25

Bakershill, Puerto Princesa, Palawan; 05/18/18

25 freaking years!
Wow. *cue in quarter-life crisis*
I can't believe I'm already this old.

5 years ago, I was just starting my first job at my dream company. I was in a "long-term" relationship. I was eager for success and growth. I was making money for myself. I’ve been independent since I started University but that was a different kind of independence. I don’t get allowances from my mom anymore. lol

5 years ago, I pictured myself being (at least) engaged by 25. I always wanted to get married 25 to 26-ish cause I want a year of honeymoon stage before my husband and I get pregnant. I didn’t wanna have a baby on my late 20s cause I'll be too old and I don't wanna be too old when my kid/s grow up. At the same time, I didn't wanna get pregnant too young cause I still have a lot to do with life.

So, now.. 5 years after.. the present..
I’m 25. Still working at my dream company. (I have attachment issues lol)
I can say that I have somewhat excelled in my career.
I’ve grown a lot as a person. Self-love, guys. It is a real thing. I swear.
My sister just finished college.. so yay! :P
I’ve been traveling, de-stressing lol
Not married but my boyfriend and I have been together for more than a year. We have plans but I’m sure all couples have those kinds of plans. Who dates people without the plan of spending the rest of their lives together right? So yeah.

5 years from now.. wow. I will be 30 freaking years old.
I can’t even imagine myself being 30. 30 GUYS. 30!!
For the sake of keeping the pattern of this post, I will do the 5 years from now thing even if I’m scared of it lol

5 years from now, I'll be 30 but probably still working.. I always say that if I’m not working in programming anymore, I wanna experience working in Target or somewhere simple. You know, a whole new world from programming but we'll see. lol Don't get me wrong, I love my job, I love doing what I went to school for. (I have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science) But, sometimes, I wonder how is it working outside of it. I bet everyone has that thought.. of going outside the box.

5 years from now, I'm *hopefully* married to the man I love, trust, respect and who feels the same. LOL. I probably have a kid or kids. Living in our house.. or an apartment. Big houses are nice to look and probably are cozy but I really think a not-so-big house or an apartment feels more like a home.. and less space to clean.. HAHAHAHA geesh. Yes, I still have my laziness in 5 years.

5 years from now, I’ve traveled a lot of countries.. or states ;) I always wanted to explore the world. That is one of my inspiration to hustle harder and, hopefully, by 30, I have crossed out a lot of states or countries (Iceland please!!) on the globe.

And that's it! I can't think of other "5 years from now" stuff that I want to publicly share haha

To close this off, I just wanna say that I am so thankful that I’ve come this far. Age wise, career-wise.
I am blessed that I have a solid support system. I wake up with a joyful heart knowing I have a family that loves and supports me, friends who accepts me for who I am and for who I am not and, last but not the least, my boyfriend who never fails to remind me what matters and what doesn’t matter in life when I tend to stress about everything in life. :P

Another year for adventures it is! 🌻

'Twas fun, Palawan

El Nido, Palawan

I went 5th wheeling at Palawan last May 15th to 19th.
It was a vacation I needed, away from all the stress I had for the past couple weeks.
Imagine the stress of needing to move out from your current apartment and finding a new apartment before 14th then having an early morning flight by the 15th. Thank God that I was able to pull it all off.

Traveling with family was fun. It was Erin's first time flying lol
Stressful sometimes cause the thing with my mom.. she's very organized and somewhat OC. She nags A LOT. But, hey, that what made my mom MY mom. lol

Erin "the first time flyer" and I on the plane.

Our flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa was 9 in the morning, May 15th.
Since I’m already in Manila, I just met them at the airport.
Props to AirAsia because our flights From and To Manila weren't delayed. Our flight back to Manila was even 30 minutes early. Can't believe that was possible. Haha
We were there so early. Check-in counters open 2 hours before the boarding time, we checked in a small baggage cause I had 20kg check-in baggage allowance. The bag was only 8kg lol
Flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa took about an hour.

Our itinerary was to go to El Nido for the first two days then go back to Puerto Princesa for the remaining days.
My mom already arranged our transportation and accommodation at El Nido. Yup, that's my mom. Haha.
Traveling from Puerto Princesa Aiport to El Nido took 5 freaking hours. It was so tiring af. We didn't really have anything planned that day but travel cause we already expected that it's gonna be that long but hell.
We stayed at RicGem, they have a family room that consists of 1 double bed, 1 queen bed, and 1 bunk bed. Room was spacious and clean. When we arrived there, it was already around 5 in the afternoon, so, we just rested for a bit then went out for dinner, walked around as well. People were very accommodating and nice there.

