My Hello Kitty Watch

What's in a box?

One of my mom's pasalubongs (a.k.a. gifts) yesterday:

She also got me two leather watch bands so I can change whenever I want to.

I'm so excited I wore it today!

The Hello Kitty watch they got me is perfect--simple, classic and in white--something I could wear everyday.

It's been awhile since I've had a Hello Kitty watch. When I started working, I somehow forgot about my fondness for HK stuff but now, I revived my love for Hello Kitty once again. So when my parents asked me what I want from the Philippines, I remembered that Manila has several Gift Gate shops [we don't have them here in Sydney :( ] and told them I want an HK watch.

I received tons of other pasalubongs from my mom and dad and my mother-in-law...and even from my friends in Manila. Not only were the gifts great blessings but moreso the friendship and love that they symbolize. I'm thankful that even if I'm so far away and I don't keep in touch all the time, they send something to me whenever my mom goes on holiday here. I'm blessed and truly grateful.

My Mom's Here!

My mom arrived yesterday for a 7-week long holiday in Sydney.

I'm so so so happy she's here!

She had a smooth flight but had crappy breakfast on the plane (they served softdrinks and didn't offer coffee so she says---que horror!). She's currently loving the cold winter weather as she said, "It's just so hot in Manila!". Before we went out the airport, I kept on insisting she wear her jacket but she said, "It's not that cold", to which I replied, "They've got the heaters on here but once we go outside, it will be cold". I even brought her an extra jacket (the one I'm carrying on the photo above) but the jacket that she finally wore before we went to the parking area was enough.

From the airport, we went straight to one of my auntie's place. This will be her second home while she's here. She'll be shuttling back and forth from our home to my auntie's home so she can also spend time with my grandma and her sister.

My Husband and I spent the whole day with the relatives. I love days such as these where there's an overflowing of great conversations and food shared by a family. After lunch, we just left all the food on the table so anyone can have a bite or two when one feels hungry.

For afternoon snack, my grandma cooked Turon (banana with langka wrapped in lumpia wrapper).

Then one of my cousins asked my auntie, "Do you have ice cream?" I'm amazed at how my auntie seems to have everything inside the fridge hehe.

Voila! Turon with Cookies and Cream ice cream.

If we're not eating, we are usually hanging out at different parts of house. Some would be in the lounge room playing games or watching TV.

My Husband and I set up camp at the formal dining area so we can do some work. That's one long table with our stuff. Eventually, my cousins joined him to work out some stuff about recovering some files.

But always, we end up reunited around the table for some good 'ol fun conversation and yummy food.

Love is one happy family gathered around a table full of delicious food.

Affirmation: Focus on the Present

Affirmation:

My mind and heart are always focused on the present
as I do every task
one at a time,
calmly & kindly,
as it arises.

Personal Reflection:

The past week, I have had several challenging moments in my life. And the challenges are not yet over. I will be facing a few more in the coming weeks. There are so many things to do at home, work and outside of work. I am taking each day as it is and just enjoying every moment as always. What always motivate me is the thought that this too will pass and when it is over, I come out of each challenge with invaluable lessons.

Last week, I learned that surrounding myself with a lot of love helps in going thru every challenge I'm in. Love for oneself. Love from family. Love from friends. Love for one's passions in life. These four things saved me (it always does!)...LOVE. When things seems to be overwhelming I have enough love in my life to weather thru challenges thrown at me. I'm grateful.

I face another busy and challenging week this week. Other than love, I hope I will have enough focus, peace, calm and kindness in me in order to fulfill my duties.

I wish you a great productive week! Smile!

-o0o0o0o-

Blogging will come to a slow halt for the meantime as some things need to be prioritized at the moment. I have so many stories I'd like to blog about (events, recipes and food finds!) and I really can't wait to share them with you. I won't be gone long.

I won't be totally missed. Part of the things I'm finishing is the updating of my photoblog. I've currently uploaded some April photos. I'm hopeful that in two weeks, it will be up-to-date.

I will also check-in the blogosphere from time to time. You can find me tweeting for some random thoughts and photos I would love to share immediately.

See you when I get back!

SATC2 With My Girls

Two years after the first SATC movie and the girls are back! Fun, fashion and friendship all in one movie. If you want to be entertained, you will be entertained. If you want substance, please lower your expectations. This movie has a thin plot with a long running time of 2.5 hours.

