destiny...

Michael Culbreth

no, i didn’t take this photo, but i am going to use it anyways...bwah hah hah!!

this is a photo of michael culbreth.  i actually don’t speak to him anymore.  i’ve only met him once.

but his guest appearance in my life has changed it dramatically for the better.

it was 2006, i was living in san diego (for a total of 6 months).  previously living in hawaii, i use to host people from all over the world in my apartment, mostly students looking for a place to crash while they explore the island (hawaii isn’t a cheap place).  i’ve been fortunate to host people all around the world and vice versa, i’ve been hosted in about 10 countries and made friends all over.

back to michael.  i was living with 2 people at the time both of which agreed that i could host people in the apartment.  needless to say, after michael arrived, one of the roommates didn’t feel comfortable having a stranger in the house.  why? i’m not so sure, you can lock your room, but i guess kitchen gadgets are pretty important... just teasing... lol hosting people isn’t for everyone, nor is traveling and staying with people you know nothing about.  i guess its about trusting the human spirit...

well, i couldn’t leave michael without a place to stay, he had a car and was driving all around the country...

i went into HC, the site where michael originally contacted me and tried to find him a host.  luckily, lovella (HC username - lovella) lol, responded quickly and was able to host Michael.

though michael is no longer in my life, nor is here in HC or CS... he has made a lasting impact on my life.

lovella is a friend, I couldn’t imagine living without.  Understanding, caring, funny with an infectious laugh (almost as infectious as mine :P)... 

she is my traveling partner, we’ve been fortunate to travel all over california together, and we took our first venture central america together.

who has made a guest appearance in your life, but has made a lasting impact?

thank you michael.  

love you lovella.

Mahalo for reading. 

Until next time.

across the world...

literally... across the world...

wow, i remember... this was nov. 2005.  i flew from HNL to LAX to AMS, stayed there for a couple of days with my friend Kevin (it was freezing!) and then flew from AMS to FCO to IST.

awesome things i remember from this trip... my awesome host Isin.  i stayed far away from the city center (sultanahmet), and hangout with turks was really cool.  the desserts was sooooo awesome! omg to this date turkish baklava is my complete favorite dessert in the world, with turkish coffee, or perhaps apple tea!

my friend raul from spain met me in istanbul for part of the trip and it was cool to take a boat to different parts of the city.  we visiting a fishing town, a museum...

needless to say after gallivanting for quite a while, we can into this sign.  hmmmmm... i’m guessing its somewhere you don’t want to cross or enter.  lol even if it didn’t have forbidden zone, the gun and the red signs are dead giveaways.

i recall people selling homemade crafts on the street, the great soup in the tavern they had... i remember hearing their prayers over the loud speakers and visiting their temples.  pretty cool stuff.

shortly after this trip, i no longer worked for hawaiian airlines... that’s another blog topic.

its definitely a place i would visit again, perhaps explore the western side of the country.   


Mahalo for reading. 

Until next time.

cloud nine

In the clouds

we’ve all seen clouds.  most of time we just look up at the sky and we see the white puff of smoke that changes shape the more times we look at it...  sometimes we look outside our airplane and there’s the clouds... 

this picture was taken july 2007.  i was in maui for the weekend for my sister’s wedding... i’m probably gonna get yelled at for not blogging about that... -___-

i love this picture, at a quick glance, it could pass for the ocean, the sky far away and the sun on the horizon...

i woke up at 2am to make it to the top of haleakala to watch the sunrise.  it’s the coldest place i’ve been to, even colder than alaska.

the sunrise was awesome, the different colors, the shape of the clouds (i recall seeing a tank), did i mention the cold?  

the scary part of the whole ordeal was driving down.  as you can see there is no railing and to the right is the sun... certain parts of coming down all you see is sun and you kinda wish you don’t fall down the cliff into your demise.

looking at this, i’m gonna wake up early and check out the sunrise.

when was the last time you watched the sunrise? 

Mahalo for reading. 

Until next time.

reunited...

most kids don’t have to recall the first time they met their parents.

