Last year, you started you Christmas shopping late and panic bought all of your presents. We all know how that turned out: lower quality gifts, too much money spent and a super stressed out you. You regretted it so much, you vowed that this year would be different. This year, you'd actually start earlier. 2017 cruised by and suddenly you hear Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Christmas Is You' everywhere, this could only mean one thing: it's October. Yikes! It's not yet too late though, you still got two months left. These Christmas gift ideas for everyone that you love will help you get on your feet!

Gift Ideas for your Mom:

Gift Ideas for your Dad:

Gift Ideas for your Sister:

Gift Ideas for your Brother:

Gift Ideas for your Aunt:

Gift Ideas for your Cousin:

Gift Ideas for your Bestfriend:

Gift Ideas for your Girlfriends:

Gift Ideas for your Boyfriend:

Gift Ideas for your Guyfriend:

Gift Ideas for your Boyfriend's Mom:

Gift Ideas for your Boyfriend's Dad:

Gift Ideas for your Niece:

Gift Ideas for your Boss:

Gift Ideas for You:

Note: All of the products mentioned in this post are my personal choices (based on actual people in my life) and not sponsored in anyway. 

Whether you personally like her style or not, you've got to admit that Taylor Swift's songs are incredibly catchy and that they're almost instantly chart topping hits. I adored her when I was younger. Of course, that was the time when I could relate to her song lyrics because I cared about crushes, unrequited love and boys like they're the most important things in the world. Seeing that I was a young girl, that was normal.

We all know that Drew is the reason for the teardrops on her guitar. Every girl probably had a 'Drew' at one point in their lives. We all cried about seeing someone we had a huge crush on be with someone else. The heartache, the pain, the fake smiles, everyone has been there. So when 'Teardrops on my Guitar' first came out, it was the theme song of young girls everywhere, me included. Her songs are relatable, genuine and raw. That, I believe is the reason behind the Swift Magic. Taylor has grown older since her 'princess' days and her musical style also grew as she did. Although I still prefer her older songs, she is doing very well with the style that she has evolved into. 
     
My favorite Taylor Swift song will always be the song 'Fifteen'. It starts by narrating the beginning of the freshman year in high school. Then it goes on to describe a compressed version of your highschool life:  how naive you are, how you want to date guys from the football team, how you danced around your room after your very first date, how you think you've got it all figured out and how you believed that some loser loved you because he said he did.

I didn't think much of the song when it came out (it came out when I was 15!). I was too young to ponder upon it. However, as I listened to it when I was in college, I grew a deeper appreciation for it. It might have even made me cry because it struck a very sensitive bone. Once again, this is something I think every girl can relate to. As you grow older, you look back and you realize how stupid you were to get all messed up about things that actually didn't matter. You were young, you thought you knew everything there is to know about yourself, about life. Yet, in fact, you absolutely know nothing about where you're headed and how hard life's gonna be. You were too young to know about love and how it's more than just him having a car. You thought you were in love with every guy you had a crush on, but if you compare what you felt then to how you feel about your long-term special someone now, it wouldn't even compare. You have bigger problems now and unfortunately, Crush#5 dating that girl you hate is just not one of those anymore.

'Fifteen' is great reminder for teenage girls to not make any rushed major decisions at that stage in their lives. Just take it easy because you still have your whole life ahead of you to figure things out. As the chorus of the song goes "Count to ten, take it in, this is life before you know who you're gonna be. I didn't know who I was supposed to be at Fifteen." :)

How about you? Which Taylor Swift song resonates to you the most?

Stunning view at the top.

When I saw pictures of this place, I immediately wanted to go. Who could blame me really? My boyfriend was hesitant because my clumsiness and hiking never really worked well together. I really did want to go so I browsed through other blogs and found out how easy and short the trek is. Going there was easy as well. Ultimately, I managed to convince him and so we started planning for the trip. I'll be sharing information about our trip to Osmeña Peak incase you ever want to go as badly as I did too.

How to get there: We rode a bus from Cebu South Bus Terminal going to Oslob which passes through Dalaguete. If you are unsure about which bus to take, bus conductors are more than happy to help you. We asked the conductor to drop us off at the Dalaguete Junction. Fare cost is 80-100 pesos, depending on which bus company you ride on. We left Cebu City around 8:00 am. When we arrived at Dalaguete Junction, around 11am, we rode a habal-habal (motorcycle) that would take us to the starting point. Fare for the habal-habal ride is 200/head. This price is already back and forth. Each habal-habal is good for two people, I imagine if you are alone, you will have to pay for two people also. The habal-habal ride is a challenge in itself as it traverses steep roads and spiral curves amidst the captivating scenery.


