credits to Kevin Katayama for the photo

Behind the laughters were the heartbreaks. Behind the strong men was the coward. How is it that despite being the best pretenders, we still get caught? How is it that when we do get caught, the tables turn. People, now, pretend to care. Who are we supposed to turn to? Who are we supposed to rely on? Do we just run and hide?

When: February 5, 2012

What: Sunday with the fambam!

No, I am not talking about being high, if you think that’s what my title is implying. I’m talking about High Street! This was actually my first time. hehehe I haven’t gone out lately, which explains everything (I hope). Sorry also for being AWOL. To tell you honestly, I haven’t had more than 3 hours of sleep this whole week due to projects, experiment papers, research paper chapters and tests. This week has been very toxic for me!

We slept in my sister’s condo, so we didn’t have any decent food! We ate this for breakfast. This is a must try! You can buy a pint in S&R. :)

We weren’t even supposed to go to High Street anymore because my dad was having second thoughts. He’s a very indecisive guy, but no!! I couldn’t let that happen. I’m sick of staying home every Sunday, so we did go and I’m glad we did because guess who I saw!

Patricia Prieto!! Best friends talaga ang peg ng picture na to! hehehe Okay so we didn’t actually get to talk because we were both paos. My parents literally didn’t understand what I was saying most of the time that I was talking to them due to my grave sore throat.

We ate lunch at Balducci. It’s an Italian restaurant in Serendra. You know how I’m a sucker for European interiors? As soon as I saw the inside of the restaurant, I knew I wanted to eat there. hehehe. Well, my weird habits in choosing where to go didn’t fail me this time! The food they served was very scrumptious! Side note: their menu also resembled that of a traveller’s map which made it a lot more appealing for the customers. I’d give it two-thumbs up!

This is the only good picture I have and in my complete defense, I wasn’t ready yet!

My sister and I went up to the 2nd floor and saw Luna. I don’t know what they used to sell in there because it’s already closed down, but it’s exterior reminded me of Santorini (the colors) so we just had to take a picture!

It still amazes me that Serendra, Market Market and High Street are just one or two streets away from each other. Anywho, my sister and I were very excited to see the four-floors FullyBooked bookstore. We spent more than two hours browsing at everything we could find interesting! It was like a mini version of Barnes and Nobles. I can’t even contain my excitement, up to now hehehe

After buying the books we’ve been eyeing for so long, my sister and I decided to leave our parents in the bookstore and walk to Jamba juice. The walk was worth it! The view was amazing, though, there were tons of dogs running around without their leashes. It was all good. I had fun running away hehehe

Mowdelz ang peg ko dito! hehehehe

Ended the day right with some cupcakes by Sonja. Best cupcakes I’ve ever tasted!! nomnomnom I actually want more now. Definitely going back to Serendra for this!

This shop also has one of the best interiors, in my opinion. It gave you the summer lovin vintage feel. Very calming.

(c) All photos are from Kyla :)

When: January 21, 2012

What: Race 1 Cebu

Our whole family signed up for a city tour instead of going golfing with other dealers. Little did we know that it wasn’t just a plain city tour, it was a city tour turned amazing race. I have to admit, though, I didn’t like the whole experience as much as I thought I would. You see, I’m more of a stare-at-the-magnificent-stone-for-five-minutes kind of person. I love museums, I love old buildings, I love seeing history come to life because studying history inside the classroom is just too boring. Now, how was I supposed to do that with all of them constantly nagging us to hurry up? But, like a boss (or like a spoiled brat hehehe) I made everyone wait. Okay, not really a good idea hehehehe

Started the day right with a heavy breakfast! nomnomnom

With our parents, and a really close friend of theirs, Tita Margie.

While waiting for the orientation to start, we actually took outfit photos hehe I never do this, but since my mother was forcing me to post all of our outfits, here ya go! :))

This is basically how I dress up everyday hehehe. Blouse from Marks and Spencer, Tank top from H&M, Shorts from Mango, Necklace made by me, Backpack from Longchamp, Sneakers from Vans.

Sun hat from a thrift shop in Batanggas, eyewear from Balenciaga, shirt from a thrift shop in UK, shorts from Giordano, bag from Longchamp, sandals from Fitflops.

