- The Acuatico Experience -

My friends from UP Solair always have an annual outing. We would usually go out of town, literally out of town -- meaning, we need to take a plane! Hehehe.. But this time, we opted to go to Batangas since some of us have hectic schedules! We ended up going to the famous and uber expensive Acuatico Resort in Laiya, Batangas. I have been seeing photos of the resort from my friends' posts on their FB and have been reading good reviews of it but hearing how expensive it is! Well, this trip will still be cheaper since there will be no airfare involve!

We set to leave early morning in March... that is the problem in not writing the entry right away. I forget the details. All I remember, we went on leave the Friday before the trip so we will be able to enjoy the day and not just sleep in the hotel room. We agreed to meet at Shell Magallanes at 6AM. Gosh, we were there before 5:30AM. Talk about excited! Me and Xtian were able to eat breakfast at Jollibee and even hear the start of the mass at the Magallanes Church. So before 7AM, we were off to Batangas. It was fun to be on a road trip with friends specially friends with juicy gossips about the one who did not join the trip! Hahaha!!! bad bad bad!!!

Before getting to the stip of resorts at Laiya, we decided to grab lunch at a small eatery and gosh we were served a lot of food. We stuffed ourselves to the brim! With that I am really ready to swim. I don't care how hot was it.. I don't care if I will burn under the sun! hahaha! When we got to Acuatico, it is how I pictured it. Nice nice nice.. The infinity pool was a sight to see. I just love the pool and of course the beach! Once we got to the room, I wasted no time to change. The water was really warm and I loved it. I just swam all afternoon. We ordered some snack and boy was it pricey! We just shared it! hehehe.. Tipid mode tlaga! When it was about 6PM, we decided to eat at the small eatery again since the restaurant menu is really pricey for us. We don't have our financier with us! After dinner, I swam again until the lifeguard told me that it's time to stop! hehehee.. parang bata lang.

The whole trip was really worth it... I would really go back to Acuatico if time and money permits it! Di ba luvs? wink wink!

just wasting time as we waited for our friends

Magallanes Church - it is really beautiful!

inside the church.. after i prayed and made my 3 wishes...
they said that if it is your first time to enter a church, you have 3 wishes

ninang taking care of our check in .. kaw na rin bahala sa bayad? hehehe

posing posing!

loving the day bed!

i cannot wait to dip in the warm water

hayyy.. sarap ng welcome drink!

syempre ang asawa ko nasa bar na agad!
huy mahal ang beer dyan!

loving the blue blue water!

the main building.. where our rooms were at and the restaurant

club sandwich..

this is the winner.. i forgot what it is called.. tempura something...

hindi masarap di ba?first time ng asawa ko maglaro nito! hahaha..

early next day

breakfast buffet... attack!

swimming after breakfast!

isang nakakatawang sign sa daan.. "itay beauty parlor"

First Hearts Day as Hubby & Wifey

Xtian is not the lovey dovey type. We are not a lovey dovey couple I may say. Valentine's Day was never a big deal for us. The only time we formally celebrated it was last year. We got some tickets for a formal dinner at Pearl Garden Hotel. There was actually a reason behind that dinner and that is to try the food at the hotel since we were planning to book it as our reception venue. It was also the time that we had an ocular of the event hall that they have. So V-day 2011.. we had lunch at Berjaya Hotel... Don't be fooled that it is something fancy. It was a free lunch actually care of Arleen, our account executive for the reception. She apparently transferred hotels and landed a job in Berjaya. She invited us for a free lunch and we saw hearts day as a good day to go!

We were expecting a plated lunch but lo and behold it was a buffet. It had the usually Filipino dishes since the hotel serves a Filipino buffet lunch from Mondays to Fridays. It was not bad at all. The kare-kare was good... The rellenong bangus was great but what we love was the pancit! Winner ito! Hubby cannot stop raving about it! There was a halo halo station and off the track pasta station but I was too full to try it. It was good to know that others can try the buffet for only 350 pesos. Not bad for the selection of food that they offer. After lunch, we went to the reception area to pay our reservation for the valentine promo that they have for the month of February. More on that one on my other blog.

