Trip of the Year!

We're back!!! From the vacation of the year!!! :D

I loved loved loved loved our trip. It was a glorious set of 10 vacation days, to the most romantic cities in Europe. Some highlights:

ON PARIS
1. We loved our hotel and the staff. They were so friendly and accomodating, and they made sure our stay was comfortable. We were upgraded to the biggest room and had easy access to the MRT.

2. We took the Hop On Hop Off bus tour, which allowed us to see the whole of Paris, with just 1 ticket. My most favorite site is the Eiffel Tower whereas Dennis really liked NotreDame Cathedral.

3. We loved the food, esp in our favorite restaurant George V. We loved escargot SOOOOO very much!

4. Speaking of food, our lunch with Miss Lunch was the best meal we had in our trip. It cost 55 euros per person, which may sound pricey, but no, it was sooo worth it! All the courses were top-notch, and she served 3 kinds of wines! We were also lucky to have such pleasant and fun company throughout the dinner. They were all so nice, and the conversation was lively enough that we were able to fight off jetlag (we ate there on the same day we arrived). It was such a great experience. Everybody going to Paris should try to get seats on Miss Lunch's table. She only does it every 2 month or so, so if your schedule jives with her, GO FOR IT! Don't even think about it anymore :)

5. We had an encounter with several suspicious-looking Shanghainese women, who asked us to buy LV bags and wallets on their behalf, even giving us the cash upfront. We tried to help them by going to the boutique and asking for the items they requested. But since the LV salesgirl refused to sell me anything w/o me giving over my passport, I drew the line there and just walked out. Told our Shanghainese auntie that we didn't bring our passports (which wasn't true, they were with Dennis) but I just didn't want to expose our official documents to a situation that might get us in trouble. Better safe than sorry. My gut told me it was the right thing to do.

6. We loved Chateau de Versailles. It was beautiful!!! But, our tour guide/driver was such a character! He was soooo funny, in a what-an-ass-but-he's-kinda-funny sort of way. Hehehe. Ask me more kwento about him to get more details. Dennis & I always share a huge laugh whenever we remember him.

7. We didn't get to see the Eiffel Tower at night, and we also missed our Da Vinci Code tour because we woke up too late (hehehe). It's not so bad though. As Dennis said, it gives us another reason to go back to Paris.

ON ROME
1. It was such a picturesque city, and the Fontana di Trevi was my absolute favorite site! Which was made even better by the fact that our room / B&B was around the corner from the fountain! LOVE IT!

2. Speaking of our room, it was so big and so conveniently located, it's the best spot in Rome, in my opinion. At a very reasonable rate too, considering it includes breakfast. The hosts are also sooooo friendly and made things so comfortable for us. I loved it! They even gave us champagne because I told them we were on our honeymoon, which is sort of true :)

3. The Vatican was an impressive site. HANDS DOWN. Even if I'm not Catholic, knowing the history behind the place and what the various spots symbolized, I was sooo impressed. There was even a Holy Week mass going on when we were inside St Peter Basilica, but since it was in Italian, we opted out and gave our slots to someone else.

4. Our Vatican Museum tour was the best! That was my favorite tour. We loved it so much we bought the book! :)

5. Dennis bought me red roses when we were along the Spanish Steps. A really simple gesture, but I really loved it.

6. We went to both fancy restaurants and really simple trattorias when we were in Rome. And guess what, we actually preferred the food at the cheaper places! Goes to show you don't have to spend big to get good food :)

We also shopped (mostly for other people) and dined to our hearts' content. I loved the trip also because it was such a nice set of bonding days. It was a good break from our everyday routine. While we would still get to talk everyday, there's a different sense of closeness when you travel together and really "be" together all day every day. I can't explain it. It made us decide to go on a long trip every year. Somewhere new, but doesn't have to be very far (i.e. Europe). Even when we have kids, we can still jet off to Korea, China, or even Australia, for a few days each year, to have that 1-on-1 time that's simply irreplaceable.

I'm so thankful the trip went beyond my expectations. After planning it for so long, I'm so happy that it turned out even better than I expected. For a while, I worried that I may have hyped it too much in my head. But thank God, no, the reality was even better. A classic moment of this was when I first saw the Eiffel Tower and the Fontana di Trevi. I had to stop because they just both blew my mind. I knew they were good sites to see, but when they were actually presented right in front of me, I stood there breathless and completely in awe.

I want this experience every year. If only for that reason, I'll continue on this corporate rat race, if only so we'll raise enough funds to go on this adventure once a year :)

TODAY!

