Princess Jasmine

Last Saturday, my family together with Karen watched my niece play the role of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin for their school play. It was supposed to start at 6PM but being the kids that they were. It was difficult for the teachers to get them to stay in one place for a long time while waiting for the rest of the cast to finish up on their costumes and make up. There was a kid who's parents were seated in front of us who kept on saying, "Oh! Ayan nanaman sa salabas yung anak mo! Kanina pa labas-pasok ng back stage."Ü

It was a simple play that the teacher at San Lorenzo school in San Pedro, Laguna produced. I think I was also expecting too much from the kids thinking that Aubrey, my niece, at age 6 would already be able to memorize all of the lines together with the rest of the cast. The teachers were way ahead of me and thought of just having narrators do the lines of the characters. Somewhat like dubbing for foreign telenovelas. And if you are familiar with the antics of comedy shows when they act out what the narrators say, it was what these kids were doing, only they do not mean to make fun of the play. There was an instance were the character Jaffar was almost about the leave the stage and narrator kept on doing the evil laugh! It was so cute and funny that I found it hard at times to take photos because I was laughing so hard that I even had trouble holding my camera still! I had a blast watching them acting out their roles. Check out some of the pictures I took.


Aubrey's Tarpaulin


Aubrey as Princess Jasmine


Aladdin with Jasmine disguised as a peasant


On A Magic Carpet Ride


The Cast of Aladdin

Congratulations Aubrey for a successful play! We are all proud of you! :D

Baby Lanze Nicholai Christening

The day after Gerrylou's wedding, Karen and I went to Nick and Noemi, her college friends for the Christening of their newest baby, Baby Lanze Nicholai. We didn't get enough sleep the night before so we were only able to proceed to the reception. I wanted to go because I wanted Karen to see her college friends again. I also wanted to meet them. Although not all of her friends were there, I was able to meet Nick, Noemi, Jhen and Mike. Maybe next time, I'll be able to meet all of them.

Welcome to the Christian world Lanze Nicholai!


Tita Karen and Ninang Jhen with Baby Lanze and Mommy


Mommy and Daddy with Baby Lanze


Jhen, Kha and Noemi

Mago - Isip Nuptial

Last February 10, Karen and I got invited to Ge's wedding held at the Saint James Church in Ayala Alabang. This wedding was my chance to get used to the battery grip and the flash that I bought the dday before the wedding. I was hoping to use them on Ryan's wedding but since I have very little experience with wedding photography and no experience at all with using the flash, I had to make the most out of this opportunity. I also thought that it would be a good wedding gift for the couple. Hopefully they would like the photos I took. My only regret was I did not have the courage to really go up the altar and take photos of them during the important parts of the wedding such as the lighting of the candles, the veil and chord. I did not want to get in the way of their photographer more so get in the way of the ceremony.

Ge! Best wishes from me and Karen. Hope you like the photos! This isn't our gift for you. I'm still making it. Its just so difficult to find the time right now to make it.Ü Again, best wishes! You can find the rest of the photos on one of my Flickr accounts. :)



Inside the Church


The Groom and his Mom


Secondary Sponsors (Yes, that's Mark Anthony Fernandez.)


The Bride


Gerrylou and Joel getting married


Their first kiss as a married couple


Karen and a couple of her friends






The Wedding Cake


The Food


The next to marry???

The Reunion with DJ Stryke

Last night, Tropatups had another reunion. We had to do this because CJ is going to leave on Feb 20 for Canada. The despedida we gave CJ a couple of weeks back was done but we really did not know when CJ will be leaving. This time was different. Not only do we the exact date when CJ will be leaving, Dave and Ces were also able to join us and Jay was also permitted by his wife.

We first had our dinner at Steaks MD Creekside Square, Tomas Morato. They also have branches at Kamuning and at Paseo de Sta. Rosa. It was Selle's idea to eat here and if its Selle's food idea then it must be good! (Sounds like an old commercial!Ü) If you do not believe me then check out the steaks Karen and I ate! (Their steaks have some quite funny variations with the flavors they are cooked.Ü)


Regular Porterhouse Steak (Butter Rub - its basically butter melting on top of the steak)


Regular Porterhouse Steak (Ang ChaRub - Sweet and Spicy)
After the scrumptious meal and some more catching up stories with the gang, we then went on a "nostalgic" trip to the favorite past time back during our college days... BILLIARDS! There was a Gutson's Billiards above Steaks MD so we went there but the girls were looking for some other place to stay and chat so we didn't really stay there for long. The rest of the guys only finished their bucket of beer. I actually felt that it was still early to end the night but Ces had to go back home and take care of baby Via (Kathy, ano ulit buong pangalan ng anak nila Dave?ÜÜÜ)

Selle and Resty were about to ride a cab when I called them and offered to give them a ride and drop them off at Gerry's in Libis. I think what Selle understood was we would go to Gerry's with Barry and Kathy and spend more time there. Luckily, Barry and Kathy also wanted to keep the night alive so went went to Starbucks Morato. I have to say that it was one night that I forgot about my diet and had one slice of Sans Rival.

