A recent non-date date...

Rarely do I go out on a date.

The main reason is because I don't see the point in meeting someone when I'm not sure about what I intend to do in the near future. I just didn't see the point in starting something with someone. It sounds stupid, but that's just how I see things.

Once in a while though, I get inspiration from two friends who constantly put themselves out there. Thanks to these two friends, I try to get out of the comfort zone of being single and go meet up with a new person or two.

In the past two or three weeks, I managed to go and meet up with three people.

The most recent one was the best, primarily because it was a non-date date.

He and I met some time in March 2015. It was some time after CNY. Guess the nationality. Malaysian. Haha! It's either I'm always drawn to Malaysians or I tend to attract Malaysians. Haha!

When we first started talking, he was up for fun, I wasn't. I told him I'd like something more than just a fleeting thing. We met up a few days later to just go for dinner and chitchat. It was an enjoyable get-together.

Good sense of humor. Confident. Killer smile and eyes. Someone to introduce to friends and Mom.

Under different circumstances, I would've asked him out.

It would take another year before he and I would meet up again. In between, we constantly kept in touch though.

Every so often, he would say hi or I would say hi. Our thing is that he would share his location once in awhile. Shanghai. Frankfurt. Some other country. It was cute.

To my surprise, he messaged last Sunday if I was free to meet up.

We ended up just going for coffee, cake, chitchat and a little flirting.

That's one of the things I like about this guy. He's bold enough to not care about the people around us. Going down the escalator, he would be standing in front of me and I would put my arm around his neck. No two straight guys would ever do that, lol. Walking around the mall, he would massage the base of my neck.

It was a good date. It was a good non-date date. He had a dinner, I had a dinner. Who knows when he and I will meet each other again?

But at least, for those few hours, I was happy to have been out with him.

Oh, during our convo, he would marry the first one who gives him a ring. Smart guy that I was, I made a ring out of our coffee receipt. He said yes.

Just kidding!

Happy Easter...

I attended the Easter Mass at St. Bernadette.

It was the most ideal church before my 730 dinner appointment. I could've gone to other churches closer to town. The reason I like St. Bernadette is because of its priests. I keep forgetting their names but the priests give homilies that are relevant to people's everyday lives.

Today, my takeaway was very simple, yet very meaningful:

"Let us strive to be Easter people, even on days when it feels like a Good Friday. We walk with hope from the light of the Resurrection."

Thank you for speaking your word through Fr. I forgot his name.

Happy Easter!

Ex-Smartees reunion yet again...

Today was mostly about meeting friends.

Ex-Smart colleague Rej is in town for work since last Monday. However, she was only free to meet up friends by yesterday.

Together with also ex-Smart colleague Arlyn, the three of us agreed to have brunch at Robert Timms Wheelock. I wonder if Robert Timms has a frequent customer/loyalty card. Haha! I've been to the place quite often in the past few weeks. Anyway, it was good to catch up with Rej since a lot has happened to her since we last saw each other. It was also good to catch up with her because I got to meet up with Arlyn again. Though we both live on the same island, we hardly see each other. Haha!

Unfortunately, I had another appointment in the afternoon so I didn't get to hang with the girls.

However, I met up again with them in the evening for dinner at JoAnn's place. That was really something I was happy about not just because I get to see JoAnn and her family again, but also because she and her helper prepares really good Filipino food. Nothing beats home cooked meals! Haha!

I guess I'll write about the other meetup separately. Lol!

Restful, reflective Friday...

It's a somber Friday because it's Good Friday. Well, I did try to make it mostly somber and reflective.

For some reason, I woke up very late today. Around 6AM, I got up to pee and crawled back to bed as I was feeling a headache. When I finally woke up, it was past 8AM.

There wasn't really much planned today. I just wanted to do three things - do a little cleaning in the room, go for yoga class, attend the Good Friday service at St Mary of the Angels.

Thankfully, I managed to do all three things.

While watching episode 10 of Descendants of the Sun, I went through some of my stuff, sorted papers and threw a lot of stuff into a trash bag. The other thing I would like to make time for is to get rid of the clothes I no longer wear. I would like to tidy up my closet a little bit more. I do have clothes that I need to get rid off.

In the afternoon, I headed to FF near the office to attend the Hatha class. I reached the gym with just enough time to do a bit of jogging on the treadmill. Since it was a PH, I thought there might be a lot of people going to the gym. Well, it looked like a lot of people are out of town. Hehe! I didn't have to queue early to sign up for the hatha class.

The hatha class was challenging but I loved it. I really loved it. The instructor was very good because she would go from student to student and adjust each one of us in our poses. Having attended quite a number of classes, I think I constantly need to check myself on two things - breathing and relaxing. I have to be constantly aware to relax my face, my shoulder, my arms, my body when doing the poses.

For this reason, yoga has been quite an enjoyable activity for me as I get to focus on the activity and forget the other things outside of the studio.

