Baggage Wrapping at the NAIA Terminal 3 airport

I am shit scared of my luggage being opened in airports. Not trying to bad mouth the Philippines, but having lived here all my life and after watching and reading about luggage being opened in airports causing refusal of entry, I cannot help but feel very paranoid.

 That's why it was such a relief to find these available at NAIA Terminal 3 airport:

They cover it in all sizes and each only costs Php 160.00.

P.S.

They did not have these luggage wrapping things in Manchester Airport in the UK. #OnlyinthePhilippines

#KEAoke2015: Pre-Valentine's turned Valentine's Day Salubong

Seems like people still have hang over of the Valentine's weekend. I know I do. But as I have said in my last post, Valentine's is best spent with friends. And that's exactly what I did.

A week before Valentine's, my Instagram photos be like:

And since it's the season two of #KEAoke, our annual KTV party, same rules apply:Always welcome to bring a friend! Last year, on top of our regulars, we had a priest, a brother (semi-priest), and a 10 year old Cheska, join us and it was so much fun!

This year my new friend and colleague, Beth, brought along her Vietnamese boyfriend, Tuan, who made spring rolls for us! (Thank you Beth! Frankie's still craving for it! hihi). Beth even said she doesn't normally join KTV parties and she doesn't sing, but she did in #KEAoke! Thank you Beth and Tuan!

My sister Aprille and Jay also came straight from work - Thank you!

My friend Jim also came! Thank you Jimmy James!

Dianne, our Ms. DOST, also had special guests who dropped by, Thank you!

Now, sharing with you some photos we managed to take. I only managed to take a few photos because, this is what always happens: We have too much fun and we forget to document. So thank you to our special guests, who dropped by and were not able to be included in the photos.

Too bad Paully was not able to join us this year, but at least we managed to sneak in our annual UPLB Feb fair photo-booth pic:

And because last year's #KEAoke also had a video, we must have a video too for the last bunch of people singing:


#KEAoke2015: Last Peeps Singing from The Kea Channel on Vimeo.

We were supposed to only stay until 11pm but we ended up extending until past 1 in the morning!

Thank you guys for joining! See you on #KEAoke season three! (I'm looking for new excuses not to wait til another Valentine's to do this again, because... why not?!)

Fond memories of Valentine's Day

I found this video today in my Facebook feed. It's about Single Guys vs Single Girls on Valentines Day. 

Hahahaha! I don't relate anymore to all the wallowing and shiz, but that quote from @NickyParisBitch sure did hit home:

The worst part about  being single on Valentine’s day is not about being alone, it’s knowing that people who are uglier than you, have found love.

Super LOL, eh sa yung ang nag hit home eh! Of course I have joined the Valentine's day bandwagon, but speaking from experience, I would rather be single on Valentine's day (no expectations) than have a beau with absolutely no plans of being romantic. At all.

Anyway, looking back, I realized that while Single Awareness Day trends on twitter every year on Valentine's day, I actually have a lot fun during this day of love. Let me do a quick back track:

2005-2008 - Every Valentine's day, Starbucks have a  Buy 1 take 1 Frap Promo using their planner coupons so I always buy Venti and give the other to my friend. So we always look forward to Valentine's day. Also, back in our office, every Valentine's day we used to have a Prom Night where our agents dress up in pretty gowns then we'd have the actual pageant after everyone's shift. It's been something we all look forward to.

2009 - One of my best Valentine's day because both our British cousins, Stew and Chimayne, were here in the Philippines. We went bar hopping and went to a naughty bar and had tons of laughter. That's my favorite Valentine night to this day.

2010 - I don't remember what I did, actually.

2011 - My friends Nina, Jla, and I, had an movie marathon party that Nina and I ended up sleeping over at her house. Wrote about it here. 

2012 - Kuya Stew was once again in the Philippines and we went to UP's annual February Fair. I also spent Valentine's week with friends. Wrote about it here. 

2013 - On the actual Feb 14 date, I was really firm about staying in but I got bullied into going out so next thing I knew, I was out with my two guy friends, Rogus and Dodi, and wrote about it here. 

2014 - Last year I started the small KTV party with my friends called #KEAoke and wrote about here. It was one of the most fun Valentine's I've had.

So two things my friends, and speaking from experience: 1) This whole Valentine's day drama rama is just all in the head, and 2) Valentine's Day, like Boracay, is best spent with friends. 

Friends, Food, and Sunset

One of the things that I like about living in Laguna is how an ordinary, no-schedule day Saturday, can turn into a spontaneous medyo-out-of-local-town weekend.

I was just at the car wash when I got a call from Poch saying our friends wanted to go to Liliw for whatever reason. An hour and a half later, I find myself on the way to Liliw with my friends. Last time I was in Liliw was back in October 2013. It is still the same but we never got the time to try the famous cute restaurant called Arabela.

