::. TOO OH OH EIGHT! .::

2008 -- OH WHAT A YEAR INDEED! I never really expected this much to come out of this year coz, although I didn't really believe in horoscopes and stuff, this was supposed to be a bad, bad year for the Horses. Thus, I did not really hold my breath for anything spectacular to happen.

But hey, I think by far, 2008 has been the year wherein I got to travel a lot: I was lucky enough to travel outside the country around the time I just turned 30. We had a conference at Bintan Lagoon Resort in Indonesia (April) so I grabbed the opportunity to go on vacation at Singapore (April/May). Singapore was such a safe non-scary place so I was brave enough to go around the city mostly by myself after my officemates have long gone home to Manila. I was thrilled at the thought of being in another country by myself and it was such a great adventure to me. I loved Singapore! The cabs and food were damn expensive but I splurged on Charles & Keith shoes anyway. I went to Vigan (May) and Boracay (Aug) with my dear high school friends and I've been with my family in Morong, Bataan (June), Laiya, Batangas (June) and Bohol (Nov/Dec).

But the most defining title of 2008 would of course be (hands down, duh!) the year God blessed me with a boyfriend. Not MU chenezes like the Canossa school syndrome ones. My boyfriend CJ. Really. Thirty friggin years, and technically, my first boyfriend! It's about time, God! And so I happily let go of the NBSB title :-) I met him while I was vacationing with friends in Vigan last May -- a trip that was supposed to be in Feb but was postponed to May. WhoWouldveThunk! Blessing in disguise indeedy...

The most controversial personal happening of the year was probably the Twinklekaka Scandal. The pathetic Multiply gal who plagiarized my blog post about my Camiguin vacation last 2007. I hope she has learned how to blog her own thoughts by now :p

I noticed that I have ceased to blog much in my Blogspot this year. I have been too lazy to hypertype vacations and various musings in detail. I've lost that blogging feeling, I guess. Or maybe it's coz I'm not such a big drama queen anymore than I was in the previous years. And maybe I'm too busy with real world stuff that I don't have the energy and enough focus to weave kickass words. Hmm. I am actually deliberating if I'll just concentrate on my Multiply and let my Blogspot die a natural death. I have pretty much settled into posting photos in my Multiply lately anyway. Plus, Abbie has introduced me to Twitter this year so whenever I itched to share something, I just chirped away 140 characters that encapsulated my very thought at that very moment. I love Twitter! It keeps me in touch with what's going on with my friends, even the most mundane things they do get some tweet press! I have long abandoned MySpace and I seldom log into my Friendster. My virtual world basically revolves around Twitter and Multiply. And yes, I gave in to Facebook. It's still a bit too cluttered for my taste but I'm beginning to get the hang of it. I'm still bugged about the deluge of Facebook app requests though (stop sending me Lil Green Patch whathaveyous!!! hahaha!). I so wanna iggy everything!

The pop icons that would probably best represent 2008 are David Cook and Edward Cullen -- or Jacob Black, fine, for the Team Jacobs out there! The PPG was so obsessed about American Idol season 7, such that we lived and breathed Cookie all the time we spent in Vigan! And I scavenged the net for everything Cookie I could ever find like his pre-Idol band recordings. And yey to Forces gals too, they influenced me to jump into the Twilight bandwagon. I have discovered the awesomeness of listening to an audiobook in my iPod and have in fact listened, not read, the first 3 books of the Twilight saga. To date, I have just started with an hour of Breaking Dawn.

I just realized that I haven't bought any audio CD this year. Yet, I have 3,799 songs according to my iTunes that could last me 10.7 days. Yey to free music :p I have shifted back to more R&B and a bit of alternative rock this year, thanks to CJ who's so into R&B, hiphop and those non-mainstream R&B jewels that Wave 89.1 plays.

Alright. I guess that pretty much sums up my 2008! I don't wanna dwell on the shake ups that happened on the latter part of my year (oh hey, I caught Dengue early this December and it was my first time ever to be confined in a hospital! Bummer.) but I hope and pray that those won't happen again. I am praying for a rosier and happier 2009. May we be blessed with wonderful love, good health, prosperity, peace, understanding, trust, acceptance and open-heartedness this coming year and thereon... With God on my side and with hard work, I'm sure things will fall into place... the divine place it should be ;-) Thank you 2008 for the lessons, realizations, the significant other, steady friendships, better relationships, improved character, stronger faith... I am happy and I have found what I have been looking for ;-)

::. JUNE FAMILY OUTINGS .::

It's a stormy day today due to typhoon Frank. Boy, I am sure glad that we had a chance to go to the beach in the last coupla weeks!

