July 27-28's island living

(photos by @michisings)

top, bench. shorts, vintage/thrifted.  

Sometime between July 28 and 29. I know...a very, very, veeeerrryyy late post. But this is because my computer is acting up and I cannot borrow anything from anyone so my only course at the moment is to save up for a new one. I'll try my best to keep this space alive as much as my powers allow.

Yes, beach makes me happy. Beach is LIFE. Beach is EVERYTHING and I miss it. This was Agutayan Island off of Jasaan, Misamis Oriental's coastline. A super raaaddd place. There were three of us that went there with two other groups through Sophie Red, a hotel that looks quite tacky by the way thanks to the name and color combination (tooooo red...not that good to loo at...). We ended up paying only the 50 Php (1 USD) fee a piece or per person because the bigger group has paid for the ride which should cost about 1200 Php so...yay~ Lucky~ 10 to 1, it's a 10 and so worth going to and probably is the highlight of our Jasaan overnight stay that weekend after the pool dip the night before that ended only at 9 in the evening because...you know...hotel management sucked and limited swimming at the pool to only 9 in the evening. 

Next beach trip will be...hopefully on the 21st as it's a holiday here. Also, I would, I so would travel to San Isidro, Initao for this. Cagayan de Oro is surrounded by awesome beaches I could never get tired of this place. 

....and as for today, which is a Saturday...I was busy running errands and stuff for...well...real life stuff. Also, I found a mini supermarket-type South Korean store close to home. I ended up buying 2 kinds of seafood ramen and a pack of nuts. My next target? A box of their brown rice green tea and maybe a card case I may need and a passport holder if I can't get the other one from Human Heart Nature's Mori Notes partner seller. Hmn...I have some decisions to make...somehow.

Terranova here in Cagayan de Oro's Limketkai Mall went on sale. Hopefully it still continues after work's payday because I have a few things I'd like to look into there though buying anything for myself is a bit iffy because I feel like I hardly really need anything yet outside of white shirts and tanks at this point. I'm yet surviving with my bunch of clothes to use for work (we have a loose clothing policy, yay~) and a few others. If you're anywhere in my city for this one, DO GO NOW. I went yesterday, Friday and there weren't a lot of people compared to the last few days or when the sale started, I guess so I was able to take a good look around it while shopping for some gifts four two cousins who are celebrating their consecutive birthdays from August 17 to today, August 18. 

Note that I hardly shop for anything because I want to stay minimal when it comes to dressing up and fashion and style in general. Also, really cozy and comfortable so yeah, this was a once in a lifetime thing. After the next payday, I'm only spending sparingly for things and saving as much as I can for other things. I notice that nowadays, I take a super easy going and chill approach to shopping especially sales. It's an improvement from my shopaholic self from years and years ago. 

And this is it for me. Until the next post...whenever that may be... 

08.07-08.11

 

August 7-11

I was away to Tagaytay City from the 7th to the 11th of this month hence the lack of blog entries. It's a city, that's 2 hours drive from Metro Manila/NCR, with the view of the Taal Lake with the Taal Volcano in it. Taal Vista Hotel served as home during the 5-day stay in the city.

