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travel

Nothing like summer tunes to make you whole again.  Do you agree?  And with summer tunes are  images of road trips, family reunions, picnics and the beach.  It’s impossible not to associate summer with music.  So what’s your summer song?  Mine is the Ocean by Led Zeppelin with the fantastic guitar playing of no other than Jimmy Page.  It makes me wonder what type of guitar he  used to play with.  Was it peavey cirrus because he’d never use low quality guitars?  Anyway, summer’s just around the corner and I can’t imagine anything better than Ocean blasting in my car with my hair loose, the warm air blowing in my face, and the promise of a spectacular view of sun, sand and the blue sky.

I can’t wait for summer.

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The travel bug bit me again.  In less than a month, we’ll be in Hongkong. I can barely contain my excitement.  I just know I’ll have fun.  After putting up with so many errands,chores and work, I think it’s about time to put my feet up and relax.  Although I can’t say for sure if I’ll be able to put my feet up literally during our HK trip as there would be a lot of walking around, sightseeing and of course, shopping.  But just a teeny bit of shopping. Yeah, no reason to splurge and I’m kinda wishing I have a Visa reward card so I’d get points for every item I purchase during the trip.  It would truly make me feel less guilty.

So I have about less than a month to finish all my to-dos before departure.  So good luck to me.

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Hello July! Can you imagine it’s July already?  We’re already half way through 2011.  Time really flies period.  Whether you’re having fun or not.  I feel like I just celebrated my birthday last February, just moved in to our new home, and just recently ushered in 2011.  And now we’re just 5 months shy to another year.  Can you believe that?

So while I suddenly felt the rush of everything happening so fast, I also felt the need to slow down and check on things past.  And I must say that I’m pretty pleased.  I’ve managed to put up 5 blogs in less than half a year (4 of which are earning blogs), established and fixed up our new abode, flew to Singapore with just me and my little girl, and managed to put my son through 5 years of College (this is his last year).  Incredible, yes?!  Not bad…It feels good to look back and realize that I kinda stuck to my original goals.  It’s also a good thing that I’ve managed to capture all those memories and important milestones in pictures and videos. It really does pay to lug those digital cameras around.  Both momentous or simple events are worth capturing as it would be nice to look back and relive the past even in just photos.

My son graduating in college this school year.

My little girl during our trip to Singapore.

She had so much fun at Universal Studios Singapore.

My bedroom window in our new home.

So what’s in store for the remaining months?  Tons and  I can’t wait.

 

 

 

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I love Cameron Crowe.  I think he’s just a brilliant writer and director.  I love all the movies he wrote and directed especially Almost Famous, Elizabethtown and Singles.  I also love Vanilla Sky for its soundtrack.  All his movies have simple storyline. You can relate to them whether you’re 15 or 60.  Plus they have amazing soundtracks.  Remember Singles the movie? It’s definitely 90′s music and he captured the 90′s buzz, made it into a movie and created a compilation of songs that even the generation now loves.

So when I watched Up in the Air on HBO while we were in Singapore, I thought I was watching a Cameron Crowe movie.  But I had second thoughts coz I know all his movies and if he ever had one shown last year or just recently, I would have heard about it.  But the choice of songs, the feel and texture of the movie, the character development, the lines, and all the others are definitely Cameron Crowe signature.  But I was wrong.  The director is Jason Reitman who also directed Juno, also one of the more memorable movies of all time…in my opinion.  He also did the screenplay.  Brilliant.  I love this type of movies.  Simple but it gets you.  There’s a slight ache in the heart.  A certain sting that stays long after the movie has ended.  It’s the type of movie you won’t get tired watching over and over.  Plus it has an equally and amazingly great soundtrack.  The songs have such an impact on the movie you actually remember the exact scenes and the lines of the characters.

And these are my favorites…

 

Goin’ Home by Dan Auerbach

Taken at All – Crosby, Stills & Nash

 

Help Yourself  by Sad Brad Smith

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I’ve been busy ever since we got back from a short vacation in Singapore.  I’m busy updating my blogs which is harder for me this time since I’m still in vacation mode.  And as if my week couldn’t get any busier, MG’s birthday is also this week.  Yes, it’s on Thursday.  I haven’t even gotten over the menu planning, invitations and the whole shebang of my son’s 21st birthday and here I am again, organizing a birthday party.  But this would be for the family only and perhaps I’ll invite my neighbors if they’re free.  What I initially planned was to go on a road trip to Subic or Baguio but MG’s new school has an orientation for the new students this Saturday.  So that plan is a no go for now.  Besides with most students in school now, there might not be enough emergency roadside assistance from government agencies compared to when kids were still on vacation.  It’s a bit risky driving long distance when there’s no help around when you get a flat tire or something.  Which reminds me, my car is due for another maintenance.  Actually, it was due over a month ago but since I had so many things to do, I kept postponing it.

