My Adventures

Our New Angel

2013-07-07T01:06:00.000-07:00

Last month (June), we received one of our greatest blessings from God. My wife gave birth to our first child (son) Nio. Nio means "gift from God".

Misha's Christening

2013-01-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

Random Pictures

2013-01-02T21:44:00.003-08:00

Here are some pictures that I took elsewhere.

It was Jojo's new wheels when I took this picture.

Pagsanjan arc

Ghost car passer by.

Taken at the middle of a national road.

Family Reunion

2013-01-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

Last summer, we attended my wife's family reunion. We had a great time and it's nice to meet the whole clan. Here are the best pictures I took.

Media Noche

2013-01-01T06:50:00.002-08:00

Happy New Year to all! 2012 has passed and time can be consumed really fast. Whether last year was a struggling or successful year for us, we must treat every new year a new opportunity to improve.

Last New Year's Eve was amazing. We have no extravagant celebrations but we celebrated the event with the whole family. And the amazing company comes with an amazing pile of delicious foods made by the two most important girls in my life: wifey and mommy.

Carbonara

Barbecue

Carbonara

Macaroni Salad

Frozen Cake

Fruit Salad

Fruit Cake

Red Wine

Lumpiang Shanghai

Spaghetti

Chili Green Mussel and Shrimp

Santa Cruzan

2012-11-21T02:02:00.000-08:00

Last summer, we took time to watch the Santa Cruzan on Pagsanjan Laguna. We were excited because we rumor said that celebrities will also be parading that time. But rumor remained a rumor. And we were not able to finish the Santa Cruzan because we (me and my wife) have to go home to Manila.

Santa Cruzan is an annual event in cities and municipalities in the Philippines. It is a Catholic event held every May. It is a march of the chosen (preferably fairest) ladies in town in tribute for the Virgin Mary.

Taking photos here gave me lots of lessons on photography:

Make sure you get not only a good shooting view, but also a good background.
It's better to have people on the background instead of a truck.
Cropping makes a huge difference.
Don't hesitate and don't be shy to take multiple shots on the subject.

Enough of this talking, here are the pictures that I took.

Cute kids. Who can say 'no' to them?

One of my favorite subject.

Care to smile?

Guess who made this picture cute?

Classic

At last! Not a camera shy. Perfect!

Sometimes, unusual events and gestures make the picture perfect.

Another cute subject.

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Caffe Ti-amo; I Love Coffee (Anniversary Food Trip)

2012-07-20T23:55:00.001-07:00

After we strolled the Greenbelt, we took a coffee break at the Caffe Ti-amo.

They have a great line of menu but we only have a pair of stomach to store.

Dark Mocha Frappuccino

One of the best I had tasted.

Blueberry Ice cream

Tastes great.

Espresso

Me and Cherry.

'The' Author

Ratings:

Price: 9
Very affordable and great taste.

Taste: 9
Great

Service: 6
The service guy cleaning the tables seems so busy to answer customers.

Ambiance: 8
Very comfortable. Nice place to have a cup of coffee.

Total Rate: 8
Nice place for a coffee.

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Anniversary Food Trip at Bubba Gump

2012-07-20T23:26:00.002-07:00

Before ended up here at Bubba Gump, we had several plans to celebrate our wedding anniversary, these includes out of town, overnight stay on resorts. And obviously, nothing of those plans pushed through. We decided to satisfy our cravings for seafood.

My wife Cherry

Me, Ken, author.

Speckled Lemonade

Shrimper's Heaven PhP760- Hand breaded coconut shrimp, chilly shrimp, fried shrimp, and Japanese Tempura shrimp with fries, with sauce Tangy Asian, Cajun Marmalade, and Zesty Cocktail.

Shrimp Shack Mac & Cheese - Macaroni with shrimp, cheddar, Monterey Jack and Parmesan Cheese with bread crumbs.

We only tasted a handful of menus here. But the experience is great. They got tasty shrimps. Our favorite is the Shrimp Shack Mac & Cheese. The service and the environment are also great. Very comfy with lots of classic memorabilia and pictures from the movie Forrest Gump. I want to go back for the desserts.

Price - 9

A bit pricey but tasty.

Food Taste - 9

I don't want to give 10. But this is surely great.

