Goodbye Summer!

Last day of May. And here I am trying to finish this post before the day finally ends. Since my last post, life has picked up speed, gotten busy and caused me to lose that bloggin’ feeling (woaah that bloggin’ feeling) Go ahead, sing along!

Although the busy part has been the good kind of busy — being with the family and vacationing relatives and enjoying some quality bonding time. Dear sister  no. 1 arrived home from Bacolod for dear tatay’s birthday, which was two days prior to dear aunt’s (dear mother’s younger sis, who we fondly call Mummy) birthday. That’s two special occasions for us every May but what’s even more special this year is that it was Mummy’s big 50th birthday so dear mother’s other sisters from Cotabato City and Oroquieta City came, brought our cousins and what came next was a crazy fun reunion of sorts.

Dear Tatay's birthday

Calda Pizza night out

Dear Mummy's birthday

And if there’s a good kind of busy, there’s also a not-so-good kind of busy: the opening of another stressful new school year with new class sections to boot. I still prefer our old section names, Cicero and Plato, to these new ones taken from Chief Justices (the other section’s Teehankee). But new section names are the least of our worries. These subjects, on the other hand, are our greatest worries (and stress and fears, haha)

STRESS!

So that ends my summer blogging fling. But no, not the end of Chuck and Dee… yet.

Random

I’ve kind of lost my groove to finish a draft I started. Does this happen to you too? Or maybe the unbearable summer heat has just fried my brain. Whatever. I’m taking a fun breather with these random Blogthings quizzes instead, that I’ve missed and haven’t done in a long time. So l guess that’s also one thing crossed off my favorite things to do but haven’t done in a year list.

The Petit Dessert Test

You Are Quirky

You have a serious side, but you also can be uproariously funny. You love to laugh.

You also love to play, and playing with you is an adventure. You’re always changing up the rules of the game.You are a deeply introspective person. You are constantly examining yourself.

You know who you are, and you’re good with that. Too bad if no one else is.

What’s True About You?

You Are Wacky

To say you’re weird would be a complete understatement. You’re definitely one of a kind.

You have some interesting theories on life… so interesting that they freak other people out.It’s likely that you’re into arcane topics of all sorts. You like unusual facts.

You are operating at a whole other wavelength. Very few people truly get you.

The Book Test

You are a Dreamer

You tend to have your head in the clouds. You love to be drawn in to a whole other world.You are a rational person. You like to think through ideas, and you like the thoughts that books spark.You are a person with many different interests. You are fascinated by everything in the world.You are a person who values your possessions. You tend to have fewer things but of higher quality.

The Desert Test

You Are Together and Wise

You have a broad, mature outlook on life. You know that there are ups and downs, and you feel like you can weather them.

You feel like you can’t depend on anyone but yourself in this world. You feel quite alone sometimes.

You feel overjoyed about your past and those you have loved. You feel like you have been blessed in life.

You succeed by counting on others for support. You could never do what you do without your friends and family.

How Do You Travel Through Life?

You Run Through Life

Your journey through life energetic, fast paced, and spontaneous.

You like to live for the moment, and you always prefer taking action to sitting still.You crave a lot of freedom in your life. You can feel burdened by too make rules and responsibilities.

If you can do things your own way, you’re really are able to shine. You are very good at understanding the world.

The Retro Pattern Test

You Are Alert

You are an extremely perceptive person. You are always paying attention to those little details.

You like to sit back and watch. It’s amazing to watch other people in action.You can be a bit sneaky and sly at times. You like to eavesdrop and spy.

You know a lot about everyone, and as a result, you always have some thought-provoking observations to make!

The Dark Room Color Test

You Are Reasonable

You have a strong sense of responsibility. You always want to do the right thing, no matter the context.

You are orderly and organized. You appreciate the stability routine brings to your life.You are simply a good person. You have high standards you uphold, but you don’t boast about your morals.

You expect a lot of yourself, but you’re tolerant of others. You know that no one can be perfect.

Are You Careful, Conscientious or Carefree?

You Are Conscientious

You’re all about rules and structure, as long as they make sense.

You strike a good balance between planning and spontaneity.You leave the less important aspects of life to chance, but you’re responsible when you need to be.

You enjoy being organized most of the time, but a little chaos is fun too!

What Herb Are You?

You Are Rosemary

You are stable and grounded. You may take a slow, steady approach to live, but you’re a survivor. You are an intellectual and very rational. You can see things from a logical, detached viewpoint.

