College Meet-up

01-03-2015

It's been a long time since I saw some of my college friends. It's always they were busy with work or don't have the money to go out. Finally, one meet-up where we got near half our number pushed through.

We just went around malls in Makati areaーsm makati, glorietta, landmark, and greenbelt. I got to visit ayala triangle as well. It was a first for me and boy, were there a lot of people walking their dogs there!

We stayed until night and ate dinner at Pizza Hut. Ordering three pizza, a plate of pasta, and 9 soups for a group of six wasn't too much was it?

Happy tummies and tired legs, we parted ways. It was a short night but it was fun meeting them after a while.

Lastly, my obligatory lazy outfit for the day~ H&M sweater, H&M skirt, Jag poloshirt, Aeropostale boots, hellokitty sling bag

Early Christmas Presents from Nii-sama!

My brother just got back from Japan for the holidays. He was assigned to Tokyo so he was able to get me some merchandise from my fave titles recently.

• A Midousuji Akira file folder with division (Yowamushi Pedal)
• A Shinkai Hayato keyholder (Yowamushi Pedal)
• A Kagari Shusei pluggie
• A Ginoza Nobuchika sliding tin with mini notes

Here are some closer look with these items:

This is the front and back design for the Akira folder. You can see the colors of Team Kyoto Fushimi (Kyofushi) as well as his many expressions.

 

 There are three compartments/ division for your documents in this folder. It can hold from A4 to Letter sized papers. The following shows how they would look if you have documents on different compartments.

If you have one on the outermost side, it's all plain and simple.
Only the Kyofushi colors and name are shown.

If you have nothing on the first copartment, and the other two are occupied, this is how it looks. You can see Akira!

It looks just the same with one division occupied as without any papers at all.
Complete with all the faces, Akira's whole body and the Kyofushi name

Secondly, we have the Shinkai key holder. You can see that the border is transparent so it may seem like Shinkai's floating on any background you want~

It's made of pvc plastic and it's bigger than what I expected from the photos online. Normally, I see charms like this in 1-2 inches sizes. This one's bigger and here is how it looks when I'm holding it.

My hands aren't as big as a man's but I really find this key holder quite big. It always occupied my whole hands!

Next up is the Kagari pluggie. With most smartphones not having space for cellphone straps nowadays, pluggies have been made to add some spice on phones. It is placed on the earphone jack of phones usually 3.5mm in size.

It's made of hard metallic material. I know it's not the ideal accessory for phones if you don't want scratches on it. Still if the jack is on the bottom part (like most apple products), I don't think it'll be much of a problem.

I find it really cute having Kagari dangling on my phone whenever
I send messages, take photos, or simply browse on the internet

Lastly, we have the Ginoza sliding tin can. I'm not really sure how to make use of the notes inside this one but it got me with Ginoza showing such a cool silhouette.

The design on the front part kind of looks like a sticker though...

Well, contrary to the Shinkai key holder, this one is smaller than what you may think. With only a little more than two inches, this little tin holds mini notes. You may write short messages or even codes here if you want! The papers come with the MWPSB Logo so it looks like a legit message for the inspector/ enforcer in you.

The top of the can is removable~

Cutting Family Ties via the Internet

My December was greeted with a very unfortunate event. Before all of this, I didn't know how easy family ties could be cut off.

Let me start from the very beginning.

My aunt CC from my mother's side and my grandmother LL sent us a message via FB that they wanted to spend time with us and in order to do so, would like to have a trip on local tourist spots in our country. They are living on the other side of the world. The travel would definitely be quite the challenge and they both have been gaining some age.

Aunt CC asked my eldest brother AG to help her plan the trip. It was around September and at the time, I wasn't sure if I could come due to work issues. AG tried to make the plan as agreeable to most as possible. A lot of changes occurred during the process. That was issue number 1.

When the dates were finally settled, aunt CC wanted to save money on accommodations and asked my uncle RD from my father's side if they could use his apartment for a few days. At first, it was okay, but after some thoughts, uncle RD decided that the place would be too small for 3 people to live in, not to mention there were boxes and I mean huge boxes of my little cousins' toys. It would have been embarrassing to offer such a place to guests. It seemed that aunt CC wasn't very happy about this. She excluded uncle RD's family to one of the planned trips. So another change to her perfect plan had to be changed. This was issue number 2.

The most recent change was the hired driver's fee. It was earlier agreed upon that the total cost for the driver would be 2500 PHP (56.12 USD) PER DAY. As we were supposed to be hiring him for 5 days, the TOTAL cost would be 12,500 PHP (280.62 USD). A couple of weeks before the planned date, the driver opened up that one of the places would be really far from the other places in the itinerary, about two hours from the farthest place. He wanted 500 PHP (11.22 USD) to be added to the TOTAL COST. So instead of 12,500 PHP, it will be 13,000 PHP (291.84 USD). This was where aunt CC snapped at my brother AG. A lot was said. Her words seemed like we were the ones who will gain something from the payment. My usually calm emotions swirled and I felt sick just remembering the things she said. AG stopped replying to her messages. This was issue number 3.

The morning after the 500 peso issue, I couldn't help myself but send her message. With carefully chosen words and a little appeal on faith, I expressed how she hurt our feelings with her words. I even set my oh-so-high pride and apologized for saying my honest feelings. I found out that my other brother AJ also sent her a message the night before. Her replies made tears well up inside my heart. It was really heart-breaking that she could say such words to her own nephews and niece. She bad-mouthed our manners saying we shouldn't be meddling with the affairs, that we have no respect to our elderly, that we are uneducated, etc. She was the one who snapped at us first. She treated what my brother did like it was for naught and like he was ruining HER plans.

