Noel & Via

On my way to work this morning I noticed something funny by the road I usually pass. There was this hand painted sign on a fence saying "notary public" and right below it was a woman dressed in office attire. In front of her was a small desk containing what was probably essentials for that profession. Below her desk was another "notary public" sign. This all seemed normal except that this woman was sitting at one of the bright pink MMDA waiting sheds and her legs hanging and swaying without her shoes on. She redefined the meaning of the word public.

This reminded me of that time when we were driving through one of the new "flyover" bridges in libis where the lanes were separated by a shoulder high wall. As we were speeding through this bridge, we saw two people with their arms over the wall talking to one another. It looked like a typical scene of backyard neighbors gossiping. These two didn't seem to mind that there were cars passing them at 80kph.

Posted by Noel at 02:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRAN and CAMU!!! :)

my cousin Camille and my Mom lounging

Camu's bubbles gone overboard!

Sisters at the (Nail) Spa

Nail Polish Hoarding

Posted by Via at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Noel and I treated ourselves to an overnight stay at one of the Makati hotels, Hotel Dusit, as they had an Easter promo that was pretty reasonable. We brought along our gear of Season4 episodes of 24 and some reading material. We had a heavenly dinner with Mommy Vicks (Noel's Mom) at one of our all-time favorite Japanese restaurants, Benkay. Before that, Noel and I had a nice leisurely walk around the mall area of Glorietta. (Around since everything was closed for Holy Thursday)

On our way back up to our room in the elevator, we were with a more senior couple, a Filipina and an American. She very casually told him: "Then you can already start f**king." I think Noel and I took sudden intakes of breath and willed ourselves not to look each other in the eye and avoid contact with the couple against all costs.

As soon as we left the elevator, Noel and I burst out laughing wondering how she could be so nonchalant while the man she was with seemed so embarrassed. (This according to Noel as I didn't dare look in his direction) Then Noel realized, she probably meant "packing". At that time, it really didn't occur to us though- our brains were already down the toilet.

Posted by Via at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A week after getting the broadband wireless router that was a present from Dud, it is finally working. Steps that took to make it work:
1) Spend an hour on the phone with the manufacturer's only tech support, (office hours only!) and if it still isn't working it's probably a defective unit so you have to..

2) Call the place where you bought the damn thing and they will pass your call around until they decide that..

3) You have to call their other branch who has the tech person. The tech person won't know what's wrong with it and charges an outrageous amount to go to your place to see if he can possibly fix it. So the only thing left to do is..

4) Go to that OTHER branch and bring your router and laptops, then look for this tech guy and wait for him to do testing on ANOTHER router. Only to have him tell you that your router should be working.

5) You then tell them that they have to test YOUR router. They test it, and see that it isn't working with the mac. They tell you that the product never really worked with the mac and that the OTHER store where you bought it didn't know what they were saying when they told you that it would.

6) You wait there until another more knowledgable person recommends that you upgrade the firmware.

7) Wait for one more hour for the guy to download and upgrade the router.

8) Test. and Succeed. Listen to the tech guy tell you that it still might not work with your DSL modem because it might have a conflict.

9) Go home. Cross your fingers and hope that it works.

10) Thank God that it finally works and enjoy wireless broadband internet from your bedroom.

Posted by Noel at 03:56 AM | Permalink

I had my passport renewed last week, so I needed to take an ID photo. The process was painless and I got my passport in a week (yesterday). It was delivered to me in the office. The delivery boy asked me to check if everything was in order. Naturally I checked the new passport and if it had my photo and right information.

The delivery boy glanced at my photo and said, "Sir, ang bata niyo pa diyan" (you look so young there) "What?" I replied. "Eh last week lang yan eh!" (that was just a week ago)

Posted by Noel at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Noel and I attended our first wine and cheese event courtesy of the Philippine-Italian Association last Friday. At first we were afraid it might turn out to be a dreadful bore. But upon arriving at the Italian Ambassador's home in Dasmariñas Village, in Makati, it suddenly felt like we were in a little fairy tale ball. (Sans the gowns and horse-drawn carriages)

It was a large, white house with grand pillars and matching crystal lights. (Mel's friend commented that it felt like we were in Washington. Hehehe) The carabinieri (or Italian police) were outside making me feel like I had to present my permesso di soggiorno (permit of stay) like our Ivrea days.

