Random

Yup, it's been five months since my last entry. I have been so busy at work, doing 12-15 hours a day. In the rare times that I don't work overtime, I take the opportunity to sleep. Yup, sleep has been a very scarce commodity for me.

It's still crazy at work, but I really have to pause for a bit and write this post. Last weekend was a blast and it needs to be immortalized for its randomness. It was a tiring 3 days, yet I felt so refreshed this morning. Yey to randomness and good times with friends!!!

Thursday

3:55 pm - Feeling sleepy and tired, I decided I won't report to work the following day. My weekend starts a day early :)

10:00 pm - Left the office to meet MGG, Tony, Mcvie and D at Tomas Morato. MGG shared the story of letter sender who he met recently.

12:00 am - Moved to Coffee Bean to peek at someone's study date.

Friday

3:oo pm - Movie marathon with Tony. We watched "Red Riding Hood" and "Sucker Punch". 2 cutie guys in "Red Riding Hood". No hunks in "Sucker Punch". Fell asleep in the latter ;)

8:30 pm - Went home early as Tony was meeting the "kid".

12:00 am - Got a text from Dalumat, they're having a movie night at his place.

Saturday

1:30 am - Arrived in Dalumat's condo with "refreshments."

2:00 am - Watched "Dorian Gray". Ben Barnes is hot! Topless scenes and bisexual sex ;)

3:45 am - Went to the rooftop with Dalumat and Kayadudes, chit chatting while drinking more "refreshments".

5:00 am - Sleeping time.

12:30 pm - Woke up. Got news from Mom that car was just repaired and needs a road test. Agreed with Tony to have a road trip to Tagaytay.

1:30 pm - Went home.

4:30 pm - On the road to Mandaluyong to pick-up Tony and the kid. It's my first time to drive alone. Took me two hours to get to Mandaluyong, wahahaha.

6:30 pm - Arrived in Mandaluyong, an hour and a half late ;) Sorry naman.

7:00 pm - Group decides to go to Enchanted Kingdom instead. Back on the road. It's my first time to drive on the SLEX. Weeeee!!!! 100 kph!!!!

Playlist: Cast recording of Zsa Zsa Zaturnah, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Mamma Mia!
8:00 pm - Stop-over at Mcdo for quick dinner.

8:30 pm - Enchanted Kingdom is closed for a Company event. Group decides to proceed to Tagaytay. Tony takes over the wheel.

9:20 pm - Arrived at a candle-lit Bag of Beans Tagaytay. Last 10 mins of Earth Hour. Had hot choco and chicken & mushroom pie. Group played "Hot, Cute or Not".

10:30 pm - Moved to the Ridge to savor more of the cool breeze.

11:20 pm - To Manila! Tony drives again.

12:00 am - Quick wiwi break at Shell SLEX. Got back on the driver's seat.

Sunday

1:00 am - Arrived back in Mandaluyong after running over a dead dog in C5, and dangerously making a left turn and not slowing down in a round-about. All passengers are still alive, shaken, but alive ;)

1:30 am - Private scene. I see a different side of a friend. To borrow MGG's word, I saw his "humanity".

2:00 am - Went to the rooftop again to chat and drink with Tony and the kid. Another tenant having a drinking spree there. Tall guy in a striped white polo shirt looks cute. Flirt mode on. Tony and the kid moves to the other side of the rooftop. I stay in place, 5 meters away from the other tenant's group. Tenant invites me to join in. Group asks if I have a girlfriend (see? nakakaloko pa rin ako ;) ) I flirt with the tall guy. Random chit-chat with the girls. Tenant tells me that tall guy is his bf, but they are open to threesomes ;) Weeee!!!

Another tenant re-joins the group. I move away from the group to talk to one of the drunken girls. Other tenant comes up to me and shouts "Do you even live here?". Apparently he was jealous that tenant with BF was talking to me. Mujerista in the group takes me to the elevator to escape. We hear glass doors shattering as we run.

3:30 am - We regroup in tenant with BF's unit. Freak suddenly appears and is still looking for me. Security is called. I hide in the closet. Fuck, back in the closet!!!

4:00 am - Freak leaves and is escorted to his unit. I finally come out of the closet ;) Tony and the kid arrives to save me ;) I decide to stay, the freak has left anyway, and there's another cute guy in the group.

