Bisdak Babbles

I’m out of toiletries among other things, so I asked my mother to send me some from the Philippines.
Here are the things that I often have my mother send me here:

1. dried fish (Bisaya term is “bulad”)
I could find some “bulad” in the supermarkets here but they’re not salty enough.

2. junk foods
I was into “Chippy” years ago, but the taste somewhat changed, so I shifted to “Clover”, particularly barbeque and cheese flavors.

3. Nescafe 3 in 1 Coffee
Of course, there are instant coffee packs here but they are more expensive don’t taste that good

4. rubbing alcohol
Not a single bottle of rubbing alcohol can be found here.

5. Powdered milk
They do have powdered milk here but they’re for babies! I seldom drink milk (coz I don’t really like the taste of it), so buying fresh milk isn’t really a good move. I often end up throwing them away.

6. tangle-free comb
Those cheap, Hair Doctor-like combs aren’t available here

7. allergy medications
I react to many allergens so I musn’t run out of these.

8. stomach problems medications
My stomach is a little bit sensitive, too. So I always keep over-the-counter medicines such as: Diatabs, Kremil-S, Simeco, and Flagyl. These are more essential to me than Biogesic.

9. body lotion
There’s this lotion that I’ve used since I was in the Philippines. I want to replace it with something that’s available here in Japan but even the Johnson’s Baby Lotion here is expensive, if converted to Philippine Peso. Furthermore, they’re only sold in 200g bottles, nothing bigger.

10. baby cologne
I am used to basically pouring cologne all over me after bath so I need to use a cheaper cologne. Avon always put their cologne up on sale (usually less than $2 each)! So far, I haven’t found an Avon shop here.

11. lip gloss
I’ve tried out some lip gloss brands here but I don’t like it. I still like Avon’s lip gloss, after all!

12. Ovaltine chocolate drink
I prefer Ovaltine over Milo, and I couldn’t find Ovaltine here.

13. Silver Swan Soy Sauce
I love this soy sauce. For me, it’s the best soy sauce for cooking Adobo. Not even Kikkoman could ever replace this one.

I came across NiqueHappy.com, a very interesting website and found these tips for us, ladies, on how to pamper ourselves. Let’s see if we’re already treating ourselves as we ought to…

1. Pamper yourself with a nice sparkling bubble bath with candles.
This is really effective at relieving stress, but our tub still needs a lot of scrubbing. I’ll definitely try this before autumn (keeping my fingers crossed).

2. Indulge in them chocolates.
I eat chocolates everyday! If only Lady Borden chocolate icecream were cheaper, I’d also help myself with at least 6 scoops a day!

3. Send yourself flowers! Clueless-style.
Maybe I will. If only those yellow roses were a lot cheaper. (Here I go again… ranting about the price tag)

4. Watch a comedy movie and laugh a lot. You’ll be surprised how much stress you relieve just by laughing.
Watching a comedy movie or anime while eating chips and icecream - 100% effective stress reliever. Well, at least for me.

5. Order an expensive meal and have it delivered to you. I mean, why not? Errr… let me think…

6. Make snacks (rice krispies, bake some cookies, blend drinks, etc.)
I miss those times I spend with my cousins scouring the neighborhood for snacks ingredients.

7. Work on that scrapbook you meant to finish but never had time to do it.
I do have lots of unfinished scrapbook!

8. Do some reading.
I always have a novel with me.

9. Or take a cruise out to a bookstore and indulge on some interesting reading. Or, if you’re feeling a bit homebound, order one online!
I do this sometimes. Good thing there’s a bookstore nearby that has lots of English novels. But I wish there’s some BookSale branches here, too.

10. Catch a free makeover at the department store. We even have beauty tips and products picked out for you!
I wonder if I have the guts to approach those sales ladies.

11. Take a yoga or dance class.
Tried an informal Samba dance lesson once and it was a lot of fun! But the venue is a bit far and it’s on Sunday night!

12. Wake up and catch the sunrise.
This is out of the question, especially because at this season, the sun rises before 5AM.

13. Cook for yourself! I guess I have no other choice.

It’s been more than a month since I’ve posted my last Thursday Thirteen. I’m glad I’ve got the mood to write my list again.

I’ll reveal some of the steps I’ve taken to battle off an enemy for over a decade: acne. I was so desperate (and still am), that I even did some idiotic unique things just to get rid of it.

(1) I’ve been using Shiseido’s Pimplit for a few months. So far, so good.

(2) I heard from a friend that Cutina, an over-the-counter medication here in Japan, is effective. But I guess it really depends on some physical factors, because I think it made my acne worse.

