countdown (???)

5 days to go na lang!

day trip...

normally we drive south during late nights or early mornings but since we have plenty of errands last Saturday morning we have no choice but (again..) to drive around 3pm when traffic was all over the stretch of Aguinaldo Highway. it sucks to be stucked in traffic for at least an hour so another 2 hours is deadly. waaah! so i got my cam and shoot anything that captured my attention, did some online reading (thanks to smartbro) too and log in to facebook and stalked LL!

well, Bea and Dadi looks flat and hungry at this time.

Bea on Dad: i'm sleepy & hungry na...

the way out to my boredom is the pleasure of getting online while on the road and making quick chitchats with friends and do some online shopping too :)

facebook ni Bea?

what's keepin me busy?

Q2 close by tomorrow
facebook, facebook with LL!
discerning some work related problems and people too :(
ebay shopping

well, it's 7 days to go to before Sunday and Bea and I can no longer contain our excitement..go go! see yah all fellas in green!

daddy's day off!

sunday was Father's Day, and as early as 7am Oliver and I had already sent out our sms greetings to Tatay and to some of our friends . unusual for a sunday, but we started our day ahead of time too. by 10am, brunch was already prepared and just before noontime Oliver was out to Zafra Motors for Winnie's sched maintenance. back home, i am getting ready to prepare dinner and baon for the following day which is menudo. before 3pm, errands was almost completed and Oliver was home now taking a short nap.

by 6pm, dinner was already served and right after we fixed ourselves and drive to Boni High (without Bea this time). i know Oliver was quite tired already but his very supportive of my being an extrovert (at the moment only..hehehe) was something i need to reward to or should i say something i need to be grateful to. so, we went to this Lifestyle Sale hoping he would find something that i can pay for but unfortunately the sale is not worth going to Boni High. the were very few selections of shoes from Aldo & Pedro unlike during last December sale there were even Charles & Keith shoes and bags. OT (out of topic for shopaholic sanity..lol), the sale is still on-going until Jul 19, most of the items are outdated and old stocks. there were some good items at La Senza but i find it a little expensive pa rin kase. if you wanna check it, this is located at the 3/F of Dimensione at Boni High Street.

the Great Lifestyle Sale!

on topic, sorry if i have to include that sale to this post :) ok where are we now?? yeah, at Starbucks now! to make my Oliver a little cheery i know a good coffee will do and a slice of something sweet.

moccha frap plus a delectable slice of sansrival

busy watching youtube on my E71 & enjoying the free wifi!

after an hour we're done with our coffee and had a little walk going to the parking area when we spotted this promo at All Flipflops --says 15% off for Father's Day! quickly we went to and checked the new displays. Oliver being so picky could not decide which pair is best, and finally after 30 minutes he decided to get this,

Havaianas Cards P895.00

and got myself a Havaianas Top (hot pink) P615.00


yey! i got a freebie! a havainas playing cards, tenk u guys!

that was my gift to him for Father's Day! wasn't it so sweeet??? i know you like it honey, c'mon buy me a another pair next month...hehehe. though we do not have our little Anton yet, we like to celebrate ocassions the simpliest way we could. we like to enjoy life, we like to create memories and add everything to our journey!

i am Mrs. Leal, happy to be!

famous tapa!

been wanting to eat here for a long time and every time we would pass by at Kalayaan on our way home i would make a little wish “kelan kaya ako makakain dyan…” finally, after a decade and so i was able to taste Rufo’s silog combination again just last night and the bonus part is we dined instead of havin’ their food delivered.

Rufo’s was introduced by ex-Piltel buddies late 90’s when we are still connected in a telecom giant of its era. it was a quick relief to our stomach during post mortem sessions at the 4th Floor of Banker’s Centre Bldg. (where Piltea-MKP was holding office then), this is an alternative to our Tapa King fondness too. all the way through their signature famous tapa, liempo and boneless bangus, everything was still very tasty! tho a little bit pricey now which is still reasonable.

