Pahiyas Festival 2010

I went to the Pahiyas Festival in Lucban, Quezon last month with my brothers and three of my closest friends. We joined a tour group organized (again) by Travel Factor. The trip was quite interesting because

a. Our bus ride to Lucban from Metro Manila took 7 hours instead of the usual 3.

b. It was incredibly hot that day. Not really the nice type of weather you'd want when you're going to walk outside.

c. The traffic to the town proper was horrible. So many people wanted to go in but the streets were too crowded for cars to pass.

d. There were so many people it didn't feel like a festival, but more of a pilgrimage.

e. Our trip back to Manila took 6 hours.

So what is the Pahiyas Festival? This fiesta is in celebration of the Feast of San Isidro, the patron saint of farmers. Historically, farmers would gather offer their harvest for thanksgiving. They'd have a huge celebration believing that this would mean another prosperous year of harvest for them. For more of the Pahiyas Festival's history, you can check it out here.

The trip could've been better without the inconveniences, but hey--we enjoyed it nevertheless. I loved the house decorations, the parade was very colorful, and our dinner was free hahaha! I have an aunt who has a house in Lucban and she invited us over for dinner. God, we were stuffed! I can't believe that people would really spend so much on decorating their houses with kiping leaves, veggies, and fruits. I don't think the prize money was as big as the amount spent on the decorations, haha! Oh well, all in the name of being honored as having the best decorated house for the year's Pahiyas.

random post

Here I go again with another post on my random blurbs. It's been a while, though, so yeah...Sorry, The previous sentence didn't make any sense at all. It's just that a lot of things are going on right now, and I've been thinking about a few stuff and truthfully I need to just let these out to keep my sanity. Okay, here it goes...

- To you...whatever will happen, will happen. I don't think I would really want to care anymore since obviously you don't. Will it forever be one-sided? Our supposed "friendship", I mean? Ugh. It's so annoying that you think you're aaaall that. Ummm..NO. Puhleeaaase. I'm tired of trying to understand you and being patient with your..whatever. I'm just sick and tired already. No wonder you don't have a lot of friends. You suck at being one.

- Career-wise, I think I've finally made up my mind about what I want to happen. Going home late or at the wee hours of the morning, not sleeping, working on weekends, having a not-so-good boss--I AM TIRED OF THIS SITUATION. So...let's see...Hmmm...I have a couple of deadlines that I've set. If things don't get better by June, I'm sending out my CVs. If between June and my second anniversary at work (September) things still don't get better, I'm gonna spread my wings and bid my company adios. I cannot live like this. I mean, I love what I do don't get me wrong. It's just that work is only a part of my life, and I don't want it to take over it. I don't want to plan things out based on my work. I know my priorities. Work is a priority, but it's not my TOP priority. My top priority is God, then myself, then my family, then work. I can't continue being ruled by my work.

- I've been visiting soooo many inspiring blogs that I want to do something creative as a stress reliever. I have yet to decide what I want to do, but it has something to do with art. Like painting, or something. I'll have to figure it out soon.

- I need to go shopping. Hahaha! I want to buy a nice pair of wedges so that I can wear my recent purchase from Zara. Actually, my mom's the one who bought it but I'm still the one who's going to wear it so it's sorta "my" purchase. Hahahaha that didn't even make sense but whatever.

- Working out is something I need to do ASAP. After my Pulag climb, I realized that I should be more outdoorsy not just for the sake of being sporty. It's for my health, primarily. All that dieting won't do you any good once your weight has plateaued and what you really need to do is work out or to engage in any good physical activity. Work up a sweat even if it's just for 45 minutes a day.

- I MIGHT go back to Tagaytay next month so I can start shopping for my online store. Heehee watch out for that!

- I need to start baking again. I'm thinking of selling carrot loaves again. Yummmmy! With cream cheese icing, of course :)

- In a couple of months, we'll be electing our public officials again. I hope we all get it right this time. God save our country! We need good public servants. I just noticed...our government officials seem to have forgotten that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS, i.e. they are supposed to SERVE THE PUBLIC=PEOPLE.

- I seriously miss my friends :( I haven't seen them since Valentine's. Hopefully we'll see each other next weekend...


- I didn't wear this today, but I want to share with y'all a really nice find from my ukay trip last month with my officemates

The ring on my right hand (the white ring, not the wooden ring with crystals and the huge stone)--I got from Baguio this weekend. Heehee I got it for 50 bucks! I had my hair cut, by the way...I think Tuesday. It's hot, but I didn't want to cut it too short since I'm trying to do the long hair thaang...Just had it trimmed and of course I've gotz to have zee bangs :) Oh how I missed having bangs!!

