Starbucks Downhill

My mom has been frequenting Tagaytay the past year, well, technically it's Batangas she's after, but she drops by Tagaytay often to shop and eat whenever she brings us or her friends. These are all because my father, decided after a long term devotion to his career as a Seaman, to now command a vessel that only sails within Asia. Mama visits him during their scheduled route to Philippines which means he does not have to wait long to see Mama, or me, or ate or his apos (he loves his apos too much you know), he just have to order his crew to sail to the Philippines and duct in Batangas shores (if that's how it works, lol). Anyway, back to our past trips, I somehow witnessed the construction progress of the new Starbucks along Calamba road. It looked really big and conveniently positioned to have the best view of Taal Volcano, or so I thought. 

Last weekend, we went to visit Tagaytay to give a mini tour to our guest, ate Yonyon. She is our relative from Canada who came home to Bohol for a vacation and squeezed in a quick sojourn with us in Manila before flying back to Canada. By afternoon it was coffee time! Mama was convinced that we should try out this new branch downhill.

 Starbucks Facade facing Calamba Road

The Parking lot is impressive, it has a very steep entrance though.

Parking Lot

It was a little cloudy when we got there but a nice calm weather kind of cloudy. The interior could probably accommodate an entire village, but the design is consistent with all other SB stores in the Philippines; variety of comfy couches in different sizes, wooden chairs and tables under hanging dappled lights (nice for studying), floor to ceiling glass windows, etc,. I thought it was passe so I took a shot of the back facade of the building leading to a viewing deck instead.

Back view

I love the idea of a viewing area apart from the ones at the balcony, and the little extra details that came with it like the lights between steps considering the guests going in and out of the viewing area at night time. 

We snatched my uber kaduper childhood friend, Mae on the way. Hehe! You can see her admiring the obstructed view of Taal Volcano. Seriously, there is no sign of the volcano anywhere you turn. There are two or three story town houses standing a little lower, adjacent to the viewing deck. Perhaps the location was not elevated enough, but the entire scenery is not that bad. If  you really want to hang out, get coffee or tea in Tagaytay and enjoy a good view of Taal Volcano, I suggest you go to the old branch near Rotunda or get a nice seat in the second floor balcony of this branch (that we were not able to take a good look at the time), you might get lucky.

Uber Kaduper Childhood Friend and the not-so-bad scenery

The feeling and looking touristas: Mama and ate Yonyon so busy tabiing (talking) with each other. We got a pretty large table at the far end of the outdoor patio, and enjoyed a little privacy in a busy coffee shop.

Mama and ate Yonton, Outdoor Patio Seat

You think my young at heart mother would take a rain check on the opportunity to get a jump shot beside the largest Starbucks signage in the Philippines yet? Nevaaaah. It might always look like she is standing in one foot in all her jump shots but she will not let anything pass. XD

Lookie: ate Yonyon and Mama's Jump shot. Oha! Oha!

You want to see it for yourself?

Starbucks Calamba Road, Tagaytay         

Barangay San Jose, Calamba Road

Tagaytay, Cavite                        

(046)512-0124
Operating hours:

Monday to Thurday    8:00am - 1:00am

Friday                      8:00am - 2:00am

Saturday                  6:30am - 2:30am

Sunday                    6:30am - 1:30am

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

The shortest tearjerker video ever and probably my personal favorite, most awaited movie for 2014.

Gus (played by Ansel Elgort) is just as I imagined him to be when I was reading the book back in December 2012. But I always thought of Hazel (played by Shailene Woodley) as thin, frail and perhaps a little smaller. I knew the actress from George Clooney's movie "The Descendants" and turns out Shailene Woodley was also Amy Juergens in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (2008). But she was smaller and younger back then. She grew taller I guess (or my judgment is playing tricks on me?) and looked a little different with short hair, in a good and mature way.

I really look forward to watching this movie because I cried a river while reading the book. It's a fact that a motion picture can't possibly capture all the readers' favorite parts and highlight everything at the level of their sky rocket high expectations, (because I have not seen one so far) but I definitely think this movie will not disappoint. Let's cross our fingers, Okay? 'kay. 

Favorites:

"No matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you can't go all the way around." - Swing set ad by Augustus and Hazel

*  *  *  *

“May I see you again?" he asked. There was an endearing nervousness in his voice.

I smiled. "Sure."

"Tomorrow?" he asked.

"Patience, grasshopper," I counseled. "You don't want to seem overeager. 

"Right, that's why I said tomorrow," he said. "I want to see you again tonight. But I'm willing to wait all night and much of tomorrow." I rolled my eyes. "I'm serious," he said. 

"You don't even know me," I said. I grabbed the book from the center console. "How about I call you when I finish this?"

"But you don't even have my phone number," he said.

"I strongly suspect you wrote it in this book." 

He broke out into that goofy smile. "And you say we don't know each other.” 

*  *  *  *

“Some people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said.

"Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.” 

*  *  *  *

“there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars”. 

New Face

Hello! It's been a long time. Oh, how I missed blogging. I know, I was out for quite a while but let me tell you, I've been itching --like a crazy woman with severe Psoriasis, to write something, I just didn't have the time. So now that I could spare some gold, I decided to change the face of my blog. Tadaaah! From the oldy old "Epiphany" which was the original title of my microblog in Multiply (back when it was hot as Global Warming) to "Epiphany and Whatnot" (first blogger title page) and eventually this:

GellyBelly's: Silly Giggles

I added "Gelly Belly's" and got my sister to create some sort of logo out of it just to highlight my new blog address. The battle between "Gellyshoso's" and "GellyBelly's" for my blog address was a blood bath, well, in my head that is. I was not sure if changing my signature ID is a smart thing to do, since almost all of my social networking accounts have the same ID -- Gellyshoso. I am still unsure, but I went with it anyway. The outcome is pretty much to my liking. :) I might change it back in the future though (I knoooooww, damn you womanhood!). 

