Sunday, September 22, 2013

Randomly Puzzled in Puzzle Mansion

Last July 20, Marvin and I accompanied his Mom to Tagaytay to send a package to her sister. This seemingly mundane task became one of our most puzzling experience yet.

Before going straight to the task, we went to Breakfast at Antonio's for a GV breakfast. Since I was craving for pancakes I ordered their Golden Waffle and Hot Chocolate while Marvs ordered Salmon bread and Poached eggs with White Chocolate with Marshmallows.

So yummy!!!
Marvin's Salmon

The waffle was good but the Hot Chocolate was so heavenly. It's very tempting to have a second cup.


On our way to his Mom's friend, we noticed big signs saying "GUINNESS WORLD RECORD" and "PUZZLE MANSION." Curious (and once again sidetracked), we embarked on the bumpy road going there.

And when I say bumpy, I mean it. The road there is narrow and rough. We almost gave up twice. But thanks to Marvin's persistence, we reached the place. Yayy!!


There is an entrance fee of PhP 100.00.



While we were there a whole biking club was also scheduled to visit. Because of the jam packed crowd, none other than the GUINNESS World Record holder herself, Ms. Gina Gil-Lacuna toured us in the 2 story house of puzzles.

Jam packed!


She started by showing her Eiffel Tower puzzle. She said that puzzles are so intricate and reflective of a culture. True enough, if we look into the puzzle closely,  some pieces were cut like the word PARIS, a smaller Eiffel Tower, a wine bottle and a dancing lady which is very reflective of their culture.

Ms. Gina holding the Eiffel Tower puzzle
I hope you can see! Haha!

Oops!

She also showed is her first ever puzzle the Mickey Mouse Puzzle which she did in Hongkong. She told us that she made her child an inspiration to finish the approximately 3x5 sq. ft. puzzle.



From then on, she fell in love with puzzles and began collecting and solving as many as she could. She was able to collect puzzles of famous paintings by artists like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Van Gogh and a lot more.







She also has puzzles of different shapes and sizes.






Wooden and 3D puzzles



Scale Model Puzzles


As of now she has 1028 puzzles in here which has beaten the former record of only 300+ puzzles. She's also credited for an entire house dedicated only to puzzles.

Largest Puzzle in the world: Ravensburger's Double Retrospect by Artist Keith Haring

BB and DD

Raise it up!

With the Record holder


More pictures:

One with the puzzles

Selfie with probably the first Selfie everrrrr


Lip biting and focused
:O

MORAL OF THE STORY: No matter how unusual and simple it is, as long as you do it with passion, people will start noticing you and appreciate what you do. Like Ms. Gina who built and fought her way to Guinness World Record because of pure passion and maybe a little luck, anyone can too, in our own special way have our space in the world.

Maybe I should start searching for my passion too.

We'll keep you posted,

Carmi



Tuesday, July 30, 2013

My Autumn

Sometimes, when you think that things can't get any better, they turn out for the best.

Just like how I met Marvin, My Love. When we met 5 months ago, I never thought that my world could get more colorful. Since it was Grad season, companies hold career days to recruit. It was in such that we meet. I approached and sat beside him to mingle a bit. Then, voila! We are now a young couple venturing the world together.

Our first picture as a couple. Naks!
I love how we can just be crazy and fun together, enjoying the simple things like MRT and car rides, Mondates, window shopping, groceries and errands and just chilling with our families. With him, every task is light and bearable. He always encourages me to do my best and telling me "Kaya mo yan!" As for him, I always try making him laugh. I love making him laugh. He is too serious about things (Marvs is kinda OC-OC). I feel special when I do that.

Love the Top Right picture! Oha, endorsing the bow I handmade pa ah!
My life has indeed become more colorful with him around. The things we experienced together are special and very memorable.

Food
Everybody's fave bonding time! I eat. A lot. But with him, I tasted variety (and ate a lot more. *Straight face*) World class taste test daw eh. Haha! He is a foodie who loves Japanese and Asian cuisine though he is not limited to that.

Japanese food! (L) Lunch with his Finance Thesismates at Omakase in Ayala Triangle
(R) Dinner with Marvin and Donna (My sister) at Nodasho Japanese Restaurant in Little Tokyo.
More on our foodie and "fashYOWN" blog soon!
Chinese! (Top) Breakfast at Emerald diner in Manila
(Bottom Left) Dinner at North Park in Market! Market!
(Bottom Right) Dinner at Ersao in Eastwood
Let's go Western! (L) Dinner at Sizzling Pepper Steak in Trinoma
(R) Breakfast with Marvin and his mom at Antonio's in Tagaytay.
There are so much more undocumented food escapades! Until randomly, we thought, "Hey! What if we make a foodie blog?" We actually thought of names like CORNgee, mix of corny (yessir, I am!) and congee (my ultimate craving at that time). But CORNgee fails to serve a greater purpose. You'll find it out soon!

Going Places
I know our love is going places. Literally. He has expanded my world in the spatial sense by being lakwatsero and lakwatsera almost every week.

Travel! (Top Left) Puzzle Mansion in Tagaytay
(Top Right) Despicable me in IMAX at SM Aura
(Bottom Left) Date with 1st year UPSE Barkada in Wakeboarding park, Nuvali
(Bottom Right) San Fabian Beach at my Mom's hometown, San Fabian Pangasinan
More than discovering a place, each place we go to becomes meaningful to us becaue it was filled with laughter, corni-ness and good vibes. Even ordinary places like foodcourts holds treasured moments to us.

Photo Ops
Marvin always take pictures. As in ALWAYS. Almost half on his album are candid shots. And he's always online. So if there are already nice pictures in his smartphone, he uploads it immediately on Facebook with matching Foursquare tags and all that! If you could see my Facebook wall, you'll mostly see "Marvin Singson Managhaya tagged you in...," "Marvin Singson Mananghaya said he was with you at....," etc...


Not that I am complaining. There really was a time that he's like my status writer, all my wall posts came from him only. Haha! Anyway, I'm trying to be more online because of work and personal businesses.

Random OOTDs at Random Places
But more than our SABAW-ness, I love how we can also engage in intellectual discourse about serious things like the economy (our undergraduate courses are both Economics but he also has a degree in Finance), politics, gender inequality, idealism, education and a lot of things. It was refreshing for me because I can't always do that often to most people.

But more than that, we were already planning for a more productive (in economic sense) venture together. We're building our BUSINESS! Watch out for more in the following days!

Shoutout to my co-star in this blog: We can do this. Together. :)

Love,

Carmi!




Photos are grabbed from Marvin's phone, Carmi's phone, Irene Arzadon, Kevin Estopace and Tita Kit's phone.