Manila Trip (Day 1, Feb 18 2011)

Day 1

My very first outstation trip of the year. Yes!! I was so looking forward to it. Firstly because my wonderful and awesome MA friends are there and secondly, there is Mr Tony Fernandes to thank for such cheap flight tickets (but I'm still dissatisfied that I had to pay my airport tax when I returned. Anyway, that's a separate story, I will take it offline with you Mr Fernandes).

Rina and I woke up as though we had to sahur (Malay language for eating like there's no tomorrow during the fasting month). Well, Rina had it worse cuz I think she woke up at 3am and only managed to get a 2 hours' worth of shut-eye prior to that. As for me, I have my house location to thank for. Only 20 minutes away from LCCT. Ah, the little things in life :)

Anyway, flight was at 7:25am via AK662. Reached there around 5:30am and went for check-in. Flight departure was delayed for 30min or so (damn you AA!), so obviously that would translate to us reaching Philippines (from hereon shall be known as PH). So when we reached around 11:30am or so, I texted Teddy (our multi-role-playing MA friend, as shall be demonstrated later).

We landed at this airport which is like 2 hours away from Manila city (kill me!) and which would also obviously mean that Teddy had to drive ALLLLL the way to the airport and brave through the 2 hours journey back to Manila as well. Now, this is the moment where I have to express my utmost gratitude for such wonderful hospitality shown by my friends. *sob sob*

Anyway, when we landed, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Was Lotte pulling my leg when she told me that the weather in Manila has been around 25 degrees or so?" Man!!! It was scorching hot and I could see poor Teddy running towards his parked car like 200 meters away (with no umbrella!).

So, yea, Teddy eventually came to pick up our luggage (and us) and we drove back to Manila city. Wow, if you thought jams in KL were bad, you are absolutely wrong. Come to Manila and experience the joys of driving in bad jams and bad drivers (with offensive/ defensive driving skills). But the horror of being stuck in a jam wasn't that bad cuz there were some pretty interesting sights to be marvelled at. Reference below.

Yan: Oh wow, banana plants

Teddy: Nope, those are just grass (said nonchalantly with a Tagalog accent)

Yan: Okayyy.... (silence for the next 5 minutes)

Rina and I in the car, while Teddy went to answer nature's call.

Ahh, coloured air. We have that in KL as well.

Billboards. Like really, lots of 'em.

They are HUGE.

....and distracting.

Now you see what I mean?

This is their version of LRT/KTM/monorail.

Cheap and widely available.

After taking like 20.5 light years to reach the Manila city, we headed straight to Eastwood Mall (which is like super near to the Citibank Consumer building). Went to one of the restaurants for Thai food.

I love Citibank.

Ooo la la.

Waiters and waitresses going the extra mile; performing to a song and dance. In fact, I was made to understand that the traffic policeman do that as well. Too bad I did not have a chance to witness it.

Pretty cool huh?

Prior to going to PH, friends have warned me to be careful due to the recent incidents that took place in Manila (bombing, kidnapping, etc). However, when I reached to the city, I got the exact opposite feeling. So for those that are having doubts about going to PH, here is when I do my sales pitch: GO! You would feel so much more at home than you are in Malaysia or anywhere else in Asia. People there are super friendly and they speak very sweet-sounding English. I could not have been more amazed by their hospitality. It is really indeed PH (Philippine Hospitality), unlike some stupid-ass country that claims to provide that kind of hospitality as well. You know what I'm talking about.

So yea, back to my story. In the midst of having our Thai food (can you believe it? came all the way for Thai food? the irony), Lotte showed up and after that, we proceeded to this mall for a little shopping :)

OH MAI GAWD. You would not believe how HUGE their malls are. This mall that I went to (and it's not even the biggest one yet) was seriously huge. Probably twice the size of Mid Valley. There was so many of everything, dresses, tops, shoes, bags, this that knick knack paddy whack. I bought 3 baby cardigans and a pair of slippers. Guess how much were the cardigans?

When I went to the cashier to pay, I was again WOW-ed by such amazing hospitality and customer service. There were 3 ladies at the cashier; 2 of the ladies were looking through my cardigan, I was like "Come on people, just get on with it already. I have more shopping to do!"

