Merry Christmas

Before the clock to strikes twelve, I'd like to greet everyone a Merry Christmas! 

Happy Birthday Jesus!

LETS ALL HAVE A GOOD ONE! 

CHEERS!!!

p.s. Happy Birthday to my brother Ian too :)

vrooom

How many months has it been since I last blogged? Too long to even remember.

Anyway, a lot of things have happened in the last few months. The MAJOR MAJOR one was when Jan and I decided to purchase our very first car. Buying a car was something that always took a back seat. It wasn't really our priority. We just bought our house almost two years ago and we dind't want to add another expense to our rather large financial obligation (monthly ammortization + 20% downpayment ammortization). But when things started to settling down and seemingly falling into place, we decided that now's the right time to do it.

One of the reasons why we decided to buy a car is becasue of our kids. We live in Novaliches and most of the time, commuting with the kids would be such a hassle. With all of the stuff we had to bring, not to mention the time spent waiting for a cab, plus the ridiculously high cab fare! Imagine, we spend P500 on cab fare just to go to Pasay or Makati from our house!

In the beginning, we wanted to buy a nice second hand car that would fit our budget. We pegged it at around P350-400k. I had car loan options at work with good interset rates. We bought Carfinder and Buy and Sell magazines every week so we can find good deals. The problem was, both of us didn't anything about cars. We both didn't drive and we never had interest in cars.

It was a good thing that my cousin Nainah and her husband Jerry lived near by. Both of them helped us out in checking out the cars. We would spend every weekend just test driving the second hand cars that fit our requirement: low milage, fuel efficient and has four wheels.

We . . . uh . . . Jerry test drived most of the cars we saw (2 or 3 Toyota Vios), while my former officemate Willy test drove a Mitsubishi Lancer. It's really very physically and emotionally tiring to look for a car that you'd want to own. There was a time when we were supposed to buy the a Vios, but when we were about to pay the downpayment, someone else beat us to the punch. We were supposed to get the Lancer but there were some errors on the car's papers.

That's when my wife suggested that we should just buy a brand new car. The idea wasn't really far fetched. It would be bettter for us to buy a new car rather than a second hand one because we both dind't know anything about cars. If the second hand car breaks down for whatever reason, we wouldn't know what to do. Less hassle. But more expensive.

Her officemates applied for car loans at BDO and I think most of them got approved. Since she's from GMA, she was so sure that we could get a loan. We were really gung-ho about it. A few computations here and there, looking for ways to maximize both our incomes. Praying that we make the right decision and for the loan to be approved.

And we did get approved. Now all we had to was choose the car that we want to buy. Oh, and we had to learn how to drive too.

We had two choices: Toyota Vios and the Honda City.

The City was Jan's choice while I wanted the Vios since its one of the more durable cars in the market. The first time I rode in the City at Honda QC, I realized that it was more spacious than the Vios, which was important for me since I have long legs. Price wise, it was ok. We took the manual variant since I wanted to really learn how to drive (Though now, I think we should have gotten the automatic because of the traffic in Edsa).

Nice look. Big trunk. All the space you need. Fuel efficient. Honda City it is. We didn't bother to look a the Vios in Toyota's showroom since we ride a cab everyday and most cabs are Vioses.

Both of us took driving class (another story to write about) and by the time our car arrived, we both knew how to drive.

Sophie and Sam loved our new car. They would always want to go around the subdivision in it. Sophie wouldn't even want to ride in her Lolo's old Corona because she said ours is "mas- maganda. Pangit car ni Lolo!". She used to like to go around with her Lolo with in the car. Now she wouldn't even touch it! Hahaha

We're just thankful that we have our own car now. We were hoping that our companies would give us one (wink, wink mga boss!) but since we really needed one . . .

We're just so greatful that we could afford one. Konting tipid lang . . . for five years, but with the convinience that we're experiencing now, I think its worth it.

Thank you Lord for this blessing!

:)


www.thepakarazzi.blogspot.com

Panahon

Hunyo na. Ang bilis. Parang kahapon lang e nagaayos kami ng mga gamit para lumipat ng bahay. Parang kahapon lang e birthday ni Sophie. Parang kahapon lang ay gumagapang pa lang si Sam. Ang bilis talaga ng panahon. Minsan, pakiramdam ko ay baka ako maiwan.

