Vacationing at Puerto Princesa

My dream of vacationing with my husband and 4-year old daughter was realized in the last days of March. We went to Puerto Princesa, Palawan on a promo Cebu Pacific ticket I purchased in mid-January.

It was my first time in Palawan. I find the city very green, laidback, and rustic. There are a lot of tourist, local and foreigners alike. We checked in at the inn which is a bit far from the downtown area but it has outstanding amenities for an inn. The artistic interior is welcoming, the garden is relaxing, and the swimming pool inviting.

After a brunch at the inn's restaurant and a short nap, we hired a trike and visited the Crocodile Farm and Baker's Hill. We also went to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral and Plaza Cuartel, a historical site. We had dinner at Ka Lui where we had Chicken Sinigang cooked in young coconut water, kinilaw, and seafood sisig. The restaurant has a great ambience, though there is nothing special with the food.

The next day, we joined a group for the Honda Bay Tour. I was glad to be with merry bunch of people. The sea was a bit rough and my daughter has a scary time with the boat she nicknamed the jumping boat. Pandan Island is beautiful, though not that good for snorkelling. After lunch, we headed to Snake Island, which is not really inviting for snorkelling. We ended the day by having a calming dip at the inn's swimming pool and a relaxing moment at the jacuzzi.

Friday was an early day as we were scheduled for the underground river tour at 7.30 am. After a scenic travel to the Sabang Wharf, we head off to the undeground river. It was worth the early morning long trip as we gazed at the beautiful cave formations. We were lucky enough to be at the front seats of the paddle boat and my husband was holding the spotlight. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Before packing up for our Saturday flight to Manila, we went to baywalk area and visited the one-stop pasalubong shop to get pearls, t-shirts and cashew nuts. A great trip indeed.

And I have two Palawan handcrafted frames in the shower room to remind me of saving up for the next family vacation.

Teambuilding at Acuatico

Teambuilding once again with officemates. This time, we are skipping the flight as we are just heading to nearby Laiya, Batangas. We will have an overnight stay in Acuatico.

It is a small and beautiful resort with luxurious cottages. We spent the afternoon on teambuilding activities, and the rest on leisure. The beach is not that inviting for a swim. The swimming pool is a bit small, but it is charming and and the view is great. The food was great. The team has cold beer and chips for the evening gathering to lounge around, relax and chat.

The Dark Room

This novel tells a story of a photographer, a young girl who stands as head of the family, and a husband who is in a search to know what his grandfather did during the war.

The setting of the first two stories was pre-war and during the war in Germany and the 2nd is during the war and the holocaust in Germany. The third story was in the late '90s. I never thoght I will like a novel set in one of the most gruesome periods in human history.

The Catcher in the Rye

The story unfolds in 2 nights and 1 day in the life of a teenager who does not like anything, except his younger sister and his dead brother, and thinks that everything is phony.

The main character was presented to have believed himself to be mature but his thoughts and actions are childish, a common thing among yung adults. JD Salinger wrote with conviction and presented something so prevalent in a fashion where it is not almost abstract.

Jane Eyre

The character that strikes me the most is the insane woman in one of the bedrooms. The author did not write about the woman and how she came to be. What the reader will know of the woman is only from what was told by the other characters. The reader is left to wonder on the credibility of the character.

The ending of the novel was a happy one, except that I am left wondering if there was some injustice inflicted upon the woman. If yes, then Jane Eyre has just added to the injustice inflicted on that woman.

100 Best Novels of The Century

I am gonna read these books and find out for myself why these books are the 100 best novels for this century:

I will update this list to indicate the books I have read and the dates:

1. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald - not yet read
2. ULYSSES by James Joyce - not yet read
3. 1984 by George Orwell - not yet read
4. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger - not yet read
5. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac - not yet read
6. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck - not yet read
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller - not yet read
8. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov - not yet read
9. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley - not yet read
10. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh - not yet read
11. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner - not yet read
12. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee - Year 2002
13. THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien - Year 2002-2003
14. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce - not yet read
15. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell - Year 2002
16. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf - not yet read
17. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison - not yet read
18. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess - not yet read
19. GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell - not yet read
20. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner - not yet read
21. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway - May 2008
22. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster - not yet read
23. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding - not yet read
24. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London - not yet read
25. DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens - not yet read
26. EMMA by Jane Austen - not yet read
27. TESS Of The D’URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy - not yet read
28. THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne - not yet read
29. WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte - not yet read
30. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers - not yet read
31. SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut - not yet read
32. JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte - not yet read
33. BELOVED by Toni Morrison - not yet read
34. ANNA KAREINA by Leo Tolstoy - not yet read
35. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway - not yet read
36. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright - not yet read
37. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Year 2001
38. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad - not yet read
39. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad - not yet read
40. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry - not yet read
41. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford - not yet read
42. HERZOG by Saul Bellow - not yet read
43. THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame - not yet read
44. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos - not yet read
45. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce - not yet read
46. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser - not yet read
47. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence - not yet read
48. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton (3
49. THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins - not yet read
50. THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe - not yet read
51. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller - not yet read
52. MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather - not yet read
53. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner - not yet read
54. THE MAGUS by John Fowles - not yet read
55. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving - not yet read
56. DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes - not yet read
57. TOM JONES by Henry Fielding - not yet read
58. WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy - not yet read
59. MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville - not yet read
60. MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert - not yet read
61. WINNIE THE POOH by A(lan) A(lexander) Milne - not yet read
62. GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens - not yet read
63. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Feodor Dostoevsky - not yet read
64. TRISTAM SHANDY by Laurence Sterne - not yet read
65. LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa M. Alcott - not yet read
66. VANITY FAIR by William Makepeace Thackeray - not yet read
67. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen - not yet read
68. IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Marcel Proust - not yet read
69. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James - not yet read
70. THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand - not yet read
71. GRAVITY’S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon - not yet read
72. THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin (1851-1904) - not yet read
73. DUNE by Frank Herbert - not yet read
74. A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute - not yet read
75. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll - not yet read
76. CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson - not yet read
77. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams - not yet read
78. A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving - not yet read
79. THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas - not yet read
80. THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James - not yet read
81. OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck - not yet read
82. ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren - not yet read
83. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin - not yet read
84. CHARLOTE’S WEB by E. B. White - not yet read
85. ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defoe - not yet read
86. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Feodor Dostoevsky - not yet read
87. THE STAND by Stephen King - not yet read
88. REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier - not yet read
89. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves - not yet read
90. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster - not yet read
91. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald - not yet read
92. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence - not yet read
93. BLEAK HOUSE by Charles Dickens - not yet read
94. ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand - not yet read
95. ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner - not yet read
96. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James - not yet read
97. AUSTERLITZ by W. G. Sebald - not yet read
98. THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka - not yet read
99. WISE BLOOD by Flannery O’Connor - not yet read
100. FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley- not yet read

First Banana Bread

I tried looking for a Banana Cake recipe last Friday, but was disappointed that all of them needs self-raising flour. I do not have an idea what self-rising flour is because I only have all-purpose flour at home, left-over from the brownie recipe I baked last weekend. I did another round of research and just copied from the internet a Banana Bread recipe.

I mashed with my hands the 3 very ripe lakatan bananas and followed the recipe. I used an 8 x 8 pan, instead of a bread pan suggested by the recipe. I am not sure though if my oven thermometer is calibrated, but I did pre-heat the oven.

After almost an hour, the banana bread came out smelling so good and tasting so great. My husband thinks is taste good but looks like a pudding from outside.