Financial Independence?

Today, I cut up my extension credit card and will start afresh by using a credit card tied to my name. Although I have been faithful in paying my credit card bills, albeit vicariously via my mom, it's high time I act like adult and handle my finances independently.

My money comes from different sources, a few on paper checks and the bulk is wired to my bank accounts in the Canary Islands. Kidding. Last week, I visited my bank (HSBC) to pay my VERY FIRST credit card bill. How quick and painless it was. With a few keystrokes and a magic wand, the bank lady (who happens to be my cousin lol) wrote off P20,000 from my bank account and voila... we're done. I'm like, "That's it?" Apparently. As I drove off I thought to myself, I could do this! But I dread the day when I look at my next bill once my mobile and web hosting expenses are consolidated to this one card. My cellphone bill last month alone reached P13,000 while I was in the US and Europe!! It's different when I'm the one looking at the grim reality of my spending habits. No wonder my mom freaks out every time! Lol! If this new epiphany of mine is going to make me curb my spending, I'm totally fine with that!

BUT.. you see, I've made it a point to travel out of the country at least once a year. What better way to enjoy your money but to travel, right? So far this year, I outdid myself, multiplied by four! I visited four countries. That's right, F-O-U-R -- Singapore, France, Italy and the United States. The headline is, I'm traveling next month to Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Guess who went berserk when I told her and implored me to back out? :P I can't back out of this one coz the plane tickets and hotel bookings are already paid up. My friends and I plan to spend our first night bungee jumping at Clarke Quay in Singapore :D Coincidentally, the night we arrive (September 27), is the third and final night of the F1 racing event. I heard the Backstreet Boys are performing. Hmmm, nah. If it were Miley Cyrus it would be a different story. LOL

I know some of you are looking forward to what happened inside the Louvre. Definitely watch out for that post tomorrow.

Thanks for tuning in!

I'll Shop the Volcom Belt With You

This afternoon, I took my secretary to the mall to buy a cheap cellphone for our baker. I paid P1450 for a Nokia 1202 and an added P60 for a Sun Cellular SIM card.

But that wasn't the highlight of my trip to the mall.

We detoured to the department store to search for belts. Since I only have two usable belts in my wardrobe, I thought I needed one more just to add more variety.

I checked out a rack of cool belts that carried well-known brands such as Volcom and Affliction. The Volcom belts were quite nice and kinda cheap too at P500 (~$10.25) each. Normally these would cost three times more if bought in stores or online. I got two white leather belts with red and black prints. Check em out:



White leather belt with red details



This one I liked better. It shall now be known as my Warrior Belt lol

* * * * *

My dad's in town and needs some cheering up. We're eating dinner tonight at this swanky Filipino resto downtown. Later!

Outside The Louvre

A day after Giverny, we visited the Louvre Museum to "scout" the area. We didn't go in but simply took pictures of the magnificent palace buildings and its surroundings.





The one thing I loved about France are the clouds. Yes, the clouds! They make my pictures look more dramatic. Couldn't say this about other places I've been to.



The famous "pyramid" in the middle of the courtyard (Cour Napoleon). Made of metal and glass, the structure was designed by a Japanese dude named Ieoh Ming Pei. It was commissioned to him by then President Francois Mitterand in 1984. The pyramid serves as the Louvre's main entrance.



A spectacular view of the pyramid amidst the Palace buildings.

As we roamed the gardens, we witnessed a barrage of army jets and planes flying above us. I thought it was the beginning of World War III lol











No, these aren't jets.



The douche in the bush.



The River Seine



Better view of the River Seine lol

Next post: We actually enter the Louvre. Hurray!

My Trip to Giverny

Possibly one of the most beautiful places I've been to, Giverny (jee-va-nyee)is a town situated northwest of Paris, France. It is more famously known as Claude Monet's hometown. Claude Monet's that guy who did those paintings of flowers such as this one:



The man himself:


My cousin Clarice and I decided to visit Giverny on our second day in France. Our first day was spent going around the confines of the area where the Opera is located. Our hotel was rather run-of-the-mill, but was clean and habitable and had decent bathrooms. That was key. It wasn't like we were going to spend most of our time inside the hotel. So that was okay. Two more of our cousins, Kathy and Stephen, were following in two days. My Tita Nora booked us a bigger room when that time comes. Anyway I'll dish more on that in another blog post.

For the uninformed, Tita Nora's my dad's younger sister. And she also happens to be the coolest aunt in the world. She's been to France numerous times, and she was the mastermind of this trip. Tita Nora recommended us to go to Giverny. She said the place was wonderful. My cousin Tony said it was 'meh'. But we went anyway, and we didn't regret it one bit!

To continue... Mr. Monet drew most of his inspiration from his own backyard. It was hard NOT to take pictures while I was there. Every shot I took looked good enough to be a postcard!



