5 Affordable date places (Manila and Subic)

The best thing about having a boyfriend is being able to explore the metro more with a companion, a lover, a bestfriend, and a potential financier.  Be it food tasting on the street, or fine dining in Intramuros, the experience is better appreciated with someone to hold hands with, to laugh hard with, and to dream dreams with.

Here is a list of the top 5 affordable date places my GG (God's gift) and I went to within the 5 months we are together. In love, there is no need to break the bank.

The Bayleaf Hotel Skydeck and 9 spoons restos

We love it there at the Bayleaf.  When he was still courting me, he invited me and our friends to dinners at the Skydeck and the 9 Spoons.  The Skydeck provides 360 degree unobstructed view of Manila.  From the U-belt of the North east to the buildings in Makati and Malate to the South, the Manila Bay to the West, and the Manila Cathedral and the Port area to the North, the Bayleaf Skydeck provides a refreshing romantic backdrop.

When it is drizzling, try out the 9Spoons resto. They have almost the same menu.  Skydeck is al fresco while 9Spoons is at the penthouse of The Bayleaf.  We are still checking when can we try to check into one of their rooms. Rooms start at Php 4,500++ per night.

Last night, we celebrated the BF's birthday at the Bayleaf Skydeck.  Too bad though he was not greeted by the staff as they did when we brought other friends who celebrated their birthdays there.  Perhaps they did not believe us when he quipped it was his birthday.

RK Hotel, Subic Zambales

As if our July stay in RK Hotel is not enough, the BF has just finalized plans for our stay in RK Hotel.  His gift for my birthday, an overnight stay at the RK with my mom and my friends.  Yey, I will be able to stay at the pool (i hope) all night! See my blog about our RK Hotel stay last July here.  He loves the peace of SBMA and the hospitality of RK Hotel staff so much he wants to go back again and again.

See my Singles for Christ Reflection while in the RK Hotel in Subic here

SM Mall of Asia Bay Area

For Luneta Kids like me, there are some point when we miss just hanging out at the bay area of the Park.  These days the bay area of the park has a hotel and a mall, and the remaining part of the bay was converted into a car park.  So we tend to stay at the Roxas Blvd area, Harbor Square, or yes, the SM MOA Bay area.

The Bay Area is well maintained by SM personnel, from security guards who advise people not to stand on the concrete barrier between the sea and the mall to the janitors who keep the area clean.  We like how everything is within reach in the SM MOA and we can enjoy the Manila Bay sunset while sipping our favorite milk teas.

Tea Houses

Alone, I was able to try only 2 tea houses in Manila: Simple Line in Legarda St., and Mang-Chaa across home.  With the GG, we were able to try and compare the following: Chatime, InfiniTea, Mang-Chaa (we are patrons), Happy House Tea (this I need to confirm, we go here often yet we refer to it as the Tea House near St. Jude Parish) and Simple Line.  We have yet to expand our milktea experience as I think I am getting tired of teas.  We will go back to tea drinking again soon.

The Araneta Center/Gateway

Cubao is my parents' date place when they were younger. I find it cute that I am now considering this to be our date place too.  From UAAP games, to dinners, to our Starbucks Gateway and/or Starbucks Alimall whole day staycation, to attending church at the OLPH, to shopping for bargain shoes, we have created a love filled experience at the Araneta Center.   There are much more to explore and discover in this area as well as in the areas near it - St. Pio parish at the Eastwood, Antipolo City and its overlooking restaurants, Marikina and its foodie faves.  There is so much more to learn, explore and enjoy, not only in the places mentioned but in our life experiences as a couple as well.

For all these and more, for having my GG, for everything in my life right now - my family, career, and the opportunity to study law, I am so grateful.

Thank you Lord.

May God be praised!

P.S. Happy Birthday Mahal.

Lovestruck: Love is a (bitter) BETTER feeling

Have you ever thought that Love is a bitter feeling?

You know that feeling of resentment when you see happy couples doing that HHWW (Holding hands while walking) or HHWWPSSP (Holding Hands While Walking Pa-Sway Sway Pa)?

You may have even caught yourself saying, "lolokohin ka lang niyan!"  (He/She is out to fool you).

Bitter. Ampalaya.

I have been bitter myself. In high school, all my crushes ran away from me. In college, my crush avoided me. I was a happy kid but those moments when people you like don't like you back makes you question if you are lovable.  And since you don't accept it, you feel resentment towards the prospect of loving.  My defense mechanism then was to be cynical about love.  To expect the worst to happen so I will no longer the mourn of unrequited love.  I like someone, he does not like me, it is okay, I knew it.

I made relationships, they broke up with me, it is okay, I knew it.

I knew what?

