I have moved.

http://deaguwapa.com

I finally got my own domain, whoopee! I also moved over to Wordpress.

http://deaguwapa.com

I hope you can follow me there.

http://deaguwapa.com

Thank you, http://guwapa.blogspot.com. I had oodles of fun with you, but it's time to move on.

See you at my new blog, my dear friends!

Meet Cello

This half-Beagle/half-Lhasa Apso pup is my brother Momon's baby. He's the new apple of our eyes, everyone in our household is in love with him.

I have learned to clean up doggie pupu and wipe doggie wiwi. I never did that with Django, the yellow Lab I share with Abet, but that's because Abet does all the dirty work. But Cello is just so cute and so tiny and a little toilet paper and Lysol is enough to take care of his mess.

I'm just so smitten with this puppy.

Jonker Walk, Malacca Food Trip

I received today a positive comment on one of my blog entries about our backpacking trip last October, and I realized that I haven't posted anything about that trip in four months. It's a shame, really, because I still have a lot of stories and pictures to share about that adventure. I have my notes in my Moleskine notebook to remind me about our trip--that it wasn't just a dream--but my notebook doesn't have photographs. I did plan on documenting our trip on this blog so I can read back and look at our pictures and reminisce, but things got busy in December. Anyway, I'm going to pick up where I left off. My last entry about the trip was about our afternoon in Malacca, now let me tell you all about our food trip in Jonker Walk that evening.

If there is one thing you need to experience in Malacca, it would have to be Jonker Walk (or Jonker Street or Jalan Hang Jebat) in Malacca Chinatown, and it is best to experience it in the evening when it's alive and bustling with activity. The street is lined with antique stores and houses, and in the evening it is closed off and becomes a night market where food stalls abound.

We got to Jonker Street just before the sun set, and most food stalls weren't open for business yet. We were already famished at this point, though, so we decided to snack on the fare of one of the tables that were already ready to serve.

30 sen (P4.25) apiece, except for the sticks with pink tips which are 40 sen (P5.50)

cucumber was free :P

We tried the refreshments from this stall:

Abet liked the drinks here, we came back later in the evening.

I enjoyed the sweet-sour lime and plum juice

For dinner we tried Malacca's most popular dish at Restoran Famosa: chicken rice ball. Chicken rice ball is similar to Hainanese chicken rice (our favorite dish in Singapore), except that the chicken-flavored rice is served shaped like golf balls.

Abet's roasted chicken rice ball

my steamed chicken rice ball

Good and cheap, but I still prefer the chicken rice in Singapore. We walked around after dinner para magpababa ng kinain, and before long, we were ready to sample more of what Jonker Walk had to offer. Our pick this time: siomai! Siomai of different shapes and sizes and colors. We tried seven of these:

Abet loves tubo, he wasn't able to resist the sugarcane juice vendor.

I still haven't had my dessert at this point, so I bought a stick of assorted fruits dipped in chocolate. This wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't a cherry tomato in it. Blech. A chocolate-covered tomato isn't really my idea of dessert.

To cap off our evening, we had shared a bowl of cendol at Jonker88, a museum-cafe which is probably the most popular spot on Jonker Walk:

Sorry, super blurred photo (again, DSLR n00b here). This was seriously the best thing I ate in our entire 11-day trip. I first fell in love with cendol when we were in Singapore last year, and it is now on the list of my top 10 favorite foods. Cendol is a similar to our halu-halo, except that its main sahog is red beans and green rice "noodle strips." There's the finely shaved ice, and coconut milk is used instead of evaporada. Then there's that dark brown syrup made from palm sugar that tastes just like the latik of the biko my momma makes.

Whenever I reminisce about our trip to Malacca, I fondly think about our Jonker Walk food trip (and the cendol, of course). Blogging about this experience and seeing all the food pictures above makes me want to go back. Since I don't see a trip to Malaysia in the near future, I think I just might drag Abet soon to a restaurant named Malacca along Jupiter and see how it compares to the food we enjoyed in Jonker Walk. If I'm lucky, the cendol will taste just the same.

