Do the "Claudine"

Starting now, that's how I'll say "throwing a tantrum."  I think it's funny that saying "Don't make me angry, or else I'll do a claudine on you!" or "Damnit, I got claudined."  rolls off the tongue pretty well. Hahaha.

It's the scandal of the week and everybody and their grandmothers are talking about it.  I want to put my 2 cents in too, but I'm not going to talk about the brawl itself, because we've had enough of that.

I want to talk about those damn bags -- it's what started this whole mess!

So apparently Cebu Pacific did not load a lot of the Santiago-Barretto group's bags into the Caticlan flight they boarded, because the plane is overweight (I'm guessing it's the group's fault because it's been reported they paid over Php 4,000 in excess), but that the bags were loaded into the next flight out of Kalibo.

Understandably, anyone will get upset upon learning that their bags didn't arrive at the airport with them.  However, that's the risk you take when flying on a plane -- the list of safety precautions airlines and airports have to adhere to is as long as the Great Wall of China.  You don't want your plane to just suddenly drop from the sky, now, do yah? 

But yes, it's very upsetting.  Take it from someone who arrives at NAIA only to find out my suitcases didn't make it home -- TWICE.  The first time my suitcases spent the night in Hong Kong.  Just last month, another airline left my suitcases overnight at Narita airport.  My sister told me "How come this thing always happens to you?!"

It really sucks when the family picks me up and I don't have the gifts I plan to give them, but stuff like this happen all the time.  You can't blame ground staff, blow up on them and threaten to have them fired -- it wasn't their call to make in the first place.  It was the job of airline staff from your departing airport to make sure your flight was safe and leaving on schedule.  If your bags are late, they can't load them.  If your bags make the plane overweight, they'll have to board another plane. It's pretty simple, really.

I guess being rich and famous gives you the excuse to act like a spoiled brat.  It's  just interesting that these celebrities take offense to somebody documenting their ill-behaviour, because as far as the public is concerned, their lives are fair game. 

If celebrities behave properly in public, there would be no fuss.

A lady does NOT get involved in anything like this. Seriously.

Let the men do the dirty work!

Haters gon' hate

I guess this reaction is quite delayed, but as the YouTube video link for 20 Reasons I Dislike the Philippines has been taken down, I managed to track it down to its original site.

( EDIT: I've taken the video down because it annoys me that it plays automatically every damn time we drop into this site. So click here instead to be taken to the video and watch it on ChannelFix.)

A lot of people had so much to say about this video.  My opinion is simple -- those are all true, innit?  Why so sensitive?

.

.

Imelda Marcos on beauty

A few weeks ago, CNN TalkAsia interviewed Imelda Marcos. I just want to quote what she said about one particular question...



TalkAsia: You speak about how you and your husband, you built hospitals, you tried to improve the quality of life of people and yet, you are perhaps better known for your shoe collection and your extravagant, over the top and what appears to be irresponsible spending. That's what people associate with your name. How does that feel?

Imelda: It is never irresponsible spending when it is beauty. There is no extravagant in beauty.



Under normal circumstances, I might agree with that statement. HOWEVER, extravagant spending on beauty should involve YOUR OWN MONEY (this may or may not include your parents' money -- usually willingly given. haha!) and not money from credit cards and government funds.

Baby James campaigns for Villar and not Tito Noynoy

Who would've thought that Kris Aquino's son, Baby James, is actually a "secret candidate" of Manny Villar and was not really interested in Tito Noynoy?

See for yourself and fast forward the clip to 1:38.



See? What'd I tell you??? LoL!!!

The vice that Erap can't live without

I was talking to my parents last night, who have both decided they are going to vote for Gilbert Teodoro as president. I underestimated them, because I was certain they were going to choose Noynoy. I guess I was wrong.

I hadn't made up my mind about which candidate I like for myself, but it's sure as hell not Erap! This guy, he had been impeached, found guilty of plunder, and he STILL had the gall to claim that he should be voted for President again!

Can the common Filipino people actually be as stupid as to re-elect this idiot?


Here is a video clip from the Presidential Forum held at UST the other day. See how Erap reacts to a student's character question:

"What vice or luxury can you not live without?"




Forward to 1:14 to see. I am appalled that this man had become president of this country. Sheesh.


I especially love the reaction shot of Gibo on 2:24, though. Hehehe!





His face said it all. It's like he was thinking "Man, this guy is unbelievably stupid!"

Crocodiles in the flood not a hoax!

Last Monday, somebody on Twitter said that some crocodiles are missing from the Pasig Nature Park. The city was one of the worst hit by the flooding.

I was then joking about how the crocodiles must be swimming around in the floodwaters and for everyone to be careful in wading through it.




