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Jul 30, 2015

Expectation vs Reality: Yoga Mat

I'm supposed to be working on a few tasks. @.@ But then I found myself just "couchpotato-ing" in pinterest on "yoga" search terms. My brain went on to comatose after days of going back and forth to hospitals / clinics / laboratories for the mother & MIL.

Anyhow, I wanted some new meaning in life, and maybe finding that perfect yoga mat will give me that.

Then, I came across these photos in pinterest one after another:

Expectation
Reality
So much about the meaning of life...


Jul 29, 2015

fauxto walk

Because the habal-habal drivers waiting look like adik2x, I decided to walk from home to the merkado which is just probably 1km away. Duh! (Sorry, habal2x drivers for my unfair judgment but taking off your dark shades would help.)

And, I pretended I was a tourist and took some photos along the way. I mean why do I take a lot of photos when I'm in a new place but not in my place? So to be fair to my other hometown, I snap photos.

101 Ways to Dry Clothes

Life is a walk in parkmall...

This afternoon, I followed Parkmall's ad copy -- Life is a walk.







Jul 28, 2015

On Parenting



Ironic that as a parent, "parenting" (and other child-rearing issues) is a topic I tried to avoid getting into a discussion because it can sometime turn into a vitamin-pissing-contest.

Honestly, I'm secretly wishing for my kids to be on their own the soonest, and parent their own selves. Allowance will be forwarded to them for starters just so they have nice words to say about me... for a start. =)

In short, I really do not know what's in parenting. The thing is I might even needed one, but on the other thought, do we really like to be "parent-ed"?

The Medallist

We did not know Migi got a medal until Meg mentioned about it. Well, typical Migi, he's just hard to read among the three, and the least to bother to share his thought. 

And typical Migi, there's something natural of him with sports - like getting a gold in table tennis even if it's his first encounter with it (that's the typical mother in me being proud).



Jul 25, 2015

White hair

It was 2 years ago when i first saw a white hair, and i did not see it again.

So now that I found (another one) it again, it must be documented.

Hopefully, this means wisdom. :)

When i hate weekends, i love mondays...

Looking at the picture Leah tagged me, I remember how motherhood made me loveeee Mondays and weekdays. Before, when kids were little, I dreaded weekends or long holidays because Ate Mona would be off, and I had to do everything (cooking, washing dishes to baby butts to not sleeping at night and day) with 1 or 2 babies constantly hugging my legs or crying.

So Monday morning, once Ate Mona arrived, I would throw the kids at her; go to work, and doze off at the comfort of my cubicle to catch up on the sleepless weekend/holidays. To my previous employers, thank you for saving my sanity.

Being sleepless on working days were bearable because at least I would have my "break" at the office. But on weekends and especially long holidays, i'd be all alone with 2 kids strapped all over my body; i'd feel like a zombie without a daybreak.

The one time I "accidentally" took a nap on a Christmas holiday, a baby cried because he fell off from the bed. And he had a "bukol" on his head as a Worst Mother award to me.

So to all the mothers-to-be, it's perfectly okay to NOT have a baby. And if you really really want to, FOOD IS COMFORT. @.@ 
Go on, indulge because you know happy mother is happy kids. :)
So these photos were like "Inday and dodong's day-off."

Jul 24, 2015

Doors

Smalltowngirlsmidnighttrains.com, a blog of a writer i looked up to, one time showcased different doors from her travels.

This week, this were my doors:

Thankfully, there's nothing serious. But this is going to be a slow long process. So hello to more doors. :)

I just want to take this space to thank every one we met along the way: from the helpful taxi drivers, co-mates waiting in line for the doctors, the staff, and, God. :) 

Dear, God & universe, please guide us more to the right doors. :)






Jul 22, 2015

Fresh-cut Bacon in Cebu

I'm not really a big bacon fan because I grew up to "adobo;" and bacon feels like the pabebe version of it. And, Ate Mona cooks a killer adobo. 

