BAGUIO

 Just came back from the City of Pines last weekend and Baguio never fails to amaze us with it's glorious mountains and beautiful sceneries . To add the cold weather these past days because of the Christmas season . The beautiful views continues to envigorate our human spirit .

A lot of tourists are also around and got a taste again of strawberry taho and the sweet corn with evaporated milk only at the Baguio night market .

So much joy experiencing the Baguio feels even for just a few days . It refreshes your mind and gives a new perspective on things . Just staring at the mountain houses and the Cold Moon gives you renewed energy  and inspirations that better things are coming your way.

Have a blessed year ahead. God bless us all!

DAVAO

 

Visited the city of Davao this weekend . Tasted the sights and sounds of Davao . The difference during this visit is the horrendous traffic we experience while going around the Metro . It feels like you are in Manila with the traffic during this weekend . Maybe its the Christmas season or as the taxi driver was telling us it's now easier to avail of getting a new car with even no deposit . No wonder the city of Davao is full of vehicles .

The Landers Supermarket open a few days ago and easily they have 70,000 members already , So Davao is a thriving city with a lot of vehicles around and money to spent on shopping .

What I enjoyed the most aside for the buffet breakfast is the 360 view of the city at the Sky View Restaurant  of the Blue Lotus Hotel . You get to see the sky ( sunrise or sunset ) and the Davao sea then a glimpse of Mt. Apo at the back side of the 7th floor of the hotel,. It was a refeshing sight and very relaxing indeed .

Thank you Lord for this opportunity .

  

Bacolod City

 

While in Iloilo we visited Bacolod City via a boat ride at the Guimaras Strait . It is an hour  boat ride to reach Bacolod . Since we have to return back in the afternoon we only visited the malls - SM Bacolod , Ayala Mall Capitol Central and Robinson's Bacolod during our visit .

Both SM Bacolod and Robinsons's Bacolod have Booksale so we spend time there for our book collection . So we brought some book haul back to Manila . 

I miss the Masskara Festival display at the Robinson's Bacolod there was none this year. Although Robinson's undergoing renovations so there were few shoppers at the mall.

While at SM Bacolod looks like a lighter version of SM Seaside Cebu  , there were new stores around to see. There's also a Booksale here so we went to see what we can haul .  We had a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant before headng back at the Bacolod Port for a return trip to Iloilo that afternoon.

Although it was short day trip we enjoyed traveling together and visiting new places for us to explore and see. 

 

Iloilo City

 Has visited Iloilo this month for a few days for a business trip. Iloilo is surrounded by vintage houses with a lot of historical significance. We visited the Jaro Cathedral and heard an ongoing Holy Mass. The church is full and brimming with parishioners and visitors. It's a beautiful church with a lot of saint statues and mosaic glasses . 

Across the Jaro Cathedral is a beautiful and wide park with the old church bell tower still existing . There were few people in the park that day enjoying the afternoon quiet moments .

We vistied SM Iloilo with all its improvements with the new Food Hall at the 3rd level but the Food court still operational at the ground level. There's a Booksale too where I enjoyed spending time finding my book haul for the day .

We enjoyed the food trip in Iloilo with all its batchoy and piaya for pasalubong .  

It was an enjoyable trip visiting the beautiful sights in Iloilo . Maybe in the future we can explore more places   to further study its rich culture .

Isabela

 Just spend the weekend in Isabela with my brother's family especially Alonzo . He stayed with us for a day or even night  and went home the next day to be with his sister BFF who is studying medicine in Ateneo School of Medicine and going back to Manila the next day as class resumes after the long weekend due to the celebation of All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day . 

After spending the day with Alonzo on a Saturday, the next day we went to Tuguegarao for work related business . Seeing the mountains and trees gives you a renewed spirit. Nature has a way of enlivening your soul  .After the usual store visits we went back to Isabela and the next day , Monday , prepared going home to Bulacan , for the next day will be another work week for us .

Such an enjoyable time to spend specal moments with Alonzo. Take you Lord for this opportunity .  

A New Earth

 On the new Earth my family will be complete and we all live together in one place .   We share our every day and spend time always enjoying the dailiness of  life . 

Sometimes you ask where does time go ? It moved so much that you are looking for the years that passed  by missing the special times spent with family or the times that could have been spent together . 

