Has anyone seen my robot?
Land of Taxes
Tuesday, October 4, 2005 : 01:52 p.m.
It's amazing, how much tax one has to pay for the land of the apartment you're renting! and if ever we owned a television set, apparently we'd be taxed for that, too! boo!
Definitely not meant for the kitchen
Saturday, September 24, 2005 : 12:34 p.m.
Last week I bought an oven.
I was so excited to finally cook something that wasn't fried. It took me 2 days to prepare myself (emotionally) for my killer first dish.
I made an eggplant gratin.
Would've been perfect. Except that I forgot to add in a major ingredient - the ground beef.
The worst feeling in the world, people, is hearing your husband say "This tastes really good - no, really, please don't cry! It's soooo good! Miam miam!" while washing down every mouthful with whatever liquid he gets his hands on, and cutting - no, hacking - away savagely at the half-cooked eggplants.
Anyway, I don't need your pity. Makis has taught me the secrets of barbequed chicken and bilobilo so I'm going to be the Master of these two dishes as soon as I buy my bottle of marinade.
I'm writing a (pathetic) food-related topic because the latest PINOYexpats food issue is up.
Grow up
Thursday, September 22, 2005 : 11:11 a.m.
I'm such a fucking fan girl. Yesterday I became obsessed with that guy from Coldplay. He wears nice jackets and I like his teeth. I should grow up; I'm 26 for chrissakes.
Tourists Under the Eiffel Tower
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 : 03:53 p.m.
I think the French really don't know how to pose like tourists.
A few months ago I decided to take the best French Tourist Photo. Of course my model was Julien (as he is always willing). So I asked him to pose and he posed like this!
Of course I wasn't satisfied because he looked so unnatural!
I took 2 more shots but that was the best.
In Paris I tried to continue my French Tourist Photo ---
I was laughing so hard because he was obviously posing like this to make me laugh. OA! He said that a French Tourist Photo must be a mix of "delighted enthusiasm" and "the pride of being a tourist". OA! I couldn't hold the camera steady. In fact, we may have looked like the Stupidest People Ever under the Eiffel Tower! I was half-lying on the cold pavement and kept falling because of laughter!
Anyway afterwards we were discussing about how he should pose next time and it became an argument and then he started poking me with his umbrella. Pikon!
1057th Reason Why I Love Julien: Willing to pose like a fool anytime anywhere
Paris is the blues
Thursday, September 1, 2005 : 08:26 a.m.
Actually, I wanted to keep this hotel room because of the joys of WiFi, but I kept putting off making another night's reservation. And now with only 3 hours to go, I have to find another hotel. I've already asked 3 hotels in the area and they're fully booked. And it's raining.
Julien just left for work and I am now faced with the task of making up for my procrastination. Did I mention it's raining outside?
Problem: I have 3 hours, 2 full baggages, 2 laptops, 1 backpack of food, my other bag full of things I should have left at home (why the hell did I bring my robot?!) plus a one-litre bottle of Coke which will not fit into any other bag. I can throw away the Coke and it still does not solve anything.
I should stop procrastinating. So wish me luck.
Paris is the blues,
Kala
Something you've got isn't a go
Friday, August 26, 2005 : 04:39 p.m.
I'm this close *holding fingers a centimeter apart* to smoking again. I have to distract myself. It's hard.
Marseille Meets
Friday, August 26, 2005 : 12:48 p.m.
Ah, my life --- with time spent dodging the paparazzi, earning loads of money and attending important government functions (to discuss nuclear warhead matters, of course), it's kinda hard to post things at once.
Okay, I was lying, my life's a fart, but sometimes I get to meet wonderful people for drinks in Marseille and well, I'm lucky just like that.
Admittedly, apart from the time a friend came over to my place around 3 am after winning a black-coffee-drinking contest, I've never met anyone as lively, intelligent and animated as Makis. There are a bunch of interesting people in this world, people who have things to say that actually make you think. This girl's is one of them.
