Weekend of eating...

Since Tey arrived Friday night, we've been pretty much going on a food trip of sorts. Hehe.

It was kind of expected since the main reason she flew to Singapore was for the birthday of her high school friend Nek.

The feasting started as soon as she landed. The hotel I booked for us was in Lavender. Actually, I got confused because I thought there was only one AQueen Hotel. Here I was thinking that I booked the one in Jalan Besar. It turned out that there was another branch along Lavender St. It was okay because the hotel had a good location and surrounded by quite a number of food places including Swee Choon. Since Tey didn't pack a lot of stuff, we went straight to Swee Choon for a late dinner. Fellow ex-Smartee Arlyn was fortunately free to join us. We arrived at Swee Choon past 10. This was great because we didn't have to wait for a long time to get a table.

After Swee Choon, Tey and I went straight to Aljunied where Nek stayed. It turned out that her boyfriend organised a surprise birthday party for her. Tey and I were full from the dimsum feast but we still managed to enjoy the cake and fried chicken. Haha!

Yesterday, it was another day of enjoying good food thanks to Ikea and Lau Pa Sat. Our main itinerary for the day was Ikea. We left the hotel late and arrived at Ikea Tampines in time for brunch. I'd like to think that our brunch wasn't that sinful since we did spend the next three hours walking around Ikea looking at stuff. Tey ended up buying a book shelf, a shoe rack, a clothes drying rack, and tons of other stuff. Hehe! I was tired when we got back to the hotel. I managed to take a nap before we headed out again.

In the evening, we met up with her friends at Lau Pa Sat for Nek's birthday dinner. Lau Pa Sat is always a good place to go to since there are tons of food choices. We ended up ordering roast chicken, grilled stingray, cereal prawn, fried rice, satay, prawn satay. Tey and I also bought a birthday cake for Nek as a surprise. It was a really long day and I was just dead tired when we got back to the hotel.

Today, I had a museum activity so that meant I had to have lunch on my own. Tonight, we're meeting up with PG Boy, Ian, MonRich for dinner at CPK.

Happy tummy weekend!

Random iMessage chat with Tey...

While queuing for Pump class registration yesterday, I sent a random message to Tey telling her that we should go to Tokyo in 2020 to watch the Olympics. Specifically, I told her I want to watch the Men's All-Around Gymnastics event.

I'm not sure if he'll still be competing then but I do want to watch Japan's Kohei Uchimura live.

Tey replied, "Sure, let's go. By then, we can afford to stay at Tokyo Shangri-la or Peninsula. Let's claim it."

I sent a LOL as a reply.

And then I also said, "Tey, one of my aspirations is to be able to walk into a Bottega boutique and purchase a piece that I like without having to worry about the price. Haha!"

When it was sent, I started typing again, "And I also want to stop choosing budget airlines as my first option when flying overseas. Hahaha!"

Tey sent very optimistic replies. "We can do that, Anj. By then, we will be able to do it."

Another message from her came in telling me about a friend of ours who gave up flying economy. Lol. "She just flies business from now on. She said she couldn't take economy anymore," said Tey.

My reply was, "Haha! Good for her! Before we aspire for that, let's aspire first for not flying budget anymore. Haha!" I want to be able to have that option of not flying budget 70% of the time. Haha!

We continued to chat more for a few minutes until the announcement for Pump class registration came on.

Dreams, dreams. Lol!

December is bringing a lot of changes...

The first of December is ushering in a number of changes.

Tomorrow, for example, is going to be my last day of working in an office environment. Come Wednesday, our department will be starting a telecommuting setup. In fact, I am currently using the new laptop issued for the telecommuting assignment. Haha! Tomorrow, I will have to bring back all my stuff from the office. Eeeeppp!

Tonight, I went for Pump at Paragon and the main difference is that my usual Monday night Pump buddy is no longer around as he is soon starting a new journey in another part of the world. The instructor was the same guy we "stalk" on IG. (Tonight, he actually smiled and said "Take care" when I was on my way out of the gym and he was on the way to the locker room. Lol, Tipz!). The class was good, as always. After gym, I took the same route Tipz and I always took going back, even before HB Boy came into the picture. Haha!

Last Saturday, Tipz closed a chapter of his life and in the next few days, will start another one. In February, an even newer chapter is going to start. It's definitely exciting times for him and I couldn't be more happier.

His last few hours in Singapore were spent just hanging around. We went for brunch, then went to the mall to window shop. We went to a coffee shop for coffee and chitchat. Had we gone to the gym for Pump, it would have been pretty much our usual Saturday routine. Hehe!

But last Saturday was different because it concludes the SG years in his life story. Three years and 10 months (if I remember correctly).

We've only known each other for a short time but in such a short span of time, he definitely became my usual companion in almost everything. Haha!

