~* PRE-PLANNING FOR A 4-DAY VACATION *~

Fine, I admit it. I've never been a light packer. Even if I attempt to travel light, I still always end up as the gal with most bags whenever I travel with friends or officemates. My latest trip to Cagayan de Oro and Camiguin with my college friends has proved to be a challenge to my packing prowess. I think I can never really achieve a one-bag rule coz I'm OC and I always prepare for the worst. In an attempt to help fellow travellers in maximizing those treasured vacation leaves, here are some travel tips I've come up with:

1. Surf the net for tourist attractions, modes of transportation together with estimated rates and duration of travel. Using data gathered, prepare an itinerary which you can bring in your pocket. It should also have the corresponding estimated expenses, important contact details of the hotel, tour guide, transportation, etc.

2. Bring a map of the town for easy navigation. You wouldn't want to be a helpless and lost tourist in the middle of nowhere.

3. Make a checklist of things to bring so you won't forget to pack anything.

4. Plan your attires to see if you can easily mix and match your clothes.

5. Pack a blow dryer. Aside from hair styling/drying purposes, it can also speed up drying of your wet swim wear if you need to pack them ASAP. (It also saved the day for me when I forgot to remove my money bag from my waist when I went white water rafting... I spent about 5 minutes blow drying my wet mushy Ninoy bills on my hotel bed!)

6. Bring your celfone charger and/or digicam battery charger.

7. Bring lots of small bills and coins for transportation, tips, entrance fees, etc.

8. To minimize bulk, instead of packing a towel, buy a "super magic towel" or "super absorbent towel" from Watsons. The super magic towel is like a car chamois while the super absorbent towel is like a fine-fibered regular towel. Both are about the same size as a pillow case.

9. Buy a waterproof pouch for your digicam, celfone, ipod and wallet if you plan to take a boat/ferry or go white water rafting. I got mine from the Store Shop Outdoor Lifestyle Company (right across Jamaican Patties) in Park Square I.

10. Pack leaky stuff like toiletries in a ziploc bag. Bring extra big ziplocs for wet bikinis, board shorts and aqua shoes.

11. Buy toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner in sachets instead of bringing them in tubes/plastic bottles.

12. Bring an extra foldable bag/sturdy plastic for pasalubongs.

13. Put a bag tag on all your bags and/or insert your calling card inside your bag's pocket.

14. Bring a masking tape and pentel pen which you can use for labelling your bags and packing stuff. You can also use the tape as a marker to easily spot your bag on the airport conveyor belt. Others tie a bright colored ribbon on their bags for easy spotting.

15. When packing clothes, you can roll them, pack a folded set of attire in a ziploc (press hard to remove air inside the ziploc) or do the bundle technique which I learned from onebag.com.

16. Bring lots of tissue, alcohol/hand sanitizer and wet wipes.

17. Don't put your moolah in one place. I separated a bigger chunk of my pocket money inside a money bag which I strapped on my waist and wore under my clothes.

18. Belt bags are very convenient when travelling. You can put all your valuables/plane ticket in it and then have both of your hands free for carrying other stuff.

19. Better wear a pair of sandals or flipflops to the airport coz regardless of whether you're wearing boots or skinny flipflops, they will still ask you to remove your footwear to include it on the x-ray conveyor belt.

20. If you expect to be moving about in different vehicles (for us it was a plane, a taxi, a tuktuk, a multicab and a van) bring a backpack instead of a trolley bag.

ABOUT PBB's GEE-ANN

Gee-ann is a cousin of my cousin so we're especially rooting for her. I'm also rooting for Mickey :)

Oh, and I despise Wendy. Having a father who didn't love her & left her family is no excuse for all the royally biatchy things she did. She says she's just "nagpapakatotoo" that's why she's showing her bad side. I beg to disagree -- "pagpapakatotoo" does not equal to letting loose your maldita behavior like you're the world's top evil spawn. She probably hasn't heard that there's such a thing as self-control, anger management, basic ethics and social etiquette. That just shows her lack of breeding. Oh, and it also highlights Bruce's non-existent balls.

I'm re-posting here an email forwarded to us by Gee Ann's family...
========================================

Originally Posted by hydrangea

Guys, got this from multiply. This came from Ivere Abrahan:

WHY GEE-ANN SHOULD REMAIN IN BIG BROTHER'S HOUSE

I am writing to seek help for Gee-ann Abrahan who is presently a housemate inside Pinoy Big Brother's house.

