everyday Sunday

cebu day 2 and 3

2012-01-28T00:09:00.000-08:00

on our 2nd day, we went out to lunch at cmt lechon, where they serve hhmmm... i wonder.

im not a fan of lechon so i dont have any idea if it was good or bad, and gail is out on a wedding shoot as of writing so i dont have anybody to testify to its goodness or blahness.

what i liked though are the rice packs that they call puso (emphasis on the second syllable, not like puso the heart). gail didnt like it though, ayaw nya ng kanin na malata.

jampacked CMT lechon. find gail. hehe.

we then went to the capitol (which looked like the white house. knucks!) to wait for the bus that would take us to the CPDRC.

it was my least favorite thing in cebu. the inmates who danced had heavy faces all throughout, like they dont like that they were there and us free people were watching them and we would all go home afterwards and theyd be left behind of course. sure they're being punished by the law because of some crime they did, but it doesnt take away the fact that they are not happy. at one point the "host" of the whole dance program even said that "don't worry, all our inmates are friendly," like we were in a zoo! and i felt so bad i wanted to walk out and go home. if you have the same tendencies as mine, skip it skip it. you'll just feel sad and sorry and you'll have questions. hay so uneasy. i had a headache just recounting that.

winner for fakest smile

when we got back to the capitol, gail insisted on walking to crown regency, where we would stay the night. it was quite nice, i have to say, to walk streets that seem foreign but at the same time are not. anudaw. we also tried barbecue at larsian, where it's mausok and noisy but nonetheless sobrang sarap ng barbecue nila don. i need to regain writing skills soon ano? haha.

anyway. our accommodation included buffet breakfast and dinner, and a ride on either the edge coaster or the skywalk extreme. we got the skywalk although gail wanted to ride the coaster. im sorry but no. im afraid of heights! roller coasters i love, but being on high places for long periods of time is not my piece of cake. just imagine how little my steps were as we walked around the hotel. 37th floor! ouch.

day 3 was spent figuring out what to do. hahaha. we even considered wasting money in a casino, but then we realized we didn't have money to waste. so instead, we went to church. hahaha! this is such poor writing i kid you not. we went to victory cebu to listen to cebuano preaching. :p we understood it because 1) we already heard the preaching back in manila and 2) the pastor spoke english at times.

overall cebu was the indicator and confirmation that we really were able to exhaust our travel opportunities in 2011. cebu deserves better than what we did and where we went, so we promise to come back with new found thirst for the water on the shore and the hunger for more lechon. anomnomnomnomnom!

ps: please do check out my handsome hubby's blog, and get him for your wedding. because you should. :D

missing gail day 1

2012-01-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

i remember our wedding reception fondly. all couples took to the dance floor, perhaps pulled by the beautiful music by feb and erwin, surely feeling the love radiating from all the hearts. :)

ps: night 3 please come fast.

love is spelled J-e-s-u-s

2012-01-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.

But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

Romans 8: 1-17, The Message

it was such a revelation, the recently concluded p&f. the last prayer meeting was sooo thick with God's presence that i was fighting off tears right after i stepped off the escalator and on to the crowd of people outside the center. we were at the overflow area all right, because God's love and presence was overflowing. and really, it still is. we just always need to be in tune. let's go!

cebu: huling travel hirit

2012-01-11T01:03:00.000-08:00

hhmmm... i honestly don't remember our cebu trip as clearly as the others, because during that time, we were already excited/anxious about gail's photography steps. dont get me wrong though, we had f-u-n!

cebu was unique because we had zero plans! ok we planned ahead, but only like two or three days before our flight. talk about crammers. so mas relaxed ang travel namin dahil wala kaming kaplano plano. it was also a sign that we were a bit exhausted from the marathon of destinations we had last year, at inaamin ko naman yun. ganun pa man, #itsmorefuninthephilippines. im sure we'll miss all the traveling soon, but i cannot be more thankful for our lack of enthusiasm about traveling these past months. hashtag tipid mode. :p

gail's distant relatives jhong, JR and pappy were our guides during our first two days around the city. they were super kind and nice because they spent time with us without expecting anything in return. nevetheless, we couldnt help but bless them with gifts, sobrang bait talaga nila. :)

on day 1 all five of us listened to ka bino's snippets of trivia as he toured us around cebu and mactan. i highly recommend him versus going on a tour on your own. there's so much more appreciation for something when you know the story behind it. check him out here.

