Tonton and Doug's wedding.

I was at Toni and Doug's wedding last Saturday. Toni's a high school classmate and friend...

and we live in the same town. Doug's her boyfriend of 8 years...

and after that time, they finally decided to tie the knot.

With almost 15 pairs of principal sponsors looking on while they filled up the marriage 

paperwork during the ceremony, I'd say they wouldn't be lacking for 

"marital advice and guidance". :-p This is a lot, but then again, her family is pretty 

prominent in our place, with her dad being a judge and all. :-) 

She picked a red motif for her entourage. It is a striking color in photographs, 

my auntie used to say a lot.

The "Countdown" kiss (10 seconds...piece of cake. :-p)

The reception was at the Bravo Golf Club, an outdoor party which
was initially mucked up by rain...which stopped in 10 minutes.

The train is really pretty. lol. It's a shame trains had to be dragged
on the ground like that. What are trains for anyway, right? :-)

Toni and Doug cutting the rose-laden, tiered cake (with crystals),
a "wedding tradition", according to the host.

Funnily enough (coincidentally? :-)), I was seated at this table with my friends.
In Greek mythology, while being sent on a job to shoot Psyche (to make her fall in
love with the first simpleton she sees, ouch) Eros/Cupid scratched
himself with one of his arrows...and the rest is history. :-p)
(He should've been more careful, arrow-scratch is
 avoidable...it just depends on how you deal with things. :-).)

The newlyweds perform a dance number with some of the entourage
 (I think the girls started this tradition at Daryl's wedding.)

This was their "modified" bouquet toss game for the single ladies. It involved a bit of athleticism,
as the mechanics of the game was that to be considered "Out"of the running
for the bouquet/next-in-line concept, the girls had to scramble for who gets to sit on the guy's lap first.
Well, the girls are supposed to go around the guy in a circle, and
when the music stops, try to beat the others into
sitting on the guy's lap first.
The last one who doesn't get to sit becomes the equivalent
of the "bouquet catcher", who has to sit while the dude in the
chair puts the garter up her leg.

I sat on the guy's lap after 4 tries. Piece of cake. So no, no bouquet for me that night. :-p

Needless to say, he was pummeled by all the other women who wanted to sit on his lap.

haha

I was into the flower thing that night.

These paper lanterns (but they had another name for it) were
distributed among the guests, and I got to have one to send up.
You were supposed to make a wish when you send these up,
for good luck for the married couple (and of course, for yourself too).
You were supposed to light the bottom where there's a coil of
long-burning paper underneath, which provided the hot air
that propelled these balloons upward...
They had assistants around who helped, I think this dude
was one of them, and everyone got to release their balloons
without a hitch, although, i personally thing that it would have
been nicer if it had all been done at the same time.

These are the lanterns...the whole lot of them aloft makes for a pretty sight. :-)

Myself with some of my classmates from highschool.... one of them
being Randy Tolin, who I haven't seen since college!
His girlfriend was Tonton's Maid of Honor...
talk about it being a small world.

Ooh, and one last pic. This was from the WACKY POSE  photobooth
that Tonton and Doug rented for the night. Always a fun thing. :-)

Good night.

~ S. :-)

Supernatural

I'm a Sam Winchester kind of girl. For season 3, anyway. :-)

Piece of Me: May

This is a monthly game started by Toothfairy. It's usually a game to tell about yourself, which is usually done at the start of the month...but I kept putting it off. It's a cross-sectional view of sorts, of life, so without further ado,

I like:  All things D (i.e. D., my fuzzy rat,who i sleep with at night. Dorian Gray, Doritos, Denouements, Difficult words, Dill pickles,  etc. :-p).

I don't like:  getting sick. embarrassing myself. :-p

I want you to know:  that there will be a little less melodrama this month. :-)

I've planned:  to get a Blackberry.

I want to say to someone special:  Hi... :-)

...So short, so not me.

The Healer Guy

"There is a man outside who has a little book that tells fortunes..." one of the nurses told me. I looked up from my reading, my curiosity piqued. I grinned, and asked "Really now, where is he?"

"He's outside, Doc, even JR (one of the male aides) is thee, reading from his little book too."

My curiosity got the better of me and I went outside to the ER entrance where I saw that quite a number of people had gathered. Not enough to crowd, but just enough to for me to realize that a health discussion was ongoing. In this sleepy town's hospital on a slow night, conversations were struck quite easily.

