A death in the family

Papa's favorite spot in front of his entertainment system.

My dad passed away last year. While it took us by surprise, there were a few signs here and there, so I don't know if he kind of saw it coming. He invited us over for family lunches and dinner much more often than the usual in the days leading to his passing.

A week before it happened, he asked me for a favor. My dad was never affectionate -- I don't recall ever hearing him say "I love you." Blame it on his air force background, perhaps? Point is, when he asked for a favor, it was usually his way of getting me to come over and visit him. And I'm glad I did because at least I saw him a week before it all happened.

Red flags came up when he suddenly was not able to join us for a family dinner - he hardly ever missed those. Anyway, will not dwell on the details, but his kidneys gave up on him and he decided not to let us all watch him suffer in the ICU. He left us with as little drama as possible, so very him.

Note to self: I don't want to ever watch anyone being intubated again. Ever. For the life of me i cannot understand why modern medicine devised a less barbaric/painless method by now. It was sad that he wanted to say something, but couldn't.

My mom was hit the hardest. They just celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary a few years back and my dad also just celebrated his 80th birthday about 2 months prior. Everything​ seemed okay and she was even more sickly than he was before all this.

We thought we would lose her too, because she also stopped eating at some point due to severe depression. Gladly, she seems to have come to terms with Papa's death and her appetite is back to normal.

Cannot imagine the pain of losing your everyday witness and having to let go after 50 years. It's hard enough to find that life partner who's willing to work as hard as you are on a relationship, and so I'm sure letting go of that person is not something anyone will ever really be ready for.


I haven't posted anything in ages - and this long break has made me realize how much I've missed reading and writing about non work-related topics. Time slows down. You think about things important to you, not just what you need to accomplish for the day.

I think it's time to hug my husband now.

Rio 2

Happy wife, happy life!

The fiance and I were very excited to watch this sequel because Rio was one of the first movies we ever watched together as a couple since we started dating almost 3 years ago.

The movie definitely did not disappoint. And with Sergio Mendes giving musical direction, of course the songs were spot on.

Everything is awesome!

I don't know if it's still in theaters, but if it is, please do yourselves a favor and watch The Lego Movie. It's absolutely awesome - and the theme song was composed by Tegan and Sara, the duo behind Closer, another super fun song.

Picture from MSN Movies

A lot of things happened since my last post... I'm engaged!  And I think we've been doing well in terms of the planning since we've already booked the major suppliers.  Kool.

Oh, and we watched Wicked in Manila last night.  It is now one of my favorite musicals.  They say the London production is better but it's not like I have the funds to go to London, do I?  :P  Here's a video from the official website:

I spent the day cleaning my room.  I've never moved out of the house and I realized how much junk I keep!  But well, it's a good exercise.  I can't seem to part with my old CD collection though even if I don't listen to them so much anymore.

The second month of the year has almost passed!  I'll be married in 10 months!

Where did 2013 go?

Merry Christmas, Everyone!  :)

It's funny that I stopped posting anything after my Puerto Princesa trip when in fact a lot has happened since then.  I've been super busy at work and weekends (Saturdays, especially) are reserved for the boyfriend - but I really think I should get back into the habit of taking time to post once in a while.  The only writing I do now is for work!  I should start reading too...  I have a lot of nice books here which I haven't gotten around to picking up - shame on me!

I just did some spring cleaning here in my room and finally got around to disposing some old cassette tapes. Yes, you read that right - CASSETTE TAPES. They've obviously been lying around my room for the longest time.  And yes, I'm that old.  Remember using the caps of pens to rewind them? My niece can't relate.  She called it "primitive" when I tried to demonstrate it to her once.

Anyway, I really hope that everyone enjoyed their Christmases with their families as much as I did.  I'm also looking forward to the upcoming New Year long weekend! We'll be spending it in Batangas as we have in previous years.  Enjoy the rest of 2013 and may you find meaning in the year that was... Cheers!  Here's to 2014 and what lies in store...

Puerto Princesa

So much for promising to post something right after my trip.  :P

We stayed at Palo Alto Bed & Breakfast, which is located about 15 minutes away from the airport.  It's also probably about 15 minutes away from the city proper via tricycle (They don't have taxis in Puerto Princesa to lessen the air pollution.), but it's very near 2 of the famous restaurants there: Kinabuchs and KaLui.  Anyway, the place was really nice and you could just spend an entire day chilling there since there's a nice pool and you can have them cook all your meals if you're really lazy to get out.  Here's a view of the courtyard and the pool.

On our first day, we asked the tricycle driver to take us to a yummy restaurant (talk about vague).  He took us to Badjao Sea Front.  Food was super yummy and prices were very reasonable.  It was really nice seeing it during the day because the place is surrounded by mangroves.

We did the Firefly Tour on the first night and unfortunately I do not have any pictures of it.  But it was one of the best things I've ever seen in my life - several trees filled with fireflies!!!  It was too dark so my low-tech camera phone couldn't take any decent pictures.  Anyway, here's a picture of the yummy seafood dinner we had on the boat:

Our second day was spent doing the Underground River tour.  It was a very interesting experience.  There are a number of interesting formations, but we were only able to capture the "corn".

That night, we ate at Kinabuchs...  Nyom nyom.

Third day was Honda Bay island hopping!  Our tour guide, Omar, was the best.  My niece's favorite activity was fish-feeding.  I don't like feeling weird things on my fingers so I was just throwing the bread a few inches away from me and not feeding them from my hands (Yeah, arte, I know).  :P  Here are some cool pictures.  We also got a taste of "alupihang dagat" which seems to be a cross between a shrimp and a lobster, or something like that.

And yes, I just had to post the jump shot because that is one of the few successful ones for me.  I am usually the last to launch.  Hehe.

There's still so much to do there.  I hear there's a Firefly tour from another area so I'm definitely going to try that.  We also decided to skip the Dolphin watching so that we would have a good excuse to return.

If you haven't been here - GO!!!  Tour prices are regulated by the local government so I don't think any of them go above 1,500 per head.  Food is also reasonably priced.  I really hope the new mayor will retain the current scheme because things are extremely organized here.