Inspiration: Holiday Giveaways

Personalize everything! These are unique and one-of-a-kind gifts from Souvenirlab.

Holiday Packages

For details of each package, click on the link below.

SOURCE:
The Souvenirlab

 

Simple Eats: Banana Leaf

While waiting for the movie (Tower Heist) yesterday at Promenade, we went to Banana Leaf to have dinner.

We had our usual – Shrimp Wanton Laksa Soup (w/ King Noodles), Fried Springrolls, and Hainanese Chicken. We also tried the Deep Fried Fish in Coconut Sauce. Using the Citibank Premier Miles card, we got a 15% discount bringing our total to a little less than PHP800.00. The Citibank Platinum provides for a 20% discount. 🙂

 

Dream Book: Physical

Call me crazy but I listed ‘running the Boston Marathon’ and ‘running the NY Marathon’ as part of my dream list. Researching how to qualify, I chanced upon an article by Leica Carpio and her experience in running the NY and Boston Marathon. She was 40 when she started training and in 2 years managed to run both races. INSPIRED. 🙂

To qualify for the Boston Marathon, I will have to clock in a time of less than 3:35 hours in a recognized run by the Association. The NY Marathon is more stringent with a qualifying time of 3:00 hours.That’s sub-4 hours for approximately 42km! Phew!

I’m back at running since giving birth and hoping to do my first run this Sunday (Unilab run) for 5KM. HSBC run is next at 10KM. Inspired by Leica, I will need to do an hour to 2 hours run every day and try to improve my time. Sub-1 hour for 10KM is the first goal. The goal is to be able to achieve this in 3 months time. Good luck to me! 🙂

GOOD READ:
How I Qualified for the Boston Marathon

 

Warren Update: Wardrobe

Thought I’d share Warren’s wardrobe today – Bananas for Mommy and Captain America

 

Dream Book: Finances

Have you read Tim Ferriss’ 4-hour work week? Just like Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad book, this book changed my life. Having been an advocate of efficiency, doing less work and maximizing earnings potential as well as enjoying life NOW, this book spoke to me.

In his book, Tim Ferriss discusses practical ideas on how he achieved a 4-hour work week while still maintaining an income that enables him to support his lifestyle and do whatever he loves – take mini-retirement travels every year, become a black belt in Jujitsu, become a top world class Ballroom dancer and more.

In a nutshell, the book teaches you the following (taken from the site – http://www.fourhourworkweek.com) –
* How to outsource your life and do whatever you want for a year, only to return to a bank account 50% larger than before you left
* How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
* How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of little-known European economists
* How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair
* How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”
* What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2-4 weeks
* How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet
* Management secrets of Remote Control CEOs
* The crucial difference between absolute and relative income
* How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80% off
* How to fill the void and creating meaning after removing work and the office

One of the things included in my ‘bucket list’ (in my dream book) is being able to create PASSIVE INCOME. Passive income is income generated from not having to actively seek for money. It is a continuous stream of earnings that you earn from minimal work. Interest from deposits and rental income are just some concrete example of passive income. Income generated from businesses as a result of investments is also another example.

In order to create PASSIVE INCOME, I would need to create automated cash flow “muses” and that is one of the goals I have NOW. Based on the PASSIVE INCOME I would like to achieve, I will need to create 1 major “muse” or several ones that will enable me to reach the amount that I am dreaming of. Of course, as you would have noticed in my previous post (Dream Book: Travels), I intend to do this by traveling the world (without quitting my job) and doing what I love and return to a bank account 50% larger than when I left it.

SOURCE:
Tim Ferriss’ 4-hour work week

 

Simple Eats: Share Tea

After Warren’s doctor’s appointment yesterday at Cardinal Santos, I decided to pass by Share Tea which is just at the corner of Wilson Street and P. Guevarra. It is touted to be Taiwan’s #1 bubble tea.

Being currently addicted to teas, I decided to try their Green Tea w/ Rock Salt and Cheese (wanted to compare it against Happy Lemon).

The drink had LOTS of cream cheese on top. They definitely did not skimp on this. The large drink for just PHP90.00 was a lot bigger than that of its competitors. The cream cheese was a littler sweeter than that of Happy Lemon though. Likewise, I wasn’t able to taste the rock salt as much. Otherwise, for the price, this was a better alternative. In addition, when I arrived, there was no other customer so service was pretty fast. They got my order, prepared it, and in less than 3 minutes, I was out of the store.

