My birthday wish/shopping list for 2013 revisited

-
I am going through my blog posts and thought that it would be nice to review what I actually crossed off my 2013 list. I'm amazed that I have realized quite a few items before my next birthday. Seven out of ten... not bad at all!!

Noise-reducing earphones.
Courtesy of my brother. What a very nifty gadget!

Pretty flatware (spoons/forks).
I got these on sale at the Rustan's outlet store. They're quite simply designed, but still pretty enough for daily use.

Vacation.
Yes, I've been able to get one at the end of 2013, finally. I visited my brother, parents, and future sister-in-law while I was on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. And I watched all the tv series on Netflix as much as I could... oh, and I also saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug too. Poor Daddy was lost at why the dragon was talking. :)

A good chef's knife.
I bought this also at the Rustan's outlet store. I even got the steel for free too!

Wakeboarding at Nuvali.
Yeah, well... I went there after my first failed attempt at Caliraya. And it was in Nuvali where I stood up on the board first. What a confidence booster! And now, I could actually say that I can wakeboard while being pulled by a boat. Lots to be improved still though. All these have been possible because I found friends who are also into the sport. :) Thank you Matty, Maricor, Joann, Mai, and Maya!!

Chocolate mousse birthday cake
My absolute favorite cake... I had some of these when I celebrated my birthday with Cindy and Tita Ruby at Faustina's. The best part of having them with me on my special day was that I didn't celebrate it and eat dinner alone. :)

Visiting the masterpieces at the National Museum
Wow! What can I say? The paintings and other artworks at the National Museum are truly priceless. I don't like some pieces while my jaw dropped at seeing two pieces: Manansala's "Bayanihan" and Luna's "Spolarium". Wow!

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more