As it turned out, the father of a teenage patient was a Mananambal (which means "traditional/native" healer in my dialect.). He had brought along his "Karaang Napta" , his baggie of "healing" oils, one of which was the size of a bottle of liniment with rolled-up strips of crimson japanese paper and matchsticks. The rolled-up paper supposedly contained "powerful" Latin phrases/prayers, according to him (where the oil was from, or how it was prepared, I never got to ask or find out.)

So anyway, I saw him place some of this oil in a glass vial and hand it to one of the patients, who received it in his left hand (which ironically enough, had a saline lock (a.k.a. a "heplock") in it.). Before he did this, though, I  noticed that he had uncapped the vial and whispered something into it. I tried to take a picture with my phone's camera, but I didn't quite catch it because he got self-conscious.)

Whispers. May 15,2010.

The healer was a guy in his early forties, slight, small, and had a slightly effeminate air about him. I remember his son because earlier that night, i had to reassure him that when we inserted the IV into the young man, we took the needle out, and what was left was a plastic catheter through which the fluids passed through. He had been scared and had earlier thought his hand was swollen because it wouldn't move, he was actually scared of "moving" the needle. He wanted to have his IV line discontinued because of that, thank you very much.

I smiled at the thought, sometimes it is just hard to convince people to believe in certain things when they have had their own perceptions in mind (which, in these parts, is usually "old wives' tales" and folklore.).

Alternative medicine, from my point of view is alright, as long as the other advocate can tell me why and answer "how so?", and not insist that it is way better than western medicine...and would totally forego with the medicines prescribed to him by his doctor (who, in this case, is myself. :-)) Western Medicine is not perfect, that granted, yet studies have been done about it, and before it gets into the mainstream, innumerable hours of research have been spent testing it beforehand. In my opinion, that is more sound than just relying on testimonials of famous people when judging how effective something is. The print on the label, which goes, " No approved therapeutic claims" is a turn-off, really. Anyway, that's my two cents' worth, on with story...

At that little "gathering", I was merely a listener, an observer, eager to listen to what the manghihilot had to say. I had no intentions of lambasting, or being combative or any of that sort. I was simply interested.

I was sitting across him, watching how he would occasionally look into his baggie and check (or was it "consult"?) his bottles of oil. Someone started saying that he told fortunes as well, by reading palms. The guy said that he could both read palms, and interpret fortunes...and what he gleaned from a person's palm patterns would most surely correspond to what his "karaang napta" would say about the person's character.

"Read Doctora's palm", suggested one of the persons present there.

I hesitated a bit because I didn't want what he had to say to be suggestive and be a subtle subconscious "guide" later on how I decided things. I am not a believer that a person's destiny is in his palms alone, but in psychology, as we all know, the power of suggestion is indeed a force to reckon with. 

Well, what the heck, it was just in fun anyway.

Getting my palm read. May 15, 2010

He took my hand, and looked at the lines carefully. He pored over the lines and the cracks and gave a deep "Hmm...." I smiled, and asked, "Why, what do you see?" In the dialect, he said that I was going to have trouble with my first baby...but I'm eventually going to have three to four babies in the future anyway. I might need to get extra special care when I'm pregnant with my first baby, and to avoid any further complications of this, I would need to have a line manually drawn into my hand. And by manually, I took it that he meant that someone had to manually scratch a new line into my palm using a sharp object, like, I don't know, a KNIFE maybe? :-p

Hell no.  (He took out his bottle of oil with the paper strips at this point.)

He also said that I was a hardworking person, and that given the chance (and resources), I could accomplish a lot, and possibly whatever it is I set my mind to.

Feeling that it was a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere, I smilingly asked him to tell me "juicy" stuff. I jokingly asked, "Hey, don't forget to tell me about my love life, sir...what do my lines have to say about that?" (The young nurses laughed, they knew I was single.)

He then flips my hand over and looks around, then finally pauses to feel the creases and folds of my right thumb.

"Men are attracted to you, they find you approachable, and you make friends easily...Sometimes they even claim that you were their girlfriend, even if that wasn't the case.." he said.(At this I laughed a little, and wondered where it could have all been coming from.)

