Cory Says Hello

Hello again, virtual world. Sorry for the short hiatus. Life is not turning out how I hoped it would be, but I know that things will get better. Anyway, I have 1 topic that I was supposed to write about--how I celebrated my birthday at the Children's Library at the National Museum--but bear with me and my slug computer. I will finish it one of these days. Tonight, I'm here to share with you a list which I've learned which I think keeps me productive. It is called 10 things before 10. Whether it's AM or PM, it's up to you. But for me, it is normally in the morning. I wake up early, around 6:30 and before I get up, I make a mental list of all the things that I should accomplish before 10 AM. My usual routine includes: 1. Make bed. 2. Prepare and eat breakfast. 3. Wash the dishes. 4. Take a bath. 5. Get dressed. 6. Brush my teeth. 7. Fix myself in the mirror, 1 last look before I go out the door. 8. Text G. 9. Commute to work. 10. Answer emails. Very s

It was Valentine's weekend and having no plans on a Friday night, I texted my sister where she is. She replied something illogical: "Let's have dinner buffet at Dusit Thani!" I was in SM Bicutan during that time eating pepper steak in McDonalds (I like theirs btw compared to Jollibee) so I was having second thoughts with her invitation. Also, my wallet is not prepared to shell out at least Php 1000 for dinner. I guess she heard my prayers because she followed up with "It's half the price for BDO card holders!" This was enough reason to jump on the bus instantly. Thank god the traffic was not horrendous going north that time! I arrived at Dusit Thani just a few minutes after 7:30. Just enough time to pace the buffet spread because it ends at 10. When I arrived, my sister was already eating her 1st round of seafood bowl. I wasted no time in navigating The Pantry. TBH, it was not the most impressive lobby/restaurant in Manila. I've seen better, but

Fun Fact: In the X years that G and I have been together, he NEVER once gave or surprised me with flowers on Valentine's Day. It's not his thing. There was even a time that I told him that I will pseudo-surprise myself with a bouquet of flowers on V-Day and I will just reimburse the amount from him. Three years I have been nagging him to give me flowers on Feb 14 (because commercialism duh!) but it was futile...until this time. To be honest, days before Valentine's, I had an inkling that he has a surprise because he asked for my office address. He never asks where I work. I gave it but maybe 10 days before The Day, he asked again. Apparently, our address is so hard to find on Google Maps (this is true). Actually, we had a misunderstanding one Saturday over this whole thing. So stressful! Well, at this point, it was totally obvious that he will give me something so I told him "That better be not flowers, G!" and he just laughed. February 14 Philippine time came

I just had a realization! Starting with this entry, I will be posting "First Bite" editions regularly. Obviously, this is about the restaurants that I visited for the first time. Shocks, this is going to be expensive. :-( Preface: Like most of my posts, First Bite will not be strictly about food because I believe that every great discovery is a wonderful story! So, let's begin! I did not have concrete plans to celebrate Chinese New Year except an early dinner at The Yard with my friend (so sorry Dre, this one was really unplanned. Promise we'll reschedule it!), but on Saturday morning, my sister Remy asked if I wanted to go to Tagaytay to have lunch. I said okay because I was assuming that it's the only thing we'll do. Turns out, my oldest sister Tin-tin was also in Tagaytay for a work-related seminar. We were not sure where to go, but Remy had the idea of going back to an Italian restaurant that she once tried--Deli de San Honore. Waze was acting like

In case you don't know, I love to read. Yes, it doesn't really show but I do. Heck, I have no choice; I've lived away from home (Laguna and Manila mostly) since I was 16 and I never stayed in a house with decent television. That's right. For most of my adult life, I did and still do not watch TV (so sorry Mama if my TV marathon bothers you every time I'm home in Bicol, but that's the only time I can watch my favorite shows). Instead, I read. But, I have a confession. I was not born a bookworm. When I was a kid, we barely had any books at home and my biggest splurge when I was in grade school was a subscription with Salaguinto. I even had to beg Mama for the Php 190 annual subscription fee (because really, my older sister had a subscription and I got jealous, and I didn't want to be one of the few children in class who does not have it). That's how poor we were then; well, we are still poor now. So, when I entered college in Laguna, good thing that my

Who would have thought that after 4 years of sporadically writing on this blog, I will have my first freebie this year? Yup, finally this blog bore its first fruit courtesy of my friend Oli. But let me tell you how it came to be. It all started with this question: I love planners! I always the Php 60 thin ones from National Bookstore because it has decent writing space and it's so light! It fits perfectly inside my bag. But since this year is about changes and because I am getting old, I decided that I could do with another planner--a more mature one. So Oli's message came on time (although a week before, I already bought one from NB but don't tell him that). At first, I really thought that he was selling me the planner but the next lines in our convo read like: Oli: "Oh don't worry about it, I'm giving it to you for free." Me: "What?? Really?? No way!" Oli: "Yeah, you just have to write something about it." Me: "That'