Cost of Owning a Forbes Park Property

While blogging about St. Moritz Private Estate, I got a bit taken a back of how expensive a luxury property costs in a super prime location, right next to Forbes Park. But wait until you know how much a Forbes Park property typically costs...

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St. Moritz (Megaworld) is Now for Sale

St. Moritz, the finest of ultra high-end living in luxury residential estates of Megaworld's McKinley West, is now open for sale.

Prices start at:

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Babalik Din Ako (I Shall Return?)

A friend of mine who is working here in the Middle East attended the Wealth Summit 2014 in February. Wealth Summit is an annual event hosted by Bo Sanchez' Truly Rich Club where individuals who aspire to be truly rich gather and are given the chance to listen to famous speakers experts in their fields (eg. business, real estate and stock investing). My friend aside from coming out of the summit empowered, he was melancholic. He took his flight back abroad heavy hearted. Why? Because he met a lot young professionals (in their mid-20s) in the summit who became successful though they are staying in the country. My friend began to doubt and question if working abroad, being far from his family, is still the right choice.

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What is Sustainable Diet?

It's a term that my dear friends coined to call the diet that the husband and wife tandem have been on. They have effectively shed a lot of pounds in just a couple of months. What does it mean? It is a diet that one can sustain; It means a lifestyle change. To read more about it, click here.

It is not rocket science. It is actually like following Bro. Bo's advise that whatever decision you have to make in life there is only one right question to ask: What is the wisest thing to do? Same practice can be applied to food; What is the wisest thing to do? Eat the Lay's chips overloaded with salt and unwanted calories or choose any fruit that will also address the hunger but is loaded with nutrients needed by the body?

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My 2012 Roadmap

The Mayans and Nostradamus predicted the world would end this year. I hope they’re so wrong. Well who’s ready for the end. Honestly, I am not. I don’t want all this to end and not be able to hug my loved ones ever again. Nah I don't wanna think about that!

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Sad Day

It's a sad day for us.

My mother in law, whom we all love so dearly, has been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. She is scheduled for surgery this coming Sunday and she will undergo chemotherapy after that.

Please include her in your prayers.

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Glued to the Royal Wedding

I am currently glued to BBC for 3 hours now watching the most anticipated royal wedding. The whole world is tuned in for sure. It's not every year a British monarch (a very paparrazied one since birth at that) gets married. And to stroke every girl's fancy, he married a commoner - in contrast to most consorts-in-waiting for over 350 years.

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Toughest Place to be a Bus Driver - a BBC Documentary

This BBC documentary really tugged at my heartstrings. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is a BBC documentary of a London bus driver who goes to our country to be a bus (jeepney) driver in Manila. He meets Mang Rogelio, a jeepney driver who shows him the ropes, and lives with Mang Rogelio’s family in a very humble (literally small) house located in the slums area.

The documentary also introduced me to “pagpag”; leftover food (as in tira-tira na ng ibang tao) from fast food chains are collected, cleaned and cooked again. A lot of people actually buy and eat it because it’s very cheap! So sad :(

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The Return of the Comeback

I thought I got rid of it.

It disappeared when I was in the land of “cheers!” & lorries. It did not even manage to gather strength for a comeback when I returned to the land of sultry weather peppered with smog coming from the longest parking lot in the world (EDSA). When I was young it used to haunt me every day. It woke me up every single night. Then when I turned 25 the attacks got less and less frequent until it disappeared altogether. It was dormant for years, plus also I believe the regular romp between the sheets helped in keeping it at bay, I really thought it was gone for good.

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Only 988 Weeks Left

I turned the big 3-0 this year. Though it’s been months since my birthday, it still feels odd that I can no longer say I am 20-something.

Do I feel old? Of course! I am not in some denial and say I feel young as ever because gosh I have already used up 60% of the years that I have before turning 50.

60%! Where did it all go? It’s amazing how time slips away just like that.

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Life is indeed not fair!

I chanced upon this blog while googling for before and after nose job pictures of currently the biggest teen star of Philippine showbiz. After I finished a quick skim, I just couldn’t believe what I read. So I had to scroll back up again and scrutinize each picture the blogger posted.

OMG! I did not misread it the first time after all. The blogger and her friends are truly Prada wearing, jet setting and as well as enviably pretty Cebuana teeners...

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Kikay At Heart

Staying at home for 3 months, trying my best but all the time failing to be a biddable housewife to my handsome husband, gave me the advantage to learn more about myself. I have realized without any doubt that truly I am kikay at heart.

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Georgia the Dreamer

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

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Rapunzel no more

Yesterday, Harley spent most of the day cajoling, begging me to have my hair cut. He countlessly complained how my hair always get in the way when he wrapped his arms around my shoulders. Whoa, cut my precious locks??? My reaction ranged from "Okay ka lang? Wa ka nabuang? Gusto mo yata ng sapak?!?" to simply pretending not to hear him. When he suggested that he'd pay for it, I realized how desperate he was. Kawawa naman. Sige na nga pagbigyan, I can just regrow my hair when he goes back to the desert.

Here's my first pic with my new coif - with Rovin and his lovely wife.

Someone told me I now like my yahoo avatar.

But I feel like I look more like this... a poodle.