Service - 9

Great experience

Ambiance - 9

Not too classy. It is all comfort.

Total Rate: 9

I'll be back!

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Birthday Treat At Chili's Greenbelt 5 Makati

2012-07-07T03:43:00.000-07:00

One fateful (and miraculous)night, my wife's friends, Mitch and Mira, are celebrating their birthday this June. They agreed to treat us in Chili's restaurant at Greenbelt 5 in Makati.

A view beside the restaurant.

Quesadilla -

grilled chicken and bacon (fajita-marinated chicken, ranch dressing, bacon, mixed cheese, toasted tortilla) with sour n' cream, salad ranch dressing and house pico de gallo

Oldtimer - Php430

burger with mustard, tomato, shredded lettuce, pickle and onion

Beef Salpicao - Php595

steak tips marinated and grilled with chili's rice, veggies and garlic toast

Cajun Chicken Pasta - Php495

seasoned chicken breast on penne pasta with creamy alfredo sauce, green onions, diced tomatoes, parmesan cheese and garlic toast

Chicken Crispers - Php300

fried buttered chicken strips with sweetcorn on the cob and honey mustard dressing and homestyle fries

Grilled Chicken Platter - Php285

grilled chicken breast with chili's rice and streamed fresh veggies and parmesan cheese

Strawberry Daiguiri - Php120

My precious Brewed Coffee - Php90

Mitch eating caught in my lens - Priceless!

Mira & Mitch. The birthday girls.

with wifey, Cherry.

"The" Author

It's just iced tea. = )

I wasn't able to include prices in the list. But the prices ranges from ₱500 up. One order is enough for one person.

Ratings:

Price: 9
Average price in a large order size, great d/meal.

Taste: 7
Quite good. There are other restaurants with tastier food than these.

Service: 5
Quite low. We didn't had bad experience here. But I found the waiters always in the rush, doesn't mind bumping chairs and tables.

Ambiance: 8
The outer diner was great for dining with friends. But not on rainy days.

Total Rate: 7
Great place for meal with friends.

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In Memory...

2012-06-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

His name is Brandon. He died on sickness. He was loved and adored by the whole family so it really hurts to see him slowly die. We admitted him on a vet clinic three months ago, and was confined for a week. He was diagnosed with liver disease and worms. He got better but I guess his disease re-occurred.

He has joyful personality. He was close to humans and a really, really jealous type. Whenever I hug and have quality time with Mikolo, my other pet dog, he approach and join us and makes sure that he will also receive a hug.

Conti’s Greenhills, San Juan

2012-04-25T03:49:00.001-07:00

My wife, Cherry, has celebrated her 30th birthday last April 2. Her friends teased her to treat them for a dinner. This will serve as their get together too. They decided to have a dinner at Conti’s restaurant located at Greenhills, San Juan.

Michelle, Mira and Cherry

Picture taking with the kids: Arkin and Alyssa.

One of my favorite models.

Meal time. Shanghai Bites. P110.00

Mocha Frappe P125.00

Roast Beef in Mushroom Sauce. P295.00

Chicken Ballotine. P250.00

Linguine in Pesto Sauce (with seafood) P295.00

Hearty Club Sandwich. P245.00

Chicken Lollies. P195.00

Japanese Fried Rice. This goes with the Chicken Teriyaki.

Chicken Teriyaki. P195.00

Mango Bravo (Mini). P625.00

Upon learning that it was my wife’s birthday treat, the crew displayed his artistic talent.

Candle blowing.

She has to have one too. = )

This blog’s president and her first lady.

Isn’t she cute?

Mother and son.

Family portrait.

Expanded family portrait.

Another candle blowing.

She can handle these.

Night-off.

We had great experience this night. Not only we had long hours of chat, the food was great too and the service. The crews are friendly. All of the food we ordered tastes amazing! I can give them a rating of five stars. Although the place is a bit small, but the food’s taste will make up for it.

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Technorati Tags: restaurant,Conti's,Mango Bravo,restaurant in the Philippines

Finger Lickin’ Good!

2012-04-02T18:44:00.001-07:00

KFC’s newest menu.

