BEST PICTURES of 2012

May I present to you the

2012 gallery which had inspired me,

challenged me and got me amazed.

Credits to the people who had poured their talented

hearts and minds on working on these shots.
To show appreciation, I shared my own thoughts about each photo.
Have fun reading!

JANUARY

 This always is a good start for a lot of things.

Projects that you had been postponing to start and/or finish;

Habits, good or bad that you needed to work on;

Decisions that you have been planning to make;

Resolutions in general that you had been ignoring.

With all these tasks to be done, you need to be prepared

mentally and physically.

This picture reminds me to choose to live healthily

so as to help you have a sound judgement in setting your priorities straight.

That's actually the hardest step to do but every

step takes you further and further into reaching your goal.

My friends and loved ones had been supportive on making me quit smoking and

I love them for doing so. That was the best gift I could give myself.

Next to that would be having ample rest and eating the right kind of foods.

I will take it from there and assess once again when the year ends.

I suggest to you too not to be taken aback by fear of failure.

It is the main culprit of being successful at anything you want to achieve.

 

FEBRUARY

This picture reminds me of how magically two people are meant for each

other even at the bitter most situations. For the love month,

I choose a very creative picture of two faces kissing as coffe is spilled.

With the thirty years I have in my pocket of experiencing what life had to offer,

I know it's not that much experience yet to share.

But this, I would like to ask you.

Have you ever wondered which hurts the most:

saying something that you wish you hadn't

or saying nothing, and wishing you had?

Figure it out fast. There's no right answers nor wrong ones.

Just take note of the consequences.

There maybe bitterness (coffee) along the way,

but there's no flawless relationship.

Hold on to the person who treats you right and speaks

the language of love (kiss) you speak.  

 MARCH

I've always shared the importance of balance.

Again and again, this I've proven true.

 "ANYTHING THAT YOU DO IN EXCESS

IS BAD FOR YOU."

So, may it be work or play, know the right balance.

This is a picture of Mickael and Caitanya, two people whom I have known at work,

two passionate and dedicated talents who value people 

they meet along their journey of greatness.

This picture reminds me that no matter how these two are becoming

famous and known by what they do, they take time

in knowing these kids as they perform for them.

Such humility is irreplaceable when the time comes because we,

as performers give our audience an impact that is beyond

influential. It creates dreams in young people's minds and

if nurtured well, they become contributors of a better society. On the other hand,

for those who are young at heart, they get to challenge themselves more and

more and continuously learn from what we impart to them.

As we share our culture thru a dance, as we express

emotions thru a song or basically how we become driven in doing

what we do best, we encourage them to be at their best.

 

        APRIL

As this month kicks in, we start to get accustomed to what we

had started in the month of January.

Challenges strike in and we slowly get distracted

and we start to get tired of keeping up with the task.

May this picture be a reminder for you not to give up 
on your goals, your dreams and your aspirations.

Learn how to assert yourself in daring situations.

Committing mistakes, experiencing hardships and realizing errors

should not be taken as a sign that you can never accomplish anything.

It means that you are on your way into becoming at your best.

It means that there's room for more. You can give more.

If you give more, make sure to sustain it or even make it better. 

Find that essential weapon in keeping you on top of your game. 

May it be your background music as you paint,

honest and consistent communication with your friend that keeps you abreast with your attitude,

or that latte to start you up in the morning, hold on to it. 

OWN IT.

MAY

Reconnect!

To your family, your friends, your self.

Embrace the real you. Being someone else that you're not

is exhausting and is not worth it of your time.

It is human nature to adapt to our environment.

And usually, we get lost in finding our way to full growth.

This remains true most especially when we want to belong so much

to a world in the form of peers, lifestyle and materialism.

 It's alright to have an ambition. But don't step on others to get to it.

It's alright to be competitive. But make sure it's a healthy one.  

A lot of us are in denial if I would say, 

the greatest enemy we would ever have is our own self. 

We are special, unique who deserves the BEST and should NEVER settle for less.

That goes the same with the rest of human race.

Therefore, love thy own self before wanting to be loved.

You would be the "only" way to getting treated good,
if you treat yourself good.

Give respect to yourself.

Clear your mind of guilt, speak of truth and do what is right.

You would experience yourself overcoming breaking points.

When it dawns to you that the world is unfair and is full of shit,
don't fret. It's normal. And most of the time, it's the pain body talking.
You don't mean it.
Most successful people had their darkest moments too.
  But it's life.

Learn the lesson fast and move forward.     

JUNE

This is Ivy Chua. A Filipino, Japanese, American Chinese mix

whom I admire for being a strong woman. I've known her since I was

a teenager and she is a great innovator of herself.

