Welcome to our new baby!

Our Everest finally arrived! Yey! Actually, this is more than a week overdue because we got it last Tuesday. :-)

Anyways, I'm just a proud owner here, together with my hubby. Considering our unfortunate encounter with Seksy (may her soul rest in peace), we look forward to a long relationship with Yvee. :-)

What's with Yvee now? The comfortable ride. You don't feel too "tagtag" during the trip. It's bigger and faster than Chocobo (our Isuzu Crosswind XUVi) with almost the same fuel consumption. Plus, it's more spacious in the middle seat and my daughter feels like she's at home with matching crosslegs or indian-sitting, that I always have to remind her to use her seatbelt on.

It's very new and we're still too excited so I guess we still have a lot to look forward to. :-)  May the force be always with us!

Lady's Choice

Cars. Check. Quote. Review.... Cars. Check. Quote. Review... again, again, again...

It's a long process of choosing another vehicle to purchase! Gaaahhhh... and when you thought you have picked the one, something too good of an offer comes along and you are already confused.  Which is which???

Well, what am I really talking about? Hmm... we want to purchase a new car. It should be big enough for family use, diesel-type engine, durable, fuel-efficient etc. In short, an SUV.  Minus the fuel-efficient thing as it's quite not achievable in big cars.

There are already some brands/models that came up on our top list: Chevrolet Trailblazer, Ford Everest, Toyota Fortuner, Mitsubishi Montero, Kia Carnival, Kia Sportage, Hyundia Santa Fe among them.

Trimming down the choices

Online reviews are both confusing and helpful. :-/  It's hard to decide when you see a lists of pros and cons for the car of your choice. So, the first criteria to consider is the downpayment.  This is by far the best criteria because of the cash that we needed to shell out. The highest bidder is the Chevy Trailblazer which will bleed us dry with almost half million DP. :-p  The lowest is Ford Everest with their on-going promo of 108K all-in. Wow! My eyes just popped out of the socket! :))

Okay, next criteria is the spaciousness.  For that, the Kia Carnival is a run-away winner.  It has a 7-seater capacity, lots of legroom on the front, middle and rear seats.  Plus, the middle seats are removable so you can convert it to a 5-seater with lots of space in between.  I was almost giving in to get this one.  The look and feel is so simple, classic and homey.

Third criteria, the engine.  Okay,... that just eliminated the Kia Carnival because of it's 2.9L engine which is so not fuel-efficient specially for city driving with the usual bumper-to-bumper traffic.  Also, some reviews mentioned that it's funneling fuel. Kia Sportage also got eliminated because it runs on gas, not so cost-friendly. So that left the Everest, Fortuner, Montero and Santa Fe.

Now, the monthly amortization (hmm got me thinking, shouldn't this be first?)... The Santa Fe is a really good car that you cannot simply brush off.  BUT... it's too pricey! Way out of budget already! :-( So, there goes my dream of owning one.... (I really should start betting on lotto)  Then, my super crush Chevy Trailblazer also gets off the list. It's almost the same price as the Everest but the downpayment is too high, as I mentioned in the first criteria. So, the list was trimmed down to three.  Fortuner, Everest and Montero.

My choice

I'm picking the Everest.  :-)  Why?  Well, first is the downpayment.  I had a quick exchange of text message with the agent we talked to and she said that they can still lower the DP once we have got an approval for the application.  Another reason is that, I'm not really a Toyota fan.  I don't know why but being a people's car, it doesn't appeal to me anymore.  Montero on the other hand is okay.  It's cheaper by a couple grand compared to Everest but as they say, if it's non-VGT, then don't buy it.  The actual unit we were eyeing is the non-VGT GLX Manual transmission.  Yeah, yeah, I'm not a fan of AT's also.

And there it goes... I just hope and pray that this is really the car for us.  Seksy will be forever missed but we have to move on. Now, here comes Machu. ;-)

Total Recall

Whoa! It's really been quite a while since I last made an entry here. And I just realized that I didn't write anything here for the whole 2012!
Hmmm... Let's have a bit of a lookback , much to my recollection :-)

January 11 my daughter received notification that she was wait listed for Industrial Design course at UST.
January 19-22 the whole Abbott project team in Manila flew to Cebu for a "field trip". :-)

February 19-22, Jayps, Anjel and I went to Puerto Princesa with Jaycee and her hubby. First time to go there and visited the Underground River.

March 1-4 we were at Singapore. Jayps' first, my second. :-) it was a fun filled adventure and misadventures. Hahaha! Lots of walk, rides and shopping. :-)
March 8 was the day that we bought the citadel red Mitsubishi Lancer EX. we named her Seksy. A new baby. :-)
March 16 was my only daughter's high school graduation day. It was a happy and sad event. Happy that she has finished her secondary and sad that her dad wasn't able to see her finish it.

April 8... A tragic day. My then boyfriend, my daughter, niece and I. All four of us were in the red car when we got into an accident. Another red car suddenly appeared to be taking a u-turn in front of us. Too late for brakes. The front took all the impact. Fortunately no one was seriously injured.

