Live it up...

The Terminal 3 is the newest among the terminals at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. I think it is newly renovated a couple of years ago but not really new that it was built from scratch. I am not sure of this. The area is huge and bigger than Terminal 2. What I noticed is that when you are paying for the travel tax is, you have to go and walk at the back part of the terminal for like five to seven minutes from where the International check -in counters are. Aren't they suppose to put the booth in paying travel tax in front so that everyone sees them first? A lot of people who were checking in that time where looking for the travel tax counter too. I hope they ge to fix this little problem.

Anyways, while I was at the departure area already, I noticed this woman with a familiar face. I started recalling where I saw her first. Then I remembered, she's my schoolmate when we were still in high school! I haven't seen her for like more than ten years already! Imagine that? She went up to me and we chatted a bit reminiscing our high school days. How cool is that?

Jay, looking at the map of Bangkok


waiting for the boarding time...

Reincarnation, literally "to be made flesh again", is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body. This essential part is often referred to as the spirit or soul, the "higher" or "true" self, "divine spark", or "I". According to some beliefs, a new personality is developed during each life in the physical world, but some part of the self remains constant throughout the successive lives. 85

During our trip in one of the temples in Bangkok, particularly at one of the temples at Wat Po, there is this new temple which will be housing the Buddha of reincarnation according to our tour guide, Pattama. She said that while the temple is being made, we could write the names of our loved ones on the ceramic tile which then will be put on the temple and be blessed by the Buddha. My cousin and I asked our tour guide why would we write the names of our loved ones on a tile? She then explained to us that it is one of their beliefs that if the name of the person will be written on the tile, on your next life time, you will be able to meet that or those persons whose names you wrote on the tile. We were amazed by what she has said. We didn't think twice in getting a tile on the table and thought of all the people we want to meet again on our next lifetime! We lost count on all the names we wrote on the tile...for sure, our loved ones are written in there. Of course, we don't want to lose connection with our loved ones even in our next lives...

my cousin Jay and I busy writing the names of our loved ones...

For the past two mornings, we all woke up to the sound of rain. It turned out to be the most disastrous rain Central Luzon would ever see.

We were all warned of storm signal number 1 last night. But no one was prepared for a disaster of this magnitude. The problem is, the signal warnings only reflect the strength of wind, not the size of the storm clouds (amount of rain). Typhoon Ondoy didn't have strong winds... but look at the size of the storm from these satellite reports:


Yahoo Weather issued no storm warning. Infact they just predicted Light Rain



Kim Atienza's PAGASA report in Facebook as of 8am yesterday: Ondoy speeds up and makes landfall! Eye of ondoy now over aurora, will cross central Luzon and will exit dagupan. Tropical storm ondoy strengthens at 85 kilometres per hour msw and gustiness of 100 kph! Metro signal number 1, will strenthen further later. This is a wet wet one! Red in the satellite image means very very strong rain, yellow is moderate rain - Kim Atienza

We are not affected in our area but ALOT are. I've seen the news yesterday that most of the people in Cainta, Pasig and Marikina are now in their roof tops. No food, no water. Rain isnt's stopping either. Water flood is 5-10 feet in their area. Other areas are much deeper. Alot were drowned. Some are dying with hypothermia.

Let's pray for all those people. Let's pray for the Philippines.

What did you folks do over the long weekend? The weather's been so icky - hot and sunny then without a warning torrential rain. It's insane.

I woke up early today for an early walk around our village only to find out it's raining. Duh? What's new? Weather's unpredictable, right? So I just decided that I'll just go online and surf the net...and play Facebook games of course. :-)

Anyways, I just paid and renewed my blog domain yesterday. That means more blogging for me. But before I did that, I contemplated if I'm going to stay with my current web host or not... what I did is look for some website hosting reviews and ratings first to know which are the best web host I could get.

Here's what I found on this web hosting site:

• Top 10 Web Hosting-Best Web Hosts (2009)
• Multiple Domain Hosting
• Best Blog Hosting
• Best Forum Hosting
• Dedicated Server Hosting
• Green Web Hosting
• Best Email Hosting
• and a lot more...
  

Before looking for some Platform Beds online, nothing's going to stop me from watching "In My Life". Last Friday, my friends and I watched it...


This movie took me on an emotional roller coaster ride! One minute I am laughing my heart out, and the next, I am crying with deep emotions! You just have to see the movie to really understand what I am talking about.

