In 2009, I will:
I love how full the last quarter of 2008 was for me, despite the fact that I wasn’t able to write about any of it here. There were two main things that kept me occupied then: Asia Momentum 2008, and B.I.T.A.W. acting workshop.
Every year, delegates from Fitness First branches all over Asia converge in one country for three days of seminars and other activities. In 2008, Fitness First Philippines was the host (the last time this happened was in 2005) and assigned the group exercise department (that’s us!) to perform three production numbers. Rehearsals began in October for the shows that would run on November 21 and 22.
The end product impressed our bosses enough to ask us to perform one of our production numbers two more times: at the BodyCombat Main Event III and at the corporate Christmas Party. (Perhaps also to get their money’s worth, because they paid us quite a lot for the rehearsals we held.) It was a lot of hard work with many sacrifices along the way. During rehearsals and run-throughs, tempers flared, egos were singed, and friendships burned to the ground based on mutual misunderstandings and unwillingness to talk things out. The most important lesson I learned? People will talk about you behind your back, so put your best face forward in front of everyone — even those you consider your friends.
Sometime in October, I was invited to an acting workshop by two of my friends from church. It was being run for free over 12 weeks, so I thought, “Why not?”
Turns out, it was a workshop where improvisational acting exercises and techniques would be used to help draw out creativity and spur learning among the participants.
Our “graduation ceremony” was a showcase at My Little Art Place.
When I say “draw out” and “spur”, I do mean to imply there was a certain level of pain and discomfort in the process (practically drawing blood and tears). I had to take a good look at myself, my goals in the television and film industry, and the work I was putting in to achieve those goals. The most important lessons I learned are Truth, and Union. Without truth in my acting process, the end product looks artificial, forced, and mechanical. Without union among my heart, mind, and soul when it comes to acting, I cannot give my all.
Between those two activities, I realized that when it comes to acting and performing, you’ve really got to give it all you have for anything you do to be worthwhile. At the same time, you can’t railroad anyone into doing the same thing; they’ve got to come to that realization by themselves.
I can’t wait for what this year will bring!
Tags: Acting, Performing
Hey everyone, the episode of “Midnight DJ” I did a taping for two weeks ago is airing tonight at 8pm on TV5. Please tune in if you can!
The episode reruns Wednesday midnight. Thanks!
Explanations in a later post. LOL Ü
Tags: Midnight DJ, Television, Acting
And we’re back, finally! You might know the story from my Multiply post about it: I was very upset at having my domain name stolen from under me when it expired. Now that I’ve had a few months of hindsight, it’s not so bad not having a DOTcom (which is now being used to direct people to a search portal, ugh). All I wanted was someplace to put my writings which wouldn’t fit anywhere else, and as lovely as Multiply is, Blogspot is far more easily indexed by Google.
Ergo, I’m back by my own demand! I will be writing here more often instead of expending my lovely one-liners on my Facebook account’s status messages. This place gives me space to think, maybe write some things that may not interest those on my social networks — but the point is, I want to write. I need to write.
Re-link me, please? Ü
OK, I’m coming out of hiding to greet my readers a Merry Christmas. Things have been crazy and I haven’t been trippin’ as much as I should have been. Still, no excuse for not writing about things I promised. I hope that the christmas rush won’t prevent me writing at least a little something before the New Year strikes.
Merry Christmas, everyone! God bless you. 🙂
My friend and former schoolmate Mia Rocha-Lauchengco just sent me an invite to her husband’s exhibit of photographs taken during his travels.
I would have loved to be at the reception, but I have work on Tuesday evenings. I’m still planning to take a look at that exhibit should I be in the Makati area during its run. My sister took photography lessons from Raymond while she was in high school, so it should be an interesting way to spend an hour or so.
From the press release:
Raymond Lauchengco delved seriously into photography in the 1980’s and pursued it professionally in 1999. He has participated in various group exhibitions and had his first solo exhibition at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel in 2000. He has since undertaken various private and corporate commissions, creating portraits, product shots, and fashion editorials, as well as dedicating his efforts to his own creative vision as seen in “Travelscapes.”
When asked about what led him to pursuing photography, Lauchengco simply answers, “Light.”
Every time I head to Boracay, it’s always different. The first time, summer had just begun. The second time, summer was about to end. The third time, it was the New Year. The fourth time, it was midsummer. And the fifth time, it was one of the biggest party weekends on the calendar: All Saints’ Weekend.
Our friends Francis and Trondz had just opened a boutique hotel near D*Mall on the island’s main road. Island Nook has beautiful white walls and floors, large glass windows from which you could look out onto the island’s interior, and super comfy beds.
