managed to buy 3 dvds when i was in cambodia last week...chinese in the mood for love, latin maria full of grace and american kinsey (learned about this movie when i was reading an article on the berlin filmfest)...have watched in the mood for love and found the angkor wat scene quite incomprehensible...searched google for the significance of that scene and found out that i am not alone...one critic/reviewer endeavored to explain that perhaps that scene meant that the main male character wanted to forget about the affair just like how the ruins of things past are buried in a. wat...that was pretty acceptable to me...

watched kinsey as well...it's about american professor/sexologist alfred kinsey...the movie is illuminating...i esp like the part where kinsey and his wife were in the woods and they were talking about trees...how a certain tribe said that trees are very sad creatures, 'bemoaning' their existence because their roots are stuck to the ground...and then kinsey said something like, 'i have never seen a discontented tree; look at this one (referring to a 1000-year old tree), it looks content with its roots happily gripping the ground'...the context of that is that kinsey appears to have been enlightened coz whilst before he was advocating what appeared 'free sexual relationships' as he believed it is human instinct to find/have several sexual partners, he failed to factor in love...and at the end of the day, i think he realized the essence of love...i wanna be a content tree...hihihi :)

anyways, ill be going to HK next month for a biz trip...im planning to stay longer...do u guys know anyone in HK? shiela in which hotel did u stay? the hotel ill be staying costs 150USD a night (!) so am planning to look for budget hotels for my extra day/s stay..

also, observed that marlon has unsubscribed...i think i know why...but anways, that's what he wants...

toinks...i think you know what you want in life...it's just that you're scared to take a chance...so go gurls!

me, im scared too...but i try not to be, i do what i possibly can to achieve what i want...

it's good that shiela's back in the scene...which reminds me...i saw some show on tv wherein this group of girl friends decided to be nicer to each other...i.e. instead of pointing out each other's faults (which everyone is surely aware of, most of the time), they would find reasons to praise each other...la lang...kakatuwa lang...not sure if we can adopt that behavior though...hahaha...kidding...

will be going to cambodia over the weekend (sudden assignment)...if i have time, will buy that shirt for shiela...

ey belinda, hope this week will be a lot better than the last. also hope that your vacation in cambodia will give you a fresh outlook in life though you said that you're somewhat skeptical about the place. re: your "syunga-syunga" assistant, "patience is a virtue". :)

shiela and i talked last weekend over the phone. we were kinda sad coz we realized that at this point in our lives we're still in a dilemma over what we really want in life. sobrang paulit-ulit lang no? but we really felt sad that time. just wanna share... it's good talaga to be able to talk to someone when your feeling down. i like shiela na now (i also like her before, but i like her more now! chuks). i now understand her better.

hate my job! but i love my friends!haha!

this week was terrible...work was up to neck...almost felt like crying...thank god there's this new assistant, ha, who's really smart and hardworking...like me, she has an mba...graduated from some thai unversity...the other, chi, is my nightmare...she's just too slow and stubborn and her english is just soo bad...add that to the fact that she's older than me...in vietnam, there appears to be some kind of an "age power distance"...that is, people feel superior/smarter etc than those who are younger than them...ergo, have some problem with asking her to do stuff because she makes it obvious that she doesnt liked to be bossed around...but hello, as i have bitched to her before, this is not charity, this is a job (read: said it in a soft tone of voice so that it wouldnt hurt too much)...and this week, ive been bitching again...she made too many mistakes and i had to re-check/redo everything...told her to be more careful next time because i dont wanna end up doing her job as that keeps me from doing my job (again, in a soft tone of voice; believe me, im becoming good at containing myself... but not my words)...told this problem to my brit boss, joe...i guess if we werent short of viet manpower..........oh well...i guess im mean, but i just dont get those people who do not do their job well...i cannot fathom how they can live with themselves knowing that they did not do their best...

anyway, my client has asked us to go to cambodia on the 2nd and 3rd...will have a 10-day vietnamese new year holiday starting on the 4th...im thinking of staying there or going to angkor wat...but dunno why, my adventurous spirit seems to flail lately...kindda scared of travelling around cambodia alone...but, this is not without basis...cambodia have this really ghostly feel about it...honest, even joe said so...it seems that the ravages brought about by polpot remain and will remain for some time and this is not just evident in the economy of the country but also in its aura... so am looking for a travel partner...have checked hospitality club, but there are only 3 people listed; all of which i think are fine with providing free accommodation/acting as guides...two are males (no-nos): one 40 and another 26 yrs old; the girl is a 32-yr old single mom teacher (does not sound so much fun)...so not sure...

till next time...:D

marlon...san next travel plan mo? and when? sama ako

dear all,

so sorry di na natuloy yung dinner on the 8th...raincheck muna...

marlon,

i received an email from a 25-yr-old girl named zuki through hospitalityclub.org...she's vietnamese but has lived in finland all her life...it will be her first time in vietnam since '89...her relatives are all in the north and she asked me if i could show her around saigon some time next month...her bf would be leaving the country ahead of her so will be alone when she comes to saigon...said if i want references, i could look at her profile in the site, said she's hosted some HC members in finland and ergo, implying that she's trustworthy...

anyways, i emailed back today that i could show her around...

this is quite exciting...wish i could visit europe!