Heat Exhaustion

Summer came really early this year. We started feeling it last January when we usually use blankets until middle of February. The past two weeks have been unbearable hot and I've really tried to stay out of the sun.

Last Sunday though I had the misfortune of being under the sun for a few minutes. It was midday and we were at the parking lot at The Fort. I stayed under a tree while waiting for Sweetie and his Dad fix some stuff in the car. It was unbearably hot so I put a towel on my head. After awhile we had lunch, but experienced the heat again when we walked back to the car (why doesn't The Fort have shaded walkways anyway?). (I should've brought an umbrella!).

Things started going bad on the way home. I felt dizzy and very hot even with the car aircon. Immediately dressed up in cooler clothes when we got home and turned the aircon on. I still felt very hot and felt that heat was trapped inside my body. It was a terrible feeling and I eventually lost my lunch. I felt a bit better after that but still felt nauseous. I wasn't able to hear mass too since my body felt really heavy.

In the evening I did some research on Google and found out that I was probably experiencing heat exhaustion. I got scared since people with heart problems are more prone to it. It took more than a day, lots of water and rest before I felt well.

I usually bring a water bottle with me whenever I go out. I guess the heat is just really unbearable (PAGASA has recorded the past week to be the hottest in the past 40 years!) and it's better to stay indoors (not even under the shade, but INDOORS) until the rainy season sets in.

So much for going to the beach. Sniff.

7-Elections

One thing about the elections that fascinates me is that it breeds creativity. Candidates would sell themselves in many different ways, forms and means. Some are cute, most are just plain annoying and because of that I've developed the skill of muting the TV in Flash Gordon speed.

I've so far refused to attend any election related-event, especially FGD's with candidates. I'd like to remain impartial and since Senator Jovito Salonga ran for president I never supported anyone else. My choice, my vote will remain a secret. I am still mulling over whether I would make a post and how I will choose and hopefully I'd get to do the Google Squared I've been planning the past few months.

I've been closely monitoring the level of interest of internet users though on presidential and vice-presidential candidates. I do this through "Insights for Search". It's a great way to check out who people are interested in at a given period of time. Here's a sample of searches done using the names of 5 presidentiables in the last 12 months. Notice how Villar bumped up in January, perhaps because of the gazillion of ads he has everywhere.



The above chart is based on searches on Google. 7-Eleven recently launched their project called `7-Elections'. It's essentially where people who purchase their Gulp beverage can choose their presidentiable based on the cup they purchase. The cups have barcodes that would record the choice and tracking can be monitored through the 7-Elections site. One cool thing I'm looking forward to is the fact that 7-Eleven will embed the points on a Google Maps overlay (woohoo!).

Here are the cups that's expected to hit 7-Eleven stores starting March 10, 2010.

And here's Ate Glow doing a really funny rendition of "Bongga Ka Day". 

Housewarming

I just realized it's been awhile since I made a post about hanging out with blogger-friends.

We recently had our first housewarming party and we did this with friends. We were quite nervous since we had help from both our parents during the house blessing and we didn't cook anything that time. For this party we prepared the following:

my spaghetti
Indonesia brew coffee
salad (strangely tasted like carbonara)
soda
rice
banana

Our friends brought a lot of food (Jayvee did most of the shopping):

pizza
chicharon and chicharon bulaklak
lechon kawali
mocha roll (my favorite!)
ice cream (3 flavors!)
white wine
and Juned's Pickfresh dalanghita drink (uber yum!)

We all first hung out at the sala. Markku fixed up the wifi connection so everyone can be online.

Markku, Andrew, Hana, Sha, Gail, Winston, Jay the Hubby,

Karla, Juned and Marc (not in photo are Jayvee, Fritz, Poyt)

And then had a poetry reading... err... blog reading. Andrew did the reading and he was quite out of breath. It was really hilarious (see Gail can't stop laughing!).

We moved to the garage for dinner. After eating Jayvee brought out his toy. I don't quite remember the name of the game, I just remember though that the word of the night was "Bang".

Dunno what Markku was doing here. Hrhrhr.

And the special surprise was... a box of Lachi's sansrival!

Thanks guys for warming up our home!

Domesticated Goddess

I wonder what March has in store for me. January and February passed in a blur since it was filled with activities and new adventures! I don't know how I managed to fit in a trip to Singapore, Tagaytay and Davao in those two months. I also remember smoking up three things at home: Sweetie's vacuum cleaner (only because it was in storage for the longest time), our electric stove (first time to turn it on!) and our sink. I hope that since it's the last month of the quarter I don't smoke up anything else.

The past 2 months flew by because of all the changes since I got married. I didn't really notice New Year (because I was sulking over my "lost passport") and Valentine's, I guess because I have been on cloud nine. What has drastically changed though is the fact that my lifestyle has totally changed. Sweetie pointed this out to me yesterday. He said, "Isn't it before we married you usually go out for lunch and then take naps on Sunday afternoons?" Yup, those were the happy days when I lived with my parents. 

