I am a happy one year old working kid

First year here in my current company. Yahoo! =) Congratulations to me!

I am in SAVE MODE. TIPID. Stingy. Kuripot mode. I just need to save more money for a rainy day..wishing for rain too. (super init na kasi eh!). The only place I might visit this year would be Coron (eeeeep. unless I could afford Bora). The US trip would be this december (if my parents would fund EVERYTHING — airfare + pocketmoney) but well..depends.

We (J and myself) will embark on another selling spree! Watch out for it! waaah! =)

Toodles Caboodles! =)

for the loove of things edible.

I think and believe that anyone who’s anyone that has this love for eating must have that inner hidden talent and keen ability to cook.  It’s this passion in both enjoying the food we eat and knowing what key ingredients the chef/cook must’ve placed in each dish that makes it unique it his-her-your palette.  Maybe I am also lucky to be part of a clan coming from both sides who has this passion for food and cooking and that’s why I have been passionate about cooking ever since. I am not quite sure why I didn’t end up having this love for cooking as my main profession but I could try doing this sans the diploma. The images above are just some of the things I have cooked. Well, the Spinach artichole dip in ramkins are easy to do and I made them while the dish above (image), my brother’s creation. He is fantastic in plating his dishes. He’s not even a culinary arts student but a Medical student at that. Cool. I am just amazed how both my parents encourage us to cook and they get to eat the things we make.  I now know how to start the OVEN! Oh yes. I never knew how to light up an oven before until my siblings used them last December. Tedious than a stove but it can cook a lot of unique things! Must.Learn.How.To.Bake.Soon.

On Bargains. We went to Greenhills last Saturday to have our printer fixed. While waiting for it, I saw the most amazing summer dress! The first store that carried the dress, it was tagged at Php1,600. I was crushed. Since I really trying my very best to save my hard earned money, I simply cannot do away in spending Php1600 on a dress even though how wonderful it looked. So I opted to roam around the stalls outside the mall (tiangge) to check out other cheap alternatives but I simply cannot get my mind off that dress. After much roaming, I dragged my sister and I felt like I did some weird leaps of joy when I saw this one dress on display the same with the one I saw earlier. The price: Php1000 and made “tawad” and it was given to me for Php900!!!! Ok. It is still expensive for a Greenhills standard but, it does not look Greenhills bought. My mom even said she liked the feel of the dress, it’s not silk, its not tacky looking its something I cannot describe. It has a silver ring that looks like a bandeau and can be tied around your nape. BASTA! I will take a picture of it once I have the guts to even take a picture of myself wearing it. The best part of the whole day was, I got the dress at almost half the price (1oo pesos na lang, half price na from the Php1600 price). Shucks. The Secret Works talaga.

Ok.

Happy 45th J! =) love love!

Morning text exchanges with J:

Me: Hon, nagimagine ako na nanalo ako sa lotto!

J: Wah! Lotto bear! Ako nananaginip akong nakakalipad ako!

Why oh why? That made me smile. Seriously =)

Toodles!

Ciao Bella!

planning and planning

Already looking for travel options already. Hmm. One option would be the Coron trip or..some Asian trip somewhere.  I am pretty much excited.  We are checking out travel sites that offer tours inclusive of the airfare already. But it depends if getting them separately would mean anything.  I am not sure. But I can’t wait! =)

We will be celebrating our 4th year in May and we have to plan this early so that we can both take our leaves and well for the possible expenses. Eeeeeep.

Toodles!

Ciao Bella!

birthdays and more

After months of not cooking, I got to cook last weekend. I cooked again the usual party staple in family/friends gathering..Lasagna. Hehhe.

I cooked a record breaking 4 hours! What. Why did I cook for 4 hours?? I didn’t notice the time too. I cooked 4 batches of lasagna for my sister’s dinner party at home. I was supposed to go to a friend’s house for dinner but I opted not to go..first, my sister needed all the help she could get from us and I was dead tired from all that cooking. Oh well.

I was also in a download frenzy last weekend. Hahaha. I downloaded new songs. I need a new ipod case too. Crap. My case is peeling like crazy.  Cheap ass case that my sister gave me. I like it though but well…it’s one overused gadget, time to retire the case.

