heat!

We had a sumptuous meal last night at Edsa Shang’s HEAT! Haven’t been there for quite some time. It was a treat for our family, from a family relative. It was a great surprise and fun!

Highlight for me was probably when I met my uncle’s (ka age ko pero uncle ang tawag) girlfriend. Turns out, she’s two years younger than me, and also a graduate from ICA. Naturally, we ask if we have common friends. Small world, she’s cousins with my classmate from high school!

Funny thing is, when she was introduced to me, I heard Kim, but I wasn’t sure if I heard right. So I asked my mom, she said she thought her name was Gib. I asked my sister, she though her name was Gin? Ano ba talaga? Hindi ko tuloy siya makausap and matawag according sa name niya!

Since we have a common friend, I checked my friend’s FB. Unfortunately, there are too many Kims on the list, but there is one Gin – but wasn’t sure if that’s her. Kasi naka private ang profile. Anyway, for now, I’ll just call her Gin. haha

I ate a lot last night, yummy prime rib, and today, I’ll be having another sumptuous lunch at Peking Garden so I will go to the gym for now, and get some cardio workout first! After all, we exercise to eat!

Christmas tree

Here’s our wonderful n-year old Christmas tree. We normally don’t have a lot of gifts under the tree, but I do find that…

the important ones need not be wrapped!

They can just be put in a red envelop instead!

Just kidding! Of course, it’s the thought that counts!

Merry Christmas everyone!

ivr team - photobooth

Uso na talaga ang photobooth ngayon sa mga events.

Here’s ours!

showbiz!

Our local showbiz news these days is quite exciting! First is the KC-Piolo breakup, and now, the Mo-Rhian issue.

I can't help myself not to react to the current showbiz talk of the town – the Rhian Ramos and Mo Twister issue.

To be honest, I feel really bad for Rhian. Supposed that what Mo’s alleged comments were true, isn’t it hard enough already for Rhian? And then here comes Mo, doing a kiss and tell. Definitely a no no. Real men don’t kiss and tell. Too bad. I don’t know how a person will be able to even overcome something like this. The trauma!

I think it was still Mo who divulged that video. I remember reading somewhere, correct me if I’m wrong, that before he was going to leave for the US, that he was going to divulge a secret to the masses. What a tool.

Let’s say Mo was really hurt by what happened, but I still think he should’ve kept things private. The same thing I can say to KC – she should’ve just not done that interview with Boy. Perhaps KC should’ve just done a Carmina… just keep quiet and let things pan out. Things like these are meant to be private, and not shared with the whole nation.

Hospital

Time flies by so fast, it’s now December. I haven’t been blogging for a while, too many things going on. But generally, I feel very blessed these past few weeks.

Around three weeks ago, my younger sister was experiencing intermittent fevers. My mom, being the worrywart that she is, had a feeling that this may be another case of dengue fever (my sister was struck with dengue just last May 2011). So we had her platelet count checked over two days, and as soon as we saw the drastic drop, we decided to bring her to the ER. Another check was made there and another drop in her platelet count. So, she was confined yet again.

The dengue wasn’t that bad. A few days later, she was feeling a lot better. As the doctor says: “she is clinically well and no fever for the past 72 hours.” But before she will officially be released, the doc wanted another round of xray because the xray that was taken during her second day in the hospital showed a small sign of some liquid in her lungs (and by then, some antibiotics were being administered to her).

Surprise surprise, the second round of xray revealed that this whitish thing in the scans dramatically increased from a small block to the whole left and right lungs! The doc panicked like crazy, called up both infectious and pulmonary doctors to do some consults.

Turns out… my sister caught a very severe case of pneumonia! From then on,the doctors administered the “ultimate” antibiotic to clear up her lungs. If that didn’t work, whatever that was inside had to be drained. Administering the antibiotic had to take 10 days. We ended up staying in the hospital for three weeks. Finally yesterday, she was discharged.

We all know that getting confined in the hospital is very expensive. And in this case, it’s mostly the antibiotics that’ll kill the bill. Amidst all these though, what a blessing that it was only this year that I enrolled my sister as my dependent in the HMO in my company (my parents used to have her under blue cross but discontinued it starting last year). I just realized how important these health cards are! Although we do pay for it, but at least during these cases, we can utilize them. Subtracting philhealth and intellicare, we ended up paying just around 70k in total. Thank you Lord.

