2011 - The Ride of My Life

         While the rest of the world (well, technically my side of the world) is buzzing with families and relatives catching up over dinner and drinks, everyone sending new year's greetings to each other through SMS or however, and others doing some dry runs for the big bang tonight, I'm gonna be going back and rounding up my year 'til the last second.  

        This year has been an amazing roller coaster ride. There have just been unexpected twists and turns that I am more thankful for than regretful. So excuse me while I try to recollect these events with the best of my short-term memory. Hope you guys would enjoy and relate to my journey! 

I'll try to do this as organized and chronologically arranged as I can. ;)

1. Ran alone for the first time (10k in 1 hr 22). - March 20

As usual, sneaked out of the house to do a fun run (cuz I'm not allowed to. Bummer). And not just any fun run. This was more meaningful cuz I was supporting a friend's event. This was organized by my dear awesome friend, Issa Perez (fashion blogger - http://www.littleblacksheepfashion.blogspot.com) and it was a success! 

2. Went back to church! Missed it for nearly 2 years from working at our cafe. I missed God! - April

3. Beach body!!! Wooohooo! Finally! - April

From 62 kg down to 49 kg! :D

A breakup helps a lot. :p

4. Our family business (where I was managing a cafe) closed down so I started blogging! HELLO, BLOGOSPHERE! :D - May 16    

Just to give you the story in a nutshell: 

I stopped school to help out with the business after 1 yr of culinary. It was nearly 2 years of torture though very educational. No regrets! :D

  

5. Went back to school! Finally started to take my college degree after culinary. Enrolled at University of San Carlos to take BS Nutrition and Dietetics. - June

6. Played volleyball again after high school! My first intrams! Wooot! Champion team! :D - August

7. First bloggers meet! Thanks, Eden of  Chic in the Tropics! :D - June

the lone food blogger among the fashion bloggers :))

Read more at http://babeforfood.blogspot.com/2011/06/when-food-and-fashion-meet.html

8. First major cooking exam with my own recipes! :D - September

Read more at http://babeforfood.blogspot.com/2011/09/hello-foodies-finals-practical-exam-was.html and http://babeforfood.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-behind-scenes.html

9. Dinner with Philippine Masterchefs Gene and and Gino Gonzalez and their team Chef Lawrence Zafra and Chef Toto Erfe. - September

Read more at http://babeforfood.blogspot.com/2011/09/real-philippine-master-chefs.html

10. First resto owners to appreciate my write-up about them. Stephen Aznar and Joy Uy of Cafe Elysa. - June

11. Worked for a week at Anzani. - October

Read more at http://babeforfood.blogspot.com/2011/11/in-heat-of-anzani.html

12. First official eating contest! Burger Challenge at Dong Juan! :D - November

Read more at http://babeforfood.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-burger-tryathlon.html

12. First invite to an event by a resto I wrote about. Again, Cafe Elysa! :D - November

Read more at http://babeforfood.blogspot.com/2011/12/fruit-of-my-labor.html

13. Best Cebu Blog Awards Nominee and Finalist! Under food and personal categories. One of the top 40 out of more than a hundred bloggers. :D - November

from left: Eden Villarba of Chic in the Tropics, Kristine Roa of Instyle Cebu and Glamarazzi, and yours truly

Best Cebu Blog Awards finalists!

14. Attended Visayas Blogging Summit. - November 26

Babe for Food and Ms. Foodiecraft

with Ejay Williams and Evanjohnn Mendoza

Read more at http://babeforfood.blogspot.com/2011/12/visayas-blogging-summit-2011.html

15. First beauty pageant! USC Christmas King and Queen 2011. :) - December 15

Didn't win a single award but the experience was priceless. Made new friends and it was just something I never imagined I'd ever be in. :D

16. Survived Christmas break without allowance through my Chocolate Therapy sales! Wooot! :D - December 

17. More than 5,000 views since I started this blog! :D - December  

Yes, I'm already stoked about that. 

So I guess that's all my memory could do. Thank you so much, dear readers, for enduring my blog (or more like my gibberish rants on food and what-not's fetish). 

The turn of events this whole year has definitely shown God's hand in my life and He never ceases to amaze me. Just when you feel so hopeless and helpless, God pulls up your chin and helps you get back up on your feet. He shows us that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He's always there, whether you like it or not, whether you feel it or not. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Thank you so much, Lord! I can never do anything without You. :)

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! And I do hope you'd continue to notice and read my posts. :D

Keep posted and keep eating!

