scented

it's a wonderful feeling coming home to a house that smells nice. it's a challenge for our house though as the windows are always open -it's hard to contain and maintain the scents.

the room odor's a bit easier to conquer! we used to hoard keep a number of bottles of scented oil from body shop. these are the types you dilute with water and use in a burner. smells good, really. we liked strawberry, pomegranate. i found lavender and tea tree scents in a small stall in suntec and these are good as well. relaxing.

jan introduced reed diffusers to me. these are reed sticks that you stick into bottles with scented oil. at first, i wasn't too keen in trying because i thought that the scents might be too weak. i could never grasp the idea as to how sticks could help spread the scent in the room.

one day, i went to jan's place and noticed the very good smell of the house. i asked and she said it was the reed diffuser. so nice! then she gave me a bottle of reed diffuser oil so i could try. it's powder scent and i lily, lily, like it.

i bought 3 cute bottles but i think they're a bit too shorf. tsk tsk. i think the room smells nice anyway! so nice! we're switching to reed diffusers!

rektikano

i am married to a man who's very highspirited when it comes to basketball. during the nba games, he requested that we subscribe to the sports channel. he looked for basketball playmates here so he could shoot some hoops. luckily, there's a bb court near our block. there's a filipino community (a big one) and they share the same passion in basketball. all good :) i love seeing the glow on his face everytime he goes home from a game. sweaty, yes. happy, super yes.

if he's in manila now, he would probably be watching the live uaap games with his friends. but since he's here, the best that he could do is watch the games via online streaming. something like this:



i wish i had some of that spirit in me. that's the dlsu animo squad in the pic. i didn't even know our team was called that. sheesh. at least i know the chants and cheers! yay!

back to my husband... yesterday, he was so animated while watching the game in our room! shouting everytime his team, ust, shoots or misses. they were leading all the time. tabla sa bandang huli but they ended up losing the game after an almost-buzzer-beater-3-pt-shot from the kalaban, feu. then he became like a madman. he threw the pillow on the wall and shouted and shouted and shouted. i was a bit scared. in my mind i was thinking, "lumabas muna kaya ako baka masuntok ako?"

i mustered a, "o tama na baka atakihin ka."

hahaha i wasn't hurt, neither was he. he calmed down after a few minutes. he just so loves the game that way.

this morning, i saw his fb post from yesterday:



susmaryosep si kuya oo! hmmm, that's my laptop he wants to destroy! bwahahaha! i commented:



i now pray for the safety of my laptop when there's a game. ipag-adya sana sya dahil i have no plans of replacing it soon. bwahahaha! susme! :))

peranakan museum

last, last friday, i took a day off from work to accompany mike in the submission of the formalities of his long term pass. we were done by around 10am so we decided to go to the peranakan museum.

but before we went to the museum, we feasted on the pinakamasarap na pancit sa balat ng lupa. the stall is located at the suntec foodcourt and good to see there's a kuya pinoy staff at the store. he may have added a few strands of pancit on our plate. divine! this is breakfast number 2. the first one was maggi chicken noodles at home. you can't blame me. i got traumatized with long queues and no breakfast. :p



on our way to the mrt, i saw these ceiling lamps. nice!



it was raining. but so what?

then we got to the peranakan museum:



"Who are the Peranakans? For centuries, the riches of Southeast Asia have brought foreign traders to the region. While many returned to their homelands, some remained behind, marrying local women."

hybrid! mixed culture!


this cat welcomes the visitors. i'm not so fond of cats, but i'm caths. gets?



a peranakan family in telok kurau area. so formal! look at the 2 girls holding on to the plant stands. what's up? :)



this granny looks like lola felicing - our neighbor in sto. nino and my lola's best friend. kailangan talaga may haplos?!



i love the background! apparently, butterflies were popular motifs for the peranakans as these signify good luck. cheers to the best of luck!



the museum showcased stuff from the old peranakan families. this is our reflection on one of the antique cabinets.



and another one. they look an awful lot like our cabinets from the philippines. the ones you find in the buena familias chochaleras houses. i bet kuya will not be too keen in owning one. think about spirits living in cabinets. boo!



and another one of those buena familias dresser tables. chochal!



benches by the main doors were also popular for the old peranakan houses. here's mike relaxing on one of the wooden benches. my lola has a special bangko back at home. it was her favorite siesta spot.



