dalawang araw na lang bago sumapit ang buwan ng Mayo. And buwang ito ay isa sa mga pinakahihintay ko tuwing magpapalit ang taon sa mga kadahilanang:

1. hudyat ito ng kalagitnaan ng taon
2. ito ang pinakamainit na panahon ng bakasyon (ng mga estudyante) sa Pilipinas
3. maraming ipinagdiriwang sa buwang ito
4. petsa ng kapanganakan ko ang buwang ito
5. anibersaryo ng bautismo ko ang buwang ito
6. marami pang bunga ang mga puno ng mangga
7. dalawang magkaibang piyesta ang ipinagdiriwang sa bayan namin sa Minalin
8. masarap manood ng santacruzan

pero hindi ko alam kung ganito pa rin ang magiging pakiramdam ko pagdating Mayo ngayong taon na ito. kase, unang Mayo ko ito dito sa Canada. maliban sa kaarawan ko at anibersaryo ng bautismo, ang alam ko lang na tiyak na mangyayari sa susunod na buwan ay ang mga sumusunod:

1. maglilipat kami ng bahay
2. tutupad ako sa bautismo sa lokal ng Toronto

kung sa bagay, habang hindi pa ayos ang papel ko, wala naman akong ibang kaaliwan dito kundi ang tumupad ng tungkulin ko. kaya nga lagi kong inaabangan ang Huwebes at Linggo.
kaugnay nga pala nito, ibinabalita sa akin ni jary na papalitan daw ang disenyo ng toga sa Pilipinas. mula sa togang puti na tinernuhan ng puting truvinized, kurbata, puting pantalon at puting sapatos, gagawin daw off-white chinese collar na tinernuhan ng puting t-shirt sa loob at itim na pantalon at sapatos. hmm... magkano naman kaya ang patahi ng bagong toga?

i had a great day today, started off by fulfilling the first day of devotional prayer in church for the scheduled Grand Bible Presentation next Friday. God-willing, i'll be having a visitor on that day while i also get to perform as our choir is scheduled to sing in that activity. anyway, i wasn't able to talk to keng in the morning so i called her lunch time just to know how she's been doing, and i know her shift is over that time. then a little later, she informed me that they'd be chillin' out at Lalaine's place since the Raqueños are about to leave for Manila tomorrow. bon voyage po to Laine, Roma & Michelle, as they will attend their sister Charmaine's wedding scheduled next month.

dined in at China Buffet with my good buddies much later and the intsik lady didn't give our change when we gave her our payment for the bill that she handed over our table. As we walked towards the counter going out of the place, she just looked at us, as if she owes us nothing. what was that anyway, a compulsary tip?

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kahapon, masaya ako na nalungkot bandang hapon. eto kase:

- pinatnubayan, sinamahan at nilingap ng Ama ang aking pagsamba sa Kaniya!
- maraming nag-alok ng pananghalian
- magkasama ang ensayo ng seniors A at B
- mahabang panahon ang inilagi ko sa kapilya, hanggang matapos pa ang pulong ng mga maytungkulin.
- imbitado kami ng isang kapatid pagkatapos ng pulong
- hindi nakasama si karen
- nalanta yung bulaklak ni ate pagkauwi namin ng bahay

pagkauwi ay agad kong tinawagan si karen upang linawin yung nangyaring pagkaway-kaway namin habang papaalis ako sa kapilya. yun pala, nagbago ang plano nila at dapat ay sasama na siya sa pinuntahan naming kainan nung gabi, pero hindi lang kami nagkaunawaan. kumaway siya upang pabalikin ako, ako naman ay kumaway upang magpaalam. marahil, dapat kaming mag-aral ng mabuting sign languages para sa susunod ay magkaintindihan na kami. pero, tapos na yun. at yung bulaklak ni ate, nabuhay na muli matapos naming diligan. yun pala, masyado lang nainitan sa heater na nakabukas dito sa bahay, eh natapat kase yung lamesang pinaglalagyan nito.

been to Toronto (ate Luz's place) with buddies Noriel & Charlie and brought some colognes for purchase. people there are good. i've never been so FULL in my entire one afternoon til evening. puro pagkain *groan* anyway, have to rest now and be ready for the WS tomorrow... good night, blog.

