INSTABITS : December 2016

HAPPY 2017 everyone! Here’s my final Instagram dump for 2016. As promised, this entry consists of more people and less food. (But that doesn’t mean I ate less last month – in fact I pigged out quite a bit over the holidays)

Warning : December was packed with activities so this entry is pretty long

As you may know, I’m a HUGE Final Fantasy fan (this blog’s URL should be a giveaway – it’s the name of Selphie’s final weapon in FF8), so I was pretty excited when FF15 came out. I asked Brinks to get me a copy and I spent the first weekend of December holed up in my room exploring Eos with Noctis and the gang. (In fact, most of December’s free time went into this game.)

December marked the end of the first semester, which meant lots of work for us teachers. Dustin and I rewarded ourselves with pizza and milk tea after an entire day of checking.

Since I had some free time, I decided I would bake a few things for upcoming Christmas parties. Dustin came over to help out so of course we ended up baking matcha goodies.

We made white chocolate chip matcha cookies for the first time and surprisingly they turned out alright. I would have preferred them sweeter, but  the people who ate them thought they were fine the way they were.

Dustin, Jason and I went to SM Calamba one evening and had dessert at Krispy Kreme! We tried their holiday donuts. They were good but I still prefer the original glazed.

After two months in Japan, Amie’s back, yaaaaay~

My parents love having my friends over so, just like last year, they threw a Christmas party for them.

My mom and I bought these antler headbands to get us all in a festive mood during the party. Nine of us for the nine reindeer in the song – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph 😀

Of course we had a gift exchange during the party 😀 Thanks everyone!

INSTABITS : November 2016

Is it just me or did the second half of 2016 disappear in the blink of an eye? My December has been pretty packed so this has been sitting in my drafts for the past two weeks. Now that my semester is truly over I have a bit of time to edit it.

On the first day of November I had an impromptu movie date with Jason and Dustin. We watched Dr. Strange at SM San Pablo then had a late lunch at Si Christina

We ordered their platter which was pretty good. And of course we had to have some of their famous frozen sansrival brazo de mercedes (no picture because we were too excited to try it).

I was craving soba again so I asked Ma’am Ivy, Ma’am Ianne, Sir Taps and Dustin to have lunch at Centtro

A few days later my mom started craving pizza so we found ourselves having dinner at Yellow Cab Pizza. We also ordered their Charlie Chan Chicken Pasta which I love (ever since Dustin introduced it to me on my birthday earlier this year)

I wanted something sweet after dinner so I ordered their dark chocolate ice cream

I had lunch with Camille and Dustin at Camille’s favorite place to eat – Army Navy. Although lately her love for this place has slowly faded.

Sir Taps, Dustin and I went to Bon Appetea one evening for some milk tea ❤

We were planning on playing badminton that evening but we got lazy and decided to just go out for dinner instead

I love the pastel colors in this place

I tried to burn off all the calories I’ve been eating by going on an afternoon jog with Dustin

I also tried to eat healthier. I ordered a healthy lunch at Bonitos but I ended up eating quite a bit of Dustin’s ravioli lasagna anyway

INSTABITS : October 2016

Hello November! I can’t believe we’ve only got 7 weeks left until the end of the year. October was another eventful month, packed with activities so once again this entry’s pretty long.

I found some China Glaze nail polish at ATC. These normally cost around 350-400 PHP but they were on sale for 99PHP so I instantly grabbed four of them. I also picked up a Wet n Wild matte top coat which I’ve been loving.

(Grabbed this from Dustin’s Twitter account) This was taken last month, the night before my birthday. I was craving pizza so I made Dustin rush over to LB from San Pablo at 9 in the evening so we could grab some Yellowcab at Calamba with Amie XD

National Teacher’s Day was on October 5. I was pleasantly surprised to find this cute paper tulip on my desk from Ella ❤

Camille and I had lunch one day at Seoul Kitchen. I ordered my usual cheese rappoki (which we shared) and chicken mayo.

