Rawr!

Oh, I thought I’d never get out of Manila again. Ever since the typhoons, I’ve been trying to stay home most of the time to spend time with family and loved ones. Haha! OA I know.

But yesterday, my family and I (minus Mike, because he had to work, corny) went to the Zoobic Safari inside Subic.

We took the SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Exit) on our way there and to me it was the best highway I’ve ever passed through in the Philippines. I was so amazed, ang ganda ng daan — clean and malawak. May kamahalan lang ang toll fee kaya konti lang ang dumadaan.

We arrived at Zoobic before lunchtime (after several stopovers to eat, siyempre) and immediately started the tour.

A bit disappointed though since I thought we’ll get to experience everything Safari style.  But then again, hello Rona, for P500 you’re expecting too much.  Still, from time to time you’ll encounter pigs and other animals roaming the place, such as this one. No, I don’t know what it is.

It looks like a hairy donkey.  Sorry nakatalikod sya in this pic.

The highlight of the tour, of course, is the close encounter with the Tigers.  Everyone gets to ride in one of these caged jeepneys before entering a huge fenced area.

If you want the tigers to come close to you, you need to pay P200 so that the caretaker, who joins you in your jeep, can feed them chicken.

The tigers were so huge, at hindi sila mukhang gutom unlike in the Manila Zoo.  And look at the fangs!

The manong who came with us also threw chicken on the roof of our jeep.  And in one swooping motion, the tiger was on our roof to get his prize.

That’s when I knew that I will never survive a tiger attack.  Kaya dito na lang ako, with the friendly ostriches.

Since I was carrying Maru almost all throughout the tour, ako naman yata ang nabinat. I’ve totally lost my voice and is feeling a bit feverish. Plus every part of my body aches!  But I think Maru had fun though.

 

 

Kilig to da bones

Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes are said to be in Singapore for the launch of the Dyesebel DVD collection.

And whaddayaknow, a lucky fan snapped some photos of “DongYan” while celebrating Halloween in Sg.

Cute. Sweet. Kilig. Bitter.

‘It’s all for L.O.V.E.’

Blah…Spent the whole of October 31 in bed due to chills and high fever.  I’d been planning to take Maru and the kids to MOA for the Halloween trick or treat but since there’s Santi and the fever, I opted to stay home and curl up in bed.

But Mike dragged me out of bed to watch Michael Jackson’s This Is It. Kating kati na siyang manood so we caught the last full show at SM San Lazaro.

What can I say?  It was a beautiful documentary and it showed how meticulous Michael was when it came to his craft.  He wanted everything to be done perfectly.  And he had a way of talking to people.  He’d tell them, “It’s all for love. — L.O.V.E.” right after giving them orders.  Pine-pep talk sila ni Michael, haha!

The Michael I saw in this documentary wasn’t the sluggish, propofol-induced Michael I had pictured.  Of course his body movements were slower than when he first debuted the moonwalk in the early 80’s.  But This Is It painted a really healthy, happy, and passionate Michael Jackson.

I felt sad after watching though.  He could have delivered a really great show in London, I’m so sure of that.

May kulang lang sa documentary — it didn’t show him doing the moonwalk! Que horror, that’s what I’d been wanting to see pa naman.  Buti na lang, watching This Is It was also like watching a fashion show.  I love the jackets, especially the interesting shoulder pads.

Anyway, I had a good 30 minutes of “Human Nature” and “Wanna Be Starting Someting” LSS before I decided to put on the DVD of the Katherine Heigl-starrer Knocked Up. It was a cute, predictable film. I think I slept halfway through and when I woke up it felt like I didn’t miss a thing.

Afterwards, was suddenly reminded of my favorite twins next to Charlene and Aga’s — the Jolie-Pitt twins!

So here I am in front of the computer at this ungodly hour, Googling the latest photos of the fabulous Jolie-Pitt twins, Knox and Vivienne.  And — voila! — finally found a recent photo taken in Amman, Jordan.

WTF were they doing in Jordan?

This photo was said to have been uploaded by a fan on Twitter/Twitpic and was taken last October 2 at the Licky Licious ice cream shop in Amman.  My gad! I would have fainted if I were that lucky fan.  And look at the kiddos — so adorable!

And that’s it pancit.  Off to bed I go.

Have you seen it?

ABS-CBN’s new station ID Noynoy Aquino’s infomercial premiered this evening after TV Patrol.

Yeah we know, most of his supporters were supporters of his mum and dad (and lil’ sis).  But I think Noynoy’s next infomercials should get out of the shadows of his parents and tell more about him and his ability to lead the country.

