When I was reading news reports regarding this incident, I can't help but feel powerless and helpless and yes, even despair. These were ordinary Filipinos, journalists, human rights lawyers, even passing motorists --- all mercilessly killed at the orders of a power-hungry, gun-toting, egoistic warlord hiding under the guise of "politician".
My mind cannot conjecture how such cold-blooded killing can take place. How one can stomach the taking away of lives of your fellow Filipino without thought, without guilt, without hesitation. They even raped the women, cut off the heads, and slit their throats. Then meticulously proceeded to bury the bodies into a hole bored open by a Goverment owned bulldozer!
I pray for the souls of those who have been killed and I pray for the families they have left behind. And I fervently pray that those people responsible (i.e. the Ampatuan family and their allies (GMA) ) would soon be meted out with the harshest measure of justice that only God can give.
Due to some snag in our schedules and Paui's frequently changing schedule for his business trips, we couldn't go home to Cebu together to apply for our marriage license in person. So our solution? We decided to get civilly married here in Singapore a month before our Cebu church wedding. hehehe.
Yep, I am now officially Mrs. Paulito Cardeno *grins*
We had a quick ceremony, then an intimate gathering of friends at our house to celebrate this day with us. Syempre, we feasted on delicious Filipino food care of Ate Elsa Ituriaga.
It is surprisingly easy to get married here in Singapore. hehehe. The steps are outlined in the ROM site: http://www.rom.gov.sg/
Step 1: Get venue and solemnizer. The ROM website offers a whole list of venues to choose from and also list accredited solemnizers. You can actually have your ceremony at the ROM office itself but the queue is too long. If you don't want to wait, then you can choose community centers (if on a budget) or restaurants in Singapore. We picked from this site: http://www.familylifechampion.org/sol . We chose Jurong Spring because we can get a package for solemnizer and venue all at one time. hehe.
Minimum of 21 days notice is required from the day of registration up to your solemnizing ceremony.
Step 3: The filing instructions will indicate a date when you can get your papers from ROM office. These set of papers will be presented to your solemnizer during the wedding day itself. We got ours around 2 days before our civil wedding.
Step 4: It is your (civil) wedding day! Just be there on the agreed time, bring original passports or IC, bring your two sponsors original passports and IC (and of course the sponsors themselves din noh). Ceremony takes less than ten minutes and you are married already.
The solemnizer has to mail the marriage certificate to ROM immediately and also gives you a copy.
After two working days, they will give you your report of marriage and this is the document we will present to our church (together with the official marriage certificate) to prove that we are married civilly here in Singapore. Then I think the embassy forwards your marriage record already to NSO and your NSO certificate (or something) will be available in 6 months.
Is it because I am newly married and my mind just evolved to become this dirty-minded mechanism that finds malice in all things? hahahaha. You be the judge. Let me know what this looks like ha. hahahahaha
Our photog Jim Ubalde did a superb job with our pictures, teaching us how to pose (he even had to demonstrate the kikay poses for me several times) and for making Paui at ease during the shoot.
Thanks to our super friends also who tagged along with us on our shoot.
We were just resting in Clark Quay Starbucks, tired from our whole day photoshoot. I thought we were waiting for Jim our photographer to finish going around the area so I just waited and chatted with friends ---- who I also thought came to see Reysiel, who just arrived from Malaysia that day.
Around midnight, everyone wanted to leave already. I thought we were walking to the taxi stand, when suddenly everyone stopped in front of what looked like a party bus. I found myself shoved inside the van and suddenly someone shouted "Rochie, WELCOME TO YOUR BRIDAL SHOWER!".
Already inside the van were four of my officemates:
And then my batchmates from our Accenture days joined inside the van too!
The entire bus was loaded with phallic symbols. From the smiling penis banderitas, to the dick glasses, dick cards and the big balloons na shaped na ...ganun. hahahaha.
Anyway, the bus went around the Clark Quay area and we stopped several times because the bride (ME) had to perform different tasks.
Task 1: Get 3 guys from different nationalities to wear an apron and take a picture with me. Sounds innocent naman noh? NOT!!!
Task 2: Take a drinking picture with another stranger. At ang baso ay...super phallic! Someone even shouted at us "Hey Is that a DILDO?". nyahhahaha. Mortifying.
Task 3: Turn someone into a ringtoss apparatus
Task 4: Card game (guess the lowest value). I failed to guess the correct one so I had to take a drink consequence . After that, everyone had to take the shot too (no reason...just because). hehe
Check out our van decorations. It would make a pimp proud. We were all screaming when we got inside the van. I am not sure if it was from delight or surprise or shock or maybe a mixture of all three. haha.
My friends even prepared gifts for me. When I showed it to Paui afterwards, he told me "ang lalandi ninyo". nyahahaha.
Thanks girls. I really really had fun, you can tell from the pictures. Grabbing strangers around Clark Quay, donning strange hats, and just plain laughing silly over the most obscene phallic symbols around us -- this was such a great send off into my married life.
Ok so this is one of the few items that Paui and I disagreed on (and one of the even fewer items in the wedding that Paui was a bit vehement about).
I originally wanted this one. But Paui just laughed at me and told me baduy daw taste ko sa cars. Hello...ang cute di ba... hehehe.
We are getting this flaxen Camry (please don't ask me the model because I will just give you a blank stare). So in the end Paui won this one though I have to grudgingly admit he may have made the better decision in this case. (and besides we got a good price for this one :P )
Now you can fish out those pretending to be invisible on YM . This is a double edged sword however, this thing can turn on you too! Just input the yahoo ID and all secrets are revealed! hehehe.
Four young women went out to dinner one Monday night. They ordered the food quickly but after careful deliberation. And before digging gently into it, had their pictures taken.
Now, as proof that the food served at Al Forno (http://www.alfornoeastcoast.com.sg/) was in fact so sumptuous that these four girls (who when the food was served could be heard protesting and sighing loudly "this is far too much food") ended up with this picture at the end of that night:
The "AFTER" picture looks awfully heavier. And where did all the food go??? lolz.
Thanks girls for a fun evening! I was so bloated after all that cheese.
After being away from home for almost 5 years and country-hopping like crazy during that time, Ria is finally going home.
I'm happy and excited for my friend for this new opportunity back in Manila. But I guess a selfish part of me would miss her company ( a lot!) and I had secretly hoped she would opt to stay longer in Singapore.
She helped make my move last year to Singapore smooth and the transition to a new life here very easy, even introducing us to our current nice landlord. And she can always be counted on to send out invites for movies, dinners, and shopping trips (kahit abroad na shopping trips!) Waaa... she has always made the stay in this country interesting and fun. So now, how ah? (with matching sad aunti accent ito).
Ria girl, hope to still see a lot of you okay (promise I will make my Manila visits longer...tulog ako sa future condo mo sa Serendra ha. hehe). I will definitely miss you!
Here are some pics from her going-away dinner at Mad Jack (http://www.madjackgroup.com/) in Bedok.
table 1: cousins and Bangkok colleagues
table 2: housemates and ex-AC officemates
table 3: gorgeous ex-Bangkok colleague (me) and ex-officemates
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