The Admirer I Never Met and the Flowers I Never Received

Years ago, while working in Makati, I got a call in the office from this guy who asked me how I liked the flowers he sent.  I said, “what flowers?”.  He said, “oh, you didn’t get it?”  To this day, I still don’t know whether he was pulling my leg or there were really flowers that were delivered somewhere else.  I thought he was going to find out what happened and then let me know but he never mentioned it again.  Anyway, we started talking, I can’t remember what about really but I did ask him how he knew me – my name, when, and where did he see me.  He didn’t give me a straight answer which was really weird.  He did give me his name and his office building.  We were not next door to each other although my building was also in Gil Puyat.  My office was at Comfoods building and his was at the Pacific Star building, assuming he was telling the truth.  I remember he had a really nice voice.  Very male and…. sexy?  I don’t know, but he sounded really attractive.  After a few minutes of talking we hung up and I thought that was that.

A couple of days later I got a call in the office again.  It was a Saturday so we were working half day.  I said I “got a call” because it was not him who made it but his assistant.  He asked her to call me to set-up, essentially, a date with me.  I believe the exact words she used was “he wants to see you”.  I was taken aback and honestly it did not sit well with me.  For one thing, it sounded like an order and for another, asking your assistant to arrange your date?  I really did not know how to take it.  Looking back, it sounded like I was acting a scene out of a Harlequin Romance novel.  Like a Lynne Graham novel, almost.  Unfortunately, I had stopped reading those kind of novels at that point and it felt weird to received such an invite. So, my response was, “he asked you to arrange a date with me?  Where is he?”  The assistant sounded surprised by my response and kind of stammered a little and asked me if I wanted him to give me a call when he was free.   I told her yes.  I wasn’t about to discuss whether or not I wanted to go on a date with him with his assistant.  

He called me a few minutes later and told me he wanted to meet at Shangri-la.  I forgot now whether it was to be at the bar, cafe, or restaurant.  He said his driver will pick me up wherever I wanted him to pick me up.  He further told me that I could bring a friend if it made me more comfortable.  I guess at that time I just really did not know how to react and I found the whole thing so bizarre that I refused to see him.  I made up an excuse that I was dressed casually and that I lived in San Pedro, Laguna (that was true) and didn’t want to go all that way to change.  Finally, I told him that I was quitting my job and going to my home city and so any further contact would just be pointless.

To this day, I still wonder…..was he married but wanted me to be his mistress…..single…..good looking….tall……rich (he sounded like it)……I think he was smart…….where did he see me…….how did he know my name…….?????  What happened to the flowers?  Should I have met with him?

Not so random

Well, it’s been 6 months since I posted on here. I did not mean to take that long but there is always something. I got a little busy and then October 1st happened. Of the 58 people who died in the Route 91 Music Festival shooting in Las Vegas, one of them was a friend. He worked for me when he was a student, joined the staff full time when he graduated and then moved on. We still got together once a year though when our former boss would come to town. This year, he won’t be with us.

It was surreal. I just got into the office the morning of October 2nd and my former boss was calling me. I was not able to pick up because I was talking to someone else. Then, my other friend texted me the (horrible) news. That was what my former boss was calling about. She found out first. OMG, OMG, was all I kept saying. He was so young. He went through some tough times and he just turned his life around. Life was good.

That once a year get together is in two weeks. We will remember him. Talk about the good times. Remember his one liner comments and laugh. Assure ourselves that he is in a better place.

Driving in Provence Without a GPS or Mobile Data

My two girlfriends and I did a France and Switzerland trip a few years back. Our bases were Paris, Nice, Avignon, and Geneva. We took the train from Paris to Nice. We also took trains during our day trips to Monte Carlo and Cannes. We had to rent a car for our Avignon stay though because there were no trains to the places we wanted to go.

My friend Leigh rented the car but could not decide whether or not to reserve a GPS with it or rent the GPS here in the US. In the end, she decided to just ask for a GPS when we go pick up our rental. Unfortunately, the rental car company ran out of GPS’ when we picked up the car. So, we had no GPS, no data on our mobiles, and the map in the car was not very useful.

It took us a while to find the freeway to Aix-en-Provence, but we did eventually. Aix was where we planned to stop for lunch and look around a little bit before proceeding to Avignon. Actually, to Vedene which is a suburb of Avignon. In Aix, we made sure that we had lunch at a place with wifi. We googled the directions to our place in my iPad and wrote it down. The map saved on the screen even when we went out of range so that was very helpful.

On our way to Aix from Nice

Aix-en-Provence

The problem with the google directions was that the places did not all match with the signs on the road when we’re off the freeway and going through roundabouts. Why is it that they list all these different places on the roundabout signs? I get it that you can just keep going around the circle until you figure out which one is your exit, but coming from a place where there are not a lot of roundabouts, you tend to forget that option and feel the pressure of finding your exit. So, on that trip, we did a lot of circling the roundabouts two or three times before finding our exit.

