Down the Rabbit Hole

It's been a long time since the GQNC barkada went on a road trip. The last one I was in was when we went to Daranak Falls in Tanay, Rizal. Back then, there were only two cars; the rest traveled by motorbike. This time, however, we were in a convoy of four cars! Kuya Jun, Ate Lucy, Ana, and I were all driving! Well, actually, Kuya Ferdie was driving Ana's car throughout the trip. Because I had a webinar the night before, I promised to bring up the rear as the sweeper, catching up with them when I was ready. The GQNC barkada goes to Rizal! ROAD TRIP!! 🚘🚘🚘🚘 A photo posted by Rochie Cuevas (@rochiecuevas) on Feb 26, 2016 at 10:03pm PST For this trip, we were going back to Rizal province. But instead of just going to Daranak Falls, we were also going to Pililla, where a wind farm is located. We've been staring at the wind turbines from windows in the lab on clear days and I was just stoked to see them up close, finally! The last time I've approached any...

Since it's already Lent, it's the best time to visit a pilgrimage site. The place the Grain Quality barkada visited this year is called Regina Rosarii Institute for Contemplation in Asia (RICA). It's a centre run by Dominican Sisters and was designed to be a place of peace and quiet for people who want to meditate amidst gardens and streams surrounded by mountains. The columbary and ossuary of Regina RICA. A photo posted by Rochie Cuevas (@rochiecuevas) on Feb 27, 2016 at 5:56am PST Towering and watching over pilgrims is a 30-foot statue of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. I thought it was a stone carving; however, it turned out to be cavernous inside. There was something that looked like a chapel at the bottom while a more private contemplation room is found in an upper level: literally inside the bowels of the statue. Nuns were leading pilgrims through a prayer when I popped in, while the rest of the GQ barkada were taking photos of the gardens below. ...

What do you call a situation in which a sweet bunny outwits a sly fox? "It's called a hustle, sweetheart." And that's basically how the working relationship between con-artist Nick Wilde (the fox) and new police officer/metre maid Judy Hopps (the rabbit) in Zootopia started. Zootopia is a place where prey and predator could live together in harmony. Because Judy's path crossed with that of Nick's, he couldn't do anything but help her... Otherwise, Judy would have him arrested.  The mysterious disappearances of other mammals from  Zootopia was a big case for the police force. Judy got hereelf interested in the investigation because an otter's husband came to the police, pleading about her missing husband. Nick and Judy then went to different suburbs of Zootopia. And as the saying goes, the plot thickens... The disappearances, apparently, were associated with the animals becoming aggressive due to mysterious reasons. They have been kept...

In February 2015, not even my newly fractured wrist could stop me from visiting the beach (South Korea's East Sea ) in winter. I couldn't believe that not a year has passed before I saw myself on the beach in winter (again!). Certainly the wrong time to don my wakeboarding attire so I was content with just looking at the scenery, the wildlife, and the surf. I was coasting along California's Pacific coast with Mommy and Daddy, and had a few pit stops while on the road with Biboy and Barbara (and her siblings) in the Bay Area. If I thought I was crazy for being on the beach in winter, the surfers at San Francisco's Fort Point beat me: they were actually in the frigid water under the Golden Gate Bridge! Fort Point is an entry into San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate ( John Fremont's Chrysopylae ), the body of water connecting the bay to the Pacific Ocean. Anyway, these surfers were at it until the sun set... I didn't wait to see if they continued to rid...

Cars. These are some of the most expensive things a yuppie will aspire for. These normally competes with real estate properties in a yuppie's prioritised to-buy list. For the longest time, I've been one of a few people in my groups of friends who are already driving (yeah, I belong to a certain social class... in the upper ones, people tend to drive their own cars at a younger age and all their friends do that as well). I am always happy to see my friends start getting their own cars, getting their drivers' licenses, and finally understanding the freedom and the difficulties of managing their own cars... because nobody understood me before. I'm doubly happy because I won't automatically be the driver during barkada road trips anymore. Anyway, 2016 looks like it's Mafel's year to enter the world of the driving public. Jean and I have been helping her go through the prerequisites of becoming a car owner: what to do in the dealer's office; what feature...

This is how Shiela, an officemate of mine, describes my car. On Valentine's Day, I went on my annual pilgrimage to Clark Airbase, where the Philippine International Hot-Air Balloon Festival took place this year. Since Shiela was coming from her hometown (somewhere north of Manila), she opted to meet up with us somewhere along the NLEX before sunrise. We did meet up at a gas station along the way. But because my car had more passengers who needed to go to the loo before the next segment of the trip, we stayed longer in the gas station than Shiela did (who drove up with Josh, her son, in tow). And so Shiela had about 15 minutes of lead time. We called her up just to check on how far she was from us. Apparently, she was 12 km ahead; with the slower drive (due to the many vehicles on the two-lane stretch of highway), she was easily 30 mins ahead of us. I suggested that after she's paid the toll fee, to stop on the shoulder of the road so that we could easily see her and we coul...

Once upon a time, I decided that I was capable of driving all the way to Pampanga. The motivation was to see the hot-air balloons lift off at sunrise. But I failed and have never gotten there in time because I value my sleep and safety more than being at the airport at the crack of dawn. So just imagine my excitement when friends from the lab decided that they wanted to join me on my latest road trip AND catch the balloons fly off at daybreak. We just had a set back before driving off: the driver thought we were leaving on Sunday but we were leaving on Saturday! My chance to catch a few zzz's while we're on the way vanished. I automatically became designated driver. Along the way, I told Jojie, Krishna, Crisline, and Jojie's friend that we'd miss sunrise by an hour and they had to content themselves with seeing the balloons from the highway. Not a problem, they said. Shiela drove her own car because she was coming from somewhere near the NLEX already and she was bri...

Back in the day, Anna, Biboy, and I spent long summer days at the sugarcane farm across the street to fly our dual-line kite. A perfect spot if you're not concerned about brambles, uneven soil, and the intensity of the sunlight. It took three kids to fly tht kite: two held the strings while one checked the wind conditions, tossed the kite in the air, and gave instructions on string management. Last year, Joycelyn gave me a parafoil dual-line kite as a birthday gift. I was so excited to fly it. But the conditions were no longer ideal... The sugarcane farm was no longer accessible from my house, there were so many things the kite could be snagged onto, and there was only one kid left. The two kids outgrew the kite-flying interest. And so the first opportunity to fly my new kite was at the 2016 Philippine International Hot-Air Balloon Festival, in Clark, Pampanga. Everyone who knows me is familiar with my fascination for flying... And the closest I could do, aside from riding ...