Tagaytay day trip

been to tagaytay a couple of weeks ago and visited some old and new places.. here are parts of that road trip:

1. BAG OF BEANS

their raisin bread is no longer that good. it's dry pero pwede na rin.. unlike before, super sarap. of course, i still had the strawberry cheescake! yum...

2. SONYA'S GARDEN

this is the first time i have been here..it's a 5 min drive off the main road. the design is unique with its antique furniture around. but what intrigued me the most is the bed and breakfast hotel. there were no guests that day saw we got to look around the houses. the house up in the picture gave me goosebumps when i went into a room to take pictures. the hairs on my nape stood so fast that i decided to get out as fast as i could.. nway, their bakeshop has the best cheese hopia in the world.. ever.. super mega sarap.. and take a look at their bell peppers! my gulay! i thought they were made out of wax!

3. LESLIE'S

just took a picture of their ceiling.. hehe.. this is the usual resto in tagaytay overlooking taal. their food is much like the other pinoy restos: dencio's, gerry's grill, grilla, etc.

5. VIEWSITE RESTAURANT

we stayed at their kubo at the back.. you get a nice veiw, cool air, and some quiet. noel and i had breakfast here before and they have the yummiest crispy tawilis! (sorry sir nick, i know they are endangered) their sinigang na hipon is also yummy! super asim! this is along the stretch of resto's near the rotonda.. it's right beside JOSEPHINE's. btw, they had a tagaytay magnet for sale.. when i asked how much it was, they said it was 245 pesos.. anu ito? magnet sa hk disneyland???!!!! kaloka..

KRAKS

hehe... check out my new crocs.. finally saw some gold ones.. they only cost 250!!!! can you believe? it's 6x cheaper then the original primas!! my friend, dyan, likes to call fake ones: KRAKS... hehe.. so here are my new prima kraks! super soft and super light.. just like the real ones..

dessagirl ~ thankful girl

topic during sunday worship and a small group i joined last night was about THANKFULNESS. it gave me time to reflect... and so i am most thankful for my relationships. i value them the most... my relationship with the Lord, my family, and the rest of the special people in my life.. and even if i have problems right now, i am amazed how i am still able to be thankful for the trials i face. the thought that the Lord is preparing me for greater things comes into my mind and it helps me understand why these things happen. although i dont completely understand them, being in the Lord gives you that reassurance inside you.. that things will eventually work out... my God is an Awesome GOD!!!

Art Class

my home church, CHRIST'S CHURCH IN BF HOMES recently moved to a new place we will rent for a while since the church lot is still bare..

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nways, it was my turn to teach Sunday School two weeks ago. KIDZONE is now growing and more and more kids are coming over.. nways, the rooms werent that ready yet and we had to pack all of them in this room.. take a look at my students, this is where KIDZONE worship is held: JESUS ROCKS!!!!!!

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here's one of those posters they made: they also traced their hand on the paper and signed their names

Can't wait for the long weekend...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

enjoy your weekend, everyone..

first PHOTO FROM: http://www1.istockphoto.com

Shoe story..

like most girls, I LOVE SHOES... take a look at some of my shoe stories:

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1. when rainy season (which i totaly hate, btw) came, got myself a pair of prima crocs.. i initially wanted the gold or silver but there were no sizes for me. so when i came across the lavander ones in my size.. i got them right away!

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2. saw these a few months ago on sale for like PhP 900++.. hellur? wala naman akong baby ano.. (wish ko lang) wanted to get all three pairs.. but for what? gagawin ko lang key chain tapos ganun ka-mahal? no thanks.. but i have to admit.. they are soooooooooooooooooooo cute! (to my future bebe: you will definitely get one of these...)

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3. this i wanted to get too.. for me this time.. since they were on sale.. sad thing is, i did not have any cash back then.. when i came back to check if it was really meant for me, they were GONE! sniff-sniff.. i'll see you again.. why are goofy stuff so expensive?
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4. one of my peborit nike's broke down.. was in the office saturday morning and my shoe felt weird.. when i lifted my foot, ayun..hehe.. buti nalang my officemate placed some rugby in between. (thanks eugene!) ... i still use them btw..

Glorietta 2 Explosion

Thank God i was in Tagaytay yesterday for an ocular with my boss and the rest of my team. i received a text message from my tita that my cousin is trapped in Landmark after an explosion in Glorietta 2. i called up my cousin who was so scared to go out and see what was really happnening. Noel also called and asked if i was in the office. when i told him i was still planning to go back to makati fr tagaytay, he said to forget it coz traffic was bad and it was no longer safe.

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After listening to the news thru AM radio and seeing footages from the evening news, i realized how blessed i am to be away from it all. 8 are now confirmed dead and over a hundred injured.. somone managed to sneak in a bomb at the mall again.

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this reminded me of the past bombings that happned in a bus in edsa last valentine's day (2 years ago ata), the explosion that happened in glorietta as well back in 2000 or 2001..

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some bloggers were in the site yesterday when it happened. seeing pictures of a place i ALWAYS visit all blown up makes me scared. cant help but think: "what if i was there? what if it happened last night before i went home from work?"

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nway, so much for wondering. Please pray for all the injured, the families of the 8 who passed away, and our government.

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heard some parts of Glorietta wll be open this morning since it's safe to the public. i hopethe terminal by park square 2 will also be back in operation...

