Our Christmas Party class photo, when I was in Grade 3 - Dec. 1993. This is the time that I met my friends and little did I know, they will be my best friends. Oh, that innocent small girl in red jumper dress (3rd in right row) is ME. I love being a kid, its the time of every one's life that we don't care of anything... just play around, dream of being a doctor, an engineer, a pilot or a teacher someday and keep on ignoring the reality. Now, things changed. I learned a lot from the people I'd met and the situation I been through and looking back to my childhood, I can't help but just SMILE.

Years had passed, the kids in the picture above, are still friends...

Photos taken last September, 2008.



And yes, still best friends until now!

Photos taken last May, 2010.



And surely, as time goes by things will changed and this friendship will grow stronger...

Being a child once in my life is a treasure and I will always look back to my childhood smiling :)

Gloomy Thursday

This is what I saw while having my first big meal(breakfast) this morning, I saw a vast black cloud covering the whole city. I was glad because at last its going to rain, and not just rain because from the size of the cloud it looks like its carrying a heavy rain. But sadly, no rain poured and the weather got worst. Dark cloud made the weather extremely hot and gloomy. I am still hoping it will rain tomorrow.

Sweet Award

I'm so happy to recieved a second award from Joy! And I want to share this to my blogger pals.

Ruby
Ara
Cathy
Dal
Chimmimay
Unni1982 - Love Freely
Teknisyan
Full Time Mom
Monz
My Puzzle Piece

and to all my pals in my blogroll and my followers :) You can also share this award by following this rules:

1. Pass it to 10 Sweet people.

2. Inform them about this award.

3. Link back the one who gave this award

I cooked Noodles for Lunch!

Its Sunday! And oh I cooked noodles for lunch--Pancit Bicol.


I've been craving for this since last week and its hard to find this kind of noodles. This is originally came from Bicol, my own province particularly in Camarines Sur.

These are the main ingredients:


garlic, onions, pork and vegetables

I just sauteed the the onions and garlic. Add the marinated pork with soy sauce, (oh, since I am a Bicolano, I love spicy food so I added hot and spicy soysauce... but not too much just enough to make it a little bit spicy) and black pepper, when it starts to boil, add about 6 cups of water. Then wait again until it boiled, add seasoning (knorr cube). When the pork is almost cook add the noodle(pancit) and cabbage and carrots cut into strips cover and simmer until the noodle is cooked. Then,


here's our lunch. Served hot Pancit Bicol!

Each Tear

Mary J. Blige's newest song featuring Jay Sean. The first time I hear this over the radio was the time when I'm feelin' down. I owed a lot to her song, it really enlightened me. This stressful week is just too much for me.

Anyway, this is an inspirational song and hope you like it! :)

Happy weekend everyone!

Oh gosh, its really a tough week. Can't sleep because of the weather, and I have to get up at 4:00am to catch up the 6:00am work, then do overtime work for at least four hours, everyday. I even stayed 24 hours at work last Wednesday. I hate rushing things up to meet the deadlines and add to that are those who are bugging me around. arrrrgggghhh!!!!!!

But anyway, I hope things will get back to normal this weekend...

Follow Me Back Tuesday!

Participated in Follow Me Back Tuesday!, and looking forward to have more followers and new blogger friends!

Filipina Beauty

Lovely Festival Queens/Mutya ng Aliwan and the beautiful street dancers.






From Aliwan Fiesta, April 24, 2010 @ Mall of Asia

More of Aliwan Fiesta Photos

Last month, April 22, I attended the Aliwan Festival Dance showdown in Mall of Asia. I shared some of my photos, but I still have more photos to share with you. Anyway, please, I am not a good story teller but I hope you'll like these. :)

Firstly,

Float made from flowers.

This is the representative from the north, from Baguio City, the summer capital of the Philippines. The Panagbenga Festival is one of the most popular festival in the country. It is celebrated on the month of February, as the flowers are starting to bloom and as a way to rise up from the devastation of the 1990 Luzon earthquake. I was able to go to Baguio last year and I love to go back there.

And this one is the representative from the southern part of the country.



Their festival represents their major source of living--fishing. And not to tell you Visayas and Mindanao areas have the most beautiful beaches in the country. Next summer, me and friends will surely going there.

I love the colorful float from Mindanao. This part of the country was almost influenced by Malaysian tradition. This is one of my favorite.



Sinulog Festival is one of the best festival I could say. Celebrated every third Sunday of January, to honor the vision of the child Jesus, known as the Santo Niño (Holy Child),who used to be the patron Saint of the City of Cebu One of the best you'll experience when you go to Cebu City. From its beautiful beaches, historical places to see and the food are great! They love grilled sea foods. Oh, I miss the times when I went to Cebu, one of the best trips I experienced.