But I used to get the packed bacon before, from time to time. Well, we just gotta give in to peer pressure. But I stopped it when I could feel there's too much preservatives from it.

Until I discovered fresh-cut bacon, first at SM groceries. But not all their groceries carry it.

And, I felt how outdated I was at that time. Until a friend was playing by posting again and again bacon photos, and how he missed it because their family stopped eating canned goods or goods with preservative.

And, I was like. Poor dude that he did not  meet fresh-cut bacon-sliced pork meat.

 Then, I passed by this at Rustan's yesterday, and think of the poor dude. :)

Really, the fresh ones tastes way much better (me thinks) over the packed one, and much cheaper. I just salt and black pepper it, then boil it, then drain the water, and cook it dry (if there's such thing as "cooking dry" or maybe pan-grill is the better term.)

And, if you cannot find this fresh-cuts, well, go macho with adobo! :)

Jul 16, 2015

How would i be as a SISTER?

I was filling out a medical form for my mother when i came across a question asking about "number of pregnancies," i felt a pang of loneliness/happiness when I realized that i do have siblingsss, not 1 but 4. My mother had 4 pregnancies. I think i was her 3rd -- the only survivor. She had 3 miscarriages, with one of them for a pair of twins. That's why I (am supposed to) have 4 siblings, only they became angels too early.

I think the 2 pregnancies were ahead of me. Then i remember when i was a kid, my mother went to the hospital then something about baby inside the box. I think that was her fourth and last miscarriage. 

I wish i had at least an eeny weeny memory of them. All I could remember were the palm-reading games we played with my friends as kids, and then they would tell me that the lines of my palm indicated that I'm a "jealous" kind that's why my siblings were dead. Talking about brutal sibling rivalry. @.@

Looking at the number 4 on the form, it felt weird. 

I'm supposed to have an Ate or Kuya (i'm not really sure with the gender), and I'm supposed to be a big sister Ate. For a moment, I felt un-alone. 

But then they're all just a number on a medical form. And, I felt alone.

To my 4 siblings, I will celebrate national sibling day from now on! 


Jul 11, 2015

Royal Krua Thai: Playlist

Guicon(sp) or fresh rolls, pomelo salad, pad thai, and Thai milk tea at Royal Krua Thai (BTC, Cebu branch preferrably) is the current playlist i want to eat over and over again. :)

Pomelo salad (or any of their papaya / mango salad) mix it together with pad thai is like beautiful music to my taste buds! 


I also like This soup, forgot the name. @.@
Also their home-made ice cream is worth a try. I tried their coconut icecream - yum! :)

Anyhow, I want to thank Ruby for re-introducing Thai food to me. I never liked Thai food before, i always find their flavors too extreme for my taste. 

(Sorry, Krua Thai, my photo is bad.)



Jul 8, 2015

the middle class

I had a conversation one time with a sports apparel maker in cebu. He's a foreigner, and he's building a brand. So we got to talk about the different people of different sports -- their buying behavior.

So if different individuals of each sports will be assembled into a pyramid, it will be like:
The zumba tend to have a "mass" appeal. Because there's a lot of free zumba sessions. So mostly they go for the affordable apparels. The runners tend to buy more than the zumba individuals. But the money is more in the triathletes.

But this post is not about the zumba, runners, or triathletes. This is about YOGA.

Yoga taught me how it is to be a middle class. Business news has always been saying that there is a rise of middle class in Cebu, etc etc. But i cannot seem to figure out where are they.

So last summer, i frequented the BTC yoga place because of Migi's summer class nearby the place. And to kill time while waiting for him, i surrender to the mat.

And, i realized that BTC seems to be the hang-out place of the "middle class."

