Lakwatsa Scenarios We Think About on Weekends

I've been sick the last few days and so I've just been resting mostly on the couch during the day. Doctor said my tests have come back normal so my illness is probably because of an imbalance from taking blood thinners. My doctor has taken me off it and I'm waiting for his advise on what to do next since I still feel weak and dizzy at times. I'm not sure why it happened, I hope it means I'll be off blood thinners from now on? 

Anyway, one of my friends pinged today and we talked about what she'd like to do for herself. She mentioned domestic and international travel. That got me thinking about places I miss visiting and places I'd like to explore more once it's safe for me to travel. On weekends, Sweetie and I usually have this conversation -

I think this was at SM Makati last December.

Sweetie: I'll go down to warm up the car and then you follow.

Me: Okay! We'll have lunch in Glorietta?

Sweetie: Yes, then we'll hear mass at Landmark and buy hopia after. 

Me: Yay! I'm so excited! Can we pass by National Bookstore too? 

Yup we're a little crazy like that, although we've been doing that since we moved to Singapore. That's how a typical Sunday is for us when we are in Manila. 

Aside from our usual haunts we always talk about food we miss from back home... 

Like, Dayrit's

My favorite cheeseburger.

Makati Supermart spaghetti

My all-time favorite spaghetti.

Max's

Banana ketchup anyone?

Jollibee (of course)

Jollibee forever!

And even McDonald's coz they have spaghetti over there

This was many, many years ago in McDonald's Bali.

Even Chowking

I attended a Chowking event once...

Commune - I super miss the longganisa pasta!

It's not only about the food in Commune, but also the company.

Don Henrico's - buffalo wings please!

Of course, let's not forget Shakey's!

Sbarro, Pixie's Sinugba, turon at SM! I haven't included here my favorite milk tea places! I'll reserve that for my Tea, Completely blog.

For now we just dream.

#CB31 #StayHome #BeKind

Lockdown Easy-to-Cook Recipes

I've been teaching Miggy to cook by taking videos whenever I cook. This way he can also see visually how I make things. I was so surprised to see that I've made quite a lot of dishes already. Thought I'd make a summary here to help friends who are also stuck at home and want to learn how to cook. I guess this would be useful for foreign friends who'd like to learn Filipino dishes. 

Top on the list of course is, chicken adobo! This dish is so easy to make. The key though is to use Filipino soy sauce and vinegar. 

Second easy to make dish, pork steak. This is originally bistek Tagalog, but I find it hard to soften beef. If you want to use beef, just use beef instead of pork. I tried using Kikkoman instead of Datu Puti soy sauce, I ended up having to add a lot of water because it turned out too salty. 

My friends have been telling me that they miss my spaghetti. It's not your usually sweet Pinoy spaghetti. It was my seatmate from work who taught me how to make this spaghetti. 

And our favorite baked salmon is a frequent dish I make especially during lent.  

For those who love veggies, here's pinakbet. It was my first time to make this my friend Buddy from the onlinepalengke.com sent me a box of vegetables last Christmas.

#CB30 #StayHome #BeKind

Revenge of the Fifth

The moon is full outside tonight and this is one of those days I'd rather delete from the calendar. I missed my second alarm and woke up a bit dazed and worried that I may have missed my meeting. It was dazed when I got up. I told myself that maybe it was because I was having a weird dream just before I woke up. After I went to the bathroom I sat down on the couch to think whether I should go see a doctor or not. Sweetie then came out of the room and asked me how I was and whether I wanted to go see a doctor. 

I have been feeling some unusual symptoms since Sunday night. I thought it was just overfatigue from working 11-hour days since March and working to fix our new home during weekends. I took a sick leave yesterday to rest and by end of day yesterday I was feeling a bit better. I even checked my calendar to see my schedule for Tuesday. While sitting on the couch I realized that the heart is a delicate organ and it can betray you without any cause. I decided to see my doctor because work can wait and it's better for me to make sure there's nothing funny going on in my system.

Good thing I went to see my doctor. It wasn't just fatigue I was feeling. There's something wrong somewhere and my doctor had me do some tests today. I'm also on a holter for the next 24 hours to check if there's anything irregular with my heart's rhythm. I've been doing so well for a couple of months now. Working long hours probably took it's toll on me. I'm on forced rest for the whole week. I hope and pray that it's just fatigue and nothing serious. I guess Papa God is telling me to get some rest for now. 

I used the title "Revenge of the Fifth" because today my body revenged on me. It's what it does whenever I've had too much. And, yes, I'm also alluding to the revenge of the Sith in my country. They shut down the largest broadcast company during a pandemic. It's just truly unbelievable what some people can do because of greed. God please save the Philippines. 

#CB29 #StayHome #BeKind

May the Fourth Be with You!

I spent all day yesterday cleaning the house and finally fixing Yoda's new place at home. It was a huge workout I ended up just hanging out in the couch after sunset haha. 

