Bottled Sky

I’ve lived in Metro Manila my whole life. I’ve battled the horrendous hi-way traffic five days a week since my grade school years (and I’ve lost many times, too, if the number of tardies I’ve acquired throughout my schooling is any indication). I’m used to the smog and the noise that can be found only in a busy, over-populated metropolis. I’ve grown accustomed to being 10 minutes away from the nearest shopping mall, and I can’t imagine life without cable TV and the Internet. If I had to be away from the city for longer than a few days, I’d miss it terribly. What more can I say? I’m an urbanite through and through.

It was, hence, only to be expected that alarm bells would go off in my head when one summer my parents happily announced that they were taking me on a road trip to Vigan. Eight hours in a car with nothing but rice fields to look at? Three days in a place that prided itself on being stuck in the previous century? More rice fields on the ride back?! They must have been kidding themselves if they actually thought I’d agree to come.

As it turned out, I was the one kidding myself when I thought they’d agree to go without me. So on an early summer day, trapped in an SUV with my parents and armed with only my loudest CDs, I was on my way to Vigan.

Continue reading A Visit to the 19th Century »

My LiveJournal has been “smoochified.” I normally don’t do mushy, but I came across this old drawing of mine and felt the urge to use it in a layout:

I added the style sheet to the LJ themes page in case anyone else wants it. I had a few drops of creative juice left over after finishing the layout, so I made a bunch of icons as well.

In other news, my mom is now a blogger. I guess everyone and his mother really does have a blog these days She chose Mrs. B for her screen name and refers to my dad as Mr. B and me as Miss B in her entries. I love it, haha!

To my knowledge, my dad has yet to join the blog-wagon. He does visit this site regularly, though. (Hi, Dad!) Sometimes we’d be eating dinner and he’d say, “By the way, in your links page you missed an ‘I’ in ‘visiting.’” Who needs Spell Check when you have a perfectionist father going over your website?

Taking a cue from my traveling book, one of my favorite pairs of pants has left me for Germany. My aunt, who lives there, stayed with us for a couple of weeks in November. She went back home just before the holidays, and my pants were accidentally mixed in with her luggage.

Although I’m a little bummed about losing those pants, I can’t help but be amused that another of my possessions has reached Europe before me. Plus, I can’t really complain, because although I lost a pair of pants, I gained three cocktail dresses that my aunt generously bequeathed to me before she left. Sure, they look like they belong more in the costume department of a bad 80’s movie than in my closet, but at least they’re, um, interesting.

• Dress # 1 is bright purple with a fully-sequined bustier top and a skirt made of shiny, metallic fur (I kid you not). It also comes with a matching shawl made of the same furry fabric.
• Dress # 2 has a black satin bodice and a ruffled, gold-and-peach skirt. I don’t know what that gold fabric is called. I asked my mom, but the only thing she could say was that it looked like crinkled candy wrapper There’s also a wide ruffle that runs around the bust area, which my aunt says is supposed to make the wearer look like a flower.
• Dress # 3 is made of black brocade and adorned with a big bow on the front. It’s actually pretty tame compared to the other two.

All three dresses fall just above the knee. In case you’re having trouble imagining what they look like, here’s a visual aid:

All I need now are 3-foot-high bangs and a costume party to attend. Does anyone want to join me? I’d probably wear the furry, sequined wonder; you can pick from the other two dresses.