Photo Gallery: Lugsangan Peak (July 2018)

Last July, my friends and I had a surprise mountain trek at Lugsangan Peak in Mantalongon, Dalaguete, Cebu. Our original plan was to go to Osmeña Peak, which is Cebu’s highest elevation. But, my sister told us about another peak she claimed to be better than Osmeña Peak – Lugsangan (or previously known as Casino) peak. From up here, you’re supposed to get a view of Cebu’s own version of “Chocolate Hills”. What she didn’t tell us was that the trek would be a long one!

We were in for a surprise when we saw how far we had to walk/climb to get to the peak (see 2nd photo in the slideshow). We didn’t see this coming. You see, to get to Osmeña peak, you only had to walk 10 minutes. This was a good 30-40 minutes one way, and there’s a rock-climbing part, too!

When we got to the top though, it was all worth it. The view was amazing! Coupled with the cold weather, and the fun company, it was definitely one for the books! I’m so glad I brought my mirrorless camera with me – although I left my spare batteries in the car! I still managed to get some good photos before my camera died on me.

Without further ado, presenting the photos of our Lugsangan Peak adventure! Enjoy! 🙂

View at the top – Cebu’s version of Chocolate Hills

2018.09.08 – Big Mama & Crepe Amelie

My brother woke me up at 8 in the morning to have some breakfast. Both of us have a hangover from the night before, but he had it worse than me and prepared breakfast, so I had to oblige. I got up, ate, and went back to sleep after because I was still so sleepy. I woke up again at around 2 pm already, received an invite from Ivan to eat lunch at Big Mama since he was in the area for a dentist appointment. So, I finally got out of bed and showered! We shouldn’t be wasting Saturdays away like this!

Big Mama!

It was a good day to be walking around the neighborhood. The sun was out, the sky was clear, there weren’t a lot of cars on the road. I told my brother that it was an image taken out of a city pop song.

I finally arrived at Big Mama, excited for the chicken – and was shocked to be having a hot pot on a hot day! That thing was huge and there was only two of us to eat it all! The menu labeled it as “good for Filipino taste”. I didn’t know what that meant, but it was a bit too spicy for my liking. We didn’t get to finish this so Ivan just took the rest of it home.

When eating in Big Mama, here are my recommended orders:

Fried Chicken Spicy! Dip in salt & pepper!

The fried chicken, as always, never fails to hit the spot! I was stuffed full after lunch! We went to get coffee at the nearby Starbucks after and played Pokémon Go and Pokémon Quest. Right now, in Pokémon Go, you can get a Lucky Pokémon for trading a Pokémon caught from July to August 2016. Lucky Pokémon basically means that you can level it up for half the price of stardust and it just looks really cool on both your Pokémon Box and your Pokédex!

After finishing my coffee, I had the sudden urge to go to the toilet (must be from all of the heavy cream) so I said good bye and ran home in time for…well, I won’t delve further.

Crepe Amelie!

I fell asleep after fixing up my blog (again). I wasn’t satisfied with my previous theme so I ended up changing it again to a more minimalistic one. At around 6:30 pm, I woke up to another invite, this time from Kristi and Mark who wanted to meet up for coffee and desserts! They picked a café that’s just across the street from my place, so I washed my face and went to meet them.

There’s no shortage of topics to talk about with these two. We ended up planning a trip to Singapore in January, and I hope that comes true because we really should be out there enjoying life more! Haha. They just came from a London trip and I wish I joined them had they invited me! LOL. But Singapore, yes! Let’s do this!!!

I told them about a nearby unassuming bar that served curated cocktails and asked them if they wanted to get one shot for the road. I will talk more about it in a separate post because that place was amazing – like a hidden gem I want to share to the world, but also keep for myself! It’s called Run Rabbit Run, and while the price is a bit on the steep side – I highly recommend it to those looking for a place to chill (not to get drunk). Look out for the next post!

2018.09.07 – Good Earth Roasts (TCO Mini Reunion)

Friday night turned out to be a pleasant surprise with an unexpected mini-reunion of old TCO friends in one of my favorite bars in Manila.

But first, Rico’s!

Andrew invited Ron and myself to Diageo’s open bar, but he had to accompany Faye for a check-up, so we ended up taking a raincheck on the open bar. So, while waiting, Ron and I had dinner first at Rico’s Lechon where I ordered the usual.

Suffice to say, we were so full when we left the restaurant. I’m so glad that the place was packed, because that would mean that they wouldn’t be closing down any time soon – and that Cebu food will continue to be a stone throw away from the office!