What’s important though is that my sister is safe, she’s alive and kicking, and she’s going back to school tomorrow after three weeks out! haha Good luck to her catching up on schoolwork.

And finally my mom can sleep soundly now – she was the one staying in the hospital the whole three weeks.

Hunger Games Official Trailer

Finally!

Hunger Games Official Trailer

random thoughts

My sister, for some reason, was hit with another strain of Dengue late last week. Around April/May this year, she already caught the dengue virus and was confined to the hospital for around a week. Now here she is again, struck with the 2nd strain of dengue in just a span of a few months. Now she’s confined again, and been there since last Thursday.

On another note, my sister, who is preggers with twins has just confirmed to us that they just had their ultrasound check and well, lucky them, they will be having twin girls by early next year! That’s two new baby girls coming just around the corner to add to their family! Grant will have two new sisters! Sorry Grant, you will no longer be the baby of the family!

Hike at Mt. Batulao

I have never hiked in the Philippines so when a friend invited me on a hiking trip, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. Unfortunately, due to my impulsive nature of saying “yes”, I didn’t even think of how long the hike will be and how the trail will look like.

I only had a look at it a day or two before the actual hike and I was surprised that the hike would take around 4-6 hours and the trail was open! No trees whatsoever to block the sun! I wanted to back out but since I committed already to the trip, I went on with it.

So with a heavy heart, I woke up 4 am the next day, and we went on our way.

Mt. Batulao is located just near Caleruega. It’s just around 1.5 to 2 hours from Manila.

The hike was long and arduous. The heat was terrible. Good thing I brought sun block because I would’ve been cooked up there. But as it turns out, hard work usually pays off because at the end of the day, the view you get to see from the top is amazing.

Not sure if you can see it in the picture above, but there are actually people hiking here. They’re already on their way back at this point!

My companion was not as prepared as me, so we ended up taking a break (even before we reached the peak) for almost 40 minutes! Technically, the hike would’ve been just 3-4 hours, but we finished it in 5 or 6 hours. We reached the peak at around 11:30 AM, and we got back to the car around 3:00 PM already.

All in all, for a first time hike, it wasn’t that bad. I sure hope that the sun was cooperating with us, but then again, I wouldn’t mind doing the hike again but definitely minus the scorching heat of the sun. I would highly recommend this to first time hikers. It’s not as hard and the view up there is very pretty and is worth the hard work.

Until next time!

For more info, you may visit this website: PinoyMountaineer

One Week Vacation!

The past few weeks have been crazy busy. I haven’t done much except work. But I finally was able to take some time off this week (one week vacation!!).

Few things I want to accomplish this week:

1. Renew my license (done… almost)

2. Apply (finally) for my SSS Card ID (done)

3. Go back to badminton training (started yesterday, check!)

4. Meet up with the girls

5. Shop

6. Relax and bum around!

Tennis

Aside from being occupied with work for the past few weeks, I’ve also been very very much occupied with Tennis for the past few weeks.

Two weeks ago was the Pan Pacific Open held in Tokyo and last week was the China Open. Since it’s an Asian event, Eurosport’s live coverage of the WTA tournament’s started from the afternoon until night. You can just imagine how busy I was each day! And since these were top notch events, where top ranked players are playing, it made the events even more enjoyable to watch!

Tokyo

Radwanska overpowered Zvonoreva to win the Pan Pacific Open (and $300k+ in cash winnings). Watching Radwanska is very fun. Even big hitters like Zvonoreva can’t find a way to break down the defense!

China

Radwanska yet again wins another tournament, two weeks in a row, beating Petkovic in a thrilling finals match last night (winning $700k+). This was one of the best matches I’ve ever watched. Although Petkovic downed Radwanska in the second set 6-0, the first and third set was AMAZING. By the third set, you can’t figure out who will eventually win this! If you’re rooting for Radwanska, you’d be crazy nervous. If you’re rooting for Petkovic, you’d be crazy nervous too! I can’t imagine how the players were feeling when they were both 4-4 in the third set! But finally, Radwanska broke Petkovic to lead 5-4 and the next game had Radwanska serving for the match, and the rest is history. Unfortunately, since the match was so long, Eurosport’s coverage had to cut it off to show Cycling so we were not able to watch the awarding ceremonies. Anyway, I’m hoping for a replay today, perhaps I’ll be able to catch the awarding ceremonies then.

Hunger Games Trailer

Been wanting to post this for a while.

Here’s the first official Hunger Games trailer released!