Spent the last two consecutive weekends with my daddyo & mommyo -- first was at White Corals, Morong, Bataan wherein my most fave part was when we visited the Pawikan Conservation Center (so hard to find since there weren't really any signs pointing to where it was!). The beach at White Corals wasn't exactly that inviting so I opted to float around at their salt water pool instead. It's the same beach feeling minus the pesky sand getting trapped inside your swimsuit :-) Their room was okay -- with aircon and tv -- though hooks/rails to hang your wet clothes or bath towel are lacking. The food was so-so and there were a LOT of pesky flies competing with you as you eat. That was my major peeve about the place.

Coming from the Pawikan Conservation Center, we had a yummy lunch of pesto pasta and pizza at Xtremely Xpresso, Subic. We passed by Duty Free and then stopped over at the Lighthouse hotel to take its photos.


A week after, we went to La Luz, Laiya, Batangas. I liked the beach at La Luz :-) There weren't much sand coz it was practically tiny beach stones/corals everywhere... what's great about it is that you won't find any sand trapped inside your board shorts hehe :p The water was pretty deep even if you're just a few feet from the shoreline. The waves were a bit strong. It's high tide in the morning and low tide in the afternoon. When it's high tide, the water swallows most of the huge rock by the right-most (far) end of the beach. I went to that part of the beach to snorkel during the early morning (before 9am) and it was awesome! I saw lotsa fishes going about their own business, not minding me at all. They swam through the deep crevices of the stones -- black & white striped cichlids, yellow and black striped ones, deep blue ones with yellow and green streaks, tiny dilis looking ones.... gaah, i don't know what kind of fishes they were but anyway, they're all so wonderful to watch =) In the afternoon when it was low tide, we climbed the same huge rock and snapped away with our digicams. No sunset though at that part of Batangas :( We woke up early for the sunrise but it's not entirely visible as we would have wanted... we still managed to get some good sunrise shots though =)

I liked our room at La Luz, I think ours was one of the premier rooms. What's great about it is that it had separated the toilet, sink and shower so it's ideal for sharing with roomies. There's aircon and a ceiling fan; the only bummer was there was no tv. Good thing my dad brought his portable dvd player and I had my trusty iPod nano :-) Guests aren't allowed to bring in food and it is compulsary to pay for the Php950 buffet meals which include lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and breakfast the next day. Food was fine but I think my mom's cooking is way more delicious than that! ;-)




more bataan (and subic) photos at my multiply...




I enjoyed Photoshop'ing some of the artsy fartsy photos I took...

more la luz photos at my multiply...

::. KOTA KELUARGA .::

Spent the whole Saturday at Kota Keluarga in San Juan, Batangas with my cousins for some summer sun at the beach. Got a henna tattoo on my right ankle, ate lunch while I waited for the henna to dry and then headed to the beach!


It was only my second time to snorkel so my cousin's family friend whom they call Lolo Tisoy taught me some basics of snorkeling. I was having a hard time shifting directions while wearing fins so I swallowed salt water twice while I struggled with my snorkel. I probably need a lot of getting used to swimming with fins... I manage to float just wearing fins (no lifevest) but I just can't do a good turn while wearing them. I was first "trained" at the shallow part of the water and then our party of 5 (my cousins have started scuba diving a few months ago...) headed to the deeper part of the beach. I ditched the fins coz it would only make my life difficult. Just wore a lifevest instead. I think we were snorkling for a good 30 minutes or probably more... I dunno what the salt water fishes are called but anyway, they were like black angel fishes, some black & white striped cichlid-looking fishes, some yellow fishes... Nothing as breathtaking as the underwater life I saw at Mantigue Island (Camiguin) though...

After taking a bath in the late afternoon, my cousin and I trekked towards the stony right side of the cove. Did some picture-taking over there...

More photos at my multiply...

