I Lost My Baby!!!

Exactly one (1) week had passed that I mourned the loss of my baby. I havent got the guts to write about the loss because I was still hurting and in mourning. Now that its been a week when it happened, I think its time for me to bring closure and start living my life to the fullest again. Life is too short to be wasted thinking about my lost love, I have to move on and moving on I did.

Still confused about who I'm talking about? Its my new cellphone, Nokia E71. I got it in the Philippines when I visited there last August. After almost two months of glorious usage, I lost it due to my carelessness. I can't blame any other person or any circumstance but myself. I unknowingly left it, of all places, inside the cubicle of a restroom in my workplace. I worked graveyard shift from Wednesday through Saturday. It was around 4am, Sunday that the call of nature kept bugging me. Since I'm addicted with my baby, I brought it along with me to listen some music but when I checked the incoming messages, I got plenty unread text messages waiting to be opened. Have you experienced the calm that you feel after that huge rush of waste coming out of your system? I felt the same way and I thought I slept while inside the cubicle. Thinking that I was inside the restroom for quite a while, I quickly did the finishing touches and rushed out of the cubicle and back to my work. We were quite busy at that time so I havent noticed that my poor baby was left behind on top of the toilet paper dispenser mounted on the wall. I purposely placed it on top of the dispenser becasue I didnt want it to slip out of my uniform's breast pocket.

I only remembered about my phone after about two (2) hours had passed. I ran back to the restroom and my baby was nowhere to be found. I tried calling my number several times and nobody answered. I even left a voice message hoping that the person who found it would be able to open it...just trying to shoot the stars here. After several attempts, it finally went immediately to my voice mailbox, meaning my phone was disabled either by turning the power off or opened it and took out the battery.

Immediately that day, I went to the phone store where I first signed up with my cellular phone carrier. I told them what happened and asked them if I could get a new SIM card to be used with my old phone, the LG Shine. They were able to do a SIM swap therefore I could still use my phone number with all the bundled subscription plans intact. The old SIM card in my lost phone will be disabled. Adding more insult to injury, while I was still in the store, a guy came in and ask the sales associate how to activate a phone that he just found in a bus. The owner must have left it there. Anybody could buy a new SIM card and put it inside any phone making it useable again. Back in my mind (while silently sobbing...wiping invisible tears...) I thought that's what my baby's founder would do in order to activate it.

A close friend of mine told me to stop the senseless mourning on my part and stop crying over spilled milk. Hey, I love my baby and I'm crazy about it. If you cant undestand why I was feeling this way, go to nokia.com, search for Nokia E71 and see for yourself. By the way, I'm looking at Nokia E71 right now at Amazon.com and start playing the idea of getting another baby for myself...hmmmmm.

Another New Toy

While in the Philippines, particularly in Cebu City, I happen to see several cellphone companies setting up shops in the malls. This triggered my curiousity to check on some new and cool phones. There are several new phones from LG, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia. I particularly remembered before I left Las Vegas for this vacation, I happen to shop around in Fashion Show Mall and saw a Nokia smartphone that cost about $1000. I vividly remember that model number and its the Nokia E71, the latest in Nokia's E-series of smart phones. It was newly released last July and the supply was still limited but I happened to grab one for myself. It only cost me less than half the price of the one I saw in Las Vegas.

This particularly is a cool phone for me since I've been wanting to own a smartphone. I was inclined to buy a blackberry before but I ended up with LG Shine instead. Now that I have this new E71 phone, I got to familiarize again with its functions. It has a full querty keyboard which makes it easier to send text messages or email. It's a quadband world phone that allowed me to just put in my sim card of my carrier here in the States and it all worked fine. Aside from my expectations from a smartphone like SMS & MMS capability and email as well as calendar, calculator and conversion software it has a complete connectivity functions. You can connect the device using bluetooth, infrared, USB connectors and has WLAN that means easier transfer and sharing of files as well as direct access to the Internet while you're on a hot spot. There are a lot of extras like a 3.2 megapixel camera and videocam with a flash, map locator and GPS navigator as well.

I can say a lot of my new phone but you got to see it to believe it. You can go online and check it out, too.

Vacation In Maasin City

I recently had my grand vacation in my hometown, Maasin City. As I previously posted my travels on my way to my final destination, I havent got a chance to post all the details that was happening in Maasin. Here are some of the highlights of my vacation in Maasin.

Me and my friend Willie actually spent 5 days in Cebu. I met my former officemates while I was working in Fairchild Semiconductor. These were my closest friends in Cebu. We also attended Gayle & Cesar's church wedding. On the 6th day we moved on to Maasin where we stayed in Villa Romana Hotel for the next 10 days.