From the gym, I took 106 to get to St Mary of the Angels. There was a 5PM service that I planned to attend. Uhm, I really had no idea what the service was. In Manila, nothing really happens on Good Friday except for maybe a Stations of the Cross and the Seven Last Words.

When I reached the church, I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, to see that it was packed with people. The service took about an hour and a half because there were readings, prayers, communion. It was a beautiful service as the mood was really solemn.

By the time the service ended, I was debating whether I should head back or if I should go to a cafe and write some postcards. I've a bunch of postcards that I've been meaning to send to friends. I decided I'll write the postcards tomorrow. Haha!

So now, I'm just back in the room, enjoying the Friday night. I think I'll watch a bit of Descendants of the Sun again...

Random stuff...

Today is a so so day.

My Outlook didn't give me a very busy day, so far. I think it's because I'm in between projects at the mo and second, because it's holiday in India right now. That means most of our partners are on holiday today. Meanwhile, tomorrow is a holiday in Singapore in observance of Good Friday.

I don't really have a lot of plans for the weekend. I want to clean my room. I need to get rid of clothes that I don't wear anymore, as well as other things hiding around the room. I need to do some reading and writing for the museum.

On Saturday, it will be a break for museum training. I did set an afternoon appointment though to do something for the day.

Other than these, I plan to go to church for some of the Lenten services. The other church I plan to visit is the gym. I need to figure out my church and gym schedule for tomorrow. Haha!

For tonight, I asked Richie and Mon if they wanted to catch Zootopia. So far, I've heard nothing but good reviews about the movie. Unfortunately, the movie has been around for awhile. So, there aren't that many cinemas with good screening times. I thought of checking out the Batman/Superman movie. This time, there are many screening times available but there are no seats. Haha!

Oh well, it'll just be dinner then.

Remembering LKY...

A year later... a nation remembers...

Annyeonghaseyo, Captain Yoo Si-jin and Doctor Kang...

Some time last week, I read in a local newspaper that China was warning against its citizens against watching a particular Korean series.

I didn't read the news as I thought there were other more important news articles to read.

Yesterday, out of having so much free time, I found myself watching the first episode of the series.

I'm now on episode 5! Hahaha!

The show really is addicting! I loved everything about it - the cast, the storyline, the production, even the OST!

Could the kilig be the reason why China is warning its people against the series? Hehe!

Lazy Sunday...

Today was one of my most unproductive Sundays. Ever.

No volunteer work scheduled. No nature walk scheduled. No gatherings scheduled.

Yesterday, I invited some of the guys to a hike at the Tree Top. Lol! No one was interested. Perhaps some other time.

I woke up at 7AM and just stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling. An hour later, I called my Mom to say hi and to see how things are going in Manila. My second brother was still asleep. My youngest brother was with his wife and ILs.

There was really no news so Mom and I didn't spend a long time talking to each other. Besides, she was also going to church.

The only thing highlight of the day was movie and dinner with Jon. I was craving for Filipino food. The kopitiam near my place, which had a Filipino food stall, was undergoing renov. So, I've been deprived of oily, salty Filipino food for weeks now. Haha!

Thankfully, there is a Filipino food stall at the kopitiam in Jurong East. Jon and I had a dinner of Caldereta, Bicol Express and Bistek Tagalog before heading to the cinema to catch Risen.

Good movie, although the story was quite different from what's in the bible or from what I was taught as a Catholic boy.

It was still an enjoyable watch.

Last night, I caught Allegiant. with a date. There's no story to tell - both the movie and the date - so I'm skipping this.

Brunch and volunteer work...

Before heading to the museum for volunteer work, I met up with I-van and Mon for brunch.

I-van was in town for a few days because of work. However, he's been busy and only had time to meet up today. He flew back to KL this evening.

We agreed to have brunch at Robert Timms since it was most convenient for everyone.

I didn't mind trying a new brunch place but there weren't really a lot of choices in the area. This was because we agreed to meet up at 1030AM. Hehe!

In any case, Robert Timms is always a good choice as the food is good, the price is reasonable, the place is still in the town centre but not that crowded.

Mon and I-van went shopping while I had to go for my volunteer work.

Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the work, but I was exhausted at the end of the day.

Happy to see people...

After four days of working from home, I needed to get out of the house and see people. Haha!

So, I decided to go and work at the office today just to be surrounded by humans. Harhar! I also asked Ann Marie and Ana to lunch since they both work nearby. For a few times now, the three of us would have lunch together at the cafeteria of Ann Marie's office. The food was affordable, very affordable. The food was great, the "scenery" was even better.

Surprisingly, PG Boy also messaged out of the blue asking if I wanted to go to dinner with him and his best friend. My initial reply was to ask whether his best friend was out of town, just to tease him. Hehe!

He asked MonRich to join as well. I was certain Richie wanted to see PG Boy as well.

