2006 December | Mónica

Happy New Year!

December 31st, 2006 3:39 pm London, UK Leave a comment

Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo, Gott Nytt År, Strena Nova Godina and Manigong Bagong Taon!

Trg Bana, Main Square - Zagreb, Croatia

Another year has passed, and it has gone by so fast.
Like every year one does not know what to expect.
New experiences, new places and people to see.
Some things we now look back on and may feel regret.
Other things we never thought we would ever get to do.
Going skiing and learning Spanish was quite a shock to me too!
2006 was quite kind to me I must confess.
I have learned a lot and and also about myself.
I couldn’t have asked for anything less.
Though some dreams were not achieved in two thousand six,
there is nothing that two thousand seven can’t fix.
So I raise my glass and give a toast to this new year.
May I travel more, find love and have a stable career.
May our families’ lives continue to be fillled with happiness and good health.
And may all us unemployed have the last say…
Hiphip Hooraaaay!

Carsten Höller’s Slides @ Tate Modern

December 30th, 2006 1:35 pm Art, London, UK Leave a comment

The Carsten Höller’s Slide installations are found at the Tate Modern. A few days ago my sister’s Mother-in-law was really keen on checking it out. I had heard about it prior from my Welsh friend as well. There are 5 levels, the lower 2 levels are free and the higher levels you have to pay. When I heard about it before I was considering having a go. But when I saw photos of it being a covered tube and how high they were… I chickened out. I’d rather appreciate it from a far. It is rather amazingly done and well organized. The artist has managed to combining art with fun.

Monopoly on Boxing Day

December 26th, 2006 11:18 pm Quirky, London, UK, Holidays 2 comments

A day after Christmas, lunch at ping-pong, coffee at Sacred, come home to glögg, biscuits and a game of Monopoly. It has now become my favorite game. Probably because it is the only thing I am good at. I am still amazed how long this game can go on for. It was something I should have done during those looong hours of power-cuts in Manila.

Feliz Navidad

December 25th, 2006 9:24 am Quirky, London, UK, Holidays Leave a comment

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Maligayang Pasko, God Jul and Sretan Božić!

My family would always celebrate Christmas on the eve of the 24th. Usually it involved going to my grandparent’s house, and on the way, every year we would play Jose Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad for a laugh. We would have a dinner celebration for my grandfather’s birthday and then at midnight open pressies. About six years ago that changed slightly, we would go home after midnight and open presents in our house.

Recently, it has changed once again. Celebrating Christmas in my sister’s home involves tons of mouth watering Swedish food. Schnapps and a drinking song. Champagne and her mother-in-law who is more excited to open presents than the rest of us. It is just as well that we start early as there was one Christmas when we were 10 in the family and started at midnight, it took ages before we finished! We learned our lesson and have been starting at 9pm, even then with just 5 of us, we ended at 1am almost 2! It was a lot of fun and laughter. I am sure when I have a family of my own, celebrating Christmas will have some changes again.

To those who read my blog and has given me a present. Thank you very much. I loved all the things I recieved. And on that note… I leave you with one last picture. Do you think people know I like Spanish culture? Click here.

haha!!

I’m back in the foggy land

December 20th, 2006 6:41 pm Holidays Leave a comment

I’m back from my Zagreb holiday. Due to the weather condition in London my flight was delayed by two hours. It was extremely frustrating waiting for ages not knowing when my flight was going to be. But then when I arrived in Heathrow and my sister met me, I realised I was lucky that it was only delayed by two hours. Most flights were delayed a lot longer and some even cancelled.

Anyway, it’s been a tiring day, but I leave you with the view I had whilst having my lunch in the air. I couldn’t have asked for a better view whilst dinning — The Swiss Alps.

Advent Wreath

December 19th, 2006 1:56 pm Zagreb, Croatia, Holidays Leave a comment

In Trg Bana, the main square of Zagreb, lays an advent wreath. Each Sunday, just like the advent wreath, an additional candle is lit. I remember when I was in school (a catholic school), every year we would have to do the same. Each classroom would have an advent wreath to celebrate the advent season.

Yesterday, when we were in the square I noticed that all three candles were lit. Which means only one thing… 1 week till Christmas. And I am not done with my Christmas shopping, oh bugger.

Star Wars Monopoly

December 17th, 2006 10:59 pm Quirky, Zagreb, Croatia, Holidays 1 comment

Today in my visit in Zagreb, we spent the day with my brother’s other half’s family. Had a lovely lunch with her family including her grandfather. The spread of food was mouth watering and tasted even better. I’m stuffed like a turkey on a Christmas day!

After lunch my brother, Ivs and I decided to play Monopoly. My future sister-in-law has the Star Wars edition, which I thought was really funky! I got to be Darth Vader, She was R2D2 and my brother was Luke. Anyway, I don’t think I ever got to play Monopoly before. Perhaps, I was too young when everyone else was into it. So this was quite exciting for me. Haha! I started off clueless then Iva and my bro had to explain to me the game. I was hesitant to buy any property at first… but that all changed.

