My Birthday Blog (Pinto Art Museum, Surprise Birthday Dinner, Rare Childhood Photos)

I know, I haven’t been blogging for quite a while now but I have a good reason behind this blog hiatus. First, I have set up my YoutubeChannel so expect not just blogs this time but vlogsss too. People know how shy I am when it comes to communicating with humans (lol) so I decided to practice my non-existent speaking skillzzz through starting up a YT Channel. I also love watching different vloggers do their thing and they inspire me bits and pieces of my life too through vlogging. Right now, I have a few vlogs but you could expect more to come which I will also post in this little home of mine.

Speaking of home, I’ve been blogging for quite some time now with a lot of revamps and renaming going on. Finally, I have decided to use my own name for this blog and for my personal branding. A lot of projects are coming your way so be sure to stay tuned to this blog for updates.

Finally, just like what I’ve said, I’ve been blogging for a long time now so I have already blogged about my birthdays throughout the years. 

You only get to celebrate your 23rd birthday once so might as well go all out in celebrating your special occasion right, and that’s just exactly what I did.

A day before my birthday, just like any other girlfriend, I kept on wondering my Habibi is not at all communicating with me. As in no texts or whatsoever. Just before the sun sets, I found out that he was researching the whole day for our Antipolo day tour for my birthday and imagine how excited I got when I learned that he basically memorized all the routes we could take going to the said city and what we could check out to visit.

The day of my birthday is quite simple which I actually loved. I guess getting older changes your preference when it comes to celebrating special occasions. People close to me know how much I love going to museums. Here’s a fun fact: My boyfriend and I actually had our first "unofficial" date in National Museum (the old building). After that, we have been to countless museums ever since which is why for my birthday, I want to finally check our bucket list to visit Pinto Art Museum.

Pinto Art Museum has this charming museum vibe without intimidating you. What I love about this place is that it is everything that I imagined. Walking along the paths of this place is magical and humbling. I haven’t even checked my phone the entire time we were here (I just check it out for some photo ops). It was really hot when we went here but in every gallery that we visit, I keep on forgetting the heat and just simply let the art around me consume my soul.

I am just super amazed that I finally got to see the art works that I just used to see in Art Fair Philippines inside their own home. It was a surreal and such an amazing experience. 

Here are some photos from our Pinto Art Museum Tour:

I love how nature connects with its visitors and how everything is just plain and simple without losing its grandeur aura. After finally roaming around the whole 1 hectare property of Pinto Art Museum, we had a simple merienda/dinner at their Cafe Rizal. 

I loveeeee all the dishes that we got to try. As in walang tapon. Everything was so good and delicious. We had the Florence Spaghetti (which my blogger jowa chose because name daw niya un) and we also ordered the Rainbow Sushi (we super love this dish) and I had a Mango Shake and Mango Cheesecake as my birthday cake and treat to myself. Yes, I had mangoes all day long haha. Everything was cooked perfectly and what I loved the most about our meal is the Mango Cheesecake. I love how it was not too sweet and how the Oreo crust was made. I would gladly take the trip to this place again just for their Mango Cheesecake. 

My favorite part of our museum visit is when we finally went up to their roof deck and just watch the trees and clouds and the setting sun while sitting at their comfy garden chairs doing absolutely nothing. The calmness of the place with a beautiful relaxing music playing in the background makes everything so peaceful to the point that I forgot that traffic sucks and our politicians made our country chaotic (CHARRR), ahhh I am definitely having a perfect birthday.

The only downside of this tour is that a lot of insects were some sort of biting me and I grew a little bit extra itchy during our entire stay at Pinto. But hey, no complaints there, it's all part of the adventure. 

