a day at the park

we went to the pasir ris park today.

the plan:

stroll as one big happy family - kuya, april, keyla, tita, mike, me. naks!

keyla to play on the playground.

caths and mike to do 30 min walk/run.

pasir ris park is a hidden gem. it's not that crowded like east coast park is. the place is clean and big. children could play, the whole family or barkada could do ihaw ihaw. lovers could stroll. others even go fishing, camping, biking. the park is this big:



interesting finds:

fishing. at times you get the big ones, at times the tiny ones, at times nothing at all. life goes on anyway. try again another day.



lush. i wish mother earth will always be abundant like this... that she may last a million years... that my children's children's children will be nurtured the same way.



pathways. and sunsets. all sunsets are beautiful.



bridges and water and plants.



run. running used to be a burden for me. now i find it therapeutic, just like mopping floors and walking alone.



sturdy. my God is as sturdy as this tree is. rain, lightning, scorching sun? nothing will harm me as long as my God is here. i admit i am frightened at times, but my God sustains and protects! amen!



lovers. yihee. i wish everybody finds his/her soulmate!



friendship. you know you are friends if you could sit all day and talk about everything and anything - and you don't get bored!



family. so heartwarming to see a family gathered together. i always look forward to weekends with family!



silver lining. there will always be one! always!



and more beautiful sunsets.



simplicity. a child's life is so simple. sleep when tired, cry when hungry, play when awake. makes me want to go back to
childhood but that is not the proper order of life! :p



solitude. inner and outer.



and the opposite of solitude, chaos. the chaos that is my hair. and pimple outbreak. argh.



and love! heard at rx today: a vampire will never go into your house/life unless you invite him. maybe love is like a vampire. let's always welcome love then! it will never come uninvited :)



ps:
muntik na
kaming
masagasaan
ng motor
dahil
sa cheesy
pose na ito
bow

scented

it's a wonderful feeling coming home to a house that smells nice. it's a challenge for our house though as the windows are always open -it's hard to contain and maintain the scents.

the room odor's a bit easier to conquer! we used to hoard keep a number of bottles of scented oil from body shop. these are the types you dilute with water and use in a burner. smells good, really. we liked strawberry, pomegranate. i found lavender and tea tree scents in a small stall in suntec and these are good as well. relaxing.

jan introduced reed diffusers to me. these are reed sticks that you stick into bottles with scented oil. at first, i wasn't too keen in trying because i thought that the scents might be too weak. i could never grasp the idea as to how sticks could help spread the scent in the room.

one day, i went to jan's place and noticed the very good smell of the house. i asked and she said it was the reed diffuser. so nice! then she gave me a bottle of reed diffuser oil so i could try. it's powder scent and i lily, lily, like it.

i bought 3 cute bottles but i think they're a bit too shorf. tsk tsk. i think the room smells nice anyway! so nice! we're switching to reed diffusers!

rektikano

i am married to a man who's very highspirited when it comes to basketball. during the nba games, he requested that we subscribe to the sports channel. he looked for basketball playmates here so he could shoot some hoops. luckily, there's a bb court near our block. there's a filipino community (a big one) and they share the same passion in basketball. all good :) i love seeing the glow on his face everytime he goes home from a game. sweaty, yes. happy, super yes.

if he's in manila now, he would probably be watching the live uaap games with his friends. but since he's here, the best that he could do is watch the games via online streaming. something like this:



i wish i had some of that spirit in me. that's the dlsu animo squad in the pic. i didn't even know our team was called that. sheesh. at least i know the chants and cheers! yay!

back to my husband... yesterday, he was so animated while watching the game in our room! shouting everytime his team, ust, shoots or misses. they were leading all the time. tabla sa bandang huli but they ended up losing the game after an almost-buzzer-beater-3-pt-shot from the kalaban, feu. then he became like a madman. he threw the pillow on the wall and shouted and shouted and shouted. i was a bit scared. in my mind i was thinking, "lumabas muna kaya ako baka masuntok ako?"

i mustered a, "o tama na baka atakihin ka."

hahaha i wasn't hurt, neither was he. he calmed down after a few minutes. he just so loves the game that way.

this morning, i saw his fb post from yesterday:



susmaryosep si kuya oo! hmmm, that's my laptop he wants to destroy! bwahahaha! i commented:



i now pray for the safety of my laptop when there's a game. ipag-adya sana sya dahil i have no plans of replacing it soon. bwahahaha! susme! :))

peranakan museum

last, last friday, i took a day off from work to accompany mike in the submission of the formalities of his long term pass. we were done by around 10am so we decided to go to the peranakan museum.

but before we went to the museum, we feasted on the pinakamasarap na pancit sa balat ng lupa. the stall is located at the suntec foodcourt and good to see there's a kuya pinoy staff at the store. he may have added a few strands of pancit on our plate. divine! this is breakfast number 2. the first one was maggi chicken noodles at home. you can't blame me. i got traumatized with long queues and no breakfast. :p



on our way to the mrt, i saw these ceiling lamps. nice!



it was raining. but so what?

then we got to the peranakan museum:



"Who are the Peranakans? For centuries, the riches of Southeast Asia have brought foreign traders to the region. While many returned to their homelands, some remained behind, marrying local women."

