RETROSPECT - Chapter 1

 RETROSPECT - Chapter 1

–2022–

I know that the courage I’ve had when I was 22 is no longer the same as when I turned 24. My father had just passed away, we had so many family fights, over finances, responsibility shares, and mixed emotions; more on scattered all over the place. Losing a piece of you will never be easy. It’s just unfair that he did not live long enough to see our success and his adorable granddaughter.

But here we are, still kicking! Well, we have to.

2022 has never been easy for all of us. While lamenting the 2nd year of dad’s passing, mom and I had a big fight that lead us to deciding on transferring to the city. This is just a much crazier version of wanting to get the kind of love and affection we’ve been getting from my dad that my mom was never used to giving. 

She cares for us of course, but the show of affection lacked. Maybe she had some reservations given that me and my siblings are all girls.

There’s just that individuality of them being parents to us. And it’s a bigger kind of view for me now that I am also a parent of one. I guess, being married does not guarantee that likelihood of raising a better kid. Differences still come out as to how you were raised as a kid to how you now raise your own kid. There’s a lot of childhood traumas and bad experiences for me and Aaron. And I tell you, it is hard to face them almost every day.

You will never get to understand what they’ve been through if you only listen to yourself. And so, listening and keeping it cool sometimes is the best solution to having a calm and happy home. But then again, it always is not the case. All the crazy little butterflies in my stomach are gone. Mid-20’s can be crazy for us because we no longer are excited with parties and boozes, we are more excited with real estate, business, investments, and getting stable. 

Maybe even if Heaven is not here, we will still want the same thing, just because, starting early is better than delaying what you can do now for your future. It’s slow but it’s a progressive year for us.

We transferred here in Manila as I mentioned in my previous blog before I turned 26. Oh, and just a little bit of update, my birthday was in Pico de Loro Country Club in Batangas!

It was magical but full of disagreements too. We’ve just spent a lot to sustain our shop, and now, we’re back to only one job each. All our plans did not go as well as how I pictured it the first time. Getting off debts, saving more, while living lavishly is never an easy thing to balance. 

But I am happy to share how every month of 2022 was for us. We were here January 29, By February, we were getting into a lot of adjustments as it’s now only just the 3 of us..

By February, we started projecting our goals and first of them is reaching out to Aaron’s family. Since lockdown, he had never been home, and it’s just now that we have a chance to also share our blessings. It was a normal weekend when I randomly decided on going to Tagaytay Crosswinds with Aaron’s sister, cousin, grandma and her grandma’s sister who we call Tita Essie.

Heaven’s birthday was also approaching so we treated them to a fine dinner at Balay Dako. it is one of the most famous restaurants in the area and we’re just loving how Aaron’s family is with these tiny gestures.

We went home with new memories. It was cold, Heaven was their favorite of course, and she just made everything better like it’s magic since day 1.

March came and my mom and sisters with Jane, my sister’s bestfriend came over to Manila to celebrate Heaven’s birthday. It was her first, and Manila has not eased up yet on the pandemic, so we were not able to invite friends. It was just family.

We ate at Vikings in Makati, it was an extravagant buffet restaurant and I still managed to set up the grandeur of celebrating our little one’s birthday. We started heading to a baby modeling agency and afterwhich, we went back to Makati for the celebration.

The middle of March came and we and Aaron’s family had more city life moments. Like playing bowling at Mall of Asia, eating at restaurants, roaming around the city in a car my father gave me, and getting closer to them.

There’s a lot of photos on my instagram @meaganph, so let’s continue to April on my next blog!

Next year, I won't be doing a retrospect anymore, I'd like to be more updated with you guys so I can be more in the moment too when writing!

I HAVE NEVER FELT SO ADULT UNTIL I TURNED 25

 Hey, it’s been 7 months since I last posted on my low-key blog. I have had this for the longest time but only had the chance to enhance it to the best of my ability in 2017. That’s when I started real trips on my day-offs and paid vacation leaves.

The last post was when our family went to Boracay for a three-day vacation. I have never felt as complete as those days. Every day, you become older and older, and you just get to know who you are, in a much deeper sense. In a way that only you can understand in the present time. So much has happened since the day we lost our father. All the dreams and aspirations that seemed to be falling in place, fell into broken pieces once more. There’s nothing more hurtful than losing a piece of you, a person who’s been a part of you your whole life. 

But it’s July, it’s also the 9th month of our grandmother Rosario’s passing. So many have passed away already. My dad and cousin in 2020, my grandmother in 2021. Life is indeed just like a blink of an eye, it just looks like a flashback in front of your eyes that you may just be playing in the present time. Just like what they say, life is like a movie, so better play along with it.

So I figured, we can only do so much by doing everything that we want, love the people around us genuinely, show support to your friends, don’t be bitter, be the BEST that you can be, it’s not bad to accept a piece of advice from a person who you know cares about you, and I could go on and on… (oh i think i’d be making a list of how to live your life happily next LOL).

Honestly, being genuine in everything that you do and with everyone around you, is the simplest and the best key to having a rich life.

So, here’s a trip that I would like to share with you on my 25th. I’m skipping my 24th birthday because it was the worst. I was pregnant and my hormones are not giving me a good mood all the time. I was so emotional, considering everything that had just happened that year.

It was the very first time I ever spent my birthday on an island with our grandmother Rosario. Our province is filled with beautiful gems and Casa Consuelo is one of them. Our family has been here in 2019 but I wanted to show this to the new additions in our family, Aaron and Heaven. And of course, our granny who’s always been left in the house.

Casa Consuelo is a family owned beach resort. It has an infinity pool, Dos Hermanos island at bay view, a rocky shore, a calm sea, little kubos, and function halls inside. We stayed in a family Casa and a standard room for 2 nights! Heaven was seven months at the time and I am already making her my little version of a mermaid. 

