Surreal

it's surreal to think that tomorrow, i'll be en route to new york. cue ate guy: "di ako makapaniwala..."

my mind is already flying off ahead of me. i want to go home and prepare for the trip: read my time out guidebook, choose a restaurant and make reservations for the one special (read: expensive) dinner that we promised to treat ourselves to, and omg WAX AND EPILATE! and generally rest up before we begin tomorrow's mad amazing race-ish dash to tor's wedding in manhattan on saturday morning.

but there are still presentations to do, meetings to go to and interns to brief. and if you knew how detailed their briefings have to be, just so they don't mess up casting while i'm gone, maloloka kayo.

as in, yung isa sa kanila nagreklamo na kaya daw siya nahihirapan mag-facilitate ng auditions ay dahil simula nang mag-kolehiyo siya, hindi na raw siya masyadong nag-iingles. ANO BA! e yung alipores ko ngang koreana hindi nagdadahilan ng ganyan! kaya ginawan ko siya ng powerpoint na babasahin na lang ng mga mow-thel bago sila um-emote para hindi na siya kailangang magsalita.

tapos dahil hindi siya makaisip ng anong papagawin niya sa mga mow-thel (kahit na nandun naman sa harap niya yung storyboard), ginawan ko siya ng iskrip na babasahin na lang niya sa mga mudel para mapa-emote sila. mabait naman ang batang ito, pero JOSKODUDAY KAILANGAN DE KUTSARA LAHAT!

and to top it all off, marlon is "working from home" today and isn't going to work tomorrow. one of my last glimpses of him before i left this morning was surrounded by pillows, bundled up in a comforter, reading eragon. kakainez! i wanted to throttle him.

ok i shall now reel in my altapresyon. eyes on the prize! i'm leaving tomorrow and that's what matters!

A little luho goes a long way

i was majorly down in the dumps this whole week, and it all came to a head on friday night. as meltdowns go, friday night is an excellent time to have one -- you simply wake up next morning and it's the weekend! thank goodness!

paragon

marlon and i had planned to spend all day on orchard road to go to the salon and get a few things done before leaving for new york (squee!) this coming week. marlon had a horrible mishap two weeks ago at our regular salon in novena, where he'd been getting his hair cut for the past three years -- the inept junior stylist snipped his ear! understandably, he completely blew his top and threatened never to come back again (of course, damay ako). so i decided to book us at action salon in paragon after reading about it in cleo. 

being in paragon, we just had to have lunch at one of our favorite places: ps cafe, where the clientele is extremely white and the food is fantastic. like many fantastic things in singapore, though, it costs an arm and a leg (for a light lunch), so we consider it a treat that should be reserved for just once in a while. 

which is the same category i would put action salon. the service was absolutely great -- i love my swingy new cut (no bangs! for the first time in years!) and my new hair colour, which is a deep mahogany that i swear makes my complexion look even fairer. and the pedi was actually closer to a foot spa than a basic pedi. but man, full service -- and good service -- in singapore will really cost you. marlon said he actually felt faint after seeing the bill for our afternoon of pampering, which included two haircuts, two colour jobs, an express hair treatment and a pedicure. 

oh, i forgot -- in the ten minutes we had before the salon appointment, i had just enough time to buy a pair of ballet flats by stella mccartney for adidas. (a brand that i love but don't actually own -- until now.) perfect walking shoes for new york! and they were 30% off!

takashimaya

still reeling from the salon bill, hubby and i crossed the road from paragon to takashimaya on slightly wobbly legs, assuaging our salon guilt with numerous compliments on each other's new hairdo. once we were inside taka, i breathed a sigh of relief -- time to put away the cash and use my beloved takashimaya vouchers! i love using vouchers, it's like getting stuff for free.

i still had nearly $200 dollars worth of vouchers that marlon racked up at work, so i used them to buy essentials like skin-tone bras from wacoal (after being horrified by the dreaded four-breasted phenomenon caused by the ill-fitting bras at triumph) and lovely new powder foundation at bobbi brown (my reward for hitting the 10-pound weight loss mark!). 

naturally, after being pampered by the impressively trained counter girl at bobbi brown, i ended up not just with foundation but an undereye concealer, a blemish stick and a bobbi brown club membership for a minimum purchase of $150! gaaah. it was the six free makeup lessons that hooked me. i had to top up my vouchers with cash, but never mind! i shall be poor yet flawless!

ion orchard

we ended up checking out the new mall on orchard (oh no! let's spend saturday checking out the trendy new mall on orchard! let's go to three malls in one afternoon! help, i'm turning local! ), this overwhelming glass behemoth called ion. 

ion photo from time out singapore

as you can see, it's quite pretty. i actually regret not bringing my camera, but i'm pretty sure i'll be back. one of the things i liked about the place was that though there was quite a horde of mallgoers, i never felt that the mall was crowded.