Good Earth Roasts – we meet again!

One of my old time favorite places to drink is Good Earth Roasts. Despite being in BGC, they continue to serve affordable drinks and my all time favorite – Jam Juice – brings back so many memories of my early working days, when we were still located at the old office building in Makati.

I’ve made a lot of friends over Jam Juice, and while most of us have gone our separate ways, I will continue to treasure the memories we’ve made over this drink.

I couldn’t not have Jam Juice when in Good Earth Roasts so I still ended up drinking 2 jars of this drink. Jam Juice isn’t really Keto-friendly, because it’s mainly made up of pineapple juice – so I had Rum & Coke Zero for the rest of the night.

And this – their infamous Mixed Nuts, which is basically just Ding Dong heated in the microwave! BUT – it tastes so good! I had to just pick out the peanuts to keep it Keto. Haha.

TCO Mini-Reunion

Earlier in the evening, I sent her a photo of myself and Ron, saying that nobody wanted to drink with us, and asked her to come! She actually did! To our surprise, Kristi actually came home for the weekend (from Singapore), so we were shocked when she asked where we were and that she was going to meet us! Flo also followed and the night was filled with stories for catching up!

Group pic (excluding Ron who went back to his office for a while)

We finished at almost 2AM already. I can say it has been one of them better Fridays! 🙂

2018.09.06 – Blog changes / Debbie’s 10th

So, an email arrived that made me think twice about this whole blogging thing on here. I have been “secretly” blogging over at LiveJournal every day for a month now because that was where I started a long, long time ago. Last night, I got an email from my hosting service billing me for the next three years of subscription – and wow, this site is not cheap! I wanted to just let it die and move to LJ for good, but my Japan travel posts are all here! And, I cannot set-up Adsense there (as if I’m actually earning anything from here), so to cut the story short, I chose to stay here, pay that bill and do better so that I get the most of what I’m paying for.

What now?

For the longest time, I couldn’t really decide what I wanted my site to be about, and I have been agonizing over it, to the point of me not posting anything anymore. Analysis paralysis is what they call it. I decided to let that all go – and do what I do best, which is just talk about my day. It may not be as interesting, but it’s what I want to do. For myself when I get older. For my friends (who bother visiting this site) who miss me on social media. And for strangers who happen to magically stumble upon my humble site. So yes, this will now be my public journal for all to see (wow, celebrity?), with some sections still for my interests, things I want to share, as well as Japan-specific topics. I’m also thinking of introducing a Japanese word in each entry, because I wanted to still highlight my being a ~~weeb~~ Japanophile.

Sorry for the spam

For my friends who follow my page on Facebook and Twitter, sorry for last night’s migration spam. Since this blog is linked to those accounts, all entries get auto-posted to those two social media platforms (even if I don’t use them anymore). Feel free to catch up on my posts for the month, though!

What I did today

So other than work (as per usual), today was my good friend Debbie’s 10th work anniversary dinner celebration (that’s a mouthful to read). We had it at Nanbantei, which is one of my favorite yakitori places in the metro! I don’t have photos of the food because I arrived late (came from an urgent meeting). Instead, I will leave you with the group photo, and our usual selfie.

It was a short dinner because they still have meetings and work after. I hope we can celebrate longer (and with drinks, too) soon! 🙂

P.S. Thank you WordPress for fixing your mobile app! It finally works well!!

2018.09.05 – ドライブ (Drive)

Wednesday was full of meetings. Like jampacked from morning until 5:30pm. I drove my car today to save money because seriously, Grab has been hard to book recently, unless you get the 6-seater or the premium one, which costs a lot! Yesterday, I spent almost 500 on Grab alone! I need to start saving up for my upcoming trips so I’ll be bringing my car more often to work.

Spending: Yesterday vs. Today

On the drive back home, I was stuck in traffic for almost two hours. But – with Utada’s Hatsukoi (album) and Troye Sivan’s Bloom (album), and this view, the drive wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I enjoyed it a lot!

Amazing sunset colors!

I know, I’m sorry for taking a photo but seriously, this line was not moving for like 10 minutes.

Now, I’ll be eating my leftover from lunch (I ordered too much from the neighborhood karenderya) for dinner, then play some Octopath for an hour or two (since I didn’t get to play yesterday). So yeah, time to enjoy the rest of this week’s hump day. Good night in advance!

