Live Life to the Fullest – Epilogue of Meaningful Life Adventure

“Life is so great that we only get a tiny moment to enjoy everything we see. And that moment is right now.” ~ Neil Pasricha

The whole first week of December were lot of planning and brainstorming at client sites. Considering other consultancy work that I have like three to five website make-overs and other stuff to consider. Haay, I just breathe within…Wow, whattta happy problem afterall!   Maybe because the year will be entering another milestone for the business and everything has to prepare..

To tell you honestly, quite beaten by stress…Human inside, even I love to organize things out…It crops up to my mind and still prioritize.

What I did was to go around the mall after a mind-boggling meeting and amazed to see these little cute chocolates and assorted pralines at Sinfully by Makati Shangri-la…With my cam, I took pictures of it and grab a piece of taste to indulge my cravings for P 50.00 each.

To tell you honestly, I was heading off again for another meeting and quite late already. I really took a few minute break to watch how intricately  they made this tasty bite with their loving hands.    Freshness and handmade homemade treats indeed that made me urge to buy.

What a tingling excitement as I found their chocolate heaven taste.   Not too sweet but the taste is just right to my taste palette! I just ate two and it is enough.  Maybe to enjoy more the taste, one has to savor it slowly.

Exaggerating on my remarks maybe but that was how I felt because way back then I also personally do chocolates for my family and friends.  When I checked a simple website that I have done for chocolates named Chocolate Heaven (http://virtualbizph.com/chocoheaven/index.html) – it is still there.   A reminiscence, another passionate hobby that I can only do this again given me a lot of time.

This petite shop got also macaroons, pastries mini cakes and holiday hamper goodies…

All of them are not only a feast to the eye but also love to taste.

I guess I just forget my too much over thinking to stuff related profession.   I  have to treat myself as my simple gift for hard days work.  One deserve it.

Now, life is really great getting this tiny moment and simply enjoy everything.  Especially that Christmas 2011 is fast approaching.  Just give a warm hug, a sweet smile to persons you met or laughter to your colleagues.  Do not pass that moment and do it right now.

I am definitely A-ok now and ready for another battle.  So bring it on!

Peee…..Essss….I even bought a box of 6 pieces for my kids for them to yearn and share this craving.  Like me, they love it!

For more information, visit:

2nd floor Greenbelt 5 and Circles Event Cafe, Makati Shangri-La

Website: http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/manila/makatishangrila/dining/restaurant/sinfullycircles

Facebook: Sinfully by Shangri-la

“Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles.”

My parents believed us when we were young that there is really a Santa Claus. I still vividly remembered they will asked us to wrote a letter to him to asked those special gifts we love to receive for Christmas. I love to believe it is true because these were my fondest childhood memories I cannot forget which I also passed the same traditions with my kids.

Reminiscing Santa is a wondrous part of connecting Christmas most especially if we will have a sneak peak of his home – the North Pole!

After my meeting in the northern part of the metro, I got a chance to visit Santa’s snowy village. Actually, it is a kinda a tour at the Sky Garden waterfalls façade of SM North Edsa that captured me the a giant Santa & Mrs. Claus Kissing and exchanging gifts. Cute!

Even kids were not here, the child in heart in me let me tempted to go from one displays to another. These were the places that I visited along the routes:

• Santa’s Den

A miniature house where Santa and Mrs. Claus are staying which truly encompasses the yuletide season with Christmas tree around, chandelier in red and a lot more spectacular displays that identify its true meaning.

• Mrs. Claus Kitchen

 Touring Mrs. Claus kitchen and seeing how she prepared her baked goodies is just one of the yummiest displays.  Since Santa and the elves are  pounding away preparing gifts in the toy shop, Mrs. Claus spends countless hours baking goodies as a treat.

• Santa’s Mailroom

This is Santa’s mailroom where all kids wishlist are collected.  Note that each letter is collated alphabetically!

• Reindeer Barn 

I still remembered all the names of Santa’s magical reindeers -  Rudolf, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blixen who flies with him  to bring the gifts flying around the world.

Other displays that I have seen were charming reindeers lined-up in the den.

Everyone have unlimited opportunity to visit each houses inside and outside take a photo opportunity just to experience Santa’s pool of fun.

