All Work and Some Play...

It's been really busy at work for the past few days...I've been going home at 10 in the evening, and even spent my Saturday holed up in the office. We did go to Polus for dinner, but before that, Eisel, Jeni, Treenah and I took some pics at the lake. The trees are already starting to change color, and there were people feeding the ducks at the lake, the scene was picture perfect.

Anyway, we ate at a McDonalds, I've been craving for a burger for a week now. I had the McRoyal Menu (Menu = meal = with fries and drinks). I think it's the same as Quarter Pounder Meal back home, only grilled so possibly healthier... hehe. It's always an adventure ordering here, sign language is heavily used, and so is making wild guesses as to what the person is saying. Thankfully, I've still gotten what I want every time.

The walk to Polus was long, and somewhat unsettling... While walking, we noticed a group of guys who seemed drunk... so we crossed the street to avoid them. We could hear their boisterous laughter as we passed. Then, we walked by this stadium that seemed so empty, and so quiet, my imagination couldn't help but run wild.

And the walk home was even worse...We left Polus at 6:30, but it was already dark. I didn't want to go back the way we came, so we took another route. It was fine for a while, and then we passed by another group of guys who even approached us! Nothing else to do but keep our heads down and keep walking... thank goodness they didn't follow us, but it made us anxious just the same. And we passed another seemingly empty structure, I just couldn't help but feel really nervous. We got back to the office at around 7 and went home at around 10:30.

Anyway, I've adjusted my clock to 12:00 again... and I say again because time will shift an hour backwards to mark the end of summer time/DST. Now, we're 7 hours behind Manila. It's bound to confuse people not used to DST like us Filipinos, hehe. We'll be going to St. Ladislav again tomorrow, and hopefully Avion. But to be honest, I wouldn't mind just spending the day in the hotel, watching CNN or downloaded series on my laptop. :) Gdnyt!

Weekend Adventures

Treenah and I decided to go on a walk, without a clear destination in mind last Saturday. We just spent time taking pics on some of the more 'scenic' spots, but basically it was really just for exercise. A 2 hour walking exercise. Hehe... it's a lot more pleasant to walk here because of the weather, and because everything seemed so peaceful. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant, went to Billa then went home.

Then, that evening we took the tram to Tomasikova to visit Rina and Olive's apartment. We would be hosting a birthday party for JB and Marbi. We had chicken tandoori and beef salpicao, they were even able to make leche flan. And we did some rounds of tequila before going home. Kulang na lang magic sing! :) Will be posting more pics on my Multiply once the others have shared their pics.


Then Sunday, we went to hear mass at St.Ladislav Parish again, and had lunch at KFC...it's weird that they do not serve gravy here. I had the hot wings with mashed potato... and the mashed potato was piping hot, perfect for the cold weather. :)

Then, Ria, Namie, Treenah and I went to Aupark! Of course, we stopped to take some pics at the city center first. I bought a webcam, and a jacket... hehe. It's so much fun shopping when you know you can reimburse the items you buy (the jacket not the webcam) :) I'll be buying a trench coat next week, maybe at Avion. But there's this coat I like in Zara already...so far kaya pa naman ang lamig. And the new jacket I bought is very warm.


Lastly, we went to a circus near our hotel, where we were also joined by Rina and Ms. Louis. I was entertained, there were acrobats, tigers, dancing/twirling horses and camels and llamas! Hehe... mababaw lang ako. I think we would have liked it better if we were able to understand what the ringmaster was saying, but anyway, it was ok.

Then we went out, it was so cold! The coldest night since I got here... and it wasn't even that late yet. We had dinner at Mini-golf, we ordered pasta and salad and fried cheese. Yum! After a hearty dinner we all went back to the hotel... and since I was still chilly, I had a bottle of red wine while doing my laundry.

Next week, we're going to another mall, Avion, I tink they have an ice skating rink and IMax theater... hehe, but we'll probably just be browsing the stores, and I'll be buying a coat! :) Here's to colder weather!

A tale of 3 dinners...

It's funny how common things such as food becomes an interesting topic to post when you're in a different country. :)

Every morning, I wake up to a buffet breakfast of sausage, eggs, bacon, antipasti, bread, coffee and juice courtesy of our hotel. At lunch, Rina cooks for all of us currently on site and we just pay her for the lunch, this means huge savings for us. And at dinner, that's where it gets interesting, because we all go our separate ways and are left to fend for ourselves for something to eat.

As much as I would love to experiment on making dishes, I can't since I'm at the hotel, and I don't really want to spend my Slovak crowns on daily dinners so, I normally stop by Billa to buy bread and try different types of cheeses, I usually have an apple and fruit juice together with my dinner.

