Flirt

Today was the start of my dance teaching for the staff. They have asked my help to teach them a sexy dance number. Searching my files, I realized I don't want to teach something that I already know. I want to teach them something new that is unheard of but very sexy. And one of my fave tunes on my iPod is the song called "Flirt".

It was a challenging role on my part to teach a sexy dance for those who don't feel sexy about themselves. The staff of Q Bar are really attractive and I just want to bring that out of them.

It was fun & thank God, they've got a bit rhythm in them. I just have to loosen them up & make them have fun when they do the "Flirt".

Free

Being who and what I am, I receive lots of complements and hear nice things about me every single day, from friends, from strangers in the market or shopping malls or even online. But mostly of course, at work. People perceived lots of things about me and I appreciate it no matter what it is. But what surprised me was the complement I got from a friend last night. He told me that he has been to my website and have seen the comments and guestbook entries and he said that he totally disagree with all those stuff. Having watched me every single night for the entire week, he said there's only one word that can describe how I am when I'm onstage - FREE. And he's right. It is exactly the way I feel when I'm onstage. It's like a different world out there that gives me a certain authority to do what I want. Irregardless of their positions in their company or in society, for one moment there, they'd be overpowered. And it feels really good. And I'm humbled by that fact. Thanks again, buddy!

Raining, man!

This is unfair. If it's not foggy on our off, it'd be raining. Like today. When I opened the curtains, I felt like waking up in a totally different place. The skies were not even gray, it looked like a mustard sauce mixed with black soy sauce going down the drainage. I know, I know it's hard to imagine that. Me, too. LOL.
Anyway, it rained ice just now. And I meant, ice. Like small hails. Not too small though, it's big enough that when it hit you you'd say, "What the f*ck was that?!", but small enough to cause a small bump. You understand what I mean? Me neither. LOL.
Ohhhhhh... this is soooo unfair. It's raining! Man!

Fashion Hair Party And Our New Home

We're supposed to move to the new unit in the afternoon. The renovation taking place on the floor above is really unbearable. I feel like the whole floor's going to collapse as we tried to sleep with earplugs in our ears. The lightsleeper among us, Marl, couldn't sleep at all and it has taken its toll on him. He's down with high fever and body aches. His body has not rested well enough, poor him! Since he can't take medications due to allergies, he had to do therapeutic massage and bottle-suck his back. I forgot what it's called. LOL.

It was a fun night at the Qbar. We had a theme party called Fashion Hair Party. There were hair stylists hired to do free hairstyle for the staff and the guests. Some were ridiculous and others were elegant like Jan's. Mine's playful & cute - I had 2 pigtails. I didn't want an up-do as I want to jump and shake all night long. And so did I.

There were couple of guests who joined our party by having their hair done or by doing crazy things with their hair. And my most fave one was my friend Don. He's really a fun guy and he proved it last night, by wearing a long hair wig over his bald head! When he went in the bar, I had to take a second look because he was unrecognizable. He looked like a really different person, more like a rock star on the 60's or 70's. Nice one, Don! You did make me brim the whole night. But we should have done the "stripping" stuff since I had lots of accessories last night. You would have let your hair "down" by the time I take off my stockings! Hahaha!

My feet were really aching by the end of the night. And we had to move our stuff from our old place to the new one. Although it's just 2 buildings away from each other (still in Silver Garden), there were too many stuff we had to carry. I mean, Jan and I. Marl was really down and I told him to rest. We just moved the stuff we really need and left the other stuff in the old place. It took us 3 trips - by foot - to move what we needed to move. Then we relaxed and went back to the old place to check emails and do our internet stuff.

