NEW YEAR ESCAPADE

Goodbye 2008 and hello 2009!!!

The previous year has been really great. There has been a lot of good and not-so-good memories that I want to thanks everyone who has been part of it. Whoah!! Enough with the drama.

Well, this New year's eve celebration has been very remarkable! Even I am somewhat in recession lately, with huge credit card bills and all that, we were able to celebrate it with superb dishes, splendid fireworks and with my loved ones.

I was so fortunate to have been given December 31st and January 1st as rest days for this week though I had to be on split rest days per week for the past two weeks. Still all worth it!

Migs and I bought some colorful fireworks. It has been a while since I last bought fireworks and I was surprised how expensive they are now. Well, can't complain though. We just bought a handful-2 fountains, 2 small boxes of pink firework displays and 1 medium sized colorful fireworks. That already cost a thousand bucks, can you believe that?

We had grilled liempo, lechong kawali, beef caldereta, holiday ham, and fruit salad for our Media Noche. We didn't have that much time to cook and anyway it was just my mom and dad, then migs my hubby and josh my son. I bought ingredients for an italian-style spaghetti, but since I practically slept the entire day, I wasn't able to cook it. Can you blame me if I'm so tired? Hahaha.

The best part of 'em all was our ROAD TRIP with my close friends jaypee and jason. Jaypee used to be my editor in chief in college and the person who referred me to CVG and jason is our papa bear in the office. Well, originally, we planned to go to The Fort to party after the putukan blues is over. The place was so jampacked with youngsters that we decided to head to Antipolo at 4am in the morning.

The trip to Antipolo was like the movie/ps game The Silent Hill wherein the place was so foggy(was it really fog or the aftermath of the new year's fireworks?) and the road looked so silent and a little scary. Unlike The fort, Antipolo was a ghost town that early New year's day. Bars were closed and I could barely see any vehicle or people out in the streets. We then saw Cloud 9 with a signage that says they're open 24 hours. So we drove our way up to steepy Cloud 9. Guess what? We found no one, not even a guard or receptionist. We just took pictures and scared each other and drove off.

It's 5 in the morning on new year's day and we're still in the middle of nowhere with no idea where to go to after Antipolo. Well, though we have not stayed for more than 30 minutes at The Fort and antipolo, we were still enjoying our escapade. So, we hit Eastwood next. And ofcourse, since it's already breakfast time for everyone after a major party, we didn't find any open bar and party people, just a bunch of lunatics taking their pictures with Ronald Mcdonald. After Esatwood, we passed by Metrowalk, then, we went to Rockwell, no luck either. Well, what do you expect? Everyone was so damn tired by then.

Since we literally went to all the hang outs in Manila, we headed to Makati to check if there's still life at 5:30 am, and guess what, we found one in Makati Ave.!! We didn't like the genre of music so we tried to scout for other places. And since we became so hungry with this thrilling road trip, all we wanted was to have breakfast and go home. We decided to have Northpak for breakfast. And you guessed right...Northpark is already closed. We went to check Tiananmen(me and migs' favorite), they were about to close also, the we tried to check Nextdoor, which is below Tiananmen, they were still open but everyone was there I didn't think we have a fat chance to squeeze our bodies in. So we finally decided to just have our old time favorite tapa and proceeded to Ruffos' which is just a walking distance from Makati Ave.

At last, we finally found ourselves a table. Place was also jampacked with people who were so tried after partying hard. You might think that we didn't enjoy the trip, but we difinitely enjoyed every minute of it, all thanks to Jaypee and Jason who made the day really fun, specially having those snide remarks on people we saw along the way.

Yeah, it was like a long journey with no fair result, spending a lot on gas for going practically from south to north and vice versa, but it was really fun and definitely something I'll look forward to sometime soon.

Thanks our driver with no less than my husband Migs, my fashionista friend Jaypee and my ever reliable frined Jason. Happy new year and I hope we don't go around road-tripping all througout the year. Hahahaha!!
♥♥♥ simply mhei ♥♥♥

4th wedding anniversary

December 18, 2008. Another remarkable day for me and my husband since we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. I can't believe it that we haven't strangled each other yet to death until now, hahaha!

I have been uber busy with the holiday and all that I feel I have neglected my blog sites for almost a week now. Well, I swear, after this season is over, I'll try to post as much as I can.

