Playing Around and Eating Around

The young ones of Math/IT department got so bored one idle afternoon and here's what we did.

Photos courtesy of Laiza

We played around making faces on the camera. Other photos were still not posted for our protection. We might get caught doing unnecessary things during our consultation hours. Haha! 

Later that day, we headed to a newly renovated Jollibee branch because we felt we deserve a treat for working so hard! Yes! Of course! We really had a loaded day. Contrary to the playing-around pic above, we still did our job wholeheartedly :) 

I was super craving for a champ and Laiza got one, too.

                       

I'm looking and feeling demure with my champ while Laiza looks so hungry she can't wait to grab a bite. But mind you I finished the champ first! Haha! I just pretended to look reserved but I was really so hungry I did not stop until my last bite! I won! I won!

It was my first champ ever! I was surprised with how I could ignore all the super fatty patty just to satisfy my cravings. Haha! The hungry me. Laiza even has not finished hers. Sumakit ulo niya sa sobrang beefy and fatty ng patty. (Lots of rhymes. Hehe.)

Yummy Gensan: Sandwiches at Little Kitchen

Little Kitchen is in my list of to-go restaurants for so long. Finally I found time to see what it has to offer.

Describing the place as little was at first so odd to me that I became so curious. What's little in it? Is it the plate, the spoon, the glass, the waiters, the tables or the food? I hope it's not the food because I'm a big eater.

The place from outside is so welcoming. Their signboard is perfectly done for personalities like mine. At first glance, it's so homey (which is what I really look for in a place) plus the vintage look. Love it!

When I entered, I was relieved to see that the tables and chairs were not little and so with the waitresses. And definitely not the food!

I had a chicken cordon sandwich that's so gigantic! I had to upgrade my eating skills. :) It's not anymore normal for a sandwich. Hee hee. And I like it as it is. Love the shake, too! Plus the fries and the prawn crackers. Did I just order for a sandwich? The plate was so full!

The other sandwich you see on the photo is a tuna sandwich.

Now why is it called Little Kitchen again? Because the place is not so wide but it's not also so tiny. You can still move around. Whoever wishes to go tumbling and jogging can still do. Maybe one tumbling and few jogs. :)

The place fits a small intimate gathering of family or friends. Definitely recommended for a quiet moment of solitude.

Location: Quirino St.

Yummy Gensan: Steaks at Bigben

I'm a meat lover but not so much of a meat eater. How's that even possible? Well I don't know, too. It's just that my eyes get so wide upon seeing lots of fat juicy meat dishes but I allow myself to have only a serving or two. I can't live without eating meat especially chicken in a week! But I won't also die if I can't have a taste  of pork chop or chorizo. I don't even find the famous well-loved lechon mouth-watering. Yah! I guess I'm not a Filipino :)

After our SarBay Fest trip days ago where we only had pizza for lunch, we screamed for a revenge and decided to have a hefty dinner. We went to Bigben and ordered for ourselves their famous steaks and meat platter!

When I saw the super juicy steak, my gosh! I felt my cells jumping and rumbling! And when I finally tasted it, another my gosh! Oh my gosh! Steak! Steak! I think I transformed into a hungry tiger and growled until my last bite! Haha!

I will be back Bigben! :)

Location: Robinson's Place Gensan

Sarangani Bay Festival 2012

I've been hearing about Sarangani Bay Festival for the past few years and get really excited to go everytime but it was only this year that I got the chance to. It is dubbed as the Biggest Beach Festival in Mindanao and who am I to miss it!

The venue, Gumasa Beach in Glan Sarangani, is just about an hour away from General Santos City. Off to the lovely white sand beaches of Gumasa (The Little Boracay of Mindanao)!

People. Clouds. Ocean. Watermelon. Colors. And the happy me.

