Today should be the start of the training for Tourism Promotion Services but it was cancelled again due to bad weather (a typhoon is expecting to landfall inside Philippines territory today) or should I say because of disappointing numbers of trainees who showed up. As I have blogged previously, only ten trainees attended the orientation last week and today that ten trainees, became six and what’s funny the sixth trainee was a new one, which means out of ten only five of us returned to the training center.

We’ve just submitted the requirements, do chit chatting, watched television, took selfies and laugh. It was quite fun because we already developed camaraderie at each other, my hesitation of returning to university to take the educational unit so I can teach if I got lucky was gone, if I can only enrol right away I will, but I guess I have to wait until the next semester.

We are permitted to go home, but we can’t go because it is raining hard, we waited for the rain to stop a bit and left through a public vehicle. In town, I bought food for lunch at a restaurant and waited at the front of the town signage. My mother asked my BIL to pick me up after he went home from school, he left early, but came just on time because it turns out the motorcycle died along the way, I guess it is from the cold weather brought by the cold rain.  We stopped by at my sister’s work place so she could fix the vehicle and the three of us went to the gasoline station to fueled up and then went to Bread and Butter Bakeshop to buy some snacks, I have ordered eight of their burgers, two siopao’s and a 3.5 liters of black forest ice cream, but my mother asked us through messenger why we wanted ice cream when it was raining hard, so my sister returned the ice cream and I decided to get three of their caramel delights, which one of them was brought by my sister to work.

As expected, it was a bit hard going home because some dickheads destroyed the concrete road when the alternative route isn’t finished yet, and when they have no plans to start reconstructing it right away and most especially when they knew it was wet season already. The roads they have destroyed for reconstruction have been sitting like that for almost a month already.

Cooking is one of the things I enjoy the most when I have plenty of time, but now a days, I seldom cook at home because today, it is my younger sister’s duty to cook at home, it has been the norm since I left the house for another life many years ago.

It was been years, so what’s ironic, how your family forget that you know how to cook and you was the one who cooked for them way back then.  I am flabbergasted every time my mother will tell people that I don’t know how to cook, so I have reminded her every now and then that I know how to cook and if I don’t know how to cook, who cooked their food way back then when my younger sister was still little? I reminded her again and again, that the spaghetti recipe that my sister is cooking when there is occasion was from me.  Then she will rephrase it that I am lazy to cook that she starved when she is left in my care, I guess she called it starving when I order food she like in a restaurant instead of cooking late, that I gave her money to buy snacks in town in her gladness.

[Forgot to make it presentable before snapping a photo]

Anyway, two days ago my sister wasn’t able to cook the viand because she is running late in her work. With this, she left the cooking to us, to me. It was nearing lunch so I started cooking, and your guess is right as mine. My mother went to the kitchen instructing me what to do, so I stopped, and told her I know what I am doing, she should stop teaching me so she left.

Lunch time. My mother keeps complaining that my cooking was too oily but as I can see she enjoys it, my father says maybe I cooked it for too long but he didn’t complain with the  taste, he ate a lot too. I told them, the coconut we’ve used is quite old and that viand was cooked differently from the normal “Filipino Chicken Curry“

My brother in-law was being silent, but as what I am seeing he is enjoying the food because he ate  a lot, maybe because it was cooked differently from the cooking he used to know growing up, he is the one who finishes the viand and my sister even blurted out when she came home from work that he seems enjoys it.

It was been a long time since I posted in my blog, if I we weren’t asked to share or to let others know the location of the training center, I wasn’t able to update this blog. Wish me luck that in a few days before the training I can do backlogs, back dated posts.

Well, there are times I felt bored, I felt bored with the slow internet connection that I wanted to fly to Mars (lol), felt bored reading horror stories because they sounded like just the same old story, watching Korean drama series and even living at times I felt bored (lol), in short I felt bored talking to myself alone (haha), I wanted someone to be friends with and to talk with. Then, I remember I have created a profile online and after guessing many times what was my password I was able to login and saw many messages I wasn’t able to open and replied back then. If you think, I have opened them, well I let them as they were and started to browse profile to profile from males to females, young to old ones. It was entertaining knowing people in their profile, giving them encouragement, praising and applauded them for the things they have accomplished like helping a community and etc., It was good thing at first but it becomes tiring browsing and browsing and no one to talk too (well I do talk to one). I just felt I need to recharge, sleep a lot and maybe in a few days, a one or two I will have a full battery again (lol).