She embraces changes, feeds on culture and loves life.

She owns the 3 f's every woman should have tied around her neck since birth:

Fearlessness, Fierce and Fun.

Half of the year would be gone and by this time,

reassess the new you.

You've started well, you've sustained interventions,

now, it's time to rediscover other opportunities.

Take a leap.

  

JULY

Let those thoughts fly by. Imagine and Create.

Generate ideas with your friends, take a stroll and let nature flow into you.

Be one with earth. If you live in a city, absorb its energy.

Pay close attention to details as this may inspire you

to develop a hidden ability, skill or hobby that could later on

benefit you in the long run.

Remember, IMAGINATION is more powerful than KNOWLEDGE.

   

AUGUST

Aging is inevitable, death can't be escaped.

Thru the journey of life, you'd meet elders that would be more than

willing to make you understand about life's complexities.

May I remind everybody to act accordingly.

Later on, you'd be imparting what you have learned as well to a younger generation.

Hence, don't neglect your responsibility to them.

Yes, I have said mistakes are reminders that you were

working on being at your best. But don't make a waste out of your life.

Keep the mistakes at minimum as much as you can.

That's why we have our parents to guide us.

You are not them. Nor you can replace their existence.

You can just make it better as you live your own life.

Refrain from acting childishly with the way you reason out,

aim to be appropriate when you dress up,

avoid desperate arguments to be excused 

for being ignorant of things that you should be aware of 

(e.g. laws, simple rules of life, basic norms).

 

SEPTEMBER

Sometimes, we are pack rats.

We, human beings, tend to hold on to something

that we should have let go from the start.

This picture reminds me to let things happen.

Let the people who had to leave you in order to follow their own path go.

And if they would come back to you, then by all means, receive them with open arms.

Practice simply by decluttering your closet,

by setting things in their right places, keeping them organized.

This gives your mind a clearer perspective of say,

your living environment or your working station.

This will help you save time in looking for stuff when you need them,

or figuring what to wear right away saving you from being late to an event.

     

    

 OCTOBER

Yolanda dancing the Zombie Waltz in Hong Kong Disneyland's

Halloween Parade is worth complimenting on.

I've always been a fan of any form of shows, presentation or performance.

It's worth of my time and effort.

I know how actors/actresses, performers, and entertainers put

so much heart and passion with what they do.

And they deserved to be watched and applauded.

This month, make time in watching musicals,

reading a book, seeing a great movie or dancing to your favorite music.

ARTS plays a great role to our abstract thinking.

Other than the gifts of the 5 senses (vision, hearing, scent, taste and touch),  

there are three things that make us 

homo sapiens different from the rest of the animals.

Our ability to imagine, dream and reason out.

Appreciate a form of art, critic an article or don't hold back to an opinion.

This would benefit you one way or another.

Trust me.

   

  NOVEMBER

I have to treat "my" month of all months in a special way.

This is the month I would be giving compliments on myself after being appreciative

of others' greatness. I would find ways in feeding my self-esteem.

To that, I would identify both my strengths and weaknesses.

You might be thinking that I'd be denying of myself of my weaknesses

to attain a good self confidence but no. I'd be working on them more

with the help of what I'm good at.

You see, I believe it's not only me who would treat reputation

as an important factor to attain self-achievement.

Everybody enjoys a moment or two under the lime light.

Let's face it, we are great balls of energy, FULL OF POTENTIAL

only if we set aside FEAR. 

But don't lose the most important realization,

SUCCESS = 99% SWEAT AND 1% PRAYER.

There's a very thin line in practicing CONFIDENCE with being TOO PROUD.

And HUMILITY  should be practiced at all times.

Yes, work hard, be thankful for the credits they give you

but expect nothing in return. For the best effort given,

is the one given freely and passionately.

What you do is your own karma, what they do is their own karma.

    

You could choose "your" own birth month to make way for

pampering yourself this time.

DECEMBER

At the end of the day, make time for loved ones.

Take a holiday trip with them and experience a vacation that you'll all remember fondly.

Share what you have in excess. Realize that there are others who don't

even have one tenth of what you own. Be appreciative of what you have

and stop complaining. Ranting is exhausting. 

Listen to a friend. That is the most priceless gift you can give.

TIME.

Forgive those that have offended you.

Never forget the lesson.

Love unconditionally.
At all times when you don't know what to do,

IT IS THE ANSWER.

And live like there's no tomorrow. 

Never get satisfied with just mere existing.

2013 Prayer

To the Lord God above, 

You are our creator, You are our source of strength, 

You are the giver of life, and You alone sustain our existence here in the world. 

