Semarang Day 2 ... movie day ... bad food day ...

It's late but not so late ... so here I am sitting in Whiz Hotel typing away ... and what did I do today?

Well, like all my trips with the Cor ... it's always about him ... I can tell him what I want ... he can even ask me what I want ... but at the end of the day, it will still be up to him all the time ... so if I want this relationship ... I am the one who is always going to have to compromise

Example: I wanted to see a movie .. I even told him that .. and kept the best movie on the list for him but guess what? He said it would finish too late ... however, in the end, we didn't see a movie and he ended up doing something else instead of going to bed anyway ... soo WTF right?

So aside from doing work ... I went to the mall and watched a movie ... heh ... thank goodness ... it was Liam Neeson's latest ... A Walk Among the Tombstones ... I had my own simple lunch from the food vendor across the road and basically chilled out doing more work until he came to meet me for dinner

I specified I wanted local like Lumpia but naturally he didn't give a damn ... so we went to this supposedly famous area (which we came on last New Year's eve) ... and chose a stall and yet again the food was not delicious while the price is exorbitant ... sigh!

After that, I suggested to go to the old part of the city ... naturally he didn't give a damn and we ended up at the mall over some J Co ... wasn't too bad though ... at least for once we could just hang out, talked about the problems in his family (tons) ... what happened to the wedding ... and the money ... and money ... and money ... hahaha!

Goodnight!

Hello Semarang ... again ...

It's always like this, isn't it? When you haven't been to somewhere for a long while, it's more than likely you won't be passing by in an even longer time but if you have just been there, then you will come by again. My last trip here was New Year's Eve 2013 less than a year ago and now ... well I am back

Why?

For a wedding ... my "brother in law" ... sigh! Long story there and can be depressing ... at least for me, so for once, the less said the better

Let's talk about other things that happened in this day ... for instance, even though my flight is 11:20am ... I still woke up several times with final round about 6:00am so I have a slight headache and feel tired all day long ... my worrying nature about oversleeping ... ugh!

At airport, as today is Lion Air, it means Terminal 1A ... no special cuties at check in ... all the way until we were boarding and then there was Indra Simanjuntak (I hope I got the name right) ... this guy was doing directional on the tarmac and I soooooooooooooo wanted to take his photo ... he is slim (naturally), tanned, average face and everything, but the way he fits into that uniform? WOW! An @$$ you just wanna smack ... hahaha!

Other than him, the flight over to Semarang was uneventful ... I took a cab to the hotel and was pleasantly surprised by how nice the budget Whiz was ... I kid you not ... I am sincere here ...

Unfortunately there are always surprises requiring money and the first is ... I forgot my belt so I had to go to the mall and find the cheapest on sale and buy it ... then tonight I realized the hotel doesn't give the small toothpaste amenities ... but I just brushed without any ... will buy tomorrow

Umm ... what else?

Well we went to the church for the reception. And it was a nice church with stained glass, high ceiling the works ... was also surprised that there must have been at least a hundred person attending the service ... however, as we are finishing up ... we were told that guests had arrived at the restaurant like 30 minutes early! This was a surprise for me ... as back home everyone comes late. Hah!

So Cor rushed over ... and I was wondering why only to find out that he had this huge collection tin to deliver ... apparently most people do not give presents or cash in advance but on the day of the wedding and if they don't see anything available they may just decide to skip it! Whoaaaaaa! How .. I am sorry to say this ... cheap is that?!?!?! That means these are not your friends as they don't mind making you have a huge loss for your wedding. Sigh!

And also typical of Cor ... he had all the ladyboy and cross dressers MC-ing and singing at the event. For me, it was a bit over-the-top and they were not really funny as the jokes they made were more for their own crowd i.e. inside jokes and most of the wedding in attendees didn't even bother to acknowledge the sound they made. I even saw a few people staring at them with frowns and when they cracked jokes almost no one laughed or even smiled. So much for Cor's opinion that his friends are good!

And Cor was bitching that there isn't enough food. I think there was. It's a buffet. Obviously some finished while others were left but as usual with "kampung" invitation, more than double the invitation turned up!

Anyway I am now back in my hotel typing this ... chilling out ... and plan to have an early night. Hope to get decent sleep first time this week! Hehehe!

Goodnight!

There are days like this ... and then there ARE days like these ...