5:00 am - I say goodbye to other cute guy in the hallway ;)

5:30 am - Sleep time for the wicked.

12:30 pm - Drove back home via EDSA.

1:30 pm - Arrived home safely.

Landi lang ;)

I take public transportation going to work. It takes me 1.5 hours to reach Makati in the morning. That's a 30-minute jeepney ride, then an hour FX taxi ride to Ayala Ave.

This is usually the most unpleasant part of my day. The jeepney passes through the most dusty roads in Manila. And for some strange reason, jeepney drivers go berserk at a certain street in my route, all hell breaks loose. Now the FX taxi ride is more unpredictable, the comfort of your ride depends on how well the airconditioning works and which seat you get. I just think it's so cruel to fit 4 people in one row in a van (especially if there's an alpha-male wannabe who spreads his legs as if his balls are the size of melons). My only comfort is having my Iphone and shutting off the rest of the world till I reach Makati.

About 2 months ago, respite came in the form of a 6-foot tall hunky, friendly guy. I was seated at the back row of a van, and he was on the other side facing my direction.

I was mesmerized. I was stealing glances of him most of the ride, and he would catch me each time ;) but he would just smile back.

For about 2 weeks, I'd see him in the terminal waiting in line, we would ride the same van at times (though on different rows). I continued to steal glances, and still get caught.


Until one morning, we were seated at the back of an FX taxi, just the two of us, one on each side. I do my usual glance and smile, and he would still smile back. I said to myself "this is my chance." So I mustered all the courage I had, typed a message in my Iphone and showed it to him.


He smiles back again, raises his thumb, and hands me back my phone.

Ay shit, straight pala, wehehe. (friendly lang si kuya ;) )

Alam na!!!

Every Sunday noon after going to church, my older brother's family would go to our house to have lunch (I live with my mom and younger brother). It is our opportunity to catch up with what's going on with each other's lives. I also get to see my hyper-active, maldita niece (nagmana sa tita, wehehe).

After lunch, most of us would either watch the noontime variety shows or movies on DVD. My younger brother would usually continue playing with RPGs on his PC. This is lazy time with the family, we would just do whatever pops into mind, no planned activities whatsoever.

Just a few Sundays ago, my older brother bought some peach mango pie from Jollibee, which comes with a free newspaper. So aside from the TV and movie, we were also busy reading and passing around the newspaper.

A few days before that, I remember a friend retweeting Adel Tamano's post that he was coming out with an article on homophobia. I thought it would be an interesting read, so I was browsing through the different sections of the papers looking for Adel's column (syempre, pasimple pa, kasi baka mabasa ng la familia yung title ng article).

So I finally found Adel's article and was casually reading it (kahit napapangiti ako sa 1st paragraph nung article). And then my kuya suddenly stands up and passes by my side looking at what I was reading, and then he blurts out "O bakit mo yan binabasa? Baka ma-offend ka." ("Why are you reading that? You might get offended).

Waaahhhhhh!!!! Alam na ni kuya!!!!

Me and my big .......

...... mouth!

........................

It all started innocently, I was having merienda with my co-managers at work, then 2 of my bosses decided to share our table.

Small talk, small talk, yada yada yada.

Topic suddenly shifts to co-manager and why she doesn't have a boyfriend. Oh, I love this kind of conversations, I love roasting people, one question after another, don't let the roastee recover, hihihi.

"And how about you London Boy?" asks Boss #1.

Fuck!

"Ah, hmmm, aahhh...." (what the fuck!)

"Oh my, are you interested in another species?" asks Boss #2. (Translation: You like men?!?)

London Boy - smiling, blushing (damn London! I was incapable of blushing when I left Manila 2 years ago!)

"I don't need someone permanent in my life."

"What???" - Boss #1 and 2 and co-manager.

"No plans of getting married? How about kids? Marriage is such a blessing" - Boss #1

"I have a niece, boss. And I can get a different blessing each week. Why settle for one?"

Oooppsss .... (was that too much to say?)

Awkward silence.

Silly grins.

Rrringggg, rrringgg.

