A WORKING MOM'S PEN HAVEN

Praise God!!! What an amazing God we have!  Alas! my Sunlife testimony! Sunlife is real! It was late last year when Jayson Ignacio, my Sunlife Advisor for 4 years followed up on my promise to avail of another policy from Sunlife.  My first policy was only a VUL with total disability benefit. I realized then that I needed to have more coverage before I turned 40. I still took sometime to mull over it until I finally made the decision to avail of another VUL and this time with a Critical Illness Benefit rider. It took them about a week to finish the underwriting and by 2nd week of January, I got approval for my policy and paid my first premium.  Fast forward to June 25, 2018. I was rushed to the hospital because of severe chest pain and shortage of breath. I was hooked up with oxygen and was attended to immediately by the emergency staff. They run tests including ECG and right after results came, the doctor took blood samples for the heart attack marker test. Aft...

It's about a week after our trip to Tokyo Japan and though I promised myself and my husband that I will be chronicling our trip the day after, I ultimately forgave myself (and I'm sure hubby does too) for not fulfilling that promise.  The sheer exhaustion from our travels would be enough excuse let alone the insurmountable stress of handling 3 small kids tagging along this trip.   But i only have 3 words to describe our struggles - ALL WORTH IT! So how do I begin to retell this note worthy travel? Let me start with... Day 1:  We slept in our studio condo unit in Pasig the night before.  Since we had a lot and I mean a loooot of bags to bring (family of 5), my husband ditched the original plan of commuting to the condo from our house in Antipolo.  Instead, he had to go back and park our car in Antipolo at about 9pm.  He was able to go back to the condo at around 11pm.  By then I have successfully packed all 4 big bags and 5 small bag...

Yes! 6 days to go before our family trip to Japan! I can’t tell you how excited I an about this! I’ve been on several trips but this one I know would be quite special since we’re doing this as a family, yes all three kids including! So being the super anxious person that I am, I can’t stop thinking of what else to do and plan for. I’ve read dozens of articles about japan tours and to dos but I can’t seem to finish my detailed IT for our 5-day trip. Is it the jitters, the excitement, or both, I don’t know all I know is that I just want to share this feeling and probably the prep experience. This piece might be useful for semi-OC moms like me who just needs to plan, plan and plan ahead about everything. So here’s the list of my prep journey and I hope it helps on your future trip to Japan... 1) Tickets! Let me tell you first and foremost that I am not an affluent person. We’re a middle class family of 5 and I work as an officer in a large company but I cannot afford to buy 5 round tr...

I have friends who hail from Davao who's been asking me about the best property to buy in Davao City.  They probably know that I work as a researcher in a real estate company and that I will give them my very honest opinion about things, reason why they came to be for advise.Well, for one I have been everywhere in the country.  As in literally been everywhere! My getgo points reveal that I have had more than 40,000 points accumulated in that past 5 years.  My pal mabuhay miles though may not be as reflective of my flights because I rarely go PAL for obvious reasons. Anyway, I can say that if someone who can afford a house worth 2M-4M  would ask me where to buy a house and lot from, I would of course tell them to purchase a CAMELLA HOME .  Not to be self-serving here but I can point out more than 100 reasons to prove my point. But how about in Davao? Prices of house and lot for sale in Davao have soared super high since the president go elected. Investors bot...

I've recently visited Cebu for the nth time and since my companion was a first timer, I had tour guide duties to fulfill.  And it dawned on me that this is not my first time to be touring a newbie in Cebu.  What shocked me is that I almost end up doing the same thing.  And always, always bring home the same pasalubong.  I never go home without Cebu's tasty treats since my kids would check on their "bilins" every single one of my trips to Cebu. Here's my Cebu pasalubong list and where to find the best of them: 1)  Cebu Lechon -  CnT lechon is still the best there is.  I've only gone to 2 of their branches, one is in front of SM Cebu, the old one and the other is along V Rama.  But I've heard that there's a branch that opened near Ayala Center, got to check that one out. 2)  Cebu Danggit and Dried Pusit - Although you can buy these popular ones anywhere in the city, Taboan market is the cheapest place where you can buy them.  If ...

One of the things that surprise me most is the fact that everyone who has some kind of employment can actually afford a house and lot.  Well, a lot of things like preference, accessibility, community etc will come into play but in terms of affordability, one actually have a choice out there.  Thanks to socialized housing programs, Filipinos who are employed can avail of a house and lot for as little as P2,000 a month through pag-ibig financing.  How cool is that right? However, in most areas where these socialized housing is available, most developers would require a hefty downpayment which is the main hindrance why most forego their purchase.  Most developers ask around 10-20% down payment which is roughly about 50-100k, something that the average Juan may not readily have.   In most cases though, developers stretch the down payment to 12 to even 24 months to pay just to accommodate their budgets.  However, for this market whose jobs are u...

All of a sudden I have this craving for sweets! Granted was advised by my cardio to lay off sweets a bit because my FBS stats are not that good, it’s not that bad either! But as I’ve always had a knack for sweets since my childhood. i can finish off a bar of chocolate without any help. But what kept my sugar afloat was the fact that I do not like sodas nor coffee. And so most of the time instead of ordering a coke with my meal, I’d choose the lesser evil ice tea or juice. But nowadays, I really save on calories and what best to binge off on sweets than in the sweetest city in the country - Bacolod! So here I’m listing out my top 3 sweet places in Bacolod. 1) Calea Of course, who doesnt know Calea! Anyone who’s ever been to Bacolod knows or at least may have been introduced to the place. It’s home to an endless number of cake variants. The best of which are the cheesecakes and the blueberry cheesecake is to die for!  The chocolate Bomb Ice cream is also a must try! When I was la...

I've been to Iloilo several times and I can say that each time I have to go there again, I find myself excited.  I am really looking forward to all those new things I've heard about the place recently.  Well, because of this, I think it's high time to list out the things that I want to check out in Iloilo on my next trip there: 1)  This "Heaven on Earth" or "Stairway to Heaven" thing in San Joaquin Everybody's raving about it this new destination at the Garin Farm in San Joaquin Iloilo. It's now a pilgrimage site for Catholics but it's also a selfie worthy spot that I can't wait to visit soon. 2)  Camella Savannah City Iloilo Iloilo city is at the cusp of evolution and I want to witness this as it develops into a megacity that it is designed to be.  When I was there the last time, new national developers have flocked over to take their stakes in the area transforming the city into a thriving self-sustaining community that...

I realized that I just need to start writing again.  I want to seriously consider blogging as a regular hobby or something.  So what I need probably is to just set a time in a day to write.  Having said that, I know that it'll take some getting used to but I know it needs to be done.  1) Because I want to be considered as a real blogger at the very least 2)  I have so much stuff to write about...sayang naman. I think I also need to resign to the fact that I should not try so hard to come up with perfect output all the time.  Because if I do that, I don't think I'll be able to post anything close to what I want to. Anyway, I'm here in CDO doing a training on digital marketing, coming from Davao the other day. I'd like to tell more about it but I can't so I guess that's it for the day. Maybe I'll have time and energy later to write about my hotel experience with Red Planet Davao and Mulberry CDO. Maybe...just maybe