#jeldirecto

All my friends--even those who I am not exactly close to but just see me frequently--know that my favorite color is teal. I try to make most of my things in this color in as much as I can. :) 

I've met haters though who would remark (in front of me) that the color of my stuff is not teal. 

"Uhmm... That's not teal. That's Tiffany Blue." "Uhmm yeah, why have you seen a Long Champ in teal?"

LOL.

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Teal is a low-saturated color, a bluish-to dark medium, similar to medium blue- and dark cyan.

So I apologize if not all my stuff are in this color, but only close to this. But allow me to make a roll call on my teal 'collection'! :)

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And the latest add: my new iPad case. <3 <3 

Don't you love it!! :)

I have a question. Would you prefer a vacation in a three-hour-drive town, with not so fine gray sand, and with random objects on the beach water; or a peaceful vacation within the city, with very fine sand and really beautiful fake beach water?

  I go for the former. (I think.) Nothing beats what’s real.

  But when I visited the Azure Residences last long weekend of August, I was entirely wowed by it. I wouldn’t want to say that it beat the real thing because it will make me sad—how a man-made beach would be better than the real thing that we have. But the beach in the city went at par with the real thing.

  Let’s just say that a replica of Bohol, Romblon, Boracay or our beaches in Visayas is at par in the beaches that we have in Batangas (if not slightly better). The only things that it probably lacked were the sea creatures and the smell of the beach, which I can forego for a long weekend city trip with my family. ;)

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  Azure Urban Resort Residences is one of the developments of Century Properties. It was designed by Paris Hilton but is not in any way related to the Hilton Hotels Worldwide. It is expected to have 9 buildings, setting the benchmark for 21st century tropical living.

  It’s the first ever development in the metro to have an artificial beach and be a resort-type condominium. It also has an open park, zen garden, multiple playgrounds, lap pool with cascading waterfalls and see through glass, kiddle water slide, poolside bar, beach volleyball area and a basketball area. To top that, they also developed themed function rooms and zen garden roof deck.

  The whole place is set to make one feel that he is not in the city.

  For more information on this place, check out their site here.

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  Before I share with you how our vacation was, allow me to share with you how much of a paradise this place was. Since a lot of people have been urging me to blog about my recent trip already, here below I start the first part of the two-part photo diary of my stay in Azure.

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Welcome to Azure! :)

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In this blog post, when I say beach, I mean the beach area in Azure where the pool area's floor is covered by sand as well. There is nothing 'pool' in this area and everything is completely beach feel. (Well at least, that's how it felt like to me.)

It has a kiddie slide and a 2 feet area and can go as deep (or low) as 3 feet. Maybe they didn't want to need that much sand to be able to make a 5 feet deep man-made beach. 

Not only that, it also has a yacht-designed pool bar as well.

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Now when I say beach pool, I mean that beach area with pool and tile flooring. It still looks like a beach and it's the "beach" or "pool" with the wave, so yeah, our naming can get confusing, but you know what I mean. :) 

The side part of this is real sand, but nearing to the 'pool area', is just a sand colored cement, and by that blue area is already the blue tiling of the pool.

Waterfalls by the lap pool, which btw has a see through glass at one end.

Like I said, the beach pool has real waves. They open it at a certain time (usually when there's a lot of people in the pool area by nearly noon time and in the afternoon). Waves will last for about 10 minutes and will take a break for about 5-15 minutes. 

This is how the lap pool looks like. (I have more photos of this, except we're in it, so just wait for the second part of this blog post.)

And if you're into volleyball... ;)

By the beach club, the outside lounge areas are covered by resort-style table umbrellas.

Or white blocks as chairs.

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And THIS. IS. THE. VIEW.

The Paris Beach Club! :)

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First floor lounges that are too sophisticated. 

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Second floor hallway with lights that change every second--I should have taken a video of it instead.

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Game room for kids. They'll never run out of things to do even when the storm comes in this rainy season. This place has playstation, xbox, airhockey and whatever they will ever need. 

The beach club also has a movie room and spa lounge, but I didn't get to take photos of those areas anymore.

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Third floor has themed function rooms and zen garden for roof deck parties.  But those areas were closed so I didn't get to capture much photos there as well.   

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First floor of the condo buildings look like this. I guess they offer these units as well, with solo parking for the residents. :) I wonder how much this particular unit costs. ;)

Reception of one of the buildings. 

And the hallway. 

The one bedroom unit has this, a two-seater dining table, and a kitchen. Not too big, but enough. 

And since we're not a southerner, we of course had to take a shot of the sunset from the 14th floor. ;) So beautiful a view!

