Halloween

I am at work now but will be out and about in less than an hour yay! Then I'm going to a halloween party yay! Only things that dampen my spirits right now are my baby hairs. No matter how long I stand in front of a mirror and despite my best efforts at staring them down, they remain defiantly upright. Stubborn little fuckers. They shall meet the business end of my tweezers tomorrow.

Volleyball and beer

I am in a lot of muscle pain right now. I made it to our company volleyball tournament last night. I was in our white team attire, the official sports jersey of extremely heavy fabric and short shorts with a basketball logo on it. I wore shoes that matched my outfit horribly, a mistake I'll be sure to avoid next Saturday. Volleyball is my most favorite sport to play and I played quite a lot of it in highschool. I was, in fact, obsessed. But after I graduated, I just didn't seem to have the time for it anymore. I took it up one semester in university but that wasn't proper playing, the professor always reminded us to give the guys a wide berth because we just might "get hurt". So for the duration of our sessions, I mostly fantasized about slamming a ball in her sexist face. I never got the chance but anyway, I've had time to get over that.

We played 3 intense sets. Our team lost the first set, then won the second. I was getting very tired and sore (in the muscular sense) in the middle of the second set, I was so out of shape. Well to be fair, I don't go to the gym and the only exercise I get is from walking. Anyway the third set was agonizingly long, the closer we got to 25, the more difficult it was to score each succeeding point. And each one was countered by our opponents. They were good, damn them. In the end, we had 23 on the board and the other team had 24. One of our guys was up for service. He'd been racking up points for us, but I guess he lost steam because his ball met the net and that ended the game for us. My service had been very inconsistent throughout the game, so I wasn't about to blame him. We lost. But it sure was a lot of fun haha. I'm actually looking forward to the next game.

After that, I needed to relax and unwind before heading home and a friend suggested we meet in Beers Paradise.

Beers Paradise is located on Polaris Street, close to Makati Ave and Jupiter. It's a bit in the dodgy part of Makati, well it is in the P. Burgos area after all, very red-lighty area, and just down the block from that infamous Handlebar, er, bar. But if you're looking for fun with the DOMs, by all means Handle is a prime requisite. Well maybe Ermita is. Or Café Havana. IIII wouldn't know. Oh dear now I've made a mess.

Hastily moving on, I just tried accessing that url listed below the telephone numbers, and have found that it doesn't exist. Hm. The bar boasts 100 kinds of beers (sic) but regulars complain that a lot of those are not actually available. That may disappoint some but not me, the place is clean and I was surprised that it wasn't at all seedy, considering its location and there was none of that greasy food smell that sticks to you, long after you've left the place. Their beers are quite pricey, but then they are imported so that's to be expected. The staff were very friendly and pleasant, definitely made it easy for my friends and I to just kick back with our beers and have an hours-long conversation.

I'm not a big fan of any kind of beer, I don't go out of my way to look for it but I have had beer that I actually drank all of. So I started with a Cherry Kriek, very sweet and cherry-ish (of course), almost not a beer really but it brought back memories of Belgium and Amsterdam where I had my first taste of it. I took to it so much that I bought myself a six pack when I found it in a supermarket in Brugge, and polished off every single one on the train to Amsterdam. It was a very pleasant ride indeed.

I only had one more after that, also a Kriek but the St. Louis one. I forget that beer makes you feel bloated and full very quickly. It also made me feel heavy and tired, probably from all the volleyball action I had earlier that evening. So we called it a night at a very reasonable hour and I was home by 1 am.

Today, I haven't done much except to spend time online, listen to Fantaschtischen 4 (who are good) and drink my Coke. Pressing priority is to see about getting a massage, I'm in so much paaaain.

Working on a holiday and half a job rant

I like working on holidays. Well sort of. Ok maybe not really. But I can work for 2 hours instead of the full work day if I so desired. It's quiet and lunch is free which is nice (and greasy). But I think the company's cost cutting because it feels like none of the airconditioners are switched on. It's really really hot! Well okay I think one's on just now but it's so not enough. So I'm probably going to take off within the hour and go to the lovely cafe down the road with its free internet connection and have some of its cold cold drinks and lounge in its cold cold interiors.

A book: Streetwise French Dictionary / Thesaurus

I bought this over the weekend and started reading it straight away. So far, so good. This is my first slang dictionary and it's exciting. I don't know why it's taken me this long to develop a proper interest in the language, considering the fact that I studied it in university. I can't remember exactly what I was so preoccupied with. It certainly wasn't French studying. Better late than never, I suppose. I'm finally going to understand those damn expressions with animals in them but almost never involving any.