What more best is seeing these people smiling which makes the ingredient of what a Yuletide season really means!

I will definitely bring my family and relatives here!

Below is the whole map for the North Pole Experience.

Visit their website at www.smnenorthpole.com and facebook at www.facebook.com/smnedsa

Holiday Mall Hours Schedule:

December 2 to 30 – 10:00am to 11:00pm
(except on Dec 3, 10, 16 to 23)
December 24 and 31 – 9:00am to 7:00pm
January 1 – 12:00nn to 10:00pm

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful” – Norman Vincent Peale

Every year, our family spent the New Year’s countdown at SM Mall of Asia and as always we proceed immediately at the bay to watch the fireworks, dinner and then go home. I did not have to glance to go around the mall before that or during Christmas season because I always though of a crowded yet a traffic place.

But my perception changes this year as decorative displays and live events are so extravagant that made me not missed to come over and let my eyes festive especially if I have enough time to dropped off.

I have personally seen the Grand Festival of Lights at SM Mall of Asia that showcased different themed floats. Why festival of lights? Each floats got those dazzling lights sparkled together with the performers with full get-ups, smiling and greeting around.

Overall, I love the sight!  I got thrilled  as all of the floats parade around the seaside boulevard of the mall.  Lies within me the childlike joyous feeling as I look around as if it is a magical Christmas.  A fantastic show indeed!

Now, I cannot wait for Christmas to come…

The Mall of Asia Grand Festival of Lights will have a spectacular show every Saturday until December 25 where parade of the floats will start 5:30pm that would last for one hour.

For more information, visit:

Website:  http://smmallofasia.com

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/smmallofasia

“Wouldn’t life be worth living
Wouldn’t dreams be coming true
If we kept the Christmas spirit
All the whole year through?”

Since Christmas is one of my favorite seasons of the year,  I cannot help myself to capture each moments that signal how wondrous this season is.

Name it – from malls, roads, offices, restaurants as in everywhere every time I got my camera with me or simply my cellphone camera, I can’t help it but to take pictures.  Maybe because I found the festivity around each decor so captivating that gave me those excitement and release a feeling of enlightenment.

I will be dedicating my first days of Christmas sharing those grandest decors I have seen whenever  I went out.

Shangri-La Plaza Mall fills up its wide top open spaces with gigantic goodies from colorful cones, candies, cupcakes, canes and gifts all over the atrium all lined up when one is going down to the mall’s escalator and also their main entrance.

Even my youngest daughter was very excited to run around the mall.  For her, this is just a magnificent yet a very yummy extravagant playground with a huge Christmas tree around!

They say that Christmas is really for the children.  Remarkably, seeing the happiness in their eyes  can see the essence of what a Christmas is .  Maybe yes, maybe not.

Definitely, Christmas must reside to everyone’s heart – young and old alike. That is the essence of what the spirit of Christmas afterall! Not only December, but all throughout this year.  Hopefully, we can experience Christmas with a joyous heart!

Form more information, visit:

Website:  http://www.shangrila-plaza.com/

Facebook Fan Page:  http://www.facebook.com/shangrilaplazaofficialfanpage

Don’t wait for time. Make it.

Don’t wait for love. Feel it.

Don’t wait for money. Earn it.

Don’t wait for the path. Find it.

Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it.

Don’t go for less. Get the best.

Don’t compare. Be unique.

Don’t fight your misfortune. Transform it.

Don’t avoid failure. Use it.

Don’t dwell on mistake. Learn from it.

Don’t back down. Go around.

Don’t close your eyes. Open your mind.

Don’t run for life. Embrace it. – Bigvai Volcy

Hey you.

Yes, you.

Stop being unhappy with yourself. You are perfect.

Stop wishing you looked like someone else or wishing people liked you as much as they like someone else.

Stop trying to get attention from those who hurt you. stop hating your body, your face, your personality, your quirks. love them.

Without those things you wouldn’t be you.

Why would you want to be anyone else? Be confident with who you are. Smile. It’ll draw people in.

If anyone hates on you because you are happy with yourself then you stick your middle finger in the air and say screw it.

My happiness will not depend on others anymore. I’m happy because I love who i am. I love my flaws. I love my imperfections. They make me.

