are you game?

this has been fun Mia - but tough!

1. What is your passion?

i have a passion for correct grammar, literature in all forms, and culture.

2. You can only own one piece of jewelry (aside from your wedding ring), what would it be?

a good watch that never dies, never fades, never gets stolen, and can be worn to every occasion you can think of.

3. You can make 1 person die and make 1 dead person live, who would they be and why?

i was a few yards away when UP student Nino Calinao was shot (in the AS Walk, while manning a booth) mistakenly by unidentified gunmen. i didn't know him personally, although i might have seen him in the classrooms and hallways of the college of mass communication. according to his orgmates and friends, he came from a poor family and had big dreams of helping his parents by landing a good job after college. all those dreams ended when he was shot BY MISTAKE. up until now, his case has not been given due justice, as the people involved are quite powerful.

if only the person who ordered the shooting would take the place of Nino, then the philippines would be a safer place.

4. Eternal Bad Breath, Eternal BO, or Eternal Lice and Dandruff?

eternal dandruff - that way i'd only have to avoid wearing black, as opposed to people avoiding me.

5. What book or line from a book made you look at things in a new light?

i thought it was just all hype but 2 years after attending the workshop and reading the book -- i'd have to say that The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has changed my perspective on a lot of things. i read it after being literally thrown into the workshop by my company in bangkok. fortunate enough as i was, at that time i thought it was waste of time because i was the only 23-year old amidst 20 CEOs, CFOs, and COOs (as if i can relate to their management woes!). i fully appreciated it only after 3 days into the workshop, and 2 years in thailand. coming home to manila, i realized that the book - and its practical applications in life - has been a constant guide for me, whether at work or at home.

i've also been pretty lucky to have met the author, Stephen Covey. during my last week in bangkok, he gave a short but inspiring lecture on the 8th Habit - and we even had 5 full minutes to speak to him personally (the advantage being that i spoke english better than my thai co-workers LOL).


Here are The Official Interview Game Rules:

1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying “interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person’s will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

If you don’t have a blog, I will still ask you 5 unique questions and you can post your answers here.

any takers?

slightly disappointed

i never knew completing an entourage list would be this tedious and emotionally-draining.

first, there's Secondary Sponsor Boy J: good old friend from summers ago when aldo still lived in manila. all this time, i assumed that he would at least take one day off from work to be part of our wedding. much to my disappointment, he says that he won't be able to make it to our wedding rehearsal, so just take him out of the list. freakin' pa-importante. so pia being pia, i called his bluff and took him out of the list. whose wedding is it anyway?!?!

second, there's Secondary Sponsor Girl A. her dress has been in Ready To Wed since last month and i don't get any call, acknowledgement, or what-not when i told her that she has to fit her dress. after 4 weeks, she calls to tell me she's pregnant. hay, happy for her, sorry for Ready To Wed and me - that'll mean i have to find a replacement with her built, so that RTW can re-alter it to the new girl's size.

third, there's Secondary Sponsor C who hasn't given me her measurements, even if i needed it a month ago.

it was so much easier to get married in a dingy old courtroom! no wonder brides cry as they walk down the aisle - those are probably tears of relief that all the planning and organizing is over.

but on a happier note... i am extremely touched that my good friends from bangkok are all attending the wedding - thank God for low-cost airlines from singapore, KL, and bangkok! now if only brit schools moved their first week of classes, i'd have my original flowergirls from bangkok!

