Recently, memes have been appearing all of a sudden on my Facebook feed.

It first started with a Top 10 Books in My Life. Being a reader myself, I was more than happy to sit down and ponder on which authors and titles have really had an impact on my life.

The next thing I know, there is another meme for Top 10 Movies, followed by Top 10 Songs. I even saw one on Top 10 Bible verses. Seriously.

Another meme that I've been seeing is Top 20 Favourite Cities. In Tipz's latest blog entry, he enumerated his favourite cities. After commenting that his list was nice, I was somewhat "tagged" to do the list myself.

Because I want to use the hasthag #humblebrag, I'll just post my list here as well. Haha!

My Top 20 Cities. More than being a favourite destination, these are the cities that have left an impact on the past three decades of my life.

In no particular order:

Bangkok, Thailand: First overseas country visited with a partner.

Daegu, South Korea: First overseas country visited and made awesome friends!

San Jose, Mindoro Occidental: Where I learned lessons that I will never learn within the four walls of any university.

Jolo, Sulu: If not for all the fighting, Mindanao truly is a beautiful region.

Iloilo, Iloilo: If I have to go back, I would want to live and retire in this city/province.

El Nido, Palawan: Why I am so in love with the beach.

Tagum, Davao: Good memories of summer break when I was still in uni.

Dumaguete, Negros Oriental: Coastal city. University town. Good food. Friendly people. How can one not fall in love?

Vigan, Ilocos Sur: For anyone who wants to travel back through time.

Singapore, Singapore: Adopted home. Love at first sight.

Malacca, Malaysia: Historical town. Perfect location for a short getaway.

Bagan, Myanmar: The best sunrise experience ever.

Kathmandu, Nepal: Read my description about San Jose, Mindoro Occidental.

Brussels, Belgium: Completely caught by surprise that I will fall in love with this city.

Vatican City: I could have died the day I saw Pope Francis and I would have still been one happy Catholic guy.

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Easily became my favorite European city and not for the reasons that Amsterdam is often popular for.

Siem Reap, Cambodia: Seeing the Angkor temples made me in awe of human talent, intelligence and skill.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam: Crazy night with two friends.

Quezon City, NCR: As much as I detest Metro Manila, Quezon City is my home.

Other cities I'm hoping to see in the near future:

New York
San Francisco
Machu Picchu
Bruges
Ghent
Paris
Madrid
Barcelona
Athens
London
Venice
Florence
Melbourne
Sydney
Auckland
Tagbilaran

Holy mother of backpacks...

I haven't been spending a lot on bags as I used to back in the Philippines.

In fact, when I left for SG, I gave away some of prized bags or they're now being used (I hope) by my bros.

For a couple of times, I've been tempted to buy a bag or two here in SG because it looked more affordable all of a sudden. Haha! But I'm proud to say that I still haven't made any bag purchase since I got here.

Uhm, there's a part of me that's just yearning for three specific bags. Once I've gotten all three, I think I'll be content already for at least a decade. Hehe!

But once in a while, you will encounter a bag which really makes your heart skip a beat. Because it does that, you're willing to give up your eat out funds, your clubbing allowance, your holiday airfare (?!) just to purchase the piece. Haha!

The backpack above is from the Spring Summer 2013 collection of Givenchy.

I'm not a huge fan of backpacks, but there issomething about this bag that really draws me to it. Haha!

As friend I-van said, the bag has the ability to be both "patronizing and irreverent." That's the nice thing about it. To me, I also like it because of image of the Madonna.

Being a devotee of Our Lady, I think this is one of the "cool" ways of showing love for her. Hehehe! I can imagine myself queueing for La Pieta next year with this pack on my bag. Haha!

The piece is not available yet. No price info yet as well. But I'm sure it'll be ultra ex. I would need either a miracle or a lot of second collection. Haha!

Holy mother of backpacks!

I love NBS...

It's sale season again at National Bookstore, and I can't wait for next payday because I already have found a number of books I will buy. Eeeep!!! But the good thing is I checked out the books I plan to get and most of them are 40% off, so I guess that's good. (Because now I can buy more books. Hehehe! No!)

See the photo above. That's from the NBS in Robinson's Galleria. And that's the reason why I love National Bookstore has become a favorite when it comes to LGBT titles. They really have a shelf for it. Favorite authors Timothy James Beck, Michael Thomas Ford, David Stukas can be found on the shelves. Powerbooks does carry some LGBT titles, although the selection is very limited. Now, Fully Booked, I would have expected to have one, but I'm still not sure if they do. (I have yet to check out the Fort Bonifacio branch.) I remember I dared email Jaime Daez giving him a list of LGBT titles they can start with, and why those are the titles I recommended, but I don't know whatever happened to that email. I'm not even sure if reached him. Anyway.

Carlo told me about Bestsellers at the fourth level of Galleria. I think it was where Limits used to be. Anyway, I checked it out last Friday and it is total heaven for people who are in love with the written world. It's spacious and the lighting was good and you good spend several hours just going through their book selection. I was about to get six books, but after a serious debate with myself, I decided to put them down and get out of the place before I change my mind again. I promised I would go back there sometime next week to get the books. Hehehe!

If I had the resources, I'd start my own bookstore. But it would be a specialty bookstore, perhaps something like Borders or A Different Light bookstore. The bookstore would carry 80% LGBT titles and 20% chick lit-home-fashion-art titles. It would be small (think Hugh Grant's bookstore in Notting Hill) and the people who work in it can actually answer the customer's queries. They'll be there because they love books, and not really because they need something to pay the bills. (Or maybe both). Every month, we'll have a guest author do book readings and signings (and because the bookstore is doing well, we can fly in authors from abroad like Alex Sanchez or Noel Alumit). There'll be writing workshops with noted literary people. Coffee may be served. And in the storage room, there'll be hot men raring for some action. (Alright, that last sentence was a joke.)

I wonder what a good name for a bookstore would be - Margins... The Pink Room... Page 69... Odd Room... Happy Bookstore... Backdoor... Gray Area... Red Light... Happy Homo... The Queer Reader... okay, none of these seem right.