Mayor-elect Reinaldo Bautista plans to revive the some aspects of the Administrative Order issued in 2005 by suspended Mayor Braulio Yaranon that limits the sale of liquor as follows:
You may have noticed, from my previous posts, how serious this blog has been the past few weeks. This is not as originally intended.
I had wanted to post my Baguio photo collection here one by one, and tell you more about why this is “my virtual heaven on earth.” How I wish I could, like Connie, regale site visitors with snippets of daily family life, or my travels, or what I cooked for breakfast. What happens is, I tend to put all the wonderful things about Baguio in the Go Baguio! website and all the serious stuff here. Also, I have been voluntarily and happily “stuck” at Atenara House for weeks due to our many wonderful guests and I really haven’t been able to edit my photos, or go out and take some more, or actually enjoy Baguio except within the confines of my wonderful house.
The great thing about Atenara is that it has ALL the typical “Baguio” features: a garden filled with pine trees, large rooms, spacious lounging areas, a great fireplace in a really good neighborhood. It’s so large and there’s just so much to do everyday that I do not feel the need to leave it at all!
Photos of Atenara may be found in our web album. A friend of Connie’s and mine, Ida La’O exclaimed once that my photos do not do the place justice. It is actually prettier “in person.” The camera is just unable to take the whole place in.
Living in Baguio, in general, and at the Atenara, in particular, is like being on vacation everyday!
But I digress…
What I really wanted to say is that, in the next few posts, I intend to tell you more about my experiences living in Baguio, the restaurants I eat in, our wonderful “pasalubong” items, and Baguio’s little secrets. Of course I have been threatening to write articles like “The Truth Behind the Meningococcemia Scare” and “If I were Mayor of Baguio…” but you’ll just have to be a little more patient.
Maybe I just had to get the flyover, Korean and airconditioning “issues” out of the way first so I can move on to the lighter side of life. Baguio is my home. I was a Manila girl without province to go home to. And many, many years ago, I decided that Baguio was to be it. This is where I am happy, concretization notwithstanding (here I go again!).
Hahaha!
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Photo Caption:
Let me start my Baguio Photo Collection with the best photo I have ever taken in my life. I took this a few years ago at Inn Rocio on Kisad Road. I used to live at Burnhamview Condominium in front of it and take my breakfast at the inn everyday. On one beautiful morning, I saw this bee contemplating the best-looking sunflower of the bunch and kept saying to him, “Huwag kang gagalaw (do not move)!” And he obliged me by staying there long enough for me to catch the perfect wild sunflower photo against the backdrop of pine trees and a typical bright blue Baguio sky!
Here is my next set of restaurants to sample in Baguio. The first list was originally published in Go Baguio’s Restaurants page that contains locations and descriptions. Those first 12 are my favorites, and these next ones merit special mention, too. Please note that I have limited the selection to those restaurants that can be found only in Baguio City, Philippines and nowhere else in the world.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
How are you celebrating love? With whom?
In my experience as a restaurateur, Filipinos celebrate this special day in large groups and whole families if Valentine’s falls on a weekend. On a weekday, couples mostly. Valentine’s this year is on a Wednesday, so we prepare a lot of tables for 2.
I’ve had only one real romantic date in all my adult years. And this was 23 years ago. I have worked on each and every Valentine’s Day since I was 14 at our family restaurants, Alfredo’s Steaks on Tomas Morato in Quezon City, Halfway House (1991-1997) in Baguio City, Alfredo’s Steaks Baguio (1997-2005), among others. Last year, we were so busy at Atenara House with a large group checked-in for the most organized and fun team building execrcises I have ever seen.
This year, Valentine’s Day will be a nice, quiet and relaxed one for me in Baguio. I will not go down and help out in Quezon City because of the many bookings we have received here for the weekend and the next for the Panagbenga.
So, hurray for Lisa this year! I will spend Valentine’s Day strolling around my beautiful town, avoiding SM City Baguio and Session Road (sure to be literally swarming with thousands of college students and Baguio folk), enjoying the fine weather, and falling in love with Baguio City all over again.
PAGASA Member
