Geee . . . .

It's been a while I had my own guitar. Translation: NEVER. Which may surprise some people since I've been playing guitar since high school. The guitars that I use are often borrowed from friends. We did have a classical guitar at home but since I didn't buy it, or given to me, it wasn't really mine. Besides, I never really liked the large fret common in classical guitars.

I learned how to play the bass using my friend's guitar when I was in college and when I finally had money to buy one, I bought one in Raon (Manila). Buying an acoustic guitar never became priority from then on, since I enjoyed playing my bass guitar and I still had our old family classical guitar if I really wanted to play with a 6-string.
 
Actually, I took that old classical guitar in our new home years ago but I rarely used it. I still hated playing it's large fret. But I played it from time to time when I felt like playing. Until Sam broke the guitar around two years ago. He broke the guitar's neck. Split it in half. After almost 20 years of service, a two year old accidentally broke it.

Two weeks ago, my wife gave me my own guitar as a late birthday present (thanks, baby!). I was really planning to buy one because we don't have guitar at home and there were times when I really felt I wanted to play one.

Finally. After many years, I finally have my own guitar.

It's a Fernando guitar (just like my bass guitar). It's not as pricey as a Yamaha or some other branded guitar but enthusiasts would agree that Fernando makes pretty mean guitars. I've had my bass since 2002 and it's still playing like it did more than 10 years ago.

I chose this guitar because it has a nice round sound. I tested some high-end guitars a few months a go and I am confident that my guitar sounds just as well as these.

My guitar looks bad-ass!

We tried a few guitars at the store, but for this guitar, it love at first strum. I told my wife that this is the one I wanted because I felt like I was having an orgasm when I was strumming it hehehe. I wonder if people feel the same when when they chose their guitars.  



I played it as soon as we got home. Played it for hours until I couldn't play anymore because my fingers hurt.  I even bought a song book because I've forgotten how to play a lot of songs over the years so I can play right away.


I'm really happy with this new gift. So happy that I blogged about it!

Exciting times! Now, I can go back to my old hobby.... writing songs. :) 

With Cute Kids Come Great Responsibilities (The Pakarazzi is BACK!)

I've been a parent for almost six years now and I can honestly say that I truly adore my kids. We try not to spoil the although sometimes we do indulge our selves in spoiling them (which we almost always regret the day after). It's one of the reasons why I seldom go out. I like spending my weekends with them doing stuff or doing nothing. We play, we bike, we watch dvds and now we play Angry Birds on my phone or wifey's phone or on the new Alcatel T10 tablet that I got for free. 

During work weekdays, as much as possible, we try to come home as early as we can.Sophie is now 5 years old turning 6 this January and Sam is 3 turning 4 next March. It's fun to see my kids develop their own personalities every day. We want to be with them during their formative years because we want to develop their values as a family. My wife and I grew up with different values and teachings from our respective parents and we want to combine all the good stuff that we learned from them. It may not be perfect, but we're hoping that this would help them out when they grow up. 

Discipline is something that I want to instill on them at an early age, and before anyone asks, no I don't beat up my kids.We try to teach them what's right and what's wrong by telling them why they should and shouldn't do things. Of course there's the occasional "stand in the corner" moment for both of them when we feel we need to reiterate our point (Sam is leading in the "stand in the corner" count, by the way). I'm glad that both understand which really surprised me at first. I never knew that kids can be so smart. They're like giant sponges that absorb information in a colossal scale. 

 

That's why I frown on parents who do not discipline or even guide their kids as they grow up. They're missing out on the opportunity of putting they're kids i a good position to have emotional and intellectual balance that they need to have when they grow up. 

I hope we're doing the right thing, though.We're also learning as we go along. 

One thing is for sure: I truly enjoy being a father.

:-)

* I wrote this after having Sam stand in the corner for cutting a page from her mom's cook book with his ate's scissors. I wouldn't mind actually, but its a cookie recipe that wife never tried before.

Wait. I meant I didn't want him to play with scissors. That's why I had him stand in the corner.  Hehe.

 **********************

After not blogging for more than a year, I recently found myself visiting my blog. To my surprise, my blog is being re-directed to another site. I didn't know why this is happening. I researched a bit and I found out that the problem may be found in one of the gadgets on the site and all I have to do is zero in and fix or delete the gadget. And because i don't know how to fix it as I am absolutely useless when it comes to programming, I deleted it.

Now here I am . Writing again, while my wife and kids are reading story books in our living room. Armed with a new unlimited broadband connection (I opted to get the Sun Broadband promo with the free tablet), I am now free to blog anywhere and any time I feel like it. Actually, I've been planning to revive my blog for months now, but I never really got to it because of certain things, mostly because of laziness. 

My wife has been blogging for quite some time now and when I saw her posting in her blog, I thought to myself that maybe I should give it another go.

 I'm glad I did.