1st stop: shrine of lapulapu

2nd stop: alegre guitars

3rd stop: plantation bay

cebu-mactan bridge

4th stop: lunch at casa verde. in picture: brian's baby back ribs

5th stop: fort san pedro

6th stop: magellan's cross

there was also a BPI Museum in Cebu! It was closed though :(

7th stop: Basilica Minore de Sto. Nino. there were lots and lots of churchgoers!

8th stop: museo sugbo. this is also where we reserved our slots for the next day's trip to CPDRC

ka bino noticed that the photos were not arranged properly, so gail helped him rearrange them :p

we also had a taste of corn coffee, which was a winner by the way. ate right here was also super friendly. :)

9th stop: heritage of cebu monument, where ka bino summarized everything he told us during the day in 5 or 10 minutes, as we went around the kewl monument. each part represented a milestone in cebu's history! (pardon my posture)

last stop: hotel pier cuatro, where gail and i stayed the night.of course, souvenir photo with ka bino :)

and one with the boys!

PS: up next is day 2 and a pictureless day 3. also, please check out my gailee's photography site. like his FB page and follow him on Twirrer. he's present and very visible like that. also also, ill promote him nonstop so bear with it please please please. and refer him to your friends! :)

a different night

2012-01-04T21:39:00.001-08:00

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. - Jeremiah 29:13

whenever i get home before gail does, i maximize my alone time by watching videos or completing an article while i wait for him. that's because i imposed upon myself to never pay attention to anything else when we're both at home. we seldom watch tv together because we prioritize conversations. when the tv is on, it only means one thing: gail is busy working and im not. when im busy with something urgent, he also is. he never has idle time, that man. my oh my, what i married into.

but last night i had no gail to wait for. seems trivial, but it was such a big deal to me. in fact it didnt sink in (naks parang nakipagbreak) until around 10 in the evening, that no one would knock that coded knock that translates to "im home." gail's presence has the ability to make me feel relaxed and at peace wherever and whenever. so naturally, i was uncomfortable. i wasnt even a bit sleepy till 1am.

so i capitalized on that discomfort and paid close attention to the One who never leaves me, to that One whose presence does more than comforting my weary soul. and He met me all right, His presence in my heart was stronger than ever. i soaked in all the love that He had been wanting to give me, a love that is far more intense than gail's. it was the best time i had with God since the wedding.

dont get me wrong though, i love reading my Bible and praying beside gail, i love the peace that God blankets us with whenever we pray together and share to each other His revelations. but the emptiness of the house last night was reflective of my heart; there was just more room for God. last night was a reminder that Jesus is the best lover our souls can ever have, and missing out on it is such great loss.

im thankful for last night. my love tank is filled to the brim; i have more for gail, for family, for friends. would i want gail to spend more nights away from home? NO! i want more of God though, so ill allot more God and me dates without gail in the premises. hehe. what a great discovery! what works for you? im pretty sure some are able to enter the thick presence of God even with their loves near them. i guess whatever floats your boat, whatever brings more glory to God, yeah? yeah.

ps: thanks to patty for this chunk of chocolate, kept me company during the early hours of the night. :)

pps: check out my sidebar, which now features links to gail's photo services and mommy sha's jewelry album. get them, refer them! :)

gaining ground

2012-01-03T23:56:00.000-08:00

we are transitioning from one life season to another. it is the most exciting phase of our married life yet, going through what-ifs and laying out plans for the rainy days.

when we were preparing for the wedding, somebody told me that it's impractical to build a family without being this or that, without having this or that. after that, i was even more encouraged to go on ahead and beat the odds. and we beat the odds all right. not because im good, not because we're some perfect couple straight from fiction, but because the God of the universe loves us.

we hold on to that same faith that got us through planning a wedding and enriching a marriage, to that same God who works so majestically that we have no other reaction but awe. the coming days/months may require more energy, but our God is greater than anything or anybody else.

please pray for and with us as we take this single plunge and hope to land on dream clouds. with that, id like to formally announce here in my blog that gail now works as a wedding photographer! see his works here! im beyond excited (read: occasional tears) that God allowed him to pursue this passion. this is all for the glory and honor of Jesus, the author of the love that we share. more love from Jesus = more relationships = more proposals = more weddings = more gigs. ;)

ps: tonight's the first time he's spending the night away from me because of work. can i get used to this? never. to the tune of umuwi ka na babyyyyy.

