Friends

We had a surprise birthday celebration for a friend's 50th birthday. It was a heartwarming get together with friends I grew up with.

I always look forward to our get togethers. Even though it doesn't happen often, we usually just pick up where we left off. That's what decades of friendship entails.

During his thank you speech, my friend said he suspected something was going to happen. He was told to wear running clothes because that's where the family was doing this afternoon. He thought there might be a get together with us since we're all in the same area. He was surprised to see relatives from far away and his colleagues. It was a big happy surprise. 

Happy birthday, Denz! We hope you enjoy our gift!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Rainy Gardening Days

It's been raining a lot in the past few days and it's been hard to figure out whether to add water to the plants or not. Our pocket garden looks like a jungle now because the plants had a growth spurt. 

Well, some plants continue to bloom even though it's raining. My new gumamela plants have been blooming every week. The new marigold plants were fine for a few weeks, but it hasn't adjusted well. I need to read up more about caring for marigold plants.

Surprisingly, the kalachuchi (desert rose) continues to bloom. I thought it would somehow hibernate since it prefers sunny days. I guess the chicken manure I added last summer is still providing it vitamins to make more flowers. The bonsai ones though are healthy but not flowering. 

I'm still amazed by the caladiums that just grew suddenly. We moved some empty pots from Mom's garden and apparently those pots had caladium bulbs in it. They just suddenly grew when it started raining. Not only that, they also grew much bigger than I expected! They are so lovely to look at and I always smile when I see them because it's also called "Heart of Jesus". 

The dark side of the rainy season are seasonal pests. We've been battling caterpillars that have been feasting on our calamansi plants. They had eaten about half of the leaves. The plants luckily bounced back, but the caterpillars keep coming back even though I've been spraying Neem oil mixture twice a week. What has helped is watering the soil with hydrogen peroxide which helps kill larvae. Oh well, we'll just need to be more vigilant.

When the weather clears, we'll also trim the plants. The grow spurt has been exponential with just a week of continuous rain. At least our rain drums are always full. It helps us keep the plants hydrated especially during water interruptions. 

How's your garden doing?

#BeKind #StaySafe

Made Chicken Paprikash Again

Chicken Paprikash is a dish that was suggested to me by an aunt a few years ago. I was looking for tomato and cream based dishes to cook at home. This one though uses sour cream instead of all purpose cream. I just researched about it and found out it's fairly easy to make. 

I'm honestly not familiar with Hungarian cuisine, so trying this was an adventure. We all liked it and it's now part of my list of dishes to make at home. It's so delicious!

Here's how I made it -

For full recipe, visit https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/07/recipes-for-my-son-chicken-paprikash.html

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Goodbye and Thank You Harbourfront Centre

We lived at Harbourfront in Singapore for 4 years. We frequented both Vivo City and Harbourfront Centre since that's where my bus stop was located. At the end of the day, Sweetie and I would usually meet up there to buy food at the hawker center before going home. 

We heard that Harbourfront Centre permanently closed on July 27 (early this week). We were sad to hear about it since it was part of our daily life for so many years. We enjoyed going there because it's a compact mall which has a bit of everything. 

We would have quick meals there, sometimes merienda at Toastbox. We loved going there since it has a view of the water. I remember we frequented a resto on the second floor (I just can't remember the name!) and a food court with Filipino food. And we'd sometimes do a McDonald's sundae run at midnight since it was open for 24 hours. It was also the only place we knew where you can buy Dunkin' donuts. 

Harbourfront Centre would often times have special events near the entrance. Sometimes it would be kitchen stuff, books, clothing etc. I remember it had a store that sold purely socks! There was definitely a wide variety of things you can see and buy. 

January 2020

It also had a branch of the Raffles Clinic which proved to be very useful for us. That's where we went whenever one of us got sick. It's also where I got a referral for the doctor who discovered my PE. The funny thing is we never tried riding a ferry from Harbourfront Centre, haha. 

