It’s official….Mick St. John has turned me into a vampire.

And like Mick and Josef, I prefer my bloody drink chilled and served in a crystal wine glass… Type A please, thank you very much…

This is crazy! I’ve been drooling over MOONLIGHT for the past few weeks, and I’d say it’s the modern day version of Lost Boys (if you still remember that super cool 80’s vampire movie?). Mick St. John is a vampire slash private investigator out to solve crimes. His best friend is Josef Konstantin, a rich and discerning ladies’ man whose charm outweighs his being dangerously vampire.

The story depicts that vampires are among us, living the way we live –only 400+ years longer. Mick falls in love with a mortal (Beth Turner), who was previously the same little kid he saved from his crazy ex-wife Coraline. Coraline tried to use little Beth to woo Mick into being a complete family. Knowing how she would sacrifice little Beth’s life, Mick kills Coraline through fire –saving Beth from death. But is Coraline really dead?

Beth grows up –works for Buzzwire as a tv anchor. And Mick tried to exist within her world –but not quite…until they meet again. Beth eventually finds out the truth about Mick St. John…and the rest is well, history? Not yet.

Moonlight keeps me on my toes, but it doesn’t make me feel stressed after watching back-to-back episodes on C/S RPN9 every Friday (9PM). I like it because it’s not as complicated and twisted as Lost. Solving crimes as a private investigator was a complimentary mission to Beth’s media work. And as a vampire, solving crimes becomes more action-packed and tasteful.

The cinematography is excellent and the plot is well understood, even though you haven’t started the series from the top. It also has a dash of witty humor here and there, c/o Josef and his many vampire friends. Especially when they show how “modern” these vampires are when they eat/drink via crystal wine glasses, picking type A and O blood in bags with their “blood brokers” in hospitals, and playing poker with blood vials as chips! This just shows that biting people on their necks is sooo over…

It’s soooo cool that it makes me want to be a vampire! Seriously! Do watch it guys!

PS. And can I just say… Alex O’Loughlin (Mick) and Jason Dohring (Josef) make me thirsty??? Woohoo!!!

There’s only one cliché that I refuse to believe: tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are. It’s a popular excuse for people who refuse to get to know you better. So they look at your friends to come up with a collective impression of you. Friendship is one shallow and deep statement at the same time. Since it starts as a simple exchange of snacks and toys when we were kids, the way we define friendship evolves as we grow older.  

I have categorized different friends in 12 types:

Childhood Friend. Do you still remember the kid who made you cry, but you ended up calling each other best of friends. You play in school and every time you finish homework. This is the person whom you create new games, words, jingles and code names with. And after summer break ends, playtime becomes infrequent. You eventually meet other friends in your own new world.

New Friend. This is not time bound. Any person you first exchange names and stories with are called new friends. It is quite easier to talk about ourselves with newer friends, than those who we think know us more. A new friend will not likely lie to you, since it becomes innate for us to share who we really are. Unless this new friend is trying to portray another persona, he/she will likely lie about small things.

Old Friend. It’s a lifelong bond in specific segments such as grade school life, high school life, college life, office life etc. As we grow older, we meet different people and we slowly learn how to choose the ones we really want to be with. Old friends are the ones we don’t necessarily meet everyday, but we still keep the ties, no matter what.

Special-interest Friend. If you love dancing, you get your dancer friends. If you love photography, you have your photog friends. And if you love cars, you form a car club and call each other friends. These are the people who share the same interest and passion for specific activities/items with you. We don’t necessarily tell them our origin and life stories. Having fun and learning together are enough to keep a certain fondness to be together.

Confidante. Think about the person who knows all your secrets, your stories, your dark beliefs. A confidante may not necessarily be called a best friend. For me, it’s the kind of friend you feel more vulnerable with. He/she knows how you feel even before uttering a word. You feel comfortable enough to bare it all, but still confident that he/she will never betray you. Your friends may not necessarily know who your confidante is, because most of the time, we feel that the ones we call friends are the same people who will talk about us behind our back. A confidante has his/her own world apart from yours, which makes life-sharing more unusual…but cherished for a lifetime.