These are just but a few of your proof of love to us 

and there are endless ways that You tirelessly show this but often, we end up neglecting. 

We, as human beings, tend to underestimate what You are capable of giving, 

take free will for granted and abuse and/or ignore our talents. 

We humbly gather in Your name this New Year's Day, 

to uplift to You our awareness to such shortcoming. 

For without Your grace, we are nothing. 

Though despite how limited we are, we ask you to hear us as we thank You 

for each and every day of unconditional blessings. 

We are thankful of the air we breathe, 

the love that we receive 

and for the very reason that we are able to celebrate altogether tonight, for our jobs. 

Tonight, we pray for you to continuously touch our hearts with each other's presence, 

as we exchange smiles, greetings and gifts. 

May you bless the food that we would share tonight and may you bless us 

in abundance of this for as long as we live so that we may be able to share it to others. 

We pray that You may bless the people who had prepared our food, 

our managers and leaders who had helped us in making this gathering possible. 

And most of all, we pray that you bless our families who are not with us tonight 

and through the holidays because of great distances but who love us dearly.

All of these we pray in Your mighty name,

AMEN

 

Here is a video presentation we have shown

at the party. This including the 3 last photos were 

Ariel, Twinkle and Tao who were also

part of the parade team.

Margaret who had been a one of the Staging Team

had graced us with her talent too the same way

like the others did. Much thanks to all of you

who shared the magic.

ANOTHER PREDICTED DOOMSDAY

12-21-12, predicted as the last day of the Earth or mere end of the world, had me thinking....


HOW WOULD I SPEND MY LAST DAY IF IT WAS EVER GOING TO HAPPEN?



First, you might want to hear what this guy from NASA has to say.



This was discussed amongst my co-workers and I two days ago. All of them shared their own opinions and  ideas about it. One came up with a suggestion that we should go partying 'til wee hours of the morning (kind of like, having an "end-of-the-world" eve) so that at least, according to him, if our lives would end, we were happy at the very last minute. The rest of us just simultaneously said, "RRRIIGGGGHHHT!!!!". All agreed but one, "We going partying? Hell no!!! I'll be sleeping it off, readying myself to meet Jesus. And I'm sure I'm going to need a lot of energy." That brought out the laughs. I shared to them that I read in the newspaper about a man who had withdrew all his savings when he learned of the end of the world, not considering the fact that it is the end of the Mayan calendar, and had planned a trip around the world with all of the saved money to spend. I wonder if he was able to do so in less than 2 weeks. And if withdrawing it all did him any good. I never came up with any idea of my own 'til this morning when I opened the windows and saw how good the day had started. My boyfriend and I were off the same day today and like how we spend most of our days off together, we go to the city but he had made it extra special. He was supposed to have a party to go to in the evening but he ditched the idea and had just awoke to an irresistable invitation of taking me out on a date. It was a day of shopping, my choice of movie and a pleasant ginger bread latte day ender in Starbucks. And now that the day had gone by with no harm done on earth and the rest of humankind, I am thankful of yet another day lived. It wasn't doomsday for me. It surely went so good.

Please feel free sharing how you spent your doomsday.

La Piazzetta

La Piazzetta is an Italian Western Restaurant situated in the heart of Soho that offers an array of gourmet soup, salad, pasta, pizza and dessert. All of these plus a bottle of the house white wine were experienced by Hogan and I last night as we availed my birthday gift of a 6-course dinner for two from my sister, Khrista and her boyfriend, AJ, via groupon. I love how groupon makes me explore restaurants like this. Its location was a little hard to find as I haven't really gone to this particular mini alley called Tsun Wing Lane. If you take the IFC exit from Central station, go hit the Mid Level Escalators and go down the 2nd junction. Find the Graham Street and go straight up. My Iphone map helped me check constantly if I was heading to the right direction.

Upon getting there and mentioning about our reservations, we didn't want to expect anything as it was a groupon deal. Most of the time, since the discount was far too great and there were just too many people availing it, chances are, a "lack" of decent treatment happens. Nonetheless, the Filipina who got us into our table were very efficient, very fast and very accommodating. I was satisfied in terms of service. However, the food did not really taste good to me. I am a Filipina and we love spices, tomatoes and that pang of a good drink.

Let me start off with the soup. Since we were hungry, we thought that it was alright. It came with this mini pizza that was too salty that we were figuring it out if it was made salty as the soup seriously needed a little salt. Hahahaha! I didn't expect one slice to be too salty. We let it pass. The next one that came was our appetizer. Smoked slices of salmon that I thought was so rich with flavor. That's why maybe it was sliced as thin as paper. And they made it to be shared. I thought we were having one each all the way with the main course meals. But you're just allowed to choose one for each main course and we got 2 main courses that were lined up. We decided to order more then if we are still not full by the time we get to eat everything.

