Ex-Smartees reunion yet again...

Today was mostly about meeting friends.

Ex-Smart colleague Rej is in town for work since last Monday. However, she was only free to meet up friends by yesterday.

Together with also ex-Smart colleague Arlyn, the three of us agreed to have brunch at Robert Timms Wheelock. I wonder if Robert Timms has a frequent customer/loyalty card. Haha! I've been to the place quite often in the past few weeks. Anyway, it was good to catch up with Rej since a lot has happened to her since we last saw each other. It was also good to catch up with her because I got to meet up with Arlyn again. Though we both live on the same island, we hardly see each other. Haha!

Unfortunately, I had another appointment in the afternoon so I didn't get to hang with the girls.

However, I met up again with them in the evening for dinner at JoAnn's place. That was really something I was happy about not just because I get to see JoAnn and her family again, but also because she and her helper prepares really good Filipino food. Nothing beats home cooked meals! Haha!

I guess I'll write about the other meetup separately. Lol!

Pasko na...

The first of a few Christmas dinners for 2015 took place last night.

A bunch of fellow Filipinos at work organised a gathering to celebrate Christmas as well as the birthday of our colleague, JM.

The whole day was spent at the museum and as soon as I was done with my assignment, I took the bus to head to Redhill.

As expected, it was a feast! Everyone brought something - liempo, chicharong bulaklak, spaghetti, ham, hipon, siewmai and hakao, and two super yum homemade cakes!

Fun, fun evening!

Busy Saturday...

Started the day with Pump at Westgate. Headed to the National Museum for volunteer shift. Big group again - 4 Americans, 2 Australians, 2 British, 2 Germans, 1 Austrian, 1 Indian. I think I won't be doing any morning shifts from now on. Hehe!

Went to the library again to work on my Japanese assignment. Final agenda for the day was dinner and hohol at Mr. and Mrs. B's place. It's a good thing I didn't have lunch because the couple served Filipino food that had me going for a second serving of rice. Yikes!

Day started at 8AM. Day ended at 11PM.

Happy lunch at Mom & Tina's...

I have yet to write about the crazy long weekend trip. Haha!

For now, I just want to do a quick post.

Some colleagues and I earlier had to attend a briefing at our sister company's office across Greenbelt. The briefing finished before 12 noon.

Since we were already outside the office and we were near several good restaus, we decided to just find a dining place in the area.

Mom & Tina's at the corner of Perea and De la Rosa was our choice.

It was my first time to eat at the bakery-cafe, though I have heard really good reviews about it.

We ordered paella valenciana, callos and the beef tapa. For dessert, we got the mango walnut and the toblerone frozen cakes. Yum!

One happy lunch.

Energizer Bunny weekend... Part 1

Okay, the weekend that just ended has got to be the craziest. Haha!

It started with Saturday afternoon. After doing my personal errands for the house in the morning, I headed to Greenbelt for my haircut appointment at 3. I got there at 2PM and had to squeeze in some shopping for Julius (the guy who cuts my hair for four years now. He deserved a good gift. Hehe!) and two friends from abroad Jimmy and Noel.

After the haircut, I gave my friend Jimmy a call to check where he was. Jimmy is a friend from LA who I met during the glory days of Icon. We just saw each other last January, and it was really a pleasant surprise when I found out that he was coming back to Manila for the 2009 holidays.

From GB1, I headed to GB3 to meet Jimmy at CBTL. It was really good seeing him again. We gave each other a tight hug and just spent the next few hours catching up. I registered him for the 10K of the PhilStar Celebrity Run as well, and I was really looking forward to our run. (Although I suddenly got scared when I found out that he just recently did the NYC Marathon. Haha!)

At the same time, he wanted to see the nightlife. I wanted to take him out that night because we didn't get to do that the last time and because we might not be able to party anymore since he was flying to Ilocos today. So we agreed to go out and stay in B for just maybe two hours so that we can still get some sleep and get up at 430AM for the 530 run.

Kamusta naman?! We lost track of the time and by the time we headed out of B, it was already 3AM. Haha!

Jimmy decided he'll just skip the run and that was understandable since he's probably starting to feel the jetlag. I, on the other hand, pushed through with it because I promised good friends and fitness thingspiration Arlyn and Ryse that I will do the run.

So I went home to take a really cold shower, change into my running attire and then left again for the Fort to meet up with Arlyn, Ryse, Monet and Antony.

Yes, it is crazy and I'll (probably) never do it again. Hahaha!

The good news is I survived. I finished the 10K and if the race clock is right, I finished at 1:12. I was surprised. Really surprised. For my first 10K at the GIG Run, I clocked in 1:16.

