#PopeInPH: Farewell Pope Francis! Arrivederci!

The lucky boy He blessed on his last motorcade in his 5-day Philippine visit.

Pope Francis arrives in Villamor Air Base for his flight back to Rome.

I am typing this post as I'm watching the Philippine Airlines plane (carrying Pope Francis back to Rome) getting ready to fly. It has such been an honor to have this very loving man visit our country for 5 days. And more than that, I am so awed by the discipline that the Filipino people have shown while waiting / watching the Pope in the places he visited. Good leaders do awesome things, great leaders inspire others. Pope Francis definitely is in the latter category! Thank you for inspiring the Filipino people Lolo Kiko. The lessons you have imparted will always be in my heart.

Pope Francis going to the PAL airplane that will carry him back to Vatican.

Goodbye Pope Francis! My words aren't enough to express the gratitude and admiration I have for you. I have dreamt of you mid-October 2014 and through you, the Lord has calmed my worrying heart about our family problems. Through you, the Lord let me feel his wonderful love. In that dream I have never felt so much peace and love. Thank you Pope Francis for being God's instrument in this cruel world. Mercy and compassion. Nurture and protect the family. To think, to feel, to do. Words I will try to live by this year, and the rest of my life. Viva il Papa!

#PopeInPH ~ Pope Francis arrives in the Philippines!

Touchdown! The Papal plane has just landed in the Philippines, and Pope Francis is preparing to walk down from the plane in Villamor Airbase. Of course, the crowd couldn't help but cheer loudly "We love you!" :) President Aquino and 12 members of his cabinet are expected to greet him before his motorcade towards Taft Avenue. The official Papal residence is the Apostolic Nunciature in Taft. Here's the motorcade itinerary:

Source: http://www.gov.ph/2015/01/14/presentation-press-briefing-of-the-interior-secretary-on-the-papal-visit

You can view Pope Francis' entire 5-day itinerary here:

http://pacifictimes.org/papalvisit/the-papal-visit-itinerary/

https://ph.news.yahoo.com/papal-itinerary--where-you-can-see-pope-francis-034226609.html

http://www.rappler.com/specials/pope-francis-ph/75019-pope-francis-philippines-schedule-itinerary

My screengrab of Pope Francis' arrival in the Philippines :) That's the President of the Philippines next to him.

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If you have access to television, you can tune in to any local channel and you'll see the live coverage of Pope Francis' first visit to the Philippines. No TV? The Philippine government has a live feed in YouTube, yay! You can view it below:

And if you love social media, you use the following hashtags to express support of the Pope's much-awaited visit:

#PopeFrancisPH

#PopeInPH

#ShowThePope

#DearPopeFrancis

#PapalVisitPH

#PopeFrancis

That's it pansit! Enough blogging and more Pope Francis-watching, haha!

the scariest moment of my life! :(

And it happened two hours ago (7:40pm GMT+8). Our family of 4 had just finished dinner in the basement area of SM Megamall and was waiting for our bill. I was facing the entrance of Mannang / Mann Hann restaurant when I noticed that a lot of people were running toward the stores. I thought there was a celebrity but the running was frantic, and the security guards were also running (to the direction of the incident). I told hubby to look; the restaurant staff and the other customers noticed the commotion too. We got up to get our credit card from the counter so we can go out of the mall before something bad happens.

But then suddenly a waiter pulled down the metal door of the restaurant and we were in lockdown (pic at right). The diners were in panic mode, and we moved to the back of the resto, near the kitchen and waited for some news of what's happening. That moment I hated Globe / Blackberry coz I had no internet connection (on top of my postpaid plan, I had to subscribe to a BB internet plan which will raise my phone bill 100% and I couldn't afford it). I felt so helpless coz I cannot get any info! What if the people were running because there's a fire and we were trapped inside the restaurant?! You can't make the right survival choices without information :(

honeymoon chronicles: sea creatures and robots

WARNING: LONG POST AND PHOTO OVERLOAD AHEAD!

