Another Road Trip, Life Lessons, and Sweet Serendipity

The ten-hour drive from Riyadh to Jeddah and back over the weekend was an exciting journey for the members of our team, as we headed to participate in the highly anticipated Grand Badminton Arabia 2024 tournament, 12-13 April 2024. Despite our primary focus being the competition, we had initially hoped to also explore the leisure…

Snippets of Life in Stillness and Motion from Binondo

I had the chance to visit Binondo on 15 December 2023. It’s interesting to note that I had always planned to visit it back in my university days, at least since I started gaining interest in photography. Needless to say it never came to fruition though, until late last year. Thank you to my dear…

Note to Self: Do It Better Every Day!

“The Struggling Servant” was my first blog post about being eco-friendly, a facet of sustainability. It was written in 2011 and one of the inspirations behind that dates back to my university days. I owe the mountaineering group’s bulletin board from my university; the mountains I scaled; the LM’s minimalism approach; and friends from the…

Seven Glorious Days in Georgia

It’s now the 30th week of 2023 and the weekend is waving. Well. nothing extra special coming up but I’d like to prelude it by sharing this “short” write-up One of my college peers was a self-proclaimed card reader. A few months before graduation, she gathered us at the “bunk” to grace us with her…

Where to Find the South Sea Pearl in Manila

One of the mindfulness exercises that I do whenever I visit our youngest sister’s house in Malate is seaside walking along Roxas Boulevard. I also intend to conclude it with the same activity on Mall of Asia’s Seaside. The latter is still a part of the boulevard stretch and is a relatively new spot to…

The Seven Wonders of AlUla

The Hiker’s Maxim: “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time (J.K.).” One of the mainstream destinations that Saudi Arabia has offered, since opening its doors, to visitors from all over the world in September 2019 was AlUla. From then on, then AlUla has become a household word when it comes…

Rain Gain Story

I was already in the middle of the journey to a badminton court in Sulaymaniyah at around 12:00 PM on a drizzly Saturday when messages started popping up on the watch. My focus was on road safety because of rerouting from several flooded areas, but I was able to spot clues about the queuing‘s cancellation…

23 Pictures of Mundane Magic in Riyadh

I don’t and I never considered myself a photographer. I often hear from friends though that I have a penchant for evoking strong feelings with the mundane things I photograph with a camera phone. That when I marry them with a story on a post, they engaged with them more. For the most part, the…