The new unit is really NEW and beautiful and NEW and spacious (...and did I say new?), the view is to die for, you can see the ocean and I think I can even see the statue of Liberty from afar! Hahaha! The furnitures looked untouched and the floor is squeaky clean. But there's one MAJOR problem - there's no internet connection. We would love to move our internet here but the internet company is smart enough not to allow that. The CNC internet service provider has a fixed 6 months or 1 year on a "fixed" line. And that's literally "fixed". So that means, if we want to have an internet access, we'll have to apply for a new one again. Which is ridiculous because we won't be staying here in the new unit for long. We'll just wait until the renovation is finished then we are moving back in, say, in three weeks time? So If we need to use the internet, we'll just bring our laptops back to the old apartment and voila! It will be just like accessing internet in Starbucks - minus the coziness of course and the cute guys and girls lost in their cyberworld. And ours will be called STARBOX and we don't need the cute guys & girls because all we need is a mirror! Hahaha! Whaaaaatever!

Packed Wednesday

I would always look forward to Wednesdays at work. Why? Because it's the coolest night in town - Cover Girl's Night at Q Bar! All the hottest girls in town tagged along by their girlfriends and boyfriends go to Q Bar - to have fun. Girls get free drinks all night, free makeup, free hairdo, free manicure and best of all - free fun! This past Wednesday was exceptionally packed. With the opening of the Italian buffet dinner at the Garden Cafe, lots of our regulars were present. Even the hotel's excoms were partying too. The night was so hot that I regret having my curled hair down! But it was fun. Of course!

Performance vs vocals - on Idol

It's down to Blake Lewis the beatboxer & Jordin Sparks the sultry vocalist on Idol tonight. Who will win? I'd go for Blake as I'm a performer myself. Jordin will have lots of competition in her craft but Blake is kinda unique. Maybe the only competition he'll ever face is Justin Timberlake - once he's got his vocals strengthen. I suggest he'd undergo a vocal lesson with the top voice teacher in the US. I don't know who that is, maybe Blake can Google on that! LOL. Goodluck Blake!

Foggy ladies' night

We're on a taxi now on the way to the hotel. It's friggin' foggy & sprinklin' a bit. Hope we'll have lotsa guests tonight. Hey it's Wednesday, girls, it's ladies' night at Q Bar!

On a foggy day in Qingdao

It's been foggy since last Monday. In fact, Jan and I were supposed to have fun on that day. Our plan was to buy a kite in Jusco and like the kids in the park, we'd fly ours, too. But since it was foggy and drizzling a bit, we canceled it and stay at home till late afternoon. Now, it's been 3 consecutive days of fog. Today is so far the worse. Can't even see the building next to us when I looked out on the window. And yeah, the weather has gone colder, too. Damn!

Move!

Here we go again! We're moving again - for the better. Because of the renovation going on in the apartment above us, we weren't able to take some good rest since Saturday. They would begin drilling & banging just above us at around 8AM. Yeah, it's a normal time for them. And for other people, too.

The hotel took our complaints seriously, thank God! Now they're thinking of moving us to the Building 3 of Eldo Gardens, we are currently in Building 5. Hopefully, we'll be able to move by tomorrow so we can have a good night's sleep. I'm doing a bit of a packing now. I don't need to pack everything neatly. And when did I ever pack neatly? It's more like throw-it-in kind of packing. Thanks to Shangri-La KL who has sent us packing most of the time during our last contract there. At least, we're no novice to packing! LOL

Havin' an Apple

It's been like 4 years... oh yeah, it's been that long since I last saw Apple when she used to play at the BATS bar in Pudong Shangri-La Hotel with her ex-band, Hotshots. She settled down after that and had the cutest half-Dutch half-Filipino baby girl. She and Robert named her Britney Kuipers. I am one of Brit's godmothers. Eventhough I haven't met my goddaughter in real flesh, I have always kept in touch with Apple and try to give some pressies whenever possible.

Yesterday I got a call from Apple. She was in Qingdao with her husband but only for a day! And damn, it was our off day! So we just met up at Club New York at 11PM after visiting our Filipino friends. There's also a Filipino live band at Club NY and they were really good. Apple and I talked, giggled and laughed for couple of hours. Also, the band asked me to jam with them. Of course, the infamous hips didn't lie again!

It was great to see her again although we kept in touch on the internet. She's one of my avid blog readers and photo viewers. I wonder if she's read the other pages on my website. Well like you, you'd go straight to blog & pics, too, right? LOL.