And the honeymoon posts are back! =) So far, we're in Day 3 (yeah, I'm so effin' slow!). As earlier posted, Labsie and I started our day early in Salcedo's Saturday Market and by 8am, we were back in our condo for a second breakfast.  After resting and showering, we headed to our second destination of the day: Manila Ocean Park! This was around 10am and we were both super excited for our "ocean appreciation tour" ^_^ Labsie and I love anything water-related. He especially loves the ocean for its fishes and other sea creatures. Their family has a saltwater aquarium with Nemo (clown fish), anemones, and other colorful fishes. Labsie missed it so much that he asked Mama quite bluntly if he can build a saltwater aquarium in our home! LOL! Anyway the photos can enlarged (just click) and they have labels, just hover / mouse over them. Enjoy! ^_^

It was my second time in Manila Ocean Park (entrance fee is P400) but I was still taking pictures left and right with my SE k800i phone. I sooo love the pretty and weird fishes!! =) We took our time appreciating the rich marine life but we managed to finish within 2 hours. We were on tight schedule as we still have to go malling in the world's third largest mall, exploring the latest in science and movies, and experiencing Manila's famous sunset after. Anyhoo, on with the pictures! Not much photos of the fishes (and me!) coz we're still celebrating Labsie's 27th birthday -- so all you'll see is his face! Hehe! :-p BTW, can you guess where's the fish in the photo at the middle of the collage below??

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Around 12noon, we arrived in SM's Mall of Asia (MOA), the world's third largest mall. Instead of eating in the food court or in one of the numerous restaurants there (RACK's has a branch there!! We totally dig RACK's ribs!!), we found a cozy spot in one of the open air spaces / indoor park strewn in MOA. There, we ate our maki and other food from Salcedo's Saturday Market. It was refreshing to breath fresh air (sometimes tangy coz of the nearby Manila Bay) "inside" a mall! ^_^ After lunch, we explored MOA a bit but mostly we spent our time in bookstores browsing for books. Around 1pm, we went ahead to our 3rd destination of the day: SM Science Discovery Center! Woohoo! Can you tell we're nerds?? Oceanarium, bookstores, and now a science center! Sa honeymoon pa talaga, hehe!

SM Science Discovery Center (P350 entrance fee + freebie ice skating tickets and popcorn discounts) has over 400 exhibits in 10 galleries. Plus they have the Philippines' ONLY state-of-the-art Digistar Planetarium! Info about it is pictured above. This got me really excited coz the last time I was in a "planetarium" was in Pisay, more than 10 years ago! I can still remember watching the heavens lying down, while a voiceover droned on about the universe and its magnificence. I can't wait to experience it again! ^_^ Luckily, a show was scheduled at 120pm -- we only have to wait 20min! Woohoo! The planetarium shows start at 10am til 10pm, with 3 shows every 2 hours. Anyway, that's us below inside the dome-screened 158-seat Digistar Planetarium. The seats were reclined and the blue "screen" was 180 degrees, like half a globe above us.

As usual, we were with noisy kids. There was an excursion and the SM Science Discovery Center was crawling with grade school children! Gahh! Also, around this time, I was very feverish, dizzy and weak. I told Labsie that if I won't improve after taking my meds, we have to cancel our sunset dinner by Manila Bay and watching Superman in the IMAX Theater (also in MOA). I badly need to rest. Aside from this not-so-good news was another disappointment: the planetarium show wasn't about the planets and the stars! =( It was a short movie about the deep blue sea, its fishes and their bravery. Yup, it was cartoons in 3d! Tsk! Still, it was enjoyable especially since you were kinda "inside" the movie, the screen was a dome after all! All around me was the beautiful ocean and its creatures =) After the show, we enjoyed the Center's 10 galleries. Loved it all!!

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GROSSOLOGY: Learn about the icky stuff! From burps to slime to odors -- you're sure to learn about grossness the super fun way!

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ROBOTICS: Two galleries -- Robot Inc. and Lego Mindstorms Robotics Center (closed when we were there). The former gallery features the famous mechanical and electronic wonders, shows you the historical evolution of robots, and the importance of machines.

