Tag Archives: The Netherlands

My Best Friend’s Wedding

The past week or so has been very busy, and I have tons to write about. Let’s start with The Bestie’s wedding last Saturday. I would’ve written about it sooner, but it took me a while to sort out photos both from my camera and The Husband’s (the non-watermarked ones are his). The official wedding photos haven’t been released yet, so ours will have to do.

Now for a little back story. These two met in high school and were sworn mortal enemies all through out. He then left for The Netherlands a few years after we graduated, but came back a year(ish) ago on holiday. They hung out, hooked up, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I’ve known the bride for 20 years, and we’ve been best friends for 15. I was, naturally, the maid-of-honor – except, of course, that they insisted on calling me the matron-of-honor. Which is why, in an effort to look as unmatronly as possible, I lost weight and agreed to put on pink lipstick. Thank God for fat burners that work and convincing makeup artists!

The hours leading up to the wedding was absolute bedlam, as expected. The bouquet went missing because some other bride took it. The bridal party got stuck in the most horrendous traffic jam in history because of some Sinulog thing. The Nephew – was late and had one tantrum after another, so the whole wedding ceremony was sans a coin bearer. My chair in church caved in right in the middle of the homily – while I was sitting on it, mind you – so imagine how that looked like.

But all in all, the wedding was lovely. Love was definitely in the air that day, and it was impossible not to be overcome. ♥♥♥

Congratulations, Jiovanni and Aileen! I ♥ you guys!

Photo Party!

I love tags. Unfortunately, I don’t get tagged enough; that’s why I never pass up the chance to answer tags whenever people do find it in their hearts to tag me (hint, hint).

It is, therefore, with a great deal of enthusiasm that I am answering the second tag I have ever received in my entire life as a blogger. (Did I mention I don’t get tagged enough?) Thanks to Meream for sending this my way.

And now, the rules:

1. Open your first photo folder.
2. Scroll down to the 10th photo.
3. Post that photo and story on your blog.
4. Tag five {or more} friends to do the same.

Luckily, my first photo folder (which is called ‘A Dream’) does contain photos taken with my new camera. This was during our second Corona del Mar site tour back on the 20th of September, which was also the first time I got to take my camera out on a photowalk. This is the 10th photo:

 

This was taken inside one of the model houses. The house we’re buying, which should be built in a year or two (hopefully), would be fairly similar, but with some embellishments, such as a cinema room for The Husband, a study-slash-library for myself, and a huge bathroom with a bathtub.

I do love the staircase, though, and the little nook beneath it. And boy oh boy, do I have great plans for those walls!

Now, wasn’t that a fun tag to do? Well, it was – for me, at least. Hopefully, these ladies will find it just as fun:

1. Chin: Because I can never get enough of her family’s pictures. They’re a fun bunch, the Kongs.

2. Maris: I’ve been getting to know her through her words, but I would also LOVE to get to know her visually, too.

3. Kaye: She moved to the Netherlands about 3 years ago, but I just don’t see enough images of her life there. And to think I’m her best friend.

4. Kessa: With her new weight loss regimen in full swing, I’m dying to see her progress. Hopefully, her first photo folder has pictures of her and her steadily increasing fabulousness.

5. Jen: A camwhore like no other, I know that whatever picture she ends up sharing is something worth seeing!

It’s Time

We’ve made some rather serious decisions over the past few days about the life that we’re going live together. Sure, living in the Philippines is easy, but truth be told, it’s almost impossible to make serious money around here. The same goes for the rest of Southeast Asia. So we’ve finally realized (or more accurately, agreed) that if we’re going to have a little nest egg to retire on in 20 years or so, we need to live in the West.

The easiest way would be to get married, of course. Then he can go back to the UK and find work, while I get the proper visas. With any luck, I’ll be in London in 6 months or less. But nothing ever sounds that easy (as if it would be easy to be away from him for months). For one thing, the world economy is in a bad state, so heaven only knows what sort of difficulties a returning British citizen might encounter back home. For another, The Fiance is completely averse to moving back to the UK anyway because Eastern Europeans who work for peanuts are taking the good jobs and all the benefits. We figured the UK would be a last resort.

Instead, we decided not to rely on just one place and weigh our options literally everywhere. Our best chance would be anywhere in the EU, and we’re leaning heavily towards the Netherlands (where my best friend, Kaye is). We also want to look into Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and maybe even the US (though I’m very skeptical about America, to be honest).