I didn't realise that how true that was. Crocodiles spotted in the flood at Cainta Greenpark by a guy named Michael Lambert. These photos are lifted from his album. Click to enlarge!






It's during the night, so the photos are that clear. But it's still creepy to think that crocodiles are swimming alongside you while walking. Scarefull!!!

How to donate aid to Typhoon Ondoy victims

I won't be posting any FS Picks this week, there are much more important matters to attend to than writing about which movies are coming out or what concerts to see or where the great sales are.

I would like to implore everyone to make your donations to the Philippine Red Cross in aid of Typhoon Ondoy victims. They are still in need of the following:

Cash
Canned or packed foodstuffs
Rice
Water
Clothes
Shoes
Blankets
Mats or mattresses
Toiletries (soap, shampoo, etc)


For information on which roads are safe to take in Manila, follow Manila Flood on Twitter.

Here's a draft list of possible missing people. Kindly help update.

Typhoon Ondoy's damage

Yesterday, I had meant to go home to my parent's house in Marikina. But the weather was so bad because Typhoon Ondoy was chucking it down since Friday afternoon and thought that the areas I would have to pass would've been flooded by then. So I changed my mind, because I was too lazy to deal with traffic, getting soaked and wading through floodwaters.





This was the extent of my experience yesterday.

Little did I know just how lucky I was, because everywhere else in the city was like this --










You'd think this wasn't in a subdivision in QC, but a river.




Some think there's no point worrying, so might as well drink Red Horse Beer. Tsk.




Loads of cars got submerged, as well as whole houses.





This video sent chills up my spine, as that was supposed to be a 19-seater van!

If you have Facebook, this video is a lot worse.


I count myself as one of the very lucky people who did not get too affected from yesterday's floods... lazyness really saved my ass. It does make me feel a bit guilty, though, because many of my friends would need a lot of help in the next few days.

I texted my family and was relieved that our house is fine. Unfortunately, I could not get hold of them today and wonder if they are okay. =(



UPDATE: If you are interested in helping, please send your donations through the Philippine Red Cross.

No picks this week

I find it quite odd that there's nothing that I can suggest you guys do this week.

It's most strange. There are new movies out, sure, but RottenTomatoes.com had rated I Love You, Beth Cooper at 13% and Gamer is at 21%. I don't want to tell people to go see those when they're most likely a waste of time, so I won't.

Maybe you'd be better off just seeing this photo of a pet shop near my place --

Oh yeah, sometimes life can be such a ...

Parking 101 (or something)

Our trip to Trilogy wasn't as straightforward as it looked in the last post. When The BF parked the car and we thought we were lucky to get a space right in front of the boutique/canteen...





... But the manongs from the construction site next door started covering the car up while we were sat inside waiting for our food!





Apparently it's to protect the car from "possible falling debris."


Umm...





As considerate as they were, we couldn't enjoy our lunch too much because of might happen or not happen to the car.


Lesson learned:

Do not park your car right next to a building construction site. Duh.

Thank you for our freedom

I was going to post about something completely shallow, but I guess I can't ignore the news and had just decided to say my piece today while emotions are high.




Despite all the criticism she had received since she became president in 1986, Former President Cory Aquino's passing away is being mourned all over the country. She was a symbol of strength, determination, a sense of righteousness and democracy.

I wasn't too happy with her switching sides often (maybe advanced age makes the mind fickle), but deep down I know her intentions are good.

I may have been too young to remember, but I don't appreciate it when people say that the Marcos regime was better than when Aquino was in power. How is Martial Law any better than democracy? It's so stupid. Do they mean they would rather have the government lie to them, tell them everything is all well, but people are being killed and imprisoned for no reason? That doesn't make sense at all.

It's really a sad day. I feel worse than when Michael Jackson died.

Manila is the 108th easiest city to live in

So if Manila is ranked 108th in this survey, I guess it's not that easy at all, huh? We're nearly the same rank as some very difficult Asian & African cities (where all the other SouthEast Asian ones, I have no idea), so it must be pretty bad.

I couldn't care less! I LOVE MANILA! It's dirty, it stinks, it's crowded, it's noisy and there's loads of pretentious people...but it's also lively, never boring, cheap, fun and there's loads of pretentious people. AYLAVETT!!!

So what if it's not "easy to live in?" It can be a breeze, once you get to know the ropes and be streetsmart. I love it in just the crazy way it is.

I mean come on! Where else can you go out to have dinner with 8 friends, drink loads of shots, and still just pay over Php 260 (US$ 5.50)???

PAL Real Deal - The Update

Remember that Philippine Airlines (PAL) Real Deal fiasco?

