November 24
My friends own a tiny chain of specialty restaurants (Chicken Bacolod, to be exact). Since they were celebrating their 2nd anniversary, they wanted to hire a band to make the celebration a little more festive. But their budget was not high enough and so I offered to double their budget just so we could get a band. It was my gift to them.
November 25
It was the beginning of my birthday week celebration. I made plans with my girlfriends from college, Cel and Riz. We had lunch at Pasto in Eastwood where we conversed more than we touched our food (see the pic below? We had left over pizza!). After a long lunch, we walked around the mall and when it was time for our appointment, we headed to California Nails Spa where I treated them to a nail spa treatment. I love California Nails Spa. It's where I go to have my nails, waxing and facial treatments done.
I didn't anticipate the time and was running late for my movie date with two other couples: Bri and Elaine, Jim and Jelen. I was planning to go home and change but it was too late. We were set to watch the super funny and somewhat disgusting movie, Borat, at Robinsons Galleria. And yes, we loved it and couldn't stop talking about it after. Poor Jelen, who just had an operation on her tummy area, couldn't laugh so much for she feared her stitches would open! After the movie, A and I bought dinner at Burger King while the other two couples bought beer and Jack Daniels at a nearby convenience store. We all met up at Bri and Elaine's hotel room at Crowne Plaza where we played Texas Hold'em. We played two games. Bri won the first round while I came in second and on our second game, I won while Jelen, who had beginner's luck, came second place. Sadly, the P200 I earned just went to parking fees! Our parking fee reached P240 because we were parked for 9 hours!!! What a rip off! I didn't even feel that I won! As we were saying goodbye, A and I had the idea of checking in at Astoria Plaza (since I had discount vouchers and it was our anniversary) the following weekend since it was a long weekend again and invite them to come over for another poker game. I was soooo looking forward to our weekend.
November 26
Twas the night before my birthday and I treated my entire family to dinner at Teriyaki Boy. I ordered lots of food and my family especially liked the Sukiyaki Beef Teriyaki. After the dinner, we went home where I took a quick nap and woke up to A's text that he was at my gate already. A hands me a purple paper bag with purple frou frou feathers and inside I find 3 pairs of women's boxer shorts and two books by Melissa De La Cruz! Hehehe! I asked for the gifts since he didn't know what to give me but still, I loved the gifts. When 12mn came, A, my sister and I were teaching our dad how to play Texas Hold'em.
November 27
Ahhh, my birthday. I woke up with so many birthday greetings in my phone. I was actually touched because people whom I expected to forget my birthday or actually know what it is, greeted me! It was on my 26th birthday that I realized, without sounding obnoxious or arrogant, that I actually mean something to a lot of people.
Anyway, it was also my assistant's birthday (what are the odds?!!) and I ordered 3 pizzas from Yellow Cab. She spent for the sodas and ice and we treated our entire office. I found it sweet that Seph, my former graphic artist and sidekick, surprised me by dropping by despite telling me earlier that she couldn't make it to the office for our little celebration.
Believe it or not, I spent my birthday at home surfing the net looking for hotel accomodations. I found out that Astoria Plaza was fully booked on that weekend. On top of that, Elaine was leaving for the US on December 3 and we had to have a despedida party for her before then. What was suppose to be a simple poker session turned to a joint birthday celebration and despedida party. I was having problems with the bookings cuz all the hotels were, weirdly enough, booked!!! Who would have thought that people actually check into hotels on long weekends? What for??? When they could just stay at home without any expense! Anyway, since we weren't sure if we could hold the party on the 30th or December 1, A and I decided to take a leave on November 30, turning the 3 day weekend into a 4 day weekend.
The night of my birthday is also the eve of my anniversary with A. At 12mn (at his watch, it was just about 1150pm at my watch), A calls me to greet me a happy anniversary. I asked him where he was and he says he's at the bar where he usually hangs out. I jokingly say, "Oh, I thought you were on your way here to surprise me!"
