Am not saying I regret it, on the contrary I am glad that it helped me to stop smoking.

Unlike the hundred of thousands other smokers who wanted to stop but can’t, I simply decided not to light a cigarette at all when I learned that I might be having the dreaded C. Good Lord, the doctor was wrong.

Just like any other former smoker, there are instances, not once but a lot of times that I am tempted to have that just one puff for old time’s sake. To marvel on that white, grayish smoke before it disappears in thin air. When these times happens, I treat myself for a candy or a coffee. Sometimes, I walk around, talk to friends, and if its available I pet my dog. Anything to distract me for a moment and it works. At least for me.

Family and friends support also did wonder in my quest. The incessant prodding of my sister of the ill effects of nicotine and the thousand other chemicals associated with tobacco including the gory graphics it does to a body, and your-mouth-smell-like-a-chimney comment from my partner are more than enough to finally fore-go.

I am proud and happy, that I am winning this battle for two years now. Its possible even without that crazy doctor from Turkey, you just have to decide.

The car was in an accident almost three months ago, it’s not much as a matter of fact, the dealer repaired it for only a week. Hooray!

And thank goodness, the car have insurance. I only have to shell out two thousand pesos for the participation fee. Well, of course that was after paying the insurance premium which sliced quite a chunk in my salary.

The dealer did a fine job, no trace of that freak accident. My only problem now is that the gas meter indicates that it’s running low on gas, if not almost nil. Tsk!

Hahaha, silly me! I didn’t fill up before I let the dealer work on my dear trusted civic. I just hope it has enough to get me to the nearest gas station.

Anyway, I can’t go on yet with my usual activity. My car plate is restricted on the road from 7am to 7pm every Friday. It’s what we call in layman’s word here in Philippines as ‘coding’.

Since today is Friday, I’ll be hanging out with some friends later. There will be a little beer and coffee after.

It’s only half past five, more than enough time to write this, have a snack here in Mcdonalds with free wifi (thanks mcdo!). My only complain, it’s f*@&!ng freezing here.

Brrrrr!

What seems to be wrong? My bed looks and feels the same. There’s no disturbance in my routine.

Could it be that is the problem? Routine?

Last night, I was fortunate to be sleeping before the clock strikes twelve. But again, I was awaken for no apparent obvious reason to me, around one o’clock in the morning.

Frustrated not to be able to get back to sleep quickly, I watched national geographic on tv instead. Predator CSI episode Mutant Devil was on air. Half way through the program, I became restless, and decided to read yesterday’s papers instead.

Nothing seems to be interesting, except my mattress.

This is the problem when you stay up very late, you can hear lots of nocturnal sounds that is really creepy. So as not to scare myself, I headed back to my room and tried to sleep again, it was 4 am anyway. I checked on my mobile phone and found out I have one message. My friend couldn’t sleep aswell.

I wonder, how many of us were in the same dilemma?

Either it’s for sex, work, competition, driving, wedding, funeral, spa music. Name it, there is always a certain music for a certain event.

Though of course music just like photographs are subjective. To each his own.

When I work, I usually play bossa kind of music. I have a wide range of collections. On second thought, bossa are not just my work music, I listen to it while driving, while in the gym in my ipod, while having coffee in my favorite chill out place. As a matter of fact, while writing this, Bossa ‘n R is playing.

I like Guns ‘n Roses in their prime and even up to now. And I love the bossa rendition of their songs. Patience, november rain, don’t cry, live and let die, welcome to the jungle, sweet child ‘o mine, paradise city. I love them all!

Calling me a bossa fanatic is probably an understatement. I think what I have is a bossa addiction.

As the usual procedure, the technician ran a virus scan on my thumb drive, and copied the pictures for printing once cleared. I usually print in matte  with no color correction.

While at the lab, there were string of customers coming, some were just inquiring, some were in for business. I find them amusing and entertaining. It’s like going back in time.

—–

Customer 1: Excuse me po, my film ba kayo para sa camera ko? (Excuse me, I like to buy a film for my camera?) (customer shows her camera.)

Salesman: Ay sorry Ma’am, pero disposable po yan camera nyo. (Eeer, sorry ma’am but that’s a disposable camera.)