Today is when we leave for our trip! We're going first to Malaysia, and stay for a night coz our flight to Paris is from KL and leaves really late tomorrow. So I figured since it's Atty's first time in Malaysia, might as well leave a whole day to explore it :) Then after that, we're off to Paris and Rome! :)

I was so excited yesterday that I slept past 1am already (really late for a weeknight, for me). My adrenaline was so high after packing and my head kept swirling with possible items I may have left out. Then today, I'll have lunch with the girls, then will go home to finish packing.. then it's off to the airport! :D

Will update again when I get back. Bye! :)

It's here, it's here!!!

Our trip is finally here!!!! 3 days from now, that is.... I can't wait to start packing our bags this evening, which leaves me enough time to buy toiletries and other missing items either tomorrow or Thursday.

We leave the condo at around 6pm on Friday, for our 9pm flight to KL. I'm so excited!!!! :D

A small setback though is I seem to be developing some sort of skin allergy or eczema... I'm getting it checked by the derma tomorrow to see what cream I can put. I also took antihistamines the other night, thinking it's a food or season related allergy. Usually this does the trick, but this time around, for some reason, the small, red, itchy blots are still there! And what's even more annoying is the skin around my eyes also seems to have them :( Boohoo.

OK, enough complaining. I'm going to Europe on Friday!!!! :D

1 week to go!!!

Until our Europe trip!!!!!!!

After months of planning, it all boils down to these last 7 days. I have to print out our tickets, hotel vouchers, tour coupons and itinerary. Admittedly, I slacked off a bit with the planning, especially on finishing the Rome travel book that my husband gave me. But it's okay, I have this weekend to do those things :)

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! :D

Time Frame

Some conversation topics today got me thinking about time frames. Just when you think you're in charge of your life's major milestones and the time frames on which they will happen, you get an awakening (rude or pleasant, depending on the situation) that the otherwise is what's true. A number of women I know have such trouble conceiving, to the point of desperation (i.e. IVF and other scientific ways of making a baby) that I can't help but think life is really out of our hands. We can try to schedule our life and put time frames that are convenient and/or feasible for us, but God will have His own plans and His own schedule for you. No matter how much you fight it, or want it to be different, you can't.

:s

The thing with being in front of a computer all day...

is you find things online that you didn't know you wanted!!!

housegirl saga continuation...

OK, so there's more update now with my housegirl situation. The in-laws of my housegirl did not allow for their probinsiyana daughter to come to Manila, mostly because it means her education will drag out longer than necessary. Completely understable, but still an inconvenient truth...

Anyway, another option has surfaced. What if we allow her to bring her son with her and stay with us from Monday to Friday (or sometimes Saturday morning)? Let's break that down into a list of pros and cons -

PROS
- She's very trustworthy; as in, I can trust her with money, jewelry, food, and basically everything and anything in my small household. And if you employ someone to be in your house by her lonesome all day long, you better have trust as the number 1 requirement.
- She's willing to be alone in the condo (or in this case, be with her son alone in the condo). Not a lot of maids are willing to do that, apparently, and I learned this yesterday from a coworker. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but it is quite a challenge to be alone all day, everyday, save for a few minutes of interaction with me and Dennis at the start and end of each day. It takes a certain kind of personality to be able to thrive in a situation like that, and this lovely housegirl of mine is one such personality. She is content and quite used to being alone, with no one to talk to (at least no one of adult age). It's another value she brings to the table.
- She cooks really well. In Dennis' words, she's the best cook he's ever had.
- She can be relied on to do a good job with the cleaning and washing.
- She's been with my family for ages, and because of that, I can entrust her to be my eyes and ears, when later on when we have a baby and I have to employ a yaya I may not know personally (I have to be realistic), I can count on her to look out for my family's best interest and make sure the yaya toes the line. I don't know how else to explain it but she's very good for my peace of mind.

CONS
- The son will be in our care, and will be our responsibility. While I'm sure she won't allow any harm to fall onto her son, if the kid gets sick, he is our responsibility. One way to mitigate this con is immunization, and I plan to check on what the kid has gotten (and has not gotten) so far in terms of vaccine. If needed, I'll pay for the additional vaccines, if only to make sure he doesn't fall seriously ill when in our household.
- Her attention might be split, hence it may take her longer to do her work. For now, at least, this isn't a big issue, since she's free most of the time, given the small amount of work needed to maintain our 124 sqm condo. She's mostly done with her work by 1:30 or 2pm in the afternoon, and she can afford to watch tv or take a nap for an hour or two, before starting dinner prep at around 4:30.
- The son is 2 years old, and as my officemates call it, still at the terrible age of being loud, rambunctious and very capable of breaking things in the condo. While I doubt the high incidence of this, it's nothing that a bit of childproofing can't do. Also, my mother in law has had experience of help bringing in their children to live in their property. From her (and Dennis') observation, their kids are not like the kids of the owners of the house. Their kids tend to know their place and be more behaved. I don't have firsthand experience with this so I really wouldn't know. This is the one "con" that I really don't have a hard solution for, so I guess we can just figure this out as we go along. For instance, if you've seen my place, you can close the kitchen swing door and keep the kid on the other side of the condo - the kitchen/ maid's quarter's area, which is farthest from our room. Thereby minimizing the noise level...