It was fiesta time for Maasin City so there were a lot of invitations and activities that were going on. We had our feeding and gift-giving project dubbed "Pamistang Gasa Sa Pamilya 2" sponsored by Kaba-Maasin Las Vegas, a group of Maasinhons in Las Vegas where I belong. I also had a chance to have dinner with my former high school classmates. It was kind of a mini-reunion for us. The day after the Maasin fiesta, we had our Paloma Clan Reunion. This is a family reunion on my mother's side. We had a blast as we got to meet our relatives that we had never met before. We had also a chance to tour the southern part of my province. We stopped from one municipality to another and checked on what they can offer to visitors like us. I can see that the province of Southern Leyte is now doing something to improve the tourism industry. I hope this would go on and the government would not stop supporting the programs being started. Willie requested that we should also visit and tour the northern part of Leyte so we went to Tacloban which is around 3 hours drive. Noel, my brother was kind enough to render his services. He's a doctor but he didnt mind at all to be our driver and tourist guide at the same time. While in Tacloban, we visited the MacArtur Park where they depicted the Leyte landing as being promised by Gen Douglas MacArthur to free the Philippines from Japanese occupation. Who would forget Doug's famous line of "I shall return!" We also went to see the famous San Juanico Bridge, a major link between Samar and Leyte. With this bridge, it is now possible to travel by land from the northern tip of Luzon to the southern tip of Mindanao. The highlight for Willie during that visit to Tacloban was the Sto. Nino Shrine Museum which was previously owned by former first family, the Marcoses. Lastly we also celebrated my mother's birthday whith the whole family before we moved on to Manila.

We spent 2 days in Manila. We got the chance to meet our friends there. We went to Batangas to meet a friend of mine but we never stayed overnight. After our short stint in Manila, it was time to depart for the United States. While in flight, that was when we discovered how exhausted we were. Going back to Las Vegas is a huge counterpoint to our excitement when we were still on our way to the Philippines. We spent 3 weeks in the Philippines but I still feel it was not enought. There were so many places and people to visit but too little time. Looking forward to the next round.

First Day In Cebu - Aug 5

The longest part of the trip is done. We arrived in Manila International Airport around 3:50am of Aug 5th. We went through the immigration without any difficulty so we proceeded to the domestic terminal where we have to wait for our flight to Cebu. One thing that I immediately noticed is the muggy feeling of the air outside the terminal. I was sweating even if its still very early in the morning. Well, I came prepared for this so after the various inspections in the domestic airport and we were already settled in the pre-departure area, I changed with another shirt that I brought in my had carry luggage.

We arrived in Cebu around 8:30am and we were met by my brother and his family. I spent the whole day with them in Cebu and then sent them off to the pier where they took a boat ride for Maasin City, actually my final destination. I remained in Cebu and will not move to Maasin City until Sunday, Aug 10th.

The Longest Part Of The Trip

We arrived in Vancouver, Canada safely at around 10:15pm from Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport. We are now waiting for about 1 1/2 hours before we can board again our plane on our way to Manila. This would be the longest portion of the trip before we will arrive to our final destination which is Cebu. This trip alone would take about 16 hours to arrive in Manila. For now I'm quite sleepy since I worked the night before but because of the excitement for the trip, I cannot get even a wink earlier.

First Leg Of My Trip To The Philippines - Aug 3, 2008

We arrived at the Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport at around 3pm. We were helped by a friend at the Philippine Airlines check in counter so we have an easier and faster check in process for our luggages. From Las Vegas, departing approximately 7:30pm, we will have our first stop over at Vancouver, Canada and then we will proceed to Manila for the longest travel time of 16 hrs. So far everything is good and we are waiting for our departure.

Going Back To My Roots

It seems a long time already but my last trip back to the Philippines was February last year, 2007. This year I will be visiting my home country again this coming August. I have three main purpose for this trip, the first one is to attend the Maasin Fiesta on August 15th in honor of Our Lady Of The Assumption. The second purpose of my trip is to attend the church wedding of my friends who are already residing here in Las Vegas. The wedding will be in Cebu so I will spend 5 days in Cebu so that I could also meet my old friends from my previous work. My third purpose is to attend the Paloma Clan reunion on August 16th. This is a family reunion on my mother's side. This is quite a big event for our family since the Paloma clan from Maasin City will be the host for this reunion. My parents are also going with me on this trip as well as my best friend Willie. I'm also planning to meet my high school classmates and hopefully we could find time to meet up and maybe have fun for one evening. On the last 4 days in the Philippines, I'm planning to go to Manila with my friend. This is not his first visit to Manila and Cebu but his first ever in visiting my hometown, Maasin City.
I'll make it a point to update this blog for the whole duration of my trip.