Two Years Ago Today

Noy took me out on a date in Sydney.
Three months into that month-long honeymoon cum job-hunting trip and quite fruitless - babyless, jobless - we decided it was time for a breather.

The hour-long train ride was fun, but looking for the Sydney Aquarium wasn't. Noy apparently had the wrong information on which station the aquarium was nearest, so we ended up practically circling the area and going back where we started. Our feet already hurt from walking, and that doesn't usually happen because we're such walk people. We spotted a bar on the same building as the Philippine Airlines office and Noy bought a large cup of strawberry milkshake that was unmistakably full of strawberry goodness. Too bad we didn't take pictures. I guess we were THAT tired.

We finally found the aquarium after getting the right direction from strangers who actually knew where it was. In between we got lost some more, but decided not to get upset and just enjoy the sights.

I think this church is just pretty.

St Patrick's Church had a little unsuspecting cafe in a corner of its yard. I wanted to come inside to take pictures, but I was afraid of running out of cash since we didn't know how much the entrance to the aquarium would cost.

In fact, we brought baon - peanut butter sandwiches, which we ate somewhere near Circular Quay.

This I found out - the birds that shouted "mine! mine!" in Nemo were really makulit! They practically stared at us while we were munching, waiting for little bits to be thrown at them. They looked seriously real in this photo, giving me the creeps.

I got so scared I thought I'd actually hear them say "mine! mine!".

In our desperation we just traced the coastline to Darling Harbour, where Noy was sure the aquarium was located, having been there before, and we stumbled upon these -

a really cute car I wanted to take home, and



a super big luxury liner where a cousin's husband worked (we met with him later that day to go to the opera house together; too bad we weren't allowed to come aboard so we'd know how being inside a luxury liner feels like).

When finally we were at the entrance to the aquarium, we could not help but smile...

(Can't help but notice my hair actually being thicker during my entire stay in Australia.
I love it, I was able to grow it a little longer than usual, plus I never had dandruff.
Nope, not a single flake. One more good reason to strive to finally live there!
Noy's though, got a little unruly since he didn't get a haircut - it was too expensive.)

... and pose with the little red train we didn't know the destination of.

At the time when the Manila Ocean Park was still under construction, it was kind of overwhelming to be in a place such as the Sydney Aquarium. Everything was pleasing to the eye.

However, seeing the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in person was an even more amazing experience. It's great to finally get a grasp of something I only saw on TV and in pictures before.



The Australian Idol finals was held there the night before, and the place was quite a mess, but it was beautiful nonetheless.


For some magical reason, someone (Noy doesn't even remember who) gave us a gift card entitling us to 50 AUD worth of stuff from Starbucks. It was such a yay! moment, which we needed more than ever. So eat and drink we did.

Fraps, muffin and sausage roll on a balmy Sydney evening

It was a happy day, albeit a tiring one. But if tiring would be the key to finally live in that city, I'd definitely tire myself until I drop. Until a kangaroo tells me I can't, I won't stop.

A Frutti Weekend

Have you guys found your yogurt place lately? Noy and I did, accidentally, when we went to try the wifi service at SM Megamall. We are tea people, but our favorite place was packed that Saturday night, so we headed to this new yogurt place at the third floor atrium - Tutti Frutti. The name is not so creative, I know, but the whole marketing idea is.


Customers get to serve themselves, and just the experience of guzzling your own flavored treat in the cup is wonderful in itself. The usual stuff is there - vanilla, chocolate, plain - but Noy, as always, took the road less traveled by getting blueberry-flavored goo. There's an option to mix it with the yogurt on the other side of the machine, and looking back now I should have told him to mix it with almond - the flavor was very strong, but Noy loved it. He even topped it with more blueberries. I had plain, upon which I placed all the fruity pieces on the counter. Needless to say, it was a very fun way to eat fruit. Noy is so not a fruit person, and it was great to see him munching heartily on the blueberries.




