This is as a super delayed post. I have a lot of backlog stories that I need to blog about but I have been very busy lately. I haven’t even uploaded pictures of our Christmas and Year’s celebration.

Last January 2, both hubby and I are off from work as we are both on a holiday as declared by our offices in lieu of January 1 holiday. I have long wanted to go to Tagaytay but I know how heavy is the traffic going there during weekends on a holiday season so we always end up postponing our trip.

But since the rest of the country is working on January 2 (except for those who took a leave), we figured that it is the best time to go to Tagaytay. And as what we expected, there is no heavy traffic going there that it only took us less than 2 hours drive to reach Tagaytay.

We head straight to Jospehine’s for lunch, as what we are accustomed to do:

Then we went to the area near Taal Vista where the kids can go horse back riding and biking:

Of course our day trip in Tagaytay will not be complete without dropping at Bag of Beans for our favorite hot chocolate and pancakes.

Tagaytay is really one place that I never grew tired of. It will always be our family's quick getaway retreat.

I always believe in the sacredness of marriage vows that is why I am always in shock every time I hear news of showbiz personalities breaking up or filing a divorce. Just like when I learned of the separation of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries only after less than 3 months of getting married.

And now the most recent one that got me affected was the separation of model and Project Runway host Heidi Klum with Grammy Award singer Seal.

Picture snagged from People.com

Well actually, I find them to be a really odd couple and I really don’t follow news about them as much as I follow other Hollywood stars but still I got shocked when I learned of the news as I thought that they are so much in love. You can see eat from the way they look into each other, their public display of affection and the like and so I thought (again), that they are one of the few Hollywood couples that will really last.

But sadly after almost 7 years of marriage, they are calling it quits. Some are saying that the reason for their separation was Seal’s anger issues (which I am sure can be remedied if he will get help from treatments centers who can help him with anger management much like addiction treatment centers who help people who are suffering from drug and alcohol addiction).

They started their married life with a sweet proposal from Seal in a specially built igloo on a 14,000-ft.-high glacier in Whistler, B.C and so it is tragic to hear that this nice beginning with just end up with a divorce.

Oh well, I guess Hollywood life, especially married life, can be really complicated that is why Hollywood stars are having a hard time coping with it that sometimes and sadly, it is their relationship that suffers

Lipstick.

For the past weeks, this has been the topic of conversation amongst my group of friends in twitter – what brand, what shade, what hue, etc are just some of the questions that we asked our makeup guru, Ems.

I am not really into make up but I think it is time for me to start putting make up again that is why I joined them when they went shopping in Mac online. How I wish I can learn how to beautify myself.

But if I have the time, I would like to try to attend a makeup class in Regency Beauty Institute, a Nashville cosmetology school. Regency is one of the fastest growing beauty schools in the country. They only started with 2 branches and now they have 80 schools across different states.

They provide great hands-on training to their students as their campuses reflect high tech salons so their students will get nothing but the best training.

I will be getting the lipstick that I bought from my friend next week and I can’t wait to try them on. Who knows, even if I am a late bloomer, makeup might be something that will really interest me.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com or contact Regency Beauty Institute – 3583 Alpine Avenue NW – Walker, MI 49544

The food that was served at our Manila Bay Dinner Cruise:

I have to make a review about this cruise and I have a lot of stories and warnings to share so people will know what to expect but since it is 2 AM already, I will have to defer that post for now and just leave you with this picture:

This is one of a kind pictorial, held at the roof top of our building:

I have fear of heights so I was kind of scared when I felt the strong winds but I got to relax after a few minutes when I saw my officemates enjoying the view and taking pictures for their souvenir. So I brought my camera out too and start shooting because I am sure there is no way I will be able to go this high again.

I am really happy that my sideline work has been doing really well the past months. Because of this, I was able to consistently give my share to hubby for our monthly amortization. I makes me really proud because I am now using my earnings from my sideline work to good use instead of just using all of it for shopping.

If work will continue to come, we will be able to save a little for some renovation work at our new home. We actually need to do some floor works and repainting of the walls that we need to buy materials like Halogen Free Solder Paste, paint, new tiles, wood and many more.

Hubby has a lot of projects line up for our house and I know he is eager to start with it soon. That is why I am really praying that work and business will continue to be good for the year of the dragon so we will finally have the budget to push through with some of our projects that we line up for 2012.

How I wish we have boxing week sales in my part of the world. I saw my friends posting pictures of their Boxing Day sale loots and I can’t help but feel envious, as it is a total steal. I am sure we won’t be able to buy those products like Bath and Body works lotions, 50-inch LG Plasma TV, iDock speaker, BalckBerry playbook and more at a price that my friends paid for their loots.

Our last buy from Boxing Day sale was our TCL TV in our living room, which we asked our friend to buy for us. It was a very good buy as we got the 32” TV for only $200 where it is double the price if we will buy it here.

We want a bigger TV to for our living room, as our 32” TV looks small now that we have a bigger living room space. We can ask our friend again to buy 40” TV for us but the problem is on how to ship it here.

Oh well, I guess we just have to wait for the small time sales that most stores are offering here (and besides we still don’t have the budget yet for a new TV. LOL. It is just still in our wish list.)

Instead of the usual thrust bearings that hubby usually buys from Ongpin and Binondo, these are the loots from our latest Binondo trip:

This was the second weekend that we went to Binondo to buy the knick-knacks that we will need for the Chinese New Year. Most of you might wonder if we are Chinese but we are not. Well, ever since we discovered the world of feng shui and lucky charms, we try to go to Binondo to consult our frequent store there about Feung Shui on how we can prevent bad luck and attract more good vibes for us before the Chinese New Year.

My husband is under the sign of the Wood Rabbit and I am under the sign of the Fire Snake. We bought the following charms to enhance our luck and avoid bad things:
• 5 Element Pagoda for me
• 3 Guardians for me
• Crystal globe for hubby
• Wealth ship to attract more financial luck

As what hubby and I and most of our friends say, we still know our faith so we don’t find anything wrong in believing in Chinese traditions such as this.

I am happy fro my brother because they just opened up their first Lotto outlet. Business is actually doing good as they were able to meet their daily quota on their first week of opening so their business really looks promising. Thanks to online market research, because they were able to predict the success of this business in the area where they opened their outlet.

They can open additional outlets and they are planning to open more as they can see that it can bring them good revenue. They just have to get the service of professionals first like Infosurv to conduct the prediction markets for them so they can really prove if the location of their new outlet will be as successful as their first one.

Infosurv is one of the leaders in online market research. Aside from this mentioned service, they offer host of other services like customer satisfaction survey, employee surveys and even employee engagement. They use different methodologies like Awareness, Attitude, and Usage (AAU) Surveys, Branding, Naming, and Positioning Testing, Concept testing, Customer and Market Profiling and the like to produce a more reliable data for their client.

I am sure with the help of Infosurv, my brother’s business will continue to grow and be more successful.