Bisaya Bloggers

As a last check before I made this post, spott.com was down for maintenance and was serving a pacman game on its homepage instead. For the past two days it had been displaying its own ad instead of a member site’s and although the pink puppies were cute, I was wondering if I had miscalculated that site by joining up again.

Yep, this is the second chance I gave Spott.com the alleged link exchange site. The first time I wasn’t too happy and there wasn’t much of an improvement this time either.

The screenshot above is from last week’s statistics. This morning I managed to take a peek at today’s numbers but didn’t get to take a screenshot before the page started showing pacman instead. This morning my Balay ni Bambit widget had already been displayed more than a thousand times and Do I.T. Yourself close to five hundred. But not one spott user has clicked on either widget.

I’ve decided to take out the spott widget on both this blog and my other blog Do I.T. Yourself. I mean 500 impressions and no clicks? The spott widget shows a different card each time the page is refreshed, so the display to click ratio may be huge. And being that, it makes me think that the spott widget is useless.

So off you go spott. Shoo.

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Contrary to expectation, I had a very enjoyable and restful stay in Cebu — exactly what I’d come here for. The Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City provided a relaxing respite for a stressed-out worker bee who hadn’t had a vacation in more than a year!

The Waterfront in Lahug is one of the largest hotels in Metro Cebu. The property has a total of 561 guest rooms, in all of 18 floors. In the picture, I wasn’t just posing — they really do have wireless Internet access in all of their rooms. They also have free Wifi at the expansive lobby.

Attached to the hotel is a convention center, where large-scale events such as the Philippine Ad Congress have been held. The Waterfront is also home to PAGCOR — it’s one of the largest in the Philippines, if I’m not mistaken. If you’d like to try your luck, have a go at the hundreds of slot machines or card tables that they have.

What I appreciate the most about the hotel is its location. It’s a stone’s throw away from the AsiaTown I.T. Park, where, aside from the prerequisite high-tech firms, there are nice shops and leisure establishments. The hotel is also just a 40-peso taxi ride away from the Ayala Center, Cebu’s newest mall and entertainment complex.

I think I spent half my time in Cebu at Ayala. After all, I came here for a much-deserved vacation, so I didn’t feel compelled to ply the touristy route. (I couldn’t avoid running into a potential business project, though… but I’m not complaining!)

There wasn’t enough time to sample the myriad culinary offerings of the Queen City, but I did get to try some proudly Cebu-grown restaurants. Lunch one day at Roma•mia, an Italian chain, was a very tasty cup (the size of a small bowl) of minestrone, and a platter of spaghetti, pizza and chicken. Also tried Pier One @ The Walk, but the food wasn’t all that impressive; we wanted to try Mooon (yep, 3 o’s), which is below Pier One, but each time we went they had a long waitlist.

A fusion-food place, oh georg!, was a treat. I regret that I didn’t take note of the dishes we had, but all of them were really good! It’s at the ground floor of Ayala Center, sitting between two wings called Paseo Ciudad and Paseo Marina.

Outside The Walk (which is inside the I.T. Park) is a restaurant that we used to have in Davao, but originated in Zamboanga. As expected, the grilled delicacies of Alavar de Cebu was sinfully delectable. Their Alavar Rice — a cup of high-grade rice swimming in a plateful of aligui (crab fat) — was to die for!

I also had a pleasant get-together with bloggers of Cebu at Bo’s Coffee Club on Osmeña Avenue. The Bo’s brand is originally from Cebu, and there are currently two franchisees in Davao; in Cebu, there are countless branches of this homegrown café.

My stay in Cebu City has been quite satisfying. I wish I could remain for a few more days, but I really don’t need to. My relaxing and rejuvenating stay is enough to allow me to look forward to another trip to the capital of the Visayas.

I'm glad the sun is up today. It rained for the most part of yesterday (in Tuol Sangke where we live) that our plan to drive around was canceled, but, I am also glad for the cool weather that the rains brought in. I notice that every now and then I get those headaches. Perhaps I'm watching too much tv these days (it's the Wimbledon!!)... or, it's because I am getting old and creaky? Simba ko (knock on wood). But I am always comforted by my husband's words and assurances; and my nephew and nieces still make me laugh and smile. When I call home and talk to them, it makes me forget the aches.




I wish I could also have their childlike innocence.

Okay, enough of the wishful thinking... on to what's happening here - we are flying to Phuket on Saturday!! Wohoo!! Actually it is not a 100% holiday as the husband is taking his CELTA course but of course, Phuket is Phuket, and we are bound to do what a tourist should do when in Phuket. Anyways, we will be staying inside at the International House located at the British International School. They have very nice accommodations there, so I heard. That I will surely see.

By the way, I would like to say thank you to dear Zam of MakiMeji for sharing the love to me...




... and now I am passing the love on to my friends, Redlan, Serena, Lou, J-B-L-O-G-G-E-D, MamaGirl, Sam and KiwiPinay. Let's spread the luuuuv!