cartwheels seven times around the oval..

30 day photography challenge: day 26

2011-06-22T23:37:00.006+08:00

{a photo playing with shadows}

lattice

30 day photography challenge: day 24

2011-06-21T21:56:00.005+08:00

{a photo that has a color scheme}

my scheme

30 day photography challenge: day 14

2011-06-16T23:09:00.007+08:00

{a photo focusing on eyes}

intent on wall-e

30 day photography challenge: intermission 2

2011-06-16T23:00:00.001+08:00

there will be quite a hiatus in photo challenge posting..

im currently in singapore and i don't have my macbook with me.. :p

while i will strive to take photos daily, i won't be able to post them daily.. i will just back-post to the day i took them by next week.. :p

also, as to the new order i posted.. i still wasn't able to follow the order.. :( so i will just try to complete the subjects as the opportunity arises.. :p

30 day photography challenge: day 20

2011-06-15T23:23:00.003+08:00

{a photo of whatever you please}

satsuki

30 day photography challenge: day 27

2011-06-13T21:47:00.000+08:00

{a photo using the sun as your lighting}

refraction

30 day photography challenge: day 18

2011-06-12T23:13:00.000+08:00

{a photo depicting an emotion}

happy birthday boy

30 day photography challenge: day 21

2011-06-11T23:56:00.001+08:00

{a photo of the sunset}

the sun's descent

30 day photography challenge: day 23

2011-06-10T23:51:00.000+08:00

{a photo that makes you think of childhood}

lactobacilli shirota strain

30 day photography challenge: day 22

2011-06-09T23:53:00.005+08:00

{a photo of the person you love}

lost in thought

30 day photography challenge: intermission

2011-06-09T23:44:00.000+08:00

so i missed 2 more days.. :( due to not feeling well again.. :(

also, some subjects simply cannot be done inside our condo late at night.. :p there are also at least 3 days where the subject needs to be a person and gabs is most unwilling.. :p

so, i've re-shuffled the days for outdoorsy topics to be on weekends and for people topics to be when i would be with other people.. :p i've kept the whatever topics on the days that they should fall except the one that would fall on a weekend..

here's my new order:

day 22: a photo of the person you love
day 23: a photo that makes you think of childhood
day 21: a photo of the sunset
day 29: a photo with clouds
day 20: a photo of whatever you please
day 24: a photo that has a color scheme
day 14: a photo focusing on eyes
day 18: a photo depicting an emotion
day 25: a photo of whatever you please
day 19: a photo that involves landscape
day 28: a photo that incorporates motion
day 27: a photo using the sun as your lighting
day 26: a photo playing with shadows
day 30: a photo of whatever you please

i hope to be able to stick to this already.. :p

30 day photography challenge: day 17

2011-06-06T22:16:00.000+08:00

{a photo with street lights}

city of blinding lights

monthly highlights: may

2011-06-06T21:48:00.001+08:00

may was a quieter month.. spent on much needed rest after march and april.. :p that's not to say that things on the work front wasn't still very heavy, even with christa back.. so may still went by very quickly.. :p

*****

aileen went home again for a weekend to attend a friend's wedding.. so we had the requisite dinner together.. :p

on our first walking around mckinley hill, we saw the enderun campus.. it's a very nice campus.. so we decided to have dinner there when aileen comes..

photo by sol

on the night of our dinner, it so happens that there was a wedding.. and the restaurant was just separated from the function hall by a glass wall.. so we get to watch it.. :p

the food was very good.. at least mine was.. :p unfortunately, i wasn't able to take photos.. :( i ordered the forest mushroom soup with truffle foam.. it was very close to the very best mushroom soup i've had.. which was the one we cooked in intercontinental hotel in frankfurt.. :p

circa 2007, i forgot who took this already

for mains, i had the veal with morel sauce.. it was very yummy as well.. we also had dessert.. the only one i have a photo of..

but it was just ok.. it doesn't compare with the one we had in rome.. haha.. i should have tried the louis xv instead.. well, maybe next time.. :p

as always, when we get aileen and jeanie together, it's laugh trip to the max.. the best phrase being.. "may alzheimer's ka ba?" :p

*****

since franz is getting married this october, he decided to learn how to cook this summer..

so for mother's day, he and my dad decided to go for homecooked meals instead..

unfortunately, they didn't tell me of this plan ahead of time so i could have baked dessert as well..

instead, i ordered from carla and elaines's.. but upon coming there, they have no record of my order of toffee almond.. and no toffee almond available anymore.. boo-ness.. i was sooo disappointed.. even though chocolate decadence was good.. i still wanted the toffee almond.. :( and i wish i baked instead.. :(

anyway, we still had an enjoyable dinner.. and i believe it was a happy day for mom.. :p

*****

we had a diy session at sol's place for chase's 7th birthday.. with a dragons & vikings theme.. which used to be a book party theme.. but after aissa's art party, he suddenly changed it because it was boring.. ais was bummed at first.. but i have to admit, i got excited because it's more fun to implement.. and i immediately sent her ideas on how we can execute it.. so she got excited as well.. :p

as ais already blogged, ais and i made viking helmets..

while sol made dragon tails..

photo by ais

i also made the volcano.. which was the most juvenile of the crafts.. haha..

and of course, a diy day & a day at sol's wouldn't be complete without a food fest.. sol and their helpers prepared a fabulous lunch of pasta, fish, and veggies.. ais bought treats from serenitea and cake from carla and elaine's.. while john bought barbeque and starbucks for snacks (yeah, they really go together :p).. we also had fabulous twg earl grey tea.. :p

*****

i also started a 30 day photo challenge that i found on pinterest.. it's a real challenge to take a photo everyday.. especially on weekdays where after a very long day at work, i still needed to cook our dinner and lunch for the next day.. so i wind up taking photos very late at night when i'm already very sleepy.. :p

it was also a challenge to be limited on the subjects i can find at our place.. since i can't really go out to find subjects nor take photos in the office.. :p

i already consider it an achievement to have gone the first 13 days without fail.. even though i'm not really happy with some of my photos.. i slipped last friday coz i had a pounding headache.. and i don't really have a subject for that theme.. :p i'll just get back to it later on.. :p

still, it was fun to push my creativity in finding subjects and styling the shoot.. here are my favorites..

30 day photography challenge: day 16

2011-06-05T23:41:00.003+08:00

{a photo experimenting with light trails}

love in the dark

30 day photography challenge: day 15

2011-06-04T23:25:00.000+08:00

{a photo of whatever you please}

sweet cravings

30 day photography challenge: day 13

2011-06-02T23:22:00.000+08:00

{a photo edit that you like}

lovely in vintage

30 day photography challenge: day 12

2011-06-01T23:36:00.009+08:00

{a photo experimenting with bokeh}

piccolo

30 day photography challenge: day 11

2011-05-31T23:44:00.000+08:00

{a black and white photo}

shine

30 day photography challenge: day 10

2011-05-30T22:58:00.000+08:00

{a photo of whatever you please}

the sun and the moon

30 day photography challenge: day 9

2011-05-29T23:09:00.000+08:00

{a photo of something from a distance}

a peek into a crane

30 day photography challenge: day 8

2011-05-28T23:46:00.014+08:00

{a photo of something close-up}

coffee time

30 day photography challenge: day 7

2011-05-27T22:32:00.000+08:00

{a silhouette photo}

Messiah

30 day photography challenge: day 6

2011-05-26T23:15:00.000+08:00

{a photo from a low angle}

booksteps

30 day photography challenge: day 5

2011-05-25T22:45:00.001+08:00

{a photo of whatever you please}

a kiss

30 day photography challenge: day 4

2011-05-24T23:42:00.001+08:00

{a photo from a high angle}

inner fire

30 day photography challenge: day 3

2011-05-23T22:19:00.001+08:00

{a photo of your favorite place to be}

home is where the heart is

30 day photography challenge: day 2

2011-05-23T01:04:00.000+08:00

{a photo of what you wore today}

purple cascade

30 day photography challenge: day 1

2011-05-22T12:03:00.001+08:00

{a photo of yourself}

I read; I travel; I become

Derek Walcott

30 day photography challenge..

2011-05-20T22:33:00.000+08:00

Source: superbarbs.tumblr.com via Sarah on Pinterest

browsing pinterest on iphone, i was immediately drawn to this pin, even on small view, because of the camera illustration and the color scheme.. :p

upon closer look, i saw that it's a 30-day photography challenge.. and that the camera is a canon dslr..

pretty illustration.. pink & gray.. canon dslr.. it seemed meant to be.. :p

i haven't really gotten onboard the 365-day challenges because i definitely cannot commit that long.. 30 days seem more reasonable..

although i still somewhat doubt that i'll be able to fulfill this daily, i'll do the best i can to shoot and post regularly and definitely finish the 30, even if not within 30 days.. :p

pins of the week: jane austen

2011-05-16T23:49:00.000+08:00

i love jane austen..

Source: ohhellofriendblog.com via Sarah on Pinterest

a cameo pendant on the first page of pride and prejudice? how very fitting..

Source: ohhellofriendblog.com via Sarah on Pinterest

oh i wish all books were available as penguin's hardcover classics..

