autumn in sydney

it's our anniversary

2009-12-11T22:50:00.004+11:00

five years of marriage and two beautiful children. we've truly come a long way since our wedding day. a lot have changed but what remained the same is our love and respect for each other. it's no easy task nowadays especially since we're working so hard to be good parents that being good partners require an extra effort. thank you for deciding to make this marriage work.

paris can wait...at least that gives you more time to save. hehehehe :-P

thirty-een

2009-12-10T23:02:00.001+11:00

when you reach thirty, it doesn't seem old after all...

party planning mode

2009-11-26T16:35:00.002+11:00

i'm so excited! we're having aerin's baptism and aidan's 2nd birthday party in manila on april next year. most likely we'll have a joint celebration. we just need to decide on a date (before or after hap and neil's wedding) and then i can start planning the party!

extreme weather

2009-11-22T17:45:00.006+11:00

it's 41 degrees today in sydney. thank god for airconditioning. aerin and i just stayed in the house the entire day. forecast tomorrow is 21 degrees. how is it possible than in a span of 24 hours, the temperature plummets 20 degrees??? i hope we don't get sick with this constant change in weather.

this would sound strange but we don't have a single electric fan at home (unheard of back in manila where EVERY room would have one). i wouldn't mind getting this dyson air multiplier though, that is if it doesn't cost $400.

pretty cool huh?

our early arrival

2009-10-14T10:38:00.003+11:00

she wasn't due until the 4th of November. born at just 34 weeks, our little girl is finally here!

100 months

2009-09-23T21:04:00.003+10:00

yup, we're celebrating our 100 monthsary today! nothing special planned really (he even had to remind me it's our monthsary today). at least i didn't have to cook dinner and got thai take-away instead. given how busy our lives are at the moment, not having to cook dinner means a lot.

we also had the worst dust storm in sydney celebrate with us today. imagine waking up to an orangey-red sky. freaky...it was like there was an alien invasion or something. the sky only turned blue after lunch. check out the photos from smh: dust turns sydney sky red.

thirty three years and counting

2009-09-20T22:54:00.001+10:00

happy anniversary papa & mama! thank you for being such good role models to me and eric and my sisters and brother. it's true what they say that it's easy to get married but hard to make the marriage work. eric and i are at the point now where we are trying to balance being partners and parents at the same time and it's no easy feat for sure! you've truly showed us that it is possible to make marriage work as long as we work hard for it...together. we love you very much!

christmas shopping

2009-09-17T23:11:00.003+10:00

one of the (many!) things i wanted to do before i give birth is to buy christmas presents for my nieces and nephews (bahala na my uncles and aunties and cousins, kids muna) because i'm pretty sure i won't have the time when little baby arrives. especially that we'll be spending our first christmas in sydney, i don't have any excuse not to give them presents!

we started "stocking" on presents arleady whenever there's a sale going on. i've ticked some on our list already and have ideas already on what to give the others. oh, and we also have a christmas present for the kids already (aidan and little baby). i'll post photos once it's been set-up. i'm sure aidan will love it (the little baby too eventually...). i'm so excited for my little man!

i can only dream

2009-09-12T16:37:00.016+10:00

we decided to get a capsule for the litte baby. we didn't get one with aidan since we thought it was just a waste since you'll only get a good couple of months using it. but now that i have to think about how to manage daycare drop-off with the little baby (i couldn't just leave little baby in the house can i?), best option would be to get a capsule so i don't have to take little baby in and out of the carseat all the time.

i did my research and narrowed my choices down to these (i was looking at hiring one so initially i just went for the low-end ones):

fisher price capsule

steelcraft cruiser capsule

but i found out that this is available and it was love at first sight:

bugaboo takata carseat

perfect for my bug but is not available in australia. :-( so i searched for another capsule compatible with my bug and found this:

maxi cosi cabriofix in mystic brown

i've seen people around sydney using this but apparently it doesn't meet australian standards yet even though it has passed europe, united states and canada standards. i'm so tempted to get one though since the review is very good (even looked into european baby websites that ship to australia).

and then decided eventually on this since it is compatible with my bug not to mention available in australia (yay!):

peg perego viaggio in papaia

anyway, i went to target the other day and found the fisher price capsule on clearance at 60%! i couldn't resist and got the last available one in stock. another mom actually approached me and told me how she got hers just recently since it was so cheap although she hasn't used it yet.

i'm still thinking if i should get the peg perego one. i could always return the fisher price but for the price i got it for, it's such a steal and too hard not to use such a good buy.

if only i had my way, i'd love to get the bugaboo takata carseat so i'd have the complete travel system.

spring has finally sprung

2009-09-01T22:25:00.003+10:00

it's officially the first day of spring. i'm back from hibernation (not to mention the fact that i don't want one whole year to pass since my last post).

so much has happened the past 9+ months.

but the cherry on the top is that i've been busy growing a baby in my belly. yup, we're 30 plus weeks now and i know the baby's gender but eric doesn't.

happy birthday my aidan

2009-04-09T15:59:00.006+10:00

today you are one. officially no longer a baby but you will always be my baby boy no matter what. i can't believe it's been a year since the first time i held you in my arms. you are the most wonderful, amazing and adorable little boy in the whole world. you never fail to make me and your papa laugh. i love you so much my sweet cheeks. i want you to know that papa and mama will always be here for you. i know that you're going to be a good big brother my love.

don't grow up too fast my little one.

touchdown

2008-11-21T17:25:00.008+11:00

we're finally here! pr210, the flight from sydney to manila was far better than i expected. i guess it helped a lot that mama was with us during the trip. aidan pretty much just slept and ate during the flight.

i've always been excited coming home to the philippines but this trip is extra special since i'm bringing aidan with me. this will be the first time my sisters and my in-laws will meet our little man.

as expected, it was very hectic the moment papa picked us up from the airport. we've only been here for a little over a week and so far we've been to greenhills (twice!) and trinoma. went out on a date with my sisters to watch hairspray the musical at the star theater in ccp complex. i had my manicure, pedicure, footscrub, haircut and diamond peel already (things that are a luxury back home). met with all the titos, titas and cousins from my papa's side of the family already (as send off to aris, jen and enz and welcome to me and aidan). mommy, ate gigi and tricia also passed by malingap already to meet aidan.

we'll be going to montemar at the end of the month during the long weekend. in preparation for our dos palmas trip after christmas, we're still deciding if we want to do a practice dive in anilao around the first week of december. we're thinking of checking-in at shangri-la for my birthday on the 10th. eric will be only be joining us here in manila a couple of days before christmas so he's missing a lot! aidan will also be celebrating his 8th and 9th month birthday here so we're thinking what celebration to do while he's with family in manila.

hectic? this is the longest vacation i'll be having in manila eversince we moved to sydney and i sure intend to make the most out of it!

halfway to one

2008-10-09T16:08:00.004+11:00

our little man is 6months old today. since it's thursday (late-night shopping day), we'll probably have dinner outside and pick up a "birthday" cake.

i can't believe that in another 6months aidan will be a toddler. it's amazing how much he grows everyday.

got milk?

2008-10-02T09:39:00.007+10:00

i'm all for breastfeeding (i'm proud to say that my little man is still breastfed) and i believe that breast is best (if it works for you) but this is too much.

ben and jerry’s new flavor: breast milk cheesecake swirl?

i wouldn't even taste my own milk. but if you think about it, we ARE drinking the milk of cows.

happy birthday!

2008-09-26T16:09:00.002+10:00

the fourth trimester

2008-09-23T13:57:00.010+10:00

they say that the first three months of your newborn's life are considered the fourth trimester. i can't believe eric and i survived it.

i seriously was scared leaving the hospital that drizzly cold tuesday afternoon. i felt that if i stepped out of the hospital, that was it...it's time for the real world. i could no longer bring aidan back to the nursery. driving home with the little man strapped in his carseat sucking mama's pinkie was surreal.

it was a blur of activities after that. i remember there were a lot of activities and gatherings going on. there was the baptism that we had to plan. and then there's the getting used to not having mama around since she was due to leave for manila soon.

to say that the two weeks after mama left was crazy is an understatement. i didn't know what to do. i didn't know how to eat, let alone go to the toilet with a baby cradled in my arms who wouldn't let me put him down (sometimes i don't get to brush my teeth at all until eric comes home in the afternoon!). the lowest point of my day would be when eric had to leave for work since that means i'm left alone to take care of aidan. i'd constantly check the clock how much longer till he gets home. there was this one day i remember that i was holding aidan from the time eric left till he came home, kulang na lang ihagis ko si aidan sa kanya when he stepped inside the house. i'd call him frantically throughout the day because our baby just kept on crying and crying and my nipples hurt already from all the sucking he was doing all throughout the day. i felt like it was going to fall off soon! i dreaded going out because we just can't seem to console aidan not to mention the crying and screaming fits he would throw while in the car. there were times that i would just cry whenever he's crying because there's nothing else that i could do. no one told me it's going to be this hard. i'd look back and miss my old life so much, where there was order...where i was in control of things.

but you know what, the hard part eventually passed. he was sleeping and feeding better once we got him in a routine. he started to interact, smiling and making sounds at us. we moved him to his own cot and we got our bed back. funny though since eric and i actually miss him sleeping beside us! he started feeding properly and stopped snacking. he was feeding every two hours and then eventually every three hours, no more comfort sucking which gave my breasts a much needed rest. he finally took the dummy, so he can suck on that as much as he wants. he eventually got used to his carseat and we can now leave the house without the fear of him screaming his head off. he now loves his carseat so much that we haven't even reached the end of our street and he's already dozing off. we were able to go out and about with him in his carrier saving our arms. we would even go to the shops, just the two of us! he learned how to drink expressed breastmilk from the bottle which allowed us to leave him with cousins while we watched phantom of the opera (our first date after giving birth! it was hard leaving him though...). i could leave him in his playcot now so i can eat and attend to some stuff and he'll happily play by himself.

mother's group helped a lot. i met other new moms who were going through the exact same thing as i was. after mother's group, we would head off the local cafe and just sit there and talk. by the time we get home, eric would be home in just a couple of hours!

sure, we still have not-so-good days (according to mama there is no such thing as a bad day) but it's now outweighed by the good days.

i'm amazed at what i can accomplish now. i've learned a lot of new skills i never thought i could and would do. i never considered myself as a patient person but aidan sure taught me and is continually teaching me to be one! it helps that i have a very loving and supportive husband who turned out to be a wonderful father who takes over looking after aidan when he comes home and even in the middle of the night! one who would always remind me before he leaves for work that i don't have to do anything except to look after our little man.

what a roller coaster ride it has been (i'm afraid of roller coasters by the way)!

now i look back and couldn't imagine life without aidan.

let the games begin

2008-08-08T21:50:00.004+10:00

the whole world is watching, with just 10 minutes to go the 29th olympic games is on.

special delivery

2008-07-23T14:48:00.004+10:00

*my long overdue birthing kwento*

days leading to the big day, i was nervous and excited all at the same time! it was actually comforting knowing when exactly you're having your baby. i guess the arrival of my mama and jolly added to the excitement. the day before was my tita bebs' first year death anniversary. so i was able to see most of the relatives while still pregnant one last time. eric and i decided to skip the gathering after the mass and had a nice and quiet dinner just the two of us (soon to be three!). besides, we're scheduled for the induction at 7am the next day!

as expected, i couldn't sleep. i woke up around 6am, woke mama and then had a shower. it was weird driving to the hospital since we all knew that the next time we come home, we'll be bringing our little one with us!

we arrived at the delivery suite a little after 7am. i tried to relax as much as i can (but was too excited!). we even had a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, mushroom and sausages with friands for desert! we took photos around the delivery suite, while i can still manage a smile. around 9am, dr. khan, our ob, arrived and broke my waters. i haven't progressed at all and i was just 2cm dilated, exactly the same as a week ago. i was expecting to feel labour pains immediately and i didn't so i started to walk around the suite. our ob was hoping that once my water broke, contractions will come in naturally...it didn't. so after an hour, they administered the drip to speed up my contractions. i was still feeling okay, every now and then i'd feel a contraction but nothing major. nicola, our midwife, increased the dosage and that's when i started to feel major contractions come. i don't think i ever felt anything close to what a contraction felt like. it was a mix of period pain, stomach cramp and constipation. i remember telling mama that i had to go to the toilet really bad. she keeps on assuring me that it's just the baby pushing. when i was having the contractions one after another, i already asked for epidural. i didn't get it though since they wanted me to try gas first. it seriously didn't do anything to ease the pain, i felt woozy and high with it. so again i asked for epidural, nicola suggested to try pethidine first so i did. she injected the drug on my thigh and i was still feeling the pain but was really sleepy. during this time it was really painful already to the point of unbearable. i wasn't screaming (thank god!) but i kept on saying how much it hurts and kept on pushing the sheets with my legs (my socks kept on falling off because of this). i remember there came a point where mama tied my hair and powdered my neck because i was so sweaty already. again, i asked for epidural. they said that the anesthesiologist has been notified already but is in the operating room or something, i really think they were purposely delaying it. when nicola came in to check how much (or little!) i have progressed (3cm...what???) she had the nerve to tell me that i wouldn't dilate if i'm stressed, i should relax (what the?!@#). good thing i didn't have the energy to argue with her!

the anesthesiologist came in after a couple of hours of agony. :-) i was asked to lay on my left side while he administered the anesthesia. it only took a couple of minutes for it to take effect, all i can say is thank god to whoever made it! i felt relaxed and calm immediately. nicola even told eric to get some lunch. it was mama who first noticed that the baby's heart rate was dropping. i guess she didn't take her eyes off the monitor that's why she noticed. the nurses and midwives came, checked the monitor and before i know it, dr. khan came, checked how far i've progressed (5cm, yey!) and told me the news...i need to undergo emergency cesarean. she explained to me that if she wasn't concerned about the size of the baby and all the other things we were closely monitoring with my pregnancy, she'd be more than happy to let me progress. but given all our concerns, she doesn't want to take any risks. it was a flurry of activities after that.

people started to come in and out of the delivery suite. the funny thing was, eric was out getting take-away for lunch! so mama had to call her and tell him he needs to come back as soon as he can. i was prepped while we were all waiting for eric to come back. i was then off to the theater. eric came with me but mama stayed in the delivery suite and was told to wait there because they will bring the baby to her. i remember being in this small room with this really nice and old doctor (which i later found out was another anesthesiologist) who administered a stronger dose of epidural. he really made me calm since he was explaining everything he was doing even telling me what to expect. as soon as my legs felt like stone, i was moved to the main operating room where i saw dr. khan. eric then arrived all decked in scrubs and was asked to sit beside me and then the anesthesiologist continued talking to us, telling us what's happening, making us all relaxed and calm. i could feel pulling and tugging but no pain at all and then suddenly they were making eric ready his camera since the baby is being pulled out of me. the curtain was lowered a bit so we can see and i heard him, OUR BABY, cry. it was the most beautiful sound, i can still clearly remember it.

AIDAN EMMANUEL ALARCON DOMINGUEZ was finally born. it was the day our lives changed forever.

*pictures here*

he's finally here!

2008-04-20T10:40:00.004+10:00

* birthing story to follow...

the waiting game

2008-04-03T11:05:00.007+11:00

had an appointment with our ob late afternoon yesterday and was told that i have been scheduled for an induction on wednesday, april 9 at 7am. upon examination, i was found to be 2cm dilated already, cervix is ripe (sorry if it's too much information) and baby is engaged and in position already! which comes as really good news because if not for all of these, we have no choice but to do a cesarean which i don't really mind but i prefer to try a normal delivery. platelets as of last test came out to 155,000 which means i have the option for an epidural if in case i do request to have one. we're on the end of our 37th week this week so if i deliver by wednesday next week, we're on our 38th week so our baby is considered full-term. and to top it off, my mama and brother are arriving tonight! i was a bit hesitant at first in them arriving so early given that our edd is not until april 21. i prefer my mama to be here when the baby is born to help me out and teach me how things are supposedly done. i'm just so happy that things are falling into place. so i'll have our baby in my arms by wednesday! that is if he doesn't decide to come out between now and then...

not sure if it's just psychosomatic given the news yesterday but i've been having frequent contractios now. late last night, i was having them one after the other and instinct told me to pack my bags. so i got up in the middle of the night and started packing! i didn't wake up eric anymore since the contractions were more uncomfortable than painful. but i ended waking him up anyway since i was going in and out of our room and making all these noise around the house.

***

i really have to blog about this before i forget. you know how i've been planning the little one's baptism already and how i bought a baptism romper that is a way too big? well, i finally decided to contact veluz (my wedding gown designer) and asked her how soon and how much it would cost for her to come up with "an heirloom piece baptismal gown that our family can use for generations, suitable for a boy and a girl, can fit 0-3 months" as per my exact words. take note, this was just a little over a week before my mama and brother are leaving manila. you know what she told me, "eight hours on a weekday for you. gift ko yun sa yo!". when she was over in sydney middle of last year, we didn't get to meet anymore since she was so busy but we sure talked over the phone. and i did mention to her that eric and i were pregnant and she immediately told me she'd take care of our baby's baptismal gown. i never forgot that. that's why she was always on my mind when i was looking for my baby's baptismal outfit. and this is the response i got from her on my gown specs, "all baptismal gowns are really like that, pwede girl or boy, peter pan collar, super haba. kaloka naman, may bonnet pa (i requested for a matching bonnet as well)! pina silk? gift ko nga yun! wag ng mega burda ha!" who am i to contradict her? it's a gift, she even made it pina silk, i don't mind if it's not "mega burda" since i want it simple lang naman talaga, rush na nga and it's funny how she's telling me she'll put it in her very own special box since her box is really nice (during our wedding wala pa syang own special box). i was so happy! i told eric and he told me mahiya naman daw ako so i told veluz that. you know what she said, "drama, gift nga eh"! sobra na-iimagine ko sya sinasabi yun sa kin.

mama picked it up last night. and you know she told me, "got your baby's baptismal gown. it's gorgeous. veluz has outdone herself again. it's indeed fit to be an heirloom piece, so dainty and elegant. call veluz and thank her. ang ganda. see you tomorrow."

mama texted me again this morning telling me that they are just waiting to board their plane to sydney and my brother is handcarrying the baptismal gown which i'm assuming is in veluz's very own special box.

just want to share these pictures i sent through to veluz after our wedding. my subject was the ultimate designer and she immediately replied back saying kinabahan daw sya sa subject ko. :-)

all i can say is that she deserves to be who she is and where she is right now.