::. VISITA IGLESIA 2008 .::

more photos at multiply

Our family had our annual Visita Iglesia last Maundy Thursday. We prayed the Stations of the Cross in the following churches:

1. Sto. Rosario Parish - Pacita Complex I, San Pedro, Laguna


2. St. Peregrine Parish - Tunasan, Muntinlupa (where a piece of rib from St. Peregrine Laziosi's incorruptible body is enshrined)


3. Sto. Nino de Cebu Parish - Binan, Laguna


4. Our Lady of Candelaria Church - Silang, Cavite


5. National Shrine of Our Lady of La Sallete - Silang, Cavite


6. Parish of St. Joseph - Las Pinas (home of the famous bamboo organ)


7. Cathedral Parish of St. Andrew - Paranaque

::. MY COUSIN'S WEDDING .::

My cousin Cholo flew in from the US to have his wedding here in the Philippines. His wife Vanessa, his brother Nino & wife Marjorie, along with my tito and tita also flew in for the momentous family event. The wedding ceremony was at the grand Manila Cathedral and reception dinner was held at Manila Diamond Hotel.

more photos at http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/33/._MY_COUSINS_WEDDING_.#30

::. DINNER WITH MY MIRANDA COUSINS .::

My cousin Cholo who resides in US is here in the Philippines for his wedding with Vanessa (who is also fr the US). His brother Nino and wife Marjorie also flew in from the States for the big family event. Being so, us Miranda cousins had a dinner get-together at Sentro (Greenbelt) last Tuesday Feb 19 :-) Missing in action were: Kuya Bernie, Kuya Arnold (who's in uhhh I forgot which Arab country he's in now...), Che Che, Maricar (uber busy with taking up Med at UST), Harmon & Jay. In attendance were: Me and my Ate Chinkee, Ate Christine, sisters Rin Rin & Maan, brothers Nino & Cholo with their wives Marjorie & Vanessa respectively.

Sentro's famous sinigang na corned beef disappointed me this time. I first got to taste it back in, hmm, 2005 I think... and that was super good. However, last Tuesday's sinigang na corned beef was blah. The sizzling tofu appetizer was delicious though.

Ate Christine and I went home ahead of the rest after dinner. The rest of my cousins went to a comedy bar in QC to cap the night.

::. V-DINNER WITH FAMILY .::

Went to San Miguel by the Bay (beside Mall of Asia) last Friday to celebrate Valentine's Day with my family :-) We stumbled upon a branch of G-Squared, the same
"palutuan" that cooks yummy tempura at Dampa Macapagal. We were so hungry at around 8:30pm that we devoured the tempura (the first dish to arrive at our table) before I could take a picture hehe. After having late dinner there, we proceeded to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at MOA for some cheesecakes and coffee.

more photos at: http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/30

::. CELEBRATING MOM'S BDAY .::

I loved the food the first time I've been to Dampa Macapagal so I suggested that we eat there for my mom's birthday (Her birthday was last Jan 7). It's great that my sis is back from New York now so our family was complete when we celebrated yesterday =)



Mom was mainly the one who shopped for seafood in the wet market since I really had no palengke shopping aptitude hehe :p We had our seafood cooked at G Squared (same place where Jako brought me, Charo & Abbie the first time). We had an oh-so-yummy feast of buttered garlic shrimp, tempura, salt & pepper crab, steamed alupihang dagat and some eggplant, tomatoes & onions. Mom enjoyed eating since she didn't have to cook the food herself ;-) More photos here.

::. YUP, IT'S A YEAR-ENDER POST .::

I had the compulsion to write a year-ender post coz I wanted to do a thank you speech/reminisce-the-year kind of thing. But somewhere in between going mildly crazy over changing into blogger's new xml template and hearing a guy neighbor sing the "woohoo, yeehoo" intro of Gwen Stefani's Sweet Escape, I lost my blogging mojo. I was going to do this survey thing but it started with a #1 question: "Did you fall in love this year?" So scrap that idea. I'll just write whatever pops into my head now...

THANK YOU's
God - For always protecting me & my loved ones from harm, misfortune and other horrible stuff that I feared would happen but did not. For giving us blessings & good health. For taking care of us in ways we do not even know about. For granting our prayers.

Dad & Mom - For being the anchor of my life. For all the love, support, understanding and concern. I know that you are sometimes tired & weary but you keep providing for this family in every way you can. For the roof over our heads, for the yummy food we eat, for the nice ride we travel in...

Sis - For all the love, support, understanding & concern. For being an inspiration of strength and generosity. Oh and for helping me buy my kick-ass laptop ;-)

Dean - For teaching me utter patience and making me practice my maternal skills -- shopping for kid clothes (briefs!) and teaching homework, forcing me to brush up on my math...

