Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Tuesday Sermon

i heart

via Pure Nourishment



Saturday, January 5, 2013

Because I Love Mornings








I am starting a new blog!!

I am keeping Miss Universe for my personal and narcissistic chronicles and I am setting up another blog - Before Nine (because i love love mornings!)

Before Nine

Everything is beautiful with the sunshine.


Like most people, I love mornings and things associated with it. Where do I start? The sunrise. Breakfast. Sunny Side-up’s. Coffee. The early morning jog. The extended sweet  snuggle with a loved one before getting out of bed. The good morning greeting and the good morning smile. Oh yes, there’s the early morning rush on days when we have to go to school or work which can get really stressful at times – but the beauty amidst the chaos in that is, the morning rush and all just signify how we are so raring to deal with life’s battles head on. Then there is the equally beautiful weekend morning when we have all the time in the world to do our personal agenda. Go to a weekend market or to the gym or wake up early to prepare for a weekend getaway. Then there is that even more beautiful morning when you wake up and realize that you are in a different place and remember you are traveling and you have to get up early to catch the beautiful sunrise by the beach.


I love mornings. And my love affair with mornings has two anniversaries:


one: I remember tossing and turning one night, my heart beat racing for reasons I cannot identify. I was in tears, anxious about the future, impatient and frustrated that things are not going my way – and all I can remember was praying for the Universe to hasten the sunrise. And then morning happened. And the sunrise ushered in a waterfall of relief. And last night? God, how silly was I to even worry and what was that all about? This is the morning magic working on me and its effect – the feeling of invincibility.


two: It was one of those out-of-town trips and I just know that I will maximize my stay on the place if I begin my day the earliest time possible. It was one of those Saturdays or maybe Sundays and I just know that I will maximize my free-time-me-time or free-time-family/loved one(s)-time if I get up early. The early bird gets the most out of its 24 hours in a day. J


And so, I start this little space in the web, together with friends and people who believe and enjoy the magic of a morning, chronicling just anything about our favourite time of the day, before 9:00 am- the sunrise, breakfast hunts, activities and just about anything as beautifully early as milk/coffee-bacon-sunny side ups and a cup of coffee. Or tea or chocolate drink if you are not a coffee drinker, like me.


Let’s make the most out of our day.


Get your cute butt out of that bed – no matter how difficult it is. You have all the time after life to lie still – this is not the time (not unless you’re hung over or have stayed up late due to a worthy cause, yes, there is a qualifier, “worthy”).


Good Morning Loves!

The site is still under construction with very few (only two actually as of this morning) but everybody is welcome to contribute stories about our morning magic/morning madness. I would love to hear from you! 

Looking for Alaska

via goodreads


Semi Spoilers
Words and Statements I love from Looking for Alaska

1. I go to seek a Great Perhaps – Francois Rabelais
2. Culinary Orgasm. Deep Friend Burrito. The Bufriedo.
3. High School.

4. You’ve got a lifetime to mull over the Buddhist understanding of interconnectedness …but while you were looking out the window, you missed the chance to explore the equally interesting Buddhist belief in being present for every facet of your daily life…Be present in this class. And then, when it’s over, be present out there. Page 50

5. Smoking Hole.
6. Maxx. Subverting the Patriarchal Paradigm.
7. Labyrinth.

8. Thomas Edison’s last words were: “It is very beautiful over there.” I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it is beautiful. page 221

9. For she had embodied the Great Perhaps – she had proved to me that it was worth t to leave behind my minor life for grander maybes…

10. Alaska

New Year's Eve


It was the 400 thread count, 100%  Egyptian cotton bed linen and memory foam mattress which got me into the I’ve-got-to-try-this-or-else mode and the bath tub, oh yes, the bath tub.