Technorati Tags: cat photography,humor photography,KFC,Kentucky Fried Chicken

ThunderBird Resorts Rizal

2012-03-30T21:10:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday, March 29, 2012, me and my wife took a day-off to ThunderBird Resorts in Binangonan Rizal. Although those days were rainy, we didn’t expected that day to be the rainiest day of all. It rained the whole day! The water was so cold and we haven’t took a summer looking pictures. But the experience is different from the rest and I’ll consider this one of the unforgettable. I enjoyed the adventure, anyway.

This is the way to the Thunderbird entrance. The location is in the middle of “nowhere”. I mean, it is far from public transportation. It is a long drive from urban area.

My wife made a reservation prior to this day. The package is ₱1,200 per head for a whole day stay (for resort consume only). The package fee has a consumable ₱1,000 for meal. Not bad.

Thunderbird Resorts is a hotel and resort. There is also another one on La Union which is more grandeur, bigger, and in front of the beach.

The hotel has lots of nice decorations like this.

There are nice views too, since it is located at the high ground.

My wife, Cherry, taking the (every) opportunity.

Proof of the weather.

At the lobby.

I can’t pass a restaurant without a sip of their coffee.

I’ll grade their food 3 stars.

The resort have three pools: One for kids (2ft), one for adults (5ft) and one for relaxation (photo above).

Rainy season. Need umbrella.

The resort’s golf course.

The burger is 4 stars, and the pizza is 3 stars.

At the restaurant (pool side)

You’ll see this tunnel on the way to the resort. But you will not pass through it. The resort is on the left turn of the road.

Thunderbird Resorts is great for vacation. It has clean and great facilities, fresh air, country-side feeling and view and the most important is the warm services of the staff. I’ll give 5 stars for their service. The staff are always on smile and friendly. I gave stress on this because I believe this is important. There are only a few numbers of establishments out there that have nice employees or guest staff.

To get to the location, if you're coming from Manila, take the Ortigas Extension road until you get to Antipolo. When you reached a crossing (you can see Shopwise, SSS, Red Ribbon), just shortly after passing the Province Hall, turn right. Drive through the main road until you reached the end. It's still a long drive. You'll know when you get there. ☺

For more information, here's their website:

www.thunderbird-asia.com

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Technorati Tags: resorts,Philippines,resorts in the Philippines

FE2F95JRMFMN

2012-03-30T17:54:00.001-07:00

FE2F95JRMFMN

My Pals

2012-03-24T07:15:00.001-07:00

Brandon

Mikolo

My Guitar

2012-03-21T01:12:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: guitar,electric guitar

Alvin’s Pizza

2012-02-19T05:24:00.001-08:00

Technorati Tags: Food,Pizza,Avin's Pizza

Home Delights

2012-02-17T23:22:00.001-08:00

We love foods or snacks that we usually eat when we were a child, don’t we? It reminds us of our childhood and great memories. Here are some memories that I would like to share.

Iced Gems. These are small cookies with sweet icings on top (as seen). Not only the icings tastes great but also the cookies.

Now these are local versions of M&Ms. Looks like M&Ms, tastes like M&Ms; without the Ms

This is a Tuna Spaghetti. My wife put tuna in the recipe instead of meat. Tastes great!

Technorati Tags: Food

Unlimited Feast on Kamayan

2012-02-13T06:50:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday, February 12, me and my wife went to have a lunch at the Kamayan restaurant in SM Megamall. We consider it as a Valentine's date cause we don't like to squeeze in on heavy traffic and a stampede of lovers.

Kamayan is known for great, tasty Filipino dishes. As we prepared for buffet/eat-all-you-can meal, we tried almost all that is in the buffet. We also took pictures to some of our meal.

This dish is called Lumpiang Sariwa or Veggie Lumpia. It contains various combination of vegetables inside its wrapper and a tasty sauce.

In this plate, you'll see a mini-taco, cake, hotdog in stick wrapped in waffle and a burrito.

You can make your own dessert in Kamayan including this Halo-Halo.

My wife having the time of her life...

Forced to smile...

We love seafood! It's a combination of clam shell, green mussel, and squid in a tasty sauce (we think it tomato sauce). Other dish in the plate is Kare-Kare (we love to repeat words in Filipino language) and Relyenong Bangus.

My plate is a combination of seafood and meat.

Another meat featured but roasted.

