My Bitchin' 2010!

I never knew recalling moments and poring and picking pictures can be time consuming :).  But it's extremely gratifying to see through a year of fantabulous experiences and recognizing that it is indeed a time to be grateful.  It has been an epic year. I own 2010! So let me indulge and let you in my memories for the year that was/is.

• Watching Avatar in 3D with Dad (who loves technology more than I do).  

This is my favorite scene - the floating Hallelujah Mountains, if I can freeze it in one picture.  Definitely mouth-gaping, especially on 3D. 

Did you know those floating islands were inspired by a real life mountains in China (which incidentally has now been re-named Avatar Hallelujah Mountain haha!)?  

It's spell-binding.  Hunan Province, in China is now in my travel list to explore next!

• Penpal on overdrive. 

I actively sent out postcards to strangers through Postcrossing - the best part was checking my mailbox at home and finding out I got international mails from strangers - thank goodness, not just credit card bills! I got Nikki to join in and she, as always, amps any idea to wonderful craziness by making it a family event for her husband and their kids.  She writes on the postcards, Diego (10 year old, her eldest) mails the postcards and when they do get to receive one, they read it as a family. Pretty cool. Opens up her kids to new worlds.  Feel free to steal this idea :). 

• Baking and cooking were both great discoveries for me this year. 

Huge thanks to my trusty oven and  to Car and Anto for the tips and tricks and for always inviting me whenever there is food celebration at their house!  I really did try a lot of dishes and I also realized I kind of like cooking more.  Baking is so exact and I'm too clumsy and I get bored easily following the notes.  I've collected  the beautiful mess I made in 2010 (not comprehensive though).  in an album so I can laugh at it. 

• Embraced Blackberry and a Tablet. 

From a person who does not want to spend on technology (I'm for experiential purchases), this is my breakthough or may otherwise be known as the beginning of regret, let's see.  More on this soon and if there's anyone to blame, it is the bitch, my reliable, seldom reachable technical support. Blackberry, for its archaic design and a tiny screen, gets to be the most efficient phone for me to support my social networking activism.  

Not sure if I should label this as lowlights given the amount of distraction, but Plants vs Zombies deserves a cloud in my 2010!  And Words with Friends! (Both of which are not available as games in my current gadget, go figure). They ate my brains!

• Obligatory adventure on restaurant discoveries. 

Restaurant discoveries is a must as I prefer not to repeat the same restaurant with the same company.   The following springs with sumptuous delight in my memory - Van Gogh is Bipolar (for the inventiveness),  Kuya's,  O Kitchen,  Eat Well, Kebab's and Gratitude Cafe (this is more than a restaurant, I attended a session there on how to read someone's aura - superb!).  I think also one of my highlights in discovering new places for good food are my monthly lunch-outs with Mike and Nikki.  It's mightily challenging to schedule a common time for us to eat out but we still do manage to not miss it despite traffics and color-coding and still do stick to our no-repeat resto mantra. 

• Tasting Tibok-Tibok 

It was accidental - the trip was really our do-it-yourself Pampanga road trip with Pogs, Irish, Kat and Alvin and discovered this totally addicting dessert called Tibok-Tibok - which can be described in one sentence as maja blanca version 2.0.  Side trip: Philippine Hot-Air Balloon Festival and although colorful, the highlight was us trying to get out of that area so we could eat and getting lost finding San Fernando city!

• Rowing

I blogged about it. It's good for the upper arms, just bad I guess if you swallow the salt water (given that the salt water is from the very dirty Manila Bay).

• Coming back to social networking > Twitter.

Just happy to be back in Twitter for 2010.  I discovered it three years ago and have been intermittently updating it and when a lot of people have joined in, it then made sense for me why I did also become active. Social networking happens when there is significant mass of people to 'socialize' :).  Wow, genius. #sarcasm.  

Facebook on the other hand I may have officially given up. 

• Golf

My uncle enrolled me in golfing lessons as I told him I will be in Atlanta the next year and might be near to the famous Augusta (Tiger Woods' mothership).  Feeling talaga ako makakalaro ako duon, hehe.  My golfing instructor is so exasperated as he doesn't get it why I sway when I swing.  He said, 'Di sya sayaw..'. Oh. I thought much of golf is all about posing :). 

• Get Pricked!

I've leaned towards eastern medicine because I want to practice that belief that the power we need to heal ourselves are already within us.  Here I am with Yung Chin, a taiwanese traveler  who I brought to Dr. JC to experience this wonderful healing process, pinoy style.  

• Fishing

Again, my uncle and my dad's influence.  I was not able to catch fish but my dad did.  A huge one. 

• Watched Lea Salonga live. 

It was more a gift to my mom as I want her to witness Lea still singing well as if it's still her prime (it's still her prime, yes?).   My mom loves performances and watching Cats The Musical is so perfect, simple story but so abundant in singing and dancing.  The dancing is very techincal, it's amazing how the performers can still sing while doing the moves.  Mom and I enjoyed it very  much. 

•  Donated blood for the first time. 

Ask Des, I almost freaked out. 450cc of blood? That's enough to make two dinuguan good for 40 people! But it's at least a noble way of inflicting pain to oneself. Right after blood donation, against doctor's orders, Des and I went gallivanting the town with Pogs to tour an Estonian traveler within Quezon City.  And I went back home sick - nursing fever and flu for days. Moral of the story: Listen to your doctor! (And still donate blood, the feeling is priceless!). 