Rufo's Famous Tapa

our dinner,
Famous Tapa with caption "sauce pa lang ulam na"
(mouth-watering, tender Batangas beef, marinated and served in Rufo's rich, sweet famous sauce with a side order of fried egg. Rufo's specialty of the house since 1984. )
P89.00,

Liempo
(choice-cut pork flavored with Rufo's special homemade liempo marinade. served hot-off-the-grill with a side order of sweet liempo sauce)
P98.00

Sizzling Sisig
(Philippines favorite "pulutan" contains the perfect blend of flavors and spices topped with farm fresh egg and served crackling in its own juices on a sizzling plate. ask for the classic or spicy hot version)
P130.00

Leche Plan
P30.00

note: special caption from muncpunch.com, see complete menu here.

Rufo's Famous Tapa (Makati branch)
4736 Salamanca cor. Kalayaan Ave., Bel Air (in front of the old Int'l School)
Makati City, Metro Manila

shade for every mood...

this is my girl's paws, i made it last weekend with a little help from Sam. Bea surely knows what will prettify her because she was in her best mood during the entire kikay session. we have the same nail color this time because i personally love the shade of red which is very neat to look at and it matches every mood, what are you wearing right now?

tea rose

i will have her nail color change to purple by next week if i have plenty of time, for now let's stick to this love color.

independence day out!

june 12 landed on a friday this year so we enjoyed another long weekend away from office work and as planned two weeks ago we will be driving upland to see my family again. well, aside from our scheduled trip that day we had plenty of stop overs to name a few..., after a heavy breakfast at home we went to this Factory Outlet in San Juan, where Gola, And1, Keen, and a whole lot more brand was being sold at factory price. it was me who was supposed to get something that day but i left the store empty handed, Che got a new jersey for Arman and was eyeing a nice Gola flats too while Oliver settled also for a black And1 jersey at P399.00 only. he was attracted to this white Gola sneakers (gawd! i know from his eyes!) but he was so reluctant to buy it that day because of some spending issue lately (do we have one honey?..hehehe).

sale fanatic!

Che's search for a fairly nice shosee brought us to Greenhills Shopping Mall because of it's proximity, she was looking for a fakeee! what? yes, fake! Sanuk replicas but we didn't saw a single pair. acc to a sales attendant the Sanuk line was not yet being sold in tiangge so we ended up checking signature bags at Mondo and compare prices with Ebay so we got this lady irritated..hehehe. we were supposed to left GH when i saw something that delighted me munch este much. Crazy Crepes! my so long craving for crepe was answered! instantly, we got something --a mango caramel vanilla and a banana nutella (this is for me!). no ordinary crepe this time since you can choose a lot from their combination and you can upgrade to a larger size with more stuffs inside. more nutella please less whip cream! i love how their crepe was heavily filled and would definitely be back again and again...weeee!

my sister can't get over it too...

our next stop that day was the Purple Oven, and had Grandma's Chocolate Cake, Carrot Loaf and Banana Loaf for pasalubong back home. and during our two hours drive to Cavite, Che and i filled our stomach with fishballs for a change :)

had a great day, really great! how was independence day out?

prepare to "Roll Out"

am going to this HP event pretty next week!... yeeeeeeeey!

jingky and jam will be joining too, thanks Ei for the wonderful invite...it's was so nice of you, ehem of HP to extend this to us :)

how about you fellas? watching this too?

see yah at the movies!

sam, pao and bea

i have no specific title for this one, and can only describe this photo as cute! could pass a magazine cover except for the rowdy background...lol!

Bea with cousins Sam & Paolo :)

family day, june 13

spent another long weekend with my family in cavite and all saturday afternoon was spent bonding with the kids over pizza & pasta at Yellow Cab and Army Navy Tagaytay. it was a good day out, cold breeze minus the rains. plus we took home some nice shots of this day, thank God for the sunny afternoon!

Che's family enjoyin the good food..

Sam's starbucks tee, moi and Nanay & my Leoncio

Charlie Chan (YellowCab), Soft Taco (Army Navy), ice cream pint (YellowCab)

family!

right after this late afternoon snack we all attended the anticipated mass at Lourdes Church...had another great weekend folks! how was yours?

lovin t'is much...