"Excuse me boss, client call :)"

Journey to the Heart of Fabulous

"Puts the Glory into Gloria and the Gay into Gaynor.”

Michael Coveney - The Independent

I love musicals.

During my two-year stint in London, the West End was my playground. It was a fabulous piece of gay heaven. I only watched one non-musical, but Josh Hartnett's half naked body (about 2 meters away from where I was seated) was more than enough to compensate for the lack of songs.

Out of all the musicals I've seen, there is only one that I watched 4 times, it's the gayest musical in the West End, "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". (the stage version of the camp classic movie "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert")





With songs such as "Downtown, I've Never Been To Me, Venus, Go West, I Say a Little Prayer, and I Will Survive", how gayer can it get? See this for the complete list of musical numbers.

I first watched the show with a gay friend I met in London, I can still remember how ecstatic I felt after, I exclaimed "Ang sarap maging bakla". The musical was set in the mid-90s, a time when homosexuality was not as socially acceptable as it is now, so it was empowering to see 3 drag queens motoring their way throughout Australia (from Sydney to Alice Springs), facing discrimination, racism and bigotry, and overcoming them. I distinctly remember what Bernadette said to Tick and Felicia after seeing their vandalized bus: "Never apologize for our choices my friends." (I later found out that this line was updated to reflect current sentiments, the line used to be "Never forget the cost of our choices my friends", good thing the creators decided to do this as the original line would have been too depressing)


Another reason (well, the bigger reason =) ) why I watched the show over and over was the actor who played Felicia, Oliver Thornton. Felicia Jollygoodfellow is the most flambouyant one out of the 3 drag queens, and the hottest one as well (Guy Pearce, another hottie, played the part in the film). See for yourselves.


Too bad I can't find a photo of him doing the "Hot Stuff" number where he was just wearing a red thong ;)

On my 4th time, I was finally able to see him up-close at the stage door, kilig!

Here are my favorite scenes in the musical:

Felicia singing an aria on top of Priscilla

"MacArthur's Park" with the human cupcakes

"Go West"

"I Will Survive"

"I Love the Nightlife" with Jason Donovan (right) wearing the Oscar award winning "flip-flop" costume

The funniest funeral scene ever ("Don't Leave Me This Way")


Three Cocks in a frock on a rock singing "We Belong" after Felicia's "Kylie Medley"

Where can you find a disco ball inside a theater? Yup, Priscilla has one!


And this is the fabulous shirt I bought from the gift shop, can't wait to wear it!


So to every gay guy out there who's visiting London, don't forget to watch and enjoy Priscilla! - "Colour your world!"

You'll never see a dark cloud hanging round me.
Now there is only blue skies to surround me.
There's never been a gray day since you found me.
Everything I touch is turning to gold.

Oh, you can colour my world with sunshine yellow each day!
Oh, you can colour my world with happiness all the way!
Just take the green from the grass and the blue from the sky up above!
And if you colour my world just paint it with your love!
Just colour my world.

Just as long as I know you're thinking of me,
there'll be a rainbow always up above me.
Since I found the one who really loves me,
everything I touch is turning to gold.

So you can colour my world with sunshine yellow each day!
Oh, you can colour my world with happiness all the way!
Just take the green from the grass and the blue from the sky up above!
And if you colour my world just paint it with your love!
Just colour my world.
Um.

Sunshine yellow.
Orange blossums.
Laughing faces
everywhere!
Yeah!

Oh, you can colour my world with sunshine yellow each day!
Oh, you can colour my world with happiness all the way!
Just take the green from the grass and the blue from the sky up above!
And if you colour my world just paint it with your love.
Just colour my world.
Colour my world.
Oh, colour my world.
Colour my world!

Relieved

So after four tests, namely:

1. Urinalysis
2. Ultra-sound
3. CT Scan
4. X-ray of the spine

the doctor finally gave me a clean bill of health.

Sorry if I was whining in twitter about it, I was really scared. At first they thought it was kidney stones, then an enlarged prostate, then an injury to the spine.

In fairness to me, this was the first time I was subjected to this many tests in diagnosing just one illness. But I've learned a valuable lesson, don't stress too much until you've actually found out that something is wrong.

And so the doctor's final conclusion was: it's stress-related and I need some exercise. Great!!!