I was with the Three Musketeers. Or the Three Blind Mice . Or Alvin and the Chipmunks and I'm Brittany (the lady Chipmunk).. Tsk! So hard to think of an alternative name because we're really seven in the group and we call ourselves The Pugad Baboy Family! Nice one huh! :) Couldn't really remember how the young high school minds came up with such a smart name considering that everyone was as thin as a toothpick except for one or two. Oopss... Whoever they are I won't mention already (..for friendship's sake). But it turned out that after long years (by long I mean more than a decade. Omg! Has it been that long?), the rest lived up to our name. Everyone seemed to look babolicious already except me. :) 

We were there not to really party. Big events happen during the night. We just wanted to have a glimpse of the festivities. And the main goal was to have a BIG talk over a BIG lunch. But we ended up having only pizza and chocolate shakes. And the "melting" ice cream.

We had the BIG talk though. A lot to catch up! Guimo and Kuya Edgar even "cried" upon the realization of not having seen each other after their college graduation (That's a little more than 6 years already).

I always love going out with these crazy and hilarious people. The geeky high school boys turned into successful and more geeky men. Haha! I should have just written successful and responsible but my gosh! Most of the time they talked about energy - from generation, transmission, distribution. The status of frequent brown outs in Mindanao and how it was supposed to or will be addressed. The longest and widest rivers in the world. Machines. Chemicals. And all! Whew! And I was like "Really? Amazing!" With not-so-obvious attempts of diverting the topic to American Idol and Avengers so I could somehow relate. : ) They would respond a little then would go back to energy again! Tsk! Engineers! Chemist!

Crazy people become crazier! And happier!

The Never-Perfect Jump shots.

Pugad Forever : )

We miss having you here Harvey, Borj, and Luvvy. See you in Singapore. Haha!

I also had my moments : ) 

* Thanks for some of the photos guys.

Pretty Blog

I'm currently obsessed at adding cutie little thingy on my blog. And I got everything from Shabbyblogs. Their designs don't seem shabby to me. They're all pretty! I like everything they have!

Amazing Monday: Buttons Up

What's up for buttons? Here are amazingly lovely pieces I found from craftstylish. Aren't they so pretty? I'm not so crafty enough to do something like this so I just look at them and be mesmerized. : ) Simply  amazing! :)

                                        

Iloilo Delicacies

Capiz feels like my second home though I've only visited few times my lifetime. It's as if half of who I am is defined by what is there. It's always a joy to see my aunts, cousins, niece and my grandma. Discovering my mother's roots is discovering mine, too. My fondest childhood memories are those which were spent there.

Part of our family visited my mother's homeland Capiz weeks ago. By part I mean just my father, my mother and my youngest brother. I didn't go because I had work. It's been three years since the family's visit. The last time it was me and my other brother who went with the parents. 

When they arrived I knew what to expect. Food! My favorites! Pinasugbo. Barquillos. Biscocho. Bukayo. Otap. Piaya. ... and more! (All from Iloilo - a neighboring province of Capiz.)

Thank you so much Aunts for still spoiling us just like when we were kids!

See you in October Lola and Chin-chin and cousins! : )

P.S. My lola's house is 3 hours away from Iloilo. It is the easiest access point from Gensan to Capiz.

If I Ain't Got You

I heard my brother singing this again and again the whole week. I got curious why he was so into it and watched the video with him.

This is from The Voice's episode. I'm not really very familiar about the show but this man here (the slimmer one) really got the voice! He has a very good version of Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You.

                                             

Yummy Gensan: Burgers at Aunt Ludi's

Aunt Ludi is a bakeshop first of all. I first saw it in Koronadal City a month ago where I bought my first of its cinnamon bread that I brought home. As I was paying, I saw the big posters of their mouth-watering burgers and promised to taste those sometime in the future because I was already in a hurry to catch up with a bus. And the sales people there had a pretty good convincing power. So I really swore to be back! 

(By the way, the cinnamon bread was a star in my family's breakfast the next day.)

And the future is now! (Actually, the future that I mentioned above has become the past already as I am typing this post. Hehe..) Anyways, I happened to pass by a commercial building in Purok Malakas and was delighted when I saw Aunt Ludi's Bakeshoppe! And I was really craving for a burger that time! Really! I call it destiny! :)

Yes! Burgers finally!