Dad and me.

for me, the situation is slightly different.  

i don’t recall my father... this is the first picture i have of us. taken august 2004.

sooo... why is this our first picture?

well long story short, parents divorced when i was very young, shortly thereafter i moved to the philippines to live with my mother’s family.

fast forward 2 decades later... i decided to look for him... ha, as most of you know once i decide to do something... its gonna get done..  it took a while, but after a couple of months, i received a letter that would change my life, it was my dad... included in his letter was a copy of my birth certificate...

meeting was a little bit of logistical problem, but i decided that our first meeting should be short, i had a trip planned to vancouver with eddie who was residing in san diego at the time...

the plan was i layover in LAX, meet with dad, eddie drove from SAN to LAX and we’d fly to YVR.  

i recall standing out at LAX with my carryon luggage waiting for this man to show up.  i didn’t have a picture of him, but i had his mobile number.

meeting my dad has answered many questions... we’re very similar in a lot of ways...

he is very happy go lucky... good at fixing this, and loves to laugh.

i haven’t had the opportunity to say this often...

love you dad. 


Mahalo for reading. 


Until next time.

riding a bike...

Mike and Julie

ha... i so have to write about this picture...

this picture has mike and julie who assembled my first road bike...

well, this picture has soooooooo much meaning to me...

2 years ago i did not know how to ride a bike! yes, i know... i was deprived as a child...

well, i had signed up for the honolulu triathlon with team in training... to do a triathlon, its sorta beneficial to know how to swim (which i learned the year prior) and also how to ride a bike...

i remembered going to the first meeting and the whole team was there, the fast group just left and basically rode their bikes around hawaii kai...

since i was a beginner, there were about 5 of us in the boat parking lot in hawaii kai and yes, i was the only one who didn’t know how to ride a bike... i had my walmart bike which i tried to learn on before, without much success...

needless to say, i was pretty embarrassed, i rode around the parking lot, well fell a lot, and mike is a complete genius... i had one on one time with him... and he just told me one thing... “look where you are going”... next thing you know, i’m going in the direction where i am looking, which is not down... lol where i normally look.

to this day, i still remember the bike, mike, the people in the parking lot, doug, nancy, cheering me on, when i finally got the hang of it....

in a span of 3 months, i moved from a walmart mountain bike, to a hybrid bike, to a road bike.

i love riding my bike and yes, i owe many thanks to mike...

don’t say its ever too late to learn... you can do it!

when was the last time you rode your bike? go out there and have fun!!

thxxxxxx mike... you rock!! 

Mahalo for reading. 

Until next time.

meat pie...

Meat pie... yum.

i know i’m suppose to post one of these a week, but hey, i got a little bit of free time so here’s an extra one this week.

have you ever seen a picture of food and you completely remember exactly who, what, when, where, why?

for me this is one of those cases.  

locale - sydney, australia

who - me and spike (stuart, I call him spike)

what - see picture (yummie meat pie - yes... that is peas and gravy)

this was my first trip to australia and i recall awesome places such as the sydney harbour bridge (yes with a ‘u’ - its old english), the opera house (which i didn’t know was pretty much right next to each other), on this trip, i also visited taronga zoo...

its really funny, its sorta all coming back to me, i recall spike meeting me at the airport and our cab driver was on the right side (which is normal)... i even took a picture of him... 

i miss australia.

see you soon meat pie and all my ozzie friends... 


Mahalo for reading. 


Until next time.

eddie et moi en Paris.

Eddie and me.

i seriously can’t believe this picture is almost 5 years old... this picture was taken in Paris, part of a 3 city trip, Paris, Madrid and Amsterdam.  funny part is this was our 2nd trip to this area in 24 hours.  we landed in Paris pretty late, and took a tour of the eiffel tower and surrounding area at night.  we wanted to check out the site in the daytime so did the same eiffel tower tour and walked around the surrounding area.  this picture was taken when i was mad! lol i have absolutely no idea what i was mad about but i know we had gotten in an argument and this photo came out great... o_O

saw louvre, mona lisa, had mcdonalds in france... lol met awesome people (raul, wendy, kevin, tami), churros y chocolate in madrid. great times.

the rest of the trip was memorable was well, lots of photos, lots of food and lots of new sites.

happy new year.  can’t wait to explore more of the world.

Mahalo for reading. 

Until next time.

We've Moved....