Dea's 18th

The youngest cousin of the Dumlao grandkids 1st batch is our dear Dea. We celebrated her birthday on May 30, though her birthday is actually on May 25. It was held at the house of our uncle, where there was a space for events like this.

Weeks before the event, me and cousin born after me were the ones assigned to be the hosts of the event. I was preparing myself and thinking of lines to engage the party. However, event night came and I was stuck with nerves.

The party started past 8 and I found myself just helping the program flow, like leading the second batch of cousins during Dea's grand entrance, or giving out balloons and roses during her 18 Roses. I was just happy that I still got to help out even if I wasn't able to carry out the duty of being a host.

I was part of 18 candles, along with our aunts and cousins who were old enough. When it was my turn, I couldn't help but cry. It was quite embarrassing to speak while hearing your own voice break but I'm glad I got through it.

Dea was happy and very beautiful in her nature-inspired debut gown. Hooraaaaay! Happy 18th birthday, Dea! :)

Girl Talker at DWTL

Me and another sister from SFC were invited to be a Girl Talker at the 9th batch of DWTL for our brothers in Christ, but I didn't know what it was because nobody was giving us straight answers. I just knew that we would be part of a panel and we are to answer questions. The sisters who had already been invited just told us that it would be fun and that we should give it a try.

We said yes and they told us to come one Saturday morning.

The day came and I just didn't know what to expect. While I waited for my friend Mela, I had the chance to get to know the other girl talkers in the waiting room. We were then served toasted siopaos, which made me happy because it was my first time trying one.

It was time to go and we were led to the auditorium and was told to be quiet. I couldn't reveal what happened next because we were sworn to secrecy. But the sisters were right. It was a lot of fun! It was exciting and frightening at the same time. I'm glad I was given a chance to be part of it. I'm sure the future girl talkers would have fun as well.

First 'joined' Team Drinks

Well, our company was bought by another rival. Most of us weren't happy with it because of the drastic change we had to go through like moving our office from one city to another, getting along with the new colleagues from the other brand, and adjusting to the setup.

The management thought it would be better if we had an event to mingle and get to know the others without thinking of competition. The one who bought us had already been doing Team Drinks, a monthly get-together of fun, booze, and games, and they thought it would be a good idea to let everybody have a fun time together through Team Drinks.

We, the employees of MP, were told to wear green while they would wear green. I smiled when I learned we would have to wear my favorite color. The day came and I was ecstatic to see my officemates wearing blue. There was also a soft buzz of excitement hanging in the office and I felt that we were indeed quite wishing office hours would be over.

Team Drinks started around 6PM. There were food, booze, games, music, and laughter. Apart from beer pong, we played a game where everybody was involved. The game was charades and the whole office was divided into two teams composed of both companies. The category for all words that we had to guess is WEDDING.

For a turn, I was chosen to act out a word. I picked a paper, unrolled it, and read BACHELOR'S PARTY. My eyes widened and I'm pretty sure I heard laughter. Haha. I had no idea how to describe a bachelor so I pointed at all bachelors while shaking my head no whenever I pointed at married men. Then I put my fist up and went tugs! tugs! tugs! and nodding my head to the beat. Miraculously, somebody understood what I was trying to describe and he got the right answer!

After 2 or more rounds of guessing, the points were tied up. To determine who would be the winning team, the game masters had one word that both teams had to guess. Who ever guessed the word would be the winner. We could as Yes or No questions as many and as often as we could.

Clues were:

- something green
- a profession

Both teams asked plenty of questions but none seemed to know what it was. I already had a hunch but I kept quiet because I wanted to hear more of their answers. When one of the game masters said that she sure hopes none of us are like what they had in mind, I knew my hunch was near the right answer. They were already getting frustrated at the questions; some were even asked over and over again.

I then whispered to my friend, "the answer must be stripper." She then yelled that I had a guess and my guess was stripper. Suddenly, the game masters looked at me and then clapped. Turned out, my answer was right!

