i just came back from a 4d/3n holiday in Boracay and loved it. the weather was awesome- minus the beautiful summer sunset (but i didn’t feel that cheated not witnessing it)- and for the price that was spent for that entire trip- i’d say i once has struck bargain.

after what happened to my coron trip- where zestair screwed up our flights that caused me to break down at Coron’s airport- i vowed never to fly zestair again. unfortunately, i am a sucker for cheap flights and a Php1,513 all in, roundtrip zestair flight from Manila to Boracay was too good for me to pass up so along with a number of people from the office, we booked our flights for June 19-22.

because it was low season, i was determined not to pre- book any accommodation. it is a given fact that doing a “walk-in” during the months of June to October always gives you a good deal. we got a beachfront, a/c (with ref) accommodation at Sunshine resort for Php1,500/night which is good for four people. the resort is between station 1 and station 2, right beside Zuzuni. it is managed by a local woman whom i now fondly called “Nanay” for being so accommodating to us budget travelers.

my favourite place in Boracay is Puka beach and i never go to the island without spending at least an afternoon in this neighbouring strip of white sand. most people reach this place by renting a motorized boat from white beach. i -and along with my companions- went to this island by renting a motorcab for Php150. the road is a little bumpy but it does get us there. i like Puka Beach because unlike White Beach, this strip of white sand beach is almost, always empty. though, unless you have the energy to walk towards the end of the beach under a blazing sun, this may be too much for you.

the trip to Puka Beach is always coupled with the seafood lunch galore which i have prepared by going to the market to buy crabs, prawns, pork, fish, and squid and have it cooked by one of the many restaurants in D’Talipapa that charges you between Php100/150 per kilo cooking charge. for the trip last weekend, the menu i had prepared looked like this:

1/2 Prawns in Butter and Garlic Sauce
1/2 Prawns in Chili Sauce
1.5 kilo Crabs in Chili Sauce
1 large Maya-Maya (about a kilo) steamed in Lemon Grass with onions, ginger and some spices
1/2 Tanigue cooked in vinegar with onions, ginger, calamansi juice and pepper.
1 kilo of Grilled Liempo (for my brother who still refuses to eat seafood)

this coupled with cooked rice and bottles of softdrinks cost about Php230/head. and there was even a leftover for dinner!

on other days, lunch is less expensive by going to the restaurants like Mang Inasal at D’Mall (budget= less than Php100). they offer unlimited rice which worked out perfectly with a bunch of my cousins who can consume about 5-6 cups of rice in one sitting. dinner is usually at one of those restaurants that sprouted out in the evenings along white beach, serving their own version of seafood menu. my newly found favourite though- especially if you are a big eater- are the eat-all-you-can buffets at Php250/each. for those that believe they don’t get their money’s worth going to buffet, i recommend Bamboo lounge along station 1 for its very cozy ambiance and servings for sharing (Filipino-size, please take note).

for after-dinner chill out places, BomBom’s Bar (or whatever it is called now-i still call it BomBom’s Bar) is still my place to go. however, last night, i did stumble upon this nice bar while i was walking along station 3. Charlie’s Bar serves reasonably priced drinks and entertain the guests with a duo that can produce awesome music (they also look alike that i won’t be surprised they are brothers). i also looked around and notice that they aren’t that strict with what food the guests bring into the table as long as you order the drinks from them.

i was able to stretch Php4k-4.5k per person budget for this trip, inclusive of roundtrip airfare, 4d/3n acommodation, awesome meals, good entertainment and wait for this… heaps of alcohol to get someone smashed. this even include the stupid fees they charge all tourist getting into and out of boracay (environmental fee, my ass- i wonder where they used that money). for some of our companions who were only there for 3d/2n and didn’t opt to go out in the evenings and get smashed, the budget was not even more than Php3.5k all in.

it was a pretty awesome and a cheap trip. and i never had that much fun since i went on a holiday (minus zee) in the last few years. and i didn’t even feel that with that price, i was being too stingy on accommodation or food or things to do. the accommodation was comfortable, the food was very awesome, and the things we did were ample (the pictures can prove that!).

and for the price that it cost me, it was indeed a bargain.

