Smiles and Hugs

I browsed through a site called "Makes Me Think" or MMT for short. It's basically a site where people place inspirational snippets of their lives.

"Today, I was in a really bad mood when a young girl came into my office sporting the most genuine smile I’d seen in a long while. She was bound to a wheelchair because she had no legs. MMT"

A smile can really do wonders.

I've been feeling a lot of negativity here in the office for a while now. Honestly, I'm not as happy here as I was before. Either I need a change of scenery or a change of reaction. Having a change of reaction is easier said than done. Maybe a change of scenery isn't so far off...

"Today, a complete stranger outside a local coffee shop was holding a sign that said, “Free Hugs.” I hesitated at first, but then I decided to give her a hug. Truthfully, it felt great! MMT"

Even virtual hugs will do. Just knowing someone's there to comfort you.

Love Through Time

I've just finished reading The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Admittedly, I just started reading that particular book after I saw the awesome trailer. What can I say? I'm a visual person. I like books but sometimes I just need a little motivation by Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana holding hands to make me borrow the book from a friend (Thanks Berenice). Please do not read this blog if you do not want to see spoilers.

The trailer: I loved it. It was perfect and I couldn't help but have goosebumps. The background song was perfect (Broken by Lifehouse).

The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight
Maybe it can stop tomorrow from stealing all my time
I am here still waiting though i still have my doubts
I am damaged at best, like you've already figured out

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain, there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holdin' on to you

The broken locks were a warning you got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded, I'm an open book instead
I still see your reflection inside of my eyes
That are looking for a purpose, they're still looking for life

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
with a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain (in the pain), is there healing
In your name (in your name) I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin')
I'm barely holdin' on to you

I'm hangin' on another day
Just to see what you throw my way
And I'm hanging on to the words you say
You said that I will be OK

The broken lights on the freeway left me here alone
I may have lost my way now, haven't forgotten my way home

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
with a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain(In the pain) there is healing
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),
I'm barely holdin' on to you

I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'), I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),
I'm barely holdin' on to you

The Book:

It's a classic love story with a twist. I love the part in the book when Clare said she had no choice. She has already been destined to love Henry since she was 6 years old. Not time, distance nor death can erase/lessen the love she has for that man. I remember a conversation I had with a friend regarding this story. He said that with a love story like this, it seemed like a matchmaking session in the olden Chinese times, where you had no choice but to follow what fate/the parents/the matchmaker gave you. You just had to go with the flow since you know you'll be together eventually. I mean with Chinese matchmaking before, the first time you'll see each other is during the wedding and you'll have to spend the rest of your life together, getting to know each other. With Clare and Henry's love story, it had a happy ... story (Can't think of a better word).

Next point, I wonder if it was better for Clare to have not met Henry? Would it have been better for her to end up with another man (Gomez), who's also in love with her but without the burden of having to time travel? She's periodically lonely, waiting and waiting for Henry to come back. Would it have been better to experience blissful happiness for a short time rather than be satisfactorily satisfied for a long while? It was bliss for her when she was young because Henry was like a surprise from Santa Claus popping out every once in a while. But once she got married to him, he's periodically gone. Periodically, in and out of her life. My answer is that if it were me, I'd choose to be blissfully happy for a short while, because at least I'd have no regrets.

A strong theme in the book is also the exercise of free will. It takes a strong person not to change the past. A lot has happend to Henry, and as a time traveller, he has the choice to change everything once he goes back. But he chose not to. I think he could have also changed how or when he could die. But then again, changing the past or future is a tricky business. I always belive that God has a purpose for everything and even if you try to resist, you'll always be led to your destined path. Now what of free will? We still have our free will, but He can predict our moves and then provide alternatives.

Also, until the end, I was wondering about him not showing up to visit Clare in the future but he always chose to visit Alba. My guess is that it would be harder for Clare to move on if she always sees Henry. Alba, meanwhile, still needs a father's guidance. She needs Henry to show her the ropes in time travelling.

Now here's my favorite quote from the book.

Clare, I want to tell you, again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more density in this world than I do, myself: as though it could linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.

Rituals for Success

It's been so long since I last blogged. Frankly, It's because I quickly lose interest in things I've started. For example, here with blogging, I would be engaged in blogging for around 2 weeks and then after that I'll move on to another hobby. That's the problem with having so many interests, you just can't stick to one. The main thing I really want to achieve is success. Success in a single thing at least. I don't want to be a jack of all trades anymore. It's tiring and I always feel like a newbie in whatever I do. I want to excel in something, something I can be proud of.

I came across this website which described what I needed to do, have rituals. Do something regularly. For example, If I want to become good with baking/cooking, I need to dedicate one day in a week (Saturday or Sunday) to bake/cook. Having a ritual would enable you to practice that skill regularly and thus improve on it. I remember reading a chapter in the book, The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, regarding a similar theory. Practice will always make perfect. If you dedicate a certain time for a goal of yours, eventually, you will reach it.