Dinner #1: Bread (I don't know what it's called), Hermelin cheese, it's consistency is sort of like mozzarella but not that stringy plus Cappy Orange juice.

Dinner #2: Some kind of baguette (I liked this!), some sort of onion cream cheese (it was written in Slovak, chosen at random), Cappy Strawberry and an apple.


Dinner #3: Pretzels, Beer and Bubbly Water. Let me explain this... I said I normally drop by Billa on the way home to buy food. Unfortunately, it was extremely cold on the walk home... biting cold winds that almost sting. I wasn't prepared because it was relatively warm that morning. So, I had to make do with what I had. I wanted a drink, to warm myself up, and pretzels seemed a good match for beer. :)

Beer here has 12% alcohol, I think San Mig Light only has 5%. I'm not a very good drinker, so I turned red minutes after consuming my drink. It did give me a warm feeling, which was good. I plan to regularly consume alcohol to build up my tolerance... I'm not sure my parents would approve. Hehe... but doesn't research say that a glass of wine a day makes you healthier right?

I have yet to try the Bryndza, which is a sheep's milk cheese that is common here, maybe I'll buy that tonight. Cheese and wine, how very continental of me... :)

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UPDATE: I had Bryndza and my favorite baguette for dinner, it was a soft cheese, It was good, but I can't find a distinction with the taste, it reminds me of kesong puti a little bit. :) I'm not sure what I drank, but I like it a lot, kind of like sparkling grape juice, possibly a low alcohol white wine. :)
Tomorrow, Treenah and I plan to venture out and about. I want to go to Aupark again! But they say Polus is closer...hmmm, must explore. :) I need to buy a webcam... and I just want to shop! On Sunday we'll hear mass, and we might visit a circus... yeah, a circus... with tigers and everything. Haha, can't wait to see that!

Day 1 Pics

Thanks to Namie for the pics :)
Just slide your mouse over the images for a bigger view.

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day. Bear with me on this post as I really didn't have time to compose a decent article, so I just compiled a few ideas of what can help our environment. Hopefully, you'll adopt one of these ideas so that we all, in our own little way, can help th environment.

Plastic Bags - In Billa (grocery), you have to pay for the plastic bag to put your groceries in, Each bag is 8 crowns. To me, this is a good step to take to reduce plastic waste. People should bring eco-bags, or reusable bags when shopping or doing groceries. I have mine, courtesy of Maitz (when she went to Australia). Although there are some in Manila, I think they are totally overpriced (hello, 1200 pesos for a piece of katsa?) I'm sure there are less expensive options. The bottom line is, bring your own bags to avoid or at the very least minimize the use of plastic bags.

Recycling - At our office, there's a separate trash can for recyclable bottles. I think we should start segregating our trash too. It's not very difficult...but unfortunately, I'm not sure if there are recycling programs back home. :(

Paperless Offices - In Sun Life, we had these online forms to file for leaves, overtime claims, timekeeping etc. etc... Not only does it reduce paper waste, it also reduces time in hunting down signatories as forms are automatically routed through e-mail. I hope our company implements something like this. No need to print forms in duplicate or triplicate, just send copies to the departments/people concerned for their approval.

Fines for Smoke Belchers - Let's face it, we may have emissions testing, but everybody knows how easy it is to skate around it. There are still a lot of vehicles who blast out black smoke on the road. Their drivers should be apprehended and fined, and it should be a steeper fine compared to the cost of a tune-up.

Stop incinerating waste - A couple of weeks ago, my dad and I were driving along dela Rosa and we saw thick black smoke rising up from Makati Med. We can only assume they were incinerating garbage or some other type of waste. Not only do they cause pollution, what if they burn something that contaminates the air? These types of incinerations should be confined in special facilities (or if they can think of a way to dispose of waste without polluting the world, then better).

That's all I can think of right now... all of these things at the top of my head. I'm sure there are a hundred other simple things we can do to save our environment. It shouldn't take too much effort if we all work together for that goal.

Sunday in Bratislava

I woke up early...possibly due to jet lag, but also partly due to anxiety over my missing luggage. I busied myself on YM, then I took a shower and went down for breakfast. My luggage still did not arrive. I didn't know what to do...what if it got lost? Already I was making a mental picture of all the things I had inside.

Fortunately though, we were going out, first of all to hear mass, and then to the mall. :) I'm staying in the hotel with 7 other officemates, so it was fun, like a field trip even, hehe. So I had something to distract me. I was hoping that by the time we got back, my luggage would be there waiting for me. First we walked a couple of blocks to get to the train stop. Now, to ride on a train (or any public transpo I think), you need to have tickets/card that you have to validate every time you ride a public vehicle. Since Kyle and I were newcomers and didn't have time to buy tickets yesterday, Namie lent us 10 minute tickets for the train.