  

Wild Friend. You have to have a wild friend at some point in your life. This is the friend you just get drunk and have fun with. He/she is always easy to invite out for some silly laughter and manages to make you zone out from a problem. A wild friend shares crazy moments with you, but you know that he will never judge. Usually, this friend also considers you his wild friend. There are times when we get swamped with problems and we just really need someone who won’t interrogate us.

Online Friend. Email, YM, mIRC, ICQ, blogs etc. These social networks prove that having friends from anywhere in the world is now possible. Online friends are the ones we share our lives with…but only through cyber space. More often, we find a way to meet these people. However, the friendship comes out differently when the cyber barrier disappears.

Dormant Friend. Chances are, an old friendship springs back to life. No matter how ancient, dormant friends happen to pop out of nowhere and we feel as much excitement to bring back the old days. Stories are told over and over, and old jokes still tickle. If you have forgotten why you drifted apart, a trip back to memory lane will likely bring you closer together.

Common Friend. Ever heard of the “6 levels of separation”? These are the people we call friends just because this cousin of your classmate happens to be the girlfriend of his uncle’s niece, and so on… They don’t hold as much importance in our lives, but they come in very handy at times (name-dropping, for some; a source of juicy info, for most of us). Just make sure they know you exist.

Friends with Benefits. Oh no, don’t even think about it. This type of friendship does not necessarily mean “only sex and favors”. Oh c’mon. These friends may be as simple as the bouncer who lets you in for free, the building guard who hails a cab for you, or your friendly neighbor who brings you food. These friends are happy enough to help you. We just need to return a favor or two!

Good Times Friend. This friend may be a combination of a couple of other types mentioned above. The operative word is: happiness. Happy trips, happy talks, happy gimmicks and happy dinners. These are the friends we love to be with and you usually share the same wavelength. However, if they see a different side of you, it’s either they ditch you or they’ll keep you…but they can secretly laugh about you. Good times friendship ideally lasts…well, I guess it’s as long as they still enjoy your company.

Best friend. I am still struggling on how one should define a best friend. I guess for me, he/she should be a combination of all other 11 types – less the judging, betraying, and gossiping. More often than not, best friends may not treat us the same way. It is sad but somehow true. You may be the most trust-worthy listener of a good friend, but he/she may not be the same way towards you..or she considers someone else as her best friend. A Best friend is the one who wants to see you succeed; who won’t mind seeing you cry and be stupid at times; she is the person who tells it the way it is, no sugar-coating; she’s the person who lets your guard down; and most of all, she has faith in you.

For 24 years, I can say I already met the 11 kinds of friends…yet I still find it hard to define the last one. No matter how hard we try to be the “BEST” a friend we should be, as they say: to expect the world to treat us fairly is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.

Quirky Qwerty just started her blog on April Fool’s Day (april 1, 2008 –well, if it means anything). A silent chatterbox, a nerdy cheerleader, a suntanning beachbum, an eccentric artist, and a workaholic who loves to travel. She can throw a tantrum and be a sweetheart the next minute. She’s the last person to hear about an explosive gossip, yet she knows the latest news on papers.

Athletic, Artistic and Sarcastic – she believes that what men can do, women can do even better. Photography is her 2nd love next to dancing, and she has an uncanny love for her Filipino (cocktail mix) culture. She eats anything but liver and lychee.

Quirky Qwerty is north-and-south, black-and-white, hot-and-cold, shallow-and-deep…she seems hard to understand, but very easy to be good friends with…

 

I was nostalgic about childhood 80s-90s memories together with my friends amidst the busy night life at Ortigas. The topic washed off my Margarita-nausea in an instant. Haha. I just realized how “shallow” we were as kids that junk food freebies, jackstones and tagu-taguan during brownouts were such a hit. Now we all wonder how complicated kids already are these days with the available technology and the existence of the world wide web! Are they lucky or…were we luckier?
Here’s a summary of what we raved about:

