Nivea Sun Invisible Protection Transparent Spray

I just have to post this as I love the shot above and also because I am happy with how effective it is.

I hate putting on sunblock as I don't like the sticky icky feeling and the smell but after getting sunburned on my Camotes Island trip, and with my natural coloring still not returning even after 6 months, I realized just how important a sunblock can be.

Thankfully, our days of lathering on some sticky liquid that leaves that obvious white residue on our skin are over thanks to Nivea's Invisible Protection Transparent Spray.  This innovative product has a non-greasy and transparent texture that offers immediate and effective protection. It is also quickly absorbed and contains a highly effective UVA/UVB filter system.  As it is a spray, it is more convenient to use.  It is also water resistant.

Before this, I used Nivea Sun Immediate Sun Protection  SPF 50 PA ++ but its sunblock smell put me off.  It was effective, though.  Then I tried Hawaiian Tropic Ozone Sunblock UVB/UVA Protection The Ultimate 70 SPF during a recent trip to Siquijor but it failed to protect my skin despite its 70 SPF.

Nivea Sun Invisible Protection Transparent Spray only has SPF 30 PA ++ but it works and is very effective in protecting my complexion.

The Danish Lagoon's Sunset by the Beach

I just couldn't get enough of sunsets that day as guess what I ordered when Yen and I decided to go night swimming at the Danish Lagoon's pool and chilled out by having drinks?

Yup, it's Sunset by the Beach, which according to the bartender has measurements of 4 cl Tequila, 2 cl Cointreau and Lemon Juice.  I found it a little sweet though but once the ice dissolved, it tasted great.

A Night with a Pitcher of Strawberry Margarita All to Ourselves

Can the two of us finish this?

After our canceled Siquijor trip, my friend and I went to SM Cebu for a quick snack.  As we were still unsure of where to go the following day, I invited my friend over to my place. 

Home in Cebu is in Plantation Bay Resort and Spa, my awesome workplace where I have been in-house for more than two years now.

Our night was spent watching our themed dinner show, Rockin' USA while sharing a pitcher of strawberry margarita and catching up on each others' lives.

And yep, despite my initial thought of us not being able to finish our drinks, we did empty the entire pitcher.

I am Back

After more than a year of not posting in this blog, I decided to blog back.  Sorry for the very long hiatus.  I got busy with work.  I was promoted to Duty Manager in the hotel that I work for and the demands of my new position took its toll on me and so the past year was spent learning the ins and outs of hotel operations.  My love affair with blogging and writing was thus relegated to the sidelines.

Also, the past year, I got busy sating the wanderlust in me.  My job was kind of stressful and so whenever I had time, I traveled.  I had been to Bohol, Camotes Island and Hong Kong.  I had also gone home to Aklan and visited Manila.  After these travels, my work would take much of my time and so I failed to update this blog on my adventures and misadventures.

As much as I want to continue this blog from where it ended, which is on my Singapore trip, I cannot since last June of this year, my laptop crashed down and everything on my hard disk got wiped out.  Sniff.  Sniff.    About two years worth of travel pictures and blog drafts went down the drain.  Some of my pictures were actually already posted in Facebook but my heart breaks for the total loss of my Sagada, Bohol, Bangkok and Villa Escudero trips photos, including the random shots I had with my loved ones and friends. 

Oh well, I guess it was a reminder for me to always have a backup for all of my files, which I now have, by the way.

That said, from hereon, this blog starts anew.

The Rainbow

It’s been so long since I saw a rainbow. The last time was maybe when I was still a high school student in my province and that’s like a decade ago. The past nine years, when I was still in Manila, I used to wonder why I had never seen any rainbow there. Maybe all the smog (smoke and fog) in Manila’s atmosphere obscured any sight of it.

