Some Time Off and Stories About My Tatay

So how was your Halloween? Me, nothing special. No we did not go to parties and don some customs. Before Halloween, my family and I went down south to grant my father's last wish. I thought it's going to be a chance for some R&R. I mean, it was suppose to be some time off work but turned out to be a stress I wasn't expecting. Nanay refuses to take the airplane so we have no choice but to take the 12 hour ride in a non air conditioned bus. Oh the agony, I swear I will never do that again. Ever.

Because of the travel time, we're left with so little time in Bicol and not much to do but to focus on the main purpose of us being there. On the day of my father's burial we were expecting only close family and relatives who will join us. I was surprise because dami pala namin kamag-anak. It was an emotional moment again for us. I was thankful for their presence. It felt like we had another wake for him. A wake with people who knew my Tatay really well.

They told me stories about Tatay that I never heard before. Like Tatay do magic tricks when he's drunk. And that he was the town's Dennis the Menace for his mischievousness and playing tricks on town's people. There was this one story they old me about Tatay pretending to be a dancing ghost which was pretty hilarious. We were all laughing crazily when my aunt mentioned what my Grandpa did when he found out about my Tatay's antics. They were good memories and I enjoyed hearing stories about him.

When we left Bicol, I was finally able to enjoy the vacation. I know, it's weird. When everything was all over I was glad that my mind's finally free from worries. I can now think of other things. This time we did take an aircon bus (Thank God!) with enough leg room and comfy seats. I dreaded the 12 hour ride but did not feel so bad about it anymore. For the first time, my mind fully opened up to the positive aspect of this so-called vacay. As the bus started our journey back to the city, I was enjoying the ride and the sight-seeing which really helped me relax. Nature has it's way in making you realize how awesome this planet we are living. It makes you appreciate all things around you and the greater power who created them. And in my head I started planning my vacation the next time I go back in Bicol. Let me show you the amazing sights I've seen along the way. I will be borrowing some pictures as I did not bring my camera with me during this trip. Bad me.

photo from http://fyi09.wordpress.com

The majestic Mayon Volcano. It was our view for about 2-3 hrs though we cannot really see the tip because it was covered with clouds. Nevertheless, it was a sight to see. I promise I will be back and I would like to take my picture with the volcano as the background.

photo from www.harleycam.com

Lamon Bay and the Baywalk in Gumaca, Quezon. This was another cool part of the sight seeing. I'm not sure how long is the baywalk but I think it was a good 5-10 minute drive (or maybe longer) and we can still see the bay.

photo from http://www.voxbikol.com

Railroads. When we reached Naga, I kept on seeing the railroads going the same direction as the bus. I was like where are these railroads leading to? Then I remember something. When I was in high school this was my mode of transportation. Cheap and fastest way to go to school. Also I have this uncle who likes taking the train going to Bicol. Then it hit me. The PNR's last Station was in Naga. That's why there were several railroads that we kept on passing by. Remember physics, Snell's law? The fastest way to go from point A to B is thru a straight line. Well the railroads going to Bicol are not exactly a straight line but it somehow shorter travel time compare with the bus ride. Hah. Additional info for my next Bicol road trip. I can't wait to be back. But next time I'll make sure Tapioca will join me.

Happy Halloween!

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Young House Love

Hello there guys. I was on hiatus for some time and hasn't been blogging lately. I salute those people who can always keep their blogs updated. Anyway, what has been keeping me for blogging? Oh well, the answer is blog hopping. I think it's a great way to get some inspirations and keep my creative juices flowing. I was very happy to discover new and not so new blogs out there. And while blog hopping I stumbled upon this blog which I will be sharing on this post.



I can't believe I have almost forgotten this blog. It's actually one of the first blogs I love and adore back then when I was still starting my own site. The blog owners Sherry and John are certified DIY dorks (from their own words). The first time I hopped into their blog they were just a couple living in an old house. Their post are mostly on house improvements and DIY projects. Believe it or not even their own wedding was a DIY, too.

