One of the first steps to loving ourselves is to do the things that
makes you feel good,pampered, relaxed and beautiful. And so as a part of
the declaration I made about spending a “me time” weekly, I went to do
the things that made me feel good.
Nothing else can make me feel better than a good chow. When I feel
down and unsure of myself, I divert my attention to eating. I guess I
can be called an emotional eater. For me, nothing beats a bowl of
comforting noodles or hot soup. I decided to go for something hot, even
though the temperature outside was above 30 degrees.
I love hotpot! It reminded me of my food trips in Taiwan, where me
and other Pinoy friends would sneak in a packet of Mama Sita or Knorr’s
Sinigang Mix which we will use as a soup base for hotpot, and finish all
the shrimp that we can and make our own Sinigang na sugpo, in a
Taiwanese Shabu-Shabu restaurant.
Anyway, glad that Tacloban City now has one affordable hotpot, Huhko
Express. My sister introduced the place to me by sending the link while
we were contemplating on where to go one Sunday afternoon. We ended up
in another restaurant.
So, I took the opportunity to try out the place. Good thing there
weren’t so many customers at the time, around 2pm. I wanted to try all
but I can’t because I was sweating like crazy. I didn’t really mind the
heat outside and continued savouring the soup.
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS8kpSEHq/
Mani-Pedi and Accessories
After almost five years, I decided to put on polish on my
fingernails. I usually sport short nails because I have babies and I
don’t want to hurt them when rubbing their cute butts during diaper
change. Also, I find it always refreshing to have old polish removed on
my toes. It actually feels lighter. A manicure and a pedicure are
things that I cannot live without.
Shopping is another feel-good thing which we women will never get
tired of. No matter how much the amount of our purchase is, the more
important factor is that we are happy with our loot. I just have to go
the Blogger’s Bazaar, hosted by two fashion bloggers that I follow and are my favorites, An Apple A day by Apple Anido Alagon and Tastes Like Coke by Cocaine Young-Go.
Being a bazaar lover and one-time bazaar seller, I really could not
really be stopped from going there. I finally got to meet them both in
person and made a few chitchats. I was able to buy something I liked,
of course I can’t really wear most of their stuff, as I do not still
have the confidence and guts to wear them, so I stick to a blouse and a
bracelet. All in all, I was happy with my purchase, but would have loved
to have more. Unfortunately, we had a bad power interruption, which
caused the atms to go offline. I literally went to all banks and atm
kiosks only to find out it was also offline.
But then, I am thankful for this because otherwise I would have
overspend and might go back to being a shopaholic which I successfully
curbed for quite some time now.
Karaoke
I love to sing. I still do. I just don’t have the time anymore to
practice or just loosen up those vocal chords. My voice had changed
since I gave birth, one tone lower. And sometimes I could not hit the
notes I usually do with ease because I used to smoke. Smoke can really
make your voice raspier. But then, at any given day, I would give in to
belting out those pent up emotions through songs.
Last night, I gave in to a mini reunion and post birthday celebration
of a former classmate who came from the US. I was hesitant at first but
then I thought, what the heck, might as well have a good time. And a
good time I did had!
Maybe, these are things that others normally do, but for me, this is
one of those rare moments when I get to spend something on me, without
guilt. And so I am happy that finally, I was able to spend moments like
this on my own, doing things that I love to do.
Of course, these are not the only things that I love doing, but at
this point in my life, these are the things that I seldom have the
luxury of time to do. I now decide to find time to do things that I love
to do, as a part of taking care of myself.
How do you spend your “me-time”?
This post was originally published in A Day in the Life of Anne on August 1, 2013
Some of the photos are new because most of the images have been removed from the site.