When In Baguio

Tuesday. 08.31.10

I just got home earlier. Twin sissy and I spent our leave in Baguio. I did not bring my laptop with me so I am not able to update my blog for a week so but I'll try to remember what happened during my short yet relaxing vacation in the summer capital, Baguio City.

Sunday. 08.29.10

It's been raining a lot here in Baguio since we arrived yesterday afternoon via Dagupan bus. I slept soundly last night because mom's comforter is the best! Sissy and I have to wake up early not to miss the 7AM mass at the Pink Sisters Convent. Our brother drove us to church we arrived 15 minutes before the first mass starts. It's our first time at the Pink Sisters I must say that it's a lot solemn to hear mass there compared to Baguio Cathedral. This church isn't spacious enough to accommodate many people so it's not crowded at all. It's really quiet there I can hear what the priest is saying clearly during the mass. It started raining after the mass so we're unable to take pictures outside. Dad and brother went ahead so mom and the two of us head over to "Cafe by the Ruins" for breakfast. I thought I'd have something exquisite to drink so instead of having coffee I chose this "mint tea" something from the menu and had the shock of my life when the waiter served me a glassful of hot water with what I suppose is mint leaves and a small cup full of honey to taste. To be honest, I didn't like my tea at all it tastes like toothpaste dissolved in water or something it's a little weird for me. I ordered the beef sandwich that got me even more disappointed because the bread is very hard to chew and the filling isn't generous nor tasteful enough. Cafe by the Ruins looked pretty enticing from the outside but the food is no winner to me or maybe I'm just expecting too much? Whatever, I'm not a happy camper so to speak. The weather is still not very cooperative so we went home after buying Ukay shirts from a stall fronting Prime Hotel. Let's hope that tomorrow's a better day.

Monday. 08.31.10

National Heroes Day


Oh, It's a holiday and another rainy day. Our first itinerary for the day is supposedly a trip to Bencab Museum we forgot about it yesterday for but according to the website they're closed on Mondays. Nevertheless, sissy and I never lose hope we didn't stop scouring session road in search of authentic-artsy places. Few days before my leave I breezed through some food blogs on the Internet and when I come across this vegetarian resto/art gallery called Oh My Gulay, located at the top floor of La Azotea building along Session Road. We got excited when we take a peek inside OMG, it's an art jungle in the amidst the city. A cozy atmosphere greeted us. We got a little intimidated by the place at first because we arrived early we didn't see anyone taking pictures so we chose a spot where we can take pictures discreetly. It's lunch time so we told ourselves that we'll worry about taking pictures later we better check out what's on the menu first. For our main dish, it's twin sissy's pick she chose Lumpia Salad. This salad lingered on our tastebuds, the vinaigrette dressing is so good we loved it. Then comes dessert my pick is called super sosy. Don't be fooled it's not like sosyal (fancy) at all, it's just the name. The yummy crepe is made of mango and peach it's not too sweet, just perfect for our diet. 

The rain poured heavily after we had our fill and more customers started coming in so when we saw them taking pictures of the place we wasted no time and did the same thing. We had a real good OMG experience. It's still raining when we got home. We had spaghetti and double dutch ice cream for merienda. We thought we've had enough until dinner and will not eat anymore but mom cooked our favorite dish Tokwa't Baboy (tofu and pork) so we had no choice but to eat again, I'm so stuffed. 

I guess that pretty much is everything.

Coffee and Movies

Time flies by so quickly it was just like yesterday I couldn't wait for my rest day now it's almost over and tomorrow's the start of another week. Thank God! Sissy and I will be going out-of-town this weekend, yay! I went to Baguio last month by my lonesome because sissy ran out of leave credits she wasn't with me during our mom's birthday she got envious she missed mom's home cooked dishes, what a pity hehe. On a serious note, I feel that I badly needed this vacation. Work is stressing me out so much lately I'm becoming too irritable and my patience is hanging by a thread. I don't think I need to go on a diet I'm just losing appetite because of stress. I'm not much of a coffee drinker and as much as possible I try to drink coffee only when I need to stay awake but I just can't help it good thing there's 7eleven's Blueberry tea and French Vanilla coffee available when I want something more than what our coffee vendo can offer. Hey, I haven't had Mc Cafe's Iced Mocha frappe in a long time too. My eye bags are getting worse I really have to make stress go away before I completely lose my mind. 



