6.16.2011

SHERALD - love team of the year

Hi fans! (saang banda?!) HAHA

I just want to share with the world something I've been so busy about these past 3 months that I was not able to blog. I've starred in a commercial!

So here it is FANS, the world premiere of my commercial with Gerald na may crush sakin. Anu va?!


CLICK mo na dito PLEASE!!!

CLICK mo na dito PLEASE!!!

CLICK mo na dito PLEASE!!!


UTANG NA LOOB! I-click mo ang link, tapusin mo, 1-minute lang yan at bawal masuka! hahaha. :D

Darn, we are cute together aren't we? ;) Go SHERALD! :))))))

3.25.2011

coron, palawan :)

I've long wanted to go to Coron, hearing stories of how clean and beautiful it is in there. I have witnessed this beauty myself, and enjoyed every wonderful sec I was there. It's been almost two weeks and I'm still not over Coron. Must be love <3

Day 1: I was not able to sleep well the night before because I was so excited and a little scared. Day before, they were practicing the delivery of eulogy during my wake in case I don't make it back because of the Tsunami alert in some parts of the Philippines (thank God, not in Coron!). How sweet are my officemates! ;p

Your lola still went anyway.

Flight was delayed for 2 friggin' hours! My first flight ever in my life, delayed! I thought I'll be telling my grandchildren about my first airplane ride like this, "It was so perfect, so beautiful up there . . ." But no, this is how my story will be, "Ay pucha mga apo, late ang erplane, 2 oras mehn! " Air Phil tried to make it up with a 1-pc chickenjoy for all the nabuburaot passengers. Sana sinamahan niyo na rin ng fries! Hahaha

I was with my friends in this trip, thank God. Nag-utuan na lang kame ng 2 oras sa airport, what else are we to do? ;p


And then, my first plane ride. :)

(with my friend Kepyas, also a first-timer)

Touchdown Coron!!! Woot woot! 30-min van ride from Busuanga airport to our hotel. We instantly love the place. Sunz en Coron is a newly-built resort owned by very friendly Koreans. http://www.sunzencoron.ph


We began exploring Coron. First on our itinerary - Mt. Tapyas. It was a 700+ steps climb up the hill. We almost missed the sunset, I would have hated Air Phil even more if we did. hehe.



After the aruy-sa-legs climb, we headed over to Maquinit Hot Spring. The soothing effect of the warm water was worth the buwis-buhay tricycle ride.

The swim made us so hungry. Took another buwis-buhay ride back to town and had dinner at Kawayanan Grill where we celebrated Allen's birthday. She was born on December. Long story short, free dessert and free lechon from the table next to us ;p


We headed back to Sunz and gave the pool a try, like we were not tired enough from the long day we had. :)

Day 2: Island hopping! The adventure at sea began, you can not imagine how excited this tahong was!

First stop was at Siete Pecados. I've never seen so many kinds of fishes. Before Coron, all fishes look like Tilapia to me. But there, I recognized the existence of other pretty fishes in this world. Good thing Ate Maan insisted on buying bread in the town. Throw a pinch and they all come crowding you.


Hopped to Kayangan Lake! It was ultimately the gang's favorite. Spectacular. Magnificent. Awesome. Wonderful. Delicious.(?) Nutritious. (?) Just couldn't find the right words to describe this pangpostcard na kagandahan that greeted us. ;p I hope these photos I captured did it even just a little bit of justice.


Then came lunchtime. Lunch was one of the highlights of our trip. We have expected packed meals from the package that we availed. What fascinated me about Coron boats is that they have a place to cook at the back of their boats where they prepare food while we are exploring an island or even while we sail. Lunch on Day 2 consisted of inihaw na talong, ensalada, grilled fish, and the very mighty alimasag! We ate for so long, while exchanging stories, at a hut in a small island called Vivian’s Resort. We ate so much. As in, kaing karpintero na nagsisideline din bilang mga bouncers. I think I had four (or more) servings of rice and a few (?) alimasags. They were begging me to eat them, what could I do? ;p We kept on thanking Ate Lovie for the feast she prepared for us and requested some of our favourites for lunch the next day.

We left Vivian’s Resort after swimming some more and trying the raft. Off we sailed to another awesome spot of Coron which is the Twin Lagoon. Ate Lovie said if the waters weren’t too high, we can swim right under a huge formation of rock to get to the other side of the lagoon. Solved na kame sa isang side pa lang. Again, there was a raft where we sat and took in the beauty of where we were.

Time to leave and hop to Skeleton Wreck. It is an island where some meters from the shore, underneath was a part of a sunken ship. According to a kid who we asked why it’s there, on that spot was where the ship trying to get away from the Japanese, got caught. Looking at it through my snorkelling gear makes me uncomfortable so instead of inspecting it some more, I just swam after the mesmerizing and proud parrot fish. It did look like a parrot, kalurks!

Last on our list for the day was Coron Youth Club beach or simply CYC. We searched for pretty rocks we can bring home as souvenirs, played with the gentle waves, talked, talked and laughed. We might have ruined the ambience a little for some foreigners lying on their backs on the sand while reading a book. Sorry, kids ya know. ;p


We sailed back to town, thanked Ate Lovie for the day and went back to Sunz. After cleaning up, we went to town for our dinner. We felt like we did not have lunch! We decided to dine at Bistro Coron. The food there is worth every cent you pay. Very very tasty. We were not even halfway from eating our food, we were already talking about going back the next day.


Day 3: Beach Bumming.

Almost all of us walked funny when we woke up, complained of aching legs and balakangs from previous days.

The sun was not so aggressive that day, we felt it’s gonna rain. It did a little which nearly dampened Mutya’s spirits.