Feather necklace from Aldo, Light blue tank top from H&M, blue tank top from Forever 21, shorts from …. hehehe, shoes from Aerosoles.

The orientation was just a breeze. Basically, they told us what to expect from this game.

Then we were good to go! The funny thing was that we were all determined to win. Specially our tour guide. She was such a pain to listen to because she wasn’t even telling us about the historical events anymore, she was strategicing. hehehe.

The ube team

Meet Michelle, our overly competitive tour guide. It was so stressful to listen to her!

First stop: Magellan’s Cross

It was amazing inside. There were ladies (or in our case, feeling lady) who were saying prayers out loud for you.

Just because my mother enjoyed the mini ceremony so much, we bought another set of candles which came along with a prayer.

Our next stop was the Sto Nino Church. It was like any other church except that the Sto. Nino gift that Magellan gave Raja Humabon (I hope I’m getting this history thing right), was inside that Church! The line was super long just to touch it so we just said a prayer.

Dahil umaariba ang likod ko dito! Minsan din pala, talikogenic din ako hehehe

Fort San Pedro was our next stop. We were tasked to count the cannons, but my sister and I opted not to. Its original and phenomenal structure left me breathless. To prove it, Fort San Pedro is also where Cebuanos take their pre-nuptial photos and videos and the day we went there, they were fixing it up for a wedding!

Team Ube in front of Fort San Pedro

Pet peeve: when people think it’s okay to engrave their names in historical places. It’s not. It ruins the “sanctity” of the place. :(

Our 4th stop, which also happens to be my favorite, Kenneth Cobonpue’s warehouse! Kenneth is a Filipino who’s internationally known for his amazing works as an interior designer. He already did numerous houses of famous people. One example would be Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s house. Take note, he’s a full blooded Filipino!

Their jellyfish-like lamps which is made out of paper!

The Voyager. This has to be my favorite bed.

My sister’s favorite study table with matching badass lamps.

Her favorite chair which happens to be made out of ratan. So it bends to however you want it to bend and then it goes back to its original physique when you get up. :)

My favorite chair. The Dolce and Gabbana yacht chair. It looks really simple but when you sit on it. Trust me! It’s heaven.

My favorite lamp. If only I could steal it… hehehe kidding. But i really want it!

Then it was lunch time at Golden Cowrie. It was a very satisfying lunch even though our tour guide still kept on talking about how we can win. Nevertheless, I was pretty happy after seeing all the good works of Kenneth Cobonpue so the rest of my day turned out great!

Last stop was Lapu-lapu’s shrine! We were tasked to buy a couple of things with a budget of only 300 pesos! Nakakaloka! After buying the stuff I was assigned to buy, I asked my mom if I could by a ukelele for myself. Thankfull, she said yes!

Overall, it was a fun-filled day! All photo credits go to Kyla Gapit and photos being pixelated are credited to facebook. hehehe. Watch out for part 3 and the video! :)

When: January 20, 2012

What: 2012 Goodyear Kickoff Dealer Conference Welcome dinner

We really weren’t supposed to go, my sister and I, due to our busy schedules, but it was my parents’ 20th anniversary so we decided that we would just skip class and go with them to Cebu. Later on, I found out that Zobel won’t have classes on the day we were scheduled to leave. God is good! hehehe

Anywho, every start of the year Goodyear hosts a 3-day kickoff dealer conference. This year, they chose Cebu! It was perfect because my whole family, believe it or not, has never been to Cebu!

Note: this is not as picture heavy as my other posts, I’ll be posting the others soon. All pictures are from Kyla’s facebook so it might turn out a little bit pixelated.

While waiting for our flight. As expected, PAL was delayed by 30 mins.

Look! My boarding pass is hungryyyyy hehehe

After an hour, we were finally in Cebu. In a span of 20 minutes, we arrived in our Hotel.

Bonggabells lang talaga ang welcoming committee nila! hehehe

Our fabulous hotel room that looked more like a suite to me. :O

Due to the bad weather that night, the welcome dinner was moved from the beach front to the gala ball. Sad. I expected it to be really cool since I never did have a beach front dinner before and it’s a dream of mine. Nevertheless, if I wasn’t tired  from the flight or if I wasn’t extremely sleepy, I would’ve enjoyed the dinner even more.

