HAPPY HOLLOWEEEN EVERYONE!Just help yourselves with eyeball chocolates, blood soup, gut cookies, bat stew. There's also blood juice and spirits. Or if you are more adventurous, there's worm spaghetti, nut-o-roaches, muffins sprinkled with spiders, there are bowls of crickets, beetles, centipedes, maggots for crunchy finger foods. There's snake soup, snake bladder snack. There's fresh pig's blood too if you don't care for blood soup. Have fun.
Of spirits and unseen forces
What comes to mind when you think of holloween? Pumpkin carvings, scary costumes, ghosts stories, haunted houses, colors of orange and green and spider webs, witches and their brooms. These are some of my thoughts when I think of holloween, and there's the children trick or treating and basket full of candies and sweet delights. But do you know the
christian connection?
Growing up in the Philippines, hallow's eve is not quite celebrated just like how they celebrate here in the US, atleast that's the case in my hometown. There might be some holloween parties, were kids wear costumes and try scary tricks and games. But that's about it.I never associated pumpkins with holloween until I moved here in the US. Pumpkins were just considered vegetables. Nothing significant about them then. But hallow's eve then was believed to be the night that the spirits of the dead comes out and mingles with the living. That was the belief that I heard growing up and it probaly is still the belief of most folks where I come from. As a kid I was even afraid to go out on hallow's eve, not only becasue I am afraid of ghosts roaming around but also a lot of people are doing scary pranks and tricks.
You might go out walking on the streets and all of a sudden someone behind the bushes jumps out and scare the life out of you. My highschool classmates would do that, or they hide behind the bushes and prey on unsuspecting person, whatever trick they can come up with.
The most celebrated part really is the "All souls' day" atleast to the Catholics. They visit the graves of their loved ones, clean and offer prayers, put flowers and candles and priests come and bless the graves with holy water. And being a Catholic, I shared this practice of going to the graves. It seems fun at that time especially when your whole family and friends are doing it. It's almost like a picnic on top of the grave.
I have never experienced seeing a ghost so I remain skeptical. But I am very curious about the paranormal and the supernatural. I was watching "Psychic Detectives" on Discovery channel and it is unbelievable how these psychics can see through visions and vibrations, whatever it is they call energy. It is amazing. I have heard of people who can communicate with the dead, I have never seen it firsthand though. I believe some people are gifted that way. It's just hard to just believe anybody without proven authenticity since some people could just be using tricks for decieving purposes.
Like the idea of "mangkukulam" in the Philippines. I have never seen or experienced it first hand so I can't say I believe it. It's all from stories that were passed along by word of mouth. Even in books we read about witches and magic powers of the dark and the idea of black magic and white magic. What I do know is that there are really people who can inflict evil and pain to other people. I just don't know how they do it and I remain a curious observer. Magic and rituals and spells, I still wonder about them. And there's voodoo. We lived in New Orleans for two years and this voodoo thing still remains a point of my curiousity. I have not seen anybody perform, it was just stories. I had the opportunity to go one of the ghost tours around the French quarter, our guide told us ghost stories as we moved along places of ghosts sighting and his stories combined with historical references. It was a bit spooky, it was dark and all these ghost stories probably got into my head. It was fun though plus we learned a bit of the French Quarter's history even some of the buildings that are still standing at present, well atleast those that were not damaged by the hurricane.
I can still remember as a child I heard a lot of superstitious beliefs that as I look back to them now, doesn't make sense. My family lives a small town in the Northern Philippines. It seems that superstitious beliefs are sometimes regional, depending what part of the country you come from. Well, I grew up hearing my grandparents and even my parents talk about how the hoot of an owl as a bad omen. We lived near the woods and we sometimes hear owls hooting. According to my grandparents, who are very superstitious, when the owl hoots at night, it is a sign it's about to collect a soul. So whoever's house the owl is facing, someone in that family dies. Now, isn't that a very scary thought. So, I grew up, being scared of the hooting of owls. One cool night, we were living in
Macon at that time. We lifted our windows to let the cool air in. We had screens, so we didn't worry about bugs. We also opened our bathroom window. In the middle of the night I woke up to use the restroom and while I was sitting down on the bowl, an owl came hooting right by our window. I jump out of my skin with horror. I was horrified to get back to bed and I didn't want to wake up my husband. But I did tell him the next day and he was laughing. Now as I think about it, it makes me laugh. There are still some superstitious beliefs left in me. It's almost like believing what the elders say about things without question, but when I grew up I began to question the scientific explanations of things. I admit that I have witnessed some things that really happenned without scientific explanations and so they are categorized as supernatural. And I believe there are things that happens that cannot simply be defined by reasoning and yet they do happen.
Bits and Pieces
" 20 random facts about me then tag the same amount of people
as minutes it takes you to write the facts "
Goodness! Parang marathon pala ito
Neng. Hindi ko pa inumpisahan ay hinihingal na ako.(I haven't started writting yet and I am already out of breath.)Sorry took me a while to do this. But, Ok it says random facts, but they are subjected to change without prior notice.
