IF I HAD TIME

If I had the time, I would update this blog at least thrice a week.

I would write a lengthy entry (and share tons of pictures) about my fun trip to Coron which happened close to 4 months ago.

I would post pictures and recipes of all the food I've been cooking at home as our helper is currently on vacation and won't be back till this weekend.

I would tell you stories about Joaquin. While most are funny and cute, there are a few stories that makes me think, "This is the karma my Mom was telling me about".

I would also tell you that being separated is difficult. Not having anyone else to share responsibilities like errands with is exhausting (and draining my bank account) but I have felt more peaceful in the past 6 months than I have been a year before that. I know I made the right decision in agreeing to the separation.

I would be proud to tell you that I am slowly losing weight and this is confeermed (haha!) because a lot of people have been noticing--even the cashier at the 7-11 I frequent said, "Ma'am, pumayat ka na talaga. Hindi ka na chubby!" (Hoorraaayyy!!!)

I would also ask you to pray for me as I am running my first 10k race on the 24th and I'm REALLY nervous about it.

If only I had the luxury of time, I would write separate entries for all these things. However, juggling motherhood, work, my social life and time for myself has been a dilemma I am coping with and sadly, this blog has been pushed aside. I'm sure I will get the hang of things, eventually.

I hope everyone is doing well. I truly miss writing and envy my friends who still blog regularly.

SUN JAR

When Ssowy of Twitter announced that he had one Sunjar left from his online store, I grabbed the opportunity and bought it.

Solar energy rocks! I. LOVE. IT!

I leave it under the sun during the day and before I leave for work, I leave it on the table in our patio and you know what, when I arrive home from the office (around 4am), the light is still on. What's so cool about it is it won't light up until it's dark. No wasted energy! Very cool!

The sunjar I bought has 2 lights: a blue one and a yellow one.



Nice, noh?

SCHOOL BOY!

DSCN6639
Originally uploaded by bunnyc

Joaquin tried on his school uniforms yesterday and when I told him to stand still so I can take his picture, this is what he did.

Classes start on the 15th and I am soooo excited for my son!!!

LEMONADE, ANYONE?

I try very hard not to let my personal life get in the way of work.

I can't recall a single time I took a leave because I was heartbroken. Heck, when J passed away and my boss urged me to go on leave, I told her I'd rather work than stay at home and sob myself to death.

I am also peeved by people who cry over something at work. It annoys me whenever I reprimand a subordinate and they turn on the waterworks.

But 3 weeks ago, I cried over work. I know I mentioned in a previous entry that my team was doing very poorly last month and we were hoping to start this month with a bang. But we were off to an even rockier start as opposed to last month. We were way behind the forecast I had made for June.

And today, our boss got super mad at us. As in fist-banging-on-the-table-while-yelling-and-face-turning-red mad. It has been a long time since I saw her that upset.

This is making me feel incompetent and insufficient. And I cried again (I know! Emo, much?) while talking to a colleague who casually dropped my desk to ask me how my weekend went. I know my boss and our client thinks that thats one of the factors why my team is struggling. I never considered myself a great leader but I've always believed that I was a good one. Until today.

I can't decide if it's because the challenges I am going through in my personal life are starting to overwhelm and affect me or if it's because I'm just plain lousy.

All I know is, I'm feeling really down right now.

But I'm hoping to get past this. And prove all those who think I'm not good enough wrong.

Bring on the lemons!

9 DAYS

I need a vacation.

The kind where you don't do anything but lie down.

With a good book.

Or with an ipod.

Or a book full of crossword puzzles. (Yes, I'm a sucker for crossword puzzles. The easy ones lang, ha? Hehe!)

With an ice-cold bottle of beer within arm's reach.

The kind where you don't hear the hurly-burly of the city or the voices of your agents on the floor.

The kind where all you can hear are the sound of the waves hitting the shore.

The kind where all you have to worry about is how to shake the sand off your clothes and your sarong.

Thankfully, I will have that kind of vacation in 9 days.

