Wednesday, March 10, 2010

kaladkarin goes surfing in bali




Of course, I wasn't going to let a trip to Bali pass by without trying to catch a wave! I signed up for surf classes on our last day, and I have nothing but praises for the Pro Surf School in Kuta. Kudos!

Thanks Errol for the pictures! =) I look funny when I put on my game face --- that's why I resolve to not take myself so seriously. Nyahaha.

[ Pics over at http://ishg.multiply.com/photos/album/43/kaladkarin_goes_surfing_in_bali ]

Monday, November 09, 2009

kaladkarin hits hk+macau with ke


(this shall henceforth be known as the trip wherein ke and i survived with our cellphone cams. bow.)

passport? check. usd? check. camera? check. memory card?... uh-oh. houston, we have a problem.

after giving ourselves a serious smack in the head, we pushed on with our sightseeing of eventful HK and pretty macau, armed only with our nokia cams. i think we've identified 1001 sights spread across the wax museum, disneyland and macau that would have been kick-ass, only if we've caught it with nothing less than a point-and-shoot. i'd like to think that the pictures were crappy this time... because we're definitely coming back! :) (ke, one thing though --- do we have a picture with crisel?! eep!)

[ Pics over at http://ishg.multiply.com/photos/album/42/kaladkarin_hits_hkmacau_with_ke ]

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

kaladkarin gets high @ macau



finally ticked this off from my bucket list. something tells me this is just the first of many jumps. =P

[ Pics over at http://ishg.multiply.com/photos/album/41/kaladkarin_gets_high_macau ]

Friday, April 10, 2009

Kaladkarin Gets Charmed by Bicol



There was no way I was leaving the land of glorious beaches without one last trip. Since Jan already had a trip set with her high-school++ friends, Alex, Ralph & I invited ourselves to Jan's hometown for the Holy Week break (hehe =P).

8 hours on the bus + 1.5 hours on the back of a pickup + 2 hours on a boat = sore butts. By noon, we find ourselves arriving at Caramoan, with a welcome lunch waiting for us prepared by Caramoan's parish priest. After several bouts of conversation about boat trips, islands, sharks and malunggay, we proceeded to a house in a barrio by the seaside to settle. It was nice to be reminded of the trips I had before HP happened -- where electricity and a shower were luxuries, but nothing could beat the sights and calm. Roselyn, Jan's HS buddy, was an awesome cook and led the troops in the kitchen. After dinner, we literally laid down on the road right outside the house, chatting the night away under the stars with beers at hand. This is the life.

Next morning, we got up early to go island-hopping. First, we paid a courtesy visit to the Grotto; it was an unexpected climb. The statue of the Virgin Mary watches over the island from her stoop 500+ steps up; tiring, but the pics made it worth it. Next was my favorite -- Matukad offered the best beach out of the 4 we visited. We hit Lahus next, before we went to our last island (I forgot the name!); we had to go through a small cave that opened up to a beach spot where reef rocks tried to break the waves before they hit you. It was like swimming in an outdoor wave pool, complete with the view. I've never seen anything like it before -- simply awesome. Another thing that I haven't seen anywhere else were waves that swelled up from out of nowhere and crashed in the middle of the sea. Astig!

After island-hopping, my camera battery ran out, but not the adventures. Tope, our team's new hire, joined us when we went back to Naga and invaded Jan's home with for pizza, ice cream, and Jan-stories, courtesy of her mom. =) Jan lived near Magsaysay, a street lined with coffee houses and restos for night-owls. We trooped over for some billiards and beer, before retiring to our room at the Golden Leaf Hotel.

Jan had to leave for Sorsogon, so Tope was our tour guide for the final day. Fortunately, we had time to go kneeboarding at the infamous CWC. Yep, Tope was the only one who managed to finish the whole course, but we had tons of fun. Will definitely go back here again! =)

Three words for the rest of the trip -- FOOD TRIP GALORE. Kinalas. Kinunot. Laing. Pinangat. Bicol Express. Ice Blink's Halo-Halo. Toasted Siopao. I have a feeling it's going to take days before my craving for Bicolano food runs out.

