Make It Happen

The other night, while I was looking through my old pictures in Facebook, I realized that no matter how great the past few years were for me, I was still entrapped within my comfort zone. Yes, I did some new things such as joining the theater and hiking my way up to mountains here in the Philippines; but nonetheless, the rest were still usual.

So I decided why not make a bucketlist this year? The one that I'd actually list down and will honestly do and try to make everything happen within 2014 (promising myself this time that it wouldn't just be a list that I'd put on a paper and eventually misplace by mid-year. Lol.).

This blog entry will be updated all throughout the year everytime I "make it happen". [x] will be seen before the numbers if the task is completed.

[x] 1. Go to McLaren's Pub @ San Juan City. (July 29, 2014)

And it's gonna be LEGEN... wait for it... DARY.

[ ] 2. Light a floating lantern and make a wish.

[ ] 3. Celebrate my 21st birthday at an orphanage. 

[ ] 4. Have an early, romantic breakfast. 

[ ] 5. Take a sunset picture on the beach with someone special.

[ ] 6. Witness sunrise. 

[ ] 7. Have a spontaneous out-of-town road trip.

[ ] 8. Go on a spiritual retreat.

[ ] 9. Try out ONE extreme ride for once in my life!

[ ] 10. Go to Tali, Batangas and cliff dive!

[ ] 11. Join a fun run.

[x] 12. Have a Harry Potter marathon. (February 11, 2014)

[ ] 13. Buy a homeless person a full meal.

Through The Ups & Downs

We always have these small, annoying petty fights but I think it's normal for a mom and child to have days like that. Well, most of the time we really do argue but there's no such thing as a perfect relationship. All I know is that you're a one-of-a-kind mom and I'm blessed to have you until now.

Earlier today, I had to sneak out of the house to buy a bouquet of flowers for my mom. It may not last for eternity but since I know that she loves receiving flowers, at least for a day I wanted her to feel special and loved.

Everything I am I owe to you, mom. You pushed me to become the better person that I am right now. I'm sorry, thank you, and I love you very much; not in necessary order. I'm forever grateful for your endless support, understanding and love. Happy Mother's Day, mom!  ♥

Batangas 2013 ☀

After years of endless beach outing plans, me and my high school friends finally pushed through this year. You know how spontaneous plans work more often than those that are really planned out ahead? It happens all the time for us; so this time we didn't care much if everyone else was coming as long as the outing happens. And so it did.

April 16-17, 2013

With only twelve of us who were able to come to this outing (from the original headcount of 21 to 12), we still decided to leave for Batangas at 3 in the morning of the 16th of April. Stocks of food and other necessities were bought a day before to avoid cramming. But for me, I still crammed. Hah. Fresh from another outing in Laguna, I packed my things late night of April 15 and was sleepless the whole trip 'til night. 

7AM touchdown // PLAN: Take a nap first. REALITY: Went straight to the beach, took a dip, and savored the sunlight. 

A Supposed to be Escape-from-Reality Trip

PLAN: Rent a house in Tali, Batangas (cliff diving venue in the Philippines) REALITY: Everybody got broke and decided to stay overnight in my ex-boyfriend's resthouse. Nice. Perfect, just perfect.

Let's not take this into detail; but I wanted this trip to be an escape yet it didn't seem pretty much like that. Though, the place was great. It was very spacious, home-y, and very much far away from town so I really liked it. The beach was a few walks away from the house; no white sand though and it was rocky near the shore. I even got splinters on my feet that day. Nonetheless, it was a perfect view with perfect company.

With two of my closest friends, who are leaving for the States this year: Tawny & Kriza. :( 

UP JMA ADHOC 2013

"They're back, and this time, they're pulling out ALL the stops."

ADHOC by UP JMA

The biggest college party in the Metro

02.23.13

Every year, UP Junior Marketing Association (based on UP Diliman) brings out the biggest college party in the Metro. ADHOC is the largest fund-raiser for its beneficiaries and aims to bring together college students and young professionals in the Metro in a groundbreaking and innovative event.

From its first unleash in "Turbulence" 2007, UP JMA has been very successful in terms of audience count and good feedback. This year, let's see what the organization prepared for a night of euphoria. As part of its partner organization, UP Manila JMA, I invite everyone to come and have a one-of-a-kind experience on February 23, 2013 at the World Trade Center Tent, Pasay City. See you!