Until the next reunion!Ü Take care and keep in touch CJ!



The Ladies of Tropatups

Globelines Broadband

No, this is not an advertising post to promote Globe's newest promo. I am trying out Karen's internet connection which is bundled with their Globe phone line, P995 Globeline phone and broadband package. According to their website, this package comes with a 384kbps internet broadband connection. Not bad right? Well... let's see.

I had no problems hooking up their internet connection since everything is practically, plug and play! No software configurations needed. Hooray! A big thumbs up for that! Everything came with a very simple, single page instruction manual on how to setup the modem and connections using either the USB or the ethernet. Another good one since those with no NICs can still connect using their USB ports. However, I think it would require a USB 2.0 to maximize its use. Not sure about that though because I chose to connect via ethernet.Ü

Let's move on to its connection speed. So far, in using it for less than 30mins, I've gotten several page cannot be displayed while surfing and having a minimum of 3 IEs open. I had to refresh each IE and so far, I think it looks good with just 2 IEs open. This is a little frustrating, though. A 384kbps connection speed should be able to handle more than that, right? It might be because I'm used to a fast connection at home and in the office but hey, it still beats using a dial-up connection for surfing and blogging!Ü I think Windows Vista's very paranoid security settings is also affecting the speed because of the phishing check it does when viewing websites. I even tried using McAfee's speed test and it gave a 60Kbps result. Slow? Yeah... Then again, it still beats dial-up.Ü

For those who are looking for a good broadband connection and do not have a phone line, Globelines' phone and broadband package is a good option to consider. They have other packages with faster internet connection speeds that are worth looking at because of the big difference with about Php600 additional cost from the Php995 that Karen got. Of course, it would all depend on how often you connect to the internet or if you use the internet for things other than just surfing the web.

Happy Valentines Day!!!!

My New Toys...

Last Friday, I asked my Dad to accompany me to Quiapo, Manila to buy some camera stuff. I needed (more like wanted) an external flash and a battery grip for camera in order for me to prepare for Ryan Alzona's wedding. Hidalgo Street in Quiapo really is a photographer's heaven. I was soooo amazed at the low prizes and the amount of camera gear available there that I did not care if there were tons of people around and the scorching heat that day since we got there around 10:30-11AM. We first went to Henry's to by a flash and because I was on a very tight budget that I had to borrow money from my Mom, I bought the cheaper 430EX instead of the 580EX. Php13000 vs Php20000? I think it would be a no brainer if I only had a budget of Php20k, right? (Sigh...) I was also hoping to buy the battery grip from them but unfortunately, they had no stock. So we had to go and canvas for a battery grip around and I ended up buying it for Php6500 at Avenue. Not bad, I think. I even went over budget by buying an extra battery for Php2000.

I hope the salary I would be getting is big enough for me to pay my Mom and last til the next pay day. I was even contemplating on buying the Sto-Fen worth Php1000 but if I did, we would have gone home with only Php300 in our pockets. So sad... :( But hey! Even if I'm in SUPER TIPID MODE, all I can say is... IT WAS WORTH IT! :) Maybe when I save enough money, I'll go back there... But that's definitely not anytime soon.

Here's one of the shots I took that night. I'll post the rest as soon as I have the time.


Karingking and Pacasoy with little baby brother Filly.Ü

Happy Birthday Kuya Kirby and Welcome Baby Via!

Last Saturday after my shift, Karen and I went to Mary Johnston Hospital in Manila to visit Ces who just gave birth to a very beautiful, healthy baby.

Welcome to the world baby Via!



It was also Kuya Kirby's (Karen's big brother) birthday that day, January 27. It was only a simple celebration because Kuya Kirby already celebrated his birthday with his friends Wednesday night, before his birthday. He was also visited by his friend, Gerald with his fiancee. They had a drinking session while I was enjoying an HBO movie marathon because their T remote was not very cooperative.Ü

Happy Birthday Kuya Kirby! Hope you liked the food! :)