The pool was a bit slurry, we did not have snorkeling gear for the small fishes in the shore, the waters were on a high tide, so we just stayed the nights on chill. It was just like welcoming adulthood in a more adult way. LOL.

After my dad’s second death anniversary, me and Aaron decided to go back to Manila to search for greater opportunities as well as with the purpose to expand our milk tea shop and open up new investments. 

We rented a condo unit located in Paranaque near BGC, Taguig.  And ever since, opportunities came flowing like a stream. First, we had a part-time job getting whitelisted for various NFT collections. After a month, I resigned at my full-time job so I could get accepted at the American Express. A side hustle that we did was with Riverbend Consulting where we assisted many Amazon sellers with their online stores. That job lasted from March to July until I can no longer balance my time with my full time job as fraud specialist and the demands of the consulting firm asI was about to get promoted as a consultant/appeal writer.

It was a great opportunity too, being with a start-up company and getting promoted in just 4 months, but the benefits were lacking. We had to have something to cover our daughter’s and Aaron’s healthcare expenses just in case. 

This year’s boosted our desire to start now, as soon as possible. We have started inquiring some loans for real estate rental business and a car for vacation car rentals too.

This year has really got us excited about life and the future that will come moving forward. It just makes as feel the bloom in life that we’ve always been dreaming of back when we were still in the province. 

Everything is falling again in place. And I hope that my father will be very proud of what we have become. Our youngest is continuing her taekwondo journey. My mom is continuing and expanding the security business our father left. And our middle sister is working at an area where she excels most at  (hotel front desk work) and has plans of moving abroad too!

The little wins in life are the most satisfying when combined together. Especially so, Aaron and his family have gone through a lot this year too, losing his uncle along the way and making them stronger, testing them to be more than themselves than ever before. 

It’s just August, a month away from my 26th. Is another beach getaway a good idea with Heaven? But I am quite sure I have the same excitement and energy like when I first started this beach birthday series when I was 21! #

20th - Hiking and Batangas Beach

21st - Coron Palawan, Canyon Cove (Batangas)

22nd - Siargao (5 days)

23rd - Boracay Island (3 days)

24th - Family and Pagudpud Ilocos Norte trip

25th - Casa Consuelo (3 days)

See you again soon… at the beach? Or anywhere I'll be on my 26th!

Tiktok and Instagram: Meaganmangoma

Canyon Cove Resort and Spa - TALES OF THE RED BIKINI #1

Starting off my beach journey was an ultimate fun!

When I started working and living independently, I've always been thinking of exploring the world independently, spending every time and penny that I was able to work for all along. Being an independent young woman with so much dreams in mind never lose the courage to start, refresh and restart again if something wrong comes along the way.

To me, the fun is even in the challenge itself. You might get irritated, stressed, worried, but the thing there is learning to manage yourself when you'e at worst. By then, you start  knowing yourself more and how to become comfortable when it gets hard right there. Just as if everyone sees the good in the bad. Just like seeing the bad in the good.

I was nineteen when I trailed off from home after graduation. On my twentieth birthday, I went to Vigan, Ilocos Sur. I had always been a child of the north, but never ha I stepped in Calle Crisologo nor in the Vigan church until my 20th year. It's a historic affair that I had with that small old town. Just as everyone would say, you'll see yourself in the past and how you live differently now.

But let me tell you this, I wasn't a bikini girl yet during that time. LOL.

The first time actually was when I turned 21 and went out of town. Somewhere in Nasugbu, Batangas. I got to choose the Canyon Cove Hotel and Resort. Tagged my sister and her girlfriend. And only the three of us celebrated the night before we went home to Ilocos for my actual birthday celebration.

In Canyon Cove, no one cared when I wore my long dress as a long skirt as I wanted to parade my red handmade red bikini. LOL

So I of course got this all posted in instagram and some on my facebook. To me, the crowd in instagram is more reasonable than on facebook. LOL. Just saying.

Anyway, all over evaluation of the place, I loved it! There's a lot of water activities from the pool to the beach! Kayaking, banana boat and sight seeing on the other side of the cove.

 The actual view from the other side of the resort from afar.

Red bikini pairs. #sistergoals 💕

All over, we enjoyed the scene. A travel birthday party, intimate and silent. Could have we known we could bring food inside our room, we could have bought goods for a more "tipid" (thrifty) trip.

How to go to Canyon Cove Resort and Hotel

Ride a bus from Buendia/LRT Gil Puyat bound to Nasugbu Terminal. The trip took us 4 hours to get off the bus. There was a tricycle stop there, we asked if he can drive us directly to the cove and thankfulyy he was an expert! He even toured us around own, especially to the new restaurant where brewed coffee was for free! Sadly, I was no able to take note of the place's name. But sure hing it was near Mcdo. LOL.

So the fare for the bus ride was Php167.00 and for the tricycle, since it was a private trip, he even gave us tips when we go back or what other hotels and resorts offer a good view. So we paid him Php300.00 as he gave us a tour around the town. That's why I love Philippines, the hospitality is priceless. On the way to the bus terminal, it was Php200.00.

So upon check in, they also require another payment (for security) for 1, 000.00 and will return it once you check out.

Lucky am I that when I booked this place, with Traveloka, I got a discount! So that really is one thing that a budget traveller should eye everytime. Promos, bonuses, coupon for discounts and other advantages. Moreover, inquiring everything before going is a must. Though I was informed initially that food is not allowed, we still got our food in which was a take-out order from the restaurant around the town. Haha!

Hope you enjoyed reading this Birthday journey for my Red Bikini Tale! 😉

But I'm wearing a black one here. LOL.

Playground for kids.

Resorts view from the room.

See you on the next tale!! 💓