Ate Rosie - For washing & ironing my clothes, for helping out mom in the household chores, for updating me whenever I miss PBB...

Chloe - For being a bundle of joy and an instant cheerio toy when I'm feeling sucky

Forces friends Abbie, Charo, Tin, Mitzi, Ivy - For being the Carrie/Samantha/Miranda/Charlotte to me in my ups and downs, drama queen episodes and madamme moments

College friends Rose, She, Aga, Annray, Rick - For being always the same good ol' friends that will always be there for me despite our rare meet-ups. Special mention to Rose & She who made an adventurous traveller out of me in our CDO-Camiguin trip! Aga, the cool proud momma, stay in touch in Multiply always!

NEW THINGS I DID THIS YEAR
I have never been much of an adventure-seeker due to my squeamish, girly nature but I totally loved the white water rafting, zipping & snorkling that I did with my friends in CDO & Camiguin.

With my girly obsession over fashion accessories, I decided to put up my own online store in Multiply. I have always been such a collector of necklaces, earrings, bracelets and as soon as the Multiply shopping bug bit me, I thought why not make my own stuff and sell online as well? If they can do it, so can I :-) I have become bored with my day job and it's this tiny accessories business that keeps my creative juices flowing.

With much prodding from Abbie, I succumbed and registered in Facebook. I'm too lazy to pimp my profile there though and I find all those apps too tedious. Not a big fan but we'll see...

With financial smarts kicking in at the year when I turned 29 and got more than the usual bonus from 2006's work, I decided to invest my money in mutual funds and also got another endowment/life insurance.

OLD THING(S) I KEPT DOING
Still the same ol' drama queen. I wonder if I successfully made the impression that I have moved on... Hah!

PASSIONS IN 2007
Have gone very OC about ID tags and album covers of my mp3s eversince I got an iPod nano

Have scoured a loooot of websites about the world of gadgetry and infinitechnology as I shopped for my laptop

Have loved Multiply a lot and uploaded tons of mp3s & photos

Have tried to be patient & not be miserable with my job. Have been praying for the big shutdown so we can all finally get that big package and move on with our lives (and get a new job while at it)

THING(S) I PLAN TO DO NEXT YEAR
Revisit my "Things to do before I shrivel & die" list. I have some additions in mind. Stay tuned.

AND SO I PRESENT TO YOU MY 2007 -- THE YEAR THAT WAS...

~* MEETING JOE BLACK *~

In the movie "Meet Joe Black", the characters say that death and taxes are the only things certain in this life. Death cannot be anymore real for me than last Saturday when my grandmother passed away. She was 86 years old.

As I met much "senior" relatives during the burial, it occured to me that I was not sure if I wanted to grow THAT old. I tried to envision myself 55 years from now. Granting that I'm still alive by then and not yet choked by the horrible air pollution of the 21st century, I would probably be a skinny shrivelled old lady in a purple dress. Do eyelashes fall off as you grow old? If not, I would probably still be curling my eyelashes. I hope my precious Shu Uemura eyelash curler is still surviving with me by then. Can I still walk when I'm super old? Or will I be maneuvering a wheel chair? Would I be wearing super thick eyeglasses? Would my hearing be impaired? Will my grandchildren talk super loudly at me so I can hear what they're saying to me? Would I have grandchildren? Would I have children of my own? Would I have a husband? Will he live as long as I do or would I be a widow? Would I be married? Will I have a great pension plan all paid up? Will I have a good insurance coverage?

Now the thing about a gathering of relatives you only see once or twice a year is that it would always raise the million dollar question. Remind me to make a shirt that says "No, I don't have a boyfriend." And since my lola was a DECS supervisor, I've met Mrs. Barroso, my English teacher back in high school, during the wake. And imagine how I got thrown off-guard when she asks me: "So who's the girlfriend of K_ now?" Uhh. Okaaay. Must I know the answer to that question? I managed to blurt out an "I don't know" and reasoned that we umm, haven't been in touch these past months. I just updated her about stuff I knew about my batchmates and highschool friends... where they are now, whether married or not, boyfriend of whom, working where, has a kid... stuff like that. I tried to spew out as much update as I can so as to elude prying questions about MY current sorry state. Hah!