last night, as i was browsing through things to do in Thailand in the hopes of finding something cheap for the trip, i came across the controversy surrounding the domesticated Tigers at Thai Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi (more here) . ever since a year ago , zsolt developed this fascination of touching and cuddling any wild/endangered animal available. i, on the other hand, was pretty torn about it. zsolt brought me to this zoo in Canberra where we had a 15-minute encounter with cheetahs. though i am not really a big fan of large animals- no matter how tame they may seem to be, it turned out to be quite an experience. the cheetahs purred. and so, i thought, why not play with the tigers and ride the elephants in Thailand?

i was reading various sites promoting the tiger temple and was getting pretty comfortable with the idea of the tiger’s head on my lap while our picture is being taken when i got into a discussion in lonely planet forum about the tigers being drugged. i don’t know how many people actually find that comforting- to be able to hold a tiger without that fear that it may go berserk and rip you off to pieces, that’s probably an added assurance to tourist to splurge a little bit more for such experience.

however, i actually surprised myself for feeling really sorry and angry for the tigers- even with the absence of fool-proofed evidence that they were indeed drugged (by this time, i have already read about multiple tourists’ accounts on what they have witnessed and have already got quite an impression on how the tigers were treated by the temple staff). it is one thing to be domesticated when you should be out there in the wild, it is another to be actually under the influence of a sedative so tourist can jump into that experience of having that encounter with you. again, there seem to be a general knowledge of this being the case but at this point, i couldn’t find an official report that this is true (so, please save your “you really shouldn’t believe everything you read online.” sermon because every one of us is given the freedom to independently weigh the facts and information readily available and this is the path i choose).

zsolt felt the same- perhaps, worse than i did.

“when i get my hand on some milllions, baby,” he told me. ” i am going to start a proper tiger conservation with the main purpose of perfecting the process of successfully reintroducing them to the wilds.”

“really???” i reacted, surprised. i know he likes animals as much as he likes travel- perhaps, even more so. but that’s even quite too gigantic, even for him. “tigers? seriously?“

“yes. seriously.”

i frowned. i remember frowning. i really felt bad for the tigers at that point- and it didn’t help that i see Jughead’s dumb look inside my head (our over a year old dog who would have beat Marley in that hollywood role if we happened to be there and get him to audition). but although i did feel bad, i don’t think i want to spend millions and millions of dollars for a tiger conservation. besides, after the kids foundation, i do not think i would have some spare money left to shelter wild animals. i told zsolt that. “i would have expected you’d say something like, build a foundation for the kids (which for the record by the way, he said that as well).” i told him. “but tigers? you’ve always thought of that? or just because we are talking about this now?“

(i swear between the two of us, zsolt seems to have the fickle mind).

“well, yes, a foundation for the kids, too, where i can set an environment where both parties can grow up harmoniously together.”

good luck with that.

i would like to go back to the main point of why i am writing this entry now (before i get swayed again by how silly the conversations i and zsolt sometimes have). i decided to not see the tigers in thailand. i do realize to maintain that environment for tigers to live takes a lot of money. but i also do know that with the kind of money the temple receives on a daily basis, surely, they could have something much better for the tigers now? i also don’t like the idea of forcing the tigers to lay on some stranger’s head for photos- because really, how do force a wild cat to do something like that- no matter how domesticated they are? and why would you if you really care? but with the number of tourist having done that- and i am yet to find an incident lately where the tigers refused to do so- that would get you thinking, wouldn’t it?

i decided to skip the tigers in thailand because even when i think it would be quite cool to have some gigantic wild cat on my lap all docile and harmless, i do not think i want to pay an establishment or a monastery(In this case) when there is so much questions as to where all that money went.

“we should just wait for africa and there we can cuddle a lion cub.” zsolt blurted out.

“true.” i replied. africa, africa africa, when can i afford that? “i hope you get your millions before the tigers disappear from the face of the earth.” i said, half-joking.

“not much hope there.” he replied. i imagine he was grinning despite the seriousness of the subject.

i guess the tigers would not live to get the benefit of my boyfriend’s millions but i really, really hope that someday, humanity can be a little less greedy.

