Curbside Stories

My employer was so generous to treat us department heads to a summer escape in Mount Sea Resort in Marseilla St., Rosario, Cavite. It is around 30 minutes away from Manila and is accessible via Cavitex. Aside from swimming pools, the resort also has a restaurant, a bar, billiards, KTV, zip line, obstacle course and hotel rooms. They have various affordable recreation packages for every group type to enjoy. This is outside of one of the pools of the resort. It opens to the public at 7 in the morning. Guests are allowed to bring in foods. The road leads to the zip line and obstacle course. The zip line is around 500 meters and ends in another resort. A one-way ride is only 50 pesos. The 5 feet deep pool has slides. Guests are allowed to wear white shirt or sleeveless and board shorts for female if they do not want to wear swimsuit and board shorts only for male. The kiddie pool is 3 feet deep and it also has slides. The resort also offers swimming lesson...

Merry Christmas! I could not ask for more. God has blessed me with so many things this year that I am deeply humbled by His generosity. If there are things that I would wish to have, it would be for other people. I pray for the victims of Typhoon Pablo and the rest of the calamity-stricken areas to be safe and to continue to gather their faith and strength to build their lives again. I pray for the people to continue to help and extend their generosity to those who need their help the most. I pray for the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary and their loved ones to find healing, peace, acceptance and forgiveness so that they may be able to live their lives better than today like what the innocent children wants them to have. I pray for wisdom to all country leaders to exert extra effort to promote harmonious living within their country and among other nations. I pray for Your continued mercy. May You guide us towards the right path through your Son Jesus Christ, o...

The dreaded question of all in any family gathering or school reunion is "Why are you still single?" Why not? To avoid being questioned, you might as well send a mail or email with a Singleton Holiday Card enclosed so the moment you visit them this Christmas, you will be asked of the more important questions other than your current relationship status. It looks something like this...

I am excited about Christmas. It is my most favorite holiday of them all because aside from the left and right parties and reunions and the merry air that you can see and feel, it is also the time that our air conditioning unit gets a rest. Temperature during Christmas season until February drops up to 3 degrees from the normal. It is usually during January and February that temperature drops up to 5 degrees when snow from the Northern Hemisphere starts to melt, at this point, I sometimes wish we have high efficiency furnace to warm up the room a little bit. 

Photo from here . Lo and behold, fellow workers... there will be no more holiday economics as per P-Noy! And the People Power Revolution is not considered a holiday in the labor sector. Holiday Economics or R. A. 9492 was made a law in 2007 by Ex-Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It is a law wherein all public holidays can be moved to the nearest Friday or Monday if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday. President Noynoy already announced last December 21 via Proclamation No. 84 that there will be no more movable holidays come 2011 to give daily paid workers a chance to earn more. This means that the holiday will be celebrated on the day itself. This also means that there will only be long weekends if the holiday falls on a Friday or Monday. There are 14 holidays in  Proclamation No. 84 and only 4 of which fall on a Sunday: Labor Day – May 1 (Sunday) Independence Day – June 12 (Sunday) Christmas Day – December 25 (Sunday) Ninoy Aquino Day – August 21 (Sunday) (special nonworkin...

Photo form here . My son and I, together with some relatives, made the most out the vacation.  Yesterday, we went to SMX at SM Mall of Asia to watch the Great American Circus.  It was our first time to watch a real live circus.  It's different from the one we see in peryas during fiestas. There were no live chicken eating, no disabled people featured as half mermaid-half human, no oddities at all--just amazing feats regular people can't do. We arrived at SMX an hour before the show, we waited in line for about thirty minutes before they opened the gates. The show features acrobats, daredevils--including the Guinness Book of World Records holder for crossbow, jugglers, clowns and a Michael Jackson impersonator.  The highlight of the show was the "Wheel of Death" where two people ran inside two rings just like a ferris wheel.  I really enjoyed watching the aerial dancers. If you want to try something different and see death defying stunts, you may still c...

Photo from here . Happy New Year! Allow me to thank you all guys for reading my entries, for commenting from time to time, for liking it on Facebook, for tweeting and for following.  It really meant a lot to me.  This year has been a year full of blessings and some of those blessings are you. Let us welcome 2011 with positivity. Cheers! XOXO Joanne

Photo from here . You know that it is already Christmas when you hear carolers outside your house singing Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad and all other famous Christmas songs known to mankind.  I like caroling, I used to sing with the gang every night after school to raise fund for our small Christmas party.  It's fun and you get to know the generous and not so generous people around the neighborhood.  And no matter how big or small amount we receive from them (even if we receive none), we always end the caroling with the song "Thank you, thank you, ang babait ninyo (you're so kind), thank you!" As the years go by, more and more carolers are forgetting that the real spirit of caroling is to renounce through songs that Our Savior is born.  And that the essence of Christ being born is selfless giving and unconditional love. I am not the Grinch who will steal Christmas.  I love the Yuletide season, as a matter of fact, but carolers a...