Go Away, Maring!

Tropical storm Maring (international name Trami) has been wreaking havoc in the metro today, dumping one month's worth of rain into parts of the country and causing heavy flooding.

You tell her, Jesus!

I am lucky to be safe at home with my husband, also knowing that my family and loved ones are keeping warm and dry (no more flood trauma, thank goodness).  I salute all the men and women who braved the downfall to be at work, those who are tirelessly helping collect and distribute relief goods, and those who are selflessly risking their own safety, rescuing folks in the more submerged parts of town.

Stay safe, everyone!

My barre3 Experience: Clowny Legs Not Included

Today was a rainy holiday (thank you, Quezon City day!) spent working (a bit) from home to catch up on mail and doing other house-related work.  Since it's not often I get a holiday while J has to go to work, I figured now's a good time as any to try out The Spa's barre3 class and use my voucher before it expires.

My class was at 1:30 PM and, being told to be 15 minutes early, I arrived at 1:20 (the elevators were slow), to find 3 other ladies waiting in the spacious, well-appointed studio.

Compact locker area and water station as you walk in

The Eastwood studio, photos courtesy of barre3

Before my class, I made sure to research what to expect (and what to wear!), since this was going to be my first time.  According to the website:

The 3 in barre3 symbolizes balance, practice and life.  Our classes are designed to transform the body to one of equal balance, strength and flexibility. 

barre3 is a revolutionary class that combines the grace of the ballet barre, the wisdom of yoga and the strength of Pilates. Set to music, this transformative 60-minute ballet barre workout improves balance, increases flexibility and enhances strength. Every second in this workout counts for fast body shaping results and long term postural benefits.

Benefits:

Builds longer, leaner muscles and a strong core.

Energizes and increases stamina.

Develops muscle balance leading to a well-proportioned body with less risk for injury.

Increases flexibility and creates a natural flow to the body.

Precise instruction for each client improves results (without the cost of a personal trainer).

Motivating group environment builds connections and community, both important in making exercise a regular part of life.

Connects mind, body and breath and relieves stress.

Cork flooring and well-coordinated students (ideally). Source

I've never tried an instructor-led yoga class, any Pilates classes, nor have I taken ballet lessons even as a child, so I assumed everything was going to be a new experience.  After making sure to grab a set of dumbbells and a ball, our instructor, a pleasant lady named Celine, started us off with push-ups against the bar (barre?) and talked us through a series of very precise movements that got me sweating in no time!  Admittedly, I have no upper body strength to speak of, but with my recent attempts to improve that (thanks, J!), I think I did pretty well, i.e. no collapsing and smashing my front teeth on the bar!  We then moved on to some back and leg stretches, with Celine emphasizing alignment and specific muscle actions - lifting heels and pressing them together as though keeping a coin from falling, for example.  Boy, were the moves challenging!  My legs and thighs were shaking uncontrollably like a granny, I did everything I could to stop from laughing.

We moved on to arm exercises with our dumbbells and transferred the pain burn to our triceps and biceps.  Precision was still key, with instructions like pretend to squeeze a pencil in between your shoulder blades.  

Those 2-lb dumbbells felt like a ton after a while!

The last part of the session was floor work so mats were distributed.  We proceeded to murder our thigh fats and do abdominal (torture) exercises.  What made it super challenging for me was the focus on performing slow movements, as opposed to powering through the workout using momentum (hehe, cheater).  I obviously need to work on building my strength and increasing my stamina.  At one point, I just wanted to do this:

Mat so comfy

barre3 was a good experience for me, challenging muscles I never knew existed!  

Source

Extra Nuggets, Please:

- Finally able to doodle again, thanks to Troy lending J his PS3 - I get to borrow his phone while he blasts zombies playing The Last of Us

- Tropical storm Maring in the Philippines now, with lots of news on flooding :-(

- It's gonna be so hard going to work this week, with holidays on Monday and Wednesday, AND the following Monday after that! As the Italians say: Ahh, dolce far niente! The sweetness of doing nothing :-D

Pico de Loro: Adventures of Gagamboy & Pear Girl

I'd like to say I can't believe my last post was back in June, but to be honest, I knew I was being such a flaker, not posting on my blog for so long.  Unfortunately, I've had no luck still finding batteries for my tablet stylus - but haven't really been that masigasig with the search.  There is also that recent role change I've had at work, which I don't want to think about for one second more, seeing as it's the weekend hehe.

