because we are both innocent looking...

a belated holidays greeting to all of you from me and Xan in this Holy Innocents day...

oh i'm sorry, but Xan is still my best accessory. he never fails to make me feel like i'm the most gorgeous ever as we both walk around with him waving and smiling at people he doesn't even know. flashing his brightest smile and hollering hi's and buh-byes.

and him calling out to me, mommy! in his shrieky voice is still the best music to my ears.

oops, i'm raving too much now i'm sure you get the picture.

good times, great times ahead for all!

getting ready for christmas

i am finally done with my christmas shopping and had them wrapped a while ago. it was exhilarating cramming and feeling the christmas rush once more and feeling that our peace and order situation has seemingly improved. i guess for us Christians, not even bomb threats could dampen our holiday spirit.

the past days i've noticed how much trash like old newspapers and plastic shopping bags are being kept around our house so i used them to wrap my gifts. eh, i feel like i don't wanna spend anymore on wrappers which they will just tear and throw away anyway.

yeah, crisis na crisis ang itsura, parang basura din lang. but have you seen that news clip about some gift wrapping service in London? the uglier the gift wrapping is the better, the logic really is that it being ugly makes it more realistic and personally done. ika nga, labor of love . besides, it's the content and the thought that counts na nga di ba?

and here's a look at our tree this time in orange...



all lit up:


we have prepared for our orange outfits tomorrow too. i hope everyone in the family can wear them, or at least some similar color. we have made this as some tradition for us to wear the same color during christmas eve.

and yeah, my toe nails are in light orange too. overkill!

my own starbucks story

well, i believe most of us got their own stories to tell and i just thought about this when i was going through my blogposts.

in april of 2007 i wrote this:

Single thoughts:

was sitting long at starbucks watching at people pass by, looking at couples more specifically when i started asking myself:

M: why can't i ever find a regular guy like these girls found theirs??


Me-too: you're not a regular girl. you can't be with a regular guy.




sigh...

a few weeks after that though, i met someone along with a group of friends at starbucks 6750, of all places.

and things were never the same again.



and indeed he is not any other regular guy. hihihi.

well this year i decided to get me that red starbucks planner that they are offering.

i'm not that much into planners but as soon as i saw the red one i knew i've got to have it. maybe it's about time that i get used to writing on a pen and paper once more and hopefully improve my penmanship.

and red, red, red...it is so red as red can be because it reminds me of life and that corny, icky, ewwie feeling of being in love once again. yiheee! hahaha!

the latest craze that is ROYCE!

i'm not really that fond of chocolates but this one is the bomb!

i bought a box of Royce in Times Square, HK after having heard of great reviews about it. i was just curious as to what the craze is all about and for 85 HKD (roughly 600 PhP) then it must really be something special.

It comes in an insulated box with a little spoon inside, and lo and behold it does taste heavenly and just melts in your mouth.

i'm eating it just one piece at a time so afraid that it will soon disappear haha! but the good news is, there's now a Royce outlet at Rockwell. but of course, i don't think i would troop there just to buy some 600 peso chocolate, any donors? hehehe....

fengshui please?

i couldn't help but smile at the security guard in Bo's Coffee here in katip when i passed by tonight. after all i was in a festive mood as i shivered from the cold Christmas air. i also felt delighted that at last after having been closed for the past three weeks, Bo's Coffee Shop is now once again open for business.

flashback to three weeks ago, i was so surprised when i saw the then closed coffee shop with it's glass walls smashed and most of its interiors destroyed. i asked the guard in there as to what happened and learned that a truck rammed on the store hitting some parked cars, breaking the glass walls and injuring some customers in the process.


it instantly hit me that maybe this store really just needs to get fengshui-d. bo's coffee is only here in katip for barely four years but it has been a victim of hold ups more than twice already and now this accident.

back in the 90's (yeah, i'm that old haha!), this was the site for Bun on the Run and later The Barn which was then managed by celebrity couple Mariz and Ronnie Ricketts. i later heard that the management was turned over to someone else but sales still didn't pick up till it closed shop.

i love this Bo's Coffee, it has to be the biggest one i've been to at three storeys and the most homey as well. the ones i've been to in Cebu and Bacolod were mostly kiosks and not even as cozy. i love the idea that they serve breakfast all day long haha! such a delight for a late sleeper that i am.and there's free wifi for every cup of coffee that you order.

oh well, i really hope that nothing untoward will happen to them anymore. it has been quite sad passing through their store the past days with all it's lights unlit.

i'm just glad they are back in business now.

