stressed = desserts

desserts (cakes, ice creams, cookies, brownies - anything sweet) has always been my saving grace. and now, i have all the more reason to get them! haha! well, apart from having a bad weather, it is also my moms birthday which means i can enjoy her cakes.. (take note: i am the one in the house who enjoy these kinds of desserts)

a funny text came from my mom this morning:
"ton, mag fiesta ka sa cake, nagpadala si akim baby (auntie in chinese), bagong cake mukhang masarap, made to order."

now, that is the real reason why i want to go home na!

TREATS



(clockwise: dulcinea's churros, starbucks fudge brownies, nypd's choclate chip cookie, and ucc's choclate ensaymada)
dulcinea is one of the retaurants my family enjoys na hindi chinese food ang sine-serve. surprisingly my dad loves to eat there because of theri paella, and of course after every meal we get churros. now, they have take out counters for their churros na in the poduim and megamall. makes it more accesible.
starbucks' fudge brownies, i love their butterscotch fudge but i love this even more.
nypd's choco chip - obne gigantic cookie, worth P40.. i remember , mga a year ago, it was only P20! doubling the price?
ucc's choco ensaymada - it was good, but i recommend you to top it with whip cream.




(clockwise: dulce lins' mango torte, hizons caramel cake and chocolate cake, the dulce lin box)

dulce lin's mango torte is soo good. i dont like magoes so i just eat the cream and the crust. hehe. i think it is better pa nga than the one in san lorenzo eh.
hizons naman are really known for their cakes, in every chinese birthday party i go to, meron niyan. so i get to take home and eat ti all by myself, but now aggie likes it na din so may kahati na ako.





(clockwise: amici's choclate with assorted nuts, ucc's chocobanana smoothie, cafe milan's tiramisu gelato, and cold rock's cookie dough)

amici is still the best gelato i've ever tried, i cant really say that it is real and genuine but it soothes my taste buds.
the other are not worth mentioning, sayang lang yung picture that is why is posted it na din.

now, that there is a cure for stress!!!

semi-crisis

this is one of the few moments when i get anxious about my future not in my life per se- cause im done with that. its all about work - whenever i think what will happen in the near future like next week, next few months, na-ppraning ako. it will be only just the two of us, as of now our hands are full of things to do.

so you might wonder why do i have the time to blog pa? well, kasi im still waiting for the respondents to arrive. for today, i have 3 groups, on wednesday i also have 3 groups.. on thursday and friday i have one on one interviews and on top of that i need to make presentation on thursday plus transcription in a flash for all these.

buti na nga lang ena is still here pa - last week. and everythnig will be left na to us. i hope i can handle things well. i know it will be hard for me the next few months but im optimistic naman that i'll survive this semi-crisis we are facing.
______
my mom asked me when should we have dinner on her birthday - thursday talaga ang birthday niya, oct. 27 - ang sagot ko - "di ko alam eh." this is the time when i feel really sad about what i am doing. i need to sacrifice family time for work, and that's dinner ah. oh well, i wonder when will this stop?

another funny incident.. last saturday, i was having a quiet brunch all by myself when "manang" - our pakealamerang manang but in a good way though.. approached me and said.. "na-mimiss na kita, di kita nakikita sa umaga, di pa kita nakikita sa gabi" - i should feel weird. why should she miss me? if they feel that, how about my own family? parents? siblings? i think everyone goes to this stage.

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i better not write, what i just wrote. i should not think about it anymore. i dont wanna get distracted. but dont be surpirised if things change.

prolonging

for the past few days, i've been watching the first season of desperate housewives with aggie and cho. i got this last month pa, but i just started last week, and im still in the fifth cd. i like to watch it when im not stressed or if i have nothing better to do. so, ive been doing that lately. i think i like to prolong things, not to finish it all at once. i mean i dont want to finish it naman in one watching, i want to reserve it for the times, times of uncertainity and nothingness. i like it that way. same goes with the books ive bought in national bookstore, cubao 2 months ago, they are all stuck in my shelf. before, i get to finish one book a week but now, the last book that im reading, i had it for a month now, inside my bag. so it makes me feel comfortable that i still have 3 books waiting to be read. i can read it naman if i have spare time naman diba?