"You go for personality rather than looks..." he said. To this, I just smiled. This was a general idea, i presumed. Women were supposed to just be interested in personality, but I've always been interested in guys who had both. *grin*

I was wishing he'd tell me more about what he'd seen in my hands lines, but i didn't get anything more out of him, except for the little tidbit about how, when I loved, I loved truly and deeply...and that I had a good future ahead in the romance department. 

*smiles*

And that he liked the "configuration" on my thumb.

---------------

While he was reading one of the nurses' hands, I perused his "Karaang Napta", a ratty booklet roughly about the size of a short bond paper folded in half. It was worn from being folded and stuck (and taken out repeatedly) in the back pocket of somene's denim jeans.

It was a lot like astrology, and had a horoscope/personality quiz-type format, where, initially, you locate which astrological sign you represented by looking at which your birthdate corresponded with. I did a double-take when i found out that I was an "Aquarius." :-p

The stuff listed about my "identity as an Aquarian Child" was pretty general. However, what tickled me pink was the fact that it even had an entry about pasmo (Tagalog: Pasma). The general idea was that if you didn't eat at the right time, or, if you took a shower right away after doing heavy work (or after not getting enough sleep), you're likely to end up with aches and pains, and tremors.

Mine said, "Be mindful of getting enough rest, and washing yourself at appropriate times." I don't believe in pasmo, generally, and my mother has always been on my case about this. She admonishes this to me from time to time. I just laugh it off mostly, and say that I'll worry about it later. She says that I'll laugh all I want now that I'm young and healthy, but then I'll only feel the effects when I'm old.

(Ouch, Ma.)

-----------

After a while, I excused myself to go on evening rounds and had to smile as I mused on how the people here were quite ambivalent at medical care. Yes, they do come to the hospital to consult and get admitted, but before coming, they DO still turn to their "friendly neighborhood traditional healer" for initial care. And even when they are admitted, some mananambal or other always comes in for a visit.

It's hard to undo, of course, so I have come to the compromise that I do my thing, but explain to them that since they are in the hospital, they have to follow what we say here. Patient education is key, of course, but with years and years of the subculture of the Mananambal well-ingrained into their daily lives, I seriously am going to have to work with it. It is important to be open to alternative forms, and besides, there are things in life that Modern Medicine just can't explain.

Bottomline is, I say, take in everything with a pinch of salt. :-)

-----

have a nice day.

. ~ S

P.S. Later that night, on late rounds, I saw the same mananambal guy giving one of the patients a massage, the room smelled of coconut oil. I guess some things will never change...  

"You're next..."

The Bridal Bouquet, which plopped into my hands (which I thought, came with prize money.lol) May 18, 2010. Photo by Me.

The tale of the garter. May 18, 2010. (Photo by: Sol Redula)

And so the saying goes, "The one who gets the bouquet is next to get married."

Kuya Reil, the groom, joked after the garter thing..."You're next."

And i just grinned and went, "Right. But it's going to be a loooong wait."

:-p

-----------------

I don't know if people take bouquet games seriously anymore. I usually am in these "single games" for the fun and sport of it. Whenever I'm at wedding parties, i never hesitate in joining when they call in "the single ladies". It's all in fun anyway. This was the first time I got the bouquet, though, and it was a pretty bunch of white roses. I'm a sucka-foo for roses, so it was a nice surprise.


I honestly thought that Connie (the bride, who was my college friend) was giving away ten thousand pesos for the one who caught the bouquet, so when it plopped into my hands i gave a little, "Yess!!! It's in the bag!" Turns out, it was a fluke. lol. no prize money. darn it.


The host was like "We have a beautiful bride-to-be here..." (etc etc, as hosts are wont to do :-p), as I went up there to take my place beside Connie (who we called Baby Con before). As games go, I was supposed to stick out my leg and have my "single male counterpart" put the bride's garter up my leg. Funnily enough, it wasn't being in the spotlight that made me nervous (i love being in the spotlight.haha), it was actually how...I was supposed to sit. I didn't know how.


When the dude got the garter up to my knee, he was like, "Is this ok?" I just laughed and went, "It's cool, dude, don't worry about it." and gave him a thumbs up (as you can see in this picture.) 