May was enrolment month. We were not lucky to get a slot for Industrial Design. It was a first come first serve basis that time. I had to file for an appeal for reconsideration so that my daughter can still enrol. Luckily, there are still slots available for Interior Design. So we're in!

June 1 was the move-in day to University Tower 2. Our students will be living in the condo for a year. It was just opposite the school. Saved them time for travels.

July was busy month for my boyfriend and I as we were hopping from one jewelry store to another to look for our "perfect wedding rings". We stumbled upon Marry Me shop which customized them for us at a reasonable price. :-)

August!!!! Oh my, this is my favorite month of the year! We held three important occasions then. Our civil wedding (his first, my second) officiated by Indang Mayor Bienvenido Dimero last Aug 10, 2012. Then my birthday and house blessing last Aug 18. Happiest month ever!!!!

September 16-19 we're supposed to fly to Bohol but didn't push thru. lack of budget. Hehehe

October, my Hubby's birth month. I wasn't able to give him his gift yet. It was still in process that time. :))

November 19-22...five of us were supposed to fly to Hong Kong but decided not to go. My brother-in-law needed to go to US because his dad got sick. His two kids were supposed to come with us but we just shelved it. Goodbye to paid tickets.

December....the merry jolly month. :-)  our first Christmas as married couple. This was the month that I showered my hubby with gifts he deserved. I bought him the mini-danboard he sooooo love to have but is not available at any stores here. I needed to get it online and delivered to a US address, via my bayaw. :-)  then, I also bought a pair of Bluetooth headsets for us. And last but not the least, the Certina DS Podium watch. Carefully selected because of three main specifications: lightweight, sapphire glass, titanium bracelet. Am so proud to find one that fitted the budget. Woohoo!

Okay, so that's my lengthy recall. Took me quite deep of a memory dug up. :))

Guess I need to try writing more...for a change. ;-)

going stronger on second... ?

why with a question mark in the end? hahaha....

hmm.... how do i start this?

well... tomorrow, my boyfriend and I will be celebrating our second year of being in a relationship. last year, i gave him a surprise by booking the two of us in a suite somewhere in Ortigas. then I gave him a body pillow as my gift 'coz I can't think of anything else that he will surely cherish as gift for our anniversary.

now, am I having this deja vu 'coz it's just about to be repeated. on me. :D for a start, he gave his gift in advance. guess what? it's a body pillow of the same brand! :D and on that same day, he couldn't contain his surprise. he told me that he booked us for an overnight stay at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel. sweeeeetttttttt!!!!!

i haven't thought of anything to give him.  i couldn't find time to browse the stores as i really don't know what to give. he's kinda techie guy, he loves gadgets and other tech stuff. but i wanted to give him something that he will surely use and keep.  anyways, gifts or no gifts, the celebration is still on.

i just hope this isn't the last time we're gonna be celebrating. i mean.. relationships do go through hard times, and it already happened to us. our relationship has been threatened and it really hit me hard. i'm living by it everyday now, when the thoughts do come back to my mind. it's like a ghost haunting me. never gave me the peacefulness that i have had in a long time. i know there will be worst but i still believe we can pull through.

happy second! cheers to longer one. ;-)

Wishes among the stars

There are quite a lot of things that I want in life. As in a lot! :D I may not be as contented as others but hey, dreams are made for dreamers and it's free!

I have quite a list here and the reasons why I want these stuff :-)

Anuschka Multi pocket Clutch Wallet

Why do I like this? Well, I'm more of a one-stop-shop kind of girl. And when I carry my wallet, as much as possible, I want almost everything in it. This one has lots of pockets for my cards, the bills are unfolded and will provide more room because in two/three folds wallet, it's getting quite bulky. Also, this one is handy enough and has a coin pocket too! The design outside is hand-painted making it more unique. It's just well... a little expensive. :D

Samsung Galaxy S2

The very first time I set my eyes on this phone, I loved it already! It wasn't even in the market yet when I saw the specs of this phone and have been dying to await its release. It was around January of this year when I saw it, and it became available here in Phils. sometime last July. Why haven't I gotten this one? Well, it so happened that last May, my boyfriend gave me an iPhone4. He knew I wanted this one but who am I to resist gifts especially an iPhone?! hahaha... So, I think I might get this either next year or when it has a better version.

Sony Cybershot TX55

My first choice was TX10. But when I looked at Sony's website, I found this newer model. It has the same features of TX10 but this one is lighter and of course, better. I want this kind of camera because it's handy, I can carry it anytime anywhere and it can be a permanent resident in my bag. ;-) there are times that I take photos using my cellphone but it's still better if you have a handy camera for better resolution and capturing. Though this one is offline mode (I can't upload the photos right away in FB), I can bring it underwater which is one of the best spots I want to take photos too! I can't just dip my phone in the water right? Tssss... :))

Honda CBR600RR

I've been dreaming of zooming on the road riding on a superb motorbike. I won't be joining any bike racing competitions okay? :-) I just love the rush of air when you're speeding on the road. Not really speeding as reckless as everyone else.  Just the right cruising will do. There are a lot of other bikes much much better than this but I like this better than the rest. It may not be the top of the line but it won't get behind in comparison to other bikes. Well, it's one of my dream rides I just look forward to the day that I can ride on it.