It was a really, really beautiful run though. There was a light drizzle and I feared for my iPod Touch (hehe!) but at the same time, gentle rain falling on you as you ran felt good and kept me awake. It was my first time to do the 10K in the Fort area and I liked it because of the route. There were so many times that I had to slow down and walk though because I felt like my chest was going to explode. Hehe!

My savior for the last kilometer was Lady Gaga. Yeah, I'm such a stereotype. Haha! Two remixes of Bad Romance and a tremendous amount of self-pushing helped me get to the finish line. Haha!

After the run, the gang headed to Burgos Circle for a happy breakfast at CBTL. Tey, Steph and Chippi joined us. That place is super nice! It was a very good breakfast since there weren't that many people at Burgos and the breakfast was just so good.

We parted ways around 9AM. I headed home and when I got to my bed, I just became dead to the world. Haha!

This is just half of the story though.

In the evening, I went out again for a dinner with UP gang and then headed to Makati for tambay time with Jimmy again before he leaves.

But that's going to be another post.

Happy crazy weekend! I love! Haha!

This Good Friday is not the usual Good Friday...

We had our company Christmas party yesterday evening at the World Trade Center.

Unlike the previous two parties I attended, yesterday was much, much more conservative which I thought was quite appropriate given everything that happened this year.

The mood wasn't that festive, but there was still a hint of holiday cheer in the air.

In the past two years it was celebrities like Piolo Pascual, Toni Gonzaga, Sam Milby, among others, who graced our celebration. This year, we had a different set of celebrities - Arnel Pineda, Charice Pempengco and of course, CNN Hero of the Year Efren Peñaflorida.

The program was also quite fast. Several messages from the bosses, a peek at 2010 and the good news.

The real party happened afterwards. Tey, Engel, Mich and I headed to SM MOA to celebrate. Though it was already late, the place was still packed. We hung out at Gerry's which had good food but really bad drinks. Or maybe it was just that blue margarita, which we didn't get to finish. It was like drinking tempra.

From SM MOA, Engel and I headed to Malate for a visit to O Bar. As expected, the place was full of partygoers. It was too crowded for me. Still, Engel and I stayed until five in the morning, I think. Hahaha!

Good Friday night... errr... Saturday morning. Haha!

Prepping for Celebrity Run '09...

Some work buddies and I are doing the PhilStar Celebrity Run on the 20th.

I'm looking forward to it because it'll be nice to hang out with work people and not have to talk about work. LOL! Plus, we started the year wonderfully with Condura Run, which turned out to be a good experience, so why not end it on a good note with the Celebrity Run.

Aside from running again with work friends, I'm also looking forward to the run because friend Jimmy is flying in from LA and he agreed to join the run. He arrives on the 19th, and on the 20th we do the 10K. I'm not worried for him because he did the NYC Marathon couple of months ago. Actually, mas worried ako sa sarili ko. Diyahe to be super slow. Hehe!

So I've been hitting the gym much more frequently and doing more time on the tread. I know, I know. The road is different from the tread. But for the purpose of surviving my second 10K, I think I'm okay with just doing the tread for now. Hehehe!

Last night, I did a 7.5K and clocked in 56 minutes. I'm happy with it already because I checked my time for a 7.5K couple of months ago and it was 61 minutes. So okay na din. Haha!

I'd have to say that getting into this whole "gym" thing also has to be one of the good things that happened this year. I didn't think the day I would say, "It's gym night." would actually come. Hehe!

Yey to fitness!

Cowboys and cowgirls for a day... Hehe!

Saturday turned out to be a really fun day.

In the morning, the PA gang trooped to Shakey's Araneta Center to join the 1st birthday celebration of Basti, the adorable son of colleague Grace.

The party had a cowboy/barnyard theme. Leave it to the PA gang to rise up to the challenge by coming all dressed up. Hahaha! Really good birthday celeb. Happy birthday, Basti.

From Araneta Center, we headed to Eastwood to treat ourselves to some Red Mango. I've tried the Yoh-gurt Froz at Hobbes, White Hat at Rustan's, and another one at Rockwell, but I have to say Red Mango tops them all. Yum, ah! Wonder where the other branches are.

I rarely go to Eastwood, because it's quite far from my house, but I really am liking the Eastwood Mall very much. Kind of reminds me of Podium. Good lineup of stores, and it's not that crowded. Woohoo!

And I had more reason to love it more because I got to buy a pair of Kenneth Coles at half the price. Woot woot! My very first Kenneth Cole. Hehehe! There was another pair I wanted to get, but I had to remind myself of an upcoming trip. Hehe! So instead, I just got this reusable tote which had a really nice print, "Use me again and again and again. I'm used to it." Hahaha!