Hunger Games–Official Trailer [HD]

When they cast Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, I wasn’t convinced. But watching this, for some reason, they were able to make her look so much younger! I still think that they should’ve picked a younger actress for the role of Katniss, but this casting might just work. I’m 100% sure that this movie is going to be a blockbuster. Hopefully it’ll be more popular than the Twilight series. This has way more substance and action!

Hopefully the movie will live up to the quality of the books.

Few more months of waiting left!

Ultimate Taste Test @ Rockwell

Thanks to Rhys, Marcy and I were able to attend Rockwell’s Ultimate Taste Test event last September 03, 2011 (ang mahal pa naman ng entrance fee!). I never heard about this event and apparently, it’s already in its 6th year! It’s in 6th year and this is the only time we heard about it??

There were limited tickets only, 1000 sold for 585 pesos each. Quite pricey, but I think for the experience, it’s definitely worth the money.

There were 55 merchants, and you get to try food from each of them (if your stomach can fathom it). I think I only tried half of them. Medyo naparami kasi agad yung na try namin na desserts, probably why nabusog agad and then by dinner time, I was sooo hungry.

Anyway, there were a couple of standouts for me.

Theo & Philo Chocolate.

I haven’t found a local brand of chocolate yet which I feel like will be up to par to world standard chocolatiers. And I was surprised that Theo & Philo Chocolates existed. According to the owner, their chocolates are created from locally grown cocoa beans (from Davao, if I’m not mistaken). What was interesting with their chocolate was that they added a little something unique and Filipino to it. For example, the picture on the right, if you look closely, it’s actually a sample of “Dark Chocolate with Siling Labuyo”. Very very interesting right? In fact, I just had to buy a bar to get my family to taste it! It was a really unique chocolate!

Mang Pedro

We all love Taho. Who doesn’t? So it was a nice surprise to find a stall called Mang Pedro who’s main product are different flavored tahos. I tried the regular taho and the chocolate taho. I still like the regular taho.

According to the owner, a 12 liter jug can serve up to 50-60 people will cost 1200 pesos. Their main clients would be during parties, and with restaurants who outsource their taho desserts.

Yoh-gee

Amidst all the craze these days with yogurt and gelato, here comes a different variety of yogurt/ice cream/gelato – Frozen Kefir. It’s another variety I guess of fermented milk. Don’t really know the details about it but it is a bit sour, like yogurt, but it’s actually pretty good. I first tried the Mango flavor, nothing special about it, but when I tried their best seller – the regular/plain kefir, oh that one was pretty good.

There are so much more to talk about this wonderful experience. Thanks to Rhys for introducing us to this great event. And I can’t believe I even saw some friends there who I haven’t seen for years! What a small world!

Final Destination 5

When Marcy, Vicky and I planned to watch a movie at Trinoma yesterday, we were supposed to watch Crazy, Stupid, Love but the cinema was packed so we ended up watching Final Destination 5.

Final Destination is on its 5th and hopefully, last installment. This popular movie series has been making people cringe with expected yet “unexpected” deaths. I remember watching the first two installments in the movie house way back in college and as expected, the horrible deaths and expecting when the death will come is just cringe worthy! I remember watching parts 3 and 4 just in dvd so it wasn’t that bad.

I found watching Final Destination 5 to be very very stressful! I cannot believe Marcy put me through an hour and a half of this ordeal. I have to say though, it’s quite entertaining, except for the fact that you just wonder who gory the deaths will come out to be! I remember Vicky telling me “Bev, pangalawa pa lang yun!”.

Overall, the film is entertaining given its plot – you cheat death, death comes after you. Would I recommend it? I would say yes, because it’ll be fun to go through the whole thing with friends and see each other’s reaction! I saw Marcy cover her mouth with her hand a couple of times, and I knew Vicky wanted the movie to finish already!

I did notice that a couple of the scenes were shot in Vancouver! I knew the restaurant and the bridge where the initial accident occurred.

5k Run

I think I did pretty good this time around. I felt good running, didn’t feel as tired. Seems like all the badminton training, circuit training is paying off!

Next 5k run in a month’s time. Will try to get it done below the 30 minute mark.

random thoughts

Have you ever had that feeling when you’re all happy and relaxed, where you feel like you’re doing things right, and then suddenly, you feel down the dumps, and things just aren’t working right?

That’s exactly what I’m feeling right now. I feel like happy days are over, and things will be getting serious in the next few days… and weeks, or even months.