also, my acquiring habits have been declining lately. its not that im saving a lot, im not believe me- i want to!, but im not. ive seen a lot of things that i want to buy, like the wallet i saw in topman, the bag i saw in esprit, the shirt i saw in.... i know na di naman siya masyadong mahal but i want to learn to control myself and be diplomatic in the way i deal with it. before, whenever i would see something i like, i get it agad. impulsive?? but no i guess ive seen the value of money na. pero there are some things that doesnt require me to think twice - food, music, books.. i think kasi when it comes to shirts, shoes and bags - i have so many of it that i can definitely live without having another. im just trying to control myself though.

hey - i need desperate measures to save up. im thinking if my plan would push though, which should push through, i need to pay it on my own. i cant expect my parents to still pay things for me. so i need to take that into consideration - BIG consideration.
i have two reasons for my upcoming trip:
1. my 23rd birthday
2. my first year here in the office
- i know these are dull reasons, but these are the reasons for me to enjoy and celebrate. hahaha.

one more thing, im getting bigger na here sa office, the "sumpa" must be true, but i wont let that happen. i need to do something. maybe trying new food isnt for me.

happy weekend

considering my past weekends, this seems to be a good one. for one, i consider friday as a part of my weekend - my lunch was fun, went to cibo, and had fic for snack. i like fic especially pistacio, raspberry and strawberry... durian is not for me.(haha) that evening, i was suppose to go out with iya, julette, etc but had to prioritize family. so we just went to my aunts' house and celebrate her birthday. it was a small gathering but fun!



julette told me that i should try lokaldero at the fort - it was like dencios daw pero upscale and it has nice interiors daw. well i should try it although i find the fort really far from the my place.

that saturday.. i went to greenhills with my mom, my brother was having this chinese oral test that thankfully during my time was non-existent, since his school is near grenhills, my mom and i decided to drop by na din. just the thought of it makes me happy that i have graduated. hehehe. we had lunch in the house, which my mom and i regret, sana we had lunch out na lang. so, we just decided to eat dessert at bizu. (blueberry cheesecake and lime cheesecake)



yesterday, the 16th was my sisters birthday! happy birthday aggie!
when it comes to food, my family is not so adventurous, my dad does not eat italian and american food, he also does not eat beef.. well what he loves to eat are chinese and japanese food over and over again. so for my sisters birthday, i mentioned that they try heaven and eggs (for me, i have tried it na) - i can see that he is okay trying it for the sake of my sister. hehehe.



(top to bottom) angus beef tapa, manila spare ribs, grilled prok chop and eggs










(top to bottom) mom and kids; mom and dad; mom, dad and my brother; the three of us; ags and me clowning around.

family affair

my angkong (lolo) celebrated his brithday last oct 2, while tita bebs celebrated hers naman last oct 9... this sunday, the 16th, my sister - aggie naman is celerating her 21st birthday.. how time flies.. parang ang tanda na namin.. pero wala pa akong gift sa kanya.. shit. i better go to gb or glorietta to find stuff, pero i have no idea what she likes... she likes this bag sa esprit thats worth 3kiaw, yung gusto ko nga na bag dun 1.5kiaw, ayaw ko pang bilhin eh. hahaha! ang kuripot ko na talaga. im trying really hard not to be as impulsive as before. but, back to the topic...

happy 88th brithday angkong!!!



here are all my cousins with my lolo - i can just see in his face how happy he is. sa totoo lang minsan ko na nga lang siya makita na naka-todo smile. and these are during family occassions, so i never miss one. i actually am learning a lot from him, he would give me these advice/aral- the problem is semi ko lang naintindihan yung mga kwento niya before. but i appreciate it a lot.



these are my aunts/uncles (which includes both my mom and dad) - the 5th girl (left to right) is my mom and the guy beside him is my dad...

happy birthday tita bebs!!!



tita bebs is the youngest girl from my dads' side. we semi-surprised her with the gift, flowers, and a box full of letters - parang palanca box (if ever you guys know days with the lord).. we all lover her because of her antique ways and how freindly she could be...

for instance, when she met regine tolentino sa tiangge in greenhills... katapat na niya ah..
"ay si regine" - tita bebs
regine acknowledges her with a smile...
"regine velasquez!!!" - tita bebs
regine tolentino suddenly didnt know how to react.





here are also some pictures with my cousins... somehow, i am thankful that we grew up really tight. we do stuff together, we joined clubs, we go out of town, we went to the same school, we car pull, we all live nearby, we went to the gym together, we play badminton... i am thankful for that!