• Witnessed People Crucifying Themselves 

With the most appropriate people to see this kind of events with - my parents (and my Tita) hahaha!  We went to San Fernando Pampanga to witness people whipping their backs and nailing their appendages as nationwide Lenten season is being observed. It was hilarious as my mother cursed me for asking her to walk at that heat! My dad is laughing his head off as my all-white Machu Picchu got splashed with human blood - penitents whipping their backs during a procession.  The whole experience was like watching a Filipino classic movie - all the gore, the drama, and the suspense.  Oh it was bad-ass fun. You have to see it with your  old folks. 

In reflection, I do believe the Bible is a story in metaphor.  And most of what's happening  right now is just lost in translation.  What a bloody post this has become!

• Walked barefoot in the city. 

Not really a stiletto moment - but I walked barefoot from the Shangri-la Hotel to the Shangri-la Mall parking because my feet was begging for  mercy.  I promised to myself I will never wear heels again even if it looks good on my outfit (comfort over style, and I'm sure this promise I will never keep).  Yes, I came from a glamorous wedding and luckily, it was already evening when I decided to hit the ground, caveman style. 

• Travel by myself

I'm used to traveling with a buddy but  a milestone this year as I am very proud to have done traveling outside the country by myself that is not related to work.  Toronto was my experiment and it was an adventure to check out museums by myself, plot my itinerary by myself and fill the time with whatever I fancied. Good times.  

Given a choice, I would prefer to travel with someone for I was caught many times clasping my hands in excitement at a very nice piece of art but found no one readily available beside me to gush it with.  I do highly recommend that at least once in our lives,  we travel by ourselves - tough but good for the soul. 

• Watched a live baseball game

I did this already in Tokyo a couple of years ago, but nothing like watching it in a stadium with teams that are previous world champions.  Yep, it was Atlanta Braves vs Toronto Blue Jays - and the only player I know was Derek Jeter (Thank you Mariah Carey).

Come to think of it - Atlanta Braves. What a premonition! Main highlight - sitting on good seats costing around $70CAD and getting it for $10 dollars.  (My bargaining chip:  I'm from the third world...)

Bonding Experiences

• Reunion with my High School Barkada

Met all expectations of being a noisy, messy, but full of sentimental love kind of reunion as we walk dear Jenny down the aisle in wedded bliss.  It was perfectly set in the charming town of Bacolod, the place where we all introduced ourselves to each other 18 years ago. 

Post-event: Playing Mismo - a jejemon game of sorts in the wee hours of the morning at my house. I think we had a good belly laugh for over an hour.  

• Celebrity Sightings

Seen Megastar 3 feet away from me!  Seen Manny Pacquiao 300 feet away from me! Such a sucker for larger than life characters. 

• Watched Gay Pride Event in Atlanta

All for equality.  I know it does not beat the stories my friend Jaja tells me, of  how they do Pride in San Francisco, but Atlanta experience will do for now. 

 Picture stolen from Luan's facebook photostream :). 

• Get Rejected in a Bar due to Lack of Proof of Age

Yes, got rejected and not just one bar, but in two bars in mid-town Atlanta because I did not bring any form of identification.  In an act of desperation sans shame, I even sang a Beatles song to the bouncer to prove I'm old.

And during my birthday at that.  It actually feels good, ha ha ha. 

• Seen the Niagara Falls

Story here. 

• Voted in the elections. 

Finally for the first time. Post-mortem: My candidate for presidency did not win but I'm happy with the results. 

• Re-connect with friends, family, strangers. 

Even as simple as bringing my parents to Mercato Centrale to try out new food or as  elaborate  as  doing the yearly garage sale with Aimee, Cindy, Fe and this year with Chris, or those weekend overnighters (I remember the coffee farm house, that was good) with different loved ones, or driving on 100km/hr on ayala avenue (Ayala Ave!) at 2AM to bring a French traveler to his destination or even up to the extreme of traveling a thousand miles away beyond Pacific Ocean to reconnect with a good friend, all these proved that we do remember moments and happiness is only real when shared. 

2010 was definitely my year,  because everything was an adventure.  I don't post any work related stuff (as much as possible)  but that area too, for this year was an out of comfort zone thing experience. Anything that forces me to grow, tops it on my list - on a hindsight of course.  

I hope this year was awesome, heroic, stunning, kick-ass cool for you as it was for me!  

Looking forward to 2011!  Latin America backpacking, New Orleans, living abroad,  already on my planning list!

Gratefully yours, 

The absentee blogger 

Comments

[wholesale gift packaging]

Gift packaging is an age old industry that is almost as old as the tradition of giving and receiving gifts. Generally the point of gift packaging is to enhance the value of a gift and show the receiver that some thought and effort has gone into the gift.

[Lolita S. Lachica]

Hello! I saw your blog about a blood donation... I hope you don't mind having a stranger write to you for help. This is a desperate call for blood donors, an effort to find alternative ways to get a type O (or any other type). My friend's dad needs to undergo chemotherapy for prostate cancer stage 3. But since his count is too low, we need to infuse him first. So I was wondering if you would be willing to help... :-)

[Rose]

Thanks for reaching out Lolita! Would be glad to however I'm currently out of the country and it might not be feasible to donate blood from here.

Have you tried sending announcements through online forums, facebook, twitter, possibly also yahoogroups from friends?

I'll try to ask others as well!