Hope is always present and forever you wish that family is with you most specially during the dark moments . But I'm happy my husband is always there for me , thinking what's best for me and ever supportive of my dreams and activities .Gives in to my uniqueness including the tantrums and all . Always there for me.  

You wish time will stand still so you can bring home everyone and spend the days together as a family like the old times .

Family is Life 

Happy birthday in Heaven Dad

 Happy birthday in Heaven Daddy . Thank you for continuously guiding us in life and protecting us from any danger  especially during the pandemic. As a result we are all safe and protected as a family . Thank you so much .

Thank you for this beautiful morning as we face the challenges of work . We are bless because you love us first . Thank you for being in our everyday . Thank you for loving us no matter what . We feel your love and protection everyday of our lives . Thank you for giving us strength to face our everyday challenges . Thank you for giving us the talents to help others and to bring this talents to our companies . Thank you for complete healing on my blood  sugar , for perfect health and strength of spirit. Thank you for letting me deliver my mission for the day . Thank you Lord Jesus for being my Savior , my Healer , my Deliverer , my Everyday Joy .

Thank you ....

    

What do you remember ?

 

When I was 12 years old I remember playing teacher , writing using chalk at our green gate at home . Sometimes acting as if a teacher teaching the lesson for the day 

When I was 7 years old I remember Tita Leony accompanying me at school because I was absent for weeks due to sickness  and I have to copy the school lessons for the past weeks to cope up .

When I was first year high school I remember playing Jesus Christ in our  school play , such a pride because I even presented for the whole school for our year level

When I graduated in college I remember the disappointment I had because I did not qualify for the Cum Laude because of my Speech grade despite reaching the desired average for the honor students.    

So many memories stored in our human mind that we haul every once in a while to remind ourselves of the good old days 

Moving Back

 

So what is moving back ?  We sometimes experience long vacation break with long travel abroad from 10 to 15 days or even months . Or you have long time visitors from abroad spending months here in the Philippines like your children from Abu Dhabi or aunties from the US . This breaks your normal routines .

After the vacation and going back to your country of origin takes you sometime to move back to your normal day to day routines . You still sort of continually enjoying the times spent for your vacation time . That going back to your normal routines breaks your energy mode .

Then your normal routine suffers and you still live in that altered reality where you spent enjoyable times .

I recently went to Abu Dhabi for 15 days to celebrate my birthday with my twin daughters . Spending everyday activities after so many months of being afar . This gives us so much joy nd pleasure . We went to Dubai for a couple of days visiting Burj Khalifa , The View Palm Jumeirah, the Dubai Mall , The Miracle Garden, , Dubai Marina Mall , the Last Exit among others .

Now that I am back to the Philippines there's difficulty going back to my usual normal routines . Actually on the first weeks my sleep is even affected because of the time difference and I reported back to work immediately after arriving from Abu Dhabi . Even your me time is affected up until now I have not done crafting , journaling , water color painting , reading time and writing . You are still in between realities and wishing you are still on the time zone where you came from .

But Life moves on ...........

DUBAI

 

While in Abu Dhabi we stayed in Dubai for 4 days visiting places like the Miracle Garden , Burj Khalifa , Palm Jumeirah , Dubai Mall , Dubai Marina Mall and stayed at the Premiere Inn Hotel for a couple of days .  

It's an adventure of a lifetime like visiting the Burj Khalifa at its 124th and 125th floors . How much does it cost ? It was difficult to be at the 124th floor especially if  you have fear of  heights . Anyway was able to picture a few shots and see the beauty of Dubai in 360 degrees of course took videos and photos to capture the moments. 

We also ate a lot of good food at the Han Shi Fu and the Lamesa restaurant offering Chinese and  Filipino food . At Lamesa   I think almost all the guests in the restaurant  were Filipinos . It feels like home hearing people talking in our language .

We visited the Miracle Garden , the biggest flower garden in the world . Imagine a flourishing garden in the desert .

We also visited The View Palm Jumeirah , seeing an overview of the Palm. In 2018 we visited the Atlantis which is inside Palm Jumeirah now observing it from afar seeing the whole of Palm Jumeirah from The View .

We also went to the Dubai Mall , the biggest mall in the world and with a giant aquarium inside the Dubai Mall . A lot of trendy stores inside and we ate at the Chinatown Food Court , during our first visit in 2018 this was not yet done . So we get a taste of Chinatown in Dubai .. We visited the Dubai Marina Mall   and saw the beautiful yatch and boats in the Marina Bay .