One is the two-faced burger. So called because half of the bun has mustard sauce and the other half has the chicken bbq sauce. How clever the name huh?! The next one is the messy burger. So called because.... Can you guess why? Yes! It's messy! How smart of you to have guessed that! : ) It's their version of the Sloppy Joe thingy. Instead of the usual round patty, it has the chili con carne. Plus the potato chips on the side! Love!

What more do I love? The ambiance is so homey. It's pleasant. It's comfortable. It's cozy. A really nice place to hang out.
                                                           
Location:  Robinsons Place GenSan and J&G Propriedad Bldg, Nunez Street, Purok Malakas

Say Cheese!

We take so many photos of my niece Caela. We want to capture her every first, every inch of her growth, her every exciting achievement. We just can't have enough of  her cuteness. Oh babies! They're just adorable! And to add more to our obsession, I pushed my sister to take Caela to the studio and have her first official photo shoot. : )

Days before, we'd have a little practice. "Ready. One. Two. Three." Then she'd show her two lower front teeth and raise her tiny hands towards the ceiling. "Eyes eyes eyes to read a book by....Nose nose nose... Mouth mouth mouth..." Then she'd point to her eyes and nose and mouth. And she'd happily play around. Then we'd show Picachu and Pia (her toys) and she'd play around some more. Smart little baby! Ok. So we guessed she's ready for a picture picture. :)

Now, on her supposedly shining moment, she got sleepy. Then cried. Not the loud and screaming ones but those her trying-to-cry cries. So we still pursued the shoot. We opted to show her toys and sing her songs and she smiled for seconds then returned to trying to cry again. And these went again and again until the photographer said, "Ok. It's done." Good that she was so quick in taking pictures that we actually got few not-crying photos! Yey!

"C'mon now baby. Sorry for letting you do something we really wanted you to do even if it's against your sleeping will." So I hugged her and caressed her and she was alive and smiling and head-banging again! Oh no! This 10 month old little creature has tricked us! Maybe she wasn't really sleepy. Maybe she was just not comfortable with the lights and the flashes and all. 

But anyways, here's the cutest little creature on the planet! (I'm being a little biased here.)

Thanks to:

Click here to see more of them on facebook.

Atom on Cosmo :)

I placed three exclamation points after the post title but I deleted those in exchange of a smiley so it won't be very obvious that I'm soooo glad to see him featured in a magazine!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) Now I can't help it!

  

We all have people that we admire - our role models. I have so many women that I adore! Some of them I follow. But Atom is the only Filipino male celebrity that I look up to. Well, to me he's a celebrity. Not just the ordinary newsman that people don't sometimes notice on tv because they're more up to the news. But I don't blame them. He delivers news incredibly well, indeed.

You see. I've been a fan since his 5 and Up days (so long before) then his Breakfast, Y Speak days. And still following him until he got into news.

When I read his tweet that he's featured in Cosmo, I immediately searched Cosmo's website and looked for an article written about him. And I found this behind the scene thingy like a teaser to the article in Cosmo's April issue. I also found this pop quiz box which he answered in his own handwriting. 

             

I'm glad to know some of the other little things about him (like a normal fan is). Here's a trivia (which I'm sure my batchmates know). Alfonso Tomas Araullo graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Physics form the University of the Philippines Diliman. Isn't he smart? From Physics to Journalism. How can these fields be even related? Well, however! But you're doing a great job atom! Continue to be a model to the youth. (Giving him a message like he can read this. Hehe.)

P.S. I am a teacher. I have to be composed. :) So I tried to hide all the thrill in my sentences except in the first paragraph. Excuse me for that. I somehow had to express. :)

Amazing Monday: Pretty Plates and Bowls

I'm a sucker for pretty plates and bowls. Because I'm not really a very good cook, I make use of good looking wares to capture my family's eyes. People tend to be very visual and I guess the tastebuds work hand in hand with the optic nerves. Good-looking dishes = Great-tasting dishes. This is generally true. Well at least in this family : )

I remember back in college that I was saving my allowance to buy plates and bowls, even glasses and saucers. I easily fall inlove will colorful things that can be put on our dining table. I have three favorite parts in a mall. The girls' section which includes dresses and shoes (of course!) Then the kitchenware section.  Then the textile section.