You are successful but not particularly ambitious. You have a way of letting success come to you. You tend to be a bit understated and modest. You let your accomplishments speak for themselves.

The Latte Art Test

You Are Down to Earth and Honest

You like to keep things as simple as possible in life, and you tend to gravitate toward the outdoors and natural things.

You aren’t materialistic or superficial. If anything, you are an idealist, and you care deeply about your impact on the world.Your energy level is moderately low. You pace yourself and take your time.

Your signature latte would be an organic latte made with fair trade coffee. Not only does it taste better, but it jives with your values.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Red

It’s Week 12 of my PostAWeek Challenge and The DailyPost’s inspiration for their Weekly Photo Challenge is Red.

Here’s a round up of my favorite red things:

The red team.

The red Marithe+Francois Girbaud wallet is a Christmas gift I got for myself last year. Elianto’s nail color named Chili Red is one of my favorite nail polish shades. I’ve had the red vintage-y pair of earrings since my early years of college, it’s one of my oldest accessories. The two books, I got from Power Books in Cebu a couple of summers ago. I actually bought them because I  fell in love with their red spines and thought they’d look pretty in my bookshelf. Haha. And you know Shobe, my RedBerry, right?

Oh and here’s another redberry I love!

Redberry yogurt topped with blueberry, choco chips and almond. Yum!

Tagged: Ten Things I Love

This is a late response to a tag by Tessa to blog about the 10 things you love. B, Z and Kat have already blogged wonderfully and quite effortlessly about their ten loves. I put rounding up ten things I love on hold (and let this post sleep in my drafts) because I’m a big procrastinator like that. Haha!

They say the best things in life are free. Like these ten things I love which all came for free. Hee.

1. Marks & Spencer Almond Hand Cream. This is a pasalubong from my youngest sister when she went to Manila for an inter-school sports event late last year. She also got dear Mother another variant (rosehip, I think) of this hand cream. We weren’t expecting her to buy us something, but she did which makes it so sweet. It’s one of the things I have to have in my bag. I love that it’s so yummy-smelling I can’t get enough of it. Plus I love that just a little gob makes my hands soft and fragrant already. So until now, I haven’t used up the entire tube yet. I don’t have to worry about running out of it though because Marks & Spencer is in Cagayan de Oro already. My next tube won’t be free though. Haha.

2. Plurk. One of the best sites EVER, I guess I could rightly call this my tambayan in the WWW. It’s where the best people to make chika are — my Plurkada. As a matter of fact, I  have more fun plurking than texting. That sure saved me a lot in my latest phone bill — my lowest ever.

3. Kobo. This is every ebookworm’s dream! It’s a free app I downloaded on my BB. I loved it so much when I first downloaded it but I experienced some glitches so I deleted it. Recently, I downloaded it again (no glitches now, thankfully) and the wonderful thing is after reinstalling again in my phone, I still had all the free ebooks I downloaded before. I can’t wait to finish all of my Jane Austen books.

4. Mango watch. I got this freebie a couple of years ago when I got my first credit card. It was a special offer for their new cardholders — which was what made me really apply for the credit card. Haha. I wore it all the time, loving its dainty look.  I’m not really into feminine-looking watches, but this one’s an exception. Two years of constant use, however, wore the thin leather straps out, I’ve been forced to let it resign because it’s hard to find strap replacements.  What replaced it on my wrist as my daily watch is dear father’s silver men’s watch (the style that I  really like). He rarely wears it anyway and I think he’s also resigned to the fact that it has become “mine”. Hahaha.

5. Rimmel lipstick. I’m not a lippie girl, preferring my trusted tube of cherry Chapstick to lipsticks. But this Rimmel Moisture Renew lipstick in a light pink shade called Fancy is one of the few lippies I love because it gives my lips the perfect balance of color and shimmer and keeps it moisturized too. This was given to dear mother by a balikbayan family friend. And since dear mother isn’t into pale pink lippies (which I absolutely love!)  she gave it to me instead.

