29 May 2010

Summer of 2007, close neighbors organized an outing to help us cope up with dad's death and for us to just have a great fun time together. Since then, we have organized an outing every year, and if the first three ones were all located in Bulacan, we decided to go to Antipolo this time. Even before we planned this year's outing, I have already found a resort's website and was able to download their brochure, but I wasn't able to get the name of the resort. When we started planning, we were a bit on a stand still because we cannot decide which resort to go to, until the Raboys have suggested Loreland Farm Resort. It was the same resort I found a few weeks ago.

We left our place around 5:30 in the morning so we could arrive early. It was a bit sad that it was mainly our family and the Raboys going out on an outing because the Jacelas cannot come, and the Villarandas went out the day before and got home a bit late. Still, tito Euling came with us and even drove us to the resort.

We arrived around 7:30AM. It was a beautiful resort, and as soon as we settled, we quickly confirmed that this resort was better than Amana (in Pandi, Bulacan), where we went to last year. The sun wasn't shining so bright, so in no time we already changed clothes and hit the water. I pretty much just let the pictures to our other companions, but from time to time, I would get my camera to take pictures. But then, picture taking wasn't my top priority that time - enjoying a great time was. This was my last trip for the summer, and I just want to soak up the sun!

It was only 10AM when we had lunch. I guess most of us (including me) weren't able to eat breakfast, and staying in the pools may made us hungry. :) The Raboys brought Pancit Bihon, Lumpiang Shanghai, and Pork Adobo, while we brought marinated pork, chicken and liver, which brother grilled in the resort. Some of them took the time to take a nap after eating, while I went with Charm, her husband & baby, 'te Cha, and 'te Indang to another pool that looked like a jacuzzi.

When brother came to meet us, I found out he already roamed the resort to take pictures, and I didn't want to miss out on pictures, too, because I didn't want to deprive my other persona. We then took pictures of us first, then brother went with me to roam the resort. I have a great brother, I know! :)

By 3PM, everybody seemed to be ready to go home, but some of us still wanted to have a massage, so we just waited until they were finished. Most of us wanted to visit the Antipolo Church, but it was already past 5PM when we left the resort, so tito Euling didn't want to go to the church anymore and just head home straight because his family will still be traveling tomorrow.

We took a different route going home, and when we reached Marikina, we got lost. We got tangled in the jungled streets, and after conquering that hurdle, we were faced with another situation - the very congested Katipunan road. At one point, we had to stop and they had to put on water because the engine was overheating. While waiting, I was told of a personal viewpoint - that maybe we got lost because we decided not to visit the church and something (someone) might be upset, hence the consequence. I told it to brother, and after a while he told me that following the logic that I just told, it's quite freaky to know that the patron saint of Antipolo City is the "Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage." Good voyage... get it? Freaky.

It was already around 9:30PM when we got home. While traveling home we were quite hungry and all, but we can just joke about it because we didn't want to upset the elders. Actually, mom got a little irritated when we would point at every food place we saw on the road, and I just told her not to take it seriously because we were just amusing ourselves. It was a good thing that we passed by Tri Mo Shawarma in Lagro, Quezon City where we bought our would be dinner. We were hoping to eat it in the service, but we decided to just wait until we get home.

Tired, body was aching... but I was happy. Just making this outing come to life was already satisfying enough for me.

*** Jenn ***

A few months ago, I saw a link from my Facebook wall about a contest. A lot of times, I do check it out and join them, if I can. The contest was an easy one, it's hardly a contest come to think of it. It was a giveaway, for the first 20 people who can comply with the mechanics can get themselves the prize.

What people should do was to write something about "Your Favorite Beach Destination in the Philippines." After seeing three people joined in, I didn't waste more of my time and wrote a short write up. Soon after sending it, Melo (the one who authored the giveaway) posted my article in his blog. The prize? An autographed copy of Jessica Zafra's "Twisted 8 1/2" book. When I was still in college, I was able to read one of the Twisted books, and I loved the wit and the humor of Jessica Zafra. And now, I have one. I received my book a few days ago, and I am liking the snippets of stories inside. Thank you, Melo for the book. :)

More things to be thankful for this week:

• Mom and I being able to pull off cooking breakfast for 90 people.
• Eating lunch with mom and brother at a new food place.
• Me jokingly telling mom, "I think I lost weight..." and she answered, "I think so, too."
• The neighborhood outing pushing through this Saturday.
• Friends from the forum moving our photoshoot and get together on June 5 because I can't make it this Saturday.
• Our neighbor Ria allowing me to use her laptop for a while so I could get some pictures from my DVDs.
• Three new kittens!
• Rain started falling.
• Playing "Plants vs. Zombies" - a very good distraction.
• Me having longer patience.
• My left hip no longer aches as much, and I can now touch the floor with ease.

Here's to a week of more things to be thankful about!