Source: ohhellofriendblog.com via Sarah on Pinterest

macau escapade: historical macau

2011-05-08T23:57:00.000+08:00

our first stop was largo de senado.. we asked our hotel reception how to get there.. i was expecting instructions for a bus ride.. but the receptionist told us it was only a 10-15 minute walk.. so we walked.. unfortunately, she seemed to be a relative of aren so it took us 30-45 minutes in reality and we also got a little lost (right direction, longer way) because compared to all the travels i have done, macau has the crappiest city map i have ever seen.. it also doesn't help that most of all you see are chinese signs.. :p

anyway, finally we arrive in largo de senado.. as it was close to noon and oh so very hot (very different from the weather forecast of 22 degrees).. the first thing we did was take shelter in a tent at the center of a square.. :p my shots were mainly from this vantage point.. :p it was also very difficult to get a clean shot as there were throngs of people..

i waited for the throng to thin a bit.. :p

so i took shots above head level.. :p

i really like the colorful buildings..

the presence of a crowd didn't stop us from taking our antenna out and taking couple shots.. ignoring the stream of tourists staring at us.. :p

and with patience, i still got to take shots of the mosaic pavement tiles that seemed so characteristic of historical macau..

afterwards, we headed over to st. paul's ruins.. but before that, we passed by other landmarks along the way..

first up is st. dominic's church.. a very yellow church right by the square..

it looked very much like philippine churches..

then we made a detour to the cathedral of macau..

it's very simple..

but i like the colorful chapels..

outside, the bishop's palace is next to the cathedral..

and there was also a square on the other side.. where we crossed over to get a shot with the catherdral.. :p

we then headed back on the path to st. paul's ruins..

we stopped by the lou kau mansion..

it's an old chinese mansion that's now open for tourists.. and there are some handicrafts for sale inside..

we just went in and i was unsure whether photography was allowed so these are the only shots i got.. :p

afterwards, we got ourselves some milk tea across the street coz it was scorching hot..

we were already at st. paul's ruins when i took this shot

then finally we climbed up to st. paul's ruins.. where there is such a huge throng of people.. there is no way you can get an entire shot of the facade without strangers in it..

so i again went above head level.. :p

i did like landscaping by the steps..

but the giant pandas by the sides are weird..

so we decided to have a picture with one.. :p and we weren't the only ones taking photos with the pandas.. :p

then we went "inside" to see what remains of the foundation..

and went inside the crypt.. and stayed there.. because it was air conditioned.. :p

you can see the bones of the martyrs by the sides..

afterwards we went to the temple by the side.. from the guides, it seemed much larger than it actually was..

we were already very tired and parched, but since we were there already (and didn't see any place nearby where we can eat), we headed over to monte fort..

crossing from st. paul's ruins, we see a fork, left side macau museum, right side monte fort.. so we went right.. and endured a long and precarious trek up..

and when we reached the top, we get to the macau musuem..

and found out that we could have gone the museum route and used the escalators instead.. not to mention being indoors with air conditioning.. huge fail.. :p

monthly highlights: april

2011-05-05T22:33:00.000+08:00

*** this post was started on may 2, monday

where had april gone?

i didn't even feel it was may already yesterday! as i wrote my macau intro and was writing day 1.. i kept thinking i didn't have to write april highlights yet, as it still wasn't may 1.. how stupid.. hahaha..

anyway.. april started with christa's wedding.. continuing the no-weekend rest from march..

it was my first time attending a wedding in manila cathedral.. it was nice.. though i found it weird that anyone can just come in..

we arrived late.. would you believe we got lost after all those times we went to intramuros checking out venues?? anyway.. the bridal car was parked right at the entrance.. there were koreans taking photos with it.. so i thought the bridal march was done already.. but as we got closer, we saw christa still in the car.. sooo weird of these koreans to be posing with the bridal car with the bride in it.. then as the ceremony went on.. there was this father-son tourists who went inside.. they were taking photos.. not of the cathedral.. but of christa and ian! we are sure it was just them they were taking photos of because we can see from the camera lcd that it was zoomed in.. hehehe.. :p

their reception was at la castellana.. it's a nice venue but quite risky during summer as it can get very hot without airconditioning.. lucky for them, it wasn't full blown summer yet during then.. i did plan my outfit and hair based on potential warm temp.. hehehe.. :p

christa's wedding is the main reason i'm so busy.. she took a wedding leave from mid-march to end of april.. and i was her backup.. so it's good that april ended already so i can dump her work back to her.. hehehe.. :p

*****

next, we had our trip to macau..

top tourist spots are st paul's ruins and largo de senado..

we also visited st dominic's church, macau cathedral, and monte fort.. and as ais said, the venetian was a tourist spot on its own..

we crossed over to hongkong for shopping and a bit of sight seeing as well.. but that's a huge fail.. as jeanie would say, andami talagang chinese sa china.. :p i really didn't appreciate the huge throng of people..

the second half of our vacation was more relaxed.. although my OC-ness got a little bit stressed with planning the next stop on our current stop.. hehehe.. :p

*****

even though it's part of the macau trip, of course i'd like to highlight our 1 year anniversary..

17 april 10

17 april 11

it's still difficult to believed it's been a year.. sometimes it seems just yesterday that we tied the knot.. sometimes it seems longer.. :p

there hasn't really been a lot of changes with regards to our relationship.. but it's a huge change living on our own.. lots of chores.. hehe.. but it's fun playing house.. experimenting on cooking and baking.. catching up on tv series together.. and plainly hanging out together at home.. :p

*****

coming back from macau, we worked for two days then headed off to ilocos.. almost 10 years together and yet this is the first time that gabs is going to ilocos.. my brothers' girlfriends have already taken previous vacations with our family ahead of him.. :p

we stayed for one night in hannah's resort in blue lagoon.. it's a crappy resort.. i won't recommend it and we're never staying there again..

it's also sad that our once paradise of a beach has now been commercialized.. it's still not boracay level or even bohol level.. but you know me, i really don't like people..

but if you walk to the far side of the beach, it's much less crowded.. so we trudged over there.. and just relaxed on the water.. and so i've got wicked sunburn.. :p

i was looking forward to spending a night on the beach so i can take sunset shots.. but i was too tired from swimming that i fell asleep.. i was planning to take sunrise shots, but i wasn't feeling very well the next day.. so boo.. no beach photos..

what i have instead is gabs' panorama shot taken with his iphone..

my photos from previous years are here and here..

since this is gabs' first time in ilocos, we toured him through the tourist spots..

paoay church

sarrat church

malacanang of the north

this includes the herencia restaurant which serves pinakbet and dinuguan pizza.. :p

(l) dinuguan pizza (r) longanisa pizza (we devoured the pinakbet pizza before i got a shot :p)

*****

with the two travels for the month, merely 2 days apart, left me feeling tired and needing another vacation.. :p

and i'd also like to attribute my confusion of dates to that.. hehehe.. :p

macau escapade: introduction

2011-05-01T09:31:00.000+08:00

for our anniversary, we wanted to go somewhere we've never been.. where there's a mixture of sightseeing, shopping, and relaxation.. at the same time not break the bank as we are still recovering from our euro trip and singapore stint.. :p

we considered macau.. mostly known for being the vegas of asia, it still has some historical sites to be seen.. there was also the lure of electronics in hongkong.. and then there was a seat sale.. so it was settled.. :p

unfortunately, being very very busy these past months, i wasn't really able to plan much for the trip.. after booking the flight and hotel, i placed the trip planning on the backseat.. so unlike me.. even packing was left on the day of our departure..

(i feel obligated to disclose though that while i say i wasn't able to prepare, less OC people would still say i prepared enough :p)

we had four days in our vacation.. the only itinerary i made was this:

day 1 - sightseeing in historical macau

day 2 - cross over to hongkong

day 3 - cross over to the other island of macau

day 4 - shopping and potentially more sightseeing

1 year

2011-04-17T10:31:00.001+08:00

1 year since the big day..

1 year of adventures..

1 year of challenges..

1 year of blessings..

1 fabulous year

this is our happily ever after

pins of the week: maps

2011-04-10T01:12:00.000+08:00

i love maps.. and the lovely things you can do with them..

Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: curatingcuteness.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

100

2011-04-09T14:43:00.000+08:00

so.. i've finally hit my hundredth post..

it's kinda pathetic that it took almost 7yrs after my first post to reach this.. :p

still, i consider it a milestone.. so i will now look back to the past 7 years..

2004
i joined the blogging bandwagon together with pisay peeps..
blog posts consisted mainly of mundane time-killing entries.. with a sprinkling of photon & superfriends entries..
and even then i already wanted to get into the wedding business.. :p
it makes me cringe now to see the photoshop works i did before and the web images i used with my posts then though.. :p

2005
this year showed more office-related entries.. as well as relationship-related (though not mine) entries..
i started with photo posts.. and i realize now that my photos then were awful.. hahaha..
and i started vacation and travel blogging with galera, india, and bangkok..

2006
there was only one post for 2006, though it was a very long one detailing our trip to cambodia..
i guess this was the time i got really stressed with work.. although it was this work that allowed me to travel to singapore (with a side trip to malaysia), korea, india again, japan, and prague in one year..

2007
this year showed the most number of posts so far.. though the number has been padded by photo of the week posts..
it showed my decay into disillusionment and hatred of the world (work world).. although i was able to seek solace with my work friends.. who also hate the same crappy world.. but are still in it with me until now.. :p well except for aileen.. :p

2008
the only 2 posts here showed photos and still my hate of the world..
but instead of wallowing in despair, i distracted myself with other interests..
in the beginning of the year, i used shopping as a therapy to all my stress.. so i started my addicted to shopping blog..
later on in the year, we got engaged.. and my interest turned to all things wedding.. so i also started a wedding blog.. which i was able to maintain fairly regularly.. unlike this blog, i was able to get to 110 posts in 2 years.. :p

2009 and 2010
there weren't much updates here anymore as i was really focused on wedding preps.. and after the wedding, i didn't seem that i had enough free time..

whew.. that was one long trip back to memory lane..

some things i realized:
my posts then are more trivial.. and i wasn't able to cover major highlights like my friends' weddings.. the travels that were so much fun due to craziness with friends.. there was nothing on photon christmas parties at all.. and not much at all about my family and about me and gabs..

i miss the comments.. it was fun reading the comments from 2004 and 2005.. it's so reminiscent of the greenhouse days.. :p

just like i've been a delinquent blogger.. so have most of my friends.. and i miss their writing.. facebook and twitter updates are not the same.. :p

so moving forward.. just as i had started for 2011 already.. i intend to capture as much of the things important to me (spending time with family and friends).. and keep inspired and focus on creative endeavors.. :p

the school bus experiment..

