Aicha Amano

Hi everyone! If you followed my other blog, you would know by now that I'm in Manila ( A Chuvaness.com gift to welcome me in Manila! ). This is a crazy, hectic, fast-paced city--descriptions of which are the exact opposite of what I would describe my hometown, Davao City.  Greencross and I have pooled our resources to start getting rooted in this city. We are renting this small and neat condo in Soho Residential Condominiums. He has just landed a job and I dearly hope that I follow suit, too. I have a job that I've set my sights on; I really, really like the job so I'm hoping for the best. I don't have friends here in Manila, yet (except folks from Davao who are also here, thank goodness for them!) but I'm hoping that in the next few months, that'll change, too. I'll take to blogging in the meantime. This is one of the Late Bloomer blog projects I will start on: " Healthy Hacks ", a series of posts dedicated to share with you some quick and healthy...

Good Morning, Paranaque! Hay naku , Manila, it's another one of your extremely blinding hot days. I'm in Manila you guys ! And everything is so busy and blinking and fast and noisy and fun and superlatively exciting! Since touching down last April 1st, everything has been strange. But you can't blame me, what's 10 days when compared to 26 years? All my life I've been in Davao. Suddenly, my plane lurched and landed (none too gently I may add) at the pristine NAIA. I've been busy getting acquainted with the Metro's jeep / bus routes and trainstops. Having always been a one-route jeepney girl for a good part of my life, I was mortified to find out that there were so many ways you can easily get lost in various transportation; Manila is HUGE, myged , and you can't even ask people for directions daw . And not like I can actually muster the courage to ASK them, because my Tagalog is still lilting and funny and probinsianic . If that's even a word hah...

I love my city and its diverse shops that feature local produce! One of my favorite businesses is Aloha Organic Garden , and I was happy to see them at last week's SM Eco Fair. Their booth was bursting with varieties of herb plants in colorful pots, and their famous organic products lined neatly in shelves. What's amazing about Aloha Organic Garden is the shop is down-to-earth in its simplicity and you can really tell that Koko Saljuga , Aloha Garden's owner(/entrepreneur/organic farmer/cook grill master/TV Personality) put a lot of effort in it in terms of caring for herbs. Aloha grows good, healthy plants to get the best harvests! I remember last year, Greencross surprised me with a little potted gift. I was searching for a Mint herb to grow and he found one via Aloha Organic Garden. I was quite so pleased to have a herb in our house, and Mint teas are pretty awesome! In just about 2 months, the little potted herb grew into quite the healthiest Mint bush I...

I had no right to buy stuff I didn't budget/allot for. But online cashless shopping makes it easy to waive that right. I went ahead and splurged. I bought four books from Blink.com.ph all for PHP1,000 (free shipping). I've been using their online book shopping portal quite a bit now, even just for browsing at least once a week. If you ask me, I personally think that Blink is a treasure trove for hard-to-find books that come really cheap (which is important for me!). I mean, you can always find "elusive" books--file a request from a local book chain or order from international shops--but goodluck with coughing up the $$$$ for it! I received my orders without a hitch and they were packaged quite nicely, each book wrapped individually in recycled brown paper. This is my second order from them and it is especially amazing that I almost always manage to find Japanese authors that I have always had a yearning to read. If you remember,  I got my first Junichir...

A PALACE OF GOLD? IN MY DAVAO? Relax, it's just Ryuma Coffee Shop . These gilded chairs seem like those furniture from The Grand Kremlin Palace at Moscow ! Really! Take it from  me, I have never been there. And while my companion was choosing our orders at the counter, I sat there peacefully like a Tsarina. There's nothing like elegance, sparkly things, and good food to make you think that, yeah, maybe this is what I deserve in life. That maybe, just maybe, this the place where I really belong. Not the plebian, working ant conditions I was accustomed to! This is my place! This is my throne! This is-- "Aich? Tara na. Let's go up."  So, there were a lot more of these gilded thrones chairs where they come from. There's also a second floor at the end of a flight of stairs with a red carpet that made me go "I want to come in here and go up the stairs with a ball gown on... AND MAYBE A TIARA!" Gosh, luxury slides all over...