So there. That pretty much sums up the situation. Dennis says, after considering everything, he's willing to offer a trial period and see how it pans out. Hopefully the situation ends up win-win for both parties. I can tell she doesn't want to quit her job as much as possible. I know the extra income comes in handy for her small family; plus, if we do allow her to bring her child along, it's the same income level for her, for less expense. We do want to keep her as much as possible too, given the list of pros above. So I hope this situation does work out and we don't regret it.

For now, at least, I think this is our best alternative. Keep your fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!

housegirl problem

On top of the emotional rollercoaster caused by my grandma's condition, I have another problem looming in the horizon. My housegirl, whom Dennis & I trust completely and can cook to Atty's tummy's content, is again faced with the possibility of terminating her employment. As I said in my November 2010 post about her, she and her husband are going home in April for their son's first birthday. She told me that they've decided they do not want their son growing up away from them and that they will bring him back to Manila when they come home from the province in that April trip. Now the question is, who will take care of their son when his mom is with us from Monday to Friday every week. The plausible solution lies in the husband's younger sister, who is a 19-year-old girl still in 3rd year high school. There's an OHP program by the Deped that offers weekend classes for working students, and there's a handful of public schools that offer this program. Aha! A ray of hope! The solution can be that this girl comes to Manila with them in April and looks after the little boy JM from Monday to Friday, then on weekends, she goes to school while my housegirl takes over her rightful duties as a mom.

It's not a perfect option, though. Firstly, it assumes that the husband's parents will allow their 19-year-old probinsiyana daughter to come to Manila. Another assumption is that the OHP program of the school will accept the student (apparently, there's a huge demand for this and you need to present strong justification why you should be given a slot). Another is that the arrangement needs to work out, meaning the girl adjusts well and is able to handle the mom's duties from Mon to Fri, including keeping house.

But at least it's an option. She was visibly torn as she told me about the situation. She clearly doesn't want to leave us, partly because she needs the job but mostly because she has come to care for me and Dennis a lot. Plus she really loves my family, so she doesn't want to let us down as much as possible. However, she really doesn't want to be away from her son much longer, which I also understand.

Hay. Dennis is trying his best to find out more about the program, so we can present a good case to the husband's parents when they go home in April. But even assuming best-laid plans, if one of the factors above falls through, we'll have to face a housegirl-less situation. And my personal stand on hiring househelp is that if I can't trust the person 100%, I'd rather not hire her at all. :s

Help?

K&Co Love

Lately, I've been buying so many K&CO dresses - the jersey ones that are so light and soft to wear! I love them soooo much! And I was so happy to find some on sale last night - roughly P1000 to P1200 each! What a deal!

At the back of my mind, I also can't help but wonder if I'm doing this in preparation for the next stage in my life, where loose, comfy dresses would be a daily uniform rather than an occasional treat. Granted, I've been feeling so comfortable in dresses that jeans and slacks suddenly feel constricting. But I also wonder if this is my way of prepping myself for pregnancy. Everyone who knows me knows that I like to plan, and plan ahead at that, so maybe it's not such a far-fetched idea. :P

Just wanted to share that. This is an I LOVE K&CO post :)

5 weeks to go...

before we leave for Europe!!! Yehey!!! :D

silver-related post

It may sound really cheesy but I still get so kilig whenever I come home to my husband or he comes home to me, depending on who's home first. I love making discoveries about him, no matter how small, like how he chooses what to wear in the morning or how he likes his coffee made. I love waking up next to him and have little top-of-the-morning chats... or late-night, don't-go-to-sleep-yet-talk-to-me-first conversations about anything or everything. I love our little debates over what to watch on tv or our little fantasy-filled discussions about the future. I love being with him, all the time- and whenever we part, I look forward to when I'm seeing him next, even if it's just 6 or 10 hours later.

