To read or not to read?

I have so many ideas to do, so many things I want to do.

Recently I have stumbled upon a few good books that I wanted to buy and read. But then I am thinking to myself that I have quite a few things hanging from both my hands.

I have so much to research on the net, as it is.
A lot of my nights are filled with either supplier events, business seminars, wedding planning or just plain relaxing night blogging away.

I have so much pending blogstuff that I cannot seem to balance my time properly with all the plans I have underway.

How I wish I've got even just an extra hour or two in a day.

But then again, I don't think even that would be enough to do everything I have planned.
C'est la vie.

Pill vs. Diet vs. exercise

Countdown to 3 months before the wedding is happening in a week’s time. Panic mode is almost switching on, as I am badly needing to diet, or exercise! I was surfing around for the best method for me to trim down even just my tummy and hips. The rest of me is probably fine enough to be seen in a wedding dress. I’ve read that apidexin is quite an effective diet pill but I am not the type to try something new like this, especially not without doing a thorough and extensive research about that pill. I am known to not even take medicine when I am sick with the flu or something. I am sure by cutting down on my sugar, chocolate and cola drink intake I should shed off a few pounds. I wish the weather gets warmer soon so that I can do walks or jogging at the park. At the moment it is still too cold to do this without too much effort. Hopefully soon I get around to this, in time for me to be measured to fit my wedding gown!

Have you heard about Baby Whale Colin?

A few weeks ago we went Whale watching. It is the season when the migratory sea creatures were heading either north or south (apparently the turnaround was quite quick). So, when I saw this on the news I sort of could imagine, as I saw it's relatives or friends just a few weeks back.

Colin is the baby whale (calf) treading on NSW waters' Sydney region on its own, abandoned by the rest of the group. Colin who for a while thought that one Sydney yacht was it's mum. He kept following the yacht and keeping close to the boat's bottom. The authorities advised the yacht to take the baby whale out onto the deeper part of the ocean, hoping that he would find refuge in other whales. But this did not happen. It still kept tagging along the yacht, and so authorities decided it would be more dangerous for Colin this way and so euthanasia on him was the best option. News article and photos here. Warning, It can be quite a sad picture. I don't think it was right, and there have been protests against this. I don't really know much about whales, but I hope Colin's now at Whale Heaven (i know there isn't such tho).

Just a bit of thought

Boyfriend and I have been talking about kids and plans after our wedding. We were thinking that there's just so much happening in the world. Whether it be natural or man made ocurrences or situations. Scary that there are crimes happening here and there, there should be a list or Sex Offender Registry like Megan's Law or even just a compiled information that is available when requested by the public. It may cause a few sneers but it's the government who would decide on this anyway. Really, there are a lot of things outside any parent's control, and caution is best exercised at all times.

So, we were just discussing our thoughts on society nowadays as well as other things. We even went on and discussed politics! A preview of what married life discussions, possibly.

(Still) Calm (So Far) inspite of long list of things to do

Finally, things are falling into place for our December wedding! (Still have my fingers, toes, legs, arms, all crossed!) (And praying too).

So far we have the church all finalized, but the marriage license and other church and legal documents are still not done.

The reception venue that we are having closed, and exclusively hiring (Discovery Country Suites in Tagaytay) is almost all organized. We are booking all their rooms the night before the wedding, so we’ll have butlers answering to our whims. All good except we haven’t decided on which package to take in terms of food choices. And, of course a few other things!

Photographer/s will be decided on within the week. We have a tentative one booked. But we are just looking at last minute options right before we decide.

Guests are slowly coming back to me confirming their attendance. (We are doing a very intimate affair with 50 or so guests only).

Gown and entourage dresses are still pending, but will or should be taken cared of before September. Hair and Make up to be done after.

Souvenirs, Invites, Strings still pending.

I think I still have a quite a FEW things to do! But the good thing is, I am not super panicking yet. We have our church and reception venue firmed up, so that’s the biggest thing. Since it is a small group, it is not overwhelming. Just the way we wanted it. Just really close family and friends. Chosen ones even. It is going to be like a house party, only it is done at a hotel, OUR hotel for the day. This is I guess a dream for me, to have in my life set for the record that I had a hotel entirely to myself (with hubby and guests of course) for our wedding, my ‘small’ big day.

P.S. All above things have been accomplished in 10 days! Which is quite good enough if I may say. Considering I am planning all this from overseas. (Well, I’ve got my sister doing a lot of things for me too, on the side!)

Wedding Chronicles : Air tickets

All the wedding plans I’ve been thinking and doing recently has made me neglect booking our airline tickets! I guess I am not as concerned because the time we are looking to travel will not be during high season. In fact on the way back to Sydney we will be going against the flow of tourist. Just when some of them would be heading to Manila for the holidays, we would be heading home to Australia. I know I should do this within the next few weeks, at least just to give us a starting point on travel plans.



