Photo A Day Challenge (March 5 - 14)

I missed my weekend blog update since I was up and about last Sunday doing some errands.  I also had some "me" time and spent the afternoon looking for a book that I wanted to get my hands on for two weeks now, but I still can't find a copy.  The book is called The Collected Works of John Carter Volume 1.  Volumes 2 and 3 are quite abundant, but Book 1 is kinda hard to find now, especially since the movie, John Carter, is now showing in the theaters.  I guess a lot of people took an interest to the book due to the good movie reviews ( I know, since that is one part of the reason why I want to get my hands on a copy of the book, well aside from literary reasons and the hunger for a good read... ehem...*insert intellectual nod here*).  AND even if I already reserved a copy in one branch of Fully Booked I still went around some stores to see if I can find a copy faster :P.  The  thing with this book is, it seems that it is only available in Fully Booked and not in the other bookstores (bummer!), thus, the harder it is to find ... thus, the more I want one! grrrr....  Enough of my book addiction for now, and before this blog entry's title is changed to "My Futile Adventure to Finding John Carter", I should start posting my Photo A Day challenge pictures for March 5 - 14 :P.  Here they are:

5.  A Smile 

6.  5 PM

7.  something you wore - was on leave that day and went around UP helping my cousin get her requirements for transfer, thus the shirt :)

8.  Window - our office does have a lot of windows, but the the blinds are always down

9.  Red 

10.  Loud

11.  Someone you talked to today - my cousin Ghina

12.  Fork

13.  A Sign - makings of a new hangout :P

14.  Clouds - since I am indoors almost the whole day, I just made my own clouds :)

Whew! Finished! :)  on to next week's Photo A Day Challenge! and on to my continuous search for the elusive John Carter Book (hope I find one soon!)

up and about with the girls

My cousins Ghina and Regine and I went out a few times this week.  These two girls are like my sisters and spending time with them is just pure happiness :).  Here are some of the pics we got during our weekly eat outs and going around thingies :

A. Midweek Dinner Out at Eastwood 
     We met up for dinner in Eastwood last Wednesday since I needed to go there to get a bag I reserved at Bratpack.  During dinner, there was a little girl behind our table (who Ghina keeps calling Jaden, since she looks like Jaden Smith, who we pointed out is a boy, bit she ignored us :P) who literally keeps popping up from behind whenever Ghina takes our picture.  We were trying to stop ourselves from laughing so hard once we saw the series of pictures she took. Jaden's parents might hear us :P.  Check these out:

We finally got one without her in it, though:

B.  Errands Errands and takaw mode
     We went out again yesterday to do some errands.  I got a new Postpaid phone plan from Globe by the way, with a free Blackberry Curve :) yey!  i spent a few hours on my new toy today trying to figure out how that thing works :P
     Ghina was more excited with the phone than I was, we ended up buying accessories for it right after I got the phone.  I also got her yellow kicker earphones as a belated birthday present.  We ended up eating dinner at Tokyo Tokyo (yup, japanese again) and since we were all hungry by then, we ate A LOT :P  we didn't have room for Magnum Ice Cream after (this was the sad part of my day).
     We went back to our place and watched episodes of The Voice since all three of us looooove Adam Levine (he's so cute!!!) and after an hour or two, the girls went home.

C.  Sunday Surprise at Banapple
     Ghina had a sudden craving for Banapple and she picked me up from the mall while I was doing some more errands.  We had an early dinner there and talked and talked and talked.  Here's what we ate:

Baked Cheesy Penne

Chicken Parmigiano

     Of course, Ghina ate rice :P but she still insists that she is now on a diet.  We were supposed to have coffee or tea after, but were sooooo full.  We also had a slice of Snicker Fudge Cheesecake ... so yummy! :)  My week ended with yummy food and good conversation, it more than made up for the bad part of my week :P 

Photo A Day Challenge (March 1-4)

here goes my weekly post for this challenge :)

1.  Up : kinda obvious hehehe :)

2.  Fruit : my favorite fruit in a bottle :)

3.  my neigborhood - houses on our side of the street

4.  bedside - bookworm alert! :P yup, i am kinda literally surrounded by books even while I sleep.

soooo, thats it for the first week of March.  looking forward to next week!

Photo A Day Challenge (Feb 27 - 29)

Below are my photo a day challenge for the last days of February :).  I made it! yey! :D

27.  something you ate : Sour Punch - pamatid-gutom sa hapon :)

28.  Money : new 50.00 bill.  I like the bright red color of the new bill, and because of that, I will hold on to this  for a while longer hehehe :)

29.  something you're listening to : Dia Frampton! I loved her in The voice Season 1, so glad she came out with her own record.  Some stations are now playing her song "The Broken Ones" on air.