Yesterday was a holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan and my husband suggested we go on a day climb to Pico de Loro in Maragondon.  But but, it's a holiday! That means sleeping in and being bochog!  Obviously, my defense wasn't that compelling and clean, fresh air and general exercise was the winning combination. This is what I get for marrying a mountaineer, I always think :-)

It was my third time climbing Pico (naks!) and I have to say this felt like the easiest time I had out of the three.  Don't get me wrong, there was still a bit of whining (sorry, hun!) and pretty out-of-this-world threats ("I want to chomp your head off and spit it out to the waiting jaws of Meatball!"), because really, mahirap umakyat ng bundok okay?!  What made this time easier for me was the addition of our new walking poles, which we use for our stair-climbing exercise (we sound so athletic and active! But we wolf down pizzas after...wenk wenk wenk).

My savior!

We started our hike at 7:15AM and reached the top at 9:30AM - not bad right?  Right?? I know if my husband had a choice, we'd finish in an hour because:

1. I would stop "over-thinking" each step and just put one foot in front of the other (I was trying not to slip and die! - OA haha).  As I so eloquently told him during our climb, "I am not Gagamboy and my steps are slower because my bottom is heavy. I am a pear!) LOL.

2. I would have the resolve of an athlete, the "don't quit" and "push it" mentality.  Having never been an athlete and known to always say "But I'm delicate", this was going to be hard. In fact, one the quotable quotes from our climb was me telling J, "I've never known hardship until I married you" :-D

I had a hard time getting over how MUDDY everything was

I guess I don't mind waking up early for this

Thank you, walking poles!

In all the times that J took me climbing, we never fail to see disappointing evidence of other people's careless disregard for Mother Nature.  My husband is very passionate about taking good care of the environment, I think partly borne out of his gratefulness to the outdoors, because it restores balance and gives him peace.  He would lament that mountaineering used to be the thinking man's sport, but nowadays, anyone can go climb, even without the proper disposition and basic knowledge of the Leave No Trace principle.  

Shame on you if you did this to this tree

People who litter don't deserve to climb majestic mountains, IMHO

We've also encountered groups who blast loud music while in the campsite, making me wonder why they decided to leave their houses in the first place.  If you're going climbing, isn't it better to get away from all the noise in the city and enjoy the peace and quiet?  There are also those who offend my senses with their cigarette smoking - SERIOUSLY?? I came here for the fresh air, you know.  On our way back down, we picked up an empty box of chocolates, discarded right in the middle of the forest.  I don't understand how anyone can think that's okay.

View from inside our secret spot in the forest

Look up :-)

The Fatty Quest for Minions

About a week ago, I got an exclamation point-y (6!) message on Twitter from my brother, asking me to help get Despicable Me 2 minion toys for him from McDonald's.  After some research, I learned these toys were only being released in select countries: apparently, Singapore isn't on the list. Points for the Philippines!

They ARE cute.

As family and close friends know, I don't really like eating fast food except maybe to appease (haha, monster?) an occasional craving or sudden hankering.  Not surprisingly, I've never ordered a Happy Meal in my life, but at the rate I was going this past week, I can now recite all Happy Meal options and their SRPs (with fries and without) in one breath - in fact, I just did this with friends over dinner last night.

Tom was the first toy I got for Ahia and there wasn't really anything difficult or extraordinary about my first purchase.  I was all, okay, I can do this. This isn't so bad.

Chose him first because I like the word "googly"

On the second day of my quest, choices drastically dwindled to only 4 toys in the Happy Meal magic box - and all were purple!  I went home with the Noisemaker and a little bit of bewilderment.  I swear that box was so full yesterday. Surely, today's paltry offering was a fluke.

Hadn't paid attention to the evil minions before this

At this point, I was getting sick of eating Happy Meals for lunch and was really looking forward to getting all those darn toys so I could go back to being the food nerd that I am.  NOT eating the Happy Meals wasn't an option for me since I didn't want to be wasteful (a.k.a. kuripot).  I decided to go to a different McDonald's branch because the one I used to go to only had the evil minions left.  Bad decision!  This one was completely sold out!  WHAT??  I must have seemed like a crazed woman, whizzing out of that line and McDonald's branch like a tornado and brisk-walking to the one inside the mall.  My heart was beating fast and my adrenaline was pumping, signs that something big was about to go down.  The place was packed with the lunch crowd - all around me, I could see adults lining up with their officemates.  Lo and behold! Service crew members were busy passing around a box FULL OF TOYS.  I don't know why I felt so paranoid, but I KNEW everyone was there for the minions so I acted fast...and bought 2. Yep, I ate it all.

