givenchy – BRYOLOGUE

And just like that… we’re back in Singapore!

September 10, 2022bryologue Leave a Comment

As mentioned in my previous post, we re-booked our flight to SG from October to September after our visas to South Korea were approved!

Aside from us not wanting to waste (yet again) a bunch of tickets, we decided to go overseas for our 14th anniversary. The last time we were out of the country for that day was way back in 2018 in Taiwan. We did not want this year to be the same buffet and movie. Besides, we jokingly justified that we had an unused Klook voucher for the Jewel Changi from our trip to Singapore last July to be expired!

Same as last time, Mon’s sister agreed to look after the cats for the next couple of days. It won’t be a very long trip anyway, and we’ll be back before the weekend. So bye for now, to our dear cats!

Unlike our previous trip to SG, we flew this time via Cebu Pacific, thus we had to go to NAIA Terminal 3 instead. I loved this terminal among the others because, well, it looked the most pleasant and modern. It was also the quickest trip from Makati from the Skyway.

Going to the airport… again!

Again, unlike last time, we made sure this time around that our Php 1,620 travel taxes were paid way ahead. There was already a long line by the check-in counter, but not as long as last July. It only took us 30 minutes to check in our luggage and get our boarding passes.

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Whoa, way too early Christmas!

August 15, 2022bryologue Leave a Comment

It was a weekend and, just like any other weekend, we made our way to either side of our families. Mon wanted to buy some of those Buy 1, Take 1 mirrors and make those DIY paneled mirrors. Naturally, our first stop was All Home.

Upon arriving, we were shocked to see the whole entrance was already full of Christmas decors! While I understand that Christmas season in the country starts way early as soon as September 1, I was just shocked to see THIS much decors more than two weeks before the -ber months.

This one really takes the cake.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Pangilinan group has already decided for all of us. Mid-August is the new September 1. =)

Our first view of Christmas decors for 2022

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Open the Box

August 7, 2022bryologue Leave a Comment

Every once in a while, something nice really comes up. While I have not been buying anything that much in the last couple of months because I’m trying to be a responsible adult, I just can’t say no if it is really a good deal. But for this, it was ridiculously a good deal.

Case in point: this Pandora.

Named after a Greek mythological figure, the Pandora was straightforward a reference to its box shape. No ills nor menace to be released in the world, fortunately.

When I saw the bag up for sale, I asked the seller what were the issues. He said he could not guarantee the bag and it was sold as is. I did my best to keep a straight face, but I was already jumping inside. As soon as the sale was concluded, I was so ecstatic to get such as great deal on such an amazing item!

I thought this was orange, but, welp, it was tan

The grain of the leather is reminiscent of this Alexander Wang Diego. The size is supposed to be a medium, but as a guy, it just seemed smaller to me. The photo above does not show much of its usage, but under natural light, I could see some slight discoloration on ‘high traffic’ areas.

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Before 2019 Ends

December 31, 2019bryologue Leave a Comment

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

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Update and Reset

May 31, 2018bryologue Leave a Comment

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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Travel/Work Thailand: Weekend in Bangkok Day 1

October 29, 2016bryologue 1 Comment

*extremely picture-heavy post

On my last few days in Thailand, Mon arrived on an AirAsia flight to spend the weekend in Bangkok. We did not bother transferring to a new place as we got a good rate from the hotel. *winks* However, it was only a breakfast for one person, so we had to eat outside.

Our morning started early, based on the research we did the night before on how to reach the temple complex. We took the BTS until the last station of Saphan Taksin, where we found a long queue of people for the ferry.

Passing by Wat Arun

By the second week that I arrived in Thailand, I felt really uncomfortable with my hair. I normally get a haircut once a week to trim the sides, but I could not muster the courage to go to a barber shop. I then had to brave the weather again, hoping not to suffer another near heat exhaustion.