My March

Well, looky here. I can't believe it's the already the second week of March. Actually, I can't believe that it's already March, didn't we just celebrate the holidays?

I'm loving my March so far! At the home front, it's been very happy and fun lately, we're really blessed. We're all excited about Joe's vacation mid-month, and we're glad that he's now a yearling or a third class cadet--that's a second year student for us civilians.

This month, I've also been doing good with my fitness goals. I have a rather ambitious goal for this Lenten season, and I'm well on my way to achieving that by Easter. I've been trying to eat well since Ash Wednesday, but I amped it up at the start of the month by going to the gym after work. I actually went four times last week, and this week I'll aim to go everyday. I'm on a roll! During lunchtime, I now utilize a phrase I didn't really use before: "Half-rice lang po, 'te."I am so getting my sexy back this year!

Has anyone seen Alice in Wonderland yet? I'm a big Tim Burton/Helena Bonham Carter/Johnny Depp fan, so this is something I've been looking forward to since last year. The reviews on my friends' Facebook statuses are mixed, but Abet and I are still looking forward to watching it in 3D. We'll wait for a couple of weeks for a) our paychecks, because we're currently poor; and b) the opening weekend crowd to die down (but it's mainly the former, haha!).

Speaking of movies, I've been "craving" for some movies lately, I'm making Abet download random movies I'd like to watch again: Land Before Time, Fern Gully, The Cutting Edge, Drop Dead Fred, etc. Maybe it's because I'm getting older (aren't we all?), but I want to watch movies from my childhood again.

And speaking of poor, Abet and I have been staying in a lot recently. Weekends are now spent watching movies and TV shows on his laptop instead of going out. We take turns choosing movies. So far he's picked Somewhere in Time, I've chosen The Graduate and Children of Heaven, a beautiful Iranian film about a brother and sister and shoes. We also make the other watch our favorite TV shows: he's now watching How I Met Your Mother and Glee, and last night I watched the pilot of Ed (ancient, I know, but it's his favorite). We just make popcorn with their cool electric popcorn maker. I guess we'll be having more of these tipid movie nights in the next 18 months 20 years.

You know what I'm most looking forward to this month? My boyfriend's birthday! Abet will be turning 29 this year--pwede na nang mag-asawa! :D

Have a good month, y'all!

Father & Son

From That Girl

Django Boy

Django at 8 weeks old; Django at 3 months old

I miss that puppy. He's humongous now at 2 and a half years old.

This is just a filler post, I don't have much time to blog right now. No time to make these cute scrapbook pages, either.

Have a good weekend, everyone! I know I will!

The Search for the Church

Abet and I had our hearts set on getting married in Caleruega in Batulao, Batangas. It was the church of our dreams. In fact, we made a down payment last year because the weekend slots for 2011 were getting filled up, and we wanted to make sure to reserve our wedding date—a date we decided on back in 2007. However, late last year, we decided to be practical and have our wedding in Manila instead to save on out-of-town fees that most suppliers charge for Tagaytay weddings. To be honest, it broke my heart, and sayang ang deposit. But what the hey, we wanted to be practical.

So, early this year, we started looking for churches in Manila. We had two requirements: (1) the church needs to be air-conditioned, because Abet will just melt in the Manila heat if it isn’t, and (2) it needs to be small, because we only have around 100 guests and I don’t like vacant pews and a pangag look—I want the church to be filled up.

Looking for the perfect church wasn’t as easy as we thought because of one major reason: our preferred date is a Sunday, and most churches do not allow Sunday weddings. We had to cross out our top 2 choices: Archbishop’s Palace and Magallanes Church. *sigh*

Now, I refuse to move our wedding date. It is our fifth anniversary as a couple. October 16 is a very special, very memorable date. The last three October 16’s were beautiful celebrations of love, and we’ll celebrate it yet again this year. We celebrate the 16th of each month, we've done it the last 40 months, and 16 has always been our number. (Happy 40th month, love!) It doesn’t make sense to me to change our anniversary date.

