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Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Aaargh!!!

The Blue Eagles won today's game 74 - 68. That means Ateneo moves on to battle FEU for the UAAP Men's Basketball championship.

Ahem, how many archers would rather have the tamaraws win that one, I wonder?

Saturday, September 27, 2003

Let me say it again: ANIMO LA SALLE!!!!!

With a lot of rookies this year, the DLSU Men's basketball team still managed to get 4th place in the UAAP elimination round. When that happened, I was already proud of the team. But guess what, they may actually have a chance to win the championship!

The game last Thursday night was charged with action. After all - it was Ateneo vs. La Salle, traditional rivals. The Green Archers won over the Blue Eagles! There was a fight though and at least one player from both teams were kicked out of the game. Wish I had watched that one!

Here's the link to the UAAP site:
Archers stay alive, force sudden death

And an update on who gets kicked out for participating in the fracass that happened:
Blue Eagles’ title bid in peril


If the Green Archers don't get the championship, I'd still be chanting Animo La Salle ... after all, DLSU forced a winner-take-all match.

And to those who think that the Archers don't have much brains, read this:

DLSU retains chess crown

Sam resurrected

Sam called today. I had been wondering why I hadn't heard from her for two weekends. I just found out she spent a week touring Singapore, Malaysia and another Southeast Asian country with her mom. She just got back yesterday I think.

She wanted to pass by the house to give me pasalubong (probably souvenirs). I told her not to because the house is a mess and the carpenter is doing some repairs in my room. Actually, I don't want her to know the exact location of this house. When I still lived in Manila, she knew exactly where the house was and she had the habit of popping in uninvited or without warning. Sometimes I'd come back from work only to find her there at the living room chatting with Sally.

I told her I'd meet her next week. She sounded disappointed. I think she wanted a long talk and next week her schedule's full.

I feel guilty but I still don't want her to know where this house is.

Other updates:

  1. The wall fan has been installed.

  2. The sliding door's fixed.

  3. The termites will be taken cared of Monday. At the meantime - they munch away at whatever wood or paper they could find.

Friday, September 26, 2003

Termites in the morning

As I opened the box containing the wall fan I bought months ago with the intention of asking Eddie to install it in my room, I found that termites have taken up lodging at the bottom of the box. Before I left the house, Eddie's things-to-do list in my room became three: 1) get rid of the termites, 2) fix the sliding door so it would actually slide, and 3) install the wall fan. He didn't show up for work today though.

Thursday, September 25, 2003

Spotlight on Kris Aquino

Traffic was heavy last night. On the bus, I saw GMA7 Frontpage's Mel Tiangco interviewing Joey Marquez. Joey's making the usual denials and I fell asleep. Found out this morning that at the same time Joey was talking, ABS-CBN TV Patrol's Korina Sanchez was interviewing Kris Aquino. It's the topic on everybody's lips this morning at the office. We even talked about it during the staff meeting.

The Kris Aquino interview was replayed at 10:30 a.m. and I think more than half of the television sets were tuned in to ABS-CBN. A TV set in the dealing room was switched to that channel, and even our brokers at Prebon were watching the same show.

Whereas last night the interview was uninterrupted, today's replay had too many commercials that I lost interest watching. I announced that I'd rather read the transcript than endure the marathon of advertisements. Vikki sent me the transcript downloaded from the ABS-CBN website. Haven't read it yet - there are nine (9) pages.

I do know two things - Kris said that during their relationship, Joey had beaten her and he also gave her a sexually transmitted disease which was treated at St. Luke's Hospital this March.

Boss Boy Favis even has a comment - he's not siding with Joey Marquez because he's a man, but he thinks that Kris Aquino has a personality that can provoke a man to be angry.

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Last night I bought a DVD copy of the Audrey Hepburn movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Watched it for the first time and I liked it. Now the song "Moon River" keeps replaying in my head.

While I was enjoying the movie, the rest of nation it seems was hooked on TV watching the news. Last night, Kris Aquino went to the police to report that her live-in partner Joey Marquez poked a gun at her while they were fighting.

This piece of news is getting more coverage than the Mike Arroyo/Jose Pidal case.

