A dear friend tagged me on Facebook last week to do this challenge. It seemed pretty fun so, why the hell not? The premise of the challenge is to post one black and white photo for five days and tag someone each time you do so. I have to apologize for the quality of the photos, though. I just grabbed them off of Facebook and imported them to Blogger so, pardon the quality! Despite the quality, I reckon this set will be a good addition to my new blog design. I messed up my html code a few days back while trying to add a fancy gadget to my blog, and I ended up redoing everything! I decided to stick to a minimalist design so it's easier to rebuild from the ground up if I ever decide to mess up with my template again, lol. 

If you're reading this, I nominate you to do the challenge! It's quite simple, really. I like how it brought me back to memory lane and made me scour through tons of photos I almost forgot about. Reminds me that I have to have them printed out because sometimes, a digital copy just won't do. 

I've missed cooking! Moving in the new place made me spend so much time on decorating and fixing the condo that I didn't have time to prepare our meals anymore. It also didn't help that our place is surrounded by several specialty restaurants that makes it convenient for us to just go down and eat somewhere. It was convenient, yes, but it was also pricey. My stomach felt odd after every meal, maybe I wasn't used to eating too much anymore, I don't know. But I decided to go back to cooking my own meals. That way, I know how it was prepared. You never know how sanitary these restaurants are anyway. Well, at least the ones near our place. 

I also had a severe case of stomach flu a few days back. I even had to call in sick yesterday because I couldn't stand properly. I think I lost too much water, so I had to hydrate before I felt better. All I did was sleep and it felt terrible. Once you've had too much sleep, you're going to want to have more. It's so addicting but at the same time it felt horribly wrong and uncomfortable after all those unproductive hours in bed. I just had to stand up and do something. Soooo, I cooked!

I'm so thankful I finally had the time to update this blog! I was't extremely busy, my priority was on other things--at least for the past few weeks. We're still trying to fix things here and there while getting used to living in a condo. It's not high-maintenance or anything like that, just redecorations and buying more stuff so it finally looks like a house and not a shoe box. I don't think I've even had enough time for myself enough to gather my thoughts after our El Nido trip. I'm still hung over, y'know. 

So anyway, I've been forcing myself to finally edit all of my backlogged photos from earlier this year. I had to slow down a bit with all the cooking, blogging and editing upon moving in to the new place because there's just so much to do. Right when we thought we've finally settled in, there's always something that needs our attention and I hate that feeling. I wanted to fix everything first before finally getting back to regular programming. I was able to squeeze a post here and there but they weren't really well though of. I promise my next posts will all be worthwhile! Well, as if this one isn't, hahaha! Here's what's up! 

I got an email from Man Crates a few days ago asking me if I was willing to create a post on my do or die essentials, or simply put, the things that I can't live without. Things would've been easy If I had an empty bag I can stuff with things, the catch is, I can only have 5 things with me. I know this is hypothetical and all, but guys, I take shit like this seriously. Mancrates, why did you have to torture me like that? UGH. If you're wondering, by the way, Mancrates is a company that builds gifts for men wrapped in awesome crates--and they come with crow bars, too! I bet it couldn't get more manly than that.

I also decided to work on a new category for the blog--Five Faves. Since Man Crates only asked for 5 things, I thought, this would be perfect to kick off the new category. I picked the top 5 essentials that popped right on top of my head when I read the question. So please, don't judge. Well, it's a blog for crying out loud so judge all you want. I can block your comment anyway, loljk! Here's my list!