Bisdak Babbles

I’ve always wanted to take a photo of the view from the sky train at the Changi International Airport. During the Airshow, my housemate lent me his SLR so I finally took a decent photo. Here’s the view when you take the sky train from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2:

Do you throw away things that you think have already served their purpose? I usually don’t. I don’t like to trash envelopes even if it means crowding my drawer more. I don’t throw away custom presentation folders, one of which I got from an employer four years ago. I still use it when I carry around some important, must-not-be-folded documents. Paper bags? Yes, I’ve alloted a portion of my cabinet for them. The balikbayan box I sent from Japan had many paper bags in it. Many ads and discount coupons are placed in our mailbox but I still keep most of them until they expire, even if I only have 1% possibility of using those coupons. When I was still with Epson in Cebu, I was the one who kept the boxes of the omiyage brought by visitors from Japan. I’m pretty sure I’ve placed them in my cabinet at home but I haven’t checked if they’re still in good condition!

The other day, we received an email regarding this year’s dinner and dance. The venue has already been decided, at the newly-opened Resorts World Sentosa! Which specific hotel it is, I still don’t know. But the company’s annual big event will be in May and I’m already this excited. I was lucky last year because I joined the company on the first day of April, and the confirmation of attendance was due mid-April. It was held in Hilton Singapore Hotel.

Some people my not like attending such events. Well, I honestly don’t too, but it’s one of the rare chances for me to get and dine in a five-star hotel. I’m still a female (up to know, I still can’t say I’m a woman) and I like to doll up sometimes! The problem is, I’ve put on more than six pounds since moving here in Singapore. I don’t want to wear a dress with some distracting, unwanted bulges. A friend has already resorted to diet pills with ephedra but I still want to lose weight the natural way. Three months with at least six pounds to lose. Wish me luck!

My family encountered a tough time when I was still a child. My father was finishing college at that time while supporting a wife, three kids, two siblings-in-law and a step-mother. We rarely had red meat dishes on the table. Most of the time, we had herring either fried or grilled for lunch and dinner, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Not the McDonald-style, rather it was often mixed with tomatoes and onions. I don’t like tomatoes, but it’s cheaper if cooked that way. I was not even aware there’s a thing such as sunny side up!

I had enough of scrambled eggs so I had lost cravings for it for quite sometime. When I went to college, I got introduced to sunny side up in “tapsilog”. It was so new to me, tasted really good, so I ate tapsilog more than three times a week! Eggs might be rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) but I think I had been taking in too much of it so I tried to get over my love of sunny-side-up. Years have passed and I’ve learned new ways in cooking eggs, I’m now back to the old habit. But it’s really hard to resist especially if eaten with pancakes. Yummy!

My mother is still in her mid-fifties. But she is already complaining about painful joints. In fact, when I was in my teens, she suffered a kind of arthritis that kept her bedridden for days. Thank God, she recovered from it. I didn’t know until I last came home that she had a little accident: she fell off from a habal-habal (motorcycle). My cousin told me that my mother had a painful dilemma after the accident, walking around like a 90-year old. Each step she made was clearly painful to her. She had to undergo therapy to make her walk normally again. Until now, she complains about painful joints, maybe also because she’s getting older. I want her to try out a joint supplement but I think she needs more than that. She moves around much but I think she needs to have some kind of exercise. I still need to convince her to do just that. Above all, she really needs to follow a healthy lifestyle.

My father was only 5 feet 4 inches tall. My mother stands at only 4 feet 11 inches. So, I’m not really surprised why I could not join beauty contests. As if I’d be qualified even if I get the minimum height requirement! Also, I don’t have the guts to wear a swimsuit in front of many people. But being tall really have its advantages. Like getting the luggage from the overhead compartment. There was one time when I was the last one to get off the plane because I couldn’t reach my luggage. I had to call a flight attendant to help me. I want Shaynna to have the height advantage. At least it won’t be difficult for her if she wants to be a flight attendant. But I’m not really sure if it is safe to let her take hgh supplements. If they are safe, are they really effective? With the help of such supplements or not, I just hope Shaynna would grow at least 3 inches taller than me.

My first visit to a “real” hair salon was six years ago. By this, I mean those salons that are air-conditioned with the comfortable, rotating chairs. Since I was little, I always went with my mother to her hairdresser. That hairdresser did her job at her house. That was when I was introduced to a hair serum. I did occasionally put on conditioner to my hair, but putting on that hair serum did better job to my hair. Now, there are salons and spas everywhere. When I had the worst acne breakout as a highschool student, I went to a dermatologist. That did not solve the problem. I still have acne. Will facials be effective against acne? I would like to find out but I cower each time my friends tell me how painful it is. A few years from now, I will definitely be introduced to wrinkle serum. I just hope that I’m done with acne before I start holding off aging. But are serums, creams, etc. really effective?

The school year is almost over in the Philippines and I’m looking at few activity options for Shaynna during summer break. She once asked me if she could join in one of those ballet dance lessons. She might have been bored last summer, but what attracted her most to ballet is the tutu! She even asked me to buy her one when she saw some tutus at the mall. If I were to decide, I would love her to take some horse-back riding lessons. Little girls really look good in an equestrian apparel! Unfortunately, there’s no such lesson offered in my hometown and if there were, it’s definitely costly. So I am left with: ballet, piano, painting, or swimming lesson. But for Shaynna, it’s definitely the one with the tutus.