Scary Stuff: Part 8

This year, I unfortunately had a pretty paranormal-free life that I have no stories to share. Either that or I have been too dense and preoccupied to notice. Though I did have my fortune read by two different card readers plus a palm reader in Vietnam, all of which were consistent and came true...which is amazingly out of the ordinary.

Courting with an Elemental Mistress

Have you ever heard of a case wherein there's a spirit attached to a person? Or an elemental falling in love with a human? I've heard this story before, many times in documentaries and other times from people I know. I've been told three accounts of this so far: one from my nanny, one from my uncle, and another from a friend.

The story I'm narrating this year is the one that my friend told me about what happened to her years back. I'll use her alias, Marie, for this story. When she was in college, there was this a guy who courted her, and it turned her world upside down...more of...from the right side down. Her days became out of the ordinary that moment a guy she met in school started pursuing her romantically. It was three months of torture when it seemed as though another entity was trying to scare her. She'd see a lot of shadows moving in her peripheral vision, and many nights my friend would experience sleep paralysis where she'd see a shadow of a woman watching her sleep.

The first of her three major-traumatic experiences happened in her house wherein she woke up one night and heard a loud bang on her window. She woke up and saw the shadow of a dog outside her window. It didn't make sense how she could see the dog because, one, they didn't have a dog; two, her room was on the second floor with no ledges where the dog could stand outside the window. It was more than a fourteen-foot drop from the ground with no possible way for a dog's shadow to be seen from where she was sleeping because her room was located far from the street as well. That night Marie covered herself with a blanket as she slept.

The second time something paranormal happened to her was another random night when she asked a friend to drive her to one of the bars far from the city. On their drive to the bar, right along the highway where the infamous Tres Marias trees stand, she saw a jeepney stop on the side of the road where a person got out of the jeep while a woman got on. Marie described her as a girl dressed in a period white patadyong and saya, having long straight hair that reached down her butt, barefoot, and a blank pitch-black face. The weird part was that the woman rode the jeep without stepping up the platform. She just walked straight through the middle aisle of the jeepney and stopped right behind the driver. My friend squirmed to the driver, grasping his arm and exclaiming, "Did you just see what I saw!?" She asked for confirmation of what she just saw, but the guy dismissed her story as contrary to what he saw as nothing out of the ordinary. A little further out the dark highway she saw what seemed like a large-black-wing-like shadow hit the windshield, one so big that it covered half of her car's front hood. We don't have black birds that size. She screamed, asking if he had seen it that time, but he denied seeing anything. She then ordered the driver to turn around and call it a night even if it meant cancelling their party plans that night. 

That evening, Marie had sleep paralysis that was unlike her usual paralysis experiences. She woke up seeing a shadow of a woman standing at the foot of her bed, and with every blink of her eyes, the shadow crept closer and closer until it was hovering above her, their faces just a few inches apart. She described the face like seeing an unframed a static TV screen wherein the details of face were smudged out, no distinct feature could be seen save for her long black hair. Her recounting a smudged-static like face made me believe her since her description was exactly the same as what I saw when a full-bodied apparition glided less than two feet from where I stood. It was like a glitch in the 3D world, and I couldn't explain what I saw other than it was something that veered more to the paranormal realm than the physical. 

Marie couldn't scream or move, so she closed her eyes and repeatedly prayed all the prayers she could think of. When she was finally able to take hold of herself she ran to her brother's room and slept there for the night.

The final straw was right after she went home one night after partying with the cursed guy and she saw the same figure of the woman waiting for her by a tree outside their gate. The woman this time was dressed in red, her claws dug deep into the trunk of the tree as her limbs twisted like a creature crouched in preparation for an attack. My friend could see the creature-woman staring her down, this sent chills to her core. Luckily, she was with a chaperone as she was driving that time. 

She flinched the arm of the girl seated right next to her. "LOOK! That's the girl that's been haunting me!" she exclaimed, pointing at the spot where the tree stood. 

Her chaperone peered from inside the car scouring the darkness she was directed to stare at. "Ma'am there's nothing there. I can't see anything!"

"That can't be, she's right there!" Marie insisted.

"Ma'am seriously, I don't see anyone," the girl reassured.

My friend honked frantically for the gate to be opened. The thing remained motionless but followed her with its stare until the car entered the garage. Marie must've said all the curses she could mutter until she was able to safely enter her house. She asked her chaperone to accompany her in her room that night as she slept in fear that something might strangle her in her sleep.

Immediately the next morning my friend told the guy not to pursue her any longer since it wasn't a good idea to compete with a creepy-stalker-ghastly-woman for his affection. The horror she had to endure wasn't not worth the flirty exchanges. With that, the hauntings stopped.

She learned soon after that all the women he tried to court turned him down. It's probably because of the jealous spirit attached to him. The woman must be willing to put up with a cursed life to be with him. This year a common friend of ours tried to see if the guy was married or with someone out of curiosity, but there was no trace of any relationship with a woman based on his profile for years. Perhaps the irony of having a "guardian" following you 24/7 is when it's overly possessive of you that it'll make you belong to no one but him/her/it for the rest of your life.          