Also met up with Hazel, who is absolutely sweet and motherly, and she seems so organized with her life. She's a woman who knows what she wants out of life, and gets it. Traits I admire because I am neither sweet nor organized, and I don't have a motherly bone in my body, except when I ocassionally oil Mahmud the Robot when his joints start creaking.
Marseille is drab but if you've got people to drink with in bars then that makes it okay. See you guys again soon!
With Makis
With Hazel. I don't know why I look like that. Honestly.
Makis and Hazel
Aix en Fire
Friday, August 26, 2005 : 12:58 a.m.
There was a huge forest fire some weeks ago very close to Aix-en-Provence, I've never seen anything like it. Planes were swooping down from the sky trying to stop the fire from moving towards town. The best view, of course, was from the swimming pool --- and so, for lack of a better topic, I am posting pictures.
Calm down
Friday, August 26, 2005 : 12:04 a.m.
Now that I've gotten past Jude Law's Jewels Incident (phew! life is hard), let me return to what I was doing before he pulled down his pants.
Apparently there is a thing called tagging, and I see that people remember their accomplishments so clearly that I am ashamed to only remember how I felt back then. I can only guess what happened years ago. Anyway, here you go Analyse:
20 years ago I was probably running around the streets or stealing other people's flipflops (because from a very young age I could never stick to just one pair of flipflops). I was also most probably missing my front teeth.
10 years ago I was about to be a freshman at UP College of Fine Arts. Watched bands play during the freshman orientation night. Ate a lot of fishballs from Fine Art's resident Manong Fishball, and as a result caught typhoid fever and missed a month of school. This did not deter me from eating more fishballs once I recovered (I wonder how they make the sauce? I know it's 90% bacteria but damn it's good)
5 years ago was my Lost Year. I was painting, smoking, writing a lot. Goodtimes with good friends. Travelled to Jordan for holidays (everyone should visit Petra). And then, Mahmud my Robot came into my life. He is as robotic as the first day I laid eyes on him.
3 years ago I made up my mind to make wise, wise decisions. I wanted to make my life amount to something. Then I turned down an opportunity to work in China, which is something I regret to this day. Friends, never choose stability.
Last year I bought my first Christmas tree and strung Christmas lights over it. Last year I found a cat outside our house, I brought it in, gave him milk, then let him go again and cried when it left. Last year I found my first job in France. Last year I wondered where my life was heading.
This year I saw my family after 2 years. Julien and I bought 2 guitars - an electric and an acoustic. And I still have no cat or dog.
Yesterday I finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha. Then realised that I bought the wrong kind of bagoong for manggang hilaw (total waste of money. Who wants bagoong guisado?!)
Today I sat infront of the window mulling over where my life was going.
Tomorrow I shall be in Paris.
Next year Julien and I will hopefully be in another country, and I hope to have some direction in my life.
Five years from now... who knows what the future holds.
You have sinned
Monday, August 22, 2005 : 03:07 a.m.
Okay, I was answering this tag thing that Analyse started, but halfway through I got distracted because I "stumbled upon" a picture of Jude Law's penis. Then the electricity went out! Hello! When has looking at celebrity penises ever been a sin?!
I wonder if I'll ever know
Friday, August 5, 2005 : 10:32 a.m.
There's a topic on the PINOYexpats forum about Racial discrimination and I was reading the comment Bethski wrote regarding my little run-in with discrimination in France (now that I think of it, I think my encounter was more of rudeness rather than discrimination).
Anyway, a snippet of what she wrote : "From my experience, ignorance of other culture, other people can be the root cause of discrimination. Sometimes what people know about certaqin group of people are just the general stereotypes that they hear around. Mostly, I ignore any racial inuendos I encounter because I know they don't know what they are talking about."
So let me share with you something I encountered during the trip to the Philippines I waited two years for : when Julien and I were in Vigan, a group of men hanging around the square quipped, loudly enough for me to hear: "Ayan na yung Amerikano at yung prosti niya."
(Translation : "There goes the American and his whore.")
