See You Around Karen

Today is my friend K's last day at work. After 16 years with our office, she has decided to resign. The decision did not come easily as all of us, her friends, were convincing her to stay.

Wag muna! 

Five years na lang may pension ka na kasama ang medical insurance.  

Pwede ka naman lumipat na lang ng department.

Mami miss mo kami!

None of what we said could change her mind. It took her a year to arrive to this point but arrive she did. Her mind is made up. All we can do now is support her decision and cheer her on whatever course she takes.

It's the holiday season and most staff are on leave.  On her last day with us, we had a two hour lunch at Sumo San in Megamall. No worries about the long lunch since there were no bosses anyway. I was on leave by the way but joined them along with the Twerp.  We got our orders out of the way so we could get on to talking.

Spicy Tuna Salad (P218)

Chicken Teriyaki (P228)

Sukiyaki

Japanese Fried Rice (P228)

K joined our office two years before I did. On my first day at our department, being introduced around to everyone, she stood out as she was very friendly and welcoming. It was very easy to talk to her and to approach her if I needed help with anything. She was the one who said that she recognized me from PNB where we both worked previously. That she also worked there. I was surprised. I'm not good at remembering faces. But I did recall her after a while and I remember even talking to her. We eventually moved to other departments but kept up our friendship. I'm sure that this is not the end of our friendship. I have few close friends but those friends I keep for life. Goodluck K!

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2013 Starbucks Diary

Once again, I joined my friends in completing the sticker required for the 2013 Starbucks Diary. You might ask, like I ask some of my friends, if I actually use these diaries. Yes, I use them as notebooks for to-dos, reminders and notes. This time though, I will actually use it as a diary because my office has discontinued giving its staff yearly diaries. Sucks to use it for work but very efficient for me to have a diary for work.

This year has a magnet closure and they come in three colors: black, white, and green. I like the white and the material used can be wiped clean in case it gets dirty. As before, there are coupons which can be used every month for a variety of Starbucks products.

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Sunday Market at Centris Walk

I like Sunday markets. There are always interesting finds in these markets. I have a friend who frequents these markets. She brings lunch from home tow work and sometimes she would share and say, I got this from the Sunday market. It's really, really good. And it is! Whatever, LONGGANISA, DANGGIT, fruits, etc. So, she was telling us how this Sunday market she went to moved to Eton Centris and it's bigger now and that we should go.

So, off we went my friend K and I with the TWERP in tow. It was late when we got there, around 10AM and it was HOT! T wasn't kidding. There was so much to see! We decided to just walk and stop if we find anything interesting. Right away I saw these long dresses that's looks really comfortable and cool to wear in this summer heat. I bought a YELLOW dress for P100. Too bad there weren't really nice dresses for Via. I did buy her one dress for P50 but well, for fifty pesos it was okay.

Then we moved on to the food section. There were a lot of cooked food that was very hard to resist since we can smell how GOOD they would taste :) Still we restrained ourselves. We came upon the BACKYARD CHEF. I loved what this stall was selling. I bought one container of the Queso Kalabaw with Shiitake Mushrooms. I thought it was expensive but I love cheese so I bought one. It's mixed with olive oil to preserve it. The BACKYARD CHEF had other variations with of the Queso Kalabaw. I am definitely coming back here to try them all. He also had this Tamarind sauce that's good as a dip or as a salad dressing.  We were really interested in his food stuff that we asked him if he was a chef by profession. No, he said he was a retired engineer and this is his passion. I ate the Queso Kalabaw with toasted sourdough bread. It was super. I think it would also go well with crackers or to mix with pasta.

Next we went to the produce section. The vegetables were fresh and healthy looking despite the heat. We bought DUHAT for P65/half kilo. Was disappointed though because it wasn't sweet.

Our last stop was the plant section. K bought two indoor plants for only P100 each. When the plants at home die, which they will because they don't get enough sun and air and whatever plants need, I'll buy plants when we come back. You might be thinking why buy plants when I expect them to die. Well, a Feng Shui person told me I had to have plants in the kitchen and this part of our house that was a "portal" for spirits. I don't super believe in it, well maybe a little bit. She asked if I felt fatigued all the time which I was. Once I put place those plants where she told me to and put up some pictures of the woods and mountains on the wall separating the bedroom and the kitchen, I did feel better. No more fatigue. She said the proximity of the kitchen to my bedroom was draining my energy. Okay, so I need to have plants in the house. The lady who sold K her plants said that those thrived indoors and hardly needed sun and water. So that's what I will buy. Hopefully, we can keep it healthy.

We didn't stay very long because of the heat and because we were very hungry but next time, we will come a little earlier so Via could try the slides that we saw as well as be able to look at  the other areas we didn't get to.