Drillin' & bangin'

After the renovation of the shop just below our apartment which we have endured for the whole month of April, we are once again having disturbed sleeps because of the renovation of the unit above us. Worse, above our bedroom! You won't believe how noisy it can be. Every time they's drill something on the floor, I felt like our ceiling is gonna collapse! Terrible!

And the worst case is seen inside our bedroom's toilet. Because of the drilling & banging in the bedroom's toilet upstairs, they must have bore a hole in the pipes that caused it to leak. And where else would it leak? It wouldn't leak upwards for sure! And you know what? The water dripping down is yellow in color and it's really stinky. As stinky as urine. Oh wait, it is really URINE! So our toilet smells like a public toilet in China. You know what I mean.

We have complained to the management of the hotel and they're working out something for us. Since the renovation will take place during the next 38 more days, they are thinking of moving us to another apartment or hopefully, they will be kind enough to move us into the hotel. We can't afford to have lack of sleep because our voices and bodies are our only instruments. And there's no spare parts or even a repair center we can go to when it fails us in our job. Only much deserved rest will help. Yeah, only that.

Cyber battle

I am launching my brand new domain soon, and if you're part of my mailing list and are here because of the link provided on the mail I sent you, I might have already launched my new domain.

My former domain www.saritac.com expired last March. It has been my "home" for over 6 years and the email I created mailme@saritac.com was my main & primary address I'd give out to everyone. Can you imagine how it feels to be thrown out of your "home" because they thought you're not the owner?

Ok, here's the story. 6 years ago, a friend of mine gave that domain to me as a present. That means, he registered it for me through Namezero. After a few years, Namezero sent an important message stating about my account being transferred to Network Solutions. I disregarded it thinking that they will transfer my account, and since my domain has never failed me (except for opening it from China) I figured out it's okay. Expiration came too quickly after 6 years or should I say, time flew so fast. They sent me a mail to renew my domain services. But since they have a poor service in my opinion and I'm not happy with it, I decided NOT to renew. Instead, I was planning to transfer my domain to another domain service provider.

But no! When my domain expired and told them that I don't want to renew but instead transfer my domain, they were so wise to hang me upside down on a bait. Network Solutions said that I need to renew my services of $35/year if I want to transfer my domain. Hell no! Why would I pay that much amount just for me to transfer my domain? But I thought about it for quite some time. I've invested so much time and effort in promoting my website and I'm using my email account with them for really important mails. So I was convinced.

They were helping me through the process of renewal & transfer through phone, fax & email. Everything was going smooth and fine till they asked for any government issued identification. I faxed them my passport copy, only to be rejected! They think I'm just a fraud and wanted to claim saritac.com because... because! The information on their computer somehow conflicts my identification. Of course!!! My friend was the one who registered it for me and just put Sarita C. as my name, used his address in Canada which I know nothing about. It surely was a huge conflict!

Since there's a slight chance left to renew my domain, I have beaten my brains out and realized that I can't be on a long hiatus. It's like being kidnapped and hidden and thrown in a jungle like in the TV where nobody can find you. It's like going to a foreign country without any identification or passport with you. It's totally... actually I've got no word for it! LOL

So I've decided to register a new domain with 1and1 that makes sense and easy to remember - WWW.SARITAONLINE.COM - that points out to my old site. It's pretty much the same old thing, let's just say, it just had a cosmetic surgery for a longer... nose or chin or... what else could be long? Uh-oh, no, I'm not going 'down' there! LOL.

Please update your bookmarks for www.saritaonline.com!!!

Dead comes alive

I can't believe the phenomenon I have experienced today!

Dead comes alive. As in revived to life again! Really!