It's late ... and I am sleepy ... but I thought I better get down to this blog keeping promise I made to myself when I turn 42 (yikes!) ... and type a bit more ... this is meant to re-start my "passion" for being a writer ... if I can just find some discipline to spend 15 minutes (minimum) a day in front of the keyboard ... hehehe ... suffice to say, I am failing most miserably (waugh)

So let's see what is significant today ... the morning was normal ... traffic jam heading out into the city ... not enough sleep ... laundry ... working with my new team of "karyawan" ...

Lunch ... I treated them to next door's Healthy Choice ... simply because we had a new DOSM onboard ... then it was off to Pub-Lic-O ... and once more, the new driver proved his awesomeness by getting lost and not wanting to ask for directions ... hehehe ...

To my utter surprise, when I arrived, typical of my best buds ... everything was chaotic with changes in scheduling and what-not ... we had 3 different groups of investors in ... we had sponsorships ... we had friends ... by the time everything was done it was around 8:00pm

And then to my utter surprise ... the Un-Happy Oz man ... wanted to talk .. and he led me on to do biz etc ... and apparently he had been planning this for weeks with a friend of his ... so now I am wondering if he is just using everyone at R-Y-S-T ... however, what the Yam told me is in contradiction to this chap's tale ... it's all such a mess!

Naturally I followed him back to his place to meet his secret partner ... and I was glad I did ... why? Because the guy is young, fair skinned, smooth skinned with the slightest hint of a baby mustache and sooooo cute ... I kid you not ... nice hair, nice eyes ... so my type ... in fact he has only 1 shortcoming ... a little bulge around the waist for someone not yet 25 ... other than that? Perfect

So now I am in a quandary eh? Business wise that is ... sigh ... although if I let my hormones have their way I soooooooooooooooo want a second meeting ... hehehe

Day 5 ... Cebu ...

One more day before this trip ends ... and I woke up with so many conflicting emotions ... or rather choices ... do I spend a lazy day in the apartment? Do I go to the pool and beach and hang out? Do I take the bus into the city for a final round of "getting to people watch" and eat more good food? Do I go to Shang for an awesome sandwich? Do I stay and surf and download pirated movies?

See?

So what did I do? Well, I did some work. Yes, I kid you not! Someone msg me and I ended up spending 2 hours doing work. After that is done, I went around looking for food ... and I decided as I stayed in Moevenpick, I should at least have a meal there and went to the coffee house ... the waiter recommended I do the chicken adobo ... and it was a very unique interpretation ... okay ... the chicken had that "frozen" smell ... but other than that ... it was tenderly roasted ... properly marinated/ seasoned ... and yummy ... the main disappointment is the lumpy gravy and "too old" beans ...

I did some walkabout and wanted to go for a spa massage ... and it was again surprisingly good ... although very odd ... at first I enquired and the Korean lady (yes Korean!) said no slots until 3:30pm ... so I walked up to Shang ... did some shopping at the kiosk outside the hotel ... had a nice margarita (while watching the only guy in uniform "sigh!") ... and indulged in ribs ... I needed to do a ribs since I am in Phils - pork country and the portion was big enough for two ... however as it was super sweet, I needed a whole lump of rice to even eat the meat much less touch the gravy hehehe

And finally for dinner ... CFW came back ... and we thought to go online and check ... number 1 rated restaurant was down the road ... unfortunately we walked there and it was full ... so he recommended Marybagio ... and we cabbed it there ... the cabbie tried to con us by saying hard to get a cab, he can wait for an extra 300p, then 250p, then 200p ... we decided no ... then he said how much tip for this ride as it is far ... the guy just went on and on and on ... you know the meter came up to less than 100p?!?!?!?! We gave him 150p

The restaurant? Awesome! Beautifully touristy ... lovely food ... slow service but hey ... it was overall just a nice place ... we had a great dinner (my 3rd big meal of the day) ... and went home to a beer each ... before calling tonight a gooooodnight!

Day 4 ... Cebu Holiday ... New Friend, Tour of the City

Super excited this morning because finally ... finally ... I am going to go out and see the country ... well, more or less ... and what's even more cooler is I am going to meet a new friend ... albeit a lady. She is a niece of my good friend from Maldives, the Con Woman and as CW is not available, she roped in her niece who had the day off to show me around

Isn't the lady nice?

We connected the day before via FB ... and today she arrived super early ... before our 9am appointment ... I will admit I didn't check her profile out except the picture of her head on the messenger and was not sure who or what to expect ... however, she was super smiley/ warm/ friendly/ touchy!

In fact, she is quite charming ... wherever we go, she would reach out and hold me by the arm and said this way or that way or come come ... like either I am a child or a doddering old man ... we chatted a bit to get to know each other ... and I found out a bit more about her family and CW's family too (single parent - that I didn't even know)

So what are the places we visited?

