The joint practice that waited for years to happen...

After a number of years, the plan to attend a yoga class with Bernice finally happened. Haha!

In previous yoga-relate entries, I'm quite sure that I already mentioned that it was Bernice who introduced me to the practice. Before she left for the Netherlands several years ago, she would almost always arrive at our get-togethers with a yoga mat slung over her shoulder. This got me interested, and I started asking questions about it.

Bernice left for the Netherlands for graduate school, and I enrolled myself to the gym thanks to a fantab corporate promo. It took a couple of months before I had the guts to attend the yoga classes. But after my first yoga class, I knew I wanted more. That started my yoga journey. I even have a favorite yoga teacher at the gym. Whenever I miss his Saturday class in Glorietta, I would try (very hard) to attend his Sunday class in Galleria. O ha! I was also able to attend one class facilitated by Bikram Manila's Tristan Choa when our HR department invited the guy to hold a session at the office. He's soooo good! When the Global Mala Project happened in Manila a couple of months ago, I was totally happy. That deepened the desire to be practice yoga regularly. I have to say though that I've still got a long way to go. I may know the asanas, but to understand the yoga philosophy is a whole different matter. I know that I have to get myself into a yoga studio outside of the gym for that. We'll see, we'll see.

Anyway, going back to the get-together with Bernice. When she messaged me last month that she'll be in town for the holidays, I brought up the idea of attending a yoga class together. It's only right that teacher and student do that, right? Hehehe! I told Bernice I could probably get her into the yoga class session. We just agreed to meet up at the coffee shop right outside the gym in Galleria. We were both excited.

Fast forward to yesterday. After giving Bernice a big hug, we made our way to the gym. I gave my membership card to the guy behind the counter and told him that I'd like to have Bernice as a guest. The guy hesitantly tells me that my membership does not have that kind of privilege. Toinks!

What do I do? I do what every Pinoy does in similar situations - pakiusap. I gave the guy my sweetest smile coupled with a pa-awa effect and said, "Sir, my friend came from abroad and we'e been planning this for the longest time. We're not even going to work out. We'll just attend the yoga class." If needed, I was ready to make up a story that we came all the way from Alabang or some other area far from Galleria just to attend the class. Hehehe! I know, I'm evil.

Thankfully, the guy was nice enough and let us in. I kept on thanking him and I told him that this would be a one-time thing. (I hope!)

Bernice and I then made our way to the yoga studio, and I'm glad we agreed to meet up at 9 because the gym pushed the class to 9AM instead of the usual 9:30AM. For the next 90 minutes, Bernice, I, and some 10 to 12 people followed the lead of our teacher Pio. What I love about Pio is that he goes beyond the allotted time. Usually, it's just a 60-minute class, but he extends his class and I'm really thankful for that.

After greeting each other "Namaste," Bernice and I stayed behind. We waited for everyone to get out of the studio before I took out Hanschen and Tey's very reliable mini-tripod.

I set up the camera. Bernice and I agreed to do the easier poses - vrikshasana (tree), natarajasana (dancer pose), eka pada rajakapotasana(one-legged king pigeon pose). Wish we could have done some more complex poses but I only had 10 seconds to prepare for the photo. Haha! (The dancer pose could be waaaaay better.)

When we were happy with the photos, Bernice and I got ready to spend the entire day together. We headed to Shangri-la Mall, which I'm starting to really like after all these years. The day included brunch at Penang Hill, coffee at Figaro (why is there no Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Shang??? Why???), window shopping, and of course, a very good conversation.

I realized that I'm blessed to have a number of people in my life who I always find so easy to talk to. Bernice is one of that. We could spend the entire day, and we would not run out of things to talk about.

It was already late in the afternoon when we parted ways. We took the MRT together. I got off at Cubao station. Her station was GMA-Kamuning. We agreed to meet up again this Saturday. It'll be just as fun because we're going to meet up with former Magsaysay colleagues Noreen and Carol. Yeeey!!!

Tambay time/despedida for Bernice...

I've been meaning to post some entries in this blog these past few days, but I've really been swamped with work.

This week is a little less stressful because (almost) everyone's just looking forward to having the four-day break, so I managed to find some time to squeeze in some updates.

Friday night was tambay time with Bernice and some of our friends from Magsaysay. Bernice flies back to the Netherlands this evening, and last Friday was the only time we can see her again. The original plan was for Mel, Noreen, Shy, Carol (who I haven't seen too for a long time) and I to meet Bernice at Trinoma for dinner and coffee.

Just a side note, I'm not a huge fan of Trinoma. I dunno why. It's the bad lighting, the flooring. Hehe! The only section I love there is the one where Powerbooks is.

