My last blog post for 2011

I was in the middle of my indoor cycling exercise when I suddenly decided to make a blog post before 2011 ends. I started reminiscing all my activities, travels, accomplishments, and the worst events that happened to me during the year. After browsing all the pictures (good thing I labeled all of it by month) and also this blog, I can say that over all, it's a good year; full of learning and experience and there a lot of people to thank for giving me chance to explore and know myself more.
I haven't reviewed yet my 2011 bucket list. I think there are a lot of items in the list that I wasn't able to accomplish but still I'm happy since there are some things that I was able to experience that were not included in the list.
New Year’s resolution? Nah!. Not my style. Not that I can't keep my word but I'm more of a non believer. :-) I have a positive outlook on the things that will happen this 2012 and hopefully it will be the year for me. :-)

Football.....

Recently, Lorraine and I decided to go back into playing football. We wanna feel the ball again and kick it with our spikes. It's been a year since the last time we played. Going back wasn’t a bad decision at all. Even if we always have body aches and dark skin after the game, we still wanna do it over and over again.

This morning was one the most fun games we played. We had the chance to play under the rain. We played for 2 hours with guys as the majority players. We really had some effort keeping up with them and kicking the ball hard because of the swampy field. Well, swampy field is better than muddy. I remembered my experience during our tournaments when I was in college. I have to bear the smell and pull my feet every time it got stuck into the mud. Anyway, here are some pics of Lorraine's spikes(puma) and also my spikes(adidas) after the game.

  

Shoot with Mixie and friends

At last, this photo shoot came to reality but sad to say we did it with on a day with bad weather and with bad lighting. Since we really wanted it to happen, we took the risk.

This is Mickey the model. She wasn't shy and she even enjoyed posing in front of  the camera. No need further demo on how to do it.
This picture was taken during the make up session. Make up artist is my friend Jo with the assistant Jossen.

Mickey with Debbie (the director). This pic was taken before the start of the shoot.

 
Here are some pics and poses taken at the rooftop somewhere in Makati.

 Can't wait for another photo shoot and this time it will be with better lighting. :-)

Summer destination 2011: Puerto Galera

Puerto Galera gave me a welcome for the second time. But this time, I'm with new and old set of travel buddies. Due to "our friend's" demand, we came back here. We want him to enjoy and experience what Galera "offers".

Looks like, people still love Galera. It was a mixture of different gender, male (straight and gays), female (straight and lesbians). Hehehe. They all love to hang out at the shore but what excite them the most is the party at the beach at night,very entertaining!. They've got firedancers, clubs, drinks, food, crazy people walking around, dancing and "making friends".  

What I enjoyed most is our hotel. They have pool, billiards, free transpo from hotel to white beach and friendly staff.

If you want a place to spot crazy people and stuff or if you want to let out something or  have "freedom" of your hidden personality, Galera is the place.

Baguio Trip [1]: Safari lodge

Just want to share a glimpse of our Baguio City trip. We had a trip to Baguio to experience the Panagbenga festival and also the weather.  I wasn’t able to post and share this right away due to subsequent trips.

I divided Baguio trip into parts so that I can show details of places we visited.

When you go to Baguio for the Panagbenga festival, make sure to book a place to stay 1 month ahead and just to remind you, they have higher rates during the festival.

We stayed at Safari lodge. The owner of this lodge is a foreigner and is an amateur hunter somewhere in Africa. Well, you would agree once you enter and see whats in the lobby. They have heads of different animals as decor in their lobby/restaurant and front desk.

Safari lodge is just along Leonard Road. The problem is they have a small signage but good thing is, it is just in front of Botanical garden. You can use it as a landmark. Once you've spotted the sign, you need to walk or drive up a little bit to reach the lodge.

 

 

 This is the view of the lodge from the outside. It is an American inspired house.

This is my favorite part of the lodge. The jungle like lobby where you can see the heads of the different animals the owner hunted. Attached also on the wall are the pictures of the actual hunt of each of the animal. The lobby also has a fireplace and also serves as restaurant and dining area.

The front desk is connected with the lobby. Once you enter the house the fireplace(with elephant's head) is at the left side while the front desk is at the right side.

 

This is the hallway and the little lobby/fireplace and dining area before going to the rooms. I don't have picture of our rooms 'coz I didn't like it that much and we had bad experiences with their bathroom.

Enjoying Thai food @ Oody’s Thai Rice Noodles 'n Bar

Oody's offers Thai food, noodles, rice and dessert that you can enjoy. One of the highlights also are their drinks. They also have cute diner set. The ambiance is ok but they have small place.

Just to share what they have, I took pictures of the food that we ordered during our dinner at the place.

This is what they call Pad Thai Shrimp. It tasted kinda weird at first but I enjoyed it till the last noodle and definitely going to try it again.

The  dishis what they call Seafood in Yellow Curry. I am not a fan of curry but still it tasted fine. The dish at the right is the Bagoong rice with mango at the side and egg at the top. 

I forgot to look for the details of this dish. I love the squid, it's chewy and tasted sweet.

 

This one is the Chicken Pandan. I love this food. The last time I ate one of these was when I was still in Iloilo. Good thing they have this one coz I miss eating this a lot.

  

Try eating at this resto. You might enjoy it as well. It is located at Greenbelt 3.

Lake Sebu Zipline adventure

I heard from my mom that there's a zipline near our place (Koronadal). It is situated in Lake Sebu (about 45 mins away from our place). I thought it’s just a short distance zipline but after few researches, I found out   that it wasn’t.  It is a two way zipline, the first one is the longest(about 700 meters) and the second one has a distance of 300 meters. I was amazed ‘coz it was even featured in Sports Unlimited.  What made me excited was you can see 7 falls and enjoy flying above it and 200 meter height . Since I’m going to have a vacation and visit our town, I decided to visit the place and beg my mom, dad and brother to go zipline whatever it takes. :-)

Parking lot before going down falls 1, 2 and starting point of zipline.

