quasi tourists

for the 46th national day celebration, there's an electronics fair at suntec. we heard that 1) they are selling items for $46. items = washing machine, tv, camera, etc. 2) people started queueing since friday night for the opening at 11am on saturday. really, the things people do for a sale :) i would do the same if i had all the time in the world :)

so sunday, we decided to make uzi at the fair. some facts: 1) atm, we don't really need something electronic hehe. 2) no funds to buy something electronic hehe.

the day started bad like this:



because sundays are meant to be SUNdays and it made us really late for mass.

after lunch, the sun came out and we decided to go to the fair. just outside our block, a bird decided to poop on my arm. tita said it's malas. 3 friends said it's lucky. dun tayo maniwala sa majority at sa kaaya-aya :)) i changed clothes and we went to the fair after all.

as with all IT fairs, the crowd was incredible. as with all IT fairs, we go home empty-handed.

well, not really. we were able to watch a kung fu show. so cool! like i'm watching kung fu panda, only these are real people:



this is my favorite character. he seems so young! yet his bod's so developed, so are his skills! galing galing!



the kung fu show was the highlight of our date. we also bought goggles, swimming cap, combos, micro fiber towel. oh, and we got nice, free, sturdy plastic bags that could serve as trash bags. electronics fair ba yun?!

on our way home, we turned our tourist mode on and took pictures of these:

view from the memorial park:


the business district:


the suntec convention center:


i've always wantes to take pics of those. dyahe lang kasi ang daming tao lagi hekhekhek. happy birthday, singapore!

swim like a whale, eat like a whale

in an effort to trim down our tummies, we are on our 3rd week of jogging and we have been faithful to our program c/o the 5k runner app. highly recommended. not that our tummies have already toned down, but the app showcases interval training and kuya says it's an effective program. maganda raw na ginugulat ang bady mo at hindi yung consistent run lang. run-walk-run-walk ang drama. i also noticed that my knees hurt kung todo run lang. you know, old age.

we run 3x a week.
venue: there lang sa side side
time: after office hours

and we swim 2x a week.
venue: pasir ris sports and recreation center
time: after office hours

ang chochal ng new sports and recreation center at pasir ris. ong gondo!

there's a dipping pool, a kiddie pool, slides too! there's even a giant pail that spills when it's full. patok sa mga bata! apparently keyla didn't find it appealing. natakot daw. pero if i were a kid, i'll lavit!



an olympic sized pool. i love super! i'm not a fast swimmer. i feel nasusuya na nga ang mga lifeguard sa kabagalan kong lumangoy. hahaha! weh bakit? ehersisyo lang mga kuya!



nice ceiling lights. fancy them!



mistulang bromance. hehe joke lang powhz!



view from outside. there's a gym, tennis court, badminton court, at iba pang court na 'di ko na maalala.



and nice trees that i also fancy :)



yey! swim swim swim!

the problem with swimming is you get really hungry after a swim. then you tend to eat a lot, which kind of defeats the purpose of exercising (and dieting).

kebs. chos.

OLOPS

i like having vivid dreams. when i wake up, i'm reminded of good things. sometimes good, sometimes bad, but it's always good to be reminded. a few nights ago, i had a dream about this:



the dream was: i found my HS teacher praying the novena. it was very vivid - she was holding the blue novena booklet and i interrupted her prayer to discuss about the thesis.

and the memories that rushed through when i woke up were incredible...

my first commuting-all-by-myself experience was when mami asked me to meet her at the baclaran church so we could pray the novena on a wednesday. i was about 10. a jeepney ride from sto. nino to baclaran was a great milestone for me. it was also my first novena.

our novena attendance wasn't constant throughout the years but we tried to brave the crowds whenever we can. the feeling is different if you pray the novena alone and you pray it with thousands of devoted people. the latter gives you an unexplainable feeling of being closer to Mama Mary.

at the entrance of the church, there's a statue of Mama Mary that's enclosed in glass. the people knock at the glass, as if asking Mama Mary to give them just a tiny bit of attention and to listen to their prayers. they also wipe on the glass with small towels. so overwhelming.

people walk on a kneeling position from the entrance to the altar while praying the rosary. it's quite a long, difficult "walk". makes me think that whatever they are praying for is something grave. that, or they are simply devoted.

throughout the novena, your voice will drown in the voices of others. people are praying and singing at the top of their lungs. maybe, just maybe, they feel that there is a higher chance of God hearing their pleas if they pray louder. again, overwhelming devotion.

i remember seeing all sorts of people. you see a difference in the way people look - rich, poor, young, old, man, woman, burdened, contented, happy, sad. you could see a thousand varieties but there's no difference in the way they express their devotion.

there's a sermonette section where the priest will read a letter from someone whose wish has been granted - sort of a testimony. deliverance from sickness, poverty, finding a spouse... the stories are endless.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help has a special spot in my heart. the novena is also a bonding moment for mami and me. it made me feel that you will never be alone in the darker phases of life, that somebody saves, that something out of your comprehension will help you. put comprehension aside, belief is all that matters.

here in SG, she is known as Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.

when we visited italy last 2008, we found ourselves in front of the original image of the Perpetual Help. it wasn't planned and we just found it by accident. we met one filipino redemptorist priest who was there for an event. i felt so blessed.

this is my favorite line from one of the songs... "when the voyage is o'er, o
stand on the shore, and show him at last to me"

a day at the park

we went to the pasir ris park today.

the plan:

stroll as one big happy family - kuya, april, keyla, tita, mike, me. naks!

keyla to play on the playground.

caths and mike to do 30 min walk/run.

pasir ris park is a hidden gem. it's not that crowded like east coast park is. the place is clean and big. children could play, the whole family or barkada could do ihaw ihaw. lovers could stroll. others even go fishing, camping, biking. the park is this big:



interesting finds:

fishing. at times you get the big ones, at times the tiny ones, at times nothing at all. life goes on anyway. try again another day.



lush. i wish mother earth will always be abundant like this... that she may last a million years... that my children's children's children will be nurtured the same way.



pathways. and sunsets. all sunsets are beautiful.



bridges and water and plants.



run. running used to be a burden for me. now i find it therapeutic, just like mopping floors and walking alone.



sturdy. my God is as sturdy as this tree is. rain, lightning, scorching sun? nothing will harm me as long as my God is here. i admit i am frightened at times, but my God sustains and protects! amen!



lovers. yihee. i wish everybody finds his/her soulmate!



friendship. you know you are friends if you could sit all day and talk about everything and anything - and you don't get bored!



family. so heartwarming to see a family gathered together. i always look forward to weekends with family!



silver lining. there will always be one! always!



and more beautiful sunsets.



simplicity. a child's life is so simple. sleep when tired, cry when hungry, play when awake. makes me want to go back to
childhood but that is not the proper order of life! :p



solitude. inner and outer.



and the opposite of solitude, chaos. the chaos that is my hair. and pimple outbreak. argh.



and love! heard at rx today: a vampire will never go into your house/life unless you invite him. maybe love is like a vampire. let's always welcome love then! it will never come uninvited :)



ps:
muntik na
kaming
masagasaan
ng motor
dahil
sa cheesy
pose na ito
bow

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!