Jan 18, 2026

Our family had an adventure planned for Sunday and it had me waking up pretty early. I couldn't sleep much from last night as my body was still trying to adjust itself from my night shift. But it was honestly fine and I felt okay enough to still tag along. We'd be going to Tagaytay today and my sister's boyfriend would be driving. They woke me up and I got into the car. We quickly drove to Tagaytay, we took the expressway there and our first stop was Picnic Grove. We didn't do much there, actually, aside from just taking pictures and taking in the view. I did try some strawberry taho for the fun for it and it was okay, it wasn't something pretty new. But we just walked around more, took a few pics, and I guess the fun part was my sister spotting a poster my friends hung up of a Roblox character, which was funny. We then got back in the car and drove to the next spot which was Starbucks Reserve Hiraya. When we got there, they had this line and it stretched out pretty well. It actually took us a while, too. We waited for more than an hour. In the meantime, Luan offered to stream some Portal 2 but it was this mod called Portal Reloaded which had a time portal and this time travel mechanic, which was pretty cool. Since I had nothing else to do but wait in line, I was down for watching and I guided him in some sections. When we got inside the venue, my cell signal fully cut out and I was forcibly removed from the call due to bad signal. We got our seats allocated and I still stand in line to get our orders. I had a list of what to get them and I also picked out a tumbler for myself as an extra gift, but then I thought about how white this one looked and how it wasn't slim enough for my backpack, so I just put it back. My mom also asked me to put a few pastries, and it was a lot of pastries. I had to pay for everything upfront and it all totaled to 2,600 Pesos, which seemed excessive, especially since we had just planned to get coffee here and our main event was eating bulalo. I still pay for the bill and head back to our table and even my sister gets shocked at the bill. This leads to my mom having a tantrum and storming out of the place which just surprises me and I roll my eyes at this because this is exactly how I deal with some of my problems. But I do the adult thing and chase after her and convince her to come back. It was seriously a weird thing to play the adult in this interaction, but whatever. I just try to not put too much thought into it otherwise my brain might melt down or something. I eventually escort her back and convince her to sit between me and my sister. We just ate and I notice her tear up and cry a bit, but I thought that the best decision to make her was to let her process her feelings on her own and not ask why she feels like crying or something. Eventually, things become okay enough, and I continue eating my raspberry tartlet which was too sour for me to finish. After waiting for a while, we went out and I withdrew some money to have some spare cash. We went back to the car and headed to Mushroomburger. Mushroomburger was a pretty quick stopover compared to the others. We mostly tried their mushroom fries and I actually ordered a lot of their mushroom fries (around 3 buckets at least). My sister's boyfriend tries them out and he thankfully likes it because he says he hasn't had this before, only the burger. Mom also tries it and she likes it, and my sister likes the burger she ordered a lot, along with the fries and even the mushroom siomai I ordered for myself but gave my sister some of. After that, we went to our last destination for the day: Mahogany Beef Market & Bulalohan. We parked easily and we went upstairs to a bulalohan that my sister said was good. We got seated and then ate some bulalo which was pretty great. The beef here was pretty soft and I was so used to having so many hard beef chunks in bulalo so this was a nice surprise. I also ordered some chicharon bulaklak on the side and that was also pretty good, so I felt kinda full by the end because we had already eaten so much from our past stops. It was nice, all in all, and mom and I ordered some take-out for my sister's boyfriend's family and then I carried all of my mom's stuff so she could feel better while walking around. I just walked around with her, we bought some lanzones to take home and went back to the car so we could all go home. During the trip, they took a weird route that wasn't on the expressway, and we spent an hour or so just driving through Cavite. During that time, my phone's battery was dangerously low but I still kept playing music because I was bored. We drove through more road and even passed by Nuvali Park in Laguna, which seemed cool. We eventually got to CAVITEX and, from there, went to SLEX. It seems that my sister's phone had died and so had her boyfriend's phone, because they were using my sister's Samsung tablet as a GPS. My iPhone was hovering around 6-10% battery at this moment and I was getting worried, but we passed by Alabang quickly and we were already in NCR. Somehow, in their infinite wisdom and sheer geniusness, they decided to exit SLEX at C5, NOT at SM Bicutan. This was honestly a stupid as fuck move. Not only did they pay for MORE MONEY AT THE TOLL GATE, but we ALSO GOT STUCK IN TRAFFIC FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR. The car also had issues climbing up hills and there was this Catholic festival-thing going on that blocked several roads. This was such a fucking facepalm because they could have just exited SLEX in Bicutan but they made this bonehead move that cost us so much time and gas. They seriously wasted so much time, money, and gas. I was already kind of livid and tired at this point because I had been wanting to go to the bathroom in so long. It was also traffic around our way home so we had to take this shortcut that I thankfully knew, otherwise we would have spent an hour or so more. Fucking hell, the drive back home was absolute bullshit and we didn't have powerbanks at all so we were kind of screwed, honestly. We eventually got home and I was just tired and done from the trip, I swear. Today was planned to be a quick trip to Tagaytay but so much drama and stupidity happened in a day that I'm honestly just glad to have been home. I was really emotionally drained and I just chilled by myself for the rest of the day and enjoyed the rest of the weekend. I got into a call with Luan and I was just guiding him through some Portal Reloaded stages. While helping him, Naomi's girlfriend Jane introduced me to her friend that wanted to get to know me. I agreed and talked to them while helping Luan with his gameplay. Also in the evening, we also had more of the bulalo from Tagaytay for dinner, which was pretty nice.