Hi guys! I officially turned the Chapter 27 of my existence book last month. Time goes sooooo fast. I wish there's an option to stop time for a while so we could just enjoy it without worrying about anything. I am just a few years away from turning beyond the number of days in the calendar and I still haven't figured out what I want in life. Hahaha. Before that, I'll give you a quick round up of life happenings for this year so far...

First, we welcomed the New Year. I wasn't so ecstatic in welcoming the year 'cause I'm not yet done processing 2020 and 2021! It's like everything went on a speed of light. Same from the previous years, we welcomed the new year at our humble home. This is how our New Year's Eve usually looks like: we prepare foods for Media Noche, eat dinner, and bond while we wait for midnight. Some of our relatives would come over and we would usually watch movie, sing karaoke or simply eat and chat together. My family always like to keep celebrations simple. We weren't the type to splurge on parties or celebrations then wake up in the next few days without food in our table. I also like to keep things that way but I also try to twist things a little bit so there's something different or something new even if we're only celebrating at home. Anyway, the most special thing about having these celebrations, whether it's simple or extravagant, is the people who we're celebrating it with. 🤗

It's New Year's Day when we also celebrated my Father's birthday. His birthday is January 7, but we decided to celebrate it earlier with a few relatives. We just prepared and bought some dishes and invited a few relatives. We sang karaoke, and played Jenga while drinking gin dalandan (whoever toppled the blocks would have to drink the harder drink).

My February kicked off by catching up with previous work colleagues at Intramuros (our go to place when the holiday is squeezed in the middle of the week). Then February 6, me and my family went to Angat River for a quick getaway. It is the body of water where Angat Dam flows. The water is not too deep but the current is a bit strong on certain areas. There's no entrance fee, we only paid for our cottage which is worth around P200-P300 per table. I didn't swim because there's no proper facility to shower in after swimming in the river. There's just a make shift cubicle where you can change clothes. Even if I've been there and the view isn't that enticing, it's still a good place to chill and have a nature encounter.

I also spent some time with friends, attended a colleagues' wedding and dyed my hair purple. Yeah. I don't know why I did that. Lol. I've always been hesitant to dye my hair because I know for a fact that it causes the hair to dry. My friends basically talked me into it, saying that it won't damage my hair blah blah until I was convinced that maybe I need to try it at least once so I could know for myself. One of my friend bleached then eventually dyed my hair. I loved how it turned out, very subtle. It's just the back part that was dyed so it can't easily be noticed upfront. I just didn't like how it really caused my hair to dry that it's become brittle and easily breakable. No regrets though at least I've tried it.

Then came the birth month-March! The one when I turned 27! I had a four-part birthday celebration (kunware sosyal): with the family, friends and officemates.

First, the dinner with friends at Dookki SM North last March 11. It's a Korean Topokki Buffet restaurant that serves Korean food such as rice cakes, fish cakes and plenty of side dishes (fried chicken, mandu, seaweed roll, japchae, onion rings and etc). They also have fresh ingredients you can put on the soup such as meat, beef, sausages, mussels, shrimps, mushrooms and different vegetables. You can choose from a wide variety of sauce to mix in your Topokki. The price is Php499 for adults and Php299 for kids that is good for 1 hour and 30 minutes. There's also a charge for leftover food like in a Korean BBQ restaurant. If you plan to go there make sure to have an empty stomach to take advantage of what you'll be paying for. Also, rice cake is a carbohydrate rich food, making it very heavy on the stomach. If you want to taste everything make sure to get just a little bit of everything.

After eating, my friends gave me a Vizco's cake (one of my faves), sung an out of tune version of Happy Birthday, and gave me my present (Airtag! 😍 I'm looking forward for an Apple watch next year. Lol.)

Second, birthday celebration with the fam last March 13. Spending my birthday working isn't on top of my list, but since my birthday fell on a Tuesday, I decided to just celebrate it ahead with the fam and didn't took a leave from work. It's also my cousin Ela's birthday that day, so it's a double celebration for us. Like the usual, we just ordered and prepared a few dishes and invited a few relatives.

