Say A Little Prayer for my Tia Piling

One month and one day after my father passed away, my Tia Piling followed. She suddenly had a stroke and was rush to the hospital. The doctors tried to revived her with no success. Two days ago we just had a family reunion. We were all very happy because for the longest time we never had the opportunity to see everyone in the family. Who would have thought this would happen so soon. And I just met my aunt for the first time and now she's gone. Oh how life can be so cruel. You'll never know when you're time is up. They say life is short. So love your love ones. Don't forget to tell someone you love them because you will never know when they will ever hear those words again.

Tia Piling, Nanay, Tia Gloria and Tia Tencia

When I met my aunt she was a little sad. She so wanted to go to Virac, Catanduanes to celebrate Christmas with her youngest son, our cousin Nunoy. We chatted a bit and it was a pleasant conversation about me and Tapioca. She even joked "Oh my, why did you pick such a big guy for you?" which I found funny. I am small and he is big. Quite an opposite but you know, opposites attract.

Tia Piling, it was great meeting you for the first and last time. May God bless your soul and we will keep you in our prayers.

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Christmas Time Is Family Time

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't remember the last time I've gone to a family reunion on a Christmas day. I don't think we ever had any. It's mostly summer outings in nearby resorts and beaches.

This Christmas, we held a family reunion (my father side) at Ate Benjie's place in Fairview. I had such a great time seeing them again for a happy event. What made me even happy was all of them (though some of them did not make it) finally met my special someone and they all loved him! I was so happy it almost made me cry. But my baby is indeed adorable and likable and huggable and kissable. Need I say more? LOL!!!

This is our first Christmas without Tatay. We still miss him. The celebration became more meaningful because we still have each other to cherish and love even more.

oler, nanay, jellybean and kuya

. . . Tapioca grilling the chicken which was a total hit. It was gone in seconds :-)

I hope you guys are all having a good time. It's indeed a season to be jolly. Falalalala.... lalala...

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Hey, It's My Birthday

Hi. I'm Jelly Bean and I just turned 28 years old yesterday. Thank you for all the birthday greetings you have sent through text messages and emails.

I just realized my family and I have always always and never failed to celebrated my birthday at home (with the exception of course of my other birthday celebrations with friends/officemates). For a change I decided to have a dinner out with my family. Now I'm a year older I'm suppose to be a year wiser, right? But on this dinner party, it made me think twice. I maybe a year older but still there were things I already knew which I need to relearn. I'm not sure but for some reason my brain was not functioning properly. It may be for reasons such as stress, lack of sleep, change of weather or maybe my memory might be overloaded with information or maybe, just maybe due to old age I'm losing my ability to retain information. Whatever it may be I can still be stupid sometimes.

First day of being 28 years old. Not bad, eh. (with my niece, Julia)

On my previous post, I have talked about changes. And this one tradition I was hoping to change on my birthday but silly me forgotten the reason why I always celebrate my birthday at home. Obviously my birthday falls on the busiest days of the season where everyone's out in the mall making last minute shopping etc, etc. so you can just imagine how dining out at this time can be so stressful.

All restaurants were full. Taxi lines were endless (buses and jeeps are being ignored, people these days are so rich!!!) and the change of weather was not helping at all. It was raining so hard on the night of my birthday. The night when we were suppose to watch the Light and Symphony show at the Ayala Triangle. That's how unlucky I can be on my day. Shucks. Which reminds me of what happened 1o years ago. The 'apat na sikat' will never forget my birthday back then. It was quite an experience but it would be another story to tell.

Stupid rain. The light and sound show at the Ayala Triangle got canceled :-(

Good thing my Tapioca had always have the right words to say which lifted up my spirit a bit. I wish I can remember the exact words he said. I guess I was starving so my mood was just like the weather. Since everyone was craving for chicken, we had dinner at Kenny Roger's. Ya know, all the grilled stuff goodness. Grilled chicken, sausages, burgers and not to forget baby back ribs that falls off the bones. Yummy. I apologized but me and my family were so hungry I totally forgot to take pics of the food. Nobody was in the mood to watch a movie so off we went to Time Zone instead. My niece Julia and nephew Oler had the time of their life. Play all you can courtesy of Tapioca. Thanks baby!






Bad timing and bad weather, still it ended up well. Lesson learned plan an early party ahead of time like lunchtime instead of dinner time.

Nanay, jellybean, julia, ate kathy and oler with the belen at the Ayala Triangle as the background.

I'm still bless to have these people with me on my birthday who loves me unconditionally. Thank you Lord for giving me another year to enjoy life.

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First Mystery Shopping Assignment: Check!

