Month: March 2013

MOTHER NATURE…IS THAT YOU?

/ Inday / Leave a comment

I am Tired, with a capital T talaga!  Inday, the city girl, whose idea of exercise means scouring the malls for sales, went Hiking, with a capital H! 

Instead of our usual lunch in downtown San Francisco, my tita decided to take me to Marin County for a morning hike.  I said, “Sure!” not really knowing what that entailed.  So we made plans to meet in the city, with me taking the Bart and getting off at the Embarcadero stop where she would pick me up and we’d cross the Golden Gate Bridge. 

 

I woke up at 6:30am, had my morning coffee and a cigarette and got ready for my day of adventure.  Everything went according to plan, the bus came at 8:18 and soon I was on my way to the Millbrae Bart Station.  I was feeling efficient so I decided to set aside the $2 for the bus ride.  Big mistake! Because this meant that I didn’t have to open my wallet.  And, when I got off at the Bart Station and was looking for my wallet for the Bart fare, I realized…I LEFT MY WALLET AT HOME! No credit card, no cash in my bag pockets.  Great! Thankfully, my brother was done with his meeting and was kind enough to bring me cash.  I had enough for the ride to the city, which was all I needed because my tita would bring me home. 

And finally, ticket in hand, plus $5 extra dollars for emergency, I was off to the city.  When I got to the Embarcadero station, I was surprised to find that there were two exits.  And I had no idea which one would take me to the Hyatt which is where I’d be picked up.  I closed my eyes and turned right, and as luck would have it, I guessed right.  One cigarette later, my tita arrived and we were off to Marin County.

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We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and as always, I was in awe of how amazing this bridge was.  In just a few minutes, we had gotten our gear ready and we set off on our hike.  I was worried that I’d have to ask for mini-breaks but surprisingly, the photo stops were enough to keep me going.   And, of course Inday found trees and rocks to pose in front of.  In the distance, I could see the Pacific Ocean.  So near and yet so far…

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There were several forks on the trail and my tita asked me to choose the path we’d follow.  I chose the one that seemed flat and hill-less.  But I was wrong, a few feet away was a hill! In fact, as we went on, there were two hills! Good job, Inday!  But we kept going and before long, we reached our destination, the beach!

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We posed for photos and sat down to eat our snacks. My tita had a banana and some polvoron and I had my Marie biscuits.  A few minutes later, we were hiking back to the car.  From the hill we crossed earlier, I spotted a flat trail that led from the beach so we decided to take that path.  All along the trails, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how beautiful everything was.  Sometimes us city girls do need to take a break from all the malls and buildings and be surrounded by trees and flowers and fresh air. 

When we got to the car, I didn’t even realize that we had walked for almost two hours and had hiked 3.5 miles.  WHooohooo!  And my prize for this triumph? A sumptuous Mexican lunch in Tiburon.  In all the years I lived in San Francisco, I hadn’t taken the time to explore much across the Golden Gate Bridge, and was glad to explore this really pretty city by the Bay.  After devouring my nachos and shrimp tacos, we again took a short walk before getting back in the car for the ride home.

I’m tired, and I’ll probably be sore tomorrow, but it was all worth it. 

That’s all for now…bow.

AN ANGEL (?) IN THE CITY OF ANGELS

/ Inday / Leave a comment

Well actually I was in Orange County, but Orange in Orange County just doesn’t have the same effect. AndI never fancied myself as an orange so I’ll keep the title.

Took a mini-vacation from my vacation to visit old friends and offer support where needed.  Was able to get a great deal on a plane ticket on JetBlue so off to Long Beach I went, bags packed, with clothes for a variety of weather patterns (you never know with SoCal weather) and gifts.  From the airport, the first stop was lunch at a familiar setting, Gerry’s Grill.  Can never say no to a plate of Bangus Sisig.  After filling up on Pinoy classics, we were off to the Santa Ana Courthouse to watch my first ever trial, well in this case, it was just a hearing in the middle of the trial.  After a couple of hours it was time to do what I do best—shop!  And shop I did, I bought 1 pair of shoes. Hmm Marshall’s, Loehmann’s and DSW and all I could find was 1 pair of shoes? I must be losing my touch!

The next day was a free day so we had a yummy Mexican lunch at Javier’s.  Those shrimp tacos were really, really good!!! And, then we were off to do more shopping.  We were supposed to do some sightseeing by the beach but it was too cold and foggy so we decided to go to an island instead, Fashion Island, for some more shopping.  And again, I was a really good girl and only bought a cup of coffee and some madelines.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME????

That night, we met up with an old friend from high school and enjoyed an evening of laughter and reminiscing and catching up at Orange Hill, a hilltop restaurant with firepits on the patio that kept us warm and where they let us smoke.  One of the few places around that still did that.  Shared a cheesecake and a cappuccino crème brulee, yummy! We closed the place down and even had to ask them not to turn off the lights so we could take more pictures hehe.