Happy birthday to my dear ate, who turns 35 today!

Yesterday, karen & i bought her a present, a beautiful and elegant-looking flower (plant) which we purchased in the flower shop in South Common Mall. And i'm beginning to love No Frills as i shopped for food purchases earlier that day, then finding myself buying (extra) cans of goods for making fruit salad, and cans of tuna. i was only supposed to buy three cans of cream of mushroom and a pack of 6 chicken thighs but decided to get the canned fruits anyway.
I have cooked a veeeeery delicious chicken in cream of mushroom for lunch and boasted about it with my sister. hmm... yum, yum! i'm getting to be a kitchen freak, eek!
well, i love working in the kitchen with keng, who helped me out with the menu, and a little washing on the dishes and of course, cooking rice.

two days ago, i had a new "manager" in the person of boss Noriel. no further details.

still two days ago, had a very blessed day with my Lord, i was thanking Him for all His blessings and i was just too eager to perform my duty to Him!

three days ago wrong positioning of body in carrying heavy loads gave me back pains the next couple of days. *ouch*

four days ago, finally was able to watch Mama Mia with friends... and of course with my one and only BK. it was a great night, the only downside of it was that the crowd was not too much into dancing with the Abba songs. too bad, sayang yung dancing queen
same night, Toronto (and Mississauga) hockey fans rejoiced endlessly as the Toronto Maple Leafs prevailed over the Ottawa Senators to represent the country in the 2004 playoffs. i'm not a hockey fan but the spirit (victory) was truly felt when we walked by the downtown when the show was over, and as we brave the cold wind, we witness people rejoicing on the streets, and cars honking their horns upto almost midnight... well, at least until we left downtown. howell... let's hope for the best for the Leafs...!





[thumbs courtesy of Toronto Maple Leafs Wallpaper]

a very annoying and sarcastic "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" for Mr. George W. Bush!

view it here: the most boring president

amidst the many attempts of unifying the opposition, and as the May 2004 elections get nearer, its funny to note that spectators of what the camps of FPJ and Lacson's next move will be are simply too eager to nose on it. meetings have been set way before, confidential or not, they have all been foiled.

here's an amusing comic strip describing FPJ & Ping Lacson's line of communication (and their "hope" in finally meeting up for the unification):


credits for the comic strip goes to (Mr/Ms) Aranda for the Philstar.com
the fact that the cartoonist used the term "EB" knocks me good! haha!
Feature Story relating to the comic strip here.

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week-end wrap-up

Saturday, Kuya Ralph had a seminar for the day so my sister and i, together with the kids, took the bus going to the church that afternoon. it was a joyful experience for the kids, and for us as well since we arrived in church earlier than the usual last-minute actions. anyway, i got the tickets from Charlie for Mama Mia which we will be watching on Tuesday.

Sunday we CLEANED the house, and i mean, CLEAN. we were suppose to hold our committee-prayer at home but Ka Maribeth told us that our meeting will be held at Ka Susie's place instead. So, we didn't have to prepare food for the group. we just dined out for lunch (kase wala na kaming pagkain sa bahay) after Kuya Ralph arrived from church and then had our groceries at Highland Farms. Afterwich, we dropped by their new house in Winston Churchill and got excited about it since it is almost finished, that we can just imagine how it will look like when we transfer there next month. Then we headed to Ka Susie's place and the usual weekly gathering is a joy for everyone and i should say, still, this is the best ever commitee-prayer group! finally for the day upon going back home, we watched the DVD i bought the other day from Dixie Mall, Three To Tango and it was hilarious!

and that was the weekend.

Ron & Bro. Roland has finally talked over their schedule for an exclusive Bible study for Ron, after the successful Grand Bible Presentation tonight, which, thru God's grace was attended by a good number of visitors. Praises be unto His Name!