credits for planning tita beb's birthday surprise:
all cousins for donating cash! hehehe!
achi mich, aggie, chicho, tristel... im sure we made tita bebs feel really loved. :) mission accomplished!

bliss de lys

ohhh my! finally, i got out of the big con - i was there from 10AM to 5PM - it was too cold, poota ang lamig talaga, nagpapainit na nga lang ako ng kamay using the projector... at buti na lang may mga cookies na sinerve si chay to appease my restlessness (ang daming s).. finally, tapos na! anyways, ill blog about my adventure last saturday...

i've been trying to convince tita bot and aggie to accompany me and try fleur de lys. i have heard that this was place was good daw esp with their desserts. but my charm would not work with them, they just dont like eating desserts, cakes and stuff.. so, after my staurday probe, we went there to end the night. saturday was always my lazy day but the last one was not.. so i've finally decided to treat myself and end the night with desserts and a cup of tea.



a wide selection of cakes and desserts welcomes you to the store.



we ordered "the next best thing" - super chocolatey, the french vanilla ice cream was too small though. the inside was soft, it melts literally in one's mouth.



their creme brulee was okay, it tasted weird though because its flavor was coffee. that was the first time i've tried a coffee flavored creme brulee. dome's was parang leche flan kasi, so i was kinda disoriented with that thing.... i already miss the "tea" kasi ang lamig dito sa office.

always cancelled

in my line of work, there are things i need to sacrifice, like working on weekends and stuff like that. its just really hard to manage other people's time, especially with the respondents. they back out, cancel, anytime they like and it leaves me worrying about my deadline. - so that one is cancelled - it was resched and cancelled again, we pushed thru though on sunday 10am at starbucks pearl.. yes. sunday at 10am, i was supposed to be still in bed but hey, my job!

anyways, my friday was weird. i went to conprobe at delifrance in valero, and i swear i wont go back there anymore, staff were all masungits.. i hate it when people are masungit esp if they dont have any reason or right to be. so moving on, i've got home a little around 7pm, and was still kinda full, but when you are given squid balls and kikiam - who can resists that??? this has been my food of choice during my initial break (jan) before i got to work. mom also got seafood puttanesca for me in (im not sure about the resto's name - the one beside steak md in morato). i also got the chance to sample their seafood pesto which was okay too.





for my saturday probe, i kinda figure out i need to give something to bede's family for allowing me to conduct the probe in their house. i mean, yeah we have been friends for a long time now, but still, last saturday was the first time i ate dinner there. his family was soo cool. pramis! ang galing! hehe. thanks auntie bonita for the great food. uncle - for the kwento's, beau and dichi - for being nice... thanks!

guess what, i went to chocolate kiss' for that dessert i was suppose to bring and got them sansrival and devils foodcake. also shown below is the chocolate chip cheesecake. aah!

chinatown's treasures

for the past 2 sundays, my mom and i went to ongpin in manila. primarily, we went to buy jewleries (for re-selling purposes).. everytime we go there, usually we have something planned already, or else i'd get so lost with all the things i wanted to see, and all the stores i wanted to go into. its like shopping heaven for chinese, everything you need is around the corner.


first is the good old mamang kutsero - when i was younger, like 2-5 years old, id go with my mom and ama (lola) and aunts around ongpin riding in a kalesa. i was really frightened at first, but you'd get used to it, whenever you're there on a weekly basis.

ongpin also has good source of fruits, in any "kanto" you will surely find stalls at much cheaper price, of course one would need to bargain - and that was my mom's course in college, she's so good at it, that we get things cheap, although sometimes nahihiya na talaga ako.



we usually go to ongpin around 10 to 11AM so it wouldnt be too hassle, kasi ang traffic, we would usually park in a small parking space, and we'd go around walking na. our stop over was "ang tunay na beef house" - both my parents love the chinese-black chicken soup (the one in the right) - i didnt even dare try it, the smell was awful, although i had compromised with my mom that i'll taste pero the meat of the duck lang. - actually that soup is usually prepared for mom's who just gave birth - pampalakas daw ng katawan yan eh.

while i had the one in the left, oysters with tausi sauce, squid with chili peppers and spinach with garlic and "kiampung" - or chinese fried rice na "malagkit"..



the pictures above are the chinese groceries we went into, i was dumbfounded with all the colors there is - i cant even seem to focus to one specific spot. there were different kinds of candies and noodles from taiwan, china, korea... i was tempted to buy, so i just bought myself chocolates (pictures to be posted on the next post)



i'm sure everyone have heard of DEC or diao eng chai - its a chinese food store that sells almost everything.. chicken pie, chiffon slices, mamon, puto, siopao, kutsinta, taiwanese bamboo shoots, siomai, tikoy, rolls and cakes.



