[Annierobrigado]

Hi all

jes just found out that there are also many kababayans who are members of this forum. would you like to meet up, the same way the brits did?

we were supposed to send chuchi off with this meet, but she'll be so busy till the day they fly she wouldn't have the chance to join us.

so if you're interested, we'd like you to come and meet everyone.

DATE: Feb 6, 2005 Sunday
PLACE: SM Megamall, EDSA Ortigas - either Dulcinea or MAx's resto
TIME: 11:30 am to late afternoon...

Could you please pm me with your cell nos. so jes and i can contact you personally as to the final venue? It's KKB, so you don't need to worry.

thanks and see you soon!

:cheers
annie

[ruben/daisy]

hello all,

i am daisy zabala and my husband is ruben zabala...i am interested to join you on Sunday...here's my cp nos. 09278994559...

I've just replied to jes in private email...thanks and regards..see u soon..


all the best!!

daisy

[jo b]

Hope you all have a great time.

It's good that you can not only put faces to names but might establish some lifelong friendships too.

http://tcwozere.co.uk/smileys/fairy.gif :hopeso

Jo

[jesselyn]

the votes are in - its Dulcinea !!!

http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/trinken/13.gif

[jesselyn]

daisy & ruben,
see you there! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tierfrog/smile2.gif

jo,
thanks - have a great time too! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tierfrog/wink2.gif

annie,
we will look like these on the 6th : http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tierfrog/halo2.gif


http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tierfrog/zoo.gif

[jhsay]

See you there!

-Jinkee

[Annierobrigado]

hi jo,

thanks for the encouragement... yes, i do hope we make lasting friends in and out of cyberspace. i just wish all of us in the forum would meet in one big barbecue or picnic, that way, we could see if we can put the real faces to the pics on the forum... altho if alijax dyes his hair another color I might not recognize him :laugh :laugh

but maybe one day in new zealand... we could ask the prime minister to sponsor it yahoo! :laugh :laugh as if??!! well, who knows?

to the pinoys: see you in megamall!

:cheers
annie

[malou]

Yes!

Count me in. I'm coming!

Can't wait to see you all girls.

[Ivar_79]

Can a Malaysian come as well?It seems so near yet so far.... :mrgreen:

well next time then.....I shall meet you guys in New Zealand....good luck guys and have a nice meet! :nice1

[Annierobrigado]

hi ivar,

it is so near! if you're in manila on feb 6 why don't you join us? we'd love to meet you too! ;)

:cheers

annie

[lindajax]

Hi All,

Just wanted to say I hope you have a great meet and make some new friends along the way - I am so glad you are doing it - the last NW meet in the Uk before I left was just for the girlies and was Fab and I miss my little forum pals - I've made 3 great friends!

Love Lindaxxx

[jesselyn]

ivar - of course, you can come... http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tier/wink1.gif

jinkee and malou - see ya! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tier/smile1.gif

linda - thanks! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tier/halo1.gif

[malou]

Hi to all,

did you know that Feb 6 is Nat'l holiday in nz?
it's WAITANGI DAY (treaty of waitangi established british sovereignty over nz)

great timing isnt it? Feb 6 will also remind us of the meeting! clap :clap :clap :clap :clap :clap :clap

[Moorf]

I was about to get excited http://tcwozere.co.uk/smileys/ac15.gif until I realised it fell on a Sunday http://tcwozere.co.uk/smileys/banghead.gif

[shagen]

Hope you guys in Manila have a great meet! :nice1 If only I could drive up to Manila this weekend and meet you guys! ;) Why don't they have a bridge to link up the world... :wah

Making friends is so very important especially when you are moving to a totally new and foreign place! :clap

Annie, make sure you take some photographs and post it here!