Imagine my glee then when today, as I was doing my rounds in the hotel that I work for, I saw the rainbow - beautiful in its arch and colors. The scene was made even more beautiful by the fact that its backdrop was the famous saltwater lagoon of Plantation Bay Resort and Spa. Too bad I only had my camera phone at that time thus in the pictures that I took, the rainbow's not clearly defined.

I love rainbows. For me, it’s not just an aesthetic gift. It is also a reminder that like nature’s way of having the rainbow after the rain, we as well can look forward to something beautiful after we have triumphed over life’s trials.

My PNRC First Aid and Basic Life Support Training

I hate the sight of blood. I cringe each time I see accidents on TV. I even refrain from watching the news during the New Year as I know it will feature people losing their limbs over pyrotechnic accidents. I was thus not particularly ecstatic when my company sent me to the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) Lapu-Lapu Cordova Chapter for my First Aid and Basic Life Support training.

I had no medical background thus I felt at a loss during our first day as the instructor discussed about what medial, inferior, proximal etc. meant. I felt even more at loss because among all my classmates, I was probably the most inexperienced (more than half of the class were caregivers, two of my colleagues were nurses, one works for our Recreations Department and was just there to renew his certificates and another worked in an ambulance for 10 years). To make up for it, I thus made it a point to read our handbook every day and to do online research.

The training was tough. Every day, we had a quiz and I was just glad my efforts paid off as I passed all the quizzes. I even got 100% on our second quiz. But what really drained me were the physical exercises. The carries, bandaging, splinting and basic life support (read: cardiopulmonary rescue or CPR) were grueling activities that not only entailed physical strength but mastery of the step-by-step process and / or the practice of ergonomics.

Bandaging / Splinting
My greatest challenge in this was folding the triangular bandage properly (the one where I had to make the point and the base meet) as everyone except me knew how to do it. After some time, I got the hang of it and I then got to learning various bandaging techniques. I learned that the bandage to be applied depends on where the injury is located and how severe it is.

As for the splinting part, our instructor just demonstrated the proper way of putting splints and pointers on what and what not to do in splinting.

Carries / Drags / Assists
These were activities that really exhausted me because it was tiring to carry someone, especially if s/he is heavy. Funny. At some point, a colleague of mine volunteered to be the victim but he was met with protests. Most of us said he was too heavy thus no one wanted to pair with him. Our instructor overheard us and chastised us, saying that in accidents, we couldn’t very well choose our victim. We jokingly responded that in real situation, we won’t be picky but since this was just an exercise, we could do with only those that we can easily carry. LOL.

Basic Life Support
The demonstration from our instruction fascinated me. I watched in awe as he performed chest compressions, CPR and rescue breathing on the dummy. I knew that afterwards, we were supposed to do it ourselves and honestly, I was fine with doing the first two but was very hesitant about the latter. I mean, come on, who wanted to perform “mouth-to-mouth” on a dummy that’s obviously been used hundreds of times?! I was so hesitant I thought of asking for an exemption but it was the thought that this could save a life that made me tough it out and just meet the challenge head-on. That and the fact that we’d use gauze over the mouth so it’s not really as if I would perform “mouth-to-mouth” to it.

Thankfully, I was able to learn how to do it properly as I passed the exercises on doing basic life support on an infant, a child and an adult. But boy, was it the most challenging among all our activities as the counting alone (1, 1002, 1003, 1001 breathe / 1, 1002, 1003, 1002 breathe…) could easily make one lose track of everything. And to think we had to count until 1024 for adults (and a count of 40 on children / infants!), huh!

The Simulation
Aside from the quizzes and actual exercises, our learning was put to the test when at the end of our course, a simulation was made. Our instructor chose 3 victims among the class who supposedly were victims of an explosion and asked the rest of us to help them out. It was tough as this time, we have to assess the situation and their injuries ourselves (unlike before when the instructor would just say the injury is on the leg or the burn is located on the chest etc). Good thing we passed this final test.


All in all, it was a really fun and fruitful experience I’d gladly take again when my certificates expire.