I don't know if this is just all part of the honeymoon stage, but I soooo wish it will never end. I had some recent run-ins with people carrying marriage problems on their shoulders and wonder if they ever had these little honeymoon-stage moments of glee. And if they did, did these moments just stop, or is it due to the stress of marriage's everyday hassles or the seemingly inevitable distance created when children come along? What possibly happened to take them from where Dennis and I are now to a co-habitation filled with errands, issues and problems?

Sometimes I think marriage is like a sterling silver bracelet from Tiffany's (which incidentally was Dennis' surprise gift for me). Sterling silver may dull after some time, and this is due to everyday wear. Inevitably, dirt or libag (hehe) or residue from sweat, perfume, pollution, etc envelop the silver, causing it to dull and lose its shine. But all it needs to go back to its original pristine state is the alertness and attention you pay to it - to realize when the wear is already affecting its brilliance and shine - and the discipline (and sometimes humility) to make the effort to polish the silver, to make the true shine come out. Obviously, if you never take the time to pay attention and make the effort, there will come a time when you realize you're just wearing a piece of dirt-ridden and libag-heavy metal on your wrist, and you can no longer see the beauty of what once made your heart go pitter-patter.

May this blog post serve as a reminder to me to always remember to take the time out to "polish our silver". It's okay to deal with life's everyday problems - someone's got to- and it's okay to prioritize your children on an ongoing basis, because they need you more. But make the effort to "do the polish".. and do it often. As with cleaning anything in the house, the more regularly you do it, the easier it is to wipe off the grime :)

Surprise!!!

Atty surprised me yesterday with this! After we had just come home from a dinner out with his future business partner (in a really chi-chi place where everything was expensively good), I immediately showered and hankered for the bed thereafter, wanting to hit the sack asap. So imagine my surprise when I took off the covers of our bed and found this underneath, waiting for me. Awww. I hit him for catching me so off-guard, but inwardly I was loving it to the max! Hahaha!

Such a sweet gesture! More than the actual gift, I loved what it's for, what it means, and the whole unveiling process it went through :) Thank you!

dragon vs dog

OK, so this afternoon, my husband and I were told by my mother-in-law that her sister-in-law (dami namang law in this sentence) commented about our plans of having a "dragon baby", i.e. a baby born in the year of the Dragon, which starts in late-Jan 2012. Apparently, since I was born in the year of the Dog, I am "chiong" (literally means contra) to a dragon-born. Hence, it would not be preferable for me to bear a dragon baby. Not that it's dangerous or anything, but in our culture, "chiong" means, at the minimum, the two sides zero-out or cancel-out each other. If one is having good luck, the other isn't, so net-net, the total of the equation is a zero. So, if you're "chiong" to the animal sign of 2011, you're generally told to be more careful, stay close to home and avoid long trips and basically look out because you're more vulnerable to weakness.

Another "hence" in the "comment" given today: We ought to procreate SOON so as to have a rabbit-born baby, instead of crossing over the mark next year and have a, gasp, dragon-baby, just as we originally planned.

Gosh! For one, good job, mother-in-law's sister-in-law! We didn't ask you, and seriously, did you just have to share your "comments"? For another, it's not that we were dead-set on a dragon baby, because we're not. But it's just disconcerting (as a POTENTIAL MOTHER-TO-BE) to hear that my baby will be "contra" with me, seeing as how I'm the child's mother and therefore he/she would only be alive in the world due to my participation in the matter. As I told Dennis this afternoon, "I'm the child's mother. I don't know how we can be "at odds" right away. At least give the child 12 years of existence before he/she can rebel against me during the teenage years!"

TSK TSK TSK!

Hay. This culture of ours can sometimes be so overbearing. So many "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts", padded by "just a suggestion" or "it won't hurt if..." Hay.

Anyway, I'm glad I have a mature husband who just smiled and said we can compromise by bumping up our "we'll start trying" period from mid-year to after-Europe, which is late April. Then we just leave it up to the child (or fate) to choose when he/she wants to be born. Does he/she want to be a rabbit? Or a dragon? Either way is fine with mommy and daddy :) Sounds good, right? I felt better, after experiencing a few seconds of ickiness after receiving the suggestion. Sounds like a plan :)

Hay. This just goes to show - Unsolicited comments never ever work out.

Why didn't I see this cuff before my wedding...

I loooooooooooooooooooooove this!!!!

Suddenly February

What happened?! All of a sudden, we're approaching mid-February! 3 working days to go before our VISA appointment at the French Embassy! Next thing we know, it'll be summertime and time to go to Europe! (yipeee!)