I was so bitter I made stories in my head.  Perhaps they didn't like me because I am not smart enought, I am not pretty enough, I am not rich enough.  I thought no one can like me because... and then list all things that are not lovable about me.  The result, I have psyched myself in believing I am not worthy to be loved, that if anyone should love me I owe it to them so I should be more loving to them than myself.

LOVE is NOT bitter.

It is only after sometime that I learned to let go of my bitter feelings.  We are made to love and from love and as a person of love, it is inevitable that we are to discover the beauty of our real self.

Some say that after a breakup you realize who are your real friends.  After a breakup, you get to spend more time with family members.  The sister you used to hate becomes your best friend.  The brother who used to tease you is now the one who wipes your tears.  Your mom, that one person who told you she does not like the boy you're dating is the one hugging you in those painful days/nights of getting back to your feet.

It is in these instances of love that you get to realize love is not bitter.  You may not have the relationship you wish you have but you have already been given the friends and family who love you - a testament that Love, God, sees the beauty in you and loves you no matter what.

A broken heart is not the picture of LOVE

Love is bitter.  This picture is brought about by the sadness of a broken heart.  The songs that reminds you of the one you love that went away brings to mind that love is all about it - bitterness, betrayal, sadness, loneliness.  That is not love.

Love is way better.  Choosing to love is the best thing.
Pain, sadness, loneliness, we feel that when we are rejected, or cheated on, or betrayed.  The good news is, all of them are temporary.  All of them will be gone, only when we learn to let go.  Once we let go, the bitter feelings lose their power.  You will then get to see the beauty around you, the gloomy days of broken hearts while they may not be totally over now start to see light.  The rain has stopped, the clouds are suddenly lightening up.

Once you have accepted that bitterness is temporary. Once you have decided to open your heart to let go of all the negative feelings and accepted the love around you.  Only then will you find yourself happy and smiling again. With or without a relationship; with or without a love life, you know you are loved. You are loved. You are loved.

Love is a better feeling.

Lovestruck: My one grand mistake in falling in love

Have you ever felt in love?

I thought I have. I've been in two relationships in the past and I thought, for the most part, that I am in love.

Looking back I thought, I made a big mistake. I made that one big mistake that broke all my past relationships.

The first love story came as a surprise.  I was not planning on falling in love but I met him in a college event a month before I graduated.  Months after, he courted me while I was attending law school.  I was sent to college and to law school by a maternal aunt and we had an agreement when she decided to supported me in  my post graduate studies -- no boyfriends.  Yet I thought I was in love with the person that I accepted him. To make the long story short, the guy broke up with me when he found a new girlfriend.  Years later, I learned he had 2 girlfriends then - me and another girl I met some years back.  I thought I was in love then. Looking back, it was the sweet tongue that got me. I was living the life of a law student - eat, study, class routine, that when he presented himself, I thought maybe this is the person I can plan my future with.  I was so wrong.

The second love story came as a "yeah right moment".  I was out of school since my aunt decided to not send me to school anymore, my dad had cancer, I was trying to make a new business work.  I was stressed out and frustrated.  The second love story promised to be a breath of fresh air, of an escape, a temporary happiness, nay, a promise of a future happiness, in the middle of my chaotic life.  Yet right after I accepted to be a part of this love story, I saw how the future would look like-sad, poor, stressful.  I thought I can make it work, I thought I can make things work. However, having a lazy man as a boyfriend provides a not so inviting future.  I pictured myself possibly losing the drive to go back to school, he does not like business, he felt pretty much overwhelmed by my plans to stay in my business and he spends his money on weekly booze.     The future looks dim for me in this relationship, yet here I was trying to make things work.  One day he said he does not want to be in a relationship anymore.  I said "ok" and we parted ways.  I did not feel pain, it is just  something that I am thankful for.  An end that means a new slate for me.

After the two stories I was able to date. I learned a lot in this period.  I learned about the things I like and don't like, I learned more about myself.  Sometime later, I met someone who made me thought I might be in love.  I imagined how life would be with him.  He is a good friend, someone my mom loves. Sure there are things we do not agree on but I thought those are minimal details.  Details.  Love is in the details.  Yet I was inclined to focus on the bigger details - his job, his degree, his relations with my mom.  Some things a girl like me would love a future partner to have. I thought and prayed for a relationship; I promised to be good.  I turned a blind eye to the possibility of that person not being good for me.

I was thinking so much of love, of deciding to fall in love, of making myself be for love that I realized I am not in love. I am only in love with the idea of finding the perfect partner - someone I can be proud of, someone my mom would approve for me, a person who can fill things I thought I am lacking.  I am into committing another mistake, of loving the idea of love more than loving myself.  It is this mistake that has brought me to the past pains and failed relationships.  It is this mistake that I was praying God to will for me. It is this mistake that He delivered me from.

God gave me something better.