Since we have been really busy with work and the holiday rush, I wasn't able to file for a vacation leave like I normally do in the past. Okay, I admit, I don't have any vacation leave credits for this year because I consumed it all. Well, you know how fun it is to be off work!

So, due to a very hectic schedule and recession (hahaha!), Migs and I just went to a dinner before going to work. Well, the dinner is not just a typical dinner. We went at MELO's steak house @ Westgate.


The place is really nice. It should be nice because the prices of their dishes would draw a hole in your pocket. Melo's serve steaks, their specialty, then a variety of Western cuisine. Check their menu and you'll think twice if you will eat a killer 20-oz-wagyu steak or you will just hit the mall and buy yourself a new cell phone.


Well, we just ordered buffalo wings for appetizer, then Melo's famous steak and gambas as main dishes. Good thing about fine dining restaurants, they do serve extras for free like breads and soup of the day for appetizers and desserts.

Let us not talk about the price because I'd rather not disclose that info and check it for yourselves so you will also experience their to-crave-for selection of dishes. And how you'll never forget having to dine with Melo's because of their friendly attendants and again, the price that you have to pay after.

The best part of the date was having to eat their gigantic steak with mashed potato and some veggies you'd forget your name. It's really superb! Then after the heavy meal, they served a tempting chocolate mousse with grapes. Hell yeah! And the toasts they served were really delicious with caviar. They also have creamy crab soup as soup of the day. Looks yummy, but since I'm allergic to seafood, I passed on that. If only we're rich, we would have bought all the dishes they serve and disobey one of God's 10 commandments about being a glutton. Hahaha.

I know we were not able to go out somewhere else as we planned to, but the date was really fun and something we would want to do again in the future, if money permits. Hahaha. Just think that you will spend the same amount of money if you go out of town or something. Try Melo's, you'll enjoy it, and I'll bet my life on it. Happy anniversary to us!!!


►►simply mhei◄◄

CONVERGYS ALABANG CHRISTMAS PARTY 2008

Convergys-Alabang once again had an awesome Christmas party on December 15, 2008 help at The Palms Country Club.
The Convergys' Black Fashionista Party- Noire, was this year's theme so obviously, everyone, or mostly all employees ( We couldn't help it if there were some party poopers right?) wore their best black outfits ever.
The party was really fantastic, with great selection of dishes as usual- western cuisine, with several Japanese dishes like sushi and wraps. If only my stomach cooperated with me that night I would have been a glutton.
Since Convergys (CVG) alabang has more than two thousand population at this moment (who would be able to guess that with a factory-sized building,hahaha!), the place was jampacked with party people and some geeks who just want to make sure that they would also be part of the once in a year party.
The annual dance contest was joined by the talented people of CVG, dance group called MOVERS CONNECTION being the awarded as this year's champion. Then ofcourse, the ever famous band of CVG which is MALAYA played series of great songs being rock as their genre. Ofcourse, if there are parties, there are perks like raffles and prizes for the dance contest and best dressed, etc. As usual, I was hoping I would win something even just a small token, and surely, after 4 years with the company, I still didn't get any AGAIN. Life sucks. I hate my friend Red who won trip for 2 to Palawan when I need i
t of all people since our wedding anniversary is just a few days away...grrrrrr RED!!!! Hahaha...sounds bitter eh??


Highlights of the night were the following: Having actor John Pratts as one of the judges for the dance competition and having Parokya ni Edgar as the band for this year's party.

Parokya ni Edgar's songs are just wonderful as ever! They played their old songs and they made the night someting to remember, something to write as blog post. They're all down to earth and I think they enjoyed performing for the CVG people.

Right after the party was a separate party for the TCONS or COACHES (91c01) ...that's us!!!! We went to Central BF Parañaque. We could have gone somewhere else having nine thousand pesos as our team fund with all those awards we had in the past. We had our exchange gift, had another pair of havaianas as a gift from my monita Ivy. (Thanks Ivy!! ) Then right after my hubby and I went bar hopping and went to my wavemates and original CVG friends at LAIYA which is just right after central, so we literally bar-hopped from Central to Laiya. The day has been fantastic and tiring but all worth it.
simply mhei