Saturday meant a drive to the Carlsbad outlets for even more shopping.  Not that I minded all the mall visits, I had yet to visit any mall in SFO.  We walked around and tried some stuff but all I got was a bottle of perfume for my mother.  One pasalubong checked off the list.  Whoohoo!  Then it was time for some sightseeing at Old Town San Diego.  Walked around and took photos amidst the old buildings.  It was quite fascinating to see how old town Americana used to look.   As always, I put on my brave face and let go of my dignity and posed for lots of my signature photos.  Like this one….

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After dinner at McDonald’s (no road trip is complete without a fast food stop), we headed home to rest up for the next day.

Sunday meant brunch at Manhattan Beach.  We ate at The Strand which gave us a great view of the beach while savoring mouth watering brunch specials.  I had the Chicken sausage frittata which was really good and which made me want to try to make one again (the last time wasn’t quite so successful) Walked a bit around town and had some yoghurt at the Manhattan Beach Creamery and coffee at Peet’s.  Then it was off for more shopping.  I am proud of myself for only buying a few things at H&M.  hmmm am I growing up and actually learning to budget?

Monday meant going back to the courthouse for the trial.  Was only able to stay for a couple of hours because we had to take my friend’s car to the shop.  Then it was time for dinner at CPK where I was able to spend some quality time with my friend, her husband and their super adorable 4 year old.  When we got home, we hung out a little more then it was time to pack because sadly, my mini-vacay in a vacay was ending the next day.

Got a mid-afternoon flight so we were able to meet up with the girls at the courthouse for a goodbye lunch at the cafeteria and then it was time for the airport.  I must say, the Long Beach airport is one of the prettiest ones I’ve seen.  They have a garden inside with benches and palm trees.  Really nice place to wait for your flight.  So different from NAIA hahaha!  And then I was on board my JetBlue flight back to San Francisco. 

So glad I was able to hang out with my friends, and so sorry that I couldn’t stay longer. 

That’s all for now…bow.

COMING HOME

/ Inday / Leave a comment

ImageI walk out the front door of my brother’s house and immediately feel like I’m back where I belong.  Whenever I visit him, it never feels like I’m visiting, but rather, it’s a coming home.  In 1987, being the obedient daughter that I was, I packed my bags and moved to San Francisco, specifically to Foster City, 10 miles south of San Francisco.  We agreed on one year, but ended up staying almost 10. 

And now, I am back again in Foster City, staying just a block away from our old house and surrounded by very familiar surroundings.  This is truly my home away from home.

People ask me what I do when I’m here, and it’s probably the most boring vacation/travel story ever.  I sleep in, I watch TV-mostly reruns of Vegas, Beverly Hills 90210 (the original series) and One Tree Hill, I go to the supermarket (still the same old Lucky that we used to go to), I cook and do laundry. 

Somedays, I meet up with old friends for coffee.  That usually means a minimum two hour session of chatting and reminiscing, gossiping and laughing.  Somedays, another friend picks me up and drags me to the city for some shopping or just to accompany her on errands.  On days when I’m on my own, I drive to one of the locations in my 3-mile radius and shop.  The next day, I will most likely go back to one of those stores to return what I bought the day before.  And the 3-mile radius really is perfect (no need to go on any freeway!)  I just visit Bridgepoint Shopping Center where there’s a Target, Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Sports Authority, Staples, Toys R’ Us and a Starbucks!  Then there’s Hillsdale Mall with a big enough H&M, Forever 21, Macy’s, Nordstrom, a big Gap, among other things.  Plus, there’s a DSW across the street.  Who needs to go any further????  When I do, my brother is kind enough to drive me to any place beyond my comfort zone.  Not a bad deal right?

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But this is also what I love about coming here.  I just relax and take things easy, no panic moments, nothing urgent. I look forward to doing my laundry, washing the dishes, and any other household chores I find myself taking on.  (Especially on this trip, when my brother decided to finally convert his office into a den/guest room.  My first few days meant assembling furniture, washing sheets, cleaning out closets and using power tools.  Thankfully, no major injuries occurred!)

And the best part? Everything is so familiar, that you don’t really feel like you’re on vacation.  It really does feel like you’ve come home…

 

 

SLEEPLESS IN SAN FO

/ Inday / Leave a comment

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It’s 430am in San Francisco (well actually Foster City) and I am awake. I think I dozed off for 15 minutes around 1am, but that was then, and this is now.  I did debate about taking some of my trusted Advil PM a couple of hours ago, but I think I missed my chance.  And if I take some now, it’d be 6 before I fall asleep and will probably wake up by noon and there goes the rest of the day.  But this trip was supposed to be a vacation, where I would rest and recover and just veg, but I kind of wanted to do most of that awake and enjoying my soap operas, Vegas reruns, Target shopping runs and just inhale the California air.

So what do you do when you can’t sleep? It’s important not to panic.  Panicking will just make it harder to fall asleep.  As an experienced insomniac, my attitude is, I’ll sleep when I sleep.  And so, I already have my tried and tested things to do to pass the time till I fall asleep.  (Though most people might say, after reading this, no wonder she can’t sleep!)