And Moorf, you are having a field day with those emoticons, aren't you? :mrgreen: Liked that banging the brick wall thingy! :P :mrgreen: :P

Shagen

[Annierobrigado]

hi linda

thanks for your thoughts. wish you were here too, but i wish more that i were there already... hehehe

hi shagen

yes, i'll take pics and post them here... hopefully i can do that. oh, i'll just let ric do it. he's the computer geek between us.

who knows, maybe our children will grow up to be engineers and be able to construct a bridge that will link all of our countries together.

hi malou

didn't know about the holiday. you think they have a lot of holidays too in nz?

hi moorf,

how's your head? it looks red from the constant banging on the brick wall.
(wherever do you get those smileys?)

cheers to all our cyberfriends, hope to meet you all soon!! :cheers

annie

i didn't know
see you soon!

[jesselyn]

daisy will bring her digicam, too! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/pc/4519.gif
shagen - umm i hope you will still talk to us after seeing the pics... http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/msn60/smile003.gifhttp://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/diverse/icon_cool1.gifhttp://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/msn60/smile006.gifhttp://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/msn60/smile009.gif

to the filipinos - i was able to get a reservation! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/msn60/smile049.gif see ya all later!!!http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/msn60/smile001.gif

[lindajax]

Jess,
Shame you can't go but you do know that when you get here if you are in my neck of the woods you got a friend ready and waiting pal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love
linda
xxx

[jesselyn]

Jess,
Shame you can't go no no no http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/diverse/sir-smile-nono.gif

i can go!!! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/diverse/sir-smile-sisi.gif i will be there at dulcinea 11.30am feb 6 for the philippine meet... http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/diverse/sir-smile-occhiolino.gif

but you do know that when you get here if you are in my neck of the woods you got a friend ready and waiting pal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love
linda
xxxi know linda, ditto! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/diverse/sir-smile-kiss.gif thanks! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/diverse/sir-smile-happysalta.gif

love,
jes

[jan]

To all at the Philippine meet,

Have a wonderful time. :nice1 :nice1 :nice1

Didn't take my camera today but wished I had. Hope someone takes one to yours and send us loads of pickies.

Enjoy.. :yes :yes :yes

Jan xx

[Lil]

Hope you guys have a fab time and come back to tell us all about it.

[Dave & Sandra]

Can't wait to see piccies Jes. It will be nice to see the Filipino contingent of the forum :yes

[Kim39]

Good luck for the meet from the North West crew. Hope its as successful as our's have been over the last few months. :yes

Kim39 (who ain't 41.5)

[jesselyn]

tyvm - cant wait to meet them! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tierfrog/keroa.gif

and soon... we will see you all, too! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/tierfrog/cool2.gif

[Diny]

To everybody going to the meeting..... hope yours is as good as ours today. Looking forward to seeing the pics.


Regards to all of you.

Diny

http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/linie/smiley-linie-019.gif

[jesselyn]

just got home from the meet http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/s20/6.gif
we had great time... http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/s20/31.gifhttp://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/s20/31.gif


see you all again next month! http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/s20/32.gif

[Dave & Sandra]

Where are the pics Jes?

[jesselyn]

hi sandra,

we used daisy's digicam - she will be the one to post the pics... :angel

jes

[jesselyn]

i texted her :nice1 , she said to tell you to wait... :cool ;)
she will do it 2mrw. :yes btw, its still sunday here. :laugh

[Moorf]

Can't wait!! :nice1

[jesselyn]

helen!!! :eek

you're still awake!!! :laugh

[Moorf]

I know Jess :? .. hence my new Insomniacs Central thread... third day running that I can't sleep, have bad tummy and am being so dappy that I threw a paddy today just cos I couldn't tie my shoelace!! I think tonight with be an all-nighter. Perhaps that will reset my bio clock.. :? http://tcwozere.co.uk/smileys/eek6.gif

[jesselyn]

went to that thread :P

http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/schlafen/f012.gif

[malou]

oh my! I'm blushing :oops: seems that everybody is waiting for those pictures. :exit

[jesselyn]

yep, malou! ;)

:eek :roll: did i comb my hair this afternoon? :oops: :laugh

[Annierobrigado]

hello everybody

good morning to the beautiful people we met at SM Megamall yesterday!

