The best way to go back to “our normal” is to spend time with friends again. And that’s what we started doing two weeks ago. One week of recuperation from flu and one week of getting on top of work at the office, I’m back at socializing again.

I feel very grateful that since we came back from holiday, we’ve gotten “Welcome back!”, “I miss you!” and “Let’s catch up!” messages from our dear Sydney friends. It sure is nice to come home to a place where friends welcome you back with open arms. So after working out our schedules, it’s about time we start seeing our friends here–because we miss them too! 

Annie and her delicious macaroons. We haven’t seen each other for a long time so I’m very glad we had the chance to re-connect. We met up for tea after work and caught up on what’s keeping us busy. A sweet bonus was being gifted with two boxes of delicious macaroons. She baked them herself and it tastes as good as the ones we buy from Manila (pang Goldilocks levels!)

My Sweet Memory (Cafe) moments with Jackie. She’s my ever-dependable coffee-date-in-the-city-after-work kind of girlfriend. Every chance we get, we try to squeeze in an hour just to sit down and catch up. That’s why the moment I was physically well, we blocked our scheds for a quick coffee klatch. Update galore kami ng aming Manila vaycay (she also vaycayed in Manila recently).

Tintin, Jamie and Me. Since Tintin moved to Sydney, we’ve been foodie mates ever since. Two weeks ago, we had a date with Jamie Oliver–well, not the person, just his food. We had a lovely pasta dinner and a fresh fruit dessert on a rainy Thursday night. It was nice to know that Tin is enjoying her new-found life in Sydney. It’s refreshing to see Sydney thru her eyes.

Fun Thursday with Friends (a.k.a. Gala Galore). Last week, I took half a day off work just to spend time with girlfriends who were also on a day-off that day. Ganyan ang true friends–nagda-day-off para maglakwatsa LOL. We started off with lunch at Chef’s Gallery, went around the shops at Westfield, had tea at Laduree, dinner at Lamesa and ended the night at Badde Manors. It was so much fun! We spent the whole time just talking about girly stuff, wifey and mommy stuff, relationships, etc. Lahat na! 

As we get older, moments with friends are a luxury. I’m glad I have girlfriends who message me from time to time just to know how I am. I’m grateful we have friends who also believe in the importance of nurturing friendships by spending time with us.

Not only do I feel normal now after two weeks of seeing friends but my “homesick-from-travel” heart feels healed. Now I can’t wait to see all our other friends soon.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before but my greatest food weakness is potato chips. I really can’t live without them for a long time. Whenever a workmate of mine comes to my desk and offers me their chips, I’d go weak and have a chip or two. I stay away from chips during weekdays but on weekends, I let myself have a pack or two (just so I won’t binge later on). My other weakness is white chocolate which I love enough to even write a blog post about it.

Last year, my Mom brought us a box of RoyceMilk Chocolate Potato Chip and we loved it! It was sooooo good. It was the perfect snack for me and the Husband because I love potato chips and he loves chocolates. 

When we vaycayed in Manila last month, we dropped by the Royce stall (like we did in 2011) and bought items to bring home with us. This time, I bought the White Chocolate Potato Chips.  
My New Favourite From Royce: Potato Chip (White) Chocolate
P1260578My New Favourite From Royce: Potato Chip (White) Chocolate
The quality of these chips amazed us. We transported this in Manila and once we arrived in Sydney, we stored it inside the fridge right away but the chips are still crisp. 
My New Favourite From Royce: Potato Chip (White) Chocolate
Potato Chips + White Chocolate = a sweet and salty harmony inside a box. I’m one happy foodie because of these.

Royce also has these chips covered in dark chocolate and my Husband loves them.
Would you believe I haven’t transferred our Manila and Seoul photos to my computer? It’s taking me a while to get around to doing our post-travel tasks. Work is taking a lot of my time lately that some days I go home a little exhausted. Last week though I started seeing friends after work. What a joy it was to see friends again. It helps a lot in going back to “our normal”.

Yesterday, I spent an hour sorting out some of the stationery and knick knacks we got from our trip. These were all shared in my instagram (@ibyang) but I would also like to share it because it might be useful reference for some who will visit Manila and Seoul too.

