jj tales

tuesday night was meet-your-friends  night with  jan, marco, anne. it never fails! we start talking about our beginnings and the jj tales resurface like crazy! 

police interrogation, thesis defense, graded recitation, confession of sins, job interview, pop quiz - alin dyan ang nangyari that fateful friday on 2007? malay ko. haha! hanggang ngayon 'di ko pa rin mapaliwanag.

i just know that jj taught us the hard way:

• i learned that you should never mess with ip tracking systems. not that we did, but if we did, we probably could have died that same day on 2007.
• i learned that if they say there are no dress-down-fridays, then don't go to the office looking like a rock star - even if you are one in the eyes of your friends!
• i learned that you should always know your sh-t! i don't want to say it that way, but jj said so. so be it. know your sh-t!
• i learned that you should always take the initiative to add value to your company, and no, you don't get values from a spreadsheet. bwahahahaha! you say spreadsheet and you'll get looks of disbelief.
• i learned that lots of dots mean "unexplainable" and that it could lead you to further damage than you anticipated :)) 
• i learned that it's impossible to fool someone who doesn't want to be fooled.
• i learned that "malas lang" is so true! especially for someone who wore jeans on a friday for the first time, and used the office phone for a personal call for the first time. biruin mo yun?!? hahaha!
• i learned that nobody in the corporate world is irreplaceable. we are all disposable. one wrong move is all it takes.
• i learned about the importance of coming to work on time, if not early.
• i learned that after lashing on someone, you could always act like nothing happened. walang personalan!
• i learned that you are always being watched.

thanks for innocence. 

thanks for "big" people who know how to listen to "small" people.

thanks for the memories and good laughter every time we are reminded of that day.  jj, yo da men, dudez!

the little treasure spot that's swee choon

last saturday, we went to mustafa to buy some things we thought we needed. we decided to grab a bite from a food center that we saw on our way from mustafa to the mrt.

before crossing the street so we could get to the new world center, we passed by a chinese restaurant named swee choon. there are lots of people on queue and the place seemed sooo busy. we were lured like moths are invited to the flame. weh.

it did not disappoint. here are the treasures we found:

xiao long bao - aka dumplings with sabaw. i think it tastes better than dtf! you just have to wait for a few
minutes before devouring it, or take the risk of getting 3rd degree burns once the dumplings burst in your mouth.

char siew pao - i thought i've tasted the best siopao in the world from this little food stall in suntec, but this version tastes better :) super tasty!

fried mee swa - we just copied this from another table. we're glad we did. it's as simple as fried dump of miswa with seemingly pork toppings. i never imagined miswa could be cooked this way, but it was so good!

chicken feet - chicken feet are special to us because papa loved chicken feet. on good nights, he would bring packets of chiken feet from mr. ho tsin ho (restaurant along tramo). minana namin ang fondness sa adidas :p

noodles - kuya didn't like the noodles. he said it was too rich and oily kebs kami ni april dala na rin siguro ng gutom. we thought you are supposed to pour the soup in the noodle bowl. bukod palang kinakain yun :))

mango pudding - my vote goes to dtf's mango pudding. perfect ang combo ng bubble-like seeds + ice + mango pudding + milk. this one is just plain mango pudding, nothing extraordinary, but masarap pa rin :)

super recommended. i read that swee choon has been there for 50 yrs!

one thing i liked was their buzzer so you could call the waitresses. there's a button for call, drinks, bill, cancel. bongga diba! super efficient!

trip to mustafa

it's been a while since our last trip to mustafa. when i go to mustafa, i expect that my nose will be abused like crazy because we usually end up like sniffing dogs in the perfumes section. in the end, all the perfumes smell the same and you won't even know what to get.

so for our saturday mustafa trip, after another episode of having a battered nose, i got these:

johnson's baby lotion vanilla oatmeal - love the scent, love that it's not greasy, love how it makes the skin feel light. it's the first time i'm seeing this variant. as a kid, i've always just used the pink one.

johnson's baby cologne powder mist - i have 2 other colognes that i just bought, but this is johnson's, and johnson's takes me back to happy childhood thoughts. i could remember just 3 scents from good old days: orange, green, and blue. i loved the blue best. this time around, i tried a scent that i've never seen before. love it :)

pond's cold cream - another product that takes me back to my childhood, not because i used it as a child hehehe, but because my momma used it religiously. i would watch her put the cream on her face after her nightly shower, then she would massage her face, then use cotton to wipe the cream. she used it for the longest time. so i bought it for that reason. my ability to stick to this routine is questionable. hehehe

love my good buys :)

perfume? didn't get any.

human nature

i've always been intrigued with human nature products. i first read about it in the glossy features of divasoria, and read that these are natural products that are made in the philippines. go! support your own :)

i asked mike to bring some on his last visit. this is my pasalubong set!

feminine wash - i haven't used it yet so i can't tell if it's good.

