gratitude list 11.09

1 - successful zomba night (albeit with stomach cramps). photo ops with zombies, kuya dick and the film's remington and jigs!

2 - went to the zen institute (this time i tried their bonifacio global city branch) for a diamond peel session. the sofitel branch was so much better (as expected) but the service itself was the same for both branches.
3 - a lazy day at home in the province. playtime with my nephew and niece on the sides. i am thankful i have a home in the province where i can regress to when i city life gets too stressful for me (and especially my stomach).
4 - a light day at work following a lazy day at home, what more can i ask for? hehe.
5 - citibank did not charge me late and finance fees, woohoo!
6 - thank god for loving, caring boyfriends like mine who accompanies her girlfriend to and from the hospital all day. never mind that he got so stressed and developed fever after. oopps...
7 - i was so relieved with the results of my endoscopy today. thank you, lord.
8 - today is my dad's birthday!
9 - sg trip, day 1: clarke quay, marina bay sands, the helix bridge.
10 - sg trip, day 2: discovery center, orchard road.
11 - sg trip, day 3: singapore zoo, night safari.
12 - sg trip, day 4: little india, chinatown, bugis street.
13 - sg trip, day 5: sentosa island.
14 - sg trip, day 6: 123rd monthsary celebration at universal studios singapore.
15 - sg trip, day 7: jurong bird park.
16 - sg trip, day 8: esplanade and clarke quay (at night).
17 - sg trip, day 9: simei, east coast park.
18 - home <3
19 - met up with my college friends--cy, ice and kate.

20 - finally completed my requirements for south korea visa.
21 - discovered an interesting restaurant at greenbelt 3--cerveseria--via my september birthday gs gehls. will be suggesting an angels' night here some time.

22 - i remembered my alexandre voucher on time. it was supposed to expire today, haha!
23 - watched secret reunion at the korean film festimal at sm mall of asia. i enjoyed it! it has the elements of action, comedy and drama. it also tackled family and brotherly love as this year's festival's theme is love.
24 - went home to the province and had sushi dinner with my nephew and playtime with my niece.
25 - my nephew and niece dropped by the office. life's cute surprises, hehe.
26 - an entertaining night with dae woong and gu mi ho, hehe.
27 - despite the lashing of typhoon pedring, my family and i are *relatively* dry and safe.
28 - finished watching my girlfriend is a gumiho! nomu nomu nomu nomu nomu chua!
29 - i had a fun time reminiscing with kate over lunch today that day 10 years ago when i first got acquainted with alcoholic drinks, haha!
30 - touchdown, mindanao! hello, davao!

sg trip: souvenirs

i did more shopping in singapore than i planned to. here are some other stuff i bought that i forgot to post in previous entries about our singapore trip.

1. of course, the requisite souvenir: key chain (or cellphone charm, hehe)

2. stickers from urban write

3. hershey's singapore cap

4. mints from candylicious (each purchase at the store comes with free a stickers pad, photo to follow)

5. graveyard of the fireflies lemon drops from bon japan

6. dark chocolate pocky with almonds from bon japan

7. pasalubong: merlion and lady bug chocolates from mustafa, and hershey's from duty free (got the same pack from our hong kong trip, hehe)

* * *

just in case you missed my other posts about our trip click: day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6 | day 7 | day 8 | day 9

sg trip: day 9

i spent my last day in singapore with old friends and i really had a great time. never mind that i missed my original flight at 5:40 p.m. and that the next flight available is at 12:40 a.m. with an eta in manila at 4:05 a.m. or that kim repeatedly scolded me for an hour, haha. oh but thank god for old friends who prove that friendship knows no time or distance. 

so where was i when i was supposed to be checking-in at changi budget terminal? i was with my high school friends teng and joni, biking at east park coast while catching up on each other's lives. i remember the last time i rode a bike was during a high school field trip at the ccp complex, haha!

moi, joni and teng :D

but before that, joni treated us for lunch at sakae sushi. and i am very happy to announce that i am now a maki-lover convert, hihi. but please, don't ever peer pressure me into eating sashimi again. thanks!

i ate all of these in the name of friendship, haha!

as you can see, things were really looking great until i arrived 5 minutes late at the airport (5 p.m., i should have been there by 4:55 or 45 minutes before the flight). lesson learned: never try checking in online if you are not sure what you are doing. apparently, my web check-in didn't came through. but it was a blessing in a disguise. not only did i have more time to spend with teng and joni, my ticket was also eligible for rebooking. if i were checked in and didn't make it 45 minutes before my flight, the ground crew said i need to pay for the entire new booking. or baka sabi lang nila yun.