Day 4

feel hungry. Hahahahaha! Gaaaaaahd this is hard. I'm still alive, though :) Okay..I had a pretty long day. Was at Makati as early as 8 for a 9 a.m telecon with our client's counterpart in the US. My boss was late so I waited for an hour at Starbucks 6750...I didn't buy coffee...just had hot chocolate. How sad. I was busy the entire day from the time we returned to our office until before I went home. I'm still supposed to do stuff for work now, but maybe later because I'm too tamad to do anything work-related now. I had rellenong bangus again for lunch and chicken ala king for dinner (soooo good!), and a slice of papaya...I'm still hungry. I'm trying to control my rice intake because I noticed I've been eating a lot of rice, carbs actually--either bread, pasta, or rice. I dunno whyyy. I think when the ulam's really good I tend to eat lots of rice. I should start working out again. I feel really fat already. I have to prepare for my Sitio de Amor trip this December 5th. My body should be swimming pool-worthy. HAHA!

I want to look like this again :

I want my pre-work body back. Haha!

Laguna adventure

My friends and I weren't able to go to the beach this year and we haven't gone on any photo trips yet, so despite being uberly busy at the office I looked for a nice place we can visit before the year ends. Ta-da! We're off to Sitio de Amor in Laguna this Saturday! I will definitely post an entry about the place--with pictures of course. And oh! Am excited about the long weekend :) Two long weekends this month, actually.

There's this somethin' somethin' that's got me feeling a bit...I dunno...hmm...nevermind, I'll keep my mouth shut about it first.

Today's a frumpy day so I wore my tapered pants to make me feel frumpier. Haha! Will post a picture later (if I feel like posting my frumpy self on the web :).

I ♥ ♥ ♥ Thursdays...coz' it's like the day before the weekend starts. I consider Fridays as part of the weekend already since mid-day I'm already thinking of non-work related things to do at night. I hate traffic on Fridays, though.

happy happy weekend

This weekend was just amazing. No, I didn’t go bungee jumping or do anything spectacular. I spent the weekend doing things I’ve never had the time to do for the past month. I started my weekend early so as I mentioned in my previous entry, I had my nails and hair done this Friday. On Saturday, I spent my morning at Lay Bare. In the afternoon, I met up with my friend Dianne so she could teach me how to use my Smena 8m Russian lomo. We were able to do a bit of catching up as well. Dianne and I talked about a lot of stuff. I had fun just hanging out, with Dianne’s hot chocolate and my lite dark mocha frappe (no whipped cream, of course) on our table, and us just chatting away. It’s a good thing I was able to meet up with Dianne. Unfortunately, her family also lost everything in the typhoon. They actually had to wade through the flood to be able to leave their home in Cainta. I feel like Dianne really needed to talk about it. I know it was hard for her to share what she went through, but I think talking about it relieved her a bit. On the lighter side, we talked about Glee—which happens to be my current favorite show. I’m so glad that there’s a show about the glee club. Finally, a show that isn’t about fashion, ‘popular’ kids, and what-not. I’m sick of that storyline. I guess that’s why I’m not so drawn to Gossip Girl and 90210. Anyway, I spent a good couple of hours with Dianne at the Starbucks in front of our univ. It’s been a while since I last visited Pearl Drive. My office is so near my former school but I really don’t have the time to visit it.

After my coffee date with Dianne, I picked up my friend Val at her house. It took me an hour before I was able to reach her house. Blame it on the horrendous traffic from Ortigas to Commonwealth. I knew I should’ve taken the UP route. Anyway, Val and I wasted no time so after I picked her up we started our trip to Tagaytay—which is a good 2 hours away from Manila (coming from her place). Thank God traffic at EDSA was a bit light. We arrived at Tagaytay around 9 p.m. Val and I decided to have dinner at Café Platito, one of the restaurants at Cliffhouse. Good thing we stayed there since the ambiance was relaxing and conducive for good conversations. I had steak and fries for dinner. Hahaha, I know I’m supposed to be on a diet but I couldn’t resist just having a decent meal for dinner. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten steak, might as well indulge a bit. Val had the tuna sandwich since the other fish dishes weren’t available. The food was okay, nothing spectacular that I’d really rave about. But the entire feel of the place was really nice. I’m giving Café Platito 3 out of 5 stars. They can improve on the food, but the ambiance made up for it.

Val and I were supposed to have dessert and coffee at Café Breton (right across Café Platito), but we were informed it’d close at 11 and it was already 10:30 so we decided to just go to one of the Starbucks—I think the one across Josephine’s. Val and I just chatted the night away. We spent a good 4 hours just talking about a lot of things, sipping on our hot coffee, and almost freezing to death because it was so cold! I miss the cool weather of Tagaytay already. It’s been awfully hot here in Manila—which is a good thing, I think. With the floods and all…the Sun is very-much appreciated by us Manilans.

Today’s a Sunday, and I spent the entire morning sleeping. My little cousins arrived this afternoon, and I spent the rest of the day with them. I love it that this weekend was so relaxing. I’m looking forward to next weekend because I’ll be (finally) seeing my friends and we’re going off for another photo-adventure.