Blogging On The Go

Hello bitches.

HKG 

There's tons of shit waiting for moi in Manila. Looking for a new place and a new job are just two of the most important things I have to attend to when I get back. But hello, I'm still on vacation so fuck all that.

We're actually all getting ready to go to Boracay right now, so I can't rant so much.

Time flies when you're having fun indeed. The past weeks have been happy, heart-warming, touching, fantastic. I'm tired but it's the good kind of tired. Everything didn't exactly go as planned but I still feel so blessed.

On that note, let me indulge in the first dump of pictures from this vacay. These ones are from our Hong Kong trip.

The location of our hotel isn't exactly as glamorous as Causeway Bay, Central or even Tsim Sha Tsui. But even for a less developed area which is near the markets, it's still quite metropolitan, reminiscent of New York's chinatown. Besides, this is what they call "the real Hong Kong".

It was interesting seeing the locals go about their business--loading appliances into trucks, making noodles, the works.

It's great that I got to have my own room!

Sufficient closet space.

The city lights from my window.

 Morning drama. lol

Photo taken by my newphew.

Disneyland!

H&M!!!!

Ladies Market

Haggle haggle!

 Mong Kok

The vendors at the Ladies Market have not changed. They're still very persistent to say the least.

Ok, I totally look like shit here.

I love Hong Kong. I really do. I love the weather, the shopping, the food. It's just not a very cheap place but I miss it nonetheless.

Everyone's now running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I gotta go.

P.S.

Thank you Tin for the complimentary beef sandwich, carbonara and C2 on the flight going to HK. I would have totally starved myself again if it weren't for a sweet friend like you.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Full-time Vacationer

Look who just got back from Hong Kong!

Ladies' Market

 

Just a few hours after touchdown yesterday, we headed to a remote resort in Batangas which is owned by an in-law. Now I'm enjoying the beautiful scenery, the fresh, bountiful food, and the warm company of loved ones.

The view during lunch.

 

God thank you.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Do I Really

Wait, do I really want to blog about my while on vacation?

Do I really want to rave about how super cute, adorable and fun my nephews are? Or about how happy I am our family was finally, completely together the past two days eventhough things are not exactly perfect? And about how it's so good to be home and reunite with the people I grew up with?

Do I really want to talk about how I was denied entry at a local club last night because of my sleeveles Details-Porcupine vest and Zara sando ensemble? And how my parentals sweetly drove back to the club to bring me a shirt so I could finally party the night away with cousins, sisters, in-laws and friends in a passe, lackluster, unexciting outfit?

Do I really want to whine about how I'm surely going to miss fashion week because of a little getaway taking place in the next few days which is why we're flying back to Manila tomorrow?

Do I really want to rant about all these? Oh, I dunno.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

All Things Major

This is my first brush with the Internet in three wonderful days. I'm at home with my family trying to be a good tito to my two fantastic nephews. I wish I can say that everything's fine and perfect but no. The shitstorm I was talking about struck and there could be more damage soon. Major drama. I'm hoping for the best though.

But enough with the negative bullcrap. I'm excited to wake up each day at home with my family and cannot wait to play with my two nephews. I'm eating well. I'm hoarding great gifts and pasalubong! I'm generally having a great time despite having a headache right now from lack of sleep. In a couple of days, some of us are flying off to some great destinations. A very dear cousin and a great aunt also arrived from Dubai so it's really hysterical at home. These call for some major, major, rare celebration. I can't complain.

On a more somber note, a colleague and friend passed away the other day. I believe it was of HIV-AIDS. May he have eternal peace.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Long Vacation

Today is one of the longest days ever. My siblings and their respective families arrived this morning. I have been up for almost 24 hours now. In less than four hours, we're going home to surprise our folks. It's not just the physical activities that wear me down though. I was on the verge of an emotional meltdown earlier. It's supposed to be a very relaxing, enjoyable reunion. But because of some issues, a shitstorm is on the loose.

God knows how much I have been looking forward to this trip, so I really hope things will be better very soon. Please?

Anyway, enough about the drama. I'm in a simple hotel room in Pasay with my loved ones, it's 2 am, everyone's asleep, but I'm still having trouble finding ways to make all my shit fit inside my bags. Traveling light has never been a thing of mine because I get paranoid. Ugh.