this is my favorite - it is called "hopia dice" from bakers fair - one dice would cost of P2.50 - kinda cheap but considering the size... a box of P20 will cost about P55 or P60 - i forgot the amount i paid for but everytime i get to go there, i will surely have ine tray of this.

well, my mom is asking me when will our next trip be...

me = organizer/alalay

sometimes i do get the feeling that i am a "dakilang alalay", to my friends, cousins, family.. etc! lets not term it that way, not actually alalay but "organizer", "tiga follow-up" at "tiga-ayos ng lahat ng bagay" especially when people cant handle it anymore. actually, i dont dread or hate that feeling and what im doing though. i do like that, i like being in control of things and being on top of certian situations.

some situations as example:
1. whenever our college "12" barkada would have dinner, it is usually becuase of me - my initiative. or people would ask me to arrange something.
(uy birthday ni "*&%$#" meet tayo, ayusin mo)
(uy ayos ka ng dinner, sayo lang naman susunod yan eh)
- i guess that is why they placed me "on the top of the heirarchy"

2. my high school friends
(B texted me to arrange something for dinner and invite our ibang barkada, nung ayos na ang lahat, he texted me nung afternoon na wag na lang daw since he had so many things to do - which is a palusot kasi nahuli ko sya, i knew him too well, he was just waiting for a call dun sa nililigawan niya - i was irritated at him) i did understand the real reasons but i thought it was just so inconsiderate. after all it was him who asked me to do such a thing.

3. family
a. i remember it was my cousins 18th birthday, his "ahya = kuya" was suppose to plan something for her, "mala-surprise".. her birthday was on the 20th, and nung 18th tinawagan ako ng kuya niya to ask for help.. sabi ko "okay, ano magagwa ko.. ano na ba status, ano na nangyari, sino na nakusap mo?" - and his answer was "wala". all he had was the intention to throw a surprise party.

b. mooncake festival. last year the whole clan played dice, of course we planned it (ahya ichi and achi mich) included. it was fun buying stuff and preparing for the day itself.. for this year, one of my cousins was suppose to plan, and my aunt told him na din, na he should do it, kasi he was the big winner last year, eh walang nangyayari.. my cousins really wanted to play though, so one of my uncle said, "si ton na lang gumawa, busy kasi si P eh." - as if hindi ako busy???

dont get me wrong here, im not furious for doing all these things... sometimes i really wonder if life was really meant to be this way?! that there is such a person like me who does this...

cheap and cheerful

halfmoons' bibingcrepe
last friday, john, che, trace and i had dinner at JT's Manukan.. after we deicded to have dessert, and i blurted out that they should try bibingcrepe.. they were really eager to try it since they havent been there and havent tasted the bibingcrepe yet. we were delighted that evening, the hot bibingcrepe matched the rainy weather. but just an advise, this bibngcrepe is for sharing.. P75 to P120. my loved flavors: chocopeanut, chocobanana peanut



food channels' shawarma
shawarma is the food i enjoy eating, it is easy and messy.. thats why i enjoy it. (weird) beofre, food channel was located in virramall in greenhills, they also sell the best squid balls, etc. after virramall closed, my sister and i couldnt find any stall like it. we were craving for it, until i finally found some places in makati that has food channel...



goldilocks' banana muffin
the best muffin so far, i mean price wise, its less than twenty bucks and still you can enjoy a great tasting muffin. i like it better than starbucks or coffee bean pa nga. defintely cheap and cheerful for P18.



quickly's taro ice, with taro pudding, sago and nata
quickly is one of my old favorites. i remember, that i would usually walk to get my fill of taro drink from quickly. when its really late at night, i would drive, a 2 minute drive from my house just to get these. but now, almost all the quickyl branches i know is already closed, the one in valero na lang is the one open. for P40, yes it can qualify a bit.



ube delight
ube is one of the native treats i enjoy, same with leche flan and yema. i;ve tried so many ube's before but nothnig comapres to this. i just enjoyed this dessert i had. well, the hard part is that it came from our province pa in nueva ecija. some "manang" makes ube for P40 a tray. i mean its cheap, i would pay P100 for that, but i guess i can get two and a half for a hundred pesos. hehe!