Then suddenly one of the ladies said to me, "Excuse me ma'am, there is a slight defect (some loose threads forming a 1mm hole on my pink cardigan) on this cardigan. Would you still like to proceed?". That moment, I felt like I was the Queen of the world, getting such VIP treatment. Then I asked her back, "Erm, is there another spare at the rack? Do you want me to go to the rack and get it?". She replied, "No ma'am, just wait here. We will get it for you."

As I recollect on my experience that day, I thought to myself, "Where on earth in KL can you see our cashiers doing that?" In fact, they would even try to hide the defect and quickly try to sell it off. Our Malaysian customer service staff can definitely learn something from this experience.

Anyway after all that, we headed to Greenbelt to have dinner and also to meet up with the rest of the MAs.

Yes, we came all the way to Manila to have Thai food. I bet that's the irony that Pol's considering as he flashes us with that smile of his. But food's great, no complaints :)

We The Kings performing at Greenbelt. The day could not have been any better :)

After chilling and catching up over dinner for more than 4 hours (I think!) at the Thai place, we decided to call it quits for the night.

Tomorrow's gonna be sight-seeing day! Yee-hah!

VFM: The Videos

Here you go. Enjoy!!

Keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding brow

It was my saloon ritual day, so I went to Sim's saloon. Since I have become her "preferred/loyal" customer, she has reduced the price and also given me an extra service. I actually do not know what this "extra service" is called in English, but if u were to look at the picture below, you would go "a ha"!

OK anyway, after blowdrying, diffusing and applying the curl retainer, she (ah I got it, the word!) trimmed my eyebrows using a blade. The blade was new and she was probably in a rush home for dinner, so this happened.

drumroll
Drumroll
DRumroll
DRUMroll
DRUMRoll
DRUMROll
DRUMROLl
DRUMROLL

Come to think of it, I think I recall why she accidentally cut my skin. She was telling this story of how the burglars nowadays are getting bolder. A couple of houses away from hers, a burglary happened. The owner of this burglarised home (Mr X) was not very close to his surrounding neighbours. So, everyday he would leave for work early morning and then come home late at night. He would not mix or even greet his neighbours. Nobody knows how he looks like or whether or not he's got wife or kids (cuz they're kinda like phantoms).

So what happened was, one day, this big-ass truck stopped in front of his house. The other neighbours thought that he was moving away cuz he never told anyone anything. There were like 3 males and 2 females (and even kids!) moving stuff into the lorry. They moved EVERYTHING (including the curtains and rubbish bin). They even had the guts to wave goodbye at this auntie who was perplexedly looking at them.

So when Mr X came home that night, you can literally hear his first word echoing throughout the neighourhood, "Nooooooooooooooooo!!!"

Beauty is pain

Today, mummy and I went to a beauty saloon to do our eyebrows :) I wanted to thicken and darken it, whilst Mummy needed to do her laser removal before doing an eyebrow embroidery. So, we travelled to this small little shop in a very forsaken area.

While I was busy getting my eyebrows thickened and darkened to look like Sylar of Heroes, mummy was undergoing a very very painful process called the "LASER" (cheng cheng cheng!!!). Watch it with an empty stomach.

After all that zapping, Mummy looks like Erin or Rae from America's Next Top Model Cycle 13. LOL!

Trip down memory lane

OK, so today was sorta like my off-day cuz most of my kids went off for a break (after their final exams). So, after lunch, I was kinda free and my mum wanted me to get my lazy-ass to do sth productive (now you understand why this blog title if appropriately named lazy-ass).

So she was like, "Oh, let's go and make some dresses".

I was like, "Huh?"

Then she said, "Yeah, I already bought 4 metres of cloth for you. Faster. Take your bag. Quickly go"

Then we went. So, after driving for like 1 hour (yea, I know, talk about walking the extra mile eh), we finally reached.

Reason why we travelled so far was cuz there isn't a tailor here that makes dresses. So, there we were, in some very very old tailoring shop by the roadside.

