misstinapie

I've got less books this time BUT, a big change of game in MIBF this year, it's much rewarding for those who really wanted to find something to read. I've been going every year and to me this is the best yet. More bookstores for novels unlike before that focused on textbooks and kid's stuff. So here's my stash: Philippine Folk Literature Series (UP) There are 6 of these and I do love collections but I just can't imagine buying all because these are too thick! The Riddles if I can remember was the thickest and I although it would bring me so much joy having a new collection, I just want to lessen my unread books. Each book costs 700 php. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan I've read a few books of David Levithan's and this was brought to my attention finding other books of his. This is a collaboration with John Green, writing a specific Will Grayson per chapter. It was a fun to read I finished in a few days. Here...

There's not a lot of places to go to Tagaytay and it's a shame that even if we live in Cavite, we haven't been to Sky Ranch since it opened. So on one Sunday (I drove most of the way) we went there without actual plans. View inside the Sky Eye Entrance Fee is supposed to be 100 pesos but we got a discount for 50 pesos each. Little did I know that everything is just extremely expensive inside. Most of the rides are 150 each!! Imagine if you have tons of kids! I don't have a liking for rides anymore but I've wanted to experience their so called Sky Eye which rivals the one at MoA. After which I've decided that MoA Eye is more worth the money than this Sky Eye. Not only is it so narrow inside but there's this huge pole in the middle that it's impossible to sit more than 4 average people. One of the best features of the Sky Ranch is that you are overlooking the small volcano without obstructions and best of all, all facilities are quite n...

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I have no idea why there's two exhibits of Da Vinci this quarter (one at MoA and another at Mind Museum) but we chose to go to MM instead as we haven't been there lately. We got there a bit late so a full package of a day pass w/ Mind Museum access is not option. We've been inside as well so I don't think we are missing anything. So anyways we got in, and even if the exhibit have been running for quite a while now, there are still a lot of people in. The exhibit features replicas of Da Vinci's works- ranging from his inventions to his artworks. And unlike most exhibits a lot of the replicas on display are okay to play with. They also have a 1 hr presentation (looks like it came from History Channel, I'm super sure I've heard that narrator elsewhere) which runs every hour so you may want to catch that to sit a bit. When we came in some chose not to stay but I didn't regret the hour. For the price of 250, don't expect to see origi...

(pun truly intended!) In my bucket list is one day experience driving a car and owning one for that matter. Being able to drive is a life skill that opens up too many experiences that is too tempting to resist. But before all the opportunities driving has to offer, there are steps we must do to even become a real driver. Here's our full adventure report: Step 1: Get a Student Driver's License Step 2: Enroll for a Driving Class Before we even apply, we asked around which school we should go. My father insisted that we go to A1 (he studied there) while another office mate who studied earlier recommended us to SMART. I've no idea how we decided that that's the school we should go, but I guess our choice was okay. My office mate and I decided to enroll for 10 hrs of class (around 5k) and they added us an hour free each. I get to start by Monday (Ai started an hour on that Saturday) in which we go on having turns of 2 hrs each. But before we even start the actual d...

If it weren't for constant fatigue due to more than 4 hours of commute everyday, I wouldn't have had decided to rent.  If I haven't rented, I may have been in that photo above.  If I was on the photo above, I may have ranted earlier :-D I have only seen it on the news and I was saddened at my fellow Caviteños who have to suffer this chaos early in the morning, IN THE RAIN for Pete's sake. They were oblivious on what to do, they may have paid more than they should that day, most of them late and tired and hungry and drenching in sweat and rain. I was lucky to be free of that but it doesn't change how I felt about this so called change. I understand the need for a new traffic scheme but this is just drastic, careless and anti-commuter. What MMDA thought of as convenience for the Metro, is not so to the mass of people from Cavite who study and work there. I know, I've been there. And I experience it now when I go to and  fro Cavite in Sunda...

