I’m not the type to wear hip hop clothes, but business formal isn’t my thing either. I’m my most comfortable in casual wear. Just a shirt and jeans, or shorts, is me.

So it was a lot of fun being able to go home last Holy Week and just spend leisurely days with my long-time boyfriend, whom I’ve missed so much.

One lazy afternoon we decided to hit the beach and watch the sunset. The tide was pretty low that afternoon, so we were able to sit on the exposed rocks lining the shore.

We drank some beer, sat, reminisced about the old times when we used to do the same thing almost every weekend, and just enjoyed each others presence.

Our main takeaway? We realized our happiest times were the simplest – just being together and enjoying nature. Be it the beach or the river or the mountains, it doesn’t take a whole lot of money to make us happy. For me, it’s just being with Gim. He lights me up, and I do the same for him.

I hope we can be together again really soon. And for good.

Would you need mba management if you could major in cute?

Let me show you two cute things I brought home from Japan.

The above picture is of my cute phone accessory! It’s a squirrel! So kawaii! Japan is the home of the cute – I could hardly stand it and I wanted to buy everything I saw. This is one of the tinier pieces I bought, and it’s now hanging from my office mobile. I think I don’t have to mention that my personal phone carries the bigger and cuter pieces. Hahah.

Japanese sweets! I found this in Gion. Back in 2005, my mom received a box of sweets exactly like these and I’ve always wanted to find them again. Not because of how they tasted but because they were just too cute. LOL. I wanted to give them as gifts, because the bearer will always have a dilemma of wanting to taste them but at the same time not wanting to eat them because they’re too cute. I wanted to share the dilemma hahaha. Actually they taste like cardboard. So the second option would be better, but curiosity always wins.

I had more stuff – but they’re mostly digested by now.

There aren’t any Sakura blooms yet in February, but thank goodness for plum blossoms, the earliest trees that signal spring.

While we were in Osaka, my sister and I, with our friend Erlyn, visited the Osaka castle (or Osaka-jo, they call it). My most favorite part was walking through the Bairin plum garden and being surrounded by all the beautiful blooming plum trees.

See for yourself!

And scroll through my pictures below!

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If you’re looking to buy silver coins, I’ve got a whole lot of them!

Just recently, I came back from my 7-day leisure trip to Japan. Shopping around, one tends to accumulate coins. I had intended to use them all up, but in the end I still had about 1 thousand yen’s worth of silver and bronze coins!

They look like the ones below.

The silver ones are the 100 and 50 yen coins, the bronze are 10 and 5 yen coins, and the smallest in the 1 yen coin, though I’m not sure if it’s silver, since it’s very lightweight. There’s another one, the gold coin, which is worth 500 yen, not pictured here.

I also have a 10,000 yen bill and three 1,000 yen bills left. So if anyone is going to Japan anytime soon, I’m selling my yen!

I have to get myself some acne products by tomorrow, because come Thursday I am flying off to Japan!

It’s the middle of winter in Japan right now, and last I checked the temperature in Japan is around 3°C to 17°C. Yikes!!! I am definitely bringing boots, a coat, some sweaters, a pair of warm socks, a pair of gloves and a very very heavy scarf. I’m ready, Tokyo!

The one thing I haven’t taken care of is money, though. Sigh. I need to convert my pesos to yen, and I haven’t even begun to inquire among the local money changers. I’m thinking I will have to convert to dollar and reconvert in Japan. Bad idea.

But I am excited to see Japan. Last time I went, I was only able to visit Osaka, Kyoto and Nara. This time I am actually visiting Tokyo. Yay!

So if you don’t see me posting anything next week, don’t be too impatient okay? I’ll be back after one week.

You know what I am really looking forward to??? Mochi!!!

Yum!

I spent Christmas in Zamboanga, as I always do, because that’s my hometown. ♥

On one of those days I had a dinner with my old debate friends Jeff and Ruth. I wish Chu and Jen were there so it would be complete, but Chu is in Australia and Jen was too effin’ busy (hmp!) so it was just the four of us including Gim of course (whom I met through debate! Double ♥).

We had a nice dinner in Lantaka Hotel, then went to look at the lights in City Hall and then had smoothies in Catribo. Zamboanga is so small, we kept bumping into old friends. We saw Julius, Joey, King, Raul, my old students and so many others. December is truly homecoming month.

I love this picture.

It was taken by Jeff, haha. We had a hard time getting a pic because all the waiters seemed so harried, running from one table to the other. We could hardly keep their attention for more than a minute, and almost all the waiter’s photos were a blurry fail. LOL. So. Sariling sikap, yo! Hahaha.

Here is a photo taken by Ruth of my favorite Lantaka dish. It’s pasta marisco – fettucini swimming in seafood sauce and yummy clams and squid. Mmmm!!! I miss!!!

Here is me and Gim, ooh, parang we just had a dinner date, hahahah!

Here is our fully lighted City Hall. Amazing, yeah? It was even more lighted up than last year, if you can believe that!!

And here are our other pictures, just browse through them all.

