In the Philippines No. 1 !!!

Apologies for the overdue update.....here in a nutshell: I have arrived in Manila on Sunday, 7 September, at 4.00am (!!!) and was picked up by my Mom and sister at 6.00am. Flew via Doha and killed my almost nine hours layover time in the Oryx Lounge, even took a shower, pretty cool. Spent the day and the day after in Manila, met up with two of Mom's cousins (but I was so tired, basically sleepwalking...the inflight entertainment system of Qatar Airways is too tempting, didn't wanna sleep with so many new movies available! I totally recommend the movie Smart People with Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page and Sarah Jessica Parker. Also watched two chickflicks, haha. Maid of honor with Patrick Dempsey aka Mr. HAIR and What happens in Vegas. I gotta have me some Ashton, you know) and had loads of great food. All you can eat buffet at the MegaMall, baby. Luckily we're walking and swimming a lot here, we don't want to come home looking like the Michelin man, right?

Last Tuesday we (my Mom, my sister and her best friend) flew to Boracay, a beautiful tiny island, where we will stay until 19 September...at first we weren't lucky with the weather, it's Typhoon season after all. We killed the time by watching loads of Filipino MTV and other music channels (they have some great artists here!) but now, we're having gorgeous weather! We rented a boat just for us yesterday, did some island hopping, some snorkeling, had a meal cooked for us at the beach, and discovered paradise: Puka Beach, on Boracay. White Beach is too commercialized already. Puka Beach has gorgeous sand and crystal clear water, and we were there almost alone. Today we rented a Filipino style sailboat for a hour, it was so much fun. Taking lots of photos, but it's taking forever to upload them to our travel blog....fingers crossed we can do so soon. We can't download a plugin that would make it faster.

What songs are on rerun on the music channels that we L-O-V-E?

• Disturbia (Rihanna)
• Spotlight (Jennifer Hudson)
• Kissed a girl (Katy Perry)
• Daylight (Kelly Rowland)
• Shake it (Metro Station)
• That's what you get (Paramore)
• Everything by Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz of course
  

Check out some pretty cool Filipino music here, and Rihanna's Umbrella song in Tagalog here, haha.

Will post again soon, tootles! Am having a great time....

Life could be so beautiful, sigh :-)

More pics of my brother and his girlfriend in the Philippines. Currently, they are in Laos...

Belated...

Some pics from my baby sis' 20th birthday dinner last Sunday...I think no matter what age, I'll still be calling her that :-)

P.S. I know we're all dressed up...it was a special occasion, mind you :-) And I got some new clothes for work, had to try them out

WOW

Isn't this just the coolest photo in the world? :-D My brother and his girlfriend in the Philippines (here, Chocolate Hills in Bohol)

My bro and his girlfriend in the Philippines

Ah, I wish I could be travelling too now.....they will be in the Philippines for about two months, then continue on to (I think) Thailand, Laos ...... Take care you two! :-)

Just one of the impressions of a beautiful celebration weekend at home

And btw: I am listening to a lot of Swiss-German music these days ;-) One of my favorites is Adrian Stern...

CONGRATULATIONS!

My younger brother and his sweetheart both graduated from University !!!! CONGRATULATIONS! I unfortunately couldn't attend their graduation today, because I am in Geneva and they are in Lucerne, bummer. Am so happy for them! (btw, I still haven't had my own graduation yet! Have been waiting for a couple of weeks, and will have to wait for another few weeks). A new life is ahead of them now too .... and exciting travels as well :-)

Busy, and sick, times

I think this has never happened to me before....getting sick twice in three weeks. I need to take better care of myself. The past few weeks have been very intense to say the least, but it was all very well worth it. I love my friends :-) And work is good too....

Going home this weekend for my dear Daddy's birthday. Oh and congratulations to my brother too, he successfully finished his studies! It's in times like these that you realize how fast, uh, time flies. When I can say "I finished high school seven and a half years ago", or I joined AIESEC in October 2002, I definetely feel like I'm getting older. At the same time, no matter how much time passes by, certain things will just never change, and that is very comforting. To me it feels like this is the time I know which people I will be friends with for the rest of my life. No matter how far away they are or will be :-p