After 3 long years...

... in sandpit, I finally celebrated new year's eve with my family again. What makes it extra special is having Vlad around. Nothing beats sharing important celebrations (such as this) with your loved ones!

Have a prosperous new year from my family to yours

Mom's 64th and Xioms' almost 7th

Mom and I planned on a Hong Kong trip with Xioms when she turns 7. However, the plan changed when Mom found a very good deal for us three to fly there. Since it was November and Mom will turn 64 this year, why not? Xioms will be 7 in a few months anyway.

So out of plan, I head home to Philippines to fetch Mom and Xioms then off to Hong Kong for 5 days. This country has always been one of my favorites because of the following reasons:

1. Food - Chinese food (the authentic ones) is 2nd to the list of my favorite foods. Well people who knows me to the core would attest to that, not to mention that food per se is my weakness :P

Ready to attack!

2. Places - It wasn't my first time to go to Hong Kong so I know where to go and most importantly, how to get there. Transportation system in this country is very well-organized that you will never consider driving in a place where roads (anywhere) are congested!

Tian Tian Buddha at Lantau Island

Panda at Ocean Park

Victoria Harbour backdrop at The Peak

Minnie and Mickey (who seem to never age) at Disneyland

3. Shopping - Do you love clutter? Do you love haggling? If yes, then Hong Kong is the place where you can get/buy anything which nobody needs :P Just go to Temple Street and you'll understand what I mean. Though you have an option to go to Citygate Outlet where you can shop all branded items in a decent price.

Somewhere Temple Street

4. People - I know, I know. There's always been a tension between them and us but honestly, I like Chinese people simply because they're snobbish and they do they're own shit. I'm the type who doesn't wanna be looked at or talked to or be bothered whenever I'm traveling so yeah, that sums it up.

I guess that's it. Mom and Xioms enjoyed a lot and I would defo gonna go back again and again though hopefully next time, should be with the whole Cambas :) Ta-ta!

Where did my money go? My Cebu Pacific DXB-MNL-DXB ticket Php 28,122.25, Cebu Pacific MNL-HKG-MNL Piso fare for 3 Php 8,907.53, JJ Hotel accommodation for 5 nights HKD 4,477, Ngong Ping 360 cable ride at HKD 338 (HKD 135 for adults and HKD 38 for child), Tram at The Peak HKD 98 (HKD 40 for adults and HKD 18 for child), Ocean Park entry pass HKD 700 (HKD 280 for adults and HKD 140 for child), Disneyland entry pass HKD 1,220 (HKD 450 for adults and HKD 320 for child), Octopus card HKDish

Before you...

Saw the below quote somewhere and made me think that yeah, we should learn this, so I thought of sharing it here. Frequently, we do and say things without realizing or even thinking what and where the possible outcome may lead us.

Many of us chose not to do things because of our prejudgments in life that usually doesn't have any basis or justifications. Instead of just assuming, we have to deliberately learn the facts. Instead of just judging, we have to understand why do people acted in that manner or why things are the way it is. In most cases, there might be valid reasons for things we disapprove of or unable to understand.

We must constantly be aware not to hurt anyone, especially those whom we love and care about because at any point, they could easily hurt us just the same. And before we even open our mouths or hit that "send" button, think a million times on how it may affect everything around us because words are indeed very powerful.

I truly believe that understanding is the key here. Humans may prefer acting fast rather than thinking first; however, if people are responsible and mature enough to perceive and see things clearly, everyone is going to be in their own euphoria. But in reality, we are not in a perfect world. Everybody needs to learn from any type of mistakes. Imagine how boring life is if everybody understands everything - nothing else to look forward to. But this doesn't mean that we will condemn and forever instill wrongdoings as part of a person's trademark. Forgiveness is the second key here then trust is the third one which is eventually earned in time.

Snoopy Island Escapade

Snoopy Island (named after the cartoon dog it resembles) is usually a weekend getaway for Vlad and I to camp, relax, and do some snorkeling. This island is formed within Indian Ocean at Dibba, Fujairah. Fujairah, one of the seven Emirates of UAE, lies between the Oman territories and is well-known for its amazing rocky mountains as well as a network of decent public beaches.

