I don’t know if anyone missed me but I sure did miss blogging. I had been away from the internet since the last few days of my finals because I was spending the nights studying with my roommate in their home in Fairview. I also had the internet connection cut back in the apartment since I’m also moving houses soon (tomorrow in fact) so even when the exams ended last Friday, I wasn’t able to surf the net and rant about my hell week before we left for the much-needed Bohol-Cebu trip.

I got back this morning after five days of being on tour. I had so much fun that I felt the need to share my experience as a guide for those who are also planning on a Bohol-Cebu getaway as well. Anyway, I’ll be dividing this summer escapade entry into a number of parts since it won’t fit in just one blog.

My mom, aunt, Bee and I left Manila on board the Cebu Pacific flight to Tagbilaran early morning of Saturday and arrived a good one hour and a half later. My aunt who is from Bohol, was the one in charge of getting a tour van for us. A tour van is the best and most comfortable way of going to the tourist spots in Bohol since taxis don’t exist in Tagbilaran (or so I think). If you have no contacts in Bohol, you can hire a tour van once you get off the airport since you’ll be greeted by a number of drivers offering tour vans for visitors. The drivers also serve as your personal tour guide as our van driver, Kuya Joven (Cel #: +639202810530, email: join@yahoo.com) did for us. The drivers know exactly where to bring you so you don’t have to worry about your itinerary. We spent PHP 3,500 for the van. It’s originally PHP 3,000 but my aunt requested him to bring us to Sagbayan Peak (which was out of the way) to see more of the Chocolate Hills so we had to add another PHP 500. You see, there were two places developed where tourists can see the Chocolate Hills, one is in Carmen, Bohol named the Chocolate Hills Complex and another one located in Sagbayan. We had breakfast in a nearby mall because we had to wait for my mom’s colleagues who were joining us in Bohol from Cebu. Once they arrived, the adventure began for us. Here are the places we visited on our first day in Bohol in chronological order.

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I never imagined finding a new place to live near St. Luke’s would be a nightmare. I will be officially semi-homeless in the next few weeks. “Semi” because I’m not exactly homeless since I’ll be moving in with a couple of classmates in a 1-bedroom apartment near the school but of course, I’m still keeping my options open and my fingers crossed in hopes of getting a unit or at least a room all for myself. But you know, with the way things are going for me, it’s a lot easier to get an online auto insurance than a room for rent that fits my budget. Rental prices are soaring the nearer you are at St. Luke’s. The cheapest studio-type room that I’ve come across with is ten thousand pesos and there’s no way my parents are paying that amount for me. Oh well. I still have more than a week before I finalize Plan A and I’m still hoping against hopes that I’ll get the perfect place for me. I just wish fate agrees with me.

I rarely add people in plurk voluntarily - unless they’re a relative or an offline friend/acquaintance. Those purely online pals that are on my list may consider themselves lucky ‘coz there must be something unique with them that I’ve picked them out from the scores of those who have attempted to add me. My policy is this: if I know you or at least have a semblance of interaction with you, you’re a friend; but if you’re some faceless name off the internet, you’re better off rejected or perhaps when I’m in a good mood - as a fan. It does sound conceited but a blogger whose existence is out online for everyone’s consumption also yearns for some privacy in the same tune as some bigger celebrities want to keep theirs. This is the same mantra that I keep for all the other social networking sites that I am a part of: friendster, facebook and less so for multiply. So it came as a big, big surprise when last night I discovered I had pending friend requests to two virtual strangers over at plurk. I first suspected that someone knew my password and was logging in without my knowledge but I also remembered how my plurk’s one of a handful of online accounts that I have with a password that is unique to itself. Then, I thought that perhaps, somebody must have been using my laptop behind my back - but then I also remembered how I’m with my laptop almost 24 hours a day. It was indeed a big mystery - until a friend of mine wondered how come a stranger’s plurks were appearing in his timeline when he neither knew him nor added him. I never knew that it would be the key to my own mystery.

