Makati City Trip.

(NOTE: Please click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

I’ve been in the Philippines nearly 2 weeks now. October 13th-17th F.B. & I spent the week in Makati City. We always visit Makati city for a few days when I visit. We stayed at the Best Western Astor Hotel. And this time we managed to get ourselves up early for the breakfast buffet all week. We decided this year we would do that to save money. That way we only had to pay for dinner all week.

We spent a lot of time at Mall of Asia. F.B. bought me another pair of Havaiana’s as a belated birthday gift. (I love them!) And also a skull/star hoodie & a t-shirt from SM Department store.

Here are some random city shots:

Philippine Traffic... looks more orderly than it is!


















The cabs say 'with aircon’ (That's what air conditioning is called in the Philippines.)

Look! A Hog Dealer! So Random! Haha!

I managed to get some pretty sunset pictures again at Manila Bay, when we were at Mall of Asia:

We also ate at our favorite places; Gerry’s Grill, Chow King & Yellow Cab Here is F.B. contemplating which slice of pizza he wants!

I wanted to try Burger King in the Philippines so we ate there one evening. It tastes the same as the U.S. I was glad they still have the onion rings! F.B. thought his whopper was really “small”though, hehe!

We decided to try ‘Tempura’ a Japanese restaurant, we’ve never ate there. It was pretty good, but we both like Tokyo Tokyo or Saisaki Buffet better for sushi. Oh! F.B. taught me how to eat like a Filipino with both a fork & spoon at the same time. Hehe!

Saw some more movies. We watched ‘Strangers’ which I thought was a lot of anticipation and not a lot of action. And we saw ‘Mirror’s’. I thought it was similar to the ‘Sixth Sense’ in a way, but not as good.

We went to Manila Ocean Park- Aquarium on Tuesday. They had a lot of pretty fish, sharks, sting rays, alligators. They even had a glass tunnel you walk under and the fish swim all around you.

Fishies:

Stone Fish:

Giant Crab:

Crocodiles:

I like the blue spotted sting ray best; he always gives the evil eye!

I also liked this Tiki dude they had around the park:

They had a Starbucks at Ocean Park. And they even make my white chocolate mocha as a Frappucino in the Philippines too! Whoo hoo! I think we had Starbucks 3 times during our stay in Makati, haha!

Friday we checked out of the hotel but we couldn’t use the car. They have traffic rules and on certain days depending on what your license plate starts with you can’t use the car between certain hours in the city. So we took a hotel cab to Glorietta Mall and spent the day there. We ate Thai food at ‘Dusit Thani’ I had two San Mig beers. They sat the beer in front of F.B. again and his water in front of me! Haha! They always assume! We had the seafood soup we had before and look I even ate the squid with the tentacles! Ewwww! Haha!

Ooooh! And on the way out of Glorietta I came across this lovely purse and bought it! Heehee! Matches my wallet I already have!

We walked back to the hotel. It’s not such a far walk back, so when we stay in the city and visit Glorietta Mall we usually do that. Got back to F.B.'s house around 9pm.

F.B. & I acting silly in Makati:

We still have to visit Fort Santiago and the Manila Zoo. And we want to take a day trip to Tagaytay. We also want to go back to Mall of Asia to check out the 3D IMAX Theater again when the new films are showing.

Sad news though. I found out my Dad had to have his dog Hunter put to sleep this week. He was really sick and wasn’t eating. He was around 13 years old. We’ve had him since he was a puppy. He was a guard dog at my Dad’s junk yard for quite a few years.

And then yesterday Coco, F.B.’s family dog also had to be put to sleep tonight because he was ill. Here’s a picture of him I took of him last week:

P.S. I forgot to post pictures of the pretty rose F.B. gave me the night I arrived:

Philippines: Arrival & F's Birthday

Back in the Philippines! Arrived here at 10pm on 10-7-08. I didn't have any delays with any of my connections this time, thank goodness. The 15 hour flight was so long though, I tried to sleep most of it.

I had a little trouble finding F.B. at the airport, since it was the larger airport this time. When I got my luggage and got through customs I had to go outside and was asking the guards where the waiting area was. There wasn't too many signs, so I called F on his cell phone and he said he could see me and to wait where I was and he would go get the car.

We got back to his house around 11:30pm. He gave me a red rose and a rattie stuffed animal.
















(The door to F.B.'s room.)













My first day in the Philippines we went to change my money into some peso's and then headed to 'Big R' the mall near F.B.'s house. We stopped at the supermarket so I could pick up some toothpaste, shampoo, etc. And we also stopped at the music store and F.B. got me the new Cueshe c.d. for my belated birthday gift. Later that afternoon we checked out the new mall in Marikina City.