We five girls were able to fit onto two queen-size beds during our four-day stay (October 30 to November 2). That was plenty of time to do what we always do on the island — laze around under the sun, loll about on the sand, stroll on the beachfront, swim in the sea, and kayak out to deeper water.
Fun in the sun on our second day
But we were also there to experience the chance to get dressed in crazy costumes, applaud creative ones, and dance all through the night and sleep in all day. I had brought a pink wig just because, and eventually we decided I was dressed as a contestant to Miss Gay Philippines (LOL!). Other less wild costume ideas were the tiaras the other girls had brought.
Two of them had matching wands, which were stolen by Francis and Trondz.
I know I said I wouldn’t post this… or did I?
 
This was only the second time that Francis, Trondz, Joel, Marielle and I had been reunited on Boracay. The first time was during our first trip to Boracay, when Trondz had introduced himself to us on the beach, and then invited his two friends over. I can’t believe it’s only been three years — it feels like much longer than that!
Lots of things have changed since then: Trondz now has a steady girlfriend (he had just gone through a major break-up when we first met him), Joel, my sister, and I now attend the same church (he was a bad boy back then! haha), and Francis has now taken up residence in Boracay most of the year to help grow their hotel and laundry business (he used to be firmly a Manila boy).
My favorite part of the night was chasing down a group of people dressed as Cruella DeVil and the 101 Dalmatians, getting a photo taken with them, and then realizing I was dressed in their color scheme.
I’m the 102nd dalmatian.
Every night during our stay in Boracay it would rain, and on the 31st of October it rained so much that I was glad I was wearing a bikini (anything else would have been a disaster!).
Rain shower. Literally.
It was definitely a night of fun, laughter, and good memories (some of which we’ll have to keep to ourselves for fear of embarrassment!). At some point, we made a pact to keep coming back to the island paradise on the same weekend every year.
I hope we get to keep that pact.
Watch this space for a new post about spending All Saints’ Weekend at Boracay. But first, here are some photos!
More at my Multiply album, Boracay October 2008.
My friend Jace has recently added wakeboarding to his list of favorite things to do, so for his birthday he drove a bunch of us out to Lago de Oro Beach Resort in Calatagan, Batangas to try it out. Jace has been there a few times already, and on that day he wanted to conquer the “kicker” — one of several ramps on the course.
 
Jace waiting for a towline
I thought it’d be at a beach, in the water among the waves. When I got there, though, I found out it was a converted fish pond. The way wakeboarding works, with its pulleys and winches and structures, you really can’t set it up in the ocean with the waves and currents.
experienced wakeboarders
While Jace was practicing for conquering the kicker in the afternoon, it was all the rest of us could do to hang on for dear life on our kneeboards. We each strapped ourselves kneeling onto special beginner boards, then held on to a towline and allowed ourselves to be dragged around the course. I did pretty well, doing two rounds before I got too tired hanging onto the towline.
So I progressed to the real wakeboard.
Yes, that’s actually me wakeboarding. And wiping out.
Well I was only able to feel successful at it once, when I almost rounded the first corner (there are 4 on the course). The pull of the towline is pretty brutal, particularly around the corners as the pulley accelerates. It jerks strongly — so strongly that one of us who was strapped tightly onto her kneeboard got pulled off it.
We were pretty stoked about surviving.
I gave it several good tries (and lots of painful wipe outs) before I called it a day and just started playing with my zips. I’m better at zipping than at wakeboarding — and I hit myself a lot zipping.
zippity do dah, zippity dey…
Some of us were able to progress quite well, so learning to wakeboard is doable for first-timers. Just be prepared to wipe out a lot.
We spent the whole day there, and left after the sun went down.
sunset at Lago de Oro
Wakeboarding at Lago de Oro is priced at 900 pesos for a half-day, and 1,500 pesos for a whole day. It was a fun experience, once I got past the fear of being pulled along by a rope. Surfing is way gentler.
Hi there!
If you’re one of the subscribers to my feed from my blog In My Pocket, you might have noticed my website and feed’s been down for about three weeks. I’m having problems with my domain name (noelledeguzman.com) but I’m hoping it gets settled within the month. Meanwhile, I’ve redirected my feed to my travel blog, which you’re now reading. If you’re looking for some fresh stuff I’ve written, check out my article about Quezon.
If you’re one of the regular readers of this travel blog, no, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I’ve been busy with non-travel stuff but I have been someplace just recently. Even though I didn’t win the PBA Best Travel Blog award, that doesn’t mean I want to stop writing about travel. Hang on, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
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