Gee-Ann is a 3rd year Mass Communication student at the Assumption College in Makati. Her parents are separated and she lives in Quezon City.

Gee-ann is noted as the "sologs" (sosyal na jologs) housemate of Pinoy Big Brother Season 2. Declaring her fondness for TV soap operas and local films, she entertained us with her Dying Inside, Bizarre Love Triangle,and Andrew Ford Medina performances and amused us with her hilarious "forevermore" and "mahigpit pa ang kapit ng gamu-gamo" lines. Gee-ann deconstructed our notion of the typical sosy girls or kolehiyalas. She transcended stereotypes and rose above imposed values. She headed out a new awareness that a person can, in fact, savor the best of both worlds.

An outstanding student from Kinder to Grade 6 at Miriam College, one of the highest-ranking examinees in the Assumption College High School Entrance Exam, and a Dean's Lister in College, she has brought the same level of excellence inside PBB house by winning the 9x9 Sudoku Puzzle Task (Gee-ann is a self-confessed 16x16 Sudoku wizard), the League Task Lambitin, and the Tug of War Task. She also composed some of the songs in the Puppet Show Task, dazzled us with her cheerleading prowess and largely contributed bright ideas in the group's brainstorming. Plus, she successfully accomplished her personal tasks -- Blindfold for A Day Task and Laundry Task.

Together with Mickey, Bodie, and Beatrice, Jasmine, Dionne and even Kian attest that Gee-ann is one of the housemates who has established a meaningful connection with them, a bond that is beyond mere harmonious co-existence but a friendship which entails genuine concern for another housemate and innate generosity to other people.

"I was born weak pero hindi ako aalis ng bahay na 'to na hindi lumalaban!"

As PBB2 unfolded, Gee-ann also underwent a total character transformation before us. Initially, she hit us with her "Pamela Monologues." In the course of events, she gave up Pamela, not just to spare her from being automatically nominated, but she realized that it was an opportune chance to set off her maturity and emotional growth. And it did.

We were all first-hand onlookers to how she progressively acquired household skills, social competence and an ethical stand. Her surprising confrontation with Dionne, her heartfelt dialogue with Kian, and currently, her attempts to withstand Wendy's cruel remarks are verification that Gee-ann is, after all, so much more than mere charisma.

Gee-ann, therefore, possesses redeeming qualities which added value to the show. She instigated a change in our sensibilities by revealing the other side of today's reality.

If Gee-ann becomes the Big Winner of PBB2, she will challenge and reconstruct our socio-psychological mind-set. We will be able to break free from a "survival of the fittest" attitude in which survival is obtained by outdoing, harassing, and critically judging another person. Through Gee-ann's triumph, many will realize that there are far more important things than conforming to socially constructed standards -- that a resentful heart and a wicked motive is far more harmful than a childlike habitual gesture to cope with life's disappointments. PBB will be able to revolutionize our now twisted ideology and degraded moral values -- that a person's burning desire to alleviate HER condition can never justify HER WRONG ACTIONS.

Gee-ann is a reminder that we have evolved into a society which recognizes interdependence. At times, we need a little humility to tolerate our imperfection, to put us in touch with other people, and to allow them to show their care for us. She made us aware that despite our irreconcilable differences and conflicts of interests, each person must be treated with respect and dignity.

This is an appeal to your kindness to help us keep Gee-ann inside PBB house. Let us put our resources together and do everything to ensure her win in this competition. Let us encourage our friends and relatives to vote for Gee-ann and to campaign for her in our offices and among our circle of friends

Let's do this together and prove that PBB is not a farce. We will take a stand and we will do something.

~* DRIVING 101 and OTHER TV-MOVIE THOUGHTS *~

After a bit of a nagging from my mom, I enrolled in A1 Driving School for a 5-hr A/T course. No, I don't have a new car and neither is my dad buying one for me -- it's just so I can drive in case of any kind of emergency.

The first step was to get myself a student permit. I took a VL from work to do just that. Getting the student permit in Las Piñas LTO was so dragging. I was there 1pm and was only called for ID photo and signature at 3pm. As with all other government-issued docs/IDs, my student permit photo totally sucks. I just hope I'd have a better pic when I get my non-prof driver's license. I paid A1 more than double the price of the actual student permit just so they'd have the burden of waiting for the permit til probably 5pm. I will most likely pay another obscenely overpriced fee for getting my non-prof license hassle-free.