Now, I've decided to create my own rituals. Here's a list of the things I want to start doing:

1. Exercise every morning (Yoga or Dance videos).
2. Swim every Sunday (hopefully this can be done 3x a week if I can find an indoor pool).
3. Spend at least an hour everyday learning a new technology.
4. Spend at least an hour everyday checking stock market news.
5. Bake/Cook a new dish once every week.
6. Bible study twice a month. (Currently in progress)
7. Research on a new business/trend.
   
8. Finish reading a new book each month.
9. Spend at least an hour everyday catching up with family news.
   
10. Practice Mandarin everyday.

Now what to prioritize? Well, probably the exercise ones first. Think I can keep this up for the next 30 days? Well, we'll just see....

Prayer for me from a friend

Dear angel...

Please take care of raine,
kasi mabait naman po sya ...
pag tulog.

Oops!
Ayan na po
Gising na sya
paki DOBLE na lang po ang pagbabantay sa knya.

:D

Beach Buddy

If I had to choose the best beach I had gone to for 2009, it would be Caramoan in Bicol. I didn't understand why Survivor France and Israel had to use Caramoan as the venue for their show before. But after visiting the remote island, I do. The place is relatively a virgin still. Not many people know about it unlike Boracay but the place is amazing. white sand, crystal clear water and thriving marine life.

The hard part is reaching Caramoan. From manila you either have to ride 10 hrs of bus trip or a 1 hr flight to Naga, then ride a 1-hr bus or van to the port and another 2 hours of boat ride. But its all worth it. Once we got there, we were the only ones roaming the islands. My only regret is not being able to go to Gota Beach Resort since it was closed to the public. The shooting for Survivor Israel was taking place there.

Now the question is, why are foreigners the ones benefiting from the beauty of Caramoan and not the Filipinos itself. For me, no other country has the best beaches other than the Philippines. And we should be proud of it.

Travel Blog: Trek the Terraces [Day 0 - 1]

April 3, 2009

After weeks of excitement and anticipation, the day to leave for Sagada finally arrived. MJ and I were the ones who suggested to join the travel factor tour instead of creating our own since we were all girls. The tour did a damage of PHP 4,900 for each person. Doing a self tour would probably cost around PHP 4000 and is quite easy because of the Visit Sagada and SAGGAS website but since it's peak season, we decided that we didn't want the hassle of planning it ourselves.

Tiff and Danica joined the tour as well as Tiffany's bf, Lionel and his friends. My officemates, meanwhile, took the place of MJ's three friends who had to back out because of an emergency. Bedette was also supposed to go with us, however, due to a business emergency, she had to back out as well.

7:00 PM

Emil, Rich, Jack and I were supposed to leave the office early to beat the weekend rush and have dinner (and Emil's nail cleaning). Unfortunately, our meeting went on for sooo long that we left the office late. And as luck would have had it, we couldn't find any free taxi!

7:50 PM

The meeting time at the Cable Tour E.Rodriguez bus stop was 7:30 pm and we'll be leaving by 8 pm. Good thing we were able to catch up. We were the last ones to arrive actually. I found out that there were seating arrangements! Boo! Oh well, turns out that the who bus wasn't rented by Travel Factor so we had to follow their call. Tiff, Lionel and his friends were on the other bus so there was no time to catch up before we leave.

9:00 PM

Left the station at around this time. Finally! The trip begins. I was so excited I couldn't sleep. When I did eventually fall asleep, I had 'The Killing' dream. *Sigh* Good thing I woke up because we had our first stop somewhere in Bulacan.

April 4, 2009

6:00 AM

We had our first glimpse of the Banaue Rice Terraces. And just as I expected, it was majestic. Most of us were still sleepy but that didn't stop us from energetically posing and taking pictures of the famous terraces. I'm a mountain person which is why I was in my element there.

I remember that back in grade school, our teachers told us that this was the 8th wonder of the world. Imagine my confusion when I learned that there were only 7 wonders of the world. But I agree that this could be included as a world wonder. You can just see the work and dedication it took to make the terraces what it is today. Unfortunately, I think the younger Ifugaos do not maintain them and do not find farming appealing which is why you can see some wear and tear in the walls. I wonder who it would feel to trek up the rice terraces? You'll definitely need stamina for that!

I could have gone on and one taking pictures of the place but the bus driver gave us only around 15 minutes. So I had to settle for taking pictures through the bus window.


11:00 am

I'm not completely sure about the time but I think this is when we arrived at the Cable Car Restaurant in Batad, Banaue. I was surprised to see another friend there, Torie, who went to college with MJ and I (CCS girl).

MJ, Dan and I were hungry but the travel factor representative, Tikoy Tan, started off with an orientation and gave us our shirts and IDs. Finally after about 30 mins (or was it an hour?), we were all ushered to the kitchen for a hot plate of breakfast. The moutain coffee and a full meal finally woke me up.

1:00 pm

We finally arrived at Sagada! Unfortunately, my attention was caught by the HUGE mosquito on my very colorful bag. Grr, and I couldn't get it off at all. Good thing MJ was there to help me.