The items above are just part of what I want to have as of now. I know I can cross-out about one or two items from there and get lucky if I have three. :D Simple wishes but not impossible to achieve. Biding for their own sweet time to get closely acquainted with me... ;-)

In the quiet comfort of Bose

I'm just so glad that my boyfriend liked my birthday gift for him. ^_^  Well, actually, he did not just like it, he loved it! :-)

He had been eyeing on the Bose Quiet Comfort 15 headphones since the day that we tested it last year.  He even posted it in his "wishlist" album in FB and hoped that one or two photos there will be crossed-out before this year ends. OMG!!! hahahaha... those pics were such pain in the eyes and pocket you know :-)

So, last week I went to the mall and looked for a gift to buy. My options were the Oakley Ducati sunglasses or the headphone.  I just went to one store looking for the headphone and... I bought it right there and then. Hahaha! No qualms, I just paid for it. coz I felt like, I like it better than the sunglasses coz he's such a music lover.

Now, the next step is to wrap the gift. You know, this boyfriend of mine...the first time I gave him a birthday gift, I wrapped it in scratch paper. :D I put open-ended phrases in each wrapper and wrapped the gift in several layers. He was so touched by the efforts and he even cried on it. Awwww....

Then, I thought of wrapping my gift in broadsheets. Haha! Looks so poor with that, but he prefers it that way! Of course I didn't give him the chance of easily identifying what's inside. He was still driving when he started unwrapping it out of excitement! :-)

Well, I'm just as happy that he liked it. He's thanking me everytime 'coz he really love it. I just hope I can still think of something else... our anniversary is a month away now....

Here's a link to checkout review from PCMag for this stuff. :-)
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2351855,00.asp#fbid=thmp2eSljxM

Take me to Dreamland

It's been a month now since I worked on graveyard shift and I still can't get the hang of it.  I may have been used to working overtime and late night hours but sleeping on broad daylight is just not my thing! :-(

Today, if I sum up the total number of minutes that I slept, it wouldn't amount to 3 hrs! And I know I still need a lot of sleep! My body craves for rest already.

I tried all the things that bore me to pin me to bed. I've read boring articles and played word games (scrabble used to put me to sleep before), but it's futile! I'm still so wide awake and my mind is non-stop racing through different thoughts.

Now, what else can I do? I still have to drive myself to work later. Please Sleep, come back to bed with me. Even for just a few more hours....

Coffee

....one of the things I simply can't live without. 


Why?  Hmmm.... let's just say that, I was raised by hard labor of my parents in cultivating our 1.8 hectare farm which primarily grows coffee beans. :-)  I practically and literally grew with coffee beans around!  I can even remember being bottle-fed with coffee concoction!  Haha!  When I was young and we were brought to the farm, me and my siblings played with the coffee's flowers and young beans then here comes mom or dad chasing us with a stick!


In a coffee tree, we can harvest about one to 1 1/2 sacks of coffee beans.  It's ready for harvesting starting from December to March.  We hire quite a number of harvesters because it's too tiresome to do the harvesting!  I can say so 'coz I did it one time and I got blistered thumbs afterwards. :-(  Anyways, during harvest season, our farm can make about 200 to 400 sacks of beans.  We purchased another lot, more or less 250 sq.m., for sole purposes of drying the coffee beans.  It takes about two to three weeks to dry every single bean.  It had to be turned over daily to expose the beans evenly to the sun's heat.  When everything has dried up, the beans will be re-sacked then stored or sold out immediately.  My mom has direct contact to Nestle Philippines and most of the time now, we sell our coffee beans there.  


Not all people know how ground coffee come about.  Most of them thought that the raw bean itself is used to for brewing.  :D  (talking about ignorance in farm life)  For those who don't know the process, here it is:
Pick the coffee beans (from the tree of course)
Dry the coffee beans (in a patio under the sun, or hang it dry if you can hahaha)
Now, the coffee beans are dry, send it to the milling centers for processing. 
Step 1 is to hull the coffee to separate the beans from the skin (this is machine-processed, pls do not try this at home! hehe)
Step 2 is to clean and sort (machine processed too) to remove other skin residue and sort the beans according to size.
Step 3 is to roast the coffee.  From here, the grade or quality of the coffee will be done.
Now, the roasted coffee beans can be ground and that's the powder we brew in every coffee maker! ;-)
If you are a coffee-lover, you can identify the quality of the coffee you're drinking in one sip.  Others may find it odd when they hear you say "ahhh, delicious coffee!" and tell its difference from the rest.  It's just at that tip of your tongue when you find the satisfaction on how good your coffee was made!


Now, where do we go from here?  Should I give you lists of coffee shops that serve the best cups in the land? Na-ahh... :D  I'm not into advertising, ok?  I just want to write!  And that's the reason why I have this topic.  Because, just like my coffee... I can't live without my passion, which is, writing.  ;-)  


And just like any good cup of coffee to start my day right..., I want it to be the first topic for my blogs. 


More cups to come! ;-)