all things chuva: 2009

It’s been such a long time since I last updated my blog. This is quite an atrocious behavior for a blogger. A lot of things happened and I’ve been busy… blah blah. Okay, guilty as charged. I’ve been addictus to Facebook. I’ve been spending hours playing with my pet in pet society. I’ve been clicking away at Mafia Wars, Fashion Wars and even Vampire Wars which I don’t play beyond 6 pm. Meaning: I play during office hours. Haha! I never realized that I haven’t been to my blog in a long time if not for my friend in Singapore who YMed me about it. So, here goes…

Love was in the air yesterday. Or should I say the whole week but I haven’t noticed because I was busy on a project. February 13, I went to buy us tickets for the Eraserheads concert and I saw the swarm of people buying flowers and Vday what not. I thought real hard what to give hubby. I could give him undershirts but that would be like buying groceries for the house. I could give him chocolates. I settled for a Fossil wallet. The last Girbaud wallet I gave him has lived a full life. Or if I had that wallet, I would’ve given it away already. He doesn’t wear a watch anymore. He’ll kill me if I attempt to get a cellphone for him because he’s proud his cell is already 4 years old. I mean who keeps a cell unit that long? I also got lipstick for my mom in law and some eyebrow makeup for myself. I bought 2 dresses and 3 pairs of socks for my baby. I shouldn’t be left alone waiting at the mall for him. I do tend to buy a lot of things. I was still a bit pissed off because he wouldn’t tell me about our February 14 date. He said I was always ruining the moment with my questions. So, hard as it may, I kept my mouth shut.

I cried a bit yesterday because he came home late or should I say the sun was already beginning to make its presence felt. He fell asleep doing overtime work at the office. But when I woke up after my next batch of 40 winks, I felt okay and ready to go. We dressed Zoie up to drop her off at my in laws’ house. It was V day, according to hubby, not V hour so stop asking. I had a bit of a hint when he wouldn’t let me wear my usual set of accessories. The pearl studs, 4 red and black bangles, watch, anklet and wedding ring were too much for him but I felt naked without them so I wore them anyway. I wanted to wear more bangles! He made me bring my small XOXO bag instead of the RL. Hmm… We must be going to Binondo and stuff our stomachs with Chinese food. I quickly planned my side trips. I was to buy hopia at Eng Bee Tin and some pearls in Quiapo. I told him – Binondo tayo, no? He just smiled.

I was surprised when he parked the car at my in laws and said that we were going to take public transportation. Commute?! Oh well, it’s hard to park at Binondo, anyway and maybe if he worries about the car, it’ll ruin the day. Then he said, how do we get to an MRT station. What? MRT. Don’t you mean LRT? No. MRT. Okay… he needed my help. It’s been quite a long time since he took the MRT. He doesn’t even know how much the minimum jeepney fare was. Hubby bought mangga with bagoong. It kinda reminded me of our days as bf/gf. We always buy and eat street food. They’re always accessible when you’re not in a car. A jeep came by and I was made to ride in front. When was the last time that I got in front of the jeep and rode beside the driver? Can’t remember. Next stop. MRT. There he told me that we were going to relive our Bf/gf days. We were going to Cubao and ride there to Sta. Lucia Mall. I used to live in Katipunan and it was hard to decide where to go on a date that we were desperate enough to even go to that mall. Not that the mall is ugly but it was out of the way. We walked along the dirty Aurora Blvd and decided to try the LRT2. I was amazed at the station. It looked so much like Hongkong. Funny when I tried buying tickets at the window, the woman said that she was only going to give me change for my money so I could buy tickets at the vending machine. Oookkkaaaayyyyy… LRT2 was rather snail-like compared to the MTR in Hongkong. But the interior of the train was great. The aircon was still strong. I got to see a bird’s eye view of Cubao. There was already an SM Marikina and a lot of flyovers were built in the area. It was too different from when I was still residing in Katipunan. The LRT2’s last stop was Santolan so we had to ride a jeep to the mall. We had fun reminiscing at the mall especially at its old building where some artist named Ronnie Liang was performing. Who is Ronnie Liang? Why was he having a Vday special? We looked at the huge hearts that were hanging on the ceiling. They were ugly. Haha! I had fun munching on potato corner fries. We then watched Push. I was amazed at how sophisticated the mall theater was. There were 2 sets of theaters there. The first one showed only Tagalog films and I was disappointed and good thing hubby said isn’t there another theater at the other building? It’s funny that the theaters reflect a bit of discrimination. The old wing (ugly) featured Filipino films while the new theaters featured foreign flicks. Hubby remembered that we used to watch films from the KKK (kataas-taasan, kasuluk-sulukan and kadilim-diliman) part of the theater. But this time we sat in front. No need for those sneaky moments now that we were wearing wedding rings.

who the hell is ronnie liang?

and roy benedictus?

those scary 3D hearts

After the movie, I got myself some makeup from a cute shop that I saw. We then went out to ride a jeep to Katipunan. I asked if we will eat first at another favorite – Ken Afford – but he said we’ll eat isaw first at UP.

It was hard to walk around the Sunken. The tiles all around the Academic oval were under construction. Hubby bought me fishballs and we walked to where I thought the isawan was and the lady selling something else there pointed me to a stall in front of the UP Law building. Oh-oh. It’s been really some time since I had isaw there. Even the long haired vendor who sells his stuff in front of the law building was there at the waiting shed in front of ilang-ilang dorm. We’ve always been to Mang Larry’s. It was time to try the orange isaw. We bought 200 pesos worth of isaw. That’s a lot and that’s the reason why Ken Afford was scratched off the list. I was full already. The isaw was definitely better tasting than Mang Larry’s but I missed his vinegar. I’ll blog about the experience another time. We sat at some building part ruin and if you don’t look at the garbage beside us and only the tree, it was pretty romantic. Hubby and I talked about how we feel about things. We just sat there. Some people joined us. If it weren’t UP, we would have been left there to ourselves but our spot was pretty nice that it was soon filled with people.

better than a bunch of flowers...

our spot...

We went to hear mass which was kind of a surprise because hubby rarely goes to church. After the mass, we walked to the jeep sakayan in front of the sunken garden. It was UP fair so there was a band playing. We sat there for some sound tripping. Then we decided to go home. We were already wishing for the car to come get us. Commuting was pretty exhausting. Now I know why we didn’t put on much weight when we didn’t have a car. Haha! There was a commotion at the terminal. Some passengers and driver were quarrelling. I told hubby that we got to miss a lot of action because we don’t commute anymore. Well, I do sometimes but the distances were short. I had a panic moment when I thought hubby wasn’t able to ride the jeep with me. But I saw him at the other end. People were concerned when I asked the jeep to stop because my husband wasn’t in the jeep. We rode the MRT Quezon Avenue station. We crossed EDSA on that lengthy overpass. My body was aching and I was really sweaty. We were aching for a bath.

The day was quite an adventure for me. It meant more than the romantic dinners, dozens of roses and chocolates that he used to prepare every Valentine’s day. Even the wallet that I gave him as gift looked pretty mundane. I even had some bad trip moments because he wouldn’t tell me where we were going. I kinda liked the Binondo idea though but he said we’ll do it some other time. Binondo was easy and after eating, we don’t have anything else to do. UP also is a very special place for me and a very significant place for us.