2011-04-06T23:23:00.000+08:00

so i mentioned that we moved to our office in mckinley hill..

logistically, this poses an issue with me and gabs as we would no longer have the convenience of both working in ortigas.. logically, our routine should now be him driving to his tektite office.. then me taking the car to mckinley since i have free parking and it would consume less gas than him driving me to taguig then going back to ortigas.. but of course i don't want to drive through traffic.. :p

good thing for us then that sol, jeanie, aren, and i started on this school bus experiment.. sol figured we were all "on the way" to office.. so she turned her car into a school bus.. she will pick aren up from shang (where she gets off the mrt).. then she'll go to our condo.. then we'll pick up jeanie in kapitolyo.. and then she'll use my parking.. :p

as added incentive for waking up early (we arrive in the office before 9am), we have breakfast in the office.. also, since we want to avoid the rush hour traffic going home, we figured we'll just have dinner in the office as well.. so apart from the riding a "school bus," we are also carrying big "lunch boxes" containing our breakfast, lunch, and dinner.. and sometimes snacks too.. :p

and since we are too sedentary (ie gaining a lot of weight :p), we decided we will go walking around mckinley hill before going home.. :p the funny thing about it though.. we don't want to change into a working out attire.. so we brisk walk in our office clothes.. and rubber shoes.. :p if you're already thinking that we look ridiculous while brisk walking.. you ought to have seen me today in my most ridiculous brisk walking outfit yet.. i had a client presentation today so i was in formal business attire complete with pearl earrings.. :p i did lose the blazer while walking.. but i was still in a satiny frilly blouse tucked in a pencil skirt.. and pink socks and white & yellow rubber shoes.. how wonderful.. :p

but going for a brisk walk is a great way to end our workday.. especially a very stressful workday.. it allows us to unwind and release endorphins.. so our school bus ride home is full of tsismis and pepperfy! ideas.. and not work rants.. :p

so so far, our school bus experiment is working great.. :p

monthly highlights: march

2011-04-05T23:25:00.002+08:00

march was a very busy month.. as evidenced by the huge dip in blog posts.. :p

i didn't have a single free weekend to rest.. and that left me feeling very tired towards the end of the month.. although it's also due to the unnecessary stress i had the past two weeks.. still, it's been a very fun month..

it started with a trip to singapore..

aside from our awesome mad hatter tea party baby shower..

we also had our fill of our favorite food in singapore..

and loads of craft stuff.. :p

*****

next was a superfriends shopping date.. we were supposed to watch a movie as well, but black swan wasn't showing anymore..

we started our day with lunch at eat well.. then we went around the shops in galle.. but not much piqued our interest.. ais and joan both bought shoes in payless, but not much styles are available for my size.. i did make up for it in accessorize.. :p

not content, we decided to head over to megamall to tackle forever21.. and success.. :p

*****

next event was aissa's art themed 30th birthday bash..

john contacted me to ask for help in planning for aissa's party.. still on a high with planning maj's shower, i immediately got back with 4 theme ideas (over-riding john's initial idea.. hehehe).. i got most inspired with the art theme.. especially since holding it it picasso boutique is so perfect.. :p

the party was fun.. and i believe ais loved it.. so it's a success.. :p

aside from the high of another successful pepperfy! party, it was great catching up again with photon.. we hardly see each other.. usually it's just weddings and christmas parties now..

*****

the following week, we moved to our new office in mckinley hill..

we've been dreading this move.. mainly because it's too far.. and secondarily because of losing the convenience of being walking distance to shangri-la and megamall and losing food options..

it has been delayed for months, but finally it pushed through.. there are still a lot of unfinished items.. but it's pretty useable already.. and much better than i was expecting.. two things that are significant improvement from our previous building: elevators and washrooms.. the pantry is also much more maaliwalas.. with a nice view of the venice piazza..

*****

for the last weekend, we had our team offsite in silang, cavite..

the place was great..

except for the bathrooms.. which unfortunately was a very big minus.. :( and it was very very cold during the night..

after the morning coffee talk and the afternoon games, i played stylist again and directed our team's photo shoot of chicago the musical.. :p

after dinner, it was videoke and mahaba habang kwentuhan until the wee hours of the morning.. i had to play bantay as hoz left to sleep early.. what a gentleman.. :p

but it was fun.. and we got to keep current in the team chismis.. our favorite being sherwan's tale of his love interest.. it kept us going through the stressful week ahead.. :p

and that completes the highlights of a very eventful.. very tiring.. but very fun month.. :p

aissa's pARTy: teaser photos

2011-03-21T22:32:00.000+08:00

and now for the last personal project that i dared not allude to in this blog.. :p

john contacted me for help on planning aissa's 30th party.. he was thinking of a spa-rty.. and i went back with a powerpoint and turned it into a pARTy.. :p

here are some teaser photos..

pins of the week: tea things

2011-03-14T01:52:00.000+08:00

because of our recent tea party, i've been obsessed with tea things..

source

and i have a whole board just for them..

source

and now i want to start a physical collection.. :p

source

tea party baby shower: teaser photos

2011-03-09T22:53:00.000+08:00

i can now reveal the personal project that has been taking up my time..

we went to singapore last weekend to host a baby shower for maj.. in true pepperfy fashion, i has to be themed and full of diy items..

here are some teaser photos..

sleep-deprived post..

2011-03-04T00:54:00.000+08:00

we flew to singapore very early this morning (actually, yesterday morning already).. we didn't sleep wednesday night anymore as we had to leave for the airport at 1:30am.. i was cramming lots of work stuff last wednesday, got home late, and had to cram packing in 3 hours.. it's so unlike me.. previously, i would start packing a week before a trip.. :p

i haven't had sleep since tuesday night yet.. i'm not counting the 3.5-hour flight because i really wasn't able to really sleep then.. and i can't sleep now even though i'm really really sleepy and tired since i'm still letting my hair dry..

anyway, with the help of coffee, i managed to function throughout the day.. and had a great time catching up, chismising, and shopping.. :p

more details on the trip when i get back.. :p

monthly highlights: february

2011-03-01T23:44:00.000+08:00

february zoomed by so fast.. and not just because it only has 28 days..

february started with the chinese new year.. and with that, aileen went home for vacation.. we had dinner in one of our favorite places.. dome.. because of comfy seats and churros.. :p

we were all quite tired from work.. it seemed that we wouldn't have any aileen & jeanie show.. but aren saves the night with her "scary" story.. it had us laughing to tears.. you had to be there.. but come on, i bet you never heard of a tiktik defined in this manner: "the tiktik flies in first, and then it makes the tiktik sound.. and then the aswang follows.." and if you know aren and her infamous accent, it's even funnier.. :p

*****

one time i checked facebook, i saw badong ask about joana's baby.. he wanted to see miggy again.. and i invited myself in.. :p

so joana, badong, vina, and i (+gabs) met up at yakimix trinoma.. eliza was supposed to join us, but she got called in to work..

miggy looks very different from when we saw him a year ago..

yakimix was so-so.. but it was a great time catching up with friends.. and talking about batchmates.. :p

*****

for the actual valentine's day, we decided to spend it at home..

the menu consisted of baked chili poppers, rib-eye steak with herbed butter, baked mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and molten chocolate cake.. i made everything from scratch.. and remembered to take photos.. :p and i brought out our corelle plates as it's a lot more photogenic than our everyday green plates.. :p

*****

we still celebrated valentine's outside though, the weekend after as is our usual.. we decided to go for heat, as we hadn't eaten there in a long time..

it's not as sulit as before anymore.. and not just because i couldn't eat as much as before anymore.. the selection is fewer and not as tasty..

but i still had my fill of seafood and dessert.. :p

*****

i've been really busy with lots of personal projects..

one of which is the plans for the house.. our not-even-dream house plan is a lot more costly than estimated.. but unlike the wedding, we really need to stick to our budget.. but also unlike the wedding, this time we don't have to have everything in one big bang..

one other project i can not reveal yet.. but have to get back to now so i should hit publish soon.. :p

*****

so that's february for you.. now let's march on to march.. :p

pins of the week: wrapping up the month of love

2011-02-27T22:38:00.000+08:00

with february ending, i leave you with the cute..

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the sweet..

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and the truth.. :p

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sleepy sunday..

2011-02-24T23:24:00.000+08:00

*** this post was started on feb 20, sunday

which unfortunately, i couldn't spend sleeping.. as our building has a power maintenance scheduled from 7am to 7pm today.. so it's either wake up early and get out of the house before 7am.. or sleep some more but walk down 34 floors to the parking.. or sleep some more and withstand 12hrs of no power..

so it's wake up early by a mile.. :p

we had thought of going on a road trip.. as we had just been to tagaytay, we thought of going to lipa just to eat at jake's.. we're craving for some good bulalo and bulalo steak.. :p

but we had some errands to run today.. so we had to postpone jake's for another time.. :p

instead we decided to check out mercato centrale.. i don't know if it was just too early, but it was actually kind of a disappointment.. there were lots of empty booths.. and we weren't able to find merry moo.. :( it was the main draw for me.. :(

we just had a quick breakfast of takoyaki and tina's pie cheese steak pie.. i've been wanting to try tina's pies for some time as well.. it was great and packed with meat.. i just find it too pricey for the size.. :p

we were done by 8am.. still too early to hit the malls..

so we transferred to the drive-through starbucks to dine in.. it's pretty huge for a starbucks.. but ironically, parking is pretty scarce..

even though we just had breakfast, we still ordered the mango yoghurt cheesecake.. :p

rightmost is my mango banana smoothie that we got from mercato centrale :p

then we whipped out our macs to pass the time.. it's been a long time since we've hang out in a coffee shop.. :p

*** up to this point i was writing this in starbucks.. :p

after we've killed enough time, we headed to greenhills.. it's also been a while since we've been to v-mall.. gabs wanted to check out the 2nd hand ps3 games.. and i wanted to check out iphone cases.. :p

while going around our usual stops.. i saw a hello lulu camera bag in pixel pro..

quick side story: after having gone through numerous trips using different camera bags, i really prefer the "swivel" type bags.. it rests on your back, but you can swivel it up front when you're ready to shoot.. the opening is just right for easy pull out of your camera.. i loved my tamrac velocity bag for the longest time.. it was a great trip companion.. until it got stolen along with my beloved s3is camera and other camera accessories.. when i bought a new camera, i looked for the same bag again.. but i couldn't find it in stock.. so i tried out lowepro slingshot..

now these two bags are great if you are going on trips or really going on full-day shooting.. but for normal events, they are too bulky to bring along.. not to mention un-pretty.. :p

enter hello lulu.. i really love hello lulu bags.. and now they've come up with camera bags!

however, the only color available in pixel pro was camel.. asking the saleslady, i find out that they come in pink and gray, it's just that they don't have stock..

i was really wanting that bag, but i wanted to check out the other colors..

knowing that there's a hello lulu stall in sm annex, we headed over there.. :p gabs was easy to convince to go for another change of venue as 2 floors of cyberzone was incentive enough for him.. :p

and success! i come home with a lovely camera bag (and a lovely laptop bag :p)

even though small, it has enough space for an extra lens and compartments for sd cards and extra battery and other accessories.. :p

after sm, we headed over to chocolate kiss in up to meet up with the architect to finalize the layout.. then we headed to our village to show him the lot..

since we were there already, we went to my parents' for snacks and dinner.. :p

afterwards, we dropped in on gabs' parents also.. to leave the books for kaiya.. septimus heap: magyk and goosebumps.. :p i'm really encouraging her new-found love for books.. :p

and that concludes our very long and tiring sunday.. which i would rather have spent sleeping in then just hanging out at home.. :p

pins of the week: accessories

2011-02-20T08:55:00.000+08:00

pretty accessories..

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that shows off my interests..

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but of course i wouldn't buy them for myself.. (*hint*hint* :p)

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homemade valentine..

