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!

early morning monologues

lahat ng items garantisadong oa. some lines that i want to say to someone, or lines that others would probably want to tell me:

- hindi mo ako alepores. wag mo akong utusan. please lang. kung gusto mo edi ikaw ang mag-ayos. :(

- move on na. ang daming bagay na kailangang gawin. hindi ito isa sa mga yun. try to save the world kaya? :(

- para kang anchor. heavygat sa kalooban. hindi lang sayo umiikot ang mundo. privilege nating lahat na ikutan ng mundo. :( at hindi nga pala umiikot ang mundo sa tao dahil kasama tayo sa pag-ikot nito :))

- life is like halloween. you get a good scare from time to time. don't worry. they're just manmade skeletons. :)

- you kept me in the dark for 5 years. now shake off all the dust and move it move it! :)

- i thought i like barbie and cars. cars na lang pala. :))

- hanggang ngayon ganun pa rin? hello! 2012 na. patapos na nga ang 2012 e. nagbago na ang status ng lahat ng bagay. :-/

- i used to be a bee. then things happened.

o diba oa? ganun talaga :))

dependence

the telephone is such a marvelous invention :)  my first encounters with it involved calls of only "important matters".  we didn't have a phone in the 80s.  if we wanted to relay important messages to our parents, who were working at their offices, we had to go to the neighbor's house to make calls.  that was the only use of the telephone until we had our own phone line.  papa went a bit crazy and had extension lines installed - in all the 3 bedrooms!

my first telebabad-mate was my cousin, irish.  that was some time around the early 90s.  they were living in bf and our house was in sto. nino.  we talked about the most wonderful things in the world.  what we'll do when we next see each other, are we going to ride the bike, or make snow out of styrofoam, are we going to the roof to sprinkle snow.  these were the best things in life! :)

then came high school.  there was a perfect balance in life.  there was a time for school, a time for doing assignments, and a time for telebabad.  topics included assignments, crushes, laugh trip.  i remember that we even had a codename for i-can't-talk-right-now-someone-could-hear-me!  the codename is "malamok" hahaha!  it's funny because it really was (and is still) malamok in our house.  we even did impersonations of romy diaz over the phone.  crazy days.  my lola would just give me stares of disapproval.

college was also a telebabad era, but it was more of kwentuhan galore instead of school work.  the topics were less crazy, more of pangdalagang stories.  and we were not contented with 2 people talking at a time.  we would have conference calls - so we could all talk together as a group!  as if we didn't have enough time together at school!  i talked with my girl friends, boy friends, and my ex boyfriend.  yihee.  ala-ala ng telebabad.  there was a lot of laughter.  there were buckets of tears.  aba'y kung makakareklamo nga lang siguro ang telepono.

the telephone was the most important means of communication until the mobile phones came.  in the sinaunang days, when you wanted to meet with someone, you call them up, arrange a meeting place and time, and just show up.  life was too simple.  people just magically show up at the meeting place.  now, meetings are arranged - and cancelled - at the very last minute.  "text text na lang," is everybody's favorite phrase.  i think it somehow gave the people an extra option to not show up.

during the early life of mobile phones in the philippines, call time was reduced big time because calls were too expensive.  the telebabad was transformed to a karera.  pabilisang masabi ang kailangan mong masabi!  if you could do it in less than a minute then it's perfect!  these days, libre na ulit ang magtelebabad sa mobile phones, but i got used to the notion that mobile phone calls are luxury calls.  do people still do telebabad?

aside from calls, i now have a complete dependence on my mobile phone.  recipes, calculator, dictionary, sms, radio, research, edit docs, emails, photos, directions.  lahat na!  what used to be available in libraries are now readily available on your fingertips with just a few finger taps.  it's good.  it's bad.  i love that you no longer have an excuse for being ignorant.  you won't get lost, you will always have answers.  that's good.  i hate that i am not forced to think too hard now that i could always verify online.  my brain is not working overtime because it knows that it doesn't have to store too much information now.  the magic phone could do it for you.  that's bad.

i feel lucky.  i am a witness to the magical transition of communication means. 