Anyway... it was a super fun wedding, and I got to see my old college friends, which was really nice. I rarely see them...maybe once in 7 years? 4 maybe? that rare. So it was good. And what was nice about it was that it was a wedding with just close friends and family, very intimate and cozy. :-)


---------------- 


What did I do with the flowers, you ask? well, after i took my pictures, ma stuck them in some water...to put on the altar. Like she did with some of my other flowers. They were pretty, after all. :-)

"Talk to me like I'm someone you love..."

May 16, 2010 3:00AM

I was particularly irked with a drunk this morning.

He came in around half past 2Am, brought by armed police officers, who wanted me to document and treat his injuries after he was involved in a drunken brawl at the station’s detention center. It wasn’t anything serious, just a laceration on the upper eyelid and then a few bruises here and there. The eyelid wound was bleeding somewhat profusely so i stitched it up.

Anyway, before that, i introduced myself and said i was Dr. So-and-So, and asked, how may I be of help, and etc. They looked at me, and said, “Miss, we don’t want any trouble, it really is nothing serious.” (I get a bit slighted sometimes when they call me miss, and call the older-looking male aide “Doctor”. Really, it’s not that big of a deal, but it just is a bit sexist of some people here to think that only males are more likely to be doctors, than females.)

Regardless of that, a 3AM visit is not the nicest hour of the day to show up with a non-emergency. (People should keep themselves safe if they can help it.)

I asked the patient to do certain things, while examining him, and he would do some, but was always saying, “You don’t have to bother with me really, this is nothing serious.” I muttered under my breath, “I’ll be the judge of that.”

Early morning visits from drunks are never causes for celebration among interns, or doctors on-duty for that matter. There’s the “attitude” they have, and the drunken swagger, the incessant prattle (oftentimes nonsensical,haha*), not to mention the fetid alcohol breath that gets breathed upon you while you’re examining them, or stitching them up like I was doing now...

---- 

It’s easy to dismiss their foibles like that because you don’t know these people and they are not in their right minds. Yet, sitting here in the quarters, writing this one, i have come to realize that by not “feeling” and “being stoic” towards these drunks, I had already chosen to be a callous individual. As far as patients are concerned, everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, whether they are intoxicated or not.

There was this book cover that I saw while I was at a bookstore one time, “Talk to me like I’m someone you love...” , which I took a picture of and saved, because it sounded like a personal mantra  and was applicable for anyone in any profession (actually, it was in the self-help section, and the book was about resolving relationship conflicts...not that I had any business of being there) .

In medical school, some of our professors would tell us that we should treat every patient as if they were a member of our family... because it would definitely change your perspective (and management) if you looked at them that way.  You couldn’t afford to dismiss a drunk casually if he were you father, cousin, or boyfriend, right?

You pay a little more attention to detail, when you think about things in that perspective. More attention = better care.

Ugh.

Now I feel like such a total spazz. Although this is the last leg of my 48 hour-duty stretch, and I was enjoying the few hours of patient-less sleep in the quarters when the drunk came in, it was still no excuse to act or think like I did.

*sigh*

Maybe it’d help if I thought of every drunk that came in as ____.

:-S

No, wait, scratch that. Ok, I can’t. _____ is just simply someone I wouldn’t want to associate with fetid alcohol breath, crazy talk, and a swollen face.  He’s just too...*sigh* dreamy.

;-)

--------------- 

Ok, good morning.

It’s time for rounds. :-)

*This particular patient whose eyelid I was suturing said, “Careful, don’t hit my contact lenses... (Me: Are you currently wearing contact lenses?”) No, I’m not wearing them, but I might turn gay any minute now....”

The art of letting go

 

- of Gibo Teodoro and the presidency

- of disappointments

- of rejection

- of the memory DOA patient this afternoon

- of the red fountain pen I saw at the store

- of fear.

- of bitterness.

- of the purple dress

- of the stainless steel watch that I misplaced [forever] after taking it off to scrub for a delivery (although I haven't entirely decided on this yet.)

- of the annoyance of Joseph Estrada being consistently 2nd place in the Presidential race

- of complacency and inactivity.

- of insecurities

- of flighty endeavors and impulsivity

- of certain good memories.

and, most painfully, 

- of the carefully-edited blog entry I had written in tumblr.com, which I lost [forever] after pressing a key accidentally. (Serves me right.)

:-(

(gotcha.)

My Halalan 2010 (The Philippine National Elections)

Today is National Elections in the Philippines. Across the country, every Filipino citizen who can vote is getting their first taste of the automated elections. For the first time ever, since 1986 when it was first attempted, the election process is finally going through with the vote counting in a speedier way.