2011-02-14T22:05:00.002+08:00

in the 10 years we have been celebrating valentine's day, we have never actually celebrated it on the day itself.. because we don't want to be stressed with the traffic, insufficient parking, and jam-packed restaurants..

but the beauty of being married is we can now celebrate valentine's day at home..

this time, i took photos.. :p

the flowers from gabs that i trimmed and arranged on a makeshift vase (a tall glass that i dressed up with decorative tape :p)..

the spread..

Appetizer:
Baked Chili Poppers

Main:
Rib-eye Steak w/ Herbed Butter

Sides:
Baked Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Asparagus

Wine:
Lambrusco Dell'Emilia Vino Frizzante Amabile

followed by dessert..

Dessert:

Molten Chocolate Cake

Viennese Coffee

ahh.. domesticated bliss.. :p

pins of the week: amazing photos

2011-02-14T00:05:00.001+08:00

i miss taking artistic photos..

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not that i ever really took photos as amazing as these..

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someday i would..

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euro trip 2010: first glimpses of rome

2011-02-13T11:59:00.000+08:00

after we had our breakfast, we checked out then waited quite a bit for the shuttle..

we chose seats at the very back because of our luggages.. :p

omg.. trees! and blue skies!

i got crazy over the sunny weather.. and it has only been a week of winter and snow! gosh.. i really can't imagine living in russia.. :p

there were quite a lot of sights and ruins that we passed by..

finally we arrived in the center.. although out journey to our 2nd hotel is far from over..

the bus dropped us off in teatro marcello (marked by a star below).. we had to walk quite a long way to the colosseo where the nearest metro is.. take the train to castro pretorio.. walk around the block to get to our hotel, hotel san marco..

since we had quite a walk ahead, i whipped out my camera to take in the sights and not let the sunny (!! so happy!) day go to waste..

i took these shots right by the bus stop, while gabs was fixing our luggage..

peeking on the left photo above is vittoriano.. a monument named after the first king of italy.. here are more views of the building..

i really liked this monument.. as evidenced by number of photos i'm sharing..

you can actually climb up the top of this monument so you can have a panoramic view of the city.. too bad we didn't have time to return here later on the trip..

across vittoriano are piazza venezia..

even with the giant tree, it no longer felt christmas-y without the snow.. :p

and piazza madonna di loreto where you can see the santa maria di loreto church and the trajan's column..

obviously, at the time of taking these photos, i didn't know that the trajan's column was that pole by the church.. so i didn't capture it significantly.. :p

now we're going by the forum of caesar..

and now finally, we see the colosseo in the horizon..

gabs is walking on ahead and couldn't wait to be rid of our luggages.. :p

the colosseo really is such a majestic sight..

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf
euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau
euro trip 2010: schwangau
euro trip 2010: schloss neuschwanstein
euro trip 2010: wrapping up schwangau
euro trip 2010: arriving in vienna
euro trip 2010: schonbrunn palace
euro trip 2010: karlskirche
euro trip 2010: a traditional viennese meal
euro trip 2010: stephansdom
euro trip 2010: other sights in vienna
euro trip 2010: belvedere palace
euro trip 2010: arriving in rome

euro trip 2010: arriving in rome

2011-02-13T10:31:00.000+08:00

our arrival in rome was 9pm.. taking into account after flight stuff and the distance to the city center.. we'll probably arrive there around 10-10:30pm. the express train from the airport ends in termini station.. the hotel we intended to stay at is a station away from there..

i've gone crazy with researching.. so i found some tips and reviews that made me wary of trying to find our not-so well known hotel at night.. they also said to avoid the termini station at night.. and it seemed that rome is a lot less safe than germany or vienna..

so we thought we'd go for hilton (which is supposedly right on the airport complex) on our first night.. i found that if you pay ahead, you get the room at almost half the price of the regular rate.. still higher than what we would spend in the city center.. but my excel budget worksheet told me it would be just fine.. :p besides, we get to save on 2 train tickets going into the city by using hilton's shuttle.. :p

thing is.. while hilton is connected to the airport by a walkway.. what they didn't say was the walkway consisted of at least 6 but maybe 8 long walkalators plus the short distance between them.. now you could go lazy and just stand on the walkalator.. but it would take ages before you get to hilton..

anyway, finally we arrived.. there was quite a wait before we could check in.. it was sooo inefficient for a hilton hotel..

the room was just pretty standard..

but we had no complaints with the room itself..

we just found this pull string labeled alarm pretty funny.. of course it's sensible.. but still.. :p

the next day, we had difficulty finding the breakfast place.. apparently there are renovations ongoing.. so breakfast was in a conference room instead.. the setup made it look like a cafeteria.. if your cafeteria has table cloths and table napkins.. :p

the selection of food was quite small as what you would expect a hotel like hilton would have.. but still there was enough selection to give us a reprieve from our diet the past week of cold cuts, cheese, and bread.. :p and well perhaps is the italian culture.. i read in my research, and gabs' client also told us, that we shouldn't expect much in the breakfast selection of the hotels.. typically it's just bread and jam.. :p

anyway, we made ourselves very full, and rightly so.. with the day ahead of us.. :p

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf
euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau
euro trip 2010: schwangau
euro trip 2010: schloss neuschwanstein
euro trip 2010: wrapping up schwangau
euro trip 2010: arriving in vienna
euro trip 2010: schonbrunn palace
euro trip 2010: karlskirche
euro trip 2010: a traditional viennese meal
euro trip 2010: stephansdom
euro trip 2010: other sights in vienna
euro trip 2010: belvedere palace

pins of the week: prints

2011-02-06T23:58:00.001+08:00

i love prints.. that are pretty and witty..

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euro trip 2010: belvedere palace

2011-02-06T11:20:00.000+08:00

our last stop in vienna was belvedere palace.. it was the summer palace of prince eugene of savoy.. now it's a museum that houses the work of several austrian artists..

it was again a very long trudge to get to this palace.. uphill too!

but finally we arrive..

this is the back of the upper belvedere.. and there was a christmas market again..

we couldn't find the entrance so we went around the long way..

and we find the very unassuming entrance..

across, you can barely see the lower belvedere..

and that huge expanse of snow typically is a very nice garden during non-winter times..

we didn't get to go to lower belvedere anymore due to lack of time..

again, it wasn't allowed to take photos inside.. and we couldn't puslit coz there's a guard at every corner.. :p

i contented myself with buying cards of the artworks..

the most highlighted artist was gustav klimt.. the ff. are his..

the kiss - the most highlighted of his pieces..

avenue in schloss kammer park and orchard with roses

cottage garden with sunflowers and the sunflower

i also bought one of monet's and one of van gogh's.. even if they're not austrian.. :p

monet - garten in giverny

van gogh - ebene von auvers (wheat fields near auvers)

the ff. are from austrian artist i don't know.. but found the pieces interesting..

schiele - vier baume (four trees)

schindler - spring in hacking

after going around the galleries.. and spending quite some time in the gift shop.. we were seriously tired already.. but of course we had to take more shots outside.. :p

i would have loved to take details shots but again the snow and the cold won't let me.. :p

euro trip 2010: other sights in vienna

2011-02-05T14:03:00.000+08:00

before we go to our last stop in vienna, i'll go through the places that we just glimpsed from the outside.. plus a bonus one.. :p

after karlskirche, we headed to the other end of the underground towards the opera house..

unfortunately, since it was winter, it was very dark out already even if it was just around 5pm.. we were barely able to stand the cold as well.. so the only shots i got are these..

plus the building in front..

one thing we didn't expect.. there were scalpers selling us tickets.. :p

*****

going back down to the underground.. we go to the bonus.. the opera toilet.. :p

"the opera toilet welcomes you with the danube waltz by johann strauss!

a theatrical ambience for nature's call"

gabs said it was a bit pressuring to be hearing the climax of the waltz expecting a thundering applause while attending to the call of nature.. :p

*****

the next day, after st stephen's.. we wanted to check out hofburg.. we knew we didn't have time to go inside but i still wanted to check out the exterior..

going out of the train station, we were greeted by minoritenkirche or minorite church..

we should have gone left to head over to hofburg.. but the map was confusing and we went right.. we were hoping following a certain tourist-looking couple would lead us to a touristy site that is hofburg.. :p

but we lost them.. and since we went in the wrong direction, what we saw instead was the burgtheater..

and across it is the rathaus..

yeah we trudged in this snow not know whether we were going in the right direction.. gabs wasn't pleased.. :p

there was also a christmas market in rathaus.. and once again the smell of food was sooo inviting.. but once again, there was the problem of where to eat.. :p

in the end, we trudged back to the station we got out of.. and then just ate lunch in an eatery there.. :p

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf
euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau
euro trip 2010: schwangau
euro trip 2010: schloss neuschwanstein
euro trip 2010: wrapping up schwangau
euro trip 2010: arriving in vienna
euro trip 2010: schonbrunn palace
euro trip 2010: karlskirche
euro trip 2010: a traditional viennese meal
euro trip 2010: stephansdom

no more great ideas down the drain..

2011-02-02T23:40:00.000+08:00

because the best ideas come to me while taking a bath..

i need this.. :p

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such ingenuity in the market these days.. :p

monthly highlights: january

2011-02-01T23:07:00.000+08:00

at the start of the year.. i thought of doing a "the year that was 2010 post".. i actually have it in my drafts..

but i couldn't think of much to write aside from our wedding, our honeymoon in bali, nesting together, and our euro trip.. i added my pmp certification and cooking escapades just to make it less lonely of a post.. although getting married was definitely huge.. :p

the point is, given that i was a delinquent blogger, it was hard remembering things.. and i'm supposed to be a sentimental fool..

so now i'll try to do a monthly highlights series.. :p

first highlight is of course my birthday.. that i celebrated 5 times.. and already wrote lengthily about yesterday.. :p

coupled with one of the celebrations is my second highlight.. my first real hostess escapade..

in the 6 months that we were in our condo, we've had guests 6 times only plus the 2 times that ais went over to wait for john to fetch her.. those 6 times are: (1) the first time my parents went over to check out the place.. we still had boxes all over and barely able to serve coffee plus the pastries that they brought.. (2) the time gabs' family went over so his niece and nephew can take a swim in the pool.. the food was brought by his parents.. we just provided the drinks again.. :p (3) the time my family went over so my aunt and brian could also check out the place.. we just had lunch delivered.. they brought dessert and we served coffee again.. :p (4) the time sol, jeanie, and aren went over to "work from home" so we can have time to sort out our pepperfy and craft crate stuff.. aren brought lunch to serve as belated celebration of her birthday.. i believe i again served coffee.. :p (5) my birthday where again sol, jeanie, and aren went over for brunch.. as mentioned in my previous post, i only made pancakes (the ready to cook kind) and served coffee.. the rest was courtesy of aren and sol..

