The nicest kids (were) in town...

What a memorable Friday (uhm, it was already a Saturday)!!!

Jonjon and Cyp are in town for vacay. Like true blue Singaporeans, the two decided to fly out of the Lion City during Chinese New Year to celebrate it elsewhere.

I must say that the two have adapted to the local culture quite fast, huh. Haha!

Of course, I was more than happy that the two decided to come over.

We've been planning the tugs tugs night as early as mid of January, and we've done nothing on Twitter but talk about how we're really looking forward to tugs tugs night! Hehe!

A week before their arrival, I received some good news. It required some changes in schedules. It was either I see the boys for just a short while or I choose a later sched for some "errands" so I can hang out with them for a longer time.

The choice was definitely easy. Choose a later schedule so I can spend more time with the two. ;)

It was a fantab get-together. Met up with Cyp, Jon and the usual suspects at Starbucks. We then headed to our happy place and spent the next few hours just being crazy. Haha!

The two flew back to Singapura this morning at a very ungodly 4AM flight. I got to see them again even for just a few minutes. Haha!

Take care, Cyp and Jon! Kitakits soon!

Foursquare for... (NSFW!)

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Stumbled upon this on a Twitter buddy's tweet. Hahaha!

LMAO watching the vidclip.

Been addicted to Foursquare lately. It's your fault @nicorhernandez, @jgver! Hahaha! ;)

Gong Xi Fa Cai...

Happy new year!!! :)

Those born under the Year of the Sheep are among the luckiest this year! Wooohooo!!!

Let the super, super good luck begin!

According to GotoHoroscope.com:

The 2011 year of the white Metal Rabbit will enable the Goat enjoy life and finally organize his happy family life, but his life during this period will not witness dizzying highs and downs fortunately. Systematic work and participation in other people's lives will be the main areas of activity where the Goat can exert its efforts. He will be awaited at charitable organizations and funds for helping people in need so as to demonstrate his compassion. The Goat can involve other people to these problems because he is so good at this. Probably, 2011 year of the White Metal Rabbit left so few prospects for career and business growth of the Goat because the main efforts of the representative of this sign should be directed to address urgent problems of personal life. Married Goat should seriously think about how to review relationships between spouses, talk, resolve all outstanding issues, and if necessary compromise for the sake of preserving peace. The single Goat in the coming year will experience a great and passionate love, which can lead to creation of a family, and if not, then will remain forever in his memory as one of the most exciting and vivid memories in life.

Carlo V's post-birthday get-together...

Except for the tragic news regarding a friend from work, the weekend that came was just perfect.

Friday night, we had the MNL and SG Simulparties. Julia Vargas and Neil Road gimiks. Sunday afternoon, we had the very, very intense badminton game. Gad, I wish all our badminton games were like that. Hehe! Saturday afternoon, I dropped by St. Luke's to visit my friend Noreen who had an aneurysm early January. The doctors have clipped the aneurysm and she seems like she is on the road to full recovery. I can't be thankful enough, Lordy. You're the best talaga.

And Saturday evening, I met up with very good friend Carlo V for his post-birthday get-together.

Dinner at Gloria Maris. Date with Jake Gyllenhaal via Love & Other Drugs. Tartufo at Bellini's in Cubao X. Hours and hours of good conversation. It was definitely a good Saturday night.

Happy birthday, Carlo! Love you, bro! ;P I am forever grateful I have you in my life.

Btw, ZsaZsa Zaturnnah the Musical based on Carlo's graphic novel will have its 7th run at the CCP Little Theater from Feb. 18 to Mar. 13.

Ticket prices are P950 (center), P850 (sides) and P650 (back).

I'm planning to watch on Feb. 26.

Rest in peace, Clarence...

I received really terrible news yesterday morning.

Work friend Engel DM'd me via Twitter that our colleague Clarence was robbed and stabbed to death by by two guys in his own home Saturday night.

I was walking to Greenbelt when I read Engel's message.

After reading his message, I felt my knees wobble and my heartbeat go faster.

It can't be.

Clarence was one of the few people I know from Engel's department (their unit is the other team occupying the floor where my department is). He's always smiling. He's a very nice guy. He's funny.

Whenever we'd see each other along the hallway, we'd always say hi to each other and even stop for some small talk. There was a never moment that he didn't have a ready smile on his face.