Miguel,

I am drunk right now, and thus, I may not entirely be able to remember things as they really happened. I know I remember telling you that, and that you shouldn’t worry about you telling me your dirty little or big secrets because in my drunken state, I may not remember it the morning after. But because you refused to talk to me unless I can remember them, I am trying to be sober for you right now.

You have to remember me for this, Miguel, I never tried being sober with anybody. Ever.

“Let us song a sing together.” You whispered in my ear.

I knew it wasn’t the liquor that I laughed. I just found that statement funny. “I do not think we knew one common song we can sing from start to end.” I told you, shoving away that idea. I turned to you, “I still do not know what color your eyes are.”

“I do not know either. I do not study my eyes.” You answered.

“Is it blue? Blue green? Green?” I said looking at you intently. In moments like this, Miguel, I worshipped the liquor. Liquor always makes people less uninhibited with what they want to say. Liquor can give me an excuse right now to kiss you and seduce you.

But I am trying to be sober for you. And I promised to be sober for you tonight, so I will not do that.

“They’re really beautiful.” I told you.

And you sang a really funny song; I cannot remember the tune right now. Besides, I really doubt you sang it correctly anyway. But I remember the lyrics, Miguel, and it is funny:

My eyes are green; that’s cause I eat a lot of vegetables;
It doesn’t have anything to do with your new friend.

“I am going to burn a cd for you with all my favorite songs.” You said after you got tired repeating the same lines. You must have realized how your sentence sounds because you asked me, “What are your favorite songs anyway? I could add them in the compact disc.”

“Oh, oh… I have one.” And I sang it for you, Miguel. I do not sing because my voice sucks. And I cannot blame it on alcohol, because, as you remember, I promised to stay sober for you. But it is a crazy night and the alcohol is really marching inside my body and I do not really care anymore if my voice sucks. Besides, you are not a good singer yourself, anyway.

No one hurt my fragile little mind right now; its tangled up, and don’t you know;
the pussy cat in me is curling up right now; but I’ll bloom from inside out…
And right now there’s a dust in my guitar, you fuck. And its all your fault.
You paralyze my mind and for that, you suck!!!

“…and it’s all your fault. You paralyze my mind, and for that, “I knew I looked at you, Miguel. “And for that…you suck.”

And you held that stare. You held that stare as my voice faded and what was heard was the distant banging of the bands and screams of the wasted people inside the bar.

We have so many romantic moments, Miguel. Why are you not falling in love with me yet?

“You are a really funny girl.” You murmured, smiling at me. “And I have a question. Please answer it directly: what do you think of me?”

“You’re an amazing guy but you are very inconsistent.” I told you. “And I think I remember telling you that already.”

“I cannot remember.” You told me but the twinkle in your eyes told me otherwise. You are teasing me again.

“You like to please every girl.” I spat out and you straightened up after I said it. “I mean, you are too courteous to a fault.”

“Help me understand. Why do you think so? Did you see me talking to a lot of girls and pleasing them?”

I tried explaining to you, Miguel that I did not. And that it is how I feel and I can be wrong with what I feel. Sometimes, you cannot logically or qualitatively assess why; you just feel it. I tried making you understand it the way I want you to understand it, but it was so hard. God, it was like I am describing an apple, and you are seeing oranges.

“Okay, okay, okay. I might be wrong. It is just my impression and Caster mentioned something before. He said you like birds. You know, birds.”

You looked at me. “You mean the ones with wings and a beak.”

“Girls.” I told you. “You refer to girls as birds back there, don’t you?”

You were grinning at me at that moment. “No. When we say birds, we meant birds.”

How can I make you understand, Miguel, that I am basing it on how I felt you are treating me without mentioning myself? I have always believed that if you do these things to me without the element of love, then you can do these things with anybody else. That is the only explanation I can provide myself to explain why we are still talking at this point and to refrain from misunderstanding your actions.

You said nobody knew the things I know about you; and that you really do not have plans sharing it. It wasn’t clear to me now if you explained why but whatever the reason, Miguel, I do not want to hear it again. Every positive thing that happened to us makes my grave one foot deeper under ground.

