Captain’s Blog

Today, Ernest, Dennis, Bau and I met up for lunch at D’Marc’s in Greenbelt to celebrate Christmas together before the holidays end and we resume the hustle and bustle (Hoose-tel and boos-tel according to someone in the office) of work at JimenezBasic. Over lunch we discussed our dear friend Bau’s heartbreak and tried to comfort her.

Hearing Bau talk made me realize one thing. We must really love ourselves. Even if we love someone else we have to reserve a big chunk of love for ourselves so we’re left with nothing.

Anyway to Bau, here’s my message to you. Any jerk who doesn’t appreciate how wonderful, crazy, loving, kind, intelligent, funny and beautiful you are doesn’t deserve you! You are such a catch! Keep that in mind!

After the nice lunch and relaxing coffee at Starbucks, we proceeded to watch my third movie in the MMFF which is Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo. Now as to how that went, well just read my review.

In my 30 years of existence, I have never had a surgery (unless you count my circumcision, of course). Well today was the first. I had a granuloma growing on my big toe which was causing me a considerable amount of pain. So out it had to go. The granuloma of course, not the toe. So I went to the healthway clinic to get it cut off.

Naturally, I was so nervous because I have never been under the knife before. Thankfully Oz was there to accompany me and mock scare me so that I laugh and forget about the surgery. While waiting for the doctor to call me into the OR we decided to read the newspapers with different accents ranging from British, Indian, Chinese, Singaporean, Australian and Bisaya. Then I heard my name called.

So inside the OR I went. MY GOSH!!! GETTING THAT ANAESTHESIA SHOT HURT LIKE HELL!!! But since Oz already warned me that it was going to hurt I was kind of prepared for it. 45 minutes later, the doctor declared that the operation was over. Where a granuloma was before, is now a bunch of surgical sutures. I took a picture of it but it’s not a pretty sight so i just opted not to post it.

So as I went to buy the painkillers, I noticed that pain started to creep up my leg! The drugs they injected in my toe were already wearing off and the annoying drugstore had a long line. I was beginning to panic and be anxious because I so wanted to drink the pain killers to prevent a serious pain attack. Thankfully Oz read my mind and got me a bottle of mineral water so that I can down the medicine immediately. Thanks Oz for being such a thoughtful person. That’s why your such a kick-ass FA!

The great thing about the surgery is that finally that annoying granuloma is out. The sucky thing about it is that I wind up missing my SE8 dinner due to the pain. Arrghh. Well you win some and you lose some I guess.

Now I will end this blogging and try to get some sleep. Ciao guys!

It’s December 24 and it’s almost midnight. Something strange is happening in our house this year. For once, Christmas in the Miranda household is generally tranquil and silent. It’s a weird and eerie feeling. After all, we Mirandas are used to a Christmas that is normally noisy. You see when you have six siblings and an easily agitated mother preparing for Noche Buena you tend to stress each other out to the point that you wind up fighting and screaming due to the many details that need to be attended to. You proclaim a ceasefire before mass and then resume the screaming after. Common lines are:

“Hey, who’s getting the ice!?!”
“Puwede bang bilisan, I want to open presents na!”
“Hoy! Bantayan yung manok! Baka sunog na!”
“Jenny tama na ang telebabad! We eat as a family!!!”
“Mom, relax!”
“Paano ako magrerelax? Ang dami pang kailangan gawin!”

These are the sounds of Christmas that I have come to miss. Many people’s absences are sorely felt. First is that of my mom who passed away in February this year. Followed by my siblings all moving to the US to be with my father. So this is a lonely Christmas of sorts for Kristine and me. Our plan was to check into a hotel and spend our first holidays alone there but my darling sister has work so that plan was scrapped.

Anyway this is a surreal Christmas indeed. After the simbang gabi wherein you meet and greet the entire parish we set on home. We had a modest noche buena with some rhum coke, cheese, hams and wine. Then we opened presents. My sister and I looked at each other with teary eyes and reminisced a time when our family was complete. Then we realized upon opening our presents how much we’ve grown to love each other.

For those of you that know my family history, Kris has always been my mortal foe. That sibling you just don’t get along with. But in the time that changes occured in our family, we grew close to one another through adversity and learned to understand one another. When we gave our gifts to one another we hugged and those hugs communicated all the love we ever needed to communicate.

True, our family will never be 100% complete even if Kris and I follow in the US. Mom is in heaven now so that chapter of Miranda family completeness is over. But despite the fact that we are physically separated I guess this Christmas helped remind us that at the end of the day it is love that binds this family together.

I look forward to the day when we can celebrate Christmas again as one big happy family. All screaming and stressing each other out. Silent nights have never been my bag of tea anyway.

So to all of you guys out there let me greet you:

FELIZ NAVIDAD!
JOYEAUX NOEL!
FELIC NADAL!
SHEN DAN KUAI LEI!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
MALIGAYANG PASKO!

May God bless you all!