My sister, Ate Ann, was generous to design a couple more logos.

Thank you Ate Ann! Kiss! :-x

I took careful considerations to all these, but I decided to keep 'Silly Giggles' simple and monochromatic, which brings me to the creation of my social networking icons. I took sample icons from google and tweaked it a little in photoshop to give each a touch of the theme I was aiming for. 

Facebook, Twitter & Instagram Icons

I am overjoyed to see them all come together. The entirety of the page is still bare but it's ought to grow. Hence, the birth of 'Silly Giggles'. ;)

UAAP Season 75 Cheerdance Competition, Painted Maroon!

A big fuss has been spreading around about the winners of the UAAP Season 75 Cheer Dance Competition. Different arguments ran around UP's unconventional dance routines with a slight slip-up at the end, and FEU's unparalleled cleanly performed piece.

Cheerdance champs for the last three years and owning their 8th title from this season, is the University of the Philippines Pep Squad. The UP dancers' shaved heads embodied their bold theme for this year's routine, "Freedom and Equality". My personal favorite was when they represented each emblem of all the UAAP participating colleges as they danced through their performance.

Even though the final stunt was tainted with a premature fall, I think the confidence in standing tall after that and the offbeat dance routines made up for it. 

To show you more about it, here's a video of UP's performance at the Mall Of Asia Arena last September 22, 2012 linked from Youtube. 

Roaring at second place is the Far Eastern University Pep Squad that has executed an intensely clean moves and pretty interesting theme, something that has to do with the wild or the jungle. Every step, throw, pyramid, back-flip and all-kinds-of-flip were finely coordinated. I can't point my fingers on what my favorite part of their routine is, because basically, their feet are just shaking in harmony. It's crazy, wild, and fierce all at once! 

If these tickles your curiosity, Here's a video of the FEU Pep Squad's performance.

Beating UST on 3rd place, National University Pep Squad dancing with Disney Classics theme. Few trips and falls did not stop these first time top 3 winner  to showcase what bulldogs are made of. 

University of Santo Tomas Salinggawi Dance Troupe comes in 4th again like last season, performing in fiery costumes and theme inspired by Brazilian celebrations and festivities. De La Salle University Animo Squad landing in 5th place for their physically challenging routines that is boxing. 6th and 7th place came the Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion and Adamson Pep Squad, both unwavering with their funky themes: Voltes V and K-pop. UE coming in last, performed as blonde warriors, which might have been more criticized especially by people that are still sentimental on UP's swift win last season with the same hair do. 

This year's Cheer Dance Competition was undoubtedly neck-and-neck, hard fought battle. But the squabble is really all about fresh ideas and clever strokes versus clean fine maneuver and intensity. I don't know, I think they both did great and I'm sure the judges had a hard time deciding. All I know is that when it's this time of the year, I miss college. :)

Say, the UP pep squad's final stunt went on spotless, would we all be so psyche to argue who should or should not win? Would there be a fine line between the Champ and the First-Runner Up title? Just a thought.

Rear View Mirror

Let your mistakes be in your rear view mirror - Far enough to forget, but close enough to guide. -Adapted

So I have been a little under the weather these past few days, and my motivation was no better. Last Monday, for some uncanny reason, my colleagues and I were throwing inspirational phrases, talks and whatnot that one of my seniors finally asked, 

"Nasan ba ako ngayon? Nasa simbahan ba ako? Wednesday bible sharing?" (Where am I? Church?)  

"No sir, nasa mga recovering addicts and alcoholics talk ka." (you're in the middle of a recovering addicts and alcoholics talk),  I replied laughing.

I'm not sure what it is, maybe we all need a little something to animate us while we stumble upon work, catastrophes, stress or LIFE itself every now and then. Who doesn't? ☺

Cake of Opportunity: Cake2go!

It's my sister's birthday! (the eldest: Ate Ann) Went out for lunch and she's paying! But mom and I decided we can't just go empty handed so a newly opened branch of Cake2Go in Pearl Drive, North Fairview (in the internet it says Don Antonio branch for whatever reason) saved us. I have heard about the pastry shop, their mini cakes, delivery services and how they are expanding but I have not tried it once. Their branches before were far and I have so many pastry shops in mind to explore. But hey, it's a cake of opportunity!

Few cake selections but I was not surprised. The space in the shop is a little narrow and manned by a single courteous employee. They could have been more artistic with the cake but they have sugar-free selections (bottom row), that's a big YES!

I might try their cookies next time. Partially empty humongous jars convinced me! 

In search for the cake of opportunity for my thoughtful sister, I drooled over these:

But their featured cake won us over, the Mango Meringue Cake. The taste quite frankly, reminds me of Mango Bravo of Conti's in a homey and petite style. 

My sister and the folks seemed to enjoy it after a sumptuous meal. Happy birthday ate Ann!

Cake2Go is gradually expanding, going big on delivery services as their road to the market, a certain factor that consumers in this generation consider and some pastry shops oftentimes ignore. Way to go!

Sucky camera settings. Sorry. Not sorry. :) Toodles!