Goddess, I Am.

If you follow me on Twitter, then you’re probably one of the many people I’ve bored senseless with details and updates of our trip to Malaysian Borneo. Sorry about that. Some things just cannot be helped! I’ve been back in the Philippines for 6 days now, and I’m still reeling from the experience. It was that GOOD!

The Husband and I have been talking about taking a trip to the Borneo jungles for as long as we’ve known each other, but it was only this year that we really went for it. I always plan our trips, but never as carefully as this one. I suppose I was a bit apprehensive about going ‘into the wild’ that I just couldn’t leave anything to chance. So I planned everything from the obvious (accommodation, transfers, etc.) to the not-so-obvious (travel insurance, including Medicare part D plans). It didn’t help that there really wasn’t a lot of real information online on the places we wanted to go to.

All my hard work paid off, though. (If I may say so myself.) We had an epic holiday, we saw almost everything we set out to see, and we had some really priceless close encounters. I just wish we could’ve stayed longer because there were some things that we wanted to do that we just didn’t have enough time for. But, at least, we now know that we’re going to need a minimum of 15 days in Sabah if we’re going to go the whole hog.

We’re not done with you yet, Borneo! Not by a long shot.

I’ll blog some more about the trip once I muster the energy to edit my photos.

- Posted using BlogPress on Agrippa, the iPad

Hi, all! Yes, I’m still alive. This month is kicking my ass with all the work and all the traveling I’m doing, and no, we’re not quite done yet. Once again, I have tons to blog about. And once again, I couldn’t muster the energy to do so. I blame old age. I am, after all, 29 25 now. Tee hee.

In a nutshell, here’s what I’ve been up to:

1. I went to Palawan with The Husband. So many pictures, so little time to edit. But I’m getting there and I’ll be sharing them with you soon-ish, I promise.

2. I got older. Wiser, too, I hope.

3. I was in Manila for 33 hours last week with The Sister. We attended an awesome workshop (more on that later), and I exhibited uncharacteristic restraint in Forever 21 and all the other shops that I love so much in the capital. Yay for me! Wiser, I tell you!

4. I’ve been studying a new strategy that my boss wants me to implement, and it’s doing my head in.

5. I am off to Singapore on Monday night, again with The Sister. I am hoping for more of the said shopping restraint. Though if you ask me, a few pairs of designer chandelier earrings and new summer sandals won’t hurt, right? RIGHT???

6. I lost about a kilo after weeks spent on the damned elliptical. Dismal, if you ask me.

7. Apparently, I got another blog award, this time from The Reason You Come. Can I get a whoop? More on that later.

Believe it or not, I’m actually looking forward to staying put for a couple of months. But then, I won’t have much to blog about if I do, so that’s a bit of a catch-22. (That wasn’t meant to rhyme.)

You’ll be hearing from me again over the weekend. Don’t write off this blog as a lost cause yet!

My apologies to my readership of 5 (???) for the lack of what I believe are read-worthy posts. Really, all I do these days is work, and that’s not much to write home about, is it?

Not only that, I’ve also been, to quote Chin, a very sad little ninja these past few months. I am constantly plagued by a horrible, sinking feeling that somewhere along the way, I allowed my life to take a very wrong turn. So I just feel frustrated, unsatisfied, STUCK.

It’s a frightful, hateful feeling, this depression, and while it’s taking up a lot of my energy, it’s taking even more to try to snap out of it. So for the moment, I’m just rolling with it and thinking plenty.

There really should be some sort of disability insurance for this sort of infinite, debilitating sadness so we can all wallow in misery in peace, preferably with all the chocolate ice cream and potato chips in the world.

- Posted using BlogPress on Agrippa, the iPad

Location:Talamban Rd,Cebu City,Philippines

I didn’t think I should own a planner for next year because the Starbucks ones I got in years past always ended up gathering dust. But when I saw the 2010 Moleskine Colour-a-Month Daily Planner, I changed my mind faster than you can say “fickle!” And when I saw that Avalon.ph is giving away the last one in existence (okay, I’m exaggerating – it’s actually the last one they have on stock), I just HAD to join. It would be remiss of me not to! Seriously, look how cute it is!

So what am I thankful for for the year that’s almost ending?

