Here On Earth

The wedding is next Saturday and I'm down with terrible case of flu. Not H1N1 though I wish it was lethal enough to infect certain people in my life.

My guest list confirmation is almost complete but DH's still in progress. I am hyperventilating and yet no one is doing something to keep me cool. In fact, I've been having mood swings that I, myself get motion sickness from it. I've seen the doc the second time and this round, he's asking me whether I've traveled to H1N1 infected countries or in close proximity of an infected one. I hope I won't die but sometimes death is not bad thing.

Last night we had our food tasting and all the 9-course Chinese meal were delicious and satisfying. We hope Chef Tan will keep up with the consistency on 17th October 2009 or we'll not pay the full price (joking but I may blog or talk about it in forums).

We've gotten some of our pre-wedding photos. Here's one of bunch.

He only drinks from the tap. Can he be any more cuter than this?

We've finally gone for our pre-wedding photography shoot on Monday. We checked in to Cyberview Lodge a day before so we could get sufficient rest. The next day itself, we covered the garden of the hotel and the evening city life. The shoot ended about nine in the evening. We were exhausted and though we flinch of the soon-to-be revealed end product (we're not supermodels, not adept at posings) but it's worth it. In fact, I think DH enjoyed the most since he told me that he doesn't mind going for another shoot.

If I am blogging, it means that I am not working at night. These days, I could barely have any time to myself but tonight, I just want to be lazy and let the things pile up a bit in the morning. Any emails received after 6pm can be attended tomorrow officially at 9am, which in almost all official employment contracts stated in black and white - working hours from nine to six.

The step is quite steep to take but I've the security and I'm sane enough to sensibly take the leap. Today, there's a very inspiring article featured in the organization's intranet and it's definitely talking to me. Either I ignore the signs and be forever miserable or take heed and leap, and who knows, the latter would turn out to be a blessing.

Here's a story which I would like to share with you:

"The Chains That Bind"

The circus elephant demonstrates what happens to us when we become tied to a habit. When an elephant is a baby, a strong chain is applied to one leg to keep it within a certain range. The baby elephant pulls against the chain, trying to escape, but is unable to do so. After many attempts, the baby elephant finally realizes that she will not be able to break the chain and so does not continue to pull at it.

As an adult, the elephant needs only to be restrained by a small chain that could be easily broken by the very strong elephant. However, she doesn't even try and remains within a limited circle. She has been fooled into thinking that she is limited to this small area and does not attempt to push beyond it.

This scenario demonstrates how we are restrained by our habits and limited thinking. When we meet resistance often enough, we begin to assume that our world is limited. Like the elephant, we are fooled into thinking that we are restricted to a certain lifestyle, because we have become accustomed to it.

Are you tied to old ideas and old thought processes? Do you believe that you must remain stuck in a confining, unsatisfying job merely because you have roped yourself into believing that you can't get promoted? Have you tied yourself up with the belief that this is all there is to life? Have you restricted yourself because you believe that as you get older, your body doesn't work as well as it used to?

Have you limited yourself in other ways, because your habitual thinking has imprisoned you in a cell with a window that only allows you to gaze upon a more desirable world? If so, do you really want to be confined to this very limited space, or do you want to advance to that which you desire?

It can be done! How? By recognizing that you are the one who accepted the restraints and you are the one who must remove them. It begins by asking yourself, "What do I really want and what am I willing to do about it?" If you feel resistant to making changes in your life, ask yourself what you will gain by remaining tied to the current circumstances. Then ask yourself how your life would change if you broke through the resistance and moved on to a different way of being or living.

Desire and imagination are the tools that will free us from an undesirable situation. This is the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

It’s Chayan’s birthday today and that explains why all of us; dad, mom, HM and I are in the Philippines now. All of us arrived in Manila on Friday morning at about 5am, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. By 5.30am, Manila is already brightly lit like 8am in Malaysia. It was rather hectic and exhausting yesterday as after I returned from my offsite meeting at 6pm, I quickly rushed to send Captain Midnight to the pet shop for 6 days boarding, pick up my parents, have dinner and rush home to pack my clothes. By 10am, we were already on the way to the airport and... wa lah.. we are now in Manila.

Upon arriving at the hotel at 5:30am, my brother, CM brought us to McDonalds and that was then I lost my husband to McD’s. He was thrilled to find that McDonalds serves pork ham in their McBreakfast. Ever since then, he will keep bugging me to go to McD’s. Both HM and I didn’t joined my parents, CM, SIL and Chayan for lunch as we snoozed away till evening where we went to Mall of Asia for dinner. That was then I realized that civilization exists in the Philippines but due to the enormous poverty gap, most of the people I see on the road are the impoverished ones who live in jeepnes and under the bridges like vagrants. It’s quite sad to know the corruption and bribery of the government has caused the standard of living lowly poor and demeaning. When I landed in the airport, I was overjoyed to know that I’ve set my foot on the land where Lea Salonga was from but upon seeing the people on the streets, now it makes sense why even Lea Salonga lives in the states and not here. If I am a rich Filipino, I wouldn’t even want to stay here unless I am a cunning, sugar-mouthed politician.

On Friday, rather than waking up at 6am, HM and I slept through till 9:40am. I missed McBreakfast and there’s barely any quality WiFi around the island since the hotel charges everything. The hotel charges about Ps2,000 to access the hotel WiFi so both HM and I said forget about it. I can’t be paying over RM$150 just for internet. We’re not so addicted at all and my office work can wait. I applied legitimate leave anyway.


We went to Chow King for lunch and the fried chicken was delicious. HM begs to differ about his sweet and sour pork though because the portion was so extremely small, even baby Chayan can finish the whole portion all by himself. After lunch, we went to Makati area for shopping spree. HM and I walked to the old wing so we didn’t really get to see branded shops until at the end of our shopping trip. I spotted Bottega Venneta outlet but HM just can’t help but to pull me to the exit door. For dinner, CM brought us all to Max’s Restaurant where we had Filipino authentic food. We had pig’s trotter, prawn fritters, sour and salty soup with prawns and fried chicken (Don’t ask me what’s it’s called in Tagalog. If I knew, I wouldn’t have generically titled all the dishes). One thing I noticed is that the drinks here are so extremely sweet. I find the drinks and desserts are so offensively sweet despite I have sweet tooth and no wonder the Filipinos will be diabetes when they hit 50.

Anyway, all in all is still fantastic to be away from work, traveling, sight-seeing, eating (lots of purple colored ube cake – my fav), shopping and spending time with my family. Love ko to !