I didn't go up the hill (where my precinct was) until about noontime, though, because my mother had told me that  there were still loads of people waiting in line. I thought the line and crowds would have thinned out by then. I was wrong. People were pretty much still clamoring to cast their vote.

The elementary school, which was the polling place for our area is situated on top of the hill. It's a pretty small school, and I know that some of my friends from the community who live nearby have gone there. It is pretty historical...back in the time of the Japanese occupation, many Filipino soldiers died defending the town from the invading Japanese. Every year, on October 11th, a ceremony is always held on the hilltop, and a speech is always given near the marker that commemorates these brave soldiers. My grandfather's brother Santiago was one of them...

     I checked the lists for my name (I was in the same precinct as my Uncle Dick), and found that I was assigned to this building. Now, it being midday, I wasn't particularly pleased when this sight greeted me. 

     When I got there, I was told that the Comelec people were taking a brief lunch break and had closed the doors for a while...which was probably not a good idea. :-s The voters there were not irate, but they refused to budge and wouldn't form a line in the shade 'cause they were probably afraid of losing their place in line.

     I admit, I thought it was silly, but then overall, it was pretty encouraging that many people showed up to cast their votes. Apathy was certainly not the case here. :-) Even Senior Citizens went the extra mile (and up the 70 steps to get to the school) and even asked for special permission to have assistants to help them fill out the ballot cards.

     Like I said, not many people wanted to get out of the noonday sun and get in the shade for fear of losing their place. We tried. They wouldn't budge. I had to join in the fray eventually. haha.

     Somebody told us that earlier in the day, they had given out priority numbers for voters, but these ran out, so everyone had to fall in line. It was pretty inconvenient, and many people, including myself did not relish that, but hey, we wanted to vote, and the Comelec seemed to have a lot more on their minds than keeping order and structure in that precinct.

These are some of the folks who decided to have some R&R in the shade, while waiting for the Volunteer with the megaphone to start calling their numbers out. :-)

:-p Now this is one guy who is clearly taking it easy, and enjoying the view. :-)

     The "egg-shading" instructions were stuck to the front door of the precinct, and although it looked simple enough, it was quite hard to do on paper. They gave us large felt-tip pens to use in filling up the "eggs" to tick off our choices. At the back of your mind, you really want to stay as long as you possibly could, 'cause you wouldn't want to over-shade. Over-shading meant having your ballot cancelled.

Thus, no vote, no choice, no voice.

Which is probably why this lady took like, maybe 30 minutes with hers.... :-)

Anyway, backtrack a bit...before the voting pushed through, I found myself at the door...when the organizers decided to hand out priority numbers... I was so close. and then they finally decided to institute order. Which had me swearing my usual Hiligaynon word at least three times before I finally got over it.

 

It pretty much sucked to have my foot in the door and be handed out a number 12 slip, no kidding. However,   it was ok, because everything started to loosen up and people were no longer crowding. (When you're number 12, you realize that you're pretty lucky you're not voter number 250, if you know what I mean.)

My precinct was number 65. :-)

I was entertained by these wall "curtains" cut out from colorful magazine pages... <-- anyway, it's a minor detail.

The COMELEC lady was a friend of my aunt, and that's her guiding the voters along, checking the ballot cards, etc. That big black box beside her contained the ballot cards of the 600+ voters of the precinct.

Voting instructions in Filipino. :-)

Senior citizens who couldn't see very well, or felt that they could get pretty shaky had their daughters (or other family members) do their shading for them.

And this is a shot of me, being a part of Philippine history. :-) (The woman at the door was a friend of a friend, and since she was older, I called her Auntie ('cause that's what we call everyone who's older, even if we aren't related.: p ) Oh, and i agree with Secretary Teodoro (a presidential candidate) who was interviewed this morning...the "eggs" were simply too small....one false stroke, and you could overshade. (I was gripping the pen really hard in this one.)

After casting the vote, people affix their thumb marks on the master list, and get indelible ink on their index fingers (that's the ink in the little bottle in the background)...which takes days to wash off. 

That's the PCOS machine,  big, black and brand new. :-) 

(Oh, and by the way, the words "Bayan muna, bago sarili" is Filipino for "Country first, before self", which is pretty fitting, don't you think? )

After voting, people lounged around, talked and gave their two cents to anyone close by. Who will win? I don't know, your guess is as good as mine.

