An Ocean Park in Manila?

Did you know that they are building an Oceanarium here in Manila? And that it is targeted to open next month? I didn't but now I do!

It's called the Manila Ocean Park and according to the official site, it's the Philippines' first state-of-the-art Oceanarium, open water marine habitat, boutique mall, restaurant row and function facilities all located in one complex at the back of the Quirino Grandstand.

photo taken from http://manilaoceanpark.com

Here are some facts about the Manila Ocean Park:
1. It's a P1 billion project of Singaporean and Malaysian investors.
2. It will be the first and largest aquarium facility in the Philippines.
3. It's among the most advanced ocean parks in Asia and will be larger than the famous Sentosa oceanarium in Singapore.
4. The oceanarium and open water marine habitat will contain 12,000 cubic meters of seawater featuring 300 marine species.
5. There are 3 phases. Phase 1 is the oceanarium (opens in Dec 07); Phase 2 is the marine-themed mall and hotel; Phase 3 is the open water marine habitat. Phase 2 & 3 is set to open July 08.
6. Entrance fee will be around P350 to P400.

Visit this article from Inquirer for more information - http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/news/view_article.php?article_id=95071

I am excited to see this place and go visit once it opens. I enjoy going to places like these because they're fun and educational. I am glad that we have more of this kinds of recreational facilities here in Manila (like the Science and Discovery Center in MOA) and not only shopping malls.

Trick or Treat?

Trisha participated in her first trick or treat today at the HP office. It's a bit late for trick or treating since it has been eight days after Halloween but it's better late than never.

HP has this annual trick or treat for the kids of HP employees. I'm not sure how long they have done this but this was our first time as well. There were a lot of kids that participated and they were all in their pretty costumes. Trisha was dressed as a Disney Fairy.

I'm pretty sure Trisha enjoyed trick or treating. She was all smiles, dancing ang playing with the other kids. But she fell asleep when we started going around the different floors to get the candies. She eventually woke up while we were doing the rounds so she was able to experience trick or treating. By the time we finished, we had two bags full of goodies.

We had fun doing that with Trisha and we'll definitely participate in more trick or treating next year. By then Trisha will be able to walk on her own and say "Trick or Treat?".

Not prepared to run

Remember my post recently about my need to train for the two running events I will be joining? Well, I haven't started training myself yet and it's only a few more days before the run. I'm not ready and I'm not prepared. What else is new? hehe... This is not the first time that I ran without training for it. So I hope I still finish my 10K and not get injured or something.

I hope I will have the discipline next year to train for my 42K marathon.

Pray for me. =)

C.R.I.B.S.

As I have mentioned in my previous blog entry about Trisha's 1st birthday, we asked our guests to bring as much teddy bears as they can, whether old or new, because we wanted to donate all those toys to CRIBS as part of Trisha's birthday.

We went to CRIBS the day after the party to bring all those teddy bears. And there we learned that they accept not only toys but other items as well (milk, diapers, clothes, strollers and a whole lot more).
The caretaker toured us around the place but informed us that we couldn't take any pictures of the children there.

Here are some facts about the place:
1. There are 23 children currently living at CRIBS. If I recall correctly, there are 6 babies, 8 crawlers and 9 toddlers.
2. Only 3 people are with the 23 children at night. One each for the babies, crawlers and toddlers.
3. Anyone can volunteer to visit and care for the children. There are visiting hours and you should coordinate with the administrator if you're interested to volunteer for a day. This is so that they can arrange a date and time and provide you a shirt and socks.
4. These children come from hospitals or from parents who can't take care of their own children. It can be temporary and parents could come back for them if they're ready to own the responsibility. These children are also up for adoption especially those that have been totally abandoned.

Upon seeing these children, we couldn't help but feel thankful that we are so blessed. And all we wanted to do was to give back and help in any way we can. We were telling Trisha how blessed she is that she has parents who loves her very much. Although we don't think she understands any of what we told her yet but it is something we want to instill in her. That's why we're planning of doing this every year so that she'll learn to share her blessings to the less fortunate ones.