6. Starbucks coffee. Would you believe if I said I’ve never paid for a Starbucks coffee ever? All the times I had Starbucks coffee, either someone paid for it — bosses during business meetings or old friends I haven’t seen in a while back in Manila — or I got them as freebies. Yes, there is such a thing as a free Starbucks coffee! At least for my credit card’s tie up promo with Starbucks that lets me claim my free tall cup of coffee (or a pack of 3 Via Ready Brew sachets) for every purchase of a certain amount. Funny thing is, B has been my suki Starbucks date the two times I got to redeem my freebies. First in Cebu last year when we went there for a wedding and second when I went to Cagayan de Oro last month for an errand. Looking forward to the third time. This week, hopefully. 🙂

7. WordPress for BlackBerry. This is another free app for BlackBerry phones. All I need is Wi-Fi and then I can blog all I want on my smartphone! Maybe I should change my blog’s name to Chuck, Dee and Shobe. Haha!

8. Bath & Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom Body Cream. I love the luxurious scent of this body cream, which was a pasalubong from my former boss when he got back from the States last year. I’ve been using it sparingly, making it last long because I don’t know where to get another tube here if it runs out.

9. Who is it? BlackBerry app. This is another free BB app I downloaded recently. What is it? It’s this simple: it lets you assign different colors to contacts in your phonebook and when someone calls or texts you, your phone’s LED lights up to the color you assigned to that contact so that just by looking at the blinking light, you know who’s it from. The free version offers colors for 10 contacts though. Works just fine for me because I have just enough colors for the fam and the bffs.

10. Turquoise stud earrings. Speaking of bffs, one of the bffs, A gave this pretty pair of earrings to me after we attended a wedding. She bought it to go with her outfit to the wedding but she wasn’t able to wear it so she gave it to me instead knowing that I loved accessories, especially earrings, to bits. It’s become my most-worn pair recently. I love how it instantly brightens up my face (chos!) even when I’m looking tired and adds a fun pop of color to any outfit.

Now, it’s my turn to tag friends who haven’t done this yet. Hello, Aya & S! I think you’ll enjoy this too!

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year

Thanks to last year’s Cosmopolitan date book, I was reminded that my summer was spent running one movie marathon after another and that a few days ago last year, I enjoyed watching Leap Year which starred Amy Adams and Matthew Goode. It may have earned not-so-good reviews and ratings from critics on Rotten Tomatoes when it came out, but it’s one of the few rom-coms I like that doesn’t make me cringe.

One song from the movie that I really really loved is Gwyneth Herbert‘s cover of Neil Young’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart.

I had a tough time looking for a video of her song on Youtube. So here’s another cover by The Corrs. Come to think of it, Leap Year’s a movie inspired by an Irish tradition and The Corrs, as we know, is an Irish band. Cute huh?

When you were young
And on your own
How did it feel to be alone

I was always thinking of games
That I was playing
Trying to make the best of my time

But only love can break your heart
Try to be sure right from the start
Yes, only love can break your heart
What if your world should fall apart

I have a friend I’ve never seen
He hides his head inside a dream
Someone should call him and see
If he can come out
Trying to lose the down that he’s found

But only love can break your heart
Try to be sure right from the start
Yes, only love can break your heart
What if your world should fall apart

Speaking of summer movies and songs, I also remember watching JLo’s The Back-up Plan and  there was this really nice song that B was bugging me to death about the title. While looking for India Arie’s Beautiful Surprise video for my wedding song post, I came across her song “A Beautiful Day” which was in the soundtrack of The Back-up Plan. Now that’s another beautiful surprise there. Oh, don’t you just love movie soundtracks? Sometimes I love soundtracks more than the movie itself (sorry, The Back-up Plan, LOL) Is this the song, B? Finally, found it. Hahaha!

And wouldn’t you know it, I’ve come to the end of my 30-day song challenge. It’s been 30 days of fun rediscovering, reminiscing and sharing the songs that I love (and love to hate). Plus I’ve really enjoyed finding out what the other bloggies have shared in their challenges too, knowing that we have a lot of loves and hates in common and learning about songs I haven’t heard yet. It’s been a wonderful 30 days of bonding through music with you. 🙂

I’ll miss doing this thing though. But then again, I can always share the songs I love without waiting for another challenge, right?

Summer Staples

Summer is my favorite season because it means sun dresses, swimsuits, big sunnies, sheer floral tops, maxi dresses, flouncy floral skirts and tank tops.

And it means being in my favorite summer uniform a lot more often: loose tops, cuffed shorts and flats.

These photos are taken at a mall’s dressing room because I love dressing room full-length mirrors (I don’t like having them in my room, though). Haha! In the first one, I think I was waiting for dear mother to finish trying on clothes and the second one was taken before trying on that little black dress.