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TRANSPORTATION NATION: Build your own car (see photo below), the first automobile (owned by Pilipinas Shell), Philippines' own solar-powered car (Sinag), Segway and prototypes of future cars and transportation solutions. Labsie had lots of fun here! GUYS!

SPACESHIP EARTH: Pictured in the small photos below. "Know what's happening and what needs to be done to save the world!"

Other galleries not pictured: Lifeclock (factoids about Internet, send emails to the future), ImagePort (learn everything about the camera!), SMART Media City (free internet and PC games, experience the latest software and digital trends, play CG games), Virtual Reef (too dark to take photos; a fish will "talk" to you, so fun!), and City Science (earthquake simulation, TALL scaled models of the world's tallest buildings).

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By the time we finished exploring SM Science Discovery Center, I was very weak. I also felt very cold and couldn't imagine sitting over 2 hours inside an air-conditioned IMAX theater =( So we decided to go home.. But before that, we bought dinner first. I cannot cook in my condition and Labsie has absolutely no idea how to cook! Hehe! And since we were quite feeling low (I really wanna have a sunset dinner!!), we lifted our spirits by splurging on food -- in SBARRO!!! We got yummy veggie salad, creamy spiral pasta, HUGE stuffed pizza, and bread"sticks" -- carbo-loading to the max! Thus, despite me being sick and us missing IMAX movie-watching and Manila Bay's sunset, Day 3 ended on a happy note! ^_^ Nothing like good food to drown all your sorrows eh? Hehe!

 

ALL PHOTOS taken with my Sony Ericsson k800i ^_^       (except for the Astroboy photo pala!)

i'm back in davao! =)

After my family's Tagaytay trip (April 23-25), we toured Manila's newest attractions next. Last Saturday (April 26), we went to Manila Ocean Park (entrance fee is P450 for adults, credit cards accepted) which was really super super great! After seeing ocean parks in HK and Subic, I can definitely say the one in Manila is the biggest! =) I just hope the owners can sustain it. I will post videos and more photos when I have the time. I'm busy planning a wedding (and preparing for a medical board review) you know, hehe!

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Then on Sunday, we went to Malabon Zoo -- they got BIGGER fishes than in Manila Ocean Park! Of course, I got my picture taken with their famous monkey, Marimar -- teehee! ^_^ Then from Monday to Wednesday (April 28-30), my mom and I traversed the seedier (and definitely cheaper) side of Metro Manila. We scoured for wedding supplies in Divisoria (must go-to is Ylaya / Ilaya and Tabora streets) and Quiapo (lots of bead stuff in Villalobos street). My tip? Ask for an item's wholesale (6pcs) price coz often, the price is just 1/2 to 1/3 of the given price! o_O Anyway I'm now back in Davao -- and in 2 weeks' time, my medical board review will officially start! Gahh!

breakup survey!

FYI, I never had a breakup but it would be stupid not to answer dNeero's survey and not earn right?? LOL! Enjoy! By the way, I'm blogging from my dad's office in Pandacan, Manila. I'll be in the nation's capital for 1 week to scour the cheapest wedding supplies in Divisoria and Tutuban. If you have some wedding tips and such, give me a holler! Oh, and our wedding blog is at www.solito-elbanbuena.info =) Go visit!

BLUE ROSE!

Early last year, I read that science finally 'invented' a blue rose. The scientists modified some color genes to achieve the long desired blue hue. Early November, I finally saw the coveted BLUE roses in a flower stall in Mall of Asia (fronting the Human shop). I couldn't resist taking a pic, bahala na mapag sabihan na jologs! Hehe!Ü

Manila Bay sunset

Finally I'm able to witness the world-famous Manila Bay sunset! The SM Mall of Asia offers a great view of the spectacular sunset that had many admirers even from foreign countries. In fact, when I took this photo, there were several foreigners also taking pictures. Sweet! One thing I can say, I'm proud to be Pinoy!