Anyway, my younger sister came home yesterday with sets of tablets and capsules. It turns out they were given to them, each employee was given different kinds of medicines and since they are too many for us, we have to share them in our neighborhood. Their office owned a pharmacy and a store, but it is going to close because it wasn’t performing well. They will just focus on space rentals and loans.  As I look through the medicines they were for colds, pain relief and fever, I wish there is a medicine to be happy and to be comforted because the world needs it.

When traveling, I am always fascinated looking at our tour guide because I found their job very appealing. There are times I mimicked them and acted like I am  tour guide too, so when I have read online through the FB page of Mayor Trinal Firmalo (Mayor of Odiongan) that there will be a free training for Tourism Promotion Services  through TESDA I eagerly sign-up at the Mayor’s Office, less than 30 minutes since it was posted (lol).

It was over a week, Friday late in the evening when I received a text message that the training will finally start, it was exciting but somehow head banging…

“Good day pls be informed that the training for tourism  promotion servicing ncII will start on July 2 (monday) 8 am at brgy budiong (s my dating rubix). Thank you”

The question is where is this place they called Rubix before? I have asked few FB friends whom I know to be working in the municipal hall, friends that were residing at barangay Budiong and even my sister asked her friends and coworkers who live at Brgy. Budiong but they have a unanimous answer “What is Rubix?”, “Never heard of it”, “There isn’t no Rubix here”.

On Sunday, we decided to look around Brgy. Budiong to find this place called “Rubix” my sister and her workmate concluded the meeting place, maybe is in the barangay court where it was near the bar called “Amigos” which is called “Cubes” before, so the texter might be pointing to “Rubix Cubes”?  Realizing that, we return to downtown, but me feeling unsatisfied requested to return to Brgy. Budiong again to find this place called “Rubix” and maybe until to Brgy. Canduyong to my sister’s disappointment, that she has to drove around again.

We didn’t find any, but going back to downtown Odiongan my sister saw a van with “Rubiks” in it and upon glancing I have read from their very cute building signage “Citadel Training Center”  so this might be the “Rubix” we are looking for. I blurted out that I already saw the van awhile ago, but wasn’t able to read what is painted because I thought the building was  a private home.

Monday, the supposed to be start of the training day. When I arrived at exactly eight in the morning, there were only two people waiting, I have asked first if I was in the right place to the person in authority. To cut the story short, there were only 10 participants present for the said training out of 25 expected trainees and as expected, they also got lost finding for “Rubix”.

We are requested to return at one o’clock in the afternoon and guess what nothing has changed with our number, there are still 10 trainees to be trained, the facilitators were disappointed but the show must go on. A short orientation was done, headed by Ms. Rochelle from TESDA and Mr. Ramos from the Office of the Mayor.

Well, the training was rescheduled next Monday to wait for more trainees or participants. If you are one of those people who sign-up and received a text message, but couldn’t find where is this place called Rubix in Budiong, please look for Rubiks Manpower Training Center, Inc because technically speaking it is Rubiks and not Rubix. It was just about 500 meters or more after Amigos Bar, you can see it on your right if you are coming from downtown Odiongan.

On giving proper direction through a text message, I hope someone must not shortcut or encrypt the name of the place because it doesn’t help at all,  people tend to get lost than to find the place, this is a must do especially if you are relying an information or giving direction to people unfamiliar with the place.

Owning a business isn’t easy like one, two, three. It was been a year since I officially started my own business at home, registering it to the municipal hall and pay my due taxes. It started well, but there are really some people who are abusive and you couldn’t trust when it comes to money.  I have more than 13  dealers and one by one they started becoming a headache, they don’t return items on time, they didn’t pay on time and much worst they didn’t pay at all unless you complain them to barangay court.  I visited two different barangay court so I could get my money back, one settled her account after a few days, but one is still unsettled until today when she was given more than a month to pay and the others they are paying bit by bit.

My sister had told me to learn how to say no and just don’t let them get items when they have past due accounts, but the dork me doesn’t listen because I just can’t say no and I just don’t know how to be tough. In this regard, I stopped ordering and getting new products so I will not have  a problem saying no, or they don’t have new items to get at my store.

Anyway, the outlet operator in town called for a meeting yesterday, but I wasn’t able to go because I am expecting a dealer to pay that day as we agreed in the barangay court. So it was only my mother and sister attended the meeting for me, where they told me I was one of the top seller and in top 4. Maybe if, I didn’t stop I can be in top 3 or 2 and I received more expensive gift than a stand fan. Aside from the fan, my name was picked randomly for the advance payments, I got a new blender and some small things.