It's just sad to hear about Harbourfront Centre closing. I heard they're going to demolish the whole building and replace it with something better. I tried to look for more photos from the place, but I just have a few and a very blurred photo from one of our McDonald's runs. 

April 2020 during the pandemic

Thank you Harbourfront Centre. You are one of the places in Singapore that brings me fond memories :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

The Big Change

A few months ago, a family member of a heart patient asked if people change after heart surgery. She shared that her husband changed a lot after surgery. He was withdrawn, impatient, sometimes mean and basically didn't want to do anything. 

I thought about it and shrugged it off. It took a while for me to recover after OHS, but I went back to work and traveled a lot. I felt "normal" for the next 5 years and then I had my first pulmonary embolism. 

It's been months since I read that post on a patient group I'm part of. The feedback from other patients and family members were quite extreme. Some even ended up in divorce. I only realized the past week that I changed after OHS. The change was only more significant leading up to my first PE. 

I used to be able to pull all-nighters and had bottomless energy, but since OHS I wasn't the same physically and I eventually started to pull back. After OHS I became scared of crowds. I wasn't stable and could easily fall. I had accidents and lost my balance once on an escalator in the airport. Good thing I landed forward onto my luggage. 

The biggest change happened the year leading up to the discovery of the clot in my lungs. I had breathing issues and had a hard time sleeping. I didn't really want to bother anyone and easily became a recluse. My body became significantly weaker, I couldn't even place my backpack on the airplane overhead storage anymore. 

When I can, I skipped outings, parties, dinner, get-togethers especially when it requires a lot of walking. I used to enjoy meeting up with friends, but it's become too tiresome for me. It doesn't help that I'm an introvert, so my social battery is depleted really fast nowadays. 

So yes, I guess major medical issues can change a person. So...

#BeKind #StaySafe

Black Cat Project Progress

When I started the project I thought it would be easy. I thought I'd finish it in a day or two. What I forgot to take in consideration was the time needed to add the eyes, nose and attaching the tail, haha. I also have chores and make time to play with our cats, so I work on it when I can. 

Working with different fabrics also took time since  I had to measure each one properly. Here's how it's going -

Of course, the tail -

I honestly still have a hard time sewing on the curves. I read though you can use hemostat scissors to help hold down and move the fabric while sewing. I'll dig up my Mom's pair to try that trick. I pinned my finger again while sewing the curved areas, haha. 

I can't wait to finish the project!

#BeKind #StaySafe

What Happened to Our Dab Water Pump

We were happy with our Dab water pump. It was newly installed when we moved into our house five years ago. Together with it was a Bestank water tank that tided us over whenever there were water interruptions. Maintenance was easy and we only called for service once in the last five years. We also had a filter installed to reduce the need to have the water tank cleaned*. We were happy campers.

Until... we noticed all our faucets kept spouting hot water. We thought it was our Bhagwan heater, so we turned it off. The water was still very hot and it made us anxious because hot water can melt pipes. It would be a huge disaster if that happened. I did a quick Google search and figured out it was our water pump causing the issue. Sweetie immediately turned it off and we used Maynilad directly until the Bestank service crew could come over. 

The crew they sent was very knowledgeable. They confirmed it was the pump that was causing the hot water because the primer dried up. They said the primer probably dried up because of the water interruptions. We had interruptions often last summer and we honestly had no idea you have to add water to the pump whenever that happens. 

They declared we can have the pump repaired. It needed 3 parts to be replaced and it'd cost PhP18,000, BUT, we'd have to wait 3 months for the parts to be imported. Sweetie and I discussed what to do and with El Nino affecting all of us, it would be problematic if we're unable to have water (I'm immuno-compromised, so a lot of factors affect my health). Sigh!

It's a work in progress, so will update next week!

#BeKind #StaySafe

*Getting your water tank cleaned costs at least PhP8,000!