*** Jenn ***

16 May 2010

When I last went to Market One, I was with friends. There are three reasons why I loved going there - to take pictures of the flowers, to play with the cute dogs, and to eat good food. I guess in every weekend market in the Metro, the main attraction would be the foods, so when my brother and I went back there a week after, we checked out aisle after aisle checking out the foods. Well, we weren't about to splurge on food, we just wanted to check it out.

Three interesting food things I found:


Crispy Frogs. I have tasted frog's meat once, and it was true that it tasted like chicken meat... but back then, it was cooked with coconut milk... I am not sure how the fried frogs taste like, but I still am not willing to try (just yet).


Pick-Up Chicks. I just loved how witty they named their brand. I was able to taste their chicken, it was good. Currently, they have two flavors - Inasal and Rosemary. For a woman who didn't really like the taste of rosemary, I found their rosemary chicken good.


Bottled Up. There's adobong itik, burong hipon... foods I haven't tasted yet, but am most willing to try if there's a chance.

It's very seldom for us to visit this place, and I seriously don't know when are we going back... but I am hoping that I could explore more culinary goodness. Time treat my palate for some gastronomic adventures.

*** Jenn ***

13 May 2010

I am not really big on birthdays. When my father was still alive, as soon as it turns May 01, I would bug him (and the rest of the family) day in day out about my birthday coming up. However, three days before my birthday, I would shut up and not speak of anything about my birthday because I wanted them to remember it. They do remember it, but somehow I always have this high expectation, and too early on my birthday, if it wasn't met, my whole day would be ruined - even if the family would greet me as if they were broken record. That's how twisted my mind was. Well, since my dad died, my little sick tradition died as well, and over time my personality "disorder" was slowly getting in track. On the day I turned thirty, I was proud to say that I am no longer onion skinned, and that I was able to adjust to the complexities of life.

My thirtieth birthday started around 6AM. Checking my cell phone, there was a birthday message from my friend Ryan and when mom saw me awake, she happily greeted me. It was a bit sad that my dad no longer gives me sloppy kisses on my cheeks on my birthday, but I was still blessed to have a mother who greeted me as if I just turned one year old. :) My sister and brother then greeted me, and that was enough already.

Of course, checking my Facebook and the forum I belong to, I was amazed at how many people greeted me. Some posted on my wall, while some sent me PMs. Come lunch time, I had a simple meal, and I set up to do my birthday tradition - taking pictures of myself. Somehow it was my way of checking how much I have changed.


I was already satisfied with the pictures, but then I remembered what my friend Ethel asked me in the forum. She asked, "What's your birthday wish?" I gave a few light answers (to own a laptop and a DSLR camera... to have a boyfriend...) and while those were (somehow) serious birthday wishes, my main birthday wish was "to be more in tuned with myself." For someone who had weight issues for as long as she could remember, I grew up very insecure, very pessimist, and someone very afraid to speak her mind. I always feel bad whenever people would make fun of me, or whenever people would look down on me, but while that was true, I never really realized that the number one person to look down on me was myself. Recalling a date I had in January, my date gave me a little lecture about self esteem and self preservation. That while it's okay to be introvert, I should never sell myself short.

I want to be in tuned with myself and I want to be confident with my own skin, so seeing that I was wearing a dress, I decided to start making my birthday wish come true on the day I wished it. I am the only one who can make my wish come true, so why not start now? I normally don't take pictures of my whole self because I am a very big woman and that I had bulges all over, but what the heck? I know there will be some people who will throw stones at me because of my obvious flaws, but now I just don't care. This was the first time in a very long time that I wore a dress in front of the camera, and I just enjoyed the moment. By the way, I wore three-inched wedge shoes and I didn't trip this time! :)

For dinner, I took over the kitchen and prepared something for the family. I prepared:


Carbonara. It's a Filipino tradition to serve noodles during birthdays for "long life," and because we had bacon and canned mushrooms, I just cooked this.


Saucy Chicken with Mango. I got the recipe from the May 2010 issue of Yummy Magazine... it was a unique dish - base recipe is like that of Chicken Tinola, but the mangoes and the leeks just gives it a delicious twist. If you want to try out this dish, you can check the recipe HERE.


Chocolate Heaven Cake. Brother's gift to me. The cake was so chocolate-y, and it was very sweet. Good thing I just told brother to get the junior size, because if we had the big one, for sure it's still in the fridge 'til now. Thanks brother.

I am not really big on birthdays. But with the foods, the greetings, and everything in between... I am thankful. I am happy to be reaching a new decade of my life, and I am looking forward to live my life with more colors and with more love for myself. If life starts at 40 for some, to me it starts with 30.

*** Jenn ***

ps - Every time I turn a year older, there will always be one particular person who stood up among the rest. This year, it's my friend Royginald. He greeted me in Facebook, in the forum, and he also sent me a "happy birthday" text message using his two numbers. Thanks a lot, friend.

