Thank you 2009!

I can only describe my 2009 as one big package full of surprises. Exciting, fabulous, at times confusing, but most of all, LIFE-CHANGING.

If 2009 were a dance, it would be like the Cha Cha for me--stepping forward and backward, to the sides, and then there's the turn--as I had a myriad of questions that needed answers, decisions that needed timely resolutions. Decisions that needed me to step forward and take risks. Decisions that needed me take a few steps backward in order to have a better perspective. Decisions that told my guts to just dance to the music playing in my heart, mind and soul. Decisions that mattered in my present but holds consequences not only to my future but also my family's. Decisions that will forever change my life.

With all the charmed experiences, challenges and decisions made this year, I'm eternally grateful for the special people, events and things in my 2009:

Thank you for giving me a devoted Husband who never fails to make me happy each and every day, for being my partner and bestfriend, for taking good care of me and for being my eternal source of sunshine. Thank you for giving us a chance to grow together everyday.

Thank you for the gift of time spent with family and relatives. My Parents coming over to visit. My Auntie from America visiting as well. Times spent with them are always priceless. I'm happy to have shared a piece of our life here in Sydney with them.

Thank you for the love of my In-laws. Not only do they love me like their own daughter, they are also great friends with my parents. Their love and friendship means a lot to me.

Thank you for relatives who are always concerned and who are always there for our family.

Thank you for the gift of friends, old and new. This year, friendship takes on a new meaning for me as the truest of true friends went beyond extra miles just to show their love for us. I may not have siblings by blood, but God made sure I have friends who will stand by me no matter what. My friends are the food to my soul.

Thank you for the gift of being part of Australia. This year, I'm officially a citizen of this country who has been good to me.

Thank you for blessing in disguises. Meeting people who served as my guardian angels. Circumstances that seemed unkind but in time turned out to be learning experiences.

Thank you for the gift of life. I am blessed me to be healed and here I am, good as new, alive and healthy once again. Thank you for giving me another chance to live.

Thank you for the gift of a home that is welcoming and cheerful, one that is almost always full of laughter and good vibes. Thank you for the beautiful sunsets that greet us every time we arrive home.

Thank you for the gift of surprises and unexpected gifts. Friends visiting Sydney. My Husband giving me a car on my birthday. News that my Parents will be coming over. A written reflection of mine to be published in a book! And some other things that made my day extraordinary with the surprise blessings that came my way.

Thank you for the gift of travel. With each place explored, I learn more and I share more.

Thank you for the gift of photography and writing. Two passions of mine that has become a blessing for me as I meet friends who share the same passion as mine. I'm grateful to all the inspiring responses from people who appreciate my photographs and articles.

Thank you for a stable and not-so-hectic career. There are days when work was so demanding but it was always worth it because work also gave me back days-off that I could enjoy and a flexible time so I'm able accomplish my personal goals. I will always be grateful that the career I have now gives me more time to be a Wifey than a careerwoman.

Thank you for the gift of inner peace and faith. That even if there are uncertainties at times, I am able to sleep well knowing that tomorrow will be a better day and that God will always be faithful to me.


Thank you for all the memories, big and small, good and not-so-good. They made me who I am today and has made me cherish every moment that I'm alive.

As I say goodbye to 2009, I feel that with all the things I've gone thru, I say hello to 2010 a stronger, bigger and better person.


For 2010, let's positively believe that the year will bring great, happy things for all of us. As we look forward, may we always focus on the good things about to happen.


I wish everyone a kinder and more blessed year ahead. A sparkling and bright 2010 to all! Cheers!

Wedding Ninang at 32 :)

Here I am, three days before 2010 and I've just attended a civil wedding of a friend.

The best part was, she asked me to become a witness, as in I-signed-on their-wedding-certificate kind of witness. If this happened in the Phils, I'm a "Ninang". I couldn't be happier. I can't believe I would be a wedding ninang this early but I don't mind being one to friend. It's actually an honor. And wouldn't it be nice to travel the world of married life with my "inaanaks"?

The wedding was the simplest of all weddings I've attended. But it was the most pure, unpretentious and beautiful wedding I've been a part of. Very rarely that I cry during weddings, but with this one, I admit that I was teary-eyed during the exchange of vows.

It was a very private ceremony so I cannot share any other photos such as this cheeky photo of mine here. Maybe someday I will. For now, I'm just happy to share with you one of the happiest moments of my life.

35th, The Month Before The 3rd

Our wedding monthsary is today but we had an early celebration on Friday night because we just want to stay home all day before I go back to work tomorrow.

We also realized that this month is also the "celebration" of our 7th syota-nniversary (7 years ago we became a boyfriend-girlfriend). How time flies, aye? Sometimes we still can't believe how things fell into place for us. Everyday, we are just grateful that we are together thru thick and thin.

This monthsary is but a fitting celebration for what we have gone thru in terms of my health condition. I am eternally blessed to have a husband who instead of running scared since we learned about my health dilemma in August, turned out to be my greatest source of strength--the one who embraced the biggest challenge in our marriage with open arms. Even if I never wanted him to experience my health concerns, he made sure he was simply there. What we've gone thru in the past months is not the end of challenges in our married life, we're sure there will be more. But today I'm more than at peace with the thought that my Husband and I are really a team even in our most darkest days. Thank you God, thank you Universe for bringing us together.

