Ibyang
Ibyang

Photography

Mary Mackillop Church, Manly Beach, Westfield Parramatta

It was a rainy Tuesday yesterday but that didn’t stop us from going out and enjoying the day.

Here are some snippets of the places we went to:

Early morning mass at Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney.

I love their altar. I’m so fond of seeing an “alive” Jesus in a church’s altar (such as Christ the King in Pasig). That’s also one of the reasons why the Husband and I got married in National Shrine of the Sacred Heart in San Antonio Village Makati—I really wanted to get married in a church where the Jesus in the altar is “alive” and not a cruxified one.

Since Mary Mackillop was near my cuzin Ayie’s workplace, she invited us to meet her and she treated us breakfast (thanks Ayie!) at Tropicana Cafe.

From there, we went to Circular Quay to take the ferry going to Manly Beach. Such bad weather yesterday but we still enjoyed taking photos and going in and out of the shops.

And we also enjoyed our lunch–steak!!!

Our last stop was at Westfield Parramatta for some shopping.

It was also yesterday that the Bakasyonistas got to ride the train and ferry. It’s nothing new with my mom and my Tita Cyn, but it was my Dad’s first time and I think he enjoyed it.

READ MORE

Mama’s 80th Birthday

Yesterday was a big day for our family as we celebrated the 80th birthday of my Grandmother, simply called Mama by all.

We were so glad we were blessed with a beautiful weather. We transformed our Tita Bess’ garden into a party venue. The table-and-chair ensemble was completed with beautiful flower centerpieces by our Tita Edith.

Inside the house, there were splashes of pink everywhere—yes, like a debut! hehe. It was beautiful.

Guests arrived at around 5pm, and so the eating started. Our buffet consisted of the following: Pork Asado, Giant Prawns, Grilled Salmon, Pork Binagoongan, Beef Calderata Pork BBQ, Palabok, Empanadas, Fried Rice, Stir-Fried Vegetables and Green Salad.

For dessert, we had Fruit Platter, Cassava Cake and Mama’s Birthday Cake.

We had the singing of “Happy Birthday” and blowing of the cake in time for dessert.

After that, we invited all the guests to come in and watch an Audio-Visual Presentation we prepared for Mama. It was a collection of her photos journaling her journey as a woman. After the presentation was over, we showed a video of Michelle, one of my cuzins in America greeting Mama on her special day.

Mama loved it…and the family and guests loved it.

At the end of the visual-presentation, we had a very special message to Mama.

There really is just one Mama in our life. She is the force that inspires and moves us. She is the reason why we are all here, alive and enjoying life. We love her and we will always be grateful for her presence in our lives.

The guests were given a simple token of appreciation before they left the party.

Some family photos:

Zurbano Clan

The Cuzins Crew (missing Dominic, Michelle and Dianne)

Mama with her daughters: Tessie, Marlene, Cynthia and Bess

Mama with her grandchildren Dennis, Ivy, Clare, Ayie, Rachel, Lawrence and Patrick and grandchildren-in-law Chris and Terese

Mama with her sons-in-law Lito, Raul and Andy.

Thank yous:

This celebration was a team effort of everyone who gave a hand in making the party a success.

Tita Bess and family for hosting the event, making their home the venue for the party.

Tita Edith and family for venue styling.

Tita Tess (my mom) and family for the sponsoring the balloons and souvenirs.

Tita Cyn and Tita Ma and their respective families for the party preps.

The food was abundant and it wouldn’t have been if not for everyone pitching in to cook: Grilled Salmon and Pork by Tita Bess, Asado by Tita Ma, Kalderata by Tita Cyn, Binagoongan by me, Palabok by Tita Edith M, Stir-fried veggies by Tita Edith B, Empanadas from the Marcelinos.

For the creative stuff, thanks to Chris for being responsible for the banners and “thank you” tags for the souvenirs, and for coming up with a beautiful AVP. Thank you too for covering the event that resulted to wonderful photographs.

