Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one! — Brad Paisley
Let me take this opportunity to thank all the people who has been a part and made the pages of my year 2019 complete. And to all those who I am to meet next year, please take it easy on me.
Happy New Year! — from me and Nengkoy (my mom)
I wish for more love, happiness and success to every one of us. Remember to believe in yourself, be an inspiration to others and have an awesome New Year every one!
While the internet is now bombarded with New Year predictions and resolutions, I want to instead give an advice to all folks this coming New Year. I only have one word (repeated 3 times) as an advice. It’s “Moisturize! Moisturize! Moisturize!”
I want all human beings to look good and look young for the rest of the New Year! So moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!
But seriously, aside from its awesome aesthetic benefit, the act and process of skin moisturizing can actually be multi-yielding. The rubbing of cream on your skin can be paralleled to being a “Me Time” concept. It is an opportunity to have time for yourself so as to reduce stress and restore energy. Thus, moisturizing is one circumstance of thinking and caring for oneself. It can be a way to enrich ones self-esteem!
can’t imagine a world without moisturizer!
Moisturizing cream does not simply fall from the heavens or can be picked incessantly from a fruit bearing tree. These pricy facial serum, night creams and body lotions are not basic human needs. These may actually be the last item you may want to buy out from your hard-earned money. Thus, you need to have extra money to moist and nourish the largest organ of your body. Therefore, my one-worded advice can be construed as folks needing to work harder this New Year to earn the needed extra gravy for your skin. Work hard!
Lastly, the end result of moisturizing can make you feel good. And when you feel good, you can effortlessly establish inner confidence and upbeat attitude which will eventually exude and radiate to other people. You can then be a channel of positive thinking and optimistic attitude this year.
So follow my advice, “moisturize, moisturize, moisturize”. Because if you do, I am so sure, you will be happy and laugh the loudest at the end of the year! Hahaha!
I love receiving gifts and I had loads of it this Christmas! This blog post would become too long if I am to actually list each awesome gift one by one. Let me nevertheless show my heartfelt appreciation by extending my sincere thanks and gratitude to all of you amazing people. You know who you are.
But have you ever contemplated on which gift you receive this Christmas as the weirdest and most eccentric? The gift that is so bizarre it makes you laugh and chuckle because it is so you? I got one this year!
got my face printed on those socks! who on earth would think of doing that?!
hahaha! perfect fit!
My nephews Miguel and Gabriel gave me the weirdest looking pair of socks this year. Both of them I guess knows that I have the strange tendency for an excessive egotism and high-level of self-adulation! And as soon as I opened their gift and saw what it was, I was laughing so hard! These pair of socks is so me literally and figuratively!
Thank you Miggy and Gabby. I looove it!
With a couple of days to go, I guess everybody now are contemplating on how the year 2019 had been. This is now the typical time when people are thrilled and excited on what the New Year has to offer.
be in style in 2020
This also is the usual time when people receive gifts from friends and colleagues for a desk calendar, a notebook organizer or a journal planner. I for one has been receiving these items every single year. Yet regrettably it fail to organize my life! I still chase those big dreams and pursue the pursuit of happiness.
And like every year, I again received a planner, a desk calendar in particular. And while doing my long and arduous skin care, I happen to notice a small portion on this desk calendar where you got to write down your goals for each month.
With inflated optimism and pent up enthusiasm, I filled out the first 3 months of the desk calendar. With scoops of anti-aging facial moisturizer dirtying my pen, this is what I have written….
january 2020
february 2020
march 2020
Let me greet you this early a very awesome New Year. I hope everyone will Be In Style this New Year!
May you have an absolutely beautiful Christmas and amazingly prosperous New Year!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Visiting and journeying to an out-of-country place entails a lot of readings and research. I would usually explore the internet on how to go the cheapest and most convenient way so as to reach my hotel from the airport – should I go by train, by taxi, by bus or by other modes of transportation.
Because I turn “budgetarian” when I travel abroad, it is a must that I have to know the Philippine peso conversion rate to that of the currency of the country I am to visit. It is also essential to know the weather so that I can plan what appropriate clothes to bring.
I don’t join expensive, tiring and time consuming tour groups unless it is for free. I would simply research on various tour packages and do it myself. My point of reference during my DIY expedition of tourist spots are the hordes of Chinese tourists. As soon as I see them, I know that I am in the right place.
I do my own touring and not join tour groups because aside from its being cheap, I can control the time being spent on these tourist spots. I can leisurely stay as long as I want or simply pass by if such a sightseeing spot is plain and mediocre.
One classic case of venturing into a DIY-tour as based and followed from an online tour package was my touring the interesting metro stations in St. Petersburg, Russia. Available in the internet are tour packages wherein you got to be see and experience various beautiful underground metro stations within St. Petersburg dubbed as masterpieces of underground architecture. This 90-minute duration tour package is worth 33 US dollars per participant.
