Watching a graduation in PICC in a hot summer day makes countless yawns. Plus, Choy having a surname of Abadilla is the first ever name mentioned in the graduates of BS Hotel and Restaurant Management! His girlfriend, Lucky has a surname starting with a letter B (cannot recall) so her name was not distant from being called. After their names have been called, watching the ceremony becomes very tedious. And our duty as photographers and camera men was not fulfilled. Nataranta kame, sumigaw sigaw at ayun.

While waiting for Choy and Lucky’s graduation to finish, we break out PICC grounds and drive ahead to SM Mall of Asia to kill boredom. First timer ako, haha olats! Yeah, as all others would say… it really was BIG. And there are stores you cannot find in other SM malls. We decided to find a billiard hall to play. We asked Manong Guard if there is one and the direction-lecture lasted for about 3 minutes. Deretsuhin nyo lang ito, tapos kakaliwa kayo dun, tapos pag may nakita kayong ganon, kanan, labas kayo tapos liko dun, deretso lang, *put more directions here!*

As if we could remember what Manong Guard said, we started to walk walk and walk… only to find out that there is no billiard hall! There is, but it will not be open until second week of April. What the?! So, we just decided to window shop and do the strolling. I can’t imagine if I bring some moolah with me, it will be gone in a split second! My peepers are whopping for the big eyewears,body bags, for the board shorts, etc etc! Good thing I only brought 200 pesos with me! Phew!

Some stuff I want to loot:

a nike shirt which is worth almost a thousand bucks

and a whole lot of chuck taylors!

It was 7:30 PM and our feet killed us. Choy gave a buzz that the graduation is over. One day is not enough to go through the whole place. I shall be seeing SM Mall of Asia very soon...

Went out of town during the holy week and visit Subic and stayed there for three days. Yep, it was pure bliss. It was long time since I went out of the city because I engaged myself in studying every summer since I was in college. Actually, I disliked traveling because sitting in the car for hours and doing nothing but listen to music is humdrum. I even planned to bring my laptop with me on the beach because I have a case study to finish which is due tomorrow (good heavens, just finished doing it!). But my mind murmured not to bring it because I will be such a loser, doing my case study while all of them are enjoying the heat of the sun. “You really need a break, Chel,” it said.

Reasons why the Beach is Love:

- I am free from inhaling Manila’s pollution

- Seeing the sunset was so cool

- I get to wear my big eyewear for an immense reason

- Getting a tan line and flaunting it is hot (but sunburns are not)

- It’s 100% relaxation, with nothing to worry about.

- It’s nice being caught away by the waves. It was like my problems are temporarily gone with it.

- Building sand castles bring out the artistic side in me.

- Roasting hotdogs with marshmallow in a bonfire is delightful.

- Feeling the wind kissing my face in the night makes me close my eyes and dream that I was in a far-off place.

- And this is what I like the most:

 Feel the sand in between your toes, nobody has to know...

I promised to myself that I shall be going on a beach at least once a year. Knowing myself, I am a person who easily get stressed-out with just small things. Seeing the beach, feeling the warmth of the sand, watching sunset... I find it very relieving. It's better than boxing the punching bag to release stress. Far more better.

Friday the 13^th seems like an ordinary day for me. Nothing bad had happened. Except that I’m beginning to gain some pounds again (uh, oh this is not good). When one person tells me that I’m getting fat, I will freak out and my Anorexia will attack me and I will suddenly lose my appetite. Before, I thought that I was just stressed out that’s why the urge to eat is lessened. But now is different. It’s a mild case of Anorexia Nervosa. My metabolism is damn slow so shedding some pounds is difficult for me. It’s not that I’m vain but it’s I’m health conscious so I really watch what I eat. After all, health is wealth!

Anyhoo, I’m studying how to cook simple dishes lately but the talent in doing so is tough to achieve. My mom is always saying, maybe a thousand times now, that I SHOULD learn how to cook for my future-husband-to-be, because there’s a cliché that goes: “A way to a man’s heart is in his stomach”. Could you believe that a 21 year-old like me only knows how to cook hotdog, lucky me pancit canton and fried egg? I cannot even cook rice perfectly! I always reason out that there’s always the microwave oven to re-heat left-over food. There’s always 8-7000 Jollibee and 8-6236 McDonald’s delivery. And there’s the barbeque stand in front of our house. They will never fail to make me burp--without cooking my own food.