Christmas Outreach

it started as a mere thought till after days of pondering and thinking about it the girls planned hard. support was gathered too from different people from all over the globe and from another forum. wow, medyo naligaw kami nung papunta sa CRIBS but somehow we got there safely naman albeit fashionably late. okay na din kasi madami kaming bitbit. sobra sobra ang food from jollibee kahit na may batang nag exclaim, "spaghetti na naman??!!" haha, sorry naman, dai!


there were toys and a lot more of grocery items, lahat donated ng mga tao, wow, presence lang talaga nabigay namin.

masaya mag statue dance at sumayaw ng Low at Don't Cha

medyo nakakapagod but it was all worth it.

nice, nice...sana next time uli. :)

Grandpa's Inn-Vigan

i went back to Vigan this month with my family and this time we stayed at Grandpa's Inn. I discovered this place when i was doing my research on places to eat and chanced upon someone else's blog about how good their food was.

we went there with my friends last summer for dinner and indeed the food was great! it was cheap too especially with their exceptional service and cozy ambiance. my apologies as i don't have pictures of their food since they were wiped out before we remembered to take shots haha!


we stayed at the calesa room which was truly unique in itself having 2 calesa beds and one double bed and could accommodate up to 4 people.



there was free wifi in the rooms too. and the staff were very helpful and courteous.


i will surely miss this place. we had such a great time during our stay there.

freakin survivor!

crap! crap! crap!

i just read in some forum that GMA will have this Boto ng Bayan thing for the selection of the final winner for Survivor Philippines.

i've been fearing for this text votes thing from the start but i didn't want to air it out hoping they would stay truthful to the original one..but waaah! i'm so freakin disappointed.

i'm guessing that this might just be GMA's way for damage control over that idiot who posted the name of the winner in his/her blog and spoiled everyone big time.

i'm okay with the spoiled winner getting the title, he totally deserves it. leche lang talaga ang nag spoil na yun.

ggrrrr! i felt bad enough having been spoiled but this current move of GMA is just plain crap. putangina!!!!

around Hongkong in 4 days!

(Nov. 21-24, 2008)

i was not too excited with this trip at first. the last time i went to HK was in sunny, summery July a few years back and it was really hot. we weren't able to go around much that time too because i was working thus HK didn't leave that much of a good impression on me.

the ferry ride from Macau took only about an hour. after settling down at our guesthouse for a bit we then got on the MTR to Central then the Victoria Peak.

We took the Peak Tram to and from the Peak then boarded a bus and the Star Ferry to Harbor City and walked up to the Avenue of Stars. we looked up the MTR station once more and got home safely just before midnight.

i now love the transpo system here in HK, it's just so simple and quite easy to follow. yup, we had a few misses and wrong turns but it was fairly easy for us to just stay on track.

ang masaya malamig ang panahon this time kaya okay lang maglakad lakad kahit malayo. yun nga lang, friend ko na ang salonpas ngayon hehe...



on our second day, we went to Ngong Pin 360 and got to ride the cable car and walk up to the big buddha. from there we went to more train rides to get to disneyland yey.





it was about past 8pm when we left disneyland just right after the fireworks. we were to meet some friend up in Central for dinner and drinks so we hopped on the train again. okay, we had some mix up when we boarded the train which was to go on the opposite side of our destination haha! kaya medyo napalayo at natagalan kami. but then, the train system is really that organized so we didn't panic instead we just enjoyed the joyride.

lan kwai fong is quite a gimikero's haven! we saw how HK people and the expats and the tourists love to party and revel till the wee hours of the morning. and i am more amazed at how the women dress up and have fun even if some will just have to hang around the streets or near 7-11 for their drinks.nice, nice!



on our fourth and final day, we just wanted to take it easy by covering still more sights but at a more relaxed pace. of course, i have been limping the past few days from the cold and too much walking. woe to my age indeed haha!



