Japan trip: plans A, B, C, D and E

And so finally, there we were -andie and I, at Marsman Drysdale travel agency when "Ed" showed up with a not so good news: "ahhy may problema sa Japan e!". Andie and I were speechless for some few seconds... then Ed explained that just yesterday, Japan embassy cut down the accredited agencies into three, removing Marsman from the list. They're still working on it and hoping that they'll be on that "accredited list" again by today. so, therefore, andie and I will apply again tomorrow morning -in Marsman if they get accredited, or in some other agency if they don't.

:-|

Before going to work, andie and I hanged out for a while in Starbs insular, just to rant how frustrating and ironically funny this has been. first, her passport had to be renewed. second, I needed to get that pointless "updated" birth certificate. then they all came at the same day, surprisingly! pati invitation letter ni mazel! tuesday afternoon to be exact! we've been thinking that it's a good omen all along, when suddenly this Ed tells us that JUST YESTERDAY, "there's a problem in Japan". hahahaha! (when Ed said that btw, Andie thought that Japan is closing for good. while I thought: "what bakit, may gera ba sa japan? may kumakalat bang sakit??" hahaha!)

On 2nd thought, maybe... just maybe... God has been delaying our requirements because if we submitted them earlier, then they're all stuck up by now in the embassy just because they're being processed by an agency that's not accredited. just maybe. hehe. anyway, Andie and I agreed that IF these are bad signs, that we can't have our visas after all, then we'll just go to (plan B) SG instead to visit our friends there, or to (plan C) HK since cheap packages are everywhere lately, or to (plan D) Cebu to just drown ourselves in danggit and dried mangos. WHEREVER BASTA MAY BAKASYON!

Of course, there's my plan E: if she gets a visa and I don't (hey, that's possible. she had a Japan tourist visa before! while me, NONE at all!) I'll go out of town, I'll splurge, pigout and relax on ANY Philippine destination, and that would be waaay cheaper than my budget for Japan. hehee. Though I still don't know where. WHEREVER BASTA MAY BAKASYON!
 

highway blues

Just a random-but-may-be-useful-trivia: Do you know that it takes 9 toll receipts to travel from south to north? I just gathered 9 toll receipts, as BJ and I had to go to Subic for a client meeting yesterday. all in all they're worth Php 738:

1. nlex, alabang to nichols: 65
2. slex, balintawak entry: 36
3. slex, balintawak to dau : 138
4. sctex, subic exit: 112
5. sctex exit to tipo: 18

times 2. such a sneaky travel expense huh? good thing it shouldn't come from our pockets! hehe.
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on our way back, while we were on balintawak-bound nlex, we saw this:



yes, a rainbow! it was just an ordinary rainbow till we were in between vast rice fields, just a few secs after my first shot: we saw BOTH ENDS of the rainbow, SO CLEARLY! My phone cam's just VGA so this is my best shot:


AND LOOK, NOT JUST ONE!

It was really beautiful! *sigh* I could've asked BJ to pull over so I could capture the rainbow end-to-end -IF I BROUGHT MY CAMERA! Do you know that in my entire life I've never seen a rainbow's end?! or if I did, I'm pretty sure I've never seen BOTH ends! TILL YESTERDAY! *sigh again* anyway, thanks ha, cellphone. hehe.

AND NOPE THERE WAS NO POT OF GOLD!!! =(
 

still living but expired

yesterday was such an awful day, as I realized that my remaining copy of birth certificate at home is old (yes, it's NSO authenticated but delivered years ago) and that according to Japan's embassy site, they require birth certificates issued within one year (same as when I got my passport last year). so at 2pm, I ordered a copy of my birth certificate through e-census then rushed to unionbank atc to pay for it. which means I'll get it sometime next week -tues or wed. which means andie and I should postpone the application for the 2nd time!
:(

I feel bad knowing that I should have checked this days ago. I feel worse thinking that really, this birth certificate "issued within one year" thing is ridiculous... birth certificates shouldn't expire till you die right!?

Solar Eclipse

I feel a bit bad now that I didn't pay so much attention to this phenomenon (as I was busy in the morning and the nearest window to my cube isn't facing the sun, AND I don't have a film for protection either haha)

well well, till the next long eclipse I guess!
which is year 2132 btw hahaha

Though I enjoyed seeing the slideshow in yahoo news -you might want to check them out. some pictures are interesting, some are funny! hehe
 

bandwidth, pumapayat ka a

I remember that day in my previous work when our president angrily reminded the big-bandwidth consumers to avoid downloading and accessing sites that require streaming (i.e. listening to FM radio via ym, watching youtube, etc) -and yes she knew who they were, the network admin had means. and to be called for that was quite embarassing. I was lucky coz my only addiction that time was livejournal.

Admittedly though, I've been addicted to facebook lately, specifically to Restaurant City, causing me to login several times a day even during office hours. till today, when I realized that these social networking sites have taken so much of our office's bandwith (scenario now seems familiar!) The connection's now sloooow and erratic! facebook even probably, sneakily deteriorates everyone's productivity. I can now understand the sentiments of my former big boss!

