full on father's day

Work-life balance, where art thou? :(

I've been preoccupied with work. Today, I spent 12 hours in the office. 11 busy hours, 1 hour for lunch. I live such an exciting life, gah! But I don't want to go on a blog hiatus so here I am, trying to sneak with a quick post. I just thought of sharing how we spent Father's Day.

We were so creative to have thought of dining out {felt the sarcasm? haha!}. We went to TriNoma for Kamay Kainan's Buffet. It was worth P298 per head. Eat all you can plus bottomless iced tea. The food was good but not too impressive. The place isn't conducive neither as it was jam-packed. What do you expect on a Father's Day?

Me and my sister had a hard time paying for the bill because my father was insisting that he'd be the one to pay for it. Anobeee, treat nga namin dba papi? :D At the end, we won! Pinagbigyan lang I guess, because no one really wins over him. He's the most mapilit dad one will ever have. 

We didn't had time to do anything else aside from eating as it was late already.  After all, we all wanted to go home as we were so full. We were home by around 11. Short rest and then off to a goodnight sleep. Buuurrp! 

we ate until we can't hardly breathe

somewhere in TriNoma

P.S 

aka, a note to the father

Happy Father's Day again Papi. Thanks for everything. You and mama were able to bring up such an awesome family and that will always be my first reason for feeling so blessed.  I wish us years and years of happiness. I love you. ♥

P.P.S

Salamat nga din po pala sa hindi katangusang ilong at hindi kagandahang height na pinupunan naman ng tapang ng loob at saktong bilang ng braincells. Nagmamahal, kamukamo. :D

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out-of-the-ordinary balaw balaw experience

This one I'm very excited to blog about. Please ask me why. Haha! You asking me now? Because just recently I was able to tick off two items from my bucket list. Now tell me you're excited to hear my story too. :D

After 15 loooong months of not seeing each other, my best friend and I finally saw each other again. And no, don't think we're worlds apart. We actually live one jeepney ride {minimum fare even} away from each other. It's just that, I dunno, sometimes when you're no longer used to something, it's so difficult to make it happen again. Lack of effort, lots of excuses.

Anyhoo, I guess we felt obliged to see each other again {because we're best friends, for crying out loud}, and we ran out of excuses finally. So, June 5, 2011 {mark that milestone in your calendars please} we finally met again.

Days before our planned meet-up {but honestly without it in mind}, I was surfing the net for restos serving exotic food. I thought all of them are situated in far provinces. Fortunately I found one in Angono, Rizal, Balaw Balaw Folk Food Folk Art. A restaurant and museum in one, pretty interesting. The next thing I know, I was dragging my best friend, along with my sister, to Angono.

It was such a disaster going there, blame it on me. I thought I had the brightest idea - I'll research, the best friend will drive. Surprise, surprise! I left my laptop's battery. I got stressed asking for directions. We arrived in Balaw Balaw a little late for lunch.

welcome to Angono :D

finally, Balaw Balaw

One mistake after another. We could have given our orders first before roaming around the place but we didn't. We went around the three-storey creepy museum for roughly about an hour. And what did we see there? Lots of paintings, sculptures {I didn't see Machete though}, antique household furniture and some stuff related to the Higantes Festival. And can I just emphasize it is creepy there? If in case I'll visit the place again, I swear it'll only be for eating.

didn't I tell you it's creepy?

Speaking of eating, we all had Minaluto, mix of seafoods served with yellow rice. Nothing really different with how they were prepared but still worth the price just because they're seafoods. :D We also had Nilasing na Palaka and Adobong Baboy Ramo. The frog tasted like chicken, while the wild boar tasted like sour Christmas ham. I prefer the former, hindi ko ma-take ang baboy ramo. :( We also tried their Balaw Balaw, which by the way means fermented shrimp. I didn't like it as it tasted like vinegar.

waiting in vain, antagal ng food

Minaluto, 235php

Man vs Frog

Nilasing na Palaka, 220php

Adobong Baboy Ramo, 385php

We were in Balaw Balaw for about 4 hours. 1 hour roaming around the museum, 1 hour waiting for the food {good thing we were allowed to charge our cellphones, cameras and laptop, abusado much}, and 2 hours eating. And since we didn't want to part ways as early as 5pm, we went straight to Megamall. We played shooting and racing at Worlds of Fun. Yes I know, not enough to burn the calories! Haha! Before calling it a night, we also had Ice Scrambles. Perfect way to cool down.

and the winner is.. yours truly! :P

And as I was saying, I was able to tick off two items from my list again -

Goal #9. Eat anything strange/exotic. - CHECK!

 

9. EAT ANYTHING STRANGE/EXOTIC 
I have always been gutless to try eating anything strange. Don't think I'm picky with what I eat. In fact, I eat ALMOST anything common to human, well make that Filipino, taste buds. I'm just scared to try different cuisines and weird dishes. I remember not trying the tamilok {wood worm} in Puerto Princesa because it's so disgusting. It looks raw.. and slimy.. and.. ulk! IT'S JUST SO GROSS. Even with this list in mind, I think I still can't eat that. haha! daya.. but I might consider. Next time I go out of town {or country, ayiee} I swear I'll try to eat anything uncommon. Just no worms, puhlease.