(3) When my father was still working in Saudi Arabia, he often brought home Magic Cream. But my father’s now retired, I ran out of supply, and it became hard to find that certain brand (I forgot the brand name).

(4) Natural Living’s Aloe Vera Jelly was also effective and I can’t remember why I stopped using it.

(5) A friend from college used Chin Chun Su beauty cream. In a way, it helped minimize the pimples but it made my face and my neck skin abnormally lighter than my arms’ and it felt weird so I stopped using it.

(6) San-ing Cream also had the same effects as the Chin Chun Su.

High school days…
(7) I also tried applying aloe vera THE plant. I can’t remember if that was effective, but growing aloe vera wasn’t easy.

(8) Of course I sought the help of the dermatologists but no medication seemed to work!

(9) I think I’ve tried scrubbing my face with every kind of Eskinol. It helped only a little. After all, it’s only a cleanser.

(10) Queens bathe in milk, you say? So I’ve tried washing my face with fresh milk, then leaving it on overnight. It made no difference, aside from the unpleasant smell and the sticky feeling.

(11) Perla soap. To those who are not from the Philippines, Perla is a laundry soap. Many claimed that washing your face with it then leaving it on overnight could eliminate those uglies. But all I got was the burning sensation in my face, sometimes in my eyes!

(12) Face mask from egg whites, then leave them on overnight. How I hated the smell and my scary look when I wake up.

(13) The craziest of all: my mother brought me to an albularyo/folk healer! I was 13 years old at that time and I was made to believe that “curses” might have caused my pimple outbreak! To prevent more outbreaks, I had to wear an amulet! Yep, wear an amulet to prevent pimples. haha! (This is really embarrassing but I can’t help laughing at my stupidity when I think about it. All for acne’s sake!)

Despite the deadline to catch, I sometimes feel so bored and sleepy. How do I usually overcome this? I either drink tons of coffee or observe the people around me. There’s no partition between the desks so it’s very tempting to do this.

Here’s a list of people who sometimes entertain me pique my interest.

1. He’s seated 2 rows away from me. I’m always sleepy in the office, and I’m pretty sure that some people notice my eyes drooping, but this guy makes me less guilty. Why? He’s always extremely sleepy that he looks like he’s drunk. Thus, we gave him the code name “hubog”, the Bisaya word for “drunk”.

2. He’s probably the only (a little bit) irritating person in the office. He’s seated across Idel, the only Filipino officemate I have in the office. When Idel and I start talking, even if it’s entirely work-related, he gives us this “stop-talking-look”. He’s nice at times but prone to mood swings. He’s my team leader (sort of) and not only does he give me tasks, he corrects my Japanese grammar, too (which is OK for me).

3. He was once our team leader. At first, he seemed scared to approach us. His face always turns red when talking, so we call him “pula”, the Bisaya word for “red”. The most distinct behavior of this guy is that he can’t stay in his desk for too long. He keeps on walking around the office, just like a supervisor.

4. He’s uncommonly very short even for a Japanese guy (about 4′5″), but he has a booming voice. I think he’s already a team leader. When he talks to his team, everybody could hear him. He seems to drag his feet when walking and the sound of it sometimes gets on my nerves. We call him “putot”, the Bisaya word for “short”.

5. We call him “phone guy”. The reason is obvious: when I see him in the corridor, he’s always talking to somebody in his cellphone.

6. His code name is “densha guy”. Another obvious reason: he closely resembles the lead actor of the famous Japanese drama series “Densha Otoku”.

7. He’s very tall and very slim. His hairstyle is so anime-like and he has this habit of plucking off some hair strands. We call him “kuhit”, the Bisaya word for a “stick” or “pole”.

8. I don’t really know why many of the Japanese lady try to “soften” their voice. The effect sometimes is far from being a music to my ears. There’s this lady from another team who makes me feel like banging my head on the desk when she speaks.

9. She’s an HR personnel and I sometimes wish I have her height and charm. She’s exceptionally tall for a Japanese lady, at about 5′6″.

10. She’s seated a row away from me. I sometimes wonder how she feels being different from most of the Japanese ladies. Japanese ladies are usually petite and she’s far from it. She’s very nice, though.

11. He’s a few rows from where I’m seated. While everyone is very serious with the work at hand, this guy seems to be always in a good mood. He’s grinning all the time!

12. Just like me, this guy always arrives past 9:00AM. But when he says his “Ohayou gozaimasu” (”good morning”), everyone could hear him. For me, this is a good thing. I wish I could muster confidence and enthusiasm just like him, to say my greetings out loud.