Customer 1: Huh? Ibig mong sabihin di to pwedeng lagyan ng film? (Huh? You mean, you can’t put film in this?)

Salesman: Amm, ma’am isang gamitan lang po yan, disposable po kasi. (Amm, ma’am your camera is one-time use only because its a disposable camera.)

Customer walk out the lab sadly.

—–

Customer 2: Excuse me, meron kayong film para sa polaroid? (Excuse me, do you have film for polaroids?)

Saleman: Ay ma’am wala po. (Ay ma’am, we don’t sell one.)

—–

Customer 3: Nagpriprint pa ba kayo ng film? (Are you still doing film printing?)

Salesman: Yes sir. Opo. (Yes sir, we still do.)

—–

It’s a relief that some photo labs still caters to film printing. At least those rolls wont just end up being eaten by molds. Camera films are still very alive, at least to some.

We have been friends for more than two decades already.

We are witnesses to each other’s first. First crush, first kiss, first boyfriends, first failure, first heartbreak, first menstrual period, first job, first, first , first.

We are witnesses to each other’s most. Most embarrassing moment, most tear-breaking moment, most lauded moment, most funniest moment, most scariest moment.

We were together when the 1990 earthquake with magnitude 7 struck Manila.

We also have our share of disagreements but at the end of it all better judgment of our friendship always prevail.

So what do we usually talk about?

Our lives, what’s new and old, dreams and frustrations. Other peoples lives, yes when girls meet, we gossip. Who’s with whom now, what’s the real deal with old flings and enemies.

But we are not shallow, we dwell into life changing topics too.

We always chat over a cup of starbucks or seattle’s best coffee. Three hour talk is never enough.

I’m telling you, we girls really talk!

Fortunately, I was awaken by a phone call from a friend. It was 7am anyway, time to wake up and stretch those muscles.

Dreams are always are crazy, beyond logic, weird, and crazy (oops I said that already!).

I remember my dream started in a school concert party, I was hanging out with a couple of friends, then suddenly I was in the back alley talking to some weird guy, it was so dark but I saw cockroaches on the wall! Lots of them and crawling…eww!

Curious, I checked http://dreammoods.com and this is what they say about cockroaches; ‘To see a cockroach in your dream, signifies your need for renewal, rejuvenation and self-cleansing of your psychological, emotional, or spiritual being. You need to reevaluate major aspects of your life.’

Great, that describes my current situation in one sentence!

Next thing I knew, I was already in the beach, surfing! There were more than two dozens of us, waddling through the water and waiting for the big wave to come. The wave came, but it wasn’t big, just enough.

I guess, I had enough surfing and was packing my things when the surf leader (yes, there’s a leader in the pack) summoned me and gave me a shirt. A cool surfing shirt! I’ts a dream so I guess it’s just normal that I can walk on water! Well, that’s how I got the shirt!

Then while on shore, my concert friends appeared again and was asking me about my presence in another concert party, then in a sudden shift of scene, we were on my car and was driving home. Tsk, its getting insane!

Just like Armageddon, there were thousand of people on the streets, fleeing from something none of us knew (we came from a party and surfing, how can it be so chaotic outside?)

Then suddenly, we were on a ship manned by military men. We were cruising first on sea water, then on ice water. Odd, odd, odd!

As if, I haven’t had enough craziness, the icebergs were tansforming  into robots! Like they were the decepticons of the Transformer movie! How did I knew that they were the decepticons? Simply because the autobots were there trying to save us!

Madness at its finest!

At this point, my mobile phone rang (good heavens!) and I was drawn back to reality, which by the way I prefer better.

But its kinda left me thinking, were our ship saved from the decepticons?

It’s around 7pm, so the commuters were mostly students and workers. It was rush hour and I am fortunate to be able to get a sit. There were many people standing in front of me but these three young males, presumably all college students really caught my attention. One wears a culinary uniform from College of Saint Benilde (CSB)  (that’s what his patch says), the other wears a uniform from University of Santo Tomas, and the other wears casual clothes and was with his girlfriend who was seated beside me.

