Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Stay safe!!!

I was in Trinoma last night at around 7 pm. I was supposed to meet Rey in front of Cyma at the top floor so I took the escalators near the entrance facing the restaurant area. The escalators were inside the mall but this set of elevators was located in a very quiet location - it faced a wall and was away from the view of the shoppers and the guards.

When I got there, 3 men were just getting off the escalator. When they were near me, one of them suddenly said that they needed to go back to the 4th floor. He immediately went back to the escalator. I slowed down to allow the 2 others to go ahead of me but they stopped to chat. I went ahead. Suddenly, I felt that something was wrong, so I looked around. I noticed that aside from the 3 men, there was nobody else in that section of Trinoma. All of us were on the escalator with their "leader" 4 steps ahead of me, and the 2 guys who were then 2 steps down. I felt so uneasy that I ran past their leader without no logical reason (wala nang isip-isip, kunwari na lang may hinahabol akong guwapo). When I reached the top and looked back, I noticed that they did not complete their escalator ride (so I guess hindi sila nabulag sa aking kagandahan). For some reason (maybe I'm really just paranoid every Christmas/tuition/election season,) I felt that I just escaped an attack. I was relieved but I was still shaken that instead of turning left towards Cyma, I mistakenly turned right and took the longer route (nakita ko tuloy and Siomal by Hussein's. Doon kami kumain. Masarap pero para na rin kaming na-hold up sa mahal ng binayad namin.)

Nothing really happened to me. The 3 guys may just have been friends who were hanging out at Trinoma and had no intentions of robbing people. It may have just been coincidence that no one else was using the escalators. But I'd rather be paranoid and look silly/crazy than be robbed or hurt (mahirap kumita ng pera!!!).

So, I will take what happened as a reason to share with you what motherlily always told me: (a) when in public places, always be aware of your surroundings; and (b) don't ignore your gut feel, it may be your guardian angel (or in my case, fatherlily!) warning you of dangers.

More tips can be found at:

How to avoid an attack - http://www.ehow.com/how_2213835_avoid-an-attack.html
How to avoid purse snatching - http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-Purse-Snatching and http://www.ehow.com/how_1889_avoid-purse-snatchers.html

Stay safe!

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Feeling Tech-y



B has a new toy - a black MSI Wind! It's nice and cute and it serves its purpose as a portable book reader and dvd player. The 6-cell battery really powers the Wind for at least 5 hours. The only complaint we had was that it couldn't connect to our Netgear wireless router at home while it didn't have any problems connecting to the wifi in Coffeebean and Tea Leaf, Kozui and the Complink branches in SM North Edsa and SM Megamall. I knew that our router was working fine as my Dell-ing masira office laptop could connect to it without any fuss.

I've checked out the manuals, googled it, browsed through countless of forums, inquired with the tech people of Complink, and still didn't get the solution. But after getting a talking fuschia rubber-covered heart-shaped mouse, I got inspired to be creative and experimented with the router settings myself. Nope, I'm not a tech-y person (M, Deng and Janina can attest to the number of times that they got an email from me asking for help on Excel, our internal website and even Powerpoint), but I'm a brave fool. And this brave fool finally found the settings that allowed the MSI Wind to connect to our router. Woohoo! (For those who want to know, I just changed the channel to 01 and set the mode to B and G. Whatever that means.)

And speaking of my talking fuschia rubber-covered heart-shaped mouse, I also have a purple extension cord! Don't they look perfect with my laptop bag?

Hay, wala na talagang maniniwalang abogado ako. And I haven't even mentioned that my mouse says "I love you" when you click the scroll button (even I have to shiver at that.)

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

25 random things about me

Yup - got tagged in Facebook several times. I meant to complete this 2 weeks ago but never got to start drafting until I got stuck in traffic along C-5 on my way to work this morning.

1. i seldom drink coffee but i make brewed coffee everyday.

2. brewing coffee is the only kitchen-related task that i do for B.


3. i don't go to the kitchen to make coffee. our coffee maker is in our bedroom, beside the electric kettle. I use the hotwater from the kettle for my tea.

4. i love loose-leaf teas.

5. tea is supposed to help digestion and keep weight down. i've been drinking tea for 2 decades but i just keep on gaining weight specially around my stomach.