Note: This post was supposedly made last December of 2009 but due to blogging delinquency and my blog posts date getting all mixed up (expect this to happen a lot) I'm unable to post it on the actual date. My apologies.

I’m so excited and nervous at the same time for my very first mystery shopping gig. Since last night I’ve been reading and reading the guidelines over and over but I can't seem to remember them!!!! What the heck is wrong with me? I can’t bring in my notes when I visit the store because they might find out I’m the mystery shopper and that’s a big NO NO. Oh well, I just hope I do this right or else my career as a mystery shopper is over (It hasn't even started yet, duh!) Honestly, I’m not sure what to expect. Come on, aren’t we all shoppers? But then this is a job and I’m paid to shop. How cool is that? Waaah, I think I’m getting cold feet. Wish me guys luck. I really need it.



UPDATE: Just got from Mall of Asia for my mystery shopping gig and I’d say it was a piece of cake! Hehehe. Doing the deed was easy. It was the report that was crazy. Too many questions and answers must be concise and accurate.

UPDATE UPDATE: I got my payment for the assignment and it's in EUROS!!! (*giddy*)

If you want to become a mystery shopper like me, register now at Bare International (http://www.bareinternational.com/en). The company is 100% legit (based on my experience) as I already received payments from them via paypal.

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MTICS 2K2 Christmas Party 2010

The annual MTICS 2K2 Christmas party held at Buzz Point Ortigas. This time it did push through as planned. New faces came to the party surprisingly but as expected it's always fun to see them even once a year. I hope this tradition last for a long time. Once again we thanked all the benefactors for the freebies! Your contributions are well appreciated but sana umuwi naman kayo ng Pinas kahit minsan lang, please?

P.S. They all loved Buzz Point's famous wall. Most of our pics are taken with the red wall as the background. Click here to view more pics from the party.

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Early Christmas Present I Got In My Mailbox

I just got an email from Lori of Dessert Comes First. She said I won one of the Manila by the Day books she's giving away on her blog contest. Yay! So I emailed her back with my mailing address and thanked her for choosing my entry. After a week I received my prize. This is my first time to win on a blog contest. I'm so happy. Thanks again Lori!!!




Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to me!!!

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Changes

After 2 years of working on a normal working hours I'm back to the real life of call center. Hello night shift/graveyard shift. In a short span of time my life turned 360 degrees. I am very overwhelm and grateful at the same time. They said changes is inevitable. We need to change in order to grow. I definitely needed these changes to figure out what the Lord has in store for me. I'm turning a year older next month. With the past events I've been through, it made me realize there are still a lot of things I need to learn. I'm so caught up with a lot of stuff right now. I'm not even sure on how to start. But I believe in Him. I believe He wants me to go through all these in order to grow and strengthen my faith in Him.

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It's Been A Week...

My beloved father passed away last October 26, 2010. After 4 years on bed, the Lord thought it's about time to end his sufferings. It's time. We knew this was coming and we tried our best to be strong. To my family, relatives and friends who came to his wake and prayed for him, we really appreciated it. Thank you.


It's been a week now and we're still mournful and missed him so much.

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Fabulous SMEG

I was reading Real Living magazine one afternoon and spotted this very posh, stylish and retro looking refrigerator from a home owner they featured. I was so impress I immediately google what it was. When I found out these were from an Italian household appliance, I doubted no more. Tapioca and I adore Italian brand kitchen appliances and this one is an addition to our list. Check out this Fab SMEG ref matching a mini cooper.




We are mini cooper fans and now SMEG Fab fans, too. So 1950's! I swear we are gonna buy these someday. Someday. (Gotta work our asses off!) We think the red 2-door Fab would look lovely on a black and white kitchen that we wanted when we get our own place. It would surely be the star of the kitchen.

. . . pretty in red

But first things first. We need a house.

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And So We Thought . . .

. . . we finally found our home. Turns out East Residence Ortigas was not meant to be. The unit we so wanted to get was sold in minutes. On one of our house hunting trip, Tapioca and I thought the place we saw was great. But still we wanted to be so sure of what we're getting into. Buying a house is a whole different thing. It's not like shopping for clothes or shoes that you can go buy on impulse. We needed to think hard, really hard and decide if this is what we really wanted and if it's worth it.

On the last day of our leave, we got a call from our agent about an Open House thingy happening at East Residence Ortigas. They were giving discounts to people reserving a unit on the same day. Tapioca and I went there still unsure if we should go right ahead and buy the place or if we still need more time to think about it. Upon arrival, we met up with our agent and some other peole who were prospects buyers. I have never been in a open house party so I had no idea what was going to happen.

