Month: May 2018

Reviews

Lotus Pod in Bay, Laguna (Bed and Breakfast review)

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment

The thing about this Bed and Breakfast in Los Banos, Laguna is obviously it is chock full of frogs. I figured as much when we started considering it for a place to stay in for our Mother’s Day weekend out. You don’t share a space with a pond full of lotus flowers and pods without its natural inhabitants, and when we got to the place at almost 7 at night, the place had the little ones, the big ones, the slimy ones all hopping about.

I can’t say I didn’t freak out. I really did. A lot. Every time I saw one of the little buggers there was a little shriek and the reflex to want to run away. The staff was quite amused but really helpful in getting me to and fro from the places where we slept and ate and so on and so forth. There are golf carts that are used for transport and you can just ask reception to have them pick you up and drive you from one place to another. I used this a lot from 4 pm onwards to get to the restaurant to eat and back.

The best things about Lotus Pod were the space and the people. It really is beautiful. It’s all wood and white and clean lines. The place was so clean and nature still reigned, that there were fireflies on the trees next to the restaurant. There are no nearby neighbors blasting videoke. There are common spaces all around the bed and breakfast that are so conducive to relaxing with the people you’re with, or just use to read and enjoy. I finished two books in around as many days I was so relaxed.

Each room has their own natural hot spring pool which was really a treat, and we enjoyed it immensely. The pools offered to the resort were also gorgeous, small and had a roof over them so you didn’t melt in the heat, but the caveat being it was pretty small, only one group at a time can enjoy it without being in each other’s space. We did see that there was a significantly bigger pool almost done with construction and that should fix that right away.

You could also tell that they were trying to be more sustainable in their supplies. There were jars of shampoo, lotion and liquid soap in the bathrooms. The soap was homemade and was in a paper wrap. The coffee was in a jar provided with our own coffee maker and hot water kettle for tea. The only things that had one time use packaging were the sugar and cream packets for coffee, tea packs, ear buds. They provide really adorable woven slippers for use as well that were quite sturdy.

The staff were all very helpful, friendly and looked like they enjoyed their jobs. There was a bit of construction and from what we noticed, that’s where the noisier staff were (we could hear them from the pool), but overall there were no divas or personality complaints with the people we dealt with. Our favorites had to be Kim from reception, and the in house chef that helped with the breakfast buffet.

The realities though are the following:

  1. You could tell they were still starting up. There were a lot of things we asked that they had to confirm with their manager (extra pillow rate, how to get massages). It’s not their fault, but they definitely made sure to get the answers for us. There was a group that was using the lounge that we had to have our massages in (there was only one room with a door for massages), and that kept us from thoroughly relaxing as they were making noise and trying to actually peek through the one curtain that we were supposed to have another massage on. We were forced to get our massages one after the other, with the noise of people enjoying the pool and lounge in the background. It wasn’t the staff’s fault, they couldn’t kick out people who paid for the day trip, but also they couldn’t accommodate more than one massage at a time and it wasn’t really a relaxing experience.
  2. The only way we could reach reception was with a tablet in the room, but the internet connectivity was spotty and sometimes took an hour to get a message through.
  3. The rooms were very close together and walls were thin. We were three adult women who didn’t make much noise except for when I was using the speakers for music, but we could definitely hear our neighbors, one had a very cranky toddler fighting a lot with his caretaker, there was a family who enjoyed having loud conversations at night.
  4. Limited seating in the room itself. The rooms only have a bed, one chair in the room, and two chairs in the balcony. An extra chair inside/daybed would have really come in handy for hanging out in the space.
  5. Limited food choices. The menu was about a page of choices and only soda for drinks. They were very good at making sure we had cold water every time we sat down, but there are only around 7 main dishes overall. They were good dishes but limits you to around three days stay before you want to find something else. They told us we could order special meals but we didn’t feel like a special order for three people warranted that 6 hour lead time.

Our favorite things about the place were:

  1. The congee and omelette bar buffet breakfast
  2. Ate Kim and the chef for breakfast
  3. The gorgeous pool and jacuzzi
  4. The personal natural pools per room
  5. The golf cart option to get around the resort

 

So truthfully, I could come back to Lotus Pod because I know even with the horror of my horrors frog population, the people make it so wonderful that you can almost forget about them.

 

Jodythinks

Things I am grateful for Friday

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment

Hi, I usually write these down on Mondays, when I’ve had the weekend to unwind and enjoy days I don’t have to set my alarm, but today feels like a good day to send out gratitude to the universe. So the things I am grateful for today are:

 

  1. Chester, who, after I lay down on the bed to type this, jumped on the bed and stuck his head under my arm. I am typing with one hand with the other giving him head pats but it’s all worth it.
  2. The half bottle of now chewy Stik-O on my desk, ready for the weekend.
  3. This morning actually being cold enough not to have a sweaty stomach during meetings.
  4. Chill weekend plans ahead.