6. which is why people always think i'm pregnant.

7. i don't mind when people think i'm pregnant, i'm quite used to it.

8. and i hope they don't mind if i use their misconception to my advantage - i get good bargains (people seem to think that they will get lucky if they sell stuff to a preggie), i don't have to run when flying on budget airlines, and i didn't have to climb the stairs of arc de triomphe (B and i got to take the elevator!)

9. i have never been pregnant and i don't think i'll ever be. we're child-free by choice. (this is a nicer way of saying that i have no plans of losing sleep over a 3-month old tyrant.)

10. but i don't mind helping B take care of his 17-year old daughter, G. (she doesn't give me sleepless nights and i don't have to wash her when she poops!)

11. i first met G when she was 2. B and I were a couple for 10 years before we got married (it took him that long to convince me that he wouldn't wear my underwear.)

12. we were gimmick buddies for a year and a half before we got together. we've been married for 4 years (thankfully, even if i gained so much weight since the wedding, he still wouldn't fit in my underwear.)

13. we've been living with B's mom for all those 4 years. i don't mind living with my mother-in-law. She runs the house like a hotel (we have room service every breakfast!) and cooks really delicious food.

14. i love good food and it shows - it goes straight to my stomach and never leaves it.

15. B's my eating buddy. we often try out new restos and for the past 5 years, we give each other a point for each good resto that we recommend. the score's at 64-63, in B's favor. i don't mind losing to him on this for as long as he's fatter than me.

16. the last point I received was for Cely's carinderia in Angeles City, Pampanga. for P385, B and I had really good bulalo, the best chicken barbecue that B has ever tasted, the best sisig I've ever tasted, rice and 7-up. the food we ordered was good for 4 people but we finished everything anyway.

17. we were in Pampanga to check out the hot air balloon festival but we ended spending most of our time eating, sleeping and biking. that's how we are when we travel - we make detailed plans but we don't mind setting aside our plans if we feel like doing something else. (actually, what really happened was that we were horrified when we saw the number of people trying to enter the site!)

18. i just learned how to ride a bike last December using a bike that Marian gave me (thanks, Marian!). I've been riding a bike at least twice a week since then. I'm now using Gen's (pronounced as "Jen") bike (thanks, Ojai and Gen!) I love the feel of the wind on my face when I'm biking, it reminds me of distant places with flowers, rivers and fresh air.

19. i love going to distant places with flowers, rivers and fresh air. forget the flowers, rivers and fresh air - i love going to distant places.

20. i seldom shop when i travel. i'm happy to just keep on looking at the pictures that i took. pero di ako nagwagi sa New York - if satan used outlet shops to tempt people to sin, i'd definitely go to hell.

21. i love pictures! we had 3 photographers at our wedding and i didn't regret getting all of them. i bought an entry level dslr (olympus e-500) a couple of years ago so that i could have good pictures when i travel, only to realize that if i was taking the picture, i wouldn't be on it.

22. i think that i take good pictures (hey, my entry just won first place at the Olyclub's monthly contest!) but i'll never be a brilliant photographer. i just don't have the patience to carry all the necessary gears and wait for the perfect moment.

23. photography is just like my other skills/talents - i'm a jill of all trades but master of none. i sing (sang with the Ateneo Glee Club in college), play the piano and the violin (achieved level 4 as certified by the British School of Music), write, act (i studied Creative Writing in high school but graduated as a Theater Arts major), dance, organize events, eat a whole spring chicken with 2 plates of rice, fall on a bike when I wasn't moving in the first place, get drunk on fruit juice, and hide my jewelry so well that i couldn't find them again.

24. the only skill i am really good at is sleeping - i can sleep anytime, anywhere! B thinks I'm narcoleptic.

25. i think that my chow, Porkchop, is narcoleptic, but still find her adorable even if she's asleep most of the day. i treat her like a baby except when she gets on my nerves in which case i kick her out of the house and let her sleep at the garage.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Scene from Loving You

ex-boyfriend na childhood friend: . . .ginagawa mo lang bang past time si laine?

current boyfriend: We both know she's way too special for that. Jepoy . . . you're the only one who's holding her back. Do the right thing.

ex-boyfriend na childhood friend: Sige, just so we're clear - you break her heart and i'll break her neck.

ano raw???