A bug. Some programmer had left his bug somewhere in plurkville and now it’s wreaking havoc by sending friend requests to total strangers. Take this guy for example and count the number of friend requests waiting for him: 116! And there it was, included in the waiting list are two of my friends including the one who brought up the issue.

This just makes me wonder how safe exactly are these social networking sites. Yes, they offer some sort of privacy to their members by making their timelines viewable only to contacts but, how effective are these strategies? I remember how another friend had the same “plurk privacy” issue a few months back wherein someone got hold of information by allegedly hacking his way to her plurk timeline and used these to incriminate her or perhaps use a printer for a hardcopy of the information he gathered. Not that I’m saying I’m tolerating her act (I believe she has her faults too), but the point of the matter is how online networking is never safe despite what the developers claim them to be. Somehow, in some way, some genius would find his/her way through all the security loopholes waiting to be discovered and threaten every member’s privacy to some extent. I am not saying however, that this person hacked plurk in any way. By the looks of it, he too, perhaps, is a victim of the bug lost somewhere in plurkville. So before this goes out of hand, I think the developers of plurk need a wake up call to iron this boo boo soon - and fast.

I can’t wait to share this very good news. The scorching heat of March - a prelude to the fast-approaching summer - has finally caught up with The Landmark. Affordable bikinis and tankinis are now up for sale at The Landmark department store where you can snag a pair at less than 500 pesos! Beat that! I was so excited to spot the almost exact pair of bikinis that I had in mind while I was browsing through their racks and because they’re dirt-cheap, I was so tempted to buy not just two but three pairs for myself. However, I still have to attest to the durability of these bikinis as this is my first time to buy such great steals off their racks:

Both of these are padded, fully-lined and made of 80% Nylon and 20% Lycra from Thailand. What’s so great about my new buys is that they come in different sizes unlike the ones I bought last year at Tomato which was free size (Luckily the ones I bought were a perfect fit!). Always, always remember though to check the sizes of the ones you’re buying before you head for the counter. I almost went home with a medium purple triangle top instead of a small one.

I’ve been looking high and low for affordable bikinis for my coming trip to Bohol and Cebu. Sadly, not a lot of boutiques have released their swimwear collection already (Naf-Naf and Folded and Hung, to name a few). And although they were carrying nice swimwear, not a single one of them - not even the ones at Rustans fit what I had in mind. I’ve also scoured most online stores in multiply and even ebay in search for the bikinis that were meant for me. What caught my fancy were the number of multiply stores that offer Made in Thailand swimwear which are often on a pre-order basis. You can get a pair for 650 to 800+ pesos at retail price (I bet you can even ask for a discount if you’re buying wholesale). Most of them, however, come in free sizes which was what exactly stopped me from placing my orders online. I wouldn’t want to end up disappointed that the pair I bought online wouldn’t fit my petite frame. Actually, I found a good sale off ebay just yesterday (a lovable pair of string bikinis in hot hot red!) but the auction ends just 4 days short of our flight to Bohol. Disappointed as I am, I didn’t end up bidding for it since I’m highly dubious that the pair would arrive on time. This is why when I got to The Landmark this afternoon, I felt like crying tears of utter joy! Finally! My long search is over! And like a cherry on top, I didn’t have to break my piggy bank for these! What a very nice end-of-school gift from Kuya Jess, don’t you think?

So what are you waiting for, girls? I bet you can already hear the splashing of the waves like I can. It’s beach time, hunnies! Happy shopping!

I finally come to the last stretch of my junior year. It’s crunch time! And I don’t exactly understand what the heck I am doing online. Hehe. The stress is evident. I have a number of stress pimples to worry about (good thing they can easily be hidden under my bangs) and I’m losing weight like there’s no tomorrow! A good friend who I haven’t seen for weeks once asked me if I was taking diet pills ‘coz I had lost weight. An old teacher that I ran into a few days ago also commented that I look thinner now. Blame it on stress! My monstrous food intake is not helping me much! *sob* I really can’t wait for “summer” or what’s left of it. I feel like I’ll break down any minute now.