It was a short ride to the train stop, but we had to walk a couple more blocks to get to the church. It was small, compared to Manila churches/cathedrals, old fashioned, but I liked it, the mass was solemn, and took a bit longer compared to services back home. I forgot the name of the church but I'll update you later.

After mass, we had lunch at this canteen. I had the pork cutlet in potato batter with rice, and an orange juice, total bill was 128 SKK. Roughly 260 pesos. It was ok for the price, since Mcdonald's and KFC costs the same, if not higher. Then, we walked for like 30 minutes to get to the mall. There, I bought a new blouse, just in case my luggage still doesn't show. I was so tempted to shop, but since I just got here I have to restrain myself. There's time for shopping later.

Then we went to Billa for groceries, I bought some apples, OJ and 6 litres of water. :) And when we got back to the hotel, my luggage was already there! Yay! I was so happy to see it again, even though it's been forcefully opened and my things were messed up. I was just so glad to have my stuff again that I didn't care.

I spent the rest of the night doing laundry... in the sink. :) Then, I had an apple and a small bottle of white wine for dinner. I'm really excited about tomorrow, I just hope we're not too busy and we can still go home early. I'll try to get a copy of the pictures taken from Namie's cam. I didn't bring mine today (since I had nowhere to put it in yet, my bag was in luggage). Next week, I'll take some more pics so that you'll have an idea of what Bratislava looks like. :)

The Road to Bratislava

I'm finally leaving! The past few days have been really busy. Last night we went home at 2am! And I had to finish packing so I slept at 5am. I figured I'd have enough time to sleep on the plane. Anyway, I'll be travelling with my officemate, Kyle, and I met up with him at the NAIA. At least I'll have someone to talk to while waiting at the airport. :)

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Changi Airport, Singapore

It's 10:30 PM, I'm only on the first leg of my travel to Bratislava, Slovakia. I'm in Changi Airport, Singapore, waiting for my connecting flight to Frankfurt.

So far, things have been pretty uneventful, except for some constant turbulence during the MNL-SG flight. It's my first time to fly with Singapore Airlines and it's been great. This trip marks a lot of first for me, first to travel alone, first to travel to Europe, first to get to Changi...the list goes on :) I'm glad I'm not travelling alone. :)

It's a long 12h 40min flight to Frankfurt, before a 1 hour flight to Prague, and then I have to check out my luggage and check it in again... :( Rookie mistake, I should have asked them to send it to Bratislava instead of picking it up in Prague. After that, another 1 hour connecting trip to Bratislava. We'll arrive there around lunchtime/early afternoon on Saturday, which is great because we'll have time to rest and at the same time we have the entire day of Sunday to prepare/explore and stuff.

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Frankfurt, Germany

My head feels like it's going to explode... The SQ flight seems a little cramped compared to the MNL SG flight, and 13 hours is just too long a time to spend on a cramped space. Good thing I have an aisle seat so I can stretch my legs every so often. I couldn't sleep much, so I spent my time watching movies... I watched Nancy Drew, Oceans Thirteen (again), Hairspray (again) and Moulin Rouge (again). :) Then played some Mario, Blackjack and Poker...My favorite airline, hands down, would have to be SQ, all because of that personal TV/console. Oh, and the food was great too...especially that Beef thing I had for dinner.

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Prague, Czech Republic

Kyle and I weren't seated together in this flight and I was seated next to a guy from Kuwait. He was very nice, he helped me with my luggage and as soon as I was seated, he immediately asked me if I was "Kabayan." He said he knew a lot of Filipinos in Kuwait and know them to be very nice people, so we swapped some stories, since he's been to the Philippines several times, Bohol, Cebu, Bacolod...I told him to visit Boracay if he gets the chance.

The Prague airport seemed very empty...no long queues, a lot of vacant waiting areas, and it was generally very quiet. I tried to claim my luggage here, but couldn't get past immigration. They directed me to the transfer desk and the people there told me that my luggage would be brought to Bratislava.

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Bratislava, Slovakia

On the way, I was seated next to a nice woman from Estonia, who had some apprehensions with flying in a turbo prop plane. What worried her was the noise, but I assured her it was normal (having flown several of these in domestic flights back home). It's nice meeting new people, and just talking about stuff. And it's also nice to hone my English skills, albeit, with a different accent. Landing was especially turbulent, with the plane taking some dips that made my stomach turn, but the touchdown was near perfect, so overall a pretty good flying experience.

Unfortunately, when we got to the airport, I found out that my luggage got left in Prague! Good thing I packed a set of clothes in my handcarry...They said it would be delivered tonight, but it's past 1am and still no luggage. I'm just hoping it'll be waiting for me tomorrow morning at breakfast.

