Going to the office means fastfood dinner for me. There were only few times that I opted for fine dining. Once when we had a visitor client, and the other I had to treat 2 officemates because I promised them I will if I get pregnant (which I did with Theo).

But on normal days like last Monday, fastfood it is! I had the chance to eat at Army Navy McKinley branch simply because husband was craving for burgers and I was (or I thought I was) craving for fries and iced tea.

Upon entering, I scanned the place. Looks clean alright. It has this unfinished look, to give that army feel. You’ll almost expect water pumps or fire hydrant strategically placed somewhere. Well, almost.

About the food. Good thing I didn’t order burger. Just seeing Mike’s order made me realize that I’m not much of a burger person. 3 layers of patties don’t entice me.

But I definitely like their fries, which reminds me so much of McDonald’s twister fries, and their iced tea, which reminds me of Wendy’s.

I did like their quesadilla too. Although I haven’t met a quesadilla that I didn’t like.

It was double celebration for us last Sunday. It was mother’s day and my parents’ anniversary. My parents treated the entire family to buffet lunch at the Manor inside Camp John Hay. It was my first time there and my impression of it was the place was so nice that it seemed like those lavish dual diagnosis treatment centers for Hollywood celebrities.

Since it was a weekend and mother’s day, we had to wait for 40 minutes to be seated. We didn’t mind because we had a blast taking photos inside and outside. Hahaha.

The food was worth waiting for too.

In celebration of my parents’ anniversary, we went to Baguio last weekend. The plan was to have lunch at Isdaan in Tarlac before going to Manaoag church then head to Baguio. It was 11am when we arrived so it was so hot that I was sweating profusely (not just because I’m pregnant).

I had to talk to some clients so while waiting for our orders to arrive, I set up my laptop to do some MegaMeeting video conferencing. Anyway, I’d like to share a review of my experience in this floating restaurant in Tarlac.

Good points:
First, the location is good. It is conveniently located in Gerona, Tarlac. Anybody going to or coming from Baguio/Manila will say that it is a good location for a stopover.

Second, the place is picture perfect. Imagine a big pond with structures and nipa huts, some of which are just floating, but anchored, which made my parents thought there was some sort of an earthquake. But unfortunately, the weather was just too hot for me, I didn’t take much photos as I would want to.

Third, kids were given feeds to give the fish. Also a life vest for safety reasons.

Fourth, the Tacsiyapo wall. One may buy a plate, cup, or even a TV, then throw it at the Tacsiyapo wall for some tension-releasing fun. Hahaha.

Fifth, food is good. (Take note of the word I used: good, not great.) I liked the kare-kareng gulay and its bagoong, and my watermelon shake. I liked the calamares and inihaw na pusit. What I didn’t like was the chicken (Marinated Fried Chicken sa Gata).

Bad points:
First, it was just too hot for the customers. I guess the best time to go here is dinnertime, not lunch time like we did. I would have enjoyed the experience more if I wasn’t feeling too sticky.

Second, service was a bit slow. I’m not sure why. There weren’t too much customers when we were there.

Tuesday last week when we went to Nasugbu, Batangas to have family fun at the Canyon Cove. We have reserved two adjacent rooms two weeks before this trip. Honestly I had little expectations of this place as there were bad reviews all over the internet. In fact, I had to call once a week just to make sure that the two rooms were still reserved under my name as I’ve read somewhere of an incident where they reserved but had no room when they got there.

We went to the place even if we were not sure how to get to Canyon Cove. Surprisingly, it was not hard to find and we didn’t get lost. At SLEX, we had to exit at Sta. Rosa and then just go to Tagaytay. Upon reaching the Tagaytay Junction, we turned right. (The advice we got was if we’re faced with two options, we should always choose to turn right.) We somehow got to Barangay Wawa, and at the left side of the arch (“Thank you”) just before leaving the Barangay is the path going to the resort.

We got there at 11am. We knew that check in time is at 3pm, still, I went to the concierge to check in and we were happy to be informed that the rooms were available and we can check in early. Wifi is available at the lobby so I had a chance to share a photo via Instagram.