Videos courtesy of UP JMA.

Facebook account: http://facebook.com/upjmaadhoc

Twitter account: http://twitter.com/upjmaadhoc

Vimeo account: http://vimeo.com/upjmaadhoc

Feels Like Heaven: Sinfully by Makati Shangri-La

I remember the previous year, I was able to go this dessert shop at Greenbelt, Makati and I couldn't forget the euphoria I had the moment I bought their macaroons. Last week, I was feeling really blue and sad because of the pressure I'm feeling with all the school works so I decided to come back to Sinfully for another round of extreme tummy happiness.

Sinfully's Get Kissed chocolates

Sinfully's signature pralines 

Cookie lollipops and mini chocolate chips

"When words are not enough, have an emoti-cake." 

French macaroons, all available in different flavors! 

Pistachio & chocolate are definitely my favorites.

A perfect dose of sweets for the stressed G.

(c) Kat Aurellano

Sinfully by Makati Shangri-La

Cakes- Chocolates- and other Indulgences

2/F Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati City

Tel. No.: (02) 729 6626

Capture the Walls

I hated my room for being plain. Basically with white walls, no art, boring.

While I was fixing my room the other day, I found pictures from my childhood years to the present and I realized I had lots of it. At first, I thought of compiling them in a photo album but I said to myself, who does that now? Haha! 

BRIGHT IDEA.

These pictures are the perfect images that will add color to my plain, boring room. Hello, memories.

Made a cardboard for my school requirements. Had the left side of it filled with fashion cut-outs. Inspiration for everyday wardrobe problems! :)

Christmas Parties Turned Reunions

I know Christmas isn't supposed to be about the parties, the gifts and boozes, and that it's all about the birth of Jesus Christ... but, I have to admit that I really look forward to all the parties because I get to see most of my families and friends. Catching up has to be the best part.

December 13, 2012

First Christmas party of the year with my favorite college buddies: Marion Bugay, Bianca Perez, Charie Hernandez, Angel Aba

Dinner at The Burger Project at Taft Avenue, Manila. Got the chance to make my own burger!

Exchanged gifts with the ladies. Thank you for all of these! :)

Beerpong at Timeout right after dinner. Get your beerpong on!

 December 21, 2012

It's funny how everyone waited for this "end of the world" day, yet nothing happened.
Anyway, this was definitely a good vibes day. My parents and their high school batchmates are still friends nowadays, and their kids (meaning, us) are closer than ever. Every year, the inner circle families do this annual Christmas party despite the distance of the others who lives way up North, while most of us stay in the South.

Meet the parents. (There's my mom and dad at the right side.)

And the kids. Everybody loves children, who doesn't?

Plastic Balloons

(I wanna write this post in Tagalog so that I could really show how happy this day was. I’ll try to be fluent, but if I can’t, pardon me. HAHA)

So ayun, naranasan niyo ba nung bata kayo na humihingi kayo parati ng dalawang piso sa parents niyo para lang makabili sa sari-sari store ng plastic balloons? Well, I did. As in naalala ko dati, tinitipid ko ung nag-iisang plastic balloon para lang makagawa ako ng three balloons out of it (since hindi naman ako binibilhan nila Mom and Dad ng marami. Huhu.). 

Last Friday (October 04, 2012), I went to Divisoria with my college friends to make a documentary for our Bonifacio trail. Ayoko na ikwento ‘yan kasi out of the main story. :)) Anyway, so went to 168 Shopping Mall to ahve lunch and roam around after. 

Nung nag-iikot kami, napunta kami sa isang floor na puro kiddie stuffs ung binebenta. There were stamps, stickers, balloons, and anything with cartoon characters na super mura lang. What caught our attention was the ever-famous plastic balloons, then we all had this are-you-thinking-what-I’m-thinking look. We planned on buying atleast three pieces each pero sabi nung ale, di daw pwede na tingi lang. Sooo, we ended up buying one “banig” of plastic balloons (which had 48 pieces). HAHA! My friend Bianca said, “Sige, ready na ko magka-beke mamaya.” :)))

So nung nakabili na kami, we went back to UP Manila since we had theater rehearsals from 4-7pm. We were earlier than the call time so nag-decide kami na magstart na with the plastic balloons. SOBRANG SAYA NAMIN, WITH MATCHING TEARS OF JOY. Haha! Parang blast to your childhood days ulit ung feeling, nakakawala ng stress. We can see the faces of people passing by, and making statements like, “Uy oh, plastic balloons! Kakainggit!” or “Aww. Bili nga din tayo mamaya nun!”