Was supposed to meet with Carlo for our get-together, but decided to cancel already since I had a feeling that the morning affair would become a whole-day activity.

I missed Toby's spinning, but it was okay because I still got my endorphin rush from the PA gang. And all that walking and carrying those shopping bags could probably be considered a workout already, yeah?!

Loving the Iloilo night life...

After I was done with work yesterday afternoon at the GK village, I had one of my favorite things about Iloilo - a good nightout. Together with colleagues NN and Twiggy, plus Iloilo-based colleague Karl, we hung out at the hip and happening Smallville. Since it was still quite early, we had dessert at Bigby's. It was a hot afternoon and everyone was up for some ice cream, although I wasn't expecting it to be like I was going to be executed the following day. Haha!

At Bigby's, for only P795, you can order the Titanic Ice Cream - thirty scoops of ice cream (coffee, mango, ube, vanilla, and chocolate flavors) served on a punch bowl with a clever crushed ice base, topped with all things sinful - chocolate chips, fruit cocktails, ice cream cones, barquillos, brownie chunks, chocolate cookies.

Augh! It was a mortal sin I was going to regret, but I was too weak. I know my boxing trainer would make me pay for that dessert. Haha!

From Bigby's we walked to nearby Bourbon for a round of drinks. We got the Kamikaze pitcher. It's only P350 and good enough to be shared by four drinkers. I don't know who's counting how many shots each one was already having, but I knew I was having a bit too much because I already felt a big buzz. Haha!

Afterwards, we all felt a bit tired already. NN, Twiggy and I all had an early activity this morning, so we knew we couldn't stay out till the wee hours of the morning. Hehe!

At least, the buzz from the Kamikaze was enough to put me to sleep immediately. Haha! Good nightout.

More Buri photos...

Here are some more photos from the Buri getaway trip.

Of course the whole trip was fun, but aside from the laughter and good times with work friends, what I enjoyed the most were conquering (to a certain extent) fear of deep water.

I don't know how to swim. I can float on my back though. But when I can't feel the sea bed anymore, that would make me panic. It's such a frustration because I really love the water world. I even want to go learn scuba diving.

Anyway, during the Buri trip, I was able to just let go of my fear and take the leap, literally. First was jumping off the boardwalk. It looks like it's shallow but that's about 15 feet or so deep. Terrifying for me, but I just had to trust my life vest. Haha!

The other one was snorkeling. Initially, the thought of being in the middle of the sea scared me. More than the depth of the water, what scared me was running out of stamina to breathe properly.

But I'm glad that I was able to get over the fear (I think) and that made the water much, much more enjoyable.

Blissful weekend at Buri...

Excited for Buri


Hidden paradise in Galera


Villas and the infinity pool


The sun, a book, a lounge chair... ah, this is good stuff


Angelo feeding the fishies

So last Friday, colleagues and I left Manila at an early 6AM for some rest and recreation. As mentioned in a previous entry, our destination was Buri Resort at Puerto Galera.

After about two hours or so of land trip, we boarded the banca that would take us to Buri. Though feeling tired from the land trip and the slightly bumpy boat ride, everyone got excited as Buri came into view.

"That's where we're going!"

I've been to Puerto Galera before, though it was at the more popular, hence more crowded area of the island.

Buri is a somewhat hidden treasure.

Fully air-conditioned villas that gave a panoramic view of the Batangas bay, the comfy bed and its immaculate sheets and pillows, the plasma TV, the plunge pool, the bathroom with its pristine tiles and closets with rustic designs.

And then, there's the infinity pool, the cabanas perfect for lounging, the Animasi bar for a unique dining experience, the Nurture spa for relaxing massage treatments, a boardwalk ideal for enjoying the sea breeze, and so much more.

Buri is not your typical beach resort.

While I think that the resort is more perfect for honeymooners or family bonding time, it is still a good option for groups of friends who may want to hang out together who are really looking for some quiet time away from the city.

When not hanging around at the infinity pool, one can just chillax at the bar or read a book at one of the pool lounge chairs while enjoying the sun, or if one is feeling sporty, there are kayaks for guests' free use or maybe a jet ski ride.


It was one good weekend. Will post more pics later.

Galera here I come...

So this is where I'll be at the beach this starting tomorrow until Sunday.

Will be going to Buri Resort in Galera. This is the first time I've heard about the resort and from the photos above and on its website, it looks like a damn fine place.

But I think I'd still want to go to White Beach and hit the bars and get a little bit wasted. Hahaha!

In any case, woohooo!!!

Puerto Galera here I come.