Like I requested, our rooms are adjacent. The room on our left had two twin beds and one bay bed. I could say that the room can accommodate 5 petite persons (or 2 couples and 1 person). While the room on our right had a king size bed and one bay bed, which can accommodate 4-5 persons (a family of 3, or maybe 4 if we’re talking about 2 kids; and 1 person to use the bay bed).

King size bed:

Bay bed:

For the bathroom, well I must commend that there was a phone beside the toilet seat which is very essential for emergencies (this can save lives as there are old people that have heart attack while on the john and no one can hear them) but my daughter noticed and asked “where’s the bidet?“. Even a four-year-old noticed this inconvenience. There were only 3 towels available even if they say that a room is good for 4 pax.

We were able to sneak in some lunch. Well, I think the bag inspectors didn’t mind that there were some food inserted in some of the t shirts in our bags. But we saw a family holding a couple of grocery bags and was told that food (that much I guess) can not be brought inside the resort. I couldn’t blame the inspectors as the food were so obvious, can be seen through those grocery bags and the bags were just so many.

After lunch, we decided to check the playground in front of the pools. But it was too hot, the kids didn’t want to play at the playground. They opted to just play with the sand.

We waited until 3pm before we finally jumped in to the pools. The pools are great! What I love most is aside from the kiddie pool, they have a baby pool about 1 foot deep. The use of cabana is free for those people who are staying at the resort (as opposed to day tour).

I also checked the beach. It was white sand alright but still, there were small rocks and shells on the sand, you wouldn’t want to walk barefoot on it. There’s kayak, jet ski and banana boat for rent, which I know is good news for the adventurous ones.

At around 5pm, we decided to have our snack in our rooms. We went down to stroll around and swim again at around 7pm and left the pools to have our dinner at around 9pm. (Because we were told we can only order food from 9pm onwards, I’m not sure why. I know this would be bad news for other people. What if you are so hungry at 7pm? Your only choice is to avail of the buffet.)

We ordered some pancit canton at P220 each and pancit bihon at P200. Each order is good for two people only. I’m not sure if I was hungry but I found it tasty.

The next day, we woke up early as the complimentary breakfast is available from 6am to 10am only. And we plan to swim again before we check out at exactly 12 noon. The food was so-so, most tasted bland.

Since it was Holy Wednesday, there was no bacon. Instead, choices were sardines, beef tapa, scrambled eggs and salted eggs. The only available was banana ketchup, they had no tomato ketchup. Desserts were fruit salad and gelatin. There was coffee, juice and cereals.

We called the concierge so they can send a cart to get our bags for check out at around 11am. Overall, I can say our stay was better than I have expected and better than most of the reviews that I saw over the internet.

Four stars out of five.

For our team building, our team chose Balai Isabel located in Batangas. The night before the event, I decided to read several reviews online and I must say I almost backed out upon reading the rants of previous visitors of the place (reviews were as old as 2009). I just wondered if it’s worth the trouble (carrying a baby bump and tagging my 4-year-old daughter along with me) or if we should just stay home.

Good thing I decided to still go despite the reviews. For one, I had fun even if I had to skip the alcohol. Plus, my daughter get to meet and play with other kids of my officemates. (We spent our ToT on the other building for the past 3 years so she never met them before.)

Nevertheless, I will share some of my observations. I wouldn’t be as harsh as this trip was paid for by the company. It might be a different story though if I saved up and/or had some cash advance just to plan and push through with one summer outing.

Good points:
1. Right in front of our villa is the view of Taal volcano.

2. The rooms are spacious and A/C is working just fine. (I’m sharing this because I read in one of the reviews about A/C problems)

3. I’d recommend the place for team building activities.

Bad points:

1. I checked the rooms on the second floor of our villa. I noticed that the bathrooms smell. This was even before anybody came into the rooms, meaning the toilets haven’t been used after the maintenance people cleaned up. I chose the room on the ground floor since I am pregnant, just to be safe. When I gave my daughter a bath, I noticed that the shower floors are slippery, like someone poured oil on it. Not so safe for kids and pregnant moms alike. There was no roll of toilet tissue either. I’m sharing one photo I took inside the bathroom. Why just the shampoo bottles? Because I couldn’t find anything nice to take photo of.