They were all shocked because (just guessing):

1) Somebody got the answer;
2) It was ME ME ME who got the answer;
3) That I even knew what a stripper is.

I'm not exaggerating that they were dumbfounded. I can still remember the look on their faces, especially my boss's shocked face because I knew what a stripper is. Later on, I found out that they were indeed shocked that I knew it. I received claps and pats on the back that night because of that word.

I was shocked, too, because I didn't know that I was right, and I didn't know that I was a 'quiet little innocent angel' in their eyes. LOL.

After the game, other fun stations were set up, like karaoke station, food station, cards station, game consoles station, dancing station, and beer pong station.

I chose to stay at my workstation because my other officemates were with me. We just sang and played the guitar. Somebody brought a Kahon and I happily tried my beats.

It was a night of fun. Hopefully, the rest of our stay in our new office turns even brighter. :)

Jumping Dinosaur

Who else plays this game? HAHA. One sad day, the internet in our office was down. What better way to pass time than to play with your seatmate, trying to beat each other's scores. :)) GUESS WHO WON?

Boyzone: Bringing Back the Memories BZ20 The Anniversary Tour

When I learned that Boyzone would be coming to Manila, I immediately told my Mom about it. Since Momy knows a lot of Boyzone songs too, we decided to watch together. We bought gen ad tickets (although we know how hard it is to climb to and to sit at the Gen Ad area because it has no back support) for the two us.

Since it is a work day and I don't want to do an early-out, we decided to just meet at Araneta. Once the clock struck 5:30, I dashed out, hoping to catch the MRT. Unfortunately, long lines had started and already turned into long snakes of people. I not a huge fan of riding buses so I tried to endure it. Besides, I've always told people that MRT is my favorite kind of transportation.

15 minutes later, I'm drenched in sweat in swealtering heat. Add to that the body heat of others pressed around me. By that time, I thought it's better to just swallow my fear of riding public buses and just go.

It was around 6PM when I bravely entered a bus....by myself... *whimpers* I looked around and fortunately found a good spot near the driver. I kept praying that nothing would ever happen to me. I discreetly sent a text message to my Mom that I was riding a bus knowing I could use an extra prayer for my safety.

Around 7:45, I already saw the familiar shape of the grand dome. Thanking the Lord that I was safe and could possibly make it on time, I brisk-walked towards Araneta. And I did make it before the show started! Woohoo!

And to make the night even better, we were led to a section closer to the stage. That meant we would be having backsupports! Yeeey! Since it was a no reservation section and there were not that many people, we were able to get the best seats.. right on the center and in front of the stage! Another yeeey!

ABS-CBN's singing group HARANA composed of Marlo Mortel, Joseph Marco, Michael Pangilinan, and Bryan Santos was the front act. They sang three songs before saying goodbye.

The main show started after a few minutes. And when it did, the crowd went wild... I did too! And then we saw them..four men and their silhouettes!!! AND THEN THERE'S RONAN KEATING! KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

The night was so awesome. It was a great throwback to their hits and I'm glad they sang songs that they didn't sing at other countries. :) We were very lucky! Momy and I enjoyed their concert a lot.

THANKS BOYZONE!

Night out with my UP sisters at BGC

During my stay in UP Diliman, I was able to gain meaningful friendship with my classmates. Now that I'm already working, we continue to keep in touch.

One day, we were chatting on Facebook when I told them the location of my new office. It turned out that my building was perpendicular to one of my friend's building. We are three in our group and the third one works near BGC, where her husband is working. So we all decided to meet-up on a Friday night after work because we knew we have a lot of catching-up to do.

The one who is closer to me and has guided me and been there for me like a real ate would do is the one that's near my office.  Ate S and I met at building then used her car to go to BGC. Since it's a Friday, there was heavy traffic. But we were able to tell and update each other about a lot of things, especially about my lovelife.

It took us two hours to go from Makati to BGC. We met our friend at Powerbooks where she was waiting for us with her husband.

