Denise chowing down on Eng Bee Tin Hopia Baboy (Super thanks Rica!)

Joaqs: O, hindi ka na ba diet?
Denise: Diet! Pero... New Year e. So hinde.
Joaqs: A, ok...

After five minutes--

Denise: O, boss, gusto mo hopia?
Boyet: Saan mo nakuha? Uy Hopia Baboy, masarap 'to!
Denise: O kainin mo na lahat. Tinatawag na niya pangalan ko e.
Boyet: E bakit ko kakainin kung tinatawag niya na pangalan mo?
Denise: E... diet ako e!

Labo ko noh, diet ka ba talaga ornat?! Denise, lasing ka?

This is a post about a girl... Ok, hang on erase that one.

This is a post about a woman... Ok, that still doesn't feel right.

This is a post about the thoughts of a person who was trying to send and retrieve email messages using her work email client while at home.  

WTF?! THe internet connection isn't working AGAIN! This is so irritating!
Why is the internet connection at home so unreliable these days? It's a good thing this service comes for free... but just the same-- WTF?!?!?!

Hang on a second, maybe it's this iPass software that's got a problem. Damnit, I hate this computer for crashing on me. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have had to have it re-SEWPed and I would have had that software I used before. That Intel Proset utility was really good. No fuss. I hate iPass. Argh!

Wait a minute. What is this Home Internet connection anyway? I don't have a Home Internet connection. My home network is called by some other name. And. Hey, why isn't my VPN working? Is the connection working but just slow? This is getting SO irritating.

Oh, hey... *the light bulb over my head comes to life* I forgot to turn on my internet thingie.

On dinner time last Sunday, Jae promised Dani that he would watch her play music on her new laptop (thanks Ninang Darla!). Of course Jae, being Jae, forgot and I had to remind him about it. But enough about Jae because this post isn't about him.

Dani: Daddy! What do you want to do? 'Playing Music' or 'Learning Notes'? (NOTE: Dani's laptop had pre-programmed activities that she could choose from.)

Jae: How about 'Learning Notes'?

Dani: Ay, 'Playing Notes' nalang! Hindi ko kasi alam yung isa e.

Jae & Denise (simultaneously): Haha! Manang mana! (both point to one another)

Denise: I-bo-blog ko tooo!!!

So, the jury is out. If you've read Mornings with Jae. Let me know, kanino nga ba nagmana si Danielle Jae?

For those of you who haven't seen 'A Very Special Love', either skip reading this post or watch the movie then read this post.  

So Nemia came to visit us since Mommy sent another box of stuff she got from the US. After catching up on the goings-on at Zobel and having some of Darla's wedding cake, Nemia left to go visit with other members of her family. Standing by our main door, fresh from having seen that John Lloyd-Sarah flick that the girls have been going on about since our last videoke night, I was struck by inspiration.

YES! I did that Laida action/pose beside the two columns in that Bachelor photoshoot that moved indoors. It was perfect because Jae was walking back into the house after having seen Nemia and her daughter off at the gate. YEEEES! Eye-to-eye contact eto! I didn't even laugh while doing it. And you've got to give me credit. I didn't just flop down on the floor, I did it with the requisite slow motion and all the poise and grace I could find in me. YEEES!

Jae says he was scarred for life. He says that seeing me do that to him was SO bad ("Bakit ka ganyan? Hindi ka naman ganyan datiiiiiii?!"). That it was comparable to seeing a bowl full of shit. I don't care, I was LMAO while Jae was close to whimpering, probably wondering why and how he ended up with me.

It's crappy that I can't seem to find screencaps of that moment online. Does anyone have it so I can complete this post?! :-P

I'm obviously too lazy to expand this to 5-post entries, but here is a condensed log of my thoughts while in Moscow. I probably should have typed my thoughts on the fly...

1.       Panicking at 8AM – I packed my overcoat and checked it in. I only had my faux fur-lined jacket, two layers of clothes, jeans and my boots on. Unmesh said at a certain point that I’m headed to a disco. It must have been the boots. Anyway, we were scheduled to land in the morning so I figured I’d survive. But 8 AM in Moscow is like 8 PM in Manila. It’s dark. It’s gloomy. It looks f-ing cold. I panicked when the plane landed. Shucks! Do I have enough clothes?! Will my ears fall off?! I need my fingers, Lord, please let my fingers live.

2.       Chopsuey Mass – This actually starts with ‘Getting Lost in the Metro’ but I’ll just club it with this point. Camille and I got lost in the Metro. The deceivingly “simple” path we had to take turned into a horrendous adventure. Their Metro’s don’t have signs in English! Their train staff do not speak English. It was like playing charades… or maybe even Amazing Race. When we finally got on the right train and off the right station (note that we were first on the right train, but panicked and got off, then got lost), no one could tell us where the Catholic church was. We tried if they could tell us were Malaya Gruzinskaya was. But still na da. I was seriously regretting going to mass at that point. Eventually we found it and took the last pew in the Church since the Spanish service was still going on. We were hoping to catch the English service but the next mass turned out to be Armenian. Drat! Camille found the English service in the miniscule basement chapel. And it was the recessional! Ayus. Only in Moscow.

3.       The Challenge of Getting Around – Cabs are typically un-marked in Russia, so when you need one, you either ask a local to phone one for you and wait for an hour to get there, or you stand by the curb and wave your hand at cars that pass by hoping and praying that one of ‘em is a cab. I read somewhere that you have to negotiate your cab fare before getting in because their cabs don’t have meters, but due to the appalling lack of English-speaking drivers, doing this is somewhat difficult. Even when you have locals call cabs for you, there’s no sure-fire way of predicting the price, because, as Julia put it for Marco and myself—“If they wait for you, you pay more. If you get stuck in traffic, you pay more.” How much is more? Good luck on getting an answer on that one. Of course there’s the Metro.

4.       Walking to the Office – Thinking that I needed to look older, I attempted to dress smartly for the first day in the office—meaning I wore closed shoes and panty hose. I also did this under the flawed assumption that I didn’t have to walk far, that the cab driver would take us from the hotel door to the office lobby. But boy was I wrong. We had to walk 2 blocks and through construction sites before getting to the office. I don’t mind a short walk, it’s good for your body. But when it’s about 4-5 degrees outside, windy AND raining. You’re carrying your weight plus your laptop bag plus your shoulder bag and you don’t know where you’re going and when the wandering ends. Ugh!

5.       ‘Short Walk’ is a 20 to 30-minute walk – Because Unmesh wanted to sample traditional Russian food, we got into another adventure finding a restaurant that could give us just that. But for Pinoys travelling to the Western world, be wary when the locals tell you that you’re going by train and then taking a short walk to get to where you’re going. Because as with the Church on Day 1, a short walk is never really just a short walk as we know it in Manila. A short walk is probably 5 times the distance of Landmark to SM in Glorrieta. THAT is their definition of SHORT walk. Dress appropriately.

The consolations:

1.       Being able to wear knee-high boots and leg warmers without having to look stupid or inappropriate.

2.       Layering as a necessity. I know it will probably be costly to do the laundry like this but at least I get the chance to layer as a necessity once in my life. Woo-hoo!

3.       Cold weather doesn’t mean you don’t sweat. You still do. At least that means I still burned some calories right?