For obvious reasons, I have to keep this short and sweet. Later.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Notes To Self

-Stop going to malls unless absolutely necessary.
I went to Chinabank today to settle my account for my laughable savings. Once done with legit business, I decided to drop by Greenbelt. Bad idea.
-Avoid, by all means, sidetrips at Topman and Zara.
Everytime I walk into these stores I secretly wish their stuff would suck so I don't have to hyperventilate and succumb to the lure of fashion and consumerism. There were two shirts I liked at Topman today. I only bought one so I consider that progress.
-Food first before clothes or sex.
My stomach is fucked up again! It's most probably acid or ulcers. FML.
-No gay gazing at the supermarket!
Shorts. Sneakers. Scruff. Second glances. Sigh.
-Find a way to attend Philippine Fashion Week this 27th.
The youngest designer ever to show, 19-year old Xernan Orticio, has invited me to see his collection. I am dying to come but the entire family's supposed to go to Batangas that day. There has got to be a way--especially since I just met another designer last night who also invited me to his show. Grrr...

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Dirty Fingered

'Haggard' would be putting it lightly. This morning's voting process was beyond grueling. It took me exactly 2.5 hours to practice my right to suffrage for the first time.

This was barely moving. There were three lines for our precinct.

At 10:05 am, there were at least 50 people in front of me. Sleepless, knackered and quite hungry, it took a lot of will power and determination to stay conscious. Thank goodness I brought my bag. The airline provided munchies that I didn't eat in the plane kept me from starving.

Chaos

By the time I was inside Precinct 802B, people started bickering about the snail-paced process. Good thing I was too tired to throw a fit. It doesn't really help anyway.

Now I'm watching all the occurences in other areas in the country and it seems like I actually got lucky. Malfunctioning machines, grenades, deaths and other hostilities! Really? Jeezus.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

051010

Just got back from home. I spent the weekend personally delivering stuff my parents asked me to get. We're kind of busy organizing the house because my siblings are coming home from the US which is by the way one of the reasons why I quit my job.

Anyway, I flew back in Manila just moments ago and I have not slept a blink. I can't doze off just yet though. I'm dragging my ass to vote in a bit.

This is it y'all. God bless us.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Berry Beautiful

On such hot days like these nothing beats fresh fruit shakes to cool off a little. I love strawberries so it only makes sense that my cooler of choice is something made out of it. And I prefer to mix it with another fruit or two.

Last night, my good friend H gave me a whole lunch box of strawberries from Baguio. I love them even though they're not the perfect, flawless type. There's a lot so I decided to make these babies into some fresh, homemade smoothie.

I decided to pair the strawberries with bananas this time. The combination tastes as great as it looks pretty. No sugar, just milk.

It's healthy, refreshing, and tastes really good. (Gawd I sound like a friggin' infomercial star!)

So yes, I love strawberries.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

A Week From Now

A week from now, I'll be voting for the first time. I was anxious that the powers that be will screw up and lose my registration or something. Well, I just visited the Mandaluyong City website and I was able to verify that COMELEC does have my name. I also got my precinct information. How cool is that? Kudos! My voter's ID is not yet ready though.

A week from now, we'll have our first ever automated election.Only God knows what circus will occur on the fateful of May 9, 2010. It's another chance for us to either fuck things up even further or finally crawl out of this slump and work with the resources that we have left.

I haven't decided yet which team I'm on but I do hope my vote will be counted. And needless to say, I do hope whoever gets elected into office will be the leader that will significantly change every Filipino's life for the better.

A week from now. I'll be officially unemployed. I'm not proud of it. But man, is it liberating. Maybe the new governance can provide me with a better job? No? We'll see.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Labor Day Thoughts

Happy Laboy Day everyone!

This holiday used to mean a trip to the beach, fishing and just having a great time with family. Now, it just means double pay--not that it matters since I don't have work today. Thank God for that because it's no fun walking in this piercing heat. In fact, such extreme temperature may have altered my dating mentality

Lately, I've been talking to mostly, younger guys. I really prefer older ones but for some reason the 20-22 year olds seem less unappealing to me now--well, the cute ones at least. I even met up and had dinner with a ballet dancing, play writing, theater student from UP three days ago.