Well I am off for a short but sweet vacation to Puerto Princesa, Palawan, for the next couple of days. So guys, expect some delays in my posting.

I know there are some of you who’ve come to expect the Korean dramas posted as soon as the subbing wraps up (and sometimes even before!) but — I can’t this week! I’ll be having myself a bit of fun in the sun – and I’m not bringing any electronics! (Well, okay, I’ll be bringing my cellphone, heh. But only that!! I am even going to leave my camera home.)

Expect the posts for Playful Kiss and My Girlfriend is a Gumiho by Saturday, at the earliest.

Wish me a relaxing vacay!

Population growth. The scourge of the developing world. The root of that famous vicious cycle that causes impoverished countries like the Philippines to be stuck in their respective economic quagmires. Not so for Mechai Viravaidya, who founded Thailand’s most successful non-profit, non-government agency, the Population and Community Development Association (PDA). Through the PDA, Mechai shared his belief that for any family planning program to be successful, condoms and other contraceptives should be as accessible and acceptable to the people as vegetables in the market- thus the concept for Cabbages and Condoms was born.

Cabbages and Condoms, a really decent and homey (think casual dresses) resto located at Soi 12, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok (Between Nana and Asok BTS stations) is a restaurant with a mission: promote family planning and population control. Proceeds from the resto go straight to the to the PDA which then promotes and develops projects geared towards family planning in the provinces. This goal has garnered a lot of publicity for the restaurant, even makingit on Time’s must do list in Bangkok.

Of course, we wouldn’t have passed up the chance to experience the place during our stay. We ordered the house special of Soft-shelled crabs, Pork Spare ribs with honey, and rice. For dessert, we had banana fritters with ice cream. Though a bit pricey (average dish costs around 200-300 Baht), the fact that we were contributing to a cause made it easier to part with our money. Besides that, the dishes were really good, although spicier than we actually would have liked. But overall, still a pretty good eat.

Spicy Soft-shelled crab

Pork Spare ribs- we demolished this in five minutes flat

After Dinner pose

Of course, a night at C and C wouldn't be complete without posing with the famous condom mascots!

Now it's Flishi's turn!

After Dinner Freebies- yes, they give out free condoms

Ah, the famed weekend market of Bangkok; Chatuchak market wasn’t all that hard to find. All you have to do is ride the BTS Skytrain all the way to the last station, Mo Chit and follow the crowds. Yes, the crowds. Occupying a huge plot of land adjacent to Chatuchak park, the market itself is made up of a labyrinth of shops, food stalls and sidewalk vendors (including those that sell cute baby gifts).

Amidst the crowds- tired but still managing a smile

And it’s packed with people- tourists and locals alike jostle one another to shop, haggle, and shop some more for more merchandise than you can possibly handle. The reason for the crowds is all too clear- dirt cheap clothes (I bought a nice casual shirt here for only 30 Baht! The decent, really-OK-for-work collared shirts can be bought for 150-200 Baht apiece), pasalubongs and street food (you just have to try the marinated duck with flat noodles- scrumptious!).

I dunno what's it called- all I care about is it's scrumptious!

Fli, that's so masarap!

Needless to say, with items this cheap, we burnt a lot of Baht for a day at the market. On the other hand, we came home with loads of clothes and trinkets!  

White collared shirt- 30 Baht, Black formal coat- 100 Baht, Levi's straight cut jeans- 400 Baht, Chatuchak experience- Priceless!

Foodies. That’s what we like to call ourselves. And it’s pretty obvious why. I love to cook. We both love, love, love to eat. Our time spent together is like one loong food-trip. We just love sampling new food (specially if they are served in those really nice contemporary coffee tables)!

Proof of this is the fact that the first thing we did on arrival in the Land of Smiles is buy 70 Baht worth of Thai food minutes after disembarking off the plane. OK, fine, so we bought the food from a 24-hour convenience shop inside the airport. But it still was Thai food after all.

So it was that we were excited as starving chickens (pardon the pun, we really were excited for Thai cuisine) when our mutual friend Chu, invited us for a dinner out at La Table de Tee, a French-Thai fusion gourmet resto located at Saladaeng Road, Silom, Bangkok. Conveniently located around 5 minutes from the Bangkok BTS Skytrain (Thai version of our MRT, just waaay better) Sala Daeng Station. A full 5-course meal costs a very reasonable 750 Baht (That’s affordable, considering that it *is* a Michelin grade place). True to our foodie nature, we took pics of each and every course we ate!

Japanese Pumpkin and Garlic Soup! Very creamy with a hint of lime

Sweet potatoes and Basil- astonishing how they made the potatoes taste like mozarella cheese!

Seafood and Couscous- savor de marisco galore!

Pork Sirloin and Ginger- Sizzling pork with bit of bacon and drizzles of honey! Yum!

Choco Fondant and coconut ice cream- Pure Bliss!

And here’s us, satisfied and happy. I’m soo looking forward to my next La Table de Tee experience!

(L-R) Chu, Flishi, and Me