Wishing for 3 day weekends

K biking in Nuvali on a wonderful lazy weekend

Coming to the office this morning, I was fervently wishing for another long weekend.  Don't you just love 3-day weekends?  Can we make all weekends 3 days? LOL

Bohol Highs and Low

After Cebu, we headed to Bohol aboard the Super Cat.  We then checked in at Bohol Tropics, which we enjoyed that day.  Check-in time took less than 10 minutes.  Room service arrived in less than 15 minutes.  All good, right?

Rows of cottages at Bohol Tropics

Bohol Tropics' Poolside

The next day, we went on a "Choco Tour" as they call it.  It'll bring you around the main tourist spots in Bohol - Chocolate Hills, Tarsier, Butterfly Farm, Man-made forest, Loboc River Cruise, Baclayon Church and the Sandugo.

We enjoyed the Choco Tour.  Found ourselves marvelling at the beauty of our country.  Sadly though, it was also at that time when my Ipod was stolen.  From inside my bag! :(  And because of that, we spent the last two days of our trip going to the police station - major major downer to our trip.

After that day, we spent two more days at Panglao Island.  Our first night there, we stayed at the Paragayo Resort.  It was clean, quiet and affordable (at P1,400 a night), although it was too far from the beach.  Weird thing though, when I tried to pay using credit card, the resort staff informed me that they will charge 3.5% as surcharge.  I consulted this with a friend J, who works at DTI.  She confirmed that resorts shouldn't be adding surcharges for credit card transactions.  Apparently this rule is ignored in the whole of Bohol.

So we moved to a beach front family-owned resort - Blanca* something LOL  So sorry, I forgot the name of the resort.  But it's right behind Lost Horizon - where incidentally, all tricycle stops.  This Blanca resort is awesome - beach front and more affordable than Paragayo and all the other resorts for only P1,500 per night.

This was at the Blanca resort

*I found the calling card of the beach front resort and it's called Playa Blanca de Asteria.  Do visit it.  The owners are Aster and Dodong Alegrado, both are nice :)

Food in Bohol was surprisingly expensive.  They didn't have the "eat-all-you-can" dinners along the beach like Boracay did.  And the options were too few.  What Bohol did have were the great massages - and Bohol Bee Farm - which deserves one separate post :)

The little one got a massage too

Beach front

Cebu - Revisited

I've always loved Cebu.  My grandfather is Cebuano and my Mom's bestfriend is from Opon, so I grew up travelling to Cebu until I was in high school.  The last time I went to Cebu was in 2003, with a close college friend R. 

So when we were able to purchase discounted seats of Cebupac,  Cebu was a sure itinerary.  We only spent 3 short days there though.  But we loved it so much, we could well be going there again soon.

This greeted us in Cebu... quite the opposite to the rainy Manila we left that morning

What's a visit to Cebu without trying the Lechon?

Mga Bisaya lang ang kasabot unsa ang puso :)

A plus!  Got to (finally) meet up with Kaith, a NFF :D

We did the touristy thing and visited Fort San Pedro

Said our prayers at the Sto Nino Church.  Pit Senyor!

This was right outside Sto Nino Church... we couldn't miss this

The last stop of course is Ayala Terraces... It's huge and gorgeous!

Bike for life

I've always loved biking. When I was a kid, I'd snuck out of the house just to go biking with my cousins and neighbors usually after lunch, instead of doing siesta. If I get caught, I never hear the end of it from my Mom. But I seldom get caught then coz my Yaya is my accomplice LOL

April this year, I've taken up biking again. My hubby got himself a bike and bought me a bike too. We're hoping to get in shape and we've seen so many bikers in our area. At first, I thought it'll be something I would just do on weekends. But now, I can't wait to find time to bike every chance I get. On days when I work from home, I bike early in the mornings. And then on weekends too. We have lovely trails around our area and I promise myself I'd be able to bike up the "Cardiac Hill" in December! :)

Biker chick in action :P

And it's done wonders for my health! I haven't totally lost weight yet but I feel more energized and my BP has gone back to normal. When before, if I don't take by medicine, BP would go up. Now, even if I don't take my medicine, my BP is normal. Can't wait to visit my doctor and tell her about the improvement. Hopefully I'll be taken off the medicine :) Praying and crossing my fingers!

Bike partners *heart*

Not to mention that it's a great bonding activity with the hubs :)

 

We'd bike along wide open spaces. Open roads. Uphill climbs. It's an awesome activity!

Morning madness

Our home is a frenzy of activity in the mornings.  And since school started in June, I'd get really stressed.  My youngest sister who's in first year college live with us.  She has 7am classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays - the craziest mornings in our house. 

To get to my ride in time, I have to shower at 5:30, get out of the bathroom by 5:50 and out of the house by 6:05 at the latest.  I can beat that time... mostly.

Since we only have bathroom in the house, my sister needs to get to the shower by 5am and out the door by 5:30 at the latest.  But she takes an hour to shower!  I'd be knocking on the bathroom door by 5:30, asking her to hurry up and she still manages to delay me by 10-15 minutes.

I could so hurt her! LOL  She's a pain in the behind.  Seriously.  I don't like getting stressed in the morning.  I haven't even started working yet and I'm all riled up because of her.

I can't wait to move to our new home.  There, I'd have my own bathroom inside our room.  And the hubby just takes 10-15 minute showers :)  One more reason why I love him LOL

Tamad Tuesday

Today seemed to have dragged on.  I'm so tamad to work!  But I couldn't work from home coz I've got 2 conference calls to attend.  One's done, but I still got a 7:30pm one.  Drat.

So since it's Tamad Tuesday, I'm going to do my 10 grateful list:

1.  I have an amazing God.  Who listens to our hearts desires :)
2.  Our dream to own our own home is very close to becoming real.  Please help us pray for this.  Thanks!
3.  I've a great family.  Hubs knows who I am and a son who's super smart :D
4.  Found money in my ped.  See for yourself

5.  Free coffee from the office pantry.
6.  Being able to watch What Happens in Vegas from my desk (don't tell my boss!) haha!
7.  Loot bag for my little one
8.  Having Tamad Tuesdays :P
9.  Car pool service is launched.  Got to the office hassle free and gusot free! haha
10.  The fact that it's almost 4pm and I should be heading home in about 4.5 hours

Hope you had a better Tuesday than I! :)

While PNoy was preparing

We had to run a very important errand this morning, so the hubs and I took a day off from work today.  SLEX traffic was horrible, due to a traffic accident on the Skyway.  The drive from our home to Makati took more than 2 hours.  We were already on the road from 6:30am, and got to Makati at 9am. 

After doing our (very) important errand, we decided to celebrate a bit by having a great lunch.  Cafe Mediterranean is a great lunch, so off we go.

This has been my favorite since early '90s

Hot sauce and garlic sauce combo

Hummus with pita bread - a wonderful appetizer

Chicken Kebab was the hubs' lunch

And my favorite - Mousakka! :)

We got home in time for Pnoy's SONA.  As my son clarified, a SONA is a message of the president.  It surely was.  I loved Pnoy's message!  Let's pray that we all could do our part.