Day 9 - Here's Missing You Kid!

Tonight, I suddenly have this overwhelming feeling of missing our little monster. Come back home Awon!

Day 8 - Pizza Night

My brother had a marvelous idea of ordering pizza at 9 p.m. through 6alabat. An hour later, I broke the vow of losing weight starting February 1. I reasoned that I got 2 days to go so I might as well =))

Gazillion pounds later, I finally found the perfect Pizza House for me and that is Nolita Pizza - New York Style. A branch can be found at the Avenues food court. They serve huge but it's perfect coz it melts in the mouth. Heaven!

Day 7 - Hello Pay Check. Goodbye Pay Check.

Place: Express @ Avenues Mall
Why: Because I just can't resist a good bargain. Not only is it 75% off it's also buy 1 take 1
Shot by: Canon G11

Ko Samui, Thailand - Day 1

I haven't literally heard of Ko Samui until it was presented into our itinerary.

Apparently, Ko Samui is one of the major island in the novel and the movie "The Beach" starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

Straight from Malaysia, we took a Firefly flight to Ko Samui in just about couple of hours.


This is what greeted us from up above.

The Gulf of Thailand

I haven't been around the world (yet) but I am pretty sure this is one of the prettiest airport ever!
The flowers, the little ponds, the wooden houses are like LOVE!!! While there, we all can't stop exclaiming how pretty everything is!

Look at their Immigration section. It's not only totally refreshing it's also very earth friendly for not using industrialized AC's that most airports got plus they have natural light!
I love love love all the greenery!
We stayed at the Nora Beach Resort & Spa for whole glorious 5 days.

Nora's main entrance interior.
We were greeted by hospitable but can barely speak english staff all carrying refreshments and cold towels to freshen up!

The rooms that we booked are under repair so they upgraded us to these lovely 2 VILLAS!
*Insert squeal of delights here*

Oh the exteriors are as lovely as the interiors
By this collage you probably notice that I have a thing about bathrooms =))

Photos from left to right:

• After entering the main entrance we were greeted by wooden planks and that outdoor shower.
• While standing on the wooden planks, we looked to our left and marveled at the beauty of the bath tub. Yes the toilet got a view!
• The queen size bed is nothing spectacular but I love hotel duvets, love to cocoon under it and go into deep slumber.
• The view from the bath room.

I was perfectly content to just stay inside and relax but of course the travel got us all hungry but not tired enough to explore the whole resort.

and that entry is coming up! In part 2 =)

Day 6 - Rustic Charm

Place: Marina Waves

Why: I love the classical shapes of these chairs

Shot by: W995 SE

Was supposed to meet my cousin who's in the country for 3 days but unfortunately he got stuck in the meeting (or so he says) and ended up freezing our buns off hanging out at K Climb while the sister and the brother scaled the wall.

BTW, what's up with the sudden drop of temperature? It's scary if the winter is just beginning because it's already 2 months late! Spring is supposed to start just about now =|

Day 5 - It's A Good Day

At Fahaheel Expressway before Messila Beach, commuters can see the beautiful sights of colorful flying kites.

Seeing those huge kites reminds me of home.

The kites back home are made of sticks and grocery plastic bags but they gave the same happiness and fun that the humungous and probably very expensive kites along Highway 30.

When we stopped to take a better look and photos, the squals and laughters of Aaron and my cousins are priceless.

Day 4 - Heart on Hand

In the car with the rest of the gang. Anecdote was Sisterblister's BF doesn't want us to eat the expired Mentos Gum coz it will kill us. Aahhhhh kids =))

He instead gave us this little heart shaped gum and it immediately made me think of you.

You who got my heart on the palm of your hand.

You who's heart is being clenched tightly in the palm of my heart.

I thank the world, for you =)

Day 3 - Cath Kidston

Passport Holder

Luggage Tag

I've first read about Cath Kidston waaay after I saw it at the Avenues Mall on Daphne Osena Paez's blog.

For the past month, Cath Kidston store at the Avenues has been on 50% off sale. These canvass bags and other items does not come cheap that is why I only got those two above coz despite coming from a family who literally are shopaholics, we are still bordering reasonable addicts, if there's such a term =))

Day 2 - Pursuing A Hobby

Above is my camera bag for the G11. It came in a box packaged from Beach Camera but the look and feel was so cheap that I decided to liven it up by embellishing pins and badges all over to make it look all funky =)

• Certified Pinoy - Bought in Global Village Dubai
• Aquamarine Angel - Mama's gift from the US
• Baby Cool - Bought in Global Village Dubai
• Hard Rock Cafe Pin Kuwait - Bought 3 years ago from Kuwait

Embassy Christmas Party for the Sheltered OFW's

The family was scheduled last December 23, 2009 to fed approx 300 sheltered OFW's in POLO/ OWWA here in Kuwait. Those sheltered OFW's mostly consists of abused "kadamas" or housemaids waiting for their cases to be cleared so that they can fly home to their families in the Philippines.