My soul sister, Aina gave me round-trip tickets to Coron for my birthday. We are leaving in 9 days. Amazing Race partner, Gea is arriving from Singapore next week just so she can join us.

I miss the feeling of sand between my toes.

And I miss getting tan lines.


See you soon!

ZEBRA

I love my new (and only) sneakers!



And did I mention that they only cost $12 at Walmart?

STRESSED

I've been having a REALLY stressful week.

You see, my all-around helper left for Bicol last Friday so she can vote. She promised to be back Monday night. She even left a lot of her things at home so I was pretty sure she would be back.

But she never did.

I tried calling her but she couldn't be reached. She's the cousin of our neighbor's helper and even she can't get a hold of her. I have a feeling she bought a new sim.

So for the past week, I have been cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner at home (Joaquin's Yaya's can only fry). And because of this, my usual three 2-hour naps have gone down to two.

I wish I could say that things are sailing smoothly at work but it hasn't. It has been a really bad month for my team. I've been working for the same company for the past 5.5 years and for the first time last week, I cried (just tearful. I wasn't sobbing) in front of my boss. And when I talked to my team a couple of hours after that, I cried too (first time that's ever happened also)

When it rains, it pours. *sigh* C'est la vie. (or can I blame this on Mercury Retrograde?)

Thank God it's now Friday. I have a full day tomorrow and I'm looking forward to doing all these:

     1. Lunch with Charo and Kookie.
     2. Groceries 
     3. Going to the airport to pick up my sister, Francine who's arriving from the US.

I hope I can spend Sunday in bed sleeping, eating and watching DVDs. And Lord, please make it rain.

Have a great weekend, guys!

P.S.
If you guys can refer a helper who can cook, clean, do laundry and iron, I will be VERY VERY grateful.

STIEG LARSSON

Has anyone read Stieg Larsson's series of books? They're supposed to be really good. I'm itching to buy but would like to know if anyone has read it and if it's really as good as they say it is. Let me know.

The secret to getting 5 hours of sleep

I can't remember the last time I slept for 5 hours straight. Since the start of the year, I've been taking 2-3 naps a day.

On a normal weekday, my sleeping schedule is:

6am-8am (or whatever time Joaquin wakes up)

10am-12nn (in time for lunch with Joaquin)

2pm-4pm

 

You'd think I'd get enough sleep on weekends, but no. My body clock is so used to being awake at night that even if Joaquin and I sleep at 9pm, I still wake up between 11pm-12mn and I stay up till 5am (so if you're in the village and you wanna stop by and hang out at an ungodly hour, feel free to holler. Hehe!). Huhuhu!

At around 6:30am yesterday, I couldn't sleep. Joaquin was already awake and he was eating breakfast downstairs and I was still tossing and turning in bed. I just could not sleep.

So I decided to go for a run.

I ran for half an hour. It was hot but the sweat felt really good. I binged on persian food the night before and I had to burn all the calories from the kebabs, baba ganoush and ox-brain. When I got home, I showered and watched some TV with Joaquin. I dozed off at 8am.

I woke up to the sound of Joaquin and his yaya arguing. Joaquin wanted to watch more TV and Ate Edith wanted him to go to bed.

"Anong oras na ba, Edith?"

"Ala-una na po, Ate"

It was 1pm. I slept for 5 hours!

Hallelujah! :)

PILYO

Joaquin is now 3.5 years old and he is growing up to be very pilyo. Very talkative too.

We went to his school last Saturday to pay for tuition and while were choosing uniforms, he was talking to his Yaya and pointing at things, telling her what they were.

I was talking to the nun who conducted Joaquin's admission interview (She said she was my teacher in preschool but she was a novice then. I keep forgetting her name.) when she suddenly looks at Joaquin and says, "You know Joaquin, you're going to be a great storyteller one day!".

I smiled at her but deep inside, I was thinking, "Si Sister talaga, ang bait. Hindi na lang sinabi na madaldal yung anak ko." Hehee!
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Yesterday, I was scolding Joaquin and he just wouldn't listen. So I said, "I'm going to spank you na!" and then I raised my hand and looked at him straight in the eye.  He blurts, "High five, Mama! High five!"

