Summer's not over at Alviera's Sandbox! :D

Sandbox Alviera is located at Porac, Pampanga, just a smooth 1.5 hours away from QC via NLEX - SCTEX - Porac exit. :D here's the location map!

What to expect:

• the place is scorching hot (well, esp if it's summer XD)
• the snack bar sells refreshments at lavish rates (bottled water - 35 pesos, bottle of C2 - 40 pesos). they also have burgers and hotdogs, which are all underwhelming, expensive, and magnet to flies. but who cares, you're probably gonna succumb to it amidst the heat and sweat. 
• the snack bar is home to a lot of flies. i almost thought they're selling shit. you will be annoyed. so be overly protective of your food.
• the packages allow you to have one pass at each of the rides. in short, you can only try the rides once... unless you pay for another try. :)

What to bring:

• lots of water and a cooler full of ice
• a change of clothes
• sun shields - fan, cap, arm sleeves, shades, sunblock
• your own helmet IF you have a large head (no offense meant). i read somewhere that a guy was denied access to some attractions because no helmet would fit him, and it's a required gear in Aerial Walk and Adventure Tower. you're allowed to bring your own of course, i saw one who brought their own helmet with a GoPro carrier!
• pocket money in case you wanna buy something inside
• patience haha

What to wear:

• closed shoes - rubber shoes preferably esp if you're doing the Aerial Walk and Wall Climbing
• shorts and denims are okay :D
• long sleeves if you want to protect your arms from the sun

Rates and Schedule:

The place opens at 9am SO BE THERE EARLY cos the registration line can get pretty long as each person is required to sign a waiver.

longs lines at 9am

Parking:

There is parking space inside and outside of the complex. Of course, you would want to park inside which is closer to the park entrance. The guard would probably lead you to the parking slots outside (which happened to us) but you can always go inside naman hehe.

We were there as early as 9am and there are already quite a dozen families and barkadas lining up. So yeah, be there early!

What we did:

AERIAL WALK CHALLENGE

We decided to line up for this first because the turnover for the safety gears is darn long. each person probably takes around 30 minutes to finish the course so yeahh, prepare yourself for more than an hour of waiting! so there's your tip, DO THIS FIRST.

grabe this course is a freaking fitness test. it challenged my every core! my arms were super stressed and my balance was challenged in every way. it was scary and i was fearful of a lot of courses especially those which include suspended and wobbly steps, and freaking HEIGHTS! waaaahh!! the second challege, for me was the hardest, it's this one with the steps. huhu

holding for dear life

btw, i thought the carabiners they used were super cool, if i remember correctly they're called Smart Belay (actually i looked that up haha), and it's super safe. didn't stop me from freaking out though. haha! my friend says it's an improvement cos they used a different one the last time she went there. MAYBE THEY HAVE BIGGER HELMETS NOW? (don't worry so much about the helmet tip though! i bet they fit most heads now)

ADVENTURE TOWER

Rappel Wall

If you have fear of heights this will definitely help you overcome it. We lined up first for the Rappel Wall which is all sorts of scary AT FIRST. to be honest, the scariest part with rappelling is positioning yourself to face the edge of the wall, and letting go of the rope the first time. but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty exciting! i didn't, but it was still exciting. i pretty much just cautiously lowered myself to the ground without all the coolness of kicking at the wall haha. 

Wall Climbing

After rapelling we headed directly for Wall Climbing (we didn't have to line up again) because it uses the same harness. i knew i would fail at this because i'm freaking weak i couldn't carry myself (even if my life depended on it) so i just took a step and asked a friend to take a photo of me as an obligatory shot. haha

Free Fall
At a height of 49 feet about the ground, we are to take a big step of faith, lean forward, and trust the ropes as we fall. this was definitely one of the scariest stints we had to do in the park. and again, the hardest part was letting go. when you do though, it will be all sorts of relieving. in a blink of an eye you're down to the safety of the mattress. you won't even be able to finish screaming. and after the fall, you're gonna stand up stronger, armed with the thought that after all, it wasn't so hard! you're ready for the next ride! parang life lang?

just don't ask the ride attendant to push you if fear got the best of you, BECAUSE HE REALLY WILL AND YOU'LL CURSE HIM FOR IT... then thank him afterwards haha.

Avatar One

The country's first roller coaster zipline! This was super fun and exciting! Every drop is scary and painful (cos the harness has a tendency to tug sharply at your thighs). i was all "ARAY! ano ba yan!" every time i dip! but then again, it was an exciting experience! XD

GIANT SWING

The scariest of all! The entire ride lasts for about a minute only but grabee the thrill!!! hahaha i was screaming all the way, super OA but i had to let it out!! if you know me, you should know i get easily scared of stuff and i'm super magugulatin, so yeah i like to scream. lol if you're super duper afraid of heights you may ask not be lifted too high. haha since we're daring, of course let's do the highest! so we were lifted some 49 feet then dropped! you wouldn't even notice when they're letting you loose! haha nakakastress sya i was fighting the urge to just close my eyes the entire time pero KJ daw so uhm, K!