1.Book monster- loves to read,my adventures starts with leafing through the pages, aside from being a blog butterfly.(I am hoping I can write a book one day...maybe in my dreams.)
2. Watches CSI,Sienfield makes me laugh, Law and Order sometimes for noodle scratching cases.
3.I have a green thumb (green pinky lang yata), kumukulubot nga lang pag winter. Love the lushy greens, ornamental plants and herbs.
4. Health concious- always on a look out for what's healthy,I'm into organic foods anything that has health benefits.
5. Speaks Tagalog, English, Ilocano, Ifugao,learning Spanish at the moment. Knows a little bit of Cantonese, understands some local Philippine dialects of Kankana-ay, Ibaloi, Pangasinanse,Kalanguya, Kelay-i, some of these dialects you may have never heard of unless you come from the Cordillera Administrative Region.
6. I play tennis, can run 3 miles before falling to my knees.
7. I like to hang out to places like the library, the mall, backyards,patios, I'm crazy about screened porches.
8. Likes to trail hike, mountain hiking/walking- think that the mountains is one of the most serene and quiet places for spiritual conquest. Loves the rolling hills too.
9. Lakes are great too, loves the woods- grew up exploring the woods looking for palm hearts and fruit trees. Climbing Star apples, mangoes, mandarin orange trees used to be my childhood past time.
10. Loves Asian culture, and learning cultures of extraordinary practices and rituals.
11. Loves Asian cuisine, Filipino of course on top of the list. Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, some Korean, some Indian. Indulge myself with Mexican food, Mediterinean, Italian, Middle Eastern foods.
12.I'm a sort of a shopaholic (atleast according to hubby). You know retail therapy. I do that sometimes.
13. Optimist- I always look on the brighter side of things. And I never give up when about anything but sometimes my procrastinations get in the way.
14. I mind my own business-hindi ako masyadong pakialamera, and I avoid people who don't mind their own beeswax.
15. I can be nuts sometimes, I have my own wacky moments. But who isn't, everyone has their own normalcy and abnormalcy.
16. I put salt on my strawberries, I peel my grapes, I peel my apples. I eat bitter mellon (Ampalaya)
17. I fear nakedness. I guess that's one of my imaginary fears, to be caught in a compromising position. Bugs, worm, I don't fear them. I am brave that way.I figure, I can always squeeze the life out of them if the try to attack me.
18. I have a giant pineapple plant in my dining room (atleast it's a fact at the moment.)And I have photographic evidence.
19. I have nearly twenty plants in our house. It's a jungle in here and I like it that way. We are just missing a monkey. I do have a hunkey monkey and Tarzan in one body though. Well Tarzan and Jane lives here and I am Jane.
20. I'm a coffee addict. I cannot start my morning without coffee. I love tea and cocoa as well, and so with capuccino and mocha drinks.
Fourty Years of Virginity
We watched "The 40 year old Virgin", I think it's hilarious. It touched the subject of sex and virginity and relationship. First of, I don't think it's that bad to be a virgin. At 40 though that's a little too far down the road. I know some people who have reached their 30's and 40's and still single. Don't know if they are virgins though. That's something that people don't openly share. It's a sensitive issue for some people. And if they choose to be celibate for along time in their lives it's not that bad. But that's just me. In this modern world, it's almost like it's a fad that people should or must have to lost virginity especially for men. I don't know though if it's really a realistic desire of every growing teenager. It's almost like a race, who gets to get laid first or is it just all talk? But what is that, just for the heck of it. Being a woman for that matter, I respect my body and I think I got to be careful whom I share my body with.
I grew up in a more conservative environment and my parents always stressed on being careful. Growing up in the Philippines I wasn't even allowed to have a boyfriend even when I was in college. You might think, that I had been shielded. I grew up at a different place and time and I have to admit that I was in culture shock once I was submerged with the American culture. But I learn and I think am doing well. There's a certain feeling of freedom when you embrace some of the liberated ideas and still keep your own culture of upbringing. It's almost like meging two extreme ways of thinking and and keep it in a balance by staying at the middle.When I say balancing, it's choosing which way of thinking and way of life between all the liberated as well as conservative ways of lives. Not only that, expose yourself to other ways of thinking and then you get to decide which is better or best for yourself. In the process of submerging yourself, one undergoes certain levels of learning which involves confusion in the beginning. But once things settles down, a certain understanding starts to clear up.
