I LEARNED A NEW SKILL: CROCHET

My "masterpiece"

 

During my school days, we were taught many arts and crafts such as cross stitching, drawing, coloring, sewing and many other more. But we were not taught to do crochet.

 

Recently, we joined the Social and Sports ministry in our church and I was engaged in arts and crafts group. Our first group activity will be crochet. I do not have any idea how to do it. Nobody from the members even knows how to do it, but they suggested watching youtube videos for tutorials. And amazing as it is, we were able to finish simple crochet coasters. Yehey!

 

HAPPY HEART’S DAY!

Love is in the air. When the month of February starts, I can hear people say that it is the love month and feel excited about it. Well it is! May it be for couple or single (taken or available), the love month really make some noise. Facebook is full of “hugot lines” and it targets to tease most of the single ladies. J

FIVE THINGS WE DID IN OUR HONEYMOON IN MALDIVES

 

 

I feel excited on this trip as it is the first time that I will travel with my hubby. Yey! Although we were exhausted after our wedding preparation and celebration, we were able to take a rest during our flight (we were sleeping during the entire flight).

 

Initially, I was a bit hesitant to go to this place as it is quite expensive considering that we have some expenses after our wedding. But my husband convinced me that it is just once in a lifetime experience. So when I am persuaded to pursue it, I booked our hotel using booking.com. We booked our stay in one of the beautiful island of Maldives, Paradise Island Resort. It is about 9.6km away from Velana International Airport (Male) and takes 15-20 minutes by speedboat. With 62 water bungalows and 220 beach bungalows, total 282 rooms all with modern 5 star facilities. The island is 931m in length and 201m width. I recommend this island resort based on my personal experience. The staffs are friendly and accommodating.

FIVE THINGS TO EXPLORE IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

               

It’s another exciting trip again we had in Malaysia.

 

As usual, we booked our hotel using booking.com. We booked our stay in Hotel Transit, 45 minutes away from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It was a nice hotel and it is close to KLCC, Chinatown, Bukit Bintang, LRT stations and Pudu Sentral UTC (KL’s main bus station). I recommend this hotel based on my personal experience.

EXPERIENCING MORONG, BATAAN WITH WHOLE FAMILY

 

This trip was unplanned. When I say unplanned, we just talked about it over but didn’t pay much attention about it and what exact place we will go.

 

We don’t know how to get there, but there was an App that my sister is using called “WAZE” which was quite accurate and very helpful. She uses it most of the time when she travels in uncertain places. This is the first time that she will drive for longer time and in an unknown road.  And praise God for His guidance and help of this App we were able to come to the place we were looking for.

EIGHT BEST THINGS TO DO IN BANGKOK, THAILAND

                

Once in a while, we would have our leisure trip either locally or in other countries. Our first (read here) and second (read here) trips abroad has been fun and exciting and every trip is special and unique as the people, culture and beliefs are different from country to country.     

Our trip to Bangkok, Thailand (formerly known as Siam) is my third leisure trip. We went there last November 2015. Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand and is a Buddhist country so you will see images of Buddha almost everywhere.

A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT SPENT AT RIKKS FLOATING RESTAURANT, YAS MARINA

My friends and I want to go out for dinner; they’ve searched the internet and found good deals in Cobone. After seeing the terms and conditions and reviews, we decided to go for a floating restaurant, it cost AED 749 for 6 persons.  We called for a reservation on a Tuesday night to avoid the crowd and to enjoy the view and the food.The dinner cruise includes views of Yas Island, Ferrari World and Yas Water World, dinner buffet featuring international cuisine, unlimited soft drinks, water, tea and coffee, and music and dance performances.

FIVE EXCITING THINGS TO SEE IN HONG KONG

Every once in a while we tried to relax and take a short vacation in other countries before proceeding our way home to Philippines. This time our destination is another Asian country, Hong Kong.

As usual, we booked our hotel using booking.com. We booked our stay in Silka Fareast Hotel, within walking distance from the Tsuen Wan MTR, City Landmark and other shopping malls, commercial and recreation areas.

A FUN-FILLED DAY IN UNIVERSAL STUDIOS SINGAPORE

                

My first leisure trip was in Singapore in 2012 for 3 days and 2 nights initially, but we stay for 4 days and 3 nights due to flight delays. Anyway, we were compensated for the inconvenience although we were dying to go home to Philippines and tell our stories.

