fellow in status magazine

I'm very happy to share with everyone that Fellow got its second magazine feature! It's a bit late because I was expecting it to come out on June, but check out Status magazine's May music issue with Ellie Goulding on the cover! You'll find Fellow in STATUSPHERE: Brands to Know. 

Thank you Status for featuring Fellow! For more on Status, check out their Facebook page here! :)

note

From the sweet heart thousands of miles away. He visited view park in Barcelona and left a little note.

marc and angel

Because I can't seem to stop over-thinking and worrying and panicking, I head over to Marc and Angel once again to help me relax and stay focused on the positive. Some words of wisdom that made me feel better: 


Instead of concentrating on eliminating the negative, concentrate on creating something positive.
Whatever it is you’re seeking will rarely ever come in the form you’re expecting.  Don’t miss the silver lining because you were expecting gold.

You must see and accept things as they are instead of as you hoped, wished, or expected them to be.  Just because it didn’t turn out like you had envisioned, doesn’t mean it isn’t exactly what you need to get to where you ultimately want to go.

By persistently trying to move away from what you don’t want, you are forced to think about it so much that you end up carrying it’s weight along with you.  But if you instead choose to focus your energy on moving toward something you do want, you naturally leave the negative weight behind as you progress forward.

Make a habit of noticing the goodness that’s already yours and you will see more of it every time you look for it.

Don’t be so worried about what’s ahead of you and behind you that you never enjoy where you are.
Participate in your dreams today. 


This site never fails!

a shout out to mom

To my beautiful mother, guide, protector, and friend. I am so lucky to have you as a mom. You are and will always be the best mom for us five. Thank you for everything!

I love you. Happy Mother's Day!

And Happy Mother's Day to all the hardworking, patient, loving and caring mom's! 

hk break

A few days ago my sisters and I were given the opportunity to take a break from work and the heat. After not being able to travel abroad for years, we FINALLY got the chance to go back to Hong Kong and really explore the place on our own.

The last time I went to HK with my family, I was first year high school. I wasn't so young then, but my memory of the trip is very vague. I don't exactly remember the logistics of it because my mom took care of almost everything; all we had to do was follow. Aside from that, I slept a lot during that trip (which frustrated my parents so much, haha). We went during December so it was about 7 degrees celsius outside. And I, being the sleepy person that I am, kept sleeping every chance I could. 

This time around, my older sister and her boyfriend planned the trip so everything was all up to us. Basically, it's our first international trip without the parents. And since we don't really travel often, we're not as comfortable moving around and handling everything by ourselves, so it was something quite new (and exciting) for us. 

Our hotel was on Hong Kong side this time so we really were not familiar with the place (since we stayed in Kowloon during our last visit). So on our first day, we wanted to locate the closest 711, McDonalds and WiFi spot. 

Very important thing I realised upon arriving in HK: THERE IS NO INTERNET ANYWHERE. My phone would get a lot of signals from different places, but all of them were locked; even restaurants didn't have Internet! Park Lane (where we stayed) had Internet but charged sixty dollars an hour. Crazy. When we went to Hysan Place, we were able to get Internet for a bit, but it got cut off after thirty minutes. So frustrating!

The Apple store, which was just a few streets away from our place, was our life saver. It was the only place that had free WiFi. So almost every morning, my sisters and I would stand outside the store just to be able to Instagram and check mail. But because the workers in the store seemed to have noticed our presence outside of it quite often, we tried not to stay there too long. 

The day we arrived. 

Early morning walk with my sister, finding our way through HK. 

On our first day, we explored a little around our hotel and Central. We also, for the first time EVER, stepped into H&M! Crazy right? We would always get clothes from there as pasalubongs, but as mentioned earlier, we don't really travel, so it was the first time. And we loved it!

For our second day, we decided to visit Kowloon where we walked around Nathan road, Canton road, and Mong Kok. This was ultimate shopping day for everyone! We were also able to eat in City Super again, which reminded me so much of our first HK trip.

