Sunday picnic

The weather this morning, till past noonish, was lovely and a fun day to have a picnic. I would have loved to prepare some salad, sandwiches and include dessert, but supplies in the fridge need to be replenished (will need to do the groceries today). Nevertheless, why waste a good day? It's been raining the past weekends so it was great to have the sun out with the grounds dry.

 

I miss being able to spend the weekend outdoors, instead of the malls, for a change. When my siblings and I were kids, our folks would always take us to Luneta Park. When we moved to Lusaka, I remember potluck picnics at Munda Wanga Park and at the grounds of UNZA with the Pinoy community (FilZams).Good times.

So, quickly packed the portable speaker (music is a must!), chips, drinks, and bought Mcdo on the way. We had all that we needed.

Oh, and an hour after we left, it rained. Lucky and grateful to have spent a few hours of the day outdoors. I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday :o)
 

 

Mine are the red ones. Obviously I lost. Boo hoo!

Tagaytay, again.

Normally, I'm fine with our unplanned overnight trips but this time, it was such a hassle. We left Manila  after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon, till evening, looking for a place to stay. If budget wasn't a problem, we wouldn't have wasted so much time walking in and out of hotels or bed & breakfasts to find the most reasonably priced.

I got really cranky because I was hungry, and tired (after spending the entire morning playing badminton). After reaching Sonya's, I couldn't bear the thought of being stuck in traffic heading back to  town. So, we decided to eat dinner there and if there were rooms available, we would have stayed overnight instead. 

Eventually found a place, spacious, seemed decent and the price wasn't bad. It had a little patio overlooking the Taal volcano. Nice, right? However, while we were resting and watching TV, I started to feel itchy and discovered that the pillows, inside the pillow covers, were very dirty. That's a no no. That put me off big time. 

Too bad because I would have liked the place but I don't think they're very experienced and perhaps experimenting on the idea of a bed & breakfast but definitely not a hotel. These rooms were probably guest rooms which they converted. Very cozy. Through experience and feedback, it has a lot of potentials :)

Having breakfast here overlooking the Taal volcano was such a treat!

Some farmer decides to plant pineapples on our property without permission, like he had all the right in the world. Help! How do you deal with such people?

46 Years!

Celebrating my parent's 46th wedding anniversary.

Staycation (in the hospital) on Mother's Day

We didn't spend the long weekend, as planned. We've been planning an out of town trip with family for a month, already, and bought some last minute stuff 2 nights before the trip. But...not all goes as planned.

Thursday night, Dennis called in the middle of the night to tell me he was in the ER at The Medical City. He wasn't feeling well and the right side of his lower quadrant was very painful. He said he would call me again after he got the results. At 2am, he calls telling me that he might need to have a surgery. Oh man, that sounded bad. Quickly dressed and got all my stuff, even my stuff for work but didn't think of packing any clothes. I thought we'd be home after his CT scan. I won't go into details but we ended up spending the long weekend in the hospital.

I love TMC! It doesn't feel like a hospital at all and more of a hotel. Customer service is superb! The rooms are very clean, but still have that hospital smell. The food looks and tastes good. Someone from their kitchen customer service comes up to the room to ask you what you would like to eat (depending on what you're allowed during your condition) and any preference. How cool is that?! I don't eat hospital food but in TMC, I had no problem finishing off Den's left overs. We didn't have a hard time with food. They offer room service and tons of restaurants nearby, which Matt and I enjoyed during our night strolls.

The room that we got was pretty big. The sofa bed was long and spacious for me and Matt. I slept on one end and he slept on the other end. There was wi-fi to keep us entertained.  Unlike other hospitals I know, you need to bring your own broadband stick and there's additional cost if you use the power outlet to charge your phone etc. Tsk tsk. It was pretty fun despite no sleep and being worried sick about Dennis.

I didn't mind spending Mother's Day in the hospital. What's important is we were together as a family. Despite Dens' condition, he managed to surprise me by having flowers delivered to the room. Such a sweetheart!

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day celebration, like I did :o)

Staycation in the hospital. Matt chillin' in the background.

Awww! Trying to comfort his daddy after the nurse injected the antibiotics in his IV. 

Date with my lil' man the night before Mother's Day (snuck out while Dennis was asleep)

Late shot of the flowers.

Seoul Searching

Finally the day came and we were off to Seoul. I was really excited since it'll be our first time to travel there. Dennis was absolutely wonderful and planned our itinerary, studied the places and printed a map to guide us around. A must for me and Matt, spoon and fork! We had a difficult time eating when we were in Hong Kong so this time, we came prepared.

Arrived at last, and when the airport glass doors slid open to the outside, my face quickly went numb from the cold. It was freezing! Coming from Manila with the weather at 33 degrees celsius to 0 degrees, it was a shock to the body! We quickly put on our jackets but poor Dennis, his thermal jacket was in his bag which couldn't be opened because the combination lock had reset. Out of desperation, he broke the zippers just to get it. Yes, it was that cold! The Filipino waiting for the bus with us came prepared. They were wearing their bonnets, gloves and scarves. It said Baguio City on them. Now we know where they got their "winter" clothes :o) 

Incheon is pretty far from Seoul but I enjoyed looking out the window to see the view. There was no more snow as winter had already ended. It's supposed to be spring. When we got off the bus, Dennis said we could walk to the hotel. I wasn't prepared for the cold, honestly. I started to get cranky because walking in that cold and not really knowing if we were headed in the right direction at 10pm, with an empty tummy just did it for me.

