my closet of a room was so messy this week that it looked like one of those "before" rooms in a tv show called clean house in lifestyle channel. my bags, dirty clothes, and toiletries are on my bed, shoes and slippers scattered all over my floor, and a small fold-away table propped up on what's left of my floor space. my room needs organization. fast!
so this evening having left the office a bit earlier than usual, i decided to drop by a nearby mall to get some stuff to organize my room. i was planning to buy just this little strip of plastic with hooks to hang my bags. i ended up buying that, a bag organizer (actually, a little bag to put inside a bag - yes, even the inside of my bag is a mess), AND a shoe cabinet. yes, furniture. that wasn't on the plan but i bought it anyway coz i thought the price was reasonable (read: lower than my budget and didn't look like crap). they did not have stock aside from the one displayed so they will be delivering the cabinet to our house next week. how's that for impulse buying?
on my way home i thought about the the space in my cabinet filled with old shoes. why don't i just throw them away and make space for the shoes and slippers i frequently use? and how many bags should a woman have anyway? i don't know the answers to these questions...but in
the meantime, my goal is to clear up the obvious mess. major cleaning up will take place in another time. lord knows when that day will come.
clutter
family holiday
It’s Sunday night once again and I’m about to wrap up all these stuff I usually do on weekends – which is to download tv shows, songs, and read pages and pages of stuff on the web. Some good but usually bad. I didn’t discover any good sites this weekend unfortunately.
Anyways, the trip to Hong Kong with the family went well. This time around we didn’t get a package tour so we can save a few thousand pesos. (I have not started to calculate how much we actually spent since I need my good night sleep - haha - and would not want to wake up in the middle of the night thinking how I’m going to pay for my credit card bill when the statement comes in). We stayed in YMCA Salisbury at Tsim Sha Tsui, which is beside the very posh The Peninsula. It was a great hotel, a bit expensive, but worth it since my dad was impressed with how nice and clean it is. We didn't do much on our first day in HK since our 8am flight (which we got up 3am for) was delayed to 10:30(!!!) so we just rested when we got to our hotel. I did check out the nearby Adidas and Esprit stores next door though after checking-in. Then for dinner we headed to the very fancy McDonald's.
Second day, which is our mom and dad's 32nd wedding anniversary, we went to Disneyland. It was our (my mom and I) 2nd visit so I wasn't too excited. We did try out some of the shows and rides we skipped out last time.
Third day was spent in Ocean Park. The park was in some kind of renovation so it wasn't too picture pretty. I noticed that they moved McDonald's, and the place for viewing the giant pandas was renovated as well. A new attraction was the jelly-fish aquarium, which I find really cool.
Our last day was spent shopping in Mongkok and Parklane in Kowloon Tong. I got this really cool biker jacket which I'm hoping to wear really soon!
I enjoyed shopping in Hong Kong and on the way to the airport on our last day I realized I like it because it’s one big scavenger hunt for me. I love shopping for good finds you see…going about rows and rows of shops is as much fun as actually finding a cool one-of-a-kind item. Speaking of which, I did not get to buy a be@rbricks toy…though I did see a shop selling them in the airport. Oh well, next time.
weekend update
This was a very low-key weekend for me. Saturday and Sunday found me in my room either watching dvd or surfing away on my laptop. I would like to think that despite my hermit-esque behavior I was productive since I was able to:
1) download new episodes of my favorite tv shows (30 rock, prison break, and heroes).
2) discover and download cool widgets (the filter – an iTunes companion which creates a playlist for you based on a song or artist you choose; and iSquint – an avi converter for the aforementioned downloaded tv shows so I can watch them on my ipod)
3) discover a blog about, among other things, shopping for quirky finds in hongkong. I’ll be going there this week with my family by the way.
I’m dreading going back to office tomorrow to spend again the whole day working on a report on damn MSAccess. Last Friday the user I did the report for pointed out to me my error. I know how to do it now but still just the thought of spending hours on it again makes me want to cry.
Anyways, I’m sharing with you the first playlist The Filter created for me, based on the song I chose, Yo La Tengo’s “The Whole of the Law.” I won't say that I would have chosen the same songs on the playlist, but still, it's pretty cool that the widget almost got it right. I have about 3000+ songs on my player so it's, how should i say this, refreshing (?) to be listening to other songs aside from those i listen to everytime. I'm actually looking forward to the other playlists The Filter will create for me.
midweek music
these dreary rainy days had me listening to sad songs. i'm sharing with you a lovely song about a relationship i suppose a lot of people can relate to. it speaks of loving someone too much and then losing your self in the process. what i like about this is that the "loved" one "sings" the song, pleading to his lover to stay as she is. sigh.
before i came
- majestic
I know you love it when I say
How much you mean to me
You don’t hear it very often
It seems like everything I do
It’s the only thing that’s important to you
And all those things I have to say
Why’d you want to be like me?