I just had a thought. The reason that Kris Aquino is getting all this media mileage is because she's a notorious prodigal daughter of former president Corazon Aquino. I could finally grasp at why the British population has this weird preoccupation with poking into the private lives of the royal family, and why any person with a drop of Kennedy blood in them can get into the American tabloids just by showing up on the street.

Hans' Operation

Text Messages from Rachel Yapchiongco:


Sent: 23-Sept-2003, 12:04:06
Finish n operation ni hans. He's awake & seems happy. Thank u 4 all ur prayers.

Sent: 24-Sept-2003, 06:32:49
Gud am. Tapos na operation ni hans. 2 hours lng. Mabilis naman recovery nya.
D2 kmi Pgh, hopefuly makauwi n kmi 2day. Tnx 4 all ur prayers.


Later, I asked her if they were still in PGH:
Sent: 24-Sept-2003, 07:25:22
Yup, still hir in mla, PGH. D2 kasi gud pedia surgeon recomended by hans'
pedia. Hopefuly makauwi n kmi 2day pero di p sure.


I said if they were still in the hospital after office hours I'll visit.
Sent: 24-Sept-2003, 07:36:26
Ok, i'l text u pag tuloy or not discharge ni hans 2day.

Sent: 24-Sept-2003, 13:33:34
Hi. Discharge na si hans. Settle lng namin yng bill tapos uwi na kmi. Nxt
tym nalang tayo kita.


Glad that the surgery was successful. That takes care of one of Hans' problems. His G6PD deficiency will be for life though. If Hans got inguinal hernia from his father Jules' genes, he got G6PD deficiency from Rachel's genes. It's a defect in the blood cells. Hans has to avoid a lot of food and medicines to avoid complications. Jon said if Rach isn't careful, Hans' growth may be stunted.

Monday, September 22, 2003

One of those trivial things you may not want to know

WARNING: This may be considered material that needs Parental Guidance.








Visited a forum and a guy posted this link:

A Woman's Guide on How to Pee Standing Up.

Comments:
1. Educational
2. Are there that many women out there who want to do this?

Saturday, September 20, 2003

Animo La Salle!

Woke past 8am. As much as I wanted to plop in front of my computer and connect to the internet, I had to force myself to dress up and go to La Salle Taft. I've decided to still be on leave this term and this week is the last week for filing of residency. I know I enrolled online last month, but I keep forgetting to go to La Salle to pay the fee!

When I got there, lots of students have also decided to wait for the last few days before filing for residency. Ergo, there was line. As I waited for the registrar people to call my name, I was amused to see lots of people wearing t-shirs in shades of green. Though no uniform is required, it seems that many LaSallians like wearing the school color... for today anyway.

As I left, I bumped into Jun Razal... I heard he'd gone back to finish his MBA and estimated that he'd finish it this year. He was surprised to find out I am on LOA, then he asked me where to go first to file for residency as well. My turn to be surprised. He told me he only had to make revisions on his paper - and still he wants to go on leave? Maybe, he needs more time to finish his paper.

I hate doing papers. That's why I went on leave last term and this term - I have no time to do them. No idea when I'd feel up to doing that chore and go back to school. Frankly, I want to shift from MBA to M.S. Computational Finance. No thesis required and I believe I'll learn more about my line of work - Treasury trading! Lots of math though. Argh!

I had hoped to use La Salle's Bloomberg terminal to look up money market data I failed to check Friday because my mind wasn't on work as early as 4:30pm. Was disappointed to find out the terminal's at the RCBC campus where the MS Computational Finance subjects are offered. Great, another reason to want to shift to MSCF.

Rather than go to the RCBC campus, I hopped onto a bus headed for SM South Mall. I wanted to watch a movie and the theater tickets there are cheaper. No good movie was showing so I ate then ended up browsing in computer shops with a mind to buy a scanner.

I wanted one that could scan film and found out few shops are selling that type. Those that do only offer Canon, HP and Epson. All 3 are expensive. Found one selling Genius, but I doubt if it was good. I was looking for Microtek since I've noticed that the photo shops that offer scanning use that brand. It's cheaper than Canon, Epson or HP, but should be good enough to be used by photo shops. Found one shop selling Microtek. A gay guy was manning the place.