This is a restricted pathway the cuts through his garden.



Random macro shot of a flower on the way to the garden.



I've never seen this much species of flowers in one garden! Don't ask me what kind of flower this is, coz there was no budget to print labels lol



See what I mean?



The weirdest flower I saw.


A lagoon that's part of the garden.



Random douchebag who asked for his picture to be taken.



The money shot. But the photo doesn't do it enough justice. Best to be there to see it for yourself!



This is the museum that used to be the Monet family's residence. No photography allowed zzz.

After touring the Monet garden we took the liberty to walk through the rest of the village. There was another garden that caught our attention.





The houses looked picture-perfect as well. Don't let their size deceive you. These go for half a million euros (34 million pesos) a pop lol. And they have Monet to thank for that.







If you're a nature lover or photographer who can withstand long walks, I highly recommend Giverny. Here's how to get there:

From Paris, head out to Gare Saint Lazare (pronounced gahr-sun-la-zahr') and buy a ticket going to Vernon. There's a ticket counter on the right side of the station. If you want to avoid the line, have your credit card ready and try the yellow machines scattered in the area. There are also blue machines, but they don't serve your destination. If the yellow machines don't work (didn't for us), go back to the line. Say Vernon like ver-know' so the person at the ticket booth will understand you. If you wanna sound French-y say "Un billet de Vernon, s'il vous plait" (oon biyey du verknow, see voo pley)[one ticket to Vernon, please]. lol

You'll see several trains lined up in front of you. Check the ticket which train you're supposed to hop on.

It's about a 45 minute ride to Vernon. Once out of the train, follow where all the people are going, most likely they're searching for the bus going to Giverny. You will pass through a small ticket station. Don't hang out there, go straight through to find that bus. It costs 4 euros for a ticket, which you pay upon entering the bus. Note that the ticket is aller-retour (round trip). Be sure to keep it, as they'll ask for it when going back to Vernon.

Bon voyage!

Mi Corazon

Thank you, Corazon Aquino, for becoming the shining light during our country's darkest hours, and for giving us the freedom that we enjoy today. Now that you're gone, my heart skipped a beat. Yes, it really did. Because somewhere along the way I forgot how much you've done for me. And I'm kicking myself for that. Death is a sad thing but yours made me realize how lucky I am to be free. I lost my heart, Cory. But you gave it back to me. Thank you for that.

Eva Air

From the onset I wanted to make sure that my long-winded flights were as comfortable as what my budget would take me. Naturally, I had to be booked on business class. I checked out a few airlines that flew out of Manila -- Philippine Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Asiana, Eva Air, Northwest, so on and so forth. I've experienced flying on PAL, Eva Air and Northwest. Out of the three, Philippine Airlines had the best service and was the only one that flew straight to California without lay overs. Eva Air was nice too, but required one long stop over in Taipei. Northwest -- what can I say, is probably the worst airline in the whole wide world.

Anyway, as I canvassed for business class tickets, Eva Air was the cheapest -- $2100 for a round trip. PAL costs $400 more. The others are waaay out of my league. Eva Air's business class service, called Premium Laurel, got glowing reviews from sites that I found on Google. If you find the price tag as too steep, they have their second highest class, Evergreen Deluxe Class, that costs less than half ($900). Seats are a lot roomier than coach and have generous foot rests (coach seats don't have foot rests). For sadists, there's coach that is crazy cheap at $500. I won't even go there. My cousin almost lost it after 11 hours.

Ok, so my journey began 3 days ago on July 2, 2009. I traveled with my cousin Clarice. Unfortunately Eva Air is still stationed at the nasty old NAIA terminal. Why they haven't moved to the newer one is beyond me. Check-in was quite easy because of my ticket. Took 5 minutes to get our boarding passes. 2 minutes to pay the terminal fee of P750. 10 minutes to get through immigration. Ok, sometimes being early isn't always the best idea. We had 2 and a half hours to wait for our flight LOL. We headed upstairs to the Sampaguita lounge where they offered wifi and food for P300. The lounge was clearly not well-maintained, but as long as they had wifi I didn't care.

Fast forward to boarding time. I was excited to see my seat. Damn, it was huge!



The chair had a panel where you control the angle of the seat, the backrest and footrest. There's one button to push that turns it into a full-size bed! But I found it strange that even though the bed is flat, it's angled at like 30 degrees. Without the footrest, I'd easily slip down under the seat in front of me haha.



For lunch, they served Beef Pepper Steak, which was just okay for me. Since I had a longer flight after this one, I knew there were more meals to look forward to. The flight to Taipei took only 1 hour and 30 minutes. Our next flight wasn't until 3 hours later so my cousin and I had ample time to roam the duty free shops inside the airport.

Guess what store caught our attention.