XVII

i don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
i love you as one loves certain dark things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

i love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that rose
from the earth lives in my body in darkness.

i love you without knowing how, or when, or from where
i love you directly without problems or pride:
i love you like this because i don't know any other way to love

except in this form in which i am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

**********

this was my christmas surprise.

aldo's not exactly a huge fan of pablo neruda nor poetry but he went out and bought me that book before he went home to manila last november - just because i kept on making him kulit to put a neruda poem on our save-the-date card.

it would have been a perfect mushy surprise, had i not opened his suitcase. hehehe.

i've always loved sonnet xvii and was quite shocked when aldo found it in the book, and later on wrote: "to my wife, xvii p. 513" on the front page.

it's going to be part of our wedding invitation... watch out for it in 2 weeks!

kamuning market finds

if you're looking for good suit materials, the kamuning market is an easier, friendlier, less crowded alternative to divisoria. there were a lot of stalls to choose from, but since it was too hot to be picky, we chose the one in front of the parking lot.

we weren't disappointed though, as the people assisting us were extremely patient as my mom and i opened virtually all the neatly folded pina weaves they carried - pure pina, pina puti, pina jusi, pina raya, and pina cocoon.

twenty confusing minutes later, i finally settled on getting pina cocoon for aldo's barong. apparently, pina cocoon is one of the pina family's fairer breeds. it is much more delicate than pure pina, but the embroidery on it is more refined and detailed, but with less puffy (for lack of a better term) threads.



fabric for aldo's pants was totally not on my list since i thought the only fabrics found in kamuning were barong materials and normal dress fabrics. last november, aldo and i bought italian wool at king philip and thought that they were a steal at P3,000 a yard... so imagine my disbelief when the same wool was offered to me at P1,200 a yard... which later on became P900 a yard because i bought a lot! apparently, most tailor shops buy their materials from the kamuning market. so in september, i'll be dragging aldo there when he has his suits made.

ready-made barongs can also be bought at the kamuning market. depending on the pina weave, the price range is from P2,500 to P3,000. barongs for little boys start from P800 up, a little higher than the ones found in divisoria.

church papertrail epilogue

apparently, handwritten ledgers in churches ARE useful. the errors in my baptismal and confirmation certificates were only typos and when the church clerks checked their yellow-paged ledgers, my name has been listed correctly after all.

funny that out of the 3 churches i had to go to, only the malate catholic church had a computerized system. the st. gabriel parish in caloocan, and the st. anthony parish in singalong both relied on filing cabinets and really huge record books. well at least it's been a proven reliable method.

glad that part's over.

church papertrail part 1

if you're looking for a church, a complete listing can be found here.

in my list are 5 churches to go to for my baptismal and confirmation certificates, and our marriage banns.

2 more churches and it's practically Visita Iglesia or a wedding novena.

lights, camera, action!

apparently the best reward for being a wedding coordinator is seeing the bride and groom enjoying their wedding (and later on telling everyone that their wedding was perfect), without worrying whether the flowers are indeed upgraded or if their friends are already on standby to get their photos taken.

jm is a good friend from way back when kamiseta overalls and dr. marten's lace-up boots were in fashion. it was then by virtue of friendship (and desperation c/o jm) that i found myself being a coordinator for their wedding. although my tasks were limited to the church, i got first-hand experience on what to look out for, what should be done, and what can be avoided.

the best church task was to tell jenn when to get down from the car before her bridal march... knowing how long jm had waited to marry jenn was reason enough to make opening the car doors to tell her it's time - be an insanely emotional moment. but no, there was no time to be a teary-eyed coordinator.

i've never actually been at the back of the church before the bride walks down the aisle and i must admit, it's the loneliest and most deserted part of the church. together with jenn's make-up artist, we had to fix her veil, train, and bouquet before she entered the church.

apparently, it's just like ensuring that a model doesn't walk on the catwalk with packaging stickers on her outfit, or cueing a stage actor to walk onstage.

despite the missing candles for the offertory, a crying flowergirl, and running ring and coin bearers, the wedding ceremony flowed smoothly.

i now have a newfound respect for coordinators, and am glad that i decided to hire people who can be trusted.

at least all i have to worry about is how to not trip on the red carpet.

have a sabai-dee life in bangkok jm & jenn!

long distance wedding planning

it's hard enough to have a long distance relationship, but even more difficult to plan a wedding while apart. so for the lucky ones who don't have to shell out $0.40 a minute to argue about photographers and designers, this is my world.