After our Pinto Art Museum tour, Habibi planned a trip to Cloud 9's view deck. We were suppose to visit a lot of other places but we had so much fun at Pinto that we already left the place at exactly 6pm which is their closing time. Going to Cloud 9 resort was super fun since we rode the tricycle for almost 30 mins. I think? I love tricycle rides in provinces because I can definitely feel the fresh provincial air in my skin. We stayed at Cloud 9's view deck for around 1 hour, simply just imagining things and absurd situation while observing the Manila lights. We literally talked about anything and everything under the stars which was a little bit weird because it felt like Valentine's Day instead of my birthday. 

Obviously, I wasn't able to blog about this but no regrets there. At least you guys can check it out yourselves. 

This is me when I was 6 months old with my Naynay

After the whole Antipolo trip, we went back to Manila and I waited for my Naynay to visit me at home to bring my gifts over. Prior to my birthday, I was thinking if I should vlog all these happenings but decided against it the last minute because I know I can't fully enjoy myself if I kept on talking to my camera. Also, videos are not allowed inside Pinto Art Museum. 

The next day, I woke up pretty late because I was literally dead tired after all the walking we had at Antipolo so obviously, no brainer here, I came to work late and tired. My boss texted me the night before that he can't come to this event in Alabang which has free buffet and will be sending me instead since it was my birthday. At first, I was hesitant to go since hello, it's in Alabang and I cannot fly there immediately after work (I know how traffic works in South during Fridays) but my boss convinced me using the magic words: FREE FOOD. I went to Acacia Hotel since he told me it's where the said "event" is held and when I got there, there was no event happening. I called the manager and almost every staff in Acaci Restaurant was in front of me which was kinda shocking and overwhelming. They asked me to go to a woman by the window which I stubbornly didn't follow because I have anxiety issues so I tried calling my boss first (lol) then when I turned to see who that woman is, I WAS SO SURPRISED TO SEE MY MAMA AND MY BROTHER WAVING AT ME. 

Look at my chubby cheeks in this photo. 

I got a lot of food stuffed inside my mouth when we decided to have our photos taken lol. 

As in I had no idea it was a surprise. I was on the verge of tearing up but food is life so after greeting them I went straight to the buffet table lol. Anyway, I haven't seen my mom and brother for more than a month and I wasn't expecting any celebrations from them. I was just honestly happy that they remembered my birthday by giving me a simple greeting during my exact special day. I already conditioned myself not to expect anything so imagine my surprise face when I saw them.

After my post-birthday dinner with them which almost got me into a food coma (I ate some rice and pasta and a lot of meat), I visited our house in Laguna where I got to have some chit chat with mom and auntie and they gave me a dozen of cupcakes from Tinnie Tiny Thoughts (which I really loved btw--- I ate almost everything in the box when I got home | Ps: Sorry I wasn't able to take a pic of this). 

I went home that day thinking how good God is despite all my imperfections and lapses. I know I am not a perfect human being. To be honest, I am the most imperfect person you'll ever meet. I have insecurities, I have bad temper, I have bad decision making skills in life, but that's who I am. All I could do is conquer all my imperfections and strive to be better as I get older. I can now honestly say that I am super bless to have my family supporting me through my ups and downs and of course my boyfriend to always have my back when I think I'm failing in being a human.

Also, I thank God for the gift of friendship--- Shout out to my brother from another mother Jairus aka James for having a pre-birthday lunch celebration with me in Sunnies Cafe even though we only planned it in such a short time; and to my ultimate BFF Aika for your pizza treat during my birthday salubong in your house and for you Jollibee pakain haha (no photos sorry hehe)!

Lastly, I want to thank every single person in my life who fails to see the good in me in those times that I know I screw up. Also thank you supporting me all these years in all the endevours that I partake. You people are the exact reason why I'm still here doing the best that I can to be better.

To my mom and my brother Ken, I love you guys. I'm sorry if sometimes I don't get to show it but always know that whatever happens, you will always be my family and I will forever love you more than anything and anyone it the world.

Thank you for all you birthday greetings! Hope you enjoyed reading this lengthy blog entry. 😍

xoxo,

KAT 💋🎂