My Cup of Tea

I say it's beautiful because today, November 30, is a holiday and I can finally relax for two straight days. I travelled with my sister yesterday from Manila for Caloocan via FX, and the travel took 3 hours and 30 minutes due to heavy traffic! Soooo tiring!! Unfortunately, we're not able to visit Tagaytay as what I planned earlier this month. My sister has another itinerary today so I have no choice but to stay in the house with the cats, ngork !! To amuse myself and enjoy the weekend, I went out this morning to do some grocery and bought different kinds of fresh milk hahaha! The three kinds of fresh milk I bought in the supermarket hehe!  Oaties Milk (so creamy and refreshing), Anlene (yummy) and my all-time favorite Vitamilk (very healthy and satisfying)  Cream roll mango flavor is another bread variety from Gardenia but honestly I don't like the taste hehe! I normally drink Pineapple juice in a week. I want to get rid of stress so I decided to drink lo...

I'm super excited now because tomorrow, November 24, 2013, will be the last Sunday of ordinary times in the Catholic Calendar, and next Sunday, December 1, 2013, is the start of the Advent season meaning Christmas is in the Air!! But in the Catholic faith, it is still not Christmas season because Advent is different from Christmas. Advent means "preparation for the coming of Christ" while Christmas season celebrates the birth of Christ. Christmas, which starts on December 25 and ends on Sunday of the Epiphany (second Sunday of January) is simply my happiest season of the year and no matter what happens in my day,  the thought of Christmas always inspires me and makes me giddy. But the saddest part is, I cannot go home to Surigao to be with my parents because I am here in Manila.  My weekend routine includes going home to Caloocan from Manila comes Saturday afternoon. Then back to Manila on Sunday afternoon for work. I hate traveling on Monday morning because ...

I was never a pet lover, I find it so awfully tiring taking care of animals, they cannot communicate clearly so having them around requires extra patience and devotion to fully understand their needs but when I relocated here in Manila, I found out my sister has several cats!!And to my horror they would sleep beside us during night time goshhhh! My sister's four adult cats! I tried to push them during the first few nights but they would not go, they would curl instead and sleep soundly, later I learned to accept the reality hehehe! And began to love them and take care of them when my sister is out. Then two of the cats gave birth last August 2013, four of them survived. As I watched them grew into cute kitties, I began to love them and find them amusing. I got to feed them everyday. One day, I noticed the swelling of the eyes of the two kittens, my sister told me to just let it pass because the other cats had the same condition when they were growing up, but I was so r...

Wohoho!! At last I was able to stroll around Greenbelt after five years hehe! Last Thursday, September 26, I and my sister decided to spend lunch at SM Makati after my appointment with Accenture in McKinley Taguig. It was raining and we're so tired commuting to Market Market for lunch, so we took an FX ride going to Makati and stopping at SM and Glorietta. Strolling around the relaxing atmosphere of Greenbelt Makati After lunch, it was time to explore the area, we visited Greenbelt using its footbridge connecting SM. I always love Ayala Malls because of its advocacy of a green environment, most of its biggest malls in the country have beautiful landscape of tropical plants and fountains. Abreeza Davao has a well-maintained garden and so with Trinoma in Quezon City but my favorite among its malls is Greenbelt. It is surrounded with a soothing greenery. It has a mini-rainforest, manicured lawn, lush green plants, pathways, a chapel and a little fish pond, a perfect p...

God is so good!He delays things but He never forget :-)  I know from the deepest part of my soul that I am destined for something greater and bigger, that God allows every circumstance to take place to help me find my perfect place in this world. He is the only one who can see the true longing of my heart.  With that, I am truly grateful.  Thank you God for the gift of life, for allowing me to see another day, for keeping me and my family safe all the time I'll say prayers also to the people who have been suffering from all sorts of disasters and violence in every corner of the world, protect them, bring them to your consoling embrace, grant them peace and serenity. Zamboanga, Syria, Egypt and other regions and nations have been battered by insurgencies recently, my sympathy and compassion go with the people affected. Yesterday I received a forwarded text message from a friend: "The deepest level of worship is praising God despite of pain...Thanking Him dur...

Attended two birthday celebrations in two straight nights! Yaaay ... So amusing because this rarely happens hehe ... Last Saturday, August 24, the post birthday celebration of Jelaine Abendan, the charming eight-year-old daughter of Jerome, was held at their house somewhere in Makati. Her actual birthday was last August 21 but due to bad weather, Jerome decided to postpone it on weekend. We went there at half past 5:00 in the afternoon, there was a slight downpour, the environment went gloomy again. Jelaine Abendan celebrated her 8th birthday last August 21 but the actual party  was held  three days later due to bad weather Actually it was my first time to be with some  kababayans  I did not see in recent years so I was a little bit apprehensive, you know the feeling when you're in a gathering and you came in very late and met some guests not quite familiar, you felt like a dead meat hehehe! But after settling myself and find comfort in one corner, I be...