Now going back to virginity, I grew up in a very inocent world where in our 20's a lot of us were still virgins and at that time, virginity was something precious and was thought to be kept only for the future spouse. Atleast that was the case for women, it seems to be not the case for the guys. They require the women to stay virgins until the night of their wedding, but it seems that the men wasn't required to. A double standard case and somehow I think it still is the case in the Philippines. But more and more women are getting into the liberated thinking, not to equal with men , but questions why they are required to be virgins and the men can do whatever they want. But I know that there are still a lot of Filipinos that still thinks that virginity is very important. I have to admit that even with my exposure to the more liberated ways of life, it scares me that some people gets sexually active at very young age. I don't have any kids yet, but I am already worried for my unborn children. Is that crazy or what? But as people keep telling me, it will depend on what kind of upbringing my children will have. Hopefully it will be the case. I remember a friend I had way back when we were still living in New Orleans. She used to tell me about her teen age son, she says she has a hard time handling him. And at one time, she saw some pornographic magazines in her son's room. Being a Filipina mom, she probably was horrified and confronted her son. The dad, he's American by the way, seems to be more relaxed about it. My friend was also concerned when her son told her he wants to get an apartment of his own. It's some of the scary stages of growing up to a mother. Her son was 17 at that time. Now as I am thinking about it, I am thinking, I have to better prepare myself for all these changes that may happen in the future by educating myself on how to discuss the sensitive issues with my future children (even if I don't have children yet). Although, I'm sure I will learn on hands on experience. I'm sure it will be harder when I am actually there, but learning to discuss sex issues comfortably would be a start. I have to admit that even with my husband, when talking about sex related issues, I still clam up. And it's because I grew up where sex related issues aren't openly discussed.
In The 40 Year Old Virgin, there was a part where the guys were talking about how sex could complicate things in a relationship. I think it does complicate things, especially if two people have sex at the earliest part of their relationship without even knowing each other. You know how they say "No sex on a first date". I think it's a wise idea. One should know the person more if you want a wholesome relationship. So that if ever you discover things that may ruin that relationship you will be able to back off without being hurt that bad. Like when you discover the other party, is married and he/she lied to you. Then you can always partways and start over again. Or during the course of knowing each other, you feel like he/she's not really the person you want to spend the rest of your life. It would be easier to break up when sex isn't involve. The thing is sometimes people gets trapped into this sex thing, others are blackmailed especially if the woman is pregnant. The more gentle men would be obligated to "do the right thing". Then they will be trapped in a relationship even marriage that they didn't want or aren't ready for in the first place. I have heard a lot of these case way back when I was in the Philippines, the women gets pregnant, the boyfriend is forced to marry the woman or else the relatives of the lady, the father,the brothers will hunt the boyfriend if he refuses to. See, how sex could complicate relationships. It could tie a person to eternal damnation. I mean, maybe not eternal, but it's just like tying a rope around your neck, the thing is the other party won't hesitate to pull that rope tight if you try to run away from the deal.
You know there may not be a specific age one should engage in sex, but I think one should enjoy first the inocent years. To me, losing virginity is almost tantamount to losing ones inocence. Some may disagree. But once you engage in sex for the first time, it's a whole new world, it's like opening Pandora's box. There's no way of returning to that inocent stage of your life. You start to see things differently, and then gone is the inocent child in you. You wouldn't even want to be called a child anymore. So to those of you who are still teenagers, hopfully you enjoy your inocent years first before openning that "Pandora's box".
Does that mean that Andy enjoyed 40 years of inocent years? Maybe...be the judge.
The part that I found hilarious was when Andy was holding the mold of the female sex organ and saying "So, where does the pennis go?" Isn't that very inocent?
See, I also have this inocent question, is the female **gina exactly the opposite of the male **nis,I mean when you put the **nis inside out? I don't know how to write it to make it sound not too rated X. I guess you have to watch the movie,if you want to. Otherwise you wouldn't know what I'm talking about and I hope you would enjoy it as much as I did.
World beyond our world..........
Who was it that said, "Reality is the worst nightmare?"..........
Have you ever had a nightmare? I mean not figuratively, a nightmare while asleep. Dream patterns can vary from person to person. I sometimes have this half awake,half dreaming state. In that state I could see my room exactly as it is. Almost like my spirit is out of my body and is roaming around the room, I could hear actual voices.In that state it feels so real. It doesn't feel like a dream at all. There are lots of things that happened in that state, at one time I was taking a shower. When I looked on the floor I can see my reflection,then I realized I was standing on top of my dresser with the mirror, but this time the dresser is on the floor. That same dresser in our room facing our bed. All of a sudden the scene shifted and the dresser was gone and I clinged to the walls,all of a sudden there were rails and I can see the ground, I was on an elevated place I was looking down. I was screaming for help but no voice comes out of my mouth, I couldn't move, I struggled and that's when I suddenly wake up.
Sometimes there's this different version that all of a sudden my bed starts to engulf me, like there's a force underneath pulling me lower and lower but I feel like there was no bed underneath and I was going down down but no base. I would feel like I am going down on an eternal abyss and never reaching the bottom, and then at a certain point I start to struggle. My body feels all of these, and my mind is fully aware, not even feeling like it's a dream. Then I force myself to get up. I struggle until I suddenly wake up.
Sometimes, it does really feels weird because, in some of my dreams it feels like my spirit would come out of my body and roams around, go to places, and when gets to a point that I struggle and gets up I almost feel like my spirit suddenly comes back to my body seconds before I get up. Some times it's an adventure, sometimes it's a nightmare. Sometimes it has happy endings,sometimes no resolution at all, just random shift of events,places,people,dimensions. It's crazy. You know how dreams could be so scattered, doesn't make sense. Sometimes in my dreams the emotions hieghtens, it's intensified compared to how you would really feel.