So that completes my February Photo A Day Challenge (at least half of the month since I joined late).  I hope I can complete the succeeding months :)

For March, here is the new list from Fat Mum Slim's Blog (http://www.fatmumslim.com.au/):

I'm thinking if i should bring along my camera (since i have a small, compact point and shoot type one) so i could get better shots.  When i looked at all my Feb photos, almost all of it were taken in the office.  My favorite shot was taken last Sunday in Eastwood for the Night challenge, since it was the only photo I have taken outdoors :P.

My challenge for March : to take more shots outdoors and to be more creative.  Soooo excited to start! :)

Photo A Day Challenge (February 18 - 26)

Since I started doing this Photo A Day Challenge, i tried to stay true to taking pictures every day, but i admit there are days when I did forget (memory gap moments :P) so i just took some of the pics I forgot the next day.  Anyways, here's my photo a day exhibition (naks!) for this week:

18.  Drink

19.  Something you hate to do : working on a weekend!!!! (and doing numbers at that! :P)

20.  Handwriting : obviously am a book nerd :P

21.  A fave photo of you : this was taken in Singapore last April 2010 :)  i took a picture of this photo stored in my iPad :)

22.  Where you work : the JB R&D office :)

23.  Your shoes : my favorite pair of Sanuk sandals :)

24.  Inside your bathroom cabinet : i don't have a bathroom cabinet so I just took a picture of my bathroom shelves :P

25.  Green : my mom's curtains

26.  Night : taken at Eastwood a few hours ago :)

Yey! i completed two weeks worth of photos and I managed to write about it 2 weeks straight! hope i can keep this up.

till next week! :)

Photo A Day Challenge

My friend Claudette is doing this photo a day challenge and being the curious cat that I am, I decided to find out what it was and where it all started.  I found that it was a challenge started by a blogger, Chantelle (www.fatmumslim.com.au).  I love a challenge so I decided to try this one out.  This is the list for February:

Since its my first day, and I am already late in joining the challenge i decided to do the whole week's photo a day thingie (addict mode ON! :P)  so i took five pictures starting from number 13 to 17 :)  Here they are:

13.  Blue

14.  Heart

15.  Phone

16.  Something New

let me explain this one... i was given a new project yesterday and it requires me to do project management, so i need to review!!! :P

17.  Time

That's the last of it :)  I will try to do the photo taking challenge daily and will try to post on a weekly basis (or daily if i can).

Why did I decide to do this in the first place?  To have something else to do aside from work hahaha! :)  i need to keep things light and relaxed and fun even for just a few minutes in a day to keep my sanity in check :)  Plus, this will more or less make me update my blog weekly! yay! *crossing fingers*

till next week!

valentakaw and spantastic date with the girls

As usual, I have no Valentines Date plans, but I was pleasantly surprised that fate has something else in mind for me this year.  Though my date is not actually a romantic one, I had a blast :).

Ghina and Regine called me up to ask if I want to go on a Spa date with them.  I agreed, besides, I don't have anything to do on a Sunday anyways.  It was a pre-Valentines day date of sorts for us three since all three of us are single.  We went to Ace Water Spa in Pasig.  The place is really nice, though smaller compared to their first branch in QC, I like this location better.  The building is new and there weren't too many people.  We changed into our swimwear and excitedly went into the spa area.  We tried all there is to try including the hot herbal pools which was supposed to be strictly timed according to the lifeguard.  We were supposed to try the sauna but when we entered, we literally cannot take the heat, so we just opted to stay in the hot herbal pools.  We stayed for a while there, enjoying and relaxing and laughing and just being silly :P.  Afterwards, we realized we were super hungry.

Since we were near the Kapitolyo area, there were a number of restos the girls haven't tried yet.  Since Regine wanted to have breakfast food (and she has a huge crush on Elmo Magalona who kinda endorses this place) we opted to try out Milky and Sunny.  

The menu has a lot of options and we were excited to try out a lot of things.  Our tummies were grumbling by then so we got the Breakfast Big Plate, a meal complete with rice and hash brown. We also ordered the bacon tostadas, a recommended dish from a blog I read.  We enjoyed the meal so much.  The hungarian sausage slices dipped in spicy vinegar was really good! :)  We were soooo full after this hearty breakfast fare (at 9:00 pm) :P.

menu specials 

bacon tostadas

Breakfast Big Plate

Happy tummy! :)

Our baby girl, Regine :)

It was a really fun day with the girls and one of the best Valentines Date I had in a long time :)

musings

there will always be people who will hurt you.  they may be an acquaintance, a random stranger, or worse a friend (or "friend") or even family.  there will be others who will go out of their way to ostracize and intentionally hurt you.  there are no exemptions, no prerequisites, no conditions.  there are people who, just to make themselves feel better or who feel they have the right to hurt people just because they think their meanness justifies their reason, will actually make it a point to make you feel "unwanted" and will go to great lengths to treat you like an outcast. i know. i felt that.  i have been treated that way by people who i considered to be my friends.

bottomline is you just have to learn to let go.  let go of people who do not see your value and move on with your life with the people who do.  the saying that when a door closes, a window will open or better yet, another door will, is true.  there will be people who will be worth your while.  worth the friendship and worth the trust.  you just have to learn to see, choose and accept who they are.  life will not be fair every time.  we all have to learn to adapt.  you can only take so much crap in your life.  there will come a point wherein you have to weigh things out.  you will have to see if all this and all that is worth it or not. on the other hand, look at it as life giving you the chance to sift through the people in your life. once the sifting is done, you may have been left with only a handful of people, but for sure they are the best of the lot.

in the end, you will know who are worth keeping.  thank God there are people who stay true and still believe in you and whose definition of friendship and family is the same as yours.