MINI GOLF

I thought this was going to be boring but i had awesome company so we enjoyed it a lot!

All in all, Sandbox is a great place for bonding and team building! I do hope they add fans though! IT'S SO FRKN HOT!

After Sandbox, we drove to this eatery called Aling Lucing, featured in various TV shows and famed for its original sisig. to be honest, it was expensive and underwhelming, and almost disappointing. i've had better sisig! anyway, it wasn't that bad! we were all hungry anyway! haha

There you go! I hope Sandbox improves its facilities somehow and develop the park as a permanent attraction. Right now it seems like they can pull out anytime and the developers are just trying to make use of the land while it's under development. hehe did you know that their attractions do not require electricity (except for the giant swing which uses a generator to lift the seats up)? :D

Group exercises you can join at Quezon City Memorial Circle

have you ever wondered what group classes you can join at Circle?! I did! and i searched all over the web for schedules and stuff but found none. so this morning, i braved a serious case of tamaditis and went to inquire at Circle about whatever group classes they have there. i know they have one, because my parents used to always go there to join aerobics. sometimes they take my sister and i with them, and we'll bike around while they dance, then afterwards we'll eat lugaw and buko juice and go home sweaty and filled! happy times :D

so here you go, in total they have 3 classes operating regularly (as far as i have asked) and i went to each of them to inquire:

1. Zumba

Location: People's Hall
Rate: P50/hr
Schedule: Mondays -Thursdays (7am, 8am - that's 1 session per hour), Saturdays and Sundays (7am, 8am, 9am).

i'm actually excited to try everything HAHA. i'm curious about the different types of zumba you know. i mean there's zumba gold (is this for oldies?), fitness, sentao, and toning. XD shocks, naexcite ako bigla. HAHA

there are chairs on the side you can use to put your things on. :)

2. Aerobics Forever

Location: Planas Garden

Rate: FREE

Schedule: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays (TThSSun) - 6am

This is probably the least attended one even though it's free, maybe because it's not covered (apparently, it just rained). one of the sweet girls there told me they have color codes per day and today is purple day. XD they do accept donations too, but of course it's all optional. then again, there must be a cost to running this thing, especially that they seem to intend to do this forever! :D

there are tents on the side with a few chairs, and there's a small roofed stage at the front of the garden. you may leave your things there, in case you're wondering where to put your stuff.

3. Aero Sport

hey peepers

Location: Basketball Court

Rate: P20/session

Schedule: Daily at 6am

I think this is where most people go. the place is big, the music is lively and so are the steps! i can't wait to try this too! :D

--

so far that's what they have! let's push this! i wanted to get in shape so bad because night shift's a bitch, when i'm up all day i'm eating almost 5 meals a day. CRAAAAP! huhu

What's in my Notebook? (vol. 2)

channeling my inner Abbey Sy with a wrongfully scaled word.

Hooray for WIN volume 2! i have to say, this is where it probably ends. haha. i haven't been doodling a lot last week cos i was so immersed with reading Almost Heaven by Judith McNaught! chos. i finished the book in tears two days ago and i plan on moving to my next reading material because it's already more than half the year and i'm all about beating my GoodReads 2015 Reading Challenge! haha any reading suggestions? i'm a sucker for period romance and flicks haha.

anyway, back to my notebook:

i don't remember where i copied the 'Practice' type but i will try to look it out okay. then i'll update this. :D  Here you go: https://instagram.com/p/yI0CtlkjUi/ :D

since were on the topic of art:

on The ABCs of Hand Lettering by Abbey Sy

 i just recently bought The ABCs of Hand Lettering by Abbey Sy (after reserving a copy at NBS Greenbelt) i was so keen on getting the book early i had to sacrifice hours of sleep just to wait for the mall to open! HAHA kalurks talaga.

what i liked:

- it's an awesome visual treat

- Abbey's tips are very personal and not very technical which is cool because it only shows how she's willing to help others improve with the craft!

what i want added/removed:

- add blank pages for exercises? i dunno but i plan on abusing the book and the paper seems so doodle friendly haha i wouldn't mind a blank page or two! hehe

- less pages for the featured artists? it occupied almost half the book kasi haha. i honestly prefer a simple grid of their works instead of reading stuff about them. haha anyway, i could always look at their instagram accounts hehe.

till the next WIN!

by the way, feel free to do your own WIN series if you feel like showcasing what's in your notebook on your blog. and let me know too so that we could, uhm, WIN together? chos. XD

waddup wednesdays

:D

• it's officially a week since i started taking the night shift and boy was it really detrimental to the health! my paranoia wasn't for nothing. i seem to have colds almost daily, monday is truly the hardest, and i'm finding the lack of greens in my meals a painful chip off my lifespan.