Third, my actual birthday, which I obviously celebrated while working. I'm already on that point where celebrating birthday no longer thrills me haha. I'm not so ready to grow older HUHU. My officemates decorated my area with birthday banner, balloons and fairy lights then placed some gifts on my table. Gifts which are mostly related to BTS (they really know my addiction hahaha). When I went home to dorm, my friend also gave me a BT21 shirt as a present. 😍

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSdkWo8xs/

Finally, the last leg of the celebration was our Tagaytay trip. It's not really meant to be my birthday celebration, it just so happened that we booked our travel date a little after my birthday. We've been planning for this trip for so long, that we impulsively booked it after we've come up on the date that suits everyone just so it would push through. We booked our accommodation at Wind Residence Tower 1 through booking.com that cost us P4,429.60 for an overnight stay good for 5 people.

Before going to Tagaytay, we first went to my officemate's home at Cavite to have our lunch. From there, we rode a bus going to Tagaytay. We asked the bus conductor to drop us off at Wind Residences but instead we were dropped at Wind Ridge which is certainly where we're not going to. We took another ride in a jeep, but the accommodation is located on a street not accessible to public transportation so we walked a few hundred more meters. We went straight to their reception then the caretaker brought us to our room. The space area of our room is in a vertical rectangle shape, there's a kitchen and dining table on the left and a CR on the right side. Next to it is the living room with two gray sofa beds. The bed is alongside the living area, separated by a divider full of different decorations. On the left side of the bed is a big closet, and beside it is the door that leads to the balcony where an amazing view of Taal Lake can be enjoyed. The only thing we didn't like about the accommodation, aside from poor internet connection, is the door of the comfort room. It's sort of a hanging sliding door, the problem is there's no way it can be properly closed because of the space between the opening and the door. It's quite awkward to do business in the bathroom with that door. Hahaha.

After dropping our bags, we went to Starbucks Tagaytay (the one located at Tagaytay-Nasugbu Highway) have our coffee, then went to Ridge Park for our dinner. We were lucky that there's an available slot for us because they're almost fully occupied the entire day. Ridge Park has kubos where each table is placed. The restaurant has an amazing view of Taal Lake also. We ordered bulalo (a must have while in Tagaytay) and a few more dishes. After having our dinner, we grabbed a few snacks, drinks and other necessities for the night. Afterwards, we took turns in taking a bath then after my turn, they surprised me with a birthday design and greeting. 😍 We spent the night eating, drinking and playing card game. We drank soju and went down at 7 11 twice (in out pjs) because we just can't get enough alcohol in our system to be wasted. Haha. The next morning, we packed our things, checked out and have our brunch at a Korean BBQ restaurant. Then we went to get pasalubong and travelled home.

That's how I celebrated my 27th year of existence! I'm glad that even if we're still in the middle of pandemic I was able to still celebrate my day. It's my 3rd pandemic birthday just like that. I'm officially at that age when most people would ask if I have a partner, when I'm going to settle down and the likes. Seriously, get a life! Just kidding. I'm honestly thinking if marrying and eventually having a family is for me. Like I've always been a strong independent woman that I can live my life without depending on someone, but I think having someone to share life's trouble with is also a good thing. However, at the same time, bringing a human being in this cruel world doesn't sound so appealing and I'm damn tired as it is. I'm still not sure what I want in life and that lead me to making decisions or questioning decisions I made in the past. There were things I wish I didn't do, but I'm taking it as lessons learned so I won't have regrets. I had to let go of things I know I didn't deserve or things I thought I needed, because the impact of not having it has way more good results in my life than the other way around. Making those decisions and finally letting go of those things feels just so liberating and empowering.

Anyway, I'm thankful with each and everyone who made me feel special on my birthday. Your greetings, gifts and efforts are very much appreciated. I am very much more thankful to our Creator for giving me 851,472,000 seconds to live. 🤗 I maybe far from where I want to be in life but I can say I'm doing better than yesterday. Being blessed with the things I've been praying for or even things I didn't prayed for. I can now afford things that I can't wayback. Something to really be grateful for. Although my mental being was also way more sane before hahaha just kidding. Whatever it is, for now, I'll just go with the flow and see what life has in store for me.

Dear Universe, surprise me please! ✨