Goal #18. Reconnect with old friends.  - CHECK! 

18. RECONNECT WITH OLD FRIENDS 

In case you still don't know, I am the laziest person in keeping in touch with old acquaintances {oops, do I sound proud? I am not.} I rarely call or text friends people I know to ask how they are, or if they are still good, or what's keeping their sanity. I am online most of the time during weekends {that is if I don't have commitments}  but I am always on invisible mode so that I'll only talk to people I really want to talk to. Aside from that, my Facebook is also defaulted to 'Go Offline'. And oh! As much as possible I avoid bumping to ex-classmates or old friends in the mall. You know the part I hate the most? The kamustahan. Like 'Oh, kamusta ka na?', 'San ka na nagwowork?', 'Si ganito nakikita mo pa?' Come on, talk to the hand. Hahaha! Stone to death that anti-social. Enough of the stories, the whole point is not to change the anti-social in me. It's just that there are few people out there who doesn't deserve to be completely forgotten. I won't wait for fate to bring them back to me. I will do something. If not now {because it's hella late at 2am}, at least soon.

Happiness. ♥

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spur-of-the-moment kind of thing

One last for summer. Yes, I promise. Something really spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment, or however you want to call it. :D

I was on vacation leave right after our Galera trip. I actually filed that two-day leave even before we had that trip planned. I am lucky like that. Sakto pahinga.. pero akala ko lang pala.

We were just having a lazy, almost-boring Monday afternoon when suddenly we thought of going swimming to the nearest resort, Patio Isabel. But since it's already late, we decided to go the next day. No preparations were made. Bahala na si Batman.

The next day, we're off to Patio Isabel. We didn't bring anything with us. Oh well, aside from our personal things, of course. I just ordered pizza for everyone in the morning and Kuya Ga bought Andok's for us in the afternoon. Solve na. 
 

brothers.sisters.lurrrve.

bigatin ;)

Nothing really huge but we had fun definitely. Especially with bida {referring to my niece *wink*} around. No dull moments. And suddenly, I miss her. I wanna hug and pinch and kiss her. Good thing I'll be home tomorrow. Oops, what was this entry all about again? Teeheee.

bida and her talents

I'd say this "small-time" swimming was way more tiring than Galera. 'Cos in the beach you don't really get to swim as much. You'll be busy preserving your decent look for photo-ops {please don't kill me if this doesn't apply to everyone}. But in swimming pools, you won't even bother doing the same. You'll just swim and swim until your lungs hurt. Haha!

until our last strength

And when finally our lungs, along with our arms and legs, couldn't bear it any longer, we decided to head home. We had few more clicks as we wait for our ride home. Girls will always be girls, ang aarte nila. :P

ang aarte. kainis.

So there, that was my short but sweet story. Up next are my bucket list updates. I am so excited to share with you my Balaw Balaw experience. But geez, not tonight. Zzzz.

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summer's last hoorah, galera

Backloooog, yikes! It's almost rainy season and I'm still blogging about summer's awesomeness.

I was in Galera mid-May with my teammates. 'Twas originally tagged as a teambuilding activity but being tagged as one made it next to impossible due to security policies so we said it's going to be personal and there's nothing they can do about it. Bleeh. >:p

Moving on, we chose Tamaraw Beach Resort over White Beach Resort. Definitely the wisest idea for a bunch of people who wish nothing else but to unwind. The latter is rather crowded with party people. I should know, I was there two years ago.

back in 2009, kaputian days :((

To get there, we took Jam transit from Taft. It only took us around two hours to reach Batangas Port. Depending on the traffic {and your fortune}, this bus ride can be as long as three hours. From there, we had to ride a ferry to Tamaraw Beach. The ferry ride felt longer than the bus ride. It took as roughly three hours I guess. Unless, I was just that bored to have felt like that.

As we arrive in Galera, those who chose to stay in White Beach were dropped off first. Only our group was left in the ferry by then. No wonder White Beach is that crowded.

special trip to Tamaraw Beach :D

After we had lunch, we waited for 2pm to be accommodated. We really planned to get there ahead of our reservations because we were informed that as soon as our rooms get vacant {and cleaned, of course} we can use them already. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. We had quite a long idle time.

Then finally we were able to freshen up and get dressed for the beach. As usual, photo-ops first before anything else. Again, I owe my OOTD shots to ate Pholet. :*

left: goin' there, right: beach get-up

ku-yu-ey gels, doing what they do best

I wasn't able to join them go swimming instantly because it was my time of the month. Malas lang diba? I only got to swim during the night so for me the trip was kind of bitin. I was hoping that we'd still get the chance to swim the next morning but turned out we had to get ready early to catch our ferry ride back to Batangas.

Morning came and we were ready to leave the beach life behind. While waiting for our ride, we had our obligatory group picture. Our official photog, Jabey, was finally in action again but we only had few shots since it was hot already. We opted to stay in the cottage.

our obligatory group shot

It took around an hour before our ferry came. But I am most thankful for that waiting time because that was when I felt like a real beach bum. I just lied in the massage bed, watched the sea and felt the breeze.

beach buummiiinnggg ♥

...and then the ferry came. and then my Galera story ends. Teehee. Biglang inantok. Phhbtt!

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