To all our friends who came, thank you very very much. You made our preps for the party worth it by joining us in celebrating Mama’s special day.

READ MORE

A Greener McDonald’s

Wanting to take a break from cooking breakfast and spending some quiet time alone with the Husband, I surprised him with a “Good morning Baby, breakfast time at McDo!!!” this morning.

I ordered the usual: 2 Sausage McMuffin Meal and an order of Hotcakes. When I got our orders, I immediately noticed the new packaging of Hotcakes–they’re now using paper, as in cardboard.

I don’t know when McDonald’s started using cardboard for their Hotcakes packaging (we seldom eat McDonald’s nowadays even if we just live across the street from it) but I’m glad to see that they finally made the change.

And for the first time, I ordered coffee from McDonald’s and I’m surprised that I like it. I like the taste of their coffee so much I didn’t finish drinking it inside the resto but instead brought it with me to the shops while I do grocery. Take note that it’s a Latte too–I’m never fond of Lattes. I wouldn’t mind buying their coffee from now on.

READ MORE

Bondi Beach

This is probably the most spontaneous travel reunions we had. Since my Mom and Tita Cyn’s been here several times, there is no urgency to explore places while they’re here. As for my Dad, no pressure as well, as my parents will be here til the end of May. We’re going places as leisurely as possible.

So every morning, what we do is just get ready…my Mom will call me (my parents are staying at my Tita Bess’ place so that my Aunties can spend a lot of time together) to tell me to get ready coz they will be picking me up in an hour.

This morning, when I jumped inside the car, I asked, “Where are we going today?”. They replied, “Bondi!!”. Yay!!! I have only been to Bondi once and I’ve been wanting to see it again since Chris arrived last year. Never mind that I didn’t bring enough photography gears with me (I almost didn’t bring my DSLR coz I thought we were just going to the mall today)–no polarizer, no flash, no diffuser–just my the DSLR with kit lens.

Good thing, the weather was so beautiful today…hence, a picturesque Bondi Beach welcomed us when we arrived.

Tita Cyn

Watching The Waves

My Parents in Bondi Beach

My Mom

Tita Bess and Tita Cyn

Naglaro ang mga bata hehe.

Sunny weather with a cool breeze…the sand felt warm on our feet…but the water was sooo cold.

All the Ladies in the House!

My Dad took this photo but he said something funny (as always hehe), hence the laughter.

Feeling Tourist in Bondi!!

This was only my second time in Bondi that’s why I asked Dad to take a photo of me–souvenir!!! 🙂

Any Bondi Beach experience won’t be complete without Fish & Chips, so we had lunch by the beach and savored the freshness of deep-fried Fish with crispy Chips dipped in Tartare Sauce.

The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out at Bondi’s Westfield Mall.

READ MORE

Day Out in the City

Of course, the first place we brought our bakasyonistas to was at the Circular Quay so they can pay homage to the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. 🙂

Yesterday, we spent the day in the City so my Dad can finally see the two famous icons of Australia, and for my Mom and Tita Cyn to see it again (we always visit this place whenever they visit).

My Dad was in awe of the Harbour Bridge, he kept on taking photos of it via his mobile phone.

Resting under one of the Opera House’s roof…looked like an umbrella, aye?

We were blessed with a beautiful, sunny, blue-y weather…thank God! 🙂

Lunch was spent at Darling Harbour…

so we can they can have a taste of Hurricane’s delicious ribs.

We had three orders of these Full Rack Pork Ribs.

The food was a-plenty, good thing Chris joined us for lunch…his office being in the Darling Harbour.

My favorite photos of the day are the ones with my dad….

and photos of my Parents…cute!!! 🙂

After lunch, we walked towards Market City in Chinatown, had a look in the shops. Then walked back to QVB where we parked the car.

Hang out at the Balilos place til dinner time.

It’s my Dad’s first time to be here so it’s like seeing Sydney thru his eyes. It was somewhat the same feeling I had when Chris arrived here last year. It’s nice because I get to appreciate some things about Sydney that I sometimes take for granted.

READ MORE