There's this dream that had been lingering for sometime. In my dream I was splashed with a certain liquid and it hit the right side of my foot just above the ankle. All of a sudden there were white solid stuff protruding out of my skin. It looked like giant whiteheads, very huge in diameter, imagine giant whiteheads protruding on the surface of the skin. When I looked at it, a pang of hundred of emotions came over me, maybe of fear and hundreds of different ones. I cringed. Then I woke up, I quickly checked my leg, they was nothing on my skin, but the emotions were still there. I couldn't go back to sleep. The feeling lingered for days. And everytime I think about it, my whole body just want to scream.
There was another time, I cannot forget this because it was too real. In my dream, I was aware that I am on my bed. It felt like I was awake, then all of a sudden, bugs, whatever it was was crawling inside my skin and I felt and saw it moving, as an instant reaction I tried to brush it of. I litterally jumped out of my bed brushing and shaking of whatever that was. That's when I realize it was a dream. It was too vivid, I couldn't go back to sleep after that.
Sometimes I wonder if my spirit really wanders out of my physical body when I sleep and go out beyond the physical world. And when the spirit goes to dreamland where emotions are given life, colors, shapes dimensions that doesn't make sense in the physical world. It fascinates me to think that there's this different world we have, totally different from our waking moments. A world we explore once our heads hit the pillow and enter into that curtain of darkness. There's this inner world we have, our inner world of subconcious. I believe that this is really the place where we all store our inner most secrets. Some secrets we may never be aware of. Have you explored your inner world lately, what have you kept in that secret deposositoty of yours?
Which is better to have a nightmare awake or to have a nightmare while asleep? Have you had a nightmare lately?
" Faith is acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove."-The da Vinci Code-
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After reading the Da vinci Code I was left with rushing hundred questions. I was staring at the last page trying to see maybe there's an inscripted ending to the story. It was a series of hunt from clues of anagrams, I enjoyed as the characters searched clues after clues but at the very end I was at lost. The novel ended but the puzzle just started for me, being born and raised as a Catholic. The novel, speak of, I would say some outragious claims about the Catholic Church, the contents of the bible and truths about Jesus himself and his relation to Mary Magdalene, who was described in the bible as a prostitute. It is of course a work of fiction, but it embodies, historical references that are contrary to the contents of the bible. I was totally intrigued. I was very curious as to what the controversy was that's why I wanted to read the book. Although I have watched the documentary on Discovery channel that tried to scientifically explain and seek the truth, thier findings didn't reach a definite conclusion. A lot of the origins of signs and symbols are really fascinating.
There was another show on TLC called "Da Vinci De classified" and according to the researches, these geeks found, a lot of the histrorical references in the "Da Vinci Code" aren't that accurate. And it's not so surprising, it's a work of fiction, so it doesn't have to be accurate. It's still a controversial book worldwide. I had to read it to see for myself what's the commotion all about.
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After reading the Da Vinci code which I say was so intriguing I borrowed "Angels and Demons". It was a great read too. Very similar plot, but different stories. It was the coversation between the Camerlengo and Lt. Chartrand that I liked.
Camerlengo: terrible things happen in this world. Human tragedy seems life proof God could not possibly be both powerful and well-meaning. If He loves us and has the power to change our situation,He wouldn't prevent our pain, wouldn't He? Wouldn't He?
Lt. Chratrand: Was this one of those religious questions you just didn't ask?
Camerlengo: Well, if God loves us, and He can protect us, He would have to. It seems, He is either omnipotent and uncaring or benevolent and powerless to hep. Do you have children Lieutenant?
Lt. Chartrand: (Flushed) "No signore"
Camerlengo: Imagine you have an 8 year old son, would you love him?
Lt. Chartrand: "Of course."
Camerlengo: Would you let him skateboard?
Lt. Chartrand: Yeah, I guess. Sure, I'd let him skateboard.
Camerlengo: So, as this child's father, you would give him some basic, good advice and let him go off and make his own mistakes?
Lt. Chartrand: I wouldn't run behind him and moldycoddle him if that's what you mean.
Camerlengo: But what if he fell off and skinned his knee?
Lt. Chartrand: He would learn to be more careful.
Camerlengo: So, although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child's pain, you would choose to show your love by letting him learn his own lessons?
Lt. Chartrand: Of course, pain is part of growing up. It is how we learn.
Camerlengo: "Exactlty."
I would spare you the joy of finding out for yourself what hapenned if you decide to read the book. It was somewhat tragic ending. With Langdon as the star character and Vittoria who relentlessly chased a series of clues, people died in the process.
The weather is already hinting the brrrr weathers. Winter isn't really my favorite, it's okey. I am more susceptible to cold weathers being born in the tropics. Cold weathers can be brutal sometimes, it starts by pruning the skin with it's ghostly touch,the skin starts to itch, it seems to suck the moisture out of the skin leaving it dry, then cracks that no lotion can heal.
