The short version: Took a photo.
The long version:
I slept early the night before my birthday, when i woke up i got 5 missed calls from unknown number and about 10 birthday greetings. Like any other passed birthdays, i tend to forget that this one is a special day. I was slightly grumbling about having to work but since i had no plans I'd rather stay in the office and hear my office mates clapping their hands while shouting "pizza! pizza!" (It is very common. Believe me).

BB Photo Dump

I found these on my office table. I was expecting something like this. But thank you, whoever you are.

So I spent the day chatting with random people on Facebook, replying to birthday tweets, thinking about my age, thinking about the rest of my life, thinking about ice cream, thinking about cake, googling about senior citizen life insurance, and thinking where to get wasted.

Forgive me if i will not blog about what happened after shift. It's a story of shame.
Here are some pictures thanks to Eve.
































Happy birthday to me. I hope you guys have a good day or night. Tell the universe Kim demanded it so.

This made my day! Six out of twenty-three from my wishlist.

So i am turning 23 tomorrow and I am feeling… the age.
Someone asked me "How old are you?" I answered and then she chided "When i was 23, i already had my first child."

I am old enough to have a baby this year.

("Uh-oh," my friend goes.)

I must admit: It’s a little frightening. For reasons I no longer remember that are too stupid and embarrassing to share. These are the unimportant things that send me into little fits of internal panic. How very unnecessary.

Now as much as I would like to expound on this fear and talk about my feelings! my emotions! mah h0pez & mah dreamz!, I’d rather take the ditzy route and list down a bunch of crap I feel I would need “to give meaning to my 23 years of existence”

The list (23 for 23):
1. Leica
2. Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/4G
3. A dog
4. Two or three (or more!) new pairs of shoes
5. Gummy bears
6. Mac Book
7. Car
8. Flowers
9. Chocolates and Cake!
10. Comforter
11. Kero Keropi
12. Long straight wig
13. Photo Studio
14. Plane ticket to Hongkong
15. Kitchen Showcase
16. Second Job
17. All songs of Maroon 5 in my ipad
18. BB cream
19. Fake lashes
20. BIG closet
21. Contact lenses in all shades
22. Collar necklace
23. My Johnloyd

Next year, I propose that I drink every day for the entire month of November.

Old woman

I used to look forward to turning a year older.…All right all right, I will tell you why: once upon a time, there was this guy. He was 10 years older — not to bore you with old drama — he made me feel inadequate for being young(er). That whole thing with guy didn’t work out (obviously and thank gawd). People (myself, included) tend to glorify or romanticize birthdays, the way they do New Year’s: a time for changing! A time to re-assess who you are and what you want to be! A time to set new goals and check what you have achieved in the past year, five years, decade. I’m simply not in the mood. Today, tonight, and like many of the past Birthdays — I would rather drink.

I barely got any sleep last night and I woke up feeling less than stellar at 730am. People who know me know that I usually don’t wake up before 9 in the morning. I carried on as usual: wake up, stare at my ceiling light, shower, coffee, internet. I felt that familiar icky feeling when you lack sleep. I just hoped that the days leading up to my 23th birthday wouldn’t be spent like so.These past few weeks i woke up at 5am, a friend of mine told me it's a sign of aging. (seriously??)

Oh beautiful Sunset

Its Brazil Holiday today! I’m taking a quick break from work to go through my drafts.
I don’t even deserve a break considering I’ve mainly been faffing around online instead of ticking off stuff on today’s to-do list.

Anyway, here’s my overdue post about the part 2 trip in Ilocos Norte - Pagudpud.
It took us 4 hours to get there (from vigan). We left Vigan around 12nn. We were informed that there are no buses heading straight to Pagudpud so we had no choice but to take a bus to Laoag and another ordinary bus to Pagudpud. It was a looooooong drive but I would do it all over again. The view from the bus was breathtaking. It was nice to take a break, get out of the city and its hulking concrete and metal buildings, and be surrounded by nature. I wanted to take off the bus each time i see a good landscape. Picture Perfect! We were rolling in the edges of the philippines with the view of the beautiful China sea.





At 4pm we arrived in Pagudpud, hungry for food.

Mr. Wonderful, thank you for this photo. ^^

The sand is not as white and fine as what they have it Boracay. For me, Pagudpud is like Puerto Gallera only with lesser people and establishments.