13. He’s seated a few rows in front of me so he looks familiar already. One time, we went out of the office at the same time and after a few agonizing moments of trying to communicate in Japanese, I found out that he speaks English! He’s a Korean and I’m just glad he’s an addition to the people I could say “hi” to in the corridor.

That’s it! Mmmm, I wonder how my officemates see me. Am I irritating or another source of entertainment?

“St. Valentine’s Day in Japan is a day when women give the special men in their lives boxes of chocolate. To balance out the one-sidedness of this practice, White Day was invented for men to reciprocate such gifts. While Valentine’s Day is an imported convention, White Day (on March 14) is a purely Japanese creation.” - from Kids Web Japan

Tomorrow is a special day for women here in Japan, so I’ve searched for articles about women and found these. Most of these are actually true, in my case.

1. Women keep three different shampoos and two different conditioners in the shower. After a woman showers, the bathroom will smell like a tropical rain forest.
2. If a man goes on a seven-day trip, he’ll pack five days worth of clothes and will wear some things twice; if a woman goes on a seven-day trip she’ll pack 21 outfits because she doesn’t know what she’ll feel like wearing each day.
3. Women have better restrooms. They get the nice chairs and red carpet. Men just get a large bowl to share.
4. Women do NOT want an honest answer to the question, ‘How do I look?’
5. “Oh, nothing,” has an entirely different meaning in woman-language than it does in man-language.
6. Women cannot use a map without turning the map to correspond to the direction that they are heading.
7. All women are overweight by definition; don’t agree with them about it. Women always have 5 pounds to lose, but don’t bring this up unless they really have 5 pounds to gain.
8. If it is not Valentines day and you see a man in a flower shop, you can probably start up a conversation by asking, “What did you do?”
9. Origin of the word “woman” is: woo-man.
10. Women can get out of speeding tickets by pouting. This will get men arrested.
11. It’s okay for women to dance with each other and not be gay. You don’t see straight men dancing together.
12. Women will spend hours dressing up to go out, and then they’ll go out and spend more time checking out other women. Men can never catch women checking out other men; women will always catch men checking out other women.
13. The most embarrassing thing for women is to find another woman wearing the same dress at a formal party. You don’t hear men say, “Oh-my-GOD, there’s another man wearing a black tux, get me outta here!”

The gems above were taken from: getamused.com

A tag from Bing of Everything Green on my favorite movies.
I’m still catching up on memes so I hope you’ll bear with me. :DI really love these 13 movies that I’ve watched each of these for at least 6 times and I could watch them for 6 times more!

On being a hopeless romantic:
1. Ever After - I think being Danielle in this movie is best role Drew Barrymore ever portrayed.
2. Only You (Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. )
3. While You Were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman)
4. Notting Hill (Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant)
5. Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow)
6. Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley)

Fantasy films:
7. Lord of the Rings (all three of them)
8. Harry Potter (all of them)
9. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
10. Ella Enchanted

This movie always makes me laugh:
11. Little Giants - the football players who belonged to this team were so adorable. My favorite character was the asthmatic one. Devon Sawa and Shawna Waldron were in this movie.

Cartoons:
12. Mulan
13. Cinderella (1950)

I am an avid follower of HappySlip’s blog. Recently, she posted this vlog where she shared some “happy tips” and threw these questions:

• What makes you happy?
• What do you do to make others happy?

I wanted to make a vlog in response to HappySlip’s vlog, but I chickened out. So I’ll just list down my answers:
In no particular order, these things make me happy:

1. When Shaynna’s in a good mood and voluntarily chats with me through Skype.
2. When Shaynna’s in a good mood and plays with me through Yahoo Messenger.
3. Daily chat with my family through Skype.
4. Chat with my best friend.
5. Daily chat with my flatmates and friends.
6. My favorite songs
7. Snail mails
8. Comments in my blog!
9. Messages left in my blog’s shout box.
10. ice cream!
11. Anime and movies
12. Approved paid post
13. Rare calls from friends who don’t have internet connection.

If I get over my timidity, I will post my answers to the second question next time.
But then, I really try to make many (if not all) people happy in every thing that I do…

How about you? Who and/or what makes you happy?

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Happy day for guys here in Japan because they’ll receive chocolates from the ladies. And no, we are not going to give out “obligatory” chocolates this year to our officemates. There are way too many guys at the office, the budget is low, and most of them are single! We are just avoiding any possible misconception.
Here are my Valentine’s Day treats for you. I got this from some online stores and if you click these images, you would be redirected to the source. No, this is definitely not a paid post. I just placed these here because they’re so cute and mouth-watering! Enjoy!
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