11.11.11

today is 11.11.11. last year i posted something on 10.10.10, i just thought it would be nice to post something again on a one-numbered date day.

since a lot of people are making wishes during this time, i might as well post my 11 wishes. here they are:

11. I wish for a DVD player hehehehe ... ambabaw i know, but mine broke down and i want to get a new one, pero yung maganda and durable na brand na yung gusto ko :) ... but the timing is off. i kinda have other things to prioritize pa muna ... hay :(

10. I wish i can overhaul my wardrobe ... yup, last i checked my clothes need to be updated. i feel i need to upgrade my style a little (or a lot maybe :P). plus the last major shopping spree i did was more than a year ago. some of my clothes are showing signs of wear and tear. I want to be able to wear skirts, high heels ... girly stuff, which right now is kind of a rarity (or non-existent?:P) in my closet.

9. I wish to write. writing has been an outlet, a hobby and a passion for me. I wish to be able to publish a book someday, a children's book (like those published by Adarna.... i sooo love those!) or just a collection of writings similar to Jessica Zafra's Twisted series. To start this off, I guess i should start updating my blog often :).

8. I wish to pamper myself. Go to a spa, spend my time getting a massage, scrubs and those detox treatment thingumajigs and come out refreshed and energized :)

7. I wish to get a new look. para naman medyo tumanda ng konti ang itsura ko... naks! ... kidding aside, para naman maiba at maka-attract ng good vibes :) at lovelife na din hihihihi! :)

6. I wish to be fit :) i need to get back to the gym! kelangan pag-ipunan ng bongga. and likewise, i wish to be more disciplined when it comes to my eating habits. after all, health is wealth and my family has a history of diabetes and hypertension. gotta take care of myself as early as now :)

5. I wish to be debt-free. again, a lot of discipline and sheer mind power is required. i wish to have the willpower to avoid unnecessary spending and focus my energy and funds to alleviate my family's financial situation.

4. I wish for strength. Strength to hold on and strength to let go. Strength to face life and deal with all the ups and downs that fate throws in my way. I wish to have enough strength to pull myself together through any situation, strength to accept defeat and admit mistakes when i commit them.

3. I wish for love. I have wished for this for so long, and i am still praying and wishing that i will be granted the blessing to be with someone whom i can share my life with. if possible, i do not want to go through this life alone. I am an only child and i already spent more than half of my life alone, i wish i can spend the rest of my life with someone i love and who loves me back.

2. I wish to be happy. happiness is a state of mind, it is a feeling, a lifestyle. i wish for that day when i do not have to remind myself to be happy, because i just am.

1. I wish to be a better version of me. I pray and wish that i will continue to grow and learn in all aspects: career, life and love.

My wish list is complete. From the simplest to the complicated. For some, i have the capacity to fulfill my wish in a short span of time. While for others, it will take more than just time. It will take patience, discipline, willpower and heart, plus a little something called blessing and guidance from Up above :).

Uncharted by Sara Bareilles

no words,

my tears wont make any room for 'em, oh

and it don't hurt

like anything i've ever felt before

this is no broken heart

no familiar scars

this territory goes uncharted

just me

in a room sunk down in a house in a town

and i don't breathe

though i never meant to let it get away from me

now i have too much to hold

everybody has to get their hands on gold

and i want uncharted

stuck under the ceiling i made

i cant help the feeling

i'm going down

follow if you want, i won't just hang around

like you'll show me where to go

i'm already out of foolproof ideas

so don't ask me how to get started

its all uncharted

each day

i'm countin' up the minutes till i get alone

cause i can't stay

in the middle of it all, its nobody's fault

but i'm so low

never knew how much i didn't know

oh, everything is uncharted

i know i'm getting nowhere

when i only sit and stare

like i'm going down

follow if you want, i wont just hang around

like you'll show me where to go

i'm already out of foolproof ideas

so don't ask me how to get started

its all uncharted

jumpstart my kaleidoscope heart

i love to watch the colors fade

they may not make sense

but they sure as hell made me

i won't go as a passenger, no

waiting for the road to be laid

though i may be going down

i'll take in flame over burning out

compare

where you are to where to wanna be

and you'll get nowhere

i'm going down

follow if you want, i won't just hang around

like you'll show me where to go

i'm already out of foolproof ideas

so don't ask me how to get started

i'm going down

follow if you want, i won't just hang around

like you'll show me where to go

i'm already out of foolproof ideas

so don't ask me how to get started

its all uncharted.