We went to the Old Suoq or the old market near the Dubai Creek ,visiting the old side of Dubai with it's old architectural structures and we even had coffee at Starbucks there .    

We stayed  at the Premiere Inn Hotel Dubai for 2 nights while visiting the sights in Dubai. This is near the IBN Batuta Mall with its beautiful Arabic or Moroccan inspired architecture .

Before going home to Abu Dhabi , we pass by the Last Exit for a drink of karak tea and checking the sites of unique food trucks around the area . We actually pass by the Last Exit twice , first was after the Miracle Garden visit then on the 2 days stay in Dubai we pass again another Last Exit site or is it the same site , I"m not sure yet if the same or a different one ?

Looking forward for another visit in the future .

Thank you Cathy and Tin for this opportunity .

   

        

Abu Dhabi Travels

 Hi my friends I celebrated my birthday in the land of the camels and dessert. It was such amazing experience and once in a lifetime adventure.

I was given the opportunity to visit the tallest buidling on Earth , the Burj Khalifa of Dubai together with my fear of heights . We took a lot of pictures and memories celebrating life with my twin daughters , who are working in Abu Dhabi for the past 10 years .Time flies so fast as they have been working in Abu Dhabi for almost 10 years now . My beautiful twin daughters  are now adults flying their own wings overseass and it's been 10 years .

Although in between these years they visited us here in the Philippines but there were moments we end up seeing each other in other parts of the world like Hongkong and Taiwan . They recently plan to go to Europe but was cancelled because of the difficulty in getting a Schengen visa they decided to instead spend 15 days in UAE which was equally exciting and memorable .

We visited the Miracle Garden in Dubai , considered a miracle because flowers bloom in the dessert sand .We also had a lot of  mukbangs ( eat all you can food trip)  Seven Hotpot ,   Lamesa Restaurant , Han Shi Fu, L'ETO , Bentley  with all the best foods . We ;aso visited the food courts of Dubai Mall and Dubai Marina Mall ..

More adventures in the coming days to write ..

More travels and enjoyable experience to the family .

 

    

Quezon Province

Just came from the province of Quezon this weekend for some special mission in Sariaya . I was able to visit again the St. Francis of Assisi Parish and was even able to attend an ongoing Holy Mass . 

The beauty of nature envigorates your spirit , gives you renewed energy despite the long travels . Seeing the coconut trees and lines of bottled vinegars gives you a different kind of experience , a yearning to God's spiritual soul and love for us . 

The trip maybe short but the longing for nature is there, combine with the Joy of spending the day with the one you Love and most especially treasure.

Life is such a Joy for simple things we celebrate in our every day and we continue to be grateful with all the blessings we receive every day of our lives.

Thank you for the every day miracles  Lord Jesus

     

How to maintain mental health ?

 How do we manage our daily mental health ?

Because of the pandemic our world became much smaller we were place on lockdowns for long period of time to protect us from the virus , which affccted the mental health of a lot of people around us and with us.

Here are some practical tips on self care we can do in our daily lives , which I hope will help you maintain your mental health .

Exercise

Get regular exercise , just a simple short walk in the neighborhood or your home garden will be of big help to your well being . If you have exercsie machine at home better make use of them unless they get rusted for non use. Then this will wake up your happy hormones  

Healthy Meals and Hydrate

Eat healthy  regular meals, the best if whole food like fruits and vegetables to keep you strong and healthy . Stay hydrated with your water jug and not artificial juices full of sugar .

Sleep

Make sleep a priorty , a daily 8 hours is ideal to feel good and strong . A  good night sleep keeps us energetic the whole day  and face our responsibilities for the day.

Relaxing Activity

Take a relaxing  activity you can do watercolor painting , reading , journaling , whatever gives your heart Joy  .Not just relax your body but your mind as well.

 

Goals and Priorities

Set goals for yourself to keep you focus and energize . Having a purpose gives us direction and priorities in our daily activities .

  

Gratitude

Practice gratitude, appreciating what we have and being thankful keeps us joyful and looking forward to more blessings in our ;life .

Positivity

Focus on what is positive like practicing daily affirmations, watching motivational videos or inspirational  channels , reading the Bible or Devotionals will surely gives us an enligthening day and to look forward a happy day.

Stay connected 

Being with people will surely gives us joy and contentment in our daily lives , Maintain communication with our loved ones and the people that matter to us .