1. everything starts with a good brief.
no, not the ones he wears. give him a good background of the supplier you want and need. more importantly, give him rates to compare with. AND know the conversion rate so you can justify that see, everything is cheaper in manila.

2. the internet is not just for friendster or blogs.
there are thousands of images online to explain how exactly you want your cake/photos/gown to look like.

3. grooms, in general, will be concerned with the amount you need, and not the colors that go with pink.

4. if you think you have huge phone bills, wait til you start planning/arguing/nagging for your wedding.

5. for everything else, there's a Mastercard.
should he take more than 12 hours to decide, put it on the supplementary card he got you.


despite the weekly arguments, it's a fun ride too.


6. instead of holding-hands-while-strolling-in-the-aisles-of-a-bridal-fair, you actually get to seriously talk to wedding suppliers (after elbowing your way to their booths because mushy couples cause traffic).

7. he will say YES to everything once you start reminding him that the legwork required is tedious and oftentimes frustrating.

8. decisions are either a yes or a no -- looking for another supplier out of your short list is not an option.

9. it's easier to keep the bridal gown a surprise.

10. more importantly, you get to focus on your marriage instead of wedding flowers and bridal registries.


see... Globe makes great things possible.

thinking cold thoughts

think cold and wintery thoughts to momentarily forget the blasted heat.



frozen waterfalls at the Johnston Canyon -- literally frozen in time!

the paper trail

to get a thailand police clearance, i need to:

1. go to the nbi clearance center in carriedo to get a fingerprint card
2. give the fingerprint card to the thai embassy for documentation
3. after the thai embassy authenticates the fingerprint card, i have to send it, together with a letter of request and documents that indicate how long i stayed in thailand, to the royal thai police headquarters in bangkok (together with a self-addressed envelope that i have yet to figure out)
4. wait for at least 7 days for processing
5. wait a few more days til they send it back. with the philippines' postal system, pray that it doesn't get lost in the process.

good luck to me.

not the time for a public holiday!

i used to love the first quarter of the year because it meant lots of long weekends in thailand. for some strange reason, there is always a buddhist holiday or some special royal day of some sort every 3 weeks. for non-locals like us, it meant trips upcountry or even trips home to manila.

BUT when you're back in manila and you need paperwork from thailand on the 1st week of may... it's not such a happy time of the year after all.

i absolutely need a clearance from the royal thai police and to obtain one, i need to get 3 sets of fingerprints done at the thai embassy in manila. i tried calling their trunk line the whole freakin' day and only got automated directions... only to realize that today is may 5, the king's coronation day - thus, no one is around to pick up the phone. hmph!

that means it's another long weekend for the khun-thais, and nothing can be done til after the 10th.

but on a slightly happier note, the canadian embassy in manila sent me a letter informing me that my papers are back in manila, and that i need a few more documents to submit within 45 days. i just hope i make it! after that, it's another 6-month wait at the very least.

so near yet so far away!

almost ready

when i sat down with lya armovit to iron out bridal couture, i thought april 30 would be so far away. but time flies too fast these days and we're only 4 months away from september 10.

lya and the rest of Ready To Wed are even more efficient than my bridal entourage. out of the 3 girls in manila, only 1 was able to fit her dress. since the junior bridesmaid and 1 secondary sponsor are based in vancouver, lya let me bring their unfinished dresses, just in case i want to mail or send the dresses - better than leave them hanging in her shop til september.



as it turns out, lya not only did my gown lining, but did the whole thing as early as now. since it's a new gown (and not one of the RTW gowns), she was pretty excited to see how it would turn out so she assembled the whole thing. and it turned out beautiful. i thought that the haltered neckline would make me look like a mini-bride, but lya was right in saying that it's a better option for me.

after trying out dozens of wedding gowns from bangkok to manila, fitting The Gown has a certain air of finality and reality to it. only 4 more months to go - where did the time go?!