Grew Curry Plant from Seed

I've had a curry plant for a few years now. I was trying to buy lemongrass, but the garden nursery made a mistake and sold a curry plant to me. It's very tall now and has been producing berries. It usually just falls off or eaten by birds. 

The curry plant produced berries again, so I planted the seeds. I chose black ones, removed the flesh and placed them in 3 pots. Two pots of seeds without the flesh and one pot with whole berries. I covered the pots with cut plastic bottles to increase humidity and encourage the seeds to sprout. 

A few weeks later it started to sprout. 

I eventually removed the cover when it looked a bit stable. I also moved it with other plants I'm growing. I would water it sparingly to make sure the roots won't rot. Then it rained and it rained. I only got to check my plants again yesterday. 

The sprout has grown! It's now what I think you can call, a seedling! I'm happy since it was just an experiment to see if the berry seeds would grow. And from that experiment, only the seeds without the flesh grew. Nothing grew from those I planted whole. 

Ahh, new skill unlocked! Yay!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Remembering Ninoy

It happened a week before my birthday. I was only 7 years old, but I felt the tension and anxiety it brought. My parents required everyone to be home before sundown and they always gave reminders about the dangers of being outside. 

It was a chaotic time. I remember going to Fort Bonifacio where we paid our last respects. If I remember correctly, it was near the army hospital. When we went, the former president, Cory Aquino, and Kris were there. My Mom told me to be brave since it was my first time visiting a wake. 

Our family discussed current events everyday when we had dinner. It was through those chats I slowly began to understand what was happening and why we all had to be careful. The former senator, Ninoy Aquino, was the catalyst that helped overthrow the dictatorship. 

It's been 43 years since he died and sadly it looks  like we're back to square one. Corruption has not been eradicated, services for citizens not at par, and things just look really dismal. Are we just going to live this way forever?

#BeKind #StaySafe

Throwback Thursday: Cebu and Davao (2005)

If I remember correctly, 2005 was the first time I visited Davao. I was still working for the yellow pages back then and I traveled to train sales. They moved provinces every other week and I'd be shipped to see them wherever they were.

In August 2005, I chased them in Cebu and Davao. They were all bent to show me around since they deemed I was too sheltered (haha). In Cebu, they introduced me to the delicious BBQ and siomai in Fuente Osmena. I remember we also went to a bar where we went dancing. It wasn't really for me and I remember escaping with one of them. 

In Davao, they brought me to Eden and we ate at a buffet that only cost PhP100 each! It's been 21 years and my memories from that time are slowly fading away. I remember having so much fun with my colleagues and I actually felt more aligned with them. 

How I wish I had a good camera back then. The photos I have here were taken with a Nokia 6630. It was my first camera phone that was assigned by the company. Good thing I managed to back-up my photos and I still have some of the blurry photos of those fun times. 

I caught up with one of my colleagues through chat and she gave me an update on some of our colleagues. Sadly, two of the nicest ones passed away a few years ago. Most have transferred to other industries with some in controversies. Don't ask me about it since I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people. 

Happy days :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Parenting in this Crazy World

When I got up yesterday, the first news I saw was the horrifying incident in Zamboanga. I quickly said a prayer and watched news clips. 

My heart breaks for the parents of school age kids. The world is entirely different from what it was when my child was younger. I cannot imagine how we'd cope.

I spoke to my son briefly about what happened. I told him it was a good thing the internet wasn't as "sophisticated" as it is now. He agreed and gave a good insight.

He said it's not just the games that's causing it. He said there are groups/chats/topics that's influencing kids. He mentioned the word "manosphere". 

It's my first time to hear that term, so I asked what it was about. He gave me homework to read up about "Andrew Tate". He's supposedly the one who coined the term and is pretty controversial.

I did a little reading before writing this post. I realized, there's a lot I don't understand from the younger generation. Pretty much like how my parents were with me. I'll read more about it, but perhaps us parents need to communicate more and meddle in the lives of our child/children. My parents sure did.

Take care everyone and hold your love ones closer.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Started a New Project

Live had the fabric ina separate box for a year now and decided to bring it out to start the project. I did a similar one two years ago and it took two months to finish. 

I realized, piecing together one inch squares is backbreaking work. So I'm going to do this project differently.

Miggy helped me choose the right fabric colors and I'm now working on cutting fabric! I hope I'll finish it sooner than later!

I'm not doing this by square, so let's see how it goes!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Correcting Issues from the Childhood Home

Ondoy, 2009

While planning our future home, we made several lists:

• List of basic needs and must-haves
• Wish list
• Property red flags

The list discussion lasted a couple of years. It started as a rough draft and evolved to a final list when we also chose our architect. It was important to give our architect a list of issues we experienced while living in my childhood home.

• Flooding Issues
• Basement flooding - the water would come from the road at the back. It's lower than our frontage, plus the basement was lower than the road and there was no firewall between our house and the property at the back. Also, there would be times flood water would come in from the bathroom drain.
• The neighbor doesn't have a drain and their basement area gets flooded. They used to throw water over to the property behind them.
• Our ground floor never flooded, but when the creek overflows, the street gets flooded up to 2 feet. This only happened during Typhoon Ondoy and Yolanda. Mom's garden also only got flooded once during typhoon Ondoy.
• 
  Termites and other pests
• Our whole village gets infested with termites. I had my childhood home treated by pest control in the last decade. 
• There was a time we had a rat and roach infestation.
• And, snakes. 
• Burglary
• We had experienced burglary in the past. We've lost a couple of bicycles and some tools since they were not placed inside the house. Our neighbors have also reported some random burglaries happening in the past few years. 
• Heat
• The overall temperature of our home was tolerable when I was a child. It got very hot eventually when my parents made adjustments to the house.
• Also, back when the house was built, installing insulation wasn't really a thing. Mom had insulation added, but with the cross-ventilation affected, it was still very hot in the house. 

All of the past issues would be addressed. I think the biggest change we're doing is to raise the whole house by at least a meter. It's in consideration of climate change. We'll also be able to avoid getting the basement flooded as well with proper firewalls on all sides. It's been raining for more than 3 weeks now and the street in front of our future home hasn't flooded. I think our barangay has been working hard to clear all waterways. 

Stay safe and dry everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

An Important Lesson

It was Fr. Rene* who taught me a very important lesson from Pope John Paul II -

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