Well, first is the Lapu Lapu Monument (obviously) and we walked around the dedication park and even onto the rickety water feature ... there were not many tourists around ... rather quiet and sad looking actually ... after that, we rode into the city ...

Amongst the highlights include: the fort (where we climbed everywhere and took lots of photos), wanted to go to the post office for FDC (but it was closed as it was a holiday), the old church where we prayed with red candle stubs and then walked into the church proper (very beautiful and crowded), and out again into one of the older "shrines" (I think that's what it was called), we passed by 2 universities, we went to the 2 markets (one was selling all sorts of knick knacks and the other is the dried fish market), we stopped by a supposedly famous small old-time bakery (looks more like a cafeteria), and had YUMMY BBQ lunch where we ordered one of everything (hehehe) ... and for the final stop?

The Taoist temple in Beverly Hills, Cebu ... yup there is a Beverly Hills ... apparently the rich folks stay here and boy what a lot of huge villas and bungalows there are ... the oddest thing about the Taoist temple ... well more than 1 thing odd is that we are not allowed to take photos of the interior in any of the living/ praying spaces ... which is odd because they are not like covered with gold or some such ... but the landscape was very beautiful ... next odd thing? It is so clean not like the temples that I am used to

O yes we also drove and stopped by a few more places before the Taoist ... one was an old Chinese house ... the Yap residence that is actually charming ... then a monument to the key persons from the city ... and finally ... I ended up at SM Mall for a local coffee from Bo's Coffee ... expensive almost the same price as Starbucks but it was so thick, creamy and rich ... definitely a yummie experience!

And if you think that was all, it was not

At night, Me and CFW went out to the Japanese restaurant for a bento dinner along with this Indian gentleman, A-Sheesh who he met last year during this same period as Shangri-la hosts some kind of international telco conference cum sales event every year in Cebu

We even come back to the hotel and had a nice drink and chat session where they both regaled me with stories of the earthquake from last year (or was that typhoon?) ...

So all in all? Today was a brilliant day

Goodnight cyber world!

PS I forgot about cuties ... finally I saw at least a couple of decent uniforms ... hmm ... sad eh? Hehehe!

Day 3 Cebu ... Happy Birthday to Me ...

The first greetings I received to my surprise was yesterday from my parents! So nice! I am now 42 and next 12 months? I need to lose 24 kilos. I am now? 92 ... and this means I should target 68. Let's do this!!!

So what did I do today to celebrate? Well, I took the bus down to the city from Movenpick. And it was a challenge. I waited and was surprised to see that it was so full. Lucky thing they could squeeze me in although I was told to go and pay 150R ... and they don't give me receipt ... hmmm ... no negative thoughts, eh?

Anyway I went to the next mall - Ayala and this one was bigger than yesterday's, more modern and seemed more posh but again, it was a mix inside. It did start to drizzle and then poured. So I started at UCC cafe ... enjoying something called Halo Halo cake (local dessert turned into a cake) ... and for lunch I did the food court to try the crab shell and grilled pork ... both were nasty ... sorry ... and finally? I was surprised that today is also Mother Mary's birthday, Tess' daughter's birthday and of course, Jerry's birthday!

Dinner was back to awesome Fiesta ... and tonight I ordered the crispy pata (awesome), springroll (unusual) and pangsit noodles (awesome) ... and only then did I tell CFW it was my birthday. Heh!

All in all, a nice birthday because I am in a different country doing a different thing

Day 2 Cebu ... SM Mall ...

I think the challenge here is that they have the same time zone as Malaysia and Singapore when they are further on the East. Hence, even before 6:00am, the sun has risen bright and shining! The only positive consequence I can see here is that people should actually go to bed early and get up early and get more done. However, people are people and it doesn't seem to be the case. Hehehe!

I went to Shangri-la and have a walk through. It was amazingly huge and beautiful and the breakfast looks so sumptious. Sigh! I do miss a good buffet. Hahaha! Says fat me

After that we hopped on the bus to the city and came to SM. CFW took me to this Chinese restaurant across the road that serves some dimsum and chinese food. It was nice but just normal Chinese food. The mall is quite busy and designed all over the place. However, as I am following CFW, we didn't do much waltzing around and I have yet to taste the local coffee! We did stop at a French bakery for a coffee though. It was nice!

Dinner was at the Italian across the road and that too was another good meal. The starters of broccoli and shrimp was great. The pesto pizza was nice but a bit sad because the pesto was a drop per slice and that's it! Ugh! Finally the spaghetti carbonara had flavour but waaaaaay toooo saltieeeeee!!!