So yes, shouldn't take it to heart : these are just "stereotypes".
But these general stereotypes, however, make us rot from the inside. They blur our perspective, reality gets skewed. A Filipina walking with her Western husband is a whore. A Filipina with her Western husband is a whore who needs money.
If I were five feet nine inches tall, if I had white skin, if I had expensive clothes on, if I had cup D boobs, if I were stepping out of a limousine with my Westerner husband, if I were even a talentless movie star, would those people have called me a prostitute?
Because I am five feet tall, a morena with extreme sunburn, I wear glasses, and if I recall, I was wearing normal shorts, a shirt that has seen better days, and a pair of mojos, and I had just stepped off a non-airconditioned bus which sped 190 all the way from Ilocos Norte (so my hair wasn't perfect either). I suppose this doesn't exempt me from the stereotype, eh?
So yes, of course: to our fellow countrymen, I'm a whore. Because that's the stereotype. It's not their fault: they just don't know any better.
In the past, I've had arguments with the people who've uttered off-colour comments about Julien and I. And the worst thing is that the people who make the quickest judgments are my fellow countrymen. Having been through the defensive stage, the 'ignore them!' stage, the disgusted stage, I realise that... I'm pretty tired of this, people. It gets old, but it never really goes away, does it? I suppose I've gotten used to the fact that being a mixed couple in France is nothing controversial: if anything, it makes you different in a good way. But in my own country, you're just a money-grubbing bitch.
How many times have I forced myself not to prejudge people? It was a lesson instilled in me by my parents early in life. It's hard, and I don't mean to be preachy, and I'm no angel, but it's true, I try. When Julien and I got together, I tried even harder to keep an open mind. I naively thought that I was detached from this stereotype because... well, because I know myself.
And I've tried not to be affected every time this happens, but it happens all the time.
So yes, I can ignore racial innuendos, but it hurts and it saddens, because I understand what they're saying. But until when am I supposed to ignore them?
PS. Also, Julien wants to stress that he is French and not American.
Paris in August
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 : 01:11 p.m.
Julien's got a one-month stint in Paris this August. Anyone in Paris who wants to meet up?
Email me! My addy's on the sidebar over there <----
No Sex in this City
Monday, August 1, 2005 : 01:31 p.m.
First night in Manila, jetlagged and hungover, Jul, my brother Paolo and I went to Metrowalk to look at pirated stuff.
As always, the vendors were harassing everyone by shouting "ANO PO YUN, SIR, MA'AM? DIBIDEE? DIBIDEE!" at ear-shattering level.
I was trying to look for the 6th season of Sex and the City, and was probably muttering under my breath when an eager-looking vendor came up to me, chirping, "Ma'am, ano po iyon?"
I asked her, "Er, do you have Sex and the City episodes?"
"Meron po!" she answered in the affirmative, and led me to her little booth.
"Anong season po, ma'am?" she looked like a boxer about to enter the ring: a very determined expression on her face.
I asked for the 6th season.
She started riffling through her dvds while I waited patiently. After a few minutes: "Ay, ma'am, wala po," she said.
"Ok, what about the 5th season?"
More riffling.
Sadder expression: "Wala rin po."
"Er... 4th?"
She looked half-heartedly at her dvd stock and didn't even check. "Ay, ma'am, wala po."
Silence.
I squinted at her. I swear to god she squinted back at me.
Carefully, I asked her: "Do you have Sex and the City episodes?"
Almost immediately she answered, "Ay, wala po."
At this point, an amused Julien choked with laughter.
The girl, probably not appreciating being laughed at, pointed vaguely to another stall. "Pero dun po, may sex doon!"
Paolo, interested : "Where?"
Gritting my teeth, I left Dory with her imaginary dvd episodes and walked to another vendor. "Excuse me," I asked the guy behind the counter. "Do you have Sex and the City episodes?"
The guy looked at me, then Julien, and hesitantly opened his porn folder.
"Er... it's not porn. Sex and the City? The HBO series?"
