Of being lucky and other stuff...

I’m one lucky girl lately. Let me tell you why but first, let’s backtrack to how it happened:

You all know that Schmuck’s dad went here for a couple of days last month, and when he was here, he bought himself a new pda/phone. It just so happened that the store had this promo that day that for a certain amount of purchase, you are entitled to enter the raffle for a gift voucher to IKEA (the best home furnishing store in the whole world, in my unbiased opinion hehe). Since Schmuck works for IKEA, that immediately disqualifies him and his immediate relatives to the raffle, so I ended up filling up the stubs myself. So you all know where this is heading right? Too make this long blabbering short, I WON! No, make it they won; it’s just that it’s under my name so basically I won, though I didn’t hehe.

I received the call two days ago; they said I won a 5,000aed voucher from IKEA! Sweet! Funny when I was filling up that stub, Schmuck’s dad told me he’s a got a good feeling about it. I was always lucky with raffle draws. Back in the Phils, previous winning I have accumulated includes a washing machine, a Sony wi-fi component, groceries, and even shirts hehe.

I remember two instances in college, wherein in both cases, there was a long line of students wanting to get that last slot on a class, so the teacher decided to get all our id’s and raffle the last slot, and what do you know, I got the slot in both cases!

But I was never lucky with sweepstakes, lottos and other games of chance, just raffles hehe. Hey, it just hit me, in my previous blog, I wrote my birthday wishlist and one of them was to win in any raffle, cool! And with regards to my makeup wish, my mom is sending me some thru Schmuck’s mom. Hmmm, wishes coming true, I wonder if my secret wish will be granted…

Anyways, with regards to the winnings, since it was not my purchase, we have decided to divide it, 1k will go to Schmuck’s family, 1k to some friends who I promised to buy some little tokens, and the remaining 3k will be used to furnish Schmuck’s place. I only bedspace so there will be no more space for additional clutter. Scmuck promised to buy me some stuffs though from his share, like some cookwares to send to my mom and maybe some little stuff for me.

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I was planning on going to Turkey to celebrate my birthday, just for 3 days, but yesterday I have decided to cancel it. Apparently most of my friends cannot go with me, I wouldn’t want to celebrate my birthday wandering in Turkey alone right?

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I am dreading lunch today. This morning while I was cooking my lunch (sausage and egg hehe), I made a little boo boo. As I was frying the egg, I took the saltshaker to sprinkle some salt and stupid little me open the wrong end on the shaker (the big opening and not the “little holes” opening. So you all know what happened, so lunch will be a bit salty later.

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I’m having a case of too much of “too much”. You didn’t get me right? Hehe. Well it’s like this, most of the people in here say “too much” too often. It always ends up getting misused actually. It’s like they do not have “very” in their vocabulary. Examples:

- They say: There is “too much” traffic, when it will be better just to say: “The traffic was bad”.
- They say: I am “too much” busy, when it should be: “I am very busy”.

That goes also for: There is too much cold, too much problem, and so on. Come to think of it, they say “how much” in cases when “how many” applies better.

This is too much (wink)... I have to go back to work. =)

Japanese-Themed Birthday Party!

Last January 5, our friend Charles celebrated his birthday by having a Japanese-themed party. So everyone was asked to don any Japanese costume. I wanted to come as a geisha but I cannot find any kimono the last minute so I ended up coming as a Japanese school girl. Schmuck and I had a hard time looking for costume and as it turned out, our last resort which is the kid's section, is where I found my whole costume ensemble.

Schmuck, on the other hand decided to just go as a Japanese commoner, with his improvised kimono (it was a bathrobe hehe) and sock and slippers.

Here as the pics:

Schmuck "the Japanese commoner" (as if he really needs a costume, he looks japanese anyways) and his japanese school girl. I was going for a cross between fook mi/yu in austin power's goldmember and the school girl in kill bill, but everybody ended up calling me britney spears thoughout the evening.

My dearest buddy Simon drunk and rowdy as always!

Memoirs of a Geisha?! Charles (the birthday celebrant), Andy (who looks more like he's from the set of Mano Po) and Herbert (the japanese pokpok)

Question: Why the hell is everybody in the kitchen? Answer: Because that's where the booze is!

Everybody having a blast, Schmuck mixing drinks...

What a rowdy bunch...


The japayuki, Carl "the wagamama-japanese cardinal-queen amidala, and charles the geisha.

It was a fun evening. I don't actually know how they all end up in the morning as Schmuck and I sneaked out to go home when the party got too wild for us. Hmm, with my birthday coming up, what theme should my party be? Curious! Very curious!

Saying my thoughts out loud...

(Me, talking to myself, here are my thoughts...)