Sinulog Festival float.




Came all the way from Iloilo, here is the is a religious and cultural festival--Dinagyang Festival. Held every fourth Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog In Cebu and the Ati-Atihan in Aklan. To honor the Santo Niño and to celebrate the arrival on Panay of Malay settlers and the subsequent selling of the island to them by the Atis.

Most festivals here, are done to honor out Patron Saint and to celebrate a good harvest.

I want You to Remember...

In each tear
there’s a lesson,
Makes you wiser than before
Makes you stronger than you know

In each tear
Brings you closer to your dreams
No mistake, no heartbreak
Can take away what your meant to be...

We can’t change the things,
That we done, that’s in the past.
But fighting won’t get us anywhere,
So if you want, Here’s my hand...

-Each Tear
by: Mary J. Blige

Kind Hoster Contest

I've been looking for a web hosting plan for almost a year but I am always skeptical on what I would choose. I knew some, but I can't afford it. I'm happy to know that girlblogger.net is hosting a contest. The winner will receive a free domain and web hosting, from kindhoster for a year. This is so cool!



I found out that Kind Hoster is very affordable. Its for everybody, especially when you are on tight budget. As you can see in its hosting plan. Imagine, the budget plan cost only $10 per year and not just that, they do websites and blogs setups are free of charge.

This web hosting setup many blog platforms like blogspot, wordpress, and more. So I can say this is cheap and reliable. They also have their twitter and facebook account and even blog so that their costumers can can easily inquire in case they have technical difficulties.

I say, this is the web hosting plan that I'm looking for.

just having Halo-halo for dessert

Election day is finished, its back to normal routine. I still don't have work today and spending time in front of my laptop (as usual) and as expected its scorching hot! I am thankful its a little windy today.

After lunch I enjoyed the best dessert anyone is wanting every summer. Its halo-halo! mmmm, yummy, feels like christmas in a cup!!! In fact, summer is about going to the beach, hiking, camping island hopping and involve all outdoor activities, but its not complete without eating halo-halo. And this is only found in the Philippines!



There really is no specific recipe for this dessert and so easy to make. The order in which the ingredients are added varies widely. Primary ingredients generally include boiled red mung beans (munggo), kidney beans, garbanzos, sugar palm fruit (kaong), coconut sport (macapuno), and plantains caramelized in sugar. Other components may include jackfruit (langka), star apple, tapioca or sago, nata de coco, purple yam (ube) or sweet potato (kamote), sweetened corn kernels or pounded crushed young rice (pinipig), leche flan or custard, ice cream and gelatin. Other fruits, such as papayas, avocados, kiwifruit, bananas or cherries, may also be added. Some preparations also include ice cream on top of the halo-halo.

And condensed milk or evaporated milk, instead of fresh milk, due to the tropical climate of the Philippines and the most important ingredient is ... shaved ice!

This one is made by my generous housemate. We just put all affordable and available ingredients.

Brain freeze!

Praying for a Change and Safe Election Day

Today is a very important day in our history. Its the first time we are using automated election, not just in one part of the country, but its a full automated election.

By this time, voting is almost done and I am praying for a leader who will do what is right for His country and citizens.

There isn't a Day of a year that You aren't special to me Mom.

Before I was myself you made me, me
With love and patience, discipline and tears,
Then bit by bit stepped back to set me free,
Allowing me to sail upon my sea,
Though well within the headlands of your fears.
Before I was myself you made me, me

With dreams enough of what I was to be
And hopes that would be sculpted by the years,
Then bit by bit stepped back to set me free,

Relinquishing your powers gradually
To let me shape myself among my peers.
Before I was myself you made me, me,

And being good and wise, you gracefully
As dancers when the last sweet cadence nears
Bit by bit stepped back to set me free.

For love inspires learning naturally:
The mind assents to what the heart reveres.
And so it was through love you made me, me
By slowly stepping back to set me free.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Today is a special day for you. Thank you for the love, and care you gave to us. Your arms were always open when I needed a hug. Your heart understood when I needed a friend. Your gentle eyes were stern when I needed a lesson. Your strength and love has guided me and gave me wings to fly.

Tasty Treat!

My housemate gave me this tasty treat called espasol. Well, I don't know if there is a specific english name for this but its sometimes called rice cake. It is made from rice flour cooked in coconut milk and sweetened coconut strips, dusted with toasted rice flour.

This a cylinder-shaped rice cake originated in the province of Laguna. If I am not mistaken, we have our own version of espasol in Bicol, but it we use the same main ingredients.