He put his folder away and leaned his elbows on the counter again. "Wala po."
And that is why I'm spending four times more to get the episodes here in France.
PS. I passed Dory on the way out. I swear she forgot who I was, because she called out, "Ma'am, dibidees?"
People are people, garbage is garbage
Friday, July 29, 2005 : 07:27 p.m.
With Honey, my bestest favouritest species
Jul, scritchy-scrathing
With Tom and Jul, both unexplainable species
Let's bagets
Friday, July 29, 2005 : 02:35 p.m.
I didn't get to do a lot of things in Manila, which I bitterly regret, like eating fishballs in my beloved Alma Mater UP Naming Mahal, or meeting more friends, or even setting foot in Makati (except for the time I went to Saguijo, but that was at midnight so it doesn't really matter). I didn't go malling enough, although I'm not really a maller, because Shopping Is Evil.
I did get to do some interesting stuff, though. Like hang out at 77 (in fact, 40% of the time I wasn't at my parent's home was spent at 77, with Doy the Lethal Man Behind The Bar Who Refuses To Make Frappucino For Those Who Order It).
Gig
One of the things in my to-do list was to watch Bagetsafonik play (I've been a loyal "Le Support" member of their Yahoo! Groups
Before Jul and I left Manila for France, we were at 77 (what's new?) listening to Marcus, Doy, Ace, and Tom aka Partyjesus make plans about their "band". In a state of delirium they talked of their plans, congratulating themselves in advance and slapping each other on the back and thinking of all the sexy roadie chicks they could score once they made it big.
Well boys, all your dreams have come true -- an EP coming out, fame, fortune(?), recognition, Yahoo! Group members ... all this and more
If you're interested to watch them play one of these days, check out their page here. To hire them to play for your Bar Mitzvahs, Hillbilly Open Forums and Witchcraft sessions, Bernie, their lurvely manager, is the person to get in touch with. She was attacked by The Dreadful Shingles while we were there, but I think she is no longer contaminated.
Plugging plugging,
Reverse BC Apple move infront of Saguijo. Flattering!
...'cept for the roadie chicks, haha!
Set Up - Saguijo
PFran with the Interpol haircut, Ace of Base, Doibaduy, Partyjesus (my brother with the ugly cap)
... and Marcushiro with friendly non-biting monkey + discoball!
Party Manimals
Kala
Sleeping without Grace
Friday, July 29, 2005 : 11:17 a.m.
Before I regal you with tales of my Manila trip, I should get these pictures out of the way.
Speaking of graceless sleepers, here is a picture of the famous new dog, Son of Zorro, Butsog, who wants to share a picture of his balls to each and everyone of you, with Love:
This dog has numerous annoying habits, it's amazing.
He is an Elbow-Licker. My mother, who is a kind soul but a bit too accomodating when it comes to Zorro and Butsog, sighs that Butsog is "so sweet" each time he licks our elbows while eating.
He also likes to charge and jump at you, muddy or wet paws and all, ONLY WHEN YOU'RE WEARING A WHITE SHIRT. Once I was wearing a black shirt and jeans, and he just stared at me and sniffed disdainfully.
He does have one talent, and that is his ability to make his ears disappear.
Zorro, however, is still a grumpy old fart.
This is how he sleeps. Seriously.
All Apologies
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 : 06:35 p.m.
I must, I must write something, just a little something about my trip to Manila, but I am overcome with extreme sloth and it is too warm here in Aix en Provence that I find myself by the poolside from sunup till sunset.
Apart for this, I am also overcome with shame for not having had the decency to send an SMS to Mari, who now most probably wants to shave my head. Mari, I am sorry! Everything was a blur and I didn't even have my own phone! Have mercy on me, but if you don't, I can't really blame you. My sincerest apologies to no end.
E, my mother told me you called the day after I left and you may also shave my head the next time you see me. If my (hopefully still my) friend Mari beats you to it, could you just pinch my arm a bit? Thanks!
More entries with pictures in a bit.