Summer Coolers

Beat the heat with these summer coolers:

1. Halo-halo from Chowking, still the number 1 halo-halo for me so far. We tried last friday the Digman's Halo-halo, we even went to Bacoor, Cavite just to try this famous halo-halo... But it did not meet my expectation... Sa sobrang takam, i was looking for the special that the media was referring to, yes it had 12 sahog but it's just an ordinary halo-halo... Chowking pa din ako.

2. Milk Teas. Me and boyfie had a time that we liked the milk teas so much, it passed... But can't deny milk tea is still a healthy summer cooler.

3. McDonald's sundae. Why would you spend a lot when you can just buy a sundae cone from McDonald's for only 15 pesos. #sulit!

What are your summer coolers?

Walkway

Because we have kids we couldn't go far and do the pilgrimage like we used to do from the past years. What we did is a staycation in my boyfie's house since Wednesday night and do swimming and have bonding moments with the kids. We sort of not be able to do fasting because as you know my boyfie's mom loves preparing food, although they went away for vacation, there's menu left for their maids to prepare for us from breakfast to dinner. #yum!

This Friday, we went to BGC to have station of the cross. BGC made the station of the cross more interactive. It made each station easier to reflect putting ACTS in it. My niece kept asking why we do those acts and what are they for, answering her questions helped in my reflection.  The walkway will be available in the heart of BGC until March 31, 2013.

Reflection: I am a sinner. All of my life I am trying to be a good person but I am human, weak and vulnerable. It pains me to think that the people I love would be carrying their cross heavier because of me. But GOD is so good, I know I will be forgiven, we all are.

Improvised Vacay with the kids

Because we were not able to plan for this holiday and trying to make late reservations was unsuccessful, we thought of just spending it to my boyfie's house.

Boyfie's house has a roofdeck and has a wide space for the mini pool of the kiddos and a bahay kubo for our tambayan.... be careful with my heart mode.

This is indeed a perfect improvised vacation, we have a private place of our own and we don't have to spend anything. #libre

Kayo po? What's your plan for the holiday?

Mickey Mouse on Krispy Kreme

Wanna have some fun this easter? Look in a box of Krispy Kreme doughnut and you'll find mickey in there. They have around 12 flavors to choose from. 1dozen in a box is P450. When you buy a dozen you'll be able to get the mickey mouse edition bag of krispy kreme. #cute

I have tried the nutty and pistachio flavored mickey doughnuts and I love them. They are not the usual too sweet doughnuts that you can buy in this place... these two flavors are kinda similar to the J.Co doughnuts though.... I hope they can keep these flavors.

The queue is becoming similar to J.Co because of Mickey, so maybe I will buy a dozen by tomorrow for the kids since we all are staying at boyfie's house for the holidays. Yehey!

Yanis graduation epic fail

I heard what happened to my niece's graduation today and I can imagine her face so frustrated and her ever pouting lips... Hayz! ... I was so affected about what happened but was also laughing after talking to their yaya who was also so affected and even called the school para magreklamo, daig pa ang ate ko. Hahaha!


Read story from my sister's blog, Lazy Thoughts.

In-n-out Burger

I first heard of In-n-out burger from my boyfie's Tito (tito who is way younger than us) when he visited the Philippines few years back, he was so young before and wanted to eat in In-n-out burger, but we really don't have it here in the Philippines yet.

Finally, In-n-out Burger is now here in the Philippines. They opened last March 21 in Bonifacio Global City but we haven't tried their burgers yet since we can't find its location. Anyway, i'll share my rating for their burgers when we are able to try it. Stay tuned. ^_^

Globe Rewards

If you are a Globe subscriber, you should also be receiving your reward points everytime you use your globe postpaid. I kept on ignoring the text messages I am receiving from 4438 regarding the points I earned until last week when I noticed all the points will be expiring this coming end of March.

So, my boyfie and I had an instant movie date last Thursday using the Globe Reward Points. We just went to Greenbelt Cinema 3 and approached the lady at the counter and gave us the instruction how to redeem my points.

STEP 1. Check first your points earned by texting BAL and sent it to 4438. Each point is equivalent to 1 peso, the movie is worth Php230 so I need around 460 points to avail 2 tickets.

STEP 2. Key in BUY 'space' (acct where you are availing the points) 'space' (points) and send it to 4438.

