Saturday, April 16, 2011

the saddest place


this is changi mrt station and i think this is the saddest place in singapore.  i only go here when i send someone to the airport.  i started to associate it with sadness because i go and bring a loved one to the airport and i go through the ordeal of taking the mrt all by myself.

the last time was last monday when i had to bring my husband to the airport and, again, i had to be in this place alone when it was time for me to go home.  surprisingly, i wasn't madrama that time.  maybe because sending him away means i am welcoming him soon after 1.5 months - this time for good!  come to momma!

this place isn't so sad after all :)

parang nagbabasa lang ako ng magazine

and linaw linaw mo
para lang akong ano
nagbabasa ba ng magazine
gusto kong ika'y maging akin

yuck ang corny.
pero 'di nga.  nagulat kami ang mura na lang nito.  i think mga 1300 to 1400 na lang sya.  super linaw!

the little girl turns one, the mommy turns 31

april 9 - araw ng kagitingan
april 9 - kaarawan ni april
april 9 - kaarawan ni keyla

wow!  3 wonderful events happening on the same day every year!  how cool!

last year, april's due date fell on the 1st/2nd week of april.  they had a very brilliant idea of inducing her labor on april's birthday.  because of this, the hospital gave them a present: a cake!  and they get to have the pleasure of celebrating their birthdays on the same day, year after year after year after year. :)

i heard some of april's pregnant friends are now considering of inducing labor if the birth month falls on a significant month too.  wow trendsetter!  :)

so the little one turns 1.  but wait, there's more!  the mommy turns 31 too!

next year, the little one will turn 2 and the mommy turns 32!  how poetic.  hehehe.  i love it!

here is keyla's lovely dress and balloons, i was in charge of carrying these.  if i let go of the balloons, the balloons will go to heaven, we also say goodbye to the dress.  hihi.  dead ako.



feelingera mode: on
nakikibirthday mode.  woohoo!


tito mike celebrating with us.  we just had to have a picture with the balloons!
 

and the hats too


thanks to donna for allowing us to celebrate at their place.  here's everybody busy - pumping more balloons and adorning the place.  bhernz and kaloy were the first ones to arrive to help in the preparations.  very helpful :)


keyla's birthday cake!  the baker is a pinay.  a very good pinay.  it wasn't just lovely, it was yummy as well.  i think it tastes like goldilocks choco cake, only it's heavier.


here are the loot bags - not only for kiddies but also for the adults.  chocos inside :)


here's the background of the "stage".  they painstakingly went through thousands and thousands of keyla's pictures to come up with the cutest set.  i wouldn't agree with the last sentence though.  any picture with keyla in it is cute (stage auntie, but hey everybody would agree) :) they printed these on photo paper and the effect was perfect.


pens from divisoria as prizes for the games.  such cute pens!


and hats for everybody!


the little one, probably still unaware of how special this day is, and how special she is, and how special her mother is too.


april is lucky to have good friends who host our parties and organize the games.  donna, roanne, bhernz, noemi, neri are the best and they're always game and alive na alive during parteh partehs.
there were games for kids:


and games for adults too.
easy on the balloons, big boy! :)

easy on the kendeng, papa! :)

here are the ubs people after having a full tank.  :p burp.  wow!  ang galing ko naman magtago ng billbill.  nakakagigill.



and finally, the birthday song and the candle blowing.  a few days before the birthday, we trained keyla to blow her candles.  the best she could muster though was a faint "ha".  pure voice and no air.  haha.  no pressure, little girl!  mommy can blow it for both of you :)
PS: it isn't so obvious here but my tummy is just so yucky and so big!  tita, an ever appreciative mother, said, "hindi naman, mahigpit lang ang damit mo nang konti siguro." awww!  i love mothers!


the version 2 of the camacho family
PS: i love keyla's shoes!  where can i find one for myself?


a dramatic birthday letter to april and keyla:

ever dearest april and keyla,

april, when you came into kuya's life a few years ago, i was so happy to finally see my kuya happy again.  i think i've seen just the surface of him at his lowest point and it was a devastating sight.  i could not gauge how happy he is (and me too) when you finally came around.  i know it's wrong to say that somebody came to fill the missing piece, but you did just that - and more.  i was simply thankful that someone as patient and understanding as you came.  couldn't ask for more.

kuya did not just have a partner, i came to have a sister as well.  i grew up being the only girl in the family but it wasn't even a challenge living with a new girl around.  it was even a blessing and a privilege.  it wasn't hard and it will never be hard to accept you in the family :)  you are the best!

keyla, when you came into our lives, you couldn't imagine how happy we were.  i know i love kids but i couldn't imagine how much i will love you.  when you were born, my first glimpse of you was from your dad's camera.  i cried.  you were so tiny yet i could see a lot of kuya and april in you.  i could even see a tiny part of me in you.  you were a miracle.  you are a special girl.  your first cries were merely kitten meows.  now you are a tiger.  sheesh.