When the time to bid each other farewell finally arrived, I had the same feeling as Lady Grantham when she found out that Mrs. Crawley was considering to get married again. Hehe!

I am definitely very happy for Tipz though and I am very excited for him. We may be living in different continents soon but I'm quite confident the friendship will remain thanks to all the technology available. Haha! The friendship will go on.

In the meantime, all the best, Tipz!

Happy birthday, Tey!

Today is the birthday of one of the people I love, love, love the most - Tey.

Our friendship began in 1996 when we were both freshies of the BA OrCom program of UP Manila. But our friendship really grew after uni when we were both in the real world, so to speak.

We've seen each other through so many things - group presentations, finishing uni, starting relationships, ending relationships, gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight again (hehe!), losing loved ones, discovering new places and so on.

When your friendship with someone is now seventeen years (and still counting), you know that it's definitely it's a friendship for life.

I feel blessed to have that kind of friendship.

Happy, happy birthday, Tey! :D Thank you for being there all the time. Love you very, very much!

Bromance even before bromance was coined...

There is a way to be good again.

That's one of the lines I remember from The Kite Runner, one of the best books I've read.

Somehow, that line came to mind lately because of the recent things that have happened.

As I've written in a previous post, one of the nice things that happened during the holidays was reconnecting with people from my high school days.

That included my best friend back then. The last time we saw each other, I was still just starting my career while he was just about to get out of college. That was about seven, eight years ago. Thanks to social networking sites, we sort of found each other again. He is doing well with his career. He got to travel. He is now married for a year.

Wow! Married? It only seems like yesterday when we were still talking about our schedules for Mass, stupid crushes, family stuff, and so on. Back then, we spent so much time together. When I went to a different high school, we would still see each other almost everyday at church (because we were altar boys). We'd have these nice walks going home. Email was just about to be born, so we had letters to each other. Handwritten letters, which I think I still have somewhere.

Simply put, he and I had a bromance even before that word was coined.

Seeing him again a couple of weeks ago just brought back a lot of good memories he and I shared. It was both happy and not so much. Happy because he still is the same person (or so I think). Not so much because after parting ways, I felt something that I don't believe in feeling - regret. For not trying hard enough to stay connected when I went to college, for allowing myself to get lost in the new world that is UP and new friends back then, for not slowing down so the friends I left behind in HS could catch up. And for missing the big life events - college graduation, getting engaged, getting married.

I don't know why, but somewhere at the back of my mind, I felt like I needed to apologize to him. I didn't get to do that during the get-together with the rest of my barkada altar boys. That was the only time everyone saw each other again so what happened was more of a group discussion. We did get to have a little time together though during the drive to the coffee place and when we parted ways, we did we'll hang out. But really Who knows when that will be?

So when I saw him online the other day, I chatted with him. He was on a business trip in some country I wanted to visit. Strike that. Some country I will visit this year. Hehe!

Anyway, I took that opportunity to tell him one of the two things I wanted to tell him. It wasn't the best conversation setup - online! blah! - but I had to take advantage of the situation.

[08:58] UP Boy: hey, can i tell you something?
[08:58] DLSU Boy: what
[09:04] UP Boy: the get-together with the guys was good. and that's when i realized that i didn't try hard enough to stay connected to you as a friend to you right after high school. and i don't usually have any regrets, pero that's one thing i regret. i mean back then you and i were best friends and i sort of regret losing that. the last time i saw you college ka pa and now you're married na and maybe soon will be a dad na. i missed out on so many things like your graduation, you getting married, stuff like that.
[09:05] UP Boy: so what i'm really trying to say is i'm sorry. for not trying better to be your best buddy.
[09:05] DLSU Boy: that's ok. i also missed keeping in touch siguro medyo busy lang and location was also a factor since i moved which is far na rin.
[09:06] UP Boy: sorry, i know this is really lousy that i'm saying all of these online. i wanted to say it face to face, pero i know you're much busy now. and we really didn't have the time to talk the last time we saw each other.
[09:06] DLSU Boy: sus.. that's ok. what matters is that we are now again reconnected.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's too emo. But hello, sinimulan mo na lang din naman mag-emo, eh di itodo mo na ng bonggang bongga, di buzz? LOL!

We chatted a bit more after that, but since it was a toxic work day for both of us, the chat had to be cut short. There is just that agreement to see each other some time soon.

I felt better after that brief chat. The other thing I wanted to tell him is, well, something reserved for our get-together. Sheesh, when we saw each other, he was asking me about girlfriends. Eeeep! So I'm kind of resolved to tell him the next time. I know I don't have to, but I just feel like I have to. I mean, this is a person who became a big part of my teen years and if we do plan to carry on with that friendship we had, then I think he just has to know.

Bring out several bottles of beer please. Wait, maybe we'll need something stronger. Hehe!