Fujairah road

Snoopy Island

Driving to this place from Abu Dhabi is roughly 3 hours but it doesn't matter. Seeing lots of fish, a shark, a huge turtle, and even being stung by a brood of jellyfish won't stop us from going there. Why? Well, this place kind of reminds me of home :)

blacktip reef shark - not sure if you can see it

This dude swims happily with us

So that's it! Later for more of my adventures. Ta-ta!

Verbal Abuse

I came across this post in G+ and thought of sharing it here. It's true unfortunately. Majority of the time, we're doing this unintentionally. But IMO, respect for the other person should ALWAYS be given, no matter who you are or what kind of relationship you are in!

5-day Juice Challenge

It all started when I watched a documentary film called "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead". It's all about an Australian guy who's battling from obesity and some sort of an autoimmune skin disease. He's at his 40s, almost 300 pounds and taking a lot of meds for his skin condition everyday. He came to a point thinking of becoming healthy enable to lose weight and at the same time to stop taking any meds. That's when he started his juice diet.

Juice diet is, as what the word suggests, drinking just juice made of fresh fruits and vegetables. Yes, this means your brekky, lunch, dinner and even snacks are all liquid! So after watching this documentary, I challenged myself to go through the same process this guy has been. I am neither obese nor suffering from any kind of disease but what made me accept the challenge is that I felt really inspired with this guy's story. He did his juicing for 60 days which is, for me as a food (esp meat) lover, CRAZY!

Anyway, the day after watching this film, I decided on getting myself a juicer. Man, there are loads of juicers in the market to choose from which depends on person's needs! I bought the Kenwood 700-watt centrifugal one. And to be honest, I never thought I would really love and enjoy using it! This is specially made for lazy pips like me. :P So I started juicing September 1, after knowing that my body fat is 1kg over! Lol. Yes, I went to some electronic health device in a mall which measures your BMI, body fat and so on. That really helped me decide on doing this challenge.

Trial day: I bought loads of veggies and fruits the night before. Being a newbie, I cut and prepared everything that I bought and slammed them all in the juicer. I have created a pitcher (1 liter) of juice and started on drinking it. The taste is... well of course, like veggies! I put the rest in a separate container and brought it with me in the office. This juice contains: carrots, celery, green apples, baby spinach, cucumbers and some lemons. Refreshing but not to be considered a tasty juice. Then I started searching for recipes online. I was immediately hooked and started researching more about this juice diet. There are numerous amount of positive feedbacks on juicing up, although there are some risks of being in this type of diet. I actually don't know what to believe but I am still convinced on continuing my diet plan. After doing a lot of readings, I found out that drinking your juice fresh from juicing is best. The longest time you can keep it is 3 days otherwise you won't get any nutrition out of it anymore. For me, drinking it right there and then is hard but the best I can do is to drink a freshly-juiced glass of fruits in the morning and juice up more to bring with me to work for my lunch and do another fresh one for my dinner when I return from work. So far, it's working perfectly fine with my schedule. Honestly, I was quite impressed of myself getting up as early as 6 in the morning just to prepare my brekky and lunch for the day. People who really knows me would think this is quite an achievement, knowing that I really hate getting up early. So here goes my 5-day juicing recipes.

Day 1: brekky is 4 fresh oranges. Leftovers from trial day as lunch. Dinner is 10 medium-sized asparagus, 4 carrots, 2 apples, 2 cucumbers and 2 tomatoes.

Day 2: brekky is 1 pack of strawberries, a handful of raspberry and a handful of mint. Lunch is 6-7 leaves of kale, 2 green apples, 4 stalks of celery, 2 cucumbers, 1/2 lemon and a thumb-sized ginger. I call this the "mean green juice". Super yummy and very healthy too! Dinner is 4 cucumbers, 1 apple, a handful of baby spinach and 1/4 beetroot.

Day 3: brekky is a pack of strawberries, 1 green apple, orange I call it "strawrangeapple". Lunch is 1/2 beetroot, 2 carrots, 1 cucumber, a bunch of watercress, 1/2 pear, 1/2 lemon and 1/8 purple cabbage. This made me 1 1/2 glass so I treated myself with a snack out of it. Lol. This juice is well-known for cleansing your liver. Not really my favorite as it tastes like earth but knowing that I'm drinking something to clean my liver, well, bottoms up! Dinner is another glass of mean green as so far, this is my favorite!