Sometimes I think it’s just that I’m too hard on myself. Might be because I am a worrywart by heart? Or is it because I just hate failing? Too many things to consider, but one thing I’m sure of is that, I need to change this attitude of mine where I just can’t let go of things at once. And the bad thing about this is that it brings me too much unnecessary stress.

Not only is this about work, but something happened yesterday that suddenly woke me up from my deep slumber. And it had to do with me driving. Argh. I can’t get it out of my head!

So, my teammate suggested that perhaps, I need a long overdue break. Relax from work. Away from work, go on a long vacation, you name it. Now, that made me think about my plans for the rest of the year… perhaps, I’ll finally say yes to the long overdue trip that my friend’s been pushing me to go to… abangan ang decision!

Lunch/Merienda at Conti’s

Leda, Marcy and I had a really nice simple lunch/merienda yesterday at Conti’s in Makati. Funny how we ended up going for lunch at 2 pm on a weekday! Very unusual time I must say. But you’d have to realize that we all did have weird working hours that day (especially for Leda anyway).

I went to work 4 AM, got off from work 12 noon.

Marcy went to work 12 midnight, got off from work who knows when.

Leda started work at 5 AM, off by 2 PM.

Just goes to show that even though you work odd hours, as long as your friends who work the same odd hours as you do, you can still have a successful social life!

So here’s to two beautiful ladies who I consider my one of my closest friends amongst the bunch… to more get togethers and kwentuhan!

One week back

It’s so much fun to see my family and friends again in Manila!

I arrived back last Sunday morning from what was the best flight ever! Normally, the direct flight from Vancouver to Manila is actually a stopover flight from Las Vegas. It’s Vegas – Vancouver – Manila flight, and by the time plane’s in Vancouver, it’s already half full.

But in this case, the plane was not only new (with tv sets on each seat!!), but it was just half full! I had the whole three seats to myself! Which meant that I could lie down to sleep instead of sleeping sitting down!

Well, the food still wasn’t great but at least I got a terrific sleep and was able to watch a couple of movies as well (including Sarah Geronimo and Gerald Anderson’s Catch me I’m Falling, which was funny by the way!).

I had a lot of things I wanted to do as I arrived back here in Manila. Top of the list is to go shopping, go back to gym and meet up with my friends!

And so, here’s what a summary of what I did for the few days after I got back.

Monday – Gym, Shopping, Derma

Tuesday – Quiz Nights

Wednesday – Badminton Training

Thursday – Shopping

Friday – Back to Work, Badminton Training

I think I was able to do quite a bit in a span of a week. I think I logged a lot of hours of workout via my badminton training. Also, I was able to do some shopping. Every time I am in Canada, my pants and shirts get old as those keep getting washed via the washing machine and dryer.

Now, what do I do this week…

I do have a 5k run this coming Sunday. I just came from the gym. I have Badminton Training on Wednesday and Friday.

How come these are all exercises that I’m doing? Haha

Random Thoughts in YVR

After the exercising and diet for the past few weeks and months, I think I gained it all back in just a span of a week. Not that I’m complaining. My goal wasn’t to bloat this time around anyway.

On another note, we finally finished our July release last weekend. Finally!! Now I only have one project to look after instead of 2-3 all the at the same time. A huge sight of relief. Since last Monday, after around 2-3 PM, I no longer have much to do. I haven’t felt this way for a long time. It’s nice to finally get some much needed down time from work. And just in time for my return to Manila.

On top of the relaxed week I’ve had, I also got a lot of nice farewells from my teammates. My manager surprised me with this set of books as a going away gift. I remember back in Manila, we were talking about book and this was the series that he recommended to me. Now I have something to look forward to reading when I’m back.

I also had a lot of coffee and lunch/dinner out this week. Talk about overeating! Almost all of them were free meals, free coffee, free drinks. Lots of love going on around our team these days!

As I was walking home this afternoon, I just felt happy. Just happy. So happy, that for some unknown reason, I was drawn to going to the church, and just pray and thank the Lord for all the blessings he has showered upon me this past months. And I did. I a, very thankful because everything is from him. All the hardships, all the happiness all came from him. I’ve grown so much the past months, more contented too. I think the bad vibes are totally gone now.

