Thinking Aloud

UST would have taken the UAAP championship trophy last night. If only Ateneo wasn’t that lucky last week. A really smart play from Grandslam Coach Norman Black.

They gave the awards yesterday as well. I felt like shouting G-O U-S-T-E as well when Jervy Cruz was called as part of the Mythical Five. I could feel the Big Dome roaring with Tigers…

Tomorrow, they slug it out for the trophy. No matter what, UST has proven itself that it’s back in contention.

But of course, "the" trophy will further prove that.

Go USTE!

I was hit. For how long, I hope long enough to achieve something.

My legs and arms are sore from working out the last two days - one in the work gym (not flash) and today in a flash gym (yeah, watching tv while on the exercycle and the cross trainer).

But I’m coming back for sure. It feels good to look at the screen that shows how much calories you burn for every move you make.

Until when? You’ll know.

It’s past 11. I should be in bed. I know. But I’m not. I am half awake and half in dreamland.

I just thought I’d try to write something again. Who knows when I’ll find time to do this again…just joking.

Anyway, I had a busy weekend. It started on Friday night with two loads of washing that finished at 10pm while I was watching Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher do the tango in Guess Who. I remember seeing parts of the movie before but can’t remember when, where and what happened. So it was worth watching. I finished at 12midnight.

The next day I got up after 9am, grumpy as I wanted to sleep some more but couldn’t (i first woke up at past 8am). Anyway, I went online, checked my emails, friendster and news websites and watched Bituin. Honestly, nasusuya na ako kasi masyadong pinapahaba. Just like Sa Piling kasi nag-drag ang story towards the end. Tipong pinatatagal because nagre-rate. Anyway, i hope matapos na sya soon. Para naman maging normal na ang morning ko. Yeah, I watch Bituin while having breakfast. How obsessed can one get? But then hold that thought, my sister told me that John Lloyd and Bea’s new soap will replace it. Dang! Seems like I’ll continue to be late at work (late per my early standards). Whatever!

So after dilly-dallying, I took off at 11am and went to Miramar. Ang sarap ng siomai kahit secret daw nila Jane kung saan binili. Watched a couple of DVDs (in between falling asleep). Finally got home at 730pm. Had a quick dinner and set off to watch Cheaper by the Dozen (oo na, napanood ko na dati!) in between chatting with Mean. Actually, I got a late night call to go and see Stick It at Skycity kasi may screening ng 840pm. I don’t know anything about the movie and besides, I was planning to be at church by 9am so i had to beg off. Maybe next time. Honestly, i should say yes to a Tuesday movie soon at baka hindi na ako yayain.

Then today I set off for a long day travelling to Paraparaumu and Upper Hutt.Tipong sakay-sakay lang ng train. Ang nakakatawa, may track repairs pala so we had to take a bus to Wellington, then another bus to Tawa. From there lang kami nakasakay ng train. Ang kainis naman, makulimlim sa Kapiti Coast today. Kahapon daw maaraw. Ewan. Anyway, we got there after 12noon and set off to the mall to have coffee. Tapos adventure, sakay ng bus to go to the Nyco Chocolate Factory. Ang gulo ng signage (or mahina talaga navigational skills ko). Pagkatapos ng 2minutong paikot-ikot, nakita namin ang hinahanap na lugar. Well, dahil Chocolate factory, syempre puro chocolates. Before tumaas ang kilay, nagtry lang ako ng free sample. I mean, may binili akong ilan pieces pero di ko pa ginalaw. How about that.

Then we went back to the bus stop. May mabait na old lady who stopped sa amin and offered to give us a ride to Coastlands. I mean, that was really nice pero I politely said no dahil alanganin. We’ll have to walk pa to the train station. Ngayon lang ako nakakita ng ganun dito. After 30months.

The bus arrived shortly and then we waited for train for around five minutes. Same story, had to get off at Tawa to transfer to a bus to get to Wellington. Pagdating sa Welly, naiwan kami ng connecting bus to U Hutt kasi late ang bus namin. So had wait another half hour. Finally, we arrived at Upper Hutt at around 530pm. Lumabas lang to have a photo taken (which didn’t turn out good kasi di nakita ang Upper Hutt). Balik na ulit ng Waterloo then bus to Woburn.

