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Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
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One Nice Bug Per Day
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Mike Driver
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Monterey Bay Aquarium
almost home
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if i look back, i am lost
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@happinas7107
Ride The Tides
”Home, it is nice to be back!”, I pondered to myself as I gazed out the window. The van cruised through concrete roads bordered by old mango trees, green rice paddies and tall coconut trees. Infrequently, the pristine view would be blocked by huge political or advertisement banners, but I was too excited to let the sporadic growth gall over my love for Siargao. Two months since I left the island…
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The Problem with TrashTag: Why I Stopped Supporting Clean-up Drives
I recently got attacked by some trolls over Instagram for commenting over a social media influencer’s post. Just because pointed I out how ironic that they sought for plastic-free province yet they used plastic bags to collect the trash but anyhow, this has inspired to come up with this post. Recently, there is a growing trend of clean-ups #trashtag and everyone who is seeking for attention or…
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Why I Gave Up Shopping for New Clothes and Why You Should Too: The Problem with Fast Fashion
Why I Gave Up Shopping for New Clothes and Why You Should Too: The Problem with Fast Fashion
These days everyone is proudly flaunting their metal straws and those reusable spoons & forks but there is another bunch of products that could have more impact in the pollution problem if most of us gave it up.
What is it you ask? Give up shopping fast fashion products!
What is fast fashion?
In early 2018, the fashion giant H&M reported sitting on a huge pile of unsold clothes — $4.…
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The Taming of the Fox: Thoughts About Being Single, Dating and Relationships
Why are you single? Where is your boyfriend? Are you married? These questions I hear often and it is getting worse the older I get. Here are my thoughts as a fox.
One only understands the things that one tames….Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Why are you single? Where is your boyfriend? Are you married? These questions I hear often and it is getting worse the older I get.…
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Most Eco-Friendly Whaleshark Interaction in the Philippines: Pintuyan, Southern Leyte
Planning to go to Oslob for the whale sharks? Please no! Get to know the most eco-friend whaleshark interaction in the Philippines at Pintuyan, Southern Leyte.
When it comes to whale shark watching in the Philippines, Oslob comes first in the mind of most Filipinos and foreigners but people should stop supporting this exploitation!
It is really not surprising with all the Instagram and Facebook posts about it getting crazy popular if not viral, it has been the known circus. I one article it has been said that during the tourist season, more than…
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Why Failing is Fine this 2019 When you hear the word "Failure", do you cringe? I am quite proud about my failures enough to regularly post it here and you might enjoy or be boggled why?
Speak Visayan: Greetings, Pronouns and Questions
Speak Visayan like a local! Here are some greetings, pronouns and questions you can use when visiting Philippines!
When travelling to the Philippines, it pays to learn a bit of the local language despite the fact that most Filipinos can easily speak English. Visayan is one of the most spoken language in the Philippines being used both in Visayas and many parts of Mindanao.
Learning Visayan is not as easy, I have had several expat friends who already lived in Cebu for year but never got to speaking the…
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My Miss SCUBA Philippines 2014 Farewell Speech
My Miss SCUBA Philippines 2014 Farewell Speech
Back in 2014, I relinquished my crown. My journey ended as Miss SCUBA Philippines 2013. I got to meet the lucky woman who represented the country in the Miss SCUBA International Finals in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia that November.
For those who weren’t able to witness, here is the farewell speech that I wrote on a whim.
During Ms. Cebu
For as long as I can remember, I always had a love for the ocean…
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Postcard Stories: Rebel Life
Postcard Stories: Rebel Life
Hi! I am the endangered monkey called Paula. On rare sightings you will see me randomly climbing trees like in this photo while visiting Minalungao National Park in Nueva Ecija (I still need to blog about my experience).
Anyhow, we were laughing a lot when I was monkeying around. People often mistake me to be arrogant when they first meet me because of my natural resting bitch face and my…
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Postcard Stories: The Price of City Life
Postcard Stories: The Price of City Life
View of Mandaluyong from Flair Tower
I just got back from a Manila trip over the weekend to visit a friend who had lost her father. We had to go to travel around to several cities. We flew in early Saturday morning and news was out about the chaos over NAIA Terminal after a plane landed badly. We then went straight to Quezon City to console our friend. After couple of hours, we went to her…
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Postcard Stories: Miss Fury Kawasaki 2010
Introducing Postcard Stories! I am adding this to my regular post. It is a one photo with short personal story that will either inspire or entertain you.
Eight years ago, I won in a small competition simply by knowing the product and human psychology.
How did I do it?
It was the deciding moment of the Kawasaki Miss Fury 2010 at Mactan, Cebu.
I joined this small competition knowingly because it…
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Monday Musings: My 2014 Failure
Monday Musings: My 2014 Failure
Four years ago around December, I was evicted and had to say goodbye to everything that I owned.
Yes, you read it right. This is a story that I have not dared to tell anyone. Why? Shame stopped me.
As an idealist and an eternal perfectionist, I found it as a hard pill to swallow. Yet it is a part of my past that I look back to not in bitterness but in bliss.
There are usually two perpetrators…
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Mermaid on A Motorcycle
Mermaid on A Motorcycle
Nothing like a quiet drive around Siargao Island to clear the mind and reconnect with nature!