Had my first 2 hours of driving lesson yesterday. It was fairly easy to get the car moving from point A to point B but at no more than 20mph speed, haha. Probably the funniest thing that happened was that my car stopped on top of a road hump. As per my driving instructor's evaluation, I still need improvement on left & right turning, turning to the correct lane at an intersection and observing safe distances. My problem is that I can't estimate whether I'd hit the curb or a car when I turn. I'm scared that I might have miscalculated my turn. I can't see my car's front bumper so I'm having some trouble approximating space. Argh. Oh and my neck hurts from all that craning. I should probably sit on a pillow to give me some height when sitting hehe.

My next 3 hours of driving lesson will be next week. I am already dreading the parking, backing and maneuvering that I will do.

*****************

Ok, so the past month of May brought big Hollywood movies our way. Spiderman 3 was great but too testosteroney for me with all those action sequences. I love Snow Patrol's Signal Fire in the Spidey soundtrack. Shrek the Third was okay but I loved Shrek 2 more. Puss in Boots lost its charm. One comment though: why the hell did they use Damien Rice's 9 Crimes in one of the scenes? I felt that was sooo off! Damien Rice's music is too heavy and depressing for an animated flick. It's better apt for a Grey's Anatomy soundtrack. Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End was a spectacular visual feast as always. I just got confused though with some of the subplots. And their piratey accents didn't help me catch up with the story either. I was a bit "lost" with the story so I Wiki'd it. Found out from Wikipedia that there's still a scene after the end credit. Darn. We left as soon as the credits rolled so I missed the post-credit scene just as I missed the one in Pirates 2 :(

*****************

For the TV show season enders, I saw from E!News that Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) died in LOST. And Burke (Isaiah Washington) left Christina (Sandra Oh) at the altar on Grey's Anatomy. It's sooo frustrating that AXN will only begin LOST's Season 3 starting this Thursday. And Studio 23 has been advertising LOST Season 3 as "coming soon" since 2 months ago. Isn't that sooo NOT "soon" at all?! Well at least Studio 23 is now airing season 3 of Grey's Anatomy. No word from Star World though if GA 3 is coming soon.

Nowadays, I've been loving How I Met Your Mother and Heroes. HIMYM has been showing on ETC for quite a while now and I'm catching up on the first few episodes since it has just started to air in Star World. I *crush* Ted. His character is such a romantic :-) And I love Barney's lines! Neil Patrick Harris (post-gay announcement) proves to be a good comedian after all. Heroes has been airing on RPN9 but I missed the first half of Season 1 so I'm catching up via the Crime/Suspense channel which just started airing the pilot episode last week. My fave hero is Hiro (Masi Oka) coz he has such comic scenes and I *crush* Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia). Oh and did you see James Kyson Lee (Ando, Hiro's Japanese friend) judge the 2007 Miss Universe alongside Dave Navarro last week? Cool!

I know there's a gazillion copies of pirated DVDs of the latest season of these tv shows but I don't want to buy one coz I'm running out of DVD storage space!

~* NOW PLAYING: Infatuation by Maroon 5 *~

I'm loving the new album of Maroon 5 "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" . My fave tracks are the slow tempo ones in the same vein as She Will Be Loved/Sweetest Goodbye: Won't Go Home Without You, Nothing Lasts Forever (remember that part Adam sang in Kanye West's "Heard 'Em Say"? This is like the full version of that snippet), Goodnight Goodnight and Better That We Break. For the upbeat songs, the bonus track "Infatuation" is my fave... It has a very catchy chorus that it's usually my LSS (Adam Levine is still singing "i want it... i want it... i want it" in my head...)

I was wondering if Adam Levine (who still looks hot, by the way) and company will still be standing everyday out in the corner in the pouring rain... And after hearing this new album, the answer is yes -- in my book, at least. Maroon 5 still rocks :-)

Infatuation
Baby, I don’t want to spend my life on trial
For something that I did not do
And maybe if you stopped and looked around some time
I wouldn’t pass right by you

Maybe it’s because you are so insecure
Maybe your pain don’t care
Maybe it’s the chase that really gets me off
I fall so when it’s just not there

Burn another bridge, break another heart
Try again, it will only fall apart

Infatuation
Not seeing the rest of you is getting the best of me
It’s such a shame that you shot me down
It would have been nice to be around
I’m touching your skin
If it’s only a fancy, then why is it killing me?
I guess this must be infatuation (I want it…)