Grandma's Chocolate Cake, had this over the weekend plus banana loaf plus carrot loaf --all from the Purple Oven!

luscious!

prices for your reference,
Grandma's Chocolate Cake P520.00
Carrot Loaf P220.00
Banana Loaf P160.00

on migranes and coffee, cheese & chocolates

recently i had several attacks of migrane and i was even suspecting i might have brain cancer the worst..hehehe, or on the back end side maybe it's just because i need to see my optometrist and have my glasses change...too many things i had in mind and little did i know how coffee, cheese and chocolate starts off my head twisting pain, migrane as commonly referred to.

tho i don't eat coffeee, cheese and chocolate at the same time, most of the time it ends me up drooping and killer migrane starts off. such stimulants, i call them now! just last saturday, i had a very painful one and the last thing i remember was i had so much of this delectable chocolate

cake from Purple Oven. reading now, these three are such real stimulants tho they do it differently. read some commets below, they may be helpful for people like me who suffers the same painful attack every now and then.

the exact mechanisms that cause migraines are not known and, indeed, may be numerous. many people believe that certain factors ‘trigger’ their attacks. these may include too much or too little sleep, strong light, weather changes and specific foods. in women, hormonal changes at certain times of life or at the onset of menstruation can trigger migraines. many people mistakenly believe that migraine is a psychological disease. this one probably not true. migraine is an organic neurological disease and headache is one of its symptoms. a number of theories have been put forward to explain the biological mechanisms involved in a migraine attack. one of the most popular theories is that a migraine is caused when a physiological trigger, or triggers, cause vasodilation (expansion of the blood vessels) in the cranial blood vessels, which activates trigeminal nerve endings in the brain. this activation of the ‘trigeminovascular system’ is thought to cause the release of chemical substances called neurotransmitters, of which the neurotransmitter serotonin (also known chemically as 5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT) is an important factor in the development of migraine. during a migraine attack, inflammation of the tissue surrounding the brain (neurogenic inflammation) worsens the pain. (write up from the_lipsiot Yahoo! 7 Answers)

Other triggers include:
-Allergic reactions
-Bright lights, loud noises, and certain odors or perfumes
-Physical or emotional stress -Changes in sleep patterns
-Smoking or exposure to smoke
-Skipping meals
-Alcohol
-Menstrual cycle fluctuations, birth control pills
-Tension headaches
-Foods containing tyramine (red wine, aged cheese, smoked fish, chicken livers, figs, and some beans), monosodium glutamate (MSG), or nitrates (like bacon, hot dogs, and salami)
-Other foods such as chocolate, nuts, peanut butter, avocado, banana, citrus, onions, dairy products, and fermented or pickled foods

now the best thing to do is try to avoid these foods and stuffs if they act as a migraine trigger for you...yah think i can avoid chocolates?? oh no! more pain reliever pleaseeee....

a little something for Roma

yesterday after work we gave Roma a simple baby shower for soon to be borne baby Dela Cruz scheduled under normal delivery on the first week of July and since Roma's birthday will be in less than 2 weeks time we decided to give her an advance birthday cake blow-out too (tipid-tipid, acc to the girls!). we made a little surprise on her and it works, just in time when she was about to go home na we invited Roma and husband at the Nibble Room...and both of them was delighted seeing us ready to party!

surprise, surprise!

a small dinner (from CCME) was prepared for everyone and we sing her happy birthday tho it's kinda bit ahead of time.

happee burpday!

Carrot Cake from Kookie Corner

Chicken Lolly, Chicken Lasagna & free Puto from CCME
Garlic Bread from French Baker

right after dinner, time to open little gifts for her little one! she received baby stuffs which will be very useful soon. everyone looks forward on your safe delivery Roma!

exclusively for the "little one"

a group photo completed this event!