I could not wait to try the waters already when we anchored at Malcapuya Island, got so buraot from the hour and a half boat ride. It felt like we were on one of the beach resorts in Batangas. And then again, it was lunch time!!! Ate Lovie, maybe thinking she was to feed 5 hungry men, instead of 5 timid ladies, cooked more rice and prepared more ulam, than the previous day. We had seaweed, ensalada, shrimp, inihaw na talong, inihaw na pusit, grilled fish and of course king alimasag ulet! Wuhooo! Fiesta part 2. Everything on the table was pleading that I try them all, I did more than trying of course. Our lunch was made even more delicious by the bagoong we bought the other day from the town market, which Ate Lovie remedied. We exchanged funny stories of our childhood, learned who was sutil like Lavina and who was like Princess Sarah (ehem!). Again, I don’t know how long it took us to eat. Basta after eating, I felt like a sumo wrestler. Lunch was awesome. In fact, it was legen - . . . wait for it, legendary!

We then set the sails towards Banana Island. Once upon a time daw, it was teeming with bananas, hence the name. It was another favourite! So peaceful and relaxing. I’d love to stay overnight in that island next time. Yes, I am going back to this place. :)

Then, there was Bulog Island, which was too cute! I instantly liked it. We enjoyed just lying down on the shallow waters, savouring the last few moments of our sea adventure at Coron.

And then, it was time to go back. :(

Dinner that night was at Bistro Coron. We were once again hungry men. :D


Day 4: is the day we go back to the city, sun-kissed and with beautiful stories about Coron, Palawan, to tell. :)

This trip was made even more awesome by my baklitang kumares, Michy, Pukeps, Allen and Michy’s cousin, Ate Maan. We also have Jai Valencia, Ate Rishel, Ate Lovie & family, to thank.

And of course, thank you Lord for making us witness how amazingly beautiful our country really is. :)


Coron, Palawan
Mar 12-15, 2011

3.07.2011

27 years and counting ;)

Happy 27th Anniversary Mama & Papa! Your love for each other is inspiring. May God bless you with many many more happy & healthy years together. I love you, everyday I do. :)

12.29.2010

the year that has been (almost)

As I always say, how time flies so fast! Since it is the last working day of the year for our department today, I decided to put away my 2010 planner in the office and bring out a new one. Syempre before I did, I looked back to the year that has been, through my dirty scrawls and senseless doodles.

Can't help but notice that during the first half of the year, weekends are marked with huge smileys. You can say I detested weekdays, workdays actually, that I wish to sleep through Monday to Friday, and wake up to a lovely Saturday na lang. I'm not like that anymore, kapag Monday na lang. =D


At the bottom of some pages are song titles or lyrics that I heard from the radio or from my Grooveshark playlist. They help me get through a long tiring day.



Some days can be real chaos! I can imagine my stress level to be the same height as I am during days like this one:



And then, there are days that somehow makes you understand why you had to go through all those stressful days.



I flipped through the pages of my 2010 planner with a smile on my face. It's been a year. It came and went so quickly. So many things have happened. Some changed and some just the same. 2010 is past us already, almost! I thank the Lord for the year that was, I've made peace with it and I'm gonna embrace 2011 with a better version of me. I know 2010 made me that. :)

Have a happy and blessed New Year! =D

11.16.2010

day off!

Today's holiday did me a lot of good. When an officemate declared last week that today was going to be a holiday, I said Yeheeeeey without asking first why. Up to this time that my free day in a medyo-middle of the workweek is about to end, I still do not know what's with today. =D

I-google natin teh!

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has declared November 16, 2010, as the day for the celebration of the Eid’l Adha, the Islam’s Feast of Sacrifice, to pay tribute to the patriarch Ibrahim and his readiness to sacrifice his son Ishmael, as an act of obedience to God. Having shown his obedience, he was then able to sacrifice a ram instead. http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/287805/eidl-adha-festival Aha!

Why the celebration of the Feast of Sacrifice did me a lot of wonders, first on my list, I got time (and sapi) to clean our room. I have no clue if Ate noticed since she said nothing about it when she arrived, but I hope to High Heavens she does because it is not every day that I feel like holding a broom and ducking under beds making sungkit all that alikabok (ganda-gandahan!). One thing I am not really proud to tell anybody about me is this: Ayoko ng naglilinis ng bahay. In fairness naman sakin, hindi naman kase ako masyadong nagkakalat. In fairness naman talaga sakin! Pagtalupin at paggayatin mo na siguro ako ng mga sangkap sa chopsuey nang maghapon, just don't ask me to clean this area or that.

Second, I got to visit one of my most favorite places - the supermarket! Feels nice to be going around the supermarket with no rush or worry that the mall's closing in 15 minutes and I haven't grabbed everything that I want to buy. I was able to do that today, slowly surveying one rack of goods after another, contemplating if I really want to buy this or that and figuring out I do want them on my basket(chocolates na may rice crispies, oreo cookies, mi goreng noodles, etc.) My simple pleasures, really.

Today, I was also able to read a good book with hot coffee on the side sa halagang quatro pesos mehn! Kopiko lang feeling cool ka na! Anyways, I started reading Eat Pray Love today with Jack Johnson serenading me. I have given this book as a gift, twice already, pero hindi ko naisipan na basahin. Perfection na meron si Ate na copy at tinatamad na siya magbasa. Mwahaha. So far, so good!

This about sums up Inday's day off! What I truly love about today is that I was given some time to pause and focus on doing the things I love, one at a time, with complete attention. I found peace today, I am so much loved :)


P.S.

I realized today that Christmas is just around the kanto! 39 days, akalain mo! Hello hamon! :)