There's a new stray cat hanging around F.B.'s house. He calls him 'Stupid Cat' because he always runs away when F.B. tries to pet him. I think he liked me though, he sniffed my hand and posed for me!

October 9th, was F.B.'s 29th birthday. We had lunch at home and headed to Mega Mall. It was pouring rain and hard to see when driving. It's been cool here at night time, I get cold! (In the Philippines!) We watched 'Tropic Thunder' with Ben Stiller at Mega Mall. I thought it was okay, but F.B. really "liked" it.

Around 7pm we met up with F.B.'s parents and his sister at Mega Mall and went to Saisaki Buffet for F.B.'s birthday dinner.

Today we just hung out around the house. Slept in late and played around on my laptop. And picked up F.B.'s Dad and Sister later in the evening.

10-7-08

Blogging from my cell phone! It's tuesday evening around 6pm. I'm in Hong Kong waiting for my flight to the Philippines!

Edit 10-9-08: Just wanted to updated & let everyone know I'm in the Philippines! I arrived 10-7-08 around 10pm. Today is F.B.'s birthday. I've been on the dial up for an hour paying bills so and we're tired and have to get up early. So I will blog another night with some pictures!

Leaving Monday!

The countdown is on. I leave for the Philippines Monday! Yesterday I was out sick. There's been a virus going around at work and I caught it. A lovely little head cold. Blah. I spent Thursday in bed. Oh well... the first time I visited the Philippines I gave F.B. a cold. And in January his family was passing around a cold & I ended up catching it. So I guess it's my turn again to give him a 'sipon' (cold in tagalog.) Going to sleep in most of this weekend and finish packing on Sunday. So maybe I can get rid of this cold. Been taking extra vitamin C all week.

Today was my last day of work. They did extend our seasonal agreement until October 31st, so I'm not sure if we will be furloughed before I come back from the Philippines in December or not. I guess we will see. My co-workers gave me some flowers & a card since it was my last day since I'll be on vacation for 2 months. I probably should have taken pictures of them right away when I got home, I put them in water but they aren't as nice looking now as when I received them. (And shhh... I couldn't find a vase!)

F.B. & I decided we should take a day trip back up to Tagaytay City and see Taal Lake & Taal Volcano again. We went back in 2006. We stayed 2 nights but it would have been better as a day trip since there wasn't much else to do up there besides see the volcano. But it will be nice to take a day trip up there and get some new pictures of the volcano.

My family will be taking care of the ratties for me. They took care of them the last time I was in the Philippines. I will miss them though. Especially waking up every morning to little rattie faces peeping out of the cage at me waiting for me to say good morning! Or cuddling with my Cinnamon rat. She loves to cuddle with me when I'm in bed reading or on the laptop. She's been very affectionate since her emergency spay. Sugar & Spice will also be turning 1 year old on October 24th. Cinnamon won't be 1 years old until February 15th. I still want to get one more rattie, but that will have to wait until I'm back in the USA and have the time to introduce another rat to the girls. Sugar & Spice were very territorial about Cinnamon at first. They were constantly fighting. It took around 2 months or so before they were used to each other. Spice had been the dominant rat until Cinnamon came along and took her place!

I picked up another book for the plane at Target. I got 'The Heretic's Daughter ' by, Kathleen Kent. Target always has a nice book selection. So now I have 2 new books to read during my flight.

Leaving Monday morning around 5:45am. Hoping to get down to Philadelphia International Airport around 6:30am. And my first flight leaves for Chicago around 9:30am. (My Flight Itinerary.) I'm Excited! Just a few more days! We will be staying in Makati City 10-13 through 10-17. We want to visit the aquarium & the zoo. Visit Fort Santiago. And F.B.'s 29th birthday will be October 9th!

P.S. Took pretty flower picture this morning:

Just about a week!

Next Monday I'll be off to the Philippines! There's just 9 days left until I leave now! I really was going to pack next weekend, but I decided to start packing the stuff I'm not wearing. So I spent the morning packing. Next weekend, I'll just have to wash and pack the clothes I will wear this week and pack all the miscellaneous last minute stuff. Decided not to take my bright purple suitcase because it's not going to be big enough and I don't really want to take two bags with all the new luggage rules at the airport. So I'm taking my huge black suitcase with wheels and a smaller suitcase with wheels for my carry on. (Since I'm taking the laptop this year!) And that will be it, besides my purse.