living with you is a blessing.  everyday, i get to see how you learn new things.  i get to see how you grow up to be a playful (that's a subtler way of saying maldita mwehehehe) little girl.  every morning, i get awakened by your babbles (and baby tv) and i know it's time to wake up and play with keyla!  i'm not your mother but i am excited to go home everyday because i know you are there.  i swear i could play with you all day.  i could play with you all my life.

april and keyla, i love you both.

nagmamahal,
ate charo

ps: thanks to kuya's cam, mike's cam, and my phone for the pics.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

off to chinatown we went

on mike's 2nd day, we went to chinatown so he could see what's there and take some pictures.  i've been there before to shop for our prenup dresses.  :)  it's pretty much the same as all the other chinatowns - hehe i've only seen manila and NY -  but it's worth visiting :)

i went there wearing this lovely pair of comfy shoes, given by my mother-in-law from the shopping haven, divisoria.  it's hot pink, as you could see, and i got a lot of stares wearing it (maybe i'm just paranoid), but i really, really, really love it!


first things that caught my attention were these oriental-inspired slippers.  we started this slippers/shoes-off scheme at the house and i'm loving it.  kuya isn't.  so to compromise, he will keep all shoes off the floor but he's looking for a nice pambahay tsinelas.  i sent them the pic and asked if he liked it.  he didn't.  k fine.  thanks.


next stop was the chinatown heritage center.  it was rather funny how we bumped into this museum.  we were just looking around when a man approached us and asked if we wanted to go and see the museum for 10SGD.  napakadali naming kausap.  we said yes and went in :p  it was time well spent anyway.  we were able to see a slice of the history of singapore.

the following are pictures taken from the museum.  pretty interesting :)

we learned that by the 1920s, opium was sold OTC.  wow!  here's an old man who seemed so lulong.  goosebumps!  when i was living in the humble barangay of sto. nino, everybody knew drugs were rampant but i never saw someone actually doing it.  might be a scary sight.


not only drugs but brothels were also rampant and there was a time when stds were so widespread!  here is a how a typical brothel looked like.  goosebumps ulit!

i think this is my favorite quote in the museum.  this was one of the early migrant workers.  i think we're talking about early 1900s here.  the caption says, "When we first came here, we thought about making some money and going home.  Then, after some time here, we wanted to work a little longer and a little longer after that.  We forgot about going home altogether."  i feel a lot of the filipinos here could relate.


here is a board showcasing the origin of the chinese family names.  when you turn the blocks, it shows some more information about the family name.  hihihi they look an awful lot like mahjong to me.  :)

i love these windows that also doubled as blinds.  i think i wouldn't want something like this when i get my own home as it doesn't let too much sunlight in but it's just a fascinating thing, the way you can peep without actually opening the windows.  i played with it for a while.

i call this my reverse version.  when you stand at the bottom of the stairs, you could see a timeline of the history of singapore.  there's a chronological order of years and what happened on that particular year.  well, i wasn't that much interested on the year ekek so i just took a picture from the top of the stairs :) what did i attain?  nothing.  hihihi.

ah, this one's nice too.  this is how hawkers looked back then!  if i remember correctly, the first hawkers were a wide array of street food on wheels which were rather unhygienic and for the less privileged classes.  now, when i hear hawker, i think of inexpensive, yummy, authentic foodie!  think of lau pa sat!

spell yummy!  hawker food!

dragon dance!  it was funny how this dragon "mechanically" danced.  it was so stiff and as in literal na may mga kanto ang damoves nya!

hmm, operas were also sikat back then.  when i saw this part, i remember HS: ibong adarna, florante at laura, and how we were so gaga over earl ignacio.  sheesh.  where is he now?

nice structure :)


and this is my 2nd favorite quote.  the migrant workers lived in shophouses, which were shops where they get their means of living and at the same time their homes too.  imagine crammed rooms with work areas and sleeping areas.  there were common toilets.  and toilets = buckets.  what do you do when a bucket gets full?  you empty it.  i wouldn't want to be a bucket collector.  please, no.  thought bubble... if a bucket collector spilled the pupu and the wiwi on the floor of the house, who would clean the mess and how long will the stench remain?  :-S


the common kitchen of a shophouse.  i wasn't shocked.  we could see similar scenes in manila.  :(

and this is a sample of the crammed shophouse.  this is a typical setup during the dark years of sg.  sad to say, we still have this same setup back home.

probably one of the bigger shops.  this is a tailor house.  aha, only the rich can afford to have tailor-made suits back then.  sosyal ka kung nagpapatahi ka ng damit!  now, it's the other way around.  you find a style that you like and you go to your suking mananahi to have your dress cloned.

an old school sewing machine.  awww.  we have this in our paranaque house!  lola, i miss you!

i realize i don't have a picture of the diorama of a shophouse.  it was so realistic!  sayang.

so that's it for the heritage center.  we went out and explored the other streets of chinatown.