Sissy and I went boxing earlier as usual then come lunch time we saw an Andok's stall nearby we suddenly craved for Dokito Frito at first, but we changed our minds we agreed to have Porkcharap instead. I super love the gravy. We stayed home all day
and waited to have our faucet repaired by Manong Eddie, our resident Jack of all trade personnel. Our faucet's good as new again a few minutes later. I did some laundry too then we had a movie marathon after we watched tons of movies after.


Btw, I love these new pair of cute undies I bought from SM Department store yesterday they're so comfy my sister saw me wearing it earlier she said it's something I can wear at the beach, cool. 

DIY-ing

It's a rainy afternoon. I just woke up an hour and a half ago I got home past three in the morning from yesterday's shift.


I recycled the leftover brown rice from the fridge last Sunday so it won't get spoiled. I fried and topped it with corned beef and mixed vegetable. That's it, lunch is served! I still have some for my sister when she comes home for dinner. I stopped eating white rice not because it's not healthy since it has its own benefits but simply because my APE  (annual physical exam) result tells me that i need high fiber diet so I did a little research and found out that brown rice is rich in fiber which is what I exactly needed.


So much of the diet thingy, our kitchen faucet handle was broken we bought a new one but don't have the proper tools to replace it. Sissy thought she can do it apparently it wasn't as simple as she thought it would be. Since we can't use the faucet we filled our empty water container with non-distilled water that we can use to wash the dishes, it's kinda like our DIY temporary faucet.

Berry Sweet

Today is my 44th boxing session at Elorde would you believe it? It was just like yesterday when my sister and I paid for membership at the Shaw, Mandaluyong branch (now closed) and had our first shot at boxing now it's a weekly routine for us. Boxing did help me lose weight but totally useless if I don't pay attention to what I eat so let's just say boxing + diet did the trick. 



Sissy and I tried Califonia Berry's special frozen yoghurt to give in to our sweet tooth. CBS is topped with fruit flavors kiwi, mango and strawberry. CB claims that their frozen yogurt's low in calorie and 100% non-fat. 


Who says sweet can't be healthy? 

Siomai Sharksfin

At last Sat-Sun off. Sissy and I worked out together earlier yay! Since it's my first time to go to the gym on a weekend I didn't realize that it's a busy day there. It's a weekend, what was I thinking? or maybe it was lack of sleep that's why I missed that everyone has time to work out on weekends. I just had two hours of sleep before working out my Friday shift is 5PM-2AM I got home past 3AM. 




There's quite a number of people when we arrived in Elorde good thing we knew the drill already so there's no time wasted. It felt good to shake off those fats again. I skipped boxing for a week and have not eaten rice for a week too so I did today. I craved for Mini-Stop's Sharksfin meal (yum!) for lunch. I know, some people wouldn't last a day without carbs so imagine how I survived a week. well, I just did or let's just say it's a matter of discipline especially if you're aiming to lose five pounds in two weeks. Suicide? hell no, anything is possible. 

Overthinking

Today is my Interim off and tomorrow is the start of my 5 PM shift. Okay great, starting next week I'll be on Sat-Sun off. I'm kind of ecstatic because my sister and I will have more bonding moments. We can go on a lot of food trip and workout together. However, I still hate coming to work or going home on wee hours of the morning. I just thank God that in my seven years of work I've never had any worse experience yet except when I had my bag slashed off while on my way to work I lost my cellphone. My officemate once told me that she got robbed inside a cab on her way home. The taxi driver took all her belongings and asked her not to look back but didn't do any harm to her and it's just a few blocks away from their house. There are way too many horror stories for people who work at night since all the risks are there but still, most people prefer to work at night because they aim for night differential. Who wouldn't want a bigger take home pay right? Working in BPO indeed pays good money compared to other jobs but seriously, it's not an easy task to take the risks to go to work every. They say that prayer is the most powerful weapon a person can have and I believe that. You see, I'm not a religious person but I always keep a rosary inside my bag for protection.