Minsan, marami pa kaming gustong gawin pero hindi kami makahanap ng oras. Siguro, maganda na rin na maaga ako gumigising ngayon. Maaga rin gumising si Sam kaya may oras kaming mag laro sa umaga. Si Sophie naman, medy tanghali na gumigising kaya madalas, sa gabi nakami nakakapag-laro . . . kung hindi pa sya tulog.

Bilang magulang, ayaw kong lumaki ang mga anak na parang biglaan. Bawat minuto ay importante. Bawat oras na kasama namin sila ay mahalaga. Gusto namin na kapag Sabado at Linggo ay magkakasama kami. Kahit sa bahay lang. Kahit hindi kami lumabas. Ang importante, sama-sama.

Kaya minsan, nalulungkot ako pag nakakarining ako ng mga kuwentong, masadong “busy” ang magulang at walang oras sa mga anak. Lalo na siguro nag mga nagtratrabaho sa gabi. Taliwas ang oras sa ordinaryong gising ng mga anak nila. Malamang, hinahanap-hanap ng mga anak ang mga magulang nila na sa sobrang pagod, ay walang magawa kung hindi magpahinga nalang tuwing weekend. Kaya naman noong may mga offer sakin na trabaho na may pasok ang Sabado, hindi matanggap ang mga ito. Ang panahon ay mahalaga. Ang oras para sa mga anak ay mas-importante.

Totoo na minsan, hahanapin mo rin ang panahon para sa sarili mo. Nakakaranas din kami noon. Pero pag mag-isa ka na na paikot-ikot sa mall at makakita ng ga aruan o damit na pang-bata, bigla mong maaalala yung mga anak mo at mag-mamadali ka nang umuwi.

Ang dali pa namang patuwain ang mga anak ko. Isang balot ng biscuit lang para kay Sam at Yakult lang kay Sophie, makikita mo na silang ngumiti at tumawa na parabang naigyan mo sila ng napaka-mahal na laruan. Minsan, sinasabihan ko lang si Sophie na “ikaw baby girl ni Daddy” ay hanggang tenga na ang ngiti nya. Si Sam naman, sa konting laro lang , parang hindi na mauubusan ng tawa.

Hunyo na at lalo pang bibilis ang panahon. Hunyo pa lang pero iniisip ko na na malapit na ang pasko. Naglalakad na si Sam. Sumasabay na sya sa sayaw ni Barney. Mahilig na mag make-up at lipstick si Sophie. Sa isang taon ay magaaral na sya. Kahit na gaano ka-pagod, kahit na minsan ay kapos sa oras, pipilitin naming mag-aswa na sumbay sa panahon.


:-)

www.thepakarazzi.blogspot.com

HOT!

Its been very HOT lately that me I’m thinking of buying an aircon for our room. There have been time, well, a lot of times that we couldn’t sleep because of the heat. Just yesterday, it was reported that temperatures rose to 38 degrees Celsius. Hotter than the reported temperature in Morocco during the filming of Prince of Persia which was 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 37.7 degrees Celsius.

Looks like its going to rain today, though. But that’s not an assurance that the temperature will go down.

****************

Have you seen the morning show SAPUL on TV5?

I watch it everyday. Its a different kind of morning show, not like Unang Hirit on GMA or Umagang Kay Ganda on ABS. The show’s hosts are Erwin Tulfo, Martin Andanar, Lourd De Veyra and very pretty Shawn Yao.

The show may be a bit raw, but that’s what makes it unique and endearing. Sometimes, Ariel of Totoo TV co-hosts which makes the show more funnier. He once asked Lourd De Veyra: “Lourd, matatanong ko lang no, bakit hindi ka kaya mag pa tatoo ng buhok sa noo?”. He even told one of the Miss Earth winners to “remember my surname, because someday, it might be yours”.

The show is HOT. Especially Shawn Yao, hehehe.

****************


Flip-flops, tsinelas, step-ins, slippers are very HOT this season. It’s so hot that I bought an expensive brand myself. I’ve been resisting to buy those because I find them too expensive. I’ve bought my wife a couple of pairs in the past by never bought one for myself.

But last Saturday, on our way to Los Banos from Tagaytay, we passed by Paseo in Sta. Rosa, and found a depo store. They were giving around 30% discounts on selected items. Thinking that I would never find these discounted prices in Manila, I bought myself a pair. Finally.

I think it also helped that the Merrel sandals that I was wearing that day broke. The straps broke off. On both sandals.

