VIOLETDOLOR

I’ve been strapped for cash lately — an effect of years of overspending, I presume. So, over the last few weeks, I’ve been on a quest to find the cheapest, yet best food places in Makati. This business district is home to the most fabulous, albeit very expensive, dining options in the Philippines. Everyone knows I’m a fan of hotel buffets. I spend thousands just to find out what each hotel offers for lunch and dinner. Those were the days!

So back to my current problem: finding the cheapest/best places to grab a bite. So here’s my top finds so far:

•  Damn good sisig - Rumor has it that the best sisig in Makati is in Rada street. There a jollijeep there that’s really popular for that. I worked in Rada about a year ago but never ventured out of my safety zone (McDonald’s and KFC was the main fare back then). So last week, I only had about P150 in my pocket and was hella starvin. So I tried to find this sisig place. I’m telling you now, if you walk the entire stretch of Rada, you wouldn’t miss it. There were about 7 or 8 of those freestanding carinderia-style eateries but there’s one that has a really really long line. I went there about 12pm and waited in line for about 15 mins. The manong in charge of taking the orders was really friendly, he actually asked if I’m a first-timer. The obvious jollijeep sisig virgin that I was, I nodded shyly…I actually didn’t know how the system worked, so I was lining up in the wrong section. Anyway, I asked for two orders of sisig and he asked if I wanted styro with that. I said yes, and asked for rice as well. I didn’t know that the styro already had rice in it (duh!) so I ended up with 4 sets of rice and 2 sets of sisig costing me around P107 for everything. I think a single order — without all my extras would’ve cost P47.  Saving money was great, but you know what really made me go wow! It was literally the best sisig I’ve ever tasted! The cruncy concoction was mixed in with egg and had mayo on the side. They broke siling labuyo on top which added a bit of kick. It was bursting with flavor and had amazing texture. I actually finished an order in less than 30 mins.

• Cheap Japanese food - You probably wouldn’t believe it, but SM takes the cake for this one. I never knew that the area with rotisserie chicken also offers a little something-something. They have a very big serving of  Tonkatsu for only P55. For those unfamiliar with the dish, it’s actually just Japanese breaded porkchop mixed in with sweet egg (tamago) and special sauce. Usually has spring onions. Topped over a hefty serving of rice. I couldn’t finish this in one sitting and usually save half for dinner.
• Shawarma - I used to be a big shawarma freak, but it’s not really appropriate to eat this when you have several meetings after lunch. hehe. I could never get rid of the onion smell. Once in a while though, I take the risk. SM has the best inexpensive shawarma in Makati. This is near the supermarket area. A small order is P45, the big one is P55. They also have shawarma rice for P55..a good filing lunch if you’re trying to save money.
• Barkada lunch - If you’re not alone in your plight, a good alternative is to have a barkada lunch in one of the restos in greenbelt. Share the bill and get more for your money. One place I would recommend is Amici di Don Bosco - It’s been touted as one of the best Italian restaurant’s in Makati. The individual dishes are not cheap, but if you go for pizza as a group you’ll find that it’s more priced less than the big pizza places. If you’re really counting cents..then at least go there for the gelato. A cup is only P55..not bad considering they have the most mouth-watering flavor. yum

I’ll end the list here for now. There are also some fab food finds in Ortigas, but I’m really more familiar with Makati so I’ll keep exploring this city first.

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Yehey! Three day weekend!

It’s only Saturday, but I’m off to a great start. I realized that….