As my love for stationery had been awakened, I kept an eye on stationery during our travel. Other than rekindling my childhood love for stationery, I’m now more appreciative of design and artwork. Maybe the Husband’s “artist fairy dust” is working on me. 

Here are the ones from Manila:

Stationery from Papemelroti. Yes, buhay pa ang Papemelroti! 🙂 They still produce the brown stationery they are known for but this time I found some Manila artwork on their paperie. I especially chose papers with Jeepney artwork. I also got a small Manila poster with “salawikain” written on it. I plan to frame this poster to put on display at home.

Stationery from Fully Booked. White pad paper with Kalesa and Sorbetes art. They’re colourful and reminiscent of life in Manila.  The little sticky notes with flowers are Japanese-inspired art designed in America. 

Coffee-themed calendar planners from our dear friend Agnes. The moment we saw these, we were so amused because it is so Us! 🙂 Grateful for friends who know we love our coffee.
Starbucks Planners gifted by friends Majo and Monet. Husband and I don’t use these kind of planners anymore but we appreciate these ones still because we can add them to our stationery collection and use them for our creative projects. We especially love the book magnets that came with them.
Important men in Philippine history immortalized in stamps. These are used stamps but curated for selling to stamp collectors like me. I plan to frame these in order to preserve them. We found them during our visit to the Ayala Museum.

 An “I Love Manila” fridge magnet. This was the last thing I bought before I got on our plane to Sydney. We were already boarding when I realised we haven’t bought a Manila fridge magnet so I went back out to the shops in NAIA 1 and bought this.

Here are the ones from Seoul:
Seoul is stationery haven! We found a lot of stores that sell gorgeous stationery and pretty little things.

Hanbok Card. One of the fanciest stationery I’ve owned. The design of the hanbok was embossed on the paper. 

 Paper and envelopes with dainty designs. It has my favourite art: dots, flowers and stripes.

 Note pads and Sticky Notes. The note pads came had Korean icons (palace, king, queen, N Seoul Tower) while the sticky notes had dainty-looking designs.

Stamp Stickers. I only bought a few. Two of them had Korean icons while the third one had Alice in Wonderland art.

Souvenirs from where we’ve been: a post card from N Seoul Tower, phone accessory from Hello Kitty Cafe (which we will convert into a fridge magnet), notebook from the Teddy Bear Museum and a pen from Mango Six Cafe (which will also be converted into a fridge magnet).

King and Queen Bookmark. Aren’t they the cutest? It also has an “I Love Korea” embossed on them. 

It was a fun hour sorting all thru the knick knacks we brought home. I can’t wait to use these pretty paper in creating our travel scrapbook. Ahhh but first, we need to sort out our photos. When will that be? I can’t say but I hope soon.

Have a great week ahead!

After travelling to Asia in a span of two years, most of my winter clothing these days seem to come from three brands: Uniqlo, Muji and H&M.  In 2011, I did massive shopping at H&M and Muji but this year, Uniqlo was where I found a lot of clothing pieces I liked as they have good quality material at reasonable prices. I’m especially thankful to discover their HEATTECH clothing which generates heat and provides insulation too. Their HEATTECH range includes shirts, leggings, socks, cardigans, beannies and scarves.

I chose the long sleeve shirts for my first HEATTECH purchases. These are base layer shirts perfect for layering during cold season. The clothing material is soft, comforting and fits nicely on the body. 

I used them when we travelled in Seoul where we experienced 4-11 degree Celsius temperatures. Where I would normally have four layers of clothing, I survived the cold with just three layers and even had to ditch the scarf at times.
The next time I come across Uniqlo‘s HEATTECH range, I will try their other pieces such as the cardigans and scarves.

By the way, Uniqlo will soon open their first branch in Australia by end of this year. I’m happy that we will finally have one here down under, however, it will be in Melbourne which is a state away from where I am (and no we’re not flying to Melbourne just so we can shop for Uniqlo stuff). But we’ll never know, right? We might have one here in Sydney too in the future.