I will not elaborate the horror stories only that these OFW's needs help in every way possible. From the basic necessities to the huge legal help. I will also not post photos of what happened during the whole program to protect the faces of the sheltered.

So 3 days before Christmas, we planned, shopped and cooked for them.

It wasn't easy but we didn't care coz it was fun. Not only were we able to share but we were also able to partake in the century old Filipino tradition which is the "Bayanihan". We laughed and teased and swap stories while cooking and packing.

There were interviews, parlor games and stage performance presented by the sheltered OFW's.

It really feels like Christmas =) and I am thankful to be part of a family/ community that is able and willing to help.

Day 1 - Aaron Love

Project 365

People have been known to start this project who tried for years but failed. I am starting one now only because I have noticed that I barely blog nowadays plus I have got to make use with my new baby girl right?

To start this project, I am posting one of my favorite photography subject, Aaron love.
Poor baby is bawling his eyes out when his dad took my camera away from him.

I've initially let him do couple of shots but smart kid that he is, plotted and before I knew it, ran away with the cam, pressed and flashed everywhere. Of course we can't let him play with it for a long time fearing he might drop it so his dad took it, thus the photo.

In all fairness to the kid, I scrolled through my view finder and my golly, he takes good photos.
A long long time from now, I'll give that kid his very own camera, we'll never know right?

Canon G11 Powershot

My very first camera was the one where you have to turn the dials so the film will run.

It's a far cry from what arrived in this box a week ago.

For a long time I have managed to fight off the urge to do online shopping, I've even managed to cut off the Gulf Bank credit card but the ridiculous local market price of this lovely baby is just too much to take.

Since it was announced last August, I have been salivating like I've never wanted anything like it ever. Reading Mark's blog of 248AM closed the deal.

On Christmas day, I opened a EasyShop account through DHL and Borderlinx, charmed my way on my Aunt's card and 10 days later I said hello to the sweetest baby I have ever laid my eyes on.

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!

It took some time to arrive due to the holidays but it was so worth it.

Canon's G11 powershot is the top of the line compact digital camera that features RAW mode for unlimited editing.

Not that I know anything about editing but that's for another blog later.

Canon G11 is perfect to those, who are like me, loves taking photos but doesn't want to be burdened by the technicalities and weight of an SLR.

Opening the DHL box feels like Christmas all over again and like every toy you receive on Christmas day, you tinker and abuse it.

The camera got a lot of great functions for different shooting conditions aside from the manual operations and options for customization.

Since I'm a newbie, I started using the different functions that G11 offered me below

In this photo with my brother and our Siberian Husky named Shadow, I used the pre set function called "Kids and Animals" wherein it lets you shoot moving objects and make it look like a portraiture.


My mother's flower was shot using "Foliage" option and I love how it vibrantly emphasizes the color.
Blister sister shot below was done using "Color Accent" where it accentuate a particular color and everything else is in black and white.

The same with my mother's flower vase.
Maxi our crazy and sometimes evil dog was shot using the normal "Portrait" setting

The lost dog in the garden was shot using "Landscape" settings

Aaron dude was shot using Automatic settings.
I initially wanted a Canon G10 because of the ability to do "bokeh" and when I got my G11 of course I have to practice shooting bokeh.

If I may say so myself, G11 and I take pretty good raw photos. Although I love taking shots of about everything, I don't consider myself as a photographer. I still have gazillion lessons to learn and talent to acquire.

Maybe someday I will take photography classes but right now I will contend myself with practice shots and actually make an effort to start reading the manuals.

Ahlavet!

Dubai After Work

Flew to Dubai after work last Thursday.

I am thankful and very lucky indeed to have friends who are willing to sponsor my whole stay just so I could have a

Jagermeister binge drinking
while they did their photoshoots.


Dubai airport was quite busy when we landed but all the bus transfers, eye scanner and immigration lines are all worth it because of this lovely oasis.

Met Jooby who loves to eat Hello Kitty.

Received one of my Christmas wish list =)

Traipsed around Dubai like the perfect tourist.

I've been to this country many times but I've never had the time to stop and take tourist shots of Burj Dubai
and the Jumeirah hotel until now.

Someday I will try the Tour of Dubai for the heck of it!

Didn't notice that they posed until later. Haha!


Flew 5 thousand miles to Beverly Hills
NOT!

I wish though but that's inside the Atlantis Hotel where they boast the giant aquariums.

The best part of my weekend is not about sight seeings and binge drinking. It was about

Love

Friends
Being carefree
The familiarity of home
and pursuing hobbies.

The best part of being in Dubai is to spend time with friends, to be carefree and for awhile forget about jobs and responsibilities.

The best part of being in Dubai is for awhile, I am young and gay again. Pun intended. LOL