Two years after, since the last time I visited their blog, the couple has now moved in to their new home and are also proud parents to a baby girl named Clara. I was very surprise! In that span of time, I definitely missed a lot so I updated myself onto what's up with these guys. And then I read about Clara's birth story. At first, I was so happy knowing that Sherry was actually going to share the entire story (it was pretty long). Never did I expect nor image what the both of them went through. It was an incredible, terrifying, sad but happy ending story. Boy, I was in tears. It was tears of sadness and then happiness. I can't even imagine what it feels more to them. Giving birth was suppose to be a wonderful and beautiful thing. I have learned then that it's not always the case. What happened to them was a miracle and a blessing.

Check out Young House Love here and Clara's birth story here. Be warned, though. It's a pretty loooong and emotional story. I suggests get your napkins/tissue ready *wink*.

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Little Nuh

photo credit from izzahsazahly.com

Meet Evita Nuh. She may seem like you're ordinary little girl from the neighborhood but ya know, looks can be deceiving. I think this is the only time I've seen her in a picture with a big smile (and I liked it). Anyway, this kid happens to be one of the most influential kid and teen blogger. Say what? Yep, you read it right. She has been featured in several fashion magazines worldwide and she's just 12 years old. This kid is surely blessed with awesome talent and she never fails to surprise me. If you read her blog you'll be blown away with her cool fashion style and she definitely has an eye for photography that is unbelievable for a 12-yr old. But to see is to believe. I have great respect for her and I consider myself a fan. Some people think she was rob of her childhood but I think otherwise. I think she's very happy with whatever she's doing and it shows on her craft. It's like she was born to be that way (sounds like the lady gaga song teehee!).

What's even more amazing? She has now started her own label called Little Nuh and most of the clothes are designed by no other than Evita herself. Galing talaga! *clap clap*

Go check out her website here

P.S. I'm loving the song playing on her site. It's very soothing and calming and nice to listen to kahit paulit-ulit pa. I told Tapioca to play that song to me if he's getting annoyed na from my tantrums or if I'm PMSing. I think it will help me calm down hahaha! Anyway, the song is called Quelqu'un m'a dit by Carla Bruni. It's part of the OST for 500 Days Of Summer. I-add na yan sa playlist.

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Night Out At Elbow Room + Stackers Brekkie

Our team won the spelling bee competition which earned us a few thousand bucks to spend. And what better way to spend those moolah but to celebrate and have a night out... at the Elbow Room in Metrowalk Ortigas. Time to release the frustration thru videoke and some pool sesh hehehe.

Tapioca and I came out late. I doze off and almost forgot we had to be there by 8pm. We arrived past 11pm (Pa-VIP!!!). No more chibog but there were still some booze left. Here are the kodakan moments.

. . . da boyz

da gurlz . . .

. . . da songer

da drunken master . . .

. . . da billiard attendant

da gamblers . . .

. . . da team and the pluses

And what to do after a big night out? Eh di magmidnight-slash-early morning breakfast! Our search for a good breakfast place that's still open late Sunday night (or should I say early Monday morning) led us to Stackers. We have been to Stackers several times already (see here, here, here and a lot more that need not to blog dahil same-same lang naman order namin) but this was the first time we've sampled their breakfast offerings. The choices didn't entice me so I've decided to stick with my staple. Then I noticed the new items on their menu. They're now serving pasta and soup. Yay for the soup. Ako na, ako na ang adik sa soup hahahaha!!!!!

clam chowder . . .

. . . BBQ burger bowl

Now this is what Tapioca had for breakfast:

omelette sandwich . . .

And some extra stuffs:

. . . sad looking bacon

. . . sorry looking beef patty and slice bread

for the coffee - milk in a shot glass with a tiny spout, cute cute little thing . . .

Tapioca was not happy with his food. It's obvious on the picture how the food looked like they're in grief. Tapioca said he can taste the grit from the grill on the bacon and burger. As if they don't clean their grill at all. Yikes. He's that maselan and he can really tell I mean taste it.

The soup was okay. Why do I have this feeling that clam chowder soups are cream of mushroom soup in disguise? (LOL!) I know I might have sounded stupid with that statement and I'm fine with that. I mean this was the 2nd time I had clam chowder and it's hard to tell the difference until you dig in to the soup. Still I'm on a quest for the best clam chowder soup. Actually, I'm on a quest for the best soup ever! That's gonna be tough as I'm bias. I love soup especially if they're piping hot.

Click here to view more pics from the night out.