And of course, we took pictures while we were there. Trisha was all smiles when she saw those children and she wanted to play with them but we were advised that those children just had sore eyes at that time so they advised us not to go in. Maybe next time.


We're planning to go back some time soon but this time we want to volunteer to take care of them even for just a short while. Will you join us?

I Won an NBx Shoes!!

I really did! I was one of the five winners of a pair of New Balance's NBx shoes. Below is a proof of that. I got that from the new balance website and also an email from New Balance congratulating me for winning. =)

I'm really happy to win the running shoes and it was not because of luck, well maybe partly, but it was not a simple raffle type contest where you just join and wait for your name to be chosen as the winner. I chanced upon this contest when I was searching the internet about the New Balance Powerrace.

To qualify for the contest, a player must be registered, visit the knowledge pavilions and play the runner's challenge.You then get points for visiting the knowledge pavilions and playing the challenge. The top 5 players with the highest points each gets a pair of shoes and if you bought a pair of NBx shoes and input the code in the website, you stand a chance to be the Philippine representative to the Shonan Marathon next year. I didn't buy an NBx shoes since I wasn't interested to go to Japan. My goal was to win a pair of NBx shoes only which I did. =)

The runner's challenge was the tough part. You have a virtual runner and you must choose the right shoes, provide the right stretching and the right amount of liquids and food for your runner to finish the marathon. The good thing here is you are allowed to try it for an unlimited number of times which I obviously did. It was really a fun game.

Anyway, I was able to get my gift voucher for the NBx shoes from the brand manager of New Balance and I went to get my pair at the New Balance Shangrila branch today. So I'm now the proud owner of an MR1223ST NBx shoes and I'm going to use it this coming Sunday when I participate in the New Balance Powerrace at Clark.

Thanks New Balance!

Trisha's 1st Birthday!

It's been weeks since I last wrote something on my blog. I've been busy with alot of stuff the past few weeks (preparing for Trisha's birthday and work) which left me too tired to do some bloggin'. And for the long vacation, I was too lazy to do anything. =)

If you'll notice, my blogs usually don't have pictures in them. I wanted to change that. I want to add more pictures in my blog to make it more interesting and a blog about Trisha's birthday is a good way to start.

So I want to share a few of the hundreds of photos taken during that super happy day!

A picture of our happy family. We're all smiles!

Trisha's birthday cake. Nice huh?

Everyone was singing the birthday song while we were blowing Trisha's cake.

The happy and proud grandparents. The 2 lolas outfits are color coordinated. hehe..

This smash cake was made especially for photo op but as you can see in Trisha's face, she is not enjoying this and she ended up crying.

Look at how pretty my 2 favorite girls in the world are. Picture perfect!

Trisha is really fond of bubbles so for her birthday, we had a bubble show for her and part of this was us being inside a big bubble!

We're really happy that our family and friends were there to celebrate with us Trisha's 1st birthday.

Thank you for coming! And we'd also like to thank all those who brought teddy bears for CRIBS. We already donated all those teddy bears and I'll make a separate post on our visit there.

We had so much fun. All the planning and preparation was well worth it!

Still on Glorietta 2 Bombing..

One of my batchmates in my previous company sent this letter written by my friend Carlo whose wife was one of the casualties of the Glorietta 2 bombing. My wife and I read it and we were already in tears by the time we finished reading it. I want to share the letter but I would need to ask for permission first.

I'm still following the Glorietta incident in the news and they're saying that base on their findings that this is more likely to be an accident than a terror attack. According to the news, they're seeing this as an industrial failure. But whatever caused the explosion last Friday, I hope that they get to the bottom of this and penalize the people responsible, whether it be the terrorists or the negligence of the management of Glorietta.

Those people that died were innocent and were robbed of their life. They went to the mall to shop, to eat or merely to pass by without knowing that it would lead to their death. So if ever that this incident was caused by the negligence of the management of Glorietta, then SHAME ON THEM!! These people were bringing business to them and this is what they get.

I'm still angry and in case this is the fault of Glorietta, I don't think I would want to go there ever again!!