Doméino: Dome Suites (A Memoir)

 

This year, today marks the 2nd anniversary of a small glamping resort that my family, friends, and I built. This was one of those farfetched dreams I had as a kid. One of those that crossed my mind many times, yet at the back of those thoughts I have accepted that it wasn't possible for many reasons. I'd of overhear my aunts conversing that if they own a resort they'd be set for life...which I can now attest that's not necessarily true. Over twenty five years later an offer fell upon my lap, and it was one of those that took me a few days to think over before going all in. When the project finally started, I was in disbelief at how this vaguely haphazard dream I had with a 0.3% chance of ever happening had manifested itself to me. The moment I said "GAME!" things began to unfurl and there was no turning back. This was a childhood "what if" that miraculously presented itself at the right time. In principle, I believe that timing is everything when it comes to making major life decisions as it dictates how easily things fall into place. This amazingly fitted into my life as if this was the natural course of how I'd latch onto the business of tourism and hospitality.

Scary Stuff: Part 7

 

Performing an Exorcism at Home

It was last December 25, 2020 at 3:00pm when my grandmother died in my room. She was 99, ten days short of celebrating her 100th birthday. That day devastated a lot of people, but it was those who lost their mother that were hurting the most. She had thirteen kids, two of whom left before her. My aunt (my mom's younger sister) was the one who spent the most time with my grandmother the last couple of years of her life. In the few months that my grandmother got sick and was bedridden I noticed my aunt deteriorating as well. The lack of sleep, stress, and anxiety of knowing that it was a only a matter of time before she'd lose her mother took a toll on her. She lost a lot of weight, her eyes deepened with eye bags, her hair unkept, her skin aged, but worst of all her mental health went into shambles. Immediately I noticed this the first time I saw her after almost a year of not being home due to the pandemic. She gave out a blank stare, her voice inaudible, and her thoughts clearly out of the norm. My first thought on our first conversation was that, what happened to the aunt I knew? So was her case. At first we thought that it was because of the situation of having to deal with a dying mother that messed up her head, plus the severe lack of sleep. We expected that she'd be able to recover after my grandmother had passed. Unfortunately it didn't happen, in fact, it turned into something...paranormal.

2021 Roundup

 

If 2020 was a transition phase for me, 2021 became my adjustment period to the life I chose to change. This basically centered around having to deal with living with my parents again, stripping off certain freedoms that I enjoyed in Manila. This meant not being able to freely come and go as I please without letting them know why I was leaving the house. This also meant that I have a curfew whenever there was no one to open the gate for me. In exchange of reinstating life's constraints, I now have no bills to worry save for my own personal expenses. I don't have to worry about doing the laundry or preparing my food because I am no longer as independent as I was last year. It definitely has its pros and cons, an equal amount of compromise and financial freedom as its bottom line. At times I could feel like my parents had turned into my responsibility especially when it comes to doing errands and reminding them of their lack of focus. In the end, I've learned to live with it...but I times I just wish I can easily fly in and out of Manila to regain some sense of control for my sanity. 

The other thing where my life revolved around this year was the construction and establishment of our glamping business in La Castellana, Doméino. This is where I spent most of my time and energy in 2021. Doméino is basically what defined my 2021. It was where I grew as a person this year, as well as what drove me crazy...that, and getting covid.

All in all, 2021 seemed to have passed faster than 2020. This was mainly due to the fact that I was busy most days. Traveling around Negros was also easier compared to Manila. I even managed to go to Cebu twice by the end of the year...and probably even more places if not for typhoon Odette.

I experienced a couple of high and lows this year. The highs being able to something crazy amazing like constructing and managing a resort. My lows, having to go through a bad case of covid, as well as losing a couple of my close relatives this year. It's hard that I didn't get to enjoy their company as much as I could've wanted because of the pandemic. 

I did as much as I could to gain momentum with my life. Although at times I feel like I'm at a standstill, especially socially and when it comes to experiencing new cultures. But as I sit and reflect on what transpired, it's wasn't that bad at all. 

My Covid Experience

You know that moment when you felt something was wrong, and when your fear got validated your whole disposition crumbles?

The moment I received the news that I was covid positive, I closed my eyes and cursed to myself. Where did I go wrong? 

Then the idea of the butterfly effect came to me. Every careless thing I did for the past week led me up to this moment of having to go through with this ordeal. It's not as terrible as some consequences get, but it was enough to put my life and some of the people around me to a halt. Surely, it was from those few instances when I felt like putting my defenses down resulted to this ripple effect. 

If I were to look back, it started with the decision in my head, that I was gonna work myself tired after enjoying a night of drinking at home with my girlfriends. I watched the clock tick to 2:30am on a Sunday and I looked at the empty bottles of wine and beer on the table, all I could think about is getting up early in the morning because we had to leave for La Castellana to work on the glamping site. The entire week was dedicated to looking for materials needed for the construction, and this meant tiring myself out almost every day on top of lacking sleep most nights and not taking any vitamins then. By Wednesday I knew I was close to falling ill because I couldn't keep myself up past 10pm. I was exhausted. I managed to recover by the time I woke up and started working again at the glamping site. By Saturday I was able to do more work for our glamping, but by evening I couldn't sleep and I found myself awake until 3am, that I promised myself that right after celebrating Mother's Day at lunch I would sleep all I want from Monday onwards. I just had to finish our family lunch and then allow myself a good long rest for the week ahead. Little did I know that is exactly what will happen. It was the worst feeling to have to drive out to order take-out in a restaurant that took two hours to prepare the food while feeling like I was about to collapse. I had three hours of sleep that day, and I was starting to sneeze repeatedly while hearing the 6am mass. My greatest relief was when I finally sat to eat lunch and think to myself that I was done for the week. That turned out to be a proper rest that would last for more than two weeks. 