Now, based on my experience when I bought my PC, guys in computer shops usually assume that women are clueless regarding computers. When Jon and I were canvassing, the salesmen were talking to him and not me. I was annoyed and amused - annoyed that they think I wouldn't know about computers, and amused at the fact that those days, I knew more about computers than Jon did.

This guy part of the person in question made the "clueless" assumption, the gay part of him wasn't courteous enough to me. He doesn't seem to like spending time explaining to me what additional parts I would need to buy to be able to use the Microtek scanner to scan film. I looked at the box and noticed that although he wanted to sell the 3780 model to me, the 4800 model was ready to scan film without me having to buy accessories. I wanted him to confirm that but he said that the 4800 was more expensive at PHP4,800. That did it! Before i walked into his shop I was considering buying the Epson fax/printer/scanner for less than PHP6,000. He thinks I couldn't spend more than PHP3,000. And if you're asking why I decided not to buy the 3-in-1 Epson contraption from the other store - it's because it couldn't scan film and I have a belief that any device that has many functions lumped into it easily breaks down. Worse, once they break down, they're expensive to repair.

I left South Mall and rode a jeepney to Alabang Town Center. Although South Mall is always crowded, the floor where the computer shops usually aren't. Computer shopping isn't something people do everyday, that's why. In Festival Mall however, the computer shops aren't that segregated from other shops. With Festival Mall second only to SM South Mall in pedestrian traffic, I decided to go to Town Center. It isn't as crowded since the theaters, specialty shops and restaurants there are expensive. I also think some people are intimidated by the folk that frequent the place - being close to Ayala Alabang Village, half the crowd in Town Center belong to the upper middle class and even higher. I have discovered though when I was canvassing for PC that computer shops there offer prices comparable to those in South Mall and Festival.

When I got to Town Center, I headed towards Power Books first. I bought three books. One was a translation of the pseudegraphical Book of Enoch, another was about the Ivatan Laji, and the third was about the Ibalong (Bicol Folk Epic). I collect books on Philippine mythology and the pseudegraphical books that were taken out from the bible during the I-can't-remember council by the church heads of old - as in centuries ago.

When I got out of Power Books, I browsed some Video shops. I was hoping that at least one would still have in stock the 4-disc DVD special edition of the Fellowship of the Ring. I requested Kuya Willy to buy me that but he bought me the widescreen 2-disc set instead. During the time I was waiting for Kuya Willy's gift to arrive, Jon saw one last set of the 4-disc set and asked me if I wanted to buy it. I didn't. Now I wish I had.

When I was through browsing the Video stores, I headed towards the computer shops. Surprise! The area was brimming with teenagers. The Cheering Competition - High School level was today and it had just started when I got there. The Red Ravens performed first and I wondered what school it was. I suspected it was St. Benedict College and later found out I guessed right. I found it stupid that they call themselves red ravens. Ravens are black in the first place. I figured they chose the raven because the bird is associated with St. Benedict. I'm Scholastican so I know the history of that saint. Red on the other hand is the school color of St. Benedict College. I liked it better when their school was called Benedictine Abbey. With most of the school's students living in the Alabang area, many of them came to support their team - and you could identify them because of their red blouses or t-shirts.

I didn't stay to watch the ravens and proceded to visit the computer shops. Most offered Canon, Epson and HP. Delighted that all salespeople were courteous. Not everyone knew what they were selling though. Once, I asked what technology was used in a certain scanner - CCS or CIS. The guy had no idea what I was talking about. I left their shop. I finally found a store selling Microtek. Unfortunately, they ran out of the 4800 series. I was told the replacement stock would be delivered next week. I said I will return. I liked the salesperson - he seemed to know what he's selling and he's helpful.

When I got out, San Agustin had finished performing and St. Scho was next. Being from the school, I stayed to watch. I had to chuckle at recognizing some of the cheers. After more than 10 years, the chinggawa chant is still alive. That chant was created when I was in High School or maybe 6th grade. Whenever that was, we won the GALS cheering competition that year. Approved of the loud voices of the cheering squad. I remember when I was the one learning those cheers, we had to be told that it wasn't enough that the voice is loud, it has to be deep to have impact. The other schools don't seem to know what we know - you can't hardly make out their chants even if they had boys in their cheering squads. I can't say I approve 100% with the performance of St. Scho's current cheerdancers - they need more practice climbing on shoulders and backs. Their formations didn't hold and although they had air flips, they weren't synchronized.