Now, let's talk about celebrations. Since I've been bored at home and I needed some cheering up as well, Husband took the liberty of making me feel like a queen. He arrived on Friday afternoon with loots from Mango. Then took me to dinner at one of our favorite restos that serve yummy Pad Thai (Noodle extra).

After dinner, we went around the mall to look for clothes. The rest of the year, we seldom buy clothes but since it's Christmas time and there are parties to attend to, I told him this is a great excuse for us to buy new clothes--you know, so we'd look presentable hehe. However, we went home empty-handed. We went back Saturday afternoon though and it was then that we bought a few items.

The movie "Avatar" was scheduled at 9PM so we decided to have coffee at Coffee Culture. I was kind of sleepy already anyway.

I had my usual Choffee and it kept me awake the whole night.

The movie was great! I love it. I will share my thoughts about it later.

Monthsary gifts, dinner, shopping, coffee and a movie. Indeed, a LOVEly way to celebrate a monthsary.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Celebrating Milestones at the Night Noodle Festival

Spent late Thursday afternoon at the Night Noodle Festival. Been going to this festival since 2006 and I wouldn't miss this for anything. Very convenient as it goes on for two weeks and starts at 5:00pm. Perfect for people who just came out of the office.

It's also but fitting to end my workweek by having dinner at the park and pre-celebrate with my Husband two happy milestones: my 4th anniversary here in the Land Down Under and our 1st anniversary in our first ever "munting tahanan" (yes, 1 year na kaming nagbabahay-bahayan!!!:)), both events incidentally happened on the 16th of October :)

On to the Night Noodle Festival, as soon as we got there, we lined up to get these free bags from The Sydney Morning Herald. Inside it were a couple of promo catalogues for Crave's October Festivities and some pins. Nothing much really but the recycle bags are useful and pretty enough (the shade was Olive Green which I love).

Then we got a few free Ferrero Rondnoir chocolates, Ferrero's newest chocolate. If you're a fan of dark chocolates, this one is for you.

After that sugar rush, we lined up to get our real dinner. Off to the Dim Sum Station we go to have our Yum Cha fixes.

Fresh from the steamer Pork Buns and Pork Siomai and fried Vegetable Spring Rolls.

For our noodle craving, we had our last stop at Thai Express for some Pad Thai and Satay Chicken.

With dinner on our hands, we found our spot at Hyde Park and had a laid-back dinner as we wait for night time to appear. Thank God for the great weather. Still cold and windy but at least the sun shone that day and that really helped.

I loved our simple dinner immensely. We were in a festival and yet I felt so peaceful just sitting on the grass, surrounded by trees and a fountain, of happy people and of course in the great company that is my Husband. Our dinner was sort of a Thanksgiving for the four years that I've been in Sydney and for the 1st year of happy, peaceful living in our first home.

After dinner, we explored Art & About where you'll see the finalists in Sydney Life, the much-loved exhibition of large scale photographs depicting Sydney.

This is my favorite photograph of all. This is a photograph of an old Filipino Couple who finally got married in church 75 years after their civil wedding ceremony. I like it because it was such a moving photograph, really speak volumes.

When you say large scale photographs, this was how big the photographs were.

The Husband took lots of photos that night...this was my favorite. Somehow describes a lot of things going on in my life on my 4th year here in Sydney: ever-changing, ever-vibrant, ever-challenging but always ever-fabulous.

For more photos, please click this: Night Noodle Festival and Art & About 2009.

Chris' Birthday Bash

Last Saturday (19/9/09--love the date!), I organized a party for friends in celebration of the Husband's 30th birthday. It was one of the happiest moments of our lives as our friends gathered around to wish him a very happy birthday.

It was our 3rd time to have a party at home and Chris and I are somehow getting better at hosting parties we think (haha!). Other than the fact that we love doing party preps, entertaining and having friends around (we love hearing laughters echoing inside the home), we enjoy organizing events TWOgether (I guess it's because we're used to working together at the office when we were still in Manila). Organizing parties is just one of the effects of our teamwork and we love successful parties!

We did a couple of new things for this party such as our table centrepiece. We usually put flowers but for the first time, I made this simple candle and fruit centrepiece. These are two things that I love seeing on our dining table on any normal day so why not use it for special occassions too.

Served Cabanossi Sausages as part of our Antipasto Platter to give that meaty flavor to wet the appetite before diving into the mains.

For our mains, I served Chicken Lollipops with homemade gravy and Pork Asado for the first time. I used to cook these before but always with the help of either my mom or my grandma. We also served Spring Rolls and Chicken Meatballs.

We were fortunate enough to have helpful friends who brought food so we had lots for everyone. They brought Spaghetti, Baked Macaroni, Veggies, Duck in Red Curry. They even brought dessert! Amazing.

It was also the first time that Chris baked for our friends!!! Yes, my Husband bakes now while I cook---we are really a team now even when it comes to the kitchen. He baked Friands in three flavors: Blueberry, Almond and Chocolate for dessert. Our friends loved it! I'm so proud of my Husband :).