A Year After the Lockdown

Three hundred and sixty-five days after, where are we at? Still on "lockdown" or "community quarantine" as declared by the state, but it no longer feels like so. I've grown attuned to the changes. The "new normal" isn't so bad once you get past the grumbling stage wherein you whine about all the precautions that needed to be made. I mean, I still hate wearing face shields and not being able to freely interact with people intimately without both parties having a sense of paranoia. Greeting people with a kiss or a hug I miss the most. But as long as I have enough freedom to go outside the gate without having to pass through checkpoints in between cities and get to dine in at restaurants, I am fine. It was about 361 days ago when the announcement was made, and 364 days when I took the news more seriously. I remember needing to go out and do something at BGC last March 15, 2020...exactly the day of the lockdown. I was there at 9am to purchase some food items, and as I was walking I could feel the eerie silence of the whole place. There was barely anybody there. Most of the shops were closed, no public vehicles on the road...everyone just sort of vanished. I can never forget that moment when I crossed the pedestrian on 5th Ave and I turned to my right to look at the incoming traffic, and all I saw was the vast emptiness of the city. That was the moment it dawned on me that shit just got real. Like a post-apocalyptic movie wherein the population has suddenly gone blank. I remember thinking to myself, "So it's actually happening." 

2020 Roundup

It was March 15 of this year when I posted on Instagram a photo of a near empty BGC with the caption, “That moment when you realize that it’s actually happening. 2020 wth!” I was exhausted, and it was a bittersweet moment of defeat for me. I had to drop all routine and give up on every pre-existing plan throughout the year in order to live. This year was a matter of survival, mentally, financially, and physically.

One of the most comforting words I read was from Pope Francis. A month into the lockdown he said, “Tonight before falling asleep think about when we will return to the street. When we hug again, when all the shopping together will seem like a party. Let’s think about when the coffees will return to the bar, the small talk, the photos close to each other. We think about when it will be all a memory but normalcy will seem an unexpected and beautiful gift. We will love everything that has so far seemed futile to us. Every second will be precious. Swims at the sea, the sun until late, sunsets, toasts, laughter. We will go back to laughing together. Strength and courage. See you soon!” 

Holding onto hope...holding onto that faithful day when all will be back to normal was something that kept most of us going. This was the year I had planned on pushing a lot of my pending dreams, particularly on travelling and making the most money I can in my life. Both of which was put on halt and took a detour.

Scary Stuff: Part 6

 

Haunted House for Rent in Antipolo

This is a story shared to me by a friend whose friend experienced something really creepy during one of their shoots in a rented an old house in Antipolo along Marcos Highway. I know her personally since she's my batchmate from UST. She's known to have her third eye fully opened as an ability that runs in their family. 

She described the house they had to shoot in was abandoned in a way that they saw scattered things on the floor, the cabinets opened and still had clothes hanging in them. It's as if they had left in such a hurry that when they arrived with the crew the place was in chaos.

During one of their scene preparations, they were sitting on the floor, and when they stood up they saw a whole lot of hair scattered all over the floor that had come from nowhere. 

Another weird thing that happened was that while they were in the living room they heard the wailing of a child, and at first they thought it was the child actor that was with them who was crying, and when they checked the room of the kid he was quietly playing. So the guy returned to the room where the rest of the crew were waiting to report that it wasn't the actor who was crying. They could hear the incessant wailing of the child throughout the night. I actually heard the sound clip from one of their recordings, that while an actor was speaking his lines, there is a faint sobbing in the background of what is distinctly a voice of a young boy. Creepy!

But what really sold her story was when her friend was in the bathroom changing her clothes, she suddenly heard the child crying and when she went to look at the shower there was a kid there sitting on the floor, his head stooped down. It scared her so much that she ran out of the bathroom before she could finish putting on clothes. 

Here's the sound clip where you can hear a child crying in the background as the guy was speaking his lines. If you listen to it in audio, you'd probably miss it. It's really faint, and best if you listen using earphones:

She even did a cool livestream session with her siblings for Halloween this year! 

Haunted Cabinet

This is a story I initially planned on sharing for last year's Scary Stuff as this is a good friend's personal experience revealed to me in January of 2019, but then Bali happened mid-2019 and this was pushed back as a result. I can vividly remember the tinge of uneasiness I was feeling as she was telling me the hell she went through for months. For the record, she's one of those friends I can vouch for who wouldn't lie to me or convince me to tell a good story. 

It all started when she was at her lowest point. To backtrack, her third eye was partially open because she could easily see spirits when she was a child, but as she got older those encounters dwindled. That was, until a few years back when her third eye started to open again. She said that it was a time when so much was happening in her personal life, add to that a toxic workplace and a stressful job that she mentally and emotionally spiraled down into a pit. She lost her faith. Almost completely forgetting to pray, she skipped going to church week after week. With this, she started to notice unusual activities happening around her. She started seeing faceless apparitions at random. These are figures with the same other-worldly characteristics she could remember seeing as a child. She didn't flinch at first, there were too many distractions happening simultaneously.