Thanks to Roselyn, Osette, Jess, Ronan, Fred, Jan and Tope for hosting our merry band of trotters. =) To the Bubong People -- Jan, Ralph and Alex -- thanks for making this last trip oh-so-memorable. Astig kayo. Love you guys!

[ Pics over at http://ishg.multiply.com/photos/album/38/Kaladkarin_Gets_Charmed_by_Bicol. ]

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

commencement exercises

When you realize that you barely have two weeks to spend in a company where you have done a lot of growing up, the feeling can be overwhelming. You think a lot about loose ends to tie up. About the relationships you want to hold on to. About how this can be the last time you can find anything as awesome as this. It feels a lot like graduating, to tell you the truth.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Bootcamp for the Culinarily-Challenged: Round Two!

Challenge #2 was to cook a cream-based pasta dish. What originally started as pesto sauce came out to be what I'll call Pasta with Turkey and Cream Cheese Sauce. =P I have a feeling that the best (or at least, most enjoyable) recipes are the ones that aren't planned. I had a lot of mishaps this time (i.e. the bowl falling into the pan, me pouring A LOT of basil instead of just a dash), but those things just made round 2 a lot of fun. =P And oh, I also made a blueberry pie for my sweet tooth (again, instant, but hey, I'm baking!)

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Bootcamp for the Culinarily-Challenged: One Down!

There have been some instances when I was able to whip up something miraculous out of the blue -- none of those feats involve the kitchen, however. During team offsites, I'd rather be in charge of drinks instead of food, lest I want my friends to die from starvation (or worse, from food poisoning! Eep!).

This year, I resolved to take matters into my own hands, and I'll be forcing myself to cook at least one decent dish per month (except for Feb, I have to cook 2 since I skipped January =P). And you know what? It was actually possible! I was able to come up with fusilli topped with some random ingredients (tomatoes, tuna, mushroom and cheese) without screwing anything up. I also wanted to try out a friend's tip about baking (our oven's busted but he told me that a turbo broiler does more or less the same thing), so I put a box of instant brownie mix to the test and, booyah, yummy dessert. =) The folks at home finished off their meals without collapsing, so I think it's fair enough to say that round one has been officially conquered.

Yep, I know it's still a longshot from warranting the respect of anyone culinarily-able, but at least I'm making baby steps.I am just so psyched right now. Whoopee! =)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

My 25 Random Things

I finally got this done! Am tagging everyone who wants to make their own list. Hehe. =P

1. I'm a true-blue kaladkarin. It takes all of my will to say no to an interesting trip, event or experience. A great year would be getting to visit 12 islands in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao within 12 months. An awesome year would be wherein every trip is paid for by someone else. Haha!

2. Each time before I take a bath, I dip my hand into the water and make the sign of the cross. It was an odd habit I picked up way back when our housekeeper made me do it every time she would give me a bath.

3. I could Youtube all day. I look up dance vids, commercials, series episodes, viral vids, almost everything online. Yep, that also goes to say that I barely watch TV. I blame Youtube for multiple counts of tardiness.

4. I used to write like crazy. I almost took Journalism instead of Computer Science. No regrets here.

5. I like geek talk, so sue me.

6. If you ask my closest friends, almost all my crushes have NOTHING in common.

7. As a child, I was a church rat. My kababatas are composed of members of the kids' choir and the Knights of the Altar. We still hang out. One of us just got hitched last month; I think he was the first of the bunch.

8. I have a 15-year old niece, Ikay -- her presence dots my Multiply albums. Ikay, my elder sister Ate Teng and I compose the Tres Marias of my family. We hang out a lot and goof out more often. Our favorite gimiks are going out to see flicks (especially cartoons!), wasting time at the arcade, window-shopping at toy stores and of course, gorging on comfort food. Ikay eats the most out of us three.

9. I'm that movie freak that laughs out loud and even claps (!) in the middle of movies. Back in HS, my favorite game with my movie buddies was Guess-That-Movie-Trailer. Sometimes the games turned to shouting matches wherein the winner was the one who blurted out the movie title first. Trust me, you would have hated to be seated next to us. I've also watched movies solo several times, and regretted none of those instances.

10. I think I'll always be an outdoors girl, even if I'm actually terrified of swimming in anything that's beyond the reach of my toes.