body butter cream - good skin moisturizer, good berry scent, but i find it a bit greasy. i only use it when i know that i'll be in an airconditioned room for the whole day, or before going to sleep! otherwise, medyo malagkit sya.

intensive hair mask - haven't tried it yet, but it smells so good :)

shampoo and conditioner combo- i like :) keeps hair soft and smooth. i like the citrus scent too. next time i'll try vanilla. note: the only cure to my chaotic hair is rebond, shampoo/conditioner can't help wih the chaos.

sunflower oil - i tried to use on my face and body before going to sleep. i love that it's not greasy like most oils are. i also tried to put on my hair after shower and it's good too. this is my favorite :)

i would also like to try the facial wash, toner, moisturizer, but that can wait. i still have a lot to consume!

friday - family dinner and gardens by the bay

friday was mike's last night. we had a good dinner with kuya, april, and keyla to celebrate life's overwhelming blessings, and at the same time to bid mike a farewell-for-now.

dinner was jap food at mof in suntec. service was slow. there seemed to be a shortage in staff. when the food finally came, kuya and april were super happy with their sukiyaki and salmon teriyaki. on the other hand, mike and i were not not satisfied with our food. that's putting it lightly. kuya said muka kaming nalugi habang kumakain kami hahaha. katsudon was hard. salmon with egg was unexplainable. sashimi and maki were great though.

after the dinner, we went to gardens by the bay. i think the ideal time to visit is afternoon to evening, so you could see the scenes with and without the daylight. the supertrees are awesome! we didn't have enough time to scout the whole area because it started to rain.

was a great night :)

thursday - pampabango ang chippy sa monumento

thursday is pasalubong shopping for ate and manang and mama. mike wanted to buy them perfume/cologne. from suntec, we went to dollars and scent near city hall.

i found some good scents for me too :) cologne nga sila. super bilis mawala ng amoy hehehehe. not bad for the price though.

for dinner, we bought chippy from the basement of raffles city. we thought we could eat this in ben and jerry's area and have dessert after, but they don't allow outside food.

so... we went to the monumento! astig! parang luneta date lang. love the chippy hotdog and mashed potato combo. mike wasn't too thrilled with the mashed potato because he felt there was too much gravy. we also had a bag of fish and chips. i thought they went crazy with salt, but we're hungry so masarap na rin hahaha.

i've always wanted to sit at that monumento a la luneta area. dream come true ;)

wednesday - breakfast for dinner

day 3 of our week-long-night-dates... dinner at strictly pancakes :) i first heard of this place from jan. she said there was a good pancake house at prinsep street. i found it odd at first - eating pancakes outside the breakfast time frame, but since i tried it, i couldn't stop recommending it to other people :) i successfully recruited donna and maricor 2 weeks ago. this week, i recruited my husband.

i let mike lead the way from bras basah to prinsep street, but we accidentally found ourselves in prinsep link instead. so little ms. lousy-at-directions thought that she could lead the way from prinsep link to prinsep street. how hard could that be? they even have the same name! i was confident when i saw the la salle school of arts. i knew we were on the right track...

i knew it...

i knew it, we're lost!

hahahaha. oops, i did it again! if you want to get to your destination, don't let me lead the way :p i'm the type who gets lost even with a map.

we had to go back the opposite direction and walk a thousand miles... but the pancakes are worth the long journey. waiting time was not that bad.

we had a table on the 2nd floor. i think that the tables are too closely positioned. so close it felt awkward having to listen involuntarily to the conversation of the people beside our table.

i overheard the conversation of the couple to our right: "everything is on the house," the guy said. and i think that's the only conversation they had. aha, at some point i heard, "sweet and salty. it's good." if it's a date, then it's a lousy date. they weren't talking! hahaha.

i know that the 2 girls to our left are filipinas. and just like us, they took pictures of their food before eating. they talked an awful lot. i think they had a grander time than the couple to our right.

ako na ang pakialamera! you can't blame me. i said the hearing part is involuntary. hahahaha!

pero ito ang nag-enjoy sa company ng isa't isa at sa pancakes. aiyeeeeeee....

tuesday - dinner with hazel

hazel is mike's colleague from manila. she's been here for just a few months working as a pre-school teacher. that's my dream job! i'm not equipped to be a teacher in terms of academics, but i believe that my heart is more than equipped. wow. gumaganung drama talaga?

hazel wanted to eat western or italian food. we learned she hasn't tried din tai fung yet. whaaaat? you are missing a lot, missy. with a little persuasion, she agreed to try DTF. she loved it! who wouldn't? porkchops with plylice and xiao long bao are to die for!

hazel has a beautiful aura and personality. she's easy to get along with :) i enjoyed the conversations, and i felt like she's an old friend. at... hihihi kiligin sya.

i invited her to visit our house some time, but we live in the opposite ends of the mrt. so how?

glad to have met you, hazel! :)

monday - astons and helix bridge

we didn't properly plan any out of town trip, so we thought we'd just make the most out of mike's week-long stay by going out on nightly dates after work. for a week, may sundo ako! wow!

