Christmas Lantern Made from Recycled Materials Contest

Our department’s Christmas committee this year came up with a "Lantern Contest" to be participated by the six divisions under the Operation’s department, the office of the head, janitorial and security. Each group was tasked to plot their wild and creative ideas and turn it into a Christmas lantern  made of recycled materials.

After more than a week of planning, researching and trial and errors, each of the groups had finally submitted their work of art, and are now hanging along the staircase of our office building. Here they are, the most creative lanterns made of combined ideas coming from the engineers, technicians, office staffs, janitors and the security guards;

Entry # 1 (Janitorial Services)

Christmas lantern made from empty bottles of hand wash and hand sanitizer, plastic spoons and rugs.

Read More

A Play in the Beach after His 4th Birthday

Our little boy turned 4 on Saturday. We had a little celebration at home, which I’ll be posting soon in my other blog.

Early Sunday morning, the whole family went for a relaxing and cold and cough healing swim at the Opol Beach, Misamis Oriental. We needed a few hours break after the very stressful week. 

Except for hubby and the little girl, all of us enjoyed swimming at the beach, especially the little boy, who just love the sea water. 

Next time, the husband is on day-off during the weekends, we’ll get back in the very same spot for another sea water swim relaxation. 

By the way, the little boy was wearing his favorite blue clogs, that stayed on his feet in spite of being so playful while in the water.

Blue Monday 

Read More

Ipanema with Interchangeable Straps, My New Travel Partner

I got my new travel partner last month, after sleeping for months at my friend's office cabinet in Quezon City. A comfy navy blue flip flops with interchangeable straps that I can bring with me to the beach or in the city.

 Blue Monday

Wearing a capri pants + a pair of Ipanema flip flops is my usual get-up whenever I went to the mall or even the public market. 

Read More

It's Gonna Be a Bright Day!

I thought that my colleagues and I will be stranded in NAIA Terminal 3 because of the very bad weather that loitered in Misamis Oriental the previous day, as always God is good all the time he answered my prayer, because the weather by midday on October 16, 2014 was already very bright and beautiful.

source

The airplane landed ahead of time and without any problem.

 

That is why, I was so relieved and happy to snap a photo of the airport, while the airplane taxing towards the tunnels. 

Blue Monday

Read More

A Tour at the Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower in Shanghai China

April 5, 2014 was one special day for me, because as a first timer in China, particularly in Shanghai, seeing the iconic Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower that I got to see on the television is already a dream come true. Especially when the travel was an all expenses paid by the company and the sponsor. 

 Blue Monday 

The tour guide’s target was for us to be at the Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower before the 8AM opening time. We arrive there at 7:00AM and the entrance was already jam-packed with foreign as well as local tourists. Using our passports, our guide got us tickets for the tower tour and the River-Cruise. I forgot to borrow one of the tickets for photographic purposes. I think the admission fee was around ¥120-220 depending on the area you want to visit. In our case I think we got the combo ticket, because we explored the upper sphere + the river cruise.

Read More

Few Hours in Fuzimiao, Nanjing China

Per info from other colleagues who have been in Nanjing for training also, the training venue is about 1 hour ride by bus from the hotel we lived in. That means we don’t have time to explore the city and we do not know yet if there will be a day tour allocated for us before heading back home.

Might as well make use of our free hours and see the Confucius Temple at Fuzimiao, with Sir Nards as our guide, because it was his second time in Nanjing. Our plan was to take the subway from Xinmifanmalu to Sanshanjie station, then by foot going to the temple.

Following the downloaded map, we took another walk of the day to the nearby Nanjing Metro Subway Station the Xinmofanmalu, which was about 20 to 30 minute medium to fast paces from the hotel.

  

Luckily, the ticket counter at the subway station has an English translation. A little click here and there viola, we already have our tickets in the form of plastic coins.  

The printed English translations within the Metro subway made it a tourist friendly transport option.

 

Blue Monday

Read More

Busy Airport + The Runway Viewed from Above

The last time I updated this blog was in February. Imagine! I myself can't believe I have neglected this blog for 2 long months. What's up with me? All I can think of is the same old reason, I was too busy with my day job the past months and I'm sure even in the coming months, after all it's our bread and butter. Anyway, I will not promise much but I'll try my very best to share some of the photos taken within my perspective. After all this blog is all about photos of life... :-)

So to restart the journey.. Here's a photo of busy airport ground in Laguindingan Airport, Misamis Oriental, another plane has landed and passengers on board are starting to deplane.