So yeah after a few hours of the game… and we called it quits… I am proud to say that the Indian business woman in me — won!! Woohoo! But between you and me, I think they let me win! haha!

If this was real money, I would have made £4000 today! I can’t wait for the next game!

Sladoled in Vincek

December 16th, 2006 12:41 am Uncategorized, Zagreb, Croatia, Holidays 1 comment

On the 4th day of my holiday, look what came to meee… a cup with my raffaello ice cream

Myself, Raffaello my love, and my other love — my brother

Bok! Hello from freezing cold Croatia! I have been having a great time so far, seeing family and sights. Not to mention food food food. I have much to tell in that department, but as I have forgotten my camera leed, that will have to wait until I return back to London. Thank God for camera phones, I say!

I finally was able to finally visit one of my favorite places in Zagreb, Vincek. This is where I discovered the best ice cream flavour (in my opinion) - Raffaello. It is based on a coconut chocolate which I love as well. So when I booked my ticket to come back to Zagreb, apart from seeing my brother and his other half, this was one of the things I couldn’t wait to be reunited with.

We couldn’t have picked a better day to have it, as it was one of THE coldest days in Croatia since I got here. It was 0 degrees outside. My brother asked me if I was sure if I wanted to have some ice cream. Fight fire with fire, I say! Well that’s what my mom always told me.

It was as good as I remembered it to be, and I assured my brother that wont be the last time we will be visiting Vincek as I will need my fix!

A funny story I must share while we were in Vincek. I had to “pay a visit”, and as I entered the loos I saw on my left a door, straight ahead a sink, and on my left an open door with a urinal and another door inside the urinal leading to the bathroom itself. So I made my way to the bathroom itself and did my business. Thinking to myself “that is an odd place to put a urinal… if a woman walks out, she is bound to see a man pissing!”. So when I was done I headed towards the sink and I saw a man washing his hands looking at me strangely. A woman standing by the closed first door I saw and I realised that the door she was standing infront of had a sign of a woman’s face. I wasn’t surprised that the man looked at me strangely as I have gotten quite a bit of that here as I am foreign. Out of curiousity I turned around and I saw that the door behind me had a sign with a man’s face on it. Hmm… no wonder he gave me strange looks! I had gone to the men’s toilet! I shurgged like a Frenchman and thought “Sod it, I am a tourist, I don’t care!”

Hvala! Dovijena!

Croatia Day 1

December 10th, 2006 11:34 pm London, UK, Zagreb, Croatia, Holidays 1 comment

The experiences of your holiday starts from the moment you reach the airport. I always seem to attract these quirky experiences. Little did I know this time in Heathrow would bring quite a few. I wasn’t quite ready for this as I have been alcohol induced and sleep deprived from the busy week and nights out.

It all started when I was in Heathrow airport and I was queuing for the checkpoint. They have this new pre-security check before the checkpoint proper, to verify you are not carrying any liquids in your hand luggage, and if you do, you will only be allowed 100ml and it needs to be placed in a clear plastic bag. Like airport security wasn’t a pain in the ass already. Anyway, the whole queuing took about almost an hour. When I finally reached the security screen check I noticed there were tons of Spanish people about. For a moment I thought that I could be in an airport in Spain! I wish. As I was saying, I waiting for my turn to go through those blasted x-ray machines, when I saw a young Spanish family ahead of me. I admired the couple who had bags, and their baby, juggling everything trying to get passed this bit of the airport. Taking off coats, belts and shoes, the security people would believe asked the mother to remove her baby’s little shoes off too. The Spanish people behind me couldn’t believe it as well. “Que Madre! Que Padre!” is what I heard them express seeing that sight. Basically couldn’t believe that they even asked for the baby’s shoes to be removed. The little boy who was about 7 behind me told his mom in Spanish “You never know, maybe there is a bomb in the shoes of the baby…” haha! Anyway, I too went through that horrible check point. Coat, belt and boots removed, heavy bag on the conveyer, laptop as well. Pass through the x-ray, get frisked, grab stuff off the conveyer go to a corner to try and arrange yourself as you did when you first got to the airport. Phew, boy do you feel raped!

Anyway, I still had some time before going to the gates, so I decided to check out the Duty Free. Living in the Philippines, you would always look forward to knowing someone who just came back from abroad because that meant you had about 2 days after they arrived to go to Duty Free (a huge one too) and buy the things you couldn’t really get in normal shops. After awhile, you get passed that, or at least I did. Anyway, I took this opportunity to check out some tax free goods. As I was paying for something, a middle aged Spanish man came up to me and said in Spanish “You are not English are you? Could you please tell me which is the price of this, this one or that one?” I always get tongue tied when I get put in the spot to speak Spanish. First of all why the heck would he think I could speak Spanish? I get some people telling me that I could pass for Spanish, Portuguese or Mexican. But to look similar and for someone to mistake you as one is totally different. I guess he was just lucky to I understood him and replied in pigeon Spanish. He must have been shocked if he did think I was Spanish and I spoke it so rubbishly.