Whatchathink?

P.S. I like the first part of the song.

***

By the way, base sa videong ito, sa tingin ninyo sinong kandidato ang susuportahan ni Karylle?

Take care folks!

Signal no. 2 in Metro Manila. Oh no! It’s now signal no. 3 in MM. It’s gonna be a windy night.

5 a.m. satellite picture (SOURCE)

The RED portion is said to be the amount of rain. Yaiks. Mukhang maulan ito ah.

Rain, rain go away.  Come again on a summer day, when our soils can absorb more water. Please.

Wowowee!

This is even more wowowee than their Wowowee! engagement stint!

Click on the photo and see what happens.

CLICK HERE to see more.

Siyempre!

Kung magagawa nga lang ni Manny Villar magpakasal din ano?

This is just funny

So I guess I’m not the only one having problems with Globe Duo/Superduo.

This is a screencap of Globe’s website.  And below is an enlarged version of their feedback page.  Read the comments!

Yes, the last comment is a retweet of my tweet.  But that’s not the point.  The point is out of the four comments published on their site, three are saying that Globe Duo sucks.  And that’s telling a lot, right?

I think Globe needs to either improve their Duo service ASAP or refund to those who subscribed but didn’t get the service they expected.

I actually like Duo/Superduo’s idea pa naman. Before having that blah experience with Superduo/Duo, I was urging Mike and my cousins who are on Globe to subscribe to the service.

Anyway, I called Globe earlier and was able to speak to an operator. Kaso, naputol ang call.  But I will call again as soon as I get home.  And I really hope they give me back my money.

‘Rent’ on V-day!

My friend Onay Sales is selling tickets for the V-day showing of Rent.  I wanna watch.

Hi everyone!

It’s time to “measure your life in love” once again! 9 Works Theatrical is bringing Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Broadway musical RENT to Manila on February 2010.

RENT tells the story of a group of friends struggling with life, love and death. Aside from the burden of paying their rent, these starving artists also strive for individual success and acceptance amidst trials, poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic. At the end of their journey, every bruised and wounded character stands tall and proud as they stay true to the show’s tagline–they lived like there is absolutely “no day but today”.

Tickets for the February 14, 2010 8pm schedule are now available! Reserve now!

Ticket prices are : P1700 (orchestra center), P1600 (orchestra side), P1400 (loge center), P1100 (loge side) and P800 (balcony). For seat plan, kindly see the attached file.

I will be ranting in this post so don’t bother reading if you don’t want to read stuff about healthcards, crappy Duo/Superduo services, and being broke

After getting confined in the hospital for almost five days due to dengue, Maru’s home and well now.

Gad, it was his third time to get dengue.  Possible? Yes, according to the doc.  Buti na lang lagi namin naaagapan.  Everytime he gets fever for two straight days, I take him to his pedia, Dra. Elen, asap. And because I’m praning, I always couple it with a blood test.  Now I’m thinking of demolishing our old house and rebuilding a new and improved mosquito-proof home.

Anyway, I’m planning to get a health card. As in seriously planning, parang feeling ko there’s no more time to think — ‘Just do it.’  I’m choosing between Fortune Care and Medicard, although most of my friends are recommending the latter.

I realized now that Mike and I have already spent more than a hundred thousand pesos for hospital and medical fees due to Maru’s frequent hospitalization (intestinal flu once, dengue thrice).  If you knew how little we earn or how hard we work our ass off just to earn extra, you’d probably sympathize with us and give us donations that could rival those in DSWD’s warehouse.

But really, if I had a health card, say Philhealth for example, our medical expenses could have been cut in half.  Better siyempre kung may Medicard, Fortunecare, or Maxicare para covered almost all expenses — room, medicines, doctor’s fee, labs, etc. But because nag-procastinate ako sa pagkuha ng card (because hindi naman siya madali, imagine it would take more than 10 percent of my monthly salary to cover me and Maru), baon na tuloy ako ngayon sa utang sa mga pinsan ko.

So now, I will stand firm na kelangan na talaga ng health card — for me, Maru, and Mike. Dahil we’re not getting any younger and with our stressful lifestyle, hindi malayong magkakaroon kami ng sakit at ayoko na ulit mamroblema kung saan kukuha ng pera pampa-ospital, kung makikipagsapalaran ba kami sa public hospital, kung i-skip na lang namin ang pagpapatingin sa doc dahil baka may kung ano pang lumabas na sakit na hindi naman namin kayang maipagamot.  Really, I’m so fed up of having to put our health at the back seat.  Now is the time to get a health card.  And I’m not taking any more excuses — from myself or from Mike — not to get one.

