all-expense paid overnight accommodation na, choosy ka pa?!

what's not to like about:

1. a free overnight stay in boracay?
2. at a well-known resort/hotel?
3. with free buffet dinner and breakfast?
4. inclusive of all transpo expenses?

sounds perfect, right? but i would like to borrow carlo aquino's infamous line in the vilma santos starrer, bata, bata, paano ka ginawa?

AKALA MO LANG WALA! PERO MERON! MERON! MERON!

we were supposed to be back in manila hours ago. thanks, but no, thanks to seair's i-don't-know-if-it-can-be-called-customer complaints handling, we are back here in la carmela for an extended overnight stay. that is, just 6 hours from checking out this afternoon.

looking at the fun part of it, the extra 1 day vacation seemed to be indeed a good thing. what was hard for us to accept was the way the problem was handled. allow me to let you in on what happened.

our original caticlan-manila flight was set at ETD 1620hrs, and boarding time was set at 1605hrs. we were at the crampy caticlan airport as early as around 3pm, and have completed the tedious manual checking in process as the baggage x-ray machines have all conked out. since it seemed the aircon was not enough to cool down the entire place, we decided to stay at the smoking area (which was, ironically, had a decent working ACU) and endure the time bathing in second-hand smoke while waiting for the boarding time call.

at around 3:55pm, we left for the waiting area. no call for our boarding time was announced at 4:05pm. what we kept on hearing were individual names being called to go to the check in counter, one at a time. at 4:15, fritz decided to inquire about the flight, but he was told there is going to be a delay, and they promised to announce through the paging system. which they did, and they even promised to make another announcement after 20 minutes. which never came.

at shortly before 5pm, i heard my name being called to report at the check in counter. upon arriving there, i was told that they will be arranging for our overnight accommodations as the flight has been cancelled already. the irony of it is that out of the 30+ passengers of the flight, there were only 11 of us who were left. apparently, for the passengers that were called before us, special arrangements have already been made for them to be able to go back to manila.

everything that ensued next was an exchange of complaints and non-sense replies. or at least, that is what it seemed to us. they cannot satisfactorily explain the reason why there are only 11 of us left, and how they decided who leaves and who stays. it was as if they ruled our lives and they had all the right to decide for us. and the argument lasted for more than 2 hours.

unfortunately, to cut the story short, we really never had any options but to stay, because of these reasons:

1. our flight was the last seair flight for the day
2. the other airlines are fully booked
3. caticlan airport doesn't operate/allow flights beyond 5pm
4. taking a manila flight via kalibo was out of the options as the flights are fully booked as well
5. the one who should be calling the shots for seair was nowhere to be contacted

well, i just hope my boss is reading this. and i hope this gets an approval for a half-day leave tomorrow.

and you know what, i just realized another thing tonight. it was sooooo difficult writing your blog with fingers crossed.

10 little known things about me

hello blog! long time, no see!

evonne, an officemate, recently wrote something about wanting to try to revive her blog. we had a chat about it, and told her that i share the same feeling. i miss putting my non-sense thoughts into something retrievable and shareable too. lintek kase ang mga micro-blogging sites like twitter and plurk, hirap na akong mag-isip ng maisusulat na mahaba-haba.

so when i revisited this site, muntik na akong sumpungin ng hika. spiderwebs and dustmites galore. hahaha.

now equipped with the drive, yung ideas na lang on what to write ang kulang. what to write... what to write... what to write...

*long pause*

ok, how about going more personal? hmmm... this is a bit of a challenge. you definitely know how we celebrities value our privacy. but let's see. with the emergence of the various social networking sites, and with me joining the bandwagon, uso pa ba sa akin ang word na privacy? so i'm taking the challenge by trying to come up with 10 things about me that people don't know about, or is probably known to only a few.

let the countdown begin!

1. choco wacko. i'm a sucker for anything with chocolate. ice cream, cake, candies. name it, and i won't have second thoughts about trying it. nag-start akong maging cautious about losing weight talaga last january, pero when i attended a gathering wherein may choco fondue, nakalimutan ko kung anong ibig sabihin ng losing weight.

makes me think, i haven't tried that chocolate frog from harry potter's world yet. san ba makakabili nun?

2. cats. i recently watched the staging of Cats at the ccp, featuring our very own ms lea salonga. incidentally, i'm a cat lover myself, back during my childhood. of all the cats that we had, my favorite will always be Maxi. or Max. his mom, barely a few days' old kitten then, came to our lives days after kuya regie passed away. must have been by divine intervention.

Max got his name from, uhm, the late Max Alvarado (RIP). his fur was a combination of black and white, with some of the black covering his jaw, kaya nagmumukhang balbas-sarado sya. get the story behind the name?

gusto ko ulit mag-alaga ng pusa, kaya lang mahirap yata dito sa place ko ngayon. kawawa naman kung iiwan ko sya mag-isa araw-araw. i'll probably get one, and have my nephews take care of it in the province. now, that's an idea!

3. 16. no that's not age. late bloomer ako, so virgin pa ako nung 16 ako, ok? 16 stands for 16 pounds. since i started running in late april, that's how much i've lost until mid-august. (insert applause here.) darn! i'm so damn proud of myself i am patting my own shoulders right now, left hand on right shoulder, right hand on left.

honestly, i had been in my most disciplined state ever, diet- and exercise-wise. come on, if you're reading this, you are probably my friend. shouldn't you be proud of me too? tara, let's celebrate. buffet lunch at dad's?