Ate S knew this restaurant that we would surely love. She took us to Pier at Clawdaddy's.

We ordered steak, mashed potato, fries, and pasta (too bad I forgot what it was but it was delish~). We just ordered a serving of each one but each serving was really big and fit the four of us. It was heavy to the tummy and in the end, there were a few leftovers.

While we were dining, we noticed that Brazillian-Japanese actor and model Daniel Matsunaga was in the restaurant, too. It seemed like he was with his family and friends. When he went to our side, my friend greeted him and asked for a picture. Daniel was hesitant because he wanted to go back to his table but he was nice enough to agree.

The very same friend asked him where Erich was and his face brightened up. He said that they were going to meet each other after dinner.

After dinner, there was still time for more kwentuhan. So we decided to move to a coffee shop where we, again, took more pictures while laughing at each other's stories.

Thanks for the fun night sisters! :*

Restaurant: 101 Hawker Food House

One lunch time, a group of my officemates invited me and another officemate to join them for lunch at this Singaporean restaurant. To be honest, I'm not a fan of such cuisine. I haven't tried it yet though so I thought I might as well give it a try. 

The restaurant was several blocks away from our office. I was starting to regret my decision because had I known that it would be quite far, I would've brought my umbrella to shade my skin from the scorching noontime sun.

A few minutes more of walking in silence when we finally arrived at 101 Hawker Food House. 

I gulped when we entered as I started to think if this really was a good idea after looking at the dishes on the tables. I didn't really know what to order so I just let them do it. I did mention though that I can't handle spicy dishes well. I was praying I could eat for the sake of my tummy. I heard that they even ordered a different kind of rice and not just the plain one.

The food finally arrived and I wonder if they ever saw me giving the dishes the eye.

I tasted a dish and whoaaaaa. IT WAS YUMMY!! I tasted the other dish and YEEEEES!! Yummy as well! Even the laksa with shrimp (hooray for shrimp) was delicious. In the end, I was able to eat more than expected. Surprisingly, the rice was also good. 

There's a happy me, for a different kind of yummy lunch. 

GRAB to SlideFest!

It was in April 2014 when I first started using Grab and I've been using it always ever since.

Last May 5, 2015 Grab's Instagram account posted a photo of a new contest for their loyal Grabbers. 

I guess I was too busy to schedule a summer outing. That, or all of my friends had no summer plans at all as well. I was wondering where I could go for summer but being one who's afraid of the sun, it only remained as such. Besides, I just landed a new job and I couldn't file a leave yet.

So when I saw Grab's post through a friend of mine who's also a Grabber and joined the contest, I decided to join, too. I posted a screenshot of my trip from work to home while in transit. Then posted it and used the hashtag #GrabtoSlidefest, thinking that it would be my only chance for a summer trip.

Also, I had been eyeing Slidefest, a one-of-a-kind water adventure that features 1,000-foot long of waterslide fun ever since I was tagged by my friends on Facebook when it was first announced. But due to its price, nobody got to ever ordering tickets.

Then on May 12, I received a Tagged-notification from Grab. When I checked it, I couldn't believe I was one of the winners who won three VIP tickets!

I couldn't believe my luck! Three VIP tickets meant unlimited slide the whole day. That's more than 8 hours of sliding down on the water with my friends (with rests in between, of course). That's why a VIP costed more than Php1,000 each.

After exchanging details with Grab on how to claim the tickets, I immediately notified my friends whom I planned to share the tickets with.

Our tickets were for May 17, Sunday, and I'd have to claim them at the event on the day itself. Unfortunately, one couldn't make it on that day and I couldn't invite my other friends due to some ~issues~ so I decided to let go of the third ticket.

Since my friend is from Cavite and Slidefest is in Filinvest, Alabang, we decided to just meet at Alabang South Station. I had no idea how to go to Alabang on a weekend so I took the MRT and alighted at MRT Ayala. I read on the internet that there are UV Express or FXs that could take me to Filinvest. However, the FXs would arrive at 3 in the afternoon and we were supposed to meet at 11 AM. So I had no choice but to use Grab.