So it looks like we’re going to be busy, busy, busy within the next few weeks with assessments and point systems and what-have-yous. We’re also going to start working on the paperwork needed to get married (who knew there would be so many?!?!) so we can do it sometime in March. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the future, but I feel really good knowing that we’re doing something about it.

Wherever we go, I’m going to have to convince The Fiance to part with his gear for a while. It would be much too costly to ship everything out again – a hell of a lot more than the small fortune that we already paid to ship from Bangkok to Cebu. Maybe we can sell them all and just buy new stuff later when we’re more settled, or put everything in self storage – I don’t know yet.

One thing’s for certain: if we’re going to move, we have to be willing to leave a lot of things behind.

Chapter One

Let me share the first ‘chapter’ of the book I hope to write one day. That is, if I can somehow make heads or tails exactly where I want to go with the story. Can anyone say, scatterbrained?

Meet Belen. Belen is a small (no more than 4’8″), rather chubby woman who looks forty-ish. She is, in fact, 29. She has very dark skin (particularly around the elbows), dark eyes, and very thick lips – characteristics that are common in the village where she came from, no doubt from obscure pygmy ancestors.

I’d like to say that Belen is a simple girl. Unfortunately,she isn’t. She likes to paint the toenails of her rather wide-spread feet red, and wear tube tops and blue eyeshadow. She has visions of grandeur that far exceed her simple upbringing. This dreams, or delusions, however you might see it, brings her to The City. In the hopes of snagging herself a worthwhile husband, she (rather foolishly) finds herself employed in a seedy bar on a seedy street in a seedy part of town.

Suffice to say, she didn’t find a husband. She did find, however, that the foreign customers who frequented the bar were far more generous than the local customers. It was then that Belen decided that she was going to marry an “Amerikano” (as all foreign men were known in that part of the world, regardless of where they came from).

So now Belen has a plan. After all, she’s not such an airhead as most people think she is. She is aware that she’s not likely to find a rich Amerikano to marry if she was a whore working in a seedy bar on a seedy street in a seedy part of town. It was possible, indeed, but it was highly unlikely, and Belen was not one to risk the odds. Belen figures that she needs a job that’s respectable, yet still downtrodden enough for a hapless Amerikano to want to rescue her.

With her limited skills and education, Belen finds herself working as a housemaid. She was lucky enough to find a job where there were no children to look after, as they were all teenagers, and to find an employer who treated her almost as a member of the family. Within days, Belen befriended the teenagers, learned how to use the computer, and discovered the joys of email and mIRC.

Soon enough, Belen had several “pen pals” (though she never did use a pen) – all of them foreign, all of them old, all of them wanted to “take care” of her. Belen immediately started enjoying the fruits of her labor. She started receiving packages from all over the world, mostly containing beauty products that were yet to start working on this little pygmy. She became a constant Western Union customer, receiving thousands of dollars in remittances from her many paramours.

And what’s a girl from an obscure province in the mountains to do with all that money and material possessions? Send it home? Share with her newfound family? We’d all like to think so. Unfortunately, the opposite is true.

First, Belen developed a drinking problem. Then, she started sleeping around with the various houseboys in the village, who, incidentally, she was spending for. Soon enough, her kind employer got wind of the situation and inevitably fired her.

Belen had no choice but to choose amongst her many “sponsors” to rescue her from her predicament. She finally settled on an Amerikano from Amsterdam. Bob (pronounced ‘Boob’, obviously not American) was 65 years old, divorced, fat, and had a bad comb-over. When he arrived in The City to marry her, his body odor struck her like a ton of bricks. But she figured he was old and was going to die soon, leaving her all his money.

They were married in her village’s little church. It was the biggest and grandest celebration the village has ever seen – all paid for by Bob, of course. Three months later, Belen finally got her visa to Holland and off she flew with Bob, red toenails and all, to the land of long winters where she was to become the wife of a fat, smelly, old man, obligated to give him blow jobs, hand jobs, and heaven only knows what other kinds of jobs.

That was 10 years ago. Since then, Bob have had three strokes and is now permanently bedridden. Belen ministers to his needs, counting the days when Bob finally dies and she can have all his money to herself. He, in turn, is living the rest of his days happy that he found himself a good wife who’ll take care of him until the end. Everybody’s happy. Everybody wins.

So, am I going to be the next Candace Bushnell, or should I just give it up as a lost cause? Let me know what you think! I promise, I won’t cry!