Some things I do during winter time:
One of my remedies when any lotion doesn't seem to help, I use vaseline gel. It does seem to work. I even apply it on my face especailly when I know I would be out there for a longer period of time. I apply face cream all the time before putting on make up. My skin is from normal to dry, but it gets drier during the winter months. Another is bath oil, I apply bath oil after each shower. Just rub it all over after shower. Sometimes I do a quick rinse to avoid that oily feel on the skin. I use lukewarm water, hot water dries up the skin.
Wearing socks inside the house to avoid cold feet. When going out I normally bring with me extra sweater or jackets one thinner one and one thick onejust for emergency purposes. You never know. I bundle up everytime I go out with scarves and mittens. It always helps.Hats are very good too.
I love making stews and soups when the weather gets cold. One of my favorites include beef stew, arroz caldo, noodle soups. I am fancying arroz caldo at this moment. I bought a packet of arroz caldo at the Filipino store and it tasted really yummy. I should make one from scratch.
Hot pot is great when it's chilly. Hot pot is the Asian version of Swiss fondue. This is something I have learned while I was in Hongkong. Hot pot is basically a winter way of cooking in some of the Asian countries like Taiwan,Thailand,Hongkong,Korea and Japan. I normally use paper thin slices of meat, seafood and vegetables. They can be seasoned ahead of time. Or just plain and just use dipping sauce. For the dipping sauce, I use soy sauce, satay sauce, or blend of sauce like soy sauce with chilli and sesame oil. Of course you can use hot sauce,mustard,hoisin sauce whatever dipping sauce you like. So,to start the hot pot, you can actually use any pot if you don't have fire pot and a portable burner. There's also electric pots. Fire pots can be bought from Chinese shops. What we have is one that uses charcoal. First boil water on the regular stove and keep it hot to refill the fondue pot.Fire up the charcoals, brushing off ashes and dusts before setting the food around it. Clean and slice the meats very thinly, beef,pork or chicken. Wash vegetables, you can use any,aslong as they can be cooked very quickly, some of the ones that we use are; baby bokchoy, fresh mushrooms,baby corn, bean sprouts, napa cabbage, water spinach(kangkong) any leafy veggies that won't take long to cook. For the seafood, I normally use deveined shrimp and fish balls. After washing and cutting then in thin slices, just arrange them rows on platters. Prepare dipping sauce in small saucers. The broth can be seasoned using chicken or beef buillion. Ginger, green oinions and herbs can be added too.Or you can leave broth/water plain, since it's a communal pot, if there are other people they might have a preference. After transferring hot water to fondue pot, keep it simmering and with chopsticks just put the food in there to cook,it will just take a few minutes, fish it out using wire ladle and fondue forks and dip it to your sauce of choice. Keep adding water or broth in the pot as it recedes. I have to do more and more indoor exercising. One that I have constantly been doing when I miss running is taebo. Concentration is the key here accompanied by determination. Sometimes I tune in to the fit channels and follow their moves. A little bit of yoga, a little bit of pilates and aerobics.
Bring in my plants before the frost starts, otherwise the will freeze on me. I have learned this the previous seasons. I have two pineapple plants, on had survived the last winter and a citrus tree. Some of my hanging baskets, I will just bring them in and store them in our guest room. My christmas cactus seems to be forming bud blossoms, I hope they will still bloom in December after I bring it inside.
I am sure the cold months would be filled with coffee, and cocoa and tea drinking while snuggled up on the couch. Hopefully we can fire up the fireplace too.
Wit and honesty will win the heart.
I have been reading about how well Precious Lara Quigaman answered the question during the Miss International Pageant. I can't help but to have my say about her phenomenal performance.
If you were in her place and was confronted with this question, what would have been your response as a Filipino? Pretend you have never heard her response, what would you have said?
Q: “What do you say to the people of the world who have typecasted filipinos as nannies?”
A: “I take no offence on being typecasted as a nanny. But I do take offence that the educated people of the world have somehow denigrated the true sense and meaning of what a nanny is. Let me tell you what she is. She is someone who gives more than she takes. She is someone you trust to look after the very people most precious to you - your child, the elderly, yourself. She is the one who has made a living out of caring and loving other people. So to those who have typecasted us as nannies, thank you. It is a testament to the loving and caring culture of the Filipino people, and for that, I am forever proud and grateful of my roots and culture.”Some people say that the question was discriminatory, some say it's a stupid question. I say, it's a great question that meant to test how well a person will respond to such question on stage and she did an excellent job.