12 May 2010

While my siblings and I were having lunch, sister told us that mom would meet us a little past 5PM. Turned out, sister sent mom a text message saying she hopes for us to have a family dinner out in celebration of my birthday. It was an early celebration because today was the only day off my sister has.

Whenever the family goes out to eat "birthday dinner," the celebrant always has the one to choose where to eat. I chose to eat at Napoli Pizzeria, because ever since I saw this food place back at its original place in East Fairview, I already wanted to eat there. It's been a year or so since they transfered in SM Fairview, so now that I have found the reason to eat there, I guess it was time for us to taste their dishes.

While thinking what foods we will have, the Jacelas came in. What a small world! Mr. and Mrs. Jacela were celebrating their wedding anniversary, and their daughter Ria was with them. Since we were seated in a 6-seater table, we just asked them to share the table with us so we could eat together.

We had:

All Meat Pizza. They didn't have supreme pizza, so I chose this.

Mozzarella Bars. The ones I tasted at C' Italian Dining was so great, so seeing they had something similar made me want to try their version, too.

Baked Ziti with Hungarian Sausage. Brother's choice.

Lasagna. Mother's choice.

The menu said "all pasta are good to share," but we didn't realize the serving would be that big! Had we known that their serving was good enough to feed four people, we never should've had one of the pasta dishes. Anyway, we certainly had a cheese overload, but it was a great dinner.

The Jacelas opted to have their own food. They had Seafood Pesto Pasta and Mr. Jacela had their Tuna Hero Sandwich (because he cannot eat anything spicy and / or sour). All of us had a hearty dinner filled with stories and laughter.

*** Jenn ***

12 May 2010

It was sister's day off, so I asked if we could go to the mall just to have some bonding moment. My sister and I do share a bed, but it felt as if I've missed out on things about her because at times I was already asleep when she comes home and that I was still too sleepy to get up in the morning when she leaves the house. She said she has nothing specific to do for this day, so she agreed for us to go to the mall. Upon hearing our talks, brother said he would come with us, too, because he has some pictures to be printed.

We first let brother go to the photo shop to have his pictures processed, and after it was time for us to find a place to eat. We checked food places after food places, and in the end we chose to eat at Metro Tokyo Tokyo. At first we were, "it was basically the same as the normal Tokyo Tokyo," but we quickly argued, "but it's Metro." Seemed the word "Metro" was the difference, so off we went.

We seldom eat at Tokyo Tokyo, but whenever we do, we always have the same food - brother with his shrimp tempura, sister with her pork tonkatsu, and I with the beef misono. No need to post pictures of those foods as I always post them whenever I had the chance... anyway, we added something new to our meal, just so we could taste other dishes, too.

Yakisoba. I still haven't tasted the yakisoba (except those instant ones), so I had this one. For a snack size, there was a lot in the serving dish, and of course I asked the help of my siblings to help me eat it. It was okay, although I surely wished they added more veggies.

Spicy Tuna Sushi. My sister asked me to order 4 pieces of this as her add on food, and brother also expressed his desire to taste some sushi. I recommended him to have the other types so we could taste another different dish, but he said he didn't like Cali Maki and he didn't like Kani Rolls, so we just had 8 pieces of this one. I am not a big fan of the sushi, but this one tasted really good.

It was a great lunch for us. It was great to be sharing lunch with my cool and wacky siblings again. Despite our differences, I am happy and thankful to have them as my siblings. Not only were they my siblings, but friends, too.

Some more things to be thankful during the past week:

• Turning a year older.
• Re-opening my food blog - "I Live to Eat!"
• Receiving the "Twisted 8 1/2" book I won from a blog contest.
• Being able to attend the "Sarap Maging Babae" (Great to be a Woman) weekend retreat scheduled this weekend. I am thankful to be receiving the invitations and the details about the retreat - Thanks, Dorris!
• People appreciating the pictures I took. Thank you to all who told I take good pictures, and a special shout out to Richard Romano for saying I am good in composing my shots.
• An apology from JM. He just gone incognito for unknown reasons, and receiving a text message of apology from him made me feel better.
• Trying out two recipes from Yummy Magazine.
• Hearty laughs.
• New friendships.
• Pre-ordering Hanson's new studio album "Shout it Out." When I met up with my Hanson friends last 08 May, we talked about getting ourselves a copy of the album because we were very sure it wouldn't be released here in the Philippines. At first, I was set to get the 25usd package, but then the SMB retreat came and both needed attention, so I downgraded to the 12usd package.. however I didn't want to lose the bonus CD, so my friend Anne told me she will get the first package for me and I could just give her the rest of my balance when it was time for us to pick up the CD packages. Thank you, Anne for your generous heart.

*** Jenn ***

ps - Some of the bulleted items will be blogged in the days to come.
ps 2 - Brother wasn't in the picture with us because he was on the other side of the table....but he was there. :)