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Groupon Craze

Probably most of you may be aware (or already went gaga) of the on going craze for group buying sites. These websites offer the best deals ever! May it be for food/restaurants, tour packages, hotels, gadgets, services and anything else that you could think of for consumers like us to enjoy at an insanely low price. I was very tempted to buy every deals posted on their sites but you know I'm just a poor little girl who relies on monthly paychecks. Can't afford all of them even if they're at 50-90% off!

Another thing that keeps me from trying out these great deals? It's the word credit card. You see I had always use paypal for online transaction as a secured way of keeping my credit card info. It has been 6 months now (and counting) since my paypal account got frozen for some reasons unknown and I'm not allowed to do any major transactions. Even my mystery shopping gig got halted because my payments go thru my paypal account, too. It was such a hassle I tell ya but for now I have no choice but to shy away from online shopping that uses credit card payments. It was a relief to know though that some of these groupon sites have over the counter payments thru banks and LBC.

Anyway, I finally got the courage to purchased a deal from Metrodeal. I hated lines at the bank so I went with the LBC payment scheme via Dragonpay. The trasaction was as a breeze. I patiently waited for the deal to end hoping that a lot of people would buy or else they will cancel the deal. Thank goodness the deal ended without getting canceled and I got my voucher for a 51% discount on pizza and pasta from Sandy's Pizza. I called the store then and informed them about the deal I got from Metrodeal. We choose to have the food delivered at home which we have to pay extra. I think we paid Php99 for the delivery.

. . . the packaging. See their phone number?

Sandy's Special Pizza - Family size. . .

They're very generous with the black olives which I loved. Kinda reminds me of Magoo's Pizza. Oh, I missed that pizza place. Anyway, we think the pizza left the oven a little early because the crust was still chewy. The toppings were great though. We didn't finish the entire thing so we had the leftovers for breakfast. In the morning we placed the remaining slices in the oven toaster and out came the pizza with crispy crust which made it better.

. . . carbonara with mushrooms

For the pasta, we wanted to get the Italian sausage and tomatoes but they said we can only choose between tuna arabbiata and carbonara. And we chose the later. The carbonara was okay. Just okay. I think I can whip up a yummier carbonara than this (yabang lang o!)

mozzarella sticks . . .

This was an extra order and not included with the deal. These were awesome (who can go wrong with cheese?). I wish we had ordered more.

The pizza and the pasta may not be that great but I'm not complaining. If I paid the full price, maybe I would. Will we give Sandy's pizza a try? Maybe. As I said we wanted to try the sausage pasta and some other unique pizza flavors. Will we buy deals from Metrodeal again? Definitely. Kaya buy na rin kayo and let's all have a good time. Yeah!

And oh, by the way, here's the dessert take outs from Mom and Tina's. I'm finally sharing them.

. . . mocha butter and carrot cupcakes

banoffe pie . . .

I'm into coffee flavored desserts lately.

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Eat Well Delicious Kitchen

Nanay’s birthday is coming up and she has been giving me hints that she wanted to have a cell phone. Just like the other senior citizens out there. I’ve decided to make her dream come true so Tapioca and I went to Greenhills where you can get the best deal for cell phones. Since it’s going to be Nanay’s first phone we have decided to get her the basic phone that she can use to text and call. And maybe a few little features that might come in handy like the flashlight.

. . . Tapioca testing out the brand new Nokia phone

And what’s the most user-friendly phone in the market? Nokia cyempre.

After we bought the phone, it’s time to chow. I read about this new resto that opened in Greenhills. I convinced Tapioca to help me look for it. We had a hard time looking for the place because of name confusion. All I remember was they call it Delicious Kitchen. We were almost about to give up but good thing we did not. We've asked the concierge if they know that name. They said no. So we asked for the name of a newly opened Chinese resto. They said it's called Eat Well. Alright then, so that’s the right name.


Tapioca loves Chinese food and we are always on the look out for the best Chinese resto in town. Eat well’s menu was quite extensive and there’s a lot of pretty interesting dishes that we'd like to try. We were pretty adventurous at the moment so we gave in to whatever sounds yummy on the menu.

black gulaman and mint tea . . .