One of the most persistent annoyances she had to endure was in her bedroom. In her room was an old wood cabinet. The cabinet was passed down to their family by her grandmother. It was an antique cabinet made of wood with a mirror attached to one of its doors on the outside. Its origin story was that before the Japanese forces came in to colonize us during World War II they hid the cabinet in their farm at Pontivedra, retrieving it only after the war. She said that it's possible that there were souls of soldiers trapped in the cabinet or victims of war trapped in the mirror. Almost every night she would hear the cabinet's door move on its own, creaking as it would open and shut as if to intentionally keep her awake. She always felt something was staring from inside the mirror. One of the scariest things she experienced was that she saw shadows, several of them, trailing to enter the cabinet one by one. 

It happened for many nights that she eventually found it necessary to have the cabinet taken out of the room and have it placed in the hallway. At first, she didn't bother to tell the real reason behind it all because she was worried about scaring her family. She simply said that she felt cramped in her room and wanted more space. It took a few weeks before her mom conceded and allowed to have it moved on the hallway, but it didn't take long before her mom also got annoyed with the hallway cramping up. Just then, her mom also wanted to have the shelves of their kitchen fixed, and she ended up using the furniture for scrap wood. Her mom had it dismantled and used its hardwood as shelves while she disposed of the rest of the unnecessary parts. That decision turned my friend's life into a living horror movie. Apparently, the spirits residing in the cabinet were not pleased with their "home" being destroyed that instead of disturbing my friend with minor poltergeist activity they made full-bodied apparition to her every night, getting more aggressive as days passed.

My friend described the scene as a living nightmare every time she had to go to bed. The moment she closed the bedroom door and lie in her bed they'd appear. By they, I mean three or more entities. White, floating, faceless, full-bodied apparition of what can only be classified as ghosts. Every. Single. Night. She had to go through the ordeal for over two months. Imagine the toll it took to have to go through a repeating nightmare night after night, and much worse, the nightmares happen when she's either asleep or awake. My friend is the secretive type, one of those people who like keeping all the burden to herself as long as possible to keep her vivacious image whenever around people. At some point, she believed she was going crazy, if not for her experience of seeing such things as a child. The entities would circle around her bed, and she'd see them floating above her at times, with blurry faces while emitting a trail of shadows as they moved. It started with three spirits at first, but as time progressed the numbers went up to as many as five she said. As the spirits knew she could see them, more entities got attracted to her somber energy. There were times that while she was praying before bed she could hear other voices reciting with her but in our deep hiligaynon dialect. Words she could barely understand but could subconsciously interpret as if telling her that prayers were pointless because it could not save her. She could even physically feel them pushing her out of the bed at times to make her feel their anger. They wanted her out and gone.

It eventually reached a point that she could no longer tolerate and bear the situation that she asked for help from her parents. Her breaking point was when she experienced astral projection, wherein she got up and walked to the living room asking her brother for the remote control but he didn't flinch. When she turned back she saw herself sleeping. That's when she realized that her spirit has left her body. 

They asked for help from the church and a psychic. They had my friend blessed by the priest and invited a psychic medium to cleanse their house. When the psychic entered the house he immediately knew it wasn't a simple ghost situation. The medium said that when he entered the house he saw a lot of floating figures walking around with their fluid legs elevated off the ground, their features warped and blurred into blank faces. The spirits weren't purely souls of those that passed away he explained. It was a mix of past and present spirits including a few elementals.

On one occasion, while the psychic was in their house and speaking to them he saw the doppelganger of my friend peeking from behind the door intently staring at him as if listening to what he was saying. To confirm this, my friend's father admitted having several encounters with the doppelganger wherein he'd see my friend go in or out of the washroom only to find her sleeping in her room. Times when the figure would go in the bathroom and not go back out, leaving it cold and empty.

After a few days of consultation with the psychic, they did the ritual for the house cleansing. They lit candles, spread out a white cloth with white ropes, and prayed together with the medium. They did a ritual on my friend, the psychic recited Latin prayers to close her third eye. That lifted the heavy energy off their house and left my friend in peace. 

I recently asked her if how she was doing. She said she is better, but there were times when she'd still see things in her peripheral vision or feel them on occasion, but at least she wasn't being disturbed or attacked. 

Ghost Child at Archipelago

 It was this year when a group of my friends decided to open a small stall over at Makati. They decided to go with a tiny vacant space at Archipelago. Since they are on new territory and wanted to have an edge over their competitors, they made their operating hours from 4pm - 3am. This was to offer their food with a delivery service for call center agents or those on night shifts. This seemed like a good idea at first since they were the only store open in the entire complex. This move came at a price though, they'd have to deal with the spirit of a child playing around the vicinity at night. 

When the lights are shut and only one or two of them are left for the night shift, a figure of a child would start to appear and they'd see it run around at lightning speed. It would at times let the lights flicker, turning it on and off to grab attention. There were nights when they'd see it just standing in one corner or surprise them in the toilet. There was a time that their employee got kicked out of his house and had no place to stay, so he slept there with his child for a few nights. But they say they could see the ghost child watching them sleep...creeping them out to not stay there any longer. Even the guard admitted to having seen the child but just accepts it as part of the job.

Note:

A friend of mine who is also into the paranormal recently explained, that since we are made up of energies, once you lower your energy into the notch of negativity you will tend to attract and live in the lower plane. Emotions like anger, sadness, anxiety, depression, these are emotions that belong to the lower spectrum and thus what you will be seeing are entities of the lower spectrum like demons, dark entities and elementals, angry spirits, lost souls and such. This is also true on the opposite side of the spectrum. If you go for joy and positive energy, you will be living and attracting the higher realm of the upper dimension. These are entities that relates to fairies and angels. So I guess this is a good time to change your energy to avoid attracting unwanted negativities.