For now, it was time to head down the stairs and head on home to watch the live updates on TV... May the best man win. 

And to end this entry, i'd like to share a prayer my cousin Chris put up on his FB status update. Christo (what we call him at home) is half-Australian, half-Filipino, but hey, he's as Filipino as they come. :-)

" Chris King God, please watch over the Filipino people today as they elect their next President. Let them be discerning. Give them the courage and wisdom to choose the best person for the job. Someone with intelligence and integrity. Someone that will put the interests of his country and countrymen ahead of his own personal interests. Someone with a profound love of his country. Someone that will be the kind of leader the Philippines has needed for so long. God Bless the Philippines. "

Almost Lover

Maybe someday, your magic won't affect me...

Boracay is luv.

I like:  That I finally got to go to Boracay last week. :-) It was a vacation that was planned out, but ended up differently and with a whole lot more surprises. You are forewarned...there are lots and lots of pictures in this post, and it's not even done. :-)  Still with me?

Boracay pier. April 23rd, 2010

I <3 Boracay. cross my heart. for everything that it was, and it stood for. :-)

Bora wharf. April 23, 2010.

The moon was up...inspite of the fact that it was around 3pm. It was a pretty sight, though. 

Discovery Shores, April 23, 2010.

Thanks to my cousin Gerard (and his lovely family, as well as extended family), I got to be part of a wedding in Discovery Shores, a really nice resort in Bora. I actually didn't know anyone there, and later that night, when they did the money dance, I danced with the groom, and I was like, "Dude, you don't know me, but you have a really nice wedding and all...thanks for letting me be here.". The guy was cool, he just laughed, and said, "that's fine, that's fine...". :-)

The Bride, Mum and Sister. April 23, 2010.

The bride's name was Joanne, and she was the friend of my cousin Gerard's sister-in-law. I loved her wedding. :-) (Marry me on the beach, somebody!)

(* somebody = The One. haha)

With the Basas and the Opulencias. Discover Shores, Boracay. April 23, 2010.

I belonged. and was very lucky. :-p

The beautiful, beautiful powdery Bora Sand.

A friend of mine told me while I was in Bora, "Above all else, you should enjoy the sand and the water..." I did. The sand in between my toes was a joy. :-)

My first Boracay Sunset. April 23, 2010.

I took this using my SX 100, ever trusty, ever present. I love sunsets. and Sunrises too, but in Bora, the sunrise is on the other side of the island...and I couldn't get up early enough for that. LOL.

Firedancer. Boracay, April 23,2010.

During the wedding program, the host introduced these amazing firedancers. There were two of them, but even then, watching just one dancer (with the strong drumbeats) was awe-inspiring. I've always been enthralled by firedancers...it must be the excitement of it all. :-) For most of the night, I was probably going around with a big stupid grin on my face. :-)

Across Borders. 

Sharra, Gerard's sister-in-law, and totally cool girl told me that the dude was Indian, and the girl was Pakistani... and I was like, so?, totally agreeing with her. Love knows no bounds, especially at weddings. They were really nice too. :-)

[Little] Dancing King. 

Oh, I absolutely adored my little nephew Rhys (Rhysie to everyone)! He was such a cute little dancing dynamo and didn't stop until the party folded up. :-p

walking on the sand is a favorite pastime. :-p Thats Ged, Kai and Sharra.

Sharra and I ended up walking into the ETC party at Hey Jude!, and we partied with these people, had the camera on us, etc. I ran into Aljune and friends from Med school, there too. :-) Also, OSang S., right outside. 

Early Morning Walk. April 24, 2010.

I love walking...and I love early morning. So, since nobody wanted to go out and walk with me (we got in around 2AM the night before), not even Sharra or Noel, I ended up going around by myself. :-) I wasn't the only one...at 6AM, a lot of people are already up and about, either swimming, or enjoying the sights. 

Running seems to be a favorite pastime...even in Boracay. Barefoot, fully-geared, runs and running are the norm. :-)

Paraws are a dime a dozen here, but they make for interesting wave-riding. They're great for sunset trips out to sea...with a "significant other", as the boatman advertised. Ahemm.... but of course, sir. :-p

Sandcastle builders. April 24, 2010.