One of the things I dreaded about getting married is chores. I always wondered how my Mom managed to cope in the past 50 years she's been married. She did things without any effort (well except cooking) and didn't have to consult my Dad on a lot of things. While I usually consult the hubby and if doesn't know anything about it I ask friends or turn to Google and Youtube for tips and tricks. Thank God for the internet!

It's funny really how we started our new home with boxes all over the place. We slept on the floor for a few nights until we realized we had a bed frame and just need to buy a mattress! Then we fed on canned goods and leftovers for a few weeks. Experienced a dancing washing machine. Eliminated 98% of cockroaches. Had a pesky domestic problem. Cat problems. And the list goes on, but I can proudly say I am on my way to becoming a domesticated goddess. Something that my best friends, Darwin, Anne and Tappy, never imagined would happen. They will probably do cartwheels when they see this post. 

People change and it really depends on one's priorities. 

Two Months

The past two months have been a blur and have been filled with challenges. What is remarkable though is the fact that I have acquired new skills!

I learned how to cook on my own! (I was always assisted by a helper before).

My first cooking attempt literally went up in smoke. I was supposed to cook some sinangag but the electric stove blew out white smoke so we immediately unplugged it and put it outside. We didn't know that was normal so it took a week before we tried again. A week after I tried my hand on frying Maling. Easy huh? But it was a nerve wracking experience for me and I had Sweetie supervise me in case I panicked. This went on a couple of times until I was comfortable enough to cook on my own.

Eventually we leveled-up and joined the Cuisinera Club cooking class! Since the dishes that were being prepared were for Valentine's the chef chose us to help her out because we were newlyweds! I accidentally cut my finger the night before (second time that week), so Sweetie took over the slicing chores and I sauteed the salad dressing. It was fun and gave me the confidence to try out more dishes. (And special thanks to Dona Elena  for the olive oil, black and green olives and sardines care package!). We're also cooking everything using olive oil (more healthy yay!).

We've also conquered our washing machine after it was repaired by Samsung (thanks for being efficient!). Apparently the travel guard was supposed to be taken out by Abenson when it was delivered. The non-removal caused the loud vibrations and disco-grooving that our washing machine did when we used it. Took a few weeks though before we started using it since we were gone for almost 2 weeks. Doing the laundry now is a breeze! And Sweetie has color coordinated my sampayan!   

And another milestone I am happy to note is the fact that I have somehow learned how to iron! I've been doing it instinctively though, but I think I've improved a bit. I will likely try to hone my skills better by watching some Youtube videos. I just keep forgetting to do so.

Oh yes I am so far happy doing all these house chores. I hate cleaning up though because it usually triggers my asthma. Good thing Sweetie loves doing this so he does it most of the time.

A New Header

I've been meaning to change my header for a couple of months now but I just couldn't find the right inspiration... until yesterday!

I wanted though to change the colors to yellow. My favorite color when I started writing. Unfortunately though I just couldn't find the right mix so I'm sticking to my old colors for now (go La Salle! hrhrhr). Also added the line "a new adventure" with the title since I'm onto a new chapter in my life. I'm now married (yup for almost 2 months now!) and you've probably read some of the funny stuff that's been happening in my new household.

Anyway... bite the apple!

Run for Your Life!!!

Two Saturdays ago I met this awesome guy. When I saw him he was showing off a screenshot of his cover on Men's Health. I wasn't really minding it because I was so fascinated with his hair!!!

Meet Coach Rio.

Cool hair lah? 

Sweetie and I were wondering where all the other bloggers were because we didn't know most of the people seated on our table. Apparently we were a minority because the other guests were fitness bloggers! Eeeeep! 

Now, what were we doing in a running event launch? Well, we received an invitation from Yehey.com and thought it would be nice to come out of our nest since we haven't really attended any event for the past couple of months (six actually). 

The guy with the really cool hair is Coach Rio. Coach Rio is probably the most popular (and famous) runner and running coach (he's coached Piolo Pascual, Derek Ramsey among others). Anyway, he gave an overview about a running event sponsored by Unilab on March 7, 2010. My doctor has advised me not to do any strenuous activity so it's my boys (Jay and Miguel) who will be running at this event. It's going to be their first so they are doing some home training now. I will be at the sidelines cheering them on.

Get more information about this event at the Unilab Wellness site.

Snake Encounters

The only encounter I'd want to have with snakes is the "TV-kind" but unfortunately our home's located beside a creek so I've had hair-raising encounters with them.

The car door snake

Back in the 80s majority of cars didn't have airconditioners and my Dad's bulky Mercedes Benz didn't have one either so whenever we used it we had the windows open. My Mom used to drive it around too whenever she had meetings and one day brought it around Fort Bonifacio, parked it under a tree and left the window open a bit.