One of the realizations I’ve had just in the past few days that I want to share is that, you can be “alone” but very happy and contented. It’s been a year, and well, I don’t think I’ve been happier. And when I was thinking about it, it’s because of the people around me and the things I did. I’ve met so much more people this time, I’ve done so many more different activities, and all these made me realize that I am very blessed, and there’s nothing more I can ask for. Maybe work took 70% of my time while I was here, but I realized too that I loooove my work and it makes me happy. This is one way of being happy – learning to identify the things that make us happy, and realizing its impact to us as a person.

I do hope that people realize this too, that we can be happy on our own. And I think in order to be un”alone”, we first have to start happiness within ourselves. And as I always say, good vibes, attracts good things.

And thus, I’ll be seeing you Manila in a few hours. Signing off from Vancouver airport.

Less than a week to go

In less than a week, I’ll be back in Manila.

As excited as I am to go back, I’m also sad to leave. I think this past 5 months was the best 5 months that I’ve had in Canada for the past three years. It might be because I did a lot of things this year, compared to the previous years.

1. Went to the gym regularly (3 – 4 times a week)

2. Got to go on a one week vacation to Quebec, Toronto, Montreal

3. Started running again

4. Watched a whole lot of movies (up to date na ulit ako!)

5. Went on two long hikes – Garibaldi and The Chief

6. Was able to do grouse grind again after two years!

7. Watched a live football game!

8. Shopped for myself a lot this time (instead of shopping for pasalubongs all the time).

9. Went out with friends more

10. Did a whole lot of work!

For some odd reason, I felt good again. True, I can’t wait to go back, but I’m going to miss what I have here again. After three years, I finally think I really won’t mind staying here for good.

BC Lions!

One more thing I can finally cross out on the list of things I want to experience is… watching a live Football game! Nope, not soccer, but the hard core American Football sport!

My friend from the gym has season tickets for the BC Lions home game and last July 22 was a home game so he invited me (or I invited myself) to watch. It’s the first time I’ve watched this sport live. I used to only watch football from the movies and maybe some highlights from ESPN or TSN, but not watch the whole game.

BC Lions is British Columbia’s home grown football team in the Canadian Football League (CFL). If USA has NFL, Canada has its own version which is the CFL. Although NFL is popular in the states, I don’t think CFL is nearly as popular in Canada as it wants it to be. It might be because Canada is more of a hockey country, just like how Philippines is a basketball country.

Mind you, I’m not really a great big fan of American Football. Perhaps because it was never big in the Philippines or maybe it’s just too much testosterone. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed watching this match! I was into the game! My friend was kind enough to teach me the rules of the game throughout the match. By the end of the game, I knew what a 1st down, 3rd down, yards gained, punt was!

And you know how it is in live games, everyone’s just in it! I heard a guy seating a couple rows behind me shouting “Knock his head off!!!” and then another lady a couple of rows down dancing like crazy! It was all fun. As for me, I ended up stomping my feet (they do that to distract the opponents while they’re making their plays), shouting and cheering for the big boys.

Unfortunately, BC Lions lost though. But what the heck, it was a fun night, my first live football match, and that’s another first for me!

Garibaldi Lake

Today was spent hiking on Garibaldi Park in Squamish, British Columbia. This is about 30 minutes further north of Stawamus Chief, which we hiked a couple of weeks back. This hike took us approximately 7-8 hours, covering a distance of 25km. Elevation's hard to determine. Our ultimate goal to doing the hike is to get to the beautiful Garibaldi Lake, situated right smack in the middle of mountains, which is why, the only way to get there is to hike, or if you’re rich, perhaps, use a helicopter.

Here’s the picture of the trail map around the Garibaldi Provincial Park. This picture is from VanLiving.Net.

Our trek started from the Rubble Creek parking lot, going up to the junction (roughly around 6-7 km hike). From the junction, we decided to take the longer route so that we can pass by Taylor Meadows. Taylor Meadows is supposed to be a very pretty place at this point in time, but look what we encountered halfway up there:

(Left) from dry path to (Right) wet snow!

Hiking in snow is no fun at all. It’s slippery, it’s soft, and worst of all, it’s wet. Most of the effort was trying to be balanced. As my friend told me, the experience of hiking and walking through snow is like one who’s walking on a tight rope, trying to keep the balance, and the rope just keeps on wobbling. A couple of times I almost twisted my bad ankle.

And another thing I realized with hiking in the snow is the illusion that it is packed snow, but when you step on it, your whole leg submerges down! I think It happened to me a couple of times, which I hate more because if you don’t have any balance, you might just break your leg.