So anyway, we were there for the mass, waited for the mass to ended, waited until the priest finished blessing the 2nd building, waited until our agent explained to us what was going on. As I have said there were a lot of prospected buyers and basically everyone wanted to get the best unit available. Seeing all those people eager to buy we also felt the urge to go for it and reserve the unit without thinking. Without any care if the decision was right or wrong. Until all the good ones were taken and what's left were the 4th and 5th floor units of low rise condos without elevators.

It was a sad and emotional experience. We're very disappointed but one thing's for sure. It was a good decision not to pursue something because your mind was all for it and never wanted to look back and never cared for the disadvantages. It was all good. Glad we are over it. We are still not giving up this dream but next time we will be more prepared and 100% totally and absolutely sure of what we are getting into.

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The Return of the Good Joojoo

Still on house hunting, the following days seemed better than the first one. The good joojoo is back. We tried our luck searching for properties over the internet through sulit.com.ph when we came across East Residences Ortigas. The location was great and price range is within our budget. We called the agent right away. At 10:30 in the evening it's pretty cool he still did entertain us and setup a tripping the following day. And here's what the place looked like.

low rise condos of East Residence

And here's the view of a 30-sq meter model unit . . .


The first thing that you will see upon opening the door is this cute little kitchen.


They made it a two bedroom unit by setting up a division.



And the bathroom. Tapioca forgot to take pictures of the living and dining area.



And this is the bare unit. It's quite small but it's perfect for a starting family.


UPDATE: We did not acquire the property. The condo had no elevator and the available units left are in the 4th and 5th floors. Also we learned that this area got flooded during Ondoy. The house hunting experience taught us a lot of lessons. At the end of the day, we knew we made the right decision. If it's meant to be it's meant to be.

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On House Hunting, Bad Joojoo and Teriyaki Boy

I'm on a vacation leave. A 4-day vacation but it's not going to be an out of town trip or even an out of the country trip I have been dreaming of. For the next 4 days, we are going to be up to some challenges. Something that we have been planning and waiting for. But before the first day of my vacation ends, here I am typing away on my notebook and that's why this blog is almost (but not quite) up to date. I say I'm almost there. A little more diligence and frequency would make this blog more updated and by that time I'm going to be the happiest person.

Anyway, the most anticipated and top priority on our list was to look for a nice dwelling place. Yes, the house hunting is on. With all these condos left and right of the metropolis Tapioca and I dream of having our very own home sweet home. Due to different work schedules we can't make up time to do this. And I have been reading tips after tips on buying your own place. So many factors and things to consider so little time. We were expecting too much. We though this is just a piece of cake and that the 4 days we allocated was more than enough. Turns out we were sooooooo wrong. First day and we were already stressed out. Tapioca was putting the blame on me. He said I brought all the bad joojoo because I had use the chopsticks the wrong way at Teriyaki Boy. And I was like, "bad joojoo what?" He said it means bad karma or bad luck. Oh well who would have thought there is a wrong way of using a chopsticks. All I know was I'm craving for their Mabo Tofu goodness!

By the way, this post is worth 2 visits at Teriyaki Boy. The first one was in Gateway Mall where I discovered the Mabo Tofu and I can't stop thinking about them. The 2nd visit was at SM North.

. . . use the chopsticks properly or you'll suffer from bad joojoo

sapporo ramen . . .

This was Tapioca's choice. Soup base in miso with chashu slices, corn kernels, sesame moyashi (sprouts), leeks and toasted garlic. He said it was just okay. Take note the soup is served warm.

. . . chuuka ramen

Soup base in shoyu with thinly sliced Japanese roast pork, pechay, gari (pickled ginger), spring onions and cracked pepper. Jellybean's choice. Again the soup was warm. So I asked the server to return the bowl of ramen back to the kitchen and heat up my soup to a scalding hotness. It was serve back to me still not hot enough to my liking. Sigh.

And here's my mabo tofu served in a pretty cast iron cauldron with wooden cover. Perfect to keep the soup warm. How I wish they served the ramen in these cauldrons too.

mabo tofu . . .

Diced silken tofu, cooked in spicy broth with ground pork and leeks. The tofu was so good it has a clean taste and it melts in your mouth. And the heat level was just right. I'm not really fan of spicy food but with this dish, the flavors blended so well. And if the hotness gets too intense I'll just eat spoonful after spoonful of rice. Yum!

. . . sukiyaki beef teppanyaki

Stir-fried beef bacon slices with onions and teppanyaki sauce. Nobody can go wrong with this dish. Another yummy pick.

tempura tuna sashimi tartare . . .

