Food Trip - Tagaytay
First stop, Sonya’s Bed and Breakfast.
Even if you end up hating the food, the dining experience is enough reason for me to come back again.The restaurant area is huge and full of light so it’s good for photo opps. We spent Php1240 (Php620/head) for unlimited fresh green salad, homebaked bread with assorted dip (tomato, basil pesto, anchovies, etc), pasta, fresh dalandan juice (very refreshing!), chocolate cake, mini-turon and tea. We love the food and will definitely go back again. In fact, it’s the only meal that we really enjoyed in Tagaytay.
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Buon Giorno
Typical italian fare. Nice ambience too. We would’ve love to stay outside but it was already dark when we went there.
Insalata Caesar - Romaine lettuce brought to life with fresh parmesan cheese flakes, grilled chicken strips and a subtle bite of garlic
Spaghetti Vongole e Gamberetti -Spaghetti served with clams and shrimps
Osso Bucco
Price is not bad, in fact it’s very affordable. Although the salad and pasta we’re a hit, for me and Sandy at least, the osso bucco was just okay.
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Verbena (Discovery Suites)
Spent my birthday dinner here. Lovely interior, romantic place, a bit dark for photos, and expensive too. (kaya di siguro ako nasarapan hehe)
Organic Mozzarella Cheese Pot- Served “fondue style” with spiced tomato sugo, fresh Tagaytay herbs and warm focaccia
Organic salad
Sandy was very tired when we ate here so Sherwin and I took turns in distracting her by walking around the place.
(No photos) Black Peppered Fetuccini - love this. With garlic, bacon, portabello mushroom
Grilled Austalian Lamb Chops - just okay. I wasn’t able to appreciate it because Sandy was getting antsy.
I felt a little bad too because Sandy didn’t want to eat or even try anything except for the tomatoes on the salad and steak. We asked the waiter if we can order some tomatoes for Sandy so they served her 10 baby tomatoes LOL.
She only brightened up when dessert came. I forgot what it’s called but it’s very similar to Sentro’s triple choco mousse. The dessert was worth the price, by the way.
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When we couldn’t go out because of the weather, we eat at Taal Vista’s restaurant. The prices would’ve been okay if only there were more variety. The musicians serenading you while you eat is a nice touch, though. Sandy looks for them all the time whenever we eat at the hotel.
Buffet Breakfast at Taal Vista
Very filling. I really love buffet breakfasts. The first stage for me is choosing the bread, cereals (cornflakes or bran), pastry, blueberry pancakes, fruits. The second part consist of bacons, sausages, garlic rice, more bread, corned beef or beef tapa, omelet (mushroom, green bell peppers), fresh green salads. Dessert is next and don’t forget refillable coffee and fruit juices.
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We ate at McDonalds when we got stranded too. Then just before we head back to Manila, we had a quick breakfast at Bag O’ Beans.
Their pancakes are huge, that’s all I can say!
Our Tagaytay Getaway - Accommodation
Okay, so even if it rained like crazy last weekend, I can still say that we had so much fun. We have so many photos but I’ll just share with you my favorites and stories behind them. If you want to see all the photos, visit my Flickr.
Where we stayed
Taal Vista Hotel
We booked their Deluxe room online at Php 7,200 a night. It has a nice view of Taal Lake and big enough for a toddler who wants to run around.
I love this place because there’s so much stuff to do. The food is good; musicians will serenade you while you dine, a big grassy area for the little one, a playroom, entertainment room (darts and billiards), huge swimming pool, and a view deck for photo opps.
View deck of Taal Vista
The view from our room
Whenever we stay in hotels, we always look forward to the buffet breakfast.
Yes, I ate all of them and more.
I’ve heard and read so many bad reviews about the staff of Taal Vista but we didn’t encounter any problems while we were there. Everyone was ready to serve you and they were all polite and accommodating. And when we got stranded, we were offered a cheaper room (Superior) for only Php2, 999 (original rate is Php5, 000++). When we were about to switch rooms, the reservation officer said we can stay in our current room for the same price. Great deal huh!
Their business center is a bit shabby, with only two computers inside. Maybe it’s because you are expected to bring your laptop? I do like to copy the way they used an HDMI wall plate to organize the cables. Internet fee is Php 2.00/hour btw.
To end this post, I highly recommend Taal Vista Hotel if you’re staying with kids. It’s way more cheaper than Discovery Suites and definitely more spacious than Boutique.
Next post - food trip!
Happy Birthday to me
Yes, binagyo ng sobra ang birthday ko. But it’s okay. It always rains whenever we’re out of town. And because we couldn’t see the roads anymore, we had to stay one more night.
