Overnight in Tagaytay With Office Friends

Videoke, Starbucks, lots of San Miguel’s, Bailey’s, Jocelyn’s home-made daing breakfast with itlog, talong and bagoong, Bag of Beans, Tagaytay Highlands and merienda at The Peaks… Still had so many things to do but we don’t have enough time

So many moments to capture but was only able to get new batteries for Bag of Beans onwards Poor pic quality because the settings were changed without me know it

But still…….

It was one of the best Tagaytay weekends I had fabulous and fun people! Hubby surprisingly didn’t get bored and loved their company (especially SL whose energy is unmatchable)!!!

Thanks MB and SL for deciding to wing it right after work. Thanks DD and Paul or hitting Tagaytay although we’re sad you had to go home last Friday night due to the freaking dent in the car Thanks PC for following last Friday (with booze) even if you were a little shut out of the gate due to the poor-quality-rusty-padlock… sorry for that hehe Thanks MasterC and KV for bringing booze and singing great songs… well, uhm… we’re glad to have discovered MasterC’s got a “talking” voice and a “singing” voice Thanks to IL, CM and CS for following last Saturday

You were all fantastic guys! Despite the changes in plans and minor accidents, the weekend was every second worth it I hope you enjoyed your stay at our house and our short Tagaytay Highlands escapade Til next time

I don't think any trip to Tagaytay will be complete without dropping by Bag of Beans They serve good Batangas barako coffee... not as good as the ones prepared by my grandparents when I was younger but it's good nonetheless

Bag of Beans, Tagaytay

There's this sort of a "new" wing inside Bag of Beans. It's nice

We ordered raisin bread, blueberry cheesecake and carrot cake to go with our kapeng barako

PC's carrot cake funny how she told us to take the pictures faster coz she has very low EQ when it comes to food

Their raisin bread is super packed with raisins, it's not fun eating it. I was expecting bread with raisins and not raisins with bread LOL

This tastes fine Blueberry cheesecake for MB

I didn't taste this one. SL said it's okay but she didn't like the crust.

One of those awesome views from The Peaks

Tagaytay Highlands Clubhouse

The best looking food we ordered at The Peaks tasted good as well

Weeee a group jump shot! Who says it should only be done for wedding pics?! Thanks Cha for the lovely photos Your camera really eats up ours tee hee

Yummy Tart for My Sweetheart :P

The dainty sign, all pink and white…

 

I like it with my heart…

The lil’ cream house filled with delight..

And yummy-licious tarts

On our way to Tagaytay Highlands from Batangas last Sunday, hubby and I decided to stop by Amira’s Buco Tart Haus.  We were hoping we could buy buco tarts but they’re all sold out. They only had pineapple tarts left for sale. Not wanting to reach Highlands empty-handed, I decided to buy the last box of pineapple tarts. It was a fortunate buy!

All the while I thought and knew that Amira’s only make good buco tarts but I stood corrected after having my first bite into their pineapple tart   /facepalm

As always, the crust and the toppings are hands-down fantastic. But I’m quite surprised at how good the pineapple filling tasted.  I was expecting to taste something like a pineapple jam but nope, it was a creamy texture of pineapple goodness. It has the right mix of sweet with a little sour… in fact, it didn’t taste too sweet at all

But hubby wanted buco tarts so we stopped by Amira’s shop at the second level of the new Robinson’s mini-mall near Josephine’s.  I was lucky to be able to find their last buco tart box! I ordered three more boxes of tarts… apple, mango, and buco. Their ube tarts were sold out

I mixed the tarts so that one box will contain all the different flavors and personally, I liked the pineapple tart the most. followed by the buco tart, then the  apple tart, and last the mango tart. The buco tart is good too and it tops my hubby’s list

If you’re in Tagaytay and would like to try their tarts, you can also visit their bakeshop near “Pink Sisters.”

LoL :P

A messy bag is a pain to see… but at least I will never get hungry

Thanks to Happy (ay mani!!!)

What’s Dual Spec For Then?

Tuesday shutdown tonight

Before the regular maintenance today, I and hubby formed group for the daily heroic which happened to be Ahn’Kahet: The Old Kingdom. Almost everybody in the guild has done it (including all their alts) and that forced us to PUG. We were looking for a tank and I felt really excited that three people were queued in LFG as tanks!

I whispered the warrior and didn’t get a reply for a long while. I opted not to choose the death knight because just prior to queuing for the daily heroic, I stepped out of Heroic ToC with the DK as tank. He’s terribad. I was left with the pally tank in LFG then.

I asked the pally if he can tank. After a minute or so, he replied saying “nar mate i wan dps” By the time he replied though we already have a tank. So I just told him that we’re already full.

