Daily Happy Thoughts

Badminton is a sport which I considered as one of the best forms of exercise. Playing badminton keeps me feeling well, strong, motivated, enthusiastic and young. It helps me to ward off stress, enjoy a better sleep and increase my self-esteem more. Unexpectedly, it introduced me to poker! It is sufficient to say that friendships introduce new hobbies. Hence, poker. This is not going to be a full-blown poker story, so I shall write as little as possible about poker, which is a pleasant subject for men.

Poker sessions usually happen after our badminton game at Erco Sports Center. The first four players almost always are Jose Luis, owner of the poker set, Kirby, Siegfred and Earl (a.k.a. Bombi). The poker table that they’ll use would either be square-shaped or round-shaped, whichever is vacant near the pool table or in front of the badminton courts. They wish to have one of the poker tables that look like the one shown below. I’m pretty sure they’ll love the integrated corner cupholders (for their beers). For poker 101, Jose Luis taught us that poker is a card game wherein a player bets that the value of his hand (read: held cards) is greater than that of the hands held by other players. He said that each subsequent player must either equal or raise the bet or drop out. And if you knew the right sort of things (e.g., bluffing tactic) to use to your advantage, the main result is that you become rather a player holding the highest hand at the end of the betting than otherwise and wins the pot! This is what I like most aside from holding with me a five of a kind, royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house or flush.

Popularity: 70% [?]

If you’ve been to Dumagute’s Santa Monica Beach Resort or Dauin’s Bahura Resort and Spa, you will agree with me that the management has done justice to the pool. The surrounding pool area is decked with pool loungers, reclining armchairs and matching round tables for guests to enjoy the outdoor sun and scenery.

One though does not need to have a pool to have a reason to purchase patio furniture complete with cushions and accessories. Put your well-manicured lawn to good use; make it a venue for a Sunday luncheon with friends coming over for an NBA championship game or a Pacquiao-Diaz bout (which is this coming Sunday by the way), and what better way than to enjoy all this with a complete set of teak patio furniture!

thosbaker.com offers you all types of teak outdoor furniture made from Tectona grandis of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. You are assured not only of your furniture being highly resistant to rot, warping, shrinkage and swelling but also of its elegant design and premium workmanship that Thos. Baker is known for. Just click on the above-mentioned link to find more about their online products and services.

Popularity: 69% [?]

Today was a rainy day coupled with gust of winds that can easily fold your umbrella upwards. Overhead was a sunless sky, muffled in clouds that were heavy with rain; underfoot, a watery road; blowing over it, a wind that felt as if it would take your skin off (or so at least that’s what Nai felt up in the mountain). All because of Frank (name of the storm), people living at the mountain cannot go to work because of either a blocked road due to a landslide (washed-out soils after a 24-hour continuous heavy downpour) or an overspill of water with tree branches, coconuts, and/or mud at the bridge.

Nai called me up this morning. Over the phone, I can hear the heavy whirring sound of the wiper of their company service. Sure it was put on the fastest speed so it can at least provide good visibility for their driver. He told me that hearing my voice first thing in the morning on this rainy and windy day started out his day right. Isn’t it sweet? The things that I began to feel after that were so nice and beautiful that I cannot write them. Later on that day, he informed me through SMS that his hard hat was thrown away by a strong, sudden gust of wind. He had to ran after it to get it. Tonight, we again talked over the phone. Nai, shivering with cold (he ran outside their living room to answer my call because the others were watching TV and he shied away from requesting to lower down the volume), told me about his day and how his co-workers were able to get to their respective offices/places of assignment despite the blocked road; indeed, I can barely hear his voice because of the wind at the background. So we ended our 5-minute call with good nights and take cares so he can be safely tucked in their staff house’s living room again, sheltered from the gustly winds. That’s it for now, I’m going to retire to bed.

Popularity: 75% [?]

In woodworking’s past, good carpenters who produced good construction output with a calm deliberateness used pickup trucks with toolboxes mounted on them that they built themselves. Examples of tools used before are hand saw and hammer. Every piece of work is a dedication, a work of passionate labor. Nowadays, each piece is still a work of art in itself plus more. The woodworking’s future is very promising with more new inventions and innovations – one of these is the Power tool. A power tool is used by woodworkers in order to greatly simplify a complex or difficult woodworking task.

Today, woodworkers use festool routers, planers, joiners and accessories. All are prized for their speed, flexibility and, most of all, for their accuracy in getting the woodworking job right! Females like me who love to tinker around using their dad’s or hubby’s tools can actually tackle a woodworking task by working smart with festool power tools.

Popularity: 95% [?]

My workplace is a 10- to 15-minute ride south from Dumaguete City. Transportation to and from work is either a tricycle (a sidecar attached to a motorcycle) or a multicab. My daily fare rate costs me more or less a dollar.

There are days though that my ride home would be free. AJ, a close friend from work, is almost always fetched by her husband with their new red car, especially when she already goes home from work at 6 PM onwards. So when I also go home from work at those times, I would be comfortably riding home with them. On one of our trips home, they mentioned to me that I should get my own car and that I should not forget to get a car insurance. This they said would come in handy when there are unavoidable traffic accidents, and “we feel safe having friends like you ride home with us”, they added. I learned that the car insurance they got covers not only their car and the driver but also family, friends or pets traveling with them. Now this kept me thinking (we’ll see *wink*).

Popularity: 74% [?]

I have a large enough bedroom and my next project is to make the overall look of my bedroom a contemporary living space – a practical yet stylish bedroom.

To accentuate the window to the left of the door when one gets inside, I need to put a coffee table beside it. Coffee tables are essential in a living room or bedroom, for that matter. It should be a piece that pulls the room together, just like the one shown below. It should also be the right size to accommodate the food and drinks that will be served for visiting friends. If you need a focal point for conversation when you have friends over, look for modern coffee tables at spacify.com.

Vogue Coffee Table

(Truly a masterpiece of creativity)

Popularity: 68% [?]

I received an SMS alert from Cebu Pacific about their latest promos this morning. The seat sales they are currently offering are both for domestic and international flights. Neighbouring Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok, and other international destinations like Kota Kinabalu and Kaohsiung are now very accessible and affordable because of the direct flights offered and slashed down plane fares, respectively.

I’ll check the travel dates for these promos at their main office this afternoon. Oh! I need to remind Nai to process his DOST clearance the next time he’s off duty so he can be allowed to secure his passport this time around after 3 years of offering service to his own country (see, he was a DOST scholar when he was in college and DOST requires their scholars to render work in the Philippines the same number of years they were sent to college by them when they graduate). Otherwise, he’d not be able to travel with me or the travel may be postponed altogether. Worries aside, he’s as excited as I am so I know that he would be processing the documents needed.

Popularity: 67% [?]

Lately, June mornings have blinding sunlight as early as 8 AM. I’m not complaining about experiencing and/or knowing the assurance that our sun is still there and has been performing as required. I regret though not buying one of the vintage sunglasses, which has a nice fit around my eye and nose bridge areas, displayed in Ayala Center last month when I and Nai were in Cebu. The one that I particularly like looked similar to the one in the picture below.

Had I bought it, I would have been already sporting a cool sunglasses on mornings on my way to work and protecting my eyes from sun damage at the same time. I think I need to up my impulsivity, especially where fashion and health is concerned.

Popularity: 65% [?]