And “me” is pretty amazing.

“Today I will allow myself to begin again reminding that I have the ability to make it happen day by day.  No ifs, no buts, just do it!”

I have posted my predicaments with this link – Chance to Change last November 2 as the way I am checking my key performance output in the past succeeding months that  make me realize I am quite unproductive.

Maybe they were plans that supposed to be done and disgusted on the result.   I have opened my dilemma to my best friend.  He told me to take even a one-day vacation then after that, write all my “things to do” stuff and prioritize them one by one.

Yes, I have followed his advices.  As I wrote them on my lists – I felt I was doomed again as I recognized all the activities in my plate are my priorities.  Actually I do not know where to start then because everything just cropped up to my mind.

Last recourse was to tell it to my hubby.  I have shown him my lists and reminded me what  I always advise him, that is – you have to go on and on and on! No ifs, no buts,  you have to do it, as in now!  His parting word – “at least it is much better to do something or anything comparing of not doing it at all”.

I don’t know if its timely.  But have you seen the new Globe commercial?

Yes, this is what I am feeling right now and it is just making sense!

The Globe commercial “Go lang ng Go” is about positive vibes. It is taking chances on the passionate things you really love to do with your life.

The hashtag tweet #TodayIWill Globe campaign is soooo viral that thousands took part sharing their own views that even celebrities also participated.

This included Smart endorser Anne Curtis that also posted “Today I will let go and let God” got by Pinoy Gossip Boy with this link.  One cannot deny the positivity of the advertisement that even a top beautiful endorser like Anne Curtis  in other telco network spoke her mind and tweet it!

LOL! True to her tweet -” let go” even if this means at the end there would be negative vibes on what she has done not thinking the result. As long that is how she feels, it is just A-ok!  Just go for it!  According to Pinoy Gossip Boy, this was already removed.  Honest mistake?  I don’t know, after all it is how she expressed her life.  C’est la vie!

I love quotes.  If the tweeps  from friends and celebrities will substitute those quotes then I would gladly keep this.  Here are some of them that I love reading over and over again:

Ever since, I captured the positivity yet the simplicity on how Globe do their ads as I also posted this in my previous post about “Live Big Your Way” with this link.

My thoughts:

Life is after all about risks and one can only do that if you only leap and really, really jump.

Do not wait just because we always look of analyzing things so much.  It is a waste buster.

You have to take chances.

No matter what it ended up and if ever we committed a mistake, it is just fine.  At least we try.   It doesn’t matter what others think.

At the end, we have lessons we grow to learn which makes us more a worthy person.

Again this is my share:

How about you, what will you do today?

“My Picture Thoughts for the Day”

Avoid worrying so much!  Live by the present….The way you carry on is always what matters most…

“Running away from any issues only increases distance from the solution. Face it, solve it now. Because every new day is another chance to change something in your life.”

Photos courtesy of: http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net

OMG!  Another month is now over and I realized I am stuck as my productivity do not have that meaningful output.  I just felt I am useless having an “analysis-paralysis” syndrome again and again on what I am doing.

Just a checklist on the activities I have to do which made me freeze up:

• Some of the website projects I was involved with was in deciding stage
• Plans in making Live Life Fullest and Calamba-Online putting it in the next level like redesigning and put more posts was slowly no progress at all
• Improving more my training skills like reading a lot is regretfully I did not have the move to do it at the moment

Hey, what happen?   Definitely, I lost some of the control I have planned.

Sometimes I resolved myself to sleeping, woke up and tell to myself everything will be fine.  Still, as I assess myself, KPI (Key-Performance-Indicator) as a measure to my output for the day is very low.

If you look back to my past few posts, I made myself alone when I go out to reflect and really look for the cause of my behavior.  There were sometimes I was with family and friends just really to discover how come I am feeling this way.

After series of those events,  this what I found out – I was so occupied with work.

Even I attended business event – its work related.  Got the schedule my meeting with the client where my family will be near me – again its work related.  I got to take my coffee in a cafe, still it is a meeting and discussions.  Have woke up in the morning, stay late at night, getting the lists to be done even I have to eat breakfast first or take a bath.

Now I realized, do I really enjoy what I am doing?

