Category: Say Cheese!

Photos, and only photos.

From sunrise to sunset

Tina 2 Comments

I went on night shift again when January rolled around, and while I normally don’t like the night shift because I’m a morning person, I am liking it now. One major reason is the cool weather, which my friends and I call the “Philippine winter”. I know it’s not as cold as other places, but being in a country that’s either rainy or hot (and humid) most of the time, this crisp, cool weather and clear skies is one of my simple joys.

The second thing that I like about being on night shift is I get to catch the sunrise. I rarely wake up in time for the sunrise anymore, so catching it every now and then is a blessing. While I don’t really like to bask in the sunshine before I go to bed (I find it impossible to go to bed after the sun’s rays hit me), I like seeing the sky slowly brighten from black to dark blue to purple to a lighter blue to pink and orange and all that. It’s just so pretty and glorious, and it almost feels like a warm hug.

One of the sunrise shots I have on instagram. :)

But since the nights are still long and the sun doesn’t rise until past six in the morning this time, I hardly catch the sunrise because I am usually in bed by then (I told you I don’t like being hit by the sun before I go bed). I am up in the afternoon, though and you know what I catch then? Sunsets. Gorgeous, gorgeous sunsets. :)

Sunset in Vienna. One of my favorite shots that totally took me by surprise.

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Archers for a Day

Tina 3 Comments

Also known as: An archery lesson of sorts

I realize it’s been more than two months since this happened but I never posted about it. I think I need a little break from the serious entries here, so let’s talk about something fun and not that serious.

Last June, our book club discussed J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. Our venue was at Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range in Ortigas, this vegetarian restaurant and the only (?) archery range in Manila. We were supposed to try the archery but we did not get to because of time constraints and there were no lanes left for us to use. I wasn’t really that hot for archery, but when I saw a Groupon for archery + food in Gandiva a few weeks later, I told my friends about it jokingly. Turns out they were serious about it, so I got several coupons that we used a few months later.

I honestly had dreams that archery would be easy because it looks easy on TV. I’m not saying it’s easy-peasy, but it should not be that hard, right?

Well, I was wrong.

The Groupon I purchased came with food, so my friends and I had late lunch before the actual archery session. Once we were done, we headed over to the archery area and got ourselves oriented and then started shooting. Oh, wait I made it sound easy, but there were actually several things you have to remember with archery, and it’s really important to focus on your form so you can hit the target right. Apparently, we’re also supposed to be quiet, but of course, we weren’t. :P

Ahoy pictures!

The bows
The bows

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Write me a letter

Tina 3 Comments

Also known as: Post-Letters Out Loud thoughts

Letters Out Loud

I heard about Letters Out Loud while I was stalking reading author Marla Miniano‘s twitter account because I was anxious to get her new book. I blame it on this pep talk she wrote for the NaNoWriMo Philippines, which resonated so much with me that it was almost funny. So I heard about the event, this curious “let’s read letters we wrote out loud” event, and thought, Hey, maybe I should go.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, at first, until I asked some friends to go with me. I thought it was interesting, if not a little sentimental. I try not to be too sentimental nowadays for some personal reasons, but I told myself that this might be a fun event, and and it’s free, so I’m not really losing anything by going. Time to embrace my inner romantic, I told myself.

The funny thing was, I totally forgot how much letters meant to me this year. I honestly thought that I was just allowing myself to be romantic/sentimental by going to this, and then it hit me how some letters have changed my life recently. When I remembered that, I knew I would go — there is no way I would miss this event now.

I like letters. When I was a kid, I would write letters to almost everyone — my parents (from I love you’s to I’m sorry’s), my brother (which I think he never really read, haha), to friends, and to someone named “Diary” in the privacy of my own room. I would write letters to friends about random things. I loved the letter-writing activities we had, I loved snail mail, I loved making pen pals. There was a time when my high school friends and I would write to each other every single day, and mornings were made for distributing letters to everyone. My elementary school best friend moved to the US when we were in high school, and I would spend hours writing letters to her, detailing everything that happened in my day. I would wait eagerly for her reply, reading and rereading several times until I get her next one. I made time for retreat letters when we reached junior year in high school, making sure I wrote substantial letters to the people who matter to me, and good enough letters for those who I am not necessarily close with. I love receiving and reading letters to me and I kept them all in a box in my room, a reminder of the good things and the bad things all preserved in pieces of paper and messy handwriting.

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