Linking up with Food Trip Friday!

Happy Weekend!

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Meralco's Maliwanag ang Pasko and Liwanag Park

Meralco,  the power company, usually has really nice light displays during the holiday season and this time they had the Meralco's Maliwanag ang Pasko and Liwanag Park. We went to see it last night. Free entrance, anyone can just go in. I brought my camera to take photos but guess what, after a few shots the battery ran out. I forgot to charge it. So some of the pics are not that clear because I took them with the camera on my mobile phone. This is the entrance here. I took this photo as we were leaving actually.

There was a train ride, again FREE! The train seats 16 people and goes round the track about 5 times or maybe a little more. It sure was fun.

There were several structures made to look like houses and churches.

Meralco's Maliwanag ang Pasko and Liwanag Park is really a great place to relax and enjoy the cool night air. This nativity scene is huge and this it the last photo I took with my digicam before it ran out of battery.

And....here it's time to go home because Via stepped in some mud and got here feet and shoes soaked in mud. But we had fun at Meralco's Maliwanag ang Pasko and Liwanag Park. I am looking forward to next year's light display.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

C

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Omigosh An Earthquake!

It's what I fear most because we live in a high-rise building that's 40 stories and we live on the 36th floor. In the aftermath of the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, I live in fear of earthquakes especially since the Philippines lies along the Pacific ring of fire that have frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Well, we just had a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Manila (according to the news) early this morning. I woke up at around 1:20AM because I felt our bed swaying a little. I sat up in bed thinking that maybe I was feeling dizzy from waking up suddenly. The swaying continued for what seemed like a very long time. The Twerp did not stir neither did Via's caregiver, her Tita Neneng.

When I felt the swaying stop, I debated whether to go down to the lobby. I waited a few minutes, then the swaying started again. I was praying that it would not get stronger than what I felt was a hammock slightly swaying. It stopped again after what felt like several minutes, although I guess it must have only been a minute. I thought then it would be a very weak earthquake. I logged online to check if there were any news of the earthquake but I saw none online. It just happened after all! It took a while for me to fall asleep again.

I was so surprised when my friend Bex sent me SMS about the earthquake at around 6AM saying there was an earthquake and it was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Manila. I checked for news online again as soon as I got to the office and found out that the epicenter was in Zambales, a province about 5 hours away from Manila and that there were several aftershocks. So what should we do during earthquakes again? Here is a checklist I got from the Red Cross website. If inside the building like we were:

• Drop, cover, and hold. Move as little as possible.


• If in bed, stay there, curl up, hold on and protect your head with a pillow.


• Stay away from windows to avoid being injured by shattered glass.


• Stay indoors until the shaking stops and make sure it's safe to exit. If you must leave the building after the shaking stops, take the stairs, not the elevator as there may be power outages.


• Sprinklers and fire alarms may go off.

For more information, visit the Red Cross website.

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The New Bureau of Immigration Building

Two years ago when I went with P to renew his visa at the Bureau of Immigration in Intramuros, this building was being renovated. The office where foreigners went to extend their Philippine visa and other matters was in a small cramped office with makeshift counters made of wood. It was crowded and hot and unsystematic. We had to go back and forth between 2 buildings .

It's now a whole lot better. The renovated office is spacious and airconditioned. They had fliers listing procedures for the various services needed by foreigners from student visa, renewal of ACR, visa extension, etc. The fliers even indicated the estimated time each step would take.

We finished everything before lunchtime except for the release of P's passport. We decided to have lunch as it would be another 40 minute wait. I used to work in PNB, Escolta and one of my favorite places to eat was at the Bacolod Chicken House in Intramuros. This is the original chicken bacolod and none of the chicken inasal restaurants that came later can compare to the taste. Because we were so hungry, I forgot to take pictures of the food. All I have are pictures of our empty plates. Each of us had 2 orders of paa (leg part) and garlic rice and adobong kangkong. Soooo happy!

It was overcast when we stepped out of Bacolod Chicken House, so we took a leisurely walk back to the immigration building. This is King Felipe of Spain from whose name Philippines was named.

I don't know what these ruins used to be but it dates back to time the Philippines was a colony of Spain.

When we got P's passport we decided to take the Pasig River Ferry back. So we walked along Jones Bridge towards Escolta Street where there is a Ferry Terminal. This statue was a gift from the Government of Singapore.

Jones Bridge, Manila...

A view of Pasig river from Jones Bridge....

At the bottom of Jones bridge is the entrance to Chinatown (Binondo)....

The Pasig River Ferry Terminal in Escolta....

We were tired when we got home but happy that mission was accomplished.

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