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Needless to say, I enjoyed too much too much. I mean, who won't enjoy such a vacation with that kind of picturesque place? :)

Stay tuned for the second part of this blog post! :) 

Few days ago, I was watching the #IceBucketChallenge of Nina Dobrev (as shared by my sister) and was admiring how YOLO she went with it jumping from the boat to the open water, right after she got poured by the bucket. 

I didn’t really actively check on the videos of people—unless it was Nina Dobrev or it was on my newsfeed, like the ones from my friends (i.e. Bokyo, Maimai, Jeanne and a few more others). 

So I said I wouldn’t because, I’m not just not one to join fads and phases. I didn’t have any planking photo nor did I do it at all, and I didn’t have any make up transformation as well. 

“Yeah, I’m just gonna let this pass like usual.”

But then I got dared.

Well, that changed everything. :))

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As soon as I woke up, I saw the post of Ericka tagging me to do the ALS challenge. 

“YOU DID NOT,” were the only words that escaped me. 

Groggy and feeling lazy, I packed extra clothes and a towel, in case I end up doing it after all.

I talked to my friends if I would ignore the challenge or do it, and I found myself listing reasons why I shouldn’t:

It’s a sure waste of water.

The challenge was criticized to be pure slaktivism.

It’s the last leg of the challenge, why still join? In short, laos na. 

What's the bucket got to do with charity?

You can donate without announcing it to anyone. So quietly do.

But from that list of five, I also got to come up with reasons why I should:

I’m not KJ enough to take pass a dare.

Sure it’s a waste of water, but there are many ways to do this dare without making a big waste—like not filling up a whole truckload of water, or doing it using pool water and adding ice. 

Why look so negatively on this challenge? The campaign has good intentions.

When’s the last time you've ever participated in a charity or researched on a charity and actively donated? Yes you can quietly donate and go back to your regular programming, but how does the word spread from there? This is good marketing and in as much as brands would pay millions to make their campaign go viral, this went on in a few weeks time without the foundation having to spend a million bit. ;)

I reread my fourth reason and I was automatically sold. :))

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And that did it. 

No thanks to Ericka for nominating me.

But thanks to Ritz, Jamon and Rendy for helping me record the whole thing.

As usual, we started with an OOTD shot.

(Thanks to Folded and Hung for the Marvel cap, Cotton On for the top, Stradivarius for my skinny pants and Adidas for my shoes. Totally swung off the Sporty vibe with you, batch.)

Now, the challenge! 

(Hi Bebe! Nauna pa pag post ng video na to sa photos ng wedding mo. Hahaha!)

(Click image to view the video as my video embed feature is going wonky.)

Nominating @abeolandres @davidguison @googlygooeys and a bonus @iansomerlader (my most favorite actor/model/environmentalist/everything, who will surely ignore this nomination because he'd rather conserve water. :p) to take part in this challenge! :)

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Thanks to this marketing stunt, I am now aware of the Amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease, which is characterized by--I quote, "muscle spasticity, rapidly progressive weakness due to muscle atrophy, and difficulty in speaking (dysarthria), swallowing (dysphagia), and breathing (dyspnea)”. It’s hard to imagine how this disease is like, since I’ve never encountered one. But I cannot imagine any of my loved ones experiencing this, so I would love to fund this research, among the others.

  I wish other good causes spread like wildfire as this one. I’m sure a lot of researches need funding too but it just doesn’t get in the scene. It’s nice to stumble upon these things as I honestly wouldn’t normally research on charities that need funding. So for this to cross my way, I congratulate the bright minds that thought of this challenge video going on viral.

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  After I sent my donation to ALSA.org, I sent the ecard to the person who nominated me and shared that though I said thank you to the video, I actually meant, no thanks ang hassle nito. HAHAHA! :)) 

  But there you go. 

My fingers are crossed for a productive year of research with this association. :)

  xx

  P.S. If in any case you decide to ask my why I was wearing cap the whole time, that was because it was my whole outfit for the day, and none of us realized that it would protect a part of my body from the ice water. :)) We realized it moments after, when I was already dry. To be fair, the back of my body and my sides were really wet and I had to cover myself with towel so I wouldn't freeze.

  YES, I DID CONSIDER REDOING IT. 

Just when I thought I could actually regularly write on my blog, March greets me with my own kind of Death March. I thought only my best friend who's a med student is entitled to have one. I didn't know the month will also kiss me with its own crazy stress.

So with all the deadlines of this month, it's hard to be organized. But it is that one thing that will pull you together. Do you agree or do you agree? :)) With all the stress that comes with work and deadlines, we need to have our desk cozy and inspiring. Awhile ago, I was just ranting to my officemates how I think we need an interior designer for our workspace. (Hahaha! Of course we don't.)