“So, that was it, uh?” you spoke up after a while and then you stretched your legs and lied down on the ground, resting your head on the cement. I inserted my hands as a pillow and you turned and stared at me.

“You don’t want to do that; you’re going to hurt your hand.”

“Maybe I do.” I answered you. The last thing I am worrying, Miguel, is hurting my hands. I have hurt the bigger part of my anatomy already that it doesn’t matter anymore.

“You’re so sweet.”

“Thank you.”

“I love you already.” You spoke up, smiling at me, staring at me.

I do not know if you are joking or if you are serious. But if you were serious you probably have said it a long time ago; or perhaps, you probably have kissed me already right after you said it. But you were just staring at me with that smile on your face, a smile I cannot read, a smile I cannot fathom so I gathered you were just joking, Miguel. I can handle jokes like that. Besides, I am relying on alcohol that I may not remember this so much the morning after. Oh God, make me forget this the morning after. “Well, I love you, too.” I told you, grinning.

I stretched my legs and lied down on the ground, alongside with you. You took my hand away from your head and pressed it with yours. “You have small fingers.” I told you, noticing it closely for the first time.

“I do. Just like yours.”

“But I am a girl and I am not tall.” I reasoned and enveloped your left hand between mine. “They are really small.”

“Yeah.”

We stayed silent for a while, Miguel, and your fingers closed on mine and mine on yours. I cannot remember how long time has passes us before we found our voices and started talking again.

And our hands, Miguel, stayed locked with each other. And for the first time since the first time, it felt so natural to be touching you like that. To be lying on the ground of a parking lot watching a starless sky. To be staring at each other and holding the gazes longer than normal. I fell in love with you and there is really nothing either of us can do about it. And that particular moment, in my semi-drunken state, I knew it for a fact.

author’s note: As they lied there, detached from everyone else and everything else, I began to see the power they have over each other is the conversations that drive them together. I watched them and saw something very beautiful; they were contented, taking that night as if it was infinity in itself. They look like they could lie there forever and they would not mind whether their backs started aching. And I worry for them, for opportunities for conversations like what they have right now are not common occurrences. Their time is not made for normal days; and everything not made for normal days cannot exist in such.

a week ago, i got the news from my cousin that our 18-year-old cousin was rushed to Bacolod because his condition was critical after he got shot on the head (it turned out that that news was partly true. he was shot around the area of his spinal cord- though both instances are quite chilling actually).

we were eating our lunch then when that news came up. my 20 year-old brother merely shook his head and murmured, “they shouldn’t have bailed him out.” my other cousins nodded in agreement. “he brought it upon himself.”

we are not terrible cousins- in fact, the family ties that bind all of us is typically very filipino. we meddle in each other’s personal affairs so efficiently that there was never- in my entire 29 years- an uncomfortable friction between families. but this particular cousin of mine has brought so much pain and trouble to the family- most especially to his mother- that we come into agreement that yes, he brought it upon himself. if he stayed out of the gang fights, he would have been in a much better shape. but he wasted his teenage life playing with fire and thinking he is invincible. what the fuck was he thinking?

the bullet hit a part of his spinal cord that causes him a stroke. at this point, it was not yet known if the stroke was permanent or temporary. but at this point, he couldn’t feel anything from the waist down. “so, now, not only does auntie go through this horrific moment, she would now have to take care of him every day.” another cousin of mine spoke up. we all seem to agree he deserved it and that perhaps, it is better that he cannot walk again because that would make him stop for sure. but we also did find it unfair that up to this point, he only makes it harder for his mum who by the way has more than enough share of troubles to worry already.

where did he go wrong? who is to blame?

this isn’t the first time i asked such question. when a kid’s life goes wrong- whose fault is it? is poverty a triggering factor? are parents responsible? do friends have the biggest influence in a teenager’s life? and how do kids pick friends, anyway? i can’t remember how i picked mine.

but take this other fact for a moment. the younger brother of this same cousin of mine is not only staying away from gangs but also work his ass off so he can earn enough money to pay for his enrollment. he’s a year or two younger but his awareness of the options in front of him is amazingly sharp. he knew nothing good will come out of accepting poverty and getting immersed by it and so he decided to leave it behind someday. he refused to be dragged down by it and it shows- this is one cousin i am most proud of and i truly believe that he will go far.