Happy Birthday Roma and stay healthy!

sofa bed from ikea

been eyeing this sofa bed from Ikea's site since last month but this one is kinda so so expensive kaya i was looking a similar one locally made and cheaper of course. anyway, this piece cost Php21,500.00 and comes in blue color too which is perfect for us sana...oh my! i wish they would go on 70% sale soon, by then without any q's i would get this one..hehehe. anyway, for those interested please check Ikea Home Furnishing (this one is an Ikea importer company folks and not the Ikea company itself) located at Palanan St. in Makati. watch out also for their Wilson branch opening soon!

sofa bed from Ikea

HSBC Exclusive Sale

well, if you enjoy The Big Outlet Sale 2009 you may want to check out the HSBC big brands sales too happening at Nuvo City, Libis QC from June 4-7, 2009 (10am-9pm). wait, June 4-5 was exclusive for HSBC card holders and June 6-7, 2009 for non-HSBC card holders (you just need to fill in a cc application form, i think).

from my GT fellas, the sale is a designer ukay-ukay of its kind and most of the stocks are outdated na. anyway, for your sanity shopaholics here's the list of the brands on sale:

120% Moda ● 24 Standard ● 4You ● 7 for All Mankind ● Aerosoles ● AG Jeans ●American Tourister ● Anac ● Andy Warhol ● Anika ● Anne Klein ● AX ArmaniExchange ● Baby Phat ● Balance Collection ● Bally ● BCBG ● BeautyBar ● Beka ● Blue Fish ● Boss ● Bottega Veneta ● Burberry ● CalvinKlein Underwear ● Charriol ● Chip & Pepper ● Citizens of Humanity ● CitreShine ● cK Calvin Klein ● CK Jeans ● Conair ● Cubavera ● CustoBarcelona ● DenmanDep ● Designer Frangrances ● Diesel ● DKNY ● DKNY Jeans ● Dunhill ● EasySpirit ● Ecco ● Echo ● Emma James ● Enzo Angiolini ● Ermenegildo ZegnaFCUK ● Fendi ● Fiori di Zuca ● For Joseph ● Franco Sarto ● Fresh Karma ●Fruits & Passion ● Furla ● Geoffrey Beene ● Green Dragon ● Gucci ● HawaiianTropic ● Hayden-Harnett ● Hogan ● HotKiss ● Industrie ● Interlud ●Jack Nicklaus ● Jack Spade ● Jakes Dry Goods ● James Perse ● Jlo ● JuicyCouture ● Karen Kane ●Kate Spade ● Kenneth Cole ● Lacoste ● LacosteAccessoires ● Laundry Sportswear ● Le Sportsac ● Le Tigre ● Lei Jeans LizClaiborne ● Local Celebrity ● Longchamp ● Love Amour ● Luli Fama ● Lush ●Makeroom ● Manhattan Beachwear ● Marc by Marc Jacobs ● Marc Jacobs ●Marlboro Classics ● Mavi ● Max & Cleo ● Max Factor ● Mexx ● Michael Kors ●Michael Stars ● Moonsplash ● Muchacha ● Natori ● Ninewest ● O Oscar ● OkabOleg Cassini ● Organic ● Oxo ● Paper Denim and Cloth ● Polo Jeans Co.● PoloRalph Lauren ● Prada ● Princess Small Appliances ● Promom Couture ● RalphLauren Childrenswear ● Raoul ● Red Soul ● Report Collection ● Rock &Republic ● Rowenta ●Sag Harbor ● Salvatore Ferragamo ● Sergio Rossi ●ShivaShakti ● Sinequanone ● Sinequanone ● Sky ● Soul Edge ● Springfield ● SteveMadden ● Superga ● Susan Bristol ● Tefal ● Tigerlily ● Tod’s ● Via SpigaVictoria Beckham ● XOXO ● Zen Sei ● Zero Friz (included also are brands like Zara, YSL and Marks & Spencer)

we're not scheduled to visit the sale and i won't insist going there this time, will content my weekend blogging and just blabbing :)

