The Holiday

It's 1am I am still awake. I went through my movie collection in the living room and checked out some old movies to watch.
Earlier today, I am thinking of watching an English film- I mean, with a British accent. So I took The Holiday.
Theme of the movie?- Unrequited love and finding new love and be human again :)
I saw this movie in 2006 as part of my training when I worked for a UK account. I saw it with a whole bunch of people, and I felt not so kilig. Until I saw again the movie tonight.
Aww, tunaw na tunaw ang aking puso with the lines. It was well-written.
It was hard to choose who is my favorite character.
It's about two women who are so problematic on the love department, and decided to go on a vacation by switching houses. They are both planning to getaway from their usual environment and the people they often see- especially their exes. So Cameron Diaz's character went to live in London at Kate Winslet's character's cottage- and they both met local guys.
In this movie, I learned a new word:
Meet-cute- this is the term used by film writers when they wrote the part where the guy and the girl meets for the first time.
ex: Amanda and Graham had their meet-cute at the local pub.

And of course, to see Jude Law's character, being hopelessly in love is totally making me drool.
Minsan talaga, marerealize ng isang tao, how important it is to take a step back and asses the situation. Running away doesn't necessarily mean you are being a coward, but instead, it gives you the time to think.
Ako personally, kung uso lang ang house-switching dito sa Pilipinas gagawin ko yan. Haha. Minsan you need to dissappear so you'll be able to think clearly, but some people totally disappear for good to start anew in some other place (which is a totally different story)
What can I say, this movie made me wept again.

Dinner at Brasas

We had no definite plans last Valentine's Day. But since we have the liberty to try new restaurants, I decided that we should try something new and not located at megamall (para maiba naman)
Spot.ph has released a list of restaurants under Php500. Wow pabor na pabor sa mga tulad namin na tipid mode.
We chose Brasas which offers Latin American Cuisine. They are packaging themselves na nag seserve ng Latin American streetfood. According to them, they are a fast food without being a fastfood.

So we went to Brasas at around 7pm just in time for dinner.
Now, whenever I go to restaurants I have to go through my "invisible checklist" kung pasado ba ang resto na to. Hehe. First and foremost the ambience of the place. Hmmm..- Check. As they say, they exude a Latin American vibe. Interiors palang halata naman :P

From the entrance, mejo masikip. But it's ok. Mejo ghetto style sila, with graffiti and all.

Now the food.

May burger na may rice pa! Brasas burger tastes great.

Patacones is a must try, but it is kinda brittle. The brasas burger tastes good especially with the cheese sauce and lots of catsup!
The food smelled like a street food talaga- but in a good way. It all tastes great.
Guarapo is a sugarcane juice, muddled mint and squeeze of lime- this tastes great. Not your ordinary iced tea. Though I ordered the Latin Iced Tea it reminded me of the iced tea from Nutrilicious.
Service- wise, staff are all friendly. You have to go to the counter to order, just like you are ordering from Mcdo of Jolibee.
We were seated by the window and you will have a pretty good view of the north and south bound traffic. :P

Prepare 1k kung gusto niyo mabusog :)
Brasas is located at the 5th floor of The Podium

Puerto Princesa Palawan Vacation

Yey! Our first vacay for 2014.
It was a really organized trip. This was our first time to avail of package tours. (when we were in Davao, we were lucky enough to have friends who are natives so they know the place around)
Thank you Augusto Miggel Travel and Tours for a very organized trip. From pick ups to drop offs, to super fun tours, Thank you!

First day in Palawan.
Upon arriving at Puerto Princesa, we stayed for 2 hours just to rest and waited for our tour guide. We first went to the Puerto Princesa's own version of Baywalk. It was much cleaner compared to Manila's. I didn't take that much picture because it wasn't that interesting at daytime.
Then we went to Plaza Cuartel- which is a tourist attraction in Puerto Princesa, a significant place during WWII.

Plaza Cuartel- Spanish Ruins dedicated to the American Soldiers

As promised by Mayor Hagedorn, this statue is to honor the American WWII soldiers in Palawan

Immaculate Conception Church- Just in front of Plaza Cuartel

 Puerto Princesa also offers irresistable night life. We went to TIKI Bar at Rizal Ave. to have a taste of Crocodile Sisig- who they consider to be a certified aphrodisiac.

At Tiki Bar, with our tour guides Kuya Ruben and our new found friends, Radek and Yhannie.

 On our second day, this is the time we went to Underground River and Karst Mountain. The queue for the Underground River is soooo long our patience was tested. Ganon kadami ang taong gustong makita ang Underground River. We lined up for 1 and a half hour to be accomodated. We had to cross the sea to get to the next island where the Underground River is.
Here are some snaps:

Interesting Rock Formations insdide UG River :)
Lahat na yata ng shapes and sizes ng mga bagay nasa loob. I even saw a rock formation that looked so much like a cathedral I wasn't able to get the pic, it was too dark

Our tour buddies!