I had so much fun getting Yoda out of the boxes I kept him in for almost a month now. The collection started when we had a decorate-your-area contest at work. Star Wars was the theme we chose and I was just surprised by Hadi who Yoda-themed my desk and the rest is history :)

Recipes for my Son: Tuna Pasta

This is my 17th recipe video for my son, Miggy. I started doing this when my cousins told me that they missed our family reunion food. Titay's lengua, Tita Olive's spaghetti, my Dad's corn casserole, Tito Ben's giant prawns and many other dishes. Just thinking about it is making me very hungry! The only dish Dad was able to teach me was his mustasa dish (mustasa with yummy ground beef) and I realized I have to teach Miggy the dishes I usually cook for them. The number of videos increased because of the ECQ. Miggy has to fend for himself since he's in Manila, so I've been making more videos for him so he can avoid just eating canned food. 

One thing on my to-do list is to learn to cook more seafood dishes. I only have a handful I know how to make since I'm scared of frying fish! If you know any easy-to-cook seafood dishes please let me know! I'd be excited to try making it. This tuna pasta recipe is the healthier version of my spaghetti. I only learned to cook through YouTube university as recommended by Dominic Ochoa (yup the actor) during one of the Taste Asia events. Miggy though has the talent. He's cooked a couple of really yummy dishes and when I was in Manila he cooked dinner for me all of January. 

Here's how I prepare tuna pasta, it's really great if you use Century Tuna in Brine -

Ingredients:

1 small red onion

1 tsp minced garlic

1/4-1/2 tsp oregano

1/4-1/2 tsp basic

1/4 tsp rosemary

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 can tuna, drained

1 packet Del Monte Italian spaghetti sauce

1 small can mushrooms, drained

1 Tbsp sliced black olives

1/4 cup grated cheese

#CB27 #StayHome #BeKind

Work to Accept the Unknown

The most difficult thing about this pandemic is not knowing what may happen next. I've been trying to keep abreast of what's happening. Almost 3.2 million people have been infected globally with the US leading at 1.2M, 17k in Singapore and less than 9k in the Philippines. Many countries have instilled community quarantine/lockdown, but there's very few countries where the spread has slowed down (Korea/Taiwan to name a few). I had it in my head that perhaps by May it would  slow down already and we can start going back to normal by June. I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon. 

I've been reading articles about taking care of your overall well-being during this period. The phrase "work to accept the unknown" caught my eye and I realized that is where we all are now. There is no known and no one can say for certain when this pandemic is going to end. My director told me that in time we'll probably ease back in the office, but he said that I should probably think about whether I should come back soon. With my health condition I'll probably be the last to come back to the office. 

The unknown is a scary place. There is the term "step into the unknown" which incites excitement. The unknown that we have now is not something that any of us would want to go into. How does one work to accept the unknown? I don't know. I don't have a clue either. I was really affected when the circuit breaker was extended in Singapore. I was a wreck. I'm a creature of habit and the extension affected me because I know there are things I like that I won't be able to do anytime soon (like being with my son who's in Manila). 

I only calmed them when I was reminded that I have my faith and I must trust that God will lead the way. It may not be the same life as before, but I must trust that wherever this will bring us it will be where God wants us to be. 

Happy Saturday everyone. Keep the faith!

#CB26 #StayHome #BeKind

Lipat-Bahay in Singapore

I moved to Singapore for work in 2011 and that time we had the benefit of staying at a serviced apartment for a few months. It was a spectacular place and I still remember the housekeeper who would come everyday to clean the apartment. She's Filipino and we talked a lot when she was around.  The building is gone now and has been replaced by a new one. It was the only time I lived in Orchard. 

I moved in my neighbor from Manila after I left the apartment. I didn't have that much stuff when I moved and I just took a taxi to my new home in Sengkang. We lived there for a couple of years and that was the home I lived in when I recovered from my heart surgery. After that we moved to Buangkok. I enjoyed living in Buangkok since the MRT was near and there was a hawker center and 24-hour grocery in the area. It was in Buangkok where I re-discovered my passion for quilting. 

My awesome housements, Jajah and Ronnie. 

My housemate eventually found love, married and moved to the US. Oh I forgot to mention we also had a guy housemate who was younger than me and my friend. We called him "baby boy" haha. He eventually moved in with his gf and that was when Miggy moved to Singapore to study. Miggy took over "baby boy's" room. My friend though always took care of everything (bills, finding a place, paying rent and moving). I realized how hard it was when Miggy and I eventually moved to Harbourfront. We decided to get our own place since Sweetie was moving to Singapore also at that time. 

Walking through the park in Buangkok to get to the MRT.

We loved Harbourfront area since we could easily just walk to Sentosa beach for exercise. 

Moving in Singapore is fairly easy. You can just search for a place on Property Guru and book a viewing with the agent. We tried this way in March, but realized that it's much easier if we used an agent. I called up the agent who serviced my friend and me when I moved to Harbourfront. Ahhh it was a much better experience looking for a new place. Here's what's important to know when you need to move -

1. General area where you want to move

2. Your budget

3. Size of apartment

4. Other considerations you may have like proximity to friends, your commute to work etc. 

We rushed our move since we didn't want to get stuck in our apartment any longer and we were scared that the #CB may become stricter. I just got the mover that all my colleagues have been using for many years (Soon Seng Transport). I also used them when I moved from Buangkok to Harbourfront. They will just come to visit you once to assess if you need one or two trucks and then bring you as many boxes you need. It took us less than a week to hire the movers and move! It was super tiring though so I'm appealing to my future self not to get excited about moving again. 

#CB25 #HappyLaborDay #StayHome #BeKind