Nothing like a dose of gratitude to end the workday and start the actual day with.

What are you grateful for today?

Gratitude · Love/Life

And now, for a moment of zen

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment
Clear water, blue skies

 

Whatever you’re dealing with today, wherever you are, take the time to be thankful that our world still has views like this in it. Even in this sweltering heat, or if you’re somewhere in the pouring rain or unbearable cold, there is beauty still out there.

I’ve always loved the sea, and it holds a special place in my heart, being a gal from a country of 7107 islands does that to you. I am still in awe of what our country has in natural resources and I hope the next generation can still get to enjoy it, without filters, without cameras, just enjoy the cool feeling of water with fine sand between their toes.

What views do you have today?

Jodythinks

A rebuttal about my mother

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment

A lot of people tell me in almost a daily basis how amazing they think my mother is. I am here to make a rebuttal. I kid of course. I don’t think she’s amazing, I think she works hard at it. It takes a lot of work for my mom to get here and still keep at it on a daily basis. She’s made a lot of hard, and mostly practical choices for our family to be comfortable, to get her kids here, and sacrificed a whole lot for us to have the best in life she can possibly offer. Even as an adult, she still gives us an opportunity to learn by example, and sometimes, when we need it, the hard knock on the (emotional) head.

I’ve come to interact more with my mother as an adult and it’s not always been the case. She was quite strict growing up. No boyfriends when still at school. Curfews. Making sure grades were good. She would give us everything we NEEDED but not everything we WANTED which forced us to value everything we bought for ourselves, and to value what we buy now, and to take care of things. When you had to work for something, it’s harder to not take care of it, or attach emotional value to it because you spent time to get to it, and not just handed the thing on a platter.

It’s difficult being mom. We rely on her alot. We ask her to call people we can call ourselves because she’s the “adultier adult”. We ask her to cook difficult, complex things. We’re all still at home, eating her out of said home. We’re not the easiest to be with when we need more sleep. We’re not the most religious, but she is. It’s a whole host of things that keeps her going, going going. She has GERD, so she’s had to give up coffee, too much acidic food, and lying down flat on the bed. I can’t even begin to start on all her other projects. She likes to do a lot, which also keeps her busy a lot, and at 64, I don’t know how she has the energy.

So here is my non-rebuttal, rebuttal. My mom isn’t amazing. She does the frigging work. And so does the rest of your moms. So I hope you treated her to an amazing meal or a massage, or both. Because motherhood is frigging hard. Ask your mom.

Can you tell me about your mom?

Jodythinks

I think you should listen to Adele’s Turning Tables today

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment

Adele has wonderful music and that voice is amazing. It’s hard to pick a favorite from her hits, but my favorite from her songs is one from her 21 album, Turning Tables. Maybe it’s the violins, maybe it’s just how she sounds in it, but I really love it. It sounds sad with the melody, but the lyrics are really pretty strong.

Check out this chorus/bridge:

So, I won’t let you close enough to hurt me,
No, I won’t rescue you to just desert me
I can’t give you the heart you think you gave me
It’s time to say goodbye to turning tables
Turning tables

Next time I’ll be braver
I’ll be my own savior
When the thunder calls for me

To me it just means she’s standing up for herself after being hurt. And I think we need to remember that we have ourselves as our own saviors, because we were built to be amazing. You’re amazing. Remember that.

What song are you listening to today?

Jodythinks

We’re all a little bit weird

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment

I like thinking that in the most basic sense, we’re all a bit similar. We have to breathe to live. We need to eat to survive. We create waste. We like to think of ourselves as contributing to the overall sense of the universe. I also think we all have something that makes us different from other people, the things that make us, the people we are.

I’m not trying to start a philosophical debate here on what makes us human, is it our memories, is it our ability to speak and communicate, is it civilization that created the concept and we’re all just living beings not different from animals. Religion would like to say differently and I won’t argue with people’s beliefs. I’m just enjoying the fact that people are so different but also very much the same.

So embrace your weirdness and the things that make you a freak. Eat pasta differently. Don’t eat pasta at all. Hate ice cream and dogs or love them more than other people (I know the joke here, let’s let that pass). As long as it’s not hurting other people, I think self acceptance is more important than trying to fit the ideal. It’s hard trying to be perfect in a high definition world where we’re all measured by the same face value standards when the things we can contribute are harder to add to the scale.

I mean, is a woman who focused on their career and earned millions of dollars better than the woman who stayed at home and personally raised her five kids? Is a man who has cured diseases through research better than one who went to the front lines to fight for peace for their country? Many people will argue for each side, and people will have opinions based on their background and values. Wars have been fought for a lot less than a beautiful woman (I know that Helen of Troy is fictional but hey, what’s up).