I love iced tea and after I saw this mint iced tea from the menu I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately it was not as wonderful as I was expecting it to be. I should have ordered the watermelon shake, my second fave drink. Tapioca on the other hand was having a good time with the black gulaman.

. . . xaio long bao

I discovered xaio long bao from people raving about these babies who had been to Hong Kong or Taiwan. They said its the best. Dumpling with meat, veggies and soup inside. I had never tried this and I'm not going to Hong Kong or Taiwan anytime soon so when I saw this on the menu I got excited. Imagine soup on the dimsum? How they manage to put the soup inside the dimsum was pretty amazing.

Hakao . . .

My all time fave. Dumplings filled with shrimp. Their hakao was full of plump and juicy shrimp. Hindi tinipid. I so lurve it!

. . . yang chow fried rice

This is a winner. Its overloaded with meat, shrimps and veggies. Big in servings but it comes in a cheap price. Seriously, the word scrimp does not exist in this place.

homemade bean curd with black mushroom . . .

We love tofu so whenever there’s tofu on menu we don't skip it. And they have this homemade bean curd dish that looks and tastes delish.

. . . 3 cups of chicken with basil

Tapioca picked this and we enjoyed this too. We were in luck because most of the food we've ordered were really delish. I actually ordered for a pork chop but they forgot it. I think they did it on purpose. They probably thought we ordered too much and we would not be able to finish them all. And they're right. With all these food we were sooo full. We left the store happy and promised to come back with empty stomach and a big appetite to try more of their dishes.

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Tagaytay Day Trip - Picnic Grove and Zipline

Hello there. This is the second and last part of our Tagaytay trip. After our brunch at Leslie's we headed to Picnic Grove.

. . . picnic grove cottages overlooking the Taal lake and volcano

The park remains the same except for their latest attraction which was the zip line and cable car. For the entrance fee we paid Php50 each. It bothers me that the Picnic Grove management didn't even regulate who gets in or out of the park. From the moment you enter the gate, going to the park, and on the actual park and the cottages, the vendors and fixers offering horse back riding were all over the place invading your personal space. This scares me especially those guys who just go up to us since most of them looked like gangster. How can you trust them when they didn't look decent enough.

Picnic Grove has been poorly maintained and the entrance fee do not serve any justice to the park's current condition. This is a shame to the local government of Tagaytay. Also worth mentioning was the blaring sound system from the Tagaytay Ridge Zip Line and Cable Car.

It was very sad to see how the place has turned out. Picnic Grove was a special place for me. I have lots of memories here from childhood to my early adulthood but it lost its touch with all the tourist traps/booboo. I know these people are trying to make a living but if any guest or tourist would like to get their service then there should be a right place for them to do business. I hope they would do something to improve the park for the future generations to come.

So that was the sad part. Moving on the happy part, we didn't let those pesky vendors and fixers ruin our day. We simply ignored them like they don't exist. I tell ya, it's hard dahil ang dami nila! We wanted to do horse back riding pa naman but it's really scary thinking sino kaya sa kanila mapagkakatiwalaan.

While enjoying our leisure walk in the park, we noticed this big dark cloud coming up . . .


Uh-oh, looks like we're not gonna stay here for long. Had to think of a fast, quick and in a hurry activity. Sayang ang entrance fee kung wala kaming maaccomplish. And the answer . . .

Tagaytay Ridge Zip line and . . .

. . . Cable Car

The cable car looks boring in my opinion so we chose the zip line. This was our first zip line experience and I was nervous as hell. Did I tell you I'm afraid of heights? Funny since I live all my life in an apartment building. But you know adrenaline rush like this makes the adventure more exciting and fun. Tapioca got our one way ticket which cost P200 per head with souvenir picture.


We're next in line after these couple . . .


And we're done. Here's our souvenir.


It was a short ride, kinda bitin but it was awesome and a very thrilling experience. All the time I was looking off the ground which was about 300 feet and I kept on screaming while Tapioca was laughing his ass off me. Tapioca wanted to bring the camera during the zip glide but I did not let him risk it hehehe! It was a great experience and I wanna do it again. But prolly somewhere else naman para mas masaya.

