Day 4 of PH Vacation. Interview and Ocular

By Celine -
This post is first of my PH vacation series:


It's our 4th day in Manila and this is my 5th blog post about our vacation. The agenda for today are the following:
  1. Interview with the priest at Manila Cathedral.
  2. Ocular and food tasting at Bayleaf Intramuros
  3. Potluck dinner with friends in Linden Suites

Morning at Intramuros

We're awake by 4:00 am again. Jet lag is real and we're off to Intramuros by 6:00 am.

Breakfast at Jollibee

Our first goal is to have breakfast at Jollibee. This is our 1800-calorie breakfast. We didn't eat the extra rice from the 2-pc chicken but Jomar gave me half of his corned beef and I gave him 1 of my sausages.

Jollibee Breakfast

Mass and Interview at Manila Cathedral


After a jolly breakfast, we went to Manila Cathedral and were in time for Mass. Thank God for the perfect timing to be part of the Holy Eucharist. Then, we went to the office and finally met Donna. We've been emailing for the last 3 months. We submitted our documents and she told us what we're still missing and when we can submit them.

I was interviewed first by Father Jojo. He's super nice! I am praying that he will be the one to officiate our wedding.

Ocular at Bayleaf Intramuros

We were done by 9 in the morning and we're off to Bayleaf Intramuros for ocular and food tasting. We walked there which took around 10 minutes and we're still early for our 10 am meeting so we decided to cool down with Churros at churro cafe.

The ocular went smoothly. The food was good, the venue does not have a high ceiling but will still work. I'm just glad we found a new reception venue at the last minute. Our original venue was Villa Immaculada by Tamayo Catering and a day before our flight to Manila they called Ms. Myna to tell her that they won't be available anymore. I was calm and collected and reviewed my original list of venue and decided to call Bayleaf few hours before our flight to check if they are still available on July 6 and if we can do an ocular the immediate Tuesday for food tasting and ocular because it's the only time we have.

Crazy! Food was good, the venue is good, and the inclusion is excellent.

Afternoon at Ortigas

After the ocular, we went back to Go Hotel - Otis to relax, pack-up, and budget to assess our current expense.

SM Megamall

At around 2:30 PM, we left Manila and went to Megamall to buy tela for the flower girls. It was such a quick trip to SM Megamall. I wish we had more time.

Linden Suite

We checked in at Linden Suite at a 2-bedroom suite to have potluck dinner and spend time with friends. It's a Tuesday so everyone will be coming from work. I was getting hungry so we went to a nearby Ministop for some bola-bola siopao.

I was really sleepy and decided to take a nap. I woke up at around 8 in the evening and Mitch, Mama Chelle and Josh are already there. Mitch and Mama Chelle are cooking tinola and pasta. Wow! Ms. Myna already dropped by and left the lechong manok and pork barbecue. I'm so excited! It's so good to eat with people who made us part of their family when we were still in the Philippines. Being with them in those 2 hours made me think twice about leaving. God blessed me with such loving friends.


Time to go back to bed for we have another busy day tomorrow!

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