both boys grew up in the same environment. both boys were bore by the same parents. both boys were given the same opportunities and threats. but both reacted differently. that scares the shit out of me because there seem to be no surest way of raising a kid successfully- especially when poverty is involved. perhaps, we should ought to stop thinking that teenagers do not know what they are doing most of the time and maybe perhaps, they would be more responsible for the choices they make.

i feel sorry for my aunt more than i feel sorry for my wounded cousin. i have given the latter a lot of chances to prove himself differently but he never grabbed that opportunity. he continued to think he was invincible and alone in the world- dismissing any fact that yes, there are actually people like his mother who gets hurt everytime he puts his life in danger or if he puts other’s lives in danger.

there is a large chance he can never walk again. i wonder how we will grow up from now on. will he be bitter, resentful, repenting? will he change his life for the better and turn his life around?

i hope he knows he always have a choice.

a few days back, an officemate of mine asked me how do i budget my finances. i told him about the cash management file i maintain which is really helping me paint a picture of what my spending habits were and are. i believe most people who are sticking to a budget more or less work with a guidelist somewhere- mine is more like my playground- as i can spend hours and hours playing around with it without actually getting a headache or getting bored.

so how does one starts cash management? and more importantly, why would one, really?

it took me four years and a horrifying six-digit credit card unpaid bills to realize i was in deep financial shit way back 2005. ironically, that was also the same year i decided i want to celebrate my 25th birthday party in Boracay. i knew i was broke at that point already but there was a 14th month pay towards the end of october and the 13th month pay in december- so hey, my irresponsible self thinks she deserved a little fun and splurged the extra money she really didn’t have. in short, although i did realize i was in deep financial shit already, i was still living in denial. it was like having a bad dream and just hoping that sooner or later i will wake up from it and it will all be gone.

of course, it didn’t quite happen that way. a few months later, i forced myself to write down all the fixed costs i have to pay for every month (utilities, tuition fees for the siblings, allowances, transportation, rent, etc.) and deducted it from my fixed salary. a red, glaring number appeared. i stared at it for hours. it glared back at me just the same. i wasn’t that surprised- it was the sanest, most logical explanation why i was running out of money all the time. (not to mention that i went to bars at least once a week and bought the latest gadget in credit card installment and watched a lot of movies in big screen- which meant another burger meal at Wendy’s, coffee at the coffeeshop and meals at the mall’s various restaurants!).

but that red, glaring number brought me back to reality. and it saved me.

that is why personal cash management (a lot of people call it different names) is important. it keeps you grounded. it shows you exactly what you can afford and what you cannot. it shows you how you did in the past and the probable outlook of your finances in the near future.

the best way to maintain the cash management worksheet is through Excel. it is very simple but you must remember the following considerations when you are building your Cash Management Sheet:

1. When you are plotting your income sources, only consider your guaranteed salaries. This means, for the purpose of planning, do not include your overtime pays, your holiday pays and your “probable” bonuses when you are considering your income base.
2. When you get to your expenses part, list all your expenses. some people tend to forget some financial responsibility to avoid that red ink in their cash management sheet. which i think is very silly but quite a common occurrence (i used to do that before). remember, just because you didn’t put it there doesn’t mean it will not come.
3. Always set aside something for your savings. i know you’ve heard this too often before but i cannot make it clearer than saying this: it pays to pay you “future self” first. and make sure you put it in some vehicle where your current self would not spend it over cocktail drinks at Greenbelt or expensive dinner at Serendra or clubbing in Libis.

if after this exercise you found out that you aren’t doing so bad after all, that your income is still higher than your expenses, the questions you now need to ask yourself are:

1. if in any way you won’t be able to earn the same income anymore, do you have enough emergency funds?
2. do you have financial goals?

though, for the many of us, a number would probably find out they are living beyond their means and that red, glaring figure is now staring back at them. now that you’ve escaped the limbo, how do you cope?

i will tell you how i did it next week. and trust me, it worked.