I visited my Nana last night. She wanted to see me before I went away for 2 months. So I got to share with her my trip pictures from January. And I brought the rats as a surprise. She's seen pictures of them but she hasn't met them. I thought she might be freaked out that I brought rats to her house, but instead she said, "Ohhh! You brought the rats!" And she pet each one on their head and even said their tails were cute. (My Mom cannot stand rat tails, haha!)

Afterwards my brother & I stopped at Starbucks to get hot white chocolate mocha's, yum! It's been getting colder now and the leaves are starting to change color. But in just a week I'll be seeing palm trees again and wearing sandals! And getting to be with my boy! Also can't wait to eat at my favorite places again. Gerry's Grill & Chow King and Saisaki Buffet! Yay! I'm excited!

Rattie Love!

Give a rat a tissue box... and they make a new bed! My ratties love old tissue boxes. (Any old box really!) I should have bought 3 tissue boxes! Instead they had to take turns with this one, what good girls! Hee hee!

Sugar, Cinnamon & Spice:

13 Days!!!

Just 13 days until I am off to the Philippines! Next weekend I have to pack! AAAH! It's coming up so quickly.

I got a nice surprise on Saturday. I was checking my bank account to see if my paycheck was deposited and noticed a larger amount then I usually get. So I checked my pay stub and it turned out to be a bonus award! I forgot they always send those out around this time of the year. It was a nice surprise though, since I'm going to have to take leave without pay in addition to using all my vacation leave when I go away. I'll probably miss 2 paychecks because of that... so the bonus was a nice surprise! I celebrated by getting a new purse. I saw this Converse Tote Bag at Target a few weekends ago and really wanted it, so that's what I bought with a little bit of my bonus money. (Usually I only buy accessories & clothing on clearance, sale or ebay!)

I've been picking up stuff for the trip. I'm nearly finished. I forgot to pick up band aids & notepaper though. Yucky... but I always end up with blisters when I run around all those airports no matter what shoes/sneakers I wear. So I need to pick up some for my carry-on. And notepaper for writing letters on the plane when I'm bored. I can't believe I have to pack next weekend. I hope I remember everything. And I've got an e-ticket this year. All the other times I've traveled I've gotten a paper ticket. So I'm a bit nervous about the e-ticket. Not so much for leaving the USA, but for leaving the Philippines. How do e-tickets work when leaving there? Hmmm. I guess I'll find out... I've never seen those e-ticket machines in the Philippine Airports.

So much to do and so little time. I've got alot I need to get done before I leave October 6th. My eye glasses also decided they wanted to break last Thursday. So I had to drive down to my eye doctor and thank god my insurance covers new frames... I just hope they are ready before I leave the country for 2 months. They are going to swap my lenses out. I miss my glasses... I have funky black/purple plastic cat eye frames and I love them. They are the first glasses I've ever loved. Usually I hate myself in glasses but these ones are like a fashion accessory to me!

And my Fiance's Birthday is October 9th! I'm so excited I get to be with him on his birthday this year. We'll probably be going to Saisaki Buffet with his family. And I got 2 gifts for him that are related somehow.... hehe. But I'll share them with you all once I've given him his gifts. I can't believe I'll be in the Philippines in just under 2 weeks!!! I won't arrive there until October 7th, around 10pm.

Oh! I picked up Philippa Gregory's new book 'The Other Queen' at Barnes & Noble last Friday. $22 for a hard cover. EEK! I don't like paying full price for books, I usually get them on Ebay or used on Amazon.com for a few dollars each. I read ALOT of books & I can just imagine how much I would spend if I always paid the cover price. But the book just came out last Tuesday and I wanted something new to read on the plane. I'm excited though, it's about Mary Queen of Scots.

I don't know if I mentioned before but I also ordered 'The Life And Death of Anne Boleyn.' By, Eric Ives. Which I thought was a great biography about Anne. Er... and I also finally gave in and bought 'The Other Boleyn Girl' on DVD even though it is nothing like the book or history and I was outraged by them making Henry VII rape Anne!!! (Read my review of the movie here!) Oh well... I got it for $5 on Ebay so it's something to watch on my ipod while on my 15 hour flight to Hong Kong!!!! I am not looking forward to 24 hours worth of traveling... but at least I get to see my boy soon! Miss kita nobyo ko.... mahal kita...