Well the dealer came late in the afternoon, but she wasn’t able to pay fully and requested if I can give her another month to pay, so I agreed.

It was my sister’s 26th birthday yesterday and we celebrated it by eating dinner last night at Bantigue Resort as planned, it was like a double birthday celebration because it was my father’s birthday the earlier week. We left early from Odiongan, so we won’t be hurrying in the road since it is in another town.

We arrived at 8:15 in the evening and there wasn’t a lot of people except to three females having a good time drinking below the bamboo Eiffel tower where we sat before. Since, we are five people they decided that we should just use the table upstairs, we’ve ordered and while waiting my sister and I entertained ourselves taking photos on the balcony overlooking the well lighted Eiffel tower, the Big Ben isn’t lit.

We have ordered two beers (₱45/bottle) for my father and BIL, five servings of rice (₱75), fruit shakes (₱70/glass), pancit canton (₱110), sweet and sour pork (₱180), mixed vegetables (₱150), sizzling chicken sisig (₱150), shanghai fried rice (₱100), sizzling pork sisig (₱150) and a bowl of crab soup (₱110). Within 20 minutes the mango and buko shakes were served first and the rest wasn’t served until an hour, in my father’s disappointment. Yap, when the food was served we are already sleepy and starving because it was already 9:30 in the evening. I guess, we have ordered a  lot and it took them long to cook our orders and guess what, we really ordered a lot because we are not able to finish all of our food that we requested them to be takeout except for crab soup which I enjoyed so much.

We are told that the Shanghai rice is only good for 2-3 people so I have ordered extra five cups of rice, but when it arrives it is good for the five of us. The food at Bantigue Resort is exceptional in a very affordable price because they come in good servings.

Well, what’s disappointing I didn’t even received a thank you from my sister for treating her twice on her birthday, lunch at Ashley and dinner at the popular home of the bamboo Eiffel tower in Tablas.

BANTIGUE RESORT
Brgy. Punta, Looc, Romblon
Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/pages/biz/Bantigue-Resort-760704667473655/
Mobile No. – 0948 748 0724

Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post. Above written post was my own personal opinion and experience and might be different from yours.

My postal ID was already expired for two months and I just renewed it today, my mother and BIL went to town so I went with them and since we are starving for running a few errands in town we’ve decided to eat at Ashley Bakeshop and Restaurant near the new market.

We are frequent at the bakeshop buying breads, pastries, pizzas and even ordering takeouts sometimes, we have already dined in before but I was too procrastinated to blog about it.  Before, I texted my sister that we are at Ashley I have already ordered something for her, it is her birthday today. She is at work but she is able to go out for a few minutes as long as she asked for permission.

Ordering take only 15 minutes and as usual I have ordered AM7 for us, this meal consists of rice and fried chicken, pancit canton and ice tea for drinks,  but my mother wanted something new so she ordered halo-halo and pizza for herself.

If you are hungry  and wanted to eat a full meal for inexpensive price Ashley Bakeshop and Restaurant is one of your best alternative in town, their menu is inexpensive and comes in big servings.

ASHLEY BAKESHOP AND RESTAURANT
Cocoville, Dapawan, Odiongan, Romblon
Facebook page – https://web.facebook.com/Ashley-Bakeshop-Restaurant-471794836292244/
Mobile No. – 0948 748 0724

Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post. Above written post was my own personal opinion and experience and might be different from yours.

[ Tagged In ] Ashley Bakeshop, Birthday Lunch, Food in Odiongan, Restaurant in Odiongan, Restaurants in Odiongan, Where to Eat in Odiongan

It’s Father’s Day. Sunday afternoon and there was nothing else to do after going to church in the morning, we did a short road trip to the municipality of Ferrol, but actually we didn’t continue to the town proper, we did a U-turn and went back to Odiongan where we ate at the newly opened burger place, The Blocked.

The enthusiastic server gladly welcomed us at the restaurant, she handed us their menu after we are seated. As I look around,  the burger place has a western touch, just like the restaurant bars in Itaewon, there are different set of options in the menu for over ₱100, it was hard for us to choose which set to eat, the potato wedges weren’t available, so I have asked the server, which one is the best, she gladly explained every option and suggests the options that she’ll think we’d like and even suggested if we would like a serving of garlic chicken.