She spoke for the thousands of overseas workers, migrant workers working as nannies who are not getting fair treatment. For the numbers of Filipinos workers around the world that are being taken for granted, she spoke for those who cannot speak for themselves. She is a voice of a lot of Filipinos around the world doing their job caring, loving and are sometimes mocked because of what they do. She made people think of whom they are entrusting the people they love, themselves. She spoke for the invisible workers most people take for granted. She spoke for the people who sacrificed so much inorder for other people to be able to go out and have a career while she makes a career of caring and loving. She spoke for the people that are making life easier for other people. She spoke for a lot of people out there giving so much of themselves out of love, and are being paid too little. She spoke for lots of people, not only nannies that deserve respect because of their dedication and loving ways.
Precious lara is the voice of a lot of people's voices that are lost in the crowd that are just viewed insignificant.
Is it prejudicial? I think there's some truth to it. If you look at the statistics of overseas workers and migrant workers all over the world, majority of the pie falls to the nanny jobs.Countries like Hongkong, Singapore, Taiwan, Canada, countries in the Middle East and other countries.
Being a nanny, I think it's one of the most noble jobs. It takes a certain skill to be a nanny.You get to be a parent, get to be the teacher, a confidant, a friend, a referree, a coach, you get to assume a lot of roles being a nanny. And it requires lots and lots of patience. So, if you are a nanny,be proud to be one as long as you are doing a great job.
The question really is, what's wrong with being a nanny?
Kudos! to you Precious Lara, you would make an excellent ambassador of goodwill. Because you speak for the people you represent. You are a real mirror of beauty. You voice is loud enough to reach people all over the world. Continue uplifting the Filipinos working all over the world whatever they might be doing as a living. Even in the blogger world, everyone is talking about your excellent wit of rebuttal. You deserve the crown. Keep up the good work.
When words don't contain you
Sometimes words are not enough to describe the things going on in one's life. Sometimes there are events,emotions and thoughts that are beyond description. Sometimes we don't have any words in layman's term existing to describe them all. So often times we use the next best word to describe what is it we feel, how we feel, what we think we feel, our thoughts on our feelings and so forth. Some of these things that happen in one's life are meant to be felt. Sometimes they meant to be a mystery that can only be experienced becasue sometimes putting it into words may distort the real essence of it. Just like when two people look at each other without speaking,looking to each others eyes. No words come out of their mouths, no whisper, no noise. But somehow they understand each other. A wink, a smile, a gesture, an expression painted on their face is more than enough for the other person to understand without having to use words. There are things beyond words and sometimes they are the most wonderful things in this world.
Wrinkles on my forehead
"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." -- Jack Benny--
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I don't know about you, but when I was younger (this statement makes me feel old), I used to plot my time line. You know how they always ask the question, where do you see yourself years from now? I tried to look forward into the future with my own magic ball. And I thought,at 30 I have to accomplish this and that. Now that I am about to turn 30, it's depressing me to know that I have accomplished very little of my plans years ago. My dreams remained in my dreams. Still, I hang on to hope. You know, I try not to be bitter but still looking towards the future, thinking there's got to be some bright light there somehow.
I remember when hubby turned 30, during his birthday he was very depressed. Got the birthday blues. I was telling him, so what if you are 30. I thought I wouldn't feel that way when it got to be my turn, but I was wrong. I wouldn't say that I am totally freaked out, but more of worried. Whenever I think about it, it makes me feel bad. But you cannot stop the clock. We are always running against time, but I know we'll never beat time. We burn in time, we burn in it. Yes I do believe that we grow better with time, how much better? I don't exactly know. But I can say that I feel much sturdier than ten years ago. With all of life's beatings, I know that I have become a much stronger person. We all fall to life's tests sometimes, we got to ppick up ourselves and move on, keep going in the rat race of life. One time hubby and I were talking about the rat race. Does anybody ever got to reach the finish line.Hubby says, I guess a few, those who are able to stock up enough fund and be able to retire early. But I don't think we'll ever retire from life itself. I mean, it's an endless, self-defeating pursuit.It goes on until death of course. And if there'san after life then it still goes on beyond the grave. Gosh! I wonder what I would become in the after life? You know, somehow, a second lifetime seems appealing.I get to do things all over again and perhaps do it better this time. Well, it aint so bad, there's still time.
I would usually tell hubby to turn the volume down whenever he plays his audio player very loud at night. And he would say, " If you can't listen to loud music anymore then you're too old." I don't think so. The only reason I don't want him to party very loud is that I don't want the neighbor to get mad like they are very considerate.
I used to call hubby "hunky monkey'", I don't even know where I got it or how it started later I was calling him "old man" and then lately I kept calling him "moldy man". Isn't that terrible? He would just say "I'm not that moldy". I got to think of a better pet name. Of course nobody wants to be called "old and moldy".
One night we were hanging out in our backyard grilling hubby asked when is our last hint of youth gonna be? Hayy, youthfulness fades, atleast in the physical worlds. Some says it's a state of mind but it's a state of the physical too.