I finally found good reasons to buy a pair. Discount + Broken Sandals.

****************

Sophie and Sam are enjoying the summer. They’ve been to the beach and the swimming pool. They love the water so much that its really hard to take them out. Last Saturday, they were in the pool for the whole day. Because it’s been very HOT for the past weeks, Jan and I thought of buying an inflatable pool for them but there’s always sunlight in our garage form morning till afternoon, and we didn’t have any other place for the pool. I didn’t want to put it in our lawn because of the Bermuda grass. We didn’t want the kids to be exposed to the sun for a long time, even with sun-block.

It’s a good thing the the pool in Los Banos had shaded areas. Even the water there was HOT (of course, the water came from HOT springs).


****************

Enjoy the rest of the week, everyone!

:-)

blog uli!!

It’s been a loong while since I’ve last blogged. I still visit and read most of the ususal blogs that I visit though. It’s not that I have nothing to blog about. It’s just that, most of the time, I can’t find the time to do it.

Here’s hoping that I find more time . . .


***************

Funny how people are getting into this whole JEJEMON thing. There are JEJEMONS and JEJEBUSTERS. Reminds me of the time when there were METALS and HIPHOPS. I don’t understand why this is a big thing. So what if they text differently? Even the DECS swore that they’ll go after Jejejmons. Wtf??

F DEY R GOING AFTR D JEJEMONS, DEY SHLD GO AFTR PPL HU TXT IN SHRTCT 2!

DB?

Texting in short cut was born because for most people, it could be very tedious to key in the letters of their messages, especially long messages. Some people text the number “0” rather than press their keypad four times for the letter “O” Text messages can only accommodate as certain number of characters (160 w/ space, I think) and if you text more than that, you’ll be sending the message in two parts. Sending one message in two parts could be very expensive.

Php 2 per message? R U CRZY?

And now we have the JEJEMONS an offspring of the short cut text, born out of the necessity to save money on SMS messaging.

Incidentally, rock music, METAL music’s father, came from blues, the music of the African slaves in America during the 1800’s. Blues became rock and roll, jazz and R&B, and somewhere along the way, it became HIPHOP.

Hindi kaya ang Jejemon ang bagong Jeproks? Ok sa alright, erap! Moni oyat! Jejejeje!

OA naman yang DECS. All out war against the Jejemons, they say? Why don’t they wage war against teachers who can’t speak English very well? I mean, how do they expect students to learn English if their teachers cant’ even speak it properly? And I'm not talking about accents here.

Grammar. Grammar. Grammar.

No disrespect to the teachers, but its just, even in private schools, there are teachers like that and I think that DECS should do something about it.

WAT DO U THNK?

***************

Election’s over. We have a new President. I still see some people griping over at FB because their candidate didn’t win. I find it funny that some people who gripe didn’t even vote for their candidate because they weren’t registered. Idiots . . .

Our country’s problem won’t be solved by the President alone. We all need to pitch in. Work hard. Be vigilant. Believe that there will be change. Change should come from us. People say that “kung di ka bumoto, wala kang karapatan mag reklamo”, well I say that pwede ako mag reklamo kasi nagbabayad ako ng buwis ko. Nope, I didn’t vote because I now live very, very, very, VERY far from where I was registered and I couldn’t find the time to update my status. But that doesn’t mean I can’t exercise my right as a citizenery, very, very, VERY far from where I was registered and I couldn’t find the time to update my status. But that doesn’t mean I can’t exercise my right as a citizen, di ba?

I think that every productive person in the country should exercises their right to be heard. Ang problema lang, kung sino pa ang di nagbabayad ng buwis, sya pa ang markelamo


Today is Wednesday and I’m writing this at six o’clock in the morning while drinking coffee. In a short while I’ll be getting ready for work. Time flies in my new job. Can’t believe I’ve been here for 5 months already. I was supposed to do my “self evaluation” for my regularization this morning but I decided to blog instead.

I missed this.

:-)

The Bakit List

3 year olds are notorius for always asking "why". We've been experiencing this with Sophif for the past few months now. Sometimes it can be cute and sometimes it can be annoying. She's been having her "bakit moments" too often now that I hear Jan always teling her: "Sophie, control your why's and bakits!" and to which Sophie would reply: "Why, Mommy?".

One memorable "bakit moment" happend last week as Sophie and I were coming home from the playgound:

Me: "Sophie, 'lam mo ba love kita?"