So the news of his passing, and in such an inhumane way, was just really hard to believe.

You see something similar in tabloids every day, but this was too close to home.

And I'm sorry but I'm angry at how some of the tabloids wrote the news.

In particular, two tabloid articles had the following titles - "Bading kinatay ng 2 kelot" and "Bading na bisor inatado ng 2 boytoy"

Whattashet?!

And I'm sorry but after reading the different news articles, I can't help but wonder why none of Clarence's neighbors bothered to come to his aid or at the very least, call the police.

All the news articles mentioned that the neighbors were already hearing some noise and commotion coming from Clarence's unit, but no one came.

Dahil ayaw daw nilang makialam. Writing this now, I can't help but get angry.

It wasn't until a neighbor saw blood creeping out of Clarence's unit very early morning that the incident was reported.

I can't help but wonder if Clarence could've survived, if a neighbor bothered to come check on him.

The incident happened late Saturday night. Based on the news reports, Clarence was stabbed not with knives, but with ballpen, fork and ladle. The thought of him bleeding to death, feeling the pain, and maybe even conscious as the world around him turned dark, is just too much.

If there is anything positive about the whole situation, it's that Clarence was smart enough to hide his phone and that he was able to take pictures of the two guys he was with. Good job on that, Clarence.

That should already help the authorities.

Rest in peace, Clarence.

The news here.

THE Victor Platon's Comeback and Simulparty - MNL...

The night-out last Friday was epic!

After a stressful week for the usual suspects, we were all just looking forward to a really fantab Friday (more like Saturday) gimik night!

What made this particular weekend gimik much more awesome was the simulparty in Singapore. Hehe!

Yep, good friend Richie organized the Singapore nightout.

As I wrote in a previous blog entry,one of the happy things I did while I was in Singapore was introducing my becks friends from different groups to each other.

That way, the becks family in SG keeps on growing.

I was really ecstatic when I received a text from Richie regarding the Neil Road Educational Tour. Haha! I loved it! Leave it to Richie to come up with a creative invite. Haha!

The SG cast even had an additional invitee - Chris. Haha! I told Chris about the planned nightout. I gave his number to Richie. I gave Richie's number to him. And that was it.

SG represent - Richie, Mon, Cyp, Jon,Sarge, and Chris. Uhm, not sure why Ian didn't go.

And Manila represent - Me, I-van, Arthur, Edsel, Adrian, JC, Luis, Jofer, Cholo, and comeback queer Ms. Victor Platon. Haha!

It was an awesome night! We started with drinks at BluFrog and from there we moved to our happy happy joy joy place that is O Bar. Haha!

I loved it that Richie gave us a call around 2AM to tell us what was happening in Singapore! Super, super fun!

And I'm glad I brought Hanschen with me because I have pics and videos of the very memorable night! Too bad some photos and videos will never be available to the public. Haha!

As with previous night-outs, we ended the looong night with bfast at Banchetto!

All Friday nights should be like that one!

The next one would be like that again! That's because Cyp and Jon are coming over to Manila for the Chinese New Year!

We're going to paint the town pink! Haha!

THE Victor Platon's Comeback and Simulparty - MNL...

The night-out last Friday was epic!

After a stressful week for the usual suspects, we were all just looking forward to a really fantab Friday (more like Saturday) gimik night!

What made this particular weekend gimik much more awesome was the simulparty in Singapore. Hehe!

Yep, good friend Richie organized the Singapore nightout.

As I wrote in a previous blog entry,one of the happy things I did while I was in Singapore was introducing my becks friends from different groups to each other.

That way, the becks family in SG keeps on growing.

I was really ecstatic when I received a text from Richie regarding the Neil Road Educational Tour. Haha! I loved it! Leave it to Richie to come up with a creative invite. Haha!

The SG cast even had an additional invitee - Chris. Haha! I told Chris about the planned nightout. I gave his number to Richie. I gave Richie's number to him. And that was it.

SG represent - Richie, Mon, Cyp, Jon,Sarge, and Chris. Uhm, not sure why Ian didn't go.

And Manila represent - Me, I-van, Arthur, Edsel, Adrian, JC, Luis, Jofer, Cholo, and comeback queer Ms. Victor Platon. Haha!

It was an awesome night! We started with drinks at BluFrog and from there we moved to our happy happy joy joy place that is O Bar. Haha!