And what’s worst, I had my runners on! Which is not a good idea at all. If you hike, better use proper hiking shoes.

Continuing on with the hike, from Taylor Meadows, we somehow lost track of the markers and got lost for around 40 minutes, just wandering around the snow until we found the markers again. The good thing about my friend, he had his Garmin GPS so that we somehow had an idea where we were wandering to.

At this point, we’ve been hiking for roughly 3 hours already. And according to my pedometer, I’ve been walking 12000 steps already! Talk about being tired and then, worst – being lost! But somehow we managed to find the markers again (thank goodness!) and continue our way to Garibaldi Lake. By the way. I somehow managed to snap picture of the Black Tusk! Awesome isn’t it?

Even though we’ve been trekking for a while now, I still have energy left to continue the hike. But with a view of the lake (see below), I don’t think you’ll be tired at all! It’s well worth it after all.

 

Garibaldi Lake is amazing! It’s also extra special because there were still snow around, and we have to admit, even if snow is very hard to work with, it still looks beautiful with nature. And can you believe it, snow in the middle of Summer! Weather here is really absurd these days.

We stopped here for a quick snack and to enjoy the view for a moment. My other friend let me taste this Korean rice cake or something. It wasn’t bad, but… after eating the whole slice, my stomach suddenly felt really really absurd. Ang sakit! It was tolerable, but it didn’t help at all with the trek back. Of course, I didn’t tell her that. That’ll be too rude as she offered that to me anyway.

Our trek going back is to go via Barrier Lake path instead of the Taylor Meadow trail. That’s roughly another 10km back to the parking lot. Hiking down is as hard as hiking up. Going down, your ankle, knee, calves take all the weight. While going down, my legs and ankles are about to just give up. So in order to lessen the stress, I tried running down (after we got past all the snowy area, which was almost an hour later). Running down definitely lessened the pain. In fact, it was really fun running down the hills. You just have to be careful though. There were rocks all over the trails and some of them are protruding and they were as sharp as a knife.

Finally, around 3 PM, we finally made it back to the parking lot. We started around 7:30, if I’m not mistaken. What a day! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to track my overall steps via my pedometer because my iPod Nano died an hour before we got to the end zone. But according to my friend’s GPS, he said we trekked a total of roughly 25 km. Not bad at all.

This is definitely something I wouldn’t mind doing again, but not just in the next few weeks. Perhaps next year again!

Random Thoughts for the Day

Ipod Nano

I have a new Ipod Nano! I’ve been scouring craigslist for a few weeks now and I was finally able to find one selling his brand new nano 6th gen for just 110 CAD. Normally, the Nano sells around 149 (+ tax) in the Apple Store, so at 110, I think it’s a good deal.

Although I do have an ipod Touch, but I once tried using it during running and it was felt pretty bulky carrying it around. I wanted something small and handy that I can carry during hikes, runs, and even in the gym. In fact, I have an unopened ipod shuffle 3rd gen back in Manila but never wanted to use it, and was intending to sell it off because I didn’t like that model. Anyway, I ended up with the Nano because it had lot more features than the shuffle, and with the 6th gen Nano, Apple shrunk it to a size close to that of the shuffle 4th gen.

Let me see if I can improve my Grouse Grind time with this new gadget I have.

Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market is an amazing store where you can get all these diverse organic and natural products that you won’t see in any other grocery store. Just going into this store is an amazing experience. All the unique items there are awesome, and I especially love their selection of breads. I also heard the salad bar is amazing but I haven’t had the chance to try it out.

I’ve been here a couple of times already, and I usually just look around. I like going back here every now and then and so when my friend saw my tea mug (I have a post about it a couple of weeks back), he said he wanted one too, thus after we picked up my Ipod Nano this morning, we went straight to Whole Foods at Broadway and Cambie so that he can get himself a new tea mug. Oh boy did he like the other model as well, and he ended up buying 4 tea mugs in total! I was thinking of getting one for my sister too, but ended up not getting one because I am not sure if she’s an avid tea drinker as I am.

Anyhow, I did end up buying an organic green tea + jasmine tea. I’ve always loved this type of tea, but I haven’t tried out this brand yet. This was a bit expensive though. So hopefully this is worth the price I paid for it.

And since I loved their assortment of breads, I got an Italian Garlic Bread too. My colleague highly recommended that specific bread to me, so I got one earlier, which cost me almost $6 by the way, and I’ll give it a try tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Stefano’s

My landlady and landlord (Ate Mae and Kuya Toni) are celebrating their wedding anniversary this coming Monday and as an advance celebration, we went to Stefano’s, a Greek restaurant in New Westminster.