I’ll schedule it early next week.  This week is really impossible.

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Givenchy Amarige

I have a love affair with this particular scent from the House of Givenchy.  In fact our love affair started way back in high school when I snuck this out of my mom’s closet and claimed it as my own.  My Amarige.  It never fails to impress.  Everytime I wear this scent, I get asked by strangers, particularly men, what scent I’m wearing.  But don’t get me wrong.  I don’t wear this to lure men into my web.  I wear this because I love the scent.

Now, we’ll see if my budding affair with Anna Sui’s Secret Wish would endure as long as my love affair with Amarige.

By the way, I bought these two at the Duty Free shop in Changi Airport on the way back to Manila.  It was a good thing I found Amarige because my stash is running low.

My first entry to Mommy Jes’ Shopping Bag meme.

 

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I just got back from Singapore a little while ago and I miss the place already. I miss the Singapore vibe. I especially miss the food. I miss the helpful Singaporeans and all the people I’ve met. Yes, even that silent, always frowning cashier at the front desk of the hotel. He’s quite the character. He must have above normal testosterone levels to be always acting that way. I’m not really sure.

Anyway, here are two photos of the Singapore skyline while at the Marina Bay Sands last night. They’re re amazing.

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Eversince MG’s school ended, I’ve been trying to come up with ways to keep her entertained. We’ve gone swimming five times already. We’ve gone malling much too many times. We’ve eaten out more than enough. So what else is left but to travel. We’re going to Singapore last week of May. It would be our first out-of-the-country trip together and I can’t wait. But before that, I’ve also scheduled short out-of-town trips before school resumes this June.

So as of late, we’ve been to Bataan, Subic, Quezon, Laguna and Batangas. There’s still Clark in Pampanga scheduled third week of May. I don’t know if we can go up to Baguio still but I really want to.

Anyway, during our last trip, we ended up joining the Tsinelas Festival in Liliw, Laguna. What was originally planned was just a driving tour with a stop-over at significant landmarks around Laguna towns. We stopped at Pila to take photos of the old houses, Nagcarlan to see the underground cemetery and finally at Liliw to eat at Arabela.  We were surprised when we arrived a festival was actively going on.  It was the annual Tsinelas Festival of Liliw to celebrate the town’s main product and livelihood.  There were a lot of foreigners and people from Manila.  We would have stayed longer if we had known that there was a fiesta but since our main goal was to eat at Arabela, we did just that and after,  joined the festivities for a bit.

WARNING: photo-heavy

 

laguna

 

ancestral houses

old houses in Pila, Laguna

 

laguna

 

underground cemetery in Nagcarlan

 

 

mime artists?!

 

LECHON, ever present in fiestas

 

liliw laguna MG and Juancho aboard the tsinelas float

 

old church

 

MG & Juancho inside the Church

 

liliw laguna walking to Arabela from the Church

 

liliw laguna waiting for a table at Arabela

 

Juancho

 

Tricia

 

my sister

 


MG

inside the resto

 

liliw laguna

Amazing mountain view

 

Hope we go this route again in the near future. The town is beautiful and charming, the view is amazing and the people are warm and friendly.

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Last week after having lunch at Antonio’s in Tagaytay, I decided to visit my sister and her kids in Laguna.  It was just a 45-minute drive from Tagaytay to Sta. Rosa and traffic was light.  My sister was still sleeping when we arrived so my niece and I had enough time to plan a night swimming.  We knew where we would go.  We knew what we’d bring—chips, drinks, towels, swimsuits, dinner.  In fact, we brought everything except the dog, oven and bridesmaid dresses.   Of course, as soon as my sister woke up we left immediately.  All my sister had to do was brush her hair, her teeth and wash her face.  Everything was taken care of by me and my niece.   When we arrived at Ponderosa, we had the pool all to ourselves.   Imagine that.  The last time we went night swimming was summer last year.  There were a lot of people and we just had one part of the pool.  It was also fun but not as fun as this time.  We talked and laughed without a care in the world.  No one would hear us, anyway.

It rained a bit that night signaling an end to a great bonding time with family.  I hope we could do this more often.

 

Ponderosa
 

ponderosa
 

night swimming
 
night swimming at ponderosa
 

racks at paseo sta rosa laguna
 

ponderosa
 
 

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antonio's in tagaytay

This photo was taken last Wednesday when we had lunch at Antonio’s in Tagaytay. We were just exploring and taking photos of the place after eating. The place is amazing. I wish I had a place just like that near Metro Manila. So I could escape the hustle and bustle of the metro whenever I need a break.

Happy weekend. Hope you all have a good one.

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