Then, that's it... Instant two tickets for the movie OZ: the great and powerful... No cash out except for the popcorns, fries and drinks for our refreshment. ^_^

Congratulations Tonts!

I was inspired by the very proud blog of Juicy Jay for his nephew... and I think I can do the same for my cousin as well.  Tonts is also graduating the same school as Juicy Jay's nephew tomorrow and we are also very proud of her.

Tonts is the eldest among the 2 children of my mom's brother.  She was a sweetheart ever since she was born because she has a very fair skin and her lips is as red as the roses (snow white kuno).  Our family is musically inclined (sort of and I am an exemption, hahaha!) and she was able to get her good singing voice from her dad.  She was also always the bet for muse and a representative for beauty pageants, but she seldom join these kind of contests (mana sakin eh, kidding!)  Tonts transferred here in Manila and grew up with us since my sister Mabz supported her school expenses starting high school up to her college years.

Little Miss Philippines - Peace tayo tonts... hahaha!

During high school, she found her passion in acting and became active in the drama club.  She played the lead role Gabriella Montez for the High School Musical version of Paco Catholic School.  I remembered taking my VL just to watch her show and even created a video for this show in youtube I tried viewing it today and realized it has a very poor video quality (blame it to the technology during that time).

In college, she chose to join our clan's profession, Teaching.  Just a brief of a background, my grandma and all her sisters are all retired teachers, unfortunately no one in our parents generation became one, but for our generation, Tonts might be the 2nd.

Teacher na nililigawan ng mga high school students nya... nyay!

Because she grew up with us, she is NBSB (no boyfriend since birth), not because we are strict or anything, but even my younger sister and brother are like this... di naman namin pinagbabawalan I swear!...  They are just very obedient and go home after their class, di nagpapagabi sa daan.  This thinking is I guess just instilled to us to prioritize studies, no pressure given.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, she will be throwing her graduation cap by tomorrow and I just want her to know that we are so proud of her.  Congratulations Tonts!

Miggy's 4th Birthday Celebration

Today is my nephew's 4th birthday celebration. Days before this day he remembered we promised him a Transformers cake, but we couldn't find any bakeshop offering this kind of design. We decided to get him Ben 10 instead.

Red Ribbon bakeshop bought a copyright for the Ben 10 designs so we are lucky to have few design options for the Ben 10 character. We got this design for only P 1350. My nephew loved it and was so excited to blow his candle even before his party started.

Tita Lich and Tita Lai also got Miggy a gift which is I think not so suited for a 4-year old: a mini-scooter.

But, there's one event that I missed today, it's meeting Joy of Joy's Notepad and her other blogger friends in person, we are supposed to meet in Megamall at 2:30 pm today but given my responsibility for my nephew, I can't really make it. Joy visited Philippines from Norway for her 51st birthday celebration, and God knows when will be her next visit would be, sayang! Maybe next time I'll be able to meet her and her daughter Michi or michiphotostory in person, if both our time permit. :)

I ordered my future yesterday

I am unable to get sleep yet and decided watching The Bottomline with Boy Abunda. If not for this shows late time slot, i will always watch it. Everytime I am able to watch this show, I always find Tito Boy a very good host because he always chooses very interesting people to interview.

The guest for this evening is Ms Julie Cox, the author of the book "I ordered my future yesterday". A write up from Traffor Publishing about Julie says:

Julie Cox is no ordinary woman. Born in the Philippines, she’s carved out an amazingly fruitful life after overcoming a plethora of obstacles which would have broken a lesser person. In her new book, I Ordered my Future Yesterday, Julie recounts the trials and tribulations she’s faced, from being raped twice and left for dead, living in extreme poverty, experiencing the death of various loved ones, and giving up for adoption the baby she had after being raped a second time. Julie recounts the ups and downs of her life from living for two years scavenging as a semi-orphan amid a garbage dump at the U.S. Naval Base at Subic Bay to moving from the Philippines to the United States. Upon arriving in the U.S., she began a series of odd jobs which eventually led her to a successful sales career at a Fortune 500 company. During this time, she was also busy building her dream resort and academic training center in the Philippine islands one step at a time. And now, through sheer hard work and crafty planning, she’s halfway toward her goal of becoming a millionaire. Even if you’re broken, negative, bitter, depressed, outmanned, and outgunned, nothing can stop you from finding your destiny!"