pps: im not pregnant. thatll need a bigger blog entry with party poppers and wine. :)

singapore day 4 fun

2012-01-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

i just read an article about traveling and what its purpose is. it was a great read simply because its point was this: traveling is one of the best things you can do for yourself and for others. if you deliberately create your itineraries to achieve a worthwhile goal you set (getting closer to God, finishing a novel), then traveling will always be worth it. so beyond the fun and the photos, traveling is an experience for the mind and the heart. if you choose to find inspiration and to give it back to others, then going on trips will be more than just a waste of money and of gasoline.

i sure hope i was able to read that article before we went to singapore, because on our fourth day together in our first out of the country trip, gail and i did nothing but hang out and wait for time to pass. not that it didnt have a purpose, but it sure could have used a little more seasoning, if you know what i mean. too bad that 2012 does not seem to be a year for traveling, naka quota na kami this past year e. but time and again, id chance upon a blog or an article that tells me traveling isnt a guilty pleasure, it's something that feeds the soul and its always, always worth it. if God will give us a couple of trips this year, ill make it a point to soak in all the love and give some back wherever we'll go.

like i said, we did almost nothing on day 4. we just went back to orchard road (our fave place in sg), chatted and hugged somewhere in the marina bay sands area. plus we just took photos of names of people we know while we strolled the streets of singapore. hehe.

yana, our lb friend who we also saw in SG!

raj, another lb friend. where was this taken? you guessed it! little india!

tintin, my bestest friend

abba, my friend mariel's boyfriend

and cownen!!!

ps: gailbitoonphoto.blogspot.com is now up! ill talk about it on my next blog entry. cheers to a happier 2012!!!

because my workday is boring

2011-12-27T18:34:00.000-08:00

yes, im at work. hehe. and plus im always a bit restless/bored whenever gail's out on a shoot. it's around 10 to 12 hours of disconnection to the person i tell everything to. that said, id like to fill my mind with happy thoughts, so i can produce better articles. hehe. today, my happy thought is our small group!

i have long wanted to post about this amazing/crazy/loving group that slowly but surely gets bigger with the love of God. this year's our 3rd year of being an unofficial barkada, and we're now convinced that we'll stick together for more years.

ps: i now know how to dougie. #masyadongproud

Singapore Day 3

2011-12-06T03:34:00.001-08:00

universal studios singapore was the main (and for months, the only) reason why i wanted to go to sg. i wanted to ride that roller coaster.

image from http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg

i rode the blue line twice! the second time was with lb friends, akalain mo talaga yun! it was the funnest serendipitous meeting ive ever had. :)

back to rollercoasters, because they're worth it. i love them, did i already say? what's the next rollercoaster i should ride? where is it? will anyone please take me to six flags? hehe.

one of the best things about our sg trip was that we made new friends.

award!

Singapore Day 2

2011-12-01T08:24:00.001-08:00

when i was a kid, i dreamt of going out of the country. to be more specific, i dreamt of going to the US to see snow and mickey mouse, preferably at the same time. while that remains to be a dream, our trip to singapore was somehow an assurance that dreams have their days of coming true, like riding an airplane and setting foot on another country. im happy that in the past days (DAYS. as in crazy im still in the clouds days), we've been seeing dreams coming true, one little step at a time. im a daydreamer through and through, but going after dreams is something that God gives me. im beyond excited to share some news (which im sure you already have an idea about), but ill hold my horses (wish i had some) until the right time.

while we wait, let's see some photos we took during our SG trip. this is day 2. :)

here is an obligatory photo of us in the tram at jurong bird park. the ride lets you see the bird park in a different perspective. supposedly. but honestly all i saw were trees and leaves. it's best to go around the park by foot. save yourself some sg dollars (i think it's around $5 add-on each person) by not availing of the tram ride.

the park was wide. if i were an animal-lover, i would have appreciated it, maybe. but i wasnt, so i felt that i was shortchanged. if not for the shows that showcased man's sense of humor and birds' superb talents, id say skip jurong bird park altogether.

the first show we watched was called 'birds and buddies'. it was amazing to see the birds fly with the accuracy only God can give. :) we also caught the next show, 'kings of the skies', which gave an entertaining history of how birds helped man search for food, kill other animals and win wars.

