The Search for the Miserable

How do you feel when the item you've been looking for is now finally available? Hmm, we call it as the 'natural high'.

Just last Monday, amidst the traffic and the ever-complaining heat, I decided to go to Manila to do some errands. It proved to be such a tiring experience. I even managed to jump from one place to another, imagine me covering three municipalities namely Makati, Manila and lastly Pasay respectively.

What I did would probably put Spiderman to shame.

But the biggest surprise of all is finding a treasure within the busy streets of Quiapo, where all the pirated DVDs are scattered everywhere. My goal? To buy the complete set of Roswell episodes and that darn farewell season of Sex in the City. Unfortunately they're nowhere to be found.

I was about to call it quits when I decided to lounge around the area and check for other interesting titles. I even saw copies of 'My Sassy Girl' DVD (The Korean megahit) displayed from one corner making it widely available to everyone. A few months back, it was relatively unknown, making it (Sassy Girl) hard to find in these areas.

Continuing with my journey, I checked this new wing called, 'the concert department'. This is where DVDs from Taiwan is sold, mostly concert DVDs with the likes of Madonna's Music tour, Michael Buble and even Led Zeppelin. I decided to browse for a few titles when a familiar picture caught my eye. I gasped in excitement when all of a sudden I realized that the search for this damn DVD is finally over!

There on the cover of the DVD proudly displays the picture of Cosette, the official logo of Les Miserables-The Musical. For the first time in my life, I was holding a copy of my most favorite musical of all time, the 2-disc DVD of The Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert. The dream cast, with Lea Salonga playing the part of Eponine.

Enough of the superlatives? No way!

This DVD which is priced at around $20 (check with Amazon) has been around the world since 1996. At that time human beings around the world are totally clueless about DVD. If my memory serves me right, I only own a copy of this on VHS, I was able to record the concert during its Philippine telecast. After a few more years, born after the VCDs, the DVD was finally invented. MOst of the best-loved movies and musicals are now readily available on DVD format.

I prayed that somehow, Cameron Mackintosh (famed producer of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon) would release Les Miserables on DVD. Thank God because he answered my prayer. LOL! The DVD was released finally in Amazon.com. And the rest is what they call history.

I am now the proud owner of the Les Miz concert DVD and the long wait is finally over.

My Stressbusters

About a year ago, I decided to reward myself by buying a PDA. No, its not a 'Public Display of Affection' but it actually means, 'Personal Digital Assistant'. Yup, I know you got it. But we need to be clear as a crystal here. (Chuckles)

Anyways, to continue, I even asked opinions from a few friends if this would become a wise decision since I'm beginning to feel less organized. I can't keep up with those darn deadlines!

So the search for the PDA has begun. The PDA should at least boast itself with good features and above all--a better bargain price. This search led me to purchase my palm zire with cool features, aside from making yourself organized, it also has a digital camera and best of all, it plays MP3s.

But that's not my topic right? I need to talk about my stressbusters, so here it is.....

After a year of owning my PDA, feeling somehow organized and a little updated, the best part of it is the MP3 player(yup, I mentioned it for a couple of times). Being a self-confessed music lover that ranges selection from Beatles to Classical, I can't wait to load lots of MP3s on its memory card. Next thing I knew, I'm making myself the first 'soundtrack of my life', which I proudly called, 'stressbusters'.

Oh well, selecting songs for the compilation ain't than easy. More like a madman, I scheduled a day to do the inventory of songs which would make it for my compilation. You can just imagine how I rummaged my existing CD collection, as well as MP3s saved on my hard drive.

Afterwhich, 'stressbusters' was born. The ever infamous 'soundtrack of my life', that proudly carries combined music from happy sounds to 'make me sleepy' tunes.

These are the official selection of songs that make up 'Stressbusters Circa 2005':
(In no particular random order)

Pachelbel's Canon in D (Continuo version)
For me, this is one of the best Canon in D version ever arranged. I play this song whenever the plane is about to take off and before retiring to bed. This tune works as my 'anchor', to make me feel inspired if there's a need to write something or just plain daily journal reflection moment.