3 years 4 months ago and XXlbs. lighter

eight years of nine

2008-04-01T22:30:00.005+11:00

autumn.gracie.jan.jackie.jeanette.kathy.oly.summer.yayi

it's exactly eight years today since we graduated from college.

six are still in manila, two are in dubai, one is in singapore, and i'm in sydney.

between us, we've had three marriages, two births (another one really soon courtesy of me), countless gimiks, shed some tears and our fair share of joys (not to mention numerous ex-boyfriends between the nine of us, some contributed more than the others here :-P).

i don't think i'll ever meet friends like them here down under. i miss them. thank god for email and ym messenger.

in awe and wonder of what's to come

2008-03-28T14:46:00.005+11:00

i've been thinking on what gift to give my husband when the little one arrives and decided on this...

new dad from the willow tree collection

i think it's perfect given that i gave him this as a present during father's day when we found out we're expecting. it arrived in the mail today. i have to remember to pack it in my hospital bag!

slowly getting there

2008-03-25T17:34:00.007+11:00

it all started during our 33rd week check-up when the ob found out that fundal height didn't increase compared to our last appointment, not to mention i only gained .1kg. so she immediately required a growth scan to be conducted and that's where we found out that the baby is small for dates (small for gestational age). even if the conclusion of the scan was "satisfactory fetal growth, with no evidence of fetal compromise", we were told that our baby's growth is below average which no parent would want to hear. that's when we started to get worried.

i couldn't wait till our next appointment which was two weeks after that so i left a message with my ob's secretary to give me a call once she gets the comprehensive report of the growth scan. my ob got back to me telling me not to worry and all i can do really is rest to help our baby grow. side kwento: i was so insecure of my little belly compared to our pre-natal classes classmates that week!

during our 35th week appointment last week, although fundal height increased already (but still does not corresponding to how far along we are) and significant weight gain has been achieved (i've been eating a lot the past couple of weeks thus the 1.1kg weight gain), our doctor was concerned how my blood pressure has always been borderline so then and there, she had me do some round of blood tests, another round of growth scan (baby only gained 120 grams if i'm not mistaken, expected weight gain is about 250 grams) and had me admitted in the labor ward to continuously monitor my blood pressure (every hour) and fetal activity via cardiotocography. i guess she was just being cautious and wanted to rule out pre-eclampsia. the good thing however is that i never leaked protein in my urine and i haven't experienced swelling of my extremities which are signs of the condition. our ob also decided to inject steroids already in case i have to deliver early. she said that she's not expecting us to reach our estimated due date of the 21st of april and that i may delivery our baby in the next three weeks. she's really hoping though that we reach our 38th week.

the second round of growth scan showed our baby did grow somehow but not as much as we wanted him to so no need to take him out just yet. i was discharged around mid-afternoon after finding out that when i'm resting my blood pressure normalizes. that's when our ob told me that i have start my maternity leave then and there since i have to rest to help this baby grow and the stress and pressure that work is currently giving me is not doing any good for our baby.

i went to the office after being discharged and talked to my boss and my team. i actually went home pretty late that day since i wanted to tidy up my desk (i plan to go back to work by february 2009 which is about 10 months of maternity leave!). i was feeling very emotional that day since i wasn't ready to go on leave yet not to mention leaving behind a project that i've been working on for the past couple of months that has yet to be finished. you see, i was feeling fine throughout this pregnancy. sure, i get tired at the end of the day but nothing major. little did i know that work stress may not be affecting me directly but our baby. the earliest i was supposed to go on maternity leave was end of march and latest was around mid-april. so i had two more weeks to go and i have scheduled what has to be done for that two weeks already.

i think it will take a while getting used to not having the routine of waking up in the morning, dressing up and going to work. the next day, i couldn't help but log-in the office and talk to my colleagues and project consultants. i was pretty much working the next day but from home which according to my husband defies the purpose of resting. i keep on telling him and my officemates that i will eventually let go of work but it's something that i will do in my own pace. i guess i just needed closure somehow since i'm the type of person who wants to finish what has been started. and besides, i invested so much time, effort and energy in my project and we're about 85%-90% there!

anyway, i went back to the hospital the next day for another and last round of steroid shots and then back again a couple of days for fetal activity monitoring via ctg and another one last saturday. we have our weekly appointment tomorrow and another growth scan in the afternoon. i hope that everything turns out fine.

just a couple more weeks to go, hang in there my baby!

i think it's what they call nesting

2008-02-24T17:42:00.007+11:00

i've heard and read about it. never really thought that it would happen to me. it seems that i'm obsessed in fixing the house all of a sudden. last week was the front lawn, i had to cut the hedge along the walkway to our front door so it would look nice and straight. after that, it was cutting the agapanthus since their flowers wilted already. yesterday was the patio, i threw out any plants i think were dead (before mama arrives and sees it!) and re-arranged all the bromeliads. i even anchored the bougainvillea to the fence with a straw since it was falling already (with eric's help of course!). and for some strange reason, i can't take seeing any cobwebs (and there seems to be a lot now in the garden because of the weather). i tell you, i haven't seen cobwebs these big before! medyo na-iimmune na nga ako sa spiders since i think i've seen all colors, shapes and sizes already. today, it was the garage. for weeks, i've been bugging eric to fix the garage since it's such an eyesore everytime i come home and seeing the garage shelves so disorganized. since he hasn't done it yet, i thought i'll just do it and rearranged it according to category: car, paint and gardening. i get really tired after doing the fixing-up though. i make sure however that i call eric to lift or push anything that is heavy (he's the one brining the laundry basket to the laundry room now).

i'll probably start washing the barnyard stuff so we can use them already. eric keeps on asking me when we're going to put the curtains and the window valance up. i have to remind him every now and then that we're planning to have the baby sleep in our room in his own cot so it's not really necessary to have the nursery fully decorated. he still wants it nice and ready for his baby boy though.

***

i rushed to the hospital last wednesday during my lunch break for our bi-weekly appointment with the ob. she was so happy to inform me that as per my last blood tests, my platelets are now up to 145,000 (minimum normal is 150,000). i actually missed a call from the hematologist about this. bp also was normal and test confirmed negative protein leak (sign of pre-eclampsia) so she was pretty happy with everything. i told her about experiencing shortness of breath every now and then and she said that it was because i was carrying high and the baby is putting pressure in my diaphragm and lungs which is causing the shortness of breath. i should get relief when the baby drops which signals that i'm about the delivery anytime soon after that. it was funny that when she measured for fundal height, she commented on how i don't have room anymore left!

***

last thursday, the filipinos (or should i say filipinas since it was only us girls) in toshiba threw me a baby shower luncheon. we had lunch at the newly opened ribs and rumps just right across the office. they gave us an avent gift set which consists of an iQ24 electronic steam steriliser, airflex feeding bottles, extra teats, tongs and a bottle and teat brush. it was so nice of them to organize something for us. we couldn't thank them enough! :-)

***

pre-natal class last week was spent watching actual videos of birth in the hospital. i never really fully understood how a woman's body...uhm, transforms to push out a human being out to this world, until we watched the videos. and seriously, even if these women knew that they were being filmed, they didn't try to hide the fact that childbirth is painFUL. but then again as we've been told, our body is designed for childbirth and millions of women have been through it and survived (not to mention go through it AGAIN!).

***

8 months (32 weeks) now!

10 more weeks to go...

2008-02-17T17:48:00.008+11:00

we've passed our 30th week!

we started our pre-natal classes two weeks ago, every thursdays from 8pm-10pm until march 6. there are 11 couple in the class and i think we're one of those whose edd are latest amongst the group (due dates range from late march to late april). my tummy is really small compared to our classmates and even when i was in manila, people are commenting how small my tummy is given how far along i am with the pregnancy. am thinking if i should be worried but my ob said everything is fine with the baby and his growth is within the normal range of his gestation.

i woke up one morning around the end of our 29th week and i think i saw three faint stretch marks below my tummy! i've been religously applying cocoa butter cream every morning and bio-oil every night. oh well, it's part of the pregnancy i guess. i even showed it to my officemates and they said it doesn't look like stretch marks (i think they're trying to make me feel better) but marks from my office pants instead. i'm pretty sure they're strech marks.

i think it's safe to say now that my belly button will never pop, it seems to just flatten out. which is good so i don't have this protruding door bell-like belly button showing through my tops.

we got ourselves a box of newborn nappies already and am looking at baby bath stuff as well. we still don't have a bathtub to use but that should be easy to buy. we're also looking for a cot mattress to put in the portacot so the baby boy will be more comfortable when he's sleeping, might as well get a mattress protector as well.

i'm planning to start washing some of the baby boy's stuff by the end of the month and pack both my labor and hospital bag (we were told during our prenatal classes to separate the two) early next month.

we're starting to look into how we're going to celebrate our little boy's baptism. we initially wanted to have it in manila (since most of our family and friends are there) but decided against it since we're planning to visit manila during the holidays again anyway. we have a rough idea already where we could have the ceremony but we still don't have a venue to have the celebration afterwards (we initially wanted it in this garden venue near the place where i work but when eric inquired we have to pay for the venue pa in addition to the food, parang hindi worth it). so now we're thinking restaurant na lang. we'll always have our house as a fallback anyway. i actually bought a really nice raw cream silk baptism romper online already (talk about impulsive buying) but it's way too big (it would best fit a 6 month old i think). so either i get it altered or contact veluz to have a baptismal gown made instead. i was in dj's in the city one weekday when i had a time off and a baptism outift costs between $150-$250, ang mahal! so i think i'm better off getting one from manila.

i've been searching designs of baptismal gown that i like already. i want an heirloom piece that would suit either a boy or a girl, so not too much frills and lace. we'll see...

my parents and brother seem to be gearing up already to be here for the birth. they're looking at arriving between end march or early-mid april. depending really on what my ob says. medyo expecting na din kasi kami that i won't carry full-term since i was born premature. and my mama seems to be adamant that she's here during the birth of her first apo. my sisters couldn't commit naman since all of them have work. at least it's going to be my brother's summer vacation that's why he can go. not sure though how long they can stay. i'm not expecting long since my papa has work and my mama has the farm that she needs to attend to. bahala na, thankful na lang ako that they'll be here. we were planning to have the baptism between the baby boy's 2nd-3rd month para medyo malaki-laki na sya but i think my mama would want to have the baptism while they're still here that's why she's been encouraging us to have the baptism (kahit simple lang daw, no frills para lang ma-bless na) within the month the baby boy is born.

i need to file my maternity leave already before the month ends. eric and i are still undecided whether or not i take an entire year off or not. basta it's non-negotiable for him that i stay at home for at least six months before we send the baby boy off to daycare. if i have the choice, i'd prefer to go back part-time (three times a week) after nine months and then full-time after twelve months. that way, it wouldn't come out as a shock to me transitiong from a full-time stay at home mom to a full-time working mom.

speaking of daycare, not sure where we're up to on that (eric's the one looking after it) but i know that we've filed applications for waitlist already in some daycare centres, but the hunt isn't over yet! and would you believe, we were actually advised that if we're eyeing particular private schools, we have to file for an application as soon as the baby boy is born! that way, we've got better chances of getting a slot when the time comes for us to enroll him.

ano pa ba? eric's been helping me do the laundry already (at least taking down the sinampay) and he started to accompany me to the grocery since it's becoming more difficult for me to push the cart and load the grocery stuff in the car.

work still is crazy by the way. the project was planned just in time for me to finish it before i go on leave. but you know how projects are, more often than not they don't turn out the way they're planned. every now and then i still get overwhelmed. i'm just thankful that we have eric to go home to at the end of a long day.

the youth of the world...

2008-02-12T20:57:00.001+11:00

...are coming to sydney in 2008.
http://www.wyd2008.org

5 and 6

2008-02-05T20:02:00.000+11:00

...months that is. the pregnancy continues to be easy for me. i even survived the long flight to manila and back to sydney given that we have a stopover in bangkok not to mention all the walking i did because of shopping and the late night-outs with friends. i had an appointment with my ob as soon as we arrived and was shocked how much i gained the past couple of weeks given that i saw her only the week before we left. the good thing though was the next time i saw her, i lost weight which means what i gained really was just holiday weight. my platelets are still being continued to be monitored and as mentioned in my previous post, i had my glucose tolerance test. i'll know by the end of the week the result of the long gtt if i have gestational diabetes (short gtt showed a result that was a little higher than the tolerance level) and i'm really hoping that it turns out negative. i'm seeing my ob every two weeks now and then every week once i hit the 36th week mark.

since we got back, we've been scheduling our weekends now to do some stuff that needs to be done before the much awaited arrival of our baby boy. we're kinda anticipating that i might deliver early given that my mama wasn't able to carry me full-term. we finished painting the nursery (okay, it was really eric who did it :-P) and installing the border (i helped here) but haven't finished decorating yet. we'll probably set everything up around end march.

we were able to acquire more barnyard items to add to our collection (eric still wants to get the rug and lamp).

we also bought another portacot to be set-up outside so we don't have to wheel the one for the bedroom/nursery in and out. we got it for 40% off so we couldn't resist the bargain. although eric still dreaming of getting a boori timber cot.

we bought the car seat already...

and finally paid our baby's bugaboo in full (we have yet to pick it up though). i'm so happy we got it last year when babies galore went on sale since they increased the price a couple of hundred dollars as the start of this year not to mention that the canvas topping is now available in blue (it was a toss between red, orange and blue). we even got the transport bag so we could bring it with us when we go on a trip.

we pretty much have the major stuff that we need. we're still searching though for my rocker and glider.

the baby just moves all the time now unlike before that i can only feel his movements usually during evenings. sometimes when i just stare at my belly i can actually see the movements underneath my skin! i love feeling him move inside me.

i can already feel the additional weight of my belly and at the end of day my legs ache but nothing a couple of pillows can fix when i sleep at night. speaking of sleep, i have to get up every night now to go to the toilet so i feel i don't get enough sleep and having real difficulty in waking up every morning.

i can't believe we only have a little over two months left before we finally get to hold him. it seems just like yesterday that we found out we were expecting!

a very busy friday and the road trip down south

2008-02-03T17:31:00.000+11:00

took time off last friday to do some stuff. i thought that instead of arriving late to work or leaving early to do some pregnancy related tests, might as well take the entire day off and do some errands as well. i started the day early going to the hospital for my long glucose tolerance test (the short gtt came out with a result of a couple of points higher than the tolerance level so my ob decided for me to undergo the long gtt to ensure that i don't have gestational diabetes). eric and i were already in the hospital the night before for the baby boy's fetal echocardiogram that the doctor wanted for us to do on our 24th week but we were in manila at that time and last thursday (28th week) was the only schedule we can get from the specialist to do the scan. everything seems to be okay we were told which is good. anyway, after that i went to see my gp since the ob was quite concerned about my high blood pressure eversince i got pregnant. the gp however confirmed that i have always been on the high side anyway but still checked for protein in my urine just to check if i manifest any signs of pre-eclampsia. results turned out negative but it will be checked by my ob every two weeks from now on. i then went to the shops to grab some lunch (i had to fast for the long gtt so i was already starving), had passport photos taken and then go to hcf and medicare for reimbursment of some medical expenses. i took the train to go to the city to go to the philippine embassy to have my passport extended and amended with my married name (finally, after 3 years of being married). since eric's been working with a client in the city the past couple of weeks, we decided to have dinner at the meat & wine co in darling harbour (eric truly enjoyed his prime cut fillet while i feasted on my prawn and beef skewer). we capped off our sumptuous dinner with a very rich cake from the lindt chocolat cafe in cockle bay wharf.

we just came back from an overnight trip to jervis bay (about three hours drive from sydney). with just a couple more week to go before the end of summer and feeling guilty of not planning anything during the australia day long weekend last week, we've made arrangements to go to jervis bay this weekend since aris and jen raved about how great hyams beach is when they went there around the same time last year. it has been raining (and hailing!) in sydney during the week so i wasn't really expecting that we could go to the beach yesterday. to our excitement, the weather was pretty good down there, blue and clear skies and the water was just so inviting! jen wasn't kidding when she said that the sand is really white and fine, reminds me so much of boracay. we stayed at a two-story loft apartment in dolphin shores dolphin shores and had a fantastic, filling dinner of mexican food at 3 gringos. on our way back to gloomy sydney today (it's still raining), we passed by woolloongong and had fish and chips for lunch.

i'm pretty tried now given my activity-filled past couple of days, and it's back to work tomorrow!

*baby and pregnancy updates soon!

we keep coming back to manila...

2008-01-29T21:04:00.001+11:00

we had a pretty hectic and intense three weeks in manila. trying to make the most of our short time there, i met up with friends the first week (took a toll on my body though since by the end of the first week, i was feeling sick already from all the late night-outs!), second week was spent with family to celebrate christmas and out-of town dive trip to dumaguete (i had to content myself snorkling though since i couldn't dive given my state now), and third week (or should i say the entire time i didn't meet up with friends) was spent shopping, eating, and more shopping (we bought so much stuff for the baby boy that we had to leave five full shopping bags in malingap which my parents will just bring when they come over and visit around april).

i paid homage to trinoma (countless times), greenhills, tiendesitas, eastwood, serendra and mall of asia (wasn't a good experience though). pinatulan ko even the sunday market at lung center (i got a LOT of carter's overuns from there)! feasted on chicken joy, jolly spaghetti and jolly hotdog at jollibee, sisig at gerry's, fried chicken and caramel bar at max's, spinach dip and linguine di valentino at cibo, upscale turo-turo at mang pepe's, friday's special thin crust pizza, chick n' chips and thick strawberry milkshake at shakey's, angel hair pomodoro at italianni's, ice blended mocha at coffee bean and tea leaf, giant squid at aloha polu kai, virgin martinis at larry's bar, black paella and conchinillo at alba's, ebi tempura and chicken kamemeshi at kamameshi, pasta, pizza and gelato at amici, bibingka with goat cheese and salted egg at via mare and other places i can't remember the name anymore. i had a couple of massages while there (not to mention the foot massages i got in bangkok airport), a haircut (the last one was around the same time last year!) and a diamond peel session.

we attended a wedding (eric attended two weddings while we were there). my mama and sisters threw us a baby shower before christmas. we went to the annual alarcon christmas party at pao the day before christmas and then heard christmas eve mass at club instead of our parish. christmas morning was spent in malingap and then off to san juan for christmas lunch with the in-laws and visited daddy at manila memorial. we then went to dumaguete for a couple of days before having our annual fireworks display in taysan to welcome the new year.

truly hectic and intense but it was worth every minute.

baby shower

christmas eve

on our way to apo island

family picture before leaving dumaguete

with ange friends

with miriam friends and the newest addition, tim

with p&g friends

halfway there

2007-12-08T19:49:00.000+11:00

20 more weeks to go!

i've started to feel "sensations" inside my tummy around the end of my 18th week. wasn't sure if that was the baby moving since it wasn't consistent (malay mo gas lang sya or something...). but i've been feeling it constantly now so it surely is him! i wouldn't describe it as butterfly flutters (as what i've read in mags), it was more on rolling and squirming inside. it usually happens at night but every now and then i'd feel it during the day.

as posted earlier, we found out that it's going to be a boy during our morphology scan which was done on our 19th week which really came out as a surprise to everyone!

my blood is still being continually tested every three weeks. the good news is i haven't heard from our hematologist since our last appointment. our agreement was that if my platelets drop to a dangerous level (around 20,000 i think), she'll give me a call so we can proceed with either me taking drugs or transfusion. no news is good news. but we're hoping to see her next week before our trip just to be safe.

it's been getting uncomfortable sleeping now with the growing belly. i find that putting a pillow underneath it while sleeping on my side helps (i still can sleep on my back with no issues though it's just i read it's best to sleep on your left side). i've woken up in the middle of the night twice already with really bad leg cramps. the first time it happened, i was able to pull my foot to stop the cramping but the recent one i had, i couldn't reach my foot anymore! and it took the husband a while to realize what was happening and pull my foot for me! i still wear my heels to work (i wear decent height heels anyway). i wonder if that contributes to my leg cramping...

i officially can't wear my pre-pregnancy pants anymore. for a while, looping a rubber band in the button hole and then hooking it to the button worked. but then as the weeks went by, i can't seem to zip my pants up anymore. besides, people at work keep on telling me that i've all of a sudden "popped", that's when i decided to stock on maternity pants already (not to mention an officemate actually commented one day "for god's sake autumn, get some maternity pants already!" since it was really obvious that my pants were unbottoned with a rubber band looping the button and the button hole obvious through my tight top, nakakahiya!). i just hope they last through the entire pregnancy para ma-roi ko naman my investment on the preggy clothes! i can still get away with wearing some of my pre-pregnancy tops, as long as they're stretchy. :-)

also, people in the office have started to ask me when i'm due so i guess it's really obvious now that i'm expecting!