that and BERSHKA! omg. one of my favorite european high street stores has come to singapore. marlon has recently been fully converted to the cult of uniqlo, so we went to the spanking new uniqlo store to pay obeisance (and get him a new shirt and sandals). to end the day, we had the yummiest crispy black pepper duck at the fancy food court at ion (called food opera, for some bizarre reason). winner, ang sarap niya. 

marlon packed me off in a taxi with the day's purchases, and he went off to his boys' night out at clarke quay. and now i'm home. 

at home with my new hair, new foundation and new ballet flats

after this entire exercise, i was truly amazed at how basics like bras and foundation (notice how i omit the concealer and blemish stick) can feel like luhos when in fact they are just basics! it is so hard to find just the right ones, scoring a perfectly fitting bra and barely-there foundation can feel like such a huge triumph. 

and it boggles the mind sometimes when you realize how much you can spend in a single day in singapore. i am equally amazed at how much you can spend simply attempting to feel like a human being again after a long bout of illness and a stressful week at work. 

with these epiphanies, i end my litany of consumerism. good night.

Hubby's home

... and he comes bearing gifts. 

i couldn't possibly imagine what there was to buy in cincinnati, ohio, but he succeeded. he brought me a deep purple wheelie suitcase that's perfect as a carry-on for the new york trip. we had been stressing out on our close-cut transfers and decided to do away with check-in luggage. it's certified and approved by all US domestic airlines as carry-on baggage, so it's perfect. he also got himself a matching one in black. 

marlon also bought me a bag of reese's peanut butter cups, which are impossible to find here. in keeping with tradition, he bought me a box of godiva truffles, which was his standard pasalubong for me every time he'd visit me in manila. he started buying it for me because i used to tell him how uncle david would bring godiva from brussels for me and my sister when we were younger, and how much i loved it.

the best pasalubong was rolled up and tucked into one of the wheelie's many pockets: a wad of hundred dollar bills that singapore airlines gave him as compensation for bumping him off an overbooked flight, plus a $100 inflight shopping voucher!

poor dear was so out of it. strangely enough, i was too. we spent the remainder of sunday afternoon cuddling on the couch, planning the new york itinerary and just being domestic together. then we went out for window shopping and a surprisingly pricey but comfortingly yummy fondue dinner at cafe swiss in city hall. 

with him back home and my flu all gone, life is back to normal :)

Soothe me

so i could blog about the epic mcdonalds delivery fail that took 3.5 hours to reach my house. but i have wasted far too much of my saturday on them as it is, and i really need something to bring my temper down to a nice normal level again.

good think jett shared the latest arrangement by eric whitacre, one of my (and acs's) favorite choral composers, a setting of rudyard kipling's "the seal lullaby" for female voices. 

have a listen, it's beautifully haunting and lush. i must have listened to it at least half a dozen times today.

i looked up the words of the complete poem, and reading it is just what i needed to lay this long and at times frustratingly pointless day to rest.

Seal Lullaby by Rudyard Kipling

Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, O'er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.
Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow.
Oh, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, no shark overtake thee
Asleep in the arms of slow-swinging seas.

thank goodness for pleasures like music, and friends who love to share, and discovering poems. we all need things like these.

and after just one more night's sleep, marlon will be home :)

Yo MC MC

in a classic example of local english, sick leaves in singapore are called MC. what does MC mean, you might ask? medical certificate, as in that little slip of paper from the doctor. people don't stop to think about it, but i wonder if anyone actually realizes that they say "i am on medical certificate today." (what else can you expect from a country whose government campaign for speaking grammatically correct english is called "speak good english", a phrase which in itself is grammatically incorrect? ah, the irony.)

i can't bring myself to use this turn of phrase out loud. i've only used "MC" in texts to my boss. and it's always along the lines of "the doctor gave me a 2-day MC." or to our office manager, when turning over said slip of paper "here's my MC, jane." this is like that whole regime/regimen debacle. i just won't give in. 

apart from its vulnerability to grammatical abuse, the other annoying thing about MCs is that it's standard policy for local companies to require one every single time you go on sick leave... even if it's just for one day. forget being sick for three days before having to traipse to the doctor for an MC -- that's sooo third world. 

first world progress means that if you have a fever for just one day, you have to spend a couple of hours of that single day of rest to haul your ass to a doctor, expose yourself to various germs in the waiting room, and pay anywhere from $40 to over $100 in consultation fees and medicine. doctors here LOVE to over-prescribe; i think it's how their clinics make money. for example, a recent stomach upset caused by eating spoiled food got me five, count em, FIVE different medicines -- a painkiller, one for killing the bacteria in my stomach, one to settle my stomach, and goodness knows what the other two were for.

so it's day 2 of my SICK LEAVE, and my 2-day MC expires today. the fever has gone down, although i'm still woozy from the medicines and the antibiotics are drying my throat so i sound uncannily like inday badiday. tomorrow i will be back at work bright and early at 9, and my boss tells me there's tons of work waiting to welcome me back. apparently projects with rush deadlines have been flooding in like crazy. i wonder if it has occurred to anyone to turn anything down considering there are only four designers working on everything and 2 production people (me plus the intern).

looks like i'm really going to deserve that new york trip by the time these next two weeks are over. for now, i'm going to take advantage of the rest, because i know i'll be expected to be fully functioning, as if i never got sick, ready to attack my share of the workload the minute i step back into the office. don't you just love it.