Anyway, our meeting place was Powerbooks. By 8PM, it was still just me. I guess when one gets older, one's calendar becomes even more toxic. Hehehe! Only Shy and I showed up. Noreen dropped by , but she had to leave immediately to finish scripts for Rubi? Carol was stuck in Tagaytay for her mom's birthday dinner. Mel was drowning in papers at the office for an upcoming audit.

It was still a very fun get-together though. Bernice and I had a fantab dinner at Cyma. One of the nice things I love about hanging out with Bernice is we both want to eat healthy. Hehe! We had an eggplant moussaka and chicken gyro.

By the time we finished dindin, Shy was already in the area. We met up with her and headed to Bigoli for Shy's quick dindin. From Bigoli, we moved to CBTL and spent the next few hours just talking about all sorts of things. Hehe!

Just like our other get-togethers, we were having a really great time that we didn't notice it was already past twelve. We gave each other big hugs and made promises to keep in touch. Thanks to Facebook and email, it wouldn't be too difficult. Hehehe!

After a neverending buhbye, the three of us finally parted ways. I'm a bit sad that Bernice left again. At the same time, I'm extremely happy because her career is flourishing, and she's really going places (figuratively and literally).

Plus, the fact that she is living there is one reason for me to save up and visit Europe, right?

Thursday night date with Bernice and Carlo...

Good friend Bernice is in town, but only for two weeks. Huhu!

She was in Bangkok to attend a rountable discussion, and since Manila was just three hours away, she decided to come and visit. After her brief stay here, she's back to the Netherlands.

I left work early yesterday to meet up with her. I was supposed to leave at 3, but ended up leaving 30 minutes later because the phone wouldn't stop ringing (and I wouldn't stop picking up) and emails kept coming in (and I kept replying). Hehe!

Anyway, I finally left the office and made my way to Gayway...errr... Gateway for our meetup. (On a side note, Araneta admin should consider changing the mall's name. The mall is homo central. LOL! Guess which mall is lesbo central. Hehe!)

Moving on, Bernice and I met up at Fully Booked. We gave each other a big hug and then came the start of the endless "kamustahan." We started with seeing Alice in Wonderland. She hasn't watched the film. I've seen it, but not in 3D. So even if I slept through most parts of the movie, I still agreed to watch it. It's a good thing I did because I don't recall ever seeing the battle scene between the Red Queen and the White Queen. Hahaha! I still fell asleep a couple of times though.

After the movie, we looked for a place for dinner. Initially we were thinking of Volare (which has changed its name). But when we got there, the place was hosting a private party. Ugh! Our next option was nearby Cafe Adriatico. It turned out to be a good choice because Bernice got her Pinoy overload there. Haha!

From Cafe Adriatico, we moved to the neighboring Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. She ordered her usual genmaicha. I had my caramel macchiato. It was just like our usual Sunday afternoon get-together back when she was still here in Manila. The highlight of our meetups would be the exchange of thoughts on all sorts of things.

Last night was made even more interesting because Zsazsa Zaturnnah's dad, Carlo, was also in Coffee Bean. I haven't seen the guy for the longest time. It was really, really great seeing him. And I was ultra happy that two of my favorite people on the planet have met each other.

We spent a couple of hours talking about stuff. One topic was about being single. All three of us are, dammit! Haha! Bernice shared that lately, she's been "preparing" the guy for her by articulating her thoughts on her ideal man. For her, it's not enough to just sit down and wait for a guy. One has to know the qualities of the guy that she wants, verbalize it and hopefully, that will draw the guy - whoever he is - towards the person. I told her it was interesting and I never thought of "preparing" that way.

I then told her that what I was doing was the opposite and maybe that's where I'm wrong. While Bernice has been preparing her guy, I, on the other hand, am preparing for the possibility of a single life. It's not being resigned to the thought. It's being practical and grounded, I told her. But her thoughts was quite new to me and I found that to be really good.

Then there was also talk of finding the guy that you deserve vs. the guy that deserves you. Initially, we agreed that both ideas are the same. After a couple of seconds, we realized that they aren't. Haha!

While we chatted, Carlo did some of his drawings for a website. Bernice watched Carlo draw. I watched the two of them, and I also watched the people passing by. I have to say may future ang Gayway, ah. Hahaha!

Bernice and I left Carlo to his drawings around 11PM. I had to head home because of work today. Bernice had to email some work to the Netherlands. Lucky her, we're seven hours ahead so she could still meet the deadline. Hehe!

It was a fantab evening, that I could say. Not even that 8PM phone call I got was enough to ruin my night. Hahaha!