I'm rambling, I'm exhausted and I have to get up at 5:30am. So it's off to bed for me. I will leave you with a pretty picture I took of a bumblebee the other day:

23 Days!!!

Just 23 days until I am off to the Philippines! Today I finally got the paper back from my supervisor. She had submitted my vacation & leave without pay request back on August 21st. Monday she said our department head had said "Yes". But I really wanted the copy back from him signed, so I had proof I was actually approved. So Thursday she emailed him and today before I left for work she gave me the signed copy back. So I am approved for my vacation, because it doesn't look like we'll be getting furloughed there is too much work this year... and now hurricane Ike is looking like it may be bad and whenever FEMA needs assistance with the phones, we take the overflow calls that FEMA can't handle. The last time we did that was with hurricanes Katrina & Rita, 3 years ago. It was pretty tough and emotional handling calls from people calling for disaster assistance that had lost everything....

But... I am approved and I am leaving for the Philippines in 23 days! Started getting stuff for my trip last week and ordered some clothes. I have to go shopping next weekend for some jeans & maybe a few new t-shirts. Picked up some snacks for my flight. I usually take a dried fruit mix, with yogurt raisins. And I got some rice crispy treats too. Usually I get granola bars, but I wanted something different this time.

F.B.'s grand mom & aunt were visiting from Mindanao last week. They went to the Manila Ocean Park, the new Aquarium on my birthday. F.B. & I are going to go there when I visit. I saw on the website they also have a glass bottom boat ride, that sounds pretty neat! And I also want to visit the Zoo at some point. Something different for us. There's a new mall that opened in Marikina City that we can check out. The malls in the Philippines are just crazy. They have so many and they are soooo huge! Mall of Asia is one of my favorites. And also the smaller malls near his house.

I'm excited, the trip is getting closer. I'm not looking forward to traveling for 24+ hours though. It's a full day of travel and the worst flight is my 15 hour flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. I will have several flight changes. You can click here to check out my flight itinerary.

Just a note: I try to include alot of links related to each blog post. So if you click on the links in my blogs it will give you more information on what I'm posting about.

Fan?

If you have read my blog from the beginning you would know F.B. & I met on a 'Lindsay Lohan' forum 5 years ago. (See Here) Sometimes people ask how we met each other and I usually just say "online". For close friends I always say with a laugh, "In a Lindsay Lohan forum..."

So you would think since that is where F.B. & I met we should be diehard fans and grateful to Lindsay Lohan for somehow bringing us together. Honestly... not so much anymore for me. I liked her back in the day when she was a good little actress. My favorite movie she was in was the new 'Parent Trap' and the remake of 'Freaky Friday'. That was the movie that made F.B. & I join up on the forums in the first place. He being a fan & I joining up to look for guitar chords for one of the movie songs. We never joined up looking for a relationship... it just sort of happened after talking with each other & becoming friends.

I don't think I would call myself a Lindsay Lohan fan anymore. I don't think any of her movies aside from 'The Parent Trap', 'Freaky Friday' are worth watching. And I especially don't like the way she has conducted herself the past 5 years. (Hmmm... that seems to be a trend with past Disney stars.) Everything aside though.... I do have to smile when I think of the time we spent on the Lindsay Lohan forum 5 years ago. After all if it wasn't for the movie 'Freaky Friday' F.B. & I would have never crossed each other's paths.... and for that I am truly thankful!

*General Update* Just 3 weeks until I am off to the Philippines! Yay! I also got to have a nice birthday lunch with my family Saturday at the Chinese Buffet near our house. And I received a surprise birthday letter & 3 cards from F.B. on the 5th. Awww... just a day late for my birthday. Hehe. He didn't tell me he was mailing anything so it was really a surprise. It took 3 weeks to get here though! International mail is so slow.

Birthday!

Well, I am 26 years old today. I was actually able to take off work for my birthday. I realized when I'm on vacation using my vacation leave I will still get 2 more paychecks and will accrue 12 more hours of vacation leave. So that allowed me to take today off. I was already scheduled off for the whole week so I was able to sleep in today until 12pm. Yay! I am always up at 5:30am on workdays.

Just spent a quiet day at home. My parents called from the shore to wish me a happy birthday. And F.B. called me and we chatted for 20 min. Then we got to spend time online with each other for a few hours. Saturday I'm going out with the family for a "birthday" lunch. And next weekend I get to go out with my cousins for a "birthday" dinner. Back to work tomorrow... but thank goodness the weekend is here!

The ratties really enjoyed the ice cream cake I had for my birthday. Here's some pictures:

P.S. I found out yesterday Fall Out Boy's new album is coming out November! Whoo hoo! I saw them in concert last October. They are so good live! The new single 'I don't care' is good too. I hope it's out in the Philippines when I'm over there so I can buy it! They are my favorite band. :-)