Home by Michael Buble
Just got this song from my sister's collection. I'm not a big fan of Michael Buble but I was hooked on how he sang this song. Perfect lyrics, perfect music. And I need a perfect place. Do I need to say more?

Blackbird by Sarah Mclachlan (from I am Sam OST)
This is for the Beatles fan in me. I have been planning to buy this damn OST since its a collection of the best Beatles songs covered by great musicians. Sarah (as always) never fails to amaze me likewise with the nice rendition of this song.

Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy
This is best song in the list, bar none! Eva Cassidy certainly did justice to this song of Sting by mixing heartfelt emotions and a good acoustic music.The moment she starts humming the intro, there's a magical feeling that makes me stop what I am doing and rest for a while. I consider this as a classic piece because its ageless.

Shoot the Moon by Norah Jones
I always imagine myself experiencing a long afternoon walk during autumn season, where beautiful burst of colors can be seen. Maroon, brown, orange and yellows of leaves are scattered everywhere. I've never experienced autumn yet and we don't experience it in Manila but who knows, I might settle to a nice place somewhere that has four seasons.

Sunrise by Norah Jones
If Kevyn Lettau has 'Sunlight' then definitely, Ms. Jones's 'Sunrise' is my morning song.

Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley
Another showcase of myself as a latebloomer. If not for the experience in Boracay, I wouldn't encounter Reggae music. There's this nice bar in Boracay called 'Summerplace' where it plays endless Reggae music. After that Bora experience, I was itching myself to come home and start downloading Bob Marley songs, and this is one of them.

The list would grow more in the future as my memory card only limits itself to 64 MB. Maybe a few more years and I would be having difficulty in filling up a 10 GB memory or worse, a 40GB IPOD! Now, that leaves me to my wishlist.

Sober?

As mentioned from my previous blog, this is what I wrote when I was having tea in Starbucks. I was quite surprised that still I managed to write something although I'm in a struggle to feel better. Read on.....

SOBER

I know, writing this piece is too funny. Imagine, I'm here in Starbucks, sipping tea with my officemates and I still managed to write something on this notebook.

I know, I find it really weird by doing it. Hmm, I realized not really. At least, compared to others who frequently vomits the streets of Glorietta because of mixing tequila and San Mig light, my present state is still considered 'okay'.

Just visualize the reaction of my companions when they saw me slouched on the corner, busy scribbling something. Someone poked a question on me, saying, 'Are you ok'? And I answered them quickly with a nod then went back to what's keeping me busy.

I am very sleepy but I don't have the will to go home. I'm too far from being sober and I'm waiting for my tea to get cold. I suddenly thought, what time will I make it home?

For the record, this is the first time (ever) that we went out and had fun. Sure, there were a lot of dinners and get -togethers but they were nothing compared to last night.

Suddenly, I heard something, saying, 'Moments like these should be cherished, because it doesn't happen regularly'. Yeah, right.

a nice dinner, a few drinks

Yesterday, amidst the slight fever and stress, I braved the traffic of Manila from the Senate office (with my co-worker) just to join the send-off dinner for my officemate. Lo and behold, after the sumptuous dinner at Don Henrico's I was surprised that I'm being led to Gilligan's Island. This only means a night of merrymaking with drinks, getting drunk and the experience of being wasted.

Mind you, the last time I felt like this was in Boracay, during the month of February.

Ok, going back to the story, at 1am, after calling it quits at Gilligan's, I had this urge to drop by at Starbucks to feel better by drinking coffee. So, feeling groggy with the same group of people, as if walking on the moon, I made it to Stabucks, beside the infamous Venezia bar.

Then I realized, I gave up coffee for some unknown reasons.

And tea in Starbucks is way higher than their coffee of the day. Life is unfair right?

Enter the world of english tea at P70 bucks. Short size.

A co-worker, who's a self-confessed chainsmoker called my name and instructed to drink my tea outside. No choice, but I was there, nixed the idea of smoking, got my own corner and decided to write something about being wasted.

What I wrote last night can be read in the following pages on my blog.

By 2am, we were confined on the car, still singing our heart's out to the tune of 'Betcha By Golly Wow' on our way to the streets of EDSA extension.

At 2.30 am, finally I realized I was home. Yup, still far from being sober.