Taking some notes from the interview with Tito Boy, Julie was raped twice, the first when she was 15, she was so young and so afraid, she didn't tell anybody that this thing happened to her. The second time was when she was 24 years old, she was held capture for 2 months as sex slave and also suffered physical abuse. This horrible experiences led her to attempt taking her life and I quote: "I was really afraid to die but i don't find my life worth it."

Accepting what she has gone through... A priest tried changing her perspective, he instilled in her this: "God did not intend to punish you.".... Julie now says: "i am not what happened to me, I can't dwell in the past, it's a matter of acceptance".

Julie now sees a different perspective in life. Those that had happened to her served a great lesson in life, she consider them as sand papers, they polished her to become beautiful, strong that made her now see her imperfect life perfectly.

Julie wrote this book to give hope to people, to let us know there's always a light at the end of every tunnel, that we can order and shape our future and that ordering our future need to take a lot of effort. This book is really a must read, I got to grab a copy of this soon.

We are celebrating Women's Month this March and Julie's story reveals the reality about women getting abused physically and mentally, harassed and sexually abused. Based on statistics, 1 out of 3 women are raped or attempted for sexual harassment or abused in their lifetime. Most cases are not being reported because they are afraid, ashamed or threatened, they mostly just kept it to themselves because they don't want people to feel sorry for them. This is really a bothering fact, for i am also a woman, i have 3 sisters, most of my cousins are girls, I have a lot of girl friends and i might have future daughters and I fear for them all.

Good thing, there's already women's desk in every police station nowadays, so women will no longer be afraid to report and tell their stories, there's also Gabriella who can fight for the rights of these women. But we don't want to wait and be served by these institutions so we need to take extra careful, know how to defend ourselves and choose the people to trust.

I just really hope all men will treat all women with love and respect, make this world safe and a better world for all of us.

Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

Summer Afternoon

I am trying to convince my sister Mabz to join the bloggers world since she also loves writing... in fact, she's a better writer than me and (ssshhhhh!!!!) she was doing my essays before back when we were little.  She's having second thoughts maybe because she doesn't know how to and she's concerned on the design of her page... anyway, I'm thinking of creating one for her when I have more free time.

She normally posts the little activities of her kiddos in facebook... yes, she has 2 kids... i know!!! don't compare my body to her please... hahaha!... Anyway, I think she can share lots of things to other mommies out there too, so I really hope I can convince her to post.  Wish me luck!

Candy Crush

This is the latest craze today and I am not exempted to be infected with the virus it is giving to the gamers. I am always busy nowadays that's why my progress is so slow... And each level is getting harder and harder. I'm currently at level 35 and have failed twice already... It's so frustrating!!!

I'm already having a headache but can't stop trying.... It's crazy i know but this is so addicting!!!

Wicked Oreo

As i mentioned in from previous blog, the wicked oreo from Flaming Wings is very easy to replicate (was just thinking)... And this afternoon, we tried making lots of wicked oreo and it was a success!

Ingredients:

Finish product:

Try it!!!!

Tamagoya!

An authentic Japanese Restaurant located in Antipolo and almost the boundary of Marikina, serving authentic Japanese dishes especially prepared by their Japanese cook. They only open for few hours and do not open everyday that is why this small restaurant is always full of diners.

I ordered the Chuka Soba ramen, it's a soy sauce based noodle with beef for only 148 pesos. Whenever we eat in Japanese restaurants, I always prefer rice over Ramen so I really have no comparison but I can say that I liked it and will still want to order this when we visit next time.

One customer left a tip in the table before leaving and when the crew noticed it, she informed him immediately that tipping is not allowed so we did not bother to leave tip for them. In the parking lot, we tried giving tip to the guy assisting us but refused it... There's no sign indicated for the "no tipping" rule but maybe it's the policy of the restaurant.

If you want to experience authentic Japanese food, go visit:

Tamagoya Noodle House
2 Soliven Ave., Mayamot, Antipolo, Rizal
Telephone: +632 861-8631
Facebook: Tamagoya Noodle House

It takes a man and a woman

I came across the teaser of the upcoming movie of Sarah G. And John Lloyd Cruz.  "It takes a man and a woman", the sequel of their top grossing films "A very special love" and "You changed my life".  I love the love story of Laida and Miggy and I'm sure I'll be more in love in this finale.  I so love John Lloyd but i love him more when he's with Bea Alonzo... "One more chance" is still the best for me. #fanmode

Anyway, I will surely not miss the first day of screening... Can't wait for March 30...