Not that I'm becoming a KJ. seriously, as a boss, I am output oriented, and I don't care how one uses his/her office hours. I am just so bothered that the usage of the company's internet connection, for self-online-gratification is becoming too much here. And so I'd like to make a resolution: I won't checkout Facebook except during lunch time and after work. and I'm hoping that my officemates would do the same too, for a start, to at least one of the other addictions which I luckily never touched from the start (twitter, plurk, etc) as I didn't want to maintain so many usernames and passwords. hehe

I speak up simply because I don't want our big boss to discipline us someday by blocking these sites. and of course, I want everyone to enjoy a faster connection in accessing more relevant/work-related information :)

holy guacamole!

last weekend I got to experiment yet another dip. As mama over-bought avocados (mama buys lots of anything in season), I decided to make guacamole! simply, it's just a mixture of mashed avocados, lemon, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper. and because I wanted it to be grainy and thicker, I added lots of grated parmesan cheese (I hope that didn't tweak the definition of guacamole!). It went perfectly with nova and piattos :)

What news should be!

I rarely watch the news as it becomes more and more ridiculous each day (politics, economy, a(h1-ewan), crimes, small news from eskenitas that aren't relevant etc etc) but last night I gave it a chance ...and I was quite lucky to catch several good news :)

1) PNR is back to life! Phil. National Railways has new, airconditioned coaches (plus old coaches later on, to be refurbished locally) which are now running from Tutuban to Sucat, at very affordable rates. Before the year ends, hopefully, trains will run from CALOOCAN TO BICOL! I can't wait to say goodbye to the highway traffic and expensive bus fares. I will definitely try Alabang to Vito Cruz once the Alabang terminal's already operational! [read more]

2) Cell phone load validity will be extended! As NTC's response to Enrile's "vanishing load" issue, credits of P10-P50 will be valid for 5 days; P50 to P100 for 30 days; P100 to P250 for 60 days and P250-300 for 75 days STARTING SUNDAY. On the other hand (on text spam) subscribers will no longer be bombarded with spam messages unless they subscribe to such promos, effective July 23. [read more]

3) 22 essential medicines will be cheaper! Next week GMA will sign the executive order that will cut the prices of drugs for hypertension, diabetes, cancer, stroke, asthma and infection. [read more]

sana laging ganito ang balita na napapanood sa TV :)
 

Ever got this feeling?

 
have you ever tried making a user's manual? how about making 4 manuals (100 pages EACH) AND 1 SRS (but about 200 pages) WITHIN 2 WEEKS? it's like eating fatty pork with lots of mayonnaise. nakakaumay grabe! this milestone bores me (SERIOUSLY BORES ME) that I tend to check my mails, LJ, multiply and fb alternately, a ZILLION times a day. I need to be productive again :( help!

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meanwhile. andie and I decided to postpone our japan visa application as she still has to renew her passport (yes, we're planning to go to japan. loooong story, i'll post the whole thing sometime soon, when I get to touch my personal laptop again. ALL my backposts are there, written in notepad! hehe)

anyway, I'm a bit worried coz by then my employment certificate and last payslip will be outdated -I think. which means I have to re-collect the latter from our main office. while andie thinks all my docs will still be as good. I neeeed that optimism! If we get our tourist visas (on time) then we'll go to Osaka-then-Nagoya on August 12 because it's a good time to visit mazel. I'm uncontrollably excited over a very unsure thing. which is bad, I know. ever got this feeling?! *sigh*
 

nalunisan

today i woke up earlier than usual, left the house earlier than usual, then came here in the office LATER THAN USUAL. what could be worse than monday traffic PLUS jeepney strike? arrrgh.

4th of july weekend

last friday,our street dance teacher made a sweet tribute to Michael Jackson, by coming in wearing an MJ hat, AND by introducing MJ steps for ...Billy Jean! steps were harder tho, I had a hard time following them! and yeah there was a moonwalk part! really funny! hehe

After spending the night at the gym, I had a yet-another-solo-date at Misato, a jap resto somewhere between the gym and our office. I noticed I'm doing this almost every friday, and so I decided to setup a new blog that will be solely for my friday pigouts! you can now visit it here(misato post is already there)

*edit - I'll republish my food blog after I gather about 10 posts (OC-attack!)

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Saturday morning, I had brunch with mela and abby at Dulcinea, Casa Susana. then spent the whole morning bonding and chatting, coping up with so many kwentos! some pix:

\
abby, me and mela


our continental breakfast

after our brunch, I went to makati to open up a BDO account to somehow "enforce" saving during payday weekends (I pass by BDO prior to splurging AND it's open during mall hours. perfect isn't it?) let's see if it'll work. hehe.

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tomorrow's monday again (how depressing. huhu)
anyway. thank God for a fun weekend!!!