My buddies and i stopped over at Ron & Cathy's place before i finally went home. Earlier, Keng handed me two new shirts which she purchased and hey, i love them! thanks a bunch BK!

tomorrow's another day, and i get to perform at night. ciao!

Went to Dixie Mall with keng and drooled over the sale items. from shirts to jackets, bags to shoes, we kept ourselves from purchasing any of the items in the stores until we decided to buy a pair of shoes not more than $20, excluding tax. We went to Aldo and looked for an elegant pair of shoes which she can use in church. We found this nice coffee-colored pair on the $19.95 rack and it fitted her perfectly. Then we asked for the other half of the pair and it was where we noticed the price tag: $49.50. Wanted to confirm everything before we make the final "purchase", the attendant told us it is indeed $49.50. There goes her shoes... so we went out of the store and finally decided to go home as i still have performance in the WS tonight.

before exiting the mall, i craved buying two DVDs that are on sale @ 2 for $15. So i got one for the kids, Short Circuit starring the funny robot Number 5, and one for me, a film i haven't seen yet--- Three To Tango.

Then i thought i was having stomach upsets and later on realized it was the food i ate at Sizzling Plate the previous night. shame on them. Pinoy pa naman may-ari, sira ang mga pagkain. sheesh...

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from an online quiz: Which (Philippine) Presidentiable Are You?

neither did i search for you, nor consider you to be one of those whom i admire at first sight. but things happened, there it was. you, me, sharing words at timothy's coffee after watching a light movie at the odeon. since then, everything seemed perfect. after some time, we agreed on a specific date. and now, it has been three months, and counting...

The Rest of the Day

>> went to QPS and saw two police cars, 1 ambulance and 2 fire trucks. later on, i realized that someone has called 911.
>> my best friend fooled around (thru text message) saying that he's addicted to shabu, exchaged some text messages with him until he ceased to reply.
>> missed my stop at Burnhamthorpe and so I (unintentionally) reached Dixie Mall due to the exchange of text messages with my best friend.
>> went home and bought two packs of caramel popcorn with nuts.
>> went out with Noriel, went to Money Mart & Canada Trust, then waited for Charlie at Tim Hortons.
>> ate dinner at Sizzling Plate.
>> (the same & above-mentioned) best friend text(ed) again confirming he was just fooling around with the previous 'confession'.
>> called Ron and confirmed his attendance in the GBP on Friday (woohoo!!!) Praise God!
>> last stop at Tim Hortons for a cup of hot chocolate each.

and i call it a day!

tomorrow is another day, and i'm looking forward to it coz i get to be with a very special person for the day, and at night, i get to perform my duty to my God.

good night blog.

Time to do some groceries... goin' out this morning and mail my important docs at Shopper's, then head to Walmart to buy a dishwashing liquid, a detergent powder, and a couple of fabric softeners. Then off i go to fetch my niece at the bus stop.

well...?

after a few days of nice, sunny weather, gloomy skies are here again and rain dominates most of Toronto.

i left my blog Friday, so what happened the past days?
Saturday, waited for phone calls regarding my cologne & perfume 'business'. hehe... didn't have any confirmation from prospective customers so my managers (Noriel & Charlie) and i just strolled in the mall hoping to meet some people we know and offer them the 'business'. Actually, there was still no luck in the mall so we just decided to wait outside the church (after winning a donut at Tim Hortons) and offer some brethren about the 'business'. hehe... i know, i know... before some of the brethren reading this react violently, let me clear out that we didn't sell in the church premises. we were out there in the parking lot where people (members & non-members) are free to pass, and where 911 has jurisdiction. now that's clear, eh?

so, we got good buys from MarkY's dad, and Joker (hehe). the latter returned the goods the next day though. sheesh.. we should have a "no return no exchange" policy considering the very CHEAP price we are selling the goods. oh well..