It was a very delightful ride. The first thing that I have observed was how the waters, lookswise, of Chao Phraya were not too different from the Pasig River. However, I can see a couple of big fish occasionally swimming to the surface and I did not smell a hint of stinky odor. How I wish our Pasig River was as developed as this. It would have been an excellent alternative in braving the Metro Manila traffic.

Aboard the ferry from Saphan Taksin

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Bye, Bye March!

March 31, 2013bryologue Leave a Comment

It’s Easter today and my mother was very kind enough to give me a rack for my bags. She thought my room could have a bit of organization with all of my bags in a single place. Well, it was very sweet but I still have some of my bags inside a plastic container. The rack just won’t hold up all of them. I’m in the process of selling some of them off on Ebay, together with the other things I managed to sell internationally.

After lunch, I went to the Marikina Public Market to buy materials I would be needing to ship the items. I found everything perfectly fine, except for some bubble wrap. The ones I found were on a ready-made padded envelope, and I was thinking more of the ones sold per yard. I will most probably be going to National Bookstore tomorrow to buy them, before heading to the Makati Post Office.

When I got home, I was really cautious not to further wrinkle the felt cloth that I’ve bought. I managed to get two kinds of cloth: the white one for the Ebay items and the black one for my own bags. I’ve been hoping to make dust bags for some of them, because they had none when I first bought them online. I was really happy I bought my mother a sewing machine because, ahem, I would no longer have to hand sew a lot of things, which I painstakingly did for a dust bag of an extra large tote bag. =D

Save for minor interruptions, I had no trouble with the Brother BM-2600 sewing machine and I was able to sew eight white felt cloth containers in just an hour. I was only able to use about half of the three yards I bought and I have honestly miscalculated because two of the garments need dust bags with the same capacity as the others. I still don’t know how they would hold up during the shipping, so I really need to buy bubble wrap to make sure they will arrive fine to the buyers. The last time I have shipped internationally, it was for two Gucci bags bound for Australia and the buyer got them within four working days. I am honestly very nervous of this new venture but I know deep inside that I have to get over my fear of international shipping if I were to successfully sell globally.

As for the black ones, they took a much longer time to be made because I had to attach velcro to make sure they would snugly close. I only managed to make two, which were for the ‘quite sensitive’ to humidity bags. The one for the Mulberry was not perfect, but it was still acceptable; but for the Coach one, the dust bag fits like a glove. =D If I have more time next week, I will be doing more for my other bags.

On a different note, it was bittersweet seeing the buyers send the payment to my PayPal account. A lot of them has sent payment within the day, but since I’m a new seller on Ebay.com, PayPal would have to hold my funds for 21 days. What does it mean to me? It means that I would have to shoulder first the shipping of all the items tomorrow and hope to the highest heavens that the buyers will like the item because I don’t want to be traumatized this early. Oh well, at least most of the items got sold and I will hopefully get a good selling history soon. Patience. Be good to me April, my birthday month! =D

Ready for the longest bus ride of my life!

March 23, 2013bryologue Leave a Comment

I haven’t posted anything in days even if I wanted to. I was so preoccupied with fixing photos and prepping the items I’d be selling on Ebay. I decided to finally start selling internationally and hoping against all odds not to have an unpleasant experience in doing so. But of course, Ebay has been teeming with lots of scammers (yes, some buyers are scammers too!), I’ve been extra cautious.

Anyway, we will be finally going to Ilocos Norte today and I was just waiting for Mon to arrive at our house before we leave. It took me several hours to make up my mind what to bring in what would possibly be the longest bus ride of my life! If I’m not mistaken, the trip will take almost 10 hours! When we went to Zambales last September, the trip one way was about 8 hours and I had a constant case of “Are we there yet?” for each latter half of the trip.

I’m so excited to go to Pagudpud and also to swim in a river! I Just realized that I only have a pair of board shorts since I don’t really go to the beach a lot, so my gray and white pair will have a repeat performance again. =D I had to prevent myself from constantly packing unnecessary things I won’t be using (i.e. clothes) but I think I had it easier now than our last trip (to Seoul, where I brought lots of junk).