The art of making plastic balloons.

In short, naubos namin ung 48 pcs. of plastic balloons. HAHA. I repeat, 48 pieces. Tapos, gumawa kami ng balloon tower, out of kabaliwan lang. :)) Here are pictures. :p

With our giant balloon masterpiece. Haha!

Pictures with Yvette, Bianca and Angel. :-)

Sometimes, it is necessary to feed the kid in you.

Classic Final Four Aftermath

Devastating... But no, it was a great match between the rivals, De La Salle University Green Archers and the Ateneo De Manila University Blue Eagles. The mere fact that the Archers were able to enter the final four match was a big accomplishment for a team with mostly rookies.

Expectations weren't high for the Lasallians, but I must say, the Ateneans had tough grips on their seats during the intense game. With the Archers making an 11-pt lead on the 4th quarter, that was definitely the ONE BIG FIGHT the blue crowd was looking for.

Unfortunately, we had a great run but ADMU led by Kiefer Ravena had a better hold on the game. 69-66 was the final score. Despite that, Araneta Coliseum had a proud Lasallian community after. Something bright is on our future.

Photos below courtesy of Go Archers.

Jeron Teng going through an Atenean with the help of Norbert Torres' screen.

Oda Tampus and Yutien Andrada

AN1MO spirit (Spot: Alumni Rico Maierhofer, Jerwin Gaco, Joseph Yeo and Randy Santiago)

NorBEARt Torres

Joshua Webb on his last game for the DLSU. Thank you for the amazing 5 years, Webb!

Another graduating player, Jovit Mendoza on his last UAAP game. 

Wanderlust: Bataan 2012

I've always wanted to go to places and make a travel blog in the future. It's a dream that I plan to start now.

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine  

September 01, 2012
Bataan, Philippines

Three hours away from Manila, I went to Bataan along with my college blockmates for a major class, Philippine Arts 198 (Introduction to Cultural Heritage) outing. We had to take the Bataan Transit bus from Doroteo Jose station in Manila at around 6 in the morning and arrived at Bataan at exactly 8AM.

Upon our arrival, the jeepney we rented was already there and the driver brought us to Jollibee for a quick breakfast stopover before the whole trip starts. We met our professor at the terminal and drove our way to Mt. Samat.

9AM: Mt. Samat, Bataan

Mount Samat is the location of the historical marker for the Bataan Death March. Also found here is the Shrine of Valor or Dambana ng Kagitingan which is found near its summit.
From the terminal, we drove our way through the zig-zag roads around the mountain to reach almost the top of Mt. Samat. There we found the Holy Cross/Shrine of Valor which was really a great view up close. We also found ourselves inside the museum that showcases artifacts (Japanese soldier uniforms, bullets, grenades, rifles, pictures, flags, etc.). Unfortunately, picture taking wasn't allowed inside the museum. My professor was also able to buy a framed bullet which only costed Php 2000. Other historical collectibles are sold for a great price (in case anyone is interested, do visit because items are really a great addition to a historical collection).

Shrine of Valor/Dambana ng Kagitingan

 All the while, I thought we could view the Shrine of Valor only by standing from afar. What I didn't know is that we could still hike up going to where the cross actually stands. It took us 400+ steps before reaching the summit of Mt. Samat, and we were able to ride an elevator all the way to the TOP OF THE CROSS. Yes, the view was really breath-taking. The cross showed carvings of the lives and struggles of Filipinos who took part during the Bataan Death March.

Captivating view from the top of the Shrine of Valor.

 1PM: Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar

It was a very wise decision for us to push through our trip by going to the "living museum of Philippine customs and traditions" (www.lascasasfilipinas.com). At first, we had second thoughts because of the price rates they implement. But since we were already in Bataan, me and my blockmates decided that visiting Acuzar would be a first for all of us and it would be nice to have that first experience altogether.

Back to Paradise

If there's one place I want to go back all the time, it has to be Universal Studios Singapore. My perfect getaway place. :-)

Giant Hershey's syrup. <3

Extreme @ Universal Studios (FREAKING LEGIT AWESOME)