Speaking of UP, I was with a bunch of UP kids last night at Cubao X. Erin and I had so much fun. I love it there.

If you're reading this, Marcel/Stefan/Lady Jeje, happy birthday again and thank you for last night!

That's all for now.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Unemployment Ahead

Finally.

Tone: non-negotiable

All this when all I really want to say is "Fuck this shit! I'm outta here!"

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Drama Cum Laude

In attempting to escape loneliness, we accept a sexual act devoid of spiritual nourishment. Such nourishment can come only from the union of two permanently committed souls.

-The Thrill of the Chaste by Dawn Eden

He takes a puff on his cigarette and blows the smoke not knowing his guest is allergic to it. The latter doesn't complain. The host leans in closer and they share a tobacco flavored kiss with eyes closed.

Thirty minutes earlier, they hide their naked bodies under the covers while the host's roommate turns on the light and casually murmurs something about leaving the room.

"It's ok," the host said, trying to comfort his embarrassed guest.

He shares the room with 4 other guys, in a place that's home to numerous tenants who are all gay. It's a few blocks away from the guest's place.

Once done satisfying each other's carnal hunger, both guys head outside. Silence, broken by slight chit chat and a few kisses, dominated. The host is lonely. He tells his guest he's not very happy living in that place, his eyes filled with questions, doubts, stories, secrets. The guest joked about the two of them living together and managed to avoid talking about his own loneliness.

Then there they are, kissing in front of two straight grown men having gin. The guest asked if the host could walk him around the block. The latter obliged. While walking in the middle of the street, he asked him to put his arm around his shoulders. The guest obliged.

They parted ways in front of a small convenience store where the host had to buy something---cigarettes probably. It was also where a shirtless pundit mocked them about their sexuality. But no one paid attention. Both guys just walked home alone.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Madonna Gold

Inspired by Glee's Madonna episode, I scoured Youtube for this version of 'What It Feels Like For A Girl'. It's a long lost gem for me.

Enjoy!



This is the Stephan Pompougnac mix by the way.

You're welcome.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Random Rants

Acapella

Kelis is entering Madonna territory.

Not bad.

Sweet

I was perusing through my old blog entries when I found what I consider my first 'hate comments'!

Eyelovette.

Aahh... Gold.

Be Negative

I recently had a spirited chat with someone over YM. It was his status, 'non reactive', that prompted me to mack him. It turns out he just got tested for HIV. Naturally, he went through the paranoia and unimaginable stress before finding relief when he got the good news.

The fact alone that we have to get tested and undergo such trauma means we're not being careful. It's alarming. I'm definitely not one to preach but I hope we'd all do a part in stopping the spread of the virus.

The One Who Went Away

Last night, just before going to sleep, I decided to check my Nunffnang stats. Everything was fine until I saw a link to the blog of this guy I used to talk to constantly over the phone. Apparently, I'm still on his blog roll.

For months, I managed to steer away from his site afraid I may get trapped, get infatuated, etc. We stopped talking because he was in a relationship then, which he didn't tell me until over a week of getting to know each other. I deleted his number because of the unnecessarily offending statements he said to me. I could also tell he just lost interest even before we had the chance to meet up.

Anyway, I caved in and revisited his blog. One entry caught my attention. I have a strong feeling I'm one of the guys he's talking about in that post.

I'm thinking of reconnecting and perhaps finally meet up with him one of these days but something tells me that's not such a good idea.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Sketches

Work. Bored. Fashion. McQueen. Birkin.

Nothing like McQueen to make a boring time at work more inspiring.

I hate this. The shoes look bad and the Birkin doesn't look accurate.

I like to think this is my portrait which I should be wearing on a t-shirt soon.

This is how I am productive at work.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Cubao Homo Xplosion

Is it just me or is the Gateway/Araneta area the Malate of Quezon City?

Too hot for sleeves.

Last night, I went out with Erin. It's one of those spontaneous things that just happen in a snap. We decided to meet up outside Starbucks Araneta where throngs of gay guys were hanging out. It was quite a surprising sight seeing all these gays concentrated in a small area like there's some sort of homo convention I didn't know about. There was a Super Junior concert inside the coliseum though. I didn't think they had so much gay following.