I'm talking about my external dead hard drive which has let my hopes down for weeks now. I have an 120 gigabyte IDE disk in a USB box to make it an external hard drive. I have used it for years now, maybe 2-3 years. So basically, I have most of the important backups inside. And when I say important backups I'm talking about invaluable pieces of memories: photos, videos and audio files. Yeah, they're pretty important to me next to my website. Ridiculous huh! Ok, laugh! :-)

Two weeks ago, it just stopped being detected on my laptop. It has stopped spinning or doing any activities which means the bad cyber omen - death of a hard drive. It shattered a quarter of my brain. Yesterday, Marl was sympathizing with me and offered his advice based on what he has read. So since I know he's as tech-savvy as I am, I trusted him. I handed my dead hard disk to him, then... OH MY GOD!!! He threw it upwards behind him causing it to bang against the wall and land on the floor. "Are you insane?", I asked him. He laughed and told me to try to connect it again and see if it's working. Giving him a sharp look, I hooked the cables and secured it in its USB box. Nothing. Still no activity.

He then told me to put it in the freezer. I said, "you're ridiculous!", as I googgled for tips on reviving a hard drive. There it was before my eyes...
Helpful and proven ways to revive a dead hard drive:
1. Drop it
2. Knock all of its side
3. Check if cables are correctly connected
4. FREEZE IT
So in my mind, since Marl has tried to drop it more than once, why not try the other 3 top options? There's no harm in trying, right? So I put my hard drive inside a plastic box, and put it in our freezer, beside the frozen pork and beef - yeah, I'm not a vegetarian anymore! LOL. I practically left it for 10 hours. After work, I took it from the freezer and connected the cables. Still no activity. In short, since I've tried the suggested "double murder" ways to revive my hard drive but nothing worked, I had given up hope.

Today, I woke up at 12noon. I was trying to find my laptop's power supply among the cables on the floor. Then I saw the cable of my dead hard disk. Without any hope, I just turned it on. OHHHH MYYYY GAAAAWD!!! It span!!! I mean, it's ALIVE!!! You can't imagine the adrenalin rush I felt - it's like taking 3 bottles of Red Bull. So I hurriedly connected it to my laptop then backed up all the important files first for 2 hours, before it died again. :-(

But at least, I got it working one last time. Just enough time to back up my files!!! Yipeeee!

I wonder if it will run again later after I take it out of the freezer again?!!

The rebirth of my corner - SOON!

Since there's no way I can regain my own domain saritac.com, and I can't take using my princessette's domain for my own sake, I've decided to give a present to myself for being such a cool mom. It was my day yesterday anyway, so I deserve a slight splurging - of $6.00 from my credit card! LOL. Please watch out this space for this exciting turn of event in your cyberlife - the rebirth of Sarita's Corner -- with a revenge! LOL

Satisfied cravings for Nutella

I've been looking all over Qingdao's supermarkets like Carrefour, Jusco and the new MyKal for my favorite chocolate spread. I've been addicted to Nutella since my aunt from Germany sent me a box of it in the early 90's. I don't crave for it when I'm in KL or in the Philippines, but I don't know why, for some reason, I crave for Nutella when I'm in China. Maybe it's the sight of identical Chinese faces? Or maybe it's the too much MSG on my food? Or maybe... whatever!

I had to buy a Skippy peanut butter mixed with chocolate and a Cola Cao choco spread just to have the feel of that addictive taste of Nutella. But they're not even half as close as satisfying for my taste.

Maybe it was really my day as Marl took me out for a stroll as a post-Mother's Day date in the newest department store in Qingdao - Sunshine Plaza. We admired the branded stuff we saw and complained about its price at the same time. We then went to its tiny grocery of imported goods. My eyes lit up and my heart skipped a beat when I saw the thing that's been making my saliva gland work well - my Nutella. Oh Nutella!!!

I couldn't wait to go home and try it. Since it's made by Ferrero, the maker of my favorite chocolates Ferrero Rocher, I just dipped my finger in and put it in my mouth... ohhhh! The taste! The unbelievable taste. Brings back lots of memories when I used to wear my fringe with a kilo of hairspray for a tidal tissed-up wave!!! LOL.

