Dress for Sucess

 

One of my favorite outfits are dresses. 

They are comfy.   I like loose, above the knee length ones with abstract designs.

I just match them with a pair of ballet flats, dangling earrings and I'm good to go!

Rebooking

Last August, there was a promo with a budget airline so I booked our Christmas trip, early.  It turns out we won't be able to travel on our chosen date due to a rescheduling of school activities.

I had no choice but to rebook our tickets.  I got quite a shock at how much I had to pay to rebook our fares.  The difference in ticket fares + rebooking fee (per pax) + taxes amounted to a whooping 8,325.70 pesos!!!

I was quite crossed with D because I kept asking him to confirm the exact dates. But I guess it isn't his fault if they (the admin) decided to reschedule the activity. So much for affordable fares using promo rates. I have no choice really it is beyond my control.  

I just need to find a way to ease down our budget to pay for this extra expense.  But I am doing this under protest and I am still totally pissed with D, with myself, with the airlines, with  everyone in general.   Ugh!

Tis the season

Judging from the twinkling lights on the houses along this street, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Although there are still 42 days to go, we in this part of the globe like to start the festive season early.  In fact, the news programs always end with their countdown to December 25.

I've always found these countdowns to have the opposite effect for me. It is like they can't wait for it to be December 25 already. It puts a lot of pressure and stress on what is otherwise supposed to be a happy occasion. People rushing to beat the clock, so to speak.

But that's just my inner Scrooge speaking, I know I should be more upbeat about this merry and joyous season. 

I will try! :D

Cold War

A couple of nights ago, D was reviewing his European history lesson plan and asked me if we had traveled to the Baltic States.

My answer was 'Nope' because when we were still living in Brussels, that part of the world was still known as the USSR and was thriving under the Communist regime.

Later on (1995 - 2001), it never occurred to me to visit the beautiful countries of Eastern Europe.  Maybe because I deemed it wasn't safe to visit as there were still several restrictions in place. The newly independent countries still had to sort out their economy to make them attractive to tourism.

Now the only way I can 'visit' these countries is when they get featured in shows like The Amazing Race. Last night, they were in Moscow and shots of the Red Square were magnificent!  

Or I read personal blogs of people who have traveled to places like Prague, Latvia and of course Russia itself.  A few months ago, I also drooled over pictures of a friend from high school who went to Budapest, the capital of Hungary. 

Sights and scenery of distant places which now enjoy independence. It's a pity they took their sweet time to tear down their "Berlin Wall" or else I would have hopped on a train with my Eurail pass and soak in their ambiance. 

Reminiscing

Last week, I met my parents for our monthly First Friday mass ritual.  After lunch, we were having coffee when an former colleague of my father approached us.  Apparently, it has been 2 years after his retirement so he was still in the loop of the developments in the home office.

So over a cup of coffee, they started reminiscing about the good old days. The usual senior forums as topics ranged from retirement, health woes, investments and being grandparents.

It was quite a lively and interesting afternoon as I got updates on the children of the co-workers of my father during his stint overseas. There are now plans to set a reunion during the Holidays for a get together of former employees now all enjoying retirement.

Today I learned

Pandora is the first woman in Greek Mythology.

Octothorpe is the pound or the number sign.

These I got from watching the game show "Million Dollar Drop".

It is quite interesting and is mostly based on trivia questions.

You are asked a total of 8 Questions from different categories.

You are asked to place a million on the correct answer.

Then the wrong answers are dropped one by one.

You win the total amount left at the end of the 8 questions.

I mostly get the answers if they dealt with geography, music & movies.

But draw a complete blank when it comes to things related to the Philippines.

Subjects like local folklore, OPM (Original Philipino Music) and local geography.

This is where D can share his knowledge.

If we had 'played' on tonight's show, we will go home empty handed.

Because I had no idea the pound sign is known as Octothorpe.

Boo hoo.  :D

My attempt to rhyme

Saturday Poetry

 Amihan is her name
Blowing chilly wind
Into my window pane

Early mornings I awake
Reaching for my blanket
Which I do take

To protect myself 

From her cool breeze 

In order not to freeze

Her cold embrace

remind me of

Yonder days of grace

A period of

Innocent wonders

Which now makes

Me ponder

A life that quickly passed
Leaving me
Mostly aghast

Time has flown by

Oh so fast

I'm amazed

I still last

Yet I'm grateful

I still feel such splendor

So remain humbly thankful

Disruption of Service

This morning, I woke up and there was no electricity. 

I called Meralco and was informed our barangay will be without power from 8:30 AM to 4 PM as they were installing anti lightning devices to their electric posts.

Nice!  NOT!

So I spent my time reading in the natural light while fanning myself, now my arms hurt from holding a hard bound book in one hand and the 'pamaypay' in the other hand.

When it was lunch time, I realized I've forgotten how to cook rice without the rice cooker so I just opened canned clam chowder soup and had it with 2 slices of loaf bread which I 'toasted' in a frying pan. 

After lunch, I decided to defrost the ref as it started to melt without the power on.  Good idea since there was still some cool air emanating from the refrigerator.

I took another shower at around 3pm and decided to gulp down the remaining contents of the Coffee Crumble ice cream which was starting to melt.

So I'm glad I survived 8 hours of no power by being productive.  Doing things which I would otherwise neglect as I would be sitting in front of my computer.  Plus I got to eat ice cream so that's an extra bonus.

But please no more power interruption!!!