A Child of Dragon and Virgo

One random day a friend asked if I knew the exact time I was born because he was going to do some kemerlu. That prompted me to check my birth certificate and discover that I was born at 7:35 AM on a Wednesday. The Wednesday part I found out two years ago for a ritual I needed to do in Bali. Prior to that confirmation, I always assumed and believed that I was born at 3 AM ...that's because my mom told the story that she started her labor around midnight and that a bunch of guys cornered the car she was riding in for a holdup attempt. Somehow they were able to escape unscathed as they rushed to the hospital. My parents were at our other house, 45 kilometers away from the capital when mom's water broke. Back then the road was pitch dark, thus the surprise ambush happened because they were on the road at an ungodly hour. They arrived at the hospital around 3 AM, and shortly thereafter I was born immediately I presumed. I have no sense of understanding with how labor works, just that it's painful. Long story short, I was born at 7:35 AM and not 3 AM as I initially thought.

Why is it significant? Because then my friend did this chart thing to try and figure out my person, how my soul is aligned with the universe based on my birth date and time. Astrology is something interesting as to how we seem to be predestined under the measure of the stars and alignment of the planets. And as my curiosity rose, I asked him to send me the link instead of waiting for his reading. I was able to comprehend the worded part, but to interpret the given numbers and charts is something that requires further study. It was a hit-and-miss kind of reading, but it rang true with what my spiritual friend has told me, that astrology is roughly 80% accurate...which was roughly how accurate my reading was. I admit a couple of things outright as was written in the stars, yet there were some inaccuracies on occasion as well.

I've gotten into this sort as a side interest as it delves into the realm of the divine and the paranormal. It's something that is not accredited by science and therefore has caught my attention as a deviant of what is perceived by cynics and realists as ridiculous and beyond earthly comprehension. I don't study the subject, but I enjoy relating to people and opening my mind into this world of celestial relativity. I find curiosity, leaning more onto the side of believing, in its ability to relay this pseudoscientific information that has a weight of truth in it...to a degree. As a disclaimer by those into astrology, unlike science that is considered by the majority as absolute, this one you take with a grain of salt. It has an open-ended conclusion, one that can be interpreted in multiple ways. Much like how a woman's mind works...it goes either way.

So...I checked into the website (https://astro.cafeastrology.com) where my friend took his reference from, and these are copy-pasted words from the site that rang true and reflects my current being as of writing. I'm not including everything, just fragments of the statements I found intriguingly accurate:

Waiting for Tears

Life in Quarantine: Part 1

This blog post is currently being drafted 

The hardest part was having to close down the store for the ECQ.

Sun dried beef tapa made by Karl, but he had to leave from being quarantined with us due to parking issues with the condo. Boo :(

2019 Roundup

My Top 2019 Whatevers:

Wow Moment: Reaching 100k+ views for the blog. It took years, but considering that I barely update and don’t ever promote it, I somehow managed to reach that six-digit number is quite wow.

Heart Pumping: The night we went in Asylum Manila. I was with four friends and it was just us five with no lines since we arrived on a weekday at 11pm at a time when there was a typhoon in Manila. It was heart pumping more than scary because they have this way of disorienting your senses with lights and noises then suddenly they shock you with a sudden bang or movement. I ended up jumpy at the same time amused at how they managed to make us scream so much the whole time. It resulted to a lot of hilarious photos of us.

Unexpected: It was a surprise when my eldest brother announced he was getting married. Also, getting invited to do a segment on Umagang Kay Ganda.

Most Stressful: August was quite a tiring month for me. It was the month when I was simultaneously helping with my brother’s wedding in planning and coordination, at the same time making preparations and getting everything done as we were close to opening our third Chicken Studio branch in Parang, on top of preparing a 200 pax feeding program at our farm for my birthday celebration. I think I lost a couple of extra hair stands last August. 

Most Annoying: A lot of miscommunication within the business. I guess that's part of the job and life of having to deal with a lot of people.

Clockwise from top: Our poultry farm, my franchise study for Chicken Studio, the original Nena's Rose in Manokan country is where I love eating inasal and oysters in Bacolod, Calea with some of my favorite dessert

Cana Resort in Amlan where we stayed, the feast we ate in Manjuyod, and the Manjuyod sandbar birds-eye view using the drone that we brought

Jaro Cathedral in Ilo-ilo, Ilo-ilo Museum of Contemporary Art, Lunch at Tatoy's

Molocaboc island in Sagay

Scariest: That night at Bali wherein I had to go through a lot of not-so-normal circumstances. Here’s the link to the long story: Scary Stuff: Part 5