It's been a long and overdue makeover for Glorietta (probably the only good thing after the unfateful blast) and one of the changes in their store line up is this Pork Katsu restaurant we have not tried before, Ginza Bairin. While Japanese restaurants most often mean sushi and ramen, here's another restaurant that highlights Pork Katsu on a visit. And speaking of visits, don't wait too long to decide in having a seat down. That precious time will only cost you a seat as they end up full house. Your eyes are not fooling you. The photo is indeed a bit blurry. I was in a hurry eating!! There are 3 katsu specials, one with rice, a donburi bowl then as a sandwich. We opted for both Kurobuta Rosu Katsu sets (595 php) which come with miso soup, a bowl of rice, fruit of the day and shredded cabbage, which just like in Yabu, in unlimited servings. You also get sesame seeds and cabbage dressings readily available on the table (see first pic). At first you'd...

Even though I have a hard time losing excess weight, I can't help but be enticed with any sweet shop I can find. This blog post will forever be updated (unless it goes too long) with the ever growing list of cupcake shops you may want to check out. 1. J. Cuppacakes Offers a variety of cupcakes and muffins with flavors and designs that are hard to resist. My favorites would have to be Boston Creme and Peanut Butter. Pricing is around 50 php above a piece. 2. Cupcakes by Sonja Innovation is not much in my opinion BUT they set the bar high on how they make their version of known cupcake flavors. Price is a bit steep going as much as 95 php above so you may have to decide which flavor you would spend that lunch money on. BTW, their Pistachio is amazing. 3. SugarCakes In front of Tony Moly, this new cupcake contender caught my attention when we went out for lunch. It took a long time though, for me to give in (I have this weird yo yo diet which is practically ...

On the new East Wing of Shang-EDSA where everything is shiny and new lies a Ramen house that is generating a lot of traffic lately: Ikkoryu Fukouka. For our lunch we both ordered Ajitama Ramen . It's a bowl of milky soup with a piece of pork and an egg sliced in half to reveal the soft boiled yolk reminiscent of the one at Sentouka. The noodles are sticky and thin and slippery I forgot how to use chopsticks for a while. The soup was good as well, although it made me want to eat more meat :-(. At the end we decided the best way to 'beat the system' (when ordering with a date) was to order a bowl of Chashu serving 3 slices of pork and Ajitama for the egg. This way, you can have 4 slices of pork and a half of egg each :-D. The best part about this plan is that they have the same price of 330 anyway. We also had their gyoza (150php) which comes in an even number of 6. I particularly liked that it's even because we don't need to justify who gets the last pi...

Is your machine filled with duplicate files? Were you in frenzy copying files to and fro different folders and forget where these might have gone? Are you starting to arrange your files but is stuck on the ordeal because of duplicates? I said yes to all of those and just this free day of mine I decided to put an end to to it. My drives are all filled with duplicates that I have now no idea how to arrange them all. So I went to look for a duplicate finder which is much better than the old one I had which only looked at the similar file names so I ended up checking each picture, the purpose already was defeated. Fast Duplicate Finder is different, it checks sizes, times and assess how similar the files are. They also provide deletion in batch so all you need to do are a few clicks and you're done. I only downloaded a free version so there's a few limitations I can work with. Here's a list from their website: Download your free version on this link below: htt...

Been to Franchise Expo and was enticed by this Paper Clay Art. For those who know me personally, I truly enjoy handicrafts. I've seen a sister of mine having a similar project back in school and wanted to try it on my own. Paper Clay Art involves colored mashed paper where you apply on a design (white space) through the use of sticks. It ought to stick on the board with proper application for as long as it's moist. It was easy to do but became tricky when the pattern started to be so tiny to apply paper clay. I was able to do a lot for 2 days after that and took longer for the finishing touches. Here's my finished product after a week (not a full week, some days I don't work on it) For more of these, visit their branch at GF of Market! Market! You can also visit their Facebook page  here .

This is it! I've finally initiated to get a Student Driver's License after a long long long time of procrastinating. We decided to do it on a Friday, on our lunch time. Here's the steps we undertook: 1. At Window 1 we asked for a form to be filled up. 2. Our filled forms are passed to Window 1. I mistook signing on the bottom left part of the form to which (luckily) the guy at the counter was in good mood to simply white corrected the error and didn't get cross. I think the smiling worked because he was half serious half smiley at me telling me to stop being giggly on apologizing and not mess up again. 3. Window 2 called us and incriminated what we wrote, to the conversion of our height and weight, up to our addresses. Again, another mishap, I wrote the Street of our house first before the numbers. The guy on this counter is also friendly, although for a moment there I felt how condescending he was in "interrogating" us. We were given a piece of paper of...