17:13: thomas's birthday last night. it's funny. i hadn't seen thom and arni since thom's birthday party last year. it's turning into some sort of annual reunion. it was like the exact same party, only one year later. same caterers, same food, same table settings and flowers and all that. pretty much the same guests, too. thomas has food and tables ready for about 50 people, but no more than 3 tables are ever occupied. when thom's girlfriend asked him where everyone was and who he invited, he just paused to think and didn't say anything, at which point she screamed at him "you didn't invite people, no!" hahaha... our theory is that he's given a budget and everything is arranged for him and that pretty much all he has to do is show up on the night itself.

anyway, this time around richie and rina weren't with us. rich just got discharged from the hospital. he hadn't been feeling well lately. turns out his cholesterol level is way too high and now he's on a strict diet. richie z on a diet... he'll never live.
people, we are talking about a guy who gets his picture taken with bacon because he loves bacon so much. i remember that he once blogged about how he orders a double cheeseburger meal from mcdonald's, takes the fries, puts it in the actual sandwich, then adds some barbecue sauce on it. the guy eats fast food everyday. richie sans cholesterol? i don't see it happening. i only hope rina can keep him in check and keep him healthy.

joining us at thom's party this year was abby. i hadn't seen abby since they graduated from college, but since we last met after the 8-year gap, we've been going out a lot. in fact, in this past week alone, we finished a total of 2 bottles of red wine at my house on thursday, an equivalent of over 2 litres of red horse and 1 bottle of san miguel premium at 2 different bars on saturday, then at thom's party, more beer, some goldschlagger, and a variety of vodka-based drinks. yup. she's not the same innocent abby we used to know, but she sure knows how to party.

other additions to our table at thomas's party this year were thom's cousins, josh and migs. migs apparently plays guitar for a local group. he's a cool kid. thanks to him, i may have found a drummer (possibly the perfect drummer) for tinola. although now i hear our bassist just quit all his bands as of lunch today, so i don't know how that's gonna go.

it was nice to hang out and reminisce about the things we'd do and our screw-ups and famous one-liners from college. it's also good to see where everyone is now. thom seems to be taking school seriously. arni's career as a rapper looks like it's about to take off soon. richie's killing himself with cholesterol. abby and i are slowly turning into alcoholics. and karen cannot stand living in her grandma's house but is quite happy with ted. i hope joey, karl, jel and the others are just as happy.

Labels: hang-out stories, trips and long weekends, updates

 
01:14: yes, yes, i know. i haven't posted in over a year. so why the hell am i writing again? i don't know. i've kept silent for so long, i'd forgotten what i sounded like.

oh, if i could talk/write in detail about everything that happened while i was away from this beloved blog... but that would take way too long. here's 15 months in one breath: i got the job i wanted, moved out of town, missed home and certain people like mad, got sick and also got sick of being away from home, went back home, and here i am.

trips of note in said 15 months:
1.) trip to pagudpud >> on my own, i traveled for more than half a day on the road. 3 bus rides, 1 tricycle ride, no food, and a cell phone that died before i could get clear directions. wanted to kill my friends when i found out they brought a frickin' van with them and drove in a fraction of the time it took me to get there.
2.) allan's team building at crystal beach >> the same weekend this huge storm hit the area.
3.) tech lead outing zambales >> no sleep at all for 3 days and 2 nights + little food in my tummy + neil handing me endless shots of alcohol because everyone else had stopped drinking = the end of what was once a well-kept secret
4.) xvgts @ redmond >> went to the states for a training summit with the whole team (+ x - les) and got fat on 3 cans of soda, mostly dr. peppers, a day.

there were other noteworthy incidents in the past 15 months, of course, but i will not mention them in this blog. hah! and you thought i would spill dirt....

Labels: little nothings, trips and long weekends, updates

 
15:15: from east to north west, to west, to south and out of manila. bridgeview, where we met angela and they were treated like royalty even before they played a pretty good set. to kc's, then to my house, where i had to pack for the beach trip. to martin's, where i learned to play bridge and teamed up with bruce and we tried to read each other's minds without much success. we slept at 6am when we were ridiculously laughing at any and every little thing because we were so sleepy. woke louie up so he could get ready to leave for martin's. slept a few hours until jon and charles got there. had breakfast when mark arrived and we headed for batangas.

nasugbu, where we cleaned house, cooked, ate, swam, tossed around a disc, drank, and played cards. mark, louie and i laughed at the others because we couldn't join them. everyone laughed at louie because ... well. if he had a hug counter this past weekend like i do on this blog, he'd probably have a higher hug count than i do right now. butt cramps galore on the ride back to manila, but we did get back safely. i made it to my family dinner where the first thing kizzi said to me was "you're brown." i had wine, wine, water, water, water, coffee, a damn good sandwich with three kinds of damn good mustard, lasagna, and some kfc. there was also an evil looking cake, death by chocolate, but my stomach was regrettably filled to capacity.

ayos!

Labels: hang-out stories, trips and long weekends, yuloys

 
11:46: got back from puerto galera last night. my team was there for what could possibly be the last team building. in my case, the first and only team building i actually got to join. malas lang. everytime they've had one in the past, i'd been busy with something else.

although the team's shift was really only up until 10am, i stayed till 1pm and waited for the noobs to finish their work and send over their trackers. naturally, that meant i had to update my own tracker as well. i ended up taking the trip by myself, something i had never done before. went home and packed, took a cab to the bus station, took a bus and luckily got a boat that was still bound for galera. otherwise i'd have gone all the way there for nothing. i was surprised to see some of my agents (+1) get on the same boat about a half hour after i boarded.

we got to the island at around 7ish, unloaded our things (i was saved from a creep attack by my beautiful, sweet agents!) and grabbed a bite to eat. dinner was the only time we got to spend with our tm. we were quite disappointed that they didn't join us when we had drinks on the beach, or for anything the next morning. we were a large group, but our numbers slowly dwindled until it came down to nine of us and a full bottle of bubble gum flavored lambanog that ryan just happened to find on the beach. oh, the memories of college. ugh... i hate that stuff. specially the bubble gum variety. in total, we consumed 3 pitchers of mindoro sling, 1 pitcher of subzero, 1 bottle of bubble gum lambanog, and about a dozen bottles of red horse. those of us still there past 3:30am bet on what time the sun would rise (i won because i said it would be too cloudy for sunrise to even matter). we went to our rooms at around 7am, when people were getting up and we were still on the beach, bottles all over the place.

had a bit of a nap and grabbed a late breakfast with some good company. bacon and eggs with buttered, peppered hash browns are yummy. even yummier when it's free and is enjoyed with good company. spent the rest of the day in the room, talking about football, watching rugby, and just chatting. we had a hasty look at the stalls and merchandise in the mid afternoon and we almost missed our boats. heheh. girls. shopping. what can i say? i was on another boat, so i rode alone and met them on the dock in batangas. we took the same bus back but didn't really sit together because it was packed.

it's a shame. this was the only time i've had to really bond with these guys. when i first was first told i'd be handling a new tier 1 team, i was a bit disappointed, but they turned out to be terrific people --- self-sufficient, quick studies, and a whole lotta fun, too. i could not have asked for anything more. i miss them already.

Labels: trips and long weekends, updates