A Short Get-away To The Island of Mactan

**Lovin’ this gorgeous Cabin Crew Hat!**

Sometimes, we need to get-away from our regular lives just so we can breathe and think clearly. I grabbed the opportunity of staying in Mactan at the late part of my day and spend time with a very good friend who always keeps me sane and grounded.

Meet one of My Loves, Aimer Jane Dy-Veloso.

She is a Cabin Crew at Cebu Pacific Air. Love their latest uniform that is modern chic in style, colors, and it comes with a denim skirt, too! How cool is that? But what I love the most is their leather handbag/backpack and their really gorgeous beach-like fedora! I so wanted to take it home with me! Haha!

We are both on a healthy diet because we still want to get slimmer than we are now. I am on a no-or-less-rice-on-the-weekdays diet while she is on an egg-and-apple-only diet. Wow! I can never do that. We do have days of exemption because it is never a good idea to deprive one’s self in experiencing variations of food choices.

Our common denominator?

No pork! I’ve been at it for almost a month now, and not even craving for it anymore. Crossing my fingers that I can do this all the way for the rest of my life. We ended up having an early dinner at Shakey’s because it is the only place where I can stay inside the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. Glad that they serve Americano coffee at only 100 pesos with 1 free refill. We wanted to try the black seafood pasta, but it was not available then. So sad. So, we ended up having the Scallops Pizza and of course Chicken with Mojos instead! Still yum!

Where did our diet and wanting-to-go-slimmer goals go? It’s still there, we just parked it for a while. After all, we don’t get to see each other very often. Almost only once in a month, because life’s just like that. But the best thing about us is that we do make time for each other. We kind of have a long-distance kind of friendship because Mactan is actually another island. Thanks to the 2 bridges that connect us to each other. Haha!

I am not a milk tea person, but this girl is.

And whenever we are together, Milk Tea is always part of the agenda. So, she brought me to the latest bubble tea shop in Mactan, Y.E.L.O. It’s a quaint little shop in Gaisano Mactan Island Mall. It has a very instagramable interior. The details of the shop are well-thought of. The color palette is very pleasing to the eyes.

My eyes enjoyed their rose-gold colored logo, scrabble-tile inspired price list, and their product-descriptive clipboards. I marveled at their design choices.

I’ve learned that the owners love California, USA.

You will see a photo of the products taken at the Golden Gate Bridge and they have a table topper that has California written on it. And their menu looks amazing! The place looks elegant and expensive but surprisingly very affordable. Refer back to my photo of the scrabble-tile inspired price list.

This cute shop has a lot to offer. But as a first-timer, I will always ask for the best-sellers and one of which is the Classic Milk Tea with Boba. Aimer went for the Classic Pu-erh Milk Tea with Boba. And below you will see that they are using Arla Milk for every cup.

This bubble tea shop in Mactan can take you to an international experience by bringing in imported ingredients so that their Milk Tea products can be as authentic as possible.

You would really take a photo of the drink before stirring it and drinking it up because it is so pretty! The best part is that they’d ask you if you’d rather go for plastic or paper straws. We immediately went for paper, after all, the cups and top cover are of plastic material. I am really doing my best to lessen the use and consumption of plastic but I’d be totally honest that it’s been a very challenging aspiration for me. I will still try, no matter how difficult it actually is. As a non-milk tea person, I can still say that their products had a well-balanced taste to it. I wanted to go for 0% sugar but opted for 25% instead since they warned me that I may not enjoy it as much without sugar.

The thing about me and Aimer is that we tend to forget about the time whenever we get our conversations going.

We are two very different individuals and our opinions are not always aligned, yet we never argue because we respect each other’s P-O-Vs. This is because we listen to each other, understand where the other is coming from, yet keep firm in our differing beliefs. We both know that we have very different experiences in life as well as circumstances, yet we have both accepted each other for who we really are. There is no need to be self-conscious and we don’t have to walk on egg shells when we’re together. We can both just let our hair down and allow each other to vent the negative energies that we have absorbed out of our systems. Sigh of relief! Just the get-away that I badly needed.

**She opted for tea and cheesecake to cap our night off.**

We ended up really late because we totally lost track of time. We may rarely see each other, but the value of our date nights have always been deep-rooted and sincere. You see, you keep discovering something new about your friend regardless of how many years you have known each other. You just have to really take interest in their history, present life, and their future plans. It is in listening and communication that you understand what your friend is all about. And you’d discover that there is more to love about them, too.

As I’ve listened to Aimer, I’ve learned about bite-sized self development in all forms.

She has taught me to at least allot 1 hour for each and every goal that I have towards personal development in a day. It’s her step-by-step version of becoming the best version of herself every single day. Making developing good habits and breaking bad habits simpler and doable.

How about you? When is your next get-away? Or do you need one at all?