I’ve been trying to eat healthier to lose some of the weight I put on during our cruise last July (and September), but ice cream has always been my weakness T__T

Earlier this month, Amie left for Hokkaido to attend a 2-month internship program. We had a despedida lunch at Bonitos with Rona and Jason. (Jason left before we remembered to take selfies XD)

Mochi celebrated his first birthday this month. (I can’t remember the exact day but I know it’s around October 10). He’s gotten so big and so fat over this past year. I tried to give him a banana for his birthday treat but he only knows how to eat kang kong.

Animax Carnival was held on October 15-16 and Marco invited me to go with him. It’s been over two years since I attended a cosplay event here in the Philippines so I’m glad I was able to go again. I was even able to see Jin Joson give a talk on cosplay makeup.

Before her talk ended she told us selfies were welcome if we run into her during the event so of course I jumped at the opportunity as soon as she left the stage ❤

I spotted these egg waffles at SM MOA. They looked cute but once you finish the ice cream there wasn’t really anything special about them. (Looks great on Instagram though XD)

INSTABITS : September 2016

October’s almost over so once again this entry is extremely late. This past month has been quite busy, but now I have a bit of free time to finally finish editing this.

This was taken late August when the girls and I checked in at the Crimson Hotel to celebrate Camille’s and my birthdays. You can watch our vlog HERE.

Camille invited Dustin and me to join LBDH’s fun run called #HugotTakbo. It was my first 5k run and I’m happy to report that I survived.

As a birthday gift, my parents signed us up for a short cruise around Japan and Taiwan (watch the vlog here). One of the places we went to was the Shuri Castle in Okinawa.

One of the things that made our trip much more fun was that Brinks was able to join us 😀

We signed up for tours but they were cancelled because there were only a few of us on the cruise who spoke English. The staff suggested that we join their Mandarin tour but we decided it would be better if we just explore the town ourselves. This turned out to be a blessing because we were able to spend as much time as we want shopping on Kokusai Street 🙂

Since this cruise was meant to celebrate my birthday, the Canaletto dining staff presented me with a cake for dinner. Brinks also got one too since she justified her expenses for this trip by convincing herself that it was a late birthday present for herself XD

Our cruise also took us to Ishigaki where we once again shopped for local delicacies

On the last day of our cruise we joined the balloon drop party at the Piazza

Our cruise ended in Taiwan. Since our flight wasn’t until that evening we made arrangements with a tour company to show us around some famous locations. Here’s Brinky and me at Yehliu Geopark. It was beautiful but extremely hot!

We also dropped by the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall

Brinks and I ended up wearing the same colors that day. (No, we didn’t plan this)

This, on the other hand, was planned. Sir Taps texted us one evening and asked us to wear blue with white sneakers.

INSTABITS : August 2016

Olaaaa~ September’s halfway over so I’m late again as usual.  I apologize, it’s been busy these past few weeks. September’s proving to be an awesome month. Let’s hope it stays that way 😀

Anyway, here’s my Instagram dump for August:

In my previous Instabits I mentioned that I went on a Mediterranean cruise towards the end of July (read blog entry HERE), which lasted until the first few days of August. There was a second champagne waterfall on the ship but we decided not to join because we were already quite happy with our photos from the first one. However we did drop by the Piazza to enjoy the free drinks and canapes.

Our cruise made another stop at Mykonos, which I was super happy about since I absolutely loved this place. We didn’t sign up for a tour this time since we wanted to explore the place ourselves.

I think I liked Mykonos so much because I found my prince charming there XD (This was a late post from our first visit)

Our cruise also took us back to Montenegro, where we walked around Old Town and took lots of photos.

Towards the second half of our cruise we found ourselves at the jogging track on the 18th floor of the ship. We figured since we’ve been eating too much we should make the effort to walk here every night. It would have been nice to run but unfortunately I didn’t bring running shoes with me.

One of my favorite features of the Royal Princess was the glass SeaWalk on the 16th floor.

Our last day of the cruise took us to Palermo, Sicily, where we visited two cathedrals

I love this family photo we took during the ship’s 2nd formal evening. I posted this to say thank you to my parents for giving me a wonderful cruise experience 😀

I though that once I got back to the Philippines my eating habits would return to normal, but one text from Camille and I forget about my diet. This is us at Data Bites for some dessert. Prior to this we were at Army Navy pigging out on quesadillas and tacos.