hybrid! mixed culture!


this cat welcomes the visitors. i'm not so fond of cats, but i'm caths. gets?



a peranakan family in telok kurau area. so formal! look at the 2 girls holding on to the plant stands. what's up? :)



this granny looks like lola felicing - our neighbor in sto. nino and my lola's best friend. kailangan talaga may haplos?!



i love the background! apparently, butterflies were popular motifs for the peranakans as these signify good luck. cheers to the best of luck!



the museum showcased stuff from the old peranakan families. this is our reflection on one of the antique cabinets.



and another one. they look an awful lot like our cabinets from the philippines. the ones you find in the buena familias chochaleras houses. i bet kuya will not be too keen in owning one. think about spirits living in cabinets. boo!



and another one of those buena familias dresser tables. chochal!



benches by the main doors were also popular for the old peranakan houses. here's mike relaxing on one of the wooden benches. my lola has a special bangko back at home. it was her favorite siesta spot.



an old phone, ca 1930s. if you lift the earpiece, you could hear a recorded conversation. cool! rpg!



here's a latter model. i remember having a similar unit in our house. yesteryears! that was our first phone!



this girl looks like my cousin irish! so posh! look at the dress and the bag and the overall impact hihihi.



at the dining table. how much platos and platitos could one household use? i have a dream... someday, i'll be a housewife and i'll prepare all the meals for my family... and we'll eat together happily... all the days of our lives! ariba!



and a typical kitchen. i like it!



and more of the intricate plates and serving dishes. nakakahinayang gamitin, ang ganda kasi hihi. i'm reminded of a tansan. i wonder why.



here are some beaded bags. so intricate! i learned that the manner of beading is somewhat similar to cross stitching. the patterns are the same, the ones with the grids and you follow the color per cell.



while daoism and buddhism dominated, catholicism somehow seeped through. here's an interesting item - an altar with the image of the holy family.



and another nice background.



at the end of the day, we were this happy!



lunch was tapa king at lau pa sat. what a lovely day! what a lovely life!

Post Created Jul 19, 2011 8:37:53 AM

a few nights ago, mike was showing me this phone application about math tricks. interesting, i thought. for one who hates doesn't like math, i could use all the tricks in the market that i could get.

so we looked at a certain trick that's something like this:



and i got more confused. and i felt proud. and thankful to mrs. jose, my grade 6 math teacher, who terrorized us to death until we memorized the multiplication table.

mrs. jose is a stout woman. she wore high heels and the fats in her feet are escaping madly from her shoes. that didn't make her less of a person though. in fact, reflecting now, i think she may have been one of the few teachers who left the biggest and most useful lesson to me (and the class).

this was her system:

1. at the beginning of the period, we all stand for the prayer (we start and end each subject with a prayer). i guess this is the point when you also say a little prayer for yourself for what lies ahead of you during the math class.

2. nobody sits after the prayer.

3. she signals for the class to start the recitation of the multiplication table, starting at 6. as in, "6x1 = 6, 6x2 = 12, ... up to 9x9 = 81).

4. you have to be honest. if you make a mistake, you have to sit down.

5. at the end of the number chant, all who are standing will sit down, and all who are seated will stand up. stand up until the end of the math period - yes, amidst lectures and taking down notes and all!

she was scary, yes, but effective to the maximum level. give me a complex problem about derivatives and i will perspire - with blood! but ask me what's 7x8 is and i'll answer in a breeze. :) it matters, i think! in a complex world like what we have now, it sometimes pays that you know simple things by heart. i know my multiplication table and i'm proud. thanks to mrs. jose, we know that some 300 students a year are memorizing their multiplication table too. i wonder where she is now? :)

mighty clouds

such a lovely view.
it rained.
then the sun came out.
then the clouds became amazing like this.
then i cooked lucky me instant pancit canton.
wanted to eat it with rice.
but there was none.
so i settled with banana walnut bread.
was just as lovely.

life's little pleasures :)

ka choleng

when i was a kid, we had a trusted labandera / plantsadora. her name is ka choleng. she would wash clothes one day and come back on another day to press the clothes. i'm not sure how many years she provided this service but she had to stop one day because she had to take care of her apos.

i don't know why there is this certain story that i can't forget about her. she said that she wanted to have a customized bracelet out of a "special" spoon. she said she would bring the spoon to an alahero, the alahero will then transform the spoon into a bangle probably.

i didn't see the spoon. neither did i see the bracelet. but i remember having a strong desire to own a bracelet that's made out of a spoon too! hahaha! inspired by ka choleng :p

now i realize that you couldn't always have what you want. i don't know about ka choleng but i never had that bracelet.

hehehe anong drama ito? all i really want to say is: i now realize that ka choleng was/is a gem. we got the luxury of having fresh, ironed clothes - no sweat.

these days, we do everything on our own. mike does most of the laundry and he is doing a very good job! our clothes smell so good! don't worry though, he has not turned into a domestic god. washing is as easy as dumping the clothes in the washer and coming back after 50 mins to hang the clothes. no sweat.

ironing? if i had a choice, i wouldn't do it hehe. but i have to. maybe not so much now but when mike gets his work then i'll have to iron big time like ka choleng did.

oh dear! what big clothes you have, mike! hahaha!