we had our company christmas party last night at sydney shangri-la. buti naman i was able to come up with an outfit to wear kahit last minute (i got a non-preggy top but in a couple of sizes up from my normal pre-preg size, it's a good thing that uso ang empire/babydoll cut ngayon!). i'll probably wear the same outfit as my christmas outfit para ma-sulit. we have a wedding to attend to while in manila so isa pa yung outfit that i have to come up with soon since i don't think i have time to buy a dress to wear. i didn't realize dressing up while preggy could be so challenging!

we've been so busy with work lately. too busy in fact that eric had to put his day care search on hold until next year (after returning from our christmas vacation in manila). ako naman, we kicked-off our project at work about two and a half weeks ago and my replacement only started last week so medyo stressful talaga. had to remind myself every now and then to take it easy kasi i'm scared that it might affect our baby. been going home so exhausted lang talaga not to mention sleeping late as well the past couple of weeks.

on the shopping front, we got our graco pack 'n play already (we got the oakwood design). the car seat we'll probably get early next year na. we've been buying some little stuff already (blankets, clothes, etc.) but we really plan to buy the bulk of it in manila.

went shopping almost the entire day today for more pasalubongs and eric couldn't resist buying this for the baby boy when we saw it...

that's it! i'm celebrating my birthday on monday and our anniversary on tuesday. we didn't make any big plans this year since we're both so busy with work and we're off to manila on friday already. siguro dinner lang kami somewhere nice. till my next post...

one shopping day

2007-12-02T20:49:00.000+11:00

we were planning to go to bondi junction eversince eric got his new laptop so we could buy the oakley laptop bag that he wanted. i told him that we'll get it for him (that's me and the baby boy) as our present already for christmas. he told me wanted to get an overnight/travel bag as well (his jansport backpack has seen better days) so i told eric that we could get that for him for our anniversary. so happy that i got his presents already! at least i don't have to worry about it anymore.

since we were already there, we went to nine west so i could show him this big tote bag i wanted (perfect for our trip to manila, fits my usual bag stuff plus passport and other travel stuff i want to bring on the plane not to mention stuff that i might buy in bangkok airport dutyfree during our stopover!). he was more than happy to get it for me that since he knows he needs to come up with a lot of presents for me this month (i got the one in black though)!

i already asked my ate to check out some coach leather bags in the us as well (carly leather in chili and ergo belted leather hobo in either black or brown, sorry, i can't seem to copy the bag pictures in their site). sobra unti lang kasi ng bags that their sydney store carries, mga old styles pa. not sure though if she could get it for me since she's already in atlanta for work (she was on holiday in san francisco and then las vegas a week before her business trip). na-guiguilty ako magpabili ng lv batignolles kasi when eric went to the lv store, it costs a whopping au$1,100.00!!! we could already buy our baby's car seat with that (we don't have a car seat just yet)! coach siguro i wouldn't feel so guilty. :-)

we were there lang sa bondi junction for two hours only (and that includes having lunch already). which is good kasi we don't have to pay for parking yet. ang mahal kaya mag-park there!

given that this is the second to the last weekend till our vacation in manila, we decided to do some more shopping for pasalubongs today. so off we went to birkenhead point. we first went to the nine west outlet. i was able to get a bag for my mama (i wasn't planning at all to give her a bag for christmas). eric was able to get my sis-in-law a handbag and i was able to get a weekend bag for myself (courtesy of my dear husband again, super cheap lang naman eh!).

then we went to the surf shop to get my brother his rip curl boardshorts which he asked me to buy for him (my siblings think that australia is the land of billabong, rip curl and roxy, dami nga here but they're so expensive naman kaya! i wouldn't be surprised if it's cheaper sa manila). sana lang it fits since i got him a 38 (he told me to get a 36 pero walang nice na 36!). i called one of my sisters in manila and asked what size i should be getting for him and she said the last time they got my brother a 36 pants, they had to return it for a 38 so hopefully tama nga (but the shorts really look big). oh well, if it doesn't fit him, then it goes to my papa. i also got thongs (that's flipflops for you!) for my sisters since they were on sale, 3 for au$20.

we also passed by the pumpkin patch outlet to get the baby boy some stuff (we got ourselves stuff kasi so i wanted to make sure that he doesn't feel left out :-P). got a two-pack onesies that snaps on the side. i find baby stuff so expensive, i can get cheapo tops for au$10 (not the best quality though) samantalang the baby clothes costs around au$15-20. i really have to stock up on the basics while we're in manila. not to mention ang unti lang ng clothes for boys samantalang ang daming cute stuff for girls!

before our free parking ended, we decided to go home already (obvious ba that we hate paying for parking???) we went home happy with all our shopping finds but broke. oh well, at least happy naman...

IF...

2007-12-01T17:35:00.000+11:00

i had to choose a song that i'd dedicate and sing to my new husband during our wedding reception, this would be it...

land of the loving

deep in your eyes is a promise

love can be ours if we want it

starting tonight every dream i ever knew

here in your arms i'm believing

finally my life has a meaning of its own

here in the land of the loving i am home.

i was alone in the city

searching for someone to find me

cold empty nights and a million strangers' eyes

here in your arms i'm beginning

to leave behind all the loneliness i knew

here in the land of the loving there is you.

in this simple room magic is made

though the world seems unchanged

leave the lights on i'm a little afraid

this might be just one sweet dream.

deep in the night love is growing

though i had no way of knowing

that when i found you i found everything i need

here in your love i'll be staying

fin'lly my life won't be living all alone

here in the land of the loving i am home.

if only i could deliver it as good as her, i wouldn't even think twice about doing it. :-)

boy oh boy

2007-11-27T21:39:00.000+11:00

presenting...

at 19 weeks
27th November during the 18-20 week morphology scan

yup, we saw all 6mm of its penis (eric and i immediately assured each other that it's still going to grow...right? :-P).

we had our 18-20 week morphology scan this morning for almost three hours! had to walk around twice and even eat brunch in the middle before they were able to complete the scan since he wasn't in the best position and kept on rolling (sabi ni eric bata pa lang naughty and makulit na! the sonographer was hoping that eating would raise my blood sugar level and have an effect on the baby...it worked!). they checked everything, every organ and bone in his body. it was good to know that everything was where and how it should be. we were very particular about his heart given that he is at more risk with my history (i'm actually due for a fetal cardio scan in the next couple of months just to check his heart). we got the dvd of the scans (i had to lie down through three rounds of it!) and a cd with still pictures of our little boy which we'll be bringing with us to our trip in manila to show our families (a little less than three weeks to go!).

we really didn't have any feeling of what the gender of our baby will be but almost everyone was saying that it was going to be a girl so we were kinda expecting it i guess. my mama was so sure it's going to be a girl even as early as the time i told her we were pregnant! she even bought all these baby girl's dresses from the us! my officemate did the wedding pendulum on my belly and it predicted a girl. there were only three people who said it's going to be a boy plus according to the chinese calendar, we were going to have a boy. my mama was so funny when i told her about her grandson this morning. she was still in denial and warning me about all these stuff about boys. i don't know why my mom can still be so into girls given she has five daughters already (and a son)!

it hasn't completely sunk in just yet that we're going to have a little boy...but at least we've narrowed down the color topping of our bug since pink is already out!

my wish list

2007-11-20T14:19:00.000+11:00

since it’s only 2 weeks and 6 days till my birthday, 3 weeks until our anniversary, 5 weeks till christmas and 21 weeks and 6 days before our baby arrives, I decided to come up with my own wish list (not that my husband needs to be informed about these since I always tell him what I want anyway…side kwento: he complains how poor he gets during december since that’s the month we celebrate my birthday, our anniversary and christmas!):

weekend bag – i need (okay…want) a new weekend bag or a friday bag since we wear casual clothes in the office during fridays. if i wouldn’t feel guilty about it (i keep on telling myself it is too much for a bag given the other stuff we have to buy for our baby), i would pick these in an instant:

lv speedy 30 in monogram or damier canvas

lv batignolles

i’d love to have a leather coach bag too but the sydney store has limited styles available.

if i’m being practical (and i am), i’d be happy with a witchery nicky bag, pip bag or bailey bag (in that order).

classic diamond solitaire stud everyday earrings – right size for everyday use (not too small, not too big), in white gold

eternity ring (i like tiffany’s lucinda celebration ring) – channel setting, in white gold

tali gillette mama necklace – i want the one in the middle as a push present :-P, with diamond a’s in white gold

our baby's first picture

2007-11-14T14:03:00.000+11:00

at 12 weeks
9th October during the NTS

My Precious little baby

I have loved you from the start

You are a tiny miracle

laying closely to my heart

Each day I feel your presece

Each day you quickly grow

Each day your heart beats slowly

as only I could know

So I'll keep this in a special place

And remember each year through

of this very special time of life

The month I carried you

Author Unknown

four months and counting

2007-11-13T18:17:00.000+11:00

another four weeks have passed by...

pregnancy and baby updates:

we finally met with the hematologist. i tested negative for lupus but it was confirmed that i have an autoimmune disease called ITP (idiopathic thryombocytopenic purpura or immune thryombocytopenic purpura ) which makes my platelets fluctuate. then and there she had blood tests done again and the results were actually positive since my platets went up to 76,000. the downside is i have to get blood tests done every three weeks and once it reaches 20,000 i have to take steroids or have to undergo platelet transfusion. as early as now, she already told me to prepare myself for the delivery given that i can't have any epidural (epidural can only be administered when one's platelet count is at least 90,000). so it doesn't really leave me much choice except to have either a normal natural delivery or a cesarean under general anesthesia. you see, my mama delivered all of her six babies normally so i'm thinking i should be able to delivery normally as well. not that i'm planning to have an epidural but not having that option just in case scares me.
we had our monthly check-up and everything is fine. saw our baby again and it was moving so much (although i haven't really felt anything consistent yet)! oddly enough, even if my tummy popped out already i didn't gain any weight last month, not that i'm complaining... :-) we also informed our ob of our planned trip to manila on december. she gave us the go signal to travel but to see her and the hematologist before we leave and after we arrive.
since we were in the hospital already we booked our 18-20 week morphology scan on the 30th of november. we'll know our baby's gender by then!
speaking of gender, last halloween my officemate did this wedding ring pendulum on me to determine our baby's gender. according to this, it's pretty accurate. i won't disclose muna what it predicted but let's just say it pretty much is what everybody is hoping for and guessing. but i got a different result on the chinese calendar. we'll see...
my parents just came back from the us and apparently my mama went crazy shopping for baby clothes! second day pa lang ata nila dun she texted me na that she got some stuff i asked her to buy and lots of clothes! sana lang tama hula nya on our baby's gender para magamit the clothes she bought. when i told her we were pregnant sure na sya on the gender of our baby!
eric and i have started thinking about our baby's baptism. initially we were deadset in having it in manila after three months after the birth since our family and friends are there and we want them present during the event. but then we thought that if we plan to be in manila around july next year and then come back again december the same year (nangangarap lang naman...) it might not be practical not to mention very expensive. so we're starting to look for possible places we can have the baptism here in sydney instead. i even already commissioned veluz to do the baptismal gown when i got to talk to her a couple of months ago when she was here! sana lang she won't be too busy by that time...
the husband has started to call day care centres and visiting them. i know that he actually listed our baby already in some of the centres waiting list (one day care centre has an 18-month waiting list!). so far around our area, average charge is $70/day while centres around where i work charges $90/day.
been going crazy shopping for baby einstein cds. so far i've got baby mozart, baby bach, baby vivaldi, baby neptune, baby galileo and the playtime music box. i plan to get the boxed set dvds from manila on december (greenhills lang okay na as long as it's clear) to add to my baby's collection. i also got the mozart effect for myself as well.

we're hoping to buy the car seat and cot soon so we're waiting for sales in babies galore and toys 'r us. unfortunately, graco pack n' play playards are very limited here so we only have about two or three models to choose from (unlike in the us). i actually looked into buying one from the us and have it shipped here but it's coming out really expensive so might as well get one from here instead (i really wanted one with a pivoting changing table sana). we're choosing between these two models (baby einstein pa din):

i recently bought curtains and valance for the nursery and have decided on kidsline barn yard theme. i'm really hoping i could get some wall border. now i'm obsessed with everything barn yard...

other updates:

we got tickets for the 14th of june phantom of the opera production in sydney next year! at least i’m guaranteed a date out already after our baby arrives. :-P we already made arrangements with aris and jen to look after our baby (we’ll look after enzo when they watch it the week before) or we can just get a baby sitter. i’m really excited since the last time i watched this was ten years ago!
i came home one day with surprises waiting for me from eric. first there was this 30gb 1mp hard drive handycam (we wanted to buy one so we can take videos when the baby arrives),

then when i went to our bedroom there was this 26" u series bravia lcd for our bedroom (eric wanted to have a tv in our bedroom for the longest time but i was against it since oprah said the bedroom should only be used for sleeping and sex...hahahahaha :-P but since i always fall asleep in the couch watching tv in our family room might as well get a tv in our bedroom!)

and to top it all off, when i went to the guest room, there was this 40" xbr series full hd bravia lcd for our family room!

my husband went panic buying in sony (thanks to my cousin pete who works for sony and was able to get us discounted staff discount price on the items)! i have to admit i was a bit shocked with all his secret purchases but i know he wanted to get these before and was just waiting for them to go on sale. natakot siguro that he can't buy these kind of stuff anymore when the baby comes! he kept on telling me that the digicam is for the baby anyway and the tv for the bedroom is for me so i can watch tv when the baby and i are in the room...yeah right. anyway, that weekend we went to buy a new tv cabinet for his brand spanking new lcd. as for the one in our bedroom, we're still waiting for the electrician to come since we plan to either mount it on the wall or ceiling.
after almost two years, we finally got the cornice fitted in our kitchen. our kitchen is finally complete! eric has to paint the cornice though and retouch the ceiling and bulkhead.

and that pretty much sums up what we've been up to the past four weeks! till my next post on the results of our 18-20 week morphology scan.

the results are in

2007-10-09T16:39:00.000+10:00

NUCHAL TRANSLUCENCY SCREENING

DATE: 9/10/07

Today you had Nuchal Translucency Screening performed on your pregnancy. The measurement of your baby's nuchal translucency was 2.8mm.

This measurement reduces the risk of Down syndrome from 1:805 (based on your age and the fetal size) to 1:972 (based on your age, the fetal size and the nuchal translucency thickness).

These results are reassuring, but they can never completely exclude Down syndrome.

***

called in sick since our NTS was scheduled for today and i was feeling lazy. when we reached the san ultrasound for women there were a lot of patients so we knew it was going to be a long wait. it didn't take long though for my name to be called which was good since i was busting and wanted to go to the toilet already (they told me to fill up with fluids before the scan). they did the scan for almost an hour, i didn't mind though since i always look forward to seeing our baby. what was good about it was they had the ultrasound machine screen projected in a flat screen tv mounted on the wall where we were facing so eric and i were like watching a movie starring our baby (can't wait for our 18-20 week morphology scan!). after that, the doctor saw us and interpreted the results together with the my recent blood test results. everything's fine with the baby. she also confirmed presence of nasal bone (which apparently even lowers the risk of down syndrome). i was even told that my risk is the same as someone a couple of years younger than me (looks like my eggs are still in tip top shape). afterwhich i was given the report above. oh, and we were also given a few pictures of our baby (i'll see if i can scan them so i can upload them here).

***

on another note, remember this? well, we finally got our new front door installed this morning but decided on a different one since the corinthian door costs more than twice as much as the one we got from doors plus. after almost two years, our front door now looks decent...

we really think it made a whole lot of difference in the over-all outside look of our home! we're still thinking though if we're going to have a screen door installed so that during the warmer months we can leave the front door open...

the end of the first trimester

2007-10-06T10:06:00.000+10:00

well, almost that is since we're still on our 12th week next week!

ang bilis noh, so what have we been up to so far?

still haven't experienced any morning sickness, cravings or anything out of the ordinary that can be brought about by the pregnancy, thank GOD
bought the pram already (i know, i know...it's too soon not to mention too expensive. well, ni-layby ko na since it was on sale, $200 off and it goes on sale once a year lang, so might as well grab the opportunity already. we haven't decided though which color topping to get but i'm leaning towards getting the condura canvas fabric. i haven't told my mama yet though kasi papagalitan ako nun! hehehehe :-P)
told relatives in sydney about our big news
told my team in the office about it as well
started buying maternity stuff (i haven't worn them yet since i'm too small pa but so far i've got a couple of tops and jeans already, they were on sale!)
i bought a top for the baby too that was on sale, since we don't know the gender yet, i bought one for a boy and one for a girl. hala!
started walking during the weekends for an hour (okay, i've done it twice pa lang so far). been searching for prenatal yoga classes in our area but couldn't find one. an officemate of mine gave me a dvd copy of shiva rea's prenatal yoga instead which is supposed to be really good. i might just do home yoga instead.
went to the ob yesterday for my 2nd antenatal check-up. had two blood tests done prior and my platelets are way lower than normal (normal is around 150,000-400,000, mine read 60,000 the first time and 51,000 the second time. pre-pregnancy blood tests showed i was already on the low side of the range at 142,000 but it seems like my pregnancy is doing something to make by platelets fall even lower.) the doctor ordered for another round of blood tests (third time in a matter of weeks! i feel like a pin cushion na, and she even told me to expect more blood tests done!) and referred me to a hematologist already which we'll be seeing in the next couple of weeks. and i thought i won't be experiencing any dramas with this pregnancy! i just hope everything will be fine. so far, all i know is that low platelets mean your blood loses the ability to clot which leads to excessive bleeding (pano na yan during the delivery?).
we're scheduled for our nuchal translucency screening on tuesday. at first, eric and i decided not to undergo this screening test anymore but after our appointment with the ob yesterday, she told us it is in our best interest to do so since it not only gives us the probability of the baby having down syndrome (it doesn't sound good doesn't it?) but it also shows at this early stage any cardiac and skeletal defects as well as anything else that could be happening inside me that shouldn't be (given my history of congenital heart disease and this possible blood disorder). the way we're thinking about it na lang is that if they find something not normal then we get the chance to do about it something sooner rather than later.
the good news from our check-up was we saw our baby again when she did an ultrasound (that's the advantage of having an ob with her own ultrasound machine in her clinic!). the baby is so big already compared to the last time we saw him/her wherein he/she was just as small as a bean! he/she (can't wait to know the gender already para i know na kung he or she na ba talaga!) looks human now with his/her head, spine, body, legs and arms defined. it's such a wonderful feeling to see the the baby is growing inside you. oh, and i gained .3 kgs already. that should be fine right?
we've started our search for either a family day care or a day care near our area or at least someplace on the way when i get back to work after my maternity leave (still thinking if i'm going for 6 months or 1 year maternity leave). yup, you read it right, you have to reserve a slot at least a year in advance (at least for day care). there's one just right across our office but they're charging $90/day so we're looking for someplace else less expensive. i've been asking a lot of mommies and i was told family day care is around $30 and up and day care is around $50 and up. we've already asked a migration agent how to go about getting a full-time nanny from the philippines but we were told not to even consider it since given all the labor laws in australia, we have to pay the nanny a little less lang than what i earn! ako na lang kaya mag-apply na nanny tapos pabayad ako kay eric? that way, i get to take care of our baby tapos i earn at the same time! hehehehehe :-P

as you can see, everything seems to be going all a-okay except for my low platelets. i don't want to worry about it yet since i know it won't do us any good anyway. we'll know more about it when we see the hematologist. according to my mama, as long as i don't experience any pain or bleeding i shouldn't worry too much.

i am having trouble dressing for work though since my normal clothes are getting tighter (not exactly a good look on me) but i'm still too small to wear maternity clothes. i can still wear my work pants but can no longer button them (i loop rubber bands instead to keep them together). tops are harder since i don't like the fitted look (note to self: need to buy looser tops, more reason to shop!). i also only wear my kitten heels and flats now.

what else? i'm trying as much as i can to not buy too much baby stuff as this stage since we don't know the gender yet and we don't know what we might get from family and friends. that doesn't keep me from going to the shops though! but if it's on sale, why not? :-P my parents are off to the us in a couple of weeks and i'm already working on a list of stuff i want them to buy (both stuff for the baby and myself of course!). sabi nga ng papa ko, i'm just passing it as stuff for the apo but really it's just for me. my dad knows me too much. :-)

awaiting a miracle

2007-09-05T19:08:00.000+10:00

we got the greatest news early morning (7am to be exact) last august 16, thursday (on the second day of my missed period). we couldn't contain ourselves and immediately called our families to tell them about it with the warning that it has yet to be confirmed by a doctor. everyone was so excited for us. we've been married for a little over two and a half years and have been trying for over a year. we even went as far as having ourselves checked and everything was fine. things really do happen in HIS time.