Day 1 of the trip was for a quick trip to Robinsons Mall which was pretty bare outside of the supermarket which I pretty much enjoyed. The hours following that, spent hanging around the Coffeebean/CBTL in Ayala Serin for lunch and matcha tea latte. Thinking about it now, I suppose I should've gone for one of the two Starbucks there that had great views of the Taal Lake... I missed my chance to check them out so maybe next time. Or you know, they have a local cafe called the Bag of Beans which is worth looking into, too, when there. All of day 2 was in Skyranch next door to the hotel. It basically is just a few minutes walk from Taal Vista Hotel and the entrance fee was just 50 Php per person so it seemed worth the price to me at least. Highlight of day 2 was riding the Sky Eye during the golden hour. The ride cost 150 Php. It's great to go on it alone at that time and I recommend doing so. Or if being alone is too scary or lonely for you, then having a very good friend along would be good too. Ice cream was also had, of course. The theme/amusement park has plenty of restaurants and food stalls within it so their 'no bringing of food from outside' policy can be overlooked. The only not so good thing about this: there's not much choices for pescetarian, borderline or mostly vegetarian me so Tokyo Tokyo it was... Filipino food isn't exactly that pescetarian and especially vegetarian friendly in my experience. It's especially the worst for vegans... Well, it's long been a given that Asian food generally isn't friendly to vegetarians/vegans. Only very few are vegetarian/vegan and pescetarian. I learn to live through that by trial and error somehow, however. Day 3, which was also the last day in Tagaytay City, was just for relaxing around the hotel's view deck, planner and journal in one on hand while distracting the self from time to time with the picturesque view of the volcano within a lake up in front. The mid- to late-afternoon was for shopping around for souvenirs. Rowena's is a good place for the buko (coconut) tart and coffee or tea. I only had water with the buko (coconut) tart so I'm not at all sure how that would taste like, however. As someone who's not much of a coffee drinker as of late---I can only really drink non-caffeinated faux coffee these days and very rarely go with the caffeinated ones---I'd go with tea or some other alternative drink when eating such desserts. Anyway, I was too naive thinking this, the buko (coconut) tart is really good for something a lot of bloggers saying it being what they would go to Tagaytay for. But upon tasting it in the cafe/restaurant, the expectations set by the bloggers of it for me didn't live up to them, the said expectations. I found, taste-wise, it fell rather short and ended up being so-so/average in my book. It's basically a miniature buko (coconut) pie and one who's tasted the local and famous pie from Colette's among others know how that one tastes like already. I can't say I've tasted better either as I don't eat this kind of food much on a regular basis. The Mahogany Market is a great place to buy souvenirs like tshirts, keychains, magnets, mugs and more however I only looked around the place and didn't find anything I could bring home with me. I was also on a sort of tight budget so even if I wanted to, I couldn't buy anything from the souvenir stalls there after spending most of the money on the boxes of ube (purple yam) and apple tarts from Rowena's to take home. Pure honey and fruits are worth checking out there as well but I'd say we here in Mindanao/Region 10 have better---really amazingly sweet pineapples from Bukidnon, lanzones from Camiguin Island, mangosteen and pomelo from Davao City and etc. There's probably a lot more I missed to do in the city I rarely get the chance to visit but this, for me, is Tagaytay City in a nutshell. I'd probably love to explore more next time I'm there and spend another full day or so in Skyranch just for random fun and another chance to ride the Sky Eye. Hah.

As for the vacation wardrobe, I packed very little for this trip as I did with the Camiguin Island trip last time. The black slipdress from UrbanOutfitters (Out from Under) worked wonders for dinners and the third day's hanging out at the hotel's viewdeck as it did for sleeping in on the last night in the hotel. Vintage denim cutoffs---if memory serves me right, they were Gap---was appropriate for a whole day spent in Skyranch. The same goes for the Zalora birkenstock-like men's slippers my dad thought were someone else's rather than mine because they really were for the opposite gender. The vintage silk button up was used as a sort of jacket or cover-up and it could also have been used as a top. Airport wear, not pictured, on the way home was the rocker-chic Zara jeans in black and white H&M t. I only packed two pairs of alternative footwear which is the ankle boots from Rubi by Cotton On and the Zalora men's birkenstock-like slippers. A backpack and a flowery tote bag sufficed for the whole trip to contain everything I needed. This seems to always be the case when I do travel everywhere here, however.

boy-dressing, 1990s, and boybands

 vintage plaid shirt, aeropostale cutoffs, zalora heeled pumps, necklace as bracelet from aunt, aizilim rings, forever21 necklace/choker

rubi via zalora ankle boots

Mary-Kate Olsen and her 2008 plaid shirt + cutoffs get-up inspired this one based on what I've seen browsing around Olsens Anonymous anyway. Seriously speaking though, this oversized flannel is pretty comfortable and warm enough to keep the cold of the night at bay. December usually spells cold nights, warm mid- to early-afternoons for us here that's only a few meters below the equator. I could think of a number of things to do in it which includes sleeping and it's something I'm about to do in a bit. I have yet to test drive taking it out in leggings or a pair of cutoffs/shorts and tights however. I'll do that next time. It never really is cold enough to wear this thing out randomly in that comfortable off-duty combo.

The plaid shirt is, without a doubt, a men's shirt as it has a racing event info print at the back and a patch---not really visible in the photos---saying the same thing on one sleeve of it. I thrifted this with a denim button-up a couple of years ago or so, if memory serves me right. The two are about the same size. ....and by this, you could also easily tell its shirts like this that comprise 1/4th of my wardrobe. Err...yep. I have a lot I use to dress like a boy with. Hah. It's something I'd expect from someone who grew up around 4 brother-like figures majority of the early 90s which was also the height, or at least it was here, of boybands. Okay, so who here, around that time ('til the mid 90s, 1995-1996 and/or 97) were fans of the Backstreet Boys and N'SYNC? Unfortunately...I was a Boyzone (an Irish boyband) fan first, that time, with one girl friend from early elementary school. RIP, Stephen Gately. The girl friend and I squabbled over who gets him once upon a time when the question of 'who is your Boyzone bias/favorite member?' comes up. My environment growing up as exhibited here dictates the way I dress or in the least, has influenced it. There's definitely no going back for me from here. It doesn't really help either that I'm a huge fan of some Japanese boy groups *cough*Da-iCE and now FlowBack*cough* and young, mostly up and coming Japanese male actors in tokusatsu. And no...I've never been really a fan of One Direction...well, save for their first album because, in my opinion, that was the only one I found to be the best from them... I usually prefer Asian, specifically Japanese multitasking lyric and dance male groups...mostly anyway.