Twin sissy and I heard mass at Quiapo church. We arrived thirty minutes late but just in time for the homily. It's so hot inside the church good thing she brought a fan to cool us down a little. The air coming from the wall fan didn't help at all. We decided to move towards the aisle when I noticed a statue of this little boy holding a tin can with words engraved under his feet "Pondo ng Pinoy." I seriously would like to take a picture of him he's like a celebrity status but I think it's a little awkward to do so I'm inside the church I don't want people to think that I'm not paying attention to the mass. When I got home I searched the Internet if I'll find a picture of him, unfortunately, there's none. Everyone who sees him can't help but drop a coin on his tin can like a real miserable kid begging for mercy just by the sad look on his face. After the mass, we had breakfast then come dessert we had Choco San Rival gelato (Gelato is Italian for ice cream) at Amici. Sweet!

I saw a real cute hoodie jackets in Lee. My sister love the black one I thought about buying the gray jacket but it doesn't fit me so I end up with the black one even if it's much more expensive. Anyway, it's worth the price plus I got a free bottle umbrella. Nice!

Chill Time

I'm so back. I haven't been writing because I just got back from vacation last Tuesday. It was for my mom's 64th birthday that's why I went on vacation to visit her. The original plan was a trip to our coconut farm in Quezon since I haven't been there but the rainy season is up it wouldn't be a good idea to go there. When it rains, the mud gets very thick and we have to pass by rough roads so my parents suggested for me to just spend my leave at our vacation home in Baguio. I enjoyed my stay in Baguio because mom and I were able to spend quality time together. My dad and elder brother were not there during my stay they have to attend the wake and burial of one of our relatives. On Sunday, Mom and I heard mass at Baguio cathedral. I didn't understand anything through the mass was in Ilocano so I just prayed in silence. We went to Session Road fronting Prime Hotel afterwards to shop for Ukay-Ukay. I bought myself some real cool shirts and a messenger bag. Mom got herself pretty blouses too. 

Bibingka Ilocos

Time to go home and while waiting for the Victory bus to leave, a lady hopped in selling Bibingka Ilocos. Mom bought five pieces I love its taste, It's so good it's different from other bibingka I've tasted before. When we got home, mom cooked "spaghetti" as her early birthday treat because I'll be leaving for Manila on Tuesday, her birthday. I just stayed home the following day to help mom out with her chores and I know it's not a lot but I gave our dogs a bath hehe. I guess we haven't had enough of ukay-ukay so mom and I went back to town. She suggested we check out Lola's (grandmother) Ukayan for a change located at the basement of one of the establishments near Prime Hotel. My mom calls the older lady owner of the store Lola. We are her frequent customers or Suki. Every time we visit Baguio we drop by her store even though her ukay-ukay is more expensive compared to other stalls in Session but she gives good discount sometimes. In the afternoon I checked out mom's new videoke machine. I noticed that there are new songs I found myself singing to some familiar songs that I like. I had a real good sleep at night I miss the cold and I love mom's comforters.

Ukay-ukay finds

Time to go back to Manila the next day. I'm back to the world again. Darn.

***

Back to work, same old thing. I wish I can go on leave for a month so I can get away from unresolved issues at work I'm too old for such. As usual, half of my shift is queueing as always, so when avail comes I kill time browsing anything. While checking out foodstuff I came across this real cool and interesting call center blog site it's so full of things I can relate too that I decided to share the URL to my friend and we read it together during our long avail time. I bookmarked the URL on my home computer and had my sister read on and she enjoyed it too so I thought I'd share this blog site http://callcentercon.travellerspoint.com.

Lastly, I super love my new haircut and color but I miss my deep red hair.