2. Food at the restaurant was so-so and yet expensive. Breakfast was 300 pesos plus, I was told. Mommies like me, opted to just (wait and) dine at the nearest fastfood.

3. I’m not sure why but during our dinner meeting, plates were taken off the tables even if the person eating just stood up to receive an award. OK, food tasted bland but I liked the “fish fillet kare kare” and the “mango sago” dessert.

Late last year, my parents and my mom’s sisters (and their husbands) booked everyone for an overnight stay at a resort in Subic. This is a pre-valentine treat of the parents to us kids: me, my siblings and cousins. Honestly, I had no idea where we are staying. All I know is that my parents were all raves about the place. My sister was supposed to be on a UK trip so my parents didn’t book her a room. But her trip was cancelled, and my husband’s team building just so happened to be scheduled on the same dates so my sister and I ended up sharing our room, without our husbands.

When we got there, I was surprised to see that the villas are just two floors high.

Well, I didn’t know we’re staying at a villa, I thought it would be like a hotel, some stories high. I got excited to see that our villa is just in front of the pools. I smiled. I thought to myself this would be perfect; fresh air, pool and greens. The place really looked well taken care of. The pools look like being maintained every day, and the greens look like hydroponics systems are used.

This is the view from the terrace (our room is on the second floor).

This is our room with two beds. (Some rooms have a king sized bed instead)

My brothers decided that our room will be the “home base” meaning all the food that we brought will be stored in our ref, and the cooking will be done in our kitchen. My mom agreed as our rooms are connected.

I had fun because:
1. My daughter loved the baby pool and when she got used to it, she moved on to the kiddie pool, which is just waist high. She rarely enjoys swimming. This one she got to enjoy a lot.
2. The place is just so relaxing. No need to walk miles just to get to a pool. Pool is just in front of the villa. I get to drink (decaf) coffee, while watching my daughter swim. And if I decide I need to get something again from our room, it would just take me few minutes and steps. Very convenient for a preggy mom like me.
3. The place was not crowded. I don’t like cramped pools.
4. Everything was expense paid by my parents. Hehehe.

My daughter had a BLAST this morning playing at Active Fun, located at the 3rd level of SM North Edsa. At first, she didn’t like to go inside. I kept showing her the giant slides which I knew she’d love. Still, she refused.

After 30 minutes of watching the other kids, she realized she wants to join the fun.

And she’s back…

An hour and a half later, she didn’t want to leave!
Any kid would definitely enjoy this fun-filled place! Visit them now!

Click on the thumbnail below to see a wide-angled view of the place.

You can read about their price list here and their party packages here.

More photos will be uploaded to my Facebook and Flickr soon. Stay tuned.

We are owners of Sony-M1 for more than 3 years now. Although I’m not sure about the Sony-M2, let me share with you some of my frustrations. I will never recommend this to anyone, really.

• It works well on well-lit places, but not on dark places. This was taken without any lights on and blinds closed but at noontime! Geez!
• There’s no available flash that you can connect/add to it. So when out on a bar or bonfire, this digicam is hopeless.
• If we set it to take brighter pictures (the candle icon), it will be all blurry. Unless, it is a non-moving object and you’re using a tripod.
• Yes, tripod. We need a tripod to make use of the timer. ‘Coz unlike most digicams, you can not just put this on top of a flat surface. Although, sometimes, I appreciate it since it just looks like a mobile phone.
• Oh, let me not start about that station as they call it (to charge it and connect with a PC or TV)
• Too pricey for its quality (or lack of it).

But there is a reason I can not part with this digicam.

• The videos (MPEG4 format) are just fantastic! Just like with photos, I take videos of Mikee too.

Because of this model alone, we won’t buy any Sony camera anymore. Point-and-shoot and DSLR alike.