Love and peace,

Babe For Food - your BFF in Cebu dining! :D    

Visayas Blogging Summit 2011

Since I entered the blogosphere, I didn't initially think of being serious with it. It was just something I spontaneously thought of starting, though I was inspired by a dear friend of mine, (Issa Perez, fashion blogger - http://www.littleblacksheepfashion.com) seeing her genuine passion and commitment. She invited me to a bloggers meet called Cebu Blog Camp last summer but I wasn't too interested to go cuz like I said, I wasn't all that serious about it yet. But after reading from her blog the events that transpired and seeing how everything worked really well for her, it got me pretty interested so I promised myself to attend the next blog camp I'd know about.

So here was Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 last Nov. 26 at the SM Trade Hall. I was excited to attend this because I was going to meet other bloggers especially in my niche (food) and learn more about blogging.     

It was a whole day affair, from 8 am - 5 pm and I really wanted to catch the key speaker, Chris Ducker, but I had class from 10:30 - 12:00 which was his scheduled slot. I was quite dismayed but I knew I shouldn't miss school for this. So I went to SM early in the morning and left after a short while to catch school. I was actually surprised to see quite a number of people already that morning. I definitely felt the excitement in the air and there were a few familiar faces. 

When I got back to SM, I missed the lunch that the summit provided and I met up with Ejay because I asked him to be my photographer for the day. Hehe. He's a great one and I'm lucky to have had his service for free. Haha. Thanks, Ejay! :)

So when I got back to the summit with Ejay this time, I was delighted to find out that I hadn't missed Chris Ducker. Apparently, they were behind schedule to my convenience. I caught up with Vernon "Iggy" Go, a CAMMA 2011 Awardee for Personal Blogging. His topic was "Getting Steady with Blogging". He talked about how he started blogging, that it was a personal blog where anything goes and without any expectation of anyone actually reading it until he made many other blogs in different niches and now total up to 14. I can't imagine having that much blogs in different niches. He also mentioned social networking etiquette that would definitely come in handy for newbies.

The next speaker was Evanjohnn Mendoza whose topic was about "Finding Your Niche in the Vast Blogosphere" which was quite interesting. He was a good speaker. He is the founder of Cebu Blog Camp which I missed and of course, he is a blogger himself. One particular thing I remembered that he mentioned was the acronym "SHIT" for reasons why one blogs. It stands for:

S - sharing 

H - having a channel for expression

I - income

T - transcribe and immortalize memories

Makes sense right? ;)

I'm sure he was the youngest speaker and one of the best as well. He was pretty organized with his speech. I know I was impressed and inspired. 

And finally, after Evanjohnn, was Chris Ducker - Virtual CEO and Founder of Live2Sell Group of Companies. His topic was "From Blog to Business - Getting Serious Online!" where he mentions creating e-books and selling them online or even putting them up for free which was what he was doing. He also raffled out a cool blogger shirt that says "Bloggers are sexy" for anyone who could ask a good question. He was quite an interesting and animated guy so he was fun to listen to. 

 

 

holding the sexy blogger shirt :)

After listening to Chris, I was really hungry already. As Ejay and I were about to leave, I approached Chris to ask him about owning multiple blogs, if it was a good idea. He was very approachable so we got to chat a bit and he said he'd be interested in my blog because he's been looking for a go-to site for places to eat in Cebu aside from the malls. 

with the cool guy

I also spotted Evanjohnn and told Ejay about him, that he's a photoblogger and was one of the speakers, maybe Ejay would wanna talk to him. Ejay told me to talk to him instead though because "you're a blogger, you're supposed to network, right?". I actually knew his younger brother and wanted to approach him but was taken over by my timidity. Fortunately, Ejay, a natural at PR, worked his magic for me. So we all got to talk and I found that Evanjohnn was very easy to talk to. We ended up chatting nonstop until Ejay had to leave for work and Evanjohnn accompanied me for lunch. He was also really nice to keep me company the rest of the day in the summit and even introduced me to a lot of successful bloggers. Thanks much, Johnn! :)

Ejay, the babe, Evanjohnn

Mary Angeli Bas of foodiecraft.com

babeforfood meets foodiecraft :)

Basically, I didn't get to listen to the following speakers after Chris because I took my lunch and hung out with Johnn but this day was truly inspiring, educational, and fun! The event was well organized. I got to meet  several top bloggers and even got some calling cards. I also made some new friends. I hope to attend the next summit and I hope more people would attend as well. It was truly worth attending. Congratulations to CBS on the event! :)

  

photos by: Ejay Williams <http://www.500px.com/ej6williams>

Babe For Food

- your BFF in Cebu dining!