First of all, thanks to all those who greeted me last October 25. To those who haven't greeted me yet, I won't take it against you, after all, I myself might have forgotten to greet you. There.

I am here in Hong Kong right now, and I am scheduled to fly back to the Philippines later at 9pm. Why did I go to Hong Kong in the first place? Turning 18 means renewing my HKSAR Resident's Permanent Identity Card, and I could only do that here in Jackie Chan land. :)

I arrived here in my dad's apartment around 11pm of the night of my birthday, and I was exhausted.

The next day, October 26, had me waking up to see my dad getting ready to leave for work, and he left some of my favourite egg tarts on the table. I later paid him a visit in the office and we went to the Immigration office to get my papers settled. Then we had lunch at Cafe de Coral, one of the 'premier' [relatively] cheap foods here in Hong Kong, he handed me $60 (around P350) and he went back to work.

I called Lady long distance from a payphone here. Langya, inubos lahat ng barya ko! Mga $70 yung nakaltas sa akin! That's about P500!!! Later that day, I asked my dad to allow me to use the landline IDD so I could talk longer. :)

I then walked around the Island, then coming back to the apartment to take a rest. I met my dad around 5:30pm in the office, and lo and behold, he asked me to label some drawings! He turned me into his draftsman! Oh well, I didn't complain because I know he would pay me, hehe. We had dinner at 9pm at Fairwood (the direct rival of Cafe de Coral) with one of his friends, a priest. We went back to work at around 9:45 pm and I left the office ahead of my dad around 11pm.

I called Lady long distance again, and this time I didn't use a payphone. We talked for around 30 minutes and then as soon as I put the phone down, dad arrived. We went to sleep around midnight.

Wow! To tell a whole day's story is plenty of typing! Haha! Now, let's just put October 27 into perspective: 9am-1pm walk around the different shops, and I just resolved to buying goods back in the Philippines. Haha! Expensive...

1pm, went to my dad's office and we went to Fortress (an electronics shop) and by the time we left the shop, I had a new Sony Ericsson K700i. That was my birthday gift from him plus the payment of my work as a draftsman. Then we had lunch at Fairwood again. Then he went back to the office while I went home to check out the features of my new phone.

It was like... wow! It has a 1 megapixel camera, 41 Megabytes (!!!!!!!!) of memory, a video camera that could take longer videos, an mp3 player, an FM radio, bluetooth, infrared, and all the bells and whistles I couldn't even wait to be able to use at home! Nokia's counterpart, the 6230i, is totally outclassed by the SE K700i. My dad says it's because Sony has all the technology in the field of Imaging so that's why it could provide a cheaper, better alternative to the Nokias. The T230 now goes to my little brother.

Then 2pm, I went out again. Then i went home at 7pm, talked to Lady, had a couple of pound cake slices, and slept.

Today is October 28. Whad did I do today? More lakwatsa! That's all.

While I walked around in the past days, memories of my childhood came alive. My mom used to take me to the park here in Cuseway Bay, Victoria Park (the place that shows up in Atlases as the capital of Hong Kong) . Aries and I used to run around the place without a care of what is going on... Memories memories... Oh well...

My last post was about the NBA, and my closing comment is about the NBA. Watch out for Detroit and the Darko Milicic show. Darko is an outstanding shot blocker and shooter, and he could pound it down low as well. I expect him to play mahor minutes this year, as the second big man off the bench (after Antonio McDyess). Yeah, that and look for Carlos Delfino and Carlos Arroyo to have breakout years. I won't be surprised if they go all the way to the Finals again this year. They are now essentially much deeper than the 2004 championship team with the addition of the new coach Flip Saunders.

So my initial Conference Finals prediction has Indiana going up against Detroit in the East and Houston going against San Antonio in the West. The Pistons will dominate the Pacers, and I think it's a toss-up between the two Texas rivals.

Till next time.

Houston looks like they are really gunning for the championship. They get Stromile Swift AND Derek Anderson (!!!!) to replace Vin Baker and Clarence Weatherspoon. Wow. So now they've got Yao, Stro, Tmac up front and DA and Bob Sura in the backcourt. Dikembe, Mike James, Jon Barry, Juwan Howard, and Scott Padget of the bench... Now THAT's a deep team.

Other people look at Miami now. Their line-up would consist of Shaq, Haslem, and Walker up front, with Wade and Jason Williams in the back court. Should Damon Jones re-sign with the Heat, he'll be going in along with James Posey, Alonzo Mourning, Christian Laettner, and the possiblility of Michael Finley (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Wow. But with Antoine Walker in the lineup, I think that'll destroy the team chemistry and ball rotation (I am not a fan of Antoine). That wouldn't really help them win a championship.

Detroit has been overlooked this offseason, and I think that they have made a very significant change in their line-up. The coach. Flip Saunders brings more than just an offensive approach. He deepens the Detroit bench all the way down to Darko Milicic, so they'll have Ben, Rasheed, Tayshaun, Rip, and Chauncey. This would, IMHO, still be the best starting 5 in the league, with all of the possessing All-Star talent. McDyess and Lindsey Hunter would still be the first two guys off the bench. But Saunders, unlike Brown, would probably optimize Detroit's bench, and let Darko, Carlos Arroyo and Carlos Delfino actually play quality minutes. Also worth mentioning is the addition of Dale Davis, a proven veteran who could bang around inside just like what Elden Campbell (enjoy retirement dude! I appreciate what you did for Motown!) did. GO PISTONS!!!! hehehe biased.

Where would Finley go? What about Sprewell? hmmm......

They say that 12 is a perfect number.

12 apostles of Jesus
12 months in a year
12 eggs in a tray
12 days of Christmas
12 numbers on a clock
12 cylinders in a Lamborghini's engine

and the list goes on.. but one thing about 12 stands out to me at the moment.

12 days na kami ng D ko.

but this 12th day was far from perfect. we were away from each other,and as of now, it'd be 34 hours before we see each other again when i pick her up before our 7am class. just knowing that i'm away from her is like... i don't know.

then again, thank God for Sun Cellular! :D

hehehehehe...

i have been walking around in pain since friday after a freak occurence which saw my knee slammed into TC by a 1980 corona wagon.

i don't want to get into the details.

i am blessed in the sense that i did not sustain any fractures but it would take time for my knee to be completely healed.

that means no jogging.

NO!!!!!

but time will come that i would be able to run again. i would be able to jump again. time will come.
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i gave this blog a facelift. the old colour scheme was dark, according to my CRT-monitor-toting friends. :D

until next update, man i'm sleepy..

God bless y'all