Every few meters, it seems, there's a sandcastle, with the name 'Boracay" and the date on it. It's an interesting revenue, and the locals build and rebuild everyday. They put out a can or a similar receptacle and invite people to have their pictures taken with these works of art, for a fee. Which many people (myself included), gladly do pay. :-p Suckers for a cause? I think not. :-)

Bathing beauties. April 24, 2010.

Nobody cares how you dress, really. As long as you're having fun, it's all good to go. :-) I walked around in shorts and a bikini top, 'cause it felt too funny to be all "covered" up. No bikini bod, but hey, who careS? :-)

Mandarin Spa. 

No, we didn't stay here, of course. We stayed at a cheaper place, my six groupmates and I. Was fun all the same. It was just a bit of a walk from the house to the beach. :-p

People-watching. April 24, 2010.

Really, you could just be sitting in the sand, and you'd still have a good time. lol. That's us, people-watching.

Braiding session. April 24, 2010.

Getting braids done is one Bora thing you see around. Every few meters, you'd have someone asking you if you wanted to get your hair done. (i caved and got mine done.) :-)

Still braiding. :-)

Dragon-boating people. April 24, 2010.

Apart from the Nestea-sponsored events, there was an international Dragon-boat race that weekend we were there. 

...with their colorful banners and sponsors, and totally sporty outlooks. Loved the free spirit. :-)

I'd never think to pair up my fresh lumpia with a Rahmschnitzel..with a spatzle. would you? :-p And with ice cream to boot! :-)

Somebody's skim board. :-) Funnily enough, I've never seen anyone do a skim board trick on the beach.

The mall of Malls. :-p 

which necessitates frequent visits to these ATM's... LOL

Henna tattoo artists abound... but i didn't get any done. I wanted those bright, glittery glitter tats.  Didn't find one.

Kai had hers done the day before I came. They were really into that. lol...

I bumped into Karol Mark (one of my classmates) there, including his twin brother Raymond. Small world. Although that isn't unlikely to meet them. They're regulars, pretty much. as well as volleyball fanatics. :-)

Out to snorkel. Or, as Dunvar would call it, "We're going to snork." haha (JK!)

How to grin like an idiot. 'cause you're really happy. Part I. - Me.

We should've brought bread along...it makes the fishies come in droves, er, schools. :-)

Earlier in the afternoon, we scored some free Nivea spray sunscreen, which Dunvar used (religiously) every two hours, as the bottle instructed. lol. Endorser, much?

Paraws. Paint my beach colorful, baby. :-D

Nestea Fit Camp events all over Bora were the highlights of the weekend.

My second Bora sunset. And one of my favorite Sandcastles.

Walking around that afternoon, i got called by someone I knew from Med School. It turns out, she was taking a break and was chilling out at the bamboo bar near the beach. 

Ooh, and she (Teeks), had the niftiest camera....a  Panasonic Lumix GF1. :-p

Took this photo of a classy store in one of the swankier sections of Bora. Pretty nice stuff... there really are a lot of things to see and do in Bora, at all times of the day. I was just walking around all by myself (the others were getting ready to go out), texting, and eating ice cream. Ahh, bliss!

Bora beach stuff to-do list. (I didn't get to do all.)

This was the one I really wanted to do, but didn't get to, 'cause it was overbooked and no one wanted to do it with me. Anyway, as I was telling a friend...Parasailing is like sex, you want to do it with the right person, and if you did it alone, then it wouldn't be as exciting.

Hypothetically-speaking. haha

My Bora Mates, who always were super fun. :-) (Thanks guys!)

Shakes at Jonah's, upon C.'s Suggestion. :-)

..And yes, D., i DID "toss". even though these drinks were rated GP lang. :-)

At the Nestea fit party. :-) One of the guys on stage saw me dancing with my friends, and motioned for me to approach the stage. and before I knew it, i was up onstage dancing. lol.

I can't say which I liked better, dancing OR being onstage. lol. either way, it was super fun. and no drinks...just a Tropical fruit shake. haha.

Seriously, at parties like these, it's more fun up on stage. :-p so there. (This was my view.)

Bed Time. almost 3AM. :-) We turned in after listening to a guy perform "Stitches and Burns" near where we lived. It was very nice.

Good night everyone.

(For real.)

:-)

love,


S.