After that Spanish impromtu pop quiz and buying my stuff. I decided it was time to go to the gate and wait to board. So I was sitting for a bit waiting to board when a baby girl came up to me and just looked at me. I smiled and said hello. A smiled appeared behind her dummy, prolly excited at the fact someone was paying attention to her. I could hear voices behind me trying to call her not to wonder around. Her parents I assumed. She came back and was making noises trying to have a conversation with me I assume. I then saw a man kneel down and I saw this finger beckoning her to go to him. Her dad I assumed. One thing I remember thinking was that damn he is tall and has long fingers, that he was rather greasy. He then gave her a bag of chips to amuse her with the sound. She took it and smiled and offered it to me. Cute. It was then time to board. Their family were the first one asked to board the plane. I wondered why, probably because they had a child.

Finally sat on the plane and getting settled, I then realized that my new buddy and her parents were sitting right in front of me. At one point the baby was unhappy with the flight and her dad put on Tellytubbies on his laptop. God lord. When she got bored with that she decided to stand on her seat and check out the people in the plane. And who does she see but me! hehe! She was waving at me and giggling and was being all cute.

Two hours later I was reunited with my brother. When he met me in airport I immediately told him the story about the cute baby I had met on the plane. As I finished telling him the story he told me to turn around and asked me if I knew who that person was cause he is a famous pianist.

When I saw who my brother was talking about I told him that, that was the guy with the baby I was talking about. It all made sense when he told me it was Maksim. I had heard about him during my last trip to Croatia because my soon to be sister-in-law’s younger sister kept playing his CD and I had seen him on MTV in Manila years ago. But I never really saw him that up close and personal. Apparently his daughter’s name is Leeloo which he had taken from the 5th Element. Why? It’s such a rubbish movie! Anyway, he now lives in the UK and was having a concert on the 12th of December in Zagreb. How strange is that, both of us going to the same country on the same day to be in Zagreb for the 12th of December. Even stranger to find out that the younger sister had tickets to go to that very concert too. Spooky.

Bar Gansa

December 5th, 2006 11:24 pm Uncategorized, London, UK, Restaurants 4 comments

Oh it has been a busy (alcohol induced) weekend. With lots of meeting of friends and Xmas preparations, it has been a busy week. Last Sunday, I met my friend Julianna for a post birthday celebration. We met in Camden as I have never been there before. It was quite an unusual place (for London) and it reminded it much of the Greenhills in Manila. The stuff there were nice to look at, but not necessary nice to own. I saw a few pieces of clothing that I would like to get, but then I found it outrageous to pay those prices in a market when it is the same price I would pay for Zara or Mango. But then Juls reminded me that it was after all, vintage.

After seeing Camden Market, we decided it was time to sit and grab some grub. We both agreed that Bar Gansa seemed quite interesting and she wanted me to practice my Spanish. hehe! And indeed I did. I was able to order our meal in Spanish and ask for the bill as well.

I must say, as we sat there for a few hours enjoying our Sangria’s, Tapas and Paella, the place really grew on me. The staff I thought was fantastic. They were so friendly and made our dinner experience great. The one thing I love about dinning in London is that if you dine let’s say, in an Italian restaurant, you will have Italian people serving you and the guests too are Italian. Same goes with Chinese, Indian and Spanish. That is one thing I surely will miss. I loved being able to speak to the people in Spanish and make me feel for those hours, I was in Spain. The food in Bar Ganza was really good as well. I kind of prefer this restaurant now than La Tasca, as it is independent and not commercialized. If in Camden, check out this place in Inverness Street. It is even worth making the trip to go check out this place.

As if I hadn’t had enough alcohol, after dinner we decided to head towards west end and find a place to keep up the Latin spirit. But as it was Sunday, everything was closed. So we ended up and some pubs. haha!

It was a very good, if tiresome weekend.

six more days

Lost in Translation

December 2nd, 2006 10:37 pm Quirky, London, UK Leave a comment

A guy in my Spanish class told us a very funny story.

He was once in a club in Peru, and a lady asked him in Spanish if he would like to dance.
He replied by saying “si bailas conmigo, serás embarazado”.
The lady replied by saying “¿porque? ¿cómo bailas?”

Translation:
what he meant: “if you dance with me, you will get embarrassed”
what he actually said was: “if you dance with me, you will get pregnant”
to which she replied: “why, how do you dance?”

Moral of the story, embarazado does not mean embarrassed in Spanish. It means pregnant. Verguenza means embarrassed.

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