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This afternoon, I caught him with his thumb inside his mouth again. So I go, "Stop sucking your thumb!".  My son looks at me and then puts 4 of his fingers inside his mouth. Then laughs.

Ang pilyo, noh?   

The Big BANGkok Theory

This post has been long overdue.

From March 19-23, I was in Bangkok with 4 girlfriends and a Tita (my friend's mom tagged along) and while I was on the verge of crying everyday because I missed Joaquin sooo much, this trip was a much-needed break from everything.

ACCOMODATION

We stayed in Budacco, a hotel I found online. Read the reviews on Tripadvisor (i always check this site before making a reservation at a hotel/resort I'm not familiar with) and was satisfied with the feedback so we decided to book.

Love love love Budacco! We got 3 rooms for 4 nights and this was how much we shelled out per person: Php 3,200!

The lobby of Budacco


We got a yellow room. The rooms were clean and were kept clean everyday!


They serve buffet breakfast but it was the same everyday--rice, eggs, sausages, ham, fruits, coffee, juice and bread. We didn't mind because the food was good and we all fell in love with the orange marmalade. (We asked the manager for the brand of the marmalade and we were told it was "Best Foods" so when we went to the supermarket, we bought some to take home!


Amazing staff! They helped us with everything! They even lent us a weighing scale when we were packing to leave so we wouldn't worry about going over the baggage allowance. Great great service!

The absolute best thing about Budacco was the location. Only a hop and skip away from the Pratuman Wholesale Market. And because we were all Bangkok virgins, we didn't discover this until we got there. It's located in the heart of Pratunam area, which is basically, the divisoria of Bangkok. And just like Divisoria, everything was less expensive and if you bought 3pcs or more of anything, you got it at wholesale price and since there were 5 girls shopping together, wholesale it was! Pratunam was such a bargain that when we visited the supposedly cheap malls such as MBK and Platinum, we still found their items expensive. I plan on visiting Bangkok again and will DEFINITELY still stay in Budacco.

THE EATS

The first thing we did when we got to Bangkok was eat. Tita's friend who is based in Bangkok brought us to Sukhumvit Soi 11(soi=side street) near Ambassador Hotel which is where the club scene is. But we were not going to a club. We were going to get the best street food ever! I swear, this was the best meal I had this year. We went here twice and all agreed that suddenly, the food in Som's wasn't very good. Haha!


This is the restaurant--on the sidewalk!


Getting the table ready






Best Pad Thai EVEERRRRR!!!


Tom YUUUMMMMM!!!!

We ate food from the street everyday.


Seafood Pad Thai for only 40 baht. Not as good as the one in Soi 11 but pretty yummy as well


Papaya Salad while shopping.


Tilapia stuffed with lemongrass and rubbed with lots of salt, then grilled to perfect yumminess!


Grilled Prawns that cost 50 baht per stick. Cheap, noh?


Spring Rolls from the Floating Market


This one, I didn't like so much. Inside the taco shell is grated coconut and its covered with icing. Too sweet!


Our ultimate favorite-- Sticky Rice with Mango!


Tastes like Gyoza but healthier as it just had vegetables inside. This was one of the things we ate off the street and only costs 10baht. Soo good!


Iced Thai Milk Tea. It was hotter in Thailand compared to Manila but this drink made us forget all that. Where can I find good thai milk tea here?

We also found street food we didn't want to eat:





THE TOURS

At the very last minute at around 7pm on a Sunday night, we booked a tour for the next day at Thailand Tours Center . We loved that they could accommodate our request at such late notice (unlike this other tour guide who totally rejected us. He was more expensive pa!).

First stop was the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.

I thought the floating market was just...well...a floating market. Turns out that it was like this entire village on water...with street names pa! We found the items sold here really expensive. All we ended up buying was food! Hehe! I guess you just come here for the experience.


The boat would stop at these stores on stilts...




My friends bought saffron from this pretty lady.