***

august 17 (friday), eric told me to do the test again and it came out with the same result...two pink lines!

***

the first doctor who found out about it (but unfortunately was unable to confirm it) was my cardiologist (i have a congenital heart disease so i've been seeing a cardio eversince i was a kid). i was scheduled to see him before we found out so i told him about our good news but i have yet to meet with my ob which was scheduled the week after. anyway, he sent the results of my 2d-echo to both my gp and ob adding in the report that i could be pregnant.

***

september 2 (sunday), father's day is celebrated in australia during the first sunday in september (mother's day is celebrated with the rest of the world during may, don't ask me why). as soon as i found out about it, i was thinking of telling eric during this day but obviously i couldn't keep it to myself and wait (we couldn't even keep from telling our families!). i had to act fast and think of a very first father's day present for my dear husband and decided on this...

cherish from the willow tree collection

and this...

peter downey's so you're going to be a dad

***

september 5 (today) finally! the day we've been waiting for. met with my ob today and she knew about it based on the report from my cardiologist. i told her that she really really have to confirm either by ultrasound or bloodtest and we're not just hallucinating about it since i haven't been experiencing any pregnancy symptons like morning sickness, etc. (i know i shouldn't be asking for it but then when we found out i just wanted confirmation that it is really true!). it was a good thing that she has her own machine inside her clinic and we saw our beanie baby and the heart beating! we definitely are expecting! we're now on our 7th week and our baby is due on april 21 (mid-late april).

i'm now waiting for the husband to arrive so we can go through the folder the ob gave us that has everything that we need to do during the pregnancy. it has everything you can think of! the schedule on when to visit her again, the scans, the screens and the tests we need to go through and when, even the referral to have the delivery at the san where we decided to give birth (which by the way we have to do now, imagine that!), information regarding excercise during pregnancy, pain relief during childbirth, caesarean section (just in case, you can't plan a c-section here since they really promote natural childbirth) as well as instrument-assisted delivery. she also provided us with a brief description of her fees and charges (what's included in it, what's not, how much you can claim towards medicare, how much it would cost you out-of-pocket, when is it payable, etc.).

before meeting her, eric wasn't sold yet to have her as our obstetrician since she was both an obstetrician and a gynecologist (which apparently is not a norm here unlike in manila), she was female (yup, majority of ob here are male, so females supposedly charge higher) and she was also a fertility specialist connected with sydney ivf. but after meeting her and seeing how much she charges upfront, eric seems to be happy to stay with her.

since it's now official, i told my close friends (and blogged about it!) which is such a relief since we've been keeping it to ourselves for two weeks now (not an easy feat!). good news are always meant to be announced if i say so myself. :-)

now time to to start saving for that bugaboo...

caught in mcnaught

2007-07-23T14:28:00.000+10:00

while everyone else is busy reading their copy of deathly hallows (i was amazed by the queue in borders last saturday, if only they knew that target has shelves and shelves of the book displayed and available...), i was busy finishing my judith mcnaught every breath you take.

i was so caught up with the story that i woke up in the middle of the night last night and had to read a couple more chapters before going back to sleep and even called in sick today just to finish it (well that and some other reason...right). i was just too engrossed especially mcnaught had matthew and meredith from paradise as well as zack and julie of perfect in the story as well (i enjoyed paradise so much that i considered naming our daughter meredith until grey's anatomy came along...).

what can i say except that i'm a sucker for romance and happy endings.

more then meets the eye

2007-07-11T20:00:00.000+10:00

watched the movie with the husband last night (tuesday is movie day). i have to admit it was pretty good. not only did i enjoy watching it but i also enjoyed watching my husband be transformed back to the kid he was.

by the way, josh duhamel is way up there on my list now together with wentworth miller.

no day but today

2007-05-09T19:58:00.000+10:00

forget regret, or life is yours to miss...

i don't think there is a musical that affected me the way that rent has (there was the lion king show in broadway which brought me to tears during the opening but it was more on relief that i got to watch the show after waiting for hours in line to get in) .

i got to watch the show in manila when eric and i were still dating,that was around 2001...about six years ago. i don't think we were even officially boyfriend-girlfriend back then.

anyway, the husband has a copy of the soundtrack and we would play it in the car every now and then. that's why seasons of love became one of our fave songs (we even included it in our wedding vid and prior that has been my signature ringtone that no one seems to recognize).

when i was in new york back in 2004 i was deciding on watching the lion king or rent in broadway but since i already watched the rent production in manila and have been wanting to watch the lionking in westend since 2003, i decided to just go and see the lion king (which by the way is a spectacular production).

when rent the movie came out last year, eric was so excited but i don't think it reached the cinemas in sydney so we just waited for it to be available in our friendly neighborhood blockbuster. a couple of months ago, we did just that. eric and i couldn't help but sing while watching the movie! i don't know why but the musical seemed to have affected me in some way after that. i have this need now to watch it again on stage and i'd constantly listen to the soundtrack on my way to work.

if you haven't seen it, i suggest you head out to your nearest video rental shop and rent it, literally.

***click here for trailers and clips***

ps. i have been wanting to blog about this since after watching the movie but never got around in doing just that. thanks to liv for inspiring me to blog about my rent experience.

my drink of choice

2007-05-07T20:03:00.000+10:00

as far as i can remember, i've always been a baileys drinker (i never really learned to like beer, which make night outs quite expensive for me or my dates). sure, i occasionaly drink smirnoff mule (which unfortunately isn't available in australia), archers spri (an aussie find, watermelon for me!), gin & tonic (bombay sapphire please, thanks to a certain welsh friend of mine), tequila, wine or jagerbombs (another aussie discovery which i brought back to manila) but baileys would always be my comfort drink.

guess what the husband brought me from the liquor store tonight...

and it's on sale too! 2 for $50 from liquorland!

i know that baileys recently released a couple of new ranges, baileys with a hint of mint and baileys with a hint of caramel. i haven't tried them yet but from what i hear, the original one is still the best.

what's your drink of choice?

road trip to ancient egypt

2007-02-26T14:43:00.000+11:00

yesterday, eric and i found ourselves driving all the way from sydney to canberra (three hours one-way) to visit the national gallery of australia who has an exhibit on egyptian antiquities from the louvre (last day was yesterday so it was either that or go to louvre to the view the collection, we decided at this time it was more practical to drive to canberra :-P). since it was the last day, there were a lot of people in the exhibit starting from the queue to get the tickets (entrance is free in the gallery but you have to pay for the special exhibits) all the way to the actual exhibit itself. it started with a short film showing about what the exhibit is all about with an introduction from the director of the louvre museum himself. the exhibit was entitled: egyptian antiquities: journey to the afterlife. so it pretty much showed how the entire civilization of ancient egypt was based on religion and their belief in the rebirth after death. once inside, it was just amazing seeing all these artifacts from that time (photography wasn’t allowed so just take my word for it :-P). there were a lot of statues of their gods, plaques, chests, jars, amulets and some papyrus on display but the highlight of the exhibit was the actual coffins of mummies, some made from wood and some made from stone. the details on these coffins were just unbelievable. i can’t imagine the time and effort put into make these (not to mention the technology available of doing it at that time).

some facts about the exhibit:

* over two hundred objects went on show in an exhibition of egyptian antiquities from the musee du louvre in paris
* the first exhibition the louvre has sent to australia in nearly two decades
* many of the works are drawn from the permanent display of egyptian antiquities at the louvre, while others have never been on public display
* the egyptian collection is the second most visited collection at the louvre in paris, only being surpassed by the mona lisa
* the national gallery of australia in canberra will be the first gallery to display this magnificent collection.

going around the exhibit for a couple of hours sure made us hungry so we took this opportunity to pass by our favorite resto in canberra, belucci’s, to feast on some real good salad, pasta, risotto and panacotta before heading back home.

dive number six: shelly beach, manly

2007-02-24T18:26:00.000+11:00

just came from a dive trip in shelly beach, our best dive so far. visibility and temperature was good. the weather was perfect as forecasted. we saw eastern blue groupers (as big as half of my body), cuttlefish, squid, rays and two port jackson sharks (a little shorter than me) in addition to the various fishes we've seen (which i can't identify). we also found a wreck motorcycle while going around the area. an underwater digital camera to capture all these would be good...but i think at this point we need to invest in a wetsuit before the underwater camera...

here's a little something about diving in shelly beach which i got from dive centre manly:

"the only beach on the entire east coast of australia to face west, shelly beach occupies a scenic comer of manly's ocean beachfront. white sand and a natural reef of tumbled boulders and rocks descending to a maximum depth of 14 metres have made this one of sydney's premier shore diving sites. the marine life includes regular sightings of wobbegongs and port jackson sharks, huge eastern blue grouper, wrasse, painted shrimps, octopus, cuttlefish, squid, long fin banner fish, globe fish, blennys', and much, much more. for beginners and experienced divers alike an escorted, dive centre manly, shelly beach discovery dive is an experience that will long be remembered."

diving my life away

2007-02-20T16:03:00.000+11:00

i am autumn and i am a padi certified open water diver.

i never considered myself to be adventurous. but eric's persistence not to mention being influenced by my papa and ate dawn and marian (who are all divers in our family) made me go through the hell i had to endure during the australia day long weekend last january 26-28.

so there i was, on our first day of our open water diver certification, lugging my colorful polka dots jansport duffel in chowder bay, mosman with my brand spanking new mask, snorkel and booties (you were required to have these at least, everything else you can rent) filled with thoughts on how good this long weekend will be, or so i thought.

you will NEVER realize how heavy the gears are until you have them strapped to your body (i have this love-hate relationship with my cylinder). when we went to bohol after christmas (yes, eric and i were able to spend the christmas holidays in manila...more on that on a different post), my papa and sisters went diving and ALL they have to do was wiggle their way in their wetsuits and hop on the boat. NOT IN SYDNEY. you do pretty much everything by yourself. i was telling my ate that kulang na lang they make us fill the cylinder with air! i was also expecting the confined water dives will be in a pool but not with plunge diving, confined water dives are actually in the shallow part of the bay which made the lessons more challenging (you have the current to work with). in addition, ALL our dives were shore entry dives not the boat dives you normally see where the diver just jumps off the boat. so imagine lugging all the equipment with you from the dive centre to the bay. i tell you, when i woke up the next day, my body was aching all over.

it definitely was a pretty intense weekend. lessons usually run for two weekends in a row. ours was three whole days in a row! we were there in chowder bay at 8:30am and lessons would finish at around 5:30-6:00pm. imagine that! it was a combination of classroom sessions and confined water and open water dives with quizzes and exams (by the way, eric and i both got 100% on the final written exam :-P).

i was in constant communication with my ate updating her on how the lessons were going and she told me na puro reklamo daw ako. don't i have any good thing to say about my experience? all i can say is that on the last day, AM GLAD I DID IT. it definitely was an achievement for me. on the first day all i can say to myself was, what was i thinking? what did i get myself into? but they were right, it does get better. the second day was better than the first and the third day was better than the second.

we have been told that diving in tropical waters can never be compared to diving in sydney. but i was already in awe when i saw a puffer fish, a big crab, a seahorse, a ray and the highlight of my diving career so far, a fairy penguin when i was underwater in chowder bay. i can just imagine how wonderful it will be to go diving in queensland and conquer the great barrier reef (which we are already planning) not to mention going to all these amazing dive sites in the philippines on our next trip back.

was it worth it? it definitely was.

what made the experience more special was the fact that eric and i were in this together.

we have been back to chowder bay for a guided trip. this time, no more lessons, no more quizzes nor exams. just enjoyable diving.

who knows where we'll find ourselves diving next? the sea's the limit...

alive!

2007-02-20T15:38:00.000+11:00

am alive (in case you're wondering)!!!

been away from the wonderful world of blogging for too long. will start by updating my links first and then keep you posted on what i've been up to the past couple of months.

what do you do?

2006-10-07T15:26:00.000+10:00

what do you do when you realize that a snake is all coiled in your clothes line while you’re hanging your clothes (take note, i was doing my chore for ten whole minutes before i realized that i have company)? freak out and call a snake removalist (yes, there is such profession in australia with all the snakes, spiders, lizards and other creepy crawlies around).

what do you do when the snake removalist decides that the snake in your backyard is JUST a harmless tree snake and hopes that “it will go away the next day”? learn to cohabit with it and lovingly refer to it as snake-y.

it was an extremely exciting thursday night in the dominguez household.

that’s what we get for deciding to live near the bush.

how things have changed

2006-06-21T20:15:00.000+10:00

eric and i are now actively looking for a new front door (i said actively since we've been wanting to change the front door since we moved early this year) for our home since the old one has seen better days (and i want a stained timber front door, not painted like the one we have now!). i sent him a couple of websites of door suppliers in sydney and got this response from him via email:

"hi baby,

sige kuha tayo ng quote from these suppliers...

dati supplier lang ng wedding cake kausap natin...ngayon pintuan naman... "

things have definitely changed!

my dream front door from corinthian...

Reminiscent of mysterious doorways in old world villages where the pace of life is slow and measured, Tuscan doors hint at a special quality of life. Handbeaten steel (black powder coated) in a choice of designs and superbly crafted glass panels are matched with select timber and classic stile and rail construction.

the may that was

2006-06-19T18:20:00.000+10:00

am back!

can't believe that my last entry was april.

so many things have happened last month. will get into the details on separate posts (IF i get the chance to come back to it) but let me list down what has happened:

...in-laws arrived first week of may and stayed for 30 days. they went around australia: new south wales(sydney, hunter valley, terrigal/central coast), australian capital territory (canberra!), queensland (gold coast: read THEME PARKS galore) and victoria (melbourne). masama pa ata loob ng mil ko dahil hindi sya nakapuntang WA, NT and SA. :-)

...my side of the family arrived! everyone came: papa, mama, happy, marian and jolly even tito robert came with them. ate dawn arrived after a couple of weeks. kuya arvi came later and still is here!

...celebrating mother's day with both our mamas here with us! had a picnic at bobbin head with the rest of the family.

...went to bondi (first time!) and then paddy's market with the family.

...we got our day bed with matching armchairs pa! in time for the house blessing. you have no idea how much time we spent looking for that perfect sofa in our living room. kaya i decided to mention this as an "event" for may.

...had my hair cut! would you believe that it was my first time since i moved to australia? we're talking almost one and a half years ago! since mama arrived, she kept on bugging me to get my hair cut. if not, she'll cut my hair daw. i closed my eyes na lang when i handed my atm to pay for it. a php800 haircut in propaganda doesn't seem to be expensive after all.

...we finally had our house blessing when everyone was here. that was may 27, ate dawn arrived that day and then my in-laws are leaving the next day so it was a welcome gathering for ate dawn and despedida for my in-laws. not to mention marian's 20th birthday as well. sulit na sulit ang handa!

...i was on leave every friday since my family arrived and then took a week off when ate dawn arrived since we'll be doing the out of towns then. sunday, we went to canberra with the entire alarcon gang. monday-tuesday, went to blue mountains - echo point and then scenic world. went inside chifley cave at jenolan (first time again!) after and stayed overnight at the cottage of the jenolan caves house. went inside orient cave the day after. before heading back home, we passed by featherdale wildlife park(another first for me!) to see koalas and kangaroos and other native australian animals. we then proceeded to tito reggie's house to have dinner with them.

...everyone went back to manila that thursday except ate dawn and tito robert. ate dawn and i went around the city (after bringing them to the airport that morning). we went for a tour in the sydney opera house and then walked around the city (circular quay side). after that, we met with jen and then took the ferry to manly where we met with aris. it was so cold that night!

...friday, city (this time we went to the darling harbour side) again with ate dawn. met with eric (who came directly from the airport), jen and aris and leah and tim at the famous pancake on the rocks (sabi nga namin ni jen it's another tourist destination in the city!). after that, we decided to have a karaoke session at home (thanks for the magic sing pasalubong of papa and mama to us) till the wee hours of the morning. everyone decided to sleepover since everyone was pretty much drunk!

...saturday morning had breakfast at pie in the sky and then off to sydney olympic park and then dfo for some shopping! we then proceeded to bondi to have dinner at hog's breath cafe.

...although this happened just this month, it's worth mentioning that i pumped gas in the rav for the FIRST TIME in my life. easy lang pala...hehehehehehehehe :-)

*will update this entry with more links and pics when i get the chance. till then...

100 things to do in australia before you die

2006-04-27T20:39:00.000+10:00

australian traveller's latest issue is about the 100 things to do in australia before you die. let's see how much we've done since our move to sydney more than a year ago...