The cup size won't matter if you keep thinking how much the entire thing would weigh. The more yogurt and toppings, the more expensive. They sell the treats at Php 19 per ounce - yogurt + toppings + syrup. The big big fun fact is you get to personalize your healthy dessert. Too bad there aint no cheese :( But Im definitely coming back for the green tea flavored yogurt. I wonder what toppings would go well with it.



The next day, we acquired another conjugal property (we really like to call them that - gives us a sense of accomplishment). We broke this


to get this


to buy this.
Once again, my husband was like a little boy who could not sleep tinkering with the new toy. As for me, I only like having my pictures taken. That's some fruit of labor we're really happy about. Can't wait to use it for the trip this weekend.

This is Just an Occasional Outburst

I promise.

We, and more importantly I, vowed not to make a very big issue out of this because we have decided that there is a time for everything, big and small, non-living and living.

I tried, and somehow I have been doing great. But today, just today, I wondered - when will this ever happen to me?






Okay now I feel a little better.

Purply: My First Speaking Stint

I am a bad public speaker. My heart pounds wildly, my hands and feet get cold and clammy, my voice trembles, and most of all I sweat buckets regardless of the temperature of the place. I am always like this whenever the spotlight is on me – from big weddings to simple meetings – and I hate it.

So when I was told that I had to speak before a group of students about cervical cancer, my stomach churned. Mind you this is not metformin-related. A group of graduating Mass Communication students at St Scholastica’s is eyeing an information-campaign type of thesis, and they are definitely interested in cervical cancer and the need to increase its awareness among students.

If I were their teacher, I’d give them plus points for social impact. Cervical cancer awareness is something really important for all schools to campaign on. So I spent the ENTIRE weekend working on the slides (which I colored purple because purple is CECAP’s color), keeping everything organized based on the outline I made. I decided not to attend Noy’s cousin’s debut party. It’s my first talk, for crying out loud. I even printed two sets of notes – one for me, the other for the slide person, complete with instructions on where to click next because I like using hyperlinks heavily.

The venue was a medium-sized conference room. There were about 70 students – masscom freshies – chatting, texting, staring at the wall and simply uninterested.

I was introduced as being a graduate of UP Manila, and who spent medical internship at Makati Med. I wondered what happened to the fact that I acquired my medical degree from PLM (Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila). I certainly don’t remember deleting that from my resume because without it, I never would have been a doctor. Discrimination alert! These people should google PLM once in a while. I mean, I don’t love the school that much, but the quality of education is definitely better than most expensive private schools.

Brushing aside the fact that I was discriminated against by virtue of my being a graduate of school of the dukha, I went on with the talk, chirpy voice and all, not minding the fact that half the room wasn’t paying attention. Then I mentioned the word vagina. Mouths opened. The room fell silent. Eyes wandered in search of approval. Poker-faced, I went on. At this day and age, I believe vagina is a technical term that doesn’t deserve shunning up, because certain issues just would not be clear without mentioning it. For this particular talk of mine, vagina is a technical, necessary term.

When pictures of cervixes came out, the momentum was definitely on. I may have bored them with oncogenes and such, but the picture of a cancerous cervix floored them. By the time I was telling them how not to get cervical cancer, everyone was listening intently. Ah, the power of an image!

I got a lot of questions afterwards, mostly clearing up misconceptions, even when no more purple shirts were up for grabs. The thesis people printed and wore lovely purple shirts for the “event” and gave them away to lucky question-askers. They had equally cute purple landyards like this for everyone too.

My nurses – Ate Let and Leidy – whom I dragged to accompany me, got these, too. I told them later we all should have worn purple!

Apparently Ate Let is not a very good photographer, but here I am in my award moment. I honestly didn’t expect something like this, but it felt good, being recognized as someone with “authority ‘on a particular subject. I’m no ob-gyn, but it doesn’t take one to raise cervical cancer awareness among students.

These are the stuff the students gave me –

I love the coffee cup and how it matches with the planner.

The certificate is so purply, I love it.

I have literally sweated it out, and I’m looking forward for more. I want more purple stuff!

For information on cervical cancer in the Philippines, visit the CECAP website.

And if you have even the slightest curiosity of what and where PLM is, just click that part in this blog entry where I mentioned it.