I’ve heard nice things about this restaurant, food is good, ambiance is wonderful, and music (live band) is entertaining.

Instead of ordering the usual Souvlaki, I got the Halibut Teriyaki instead with Ceasar’s Salad. According to their menu:

Halibut Teriyaki - west coast halibut fillet broiled and topped with teriyaki sauce   $23

I loved my order. I don’t usually enjoy Greek food as much, not a big fan, but this one was really good. I find the Halibut usually bland, thus the addition of the teriyaki sauce was definitely a plus factor. However, I was disappointed with the desert we ordered – Tiramisu cake. It was all cream, hardly any of the good parts of an actual tiramisu was there. Very disappointed.

Although I was disappointed with the desert, I enjoyed the music and the band though. They were playing all different music from love songs to disco songs! And at Stefano’s, they have a nice dance area too so diners can dance and enjoy the music! Of course I didn’t dance (and I never will!) but it was so much fun watching people of all ages dance! That’s probably one of my frustrations – I can’t dance!!

Slippers

I have new fluffy slippers, a gift from my very thoughtful landlady!

Which means, I can now use my 3+ year old ipanema slippers, which is still by the way in the best condition, outside. Well worth the 1k I paid for it! I’ve been looking for another slipper sana, but, I can’t seem to find a similar one. Unfortunately, Ipanema doesn’t make the same type of slippers anymore.

Grouse Grind So Far

As part of my fitness theme for this year’s Canada “work/vacation”, I’ve been challenging myself to do the grouse grind, not just do it, but improve on my time. Back in 2009, I bought myself the grind timer so that I can keep track of my hikes. Last year though, I went home to Manila before the grouse grind opened, so I didn’t have any hikes under my belt last year.

But this time, since I am extended here for another month, I’ve set a goal for myself to do the grind every week. It’s a good calorie burning exercise, and endurance training as well. So far, I’ve done three grouse grinds this season, with time improvements compared to two years ago:

Last night’s grind was my personal best so far. I’m trying to crack the one hour mark, so hopefully, in the next few weeks, I’ll be able to do so. And it only means one thing, more training in the gym! In fact, I did go to the gym earlier and got a 30 minute run as well (but I barely hit the 5km mark!), and did some nice circuit training too.

I thought I was going to make the one hour mark last night, but my time in the 3rd quarter wasn’t good. Took me a good 20 minutes there, which ideally should’ve been just 15 minutes. The change I did this time was to slower my pace the first quarter. In my second grind, it took me 15 minutes to reach the first quarter mark, but I was so tired afterwards, thus the 1:10 result. Last night, my first quarter was 20 minutes, but I had more energy all throughout.

What I really want to improve on are my legs and my heart. Some times, I just have to stop because my heart’s beating like crazy already. And at times, my heart’s ok, but my legs are just giving up. More training needed!

You know it’s summer here in Vancouver when…

1. I need an electric fan in my room.

2. I’m wearing shorts at home.

3. My landlady changed my sheets to something cooler (no more comforters!).

4. The window in my room is now open.

5. I don’t wear my jacket outside.

6. I need to apply sunblock when I go out.

7. I’ve changed my walking route to and from the office, because I want to get as much shade as I can. The sun heat here is terrible!

8. It’s 9PM and there’s still light outside!

9. I finally sweat when I’m outside.

10. You see more people in parks and beaches, sunbathing and showing as much skin as possible.

11. You see more people riding their bikes, roller blading and running outside.

12. When I get asked by security (on my way to the gym) why I’m not enjoying the sunny weather outside.

And you know we’re Filipinos here because when we’re waiting for bus stops, we try to look for the best “shaded” place as possible! And my friends and I were talking about how the sun is just painful here, and we all agree that we all just want to take out our umbrellas to shield ourselves from the sun, but we’re just too embarrassed to do it! After all, people here are totally into this summer weather, which they only get for just a couple of months a year. Summer here is something people here really enjoy!

Welcome summer in Vancouver. Haven’t seen you in two years!

Blog Site: Welcome Home Blog

My usual routine before I go to bed is to read some random article online via my iPod Touch. Last night, I was supposed to go to sleep around 11 pm, but as per my routine, I stumbled upon this pretty nice website: Welcome Home Blog.