the 6th time is my first real hostess escapade.. the time joan and ais went over..

ever since we moved in the condo, ais was already urging for a housewarming.. i kept saying that joan should host one first.. mainly coz we are lacking in dining space.. :p we were finally able to lunch at joan's in october.. but i was unable to host one afterwards due to scheduling issues (yeah, and there are only three of us).. finally i was able to invite them over last week..

i say it's a real hostess escapade because i made everything.. the pork belly & potatoes, the roasted veggies, the roasted tomato & basil, and the kesong puti cheesecake.. [and yes i'm still berating myself for not having taken a photo of the spread..]

i also had a time a timetable.. i had to start my preparations at 1pm as the pork belly takes a long time to cook, and i had to do it in 2 batches as i only had one roasting pan.. i also scheduled the time i should start marinating the tomatoes and the time i should chop the veggies.. and also the time i should take a bath.. :p all these on top of actually working.. :p

the final highlight is that we finally met with an architect.. so that we can start building a house in our little patch of land..

just like i surprised our wedding vendors, i surprised the architect with my powerpoint of inspiration photos and my excel of required rooms with their respective ideal sizes plus a rough sampling of how they are supposed to flow together.. :p

so that's january.. which seemed to go by too fast..

but before we move on to february, let's just take this moment to celebrate that i wrote 13 blog entries in january.. an all-time high for me in the 7 years that i have been blogging.. i know i've been delinquent in this blog.. but i think i did pretty well in the wedding blog.. and the highest i reached there is 10.. :p

here's looking at a more active blog this year.. i do hope i still got readers though.. please do give a shout out if you're still reading this.. :p

happy birthday to me..

2011-01-31T23:34:00.001+08:00

this is a very belated birthday post..

as i started this, i realized i haven't really done any birthday post in the 7 years that i have been blogging.. there was only 1 entry that skimmed over my birthday amongst various other stuff..

this is also the first year that i didn't go to office on my birthday (that is, on a year where my birthday fell on a workday :p).. it was unintentional.. it just so happened that i didn't have any meetings during that day.. well, i did receive 2 meeting invites that i declined because the times were after 6pm and even if i went to the office, i wanted to be out of the office by then.. :p

anyway.. i had a free schedule so i decided to work from home.. i didn't take a leave as gabs had to work also..

not wanting to be lonely for most of my day.. i asked sol, jeanie, and aren if they wanted to have brunch in the condo.. so they cleared their morning schedule and brunch we did.. :p

i made pancakes.. aren made ham & cheese omelette and also brought cheese hungarian sausage.. sol brought her baon which turned out to be breakfast food..

sol also bought me cake from carla & elaine's.. which we ate with our coffee..

well fed, we went for timer burst shots.. :p

*************

come night time.. gabs and i headed to greenbelt 5 and had dinner at myron's place..

we had beef sisig samosas, lamb with risotto (i can't remember the dish name anymore), and steak..

the steak came with 3 kinds of sauce..

everything was yummy! but i got full early that i didn't even get to finish my meal.. enough was left over for my lunch the next day.. :p

but i still had room for dessert of course.. :p we tried out caffe ti-amo..

i like the ambiance of the place.. it's actually what drew me there.. :p i took many shots of this "anything area" with the chandelier.. :p

i ordered tiramisu and gabs ordered stracciatella.. but we exchanged coz i found the tiramisu too sweet.. :p

after the abysmal failure that is gelatissimo, we were afraid that rome ruined gelatos in general for us..

gabs assessing the gelato :p

but caffe ti-amo served great gelatos.. the right texture and creaminess.. and of course delicious taste.. :p still not rome-level though.. but as we can't go back there (anytime soon).. it's good enough.. :p

*************

the saturday after.. we headed to tagaytay and had brunch (though more like lunch) in breakfast at antonio's..

i really like the atmosphere there.. if we only had the budget, we could have had our wedding there.. but then again.. gabs hates plants.. :p

we had 4 cheese omelette and chorizo w/ eggs..

we were also sales talked by the waiter to go for dalandan juice.. it was delicious and refreshing and bottomless so it was worth it.. :p

for dessert we had mango crepe..

i really wanted to have coffee or hot chocolate with dessert (or both).. but i was already too full so i settled for tea.. :p

a trip to tagaytay wouldn't be complete without a visit to ilog maria.. and anyway i need to replenish my soap stock and i had to buy propolis to boost up my immune system.. :p

in every trip to tagaytay, we get curious with mr. moo.. this time we finally stopped to buy milk, pastillas, and kesong puti.. i was thinking of experimenting on a kesong puti cheesecake.. :p

*************

the sunday of my birth-weekend, we had lunch with both our families in barrio fiesta..

i brought my camera but unfortunately wasn't able to ask a waiter for a picture.. food is still good in barrio fiesta.. but service is still oh so awful..

i got to meet brian's girlfriend.. well more like re-meet.. coz brian already brought her (along w/ the rest of their barkada) to ilocos with us a couple of years back.. but they were just friends then and i forgot what she looked like.. :p

after going around in megamall, we headed to my parents' house.. so we can have meryenda and coffee.. and i can have my presents.. mwahaha.. :p

brian's gift (without the photos :p)

*************

this post would have been done earlier.. but i wanted to wait for a superfriends get-together.. :p

i wanted to finally host a real meal in the condo.. difficulty in scheduling finally landed us a dinner last tuesday.. it being my usual work from home day.. hence i can cook..

the menu consisted of baked herbed pork belly with potatoes (that bathed in pork belly fat :p), roasted veggies (broccoli, red & yellow bell pepper, and cucumber [there was no zucchini when i went to the grocery :-| ]), and roasted tomatoes with basil..

unfortunately, i wasn't able to take a photo of the spread before eating.. :( i'm still berating myself about it until now.. :p

i was able to bake the kesong puti cheesecake the previous weekend so i served that for dessert.. and we had the lambrusco that ais brought..

you can very faintly see what remains of the roasted veggies.. :p

the walls now look less empty with the addition of brian's gift.. :p

so in summary.. i basically celebrated through food.. :p and well of course with the people i love.. that are in the country.. :p [yes, i miss you jona, maj and aileen :( ]

euro trip 2010: stephansdom

2011-01-30T23:36:00.001+08:00

our first stop on our second day was st. stephen's cathedral or stephansdom..

it's one of vienna's most famous sights and it's right at the city center.. so i guess it shouldn't have been a surprise to have to fall in line in order to get in..

we had our baroque fill in karlskirche.. now it's time for gothic..

the interior was full of carved details and sculptures..

i found this piece really interesting..

although quite egotistic.. apparently the sculpture below is a self-portrait of the artist anton pilgrim.. who designed some items in the cathedral.. the whole thing above apparently means the huge load that the master is to bear..

i took mostly detail shots of the cathedral.. but here's a bigger view..

i had to wait quite a while for the stairs leading to the pulpit to be devoid of people..

here's the front of the pulpit.. the reliefs on this very ornate pulpit are the portraits of the first doctors of the church..

i also had to wait quite a while to get a shot of this gate without people..

you can't see it clearly, but inside is an altar.. this gate leads to the tomb of prince eugene of savoy..

it's too bad that the snow wouldn't allow us to see the exterior clearly..

but the snow didn't stop us from taking photos of ourselves.. :p

euro trip 2010: a traditional viennese meal

2011-01-24T22:35:00.000+08:00

we were trying to find a nice restaurant where we could enjoy a traditional viennese meal through the iphone app we downloaded.. but we couldn't find one near karlsplatz station or on route to home.. there was one supposedly near a station on our way home, but it might be a long walk (considering how maps sometimes are) and we were cold and tired.. and lazy.. :p so we decided to just chance it and go home.. worst case scenario, we would just eat in the hotel..

but luckily, coming up the station, we saw a restaurant that looked promising and looked viennese.. :p

it was such a relief going inside.. it was warm and toasty.. i had to remove even my sweater.. if i could remove my thermals i would've.. :p

since we heard the favorite meal of franz joseph (an emperor of austria) during our tour earlier at schonbrunn, we decided to copy it: schnitzel, goulash, and kaiserchsmarnn.. :p

once again gabs had to order his beer.. although this time, it didn't come with a matching glass.. we weren't in germany anymore.. :p

our food arrived..

unfortunately, we made a mistake..

instead of ordering this schnitzel..

gebackenes schnitzel

we ordered this..

faschiertes kalbsbutterschnitzel

still, it was very yummy.. though it left me craving for the breaded goodness that is like our porkchop.. :p

the goulash was like kaldereta.. though i prefer the kaldereta.. :p

rindsgulasch

we had coffee with our kaiserschmarnn..

melange (vienna's cappuccino)

water apparently is customarily served with coffee in vienna.. :p

kaiserschmarnn

it was a satisfying meal to cap off our first day in vienna..

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf
euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau
euro trip 2010: schwangau
euro trip 2010: schloss neuschwanstein
euro trip 2010: wrapping up schwangau
euro trip 2010: arriving in vienna
euro trip 2010: schonbrunn palace
euro trip 2010: karlskirche

euro trip 2010: karlskirche

2011-01-23T21:51:00.000+08:00

after schonbrunn, we headed to karlskirche.. or st. charles' church..

there was again a christmas market in front of it.. and where there's supposedly a pond during non-wintertimes, there's a pony ride for kids.. and i guess sheep-petting? :p

inside, there's a replica of the church..

i really like the fresco on the dome of the church..

it's too bad you can't see it in its entirety though..

i also liked the domes by the side..

and the entrance of the church with the organ..

the main altar was too gold for me though.. :p

the pulpit was ornate..

there's an entrance fee to this church.. as a contribution to the conservation of the church.. and also so you can ride the lift up to the dome.. and see the frescos in more detail..

you can also climb further to have a panoramic view of the city outside.. but the steps looked too flimsy (the platform where we were standing was scary enough).. and we were already quite cold while inside the church, we thought it's bound to be much colder if we go up.. so we didn't.. :p and just settled for more photos on the platform.. :p

just to show how high up we were (and for more views of the church), here's another blair witch video while we were going down the lift.. :p

the ticket also covered the entrance to st. charles borromeo museum..

which housed his accouterments and his clothes.. at least i assume they were his as i couldn't understand the german.. :p

the museum also housed some modern art..

i found these interesting..

back outside.. i really wanted to capture the columns of the church in detail.. but the snow won't let me.. :p

it was really chilly, so we went for some gluhwein..