I had to stop sa petrol station on the way home kasi parang malambot ang gulong ng kotse. Blooper, i’ve never done this in the past so had to ask anong required pressure.

Sa wakas, at 630pm, I got home. Tapos may text si mama reg, di daw sya makalabas kasi maulan. So sabi ko, sige lang, kakarating ko lang din. I cooked my food for the next three days (waaah!!!). Tapos mga before 8pm nagtext na si regina kaya lagare ako between cooking and chatting. Maraming chismis. Syempre pa about old office. Di ko na ikwento. After an hour she had to go. Si Bena naman kinulit ko (ten mins each call kasi un ang promo). As usual, usapang ewan ulit. Kulitan at tanungan kung sinong unang dapat magkaanak. In the end, we decided na si regina dapat. Sorry reg, kami nag-usap eh. Nga pala, I even squeezed watching Closer while chatting with Reg. Multi-tasking. Masama daw un I read somewhere…

Hay, wala pa rin ang episode ng The Buzz sa abs-cbnnow. Kainis, 1130na. Dapat kasi mapanood ko na para bukas di na ko manood sa umaga. 15minutes ulit na wait, tapos ayoko na. Tulog na ako.

Now i’m typing with both eyes closed.

Ang tawag namin sa UST batch from 1993-1997 (btw, kami un) ay  mga lucky charms. Why?

First year, UST won the crown after years of drought via a remarkable sweep of the UAAP eliminations. The main Tigers then were Dennis Espino, Rey Evangelista, Siot Tanquincen (crush ko nun), Bal David and Udoy Belmonte. All made it to the PBA although only Dennis and Rey remain active. Siot of course was a champion coach for Ginebra and is now Jong’s Deputy. Udoy played  a number of years with SMB but I haven’t heard much about him lately. Same goes for Bal. I wonder where he is now? Marie is a die-hard Bal David fan. Tama ba ako? The final game had the Tigers facing the Falcons headed by Kenneth Duremdes (teka, tama ba?) and 7-foot giant, EJ Feihl (who started out as a Tiger).

For the next three years, under the leadership of Coach Aric del Rosario, the Tigers reigned the UAAP Men’s Basketball Competitions. The Archers of course would never forget the three years that they faced UST in the finals which they all lost. I remember getting into arguments with some DLSU supporters on the two occassions. Syempre, nangyari un after the game. Nanalo kami so malakas loob. La Salle’s stars then were Jason Webb, Tyrone Bautista, Mark Telan and Luigi Trillo. Don Allado was a bumbling rookie that time.

But then again the stars graduated and while some new players came to play for the golden tigers from Espana, they were not able to sustain the success of their predecessors. Exciting players Cyrus Baguio and Nino Gelig electrified the UAAP and Alwyn Espiritu provided the muscle but their efforts were not enough. The best finish they had was runner up to DLSU in 1999.

Fast forward to 2006. UST unveiled a new coach in the person of former Tiger Pido Jarencio known for being a member of Ginebra Team in the PBA. I don’t like him because he got into a number of skirmish with my forever love Jolas. But then again, I am a Thomasian and Tiger by heart. So while I wasn’t able to watch the games (they used to show UAAP games in abs-cbn now), I followed the news and was ecstatic when they won over the league leading Blue Eagles and then got one over the Warriors, the second top team in the league.

UST entered the final four eventually and faced UE Warriors who had a twice to beat advantage. As we all know now, the Tigers defied the odds and won twice over the Dindo Pumaren-coached Warriors.

Game One of the Best of Three showdown starts this Sunday.

GO TIGERS! GO USTE!

Today happened to be the first day of the SkillEx, a National Skills Competition participated in by students on different trades all over NZ. Our polytech is hosting this year’s 3-day competition for the first time ever as it’s always been held up in Auckland.

I never really knew much about this and so when our boss voiunteered the team to help I was like - duh! We got our shirts two weeks ago which had "ask me" printed at the back.

This morning, with two workmates, we went down to see the coordinator, who we heard have been very stressed the last couple of weeks because of the preparations. Sort of reminded me about my own experience with CFO activities like Presidential Awards, Info Conference and Seafarers’ Convention years ago. Anyway, we were instructed to go around to see what’s happening and then take our post and guide the students as they arrive.