here's the hindu temple: 


and what's inside:

and what you have to leave behind before you go in:

we wanted to go in but we were wearing shorts and we weren't sure if you are allowed to go in if you're in shorts.  we didn't ask.

yet another temple, the chinese temple.  i was able to see what's inside during the time mami and wawin visited us a few months ago.  quite interesting.

there's a time to walk.
and a time to eat.
chow time at maxwell hawker center!

crispy noodles yum


chicken rice semi-yum because it's fried.  i like the roasted or steamed style better.


pineapple juice was a little bit weird but yum just the same.  mikey liked it too.  he said the juice base was sugarcane and they just put pineapple tidbits.  i can't recognize the sugarcane taste though.

that concludes the chinatown adventure.

dear mikey,

i'm so looking forward to spending more and more days of going here and there with you.  let's visit every nook and corner!  we'll go places as long as our feet can carry us.  and if the time comes that my feet can't, carry me, will you?  haha donya?!

love,
me

Monday, April 11, 2011

the tagpuan and the midnight snack

mike arrived from manila on the 7th of april.  he went here for the birthday party of keyla and april on the 9th.  i originally wanted to fetch him at the airport but i had to go to work that day (sheesh, i had to change holiday dates thrice!) so we just decided to meet at tanah merah at 7pm.  tagpuang malupit ito!

and there he was, sitting on one of the marble seats on the train platform.  he had a backpack, a luggage with wheels, and a paper bag.  i looked inside the bag as he said it was his gift for keyla.  i found the most adorable thing:  a talking dog named violet.  sure it was wonderful.  the thing is, keyla has this same dog.  i gave it to her last christmas.  AND mike was with me when i bought this same pup in manila.  hahaha!  he totally forgot about it.  men and memory.  tsk.  hehehe.  here's violet, pic taken from amazon.com
NOTE: on keyla's birthday, she received yet another violet talking dog :)) now she has triplets!  hahaha.  but mike took his violet pup home and replaced the gift with another one.

we headed home, had a quick dinner, and went to the new home.  the owner wanted to meet us so she could take away all the stuff that we won't need.  we were supposed to meet kuya and april at the new place but i'm such an expert in directions - we had to do a back-and-forth-cha-cha thing.  hays.  we didn't make it on time so mike wasn't able to see the house.  

when we got home, we decided to have a midnight snack at the kapit-hawker area.  we had prata!  mike's was with onions and egg, mine was with cheese.  the curry was great!  for panghimagas, we had iced milo.  ang surrrap!  hihihi.

imported corned beef


as an effect of kuya's health consciousness efforts, i have been deprived of anything that's beef based.  beef steak, tapa, ground beef, nilagang beef.  beef isn't part of our groceries list.  period.  yes, even corned beef!  who doesn't like or eat corned beef?!  

mike was here last week (he went home today huhu).  before he went here, he asked me if i wanted any food pasalubong.  corned beef!  i didn't think twice.   now we have purefoods chunky corned beef.  i think there's also argentina.  but what's special is this palm corned beef.  ate a boasted of how yummy this brand is so i requested for palm as well.  hay heaven nga naman ang palm!

breakfast last thursday:  palm corned beef garlic flavor, fried rice, coffee mixed with choco.  ANG SARAP!  please excuse the madungis na placemat.  ehem.

ang sarap ng imported corned beef from the philippine islands!

project 365 - FAILURE :p

hehe. ok, i'm putting this project 365 thing into a full stop :p can't do it.

i will be my usual self now. the project was fun! but... not easy for me. thanks! bye! hehe.

Saturday, April 02, 2011

chokies from sweecherland


lolo was in town last week. he's one sweet lolo. he came bearing wonderful choco presents from sweecherland. the chocolates came from our inay and lolo.


such sweet colleagues! such sweet chocos! :)

abstain


last, last friday, we were at plaza singapura for dinner. while april, tita, and keyla went to meet some friends for dinner, kuya and i dined at the food court.


in observance of abstinence, we had saba fish and fried tofu. now, i really feel that abstinence is not achieved because naman! i love saba fish! and the fried tofu is just as yummy! for dessert (at talagang may dessert pa!), he had iced kacang and i had this sumptuous choco ice cream! love it! it's so cheap ha! pero it's perfect! where's abstinence?!


i can't say i will abstain from some other good stuff because i haven't been abstaining from anything. hay.

project 365 - day 28 - marie marie marie


weee! marie biscuits! :) i have very fond memories of this delectable treat :) when i was a kid, i used to buy marie biscuits from ka perlita's sari-sari store. there was a small size (50 cents) and a big one (piso). oh, the wonderful things you could buy with a peso back then!


3 marie biscuits were contained in a clear, thin cellophane with red "marie" prints. papa would give me some coins before he went to his office and afternoons were extra special because of marie merienda :)


marie tastes like graham crackers. but during my childhood days,since i didn't know what graham crackers were, marie was simply marie hihihi.


some time last week, sunshine bought marie biscuits - chocolate flavor. what??? they come in chocolate flavor now? sweet! marie marie marie. i like :)