Now thinking about my wake and death, I should make sure that a trusty kikay friend of mine would ensure that I won't look like roadkill inside my coffin. When she was alive, my lola had already made some sort of sister-pact with her friend -- whoever "went" first shall be responsible for the other's "coffin look". Hence, her friend even rearranged my lola's hair and ensured her eyebrows were drawn right. That kind of kikay stuff. So whoever will be my designated kikay friend, listen up: Curl my lashes, shape my brows (or draw natural-looking brows if I don't have any eyebrows by then), don't use super red lipstick coz it makes my lips look bigger... use a nude or pinkish brown shade, use lavender/purple eyeshadow, don't forget the cheek blush. And make sure my hair still looks fab.

I'm okay with cremation if it comes out less expensive than being buried. Either way, I'd want a lavender-tinged white coffin. And if I'm cremated, I'd be happy with a pink marble or pewter urn. During the wake, assuming every place is Wi-Fi'd by then, I would like a laptop set-up in one corner of the mortuary where the visitors would be able to read my blog posts and view my online photo galleries. That's gonna be one cool memoir :-)

And during my eulogy and/or burial, for goodness' sake, please don't sing a sappy Hindi Kita Malilimutan kind of song. How about Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You" or Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony"?

~* TUESDAY BEACH DAY *~

Like in the past years, the family headed to Camayan Beach in Subic to kick off the long holy week vacation. There weren't much people in the beach so it was great to unwind. The water was cool at 8am so there were some annoying tiny jelly fish stings here and there. I've never been stung in our past visits to this beach so it was quite an annoyingly new experience>:( Most of the time we stayed near the shore where the water was warmer (hence, no jelly fish!). It was lovely sitting on the cushy sand, feeling the wet sand on my feet and the lapping saltwater on my skin :-)

What I always loved about this beach was that one could always get a glimpse of varied kinds of salt water fishes even in waist-deep water. Near the shore, one would find a school of super tiny gray fishes. Farther from the shore and near the rocky part, one would find black and white striped cichlids and these silver split-tailed fishes with a hint of blue on the head. My dad and I held pieces of bread with our fingertips underwater and in seconds, the fishes swam near us and took nibbles of the bread. One time I got startled and shrieked when the silver fish took a quick nibble of the bread AND my finger. Not painful at all but it was just really surprising to feel a one-second fish nibble! I was about to go back to the shore when the morsels of bread were almost finished by the cichlids but then this totally unique fish came swimming by to eat the bread remnants. It was totally breath-taking: a lone fish, colored blue-green on the head til the mid part, graduating into a bright green near its bright yellow split-tail. It was about the size of my hand. It was sooo beautiful! I wish I've taken a picture of it but I couldn't since a) I don't have an underwater camera and b) my digicam is tucked inside my bag on the table at the shore. The fish would have been gone by the time I got back with my digicam.

We ate our lunch by the shore and come 12noon, we heard this shrill whistle-like sound coming from the forest right beside the shoreline. At first we just saw about two monkeys descending from the trees and onto the beach cottages. In less than a minute, we saw probably about ten monkeys hanging around for their lunch break. Some went near the hotel (I saw one toting what looked like a plastic bottle of sunblock or shampoo!) while the others went near the cottages where we were, rummaging through the garbage can. One was sipping a discarded zesto-ish kind of juice foil pack (the one with a built-in straw) and another one was trying to open an empty 1.5 liter Mirinda.

And now, for the NatGeo moments...

[click for larger image] the mirinda-loving monkey

More pictures posted on my Multiply...

http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/11

~* WHILE I WAS iTUNING... *~

I have been sooo remiss with my blogging duties... So here goes one big update!


I GOT MYSELF AN iPOD NANO. Yeah so basically this is the reason why I've been neglecting my blog. I was supposed to buy a Sony Ericsson Walkman fone W850i but got turned off when I examined an actual unit in the store so I ended up buying a pink iPod Nano instead. I have been OC'ing over putting album artworks and fixing the ID3 tags on my 2,999 mp3s worth 11.5GB. And I am still not freaking done. I haven't even organized the genre tags. Arghhh. And about a hundred mp3s still don't have their respective album artwork. OCness does give you carpal tunnel syndrome. Ouch.


I LOVE THE HOLIDAY! Saw this movie with Abbie & Charo last V-day. I love this movie! Jude Law and those dreamy eyes *sigh* I didn't feel any chemistry between Cameron Diaz (Amanda) and Jude Law (Graham) but I liked the pairing of Jack Black (Miles) and Kate Winslet (Iris). It's refreshing to see Kate act goofy and to see Jack as a romantic male lead. The lines in this movie are such quotable quotes, I love it... especially the lines of Kate's character. Here are some of my favorites:

Amanda: You know Graham, I just broke up with someone and considering you just showed up and you're insanely good-looking and probably won't remember me anyway... I'm thinking we should have sex... If you want.
Graham: Is that a trick question?