And why did you, you are so perfect as you are
You need me far too much
Please don’t do this to us
There is so much inside yourself so don’t stop thinking
Please don’t do this to us
You can listen to me but don’t forget your self.
How are you before I came?
You can’t remember
It was too long ago
Where are the thoughts you once had
I think they disappeared the moment I came into your life
And all those things I had to say
saturday mini-break
sonia's garden in tagaytay was worth the 3-hour travel from marikina, and was everything i expected it to be and more. i will not attempt to describe the place, as i might not give it justice. so here are the pictures. enjoy!
here's my lunch (sonia's serve eat-all-you can salad, pasta, and desserts). i had three servings of this salad...i was famished! we had lunch at 2:30 :(
i love this door in the garden. this door leads to the outside garden.
one of the many chandeliers all over the restaurant. i want this in my house too!
the pink rose on our table.
after our late lunch at sonia's we had coffee at starbucks somewhere in tagaytay, then crashed my friend's officemate's birthday party in cavite. it was an amazing day spent mostly on the road driving in very bad weather. it was silly of us, really, to have braved the rains just to have lunch out of town. but like i said, it was all worth it!
dum-dee-dum
It’s Saturday morning and not even 9am yet and I’m online and have already: 1) read my mails 2) updated my Facebook account 3) downloaded a song 4) read a few blogs, and 5) read something about taking MTRs in Hongkong (more on that later). This is not how I usually spend my Saturday mornings but today my mom paid someone to do my chores. Hurrah! I’m usually Cinderella without the glass slippers on weekends because we’re poor and cannot afford a stay-in maid to serve us hand and foot. Hahaha. Anyways, I also woke up way too early for a weekend because my friend and I are going to Tagaytay for lunch later, and hopefully, to take pictures. I’m saying hopefully because it’s raining non-stop as I type and from the looks of it, it won’t let up until maybe past noon. I'm crossing my fingers though that the rain will stop by the time my friend picks me up so we can enjoy our lunch at Sonia's Garden, a restaurant I keep hearing very good things about. I'll give you a mini review when I get back later.
Oh well. Time to hit the shower. And oh, where are my glass slippers?
of music and sadness
What came first, the music or the misery?
- Rob, from Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity
There are certain periods in my life which I remember best by the songs I listen to at the time. When I first fell in love, I remember listening a lot to the mix tape made for me by an ex-boyfriend. It contained songs by Club 8, Stina Nordenstam, and a slew of other indie pop artists which I instantly loved and continue to love until now. The mix tape was then my most priced possession because it was an extension of my boyfriend. When he couldn’t be with me all I have to do was pop the tape on the player and he is there, chasing away my loneliness. When we broke up I couldn’t bear to listen to the songs again. The songs have lost all meaning and became just sad reminders of a love gone bad. Thankfully the memories attached to those songs have long been erased and I can now listen to them again without feeling anything.
After we broke up I just listened to sad songs by random artists in my mp3 player. There are certain songs though that helped me get through grieving, and the one that stand out most is from one of my fave artists, Beth Orton. From her “Comfort of Strangers”:
I’d rather have no love
Than messing with the wrong stuff
It’s just the comfort of strangers
Always the comfort of strangers...
Right now I’m recovering again from another lost love, a love which I found coincidentally at the time I discovered the music of the band called “A girl called Eddy.” It was probably bad timing since now there’s again a face and memory to link the music to. A girl called Eddy’s music is a lovely mix of tender vocals and poignant lyrics…very addictive stuff. I find myself listening to their album almost everyday now, most of the time while traveling to and from work, and daydreaming of someone who could never be mine. It’s his face I remember when Erin Moran (the vocalist) sings these lines from Tears all over Town:
I see your face in everyone I meet
I'm avoiding the corners
I'm avoiding your name
I know that I loved you but I loved you in vain
Such is my life...music and misery. When another chapter in my life unfolds I’m hoping the soundtrack will be full of happy tunes about driving until sundown and waking up to sunshine.
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