My mom, auntie sister and J have been asking me what I want for my birthday…or my plans. Ooohh. I didn’t get to celebrate my silver (25th) last year unlike some friends who had a big bash since it’s another milestone (eeek oldness) for them/us. I am not thinking of having a party though.. (I might join the other february-march celebrants for a joint party though…hehehe). I still don’t have any idea what I want or what I want to do on my birthday..which falls on a weekday. I might take a 2 day leave hehehe.  I will cross the bridge when my birthday comes. =)

25+1! here I come!

new lens and birthdays

I am already done counting the days before Christmas and starting to count the days before my 26th (oh gawd) birthday. Since I didn’t get to have the cash (and guts) to get myself a gift for my silver anniversary, I might get a pretty nice gift for myself next year. I might get an EF 85mm F/1.8 USM lens. It’s not that expensive (teka teka..bago humirit…) compared to the other good telephoto lens in the market. It’s cheap-ER since it does not have an Image Stablizer. Not yet sure though. I am not into portraits and landscapes but I am interested in street/candid/no acting type of shots. Does that mean I need a faster lens? I guess. But for now, I am happy and contented with my kit lens and I need tons of practicing. I just hope J is still willing to be my test subject when I get to practice some more.

Speaking of birthdays…tomorrow is Nicole’s birthday! Nix! Where have you been hiding! Message me! or better yet…I’ll message you! =)

crunch time!!!

I have been testing this application for like 2.5 weeks already with no errors/issues encountered until now! To think my last day for this scheduled task is tomorrow! Talk about GREAT timing! Waaah.

J and I decided to walk around Makati..well Salcedo-valer0-Sedeno-Herrera-dela Costa side of Makati after we had our lunch. I just rememberd that Makati feels like New York City with all the side streets, food carts (aka as jolly jeep) and the high rise buildings/apartments that are just about anywhere. There are tons of places to eat..hole in the wall-hidden quaint shops to have lunch..not your typical over crowded diner. The only difference is that the heat of the noontime sun was just too much to bear for someone like me who wore a black turtle neck to work in this unpredictable weather.

I love Makati. I have always wanted to work here prior to graduation. Good thing, I was given the chance to intern in one of the known IT companies (Java/Solaris ..*hint hint*) here and I got the first hand feel of how it is to work in such a fast paced work environment. I loved it! Every minute of it! From then on, I was hoping to land my first job here, but sad to say, I declined a fairly good offer for a fresh grad like me back then to pursue another somewhat same offer in Interesting Blue Men (hehehe). Makati is nothing compared to where that former company is located. I love it here and I love my job more than anything. I don’t code/develop applications but I test the applications prior to deployment among other things not programming related. I am still in IT minus the “hello world” aspect, if you know what I mean.

Positive energy is around me. Maybe its because I had a couple of bites from the chocolate J gave me earlier. =)

what I love right now <3

There’s always something to write about. I love love love making lists. It keeps me out of work/home boredom and it helps me think of the wonderful things I currently enjoy.

• Starbucks’ heated Cinnamon Swirl
• my new pair of strappy red peep toe shoes at 50% off.
• sour tapes (like gummy worms)
• Snow Patrol
• UGLY BETTY Marathons (America Ferrera)
• Caramel Macchiato
• weekends!
• Friday dates with J
• taking pictures with Moogy
• our stuffed babies
• breakfasts
• Frank Sinatra’s Christmas songs




 

I am sooo loving my weekends. I usualy spend it at home just watching DVDs or the TV series I have missed in past months. I am currently loving UGLY BETTY. =) I loooove her! I love her quirky sense of style, her drive and enthusiasm to do her best in her job even though she feels that its far from what she really aspires to do hoping that she’ll soon have her big break. I also love the mix of characters and the personalities that each character tries to convey to their audience. Cute! I love it! Still starting with season 2 and will ask J to download the remaining episodes that I still don’t have. =) yaaaaay!

the Chocolate Oblivion experience

Every Friday, J and I usually make dinner plans just to relax and enjoy the no rush feeling of the week ending. Its either we have dinner over a fancy restaurant and don’t have dessert or have a simple dinner and splurge over sweets until we’re so hyper we already want to go home.