We took the MTR to Central, walked around Worldwide Plaza where there are a lot of Pinoy stores including Jollibee...took the bus to Stanley Market, saw Repulse Bay...went back to Central towards the pier...took the Star Ferry then walked all the way to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station back to Jordan...we then took the Airport express for our 7pm flight back home. awww....



but we had such a great time playing turistas anyway! =)

city econo inn-hk

i'd like to call it divine intervention...

just bef0re we checked out at macau, i asked our concierge to write our HK hotel address in Chinese characters so i can just hand it to our taxi driver. he had to call the hotel and i had to pay another 21 hkd for it and i was told that there was no reservation under my name. hmm, i panicked a bit when i remember that i failed to give my complete name when i reserved for our room via email.

the entire time that we were on the ferry boat to hk i was praying really hard that hopefully, miss jenny, the owner remembered me. or if there was indeed no reservation then hopefully i could have another room asap. i hate travel booboos really and would really feel bad about myself if ever there's one especially with how obsessed i could get in planning out itineraries. i was hoping i'd have any internet connection in Macau so i could have finalized our reservation details but it was pretty hard communicating with people who couldn't speak english that well.

i was praying too that we could have a good enough taxi driver.

well anyway, we got to HK and thankfully we did got a good taxi driver, in fact i even owe him a few dollars since he didn't have any loose change for my 100hkd. our meter read 16 hkd but i only had 10hkd then and my 100hkd. he took the 10hkd saying he's got no other change. i felt so ashamed of myself hihihi. kung dito sa Pilipinas yan, nakow! as if papayag ang drayber, hmpf!

oh, and we did see miss jenny at the backdoor of the hotel. we actually entered the wrong door but she was there because the elevator that day needed to be fixed. and although she didn't get my name, she did remember that two Filipinas we're checking in that day and even recited my mobile number which was on my email signature, yey!

fortunately they also sell discounted disney tickets and even exchanged our money both US dollars and our remaining Macau patacas, too convenient indeed!



there's free wifi too and the place is really nice, clean and cozy. nice, nice place that i miss it already!

Metropole Hotel- Macau

We arrived at the Macau airport and took this taxi which brought us to the hotel:



his dashboard is to die for haha!



The Metropole Hotel is located just along Avenue de Praia in Macau. I asked my sister to book us here via asiarooms.com as per the recommendations of some friends who have stayed there as well.



The rooms are quite nice except that the beds are kinda stiff. we just thought of it as some orthopedic bed para hindi sumakit ang likod hehe...



the breakfast buffet is good just that they served exactly the same food on our second day too. :p



soy milk, congee, dimsum



rice, noodles, vegetables



bread, butter, jam



Chinese cakes and pastries

what i love most in here is its location. just behind the hotel is a short walk to Senado Square which could lead us to the Ruins, churches, temples, and starbucks, mcdo, haagen dazs and bossini, and giordano as well. yey!

WALKing around Macau

Nov. 19-21: yup, we WALKED most of the time because i felt intimidated by the bus system. although there were free shuttles for most hotels i didn't know which ones to take. besides taxis were quite expensive. and yes, it was a bit cold. we landed at about 2pm and it was already 19 C and much more cold at night and during mornings yay! and i brought mostly shorts haha!

Macau is such a lovely city haay...

the Ruins of St. Paul's Church



Grand Lisboa and more casinos



overlooking Macau Tower



a gondola inside the Venetian



egg tarts galore!