We arrived at around 3pm already and this time, luckily we got probably the last good seats in the house: corner spot with couch. I took this photo from where I was seated but this photo was taken after the guests have gone. (Because they probably wouldn't want to dine and appear in someone else's blog)

What I didn't like about the interior is the low ceiling. Check out Poch and Lyle haha 

Without further ado, let's have a quick review of the food.

Jim ordered this four cheese pizza, which tastes more like Tomato Pizza with cheese for the tomato's taste is a lot more dominant than the supposedly four cheese. 

 I ordered the carbonara, which is the safest. It costs Php 100.00.

 But it is just a small serving in reality. It's okay for a carbonara although I can get one with similar taste at Pizza hut.

 Jim, Mhy and Lyle ordered the lasagna. And Lyle could swear that hours later he can still taste the spices in his mouth.

Poch ordered this with an extra order of rice. I forgot what this is called and I don't remember hearing him rave about it.

BUT, this, my darlings, is my favorite: The Chocolate Chip Cheesecake! (Php 110.00)

 It was too sweet for Jim and Lyle's taste but I like it! I'm going to order this again when we come back this month with my girl friends.

After buying house slippers and roaming around the place, we decided on the spot to head to Caliraya to watch the sunset.

Jim, Poch, together with their photographer friends used to chase sunsets in Caliraya for that picture perfect sunset shot. Here we are on the exact same spot trying to capture it via...smartphone.

There were also some visitors and photography enthusiasts on the spot where we were waiting for the sunset. They came prepared with their selfie-sticks while Poch served as our human monopod. We were supposed to have a group shot with the Caliraya sunset background as Jim came prepared with a DSLR and a tripod but we got too busy trying to capture the actual going down of the sunset in our smartphones.

And by little past 7pm, we were already in our own homes and have called it a day.

I had a good first month for the year 2015. How about you?

Scripted "Sugar": ANTM Model in Maroon 5's Wedding Crashers-inspired video

I can't tell you how many times I have played and watched Maroon 5's Sugar video about crashing weddings. It gave me such happy vibe that I even shared it to my couple clients for good vibes.

If you  haven't seen it, well here it is:

I was really wondering how did they go around crashing 7 weddings around LA with that amount of time of band set up (see first part of the video) and the set up of platform of stage complete with stage lights.

But today, was the big confirmation. Sorry to burst the bubble of those who swooned over Maroon 5's Sugar Video (me included and I'm sure my friend Aya, who's a huge Adam Levine fan). But the wedding crashers-inspired video is indeed scripted. 

When I first saw it, I was super impressed how they pulled it off. Actually, because of the video, I downloaded Maroon 5's whole V album and it has been on repeat since last week. Early this morning, my friend's sister shared this photo from a Facebook page.

Look at the hashtag! SHE'S NOT MARRIED!!! 

Actually when I first saw the video, there's this third bride who looked really familiar. It turned out to be Raina Heim.

If you don't know Raina, she used to be at the America's Next Top Model, Cycle 14:

I used to watch America's Next Top model so I know. The first one in black is Raina:

But you gotta hand it over to the actors, they did a good job. I still like watching the video even if I know that it's scripted. 

What the heck.

On a Pope High!

We saw the Pope in the flesh! TWICE! I am proud to be part of this history together with my sisters Achi and Aprille, her beau Jay and my friend Joy.



We left the house at 2:30am, arrived at around 4 and found Parking, 5:30 we were at the Maria Orosa gate and by past 7am we were finally let in! I can't tell you how much the level of my anxiety and stress hiked up. I was just praying the whole time because I was scared of a stampede. I keep chanting to myself : For the love of Pope, for the love of Pope...

I did not even bothered to take pictures, even when this celebrity Jason Abalos braved our crowd because he happened to be a POPE EVENT MARSHALL. Practically everyone whipped out their gadgets and tablets while the five of us got pushed near the gates (to our advantage).

First thing we did when we got in was find a place to camp out and power nap. No choice since people are literally every where so this is the surface we camped on.

 Power nap view:

We were prepared to get wet so we bought transparent rain coats the night before.

The longest wait I had to make just to pee. We lined up at 10:35am and finally was able to relieve ourselves at 1:35pm. NO KIDDING!

Majority of the plants were...dead.

We saw the Pope passed by on his way to the grandstand! When we finally saw the pope passed by, we tried to make it near the stadium. But people are everywhere! We were at the Maria Orosa gate then when made our way near the stadium when after Pope passed by.

I didn't really know how many of us were there until I saw this: 6 Million Strong!

I didn't realize how near we are to the stadium until I compared it to one of the photos from my phone:

We weren't even in the aerial shot!

Here comes the Pope!!!

WE LOVE YOU POPE FRANCIS!!!

Thank God I was able to catch it on video even if I only have 11% battery left! 

VIVA IL PAPA, PAPA FRANCISCO!!!

Viva il Papa, Papa Francisco! from The Kea Channel on Vimeo.