Araullo High was next. They would've done okay, but they put in too many arm movements which made their routine hard to synchronize.

Manuel L. Quezon University (MLQU) followed. They were good! I thought they had a good chance of winning. Their formations held longer than the previous schools' - and that meant they really put in a lot of practice.

La Salle Zobel was last. Like St. Benedict College, most of La Salle Zobel's students also live in the Alabang area. The audience was mostly either from La Salle or St. Benedict, and are therefore either wearing green or red. La Salle was as good as MLQU. They just outdid MLQU by performing more air flips and the fact that their formations held while they "moved". I meant that girls managed to stay standing on guys' arms while the guys moved around the place.

While we waited for the tabulation of scores, prizes were given to one of St. Scho's cheerdancers for managing a good back flip. All 6 schools were asked to send a cheerdancer each to perform a "split". La Salle's contestant was charming but didn't do a good show so she got third place. St. Scho's bet was graceful and got 2nd place. First place was the girl from St. Benedict who managed to combine gusto and technique.

Finally, the winners for the cheering competition were announced: Third place was St. Benedict, Second place was MLQU, Champion was La Salle.

I realized it was almost 7pm so I passed by Cafe Nescafe to buy 2 orange poppy seed cup cakes and a frozen belgian orange coffee. I ate one cupcake as I sipped the frozen coffee and read a book I bought, the other cupcake I brought home.

Passed by National Book Store but didn't see a book I wanted to buy. Noted that the store was selling costumes and eerie toys for Halloween, candles for All Saints Day, and decorations for Christmas. Yup, the "ber" months are here. Decided to buy some candles.

I think I got home around 10pm. Jon's still sleeping on the living room sofa because his room smells strongly of fresh paint. Ginger the cat has developed the habit of sleeping at his feet. She's going to ruin his blanket with her claws.

Midnight! The poppy seed cake will make a good snack. Ta ta!

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Rhoda's Birthday

Rhoda's Birthday today. She got a bouquet of peach roses from a friend (Enoe), a vase of 24 peach roses from her husband Mon, and a bouquet of a variety of flowers from Vina et al (et al).

Rhoda ordered a Jollibee breakfast meal for everyone in the dealing room. She also bought 2 bags of pan de sal, a jar of peanut butter, and some cheese. Malu gave her a box of pichi-pichi which Rhoda shared with everyone. With all that food, a lot of us ate pan de sal and pichi-pichi for breakfast then ate the Jollibee meal for lunch.

Saturday, September 13, 2003

Hans and Congenital Hernia

Text message 16:36:45, 11-Sept-2003:
Hi. I watched d news earlier & saw d segment abt those fil siamese twins (joined head) hu flew 2 NY 4 operatn. I realized lucky p rin si Hans. I havn't told u yet but hans has congenital hernia. I feel stressed worrying abt his hernia. He's so young 4 an operation. Kng pwede, aakuin ko nalang lahat ng pain nya. We'r going 2 consult pediatric surgeon 2 knw wats best 4 hans. We wud realy apreciate ur prayers. Tnx.

-Rach Yapchiongco


I asked her what type of hernia it is:

Text message 09:44:08, 13-Sept-2003:
I dnt knw wat type. Yng bukol wala p sa balls. Dr said not 2 worry b/c its simple surgery. But being a mom, cant help but b affected. Baka nxt fri operation. I'l let u knw. Tnx 4 ur prayers.

-Rach Yapchiongco


Asked Jon. It's probably congenital inguinal hernia - wherein the abdominal walls did not fuse in the fetus' 8th month. This leaves a hole for the intestines to protude down towards the groin area. Surgery corrects it.

Thankfully it's not the dangerous kind. A google search would initially turn up diaphragmatic hernia - which is a rare one usually found in boys and affects the lung area - only 50% survive it.