So on to our search for a small, air-conditioned church in Manila that allows Sunday weddings. We narrowed it down to a handful (not that we had much choice, really): St. John Bosco in Pasong Tamo, St. Pancratius in Paco Park, Pope Pius in UN, and St. Ignatius in Camp Aguinaldo. We started with our ocular last weekend, and here's the church we decided on:

The Transfiguration Chapel

pic from Riandrew

Yup, we decided to push through with our Caleruega wedding! I'm so happy!

This is really where we want to get married. I even think that Abet wants this even more than I do, he was the one who suggested Caleruega in the first place. If we get married in another church, we'll be settling, knowing that we have our hearts set on something else. I'll just keep on justifying to myself over and over and over that we made the best choice. In short, lolokohin ko lang ang sarili ko.

Marrying Abet will be one of my biggest dreams come true, and it will still be the happiest day of my life at that point if we get hitched in Las Piñas City Hall. But if it is possible to make another one of our mutual dreams come true, why not?

Of course, getting married in Caleruega comes at a premium, and I'm willing to sacrifice for it. I'm willing to give up all my other wants, but not the church (and the groom, of course!). I probably won't be getting my dream suppliers for the cake, the invitations, and the hair and make-up artist among other things, but that's okay. Yes, I already have a list of who I want. I could probably even give up K by Cunanan, the caterer I'm in love with, and probably have our reception at Sonya's Garden instead. We'll see about the reception. I will focus on getting my top 3 wants: the church, the photographers, and the rings, in that order.

I'm very pleased with this recent turn of events. Boy, am I glad that I didn't have the heart to cancel our reservation before, I kept putting it off. I'll be a Tagaytay bride after all, a Caleruega bride.

February 11, 2010

Today is Joe's 18th birthday.

Today is the 12th anniversary of my dad's quadruple bypass surgery.

Today, my mom had her defense for her dissertation for her Doctor of Business Administration degree. She's now Dr. Mama! :D

I just love February 11!

Happy birthday to my dear brother, and congratulations to my dear mommy!

--=-=--

I can't believe that Joe is now 18. We're ten years apart, which makes me... ancient.

I don't care how big he grows, he will always be a baby to me.

Mario wedding cakes

Check out these lovely whimsical Super Mario Bros. wedding cakes!

From CakeWrecks.com

I wouldn't mind having a cute Mario cake for my wedding. However, I'm afraid Abet might want to suggest something crazy such as a Star Wars cake. No way, not even if it's as pretty as this Millennium Falcon cake:

Or this Star Destroyer, perhaps:

Also from CakeWrecks

Yes, Abet, I know what these are. No, we're not getting one.

I guess we'll be sticking to a traditional cake.

--=-=--

Yes, m'dears, I'm already thinking about my wedding cake. I take cake very, very seriously. :) In fact, we've already shortlisted our suppliers to two--my dream cake supplier which is a tad pricey, and the less expensive option that's so yummy and classic that it wouldn't be at all painful for me to compromise.

Ah, so many decisions. Good thing I really don't have to make any yet at this point.

I do want me some cake, though.

Norman Rockwell on Google

I love this commemorative doodle for Norman Rockwell's birthday on Google today.

I loved a Norman Rockwell painting before I knew what it is, this particular one that hung in the dentist's office when I was a kid:

I'd find out later that it's entitled Before the Shot.

When I got older, I found out that Norman Rockwell is my father's favorite painter. He had this as his desktop wallpaper at one point, The Runaway:

I'll have a print of this painting in my house when I grow up.

My dad also introduced me to these two humorous works, the Triple Self-Portrait...

...and The Gossip. Check out the expressions, especially that of the first/last lady:

I'm actually browsing more of Norman Rockwell's works on art.com right now and they're all brilliant. Go check!

Happy birthday, Norman Rockwell!