THE SANRIO STORE!!! LOL

It's the ultimate wet dream for Hello Kitty fans out there (ehem, ehem). I actually know a few guys who are hahaha.

But you know, when I was kid, I remember having a stuffed toy of this fella here:



His name is Tuxedo Sam. Not many people know him and I didn't see him at the Sanrio store. :-\ Bless his soul.

Ok, so I kinda got sick walking around. I abandoned my cousin and checked out the Evergreen Lounge. Regrettably, I didn't take pictures but it puts all the other airport lounges to shame. They had a full-on buffet, free drinks, free wifi and xboxes! Huwaw!!

Here are more pics taken on the connecting flight to San Francisco:



Notice the white wine? After two lame glasses I got drunk. I'm such a loser.











I'll make succeeding posts about the rest of my trip soon. For now, I hope you liked this one!

The French are Kinky

Found at a sex shop in Montmartre, France.



Candy Bra!!




Pecker Bath Brush LOL



Penis Pasta! Bwahahaha!

And here's a pic of me and my cousins in front of the famous Moulin Rouge.



Clarice, Kathy, Stephen, Me

Stephen wanted to see a go-go show so bad but the girls didn't want to. We ended up eating crepes instead LOL.

What the....

Yesterday we were craving for French toast. We'd expect that Paris would be the place to eat French toast right? But no, they don't know what French toast is!!

Updates from Europe

- My one-star hotel, Hotel Haussman, doesn't have air conditioning or a fan. And my shower's broken. But I'm having a great time. :)

- Surfing the Internet here costs 2.90 euros/30 minutes = 195 pesos. /wrist

- I visited the Louvre, Giverny, Versailles, Eiffel Tower, River Seine area and lots of museums. Versailles is f*cking gorgeous.

- French food sucks.

- Suddenly McDonald's and Starbucks gained more respect from me.

- My cousins Kathy and Clarice forced me on a bed and repaired my "mataray" eyebrows. It was utter torture but the results are rewarding. Now if only I could reproduce the same results when the mowed areas grow back.

- Ok gotta go.. lol

In Transit

Location: San Francisco Airport, California
Mood: Not in the mood

I'm waiting for my connecting flight to NY that's a good 4 hours away. My cousin drained out my PSP, and I'm about to drain my netbook's battery as well. Long-haul flights really bring out the worst in me. I smell like shit, feel like shit, look like shit. I'm not even going to take pictures. I can't wait to get some decent shuteye when I arrive in New York. Oh, and I paid $7.99 (~P400) to surf the Internet with T-mobile. I'm just thinking it's more expensive in Manila if I surfed the net in Starbucks. This T-mobile wifi pass lasts 24 hours. At Starbucks back home it costs P100/hour.

Anywayyy... my flight wasn't that awful. I was seated in business class, so I was able to fold down my seat to a full-sized bed. I got like 4-5 hours of sleep. The food was so-so but plentiful. Last night I had too much white wine to drink I got a little tipsy LOL. My cousin languished in ghetto economy class. An old Chinese man beside her kept rubbing some herbal oil on his arms. He stunk. Moreover, one of her check-in luggages got drenched in stuff that smelled like spoilt ginseng. I'm like WTF it smelled like feet. A jacket that was inside the bag got badly stained but her other effects were spared. She decided to get rid of the bag and stuff the things in her bigger luggage.

I'm LSS-ing over a song by Boyzone (shut up), "Better". Heard it on the radio the other day and it stuck! Gahhh.

Ok bye for now.

Quickie Updates

- I'm currently addicted to my PSP. Loaded roms into it. My favorites are Patapon and LocoRoco. I know right? I'm strange. Stay away.

- On my birthday, a friend gave me an awesome shirt that says "Why can't I be rich and not goodlooking". I'm wearing it right now. My secretary said "Kafeeling mo uy!" (You're very feeling hey). While a cousin named Ria gave a similar reaction.

- I sent an email to the owner of GoksDVD.com with the intent of buying 4 DVD's of Korean dramas, namedly Full House, Cruel Love, Gourmet (2 seasons) and Delicious Proposal. So wrong on so many levels. Tsk.

- I learned that I am going back to Manila to pick up my Schengen visa. BUT, that isn't 100% set in stone. I need to present a revised itinerary coz the previous one was an utter failure. Hope the nice girl who interviewed me would be nice again.

- I am soooooo pumped about my European escapade. I'm touring with three of my cousins from my father side which we don't do a lot because we're scattered across continents. Funny because it's the four of us who formed an exclusive group on Facebook just to gossip on people. There goes our cover. Hahaha.

- We're spending 8 days in France, 8 days in Italy. What is cool is that we'll be in Paris for Bastille Day (July 14), a national holiday that commemorates something really important and French. We expect fireworks and partying on the Champs Elysee. Hell yeah.