You know the storyline: Vilma plays an aging librarian who is forced to visit her gay son in New York after her daughter's husband takes a job—and his entire family—abroad. It would seem like the movie is about Vilma and Luis Manzano, but it is more about Vilma and her son's boyfriend, played by John Lloyd Cruz.



Afterwards, we decided to eat and early dinner, meaning around 6pm. We ordered for a pizza and it was a BIG one. We didn't know it was that big because when the waiter asked us what size we want, he just gave us two options, a regular or an extra large one. The hungry wolves all agreed to get the XL one. And when it was served, this is how it looks like:

I'm sure that it's just not me who noticed that I haven't updated my blog for the looongest time. My bad. I got occupied with work and alos one of the culprit, Facebook! Yeah, I got gaga over it...their games are so addicting.

Anyways, it was a sad day for our family last Saturday because my Tita Caren, her husband and 2 of my cousins flew to Melbourne...They've been waiting for their PR papers to get released before...and now, it has finally came to an end...they've migrated to Australia.

I'm going to miss my two makukulit na cousins for sure, Luis and Carlo. They stayed with us for 4 months last year when their parents were in Australia. It has been so quiet in our house since they left us.





We had a little salu-salo for lunch before they headed to the airport. Oh, we had suha (pomelo) bigger than my cousin's face! LoL!

Last Saturday lunch time, I finally got out from the hospital. And whaddaya know? As soon as the clock striked 7pm, I made kulit to my dad to drive me off to North Walk 2 in Olongapo-Gapan road to meet my friends at Gloria Jeans. Well, one of my Wednesday Group friend is celebrating her **th birthday.

We ate at this newly opened resto bar called Barricks. The food was superb! I took a pic of the food we ordered (yung iba, wala ng pics kasi kinain kaagad,LoL!) because I can't say any negative to it specially the baked mussels in the seafood platter, it was oh so divine!

DJ, me, Ericka & Reggie

I was still confined at my hospital room when I saw in the news that Michael Jackson had a cardiac arrest. It was so surreal because I am just listening on my MP3 with his song, Man In The Mirror which is one of my favorite song. Then TMZ proclaimed that Jackson's dead though CNN is still not confirming. Hours later, at 2:26 LA time, they announced the King of Pop dead. My mom and I got sad because he's still young and still can contribute a lot in the music industry.

Here's a video of one of my fave music from the King of Pop:




I'm Gonna Make A Change,
For Once In My Life
It's Gonna Feel Real Good,
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . . .

As I, Turn Up The Collar On My
Favourite Winter Coat
This Wind Is Blowin' My Mind
I See The Kids In The Street,
With Not Enough To Eat
Who Am I, To Be Blind?
Pretending Not To See
Their Needs
A Summer's Disregard,
A Broken Bottle Top
And A One Man's Soul
They Follow Each Other On
The Wind Ya' Know
'Cause They Got Nowhere
To Go
That's Why I Want You To
Know

(chorus:)
I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change)
(Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah)

I've Been A Victim Of A Selfish
Kind Of Love
It's Time That I Realize
That There Are Some With No
Home, Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They're Not
Alone?

A Willow Deeply Scarred,
Somebody's Broken Heart
And A Washed-Out Dream
(Washed-Out Dream)
They Follow The Pattern Of
The Wind, Ya' See
Cause They Got No Place
To Be
That's Why I'm Starting With
Me
(Starting With Me!)

[chorus 2x]

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror,
(Man In The Mirror-Oh
Yeah!)
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
(Better Change!)
No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
(Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make The Change)
(You Gotta Get It Right, While
You Got The Time)
('Cause When You Close Your
Heart)
You Can't Close Your . . .Your
Mind!
(Then You Close Your . . .
Mind!)
That Man, That Man, That
Man, That Man
With That Man In The Mirror
(Man In The Mirror, Oh Yeah!)
That Man, That Man, That Man
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
(Better Change!)
You Know . . .That Man
No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change)
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah
(Oh Yeah!)
Gonna Feel Real Good Now!
Yeah Yeah! Yeah Yeah!
Yeah Yeah!
Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah
(Ooooh . . .)
Oh No, No No . . .
I'm Gonna Make A Change
It's Gonna Feel Real Good!
Come On!
(Change . . .)
Just Lift Yourself
You Know
You've Got To Stop It.
Yourself!
(Yeah!-Make That Change!)
I've Got To Make That Change,
Today!
Hoo!
(Man In The Mirror)
You Got To
You Got To Not Let Yourself . . .
Brother . . .
Hoo!
(Yeah!-Make That Change!)
You Know-I've Got To Get
That Man, That Man . . .
(Man In The Mirror)
You've Got To
You've Got To Move! Come
On! Come On!
You Got To . . .
Stand Up! Stand Up!
Stand Up!
(Yeah-Make That Change)
Stand Up And Lift
Yourself, Now!
(Man In The Mirror)
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
Aaow!
(Yeah-Make That Change)
Gonna Make That Change . . .
Come On!
(Man In The Mirror)
You Know It!
You Know It!
You Know It!
You Know . . .
(Change . . .)
Make That Change.