I got to hand it to my friend P’Chy, the world’s best gift wrapper! She single handedly came up with this exquisite bow that I have decided to use tonight during my formal dinner. This stunning piece of crepe work can be bought at all the exclusive boutiques of Versace.

If you want this exclusive red tie, you can order it online from this website or simply become P’Chy’s friend. You’ll get one next Christmas guaranteed.

P’Chy I love you! But leave the wrapping to the professionals.

Hahaha!

Merry Christmas my dear!!!!

A dear old friend visited me at work today.

Made me so jolly.

Yet another gloriously named Thai specialty. Collon Green Tea snacks!

It’saws the best!

Ang baduy! Nasorbrahan na naman ako ng fruitcake!

The next activity for the night was our tribute to TM and TW. For the benefit of non-singles reading this blog here are some definitions:

TM (Tee-em), noun: Tito Manny, one of the couple advisors of the Singles Apostolate.
TW (Tee-double-you), noun: Tita Wena, the other couple advisor of the Singles Apostolate.

Anyway TM and TW are stepping down as our couple advisors after faithfully serving us for 7 years!!! Imagine that! My gosh, high school lang ako nun (YEAH RIGHT!) Well and how do we give tribute to TM and TW. By giving them gifts from each of the classes of the singles apostolate. And as with everything in the Singles Apostolate, you have to work hard to get what you want and that’s what we made them do with our exciting game called:

BLAS OR NO BLAS!!!!

For TM and TW there were a total of 13 exciting prizes that they could win! Anything from Armani Adobo Peanuts and 1,000,000! 13 exciting women were also on the stage to act as our maleta girls. Dahil mahirap lang kami, walang maleta actually. Mga brown envelopes lang but you get the idea.

So ayun nag-blas or no blas kami and in the end ano ang napanalunan nila? DALAWANG BOTE NG CHINESE BEER!!! WOW!!! ANG SAYA!

But seriously now, we in the Singles Apostolate owe so much to these two selfless individuals who have worked so hard to make this apostolate what it is right now. They have been our confidantes, our foster parents, that listening ear, that kind advisor, that ninong or ninang in our weddings and that cheerdancer to prod us on when we’re down. Their impact on SA is really invaluable and their stepping down brings us to uncertain times. However, we are sure that everything is for the best.

We love you TM and TW! May you keep on blessing us with your example and for your seven years of tireless service… we give you TWO BOTTLES OF BEER!

Joke! We also gave them all of the prizes up for grabs! Merry Christmas to TM and TW and thank you!

I’ve emceed Christmas parties in a boat, in a hotel, at homes and in basketball courts, but this is the first time that I emceed a Christmas party in a columbary!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we had the SE Christmas party in the St. James columbary. The same place where my mother is buried! Due to a scheduling mix-up dito kami napadpad! Di ba? Halloween, All Saints Day, Christmas and TM and TW’s Farewell rolled into one exciting event!

My philosophy na lang when I discovered the change of venue was: “Tara! Let’s make St. James Crypt the happiest and most cheerful crypt this side of the world!” And so it was!

So there we were, over a hundred SE people from SE1 all the way to SE12 to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus. We started the festivities with a prayer meeting where we thanked God for all the blessings that have happened this year. We then jumped straight into a Christmas pika-pika with traditional yuletide fare such as Bibingka and Puto BungBong! Sarap pero patay na naman ang diet ko!

After the dinner we kicked the night with an exciting Christmas Caroling game na pinamagatang “Christmas Sing-Galing!” It was our welcome-slash-initiation to our baby class SE12. We randomly selected 15 contestants to sing their hearts out to classic Filipino carols such as “Tenk You Tenk You ang babait ninyo tenk you!” Surprise performance of the night was Nikki Weber (That’s pronounced Veber to all you Germanically challenged souls out there) who serenaded us with a German carol! Wunderbar! I shouted! International na ang SE!!! May British/Spanish tulad ko and now may German na! Yikes! Ang saya saya!!!!

Of course, credit must be given to Jeri Valencia’s team na di lang kumanta! SUMAYAW PA!!! How’s that for talent? Well obviously they won the competition for the night! What happened next! Abangan ang next post!

Would you buy something from this store spotted in Malaysia?

I think not.

My fourth Christmas party for the season is the SE Cluster 3 Christmas Party! Held at Ian and Eric Santillan’s fabulous house, it brought together SE7, 8 and 9 for a night of fun and fellowship. Trust it to be a fun night with the wacky leadership of Ira Ochoa and her SE9 funmeisters. Tuloy ang saya kahit ngarag ang lahat!

It was a night where we reminisced our haranas. It was the first time that I appreciated SE7’s harana to us. Well the second part to be exact. I had forgotten how beautiful it was. Then there’s SE8’s award winning musical of a harana and SE9’s rolling on the floor with laughter harana.

Of course, no SE activity would be complete without games. So we engaged in Celebrity Charades, Menage a Troi Newspaper dance and the ever reliable exchange gift.

In the end it was a night of bonding and great memories! Tomorrow SE Christmas party naman! These parties will be the end of me!