30 Araw

Looking back...

2005-03-03T08:22:00.000+08:00

hahahahaha! (uli) never was able to "close" this thread...

i'm very happy with my mignon. so happy that we're getting married! looking forward to day 0 of our married lives. =)

as for the flowers... (abangan)

Day 28(?)

2004-11-30T18:21:00.000+08:00

hahaha! no longer sure of the day count... too excited to REALLY count...

2 tulog na lang! =)

based on the list of things i plan to do at the beginning of this series, it seems that the only things i was able to do are:
1. basketball
2. reading

hahaha! can't wait to have her in my arms again...

Day 23

2004-11-25T07:07:00.000+08:00

thursday... transport strike today. got to the office early enough not to be affected by the impending strike. i just hope that there'd still be some fx's or jeepneys when i go home this afternoon.

we still don't have running water at home... arg! just used the dirty water with chlorine solution for my bath. nawasa says there's a possibility that they'll be able to fix the problem this day. i do hope they fix it soon! this is also one of the reasons i got to the office early... nuninu.

last night, somebody called from my office while i was sleeping. they even asked my mom to wake me up because it's an office emergency! haay. apparently, they just wanted to ask me something regarding a report conversion. i had no immediate answer so i'd be doing the research today...

on a much happier note, 1(!) week left before my mignon comes back! yey! now, what do i surprise her with? hmm...

food?

flowers?

hmm, flowers???

Day 20

2004-11-22T16:14:00.000+08:00

monday... still can't over the shock over the pacers-pistons rumble. 4 players got multi-game suspensions, while a handful got suspended for 1 game. ben wallace got 6 games. artest was suspended for the rest of the season! unfortunately, one of my fantasy league players got suspended too. jermaine o'neal won't be able to play for 25 games. i just hope k-mart and drew gooden can step up to cover for his loss... i wonder what the next game between these teams will be like. hmm...

last saturday, i went to sm manila to buy touch cards to call my mignon. it seems that the 500 card isn't being sold anymore so i had to settle for a couple of 200's, which would last for only 8 minutes and 48 seconds for a call to france.

on the first 2 tries, i got a busy signal. :c

on the 3rd, i tried removing "0" for paris' area code, and voila! i got in. =)

only problem was, a french dude answered the phone... in french! (of course, what was i expecting? nuninu.) our conversation went like:

french dude: ramblings in french
me: room 108 please
french dude: room 1-0-8?
me: (good! he understands english!) yes please!

haha! finally got through my mignon... 8 minutes isn't enough to say how much i miss her. and love her...

2 weeks to go. last 2 weeks...

Day 16

2004-11-18T15:18:00.000+08:00

my mignon called me yesterday morning. i knew then that it would be avery good day. =) talked to her for about 20-odd minutes. i wish it could've been longer but i had to get going for work... next time, it'd be my turn to call her. now, if i could only buy a touchcard...

aside: i got my credit card statement last night. i got furious because of the erroneous transactions from fitness first, totalling 6,300! i've terminated my account with them last march and haven't been billed by them since then. that's why it was a surprise that when i saw my statement. i hope they clear this up soon, i would be needing the credit space for christmas...

Day 14

2004-11-16T09:00:00.000+08:00

(hmm. padalang nang padalang ang posts ko ah...)

woke up to a very strange dream... we (me and my officemates) were in an old house that serves as a library, and we were accompanied by a couple of students in one of the rooms. the day went on as if we were researching stuff.

on the next day, we were waiting for the strudents to accompany us again. but on the designated time, no one came. we waited for a couple of minutes more, but still no one came. we then wondered if they really were students... having remembered that when the students were with us, the windows and doors were closed and only the lamps in the house provided the light. we tried that... the students were there! then they started walking and talking as if nothing weird is happening. then when we were about to walk through a lighted room, one of my officemates didn't want to get out of the dark!

then i woke up...

when we closed the windows and the students appeared, it made me think of "the others", with the students as the "others". but when one of "us" didn't want to get out of the dark, it may be "us" that were not supposed to be there! up to now, thinking about it still gives the creeps. as usual, nakatayo lahat ng balahibo ko!

now, what does this have to do with day 14? absolutely nothing. hehe.

halfway through the month, i'm missing her more and more each day...

Day 9

2004-11-11T17:09:00.000+08:00

good news! dionne has been transferred to a more advanced class! yey!

i was able to talk to her this morning, but unfortunately, got cut off because her phone card ran out of credits... some other time...

to gym or not to gym? hmm.
uwian na! maulan eh. nuninu! =)

Day 6

2004-11-08T08:41:00.000+08:00

i was looking at our picture, and suddenly felt...

i miss her so much. i'm happy for the opportunity that was given her. i wish she gets transferred to the more advanced french class. she deserves it! =)

Day 3

2004-11-06T08:40:00.000+08:00

ryan, cors, richie, benj and i went to watch south border at dish yesterday. turns out the new vocalists are really good. really enjoyed their set... and the women dancing to their tunes! haha! one of the vocalists was (well, at least, he looks like it) a former child star, from the "ang tv" days. his name's probably byron... the other one, so they say, was a barista before joining the band. imho, these two are much better than the former vocalists because they have much better range and versatility. they're much more into performing (aka showband). their version of usher's "burn" was really nice. hell(!), both of them can really rap! their version of "act the fool" and "next episode" was much better than the front act's, k24/7. maybe they just sang it because the first band didn't give justice to them... the keyboardists(?) of both bands look like brothers. they probably are... food was ok, band was great... thanks again richie!

