Ibyang Sanchez, Author at Ibyang

Nine Years Ago

14 December 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Deep Thoughts, The Married Life

December will always be a special month. The moment December starts, I fondly remember moments that make this month special to me and the Husband.

Yesterday, we celebrated our 9th year syota-nniversary (a term I coined which means “our boyfriend-girlfriend anniversary”) and we’re blessed to have spent a part of it at Kirra Beach.

My prayer yesterday was all about being grateful. Grateful that we are still TWOgether. Grateful that we are enjoying our blessed life TWOgether. Grateful that we have weathered the bad times and cheered the good times TWOgether.

After nine years, I realized I will never get over how we became an “Us”. It’s a story that I will never get tired of telling. What started out as friendship turned out to be one of the best things that’s ever happened to our lives.

Nine years ago, on the 14th of December, we realized we have something real. LOVE.

“There are some people who meet that somebody that they can never stop loving, no matter how hard they try. I wouldn’t expect you to understand that, or even believe it, but trust me, there are some loves that don’t go away. And maybe that makes them crazy, but we should all be lucky enough to end up with somebody who has a little of that insanity. Someone who never lets go. Someone who cherishes you forever.”

–Ally McBeal

Quick Getaway Before Christmas

12 December 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 4 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, The Married Life, Travel

Before we get busier due to finishing tasks at work and celebrating Christmas, the Husband and I left Sydney and escaped to Gold Coast for a few days to enjoy life at the beach.

This has got to be one of the most relaxed vacations we’ve had as we have late afternoon walks by the beach, get on buses to in order to explore other beaches, enjoy our cup of coffee as we enjoy the view in our balcony and be kids for a day at Movie World.

Cold Taho at Gumballs

12 December 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Food, Restaurants

I usually buy fishballs from Gumballs and never cared about their drinks. They recently renovated their take-away shop in Westpoint Blacktown and with the new facade emphasizing the drinks they offer, I noticed they serve Taho (Sweet Tofu or Bean Curd with Caramel and Pearls) and Halo-Halo. Apparently, along with the revamped of Gumballs, they introduced new drinks and desserts as well.

I got excited when I saw the photo of their Taho on the menu and ordered a regular cup right away.

It’s Cold Taho and the packaging is likened to the milk teas served by Chatime and Easy Way. I love it! It is almost the same as the Taho I buy in the Philippines, only cold and not as sweet (you can request to add more caramel syrup).

Next time, I’ll try their version of the Halo-halo and Sago Gulaman.

Gumballs

Click for Locations

Today’s Weather: Sunny Morning, Gloomy Afternoon

7 December 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Deep Thoughts, Photography

Can I just say I love my iPhone 4s? Since I’ve had one, I’m not afraid to forget my camera these days because it just takes good photos. Good enough to share in my blog. I’m also finding it easier to blog right away because I just send my photos to my computer and upload it without resizing or editing.

Sydney’s weather is crazy these days. The rain spells last for days and it’s cold again. We officially started Summer on the 1st of December and so far, we’ve had more days of rain, gloom and cold. We have brought our thick jackets, scarves and boots out and I’m wearing sweatshirts & pants and the Husband’s beannie to bed. We’ve experienced cold Decembers before but I think this is the coldest December I’ve experienced.

This morning, the sun was shining and the blue skies of Sydney (which I love so much) appeared. I couldn’t resist taking a photo. I was at the front garden of my workplace and this building is actually not part of the compound. With the gorgeous blue skies and great natural light, I realized this old building looked pretty especially with its detailed chimney.

I’m sure the whole of Sydney appreciated the great weather this morning especially when it became cloudy and gloomy towards the afternoon. My blue skies were gone too soon! One look out the window and Sydney is in a canvass of greyish white once more.

As I walked out the office, I looked at this building again and saw a different story to my photograph. With no light and a backdrop of whiteness, the pretty building turned out dull and daggy.

From a very sunny morning to a rainy, gloomy afternoon. Unbelievable weather. Maybe Summer is a bit late. Others say we will have this kind of weather for the whole duration of Summer (that’s sad). But we’ll never know, right? Whatever the weather may be, I just hope in the end we’d still have enough days of sunshine and blue skies before we meet Autumn once again.

Midnight Shopping at KMart

7 December 2011 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Charmed Life of a Mrs, The Married Life

One of the things we miss in Manila are the malls that open til late. Here in Australia, the shops close early (city area at 6:30PM and suburbs at 5:30PM), then each state has their late night shopping (in Sydney, late night shopping is Thursday until 9:00PM). One of my tips when travelling in Australia: know the business hours of the shop/mall you’re in because it sometimes vary. When you are in Australia, it would always be safe to assume that the malls/shops would close early.

We’re lucky that we have KMart which is the only 24-hour store in our suburb. We normally go there on a Friday night after we do grocery shopping. If we’re not dining out with friends on a Friday, we hold our fortnightly grocery shopping on Friday after work so our time for rest, recreation and chores doesn’t affect the weekend anymore. Since KMart is open 24-hours, we’d sometimes drop by and have a feel of shopping at night.

As mentioned in my Elmo The Rockstar post, we visited KMart two Saturdays ago where we had fun playing with toys during the wee hours of morning. We had dinner at our relatives’ place and our little party ended at midnight so we decided to drop by KMart.

We were there until two-ish in the morning but didn’t really buy much. We just wandered around and looked at prices of stuff, then compared it to other stores’ prices.

Isn’t it nice to shop when there’s no one around?

We spent most of our time at the toy section where we get to play with (what else?) toys. It’s so much fun because it was just the two of us and we’re like in a big playground only that our toys were arranged in aisles haha.

The Husband saw these Angry Birds stuff toys in different sizes–Small, Medium & Large. Here are the small ones we found.

These are the medium-sized Angry Birds.

The Husband really really really likes them so we bought the medium-sized red Angry Bird. If you squeeze the head part of the toy, you’ll hear the sound it makes in the game.

I, on the other hand, found the Care Bears Movie DVD and it was less than AUD10.00, so I bought it. I just can’t resist something that reminds me of my childhood.

Even if it was already late, we went home feeling happy and rejuvenated..and not sleepy at all. Hanging out at a shop in the wee hours of morning with my favourite playmate in the world is so much fun.