Oh the things I do for you

Luckily, my sister and my mom had Happy Meals for breakfast the next day, which for me, meant a bit of relief (no, I do not want to get Supersized).  Because I don't like not working on a task, I had 2 more Happy Meals for these cuties:

It started feeling normal, buying 2 Happy Meals for just me -_-

I did beg my sister to be the one to get the final minion, since the McDo-filled week for me was a bit too much.  On one hand, I started feeling bloated and sluggish and it didn't help that J and I skipped 2 days of exercise because of work.  On the other, the competitive and achiever side of me was all GO GO GO FINISH ITTTTTT.

Blood, sweat and tears! Fat, fat and fat!

I tease my brother that this is how he knows I love him - great sacrifice immortalized in plastic fun thingies that are waiting for him when he gets here.

Ahia, please don't thank me by treating me to a buffet! 

Dear God, no.

Extra Nuggets, Please:

- Can't believe June's over - the months are going by so quickly! Next thing you know, it's Christmas!

- Went to a live instructor-led Zumba class yesterday after such a looooong time and had fun!   I was a bit skeptical at first (setting my expectations low because my Zumba instructor in SG was the best) but Winston was funny, energetic, encouraging, and nagTatagalog pa!

- Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo fishy in the sea! Been watching Japanese cartoons by Hayao Miyazaki (of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away fame) lately.

- Totally enjoyed Monsters University! Just what we needed after World War Z (stress! J is back planning a la Doomsday Prepper).

Japonesque Lip Palette: The Evening I Killed My Lipsticks

For a few days now, my Japonesque 35-well PRO Lipstick Palette has been sitting on my desk, waiting for me to let it fulfill its destiny.  I bought it from Digital Traincase so I can transfer some lipstick tubes that have met an untimely death - one application too strong, a sad case of melting by way of heatstroke - and therefore extend their use. 

J is out playing video games with his High School friends and so while waiting for my laundry cycle to finish, I decided to buckle down and get the job done.

Broken lippies' new home
Re: background tub of lipsticks - yes, I have a problem (better this than drugs)!

Tools: alcohol spray, scalpel like thing from my nail kit,
copious amounts of tissue (not in picture)

Some women painstakingly melt their lipsticks in a spoon over a candle to get a smoother finish and a cleaner palette.  To be honest, I'm feeling lazy now (and I have to hang clothes up to dry, ha!) and don't want to be bothered by worrying if I'll overheat the lipstick chunk, or alter the lipstick consistency/color (which defeats the whole purpose, right?).  My method of choice: some good old chopping action.

A part of me was all "Ack! Chopping up lipstick! Waaah!"
Another part: "YES MU-HAHAHAHA!"

I haven't finished the other side with 14 wells but am happy for successfully transferring 21 (!!!) tubes into the palette, and with very minimal mess! Huzzah!

One last chop job! It looks disturbingly like a finger.

This will be great for travel and will beat lugging around 21 individual lipstick bullets (said the girl with 6 tubes of lipstick in her bag at any given time)!  

Happy weekend!

Extra Nuggets, Please:

- Had a Feetish Foot Spa earlier this evening and sat beside a woman who was watching her sleeping baby (and the yaya) on her iPad.  Technology for the modern family!

- I finished downloading The Secret Life of Arrietty and am excited to watch it with J...maybe tomorrow.

- Heard about one of our couple friends getting engaged - yay!

- I am definitely getting sapphires tomorrow.

Our Sagada Cave Connection Adventure: So Proud I Did It; I Will Probably Never* Do It Again

*With a husband like mine though, I should never say never!

Our main agenda for our Sagada trip was the Cave Connection: going in Lumiang Cave and coming out of Sumaguing Cave.  For weeks leading up to the trip, I busied myself researching everything I could to allay my fears - could I handle it? Have there been accidents? What do I wear?  The closest to a "cave experience" I had was with my friends (hello, P4!) when we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels in Ho Chi Minh (not very close, I know).  We didn't even finish the entire tunnel and all agreed we've had enough of the claustrophobia.  I knew there was a sissy in me; I just didn't want her to come out in Sagada!  All the blogs and websites I read said the same thing: cave connection is not advisable for people who are afraid of the dark or of tight spaces, not for the weak willed or faint of heart.  They all advised to listen to the tour guides at all times and absolutely trust them - this was a matter of life or death.  I must have asked J 10 times if he HONESTLY thought I could do it (this was going to be his second time).