001 - Overload your senses
002 - Dive into the GBR - ooohhh, would love to do this next!
003 - Find freedom on the Big Lap
004 - Visit the remarkable pebble
005 - Climb the Coathanger - DONE
006 - Cruise the Kimberleys
007 - Visit Ningaloo Reef
008 - Explore Sydney Harbour - DONE
009 - Drive along a 75-mile beach
010 - Drive the Great Ocean Road - DONE
011 - Our oldest living museum
012 - Sail the Whitsundays
013 - Time’s nearly up at the Top
014 - Go Walkabout
015 - Take in an Opera at the House - DONE, it was a concert though not an opera...not sure if that counts
016 - Visit the home of Aussie Rules
017 - Go bush for a week
018 - Spy a platypus in the wild - DONE, visited platypus house in tassie so it wasn't in the wild, does that count?
019 - Conquer the Gibb River Road
020 - Peak at Cradle Mountain - DONE
021 - Be the Man From Snowy River
022 - Stay at a great Aussie Pub
023 - Swim with Dolphins
024 - See an Indian Ocean sunset
025 - Have a whale of a time
026 - Paddle the mighty Murray
027 - Meander the Katherine Gorge
028 - See the oldest art in the world
029 - Explore the Flinders Ranges
030 - Rediscover Mungo Man
031 - Follow the Nullarbor
032 - Do some time at Port Arthur - will definitely visit on our next trip to tassie
033 - Venture into Arnhem Land
034 - Shed an ANZAC tear at dawn
035 - Catch the sun’s first rays
036 - Take a rest on Lord Howe
037 - Parade with the penguins - DONE
038 - Noodle for opals
039 - Have a flutter at Flemington
040 - Explore the nation’s capital - DONE, have been to canberra twice but am sure there's more to see
041 - Take a Cable Beach camel ride
042 - Experience a waterless regatta
043 - Line the streets for Mardi Gras - i missed it this year! would have wanted to see it...
044 - Bound over to Kanga Island
045 - Play with the Devil’s Marbles
046 - Magnificent Macquarie Harbour
047 - Betting at Birdsville
048 - Board our Great Train Journey
049 - Get a raw hide
050 - Visit the Green Room
051 - Visit Australia’s Bay of Fires - was on our agenda when we went to tassie but too far from where we were!
052 - Walk the line at Kings Canyon
053 - Ride the world’s steepest railway - DONE
054 - Walk Our Greatest Bushwalk - i wouldn't say done but at least i tried for a couple of miles!
055 - Grab a seat at the Slam
056 - See the sculptures at sunset
057 - March with 100 million crabs
058 - Wipe out or win through
059 - Cook a barbie on the beach
060 - Retrace our tragic Great Race
061 - Trek the Larapinta
062 - Go on an Aussie safari
063 - Dine on Gourmet Island
064 - Sip from the big Wineglass
065 - Immerse yourself in Europe
066 - Catch a barra at Lake Awoonga
067 - Stand at Eureka Stockade
068 - Fire up with sugar cane
069 - Get country in Tamworth
070 - See Florences spell
071 - Sun yourself with seals
072 - Perouse Botany Bay
073 - Ride round Rotto
074 - Soar into Seven Spirit Bay
075 - Feel like fish bait
076 - Savour Margaret's wine
077 - Have lunch with a croc
078 - Retrace old tin head
079 - Watch native surfing
080 - Wind through the Tablelands
081 - Pad up with Bradman
082 - Take a long reach back
083 - Eat crayfish on Thursday
084 - Dance with the Devil
085 - See the wildlife on Bondi
086 - Follow the French Line
087 - Navigate the Yarra Valley - DONE
088 - Bathurst Island Footy Final
089 - Ooze along a lava tube
090 - Play captain on the Hawkesbury
091 - Relive Sydney’s Olympic history - DONE
092 - Hang out at Old Melbourne Gaol
093 - Drive the Savannah Way
094 - Oysters at Constitution Dock
095 - Explore our maritime history
096 - Pinch yourself at the Pinnacles
097 - Shelter at Mawson’s Huts
098 - Go uderground at Mount Isa 099 - Be Manly on the Beach
100 - Shop till you drop in Melbourne - DONE (should be IN PROGRESS! hehehehehehe :-P), i did shop in melbourne's famous bridge road but i wouldn't say i shopped till i dropped!

12 1/2 (1/2 since i only walked about a fourth around dove lake which is at the foot of cradle mountain, where the bushwalk starts) out of 100! not bad ey?

blue room or green room

2006-04-26T19:51:00.000+10:00

haven't blogged for quite a while since i've been busy with work the past month (not to mention that our home computer has been useless the past couple of weeks since it won't start).

in addition to work, what's keeping us busy (and it took up most of the time off we got during the easter and anzac holidays) is that in just three days my in-laws are arriving from manila! eric and i have been busy painting (okay, it was just eric doing the painting this time), arranging the furniture and fixing the guest rooms and bathroom.

it's a good thing that we started buying linens (think bed sheets, quilts, quilt covers, pillows, and towels) last year (during sales of course) so we only had to worry about buying the beds (we decided on getting trundle beds so it would be save space) and the beside tables (both courtesy of ebay) as well as the mattresses and lamps this year.

we painted the guest rooms cottonwool blue and garden pond (which were just leftover paints).

not bad right? so, which guest room do you prefer to stay in?

loving stevie

2006-03-22T20:11:00.000+11:00

i just got my christmas present from pete and sarah (it has always been with them but we never got the chance to get it).

i did tell them that i wanted this when they asked what present i want (kapal i know but at least i got what i want!).

can't help but join stevie singing while listening to it!

ps. too bad his song "isn't she lovely" wasn't included.

back in the game

2006-03-17T15:48:00.000+11:00

after 87 domestic goddess days (that's counting weekends and holidays), i'm back to the workforce this time with toshiba.

my headhunter just confirmed with me this morning that i have to report to work on monday next week. i applied for the position last monday, got a call for an interview on tuesday, went to the office of the headhunter on wednesday, client conducted a phone interview yesterday and here i am ready to report for work on monday. ang bilis ng mga pangyayari!

i was working with another headhunter who got me an interview with my previous company (haven't i had enough of ibm?) last week who requested for a second interview for next week. since the rate and terms are the same, i decided based on the work being offered. and besides, it took ibm longer to make a decision, so sorry na lang sila.

and there's this other headhunter (i don't think there's any law that you have to work with only one) who keeps on telling me about positions available with their clients who are willing to pay very good rate but never got me an actual interview with any of them.

talaga nga naman, when it rains it pours.

i've been looking for work since february but only seriously and actively looking for one two weeks ago. now that our home is slowly taking shape (one guest room and the guest bathroom left to be painted!), i realized that i need to help eric with the finances especially if we plan on putting anything in our living room, dining room and guest rooms.

i hope it works this time. i just want to be happy with what i'm doing and with the people am working with. is that asking for too much?

when i told eric about my new work next week, he said "o, wag mong tatarayan yung mga officemates mo sa toshiba ah." :-P

not guilty

2006-03-16T15:23:00.000+11:00

i was running errands this morning when i decided to pass by a furniture shop near the station before heading home to check out tallboys (i badly need one for our room and the matching tallboy of our bedroom suite is no longer available :-<). i spent a little over 30 minutes in the shop looking at furniture when i found these on my car's windshield...

kainis! i parked near a post that has a loading zone sign on the left and a permissive parking sign on the right (beside each other that is, so IN CASE i broke the law it was just because i was confused with the signs :-P) . i'm pretty sure i checked before getting out of the car if it was okay to park where i did and upon checking the signs, i felt it was all okay. when i left, there was even a car parked in front and behind me! since i can't believe i was fined for parking there, i drove back to the area to read the sign again and still was convinced that i didn't break any law!

i need to pay au$125 (that's a little less than php5k!!!) which i'll be getting from my tallboy fund. :-(

i thought of not telling eric about it but since i still can't over the fact that i was issued a ticket, i need to bring him to the exact spot where i parked a while ago when we go back to the furniture shop later this afternoon after picking him up from the train station (that is if he's still interested to look at tallboys with me).

i'm thinking if it will be worth to elect having this matter heard at court or if i'll just charge it to experience.

i'm still sticking to my not quilty plea.

one of the reasons why i love to watch oprah

2006-03-09T13:42:00.000+11:00

in addition to his genius ideas to decorate and transform a room...he's cute too. :-) he's even got his own nate berkus collection at linens-n-things.

can't wait to get my hands on his book!

congratulations tyrone & girlie!

2006-03-08T10:46:00.000+11:00

*in london with girlie girl (2003)

my ex-officemate, girlie, got married last weekend to her longtime boyfriend, tyrone. pictures of their wedding taken by dino lara can be seen here. how i wish we could be there...

tribung ALARCON

2006-03-07T14:27:00.000+11:00

you have no idea how clan-ish the alarcons can be.

my papa has 5 brothers and 1 sister, all are married, and between them have 23 children. imagine how big our get togethers can get. this doesn't include in-laws and grandchildren yet.

i remember my mama would always say "mga alarcon pa lang, party na".

heck, we even have our own alarcon yahoogroup and tribung ALARCON website. the men in our family ALL enjoy riding their big bikes, tinkering their cars or shooting guns...and they do it together.

imagine growing up with crazy uncles and aunt...

*during kuya arvi & ate michelle's wedding 12-oct-02 (missing tito boy)

poor eric...when the family (and i mean the whole clan) first met him, my titos and cousins messed with him, he was teased and taunted to the bone. it was a test (if he can manage a lifetime of that), and he survived it. out of the 23 cousins, only 6 are married (for now) and i was the second female cousin to tie the knot. when i got married, the alarcon side of our family were kidding that eric should have been the one to change his surname to alarcon than me changing my surname to dominguez as he was more alarcon-ized that me dominguez-ed.

i miss my family back in manila. but home now is where eric is.

*during our wedding 11-dec-04 (missing tito reggie & family)

next to you - our onsite wedding video

2006-03-03T09:35:00.000+11:00

eversince our wedding, i've been wanting to post our avp and onsite online so our family and friends (esp those who weren't able to attend) can view it. i was so excited to discover google video and somehow managed to rip the dvd copy of our onsite to a file that it will accept (unfortunately, the trial ripper program i was able to download has a cap of 5 mins running time so i was only able to work on the onsite which was okay for now).

anyway, our onsite video is now live in google video but i can't seem to run the video that's embedded on my blog! aaarrrggghhh!!! i emailed google video support already and did what i was told but still can't seem to get our video running.

so i'll just direct you to the link where you can view our onsite wedding video. credit goes to jason magbanua's team who shot the video.
*it's best to pause the video until the entire stream is downloaded before playing it

a little (long?) background, the song being played is our theme song (cheesy i know, but it is OUR song). not a lot of people know it since it's an old song (panahon ni eric as i'd always say) which is good so it wouldn't be so baduy and overused. i still remember the day when HE decided it will be our song. we were still dating then and he was bringing me back to my house after our date when i decided we should drive a little bit more so we could be together for a while (i was enjoying his company). we ended up just driving round and around quezon memorial circle when the song was played in his car radio (his 105.1 crossover presents unwind II another classic crossover collection cd was playing *track 9*) and he said, "this is my song to you". so when we were planning for our wedding, it was non-negotiable that this song be played for our onsite video. i even had to burn a copy for jason since i wasn't sure if they could get hold of a copy of this song!

next to you
dan siegel

if i had me a bag of good wishes
there's no mystery to what i would do
i would use all my magical powers
and try to get next to you

i would bring you a field of flowers
as your lucky star would do
with my heart i would paint you a rainbow
if i could get next to you

there's so much we can share
however far too long

we both know that there's so much here
this is where i belong

late at night when i close my eyes
make believin' that you are here
dreamin' of the things we do
if i could get next to you

in my mind, ooh ooh, i have kissed you
and it feels like a thousand times
i'd lose track of all the hours
dreamin' i'm next to you

this is where i belong

late at night when i close my eyes
make believin' that you are here
dreamin' of the things we do
if i could get next to you

in my mind, ooh ooh, i have kissed you
and it feels like a thousand times
i'd lose track of all the hours
wishing and hoping
that I could get next to you

a simple civil celebration

2006-02-22T11:13:00.000+11:00

my cousin aris and my newly official cousin-in-law jen celebrated their civil wedding on their first year anniversary as a couple. they had a simple ceremony at the celebrant's home (attended by their immediate families) and had a simple celebration after at kuya dennis' home in baulkham. we had roast pork and beef and salad to feast on that day. the titas and titos and some cousins, not to mention my husband, played mahjong the entire time. as per the bride's request, almost everyone wore white with jeans, except moi who came in a pink top (knowing that the bride's fave color is pink). we had them do a cake cutting ceremony but declined our request to feed each other with cake. oh well, at least they did the cake cutting...

jen's mom came over from the philippines to witness her only daughter tie the knot with my cousin while jen's cousin who is working in the hayman islands flew to sydney to be with jen during this time (she needs all the support she can get...hahahahahahahahaha :-P).

they'll be having their church wedding on july 21 in manila (reason for us to be in the philippines!!!). ceremony to be held at santuario de san antonio while reception will be at the manila polo club.

goodbye unit, welcome home

2006-02-22T10:42:00.000+11:00

last thursday, we picked up the last few remaining items left in the unit. we made sure that we left the place in a state pretty much the same as when we got it last august 2004. it has been our home for a little over a year. the unit welcomed three visitors from the philippines who stayed with us during their visit to sydney and hosted countless beerfest between eric and aris.

as what they would say (with me making changes to it), when a unit closes...

7/10 albert st., hornsby nsw 2077

a home opens.

35 foxglove road, mount colah nsw 2079

hooked on ellen

2006-02-15T12:19:00.000+11:00

i chanced upon the show just yesterday...

and i was laughing all throughout.

she's just so funny. she even dances impromptu in the middle of her show.

her guest today is sean hayes who plays jack mcfarland in will and grace. can you imagine just how hilarious they are together?

benvenuto a turin!

2006-02-11T08:50:00.000+11:00

i opened the telly as soon as i woke up to watch the opening of the 2006 winter olympics being held at turin, italy. i remember from last night's news that it was to start at 5:30am sydney time.

we were able to catch a group of women (with susan sarandon and sophia loren in it) carrying the olympic flag, to the singing of the national anthem of the olympics and italy, to yoko ono opening the performance of genesis founder singing "imagine", to the acrobats, to the lighting of the olympic torch, to the athlethes and judges taking their oath, to pavarotti singing and catching the "sparks of passion" (choreographed exhibition on skates, in which eight ice hockey athletes will race at 50 km an hour inside the stadio olimpico. the uniqueness of this exhibition is also guaranteed due to the sparks of passion, generating red flames 2 metres long).

it was amazing.

how we wish we could be there. how we wish we were already here in sydney during the 2000 olympics.

some facts:

the olympic ceremonies will be followed by 35 thousand spectators at the stadio olimpico and by approximately 2 billion television spectators the world wide.

some of the logistics for the ceremonies:

6,100 volunteers and 240 professionals
15,000 days of work
100,000 meals
6,100 scene costumes during the two shows (opening and closing ceremonies)
500 pairs of skates
32 television cameras present at the stadio
4,000 m² of stage purposely designed
10,000 m² of back stage
more than 150 lorries to transport the stage, structures, lights, audio, and special effects
more than 100 km of cables

more pics of the opening ceremony here.

generous love, generous cooking

2006-01-27T13:43:00.000+11:00

according to eric, this was la germania's jingle (probably during his time...80's) with tina revilla as the endorser. hehehehehehehe :-)

i have been given the task to choose the appliances for our kitchen: cooktop, oven and rangehood. have you been to any appliance center lately? there are heaps of kitchen appliances to choose from! i know from the start that i want a gas cooktop and an electric oven. eric wanted a glass canopy rangehood. so that somehow narrowed down our choices. we have a budget we're working on so that too helped (goodbye miele and smeg!).

we need to have these appliances soon as our kitchen cabinets will be fitted based on the measurements of the appliances.

we're now seriously considering getting the la germania P680TX 600mm gas cooktop and F669D4X 600mm built-in oven. as for the canopy rangehood, we're thinking of a goldenhood C-900FG filtration canopy rangehood.

stainless steel finish

4 gas burners including 1 small, 2 medium and triple ring wok burner

heavy gauge matt finish burner caps

automatic ignition

easy clean one piece sealed hob

heavy duty cast iron trivets

front controls

60 litre electric oven

programmable, multifunction oven with 7 settings: conventional, fan forced, inner grill, fan grill, fan assisted, lower element with fan and oven light

defrost capability

closed door grilling

digital programmer

catalytic self cleaning oven liners

cooling fan

stainless steel finish

w900 x d500 x max height:880 mm
direct exhausting centrifugal fan
airflow 660m/hr
Ø150mm top venting
2 halogen lamps
2 aluminium mesh filters & grease collector
stainless steel

electronic switch controls

we're leaning towards a la germania since i was told by the salesman at one of the appliance centers that i went to that's it's better than other brands within our price range (eg. westinghouse) since it's a european brand and european made. i also mentioned to eric that our upright cooker at home in the philippines is a la germania and we had it eversince (we never changed upright cookers and my mama cooks and bakes a lot with it). eric checked with mommy what their cooker is at home and what do you know, it's a la germania as well! not only that, my sister-in-law's cooker at home is a la germania too! we therefore conclude that la germania is the official pinoy cooker. the 80's ad then has been very effective...

home improvement diary2

2006-01-27T12:43:00.000+11:00

january 24

moved some stuff (mostly books, files and pictures) when eric arrived from work. we went back and forth thrice.

january 25

tito rod accompanied us to bunnings in thornleigh to buy all the painting materials that we need. we decided on dulux garden pond (green), arctic daisy (yellow) and blue oar (blue).

january 26

australia day was spent preparing and painting the master's bedroom and study. tito rod was in charge of filling the holes and gaps while eric and aris were painting the ceiling. i, on the other hand, was in charge of painting the wooden frames of the windows and doors with varnish (using wattyl gloss stain and varnish in teak).

we had problems with the ceiling in the master's bedroom as the paint seem to peel when it dries. i think it has something to do with the old paint so we might have to strip the ceiling first before applying the dulux white ceiling paint.

home improvement diary

2006-01-24T07:39:00.000+11:00

january 19

lalit called to say to meet him at 8:30pm in front of the house so we could get the house keys. arrived around 10 minutes after 8:30pm and waited 30 minutes but no lalit seen. we even dragged tito rod and tita bebs to "witness" us getting the house keys and access to our very own home. went home disappointed...

* later that night, lalit called and said that he was there at 8:30pm but left when we didn't arrive at the agreed time. he couldn't reach us (and we couldn't reach him!) since he left his mobile at home.

january 20

met with lalit at 7:30am to have a walk-through inspection of the house. we didn't get the keys though. later that afternoon, i got the keys from caldecott & williams, our solicitor managing the sale for us. before eric arrived from work, i went shopping for every imaginable disinfectant (must be hospital-grade!), cleanser, deodorizer, sanitizer, insecticide, scrub, sponge and sweeper. that night we gave the entire inside of the house a good sweep and took down all the curtains with the help of aris and jen.

* we had about six garbage bags full of curtains!

january 21

i worked on the entrance hallway of the house, garage and patio while eric cleaned the laundry area and the bathrooms. our lg washer/dryer was delivered later that afternoon, just in time for the newly scrubbed laundry area. we "bombed" the entire house to get rid of insects. went home with my body aching all over...

*i'm just not used to all these manual labor! oh well, time to get used to it now i guess...by the way, "bombing" is a diy pest control.

january 22

heard mass at 8am so we could start working on the house early. passed by kitchen connection to request a quote for a new kitchen. tito rod and tita bebs helped us clean today. we started with the master's bedroom and then moved to the study. tita bebs and i were assigned to windows and blinds duty while tito rod and eric were assigned to inside cabinets, walls and ceilings duty. aris and jen dropped by so i took advantage for aris to change all the bulbs around the house.

* i hate yellow lighting so i'm partial to philips compact fluorescent lamp in cool daylight.

january 23

met with kitchen connection's design specialist at 6pm in our home (feels good to write!). we decided on their sierra traditional range but we're thinking of getting the appliances (built-in gas cooktop, built-in fan forced electric wall oven and a ducted canopy) someplace else (they carry their own brand but we want a more well-known, established brand). would you believe the meeting ended at 9pm? i was impressed by how the design specialist presented to us our new proposed kitchen. first, he measured the cabinets, appliances and benchtops. next, he took out his laptop and entered the measurements in the kitchen renovation program indicating the style and layout that we wanted and with a click of a button we were able to see (in different angles!) what our new proposed kithcen will be like. what dragged the meeting was we couldn't agree on the cost of the renovation. he threw at us all kinds of discounts, freebis and promo just so we'd sign a contract then and there and pay 10% deposit. we eventually did only because of the cooling-off period building law in nsw which gives us the right to get our deposit back in 5 working days if we decide not to push through with the job. we will be meeting with another kitchen renovator later this week and then we'll be deciding early next week whom we'll getting to do the job. assuming that they could start next week, our new kitchen will be ready by end of february.