What do these three guys have in common? Answer: They all consistently checks their reflections on the trains’ glass and does different poses like models being photographed!

—–

Guy 1 from CSB: Checked his profile and nods everytime he does, checked his stance, does different facial expressions from fierce to boy-next-door look, side glance, front, another side glance. Checked if his backpack looks good on his yeah, back. Smiled like a Monalisa, did a little head bang and moved his lips like he’s singing something inside his head. Fixed his uniform and yes did several poses again.

—–

Guy 2 from UST: This guy is fairly dark skinned, wears a  skin head, have a nice set of eyes and stands around 5ft and 7inches. Unlike guy 1, guy 2 doesn’t make any body movements except with his eyes and head.

He turns his head left, right, and front. Does the twist-tilt-and turn of his head and projects with his eyes. Checks which eye attitude works best for him and which side of  his face compliments this. Tilted face, downward, slightly tilted towards left, right, upward. And yes, he does the James Dean look too! Dang! Through out the trip until I got off, his hands were just in his pocket.

—–

Guy 3: This guy with a girlfriend is also dark skinned, nice set of eyes too but unlike the first two guys, this guy only checks his hair! Fixed his hair like a zillion times! Brushed up with his hands, pulled the bangs down, brushed up again. Check his side burns, then brush his hair up, pulled bangs down, then brush up, and side burns again!

Sometimes he speaks with his girlfriend who was busy checking herself on her desk mirror! Oh yes, she carries one!

I wonder what happens to public etiquette?

In public, it is not nice to…

…comb your hair.

…bring out your desk mirror and check your profile. This also includes applying your makeup.

…check your reflection indiscretely.

Period.

E-cigarettes however are not smoke cessation product. But it mimics the psychology associated with the smoking of a tobacco cigarette.

As per http://www.ecigaretteschoice.com/ and http://www.articlesbase.com/, it feels like the tobacco cigarette only smoother and cleaner, it has different flavors, the smoke it produces are just condensation and does not have the acrid smell associated with tobaccos. It has no harmful chemicals that are present in tobacco nicotine when inhaled.

It doesn’t burn and the smoke it produces dissipates immediately.

There are lots of choices too. It has starter set, refillables, disposables, e-cigarettes e-liquids. Flavors varies from menthol, apple, chocolate, vanilla, coffee, and of course tobacco. You also have a choice between mild to strong.

And just like a mobile phone, it has a charger, a battery indicator, a pouch. A car charger also comes handy.

Though the initial spending is quite expensive, USD 89 for a starter kit, it is nothing comparable to having cancer due to smoking, smoker’s breath, wrinkled face and other ill effects produced by tobacco smoking.

However there have been a lot of debates whether e-cigarettes are as advantageous and are less harmful as it claims.

Why not marriage?

Partlist 1-ABAA (Ako Babaeng Astig Aasenso) proposed an enactment of a law that will put a 10-year expiration on marriage and is renewable upon the couple’s evaluation of their relationship.

This proposal arise in the many cases the party is handling on broken marriages. With the renewable marriage the couple is spared from high cost of filling a legal separation or annulment, as per the party’s spokesperson.

The party’s proposal is noble but it is highly debatable. Certainly the church will opposed 100% since the doctrines of the church practices sanctity of marriage. What God binds no man shall separate.

There is social impact too. Since marriage is deemed to be permanent and binding until yes, the other party dies there will be a great connotation that the couple involved may not work for the betterment of their relationship and just wait for the 10-year expiry period.

Our society might have more broken marriages than a couple thriving to improve their relationship.

Though it is sad and painful when parents, couples separates most especially if there are children involved, this is a reality of life. Not most couples are Cinderellas and Princes Charming who lives happily ever after. Sometimes in some cases separation is the best and logical option. However, I argue that having a marriage with an expiry date is the best answer in tackling the situation.

If the high cost of filing a legal separation and/or annulment triggers this proposal, then may I suggest that the proposal be based on lowering the cost of filing. The option of separation should also be included in the seminars couples attend before getting married, either in church or in state recognized functions.

By doing so, married couples will know their options in case their marriage is walking out of the door.