Beautiful day to go underground (ngiiii), as J said!

On the Saturday we were scheduled to go, J and I took an early morning stroll before breakfast to explore the area near our inn (as it was raining when we arrived, we didn't get to go out at all).  We thought it would be a good idea to swing by the church too, to pray for good weather and an injury-free day.

Old bell in front of the church

Sagada Church

A moment of thanks and prayer

Yes! Evidence of me being outdoorsy!

Our morning walk

Sagada Graveyard
...probably not the best way to start our cave connecting eh!?

We headed back to the inn at 7am in time for breakfast with the family, and then our SAGGAS tour guides Kurt and Pakway (Kurt said it's really Pak-wai, Pak-wei if he's feeling extra fancy) came to pick us up at 7:30.  No turning back*!

*Interestingly, Kurt said a number of tourists end up backing out of the Cave Connection once they reach the entrance. Giving me ideas, eh? Hehe, I'm kidding.

We walked from the inn to the caves - warm up!
Here, we passed the SAGGAS headquarters

Viewed hanging coffins from afar
and learned about Sagada's unique burial customs

More walking - I was thankful for the paved walkway!

This is it! Entering the Burial Cave

One of our tour guides, Kurt

THAT WASN'T THE ENTRANCE???

The tour guides were so light on their feet. On rocks.

While carrying gas lamps! (That's Pakway)

See you later, sunlight!

This tiny crevice is the entrance.

This is just the first part & there's
some serious rope action required?? Intense.

One of the many times I was thinking
"what did I get myself into??"

We had to wade through cold pools in some parts
(I didn't mind these so much -
in fact, I'd go so far as saying I enjoyed these!)

We had to step on the guides to get from point A to point B
(these guys are amazing!)

Beautiful flow rocks - you step on them and you don't slip or slide off!
Magic (and free feet exfoliation)!

Truly amazing

Waterfalls!

More stepping-on-tour-guide parts

Beautiful King's Curtain

An exceptionally difficult part. Pakway shows a tourist how to cross.

Instructions from the guides were very specific - put your foot here, this way not that, flat on the ground, don't lean back too much or you'll fall, place your hand here, move your face to the side - it was very precise!  Despite having read countless reminders to "listen to your guides, trust them", on more than 2 occasions, I found myself asking "Ha?? Sure ka, kuya? Bangin yan eh."  To be honest, I was sort of glad it was very dark so I couldn't see how close to potential death I was in some parts (Ma, if you're reading this, of course I'm kidding.)  Also, whenever Kurt would tell me to put my foot somewhere, I really, for the life of me, couldn't SEE where that somewhere was!  I would stretch my short legs as far as they would go (see, that was me, LISTENING to the guide!) and get hit with foot cramps for my efforts (foot cramps? Who gets foot cramps?!?).  I think I had two mini panic attacks.  Not proud.

I have to mention though how helpful these guides were - they would literally ask us to step on them (foot, knee, shoulder - a veritable ladder!) and in an exceptionally slippery part (where I was having mini panic attack #1), Pakway used himself as a human stopper, asking me to step where his feet were so I wouldn't fall.  Very mission impossible!  I remember Kurt telling me, before we entered the cave, that I should just have fun and think of it as a big playground.  I thought to myself, these caves really served as a playground for the local children, who grew up to be guides!  

Our camera died on us towards the latter part of the tour (the culprit: water entered our supposedly waterproof bag when we had to swim across neck-deep water! I said water 3 times in a sentence.) and my hands were dirty with bat poop, but we came out of that second cave with nary a scratch!  Just a couple of knee bruises for me (like a banana, I swear) and a pair of tattered shorts (Master of the Butt Technique).

I was, and still am, so proud of myself for taking this on!  Of course I had a lot of help from the guides, and from J, who encouraged me throughout the expedition (haha, expedition agad?).

I would totally recommend the Cave Connection to Sagada visitors.  The experience is one-of-a-kind and the caves are awesome, in the truest sense of the word.  You can find more information on tours and other activities by visiting the SAGGAS website here.