This morning I spoke with my boyfriend asking him where he would like to go for our honeymoon. He was saying possibly Singapore, because that’s where our stopover would be. I told him I would not really like to stay in cheap hotels, but somewhere that would be really nice and reasonable. I am still not sold to having our honeymoon in Singapore. We have just been there last year, on our way to Manila. But then again, we really love that city and my boyfriend even considered looking for a job there. Oh well, I should look at this honeymoon planning thing again later. For now, it’s back to wedding plans.

My apologies: Systems were down

The past week I have been sick three times, been to the doctor twice. And I did not enjoy that at all. I was home most of the time. Trudging myself to blog. Struggled to keep myself busy inspite of my immune system being down.

Last Wednesday, Thursday.

I had laryngitis. Thus had this sexy voice for about two and a half days. My boyfriend found it cute. But I just found it uncomfortable. Obviously I could not go to work with my voice that way. I was advised to not talk at all. My body was feeling okay at that time.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

And, then it hit me. Something. I had my voice back, so I tried to go to work. Ended up going home after a few hours. My body felt weak and I was nursing a bad head cold and had this chesty painful cough. Bad case of Sinusitis. So, I took lots of oranges and by monday I was back at work.

Monday.

I was well and working.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (today) and Friday.

Still working, but by the end of the day I was aching again all over, and officially had the flu. At night I had the worst chills one could have on a Cold Cold winter night. The next day, I brought myself to work. Struggling. I barely made it alive, as my back was aching, my tummy was painful for some medical reason I found out later on. I was feverish. Miserable than ever. The doctor's given me a medical certificate to take the rest of the week off.

I am feeling much better today. I am still on my medication and I am most likely to take tomorrow off again. I would rather get completely well, than come to work and then run back home.

This is the reason why I haven't been visiting sites much. I am hoping to get back to my usual routine soon. Enough of these sick days and bad system. Although, honestly I was able to plan our wedding a bit due to these days at home. Blessing in disguise? Hmm. I prefer to have been home and well tho. I am thankful I am better now.

Georgia moments

The last time I was in the US ages ago, my family and I had the chance to visit Georgia. I would say that the cities there are not as big as those in California yet, but the Marietta GA Utility Combination would have a fair chance at proving that they are quite a great place to live in as well. They have excellent utility and recreation facilities that would still impress someone visiting the state for the first time.

Visiting Atlanta one would not miss the number of Marriott properties they have there. We stayed in one, and at some point got confused which property we were on. One long street would have at least two Marriott properties! A lot of my memories of our US trip happened in Georgia. We had a bit of an encounter one time at the parking area with one utility vehicle, and one of my siblings almost got run over by this. This was one scary time of my life. But, happy moments have happened to and I remember that Georgis was where we had countless visits to the best pancake house ever, and I’m sure you know what that is.

Handy travel buddy

Whoever invented or created the gps tracking system is a genius. This is such a handy thing for regular travelers and local people as well. My boyfriend and I travel every so often and we are constantly trying to find our destination, or good places to have our meals, or even just navigating our way to and from where ever. Recently we’ve got our new phones which are capable of gps tracking. He is stoked. While I am just fine with it; maybe that is because I do not fully appreciate the service just yet. He is saying though that there should be a cheaper way to subscribe to this service, as it is really quite a good tool for us when we travel. He goes on talking to me about turn by turn accuracy of this easy to use device. It is amazing that a satellite knows ones’ position in this earth, and transmits information for easy navigating through streets and areas of this world.

In one of our travels I remember arriving into the little beach town, one late rainy evening. Based on my research we would have been able to walk a good 10 minutes to our beach cottage from the train station. However not anticipating the bad weather, we arrived and it was raining cats and dogs. A gps would have been good to have at that time and maybe if the weather was better too. Luckily, we managed to get into a cab, which brought us to our destination dry and safe.

Artsy Hotel in Copenhagen : Fox Hotel

There are some tourists who particularly like trying out different hotels. Whether the ambiance is different, the food or services they offer are one of a kind, truly there is a market for unique hotels. Hotel Fox is marketed as a carbon dioxide neutral hotel, in the heart of Copenhagen, Denmark. They have 61 rooms, each uniquely designed by international artists conveying anything from urban to mythical to fantasy. Some done really bright and colorful, while others keeping it simple with a couple of colours. Rates range from EUR 75 per person per night to about EUR 120 per person per night. It is quite interesting that they've got about 4 different room sizes Small, Medium, Large, Xtra Large.

I probably would consider staying at some of the hotel's room types. I guess it depends on whether there are deals available at that time (whenever that is!).

Wishing I can get a good deal soon

Ever since I can remember, I have loved hotel bargains (Who wouldn’t). I always get this excited rush whenever I visit last minute accommodation websites where I could possibly snag some last minute hotels great deal either for myself or for my family member back home. Once in a while the rates for the weekend drop considerably. Enough for me to consider packing my overnight bag and head of to some posh hotel somewhere.

What’s even better is that they have last minute flights on jetstar or Qantas. Last year I went to the Fraser Coast with my boyfriend. We were able to secure cheap flights on virgin blue and stayed at Kingfisher Bay Resort for three nights. I am keeping a watch now to see if there’s anything available sometime during the summer.