Flaming Wings

Flaming Wings is a new found place famous for their New York buffalo wings and wicked oreo. The first time we dined in this restaurant, boyfie ordered 3 pieces buffallo wings in their signatured smoky barbeque sauce and I ordered separately. When our order arrived, we received 6 pieces chicken so we thought they just made some error in our order. Apparently, the 3 pieces buffallo wings is so big they have to cut them into 2, thus it became 6 pieces. So, the next time we visited the place, we already know how to order. The next "victim?" was the actress Cherry Pie Picache dining in with his son. She ordered 15 pieces wings thinking it's the same size from Yellow Cab or other restos. She was so surprised when 30 pieces chicken were served in their table. I don't know if its their strategy but the crews don't give heads-up to customers on their serving size. Anyway, we loved the buffallo wings in original and smoky bbq sauce.

The food serving of Flaming Wings is big enough for share even their regular sizes are still big enough for 2. Prices? You'll be also surprised on the very fair price despite the big servings.

I'm excited to share about the desserts... They have the famous Wicked Oreo and the Brownie Ala Monde, i'll give two thumbs up for these two... Yum yum yum!

I'm no expert in cooking or baking but i'm thinking that these two are very simple and can be done at home..

WICKED OREO
Ingredients: Oreo cookies, pancake mix, vanilla ice cream, candy sprinklers
Procedure: coat the oreo using the pancake mix, deep fry or bake, then serve with vanilla ice cream, sprinkle with candies or chocolates.

BROWNIE ALA MONDE
Ingredients: Brownies (buy or create your own), vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup
Procedure: Heat the brownie in your oven, serve with vanila ice cream and syrup on top.

Nutella Ferrero

One of my favorite past time is eating, I love trying out food and during the times that I don't feel like going out to buy food, biscuits are always there to the rescue.

The usual match of biscuits are peanut butter and cheese whiz, they are both yum of course but I discovered a new perfect match for skyflakes (skyflakes nga lang). If you are a fan of Ferrero chocolate and don't have the luxury to buy it, you can try this Nutella Ferrero. It's only P149 pesos and can be consumed as many as 1 pack of skyflakes or more, depende kung how tipid you put in one biscuit. It is available in supermarkets anywhere.

I have tried enclosing this spread to 2 skyflakes pero di sya masyadong lasang Ferrero, so better consume it one biscuit at a time like the picture below:

So enjoy your merienda!

2013 International Pyro Musical Olympics

Last night, we were able to witness the amazing fireworks of the two countries (United Kingdom and South Korea) competing for the 2013 International Pyro Musical Olympics that was held in SM Mall of Asia. Few years back, I was able to watch the fireworks from afar and was already amazed... But yesterday was a different experience since we were able to station within the area and witness the tempo of the fireworks in sync with the music... Galing!... Gangnam Style for South Korea of course didn't miss to be included in this competition.

Because SM MOA always have fireworks display every 7pm on weekends, it's becoming an ordinary thing for me whenever i see lights in the night sky. However, the event last night is a different experience, there were super bongga and super cool designs that i never thought could be done in a firework. There were hearts, shapes within shapes, the timing, color combinations and the control in the sizes of the light display depending on the tempo of the music.

You still have 3 more weekends to witness this event. The competition will go until March 23' 2013. See below schedule:

February 16
Japan – Tamaya Kitahara
Finland – Oy Pyroman Finland Ltd.

February 23z
Taiwan – Yung Feng Fireworkds
Spain – Brunchu Pyro Experience

March 2
United Kingdom – Jubilee Fireworks Ltd.
South Korea – Hwarang Fireworks Inc.

March 9
Italy – Ipon Fireworks S.R.L
The Netherlands – Royal Fireworks

March 16
China – Liuyang New Year Fireworks Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Australia – Fireworkx Inc.

March 23
Canada – Fireworks Spectacular
Philippines – Platinum Fireworks Inc. (Closing Exhibition)

I have to warn you though, you should be in the Mall of Asia earlier because everyone seems to stop their cars and watch the fireworks display. We in fact took more than 30 minutes from blue wave to the parking of MOA. Some of the roads were also closed and there's only one flow of traffic and your only access to parking is thru the MOA Arena.

So much for the talk, here are some pictures I have taken and maybe these don't give justice to the actual beauty of the firework display last night.