Two days later we found ourselves at Wing Stop in Nuvali

INSTABITS : July 2016

July was an exciting month for me. It was perhaps one of the most memorable four weeks of my life. I attended a wedding, a birthday, a graduation party, ate lots of food and most importantly – went on a Mediterranean cruise. This month was packed with so many adventures so I should warn you that this is a photo-heavy post.

My dear friend Moy had her church wedding this month. She and Ige flew in from Australia to share this special moment with friends and family. Congrats guys!

Aprille handled the flowers and church styling so after the ceremony the girls and I stayed behind to help her disassemble the displays.

Fun with flowers XD

Camille took this picture of me pretending to be a bride. *Someday my prince will come* If you see him feel free to send him my way XD

Brinky’s youngest brother graduated college this year and we were all invited to his graduation party. We spent the evening pigging out and drinking salty margaritas (c/o Camille) XD

Sir Taps, Dustin and I went to Nuvali one afternoon to unwind and do some shopping

We grabbed some shakes at Detoxify Bar and Sir Taps took this photo of Dustin and me.

For dinner we had some ramen/udon at a Japanese restaurant in Calamba

It’s been years since I last owned a pair of white sneakers so Dustin helped me pick one out while we were in Nuvali. I absolutely love them! I wore them for the majority of July 😀

I finally tried this mask I ordered from Althea. It’s supposed to be a peeling mask so I was initially disappointed when I didn’t notice any peeling, but I woke up with glowing, moisturized skin the following morning and now I’m a huge fan.

INSTABITS : June 2016

Hello July! It’s rainy season now in the Philippines, but some days still feel like summer because it’s so hot.

I had lunch at Seoul Kitchen with some colleagues last month. I ordered the pork kalbi steak, which is still as good as the first time I had it.

Since classes and exams are over, my friends and I celebrated by going to Laiya. With Moy in Australia, I’ve been promoted as barkada driver. I’m not used to driving long distances so this was a big milestone for me 😀

We tried looking for a new resort to visit but we somehow still ended up at Virgin Beach Resort. We really like this place because it’s beautiful and not too crowded.

Beach essentials 🙂 The lifesaver belongs to Aprille and I borrowed the hat from my mom.

Ahh summer~

It rained while we were at the beach but this beautiful rainbow appeared and made everything better 🙂

The wigs I ordered from eBay arrived last month. I can’t wait to use them for my self portraits.

INSTABITS : May 2016

June’s here. Many students will be returning to school this month, while here we are, just barely done with the second semester. Final exams and the deadline of grades are over, but we still have the removals to deal with.

This month’s Instabits entry is comprised mostly of selfies. For that I apologize in advance. As I mentioned in last month’s post, I recently upgraded to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and I am in love with its camera, especially the front facing one.

Bunny kisses ❤ Because the S7 has a wide angle front facing camera, I can now easily take selfies with Mochichi. He doesn’t look too happy but he’s learned to deal with it.

Earlier in the month we had a Physics seminar by Dr. Ian Vega about gravitational waves. His talk was entitled “Einstein and the Music of the Spheres”.

The first of my many random/vain selfies this month

Raffy visited us in LB and we took him to have dinner at Seoul Kitchen. (Shot these using the S7’s food mode. Look at that awesome DOF :D)

I posted this for Mother’s Day. This was taken last summer when we went to Vegas (blog entry to follow). Mama looks so happy to be in a shoe.

Ezra sent me this on Viber. She found it on 9gag and according to her this is totally us. I wholeheartedly agree! XD (She’s the brown bunny of course.)

May 9 was our national election and this is my obligatory “I voted” selfie XD

I was craving for some Moonleaf one day, but they were closed so I decided to try Super Cup. Their servings are HUGE! It took me all day to finish this!

Another vain selfie. I’m wearing Sir Taps’s favorite hat in this one.

INSTABITS : April 2016

Ola! A third of 2016 is already over! We’re now entering May, and it’s a big month for me. May 2015 came with some unexpected life changes, and I can’t believe it’s been a year already. Anyway, April was a pretty eventful month. As I mentioned in my last Instabits entry it was a little rough for our family, having to deal with the loss of a loved one. But thankfully we did have our share of good memories too.