an old phone, ca 1930s. if you lift the earpiece, you could hear a recorded conversation. cool! rpg!



here's a latter model. i remember having a similar unit in our house. yesteryears! that was our first phone!



this girl looks like my cousin irish! so posh! look at the dress and the bag and the overall impact hihihi.



at the dining table. how much platos and platitos could one household use? i have a dream... someday, i'll be a housewife and i'll prepare all the meals for my family... and we'll eat together happily... all the days of our lives! ariba!



and a typical kitchen. i like it!



and more of the intricate plates and serving dishes. nakakahinayang gamitin, ang ganda kasi hihi. i'm reminded of a tansan. i wonder why.



here are some beaded bags. so intricate! i learned that the manner of beading is somewhat similar to cross stitching. the patterns are the same, the ones with the grids and you follow the color per cell.



while daoism and buddhism dominated, catholicism somehow seeped through. here's an interesting item - an altar with the image of the holy family.



and another nice background.



at the end of the day, we were this happy!



lunch was tapa king at lau pa sat. what a lovely day! what a lovely life!

Post Created Jul 19, 2011 8:37:53 AM

a few nights ago, mike was showing me this phone application about math tricks. interesting, i thought. for one who hates doesn't like math, i could use all the tricks in the market that i could get.

so we looked at a certain trick that's something like this:



and i got more confused. and i felt proud. and thankful to mrs. jose, my grade 6 math teacher, who terrorized us to death until we memorized the multiplication table.

mrs. jose is a stout woman. she wore high heels and the fats in her feet are escaping madly from her shoes. that didn't make her less of a person though. in fact, reflecting now, i think she may have been one of the few teachers who left the biggest and most useful lesson to me (and the class).

this was her system:

1. at the beginning of the period, we all stand for the prayer (we start and end each subject with a prayer). i guess this is the point when you also say a little prayer for yourself for what lies ahead of you during the math class.

2. nobody sits after the prayer.

3. she signals for the class to start the recitation of the multiplication table, starting at 6. as in, "6x1 = 6, 6x2 = 12, ... up to 9x9 = 81).

4. you have to be honest. if you make a mistake, you have to sit down.

5. at the end of the number chant, all who are standing will sit down, and all who are seated will stand up. stand up until the end of the math period - yes, amidst lectures and taking down notes and all!

she was scary, yes, but effective to the maximum level. give me a complex problem about derivatives and i will perspire - with blood! but ask me what's 7x8 is and i'll answer in a breeze. :) it matters, i think! in a complex world like what we have now, it sometimes pays that you know simple things by heart. i know my multiplication table and i'm proud. thanks to mrs. jose, we know that some 300 students a year are memorizing their multiplication table too. i wonder where she is now? :)

mighty clouds

such a lovely view.
it rained.
then the sun came out.
then the clouds became amazing like this.
then i cooked lucky me instant pancit canton.
wanted to eat it with rice.
but there was none.
so i settled with banana walnut bread.
was just as lovely.

life's little pleasures :)

ka choleng

when i was a kid, we had a trusted labandera / plantsadora. her name is ka choleng. she would wash clothes one day and come back on another day to press the clothes. i'm not sure how many years she provided this service but she had to stop one day because she had to take care of her apos.

i don't know why there is this certain story that i can't forget about her. she said that she wanted to have a customized bracelet out of a "special" spoon. she said she would bring the spoon to an alahero, the alahero will then transform the spoon into a bangle probably.

i didn't see the spoon. neither did i see the bracelet. but i remember having a strong desire to own a bracelet that's made out of a spoon too! hahaha! inspired by ka choleng :p

now i realize that you couldn't always have what you want. i don't know about ka choleng but i never had that bracelet.

hehehe anong drama ito? all i really want to say is: i now realize that ka choleng was/is a gem. we got the luxury of having fresh, ironed clothes - no sweat.

these days, we do everything on our own. mike does most of the laundry and he is doing a very good job! our clothes smell so good! don't worry though, he has not turned into a domestic god. washing is as easy as dumping the clothes in the washer and coming back after 50 mins to hang the clothes. no sweat.

ironing? if i had a choice, i wouldn't do it hehe. but i have to. maybe not so much now but when mike gets his work then i'll have to iron big time like ka choleng did.

oh dear! what big clothes you have, mike! hahaha!

where does your heart belong?

i quote from bbc news:

"The heart of the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto von Habsburg, has been buried in central Hungary.