• I have the coolest bosses in the world - After the manager’s meeting (we call it the WIG session..it’ll take too long to explain why) yesterday, we stayed until around 9pm at their house. Just hanging around drinking wine. We talked about a lot of things…from politics to condoms. Never imagined I’d have that conversation with them. Then we had an extended drinking session over at Mike’s. Of course two of my bosses were also there, Mike and Teng. Had a blast. Got home around 2am. Was so drunk.
• I don’t know what to do with myself - Last week, I said I don’t want to do research and testing anymore. I’m kinda having doubts about that now. I’ll really miss working with the boss and learning so much. If I move to operations., I won’t have that opportunity anymore. Plus, I’m going to miss Lester. hehe. He’s our coordinator and I love talking to him. Wala lang. It feels like I’m working with Johnny again. Like he’s my semi-boss, but he doesn’t know what to do with me and I’ll end up getting him in trouble. I loved working with John Reign in Seacom.
• I drink way too much - Last month and this month, I’ve been drinking roughly every week. Sometimes even twice in one week. Poor Manny ends up picking me up from Makati after work each time. I decided to give him a break last night. Took a cab home with the QC boys.
• I love QC - Yeah, yeah. It takes me about an hour and a half to get home every night. Morning traffic is shitty. But I love this place! So many bars and food places. I’ve lived in the South, in Manila (Pasay) and in Makati. QC is definitely my favorite. I’m like 5 minutes away from Timog. That rocks!
• I love my man! - He makes me happy. Not being with him for the long weekend is really gnawing at me. I kinda wanna text him every minute because he’s in Tarlac. It’s fun to fall in love again after 2 and a half years of being together. My heart flutters at the though of him. Eeeewww.

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Once in a while, I go crazy. (Okay, it’s really more often than I care to admit). Today was one of those days. I was in a meeting with our executive management team…CEO, CPO and VP for Operations along with other managers. Around an hour and a half into the meeting, my mind started drifting here and there. About 2 hours later, I got bored. I decided to pull some dramatics (you know I’m pretty famous for them).

The scene actually played out better in my head. I sorta started talking about not being happy with the workload and not even completing my tasks. Duh! I’ve gone crazy and just told the big bosses that I’m screwing up and I’m not happy. That was friggin’ idiotic.

But wait. There’s more.

I actually said I didn’t want to work under the big boss anymore in Research and Testing and I would rather stick with operations where I have better command of the outcome. Shit! I swear, when I have a bad week, I really have a bad week.

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I wish I could read stars.

I wrote something a couple of minutes ago. Something about downgrading, but it made me sad so I decided to just erase it. Ho-hum. I can’t even think straight. All I want is a simple celebration with the people close to us. Then, I want my happily-ever-after. Why am I finding it so difficult to even imagine it at this point?

Probably the aftereffect of house hunting…then ending up in the middle of nowhere. We went to Rizal yesterday to look at properties. I thought it would be okay to abandon the city life that I’ve gotten so used to. We were looking for a less expensive place, probably in Cainta. The agent said that Rizal is the next development area. She failed to mention that the property was actually in Binangonan. It’s a 45-minute ride from Ortigas without traffic. Sadly, it’s the only thing we can afford at the moment.

On our way home, I couldn’t even find the words to express my frustration. I’m a city girl. I was born and raised in Makati and I lived in California for 3 years. I just couldn’t live in a place where I have to commute for 2 hours just to go to work. But being with him is where my heart is. I am willing to live anywhere just so I could wake up next to him everyday. I just hope he understands what I’m willing to give up for him.

What can I say? That’s love honey.

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So, I watched Dark Knight with my sister, my brother, my brother’s girlfriend and my boyfriend last Saturday. Watching Batman movies is a family affair for us. Two things: I love Greenbelt Cinema. I love (x3) the Joker.

Seriously. There’s something very disturbing about how Heath Ledger played that character…all the more reason for me to really love him. I have a thing for crazy, psychotic guys. This movie would have made his career. I hope he gets a posthumous Oscar for it. I’m not going to go into detail…there’s enough spoilers in the net.

Other than that, my vacation leave has been pretty uneventful. I stayed at home to watch hours and hours of Scrubs. I went to the gym and worked out for about 4 hours. I’m in pain because of it. I did join the retro dance class at Fitness..classic Jade, I tripped and made a fool of myself. Was fun. I watched the boyfriend dance next to me. That was even more hilarious. He’s freakin’ hyperactive and he moves shakes his ass better than the gay guys in the class. Hmmmm…that’s interesting. I wonder….hahaha. I’m laughing by myself. Go figure.