While waiting for the event to start, Kyla and I strolled around and look what we found! A bao bag hehehe

Mother dearest pulling off the hipster look.

The dinner was a buffet and I just had to try everything. The sad thing was that, I WAS on a diet. The good thing was that the food was delicioso hehehe

A group of teenagers danced in front of us. They were amazing. If I’m not mistaken, they’re the champions from this interbaranggay contest for Sinulog which was held a week before we came to Cebu.

In lieu of Chinese New Year and for Goodyear to have a good year (weh? joke na pala yan) ahead of them, the next set of performers (and the last if I remember correctly) were DRAGONS! :O It was a cute performance. They gave out chocolate coins and the dragons were eating the angpaos :O

1. This was mid-November when Elise, Cecilia, Roby, Jasper, Anthony and I went to an ukay-ukay in Cavite to buy our costumes. Truly a fun experience. I was pretty drained afterwards from all the laughing. Roby was quite attached to his j-jacket (jean jacket) hehehehe

2. Our first time driving somewhere alone! This was when my parents went out of the country and I had to do some errands to get the poster for our english play printed. Our 30 minute trip to the printing shop turned out to be an hour and a half coffee break near DLSU-D! hehehe

3. My very own wafer stick brand. B-)

4. One afternoon, Bianca, Elise and I went to the library to chill. We were looking at magazines and then I saw a whole spread of this girl in the magazine and she was just amazing. I was tempted to rip everything out or get the whole magazine but Elise stopped me. :( hayyy hahahaha

5. This was during the St. James Bazaar. We just got tired of the crowd and sat in the park instead and met these munchkins!

6. Just another one of those ads I love so much. This one’s Chanel!

7. One of the best book covers I’ve seen, and take note! This is actually a Filipino book!

8. Saw Camille Manas in Robinson’s Imus hehehehe

9. The first day of school, when everyone still had christmas break hangovers.

10. I think I tweeted about this already, but I’m putting it here anyways! Nicka, a friend of mine, gave a my very own dream catcher! I partially believed it’s powers were true but then that same night I got it, I had a bad dream. Nevertheless, it’s colors are cute.

11. The CCP at night. One of the best infrastructures in Manila, specially when night events are being held there. It kind of saddens me, though, knowing that most of the theatrical performance in the Philippines are being held in Resorts World so it’s hardly even lit beautifully at night.

12. Who knew that Huggies is actually selling Jean diapers now! It seems cool, but at the same time it looks uncomfortable. Right?

13. The Matty Mckibben Look-alike in Starbucks Taft! He kept me speechless for about five minutes. Thank God I’m going to Taft! hehehehe kidding

14. Roby: Summiting it up! Upgraded na yan. May bote pang kasama!

15. The kid that kept me awake during mass. Thank God for adorable kids!

16. Angelo’s shirt. I’ve been bugging him about this shirt ever since and thanks to Nicollo (my only blog reader, hello hahaha) and Zed, he gave it to me. Happy happy girl!

17. Si Kuyang model na naexpose ang picture at tunay na anyo sa truck na nakatabi namin habang traffic. Bonggacious!

18. We had the chance to have a tour inside Kenneth Cobonpue’s warehouse. He’s one of the best interior designers in the Philippines. The funny thing was that he failed UP and look at him now! IDOL!!! I’ll be blogging more about him soon, hopefully. :)

19. The time I thought I broke the game controller in the Airplane. I was so scared. The worst thing was that I was seated by the aisle, so it was hard to hide it. Turns out, I was panicking for nothing!

20. Revin’s new whiteboard. As soon as we went into his house, we wanted to grab everything and run. But of course, we didn’t. This board stood out to us. I felt like a CSI agent while writing on it!

21. Last but not the least is not really a good experience, but I guess it does help us on our research paper for english. This traffic enforcer stopped us and caused us so much delay and kept on yapping about how he’s not asking us to bribe him because he has dignity blablabla, but in the end, he gave in to the temptation.