******
Iris: You're supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for God's sake!

******
Iris: I like corny. I'm looking for corny in my life.

******

Iris: ... And then, there's another kind of love: the cruelest kind. The one that almost kills its victims. Its called unrequited love. Of that I am an expert. Most love stories are about people who fall in love with each other. But what about the rest of us? What about our stories, those of us who fall in love alone? We are the victims of the one sided affair. We are the cursed of the loved ones. We are the unloved ones, the walking wounded. The handicapped without the advantage of a great parking space! Yes, you are looking at one such individual. And I have willingly loved that man for over three miserable years! The absolute worst years of my life! The worst Christmas', the worst Birthday's, New Years Eve's brought in by tears and valium. These years that I have been in love have been the darkest days of my life. All because I've been cursed by being in love with a man who does not and will not love me back. Oh god, just the sight of him! Heart pounding! Throat thickening! Absolutely can't swallow! All the usual symptoms.

******

Iris: It doesn't matter how many new haircuts you get, or gyms you join, or how many glasses of chardonnay you drink with your girlfriends... you still go to bed every night going over every detail and wonder what you did wrong or how you could have misunderstood. and how in the hell for that brief moment you could think that you were that happy. And sometimes you can even convince yourself that he'll see the light and show up at your door. And after all that, however long all that may be, you'll go somewhere new. and you'll meet people who make you feel worthwhile again. And little peices of your soul will finally come back. And all that fuzzy stuff, those years of your life that you wasted, that will eventually begin to fade.

******
Hannah: My god, I've just noticed how pathetic you are.
Iris: Really? I'm *sooo* aware of it.

******


WE HAD A YUMMY FAMILY LUNCH AT KAMAYAN SA PALAISDAAN. My Tito Boyet from the States was in town for a short visit so we treated him and my Lola Pura out for lunch at Bay, Los Baños (Laguna) last Saturday. I love the ambiance of the place... the type where you can have a very relaxed lunch and just enjoy the "countryside" appeal of the place. {more pictures on my Multiply}






WE WATCHED AN URBANDUB & DICTA LICENSE GIG. Another Sonic Boom event was held in San Mig, ATC last Saturday so Tin and I grabbed this chance to see Urbandub and Dicta License perform live. Typecast, The Ambassadors and Airport Drama also played. Hilera wasn't able to come coz they were still in Fairview. Got a little bitin on the Urbandub set coz they didn't do an encore :( Gabby looked pretty tired already. But they did a kick-ass set anyway so it's all good. Pochoy (Dicta License) looked *hot* as usual. He is just *so* cute in white shirt (ooh, a new version of the Faspitch shirt in white!). Dicta License played last so the crowd pretty much thinned out when it was time for them to play. Good for me though coz I managed to stay right beside the stage on Boogie's side. Really -- this band is so damn good looking (pogi rock alert!)... every single band member is cute in their own way. But that's not to underestimate the intensity of their songs. Pochoy sings with so much passion about socially-relevant themes that is meant to wake up the youth of today. Now THAT's extra pogi points ;-)

~* HAPPY B-DAY MOM! *~

Twas my mom's birthday Jan 7th so we treated her out for a nice yummy dinner at Seafood Island (Market Market - The Fort) last Saturday night. Haven't eaten crabs for a long time so I pigged out on the Salt & Pepper Crab... in fact, that was all I ate (okay, and some oyster rockefeller. Mmm!)

with the bday celebrant

yum yum boodle feast et al. and the *very* nice lights on one corner of the resto

~* FAMILY HOLIDAY IN BAGUIO *~

Our family went up to Baguio City for a holiday vacation last Dec. 26 to 28. We stayed at Venus Parkview Hotel at Kisad Road which was *very* near Burnham Park. We basically just ate a lot of delicious food (Giligan's, Pizza Volante, Yellow Cab, Central Park...), shopped around at Mines View (got myself two Hello Kitty flannel blankets -- one in sky blue theme and the other in pink), bought Good Shepherd's famous ube jam, exercised at Burnham Park one early morning, and, at last, I was able to take nice pictures of The Cathedral :-)

Check out our photos on my Multiply:

http://lilacstardust.multiply.com/photos/album/9