Junk Food
Remember the freebies we get inside cheeze curls and chikadees? Those rubbery bears that we throw up the classroom ceiling. I can’t forget that round rubbery thing that we fold inside out, place on top of the table, wait for it to pop and jump by itself. (I hope my explanation helps, it’s way better describing it verbally with matching actions!). One also mentioned that sticky rubber hand that you throw against the wall and pull it to stretch its gummy arms. Another “sari sari store” gimmick was the “palabunutan” where you pay 2 pesos to tear off a rolled paper and reveal if you won something among the displayed treats (which are mostly jackstone sets, mini-junk food, chinese garter and plastic balloon!). Were you also addicted to Haw Haw milk candies, assorted color bubble gum balls (3 for 25 cents), St. Peters butter ball, White Rabbit, Lala chocolate, Serg’s chocolate bar, Chocnut, Tira Tira, Judge, Curly tops, Flat tops, Merengue, Bazooka Joe, Champoy, and oooohhh those chocolate footballs?? I wonder why they don’t do those “kiddie marketing gimmicks” anymore. Have the kids become too hard to please…unlike us? My sister told me that when I was just 4 years old, she dresses me all pink (head to foot), walks me outside to see our neighbors and eat my all-time favorite merienda: Pop Cola with Marie (the softest biscuit ever!). And what happened to Fanta?

Games
There was no PSP and no PC Gaming. The kids back then were more “physically active” with outdoor games. I was fond of playing with boys and some sporty girls in our neighborhood so we’d always play tumbang preso, agawan base, and patintero. And yeah, I was known to be one of the fastest runners in the gang so boys would try to push me harder. An all-time favorite with girls was the chinese garter. Thanks to this game, I learned how to do cartwheels even before my gymnastics training in college! (haha) Ohhh don’t forget the “10-20-30″ game with the garter as well! And who can forget the 8-hour brownout every freakin night? It was the “power crisis” during Cory Aquino’s administration. How else can we entertain oursleves but by playing “tagu-taguan maliwanag ang buwan”. I remember rushing to finish my homework just so my mom would let me go outside and play. Then came the “roller blades” and “bikes”. Our village roads are rolling terrains amidst a hill so we only rollerblade and bike at the basketball court…egging our playmates to blade as skillfully as the others, plus comparing our rollerblades’ colors and style. I also recall kids yell “hindi kita bati!” (we’re not in good terms!), then the other cries and runs home. And when our playmates win over us in games, the bitter players cry “madaya! madaya!” (unfair! cheaters!).

In school, the popular games were chinese jackstones, standard jackstones, Dr. Quack Quack, Pass the Message (you’re in a circle tapping the one next to u, and the “it” in the middle tries to catch who passes that tapping?), Monkey Monkey Annabelle, I Love You Teddy Bear-Teddy Bear Jump Rope, Cross Mary Shake hand tapping combo, Bahay Kubo Quad-Clapping combo, and for the boys…the “Shooting Stars” (where you draw your base in the opposite corner of your pad paper, put a dot, point your pen, aim and slide to hit the enemy until you kill his base!). And ohhh, don’t forget your desire to get the “coolest” most innovative high-tech Pencil Case ever (where you push different buttons to snap out your eraser, pencil holder and scissors..plus a mini piano with Do-Re-Mi sound in the middle!) Was that cool or what?!

The only technology we had back then were the Game n’ Watch, Tetris, Gameboy and of course, our bestfriend Tamagotchi. The Tamiya cars were also popular to boys..most especially my younger brother Jong who even did a small business selling to neighborhood kids! My personal favorite was the Family Computer with that big-ass game cartridge. Hmmm I just remembered that my neighbor still hasn’t returned my Super Mario 3 for 15 years now. What do we do when the Family Computer doesn’t read the cartridge? Nope, we don’t call the technician. We take it out and “blow through” the dock and the cartridge chip! How barbaric right? Hehe.

