My New Bucketlist

Every year my bucket list gets longer and the tasks get more impossible. So here's the deal...I don't know what it is, I just feel like I'm running out of time to do all the things I want to do. I've set deadlines for myself and when I don't accomplish the tasks I've aligned in time, I get frustrated. Every week is a roller coaster ride. Up, down, sideways and backwards. So I decided to segregate my goals and categorize them.

Thinking about the work goals stress me out. But thinking about the Travel and adventure goals, get me excited and happy. It gives me hope and something to look forward to. While thinking of my personal ones, give me anxiety. Such is the case with me. Like I said...roller coaster! I hope there's a fairy god mother or a fairy god father who reads this blog, takes pity on me and give me a million bucks so I can do everything at once. Then I can die happy and fulfilled.

WORK:

1. Make existing restaurant a success
2. Expand and open a catering business
3. Open a string of franchised food carts
4. Open an Italian Cafe and Gelateria
5. Open a clean and economical waxing place
6. Develop a cured meats business
7. Open a cute candy shop
8. Open an artsy cafe
9. Learn how to Bake gourmet breads
10. Open a Gourmet Deli and Bakery (and hopefully supply hotels and restaurants).
11. Have my own little Travel Cafe
12. Open a Bed and Breakfast somewhere beautiful and exotic like Costa Rica.
13. Make lots and lots of money so i can do all the things I want to do before I die.

TRAVEL and ADVENTURE:

1. See Europe by the end of 2011
2. Travel to Central and South America by 2012
3. Backpack China, Tibet & Mongolia (2012 or 2013)
4. Make a quick organized tour to India and Nepal (Cannot even begin to imagine backpacking India!)
5. Go on an African Safari
6. Dive the Galapagos
7. Dive Palau
8. Dive the Great Barrier Reef
9. Have an awesome week-long holiday at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, swim with the dolphins and dive, dive, dive!
10. Dive Egypt and the Red Sea (Cleopatra's Tomb is becoming an obsession).
11. Explore and join a dessert caravan around the Middle East (Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Turkey)
12. Ride the Orient Express from China to Russia (or vice versa)
13. Fly over the Bermuda Triangle and (hopefully survive) to discover why so many strange disappearances happen there.
14. Have a quick jaunt in Iceland and set foot in the North Pole.
15. Take a cruise to the South Pole, and plant my flag in some random area.
16. Have a very sexy and erotic affaire du coeur with an Argentinian man.
17. Ride a 16-hands high stallion at a breakneck speed in the coastal cliffs of Ireland.
18. Look out for the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.
19. Learn to dance on a stripper pole like a pro in Vegas.
20. Learn additional carnal arts from a Dutch Prostitute.
21. Stomp on grapes to make wine in the Rhine Valley.
22. Harvest flowers and participate in creating a parfum in France.
23. Make love in a field of violets on a lazy afternoon.
24. Work in a European patisserie for a month.
25. Paint Carnaval Masks in Venezia.
26. Learn to blow glass from a seasoned artisan in Murano.
27. Ride a vespa while cruising the Amalfi Coast
28. Participate in a clam bake in Maine one summer.
29. Spend New Year's Eve in Paris.
30. Dive in a cage with angry and agressive great white sharks.
31. Dance on a Carnival Float during Mardi Gras in Rio de Janeiro.
32. Participate and kick ass in the biggest food fight in the world, during the Tomatina Festival in Spain.
33. Run for my life while being chased by 100 angry bulls.
34. Learn to Tango in Argentina.
35. Explore Machu Pichu.
36. Take a slow train over the Andes.
37. Become a member of the mile high club (preferably with a hot pilot).
38. Explore Chile by land.
39. Find someone who is willing to retrace and do the motorcycle diaries adventure with me.
40. Roll a cuban cigar in Cuba, smoke it and drink lots of mojitos 'till I pass out on the beach.
41. Walk on water, walk on air in Bolivia's Mirror Lake.
42. Go on a pre-dawn hot air balloon ride over the Fariy Mountains in Cappadocia, Turkey.
43. Do THE MARATHON trail in Greece.
44. Skydive
45. Explore the Scottish Highlands wearing a Kilt (even if I'm a girl.)
46. Get pissing drunk during St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.
47. Explore the Carpathian Mountains by air (Preferably paragliding).
48. Learn how to surf cloud 9s in Hawaii.
49. Go on a wolf sledding escapade in Alaska (missed out on it, the last time I was there).
50. Go on an intensive 6 week yoga crash course in Costa Rica.
51. Have the most amazing sex with a beautiful man on horseback during a thunderstorm.

PERSONAL:

1. Loose weight!
2. Study Photography to become a professional photographer.
3. Change careers.
4. Find a man who would be my partner in every sense of the word.
5. Do most if not all of the things in my bucket list before I croak!

California Coastal Cruising

I consider California as my second home. I have family and friends here. I even worked in this beautiful state after graduation. I've been shuffling back between the Philippines and the US since I was 7. It serves as much as a home to me as Manila does. Sometimes even more so. I don't even consider going to Cali a vacation any longer. It's so familiar, that I often feel like I'm going to my other home for a change of scenery. However my recent trip to Cali felt like a vacation. And this is due to generous friends who took the time to entertain and to show me around town. (Thanks Anna, Hya, Ging and Jorgette). Whenever I go to LA, I normally stay in the downtown area. My cousins used to have a condo there, where I stayed whenever I went for a visit. It was either that or stay in Hollywood where my friends, Malou and Miles used to live. So I know the area quite well. This time I stayed at Hermosa Beach with Anna. I've been to LA countless times, and I have never driven by Hermosa Beach. So I was very excited when Anna offered to let me stay with her. And boy did we have a blast! The last time I had such a great time was in college. She drove me everywhere. I even got to see areas of LA I didn't know existed. In short, I had a great time being a tourist.





I'll let the photos do the talking. We were cruising highway 1 (California Coastal Highway - A very scenic drive that stretches from Oregon all the way to San Diego). We drove from Hermosa Beach to Pedro's Point, to Malibu and all the way up to Palos Verdes.














The view from Trump's Palos Verdes Golf Course was absolutely breathtaking. The photos I took don't come close to how gorgeous the scenery was. When we were there, we were able to enter the newly developed and highly exclusive Trump Golf Course estates. There was a new house being built by a seaside cliff overlooking an incredible view of the ocean with a private walkway that led down to the beach beneath the cliffs. While strolling the private grounds (illegally), we were blessed by a glorious sunset over the water's horizon. Moments like this make me appreciate just how blessed I'am. It shows what an awesome gift this planet is to the human race.