OO nga pala, thanks for the greetings people! Will be posting lots of photos in the next couple of days. 
Happy Day
I’ve had enough of being sick today. I’ll just post this photo to cheer myself up.
This was taken yesterday when we visited Sandy’s newest cousin, Adrienne. It was also my father’s 56th birthday so we had a mini family get together too. I know I should’ve at least bought Adrienne a baby gift basket but we were too busy last Saturday to get one. It’s been four months since I last saw my parents. I missed them a lot and I’ve been feeling guilty about not visiting them often so I promised myself to visit them at least once a month from now on. Too bad I was sick so we had to get home early. And thanks to The Husband and my brother’s nonstop stories about paranormal beings, my dreams last night were filled with white ladies and poltergeists.
Bed Time!
After two and a half years of not sleeping beside The Husband, we finally decided to demote Sandy to her own bed.
Well, not really. We just bought her a nice mattress from Uratex and moved the folding bed to the other side of the room. We then bought bed sheets, Barbie and Little Mermaid. She chose them including the blankets, btw.
She’s so excited to sleep on her own bed that she fell asleep on her own the first night. Of course, The Husband couldn’t be happier because he can now say bye bye to backaches and the super added bonus is that he can now sleep beside me . 
Herbert the Horse
Here’s the little girl riding her friend “Herbert” last Saturday at Avilon Zoo (she has a name for all animals, thanks to her Papa).
Extra yung kamay ko, of course. I was so afraid that she would fall. She didn’t like to ride at first but eventually, she enjoyed it. She was even moving her body forward to urge the horse to go faster. She also said, “mommy I want to run”. O di ba, I’m one proud momma.
The animals were beautiful but the place was soooo huge. We spent five hours including breaks and we didn’t even get to visit all the places. I was yawning all the time and there was a moment when I thought I was going to faint from exhaustion and heat. Sobrang init grabe kala mo sinusunog ka! Good thing Sandy was behaved. She got tired also (who wouldn’t) that on the last few hours, she was just looking at the photos instead of the animals. Plus her silly Alice crocs (both red and brown) gave her blisters again (see the band aid?). I tell you I’m gonna sue Crocs!
Term Life
I’m currently shopping for term life insurance for my parents. I’ve read about it online but I’m not sure if something like this is available locally. This is different from the usual life insurance because with term life insurance, you can choose a specific period of time when you will be insured. A good basis for this is the age of your child or the number of years remaining before you can finish your mortgage. It’s also the cheapest insurance coverage with the same benefits and returns that you will get from a normal life insurance.
Insured
Since we’re looking to buy a car in the next two months, I think I should allocate a budget for car insurance as well. As if our budget wasn’t small enough LOL. But you just can’t be too sure these days. I’ve read that even top establishments are not immune to carnapping. I’m sure The Husband will insist on getting one too to protect his new pride and joy.
Last Week’s Ordeal
- Sandy was having projectile vomiting last Monday afternoon so I took her to Makati Med to find out what’s wrong. They discharged her five hours after with orders to make her drink pedialite
She hasn’t been taking anything for the last five hours so I thought it’s okay to give her a small sip of my iced tea. She threw them up as well. - At home, she wasn’t able to take pedialite or any food. Kept on throwing everything up so we decided to bring her to UST where her pedia, also The Husband’s auntie, holds her clinic.
- We were admitted around 12:30 am and had an IV inserted on my poor little girl. She didn’t cry a lot, perhaps because she was too dehydrated and just didn’t have the strength to fight us.
- We spent four days after that, monitoring Sandy’s food intake, vomit and poop. It was tiring, stressful and the bed that Sandy and I shared was so high I feel like falling every five minutes.
- We went home last Friday afternoon. Sandy lost a lot of weight but perfectly okay as I write this.
Things I’m thankful for:
- Just like what Aggie loves to say, “buti na lang may maxicare”. In our case, it’s Asian Life but you get the picture
- For big rooms. If we didn’t choose the biggest room, we’d probably have gone crazy trying to “live” in a small space
- My good kid. Although stubborn, Sandy knew it wasn’t the right time to argue with her parents. She didn’t try to remove her IV, never played with it, and tried her best not to move her “sleeping hand”. She requested twice to have it removed but accepted later on it just won’t happen.
- Mcdo and KFC
- Good, dependable yaya. Ate Arlene just made everything easier for us. She’s smart and knows what to do. She also went back and forth from UST to Paranaque to get clothes / stuff and even washed Sandy’s soiled clothes.
