I had to restrain myself from saying good riddance, 2011. It was a great year, travel wise, but in other aspects of my life, it hasn’t been all that good. Still, I have to look past all the crap I’ve felt and realize that life really isn’t that bad.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nLove this relaxing weekend with the dollie friend at Casa San Pablo<\/em><\/div>\n

\nFirst, there were the trips I never blogged about. This year, I never really traveled alone, except for a couple of days in KL earlier this month. My first trip for 2011 was to Hong Kong with Cla<\/a>, where she said the statement that started it all: “I want to go to Morocco.” We went to a couple more trips with other friends, to Casa San Pablo<\/a> and Casa Ibiza, and that’s when I started to try to just enjoy the place and the company and not mentally blog it. <\/p>\n

There are a lot of things I did not blog about this year. I never told anybody this, except for a couple of friends, but I gave four other talks aside from the one I did for the Sole Sister’s From Glampacking to Poorpacking series<\/a>. One was for tourism students at UP Asian Institute of Tourism, two for two different session for students of De La Salle University (Blogger’s Congress was one of them) and also for Belle de Jour’s Summer Rendezvous. Public speaking is one thing I never thought I would willingly do, and I surprised myself by accepting the challenge and actually giving a talk. I can safely conclude I am not good at it.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nGo Team Philippines! With Erwan<\/a>, Jenni<\/a>, Camie<\/a>, Badet<\/a>, Laureen<\/a>, Camille<\/a>, Helga<\/a>, Kring<\/a>, Tipsy and Ponggo<\/a><\/div>\n

Still, it prepped me up for another big thing that required me to talk in front of an audience of 500: my acceptance speech at this year’s Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards. Completely unexpected, but I feel so honored to be given this recognition, specially since I was up against one of my blogging idols, Kenny Sia<\/a>. It was a big night for the Philippines as well, since we brought home four of the heavy glass trophy. <\/p>\n

Others who brought home the bacon, as my friends have been fondly calling it were: <\/p>\n

Best Photography Blog – Photoblog.hk<\/a>
\nBest Geek Blog – Geekout.ph<\/a>
\nBest Food Blog – LadyIronChef.com<\/a>
\nBest Fashion Blog – Cheeserland.com<\/a>
\nMost Original Blog Design – EatShowandTell.com<\/a>
\nBest Parenting Blog – Childhood101.com<\/a>
\nBest Travel Blog – JustWandering.org<\/a>
\nBest Entertainment Blog – Beautifulnara.com<\/a>
\nBest Lifestyle Blog – Jenniepperson.com<\/a>
\nHidden Gem – Googlygooeys.com<\/a>
\nBest Micro Blog – KennySia.com<\/a>
\nMost Influential blog – XiaXue.sg<\/a>
\nRegion’s Best blog – XiaXue.sg<\/a><\/p\n\nAside from the trophy (and the trip to Malaysia), we also got cameras from Olympus, the XZ-1. AirAsia X gave a special prize for the winner in my category as well: round trip tickets to Osaka, Japan. That made the win all the more delicious. \n\nAfter writing all that, I'm not in a bad mood anymore. I guess 2011 wasn't so bad after all.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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