Pushkinskaya station
I spent only 45 rubles or 75 US cents when I did it by myself! 45 Rubles is the entrance fee to get inside the metro train system! Hahaha! Here are some of the photos I took when I did my own touring of the most beautiful metro stations in the world!
Ploshchad Vosstaniya station
Kirovsky Zavod station
Avtovo station
Here’s a video slideshow to further entice you to go on a DIY journey!
One of the many highlights of my St. Petersburg, Russia adventure was the visit to the magnificent Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. This icon had so much history in it as well as an overwhelming visual treat!
glorious!
One unique attribute of the amazing interiors is that the design on the walls were not paintings but intricate work of fastening and gluing together colorful tiny-tiny tiles so as to create massive and extravagant mosaics. As I enter, there was a spine-tingling sensation because of the visual indulgence that this church offers.
Though I did not have the time and facility to measure, I found out in my readings that the interior’s breathtaking mosaic covers a total of 23,130 square feet, considered to be one of the largest in Europe. Can you just imagine the amount of time, passion and creativity it took to create this massively handsome building?
unbelievable!
i don’t know but this brings chills in me
sensory overload!
stunning!
selfie
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is not all appearances. It was actually born out of an assassination that shook Russia. This monumental structure was built on the very spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by a group of revolutionaries who threw bomb at the Tsar’s royal carriage. And in honor of his father, Tsar Alexander III built this insanely gorgeous-looking church. Thus, making this beautiful building a marker of significant history.
Now, have a visual feast from the video I created.
I happen to bumped into one quirky superstition while reading articles and editorials online about Russia’s cultural capital, St. Petersburg. One irrational belief by the locals is about the magical powers of the huge and hard-to-miss Atlas sculptures near the Hermitage, one of the striking and imposing symbols of this lovely city.
The Sculptures of Atlas has been around since 1848 and surprisingly stayed standing even during the bomb-filled events of the Great Patriotic War. Because of obtaining only minor damage during the war, locals reaffirmed on the unorthodox mystical nature of these sculptures.
super massive sculptures of atlas! look at how small people has become at the lower left portion of this image.
proof! hahaha!
People now would troop to these sculptures to touch the toes of Atlas which is believed to bring protection to those who rub it. Also, locals and tourists alike come to the area to hold the big toes of Atlas because it is believed that it will bring good luck as well as make their wishes come true.
I actually got the chance to pass by three times in the area. And three times did I go up so as to touch the wishing toe of Atlas. One actually already came true prior to touching the wishing toe. It is the awesome blessing sent by the heavens of seeing, feeling and smelling the charming city of St. Petersburg, Russia!
Here’s a video slideshow of photos & clips I took during my exploit with the Sculptures of Atlas.
Craving, salivating and hankering. These are the major emotions and sensations that builds up when I had to control myself from entering the Winter Palace and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Though just a stone throw away from my hotel, I had to postpone my entry into the former winter residence of Catherine the Great as well as the world’s second largest art museum. I had to wait and properly time myself so that my entry would basically be FREE and complimentary. Thus, in the first few days of my stay in St. Petersburg, I was left to drool and gaze outside the magnificent palace.
I was lucky enough that my journey to St Petersburg, Russia fell on the 3rd week of the month. And very few tourists know that on every 3rd Thursday of each month, entrance to the Winter Palace and the Hermitage is free. Thus, I had to wait and postpone my visit for me to avail of the free entry.
i was one with the locals
grand!!!
majestic!!!
And when the 3rd Thursday of the month arrived, I was one with the multitudes of people who patiently lined up so as to get inside the famous palace. And what is so amusing and amazing about my queuing and falling in line is that I was with the many locals who well-planned their visit. I guess only the locals knew about the free entrance.
I was unlike the usual and clueless tourist who paid for their expensive ticket online so as to cut through the queue and enter right away. Patient and unwearied locals lined-up were actually telling me (in broken English) to simply show my printed online ticket to the guard so that I can pass through and enter the palace right away. I simply smiled and told them that just like them, I am without a ticket.
regal!!!
imperial!!!
opulent!!!
And upon entry, you would really feel the true sophisticated Russian vibe. Its aristocracy, its grandness as well as the splendor of Russian elegance indeed resonates within the walls and exhibits of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage.
Here’s a glimpse of the free yet super grand Winter Palace & the Hermitage.
Di ba nakakatakot? A question if translated in English would be “Isn’t it scary?” This is the very question I often hear and receive from people and friends who found out that I have recently been to St. Petersburg, Russia.
Well, my usual answer would be… “It is a beautiful place in that side of the planet.”
who wouldn’t want to smile with such a blessing?
Here’s a glimpse of my Day 2 at St. Petersburg.
Nengkoy 