Random Thoughts

​I'm currently watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and I just realized how far I've come from just reading blogs of solo Filipino travellers! 

As what I put on my bio, I was into these travel blogs (circa 2010) because I've never been away from home, never did solo travel, never tried out things because 1) I was too afraid and 2) we never really had the extra money to do non academic interests. I grew up too sheltered and I didn't know how it is to be independent or be fearless enough to pursue anything until my mom kicked me out of the house and flew me to Dubai. 

I was so amazed by what everyone was experiencing through these blogs that I wanted to try it out myself - which I did when I first experienced travelling for pleasure in 2015! It was supposed to be a budget trip to Eastern Europe (Romania) that we bought from Holiday Factory - and it totally changed my perspective. I felt so free making major decisions by myself that I've been travelling nonstop since then.

Going back, it got me thinking of my worst fear - living and dying in some far off place away from my family with absolutely no way to get home. Now I'm adding the fear of living a predictable and isolated life just for somebody else to live in comfort. I'm no martyr - I want myself (and Mr. A) to live our lives fully whilst still being able to handle our responsibilities. Maybe later on our minds will change but at this point, mind - and heart - lay elsewhere.

Dami hugot but I just suddenly had all these thoughts and was really glad that we're taking that step where we can balance both (hopefully). Wish us luck on our next adventure!

Family Weekend in Winterpeg

Back in December, we decided to book a trip to Winnipeg on impulse since we wanted to see most of Canada before we leave. We were debating on Newfoundland & Labrador versus Winnipeg but we decided on the latter because we had friends there to couch surf with and it's been almost 5 years since we saw each other last. 

And it turned out for the best because we had so much fun!

So I'm sharing our 3-day winter itinerary in case anyone wants to do the same:

Day 1: February 14, 2026

8:05am - Flight from YYZ to YWG via Air Canada

9:49am (local time) - Should've arrived in Winnipeg but we had to be diverted since it was too foggy to do a safe landing and we were running out of fuel. Unfortunately the nearest airport was in Minnesota so technically we landed on US soil even if we didn't deplane. Because of this, we had to go through immigration upon landing despite being on a domestic flight. 

Over all it was a 4-hour delay so everybody was hungry, cranky and scrambling to update family and their reservations - which was difficult since we had no data.

2:00pm - Tims stop of course

2:30pm - Maze in a Corn! We did the Snowmaze, tubing, saw ice sculptures and watched a stand up slash fire-eating number. 

7:00pm - Valentine's night (adults only) at The Leaf

Day 2: February 15, 2026

11:30am - Cheerleaders at my godson's Filipino basketball league practice

1:00pm - Human Rights Museum

3:00pm - Snacked on pizzas and coffee at The Forks Market. I tried their Black Forest Cappuccino and it didn't disappoint!

5:00pm - Ice skated and ice cycled at The Forks' River trail! Now that was hella funnnnnn! I fell down once and my Aritzia long puffer made it hard to move but we had so much fun playing there.

Ice skate rentals were $8 a pair and you have to leave an ID. Ice bicycles were rented out by the hour.

7:50pm - We took a leisure walk towards the Esplanade Riel Bridge and took our pictures by the Winnipeg sign. There was also a skating trail there but it was much smaller than the one on the frozen river.

8:30pm - Valentine's slash Anniversary slash Family Day dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory

Day 3: February 16, 2026

12:00pm - We went to the Assiniboine Zoo to gawk at bisons, muskox, elk and most especially, the polar bears! The enclosure felt a little bit like Jurassic Park with the electric fencing at the top. 

4:30pm - Headed back to YWG to do an early check in. Air Canada's doing credit card holds now if you do online check in without carry ons - which sucks btw - but I read online you can avoid this by doing the check-in in person. First it was the charging extra for carry ons, now it's additional holds for assuming you're bringing bags bigger than a personal item *grrrr* I'll be avoiding air travel for now until I find a better alternative.

7:20pm - Flight back to YYZ