Waiting for our ride.. aka our boat lol

[From L to R] Mom, Angelo (Mom's boyfriend), Ricky (Erin's boyfriend), Erin, Me.

Second day in El Nido was island hopping day. We picked Tour C that consisted of Hidden Beach, Secret Beach, Snorkeling and Helicopter Island. I don't usually snorkel cause I'm afraid of stepping on sea urchins or corals. I gave it a try there and I actually enjoyed snorkeling there, just cause the boatmen were very careful and they ensured us that it was safe.
We ate lunch on the boat too! The food was so delicious, the mussels were so big. I swear I ate a lot of mussels on this trip. The whole island hopping wasn't tiring at all. It was all fun. The water was so clear, the sun was just perfect even though it rained for a bit when we were at the secret beach.

What a view

On the way to the Secret Beach

After we left the Secret Beach and after the rain

Helicopter Island

PHP 50 worth of fresh coconut juice at Helicopter Island

After that, it was our last night at El Nido and we were going back to Puerto Princesa in the morning so we just had a dinner by the beach. Seafood all the way! And for dessert, we had gelato. They have this "Gusto" gelato all over El Nido. It was so good.. even if I only had Mint Chocolate lol

Aftermath lol that sunburn doesn't really hurt at all

After breakfast, we began our journey back to Puerto Princesa. 5 butt numbing hours drive back to Puerto Princesa &, as usual, we didn’t go anywhere but the hotel cause we were tired.. and I swear, I love hotels. Hotels make me so sleepy. I love room service. I love everything about hotels. It's just so cozy.

Next day, they didn't want to go to Honda Bay or the Underground River so we just went to Bakershill Park. We had my birthday lunch there. Walked around the park then we went to the bakery to wait for the Ube Hopia.

Birthday Lunch at Bakershill

After that, we just went back to the hotel. Erin, Ricky and I took a dip at the pool around night time.
We have an early flight back to Manila and my mom is so OC with time so we slept around 11pm and woke up around 4am.

Our hotel was like 10 minutes away from the New Puerto Princesa Airport, we checked in and waited for boarding time. Our plane actually left 30 minutes early so that was great.

Our Palawan trip was fun. El Nido was beautiful. They asked me if I prefer Phuket or El Nido? I prefer El Nido. Not cause I'm from the Philippines, but because it was just so nice there. It was organized. It was clean. It wasn't anyway stressful. People were so friendly and accommodating.
It was also nice to celebrate my birthday with family. Ugh I’m old.

El Nido sunset

Still 24

I really suck at blogging lol

Pls ignore my wide forehead.. or not. whatever lol

Hello!
This will be a quick update cause I don't wanna spill all the beans here and leave nothing for my yearly mandatory after birthday blog post lol
I inserted a very recent picture of me above just to verify my blog that I’m still existing. lol
2018 hasn't eaten me alive yet.
We're already on the 5th month of this year and, of course, you know what that means... BIRTH MONTH!!!!! *insert cake emoji*

-end- lol

1 of 12

Me and my momma

I would like to declare January 2018 to be a trial month for this year lol
I wanted to be done with my Thailand posts before I officially welcome 2018 on my blog. So here it is.

First month of this year was an emotional rollercoaster ride for me.
I don't know if it was the new year, post holiday blues or because I’m taking my pills again but I just felt so sad and lost the first week of January.
I kinda got over it now though. Back to normal programming. lol

Updates!
Work's fine. Still with the same project. All of my teammates are gonna be rolled off from the project and I’m gonna have to temporarily work with my teammates from India until they find another resource from there to replace me... didn't they know? I'm irreplaceable. LOL #hugot

Life has been steady. Trying to lose weight but too lazy to go to the gym because of work schedule and mostly because I'm just too lazy. Diet it is! I try. I’m actually quite contented sometimes on how I weigh. Like I'm not thin thin, I somehow have curves and boobs. Hahaha. Trying to make myself feel better. ANYWAY

Andy and I are doing good. Better actually. We're almost a year together and I just fall in love with him everyday. It's amazing how someone can tell how you're feeling or what’s on your mind by looking at you. Things may be tough but, as we always say, nothing worth it comes easy :)

I'd like to believe that there's a lot more to look forward to this year.
Each year I look forward to learnings and achievements and I hope this year will be full of that.

I won't even bother sharing my New Year's Resolution because I'm pretty sure I've broken a few.
Oh but one of those resolutions is to only drink three cups of soda this year and, as of this writing, I haven’t had a single cup. Lol. *proudly pats myself on the back*

New Year's eve with the fam