maybe just for kicks, south border even sng the theme song of "mulawin", on abs-cbn grounds! =))

got 3 calls from unknown numbers during south border's performance. the first one (09102551409 @ 12:18am) just rang once, and stopped. i was waiting for a follow-up call, nothing came. at 12:47am, 09197572668 called. this time, i texted that number just to check if it was on purpose or just a misdial (more like: "yes?"). no reply came. the last one, 09108296765 @ 1:33am, i stood up and hurriedly went out of the noisy area to answer the call. after pressing "answer", the call was dropped and was registered as a missed call. i asked benj if he knew any of the numbers. they're not from my office, that's for sure. he hinted that it might be dionne who was calling. i thought that was weird since the numbers being displayed are local numbers. except for the 0919 numbers, i don't know which provider was hosting 0910.

it turns out, benj was right! it WAS dionne who was calling me! i just missed my chance to talk to her... :c also got a text message from her that she was trying to call me (3 times) but i wasn't answering my phone. and that they were leaving an hour after she sent the text. lucky me, we were able to reach ryan's house in less than 20 minutes and, finally, i was able to talk to my mignon. yey! =)

Day 2

2004-11-04T09:34:00.000+08:00

YEY! dionne's in paris! woohoo! =)

YEY again! finally finished the additional stuff for my project for rvi. the specs for the next project is still in the works. (i'll work on the fsi project. finally!)

isa pang YEY! natapos ko na yung order projection module na ginagawa ko para sa office, complete with "docu". hmm, what was i doing before i worked on this one? hmm...

words of wisdom (c/o yves):
if you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

Day 1

2004-11-03T17:00:00.000+08:00

woke up at my usual time, 5am. got up at 510am. ate alone since my sister doesn't have classes untl next week. prepared 2 tuna sandwiches for my lunch...

got an email from my mignon that they're already in singapere (er, singapore =D ). yey!

usual morning routine...
emails (check!)
bpitrade (check!)
inq7 comics (check!)
espn (check!)
fantasy nba (check!)
call my brad (haay...)

i had a quick chat with dionne's friend (and officemate), dulce. she's teasing me/us about marriage and wedding stuff. mauuna pa sila ni eric eh! at aba naman, may blog pa sila! hehe.

not much action today... just continued on the project i was working on a week ago. except when a friend (anne) gave me a link to a site that posts ebooks. got to download the robin hobb novels. finally, i'll get to find out what happens to the assassin's apprentice.

can't wait to get a message from my mignon saying that they're in france...

Day 0 (D-Day!)

2004-11-03T14:00:00.000+08:00

today, my mignon left for paris. we accompanied her to the airport at around 3pm. waited for her til 5pm, before she was called to board their plane. called her at around 5:50pm, to say our final i-love-you's, before they are requested to turn off their cellphones.

according to their flight plan, they'll be at singapore at around 9pm today. and will be at france tomorrow, 11pm.

and so it begins... my 30+ days without my mignon.

as early as now, everything seems different. i went home from a cancelled basketball game. alone... no mignon to go to. so much time by myself. what to do?

here's a list of the things at the top of my head:

1. basketball - playing for my company's basketball team isn't that fun anymore. no intensity nor passion to expect from me. i'll probably join my friends from my former company in their pickup games. and also our practice sessions at adidas sportskamp, airconditioned basketball court (2.5k an hour!)

2. gym - i initially planned on going back to my daily gym schedule, even if it's just running for the whole session. now, it's not likely. i guess going to the gym is more fun if you go there with someone...

3. books - hoping to read 2 books this month. i'm currently reading book 8 of "the wheel of time". i already have books 9 (bought) and 10 (gift from dear friends) and was looking for book 8 for the longest time. the book now costs 375. i bought book 9 at 319!

4. programming projects - now i can probably work on my brad's brainchild project for their department. i do hope to finish it by the time my beloved comes back.

5. exam review - start reviewing for my certification exam. not really my priority... i wish i were more enthusiastic about this one... nuninu.

Day -3

2004-10-30T16:12:00.000+08:00

saturday... we woke up early to go to a money changer in ermita. we were expecting the exchange rate for euro to be at 71.50 (optimistically, at 71), that's why we were quite surprised to find out that the same shop that said mentioned the former rate, told us that they were selling at 72.20. we then asked around to give us other options. turns out 72.20 was the cheapest already, so we went back to the first shop we asked. we told them how much we wanted to buy, and in turn, they told us to wait while they check their stocks... we waited a good 10 minutes only to find out that they didn't have any euro. dang!

having decided that 72.20 would be our buying rate, we went through the other shops again... realizing that the 0.20 peso difference was just 100 pesos (plus getting tired and sweaty from walking), we bought the money from the first shop that offered the 72.20 rate.

we then went to their dfa to check on their tickets for tuesday's flight. this time, fortunately, their e-tickets were already processed. yey!

we then went to harrison plaza for some last minute shopping. tuna spread ingredients for me (since my mignon would be gone for a month, i might not ba able to recreate the rich taste of her tuna spread). first time that i was at that place again since high school... lots of seamen (ooops, i mean, seafarers) were around. probably from sri lanka, by their looks.

at their place, we watched some halloween specials (nginig, mgb). and in commercial breaks, we took some pictures of ourselves. hehe... here's one with my mignon, dionne. =)

Day -6

2004-10-28T00:57:00.000+08:00

6 days from now, my mignon will be leaving for france to study french, as a scholar of the french embassy. joining her will be her classmates. they'll be back by dec 2. that's a full month of study and tours. the sudy part will be sponsored by the embassy, while the tour part... it's up to them. =)

i wish i could join her. unfortunately, i can't... i'll be left here for 30+ days. and this will be my chronicle of those days... 30+ days without my mignon.