Planners Galore!

Taking a break from the Travel Kuwento, I'm giving away 3 planners as shown below:



My #1 New Year's resolution is to declutter and I'm giving, throwing, selling away some stuff. I've already cleaned out my closet and vanity table. I still have tons of stuff to clean but at least, I've started.

If you want any of the above planners, send an email to cdsangalang at gmail to com. Unfortunately, this is for meet-ups only in Makati or Alabang area.

Travel Kuwento: Hongkong Dec 3-5, 2010 DAY 2

We all woke up late Saturday morning. But the kids were up early as they know that Saturday is their date with Mickey Mouse and Friends. Yes, it's the day that we will all finally set foot (except for hubby) on Disneyland! Yahoo!

Everyone has been looking forward to this day, especially the kids. I was also excited (although trying to be nonchalant about it) as I was not able to visit Disneyland when I was in the US 20+ years ago. I've been pretty sore about it and I was so glad to be given the chance to visit the Magical Kingdom.

After a quick breakfast at McDonald's, we took two taxis which brought us to the MTR station where we can catch a train which would take us to Sunny Bay station. From there, we will board another train which will bring us to tadah! Disneyland resort.

The Disneyland train gave us our first flavor of Disney. From the mouse-shaped windows and handles (as seen below) to the statues on the train.




When we got off the Disneyland station, the kids were jumping up and down with excitement. We paused to get our bearings and walked towards the direction of the park. Lo and behold, this was the sign that greeted us and my heart skipped with delight. This was our first stop of non-stop picture-taking for the day:



We entered the archway and all around us, we could hear Christmas music and Disney songs. Magic is definitely in the air and it brought out the kid in all of us. More than a hundred meters down, this fountain of Mickey surfing on top of a whale greeted us:



It was another round of scurrying to get FB-worthy shots and that was mine above. A few more minutes later, I told everyone that the whale was not the reason why we went to Disney. So a few more shots later, we turned right and followed the crowd which led us to the park gates.



According to my hubby, HK Disneyland is the smallest Disneyland there is as it only has 4 attractions: Main Street (bottom), Adventureland (left), Fantasyland (top) and Tomorrowland (right). Map is taken from themeparkbrochures.net.



At Main Street, everyone wanted to look at the souvenirs first but I said we'll just buy before we go home. As we're still at a loss on what to do, we decided to ride the train and see the whole park. From there, we'll just choose which attraction to go to next.

From the train, we decided to ride the Dumbo ride at Tomorrowland. After that somewhat boring ride (we barely got off the floor), we decided to have lunch. I chose the Mickey Mouse waffle below:



After lunch, we decided to try Tomorrowland. I couldn't resist having this photo with the orb where I could literally say, Pasan ko ang daigdig (I carry the world).



Since the waiting time for the ride was still long, we decided to line up with the photo op with Buzz Lightyear:



I also had one with the statue:



We finally got into Space Mountain and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. It was an indoor rollercoaster and you cannot see a thing inside except for "stars", "moons", etc. You don't know whether you'll be turning or falling or rising or whatever. It adds to the thrill. It's not surprising that we look like this:



After the ride, we saw a booth outside selling ice creams and I just had to buy this one:



We were fast getting tired so we hurried off to Fantasyland but the lines were too long. We just posed for pictures at the houses and Sleeping Beauty's (or was that Cinderella) castle below and walked to Adventureland.



At Adventureland, there was Tarzan's tree house(below) where we had to ride a raft to get to his treehouse.



We were all just so tired by then that we decided to go home (but not before buying our souvenirs first). I went gaga over the coin press machines as I remember playing with them when I was in Vegas 20+ years ago.

All I wanted was to go back to the hotel and sleep but my family had other ideas. They wanted to go to Temple Street to look for more bargains. As I was overruled by the majority, we took the train to Jordan where we looked for a place where we can rest. We ended up at this "authentic" Peking restaurant where we ended up paying for a lauriat meal that we barely enjoyed. We found the peking duck delicious though--as modeled by my sister below:



We then trudged off to Temple Street where we browsed through the famous night market. Unfortunately, after a few meters, I just gave up that I sat down literally on the street. I was so tired and cranky and all I wanted to sleep.

Everyone thankfully agreed to go back to the hotel where we went off to our own rooms. The next day, I learned that my siblings left their kids with my dad who babysat them and went back to Temple Street to do more shopping.

Anyway, that's it for Day 2. Day 3 will hopefully follow tomorrow.