Barns + Bunny

My dear college friends Barns and Bunny finally got married last Saturday after 7 years! This is the couple I third-wheeled on the most. Back in college, Barns would take Bunny home with me in the back seat, and then he'd drop me off *hihi*. It was a wonderful wedding and I'm glad I got to witness the two of them become man and wife.

Bunny was the most beautiful bride ever! Here she is just after she entered the church, she was absolutely radiant:

Naka-jackpot si Barns!

One thing I love about friends' weddings is seeing everyone all glam-ed up.

SPECA girls


Locus (loosely defined by Speech majors as "kunyari may tinitingnan")
with Dr. Bulan, one of our favorite professors


Japan-Japan with the bride and (crazy-happy) groom

I loved my long purple dress, I hardly get dressed up these days. I kept my make-up simple though because I'm not really into make-up. Just Bare Escentuals mineral foundation + mineral veil, NARS Orgasm blush, MAC Lipglass in Pinkarat, and two coats of mascara, no eyeshadow.

My make-up was practically gone by the end of the night, we were having too much fun to bother retouching.

My friend Krst'll told us that night that we look alike, and today the photo above got a comment in Facebook that magkamukha daw kami. We get that a lot, and what I always say is: mas guwapo ako! Sorry, baby, I love you dearly, but it's true! Mwahaha!

Overall, it was a wonderful night, I had loads of fun. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to attend because I had what seemed to be sore eyes last Wednesday and was sent home for it, but by Friday my left eye was good as new (I irrigated it like hell). I got to dress up, saw Abet in a barong (he hates it, but I think he looks dashing), saw friends I haven't seen in a long time and had fun, enjoyed good food and the mobile bar (I hoarded the M&M's, shhhh...), and most importantly, witnessed two soulmates get married.

I can't wait for Adel's wedding in April so I can dress up and have fun with my friends again!

Congratulations and Best Wishes, Barns and Bunny!

Because funny is always in fashion

Tina Fey will be on the March cover of Vogue!

I can't wait to see this, Tina Fey is one of my ultimate girl crushes.

Krup-krup

En route from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, our van stopped over at Kampong Thom, a province two hours from Siem Reap. A stall on the sidewalk had crickets...

and beetles (or what I hoped were beetles and not roaches):

I don't really care about edible insects, I was more interested in the persimmons and pomegranates in the next stall.

Abet, however, wanted to get the crickets. He sampled some and liked them, so we bought a small plastic bag for 7,000 riel--around P80--for pulutan in our hotel room later that evening. They weren't too bad, actually. Perfect with beer.

Please excuse the girly fingernails--he's a guitarist.

Yum!

On the way back from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (towards Vietnam), we passed by Kampong Thom again. This time, we bought a tarantula for 500 riel (P6). Neither of us ate it. We'll stick to the crickets next time.

Bet you didn't know that...

From one of my daily reads, Learn Something Everyday.

My best impulse buy ever...

which was also the most expensive, was worth every single cent.

I just bought a guitar.

It's not for me, of course. It's for Abet. There's this guitar lent to him by his friend Joseph who is based in China. Abet's been using it for several months now, and he really loves the sound of this particular instrument. Now, with musicians like Abet, finding an instrument that one is really kasundo with is no easy feat. It's akin to finding a girlfriend or boyfriend. He is partial to the sound of this guitar and wanted to buy it months back, but the owner wasn't selling.

Last week, the owner offered to sell him the guitar, but Abet declined. He said he has other expenses to prioritize; he has a trip to Bangkok (short-term) and our wedding and beyond (long-term) to save up for, and that guitar wasn't in his priorities right now.

Of course, I couldn't let that offer pass up, could I? It would just absolutely break my heart--and his, for sure--if that little piece of plywood spruce and glue and varnish would be sold to someone else. So I did what any supportive girlfriend would do: I e-mailed Joseph and offered to buy the guitar behind Abet's back. It cost as much as our budget for one person for our 6-day/5-night trip to Bangkok with accommodation at a 5-star hotel this June. Pikit-mata akong nagbayad, and I paid for it as soon as I could before I could change my mind.