The next day I was really excited since my parents were going to bring me to school. I was just in first grade and took the school bus most of the time, but that day my parents decided to bring me to school. When we opened the car the stench of something rotting surprised us. Out fell a dead snake after opening one of the doors. My Mom probably didn't notice it when she shut the door the day before. Good thing though that the door caught it since the snake was poisonous.

The kitchen cabinet snake

Back when I was a junior in high school we had carpentry class and one of the assignments we had was to make a lamp. Most of my classmates blew up their lamps so I decided to get some help from my Mom's carpenter at home. One of the cabinets held our tools so I opened it up to get some stuff but was surprised by a silver snake that was ready to strike. I was really fast though and shut the cabinet immediately. I also immediately scooted up the kitchen table. We never found the snake and I wonder if it's still somewhere in the house (it's probably dead LOL).

The car wheel snake


It was raining hard during my graduate school graduation. We brought my Dad's car that day but it was wonky so we decided to park it outside of the house. We couldn't move the car anymore after parking it because it wouldn't start anymore. The rain was coming down in torrents and it took awhile before we got off the car and got in the house. The next day we were surprised to see our neighbors looking at the back wheel of the car. I thought there was something wrong but was surprised to see a snake under the wheel. It was tan and had diamond spots and a triangular head. The wheel probably saved my son from being bitten by the snake.

Other snake encounters


Snake skin. Once found snake skin in the backyard. It must've come from a really fat snake.

Zoo snakes. I guess everyone's seen those.

To Date or Not to Date Your Best Friend

There's a hot topic over at the Toblerone Pilipinas fan page - would you date your best friend?

My Mom told me when I was younger that I should marry my best friend. And I guess that was one of the reasons why it took me a long time to settle down. The right one had to be my best friend.

Dating one's best friend is something you should do with a lot of thought. I lost a best friend this way, but looking back I can surmise that it was probably the right love at the wrong time. We were still kids back then and I just didn't feel comfortable about having my future planned out before I turned 20. I realized the loss a decade later when I kept meeting bad guys. I just prayed then (to St. Jude!) that I meet the right one.

It took years but I never lost hope. I had a lot of guy friends, but the slot for "guy best friend" was empty for several years already. Eventually I met Sweetie and our friendship progressed naturally. He was actually the one who said that I was his best friend, so I thought that he'd make a great "guy best friend". I was very careful though about entertaining thoughts on dating him because of the "wedding dream". I prohibited myself from wishful thoughts and that kept me sane.

A couple of months later Sweetie asked permission if he could court me. It was around 2 in the morning during that time and I guess I wasn't very lucid (hahaha). I decided to skip the ligawan and get it on already. Why? Because I didn't want to go through the awkward stuff that goes with courtship.

I think though that several things contributed to the success of our relationship: (1) we were at the right age; (2) our friendship was already solid; and (3) our love was born out of friendship, not because it was a need or want. Take note though that dating your best friend doesn't mean it's going to be perfect. You still have to work things out.

To date or not to date your best friend? I say, take the risk. If he's really your best friend then if it doesn't work out your friendship would survive.

David Benoit in Manila (2010)

David Benoit killed my piano career. Seriously.

When my piano teacher shifted my studies to jazz she introduced me to David Benoit. I wasn't unfamiliar with his music since it was played often at home when I was a kid. When my piano teacher handed me his book and asked me to study playing "Kei's Song" I realized that David Benoit's music is meant to be listened to. I just managed the first few bars of the song and that was the end of my piano studies. Hopefully Miguel will take it on and conquer David Benoit.

Sweetie surprised me with tickets to David Benoit's concert. We were really excited and listened to his songs most of the day. Evening came and we headed to PICC to attend the one-night only event. Found our seats and didn't have to wait long for the show to start.

AWESOME. The concert was full of surprises. I was amazed at how David Benoit played the piano. His fingers was all over the keyboard and they were really, really fast. My finger dexterity is probably 1/100th of David Benoit's. I would never have been able to play any of his songs (except for the really slow parts haha). I was also surprised with the spirited way he conducted the Filharmonika orchestra. I don't remember the title of the song, but it was very rich and sounded like it was a theme for a Disney movie. David Benoit also played his other hits, "Stages", "Freedom at Midnight", "Kei's Song" among others and a couple of songs he said he debuted here locally the last time he was here (7 years ago). And he played Michael Jackson's "Human Nature".

Anyway, I had so much fun watching the concert. I took a video of the encore song, unfortunately though I'm still trying to figure out how to download it from my N1 (me iz slow hehehe). Here's a video of "Freedom at Midnight" by someone seated nearby:



Too bad I couldn't find any videos (yet) of Bituin Escalante's performance at the show. She totally fabulous!