2016 - The Year That Was

I am currently in a maze. Three hours left to 2017 and I am supposed to complete a year-ender blog entry. 2016 isn't really favorable to most netizens who expressed anxiety over the death of several notable celebrities from Muhammad Ali to Prince to Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds ...and even the World's Oldest Panda named Pan-Pan. Re-counting my own, here are a sum of how 2016 went for me.

Corporate Life.

I was promoted on the last quarter of 2015 to Talent Acquisition Supervisor. While there were major adjustments when it comes to leading people, handling tasks, 2016 brought more headaches (negatively speaking) and more learning experiences (to put it positively).

Our Company acquired another BPO company so there were several changes to the process. Despite the change, we met our new sites' Leadership Team - who are all awesome.

You lose some, you gain some. Some of our accounts pulled out due to varying reasons and yet we gained newer programs to replace what we have lost. Our beloved Boss resigned (sad) and we gained new leaders for a time.

I worked with young, vibrant and competent folks -- incredible people who made our team's goal happen.

Outside the four corners of our corporate lives, we bonded over beer, over Korean food, out of town, out of the usual grind. Who can ever forget our summer outing to Nasugbu Batangas, overnight stay at Linden Suites, Talent Acquisition night at Metrowalk where we met our counterparts from Lipa and Alphaland, cocktail drinks with our HR VP at the top of Seda Hotel - a trip which was followed by a fun, fun night.

Four Weddings & Then Some.

We witnessed four couples plunge into eternity with their Beloved Ones.

We attended a Baby Shower and some adorable nieces / nephews enjoy their 1st Birthday Parties.


Getting Lost In Between Chapters.

Moving out of college and starting my corporate life, I would say that I haven't been picking up books to read. Well I bought Maitena and Garfield - both are comic books which you can toss after indulging on it for a couple of minutes. Magazines piled up and are eventually disposed because they tend to take up too much space.

This year saw me grabbing books like The Girls With All The Gifts, Emma Donogue's Room, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years of Pilgrimage and Wanga's My Heart And Its Other Black Holes.


Health Is Wealth.

One theme: Unsuccessful Diet. Another dietary pattern: Seefood (I eat when I see food). I tried GM Diet for five days (pfft) and had meals delivered in my office hoping to maintain 2000 worth of calorie intake. I went back to doing yoga for a week but due to schedule conflict, I slipped out of the activity again.

I stopped my food deliveries when I fractured my ankle and had to rest for a week. I suffered from gastritis too and was an outpatient at one point. I didn't really limit myself to a strict diet but I veered away from coffee, soda and milk for a time until I can slip a glass or two without any pain. I still can't handle wine though (boo).

Wanderlust Mode On.

I have travelled a lot this year. More probably more than I ever did during the past years. Intramuros - biked within the old historic walls, climbed some fortresses, entered some museums. Baguio - we celebrated our 3rd anniversary as bf-gf in the City of Pines, toured La Trinidad, dined in a bit of style (hello, Canto, Café By The Ruins, Good Taste and the list goes on), entered the known haunted house - Laperal House, had our sketch done in Tam-Awan Village, explored Ben Cab's museum. Stilts Calatagan - enjoyed the day by the beach (the place is IG-worthy by the way). Tagaytay - we discovered a comfy place to stay in - Jeda Hotel and our tastebuds partied in Sofia's Garden. Nasugbu Batangas - we cannot get enough of the South can we? I joined BF's family when his cousin went home from the US and dipped in Kawayan Cove's Infinity Pool (pure bliss, pure heaven). Then there's Rizal's Mount Lubog - had myself hugging the muddy trail and hanging from a tree at one point when I slipped. I can't help but laugh at the experience.

Separating a paragraph for my first out of the country trip - Singapore. Best birthday by far! Saw Pandas for the first time, got a taste of how it is to walk in a pollution-free, first world country. Imagine how fun it is to celebrate my 35th birthday at the Marina Bay Sands Sky Park with the bay and the bright city lights in full view.


I may not be sipping a glass of wine, sightseeing fireworks rip the sky with vibrant colors. Still I would like to bid 2016 grateful and to give a toast to the upcoming year - 2017 - with a hopeful heart.

PS. Pictures to follow. My site is acting up. Lol. Happy New Year.

Jeda Hotel Tagaytay - Posh Tagaytay Staycation on a Budget

We hatched an out-of-the-blue Tagaytay staycation on a day when BF and I both felt that we need to get away from the city. For him, it was because of his health condition (nothing serious though) possibly brought about by an unhealthy eating-drinking lifestyle and for yours truly, it was probably because I needed to breathe in a good amount of fresh air more than the usual weekend grind of either going back to my office cube or staying at home with the AC running 24/7 (and it was also brought about by an equally unhealthy lifestyle tee-hee).

I was trying to check out good Tagaytay deals via Booking.com, Agoda.com, Metrodeal until I gave up and prayed for the best relaxing deal we can possibly get our hands into. We left Manila on a Friday night at around 8pm and made it in Tagaytay at almost 11pm without any place to stay in. We passed by Keni Po and saw how it seemed crowded with all the parked cars outside the place. We continued driving until we reached People's Park and saw View Park Hotel across the street which looked cozy so we checked if we can still be accommodated. Unfortunately, they no longer had rooms. Given the rejection, I will still mark the hotel in my To-Stay-In hotels in Tagaytay since the security personnel and the receptionist were both courteous, warm and friendly. The security personnel even rejected our tip after he guided us in their parking area - an act which you don't get to see everyday.

Let's get to the main interesting part: we drove for less than 5 minutes and saw another cozy hotel - Jeda Hotel. Jeda Hotel is a three-story hotel which opened last December 2015. Mark - who is the owner's nephew accommodated us and answered our inquiries. He went out of his way to show us the room -- probably a way to convince us to stay with them. And we were not disappointed.

 

 

  

The room which was offered to us have its living room area where you can lounge on their sofa in front of a 50" television, two double-sized beds and a mini refrigerator / bar where you can grab goods for your midnight cravings. For those who are highly particular of bathrooms, you'll be pleased with Jeda's cleanliness. Their shower/rainshower set are also functional (I said that because I happen to stay in a lot of hotels where using the shower is already a challenge lol).

 

 

Outdoors, you get to have a view of the Tagaytay-Calamba road but if you are not happy with the view, they have places where guests can relax with their friends like on the 2nd floor where they have a veranda or somewhere on the ground floor where there are huts, restrooms and a grill for barbecue nights (hooray for bbq grills!)

Here's our 2D, 2N itinerary so far:

Friday night:

• Late dinner / midnight snack at Merben's;
• Film showing at Jeda with John Wick in the house 'yo.

Saturday:

• Lunch / stroll at Sonya's Garden
• Visited Tierra De Maria
• Dinner at 9Kebab
• Tried Colonial's well-known Sili-Tutong-Pili Ice Cream
• Film showing at Jeda - Into the Storm

Sunday: 

• Palace in the Sky (a first for yours truly)
• Quick visit to Crosswinds where I celebrated my birthday two years ago
• Lunch at Colonial

We were granted an extended stay by the way, so instead of checking out at 12nn, Mark told us that we can check out by 4pm (happy dance). We had a gripping separation anxiety about leaving the place since our stay in Jeda made our weekend getaway more memorable than any of our past Tagaytay experience.