 Here are also some shots of the other islands we visited, Pandan Island and Cowrie Island
Pandan Island is where we experienced fish feeding, and it has more of a peaceful vibe.
It was my first time to do a trick shot! Yun na ung pinaka gimik ng mga locals dun. :)

Trick shot with the star fish :)

Fish feeding with Pandan Island, In fairness, ang takaw ng mga fish. We fed them with bread buns.

Henna Tatts also available for P50!

HELLO Cowrie Island!!! So beautiful, with the pristine sand.

Nipa huts by the shore at Cowrie Island.

 I don't want to go into details on how much we spent on this vacation, because no matter how much we spent, it was all worth it because Palawan is so beautiful. Hopefully, next stop, EL Nido :P

Movenpick Resort and Spa: Work and Play

Before we embarked on the biggest marketing event of our construction life-Philconstruct Visayas 2013, we decided to de-stress. We stayed at the Movenpick Hotel, our boss owns a residential unit there, so we decided to chill downstairs at the Movenpick Resort and Spa.

OMG. It was gorgeous. You will feel like a queen or a diva once you enter the resort. As far as I know we are the only Filipino swimming as the Koren/American/British invasion happened. Haha. It was a superb experience, just lounging by the pool, taking pictures of the picturesque view. I will never forget this place.
What I also loved about the resort are the furniture. It was impeccably handcrafted and you will not find any runs on the furniture. I bet it was expensive but it was worth the investment.

Service was excellent. Lifeguards were always present.

The beach

Our photo taken by the bar

 Where people can chill.

The pool area

Will definitely go back here!

Canyon Cove for my nephew's birthday

When I see ads of Canyon Cove, I thought, they put too much effort in marketing- in a good way. It was impressive, actually that's why I got excited when my ate thought to celebrate her son's 11th birthday at Canyon Cove, Nasugbu Batangas.
Travel time from Manila to Nasugbu was approximately 4 hours. We got to Canyon Cove and we stayed in an apartment. Prior to checking-in, we have a contact person, Mang Manny, who allowed us to rent the apartment for 9k/night. It was a complete accomodation. All stuff that you have at home can be found in the apartment. The owner is out of the country so the apartment was available. All the necessary utensils, were there. 
The beach was not that great though. It was ok, but you won't enjoy it because of the rocks under the sea. It was fun sun bathing though because of the white, cold, sand. We did not spend much on this vacation because we brought everything already and we are well-prepared.
The problem was, we experienced blackouts during our stay in the apartment. It was for 1 hour and a half. Twice. I am not sure if the hotel also experienced it but for us to stayed in the apartments we did. haha.
As usual... some pictures from our Canyon Cove vacation...

The facade of Canyon Cove... well not the whole facade :p

With my mom and ates

Kayaking at Canyon Cove

With our birthday boy, Elijah

It was a fun experience, being here at Canyon Cove, but in my opinion, staying overnight is enough. 

Treasures of Bolinao

Original plan was Coron,Palawan but we were out of budget. My mom insisted that we should find a place to go this summer. I spent one whole Sunday searching for a place to go. My mom was pretty hard to please. She is the type of person who never runs out of comments about anything and everything. So I thought, I should find a perfect place with good accommodations and a crystal clear sea water.

My cousin found this awesome place in Bolinao, called Treasures of Bolinao. We went there for an overnight stay and it's pretty costly compared to other beaches. But the affordable ones are fully booked. Travel time was sooooo long, it took us 8 hours. The room costs 11k/night. It was not that big, though, but we managed to fit in.

The place itself was pretty awesome, my mom was so happy how clear the water was! Though the resort was still under construction, it gave our cameras picture-perfect shots so we decided to have a pictorial :p

Look how clear the water was!

The view of the resort. 

Pictorial sesh with my ate haha.

The buffet in the resort sucked though. The food had a little serving and it was not that great. Re-heating your food can cost you 200 pesos if you asked the staff to re-heat it on their microwave. The coffee costs P45 (what!) So every move you make, expect that you will have to shell out money. No regrets,anyway. As long as I'm with my family, I am good!

Tali Beach Escapade

I have been planning to go to TALI BEACH for a while and I never thought that I would be able to go with my awesome couple friends :P

The beach was a bit disappointing, the color of the water was between green and brown. Oh my. And lots of rocks under the sea, but the Jo and Johnny's Beach Dive Inn was one of the best accommodations I experienced. We pretty much did everything there. It is not the type of place packed with so much rules, or do's and don'ts. We were able to maximize the whole place by having a grill party and got drunk by the pool. Haha.

The Pool, 5-10 ft. Usually used for diving lessons. I love it because there's not much chlorine.

                                                                and then there's 8 of us :P

The beach. We stayed here for only 15 mins tops, then decided to grill some pork and drink the night away.

The charge for videoke was P1200 for 4 hours. Kinda costly. But the staff gave the best customer service. They are very nice and had the initiative to carry our stuff to our rooms, and they were our runners if we wanted to purchase something outside the inn.