Go Kikka! Hwaiting!

Have been busy the past week since I volunteered to help for the up coming SEA games. As some of you may already know, my youngest sister, Kikka, is on the Women's Artistic Gymnastics National Team. I would just like to ask you guys to please include her and the entire Philippine delegation in your prayers. If you could also come and support her on Nov. 29, 30, and Dec. 1 at the Rizal Memorial Colliseum, please do so.

Go Team Philippines!!

Something smells fishy

Last Sunday, my family (my dad, mom, 2 sisters & nephew), Kikka's Romanian coach, Lily with her husband Trian, and Marie, headed off to Cardona, Rizal, to spend the day fishing at Tina unnie & Binnie's fish pen. How UN-like (United Nations) can you get huh?

Anyway, it all started last Saturday when we (Me, Ia, Ela and Marie) went to the fishpen and spent the day there. When I arrived home, I told my dad about our trip. My dad, used to have a fishpen in Binangonan and was so excited and was listening with eagerness (i guess fishes bring him to a "frenzy." go figure!). Anyway, I asked Tina unnie if my dad could visit the fish pen and she said yes (as if she would ever say no). So my dad asks me if he could bring Trian along since Trian has been suffering from fishing withdrawal (he said he hasn't fished in 4 months) because Lily has been complaining that he was getting listless at home.

The day arrives and our merry group of 9 head off to Cardona (kikka is still in the US). First good news of the day: We didn't get lost!! woohoo!!! Our first stop was Tina and Binnie's house, where they tell me that Park Jung Shin gave us permission to fish in his fish pen (since Tina's pen only had fingerlings). Woot!! 2 good news less than 20 minutes apart! anyway, we head off to the port and park our vehicles and managed to fit ourselves onto the boat. When we arrived at the pen, Trian and Binnie busied themselves setting up their fishing rods while the others prepared lunch. My mom brought her chicken and pork adobo, Tina brought pancit lucban, and my dad made some fresh salad. My sisters and i brought chocolate cake for dessert. The guys hurried through lunch, aching to fish god knows what (since we weren't at Jung Shin's pen yet). Us girls just lounged around, enjoying the cool breeze while Ilai went back and forth to the men who were fishing and to us chatting. Suddenly, the guys were all excited when Trian managed to catch a kanduli. If you ask me it was just a small fish but the guys were excited (since they were fishing outside the pen) about it. Anyway, Trian caught 2 more before the hour ended. Binnie shifted locations and dropped his line near us. After a couple of minutes, he left the rod with Tina, then headed off to feed hie "babies" (the bangus fingerlings). Tina decided to join him and just propped the rod next to Marie. Marie suddenly told me that the line was moving. But everytime I turned, there was nothing. Marie kept insisting that there was something so I reeled in the line. To my surprise, something tugged at the line and that's when I realized that Marie was right! Anyway, it being the first time I fished, I was shrieking for the guys to help me since I had no idea what I was doing. Anyway, Trian manged to get the fish off the hook and I saw that that fish was the bigger than the 3 he caught!! woohoo!! Trian salutes me and said that he now considers me a fisherperson, even though I probably scared off all the other fish when I was shrieking. (^_^) So even if it was Binnie who baited the hook and dropped it into the water, Tina who swirled it around to attract fish, and Marie who saw the fish before anyone else, I still have a share in catching the fish since I reeled it in. Assa!

At around 1:30 PM, we head for Jung Shin's pen. After dropping us ladies (and Ilai) at the hut, the men head off for some serious fishing. We all just chat the afternoon away (my mom slept and Ela and I alternately joined her).












Then suddenly the sky grew dark and we start wondering where the guys were. I relaized that my dad left his phone at home, Binnie's phone is with Tina, and Trian wasn't replying. Great! no way to contact them. Finally, Tina decides to send a "rescue party" to find them. After a couple of minutes, the 2 boats returned and Ilai was jumping up and down as if the guys were on Survivor and this was the first time they were coming back. We learned that the reason why it took them so long to come back was the fact that they were catching so much fish that they lost track of time. With the sky getting darker by the minute, we scramble onto the boat to head for dry land.

When we reached the port, we saw mean loading up fish by the truckload. Trian asks the men if he could have his picture taken with 1 of the big fishes that they have (probably to brag to his Romanian friends). They agree and Trian selected a big one as his "catch." Binnie, being the funny guy that he is, joins the photo as the awe-struck bystander.