The food was just the icing on the cake but the company, the laughter, great conversations and time spent with our friends are biggest bonus of the celebration. We are truly grateful for their presence.

For more of the happy photos on Chris' birthday bash, please click HERE.

The Husband Turns 30! :D

Happy happy birthday to my beloved Husbandski! :)

My beloved, the love of my life,

On your special day, I just want to thank you for being one of the greatest blessings in my life. Your presence has made me doubly happy and you have gifted me with so much peace in this lifetime. In our fun and sometimes crazy journey as partners in this thing called Marriage, you always bring out the best in me. Thank you! With you, I am never without love.

Happy birthday Husbandski. May all you wish for come true. Love love love YOU.

For the past years, gift giving between me and the Husband during special occassions usually occur before or after THE day. A simple reason is that on THE day, we'd like to focus on the celebration of the occassion. We'd like to focus on spending time with people that matter to us or find joy in the simple things that we'd like to do on special days---because that is what truly matters.

So today, we celebrated my Husband's birthday by:

• Attending mass to celebrate with God the blessing of this beautiful day
• Having breakfast at a cafe
• Watching "Up" in the cinemas...it was the first day of showing and it was fortunate that the playdate of "Up" in Australia is today.
• Eating Yum Cha for lunch
• Having dinner with our kapamilya.
• Just being TWOgether.

Thank you to all our family, relatives and friends who remembered. Chris sends his appreciation to all of you. We are truly touched by your good wishes.

Will upload photos soon.

31st Monthsary Breakfast at Cascade Cafe

Since the Husband started work last year, it was very seldom that we have breakfast dates as we both like arriving to work early so we can also go home early.

Last week, I attended training for two days in the City which fortunately coincided with our 31st monthsary on Thursday (20 August). So we grabbed the chance to have a breakfast date as a way of celebrating our special day of the month.

I initially thought we would just have coffee at Starbucks but the Husband took me to Cascade Cafe which is just located in the train station where he gets on and off. Nothing really spectacular about the Cafe, the only special thing about it is that it has this faux waterfalls.

I find it relaxing just hearing the sound of free-flowing water even if I know I'm in the CBD. I think I found another place where I can have my "Me" time.

Now, for the food....the Husband had a latte.

While I had a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice. I love it!!! The price of the OJ, on the other, made me cringe--it was AUD$5.80. Really expensive but worth it. If ever you visit Sydney, you should never leave without having a taste of our freshly-squeezed OJ.

Main event. We shared a plate of their Big Breakfast. It had 1 big sausage (sliced in half), mushrooms, bacon, 2 eggs, big tomatoes, 2 toasts and chips.

With that serving, even if we already shared, it was difficult to finish it all off and we were both so full afterwards.

Cascade Cafe is located at 15-16 Town Hall Square, Sydney.

On Marriage (Thoughts on Our 28th Month)

"I've learned this much about marriage. You get tested. You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accommodate or don't."

"...there are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike."

"I think marriage is a very important thing to do, and you're missing a hell of a lot if you don't try it."

- from Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Husband and I are celebrating our 28th month today. Last night, before he tucked me into bed, he surprised me by saying "Good night!!! Happy monthsary!!". Being busy with so many concerns for the past weeks, it was only last night that I realized what day is today. I'm the kind of person that takes note of little things and whenever the Husband does any little thing of thoughtfulness, generosity or anything good, I appreciate his gesture with all my heart.

I shared an excerpt from Tuesdays with Morrie which tackled about Marriage because it is all true--in our case, that is.

So far, in the past 28 months that we have been together, we are doing good as a married couple. At a very young stage of our marriage, we have weathered a few challenges here and there...laughed so much, cried a bit, pissed each other off once in a while. Lots of crazy but fun times.

With each day together, I discover how lucky I am to have him for a husband, partner and bestfriend. Marriage is a challenging thing but what makes it easy is that our center has always been our Faith and our values in life.

To my dear Husband, happy 28th month! Because of you, I'm never without love. :)

27th at Starbucks

It's been a looooongggg while since we've celebrated our monthsary in Starbucks.

Last Monday was an accidental date...a "nakaw na sandali"...a few minutes of "us" time. Husband and I are so busy these days, we've only been having dessert dates lately (last month, we dropped by Max Brenner and had Belgian Waffles before going home).

There was no plan to go out really but we had to drop off some stuff at a friend's place in Mt Druitt. Then I remembered my cuzin mentioned something about a Starbucks branch there that she goes to to have late night coffee. Chris and I decided to check it out.

We arrived 30 minutes before closing. We just ordered hot chocolates for both of us. The barista added a big marshmallow on top, guess she was feeling generous.

The funny thing about this "date" was that we were both comfortably silent the whole time we were there. We were both just sipping our hot chocolates and stared at stuff such as this wall behind him.

I guess we're just really tired from all the gimiks we've been going to. Nevertheless, we enjoyed celebrating our monthsary in a familiar place, enveloped in the warmth and aroma of Starbucks' hot chocolate.