For the Love of Paddling!

Two weeks ago, I just had my most exhilirating and tiring days of my life. I was so blessed to be part of a team who represented UAE (though most of us were Filipinos) in an international dragon boat competition. Imagine that! I am competing and worst, I have a sport! Haha.. Anyway, our team, who we call ourselves as ADMar did train for this event for 3 months. Yeah yeah it was a short time of training because we never really thought that we would still be going to compete.

So, first stop is the Penang International DragonBoat Festival in Malaysia. We stayed there for three days. Below are our race results.

200m

1st race 4th place at 50 sec

2nd race 1st place at 49 sec

Finals 4th place at 50 sec

500m

1st race 1st place at 2:11 - straight to finals

Finals 3rd place at 2:08 - due to technicalities we were disqualified :(

I know it sucks but there will always be douchebag losers in the competition that will never ever accept the fact that they can either win or lose. But in our hearts, WE DOMINATE!

My team with their coolest hairstyle :)

And no, this ain't over yet! Since I have the coolest and awesomest team, we became famous and got featured in an article from a Malaysian newspaper. :)

'nuff said!

Next, the Lee Kum Kee 8th International DragonBoat Federation Club Crew World Championships and 37th Hong Kong International DragonBoat Races in Hong Kong. Yes! This is pretty amazing and prestigious race. It was actually the second largest dragon boat competition in the world and being part of it is awesome! We actually didn't set our hopes so high for this as we know that the best of the best paddlers from around the globe will be there. But we can't help but laugh whenever those tall, buff guys and gals sees us pass by. Their jaws were literally dropping and we can read from their minds like "What the heck are these tiny people doing here? And oh, they have two girls." We were like, watch us boys and girls. Hahaha

Anyway, as expected, level of competition is high but as the newbies, we pretty much did great! Great in the sense that we have consistently beaten our time here in Abu Dhabi races. Our HK race results are as follows:

2000m finished at 9:24.233

We ranked 17th out of the 23 teams who participated.

200m

1st race 6th place at 53.57 sec

2nd race 3rd place at 52.19 sec

Semis 6th place at 47.13 sec

We ranked 19th out of the 22 teams who participated.

500m

1st race 6th place at 2:12.5

2nd race 4th place at 2:06.5

Semis 6th place at 2:10.1

We ranked 19th out of the 23 teams who participated.

Yeah, we did 2000m and it was so intense! I actually enjoyed it! Especially when we passed by 2 or 3 boats ahead of us :P 9minutes and 24seconds non-stop paddling is hardcore. Hehe

During our 2Km race

Remi and I showing off how sexy our back is!

The best part of this almost two weeks trip? We learned, we enjoyed, we travelled and we made a lot of friends. T'was an adventure and a great experience. One of the precious moments I would forever keep in my heart.

Adventures of this whole trip in the next blog post. Ta-ta!

Diamonds

Surprisingly, I woke up early today. I felt like I have slept for years knowing the fact that I started to snooze around 2 in the morning. Ugh.

Anyway, when I woke up, I perfectly recall my dream. I dreamt of diamonds. I saw faces that I have never seen before. In this dream, we've been searching for something then all of a sudden all of us were holding numerous diamonds on our hands. I remember clearly that I got (literally picked) those diamonds from my home's backyard.

So what does this mean? Of course I turned to my ever reliable bestfriend Google and searched for it and here's what I got that makes sense.

Interpretation of common diamond dream
Consider a dream where you have entered a field behind the house and searching for some signs and signals that you don't know for what. You see that you have started digging in the back yard and after reaching reasonable level you find a pot covered with cloth. You open it and find colorful diamonds inside and you lay hands inside and recognize that your life has been changed overnight. This dream signifies your wishes to become rich to wend off your financial problems. Even though your dream suggests happy end but do not expect anything in wake life just do hard work and enjoy the fruits.

Hmmmm... I want to be rich, richie rich! LOL

Oh good day! ;)

x, P

Drama Princess is backkkk!

It's been awhile...

Princess has been verrrrrry busy. I almost forgot that am a true-at-heart blogger but hey, I have loads to post! From being a lazy ass to a beach bum to a dinosaur. Rawrrr!