about one and a half weeks ago, Sun Cellular blocked my outgoing calls and text messages. Knowing that i have just paid the bill that was due not until the 10th of this month, i called them up to figure out what happened. they told me that it was due to overlimit that they barred all my outgoing calls. knowing clearly well how generous the creidt limit they assigned to me and how impossible it is for me to go over that limit, i told them that it doesn’t make sense that i would breached it and asked them to figure out what happened.

after two hours on the phone- this was what we have found out:

1. that yes, the payment for my bill that isn’t due until 10th of June was already reflected in their system.
2. that yes, my third number (i have a group plan) has been disconnected since december 2008 as i have instructed (as we lost the sim card) and has not been reconnected yet(as we do not really have a need to reconnect it- we just needed two numbers, really). and yes, their system confirmed that is so, as well.
3. and yes, the overlimit usage was caused by this third number that was never used for almost half a year now. there were a lot of charges that occurred starting 29th of May until 5th of June using this number.
4. and yes, they recognize that it is not coming outside because the record show that number is locked. and yes, that it looks like there is a fault in their system. but no, they insistently say all through out the call, it is not Sun Cellular’s fault.
5. and yes, they also recognize it is not our fault either.
6. but no, they cannot reconnect the line until the issue has been resolved.
7. and yes, even though, both I and they agree it was not of my doing either.

they did finally hand over the supervisor to me. the supervisor was accommodating- Thank God- and understood what i want to get done (or so i think). what i really wanted was for them to fucking unlock my line so i can freaking start making calls and use my monthly usage allowance and they can go on investigate what happened to that disconnected number and how the hell did the system able to populate charges to a number that was blocked from making any calls or text.

he called me by the end of the day to inform me that i can start making calls again and they will just update me about what happened to that issue. the day after, however, the number was blocked again. i waited for three days before i decided to call them up again and ask what happened. the call center agent who picked up the phone went to the same explanation all over again. i told her i do not want to waste my time talking about the same argument the last time i called them- and if she could please do her job and look at my account to understand what transpired a few days before and call the supervisor so i can talk to him instead- and waited for someone senior to receive the call.

it’s been past half an hour now since she put me on hold for a supervisor. that’s in fact long enough for me to finish writing up this blog entry that it really is ridiculous.

i hate call center agents. i apologize for those who are into that profession- and for those of you that are really doing a great job- but i just wish they hire more of you and less of those dumbwits that pick up the phone and pretend to hear us or understand us while they are polishing their nails or their yawning on their screens. i wish the world is more advanced than this and would have a technology that can thin-slice through a customer’s 15-second greeting to figure out her emotional EQ and appropriately assign a customer service rep that matches that EQ as well. i know- from the bottom of my heart and from the boiling level of my temper right now- that my EQ is higher than 95% of the agents i spoke with over the phone.

i so do not fucking deserve this. and now, thirty eight minutes after i asked her for a supervisor, she just came back telling me she already created an issue ticket for this and will be coordinating it. didn’t she hear me the first time? she just put me on hold again.

i chose suncellular because they allow me to save a lot of costs as far as calls are concerned and because i have been using my number for years now and i don’t want to change it.

but when is good pricing enough to tolerate bad customer service? and when is awesome customer service enough to justify premium on costs?

i should really just switch to prepaid now.

almost two years ago, i fell in love.

or perhaps, falling in love is an overstatement of what i felt then. but the butterflies in my stomach, they were there. i cannot sleep. i cannot stay focused. i have that silly grin on my face. and yes, everything was just so beautiful. i was floating.

about two years ago, the feelings defied my reasoning. i took the risk and jumped off the cliff. i cried for the heart i have broken and my broken heart. funny, i told zsolt then, to be hurting and yet not wanting to ever look back again. there were hundred reasons not to move forward and yet a hundred reasons as well not to go back.

people often wonder how we both manage. i am just very glad we aren’t really broke (well, not yet, anyway). perhaps, we were smart enough to realize that making it work all the way has nothing to do with the distance or how often you can see each other. and that, really, it is all about how far you are willing to go for it.

as for me? i look at zsolt- two years later- and i still giggle. the butterflies are still there. i still have that silly grin on my face. i still watch him sleep sometimes.