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Let me shoe you how my desk looked like 3 months ago.

And now...

Oh damn, I so need an inspiration. So I asked my friends to send me a screenshot of their desks.

If at all they are inspiring (HAHAHA), then I hope this lights your busy day. :)

Carlof's (@pajengjeng)'s work station. I love the color of his back board. Blue-green family is love.

Therese's Orangey Desk. Oh girl, I love your space. <3

Crae's Creative Spot. Oh my gosh. I love her sign pad!! (I forgot the technical term for this though.)

Alvina's Semi-Serious Nook Comes with position. Why hello, Manager. :))

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I've been wanting to learn how to cook since forever. I wanted to be the kind of woman who can, the woman who has her own style of cooking, and the kind of woman who'd rather do it than ask someone else to do it.

I fairly think I was born in that generation of kids who never got to learn how to cook--those kids who never got to buy fresh ingredients in the wet market, and those kids who spent a good time reading, playing, or learning things on the Internet, rather than helping cook at home.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I do help out at home when my parents are cooking. I help them prepare the onion, the ginger, the garlic. I sometimes slice the carrots for them and even wash the vegetables for them. But the cooking in action, that's their turf. (Cos mom and dad cook very well!!! That's me just letting them make good use of their skills. HAHAHA)

But there was a phase back in college, when I really wanted to learn how to cook. I told myself that I would need it when I get married. So I asked dad if I could be his assistant. And he agreed. :) So every Saturday and Sunday, I'd help him cook. He'd tell me what to do and how much to prepare and then we'd place the ingredients in separate saucers, he'd line them up in order of use and then he'd instruct me what to do next. So basically, I could claim that all those were my cooking, except they really weren't (sort of). So fine, during that phase, I got to cook: chicken pork adobo, kare-kare, buto-buto, sinigang, bulalo, tinola, maya-maya and afritada. Very Filipino. 

I also asked my tito, who also cooks very well, to teach me to cook seafood pasta, as that was my favorite. So I learned it and served it once in a gathering with friends.

After a while, I realized that I wasn't gonna get married anytime soon, so my cooking addiction soon ended. (HAHAHA)

DO NOT GET ME WRONG. Me cooking now still in now way relates to marriage. So spare the thought. I don't even have a boyfriend. Hahaha!

For almost a year I've been saying this. On my 22nd and a half birthday (1 year and 3 months ago), I even committed to re-learn this. That was my TTD #2. (See post here: http://jeldirecto.tumblr.com/post/22118035434/as-most-of-you-do-not-know-ive-turned-22-5)

And for weeks, I've been saying that a lot. I wanna cook again. I wanna do it not for the sake of trying or learning but I want it to be a part of my life, cooking for the family in certain days of the week.

I told this in the office and my officemate was like, "Bakit di ka nalang mag luto ng pasta? Aralin mo yung mga iba ibang pasta." Instantly, I went like, "Pasta?? Pan-chick lang yan eh. 'Heyyy I prepared pasta for you guysss. Taste ittttt!' And I've tried that already before. I don't think my future kids can live eating pasta everyday. I wanna learn how to cook the mommy-style cooking. As in Pinoy ulam." 

And somehow, the idea of my parents not touching the kitchen, because they knew that day would be my cooking day, made me feel super excited. I even thought that maybe they'd go like "Buti nalang Thursday bukas, hindi ako magluluto. Si Angel na bahala diyan." Hahaha! Ka-kilig.  

And after finally getting my senses together and urging myself to visit the grocery to buy all the ingredients I would need for my dish, I got my very first.

Fish fillet in sweet and sour sauce.

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It was so funny. As I was buying the ingredients, I was like "Do we have brown sugar at home? Okay, maybe we don't. Let's buy it all." "Do we have enough garlic at home? Okay, maybe we don't. Let's buy it all." So I ended up buying a pack of everything I needed. Good job for not knowing what's in the kitchen, Angel. :))

I got home and was welcomed by the nice smell of the kitchen. My dad was already cooking chicken pork adobo. I suddenly felt discouraged to prepare food which was supposed to be a surprise. I sat on the couch and told dad "I'm supposed to cook today! I planned to cook every Thursday. Like Wednesday night for Thursday baon or Thursday itself." :( 

"O, e anong problema. Edi sabayan mo yung niluluto ko." "Talaga??? Pwede?? YAY!"

So I rushed to the kitchen at 10:20 PM and cooked my first. :)

I don't know if they actually ate it (like they didn't puke it out--I think I will never know LOL) or if they actually liked it. But it doesn't matter. I'm so happy I got to finally do it and I can see myself doing this regularly. :)