Saturday and the first of its series job rant

Last Saturday after German class, I met up with some friends and we went to Salcedo market for lunch. Whilst looking for food and a table, I slammed my face into a metal post. I spent several minutes with my icy drink pressed against my cheek where a red mark was beginning to develop. My friends said it looked like I was trying to drink through the top of my head. Hmph. It only hurts a little when I press down on it now. I think my ego was lot more bruised.

That night we had dinner and went dancing at Government. Loads of fun, (it was Madonna night and they played Like a Prayer!) but my friends and I had to stand outside the club for over an hour because my guy messed up the list we were on and we had to wait till he sorted things out. It was horrible. It was worse than trying to get into Embassy and it's never my idea go there.

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Our company is currently having a sportsfest. Our team already won the men's basketball tournament. Last Saturday was the first round for the volleyball games. We won it but since the rules say that there should be 3 men and 3 women, we lost that round. Everyone's kind of wondering why I didn't show up on account of period cramps. Granted I went out that same night after the worst was over but it's not like a million pesos is at stake here or anything and I wasn't the only girl who could have played. And while we're on the subject, the GC that I was supposed to get for that design I made that placed third, well, I still haven't gotten it. So I quickly lost motivation to participate in any of the games. I'm also a little annoyed at the fact that I'm getting asked to do translation for Italian, German, Spanish and even Thai, which doesn't use the Latin alphabet so I can't even begin to make sense of that. Sure I can probably work on the Spanish and German translations, there are loads of available resources online and I am a resourceful girl. But that's not the point. First of all, there are translators for all these other languages. Most people decide to come to me just because the respective translator has taken the day off or their desk is too far away. I'm sure they're thinking oh she's a translator, maybe she can do this for me. At first I used to feel bad about it like oh I'm not helping out, I'm not a good employee etc, but it's happened enough times and even as I'm saying no sorry I can't help you, I don't know that language, they ignore me and say well have a look at it anyway and tell me what you make of it. And then when I repeat myself, they look shocked and at times, and this really gets my goat, hurt. It's really begun to irritate me to the point where I can't help myself and point out to them (and not very gently) that my job description covers only French translations. Hopefully that'll learn most of them because I don't like being rude, even when it seems to be the only way to get my point across.

Films: The Castle, The Experiment

The Castle
Directed by Rob Stich, stars Michael Caton as the main guy (the dad).

This came out a long time ago (1997 I think) but I didn't hear about it till Donny forced us to watch it to "learn more about Australians". If you liked Napoleon Dynamite, you might like this. It's a lot more painful. Hehe. I'd definitely watch it again, given the chance.

Highlights: A young Eric Bana. The entire Kerrigan family really.

The Experiment
Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, stars Moritz Bleibtreu (he was in Run Lola Run) and other negligible people.

German film, came out early 2000 maybe. Reminds one of The Cube but a bit more intense. I had to remind myself to breathe during the more suspense-filled bits. It really keeps you on edge. The presence of a love interest served absolutely no purpose but to confuse. Forgivable.

Highlights: Moritz Bleibtreu hardly wears anything in this film. Yes, that's it.

Light bulb moment and Cleopatra

Aha, I can't post videos here from YouTube because I switched to beta and they haven't sorted that out. They could have told me that earlier on. Anyway I thought Google bought YouTube. So what's up with that? Tch slow slow.

Anyway it won't be the same but this here is a link to the video I've been struggling to put here. Ghita is a song by 3 year old Cleopatra Stratan. According to my friend, the girl is singing about waiting for a guy named Ghita. I don't normally like children but she's adorable. And from Romania. Any country who comes up with a song like the numanumaei (Dragostea din tei) is okay in my book. Hehe. Heh. Hey come on, it's funny.

Traveller Dainius Kinderis

I know Dainius from Hospitality Club (HC). It's a site that brings people from all over the world with similar ideas about travelling together. It works like this: Traveller 1 (the guest) is going on a trip, he gets on the HC site, starts looking and talking to members living in the place where he is going to, finds Traveller 2 (the host) who is willing to host him for free (that's the spirit of HC). Traveller 1 arrives, meets up with Traveller 2 and they have a grand old time. It's very good. I've been a member for a number of years now and have used the site from time to time. It's really good and educational and the members I've met, through being a host as well as a guest, are friendly and very helpful. It's a different experience when you've got a local showing you around. Anyway, I hosted Dainius here a couple of years back when he went around the Philippines and he stopped by Manila for a bit. He was travelling a lot before I met him and he's been at it ever since! I heard from him recently and discovered that he's starting a trip to Africa. He's got a site documenting his progress and all. Check it out when you've got time: Africa4corners.