love, in its rawest form, doesn’t really change. it stays consistently the same.

another batchmate of mine is getting married in two weeks.

i haven’t thought of it until today when Randy-another batchmate- texted to ask if i already have ideas for a wedding gift. nine years ago, 18 of us wrapped up the four-year Accountancy course at Silliman University (yes, we were particularly a very small batch but we were also – after a long time- the only batch who gave the school a 100% rating and two topnotchers when the CPA exam result came about. and no other batch after us made it to 100% up to now. what can i say? i just always find myself with these kind of people. ).

as i was saying (and before i get carried away with my bragging again), there were only 18 of us in a batch so it is no surprise that we somehow manage to weave a closer, more personal relationships with each other throughout the years. it is also no surprise that for every wedding that we get notified of- we do not need to rundown the list of who are the single people left. and we couldn’t help but do think of who are the single people left. not so long ago, over cups and cups of coffee, we found ourselves wondering who the last person to get hitched will be. years and years back from that conversation, we also thought it would be faye. but faye has been married for years now. in our last conversation, we sort of agree it will be Giov who will end up single til his forties. and depending on how strong or weak your love-hate relationship with the most arrogant guy in our batch (though, in fairness to giov, he has a lot to brag about, really), you would either see that as a compliment or a curse. giov didn’t seem to see that as unusual. hell, when he will be in his forties, i actually can envision him dating some model-celebrity in her twenties.

as for me, however, i always thought i’d get married at 25. and don’t think i have good reasons for thinking of that number, i just thought 25 is the prime. but then, i also thought i’d own a house and the latest model of the car at that age (nobody told me of the danger of credit card debts and living beyond one’s means then. and life thought it was smarter if it let me figure that one out on my own).

but my being 25 has come and gone almost half a decade ago. and the only momentous memories i can think of that fateful year was me being able to finish a bottle of campari and 15 shots of tequila and not passing out.

so, in a few weeks from now, the batch will have one less single person. i dunno who will follow next. maybe it is Glenn. maybe randy will one day stumble over his future partner. maybe giov wakes up one morning and decides he wants to get married. or maybe it will be me, in a sunset private ceremony in Boracay- no make up, no fancy gown nor glittering jewelry- just me, barefoot and the wind blowing my hair as the rays of the setting sun set a glow on my face.

and oh, with a guy who’ve seen the worse of me as i’ve seen the worse of him and still think there could be no better match.

Venice is the most expensive city in the world. and so they tell me.

that was why initially i told Zsolt we are definitely skipping that when we were planning for our Europe trip. it didn’t help that his sole memory of Venice accommodation was “a room a little bigger than your bathroom and a breakfast that is nothing but two crackers”. and if you have seen how small my bathroom is, you would agree that that is certainly not what i want to pay EU150 a night for.

however, my silly boyfriend did not mention that the train travel from zurich to prague was unbelievably long, expensive and time consuming that we might as well have bought plane tickets in advance and it would have been quick, convenient and cheap.

and that was how me- the frugal traveler- ended up in the most expensive city in the world.

from zurich, we took the train to milan which then connected us to venezia. i will skip describing milan since all i did there was sip coffee and run after the pigeons (the former was nice, the latter was embarrassing). and oh, two africans got one euro out of zee by wrapping a bracelet around his wrist faster than he can hiss. (they did wrap one around mine as well while telling me i’m one of the prettiest girls they met- and then wondering if i have some spare change afterwards. i loved the fake compliment especially since i don’t have to pay for it but they are something you have to watch out for when you get to Milan. they are everywhere and they can get aggressive.)

we arrived in the paradise that is venice at about seven in the evening. for the next two to three hours that follow our arrival, we have been unable to locate our hotel. the most expensive city in the world either is horrible at making sure their published tourist maps actually reflect the actual streetnames or it’s getting the high of playing a crazy jokes on tourists.

i am not the fittest girl in the world. i can walk for ten, twenty meters and that’s it. if i have to walk farther than that, i like to get the assurance that i know where i am going. for both Zsolt and i, walking around the maze that is venezia on a friday night without a clear indication of where the freaking hotel was located was definitely not a start of a romantic holiday.