- I hope to shake hands with Nikolai Sarkozy and Carla Bruni in the process.

- Being a fan of Dan Brown, I'm taking the Da Vinci Code tour in France and the Angels and Demons tour in Rome. I'm soo going to hell for this.

- My mom hinted that I should study something again. I'm thinking culinary arts but I dunno if I have the patience to study again. She says I should look for a school in New York. Ughhh. I have to think about this.

FIN

Thank You

On this special occasion, I would like to thank all of you who have supported me all these years that I've been online (and you can say offline as well). It's been a wild, wild ride but I feel that I still have a lot to accomplish. I admit to slacking a *little* bit last year, except for having a hand in a few memorable events. Other than that, I was nothing. The good news is now I'm feeling energized and ready to take on new challenges in 2009. I have but a few ideas in my head. If you stick it out with me, you'll find out what they are! It also helps that I have a great support system to help me get up when I'm falling or even just returning that favor to them as well. Let me take this opportunity to thank my best friends on the Internet -- namely Ate Aileen (who keeps my feet on the ground), Kuya Jay (who I talk to about geeky stuff), Kuya Winston (my friend who's not a yagit anymore), Kuya Migs (my friend who gives the best tours lol), Ate Mica (my kaladkarin friend), Kuya Jehz (my LOST partner), Ria (who I bug everyday), Gwing (who I can bug every other day) and RJ (my Dota pal). My heartfelt thanks go out to my cousins Tinky (my dining out partner in Manila), Cecil (who puts up with my stupid antics), Ina (my mahjong partner), Greggy (for providing the ice lolz), Chinky (who gives me the best financial advice :P), Mariel (who chats with me even by just using a cellphone), Stephen (my cousin who's just awesome to talk to), Luan (who is changing her mind as we speak), Jonathan (my ex-Dota partner in Dubai)... the list goes on and on and on...

Of course, before I forget -- my mom, dad, brothers David, Dennis, sister Veronica, nieces Mavis, Maddi and Maesi. My friends Christine and Mac and their kids Macy and Cassie.

And thanks to all the uber-fantastic people on Plurk. My days are never boring without you!! I appreciate the early greetings even at this unholy hour. Ok, tama na ang drama. Salamat sa lahat! (headspin)

Unseasonable Conversations Part Deux

At a brand new cafe in Davao City, named "Coffee Cat", my third time there. I had finished ordering my drink and food, and wanted to ask if there was Internet. Me: Hi, do you already have Wifi? Barista: Oh, are you the one who's going to set it up for us? (omfg did she just say that?)

{Coffee Cat is actually a very nice place with great food and nice shakes. But God help their service crew}

*****

In my mom's room, I was showing her a clip of Susan Boyle's performance of "Memories" on Youtube. Then I showed her another clip of Charice Pempengco singing "Note to God" on Oprah. After, she asked me: Drew, is Hayden Kho's video on Youtube too? (nooooooooooooooooooooo!) Of course I walked out and didn't show it to her LOLz

*****

During a party to celebrate my friend's daughter, I was seated beside my other friend's 7-year-old son. Out of the blue, he asked me: Uncle Andrew, what is a callboy? (wtf are these children learning in school!?) I yelled at my friend: What the hell, your son just asked me what a callboy is!! The punk kid tried to lie himself out of trouble, claiming he said "schoolboy", not "callboy". LOLz I wanted to sucker punch his face. So the mom (my friend) blamed television and shit for his son's curiosity for, wait for it, male prostitutes! Hmmm. She explained (or LIED) to his son that a callboy was someone being paid to answer the telephone. hahahaha! Nice save!

Mam Bebs

My mom celebrated her XXth (hehe) birthday last May 8th. We invited some relatives over to eat at a Vietnamese buffet. We went KKB (dutch treat), thus the lack of attendees LOL.


Mom, Andrew, David

The food at Hanoi Restaurant was actually good. I loved the soup, crabs, pork ribs and the dorie fillet. My brother and two cousins didn't like the food as expected.

Anyway, this post is dedicated to my dear mom whom I love a lot. Unfortunately I'm horrible at showing it. But I know she knows, right mom? hehe.. My mom is my rock. She's always there when I'm in trouble and always there to encourage me when things get rough. I get annoyed at her when she nags me about saving money but I thank her for that because I do need to save!! I also appreciate that she texts me every single day and asks me what I want to eat for dinner. Awwwwww.

Why do I call her 'Mam Bebs'? It was coined by the staff of our bakery business. Instead of Mam Baby, they say 'Mam Bebs'. I eventually picked up on it and started to call her that. Now my cousins and her sisters call her Mam Bebs haha. And guess what, our bakeshop was renamed to Mam Bebs too! :P

Happy birthday again, Mam Bebs! I <3 you!