roam if you want to...

it was another day of road trippin' for me!

yesterday, i was with ricababes and tinatuna (who just came from the US of A. welcome home!). we had a full day ahead of us so we started early...

Adventures of the Zoo-per Friends!

it was tinatuna's request to go to Avilon Zoo. it was my 3rd time (can you believe it???) and ricababes' 2nd. but since we haven't seen her for a while, we gladly obliged (lakas ni tina sa min e! :p).

we've been praying for good weather that day and it looked like our prayers were answered! in fact, i think we prayed too hard because it was scorching hot when we had our zoo tour (yeah, we asked for it. hehe.)

speaking of tours, we took the 9 am schedule so we'd still have a lot of time to kill afterwards. rica and i weren't that concerned with the tour since we were old timers. we weren't prepared, though, when the guide decided to use a different route and led us to the last part of the tour. hm, interesting.

anyways, i didn't take too many shots since i was satisfied with the ones i had during my prior visits. that and the fact that i ran out of batteries (hahaha!). i couldn't believe i had the brain to bring an extra memory card and yet forget to charge my spare batteries. was i that wasted last saturday??? (hm, yeah i think i was...) oh well.

as expected, the zoo had a shop that sells batteries and films. although i knew the price was about 2x more expensive than those i could buy in the mall, i still bought the AA batts. sucker. ^_^ my justification was, i might not forgive myself if i ever encounter a "photographic moment" and not be able to use my camera. tsk, tsk, tsk...

i'm glad i did it because i was able to get a lot of stolen shots here and there....


like i said, ricababes. thanks for always being a cooperative guinea pig, er, subject. oh, and i have a new victim, um, subject...thanks, tinatuna! hehe.

we were disappointed that we didn't get enough quality time with the infamous Big Bird and his feathered friends. Big Bird was still as sleepy as ever...


i had a little fun with Mo (for mohawk. haha. i don't know his real name)...

he was giving me a lot of attitude so i just couldnt' help it.


since we started the tour early, we were able to leave the zoo before lunch and headed for...

Market! Market!

it was the first time for both tinatuna and ricababes, so i suggested we have lunch there. i heard about a certain stall that has the best bbq in town and even if i couldn't remember the name, it was pretty obvious just by the number of people lining up for it. Ineng's barbeque!

and was it yummy!! they have the leanest meat in a bbq stick i have ever seen and tasted. one stick was actually a bit filling already. we ordered two sticks each...hey, we were hungry!! plus two orders of kilawin. :)

you'd think we were full already but with girls, there's always room for dessert!! hahaha! double scoop ice cream on a waffle cone, please!! i just luuuuuuve FIC (Fruits in Ice Cream). they have the most amazing flavors, especially the fruity ones. they even have kalamansi, durian, leche flan, avocado (which actually reminds me of the frozen avocado dessert my mom used to make), tsokonut, raspberry, capuccino, and more flavors that i can't recall but all look yummy.

i tried the green tea and cafe latte (no sugar!) combination. mm-mm-mm.

after a few minutes of strolling around the mall and stopping to look at tinatuna's photo collection, we headed for our next stop....

Cruisin' Down the Bay

...Baywalk!

it was the first time tina saw the already developed Baywalk and she was excited to catch the sunset.

unfortunately, the sunset itself was not that spectacular because of a huge bunch of clouds covering it but we still had a great time walking around, talking about nonsense stuff (oops, sorry :p), trying to take stolen shots of one another (yeah, revenge is sweet), and, surprise surprise, snacking at Figaro's. i must have gained 10 pounds yesterday. ^_^

before we went home, we were able to catch Megan Aguilar in one of the live shows. of course, you had to actually dine in at that particular resto but we couldn't help but sit down for a couple of songs. before the waiter was about to approach us with two glasses of water (was that for us, even??), we casually stood up and left.

the sun had set, our tummies were filled, and our senses were stimulated.

what a day! after my horrendous week, it was exactly what i needed :)

sa uulitin, girls!

and that's final!

no more classes,

no more books.

no more teachers,

dirty looks!!

well, for the 1st term, anyways...

i've FINALLY, FINALLY submitted my FINAL paper. yes, it's FINAL! hehe.

i can FINALLY have fun!

tomorrow, i'm meeting ricababes and tinatuna to go to Avilon Zoo (3rd time for me!) and Baywalk. can't wait! i hope the weather cooperates, though.

anyways, i'm off like a dirty shirt and raring to hit the sack.

adios!