Erin for some reason was in the mood for Pilsen.

Anyway, I was dying of boredom and after all the family shitstorm I've been dealing with the past few days, a couple of drinks just seemed to be the perfect distraction. So off to Cubao X we went where the atmosphere is laid back and unpretentious.

Erin and Stefan. This is dirty! Hahah...

Dengue Corner

Erin, ever the social fairy, introduced me to fashion designer and DJ Mike Lavarez and stylist and fashion design assistant Stefan Punongbayan. We hung out at I Love You X Future where Mike spins regularly. I'm not sure if it's the ridiculous summer heat or the alcohol or the artsy scene, but what ensued was a night of fun conversation, shameless posing and intense strutting.

Christy + Naomi

+ Linda = Trinity?

At some point, these two "supermodels" (Erin and Stefan) even had a series of walk offs in the middle of the fucking street like it was nobody's business. I, well, let's just say I played the front row star/photographer. Nonetheless, it was one of the gayest nights ever.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

Pet Poop Management

One of the reasons I now love Eastwood is the fact that they have their shit together, quite literally.

Harvey Milk would be proud.

These 'Pet Stations', or basically toilet paper dispensers cum trash bins are placed everywhere to make sure pet owners clean up after their animals. It's a simple idea really. I hope other communities follow suit, just like the one I live in. My aunt stopped jogging around our neighborhood because there's dog poop everywhere.

literarybulimia@gmail.com

BFL

So I just got home from the Nuffnang+Glutamax event empty handed. Yes, I'm a big fucking loser. I left the event with a full tummy though.

Unbelievable as it may seem, it was actually my first time to be in Eastwood. And I think the cab driver didn't take the most convenient route.

Let me just say that I officialy like Eastwood! It's clean, there's an endless selection of shops and restaurants, the corridors of the Eastwood Mall are spacious, and the restrooms are in top shape. I hope they'll be able to maintain the cleanliness and keep everything in order.

I can't help but compare Eastwood to Rockwell and The Fort.

What wasn't exactly in great order was the event that I mainly came there for, which was the awarding of the Glutamax 'The New Me' contest. The program was quite the hot mess. No wonder the crowd was less than enthused when applause was needed.

The program was hosted by DJs Mojo Jojo and this other this girl whose name I unfortunately didn't catch because I was too busy being alone observing other bloggers getting to know each other.

Don't get me wrong though. Between, bites of pastries and hors d' oeuvres, I managed to do a little chit chat with an equally cold and seemingly introverted editor of a tabloid called Diretso.

The food, provided by Delifrance and Old Vine, was abundant. The organizers made sure the guests were well-fed. The entertainment however was quite weak.

The first to perform was this male group called 100%. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be in numerals or spelled out. They sounded fine but weren't exactly quite crowd pleasers these boys.

Then there's this belter who didn't appear onstage until the third time she was called out. She's got great pipes though.

Nyoy Volante, the only familiar performer to me, did his thing. He had to ask the audience to clap. Just saying.

The crowd was a good sprinkling of organizers, bloggers, media professionals and other guests.

Coinciding with the awarding was also the unveiling of Glutamax's new endorser. Jinky Oda out...

...Gretchen Baretto in!

I must say she was very pretty and her skin looked divine. I wonder why she was wearing so much make-up.

Anyway, it sucks not to get any of the cool prizes especially the MacBook! I wasn't bitter until I saw it between the winner's arms. She looked pretty by the way and I thought she looked cute in her short skirt-tank-pumps combo. But the best dressed there in my book is this girl.

Who is this Prada-toting, jumpsuit-in-stretchy-sweat pants fabric-wearing showstopper? Marie Lozano? She looked gorge.

Meanwhile, I kept it simple.

White, short-sleeved, button down shirt from Levi's, Skinny jeans from Maldita, gray espadrilles from Zara, bag from Marithe Francois Girbaud, vintage sunglasses from my mom

Though I did not win, I don't regret going to the event. It was good to finally visit Eastwood and to attend a Nuffnang event for the first time.

literarybulimia@gmail.com