So last night, we went had a simple dinner then headed to Classic Confections. I know its a tad bit too late for this but this is our first time to try the so called “Nono’s Chocolate Oblivion” cake. I was just so curious and envious at the same time that I have been wanting to try this out for ourselves.

The place is tooo small. When we came in, there were only 3 long tables 2 of which were reserved to other clients, the other one was occupied. We were seated at the bar in the middle of the place. Howell, so much for the comfort of eating. Good thing, the cake and the Iced Mocha didn’t disappoint us. It was heaven..well except for the caramel crunch placed around the mini cake. =) After that we just took pictures of the place which looked really cute and quirky and homey among other things. The store offers a lot of take home goodies as well like cookies of sorts and candy bars and octopus shaped cookie cut outs. =) CUTE perfect for little kids and kids at heart.

what I love about Starbucks

STARBUCKS

The company is named in part after Starbuck, Captain Ahab’s first mate in the book Moby-Dick, as well as a turn-of-the-century mining camp (Starbo or Storbo) on Mount Rainier. According to Howard Schultz’s book Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, the name of the company was derived from Moby-Dick, although not in as direct a fashion as many assume. Gordon Bowker liked the name “Pequod” (the ship in the novel), but his then creative partner Terry Heckler responded, “No one’s going to drink a cup of Pee-quod!” Heckler suggested “Starbo.” Brainstorming with these two ideas resulted in the company being named for the Pequod’s first mate, Starbuck(taken from here

Ok ok. Enough of that History/origin. But at least you now know where the name came from, or where the owners coined the name striking brand well known all over. One professor way back in college once mentioned the reason why Starbucks is well known and well recognized is through their name. It’s striking, different languages can easily pronounce the name and its easy to remember.

My first Starbucks experience would be way back 1998. A friend from Poveda called me up and told me that Starbucks Katipunan finally opened and are offering free drinks to everyone who comes in. She went to my house after a busy day in school and went to Katipunan. Had my Mocha Frap with biscotti which is also free. Saw a lot of friends from Ateneo and finally went home. This was 10 years ago.

I love Starbucks because of the comfort it brings. It’s welcoming and homey. I love looking back to those moments I have spent there, doing thesis, studying for BUSTAXA, asked some guy to Prom among other things both worthwhile and just mundane events that became part of my life. I have had a few out of the blue dates with J here, rainy valentine’s day 2006 =) among others. We just love listening to the jazz music that each store has to offer. Calming and not too evasive.

It’s just fun to look back and remind ourselves of the things we have done in the past, be it good or bad. It helps us keep grounded and continue to learn and evolve as human beings.

5 things I am thankful for this mid-week

Sometimes we fail to look back and think of the things we should be thankful for. More often than not, we always look and find ways to complain about random things, things we shouldn’t be pissed about.

Given that thought, I have listed down 5 things I am thankful for this mid-week. Mid-week because its just Tuesday and the week has just started.

• No rush traffic Monday morning – if you live in Manila, Philippines and you are part of the working class, you might dread waking up every Monday earlier than usual just to beat the horrible traffic. But I’m grateful because, it’s been weeks since I have had this no traffic Monday blues going to Makati. =) Amazing.
• Finished a new book in ages - I am not a bookworm nor a fan of collecting books. Buying them and then reading them on a later date. I am more of an online reading type of person who prefers to read articles online rather than picking up a book and actually enjoy reading in all through out and actually finishing it. I bought a book this weekend and I actually finished it in one sitting. I am planning to /try to continue this new found love for books.
• New found love for TV - TV is everyone’s bestfriend. I mean, you may have your laptops with you to enjoy downloaded movies or streaming videos but nothing beats the good old tube. I stayed home last weekend and got to spend a LOT of time just watching movies and tv shows like Ugly Betty Marathon. oohhhh…series =)
• Iced Caramel Macchiato - my favorite drink of all time. I love coffee but I am not into those super sweet until the end type of drinks coffee shops sell. I love the Iced coffee variety since its not too sweet and not to bitter. I love it. I dont normally buy this since it’s too way out of my budget but since payday was just last week, why not treat myself with one serving of this heavenly drink
• Payday weekend – in connection with the first bullet, being a corporate slave such as myself, I enjoy and am thankful for paydays. Just like Christmas, everyday should be a payday holiday.

So much for my 4th post. I’ll be posting more often! =)