Curious Cat

taken 22 October 2011, midnight-ish @ Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station

been busy for the past few days with my sister, who arrived last Saturday night. Thanks to her assistance, I am no longer living out of a suitcase. Sadly, she’s flying back to Manila tonight (why am I always saying goodbye?) - in a few hours, actually, so I’ll leave you with this photo for now as I take her to the airport. But (!) I’ll be seeing her in a couple of days again anyway, before we leave for Tokyo (woo!). That gives me 2 nights left in Hong Kong, until I return again next month. Hopefully, my elevator will be fixed by then (they started repairing it yesterday, and since then I’ve had to go up and down 7 stories each time). Seriously, thank God I won’t be here while they finish up the repairs. I don’t think I could last more than a week with a defunct elevator. I’m seriously not fit, and it kills me to do 7x2 flights every time I go up and/or down the stairs… last week, though, I did make an effort to do some exercise by trying out the 50-meter pool at PolyU for the first time. I managed 4 laps, to my credit~will do better next time! haha!

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first weekend home

I flew into Manila from Hong Kong on midnight early today, and in a few hours will be flying back to Hong Kong. I had such an unexpectedly happy feeling when I saw the lights of Manila twinkling below right before landing. I wasn’t exactly excited about coming home after just a month and a half in Hong Kong, but it came to me when it sank in that I was coming home.

Tomorrow, I’ll be flying back to HKIA, but rather than from Manila, I’ll be coming from Clark (two hours’ drive away from the capital) as I’m currently in Pampanga (the central plains of Luzon) for my Lola’s (grandmother’s) 80th Birthday Celebration. 

At the airplane last night, after I had accomplished my Arrival Card for the Philippine Immigration, my seatmate, in a painfully awkward way, asked me in broken English if I could help her fill out her Arrival and Customs declaration cards. She was apparently illiterate in English, and had been gathering the courage to ask me for help with it. I immediately obliged, of course, and asked her, in similarly broken Mandarin, for her details which I needed for her cards.

Another random thought - I was thrilled to completely surpass Hong Kong Immigration at the airport last night. It was my first time to travel with an HKID, which allows me to pass through an electronic gate instead of lining up at the immigration counters. I was trying to act cool and oh-so-casual when I did it, but I was ecstatic when I, MTR-like, swiped my card at the electronic gate, scanned my thumb, and just walked into the boarding gates zone. I mean even in the Philippines, where I’m a citizen, I still have to line up for immigration.

With barely any sleep, I drove my sister and I to Pampanga at 8AM this morning, where we practiced our performance the whole two hours on the road. My eyes were bloodshot and swollen from lack of sleep, and my vocal chords were barely functional anymore, so I downed two capsules of Vitamin C and forged on.

Here’s a shot of our performance during the event (held at King’s Royal Hotel and Resort Leisure Park, San Fernando, Pampanga):

We opened the program in front of around 270 people, mostly family and family friends. We opened with “Cabaret”, followed by Joyce’s rendition of “All that Jazz,” mine of “Roxie” (from Chicago as well), and then concluded the number with Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie”.

My sister and I doing the can-can

Our shiny costumes were purchased from the Mongkok Night Market (I bought them with Debbie last Sunday and then exchanged an ill-fitting white dress for the blue one with Dutch Alex on Monday… I bought him a drink for his praiseworthy negotiation skills that night..). 

Minutes before the performance, I had to rip apart the inner seam of my dress (with a blackberry charger, no less) to remove the pads, which made my boobs look inordinately and slaggishly huge… you would think I would have appreciated that after living without all my life, but I actually hated it.

And to our insecurity, the upcoming and professional trio, the Opera Belles, performed right after us. 

Got to catch up with Jam, one of the Opera Belles, my kabarkada and close friend since Elementary! <3 (Excuse the terrible cropped picture, I’ll probably be replacing this with the decent shot Karla Gutierrez has on her camera when I get my hands on it)

with my cousins Cath, Jacq, and Ange (plus Joyce, my sister, of course)

My God, I missed them so much, I am going to be downright desolate tomorrow spending an entire Sunday in solitude. I idiotically booked the 7am flight and not the 7pm flight. Incredibly depressed about that.

