Surf towns have a distinct, laid-back vibe, judging from my visits to La Union, Baler, and Hale'iwa on the North Shore of Oahu. Among them all, tiny Liwliwa has got to be the chillest, stripped to the barest scene I've experienced.
I said I would write, so despite being out at work almost the entire day, I am cramming Day 1 of this 30-day challenge I'm taking on. I'll be following the calendar below, which I downloaded 4 years ago. As you can see, the author of this graphic created this in 2015 ? and it's been sitting on my desktop since, ignored. I haven't read all the topics, and I vaguely remember thinking I wanted each day to have an element of surprise. It'll be a good exercise on writing the 1st idea that comes to mind and just rolling[...]
One of the authors I like posted this Tweet: Will you be joining me for #BAYMTGO on January 1st? More info on my IG stories and feed but here are the basics ?? pic.twitter.com/mUuvHmpOPh — Leigh Bardugo (@LBardugo) December 29, 2018 She followed it up with another that said, "The small step matters more than the grand gesture." That struck something in me, because it had always been what keeps me from initiating anything. I put way too much unnecessary pressure on myself to produce something great, and I end up[...]
On the 2nd week of December, we flew in to Dumaguete for 2 shows. On the 8th, we had a concert at the Luce Auditorium at Silliman University, followed by a Christmas tree lighting event at the plaza the next day. As with most of my work trips, so long as time permits, it doubled as a QuicKation, or so I've come to call them. Day 1 We were on a red eye flight, so breakfast was the 1st order of business when we arrived. While Casa Rubin prepared our rooms for early check-in, we ordered food at their restaurant Co[...]
Hello, it's week 2 of Ub-session ? Last week, I made sweet treats, but this time, I wanted to do something different with the ube that not a lot of people explore. Looking for savory ube recipes was short of impossible for 2 main reasons. First, though we may translate our ube to "purple yam" in English, the Philippine ube is not the same as the purple yams available in the US, like Stokes Purple or Okinawan Sweet Potatoes. Ube skin is very thick and looks like wood from the bark of a tree. The only way I could pe[...]
It all started with 2.2 kilos of ube that I bought from our trip to Wawa for P136. This was *gasp* the 1st time I'd ever seen ube in its raw form, and it was pretty humongous, too. I was excited to see what I could make out of it. The first thing I made was halaya, a sort of jam taken from the Spanish word jalea, which means jelly. There were many recipes for it, but most were typically made with coconut and/or condensed milk and some butter. I don't know about you, but I've always found it so inconvenient to ea[...]
I had quite the adventure last Monday, and leading up to it. I had been wanting to hike up Mt. Masalakot and Nalayag Rocks since I saw photos of its monolith, but this guy from Instagram warned me that there had been news of militia in the area in September. That's never a risk I want to take, despite assurances that they leave civilians alone. So I looked for another option, defaulting back to my favorite province of Rizal. 1st Choice Mt. Lubog was a promising choice, its altitude and difficulty pe[...]
This isn't the 1st time I'm writing about my Halloween adventures, and it won't be the last, but this past one was a milestone as the 20th year my barkada has celebrated together. It started when we were in school, young girls wanting to dress up and get some candy. I wasn't present for all the parties, but every time I went, it was a unique experience that I've counted as some of my most treasured times with my girlfriends. I've loved this holiday since Trick or Treating around the village with my sister and our[...]
Pinoy Playlist Music Festival For 2 weekends, I frequented the BGC Arts Center for the 1st Pinoy Playlist Music Festival. I was there for 3 out of 6 days, performed twice, and watched 16 artists. It was food for the soul, taking part in that as both performer and audience. Regardless of the size of a venue or the amount of people in it, live performances feel so intimate to me. As an artist, I can absorb all the emotional energies from those watching and use them to adjust my delivery of a song or movement. As a sp[...]
On the 11th of August, I got a message from my travel twin Celine saying, "Ito na ang ticket mo to Japan!!!" with a link to a contest looking for the next travel influencer. I would've ignored it because I'm not usually lucky with those things, and because August has been overwhelmingly busy; but when I felt her enthusiasm and saw that it was searching specifically for traveling pairs, I was on board. Colleagues and Friends Celine and I have been working together for almost a decade, but early on, we clicked on a p[...]