• no landline
• landline
• mobile phone free SMS
• mobile phone P1 per SMS
• dial-up internet
• WAP on mobile phones
• wifi internet
• smart phones that give you everything that's good and bad

if this is not transition, then i don't know what is.  shucks.  i feel old :))))

for donna and leny

1 batch for leny, 1 batch for donna and caloy

every cupcake batch has a story :)

this is a late present.  i have all the time in the world now!  i can bake, i can blog, i can walk again! 

belated happy birthday to donna & caloy and leny.

scribbles made of purple, orange, red colored cream cheese frosting.

originally, i wanted to make paisley designs.  pero dahil hindi ko alam ang tawag sa paisley kanina, i didn't know what to google.  in my head, i know it's the design we find in scarves, but i don't remember what they're called.  i thought it sounds like prairie, so i googled prairie.  kaso lang aso pala yun.  hahaha.  it's a good thing i didn't remember "paisley" kasi ang hirap palang gawin.  hahaha so sige scribbles na lang ulit.

next time, i'll try pastel colors... and paisleys! :)

for ahngel

for _____ ahngel

every cupcake batch has a story :)

i ran out of chocolate chips.  so colored frosting na lang.  

designs:

• checked
• swirly flowers
• time-space-warp-looking substance.  if design attempts go wrong, ang tanging remedyo na lang ay gulu-guluhin na lang ang design :)))

happy birthday, ahngel.  this batch is memorable.  there was a barter of cupcakes and good news. :)

for maria and ate a

1 batch for ate a, 1 batch for maria
happy birthday, girls!

every cupcake batch has a story :)

i told maria that i have a birthday gift for her, and that i wanted to give it to her.  we met during lunch break and i handed it to her.  she seemed happy :) i told her that because i am poor, all that i could afford to give is my effort.  sniff sniff.  pang famas.  hehehe.

red velvet, cream cheese frosting, pink and white sprinkles, melted chocolates for the scribbles.  i don't know what i was trying to do with the things at the top and bottom of "happy".  ginulo-gulo ko na lang tuloy.  hehehe.

for aldwin

kuya's midnight birthday cupcakes (for last july 13)

every cupcake batch has a story :)

kuya loves chocolates.

this is the 2nd time i baked this recipe.  first time was practice - a week before this occasion hehe.

chocolate cupcake, chocolate filling, chocolate ganache.  oa naman siguro kung white chocolate pa ang pang lettering?  so i made a tiny bit of buttercream.  i am aiming at light purple, but it turned out to be an awkward shade of white.

i also can't explain why i made a flower design for the piece that holds the candle.  witty ba?  pang boy?  hehehe

random thoughts

* it's a lazy sunday afternoon.

* feelings: liberated! excited! anxious! hopeful! scared! happy!

* if you can do it, why can't i? yes, i'll do it too!

* i can hear birds chirping. i feel so at
peace.

* convincing myself that...

* i'm happy with my new vegetable diet. this time, meat becomes the side dish and vegetables take the center stage.

* elmo's done = almost done (keyla lingo)

* i had a good walk last friday. it's a tranquil walk.

* i was born to cram.

* i thought i was immature. then i met you. i'm not immature after all :)

mike's august visit

late, late post :(

mike visited me on my birthday.  this was his first visit after he went home.  all good :)  too bad he didn't make it in time for my birthday dinner.  food was great, courtesy of chef aldwin :)

on my way to the airport, i saw these candles.  they celebrate the hungry ghost festival here.  candles abound :)

the next day, we went to ICA for mike's long term visit pass renewal.  it went by so smoothly.  he got his ID that same day.

so we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted to do!

here is mike enjoying his hokien mee.  our fave!

 

at the bonsai garden while thinking of somewhere we could go to:

we finally decided to go to the asian civilisations museum.  here are some good finds:

a model of a mosque

"women are a ray of divine light," it says

the sarimanok from the philippines!

the quran

i like the background!