Pay One For Two At Latitude

i got this promo from ClickTheCity.com and it amazes me how inexpensive this international buffet..for only P950.00 net Oliver and i can feast enough! tho promo runs this June only, i hope we can plan a weekend lunch at Latitude..yey! btw, Traders Hotel Manila is managed by Shangri-la so expect the best :)

click here for more details

Traders Hotel Manila
3001 Roxas Boulevard
Pasay City 1305
Philippines
T: (63 2) 523 7011
F: (63 2) 522 3985

Purple Hunt, join now!

i received this promo from Krispy Kreme yesterday and immediately had my registration and presto they did send me the Ticket Registration for the Purple Hunt event happening from June 5-18, 2009. click here for more details.

my ticket registration!

funny! but i have no idea about this hunting game, i just love the freebies..hehehe

i missed the MYOH 2009

MYOH is on it's 2nd year in Manila and unlucky me i missed the event again, it ran last May 28-Jun 1 at the Rockwell Tent. hopefully, next year i won't be making my own pair online..sharing what i really wanted to sana..sigh!

my design: femme pinay

(slim pink sole, blue staps, swarovski crystals and a culture pin)

back to school

our little girl at home will be back to school on june 8 and she is ever excited to have this photo taken together with her new stuffs last Sunday morning. i remember our childhood too, when Che and I would shop for our school supplies at Harrison Plaza's NBS. we're two lucky girls who would splurged even on the smallest details of our school things like kikay erasers and glue containers, scented pens, big and trendy bags, Kim Jim notebooks, binders, scissors, stationaries, and you remember Bandolino shoes? we used to wear it even after gradeschool. today, Sam enjoys Barbie and Winks theme over our Hello Kitty fascination before.

ready for school year 2009-2010

Sam will be an incoming 4th grader at Dei Gracia Academy in Trece Martires City. as Lola and Lolo would always say, study hard Sammie and maintain the gold!

family day, may 31

last Saturday was Nanay's birthday and we had a little salo-salo at home, then came sunday afternoon we all had mass together (Lourdes Parish) and settled for McDonald's dinner at Tagaytay. btw, Oliver decided to stay home to watch over Bea and Shen.

earlier that afternoon, Tatay went ahead of us to join his league of friends at Casino (sosyal noh!) and had a 4 hour game before we picked him up. it was all rainy and foggy and i love the very cold weather, perfect to go on style with our colorful jackets :)

gamble and repent :)

Sam and Paolo

small + simple = happy family

Pao loves McDo after this day!

looking forward on another long weekend with my family on june 12-14!

friday report, may 29

i'm starting this one and hopefully get going to finally finished all my backlogs...well, let's go back a bit with last Friday's activity. i left Greenhills office mid afternoon to meet up Nanay and Sam at Glorietta because Sam was scheduled to buy all her school supplies and i am paying most of it...waaah! we bought most of her items at SM Makati and had the rest at NBS Glorietta 5. though it's kinda damaging to my pocket i am delighted to see Sam enjoying the shopping spree :)

btw, Che followed us at SM after her mid afternoon shift..

Ayala Center photo ops...

we had a little shopping at The Landmark before Oliver fetched us and moved to Home Depot in Ortigas and had late dinner to celebrate Nanay's birthday a day in advance (hours na lang pala...). we all know how Nanay love crabs so we had a kilo and half, buttered and garlic plus a kilo of shrimps made tempura and buttered too. she enjoyed the sumptuous dinner much as we do --Happy Birthday Nanay!

seafood lovers! minus the allergies...

this OT (as in out of topic):

how do you like Che's new Lacoste Bag?

right after shopping and dinner we drive to Cavite and arrived home around 1am...more post about our weekend...

after a week...

i'm still not in the liveliest mood to write a decent post, ask me why? my answer will be "i dunno", maybe work is occupying much of my time, maybe because i just need a week of silence, or maybe i'm still totally stoked :)

i have a weekend full of activities and yet cannot start to write anything at all...bear with me folks, i'll be back pretty soon. btw, the rainy months had officially started a couple of days ago --let say good bye to summer for the meantime.