Another one was taken above the ground wherein you can see the runway strip of Laguindingan Airport. A newly built airport that operated last year.

 

A nice choice of photos to be shared for Blue Monday and Monday Mellow Yellows.

Read More

The Moon Behind

Can you see the moon? Too tiny against the big face of Jollibee the famous Pinoy bee.

Monday Mellow Yellows

Blue Monday

Read More

Woody and Lightning McQueen Balls

My son's "Toy Story" and "Cars" designed balls.

Blue Monday

Ruby Tuesday 2

Read More

Mums + Recycled Flower Pots

Remember my trip last week at Lim Ket Kai Mall, Plants and Flowers Garden Display Area wherein I bought flowering plants like Lilium Stargazers, Gerberas and Mums? So far after a week, they are still alive and flourishing especially the Mums. 

I actually bought 4 different colors of mums at P75.00 ($1.75) per pot. There were a lot of colors available for sale but I chose only four, the most I can afford and these were;

of Orange or Rust and Yellow Shade

Bright Yellow 

Lilac/Lavender Shade

and Red Maroon 

Hubby and I replanted them in another container. Instead of buying plastic pots we decided to recycle empty plastic water bottles. We have a lot of them at home because these were the used purified drinking water  bottles that our son had consumed.

 

Hubby cut the lower portion of the bottle (above the first ring) using scissors then bored holes at the bottom.

This is how the empty recycled pot looks like...

Recycled pot with garden soil...

 And finally the replanted mums in the recycled plastic pots.

Instead of throwing them away, these empty bottles were put into good use.

Today's Flower

Monday Mellow Yellows

Macro Monday

Blue Monday

Read More

Happy Father's Day

A very special day to a special person, who always put his family first, who loves his wife and son unconditionally.

Happy Father's Day to my dear husband Jessie, thank you for everything.

We love you always and forever.

~Mama & Xyrus~

To My Father who is already in Heaven, Happy Father's Day to you! How I wish you and mom are still here with us, to watch over us and continue to guide us. But I know you are already in paradise free from hardship and sufferings. You both are already happy in God's hand and that makes us happy too. But still we miss you so much and forever you are loved.

Blue Monday

Monday Mellow Yellows

Read More

Trip to General Santos City

I was in General Santos City on April 29 to May 1, 2013 to attend a meeting with the power generators to discuss about their preventive maintenance activity together with my division manager and another colleague. 

I was relieved that our trip was by plane with route Cagayan de Oro - Cebu - General Santos and vice versa and not land trip or else the trip would have been so exhausting.  I can't imagine 10 to 12 hours travel by land from Cagayan de Oro to General Santos City.

On April 30, 2013 we took the 07:30H flight from Lumbia Airport, Cagayan de Oro City and arrived at  Mactan Airport, Cebu at 0820H.

We waited at Cebu airport for 2-3 hours for our flight to General Santos City which was scheduled at 1100H and arrived at our destination after 1 hour and 5 minutes of flying.

 

 

As you can see in the picture it is really one hot summer in the Philippines the outside temperature  reaches about 34 degrees Celcius.

Anyway, when we arrived at GenSan we asked our driver to take us somewhere for lunch. He took us at Tuna Grill and ordered the well known grilled tuna panga (jaw).

 

Went to our district office for a while and then headed to the hotel for a rest. The meeting was booked at East Asia Royale Hotel but our boss chose to stay in a new nearby hotel for a change.

Our activity was scheduled the following day, so I still have time to visit SM City which is only a short tricycle drive from SunCity Suites.

Compared to SM Cagayan de Oro, GenSan's SM City is way too big and well designed.

There's a Cartoon Fest in the mall too and saw Bumble Bee's life size figure displayed at Toy Kingdom's entrance.

By the way I also saw Manny Pacquiao in person at SM Cybersone but was not able to go near him because of his bodyguards. sayang hehe

Later that night, we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant and ordered the following; sinigang na hipon (shrimp soup), crispy fried shrimps and grilled belly tuna. 

The following day, we had our meeting at East Asia Royale Hotel. After the tiring discussions, the best part is always the lunch time. The food was quite okay, there were tuna sashimi served but I opted not to eat. I'm not really a fan of raw foods so I chose these for lunch.