Travel Kuwento: Hongkong Dec 3-5, 2010 DAY 1

When: December 3-5,2010
Who: Me, Hubby, Father, Sister with her husband and son, Brother with wife and daughter (party of 7 adults and 2 kids)
Where: Stayed at Harbor Plaza 8 Degrees at Kowloon side and visited other places which will be detailed in the itinerary below
Airline: Cathay Pacific

At the start of the 2010, my sister told me that she wanted to bring her family to Hongkong and asked if she could join me and my husband in our annual holiday. We consented and as early as February, we were scouting around for cheap packages going to Hongkong for a December booking. However, travel agencies do not yet have prices for December and it was only in August that we were able to find a package and it was at the Cathay Pacific website. Promo was inclusive of airfare, hotel lodging, land transfer and HK Disneyland entrance ticket. Not bad for the price.

When my mom learned about it, she said that in lieu of Christmas gifts, she will shoulder part of our fare and said that we should bring our brother and his family with us. To make the family complete, I called my dad and invited him to come with us and he agreed (after I told him I'll shoulder his fare).

So we were set, Hongkong, here we come!

DAY 1, DECEMBER 3
Our flight was at 0630AM and we were supposed to be at the NAIA1 airport 3-4 hours before. I told them that I'll meet them there at the entrance as the tickets and itinerary were with me.



My siblings were so excited so they slept at my Dad's house and they arrived 10-15 minutes before my husband and I did. As we're a big group, the nice people at the check-in counter directed us to a different line where we checked in at around 330AM.

As it was everyone's (except for me, Leo and my brother) first time at the airport, they were roaming around checking the stalls and we finally waited for our flight at the gate. That's my brother, my husband, my nephew and my dad with an airplane (that Cathay) at the back.

As we had kids with us, we were able to board ahead of everyone else. We were able to find our seats and I so love the monitors behind the headrest as seen below.



My siblings were excited of course. A couple of our airplane shots:




Another interesting thing is that they have a camera underneath the plane which gives you a belly view of what's outside. So at take-off, it shows you the front wheels and when the plane leaves the ground and vice versa at touch-down.

Breakfast was served and I liked the corned beef pandesal and fruit bowl.



We arrived in Hongkong an hour or so later. I would love to fly Cathay again in the future, especially on a long-haul flight. Too bad they're a bit pricey. When we left the plane, we were made to ride a train which took us to immigration. We cleared immigration, exchanged a bit of our dollars and proceeded to our land transfer booth.

We boarded a bus which took us to the hotel which was 30-45 minutes away. I enjoyed the view and was reminded that Hongkong was indeed a port/harbor city. I was also amazed by how tall and thin the buildings are.



We made it to our hotel in due time and while waiting for our room to be ready, we walked around to find a place which would serve early lunch. We found a hole-in-the-wall place and walked in to try out authentic chinese food. Much to our consternation, the server does not speak any word of english and we had to order by pointing to the picture of the food that we want.

After taking our order, she prepared the food and served it to us as well. Talk about being a one-woman-show. Apparently, the rest of the staff (which we deduced was her family) was out shopping for ingredients. Here's my brother-in-law posing in front of the (in)famous restaurant:



We headed back to our hotel where we happily found out that our rooms were ready. Unfortunately, one room is not on the same floor so Leo and I decided to take that room with my Dad rooming in with my brother and his family. Since we were up early that day, we all took a nap and woke up at around 3PM where we headed out to look for a snack. We found a nearby Yoshinoya where Leo and I ordered the yummy meal below:



After pigging out, we walked to a nearby park where we savored the deliciously cool weather and enjoyed the thought of just being in a foreign land with your loved ones.

We then decided to take the shuttle which would take us to Nathan Road so we can see the sights. Unfortunately, we were a bit overwhelmed by everything so we just headed to a nearby Mcdonald's where we whiled away the time while waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the hotel.

And that ends Day 1 of our Hongkong Adventure.

Happy New Year!

It's been awhile since I wrote something down. December was undoubtedly so hectic that I went home late every night (blame it on the traffic and the parties) and when January hit, I got sick of acute gastroenteritis which did not only suck much needed fat out of my frame, but also my productive and creative will as well.

Now that I'm on the mend, might as well update my blog and share some of what has happened to me these past few weeks.

I complained last year that I was not very busy during the Christmas season. Well, karma decided to give me a punch in the face by giving me several activities one after the other by the end of November.

