cars, steaks, cheesecakes and friends

hanging out with friends used to be soooo easy that we used to do it on a regular basis. but as we grew older, responsibilities grew and finding a common free time to hang out has turned into a difficult task. so when an opportunity to spend time with friends comes along, we grab it. when we can find an excuse to bring guys together, we let our friends know… and that’s what exactly happened during the 2nd philippine international motor show. 😉

using the event and our “plan” to buy a car (kahit parehas kaming d pa maalam mag-drive 😆) as an excuse, we, friends, managed to open up our busy schedules to spend some time together.

and together we went to the world trade center and was collectively surprised by the huge turnout. sobrang daming tao that we had to park outside of wtc. this was our first time (kami ni selle) to attend a car show so we really didn’t know what to expect. gusto lang naman namin mag-“window shopping”, if that term applies to cars. 🙂

as we entered the hall, we went straight to the honda section (stopping only briefly at the new toyota corolla altis) to look at the brand new 2008 honda jazz, a car we’ve been wanting and a car vena and neriz have been pushing us to buy. 😀 we were not disappointed. the new jazz didn’t only look good, if felt good too. sabi nga nina vena at neriz, “parang hina-hug ka ng upuan.” how’s that for comfort? 🙂 add to that the tons of features (everybody loved those cup holders 😆) and the highly efficient machine (published fuel consumption rates of 20 km/liter), we gave the jazz two thumbs up. now, time to save up… 😉



after the jazz fascination, we then hopped from section to section, car to car. we all oogled about the cr-v (eto talaga ang maganda) while francis checked out the executive class accord right beside it. vena and francis gave the swift a failing mark (pangit daw ang loob) while neriz totally ignored the carens (i wonder why? 😆). we were shocked about the price of the i30, drooled over the c30, intrigued by the aveo hatch (at least kami, sina vena eh ayaw nito 😀), wondered where the getz was located… all the while, kathleen was keeping tab where everyone was (nanay na nanay 😀).





vena and neriz checking out the jazz, swift and i10 amongst others. we’re sure mauna pa sila magka-sasakyan kaysa sa amin. 😉


my stylish wife with the stylish c30.


selle’s baby phat sweater came in handy especially in the less crowded areas of the hall. ang ginaw… brrr…

after going through all the cars, we decided to eat a very late lunch (d pa pala sila nag-lu-lunch) at blue wave and ended up eating steaks. since, alanganin yung oras nang pagpunta namin, we had the place all to ourselves. 🙂



with kathleen, neriz and selle around, we gotta have dessert so we then transferred to cheesecake etc… for, what else, cheesecake. 🙂

here we spent another hour or so of catching up, exchanging stories and having massive amounts of laughs. 😀



in between the conversations, i snapped off a few shots using our d40 focusing on patterns, shapes and anything visually interesting.





we joked about having coffee after but it was getting late so we decided to do it on another date… and whenever that would be, we’re sure it would be as fun as it was this day. 😀

thanks guys… san na nga ang break-in? 😉

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last day

after 8 years and 8 months of employment, we, as husband and wife, decided that it would be better if selle resigned from work. it was not an easy decision due to the ties and relationships that have been forged throughout her stay in samsung but whenever work eats up majority of one’s time (6-7 day work week is just too much) and the delight brought about by work is no longer there, it made the decision a little bit easier.

with the goal of letting her feel that she have touched a number of lives, she’s greatly appreciated and that she will be sorely missed, i decided to make an avp for my wife. i set the plan in motion almost a month ago, aiming to create the best avp i have ever made. sadly, editing-wise, it wasn’t the best i’ve made… not even close. 😦

first, i didn’t have the luxury of directing the interviews. for some vague reason, people didn’t want me present during their interviews. nahihiya daw kasi sila. 😀 so i ended up with a lot of interviews (from co-workers and former co-workers) which didn’t have a clear thought flow. that was the first problem.

second, since the quantity and length of the video messages were immense, i ate a lot of time just going through them… thereby reducing my time to edit. also, this meant that the avp will be extremely long.

third, i didn’t have enough pictures to fill-in the gaps of the video messages.

fourth, i had to edit secretly because this was supposed to be a surprise for my wife. so nag-e-edit lang ako pag tulog si selle… further reducing my time to edit. unfortunately, selle caught me editing a couple of days before her last day. bummer. 😦

sum these all up and i ended up with a 20-minute, 5 chapter/song audio-visual presentation which really didn’t have a clear story nor flow. i personally called the avp “chopseuy” or “halo-halo” kasi parang pinag-sama-sama ko na lang talaga ang mga video messages. *sigh* naiinis talaga ako sa sarili ko nun… but i had no more time to edit it more kasi nga a night before her last day ko lang natapos yung avp. 😦

on selle’s last day, i connived with her department-mates and organized a simple farewell party for my wife. this will also be the avenue for me to show the avp. good thing that the party was kept as a surprise and selle was indeed surprised… 😀

it was a simple pizza party with lots of stories… lots of laughter. 🙂



afterwards, i showed the lengthy avp… still a bit disgusted with myself for not producing a better one. but as the avp was being shown, i could see my wife’s reaction…

and based on her reaction alone, nawala bigla yung inis ko sa sarili ko. i was focusing too much on the technicality of the avp, the bells-and-whistles, when what was essential was the substance and impact to the recipient. i guess, i succeeded in my initial goal why i made the avp in the first place. 🙂

here’s the farewell avp cut into 5 chapters. use of earphones are recommended since the audio is not that good.
(note: something went wrong during conversion to mp4 file to upload to youtube. transitions are no longer smooth and the 16:9 aspect ratio disappeared in majority of the scenes.) (update: we changed the video from youtube to vimeo for better video quality. since this is a single file, it would take a while to buffer the whole video so please do exercise patience. 😉)

to those who contributed video messages, a gazillion thanks to you all. pasensya na kung kinulit-kulit ko kayo ha. mahal ko lang talaga asawa ko… at alam kong mahal nyo din sya. 😉 nga pala, don’t worry, we have your complete video messages at napanood na ni selle ang mga yun… including all the non-sense. 😆

to those who helped in planning and executing the surprise party, a gazillion thanks to you as well… kahit na hindi perfect yung “surprise” natin. 😀

to my wife, better things await. sabi nga ni God, He will bring us from strength to strength, faith to faith, GLORY to GLORY. i love you. 🙂