Had pizza and beer with the girls last night..realized we’re way too old to drink like we used to. We started drinking around 8pm (like geeky old women) and ended at around midnight (which is a first, since we usually drink til daybreak).  We’re still pretty mean though. We’ve decided to attend the high school reunion so we can laugh at people who were such bitches in high school. God! I can’t wait to hear Den say it,  that line she used on whatsherface. Nike will be there too. I hope she scares the shit out of whoever spread the rumors that she’s dead. And we still don’t have a bride in this group. Hohum. I wonder who will be first. We ended the night with a visit to that sex shop in Metrowalk. Cool.

Finally, I love that I got to spend a lot of quality time with the boyfriend. It’s been awhile. We talked about a lot of important things, details of which I don’t care to share with others (well, not yet anyway).

Getting pretty bored with just sitting around at home. It’s midnight and I’m actually still playing around with my CRM (lurv the Love theme…baby pink and little hearts..makes me wanna lick my my monitor…eeewww…that’s not right). Email clean up is an even more annoying task. Can’t wait to go back to the office.

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Woohoo! Anyone who really knows me should know I go gaga over Eheads. My favorite song (since high school) has always been With a Smile. I love Ely. Period.

I’ve heard rumors that they’ll have a reunion concert end of August at CCP. If that ain’t true then those are damn nasty rumors. I hope whoever spread them gets herpes. If it is true, I love the person who did. hehe.

This is probably the only concert I’ll go to this year. I’ll brave the rain and poor people to see that band perform again. Shit that was mean. Who cares? This is my blog. Go away if you’re offended.

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I just realized it’s been a year since I last went on a vacation. So I checked how many VLs I had left, and yehey, I still have 5.81. So I’m taking three days off starting Monday. I’ve been abnormally busy the last few weeks with ISO documentation, setting up metrics, fixing work scheds, filtering hotel requests, preparing presentations and orienting 2 new writers. I think I accomplished a fair amount of work. There have been some issues here and there that I wish I had more time to handle and more energy to create a ruckus over…but I don’t. Still somewhat sick, but much better than the last 3 weeks.

Ganns dropped by the office the other day. He looks great. Too bad the writers are now in EV4 and most of them are new. I bet the old ones (two of them were absent that day) would have loved to see him.

Speaking of the writers, things are finally better with the team. I think sitting together makes a difference. One more and we’re a complete. She joins us this August. I hope they all stick around, at least until my birthday in February. Would love to have a drinking session with them. It would be unbelievably embarrassing if they see me drunk, but I’m not really one to care (hello! I threw up in public!).

I love my job, but it’s not without stress. So off I go on an adventure. I trust Abby and I know I can leave the team in her capable  hands.

What am I going to do? I have no idea. When I had the leave form signed I wanted to just ride a bus and not know where it’ll take me. I was planning on bringing a bottle of tequila and drinking myself to death in a strange place. I was having a bad day then. I emailed my best drinking buddies…Cel and Den, of course. Tried to persuade them that a night 5 days of irresponsibility would be so great for us. I think they almost said yes.

Then, we realized we’re all adults now and we can’t really do that anymore. So we’re going local. Dress up in our party shit. Drink like we’ve never done before. Make sure someone can reach us when we’re drunk dialing. Maybe I should just rent a room and we can work from there. At least that way Cel doesn’t have to drive.

I have my 5 days sorta planned out.

Saturday: Gym for 4 hours
Sunday: Dinner with old friends
Monday: Learn how to drive a manual car
Monday night: Drink like crazy
Tuesday: Get a second opinion about this horrendous cough from another doctor
Wednesday: Stare at fish….I mean go to Manila Ocean Park or maybe Enchanted Kingdom, because it’s fun.

I’ll probably cut it short and go back to work on Tuesday. I think I’m getting old.

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I’m tired. I’ve been sick for a week now. Everyone else I know was sick for three days tops. I hate it. If it has anything to do with respiratory problems, its bound to go really really bad for me. I just can’t miss another day of work. There’s so much I need to do.
I need to plant a tree on Friday for the company outing. I let my parents know and they are absolutely against it (not the tree planting part, but the 500 meter climb and the sweating and all). Haha. It feels funny, like I need permission from my parents to go on a field trip. But I know they’ll end up getting really mad if I do something crazy to worsen my condition.