The Trek: Arriving at the foot of the peak, lush vegetation greeted us. You will also have to pay a fee of 30 pesos prior to the hike as an environmental fee. Many children will also offer to be your tour guide for a small fee and tell you how hard the route is to convince you to hire them. Because we knew that the route was easy, we decided not to get a tour guide. We regretted this later on because they could have been great help when we were struggling taking the best photos. Going to the top would have taken about 15-20minutes maximum if we didn't stop every five seconds to take photos. There are no hard parts in the trail at all and a first-timer like me didn't have any problems whatsoever. The trail was clear and a path was already elaborately laid out.



The Peak: Wow. Just wow. The view was hands down breathtaking. All the effort(?) it took to reach this point was more than worth it. It felt surreal. The cold fresh breeze, the vivid colors, it was a feast for my senses. We shamelessly took as many photos as we could. We stayed there for about 45 minutes to take in everything and then started our descent to the foot of the peak where our driver was waiting for us.



Getting Back to Cebu: Our habal-habal brought us back to Dalaguete Junction. On the nearest bus stop from the junction, we waited for the first bus going back to Cebu to arrive. Luckily for us we didn't have to wait long. We were on our way back to Cebu by 1:30pm. Fare cost Php100. I slept whole way through the trip. We arrived at South Bus Terminal around 4:30pm.

Expenses:

• 85 pesos - Bus Fare SBT to Dalaguete Junction
• 50 pesos - brunch at 7-11
• 200 pesos - habal-habal fare
• 30 pesos - environmental fee
• 50 pesos - snacks
• 100 pesos - Bus Fare Dalaguete Junction to SBT

TOTAL EXPENSES= 515 Pesos

Tips:

• Wear sunblock although it's not hot and sunny, I still had sunburn. :0
• Bring a hat and sunglasses. It will be useful as you climb your way to the top.
• Bring water. Be careful not to leave any trash though.
• Wear rubber shoes and comfortable clothes. Slippers are not advisable. The trail might be slippery.
• Hire a tour guide. They know all the best angles and views for your photos plus it will also give livelihood to the locals.
• Osmeña Peak is a great campsite too!
• A 7-11 store is located near Dalaguete Junction, you buy water, snacks and other essentials there.
• Osmeña Peak is quite near to Oslob, so if you plan on going there to see the whalesharks, you can plan to come to Osmeña Peak after your Oslob activity.
• You can go directly to Kawasan Falls from Osmeña Peak. It would more or less be a 5 hour trek. You can take a habal-habal ride which would take about an hour.
• There are a lot of tourist who would also like to have their pictures taken. Be considerate.
• Be careful. The peak is quite high up, care is needed when taking photos at the best views.
• Live in the moment. That's all for my trip to Osmeña Peak. I hope that you find this post helpful. :)

Greetings everyone!

I am finally back and since it's not yet too late to share something 'summery', I'd like to share our recent adventure: Canyoneering at Badian, Cebu. I would really try to make this post as helpful as possible, in any case you'd like to go and take on the adventure yourself.

I wasn't really excited for this one, since I don't have any adventurous veins in me. Seriously though, my idea of a good time is practically lying down in bed all day. But since this was a company event and I wanted to bond with my co-workers, I didn't think twice about coming. Turns out, I had loads of fun!



At Carcar City Public Market.

The Journey. We left Cebu City around 5 am. The company provided our vehicle but if you're going to take the bus (from South Bus Terminal) it is 3 hours away and it would cost around Php120 per person. We arrived at Carcar City by 7 am and we bought lechon for breakfast. If you haven't tried it yet, I definitely recommend Carcar City's lechon and special chicharon. Super yummy. From there, it's around another hour of travel to finally reach the starting point.


The Tour Guide/Package. We found our tour guide online. Our package only cost us Php750/head. But this is because there were 26 of us. The larger the group, the cheaper the price. Normally, it would cost Php1000-Php2000 for smaller groups. The price would also depend on the inclusions. Some packages include the fare for the habal-habal ride (going to the jump off point), tourist fee (Php50/head for Filipinos and P100/head for foreigners), gear, snacks, 1 bottle of water and a hearty meal at the end of the trail. Better ask your tour guide about this so that you won't get surprised with additional charges.

3-5hrs Activity. We started the Canyoneering Activity at 10AM and finished around 3PM. We were a slow group of course. Partly because we were a large group so during queues for jumps or slides, smaller groups get to cut ahead of us. If you're going to do this, make sure you're well rested since it's rather long and tiring. The earliest you can start the activity is 6:00AM and the latest is 3:00PM. This is to make sure that you'll finish the activity with enough sunlight.

