a long december

it has been a long december because of the many parties along the way, not counting the amount of anticipation and preparation prior to the events. CIO held its party on Palacio de Manila - a new place just along the baywalk of the ever famous Manila sunset. The place actually reminds me of OASIS, it is actually built for such occasions. This is the very first time CIO held a christmas party, since they opted to push through with this and scrap the yearly summer event (BOOOO). Anyways, the food was BLAH, and the event was HUM-HMM (kudos to din and nelson for representing DFG on the faCIOn show - they invited Parokya ni Edgar to end the show. I am really not a fan of parokya so the show was pretty simple, the thing that irked me the most was that the CIO people decided to bring their seats in front of the stage (>_<) i was expecting a sweaty mosh pit.

me @front with chito


on the next day, we spent a very formal christmas party on the Mandarin Hotel here in Makati - it was a very great day for DFG as everyone struted their way to the place with their coats and barongs. We were treated with very fine food - but a christmas party will not be complete with party games. We had our own version of trip to jerusalem, fear factor and before the night is over, we crowned Doc and Kim as our King and Queen of the night.

rms artes


and last but certainly not the least is the Accenture christmas party held on the World Trade Center also along roxas boulevard. All i know is that the company is trying to get bigger and bigger by the second - judging by the number of "developers" i saw last monday, Accenture can conquer the Philippines by next year. I was hoping i can win even a fruit basket on the raffles but this has become a yearly omen for me for the last five christmas parties - the food was not even good BLEH. i am a big fan of Sandwich and i was hoping they were the ones playing that night - but it was Imago, the rock turned commercial pop band. I still like them though because they have sandwich's bassist in maireen (raimund's wife - sandwich's vocalist)

pagkatapos magperform ng Imago, nagtakbuhan lahat dun sa vocalista - haaay mga weirdo. I have a better plan, because i saw maireen alone on the back of the stage and look whom i found - it was raimund hiding on a hooded jacket. I immediately shouted "SIR RAIMS!!!!", he looked and we exchanged peace signs - yeah, RAKENROLL.

I cant control myself so i shouted at him again and do a photo sign (click click) on the air - he immediately stood up and walked towards me, removing the hood on his head and we shook hands. I asked for some pictures....

me and sir raims


WOOOHOOOOOOOOO sobrang swerte ko kasi ako lang ang pinayagan nyang magpapicture sa kanya, nung makita ng tao na nagpapicture ako, bigla silang nagpuntahan sa pwesto ko pero umalis si raimund kasi biglang dumami ang tao - WOWOWEE the second. Anyways, it is a good thing that i know some stuffs, i would not have seen raimund if i didn't know maireen - hehe papalagpasin ko ba yun, so may picture din kami ni ate maireen...

me and ate maireen

Tala - arawan : a review

I was a big fan of the eraserheads back then - every song has somehow can be related to my life (minsan pinipilit na lang) but there is something in their songs that people of my generation saw and kept in their hearts. it has been more than 10 years since their last hit, a lot of OPM bands have tried to follow their footsteps but failed. Until Sugarfree came about 4 years ago and everything was history.

Dont get me wrong - Sugarfree is not the next Eraserheads - they are the first Sugarfree. Pardon the comparison but Ebe (singer) have wrote songs the same way Ely captured the masses - they use words that you wont likely see on other songs. They merely talk about everyday experiences, love, family, and just about everything under the sun and turn it into a radio hit.

When i first bought their debut CD - it stayed on my playlist until their sophomore album. I practically have a playlist of both their albums and just play them randomly - now i have a new CD to add to the list. Below is a classic example of ebe's talent - it is a song of him writing to his older brother who left and tried his luck on the states.

Dear Kuya

Kumusta ka na dyan?
Anong balita? malamig ba dyan? dito mainit
pero kung bumagyo, para bang lahat ng tubig sa mundo ay nandito
Matagal na rin mula ng ikaw ay nagpasyang subukan and swerte
at abutin and iyong mga pangarap sa ibang bansa
kung saan ikaw ay laging magisa, kami tuloy dito - nagaalala

Nasan ka man ngayon, ano mang oras na
ika'y may kailangan, tawag ka lang sa amin
at parang nandito ka na rin

Oo nga pala, kung nasayo pa ang checkered na polo ko, sayo na yan
hanap ka na rin ng maraming mapaglilibangan - dahil balita ko ay mahal sine dyan
Dambuhala raw mga pagkain dyan, tataba ka malamang
Miss mo ba magtagalog? kaya pag may kumausap sayo galingan mong magingles
galingan mo kuya

hinahanap ka na rin ni mama at daddy, sulat ka palagi
miss ka namin, pati mga kapitbahay nagtatanong
san ka raw pumunta? nasan ka na kuya :(

a very simple song but they deliver it so great that you just cant feel but relate to it even if you do not have a brother in the states. My review will not do the album justice but here it goes - A+

B, Cebu

it has been a while since my last visit to Cebu and i really miss their famous heart-stoppers - lechon and pork belly. I surprised my baby just becasue she deserves it, i haven't seen and surprised her lately and i haven't visited cebu for a year now.

Cebu hasn't changed at all - i can still remember the different landmarks whenever we are on the road. My baby brought me to Banilad (tama ba?) - it is their version of greenbelt, unfortunately most of the coffee shops were already closed by the time we arrived. We also went to Ulanggo Island, it is a small island where birds from Europe stopover during these months on their way to Australia. I find it weird though - these birds fly across the globe just to get away from winter, can't they just adapt to the weather? it is like people from the northern part of the globe migrating to africa during the snow. We also played badminton - moving on to the next topic :)

I am still trying to improve my guitar skills every single day - it has been my childhood dream to play the guitar. I also joined the basketball league here in the office - just another of my childhood dream. I also tried for the first time the gym here in the office - and no, going to the gym is not on my childhood list.

Some pictures from my visit:

baby


batang ulanggo


lullaby