And lastly, me. With my wounded lips, new hair, and slagdress. 

xx,

Yeni

the send off

a long and tiring day, an even more tiring and sleepless night, and finally, death as an aftermath… 

This is probably far too private to publish here, but I’ll cut it down to the barest minimum, Gus having taken the latter in its most literal sense, refusing to don any clothes during his last hours in Hong Kong (don’t be scandalized, all his clothes were in the suitcase, and he didn’t want to perspire in the ones he was traveling in):

Me rolling and packing practically all his clothes for him, just so they would fit into his suitcase. And him being pathetically useless yet again..

If that night had only been the end of it, but no, I still have to ship the rest of his things (his HK library consisting of Plato’s Republic and Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, to name a few, a suit, etc.) to Devonshire in a few weeks..

adopted by my father and sister, queuing for the Peak Tram. This was the day before…

Waiting for the Airport bus, being scandalously shirtless  (old Chinese men do this all the time), but even more so as a white man (or a Greek God, as he would ridiculously phrase it) 

the most quid he’s ever held in his hands, after exchanging his whole Hong Kong bank account for British Pounds at the airport..

After seeing him off, I don’t know how I was able to get myself to the office to attend a big Orientation (I was falling asleep in front the Dean, to my mortification). I died on the bus from the airport to Hung Hom, and wobbled to work…

…and succumbed to a second death during my lunch break. The photo credit for this goes to Daniel. I was out cold.

And as I stumbled home from the most tiring 48 hours I’ve had for a long time, I was unable to collapse on my bed because I found these in the way:

my daily fare in Hong Kong made out to spell something indiscernible on my bed along with some book…

xx

photo of last night with the three from England in my flat : Vinnie and Angus standing, and then me and Paul seated.

Yesterday was my dad and sister’s last day in Hong Kong with me. I went with them all the way to the airport, and was incredibly sad to see them go. For the first time, I rode the train and MTR by myself, and walked alone to my flat :I It’s a good thing when I got home, my flatmates were there for me to bug, and Daniel, my Irish co-worker who lives in the flat upstairs, called for all of us to have dinner out together. 

So finally, I was able to put the faces to the names: Upstairs are Julio, the Costa Rican intern at UBS HK, Angus, the English teacher who will return to finish his degree in St. Andrew’s next month, and Daniel, my co-worker at PolyU who told me about this flat (I was about to stay by myself in a tiny studio somewhere else, originally). 

I found out last night that I can’t start work this week as my visa will still be ready on Friday. So for now I’m basically a bum here until I get out of HK and then come back as a working person. 

More updates soon! I’ve pictures from last night I should be uploading anyway :)

xx

Independence Day Weekend

I spent my long weekend pretty enjoyably. I was at Tagaytay Highlands last Saturday for the wedding of the hottest bride I’ve ever seen (and an equally dashing groom!). It marked the first wedding of a batchmate I’ve been to. I admire how mature they already are, and it’s a bit funny how much I realize I have such a long way to go (!).

I was the only girl in a car of four Xaverian boys (so I was therefore the only non-Fil-Chi there as well), but had loads of fun rapping (yes, rapping) our hearts out to Kanye West all the way up and down the mountain. 

I loved the fog, mist, and cold mountain air, and at one point felt like I was going back in time and into an old Aga Mulach Filipino film walking atop the elevated walkway from the main clubhouse of Tagaytay Highlands to some tower overlooking the Taal Lake and volcano. 

Here’s a shot of the walkway and of my carpoolmates for the day (Starring Robert as the driver in Barong):

After the wedding reception at the Highlands Steak House (which had amazing food), we headed to the paper factory of Darren (FEDCO Paper Corporation) at Canlubang for a short tour. I was glad to know that their secondhand German machines from Taiwan made paper and tissue 100% from recycled paper - no tree killing whatsoever involved in the process.

our delicious meal at the Highlands Steak House

our mafia shot at the paper factory (taken by Sam Huang)

the car got a flat at the factory, so we had to change the wheel in the rain (see how helpful I was being)

Lunch at Amoroma in Tagaytay before the wedding. Eat the Pizza Bianca. Skip the Salmon Ravioli.

And here’s a picture during the wedding, the part where the priest said “you may now kiss the bride…”

Congratulations to you both, I wish you all the happiness and healthy cute babies, and everything else that you surely deserve! Thank you for inviting me to witness this very special occassion in your life. :)

xxx,

Yeni