Domestic bliss

i had plans to get up bright and early to swim this morning. when i woke up (after a surprisingly deep sleep - TY melatonin!) it wasn't bright -- just overcast and even slightly chilly. well as chilly as singapore mornings can get anyway. i knew that pool water was going to be cold, so i will venture out this afternoon and see if it gets any warmer.

plus i'm not feeling too well -- a slight cough and the beginnings of a cold. i sure hope this isn't H1N1... i'm going to the states in two weeks!

so here i am bundled up in my nice grey comforter from aussino (i love aussino!), having a cup of neon yellow panadol. rogue and i are enjoying lots of quality time together. fortunately she's being a good girl, mostly staring out the window at the pigeons on the ledge (dreaming of dismemberment LOL), and leaping into bed once in a while to rub her face on the sheets and demand some cuddling.

marlon called twice this morning: once at 9am when he landed in LAX, and another time after traipsing around the airport and being horrified at the size of all the meals. i'm glad he landed safely; even more glad to hear him report that he cleared arrival AND domestic check-in within 45 minutes. that gives me a rush of hope for our amazing race-ish dash to tor's wedding.

i miss marlon already, but gotta be thankful for the small things -- like having the chance to stay in bed till noon.

A long week(end) ahead

i've been so relaxed at work, i didn't even realize a long weekend was coming up! unlike several times in the past where work was so hectic that i felt long weekends couldn't come fast and often enough. sunday is singapore's national day, and thus monday is a public holiday.

this time, i'm just kinda *mehhhhh* about it. what's really looming over me is marlon's long business trip. he's leaving this sunday afternoon for cincinnati, OH and will only be back the following monday! eight whole days! waaah!

when his company slashed travel budgets early this year, i was ecstatic. i had marlon all to myself! i always have the most horrible insomnia whenever he goes away. it got so bad that i reached a point where only an irrational paranoia about dying like heath ledger kept me from popping sleeping pills. seriously.

*moment of silence for his departed hotness*

apart from the insomnia, things just seem less fun when he's not around.

and this time, we're not going to be able to talk as often because of the 12-hour time difference. i guess now we get to know what it's like to be in a "real" long distance relationship. i always thought we were so lucky to be living in the same time zone and just a 3-hour plane ride away during the four years we spent apart.

so much time to fill... i actually made a list of things to do while marlon is away.

• clean closet and fold clothes (a monthly task that i always put off. you would too if you saw my closet)
• get my pinoy indie movie fix by watching ang pagdadalaga ni maximo oliveros and serbis (freshly downloaded torrents) - the files have no audio! grrrr!!!
• catch up on my blogging (mimi's wedding! my espn shoot!)
• finish reading the alchemy of mirrormask (i've been into behind-the-scenes books lately, care of the national library)
• return books and renew library card
• scout for carry-on luggage and new undies at takashimaya
• preliminary shopping for something to wear to tor's wedding! (i say preliminary because i only plan to buy clothes the weekend before i go -- to maximize weight loss)
• give myself a pedicure
• do yoga and muay thai
  
• swim and sunbathe (most likely i will just end up sleeping in)
• watch bruno with my TA gays
• pay a visit to my ob-gyne, or O&G as they say here
  
• do the groceries (boreroo)

not the most exciting list huh? especially when i'm just going to doing everything by myself. by some strange magic, even the most mundane activities always seem like so much fun when marlon's around. and that's what i'll really miss when he's away this week.

*cue "all by myself" by celine dion*

The curious case of the eyeless koi

the new intern found this floating about aimlessly (and sightlessly, i might add) in our office pond one afternoon.


creepy! it's completely eyeless.

while it totally gives me the shudders, it with all the other normal fish also tugs at my heartstrings. while all the other koi are racing all over the pond in some weird koi frenzy, this one just stays in one corner of the pond because it has no idea where to go. *sniffle*


there are several theories as to the sudden emergence of this fish.

the intern thinks its eyes have been lost in a fight with the other fish (it's missing a strip of scales as well). i think it's actually been that way since birth (i've seen sightless kittens before) and we just never noticed. in the most outlandishly complicated guess, james, my boss, thinks that a cruel pet owner snuck into our backyard and dumped their sick/malformed goldfish (yes, he refuses to believe that this is a koi) into our pond. now that's creativity for you -- after all, james is our creative director.