Text message 10:14:08, 13-Sept-2003:
I'm glad its not serious. Dr said its 40% hereditary. Jules was operated on wen he was 1 month old due 2 similar case. Yng 2 nephews din ni jules similar case. Late n dumating si kelly. Hanap k nga nya. 2 anak nya, biba yng panganay. D n cla umabot sa handaan kya d2 cla haus punta. Yng bby boy had undescended testes & was suposed 2 b operated. Thnk God daw at nadaan sa hilot at dasal kya ok na.
-Rach


Which means that if Hans will have a son, it would probably have the same condition.

`*`*`*`*`*`*`*`*`*`*`

Kelly was another classmate from grade school. She graduated later than us because she spent a year in New Zealand after the coup attempts during President Aquino's term. Her dad's one of those RAM boys - Rocky Tor. He was actually in the wanted list then.

My batchmates in grade school were an interesting bunch:

There's Ines Romualdez who's related to Imelda Romualdez Marcos - I think her family left the country after the Ninoy assasination.

There's Nancy Binay, daughter of Jejomar Binay - former Makati Mayor and MMDA chairman... dunno what his position is nowadays. Nancy's mom became mayor when her dad's terms expired making him ineligible for re-election.

There's Pauline Pacificador. Former MP Arturo Pacificador's daughter. Top politician during the Marcos era. Was on the run in Aquino's time for supposedly ordering the murder of another well known person.

Then there's Lara Saguisag. Daughter of Rene Saguisag. He was associated with Cory Aquino and had many people shaking heads when he sided with Joseph Estrada during and after the impeachment trial.

None of the girls are in the limelight.

It's my high school batchmates you see in TV or newspapers - being news anchors, commercial models, or caught by the camera attending a social event.

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Boss Jun's Birthday

Boss Jun turned 42 today and those of us under him treated him out for lunch at Pancake House along Diosdado Macapagal Blvd. Cheryl and Cris also joined us.

For merienda this afternoon though, Boss Jun spent more than we spent for him because he treated the whole dealing room to Yellow Taxi Cab pizza.

Monday, September 08, 2003

Yohan's Baptism

Text message 16:08:49, 14-Aug-2003:
Pls. join us on d christening of r son, YOHAN
on sept 7, sun, 11 am,
San Antonio Heights clubhouse (Sto. Tomas Batangas)
- Rachel & Jules Yapchiongco


Text message 09:43:52, 27-Aug-2003:
Gud am. Jst want 2 remind u of hans' christening on sept 7 (sun), 11:30am at San Antonio Heights clubhouse. C ya!
-Rachel


Text message, 18:24:42, 5-Sept-2003:
Hi. If u want u can bring sam on sunday para may kasama ka. Dnt 4get 11:30am at d clubhouse. C ya.
-Rachel


Obviously I have no excuse not to attend.

Went to the reception after the baptism. That's around 12:30 noon. It was held at the Club House of San Antonio Heights in Batangas. Sat at a table with Jen Grajo and her boyfriend Alvin. Rachel also sat at our table, but being the mother of the baby, she's always standing up and going around to mingle with guests. Didn't get to talk to her much. I can't help but notice marks around her neck ... it meant she was really fat or bloated during the pregnancy and the marks were left when she lost some weight. She's still heavy though.

Yohan's cute. Still very small. Jen says he looks like his mom. But he's dark like his dad Jules. His nickname's Hans. We asked Rachel if Yohan's got a second name. Rach said no. She thought that the kid would have a hard time already just writing the family name Yapchiongco so it would be better to give him a shorter first name. They thought about spelling it "Johann" but Rach figured not everyone would pronounce it right and she would have to waste time correcting people. They dropped the last "n" from Yohann to make it Yohan so that the spelling would be easier. That's Rachel for you - very practical. One reason I like the name Yohan is because it's derived from John, and my name's derived from that name as well.

Saw Rach's cousin Arlene there. I recognize her but I don't know if she remembers me so we didn't talk . Rach said Arlene's got two kids already.

Noticed that I'm the only one there who's been Rach's friend since grade school. Her other schoolmates are from undergrad (college) and MBA (Jen). None of her high school friends were there because they're all abroad.

I left with Jen and Alvin, since I wanted to hitch a ride out of San Antonio Heights - it's one of those places where you need to own a car because it's not accessible to public utility vehicles. I could see Rach was disappointed to that I was leaving early. I couldn't tell her though that Jen offering me a ride was too good to pass up because if I'll wait for Jules to drive me out of the place, it may be too late and I have plans to go to Makati and shop. So after having a few pictures taken, we left.