There's not much storyline but if you are a married woman, some scenes might be relatable to you. I remember an unmarried friend of mine from the Philippines tweeted me a week ago with "You really have to watch it, Ibyang. This movie is more for married people." And she was right. SATC 2 touched on issues about married life, parenthood, menopause blues, being a woman of today and knowing when to have a break.

The hits. I have enjoyed some heartwarming and funny moments in the film. My friends and I oohh'd and ahhh'd when we saw some of their outfits and accessories. The kind of friendship they have is still the same inspiring kind of relationship any woman would be lucky to have.

Their trip to Abu Dhabi was a miss for me. First of all, their shoot really took place in Morocco. The make-believe Abu Dhabi hotel they stayed at was an insult to the real luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi. 

So was it worth our time? Yes. As followers of the tv series, it's still nice to see their stories unfold for the second time around. My girlfriends and I have watched the series and the first movie and it's so easy to get the jokes of the SATC girls because we've known them for a decade already. No matter how lame some scenes may be, we found them funny because we understand where each character's humour or eccentricities are coming from.

Two years ago, we watched SATC together so we made a pact to watch SATC2 when it comes out of the cinemas. And that's what we did last Saturday. Me and my girls Rache, Hilda, Ara and Yyoni met up on Saturday and saw SATC2. We had so much fun inside the cinema.

We met up at McDonald's for a quick lunch (parang college lang kami uli!!!). It was the nearest fastfood to the cinema and we were due to watch the movie in less than 30 minutes.

 

After the movie, we had a bit of catch up, shopped for some hair accessories and had hot chocolate at Max Brenner. A perfect day with my girls.

Organizing an all-girls day-out is not as easy. So we are very grateful for our husbands who make it easy for us to have our "me" times. The five of us are very lucky to have husbands who would gladly drive for us, wait for us and take care of the kids for us.

My Husband, other than tag along with me to the mall, babysat Jiona (Yyoni's daughter) for awhile. 

  

Somehow, the friendship of the SATC2 girls reminds me so much of my friendship with my girls. Like them, our friendship goes way beyond being just friends. We treat each other as sisters....as family. Their presence in my life are food to my soul.

Ahhhh...Tuyo (Dried Salty Fish), How I've Missed You!

I finally found the courage to buy dried salty fish from the Asian market a few weeks ago. I have always been hesitant to cook this inside our 2-bedroom apartment because the smell of fried dried salty fish is hard to get rid of even if we have an exhaust system in the kitchen.

But I have missed eating Tuyo for years now. So even if my husband will complain of the smell from cooking it, I bought a pack on the day I went home early from work.

I went home early so I can finish cooking early...and hoped that by the time my Husband is home, the smell will be gone.

I succeeded going home early and finished cooking early, but failed in getting rid of the smell totally (even if I sprayed air freshener). The moment the Husband walked in he said, "Wow, Tuyo!!!!" I guess he missed eating Tuyo with that reaction of his.

It was definitely worth giving in to my craving the minute I tasted the salty, crunchy fish dipped in chopped tomatoes, together with a spoonful of steamed rice. I felt like I was in the comforts of my parent's home in the Philippines. 

 
The other half of the pack I bought, I cooked last Saturday morning and teamed it up with Champorado (Chocolate Rice Porridge). This time, we ate it for breakfast. The saltiness of the fish and the sweetness of the chocolate rice porridge is one ideal food duo for a cold winter morning.

 

It's going to be a while before I cook Tuyo again at home so I savoured every bite and enjoyed it immensely.

After this "brave" attempt at cooking Tuyo (and thankfully nailing it!), my next challenge is to cook Dilis (Anchovies). When that will be, I don't know. We'll see how long before I give to my craving.

Vivid Sydney Experience with Friends

As if my lunch and coffee date with Tintin wasn't enough of a gimik for me on Friday, my Husband and I met up with two of our couple friends for dinner at the Circular Quay and saw the the Sydney Opera House in Vivid colors.

Here's our fun couple's night in photographs:

The wifeys...them chatting, me taking photos (which is a usual sight)

The husbands...with their gears & taking photos of us, well except for my Husband who seemed to be modeling the camera

The Journo Burger...my Husband's dinner

Barbequed Chicken Wings...my dinner

Busog kaya all smiles!

Vivid Sydney give-away: little flash lights

Vivid Characters roaming around Circular Quay

Another Vivid character...