This blog posts different videos of American soldiers coming home from military duties and surprising their loved ones. Each video you’d watch, you’d probably be shedding a tear or two. I think I’m going to have puffy eyes today because of all the “crying” I did last night by just watching these videos. Oh, and did I tell you that I ended up sleeping at 12:30 am?? I just couldn’t stop watching these touching videos.

I recommend everyone to find time to check this website out. Although we’re not Americans, but the idea of family and love will always be the same for everyone. And make sure to have a tissue paper handy at arms reach.

Quebec Trip: Montmorency Falls, Charlevoix

Another two places we visited was the Montmorency Falls and the Charlevoix City in Quebec Province.

Montmorency Falls

Montmorency Falls is a tourist destination in Quebec Province. It is a huge waterfall situated just close to Quebec City. The entrance we used was from the top, thus, we had to ride the Gondola down (it’s not free by the way) to be able to get a shot like the one below. Unfortunately, it was really windy and rainy during this time so we stayed only for a few minutes at this point and went back up to the top of the falls via the same Gondola.

On top of the waterfall, in the surrounding area, houses the Parc de la Chute-Montmorency. It is a restaurant or meeting area where one can dine, hold business meetings, or even wedding banquets.

Pictures above were taken mid point of the falls, there’s a viewing area. You can see the St. Lawrence river from here. Very pretty sight, especially since you’ll see bits of pieces of snow still there, but melting away. I wonder how beautiful this place would look like during Winter and the Fall seasons.

You’ll also notice in the picture above on the left, that there’s a bridge that crosses across the whole waterfall. Unfortunately, when I got to that point, the battery of my camera died. So no pictures.

You can read more about Montmorency Falls here.

Charlevoix

After dropping by Montmorency Falls and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, our next pit stop was to go to Charlevoix and do some whale watching and to visit a casino on the side.

Unfortunately, it was such a windy and rainy day that when we got to the whale watching site, there was no boat sailing out! Too bad… but the good thing is, we found this nice trail which ended up in a shore line area with these huge rock formations looking out to a body of water. This sight was amazing. My aunt’s said that it looked similar to the ones in Newfoundland (originally part of the itinerary but had to be scrapped out because of time constraints).

We stayed at Charlevoix for one night, before heading back to Quebec the next day. From Quebec City, we went travelled to Montreal, then to Cornwall, and then back to Mississauga.

More about the next pit stop on another blog post.

Quebec City Trip: Frontenac and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

This is supposed to be a continuation of my previous post: Niagara Falls. Took me a while to finally finish this up.

Niagara Falls was just the first stop on that trip. The following day, we drove up to Cornwall, still in Ontario to go to my Aunt’s place first. She lives there and is working as a physical therapist. Cornwall is a nice little town, 4-5 hours away from Mississauga City. I like this place because you can pretty much go from point A to point B by just walking. And it’s a quiet little place, I wouldn’t mind staying there to relax. In fact, my dad once visited this place as well and he fell in love with it, saying that this place would be a great place to retire and live the simple life.

There’s a lot of things one can see in Quebec City.

Château Frontenac

This is a grand hotel located in what I would say is Quebec’s version of Intramuros. It’s in a fort and sits beside this body of water – I think it’s the St. Lawrence River.

This was our first stop in Quebec City. I just love the ambiance of this city. Everyone’s speaking French, the weather is cool, and the architecture is beautiful, like a mini version of Europe. For instance:

Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

This is one of the most beautiful Basilica’s I’ve seen in my life. The basilica is huge. The basilica per se has been around for hundreds of years, but in the year 1922, the original basilica was destroyed by fire, thus, this one in the picture is actually the rebuilt basilica. If the outside was magnificent, wait until you get inside – it’s breathtakingly beautiful. 

Outside view of the Basilica and the inside ceiling view.

De La Salle is here!

At the back area of the basilica is the “Stations of the Cross”. It’s almost a lifelike replica of the different stations of the cross. I can’t recall in the Philippines where I’d seen a similar Stations of the Cross where you go up the hill as you go to each station. It’s very beautiful. Even though it was cold that day, we visited each station, and trekked all the way to the top.

I can only imagine what this would look like during Fall and Winter season, it would be very very beautiful. You can read more about this Basilica here.

I will need to post these pictures somewhere!!!

This is just the half of the trip – there’s still the Montmorency Falls, Charlevoix, Attempted Whale Watching, Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal. That’ll come in the next post!