Happy Birthday Baby T and Baby G

Baby T with his parents at his birthday party at the Century Park Sheraton

Baby G with Grand Uncle E

Our New Best Friend

Our Balikbayan Box from New Jersey just arrived after almost 3 months with this precious little thing. Tried it last night while watching TV. It's the iRobot Roomba, the automated vacuum cleaner. Galing!

End of My 16th Term

Last Saturday was the last day of classes for this term, my 16th as a teacher!

Big Bag Sale!

Pre-owned bags for sale:

Gucci (P5,000 each)

Prada (P5,000 each)

Louis Vuitton (P15,000)

She Loves Ice Cream!

Taken at Elfav(El Favorito) Ice Cream Parlor at Pergola, BF Homes Paranaque. Loved this place, and so did Baby S. They also have full meals available (pasta, steak...),snack items (like nachos), free wi-fi, and they have some board games available. Would love to own a place like this some day...

Westgate, Alabang

After reading about Kanin Club, our Dad invited us for lunch. Of course they wanted to try the Crispy Liempo and Crispy Dinuguan. We also had the Grilled Squid, Dilis Salad, Aligue Rice and Tinapa Rice. Baby S had the Chicken Nuggets, and she almost finished one order! The place is super full on Sundays, and they don't accept reservations.

After lunch, we had coffee at Bona Coffee. It was a very relaxing place, and they have free wi-fi.

CCME Homemade Foodstuff Co.

On special occasions at work with my team, we arrange for food delivery from CCME (Tel. Nos. 9282765,9299598,0920-4615445), which offers a wide variety of dishes at a very reasonable price. Last Tuesday, we ordered the following (One order serves 20 people):

Lechon Kawali – my favorite, yummy! The pork skin was really crunchy (2 kilos at P550).
Beef Steak - also good, tender beef slices with lots of onions (P645)
Shrimp Tempura – more like breaded shrimps, but good enough (P720)
Chop Suey – very good, with young corn, mushrooms, chicken liver and the usual vegetables (1 gallon tray at P280)
Rice – (1 gallon tray at P95) for 20 people, we ordered 2 trays

With drinks, the meal cost around P132 per person (there’s a P100 delivery charge). Very reasonable, I must say, and we definitely enjoyed the bonding!

Other dishes we have tried that are also really good:

Beef Lengua in Salsa Blanca – ox tongue in creamy white mushroom sauce (1 gallon at P730)
Beef Lengua Estofado – ox tongue in tomato and red wine (P730)
Beef Roast (P645)
Chicken Pastel - crusted creamy chicken,sausage, mushroom and potatoes (P565)
Fish Fillet – with mushroom dip (2 kilos at P625)
Seafood Medley (1 gallon at P680)

Take a look at their mouthwatering, expansive and reasonably priced menu at http://homemadefoodstuff.com.

Kanin Club

Much has been written about Kanin Club (Westgate, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Tel. No. (632)7711400) , but I only got to try it last Wednesday. Auntie S (from New Jersey) was home for a few weeks and my sister T and I took her and cousin Kuya H to Kanin Club as recommended by E. The food is definitely a must try! We just tried the dishes that Kanin Club is famous for: crispy liempo (deep fried thinly sliced liempo, very much like chicharon) and crispy dinuguan (lechon kawali topped with dinuguan sauce), plus laing and nilagang beef tadyang, and of course the loaded fried rice (fried rice with Chinese sausage, crabmeat, ham, peas, sautéed pork, scrambled egg and garlic). Yummy! The meal was definitely cholesterol-laden, but I loved all the dishes!

Why I Am A Teacher - Part 2

It has been 8 weeks since we started this school term, and I’ve never felt happier about teaching. In my “25 Random Things About Me” in Facebook, this is my number 2:

“ I think that being a teacher is the best job in the world and is the most underrated. It is a lot of HARD WORK, but nothing beats the feeling when you know that your students do their best…”

In my two classes this term, I have students who scored poorly in the first quiz, but got 90 and above in the succeeding exams. That only means that they were challenged by the subject at the start, but that didn’t stop them from doing their best. I’m glad I am their teacher this term, it gave me so much inspiration and fulfillment.

Food Trip - Feb and Mar 2009

1. Gloriamaris for my Dad’s Part 2 Birthday Celebration.

Because I missed my Dad’s birthday celebration the week before, my Dad invited us for another birthday treat at Gloriamaris in BF Paranaque. Have I told you that my Dad’s favorite food would be Chinese? We had our favorite dimsum Hakaw and Shark’s Fin siomai, Salt and pepper squid, Pata Tim, Steamed broccoli with garlic and Yang Chow Fried Rice.

2. Little Asia for my good friend MV’s birthday treat

Little Asia would count as one of our favorite restaurants, they have a large variety of good Asian dishes, plus the prices are very reasonable. We had the Shrimp appetizer with mango dressing, Thai eggplant, Korean beef stew, Chinese Fried Chicken and Pork with salt and pepper. Had a great time with my closest friends at work and their better halves.

3. Potluck with High School friends

When our High School Classmate Dr. NN was home for a few days, we organized a potluck party for a mini high school reunion. The highlight was of course a Lechon de Leche from Ping-Ping. Other dishes were a home-cooked paella by my high school barkada JMU, KFC chicken , Pancit from Ado’s, and a couple of desserts from Conti’s and Red Ribbon. We had the get-together at Dr. NN’s unit in The Ascott (the former Oakwood at the Glorietta).

How To Slow Down

That's what I really have to learn to do. I hardly noticed it but the past few weeks' whirlwind of major events at work and in school have finally taken its toll on me. The spirit is of course willing, but the body weak. And I hate myself for getting sick because I missed going to class, missed my Dad's birthday dinner and missed my dear friend P's baby shower. And I live for all these things! The thing is, I hardly get sick, hardly. And of all days to get sick, that's when I definitely didn't want to get sick!!!

Fully Paid

One of the few things that make me smile these days is the thought that I have now fully paid my car. Made the last payment today and am so relieved.