Ninang had to return to California last month so we went to SM Marikina to have lunch with her and Raffy before her flight. We ate at Seafood Island, which is popular for their boodle fights.

After our meal at Seafood Island, we went to Gong Cha to try their famous Milk Wintermelon Tea. The milk tea addict in me is ashamed to admit that I’ve never tried Gong Cha before, despite its popularity. It was pretty good and I’m having a hard time deciding if I like Gong Cha or Dakasi better.

On our way home from Marikina we stopped by SM Calamba. I was tempted to drop by Dakasi and order my usual Okinawa milk tea but I decided to stick with the day’s theme of trying something new so I opted for this Cake Milk Tea from Lemon Baby intsead. The guy at the counter told me it was their best seller. The yellow thing is supposed to be “cake cream” but it tasted suspiciously like butter. I could feel the calories with every sip, eek. The drink was alright, but I think I’m going to be sticking with Dakasi from now on.

I downloaded MSQRD last month and my officemates and I had fun playing around with the filters

One of my favorite past times at the office is spamming Amie’s phone with my selfies, mostly because the iPhone’s camera is 100 times better than my Sony Xperia Z’s. But I recently upgraded to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and it has an AWESOME camera, so I don’t have to keep stealing her phone to appease my vanity.

Sir Marvs, Sir Taps and I decided to try a new Korean restaurant last month. It was fun grilling the meat, but the food was mediocre. If I want good, authentic Korean food I would stick with Kimbap or Seoul Kitchen.

After our Korean bbq, we stopped by Moonleaf for some milk tea. Sir Taps decided to order the exact drink as me and told the girl at the counter that his name was Carmelo.

Ezra sent me this. She’s trying to convince me that my bunny is just a corgi in disguise. I say he’s more of a wolverine (photo proof : HERE).  This picture of Mochi was taken when he was only about a month old, look how small and adorable he is XD

My parents and I watched Les Miserables last month. We were sitting in the theater waiting for the show to start when I turn to see that my mom is checking exams! That’s one dedicated teacher. Who brings exams to the theater???

INSTABITS : March 2016

It’s already May, and I should be posting my April Instabits entry, but last month was kind of crazy so I never got around to finishing my March entry. I was late in posting my February entry too because my uncle (on my dad’s side) lost his battle with cancer on March 6. The family was grieving and we were pretty busy so I wasn’t in the mood to blog. I thought I would be able to catch up this month, but another uncle (on my mom’s side this time) died from a cardiac arrest on April 17. Needless to say, the past two months were rough for our family. But we’re fortunate enough to have received plenty of love and support from the people around us, and we’re now doing our best to move forward.

Anyway, here’s my Instagram dump for March.

This was another wig I ordered from eBay back in January. It’s a lot more orange than I expected, but that can easily be changed in Photoshop.

I learned that Sony assigns different controller colors for different players on the PS4. Player 1 is blue, Player 2 gets red, Player 3 gets green and Player 4 gets pink. I wish I had the option to just be pink all the time. How often do you play a game that requires 4 players??

A student gave me this lovely rose for International Women’s Day 🙂 Thanks Gladys!

As mentioned in a few previous blog entries, I went to Hong Kong last month with some colleagues for a conference. Here’s a shot of Amie, Dustin and me on the plane.

I stayed at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and this was the view from my room.

On the way to the airport I realized that I didn’t pack my flat iron (because I used it before leaving and I was letting it cool down on the bed before putting it in my luggage, but due to the rush I forgot about it.) Fortunately I had my curling iron with me. I’ve used my flat iron to curl my hair many times before, but this was the first time I had to straighten my hair using my curling iron. I didn’t think it would work XD

Group photo of the conference participants

UPLB pips during afternoon coffee break at ICKEM 🙂 (More photos from the conference HERE.)

The conference room floor had an interesting pattern so I took a shoefie 🙂

That evening we walked around the area and ended up at Times Square Hong Kong

To get back to our hotel, Raffy and I had to cross this underground tunnel. Since it was late, there weren’t a lot of people around so we ended up taking some photos for fun.