Golly, where do I start? It was – and still is! – a fantastic and very eventful year that saw me marry the man of my dreams, get to know my adorable nephew, bond with the family again after being gone for some time, land the job that any freelancer will kill for, buy a house that we will be moving into in two years or less, reconnect with friends, finally able to afford a Macbook Pro and bid goodbye to the computer woes that have plagued me for the past 10 years or so (Windows, duh!), learn photography, discover Ancient Rome, help my sister launch a business that I completely believe in, and finally grow up.

Yes, the list of things I’m thankful for this year could go on and on, but I think what it all boils down to is the thing that I’m most thankful for this year, the years that have passed, and the years that are yet to come: L-O-V-E.

Love made it possible for my relationship with The Husband to transition from the almost constant turmoil and drama to the joyful, blissful, and peaceful companionship we enjoy now.

Love makes it possible for me to enjoy every minute I spend with my nephew, even when I have a serious aversion to most children and can only handle them in small quantities.

Love gives me the energy to work from sunup to the next day’s sunrise practically every day, just so I can make time for The Husband, make time for the family, and meet my scary deadlines.

Love makes me indulge The Husband’s expensive Blu-ray habit, even if does make me want to weep sometimes. And I suppose it’s love that makes him look the other way, too, whenever I get a new gadget, or buy too many clothes and shoes and books.

Love keeps me supportive of Mum’s goals, even when most of them will eventually take her far away from us.

Love had me voluntarily buy the domain and the hosting for my sister’s clothing line. Not only that, it’ll be love that will make me finish and launch said site, hopefully before the year ends. It’s also love that’s made me spend the last couple of weeks in a stuffy little booth, hawking swimwear to all and sundry.

Love has me bending over backwards for my bosses, not because I have to, but because I genuinely want to. They’re great people, and I love my job even more because of them. The fact that they love me enough to pay me extremely well is a welcome bonus. And it’s awesome that I don’t have to do a job search after every project ends – a freelancer’s nightmare.

Love (or something very close to it) keeps what few friends I have still speaking to me, even when I’m a horrible correspondent.

Love for my Mac has me taking care of him like he’s my first born and a real person, and I daresay that Octavian loves me, too, because he has never let me down!

Love of life and memories got me to buy Caesar, my camera, and it’s my newfound love of the craft that has me reading photography books aplenty and taking countless pictures.

Again, I could go on and on about why I’m thankful to and for love – but then, it’s probably going to take me another year! If this doesn’t win me a Moleskine planner, I don’t know what will, tee hee.

What about you? What are you thankful for this year? Who knows? It might win you a Moleskine. (Though nasty little me hopes not!)

UPDATE: I didn’t win the planner. I hope I can find one for sale!

The Philippines isn’t a perfect place. In fact, Filipinos are forever trying to find ways to escape the sweltering heat and the endless rain to seek the proverbial “greener pastures” elsewhere. I was one of these Filipinos – was being the operative word.

After living in Thailand for a little over a year now, I’ve since realized how much better life in the Philippines was. I can’t speak for everyone, though. After all, I had a slightly more comfortable life than most of the general population. However, despite the many criticisms Filipinos have had to suffer from the rest of the world, compared to the Thais, we’re actually quite lovely – many times over. Mind you, this particular opinion doesn’t just come from the incident that happened to me and my man recently; this is actually the result of the multitude of bad experiences I’ve had had to endure since I got here over a year ago.

But as much as I’d like to write about why I feel the way I do about Thais, I really don’t have the energy right now, so I’ll save that for a later post. This particular post is about one of the things that I miss about the Philippines that have, for some reason, occupied my mind the entire day – and I fear that unless I write about it, it’s not going to go away.

I miss Jollibee. Seriously. For those of you who don’t know what the hell Jollibee is, Jollibee is the Philippine’s own version of McDonald’s. This fast food chain serves burgers and fries and everything nice, all geared towards how we Filipinos like it. I know a lot of farangs think it’s crap, but I don’t care. I love Jollibee, and Jollibee loves me, belly fat burners notwithstanding.

Ahhhh… What I would give for a Burger Steak right now. Or, maybe a Regular Yum with Cheese. Or, that sweet spaghetti that we Filipinos love so much.

Drat. I’m going to bed hungry.