gabs in line for our drinks

while gabs was buying, i took some photos of the church showing the market (and the snow) as well..

then we found ourselves a shelter to enjoy our gluhwein in..

those are steaming mugs of spiced wine.. the one in the blue mug is made from white wine, the one in the black mug from red wine.. i liked the red wine better.. but both served to warm us up quite well.. :p

it was only around 4pm at this time but it was dusk already..

i'm a bit tipsy from the gluhwein here as it's been quite a while since lunch :p

euro trip 2010: schonbrunn palace

2011-01-17T23:23:00.001+08:00

so the previous night's clear streets gave us false hopes.. this day had loads of snow.. and even though there's less snow than in schwangau and the temperature is 5 degrees hotter (yeah, at -4), the situation was made worse by the very strong wind..

still we plowed on through the long walk to schonbrunn palace..

the ground is so covered with snow you could hardly see it..

the palace was supposedly the summer palace of the imperial family.. as we were visiting it in winter, we weren't able to see the beautiful gardens..

once again, taking photos isn't allowed inside.. but we were able to sneak some.. :p

this is the great gallery.. where balls and banquets were held..

that's me in the white coat.. :p

great gallery ceiling frescos

and here's my favorite of the small rooms.. the porcelain room..

from one of the palace windows, you can see the christmas market on the palace grounds..

we would have loved to buy lunch from there.. especially with the smell of baked goods wafting towards us.. but there's the problem of where to eat.. it's too cold to eat outside.. and we really needed to sit down after going through the 40 rooms in the palace.. :p so we had lunch instead at the cafe by the entrance..

afterwards, we took more pictures..

there's soo much snow!

and gabs only had his sneakers.. :p

still we plowed on to get nearer to the fountain.. which of course at the time was not functional.. :p

we took this video going back.. just to record how extreme the snow and wind were.. :p

again pardon the blair witch quality :p

euro trip 2010: arriving in vienna

2011-01-17T21:38:00.000+08:00

we arrived in vienna close to midnight.. as our plane from munich was delayed for more than 2 hours due to weather conditions.. as the airport staff said.. "what can you do? it's winter"..

when we got to vienna though, there wasn't a hint of snow.. the temperature said -4 degrees though..

i was again slightly apprehensive about my hotel choice.. and when the cab arrived in a deserted corner with an erotic peep show place on the other side.. the slightly turned to majorly.. :p

but once inside, my apprehension subsided.. it was bright and perky inside.. the receptionist was nice and friendly.. it was a very decent youth hostel..

the room was spacious.. albeit with sloping ceiling not suitable for gabs.. :p

clean bathroom.. but once again small shower.. :p

interesting things: the bath gel was labeled tricky ricky and the tissue holder hanky panky.. :p

the next morning, we headed down for breakfast.. we were greeted by bright red walls with huge city posters (berlin, hamburg, etc.).. the breakfast room had a cafeteria feel (not in a bad way) primarily due to the setup and the huge number of young backpackers (at least i assume they were.. we were in a youth hostel after all :p)..

those walls should be red :p

breakfast was plenty enough.. though still the usual bread, cold cuts, cheese, cereal, and yogurt.. but it was as expected and gave us the hearty breakfast we needed to tackle the city.. :p

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf
euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau
euro trip 2010: schwangau
euro trip 2010: schloss neuschwanstein
euro trip 2010: wrapping up schwangau

euro trip 2010: wrapping up schwangau

2011-01-11T23:18:00.000+08:00

after our trek to neuschwanstein castle, plus the 165 winding steps up and 181 steps down inside the castle.. we were in quite an appetite for lunch..

our hotel's partner hotel had a nice restaurant so we had lunch there.. it was lucky that we were able to get a table as the restaurant was packed.. i think mainly coz it's near the carriage stop..

of course gabs had to order his beer.. and once again it came in the appropriate glass..

while waiting, i checked out our photos from earlier.. and took more photos of our view outside..

you can see the carriage that we rode (well most likely not the exact one)

we ordered from the bavarian delicacies..

gabs ordered the bratwurst with sauerkraut and i ordered the rump steak with herbal butter..

once again.. super yummy! the meat was tender and juicy and the butter complements very well with the right creamy herbal goodness.. :p

after lunch, while waiting for the cab that will take us to the train station, we took closer photos of the hohenschwangau castle.. which you can see right from the porch of the hotel..

i really like the contrast of the snow with the very blue sky..

finally, we got on the train that will take us to munich where we will catch the plane to vienna.. sadly we didn't have enough time to go around munich..

yeah, even if it was snowy and temperature was -9, the sun was shining so bright that we needed shades.. :p

i really couldn't get over the mounds of snow..

and my snow-covered pine trees.. :p

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf
euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau
euro trip 2010: schwangau
euro trip 2010: schloss neuschwanstein

euro trip 2010: schloss neuschwanstein

2011-01-10T23:36:00.003+08:00

the way to neuschwanstein castle is either a 40-minute walk (european standard) uphill or via a horse-drawn carriage from the ticket center..

when i was doing my research, i figured we could walk and save 12 euros..

uhmm yeah.. not gonna happen.. especially not with all the snow..

even the 50m walk from our hotel's partner hotel (where we left our luggage, since there would be no staff in our hotel from 10am to 3pm and we needed to pick up our luggage before 3pm) to the ticket center proved challenging enough due to the snow flying into our faces..

so we "chose" carriage.. unfortunately, we had to wait for 10 more people before we could go.. which actually made us change our ticket for a tour an hour later..

while waiting, i took photos from inside the carriage (i didn't want snow getting into my camera.. and it was much colder out.. :p)

check out that snow! it felt very little-matchstick-girl-like.. :p

even the horsies needed to comfort each other.. or maybe they were just feeling pda-ish.. :p

going uphill on the carriage was so surreal.. it felt very narnia-like.. as gabs said, it seemed the white witch would suddenly pop out of nowhere.. :p i wasn't able to take photos though as my hands were quite cold and needed to be under the blanket.. :p

even the carriage doesn't go up to the entrance of the castle.. you still had a little more than 300m uphill to go.. we were so out of shape that we were huffing and panting almost the whole way.. to be fair to us, the snow and the bulky winter clothes added much to the difficulty.. :p and i still had a bit of colds. :p

finally we made it up to the entrance..

feels very winter wonderland :p

there was still some time to kill before our tour, so we took some photos by the entrance..

once inside.. all the hardship going up.. plus the long train ride to schwangau.. became worth it.. it was a really nice castle..

unfortunately, it wasn't allowed to take photos inside.. mid-tour though, our guide said that if she didn't see us take a photo, she can't report us.. but i wasn't brave enough to bring out my slr.. so i got mostly blurry photos since it was dark inside.. not to mention weird composition.. these are the few acceptable ones.. :p

king ludwig's bed

on the left is tristan and isolde

the left photo shows the main swan in the swan room which has i forgot how many swans :p

left: king's study; right: adjutant's room

these photos totally don't do justice to the palace.. :p

unfortunately, once we got to the best part, the singer's hall which depicts scenes from the holy grail.. there came a huge japanese tour group.. which put a stop to our illegal photo-taking.. boo-ness..

after the tour.. after getting souvenirs.. we got a tip from a fellow tourist that there was a balcony with a great view.. so off we went..

great view indeed..

you can see the hohenschwangau castle which we didn't have time to go to anymore

once outside, we took more photos with the exterior of the castle..

the hills are alive with the sound of music.. :p

the view opposite the castle

gabs wanted to make at least one snowball.. which proved to be too cold to handle even w/ gloves.. :p

i really like them snow-covered pine trees.. :p

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf
euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau
euro trip 2010: schwangau

euro trip 2010: schwangau

2011-01-09T16:16:00.004+08:00

i booked our hotel through booking.com.. basically i chose the most affordable hotel that has a private bathroom within reasonable distance to fussen station and the castle and has relatively good reviews..

so i wasn't expecting much when we got there.. i was bracing myself just in case the photos in the site were lying.. :p

but i was pleasantly surprised.. it was a pretty nice bed & breakfast.. the pictures didn't lie (although of course i can't account for the garden photos as it was winter.. :p)

just like in dusseldorf, the shower was a bit small.. what is it with these germans? why don't they build showers according to their size?

view from our balcony

it seemed that we had the whole hotel to ourselves.. all other room keys were in the reception cubbyholes.. and just after a few minutes of being in the room, the reception guy called to say that he was leaving already (our room key could open and lock the front door)..

after a bit of rest.. we decided to brave the snow and have dinner in the restaurant recommended by the reception guy..

it was only a block away.. but seemed much farther due to all the snow.. and also since their blocks are huge.. :p we almost went into a nearer but wrong restaurant.. good thing we didn't.. coz it was the best dining experience in the whole trip for me.. (though some would come close, but i'm getting ahead of myself :p)

what set it apart was the ambiance..

it had a cute country feel made more magical by the snow and christmas lights..

something we've noticed since dusseldorf.. they seem to have a matching glass for every drink..

they match beer brands with appropriate glasses and sometimes coasters.. and here, they do it with water too..

now the food.. gabs ordered peppercorn steak and i ordered woodcutter's steak..

omg.. yum!! best meal contenders!

the next morning.. we woke up to even more snow..

pardon the blair witch quality :p

we went down to breakfast.. and confirmed we were indeed the only guests in the hotel.. :p

it was soo peaceful.. the snow looks so pretty.. i was feeling very white christmas especially with the poinsettias.. :p

after a hearty breakfast.. we were now ready to tackle the castle.. :p

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf
euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau

merry making..

