Last Friday, I met up with fellow digiscrappers. The meet-up was for Trin who is in town for a vacation. We had a chocolate fountain set up, as per Trin’s request, and other desserts like pichi-pichi and blueberry cheesecake. All these in addition to our lunch/dinner buffet.

At first, we were chatting with non-trivial things like the best wrinkle cream. But as the sun started to set, the chat diverted to what most wives talk about. And as promised, nothing can be divulged outside that hotel room.

Yes, my lips are sealed.

As early as now, hubby and I have been browsing for a possible vacation destination for our 5th anniversary early next year. We’ve been looking for a place where you’d think of romance at every which way you look. We’re thinking of a nice honeymoon vacation somewhere in Cancun Mexico. Then we stumbled on the Karisma Hotels and Resorts.

They are offering several honeymoon and anniversary packages. You can enjoy a private candle light dinner for two on the beach, and a chilled bottle of champagne delivered to your room. There’s even a couple massage for half an hour. Now, isn’t that just romantic and relaxing?

Oops, I haven’t been blogging here. I was busy with a lot of things, non-work-related thank goodness, last week. For one, all my blog entries were either motherhood related or scrapbook-related which both falls into my two other blogs.

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What I really want to start doing is monitor my physical activities and my eating habits. I realized I had been sleeping late, and had been eating on a whim mostly chips and soda. I figure if I list them down, I’d be more conscious and probably start doing some “adjustments”.

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I changed my nightly beauty regimen. Well, not the regimen itself but the products that I use. But when I woke up this morning, my face felt thick. Well, it kinda still does.

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I was wearing my Mango cutoff slacks on my way to the office. It matched my wedge shoes. Made my legs look a bit longer. I hailed a taxi and just when I sat down, I heard a loud rip! U-oh! So I asked the cab driver if we could go back to our house so I could change. I didn’t like that someone was waiting for me so I grabbed the slacks that I first saw on my closet. I didn’t dare check myself in the mirror. I knew I would have to change everything if I did. Tsk, tsk.

I’d say weird things have been happening around the house.

Last night, coming from a family get-together, I went straight to the bathroom to wash my hands. Then I saw a HUGE frog inside. Huge as in the size of an old computer mouse, just wider. So I was screaming like a child asking my husband to get rid of it. The husband went inside to check it but could not find it. Geez, I started thinking I must have been so stressed out that I started imagining things! But husband found it hiding under the toilet.

The weird thing was, there was no way that bullfrog could get inside the bathroom. One, there was no hole big enough for him to enter. Maybe the door which was closed. Second, everything on that floor (outside that bathroom) are moved around everytime the help vacuums the place. How could they miss the frog? It is so HUGE!!! Well, anyway, they were able to get rid of it this morning.

Second, just minutes ago, our phone connection had no dial tone (on all 3 phones, extensions included) and its DSL bundle wasn’t working at all. But if you call the number, it was ringing. So I dialled (using a different phone line) the customer support to report the incident. I was facing the modem and the router while talking on the phone. I saw that the modem has only 2 lights on which usually 5 lights on 2 of which was supposed to be blinking.

After I have finished reporting the incident, I would of course put the receiver down. As I have put the phone down, I saw the modem with 5 lights went on 2 of which started blinking. Nice!

Weird!

I am so happy and relaxed today. You see I’m working from home today, and tomorrow. And I have no work this Saturday and Sunday… and from Monday to Thursday. I will only work Friday next week. Meaning I will have a total of 6 rest days. Well, I hope. Sad to say, I will still be on-call from Monday to Thursday.

Tonight, we will have another family get-together. That would be the birthday celebration of hubby’s grandma. I’m pretty sure they will again discuss about health care. I think I’d share what I read about Colonix. And lately, my hubby’s uncle and I are exchanging comments at Flickr, Multiply and Facebook. I’m sure we’re going to talk about photography later too. ^-^

I don’t get to watch the news at night, but I’ve been seeing/reading comments about Chip Tsai. Everyone I know is so mad about it. I didn’t want to get stressed so I have refused to read the article. But then an officemate shared the article. And yes, I was mad, and also was hurt. Not only for my fellow Filipinos but also for his “domestic assistant” who probably takes all the cr*p just to send money to her poor family at her home country.

On my way to the office, I heard that he said he was sorry. That’s it? Sorry? Will it be easy for us to forgive someone who wrote this?

The War at Home
By Chip Tsao

The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen onboard. We can live with that-—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem-—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.

But hold on-—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: There are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as US$3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell everyone of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.

Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her Government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.

Oh yes. The Government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout ‘China, Madam/Sir’ loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly”. They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being.

Sad, isn’t it?