I loved every single day while in Seoul, despite the cold. I enjoyed the long walks to see the city, palaces, parks, the shops, the tourist places, etc. I love traveling! The experience, the quick immersion and learning their culture is really something. Seoul is beautiful. You can see where the tax payers money go. Sigh. Everything was efficient. The people were so interesting to watch. Very stylish! 

Saddens me why my own country can't be as progressive, safe, cleaner, organized...and to think it's much smaller and not too difficult to manage, in my opinion. I can go on ranting about the problem with our country because of the people we elect to supposedly take care of us and our nation. But who am I?

So many cafes, tea places, bakeries, pastry shops...etc. Them Koreans love their waffles. As you walk past these places, a person would always be eating waffle with whipped cream topping, yet they're all slim. I can sit all day sipping my hot coffee and just watch people go about their business.

We will definitely be back :)

Namsan park

N Seoul Tower

Changdeok-gung Palace

Namdaemoon Market

Gyeongbok-gung Palace

Gyeongbok-gung Palace

Insadong Street

Cheonggyechon Stream

Moving Up 2013

Congratulations to all graduates of School Year 2013 :o)

Birthday Boy!

Ain't no birthday without a (cup)cake and candle :o)

Family & Love on February

The month of Valentine's...

Took my folks to Harbour View

Now, wasn't that sweet? An addition to the story of my life :o)

Delish! I didn't cook all that. Just the salad with feta cheese and tinapa pasta. 

Harbour Square

When we were kids, my parents used to take us to Manila Bay to get a whiff of sea air when we were sick. Manila Bay doesn't exactly smell of fresh sea air but it had to do. Being sickly for almost two weeks, we thought it would be a good idea to go.

The weather played along and set the mood. With the cool breeze we've been having lately, it was a nice walk. It wasn't a full moon but the bright lights from the surrounding buildings seemed to light up the perfectly calm and still water with its reflection. Beautiful!

Matt's post birthday gift

(Meant to post this last month but was very busy. This was actually in November.)

Turning 7 years old is a huge deal. I was told that it’s similar to a debut for kids since it’s a milestone. We asked what kind of party he wanted to have but he wasn’t interested. He likes birthday parties, except for the balloons (terrified because he’s had bad experiences with balloons popping on his face). He wanted to go to Disney. Now isn’t that every kids’ dream? So off we went!!!

I always make sure that we have a checklist whenever we go out of town. What more going out of the country. We only had 2 weeks to prepare. Dennis and I are poor at planning things ahead because we just go wherever our feet take us. So, checklists are very important. To make sure that we didn’t bring too much (and leave plenty of room for shopping!), I listed down the clothes that Matt and I were going to where for 4 days. I was assuming it was going to be hot as it’s been a summery December, considering this is the “coldest” time of the year in the Philippines. It was so hot in Manila! With our messed up weather, I assumed it was going to be warm even if I was told it was going to be chilly. I wasn’t prepared at all. It was freezing! Worse, I thought the “cool” or stylish clothes I brought were fine. Was I wrong. Define stylish! People on the streets were so stylish that you’d think that there was runaway or something. All were in their branded bags, tall/ankle boots or heels and black stockings, scarves and thick coats. Most were in leather prints or just really dark colored outfit. And what I brought with me? Aside from my jeans, I brought my red jeans, floral pants, silver flats and nautical stripped shirts. Feeling summer? Imagine how I stood out. Well, at least if I got lost, Dennis would easily find me.

I truly enjoyed HK. Such a small country but so progressive. All spaces were maximized, yet they were still able to create parks and playgrounds, which I really appreciated. Spend more time outdoors instead of malls which tempt you to make unnecessary expenses. It was very clean and public transportation was efficient. No need to have a car, in my opinion. Public toilets everywhere (with running water, tissue papers and pretty clean). This might be common to many countries but not in the Philippines. I don’t mean to offend anyone but it’s the truth. Even the toilets in the malls don’t have tissues unless it’s the pay toilets. Pay P10 for a toilet with tissue paper. Pity. I mean, it’s the little things, you know. I guess all countries have their good and bad sides, right? What I missed, though, is customer service. This is something the Philippines can really boast about. Every Starbucks I went to was different and I missed our friendly and cheerful baristas, which we’ve all been used. Even just the small conversations. I tried to make small talks with the barista and asked if they also had the Starbucks planner promo thing and showed him the card where I had all the stickers. He wasn’t interested and seemed I was wasting his time. Hehehe!

Anyway, I super enjoyed our HK trip and hope to return. Matt loved Disney. Doesn’t everybody? He didn’t enjoy Ocean Park as much, though. I would have if Dennis and I were able to go on the rides but we couldn’t since Matt didn’t want to and we wanted to go together. It’s not like we could leave Matt on the bench to wait for us. Hehehe! No way!

Enjoy the pics!