Reasoning those things to my mom, a 3 minute sermon from her will begin on how essential it is for a woman to know how to cook. So from now on, I’m watching my mom whenever she cooks and help her sometimes to cut this and prepare that. I wonder how she makes a Carbonara so creamy and so sumptuous. It’s one of my favorite dishes and, the hell I’m desperate to learn how to cook that. Actually, I’ve tried cooking it once but the end result was: SOPAS!!! Parang sopas daw luto ko! They were so helpful, I can’t help but laugh.

I’ll stick to this saying from now on, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. Who knows, my Carbonarra will taste like the Classic Carbonarra in Italianni’s!!! Anorexia's gone temporarily when I think about that!

I heard from the news yesterday that Manila reached a whopping temperature of 35.8 degrees Celsius, the highest one recorded this year. You can read the complete article here.

It was definitely hot; I could get heat stroked if the electric fan is not powered on to level 3 or if I’m not sleeping at my uncle’s air-conditioned room every night. Whew. Ang yaman ng Meralco ngayong summer! And I can’t imagine surviving summer classes without a cold iced bottled water in my bag! It saves me from being dehydrated.

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1. Replace the goodie old Safeguard soap with Likas papaya.
2. Apply lotion with UV protection before going out.
3. Use an umbrella, and it should be color orange.
4. Apply Neutrogena Fine Fairness powder to my face.
5. Sleep in an air-conditioned room every night.
6. Take a bath at least two-three times a day using Likas papaya with loofah.
7. Don’t go out during the day if not necessary.
8. Put whitening cream before going to sleep.
9. And… avoid swimming outings first! Damn, this is hard!

It’s not that I don’t want to be dark but in this white-worshipping country where most girls desired to have a fair-flawless-white-skin, having a fair skin is enough for me. Seeing how my skin was burnt in the mirror is unappealing. My groupmates even teased me that I look like Kirara now – without the curly hair, of course.

A sticky sweat is pesky and it can ruin someone’s good mood. Ranting on my blog about inferno weather is useless so I’d rather not. It’s Sunday and my aura is hazy. I’m feeling a bit nauseated this morning with a slight headache and I’m guessing it’s because of sleeping last night with an empty stomach. Now, I’m blaming my computer for making me sick! I’m seriously hooked into it the whole night that I forgot to eat dinner!!

I’m not in the mood so forgive me for this nonsense post. Lurch a comment and it will be gladly appreciated. Otherwise, hop into another blog first. Good night!

When I was a kid, seeing a syringe is my greatest fear. It happened after my mom said that it’s not painful, and it will JUST feel like a bite of an ant. The nurse then inserted the needle in my arm. Feeling the needle inside it made me scream at the top of my lungs. I cried incessantly the whole day until there were no more tears left for me to let out. Since then, I am frightened just by seeing syringes and needles. I don’t even want to see nurses in white uniform for I was suspecting they might prick me again!

I was 19 years old by the time I discovered (or at least my doctor has diagnosed) that my body has sensitivity to some foods. Symptoms include itchy, inflamed skin and catching air is very difficult. When it attacks, a Benadryl injection is the best medication to relieve symptoms. The cause is unknown because I’m eating all kinds of foods before; therefore going to the hospital to have a Benadryl shot became frequent. And I have no choice but to let them inject the thing into me.

By being exposed to it a lot of times, I became immune to syringes and needles. And that ended my Trypanophobia – the formal term for the fear of syringes and hypodermal needles. I’m studying nursing now and it’s a big advantage. I even volunteered my hand earlier for an IV (suwero) needle insertion demonstration! Nobody wants to try it by partners so I tried inserting the needle in my other hand! It hurts a bit, but seems like I did it right because blood flowed from it! Haha, that’s how fearless I am now.

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We’ve seen the Taiwanese drama hit, Meteor Garden (Liú Xíng Huā Yuán in Chinese) which gave rise to “Asianovelas” in Philippine television. Years ago, almost everyone would talk about Shan Cai and Dao Ming Si’s love and hate affair. Girls went gaga over F4, to the point that they debate on who got the best look or who among them is the most pogi/cute of all. Fine fine, I admit that I am one of those who are crushing on Hua Zhe Lei’s mysterious personality. The drama, as well as the boyband F4 was sure a phenomenon.

The drama was based on the Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers). The anime version was also aired a year after Meteor Garden has ended. And now, the Japanese rendition of the drama is being aired on GMA-7. Compared to the Taiwanese version, the F4 group looks much younger here – with their uniforms on. Same characters portrayed but with different names (Shan Cai is Makino Tsukushi here). The story flow is much better in the Taiwanese drama because there are many twists in turns. Unlike in Hana Yori Dango, comprising only of 9 episodes, it turned out to be short and curtailed.