Day 192 - Parallel Trouble Adventure

My sister's Christmas gift! Which, I didn't even know was her gift until she told me; and so for the two weeks that I had it in my room, I didn't open it until she asked if it was playable.

It's a DVD Box Set of the anime series Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, which my siblings and I used to watch on AXN. It has all 13 episodes of the series and can be watched two ways for non-Japanese speakers -- English dubbed, or with the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. Silly me first thought that the dubbing would be the same as when they showed it in AXN, but it wasn't. So it's kind of weird hearing a different voice for the characters, but at least they don't suck. And I watch most episodes with the original Japanese audio and English subtitles anyway.

I haven't finished watching it yet, but I'm nearly halfway now, I just finished Episode 7. I'm trying to watch it slowly because you know, I don't want it to be over right away, and it only has 13 episodes, so...

Day 175 - Santa Claus?

Wearing red? Check. Giving gifts? Check. Big belly? Check. Beard? Sort of... So, check. My dad has officially become Santa Claus. Hehehe!

Today is Christmas Day! I went to my grandfather's house in Makati and celebrated (in other words: ate a lot) with my family. We exchanged gifts, sang oldies on the Magic Mic and made funny faces to make the new baby in the family (my cousin's daughter, she's 9 months old) laugh. More details in my main blog.

P.S. Because I'm such a loser, I wasn't able to take any pictures on the 24th. Sorry about that. It's just that... My nieces and nephews in the Christmas party that we went to then were so noisy and hyperactive that I forgot all about taking pictures. -_-

Day 174 - Friends and Gifts

(Click on image for full view.)

I went to meet and exchange gifts with my oldest and closest friends today at Greenbelt 2 in Makati. We had dinner at Cyma (Greek food!) and dessert at Bizu (where these pictures were taken). To entertain ourselves while waiting for our chocolate cake and coffee, we decided to take a picture of each of us with our gifts. To be even more entertaining (at least, in our opinion) we decided that the person with the gifts wouldn't be the one the gifts are from. So clockwise -- that's J3 with the gifts from J2, me with the gifts from J1, J2 with the gifts from J3 and J1 with the gifts from me (Pulburon! Previously mentioned in this entry.) Confused? I am, too, sometimes. You see, my three closest friends have names that all start with the letter J. Actually, two of them have the exact same name (granted, spelled differently, but basically the same). But, that's the craziness of the world for you.

P.S. Hindi naman ako mahilig sa collage. Hehe. It's just that there are always a lot of pictures during the holidays. It's difficult to choose just one.

Day 172 - All Wrapped Up

ONE DOWN - the first batch of Christmas gifts to give for the first of the family Christmas parties. There are two to go.

Ever since my sister moved to New Zealand, I'd been the one to wrap the gifts that our family gives to relatives on Christmas. I'm not as good at gift-wrapping as she is, but my mom doesn't really have a choice as I'm the only one left whom she can assign this task to.

These are for the Christmas party at my aunt's house in Pasig. They're not a lot, but maybe my mom will give me more gifts to wrap tomorrow, you know, a few minutes before the party. We're usual victims of the last-minute thing.

Day 169 - My First Gift

The gift surrounded by the Christmas toys is the first Christmas gift I received this year and it came from someone I never expected would give me a Christmas gift -- my classmate in my Nihongo class.

It's unexpected because my classmates and I aren't really that close. I mean, we only see each other once a week, and for only 3 hours each time. Also, all of us in the class are so shy that we hardly ever talk to each other (really almost never) unless we're doing something class-related. It's actually kind of funny. All of us in the class are girls (even our teacher) and we all seem to just not like talking much, so we're pretty quiet, even (or especially) when the teacher's not around. We make ourselves busy by reading our books or anything else really, except talk to each other. Honestly, it's really my kind of class. :) And way better than my last set of classmates who were so "close" that they felt the need to ostracize the new students (namely me and 3 others).

Anyway, it was such a happy surprise when my classmate A handed me the gift. It makes me feel like there's hope for humanity yet (Is this proof that I'm overdramatic or what?) because it's possible that people who barely know you can still be so nice.

Day 125 - Gift Wrapper

From time to time, my mom would ask me to giftwrap some stuff, usually during Christmas, but also throughout the year whenever there's a birthday or a baptism, or whatever other occasion. I don't really mind. I've grown to like giftwrapping, and sometimes entertain the thought of learning the art form for real. For now though, I'm content with knowing the basics.

This particular gift is for one of the kids of my mom's officemates, I think. It's for a baptism. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I no longer remember what's inside it. -_-

P.S. Apologies for the quality of the picture. I didn't have much relevant things to do today so I just took a photo of the first thing I saw when I went out of my room with my camera.

Day 102 - Gifts!

sticky notes from Tickles, chocolate from Marks & Spencer, Little Miss Lucky slippers and some authentic manga from Japan

Last night, I met with my friends (mostly from high school, but one of them is a friend from college) and we celebrated my birthday at AVeneto in Glorietta 3. But because I got home at 1:00AM, only when I woke up this morning did I have a chance to really see the gifts they gave me. Not included in this picture are some glitter pens and a small cake (because I already put that in the refrigerator).

My birthday this year makes me think of how lucky I am, because despite my being anti-social, I've managed to make some awesome friends.

Day 58 - Special Delivery

I have always loved receiving things in the mail, whether they're packages or letters. (The only thing I don't like are bills.) I think I equally enjoy sending things in the mail, through the post office or couriers like LBC.

This is a receipt I got when I mailed my pasalubong from Kota Kinabalu to E and his officemates in Quezon City. It cost me P205 to send, but considering the distance, the transportation fare probably would've cost me the same even if I delivered it there myself. And they got it on the very next day, which is of course, convenient.

I made this in black and white because I think documents look better in black and white.