The funeral of the last crown prince took place on Saturday in the Austrian capital Vienna, where his body was buried alongside those of his ancestors in the Imperial crypt.

His heart was buried separately in accordance with Habsburg tradition."

my condolences.

such an interesting tradition.

i wonder, if i have to go through the same, where will i have my body buried? probably i would like to rest my body in peace with mike.

and where will my heart rest? probably in my
hometown, paranaque. papa, lolo, lola are there.

chos!

aldwin and marenila

july is the birthday month of two wonderful people: kuya aldwin and tita marenila :)




tita's midnight birthday cake on the 8th:



dear tita, i wish you good health. we, especially keyla, can't thank you enough. a home is just a semi home if a mom figure is not around.




kuya's midnight birthday cake on the 13th:



dear kuya, i wish you more strength and wisdom as you continue to face fatherhood each day. you are the best!

the feast last weekend - chili crabs, baby kailan with oyster sauce, cereal prawns, mantau bread, peaches and cream, courtesy of chef aldwin and chef april. superb! finger licking good! who needs jumbo when we have jangbow? hehehe! pwedeng pwede! ;)



happy, happy birthday!!!

refuge

i was 6 or 7. mami woke me up at around 4 am. i got confused but woke up anyway. a few hours later, we were in mindoro, in my lola ading's house. i can't remember the details of how we got there, but we got there. mami was home, in her refuge.

lola was surprised, more of happy, to see us. she hugged us. we sat at the living room then it was there where mami started the ordeal of telling lola why we were there. i heard every word and saw every tear. it was something about papa and some bad things that papa was doing, but i couldn't grasp everything.

"alam mo na kung bakit tayo andito?" mami asked. i shrugged. i didn't fully understand.

we stayed there for the night. i could remember eating sardines for dinner - the best sardines i ever tasted, sharing a toothbrush with mami, seeing a giant spider on our kulambo, and going back home to manila the next day... because summer was ending i had to go to school.

that night, when papa got home, he carried me and brought me to the garage to tricyle-view and to mildly interrogate me.

"san kayo nagpunta ni mami kahapon?" he asked gently.

"sa mindoro," i replied.

"tsk. natututo ka nang magsinungaling ha?"

and i got more confused. why? what did i do? :))

catherine michelle

... is my full name. quite long. people never call me michelle. family members call me cath, my friends call me caths, my grannies in mindoro call me karen. i've always just used "catherine camacho" in exam papers. so what's in a second name? hehe. i think it's just pampahaba! i like the name michelle. just don't call me michelle 'cause i don't feel it's me. jejeje.

so the beckhams call their new baby girl harper seven. having seven for a second/middle name may sound, hmm, unique, but check this out. found the clip on bbc news, sort of an analysis on names...

"There can be more than one. British musician Brian Eno is actually Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, while Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland is Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland."

woah! how much space and time do they need in filling out forms??? :)) it's a good read. i'm happy with catherine michelle. thanks!

ang lapad

bakit ba ang lapad ng pics na ina upload ko? nakakasuya! :)))

spell gluttony

so... twister fries is back. that's what donna said on her fb status. so what?! so what? waaah i have to get it!

ininggit ako ni aldwin kagabi sa pamamagitan ng pagpost ng twister fries pic sa beluga. so what? e tamang tama gumawa ako ng planong mag midnight snack kami ni mike kagabi. nagkataon lang naman. ano kayang masarap kainin? hmmm. alam ko na! ang bright ng idea :)

twister fries!!!! hot fudge!!!!





dinner at home at 8:45 midnight snack at 10. what?! i felt bad at some point. there we were eating like there's no tomorrow and some people in ethiopia are dying of hunger. i'm sorry.

15th

i am a late bloomer - as always. the morning rush with chico and delamar is celebrating their 15th anniversary today. where was i during those 15 wonderful years?

i started listening only this year and i'm hooked. i tune in daily at 8am on my way to work and aim to finish the show up to 10am. they are so hilarious. everything from the top 10 anythings, to the witty commentaries, to the green side kwentos, to the perfect tandem - i like them all!

i have this app radio philippines. everything's good. i listen happily until i get this annoying thing:




buffering!!!!! palagi na lang buffering! waaah! i thought it's because of my phone topak but it seems it's because of problems with the station's streaming services. i think... :( days like this, i feel so bitin. aww.