This is usually perfect for dessert but late this afternoon, I ate lots of these for snacks. I'm so full that I didn't need to eat my dinner.

Thanks Jovie!

iPod and Blackberry apps for Mother's Day :)

Two days from now, its Mother's Day already. I have here some free applications that can be a good gift for techie Moms out there.

iPhone apps:


Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner – Treat your mum this Mother’s Day by cooking her a delicious dinner with the fun and useful Dinner Spinner recipe app from the world’s #1 food site. Pick and choose the course, ingredients you want to use and the time you want to spend cooking up a storm and let the Dinner Spinner guide you through to the most memorable and stress-free Mother’s Day dinner you’ve ever had.


BuUuk - Not sure where to take your mum this Mother’s Day? BuUuk is the indispensable free guide to eating and drinking, providing Augmented Reality mode to view restaurant locations and get directions, making it easy to navigate to the perfect place to treat your mother.


Epicurious – Cook breakfast using professionally tested recipes from Bon Appetit, Gourmet and renowned cookbooks.


HungryGoWhere – Left your Mother’s Day meal plans to the last minute and not sure where to feed the urge? HungryGoWhere brings calorie saving information to you by going mobile. Search for different types of restaurants, then read reviews from diners like yourself so you’ll know what to try before you order.


Momisms – Wise and caring advice from our mothers.

Blackberry apps:


DriveSafe.ly – DriveSafe.ly, an application that reads her text messages and e-mails out loud automatically or on demand, while Mom is driving or on the road. Additional features include customizing auto-responses and timeout durations. DriveSafe.ly helps Mom stay connected without her texting or reading e-mails while driving.


iGallery – Mom can turn her BlackBerry into a digital photo frame so she can see the photos of her whole family in a slide show. Features include automatic photo slide, customizable play period, and password support.


OurGroceries – Mom, with the use of OurGroceries, can tap the rest of the family to help her with grocery shopping. OurGroceries automatically keeps the family’s grocery list up to date with the latest changes on every family member’s BlackBerry. Can also keep track of the key ingredients in favorite recipes and add them all at once to the shopping list.


SparkRecipes – Spark Recipes allows users to choose from almost 200,000 healthy recipes that are categorized according to occasion, cuisine and more. Mobile and easy to use, working mothers can instantly decide which meals to whip up for their families on their way home.


Viigo – Moms love keeping pace with her family’s interests. Viigo for BlackBerry will help Mom keep tabs with what her family is into and what she is into herself. Whether it’s the latest stock market update for her husband, the results of the NBA play-offs for Junior, the best fashion trends for her unica hija, or impressive recipes from Kumareng Martha Stewart, information is delivered quickly, efficiently, and intuitively in a format specially designed for BlackBerry.

By the way, these are free apps!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Today I heard everybody greeting each other "Happy Cinco de Mayo!", since I just knew it as an Spanish translation of "May 5th", I researched why this day is important.

Cinco de Mayo (fifth of May) is holiday that commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. Cinco de Mayo is most celebrated in Puebla and in the United States.

Happy Cinco de Mayo Everyone!

What a Phone!..

There is this funny-looking and awesome phone I found in online store. A built-in electric shaver phone which I think can be a nice gift for your man. This can be useful in times when you need to do some shaving and you are in the middle of the wilderness! or... you are a traveller, who need to use the shaver while talking on the phone, something like that. :)

See, this can be a perfect gift for a busy man, who almost forgot to shave, and a unique birthday gift for anyone.

Oh, the phone is called Cool758. This phone has a built-in electric shaver at the bottom and it is not a joke – the razor capacity is enough to give you a nice everyday shave. This razor phone can handle three days old shave, supports two SIM cards and the GSM900/1800 MHz and has the sizes of 120×52x19 mm. It retails for $112.

Apart from electric shaver, the phone features:

•2.5-inch touch screen (240×320 resolution, 260 000 colors);
•506 KB memory;
•it supports microSD memory cards up to 8 GB;
•0.3 megapixel camera;
•FM Tuner, Bluetooth, 64-tone polyphony;
•2800 mAh battery (not built-in but comes with the phone

Nice idea, because if there is phone designed for women, there should be a phone designed for men!

My fav. Cartoon-inspired Houses

Been surfing the net and bumped into the "Real Houses Inspired by Cartoons" photo collections and these are my favorite houses.


A Hello Kitty inspired house in Taipei, Taiwan. So cute and so girlie!!!!


This gloomy and mysterious mansion is the same the Batman's house in Gotham city. That red flash makes me wonder if the Batmobile has just passed by.