Try to put my finger on what burns me up
It always seems to escape me
And when you have decided that you’ve had enough
Just tell me where I need to be

Now her face is something that I never had
To ever deal with before
She left me with the feeling that she’d had enough
And I’m the one wanting more

Burn another bridge, break another heart
Try again, it will only fall apart

Infatuation
Not seeing the rest of you is getting the best of me
It’s such a shame that you shot me down
It would have been nice to be around
I’m touching your skin
If it’s only a fancy, then why is it killing me?
And I guess this must be infatuation (I want it…)

I’m so attracted to you
The feeling’s mutual too
And I get scared the moment you leave
Get so hot I forget to breathe, yeh

Infatuation
Not seeing the rest of you is getting the best of me
It’s such a shame that you shot me down
It would have been nice to be around
I’m touching your skin
If it’s only a fancy, then why is it killing me?
I guess this must be infatuation (I want it…)

~* ROSE-COLORED TIMES ON RIDES W/ YOUR EYES CLOSED *~

http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/17

those were rose-colored times on rides with your eyes closed.
those were rose-colored times on rides with your eyes open wide.
~ lisa loeb

i sooo loved the pink dusky sky!

I brought Charo, Tin and Abbie with me to our company outing at Enchanted Kingdom (Sta. Rosa, Laguna). Charo, Tin and I were at the amusement park around 4ish pm and Abbie followed around 7:30pm. We stayed til closing time 10pm. Basically, here's what we did:

1. Got our Wizard Money from my officemates. (P500/pax! woohoo!)


2. Snacked on hotdogs.


3. Got tickets for the 4D Discovery Theater (Pirates). It was just around 5ish pm but the ticket they were selling were already for the 8:20pm showing.


4. Pondered on whether Abbie (since she's still recovering from losing a gall bladder) should take the "real" seat when we see Pirates. The ticket attendant suggested that Abbie could seat herself on a monobloc chair. And then somebody will stand beside her and manually spray water on her using a spritzer. (Ok, the latter was my suggestion. lol.)


5. Tin, Charo and I proceed to the Dodgem. Wooohoo. I know na how to drive a bump car! It was my first time to navigate one by myself. Driving lessons c/o Tin and Charo hehe.


6. Rode the Roller Skater. It's like a mini-primer for the Space Shuttle. Tin took photos while we were on the kiddie roller coaster.


7. Got on the farthest side of Anchor's Away. I can't believe I let myself get talked into riding at the farthest side! Aaaaack. I screamed like a girl. I felt my insides lurch. While I was screaming and all terrified, Charo and Tin carried on with the photo ops! I couldn't even raise my hands up in the air! I was holding onto the bar (and leaning towards Charo) for dear life!


8. Gathered our senses in the *very boring* Rialto featuring "Peril on Akryls". *Yawn*


9. Braced ourselves for the Space Shuttle. Let me tell you that it does not help to have vivid recollections of the scenes from Final Destination 3 in your mind while queuing for the Space Shuttle. I was so paranoid that my seat's bar would come off in the middle of the ride and I had visions of myself dangling upside down as we go through the loop. Not good. I closed my eyes and screamed the entire duration of the ride. I think I hurt my neck and my back over there! Gaaah. I swear I will never ever ride that thing again. I'm getting too old! :p


10. Took a much-needed break and ate Domino's pizza while waiting for Abbie to arrive. I was still a bit woozy so I didn't quite enjoy my pizza.


11. Okray'ed the showband while eating pizza.


12. Met up with Abbie at the entrance and let her buy some food.


13. Proceeded to watch Pirates at the 4D Discovery Theater. I loved this one! It was fun with all that wind and water spray effect. Got kinda OC though about the 3D glasses coz I was thinking of how many people already used it. Ewww. I was thinking "oh no, I might get pimples!"


14. Rode the Jungle Log Jam and got mildly wet. Yuck, murky water! haha!


15. Witnessed the tail end of the fireworks display as we alighted from the log jam. Got a nice view atop the log jam bridge. I wasn't too happy with my fireworks snapshots though. They sucked.


16. Claimed our Jungle Log Jam photos at the booth. Tin blocked Charo's perfect log jam mega-watt smile with her hands up in the air hehe. Meanwhile, Abbie and I looked like happy/terrified (take your pick...) dentist patients.