Lately though, my favorites have also included short printed skirts, which are actually my rarely-worn printed dresses that I transform into skirts and my sheer floral dress, which works perfectly as a sheer top too, tucked in cuffed shorts or skinny jeans. I’ve yet to use it as a swimsuit cover-up when I get a chance to hit the beach. Oh and I’ve brought out my maxi dress again from its hibernation in my closet.

Funny thing is I haven’t shopped for new summer clothes at all! I just put a new spin on the clothes that I rarely wear on regular school days and made them more summer-y. It’s amazing how much fun it is putting together clothes I don’t get to wear on a normal school day. And I guess, that’s what I love about summer most.

What are your summer outfit staples? Head over to Girls Talk and share the summer outfits you can’t live without.

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

I just realized now, thinking about the old songs that I’ve loved since I was a kid, that my senti streak goes waaaay back in childhood. Of course, I didn’t really  think they were senti back then. I thought they had nice lyrics and I liked how they sound, especially when my Nanay sang and played them on the guitar.

Three songs stand out in my memory as the songs that I love to listen to the most: CSN’s Carried Away, Don McLean’s Birthday Song and Jim Croce’s I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song – these songs are my childhood favorites.

I want to post CSN’s Carried Away (since it my favoritest among the three)

You came from out of the skies

Your skin and you eyes, the colors of bronze,

The moon in your ear twinkled and shone

Soon you’ll be gone.

Sailing from out of the blue

Your old man and you

Drifting along, leaving me here

Thinking it through

Soon you’ll be gone.

Moving through my changes as fast as I can

Trying to bring a balance to me and the man

Part of me is screaming to say

I wanna be carried away

but all I could find in Youtube are covers. So here are my two other forever favorites instead:

Now, that’s old school kilig!

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty

What are you waiting for,
A certain shade of green?
I think I grew a gray watching you procrastinate.
What are you waiting for,
A certain shade of green?
Would a written invitation
signed, “Choose now or lose it all,”
sedate your hesitation?

Hah, being the big procrastinator that I am, these lines from Incubus‘ A Certain Shade Of Green hit me dead spot on.

Are you gonna stand around till 2012 A.D.?

Hey, that’s next year already!

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play

I remember when Vanessa Mae hit MTV with Storm, my sister and I were amazed at this lady who looked so astig while playing the violin.  After all, it wasn’t everyday you saw solo violinists making it big on MTV. Plus, before Vanessa Mae, I had this misconception that violinists only played boring opera pieces in stuffy opera houses. No offense to brilliant, talented violinists. I was only more of an electric-guitar-appreciating-rockstar-wannabe. Haha!

Vanessa Mae made playing the violin look so cool that whenever I would catch her playing Storm on MTV, it kind of made me wish I could rock a violin like that instead of playing wicked riffs on an electric guitar.

Storm is a techno take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons — a classical piece which I really love.

I haven’t heard Storm in a while though. I think I should have this in my classical music playlist for studying to, you know, rock things up a bit!

Family Affair

It’s all about Summer Time in Girls Talk this May. And first up in this month’s blogging series is about the most memorable summer.

I have two summers in mind. One was spent with my sisters and close family friends’ kids in Manila back in 2003, our first summer together away and without our parents. We stayed with another close family friend who took all of us on a fun road trip from Tagaytay to Enchanted Kingdom to Baguio to Vigan (my favorite!) and Ilocos Norte where we got to enjoy their private beach at Ambucao and stayed at their ancestral home in Sta. Maria. Unfortunately, I’ve no pictures to show for it because we didn’t have our own digicams back then. That fun summer trip would have made for some great picture taking.

The second one, I’ve already written a bit about before — my 2008 Boracay summer with the family and relatives. My sister who was  working in Iloilo that time has been planning for us to enjoy summer in Boracay and as if the universe conspired, one of our relatives in Iloilo, TitaM is based in Boracay with her husband, TitoJ who co-owns and manages a beach house in Boracay, smack right in Station 1. When dear Nanay told her sisters about our summer trip, my aunts and cousins were more than happy to come along.

So it turned out to be a fun bigger family summer getaway and together we enjoyed beautifully decorated accommodations, a wonderful Boracay sunset, a serene early morning walk, the white sand beach, fun night outs, spotting a few celebs, marveling at the scenery and most importantly, special family bonding moments.