Fashion
Oh God, my tummy churns when I see my 90’s photos. A friend and I had the same fascination for Skechers rubber shoes..take note, with heels and glittery design! We paired it with jeans that we fold out (in two folds of about 3 inches thick, blech!).  Black boots were also a big hit, even in school (even though it’s prohibited).  Kids compare the number of “shoestring holes” in our boots because the more holes, the more expensive your boots become. I was also a fashion victim for “vests” over a colored t-shirt (waaaahh!). And for boys, there were “bull caps” and “bull dog shoes” with metal noses…yikes! The brands? Doc Martens, Keds, Tretorn, and Adidas.

This is just a small part of all the things we reminisced about last night. How I wish I can turn back time…15 years back..when things were less complicated…less problematic. The only concerns were the following:
-what yaya packed for recess baon
-if playmates are all “bati” (in good terms)
-if we win in all games against boys
-if we followed the Princess Sarah and Sesame Street tv series
-and what time the “electricity” will finally resume (during the power crisis)

(that’s me in the pic..about 3 yrs old…all set to go walking!)

How about you…what childhood stuff you really miss?

2 hours a day. 7 days a week. Staring at the monitor as if I’m doing an intensive market research. Armed with my best friend calculator…am I computing the trend of the peso-dollar fluctuation? The concentration is high…my attention is focused on browsing at DSL speed. But alas, you’ll see a sign:

“Do not disturb. I’m window shopping…online”.

This is my daily relaxation, so to speak. I spend hours to satisfy my craving for the latest fashion finds. And I don’t just get the most popular picks. I like “one-of-a-kind” and “practical” items. It should be something to make me distinctive.

I keep track of my occasional grabs at the mall. And I realized that most of my purchases result from either deadly stress or mind-blowing good news. It makes me feel better…but I know my pocket will eventually burn a hole. Due to this, I have avoided going to the mall when I’m feeling the extremes. I surf the net, check emails and continue work at home. But heck, these sellers do know how to hunt down the prey.

Window shopping online has become a barricade when I want to finish work at home. It’s because I spread my excel files…but tend to leave a little window for my fashion surfing. It has just become so easy to browse through items right in the comfort of your computer seat. No need to journey through a continent-sized mall. (there goes my walking exercise excuse!) 
The result? I’m always puyat and get occasional migraines because I spend more and more time in front of the computer…not only for work but for pleasure..pure plehhzzyuurr..(*devil laugh). My loved ones say it becomes difficult to talk to me when I’m surfing because my world shuts down completely. When an item gets delivered, someone yells: “Aha, you bought something ha?” 
I also forget to eat because I lose track of time. Hmm should this be a good thing because I’ll lose weight? No. I’m diagnosed to have hyper acidity, with chronic lower back pains and probably a TMJ disorder. The doctor says this could lead to carpal tunnel syndrome too.

So what’s the cure? Well, another purchase won’t cure it (*in nasal tone). Or maybe I should turn my passion into another business venture?

It’s not all about “buying” really. Reading articles and reviews on trends, styles and how to’s take up most of my time. And also because of this, I have been completing issues of Preview magazine for a more enjoyable coffee break (hay!).

It’s normal to crave for knowledge on fashion…we’re girls eh! Same goes with boys going gaga over guns and cars. As long as you don’t burn yourself to “debt”…it’s ok. We should learn how to control ourselves and live within our budget.Ask yourself: Do I need this now? Can I afford it? Is this part of my budget allocation? And Can this item still wait?

 

It’s perfectly healthy to reward yourself from time to time, and to share this with your loved ones too.  Just make sure that online window shopping does not affect your work, your health and your personal life (and yeah, I’m saying this to myself).

I guess I better flash a new sign now: “I’m window shopping…online. Please stop me.” 

Even when the ultimate question “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” came to the insane debating scene, there has been a question in my head on “Why the word chicken was associated to being a coward”. I see things in different ways. Or rather, I see different things other people don’t. Kids and even adults have always avoided being called a “Chicken” especially when it’s with the matching “Bok-bok-bok, flapping-of-the-wings” gesture. But why associate those cute little chickens to dorky-coward humans who just know how to marinate them? I don’t think chickens are “chicken”. Why?