This was the tailor's dog. So adorable. Apparently, somebody gave this tailor the dog a few years back. The dog was barely breathing. Apparently abused. Poor doggie :(

After that, we were so hungry cuz I didn't manage to have lunch. So, we went to this town to have lunch.


This is a RM6 curry mee. Selling at a kopitiam (not Old Town Kopitiam, but just plain kopitiam). When I was Standard 6, this bowl of curry mee was selling at RM2.80. Apparently, the prices go up every year and never comes down. Kinda like our age, if you think about it. Can only go up and never come down. Anyway, I was really hungry and I couldn't care less about the price.


This is mummy's wantan mee. Guess how much it costs? RM5. Can you imagine? A plate of wantan mee selling at RM5?!?! I don't think the one near KLCC costs as much. But mummy was hungry as well, so she couldn't be bothered.

Oh btw, we also ordered a can of coke. RM2.10. My mum's eyes nearly bulged out when the auntie said RM2.10. She thought she heard wrongly. The auntie must have thought that we were from some kampung. LOL!

Finance offsite @ Avilion Port Dickson

Woohooo!!! Back to office after 1.5 days of chillout and fun with the whole ASEAN Finance team. It was awesome, the place was amazing and the people were just fun! Loved it! Here are just some of the pictures (of the room mostly) but this doesnt do much justice because I had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures.

My breakfast package (consisted of a red apple, a pack of Tiger biscuits, a tuna sandwich, a packet of raisins, a bottle of mineral water and a packet of apple juice). Talk about healthy =)

Mine's on the left, Vicky's on the right.

This is what happens to those who sleep in the bus.

Look at that! A chicken coop in a beach resort.

Chickens chilling on the park bench.

My room was in Rangoon. To the left, to the left ;)

Nature's Walk or Jogging Trail?

Spa Garden!!! Too bad it wasn't open when we checked it out =(

This is how the Spa Garden looks like. Niceeeee!

SPA!!!!!

This cute little thing is outside every chalet. No one seemed to be using it because the water *ahem* didn't look "clean".

Water chalet! Kinda reminds me of Bali. Not that I have ever been there, but I figured that this is how it should and will look like =)

Not quite sure what building this is. But looks nice eh?

Bed. Looks awesome huh?

Another bed?!?! Yeah, this was beside the other 2 beds. It's facing the balcony =)

My bed.

I just can't get enough of the bed.

Self-explanatory.

Bath tub. Duh!

Open shower (or whatever you may call it, al-fresco shower, rain shower, outdoor shower)!! Amazingly cool and sexy! Hahaha. If you were to look to the left of the hand railing, you can actually see the sea below you. Plus, there's no roof above you as well! It's open air baby!

The bathroom is actually the divided into 3 parts; bath tub, toilet and open shower.

Conclusion: The 1.5 days was A W E S O M E!! Highly recommended for those who are looking for a quiet getaway.

One Chinese boy, one Malay girl, one unforgettable love story

OMG, Sepet was so sad. OK, I'm sorry that I did not watch it when Yasmin was still alive. But it's never too late to be reading about Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, or listen to MJ's Butterflies or watch Gubra. Seriously, when I was re-watching the trailer, I had goosebumps all over and my eyes started to tear up.I loved the movie. Why?

1. It was real. Real as in, it didn't look like the Director or Producers took a lot of trouble to change the way the actors/actresses talked, dressed, walked, whatever. It felt home.

2. It was freaking sad. When Orked had to leave, I just cried my eyes out..wawawawa.. man, it was true love between Jason and Orked.

3. The couple was cute. Jason and Orked. Seriously, very good-looking couple. Jason's English was good and Orked is damn talented (as always).

4. The casting was excellent. Ida Nerina, Harith Iskandar, Adibah Noor. Zehan Marissa. Just superb.

5. No boundaries. Uncut. This movie explored the realities of the world that we live in. Which ever idiot that said that certain scenes from the movie were obscene or inappropriate, screw them. They can go to hell.

6. The OST was awesome! Totally complemented the movie.

Forgive me if I obsess about anything and everything abt the movie for the next 2 weeks.

"One Chinese boy, one Malay girl, one unforgettable love story"