The other day, Atty turned to me and said "When are we having a baby?" Awwww. I can't even tell you how touching that moment was. I'm grateful to have such a mature husband, ready (and very much willing!) to be a father. I know some guys who'd rather wait (or sometimes categorically refuse to have a child), and I'm so thankful :) I told him time's flashing by so fast, before he knows it, it'll be mid-year and, before he can blink a second time, we'll be on our way to start a family.

I think this incident was spurred by the ff key things:
1. We're so settled in our home life already. Even if we've only been married for 5 months (woah, 5 months!), we've gotten so settled in our daily routine and in our little condo. We've established a life together already and, at least I think so, have made firm and stable roots upon which a small family can grow :)

2. We're ready. We're just emotionally, mentally ready to have a child. Granted, the finances can get some more improvement, but more or less we're there already. The only thing probably missing would be our long trip somewhere far, which will already materialize in 2 months. After that, we've ticked off all the boxes :)

3. Everyone's waiting. And by this, I mean everyone. His family, my family, our friends, our officemates. Everybody. Including us :P It's the next step, and everyone's excited to see us make it.

That's pretty much it. Just wanted to document Dennis' vocal request for a child, because I just found it so touching and endearing. I hope when we finally get our turn to have sleepless nights and have to endure toddler tantrums and cries, he'll remember this moment, when he asked for a baby. Wa ha ha ha ha! :p

A Tod's bag I actually like :)

I'd probably get a different color since something this light definitely has denim-transfer problems, but I'm really really really liking this new bag from Tods. It's called the Shirt Bag due to the drawstring top.

Isn't it cute? :)

Europe Trip 2011 Checkpoint :)

OK, to say that I'm excited about this trip is a DEFINITE understatement. Counting-down-the-months-psyched is more like it :)

I have a confession to make. A good number of my time at the office these days is spent looking up activities we can do, filling up our itinerary and putting together hotel options. I also can't wait to read the guidebooks we have on Paris and Rome - the two destinations covering Europe Trip 2011 (I'm so excited that even my Windows password in the office is Europe2011 :P ). To take stock of the trip-planning progress so far:

1. Tickets: We have all the airplane tickets already - from Manila to KL, KL to Paris, Paris to Rome, and the other way around.

2. Hotels: Only the KL room has been booked so far. I'm still working on the options for the others - it's harder to finalize if you only have a certain budget to work with (yet you also want a good location and breakfast to be included)

3. VISA: We've made a booking already with the French embassy, which is notorious for being both slow and busy. It takes about a month to get a schedule, would you believe?! Good thing I'm a planner, so we have more than enough time to secure a VISA.

That's about it so far. I'll make another update in a month's time (or sooner, depending on whether or not I can hold my excitement) :P

stained glass bulb

I'm really liking this! Hopefully, one of the hardware stores here start to carry it. I think it'll suit our lamps at home :)

biz talk

One of my reasons for taking an MBA is to better equip myself when the time comes that I want to venture into entrepreneurship. Now that I target closing out my MBA career by the end of the next school year (essentially, by March 2012), I'm now hard-pressed to think of my business idea and concept. I know these things don't just emerge on demand, so I want to start thinking of it as early as now. And if possible, I'll make my Strama (strategic management) paper on the business topic I settle on, so that the effort becomes even more worthwhile, since it'll be truly useful to me even after graduation.

But what is this elusive idea?! I've been racking my brains since early last year but have been more purposive in thinking of it after I got married. What do I want to get into? I know for sure I plan to keep my day job, so definitely it has to be something I can either manage remotely (like online, for example), something that I can confine my free time to (i.e. only do after office hours), or something I only need to jumpstart but can run on its own afterwards. Also, I don't have millions to invest,so something that can start off with a manageable amount would be best.

So what is this idea? I came up with an idea late last year but not sure where to take it afterwards. I'm also not sure if I need partners to make it happen.

Ho hum... Think think think... Hopefully the answer comes to me in a dream or something. Hehehe.

P.S. Can I just add how SUPER DUPER ADORABLE my husband is? He was thinking of ways to augment our income that he signed up for paid surveys! How cute is that?! :)

Goodbye 2010! Hello 2011! :)

As this fantastic year comes to a close, I look back at all the milestones that made it super special and one-of-a-kind. Not only did I marry the love of my life, I also went through so many transitions and saw a couple of friends do the same. A lot of blessings marked this year, and for that, I am truly grateful. I know that 2010 was not always about positive things - there were tragedies too like the hostage crisis - but at least for my personal life, it was nothing short of perfect. Thank you to God and to the universe for gifting me with the glorious year that is 2010. And a big hello to 2011! Here's to a more love-filled, blessing-full and happy year ahead, dotted with many travels and many new experiences :)