Say A Little Prayer for my Tia Piling

One month and one day after my father passed away, my Tia Piling followed. She suddenly had a stroke and was rush to the hospital. The doctors tried to revived her with no success. Two days ago we just had a family reunion. We were all very happy because for the longest time we never had the opportunity to see everyone in the family. Who would have thought this would happen so soon. And I just met my aunt for the first time and now she's gone. Oh how life can be so cruel. You'll never know when you're time is up. They say life is short. So love your love ones. Don't forget to tell someone you love them because you will never know when they will ever hear those words again.

Tia Piling, Nanay, Tia Gloria and Tia Tencia

When I met my aunt she was a little sad. She so wanted to go to Virac, Catanduanes to celebrate Christmas with her youngest son, our cousin Nunoy. We chatted a bit and it was a pleasant conversation about me and Tapioca. She even joked "Oh my, why did you pick such a big guy for you?" which I found funny. I am small and he is big. Quite an opposite but you know, opposites attract.

Tia Piling, it was great meeting you for the first and last time. May God bless your soul and we will keep you in our prayers.

Read more...

Christmas Time Is Family Time

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't remember the last time I've gone to a family reunion on a Christmas day. I don't think we ever had any. It's mostly summer outings in nearby resorts and beaches.

This Christmas, we held a family reunion (my father side) at Ate Benjie's place in Fairview. I had such a great time seeing them again for a happy event. What made me even happy was all of them (though some of them did not make it) finally met my special someone and they all loved him! I was so happy it almost made me cry. But my baby is indeed adorable and likable and huggable and kissable. Need I say more? LOL!!!

This is our first Christmas without Tatay. We still miss him. The celebration became more meaningful because we still have each other to cherish and love even more.

oler, nanay, jellybean and kuya

. . . Tapioca grilling the chicken which was a total hit. It was gone in seconds :-)

I hope you guys are all having a good time. It's indeed a season to be jolly. Falalalala.... lalala...

Read more...

Hey, It's My Birthday

Hi. I'm Jelly Bean and I just turned 28 years old yesterday. Thank you for all the birthday greetings you have sent through text messages and emails.

I just realized my family and I have always always and never failed to celebrated my birthday at home (with the exception of course of my other birthday celebrations with friends/officemates). For a change I decided to have a dinner out with my family. Now I'm a year older I'm suppose to be a year wiser, right? But on this dinner party, it made me think twice. I maybe a year older but still there were things I already knew which I need to relearn. I'm not sure but for some reason my brain was not functioning properly. It may be for reasons such as stress, lack of sleep, change of weather or maybe my memory might be overloaded with information or maybe, just maybe due to old age I'm losing my ability to retain information. Whatever it may be I can still be stupid sometimes.

First day of being 28 years old. Not bad, eh. (with my niece, Julia)

On my previous post, I have talked about changes. And this one tradition I was hoping to change on my birthday but silly me forgotten the reason why I always celebrate my birthday at home. Obviously my birthday falls on the busiest days of the season where everyone's out in the mall making last minute shopping etc, etc. so you can just imagine how dining out at this time can be so stressful.

All restaurants were full. Taxi lines were endless (buses and jeeps are being ignored, people these days are so rich!!!) and the change of weather was not helping at all. It was raining so hard on the night of my birthday. The night when we were suppose to watch the Light and Symphony show at the Ayala Triangle. That's how unlucky I can be on my day. Shucks. Which reminds me of what happened 1o years ago. The 'apat na sikat' will never forget my birthday back then. It was quite an experience but it would be another story to tell.

Stupid rain. The light and sound show at the Ayala Triangle got canceled :-(

Good thing my Tapioca had always have the right words to say which lifted up my spirit a bit. I wish I can remember the exact words he said. I guess I was starving so my mood was just like the weather. Since everyone was craving for chicken, we had dinner at Kenny Roger's. Ya know, all the grilled stuff goodness. Grilled chicken, sausages, burgers and not to forget baby back ribs that falls off the bones. Yummy. I apologized but me and my family were so hungry I totally forgot to take pics of the food. Nobody was in the mood to watch a movie so off we went to Time Zone instead. My niece Julia and nephew Oler had the time of their life. Play all you can courtesy of Tapioca. Thanks baby!






Bad timing and bad weather, still it ended up well. Lesson learned plan an early party ahead of time like lunchtime instead of dinner time.

Nanay, jellybean, julia, ate kathy and oler with the belen at the Ayala Triangle as the background.

I'm still bless to have these people with me on my birthday who loves me unconditionally. Thank you Lord for giving me another year to enjoy life.

Read more...

First Mystery Shopping Assignment: Check!

Note: This post was supposedly made last December of 2009 but due to blogging delinquency and my blog posts date getting all mixed up (expect this to happen a lot) I'm unable to post it on the actual date. My apologies.

I’m so excited and nervous at the same time for my very first mystery shopping gig. Since last night I’ve been reading and reading the guidelines over and over but I can't seem to remember them!!!! What the heck is wrong with me? I can’t bring in my notes when I visit the store because they might find out I’m the mystery shopper and that’s a big NO NO. Oh well, I just hope I do this right or else my career as a mystery shopper is over (It hasn't even started yet, duh!) Honestly, I’m not sure what to expect. Come on, aren’t we all shoppers? But then this is a job and I’m paid to shop. How cool is that? Waaah, I think I’m getting cold feet. Wish me guys luck. I really need it.



UPDATE: Just got from Mall of Asia for my mystery shopping gig and I’d say it was a piece of cake! Hehehe. Doing the deed was easy. It was the report that was crazy. Too many questions and answers must be concise and accurate.

UPDATE UPDATE: I got my payment for the assignment and it's in EUROS!!! (*giddy*)

If you want to become a mystery shopper like me, register now at Bare International (http://www.bareinternational.com/en). The company is 100% legit (based on my experience) as I already received payments from them via paypal.

Read more...

MTICS 2K2 Christmas Party 2010

The annual MTICS 2K2 Christmas party held at Buzz Point Ortigas. This time it did push through as planned. New faces came to the party surprisingly but as expected it's always fun to see them even once a year. I hope this tradition last for a long time. Once again we thanked all the benefactors for the freebies! Your contributions are well appreciated but sana umuwi naman kayo ng Pinas kahit minsan lang, please?

P.S. They all loved Buzz Point's famous wall. Most of our pics are taken with the red wall as the background. Click here to view more pics from the party.

Read more...

Early Christmas Present I Got In My Mailbox

I just got an email from Lori of Dessert Comes First. She said I won one of the Manila by the Day books she's giving away on her blog contest. Yay! So I emailed her back with my mailing address and thanked her for choosing my entry. After a week I received my prize. This is my first time to win on a blog contest. I'm so happy. Thanks again Lori!!!




Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to me!!!

Read more...