Try observing provincial roads or residential areas with poultry living around the area. Whenever we drive along those routes, we would always encounter chickens crossing the streets with utmost adrenaline-rush! Not only one chicken, take note. You will usually see them in groups…with the other group at the other side of the road, acting as if the others are egging on the one who will run next. I even imagine them saying, “So, you’re ready to prove you’re not a chicken huh chicken?” And the others yelling, “Bok-bok-bok go ahead, you can doooh it, run chicken run! Bok-bok-bok” I slam on the brakes when they run across the street risking chicken neck and limb…uhhh wing and leg? 50-50 chance to be the next fried lunch on your table? If we call those chickens “chicken”, then where the hell do they get the courage to cross the street?!

 

There are so many things to say. Bitte? Sil vous pleats? It was fun to change from German to French in a span of 5 hours via the Thallys.

 

Germany. I underestimated the climate. It was around -2 to 2 degrees celsius. Since we flew in at the last minute (late issuance of schengen visas), we barely had time to prepare! After 13 hours on the plane, we got off at Frankfurt airport, and took a high speed train (Die Bahn) for 1 hour to Koln. Add 5 more hours for the connecting flight inSingapore.  Of course, add a few minutes more for getting lost and struggling to understand Deutsch words.

 

We arrived at the Hauptbanhof late at night and managed to get a cab driven by a very nice Turkish driver. He was so excited to talk with people who spoke english. He just didn’t realize how happy we were as well to find an english speaking person too! And when he found out that we’re from the Philippines, he immediately said “Oh, you have woman president, Corazon Aquino? And now another one, the smaller one, yes?” We all laughed.

 

German people were too serious. Even the receptionist in our hotel was not as hospitable as we would expect hotel people to be. And man, it was just so damn cold.

 

The next few days were pure work, with just a few hours for sightseeing since all shops close at 8pm sharp! Yes, people sleep as early as 9pm there. We spent most of our transfers via the U Bahn. Since I’m the worst person when it comes to public transportation, I had to get used to the changing of trains, to reading the map, arguing with Miguel, and getting at the right Gleis (platform) at the exact expected time of departure. People are just sooo amazingly on time in Europe.

 

The Koelnmesse was huge and clean! Our World Trade Center will just cover 1 small floor, believe me. The IDS dental exhibition was like touring the whole world. You’ll see all kinds of Europeans, Americans, Asians, Australians, Iranians, Pakistanis…all of them! And the sound was so “odd”, different languages left and right. Different ways, different cultures, different smells…some were rude, some were nice, and some were cold…and smelly too. We had to finish 4 buildings to discover what was new, and what was applicable for the Philippine dental market. Of course, it was normal to experience some discrimination when it comes to importation of dental products, since it is expected that if it’s for the Philippine market, it has to be cheaper. Plus the fact that both of us look young…hmmm, this was the only time that it was disadvantageous.

 

But it was all worth it. Even if our feet were aching, we discovered a lot of reasonably priced and better alternatives to what we have in the dental market today. And we are just as excited to be able to introduce these to the Filipino dentists. Because we know that good alternatives will likewise improve costs and quality of dental services to Filipino patients.

 

In Germany, it really was an “everyday car show”. The cabs were Mercedes Benz’s and BMW’s… Porsche Carrera, Miatas, Audis and Smart cars were just parked around the corner. And a fully set-up Rolls Royce was just cruising in front of the Rolex shop, beat that!

 

 

The Dom (cathedral) was amazing. It was like living the life of Batman in Gotham City. Very sacred indeed…I had goose bumps the moment I saw it, right smack in my face when we headed out from the Hauptbanhof. 

 

The only things familiar to us that time were Starbucks, Mcdonalds, Birkenstock…LV, Lacoste, Rolex, Mango and Zara. And I feel bad because we did not have time to look around shops that much, because after our 6pm departure from Koelnmesse (IDS), and after dinner, all the shops were shut down. Seriously.

 

And hearing English was virtually once in a blue moon. The sunlight was always hidden and precipitation was frequent too. But the town was beautiful. Clean, organized, and people were on time. How many times will I say that?