Androgynous dressing...hmn...let me mull over it some more...
 

And speaking of the boyband fever which I think is never going to die in this...err...continent (thank you, East Asian---J, K, and C-pop gods!) anyway, and that which I will refer to now and then in this blog...

Now listening to/playing (mood): FlowBack - Come A Long Way

The dance video for this one from the guys wouldn't show up on the youtube search on here so this audio will have to do...I think. The former is definitely a must-see. If you're a jpop fan or even just someone who's curious about music and gimmick from this male group, you can look into their music and dance videos on youtube. They have a pretty good sound, different from my favorite Da-iCE but still comparably good, all in all. 

hints of boheme and some music talk that might be a constant now here

 benchPH tank similar here, Gap cutoffs, vintage belt, rubi via zalora gusset ankle boots, smashbox choker, sm department store heart & cross dangling earrings, secondhand (from grandmum :D) and LC Lauren Conrad bracelets, aizilim necklaces, diy braided headband

I lean towards the more boho side of the style spectrum than I'd care to admit. I'm suspecting much of it has to do with the fact that I reside in the most tropical region the world knows and that the city I'm in is also by the bay. Beach casual boho, style-wise then, I guess?

 with the secondhand corduroy jacket

The jacket is probably one of the favorite ways in which I'd dress casual things up to get ready to go out with. Well...since I don't have the jean/denim jacket equivalent...yet. I gave away one that came my way before and definitely regretting it at this time. I'll go hunt for something similar most likely in the thrift stores.

Music talk (this might be a constant here since I do love music as much as I love fashion...which means...by a huge lot): I'm not so sure if it's a coincidence that the one very east Asian (Jpop) record I'm listening to since the weekend is 1 Finger's One Dream 2. I don't think it is, knowing me and my preference for everything sunny and summery like this sun belt I've been touting since the early days of the blog---the dim dark days when it had a more bohemian free spirited girl title that matched my LiveJournal's. If you don't have this record, I recommend looking for it. It's so, so, so good I have, like, 4 of a total of 8 tracks on it on eternal repeat the past 2-3 days now. 

Favorites from this record include track #s: 2 サマラバ☆, 4 Dawn Night, 7 Try Again, and 8 ヤシの木~Sha la la~. These four? Really effective in taking the gloom away from the rainy season at the year's end...in the tropics. And if winter isn't your thing, definitely listen to these to get the tropical island cheery living feeling in. They're proving the most effective in warding away depression to me nowadays. Case in point, today: it's gloomy and about to rain outside but I have summer music on. I'm all well and good now.

I caught wind of 1 Finger thanks to their contribution to Kamen Rider Drive and Kamen Rider Ghost Chou Movie Taisen Genesis's OST. They sung the ending theme to the film and their performance of it in Chou Eiyuusai 2016 is quite good, too. One of my favorite parts from there. So I searched for that track to no avail and came across this record instead. Well...it was still a win-win thing in the end so let's leave it at that.

Yesterday's news of Fukushima and Miyagi in Japan being under tsunami warning watch made me nervous. This was after the 7.4 magnitude earthquake they had. Then later, the warning had been lifted, I was relieved nothing else like 2011's followed through. As a Japanophile living a few hours by plane outside of it, of course, I'd be concerned by this. It's a given.

oddly comfortable secondhand gap tissue t

(my photos)

secondhand gap tissue t and denim cutoffs; vintage light blue-gemmed ring; old watch ring; aizilim ring, necklaces; forever21 long leaf necklace; (above) vintage laced-up ankle boots; (below) CLN wedges; ninewest clutch.

The CLN wedges chosen by the uncle (one of my favorites among my mum's about 7 siblings---they're eight in the family) finally put to good use, spicing up an otherwise dull outfit of the day...thing with other pops of color items. One can never have one too much accessories to liven up a dull black and dark denim blue palette.

Gap t is very, very comfortable (secondhand gap stuff are really good aren't they?) and this is in medium so I had to cut the lower part of it a few inches down so it'd fit well and not really go past the cutoffs at all---making it alright to look at un-tucked.

There seems to be more denim cutoffs in the wardrobe more than the regular denim shorts for some reason. Hmn...

This is pretty useful on a daily basis by the way. Just kind of sad this isn't available in the department stores here. /cries. It's a pretty fine find at Marshalls or maybe it was some other store in the US sometime last December 2015. Definitely beats the yellow one I often use.