TOPAZ HORIZON

For Nikki's wedding a few weeks ago, Vince and I stayed at a little boutique hotel with a quite prosaic name, 8 Suites.

We were supposed to stay in a hotel in Tagaytay Highlands (the wedding guests get discounts) but one look at the rustic-looking hotel and I looked somewhere else. Nothing against log furniture really but I prefer clean and elegant to organic and shabby.

The hotel sits on the edge of a steep hill that slopes down to Taal Lake. We can see the lake from our room but you have to climb down to the garden if you want to see the volcano.


And here's our room--all done up in chocolate hues. The rooms are large, with big beds and really fabulous pillows that I wanted to stuff into my suitcase and bring home. No worries--I'm no thief! I never could bring anything from the hotels I've stayed in. And I always fix the room before I leave--fluff up the pillows, fix the sheets, wipe down the bathroom. I know the staff cleans up after every guest leaves but I just can't bear the thought of people thinking, "What a messy bitch!" while I'm on my way home!

Here's breakfast! Quite good but nothing special. What made it great was the fact that we ate it just outside our room, with the fresh breeze and sunshine seasoning our food with extra yumminess. When you live in the middle of Manila, fresh air and sunshine are pure luxury.

I wanted to show you a photo of Vince enjoying his breakfast but the background was bad—the room next to ours had an extremely loud party the night before and they left an awful mess outside their room (you can just see the soda can past Vince's left thumb). So I had to crop out most of the mess.

Aside from the fact you share balconies with other guests, what I didn't like about the hotel was the noise level. You can hear everything--doors slamming, people walking by, the staff talking to each other, and, worse, people partying! I was so angry, I called the front desk to complain only to be told that the offending party was the owner's kid and his/her friends. This, of course, made me angrier! As the owner's kid, he/she should be even more considerate of the hotel's guests. I definitely gave them a piece of my mind and soon enough, the party toned down. Yup, I'm a huge killjoy, folks.

So. much as I liked 8 Suites (the design, the food and the view, although the last isn't their doing), I think that's the last time I'll stay there. They really should fix the noise problem!

Remember we sold our truck last year so that we can lessen our carbon footprint? Well, so much for saving the environment. With a baby coming soon, we're looking to buy a new car... and a truckload of new things.

The only mom in our staff, Joanna, advised that we'll need to buy a huge car. For the stroller, the car seat, the bottles, the milk, the diapers, the sterilizer, the everything a little person needs. My goodness, for such a tiny thing, it sure contributes to a lot of environmental waste!

Joanna says that that baby carrier is the best thing ever. Well, I guess we gotta add that to the list of things to buy for the baby then. To be honest, there's no existing list yet. Even now, as people giddily ask what we're buying for the nursery and the baby, Vince and I just say, "Huh?" Nope, we haven't bought anything for the baby, except the camera—and that was on the to-buy list even before we got pregnant, so the Olympus EPL-1 is really for us not Jelly Bean.

But today we were at a car showroom and almost bought a car! At the last minute, we stopped ourselves and said, "We'll think about it," but we know we'll be back soon to buy anyway. I guess we're still fooling ourselves that we don't need a car for the baby.



It's kinda weird really, having to swallow all our drivel about being enviro-conscious: "The earth is overpopulated! Save energy! Stop using cars! Walk! Commute!" We really tried, folks. But we'll still try by breastfeeding, accepting hand-me-downs from my sisters-in-law, trying out cloth diapers, etc. And we really don't want to get the baby stuff—I think it can be done; after all, both of us grew up with few clothes, toys and stuff. And we turned out okay.

While we are not interested in getting anything for the baby yet, we have been talking about other things, like how I'm so excited to teach it to read and Vince is excited to introduce the kid to music and sports. I've also been concerned about our health care so I'd browse medical and term life insurance quotes online sometimes. Vince, on the other hand, has begun wondering about good schools and tuition. We're very keen on the baby's education and welfare. But shopping for it? Not yet.

We figured we'd buy as we need, and I know every parent reading this is shaking their head and snickering, but if our parents were able to raise us with no strollers and fancy clothes and fab toys, I guess we can do the same with Jelly Bean, too. After all, Vince and I are very smart and sensible people. And we've gotten quite far using our heads. Right now, our heads tell us the baby shopping can wait.

Well, maybe we'll get the car anyway.  

UPDATE: We did buy the car, but we got the blue one because we had a boy!