Clean House

Things to do before January 4:

1. Clean room!
2. Clean Mang Jose of old files
3. Fix Itunes
4. SCRAPBOOK! (Last entry was November 2008. Good luck to me.)
5. Transfer all files to Spartaaaaahhh!!
6. Fix House!

The thing with this list is that they all take a long time to do. Now I wonder why I didn't get started on these things last week. Hay. :(

Goal now is to at least finish cleaning my room before the 1st. I want to start 2010 with a fresh, new outlook in life, and that literally means less clutter. This is me hoping that with a more organized environment, I'll try to be more organized as well. Wishful thinking? I hope not. :)

Now I wish I had more time; more time to do the things that I want to do. Yes, I like working. But I just miss having a life outside of it. That means, I just miss having idle time to do these seemingly menial things.

Merry (not) Christmas and Happy (not) New Year!

7 days into my (almost) 2 week vacation, (which, by the way, is the longest vacation I've had since I started woriking,) and I've managed NOT to do the things I've orininally planned on doing. Very predictable of me. :) Number one on my list was to not go out of the house so as to cut down on my expenses, but obviously, that hasn't happened. Haha. :)

So far, these are what I've done --

23 December 2009 -- Tagaytay with Rapo

I call this my half day vacation. I went to work late, and went on half day. :) Because Rapo and I were bored at work and needed something different to do, we finally decided (after much deliberation because of traffic) to take our being kaladkarin a step further and go to Tagaytay to eat and hangout a little bit. We had bulalo at Leslie's and had a pseudo-photoshoot session with the shadows. We had coffee at Starbucks after.

24 December 2009 -- Cooking Noche Buena!

If you know me, you'd probably know that I DO NOT COOK. Well, in 2009 I have finally explored the idea of me cooking. That means I'm no longer scared of being too close to the stove, and of getting burned from sauteeing. So this is what I did, I cooked pasta for my family's Noche Buena.

25-26 December 2009 -- Baguio with the Family!

On a whim, Papa, Ate and I decided to go to Baguio on Christmas Day. We did the customary Baguio things, plus of course, we slept A LOT. Hahaha. (Photo was taken at the Strawberry Fields)

27 December 2009 -- Hundred Islands!

On the way down from Baguio, my dad decided to go to a detour. Too bad we didn't have any swimsuits with us, I wanted to swim and bake in the sun so baaaad. :(

28 December 2009 -- Filmfest!

As with tradition, one day was spent watching MMFF entries. This year, Ate and I watched Mano Po 6: A Mother's Love and I Love You, Goodbye. Both films were okay, nothing spectacular. One thing, though. The confrontation of Sharon and Zsa Zsa in Mano Po 6 was priceless, and, being a fan of Sharon, I totally loved it. :)

See, obviously, I have not been doing what I should be doing. My room is still begging me to clean it, and my scrapbook has lain untouched for almost a year. I still have 5 days to go (OMG. I can't believe it's almost over. :c) to do those things. And oh, I have not had a single drop of alcohol the whole Christmas Break. Good job, Leigh! :)

Merry Christmas!

From the inner depths of the heart of this scrooge, I wish everyone a very merry Christmas. :) I may not be a fan of Christmas eve and Christmas day (but I like the season. Yes, I'm weird.), that doesn't mean I will be a wet blanket and be nega for everyone else as well.

By the way, credits go to Francis Tady for the image above. :)

Surprisingly, I'm hopeful about this Christmas because my family and I will be doing something different this year. For the first time since mama died, we'll be going out of Manila for Christmas. We used to spend Christmas day in Tagaytay every year, but since she died, we sort of stopped the tradition. This year, Christmas day (and the next two days after that) will be spent in Baguio! Well, it's no biggie, actually. I'm sort of even dreading the roadtrip part of it, and the multitudes of people who will be there too, but then the little kid in me is excited for the family trip. I'm just happy because unlike the previous years, we're now exerting more effort to spend quality time with each other. :)

Investments

After more than a year of working, I'm finally able to do something worthwhile with my money. Actually, fine, the money's not from my salary, but from my Game KNB winnings. But hey, an investment's an investment, right? The important thing is that I was finally able to raise enough money to put into good use.

Maybe its the season, but lately, I've also been buying major stuff to replace my old ones. As of today, December 13, 2009, I've replaced the two major gadgets that I use, my camera and my laptop.

From a 5 megapixel purple Canon Ixus i zoom, I now use a 10 megapixel pink Canon Ixus 95 IS camera (of course it has to be pink! Haha!) I bought it last Sunday, but I only got it last Friday because I had to order the pink one. So far, it has not failed me. It doesn't have some of the features of my old camera, though. No color accent or color swap features on this one.

After more than 4 years of faithful service, I am not putting Helga to rest. Well, not really. She'll still be used occassionally. :)

Helga, my 4 1/2 year old Canon Ixus i zoom

Say hello to Kimi, my new digicam! :)

I also replaced Mang Jose, my laptop of almost 5 years. I bought an Acer Aspire 4736z laptop just last Saturday. :) I'm officially naming him Spartaaaaahhh!! Hahaha. Don't ask how I got that name, it's a long story.

I guess it makes sense that I'm replacing my old laptop and camera now, because I also got them both almost at the same time 4 years ago. I'm just proud, because one, I'm paying for the camera myself, and I'm paying for part of the laptop's expense as well. Technically, these are two things that I am paying for, from my own earnings, after more than a year of employment. :)