Road trip

As I write this, we are 3 hours into a 12-hour road trip home. Perhaps it was about 6 years ago or so, my colleagues from Asia ACTs and I took a road trip across the Cordilleras. We rented a van, and wove our way through Banawe, Sagada, and then Baguio. Then back to Quezon City. On the way home we stopped by Joy’s family home in Tarlac.

I don’t remember now how long it took, probably 3 or 4 days. It was fun because we took our time and there was much chatter on the road.

For this trip, we’re taking public transportation and you either entertained yourself with your own gadgets, or sang along whatever music the drivers and their conductor played. On the way up to Sagada, we slept for the most part of the trip. That was easy, the bus left QC at 830pm and we hasn’t slept since the day before. Now going down the mountains, the trip starts at 3pm. So it’s not so easy to fall asleep, or to stay so for long.

Most people would rather do something else than travel 12 hours to the mountains. I say it’s time well spent when the destination is Sagada. 🙂 Besides, 12 hours of sleep is a gift! Now the time it takes to get back to life, hmm. Well, it’s another gift of time. One can read, or watch movies.

So that’s what I’d been doing the past 2 hours – I watched a movie! That means that this weekend I’ve done quite a lot really:
1. Witness a childhood friend’s wedding
2. Cover a wedding as official photographer
3. Give my niece Shanti another memorable experience before she turns 18
4. Watch 2 movies: The New Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Rachel Getting Married
5. Get a massage (which I said I should have weekly or at least twice a month)
6. Tried a new diner in Sagada (as opposed dining at all the old familiar places only)
7. Walked everyday in the past 3 days until I lost breath.
8. Met a charming little boy (I must share a photo of little Seth)
9. Say hi to old friends
10. See some of my favorite Baguio boys

And the weekend’s not even over yet!

What have you been up to? 🙂

Time check – it has been about 20 mins since I started writing this post and just when I was about to attach a photo of the mountains taken when we were on our way up, I lost network connection. When I do get to post this it will still be thanks to the mostly excellent Globe 3G signal on my iPhone. No, Cable Tours does not have wifi on board.

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My First Magic Bullet Smoothie

Oh yes. After a very long wait, I finally got the Magic Bullet last week. We didn’t wait for the delivery anymore (because they couldn’t commit to a date) so we drove all the way to Makati to pick it up. Boy, was I disappointed at the sight of the Groupon office! But that’s not what this post is about, so, moving on…

I made my very first smoothie with the Magic Bullet this afternoon!

I rinsed all the parts of the bullet last night and considered having juice for dinner. But I wanted something really cold and we had no ice. So I took the advice of several users and popped fruits in the freezer overnight.

My Mango Banana Smoothie has 1 large banana, and half a ripe mango. I then added skim milk, maybe about 2/3 cup or so. I am using one of the party cups by the way. I popped on the cross blade, and then on to pulse pulse and mix mix mix. My cold smoothie was done in less than a minute. It was quite thick too. Yum!

Looking forward to making more flavors, and more healthy ones too!

 

Inti-Mate vs Strap Perfect

The Inti-Mate is currently on sale at my favorite group-buying site, CashCashPinoy:

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A package contains 3 pieces of this ingenious product that keeps bra straps from falling over your shoulder. It may provide a nice little lift to your bosoms too SmileCCP has it on sale for P125 pesos per package.

In the meantime, the Strap Perfect is a similar product, just a different brand. This one is sold at The Little Emily Shop. Each pack contains 9 strap perfect kits, for only PhP25 per box.

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I bought one pack before Christmas, and took advantage of Multiply’s free shipping promotion. I bought a bunch of other things from Little Emily and it didn’t cost too much. I’ve used a Strap Perfect on my bra almost every day because, well, straps and lifts have been an issue for me.

On the first few days, I liked how it worked but it felt uncomfortable on my back and it was like trying to dig a hole there. Haha! But then I eventually found a better way to put it on that wouldn’t hurt me.

I’d have to say – My P25.00 was well-spent. Smile

Photos courtesy of the online stores. I am not receiving any compensation for this post.

From my Reader: Tiny House Blog

The Tiny House Blog is a very recent addition to my Reader.

From the blog’s About page:

The goal of the tiny house blog is to discover the different options available for a person looking to down size into a tiny house or cabin. I will be looking at different type of construction, from logs, to yurts to modern and the unusual. I will also do book reviews, look at alternate energy for heat and electricity. I also want to hear your story so please contact me with your pictures and your own experiences in living simply and small.

I enjoy looking at the beautiful tiny houses, a lot of them people actually do live in. I don’t take notes or anything but perhaps I should, if I ever want to live in the condo I’m paying for. It’s not a tiny house like the ones featured in the blog, but their use of space and the solutions they offer for storage and functionality is something that can definitely be adapted to my own little condo. Or to my small room!

Anyway, here’s a video that was posted on the blog on May 10th. It’s a tour of the original (the first) Jay Shafer Epu. Sorry, I don’t know enough about tiny homes to know Jay Shafer, but he seems to be pretty big in the tiny house circle. As for me, I just followed the Tiny House Blog because I thought the small houses were cute! Now I’m thinking there’s more to it…

Let’s checkout the video –

 

While watching I kept thinking – maybe this is one solution for the lack of affordable housing and the lack of space in Metro Manila. Tiny homes like this could be built for squatter families and it won’t take a lot of space. It would be more humane to live in a house like this than in their cardboard shanties. Unless there are ten heads in one family.

What do you think?

Hymns

When my grandfather was dying, also during the wake, and then for prayers after that, we naturally spent a lot of time singing hymns. Oh I love singing hymns. It’s one of the things I love about our church. Hymns.

Singing hymns gets me through things. A lot of times when you spend time contemplating you have the tendency to either be filled with gratefulness, or be overwhelmed with sadness.  A death in the family is undoubtedly a sad time. But singing hymns during the wake makes all the difference.

In these photos you’ll see three groups singing hymns for Papa – the teenagers with their Aunties (2nd row), the oldies (grandmothers), and the little ones.

 

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So what got me thinking about hymns anyway? The Pioneer Woman posted an audio clip of her son singing my grandfather’s favorite song, Oh, what a beautiful morning. That post reminded me of when she posted a video of her son practicing As the Deer. Listen to both. Smile

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