When: January 15, 2012

Why: Fiesta and Tita Mahal’s Birthday

January 15 is San Pablo’s feast day and it just so happened that January 19′s my Tita’s birthday. Being Filipinos, we celebrated the occasion all in one day!

After our 7:30 mass, we headed straight to Laguna. No time was wasted!

We went for a quick stop over at Nuvali to eat breakfast and buy a cake for my Aunt.

Their crew has to be my favorite! Seeing those smiling faces as I entered the coffee shop was truly a great way to start my morning. :)

Nuvali should really hire me as an official photographer. hehehe kidding. Anywho, we were off to San Pablo!

Whenever I see these mountains, I always ask my Dad if we’re near, even as a kid. Even though I know, I still ask because it annoys and excites him a bit hehehe

Before heading to my Tita’s house, we stopped by my Lola’s (Dad’s tita) house first and I met the cutest little kids! I mean, they weren’t energetic AT ALL when I met them and now, they’re just too adorable!

This is Jia, singing the Alphabet! She’s only two years old and she sings it perfectly! I had my flip camera with me, but unfortunately, I was too amazed and forgot about it. Not only that, when I was asking her to sing anymore, she said no cameras daw! Sosyal ang bata, parang artista lang!

This was the cutest! She asked everyone to open her gift for her but no one wanted to, so she went to my mother hehe

My mom and I were glad that she loved the gift! Being really old (kidding mother hehehe), my mom isn’t that good with picking gifts that kids liked, so it was always my obligation to pick one. But I was pretty shocked because of a bad news that just came in while we were shopping for gifts that my mom was obligated to buy a toy of her choice.

Si big boy naman! hehehe His gift was a fail, though. We got him an Ironman action figure and it turns out that he already has one. :( Nevertheless, he still liked the gift. Besides, the Ironman he has, nako! BAKLA YUN! ETO ANG TUNAY NA LALAKI!

This was the most awkward kiss ever. His mom/My tita (duh) was forcing him to kiss me in the cheek. Para pa-cute effect daw!

Then we were off to Tita Mahal’s for her birthday celebration. Of course, the blowing of the cake would always be in any birthday celebration.

She loved the cake we bought her. It was chocolate mousse from Contis’ and it was heavenly! nomnomnomnom

Apart from the delicious food my tita herself cooked, there was also ice cream! nomnomnom x2

I think in our small gathering though, the men had the best time…

Of course, what is a FILIPINO gathering without the famous KARAOKE MACHINE?

My favorite picture of the bunch:

Half the time though, I was inside the room studying for a test. I know, weirdo, that’s me (hello elise hahaha).

But the remaining half time, I was bonding with these niggas! hehehe

To sum it all up, even though we basically had to drag everyone for the party to end since we all had commitments tomorrow, it was a great day of catching up, singing and just sitting down laughing at all the hilarious jokes!

I’ll end this post with a picture with the birthday girl herself! They say I look like her, but I beg to disagree. I’m obviously better looking (she might kill me for saying this hahahaha. I was kidding)

Since I am a photo blogger (kunwa-kunwarian), here’s a photo of my seatmates and I today! :) That’s Nicollo, Elise and Nando. Today was cancer awareness day and we were allowed to wear any colored shirt of our choice depending on which cancer we pick to support. :)

*photo courtesy of Javi with a little editing by me. :)

So if you’re wondering what happened today, here’s my day in bullet form- plus a little bit detail about it:

• Morning Rehearsals. I don’t usually enjoy morning rehearsals, but as the year started and we all got back from our vacation, it was extra fun for us. For me, Tim and Angelo (or Mesina, as most people call him). They’re quite a bundle of joy and today was just different. We were all hyper for some reason. hehehehe
• Art Class. Joey Ynion, Mr Gwapito, is my partner. No joke. He’s really super gwapo. During our pair work, Nando and Dacky sat beside us and as I expected, we didn’t stop laughing! I usually dread art class because I’m not very artistic, but today was definitely an exception. :)
• Accounting. Ito, sobrang babaw lang hahahaha pero keribels. Our Accounting teacher, MS FATTIE, said, VERY GOOD, to me! hahahaha. Okay sobrang babaw. But I’m really the type of person that appreciates gold stars and compliments so YAY!!!
• Political Science. That news report I was working on for an hour last night, my teacher liked it! Another gold star for me!
• Lunch. Oo, pati lunch may nangyari saking maganda! I got to catch up with my two best friends, Mikee and Kiana! ! We barely hang out now, and it just felt nice to know that we’re still closer than ever!
• Physical Science. Basically, the gold stars kept on coming. Our teacher liked our presentation. I’m really trying to do my best for the third term since it’s my last for high school. :(
• Recess. Something happened in the clinic. Unfortunately, I cannot elaborate on this, but if you were my close friend you’d laugh hahahaha
• English and Math. Usually I find Math such a drag, but today was different. It was full of laughter for both subjects and I don’t even remember why I was laughing!