• i sold the xiaomi redmi 1s phone i won over from googlygooeys because my dad requested for a different gift. haha. in fairness to the redmi, a day after posting i got a total of 9 inquiries, and 2 sure buyers. the next day and it's off to its new owner.

• i earned some unsolicited drama while selling because i reserved the item to someone else, then backed off when someone offered to get the item sooner and at a more convenient place, that is during my shift and where i work. to be fair, i asked the first buyer if he could beat the other buyer's offer because honestly i didn't want to meet up in the middle of my supposed sleep, and it's already a blessing that someone agreed to get the phone under my meetup terms so it's really hard to pass on that, specially when you're dying from lack of sleep. i was called a bogus for it, but oh well. at least i informed him about it!

• as if the universe wanted to get back at me from losing a bit of my integrity from that deal, when i got home this morning and sprawled to claim my most coveted undisturbed sleep, i was awoken some five times by some frkn number who kept calling me throughout the day about a book i was selling for 50 pesos. i emphasized in my ads that i only accept TEXT messages but the frkn guy still kept calling anyway. it's really stupid. i was so angry. i reminded him not to call, and replied morosely to his questions. but he continued being a prick by calling me seven times more, all of which i rejected because it's a matic thing (at least for me) to shut off any form of disturbance esp when i'm in the REM stage. grrr. in the end we agreed to meet up within my shift at the office, and i apologized for being so masungit. well, there goes extra money for a coffee shake and banana.

• btw, i dreamt of david guison earlier and we were chatting about stuff. he asked me for my real name cos he recalled it was a beautiful name so i showed him my ID. HA. idk #majorcrush problems. my officemate (hi marck!) was also there and i kept on glancing at him trying to kindof pour my kilig cos it's over the brim already. ano ba yan. david mentioned he's doing a TVC for Tide detergent though! is this prophetic? HAHA. 

• shipping problems. it just occured to me that it's gonna be hard to ship items from now on because there's no courier that picks up parcels at 3am! huhu fortunately, Xend (my favorite courier) has partnered with a couple of 7-Eleven stores to accept items for pickup. yehey for that genius. unfortunately for me, there's no nearby 7-Eleven store from where i work which accepts Xend stuff. huhu HELP?

• tomorrow's daytime agenda is to comb Greenbelt (or Megamall?) for Abbey Sy's book "The ABCs of Hand Lettering" because i really really really really really really want it! That, and decide whether or not to attend Type Lab Manila because i'm afraid i'll be too sleepy for it. huhu but i really want to attend! T___T also, i want to get a haircut and a haircolor tomorrow. haha

• i randomly ran across useful tips to improve focus and creativity and one of them suggested listening to BINAURAL BEATS. i just read about it today, it claims to put the brain into a certain state of consciousness by making you listen to specific frequencies that simulate brainwaves. listen to it here: http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/pureBinauralBrainwaveGenerator.php 
  
  you can also try adding www.rainymood.com to it! makes for a good mind de-stresser. SO AMAZING!

:D

The Sunday Currently (vol. 10)

i like how no face was revealed in this picture as if i cared about their privacy haha 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! In fairness, Mother's Day was a greater hit in malls, i remember us retreating home after failing to find parking space. But earlier, there wasn't even a waiting line at Chili's. Where have the fathers gone? I wonder where the daddies preferred to spend their special day? :D My dad, for one, just stayed at home! XD

Currently

Re-reading
Almost Heaven by Judith McNaught. Haaaay, i'm dead smitten over Ian Thornton even though i know i wouldn't be able to stand a person like him for real. rich, mysterious, handsome men, with towering prides may be swoon worthy in romance novels but will likely get me domestically abused if i ever cross with someone like that in real life. yikes.

Writing
nothing.

Listening
faaaan

Thinking
on how to go about today at work. i'm so up and awake right now after practically sleeping the entire sunday because i was almost awake the entire saturday because i thought i needed to be awake on saturday daytime so i could sleep at night and wake up the next morning.

i did sleep late last saturday, so i thought i could stock up on enough rest to be awake on sunday morning but no. i was so frakkin sleepy i slept the entire morning off, woke for a short lunch and slept again. attended church in the afternoon and roamed the mall, and now i'm home and awake like crazy. T__T it's almost three.

and i have to be up early because we have a lunchout later (with my old team).

also i'm stressing about how to work around my shipments because obviously i can't schedule for a Xend pickup at 3 in the morning and there are no qualified 7-Eleven drop-off points near my place! huhu

anyone knows a courier service that picks up parcels on a nighshift schedule and has pretty packaging? huhu

Smelling
nah.