Of course we were itching for dinner time which we enjoyed to the accompaniment of a Filipina and Italian tenor, alternately taking the stage. What was funny was when the Italian emcee said we would surely know the next Italian song... and we didn't. The singer would put in some monologues during the instrumental parts saying: "Ciao bambina. Ciao."

Dinner was all buffet: One buffet table was full bread, grapes and of hunks of cheese like ementhal and parmigiano while the other had different types of pasta. And the waiters just kept filling our wine glasses...
Dessert was tiramisu and gelato in mango, chocolate, pistacchio and tiramisu (that was oh-so-creamy!). And of course we had caffe'!

Then we sat ourselves down to some very exciting rounds of Tombola (the Italian version of bingo), during which Noel and Marco (the fiance of Mel's friend Pat) almost won. They just lacked one number! :( So there went our chance for a 3-night stay in Pearl Farm or El Nido. The Tombola Master was our very entertaining teacher, Renato Contis who made sure we were constantly at the edge of our seats when he called out the numbers. He even asked Noel why he was scratching his head! (Noel and I were equally surprised that he knew him by name!)

The night drew to a close by 11-ish, and we lugged our very full and happy selves to the door. The Ambassador, Umberto Colesanti, was there to see us off- kissing the ladies' hands as he said good-night. That was our little reunion with Italy which was quite an experience.

Posted by Via at 04:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just today I noticed how Philippine television programs are very similar to Italian ones. While in Ivrea, someone commented, "Isn't there anything else on aside from game shows?"

Being in a media corporation (ABS-CBN), its no wonder that we have 10 or more TVs on simultaneously. And today I realized that half of my day at work is filled with listening to game shows and variety shows like "Game Ka Na Ba?" and "Wowowee."

Sometimes it gets irritating, sometimes it just fades into the background. And for those unbearable times I always have iTunes to retreat to.

Posted by Noel at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just got myself a new phone. I've been eyeing this one for sometime now, mostly for its price and bluetooth capability to work with my mac. Well what made me take that step is a promo that came out now. Buy a moto and go to the beach. Yep free trip to either Boracay, Puerto Princesa, or Bohol for one person for my phone class. If you think its a good deal, go out now since promo ends on March 13.

More about the phone: I am a nokia user so shifting to motorola required some unlearning of some SMS things I have gotten used to. One glaring difference was that the delete and send button are reversed. I also noticed that you can't delete all names in one go, which might be a good thing since it comes with a software that allows you to do that. For bluetooth capabilities, it has lived up to my expectations, I use a mac application called BluePhoneElite which allows me to send SMS by using my mac. I also use iSync for my address book and calendar.. some bugs occur since it isn't in the list of supported phones.

Posted by Noel at 04:16 AM | Permalink

"One never knows what might come along during your workday, but there's no cause for alarm. Powerful friends -- the kind you cultivated for the purest of motives -- will be only too happy to help you handle whatever comes along."

This was my horoscope for today. Boy was it accurate!

Am still reeling from the surprise visit I received a few minutes ago from our neighbor- sporting a nasty black eye. She was the one we would hear painfully protesting on some nights as her violent boyfriend's fists met her face. (She said they weren't married)

I was almost paralyzed with fear when I opened the door- I've never actually seen anything like that in real life. She was trembling and asked to borrow a directory. I invited her in and shot out numbers that she should call, like a cab to take her far away. She made a phone call to a relative pleading that she had to get away and asked if I would do the talking. I refused and said she should handle it. I refused again when she asked for my contact info. saying I didn't want to be involved. I can't believe this entered our home! I just hope she gets to a safe place.

Posted by Via at 08:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just had to post this. Britain will award Bill Gates honorary knighthood. Can you believe that? I would award Steve Jobs instead. =)

Posted by Noel at 08:09 AM | Permalink