Orientation. Before we started, our tour guides gave a quick but thorough orientation. They taught us how to jump properly and about the do's and don't during the activity like always wearing your life vest and helmet, wear shoes, etc. If you forgot to bring shoes, like I did, you can rent one for Php50. Although I highly don't recommend this. Bring your own shoes if you can.

The First jump.

Jumps and Slides. Canyoneering at Badian is filled with lots of jumps and slides. ALOT. The first jump is one of the highest jumps in the trail. It appears after 5-10minutes in the course, and it is REQUIRED so
better prepare for that. Don't worry though, the next few jumps will be easy once you've conquered the first one. Kinda gets your adrenaline pumped. There are at least 3 high jumps through out the trail. The first jump is the only one that is required. Thank goodness for that right?



Fantasic Scenery.  If you love nature and enjoy scenic views, then you'd love the enchanting allure of view you'll witness as you go through the course. There are actually times when I almost can't believe that something like this exist and it is just right there before my eyes! The photo opportunities are endless, a GoPro would be helpful. If you don't have one, I believe you can rent one from your tour guide. Just inform them ahead of time of course. If you do have a GoPro, don't forget extra batteries. The trek may last up to 5 hours, your GoPro will not last long. Ours didn't even reach Kawasan Falls. :(
Barbeque Area. There's a barbeque area that's strategically located within the trail. You can select from a wide variety of products such as grilled hotdog, chicken barbeque, pork barbeque and even drinks. As we reached the Barbeque Area, we were truly hungry so we had to stop over for awhile to eat. You don't have to carry money with you, your tour guide can list your purchases for you and you can pay for the food through your tour guide at the end of the activity.

Our tour guides even have Instagram worthy photography skills!  They'll be happy to take your pictures for you. They'll even have a few concepts for the pictures as well. Part of their training probably. :D

Kawasan Falls. Kasawan Falls, another well-known tourist destination in the Cebu area, is the end point of the Canyoneering Activity. It is beautiful, although it had been too commercialized. There are cottages when you can stay, rest and eat. Our complementary lunch was served here as well. Our tour guides prepared chicken adobo, pork sinigang and pancit for us. I'm not sure if the food was really yummy or if I was just tired and hungry. We had no pictures here because our camera died prior to reaching this point. After lunch, we took a dip at the cool and refreshing water of the falls.

Have you tried this yet? If not, then I recommend that you take on the Canyoneering at Badian Challenge. Regardless whether you're an adventure junkie or prefer to be laidback, I'm sure you'll love and enjoy this experience.

Cebu City is known for its five-star resorts, historical sites, beautiful churches and of course, the best tasting lechon (suckling pig) in the Philippines. There is a wide selection of stores that offer their own take on Cebu's traditional lechon and if you're visiting Cebu, you might want to try them all.
Last weekend, I invited my high school friends to lunch. We intentionally wanted to eat someplace else but since they weren't open at the time, we opted to eat somewhere nearer.
We ate at House of Lechon, located very near Ayala Center Cebu. Although the place is very accessible, it can be hard to find since it is not located in a major road.
The place looks very nice.  Pleasant, clean, spacious and really comfortable. The interior design is high-end and trendy, but still with a Filipino touch though. I liked the entire feel of the restaurant.
We ordered 1 kilo of their Carcar Regular Lechon, 1 serving of Monggos, Grilled Tuna Belly, 3 rice platters and 1 pitcher of iced tea. We paid around P1500.00 for a meal that's good for seven (7) people, but rest assured our stomachs were close to exploding after eating.

Their lechon is fantastic. It might even be the best I've tasted so far. I liked it better than Zubuchon and CnT, both popular choices for lechon in Cebu. Although the skin is not as crispy as that in Zubuchon. I loved how they served it with 'tanglad' on the side. Tanglad is what truly makes lechon taste wonderful. Their rice platter is also served in a traditional Filipino rice pot which I think is a creative idea to serve rice. Monggos was really tasty as well. They also have a wide choice of Filipino dishes other than lechon. Their entire menu is shown below.

Taken from https://www.zomato.com/cebu/house-of-lechon-kamputhaw/

Overall, I enjoyed my dining experience at House of Lechon. The food was tasty and filling. The place is terrific. They also have friendly and helpful staff members. Price is affordable. At the end of the meal, we were all satisfied with the service we received. I would definitely recommend this restaurant for anyone wanting to have their lechon fix.

To end this post, here's a selfie of me and my friends with heavy stomachs.

Due to recent boredom and loads of free time, I dowloaded an application from the App Store. It's called 'Shuffle My Life'.