2011-01-09T11:15:00.001+08:00

so.. my 25-day vacation is over.. and i'm finding it soo hard to get back to work.. :p

i figured i'd record each day just like ais.. :p

dec 9-21: euro trip 2010 (or as others would say, 2nd honeymoon for the year :p)

this will be covered in detail in the euro trip 2010 series.. :p but here's the snapshot:

dec 9 - 18-hr flight to dusseldorf (including layover in amsterdam). dec 10 - riege christmas party. dec 11 - going around dusseldorf old town and christmas markets. dec 12 - train ride to fussen. very nice dinner in helmerhof. dec 13 - visit to neuschwanstein castle. train ride to munich and flight to vienna. dec 14 - tackling the sights in vienna. dec 15 - more vienna sights. flight to rome. dec 16 - vatican city. dec 17 - rome sights. dec 18 - more rome sights. dec 19 - supposed flight home but got cancelled. dec 20 - whiling the day until our new flight home. dec 21 - a day of planes and airports.

which brings us to the second part of the vacation.. holidays at home.. where we have 3 homes.. :p

dec 22: hanging out with maj, sol, jeanie, aren, and alice

maj went home for a visit. with our euro trip, the only supposed overlap we had was dec 21-22, where we were supposed to go on an overnight road trip.. pregnancy warnings placed a damper on the road trip.. which turned out to be good otherwise we wouldn't have seen each other due to our cancelled flight..

so anyway.. we (maj, sol, jeanie, aren, and alice) met up for lunch in the old spagetti house in ayala technohub (yeah what a way to welcome me from a trip in rome.. :p i had salpicao but i didn't like it much coz it was too salty)..

after lunch, we went for dessert in cafe breton.. still in technohub.. where we stayed til past 5pm.. it was great to just hang out and catch up on stories (and gossips) and laugh about silliness.. like with jeanie and the panda.. :p

when we felt we've stayed there long enough (finally, thought the cafe breton staff probably).. we went to eastwood.. maj and i had our nails done while sol had her legs waxed (alice, aren, and jeanie went home already).. afterwards we had dinner at o'sonho..

sol (and i on the passenger seat) drove maj home.. we were hoping to still see paul.. but unfortunately he was asleep already.. too bad..

as sol said, it was good day with friends.. and a great welcome home..

dec 23: hanging out with bros (+dad), extreme xmas shopping, photon xmas party

i only had 1 day to do ALL my christmas shopping.. this is the first time that i left christmas shopping to the last minute.. usually i avoid the malls on the week leading to christmas.. i especially avoid the toy stores.. usually toys are the first items i shop..

but i didn't have much time before we went to europe.. so dec 23 it was..

unfortunately, gabs had to go to work and couldn't accompany me.. good thing brian offered to go with me..

brian picked me up at the condo.. and we met franz for lunch in galle.. we had lunch at la crepperie.. i wanted to eat there coz i was craving for their omelette which was really good.. unfortunately they didn't have it yet since they were still on soft opening.. but at least it was cozy.. unlike all other restaurants which were packed with shoppers..

i was finally able to get brian's story on how he suddenly got a new girlfriend.. and i got some wedding updates from franz.. it was a good bonding time with my bros..

having had my coffee, i was ready to tackle my christmas shopping..

thankfully, galle wasn't that jam-packed with shoppers.. even so i wasn't quite ready yet to tackle the toy store.. and usually i consult with gabs if the toy was good enough.. so i went to but a gift for brian first.. i was entertaining the thought giving non-toy gifts to the kids.. since i already got a request from the lola of one inaanak to give clothes instead.. but then brian texted me that franz wanted the incredible hulk action figure in toys r us.. so i figured i might as well brace myself and tackle the toy store.. shopping for toys wasn't so bad.. albeit it was hard pushing the cart along the narrow aisles (ais would know why i needed the cart.. hehehe).. the gift wrapping though would take 4 hours (which i think probably was the deterrent to shoppers).. as i still had a lot of shopping to do, 4 hours was fine by me..

all in all, i bought 29 gifts (+some gifts for me :p) from 9 stores in about 6 hrs.. not bad i should say.. i went for another coffee break in between and met up in coffee bean with my brothers and my dad who followed from work.. to ask me to buy his gift for my mom.. :p

one funny thing.. celine had a one day sale.. by the time i was in this store, i already had 5 packages in my hands.. a saleslady approached me to get my stuff and place them on the counter so i can "browse" easily.. i wound up buying bags for my mom, aunt reg, and me.. shoes for me.. and bag organizers as more gifts.. so after the purchase, i had 5 big bags from celine (+ a celine discount card).. then i got my previous 5 packages.. and the saleslady goes: "ma'am, may kasama ba kayo?" yeah.. i definitely needed help.. :p gabs was having difficulty parking so he couldn't help me yet.. so i called brian to help me bring the stuff to the car.. :p

we finally got to leave galle almost 9pm.. went back to the condo to change for the photon xmas party.. and then we got stuck in terrible traffic in edsa coz bus drivers are sooo bastos.. but finally we made it to jae and jem's.. where aside from them was only ais, joan, and leks.. :p

we still had fun though.. and finally got jae's story.. :p

and of course we had the traditional cake massacre..

yeah it's not looking very massacred yet since there were only a few of us :p

dec 24: xmas dinner at gabs' parents, noche buena at my parents

we slept until past noon to make up for the jetlag plus the activities of the past 2 days.. then i tackled my gift-wrapping.. it was looking like i wouldn't be finished on time.. so gabs went ahead to buy the cakes and to give my give to sol at the same time pick up the headbands for my inaanaks..

afterwards we headed to gabs' parents' house.. the highlight was giving joshua's gift.. quite a while ago, we got an iron man sort of top from a cereal box.. so we decided to give it to him first as his present.. he took it without a word.. but with confused disappointment in his face.. he held on to it for a while then discarded it to continue playing with his 2 other action figures.. which i think were early christmas presents..

after dinner, we finally gave him his real present, which was his wish.. the "mengazord" which costs 5000 (according to him).. it was too bad we weren't able to video how his eyes got really big and pure joy and wonder spread on his face.. we just got to taking photos when he was already wanting to put the pieces together, getting impatient while his dad reads the instructions..

the other 2 toys were forgotten for the time being.. and he became close to tears when told he had to leave the toy behind while they go to church.. until finally he was allowed to bring it along..

noche buena at my parents' was exactly as tradition (just like how i and my brothers like it :p): arroz caldo, ham, cheese (camembert has now replaced queso de bola though :p), and wine..

afterwards, we had our gift-giving.. which is a big deal for our family.. even if there aren't any kids.. and even if most of us know what we are receiving already anyway.. :p

dec 25: xmas lunch w/ gabs mother-side relatives, xmas dinner w/ my father-side relatives

joshua was still holding on to "mengazord".. according to his yaya, he stayed up playing until 3am.. and slept with the toy by his side.. :p

it was tradition at our house to wear something new for christmas (not new year).. i didn't get the chance to buy during my gift shopping extravaganza.. so we went to megamall after lunch.. and as if we didn't stuff ourselves in the lunch earlier, we went for snacks in coffee bean.. :p

then off to my parents' for the usual christmas reunion with my father side relatives..

it was great to spend time catching up with my cousins.. we hardly see them anymore..

yeah, this is cousins and aunts.. :p

dec 26: xmas reunion w/ my mother-side relatives

when we were little, we used to have parlor games during christmas reunions.. but as majority of us cousins got older, the reunions became just eat and get your own corner to while away the time until the exchange gift.. :p

this year though, some of my cousins from australia are here.. so some of us cousins decided to revive the games this year..

the games were simple but provided tons of fun for all ages.. we have a variety of games to address the different age groups.. which we termed oldies (titos & titas), kiddies (younger cousins + children of older cousins), and mid-gen (cousins college and older).. :p

the games lasted until 11pm.. with a couple of hours break for dinner and exchange gift..

after everything, we cousins headed for starbucks.. but the place was full, so we just bought our drinks.. then we headed to the 24-hr jollibee coz our au cousins were craving for it.. :p

then we went back to the house.. just hanged out until almost 5am.. while gabs was initiated by my other cousins into drinking the night away.. :p

dec 27: dad + bro's dinner

we were planning to watch tron in imax prior to the dinner.. but we woke up at 2pm.. :p so we just lounged about until dinner time..

we had dinner at cyma.. i really love those paidakia.. :p

afterwards we went to my parents' house so my dad and franz can blow their cakes.. and so we can eat cake and drink coffee.. and so we can give their gifts..

franz really like the football jersey i gave him.. i bought it from rome.. it was the jersey of a player i of course don't know.. but sol (the extreme football fanatic) said he's popular in italy so i guess i made a good choice.. :p and that he has the best ass among all europe football players.. which is a piece of info that i think franz would not like to know.. :p

dec 28: rest day

i was too tired to do anything but watch tv.. i couldn't even organize the europe photos yet.. :p

dec 29: rest day

it was basically a repeat of the previous day.. :p

dec 30: errands + rest day

it was my last chance to pick up my package at the qc post office so i did.. where customs charged me an insane amount.. ugh!

i spent the rest of the afternoon at my parents' house.. i was supposed to go grocery with them for my baking needs.. but i was too tired and already falling sick.. i think i had a slight fever.. so i just laid down in my room and read spiderwick.. because my brain couldn't handle anything for someone above the age of 10.. :p

dec 31: new year's dinner at my parents, media noche at gabs' parents

so it was a switch this time..

i spent most of the day (that i was awake) baking.. my family was missing my cheesecake.. and franz already bragged my cheesecake to our cousins who will be staying at our parents' the next night..

since i was baking already for my family.. i also baked brownies for gabs' family..

for dinner at my parents', i requested the usual media noche arroz caldo to be served early.. :p the lamb chops were an added bonus.. :p

media noche at gabs' parents was a bit early.. accompanied by david foster & friends playing in the background.. :p

it was surreal driving home after media noche.. it was sooo smoggy.. you can only see lights ahead!

jan 1: dinner at my parents, hang out with my cousins at eastwood

my parents invited our cousins from australia to sleep over.. so we also went over for dinner.. yummy sugpo w/ aligue!

afterwards, we headed over to eastwood for coffee and some shopping for my cousins.. omg.. sooo many people.. it's the first time i saw eastwood rival sm in the density of people..

but we were able to get a table in coffee bean city walk.. maybe coz air conditioning is broke.. :p but it was cold enough for me.. :p

we bonded over silliness and some random round the table survey.. :p

jan 2: dinner and hangout at the fort with my cousins

we would have liked to spend our last day before work again just lounging at the condo.. but our cousins are leaving on friday and we likely wouldn't see them again..

so we went to the dinner that another tito hosted for them in rastro in burgos circle.. the salpicao was really good! especially paired with the croquettes.. :p paella was also yummy.. looks like we may go back there again.. :p

afterwards, we went to high street.. i got to buying new books in fully booked.. :p we went for yogurt in lulubelle, which i like most among the yogurt brands (for lack of a better term).. unfortunately, it was late already so they didn't have the plain yogurt anymore.. the acai berry flavored one was good though..

then we headed for the condo of the tito that hosted the dinner to meet up back with the "oldies".. but turned out they weren't there anymore (said tito with tita drove au tito & tita back to binan, and my parents went home already).. so it was us cousins' turn with the coffee press.. accompanied by biscocho and condensed milk.. yum! :p one of my cousins was close to tears upon tasting the condensed milk.. yeah, they have condensed milk in australia also.. :p

so that concludes my very eventful vacation.. which left me feeling very tired and sooo not wanting to work.. :p

but i really am very thankful to spend the holidays with family and friends.. vs getting stuck in italy over christmas! :p

euro trip 2010: journey to schwangau

2011-01-02T00:16:00.001+08:00

what the hell is in schwangau? why are we spending almost a whole day to travel there, when we could easily go on a plane to vienna from dusseldorf?