When I go to restaurants, the serving dishes cannot get away from my eyes. The plates can tell so much of the place's commitment in giving a quality customer service and the owner's passion towards his/her business.

When I blog hop and read magazines, I'm delighted with how recipes can be so gratifying because of the serving dishes.

Here are some of the things I found when I googled pretty plates and bowls. It's so amazing how things these pretty could exist in the world : ) I'm just really amazed of how creative people can be. I'm excited to shop for my next plates and bowls!

You might also get ideas on the theme you want for your kitchen's keepsakes : )

 


 
 

Notice that most of my choices are with flowers. : ) So summery!

Office Trip: Island Garden City of Samal

We're in the middle of summer and everybody has plans to be at the beach. I mean, c'mon! Who doesn't? :)

And being the fun-loving people that we are, the Math/Physics/IT Department wouldn't want to be left behind! So this is our first ever summer getaway as a group and the second level of our commitment to enjoy travelling together :) The first trip was in Lake Sebu last October. It was superb that we decided to continue this worthwhile endeavor. :)

The group is composed mostly of boys so the girls have to give in to more adventure rather than just the laid back, glamorous trip. So we settled on something life-threatening. Haha! We headed to the Maxima Aquafun Resort in Samal Island which promised a maximum water experience. Its best attraction according to its website and stories of other people was its giant slide. A 50-meter tarpaulin slide which ends at the sea. 

Ok. Bring it on! : )

Travel Time. Samal Island is 20 minutes away from Davao City via barge and Davao City is 3 hours away from where we're at -  General Santos City.

  

          

Finally! We're in Maxima!

                      

And I can see the slide! 

Omg! Am I really going to do this? Am I really going to risk my bones or my life? FYI guys. I'm not afraid of the water but I really don't know how to swim! Will I survive? Why am I even thinking of doing it. I can just sit around and take pictures while everyone will be on the water swimming, screaming, enjoying! But I knew I wanted to try!

I dug up all the courage in me and marched my way to the battle - the battle between me and my fear of being drowned. But wait! I have to get my shield! The life jacket! Yey! Soooo glad they provide for everyone. I'll not drown anymore right? And my friends promised to be there when I fall (literally!) : ) Now I'm brave enough. And Laiza promised to take pictures of us. 

They all went ahead of me.

 

 

Now it's my time. Don't I look scared here? I had to pretend to somehow manage to look good. But my gosh! My heart beats a million times a minute! I had to tighten my grip on the yellow tube so I won't accidentally slide. Look how long that slide is!

                

Now it's time! 

               

Waahhh!!! That was how I was feeling right at this moment. But I couldn't scream. I wanted to look at the clouds while doing this but I had to close my eyes because the seawater was painful to the eyes. The slide seemed forever but I finally fell. 

   

That's my splash over there. Yah! I'm under the water already. My fall wasn't perfectly captured. Thanks Laiz for the splash. : ) Hey! That's really me beneath all that splash. Tsk! Why only the splash!

But hey!!! I'm alive after  that giant slide! My bones are all intact and that life jacket works! In fact, I did it again. Yes! Ooops. I did it again (by Britney Spears). : ) But again no photo for that because everyone was in the water already. 

A shout out to Ma'am Beth and Ma'am Berl for being so brave in doing it! We were so surprised! Go girls!

   

More aquafun!

 

 

 

We headed back to Davao where we stayed overnight. Had a mini tour around the city.

People's Park.

 

 

 

 

Abreeza.

 

 

 

                     

It's important that we love what we do especially the job that we chose. And if we also love the people we work with, that's a great bonus! It's seldom do we find nice and kind and fun colleagues, those who may be so different from each other in many aspects but still manage to be in peace and harmony with each other. Talk about being in the best of both worlds.

P.S. This trip wasn't at its end yet when others were already discussing where to go next. So I guess this will be just the second of our next many trips. Keep reading! : )