if the bird park was quite a bore for me, the night safari was a treat for gail. i think it's his favorite part of the whole trip. we saw animals up close and within reach, as in no cage to separate my weakness from their hunger (i got scared at the hyena that was a few feet away from us, and the people walking in front of us were really slow, like they were scaring me on purpose but im sure they werent. lion king's fault, i say.) you can ride the tram for a guided tour, or walk for a closer encounter, or do both. but make sure that you dont miss the show! its hosted by a pinoy so the humor is very much relatable (TVJ style). he was also very energetic. made me proud actually. hehe.

is this a beaver? a possum? im soooo sorry. help please. he and his friends/brothers/sisters/wives segregated trash in the cutest way possible. "if they can do it, you can do it" was the message, but what stuck to me was their utter cuteness. :)

my birthday

2011-11-16T18:38:00.001-08:00

ha. haha. HAHAHAHAHA. let us celebrate the most anti climactic post in the history of the world. hehe.

it's nearly thanksgiving (we "celebrate" american holidays in the office so there.), and it's only now that i get to blog about my birthday! i have a bad memory (as in i forget everything), so thanks to cameras i can still post about myself and the day the world made space for teeny tiny ching.

im not used to blogging anymore, i feel that people will judge me for being self-absorbed (lalo na at about bday ito), but ill get the hang of it again. (magiging makapal ulit ang mukha ko :p) good thing my bday wasnt just about me, as i had a lot of celebrations with other september celebrators, because september is a big birthday month and there are a lot of us who were born on the month that is 9 months far from the christmas season. (holidays=cold cuddle weather=cuddles and *big winks*)

sooo, i had a date with my GS girls (gerlie, karen, me and liv celebrated)...

more photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2181954192047.2106840.1342711549&type=1

one at the office (mcdo fries and amber pansit - mga paborito :D)

and one with our small group (pizza is such a celebration food).

i wonder what people are up to these days. what have i missed? gail's up for something great, but he's a careful gentleman and he's taking his time. honestly im on the edge of my seat about and for it. so to release the excitement, let me at least say that im so proud of him.

ps: Singapore Day 2 up next :)

sneaking in

2011-11-11T18:33:00.001-08:00

i thought by now everything will be back to normal, but alas, it's not. maybe i need to embrace this new schedule, this new life dynamics as my new normal. normal will continue to change in the coming months, as gail starts a new season in his life. ill talk about it some other time, as soon as he finishes the finishing touches of his finished stuff. i have a limited vocabulary.

here's a photo i took around two months ago (talk about backlog). i saw our center table and said, oh wow this is how crazy it is around here these days.

but it's all crazy good. the fact that i can still blog once in a while is a sign that everything is still healthy.

ps: it took me 30 minutes to finish writing this entry. di na ako marunong magsulat! also, sg kwento in the next ones.

Singapore Day 1

2011-11-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

i have to admit that i was a bit nervous about going out of the country, what with all the horror stories of immigration reps harrasing outgoing pinoys and then not allowing them to go. i think (and with i think i mean i have no idea) clark is more lenient, as the only question that was asked of us was "magkaano ano kayo?" we look like brother and sister, fine. in fact we were asked again by some filipinos we met in sg if we were siblings. maybe i should sit on gail's lap every time we're together, just to make the point. haha! the next time somebody asks if we're related by blood (dalawang beses na kami napagkamalang magkapatid), ill ask who they think is older. :p

our hostel was isang kembot away from boon keng station, so we knew from the get-go that we won't have any problems going home.

This is the new branch, a couple of doors away from Drop Inn (where we stayed).

cheek picked us up and toured us around the city, orienting us of how life in sg is and how we can survive and have fun as tourists. sobrang saya at naka date ko si cheek. i don't think we were ever able to spend time with each other when she was in the philippines. hehehe.

she first let us have lunch at a hawker centre (british spelling dapat :p) where we had the best meals among all our SG meals.

orchard road fascinated us. it was the best place that told us we're in another country. singaporeans love to shop, we went there on a saturday, so naturally the place was so alive and happening. we loved orchard road so much that we went back there on our fourth day.

cheapest buy in SG: $1 ice cream

orchard road stroll

bus ride to marina bay sands. people were quiet, and there wasnt any music. they're missing out on a lot. :p

thanks cheek and mac for the great time! itotour namin kayo sa pinas when you come here. hahaha! cheek salamat sa lahat ng pagpicture mo sa amin, career na career ang husay! see you really really soooooooooon! *excited*

Singapore break

2011-11-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

wow im not used to this anymore. but here we be.