4. nunal sa talampakan. sabi ng mga supertitious fellows natin, sign daw yan ng pagiging gala ng isang tao. totoo ba ito sa akin? parang hindi naman. (ang kumontra, lulumpuhin ko. wala akong pakialam kung may nunal ka rin sa talampakan.)

seriously, i really love travelling. i love nature. i love the beach. i haven't tried trekking, but i wanna try it.

ang totoo nyan, sa sobrang hilig kong gumala, may mga sinalihan na rin akong promos na travel ang premyo. malay natin, di ba?

5. masarap sa loob. para sa mga nag-iisip ng bastos jan, shame on you. this post is related to no. 4. marami-rami na rin naman akong napasyalan at napuntahan, but the truth is, hindi pa ako nakakalabas ng pinas. yung lumang passport ko, nag-expire sya ng walang stamp ng kahit anong bansa. kawawa naman, di ba? muntik na akong bumili ng stamp pads nina pooh at mickey mouse, matatakan lang sya.

hay, ang ugly ng truth na ito. pero sabi nila, the truth shall set you free daw. sana may mag-sponsor ng free lakwatsa ko. hindi naman ako pihikan. kahit yung star cruises lang.

6. pampamilya lang, hindi pang-sports. if any of my cousins would be reading this, please correct me if i'm wrong. but as far as i know, parang walang nahilig talaga sa amin sa larangan ng sports. i mean, as players. sure, we do watch ball games, boxing matches, and all, pero not one of us became good sportsmen. believe me, being un-sporty is one of my biggest frustrations.

as i have mentioned above, i started running early this year. the other week, i attended the badminton clinic sponsored by the office. i hope it's not too late to start to be sporty.

i'm glad that some of our next gen are now into sports.

7. i'm a fAnne! ok, this is a bit of an overdue confession. i like anne curtis! i Followed her on twitter, i Liked her facebook page, and if i have time, i watch showtime because of her.

this fascination, i think, started when she took on the role of celine in abs-cbn's drama series Maging Sino Ka Man, which, to date, remains my favorite soap opera.

i must confess though that i have not went out of my way to the moviehouses to watch her movies. but if she asks me personally, face-to-face, i'll probably do it for all her succeeding movies. that is, if i don't die when we meet.

8. bloodsuckers. of late, i'm so hooked into The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. not so much with the Twilight saga, pero pinanood ko na rin. i don't know, pero nakakaadik talaga itong mga series na ito.

siguro, what made me hooked to these series is the idea that vampires are just there, mingling with ordinary people like you, and celebrities, like me. dati kase, vampires are portrayed differently in movies and tv; now they're out in the open.

what i'm sure of, yung istorya talaga ang sinusubaybayan ko, not the stars, as opposed to my fascination with Anne. saka na siguro pag nagkabati na yung front teeth ni anna pacquin; may gap kase sila until now. but hey, i also find nina dobrev hot. kung sya naman ang kakagat sa akin, hindi na ako papalag.

9. food. kahit pa nagpapapayat ako, i never really hated food. i still pig out every now and then, eating what i want. minsan nga buffet pa. kaya nga siguro ako lumaki ng husto dati dahil sa katakawan.

during my childhood, lumaki ako sa masasarap na luto ng aking dalawang lola: si apung ciana at si lola virgie. my paternal grams was into native desserts, like ginataang halo-halo, ginataang mais at palitaw. ang lola ko naman ay mahilig sa masasarap na ulam. escabecheng isda, beef liver steak, bopis.

kasabihan na, pag kapampangan daw masarap magluto. kaya kapag fiesta sa amin, dumarating yung mga pinsanin ni erpats para magluto ng masasarap na ulam. kaldereta, asado, arroz valenciana, lumpia.

living on my own for some years now has taught me how to cook. marunong naman akong sumunod sa instructions sa product labels at cookbooks eh. haha. but i still miss my inay's cooking, especially her chicken asado, sinampalukang manok, champorado at tuyo, at ang bopis na minana nya pa kay lola.

ayan tuloy, nakakagutom.

10. 600. ayan, obviously hindi rin yan edad. unless i'm a vampire. (last na kase, kaya parang dapat summary na. ) well, yan ang grado ng mata ko ngayon , both eyes. i started wearing glasses when i was in 4th year high school. malakas ang ulan noon, charo, at sabik na sabik na ako sa aking asawa. joke.

again, nag-umpisa akong magsalamin late nung high school. basta, bigla na lang nagbabaan ang grades ko nun. (asus, naghanap pa ng rason!) hindi ko kase nababasa yung sulat sa blackboard, kaya hindi ako makasunod sa lessons. (naks, at talagang kinarir ang alibi!) ayun, it turns out, 250/225 na pala that time ang grado ko.

i wore glasses until mid 1995, tapos nag-umpisa na akong mag-contacts. so far, nag-stop na sa 600/600 ang vision ko since then. 

ayan, nakatapos ako ng 10 items. i survived the challenge! next time, 20 items naman. we'll see. siguro pag inalikabok na ulit itong blog ko, or pag napanis na yung mga pagkaing nabanggit ko.