Worst: This was the worst in a sense that this scared the living hell out of me. It was more horrible than what I experienced in Bali that it took several nights before I got to sleep soundly again. Seeing a ghost and feeling their presence is fine, but the moment they get to disturb and dominate over you, like physically bother you that’s when it’s no longer amusing. Last December 8, I was woken up from a nightmare. I was dreaming about a procession being done at night on some remote canal with people wearing brown robes holding candles, then at one point I heard a voice telling me that a little kid is being mischievous by blowing a strong wind at me hovering 100 feet above my head. I stared up and saw a winged shadow creature like a cherubim right above me. At one point the nightmare kept on as the wind got stronger until I found myself awake and feeling something blowing at the back of my head so strong that my hair was parting down to the scalp. I tried shooing the thing with my hand as I kept my eyes shut because I refused to get up even if I was already consciously awake. I turned on my face so that my right ear was covered by my pillow while my right ear was against the wall, and that’s when I knew it was no longer normal. I felt the thing blowing at my nape move right at my ear which was a few inches against the wall, and blew even stronger that it was bit deafening like the air was sounding similar to being in a car running at a 100kph. For several seconds it kept on blowing at my ear and in my head I knew it was no longer a normal situation and that I needed to open my eyes and risk seeing something really scary because I just wanted it to stop. I gathered the courage to open my eyes and shoved it back only to see that there was nothing there. I could still feel the cold tingle on my arms and head as I sat on my bed staring at an empty room, the air condition quietly buzzing at the back. I remember freaking out at how vulnerable my situation was to have been physically woken by something paranormal right in my room. I screamed in my head and mustered the to exclaim, "Get out!” just casting away whatever it was because I was pissed off on top of being agitated at what just happened. That was really bad, and I wish it never happens again. 

Heartbreaking: When we found out that Yee Peng was located outside of the city and when we got to the bridge of the supposed location where to release the lantern there were people telling us that the releasing of the lanterns was the night when we arrived late and saw multitudes of lanterns floating at a distance, and on the night we thought we were going to experience that magical moment it was no longer allowed. The news felt like a bullet struck out the entire purpose of the trip. On the bright side, we did manage to let a few lanterns fly and see it fill the sky, though not as much as I imagined it to be. 

Funniest: It wasn’t necessarily an appropriate venue where I experienced this year's funniest moment, but it cracks me up every time. We were at the wake of our uncle, my cousin, her husband, my brother and I went there together and stayed a bit longer when we found out there was going to be a mass held there. Right before the mass my cousin and her husband said that we should sit at the back of the chapel because we should leave the front pews for the direct members of the deceased, but then my brother decided to sit at the front row and present himself to the priest to be his assistant for the mass since he was a sacristan years back. Instead, the priest mistook his offer and gave him the booklet for the mass and assigned him to read the First Reading and Responsorial Psalm. To his horror it was written in tagalog, with words using those old poetic terms with syllables that can make your tongue stutter. Well…it turned out more horrible than I expected, I had to pretend I was coughing to stop myself from laughing at the way my brother read, he was like a three year-old learning how to read. What was supposed to be a two-minute read ended up twice as long on top of him skipping an entire paragraph because he couldn't take the embarrassment any longer. Our relatives were taking photos and video while all I could do was bite my lips to stop my giggling. At the end, just gave up and handed me the booklet to read the Responsorial Psalm because it was a pitiful situation for him. We were laughing at the end of the mass, and our cousins and uncles were commenting at how comedic a supposed solemn mass for our dead uncle turned out because of my brother. The priest was supposed to let him read again the prayers of the faithful and another novena but the son of our dead uncle stepped in to ease the unfortunate situation. 

Most Fun: It's going on a day trip with two of my girl friends to Molocaboc island in Sagay. It's one of those spur of the moments wherein we just decided to go relax somewhere new. I was supposed to drive half-way while the other half was my friend, but then her mom was having none of it so she made us take her car with the driver and an assistant...and that was really fun to just explore a place with nothing to think about but just swim. We had so much fun considering that there were no other people but us, plus just the boatmen whom we asked to take us to the island. That was a wonderful way to start the year, and one that I wish I could get to do more often. Here's a link on that trip: Molocaboc

Chicken Studio South in Pacita, San Pedro Laguna

Coordinating and event styling for a friend's wedding last March 2

Clockwise from top: Tres Leches and Blueberry Jubilee at M Bakery, Salted chocolate cake at Elephant Grounds, Brown sugar cheese foam at Black Scoop, Macapuno Halo-Halo at Ben's, Cereal Milk at Kumori

Un-luckiest Moment: That moment I fell flat on my back after jumping down our steel counter. It’s been a while since I hurt myself like that, and it hurt bad everywhere…the only lucky thing about it is that no one saw me fall very badly 

Stupidest: At the house of my friend’s brother, five of us came to see his newly finished house. On our way out, right after the house tour, his brother sat on the living room while our friend sneaked in the kitchen to scavenge his fridge. There he found an opened box that’s full of Toblerone. He started eating away one chocolate after another; he then called and showed us his find. All four of us were quick on our feet and started grabbing a whole bar each, to which his brother simply encouraged us to get as much as we want. Excited, we all bit into the sweet triangles, chomping down the odd-tasting Toblerone. After several bites, we started making comments like, “It tastes weird” or “It tastes different from the ones I buy,” then it went to “Maybe Toblerones from Japan tastes different” and “They must’ve used a different kind of nut!” Deep down I knew it tasted off; the first thing that came to mind that it was expired. I’ve eaten a lot of expired chocolates in my lifetime, and this was a taste that was all too familiar. I flipped the wrapper and saw the culprit, right on there was printed EXP JUNE 2017. It expired two years ago...and my friend's brother said it's fine...so we all spit it back inside the wrapper and returned the half-eaten chocolates in the box. 