Looking back, I got to do action points:

• We have to allow ourselves to begin again rather than feeling guilty.  It is done deal – past is past.  We have still the ability to make up, to recover.

• Still this is our life.  We have the ability to make it happen as our future is not yet written. It still depends on us on how we will run our lives.

Take time for yourself.  You deserve to have a break by being good to yourself.

I promise myself I will be doing this,  as in now – seeing my feet need a pedicure and a spa, doing facials for my face, plucking my eye brows and a lot lot more.

I will surely comeback, ready to rumble. LOL! Hopefully, I will be smarter because of these mistakes.

I would like to end my post with this thought and let me know how you have the chance to change also yourself for a better.

“Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.” – Wayne Dyer

“Museums are great memories and treasures from the past transformed the living memory into reality.”

When grandmother died, my mother arranged all her clothes and lot of stuff that can be use and later on can be donated in a charity center.  Mother found out that granny still kept my first ever embroidered cloth way way back when I was eight years old.

This is my intro picture – an embroidered cloth project which is a collection of almost 40 different kind of stitches where granny taught me how to sew it artistically using different flowers.  Recalling it now, I cannot believe I have done this at an early age!

Maybe for granny, she cherished those bonding moments when I started to do sewing the first time.   I still vividly remembered there were lot of patience when she taught me how I did my first few stitches in and out in the basket weave cloth.

When mother handed it over to me as I saw it was kept with so much pristine and still like brand new (considering its more than 30 years old now), I almost cried.  There were mixed emotions but one thing for sure, this is more than a material possession as I will keep a living memory alive – a treasure to remember my grandmother.

This is the reason why am I supporting the decade of collaboration of Manila’s top five museum namely Lopez Memorial Museum, Ateneo Art Gallery, Ayala Museum, Bahay Tsinoy, and Museo Pambata joining forces for Zero In: Open Call .

Main objectives are:

• To expand people’s appreciation of  preserving the memory of the past
• To deepen the learning of our cultural heritage
• To break barriers by literally bringing art closer to the public

This art festival – Zero In: Open Call, opened last September 15, at the SM Mall of Asia (SM MOA) atrium that features a collection of art in its different forms – visual arts, culinary arts, film and fashion, sound, and dance.

These were the lively and festive art activities I personally experience:

#1. Ayala Museum

Ayala Museum theme exposed the fascinating world of manga with an exhibit called “Manga Realities:  Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics Today

#2.  Lopez Museum

Lopez Museum showcased the sound/media art installations in Reverb exhibition.

Based on the materials I got, E.X.I.S.T a.k.a. Experimentation in Sound Art Tradition is a sound art collective and movement. It is a division of Espasyo Siningdikato dedicated in propagating experimental sonic art. Founded by Lirio Salvador, E.X.I.S.T. uses found objects and environmental sounds, explore analog and digital audio technologies for the creative production and presentation of sound.

#3.  Ateneo Art Gallery

Have the opportunity to see the video game called Crafty Critters Munch-Up – a tablet game which can later on match the famous “Angry Bird” game.

The video game brings together the visual and culinary arts through a food project inspired by pieces from the museum’s permanent collection.

#4.  Museo Pambata

Themed “Sayaw” or dance, Museo Pambata represented by  Escola de Samba de Manila – the first and only such group in Manila that performs Afro-Brasilian drums and dance.

Here is the sneak peak live video performance of Escoda de Samba de Manila I captured:

# 5. Bahay Tsinoy

Among the top five museum was Bahay Tsinoy which will push for the visual arts.

Some of the attractions during the opening were cultured heritage costumes like this one:

There was also the unveiling of the freedom wall participated by guests and mall visitors.

Open Call is just one of many projects lined up by the Zero In consortium to make art more engaging and relevant.

It also spearheads art workshops and talks to bolster art education and will participate in the Department of Education’s National Teachers’ Month Campaign.

Hopefully, giving the time, will let also the family visit the five museums that will give them varied experiences showing arts in different forms.

We as parents have to spend time in education exploration and art appreciation to our children rather than giving them material purchases.

Later on, this can  be the start of cultivating more inspirations and ability to connect informal learning.   This can only become a reality initiating the action within us.

For more information:

Visit their website -  http://www.zeroinmuseums.org/

or call Fanny at (02) 631-2417