Lest you guys think that I'm Abet's sugar mommeh, let me say that I paid for it from our joint money. I did some quick calculations and realized that we can afford the guitar. I know I should have discussed such a major purchase with him before I made any decisions, but if I did, he would have hesitated and talked me out of it. He's as worried about our wedding and our post-wedding finances as much as I am. Besides, his face was priceless--just priceless!--when I handed him the deposit slip today. I didn't tell him what I did, I just let him figure it all out. He actually teared up a bit, much like how my sister May teared up when Abet gave my family a beautiful guitar two Christmases ago. Oh, he was so happy! It was all worth it. Honestly, I was a bit worried about how he might react. I did have to promise him that I won't ever do something like that again, though. I won't, I promise. I don't think that will be allowed once we're married.

He was so happy today, he gave me impromptu guitar lessons. I think it's about time I learn--the guitar is half mine, after all.

*EDIT*
The boyfriend had a violent reaction to this blog post. It's spruce daw, not plywood. Foyn. :P

Money, money, money...

must be funny in a rich man's world.

I just realized that I'll be thinking about money everyday for the rest of my life starting now. :-/

Abet has decided to stay here for his MA instead of studying in Japan, the pros of staying here outweigh the cons by a ton. This change of plans brings us back to our original plan: get married next October on our 5th anniversary. Our original date was October 16, 2011 (we decided on this just after being together for a year), but Abet had decided to study in Japan and he wouldn't be home on that date. We were to push the wedding to April 2012. Now we're back to the original plan.

Which means we'll get married in 21 months.

Which means that we have only have 21 more months to save up.

Which is too little time, really.

We actually started saving together in 2008, depositing an equal amount monthly. Yes, we went where angels fear to tread: the joint savings account. We do have some money stashed away (in BDO in MoA, to be exact), but we counted our money and made a wedding budget earlier today, and we realized that we don't have enough. We won't have enough if we put in the same amount we've been putting in all these months. No, wait. We'll have enough for the wedding we want, but that's it. No money for the 1 month advance, 2 months deposit on rent, no money to buy a refrigerator and a dining set and 400 thread count sheets (¡Que horror!), and no money for a honeymoon (an even bigger ¡Que horror!). We'll have to amp up our savings.

My goodness.

I've never really thought about money as obsessively before. I make some, save some, pay my credit card bills, and spend the rest. The only thing I majorly saved up for and spent was travel. Now, I have the wedding to think about. I'll probably obsess about this--what we can and can't afford, what nice-to-have's to let go of, what to prioritize with our budget. After the wedding, there will be the rent and bills and groceries. Then we'll have to buy a car (I don't want to be a pregnant woman a-commuting). Then we'll have a baby. And then another baby. (And maybe still another baby.) Then the babies will grow up and go to school and go to college. Of course one of our ultimate dreams is to have a house of our very own sooner than later, so we'll also have to work on that.

It won't stop.

I wish I did some major splurging yesterday before I realized all these.

A rather late year-end post

I didn't plan on filling this out for 2009, I've been lazy with my blogging lately, but reading other people's 2009 surveys made me want to write my own. After all, 2009 was an eventful year--exciting, difficult, stressful, amazing, fun, tiring--and truly memorable.

Thanks for the memories, 2009. You were fun, but I'm glad you're over. I'm looking forward to more fun and exciting stuff for 2010.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? Pray like I've never prayed before. Having our baby brother enter the PMA was extremely difficult for our family. We have very limited contact with him, all we could do was pray for his health and safety, and for him to be strong. The worst is over now, though. We're done being through a wringer, and we're immensely proud of Joe.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I resolved to travel more with Abet. Check! I also resolved to save more. Check! I resolved to take better care of my skin and figure. Check on the former, big fail on the latter. So for this year, my number one resolution is TO GET MY FRIGGIN' SEXY BACK! Dang, I used to be hot. I want to be hot again.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Vanessa gave birth to Gab in May, Jarwin's wife gave birth to Jaden in June, and Chris's wife gave birth to Marcus in August.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Humans, no, praise God. RIP to my three pet fish.