- Family. My mom, brother and Sandy’s cousin Gabby visited. It lifted up Sandy’s spirits and even if she was complaining of pain on her arm, she got all bright and bushy tailed upon seeing her visitors. Sherwin’s mom tried to visit but unfortunately got stuck in an explosion near UST and had to go back home.
- Understanding clients and bosses. A lot of them said prayers and kept on texting if Sandy’s okay
- Last but not the least, breastfeeding. I don’t know what I would do without it. Everything is just so much easier, from comforting Sandy to putting her to sleep to making her pain go away.
Fas-yon
It seems that everything that my youngest brother-in-law buys lately are those tight funny t-shirts in loud colors. Pair it with skinny jeans and his EMO outfit is complete LOL. It’s probably the latest trend in his school so I’m not in the position to critique. Good thing he’s one handsome man, (or should I say boy?) or he won’t be able to carry it well. His taste in shoes are way better though, thanks to The Husband who makes sure to strongly recommend (translation: force) what to buy. Main reason is just so that he can borrow them LOL.
Little Miss
Photos from Ate Gabby’s party.
They just look adorable together.
Don’t you just love Sandy’s pose? Straight body, one leg raised, not looking at the camera.
She’s gotten so big. When she was a baby, I kept on wishing that she’ll grow up faster so it will be easier for me to take care of her. But now, my baby is all gone. Next thing I know, we’ll be applying for student loans or preparing for her wedding LOL.
The Great Outdoors
I’ve always wanted to go camping. The Husband and I went to this island in Boracay on our first honeymoon and I dreamed of sleeping on the beach, with only the stars as our light. Since then, I’ve been checking out tents and other camping gears just in case a trip like that will ever come up. I saw this Eureka Tetragon 8 tent from ThompsonOutdoors.com and liked how durable it looks. It says it has a shockcorded fiberglass frame, a brimmed rear window that allows ventilation and a bathtub floor that can protect you from splashing rain. It sleeps four people so it will be spacious enough for the three of us. You can never be too careful when camping with a toddler, right? I know it’s not advisable to camp with a two year old but I saw a blogger who posted their camping trip with their one-year-old girl and they had a blast. So I’m sure I can convince my husband to do the same as long as we have the necessary equipments. Seeing all the camping gears being sold at ThompsonOutdoors.com just makes me excited even more. This site specializes in outdoor supplies and even have its own Outdoor Sports And Survival Gear section for those who want to brave the wild.
Wish I have 36 hrs a day
Don’t we all? It’s just so hard to balance work, parenting, hobbies and sleep. I have so many ideas and things that I want to accomplish everyday but no matter what I do, I can’t even finish 50% of my list.
Anyway, here are the photos from New Year’s Eve. I might never find the time again if I don’t post them now.
Sandy in her moon and stars outfit.
Me and Sandy working on our facial expressions. She loves to change her face from sad, happy, angry, all thanks to Barney.
Watching the fireworks outside the house. When I saw how quiet the little girl was, I cheered her up by telling her the shapes and colors form the fireworks. When I told her “look, a purple mushroom!”, she answered by saying, “A potato! A flower! A rainbow!” LOL. Btw, I love this batch with the fireworks. It wasn’t that dark because of my mom-in-law’s outdoor lighting so the pictures turned out great.
And another photo of cousin Chloe of course. She’s just a darling. It’s her veil that Sandy used on the last post.
That’s it for now. I know I promised lots of stories and photos but that will have to wait. I’ve been taking lots of typical Sandy photos for the last couple of days so you will see some of them soon.
Have a good day!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
More stories and photos later.
Christmas Update
Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had a blast! Ours was amazing even though I wasn’t able to push through with some of my plans (wear santa outfit for Sandy, put up Christmas socks). We have tons of pictures so expect this blog to be flooded by them until January 2008 The photos below were taken on Christmas eve after the mass. Sandy didn’t sleep until 2AM because she was so high and happy from all the gifts that she got. Her current favorite is the fairy wand from Bel.
A nice photo with cousin Chloe.
Riot
The first gift
This is me opening a surprise gift from The Husband and Sandy
With my in-laws
Sandy’s loot
On Christmas day, we just visited my parents house. We were very tired and didn’t have the strength to go anywhere else so we decided to go home early. Almost all of the gifts have been given away except for a few that I’m not sure if we’ll ever have time to meet. We’re sooo poor right now but very happy!
Thanks to everyone who visited and greeted us through my blog! I’ll try to visit each and every blog as soon as I can get my groove back
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About Joy
I am Dzoi, a 28 year old Filipina who currently works as a web designer. I am a loving wife to my equally loving husband Sherwin and a mommy cow to my 2-year-old daughter, Sandy.
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