I think at the end of the day with all these tea places cropping up, it will really just be a matter of convenience and location. I hope Share Tea opens in T. Morato area. 🙂

Here’s a picture of their menu –

Looking to try the Taro Milk Tea in my next visit. The poster they had advertising that they use real YAM (similar to CHAA Time) is enticing and worth coming back again! 🙂

DETAILS
Share Tea
Wilson St. cor. P. Guevarra St.
San Juan, Metro Manila

 

Dream Book: Travels

The first assignment we needed to complete for the Step-up Program of PruLife is to come up with our own Dream Book. As the date for submission draws near, I have been giving this some thought and have divided my dream book into various categories – Business, Financial, Personal, Family, and Physical. It has always been advised that for you to reach your dreams, you have write them down, quantify them and put as much detail as possible. Hence, that’s what I am aiming to do. So far, I have written 2 items for my Personal dream list – 1) Visit the remaining or existing ancient wonder of the world and 2) Visit the 7 modern wonders of the world.

For item #1, the seven ancient wonders are comprised of the Great Pyramid at Giza (Egypt), The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Iraq), The Lighthouse at Alexandria (Egypt), the Temple of Artemis (Turkey), the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Turkey), the Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Greece), and the Colossus of Rhodes (Greece). These Ancient Wonders of the World, with the exception of the Great Pyramid of Giza, are all gone. The Hanging Gardens, Alexandria Lighthouse and Colossus of Rhodes were toppled by an earthquake and fire destroyed the Statue of Zeus and the Temple of Artemis.

Researching these areas, I found a wonderful blog (http://alpaca-suitcase.blogspot.com) that documented a Californian family’s journey as they traveled 6 months to the Mediterraneans with a motivation of tracing the origins of Western Civilization and learning about Egyptian, Greek and Roman culture. Based on their journeys, 3 out of the 7 wonders can be visited in 24 hours. They did so for the Colossus, the Mausoleum, and the Temple of Artemis. Taking a ferry from Marmaris, they traveled to Rhodes to see the Colossus. They went back to Marmaris, Turkey and visited the Mausoleum. After which, they took a bus to see the Temple of Artemis (the ruins, that is). The Great Pyramid and the Lighthouse at Alexandria are easy to visit as they are near the larger cities of Egypt. As for the Statue of Zeus, fragments can be found at the Louvre or by visiting the first Olympic site in Greece. Like the family, I do not have plans of visiting Iraq to look for remnants or ruins of the hanging gardens but being able to visit 6 out of the 7 ancient wonders of the world will be good enough.

For item # 2, the seven modern wonders of the world include the Chichen Itza (in Yucatan, Mexico), Cristo O Rendentor (in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Colosseum (in Rome, Italy), Great Wall of China (in Beijing, China), Machu Picchu (in Peru), Petra (in Jordan), Taj Mahal (in India) and Pyramids of Giza (in Egypt).

I have been to the Great Wall of China so that’s 1 venue ticked off. Unlike the initial list where the sites are somehow near each other, this list proves to be more challenging as they are all over the map.

A LOT MORE research is needed to determine best route and most budget friendly alternatives to travel to these areas. STAY TUNED. 🙂

 

Warren Update: Injection video

Here is Warren getting his Rota Vaccine –

Here is Warren getting his 5-in-1 shot –

 

Warren Update: Doctor’s Appointment

Today was Warren’s second doctor’s appointment. He was set to get injected for RotaV and the 5-in-1 shots (HepB, IPV, etc.). We were prepping him up to be brave as he cried during his first shots! Was so proud of him when he didn’t cry when he was injected. He weighed in at 5.7kg (up from 4.5kg last month) and was 58cm in length (up from 55cm last month).

Sleeping all the way to the hospital –

Weighing in at 5.7kg!

Weighing In

Full body check-up

Right after the injections! I didn’t cry! 🙂

Will be uploading the videos of the injection and administration of Rota V vaccine in my next posts. 🙂

 

Warren Update: Pictures

Since I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of Warren, I decided to register with Click In Moms. It’s a website that’s passionate about photography and that has tons of tutorials on taking great photos and editing them using Photoshop or Lightroom. Read a few tutorials and it looks very informative. Hoping to apply what I’ve learned tonight this weekend when I have the time to edit Warren’s pictures.

For now, here are some photos I’ve taken of Warren today (still in Auto mode using the Canon S95).

Before my Bath

My Hair is All Wet!

Swimming! 🙂

Enjoying Mommy and Daddy's New Sheets!

Enjoying Mommy and Daddy's New Sheets

Happy to report that Warren is able to sleep on his own already in his crib! Hoping that tomorrow’s injections (5-in-1) do not change this! 🙂