On the third day we had another first: our first time to step into Disneyland! Definitely a baby book moment for us three. We grew up watching a VHS (or was it Betamax?) of Disneyland and could not believe we finally got to go! I felt like a five year old running around the place taking selfies and discovering the different things inside of it.

Even though the rides were not as exciting as Ocean Park (or as the other Disneylands, as mentioned by others), I still really enjoyed. Visiting the place really took me back to my childhood and it felt AWESOME! It was so nice hearing all the Disney songs play and seeing everything Disney. I also really love how every single thing in that place is so creative and well-thought of. I just wanted to take a photo of anything I saw!

Ecstatic Disneyland newbs. 

The trip ended with day four, where we spent our last few hours in HK walking around Times Square and the airport. Our flight was at night, so we were able to do some last minute shopping. 

Even though we were all so sad to be leaving already, what made the trip home okay was the fact that we were going to see the family and... business class food! It was just an hour and a half trip, but we were able to fly business class for the first time (another first!) and were so happy with the food that we were served for dinner. Got a little wine and delicious salmon salad + beef short ribs on our way back. Delicious! If i'm not mistaken the food was made by the chef of Aracama.  

Thank you for everything Mer and Jim!

And that is all! It was a really short but memorable trip for us, knowing that we haven't been able to do something like this in a while and we got several firsts on this trip. Now that I was able to get a feel of travelling again, I'm so so determined to be able to travel more this year. Hopefully to Cambodia or anywhere in Thailand! 

boracay

During my last few days of senior year in high school back in 2009, I spent a lot of time listening to my friends plan for the Bora trip that the seniors of most schools go on after graduation. Flights, accommodations, beach activities, possible drunken escapades, pre-Bora shopping and other preparations, there was really a lot of Bora talk from pre-grad to post grad to the trip itself. I couldn't blame them; even I felt excited. My whole barkada and even others out of it could not contain their excitement as the trip got closer and closer. Sadly, I wasn't going. I wasn't allowed by my parents at that time, and I couldn't afford to pay for the trip myself. While my whole barkada spent about a week in the beautiful island celebrating the grad, I was in Manila (my boyfriend didn't go either, but he was in the States at that time).

Today, I'm 21, a college graduate and working (eek, i feel old). My Atenean friends graduate from college and decide to go on a Bora trip once again to celebrate being out of school. And since I'm a Bora-with-friends virgin (I went with my family twice when I was younger), I decided to spend my first set of earnings on a trip I've been itching to go on with my friends. Ateneo de Bora with the graduates!

We spent 5 days on the island doing what vacationers do when in Bora: drinking, eating, fly fishing, happy hour-ing, skim boarding, partying, cam-whoring and enjoying. On one of the days though we decided to check out Ariel's point, which is a 30-45 minute boat ride away. For P1600, you get unlimited booze, food (yummy, grilled, babuyan food), cliff diving and a beautiful and peaceful hang out place for you and your friends (peaceful if you don't end up with rowdy groups of people on your trip). This, I would say, is probably one of the highlights of my trip because I still can't get over how I was able to step off the board of that crazy 15 meter high cliff jump. It was much higher than I expected it to be! As for my best Bora meal, I would have to give it to Hawaiian Barbecue. We were not able to eat in a lot of places, but this sure was the best one we ate in during the vacation.

Here are some shots from the trip.

A part of Ariel's Point

Above are just some photos taken by my friend Alec using his GoPro. To get a glimpse of how the trip went, you can check out the video he made here. So glad that we have Alec around to document trips like these. Great way to look back on vacations!

Of course, fun trips always end feeling like it was way too short and went by way too fast. When is ending a vacation ever looked forward to? Now I am back to work. Seeing all the Bora photos on my feed now from people spending labor day weekend there makes me extremely envious (that's why I decided to look back at photos from my trip and post something here. Haha!). I don't know if I would mind the amount of people there (Bora looks like it's crazy packed), but right now I just really want to go back!