Thursday, August 25, 2011

Follow your dreams, transform your life, take the path that leads to God. Perform your miracles. Cure. Make prophecies. Listen to your guardian angel. Transform yourself. Be a warrior, and be happy as you wage the good fight. Take risks. 

-Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

of girls and boys

girls will always be girls.
but boys, they can also be assholes.

;)

Manila – A Surprising Surprise



Friday, 8pm, i decided to fly to manila at 6am the following morning for adventure’s sake and for that child in me.

i arrived manila with high hopes but no expectations. but the surprise i intended to give ended up surprising me. and so then the adventure began.

i am mostly in manila at least once a month. so nothing seemed really new. but this time, i wasn’t here for business. i was here for the chase and the adventure and the risk linked with it. and since things didn’t work out as planned, everything went spontaneous.

after arriving from the airport, i went directly to chowking in Taft to eat breakfast. ordered two of the cheapest meal, the plain chao fan, for my cousin and for me.  when we opened our bowls, an amazing surprise, there were three siomais in each. so it was free siomai for us. and i saw that as a good omen. after breakfast, we went somewhere in manila ( name concealed for business purposes) to make sure i earn more than what i spent for this travel. so based on calculation, net profit from visit to follow that little voice in the farthest corner of my soul is Php 12,000 which isn’t bad after all.

i met Ayesha and Bettina next in Vargas Museum in UP Diliman. drank cafe boholano which tastes so good plus the delectable sansrival. and i cried and laughed with them. ate dinner in maxx’s and went to ayesha’s place afterwards for unlimited videoke! and while we sing, i cried and cried again. which was a bit funny actually.

i woke up the following day in a different mood. something with a tinge of adventure and spontaneity. i texted friends and decided then and there what to do. and so lunch was with an organizational head plus a good friend whom i’ve not met for 4 years now. and it was a treat from him in Yellow Cab! spicy chicken wings plus new york’s finest pizza! thank you kuya chad. 

Afterwards, a high school close friend, lomel, asked if i can join him to Market Market to wall climb, a hobby ive never done again since 1 year now. surprisingly, i was still able to finish three walls. these are the tallest wall ive ever climbed!  and it felt so freakin good – to finish them and to finally climb walls again. :P

directly after this,i was invited to go to Alabang Town Center, one of the high-end malls in the region about an hour away from where i was.  i had dinner with an exhousemate and a very dear friend, Rae. she was with her husband, Verge and a good friend, Brian. and we talked about crazy and green stuff which actually made my day. :) we ate dinner in Pepper Rice and chitchatted all night long.  It was good to see her again knowing that she’ll be leaving for good to California on Wednesday. makes me want to feel like this travel was just a blessing in disguise.

i arrived in Makati in Glorietta 5 at 11pm to be able to spend some time contemplating on everything and doing academic stuff.  I stayed until 2am in Bos Coffee to wait for my flight back at 420am.

and so the journey ends.

although the trip didn’t go the way i wanted, it still turned out to be something i wouldn’t regret doing. i won’t be young forever. might as well live the life i can – spontaneous and carefree. this may have brought me tears, but it was worth the peace of mind that i got from the experience – no regrets, no what-ifs nor what-could-have-beens, only what-is.  

Thursday, August 18, 2011