september booklist

September was a busy month for me, with juggling 2 accounts and getting an unexpected travel to bangalore for a new audit. i did however managed to get some reading time in the airplane and in the hotel room.

43. major crush by jennifer echols
Tired of the beauty-pagean circuit, Virginia Sauter tosses her tiara, pierces her nose, and auditions for the most unlikely of roles -- drum major of the high school marching band. Virginia wins, but is forced to share the title with Drew, whose family has held the position for generations. Sure, Drew is hot, but because of his superior attitude, he and Virginia are constantly arguing. That is, until they share more than just their half-time salute...But as the drum major's heated competition turns to sizzling romance, explosive rumors threaten everything -- including the band's success. Love seemed to be a sure hit, but Virginia and Drew may be marching straight into disaster. 4 stars. Cute ya novel.

44. flat out sexy by erin mccarthy
Two years after Tamara Briggs's husband was killed in a wreck at Talladega, she's back to dating, but her latest beau is a dud. She dumps him and remains intent on not ending up with another race-car driver, but that's exactly what she gets when she meets Elec Monroe. Things progress quickly, and soon she's having dynamite sex with this younger man who's nice to her kids—who could ask for more? There's a catch of course: Elec is the son of Tamara's dead husband's father's sworn enemy. 4 1/2 stars. Loved eric and tamara and their sweet story. there wasn't really much conflict like the plot made it out to be and focused more on their relationship.

45. divorced, desperate and dating by christie craig
A mystery writer is forced to reconsider her policy against dating when she is protected from death threats by the sexiest cop she's ever seen. 4 stars. Fun story but i hated the dilly dallying between the 2 characters which went all through out the story. the girl was so pakipot and the guy was just to tight lipped.

46. compromising positions by jenna bayley burke
David Strong knows how to do a lot of things that is, until he gets tangled up with Sophie Delfino and her Sensational Sex workout. He’s supposed to help her demonstrate Kama Sutra positions for her couples’ yoga class which unexpectedly tests his control to the limit. Sophie’s been fantasizing about David since her teens, but she never dreamed she’d actually be expected to run through her intimate desires—with an audience! Sophie knows she wants David in every way, and she’s flexible enough to use whatever she has to get him. David can’t afford any unexpected distractions. Besides the sensual positions he has to endure without embarrassing himself in public, there’s an embezzler stealing from his company. And then there’s Sophie—who is well on her way to stealing his well-guarded heart.
3 1/2 stars. Started great but went downhill during the last few chapters. didn't care much for craig and daphne. liked david but the vasectomy thing/storyline was just lame.

novels started but did not finish - maybe i was just not in the mood or the writing/story just didn't have an appeal for me to read until the end

47. tammara webster - between the lines
boring. didn't sound like they were hollywood actors (well, not that i know what happens offscreen). read in the reviews that the story gets better but wasn't interested enough to read on.

48. janice thompson - fools rush in
for some reason, i dont lke reading stories on italian americans (i guess because my weird mind tends to read the story with a really bad accent and all i can picture are the people from the godfather or jersey shore).

bangalore!

i thought my mumbai trip in august was my last trip to india for a while.. turns out one of the managers needed someone with a valid visa to go to india last sept and asked if i can go. normally i might have declined but then i was in the middle of completing 3 audits so i wasn't that busy on that week and so i agreed. it is much harder to pretend you have work and stare at the laptop all day doing nothing than go on a trip and be busy and useful to someone else. besides it's a plus for me if i can work on something different and get to know other team members. and so off i went to bangalore.

after my bad encounter with thai airways, i decided to go via hong kong instead and take CX (Manila-HK) then DragonAir (HK-BLR). While the dragonair plane looked a bit old, i still enjoyed the business class section because I was able to sleep comfortably (the seats can go flat and i didn't have a seatmate).

When i reached Bangalore... wow... i fell in love with the weather!! sure it was almost 11.30at night. but damn! the wind was so cool it was amazing! i felt like i was in the province (well bangalore is a semi-province). My office mate later told me that Bangalore used to be like the vacation place of the rich Indian families because of the cool weather. The weather stays cool the whole year around except for a few weeks during summer.