day 1 of the project date night :)
we went to astons at suntec city for dinner. i had new york strip and mike had ribeye steak. good food :)

collage made by mike.  here's a little secret. the original collage had hearts.  mike removed them because he said they looked too girly.  hihihi... si mike umiibig :p

 

and some more pics from my phone:

mbs with the artscience museum

 

the business district

 

the artscience museum

 

i learned about the helix bridge resembles the dna, and it has 4 viewing platforms that showcase the singapore skyline.

the helix bridge

 

the helix bridge

 

first date night success!

sunday - grocery and ikea

grocery shopping is one thing mike and i like to do. when he was still here, it was a toka toka thing. team a - kuya & april. team b - mike and cat. team a would do the groceries + cooking. team b would do the dishes + house cleaning.

we love shopping for groceries
because i feel it's a therapeutic/stressful activity. hehe. therapeutic because you get to see new products. it also gives you a sense of fulfillment and ownership when you pull items from the rack and put them in your cart. stressful because you have to make sure you've listed everything and you didn't forget any item to save yourself another trip to the store.

to make it faster, we would split our list into two: mike would go for the miscellaneous items, and i would go for meat and vegetables. o diba? domesticated na domesticated ang dating? hahaha!

so when he visited last week, we went grocery shopping just like the old days. i loved it to bits. and pieces. :)

when we got home, i cooked 2 dishes that he misses. tinolang buto-buto and lumpiang mami (mami's recipe, thus the name). i made a mistake of adding bunga ng malunggay to the tinola. he found the taste odd. sorry naman! i am promoting good health by adding bunga ng malunggay to almost every dish that i cook. hahaha ipilit lang! but i think the lumpia was good. mami's recipe never fails :) mike helped me by "untangling" (how do you call it?) the lumpia wrappers. just like the old days (parang 60s lang ang old days a).

we heard mass with the gang in the afternoon. hawker for dinner and we went to ikea to shop for anything we thought we needed hehehe. we got some items that mike would bring home to manila. we also got items that we could use this coming christmas season.

this is my favorite! april and i have a project and it will be great!!! so exciting!

saturday - sentosa

i've always envied mike's work.  being a guidance counselor means having a student-like schedule.  when the kids go for recess, you go for recess.  when the kids go home at 5pm, you go home at 5pm.  when the kids have a sem break, christmas break, summer break, you also go to a break.  isn't that the best?

mike spent the sem break here in sg.  we badly wanted to spend even just a weekend at a beach in malaysia or indonesia, but we both failed big time in planning for this break.  so we ended up aiming for malaca, but even that failed.  or we probably failed.  hahaha.  so we finally ended up just having nightly dates after my office hours.

the first day of the weekend started great.  kuya recommended the red bull flugtag in sentosa.  it's an event that showcased handmade crafts that are to be launched at a platform facing the water.  the craft that "flies" the farthest before hitting the water wins.  sounds like fun, but we got afraid of the sun and how it could scorch keyla (and us) at noontime.  scrap flugtag.

we eventually went to sentosa during the afternoon (flugtag was over then) to just relax at the beach.  we brought a white bed sheet.  mistulang picnic by the beach :)  had chips and beer and lots of playtime with keyla on the sand.

 

i wish it's fine to swim at this beach, but with the ships just harboring around the corner, i don't feel comfortable swimming here.  tambay galore lang talaga.  :))) photogenic!

tampines eco green

it's been a while since we last went to visit parks.  during the holiday on oct 25, we went to tampines eco green park.  the park is visible from the mrt.  we've always wanted to visit it, but katam rules... so there.  we finally went and it was such a beautiful day :) 

the journey started via the park connector.  such clean kanals and esteros :) 

 

i'm lousy with directions so please don't rely on my literature regarding instructions on how to get there. :p all i know is we walked (more of i followed), and we just found ourselves in the park.  so lush!  there was a carpet of green grass.  keyla jogged a lot... wearing slippers.  walang basagan ng trip :p

 

there were also bodies of water like the ones below.  i tell you it will never fail the nature-lovers :)

 

and more winding lush paths

 

this one's pretty interesting.  i think they are trying to make fences by filling the pole paths (seemingly made of concrete) with branches.  i'm not sure what it's for, but it sure looks good :)

 

i was also very happy to see aratiles trees :)  childhood memories alert! i look back to days when lolo would take us jogging in the pangmayamang multinational village.  we'd pass by aratiles trees, pick aratiles, and eat them at home.  literally sweet!

look at these masterpieces :) my Father created these!

at ang swing na inagaw ni keyla.  mom and 2 daughters were riding this swing.  keyla approached and said, "want keyla to wait for your turn?"  hahaha kinonsensya ang nanay.  ayun napaalis tuloy nang maaga, and we ended up riding the swing.

  

from the park, we went to tampines mall and ate dinner at subway.

it was a lovely day!

when we arrived home, turbo mode to clean the house for tito's visit. yay!