Singapore was both my and gail's first out of the country trip. masaya pala lumabas ng bansa. it's a whole new experience that is beyond scenes and places to go. I want to say first and foremost that for me (and i think for gail as well), the Philippines is the most beautiful country in the whole wide world. No sir, i won't change my mind. If we will ever go to another country again, it's based on expectations on experience and culture, not on physical beauty. Because the Philippines is gorgeous enough.

we were warned about the expensive travel costs in SG, and they were all right. a bottle of water costs more than P40. if we were earning SG dollars, we wouldnt convert. but hello, sampung piso lang yun a. buti na lang we came to sg prepared with our favorite bakasyon baon: spamwiches. two packs of bread and two cans of spam were enough to fill our tummies whenever they complained.

this trip was one of the most productive trips we've taken, although there was almost zero preparation. ask carla and tin, who i only talked with the day before we flew out.

cheek was also super helpful, and im super happy we got to spend time with her and mac.

it was also fun to see lb friends in where else but universal studios!

we also met other pinoys and other travellers from different countries, whom ive yet to add on fb.

ill blog about our days in sg in the coming days. :)

house cooling with comsci friends

2011-09-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

the latest friends to have their obligatory couch photo taken at home, george, jeri, tanj, ruel:

thanks for coming guys! we had pizza and tanj brought mernel's cake, which we enjoyed in small daily servings. hehe. i made my favorite dip, a recipe by totskie. yum so ill share it with you! just a warning though, the way i make it is ghetto, so if ever you decide to make it, you can modify the amounts and proportions.

half a bar of cream cheese
isang dakot ng basil leaves (haha! ill ask totskie for the real amount, but its roughly half a pack of what's in the supermarket)
4-5 pieces of small ripe tomatoes
2-3 cloves of garlic (i like 3 cloves because then it's super garlicky and you get bad breath but you wont care because its yum)

just mix them all up and what you got is this rad dip. seriously craving right now.

more couch photos! sa uulitin guys! thanks again!

hey hey hey

2011-09-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

im back, and hopefully for the next weeks. while my problem before was the lack of things to talk about, now i have a backlog. hehe. i have a short list (which is getting longer by the day) of things i want to share, because even if schedules are busy, people should have a life - note to self. it's an everyday battle, to choose to spend time with God, or with a book, or with Gail, or with myself. the dishes can wait, errands can wait. i don't want to be so uptight about schedules, now that im learning how to manage my time. if it's possible to manage time without being super OC about it, i don't know, but im on it. and with that, i vow to never talk about busyness again in this blog, at least for the next month. because the idea is drowning out the happies. and this blog, should be all about the happies.

here's the first entry on my list: days before my birthday, gail and i spent half a day with our friends renow and eds (who i think has something to tell everybody), jhorace and tantan. francey and flo werent able to come boohoo, but it's ok, there's a next time. and next time, those two will treat us to dinner. haha!

we hung out at astoria plaza in ortigas, a serviced residence type of thing. it's a condo turned hotel, so the rooms are actually units. we trashed a one-bedroom unit, thankyouverymuch astoria. (only gail and i stayed the night)

photography is still isnt in my natural instincts, so whenever we get to a place i automatically up-end everything, giving me nothing to take pictures of. but change me change me, i was able to restrain myself from laying my butt on anything in the unit until we finished taking photos.

because the kitchen looked more divine than ours at home, and because the stove looked rad, we decided to cook pasta! gail had to go pick up ingredients at shang while i, surprise surprise, worked on my deadlines. zero did i know that he bought a cake for me! he brought it out when everybody was there and the food was ready to be gone. hehe. thanks gailee!

smile ebibadi!

reno bought shorts so we were required to swim. hahaha!

we were locked out because the key wouldnt work! took us around 15 mins to enter. :p

the morning after, i watched twilight on star movies. before you judge me of misuse of time, i just want to say that we dont have star movies in our apartment. and before you judge me of liking twilight, well, go ahead. haha!

im a big fan of breakfast (see related post here), so believe me when i say that astoria's was so-so.

all in all, it was a great time. sana maulit muli. mura lang sa astoria, that one-bedroom unit costs only around P5,000 a night. not bad!

more photos here.

emotional me

2011-09-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

it's my birthday, thankyouverymuch. (to the tune of in da club by 50 cent, on loop today because.) aside from the pressure from officemates who want a tenth of the harvest in the form of pizza/coffee/lunch, i feel christmas-y today, because it's a hundred days to christmas! there's nostalgia and excitement over the smell of tinsel and fresh bills, and at the idea of family, love and lazing around.