Because of the rain we decided to go back to Manila instead of staying in Tagaytay. From Picnic Grove we went to Olivares terminal to catch the bus going to Cubao and surprise, surprise the same bus we took to get to Tagaytay happened to be the same bus we're taking to go home. The bus conductor even remembered us and commented how quick our trip was. Yeah, it was a quick trip and that was not expected but we felt that we have done enough. This is the end of our Tagaytay Day Trip and hope you like it. Until our next adventure.

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Tagaytay Day Trip - Leslie's

Second day of our vacation leave. We woke up early so we can have our breakfast in Tagaytay. As I've mention from my previous post we didn't have a concrete plan. We're just gonna go there and find where our feet will lead us. One thing's for sure we wanted good food. Something that we can't just have here in Manila.

. . . camwhoring on the bus

From Cubao, we took the San Agustin bus going to Tagaytay. We paid Php104 each. It took us two and a half hours to get there. Traffic was terrible early that morning and Tapioca was getting impatient. When we finally see the pine trees and a huge fog on the road we knew we're almost there.

We dropped off at the Olivares Terminal. When we alighted the bus I kinda felt like I have been never been in Tagaytay before. Tagaytay has changed a lot from the last time I went there. I think the last time I went there was back in early 2000 with my college classmates. Back then we just graduated and we were all excited to explore new places. You know the happiness of hanging out with your classmates without thinking of assignments, projects and thesis. Yeah, kinda like welcoming our new found freedom.

Okay, okay, so I'm reminiscing here but I can't help but compare the Tagaytay that I knew then and the Tagaytay I'm seeing now. There were lots of establishments that wasn't there before like Jollibee, 711, KFC, Yellow Cab and the list could go on and on if I mention them all. Seeing all these commercial places tells you know how the city has developed. I can't say I like it nor hate it. But ya know, I'm all for progress.

And when in a progressive city you are and that city happens to be a tourist spot, expect scenes of haggling and locals offering their services. First thing that greeted us at the terminal were the tricycle drivers. There's plenty of them and if you're not familiar on how much the fare fee from one point to another (like us) expect to pay more. Oh well, we didn't really care as long as they take us to the place we wanted to be.

I asked our tricycle driver to bring us to Bag of Beans because we wanted to try their famous pies and cheesecakes. Due to my lack of research and poor planning, I didn't know that Bag of Beans has now 2 branches. The original branch which was far from Olivares and almost near the Batangas boundary, and the new branch near Rotonda. Unforch, the driver took us to the Rotonda branch which at that time still closed. Our tummies were unforgiving so we went to the next restaurant that was open.

leslie's . . .

We were the first customers for the day and I was sooo giddy because it means we can pick the best spot in the restaurant. And I'm talking about this . . .


See those guys on the ledge? That was Tapioca and our tricycle driver. Well, that's our spot. I have been to Leslie's but never had the place to ourselves until . . . . another group joined us :-(



Tapioca looked pissed but can't do anything about it. We don't own the place. If we want a privy place with unobstructed view of Taal Volcano, we can stay at these cute little cottages at Php500 for 3 hours.


Thanks but no thanks. We would rather stay on our spot for free and just ignore the noisy group on the other table. I let myself enjoy the view taking pictures of whatever caught my attention. The weather in Tagaytay was very chilly so I had to had something hot to drink. I was thinking of kapeng barako but they don't have any. I got stuck with the instant Nescafe. Hahaha!


Then our food arrived. And for some reason the group on the other table decided to change table. Hooray!!!!! Here are the food pics . . .

. . . a huge bowl of special bulalo with big bone marrow

prawns in garlic and butter sauce . . .

. . . and a mountain of rice

Cyempre hindi namin kayang ubusin lahat yan so we had our tricycle driver joined us but still we didn't finish the big bowl of bulalo. Just to give you an idea of how huge that bowl was here's another pic with Tapioca.


The food was awesome. And what makes it even better was the nice view of the Taal lake and volcano. As I said we wanted something that we can't have in Manila. Yes, we can always eat bulalo and prawns in Manila but we will never get the same experience. Thanks to this magnificent view . . .

the view . . .

We decided to stay a bit longer to enjoy the nice view we don't often see. After chilling out, time for more picture taking. Buti na lang we have a driver slash photographer.

. . . hindi naman halata na busog kami, noh?

More of our Tagaytay adventures coming up on the next post.

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