More than blessed: My 27th Birthday

27 years and counting...I have been more than blessed in the past 27 years of my life and I am so ready for more! I can't thank God even more for bringing me where I am now. I got my family (though was faced with multiple challenges in the past) who has always been there to support me. I've got a lot of mentors who have taught me a lot in this life. And of course, the best set of friends anyone could have.

Looking back, it has never been an easy ride. I've been through a lot of challenges, and a lot of instances where I tried to prove myself to people. But growing up, I have learned that I shouldn't do things to please people, I should do what I want and what I think is right, with or without the approval of others. There will always be people who will judge you no matter what you do and you don't owe them any explanation for being who you are. I would always be thankful of my past experiences because they made me stronger and more knowledgeable about life.

I couldn't be any luckier because just before I turned 27, I have already graduated from my Masters Degree, I got a new job that's more than I have prayed for, and I still have my family, friends, and God on my side. My 27th so far was indeed one of the most memorable birthdays I've ever had. Here's how I spent it:

April 23 - Dinner with my girl friends in Cafe Mary Grace, Greenbelt

April 24 - Wine and cheese with a few friends in Las Flores, BGC

with Ana and Gary (my older friends :p)

April 24-25 - When the clock ticked 12, I was surprised by my friends with cake and sparklers at Privé Luxury Club. A friend even bought me bottles for my guests. Thanks to Wonderland Thursdays (Models' Night) at Privé and to their photographer, Rich Sarto for always taking nice photos of us in the club.

my sweetest girl friend, Angelia

royciepoisie (must be "i" instead of "y" haha)

Lady and Dianne

with my good friend, Lady

my beauty queen friends

girl friends forever

new friends, Lady's co-models/beauty queens

for keeps! pretty ladies :)

thanks Gary for the champagne! :)

Then at night, my bestfriend and I just had dinner at a Japanese resto in Glorietta.

I also saw Anna, my sorority sister ('cause she works with my BFF)

April 26 - My Morning Crew family (friends whom I met through CrossFit) had a get-together and they surprised me with a Starbucks cake that night.

Morning Crew at Marga's place

happy kid :)

Since my family was abroad, I didn't get to celebrate with them. That's why I've been extra thankful to my friends for making my birthday extra special. They're definitely for keeps!

Now I'm ready for another awesome year! Bring it on! :)

New Year 2013

We were back from Ilocos on New Year's eve. We headed to Ayala Ave. to catch the "One Makati" countdown. I loved the fireworks display! I took a video of it but it was quite long so I didn't upload it anymore. (I'll try when I get a faster internet connection one of these days)

After the countdown in Makati, we headed to Skye for the after-party. Got the passes from PLDT, one of the event sponsors. But since some of my friends were in 7th High, I joined them first. It's only at 5am when we decided to go back to Skye to catch the countdown to the first sunrise of 2013. I really had a blast with new friends!:)

So I went home at 7am and I was asleep almost the entire 1st day of the year. LOL! And when I woke up at around 6pm, it's time to prepare for the KSP barkada's annual New Year's party at Filinvest 2. It's the 4th year of our tradition and this year's theme was "Masquerade". However, I didn't have time to find a mask haha. I just wore a long black gown with a lace back, but I never had a photo of the back of my gown.:p

HAPPY NEW YEAR! May we all have an awesome 2013!:)


xoxo,
citygirl

Surviving Shanghai: Day 1 (Official)

Sept. 21 (Friday)

By "official" I meant, it's the real deal...those activities we sort of planned to do.

Since we started out late, we were not able to do everything in our itinerary for this day.  First thing we did upon leaving the hotel was to find a place to eat. We walked along North Sichuan Road, until we saw a mall with signages of food stores. There we tried Happy Lemon (it's cheaper there than here in the P.I.) and a Chinese restaurant. We order a roasted duck and a set meal like that of a shabu-shabu. Then we ordered "mi fan" (rice) but we were given a black rice that tasted sweet, which we felt was a dessert haha! There, you'll have to pay your food right after the waiter has gotten your order.

cute Hello Kitty cake! I want!

So after our late lunch, we took the Metro train to the West Nanjing Road. It's a long road of lots of boutiques! Truly a shopping haven! It reminded me of Shinjuku and Harajuku wherein all the brands are on the the both sides of the road.

From Nanjing Road, we took the Metro train to Century Ave. There we were on an elevated walkway and we got a perfect view of the best buildings and structures in Shanghai, most especially the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We originally planned to have a dinner buffet at the tower but it costs around Php 2,500 when converted. So we opted to find something else to do. We wanted to go to The Bund, so we had to cross the Huangpu River. We went through The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel wherein we rode a see-through covered cart on a rail going to the other side of the river. The ride costs 90 RMB/pax. We didn't actually pay much attention to the voice over and the effects shown inside as we were passing through the tunnel, but for sure, it's not worth 90 RMB! haha

Jin Mao Tower

 Oriental Pearl TV Tower

 BFFs and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower

 I was surprised I can take a photo this nice!

it's very evident on this photo how tired I've been from walking the whole day

 that's our ride going to the other side of the river

That's the tunnel! Kinda scary haha!

Besides the Huangpu River, we also got a nice view of the French Concession on the opposite side. And to cap our night, we headed to The Apartment where we had our late dinner and some drinks. They serve sumptuous Italian dishes and good cocktails. Just like what its name suggests, it's a 3-storey apartment with a roof deck that somehow felt like Skye. One of its rooms was for house music and it felt a bit like Relik, while the other room was playing RNB and HipHop, which felt like Republiq. There were lots of expats and tourists at the place. We headed back to the hotel at 1:30am and it only took us around 36 RMB via cab.

I used the HDR effect of my Camera 360 app on iPhone 

 The ferry ride costs 2 RMB only. We should've taken this instead on the tunnel thing.

 So funny that this looks like the Empire State Building in New York haha!

 The French Concession

Felt like Paris over here!

Price Range: 70-200 RMB (drinks at 70+, food at 100+)

 the dining area (resto part)

 Roof Deck

 Shanghai party :)

 the room for "house music"

the room for "RNB and Hiphop" music

It's so cool because we found flyers/invites for Maroon5 Shanghai concert's after-party at The Apartment scheduled on the coming week.

Tip: Download the Wow Shanghai app because it's very useful in finding the perfect places for shopping, dining, partying, and more! It's complete...with directions!:)

So that's our 1st day in Shanghai! I got more to share about our second day. Stay tuned!:)


xoxo