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our artbook

thick, heavy and you can easily recognize it from a mile away. that’s what a typical wedding album is. then photographers started offering “coffetable” albums. they’re a bit thinner with pages pasted on thin cardboards. they look more like baby books than coffeetable books. 😆

and then there is the artbook.




the artbook is a unique product offered by fol rana jr. it has the look and feel of a true coffeetable book. a unique product indeed that’s why we wanted one for our wedding. it took a while but we finally got ours just today. 🙂

even though we already knew what it would like (layouts are pre-approved before printing), it’s just different seeing the layouts printed and bound together in a book. heck, even the smell is different. 😀

the printing quality is exquisite, giving justice to the elegant layouting done.



besides absolutely loving the album, we love the way it was packaged too. to protect the artbook, it has:

• a classy leather case
• a printed hard case
• and a book jacket

the front and back cover layout couldn’t have been more perfect. to top it off, our love story is printed at the back. 🙂


just to give you an idea how thin our artbook is, that’s 6 five-peso coins stacked beside our artbook. even my phone is twice as thick as our artbook. we haven’t seen a 50-page wedding album this thin other than the artbook.

browsing through the pages of our artbook brings back memories of our wedding day. that’s more than enough to bring a smile off our faces. 🙂

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the thrill of victory…

…and the agony of defeat.



two things:

• if michael phelps succeeds in achieving the great eight, he’s got to give jason lezak a HUGE treat. 😀
• to the french, you don’t talk smack if you can’t back it up. 😛

if you weren’t able to watch it, this video will leave you speechless. (note: the original video was taken down on youtube and this i can’t seem to find any other video available online except for this one.)
 

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ryan & teresa: their 2nd wedding

they reside in singapore. they met in singapore. they fell in love in singapore. then, early this year, they got married… where else? in singapore. but even though everything about them seems singapore-ish, they’re still filipinos by heart hence they decided to tie the knot once again… this time in the heart of manila. 🙂

maria teresa is a former colleague and a close friend of mine. despite her “katarayan” reputation 😛, teresa is really a kind-hearted soul and a hopeless romantic. that’s why we were so happy when her once dormant love life came back to life as successive news of her having a boyfriend, being engaged and then getting married made its way to us.

san agustin was teresa’s choice of church. it’s been her dream church since she stepped foot on it way back in her college days. its the church’s splendor, its majestic structure and the extremely long aisle that got to teresa. like any other bride who dreamt of their own wedding, she made sure she got what she wanted. 😉

we arrived at san agustin way too early, catching the wedding prior to ryan and teresa’s not even starting yet. 😆 well, at least, hindi lang kami yung overly excited kasi meron din mga dumating ng mga ganung oras. 😀 this just goes to show that despite the heavy rains, we, their friends, wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t be late. (naks! 🙂) seeing familiar faces long been unseen is one of the perks of attending weddings… and there where plenty of “kamusta ka na?!” exchanges before the start of the ceremony.

armed with our d40, i tried to play backup photographer again. and same as previous weddings, i had an extremely hard time adjusting to the poor lighting conditions of san agustin. kaya nga halos wala akong matinong shot during the ceremonies. 😦 good thing i was able to make it up during the post ceremony activities and during the reception. whew. buti na lang talaga kasi, collectively, the pictures that i took is our gift to the newlyweds. 🙂

here’s a few images from ryan and teresa’s wedding:


the bride being prepped up by the coordinators just before her march.



the ceiling, the chandeliers, the altar… the grandeur of san agustin church.



the delight and excitement of the guests and the newlyweds at the recessional.

teresa’s makeup was light and fresh, which was expected from her makeup artist (and selle’s), lanie acedillo. we were looking for lanie after the ceremony but unfortunately failed to locate her. sayang… she was looking for us din daw according to teresa. 😦

the reception was held at the 21st floor of the pan pacific hotel, a hidden gem right in the middle of the busy streets of malate. attending a reception on top of a building was a first for us. 🙂 like most hotel receptions, the room was classy and the food was abundant… it must’ve been really expensive. 🙂




some wedding details shot while waiting for the program to start


while others were busy having their photos taken, some were pre-occupied texting their “loved ones.” 😉


ryan and teresa’s grand entrance… in lomo.


a photojournalistic shot of the speech of the father of the bride as the newlyweds look on.





(from top to bottom) 1) the bride with the bachelorettes before the singles game
2) the bachelors huffing & puffing during their game
3) the mixed reactions of the bachelorettes as the game goes on
4) the eventual winners 🙂


the first dance… again in lomo.


the 10 second kiss… to the delight of ryan. 😉


our usual post wedding pictorial with my wife. always a stunner. 😉

congratulations (again), ryan and teresa… and advanced congratulations for your upcoming baby troy. 🙂

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