well, it started when i went on a business trip to germany back in 2007.. the client site is in schwalbach.. where there really wasn't much to see.. so aileen and i researched where we could go on our extra day.. we found the romantic road.. it's basically a road connecting historical towns of germany..

checking out the towns, i really wanted to go to schwangau because of mad king ludwig's castle, neuschwanstein.. a castle very much disney-looking, what really interested me is that the rooms were inspired by scenes from operas by richard wagner..

source

but as it is at the very south of the romantic road, and schwalbach was nearer to the north, we didn't really have time for it and went instead to wurzburg..

but neuschwanstein remained in my list of must visit sights..

so now that i was going back to germany.. we really had to go to bavaria for this castle..

we could have taken the plane from dusseldorf to munich, and the take a train from munich to fussen.. but needing to go to the airport early and the munich airport being almost an hour from munich central train station, the travel time would have been almost the same as taking the train from dusseldorf.. besides, we wanted to experience riding the train... because of sheldon.. :p

we passed by koln.. so we were able to glimpse the cathedral..

unfortunately, i was still using the ixus at this time and it was still dark out (despite being past 8am already), so all we got was this blurry, shaky photo..

it made me feel a bit bad for not being able to go to koln.. but who knows.. there may be a next time.. :p

we knew we were nearing our destination once it became snowy outside..

while gabs was being emo,

i was thinking it was really a good thing i bought those boots.. :p

previous:
euro trip 2010: introduction
euro trip 2010: dusseldorf

euro trip 2010: dusseldorf

2011-01-01T13:54:00.008+08:00

the plan:

dec 9 - fly in to dusseldorf

dec 10 day - go around the city center and check out the christmas markets while gabs is still in the office

dec 10 night - attend their company christmas party

dec 11 - take a day trip to koln

dec 12 - ride the train to fussen

what actually happened:

dec 8 was a very hectic day for me.. i had to finish all work stuff that i can before i take my vacation until the end of the year.. i had to do house chores before we leave the house for almost 2 weeks.. i had to finish packing.. and i had to go to my parents' house..

at the end of the day, i wound up with extreme colds.. :( what a condition to greet winter..

dec 9, i was paranoid in facing the immigration as my passport was already in my maiden name and there may be someone with the same name with a criminal record.. :p but i went through immigration and security without a hitch.. although still with a runny nose.. :p

dec 10, i wasn't feeling very well to go around so i just stayed in bed the whole day.. getting up only to have breakfast and later on to walk around the corner to buy croissant and water which served as my lunch.. :p i was also testing out how cold it was.. which was quite cold.. it being somewhere between 5 and -1 degrees.. :p

i did attend their christmas party.. unlike our usual company christmas parties with programs and lots of presentations, theirs were just: mingling over cocktails, welcome speech (short one) by the ceo, dinner, mingling over drinks.. until 2am.. :p

the party was held in a restaurant that used to be a train station.. it was very nice actually.. with lots of train accents.. unfortunately, i don't have a photo.. because like the lack of a program, there also wasn't anyone taking photos! all we have are shots of beer for gabs' beer album..

the next day, i still wasn't feeling very well to take on koln.. so instead we just went to the altstadt or the old town together with gabs' officemate..

we walked towards the rhein river..

yeah, you can't see the river here.. it's toward the left side.. :p

took a picture by the clock coz a lot of people were doing so.. :p

you can also see the tv tower in the distance.. which is also a dusseldorf landmark where you can go up to the top and have a panoramic view of the city..

and we also took a photo by a building under construction coz we found it cool that they used tarps with an illustration of a building.. :p looks real on the photo too, at first glance.. :p

it started to rain so we looked for a place to eat.. we settled on a schnitzel fastfood place.. we couldn't understand the menu names, but understood the prices.. :p

instead of numbers, they have this device which flashes when your order is ready to be picked up on the counter..
yeah.. i don't have photos of the old town but i have a photo of this thingie.. :p

after lunch we went around the christmas markets.. there were too many people so we didn't stay long..

instead, i shopped for more socks and boots in the underground station.. someone from the christmas party scared me that the snow is more than a foot high where we are going.. the boots i bought aren't much to look at.. but they were real feet-savers for the snow-trudging we would be doing in the next 4 days.. real good buy!

euro trip 2010: introduction

2011-01-01T11:40:00.009+08:00

yes.. i have to put "2010" to distinguish from future euro trips.. wehehe.. :p and well actually the 2007 one which i never got around to blogging about.. :p

while we were engaged, gabs and i were fantasizing about a euro honeymoon.. but we knew we couldn't afford splurging on a euro vacation right after the huge expense of the wedding..

besides, for the past 3 years, gabs' company has been sending him to germany every december.. so in case it will happen again, i will just tag along.. one fare covered.. and we were hoping i could use my miles for my fare.. since i have enough already..

true enough, gabs did have a business trip to germany.. we found out in october though.. so that didn't leave me with enough lead time for planning.. i didn't want to do mega planning only to be disappointed if the trip doesn't push through.. :p

so anyway, i researched where else we can go.. rome is definitely on top of my list.. scotland is second, but it requires a different visa.. i've been to paris, but i wanted to go back with gabs because paris is much better with a loved one.. :p we thought of finally going out in amsterdam instead of always just getting to land on their airport.. :p i also wanted to go to barcelona.. but it was too far.. so i checked out geneva and vienna.. vienna looked lovely..

i also researched the most optimum transport mode.. i had an excel workbook comparing the overall cost if we used eurail, plane, train, miles, and considering how many days and which destinations.. :p yeah, quite similar to comparing total wedding cost per church and venue.. :p

finally, we arrived at our itinerary:

so gabs' client is in dusseldorf.. then we ride the train to fussen (with a transfer in augsburg).. then we ride the train to munich where we will fly to vienna.. then fly again to rome..

please "like" us!! :p

2010-08-09T18:59:00.002+08:00

more than 3 months after and i'm still wedding obsessed.. :p

i entered our wedding in a contest to be in the cover of a wedding magazine..

please help us win by "like"-ing our album in facebook!! :D

like the page of we *heart* weddings:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Heart-Weddings/145028442175784

then like our album! :D
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26820&id=145028442175784&ref=mf

thanks thanks!! :D

p.s. voting ends aug 11 :p

at least there's another movie to look forward to..

2009-06-24T22:50:00.004+08:00

to offset the major disappointment earlier..

i have tim burton's alice in wonderland to look forward to..

source

i love johnny depp! :p

and johnny depp + tim burton = must watch movie!

actually,
johnny depp = must watch movie
tim burton = watch movie
and johnny depp + tim burton = absolutely must watch, plan-your-schedule-around-it movie.. :p

well.. that is if the philippines release follows usa release which is march 5, 2010 and not brazil's release.. :p

and of course, as with other burton+depp movies, it also has helena bonham carter..

source

boo m night shyamalan.. boo!!!

2009-06-24T22:24:00.006+08:00

i'm a big fan of nickelodeon's avatar: the last airbender..

and my favorite character is zuko..

source

[along with uncle iroh]

anyway, we already heard of an avatar movie last year..

but today, i see THIS!

how can they cast dev patel as zuko???!!!!???

as sol has put it, "[zuko] is supposed to be DREAMY!"

and from aileen:
Yak!!! Kita ko na!!!! Ang pangit nga!!! Di bagay!!! Kainis naman sila! Dapat Chinese e! :P Hehehe. Dapat si takeshi kaneshiro nalang! :P hahaha

and the best response comes from majel:
Of ALL movies this is the one I have highest expectation of. Yuck director yuck casting yuck yuck yuck.

Kung hindi lang dahil sa age requirement gusto ko mga to:
Aang = Stephen Chow or Jacky Chan
Azula = Cecilia Cheung Zuko = Takeshi Kaneshiro or Jerry Yan (wait he's just pogi hindi yata siya marunong umarte masyado, pero meron siyang "look" na Zuko-taray-but-cute )
Katara = claire danes hahahaha I hate them both

Katara = claire danes hahahaha I hate them both --> love this! super funny and so very apt! they are both so whimpery, drama-drama, damsel in distress-y.. :p

stuck

2008-07-07T22:58:00.003+08:00

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it..

we're different now than when we started..

2008-06-09T09:15:00.004+08:00

but am i ready to wake up
there in the exodus
of the beautiful side of somewhere?

it's been more than a year since i last had this theme..

how coincidental it is to now be waking up to this song..

coincidental?

or is it a sign?

The Empress

2007-08-13T21:41:00.000+08:00

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

photo of the week: dusk

2007-06-10T20:37:00.000+08:00

Dreams in the dusk,
Only dreams closing the day
And with the day's close going back
To the gray things, the dark things,
The far, deep things of dreamland.

darkness..

2007-06-08T16:47:00.000+08:00

darkness all around..

too tired to fight..

it's sucking in everyone..

must fight..

must have coup..

photo of the week: winter

2007-05-27T23:59:00.000+08:00

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

sparkly brightings..

2007-05-24T00:04:00.000+08:00

i love the darkings in trickster's queen.. they're these small, blob-like creatures that can form different shapes.. what i like about them was their lines..

"Dragons are boring," announced a darking with a chunk of clear quartz at its center. "Dragons study and peer and eat and sleep."

"And talk," Trick added. "For days and days and days."

A number of tiny heads nodded agreement and chorused, "Boring."

~ * ~ * ~

"I stay with you," Trick squeaked. "They tell me, I tell you. Sometimes show." Spreading itself thin, it showed Aly the view of the garden where they now stood.

"Not boring," added one who had blue ribbon inside itself.

"Fun," chorused the others. "Funfunfun."

so anyway, maj, knowing the impact the darkings had on me, brought these back for us from hongkong:

they're changeable toys!
"Traditional Chinese toy .More lively and interesting,but loss sticky than plasticine. Never harden. While playing, make you dexterous in action, quickwitted and also imaginative."

no typo there.. that's character-by-character from the description in the box.. :p

so we applied being dexterous and imaginative:

since they are brightly colored, we are calling them brightings.. :)

fortune tells..

2007-05-19T00:17:00.000+08:00

i spent much of the day looking for shoes to wear tomorrow.. unfortunately, couldn't find one of the right color and size.. actually i did find one.. but the heels are a bit high.. and quite expensive.. so i didn't buy yet..

and what do i find while surfing?

well.. tomorrow's a different day.. so i can buy the charles & keith pair then.. :p