 

keep on searching for the light!

it was a fun day!

gratitude

more than a month after my 32nd birthday.  i guess it's never too late to say thank you for being blessed.  they say you should not be sad for what you do not have, instead you should be happy for what you do have. :)

gestures, effort, material gifts from friends and family - for all of these, i am grateful.  i feel loved.  i feel special.  above all, i am thankful for the gift of 32 years of good health and good life.  a song comes to mind - something about life being borrowed from God, about you and me being presents, about not ever wanting to be born, but nevertheless being grateful that we are gifted with life.

dear jan,
thank you for the books.  i haven't started reading them yet.  soon i will!  i had a good laugh when i saw the excel bible.  hahaha!  very fitting for us who excel in excel (thus the need for a guide hehe).  i especially loved the greeting card/artwork!  i'm 100% sure it won't fade or get crumpled.  it's laminated!  ikaw na ang pinakabonggang gumawa ng greeting cards!  i love it!  thank you for the generosity.  i will forever be thankful for the gift of friendship.

dear april,

thank you for my midnight birthday cake, despite having a hectic life juggling motherhood and livelihood (naks).  i loved the frosting.  it tastes so sinful.  i believe that sinful = good in terms of baking.  hehehe.  special mention to keyla for putting the freckles (aka sprinkles).  cheers to more years of baking!

here's the sugod gang on the eve of my birthday.  they came bearing good cake.  keyla did the honors of blowing the candle. 

dear chef aldzwen,

thank you for the sumptuous dinner!  you never fail!  you should start building a restaurant!  menu was taco salad and chicken quesadillas.  ariba!  thanks for the mexican dinner.  i loved it!  i know there's a beef ban in this house, but because it's my birthday, beef galore :) food was great!

mike arrived on the evening of the 17th.  he brought birthday presents and a mountain of imported goods from the philippines.  his suitcase could pass for a sari-sari caravan :p

dear mike,

thank you for celebrating my birthday with me.  thank you for the watch.  i love the color.  one day, we'll buy the "his" version of this "hers" watch :) thank you for the pasalubongs.  century tuna, purefoods corned beef, tj hotdog, chiz whiz, boy bawang, bangus belly, tang, magic sarap, etc.  ang dami! yehey! 

dear ate yogi,
thank you for the pearl earrings.  i love the simplicity of little pearls.  they don't sparkle like gold or diamonds, but they look elegant and simple.

dear mama,
thank you for the blouses.  you are very good in size estimation :)  i have new blouses and dresses! yey!

dear UBS teammates,

thank you very much for this cake :) thank you for the video that you prepared. thank you for sharing 5 years of my work life :)

dear Father,

for all of these, and more, thank you! thank you for always giving me the promise of a better tomorrow.  i am looking forward to more years of love and life. help me to fulfill your plans. 

love,

your daughter

lola's favorite dish

lolas nowadays are so groovy and trendy they're like barkadas with their apos. you get to have a lolo/lola + a kakuchaba in your kalokohan. that's cool, i know, but i am proud to say that i grew up with a traditional lola.

she's the type of lola who got stern when you didn't take your afternoon nap. she knew how to wash clothes. i mean the serious, clean wash. kusot nang todo, bilad sa araw, tatlong banlaw, may almerol pa, at stiff like hell after ng plantsa. she believed that washing machine isn't washing the clothes; it's simply twirling the clothes around.

she told me tales of her childhood, how she survived the war, and how she was deprived of education. God is fair. while she lacked academic skills, she was gifted with embroidery skills, and she used this to make a living. they made pillow cases, bed sheets, dresses pretty by manually sewing designs on them.

she knew how to read and write, do simple math, pray the rosary, and she knew how to run her household. it was enough to keep her going when she started a family with lolo, who worked in restaurants as a cashier.

lola knew her house and her kitchen. pamatay ang mechado! at lahat na ng filipino dishes na hinahanap-hanap ng panlasa mo.

but this is what i really want to share. despite her excellence in the kitchen, lola had a simple heart. her favorite dish was bunga ng malunggay na isasawsaw sa bagoong isda. lolo used to tell her, "bakit ba masayang masaya ka kapag yan ang ulam?" wow lolo! medyo bitter pag happy si lola?! hahaha

pic 1:
i was at the clinic while waiting for the doctor. medyo dyaheng mag-abang na may bunga ng malunggay na katabi hahaha. sabi nga ni lola, "wala kang ka glamor glamor!"

pic 2:
caths sporting a pink pouch and plastic bag with bunga ng malunggay. sabi nga ni lola, "wala kang ka glamor glamor!"

pic 3:
bunga ng malunggay, onions, tomatoes, malunggay leaves, some
bagoong, patis. boil and eat while hot. yan ang glamor!