Tomorrow? My birthday! Hehehe!

Cebu, Phils ... Holiday tiiiime!!!

The last time I planned a holiday with my sweetheart, it was in Jul and when the time came, I had flu and my ear got so stuffed up, I had to cancel to avoid a flight ... so this time around ... you can imagine the fear I have ... especially when true to form, early this week, from having recovered from a persistent cough that's been bugging me for the better part of the past 3 months ... I had a bout of sore throat

Now we all know what this means ... sore throat, phlegm and cough, cold and dripping nose and ... fever! In the past, I tried to cut it short by taking meds but in the end it merely prolonged the agony ... so rather than tackle the entire bout ... I got meds for every part of the cycle ... basically allowing it to happen as nature intended and then using the meds to cure each part faster sort of like hurrying along a stray kid ... hehehe ... so hope it works

This morning, I woke up with a drippy nose and it is sooooo annoying because I didn't have anything for it ... and the same was at the airport ... but hey enough about illnesses for one post!

What's new?

Why - Cebu of course. Inspite of having many Filipino good friends since 2000, I have never been here for work or holidays and I am finally heeeeeeeeeere! So excited. The only sad part is that all my Filipino friends are working abroad at this time ... but hey instead of meeting my Filipino friends, I met an old Singaporean friend ... we used to work together in the Maldives

Mr C ... and now I am staying in the Movenpick residences ... hehehhe ... it's an old tower but the view is awesome ... we can see all the way across the two sides of the island ... saw the airport landing and what not ...

And the sea breeze is just so intoxicating ... now if only I was in perfect health ... this would have been perfect ... anyway I am taking it easy ... catching up, chilling, chatting ... we walked out to a local diner with local food (awesome taste) ... and had a good time sitting at the beach chairs until sunset drinking San Miguel Light! Hehehe!

Let's see ... do you want us to mention cuties? Well, at KLIA 2, they were flooded with cuties in uniforms at all three parts of security ... young, slim, nice ass! And as for the Phils side ... the only one that made me stare was the security on duty at the jetty ... I am sure there are more to come ... but it's almost 11:00pm and for once I am trying to sleep early

So good night and sorry this is such a rush especially when I really have so much to share

Re-inventing myself

I am torn ... it has been nearly a year since my last post ... and it's not that I am not keeping up with this blog but rather ... I was indecisive on whether I should be more open or more conspicuous about what I post ... you see, my dilemma is that I want this to be like my real-life diary ... except that to avoid problems later on with friends and family (if I were to type really openly) ... I would use either initials or nicks of people I am describing ... naturally if you know me at each period I am typing you would know who I am talking about ... hahaha ... so the question then becomes do I sanitized my post?

I know if someone were to really try, they can find out who we are i.e. not really anonymous

So where do I go from here? That's why I started a new blog a few months back ... but now, I kept on thinking ... and I left the new blog hanging as well ... and thought some more ... and for now, I  think I will go back to this ...

So let's do this in short bursts, first, okay?

Today is Saturday and I am in Jakarta, Indonesia ... staying at A.M ... nothing significant happened today because I basically hung around my apartment ... I did finally do some housework like laundry, cleaned the balcony and a bit of vacuuming ... but mainly because .. of anticipation ... giving back this apartment to B ... as he wants me to move to another apartment ...

Aside from that, I managed to persuade myself to do miniscule exercise. I know, I know. Lame, right? I simply cannot control my food intake and exercise ... but I HAVE TO BE SERIOUS THIS TIME

I do want, for once in my life, to be fit! Hahahahahahaha! It's true, I was not fat as a kid but was sickly and for some reason, my belly was always a bit flabby even when I was thin ... o and let's not forget my wide hip translates into a big butt ... ugh ... I know, some like a shapely tush ... not me!

What did I eat today then? I went down to lobby's FH for my usual of fried rice with tea ... then around tea time, felt a bit peckish and had a cup noodles ... for dinner it was McD's 2 pieces of fried chicken, fries and coca-cola ...

I did a fair bit of work today though ... like Paku's 2015 budget, write up for Yangon potential, follow up on some accounts etc ... and a nice discussion with JCool ...

And finally, I am back to my art ... the last time I did something decent was 2012 ... the past 2 years I tried but honestly nothing I liked ... so the past few weeks and months I have been having new ideas but I kept them all stewing in my brain ... until I worked out the mechanics mentally ... tonight wasn't great but it wasn't bad either

And now? Well watching tv and typing this - hah! Alright back to TV ... cheers all!