Wishing
someone would buy my phone (and my other stuff) this week. hehe

Wearing
shirt and shorts

Loving
that my most recent client agreed to pay me 100% more for the work i rendered for them. we all agreed it merits some extra charges so i was happy they didn't think twice or negotiated about it! yeyy for extra moolah.

Wanting
a bike! and a tablet! and paypal to lift off their  2.9% + 0.30 USD charge FOR EVERY PAYMENT RECEIVED. it sucks so much. i'm never putting it again as a payment option on ebay. grrr

Needing
to cover up some 10k for not attending World Vision Run. remember i was asleep the whole day, but quite frankly before going to bed last saturday i already decided i can't make it because SLEEP! on the plus side, at least the run is for a cause and my 800 (sans Run Rio's part) is going to World Vision Foundation. :)

Feeling
paranoid about the entire night shift lifestyle. i suddenly want to become super fit and healthy because i'm so sure my health rate is going to drop any time and my weight is going to be skyrocketing (chos. i'm still watching it so hopefully not!)

i was online window shopping at Superfood Grocer and Homegrown Organics listing out the vegetables i want to buy so i could prepare my own power smoothies HAHAHA. good luck! ang gastos magpaka-healthy bakit ganon.

nightshift notes

today marks the first day of an official change in my work lifestyle, i'm working the night shift indefinitely until the end of my bond (January 2017) or until i decide i can't take it anymore haha. chos.

i have a lot of thoughts about this change and i'm gonna go bullet them down here. most of them i thought while desperately tugging out chicken meat from my (super unhealthy) "lunch" a while back. MiniStop's plastic spoon and forks are effing weak.

• i need to stock up on multivitamins. it's what everybody's telling me. should Enervon C be nice? cos i get easily sick (of life. charot).
• i only need to work for 8 hours! yeyy
• it may be hard to file for a vacation leave. because that would mess up my sleeping pattern. what if i want to attend an event which is most probably during the day? that means i would have to make "puyat" for it. what are night VL's for anyway? huhu the thought of this confuses me. but it would likely limit my VL spending so yeyy. haha
• i need to subscribe to healthy cold pressed juices and smoothies like what Friggies offers (please don't be out of business yet) because it's the only way i could stock up on vegetables. OR i could just do my own vegetable smoothies! gaaaah i'm so excited! checking out The Superfood Grocer!
• my weekends will be so effed up because i can't keep being a night owl on a saturday or sunday. that would be socially damning.
• i will see my family less. and my boyfriend too huhu.
• on the bright side, i'll be coming home to the morning sun and hopefully that'll push me to jog daily! unfortunately i'm afraid it'll wake me too much haha
• i may need to buy an eye mask because the day isn't exactly conducive for sleeping. i want a cute one! haha
• i want to compute how much exactly i would earn extra with this "hard shift" but i didn't want to expect so maybe i'll just... still check it out! para ma-inspire kuno HAHA
• more money = more funds for stuff. yayy. lol
• my biggest concern is that i might get fatter and unhealthier. huhu.

those are my thoughts! have you worked the night shift? any tips? T____T

What's in my Notebook?

i'm planning on starting a series called WIN. naaaks. it stands for "What's In My Notebook" and as usual, will be an irregular and probably one time thing because wala lang! if you see a vol. 2 then congratulate me for it!

i've been spending a lot of time doodling in my notebook when this week started because there's not much going on at work so far since i'm on the onboarding process still. the coming days will be harder i suppose so i'm glad that for now i don't get to do anything stressful yet hehe!

oh and i'm taking the night shift indefinitely. my project lead pretty much frankly told me there's no hope for a better shift. which is okay. i'm looking on the brighter side though... more earnings! haha

here you go!

La Muerte - from the movie The Book of Life, warden of the Land of the Remembered. i loved the movie majorly because it's soooo colorful and it got me really inspired to start drawing! 

and here are random lettering studies. the last one was inspired from @letteristamnl's post here, slight glitch on the 'have' though. it happens to me a lot when i'm lettering a sentence or a phrase that i forget to do a word or two. total bummer. haha

by the way, i'm itching to attend Type Lab MNL but HI FUNDS WHERE ARE YOU?

This 2-day conference is worth 1,600 pesos and i'm considering saving up for it because i could just imagine the amount of inspiration i'll be getting just by being there. haaay i think this was patterned after Graphika Manila (read about my experience here!) but is focused more on Typography which is a really cool thing. i remember dozing off at Graphika during the video animation segment (read: not my thing) haha so i appreciate that Type Lab MNL is condensed to a specific form of art. :D i'm very excited for this (and also very poor).

see you, maybe!