By the way, they gave out CDs as souvenirs. It's got 30 nursery rhymes in it. They may come in useful someday .

I was in Glorietta afterwards. I had decided not to wear slacks at Victor's wedding because the invitation said formal. I won't wear a gown though like Cristy but opted for a long skirt instead.

Text message 16:19:54, 8-Sept-2003:
Tnx 4 attending yohan's christening. We really appreciate ur presence. Tnx 4 ur lovely gift. Take care!
-Rachel

Sunday, September 07, 2003

Kamikaze Burgers

Was at Makati last night to buy a gift for Hans. He's Rachel's son and his baptism is today. I'll be leaving later to go to Batangas where Rachel, her husband Jules and Hans live. The baptism will be at the club house of the village where they live.

I was there 6pm, took 30 minutes deciding what gift to buy, had it wrapped, then I ended up buying some clothes as well so I finished around 8 p.m.

Wanted to eat at Sbarro's coz I wanted either the pasta primavera, or a slice of one of their pizzas. No seats available. Passed by Tokyo Tokyo and found it full as well. I decided to try eating at Hotshots - a fastfood joint that serves grilled burgers. Ordered the Kamikaze Burger because it was a sandwich combination I haven't tasted before. Man, when they said it has wasabe, they mean it has wasabe! Had to gulp down lemonade everytime I took a bite - but I like it anyway :-) I had ordered apple fruit sundae - usual soft vanilla ice cream topped with sweet, real preserved apples, and found it funny that i combined it with a hot burger. Anyway, if I had a sinus problem, it would probably have cleared up with the dose of wasabe i had last night.

I'll probably leave for Batangas 9:30am. Don't know if Jon wants to come with me. Rach told me I could bring someone so I won't journey there alone. She suggested Sam. I don't think so. On Sundays, Sam sings in the choir at St. Jerome's Alabang. I also think she has piano students this day of the week.

Saturday, September 06, 2003

Bowling i.e. doing things I have no idea about

MART held its bowling competition at the 10-pin bowling lanes at Rockwell (Power Plant, Makati) Thursday. They put my name down while I was on leave - without consulting me. He he he - they were surprised I didn't know how to play. They made me play anyway. Had a miserable, pathetic score not worth mentioning. Had to endure a good dose of ribbing Friday. Jeng was ecstatic to find out someone has the same aptitude for bowling as she does.

Funny. They thought I knew how to bowl. Then Boss Mon said my sport's Tennis anyway... and I said of course not! What made him think that? I am really weirded out about how these people think I am good in some kind of sport.

Anyway. I joined the 10-pin tourney even though I had no idea what to do. I was being given instructions on the spot. Didn't hurt to try it, anyway. Ofcourse, practicing before the event itself would have helped.

Learning how to bowl on the competitin day itself is nothing compared to what I did last November. I confess I do not swim passably - having made a lot of excuses to skip swimming classes in school, and I have a fear for being in large bodies of water (translate - open sea). YET I was on a boat last November to do some snorkling in Boracay. It gets crazier... they ran out of goggles with mouth pieces and since I had my own goggles, I gave the one handed to me to another and decided to go without a mouth piece. So there I was, a person who does not know how to swim snorkling without a mouthpiece.

Don't worry though, I didn't stray far from the boat. The current was very strong anyway. The real swimmers had to be thrown a rope so they can go against the current and return to the boat. Of all times to go out into the open sea, it had to be with a strong current.

Yeah. I have moments of stupidity.

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Baking Stuffed Chicken

Milette brought a large tupperware of crema de fruta today. That's because I brought stuffed chicken and a little crema de fruta yesterday. People associate Milette with cheese cakes and the like.

I am beginning to be associated with baked stuffed chicken. My officemates like it a lot, they want me to price it. Er, I told them that I do not intend to do it as a sideline because it takes a lot of time to prepare (deboning the chicken is a tricky thing to accomplish). I'd probably sell Christmas time.

I brought chicken yesterday because the deal was, Cristy was willing to do my work while I am on leave if I bake stuffed chicken for her. So they had free lunch courtesy of me.

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