 

The German version of Watsons was DM. Their MRT was the U Bahn. Chinese and Japanese food is expensive and souvenir shops are filled with cuckoo clocks. Everything was automated. Ticketing offices, luggage/baggage keepers and stairs were all automatic. It was kind of embarrassing to look like techie-illiterate Asians at times, but what the hell, we’re tourists! Hehe. There was so little need for manpower in  Koln.

France. After Koln, Germany, it was time for leisure! We took the Thallys high speed train bound for Paris Nord. A 5-hour trip to the city of light. I thought we’d have a 5-hour break and have some silence in the cabin…but hell, we were seated along with French men who also came from the IDS. Ha! They were secretly guessing our nationality, thanks to my French course back in college. I was able to understand some of their conversations. Hehe. It was funny though, one was saying we’re either Koreans, Japanese or Chinese.

 

We finally got off at the Paris Nord, and it was raining at 5 degrees! We looked for our hotel for 1 and a half hour. Luckily, we found a nearby Crepe place on the street! Yes, it was like fish balls and isaw place or jolly jeep in Makati, only nicer…and the cook was good looking. Voila! Our first meal in Paris was: jambon et fromage, plus nutella crepes at 9pm.

The next few days were pure bliss. The Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Couer, Eiffel tower, The Opera, Notre Dame and so much more…it was just so amazing.

 

 

 

We also had our own share of “getting lost in Paris adventure”. We met 2 students in the Eiffel tower and had a great conversation about culture and the perks of traveling. They were Marina (brazilian) and Laura (british australian). We were supposed to take the same metro along the way. But we ran (as in frantically ran) after a wrong RER train! We reached the outskirts of
Paris and we were just 30 mins. away from the last trip (the metro closes at 1am). Funny how you can see different people react in the same situation.
Marina was nervous because their hostel’s curfew was 1am, and Laura was more frantic in her amusing accent. We had to walk very far to transfer to the next metro station. I felt bad for those girls so I just tried my best to hail a cab (which is actually very few in Paris at  that time). I was lucky to find one ( a Mercedes Benz B Class white cab, not bad at all!) and got ourselves off at the next best station. Anything to help other tourists is a good thing for us, Filipinos, right?

 

 

People are just so different no matter how we say we’re equals. I overheard a conversation from a group of young Americans whom I believe were students from Oxford University. They were so full of themselves, not to mention that they were with their parents. We were all queuing for an elevator ride to the top platform of the Eiffel Tower. It was, again, a sea of different nationalities. It was just that these Americans stood out, talking very loudly about how superior they are over all other nations. How they know about everything and how small a deal it is for them to use LV, Bvlgari,
or Prada items which, for other nations, were gold. I also heard this girl from the same group sharing her experience in a French restaurant and how annoyed she was that she was expected to greet or say a few French words, because she is, hello, an American. We just pretended not to understand English. I think the rest of the nearby Spanish, Asians and other Europeans were doing the same thing. Listening and grinning to each other. Silently telling each other how low we look at that group of Americans who showed no culture and respect at all.

 

 

On a different note, an older American couple behind us were obviously ashamed of their noisy fellow Americans. I’ll never forget them because they showed me how love is, even at that age. The old man said, “Are you still okay? It’s freezing, we can just go now if you don’t want to anymore.” Then the wife said, “Will you love me more if I do this?” My body started to hibernate.

 

All in all, it was worth it. I can’t believe I actually went there….of course, I felt it now that we have to save up again. It was also a good chance to get to know Miguel. How we handled every situation…how he put up with my impatience, how we worked as a team dealing with other dental businessmen out there.

 

 

And it feels good to be home. A warm toilet seat, nicer human smell, sunny days and familiar languages. It’s great! I learned a lot, and I’m so excited to attend the IDS 2009.

 

 

I also appreciated the Philippines even more. Even though we don’t have so much wealth, we’re just so lucky to have: only 2 beautiful seasons, lots of beaches, warmer people and sumptuous food!

 

*March 29, 2007*