the past days have been tough because i was overwhelmed with work. i cant say im tired, i wont say im tired. if im in denial, so be it. i wont say im tired.

i think im not used to the idea of work. ive had it pretty easy the past couple of years, and now i feel like a real employee, working hours and thinking about work until i lose consciousness over sleep. i told gail last night that im just not cut out for that life. i can just imagine the working moms. they dont have it easy. i mean, im not having easy but i cant complain because my baby is a grown mature man (albeit super cute).

i want to be able to use my time for daydreaming, for writing, for ingesting information; instead of forcing myself to gorge out words devoid of meaning (in its truest sense). i want to be able to iron our clothes (not obsessed :p), craft (dreaming is free), wash the dishes, prepare breakfast everyday without fail, plan our travels, plan our future. i used to be able to do all those until i accepted new responsibilities.

to be clear and fair, i dont run out of work time. i take around 10 to 12 hours of work to finish my day's tasks, but before i used to only take around 4 to 6 optimized hours and then im off to more important things. im not busy, im just not used to this new setup.

the consequences are difficult to handle. i get irritated easily (cant you move faster, can you keep quiet - thoughts on the road), i feel a bit numb to happy stuff i used to go crazy about, im starting to take for granted intangible but highly important stuff.

or maybe i just got older? no, not a reason nor an excuse. life tricks us no, blessings can be trials, and vice versa. i pray that i get to cope faster to this new schedule so that i get to turn on the happy again. im waiting on God as i take it a step at a time. gail is on my side through all of this, making sure that im all right and that i still can stretch my face for a smile. my prince is taking over house chores (preparing breakfast and handling bills) while i take ten more minutes of sleep.

im not ranting because it's my birthday and ill do what i wanna. im permanently placing this in my little web space in the hope for an encouragement for all of us when i get better, when i win over this. this is a testimony in the making. ill be back with the victory report, but in the meantime lemme hug my beybeh and my loves. (see you tintin and totskie!)

credits to tan for the photo

why not wednesday 09.14.11

2011-09-13T19:40:00.000-07:00

oh ysabel, you've such a lovely name, and even lovelier food.

so why not have great breakfast there?

our cafe ysabel breakfast was, for me, second best. (the boutique is still the winner.) recommended by our chef friend mr. cownen (who has a blog now yehey!), breakfast at cafe ysabel had long been on our to-do list. we'd have vacant mornings but we always chose to cook at home, until finally, random magic, let's go to cafe ysabel! it's a short commute from our apartment, like God permits us to have our breakfast there... all the time. :p

i'm never crazy about food, but that meal was super special, you cant not go crazy. in fact, i craved for days, asking gail to please let us have cafe ysabel breakfast. but some days you have to go to work. :p

best hot choco ever


Ebun guisado - eggs in any style. adobo flakes, garlic rice, coffee: YUMYUMYUMYUM

pistou sulipan, lengua sulipeña, garlic rice, chocolate: YUMYUMYUMYUMYUM din :)

hash brown: ok lang, mas gusto ko mcdo :p

the interiors reminded us of ilocos


but the peace and quiet outside reminded us of LB sigh

el nido, night three, day four and expenses

2011-09-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

i just realized that i/we didnt take enough photos for the blog. shame, shame. im making a resolution: to take more photos to have more choices for the blog. :)

so, were where we? right. our concerned driver wanted us to enjoy as much time as we could in puerto princesa, so he drove like a boss, a crazy one at that, so that we at the back werent able to sleep (we resorted to chikahan), and them in front/at the middle slept and woke up with aching bodies. hehehe. not one vehicle was able to overtake us, thanks to manong driver's sonic boom speed.

we had to try kinabuch's in the city para naman somehow masulit ang maigsing stay sa Puerto Princesa. fried tamilok (woodworm), kinilaw na tamilok, calderetang kambing and inadobong crocodile but only the boys took the dare. i tried a teeny piece of the croc and it tasted like pork. in gail's words, "no one among us was impressed." no photos though. shame, shame.

we slept in RAQ Pension in Puerto Princesa. the next day was byebye palawan. we're not sure if it was RAQ or e-philippines that gave each of us little rainmakers as souvenirs. :D i gave mine to gaby. hehe. manila welcomed us back with rain and comfort food: yogurt for gail, fries and burger for everybody else.