Tuna sashimi in a spicy mix of tempura flakes and Japanese mayo. Tapioca was raving about this. He said it was very refreshing. A different way of serving sashimi. He said the combination of textures and flavors were amazing.

. . . teriyaki boy fish n' chips

Battered and deep-fried creme dori served with special wanton crisps and tartare sauce on the side. This was the most boring dish on our table.

gyoza . . .

Steamed pork dumplings and then seared until crisp. This was good but not as good as Shinjuku's version.

Noticed there was something missing in this post? Again no dessert cos we ordered a lot. After meal we headed straight to the mall to look for prospect properties but everything turned out not so well because of the bad joojoo. I felt so sad and tired I put all my remaining energy and frustrations in blogging. But tomorrow is another day and I'm praying for my good joojoo's return.

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Our First Year - Last Part

The surprises did not end from the restaurant hopping at Eastwood City.


When we went home, there were actually more surprises. Just like this fluffy creature hiding underneath the blanket.

Meet Miss Petunia, my pink overweight rabbit.

'Hello! I am one of Blue Magic's little fairy tale friends. I was created to inspire love and kindness and I promise to share with you lots of warmth and happiness. I am a twinkling dream nurtured to life by pure hearts and gentle fingers. My name is Miss Petunia. Please adopt me. I long for your tender snuggles and warm loving cuddles' - Miss Petunia.


Officially she is now our adapted fluffy rabbit. Little did I know she had a secret within her. Then I found out what it is . . .

. . . and I said yes!

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Our First Year - 3rd Part

The restaurant hopping continues and for the third stop, it's ramen baby at Ramen Bar.

. . . 3rd stop

The menu consists of all things ramen and a little bit of non-ramen items.


Whenever we dine at Japanese, Chinese or Korean restos we always, always ask for the house tea.


And Ramen Bar's house tea comes in these really cute cup. It tasted burnt though but hey it's free and you can ask for refill anytime. Up next is our ramen. We just ordered one bowl to share cos we were still planning to dine somewhere else and we thought it comes in a huge bowl as it says on the menu but we're wrong.

R.B.S. #1 . . .

Ramen Bar Special. When it was serve, we were very disappointed. The bowl wasn't that huge. We're hoping at least they fill up the bowl to the brim. The soup wasn't hot and it tasted weird. I hate it.


We knew they just opened and in a dry run but the service that night was terrible. It was a few minutes before closing time when we entered the place. A few diners already done with their meal. We got a seat and ordered a bowl of ramen to share. Then the wait staff kept serving us food we didn't order. And that happened like 3 times. A few people to serve food with and they can't remember which customer ordered the right food. But the worst of them all happened to the couple right next to our table. They were served a glass of house tea with a lipstick mark on it. When the lady pointed this, turned out it wasn't for her pala. It was for another customer at the back who requested for a refill. Hay!!!! So much for all the boo boos!


We love ramen and we love the fact that a new ramen place is just a few meters away and we don't have to drag our feet all the way to Makati for a ramen fix. But it's gonna need sometime before we will be back here for a second chance.


Fourth and final stop, our hearts skip a beat. This is what greeted us at Johnny Rockets . . .

a juke box and all you can eat FRIES!!!

Now, lookey lookey here . . .

A9 - Happy Together by Turtles, puuurfeeecttt!!!

And as if I was not content by that, I went to the actual juke box and spent all my one-peso coins to play more of the oldies but goodies songs.



And this is what we ordered . . .

Chili Size

Open-faced burger with all-meat chili topped with grated cheddar and chopped onions. A messy burger to eat. We shared this too but I think he had more than what I ate. Tapioca loves anything with chili.

. . . Root beer float for Tapioca

They serve the root beer and the ice scream on separate glasses which was cool. Remember how root beer overflows when you put ice scream on it? On this manner you really get a full glass of root beer and control how much root beer you can put on the other glass to prevent from spilling. Me likey.

Mocha Milkshake for Jellybean

This was quite an expensive milkshake and it also comes in two glasses. For a milkshake lover serving size would be satisfying but if you don't like diabetes milkshake this can be shared by two person. So I guess that made up for the price. Anyway, it was too sweet like it was all ice scream and no milk at all. I like the glass though and was hoping to buy one for use at home.


Not to forget, the fries. One of the best french fries in town. Served unlimited with smiley ketchup on the side. This also put a smile on our faces.


Jayvee and Hephaestion dropped by Johnny Rockets to celebrate with us. By this time we were all full. Our sweetness is too much already. There's no room for dessert anymore. Hihihi!

no more room for dessert

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