* eric and i dream of a miele or a smeg but it's way beyond our budget. what's a good brand of cooktop, oven and canopy?

fixated on a dining set

2006-01-16T13:50:00.000+11:00

am currently wishing to be the proud owner of this brand new solid mahogany 7-pc dining set from ebay.

we're just counting days before we become homeowners and perhaps a couple of weeks before we move in to our very own home and one of the things that we need to buy is a dining set. eric and i decided that we're going to invest in a dining set since it's something that our family will use for years (our dining set at home in the phils is actually the same dining set my mama's family used). this is the second time this dining set has been put up in ebay and am taking this as a sign that this is meant for us. :-) we wanted a dark wood dining set that can seat at least six with clean and simple lines (no intricate carving) so this is just perfect (our bed also has the same vertical lines). eric originally wanted a square table but we're not sure if it would fit our dining area.

here's the description from the seller: "Beautiful new - very chic, very modern, very solid - Dining Table +6 Chairs in a rich mahogany tone. The table measures 1600mm x900mm and is 75cm high.

The recommended retail price for this solid mahogany set is $1599 but we will be selling this item at a WHOLESALE PRICE of only $899!!! GST inclusive."

i hope my dear husband will let me bid on this. only 4 days and 10 hours bidding time left as i write this!

bargain hunters

2006-01-16T13:14:00.000+11:00

last saturday morning, aris, jen, eric and myself went around north shore to visit garage sales and thrift shops. we were able to pick up a few items: corning ware 6-cup cornflower blue teapot with infuser for $8, two handmade quilts that can be converted to a throw pillow for $10/each, a number of pyrex serving dishes and a glass cheese board for $1-$2/each, spoon rest for $1 and the best hunt of all, a weber kettle charcoal barbecue grill in red for $20 (which retails for a couple of hundred dollars).

christmas holiday 2005

2006-01-16T10:47:00.000+11:00

december 22 last day with ibm. 6-month contract should have ended december 30 but since they declared operations shutdown from december 26 - january 6, my last day should have been december 23.

december 23 flew to tasmania via jetstar (budget airline of qantas). we didn't know there were no seats alloted and it was first come first served so eric and i ended up not seating together on the flight (lesson learned: when taking jet star be at the gate early!). drove to cradle mountain upon arriving in launceston airport. i was pretty tensed all throughout the trip since it was getting dark already, drizzling and we don't know if we'll make it to cradle mountain. i tell you, the way there was pretty deserted so what if the car broke down or we got lost? saw a number of wildlife (both alive and roadkill) on our way. arrived at cradle mountain wilderness village around 11pm. we were both pretty hungry but we couldn't find any open place where we could grab a bite. did i mention it was freezing in cradle mountain? we weren't prepared for the cold weather since it was pretty warm in sydney and launceston.

december 24 since it was raining, we decided to just drive around the surrounding area of cardle mountain. had brunch at quolls in cradle mountain chateau before heading to house of anvers, a chocolate factory in latrobe.

we just spent the entire day going around the small town of davenport and then heard mass at their church there. we headed back to cradle mountain where we had our noche buena of anvers' truffles, smoked cheese and jacob's creek sparking rose.

we also exchanged gifts that night. i got eric a star wars trilogy boxed set while he got me the complete book of modern classics cookbook compiled by the autralian women's weekly that i've been bugging him to get me.

december 25 christmas day since we're heading back to launceston this afternoon, rain or shine we just had to go to dove lake and do a quick walk.

we arrived in launceston late afternoon and checked-in at hatherley house. this is the first time eric and i will be staying at a bed & breakfast type of accomodation and we extremely enjoyed the experience. the mansion has 9 bedrooms with a common kitchen, library, and a verandah that's overlooking the manicured lawn.

the host made arrangements for us to have dinner at the jailhouse grill. we both had steak and salad which was pretty yum.

december 26 went to bridestowe estate lavender farm (i remembered you emi!)

and cataract gorge.

*i'm now inspired to plant lavender and hydrangea in our garden.

we joined the launceston ghost tour that evening, didn't see any ghosts.

december 27 had breakfast at hatherley before visiting the small town of ross and head towards coles bay.

december 28 checked-out from hatherley and visited grindelwald swiss village.

had lunch there before proceeding to beauty point to visit seahorse world

and platypus house

*wasn't able to take pictures of the platypus but i was able this picture, nakikipagunahan si eric sa paghawak sa echidna!

and then off we go to the airport (we want to be early so we could sit together this time :-P). aris and jen picked us up upon arriving in sydney.

december 31 we were at baulkham hills for ate helen's 40th birthday celebration. we just watched the new year's eve fireworks from the tv. so far, the most quiet new year's eve celebration i've ever experienced in my life.

*more pics of our tasmanian holiday here.

five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes

2005-12-14T10:08:00.000+11:00

december 11

seasons of love (from RENT)

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year? in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. in 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? how about love? how about love? how about love? measure in love. seasons of love.

525,600 minutes! 525,000 journeys to plan. 525,600 minutes - how can you measure the life of a woman or man?

in truths that she learned, or in times that he cried.

in bridges he burned, or the way that she died.

it’s time now to sing out, tho the story never ends let's celebrate remember a year in the life of friends. rememberthe love! remember the love! remember the love! measure in love. seasons of love! seasons of love.

it has been five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes since we vowed to be one heart and one soul, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

we woke up around 9:30am that day and decided to have buffet breakfast in shangri-la sydney's cafe mix. eric wanted to give his anniversary present to me first before having breakfast so he gave me a small gold box which contains 18k white gold hoop earrings with ten channel-set round diamonds! of course i immediately tried it on.

i then gave eric my anniversary present which is a gold gift certificate to bridgeclimb (first year anniversary: paper = gift certificate) which i already booked for 5:25pm that day (we have been wanting to do this since we arrived in sydney).

since cafe mix's breakfast buffet is only until 10:30am, we just went down to the cafe and decided to just take a shower after having breakfast. i truly enjoyed the buffet spread since they had bbq pork buns which is one of my yum cha faves. after eating, we proceeded back to our hotel room to take a shower, pack our bags and prepare to check-out.

we then heard mass at st. patrick's in the city. since we still had a couple of hours before we need to check-in for our climb, we grabbed a bite from costi's famous fish cafe which is located at the rocks.

we then proceeded to bridgeclimb reception and then they started with our climb preparation.

Climb Preparation

The BridgeClimb experience begins with a comprehensive briefing and safety demonstration to prepare you for the Climb of Your Life!

Alcohol Breath Test

In the first stage of preparation, Climbers are required to sign a Declaration Form and complete an alcohol breath test. Avoid alcohol before you Climb as a reading of 0.05 or higher will result in non-participation in the Climb and the inability to reschedule.

Bridge Gear

Safety is our number one priority. All Climbers are issued with a specially designed BridgeSuit that is worn straight over the top of the Climber's own clothing. As BridgeClimb operates in all weather, we also issue a BridgeFleece* which is a warm fleecy jacket, Headwear*, BridgeGloves*, WeatherShell* which is a rain jacket and Overpants which are wet weather pants (*dependent on weather conditions). Lanyards are available so Climbers can wear glasses or sunglasses. Climbers at night are also issued with a BridgeLamp to give some extra light when climbing up the arch. These are not unlike those used for caving.

Lockers

As no personal items are permitted on the bridge, Climbers are asked to remove these items and store them in the lockers provided. All Climbers must then pass through a metal detector.

Climb Simulator

A safety harness is also issued to each Climber before starting preparation on the Climb simulator. All Climbers must complete a Climb simulator before embarking onto the bridge itself. BridgeClimb's professionally trained Climb Leaders assess all Climbers on the simulator to ensure they are comfortable with ladder procedures and use of their harness. For the duration of the Climb, all Climbers are attached to a static line on the bridge.

Communications Equipment

Finally, communications equipment is issued to all Climbers, consisting of a radio and comfortable Headset so that you can hear the commentary of your Climb Leader. A professional trained Climb Leader escorts each group of Climbers and provides a full commentary on the history of the Harbour Bridge as well as interesting facts on Sydney.

You are now ready for 'The Climb of Your Life' and the breathtaking view that lies before you as you scale to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

after the preparation, our group (there were ten climbers (four couples plus a father and son tandem> plus lisa, our climb leader) then proceeded to the bridge entrance and then followed the catwalks to the pylon. we then walked through the pylon and out onto the catwalk above water. next, we climbed the ladders to the eastern arch of the bridge which for me was the most hard and scary part of the climb (imagine really steep metal steps). last part to reach the summit was to climb the eastern arch which gave us spectacular and breathtaking 360 degree view of one of the greatest harbours in the world.

The View

The exhilaration and personal satisfaction achieved by reaching the top of the Bridge is rewarded by the breathtaking view that lies before you as you scale up the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Spending approximately two hours on the bridge itself, Climbers weave through catwalks, up ladders and then to the most spectacular point of all - the upper arch Climb. At this point Climbers not only have a birds eye view of the beautiful Sydney Harbour and city, but have the exhilaration of a truly rewarding experience of reaching the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

At night, the city lights glimmer and reflect in the harbour's glass like surface, with the toy-like looking ferries leaving their tiny trails across it.

Your reward once you reach the summit of the bridge is a spectacular 360-degree view of one of the world's most beautiful harbours.

The Climb Leader, who escorts each group of twelve Climbers, is also equipped with the latest in digital photographic technology to capture the moment. All Climbers are issued with a complimentary photograph of their Climb group, with all Climbers in the group receiving an identical photo. Additional photographs are also taken which can be purchased at the conclusion of your Climb.

we crossed the walkway from eastern arch to the western arch...

the last leg was to climb down the ladders on the western arch, through the pylon, and venture along the catwalk back to the bridgeclimb base. lisa, our climb leader, took one shot of us with the sydney skyline at the back while the sun was setting down.

it truly was a wonderful experience for us. exactly one year ago, we were walking down the aisle of st. francis of assisi chapel in fernwood gardens exchanging vows. that day, we were making our way up and down sydney harbour bridge. the aching legs i've been experiencing this past couple of days was indeed well worth it.

climbing approximately 1,438 steps burned our late fish and chips lunch so before we called it a day, we passed by kuks thai restaurant in lindfield for dinner.

and that's how we celebrated our first year anniversary. can't wait for next year!

*more pics of our bridgeclimb here.

twenty-six candles

2005-12-12T10:26:00.000+11:00

december 10

eric woke me up singing happy birthday past 8am. i immediately went to the bathroom to take a shower and had eric iron my skirt which i'll be wearing for that day. i have no idea what he has planned for that day. we heard mass at the parish in waitara were we normally would hear mass during sundays. after that, it's off to jamaica blue in westfield where we had our usual chicken salad on toast with side salad. since it was the second to the last saturday before christmas, it took us around 20 mintues before we were able to park our car and it was just 10am.

family and friends have started calling and texting as soon as i woke up that morning.

while waiting for our order (it took a while before they were able to serve our order because there were so many people in the coffee shop), i saw a shop on sale and i couldn't resist the bargain and found myself buying six tops. :-P

while having our brunch, eric gave me a clue for what he has planned for that day by telling me that i need to pack my bags for an overnight trip! the funny thing was while walking back to our car, mommy (MIL) called me to greet me and asked if we were able to check-in the hotel already! BUSTED! hehehehehehehehe :-)

eric wanted me to open his presents (yes, there were more than one) before we left our unit. first present i opened was a heartwood creek "bountiful angel" (one of the heartwood creek's four seasons angels) angel of fall (eric had the store write autumn instead of fall in the sticker attached at the bottom) figurine .

we recently learned of heartwood creek by jim shore when we saw this magnificent nativity set that i so wanted (i wanted our home to have a nativity set, i'll definitely look for the precious moments nativity set when we're in the phils since precious moments isn't available here). we decided that we'll be collecting that in addition to our vast array of collections which already includes: snow globes, spoons, magnets and precious moments.

anyway, after opening my first present, eric got his suitcase out for me to open. and there it was, four more heartwood creek boxes: holy family - "joy to the world, the lord has come", shepherd with sheep and donkey - "let earth receive her king", wisemen - "let every heart prepare him room" and stable creche. i immediately knew that it was the nativity set that i wanted to have!

while packing our stuff for our overnight trip, my family called to greet me a happy birthday. after that, off we go to wherever it is we'll be spending the night in. since we were heading to the city, i got an idea where we'll be going...and i was right! we checked-in shangri-la sydney (*we stayed in makati shangri-la before, during and after our wedding last year!) with the harbour and the sydney opera house as our view! eric then let me in on what's in store for me that night when he told me that he booked us tickets to watch showstoppers broadway's biggest hits with the sydney symphony orchestra at the concert hall of the sydney opera house! i was so excited as i've always wanted to watch a play/concert in the opera house.

we first got our tickets from the box office of the sydney opera house and then decided to have late lunch since show will be starting at 8pm. we were in the mood to go german and ate schweinshax'n (oven roasted pork knuckle with sauerkraut, beer sauce & mashed potato) and nürnberger (nurnberger sausages with sauerkraut & mashed potato) in löwenbräu keller located at the rocks.

since it was still a couple of hours before showtime, we headed back to our hotel to rest and enjoy our room. we both fell asleep and woke up an hour before the show. the concert hall of the sydney opera house was packed. the seats we got was pretty good since it was right smack in the middle. they opened the concert with a song from chicago. they played and sung songs which i recognized from phantom of the opera (my absolute favorite!), les miserables, beauty and the beast (i swear, i couldn't help but be moved by their rendition of this disney classic!), singin' in the rain, boy from oz and diamonds are a girl's best friend to name a few. too bad they didn't play anything from miss saigon.

we were thinking of ordering room service when we got back to our hotel room but the pork knuckle and sausages have yet to be digested so we just tucked ourselves in bed.

i really enjoyed my birthday. what made it more special was the fact that this was actually my first birthday as a mrs.. i know eric prepared and made sure that i enjoy every minute of my special day...and i did (even if he told me that he'll be financially drained EVERY december since it's the month of my birthday, our wedding anniversary and christmas! hehehehehehehehe :-> three in one gift just wouldn't do :-P).

*more pics of my 26th birthday celebration here.

an open letter from my papa

2005-12-08T13:04:00.000+11:00

i told my papa that i'll be sending his letter to all family and friends who prayed for him. he told me that he's making it his apostolate to inform everyone what happened to him as not everyone are lucky enough to tell their story.

*****

I have just undergone a heart attack and thank God, was able to recoverand share the event with you.

Thanks for all your prayers.

I attach the documents.

Love you all.

Rolly Alarcon

*****

INTRODUCTION

If you received a copy of this documentary, I owe you this explanation regarding my Heart Attack Experience.. I feel I was really blest that I was able to survive this traumatic bout. I know I might have created you undue anxiety and concern about this news.

I now feel obligated to relay to you what has happened.

Let me first thank you for the prayers and the concerns that I’m sure you did when you heard the news.

Most of you know that I have been an athletic person all my life and up to the present. I continue to play Badminton twice a week for two hours, have an active home life, with a very happy and supportive family, not to mention, enjoying riding my motorcycle with my group. I have at times been called “Mr. Cool”. I’m not really the type who “blows his top” easily.

Last Nov. 11, following a usual day in the office, at about 7 30 PM, we had just finished a regularly scheduled badminton fun game, and , I was late for the schedule, therefore had only 15 minutes to play before court’s time was up. I managed to squeeze a double’s game but that’s was it. Before I could make a good sweat, the game has timed out.

We had a rest and were contemplating on playing some more, when I started to feel that something was wrong with my breathing…

DETECTION

I felt something clogging my throat like phlegm or like having swallowed a big bite of food which tends to be uncomfortable in the chest . I was trying to cough it out intentionally, hoping to clear my throat to get some comfort..

Following that, I felt a strange cold sweat and had breathing difficulty. I had someone help me out of the badminton court, which is closed and covered, to get a breathe of outdoor fresh air, hoping that things will feel better.

It did not, rather got progressively (logarithmically) worst.

The difficulty in breathing got worst. Sweated profusely and I started to act incoherently. I could not even get a sip from the water bottle in my hand.

While all these are happening, I was trying to maintain a clear mind on what to do next. Go home or go direct to the nearest hospital ? From what was happening, I decided to go to the hospital. The time period from the first time I had difficulty in breathing to what I felt up till now , had taken only 10 minutes. Things were turning out from bad to worst. And at this point I was struggling for my breathe, blurring vision, sweaty chill and incoherent movement.

As all of these were happening, and I was with Mr. Rey Borja. He is a motorcycle riding buddy of mine, a good motorcycle mechanic, a registered male nurse and an office mate. (I now call him my guardian angel - Don’t worry, you will have your own particularly when you need one). He happened to be in the Badminton Court that time to watch and spy-in to our practice. (btw - he belongs to the other team). He too, started to worry as my pulse was getting weaker and weaker, again progressively deteriorating.

We decided to go to the nearest hospital, which was Medical City.

ON THE WAY

Rey drove like mad, with hazards on , tooting his horns to give us space to maneuver the big van. Apart from all the frightening feelings, I was being lulled into unconsciousness, which my mind was telling me I must not give into. I decided to open a window and look at the oncoming bright lights, hoping it would help me focus to stay alert and not let me slip into unconsciousness.

During this trip, I had a chance to talk to family members, advising them Im on the way to Medical City due to difficulty in breathing. Thanks to the last “ Last Called Feature of the Cellphones” I managed to call, if not, Im not sure if I can browse through the Contacts List at my condition.

At this point, I was really struggling for my breathe having to draw each and every breath of life. They say that its like placing a brick or stone in your chest. I will tell you, that is an understatement. [A steamroller (pison), is more appropriate, or for the divers out there, its like drawing air from your scuba tank at 200 ft.] I notice I was not breathing naturally and had to go back to deep full lung breathing.

ARRIVAL AT THE MEDICALCITY EMERGENCY ROOM

We arrived at the emergency room of Medical City, almost on the brink of loosing my consciousness. Chest pain got from worst to worster (if there is such), drawing air was much more difficult now and I was drenched with cold sweat.

I struggled through my sports bag for my wallet, Drivers License, Health card, and cell phone.

Emergency staff met us with a wheelchair and told the attending doctor I was having difficulty breathing and informed him that I might be having a heart attack..

I have been a hypertensive person since I was 26, and had to explain to him my medication, allergy issues and health card enrollment, and other personal information through my driver’s license.

MEDICAL ATTENTION

The attack was now at its worst. I could no longer breathe without struggling, sweating continuously, chest pains were severe, and my extremities were uncontrollably quivering.

I was in and out of consciousness.

Please note that all these happened within a span of 30 minutes.

In between these ON and OFF consciousness I saw people close to my life; my wife and daughter , close friends , and some of my relatives in the medical profession, all around my emergency room bed. I can just imagine now, how traumatic it was for them to see me quivering, uneasy and restless because of the severe chest pains and in the total experience I was going thru. My wife and daughter had to pin both my arms down on the bed because…through all the haze, I wanted to stand up, hoping to relieve my pain. Of course, that was already impossible since I was already being sedated which already included dosages of morphine for the pain.

While the doctors were rushing all over the place, I heard some statement of optimism, from the medical staff attending to me, that I am having an attack and well within the “Golden Six Hours”, and the new drug which melts any clog in the heart will work best within these Golden 6.

I found out later that the heart attack was happening while I was in the emergency bed. Everyone hopeful that the new drug works or else they will be forced to “open me up”. At this point, I felt the medical sedation taking effect, and at this time it started to become spiritual and had to tell HIM, “YOUR WILL BE DONE”.