We stopped by Tina and Binnie's house to freshen up and then went to Morong, where my dad's former officemate, prepared dinner for us. We stuffed ourselves to the brim and quickly said our goodbyes (eat and run).

Needless to say, it was a very tiring but happy day. I was with both my family and friends.

Happy Peppero Day!!!

Thanks to Katie, I found out that today was Peppero day in Korea.

I knew that Koreans had a lot of holidays (like Black day and white day etc.) and that there was a holiday with this name, but i never figured out what it was about until Katie enlightened me. :)

Peppero day is a great example of the brillance of marketing. Create a special day wherein everyone goes out to buy your product. You start a trend and make some money. Anyway, on this day, friends are supposed to go out and buy Peppero sticks and give them to friends and family. It falls on November 11 because 11-11 looks like the Peppero sticks. Peppero sticks, by the way, are bread sticks dipped in chocolate (kinda like the Yan Yan snack here). I didn't know that the snack i was eating whenever I'd be in Market! Market! was the reason for the Korean holiday.

you learn something new everyday. (^_^)

Fast Forward

have been pretty busy the past few weeks, hence the lack of updates.

here are the stuff that has kept me busy:

- Mama Rica's bday and Tina's farewell dinner
for details & pictures, click here:
Eve
Leah

- Tina unnie left for Korea (on the same day as Tina). We (Marie, Ia and Ilai) were able to have breakfast with her and Binnie at Starbucks. And we gave em calamnsi juice concetrate (they both had colds) and a shawl for Tina's mom.

- Rushed to finish 2 Christmas cards for the Heaven Sent project. I had to bug my sister Ela to help because I don't have 1 artictic bone in my body. plus the fact that I had to give it to Tina Wu so that she could mail it when she goes to the US.

- I won a CD on Pops in Seoul!! woohoo!! I requested for an Epik High MV entitled Day of Peace. Although they didn't play the MV, they read parts of my e-mail. So I'm hoping that I get their CD (crossing my fingers for the 2nd) or even their latest, as long as its an Epik High CD but lately, it seems that they just send out any CD. Like with what happenned with My sister Ela. She won a Jewelry CD but the CD that they sent was Kim Hyun Jung's.


The guy wearing the glasses is Tablo, my fave. hehe! I just like cute geeky looking guys. probably coz i look like a geek myself. hehe!!

- I applied for a DSL. Until now I have no idea if they will be activating it or not. My request got caught during the November holidays, I guess. :(

- I've hardly been getting a good night's sleep since I watched this Halloween Special on Star World entitled: World's scariest ghosts caught on tape. Note to self: 1. You know you are a chicken yet you still watch these shows. 2. You know that by the time the show ends, you are scared stiff, and would probably wake up Kikka to sleep next to you.

- Been hooked to Bonnie Bailey's Ever After song. I even have it on my Friendster account. To those who have my Uchi-deux account, you can view it on my profile.

- Was part of the organizing committee for the Halloween thingie in the office. I'm usually a part of these things in the office but this year, it was really a headache for me since we were only informed like 3 days before the actual day of the party that we would be having it. Needless to say, the decorations around the office weren't the best the kids loved em so I guess it tuned out ok. Plus the fact that my nephew Ilai won best in costume (he was a fangless vampire) with the costume I bought the day before.

- Been addicted to the series of Two Chinese boys videos. it's a series of webam videos that these 2 Chinese guys have. They usually lipsych to Backstreet boys and they are a hoot. To those who have my First friendster account, go to my profile and watch it.

- Joined the SEA games volunteer thingie. So I have been trying to do a lot of work so that when I go on leave, for almost 2 weeks, I wouldn't be too swamped with work and that my boss wouldn't fire me.

- Went to Binangonan to with Marie, Ia, and Ela to visit Tina unnie and Binnie (back form Korea) and their fish pen. Was kind of tiring since it was the first time I have ever driven to Binangonan and the fact that we were led to believe that we were heading off to Laguna didn't help. Classic lost in translation moment. She told us we were going to Laguna so I though we would be passing through South Super Highway. When she told us she'd meet us at C5 heading towards the Libis area, I was having doubts. I figured there was a "secret" route to Laguna through Pasig. Turns out we were going to Binangonan but since their fishpen is in Laguna de bay, they referred to the place as Laguna.

There! I hope that covers everything. :)