Lights up! The Sydney Opera House in vivid lights

Triple date

We didn't bring our tripod with us but thanks to my Husband's ingenuity, we were able to take decent shots. Let me leave you with two photos from our Vivid Sydney 2010 Collection (for bigger images click here and here). 

This is Vivid's 2nd time to hold this event, which happens at the last week of Autumn and only lasts for 4 weeks (will end on the the 3rd weekend of June).

We're glad we were able to see this for the 2nd time around and share it with friends. If you want to see our first experience of Vivid Sydney click here.

More VIVID photos coming soon.


Thanks to our friends Jojo and Dom for some of the photos.

Tintin in Sydney

We met via Multiply then moved on to being tweetmates. A few months ago, she messaged me that she will be visiting Sydney. So even before she arrived, we've made plans to meet and eat (yes, eat!) and explore the streets of Sydney together.

She's Tintin, my blogger friend and tweetheart! :)

 

It was a rainy Friday two days ago but we pushed thru with our plans and met up. She came with her little boy Tom and her mom (whom she's visiting here) and we all had a rainy rendezvous--some crazy adventure really.

Since we cannot do a lot of sightseeing, never even had some outdoor shots, we stayed indoors and stuffed ourselves with yummy treats instead.

First stop was at the Sydney Fish Market for some good 'ol seafood. We rode the Metro Light Rail (MRL) so Tintin and Tom can experience their first MLR ride.

We had lunch at Deep Seafood and Oyster Bar. As we enjoyed our food, we immersed ourselves in great conversation as we talk of life in the Phils and in Sydney.

 

For dessert, we took the MLR again and hung out at Darling Harbour for some delicious treats at Lindt Cafe. The whole afternoon, we enjoyed Lindt's Delice, Profiteroles (a.k.a Cream Puffs) and Chocolate Cafe with Lindt's equally yummy beverages. 

 

Even if it rained on us all afternoon, the great happy company and conversations we had was enough to feel a lot of sunshine inside my heart. Being able to see Tintin (and Tom and Tintin's mom) in person was a heartwarming experience. We hope we'd have a few more dates before she goes back to Manila.

New Passport

I can't believe I didn't have a valid passport for the past 14 months. I totally forgot all about it. Good thing, there weren't any emergency reason for me to travel out of the country.

This year, I really had to apply for my first Australian Passport because I'm sponsoring my Mom's visit to Sydney soon (yes, she's coming over and I'm getting more and more excited!) and we needed it for my Husband's application for permanent residence visa.

The application was quite tedious. There were documents that needed to be prepared and signed by a Justice of Peace. Sometimes I really hate applying for stuff here simply because they're tedious. But then, we all know that it's only because they just want all documents authentic. A matter of security, really. The only consolation after the passport is processed, it is good for 10 years (adult passports). In a way, it's worth all the trouble in going thru the application.

The memorable and irritating thing about my passport application was that the Post Office Manager that interviewed me was really very rude and mean. I was on time for the interview, greeted him hello and he only frowned back. He really scared me. He made me feel like I was a criminal even if I was paying them for their service. He was so unpleasant and he appeared angry as if I've done something wrong. After checking all my documents, he said it was good to go. The same day, he called me in the afternoon (at nearly 5pm which was closing time) only to tell me to come back and he forgot to photocopy one of the documents I brought. The nerve! I took the day-off just to attend the interview and now he calls to say that I needed to go back due to his inefficiency. I was really pissed off at him but I just let it go. 

With all the hassles the application has brought me, I'm grateful that it took the Passport Office less than 10 working days to send my passport to me. That's my only consolation. And now that I have a passport again, I won't have to worry about passport applications again for the next 10 years.

The Australian Passport comes in a neat plastic packet. When you open it, the left side contains the passport, while the right side contains a Travel Smart (Hints for Australian Travellers) booklet. It's a booklet especially produced by The Lonely Planet for Australian Government.

 

The Australian Passport is expensive but once I saw and felt the quality of paper they used, I found out that it's very good quality, definitely worth the money I paid for.

The Travel Smart booklet contains information that an Australian should know on traveling such as travel tips, insurance, entry permits, visas, travel money, packing tips, what one can bring in and out of Australia and most especially where Australians can get help when they're overseas. Really very helpful and handy. 

Now I wonder when I'll be able to use it. Hmmm....