Sophie: "Opo. Bakit?"

Me: "Anong bakit?"

Sophie: "Bakit love mo ko?"

Me: "E kasi anak kita kaya love kita."

Sophie: "Bakit?"

Me: "E kasi nga baby kita kaya love kita."

Sophie: "Bakit mo ko baby?"

Me: "E kasi nga . . . basta!"

There was also a time that I turned the tables on her.

Me: "Sophie, love mo ba ko?"

Sophie: "Opo"

Me: "Bakit mo ka love?"

Sophie: "E kasi nga love kita"

Me: "Bakit nga?"

Sophie: "E kasi gusto ko, Daddy"

Me: "Bakit?"

Sophie: "Ayaw ko na usap!"

This morning, Sophie and Sam woke up the same time as we did. When we got home last night, both kids were asleep so I asked Sophie to give me a kiss. She said:

Sophie: "Bakit kiss Daddy? Kasi early ako sleep kagabi?"

Me: "Opo! Tulog ka na kasi kagabi e. Why did you sleep early?

Sophie: "Hay naku Daddy, sabi ni Sam, 'wag masyadong maraming tanong!"

Hahaha. Jan was half-wake when Sophie said that and she was laughing at us. I turned to Sam and said:

Me: "Sam, did you say that?"

Sam: "Apapapapaa . . . . aahhhh . . . . dadada . . ."

Me: "Di daw nya sinabi yun, Sophie!"

Two years from now, Sam will have his "bakit moments" and its a good thing that we're being "trained" by Sophie to handle particular situations like this!


:-)

Return of The Pakarazzi

I’m back! After weeks of being in-active on my blog, I’ve finally found the time to make some updates. I know it’s a bit late but never the less, I’d like to greet everybody a happy new year! I hope this year will be better than last year for all of us.

Man, 2009 was a real roller coaster ride for me, starting on its firs month! A lot happened at home, at work and just about everywhere! Lets backtrack and see what happened to The Pakarazzi the past year:

JANUARY – Just moved in to a rented apartment in Tandang Sora. We had a major adjustment. Our place was far from where our friends and family live and certainly far from our usual hang outs. We had to get used from the new place to both our jobs, but I guess it was easier for Jan because her office is in QC and I worked in Ortigas. We celebrated Sophie’s 2nd birthday at the apartment.

FEBRUARY – I don’t remember much, heheh! But I do recall that there was some issues in the office because part of my department was merged or “integrated” into another department in an attempt to streamline operations and make everything more efficient.

MARCH – Sam was born! We had to extend one more day at the hospital because he had to undergo blue light therapy since he had a case of Jaundice. Thankfully, after one session, we were allowed to go home.

APRIL – Jan was on maternity leave and I had to go to and from work all by myself. You see, Jan and I always go to work and most of the time, go home from work together. No summer outings for us since Sam was just born.

MAY – Nothing special about this month, except that there’s more pressure at work plus more pressure to improve my financial issues. Paying for our new house plus a new baby isn’t exactly an ideal situation for us at the time.

JUNE – AUGUST – Travel months for me. I had to go to Legaspi, Samar, Cebu, Ormoc, Davao, Dapitan and Dipolog for work. I actually enjoyed traveling, but I missed my family terribly. Sadly, my Tita Josie passed away the day after I came home from Dipolog.

SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER – We were preparing for our moving in to our new house. We were in and out of the Camella office almost every week. It was quite tiring, and frustrating. I realized then who not to vote for president hehehe.

NOVEMER – We had to wait for 45 days before we could do anything in the new house and it was the longest 45 days! I couldn’t have anything done (cabinets, landscaping, etc) and we wanted to settle these things before moving in. Frustrating again. I also went to the Adcon which was moved to Subic because Baguio was ravaged by a storm. I was looking forward to going to Baguio. Maybe next year.

DECEMBER – We moved in the new house, which was exciting! Even with most of our savings drained, hehehe, it’s a good feeling to move in a house that you can call your own. I also started in a new job (and I’m actually writing this during our lunch break) which was good also. We had our first Christmas in our new house. I spent most of the weekend supervising internal improvements, which was tiring but highly satisfying.
I’ve never had a year like 2009, with all the ups and downs that happened. But after all that, I’m glad that me and my family had a trifecta last year: new baby, new house and (my) new job.

God really works in mysterious way, don’t you think?

Enjoy the rest of the week!