I have been quite active on FaceBook during the past few days, uploading various photos from way back when and tagging people with whom I have previously lost touch.

Thanks to social networking sites and the like, I was able to reconnect with friends and acquaintances from as far back as elementary school!

I was tagged by the above-mentioned people in their own albums as well, much to my geeky delight. Hence, I would like to share these photos which I did not have in my own collection before, but am very pleased to have found online after all these years.

The Blue Quill Editorial Staff, with our adviser Miss Girlie Libutaque. This was our publication during high school and the photo was from my junior year days.

High School Senior Year Acquaintance Party, where I am posing with my perennial partner Ramon. We always end up together in photos, somehow. He hails from Ajuy, where I have tons of relatives – he’s the brother I never had!

During freshman year at University of the Philippines, Iloilo City campus. These are my blockmates, which includes a lot of close friends.

University junior year, when I won landslide as the College of Management’s representative to the University Student Council. During my term, our departmental sports teams Scions (Accountancy majors) and Tycoons (Marketing and Management majors) won first and second places, respectively, overall in the annual sports festival. Oh, yeah!

I really enjoyed cleaning up these photos and subsequently uploading them to share with my readers. It feels so good to revisit my school days – they feel like a lifetime ago.

Tomorrow is my birthday! Gosh, how quickly time flies. Tonight, I am celebrating with Peter by going out to the clubs for a high-protein dinner with drinks and music, of course. Perhaps we could also catch a movie, we shall see.

Back in February 2010, I went home on holiday to the Philippines. My vacation leave was officially from 11th February to 26th March – around 45 days of work-free, worry-free, food-loaded days, most of it to be spent in my home country.

I never did get the chance to blog a lot about the trip. I’m sure that most of it I could not chronicle quite clearly now, nearly six to seven months later. However, I found some pictures in my cellular phone and digital camera and wanted to share these.

On the Cebu Pacific flight from Manila to Iloilo. Taken 15 February 2010. No, I was stubborn and did not switch off my cellular phone when I boarded the plane. I did eventually, though, after snapping this pic.

At the La Paz home of my paternal grandparents, with my uncle and mom. Brought loads of food and a cake to celebrate my grandmother’s 82nd birthday! Taken 9 March 2010.

With Peter in Barangay Nino, Concepcion, Iloilo, during our visit to my maternal grandparents. Our background was our trusty 4WD white Fortuner transport. Taken 14 March 2010.

Our farewell dinner shortly before our flight back to Muscat. We had a light meal with Melody and Genefel at Max’s Restaurant in SM Makati. Taken 24 March 2010.

For sure, pictures of smiling people are loads better to see on a Filipino’s blog rather than an angry rant on the August 23rd hostage crisis in Manila. Perhaps later?

Hell’s bells!

I never realized this photo existed but, yes, it does. Gosh, I never expected to see this online, and in FaceBook of all places!

Anywho, my longtime friend, high school classmate and college schoolmate Ramon (now based in Dubai, OFWs r0x0rs!) recently uploaded this picture onto FB and tagged yours truly. Ramon is the one right in front wearing the very Miami Vice white jacket.

No need to point out where I am in the darned photo, naturalmente.

My dress was made from the softest blood-red velvet my seamstress could find in Iloilo City at that time. I designed this gown myself and it remains as one of the finest, well, finery I have ever worn.

I never really realized how much I miss my home country until I read this nostalgic entry from my friend Genefel‘s blog. I have been away from the Philippines for nearly two years now. Come the first of October 2009, it will be exactly two years to the day.

To be honest, I miss so many things from my hometown, the beautiful coastal Iloilo City, foremost of which are my family, friends, old colleagues, the accessible public transport system, and the delicious, affordable food.

I am dying for a piece of Jolibee Chicken Joy or a slice of Andok’s liempo. Or at least a proper KFC Original Recipe meal, with steaming-hot gravy and a cup of rice.

However, I miss my pet Japanese Spitz doggie, Pikachu (yes, shamelessly named after the perky, literally electrifying Pokemon), much, much more than all the aforementioned Pinoy culinary delights combined.

Pikachu up close

Pikachu from another angle

Pikachu giving me a wet kiss on the cheek!

The above photos were taken back in 2007, give or take few months before I left for Oman. I found all these files from the memory card of my trusty Nokia 6600. Apologies for the not-so-high quality of the images!