This weekend is pretty bad. Too many concerns crowded in my horizon. Emotional baggage sort of thing, feeling of rejection, feeling of unworthiness. Felt like there was this evil force that tried to nail me down in despair. But I am already mature. Grown up. Emotionally secure to mind those petty stuff that had nothing to do with my life in the long run, so I let it passed. August 15, 2013, Thursday Last Thursday my sister went out and left me at the house of our friend in San Andres, Manila, for reasons I could not understand, she did not tell us where she will go. Good thing Nening Abendan went to visit us and we had a talk the whole afternoon, it was fun and I forgot the passing of time (we're supposed to go to Intramuros but due to my sister's other activity we agreed to postpone our leisure plan). My sister texted me that night that she will no longer come to San Andres and will just go directly to Caloocan where we permanently lived. I was so disappointed becau...

I rarely wrote entries in my weekend diary category because there's nothing extraordinary to talk about every week, I hate raking my brain with something not worthy to share anyway. I got so tired spurting my distress and discomfort all over again, in fact I get used to it that I am no longer surprise why my weekend is painfully exhausting, mentally. But this week is slightly different, well, not that I suddenly realized I should update my blog, but there's something into it that I want to share, it's all about surprises and inspiration. It's the last week of November and I am always excited when December comes. N ovember 27, Tuesday . We attended a birthday party in honor of Dr. Amy Gravino who turned 50, her children and husband surprised her with a kiddie birthday party at Jollibee. It was so funny and very unique, all of us became young again, traveling back in time when nothing matters in the world except fun, laughter and foods!  I joined others in a ...

On September 28, 2012, the UIC community gathered together at the Bajada campus to celebrate one important occasion, another milestone in the history of the university, the installation and investiture of the fifth president, S.Ma. Marissa Viri, RVM.  With pretty colleagues ^____^ (from right) Precy, Cherrie and Juvy at the UIC Bajada auditorium.  At the registration area before the start of the mass. With Neil John, Rachelle and Rochelle. There was a thanksgiving mass at 9:00 in the morning celebrated by Most Reverend Romulo Valles, D.D, the Archbishop of Davao, followed by the installation rites. We then proceeded to the gym for the fraternal banquet and entertainment.  The foods were great catered by Chippins but the area was terribly hot, so bad that I did not join colleagues anymore at the picture taking just outside the gym courtesy of the Immaculatus. The discomfort I felt towards the irritating blemishes on my face made the whole thing unbearable tha...

It feels like only yesterday, cramming with my case presentation of MGM Mirage (MGM Resorts International) for my Strategic Management subject ^_____^ Now September is about to end! Why time flew so fast?Seems like the earth has doubled its rotation that the ticking of the clock is as fast as the blinking of the eyes! September 22 , Saturday, after attending our class in Business Research, I and my two classmates went to G.Mall to spend lunch at Dimsum. We'd agreed on September 17 (while dining at Mandarin SM shortly after asking copies from the Securities and Exchange Commission office of the financial statements of the companies we will be working on for our Strategic Management paper) that we would visit Dimsum sometime this month to find out if the food is as good as at Mandarin hehe! Sorry no close up shots for us at Dimsum because my classmates are camera shy hehe At Dimsum, we ordered Beef Brisquet and Chop suey ...and Melon Shake September 23 , Sund...

Oh my! Time really flew so fast..now it's September...in Western countries, this is the start of the Autumn season and in the Philippines, the start of the Christmas season (though in the Catholic calendar it's not actually Christmas season yet). With soothing Christmas songs started playing in the air, my mind transported back again to the most wonderful moment of my life in the province. This is my happiest season of the year!I always love Christmas because it reminds me of my  uncomplicated and joyful childhood, so many good memories and heart-warming thoughts. My mama is camera shy hehehe My Mama Quiet lunch with mama at Rai rai Ken Abreeza I'm just so happy despite terrible events that happened lately. I just try to ignore those ugly events and encounter with some ugly and ignorant people in the environment, I am looking forward for a wonderful holiday in the province. Chicken Teriyaki One of my favorite Japanese Foods, Californi...

This sounds strange, but since reading the poll result of Happy Planet Index which named Philippines as the 14 th happiest nation in the world in terms of life satisfaction, life expectancy and environmental footprints, it feels like there’s something to celebrate of being a Filipino. Oh yes, despite the nail-biting economic crisis, political turmoil, flood and insurgencies in the country, the never ending anxiety of what’s-coming-ahead and some hidden disappointments, my happy disposition remains unaffected, most of the time, my life seems happier and exciting and more fascinating everyday, yaaay!  (expression I got from Bianca Gonzales,hehe). I mean why focus on things I cannot control when there is one side of life which offers great promises for a brighter day?   Hmmm..okay, so what made my weekend Happy? --Well, today is my parents' wedding anniversary . I always remember this very important day of my parents’ union since I was 9 years old. My mother once s...

2010 December 4 I woke up at 6:35 in the morning to prepare for our Advent Recollection at the Kerygma Conference. After taking a bath (in a haste because it was so cold and I had a slight fever that morning) I ate wheat bread with hot Green Tea as my breakfast. I felt so empty and down while going to the Central bank, too many clutters clogging in my brain, felt like I was carrying a megawatt emotional baggage. When we arrived at the area, we took our seat at the far corner of the convention hall and waited for an hour before the conference started. I was only pacified when Bo Sanchez made his sharing. It was great, watching him talk live again pumped a different fulfillment. The last time I saw him was in November 2006 during his “Bo Talks” conference tour. I truly adored him because of his wisdom and enthusiasm to spread the word of God, I admired people like him because they always reminded me of my father who is serving the Catholic Church as a Eucharistic Minister for mo...