be my lady

Last night, at his firm's anniversary dinner, my beau belted out a beautiful rendition of Be My Lady and dedicated it to moi! Such a nice surprise... and I later on found out that he had actually intended to go up to me and kneel down for added effect, but sadly the mic's cord wasn't long enough for him to do that.

Nevertheless, isn't that so adorable?! To know that someone loves you is one thing, but to see him demonstrate such love in front of a bunch of guy friends and colleagues is definitely taking it to another level. :-)

pursuit of the cheapest gas station in town

Dennis and I have a project where we track the gas prices of different gas stations in the areas we frequent, to find out which gas station or branch offers the lowest prices. In other words, we've embarked on a quest for the cheapest fuel around :P

Contrary to popular belief, gas prices are not created equal. This means that the pump rates for diesel at the Shell Rizal Avenue branch are not the same as those that Shell NAIA Road is charging. In fact, thus far, Shell Maya (the one near SMART) is the most expensive that I've seen so far. :)

Isn't this so interesting? I don't know if it's just the nerd in me or the dork in him that relishes this quest, but I really find it all so intriguing. The discrepancies we've unearthed so far range from the inconsequential 0.01 difference to the rather significant P1.20 disparity. C'mon, even if your total gas budget may not budge (meaning you still spend the same amount every month), at least you'll get the most bang for your hard-earned buck if you gas up at the cheapest station versus, say, Shell Maya. :P

So the quest goes on. I'll update this when we've covered significant ground, so everyone benefits from our "research." :P

gifts for men

Why are gifts for boys so gaddamn expensive?! Not only are there limited choices, at least compared to women's stuff, they're also bound to break anyone's budget! Hay..

I'm searching for gifts for Dennis for our 2nd year anniversary and for his birthday. From the looks of it, I have to really save up for these two presents. Hay buhay... Girls are so much easier to buy for, I swear!

young market master

Congratulations to my boss, Ms Jane Basas, for being awarded Young Market Master for 2007, for International Marketing category. The awards ceremony tonight is proof of your marketing prowess, your charm and wit, and the generosity of heart which makes you the perfect teammate and the perfect boss. You knocked 'em dead tonight, mamcy! :-)

foodfest

If there's one thing common between Dennis and me, it's our love for food. More than anything, we enjoy discovering new restaurants together, savoring familiar, everyday dishes together and re-discovering old culinary loves together. We lazed around all afternoon on Saturday at Serendra, dropping by my friend Loraine's new store, walked around and talked about everything under the sun, then topped off the day with a hearty, 2-hour meal at Conti's. Complete with my ultra-favorite Mango Bravo cake! Yum! My beau even took home a boxfull of their classic empanadas for family breakfast the next day. :-)

As for today, we had a hearty, tummy-slapping brunch at the temple with moi's family, followed by an afternoon of walking around in Greenhills armed with good ol' hotdog sandwiches and matching Coffee Bean drinks. Pigs, you say? Guilty as charged... The only consolation for the calorie buffet this weekend was all the walking we did. Hehehehe :-)

Quiet weekend, but I loved every minute of it. How can I not-- I don't think I went through a single hour without food in my tummy :-P

weekend update and more...

Watched 300 twice over the past weekend... That's how much I loooooved the movie! And that's considering I actually didn't feel like watching it at first, writing it off initially as one of those testosterone-filled, tiring-to-watch macho movies. But after much persuasion, I watched it with Dennis on Saturday night, only to watch it again with him and my brothers the following day. What can I say? Those abs are worth watching over and over and over again.

Funny how I've heard so many guys use lines from the movie like "What is your profession?" and "For I am kind and generous.." Hehehehehe.

Onto other news, I seriously need to start saving more money. I have a 5-day Singapore trip coming up, then followed by a 2-week Canada and US vacation in June. Add to that some work trips in between and hopefully (please Lord!) a Bangkok trip with FILC towards the end of the year. For some weird reason, my dad is giving me a hard time on getting permission to go. He insists the security situation in Bangkok isn't safe.. i.e. it's still under martial law and can be bombed any day now. Grrr... I'm not very sure if he's just saying that to make me suffer or he actually believes it.. Hay... It's so annoying! Grrr.... Oh well.. Granted, it's still so far away, but if we want to get the good rates, we have to act fast. Oh, and let's not forget that Cebu Pac is also another issue of his. "I don't trust Gokongwei planes.", as if Big John is actually the pilot running the plane. And as if being a "Gokongwei" plane actually has any bearing. I don't see the difference between that and a "Tan plane." Tan for Lucio Tan (i.e. PAL). Grrrr.... Again, I don't know if he's just deliberately making it hard for me.

Though beats me why he'd do that.

Haaaayyy...

In other news, back to work again this week. We're still waiting for our Dubai visas to come through so we can finally fly already and get ready for the event on the 22nd. I can't believe it's taking this long! I'm a little psyched to see Dubai, actually, even if people keep saying Bahrain is better. I want to see at least the 7-star hotel and find out if it's really worth the hype.

One good thing about these work trips to the Middle East is I get to visit places I otherwise probably would never see in my lifetime. I don't see myself paying good money to visit places like Bahrain, Doha, Dubai....

Then again.. if only the work trips start going the direction of Greece, Italy, Paris, Frankfurt, London.. that totally wouldn't hurt! :-p

Ok, one thing at a time, Gladys Jane.. Let's keep our fingers crossed for Bangkok first. Those damn terrorists better stay away from that country until I get my dad's sweet yes. They can totally ruin this for me. Grrrr....

i want shoes!!!

Been wanting to buy sporty flats for ages now. But I know I should stay away from shopping, because I have yet to finish saving up for trips I'm taking on April and June. But.. it's just so hard to stay away.. huhuhu...

These are my choices so far--

1. Old Navy striped skimmers

2. Keds celestial skimmers

One is more expensive than the other, but both out of my working budget for now :(

Just saw this feature on the Today Show this morning about women and finances.. about how women spend money so differently from men.

All I can say is: There's a certain maintenance cost to looking good. And you get what you pay for. So don't worry about the spending. Just focus on ways to earn more.

Hahahahaha, what a load of self-justifying C_AP!