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!

Fire!

I was at Ateneo yesterday at the Tech Tanod training when my long time Kuya pinged me on Facebook. He said there was a huge fire in our village and that the Parish Convento was partially affected. Good thing no one was affected.

I was shocked.

It was the first time in my entire life that I heard about a fire in our village (I've lived here since birth). I have heard of incidents within our barangay but not inside our village. It made me antsy since we were far away from home when I was told about it and I really have this crazy fear of fire (yes even matches and candles). I think that phobia started when I watched Firestarter when I was a kid.

Anyway, my friend said that the fire spread quickly and since it was windy it immediately affected the Parish Convento. Good thing there were quite a number of people in Church attending a BEC meeting and they helped save the house and Convento and prevented the fire from spreading. Tulungan talaga my friend said (he is also btw a barangay kagawad). He also said that the priests were okay and that their vehicles were saved, except for Fr. Lito's car because the roof was singed.

The location of the house and Parish Convento is our regular route. We passed by it last night on the way home. The house was totally damaged. The only thing saved was the tarpaulin that hung on the gate. It was hard to see the damage on the Parish Convento. Will probably see it when we hear mass later.

Thank God only material things were damaged and everyone's safe.

I'm pretty sure that the priests and family needs help. If you are interested to send help (hey Sun Valley neighbors!), please direct them to:

Fr. Ramon Ramos, C.P.
Parish Priest
Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish
4068 Bougainville St.
Sun Valley Subdivision, Paranaque City
Or call +632-8231210

Dugo-Dugo Gang

When I was a kid we were victimized by the dugo-dugo gang. My Yaya Men (nickname for Carmen) got a call and was told that my parents met an accident and needed money. Since she didn't have any cash on her she was instructed to bring whatever appliance she could get her hands on. She then went out of the house and met the guy at the labasan and turned over our VHS player. It was our most expensive appliance in the 80s and it came from my Ate who lived in the US.

Last week we saw written on the homeowners association a warning that the dugo-dugo gang has been focusing on our village. My Mom briefed our helper about it before she went on vacation. Just two days after my parents left our helper got a call and was told that Jay (my husband) was in a car accident with his Mom in Makati. I found out about this when she called me up right after the call. She sounded very harassed when she relayed the message to me.

I had to have her tell the story twice because she was really rattled. I told her then to calm down and not to worry because Jay was okay (he was right beside me) and that their car was actually parked in our garage.

The day after early in the morning our helper noticed that there was somebody outside the house. The guy looked like he was stalking the place. She immediately went inside and locked up and asked the neighbor to check if the guy was still around. At around lunchtime she got another call from the dugo-dugo gang and got the same story. She didn't panic anymore since she realized that it was the same guy who called the day before.

Unbelievable. While so many people are working hard to earn a living these criminals continue to scour and victimize homeowners. It's sad to see that more than 2 decades later since we were victimized they are still around.

Stingray

Don't let that pa-cute stingray look fool you because that animal looked at me, grinned, and promptly flapped its wings to wet me!

And this is its huge smile after. Rawrrrrrr!

This happened at the Underwater World at Sentosa, Singapore. Hmph! The stingrays at the Manila Ocean Park are much nicer. Hmph!

One Month

What can I say, Sweetie and I have been married for more than a month now. When we realized this a week ago (last January 26), Sweetie said, "Wow! We survived!" I agreed because:


(1) I travel a lot but I have lived in the same home since birth. 
(2) I don't cook and I don't really know how to cook (I'm just all-theory!).
(3) I never really had any household chores save for washing dishes once in awhile. 


So you can just imagine how apprehensive I was about moving. Caring for my own family. And living with someone who is 100x more O-C than me. My Mom was apprehensive about the last point since she likes everything neat too. She tried to mold me properly, but she just eventually gave up when she realized that I have my own way of organizing things.


We "cheated" a lot in the first few weeks. We ate loads of leftovers (good thing we had lots of family get-togethers). We had our laundry done at my Mom's when our washing machine went wild (perfect excuse that it had to be repaired). Ironing was also done by my Mom's helper. Miguel stayed over with my Mom until his cousins all went back to the States and Jakarta. So Sweetie and I just basically had to worry about fixing the house and things just fell into place when we had our tiny home blessed.


So it's just me, Sweetie and Miguel now. My parents left yesterday for a long vacation. The leftovers have been long gone and I have been trying my hand at cooking. Started with adobo, then afritada and a lot of fried and sauteed stuff (prepared dishes and canned goods).  I have 2 knife cuts though from slicing veggies, but it's okay, I think it's part of the learning process. We have also managed to tame our washing machine with help from Samsung (great customer service!). Ironed Miguel's uniform last weekend (I should watch more YT vids about it).


Misis na misis ba?