The Soccer Moms (i'll just name them as such)

Sometimes, i found myself smuck in the middle of lululemon wearing mommy friends (i assumed) whose some of them have kids are in Gymboree. So they yoga while their kids are making tumblings and clapping hands at Gymboree. Their routine tend to be like: Some of them came from another gym class, proceeded to yoga and then they'd be planning to do some laps in one of their houses' swimming pool or go back to the gym. Or maybe they'll have lunch at the nearby restos in Ma. Luisa and exchange travel stories to disneyland. 

The Expats

Sometimes, i'd be in a middle of expats. Expats tend to be the sporty type. I cannot really say much of them. But they sometimes come in set of family, which is usually mommy and daughters. 

The Career Women

They're the group of "business women" i assumed. They come and go. The usual exchange of conversations will be "Oh where have you been?" and usual reply will be "i have to fly there and that." Or another typical line will be "i'm back to square 1 again because i got busy blahblah i missed to practise" and reply would be "yeah, you were already good with your insert-name-of-whatever inversion variety."

The Entrepreneurial Insik

They seem to be alwasy there but somehow don't really attend the class becuase for whatever excuses, and then they sell whatever yoga stuff they got from their travel abroad to the other attendants.

So how to be a middle class? We can start hugging lululemon mats in out lululemon yoga attire.





Jul 5, 2015

In Defense of my Dumbness

Ruby, my psych batchmate now a psych professor in USC, talked to me in passing her upcoming research/study to be published as part of a book, Asian Learners (or sounds something like that).

So we proceeded to talk about how people learn, or how some are lazy to learn or just stop learning; or as we would say it's not that he's not learning or he's lazy; it's just that it's his way of learning.

So I told her that I just realized, now i'm old, that i have a different way of "learning." And, i thought, lookong back, that it's better that i should have not proceeded right away to college, and instead go get myself into different odd jobs.

I realized it when i got frustrated why i have a hard time understanding instructions, while Mark can have it a breeze. I cannot, for unknown reason, easily connect the different steps. That's when i recall my mother's frustration of my cooking skills. It's because i cannot follow instructions step by step. It's just later on, i realized that i'm not dumb; it's just my brains process things differently. And, i know a lot of other people are like me or each individual just process things differently.

And, i guess this is one of the reasons why i think the standard traditional educational system may not be the be all and end all on how to get "educated."

Anyhow, i tend to learn "backwards." I'm not being carefree or risk-taker when I usually just "jump without thinking" which translates to why I can be clumsy. I mean i need to burn the food, so that I go back and then i understand "why" the steps in the instruction is like that. Gets?

So that's why looking back, i should have burned myself in different odd jobs before i go (back) to college so i have a better understanding of why those "degrees" are there.

I mean "education" is indeed exPAINsive.

Jul 2, 2015

Hey, Baby Doll

IIn the tail-end of the Danny Collins movie, Al Pacino (Danny collins) was excited to play a new song he composed after 30years of being a celebrity performer. He was excited to share, after 30 years of being uncreative and sell-out, he has something to share he created with his great passion and love. But the audience clamored for him to sing "hey, baby doll" song - his big hit / his no-fail song he performs over and over again. Afraid to disappoint, he abandoned his new song and sang "hey baby doll." 

I think any one can relate to this. Or i think anyone who pursues his passion, and turn it into something of a business. And then the business, later on, somehow controls the passion or dictates the passion to produce stuff that will sell however uncreative it can be.

Burnout, baby doll? :)







How to move on?

CLOSURE? I'm writing this down to put a closure.

Thank you to Unionbank for a breeze facilitating having my mother's ATM replaced.

Thank you to the husband for taking care of cancelling & replacing my cards for the nth time.

Thank you to myself that my sole government-issued ID is "misplaced" by me so it got saved.

Then let me whine about myself's "tanga" moments again. Just like how I just randomly frequently sprained is how I randomly lost stuff.

I could not really feel good about it because I felt I'm already a bummer, and I could not even at least do that "not losing stuff" part.

But as they said, whining does not help. So let me channel my energy on getting a new wallet. #chos