Not only did I have to buy and wrap gifts, I scheduled our annual holiday on my birthday which was on first week of December (will write about that after this post). Two days after I got back, we had our group Christmas party and our team had a presentation where I was (unfortunately) the director/stage manager etc. I was supposedly part of a concert three days after the Christmas party but I had to beg off as I could not attend the practices anymore.

Then there were the Christmas buffet lunches (I had three, I think...or was that more?) thus the additional weight gain for me. A week before Christmas, I hosted our team Christmas party which was fortunately, a hit that I held another contest at the office the last day before Christmas.

Did I mention that a friend also got engaged and we attended her engagement party? Too bad I could not stay long. I missed some of our common friends who also attended.

I'll try to post about each event one at a time and hopefully, I'll be able to document everything before my undependable memory starts to fail me.

In the meantime, hope everyone will have an absolutely awesome and great New Year!

The Walking Dead

I was not aware of this series until my husband tuned to this last night where it premiered in 4 different local Fox stations. I initially thought that it was a drama series but when he woke up in the hospital alone, it made me think of Resident Evil. But somehow, the zombies here are different. They only walk.

Though I was deathly scared of zombies, I could not tear my eyes away from the screen. True enough, I could not sleep afterwards.

I still want to watch it though, but not late at night. I'll try to look for the replay times (hopefully in the morning) and I'll watch it then.

In case you're trying to figure out where you've seen the "bida" before, he was in "Love Actually" as the guy who fell in love with his best friend's wife--the one with the placards.

Goodbye, Soprano

When I became a member of Singles for Christ, I learned (and was affirmed by friends) that I can carry a tune and sing well. I refused to believe them at first as this talent did not manifest all throughout my life. I was persuaded to serve in the SFC Music Ministry which led to me being invited to be a part of the Villa San Miguel Choir. During those years, I felt a different joy when singing with other people and hearing our voices blend together. I started listening to the Madrigal Singers and other show choirs. This started my passion for choir music which led to my requirement on having a really good choir during my wedding.

When I left Mandaluyong to live in Paranaque in 2005, I did not join any other choir as I was focused in preparing for my wedding and eventually, dealing with my pregnancy. I was content with the office choir where we just sang during First Friday or Special Masses and sometimes, office programs.

After I left that company and joined my current employer, I heard that my new company has a show choir but I did not make any effort to join. I have somehow lost faith in my singing abilities and I'm scared to audition.

However, when a former officemate/choirmate joined the company and heard that I was there, she invited me to join the chor. I refused at first as I was not particularly keen with the late night practice but when I was again invited by two different persons, I knew I had to give it a try.

I finally attended the practice earlier and I was overwhelmed when they started doing warm-ups. I initially sat with the sopranos and I had difficulty hitting the high notes. After a couple of pieces, I was asked by the Choirmaster (a Philippine Madrigal Singer Alumni) to stand beside him and sing with the piano scales. After one scale, he told me to relax my vibrato (which has been my problem in the past) and try it again. After a few scales, he told me that I'm a Mezzo Soprano and grouped me with the Alto 1s.

I was initially disappointed as I've always been a Soprano 1 ever since I started singing in a choir. I did not have to worry about learning any special notes as Soprano usually sings Melody. I now have to unlearn what I now and learn how to sing Alto.

I've always found the Alto notes very beautiful and haunting. It gives more depth to the song and actually carries the Soprano notes.

I think I will pursue this, late nights aside. I hope this will revive my passion for singing and will give me something else to think about and do. Besides, I realized I miss singing with a choir.

Selecta Hazelnut Brownie

Disclaimer: This is NOT a paid advertisement. I just had a cup an hour ago and I'm alternating between happiness and sadness over giving in to my sweet cravings.

Three years ago, I wrote about my Haagen Dazs craving. Now, I have a new favorite ice cream flavor, the Selecta Hazelnut Brownie!!!

With Haagen Dazs, I could use the price as a reason not to buy it, but Selecta Gold is a relatively cheaper alternative and it's available in all grocery stores!

I've been fighting myself and holding on tight to my willpower not to eat this everyday or to finish off the carton that I find in the freezer (My husband makes me buy it as he likes the flavor too!). I love the hazelnut flavor and the brownies too. A treat to the senses. Yum yum.

I have to keep on repeating diet mantras and to remind myself of my blood sugar just to stop myself from the devouring more than a cup (a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips).

Wish me luck!

Thanks to Philstar.com for the picture. By the way, they have a nice article about the Gold Label series which includes my favorite flavor.