11. The farthest and most challenging mountain I've ever climbed was Mt. Apo, and that by far was the most humbling experience I've ever had in my life.

12. I've found a new vice in dancing. I'd scrimp on money for food, but not money for weekend dance classes. I dance while I walk. I dance while I work. I dance while I type. I sincerely hope I could do this forever.

13. I get sad when I commute without listening to music from my mp3 player (either I left it at home or it ran out of battery). Truly sad. I get so irritable that sometimes I throw tantrums, and God forbid that you should find yourself in the middle of an Ish-tantrum.

14. It doesn't suit me, but I'm such a crier. I cry when I laugh. I cry when I get mad. I cry at sad movies. I cried upon hearing the first riffs of 'Alapaap' during the EHeads concert.

15. I've lost more than 10 cellphones in less than 10 years. The one I had longest with me was for less than a year; the shortest lifespan was 2 weeks. But if you're a close friend, you probably already knew that.

16. I'm the youngest of five girls. Even if out of the five, I have the least chance of getting anything new, I have the comfort of knowing that I'm the cute one. Haha! =P I often think of how it could have been like if all of us could have grown up at least in the same country (two of them are in Canada, while one's in Singapore). Riot!

17. Ikay and I borrow each other's clothes and shoes. Good thing we have the same taste.

18. I still have a vivid recollection of the first time I cheated on a test. It was during Grade 3 -- I had some trouble memorizing the multiplication table. In the middle of a quiz, I felt someone kick me and I saw my seatmate gesture to a copy of the multiplication table underneath our chairs. You know who you are! =P

19. When Neil Gaiman came to Manila, I got to hug him! Thanks Quel for hooking me up.

20. One sure-fire way to make me sleepy -- scratch my head.

21. One sure way to tick me off is to let me catch you littering. Argh! Ang laki naman ng basurahan mo.

22. I got my first INC and my first DRP in UP when I took up masters. Humabol pa...

23. 2008 was a good year for me. It was the first time I stepped out of Philippine territory -- and my first destination was India. Definitely an experience.

24. I dream of doing a lot of things, but the one thing I really want to do is to bungee jump. My parents are going to kill me, but I'm going to die anyway. =P

25. I want to finish writing a book as well someday. Maybe something on being single forever. =P

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

i heart.

a 'hearts' post THIS near to february? coming from me? the world must be coming to an end.

the topic's usually too sappy for my own taste (oh spare me the accusing looks), but this was too astonishing to just brush off. i came across a post of heart-shaped natural features found in the planet -- islands, lakes, forests, you name it. awesome, right?


the first one's an island called Galesnjak in Croatia, the second one's a heart-shaped mangrove in New Caledonia, while the last one's a real forest in Cantabria, Spain. amazing. maybe we can have heart-shaped rice terraces. anyway, if you want more, just click over here to get bowled over.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Kaladkarin Invades Cebu Once Again!



Proof that if things don't go as planned, then your plan was wrong. =P We originally wanted to idle away in Boracay for January, but after some discussions, hotel-scouting, and some shifts in the constellations, plans changed and we opted to meet up with Mike in Cebu instead.

And thank God we did. It was already my 3rd time in Cebu in less than 3 years, yet I still got to experience a lot of new things. Sky Adventure, Plantation Bay, table tennis marathons, badminton matches, Sutukil+Pod5 Videoke, Cawasan Falls, Moalboal Beach, clubbing, and of course, our lamon-til-you-drop binging sessions -- yep, all those in 5 days. And for a change, we only checked out the mall during our last day! Ralph already did a great job documenting every step we took during those 5 days; check out his photos. One thing's for sure -- it wouldn't have been as fun if the Sepulvedas did not take us under their wing and put up with our merry band of pasaway bakasyonistas. Daghang salamat! (Mike, uwi ka na ulit! =P)

Okay, enough babbling. More photos over at Ralph and Philip's multiply sites, and of course, mine as well:
http://ishg.multiply.com/photos/album/35/Kaladkarin_Flies_High_Sky_Walk#
http://rarefied.multiply.com/photos
http://peejay6459.multiply.com/photos/album/14/Plantation_Bay_-_Kawasan_-_Moalboal#