Premier temps de fêter la nouvelle année (après un long moment) ici à Quezon City! Triste que je ne verrai pas mon neveu et nièce à Manille. J’étais sur le point de l’intention de prendre une photo avec eux portant une Nate et Blair ensemble!

Anyhoo, a décidé de faire mes propres sushis pour le dîner du Nouvel An …

Mesdames et Messieurs, permettez-moi de vous présenter mon propre Kani et Philly Maki Sushi!

Bonne année à Y’all!

TRANSLATION:

First time to celebrate New Year (after a long time) here in Quezon City! Sad that I won’t be seeing my nephew and niece in Manila. I was about to plan to take a photo with them wearing a Nate and Blair ensemble!

Anyhoo, decided to make my own sushi for New Year’s dinner…

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me present to you my very own Kani Sushi and Philly Maki!

Macappleboy

One more day to go and we will be bidding goodbye to 2009.

Though the year has not offered a lot of good memories to me, I am still thankful that I was this close in saying that I survived the year!

A lot of things happened this year. There’s recession, depression and frustration. But amidst all these negative experiences I had (I have), I may say that God has been good to me that I was able to face some challenges that I thought would never end.

Here’s a run down of the year that was…

January

A New Beginning… Bye bye COBO Hello STX!

February

Tried to have some fun before facing the new challenge…

Here’s what greeted me after…

My beloved Grandmother, who took care of me when I was only a child, who asks me every minute if I’m hungry (that explains my slender body today), who fed the entire baranggay whenever there’s an occasion in the family, who cooks the best callos, kare-kare, and hamonado; left us.

March

Hello baby… My phone meets her baby!

April

Quality Time with my pamangkins at Eastwood Easter Wonderland!

May

In my goal to try different Nationalities…

Mexican (reunited with an old friend)

Korean

Brazilian

Thai

…and still counting

June

Finally tried this new hip Resto in GB5 who is making noise because of their infamous pizza!

Cosmopolitan Japanese

July

12 Days of Birthday

My Birthday Holiday!

Lunch out with family

Finally got the chance to meet my friend, Ruby after her long years of stay in the US. That was actually unexpected as I was just walking at the Eastwood Mall park that night and someone approaches me. She will be leaving the next day for Australia.

August

Though I’m already on state of recession, I still practice my purchasing power to shift my thoughts off from work. My stats are failing and shopping is the only thing to do when you’re depressed.

Which I bought after watching Bea’s film and thought would help me in making decisions… hayz!

September

Before Ondoy, my package from New York finally arrived!

And I haven’t even read it… not even the prologue.

Bonding with family

October and November

On to the next level! If past months gave me workloads… these months gave me WORKLOADS (pronounce it with big and roaring monster voice)! I don’t even have social life! Your boss’s call asking for stats has been my alarm clock ever since! The only thing that I can do is to pose and smile for my daily profile pic… Thanks DS!

December

Stress and Recession at its finest!

I am actually thankful that amidst of the heavy office workload, I still got the chance of going out of the country, dine out with friends and shop even if the budget is extremely tight. Also, even if love life does not exist in my vocabulary, I accepted the fact that I am fully committed and married to myself and my job. Charus!

This is how boring my life is… and I am looking forward for another year of boredom in 2010 (and not recession!)

Happy New Year to ya’ll!

Macappleboy

Bwahahahahaha

Priceless nga!

Macappleboy

I’m not sure what happened last Christmas but when I arrived in the office the next day, I was so sleepy and can’t get into my focus of doing my reports. My eyes keep on closing until I decided to take a nap in the Quiet Lounge.

I never got the chance to sleep in the room as I wasn’t able to get into a comfy position on a bed that is free to use by every employee in the company. Not to mention the pillow that I tried to keep of touching my face by using my two hands in between. After an hour of trying to get some sleep, I went back to my desk and back to my reports.

My friend Japok and I are planning to go to MOA that day to watch Avatar in IMAX. I never got the chance to see the movie before Christmas as I was so busy at my work and doing some Holiday rush. I was about to cancel it ‘coz I wanted to take some rest and sleep the whole day but the thought of not getting any chance to reward myself from all the stress I got makes me hail a cab to go South.

Watching movies during the Holiday Season in the Philippines is like committing suicide as all good movies will be stopped from being shown and replaced by all entries of the Metro Manila Film Festival aka MMFF. I’m not a big fan of Filipino films except those made by Star Cinema but I don’t feel like spending my hard earned money that time to some movies that will make me snore two hours or so. So that is why when I’ve learned that Avatar is still shown in IMAX instead of Panday 3D LOL, I asked Japox if he wanted to watch it again for the fourth time.

I was aiming for the 1:40 PM show time but as we enter the IMAX Lobby, the only tickets available are those from 8PM and 11:15PM play time. Since I don’t have prior engagements next day morning, I decided to watch it on the 11PM screening and just goof around the mall while waiting. Here’s what we’ve done to kill time…

Lunch

Ate at Mongkok

Japox on his 10th glass of Iced Tea

Bowling

And I won!

We also goofed around the mall and had videoke at Power Station.

Japox found his light while waiting for the screening time

Arrived home at around 4AM and with a smile on his face. The movie is great and the effects is just Outstanding! Kudos to James Cameron! He did it again!

It is worth the 8 hour wait!

Macappleboy

What’s the best gift you’ve got this Christmas?

Though I may have the least gifts to get every year, I am the happiest person in the world because I was able to give back to those people who have done good deeds on me and made them smile in my own little way.

Thanks to everyone who have spent some money and made some effort to wrap the gifts… I can’t thank you enough… I don’t expect any gifts in return, your smiles and appreciation is worth any penny, stress, and sleepless nights.

But to answer my question above, if I just have to scan the gifts I’ve got I’ll pick the Oversize Lacoste shirt my tita gave me. No one owns something like that here, except me – at least for now – as far as I know.

Macappleboy