Missing the sun

It’s been 2 days of continuous raining, and I’m not complaining. The weather is just perfect especially when I don’t have any errands to do outside the house. I can do DVD marathons or surf the Web without having to complain about the heat. While I was browsing the Web, I stumbled upon photos of a resort in Myrtle Beach. Come to think of it, half of the year has passed and we weren’t able to go for a beach vacation. We missed our company outing last May because of a planned trip abroad, the company went to Bohol. We had a blast in our HK vacation but I also wished that we were able to join our officemates at the beach. Judging from their pictures, their accommodation is not that grand compared with Oceanfront Hotel Myrtle Beach.

Grand Shores at Myrtle Beach

Grand Shores at Myrtle Beach

[Read more…]

Hong Kong street scenes

Thursday is “coding day” for our car so we were one of the daily commuters today who traveled the streets of Quezon City despite the heavy rains. A heavy downpour, flood and traffic in Manila will most likely result to chaos, we were not spared from this episode today. We’re just thankful that we don’t have to deal with this situation everyday, hands down to all the commuters and also the public utility drivers who have a lot of patience to be able to bear this scenario. Meanwhile, Jeff and I can’t help but compare the streets of Manila with the streets of Hong Kong. Come to think of it, Hong Kong streets also have buses, motorcycles, taxis and luxury cars like Ford Fiesta and Lexus plying the busy streets day and night. But what’s remarkable is that each vehicle has their own lanes and drivers are well-disciplined and stays at their lane no matter what. Buses load and unload passengers only at their designated stops and stay at the bus stops only for a few minutes. Same goes for the taxis, they fall in line at taxi stands and wait for their passengers from there. The result is an organized and moving traffic flow despite the narrow and crowded streets of Hong Kong. Streets of Manila are far behind with the developments in other countries but how I wish that the MMDA and other government agencies concerned can do something about Manila’s proverbial traffic.

Hong Kong street scenes
Hong Kong street scenes

[Read more…]

Getting serious with chess

Do you know how to play chess? It seems that chess has been a fad lately, when we visited my in-laws, my husband’s uncle up to his nephews are up for a chess tournament. I thought it’s just their family thing at that time but when I went out to the streets, even their neighbors were playing chess game too. My in-laws said that they sleep late at night because they’re addicted playing, and to hone their skills, they even bought a book about chess strategy. When we went to the mall last weekend, lo and behold, I was surprised to see a life-size chess board! And there were men who were playing at that time, I knew I had to take a shot using my phone’s camera…

Life-size chessboard inside SM Manila
Life-size chessboard inside SM Manila

[Read more…]

My Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2009

***Updated on July 28, 2009, read more here:

And I thought I won’t be able to join this writing project by Ms. Janette Toral. When I started blogging, I only want to document my travels and food trips, later on, this blog became a smorgasbord of some sorts aka “chopsuey”. Nevertheless, through this blog I have gained blogging friends and people whose blogs I frequently visit because I love their photos, I like reading their travel stories and I enjoy reading their mind-stimulating entries.

Here are my nominees for the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2009:

[Read more…]

It’s raining, turn on the TV

It’s rainy season here in the Philippines and it’s a bummer especially if you have plans of going out in the weekends. Of course, you can always brave the rain and go wherever you planned but for us, it’s such a hassle even if we have our own transportation. Aside from being gloomy, travelling in the streets of Metro Manila during a heavy downpour is accident-prone especially along Edsa, slow-moving traffic in some areas or floods in other areas. So what better way to pass the weekends is to cuddle up, cook your favorite home-cooked meal and watch TV. For the sports fanatic, you can buy NFL Sunday Ticket to watch your National Football League games.

You also get to save because with the NFL Sunday Ticket price, you can watch as many as 14 games with your ticket. That’s a good offer from Direct TV. Just check the NFL Sunday Ticket schedule to see the available NFL match ups for the day.

July 27 is a working holiday

Holiday no more… Malacanang palace clarifies the earlier reports on July 27 declared as Iglesia ni Cristo Day (INC Day), as a special WORKING holiday. Yesterday, the palace issued conflicting statements that’s why they made a clarification today. Again, July 27 is a WORKING holiday, people.

The cancelled holiday saddened me though. I was about to get excited and plan the things-to-do for that long weekend. I was looking forward for a 3-day weekend this July for some R&R. No plans of going out0of-town, just ample time to relax and bury myself in bed pillows till noon. It’s been a long time since I’ve had more than 8 hours of sleep. In the afternoon, I’ll do some crafts or bring out my pots and pans and make use of my cooking equipment. No fastfood for the weekend and try to cook healthy meals for a change. For the husband, it’s time to pick up his hand tools to do some minor repairs in our room.

This long weekend plan will be put off for a while though. How about you? Care to share your weekend routine?

Comodo SSL