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

save me!

aaarrrggghhh!

only THREE MORE DAYS TO GO and it's GOOD RIDDANCE FINAL PAPER!!

until then, it's more sleepless nights, bottomless coffee, and puffy eyes for me. (as if my eyes aren't puffy enough!! @_@)

toxic

when it rains, it pours.

i never thought i'd use the word toxic to describe my work but lately, i've been spreading myself thin.

we have a few more weeks before our finals (in my MA) and we've had nonstop reporting for two meetings...and i still have two more to go. of course, this is excluding our critical review of literature (where we're required to use at least 20 journal references...yeah, TWENTY).

our first PTC (Parent Teacher Conference) is this coming friday. last week, we were busy making the drafts of goals for our kids. this week, we're doing the individual checklists (8 pages per child!). i'm lucky i only have 9 students or else my boss'll have to carry me in a stretcher before she can even say, "checklist."

oh and i accepted a tutorial job. she's the older sister of one of our former students. 4th grader. when i was talking to her mom before i accepted the job, the only thing on my mind was: EXTRA INCOME. did i even think of checking the grade 4 curriculum??? course not. so just imagine my surprise when i browsed through her books and saw how advanced their topics are. last friday, my tutee had her session test in Science. the coverage? the skeletal system. goodie. so instead of taking a break after my class, i had to make quizzes for her. and all the items in my test came from my youngest sister's Biology book. sigh.

can you blame me if i was craving for some good ol' R&R??

In Da Club


last saturday, tet and i celebrated her birthday at Club Embassy. unfortunately, the whole gang couldn't make it. so it was just the two of us. girls night out!!

after putting our Friends VCD marathon on hold (we stopped at the LAST disk. such masochists), we packed our (shoulder) bags and brought our gorgeous selves to the most happening place in the metro. we already knew that the entrance costs 500 pesos, inclusive of three drinks. buuuut, by some weird twist of fate (and sheer bad luck), there was an event that evening (Amnesia Ibiza Trance World Tour 2005 sponsored by Bigfish). the entrance? still 500. the difference? it wasn't consumable! waaaaah!

i was feeling bad already by the time we entered the club and i was hoping they'd somehow redeem themselves (like hold a raffle for a round trip to Europe for two!!). my wish never came true (who was i kidding, anyway??). the interior of the place wasn't even what i expected. i imagined it to be like a warehouse with a spacious dance floor and a killer bar. truthfully, it was smaller than i thought...nothing spectacular. of course, the DJ was great, although i'm not really a fan of techno. hey, give me Crystal Waters and i'm good to go!

anyways, tet and i still decided that we'd have a good time. on a dare, i had to approach a guy and ask him to dance with me. it's supposed to be my bday gift to tet (like my effort to be there wasn't enough already!!! hahaha! :p). tet was eyeing the pair of foreigners beside us but i preferred Pinoys (nationalistic tayo, pare). after scouring the crowd in the dance floor for a few minutes, i still did not have THE guy. that time, tet was telling me that "he" wasn't so bad and i should go for it. of course, the music was loud, the place was dark, and i wanted to get it over with...and the whole time i thought she was talking about the guys beside us.

after a few seconds, i finally approaced them and asked them to join us. when i turned to tet, i was expecting her to say "hi" or something but she had this (priceless) shocked look on her face...and it dawned on me that she was talking about somebody else. hahaha!! among the guys, only one of them joined us. i knew he was just being painfully polite but what the heck. he said they were there to check out the DJ (hm...now that i think about it, it sounds kinda...suspicious, if you know what i mean). after several extremely awkward minutes, tet and i finally had an excuse to go to the bar (we need to replenish our drinks). he actually looked relieved.

the next time we went to the dance floor, tet really made sure we danced with the foreigners and approached them herself (see, tet, you really have a thing for Caucasians :p). thankfully, it wasn't as excruciating as our first attempt. of course, it didn't hurt that they were cute so...anyways, i found out they were Aussies working in an animation studio (connected to Walt Disney) in our country to train Filipinos in the art of animation. they've been here for a few months already and are staying til the end of the year.

a few more hours of working it on the dance floor (yeah right) and two more San Mig Lights later (i had to finish tet's), our dancing buddies said goodbye and we were left by ourselves...again. but we didn't mind anymore and made the most of our time left.

by 3:30, my feet were killing me. i had to drag tet out of the dance floor already because if i joined her again, my feet would be too numb to drive. and we still had a VCD to finish.

we got home safely (thank God!) and got to watch the last episode of Friends (although i slept through half of it. hahaha!). 6 am, i was pooped but happy. i finally got my much needed R&R. and tet, her happy birthday. ^_^

of course, i had to wake up less than 5 hours later because i still had a lot to do at home (don't you just wish your work would just finish itself after a great night out???).

needless to say, i was able to finish EVERYTHING on time.

i swear, i must be superwoman sometimes....