I've forgotten about how liberating it is to write. Write about whatever I feel like writing whenever I feel like it. Actually, I can't how simultaneous this is, as I'm just typing whatever comes to my head right now!   


Feels good.

It's good to be back!

 

 

Sam in School

No. We didn't enroll Sam to school this year. He's only two years old for Pete's sake! But her yaya takes him to Sophie's school once and a while. Sophie's teachers know who he is already. The first day he went there, the teachers were impressed because he knew all the animals, some numbers and letters and the colors that were displayed inside the classrooms. They were so delighted that they gave him a star. Now that's what I call and HONORARY STUDENT!

Although the teachers were saying that we should enroll him as early as now, I really don't feel that we should. Yes, he'll probably learn a thing or two in school, but I'd rather have him at home, be a kid and enjoy his childhood. He'll have lots of time in school growing up. That's also the reason why we enrolled Sophie "later" than most kids. Besides, my little girl acts as if she's grown up already, I don't want my little boy to act that way too soon.

:-)


www.thepakarazzi.blogspot.com

school . . . pride?

Sophie will be starting school this coming school year. For a few months now, Jan and I have been looking around for the perfect school for her, and quite possibly, Sam as well. Though, as much as we want to give our children the best education that they can have, it never entered our minds to send them to a high-end exclusive school.

You see, my wife and I didn't study at a high-end exclusive school. Although we probably, at one point or another, aspired to study in one, for one reason or another, we didn't.

Anyway, Jan and I talked about this a lot of times. We both agreed that graduating from an expensive school won't assure a bright future for our children. Its the value of hard work, dedication and confidence to face whatever problem they would encounter that will make them successful in life.

I know, people have different notions about what success really is, but to us, success is living a comfortable life, doing what you love doing while taking care or yourself or your family. Taking care of yourself or your family means having the capability to provide food, clothing, shelter and education by your own means.

SO . . in the next couple of weeks, we'll be looking for a school that compliments OUR family values (I said OUR because families have different values and Jan and I have already developed our own family values). A progressive/non-traditional school seem to be fit with what we believe in as parents, and we've seen a couple of them within our vicinity.

We're not closing our doors to exclusive schools. Time may come when they might want to study at an expensive school for college. As long as they pass and we can afford it, they'd probably go there. If they pass and we can't afford it, they'd probably pass as scholars! :)

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

What I don't understand is the much ballyhooed school pride. Don't get me wrong. I'm proud of the schools that I went to. What's disturbing is that some people think they're better than others just because they studied at an exclusive school. As I said, I  never studied in one. For me, kids who studied in expensive schools should see it as a privilege. Not everyone can afford to send their kids to these schools, and if they could, they probably worked their ass off just so they could do (or their family is really filthy rich because their forefathers worked THEIR asses off, which isn't really the kid's fault).

Take this article from Mo Twister's blog (which I read from time to time). He says that some people coming from expensive schools are too proud of their school, that sometimes, they think that, just because they went there, they're more superior than others (by others, I mean MOST people).

This is something that I don't want my kids to have. 

I want them to be confident, but not because they studied in a certain school but because they know what they're talking about and what they're doing.

I want them to be superior, not because of their school but because they worked their asses off  to be on top of the corporate ladder or to be the owner of their own business or to be the best damn guitarist this side of Wally Gonzales.

I want them to be proud, not because of their school, but because they're the best at what they do.

Besides, I know some people who are college drop-outs who were and still are successful in their respective careers. I also know well educated people who are PROUD (and when I say proud, I mean the traffic causing kind of proud in Araneta Coliseum) of their schools who couldn't afford to buy a piece of candy using money from their own pockets (because they're to good to work for a company who wouldn't hire them anyway, but would because they know a guy who knows a guy, that knows a guy in the company, or just plain lazy).

This is not to say that I don't know people from exclusive schools who are the opposite. There are a lot of good people too. They're the ones who would probably beat the crap out of  those "proud" people if they ever hear them talking too much (and when I say too much, i mean it in a totally bad way) about their school pride.

What's sad about this is that schools (and parents) are supposed to prepare kids for the real world. If its time for these kids to be out there and they're still trapped inside their "school world", I think the school and the parents failed.

In our careers, my wife and I probably failed as much as we've succeeded, but this is one failure we're not about to make.


:-)

www.thepakarazzi.blogspot.com

Pa Q

Si Mr. & Ms. Pa Q.

Alam lahat.

Experto sa lahat ng bagay. 

Puro reklamo pero walang solusyon.

Kung makapanira ng kapwa na, kala mo kilala nya . . . 

pero nakikita lang naman sa tv.

Mahilig bumangka pero di naman marunong humawak ng sagwan.

Mahilig makisali kahit di naman sinasali.

Mahilig makibakas kasi walang sariling diskarte.

Mahilig pumorma pero di makabili ng sariling bulate-fishball.

Malakas ang boses pero wala namang sinabi.

Maraming ganito.