  1. You watch TV.  Or in my case, you watch the shows and movies that you saved on your computer’s hard drive.  I had about 50 episodes of whole bunch of shows to catch up on, not to mention the Inside the Clubhouse episodes about the San Francisco Giants that my brother DVR’d for me before I arrived.
  2. You google.  Google what? Whatever comes to mind.  Sometimes I look for recipes I want to try.  Sometimes I look up actors and see what they’re up to.  Other times, I look for possible variations on the haircut that I’ve been sporting for the last year or so.
  3. You shop or rather you cart.  You don’t have to actually buy anything, you just pick and choose and put them in your shopping cart.  Though since I’m here, I probably will end up buying them and, more often that not, returning them.
  4. You work.  Even if things aren’t due for a few days, if you’re awake and have nothing much to do, then just get them out of the way.  At the very least, you can get the first draft out and just review and revise when the due date is closer.
  5. You eat.  This is probably the worst thing you can do.  (my mom might argue and say it’s #3).  We used to keep snacks in our room, but I’ve tried to avoid that and these days, I just have a glass of water in my room.  The good thing here is that it’s too cold to bother going downstairs just for some potato chips.
  6. You clean.  No not housecleaning.  I just clean my files.  I back-up, I delete, I rearrange files, I create folders.  I sometimes even revise the names of files so that they appear more organized (this sometimes means changing upper case to lower case and vise versa)
  7. You play games.  Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends, SongPop, Draw Something, or my latest obsession, Spider Solitaire.
  8. You read.  I have about 90 ebooks on my iPad that I have yet to read, plus subscriptions to about 6 magazines.  I don’t think I have to worry about running out of things to read.
  9. You make lists.  Of what to wear, what to do. Of what you need to do. Of what lists you have to make.  Of what to pack for that next trip. Of what to buy, of whatever you might want to list.  Of what to do when you can’t sleep.
  10. You blog.  About whatever you can think of, like maybe…what to do when you can’t sleep.

Ok now it’s 5am, and I am still wide awake.  I think this means we go back to #1 and see what happens….

MACAU MADNESS, DAY 2…and 3

/ Inday / Leave a comment

Woke up recharged and ready for a new day.  That, of course, meant ready for the buffet breakfast spread at the Club Lounge.   We eagerly filled-up on waffles, cold cuts, omelets and lots of free coffee, so that we’d be ready to face the Macau tourist scene.  We knew we wanted to visit a temple and try have some real Macau egg tarts, so we interviewed our waiter to ask for some tips.  He told us to visit A Ma Temple because there weren’t many tourists and to go to Coloane for some authentic egg tarts.  We decided, why not?

First stop, A Ma Temple.  The cab driver let us off some random corner and started waving his finger, I guess to tell us where it was, but he was kind of waving his finger in 3 different directions, so we said thanks and crossed our fingers.  We realized that we were back in the corner where A Lorcha was, so we figured, if we got lost, we’d ask the friendly Pinoy waiters where we needed to go.  We started walking towards one of the alleys the driver sort of pointed to and found some interesting backdrops for photos, so of course, we stopped and posed.  We kept on walking and discovered a souvenir shop.  My mom asked me to buy poker (aka majong) chips with a 5000 denomination.  I was already giving up because no one we asked had any idea what we were talking about and the casino stores only sold them individually as souvenirs and not as actually playing chips.  I was looking around the store and was going to leave already when I spotted a box under a shelf and there they were! Only MOP3 each!  So I bought 25 chips for less than Php400! Not bad!

A few more yards ahead and we found the temple.  And what else did we find, tourists, lots and lots of tourists.  So we looked at the temple and promptly turned around and just posed for lots and lots of photos in the courtyard.  Soon it was time to go back where we came from and on to our next stop, Coloane.

The cab driver dropped us off in the center of Colane Village, a few feet from Lord Stow’s where you can buy authentic Macau eggtarts.  You can also go to the 3rd Level of the Podium in Ortigas Center, but hey, we were in Macau.  We went in and for a moment thought we were in Podium because the bakery staff were all Pinoys who told us which of their other products to buy.  We bought some cake slices to munch on, soft drinks to sip and cookies to bring home.  And yes, because we were already there, got some egg tarts.  We walked across the street, sat under a tree and had a picnic.

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After filling up on our snacks, we decided to take a leisurely stroll around the village.  We found cute little houses painted in a variety of colors, we encountered other tourists who, like us, were posing in front of the brightly colored structures.  I was excited to find a purple colored house and gladly posed in front of it.  It was a good thing my friends humored me and took my picture.

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Soon it was time to head back to our hotel for dinner and more TV viewing.  Tonight’s showing…The Face and Project Runway.

The next morning, we only had time for a quick breakfast before it was time to start heading to the airport.   We weren’t in much of a rush because the airport was only 5 minutes away, but just our luck, the bell hop who got our bags got lost somewhere in the hotel and took forever to bring our bags down.  By the time we got to the airport the check-in counter was closed! But thankfully, they let us check in since our bags were all carry-on anyway, and the plane hadn’t arrived yet.  Thankfully also, the ground staff were all Pinoys who were very helpful!  It wasn’t long before we were on the plane back to Manila and planning the next trip.  Dubai perhaps?

And so ends Macau Madness. Bow