***

GLOBE, YOU FAILED ME

During Maru’s daily checkup prior to getting hospitalized and while he was confined in the hospital, I decided to use my Globe sim to subscribe to the new Super Duo service of Globe in the hopes that I can easily call home or Mike (who’s still faithfully using a Globe number).  I subscribed to their P35/day service just to try it at first.

It worked well on my first and second call.  But the succeeding calls, ayaw na.  Still, I gave Globe the benefit of the doubt and subscribed to Super Duo again when my initial registration of P35/day expired.

But whaddayaknow, the second time I registered, I wasn’t able to use the landline feature at all.  As in ayaw pumasok ng calls na ginawa ko sa lahat ng landline na tinawagan ko.  So I just gave my cousins/Mike my Super Duo number so they could call me.  Ayaw pa rin. Wala. Zilch. Nada.  Hindi raw matawagan, sabi nila.

Kaso, may problema talaga ako sa pagkatuto because when Globe failed me the first and second time, I still gave them another benefit of the doubt.  So for the third time, nag-subscribe ulit ako.  At ganun pa rin, hindi ko pa rin nagamit ang landline except for one time when we asked someone to call us at 2 a.m.?  Isa pa, I even had a hard time calling other Globe numbers.  As in I had to repeat the call process several times bago ako makatawag.

So siyempre, nadala na ako. Kaya hindi na ako nag-subscribe sa Super Duo. SA DUO NA LANG!

Ang kaso, ganun pa rin. Hindi pa rin ako makatawag sa landlines at hindi rin ako matawagan sa Duo number.  Ano ba???  Sobrang hassle!

I actually called Globe after the second time I registered.  Ire-report daw nila ang problem ko. But the service failed to improve and I feel like I wasted more than a hundred pesos on a service that didn’t even work.  So now, I will try to get a refund from Globe dahil super nakakainis.  I know it’s just a hundred pesos. But hey, sobrang hassle kaya ang ginawa nila sa akin while I was trying to make a call from the hospital. At bukod dun, as a customer, feeling ko na-trick nila ako to part with my hard-earned P100++ just to get crappy service.

Globe, will I get THIS as well?

DSWD has a lot of explaining to do

From Blog ni Ella, which is now “blocked” (hence the 404 error, am I correct?). up and running again.  And I guess it has never been blocked. Hindi lang daw kinaya ng powers ng blog niya.

If you haven’t read Ella’s post yet, please read it first. Then read DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral’s statement in response to Ella’s blog.  Sa tingin mo? May miscommunication? Or may taong lost in translation?

Then after reading everything, just drop by MLQ3’s blog to get a fairer perspective.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE THEN ZOOM IN TO READ THE FULL TEXT.

CLICK TO READ THE FULL TEXT

Sizzling hawt!

IN my opinion, GMA should be on the top spot of the Hottest Heads of State lists.

Yulia who? Anong panama ng braids ni Miss Ukraine?

Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko

Angel Locsin wants you to buy her Hermes Kelly in this time of need

Oh, bless her Angelina Joliesque heart.

Angel Locsin is auctioning off her Hermes Kelly and a few other luxury handbags to benefit Ondoy and Pepeng survivors.

Aside from Angel Locsin, stars like Anne Curtis, Kris Aquino, Maxene Magalona, Pokwang, and many more also donated some of their precious handbags and accessories for the benefit auction.

Visit Shopandshare.ph if you’d like to own an item previously owned by your favorite stars.  Or you may also send your donations through their Paypal account.

*The site is still under development.

** IMPORTANT NOTE: Because I’ve been receiving inquiries about the price, etc., I’d like to clarify that I am not related to this auction and it would be best to visit shopandshare.ph for more info.  Thank you.

Follow the leader

From Frank Cimatu’s Facebook:

The Hakot Evacuees in The Mansion. The evacuees, almost all Maranao traders and their families, arrived in PMA buses before President Gloria Arroyo at the mansion. After her visit, they also left in the same PMA buses. The gates are closed. The stories are written. Ayos!

Photos by Mau Victa

Ganun ba? Eh bakit iba yata sa stories that made it on the news?

No wonder our wannabe leaders are following her suit.

Dear Manny Villar

Hindi kita kaya.

Dahil diyan hindi kita iboboto.  This is so tasteless and speaks a lot about your character. Grabe.

Photo source: Kumakalat sa Facebook at Twitter