Goddess, I Am.

Winning is something that doesn’t happen to me very often. I’ve never won the lottery (but I once dated a guy who has, believe it or not), grocery raffles, or even The Statue Dance. The only things I ever win are arguments, and even those don’t really count because The Husband never admits I’m right anyway.

Now, I don’t mind losing, as long as I’m losing pounds (as you can probably tell from my numerous almost-diet pill reviews) and not my dignity. But it does feel good to win once in a while – something that I’ve started to discover as of late.

It all started on the flight to Caticlan. When the flight crew started their silly “show me” game, I was only half paying attention. In fact, so immersed was I in reading The Grass Crown that it was almost complete instinct that made me lift the book up when I heard the word “novel”. I was rewarded with a Centrum bag that contained 2 pieces of Centrum, 2 pieces of Advil, and a lemon-flavored Chapstick for my troubles – I say ‘troubles’ because the book weighs about a kilo, so lifting it above my head was no mean feat!

Six days later, on the flight back to Cebu, I won the same prize, thanks to the same book. This time, I was ready and hell-bent on winning The Husband a Chapstick.

Strangely enough, as I was blog hopping the next day, I found out that I won something again – this time, from Kessa’s birthday giveaway. I am currently waiting for a full set of Twilight books and some L’Occitane goodies (if the latter fits the package, according to Kessa) to be delivered from Manila. How cool is that? And how cool is Kessa for giving these away?

And it doesn’t end there, mind you. I went to the Sky Cable office to pay our cable bill, and before I knew it, I was the proud (haha) winner of a Sky ZPDee t-shirt.

I am now seriously considering buying a lottery ticket. Before I do that, however, I’m definitely joining this beauty giveaway. The oh-so fabulous Frances is giving away Maybelline products aplenty, and I can’t possibly NOT join!

Aaahhhh… Contests are definitely growing on me. Maybe I should do one of my own to celebrate Goddess, I Am.’s first anniversary, albeit belatedly (the anniversary was back on the 16th). I have to put my thinking cap on and figure out what to give away. Who knows? Maybe my little contest will become the start of someone else’s winning streak.

We got back from our (late) week-long Boracay honeymoon on Wednesday, and I still haven’t recovered from my holiday mood, so I’m blogging (about time, too!), instead of working.

Don’t worry. I won’t bore you with all the holiday details. More often than not, The Husband and I travel to relax, so we didn’t do much in the way of adventure. If anything, it was a fairly uneventful trip, save for a little drama that involved my Macbook, Gaius (more on that later).

We did spend a couple of days sailing and island hopping/snorkeling. The Husband identified not one, not two, but SIX different species of clown fish, which predictably drove him into paroxysms of pleasure. Yes, the man knows his Nemos.

He also made friends with barnacles…

…and a crab that clung to his shorts for dear life. (Sounds a bit wrong, doesn’t it? LOL.)

I, on the other hand, spent most of my time lying on the beach, reading The Grass Crown (the second book of Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series), drinking milkshakes aplenty, swimming (or more accurately, jumping because the waves were huge), and showing off the effects of my diet pill of choice.

Readers of this blog, be warned! I’m about to strut my stuff.

Day Two (we only managed to catch the sunset on Day One):

This is a bebe loaned to me by my best friend, Aileen. I’m trying to come up with a good excuse not to return it (sorry, Lhen!).

Day Three:

I spent more time in a wrap because we were island hopping. I only ever got to take it off while we snorkeled, only to wear a ludicrous life vest instead. Plus there were 3 Arabs (ick!) in our group who were openly ogling me and getting The Husband a bit worked up.

Day Four:

This definitely isn’t the most flattering suit in my wardrobe. I bought it from a seller in Multiply, and I realized that the bottom was much too big for my new frame. What a bummer.

Day Five:

This one here is an interesting one. This was designed and created by none other than my sister, Peachy, who is about to launch her own swimsuit line (Innuendo – watch out for it!) before the month ends. Chin called this The Bondage Suit, and I’m inclined to agree!

If I were to describe this suit in one word, I would use ‘precarious’ because, well, it is – but in a good way. The top did fall off a couple of times while I was in the water, but it’s mostly because the waves were B-R-U-T-A-L! She will, however, change the bandeau design somewhat so that it stays on no matter what.

Here’s what it looks like from the back:

It hugs, it flatters, and it’s definitely one of a kind!

Day Six:

This, by far, is my absolute favorite suit of all time! Again, this was created and designed by Peachy for Innuendo. Unfortunately, I didn’t get enough pictures of the fantastic details (I’m banging my head against the wall right now – truly!), so it’ll have to wait until we can get the site set up and the stocks uploaded.

In a nutshell, the right side of the bandeau top is cinched with a biggish O-ring. So are both sides of the bottom (where my hands are conveniently positioned – argh!), so we’ve got some really bare areas that are downright sexy.

My dear sister also made me a hot pink, skintight dress with the same O-ring detail:

I’m calling it The Naked Dress because it literally felt like I had nothing on the entire time I wore it. This is one dress I can wear over and over and over.

More detail up close:

Now enough of this vainglorious posturing.

When I first visited Boracay in 2007, it changed my life. It made me see exactly what an empty, meaningless life I was living. I had a corporate job that I absolutely loathed and absolutely no idea of where I was going.

And so it was that barely three weeks later, I packed my bags and moved to Bangkok with a bit of help from Chin and her Bangkok-based friends. I met Steve on my very first day at my new job, started dating him a month later, and the rest, as they say, is history. It seemed only fitting that I take him to the place that made every single thing that has happened since possible.

We’ll be back. And who knows? Maybe we can stay for good.

More pictures here – some quite good, some downright embarrassing.