Aujourd’hui c’est son anniversaire

Finally, a birthday celebration outside.

When the pandemic went full swing in 2020, the nationwide lockdown was about 3 days before Mon’s birthday. We had planned an eat-all-you-can dinner that time, but for obvious reasons. It was cancelled. Even the succeeding days before it, we were thinking how to get the refund for the pre-payment we made. When the prolonged lockdowns eventually reared its ugly head, it was obvious that it has ravaged more livelihood and employment. Our worries were severely paltry and negligible.

Since around mid-February 2022, things were looking up. Numbers-wise, since the end of the Omicron wave around January, there were less cases (and deaths, which frankly should be zero — a death is a death, even one). Vaccination rates are high. Or it might just be really the election period upon us that led to the relaxing of the restrictions.

The fire extinguisher --- people will probably think it's a Jeff Koons

The fire extinguisher — people will probably think it’s a Jeff Koons. (Yes. that’s an SATC reference)

So for today, we finally decided to have dinner at Greenbelt and (supposedly) watch a movie. Nothing out of ordinary.

It was a humid summer’s evening, but it did not prevent me from wearing my usual uniform: a black shirt. I decided to be dressier than usual and put on jeans instead of shorts. =) Nevertheless, my flip flops were intact. Imagine me walking around these around this new area where the LV store was transferred to, together with other designer stores. I did not care about it, to be honest, as I just really wanted to be inside an air-conditioned place. Continue Reading

Before 2019 Ends

Welp! My last post was exactly a year ago today! I almost forgot the password for BRYOLOGUE but here I am again with another mega post.

Funny how I keep on posting about religiously posting but haven’t got the chance for the past 364 days. To give a recap of my year, perhaps a mega post will make up for it?

So let’s have a look back at the year that was!

At the newly-cleaned Quiapo area ---- Mulberry Trout Scotchgrain Messenger Bag

At the newly-cleaned Quiapo area

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Taipei Trip Mega Post – Day 2

Our 2nd day is a special day: it is our 10th!

We were able to finally sleep well from the night before. But before hitting the sack, I gave Mon a simple keepsake to commemorate our 10th year. I initially had no idea what to give him. However, I eventually realized that it was fitting to give him a ring.

On our first year where we celebrated in Baguio, we had this simple silver ring bought from Cubao. It only makes sense to have another one in gold.

Happy 10 years!

Happy 10 years!

After our usual breakfast from 7/11, we then prepared for the day ahead.

We topped our Easy Cards again with another NTD 100. To go to Longshan Temple, we took the train from Ximen Station to Longshan Station. I sort of regret wearing this PLAY T-shirt. It was hot, hot, hot outside.

Blazing heat at Longshan Temple

Blazing heat at Longshan Temple

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Taipei Trip Mega Post – Day 1

First of all, it was a relief that Taiwan has extended the visa-free entry to Philippine passport holders until July 2019. However, they have shortened it to 15 days from the former 30.

We will be in Taipei for less than a week for our 10th year celebration! The weather was not too good in Manila, and I was hoping we’d have a stress-free night flight.

At NAIA Terminal 3

At NAIA Terminal 3

I wore Doc Martens, but NAIA's airport security was just too much

I wore Doc Martens, but NAIA’s airport security was just too much

We arrived around 9:00 PM at NAIA Terminal 3, even if our flight will not leave not until 11:00 PM. This is obviously a red-eye flight to Taipei.

It is worth noting that of all our trips together, this is my first time to religiously list all of our expenses. At the end of the series, I will be listing our expenses. For our pocket money, I have only used earnings from Google Adsense. The hotel booking (via Booking.com) was also paid for in advance using Google Adsense.

BRYOLOGUE does not earn much Adsense-wise. However, I maintain another website that pretty much takes care of its own. So let us see how far our pocket money will bring us. LOL

Both of us have been on keto diet since May, so we are unsure how we will survive in carb-rich Taiwan. We even had to bake a loaf of bread and a small batch of brownies because we did not want to be kicked out of ketosis! This was, as expected, a big challenge as a keto traveler.

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Update and Reset

It is almost the 6th month of the year, and nothing had taken place here since my holiday haiku. I’ve said this several times, but BUSY does not even begin to capture what these 5 months were. (Although, I have already updated my banner two weeks ago).

Before June starts tomorrow, I’d like to write a quick update.

Strike a pose inside the office

It has been 6 months since I started working with this team. They are undoubtedly the most intelligent and most down to earth people I have ever met. To think my two bosses have always been stellar scientists in the world, they still are as accessible, approachable, and not amiss with their funny bones.

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Tangerine Dream

I’m already halfway the semestral break and enlistment is due to start soon. With a little trick with our pocket Wi-Fi, I have been watching a lot of videos from YouTube.

I enjoyed Graveraven’s channel on YouTube a lot. It has a series of fashion documentaries by Loïc Prigent, and I started off with Donatella Versace. I adore her candor and warmth towards her staff, especially her fondness and longing to her brother Gianni. Sure, her physical appearance was nowhere near the late 90s, but she is commanding and humorous at the same time.

The last documentary I’ve watched is Alexander Wang’s. With his relatively younger label and no fuss approach to his personal style. Come to think of it, it might be something I’d like to adopt in real life.

As days pass by, I find myself picking just a plain black or dark blue shirt. I’m also beginning to wear black pants that I ignored for months. But expect me to jazz it up with a bag, of course. I came to the conclusion that I should start being unapologetic about myself, unlike what I mentioned before.

Rise above the mess - Alexander Wang Diego Bucket Bag Tangerine Pebbled Leather

Rise above the mess

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And two more months before the fourth!

Mon and I were on halfday leave earlier because it was our 3rd year and 10th month together! Last month, we also did the same thing — movie with dinner because we still had to go to work, even for half of our normal shift. We watched “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” and it was really good! Quite bloody but what can I expect from a vampire movie! (Not unless we include that movie with the sparkly vampires *shudders*).

And I did not know that Erin Wasson was there! She was malevolent and I had to explain to Mon that he has already seen her. I even had to mention that she was on the first episode of the Cycle 16 of ANTM, the one with the giant bubble on the runway with the contestants modelling Alexander Wang. It was only then that he recalled. =P

Meatlover's pizza, Legally Blonde pasta and my favorite potato wedges - Marciano's Greenbelt 3

Meatlover’s pizza, Legally Blonde pasta and my favorite potato wedges

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