Dinner in Tagaytay

I very much enjoyed the dinner we had in Tagaytay last Friday. We had it at Buon Giorno! The food was great (both in presentation and taste), the ambiance was amazing and the company of friends was a pure joy. Who would have thought such a nice cozy place and authentic italian dining could be found just 30 minutes away?

I had a really great time. Thanks a lot Julia, Yen, Rose and Laarni! :)

Photos by Rose

Theory of Relativity

One of the sites I have found which I recently decided to participate in, albeit inconsistently, is the Illustration Friday website. It is a site where they post a topic every week and then people draw/illustrate their interpretations of that topic and post their illustrations in the site. It's a nice way of doing free flow drawing, allowing me to just express whatever ideas that would come out of my head when I read each topic.

This week's topic is "Theory". The one theory that came to my mind that I have the least understanding on is the relativity theory, specifically, Einstein's special relativity theory. I had asked my husband to explain it to me last night and among all his explanations, most of which passed my mind and out of my other ear, the only thing that I retained was his example. He said, "If you have a pair of twin sisters, Maria and Juana, and Maria spends all her life on earth while Juana decides to spend her life riding a comet that travels at a very much faster speed than the earth, when they meet 60 years from now and come face to face with each other, Juana will be younger than Maria. And the reason is because the movement of time for a moving object is slower than that of a stationary one. That is one of the consequences of Einstein's theory."

I find this very hard to imagine but I leave my mind open to when I could fully understand it in the future. For now, the image of Maria and Juana meeting each other within this time dilation capsule is what I have in mind. In below colored pencil drawing, I show a much younger Juana coming face to face with her now older twin sister, Maria. They are separated by the different time orbits that encapsulated them.

Sometimes, it is easier to see science through art. :)

Shoes Are Made For Walking

We just sold our car + I recieved my bonus + Nike had a sale = brand new shoes for Julia and me :)
Since we'll be doing a lot of walking here and in Canada, what better way to walk than to walk on Air!

Going Away Presents

During a three hour breakfast business update meeting last week, I was surprised to find that they had alloted time for a send- off tribute (or you can call it celebration for good riddance? :) for those employees who are leaving the company early this year. I'm one of the eight. Most were transferring to other local external companies while others were transferring to a new company half owned by my current one due to a recent merger and sale of that part of the business. One was moving to Malaysia for a two year assignment. I was the farthest "leaver", I guess, as I was going out of the region.

The "send-off" was short and sweet. They had a slideshow playing on the screen, reminiscing old times (and old haircuts) and they gave us a big paper bag containing company tokens and a box which had gifts and notes given by our colleagues. It was touching. My favorites, if I have to name them, were the brown bag (a nice remembrance of my time with the company and which makes a nice art bag that I could use to log my sketchbook and art materials), the sketch pad, the tattoo pens and the nice children's book (The Ice Dragon by George R. Martin given by Rose). (I did get an extra one which was an award for a project I finished with a virtual team last year..a $100 worth award which nicely fits into my travel wallet. :)



I had made a small poster made of paper cuts, my way of thanking them in remembrance of the accomplishments we had last year. (picture below)



I was lucky, I was able to get through my goodbye speech without choking. Leaving the people I have grown to love, like (and even disliked) is always a tough emotional road to pass. I guess I am writing this with a light note now but when the music stops playing, all hugs exchanged, goodbyes sent, funny (and not so funny) memories recollected and I am left in the silence and darkness in my room, in the middle of the night, looking out at the lone lampost outside my window, the loneliness hits me like a wave. Deep down, I know everything will never be the same, some friendships will fade with distance and time, and the cozy, warm cocoon I currently am in is slowly cracking and opening up, releasing me to a new alien world. I will truly miss my friends.