We all agreed to meet at 6PM at City Hall. At first, it was suggested to do dinner at The Soup Spoon Union. Then I thought we should do something different instead of always going for our default place at Raffles City.

That's how we ended at Equilibrium at Capitol Galleria. I thought the food was okay. We were really paying for the homey ambiance and the location. Lol!

After dinner, we walked back to Raffles City and settled at Tiong Bahru for more chitchat.

It was a happy Friday night...

Currently re-reading TBLBITW...

I'm currently re-reading Andrew Tobias' The Best Little Boy in the World..

If there's one book that really influenced me during that period when I was asking myself a lot of things, it has to be this book.

On my last visit to Manila, I brought back with me some books that I love and one of them is TBLBITW.

The book has been with me for more than a decade. If I'm not mistaken, I found it buried in one of the bargain bins of National Bookstore Robinson's Manila. It was an afternoon. I had time to kill. One of my favorite past time activities is to go book hunting. Voila! I found the book.

Until now, I believe that the book was meant to find me and I was meant to find it. Hehe!

With no new titles to read, I decided why not re-read it again?

Not much to say...

Not much happening these past few days.

Today was just another so so day at work. Haha! Things will probably pick up closer to April. It will be toxic again since it will be end of the FY.

After finishing work, I just went to FF Clementi for my 30-minute treadmill and some weights. To end the session, I went for the Yin yoga class.

Nice, relaxing day.

Packed Sunday, what's new...

Another long day, another day where I packed too many activities. Haha!

Though I slept past midnight, I still forced myself to wake up at a little after 6AM. I wanted to hear Mass before heading to the museum. I was worried that I won't have time for church given my activities for the day.

Thankfully, there was an 815 Mass at St. Ignatius. It's a bit far from the house, but it definitely fit my schedule.

After Mass, I took the bus to the museum. It gave me enough time for breakfast before my duty.

I thought there wouldn't be visitors at 11AM, but I was wrong. Initially, the group started with about 6 people but it grew when we were already inside the galleries. One of the guests was the cutest, youngest visitor I've had ever. He was about 5 or 6 years old maybe. He approached me after the tour and asked what happened David Marshall. So cute.

From the museum, I walked over to City Hall to meet up with Bernard, Miru, Ted, and Jackie. Bernard's birthday is coming up soon and we thought why not have an early celebration. Ted suggested we go to Kaiserhaus at Capitol.

What I thought would be a 2-hour thing turned into a 4-hour get-together. Hehe! Good thing the place was not packed so we managed to stay that long.

My next agenda was at 730PM. With about an hour and a half to kill, Bernard and I went to Plaza Singapura for jalan jalan.

At 730, he said buhbye and I met up with Richie and Mon for Kung Fu Panda 3.

I only realised how long a day it was when I was already in the train otw back. I was really falling asleep. I started re-reading Andrew Tobias' book but I was falling asleep. Hehe!

Good day though. Good day. I just need to remind myself I'm no longer 25.

Balance x Gentle Flow night...

Managed to do Balance and Gentle Flow tonight, yay.

The series may be over...

... but farck, this song is super nice.

Add to that the fact that it's Bai Lou Yin who composed and sang the song... Awww...

Kok Kuan's birthday lunch...

Yesterday's hike ended with a lunch at Dian Xiao Er.

Shane wasn't able to join us for the walk, but he did go for the lunch. It was good because I managed to ask him to buy the cake for Kok Kuan.

However, an Auntie spoiled the surprise when she said the Chinese word for cake.

Oh well, it was still a nice surprise for Kok Kuan.

Second time at the Henderson Waves...

Singapore, why so pretty?

Omm-ing the past two days...

I haven't been doing Pump for quite some time. It's because of my left knee. Some time in December, I felt something and it worried me a bit. I stopped running and I stopped going for Pump and Combat. I even went and got an X-Ray but the result was normal. I'm wondering if I should go for a MRI.

Anyway, things are back to normal since I got back from Bangkok.

Even when I was in Bangkok, I managed to go for runs two to three times a week and it was okay.

I've also gone back to doing short runs since I didn't want to push myself.

What I've been doing mostly are runs and yoga.

Last night, I went for Vinyasa yoga. Tonight, I went for Yin yoga.

The former was a killer. The latter was more of an introduction to meditation.

Tomorrow, I think I'll go for another yoga class, possibly Gentle Flow.

Madonna in Manila and Singapore...

Without a doubt, one of the main highlights of this year... of my life... is getting to watch Madonna not just once but twice, not just in one country but in two countries.

To be honest, I never thought I would get to see her perform live. Ever.

She was this unreachable star to me.

So, to be able to catch her live is just something to be thankful for.

Manila and Singapore were very different experiences - the crowd, the venue, the setlist, the atmosphere. Both will be stories to be told to my future nephews and nieces.