Sunday was rather a lighter day and a blessed one at that, as i performed in the WS, choir practice at 2PM and sister Debbie joined us as she is scheduled to perform with our group on Saturday, then finishing off with our committee-prayer at Bro. Resty's place where we also joined them in celebration of his being a deacon. we also watched the movie Cheaper by the Dozen starring Steve Martin. and yes, my aunt has to invite us still for dinner afterwards so it was a never-ending pigging-out on food last weekend. *sigh*

Yesterday, chilled out at BK place and i ate a whole lot of delicious kaldereta. Then we just watched teevee, and we didn't get to see the DVD i brought (28 Days starring Sandra Bullock). A little later, her sister arrived and gave keng a nice pink bag, and she boasted on the new profile pics in her friendster, featuring the Washington trip. hehehe... we get to watch the Miss USA episode in Fear Factor and then i had to go home. oh yeah... Kuya JP just dated with, ahm...



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kahapon, nakapagpareserba na ako ng isang aklat na makukuha ko sa July 26. Bayad na yun kaya hihintayin ko na lang.

weather's nice today! my kuya and i went to church with the kids and we were supposed to do our day-guarding duty but *unfortunately*, no one endorsed the keys so we weren't able to come inside. so we just went back home. after that, i immediately asked my uncle if i can borrow his bike. After years of not riding a bike, it feels weird to ride it again but later on it felt better! I went to my good buddies house in Ingram St. I passed by South Millway and Collegeway, then turned to Colonial and finally reaching Ingram. Felt good... as i passed by some youngsters playing ball, some are skate boarding, while other people are jogging.

then we just spent a few hours of the night at Ka Milet's place.

on another story, my BK wasn't feeling ok after her sleepover at Jocez's house. Not about the sleepover though but i'm glad she got over *it* already.

Long weekend.

i've spent a total of 3 Mississauga Transit bus tickets for this whole day going to Dixie Road, Islington Station & Square One with BK. This is probably the best day of the week for me! First and foremost, it's always a delight for me waking up on a Thursday, as I look forward to my performance in the WS. Anyway, i had a great time with my BK, who accompanied me to all my appointments, and afterwards we strolled around Sq1 and ate at our usual dining place. now i've learned that she'll be staying with her gurLfriends which i find very good since these girls have been missing each other a whole lot, considering their personal schedules. great chance this long weekend has given them to chill together and get back to their gurL stuffs. howell... i'm looking forward to a "busy" day tomorrow as my ate & kuya prepares the things that needed to be transferred to their new house next month. then i could be with my good buddies tomorrow looking for some moolah

so much for now... i still have to update my friendster account, and also try to hunt down my high school classmates. ciao!

i feel better now after having dinner with my family plus karen in Erin Mills. keng was invited over for dinner by my ate & kuya as the latter celebrate their 9th anniversary of marriage. wow! one more year and they'd be together for a decade! makes me think back when i was mistaken as a waiter in their wedding reception in La Serena Gardens in Marikina City by their guests as i hold a tray full of softdrinks intended for the table of my friends. haha! time...

i'm trying to figure out why i am so annoyed today. maybe i'm back to those LANI times, which they used to label me in my college years. sheesh.

i finally got over with my March blog color hehe... anyway, i am thankful that April has finally arrived and i am expecting the weather to warm up a bit compared to the former winter months. and i'm waiting for the colorful environment that will "spring up" everywhere as the leaves and flowers come alive again. as of this posting, the maple trees are still 'bald'. they look dead without leaves. here is a comparative photo of maple trees during different seasons:

Winter


Spring


Summer


Fall


...i hope google shows here all the images.

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My weekend was a blast! Saturday i had my hair cut @ Ka Ellen's place with my good buddies. I was also able to buy to packs of 2-kg sugar on sale @ 99cents each. made me think, ako lang ang nakakaubos ng asukal dito sa bahay dahil sa kakainom ng kape. howell...
then i performed at night for the WS. feels good as always when God gives His blessings whenever you perform your duty to Him.