I woke up from my nap around 9pm (it was so tempting to sleep. Cold weather is bed weather). Unsurprisingly, after a few minutes i slept again. :)) I woke up with a knot in my stomach at 11pm. STARVING!!!

We jumped off the bed and stepped outside to get something to eat. Man, it was soooo quite and DARK. All we can hear was the sounds of the crickets, the stupid dog barking and the waves. Scary. It didn't stop us from walking. Little did i know the door was closed and the keys were left inside. Stupid, right? Can you blame me? I was so hungry i don't care about the keys or whatsoever. So, the next question was, How the hell did we get inside the room again? It was funny and scary at the same time.  We were still lucky because the owner of the (small) hotel lives in the neighborhood. No doorbell, no nothing so i screamed good Lord they opened the door for us. We were told that the restaurant closes as early as 9:30PM. OH boy. Fortunately, i bought a sachet of Nescafe. I am so smart.

 The caffeine kept us awake so we spent the rest of the night chatting in the balcony.
  The light is extraordinary, diffuse and warm in hue and I remember a friend of mine rambling on about ‘magic hour’, a time of day that photographers adore.

Day 3 is the last day in the North and as expected, none of us wanted to leave.We took a quick view of  Bangui Windmill. Man, this thing is HUGE. Its beyond my expectation. really.

HUGE monster wind mill

Light House

Bags waiting for the bus

 We dreaded the long bus ride home and having to go back to hot and noisy Manila aka REALITY. But all good things must come to an end and we tried to squeeze in as much as we could in the few hours we had.

I am three days late from blogging about my trip to Ilocos. Forgive me readers (if i have. lolz) Well, well well im pretty sure the boyfriend reads my blog and i thank him for being my number 1 f♥n. The truth is i was busy sleeping. For good 3 days i finally get enough sleep. I've missed my bed. :)

Lets get it started!

We left Manila around 8pm and arrived in Laoag at 9. It was a short flight. The initial plan was to get a bus to pagudpud but we were late because the last trip was 9pm and we will have to travel 15-30 minutes from Laoag International Airport to the bus station. Instead of spending the night in Laoag we headed to Vigan. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait for Partas bus to leave because we were the last passengers thus getting the back seat. For Php165, uncomfortably freezing and shaking we arrived in Vigan at 11 pm. Internet is right, it was 2 hours bus ride, damn longer than our flight.

I had very little knowledge of Vigan prior to this trip; all I knew was that it was going to be fun and that there were these old houses I had to see.

Calle Crisologo at 11 something PM. Scary right?

Vigan is/was incredible! These houses felt like i were back from the late 16th century. The time when the Spaniards ruled the country, brought the Christian religion and were responsible for  a lot of colonial and religious buildings throughout the country.

Except from traveling, photography and blogging i am also fond of history. This is why i loved this place. Amazing place! It was good to know that the government of Ilocos had this place preserved.

Horse drawn carriage AKA kalesa

Legacy superclub

Believe it or not it was my first time riding kalesa. :) It was....shaky and we were consistently moving. What do i expect? Lols

I have always preferred going to the beach for vacations but I think I’m going to have to change the way I do things now that I’ve been to Vigan.





Pictures! Here and here and here and under the cut!

The Bell Tower

Beautiful, right?

Just Perfect

 

Day 1.

The mango something :) heh

The place is nice they have couch and not the normal chair you'll find in some clubs. They have sexy fire dancers. Oh man! I wish i know how to do fire dancing.

not this one

gay.

We were tipsy and the rain had gotten considerably stronger but that didn’t keep us from heading to Club Paraw. Its a club literary in front of the beach. The place was crowded when we got there, it was probably 1 or 2am. We ordered the glowing Vodka Tonic.We got drunk and on our way to our hotel we stripped and skinny dipping in the dark. FUN.

Day 2. Casa Fiesta

I’ll blog about the trip (though not in detail because really, what we mostly did was drink, eat and relax) in the coming days as I have a nice amount of things to do at work. Part of me is glad to be back in Manila but a BIGGER part of me is still wishing I were back in Boracay, hanging out and dancing at clubs in the beach with a tequilla and skinny dipping in the dark, not thinking about anything but how nice it is to be there.