Fisherman's Wharf

"no hits"

i finally got my NBI clearance. i went to the QC city hall at past 2pm and was already in jollibee studying my freshly released clearance by 3:30. mas mabilis pa kesa pagpila ko sa autograph signing ng blue eagles team!

a woman who was tending some store near the NBI booth told us that the place is actually chaotic in the mornings. lines would reach up to the streets and most people would become too grumpy.

being the non-morning person that i am, i always abhor very early morning queues especially when the offices are not even open yet. i don't get it. why do we need to wake up and line up at so early times when we can actually do it in the afternoon when most of the frenzied crowds are gone?

well anyway, i thank my parents for giving me a pretty unique name (pretty na unique pa hehehe) that i didn't have any trouble getting my clearance. yey! just please don't stare at the pic. the problem with these guys who take our pics for documents is that they don't even bother to let us project a bit hmpf! i look like a ghost awooo!

catching up

my idea of catching up really aside from sleeping all i can and holing up in my room is to go out and see what the mall is like once again.

and this is what i did yesterday, Monday. i've decided not to report to the office just yet since i felt like my weekend's rest wasn't enough, especially after two weeks of being in one city after another. and i wanted to spend my day paying my bills, watch a movie or two and check out what's new in the malls.

i watched Nights in Rodanthe first because i've always loved Nicholas Sparks. i went alone with a bunch of grannies among the audience and i was thinking what must be on their minds when some love scenes came out hehe...the night before i also got to see Bridges of Madison County on QTV 11 and the idea of some wife making out/ love with another man kinda bothered me a bit. i mean, these were women in their 40s-50s even and suddenly they found themselves desiring other men? hmmm...

as i sat there on the theater alone with just my hotdog sandwich, popcorn and coke i found myself thinking what i must be 20-30 years from now. will i find myself finally enjoying that stage which Erikson calls the generativity stage? will i have become the best mom to Xan and be able to take care of more kids and grandkids? will i still want other men, or men in general as well? LOL! or lo and behold, will i find myself stagnate, retreat in my own world as i get older?

i know i ought to keep myself from thinking too much.

well back to the movie, i find myself liking Diane Lane even more. wow, when i grow old i want to be like her haha!

like most of Spark's books, the movie had a bittersweet ending.

i was to meet my old friend Lala for dinner but it was still a bit early and i felt sad by the movie quite a bit that i decided to watch another movie, this time it was Quantum of Solace.

oh well, Daniel Craig isn't really guwapo but i've to say he's hot, hot, hot!!! i think he's a way cooler 007 than Pierce Brosnan.

i've no major complain about the movie, in fact i love how this film's Bond girl got her own's really kick-ass action scenes.

my major issue though is that i couldn't quite comprehend how an Alicia Keys' song got chosen as it's theme. hmpf!

they say there has to be some missing scene somewhere in the last part but i barely noticed it, have you?

i later met up with Lala for dinner. when you wanna keep grounded always keep in touch with old friends who know you 15 even 20 years hehe.



we went to Cafe Bola and yes, i had bola-bola for dinner.



i also got to try San Mig's premium beer and brought home the coaster as well hihihi.

yeah, i have to say i really had full and satisfying day.


************************************************

just today, i learned that our Batanes trip for this weekend has been cancelled. imagine my relief when even after almost 30 minutes of being put on hold by Zest Airways trunkline (thank greatness for speaker phones!) they told me that the flight has been cancelled. well. i've been losing sleep over it for days now especially because of this rainy weather and i didn't want to get stranded in that so far away land especially when i have our Macau-HK trip scheduled/fixed and relatively paid for already.

yup, i would love going to Batanes, i've always looked forward to going there but my skeds are just too close i couldn't really afford anymore bungles in it.

so the trip has been resked to January, by then, if we'd get stranded for a week then i won't really care since i don't have any more trips scheduled after it haha!

so here i am, home for the entire week and the weekend. i'm not going anywhere for now, yey! it can really be a nice feeling, eh.