Life’s Lessons

It took days before my post about Day 1 of our Manila getaway was followed with Day 2. But since Day 2 is full of activities and photos, I had to split it into two and posted Day 2 Part 1 days ago. Now I finally decided to post the part 2 of day 2 and finish this chronicle of our trip before the year ends.

After Tiendesita’s, we went to Regalla Towers to visit Ace’ Dad. We stayed there for a while waiting for Ace’ childhood close friend (schoolmate and classmate until HS) and neighbor Kikit (Ace’ best man during our wedding) who fetched us with his “girlfriend” – his months-old brand new car! Kikit drove us to SM Mall of Asia. It was such a long drive (not to mention the traffic) from north to south.

We’re supposed to have dinner here but took photos first (thanks Kit for taking for this photo) Read more… »

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After delaying posting Day 2 of our Manila Getaway, now I don’t have a choice but to post it. Or else it will remain under my to-do list until next year. For those who missed our Day 1, check it out here.

To start the super eventful Day 2, Ace asked Nai if the bus we’re going to take is like the one he’s seeing on TV where passengers will run after it just to be able to get in. He was answered “no”. So the bus adventure started when Borski and Nai stepped inside the bus first. I should be following them but had to give way to an old man. That old man stepped back and went to the rear end so I followed him (Ace was also following me) thinking that the bus has two doors. When I realized there’s no other door, I went back and the bus is already running slowly. Afraid that we might be left behind, I pushed Ace to get in first because he’s nearer the door and followed him immediately. In times like this, my adrenaline works faster than Ace.LOL. Just when we were seated, the bus came to a full stop for the traffic light turned RED. Bummer! Read more… »

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This is an overdue post. Blame it to my laziness and the crawling internet connection that took years uploading all photos to flickr.

Ace has never been to the country’s capital so when MIL phoned me more than three months ago informing me of Cebu Pacific Airfare promo, I didn’t have second thoughts so MIL booked us online using her CC. Thanks, Ma! Three months after the day that Ace have been waiting for has come. He is more than excited to set foot in Mega Manila and see before his bare eyes everything that he has only seen in TV and experience what it’s like to be in this place.

November 27 was our scheduled flight to Manila. So our adventure starts here…

Ace at the passenger lounge of the Davao International Airport while waiting for our flight

Upon check-in, I forgot to tell the attendant to give us starboard, window side seat but gladly, it was where we were seated. Thus I was able to get this aerial shot of Davao City

and enjoy the beautiful scenery from above

with clouds at my eye-level…can I touch it?

After one hour and fifity-five minutes (Ace become so impatient for that long flight. For him it was the longest!), this was what he saw from the aircraft’s window and he was beyond thrilled!

Especially when he saw this…..the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3

From the aircraft to the arrival area was a very long walk but we didn’t mind.

Not long after we have gone out of the baggage carousel area, Nai (Ace’ sister’s hubby) arrived. Before I forget, we invited Borski and Nai to join us in our getaway. Since Nai is reporting at their office in Fort Bonifacio Global City for quite sometime now, it’s only Borski who will fly from Dumaguete. So we waited for another hour for Borski to arrive.

But we have to go out because NAIA Terminal 3’s aircon is so cold and Ace was already chilling. Oh, he was nursing a fever the day before we left. And here’s what greeted him outside….

…outside arrival area…and Ace was saying “I can’t believe I’m breathing in Manila’s air”LOL

After almost an hour, Borski texted their plane just landed so we went back inside the super cold arrival area.

Here’s the funny part. While submitting ourselves and belongings for inspection, Ace forgot to take off his belt and the lady guard was almost touching his sides when he remembered his belt, backed off and blurted “TIME SA!” (Tag-Lish: wait lang; English: for a while/wait).LOL. The guard must have understood it and she giggled. Well, he’s not used to speaking our “Salitang ugat” (as what Nai call it) and unconsciously talks with his native tongue.

and before we headed to Nai’s place (we didn’t know they have a house in Las Piñas not until around 1 month before the scheduled trip so it was a blessing that we won’t be spending for our accommodation), we went up to the 3rd level of the terminal (Departure Area) where we will ride a taxi (because plug down rate at the arrival area is way too expensive than the rate at the departure area).

Here’s Ace at the Departure Area while waiting for Borski and Nai who rebooked Borski’s flight back to Dumaguete.

After a long ride to Nai’s place, we had dinner, cathed up for a while and called it a night for tomorrow’s gonna be a very long day.

P.S.

After doing this post, I realized Ace is the main character. Where am I in the picture? It’s as if I am a mother documenting her son’s first trip!LOL

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A vacation is one thing that most people is looking forward to. Who wouldn’t want it, anyway? It’s a way to forget about all the work concerns and any other stressors in life. It’s a chance to recompose ourselves, rekindle friendships, and keeping family ties together. I and Ace have been to a short vacation with friends, with his family, and with my family but never did we had a vacation for just the two of us. Hence I am also dreaming of a vacation for just the two of us. It might not be like a romantic vacation riviera maya or should I say a romantic vacation in one of the beach resorts along Riviera Maya because I know we cannot afford it this time or even in the near future, but I want to experience a vacation for us, alone. But if fairy godmother will grant me my wish, why not ask for that romantic vacation in Riviera Maya? Given the chance that it’s free, we will surely grab the opportunity to spend a few days or a week in the secluded white sand beaches of Riviera Maya and stay at one of the Karisma Hotels out there. I’m already dreaming!LOL.