MAMA

"Mama"
by Il Divo

Mama thank you for who I am
Thank you for all the things I'm not
Forgive me for the words unsaid
For the times I forgot

Mama remember all my life
You showed me love, you sacrificed
Think of those young and early days
How I've changed along the way

Chorus:
And I know you believed
And I know you had dreams
And I'm sorry it took all this time to see
That I am where I am because of your truth
I miss you, I miss you

Mama forgive the times you cried
Forgive me for not making right
All of the storms I may have caused
And I've been wrong, dry your eyes
(Repeat Chorus)

Mama I hope this makes you smile
I hope you're happy with my life
At peace with every choice I made
How I've changed along the way
And I know you believed in all of my dreams
And I owe it all to you, Mama

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY TO ALL THE MOTHERS ON EARTH (AND MARS)!

Bummin' 'round

I haven't blogged for more than a week now. I know, I know... I missed you, too, you know! Nothing much is happening in our lives right now. Still rehearsing everyday. Still working our a**es off every night. Same old sH^t, different day.

I've enjoyed reading news online. Entertainment news, that is. What do you think of me, a business-section kinda girl? I read pictures! LOL. I just would like to share my insights on things I've read.

On Britney Spears
I feel really excited about Britney Spears' comeback and she really looks good. Having surprise public appearances clad in cowboy boots, fishnet stockings and showing butt cheeks with 4 other blonde dancers (I wonder if they're wearing wigs like she does), she should have just had it on a strip club or something. As much as I admire her as a total performer (minus the vocals), I still think she should do new choreographies on her old songs. Watching her videos taken during her shows at The House of Blues (in 2 different places), I must say that there aren't much changes in her choreographies. I mean, I might as well watch the old videos where she looked really hot and young, she moves the same anyway. Oh well, maybe she doesn't have time to rehearse at the rehab facility. LOL. But I still love her.

On Paris Hilton
Feeling mixed emotions about Paris Hilton going to jail for violating probation. Part of me feels she deserves it, but for a girl being the subject of humiliation and jokes, I feel it's a bit cruel, too. But yeah, somebody has got to learn their lesson very well. I just can't imagine Paris in her prison jumpsuit or whatever you call it, without her makeup on. But I heard she does look good without her makeup on. Younger. Anyway, I just wish her all the luck. Hope her inmates will not give her a hard time. But since she treats her staff in a cruel way, she might as well believe that "what goes around, comes around".

On Lindsay Lohan
Not really shocked about the news. I mean, c'mon, one look at her, no matter how innocent she might try to portray, you will initially feel and think that she's on it. Just can't believe she would be caught on camera doing snow-sniffing in a toilet. She's classier than that.

On Akon
He was caught on video dry-humping a 14-year old girl in Trinidad during one of his concerts. There's no need for his apology just because he was caught on it. The standards of the venue were not met by imposing the "only 18 years old and above". How can a 14-year old dressed like a 20-something girl come inside? The people to be blamed are the so-called tight security of the venue. But still, dry-humping in public, especially onstage? Can't you get a room or something? At least George Michael does it in public bathrooms, away from the prying eyes of the worldwide audience!

And hitting my browser with the headlines of these 3 blondes (when Britney's on her blonde wig) and a... errr... dark guy, I could say that I've read enough. I mean, the topics on these 4 people sum up what Hollywood life is all about.

Filipino's night at Qbar

It was Wednesday and it was Cover Girl's Night at Qbar which practically means, it's ladies' night. It was one of our best enjoyable nights because it seemed like the Filipino community of English teachers in Qingdao were all gathered at Qbar for the evening. They were scattered all over the place. There were of course old-time friends like the Centinales family: Ate Tess, Kuya Ramon and Roxanna. There were familiar faces and regulars, too. With Filipinos who really know how to party and enjoy, it was definitely an enjoyable evening. I had a good fun on and off stage.

Holiday in May

The first 7 days of the month of May is considered national Chinese holiday. That's unfair. Compared to the rest of the world who have got a holiday only on the first day of May!
It's Cover Girl's Night tonight and we're expecting it to be crazy and filled with people who wants to be seen. Yeah, Qbar is the place to be if you want to be seen!