The Christmas celebration back at home in the province with my dearest family was crazy good and I think I gained a few extra pounds by filling in my social calendar with a bridal shower, a wedding, reunions, a  christening and random belly fests – this early, I am already dreaming and planning Christmas 2013. For the New Year, however, I thought of celebrating it in the city (Metro Manila) as I intend to be well-rested (not all woozy from the 12-hour travel by bus) the day before going back to the office. Knowing that I will be going home to an empty apartment in Manila, I booked myself in a hotel I have been planning to experience since that fateful day in November (or was it October last year) when I read about in Chalk Magazine (March 2012 issue) as the only and the greenest boutique hotel in the country. Bonus fact: it is in Quezon City, my home away from home.

So on the last day of 2012, after having fulfilled a family-related obligation, I packed my gym bag with overnight clothing, got waxed in Lay Bare in Eton Centris, got a trim, bought a toothpaste then rushed to my New Year hideaway – the Cocoon Boutique Hotel.

image via hotel site


I was told that the hotel was fully booked for New Year’s Eve and a party will be held at the deck for the countdown to 2013. The hotel lobby was a little dim for my taste when I arrived, it might be the pending rain outside but whatever the hotel is lacking in light that particular day, it made up with its sunshiny and efficient staff, ready to address guests’ needs in a snap.
 

When I got to my room – oohhhh! It was the nicest, cleanest, most mabango room I have entered in years (haha!).  I wanted to jump on the oh-so-fluffy-oh-so-soft bed right away but kept my composure. This is just a hotel room, Tina, not Disneyland. Do you still remember The Suite of Life of Zack and Cody in the Disney Channel? Or my personal favourite, Eloise, the famous Kay Thompson's character, a precocious and adorable little girl who lives in the penthouse of The Plaza in New York? Made up characters or not, they are so lucky to live in a hotel where everyone is extra friendly (everyone being 99% hotel staff, 1% guests) and where guests are treated like royalty. I am sorry for gushing but I can count with my fingers the number of times I have stayed in a hotel and I admit to liking and loving the royal treatment. Who doesn’t?
 


I prepared for New Year’s Eve like how a bride prepares for her wedding. Took pictures (to immortalize the moment). Wrote down my vows in my yellow Seattle’s Best planner (expression of thanksgiving for 2012 and expressions of hope and excitement for 2013). Took deep breathes and embraced the present. 


Thank you Universe!


My booked Room (Deluxe)


I was assigned two beds, called in housekeeping and within seconds, I had one big bed of fluffy heaven.


 (1) My hotel-assigned slippers - they were size 9 though| (2) Bible inside the side table drawer - I felt even more safe| (3) New Year's Eve Prayer | (3) My New Year's Eve dress - no polka dots, just flowers, pretty flowers.

After an extremely short nap, I went up the deck to witness and pay my respect to the last sunset of the current year. 

Quezon City Skyline

 (1) 'Read Looking for Alaska by the pool | (2) The hotel staff distributed noisemakers for the new year's eve event

(1) Continued reading by the tub | (2) Deep-soak bath tub - image via the hotel site | (3) Palmolive bubble bath via sodahead
 



My mayaman moment: comfortably warm water, bath tub, yellow lights while reading my book. I was desperately forcing bubbles to form to upgrade my mayaman moment to a gazillionaire-Forbes­-richest ­in-the-world-FHM’s-sexiest-woman-in-the-world moment but I must have done something wrong. But still, getting soaked and marinated in Lavender and warm water was glorious!

 (1) Platter of smoked salmon, capers, cream cheese, fruits and all things merry and bright | (2) hot jasmine tea | (3) lumpia rolls

... 3, 2, 1 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!




































In the midst of noise and excitement and all the jumping and shouting – I closed my eyes in thanksgiving, prayed for my family and the people I love and uttered my personal prayer: May we find ourselves to be the right person, in the right place, at the right time.  Amen.

Cheers to a promising, exciting, most wonderful 2013!


Cocoon Boutique Hotel
61 Scout Tobias corner Scout Rallos Streets,
Bgy Laging Handa,
Quezon City 1103, Philippines
Trunklines: 632- 9212706 to 08
Fax Number: 632- 4137281
www.thecocoonhotel.com