P.S. I didn’t get to play Octopath because I decided to move all of my LJ posts to my main blog! More about this in tomorrow’s post because I’m already drowsy. Haha.

2018.09.04 – Lechon, again and again!

I was initially planning on working from home this Tuesday but I’ve been enjoying working in the office since I moved roles, so I didn’t want to break the momentum and went to the office instead. I don’t regret it because I got to attend a lot of meetings and also had fun with friends. Today’s highlight would be:

7-eleven shopping because we didn’t have enough time to go to Starbucks.
Dinner at Rico’s Lechon…again!
Slash #2, make that Dinner with Rico instead!

The man responsible for this best-tasting lechon!!!

Ok, he was just seated at the table beside us and Kathi had the guts to ask him to take this wacky photo. Haha. So photo credit goes to her. We also had a group shot, as a remembrance of this funny encounter.

#HairGoals

I’m glad they enjoyed the food. I ordered for them since they didn’t really know what to get. I got the spicy lechon, munggo, and ngohiong combo. They would have loved the chorizo, too, but the restaurant ran out! It might be selling too well!

After dinner, I headed home and fell asleep right away. Woke up 10 hours later – yes, TEN – to a brand new day.

P.S. Hello Rico, please sponsor me to advertise your restaurant! HAHA.

2018.09.03 – Another sleepless Monday

Well, in the morning at least. I was not able to fall asleep from Sunday evening. I did get an hour and a half of shut-eye but my mind was all over the place. I went straight to the office after preparing lunch (leftover lechon paksiw) and worked away!

I also outright violated my plan of not getting Starbucks because I had to, I was dying of sleepiness after lunch. After a couple of meetings, I finally left the office at 4 and slept like a baby at 4:30 when I got home.

At around 9:30 pm, I woke up, prepared dinner from whatever leftover is in the fridge, played a bit of Octopath, then went back to sleep at 1am!

And yeah, no photo for today!

2018.09.02 – Lechon, again v2

I woke up a bit late today because I slept past 5am already. I got out of bed very hungry at 2pm (I ate only once yesterday), and I wanted to eat something good. So yeah, lechon it is!

Thank you Rico’s Lechon for coming to Manila!

My recommended order in Rico’s are: 1) Spicy Lechon, 2) Spicy Chorizo, 3) Ngohiong and 4) Monggos (Munggo) – although this is not Keto.

I also ordered 1/2 kilo take-out for my brother (and for myself haha). I’m planning to make lechon paksiw for lunch tomorrow so I’m excited!

I was planning to spend the rest of the day in a coffee shop, playing Octopath or studying, but I thought I should be saving money. I booked a flight to Cebu for this month so my expenses are already over the roof for this weekend. I also plan to stay away from Starbucks for the rest of the month to compensate for these expenses.

So yeah, I stayed at home instead and played Octopath for the rest of the night.

P.S. Is it weird that I’m actually looking forward to the work week?

2018.09.01 – Octopath Traveler

I finally gave into a temptation that I’ve tried to hold in for so long. I finally bought Octopath Traveler. I know, I have a ton of games on hold, but I don’t want to play them. Should I really stop myself from enjoying a new game, just because I cannot finish the rest of my older games?

Munching on peanut butter while playing

I’m really enjoying the game so far (I played until 5 in the morning). I like the stories of the different characters, how they’re so different – it feels like getting to know new friends. I really hope this is the game that rekindles my love for video games in general. I promise to do a review when I finish the game!

That’s basically the highlight of my Saturday – other than the hangover I was nursing until around 2pm in the afternoon. I swear I will not drink anymore, save for the upcoming team building at the end of the month. Haha.

P.S. Here’s a link to a playlist I created to help me get over my hangover, in case you want to give it a listen.

2018.08.31 – No more drinking (please)

It has been a while since I went out on a Friday night, so I invited myself to the Expat Comp house party because I wanted to drink.

Before the alcohol took over

I can’t hold my alcohol well anymore. Not since I started Keto. The bad part is that my short-term amnesia when drunk has been consistent so far. I don’t like the feeling of waking up the next day, feeling bad about what my drunk self did or did not do (I don’t know because I can’t remember). I woke up today, wondering if I did something crazy again. My mind tells me I did something stupid, but I’m not sure. It’s such a weird feeling – being uneasy on top of a hangover.

Anyhow, this was the culprit of my drunkenness – too much whisky!

We drank this in shots!

Special thanks to Abby for looking after me and making sure I got home safe. Haha. I owe you coffee on Monday!