The hotel is nice, simple but it seems cozy. As soon as I got here I immediately fired up my company issued laptop and got online so I could chat with my family and friends. :) Then I took a shower and had a long nap... which explains why I'm still up at this time. But anyway, it's realy late, I'll continue my updates tomorrow.

October 9, 2007

I turned 25 today. :)

And I had wonderful day...starting with a visit to GT tower for breakfast at Mader Evelyn's Nutrition Club. So far, I'm really enjoying having shakes for breakfast. :) And hopefully, I'll be able to keep up the habit when I'm in Slovakia.

Then, I met up with the Manila-based VILLMAnians, which is just Apple and Les at this point, along with Greyson, JV and Wendell for lunch at Pizza hut Bistro. Had a great time reminiscing and talking about Sun Life and updating each other on what's going on with our lives. I also stopped by at Sun Life to say hi to my other friends there. I was hoping to catch Tine before she left, but sadly I wasn't able to meet her. :( I did see Manny though...hmmm... I don't know what's with him anymore. Maybe it's because we just haven't been in touch since I left.


Then, back to work...we're really busy now because of our upcoming trip, so I wasn't surprised when Elaine (my team lead) called a meeting at around 4pm (merienda time, I had food delivered). Elaine, Ria and I went to the meeting room, and she said that there were a lot of changes to the FS of the APIs I was working on...I was already feeling apprehensive, as I had a lot to do already. Kyle also joined us, which made everything seem like it was just an ordinary meeting. And then John told Elaine she had a phone call, so Elaine stood up, went outside, and went back in and told us that the phone call might take long so we should just reschedule the meeting. Fine, I stood up and went outside with the rest of my teammates and to my surprise, the entire RB BT team was standing outside with a cake for me! With a happy birthday song and a candle and everything! I was really touched and surprised. :)

Thanks to the organizers, I don't know who they are exactly, but I think special mention goes out to my teammates, Elaine, Ria, Kyle and Eisel and John, who was also part of the big charade, and to Grace for the pics. :) It really made me feel welcome and it was a really wonderful way to spend an afternoon with officemates.

And last but not the least, a birthday dinner with my family and the rest of the Espiritu clan. As usual we had my titos and titas from Magallanes and Sandejas come over for dinner. It was bday and despedida in one. We had a Japanese themed dinner and everyone had their fill of sashimi, tempura, kakiage, misono steak, japanese fried rice and coffee jelly for dessert. All cooked by Axle and company, hehehe. Yum!

All in all, a really great bday. :) Thanks to all those who greeted me and made my day special.

Vindication is sweet!

Congratulations to the De La Salle Green Archers for winning the Season 70 UAAP basketball championship!

We may have lost to UE in the eliminations, but we swept them in the finals! Ending the series with a 9 point lead. I guess experience really does help, and maybe we just wanted it more, to redeem ourselves from last year's suspension.

We may not have won all the games, but we won the games that count.

Another victory for Filipinos, Pacquiao won by unanimous decision over Barrera. Great. :)

And yesterday, I met up with college pals, Aileen, Kat and Jo at MOA. It was an early birthday celebration for me, a belated celebration for Aileen, and an advance despedida for my trip to Slovakia (on the 13th!).

It was a great weekend... marred only by the news that Ed and Kay's shooter is out on bail, and I don't know why there's still no clear picture on what happened. I still pray for justice, and I still hope that the killer gets what he deserves.

When something tragic happens, you don't expect it to happen to someone you know, and yet sometimes, you hear something in the news that makes you realize just how wrong you are.

This afternoon, Ed Cañizares was driving in Pasig, and had an altercation with another driver, Ed was shot several times and was prononounced dead on arrival at the Medical City. He used to be my boss in PLDT, and he was also my friend. With him at the time was Kay Palmero, I also knew her, and she just arrived from Singapore to attend what would have been Ed's bday celebration tomorrow...she stepped out of the car to try and appease the two drivers, she was also shot and died shortly after.

I don't know all the details yet, but I was unnerved by the events. Ed just celebrated his birthday yesterday, and Kay? She came home to attend a party! I just couldn't believe it. The person who shot them is already in custody, a lawyer, and I hope that my friends will get justice. I hope that the man who shot them will pay for his crimes.

Please, spare a minute to pray for the eternal repose of the souls of Ed and Kay. "Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. From the gates of hell, deliver their souls O Lord, May they rest in peace. Amen."

UPDATE: If you would like to pay your respects, Ed's remains are in Manila Memorial in Sucat, and Kay's are at Arlington Memorial near Araneta.