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Showing posts from June, 2014

Heritage Houses in Vigan, Ilocos Sur

Fred and I both have a thing for looking at old houses. More specifically, old Spanish houses. Our penchant for this architectural beauty began long before we met. When I was a pre-teener, I would always stop and linger for a while whenever I see Spanish houses. I remember there was one along the street where I grew up. And there was another on the way to school. A rich classmate lived there and his stories of his Spanish grandmother's extravagant parties and condescending attitude were reminiscent of my childhood's after-school days. Because the house was so big that it stretched over half the street, my other classmates and I found joy in walking along its beautiful garden. We didn't drop by to enjoy the flowers but to get a good glimpse of what's inside that old mansion. Sadly, befriending the caretaker and the gardener and convincing our rich classmate that we wouldn't be over five minutes inside his house were all futile ways of getting past that elusi

Bible Verse #12: Bearing Fruits

Baluarte in Vigan, Ilocos Sur

With all the time I have because it's my kids' summer vacation, I should have blogged all month long but I still didn't. I may be a lousy blogger but there's one thing about me that's kind of helping me post better things here. I'm not a lousy vacationer, that is. I have this insatiable hunger for checking out new places and trying out new cuisines. This year, we spent more than a month in the Philippines. A month and three days, to be exact. First on our travel itinerary was the Northern Philippine provinces getaway. That's because we received a birthday invitation from friends who live in Pangasinan and a get-together/house visit invitation from another friend who lives in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur. These are the times I appreciate our OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) life. We get to meet people from all over the Philippines and get invited to visit them when our vacation coincide with theirs. After attending a birthday celebration on Day 1, we left for Ilo