Cheesy enough, he did go to my house to surprise me at the last minute. He asked his officemates to drop him off at my house!!! Which was sooo far and so out of the way! As I opened the gate, he hands me two Cadbury Dairy Milk bars and a Toblerone which he bought from the gas station convenience store! Boy sure knows not to come at my house on our anniversary empty handed!
Still no such look with the hotel accommodations. I still had ourselves waitlisted at Astoria on December 1 just in case, somebody cancels at the last minute. You may wonder why I insisted at Astoria Plaza. I had good memories of Astoria Plaza. It's where I booked ourselves when I surprised A for his birthday. Each unit had a separate living room, dining room and kitchenette and it felt like our very own condominium unit. Plus, Astoria is known as the hotel where you can get a room and throw a party. So it shouldn't be a problem having friends over.
November 28
I had a really busy day. And in the middle of all the chaos, I called Astoria Plaza to check the status of my booking and I was soooo surprised to find out that my booking for December 1 was confirmed!!! I was sooo happy and relieved. Now all our plans can fall into place.
November 29
Yet another busy day. I had a meeting with a client that lasted hours and in the middle of the meeting, while I was talking to somebody, a ym window pops up on my screen and I get really, majorly good news from A! (Details later on when I can blog about it. For now, it's confidential stuff). That night, I went to Astoria and made a full payment for our room.
November 30
Ahh, my first vacation leave in 3 years. Unfortunately, I had plans for that day. Go to the Land Transportation Office and renew my license and hope for a decent picture this time and celebrate my 4th anniversary with A. But I woke up to an SMS from my boss saying that he sent an email and hopes I can accomplish "it" in one week. So I open my laptop, download my email and find out that our bar and restaurant was nominated as the Most Promising Franchise for the year 2006 by the Philippine Franchise Association and they gave me an entire list of requirements for the initial judging process. But that's not all, they're giving us one week to accomplish the requirements. Easy as pie, right? Sure, if you don't have a huge ass reservation for 950 people that took us months to prepare and our client wasn't so picky and detailed at the end of the week. Sure, if I wasn't already bombarded from all the reservation inquiries by companies looking for a venue at the last minute. Sure, if the other deparments weren't busy setting up another outlet which was opening the next week. Sure, if the requirements were just list of papers we already have on file and all we had to do was photocopy them and put them in folders. Sure, if the requirements didn't require a lot of research, going through our files from 2005 and answering essay- like questions. Believe it or not, because of the requirements, I'd worked till 4am and had all my calls put on hold. My assistant, Gina, had to screen my calls and take messages. I felt bad because I'm suppose to focus on the clients instead of the nomination yet the nomination was just as important to as it was an honor to be nominated and winning would bring in more business. I told my boss that we could make it to the deadline if I got helped from the other departments. Division of labor. Works every time!!!
On top of that, the storm, Reming, was threatening to arrive soon and Elaine and I didn't know whether to cancel our party or not. My mind was put at ease when Elaine called to tell me that their company, an international IT company, released an advisory that the typhoon changed course.
Enough ranting, at around 4pm, I left my house and went to the LTO in Kapitolyo where a lot of people told me renewal of license is fast. Because it was a holiday the next day, a lot of the people left already. Thank God I made it to the drug test facility and since it was already 4:30pm, the handlers told me I wouldn't make it if I still took my medical test. And if I did it the right way, I knew I would have to come back for my license and I didn't want to do that as I didn't have time. So yes, I paid them off. And in less than 30minutes, I had my license and I looked PURRTY! Not like the crap I was in my old one where I looked like I was high, happily drunk, haven't slept in days and placed inside a hiccuping spin dryer.
I drove as fast as I could to Neo Day Spa where I was meeting A. By then, the wind was howling and people were scrambling to go home lest the storm caught them. Unfortunately, my favorite spa was booked for a spa party and so I asked them to refer me to their other branches or sister companies. We went to one at City Garden Hotel where A and I both had the Oriental Zen Spa. As much as I enjoyed it, all the stress was still there.