as we were trying to find our way to the hotel, we’ve passed through the “residential” part of venice. and you can tell it was that because the walls have graffiti all over it and if it wasn’t for the fact that i knew for a fact that i was standing on a sinking island- i would have dismissed the area as a slum. on a positive note, however, we found shops and restaurants and gelato shops we would have missed if we didn’t get lost. we found out later on as well that the prices of food in these shops are half as cheap as the prices if you find yourself with a table in one of the restos at the Rialto.

on top of that, the bed and breakfast (name: B&B Art Academy) we found ourselves in was quite a surprise in itself. we got their junior suite at a last minute price of EU75 a night. there was nothing fancy about it but the bed was comfortable, the size of the room was bigger than expected, the bathroom was complete with amenities, and they throw in a television which was pretty useless at the moment because everything was in italian (but hey, i wouldn’t complain for that price). the breakfast was nothing like what Zsolt kept on scaring me- it was actually quite filling that we didn’t end up grabbing lunch until towards the afternoon.

overall, we spent our time in venice walking and getting lost. for us, the map was pretty useless- if not for making us more lost than we already were. but venice, in its entirety, is a very charming place (though, it was really munich that blew me away). i wouldn’t want to stay there for more than three days in the future trip- i just think it’s too crowded for me. however, because the first trip to venice did not drill a hole in my pocket and it did tick off one more thing in my 100 things to do, it has now been added to my most romantic places on earth list.

because, well, that is just me. i still think there should be no connection between romance and money.

i dunno when it started that i stopped watching movies in big screen (and no, it has nothing to do with the convenience of piracy). in fact, the tv at the apartment would be so lucky if it gets turned on once every week. between reading books (yes, sir, i do still read books) and hooking up the net, movies are particularly no competition for either.

this weekend however, we decided to watch Night at the Museum 2. a week ago, we watched Star Trek (the first movie i watched since the start of the year and not with Zsolt) and i found the renewed joy of actually just using my eyes and not my imagination to get interested in the story which urged me to treat my three siblings with a movie Sunday.

holy shit, when did the world become so expensive?

to watch the movie, i spent about Php2,000 for the four of us: four tickets, Wendy’s burger meals, and four coffees at Starbucks. and this is a third-world county- how can average Filipino family of four afford to spend that much on one weekend movie? the economics of it is lost on me.

i couldn’t help but notice how inconvenient it is for the families living in a big city like Metro Manila to bond together outside the comforts (or discomfort) of their home without having to drill a hole on their pockets. what we obviously lack in this country are family parks- parks that aren’t enclosed within a chain of restaurants whose prices enough make you lose your appetite. we obviously need more public but “better taken care of” parks so families can opt to spend their weekend there with home-cooked food and quality time.

i also think it must be horrible for kids growing up here, either. the cinemas, timezone, and fastfood chains! it magnifies the necessity of money, the commercialization of fun. i am so glad i grew up in a time and place where fun was free- unless of course if you go home with your clothes all dirty and then you get a pretty long scolding by your mother who would have to soak the dirty laundry with perla for two days.

i don’t know how kids have fun now without them or their parents having to spend for it. back when i was younger, in a quaint little town that has no cinema or timezone or fastfood chains, our idea of fun was “patintero”, “siatong”, “bahay-bahayan”, “heaven or earth”, “hide and seek”, “chinese garter”, “dr. quack quack” and 101 silly games that were absolutely free and has shitloads of fun. except of course when you don’t have any friends at all and then you would have to get people incentives to play with you. but that’s another story.

i did enjoy that weekend with my siblings though. and it wasn’t because of the movie though i found the second installment funnier than the one before it. it was the time spent waiting for the movie to start- that time when we four gathered together over a cup of coffee and talk and gossip and laugh. just like that last night with father before he left for work again. there is that hint of confidence that we were more than just being related to each other by blood- we are all friends with each other. we shared a friendship that crosses beyond bloodlines and generation gap.

and though i am sorry to say this to myself that it has to happen over a cup of Starbucks coffee, but i know once again that i am one of the more fortunate group of people because of that.