Day 4: brekky is 5 green apples and a handful of mint. Lunch is 1 bunch of cilantro, 1 bunch of baby spinach, 1 stalk of broccoli and 1/2 ginger. They say this is a healing juice - helps heal your wounds fast. I doubled the quantity of this healing juice to make me self another glass for dinner.

Day 5: brekky is 1/2 pineapple, 2 cucumbers and 6-8 pieces of mint. Man, this was the most refreshing drink I've ever tasted in my entire life. I am not a fan of pineapple but I did changed my mind because of this recipe! Lunch is 2 handful of baby spinach, 4-5 pieces of romaine lettuce, 1 cucumber, 2 stalks of celery and 1 pear. Dinner is 1/2 pineapple, 1/2 beetroot and 1 bunch of watercress.

After this 5-day juicing, I went back to check on my weight and surprisingly, I lost 1.6kgs! Wow! The best part is that I have never felt nauseated or weak or hungry although whenever I see my favorite fast-food chains, I have this urge of getting myself everything I can order! But overall, I feel great! Also, I need to mention that I have so much relied on water during this 5-day period. My coffee intake was down to 1 cup a day from 3-4 cups.

So what I did after this 5-day juicing? Anyone who have not heard of a cheat day is a complete moron! Well, kidding aside, yeah I did my cheat daysss. Lol. I am craving for solid foods so I decided to have my weekend as my cheat days. After eating my favorite steak, veal chops, kofta, and teriyaki yakisoba (with small portions if course!), I head back to check again my body composition analysis. So far, everything is normal and optimal.

Anyway, I just want to share this experience to you. I am recommending this diet but be sure to check with your doctor first to see whether you are fit to do this diet plan. I have decided to continue this for another week to reach my desired weight. So, wish me luck! Ta-ta!

Hello 30!

It's almost midnight and I'm almost 30. Truth is, I don't know if I'll freak out or just accept the fact that I really am that old. This-very-moment sucks, BIG TIME! Sitting outside my balcony, hearing how busy the street while celebrating the eve of my birthday (alone) by drinking a bottle of beer makes me wonder, contemplate on life and write this blog.

In the past 29 years of my existence I must say I've been a lucky person. Lucky enough to still be in a normal state of mind, having a decent job, money to spend, very supportive family, and a loving kid to raise. I won't say I can't ask for more because there are so freaking much to ask. I'm ambitious, I tell you. I'll be lying if I'll say I'm not. I guess this is human nature. We all can't be satisfied on whatever it is on our plate.

When I was 26 I told myself "I'll be a millionaire when I reach 30!" That... didn't happen. Nevertheless, I am happy on where I am and where will I be. Okay, maybe not that happy but someone once told me, there are a lot more better things that's gonna happen in my life. I was quite skeptical to believe that. I have loads of things on my mind that I wanna do, that I wanna accomplish (career-wise) but there are also gazillion of reasons that I'm being held to do that. Reasons that I can easily bend but with sacrifices.

Love life? I'm trying not to get into that but I know you know how juicy this is to talk about. Well, for almost 3 years I thought I have one or at least HAD someone to trust my stone-cold heart with; apparently, I'm still a sucker in terms of lurve: naive, easy to manipulate and helpless. I now doubt the saying, "Actions speak louder than words." As far as my honest opinion is concerned, all men are exactly the same. They'll give you the moon and stars, you'll hear them say all the sweetest poems in the world but it all goes down to their one true intention - they'll break you into pieces. Tear your life, and worst, your heart apart. Love is such a joke. A delusional thing!

Yeah, yeah, I guess 30 is hitting me hard though I have all the reasons to be thankful for and be satisfied with. I should prolly give credit to those people who hated me, people who accused and judged me of what I'm not and people who bullied and mocked me - without these implicit stereotypes around, my life will be boring as hell. So, thank you a-holes!

Okay, enough of the pathetic lamentation and sentiments. My blog says, "Hello 30!" Should I challenge it? Definitely! Despite of struggling events happened I wanna be hopeful. Good things do come from the bad times. So cheers and hello 30!