Ganito ka ba?

Kung ganito ka. . . .  

Pa Q. ka!

wala lang hehehe


www.thepakarazzi.blogspot.com

Sophie's 4th

It was Sophie's birthday yesterday. She's four years old now. I often tell her that even though shes a  bit grown-up and will be starting school next school year, she'll always be my baby girl. I think this is true for all parents. They always think of their children, no matter how grown-up they are, to be their babies.

We celebrated her birthday at our house. We invited our parents to come over for lunch. In the afternoon, we went to the La Mesa Eco Park. I told Sophie that we'd go fishing, but we got there late at around 4:45pm (the park closes at around 5pm) so we decided to just go around. I also forgot to ask where the fishing pond was from the guard.

Sophie, Sam and their cousin Zeth enjoyed the trip. They rode a small kalesa which took them around the place once. Sophie and Sam liked looking at horses, even in pictures. When we were in Baguio, they always pointed at horses whenever they see one. Unfortunately, they didn't like riding on a horse. But riding on a kalesa is a different story. Both of them were excited to ride, as long as its no on the horse!

The children enjoyed the trip, however short it was. I plan on taking them there as often as I can.I'd like for my kids to appreciate nature. Times are changing and I foresee that as they grow older, most of the trees and other plant-life growing at the park may be gone.

Sophie has really grown. She's actually a good ate.   She plays with Sam all the time, even when Sam plays a bit rough. I think she even teaches Sam how to count from one to five! Sometimes she would tell Sam to behave or else I'll put him in the corner. She's also malambing to us, especially when she wants to ask something from us, hehe. But in all fairness, when we say no, she usually follows.

My wish for my daughter? I wish that she'll always be healthy and I also wish that she continues to be the smart and loving kid that she is.

I love you Sophie! Mommy and Sam loves you too! :)


Next Sophie milestone: First day in school.
:-)

Team Work

My wife and I are planning to co-author a blog. She's currently into blogging now, writing about a lot of stuff. If you want to read her blog, just click here. I think its a great idea!. There are a lot of stuff that we can certainly write about.

Its not the first time that we'd work as a team. Even before we were husband and wife, we always did things together. My best man in our wedding said that we were like a team and that we were always focused and had a plan and would get or achieve whatever we wanted. At that time, I thought that he just said that because it was my wedding and he was my best friend, but looking back, and looking at where we are now, I actually think he's right.

We would never be where we are now without helping each other. We've always supported each other in whatever we do.When we were still dating, whenever we went out of town,we both saved money for each  and every trip. Even when we got married.  Our parents didn't spend a single centavo. We used our own money that we saved up for a year (It's a good thing my Tita Maday gave us the hotel accommodation as our wedding gift also Thanks Tita!). We planned the wedding ourselves from top to bottom.
 
Even in our household, in raising our kids, our finances, or whatever issues we have at home,  we talk about it. Is this the secret of a good married life?

NO. I don't think its THE secret. Everyone knows that everything works out as long as communication lines are open.

 Hopefully, we'll have our new blog soon. I'll still maintain this one, of course.

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

Speaking of team work, how 'bout my San Antonio Spurs? Best record in the NBA. Everyone's healthy. Everyone's doing their part.  I can smell another trophy!

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!

Moving on . . Moving Forward

For the last 11 years, I've been working in different companies in the cable TV industry. For 11 years, I've ate, dreamed and breathed cable TV. Six years on three (Home / Sky and CableLink) cable TV providers and one program provider (Viva). It's been exciting. Very exciting actually. The industry was and still is very dynamic. With new technologies coming out and with new programming formats being introduced, there wasn't a dull moment in my 11years. Being in the entertainment industry also makes for good conversation, especially at parties hehe.

Just like any person, I wanted to learn more. Explore the unexplored. Grow as an individual and as a person in my chosen field, which is marketing.

So after 11 years in the industry which includes my 5 year stay at Viva, I decided to move on to an industry that I never imagined myself to be working for. Now I'm going to try out the banking and credit card industry. You might think that I may be a fish out of water in this situation, but I think that in order for one to grow, one must have the courage to explore new things. Most people I know were surprised that I was moving to a different industry, especially in an industry that involves numbers. God knows one of my favorite apps in my celfone is the calculator hehe.

There are a lot of new things to learn. I think I'd really have to work and put in more time study this industry so I can catch-up with my new colleagues. I'm actually looking forward to it, because to me, the industry is very interesting and exciting!

2009 has been a roller coaster ride for me and my family and I'm glad that I'm ending the year on a good note. God has blessed me and my family with a new baby (my son Sam), a own new home (we just transferred a couple of weeks ago) and a new job (me? banking / credit card? God really works in mysterious ways!)

Trifecta.

We truly are very thankful.

One more thing that I'm thankful for is . . . after 11 years, now I can stop "monitoring" and start watching TV. Hehehe!

Have a great week everyone!

:-)