last meal in palawan! RAQ special danggit, which in my opinion was ordinary

expenses:
flight: P2033 each
tour package: P6100 each (includes all accomodation, transpo, tours, breakfast and lunch meals)
misc: around P3000 for both gail and me (includes dinners, souvenirs, etc)

el nido, day three

2011-09-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

my favorite day among all the days we spent on that trip! day two was a little gloomy, but day three was sunny as it can be. we had fun, we took great photos and i won the paitiman challenge. my mom saw me two nights ago and she couldn't get over how dark i am now. pambihira.

we went to: big lagoon, small lagoon, pinagbuyutan island (where fed fish and where we were fed as well), seven commandos beach

to the big lagoon

happy trippers

papasok ng small lagoon. i love the riot!

miniloc resort from afar

fish feeding/snorkeling

boys just wanna have fun

it was our turn to be fed :D

bye island!

febfeb's sand castle

its buko time!

our marine biologist and his catch :p

fun in the sun!

lots and lots of buko

tan, jyko, boat

ako ang pinaka olats tumalon. feb best jump!

bye bye el nido :(

pretty phoebe

ahahaha

At around 3pm, we started our 6-hour drive to Puerto Princesa, where we tried the popular resto Kinabuch's. More on that next blog. :)

El Nido, Day One
El Nido, Day Two
Day 4 next :)

el nido day 2

2011-09-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

quick recap: day 1 - travel to el nido, chill, sleep. day two was our first day of tour. it turned into half a day of tambay and the other half of semi-frightening super fun tour, thanks to rain and winds. ill let the photos speak :)

we woke up to this gloomy morning, tapos umulan tapos humangin ng malakas. our tour organizer/point person ate arsenia, nicknamed candice by tantan when we all couldnt remember her name, told us that the boat was ready for the tour. but we wouldnt have any of it thankyouverymuch, because by the time we were thinking of whether or not it was ok to brave the weather, the winds took all our braveness away.

gloomy day

nagbasa na lang ng HP1

the rains and winds stopped but the gloom stayed. so go na kami sa tour, but not after we had lunch. :) the itinerary:

Entalula Island

Snake Island

Cadugnon Cave


this was included in the tour, sa isla dapat lulutuin at kakainin

wala kaming pictures sa boat ride dahil napaka alon at nababasa kami kasabay ng konting kaba. hahaha.

on the beach of entalula island

bye entalula! :p

at snake island

snake island from a view deck

at the viewdeck

yikee

our Chinese friends

inside cadugnon cave

dinner was again thanks to google: El Nido Boutique and Art Cafe, where there was a band playing and close to zero chances of kwentuhan. hahaha!

there were dogs and a cat!

and then sleep, and then day 3. :)

el nido, day one

2011-08-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

our trip to el nido was the first one we had with a diverse group of people. it was unexpectedly funner than expected, perhaps because the days leading to it were busy for everybody. we didn't talk much about how excited we were. but come day 1 of our trip, everybody was extra giddy and chatty. (or was it just me?) because gail and i were dead set on travelling to the max this year, we ambushed the ff people into saying yes to a trip on aug 26-29:

tan, jyko, me, gail, reno, eds, erwin, feb | not in pic: densie, who had to come home a week before our trip

we got e-philippines for the tour package which cost P6,100 each person for a group of 9. they took care of everything, from van transfers to accommodations to tours. it was convenient, albeit there were some hassles. (ive yet to email them)

el nido is far -- 6 hours of fast driving from puerto princesa on zigzagging roads, some of which are rough. ganun pa man, nakatulog kaming lahat. haha! when we got there at 4pm, we wouldnt have anything other than chill.

coffee time

stretching time

googling our dinner place

thanks to google, we were able to find Le Salangane, a French-owned/managed restaurant which served us these, and made us happy. masayang dinner dahil sa masarap na pagkain at masayang kwentuhan. :)

best salad accdg to tantan

steak, veggies, potatoes. POTATOES!!!

creamy chicken breast, veggies and potatoes

steak again

free shots: the tastes and smells were challenging. there was coco, lime, orange, etc.

i was tempted to do a photodump, but decided to take it like a 3-day weekend. one day at a time. so tomorrow (or the day after that), comes day 2. day 3 has the best photos though. el nido just got better and better for us. teehee!

how do i even start?