I always believe that one should be afforded the opportunity to do what he enjoys the most. Hence, if you like to DPS, by all means, go ahead and DPS. If you like to heal, well and good, feel free to heal. If you like to be a meat shield, go on tank away.

Here comes dual spec though which affords every one of us flexibility and ample utility in any given scenario. My only request is, if you choose to dual spec, please make sure that you’re ready to perform either spec when called for it.

This pally dude must have been pretty tired from all that tanking duties. But hey, he was queued in LFG as dps and/or TANK. If he didn’t want to tank that day or even for that heroic alone, he could have added a comment or ticked off the “tank” option. I just felt that it is misleading to the people in LFG if one queued as tank but he didn’t want to join group because he’ll be required to tank. Misleading and absurd.

I’m guessing though that since the shutdown earlier was imminent, he probably:

1. ended up not running the daily heroic; or

2. did heroic as tank.

I hope you guys are using your dual specs wisely

Undas 2009

I always look forward to Undas (All Saints’/All Souls’ Day). It’s an opportunity for me to pay respects to my deceased grandparents and bond with my relatives. It’s one of those occasions in a year that we all gather together to pray, talk, share stories (and gossips!), and eat (that’s the most important part)

My usual itinerary every Undas (well since I got married) is to first go to Cainta in the morning (husband’s turn) then drive all the way to Calaca (my turn). It’s not as easy as it looks. See, from our house, we have to drive all the way to Cainta (lucky if there’s no traffic but most of the time there is). From Cainta, we start our next 2-hour drive to Calaca. From Calaca (in the evening when we call it a night), we drive back to Batangas City which is a one-hour drive by the way. Then the following day, we hit the road again back to our house in Manila (depending on traffic, it’s usually a 2hour drive on the average).While Undas is fun and I look forward to it, it is also physically taxing… especially if you’re getting old hehehe

This year, typhoon Santi hit Batangas like hell just before Undas and almost ALL bridges connecting Batangas City to Calaca were destroyed (maybe ALL is an exaggeration but really, almost EVERY bridge was broken see? i’m not exaggerating! tee hee).  This made our Undas trip even harder. Anyways, my folks said there are detours after Lemery but I’m not familiar with the place so we agreed that instead of going directly to Calaca, we’d drop by our house in the City first.

When we entered Calaca from Lemery, we were faced with a detour sign that stood along the National Highway itself. The detour meant traversing the little roads WITHIN several barangays. We started with Brgy. Sinisian and came out of Brgy. Puting Bato (East or West, whatever I don’t know ). And I was wondering throughout our barangay-hopping drive why there are like GAZILLION humps on the road… like one every after 3 meters… seriously. The road humps were made of cut coconut trees and sometimes of coco lumber… passing through them really is a pain in the butt. And like ONE IN EVERY THREE METERS!!! Oh boy, for crying out loud. WHY!?!?!

The fun (sarcastic) part was not even on our way going to the cemetery but on our way back home to Batangas City. The barangay roads are not wide. Two cars can be squeezed with one side of the car passing through the gutter already but hey, it’s doable (and forgivable). But for Pete’s sake, NO ONE SHOULD EVER PARK THEIR TRICYCLES, OWNER-TYPE JEEPNEYS, VANS, OR CARS at any part of the barangay road because they make the frakking road unpassable!!!! And WHY on earth (exasperation is setting in) ARE 10, 14, 16 WHEELER TRUCKS ALLOWED TO PASS THROUGH THE BARANGAY ROAD?!?! Can I buy common sense please? I want to wrap it as a Christmas gift to the town Mayor. Please, SELL me one!!!

Anyhow, a huge huge truck went in and got stuck in some really steep part of the barangay road and NO CAR COULD EVER PASS because of it.  Yah,  the raod was not passable IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. I mean, hey, WTF was that huh?! It was 11pm in the evening and we were stuck in some barangay… and all I really wanted to happen at that very hour was to end my freakin’ day! Jeeeezzzz..

I have to stop whining about it, I can feel my blood pressure rising hehehehe

Despite those unfortunate events, I’d say I still enjoyed my Undas experience this year. The cemetery is slowly getting swamped with people (not that I’m happy more people are dying but I’m glad that the number of people visiting their loved ones increase every year). The most memorable part of my Undas is that I’m now able to remove part of my fear for dogs Still can’t hold/carry them but can “touch” them now. It’s an improvement

Still lots open spaces in the cemetery Doesn't it look like a soccer field? lol

Early birds Giel and Gio

Cousins.. the young blood. Gosh, cousin Love why are we here?

Love's dog, Japshee (shih tzu). See that hand with red watch strap? That's my hand. And I'm stroking Japshee's head. An improvement huh