Nag-birthday na ako

a few days before my day, i celebrated it with my family since rona and mel had irregular schedules and they were only free back then. before dinner, noel and i went to FULLY BOOKED at the boni high street branch. they have 5 floors!!! can you believe??!

here is my family. we all had burgers that night at the very cramped brothers burger.. their branch in alabang is a lot nicer..




and on my birthday, i took the day off work (first time i did that) and it was well worth it. it was gloomy too.. but who cares? hehe..

and of course.. my biyutipul bokey:

happy birthday dessa girl!

Samphran Elephant Ground and Zoo

This zoo is a must-see if you visit bangkok. it's an hour away from bankok by land. our tour guide charged us 1200 bhat for this (PHP1800) and it includes a van and buffet lunch..

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when we got there, we had lunch first since we just came from the temple tours. the elephants were out and you can purchase bananas to feed them! nice! i wanted to do it so badly.. but then our tour guide wanted us to see the crocodile show which started already when we got there =( here are the baby elephants out with some students on a field trip..

The crocodile show was in their native language. but then you still get to enjoy it since the guys did stuff like wrestle the crocs, put their heads inside etc. take a look:



(this is a bad view of one stunt but the guy's head was literally inside the croc's mouth)



(after the show the audience gave the guys some tip)

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after the crocodile show, we went to the see the elephant show. it's the first time i saw elephants playing soccer, doing role plays of going into battle, picking out weeds and pulling logs.. i must say.. sobrang cute nila!! hehe..

then after the show, you can ride them elephants! at an extra cost nga lang.. and you can feed them again.. riding an elephant was one of things i wanted to do ever since.. whenever i see people doing that on tv, naiinggit ako.. the ride was pretty scary for me.. i didnt expect it to be too high and without any safety belt hehe.. just sit on a chair and hold on.. our elephant's name is PON.. i asked our "driver" to just make him walk.. hehe.. baka tumilapon ang lola mo pag tumakbo yun..

after the show, we had our picture taken with huge tigers.. i grabbed one by the tail! hehe...

Tree-Planting at Arroceros Forest park

joined a group of volunteers from our office to go tree-planting at Arroceros Forest park in Manila (their website is under repair i think..) was surprised to see a small patch of forrest in the middle of Manila! it was a rainy morning in Makati and QC last sat.. as in! but then the activity still pushed thru.. too bad i wasnt feeling well that day so all i did was take some pictures and looked after the stuff of my fellow volunteers in the shed while they do all the hard work.

we planted 20 seedlings all in all. some are nara trees, dao trees, etc. they were about 5 to 6 ft high and each seedling costs PhP 250. here is the patch of land assigned to us. full of weeds! the participants worked really fast and was able to clear the whole spot in an hour and plant the trees! take a look at the before and after shots:

nice! the trees with labels are the ones we planted. it's nice to know that people still care about the environment. i hope every single tree we planted will live over a hundred years!!! some trees in the park are that old.. if you are intersted for any volunteer work, contact our partner organization for our community projects: hands on manila

volunteers listen intently to the head of the WINNER FOUNDATION (in charge of arroceros forest park) as she gives us a brief background and history of the forest.

Community Service + Learnning about your Environment

last july, my colleagues and i had an activty for all the birthday celebrants of Feb, Mar, Apr. It was a morning spent with street children with games, a feeding program and a zoo tour! both kids and volunteers enjoyed the zoo trip! we learned a lot from the the NINOY AQUINO PARKS AND WILDLIFE.. i'm from the south so i dont really visit the qc area. this is my first time to see the zoo.. it's a rescue center for endagered species in the country.. aside from the educational tour, they even had a program where you can pet the turtle, snake, etc. mashado akong takot to do that.. maybe next time.. para naman may pic ako nun! hehe..

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the kids enjoyed the games as well. was touched during the part when they were given a chance to say somethign to the volunteers: a teenage girl said: "pagnasa langsangan kami, pakiramdam namin walang nagmamahal sa amin. pero ngayon nandito kami, naramdaman namin ang pagmamahal mula sa inyo.. kahit may sarili kayong mga pamilya.. " kung hindi ka banaman maiyak nito ewan ko nalang!

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here are some pictures i took.. the ones of the animals are not too clear though.. had a hard time taking shots of them insidet their cages.. =(

the volunteers in pink with the kids.. all learning from caretakers of the zoo..

cockatoo: you can be charged millions if you have one of these but without the legal papers.

iguana. tsk ang liit, hindi mashadong kita

philippine deer: kawawa naman.. na-flash ko.. sorry po..

er.. colorful brids by jansport? hehe

had a great time with the kids, volunteers, and zoo animals! thanks to our partner organization for this acitvity: HANDS ON MANILA

TRIO

my high school barkada has been consistently having lunch at least once a month since mid last year.. i'm so happy this has become a regular thing for us. we have been friends for more than a decade now.. (graduated from high school 10 years ago) i love these girls! nways, lunch is usually at the fort since parking is so hard here in makati.. lucky tin coz she goes to work there. those staying in the makati take a ride from jacky or ashley going there (thanks girls)

nways, our latest lunch was at trio. this is about the third time i've been here..

jacky, dyan, tin, moi, karen (ashley couldn't make it coz she had some event to handle)

nways, TRIO serves great thin crust pizza, and yummy pasta. our desert was gone in 2 minutes. literally. siena cake ata yun.. dont remember. it had caramel and choklit cookies all over

classic pizza

pomodoro angel hair

1:09PM

1:11 PM

bnb pic fr karen's site: http://lucerokaren.multiply.com/photos/album/113/BnB_Trio_theFort_5Sept07_?replies_read=1