It was kinda traffic in Sagada since the road was only large enough for one vehicle. We had to walk to our inn but it was alright because the weather was so good.

We were staying at Alibama Inn and Resto Bar which was just in front of George Guest House. The place was very nice and cosy but had no hot water and only had common comfort rooms (one for the men and one of the women). Good thing most of us on that floor were friends (Thanks travel factor ).

2:00 pm - 5:30 pm

We had our lunch of yummy fresh veggies and adobo. I don't know what's with the food here in the mountains but they are sooo good!

After a few mins of unpacking and freshening up, we were called out by the guides to start our tour. First stop was the trek across the rice terraces to Banga-an Falls or more commonly called the Big Falls.

When I saw the jeep which would bring us to the drop of point, the first thing that came to my mind was that I needed to experience riding on top of it. Tyron, our guide, told us it was safe so I climbed up at once. MJ, Rich, Jack and Emil followed suit and spent mintues deciding how to position ourselves because both Emil and I were accident-prone.

It was like roller coaster ride because of the uneven pavement. I kind of had a hard time taking pictures because I was too busy holding on the railings. Most of my pictures had Emil's head in it. Boo! The five of us became the automatic horn of the jeep since we were the ones shouting whenever a car is approaching on the bend. It was the perfect time to ride the top since the breeze was just cool and the sun wasn't too hot.

Once we reached the drop-off point, Tyron, our guide, gave us an orientation and background of the terraces (which I couldn't remember).

And off we go!

The weather started out fine, but since I was there, of course, it just had to start raining! Seriously, everytime I go on a trip, it would just starting raining there. I'm sooo blessed! hehehe

The hike wasn't too bad. The scenery was beautiful which took away some of the fatigue. Tyron was also very helpful. Danica had quite a hard time but he assisted us along the way and answered all of our questions. This let to Danica telling him, "Kung magkakaanak ako, ipapangalan ko siyang Tyron". To which MJ then replied, "Si Tyron nalang dapat asawa mo."

I didn't take much pictures since I didn't want to get my precious D50 wet. My Canon Ixus was also a new one so I didn't want to bring it out. However, the shutterbug virus inside me just couldn't resist so I finally used the digicam to take snapshots of the view.

It was raining quite a bit harder when we arrived at the Big Falls, but I enjoyed it all the more. Like I mentioned before, I'm accident-prone and had my first gasgas when I slipped while going down the water.

The water was ice-cold but you wouldn't feel it being submerged in it after a while. The area's quite rocky and steep at the middle.

It would have been better if there were only a few people in the area (just like when we went to Busay Falls in Bicol) but alas! we were part of a group of 56 people. It was quite hard to take pictures of the place without someone in the background. This was the most beautiful falls I've seen so far. Definitely worth the climb, but I wish it wasn't raining. I could have taken more pictures.

There was nothing exciting on the hike back. We were all hurrying to get back to the jeep because it was getting dark and we were soooo cold! Brrrr...

6:00 pm

Nobody sat on top of the jeep on the way home. And most of our group rushed to the comfort room to take a bath but MJ and Tiff requested for hot water for us so we had to wait for it. MJ, Tiff, Lionel and I had our dinner first. As usual, fresh vegetables were part of the meal.

Tiff, MJ and I were the last ones to take a bath and it was definitely worth it to wait for the hot water. hehehe

8:00 pm

After freshening up, Emil, Jack, Rich, Tiff, Lionel, Danica, MJ and I went to look for Lemon Pie House which I heard served the best (well what else?) lemon pie.

Their specialties were the egg pie and lemon pie each for PHP 20 only. Personally, I liked the egg pie better because it wasn't so sour plus I like the creamy consistency. Most of us were quite full so we opted to share the dessert. As usual, MJ was the one who finished all the food (with my help, hehe) PG mode again. I wanted to go to the Yogurt House but Tiff said that since we still had some free time tomorrow afternoon, we'll just go then.

On the way back to our inn, the beautiful night sky caught our attention. There's just something magical about the night sky in the province, with all the stars so clearly littered across the sky. You just can't get a view like that back in the city. (It's so polluted!) Tiff, Lionel and I enjoyed taking pictures for a few mintues before heading to bed. I really should learn night photography, 'cuz the picture I took didn't do justice to the beauty of it all.

10:00 pm

Bonding moments with my roommates. MJ and Danica wouldn't stop joking that a mananangal would come and take me away since I slept beside the window. I was too tired to be scared haha.

We could still hear faint sounds of reggae music but it's off to sleep for us since we had to wake up at 4:00 am for the sunrise at Kiltepan Point!

Mcdo's First Love

I rarely appreciate commercials these days because for me, most of them are really stupid. I mean they're just flashy and all but they are meaningless. Mostly, they incorporate loud 'catchy' songs which just irritate the hell out of me. Or they use the famous celebrities' testimonies to encourage viewers to buy their product. Seriously, they spend millions for a 30 second commercial and they can't even make a commercial that's worth their money.

Now I've always liked Mcdo's commercials, but the latest one, first love really caught my eye. Here's the video. I hope they make more of these.