learnings from great men

i came to know two great men. i'm lucky. when you are compassionate, i'm certain you'll leave a mark on the people you meet. some things i learned:

1. some 4 years ago, we were on our getting-to-know dinner. this fact was imparted to us: it's almost always safe in this country. if you end up being a victim of a pickpocket in the mrt, then you probably have a very, very bad luck that day.
2. on my birthday card, something like this is written: never fail to give each day the chance to be the best day of your life. sapol! this is now my favorite quote.
3. on a farewell note, something like this is written: "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor”
4. and while searching for number 3, i stumbled upon this lovely quote: "a ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for" this is my 2nd fave :)
5. you can still function at your best at work, complete your duties, and still get along with everybody. it's a beautiful life.

again, thank you to burger king and to crimson cheeks! hats off to two beautiful persons. i'm lousy with byebyes. i may have been too dramatic when i said goodbye. :(

518A tales

when we moved to the new house, i stopped riding the mrt to work because by the time i get to the mrt station, i'm like a carpenter who just finished work for the day. pawisang mama.

i found comfort in riding 518A because it takes me from the bus stop near our block to the convention center in ~ 1 hour. sitting pretty. prenteng prente. i could read the news, read blogs, tweet (but i'm now in a 1 month LOA from twitter), and sometimes just close my eyes. it's almost therapeutic when you sit silently for an hour.

i have my regular bus mates.

running man - he's almost always running everyday to catch the bus. he doesn't make it sometimes but i think he sure does fight a good fight.

cutting auntie - she's the rude old lady who cut me once at the bus stop just when the bus was arriving. rude.

sonic lady - she's the groovie girl with a hair so stylish it reminds me of sonic the hedgehog. she's so cute!

sleeping headset - he's always sitting near the tap out machine and he's always wearing his headset while wandering to his slumber paradise. so peaceful :)

you can't miss 518A. there' just one bus. why? i don't know. so if you miss it, you have to take the mrt (and be a carpenter, see above) or you have to take 518 (and be doomed, see below).

yesterday, i made the biggest mistake of riding 518 because 518A was not operating. not sure why... but my bus mates were as dumbfounded and bored (too) as i was in the 1 hr 20 min ride. 518 doesn't take the expressway that's why. and i'll never take that bus again. i'd rather take the mrt, thank you.

if running man is the gold medalist, i think i'm the silver medalist! ako na! i didn't make it once or twice but i learned since then. i learned that if i run fast enough, i'll make it - even if the bus is 3 just mins away. even if it's arriving! bring it on!

i love bus 518A!

how to personify winnie the pooh

1. wear tight pants/shorts to make your tummy big(ger). the pressure on the waist will evacuate all the tummy fat in one central bulge.
2. wear a tight, short blouse.
3. when you sit, allow your big(ger) tummy to be exposed (remember, blouse is short). yes, show some skin (aka fat).
4. magpacute.
5. get a jar with honey.

et voila! you are now winnie!

no pic, sorry.

Post Created Jul 5, 2011 6:58:21 PM

and just like that, people let you go.

bye bye burger king.

bye bye crimson cheeks.

until we meet again.

you both deserve a big round of applause.

greasy but lovelove

i first heard of this nice product from maria. if i remember correctly, she said she uses it on her face at night and her skin's sooo soft when she wakes up.

when i was still in manila, i tried it too but it didn't work for me. i thought it was greasy and messy so i gave up on it.

i gave it another shot now and i think it's just great! yes, it's still greasy but i learned that if i apply it in a certain manner, it's all good! i use it on the face and body at night. yes, i think it clogs my facial pores at times, but i use it anyway. super moisturizer!

mahaba-habang sabado

11th of june. our 6th month of being married. our 6th month of being apart/together. cool!

it was also a very eventful day. it was when we took our chances and applied for mike's pr. weeks before, we prepared all the requirements and, in good faith, we now await for 4 - 6 weeks for the result.

we started the day early. after around 3 hours, we completed the application. yay! then there was the IT show. we didn't have the chance to look around when we got the free tv 2 nights before because all we ever did was queue up.

but prior to the IT fair, i brought mike to the office to show him where i work. elev shot!





then it was chow time! this, i think, is the best part for me. we didn't have breakfast and we just came from a mega pila galore big time.





lunch: hokien mee and dimsum. purfect!

oh and i love these lamps!





the IT fair? it was crowded. period. end of story. bow. thanks.