The Old Summer Capital

Hi, hello, how are you? Am still aliiive. :) The cold breeze tonight reminded me of the very cold nights in Baguio last summer. Although I may not have been very impressed, I still found the city very charming with its houses, pine trees, cheap taxi fares, strawberries, and very cold early mornings.  Our 2011 Baguio trip is documented here, here, here, and here.  And, speaking of Baguio, is it true that it is now called "The Old Summer Capital"? Why?  When I was a child, we learned through our books that Baguio was the summer capital of the country.  Growing up, I read and re-read a collection of short stories about life in Baguio and the Cordilleras.  I cannot remember each story but I can still recall the feeling they invoked in me. I recalled most stories involved the night, and walking a long, long, lonely, and cold road to home.  I also recalled dining scenes in most stories involved a kind of root crop.  What happened to the summer capital? They said it has now been replaced by Boracay because in recent years it has been the popular choice for summer vacation trips.  I have not been to Boracay, and I am not curious (weeh).

One of the souvenirs I bought from the Old Summer Capital of Baguio City is this green knitted cardigan am wearing in the pictures.

Am wearing:
floral dress - thrifted
green cardi - knitted from Baguio
gray belt - thrifted
nude pumps - thrifted staccato

It's More Fun in the Philippines

The "It's More Fun in the Philippines" virus has bitten me. With a lot of people making "more fun" memes, I couldn't help but join.  As a Filipino, I could list a thousand fun things in the Philippines (but at the back of my mind, I think only those who've been to other countries could say it's "more" fun in the Philippines, which makes me ask, is the campaign targeted mostly for foreigners and for pseudo-foreigners?) On to the meme, because I am a thift shop fan, I made a meme about thrift shopping.  My boyfriend took this picture in Baguio where thrift shopping/ukay-ukay/wagwagan all started. :)

Make your own meme here

Lunchbox Notes

I am not (yet) a mother, but when I read this article from The Wall Street Journal, I found it cute and caring and loving.  Lunchbox notes are easy-to-make, thrifty, do not cost a lot, and very personal.  I think children would love these...and I think we need these, especially with the rising incidents of teenage suicides.

I'm in the mood for monochrome tonight. Most of the day today was raining hard, and I spent most of my day in bed, playing a mystery game in my laptop. Yes, I have my laptop back after 2 weeks. My laptop, an MSI X320 died, some Tuesdays ago while I was playing TextTwist. When I asked my boyfriend what could have been the reason why my laptop died, he said it was because I was pounding too hard on my laptop while playing texttwist. I don't know if he's correct, when it comes to gadgets and technology, you can tell me anything and I will believe. I sent my laptop to the MSI store in SM City Cebu where I bought it to see if they can repair it. And repair they did! They replaced my hard drive (too sad my case digests).

My laptop story is of course insignificant. But I'm relating it because I am too happy with MSI's services that I want to tell everyone about it. The clerks at the MSI store processed my application for repair in less than 5minutes, no waiting time, and told me to call within 2-3 weeks. I called a day after the second week and they told me my laptop's already ready for pick-up. The technician, whose name is Mark, replaced the hard drive, and installed an OS, applications, dictionary, encyclopedia, games, skype, google chrome and a software for lan in my laptop. I thought that was very considerate and thoughtful of him, because I use google chrome as my browser and skype for work. Very thoughtful.

So, thank you MSI-SM Cebu. I appreciate your services. I am one happy customer. I wish all stores/service providers are like you.


Re, the photos. They were taken in Tabuelan the other weekend. I wore this sheer vintage dress (also worn as a top here), vintage Lee shorts that I thrifted when we dropped by the public market in Balambam, and striped bandeau bikini top.

the title for this post would be: orange and strawberry. we were in the beach over the weekend, in tabuelan, in northwest cebu. it was very far, but the beach was good.

vintage [clothes], vintage-inspired [glasses], crafty things [for DIY], and new [gifts!]. I hope this rainy July will be A-okay.

scenes from baguio, and beyond

Some of my friends, my boyfriend, and I went to Baguio in mid-May. We took night bus trips to and fro Baguio to "save" time. The bus trips to Baguio, at seven hours (by regular bus) and less than five hours (by deluxe bus) were long and cold, my friend had to use the bus's curtain as a blanket. In Baguio, we rented a house (I think if you're a bigger group, you can save money by renting a house instead of checking in a hotel) and hired a van to tour us around Baguio and beyond. The van driver was knowledgeable and accommodating.

Unfortunately, Baguio, for me, was not breathtaking or anything. The city was just...different. It was cold (ok,), small, with very narrow and roller-coaster streets, and full of tourists and tourist shops. But there are still some reasons to go back (inexpensive shoes in thrift stores, that's one; the weather, that's another).

Pictures (top-bottom, left-right): 1. clouds . . . 2. Libingan ng mga Bayani . . . 3. Manila view from a hotel . . . 4. at Libingan . . . 5. Baguio at 5am . . . 6. houses at the Cordilleras . . . 7. early morning and brownout at 7-11 in Baguio . . . 8. Burnham Park lagoon . . . 9. Baguio night lights viewed from SM . . . 10. at a wagwagan . . . 11. top- gift, skirt-thrifted, bag-gift . . . 12. cold in SM Baguio . . . 13. view of Mt. Mayon from the plane

flowers in baguio

flowers in baguio and my favorite silk shirt

in baguio, there's the color red

a few hours

After our trip to Calubian, Leyte, we had a few hours to kill in Ormoc before our boat leaves for Cebu. Those hours we spent strolling around a mall, working and drinking coffee in the mall, walking around the city, having halo-halo, and beaming around when night fell at the many lovers dotting the plaza. My boyfriend and I were really happy to see the cityfolks gathered around the town plaza at night, especially the lovers.. so cute.

More photos at boyfriend's site

Happy Easter! p.s. photo overload

I did not expect to be writing this this year or ever, but then things happen. For the first time in 26 years, I was not at home for Holy Week. I was in the city, doing Pinoy movie marathon with my cousins and eating home-made benignit and biko and drinking tsokolate till we fell asleep. So, I'm sharing some analog photos taken a year ago for Holy Week in Lazi.

Dumaguete, Day 2

Day 2 was Jollibee for breakfast (we are Pinoys), boyfriend's pasalubong shopping at his favorite Ana Maria, Siliman, buko pie at Daro, back to Sansrival for lunch, and back to Cebu.

P.S.: Any of you who has any idea where else interesting to go when in Dumaguete, please share.

Top - vintage

Shorts - thrifted