After everything, she blocked us on FB. My brother AJ did the same. I would have done so as well but I don't want family problems. If there was a way to patch things up, I would do it. I realize later on that what my brother AJ said was right. This was issue number 4.

"It's just an endless cycle. If that person could say and do such things to us, even if she tries to make things better, it would just be repeated. When you are already in good terms again, she would just do the same thing over and over and over again. There's no end to it."

Despite his warning, I tried to give aunt CC a chance. Sure enough, as we have the receipt for the hotel reservation, she tried contacting me a week before the plan. I gave her the information she needed and accepted her words lightly. When she was done and got what she wanted, she reverted back to her rude side. There was a nagging feeling inside of me. I shouldn't have given her anything. At the same time, I was conflicted because I felt guilt when I think about my grandmother and the stress she must be feeling. I was naive.

In the end, I decided to end it all as well. No contacts whatsoever. I will protect myself from the possible harm she may cause me in the future. After all, self-preservation is a natural instinct isn't it?

I know a lot could not be said here. Details that are meant only for us to bear. Somehow, I would just like to share how easy relationships are ended nowadays. The internet is not a reflection of your real life relations with other people but it is in the people themselves whether they would abide by this or not.

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water in the womb"

Beshy Adventures 2014: Manila Ocean Park

October 10, 2014

With beshy's board exam approaching we both agreed to a stress-relieving trip to the Manila Ocean Park. It was actually my first time there and her second. I had a lot of expectations but some of them were crushed by reality but heck the rest of the day was fun! We availed the cheapest tickets (550php) which includes 3 attractions and 2 shows:

• Oceanarium
• Jelly Exhibit
• Sea Lion Show
• Dry Encounter
• Musical Light Show

We first dropped by the Sea Lion show because it was on at 11 am and the park opens at 10. We were a bit lost at first while we tour most of the shops.

We got some great front seats although it got a little sunny at the latter part of the show.

Most of the people were hyped by the entrance of the sea lions, Isabelle and Vincent. I immediately thought how Vincent looked older than his female counterpart. He was a little sluggish but still good nonetheless. I'm afraid of what would happen to him in the future. Anyway, I don't want to spoil anything here so here are some shots we got that time:

After the sea lion show, Beshy and I decided to have lunch. We could get the ball rolling non-stop later that afternoon until the evening. We got into this empty shop because we were attracted by the unusual pasta dishes, jelly & tako. Sadly we didn't get to order them because neither are available. We ended up having carbonara.

Upon finishing the meal, we tried their parfaits. At least those were really good.

With our bellies full and happy, we went to see some sting rays~ OMG they were really soft and slippery. We were told not to touch their eyes and tail. Who would want to have their eyes poked, I wondered. I was being playful with the ray and flapping his sides, just like how one plays with a paw, when I got scolded by a staff. I didn't mind a more appropriate tone but what that staff did ticked me off a lot. It ruined all the fun. This is one of the things I didn't like there. Some staff needs to learn how to speak more politely to their guests. Touching the sting rays and being irritated by the staff might have contributed to how itchy I got moments later.

Fortunately we finally got to go to the Oceanarium. I really thought it would be like a mini-pseudo-ecosystem under the sea but it turns out it was just some big man-made aquarium where you can't even see the fish pass by overhead. There were lots of interesting species but it wasn't as magical as I expected. I guess kids would find it better though.

As we exit the area, we passed by a faber castell booth letting people color some line art for free. Guess who found the kid in themselves?

We almost got lost while looking for the exit to the shops. Along the way, we were getting excited for the Jelly exhibit. We stayed there the longest and had the most photos as well.

It felt like we could stay just there for a whole trip and watch jellies float around.

When we had our fill of the exhibit, we went to look around for a cafe to sit. All that walking was really hard on out feet and legs! I suggested Linsanitea because I wanted to have tea. Luckily, they were having a promo of 20php bread for every purchase of their drinks. We talked about a lot of things and was also browsing the internet while we were having our rest.

The last part of this trip was the musical light show. I couldn't take anymore photos because I was too busy watching/ criticizing the event. It was good to be honest but I would have wanted more variety of light especially when they use water effects.

 This was a good bestie-moment. A lot of walking but enough fun all throughout the area. 

EIGASAI 2014

Another late post because I've been busy with my training as a nurse and my part-time work. Anyway, last July, my best friend and I went to see some movies shown at the Eiga Sai Manila 2014. This was held at Shangri La Plaza Mall. It was our first film fest and we sure enjoyed everything.

Beshy bought some snacks before the show and look at how she enjoyed her choco-banana snack bar! She's a huge fan of Shinkai from Yowamushi Pedal so for those who doesn't know the reference, I already spilled it.

Selfie while she eats~ Lol

The first movie we saw was the Tug of War. This is about a group of women trying to become the champion in a tug of war competition to save the local cafeteria from breaking up. I enjoyed how this film had us going from being serious and laughing our hearts out.

The second movie we saw was Like Father Like Son. The plot was good and we also saw some familiar actors have a cameo appearances. The kids who were on this film were too adorable!

We decided to attend this film fest next time too provided that we get a time off from our works. Hopefully, we'll get to enjoy another day of Japanese Film Festival in Manila.