Basically today was full of laughter and craziness. I DIDN’T get to have it the way I wanted it to play out, but it was so much better. Oh! And Joey gave me a preview of the song he’s making me. HOT DAYUUUUM! I’m so excited to hear the rest! Enjoy the rest of the week guys! :)

Where: Luneta Park, Manila

When: January 2, 2012

Why: Christmas Vacation!

Before going to Luneta, we went to MOA and watched Segunda Mano. Afterwards, we just strolled around and look what they have there! It’s still so Christmas-y inside!

We didn’t watch with the oldies so they were stuck in Cafe France. hehehe.

While walking, we came across more Christmas decorations in the middle of MOA!

Meet my friend, Elise. hehehehe. kidding. She just resembles her a bit, doesn’t she? :)

Then we all just decided to settle in Starbucks because we were all pretty tired from our movie marathon the previous day. We watched 7 movies and slept at 3:30am :O

Then, it was finally Luneta time! The experience itself was fun. Maybe because it was my first time, but overall I thought it was too much. I mean, there were people literally sleeping in the park. There were so much vendors and they didn’t even go there to see Rizal’s monument because it was blocked by feets of caution tape. They were all there to see the Dancing Fountain! I just thought the essence of the park itself, was totally gone. I don’t know, maybe I just imagined it to give me a feel like how I felt like when I first set my foot in Central Park way back then…

This has got to be my favorite pose: hold back pack to avoid awkward hands pose hehehe

Yes, I’m younger than her!

Picture with Cinderella’s carousel. Pretty neat!

The amusing dancing fountain! I’ll probably post a video of it soon.

At around 11pm, we were all hungry and my dad decided to pull over in the Shell by Macapagal Ave.

Overall, it was a pretty good day with my cousins. It sucks that they live all the way from Bicol, though, because they had to go home that exact same night. Nevertheless, it was a pretty good way to end their vacation here in Manila. :)

Where: Our House

Why: New Years Eve

Before you wonder why I’m so late, I’m sorry for not posting earlier. It’s just that my year has been quite busy. January 1st I had a movie marathon with my cousins, January 2nd I went to Luneta (which I will blog about as soon as I get a hold of those pictures), January 3rd I had to run errands for mother dear, January 4th I had school and when I got home, I collapsed in my bed. hehehe I’m actually supposed to finish a powerpoint presentation to be sent to our teacher by tonight, but I got some time to spare. :)

We welcomed the year with sparklers and watching fireworks from our house. Our New Year’s Eve was just like any other New Year, but we actually got to celebrate it with my cousins, again, from Bicol! Remember them from my previous post?

You’re probably wondering why we’re all wearing yellow. Well, my parents were watching this TV program, I think it was Bandila, and then they announce that Yellow and Green are the lucky colors of 2012. I guess my parents only remembered yellow and forced all of us to wear the color.

After my sister’s sparkler exploded in her hand, we all just settled on waiting for the clock to strike 12 peacefully hehehe

When it was finally 2012, we more or less just jumped like crazy (partly to get taller), danced our asses off and marvel at the wonderful fireworks display all the way from Manila. It was amazing!

The only risk-takers in our family: My father and my Lola, who both seem to be having the time of their lives with the sparklers hehehe

After about an hour of welcoming 2012, and five hours starving ourselves, we finally ate dinner. Our first dinner on 2012. :) It was a simple dinner, but it was definitely a good way to start the year.