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Twenty days to go and we’re off to the country’s capital. Until now I am not yet done with our itinerary…so many things to do, so many places to visit, so many people to meet up with just little time. I hope we can squeeze in everything in 4 days and 3 nights. The google map of Metro Manila is so helpful in planning our itinerary because I wanna make sure which area is near which (though I already know in which city those places we wanted to visit but I wanna make sure) to save time in travelling from point A, to point B, to point C. When Ace saw me looking at the google map, he asked if we still need to get a Metro Manila map to make sure that we won’t be lost. Why the map? We’re living in a third world country so global positioning system like  Garmin GPS thingie is not yet widely used. Only few are using it in the country (not even the authorities have it) so we’re relying on a pocket map when travelling to places that isn’t familiar to us.

Anyway, need to work on that itinerary and finalize it so we could inform our relatives and friends of our schedule for the meet ups.

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I’ll be flying to Cebu City tomorrow for a business trip….just a few hours of meeting with the COO and dinner with the rest of the team then the following day I am free to meet up with friends and churchmates! Yay! I am excited! Everything’s ready, just a few glitch with my luggage bag but it was okay now. I broke the lock so I could use it tomorrow (I’ll make a separate post about that). Anyway, with all my pending online tasks, I will really be working from there for more moolah in preparation for our trip to Metro Manila next month. Please pray for a safe trip.

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Yay! I received my first 100 4″x6″ free prints from Artscow.com last Friday. After 17 days of waiting (including Saturdays and Sundays)…finally the pouch arrived and I was so happy to see the prints. Indeed great colors and I love it so much! I only paid $5.99 for shipping fee (upon order) and PhP35 for the custom fee upon delivery (according to the postman everything have custom fees now including small parcels). I was just curious to see the print quality so months after my registration with them, I finally decided to give it a try by printing our photos during our trip to Camiguin Island and Cagayan de Oro City with some friends last year.

Since I am satisfied with the prints’ color and quality, I will be ordering more prints soon. There’s a lot of freebies actually but what I can afford and wanted to have are just prints so I need to utilize those freebies while they are still available for grabs in my account. Wanna avail of the tons of freebies and discounts? Register at Artscow.com and enjoy printing tons of your photos, make personalized photo gifts and a whole lot more!

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It’s been a week since we were booked for a flight to Metro Manila but I haven’t finalized our itinerary yet. Going up to the summer capital of the country – Baguio City – is included in the initial plan. But Ace seemed to change his mind. He was trying to convince me not to include it so we have more time going around the metro. Hmmmm….lemme think about that. What I forgot in the list is going to a theme park – either Enchanted Kingdom or Star City but I have to ask around which one is better. If only there’s Disney World in Manila, it would probably our first stop. Now that reminds of the Disney World Tickets that orlandofuntickets[dot]com is selling. After a week of writing about it in my other blogs, I thought I got over it but I am still stucked and drooling on Disney World. How I wish it’s just too near that we could go anytime if we want to have a great and fun time!

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Metro Manila, here we come!

In his entire life, Ace hasn’t been to the capital of the country while I had more than a couple of work-related visits there when I was still working not to mention that I’ve been there for a month when I was in HS and during Mamang’s hospitalization in Veteran’s Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City 3 years ago. However, I wasn’t able to visit all the must-see places during the times that I was in Metro Manila. What moves me is Ace asking me “ganyan talaga ang makita mo dun sa Manila, Neng?” (that’s what you will really see in Metro Manila?) referring to the sky scrapers, the wide roads, the skyway, the traffic, the huge shopping malls, etc. Poor Ace. He hasn’t been to that place ever since he lived. So I was always telling him we will go there someday for him to experience what’s life in the Metro and to see those things that he is only seeing in TV….and we are flying there on November! Yipeee!

As early as now I am already planning our itinerary and has been checking the map of Metro Manila for the location of the places I have in mind so we could make the most out of our time there. We are also going up to Tagaytay City and Baguio City (Lord willing) but we won’t be staying long there. I just want Ace to see Tagaytay (as I’ve been there during my URC days) and then we will be going up to Baguio for I, myself hasn’t seen Baguio ever since. Also, we are hoping to meet friends and relatives so this trip will be packed of activities. Oh well, we are so excited for this trip. Hope things will go well as planned. Keeping my fingers crossed!

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It has been a long weekend and some of Ace’ colleagues from different departments went for an out-of-town trip somewhere in the north. I would really love to go but Ace has different priority (which is to secure the documents and money for our reservation fee for the house and lot) hence we stayed. Besides, we don’t have a tent where to sleep during the 2-days and 1 night nature trekking and camping. The reason why I wanted to go? Because it would be a great photo op and I wanted to travel. If only we have an RV (in my dreams!), being on the road and camping would be one of our activities during long weekends. But then  RVs in our part of the globe is seen as a luxury (because it is not widely used here). Besides, I think there would be problem with finding a reputable rv insurance company aside from Good Sam VIP to cater the needs of RV owners. The company offers the most comprehensive insurance designed for RVs so owners need not to worry about their RVs should it needs replacement or repair of some major parts. Well, I hope in the next few years I could see RVs around here for if we cannot afford an RV, just seeing one would satisfy me.

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