View from Siargao
This is one of my favourite things to do when in Siargao. The minute I arrive in General Luna, I pick up a semi-automatic motorcycle from a local shop. They already know me well that I just send them a message and they already prepare the board rack and my essentials.
WHAT ABOUT…
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Monday Musings: A Case of Serendipity
There are periods in life where you make a beautiful connection with a stranger or a place, something inexplicable and mundane.
A jolt of the extraordinary that leads you ricocheting from your normal.
A brief moment where you feel invincible and an different.
You cruise through days and nights worry free and with unlimited smile.
Everything seems perfect and you feel that the universe is with…
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Monday Musings: Choice
Helplessness and hopelessness, all spring from the perceived absence of choice.
For years, I’ve resigned control over my life to a lot of external factors. I grew up used to an oppressive culturethat has long pervaded my country. It is the worst kind of poverty. Poverty of the mind robs you of the opportunity to live fully. As a victim of your own thoughts, you end up closing more doors than…
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When I moved out of our HR officer’s flat, I ended up renting at Kalayaan area it was basically the outskirts of Bonifacio Global City.
Just a couple of meters away from the posh bubble lies a cluster of houses clumped together. This is where the middle class and slum people mingle by day and stay at night.
Me with AJ, my HR Manager, at Karpot Office
My office, about 300 meters away.I rented a bunk bed in small room about 15 sq.m. Inside this little wooden room were three other girls. They, like me, were also starting out their careers in Manila. I would like to think of us all as predominantly provincial and naive girls, what we had in common though, is the need to change the course of our lives.
Timid Jenifer!
Jenifer, was a working student from Bulacan, she worked for GIZ in the morning as an office assistant while taking up night high school in La Salle as a scholar.
Ma ann
Meanwhile Ma-ann, a Bicolana accountant from Sorsogon was just starting out as a bookkeeper in Ford while saving up to afford finishing her course and licensure examination to be a certified public accountant. She stayed in the room together with her cousin, Elvie, who was also working for a different company.
I was the last addition to the group. It was my first time renting out a small bed in a humid room without any real windows. Smaller than 22 square meters, I remembered feeling still claustrophobic though lesser than the past year. See it was finally a month since I ended up living with our human resource manager after my talent manager deserted me in the apartment all alone in Quezon City. I doubt that I could get any more concerned about space after literally sleeping in one bed with our HR manager. She was the only person I knew after the only people I know left without telling me. They did not even give me the talent fee for the beauty competition. After finding this out, indeed, as a girl from a smaller city, I worried. I worried not only a little but a lot! I swore to my mother that it would be a great idea to learn business in the craziest city in the Philippines.
After making myself comfortable in the small room, I started talking more to Jenifer and Ma-Ann. Since we did not earn much, we would spend our nights buying a small serving of friend noodles. I would get the one that comes with two dumplings and save the two dumplings to pair with rice the next day. As a new employee, I had a smaller salary which was just enough to pay for everything.
I remember those times that with them, we would pretend to make it big. We would just spend our free time jogging around Bonifacio Global City, a bubble like no other in the Philippine. This place feels like Singapore to me always. I started founding groups that would give me part-time job as an event model. I tried to do as much side gig to supplement the income to cover all the expenses I had. The other girls were the same, we would do our own laundry and look for the cheapest meals.
Sometimes we try to imagine how life would be once we become successful. We went on sharing so many moments together. One day, I got tickets for a fashion show and knowing how extremely timid Jenifer and Ma an we’re, I knew it would help them be extra confident and courageous so I let them wear some dresses and made them all up. It was such a fun night with them. We felt like we were the girls from Sex and The City and I thought Carrie Bradshaw would’ve been proud of me.
After all the bonding time and Ate Elvie left, we decided to rent a different place because we became fed up with the landlady. We all slept on the floor with mattresses that were too thin just like having a thin sheet of cloth over a wooden floor.
After a couple of months of living in one small room together, we parted ways. Ma Ann found a place with a relative, Jenifer continued her studies and me, after being robbed by a guy with a knife near the area, decided to move with other friends from Couchsurfing.
Fast forward to 2018, Ma Ann got married last 2017 to her long time boyfriend and is employed in a good company. I met Jenifer over coffee in Cebu, she is working for GIZ the German organisation who also got her to fly to Germany for some training. I on the other hand, ended back in Cebu running a coworking space.
I still get updates from them over FB, I haven’t seen Ma Ann since we partied ways while Jenifer have gone to Cebu a couple of times and we would play catch up on what’s new with her. It really is different when you live with people for quite sometime, they also become a part of your history and these two girls will always be part of my motivation and a daily reminder that ambition with passion can really get you far. It is always interesting to see people evolving and how persistence is paying off for those with dreams. We were just a bunch of naive girls who were brave enough to go after our dreams and rewrite our story from victims of scarcity to victors of opportunities.
Monday Musings: The Three Provincial Ladies When I moved out of our HR officer's flat, I ended up renting at Kalayaan area it was basically the outskirts of Bonifacio Global City.
5 Changes That Would Make Travelling Around The Philippines More Fun
5 Changes That Would Make Travelling Around The Philippines More Fun
“It’s more fun in the Philippines” is over and now it is “Bring A Friend”. Couple of years ago, I came across an article where it said that the Philippines is one of the least preferred country to travel in South-east Asia and honestly I was not surprised. Although being known for typhoon and crazy rebels, we have not really challenged our fellow Southeast Asian countries which are doing well in…
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