Well, there's a surprising update to that.

Isang (1st sister) received an email last Saturday, telling her that Uno (our youngest) has been booked on the same flight as we were, under the promo fees. That's like FOUR DAYS after the Real Deal thing expired.

Looks like all that hard work paid off. Maybe PAL saw the hundreds of attempts we have made in those grueling 48 hours to book our flights and felt sorry for us.

So I guess they're not as incompetent as I thought.


No sister is left behind! All three of us are gonna go bankrupt together in LA! Woooooot!

PAL Real Deal -- A Real Bomb

My sisters and I have been trying to book flights through Philippine Airlines (PAL) because their Real Deal promo was so tempting -- we were going to save at least 50% of the usual flight to Los Angeles, which would be foolish of us to pass up. Unfortunately, the seat sale only ran on April 27-28. ONLY TWO DAYS.

So, what happened then?

The site went down... ALL FRIGGIN' DAY... AND NIGHT.

1st sister and I managed to get booked, but our youngest will be left behind! We were trying to get her into the same flight as us (the first credit card went over the limit), but we eventually failed. Now, how in the world did that happen?


You go visit the PAL website to book a flight online, and you get this stupid announcement:




PAL is experiencing an unusual number of website visitors who want to avail of its internet promo Real Deal.

Yeah, you try again later. But that thing just keeps popping up.


Then, when you eventually reach the part where you can book your flight, you end up staring at this thing for a good 10 minutes:




Yup. It processes the details FOREVER.



If you're lucky enough, you just might see this error:



Add Passenger Details Generic Error.



I tried to call the PAL hotline, but you get a busy tone all the time. When I eventually managed to get through, I was on hold for virtually 90++ minutes or AN HOUR AND A HALF. Even then, the booking agent couldn't book youngest sister into the flight without us having to pay the normal price. Sheesh. How stupid is that?

Philippine Airlines, before you make a promo like that again PLEASE get your shit together. It's not funny. It's like an online raffle! Pfttt.

What to bring?

Before I left to go on my holiday, I was wondering what to bring the bf's family as pasalubong. If I was going to see my Auntie in the UK, this would've been easy. But as I have no idea what can be found in Guam, I was a bit worried.



But at least I knew they wanted ensaymada, so I packed them a box of it.

As for everything else, I've done a little guesswork on the Filipino food aisle in the supermarket --




I like tarts, so I hoped they would like them too.





I wasn't sure about Otap (flaky pastry sprinkled with sugar) -- I think people who come from the south are the ones allowed to bring these in, but I didn't care.





I hadn't tried this brand of Polvoron (it's some kind of powdered sweet) before, but the bf couldn't stop eating them when I got took it out, so it must be good.





Of course, Filipino brand peanut chocolate (our version of Reese' Peanut Butter cups, harhar) might be a little unconventional but would probably be looked forward to by the younger peeps.


So in the end, I just bought whatever I saw. Hee!

Have you guys got any idea what I could bring next time? Nothing too stinky, please, and no dried mangoes as those are so common.

Blonde moments by a black-haired girl

Sometimes, the best way to tell a story is by using bullet points.

I didn't ask anybody to take me to the airport on the day I was flying out of Manila, because I thought I was independent enough to do it and that I was an airport expert. So, I hailed a cab to take me there.

I don't know if it was just too darn busy that evening (it was Holy Monday after all, one of the busiest days for traveling) or that I was also a little ditzy back then, but here's what happened:

• Passengers need to queue up to get into the airport because the luggages need to be x-rayed before we check into our flights.
• When done with that, I queued up to check my bags in, but before the lady gave me my boarding pass, she asked me to pay my travel tax first on the other end of the airport. It wasn't so far, so I queue up there, I did.
• After doing that, I queued up again at the check-in counter until the lady saw I was ready with my receipt. She then gave me my boarding pass.
• Next, I had to queue up to pay my terminal fee.
• Then I had to queue up for immigration. But I didn't fill up a certain form so I had to drop the queue, fill up the form, then queue up AGAIN.
• After which, I went ahead to ANOTHER queue for ANOTHER x-ray. They asked me to throw away a whole new bottle of contact lens solution, which I forgot to put into my check-in bag. What a waste.
• Then there's this loooooooong queue to get into the boarding gate. I was there for about 5-10 minutes before I realised that I joined the WRONG LINE.
• I eventually found the correct gate, but I had to queue my bags up for ANOTHER x-ray machine.

I mean really, HOW MANY X-RAY MACHINES DO WE HAVE TO USE IN THE AIRPORT??? I know safety against terrorism is a major issue, but this is just ridiculous!

I have had enough of lines that day. Thank goodness the flight wasn't very long at 3 and a half hours. Whew.