                On our second day, we were able to go to Universal Studios located within Resorts World Sentosa in Sentosa Island.

ENJOYING THE “SEA”NIC VIEW WHILE DINING IN PACIFICO TIKI, AL BANDAR MARINA

Once in a while, I go out with my colleagues and we explore restaurants in Abu Dhabi for eating bonding.

Yesterday, we tried Pacifico Tiki , Dining & Lounge in Al Raha beach.  Tiki culture is a 20^th century theme used in Polynesian-style restaurants and clubs originally in the United States and then, to a lesser degree, around the world. Although inspired in part by Tiki carvings and mythology, the connection is loose and stylistic, being an American form and not a Polynesian fine art form.

SEVEN EXCITING THINGS TO CHECK OUT IN SINGAPORE

Finally, I was able to travel outside Philippines and Abu Dhabi, but this time it was for a leisure trip.

This was my first leisure trip, so I was very excited and at the same time anxious. Being a first time tourist, I felt a little naïve (hahaha), but I do believe we all feel the same, isn’t it?

We booked in Fragrance Hotel in Geylang using booking.com. In booking.com you could find best deals in hotels around the globe plus you can book and reserve without hassle (with free cancellation on most of their hotel relationships).

LET'S GET STARTED!!!

About Me

                Hi, there! My name is Julie, an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) for more than a decade here in the United Arab Emirates. I am an amateur or will I say “budding” writer or blogger.

Being an OFW is tough because I am away from my loved ones, but when I realized why I have to do it, it became easy to accept the circumstances and be thankful for the opportunity to earn more and help my family.

I created this blog with a desire to share my knowledge, skills, experience and testimonies in order to inspire and encourage other people.

I plan to retire from being a full-time employee at the age of 40 (God’s will) and instead managing multiple businesses; where I could have the freedom to serve God more, spend quality time with family, and travel the world to see the beauty of the creation of God (people, culture and nature altogether).

About this Blog

In this blog you will find post sharing my faith in God, family concerns, finance tips, food trips and ideas and all about having fun while doing all these things.

FAITH. I am a believer of God, an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Since I started my journey as an OFW, I have been quite serious about my spiritual growth. Although, I haven’t really reached that point of maturity like what Paul said, but I am straining towards the goal.

I am also fond of music especially Christian music so I made a blog which focus on Christian music (check it out here).

FAMILY. Close family ties is one of the characteristics of the Filipinos that I am proud of. I am close to my family especially with my mom and sisters. We share our personal struggles and success with each other. My family is one of the greatest blessings I received from God.

FINANCE. I personally believe in financial education. That is why I started to read about handling finances on the onset of my career as an OFW. I have a goal to accumulate enough money to retire comfortable so I need to know how to attain that by educating myself. Money is a blessing from God where we can be tested if we are trustworthy steward of His blessings. Money is a tool that can be used either for good or for bad depending on the person handling it. Money is not the root of all evil rather the love of money is the root of all evil. So we have to watch out on that and ask wisdom from God on how to handle our material wealth.

FOOD. I am fond of eating, I admit to that. I don’t mind paying a reasonable amount of money to eat what I want. Most of the time, we cook our food at home to save money and to also keep us healthy. To be honest, there’s no food that can compare to my mom’s cooking, I really love and really missed it. And even if I tried to copy and cook it here, sadly I cannot get her taste. I think she put a secret ingredient that makes it so delicious even if it is a simple recipe (lots of love I believeJ). In this blog, I will be sharing some cheap dishes that we usually cook at home as well as the restaurants I / we dine in to give you an idea about how much we spend on food.

FUN. Who don’t want to have fun? I personally like nature and travel. Initially, I am not an adventurous person but as I grew older, I realized that there is a world outside that needs to be explored and a lot of lessons to learn outside home. Some of the lessons are meant to be learned outside the four corners of our house. And it is fun when you meet new friends and see new sights and experience a new culture, there is so much to see and learn.

As I have mentioned a while ago, I consider myself to be an amateur in writing (so please excuse any wrong grammar), novice in personal finance (so I might refer other sites that can help you) and I will be sharing things based on my own experience and research.  

I created this blog to document my journey as an OFW to inspire others that the things we receive and we will receive are all coming from God and we should be a good steward of it (that includes our life).

I pray for our abundance in all areas of our lives.

God bless us more...