Things That Make Me Smile

I recently acquired several pre-loved books. My friend Lala, who is an avid reader, was trying to find new owners for many of her books. I took a look at her collection and quite a few of them piqued my interest. I ended up getting six of them. Hopefully, I can find time to read them all in the next few years.

My new pre-loved books

You know you're adulting when purchasing new pillow cases makes you really happy haha. I realized some of my pillow cases were already torn and frayed. Which is not surprising given that I've had them for a really long time now. I tried to look for good pillow cases online but I wasn't able to find ones with designs and colors that appealed to me. I decided to just go to SM Department Store and thankfully, I found ones that I really liked.

My new pillow cases

One recent discovery I've made is this Choco Chip Hokkaido bread from Bread Talk. I've been a regular patron of this shop ever since it came to the Philippines many years ago but it is only in the last couple of months that I saw this item. It is really good! At P108, it's also quite affordable. Needless to say, I have purchased it a few times already since I discovered it haha.

Choco Chip Hokkaido from Breadtalk

Speaking of, I passed by the Itadaki Food Court in Mitsukoshi Mall recently and while I was there, I saw a Hokkaido Fair selling a wide variety of food items. Hokkaido is known for its dairy products so I decided to get something.

Hokkaido Fair in Mitsukoshi Mall

I purchased a couple of boxes of the Hokkaido Premium Pudding so I could share it with my family.

Hokkaido Premium Pudding

It was quite good!

Each box of Hokkaido Premium Pudding contains three of these cups

I now also have Landers membership. I decided to become a member because I saw that the Milka Strawberry Cheesecake, which I discovered in the Dubai Duty Free during my trip to Kenya, is sometimes sold here. However, it wasn't in stock when I went there for the first time.

My new Landers membership card

That said, my favorite ice cream, Ben & Jerry's Phish Food, was on sale with a 50% discount. Naturally, I got several pints haha.

Ben & Jerry's Phish Food on sale in Landers

My colleague had a business trip to Australia earlier in the month and came home with lots of packs of Tim Tams, including several flavors that are not available in the Philippines. I really love Tim Tams and I'm happy I got to try this new flavor. I got to try the Cafe Latte flavor and it really did taste like Cafe Latte. (Clearly, I've been consuming way too much sugar recently...)

Tim Tam Cafe Latte

Of course, the thing that makes me smile more than anything is quality time with loved ones. My friend Joyce celebrated her birthday at Fika, a Filipino restaurant in Capitol Hills. It was my first time eating here and I enjoyed the food.

Fika Restaurant at Capitol Hills

I also attended a few family reunions. Tita Susan came home for the firt time in a while and my family and I joined her and her brother Tito Raul for lunch at Romulo's. I met up with my relatives on my mom's side for my uncle Jorge's reunion dinner (his dad and my grandmother are siblings but I don't call him uncle because we are practically the same age haha). We had buffet dinner at Cabalen in West Avenue. I also joined my Tita Florence at her home for her birthday celebration. It was a weeknight and she lives quite far from me but it was a double celebration because her son and my cousin Fr. John was also in town so I decided I would go.

It really has been an amazing last few months and I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to go on safari, watch Giselle, and enjoy a lot of experiences and things that have made me smile.