CRISTINE FARINAS

It's really hard to believe how fast time flies. Today is Keith's 10th year anniversary in heaven, but it seems like we only lost him yesterday. You would think that by now, there will be no more tears, but no. There are still times when I think of Keith and the "would have beens" if he was not taken away from us, and I can't help but get emotional. Twice a year, on his birthday and death anniversary, I try my best to remember only the good times we've had with him , however I fail each time. As soon as I light a candle and start listening to his favourite song  " Lighters ", tears start flowing and there I go again. But I guess this is how it is. As they say, the pain never really goes away, you just learn how to live with it.  In the last ten years, I have been consistently doing a few things to remember Keith on his angelversary. In the morning when I wake up, I visit his corner in our flat. In this corner is my favourite photo of him- a photo th

As of this writing, the United Kingdom remains on the "Yellow List" in the Philippines. This means that fully vaccinated travellers are still required to quarantine in a hotel facility for five days (previously six). Since I arrived back to London, I have been asked a few times about my experience in travelling to Manila during pandemic . I recently blogged about this journey, however I realised that I haven't written about my hotel quarantine experience, so here I am. As my travel to the Philippines was urgent, I didn't have much time to properly search for hotels. My travel agent recommended agoda.com which was a friendly hotel website. There were a few hotels available, however they were ridiculously expensive at that time. I chose Dusit Thani in Makati because it was the cheapest at 50% off from the original price. For five nights, I only paid £303 which was a real bargain for a five star hotel, hurray! But, I had high expectations from a five star hotel because a

Despite contracting the  Coronavirus early  last year, I still believe that  2021 was definitely a better year for me than  2020  for many reasons . Looking at the photos I took last year, it's evident that 2021 was all about spending time with the people I truly love the most. It was also the year when I made new connections with so many wonderful people, and gladly took an opportunity to progress in my career.  The first four months of 2021 was definitely full of mixed emotions, personally and professionally. Having lost my second father the month before, I was still sort of grieving. Then J and I had the coronavirus, although we only had minor symptoms. But what probably hit me the most was the condition of my mother and the fact that I couldn't go home and see her. The loss of Daddy Henry made me realise that I really didn't try hard enough to go home to my parents- for six years. It was very hard for me, but I knew it was definitely harder for my mother.  Work, on the