Blogging YouTube videos

I've been having trouble trying to blog YouTube videos. All day. It's really frustrating, and I was so excited about this video I wanted to put here. Harrumph.

Lull

I've been lazy, folks. Sorry I've been...well I don't want to say depressed because that's not accurate. Moody, more like. I'll be back and chatty soon. Maybe even in a few hours, who knows when the swinging will stop.

Melbourne: 9 days of holiday

Overdue post:

Day one. Arrived in Melbourne airport an hour delayed. Also the Wedding Day but we had enough time to claim our baggage and hail a cab (I made the mistake of trying to get in the driver's side) and get freshened up. Lots of smiling and posing and photomagraphing. Lunch at a swish resto nearby. Spent most of the day confused and disoriented with the new environment, meeting so many new people straight away and having another sister married off. Lots to process but was too fatigued to do anything but nod and keep my eyes open. Good food, lots of wine, lots of champagne. Went back to the apartment to take a nice long nap.

After dinner, I went for a walk on the beach with Thegan and a still very drunk Donny.

Day two. Parents flew out early morning (they arrived a week ahead of us). Drove on over to Waterfront City to see the Da Vinci exhibition. Brilliant man, brilliant exhibition. Ate fast food, average price is 7 dollars (36 pesos to 1 Australian dollar at the moment, I think). Discovered that food portions are huuuuge and that they call ketchup 'tomahto sauce' down under. Drove up to Donny's mum's house just outside the city and their friends were there for a rugby final but the Melbourne Storm lost...to Brisbane something I think, can't remember what their team is called. During the match, the male half of Thegan (you should know by now that I refer to my younger sister and brother-in-law in the collective) and I found ourselves deep in conversation with this guy who inundated our heads with Australian wildlife info. Both humbling and dismaying to realize I knew jack shit about it.

Day three. Long drive to the Great Ocean Road with stops along the way and back home. Spectacular view. Thegan slept through most of the ride. Froze our asses off, as I have mentioned in a previous post. Marvelled at the very efficient road system. Incredible day. It should look spectacular, only my cam phone is atrocious.

Day four. Big tourist day for Thegan and I. Also known as the hottest day ever, all 30 degrees of it. But I put on the warmest clothes on earth because the day before traumatized me. It was boiling hot. At least it was windy sometimes. Went to the Shrine of Remembrance. Got on the tourist shuttle bus (free), fun until loads of annoying tourists got on. It got amusing when some kids started bickering. Tried to set myself apart from all the others, but it's pointless when you're on a tourist bus. Went around once then got off at Melbourne Museum (entrance 6 bucks only). I would totally go back to that place, definitely worth another look. Then got on the City Circle Tram, slowest tram on earth but it was free and looks really cool when other people get on it. Found an incredible curry place on Flinders Street or Lane (street signs are very similar to each other) and had a 9 dollar lamb biryani that could serve a small battalion.

Day five. Started the day on my own, which means a late start really. But I was on holiday after all, so back off hihi. Successfully deciphered the public transport system. Went to NGV (free, except for special exhibitions), very nice place. Went to the park to get some reading done, but it was freezer cold, spoiling my attempts at a Melburnian thing. Hmph. The wind was howling too so I decided to do more walking around instead, to keep my blood from coagulating. Tried going to Fed Square but it drizzled and I got even colder so I went back to the apartment, sat dangerously close to the radiator (smelled singed hair at one point) and, as soon as I was warm and toasty, promptly fell asleep. Met my sister at the public library (apart from getting off one stop early, I got there on my own again!) and borrowed books.

Day six.

...

Hm.

For the life of me, I cannot remember what transpired on this day.

Day seven. Drawing a complete blank on what happened during the day but in the evening we went on a major bar/club crawl. New places are fun. Alcohol is not as expensive as I expected (a regular sized beer and a glass of champagne can be had for 5 dollars, mixed drinks as much as 12) and several cool places that did not charge entrance as I had thought (one place we went to charged 10 dollars for guys but free entry to girls, possibly because the place was in dire need of women, dj was terrible though, maybe that's why). Verdict: Excellent nightlife!