After the massage, we went to Mall of Asia where we planned months ago to have dinner at Highlands Steakhouse, an expensive-- uhh-- steak place. So we had complimentary bread and butter. A ordered Seafood Chowder and I ordered the Soup Sampler (demi tasse) which meant all kinds of soups were served in teacups. Then we ordered Puffed Chilean Sea Bass drizzled with Dijon Mustard for appetizers.
A had a 14oz Steak.
I ordered the Surf and Turf: Stuffed Lobster with Fillet Mignon.
We were both so stuffed that we couldn't finish our meals! And our humongous bill.. all of P4,500.. did not help. We knew what we were in for when we decided to eat there and thought, "oh well, it happens once a year." We asked for a take out bag and was contemplating whether to get Kissweet Ice Cream from the Korean ice cream stand nearby but I didn't have any room anymore. My body was screaming "gluttony!" By the time I digested my food, I regretted not buying that Korean ice cream.
After dinner, I dropped off A at his house and went home since we have a full day ahead of us the next day.
December 1
I leave home at around 1:30pm so I could make it to the 2pm check at the hotel. I was meeting A there. When I was checking in, the receptionist told me to fill in a form and read the house rules which included... dun dun dun.. a stipulation that said that guests were not allowed after 12mn and if so, a price per head exceeding the allowed number of persons in the room will be charged. I could not believe what I was reading! Since when did they have such a rule? We've had parties before and this rule was never stipulated. Furthermore, many people hold parties.. bridal showers, stag parties, etc.. at Astoria precisely because the hotel allowed you to do so and even bring in food and drinks without additional charge! I was beginning to panic though I did not show it. I asked how much was the price per head and they said P900! The receptionist asked me to sign above the said stipulation.
So A and I go up to the room and the entire afternoon, I was thinking real hard on how we can go about the rule. I called up people who I knew booked there before and asked them if they had such a rule before. I called Seph who was an art director for Astoria and even she didn't know of such rule. She said they even had a bridal shower there recently.. although they were out by 12mn. For hours, I was just worry and thinking of a fool proof plan for us not to get caught that I fell asleep from exhaustion.
I woke up a few hours later and A and I went out to dinner. By the time we came back, friends began pouring in.
As if the worst wasn't over, Elaine and Bri arrived with the beer. They brought in the car into the building as it was the only way we could "sneak in" the beer. Unfortunately, Elaine went to the grocery earlier as she was packing up for her trip and so all of the goods were at the trunk. The security checked the trunk and saw the beer and asked them to go to the concierge and pay a corkage fee of P500 per case! Bri and Elaine planned to just bring up one case of beer but they knew the concierge wouldn't believe them and so they just paid P1000 for both cases of beer. Needless to say, we were all forced to finish the beer.
It was a great turn out. Out of the 17 people we invited, only 4 people didn't show up. We had two poker tables which eventually merged to one table. Marco, who we all call "The Professor" won a huge pot. I think he earned about P1000. After the game, we had two more games with smaller buy ins. I can't remember who won those games but I do remember that after 12mn, we had to try our hardest to play quietly and we kept saying, "Shhh!" or "P900!" to remind people of the fee we had to pay if we get caught with guests in our room after 12mn. I also remember that people left at around 4:30am and we were soooo tired.
December 2
We were sooo tired that A, who loved breakfast buffets, didn't bother to wake up the next day for it. We woke up for lunch and went right back to sleep after where we slept the entire afternoon. We woke up at around 4pm and headed to Mall of Asia where I shopped at People Are People (which has been my latest addiction nowadays since it's the only place I go on a shopping spree) and bought 3 shirts. A and I also had dinner at Tokyo Cafe where I had a Kani Salad Sandwich. Yum Yum Yum! I also finally had my Korean Ice Cream after. Finally, a craving satisfied! To cap of the night, we watched Happy Feet, which I found over rated. People told me it was hilarious. By the time the credits rolled, I was still waiting for the moment where I laugh out loud. I think watching Borat killed it for me.
As of 20 December 2006: I finally got my credit card bill. It has reached its all time high, especially considering that I'm not paying for anything on an installment basis. Five digits, baby! Painful? Yes. Worth it??? Definitely.