5. What countries did you visit? Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam, baby!

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? Exercise, still!

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I have three:

• 19 March 2009, the day we found out that Joe got accepted into the PMA Class of 2013
• 20 June 2009, Joe's Incorporation Ceremony, the day we first saw him since he entered the Academy in April--it was just after he finished two months of military training and we barely recognized him
• 26 October 2009, the day I saw the sun rise over the Angkor Wat

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Planning our 11-day, 5-city backpacking trip! And being under-budget at that.

9. What was your biggest failure? Missing Joe's Recognition Ceremony because of our delayed flight home from Vietnam. I know it wasn't my fault, Typhoon Santi was beyond my control, but I'll always feel a tinge of regret whenever I think about this.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Just a bad case of costochondritis.

11. What was the best thing you bought? The backpacking trip. Every single peso I spent was worth it.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? This goes without saying: my brother Joe's. He's doing really well in the Academy. We are mighty proud of him.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? The Ampatuans.

14. Where did most of your money go? Travel and savings. No complaints here.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Every single trip to Baguio to visit my brother got me excited. I was also excited about our trip to Davao last March to attend my friend Maedeleine's wedding. It was Abet's first time in Mindanao, and I saw my dearest high school barkada who are some of my favorite girls in the world. Of course, we were excited as hell about our backpacking trip, we were counting down months.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? Jai Ho, Nobody, and that "I don't care" song

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

• Happier or sadder? Happier! (Yay!)
• Thinner or fatter? Fatter! (Boo!)
• Richer or poorer? Richer! (Yay!)

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Read, and see more of the Philippines.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Eat.

20. How did you spend Christmas? Joe can’t come home (or even go outside Fort del Pilar) for the holidays, so the family was in Baguio from the 21st of December until after New Year’s Day. My family was lent a lovely house with 3 bedrooms, a fireplace, and a gorgeous view of the mountains and pine trees. Christmas Day was spent inside PMA with Joe and the other Charlie boys whose families weren’t able to visit, and Christmas evening was spent in front of the fireplace.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I kept on falling madly, deeply in love, over and over again. He's wonderful. I love him so much.

22. How many one-night stands? None. Never have.

23. What was your favorite TV program? Glee! I've converted my family into Gleeks-even Abet, who has proclaimed himself president of the Quinn Fabray Fan Club

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Yes. Let's leave it at that.

25. What was the best book you read? This book:

Her first book, Stiff, which is about human cadavers, is entertaining, funny, and informative and is one of my favorite books. This book about sex is even funnier. I got my hardbound copy at 50% off.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? None again. I’m outdated.

27. What did you want and get? For Joe to get into the Academy.

28. What did you want and not get? Still world peace.

29. What was your favorite film of this year? Disney-Pixar’s Up. This is now one of my ultimate favorite movies. I watched this with my brother Mako, my sister May, and Abet on Mako’s laptop in Baguio.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? On my 27th, I had food from Amber’s delivered for my officemates, watched the first 7 episodes of Glee with my mom (even if I have already seen them), had dinner at Teriyaki Boy and dessert at Mom & Tina’s with May and Abet, and then May and I got our third and last cervical cancer shot.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? Still the "I'm wearing the first thing I grabbed from the sampayan and handed to Ate Inday to iron" look

32. What kept you sane? Abet and chocolate

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Michelle Obama

34. What political issue stirred you the most? The Ampatuan massacre

35. Who did you miss? JEMIMA!!! Still my buddy, Jemima.

36. Who was the best new person you met? All the new bloggers I’ve discovered! I’ve been privately (friends-only) blogging on Blurty, LiveJournal, and Multiply since 2003, but I just discovered the joys of writing on and reading public blogs.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009: Prayer and faith are really, truly powerful.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: Year after year, it’s this: You ain’t seen nothin’ yet...The best is yet to come, and won't that be fine...The Best Is Yet To Come, Frank Sinatra