I arrived at South Station not knowing where to go. My friend was running late so I decided to just sit on a bench for a while. Since it was nearing lunchtime, I asked the guard where the fast food chains are and he directed me to KFC. I went ahead and bought lunch then texted my friend.

As you can see from my selca (self-camera) taken at KFC, I was already wearing my rashguard (and board shorts). I thought I would be having a hard time wearing it at the event so I went on and got water-ready before leaving the house.

My friend arrived and after we ate lunch, we first bought simple slippers from Banana Peel because we got worried our slippers/aquashoes might punch a hole in the slides or tubes with its locks and little ornaments. We then booked for Grab to bring us to the event place.

When we arrived around 1 PM, I claimed my tickets/wrist tags and we entered the event area. I didn't know it would be huge and fun as there were booths, games, food stalls and trucks, and eating areas. There were also huge tents for boys and girls as changing spaces. Rows of portable restrooms were lined up on the sides. Another tent was for our bags and other belongings.

After applying sunblock generously and depositing our things at the safe area, we headed towards the top of the slide. On the way, we came across boards for picture-taking.

Going to the top of the slide took a few minutes. There were several lines once you get to the top as there were three slides. If I remember correctly, there were special lines for those who were wearing VIP tags. It's your choice how you want to go down the slide. There were tubes and slipper floats available and free to use. 

I would always choose a tube because the slipper floats were hard to catch as there were only a few of them. Sometimes, the crew would even choose whom to give it to and unfortunately, they never saw us. *sobs* We tried to ask for slipper floaters but our pleads fell on deaf ears.

Anyway, the 1,000ft slide looked quite flat when I first saw it. However, when I tried it for the first time, I couldn't believe how fast I was speeding downhill. I was smiling and squealing (and being a teeeeeeeeny bit scared) and holding on to dear life while zooming down. Along the way, there were men who would push as to gain more momentum.

I met my friend at the end of the slides. Oh, man! That first slide down got us really excited! Off we go back to the top for more slides of fun. By the way, on top of each slides, staff would have to gently pull you and push your floater to help you propel down the slides.

Ready to go!

The left-most slide was a foam slide. As you glide down, lots and lots of foam would be in your way. That meant sliding into a huuuuge cloud of foam as high as two meters and being deaf and blind for a few seconds. We tried it after several times on the regular slide.

Staaart! See the cloud of foam ahead?

Happy with the first foam slide!

At the bottom of the slides was a shower for those who want to get rid of foam from their face and eyes and for those who just want to get totally drenched. However, once you're drenched, it's quite hard to walk up the hill with wet feet on slippers.

We once took a break from the slides. I've been craving for nachos and thankfully, I found a stall that serves my nachos perfectly.

It was already nighttime when we decided to stop sliding. We've had a lot of turns and we were both happy and satisfied with our slides. So, we decided to change and grab dinner.

I saw a food truck that sold sausage sandwiches. Ever since watching Eat St., I've always wanted to try buying gooey and messy food from a food truck. Thankfully, my expectations were met when I ordered The Julius, a hotdog sandwich with bacon, caesar dressing, parmesan cheese, and cabbage on top, from the Schmidt's Gourmet Hotdogs food truck.

There were supposed to be bacon strips on top. I couldn't remember if there were no bacons left or if I asked them to leave bacons off my sandwich. Plastic gloves were given to us because they guaranteed it would be one messy sandwich. Hooray for me!!!

That first bite was so good, I really felt like I was eating one of those savoury, messy, fatty sandwiches that I see on the show Eat St. Just with that first bite, I knew that the price was totally worth it. It was a heavy meal but it was exactly what I needed to satisfy my hungry tummy from the water slides.

We then claimed our free Slidefest shirts before heading home. It was another adventure going home, but that's another story.

Thanks again to GrabPH for the free VIP tickets! :) It was a zooooooooming super fun day and hopefully, we get to experience it again the next year.