Since we finished just after 1 pm, we decided to check out Rockwell. I just went around Fully Booked to browse through their selection of paper crafting books. Too bad they don't have any of the titles that I was looking for. We decided to head off to Eastwood and just wait for our respective shifts to start. We ended up watching Black Swan to kill the time. May I say it is a very very very good movie. Xtian is not a fan of movies like this but he liked it in the end. Hehehe... I hope it was not the *toot* scene!

That's how our hearts day went. It is our first as hubby and wifey and I just wish that he will do the planning next year but then I like it this way that every thing was unplanned and just spruce of the moment thing!

having a cold bottle of beer at 12 noon

early right? that's how hubby rolls!

keeping my food within the inner rim of the plate!

2nd serving for hubby

yes he bought me flowers... i think it was more of peer pressure!

movie and flowers...

black swan is the bomb!

blurry picture of us

flower power!

Early Birthday Celebration

I enjoy entertaining friends at home. I love cooking food meant to be shared. These would be the reasons why I decided to spend a day with my w@w sisters at our home and cook for them. It is somewhat an early birthday celebration slash belated birthday for K slash despidida for E, who was scheduled to go back to the US. Me and K decided to have some food delivered but I wanted to add something else since some of my relatives will be coming over as well. So the menu for the party... lumpiang shanghai (spring rolls), kare-kare (the most talked about kare-kare due to the FB post!) and spaghetti!

During my birthday I will always cook spaghetti. I just don't know why but ask my friends who came over during my past celebrations, it will always be spaghetti with fried chicken! Hahahaha... I remembered making my San Beda friends spaghetti and I would always make it "halal" or good to eat for Muslims since one of my friends is a Muslim. This time that party was not meant for a good drinking session but more of a sit down lunch that went on to merienda! hahaha... Of course gossips were talked about, stories were shared and some talk about business on the side!

I just wish on my next entertaining moment, it will be a formal one like Barefoot Contessa's dinner party. Hehehehe!!!

making lumpia!

a very supportive hubby... separating the lumpia wrappers!

sauteing the bagoong for the kare-kare!

mommy prepping the paper plates!

cake time!

the black forest is heart shape... and the mocha cake! hehehehe

thanks for the gifts guys!

Xtian munching!

able to take picture of the food before it disappeared!

cake from Auntie Lida...

it's my sister's birthday as well .. she celebrates her 18th birthday on 2.23... she said "legal na ako!"

happy birthday to me... happy birthday to me!

yummy cake!

What comes after weddings... Babies!

After the series of weddings... what else do you expect to happen... Baby showers of course! For the last Saturday of January, me and my w@w sisters set it as the baby shower for two of the members of our group... B and J! B is expecting a baby girl while J is expecting a boy! We are sooo excited to see the little ones already!

We had the baby shower at Luk Yuen at Glorietta 5 and we set it at lunch time. We sat on a very long table since the husbands are with their respective wifeys since all of us are married already. The only absent hubbies were the hubby of B and Xtian. It was a day filled with laughter and stories of the recent weddings. The table was overflowing of food also. Thanks to A and her hubby J for bringing the much-awaited lechon cebu! It was the best! Yummy!

After the sumptuous lunch, it was time for the gift giving and the opening of the presents.

my gift... it is obvious which gift belongs to who!

it was a raining pink and blue that day!

smile!

hmmm....

ssss--mmmillle!!

pink and blue again!

future mommies multi-tasking.. talking while opening gifts!

huggies!

the most sosyal gift of all.. coach???

gosh.. who would have thought.. coach carries avent bottles! hahahaha

the much talked about diaper bag for J... hahaha

the trash that we left at Luk Yuen

We walked out of Luk Yuen full and happy. Happy to have spend time with the girls and of course the hubbies! I just hope Xtian will be able to join us next time! He is really not the social butterfly as I am!