Asking for directions was also a challenge. People really tried to be helpful but a lot of them did not speak english. We tried going into a post office once and no one spoke english. They tried to draw the directions for us but we were challenged to understand it. We tried the grocery store next, but neither employees or customers spoke english either. The first two days, we made sure we went back to our place before dark for fear of getting lost.

Leigh and I took turns driving. One day, it was my turn and we were heading back to Vedene from Uzes. I took the wrong exit in the roundabout and we figure I am just going to turn back around once we get to the next roundabout. Well, it felt like we’ve driven on that road for miles without getting across a roundabout and we were getting nervous. We really did not want to get to Nimes. So, we started looking for a side road so that we can use it to turn around but we could not find any either. We were slightly panicking now. I spotted a dirt road and turned there thinking I could find a space wide enough to do a u-turn and get back on the main road and back the way we came – to the roundabout where I missed my exit. Well, I picked the wrong dirt road. It was in the middle of a vineyard. I ended doing a u-turn on the first wide space I could find. I mean, a space which I thought was wide enough for me to do a u-turn. It took a few tries. Needless to say, the bushes added some scratches to the rental car. We did a collective sigh of relief once we found our way again.

When I turned on that dirt road

On our way to Pont-du-Gard and Uzes

Shop in Uzes

Then, there was that time we drove down to old town Avignon. In addition to parking being a premium in the walled city, I really did not want to deal with the extra narrow one way streets and not knowing exactly where I would end up. Sure enough, I took the wrong exit again and ended up going through right smack in the middle of the walled city. It was good fun though. At least when I think back about it.

Pont Saint-Bénézet – Avignon

Castillon-du-Gard

Castillon-du-Gard

Of Porches and BMWs

(This event took place back in 2010 which I have written down in my journal. The kids are now teenagers but not driving yet. Close though.)

Hubby and I were charged to drive 5 kids – 2 girls and 3 boys – to a party earlier tonight. Since we wouldn’t fit in one car, we drove separately. I got the girls (no, they’re not sisters) and hubby got the boys. While driving, the girls had this conversation:

Girl 1: When I’m 16, I’m going to drive a Lexus.
Girl 2: I don’t like Lexus!
Girl 1: Oh, a BMW then!
Girl 2: I’m going to drive a Porsche!

Listening to them, I was amused and horrified at the same time. A 7 and an 8-year-old having a conversation about the cars they’re going to drive when they’re 16 with no idea how much those vehicles cost. I guess they go by what their parents drive and assume that they’re going to be driving the same cars. I entered into the conversation and told them that maybe at 16 they should not be driving Porsches and BMW’s. That maybe, they should wait until they’re done with school, earning good money and then drive the car they want to drive, buying it with their own money. They both responded that they need a car at 16 because they would then be driving themselves to places. I said I understand they would a need a car then but it doesn’t have to be the cars they mentioned but something cheaper but still reliable. I mentioned Kia as an example and they both said, “What is that?” Maybe I should have used Honda or Toyota as an example. Anyway, I went on lecturing but I think it didn’t register.

At the end of it, both girls were still really confident that they would get their BMW and Porsche at 16. Perhaps they will. The BMW kid will most likely get hers but I’m not too sure about the Porsche girl. What I’m sure though, is that she’s most likely going to throw a fit if she doesn’t get it.

I told hubby about the conversation while we were having dinner and he said he’s so glad that we do not have a girl. If we had, then we would probably be moving out of our neighborhood when our child gets closer to being a teenager. He thinks the pressure to have whatever your friends have is greater and more common in girls. Based on observation, I suppose that is true.

 

Landmarks

I generally become interested to visit places because I find the scenery pretty – cities, countryside, coasts and beaches, and all other sceneries. I see these places in movies and TV shows. I read them in books, travel magazines, blogs, and of course, from friends’ pictures and hearing their stories.
Actually, as a child, it started with reading fairy tales and finding similarities of the illustrations with that of the pictures in travel books. The discovery of those travel books really sparked my interest in traveling. I remember our librarian, who was also my math teacher, noticing my avid interest in those travel books. As soon as new volumes came in, she would immediately inform me and I was always the first one to borrow those books. It wasn’t until many years later that I got to see and visit (a few) of these places. There are still many more to go and I am very thankful for the opportunity, both to have been, and to be able to see more.
Anyway, while I get the most enjoyment in finding those little nooks and crannies where not many tourists abound, my interest, and I think for most of us, is always sparked by these familiar landmarks. Well, some may be a little less familiar than and for others but they are landmarks, nevertheless.

Seville – Plaza De Espana

Sintra – Pena Palace

Lisbon

Segovia

Venice

Perast

Lake Bled

Alhambra

Madrid

Budapest

Bath

London

Stockholm

Copenhagen

Dublin

Connemara

Cork – Blarney Castle

Cliffs of Moher

Avignon

Paris

Brussels – Atomium

Brussels – Grand Place

Manikin Pis

Athens

Athens

Athens

Windows

I have a semi-obsession with windows. Well, european style windows to be exact. I cannot get enough of them. I just think that they are very pretty and somehow, they always make me feel whimsical, for want of a better word. Inevitably, in the thousands of pictures I take while traveling, windows make up for a good portion of them.