We ordered one fresh strawberry milkshake for my mother, two options of Prep, one Nerd and a serving of garlic chicken, each meal option has a free glass of blue lemonade.  While waiting for our order, I have asked my sister to go home and bring our father to the burger restaurant, but she said, he already had a glass of liquor and he can’t drive (but when we arrived home, he is totally fine, and even sulk why we didn’t bring him to the burger restaurant, lol).

Our order was served in twenty minutes, my mother and sister enjoyed their meal because they said it tasted good, but I wasn’t because I am still full from our snack and I didn’t like the burger, it has the taste of mustard sauce in it, the smell brought me back to South Korea and the mustard sauce I can’t even finish at home.

Well, I have not told anyone yet in this blog, but I am already tired of mustard sauce, eating beef burger with mustard sauce, the taste of it is making me puke already, when we are traveling if we are not eating a beef burger, we are eating sandwiches. I just ate my fries and chicken and wrap the burger to bring it home to my father as well as the garlic chicken I have ordered, my mother and sister was already full with their meal so they can’t help me eat the garlic chicken. The chicken was  a bit oily, so I have used the paper towel at the table which I think has extra pay because there was an additional fee in our bill (or is it for a takeout additional fee?), well some restaurant in other countries I have been  to, add additional charges if you used wet tissues.

You know what’s funny when I stand up from my chair and did a second look at my payment that’s where I realized I forgot to put another bill,  I put 10% extra, but then the money I left wasn’t enough (haha), so I immediately grab for my wallet. Jezz, I am trying to do something good, but it looks like I will end up being embarrassed if I didn’t glance back at the table, the server called my attention that I still have a change but I just nod and left.  My mother and sister laugh at me, retelling how once upon a time I left more than 20% tip when I said it was just 10% (I am floating at times).

The Blocked, is a newly opened burger restaurant in Odiongan. Their place was an old warehouse for copra (dried coconut kernels), and after a few renovations and enhancements, The Blocked arises. If you are looking for something new and tired of eating the usual burger you buy from the streets and students canteens, pay them a visit and try them. Their food is fine, the chicken wings were just  a bit too tiny for me (hahaha). Well, you get what you pay for!

The Blocked 
Barangay Poctoy, Odiongan, Romblon
OPENING HOURS: MONDAY-SUNDAY (Except WEDNESDAY) 3:30pm – 10:00pm (kitchen closes at 9:30pm)
CONTACT: 0918 668 8072

Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post. Above written post was my own personal experience and might be different from yours.

Today, is Independence day so it was a holiday. We decided to visit nearby town, but wanting to see more and breathe some more air we did a Round Tablas again. We started from Odiongan to Looc, Ferrol and to Alcantara then to Sta. Maria where we had our stop over to take some pictures, then to San Agustin, Calatrava to San Andres and back to Odiongan where came from.

There was of lot of progress in the municipality of Sta. Maria, the construction of the highway was already completed, the road became spacious and larger.

We really didn’t take long because we still need to return to Odiongan, we didn’t start our road trip early, so we don’t have an ample time to do dilly dallying so we continued our journey to the municipality of San Agustin, we stopped over at their town to buy some snacks, my mother loves their siopao so much eh.

Along the way, I was surprised to see that there was already kiosk along the highway, it was a good spot to see and admire the beauty of Mt. Payaopao. My sister then told me that they already saw it when they went with us in the jump-off when we did the anniversary climb, and since it was my first time seeing it,I requested her to stop so I can take pictures.

If there is one thing I hate, that is a wedding. Why, they are happy when I am not. Anyway, enough of self-pitying, we are invited to the wedding of a distant cousin, her husband to be was one of the basketball players of the team my mother manages, so as expected we attended.

It was a garden wedding, to the place which is very familiar to everyone since it was the famous wedding venue before other contemporary came out the market, the receptions of my classmates who wed last year was also took place at Lyn’s Fern Garden.

Well, unlike church wedding, the garden wedding wasn’t that long because there wasn’t a lot of ceremonies. So after the customary photo taking, is chow time. The couple were very happy, as well the visitors who ate  a lot (just kidding!).

Lyn’s Fern Garden was a good place to rent for birthday, anniversary and wedding parties especially if you are expecting a lot of visitors. It has a huge hall, big parking space and beautiful garden. If you are wedding on summer time, kindly asked or pay for fans, because it was freaking hard to eat when your sweat is running down from your face. I could not say anything about their food because it was long proven that their catered food is one of the best in town.

LYNS FERN GARDEN
Brgy. Budiong, Odiongan, Romblon
Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/lynsferngardenvenue/
Mobile No. –  0920 438 6957

Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post. Above written post was my own personal opinion and experience and might be different from yours.