After our meal, we toured inside the mall and saw this art exhibit. We met a professional photographer inside the exhibit and did us a huge favor of taking our picture.

Our New Puppy

2012-01-19T17:46:00.000-08:00

We're still thinking of her name at this time.

Greenland Subdivision

2012-01-16T19:13:00.000-08:00

These pictures were taken at the Greenland Subdivision near our place. It's on Phase 8 which is not still populated. This is joggers' favorite place including me. I miss jogging. = (

Cainta Catholic Church, December, 2011

2012-01-08T00:40:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas season, we saw the Catholic Church of Cainta was glowing with lights. It was enticing to look at so me and my wife took the opportunity to grab the camera and shoot some beautiful views.

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Alyssa's 3rd Birthday

2011-12-22T00:23:00.000-08:00

This is another one of my kid's birthday party coverage. It was held last December 4 2011 at the Jollibee fast food restaurant in Quezon City, Philippines. It was a dark, stormy night... I mean, it was a rainy day that day but what made me a bit disappointed was I, as a photographer, was late at the party. In fact, I almost missed the party. Minutes after we (me and my wife) arrived, the party ended. I was just lucky enough to arrive with numbers of people still at the venue to take photos to.

Here are the photos I took, as fast as I can:

The birthday girl, Alyssa

The fast food restaurant's mascot, Jollibee himself.

Alyssa, watching the dancing mascot.

Shiny armor.

(clockwise) Alyssa, mom, little bro Arkin, and dad.

Precious moments.

Mom wishing her a good life in the future.

Celebrant's cousin, Cielo.

Celebrant's lil' bro, Arkin with grandma.

Caught in my lens.

Ad material.

My lovely wife, Arkin and Mira.

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Affordable Tasty Seafoods At Dampa (on Sunday Night Part 2)

2011-11-11T21:38:00.001-08:00

So, after our stroll on the Resorts World Manila, we went to Dampa for a tasty dinner. Dampa is located at the Seaside Macapagal Blvd, Pasay City. It is a place where you shop your desired seafood on the wet market near the long line of restaurants. There are lots of fresh seafood to choose from and they are high-grade meaty seafood. After shopping for your crave, you will bring your chosen seafood on your preferred restaurant and ask them to cook the seafood the way you want it.

Restaurants on this area will charge you based on per kilo of your merchandise. So it is necessary to buy each kind of seafood in a flat kilos, no halves and fourths.

Almost all of the restaurants have closed, air-conditioned area if you want your dine to be more private and they also offer an open area if you want to match your fresh seafood with fresh air. Some of the restaurants offers live music at night.

We usually visit Dampa at night as it is an ideal time for us to get together for a fine dining.

This is the restaurant's back view.

Me n' my wife Cherry.

My wife and her gal pals.

They can get so serious at times.

...and get posh.

These are our favorite seafood. The Shrimp was bought P350 per kilo.

The crab is P400 per kilo.

Tuna belly. 280 per kilo. The restaurant charge P190 for cooking per kilo. Plus service charge of ten percent.

Time to munch.

I'll see you again, soon!

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Passing Time At The Resorts World Manila on Sunday Night Part 1

2011-11-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

Last week, we decided to hang out on one of the most famous mall in the Philippines, The Resorts World Manila. The mall is located at the Newport Boulevard, Newport City, Cybertourism Zone, Pasay. This stands across the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3. Our initial plan is to watch a movie. But it never pushed through so we decided to just stroll inside the mall and have a tasty dinner later.

We also took pictures inside. But let me warn you. Some mall doesn't allow picture taking inside. I even ask the security for permission to do this. He gave me the go signal and here are the products:

My wife (on black) and friends, Mira and Mitch...and a kid. Alyssa.

The kid. One of our favorite.

My wife. Again. Taking opportunity.

Baby Arkin and big sister Alyssa.

Playing with the kids.

Currently showing that time is the play Von Trapp

Outside the mall.

Getting back inside. Again with the Von Trapp kids.

This is the area of the mall that features the dining and fine restaurants.

Heading for the planned dining location.

The nice views doesn't stop inside the mall. This pond is just beside the mall near the parking lot.

The tower beside the mall.

Now, it's dinner time.
To be concluded...

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