A week before, I have already asked for some opinions and recommendations from friends about lodging, how to get there, all must-see and of course, most importantly, budget. Since his special day was a weekday, I planned the trip to be on the weekend prior to his birthday, which was March 12th.

Since I only had a week to prepare, I wasn’t able to reserve bus tickets online so I had to go directly to the Victory Liner terminal for reservations. Anyways, you can reserve tickets online at least eight business days before your planned trip. You may go here for more info. For lodging, I got a few recommendations from friends and acquaintances and decided to choose De Vera Homes in Justice Village. The place was along Marcos Highway, just before you reach the town proper.

Of course I had to make sure that Eric was all free during the weekend. To make sure, I had him cancel and postpone all not-so-important appointments for March 12-14. I had to lie and say that we were going to Antipolo to spend the weekend. I knew he was not so thrilled with the idea, but he obliged.

Came March 12th. I had packed all our things the night before. He also included some board shorts for swimming and I almost laughed. I had to suppress myself and pack his shorts to make him believe that a private resort in Antipolo was waiting for us. We were then heading to Cubao. He was a bit confused as to why we had to go to Cubao when we could have gotten off at Shaw. I told him that I discovered that there were fx taxis in Cubao bound to Antipolo. Then we went first to 7 Eleven beside the Victory Liner Terminal to buy our drinks. Once settled, I gave him his bus ticket and told him that that would be his pass. He stared at the ticket and I saw the magical smile when he realized he would be in Baguio in no time at all. He thanked me and I saw the surprise and happiness in his eyes. Aww..

Total Wallet Damage – for 2 persons:

*2-night stay at De Vera Homes – P3,000.00 (P1,500.00 per night)

Deluxe tickets from Manila to Baguio – P1,430.00 (P715.00 each)

Regular tickets from Baguio to Manila – P860.00 (P430.00 each)

Toiletries/chips – P400.00

**Taxi fares (all taxi rides for 2 days) – P724.50

***Food (dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner) – P1,216.00

Pasalubong – P520.00

****Miscellaneous – P870.00

Total      P9,890.50

*With hot and cold shower, kitchen, ref and stove, cable tv, nice surroundings  and peaceful ambiance.

**Most taxis in Baguio are in fx style with flagdown rate of P25.00 plus P1.50 for every 300 meters.

***We had dinner at Good Taste (P329.00), breakfast at Cafe by the Ruins (P347.00), lunch at Botanical Garden (P180.00) and dinner at Solibao Resto near Burnham Park ( P360.00). I will have to create a separate post for food reviews.

****Includes photo taking, bonnets, any whatever along the way.

To sum it up, I didn’t want to go back to Manila after stepping in Baguio.

He had a happy birthday!

Thank you ever so much to Rajsh for including me in her list of awardees. Touche.

I have heard that accepting this award means that I have to do the following:

1. Thank and link back the person who gave me this award
2. Share 7 things about myself
3. Award 15 great bloggers I know
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

For number 1, I have already thanked and added her to my blogroll.

For number 2, aawww… I forgot that I changed my blog theme so the page for the author (me) is not visible with my current theme. For the meantime, you can check the gravatar at the right side of my page (you have to go to the home page, though). See if you can find 7 lovely things about me.

For number 3, it will take time I know. But let me start now. Oh before I do that, can I just say that I will be awarding my fave blogs or the most stylish blogs for me in random? So the bloggers below are not in order.

Here we go:

TopExpress – been following toper with his work for quite a while. Nice page, nice photos and good writing. (crush ko ‘to..ssshhh.. )

Volare Girl – kikay blogger and GirlTalker. She writes good reviews on (beauty) products.

Neil – my idol in Tagalog writing. The best!

AnneMP – another GirlTalker. She’s a new mommy!

Karla – the kikay traveler.

Mrs. Kolca – I love her two wonderful pink sites ( Pink Magaline and Utotmopink). A pink lover GTer like me! Pink pink pink!

Salbehe - my high school friend, college blocmate, and from the name itself, salbahe sya! LOL! So far, she’s the only blogger I know who doesn’t want any comment posted to her site.

The Peregrinator, Realmofadreamer, Shinta – three of the best blog sites from GTers I have visited ( the first two belongs to one GirlTalker blogger). 

Madz – food anyone? check her page out!

Mom-of-three – she’s a talented mom. I wish all moms could write like her. Another GTer.

Diane – this is the only cluttered desk which I’ve seen so neat.

Okay. So I have 14 blogsites above. The 15th award goes to my old blog home. I won’t be posting the link anymore. I am leaving it buried down under. LOL.