Divine Affirmation

Filipinos have always had a fascination with divination or "panghuhula." I'm not a believer, but fascinated nonetheless.

Sometimes, I am tempted to go to Quiapo (or Robinson's Galleria if I prefer an airconditioned place)to have my fortune told, but the fear of finding out a not-so-good fortune gets in the way. So I leave to job to friends who claim they can do it.

Jaja is one of them. She had done a Tarot reading for me only recently and this is what came out.




The cards on the left side signify my past (The High Priestess, The Knight of Cups -- both inverted), the middle refers to me (The Chariot, 7 of Wands) and the ones on the right signify my future (The Empress, 10 of Wands). The top show the main cards, reinforced by the cards at the bottom.

Some of the cards are upside down and its meaning changes if they are. If you're more interested in what they all mean, go to this site.


So now that I've gotten the basics out of the way, it's time to tell you guys what they mean.

The Chariot tells me that I am desperately longing for a change in situation and that I'm doing whatever needs to be done to achieve that. The 7 of Wands stresses that I will succeed with sustained effort.

The High Priestess means that I've had to be man in the past to get what I want (yeah, I'm mannish) but the Knight of Cups also means that I've drowned in the process of having done that -- having been tricked by false promises (ulk).

The future is looking bright, however. The Empress means I am seeking to gain a more nurturing kind of environment - one with lots of creativity (like blogging or my own business, perhaps). The 10 of Wands means that I will become very busy (surprise, surprise).

Now what do I do with all this knowledge now? Absolutely NOTHING.

I will not let some fortune direct my life. Because as long as I know where I want to be, then all I need to do is work towards that goal. I've been doing that anyway, so I'm just going to push on.

Go, go, go! XD

6/49 Lotto Results in the Philippines -- I Gotta Win It!

The whole country is in a buzz the last few days and I blame it on the fact that NOBODY had won the Php 288 million from the 6/49 lotto results in the Philippines last night. The queues for ticket sales are getting longer and longer because a lot of people are hoping to get a percentage of that huge prize.

Farkin hey, wonder what I'd do with Php 288 million? Just take a look at this list:

1. I'd pay off all my existing debts (4 million)
2. I'd buy a house & 2 cars for myself (12 million)
3. I'd buy more condo units all over the city (80 million)
4. I'd go on trips abroad (10 million)
5. I'd go shopping (10 million)
6. I'd go into some business (because it will keep me from getting bored -- another 10 million)


Well whaddya know, I don't need Php 288 million, after all. The whole list up there just total Php 126 million!

I don't really want to be as wealthy as Donald Trump. Mo' money, mo' problems like the song said. I don't want a simple life, either -- just one that's very, very comfortable. Hehe.

Santa plays tricks too

I had been meaning to post about this for yonks, but just couldn't get around to it. Today's the day, finally!




Got this really heavy gift during the "Secret Santa" mini-party we had at the office just before Christmas.

Now, Pinoys do this kind of thing a lot, but I had not expected it from a blonde and very British colleague.

I unwrapped the gift and saw a flat iron box.







After I opened the box, I saw this.








I took the bag out and saw this.








Opened the hanky, then FINALLY the actual gift.








So in the end, this is what I had to go through to get to my gift.








Now imagine my exasperation when I got home and saw this. I thought there was more stuff in the box apart from the 2 bottles!



Oh, the pains of exchanging gifts.

Nevermind, I still like it. ^_^

Takipsilim -- Twilight Series Pinoy Style

We were hanging out with a few friends last night when I heard some very disconcerting news --


That ABS-CBN is planning to make a Filipino version of the Twilight series.


I am definitely NOT a fan of the Stephenie Meyer books and I doubt if I ever will be judging from their fanbase antics. They are so into Edward and the gang, shrieking their way to the cinemas only recently, that they have put me off reading the books completely.

And now, there will be a Pinoy version??? Give me a farking break.



It will apparently be topbilled by Rayver Cruz and Shaina Magdayao as the Romeo+Juliet of the undead world.


But wait, there's more!

There is an issue now making the chismis rounds that this news is a hoax! I am inclined to agree just because the poster above is quite badly Photoshopped. Pfttt.

The whole malarkey just keeps getting better and better, because one multiply site even posted a link to the ABS-CBN news site that claims the network posted an official statement that they are indeed making the film remakes. For some reason though, when you click that link you get an error saying "You are not authorised to access this page."


What the blurdy hell is going on here???


So is it a hoax or not? Who cares!


The whole Twilight obsession is bad enough and if the Pinoy version goes through then maybe I'll just make like a Kamikaze and commit suicide because the world will be ending due to bakya-ness.