nevertheless, after this (mis)adventure i will be going back to being the early bird who arrives at the airport at least two hours before her flight, haha.

until then, singapore. kung may next time pa ngang talaga. ang mahal mo e!

xoxo, almi.

sg trip: day 8

we spent our last day together in singapore hopping from one mall to another: city link mall, suntec city mall, marina square mall, esplanade exchange and raffles city. here we are camwhoring while comforting our tired soles after walking non-stop for hours.

 i was so happy to have chanced upon a clearance sale at a schu store. i got these ballet flats at a 70-percent discounted price. as i've mentioned in an earlier post, i was disappointed with the shoe selection in singapore (the beautiful ones are the branded kinds only because singaporeans are rich like that, hehe), so this purchase really lifted my mood. my old red flats from celine had just recently retired so i was really looking for a replacement.

and then there's this convertible shawl at a store called action city. super cute and practical! and i love its packaging! there is a mirror inside, a photo manual of the different ways to wear the shawl, an instructional dvd and, of course, the shawl. kim was very supportive of this purchase because he said i could use it on our trip to south korea this november (if ever we'll push through with it as planned).

i was also able to buy a new luggage with a three-year warranty. it's an american tourister by samsonite. it's quite a steal at s$160 (around php5,600), considering that i was saving up for a php14k samsonite travel bag! but wait, there's more! it was discounted (around s$123, plus i refunded the 7-percent goods and services tax at the airport) and i only found out when i was already paying at the counter so i was really ecstatic about this bag, hehe. (photo to follow)

but before mall-hopping, we had lunch first. we decided to eat at toast box because it originated in singapore. we had curry and rice (yay!) and their new thick bread creations.

and then after shopping, we dropped by the merlion park. it was a long walk from the esplanade but as they say you've never been to singapore if you didn't pay a visit to merlion so we persevered, haha.

the esplanade

finally, at the merlion park! sabi nga nung isang bading sa isa pang bading dun, "best friend, ang init!" in a nangsisisi tone, haha.

and here be the requisite photo with merlion, who was newly-restored after it was struck by lightning last year.

for dinner, we met up with one of my high school friends working in singapore. he treated us at hooters in clarke quay. para bang wala lang sa kanya ang s$100+ na dinner! we retired early, around 9:30 p.m. because the boys were not very happy with the hooter girls there, haha.

sg trip: day 7

today was bird appreciation day for us. we spent a whole afternoon at jurong bird park, which claims to be the largest bird paradise in the world. the park boasts about 5,000 birds from 380 species.

but before bird-watching, we had lunch at bongo burgers.

our first stop was the penguin coast, which houses nearly 100 penguins of six species including the endangered african penguins.

wish lang namin tunay na penguins sila, hehe.

sila, tunay na!

we continued our journey by foot. alternatively, there is a panorail with designated stops.

i fly!

i couldn't possibly memorize the names of all the birds we saw there. it was also a challenge to take pictures of them, especially the small and flying ones. here is a collage of some of the better photos of the birds we saw around the park:

we also checked out the bird discovery center, which we found interesting albeit small.

we were also able to catch the bird shows. in birds n buddies, birds were made to fly very low--almost touching our heads! for the finale, we listened to a parrot count from 1 to 10 in english and chinese, and sing a hindi song and the birthday song.

kings of the skies features eagles, vultures and owls. imagine being so close to these birds of prey!

while walking along a wooden bridge at the swan lake, we saw a lady taking the opposite direction. kim said, "mali ata yung way natin, bakit sya bumalik?" being the sometimes overly-confident person that i am, "hindi yan, tama tayo. imposibleng may dead end dito." it wasn't long after that, we discovered the reason why the lady retreated:

kim has always wanted to join the kids playing at the fountain at market!market! and today he just checked that goal out of his bucket list at the park!

look at this happy kid! :))

the pelican cove gave us an opportunity to take couple shots, using the wooden bridge handrails as "tripods," heh.

did you know that the wings of a full grown pelican can spread up to 10 meters?

the parrots at parrot paradise were caged and were hard to photograph so we just took a photo with these giant parrots:

meanwhile, at the african waterfall aviary...