Pikachu is not a pure Japanese Spitz. Her mother, Choco, was, but her father was apparently a strapping poodle. Thus, you can see that Pikachu has inherited her sire’s big eyes and floppy ears.

My doggie has been with me since May 2003. She was so tiny when she first arrived at our home, being only a few months old back then. She didn’t know how to eat from her pet bowl, but would guzzle milk like there’s no tomorrow.

Pikachu grew fast and shed and grew back her thick, fluffy, white fur even more quickly. She liked to eat my favorite food as well – chicken liver, baked ziti with mixed tomato and carbonara sauce, roasted and butter-fried chicken, among many others.

I intend to go home early next year, perhaps sometime during the first calendar quarter. I will finally see my pet in person again, not just from a fuzzy webcam feed.

My mother always tells me over the phone that my baby has gained lots of weight because she now has even more food to eat, what with yours truly working abroad and all!

As most of you may probably already know, I have been in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman since October 2nd this year. My primary reason is, understandably, to seek my fortune.

I have not been actively online since then and for some time before that, but I have been lurking here and there and religiously checking my e-mail.

Now that I am more settled physically, psychologically and emotionally, my blogging may most likely take on a more active turn.

I am proud to plug my first Oman-based blogroll link and Twitter friend, Kishor Cariappa. He blogs on everything Oman, in a nutshell.

I am blogging from Bayview Park Hotel at Roxas Boulevard, Metro Manila right now where Internet access costs 85 pesos for half an hour.

And I have five bloody minutes left!

A friend of mine from LiveJournal will be coming over here to pick me up this afternoon after our IT training if all goes well and our schedules permit.

Last night, some friends from high school and college met with me at the Metro Manila Baywalk for a girls’ night out. We spent our time together at Indo’s Strip, where we had loads of fun listening to two not-so-talented but diverting bands, eating sisig and french fries and drinking enough Cali Shandy to make our bladders fairly burst.

Gotta go now, my friends, as our workshop will be starting in a minute or two.

Today is the birthday of DB, a distant relative and a very good friend of mine.

Happy, happy, happy birthday, DB, and may you continue to kick everyone’s ass this year and in the years to come!

To celebrate, we had a delectable feast consisting of chopsuey, butter-fried chicken and glistening and very fat pan de leche for dinner tonight.

I think I ate all the mushrooms that were mixed into the chopsuey, although I vehemently denied doing such a heartless thing when my mother gently accused me of this crime.

My gift to DB was a set of various beauty products: foam facial wash, body soap, moisturizing cream and an exfoliating facial loofah. All these have been pre-packed at the store in a gorgeous white vanity bathroom bag.

The blue sky must be forever tall and forever clear. That’s the way the world should be.

~ Gentatsu Takatsuki, in conversation with Shigure Takimi, Rurouni Kenshin: Ishin Shishi no Requiem

I was able to meet my longtime friends Genefel and Melody at SM Megamall last Wednesday night for a good old gabfest over hot and cold cups of Starbucks java.

We talked straight for three hours and would have continued until dawn. However, I had to get back to my hotel to prepare for my early morning flight while Gen and Mel both had work the day after.

They gave me the most amazing metal chandelier earrings adorned with glittery crystals. Arigatou gozaimasu again!

I arrived from Metro Manila on Thursday, following a quick, uneventful airplane journey.

The moment I got home, I could not help but immediately pop my newly acquired copy of Rurouni Kenshin: Ishin Shishi no Requiem (Requiem for the Ishin Patriots) into my VCD player.

The movie has a simple, straightforward story that would be appreciated even by someone who is not familiar with the Rurouni Kenshin mythos.

I absolutely loved the charismatic and noble Shigure Takimi, one of the movie’s central characters and arguably Ishin Shishi‘s primary driving force.

His noble warrior’s philosophy and driven, staunchly patriotic character reminded me very much of Katsumoto, brilliantly portrayed by Ken Watanabe, from the 2003 Tom Cruise starrer The Last Samurai.

Yesterday evening, I received an e-mail from the organizers of the National Novel Writing Month that I have been officially accepted and listed as a participant.

NaNoWriMo 2005 will be my first year in the project, so I am really looking forward to all the novel-writing excitement and mania that will ensue when November rolls about.