Day eight. Old Melbourne Gaol. Grateful to discover online that the night tour was fully booked. It was a warm and lovely day. We were all very spooked by the coldness of the place, but especially so by the numerous death masks littered around the place. This photo is too nice to have been taken by either me or my phone.

Day nine. Up at 5 am for a 7:25 flight. PAL was unreliable as usual, the plane didn't take off till nearly 10. Stuck in Sydney airport for a couple of hours as well. Both times for 'maintenance and servicing'. Dunno what that means, but taking off and landing filled me with a lot of fear. Didn't start taxiing till well past 12:30 and everyone was starving. Uneventful flight, the cabin crew people were very efficient. Arrived in Manila at least 3 hours later than scheduled. Exhausted to the bone.

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Things and places of note but I can't remember on which day they were seen/observed:

- Victoria Market (lots to see, lots to buy)
- ACMI (Australian Center for the Moving Image)
- People are called Steve-O or Kev-O. Well only those that are called either Steve or Kevin. You know what I mean. They do that to objects too, like barbie for barbecue or footy (maybe footie) for football.

- Fed Square (banged on drums with an amazing group of African musicians + white girl and random people from the crowd, ended up with very purple fingers)

- Lots of funny and very painful to watch TV commercials.

- Redundant doors (doors leading to doors leading to the actual room you mean to be in)


- Several bathrooms come equipped with boxes for used syringes (I guess if you can't beat 'em, at least make sure they clean up after themselves)

I'm sure there's more I wanted to write, but I can't be bothered to remember now.

- Oh yeah, and the water does drain the other way. I want to know why.

Books read recently

Got loads of reading done while in Oz:

Utterly Monkey by Nick Laird

I liked the writing and the story was nicely told but I couldn't warm up to the characters properly. Set in the UK and Northern Ireland (I think, can't really remember now).

4.2 chrismiss stars


Animal Farm by George Orwell

I don't know why I haven't read this before. I give it 5 red-hot and sparkling chrismiss stars. It's thought-provoking but adorable first.

5 chrismiss stars yay!


The Sandman Volume 5: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman is amazing, as usual, although I still maintain Smoke and Mirrors as my favorite but then I haven't read all of his works. But I do love the pretty pictures.

5 chrismiss stars

Lady Snowblood Volume 3 by Kazuo Koike

Hot japanese female assassin, born for the purpose of avenging her mother's death by killing her (mother's) sworn enemies. I've been dying to read her story for as long as I can remember. They're always in Japanese when I come across copies in restos and beach resorts here. I don't know why it never occurred to me to check the local bookstores. It just made me want to learn Japanese.

Did I mention that I like pretty pictures accompanying amazing stories? A whopping 5 chrismiss stars.

The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith

Big disappointment since I loved White Teeth and On Beauty. Couldn't stand the protagonist, Alex-Li Tandem. Just like I couldn't stand JD Salinger's Holden Caulfield. Smith still writes well and to be fair, I speed-read the thing because I was running out of time, so I give it:

2.7 chrismiss stars

Back from a short holiday

Am back in Manila. Must now work to make money. Going through 3 feet of paperwork right now. Huhuhuhu poor me. Adventure stories to follow shortly.

Drive on the left

Good thing drivers here in Melbourne follow road regulations, otherwise I'd have been run over by now. I keep forgetting that cars come from the right when I'm crossing the street. It's a bit unnerving.

Arrived last Saturday, flight was an hour delayed but we had enough time to get freshened up before heading to the wedding. Aside from a little cab situation (loads of people turned up in the city for the weekend because of a big football final), everything went smoothly.

Have done a little bit of touring so far. Last night we got back from a long drive on the Great Ocean Road to see lovely things like the 12 Apostles. Saw lots of cows and sheep and a glimpse of a wallaby. We stood on the edge of the cliff and I'm pretty sure I saw Antarctica from where we were standing. Hihi. Breathtaking view, it was windy and cloudy as well so our faces stung from the cold. Even my teeth hurt. Yeah one thing I noticed here is that the weather can be very tricky. Slowly getting used to it though. Over the weekend we went to see an exhibition featuring Da Vinci's inventions which was on-going when we arrived. Brilliant man. I plan to visit the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) to see more arty stuff.

Food portions are huge and I already ask for the kiddie sized ones. Cigarettes are very expensive.

Will be back soon with more to write.