He Has Risen

Thailand trip is in few days and I'm quite excited. Packing for a trip is my favorite part no matter how weird it may sound to most people. To make packing much easier, I bought one of those 6in1 packing cubes online to really organize everything (3 mesh cubes & 3 pouch bags). I found these cubes absolutely useful. I also bought a 3set PVC Transparent Cosmetic Bags to store all my make up and liquids/toiletries etc. However, I overlooked the seller's profile and just recently found out that the online store is based in China (which was my fault I admit) so I don't know if those cosmetic bags will arrive on time for my trip. Shit happens when you're in a hurry lol. Instead, I decided to order another set from a local Shopee seller (cheaper version just for back up) and I'm crossing my fingers it'll arrive on time or I just wasted time and money purchasing them (sigh). I don't get it neither how come non-local sellers are able to sell stuff on Shopee Ph (I was under the impression that it's an e-commerce website only for local sellers). Anyways, what to do but wait. Moving on, time for more DIY stuff.

—Slimes—

My niece wasted tons of toiletries to make one of those diy slimes (she found on Youtube) and that’s not a good thing. I have done a lot of concoctions as a kid myself (water color, shampoo, soda, name it) so I totally understand why kids do these crazy things, the ‘eureka’ moment and all. I guess you can't really do anything about it as every curious child seem to go through such phase in life lol. Anyways, to address the hapless toiletry consumption situation, my sister and I decided to gather the materials to replicate those cute and fluffy slimes we also found on where else but YouTube.

We bought couple of Elmer’s glue (white), Borax (which my sister even ordered online) and food color (optional). We just mixed them all together until we achieved the desired (squishy and gooey) texture. We allowed our niece to take part in this project for her to learn the proper way of making a slime using correct measurements/proportion. The ones we made turned out kinda rubbery though because we used too much borax or activator. I also learned that in order for the slime to become fluffy, you have to toss in heaps of shaving foam, foaming facial cleanser and hand soap. 

—Mini Succulent Garden—

Not having something to diy is just boring so I decided to buy more succulents to create my very own mini succulent garden (like the those on Pinterest). To start off, I bought myself a bag of potting soil (P139, ACE Hardware), 3 small cactus (3 for P100) and one medium sized plastic salad bowl for P76.00. These succulents btw need sunshine to live long (and very little water) so make sure they sit beside the window or any part of the house where the sun beam is. Better yet follow your cat's direction if you have one because cats always bask in the sun so they should be experts on this lol.

—Gardening—

I still have leftover potting soil from my mini succulent garden so I decided to re-pot couple of my bedroom succulents instead. I properly layered the soil to make living inside those little plastic container/pots much more conducive for my indoor plants. I’m happy that the crushed egg shells seemed to be helping them flourish thus explains the little sprouts. 

Persian Shield

Anyways..we’ll see how it goes. I don’t think I can still live without having these plants around and oh btw, my Persian Shield rose from the dead after our senior dog Fiona snacked on them a long time ago. Luckily, Persian Shield isn’t toxic for dogs so make sure you know which plants are toxic for your pets because you’ll never know when your furry friends will take an interest in your garden plants.

Just Go

Summer is my least favorite time of the year as it gets really muggy here in the Philippines when the temperature hits 40ºC/104ºF. A trip to the beach isn't my thing neither because everyone else for sure will do the same. I thought, why not go against the flow and take a splash before everyone else does?

My sibs and I originally wanted to book a private pool in La Union (we just hate public pools plus we have a little child with us we have to keep an eye on) however, the cost was just not worth it for few hours of swim time. So, we instead decided to go to a private resort in Asin (where most hot spring resorts are in Baguio) and dropped the idea of paying extra just to have the pool to ourselves, it's just one day anyways. Lo and behold, the resort we got in Tadiangan wasn't packed when we arrived so we had the pool only to ourselves (without paying extra) because it was a week day.

the kiddie pool is about 2ft. deep

Private Resort...

Allyana Solenn’s Private Resort is located in Tadiangan, Asin, way (way) past Bencab Museum. Their main gate is along the highway (to your right if you’re coming from Baguio) with a signage bearing the resort's name, you just have to drive uphill further to get to the actual resort.

We made our reservation four days prior via SMS (you may check out their Facebook page) for pool use only from 8AM to roughly 5PM. They only charge 150php for adults and 100php for children plus your choice of cottage, 600php with a view and 300php without (basketball court area). We opted for a cottage with a view (which we were happy about) as it's very convenient to go to the pool. We got there 8AM on the dot, unpacked our stuff and went for a swim right away. If you wanna veer away from the crowd, I highly suggest the second week of April is the best time to go swimming because most resorts are still deserted and as a matter of fact, we had the pool only to ourselves the whole time. The pool isn’t heated but it’s ok though as the sun will warm it up anyways. The parking area is right across the pool which was excellent because we didn't have to go to a maze unlike other resorts. We only dipped in the pool for a good six hours and off we go. 

Overall, we had a great stay and I recommend this private resort to other travelers who just wanna go for a swim to combat the heat. It would be best though to bring your own (cooked) food because the resort is far from the market and also to save you time cooking (although I kind of noticed they have a griller but we did not bother to ask if it will cost to use it). Anyways, please check out the YouTube video I made below. 

Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week which commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem.

My sissy and I took our niece to the church to hear mass and have our “Palaspas” (Palm leaves) blessed at the same time. I remember when we were kids, my family makes it a habit to go to church during significant events such as Palm Sunday, Easter, Birthdays, Christmas & New Year. Our parents took us to our very first “Salubong” (an Easter ritual before sunrise that re-enacts the Risen Christ's meeting with His mother) one fine Easter morning to better understand the true meaning of of how Christ came back to life and it was pretty memorable.

Going back to present, we had breakfast after mass and waited for 10AM to check out this new coffee shop/resto in town called Beans & Mugs (their business hours is from 10:00AM - 12:00MN OPEN Daily)since people seems to be raving about their Instagram worthy shakes. 

Shakes Haven.

Beans & Mugs is located in Trancoville (right next to Tranco Supermart) which is along the road and is very accessible to cabs and Jeepneys. We went there around 10AM past and the place was still empty except for a couple of customers so we went right ahead and checked out their menu. We tried their Freak Shakes (which we’ve been quite squeamish to try) called Matcha Overload and Cookies n’ Cream plus some nachos (Nachos Overload). I enjoyed my Matcha shake although I would suggest to come by and visit with an empty stomach. Their shakes are reasonably priced in my opinion. However, their wifi did not work the whole time though which was quite amiss.

Freak Shakes: Cookies n' Cream & Matcha Overload

Nevertheless, we’ll be back someday to probably try other items off their menu. And oh, if you’re looking to bring a vehicle though I would suggest to park it somewhere else safe instead and just take a cab because their parking space can only accommodate one vehicle at a time if you're lucky. You may check out their Facebook page here.

As an end note, just go out and explore. Go wherever, check out the new coffee shop or restaurant in town, summer is here to stay anyways.

Beans & Mugs:
Address: 2nd floor of Filipino – Chinese General Hospital's drugstore, M. Roxas (Trancoville), Baguio City.