Cough, are you ever going to go away? I just want one night of sleep. 

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Being sick the last few days actually made me realize something. I need to change my life.

I am selfish. I have so many blessings in life that I take for granted. I live in a nice home with an amazing room fit for a princess. I have a great family that has an odd way of showing affection, but I always feel loved. I have a boyfriend who is always there when I need him and is really a pillar in my life. I have friends that get me in trouble, but can make me feel so good when life gets bad. I have all the material things that I need and so much more. I work for a great company, with a job that I truly love. I have everything any 27 year old could ever dream of.

I am selfish because I keep forgetting to share my blessings. It’s not like I don’t, I used to do it a lot. I’ve been joining outreach programs since I was 16. I lived with Aetas for a week. I spent a day in that orphanage that got burned to the ground a couple of years ago (that really broke my heart). I worked with a couple of friends on a book drive and we were able to give away children’s books to the less fortunate. I volunteer for Special Olympics every year in college (and around 2 years ago as an alumni). Last Christmas we went to a children’s hospital to give them gifts. But it’s not enough. Lately, I’ve missed out on my duties as a Christian. I haven’t helped anyone but myself.

Today, I went to the mall — coughing, wheezing, sniffling and nearly fainting — to buy more meds. I passed by some stalls like the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace. I already pledged a recurring donation to WWF last week. I spoke to the Greenpeace guy (he was a bit surprised that I approached him when most people try to avoid them like the plague). I promised I’d be back on Monday to donate something and be a member. I hope I don’t forget.

One of my greatest dreams is to join the United Nations as a volunteer to feed the hungry children of the world. I said I’d do it when I turn 27 (which is the age they accept volunteers). I made a pact with a guy that had the same dreams when we were in college. He’s a family man now. We talked recently. He’s flies planes and he said that maybe someday he’ll fly me to Africa for that.

I, however, have no excuse but my own fear. I don’t want to leave the good life. Though the Philippines is a third world country, I have the best life. I go to parties. I’m always at out-of-town. I’m often at the beach. I’m found drinking with my friends at least once a month. I shop a lot.

Whatever happened to that girl who though she could change the world? She thought kindness would help alleviate suffering. She thought poetry would stir the emotions of society (just like Chile in the days of Pablo Neruda).

I miss her.

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I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. None that I regret. But here’s my top 3 dumbest ideas that had really bad consequences:

3. The Speed Drinking Contest - Night out with the girls. What I thought would be a fun game ended in the worst night of my life. Who knew downing 2 glasses of Weng Weng in under a minute could lead to a lot of throwing up…in public. Got banned from the bar. Cried my eyes out over a guy. Ended up in someone else’s clothes (to this day, I have no clue where I got those nice pants). Couldn’t remember anything else. BTW, I won that game.

The speed drinking contest

That got us so drunk

2. Bleaching my hair and coloring it red - I was working in the US. Got bored out of my mind. Didn’t know it would ruin my hair so bad. It took me nearly two years to grow it out and cut off the part with the “burnt” hair.

1. Piercing my tongue - Cel’s birthday 2006. I was waiting for her for an hour. Got bored again. Walked over to the mall and got it done. When I came back, she was there. The drinking started and forgot about the piercing. Ate a cherry. It started bleeding. That thing had pus for 2 weeks. I couldn’t eat anything solid. My boyfriend hated it sooo much. I gave it to him as a present last year…removed it permanently, I mean. The mark is still there.

Thank God for digital photography and friends who take pictures of the stupid things you do. I have proof. That should remind me not to do it again. Hehe.

Things that I learned from these not-so-smart moves:

1. When I get bored I do a lot of crazy things.
2. Red doesn’t suit me. Purple was way better.
3. My special friend Weng Weng is very influential in my life…and not in a good way. That picture with the tongue piercing ..yep, that’s him again in front of me (with my other good buddy San Mig).

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