So for 3 hours, me and another workmate manned B Block and directed busloads after busloads of students (yeah, the sometimes unruly teeners) to the registration area. It was a tiring job though not as tiring as going home midnight to madaling-araw during the seafarers’ gig. Good thing, a real nice guy from work offered to buy us a drink so we had a hot chocolate for free (i should remind myself to return the favor at some stage).

Then at around 1150am, my workmate asked me to check on the sausage stand which our other workmate was supposed to be manning with another lady from another unit. When I went there, they’ve started grilling sausages and there were already some students waiting to be served.

Since my workmate had to go back to the office for a mid-day meeting, I volunteered to take over (though I thought I could leave after 12). Anyway, I got on with the job and for an hour I grilled sausages and distributed these to hungry students, some of which have gone back for second and even third helpings. As it was lunchtime and as a reward, I had eat one myself. That was lunch. At 1pm, we packed up as all the sausages have gone. And I was tired. And smelled like grilled sausages. Unfortunately, since I didn’t plan to be involved in doing the sausage sizzlers, I didn’t bring a spare shirt. I apologised profusely to my workmates when I went back to the office.

I was tired and hungry and came back to a lot of work in the afternoon. But I didn’t mind as I had fun. And I felt proud of what we did.

So when I left the office at 530pm, I went to the video shop and grabbed 5dvds to watch for a week and went straight to First Choice because I couldn’t bear to cook dinner anymore. I had dimsum and beef brisket (which i didn’t finish). I got home around 7pm and prepared myself for a relaxing evening (read: watch recorded Prison Break and SVU).

And then…

tulog na lang ako…may pasok pa bukas. pero at least di na ako assigned to help sa SkillEx. daming dapat gawin…

such is life…

Erich Segal is widely-known for his books  Love Story and Oliver’s Story. True enough, my first encounter with him was through these bestsellers. However, I’ve also managed to read his other books namely The Class, Prizes and Acts of Faith.

The Doctors though, stands out as the best Erich Segal book for me. In fact, I am inclined to make it the best book I’ve ever read (not counting HP series because its a different world).

This is the reason why I am reading it again, for the nth time. My copy got lost years ago and while the postage of the book i won via auction is much more than the cost of the hard-bound book, I didn’t mind.

The book chronicled the story of a batch of Harvard Medical School students Barney Livingston, Laura Castellano, Bennett Landsmann, and Seth Lazarus. There are other characters as well but these four are main ones.

At the heart of the novel is the story of Barney and Laura, two individuals who grew up together and for the longest time, shared a friendship that far outweighed their respective romantic relationships with others. One might think that such a relationship can never exist in real life and I must say that while I wish that it is not true, I’m afraid that what they had is not something we see everyday.

Barney was Laura’s protector, her shield and her source of strength. Laura on the other hand, was Barney’s one-woman-cheering squad, from the time he started playing basketball until the time that he started making a name as a writer. Indeed, they shared such a wonderful friendship that even if they got involved with other people, they inevitably ran to each other in times of sadness and confusion. Barney walked Laura to the aisle when she married Palmer although at the back of his mind, it was a mistake. Years and so much tears after, he was proven right. And he was the first person Laura sought when Palmer divorced her. The same thing happen when Laura broke off with his next serious beau. Barney lost his girlfriend that night as he had to go and see Laura who was distraught that same night he was supposed to propose to Ursula.

And while I have read it several times already, I am still looking forward to finishing it and perhaps, years from now, I’ll go and read it once again. Such is the beauty of the book.

Akala ko dito di na uso ang mudslinging sa mga pulitiko.

Mali pala.

Una, inakusahan na may extra-marital affair si Don Brash, leader ng National.

Deadma si Brash, di daw nya kailangan ipamalita ang kanyang private life sa publiko.

Sumunod na ilang araw, head line naman, gay daw ang asawa ni PM Helen Clark.

Natural, imbyerna ang lola. Sa dyaryo, pinakita pa na bineso ng isang kaibigan ang asawa ni Clark sa isang election party.

Ano ba yan?

Sabagay, it feels like I’m not too far from home. It all sounds familiar