The first of the seven falls. Reachable among the seven and is walking distance from the starting point of the zipline. The waterfall view id coupled with a misty air.

 Starting point view. The zipline costs 250 pesos back and forth.

Picture taken at the end of the first zipline. In the picture are the falls 3,4,5. You can see top view of these as you do the first zip.

First zipline

Second zipline

First formal photoshoot

This is the product of my first formal photo shoot taken last december. Credits should be given to those who made this possible. To my friend and our director, Jae Sance (thanks to him for encouraging me) and also the models Al and Meg. All of them are professionals (CPA) and were willing to share their talent to their company and to me. Hehe


They wanted to have a glam rock concept and they wanted to do it in a construction site. It was hard to find a location cause you need to have a permit but we are lucky to find a spot which is close to what they had in mind.

First location: Construction site (something like that). This was taken in Global City. We were not allowed to take photos but we're lucky enough to have few shots from here.

 

Second location: Libingan ng mga bayani. After being caught by the security guard in our first location, we decided to find another location and to have more photos, we pass by a cemetery and good thing we were given permission to shoot there.

The pictures were just re sized. It's so bad i had no time to edit the pics.

My Travel List 2011

This is the first time I made my travel list for a year. I don't do it usually because I want to surprise myself about the line up of my destinations. But I learned some lessons from my last years travels. One reason is blocking off my calendars. This is to avoid conflict of schedules and to manage my time well. Second reason and most important is budget. Actually, this is just a result of me being practical.

I'm planning to have domestic and international travels this year. I just want to have my passport stamped before it expires. These places are just few things I have in mind:

Domestic:
Cebu (want to visit again this lovely place again. Great food, friendly people, nice beaches. It's like you're in manila but actually in the province.)
Iloilo (I stayed quarter of my life here. This is where my life really begun. There are a lot of places and food I want to visit and try again. Very peaceful place and would consider my second home.)
Bacolod (I've been here many times but not as a tourist. I still want to explore more things about this place.)
Boracay (I love the beach and the sand and the scene during the night. Just want to relax and bora would be a nice place for relaxation and meditation.)
Vigan (I want to explore old structures of this place and I want to take a picture of it. I think this will be a nice venue for photography. Taking pictures while learning Philippine history.)

International:
Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand ( Hopefully this will happen. It will be a big and like an educational trip as we explore temples of these countries in Asia.)

Many places to go to and I just hope all of it will be done.

3 idiots

3 Idiots is one of the best Bollywood movies that I like. They say it's bollywood because it is a part of a Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry. Bo from Bombay and llywood from Hollywood.

3 idiots is a comedy-drama movie. It shows college life of engineers. It tells about the different kind of students and how to strive an become a real engineer or a true engineer.

Every scene is so amazing and you can't even imagine that you are really laughing and even crying (one of my friends said).

I admire the scriptwriter for creating a good story in which you may think ordinary at first but as you go along, you would say that there are many unpredictable scenes. I also admire the director for the intelligent execution of the whole movie and also the actors for portraying their roles very well. I heard that the actors are already at their mid 30s and yet they still portray the role of nearly 20s college students.

This movie gets a thumbs up from me and I would like to suggest this movie to those who would like to be entertained.

Project 2011: Making it a meaningful year

A while ago, my batch mates and I had this game in our place. It was fun and it will be a life changing one. One of them found this 101 bucket list of things to do to make 2011 meaningful(sample list at the side). We thought that the things written in the list were very interesting and can make our life more meaningful, adventurous and exciting. However,the list is so long. The five of us decided to divided the list among ourselves. We eliminated one item which we think is impossible to do.

I had a list last year but the sad thing is, I didn’t took It seriously. That’s the reason why I decided to join. This can be an achievement since most of the things in  the list are those that I really want to do.

After series of random selection and fair division, through draw lots of 20 numbers each, here are the numbers and the things to do dedicated for me. :-)

7. Host a dinner part.

8. Invest in a stock market.

12. Actually get up when the alarm goes off.

13. Learn to meditate.

24. Be in two places at once.

27. become fluent in a foreign language.

29. Spend less time on line (4 times a week).

30. Go Fishing.

31. Learn how to read a map.

46. Get a boyfriend.

52. Visit a flea market.

68. Start  a new collection.

72. Sit up straight.

76. make something you will actually use.

78. Pick a cause to support or volunteer for.

79. Try out raw food.

88. Become better at small talk.

89. Save somebody's life.

94. Win something.

96. Finish a sodoku puzzle.

My list looks fun and interesting. I think I can achieve what was written. Let’s see what will happen. Good luck to me and my batch mates.:-)

First book on the list: ABNKKBSNPLAko?

Reading is not really a part of my hobby. You might say that I should but actually, I agree. I decided to include it in my to do list in 2011.

This book gave me that idea. It was just a gift. I never tried to purchase a book just to read during free time or to aid my boredom. Thanks to the one who gave this. I have something new new to look forward to this year. :-)

Good thing this book is entertaining. I already started few pages and reading it seems okay and fun. This Bob Ong book, entitled ABNKKBSNPLAko? is on of his famous masterpieces. It has humor and not only that, it makes you realize things about life. This book tells story about the student life. The typical Filipino student. Reading this book made me miss student life especially my elementary years. It made me think if I really did spent my elementary years well. How would I know? I was just a kid way back then.

I'm positive that I can finish this book and I'll be posting bout this book again after that. :-)

Starting again

Ei I'm back. Long time no see here in the blog world. I created this blog to documents places I've been and things I've done. Just like what my blog says, everything about me.