Sunday we had our lunch upstairs as we celebrated my aunt Esther's birthday. then in the afternoon, i went to Square One and met Charlie & Noriel there. I had my kuya Butch' watch battery replaced and bought my BK the bag she longed for. hehe... then the three of us took a sip of hot drinks at the usual place, Tim Hortons, and still, we hadn't won a major prize. darN! i always had no good luck on these "look & win" thingy... sheesh... anyway, we had a nice sell-out on perfumes just here in our area. very friendly prices for genuine, and duty free (products) perfumes. anybody wants to buy? contact me!

yesterday was a very nice day, well, i get to surprise keng again (and i'm getting the habit of it) hehehe... actually, i just went to her place and chilled out for the afternoon. we just played (the boring) SIMS, logged in to PEx, Friendster (btw, i have a new account), xanga, then cooked dinner. i also bought a couple more chocolates from May who seems closer to his kuya Richard than me. bah! i can't even suhol her a treat to McDonalds. oh well... c'est la vie.

i am one happy soul today! kahit walang masyadong 'kumagat' sa April Fools Entry ko kahapon. hehe...

anyway, i never thought that shopping can be a very, very good experience! i NEVER spend more than an hour shopping for myself but things were different today. woah! i got myself a new wristwatch, two new t-shirts (one round-neck, and one V-neck), and one long sleeves which i was looking for a long time (coz its color is so seldom for men's wear). i love them all and i got 'em all courtesy of my gurLfriend! (ang mushy, pero wala akong pakialam) hehe... actually, i'm very lucky for having her. she's very generous, in ALL aspect, hindi lang sa akin, lalo na sa family niya, she's a very responsible lady. Para ngang mas matured pa syang kumilos kaysa akin dahil napaka-responsable niya. i'm just lucky for having her. salamat po ulit.

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It's ApriL! I was waiting for this month for so long, i felt that March overstayed much. here are TWO reasons why i wanted March to end right away:

1. i am awaiting the development of my independent immigrant application.
2. i wanted the winter season to end ASAP.

i guess that's about it. and having the Holy Supper schedule early in March has made the rest of the month's day so dragging. We were busier in February when we had to prepare for the holy occasion. anyway, ranting is over. it's ApriL and my sister's burpday, i mean, birthday is coming!

after a long contemplation on what's going on with my life, i have come to this most crucial decision--- to settle down. finally. i'm just thankful for having met my soul mate on this other side of the globe. never have i had a girl like her, and even age difference wasn't a hindrance in this thing called "forever".

i have talked to her about this matter a hundred times and we were both reluctant, thinking that having a family of our own isn't as simple as a game, where you can quit at any time when you get tired and bored. but having the faith, and i can say, unconditional love for each other, nothing can possibly go wrong. i mean, yes, there will be hardships and trials, but i always believe that our relationship, as husband and wife, will remain strong, with love, trust and faith as its foundation.

i would also like to thank her parents for entrusting their daughter to me, in spite of my status here in this country. as for my parents, they have always been supportive of me.

i have never told anyone about this matter yet, and as this page serves as my 'official' online life publication, i just can't think yet how i would counter react on my dear friends take on this.

haven't done any extraordinary today but the usual "tell-a-white-lie-then-surprise-someone" habit which i began liking since college days.. well, i had a great day today just having done that. hehe... caught *sumone* sleeping on couch-pillows, under a thick bed sheet and woah! the 'picture' was simply... cute.

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something caught my attention in PEx this afternoon (early dawn, Manila time) and it made me contact all the possible mods and admins that i have in my phonebook and YM list. it's a very urgent matter... well, at least for them (the mods and admins).

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had a nice dinner/kofi with my good buddies Noriel & Charlie. We've been burning our throats with hot coffee and hot chocolate at Tim Hortons until we win (even at least) one of their major prizes in their current promo. *crosses-fingers*

haha!

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Thursday tomorrow! It's April Fool's Day! hmm... sino kayang pwede kong lokohin?