Regretful: It’s not really that regretful, on my part at least. Right after coordinating for a friend’s wedding, the team decided to hang out at CBTL, and while some went home for dinner, three of us stayed behind find a place for dinner because right across the cafe where we were sitting were blaring signs of Chinese restaurants. So, we were fixed on having noodles for dinner, but it was choosing which one that got us confused. After checking three places out, we decided to try this new-unfamiliar restaurant named Oriental Red Restaurant located on the second floor. The moment we entered we were greeted at the door, they had us seated and before we can open the menu they served us complementary side dishes. Immediately I realized we were the only locals eating there, and when we opened the menu we started giggling at each other. Page after page after page, everything was fiery red, if not on the photo, it is described as made out of chili. At one point, we had to ask, “Is there anything here that isn’t spicy?” The waitress gave us an apologetic look and said, “No, everything has chili. You can either have the medium spice or the authentic spice.” And so, for the whole duration of the meal, we were laughing at ourselves in pain as every bite was a spoonful of chili. Seriously, all our orders were floating in chili oil. BUT! In defense, the food was delicious, it’s just that the kind of spice that they used was the numbing kind that none of us managed to consume half of our serving.  

Coolest: Riding at the back of the motorcycle down the mountain from Lempuyang Temple as the sun was setting down at a Mount Agung.

Heart Warming: When I saw my brother teary-eyed and smiling as he saw his bride walk down the aisle. I’m so happy for him. 

Proudest Moment: That day when I received my share of income from the restaurant and realized that I had managed to reach my goal of earning more from my business over the high-paying job that I left so I could start Chicken Studio a little over a year ago.   

Cutest: It’s my experience up-close with the elephants in Chiang Mai. It was the first time I got to touch, feed and embrace the beautiful giants. It was a real intimate encounter, to have a real interaction and not just watch them at a distance. I got all giddy when I saw baby elephant Lanna slowly made her way from the crowd to say hi. I was all smiles as I hugged her head even if it felt like I was sticking my body on a huge block to steel brush. The joy of the baby elephant’s gesture overcame the pain I was feeling of her tough hairs pricking at me.

Clockwise from top: Beef Tenderloin Tataki Style at La Mere Poulard, Salmon TNT at Tomatito, Chicken something at Oriental Red Restaurant, Mayonnaise Bun at Kumori Bakery, Tokusen 7 Sashimi Mori at Ogawa, Prosciutto pizza a Gino's Brick Oven Pizza

Our mural painting for a friend's AirBnb in Pundaquit, Zambales

Celebrating our friend's 30th birthday at San Rafael Rive Adventure in Bulacan

Cafe and temple hopping plus food trip in Bali

Most Mischievous: It was definitely pulling a prank on my employees for our Christmas party. My brother and I were paring down on the stuff we’ve accumulated through the years to declutter our place. Turns out one of the things we’ve been holding onto were the nice empty boxes of certain products such as liquor boxes and gadgets…so instead to throwing it out it the trash, we agreed to mess with our restaurant’s staff by getting their hopes high by using the boxes of our old phones that tallied up to 5 cellphone boxes, a whole lot of Jack Daniel’s and Johnny Walker boxes that thrilled the boys, plus random paper bags from exclusive shops. The game was like beer pong, except that instead of beer in cups it’s numbers that corresponds to a gift. People were jumping with excitement until it was time to open their prizes. To make it fun, everyone had to open their prize together, and so erupted a flurry of laughs when they saw the randomness of items inside the boxes. I placed bottles of oil, soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, juices, and whatnots, while inside the iPhone boxes were bouillon cubes and sachets of seasoning. It was hilarious as they were laughing at each other and one of the most fun pranks I did because they got the joke plus it was fair since no one was lucky enough to receive a proper prize and everyone’s hopes were equally crushed. 

Wildest: It’s not that wild…it’s just learning how to ride and drive a motorcycle and then crashing at a tree stump and getting a huge bruise within the first five minutes of one riding solo…just because my friend who was instructing me how to ride didn’t teach me how to properly execute the breaks.

Most Challenging: Having to simultaneously plan and juggle a couple of life-events on dates that tend happen side-by-side.

Magical Moment: Doing the ritual at Tirta Empul Temple at 2AM with just the three of us in the temple.

Awe-Inspiring: I remember right after I had my first spine alignment, some sort of drug rushed through me that resulted to me producing four acrylic paintings  within a week. It’s hard to get that inspired-grove back, making art one after the other with no pressure constraints. 

Best Feeling: The first time I did an AP Balance to get my spine aligned...I had the best most well-rested sleep I had that night.

OMG Moment: At Choui Fong Tea Plantation...when I reached their viewing deck that had a cafe and souvenir shop and I saw at how beautifully laid out the tea plantation was, it was exactly as I imagined it to be. I remember being happy just by being there and looking at the landscape while drinking their tea. It's a sort of goal that I wish to someday achieve with the farm...but it won't be tea that I'll be planting...but the souvenir shop and cafe I can see it happening someday soon. Going to a beautiful tea farm has been a dream of mine for many years, but Taiwan's Maokong tea plantation failed me, and this was a nice redemption of tea farms for me.

Best Discovery: Adobe Premier…well, it’s actually learning how to use it. Fotogra, the picture book company that I’ve been using to print all my travel photos.  KA.RA.DA. is this Japanese body therapy place that I’ve recently subscribed to fixing my back and do spine alignments on me.

Most Thankful For: The p2p buses that goes between Taguig and Makati, as well as Taguig and Ortigas.   