After a while, I felt Peace, Serenity all over, with no pains and worries. ( This is part of a different saga all together) A PEEK AT THE LIFE AFTER

THE MORNING AFTER

I regained consciousness in the ICU room I was brought into, from the emergency room I was rushed into. It was room full of high tech medical equipment, with all those Intra Venous (IV) connected all over my body, all the monitors for the heart and breathing, laid across the top, the sides and bottom of my bed.I was brought in 8pm past of a Friday..and it was already 2 a.m. of Saturday. First thing I asked….”why am I here”?

I started to cry and not really not knowing what has happened and no idea what to do. After a few minutes, I collected myself and decided to do some of my own physiology tests. I first started to move my right feet and was so relieved to see it move, and did the rest for my left foot, right and left fingers, which at this time were swollen with the number needle marks and some still attached to it. At this time I was really talking to HIM, and asking if I am still in this earth.

I tried to recall everything that had happened and was able to trace everything back from the badminton court to the emergency room.

I can not explain to anyone how I felt at this point, both spiritually and physically

WHAT DID IT

My wife told me what had happened….and it seemed that I was back to my old self within 24 hours….The cardiologist assigned to me explained all that had happened and what was the next step to do. He said…”you are a very lucky guy…you were brought here right away..that’s why the doctors was able to do the right thing at the right time ….it seemed all the medications worked together to save me and give me back a new heart…and a new life…..but of course everything was done thru the will of our LORD..

The attack can not really be blamed on that single badminton game. Im sure it’s an accumulation of unhealthy practices throughout my 51 years and of course Genetics plays a whole lot.. Still, I just want to let you know….non-smokers have a big chance of surviving a heart attack.compared to smokers….people who tend to smoke will find it harder to bounce back to their old self…and if ever they have a procedure…it will be more complicated because the cardiologist will find more difficulty restoring the damage on the arteries. By the way, the finding on my heart attack showed an artery block to the oxygen supply of my heart, causing the excruciating pain and eventually causing something like a heart muscle cramps (ie stoppage), thus the heart attack..

WHAT SAVED IT

Having a clear and well focused mind, despite all these pains, anxiety you feel, and resist the urge to be naturally carried away into unconsciousness.

When you’ve done all humanly possible, struggling all throughout the challenges, and have done your best, endorse everything to HIM.

FOLLOW UP MEDICATION

There I was lying in bed for the next two days, in the ICU being observed by the best medical team that can be offered. Honestly I felt like “nagdadahilan lang” as they say. Everything I felt was pre-attack feeling (parang singlakas ng kalabaw), with the exception of the many IVs , monitoring instruments attached to me, and the regular (or should say irregular) visits of the medical staff coming for the regular vitals and medicine.

POST MONITORING ACTIVITY

After several days (actually two days), I had a discussion with a team of Cardiologist of different level of expertise (Fellows, Consultants, etc), on what to do next.

I was advised on how lucky I was that the medication given to me during the attack worked most effectively at the proper time. We all looked at the Monitors attached to me, and the most inspiring sight I saw when they all nod and agreed with a nice smile, that it really did.

From then on, it was all progressively uphill and every vitals improved.

Following this activity, How happy I was to see the loads of friends, in queue for the ICU visiting hours to open, which by the way opens for two hours a day only. I was given unlimited well wishes, some shared their touch of energy , prayed over me and some curious how can such happen to me. Close relatives and friends abroad kept on sending prayers and inspirations to the rest of my family.I understand some were not even able to enter, despite that were content enough to have a peek at my ICU room.

All these helped

Passing the several days of monitoring, and with serious discussion with the medical team, I decided to have an Coronary Angiogram Procedure and had to worked on one blocked artery using Angioplasty.

These were performed and had to clear one blocked artery through the Angioplasty, using balloon and stent in the coronary walls. It was one exciting experience too.

EPILOGUE

Personally, I believe this was a “Wake Up Call” not only for me but for my Networks of Friends. I was truly blessed to have gone through all these experience and come out alive and still in full control of all of my faculties, and still be alive able to tell you about it.

Thus, I am sharing these to all of you. Those who were part of the Prayer Brigade, those who have showed concern. And mostly to those…who had to go right away to see me and my family…to give support by your presence….my deepest gratitude! I hope that this will continue to inspire you to continue on with life….. take care of it… and when you have done your best….. be able to trust and leave the rest to HIM.

Following the old cliché, “Trust me I’ve been there”.

I do not claim any medical explanation for all that has happened but it has seemed I have been very lucky….. I’m sure from the events that transpired…. you will be able to pick up the most significant and critical events that could help you in the future.

Importance of the GIFT OF LIFE

One of the most important values, that I’ve learn to treasure, is the “Gift of LIFE”. This gift crosses politics, faith or creed, and social stature. Each Human Being is given the same and equal opportunity. It is up for the human being to develop and improve this gift of life, sharing its talent.

The most important challenge is how to make this “God given Lives” to us, provide LIFE to other human beings.

AGAIN, MY DEAR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS, CONCERNS AND CARE.

I LOVE YOU ALL.

Rolly C. Alarcon
email : ralarcon@tgm.com.ph
Tel. (632) 9250451

*****

A PEEK AT THE LIFE AFTER

There I was, lying in a place or a state which can not be explained except for peace, serenity and tranquility. It is like staring at a blank ceiling with soft and indirect lighting. No “Bright Light, No Sound”, No Distance and No Sense of Time.

It appears as if my senses was reset or perhaps non-working. No struggle for bright or dim lights, No sound, no bass or treble sound, like an equalizer set at flat, No sense of distance.

It was pure peace and serenity.

With a clear mind, I tried to recall any of my earthly problems and concerns. Nothing seem to come through. I couldn’t imagine such a place or state much peaceful than this.

Perhaps, He allowed me to have a peek on life beyond and this is the tranquility I felt.

If this is the state of life after death, I am no longer afraid of it , honestly I am looking forward to it.

*****

The GIFT of LIFE

Following my recent bout with Heart Attack, I began to realize the importance of LIFE.

The Gift of Life being the most important gift one could have.. This is one gift that surpasses Creed and Political Beliefs, Rich or Poor, Black or White. Everyone is given a fair chance of LIFE.

In Life , it is how we develop and share this gift. How we expand it, develop it , share it and most important how we enjoy life. It crosses social stature, rich or poor.

At the end of the day, it is how we use this life and become a “LIFE” to other people.

So let preserve life, develop life, share life and enjoy our lives.

tuesday is movie day

2005-12-06T16:54:00.000+11:00

after office, eric and i will be meeting cousin aris and future cousin-in-law jen in westfield to watch harry potter and the goblet of fire movie. we've never been harry potter fans, not owning nor reading one single harry potter book. we don't mind watching the movie but we're not the type to queue to be the first to see the movie or get the book during it's first day of release.

anyway, going back to my post title...we always make it a point to watch movies ONLY on tuesdays because movie tickets are 50% off. call us cheapos but regular movie tickets in sydney costs aud$15.00 (goldclass, which gives you unlimited drinks and popcorn, costs aud$30.00!!!). smart shopping homemakers do everything to save you know (coupons anyone?).

and before the movie we'll be passing by good old tim's bbq for dinner.

the one with all ten seasons

2005-12-05T12:59:00.000+11:00

234 episodes

85 hours

5100 minutes

eric and i have never been into collecting dvds and boxed sets. however, when we saw that they have already released a friends boxed set with all ten seasons, we both agreed that it would be a good investment (our way of rationalizing the purchase). cousin sarah who works at jb hi-fi (which recently opened in hornsby), informed us of a family and friends sale last friday which means that we could get the friends boxed set at cost price or with a 10% discount (we eventually got it with the 10% discount as it comes out cheaper). we took that as a sign that we were meant to have our very own first boxed set (start of a collection perhaps?). friends marathon anyone?

now to get my hands on this...

hello...anyone there?

2005-12-05T11:05:00.000+11:00

i doubt if anyone is still reading this blog.

i can't believe my last post was more than a year ago! so much has happened to us. too much actually...just see for yourself...

http://community.webshots.com/user/dominguez_alarcon
http://community.webshots.com/user/dominguez_alarcon2
http://community.webshots.com/user/dominguez_alarcon3
http://community.webshots.com/user/dominguez_alarcon4
http://community.webshots.com/user/eric_autumn2
http://community.webshots.com/user/eric_autumn3

our first wedding gift has arrived!

2004-11-18T18:00:00.000+11:00

since i'm officially now a bum (i resigned from work, after 3 years and 3 months, just last monday, november 15 - more on that in a different entry), i just stay home and attend to last minute wedding prep details and also prepare for my migration to australia (read: clean room!).

anyway, i got a call from an aunt who lives pretty near us. she said she's sending her driver over to drop their wedding gift for us (thinking that she's speaking with my sister instead of me). i was so excited to receive our first wedding gift (well, we did receive our wedding rings as gift from my sister and there's the package from my friend in chicago...but this is wrapped in a wedding-themed gift wrapper with a card "mr. and mrs. eric dominguez")! of course i texted eric immediatly upon receiving the gift. i think he's excited as well...who wouldn't be excited receiving gifts anyway? i so wanted to open it but resisted the urge since i think eric and i should be opening our wedding gifts together. anyway, the gift came with another box (not wrapped, so i opened it). inside is a very nice aqua colored oriental fabric covered guestbook with our main invite pasted in the inner cover. i really hope we could use it for our wedding given that we already have our ceramic guestbook platter and guestsheets...

cabin# 9-108

2004-11-18T17:00:00.000+11:00

finally! travel unlimited (the travel agency arranging our star cruises superstar virgo honeymoon) went to my office after lunch (yes, i was in the office yesterday even if i've already resigned to work on my clearance) yesterday to give our tickets and confirmation slip for our december 12 star cruises honeymoon! i was just so excited...you see in addition to the wedding, one thing that we're also preparing for is the honeymoon. :-D of course we want it to be extra special and we want it to be as soon as after the wedding! we were just so lucky that there is a sailing date of december 12 (our wedding is just the day before!).

anyway, we'll be flying to singapore via singapore airlines flight sq71 on december 12 at 8:15am (given our reception will end at around 11pm the day before and we have to be in the airport at 5:30am the next day, does that mean we won't sleep anymore???).

based on our confirmation slip from star cruise management limited our itinerary is singapore, penang, phuket, singapore, malacca, port klang and then back to singapore. we will check in at the singapore harbourfront centre on december 12 at 12 noon and the ship will leave the port at 4:00pm.

they have already assigned oceanview stateroom with balcony cabin#9-108 to dominguez frederick and marguerite alarcon autumn (argh! they got my name mixed-up!). there is a lay-out of the ship in one of the brochures the travel agency provided. i immediately checked where cabin#9-108 is located. it's at deck 9 about four cabins away from the elevator. deck 9 is also the only deck in the ship which doesn't have any restaurants, bars and other public guest services areas. that means peace and quiet for us!

we're on balcony class and received a reminder to look for the red carpet when we check-in in singapore. we'll definitely be cruising in style!

here's what their website has to say about balcony class:

Welcome to Your Private Piece of the Ocean

In the privacy of your very own balcony, you can dine, dance or day-dream as the sea shows you some of the most beautiful scenes on earth, sky and water. Welcome to the luxury of Balcony Class.

PRIORITY WELCOME Enjoy a refreshing complimentary welcome drink the moment you step onboard after your special priority check-in.

WINE & DINE A special dining credit is extended exclusively to all Balcony Class passengers. You can use it for food and beverages at any of our 16 bars and restaurants except for cabin service and the mini bar in suites. This is in addition to six sumptuous meals we'll serve you everyday.

REVIVE AT THE SPA AND GYM Balcony Class passengers have access to our fully-equipped fitness centre and spa. Enjoy our sauna rooms and Aquaswim facilities. Or relax with a Shiatsu, Swedish or Asian traditional massage*. Blissful therapy for body and soul.

FRONT ROW SEATS Preferred seating is prioritised for Balcony Class passengers. At dinner, dine close to or at the Captain's table. In the 930-seat Lido or Moulin Rouge showroom, you'll get some of the best seats. And at the Bella Vista and the Windows Restaurant, Balcony Class passengers get the best ocean view.

also, we were advised to dress elegant casual for the gala dinner night on tuesday (while sailing from phuket to singapore) which is a main event onboard. i feel like it's going to be just like in the movies...

we'll be back in singapore from the cruise on december 17 and we'll be staying at the meritus mandarin hotel in singapore for 3d/2n before we head back to manila on december 19 via singapore airlines flight sq76 on december 12 at 4:55pm.

is it too obvious that i can't wait for our honeymoon??? :-D

did i mention that yax ni jon (another w@wie who will be getting married on december 9) will be in the same cruise?

on wines and a very busy tuesday afternoon

2004-11-18T16:00:00.000+11:00

with less than a month to go, i have already conditioned myself that i'd be very busy with last minute wedding preps.

so far these are what we've accomplished in the past couple of days:

after scouting where we can buy the cheapest asti martini (went to s&r, sm supermarket, rustan's supermarket and two liquor distibutors - mama said to look in hi-top supermarket as well but i wasn't able to check out the prices there anymore), we bought 5 cases of asti martini (read: 5x12=60 bottles of asti!) at s&r last sunday. eric and i decided to buy just 20 bottles of asti but my papa insisted that if we're going to serve wine, we have to serve unlimited wine and not just one round for toasting. looks like there's going to be drinking on our wedding...which remineds me to inform our guests to come prepared (bring a driver)!

last tuesday afternoon, i submitted our remaining requirements to mt. carmel (wedding banns from both our parishes, list of principl sponsors with complete address of two principal sponsors). one last requirement is our canonical interview which is scheduled on december 8. and i thought the church requirements would never end...

i then proceeded to fernwood to settle some stuff. i was surprised to see that there weren't any events that afternoon in all four venues. i've never been to fernwood so quiet, peaceful and calm(and believe me, i've been there quite a number of times) . i went to the office and talked to our ae, joy, to reserve half of fernwood's courtyard (thank god it was still available and i was able to negotiate some additional number of guests with it), pay the chapel's aircon and pay for the glass dance floor. i also requested for the chairs in the chapel to be silver come our wedding day (there were silver chairs in the chapel that day) since sometimes i see gold chairs instead. joy immediately made a call and confirmed that it's going to be silver chairs in the chapel on our wedding day. i wanted to go around the garden (as usual) and joy accompanied me to show the improvements that were made since the last time i visited. they are currently constructing an arch on the entrance of the driveway of the two gardens. the falls and pond in cycad garden seems to be bigger to me. joy pointed out there were four swans in the pond (and a lot of ducks). the walk from the cycad garden (main reception venue) to the courtyard (where we're going to have the buffet tables) is just so beautiful. you have to pass by the entire side of the pond with the view of the falls just to get to the courtyard. am sure our guest wouldn't mind the walk to the buffet area.

after that, i went to korben in roces ave. (papemelroti's main store) to claim the gifts we'll be giving to our parents and i placed an order for our gifts to our principal sponsors. i then went to national bookstore to have our gifts to our parents wrapped.

that night papa brought home the 3 cases of chamdor sparkling bubblers i ordered from louis maclean (which is conveniently in the same building of his office). that's additional 36 bottles from the 60 bottles of asti that we already have! we decided to have sparkling bubblers available so our guests would have the choice between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink. the distributor of chamdor also gave us two personalized flute glasses which they'll be sending to my papa's office within the week.

i felt pretty good that tuesday as i was able to accomplish a lot on my list.

one month to go and counting...

2004-11-11T19:42:00.000+11:00

exactly one month to go and i'm going to be a mrs!!!

i haven't blogged for quite sometime now. here are my updates:

1. mini easels for guestsheets have already been prepared by my sister
2. my uncle confirmed my reservation at makati shangri-la where i would be coming from (quite a trip to fernwood, but nice photo ops for sure)
3. order chamdor sparkling bubblers from loius maclean

more updates to come...

dressing outfit and a surprise

2004-11-02T19:19:00.000+11:00

got na my dressing outfit!!!

in case you're wondering what a dressing outfit is, it's what the bride wears when she's being made-up and poses with the wedding stuff (gown, bouquet, rings, arrhae, etc.). the things that you learn from w@wies...

normally, brides wear the hotel bathrobe as their dressing outfit. eversince i started the wedding preps, i've told myself that i wouldn't wear the hotel bathrobe since i don't want to look like i just stepped out of the shower in our pictures. come on, do you let other people see you in your bathrobe when you just stepped out of the shower at home?

i have to laugh upon reading a co-w@wie's blogsite regarding her thoughts on wearing a bathrobe as her dressing outfit. she was saying something like she'd look like someone who is ready to enter a boxing ring. :-D

i have to admit though, i was contemplating in wearing a bathrobe (but not the one provided in the hotel) since i would find myself looking for one in victoria's secret and crabtree and evelyn. i'd find really nice looking bathrobes but they're just so damn expensive!

anyway, found the perfect dressing outfit at the knot.

bride hoodie and bride sweatpants

bride hoodie

now, i'll be looking like i just came from the gym and not the shower...hehehehehehehehe :-)

oh, and i found a surprise waiting for me from rhelynn, my highschool friend in chicago, to whom my dressing outfit was sent (she had to send it to another friend who visited the us to save on shipping cost). it was a gift box from victoria's secret beautifully wrapped complete with a bride and groom bear gift toppers. i won't provide any details anymore on what's inside. ;-)

my partner in life

2004-11-01T21:18:00.000+11:00

since eric is in sydney, we just content ourselves to chatting via ym (thank god for internet!)

can't help but post this "excerpt" from our chat...good think he doesn't get to read this blogsite (i hope!).

autumn_alarcon: ikaw ba baby...are you sure na with what you'll be getting into?
eric : YES YES YES!!!
eric : eh ikaw?
eric : baby, aside from love and all the romantic feelings, syempre gusto ko rin ng may partner sa buhay
eric : para may katulong ako to accomplish things in life, di ba?
eric : tayong dalawa yun...
autumn_alarcon: :-)
autumn_alarcon: pwede na yun sa vow mo...

so now you know that we call each other "baby". baduy as it may sound, but hey we're comfortable with calling each other that...to each his own. :-P we do not however address each other that way when we talk to other people. don't you just hate it when people refer to their partners as "baby" or "honey" (or whatever it is..) whenever they talk about them? for example, "my baby just did the most romantic thing...". again, to each his own...

walking down the aisle

2004-10-24T23:06:00.000+10:00

i can't resist posting this picture i took of st. francis of assisi chapel the last time i visited the chapel with eric. i can't help but imagine myself meeting eric, the man i'm going to spend the rest of my life with, at the end of this aisle...that and me walking down the blue carpeted aisle. :-)

our beautiful chapel

on gowns and fittings

2004-10-23T18:58:00.000+10:00

i usually sleep late (okay, until noon sometimes) during saturdays (hey, this is to catch up on lack of sleep during the weekday!). but whenever i have fitting schedules, i never fail to wake up early even on saturdays.

i have a scheduled fitting with veluz today, together with mama and happy (my sister who is one of my bridesmaids). papa came with us as well so that ka kiko (veluz' tailor) could take his measurement. i told papa to bring his own car since i know that he wouldn't be able to endure waiting for us to finish our fittings.

papa was measured first and then since i wanted papa to see mama in her gown, i told mama to have her fitting first. mama's gown doesn't have any lining nor beading yet but at least her butterfly sleeves was in the same fabric already as her gown. veluz already has the silk organdy (really nice fabric, looks like jusi to me!) that will be draped in the moms' gowns as accent. at least mama already can visualize what the gown will look like.

my mama in her first terno ever

notice the low back cut?

happy came next. there's still a number of adjustments made to her gown so we didn't take any picture during her fitting.

my turn (excited of course!), we still need to make adjustments on the left bodice of the gown and where the straps will be attached at the back but overall my gown is already beautiful (love your own! or should i say i look and feel beautiful wearing my gown?). veluz finally showed me the much anticipated raw silk train and i just loved it (veluz honestly admitted to me that when she got the train, the design wasn't how she envisioned it. her description on the design of my train was vintage-y and emblem-like, different from what she normally works on)! even papa, mama and happy find it beautiful. i told happy that all of them (i have three sisters!) should use this train for their wedding, sort of a family tradition. that is if mama doesn't get to it first, she wants to have it made to a shawl after (a table runner is also an option! hehehehehehe).