But we all have to live in this world, and moment by moment, it gets smaller and smaller. People go viral for a lot of different reasons but we’ll never know the whole, real story behind that widespread moment. Conservatives will hate on the inclusion of things that are against their beliefs while liberals will embrace diversity, but who is really right?

I’m sure we all have our opinions, but the hardest thing now is to accept that we will never all get along. Life is a series of events that shape people and conflict paves the way for change unfortunately, and while people get hurt along the way, all I ask is for you to be kind to one another.

It’s too easy to close off and judge another for their choices when you don’t know what their pain is. So flip the coin and remember when your days were difficult and your morale was low before you go attack another person online or in person. We all need a bit of kindness sometimes.

P.S. My tiny freakiness that I will share is that I need stick wafers to be extremely almost rubbery after a day of the jar opening, and I eat it by peeling the layers off. I find it fun but also need a lot of patience to do this.

When was the last time you thought you were weird?

Gratitude · Love/Life

To friends, food and drink

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment

I was very fortunate this weekend to be able to have spent time with 3(!) great friends from different places and one of them brought up something that made me think. She said, she had come to think about friends she’s lost along the way, what happened, was it her fault, and her attempts to fix it. And I guess I have gone through some of the same process every so often. Working the night shift, and working from home tends to put you in a bubble. While it is very convenient, it also makes things quite difficult in terms of your social life. There is no casual “Let’s grab a coffee on our next break”, or that shared elevator conversation right before you leave for home. Friendships, in my almost decade working from home, need work. It’s like any other relationship, if you don’t tend to it, either it, 1. flourishes by itself but can tend to be quite the surface-y type things that don’t really take root, 2. falls away, 3. evolves into something quite different.

I have some friendships that are amazing and just pick up where they leave off at any time, but the rarity of these come with growing up together. My friends from grade school, we tend to see each other at most 2-3 times a year, but we won’t hesitate to take a weeklong trip together or go to a foreign country with 1 room and 1 bathroom. The advantage of this friendship is that they’ve known me from preschool and while we didn’t share adolescence together, we’re never too far apart to pick up a pen and write in the 90s, to email in the 00s, and now, messaging each other so often.

But I digress (I DO THIS A LOT). I have a group of friends that I may never forgive myself for letting fall away when it became emotionally difficult to see them. I let someone else dictate my life and while there is blame to share, I take full responsibility for this friendship to have fallen away.

I have a few friendships that I have been tempted to be more upfront with, when you see friends do stuff to themselves that your gut tells you will not be good for them, your instinct is to tell them off and give them “The Talk”. The thing is, when someone doesn’t want to hear it, they won’t listen. They’ll do it anyway and resent you for the things you said about it, and you’ll most likely end up just being that condescending friend that they avoid until their situation is good again, and I don’t want to be that friend. My philosophy now is to be there for people, even when it’s difficult to shut up. Especially when it’s difficult to shut up and slap them silly to wake up. Of course when they’re breaking laws and causing other people pain, it will be good to say something constructive and not just critical, but my current mindset is “Walang basagan ng trip.” (Loosely translates to, “Let people be.”

I am quite grateful (here I am again with Mondays and gratitude) to have been able to spend the time and hang out with people that I love. And as I keep saying, I am fiercely loyal to friendships and can be quite protective of the people in my circles. And for that I apologize when I go overboard, but also thank the universe for letting me feel this connected to the people I love.

When was the last time you hung out with a good friend?

 

Gratitude

Things I am grateful for today

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment
  1. That my rabbit Chibi is back to her feisty, sweet self after a teeth trimming where I was stressed for an hour and a half while we waited for it to happen.
  2. Airconditioning, which makes sleeping in the afternoon way more bearable in 37 degree Celsius heat.
  3. Our turbo broiler, which makes meal prep easier and grease-free.

I figured I would share the simple things that I am grateful for, and keep this gratitude project going. I figure we all deal with so much negativity on a daily basis, sometimes we forget to be grateful for the little things that make life a little bit more bearable.

What are you grateful for today?

 

Book reviews

Book Thoughts: The Upside of Unrequited

Jody AlarvaLeave a comment

 For anyone who ever felt awkward and invisible among friends that are gorgeous, smart or otherwise amazing, The Upside of Unrequited is such a homecoming. I quickly went back to the days in grade school and high school when the feeling of “Will my crush ever notice me as a girl to be crushworthy?”, or “Will I ever grow out of this awkward phase and be confident about myself?” (Answer: Still waiting)

Molly feels so real and smart and feels so relatable that you want her to win as you read through it. Her voice in the book relates so much to adolescent me that I want to meet her and talk to her in person.

Without spoiling anything, if you’re going through or you’ve ever gone through being insecure, or unsure, or completely accepting that your being different isn’t as attractive as others are, read this book. Even as a 32 year old, I really enjoyed this technically Young Adult book.

But then again I really enjoy Young Adult books.

What book are you reading today?