LAMON!


Spices!


After lunch, we headed to the Tiger Temple. We were already warned the night before that we couldn't wear anything sleeveless or short at the Tiger Temple. So we all brought extra clothes. I was wearing a tanktop at the Floating Market and when we arrived at the Tiger Temple, I decided to just throw my black shirt over it, thinking that when we got inside, the tigers would already be there. It was just a temple, wasn't it? WRONG! It was scorching hot and we had to walk/trek for about 10-15mins to the Canyon where the tigers were.





It was all worth it though because I have never seen so many tigers in all my life. It was siesta time so almost all of them were asleep.

There were 2 lines--one for those with cameras and the other for those without. If you have a camera, you get 2 guides. One will hold your hand while walking through the Tiger Canyon and the other takes pictures. Here are some of my pictures:








After the Tiger Canyon, we walk a little more and we see more tigers and a few other animals--deers, horses and water buffalos.





Next destination, Saiyok Elephant Park.



This wasn't included in the package tour but since we really wanted to ride an elephant, we paid an extra 300 baht for this.

First we watched the elephant show, where the elephants did tricks.


Like standing up

Then they asked for volunteers for the elephant massage...


I raised my hand and here I am! The elephant gave me a smooch on the cheek before the massage


I also got a nice long hug!

The elephant ride was scary at first. It got particularly scary when the trail she was on would go up and down (Our elephant was a girl called Bob) . Our only form of seatbelt was a long nylon(?) strap which we tied to the end of our seat. Haha!

I felt so bad for Bob because she was tugging along her baby with us. This was the only thing I didn't like about that trip to the Elephant Park.




Manong said I could ride in front




Love love love this group shot! Soo cute that baby is snuggling close to Mom

When I have some money saved up again, I will go back to Thailand. Or maybe Vietnam :)

P.S.
My very good friend, Aina, gave me round trip tickets to
Coron in June. I'm soooo excited!!!

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

This song pretty much sums up the kind of love I've been getting lately. It's amazing, I tell you.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
The Beatles

What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me.
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song,
And I'll try not to sing out of key.
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm,I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends.

Do you need anybody?
I need somebody to love.
Could it be anybody?
I want somebody to love.

What do I do when my love is away.
(Does it worry you to be alone)
How do I feel by the end of the day
(Are you sad because you're on your own)
No, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna to try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody?
I need somebody to love.
Could it be anybody?
I want somebody to love.

Would you believe in a love at first sight?
Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time.
What do you see when you turn out the light?
I can't tell you, but I know it's mine.
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm I get high with a little help from my friends,
Oh, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody?
I just need someone to love.
Could it be anybody?
I want somebody to love

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends
Ooh, I get high with a little help from my friends
Yes I get by with a little help from my friends,
with a little help from my friends

P.S.
I have been working on my blog entry about my Bangkok trip for a week now and its still not finished!

Some kids like to sleep beside teddy bears or dolls. My son sleeps beside his toy cars and basketball.

Strawberry margarita and isaw!Unlikely combination but yummy!

RIP BATTERY

Left the office at around 430am this morning. I got home 10mins later. I parked the car at the side of the street, turned off the engine, got off, went inside the house, opened the gate, got back inside the car and turned on the engine.

Tik tik tik tik.

Engine would not turn on.

Tried again.

Tik tik tik tik.

RIP Battery.

God really loves me. I really do have a guardian angel. Imagine if my car stalled while I was on my way home. The roads I pass going home aren't very well lit pa naman. And to think I passed by a 7-11 before heading home to buy pasalubong for Joaquin (which I ended up eating. He didn't like the lasagna. Hehe!).

At around 8am, I called Motolite (843-1111 or 370-6686), gave them my car details, the kind of battery my car was using (they then suggested a better one), home address and contact information and 40mins later, they were at my front door. So reliable! Another cool thing was that I traded in my old battery for Php 266!

Thank you, Lord.

And thank you, Motolite for great service! :)

Me and my valentine. Happy valentine's, everyone!