On my first day, i booked a room at Taj Vivanta, which turns out was quite far from the office -- at least 1 hour due to the heavy traffic. seems like everyone is going to the city center at the same time. I met up with my colleague in front of the lobby. I was wearing my favorite dress and my new 3 inch high heels and carrying a laptop on one shoulder and my big Longchamp bag on the other. You see, the roads and side streets in India are made of cobblestone -- which makes it harder to walk esp when wearing high heels.. yup you guessed it.. i tripped!! my colleague was walking too fast for me (aside from being taller than i am, he was wearing flats while i was lugging two big bags and cautiously stepping on the cobblestone).. despite my careful efforts, i still slipped, my left knee banged against the rocky-edged cobblestone (hugh ouchie!!!). i tried hard to stand up and i felt wobbly for a few seconds and i was trying hard not to wince at the pain. luckily my colleague had his back turned so he didn't see me fall down, though he did turn and asked if i was okay when he saw my bloodies left knee (sob sob). he then took my laptop bag and carried it for me. (he's such a nice guy). i didn't care that all the male tambays saw me fall down and probably saw more than what they're supposed to (luckily i had worn black undies!) but i didnt care - dont know them and will never see them again and i dont understand what they're saying anyways.

the rest of the day went by uneventful. by night time, colleague T and i decided to have dinner in the only mall in the city called Forum mall -- the restaurant name is called Sahib Sindh Sultan (http://sahibsindhsultan.com/). it was traffic going to the mall, we ended up spending 1hr and 20mins to get to the place. but it was worth it -- the interiors were designed like old trains -- really nice. the place was packed! seats were like in trains and even the waiters and the order takers had old train guard uniforms. i tried to take pics but it was too dark and blurry. Food was also great -- my colleague was vegetarian so we ate vegetarian food -- which i find are practically the same types of veggies but cooked different ways -- like the aloo (potato), veggie curry, etc.. of course i always make sure to eat roti :) we finished almost around 11pm and good thing traffic was lighter and we were able to reach the hotel in 30 mins.

the next day, we decided to move to Crowne Plaza Hotel which is exactly infront of the Blr office -- made sense since my client only comes in at 6pm so i had to stay longer in the office - at least i get go back and forth to the hotel anytime i felt like it. Downside is that there were only 2 places to eat in the hotel -- the breakfast lounge and the Italian restaurant. the breakfast lounge served started breakfast buffet but the food was unexciting - i dont eat Indian food in the morning coz im afraid my stomach may not take too much spice in the morning so i ended up eating light for breakfast. on some days, i skip breakfast and go straight to lunch. the italian restaurant wasn't so bad at least the meal was familiar. for dinner, all of us will be so hungry and didn't want to wait for our order so we would just grab the dinner buffet at the lobby lounge.

luckily, i was able to finish my job on time. unfortunately i wasn't able to go out of Electronic City again and do some sightseeing (though there's nothing really there). but still i enjoyed my time there (mainly because of the weather). maybe if they ask me to come back there i will.. thought i hope next time i can go to Jaipur!!

china

After 30 years of existence im finally going to china! My ancestor's homeland. I have studied the chinesw map, mandarin and chinese history all through out high school. Been fascinated with kung fu movies and wanting to visit the great wall and now i finally can!

As a first timer i had to gather alot of requirements for the chinese visa. After more than 2 weeks of completing my requirements my friend and i decided on a good day to submit our application. Our plan was to go there around 8am to get a number and hope that we finish before lunch (we both had to go to work in the afternoon). The night before d-day i was checking my requirements when i realized that i still did not receive my coe from hr. I asked for the coe a week ago and 2 days ago hr called me up to say that theyve sent it via messenger. The next day was when typhoon nesat came and due to the chaos i forgot to follow up on it. Turns out the messenger didnt deliver it to my office. Since i only discovered it around 7pm, the mailroom crew have left for the day and they told me to come back early morning.

The next day i hurriedly dropped by the office at 8am to speak to mailroom. It was around 8.30 when they were able to trace the document. It was still in the branch. I thanked the cres person and told her to hang on to it while i make my way to makati. Meanwhile my friend was already in the embassy and took a number. We were no 309. Since my office was near rizal drive i took the buendia flyover to makati. Big mistake. I was stuck for more than 30mins! Seemed like everyone wanted to go to makati. When i reached makati avenue the coast was clear.. the main traffic was only in the buendia section. I sped fast until i reached ayala ave. I forgot to ask the cres lady to meet me downstairs so i had to park at the basement, run up the 23rd floor, pickup the document and leave the building. It was alteady 9.30am and my friend said that we were just 7 nos away! Good thing i was quite familiar with the roads and the embassy as ive been there several times before and even got lost trying to navigate the one way street that i wad able to reach the embassy in less than 10mins. I was so panicky i didnt even bother changing my driving shoes and just ran to the 2nd floor. When i met my friend u saw the no being served was 304. Whew!!! Made it!!!

Our turn came and we nervously waited while the lady checked our requirements. I was so relieved that she handed me the pink slip which means okay and to pick up the passport 4 days later. However they did not accept my friend's bank stayement. We had to go to the bpi branch across the embassy, transfer sone money to her account, get a bank certification and go back to the embassy. Good thing we were only got for less than 30mins. My friend went back to the same lady who allowed her to cut in rather than take a new no. Minutes later she got her pink slip too and we went back to the office.

My friend went back to the embassy last thur to pay the fee and pickup our passports! Yehey so now were busy planning and packing for our trip!! Will definitely blog about it when im back!!

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