Then later that night we had our dinner at Grab a Crab in SM City and ordered one mighty spicy crab which has a weight of 4 kilograms. Our bill went as high as P4,500 because the crab alone cost us about P3,600. Buti na lang si boss and nagbayad hehehe.. (Luckily, our boss paid the bill)

On the 3rd day we boarded another Cebu Pacific flight from General Santos City to Cebu City then from Cebu City to Cagayan de Oro City.

It was a tiring yet a fun travel experience too, after all we went to another place for free. :)

Mellow Monday Yellows

Blue Monday

Read More

First Family Vacation 2013: Flying for the First Time

This year I chose to celebrate my birthday with the two most important men in the world, my husband and our son, not in Cagayan de Oro City but in Metro Manila. Actually, I booked our round trip flights to Manila and back in September last year when Cebu Pacific had their Piso Fare. Thanks to budget airlines for the promo, the only irony with promo tickets is that they are non-refundable and non rebookable. Hubby and I have wasted two international promo tickets before. I was pregnant then and cannot travel back then. 

I thought our tickets will go to waste again, because our little one had high fever because of swollen gums 3 days before our flight. Thankfully on the 3^rd day Xye had recovered and was energetic again and ready to take his first plane ride the following day.

We boarded Cebu Pacific 8:40 AM flight from Cagayan de Oro City to Manila. I took the window seat, Xye in the middle and hubby by the aisle, also with us our best friend Jefer and his sister Ina.

 

The little one preferred to sit on my lap and peeped out the window. I think he enjoyed watching the clouds outside, but later on he went to play in his dreamland because he fell asleep and woke up when we landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

 

 

Xye first flying experience was fun, I think. I do not know if he’ll remember the experience when he grow up. Thanks to technology at least he’ll be able to see these pictures in the future.

P.S. Photos in this post were taken by my husband.

Monday Mellow Yellows

Blue Monday

Read More

InstaPic: February 6-13, 2013

February 6, 2013 - At 1:00PM Hubby called up and asked us if it's possible for us to be at Malaybalay Bukidnon before night time. His father was in death bed and probably waiting for his grandchildren to arrive. But our car's two tires were dilapidated and very unsafe for long driving. I brought the car for a tire change first, and at 5PM we're still in CDO.

We postponed our trip the following day (February 7, 2013), because I'm not familiar with the Bukidnon highway. It was my first time to self-drive from Cagayan de Oro City to Malaybalay, Bukidnon. It took me 3-hours to reach our destination, considering the unfamiliarity and road conditions.

 

The weather was good and the clouds were neat, I asked Joy my son's yaya to take pictures of the clouds using my mobile phone.

Our little prince was having a rest in one of the bargain boxes of Gaisano Malaybalay, while I'm selecting/buying white t-shirts to be used by the immediate family during the burial.

Because according to the oldies, we're not allowed to take a bath at the house were the wake is. So every morning we went to husband's older brother house to take a bath. The little one was so busy playing around with the unhusked rice grains.

 

 

Unhusked rice grains were also being dried at the back of my parents-in-law's house. The little one loves to play with them.

The house was full-packed with mourners, family, relatives and friends. No matter what these two little boys were peacefully sleeping inside the room.

After the burial, we left Cabanglasan at 11:45AM February 13, 2013 and headed straight home to Cagayan de Oro City. I was the one driving again, because hubby had to stay for a while until the 9th day. I needed to report to office the following day, I had no choice but to self-drive.

The photo above was one of the delays at Bukidnon Highway because of road repairs. The irony was it was an uphill part of the highway, we stayed there for 15 minutes. My foot hurts from stepping on the brake pedal, hand brake was not enough.

At 3:22 PM, we finally arrived at the Puerto overlooking. I pulled over for a while and took a photo of the calm sea of CdeO. Yes! It's CdeO already!

I survived the 4 hour drive from Cabanglasan, Bukidnon to Cagayan de Oro City. Thankfully the weather was very cooperative.

Blue Monday

Read More

Wing + Sunset

Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, 

and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal.
~Elbert Hubbard~

Blue Monday

Monday Mellow Yellows

Read More

Hair Dryer + Electric Cork Opener

I received two gifts this Christmas coming from my two closest friends, though we don’t see each other often. I'm so glad they remembered me. winks*

 

Nice gave me a hair dryer and kojic soap,

while Jefer got me an electric cork opener. 

 

 

 

Receiving gifts unexpectedly is such a wonderful feeling. 

Thanks so much. Mwah!

Here's a macro shot of the cork opener for Macro Monday.

By the way the hair dyer is gray and blue perfect for Blue Monday.

Read More