My birthday party at the farm where I made Jollibee dance for me, plus my birthday cookie cake from Aperitif

My brother's wedding. This is the first wedding for our family since we're really not into getting married early in life.

Elephant Retirement Park in Chiang Mai, the Yee Peng Festival in Chiang Mai, Singha farm in Chiang Rai, Choui Fong tea farm in Chiang Rai

Favorite 2019 Drink: Brown Sugar Cheese Foam by Black Scoop, Cereal Milk by Kumori, Es Daluman at Kuta, Hoegaarden Rosée, Mango Passionfruit Yogurt drink I get at a Chinese grocery with a blue plastic container

Favorite 2019 Food: Kwek kwek drowning in suka with lots and lots of cucumber and onion slices, Japanese-style soupy spaghetti, Nachos with lots of cheese and salsa, Sake flavored KitKat, Smoked fish, Prosciutto and Arugula combination, beef steak cooked to medium 

Best Thing I Ate: Tomatito’s Salmon TNT, smoothie bowl at Nook, that street side Nasi Ayam at Ubud, Crispy Beancurd Sheet Rolls with Fresh Shrimps and Chives by Tuan Tuan

Favorite 2019 Dessert: Greek Yogurt with blueberry compote, Macapuno Halo-Halo by Ben’s, Black Sesame Crème Brulee by Gaja Korean Kitchen, Tres Leches by M Bakery, Salted Chocolate Cake by Elephant Grounds

Favorite 2019 Restaurant: Chicken Studio is my biased option, Wasshoi Japanese Restaurant in BGC, Antipodean Manila in Makati

Unforgettable Meal: The lunch feast I ate during my uncle’s birthday at our farm. It was the most I probably ate this year because I missed eating the food of my favorite cook tiyo Peing who has been the family’s cook since my grandfather’s time. He cooks the best paklay, kaldereta, and asado as it’s our family’s tradition to slaughter a goat on special occasions and have him cook the goat 3-ways. It’s his goat dishes that makes lechon or any other dish on the table seem second rate. Little did I know it would be the last time I got to eat his food as he recently died, just two weeks ago. His food is the taste of my childhood, and luckily he did show me his techniques and ingredients in the dishes that I so love…but it’s not gonna be the same because I want someone to do the cooking for me.

Weirdest Thing I Ate: The mayonnaise bun of Kumori Bakery. It was literally an entire soft bun filled with what seemed like half a cup of Japanese mayo. I couldn’t finish half of it.

Favorite 2019 Hang Out: I liked staying in random cafes around BGC. 

Favorite 2019 Songs: Pange Lingua Gloriosi by Gregorian Chant, We Are by HAEVN, How Do You Sleep? by Sam Smith, Araw-Araw by Ben & Ben, Boxes and Squares and Rollercoasters by Tank And The Bangas, Into the Unknown both versions of Idina Menzel and Panic at the Disco, Show Yourself by Idina Menzel, Somebody to Love by OneRepublic, Presence by Brittany Howard

Favorite 2019 Movies: Aladdin because of how colorful it was, and a nice retelling of the animated version; Maleficent: Mistress of Evil…because of the world they created for the dark fey, and Angelina Jolie…the script annoyed me to no end though; Joker because of Joaquin Phoenix’s commendable performance and its captivating storytelling of a broken character; Frozen 2 is the only movie I watched twice in the cinema this year because I couldn’t get over it the first time around...okay, I'm a fan of Disney so most of the movies I watch in the cinemas are by Disney

Favorite 2019 People: Kristen Bell…ever since I saw her interview on Ellen where she had a sloth breakdown I became obsessed with her interviews because she’s too adorably precious yet at the same time has a good sense of being with the way she responds to questions. I love her interview on Armchair Expert with her husband Dax in particular, and most especially the game they played called Taste Buds on Ellen.

Will Be Most Missed in 2019: Eating the food cooked by tiyo Peing.

Chicken Studio Parang branch, Marikina

Some of the paintings that I managed to get done. I love using metallic paint, hence the repetition of colors with copper and gold over black as my main themes. The one on the lower right is a screen shot of My Time at Portia that amused me for many hours this year.

Achievement Unlocked this 2019:
1. Getting a UMID 
2. Learning to drive a motorcycle
3. Riding a motorcycle…don’t ask, I was always scared of riding one
4. Stepping foot on Bali
5. Returning to a foreign country a second time (Thailand)
6. Creating a painting series
7. Opening two additional branches for Chicken Studio
8. Having my photos turned into a photo book, finally
9. Learn to edit videos on Adobe Premier
10. Hugging an elephant, a real one
11. Attending the Loy Krathong and Yee Peng festival
12. Adding more insect species into my food repertoire like grasshopper, silkworm, small cockroach, locust plus crocodile barbecue
13.   Making a guest appearance on Umagang Kay Ganda. It's the not my first appearance on TV, but it's a first on ABS-CBN. Jessica Soho I'm coming for you! 

2019 Realization: “I don’t like to think of it as giving back; I like to think of it as just giving.” –Mario Batali 

It's the end of a decade. We'll be counting in 20's in a few hour's time.

Lesson Learned for 2019: 30’s is where better days await.

First Time Places I Went to this 2019: Bali, Indonesia

2020 Bucket List:
1. Every year, I’ll probably say this…I need to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
2. Paint more paintings.
3. Have all of my travels documented and printed as a photo book.