• Darn, the 4day holiday passed by without me really feeling it. Blame the PS2! (Kidding babe)
• Yey! Angie's (Angelina Jolie) pregnant. Dunno why I'm happy hehe. I just like them both.
• It's my year! Year of the Dog! A friend used his tarot cards on me a few weeks ago. And boy! The predictions for me this year really blew my hat off! I'm not telling you yet about the predictions, I'll just wait til they come true!
• My birthday's coming up!We'll it's still next month, yet I can't help but feel excited about it. I remember some friends posting their bday wishlist, I was thinking that maybe I'll post mine, to give you guys hints wahahaha! But it won't really be useful for those back home unless you wanna spend a lot having them sent here by courier! (Wink!) Note: Wish list at the end of this post.
• I haven't watched Narnia yet, tsk! We're supposed to watch it this past holidays but again blame the PS2! (Kidding babe!) Actually Schmuck's a little sick, slight fever and back pain, so he's not really in the mood to go out.
• I really have this good feeling about this year! I feel giddy thinking about it!
• I miss my bestfriend (Jan)... Hi bes!
• Just this past week, I've missed 3 weddings! The first one was that of one of my fave cousin on my dad's side, I was supposed to be the bride's maid but I was not able to go home. Tsk! Then there was Je's wedding, a highschool friend, and then Ghem's wedding, a college blockmate, the first wedding in our block! Tsk! I wish could have gone to all three.
• It just seems funny that people I know are getting married here and there lately, and my dear cousin (on my mom's side, yung pretty na kamuka ko haha) is now sporting a new diamond ring! I just can't imagine it, my beloved cousin, the one I used to spend hours with every night crying my heart out over some corny love aches, the one who knows all my craziness, my childhood playmate, dang! She's engaged! Daya! Haha! Sabi ko sayo ako muna dapat since I'm older than you! Oh well... I'm happy for you nhai!
• I miss Simon. A dear friend who used to work in the same building as mine. We used to meet at the building's fire exit when we're both bored to make chika. He transferred to another office and now I don't have a ciggie bud here. And yeah, it's through him that Schmuck and I met.
• It's confirmed! WB will release the Harry Potter GOF DVD's on March 7! They'll be releasing them in 2 versions: the normal one-disk and a 2-disk special edition that will contain some deleted scenes and cast interviews. But I'm not getting either of the two... I'm buying the 8-disk special! Yup! They're also releasing a collection of all 4 HP's together with a special disk for each so 8 all-in-all! Yey!
• There's a sandstorm outside and its been going on for hours now.
• And now for my bday wishlist:

(first the not-so-expensive material wishes:)

- A lunch box. Preferably in a stylish color that will be okay with whatever office attire I'm wearing hehe!

- A plain black bag, a must-have but dunno why I just don't have one.

- Cutee small ankle socks (if that's what you call them). I just bought myself (a new year's gift) a pair of the cutest Puma shoes, and that's what i need the socks for wehehe.

- Any shiny lipgloss

- Pony tails or scoongies, nice ones that I can use in the office.

- A Palm Tungsten E2 casing

- I actually need a pressed powder and a blush hehe

- Books: The Devil Wears Prada or Narnia (the box collection)

- DVDs: Mean Streets or Casino (both by Martin Scorsese), Scarface (starring Pacino), or a season of the Gilmore Girls

(then my other wishes that I dunno how to classify but will really give me great happiness:)

- A pay raise (this goes out for my boss)

- A Sony Vaio laptop (this one is a typographical error! wehehe)

- To spend half a day in a hot tub, with scented candles all around, reading a book, and sipping wine (preferably a Montes Cabernet Sauvignon).

- Dinner with friends (and I hope I won't have to pay hehe)

- To receive a surprise

- To win any raffle for cash, all expense paid vacations, cruises, or shopping/dinner vouchers

- Visit mom and dad

- For a dream to come true ( I just have this feeling that something's goods about to happen).

Have to get back to reality now... My boss' calling...

Holidays!

It's not often that one gets to have holidays here in the Middle East. Being in a Muslim country, where a normal working week is from Saturday to Thursday, and Friday being what we considered as a weekend, getting holidays every once in a while is really something that everyone looks forward to.

One of the holidays we look forward to is the Ramadan, which usually falls between October and November, it's a whole month of working only until 2pm. But not really that fun when you cannot eat out and drink until evening because the Muslims are fasting, and you also can't go to the mall after work because they will open only around 6pm during these times. But at the end of the Ramadan month we get a 3-day Eid Mubarak holidays.

Then the next holiday will be Christmas, we'll that still depends with your boss hehe. Like in my case I was working last Christmas.

We'll at least they celebrate New Year here, so since I was usually off Fridays and Saturdays, New Year falling on a Sunday was really good for me... a 3-day holiday it was!

Not even rcovering from the holidays, a few days ago another 3-day off was announced, Jan.5-7, due to the sad demise of Sheikh Maktoum, our Dubai Ruler and UAE's Vice President.

So I came to work only yesterday but again tomorrow will be the start of another Muslim Holiday! I forgot the name, it an Eid al-something holiday.. So I'll be off from tomorrow til Friday! 4days!

But this holiday is a little more special because Schmuck's also off during those days. It's not often that we get to spend holidays together. He works in Retail so usually they have work during those times. But it's a good thing his boss finally gave him a holiday.

So we will not be bored for 4days, here are what we are planning:

- play Playstation2 (he'll buy Sims2, Sims Bustin' Out and Colin McRae Rally 2005 later), i'm downloading cheatcodes at the moment haha..

- cook, bake, and eat! i'm thinking of buying an oven hehe..

- read, read and read.. we have to catch up on some readings. I'm downloading ebooks for my pda, but I can't seem to find good ones for free. I love classics anyways. But if you happen to have new ones that you can send me for free, please do so! hehe..

- watch Narnia!

- Pig-out!

- watch DVDs!

It is too cold to go the beach anymore. It is averaging 13'C - 18'C outside. So it will only be home and mall for 4days. Hay, we have to make most of this holiday because there will be no more holidays until the October. See you next week!