Yield

Nobody can ever explain why we can smile all day long but cry on ourselves to sleep at night. How pictures remain the same but people in them do not. How your best friend can become your worst enemy, and your worst enemy becomes your new best friend. How forever turns into a few short months. How the people who once wanted to spend every second with you, think a few minutes of their time is too much to spare. How people make promises despite knowing how common it is for promises to be broken. How people can erase you from their lives just because it’s easier than working things out.

Sometimes, there is nothing to be said. Sometimes, nothing should be said. We all want to find someone who will not run away. Someone to look us in the eye and tell us it’s okay. That things don’t always go right. That this is how life works and how it will always work. That it’s not going to be easy today, tomorrow, the next day, but it will somehow get better. However, there will come a time, a time which neither one of us can control. That someone will walk out of our life and because we love them so, we will need to let them go. Many of us say there’s no use in wasting our time on people who leaves us. What we make of ourselves and our future are no longer tied to them. You will miss them, yeah but always always remember that you were not the first one to give up.

Letting go doesn’t mean giving up. It means accepting things that weren’t meant to be. No one ever gets tired of loving. But everyone gets tired of waiting, assuming, hearing promises, saying sorry, and all the hurting. We've got to do what’s right for us even if it hurts.

Truth is we have to accept that there will always be people that stay in our hearts, even if they don’t stay in our lives.

Dram drama drama blah blah blah... I hate love.

UAE West Coast Road and Camping Trip

Gloomy day last Thursday but who cares? That doesn't stopped us from our camping adventure in UAE West Coast Region!

Fancy looking but not so helpful book :P

It was planned to go camp somewhere west where we can swim so we chose Al Gharbia. According to reviews, this is the place where you can find a vast amount of dessert plus a never-ending coastline with stunning beaches and islands. Btw, going to this place by road is approximately 250kms-ish.

Huge trucks on the road starting from Musaffah to West Coast!

First stop, Mirfa. We went to Mirfa Hotel as we read that there's a public beach right beside it. Surprisingly, there's a huge warning banner that welcomed us saying "photography is prohibited" and "swimming prohibited - deep water". What the heck?! I can't help but think how funny it is to drive all the way there and stay in that hotel right infront of the beach where you can't even swim. Lol. So we decided to look for some other place to stay.

Nice view eh? But oh no you can't swim!

Since we had this book as a guide, we looked for a decent place nearby where we can camp. Next stop - Jebel Dhanna in Ruwais. Allegedly, this place is one of the "best" places and something tourists need to check out for when going to this part of Abu Dhabi. Apparently, this place is an industrial town with two fancy hotels and private residential areas. Again, a no-no for campers! There may be parts where you can put up your tent but we found those areas filthy and abandoned.

It's past noon with all our stomach crying for food and we still haven't found our perfect spot. As we keep driving further, I'm seeing that we are going far from the coastline. I started to think this part of the country sucks. Turning every page of this unreliable off-road book that we bought and checking on some answers from the gps and map, we decided on going to Sir Baniyas Island. I was like, "OK" since this is nearly 30minutes drive from where we are right now.

As we approached Sir Baniyas, I was pleased with the quietness and calmness of the place. Seeing brownish to white sand and different shades of blue sky/sea around it made me happy. We saw a few cars parked right beside the road while the owners are sitting laid-back with their fish gears. We went off-road to find this suitable spot. T'was a bit of a Maldivian style beach except for those huge rocks scattered in every place. But it's alright. That's the thing with camping - you won't be able to get everything perfect. We made a joke like "What's the point of having hundreds of kilometers of coastline? People here don't understand why we need beaches but on the other hand we don't understand why they don't need beaches."

Look at that! Yes, it's in UAE! :)

 

Vlad enjoying this low tide Maldivian rocky scenery and thought
of doing the bbq in the middle of the sea!



There's a port in this area where they transfer people (even cars)
to Delma Island and Sir Baniyas Island.

Free as a bird! :)

I made a friend, a really gorgeous one! His name is Errol. :)


Overall, I would say it's a good experience going to Al Gharbia but I wouldn't really recommend it. For me, in this country, if you wanna go for camping, best place is still over the dessert and if you wanna go swimming, just go to Corniche Beach. But who knows? Maybe there are places out there that's worth visiting that I'm not aware of. So far, the book guide and some links over the net are not so reliable so we'll see. Till my next adventure! Ta-ta!