we had a great time, really. it was a bright sunny sunday morning, and it seemed all roads led to ortigas center where SM Megamall is located. It's a gigantic mall according to philippine standards, stretching about 2 kms long and 500 meters deep, filled with thousands of shops from basement to 5th floor. Americans will be glad to see Guess, Levi's, Gap, etc and many other american brands; there's also the Sony showrooms, Panasonic,JVC, LG, the cellphone leader Nokia; a whole shop of Cadbury; and a multitude of travel agencies and airlines offices holding fort at the megamall. you want to shop for reasonably priced (as versus the prices you see in the US or UK?) clothes, electronic devices, phones, food everything, go to SM Megamall. it also has a huge supermarket; you can get your fresh and frozen food there. come in at 10 am when the mall opens, get out at 10 pm when it closes and you'll find you haven't finished visiting all the shops there. Many of the filipinos with gold visas or platinum mastercards enjoy shopping there without maxxing out their cards (of course if their credit limit is sky, then it would be impossible to maxx out their cards eh?)
;)

anyway, back to the meet: there's jesselyn who says she's 33 years old, but in reality looks like 25. Her nephew is just as cherubic looking as her. Marie is your typical filipina, fair, prim and charming, soft spoken. Beah is tall, slender, cheerful, a go-getter. Malou is another typical filipina, dusky brown, round bright-eyes that sparkle when she tells a story, bedimpled and winsome. SHe and her husband and children are almost leaving, he is just waiting for the job contract which the nz employer is going to send in 10-15 days. Jinkee is also fair, soft and regal, she is a manager in her office, but her demeanor belies a strong willed personality which is a trait of managers here in the philippines. Daisy is the filipino mom, fiercely protective of her family and their future, which i gleaned from her story that she was the one who insisted that they start the migration process before all their NZQA's and IELTS expire. She works in the Dept of Agrarian reform, so she knows how the govt works, and why it is imperative they leave for her children's sake (dramatic, no? Just a writer's prerogative, haha :yes) Her husband is ruben, an industrial engineer who works for the bureau of fire.

that leaves me, but i think you know a bit about my personality already from the hundreds of posts i've made, i hope you'll get to like me once we meet face to face.

we talked about the medicals, and how the only accredited doctor's office here in manila is swamped daily with patients in the process of migrating to new zealand. many of them have met kiwis while the latter were on vacation here in the philippines and have married them eventually so they are on the family category. many of them are also migrants who used migration consultants, which cost them so much they have to take out mortgages on their ancestral homes and properties just to afford the fees the consultant requires, not knowing that they could have done these steps without the exorbitant amount of money by just reading online the nzis website or by joining this forum!
:no :no and we shared stories of how friends start relatively easy in new zealand when fate steered them to sit next to a kiwi on the plane to NZ and this friendly kiwi offered to let them stay in his house at a reasonable rent. how's that for the kiwi nature?

we hope to repeat the meet before anyone else of us leaves, so we can share more of where we are in our migration process. and i'll post it here.

about the pics, oh, daisy... umm, do the honors, ok? hopefully the waiter got the pics allright. :laugh :laugh

till next post

annie :cheers

[shagen]

Annie,

Wow :clap What a meet!

Thanks for the detailed description of each of you! Now where are the photographs? :mrgreen:

I agree the Megamall is huge! I think I have probably seen only 10% of it, maybe 5%! :laugh

:cheers
Shagen

[jhsay]

ok, here are the much awaited pictures...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/jinkeesay/group04.jpg

Standing (L to R): Daisy, Ric, Jes, Malou, Jinkee
Seated(L to R): Ruben and daughter, Annie, Beah and Marie

[jhsay]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/jinkeesay/group03.jpg

[jhsay]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/jinkeesay/Ruben_Ric.jpg

[jhsay]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/jinkeesay/group02.jpg

[jhsay]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/jinkeesay/malou.jpg

[Moorf]

OH WOW!! AMAZING PICS.. NICE TO MEET/SEE YOU ALL :clap :clap :clap

[shagen]

Great photos guys!

[lindajax]

LOVE the pics - looks like a good time was had by all....
Rather jealous though cos our Auck meet was a bit of a wash out but well we'll try again and hopefully have as good a meet as you guys!
LInda

[Diny]

Great Pics Ani - looks like a good time was had by all.