It was my cousin's birthday last Friday, June 12. We had a simple celebration at their house. Ate Linda, their ever reliable house maid cooked spaghetti, friend lumpia and spring rolls. My Tita Arlene who knows how to cook well (she's studying culinary in Australia), made some Leche Flan and Bibingka...both were so divine when I tasted them! It's not that because it's my tita who cooked/made it, but it's because it's really yummy!



The birthday girl with my 2 kulit cousins


Of course, we went home late again. It's nice to see my cousins and relatives every now and then...

cake from Red Ribbon


Bibingka and Leche Flan

They are my Wednesday group friends. Not that we are included in the show "That's Entertainment", it's just that we have a lot of errands to do on some weekdays, so we finalized that we meet every "W" of the week.

Last Wednesday, our friend Ericka celebrated her birthday and treated us at Gerry's Grill. Guess how much our bill is? Just the 6 of us, our bill is almost Php4k! That means we munched a lot at the resto! LoL!

My Red Paco fish died last week. I don't know what really happened, I just saw him (i think he's a HE) kinda swimming sideways and the next day, I saw him floating already. So sad. I had him for like nine years already, imagine that. He's so big, more than a foot I think in length. My mom said that I just buy small fishes so that I could design the aquarium this time.



I bought 6 Tin Foil fishes and 6 different carps. The two died (one carp and tin foil), I think it's because of over feeding. Now I am kinda hesitant in feeding them every day, so I decided to feed them just every other day to avoid over feeding.

I bought half a sack of white sand, plants, shells, 3 volcanic rocks and a mountain like painted rock wherein they can swim over and under it.

Not that I went anywhere but I am back here in the blogosphere....blame it on the virus that attacked our PC.

Anyways, I have a lot of kwentos to share to you and I don't know where to start.

Let me share to you who visited us two weeks ago.... Our Lady of Fatima visited our house. She's coming from house to house here in our village. It was a perfect timing because my dad needs a lot of prayers these days.



After my dad's angiogram 2 weeks ago, the doctors at the Heart Center found out that there's something blocking in one of my dad's veins in his heart. His cardiologist wants him to have angioplasty, that's the best thing to do for him. The problem is money. My mom asked for a quotation at the hospital as to how much is the procedure....Php675,000! That's more than half a million pesos! Now, we're still looking for someone who can sponsor my dad for his angioplasty. I know PCSO can help him, it's just that we need to go through a lot of processing of papers when it comes to charities like that.

Please pray for my dad.

I know I am not that present here in the blogosphere for almost two weeks now...there's a culprit. A TROJAN HORSE VIRUS in my computer! I had it reformatter however the man who did my computer ( I assumed) doesn't know what he's doing because our files (as in ALL our files) got corrupted and cannot be retieved anymore! How great is that, huh? I wanted to cry because all of my precious (million) pictures are not yet saved on any dics. Boohoo.

Still, my computer is running funny. It really has to be reformatted by a licenced technician not just any wannabe computer technician.

I learned my lesson now.

The Butter ... please ...

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal, so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.

DO YOU KNOW.. the difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% <> according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around less than 100 years.

And now, for Margarine..

Very high in trans fatty acids .

Triple risk of coronary heart disease .

Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.

Lowers quality of breast milk.

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response..

HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC.

This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

You can try this yourself:

Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it.

Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

Share This With Your Friends..... (If you want to "butter them up")!

That you should always leave loved ones's with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

That you can keep on going long after you can't.

That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

That Heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down are the ones who will help you get back.

That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

That true friendship continues to grow, even over the distance. Same goes for true love.

That just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to be doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

That maturity has more to do with what type of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

That no matter how good friends are. They're going to hurt you in a while and you must be able to forgive them for that.

That are background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we are.

That life can be changed in a matter of minutes by people who don't even know you.

That the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.

That you shouldn't be so eager to discover a secret which could change your life forever.

That two people can look at the exact same things and see something totally different.

That credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

That it isn't enough to be forgiven by others, sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.