"Smoked Salmon with some Greens and Onion"

We ordered Spaghetti with tomatoes for Main Course 1 and for Main Course 2, we ordered

Grilled Mini T-Bone that came with roasted potatoes, eggplants and mushrooms.

As you can see, the shots that I have posted up are quite blurred as the ambiance had cozy dimmed lights that gave my Iphone a hard time documenting. Light music played but I suggest they should play any instrumental featuring European acoustics. Like Classic/Spanish guitar tunes... or violin background music could really soothe it. Oh! I remember Christmas songs playing. Understandable. The house white wine was kept chilled beside me as the second order of steak came in for Hogan and I to chug in.

Like most times that I drank wine, a partner was always there.

And it's called "CHEESE". I ordered a platter of it with three kinds of cheese:

Parmesan, Mozzarella and Goat Cheese, (YUM!!!!)

all garnished with herbs making them toppings for green salad.

Undeniably, everything was overpriced.

A glass of coke was priced around hk$89. It was just crazy.

I don't mind the service charge but everything else was just way unreasonable.

I'd say, it was a good experience all in all but I'm taken aback

whether I'm going back or not.

Let the dessert presentation convince you.

 

Hahaha!!!! Need I say more? I don't know. I'll give it a 2 stars out of 5. Other information that you have to know... Dress code: Casual; Non-smoking restaurant; Dwells in a small space, the toilet is just too near the bar; 10% Service Charge - check!; Accepts credit cards, prefers phone reservations, serves alcoholic drinks. The house wine kind of tasted cheap. Thank God for the cheese platter.

Being a food critic, not recommended at all. But, the bottom line is, I get to share the experience with Hogan. We had fun and that's the most important thing. Thank you Khrista and AJ for adding up pages to our book. Hehehe!!!!

Thanksgiving 2012

An American friend of mine shared to us the story behind celebrating Thanksgiving.

The Native Indians of North America had been

an aid to the Pilgrims a long time ago 

when they didn't have enough food and clothing from

the bitter cold as winter season approached.

As I did further reading, these Indians were not actually friendly as they have

experienced exploitation and getting conquered by the white people then.

Their villages were attacked and were basically stripped off 

of what they have invested for their families.

But Thanksgiving was offered for despite these

heart breaking circumstances experienced by the Indians,

they still chose to extend a helping hand to those who were in dire need.

Another story from the bible goes that the pilgrims also celebrate this for

God had blessed them with good harvest.

My understanding goes that as I compared both stories, 

God had used the Native Indians to be able to play the

good Samaritan's role in this picture.

I have these stories in mind before I attended

the Thanksgiving Dinner colleagues from work prepared here in the hotel.

The evening was graced with good food,good wine and good songs
in which we all remembered celebrating feasts like these
and so would the coming holidays, with our very own families back at home.

My dad once said that in celebrating Thanksgiving,

the very reason is to express our gratitude to the Lord
for all the blessings that He hadbestowed on us.
Sharing this moment with families is of utmost importance
since our busy lives make us forget to stop for a moment
and just be thankful for the life we have.

Starting from the basic needs, the air that we breath,

every second I am blessed with it. I get to eat 3 times a day.

I don't only have enough clothing but I also spend time choosing what to wear.

I am fully aware that there are some who are not even blessed with any.
Yet I'm surprised, sometimes, I see myself annoyed when my clothes don't match.

The shelter I live in is warm and cozy. I can even stay in two. (Tin Shui Wai and Pa Mei).

Not to mention, cleaners come 3 times a week! Couldn't ask for anything more.

I have ride going back and fro work.And from that point, I am blessed with a job.

I am able to make people happy, do what I love doing.

I have happy hours to balance it with. Ha!

And I have my family here in HK, in US and in the Philippines.

Hogan also mentions of his family who treats me as one in Samoa.
That makes it 3 families to remember as my support groups.

I can sleep peacefully, walk out freely and is not held against my own free will.

I could go on and on and on and I'm sure you
have your own litany of blessings in your mind too.
Again, these are just but basics.

Every now and then, we would be blinded by challenges and problems

that would make us forget realizing these blessings that we have.

We often pour too much strength and effort in wanting

things that we don't have, in getting jealous of somebody who has more
or envious too of what we think should have been ours in the first place.
We compare ourselves to the people who have these
that we do everything that we can to hold on to the mere thought.

But if we'd just take a minute and consider people who don't have

what we do just like what I have mentioned above,

I'm sure we would be more than grateful.