Do you think that somehow the aging process can be decelerated? There are lots of studies of course and ways of doing that but I wonder how many of them are effective.I know botox and surgeries maybe a solution for some, but will it last long? I don't wear wrinkle creams, just not yet. But you know I want to be youthful in small ways. And by that I try to indulge myself with exercise like running. And coupled with that I try to fortify my body with fruits by making smoothy. It's easy, just combine fruits, yogurt, milk, honey and ice in a blender. Viola! I don't add sugar, fruits have natural sugars. Another way is avoiding frozen tv dinners. Maybe it's just me, but I believe they got a lot of preservatives. I would rely better with fresh vegetables. I do have to get frozen meats sometimes. And of course avoiding deep fried fast foods. I have always been health concious, especially when I see extremely obese people. I don't like to look like them years down the road. But nowadays, it's getting harder and harder to know which one is healthy even with fruits and vegetables with the bioengineering and all that. With seafood,one worries about mercury. I guess one just have to get updated and informed about what's healthy and what's not.
I don'tknow, there's just this fear of old age. The deterioration, being senile, and eventually death I guess. Not to mention, long agonizing death maybe. I guess that's the natural course of life and that's a process we all have to undergo whether you want your remains to be frozen, burned, burried, you still have to undergo the process of dying first unless they happen to figure out how to be immortal in the future. Still, would you like to live forever?
Blog and the blogger!
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the
freedom of thought which they seldom use." --Kierkegaard--
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This is suppose to be what kind of blogger I am. A private performer. Except the line that says "adoring fans." Tests like these are not that accurate, they are just for fun. And I do it just for the fun of it.
| Your Blogging Type Is the Private Performer |
Your blog is your stage - with your visitors your adoring fans.
At least, that's how you write with your witty one liners.
And while you like attention, you value your privacy.
You're likely to have an anonymous blog - or turn off comments. |
I guess some of it are true. I do value privacy, I want readers to focus on what I write and not on my private life.Although, I impart some of my private life, it doesn't mean it would be for public consumption. I guess I am not the person that does bare it all. Just as they say bearing is daring. I am not as daring as others. But I admire the bold ones.And that's just who I am. I write because I want to be part of the world that speaks. I want to be heard. Sometimes I just want to write just for the hell of it.
I guess I am a private performer in my own life's stage, I do have my comments button on because I also want to know what you think or what other people think. I firmly believe that in this world, one doesn't just listen to his or her voice and monologues but by listening to other people,one can learn a lot. Although there are some people's voices that ought to be ignored, other wise they will just bring you down deep into the hole they are wallowing. As Elle said in Legally blonde 2, use your right of spit, I mean speech. But there are rules to the right of spit. If you spit on others, of course they would spit back and slobber all over you. One has to be careful not to step on to others toes, as they say the toes might be connected to the ass that you might kiss in the future.
I would like to think that my blogs are about anything under the sun, not just me, otherwise I would have bored the death of whoever happens to read my blog. I would like to think of my blog as anything may it be thoughts, ideas, theories, fiction, non-fiction. I would like it to be a pizza crust and I could put any toppings on it.
So, there you go. In the blog world, I would like to just have my own little spot in the vast world wide web,a spot for me to scribble whatever there is worth scribbling.
"What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living." -- Doug Larson--
I am not a football fan, I can watch but just not my interest. I know most guys love watching sports, and hubby is one of them. Sometimes when we are out somewhere maybe at the grocery store, he would say;"Could we just hurry up so I could watch football or baseball".I would just make a grunting sound (Freaken football/baseball!). Well, he asked me to go with him to watch the game, he got complimentary tickets from his brother-in-law. Atlanta Falcons vs the Minesota Vikings at the
Georgia Dome. We took the MARTA train from Chamblee area all the way to the dome. As expected, it was quite crowded. With the taxes back on gas prices people try to save by taking
MARTA. Well, we haven't taken MARTA in a while. I was a bit nauseous, I wasn't feeling a hundred percent. While in the train, since it was crowded, I could hear the hundred voices speaking all at the same time, swimming in my head. It made me feel worst. You know how you get vulnerable when you're not feeling well. I guess it's been a while that I have been in a crowded public transportation. It took a few minutes before we got off. As in a typical game, there's a lot of people. This time, they separated the men from the women at the entrance gates for inspection. I guess they are taking precautions. We hiked about four or five levels before we got to the very top of the dome. The dome was almost full. I was sitting there elbow to elbow with our sitmates. Our row was full, can't move a lot. I was just thinking, wow, they must have collected a lot of money with this crowd. Somebody's getting rich. With 69,000 attendance, thay must have collected millions. Ok, I tried to pay attention. Vick got injured, but Falcons played well. They scored easily during the first part of the game. Then took them a while to make the final score. Falcons won the game. Falcons fans left happy. Back to the train. When I finally get to sit, I noticed that to my left, a lady was crying. I thought she and her boyfriend must be just arguing so I ignored them. At the third stop, they must not have realized that was their stop. They didn't go out on time. The guy was mad and was trying to push the emergency button. When the door didn't open he tried to shout. The woman infront me told him he shouldn't do that. They could just get off the next stop and then go back. They sat back, when I looked at the lady again, she was still crying. At the next stop, they got off. The lady next to me cried "Oh my God she wet herself." Well, I saw that the lady's back was wet. She could have wet herself. The lady infront of me said "If you got to go, you got to go!" I have never wet myself, no matter how bad I had to go. Maybe I would wet myself if a gun is pointed to my face. I guess it depends on the situation. And I guess some people might have weak bladder. I know it to be a condition with kids, but as an adult? That must be tough.