Will do number 4 now! Done!

For the nth time, I heard the song again. Luckily this time, I got a short line: ” …so sexy to me…”

For me, it was already enough to continue my battle in finding the song. When I got home, I logged on to GT and posted my question. I received some suggestions but none of them was correct.

The following day, my chicken pox came in the scene. I had to stay at home for about two weeks to recover. Blessing in disguise, I had more than enough time to look for the mysterious song and… voila! Mr Google and I had our mutual understanding.

The song happened to be the soundtrack of Julia Stile’s movie, Save The Last Dance. Here it goes:

Artist: Kevon Edmonds

Title: Move it Slow

video courtesy of YouTube.

Enjoy the music!

Disclaimer:  Product effectiveness varies on different skin and hair types. Everything written here is merely based on my personal experience.

Note: This photo was taken a few months ago. At this time, my bathroom does not show some of the products shown. But I still want to make a review on each of these.

1. pH Care – I have used different brands of feminine wash but only pH Care met my standard (choosy si flower! LOL!). Recently, I bought their minis. Four variants/scents of 30ml in a box. Don’t ask the price please. I forgot. But then, since I am now transitioning to organic products, I might try Human Heart Nature Feminine Wash after I’m done with my last 2 bottles of pH Care mini.

2. Asian Secrets Lulur – my wonder body scrub. I love its mild scrubbing effect and nice scent. This is used for dry scrubbing, meaning you have to scrub your skin with ASL before you take a bath. And when I rinse it, I feel how soft and smooth my skin turns.

3. Olay Total Effects Facial Foam – This facial foam is gentle for me and smoothens my skin after every wash. I use Olay Toner and OTE cream afterwards and my skin just feels so perfect. Note: I don’t have flawless skin. The truth is, I have a lot of facial skin problems but when you find a product which suits you, you just feel… flawless.

4. Lauat Shampoo (not active in my bathroom) – I tried to use this shampoo to combat my hair fall. This shampoo is actually a treatment for hair fall. I just didn’t find anything special with it so I didn’t dare buying another one.

5. Clear Shampoo (not active in my bathroom) – I used to have a stock of Clear or Head and Shoulders in my bathroom in case of emergency. Which means, dandruff. I say both of them are effective against flakes/dandruff. But since, again, I am now transitioning to organic products, this shampoo won’t be found in my toiletries collection anymore.

6. Olay Body Wash (Vanilla Indulgence) – I love everything Olay. I love the vanilla scent. Oh so yummy! And it is very soft for my skin ( same with the Shea Butter variant). But it still has the feeling of not rinsed well after bath. Well, moisturizing soaps/body wash always give that feeling.

7. Watsons’ Strawberry Yogurt Shampoo – I bought this shampoo for two reasons. First, at the time I was eyeing this, it was in Buy 1 Get 1 promo. Second, I have read raves about its sweet scent. True enough, the strawberry scent is so addicting but it does not do justice on its effect. My hair feels brittle when I use this shampoo so I always have to offset it with a good conditioner. I gave one bottle to my mom and she loved it. The other one stayed in my bathroom and being used once in a while.

8. A Bonne Milk Salt – This is perfect for scrubbing. Not used for dry scrubbing though. You have to apply it on your wet skin then happy scrubbing! Most of the time, I mix it with Asian Secrets Lulur since ASL is mild. There are times that when I scrub using A Bonne milk salt alone, I get some small scratches. For me, it works well with ASL because their mixture gives me a creamy scrubbing yet I’d still feel the beads of the salt.

9. Listerine – Let me just include this since it’s part of the photo (salingpusa! LOL!). I use Listerine as my mouthwash for fresher breath and to fight gingivitis. But I learned from a friend that OraCare is much better since it is water-based unlike Listerine which is alcohol-based. How true is that?

For my hair conditioner, nothing beats Human Heart Nature Moisturizing Conditioner in Mandarin Scent. It has avocado and seaweed as its organic ingredients. This is the only hair conditioner that I don’t feel guilty leaving on my hair for a few minutes. It makes my hair soft and shiny with every use. Really love it. And the scent! I am now on my 4th biggest bottle and will hoard some more.

Lastly, I use Opal for hair treatment. I had two tubes because they were on BOGO when I got them. The orange variant smells like bouquet so I didn’t mind getting another one. The pink one has mild scent and I like it. Opal is a 1-minute hair treatment which should be used twice a week to repair damaged hair and strengthen it. Opal also makes my hair smooth and soft.

My bathroom now has new different products but that will be another story.

Disclaimer: Product effectiveness varies on different skin types. Everything written here is merely based on my personal experience.