It had been posted on the popular site 'Reddit' and has gotten a lot of attention ever since. The original post says:

Hey, I’ve been busy working on my pride and joy/side-project for the last 4 months and I think it’ll really help you guys. It’s called Shuffle My Life, and here’s the idea:
Sometimes, weekends just go by in a blur of watching TV and playing video games, and you get to the end and you’re thinking ‘where did the last 2 days go?’ – this is my solution to that problem. The app will generate random activities for you to do based on where you are, weather conditions, etc. You earn points for completing each task, and the challenge is to complete as many as you can in a row without skipping, and get a week or month-streak going. It can become a competition between you and friends to get the highest score. You’ll find your weekend unfold in a kind of ‘Wario Ware’ fashion, darting from different activities to the next but experiencing a whole lot of cool new things if you stick with it! The philosophy is ‘the more you do, the better you get at handling any kind of situation’. Hope you like it!

Some features:
– 430+ tasks, more on the way
– Tasks appear depending on location, weather and the time of day
– Filter by your time and budget, plus categories
– Hide tasks you don’t want to see again
– Google Play Games integration

https://m.reddit.com/r/DecidingToBeBetter/comments/3gpnx0/android_tool_i_wrote_an_app_to_help_you_beat/?utm_source=mweb_redirect&compact=true

Basically, it tells you what to do by suggesting random activites that you can even filter. Tasks can range from 'Buy take out' to 'Sweep the hard floors in your house'. Suddenly, you will never run out of things to do. It's a fun way to add some spice in your life and make your boring routine exciting again. It also motivates you to stick with it because it does give reward points once you complete a task and bonus points if you go on a task streak.



The first task I received was to 'Write a Haiku.' I was excited to do so because I have never written one, ever. I scrambbled for the theme of the haiku and when I finally decided, the composition was another story. I thought and thought about it, and I came up with something I'm quite satisfied with.

Gratitude themed haiku.

So far, I have cleaned my room, listened to police radio, listened to classical music and rearranged my room, things I would never have done if not for this application. I highly recommend it especially if you're feeling that you're on a rut.

Hello. I've been away for far too long. Seriously though, school. But now that I'm totally free for summer vacation, I'll get back and catch up with the tons of things that I have to blog about. First things first. The PAGEANT.

The last blog post I did was about the pageant I got forced to join. I didn't have much time to prepare since I was super busy. Didn't even go on a strict diet. This was because I wasn't getting any sleep and therefore compensated with eating. If I didn't, I would probably be terribly ill right now.

So here's how it went.
The Pictorial
 I honestly didn't like my picture. Haha. The pictorial was fun. I was an hour late for it since I still came from Davao City during that day. Didn't even shower. I know. EWWWW.




Store Exposures
We did do store exposures to promote restaurants all over the city. We got free food and it was a great bonding opportunity for the contestants as well. Enjoyed these. Although smiling while eating and being all conscious about the way you eat because of all the cameras is not really my thing, it was an experience.







Closed Door Interview
By far the hardest and most intimidating part of the competition. It was also 25% of our whole score. This is what we truly prepared for. We spent nights conversing with a few of the interview experts in our school who were willing to help us. They went over some dos and donts during the interview. We even practiced as if it was the real thing. We were also asked some possible questions so that we'd be prepared if ever it was asked during the interview.

So we had to come in a closed room. There was a panel there. A psychologist, two nuns, a sociologist and a doctor of philosophy. It was intimidating. All aspects of your personality was questioned and it felt somewhat like I was in a thesis defense, except that I was defending my identity. A true test of individuality, intelligence and character. Some of the contestants broke down and cried. So proud I got it over with. I will do a separate blog post about this. Probably.

Introduction
This was done the night before the talent show. We were introduced for the first time as Official Hiyas 2014 candidates. We wore our college shirts to represent our college and just walked. My walk made headlines though. I stood out. I was the only one without any experience. Compared to them, I was such a pageant noob. Needless to say, when it comes to the catwalk, I sucked. I love how my dress only cost Php50.00. Ukay queen is still present for the pageant.






Talent Show
The talent portion of the pageant composed another 25% of our total score. It was something you had to prepare for. I didn't prepare much though. Just took my violin and played the song "I Believe I Can Fly". Not even a very hard song to play on the violin but it was a choice that I made to have a 'relevance to the theme'. The theme was about success so I found the song appropriate. I am a very rusty violinist. Haven't played for the longest time. It was just right that I took on an easy piece. I just kept the performance simple, no gimmicks to entertain the public. Everyone sang along and it was beautiful. I left the stage happy and completely satisfied with my performance.


Pageant Night

This was the pageant proper. It had three parts, festival attire, sports attire and finally the Filipiniana attire. It was all walk and then talk. I was not excited at all. It was all going to be over soon.

I'm so sorry about my irresponsibility as a blogger. I've been super busy lately. It's like our teachers punished us for having fun during the holidays. Ugh. I don't have spare time anymore. It's just sad.