4 meter raw silk over thai silk train (no beadings yet)

pattern on the entire length of my raw silk train

i thought of coming up with a list of things to bring and do during fittings:
1. don't eat breakfast (who needs the additional weight/bulge anyway?)
2. pee before fitting (see explanation on number 1)
3. wear the right undergarments (if you can wear the actual undergarments you'll be wearing during the wedding, the better)
4. bring a digital camera (to capture pictures you could add to your wedding preparation scrapbook, in my case, it's my webshots and blogsite)
5. shave (i don't need to explain this)
6. wedding shoes (i don't have this yet, but i'm sure once you're wearing your gown AND shoes, you'd feel more "bridal". and it doesn't hurt that your designer could measure on how long the hem of your gown should be.)
7. be open with your designer, make sure you're comfortable wearing your gown

next fitting on saturday...can't wait!!!

preps update and (almost!) wedding rings stress

2004-10-19T15:36:00.000+10:00

SATURDAY
i went to immaculate heart of mary parish (my parish) to request our marriage banns to be posted. they'll post it next sunday and i would be able to get it from them around november 8. got confirmation from ate gigi (eric's sister) that they have already requested eric's marriage banns to be posted in pinaglabanan. after that, i passed by mt. carmel to submit our marriage license. eric and i just need to attend the canonical interview (which we could do only when he arrives a week before the wedding), submit our posted marriage banns from our respective parishes and provide them a list of our principal sponsors including the complete address of one pair of our principal sponsors. we're almost done with the church requirements!

i was able to distribute some of our invites today!

SUNDAY
i finished cutting all of our guestsheets (i think i need to print more) and some escort cards that i was able to print.

YESTERDAY
i started distributing our invites to my officemates yesterday. i was supposed to only give the invite to mrose, who is an officemate and seconday sponsor, but i couldn't resist in giving my other officemates their invites!

got a text message from my designer that my raw silk train is ready. even she was excited about it! the 4-meter train is a gift to us from eric's officemate who produces raw silk in their province.

anyway, i was so looking forward to lunch so i could go to glorietta and get our engraved wedding rings. to my dismay, ang pangit ng pagka-engrave nila sa rings (i should have taken it as a sign when i wasn't satisfied with their engraving when i asked them for a sample when i gave them our rings to be engraved!)!!! in addition to that, what's engraved pa is different from what we've discussed. instead of ERIC 12-DEC-04, what's engraved is ERIC 12-DEC.04! their excuse was abbreviated daw yung december that's why instead of a dash, they put a period (why are they even bothering asking their clients what to engrave in their rings if they won't follow it anyway?). they said they can easily remove the period and change it to a dash. i decided, since i've already proven that hindi sila nice mag-engrave, for them to remove whatever they have engraved and i'll just have it engraved in rustan's. i was so disappointed in them. they said to return the next day, but i was so bothered that our wedding rings wouldn't come out nice after they remove the engraving that i have to keep on asking them over and over again what the wedding rings would look like after they remove the engraving (would it come out manipis since they have to even out the rings for the engraving to be removed?). they confirmed naman that it would come out the same as the original, all shiny and smooth, since they make their own jewelry (i was so oc about this since when i had my engagement ring fixed, the part wherein the stones were reset/reinforced, parang it wasn't shiny and smooth anymore). they even told me to go back early evening instead the next day and got my contact numbers so they could contact me in case it wouldn't be ready by then or would be ready earlier. anyway, before the time we agreed on when i can pick up our rings, i received a text message from them saying that i could already pick-up our rings. i immediately went back to glorietta and was so happy in how they removed the engraving. they even told me that they had to add more gold into the rings. they were very apologetic naman on what happened so they're forgiven na (buti na lang di sila pumalpak sa pagtanggal ng pagkakaengrave nila on our rings! although medyo na-stress talaga ako when i saw the engraved rings at first.). i hurriedly went to rustan's (5/F engraving section near the embroidery section and cartier watch repair area) to have our rings engraved. i asked rolly (the engraver) for a sample first and was satisfied on their engraving (they do script for wedding rings). paid php 75.00/ring and waited for less than five minutes, and then got our rings! i'm so glad everything turned out well eventually...

i was texting eric the entire time about our rings, from the moment i saw how ugly the engraving was to how it turned out well after having it engraved at rustan's. his exact text message to me was "dats ok. relax lang ikaw. wat s mportant s dat we wil get maried 2 share lyf 2geder." i kept that message in my inbox just in case i stress out again while preparing for our wedding. i just have to be reminded sometimes on what is it exactly all these preparations is for.

TODAY
got an email from bubbles (w@wie from whom i'll be renting the blue carpet for the church's aisle). she already provided me details on how to settle payment for the carpet as well as pick-up and return. i just need to coordinate with my church florist to install and remove this.

barely two months to go...

2004-10-13T16:56:00.000+10:00

notice that i was able to put pics already in our blogsite? the things that a bride is forced to learn and do...hhhmmm...here's my list:

1. post pics in blogsite
2. have a webshots account
3. go to national bookstore so many times in such a short period of time (hey, you never know when they're going to have new paper in stock...)
4. be artistic (how else can you make your guest sheets and escort cards?)
5. visit my dermatologist once a month (i remember i only get to visit her whenever i have major skin problems)
6. print a booklet via microsoft word
7. buy a font (who buys a font anyway???)
8. rent a blue carpet (to match my motif) for the church aisle (hey, i'm going to walk down this aisle to meet the man i'll spend the rest of my life with, why not? anyway, i rented it from somebody who actually BOUGHT it.)

i went out with my college friend/officemate, oly, for lunch in glorietta. she accompanied me to landmark to look for neckties that we could provide our male entourage (i always make it a point to look at neckties whenever i go shopping. but the cheapest i've seen is at php 400.00. i know it's not that bad but hey i don't expect them to wear it again anyway!). as soon as we walked in the men's section of the department store, i knew there was hope...there were so many neckties and the price was so cheap (think less than php 200.00)! initially, i was thinking of just buying plain colored neckties fro the male entourage but there wasn't any available. so after much debate on which necktie to buy, oly and i decided on this blue textured one which gives this monochromatic illusion (will post a pic as soon as i get the chance!). we looked at available neckties at the children's section but there wasn't too much of a choice (just plain ones) but it was really cheap, around php 30.00 each. i decided to just purchase the same neckties i bought for the bestman, groomsmen and male secondary sponsors for the bearers. veluz said that if it was too big, she could just alter it. i'm really happy with my purchase!

passed by acme jewelry to have our rings engraved. i gave eric the task of deciding what to engrave in our rings. eric initially wanted to have "LOVE ABOVE ALL THINGS" engraved but since our rings have little stones on it, there wasn't enough space. he just settled with AUTUMN 11-DEC-04 on his ring and ERIC 11-DEC-04 on mine. i would be able to pick up our engraved wedding rings on monday.

oh, and last night, i was finally able to have an initial draft of our misalette printed in booklet format. just a few more changes and i think i'm ready in having fr. romy (our celebrant) review it. i hope he doesn't ask to make a lot of changes so i could already print it and send to noky of printsonalities for binding.

wedding preps weekend

2004-10-10T17:05:00.000+10:00

SATURDAY
i was so excited that i woke up early (which i rarely do, just ask my officemates!) because i would finally be able to fit my wedding gown in the actual fabric! i felt really "bridal" wearing my wedding gown. minor adjustments just need to be made but we have already finalize the cut (a-line; empire) and neckline (v-neck that has a slight sweetheart to it). veluz took a couple of pictures of me wearing my gown (i went to her again solo flight that's why she had to play the part of my designer cum photographer). i didn't even want to take it off!

happy wearing my wedding gown :-D (a peek at my wedding gown)

mommy (eric's mom) was also able to fit her gown as well. i got our marriage license already from ate gigi (eric's ate) who accompanied mommy to her fitting.

mommy's fitting (butterfly sleeves still not in the fabric that is same as the gown)

went back in the afternoon to meet with mutya (one of my ss) for her fitting.

i was busy assembling our invites so that i'd be able to start distributing them next week (exactly on the two month mark before our wedding). i actually was able to i was able to distribute invites to mommy, ate gigi, ms. faye (my boss in oracle who happens to have an appoint with veluz as well), mutya and tito robert (one of our ninongs).

SUNDAY
i started my day assembling invites again. what made me stop was i ran out of maps to insert.

focused my energy in taking lots of pictures of our wedding stuff this afternoon...which i will post in our webshots account and hopefully link in our blogsite.

marian started cutting our guest sheets.

my ate dawn commented on how much time i'm spending preparing for the wedding. she asked me what i'm going to do with my time after...i'll probably spend the time missing preparing for my wedding. :-D

guest sheets

2004-10-05T15:37:00.000+10:00

since we'll be doing away with the guestbook signing (we already have our custom-made ceramic guestbook platter) ordered at the younique boutique), i decided to have guest sheets instead. this way, our guests can still provide us their contact details and messages (which they can't do when they sign our guestbook platter due to the limited space!). i so wanted these guestbook sheets from the guestbook store, but it was so expensive at $16 for the cover, $8/25 pages or $16/25 pages for customized design. what's nice about their guestbook sheets is that it comes in wedding memories and wedding predictions design. so given that and our budget, i then decided to make our very own guest sheets inspired (or should i say copied from???) by the guestbook sheets of the guestbook store.

the next challenge on this is what program to use to develop our guest sheets. i was told that one can use adobe photoshop and microsoft publisher to come up with layouts for this. well, i haven't used either program in my entire life...so imagine my dilemma. my only requirements for the guest sheets anyway are to have statements for guests to complete and questions for guests to answer and our pre-nup pics, no need for fancy art work...in addition to my lack of skills for such programs, i admittedly don't have any artistic gene in my body. my co-w@wie, co-december bride and DIY-guru, clarice, gave me this wonderful idea to use microsoft word instead! microsoft word i know...:-)

so there i am all excited working on our guest sheets in microsoft word. i pretty much copied the statements and questions in the guestbook sheets of the guestbook store and added our pre-nups pics. per page, i had two lay-outs and was able to make three pages! so that's six lay-outs all-in-all! i hurriedly bought paper from national bookstore, i'm a fan of star paper's curious collection (bought plasma blue, morphing mauve and genetic green), so i could start printing our guest sheets. i'll bind the guest sheets after the wedding...have to check though if there are any stores (karton in glorietta perhaps?) that can offer this service...

can't wait to read what our guests have to say!

side kwento: while buying the paper for our guest sheets in national bookstore, i decided to purchase artline's calligraphy pen for numbering our insert cards "we have reserved ___ seats for you". i already told my sister, marian, to practice her calligraphy "number" skills.

you're invited!

2004-10-04T15:30:00.000+10:00

last friday, before i proceeded in meeting with my college friends (which i haven't seen for such a long time!), i passed by printsonalities' office in kamagong, makati to pick-up our invites. noky, who is my contact in printsonalities, was busy attending to her other clients, so when i arrived she referred me to vangie, one of her staff. when vangie brought out the box containing our invites, i was just so excited! it turned out just what we imagined it to be, in the perfect shade of periwinkle (dry embossed monogram in the main card and insert card as well as the envelope lining)! vangie was saying that they already got themselves a copy of our invites in their sample album. :-) i just couldn't stop myself from reading over and over again our invites (to check as well if i have everyone's name complete and correct)! they even provided us plastic pouches to use as "bags" for our invites when we deliver it to our guests. i paid the 50% remaining balance and off i went to my gimik with my college friends, box of invites at the back of my car...

as soon as i went home saturday afternoon (my college friend and i booked a room at astoria plaza for our overnight gimik), i showed our invites to everyone who was in the house. i couldn't wait to address it, assemble it and distribute it! my dilemma was whether or not our envelope can be printed in the office (using company resources...hehehehehe...i hope no one from my office gets to read this blog!). we didn't allot any budget for a calligrapher and i wanted to make full use of the font i bought over the internet at paratype store (linotype zapfino two) which is the same font used for all of our printed materials.

invite set with map and guest pass

invites...check!

2004-09-28T13:40:00.000+10:00

i just received a call from noky of printsonalities that our invites are ready for pick-up on friday, after lunch (another this is it moment!)! i stupidly asked her "the complete set of invites?", when she told me the invites are ready. my reason for asking this is because i did request if i could get the envelopes sooner so that i could start addressing them. i approved the entourage card only last september 20 (in addition to completing the entourage list, eric and i had to painstakingly review each and every name to ensure it is correct and complete which we had no choice but to do via email since he's already in sydney) and the invites are ready by october 1. not bad don't you think?

on with the preps...

2004-09-26T18:18:00.000+10:00

it's my eric's birthday today. how i wish i could be with him to celebrate his birthday...:-(

last friday, i got news that our marriage license is ready for pick-up at the san juan city hall (yehey!). that's one of the things we were stressing about before eric left since the license has a validity period of 3 months (that means we only can apply for it on september), eric left august and we have to be both present when applying for it! good thing eric was able to contact someone from the san juan city hall to "fix" our license. we submitted all the requirements prior to him leaving and the contact person said he'll just be the one to make all the necessary arrangements. let's just hope the license is legal...:-D

yesterday, i brought my mama and sisters to veluz for their first fitting (gowns were in the actual thai silk already). the contrast of salmon, periwinkle and cobalt is just so beautiful! unfortunately, my gown wasn't ready yet so i just contented myself in looking at my mama and sisters while they were fitting their gowns. veluz gave them an idea already on what their gowns would look like...at least they have finally decided on the style.

mama and i just came from dapitan arcade (previously known to us as "mayon") to look for the planter we will be using to put our give-aways (forget-me-not potted plant). mama finds the planter from san too expensive given that we have a budget for our give-aways. we were able to find a planter very similar to san's sample but for a much lower price (almost half!). it has to be ordered though and customize based on our specifications. we decided to still look around and found a yellow galvanized can with red lady bugs all over it! (side kwento: we initially thought of having a ladybug/lovebug theme since eric and i collect ladybugs/lovebugs! we even asked noky of printsonalities to propose a ladybug/lovebug lay-out for our invites!) we brought with us a sample of the pot that will be used to for the plant and it fits the galvanized can perfectly! in addition to that, they would be able to provide us 200 units of cans immediately without having to order it. talk about meant to be! we decided to purchase the galvanized cans and not order the sinamay planter anymore. we then proceeded to vs orchid's branch in cubao to put our order of 160 forget-me-not potted plant to be delivered on december 9 (we ordered 160 plants instead of 200 since we were able to buy only 160 cans given our quality control check of the cans). next on this is to print our tags that will be attached to our give-aways.

planter for our give-aways

am so happy i was able to accomplish something on our preps for this weekend...

my third (and last!) katya fitting

2004-09-22T20:06:00.000+10:00

i enjoy fitting my gown (even if it's just katya, i still refer to it as my gown). whenever i do, i get this "this is it!" moment feeling...the same giddy feeling when we got our wedding rings, invites proof (and that was just the proof...can't imagine what it feels like to get the actual invites!), booked our ceremony venue, reception venue, photographer, videographer...all our suppliers in short.

i had my third katya fitting last night at veluz's house in proj. 8. her shoe designer, niko, was there as well. we got the neckline and back cut finalized already. i think veluz is ready to cut the actual thai silk. she was telling me how she and her mananahis are all excited to start working on the fabric. niko also saw my gown and already has these ideas of what shoe design would best match my gown.

can't wait to fit the gown in thai silk and show mama and my sisters!

*****

met with san (rosary cord and possible souvenir supplier) this lunch. she already has an actual abaca crazy weave planter in blue (considering she had to made-to-order it from bicol) where we will be placing our forget-me-not potted plant give-aways. it's kinda expensive though...given that and the plant, we will definitely be over our budget for the souvenirs if you compare it to what we have just alloted. i told mama to accompany me to mayon in sta. mesa this weekend to check out of there's any possible planter we could use to put the plant that is cheaper. i can just imagine how good the light blue flowers of the forget-me-not contrasting with the dark blue abaca planter...

our very own blogsite!

2004-09-21T18:09:00.000+10:00

finally, our very own blogsite! i've been contemplating to have one eversince i learned that my co-w@wies (more on that on my future posts) have it.

now that i'm thinking about it, i should have had one at the start of our wedding preps to document highlights in our preparation...sort of a bride's diary.

anyway, so many things have happened already with regards to our preps. we have made arrangements with the following suppliers so far:

ceremony venue: st. francis of assisi chapel
reception venue: cycad garden (fernwood gardens) www.fernwoodgarden.com
primary photographer: jorge maniquis of jorge portrait www.jorgeportrait.com
secondary photographer: john aguas www.johnaguas.com (w@w find)
videographer: jason magbanua digital video www.jasonmagbanua.com
caterer: tri-chef's cater club www.caterclub.com
cake: alex franco www.alexfrancocakes.com (w@w find)
musicians: the sentimental groove thesentimentalgroove.kasal.com
sound system: sound syndrome (w@w find)
projector/screen (for avp): mfdo marketing & multisystems (w@w find)
rosary cord and souvenirs (?): san sia of crafts & creations (w@w find)
arrhae: unity coins www.weddingsatwork.com/unitycoins.shtml (w@w find)
unity candle: balay kandila www.balaykandila.com (w@w find)
rings: acme jewelry (courtesy of my maid of honor, my ate dawn)
invitation: printsonalities www.printsonalities.com
thank-you card: v-craft society printers (comes with our fernwood gardens booking)
florist: dorothy albert-cuna of eve & co. (w@w find)
florist for church: flowers unlimited
champagne chairs: first alpha enterprises (w@w find)
wedding signature platter: the younique boutique www.weddingshowergifts.com
wedding coordinator: jody liwanag of events experts www.eexperts.biz (w@w find)
designer: veluz reyes of seeds (twigs clothing, inc.) www.veluz.biz
shoes: nikolai hernandez of seven shoes www.veluz.biz
mua (that's make-up artist for you!) for moi: patrick rosas
mua for mama and sisters: frances (effie) go (w@w find)
honeymoon: starcruises via travel unlimited www.starcruises.com

we have already collected and cut plastic coke bottles (courtesy of my officemates) for our DIY luminaries which happy and i already experimented on what type of candle should be used (liwanag v#2 candle works best!). i was able to buy the candles as well at pioneer center where it's cheaper compared to rustan's or sm's supermarket (i was thinking if a trip to liwanag's main office in malabon is worth the discount i'll be getting since it's pretty far from where i'll be coming from). next step on this is to buy the blue jap paper which will be used to wrap the bottles (will just buy it in national bookstore), decide whether glass candle holders still are necessary and if the sand still needs to be packed for easy assembly of the luminaries.

i have already finalized (hopefully!) the layout of our escort card and know what paper to use for printing them (star paper's curious collection in oceana blue 120gsm paper). i was even able to print some already, for guests who i'm sure will be coming. next step on this is to buy some more paper...ate dawn was telling me to just buy it from national bookstore instead of going to star paper's office in grace village. it costs .76 cents cheaper if i buy it from their main office. need to decide whether the trip is worth it...

save-the-date evites (some anyway...) have already been sent and i have received confirmation from some guests already.

whew! so far so good...