I made this list four months ago. Much of it has changed now, thanks to TF!

Presenting this year’s newest list of places to go before the year ends:

1. Mt. Pinatubo
2. Vigan & Laoag
3. Dumaguete, Apo Island, Siquijor
4. Bantayan Island, Virgin Island, Malapascua

Reserved for next year:
5. Camiguin & CDO
6. Palawan
7. Boracay

Life continues.

I had the best time taking pictures of her at Vigan, the Burgos Lighthouse, Bagui Windmills, Blue Lagoon, and Villa Angela. The search was on for the best Multiply head shot for her, lol. She asked me what was my favorite part of the heritage tour, by which I answered, everything. Everything involved taking pictures of her after all.

But to really answer that question, it would still depend on whether I was able to take home a good photograph from that place and sure enough, there were too many to mention. On the top of my list would be the Bagui Windmills, followed by Calle Crisologo of Vigan, Cape Bojeador, Blue Lagoon, the Bantay Bell Tower, and Paoay Church.

Visiting Ilocos is like a love affair—-my heart and past belongs to Manila, but I cannot help but fall in love with Vigan, Laoag, or Pagudpod. The good food, endearing places, warm and friendly faces are worth stealing time for.

So it is. I’m glad I stole time with her.

Each photo tells a story of the moments I spent with friends and the lover. If I have posted any of our encounters online, it only means one thing—-I absolutely enjoyed the lunch and/or dinner with you.

Dining out is like hitting three birds with one stone. I get to enjoy the company of the people I love while doing the two things I love the most—-eating and taking photographs of food!

I feel very lucky for getting the opportunity to try as many restaurants as I possibly can with the people that matter most. Though I know I’m not earning what I deserve right now, I make the most of every meetup with my meager income. Thanks too for my friends who allow me to take pictures of their orders, hee!

Sometimes, I get impatient whenever I cannot try the next restaurant on my “must try” list. Everything will fall into place, I hope. I need to regulate dining out anyway because I’ve been adding more pounds than shedding less of it, haha! I’m thankful the lover doesn’t mind.

To Vigan and Pagudpod this weekend with my girlfriend!

Here’s a fact—I already knew how to read bedtime stories even before I went to preschool (and no, I didn’t go to kinder or nursery at all). Then, it was Reader’s Digest that helped me become an avid lover of writing and reading.

There were my English teachers back in HS and college too. Ms. Roux (AA) and Ma’am Añonuevo (MC) were very hard to please. These were professors that screamed right on my face, Eden. You’re an absolute crap in grammar and sentence construction. Get a life.

If they hadn’t said that (no, they didn’t say that, but you get what I mean), I probably would still be full of myself until now.

I was a HS freshman in a new co-ed Montessori. It’s library, was absolutely nothing compared to Assumption’s. Literally. All it had were dilapidated and not to mention very old issues of Reader’s Digest.

Worn and torn RD issues which I devoured every break time, until there was nothing left to read. I loved and savored every moment I had for a chance to finish all the available copies. I enjoyed leafing through the pages, crying, gasping, and challenging myself with the RD Word Challenge of course (I think Sudoku was non-existent then or it made itself completely invisible from me, hehe).

It was a legacy I continued until I reached second year college. Every break time or while I was waiting for my dad to pick me up from school, I would go to our library in MC and go over the old issues of Reader’s Digest.

I would come across familiar issues and smile.

Wait, let me digress a bit. To give you a short background, I went to AA from Grade 2 to 6. Studied in a co-ed school from 1st-2nd year HS as my parent’s bleak attempt to hitch me out of 7th grade. We were getting poorer every minute because of its exorbitant tuition fees. Well. Whatdoyouknow. In order to get back to AA, I had to take 7th grade after all. So, the nuns said, either I repeat 2nd year HS in AA or I don’t get admitted at all.

To repeat it is. Parents are love.

Anyway, it’s been weeks since I’ve actually finished a book from start to finish. It’s kinda odd. I miss throwing a frenzy over going to Fully Booked and impulsively buying books I haven’t even heard of. I’ve come to realize that travel and photography goes first these days, though I’d love, love to start reading again.

I glance back at July 2008’s issue of RD today and I feel blessed knowing that after eight years, I finally get monthly issues of it and make sure that I still do what I did eight years ago…

Never stop reading it until I’ve finished it cover to cover.

Last night, my dad picked me up from the office. Then I picked mom from the mall. Then, we went to Katipunan where we picked my sister from her university. Afterwards, we bought one meal in McDo, which my mom, sister, and I shared. As much as I insisted that I was on a diet, I succumbed to the smell of potato fries and my mom sharing her chicken wing with me (we just reconciled that day and I was really happy when I finally saw her smile again).

Our nation is flailing in every way. That night, I saw how even my parents were struggling with their finances. We just shared one super value meal! Despite that though, I felt happier than us dining at a fancy restaurant, which we have stopped doing altogether since I started working.

I would say, despite everything that transpired yesterday, the few moments I spent with my parents and sibling was the highlight of the day. I was wrapped in an enormous blob of love and support that I know I can rely on ’til the end of time (always have, from the very beginning). It is definitely something that neither friends nor lovers can provide; Something that can withstand the test of time and yes, economic strife.

I believe that love songs are meant for these moments alone.

It was the birthday celebration of Lola Diding yesterday and unfortunately, I hardly participated except during dinner time (I will never miss Tito Allan’s cooking for the world). I was inside my room the whole time resting and dreaming of going to the Sanctuary Spa at Maya-Maya. (I hope the latter pushes through this Saturday. A full body massage is what I really, really, REALLY need right now.)

After gormandizing every morsel of Tito Allan’s infamous dishes on the dining table, Uncle Rolin invited me to sit down and have a one-on-one chat with him, lol. He started talking about me having a dual personality (disclaimer: he was not pertaining to a bipolar disorder or multiple personality disorder). Apparently, my relatives think I’m a completely liberated woman online compared to the modest and absolutely reticent lady they oftentimes see in person. Ha! Ha! Ha! I got you fooled didn’t I? Not. ;_;

I explained that I more boldly express myself through writing and it just so happened I’m good at it (I hope). I don’t share some bits and pieces about me all at once so perhaps, that’s were the liberated part chimes in. Some people get dumbfounded every time they discover I did this, I thought of that, wrote this, posted that (Oh God. Did this come from the entry I posted about loving my vagina?). Lol.

I think the best way to know me is to read my blog and witness how my life evolves from there. I more often that not choose to remain silent, to become the faithful wallflower in the crowd, churning the life within me, so I can spit them out to one tumultuous (or pedestrian) paragraph or two.

I am a writer after all.

A prickle of travail, exhaustion, astonishment, and sense of pride are swirling in my head and I cannot dust it off. If I have to act it out, you would have to see me laugh, cry, shout, and remain silent at the same time. Every time I recall my first and last glimpse of the crater, it feels as though I am letting go of the most valuable thing in my life.

In short, I cannot believe I was there, hiking, dipping in her flesh, and shamelessly taking disrobed pictures of her. I have not digested the fact that she caressed and swallowed me like a lover. The images in my head, the various angles and places I saw seem to me just a photograph, a sureal landscape I have only fantasized somewhere in the middle of the night.

After eight hours of grueling pain, I did it. I conquered Mt. Pinatubo.