masked men

arts & crafts session, hehe

and here's a couple shot. i couldn't be more thankful for "clean" flat-topped trash cans after this trip. haha!

i enjoyed the african aviary because it was really like being in a jungle in africa. while walking, we saw the african birds flying above us or resting on the tree branches, swimming in the pond, hopping from one feeder to another, or simply walking beside us! at the heart of the jungle is a waterfall.

last couple shot near the park's exit/entrance:

<<<333

sg trip: day 6

we decided to celebrate our 123rd monthsary at the universal studios singapore! we had so much fun there! as in! there were no dull moments talaga! we were kept busy by photo ops, street and theater shows, and rides the whole day! nakakabitin sa sarap ulit-ulitin everything!

this time, we decided to take the sentosa boardwalk to and from the island.

pappi <3

let's go that way!

upon arrival at the uss vicinity, we took requisite globe photos, hehe.

once inside, the first thing we spotted was po of kung fu panda! so adorable! we immediately queued for a photo with him.

welcome to hollywood! population: glamorous <3

right photo: with miss mae west

other celebrity sightings in hollywood:

charlie chaplin (w/o mustache), charlie chaplin (w/ mustache), moi :))

best girlfriend/boyfriend award <3

we then headed to new york and caught the performances of mel's dinettes (na ramdam kong lubos na ikinaligaya ni kim, haha!) and the daddy o's (attn college batchmates: spot marvin tomandao!) just outside mel's drive-in where we had lunch.

mel's dinettes

daddy o's

after that we watched a short musical titled "monster rock." the performers were superb! too bad flash photography and video recording were not allowed. the same rule applies to all other indoor uss attractions.

waiting for the show

monster-performers

burger, fries and soda lunch at mel's drive.

there was a mini jukebox beside our table, cool! we didn't try it though.

at mel's drive-in parking lot:

after lunch, we watched lights! camera! action! hosted by steven spielberg. we entered a studio set where a hurricane simulation took place. we got wet when the ceiling fell off. what an experience! it just shows that there are no limits to our imagination.

more pictures in new york city:

concrete jungle

we took the subway to...

...my new workplace, chos!

new york alley

don't be fooled by the rocks that i've got ;P

brick + wood = <3

kim got arrested!!!

moving on to sci-fi city, we rode the cylon battlestar gallactica (blue coaster)! we didn't try the human version (red coaster) because we heard it was boring.

a thrill seeker's fave!!!

our next stop was ancient egypt. super win the revenge of the mummy ride!

we then passed by the lost world and thinking all the rides cater mainly to kids, continued our journey to far far away right after. it was too late when we found out there was a water world show there and the last show was at 4 p.m. too bad we missed it!

an adventure 65 million years in the making

two of a kind ;P

medyo kinilig kami nang matanaw namin ang far far away, ayiii... <3

far far away

are we there yet?

welcome to far far away *\0/*

camwhorage at shrek's house:

beware!

ogre!!!

the first attraction we checked out was shrek 4d. galing!

before watching shrek 4d

inside the castle

upon exit, we spotted shrek and fiona walking toward cinderella's carriage. super close nina kim at shrek; nag-fist bump pa sila, lol!

na-deadma si fiona >.<

near cinderella's carriage, we spotted the king!

kiss :*

we also passed by little red's ride. it's so cute!

we also watched donkey "live" just beside fairy godmother's potion factory, where all your dreams come true, yihee!

after donkey's show, we boarded the magic potion spin.

wish granted: 100

view of the potion factory from the ferris wheel <3

our last stop: madagascar.

welcome *confetti*

we went on a crate adventure.

if you ever go on this adventure, watch your reaction aboard because you will be photographed at one point (i won't tell where para surprise, heh). super priceless ng itsura ko dun sa picture! but it costs $18 per print so i'll just cherish the memory, lol.

fragile, handle with care ;P

after that, we watched the boogie wonderland show. dancing penguins are so cute!

of course, we queued for a photo op with the penguins, heh!

we also rode king julien's beach party-go-round a.k.a. the carousel! a requisite ride for all theme parks, yes?

and this photo ends our uss day!

shocked smiles :))

outside the uss, we spent some time admiring the selection at candylicious and the hershey's store. some camwhorage outside candylicious:

wow, candies galore!!!

if you're happy and you know it, jump!

in summary, a super happy youthful monthsary! though madami din kaming di nasakyang rides kasi quota na daw si kim after riding the rollercoaster, haha! <3