I loved it that Richie gave us a call around 2AM to tell us what was happening in Singapore! Super, super fun!

And I'm glad I brought Hanschen with me because I have pics and videos of the very memorable night! Too bad some photos and videos will never be available to the public. Haha!

As with previous night-outs, we ended the looong night with bfast at Banchetto!

All Friday nights should be like that one!

The next one would be like that again! That's because Cyp and Jon are coming over to Manila for the Chinese New Year!

We're going to paint the town pink! Haha!

Channeling Chanel...

Leave it to Pinoys to create something out of things that would usually be thrown away already.

I attended the kickoff event of the 25th anniversary of the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines last week, and I saw these nice pieces on display at the entrance to the venue.

Uhm, these are made by beneficiaries of the Foundaiton I think.

It looks nice, right?

When you look at it closely, you'd see that the silver things are actually the tabs from soda cans.

I didn't get to read which community makes these items, but I was really impressed with the craftsmanship of the pieces.

The one beside the Coke bottle actually looks like a 2.55, right? Chain na lang ang kulang. Hehe!

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Galing talaga ng Pinoy!

LV's first Asian face – Godfrey Gao

Just because I'm lazy to write about something more personal. Hehe!

LV's Menswear ad campaign features Taiwanese-Canadian model and actor Godfrey Gao.

He's the first Asian face to land an ad campaign for the luxury brand.

Gao is seen on the print ad with the latest Damier Graphite "Elvis" bag from the Spring/Sumer 2011 collection.

Hmm, it's not difficult to see why LV and several others fashion brands (Chanel did a show in Shanghai) are putting an "Asian" feel to their marketing strategy.

China is obviously a market waiting to be conquered. Hehe!

Hmm, I wonder if we would begin seeing more Asian models on ad campaigns of major fashion houses soon.

On a side note, is it just me or does Filipino model Ram Sagad look a bit like Godfrey Gao? Hehe!

5K at the Greentenial Run...

Greentenial Run this morning.

Though this is just my first run for the year, I can already say that it is definitely one of the best runs for 2011 because of the company I was with.

My usual running friends from work were there - Moneigh (3K) with hubby Anthony (15K) and Engel (10K). Super, super, super good friend Tey was also there to show some love and support. She brought newphews Ken and Mich as well. The latter joined us in the 5K. Twitter friend Marl was there who did 15K. Last but definitely not the least, Nico who did his first 5K and his first organized run. Because he agreed to sign up for the 5K, I told him I would run with him.

Anyway, prior to the race, I slept at Tey's place so that we could go together to the Fort. We waited for Engel to arrive, and left Salcedo a couple of minutes before five. We met up with Nico and friends JV and Roan at the BHS parking lot.

The 5K group was scheduled to stary at 5:50. Uhm, I didn't get to check what time we actually started. Haha!

I was a bit worried that it was going to be a wet run. Saturday afternoon, it was raining. Ugh! I wasn't sure if we would see the sun today. The clouds have been nothing but dull and gray during late afternoons these past few days.

Thankfully, we were blessed with good weather during the run. It would've been awesome to feel the sun during the run, but I'm grateful already that there wasn't a drop of rain throughout the race.

It was still a good run, I have to say. I liked the race route. I thought it would be the usual 5K route which passes along IS, the British School and S&R. I didn't have the time to study the race route, so I was surprised when I saw that it took us to the Buendia flyover. Haha!

If I were to be asked what one of my favorite things about races is, it's when I get suddenly greeted by sunlight. Uhm, it's when I'm running along a particular segment of the race route without any view of the sun, and after making a turn, you suddenly feel the rays of the sun kissing your face. There's just something spiritual about it. Uhm, I won't explain further. Walang basagan ng trip. Basta iyon iyon. Haha!

Uhm, I think there was good attendance despite it not being one of the well-funded corporate runs. Hehe!

After Mich, Nico and I crossed the finish line, we looked for Tey, JV and Roan. As is customary, post-run photo ops were in order. I-vanchy, I couldn't help but remember all our crazy post-run photo ops last year. Haha! You have to run again.

Before parting ways, we all headed to MickeyD's at McKinley Hill for a well-deserved breakfast.

Good run, good run!

Up next, a half-marathon at Condura! Let's go!