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It's one thing that I like about
Atlanta. The diversity of culture. You can find all kinds of Asian restaurants. I like most Asian foods, I am a food adventurer.One of my favorites is Vietnamese. I normally get
Pho noodle soup, it's basically beef stock, clear rice noodles with bean sprouts, slices of jalapeno with a squeeze of lime. I also love their charbroiled pork and chicken over rice. I have tried to make it at home twice, the beansprouts seed were just bigger in size that I feel the crunch every time I bit on to them. It was almost as goodas the one I get at the restaurant. But I still have to keep working on enhancing the flavor. One can even get authentic Asian food if they know where to look for.
There are also lots of Asian stores, actually
international markets, well both. Sometimes it's great to just go browes at these stores and see what you could find. I love the wide array of fresh fruits and vegetables at the international markets. You can see lots of stuff that you don't see at the regular grocery stores. If you love Asian cuisine, these are the places you could check out.
The Beatles' Return
"If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door." -- Paul Beatty
We had the pleasure to be able to watch them at the
Duluth Fall Festival. It was a very pleasant evening when we decided to find out what's going on down there. We were not familiar with that area, we just looked up the driving direction and we headed on.We were lost actually, until we decided to go back and look for the exact turn on our map. We saw a whole bunch of cars parked, people walking and we decided to park and walk and find out if we were really lost. We walked and followed a throng of people and viola! we stumbled on the place we want to be. The band is called "
The Return", A Beatles' Tribute Band.
Here's what the they say about the band.
Considered talented enough to perform in front of a national audience, THE RETURN caught the eye of Good Morning America's weatherman, Tony Perkins, as well as executives for the morning show. Since then, this amazing group of four young musicians has continued to excite crowds all over the country, growing substantially in popularity. Part of what makes a RETURN show so enthralling is the way in which they have so meticulously recreated the complete Beatle image on stage. The boys feature authentic vintage instruments, haircuts, and custom made clothes and boots. Their unmistakable Liverpool accents and Beatlesque antics truly bring out the charming, charismatic personas of the original four lads we all adore. In being true to the original Fab Four, THE RETURN derives their song list from a specific part of the Beatles catalog, primarily performing material that the Beatles played in live concert settings. This long and wonderful list of songs spans material from the early cover songs they played at Liverpool's Cavern Club, to Lennon-McCartney numbers performed on the last Beatles tour of America in 1966.
Their touring takes them to festivals, college campuses, corporate events, benefits and private functions from Georgia to California and New York to Florida. No matter where the band travels, people always enjoy THE RETURN because people everywhere still (and probably always will) love the Beatles. A few of THE RETURN'S performance credits include The Fox 97 Ultimate Oldies Concert in Atlanta, GA (two years in a row), The 94.1 Oldies Fest in Salt Lake City, Abbey Road on the River, Peachtree Road Race, First Night Athens, First Night Atlanta, Lenox Square's Star Spangled Night, Peachtree Morning TV Show, Good Day Atlanta TV show, 1996 & 1997 Atlanta Fab Four Fests, Malco Theater in Hot Springs AR, Columbia, SC Mayfest, CNN, Fox 97 Radio Morning Show & Afternoon Love Fest, Campus Live TV show, New Orleans Casinos, as well as hundreds of other private and corporate events (Coca-Cola, Turner Broadcasting, Georgia Pacific, AFLAC to name a few) and several cruises (Carnival and Royal Caribbean). THE RETURN has shared the stage with many legendary performers - Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Monkees, Peter Noone, Chubby Checker, Tommy James, B.J. Thomas, The Association, Johnny Rivers (and many more!!) THE RETURN is also particularly popular at college campuses, where fraternities, sororities, and student activity organizations line up to book them. They can be
booked for a private concert or public entertainment just like fairs and festivities. I have to say that their performance at Duluth Festival was impressive. There was a standing ovation on their last song and the crowd really had a good time, dancing to their tunes.I saw people even bring their own folding chairs and even tables with drinks, beer amybe. Some just spread a blanket and sat on the grass picnic style. We did sat on the grass and even went infront were the dancing crowds danced hippie style.But while sitting down I asked hubby if the members of the band really are from England or are they just faking their accent? He said they probably were just faking the accent, but of course they don't want the people to know and they are just playing out their character from the real Beatles' band. They said very little in between songs.And as they were about to exit, the crowd shouted "More, more,more!" in a chanting chorus. They performed next in
Cornelia Georgia. Aside from the impressive performance, I think part of why the band was digged both by younger and older people is that the performers are young that they attract the younger population. But the songs attract the older people who grew up listening to these songs from the real "
Beatles" band.I tell you, if you are a Beatles' fan, you would love "The Return" band.