So there, brace yourselves! LOL

xo, P

Oh Malé, Mawldeevs!

Recently, I went on an unplanned trip to Maldives with my travel buddies. It happened so fast and until now I can't effing believe I've been there.

At some antique shop for give-aways in Malé

Anyhoo, it started when I was snoozing and being lazy on my bed. I was sleeping and when I woke up, I got loads of bbm messages from these trip addicts. They found a very cheap flight going there. Usually, it will cost you like AED4,000+ just to fly there. Since Etihad had this promo, they unhesitantly booked tickets!

We stayed there for almost two days. Did some tour the moment we landed. We were surprised that you can tour the whole Malé Island for like 3 hours on barefoot. LOL Nothing to see in there but yeah, we did some arrangements for the following day - island hopping and snorkeling. We thought we could make it into diving but we lack time. We are flying back home after a day! Ugh.

So t'was like: Wednesday - tickets were booked, Thursday - booked the hotel, Friday - off to Male, Saturday - enjoyed the sun, sand and sea, and Sunday - head back home to Sandpit! Just like that.


Malé Island



I just love this pic because of different types of blue in it :)



Light blue sky and dark blue sea



Peacefully free ME!



Travel buddies :)



*speechless*

 But you know, unplanned things like this are the most enjoyable and memorable moments of life. I actually want to extend and stay like a couple of days more. You can't blame me. Maldives is just A-MAZING! Your jaws will literally drop at its beauty.

Looking forward for my next trip! :)

Pinas Vacay 2012

I finally got a chance to be with my family again for this year. Munchkin's gotten so big.. as in literally BIG! :) This time, everything is planned and it turned out quite well. Kudos to my partner in crime Keti for making my agenda.

Reunited

First two weeks was all about pigging out, Xioms school thing, and meeting with old good friends. Having a 3-hour sleep early in the morning is a satisfaction on my part but times like this happens once in a blue moon so I have nothing to complain.

What made my vacay more interesting and unforgettable was the fact that my Munchkin was recognised as one of the outstanding students at school. It's in the genes man! Hehe.. Seriously, it's one of the most rewarding days of being a parent.

showing off Munchkin's medals

After this two weeks of craziness, it's Boracay time! Mum and I did our assignments you know. We planned this wayyyy back so my vacay will be worth it. Five days at the beach is fun and relaxing!

Overjoyed

On our way to ride a boat for some snorkeling!

Reef walking with Nicole

So there, my vacation was a blast and I wish I could stay longer. Looking forward for my next homecoming!

x, P

Fish-aholic!

Work's been stressing me out recently. I don't want to end up having twitching eyelids again so I decided on buying a fish tank.

Ish was telling me that seeing a swimming fish inside a tank releases your stress. Well, I browsed over the net and got hooked to these little fishiiiieeess. :) I even bought loads of fish, like one or two every night, which made my tank look very crowded. LOL. I also enjoy feeding them and watching them for a couple of hours or even more. I can't explain it but once I sit infront of a tank, time just flies so fast but this made me feel so good and relaxed.

But to tell you honestly, keeping a fish tank is a lot of job. I sometimes have these mixed emotions whenever I see some fish bullying the other or worst, a floating dead fish in the morning when I wake up. But those moments are already gone. I managed to know how to take care of them so yeah, I'm a PRO now. Hahaha... The thing that I'm really addicted to in having a fish tank is - cleaning it almost everyday! I know it's not good but what do you care? :P But yeah, I stopped doing it because I read that it's one of the reasons why I'm having dead fish in the morning. Like I said, I'm a PRO now. ;)

Anyway, how about you? How about having some fish as a pet?

with my fishies ;)

Volvo Ocean Race 2012

Volvo Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world. This year, for the first time, Middle East is part of the race route. They will stopover Abu Dhabi which means water sports events - paddling!

Coach Mike was pretty excited when he announced this to the team. The event was held in Corniche Beach.



Champ! :P



Last kick!

Of course, we won. I just can't remember which category. I got a wooden paddle as a price. :) More paddling events in the coming months!

x, P