2011-08-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

the past week was, simply put, tiring. hindi ako sanay na maging busy. haha. i couldn't take breaks, i couldn't blog!!! i, couldn't, blog. i was on the computer till late at night, i missed a date with my GS girlfriends, i failed to listen to CDs alex lent me, i missed my zumba class. i missed this blog the most.

but im happy. because i was busy doing something that was so fulfilling. friends, i crossed out another faith goal just this week: i now have a by-line.

by-line/ˈbīˌlīn/ (n.): a line at the beginning of a news story, magazine article, or book giving the writer's name

when i accepted this second job, i thought yehey i have another writing job, i have another source of income. then my boss/friend told me that i should/can include my name in every article i publish. sweet and neat and all things rainbow-y! writing takes longer than usual because i treat every article with utmost care, like they're my children bearing my name. here's one of them:

The Value of Multilingual Executives Today

i thank God for giving me this blessing: for this surprising promotion which has turned into a big deal for me even though it really is not (at least for the world). gail is the best tag teammate too. last friday he gave me mcdo fries and chips and the freedom to stay up till late at night to watch tv. i watched a justin bieber special, a confirmation that somehow i still have time for myself when i can do what i wanna. best thing: gail watched with me. bestest!

hug point, growth rate of love for beybi (by gail)
because studies show that blog entries with photos are more appealing, studies talaga no?!
he drew this sometime around 2009

i have a lot of things to talk about! i honestly think i forgot how to blog, or maybe there's just too many things i want to write about but i can't, because at the back of my mind and in front of my face is another week's worth of work, minus a couple of days. crunch time alang alang sa el nido getaway on friday yehey!

you know vacation's near when you keep on hearing this song in your head:

ps: excuse me while i go back to reviewing "Blogging 101".

how to talk to little girls

2011-08-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

i read in a blog that most often than not (actually always), we see little girls and we say "o how cute naman your braids." aside from that would annoy the purists (pure tagalog or pure english only), it may also contribute to how a little girl sees the world and herself: that looks are more important than anything else. but what is wrong with telling girls that they look like princesses and complimenting them for their pretty dresses? nothing. but why not start off with a conversation about the book that their mom is currently reading to them? or ask them about how their day is going. anything out of the looks area. and then let them know that they are pretty, that they are beautiful.

i wouldn't really know if that strategy works in emphasizing that looks are not as big of a deal as people make them appear. but it makes sense i think, because i very well know the feeling of being told of how pretty i am, as much as how im very familiar with the feeling of being ugly. im an advocate of looking beyond the looks. let's all balance this, shall we? that although we can't hide our natural characteristic to admire beauty and to abhor the lack of it, let's not get obsessed.

little girl me, little boy jan, and mommy and daddy

if in the future you get to talk to my little girl, please start with something else. you bet she'll have something worthwhile to share with you, other than the color of her dress and how it sparkles when she twirls. (but i think she'll still twirl for you.)

why not wednesday 08.10.2011

2011-08-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

whoa august already? and today is the birthday of my lovely lola so ill see her this weekend, sans tears i cried last night because i miss laguna home so much. on sunday itll all be hugs, love and fun -- my kind. i had a revelation that instead of crying and missing our family back in lb, why not maximize time despite distance. email, text, office leaves: only three of the things you can use to express love to family. im happy that sha and jan live practically right next to me, but there's more than three in our family. i started today and will not stop expressing my love for them until i die, so that there'll be no regrets. *virtual group hugs*

on to WnW. let me start by saying that i am stoked by the fact and truth that gaby is now my officemate, nay, teammate! grabe, sobrang saya ko talaga. if you read my entry last week, you'd know how much i love gaby and how she's become a blessing to me and to gail. i swear she's like red velvet cake pops. pretty, sweet and nice. super, super thankful. :)

so why not be like her and become friends with all our officemates?! after almost three years of working here, i finally went out with some office friends. it was a farewell girls' night out for ayie, our manager, but it felt more like a welcome date for everybody in the group. i didnt actually expect it to be super fun, but blame the sugar because all five of us got super hyper and super fat. :p

ayie, tala, gaby, ching and aishel

haagen dazs eat all you can ice cream and pastries for P600 each. not bad considering a scoop costs P175. ;) first world problem: were so full but we wanted to maximize what we paid for. another first world problem: ice cream tastes good but it's better if you have fries to break the "umay".


ang cute mo dito gaby!

on our way home we were reminded that first world problems are short-lived, because we live in a developing country (ayan politically correct dapat). somebody's (ehemehem) phone and wallet got stolen in megamall as she was about to board a bus. ayukyuk. :p