Into the clouds

Happy New Year Everyone!! I'm starting off this day by eating junk food and doing laundry 👿 This past Sunday, I met the team leads and some of the employees Chichi works with. We all went to eat at Vikings, a buffet in SM Lanang mall. It was good! There were many choices, everything looked appetizing! You had your regular "Chinese" options, what you would find in a Chinese buffet back home, fried rice and fried noodles. Yet, they brought it up a notch, as you also had a choice of dumplings! There was a taco stand, there was local food, and pashgetti, pizza, etc. What brings them out of falling under an "ordinary buffet style" was their fountains of drink. Yes, it's a buffet in which you serve yourself everything! There's draft beer and also a fridge of Heineken beers - FREE! There's also slush machines, pop, juices and milk tea. I had my favourite, cucumber lime juice! All drinks are free! Crazy, isn't it?  Their dessert section was out of ...

We woke up to an earthquake this morning. They're saying it's a 7.1 magnitude, 6.9 on some sites. It just felt like the bed was swaying from side to side. Definitely not something I was expecting. Still, we rounded up under the table and when it felt safer, got dressed and shot down the stairs. It's great living on the 3rd floor, not as many stairs to go down! Then it was the waiting game, as we waited for clearance to go back inside. There was a tsunami warning issued, but was later cancelled as things seem to have subsided. No more earthquakes today. There was a tsunami advisory for a few hours but was later cancelled.  This experience made us realize that we were not prepared. We've decided to have a pre-packed "survival" bag for any such emergency in the future. That way, if we're home and it happens again, we grab the bag and go! Hope everyone is passing a great holiday season! Chichi's on vacation right now, so we're spending time togeth...

We've officially been in our new home for 1 week! Yippee!! Since we don't have home internet yet and didn't want to use up all out gigs on the pocket wifi we acquired, Chichi decided to buy us an early Chrissymass present! It's the tiniest, cutest little thing! A mini SNES!! It fits in the palm of our hand, has preinstalled games and 2 controllers! We've been having fun playing together and sometimes watching the other. Not much happening today, waiting on Globe to come and install our internet. I decided to turn on my data plan, mostly because our pocket wifi's battery was running to its death.  Pocket wifi has been a wallet saver! 8G/mth for 1000 php is good (it's around $25 cdn), the quality of the wifi is not so great most of the time. Only the first day we used it, did it have full bars. Ever since, I think the most we've have was 3 out of 5 bars, most of the time it's between 1 and 2 bars. Not the best quality, I also don't see ...

An up close look at those petals that look like leaves! Today I met M and H , two people who work with Chichi. They took us out on Jeepney (pronounced "Jipney") rides to see and get a feel for them.  Riding on a Jeepney!   (Click the link) Getting on a Jeepney can be very tricky if you don't know the area or don't know where you're going. Each Jeepney has its own route it follows, sometimes there's a number for the route, other times there are just street names indicated on the front windshield (or on the side panel).  How to tell which Jeepney goes to the area you want to go? Or which colour Jeepney is the right one to embark on? Some Jeepneys have the same street name indicated but depending on the colour of the Jeepney, go elsewhere. Why, through trial and error, of course! Unless you're fortunate enough to have someone to guide you, you're pretty much on your own. Let's hope you have a better sense of direction than I do! You cou...

Hi loverlys! We move out of the hotel later today (it's like 2:30am). Off to the condo! It's crazy exciting and feels weird at the same time. Weird in the sense that we've been at the hotel for so long, it'll be weird to not be here. Crazy exciting because we'll FINALLY be in our own place! I'm looking forward to it so much! We'll finally be able to cook for ourselves, no more eating out for lunch and supper every day. I need some consistent healthy food in me! With the new move, I will be going offline for a bit until we get hooked up at the condo. We're waiting on our copy of the lease to be sent to us, then we'll be able to sign up for internet. It shouldn't take too long and once that's done, I'll be back to posting more regularly. Pictures of the condo all set up will be posted soon! For now, enjoy these videos: Welcome to our new abode!  (Click the link) Nos voisins! Our neighbours!   (Click link)

There's finally a bit of sunshine in our lives. Not that our skies were grey, but with all the stress and everything, it's finally starting to be more positive, less stress even if not entirely gone.  Chichi signed the lease Thursday and the turnover was yesterday (Friday), we got 1 key, the other should be coming later today (Saturday). We'll be getting the second key as well as 2 mailbox keys.  We went through the condo today, marking down a checklist of appliances and furnishing already there. As well as verifying the condition of everything, so if there's anything already in non excellent condition, we won't be blamed for having wrecked it when our contract expires. There were a few problem areas, paint peeling off the washroom ceiling, scuff marks on the walls, door chippings, cracks in the walls. Mouman always tells me I could find a needle in a haystack, since I can find the littlest things. It came in very handy!  The landlord bought us some dishes and ...

There's so much going on right now, I feel the need to write just so I'll be able to sleep tonight. Things are so stressful and it's unknown to me how I'm keeping my head on. But I am, so that's good. Chichi's sick right now, part man-cold part not enough sleep, stress overload "cold". We've all been there, at least I know I have. Where you convince yourself feverish, even though what you have is probably just a common cold. You take your temperature, the thermometer, it doesn't lie, but you're so convinced that you think the thing is broken. Yes, he does have a cough, and stuffed and runny nose. I'm not saying he's not at all sick, but he's stretching it out. Convinced he's feverish, when he's not. Had me get the hotel to call a doctor, thankfully there's a nurse on hand. EMS shows up, take his temp. Normal reading. -_- At least he didn't tell her to retake it. After she'd gone though, he takes out his own t...