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Saturday is Kopi Roti day

"Saturday is Kopi Roti day" has been Ria's gtalk status and like her, I have been looking forward to Saturdays because of Kopi Roti. For the past 3 weeks we, in groups of 5 or more, would hire a cab and head to MOA (Mall of Asia) just to grab a piece of Kopi bun (masarap sya isawsaw sa kape) or a slice of their Roti French toast that I usually spread generously with kaya jam. Their coffee is also superb - if you're sick and tired of Starbucks like me (hehe mahal kasi) or you just want a different twist in your coffee, you won't be disappointed with Kopi Roti.

It was Claire who introduced this to me. She got curious about Kopi Roti when she read about it in Dessert Comes First (http://www.dessertcomesfirst.com/?p=449), so she dragged me to MOA to check it out. True enough, it's very delicious - addicting nga eh. Fortunately it's very affordable, a set of Kopi bun + coffee just costs 75php. Try it! You won't regret it, promise! (see the pic below, enjoy na enjoy si Ria sa Kopi Roti, hehehehe)

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Restless

I'm restless because I am excited to move into my new place... my own bachelorette pad... my own private space where I can sing my heart out anytime I want to and I don't have to worry that somebody else's eardrums will get busted.

I'm restless because I don't know where I'll be when I reach my anniversary here in the workplace. Will I still be here or somewhere else - Lawson? Riverio? Canada? US? Hahahahaha yes pula ko og lubot. But why adamantly stay in a place when there are open doors somewhere else that can give you better opportunities for career growth? Trabaho lang, walang personalan :)

I'm restless because I don't know when I'll see my Pangga again. End of March? Oh how I wish. April so I can celebrate my birthday with him? Hayyyy sana Lord. Or May? June? July? Naku po Lord tagal nun... To date we've been apart for 91 days. That's 9 days shy from the 3digit mark. Sana naman noh di umabot ng 4digit...

I'm restless because I wanna know lahat ng katotohanan na ibubunyag ni Mang Oca at ni Chin-Chin ng Maging Sino Ka Man! Who is Eli's father? I'm 99% sure it's Fidel. But who's his Mom? Gloria? Chin-Chin? So shocks, magkapatid sila ni Jackie. Or si Jackie pala anak ni Mang Oca? Hahahahaha! I am excited to know how this soap will end. Ang gwapo talaga ni John Lloyd!!! Sigh...

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BIBO

BIBO is an acronym for Bata Ikaw ang Bukas Outreach. It is a program spearheaded by ANLP-Makati in coordination with Sun for All Children (an NGO) that holds English and Math tutorial classes for 30 underprivileged kids in Baseco. I have volunteered as a Math tutor and I have been attending it for 3 consecutive Saturdays now.

I remember the first time we went to Baseco. Though I had had some ideas on my head on what the place would look like, I was still disheartened when I saw it. I still find it hard to understand how they "multiplied" in that area. You see, Baseco was a shipyard before and it's been land-filled (actually more like garbage-filled) to make it "livable" by our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Thousands of families live there and there are an average of 4-5 kids per family. The first time I went there, it rained the night before. So the area was muddy and we had to be really careful not to step on loose ground so as not to have our shoes submerged into some murky piles of garbages. It was an ala-extra-challenge experience, I tell you, as we fought not to lose our balance trekking to the venue.

On the 2nd Saturday, the venue was moved near what they call the "sea wall". We now have to pass by this meter-wide strip which is more passable than the previous one. But it's advisable not to get too friendly with the kids playing around the area. Or else they might just grab you saying "swimming tayo, Ate!" and push you to dive into the garbage-ladened Manila bay, ewww!

I was assigned to teach a group of kids that started with 5 but now they're 8 :) Last Saturday, I went there armed with stronger conviction to teach my kids Math and to make them absorb the lessons no matter what it took. I thought it would just be another normal tutoring day for me, but I was wrong. Something happened that I didn't expect. Because we did something different that day... Instead of tutors taking snacks together with other tutors and all the kids eating together as a bunch, the tutors and the kids assigned to them ate their snacks together. While I was eating my sandwich, I noticed a couple of my kids not eating their chocolate cakes. I just thought maybe they weren't hungry yet. But then Christian (the most lambing boy in my group) approached me, asking for a plastic. So I asked, "What for? Di nyo ba gusto yung cake? Di nyo kasi kinakain eh...". Christian, in his sweet and innocent voice answered me, "Ate George, iuuwi ko po kasi sa amin. Ibibigay ko sa mga kapatid ko. May plastic po ba kayo?" And all the others chorused, "Ako din po Ate George, penge ng plastic."

Shocks, I was dumbfounded. Because the kids, who I believe rarely get the chance to eat a free cake, still thought of their siblings at home! Heck, if I were them, I would gladly gobble down my cake without a second thought! Simply amazing, diba?

I told my co-tutors about this and they said they had noticed that before. So we'd usually serve two snacks because if we'd only serve one, most of the kids would never eat it because they would bring it home for their siblings. So, the tendency is, they'd still be hungry until the end of the tutoring session. I was humbled upon hearing that. I initially thought I would be the one who would teach them some Math lessons. The kids taught me a greater lesson in life - that it's possible to be unselfish and to care for your loved ones even in the midst of poverty.

The next time I'll go there, I vow to get to know my kids some more. I want to know more about their families, their dreams, what makes them laugh and what makes them cry. I hope I can make a difference in their lives just like the way they have touched mine.

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