17. Lined up for an uber-long time at the Rio Grande Rapids. The kawawa little boy with his parents got totally drenched on the first wave just a few minutes after our "take off". My back got a total shower on that big waterfall while Tin, Abbie and Charo's bottoms got wet by those huge splashes of waves.


18. Got our photo at the Rio Grande counter.


19. Still had lotsa Wizard Money left. Since the park was about to close and our money could not buy us a flesh-and-bone wizard for each of us, we spent our money at the Rialto gift shop. I got a purple pillow with the wizard's hat patchwork and we got Gabby (Abbie's niece) a violet wizard bag as pasalubong.


20. Had a final picture-taking in front of the Grand Carousel and at the park's facade.


21. Headed home with the gals. Mom made us a nice yummy post-bday/post-EK dinner of pasta, chicken and lumpiang shanghai. Jako followed at our house.


22. Watched -- or more like "listened" -- to the free extremely blurry signal of 24/7 Pinoy Big Brother on cable. The Slovenian "exchange housemate" just arrived. Crushed on Mickey's voice ;-)


23. Called it a day (umm, night?) at 1am.

more photos on my multiply: http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/17

~* DEAR LIE *~

Dear Lie,
You suck. You said you could fix anything. Instead I'm f***d. You made things even worse for me... Guess I'm not smart. I let you unnerve me. I let you control me. Afraid the truth would hurt me when it's YOU that hurts me more.

A picture of you reminds me how the days have gone so empty. Why do you have to leave me without saying that you love me? I’m saying I love you again, are you listening? Open your eyes once again, look at me crying.

Waited by the phone all day thinking that you’d call but you never did. So tell me it’s not over now, will you? So I won’t be hangin’ around and you won’t see me crying.

SO WHAT'S THE POINT IN ALL OF THIS WHEN YOU WILL NEVER CHANGE? The days have passed, the weather's changed. Should I be sorry? Could I be sorry?

I did it all -- all for you -- hoping you would see. Your eyes are dull, your hands are clenched. Are we ready? But you, you think about yourself, only but yourself -- but what about: Un-lonely nights, romantic moments, the love, THE LOVE, what about them? Throw it all away.

You know me well. You know it's wrong. Then what is it you feel? You hide behind those perfect smiles. It won't fool me coz you already did.

Someday you’re gonna realize. One day you’ll see this through my eyes. By then I won’t even be there. I’ll be happy somewhere even if I cared.

Someday someone’s gonna love me the way I wanted you to need me.

~* VISITA IGLESIA '07 *~

In observation of the Holy Week, our family had our traditional Visita Iglesia last Wed. April 4 plying the Tagaytay-Batangas route. As usual, our first stop is our very own parish - Sto. Rosario. Then we visited two churches in Tagaytay. In Our Lady of Lourdes church, we were fortunate to be there the same time as the famous relic of Padre Pio -- a piece of his glove -- was displayed there for the faithful to pray on.

In Batangas, the parish of San Francisco Javier had such a beautiful interior -- the grand altar, the painted ceilings and stained glass windows were awesome. The facade of the church was also nice to photograph since it had this regal-looking belfry.



It was our first time to see Caleruega and, indeed, it lives up to its reputation of being one of the beautiful churches to hold one's wedding. Inside the vast grounds of Caleruega are function halls, cottages, a koi pond, a hanging bridge and a chapel. The Transfiguration Chapel is ensconced in the midst of the flowery garden of Caleruega. The chapel is very picturesque and one could take pictures of it at different angles, at the upper and lower grounds. The pine trees frame the chapel and flowering plants line the stairs leading to it. Plant-lovers will have a field day touring the grounds of Caleruega coz they have soooo many varieties of plants around the compound. The place also has an outdoor stations of the cross which we couldn't pinpoint at first coz it was a wooden engraving featuring an "Igorotized" version of Jesus, et al.

To sum it up, below are the churches we visited:

1. Sto. Rosario Parish (Pacita Complex, San Pedro)
2. Chapel in Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (Tagaytay)
3. Our Lady of Lourdes Parish (Tagaytay)
4. San Francisco Javier parish (Nasugbu, Batangas)
5. Parish of Saint John the Baptist (Lian, Batangas)
6. Transfiguration Chapel of Caleruega (Nasugbu, Batangas)

More photos on my Multiply...

http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/12