Adieu 2014

       Because its New Year's Eve tonight.

      2014 has been a tough year on so many levels, and I'm glad to bid 2014 goodbye.

    Relationship-wise, I've said goodbye to people I've only just met  and to people I've known all my life.  You know me with people, especially friends and family, I am not easy to let go. I value friendship and family the most and saying goodbye is really heartbreaking. 

       Work has been tough as well. At an onset I have been challenged left and right. Sometimes I put up a fight, most of the time I struggle surviving. A lot of changes happened, and I'm still there. Fuck how most of the time, money rules our actions! Maybe its a sign that I should leave the country for good and try my luck elsewhere.... question is, where??? Asia? US? Europe?

    Badluck happened to me this year too! June 13, 2014 (Friday the 13th) to be exact.  I don't really believe in superstitions nor do I get easily scared by old beliefs, but June 13, Friday the 13th really got me thinking twice. My bag got slashed and a group of women (I was in the "women only" cart of the train) took my phone (which by the way was only 4months old that time, and which I am still paying for until hmmmm 2016, maybe). This sprung a lot of money issues on my end. I used to just get by with my meager salary and from time to time I get to indulge myself with a few things, but from June until now, belt has been tighter than ever.

     One of the few good things that happened to me this year was I took a short pastry course from a renowned culinary school. I have been planning to do this for years and was finally able to actualise it. I enjoyed every minute of my pastry course and if only I can extend...:(

      And I'm thankful for the family that I have and thank God they are in good health. :) Just saying and putting it out there :)

    I'm thankful too for the new people that made my year colourful. I lost few friends and then gain some...hopefully they are all worth keeping.  

      I pray, really really pray 2015 will be an amazing, happy year of my life.  There are a few things in 2015 that I look forward to and plans that needs to be achieved.

        2015, please be good to me.  Universe, please conspire.

                    pretty(hopeful)twistedchick

The Black Beauties

Blackbeauties @ 2011 minus Kimmy

Fourteen going on fifteen years of friendships, that's what we have. We started during our junior year in high school and until now that we are career-women (for the most part hehehe) we've manage to nurture our friendship, we've become each other's best of friends—more like soul sisters.

We call ourselves The Black Beauties (BBs, for short). How we came up with that name was already been forgotten. We all have different versions of it. My version is… my earliest recollection when we started to call ourselves as The Black Beauties was when we had an overnight at Lia's place during high school because we did our group term paper at her house. In the morning, while we were having breakfast, Lia and Kim were watching this program black beauty (the story about a black horse) and both of them were in akimbo while muttering (in almost the same intonation and almost at the same time) "black beauty". We all laugh and that’s how it all started. That's the version I have.

Later on we went to different universities but our friendship remained intact.

Distance has never been a problem with us—us having Manila Chapter and US Chapter (for the two changs—yes we call each other changs—who decided to settle abroad). The cyberspace has become a perfect place for us to get an update regarding one another… is started with (now defunct) friendster, then came the multiply site, now facebook, twitter, skype and ym.

Christmas get-together has been sort of a tradition to us. We always allot one weekend for us to meet and greet each other, exchange gifts… especially now that we have little nathan (the fist Black Beauty baby...Christmas is special to us).

For this year, we've decided to meet for lunch on the 2nd of January 2011. Just because that's the only "free" day for ALL of us... we wait in line at Kanin Club at UP Technohub. That was the first time I ate there. At first i thought, "What the heck?!? Why are we waiting in line (i think we were 7th or 8th group in waiting). Why not go to other restaurant? (i must say that good dining place at UP technohub is few!). But Faith swears by the "aligue" rice ( alige= crab fat).

We ordered aligue rice, tinapa rice (smoked fish), crispy dinuguan (pork blood stew), sinigang na baboy, crispy liempo, laing, the rest I have forgotten. (We ordered a lot!hehehe):D

crispyliempo

yummy aligue rice (high blood!!!)

greeny...laing

We are stuffed! the food here is great! no wonder there's a loooooong waiting line outside. worth the trip, worth the wait, worth every penny! :D

group pic with arvin

lovely ladies inthe house! :D

We had our typical exchange gifts at Starbucks but we also bought some pastries at Coffeebean (we have no brand loyalty hehehehe). Talks about our lives—present and future was aplenty!

first official BB married couple

exchange gifts mode

Wish we all get together (COMPLETE) by the end of the year! Until our next get-tog!

Fun times!

prettytwistedchick

remembering...

Filipinos have different ways of remembering our dearly departed ones... The important thing is that we remember them, even just once a year.

Remembering the dead are such a huge deal that it is declared a holiday! (yey! although, this year november 2 is not a holiday only november 1, darn!)

Apart from trick or treat, which is mostly for the kids in the family and happens during Halloween, in my family we usually visit the cemetery on the 2nd day of november, coz thats the real all soul's day, right? november 1 is all SAINTS day. plus, we do this to avoid the traffic and the uber crowded cemeteries. the cemeteries get somewhat "disoriented" and loses its "sacred" feel during when people swamp the cemeteries during november 1. on my father's side, our loved ones are buried in Paraiso Cemetery in Rizal. on my mother's side, our loved ones are all buried in the cemetery in Samar, very far...a fourty-five minute travel by plane OR an eighteen hours travel by bus.

since we cannot go to the province, what we do is we offer masses and prayers. plus we usually offer food in the altar and light a candle. HOWEVER today, almost everyone in my family is sick--due to the weather--(i for one was not fared and is still recuperating from almost flu, cough and colds) and there was no time to prepare. hence we just collected what we can get from the fridge.

we were able to get some pancit bihon (term derived from the Hokkien pian i sit or 便ê食 which means "something conveniently cooked fast), biko (sweet rice delicacy sometimes referred to as rice cake), suman (a native rice cake wrapped in banana or palm leaves), pan de sal, pumpkin in coconut milk soup, rice, red wine, some peanuts and water (not in the photo). sometimes we add a cigarette pack or a bottle of beer (for those souls who have vices..hehehe).

my folks used to say that the souls of our departed relatives during "all souls day" come and visit and these foods are for them to sort of smell (since they cannot eat them) hehehe it has been a tradition in my family.

how about you, what's your family tradition during these times?


prettytwistedchick