The next evening, I was watching a finals between Ecuador and Costa Rica when King Daddy came home from work. Habitually, he would wanted to watch some late-night movies before going to bed, but I asked him to watch soccer with me. Being a sweet child that I am, Dad allowed me.

My sister was also watching the match and she asked me, "What's the yellow card for?"

"Technical foul," I answered to her using basketball jargon (which my country is so agog at, considering our players are short...duh?). "If he get two technical fouls, he's ejected from the field and he gets a one-game suspension."

And an Ecuadoran striker hit a goal.

"Shoot!" my Dad shouted.

(all FIFA World Cup photos courtesy of afp.com)

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INTERMISSION NUMBER: MANNY PACQUIAO

Remember the beer-guzzling, ice cream-stuffing, fried chicken-chomping, wireless karaoke microphone-singing, pawn-shopping boxer I told you about? Well, he's here right now to perform his debut single. Please don't laugh...

(applause)

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"Don't worry," my Mom said during her phone call befor we left. "Those Lacoste shirts costs US$20 in Hong Kong."

We were walking along Nathan Road and Princess Six couldn't help but notice my sweats.

"You shouldn't have worn that long-sleeved shirt," she said.

I, in the meantime, insisted that it wasn't summer yet in Hong Kong. Tiis-ganda.

After several minutes of asking around, my sister and I finally arrived at the Lacoste store that was minutes away from closing. The staff were courteous as we were always being mistaken as Chinese. We went straight to the shirts shelf and spotted the pastel shirts that my Mom wanted.

"How much is it," my sister asked.

"It costs HK$560," I said.

We only had HK$500 in our pocket.

We walked two blocks further and saw Coach store in the Peninsula Hotel was closed. We also tried looking for the Nike store, but the location I saw in my map...well, it wasn't there.

I got so tired I started fanning the collar on my shirt. That was when I realized why some passengers at the subway couldn't help but notice me.

The shirt's tag was at the front side.

We took the long subway ride and walked home with nothing in us but a bunch of sweats and a lot of funny memories.

"Did you see that ugly couple canoodling in the subway," my sister asked.

"No, I was busy watching that guy wearing a business suit with two companions holding a plastic bag near his mouth," I said while munching the leftover rice noodles in our hotel room. "I swear he was about to puke when the subway doors were shut."

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INTERMISSION NUMBER: MISHKA ADAMS

While the empress takes a break, please relax and unwind yourself with the soothing sound of the Philippine Jazz. Here's Mishka Adams with her debut single, Where Do We Begin.

(applause)

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MOTIF: LEVELING

The next day, the imperial family's misadventure took us to Hong Kong Disneyland, but not before our tour guide Eric took on a whirlwind ride of nauseating shopping.

Instead of describing to us the beautiful sceneries of Metropolitan Hong Kong, he instead inculcated to us what he called "The 5 Levels of Hong Kong," consisting of the filthy rich, the rich, the upper-middle, the middle, and the lower classes. He illustrated our bus driver as an example of the lower class. Our driver's job is solely based on a per-project basis (since Hong Kong, like China, he said, does not have a minimum wage), while the photographer who was with our tour was an example of the middle class since he worked two jobs. Eric, meanwhile, was an example of the middle class since he worked from 8 to overtime.

We first went to Avenue of the Stars, Hong Kong's version of Hollywood Walk of Fame, where you could also see a statue of Bruce Lee. It was rainy, so that pretty much spoiled our visit. But we took pictures anyway.

Eric then took us to Harbour Centre, where somewhere in there was a shop filled with t-shirts, toys and supposedly -Disney souvenirs, not to mention hundreds of dried plum (champoy). We had our fill buying stuff not only for ourselves but also to our kiddie show's bosses, staff, and crew. He told us beforehand to always state to the counter that our tour guide was Eric. Apparently, he received commissions depending on how much his tour group spent on shopping.

On our way to Disneyland, Eric even offered a set of 6 souvenir keychains being sold by our bus driver for HK$50. And he also brought out our photos in Avenue of the Stars attached in microwavable plates for HK$150 each (our family had 4).

It was still darn raining when we got to Hong Kong Disneyland. Eric left us to enjoy the afternoon and we would get to meet him on closing time so he would take us to Mainland China.

I'll tell you what happened in Hong Kong Disneyland on my next post.

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RANDOM HOT MEN: SOCCER HOTTIES

I never knew that footballers are worthy of being worshipped.

Landon Donovan of Team USA

Carlos Bocanegra, also from US Team

Fabio Cannovaro of Italy

And, of course, no soccer hottie list would be complete without Captain England, David Beckham.

I would like to believe that my male readers are the hottest guys on the planet. Prove to me that your body deserves to be worshipped. Send you hot photos to empressmaruja@gmail.com.

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BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP MY FOOTNOTES

1) Thank you for reading through my blog and I hope you come back for more. Don't forget to leave your message of love through the comments or at the chat box. Also, spread the imperial decree (my blog, that is) to your friends and colleagues. That would be truly appreciated. (bows)

2) This movie quote is bound to become a classic:

"Oo, inaamin ko. Sila ay mga yakal, lawaan, apitong at narra. At kami ay saging lang. Pero maghanap kayo ng puno sa buong Pilipinas, saging lang ang may puso...Saging lang ang may puso! Saging lang!” — Mark Lapid (Apoy sa Dibdib ng Samar).

Roughly translated as:

"Yes, I admit it. They are the oaks, the cedars, redwoods, and pines. And we are only banana trees. But among the trees in the Philippines, only the banana tree has a heart...Only the banana tree has a heart! Only the banana!" -- Mark Lapid (Fire in the Heart of Samar)