adventures in neverland

i have a big predicament. like life. it's a major major question that needs an urgent reply. though it's not a life or death situation. far from it. i am just being the drama queen. chos! here is the question worthy of a ms. universe q&a: on new year's eve (which is a few hours later), should i stay or should i go. out, that is, join the party. here are the yes and the nos: if i stay at home and watch cable teevee (my flat has hundreds of channels. haha.): pros: *won't spend money. at my current precarious financial state, this is a big, big factor indeed!  but if i decided to go out, will it help if i first drink beer that i bought from seven eleven before going out? hmm not a bad idea. i have done it before. *avoid squeezing in with the crowd. i hate crowded places. i get claustrophobic and i can't breathe. *won't inhale second hand cigarette smoke and i won't smell like a chimney at the end of the night. *don't have to dress up and ...

since i moved into this temporary shelter, sleep has become a luxury, like wearing a louboutin with a five inch heels on a rainy day. my insomnia has gotten worse due to the noise from the bars down below - loud rock music, loud conversations from partygoers, the blaring of sirens, honking of cars. probably recognizing my former life as a party hopper (chos!), my new employer has put me in a flat right in the middle of hong kong's party district. it's like living in las vegas minus the acid trip, the wild casinos and the oh so well-dressed tycoon high rollers. this was in contrast a week ago when i was sleeping soundly like a baby at a friend's flat in far away ap lei chau, a neighborhood where most of the residents are either too young or too old to party. (it's a retirement village, my friend exclaimed when i mentioned to her that since i arrived there, i haven't seen any interesting young guy around.) her apartment building is also so near the harbour th...

last nyt was a blast. no, it was nearly perfuct. a friend wined and dined me at the tott (talk of the town) bar and restaurant at excelsior hotel. the place was stunning with a great view of the victoria harbour, a jazz band and a romantic ambiance. it was perfect for connecting with friends, exchanging vows with a luv one or in our case simply to hang out and watch hong kong's stunning landscape at night and its gorgeous people in their chic outfits parade around (hahahaha..no, they don't). as usual, we talked about what happened during the past thirteen months that we have not seen each other.  yes, it was her who counted the months perfectly. i am poor in math. so there. anyway, i like tott. there was a band (surprisingly they are australians, not filipinos, which is quite unusual as most bars here have the talented pinoys entertaining their guests. oh well) that played mostly jazzy numbers, some of which i am not familiar with. dress code is smart casual, what ...

i am ending 2011 with a bang! chos! by finishing (and enjoying) henry miller's luminous book about a depressed man (a writer) abandoned by his luver to be with another woman. luvly! this is actually based on henry's life. or so claims the book. despite its dark subject, it's actually quite funny. consider this: "tony bring sat in the dark with his hands buried in his overcoat pockets, the collar turned up, his hat falling over his eyes. the place was cold and damp; it was like sitting in a tomb without even a taper burning. a fetid odor seeped from the walls - a sweet, sickening stench, full of leprosy. thoughts gurgled through his brain like the music of the drains in vanya's room. he thought about his thoughts as if they were smears under a lens. the bell rang. let it ring, he thought, i'm not here. there was  rap at the window, followed by a tattoo. he got up and pulled the curtain aside. his friend dredge stood there grinning. he went through th...

2011 is nearly over. it's time for some critical thinking. haha. in my jobless, semi-depressed mode, holed up in a crumbling apartment where the cranky elevator would sometimes stop in the middle of a flight, where the lobby reeked of body odor, alcohol, cigarettes and sex,  i was able to watch some local teevee. there was not much to do, anyway, after window shopping in greenbelt, eating out with friends, having coffee at m cafe, flirting with cuties in malate. after a while, these things get boring. so there i was, holed up in that poor excuse for a condotel, watching teevee.  something i had never done for the past several years. i never had cable at my old flat in makati and in hong kong as well. i only turn the teevee on when watching movies on dvd. that's all. but in the last three to four months, i was able to catch local shows on philippine television. sad to say, not much has changed. tarush! same old, same old. what happened to innovation? did it die on th...

thank heavens i survived christmas. last night, feeling the blues and slightly under the weather, i went to my usual haunt in lkf to meet some friends for a quick dinner and some chit-chat. afterwards, i was all alone. ready to spend the christmas eve getting, what else, drunk. surprisingly, lkf was not that crowded. i was expecting a bumper to bumper traffic along the streets of d'aguilar, but it was manageable. there was enough room to move around. which was great. there were still a lot of people, but not as many as i have earlier expected because it wasn't too cold outside. i saw an old colleague at my former life in bloomberg and we hung out, got drunk. he bought a few rounds of beer. we stood outside of the bar and indulged in our favourite activity - people watching. inside, it was party time. with lots of young people all dressed up for the holidays - coats, jackets, ties, luvly dresses, scarves and the bags of the season -- dancing, drinking, cha...

this afternoon i moved to my temporary shelter.  a nice one bedroom affair in the middle of nowhere. it has a bed big enough for two, a little sala with a huge tee vee and a comfortable two-sitter beige sofa, a coffee table with a glass top, a tiny kitchen with a washing machine slash dryer, fridge and a dining table. it has racks and racks of plates, glasses, cups and cooking utensils. the bathroom is nice too. quite small but there is a bit of a space to move around. since i don't cook and hate eating inside the flat, i am using the dining table as a desk for my laptop where i am  writing this post. ***** scary, but i am starting my life anew. in hong kong. a personal crisis interrupted my working life in hong kong for a year and i spent the past few months trying to heal myself, be closer to my mother, nephews and nieces and my youngest sister b. it was a decision i would never have made if i were younger. in my 20s and 30s, it was all a...

after a hectic weekday, i always make it a point to keep my weekend breezy. nothing complicated. just a simple walk will do. last weekend, i went around the sleepy fishing village of ap lei chau...a charming antiquity, a remnant of hong kong's past simple life, with splashes of modernity on the side. amid old, crumbling buildings, hole-in-the-wall eateries serving roast pork and ducks, are the outlet shops of body shop, giordano. yet, these reminders of modern consumerism don't seem out of place. they are part of the whole atmosphere. like they have been there for so long. the streets are narrow, almost empty except for old people reading newspapers or having a beer after lunch. or just sitting alone, contemplating life (or what little is left) and the world around him. charming! at almost every corner are stalls manned by old people selling fresh fruits and vegetables, used clothing, dried fish, home made pastries, steaming tea of various kinds. ...