A Night at the Zoo at SM Bacolod

The Eltoro Zoo De La Castellana is now in SM Bacolod for four days and my family and I didn't want to pass this opportunity up, especially when we found out that there are turtles. It was because of this turtle song that my son became interested in turtles. The song is a little annoying and it does stick into your head for a long time. However, it does say something about the difference between turtles and tortoises so I don't mind if the kids sung this over and over again.

The Eltorro Zoo is a zoological and bontanical garden owned by Mr. Felix Feria Divino. It is located in Gomez st., Barangay Robles in La Castellana. Quite far from where we are located and so I'm glad that they have this in SM.

Anyway, so the zoo is located at the SM Bacolod North Wing. The entrance fee is only Php 50 per person and this amount goes to the SM Foundation's environmental projects. The line can get pretty long so I suggest that you arrive early.

The entrance to the zoo.

As expected, we were greeted by TURTLES!!! My son got the chance to touch the turtles too!

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the number of animals there. There are cats, lizards, birds, snakes, spiders and rodents. Below are just some of them.

Australian Salt Water Crocodile

Hoot! Hoot!

with the sleeping tiger

Donkey! Where's Shrek?

The zoo will be there until January 27, 2015 and will be open from 2pm to 9pm. Bring your kids with you. Oh, and you also get the chance to take a picture with the Albino Python if you want to. I'm not a big fan of snakes so I left that to my daughter and my husband.

ssssay cheese, Albino Python.

Answering Questions about Working-from-Home

When friends and acquaintances find out that I work from home, most of the questions I get are:

"How did you start?"
"How much do you earn?"
"How do you get paid?"
"What kind of work do you do?"
"Do you think I can do that too?"

If you are one of those who ask at least one of these questions or at least curious about WAHMs (work-at-home moms) and WAHDs (work-at-home-dads), then this is for you.

Getting started takes a lot of hard work. You have to research the available platforms online that you can sign up to and then build your profile. Your profile serves as your online resume that the clients can view to learn more about you, your background and the previous work experience. A tip. Make this as enticing as possible. When you get started, expect to do a lot of reading. Sure there are support groups and all but you have to do everything by yourself. No one is going to hand over a project to you. You have to be out there, selling yourself and your skills.

How much you earn depends on the kind of work you do and your agreement with your client. It also depends on how many project you're working on and how much work you do. In short, you dictate how much you earn. There are no paid holidays or paid sick leaves. If you don't work, you don't earn anything. Sad, but true.

When I started working from home, I was amazed at the number of options one has. I am thankful that I have this blog because this was one of the references I used to showcase my writing skills and style. So I started with a few writing projects and blog commenting projects. A few months later I landed my "dream job." I am now working as a Quality Assurance Analyst. Why dream job? It's what I did when I was still working in the BPO industry. Doing that one thing that you love doing and have been doing for years, and you get to do that at home -- definitely a dream job for me.

Do I think anyone can do it? Maybe. I am not saying yes because some people are not cut to be working from home. Some people thrive when they physically work with someone on tasks. Remember, working from home means everything is done remotely, even conferences or meetings. But if you are one of those people who are considering this set up, do not immediately resign from your current job unless you have landed a good contract. Test the waters. If this works out for you, then great! If not, it's fine. This is not the only option to earn a living anyway.

Using Cloth Panty Liners

After getting into cloth diapering, I am no longer surprised that there are also cloth panty liners and menstrual pads for women. Since I am not yet ready to try the mama pads, I got myself a few panty liners from Chill's Cloth Pads.

Cloth Panty Liner - up close

So the panty liner is made of 4 layers cotton flannel material. It's not waterproof and not thick but it has enough layers to absorb the daily discharges (especially when you just finished your period). It's washable, reusable and chemical-free.

The panty liners has snaps to keep it in place. I was a little iffy about this at first but surprisingly, I didn't feel the snaps when I wore it. It's just like as if there is an extra layer of fabric in your underwear. When it is fastened, it is 6.5 long and approx 2.5 wide. The best part? It comes in different designs just like my son's cloth diaper stash.

This can be bought for Php 89 a piece. Quite expensive for a small piece of fabric but all you need is just a few pieces in your stash and you never have to buy another disposable panty liners ever again. Now that I have been using this for months now, maybe one of these days I will try the menstrual pads....maybe.

Taking the 52-week Savings Challenge

A new year and a new beginning. This is something very exciting for anyone. More than a week has passed and I have pretty much listed all the things I want to accomplish this year. Have you? I kind of like going through the list and seeing things being crossed out one by one. One of the things on my list is being able to start and maintain my own savings. Mine got pretty wiped out when I had a rocky start in freelancing and working from home. But now that I have landed a more stable client, I can finally do this.

I'm sure you've heard about the 52-week challenge. I attempted to do it last year but I failed. I tried doing it with the 50 Php increment last year. So this year, I am going to do this again, perhaps with a more realistic amount.

The concept is pretty easy. You get a container, a box or a tin can or whatever. Decide which base amount you want to start with - it can be 10, 20, 50 or 100. On the first week you set aside that base amount and then add the same amount weekly. Very easy yet the key thing there is consistency. This year I am going to start with Php 20 and hopefully I will have Php 27560 by the end of the year.

So, are you also up for the challenge?