It was hard to leave the tripod behind, even if it could no longer fit into the luggage bag. I wanted to take good pictures of our trip, and I don’t have the most stable camera hands to yield non-out-of-focus shots. I would just have to carry it freely because I also wanted to try photographing the night sky, free from light pollution!

We will arrive tomorrow at around 6:00 AM in Laoag and we will be staying there until Tuesday night. Most of Mon’s family are already there, and I can’t wait to see the place where he grew up. Manila, see you on Wednesday! =D

Winter in South Korea – Day 3: Nami Island

December 27, 2012bryologue 31 Comments

Sculptures on Nami Island

*extremely picture-heavy post*

(Applying for a visa to South Korea? You might want to read here how to quickly check the status online!)

Since we have started travelling together, Mon and I have never woken up early for the following day’s activities. We usually leave at around 10:00 AM the earliest, or even almost lunch time the latest.

However, it was different for the third day of our trip. I set my alarm clock at 7:30 AM because we had to travel all the way to Gapyeong to visit Nami Island (although the title of the post is misleading because Gapyeong is NOT in Seoul. It’s just a a bit of work to edit all the backlinks, though). We were to originally go to Petite France but we have half-decided the night before that our first priority was Nami Island, and should we have more time, then we’d visit Petite France.

Map of the distance between Seoul and Nami Island --- Winter in Seoul December 2012 - Day 3: Nami Island

(CLICK PHOTO TO ZOOM) See how far Nami Island (upper right) from Seoul (lower left) is?

I already knew that it was no good because it was more difficult to go to-and-from Petite France due to the limited (and expensive) transportation options.

Truth be told, my only motivation to visit Petite France was the supposed convenience of it being situated in the same train route to Nami Island. But since we had already half-planned going to the War Memorial of Korea after, I was honestly more excited for it.

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Winter in South Korea – Day 1: Testing out the winter breeze

December 16, 2012bryologue 9 Comments

*extremely picture-heavy post

So, here starts the strenuous “Winter in Seoul 2012” series. As earlier mentioned, I will not be doing the typical day by day account of our trip, rather complement it with thematic and specific posts that can’t be elaborately explained within a ‘daily’ post, and that will include the breakdown of our budget for the trip (note: like all-in-all, with the tickets, accommodation and dues we paid in the Philipine airport, I have personally shelled out less than Php 25,000 for the whole trip. =D)

Our flight to Incheon International Airport wasn’t until 1:30 AM but we were already in NAIA Terminal 3 before 10:00 PM. When the check-in counters opened by 10:30 PM, we immediately rushed to present our itinerary ticket and paid for the Php 1,620 travel tax. The staff manning the counter also weighed in our baggages to check-in and even if they were already quite heavy, we were still almost 7 kilos short of our combined 30kg limit as we have already paid for 15kg each. It was actually our first time to check-in luggages because since we started travelling together, we only have two carry-ons each and has been used to travelling light. But as we were obviously travelling to a wintery place, our usual baggage won’t cut it.

Mon and I waiting for check-in at NAIA Terminal 3 for our flight to IncheonAt around quarter to 1:00 AM, we decided to head for the boarding gate. Going there, we had to first pay for the terminal fee, which was already lowered from Php 750 to Php 550. Then next to the immigration officer who had to take a look at our passports and ask questions on how long we will be out of the country, as well as our employment record. It took me only three minutes to finish the whole thing over, but Mon took a longer time. The immigration officer even mistook him for a Korean and immediately talked to him in English. LOL One more thing, they no longer made us remove our shoes, which wasn’t the case when we travelled last year. Good thing because I was already unknotting my laces when the security personnel stopped me.

Cebu Pacific weighing our check-in baggages and we were almost 7kg short of the combined 30kg limit

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