1. Human Heart Nature Sunflower Beauty Oil – a good make-up remover and moisturizer. Since I hate any kind of oil, I put a few drops of this on a cotton with my toner. So I tone and moisturize at the same time.

2. Olay Refreshing Toner - it really refreshes my skin. Every time I use this, I feel that my face is really clean. Non-drying for me.

3. Jasmine Ginger Body Lotion from essence of BEAUTY – this one came from the US. Good skin moisturizer but a bit sticky. Good to use during cold weather. The jasmine and ginger scents give an exotic blend which soothes my senses. Same effect with products with lavender and chamomile.

4. Suave Juicy Tangerine Body Lotion – this also came from the US. Good for dry skin but sticky, too. The lively scent of tangerine creates an energized feeling.

5. Nivea Intensive Body Lotion – for very dry skin. I use this everytime I use whitening soaps which tend to dry skin. Not sticky for me, mild scent.

6. Olay Total Effects – my mom loves the effect of this anti-aging facial cream on me. She said every time I use OTE, my face glows and whiteheads/blackheads seem subtle. It has SPF 15.

7. Maybelline BB Cream – I am in love with this BB cream. This is a good make-up base, with SPF 26, moisturizes my skin and covers imperfections.

8. Glysolid cream – soothes and softens my hands and feet. This works like petroleum jelly but even better. It can be mixed with any body lotion but make sure to scrub when you bathe as this tends to stick on the skin.

I have been awake the whole day and the clock is now ticking at 5:00 a.m. I don’t recall doing much within the day except hoping and hoping that I will be okay soon. Okay as in perfectly normal. This chicken pox doesn’t get any better with all the scars left on me. Argh!

I ended the previous night watching TV. I started the day watching TV, too! Great! Then the usual routine I have been doing for the past two weeks – TV, eat, get online, eat, TV, sleep. Then repeat. Again.

Facebook does not like me that much anymore with my profile and daily status all around everyone’s wall.  But GirlTalk loves me much this time because the past two weeks is the longest time I’ve been active on consecutive days. The downside is that I am (again) making a list of what-to-buys once I get out of the cell.

Would you also believe that I signed up with oDesk, with full of hopes that I would be landing a job while at home. Not bad to earn a few bucks while you have chickenpox. I got one interview and didn’t hear from the employer after. Great again!

The last thing I have spent my precious time on is this blog home. If you will notice, my header already shows my own eyes and not everyone else’s custom header. Been searching for custom- header and custom-background ready themes but decided to stick to the one I’ve been using for the longest time.

I am just waiting for one or two scabs to fell off (don’t want to scratch them), then I’ll be going back to the doctor. Hopefully, a fit-to-work slip will be ushered to my face. I miss my work. No matter the pressure is in the office, it still feels different when you’re busy and productive. I just can’t be one when I’m at home. The lazy side of me gets the best of me.

Three kinds of medicine were prescribed to me:

1. Acyclovir – this is an anti-viral tablet. According to my doctor, chickenpox is a virus and not being caused by bacteria. Therefore, a person with this illness should not be taking antibiotic. As far as my head could recollect, illnesses caused by bacteria can be cured by antibiotics. However, for viral infections, it is our body which will fight the illness. Antivirals will only aid in preventing the virus to spread more.

There are several brands of acyclovir. The one prescribed to me was Herpex, 800 mg, P128.50 per tab at Mercury Drug.  This       was to be taken 4 times a day for a week. In one day, I would be consuming more than P500.00 for this medicine.

2. Antihistamine - for itchiness. To be taken once a day at bedtime for one week. P25.50 each at Mercury Drug.

3. Conzace – multivitamins. To help my body fight the disease. To be taken once a day for 30 days. P12.60 each at Mercury Drug.

Tuesday morning was the beginning of a much worse nightmare. My face and body were already filled with blisters of different sizes. They were itchy and I had to force myself not to scratch any of them to prevent future scars. My thighs, legs and arms had a few but they were noticeable still.

How it started.

Two weeks ago, I went home to Laguna to celebrate my mom’s birthday. At that time, my 8-year old nephew was on his 3rd day of having chickenpox. Just so not to spoil mom’s birthday, we pretended no one was sick. We moved around each other in a normal way. Besides Josh was already feeling awkward about his condition. The following day, I went back to Manila.

That was what I told my doctor when she asked me how I could have possibly gotten it. I thought it was impossible as it has been two weeks since then. But then doc said that those two weeks was my “incubation period”. No wonder my brothers, my dad, sis-in-law and cousin also got this darn chickenpox!

This.is.a.terrible.nightmare.