Hope next month's meet goes as well.

Diny

[Babette & Andy]

Excellent pictures :nice1 how lovely to finally meet you all. Looks like you had a great time, did you find you never ran out of things to talk about?

Annie - thanks for the detailed description above, feel like I know you all a bit better now. Look forward to meeting you all in NZ.

Hugs
Babette

[jhsay]

Since Annie did not talk much about herself, allow me to describe her. She's actually very warm and friendly (I would have aced college if my teachers were like her). I was surprised to learn that her eldest child is already 19. It didn't show on her face. That's what happen when you're a jolly person.

Did she mention that we'll learn how to bartend, cut hair, clean nails, dye hair, bake goodies, etc. before we go to NZ? This could help us augment the family income incase we don't get good pay there. :P

[Dave & Sandra]

Whoopee - thanks for the pics. It's great to meet you all at last. :nice1 Annie - you should be a writer, you drew a very good word picture of the meet.

Doesn't it make a huge difference when you can put names to faces. :cheers

[jan]

I agree with all the above mentioned.

Its great to see faces!!!!!!

Annie your descriptions of each person were great.

Glad you all enjoyed yourself and good luck with the next meet.

Janxx

[jo b]

Hey

we've got some competition haven't we with these meets :nice1

Seriously folks you all looked like you were haveing a great time. I can't wait to have a possible meet in NZ.

That would be cool.

I hope you all had a great time and shared ideas and dreams. I know for sure that whenever we meet up it fills my desire to go to NZ even more. And also know I have made some friends in readiness for when I get there.

Take care

Jo

[Lil]

Nice to meet you all - great pics and great to see some lifelong friendships in the making.

Good luck to you all!

[Annierobrigado]

hello everybody!

so nice to hear good things from you. and hopefully we don't just meet on the forum, but talk to each other personally, on the beach, up the mountain, on a boat (who was gonna buy a boat?) in the park, wherever! as long as it's in new zealand!

yes, i wish i could be a writer, but i havent really sat down to start one little prose. maybe one day...

thanks jinkee, actually you would ace college if I was your teacher. i give high grades and bonus points too!

actually after lunch ric and i went over to the megatrade hall which is on the 5th level of megamall, and they were having a travel expo. all the airlines and all the travel agencies and all the hotels and resorts were there to exhibit themselves and entice the visitors to jump on the next plane or ship and go to this or that. malaysia encouraged us to visit her, complete with ladies in their national costume; also korea and macau. should have taken pics of that too. but i only got the brochures that showed new zealand. but most of them were touristy travels, saying we would be spending about US$1,800 for a 7-day tour.

anyway, I think i'll focus my energies on the medicals. from the way we discussed those during the meet, it seemed we had so much to prepare for. vaccinations again?!?! eek :eek

daisy - we got great pics, yes. but i could still lose a few more pounds... :laugh :laugh

:cheers :cheers
annie

[shagen]

Annie,

Maybe your first book could be "My journey to New Zealand".... ;)

I'll definitely buy a copy :nice1

Shagen

[Pakeha Boy]

Maybe the NW lot and the Philipino lot should send the Auckland lot some direction??
Next Auckland meet= All dressed up and nowhere to go hahahahaha!!

[Annierobrigado]

hi PB!

all we used are our trusty nokias and Globe/Smart networks. then we texted like crazy, almost every 30 minutes, to see where each one was. especially me, coz i came from the province south of manila and had to contend with traffic going into the city, so i had to text the other girls where i was... plus having to fight thousand other cars for parking space! a sunday lunch at SM megamall is definitely not for the faint of heart, at least when it comes to traffic and congestion! each text message anyway costs PhP1.00, which is 1/100 of a GBpound. (how do you call that?) And it helped that it was sunny and bright, and we met inside a mall. I heard the auckland meet was rained on, which puts a damper on anyone's parade.

hopefully texting will still be in vogue when we reach new zealand.
:laugh :laugh

:cheers
annie