bad weather tailgating

shirt-Zara; shorts- Tommy Hilfiger; shoes-Aldo; bag-Topshop; aviators- RayBans

props to my 11-year-old brother for takin my photo

It's my 2nd day in Cebu and I think mum has scolded me twice for forgetting to pack at least a pair of jeans and properly-fitted tops. I was expecting it to be scorching hot, but I was greeted with bad turbulence on the plane plus I was left with no choice but to cross puddles with my fave [casual] Zara heels. It starts to rain at about 12noon and that goes on til about 5 in the afternoon, so you're left with wet patches on the streets (not ideal for night outs with friends).

So far my trip's been fun! A couple of our family friends from New York are here and it's our turn to take them out this weekend. My friends brought me to a couple of places I've never been to before, which makes me look like a total loser for not being able to roam the city when I was still based here.

For the past couple of days, I've been living in my collection of shorts, loose tops, sunglasses and sandals. Mum hates it when I wear shorts but I'm all for dressing for comfort. My friends from NY were even shocked with the unbearable weather. They, too, resorted to white tees, flipflops and loose bottoms. And to quote one of my friends, "I thought you were merely peacocking with your short shorts and dresses in all your pics, but now I see why you choose to do so! How can you survive in this heat?!"

I'd rather live in this tropical country than suffer cold temperatures more often, though.

Some b&w snaps around Quiapo, Manila and Makati...

(before I left for Cebu and after buying my lens from Hidalgo)

:)

· I am stocking up on white tees. Easy breeeeezy.

· Finally bought my own Nikkor 50mm (F1.80) lens....

· anddd I'm excited to use it for my trip to Cebu this week! Planning to shoot with a couple of my friends :)

· Can't wait for my NY trip this Sept.!

· ...But it totally sucks that I'm not gonna be around for my best friend's birthday :( Sorry!!!

· I'd like to take as much portraits during my stay in Cebu. Simple, clean portraits- nothing too conceptual/editorial. I sorta wanna make a [scrap]book!

:)

PDPA

I can't live without a PDA but my phone's becoming more like a Personal Digital PAIN in the ASS!
the not-so-trusty Palm Treo 750
My dad and I spent the whole Sunday trying to fix my Palm Treo. He wanted to back up my contacts and schedules in his old PC so I would have them on file & so I could transfer them to my Mac. He also installed this antivirus software which only ended up making it run at a GLACIAL PACE. So of course, he had to uninstall it after I attempted to text people.
Seriously, I had to schedule a shoot, plan and meet up with a client + some friends and that phone made it so hard for me to function the entire day. Had to tell people to reply to my other (Sun) phone instead. Opening the address book took ages as well (think 20 minutes).
I take care of my things, especially gadgets because I am a gadget geek. My whole family is! Nothing gets us excited as much as opening a new box of techy goodness. So you might be asking why my phone looks so darn beaten up. Well, I sort of started hating it after it refused to sync with my PC, and when it started lagging even after cleaning up my files and messages. Taking it to the service center forced it to behave for a couple of weeks, but it eventually got back to its evil ways of making me frustrated about not being able to organize and accomplish things quickly...
So far, this is the only gadget that's ever given me headaches. I've posted numerous times on my Facebook status that I've lost my phone somewhere in my house on silent mode simply because I couldn't remember the last place I put it since I hated texting with it (the keys are so hard already compared to my other friend's Palm Treo) and I'd rather IM people or call people. For months I've hated sending out texts and I've used my bulky Moleskine organizer for schedules instead of the fuss-free PDA.
I really think it's time for me to part with THAT thing. I don't normally hate my gizmos that quick (that phone's only a year old) but it's such a waste of time to keep trying to fix it. Don't get me wrong, there was a time when Treo and I worked in perfect harmony. I mean, seriously, my life depended on it. I thought it was just perfect. Dropped it a couple of times, I blame myself for the scratches and dents but hey, at one point I thought it looked cool and sorta gave it that edgy look (call me crazy, whatever). But now I'm ready to whisper a fond adieu. When you really can't depend on a gadget anymore and it isn't willing to get fixed, there's nothing else you can do.
SO I'm thinking about getting the new 32-gig iPhone 3Gs or the BlackBerry Storm. VS.
The bad thing about the Blackberry is that the desktop software for Mac has yet to be released this September AND it only has a built-in memory of 1GIG. I mean seriously, what am I supposed to do with only 1 gig? Expandable memory, yes, but I've been traumatized enough with using numerous SD cards with my Treo.
As with the new iPhone, hmm... No cons for now (since it's not out here yet & I don't fully trust online reviews) but I'm scared about the battery life even if they claim that it's going to be miles better than the previous iPhone. And what's up with all my friends' old iPhones acting up just when the new one's about to get released (even if you've updated the software)? Hmmm.....