remember you from UP but you’re body was like Coca-Cola bottle back then” heehee. She also had her opinions about Imelda. She was also very proud of her own daughter who graduated from UP as well and I think a son-in-law. Her husband was also from UP, and that he died at an early age of 58. Lola on the other hand is already 92 years old. But she doesn’t look one. She’s very sharp and was really fun to talk to. At the middle of her stories she would say “Oh! I talk so much” but she’ll continue on telling her stories. Such a character. I hope when I grow old and have my own apos I will be like her.

NYAH!

Back with the series of our prenup pics.
I don't even remember what we were laughing about. Probably because the dog stinks so bad. Buti na lang he's so cute!

Photography: Jayson Arquiza of Redefine Weddings
*photo compressed for easier loading

At Home with Brad and Ange

Angelina Jolie is about to give birth to their twins. And news is that paparazzis won't be able to see them from outside the hospital because apparently the windows of the hospital was treated with some kind of material.

So what do they really do with their adoped children? Found out about these youtube videos about Brad and Angelina from Chuvaness. The story is that Brad is under Angelina's spell and he's really dumb that's why they stay together. And their adopted children are working for Angelina to make wigs that will somehow look like Jennifer Aniston's hair LOL. Watch it!

I See You

I think I’m due for an eye check-up. My vision with my current eyeglasses is not that clear anymore. People’s faces are starting to look blurry. I hate to go to the eye doctor again but I get irritated when I don’t see people’s faces when they are far from me or it takes me so long to recognize them when I’m walking towards them. If I could only afford to have LASIK surgery but for now I’m settling for new eyeglasses. I usually buy new ones in time for a change in the grade of my lenses. I found these incredible stylish new frames from Zenni. I’m thinking of getting a new plastic frame like this.



The site has a wide array of eyeglasses and they are cheap. You can get from Zenni Optical $ 8 Rx Eyeglasses. They are also starting to create a buzz because early this year Zenni Optical was on FOX news!

DUH!

I was walking down the hall when I saw three guys looking lost (must be applicants)

Guy 1: Ma'am san po ang washroom?
Me: Panlalaki?

I know! WTF???!?!?!? right? I must have been confused with his question because I saw them coming from the direction of the women's bathroom. And for a while there I had to think where the men's room was located since I don't really go there. Duh?!?!? LOL! He must have thought "Stupid woman! Why would I ask for the women's washroom" AHAHAHAHA