Kilay is Power!

I had another evening call tonight for work (whoopdeedo!), which I only found out about this morning.  It was not too late a call, which made it more alanganin, in terms of my household chores / wifely duties.  I promised J I'd cook his favorite arroz a la cubana for dinner tonight, so to make sure I delivered, I decided to cook it during my lunch break (yay for living near where I work!).  Since I also had to EAT lunch during my 1-hour break, I was all Iron Chef, slicing and dicing like a madwoman to finish early and be back on time (for more meetings, sob).  I didn't change out of my work clothes (precious time!) and since I have yet to buy a new apron, I just took extra care not to splatter tomato sauce on myself.  This Manila heat is still unbearable, and add to that the burning heat of my stove fire...well, I was sweating like a piglet from hell in no time.

Truly a Working Girl 

The good news is, I was able to finish the dish, clean up, speed-eat lunch without choking, and go back to work on time!  I was happily (ows?) checking newly received e-mail when I briefly caught a glimpse of my face in the small mirror I keep on my desk.  Que horror!  My eyebrows had disappeared!  Okay, that's an exaggeration.  I meant, my make-up melted after all that sweating in front of the stove.  

Let me explain myself.  

EEEK!

My eyebrows take after my father's, which means they are sparse, all over the place, and are close to non-existent at the ends.  I've tried smearing petroleum jelly and olive oil to make the hairs grow where I need them, but I gave up after a while because who wants sticky brows?  I started going to brow studios to have them professionally groomed (too late in life, in my opinion) and also discovered the magic that is the eyebrow pencil/powder.  Now, I refuse to leave the house without first drawing my eyebrows on (HAHA).

Don't worry. I don't go out in all my towel-y glory.

So in case you're wondering what happened to my melted eyebrows earlier today, I went downstairs to the nearby drugstore and bought a Php50 brow pencil (score!). I would have endured the browlessness, since I only had half a day left in the office anyway, but I had two meetings lined up and I wasn't ready to go in like Powder. 

Powder needs brow powder

Extra Nuggets, Please:

- J loved my arroz a la cubana!  My eyebrows melting was worth it!

- What is alanganin in English?

- My officemate Mae let me try spicy tuna-flavored crackers today. I liked it!

- Our pantry food store didn't sell lumpiang toge today and I was so disappointed!  Been having it for the past 2 days for merienda (with vinegar, YUM!) and I still haven't eaten it to the ground.  I hope they restock tomorrow *crosses arms*

- 3 out of 4 of my nuggets are about food (nuggets = food also). Oink!

Give Us Us Sleep!

When I was in grade school, up until high school and college, all my friends knew not to call me (back when actually calling someone up using LANDLINE was normal) by 9 o' clock. Why, you ask (all 6 of you, my faithful readers)?  Because I'd be asleep by then.

Yes, that's right!  My parents were like military officers, waking me and my brother up (my sister wasn't born yet) by 5 or 5:30 am, and marshaling us off to school so we'd reach there by 6:30 or 7 at the latest.  I didn't even have an alarm clock!  My mom would come into my room, turn on the lights, and by some eerie magic, I'd sit up, get out of bed, and shuffle groggily to the bathroom (eyes closed throughout...can you say TALENT?).

After school, we would go straight to tutor, then back home to finish our assignments.  I would have maybe an hour for phone time with friends or then-boylets (hello to my loving hubby! You're the best!), but as soon as the clock hits 9pm, lights out, peeps!  It was time for bed.

I remember during prom, my friends teased me endlessly that it was way past my bedtime and if I wanted to lay my head down on the table and nap.  As an act of I'll-show-you, I hit the dance floor and showed them all up (or so I think haha).

Even to this day, I don't like staying up late, much less do actual work at night.  I KNOW for certain I won't survive a night-shift job, because I'd be sabaw from 6pm onwards.  I'll put the grave in graveyard shift! Wenk wenk wenk.  

This random rambling is brought to you by my evening call tonight, where this happened:

Someone should ban evening calls! Child (ahem) abuse!

Extra Nuggets, Please:

- I need to replace my tablet's stylus battery since it's been acting up and not working properly (hence, my messier than usual drawing for the last entry).  This drawing, I made on J's Note - kind of makes me want a Samsung phone (congrats to my friend Val for getting herself a new S4!).  Since I'm "draw-squatting" on my husband's phone, I can only churn out one drawing since he might need it to text or check mail.  Not used to posts not being peppered with silly doodles hihi.

- J installed LED light strips in our living room today and I think they're awesome! Such a great thing having a handy man (for free!) :-)

- I made J's breakfast for tomorrow - ham and cheese sandwich. He insisted I put strawberry jam. This is a result of a happy accident.  I made him two sandwiches a couple of days ago: (1) peanut butter and jelly, and (2) ham and cheese.  He ate it like a club! :-D  Well, it's all going in the same place anyway ;-)

- I kind of like this Extra Nuggets thing and might keep at it. Good for my random thoughts!

Health Decisions & Braving the Stench

Due to a number of important reasons - turning 30, quite recent hospital visits with family members (nothing bad, thank you, Papa God) - I've taken to heart the whole Health is Wealth adage.  Even as a child, I liked eating fruits and vegetables.  J calls me a "food nerd" because I didn't like hotdog as a kid (it was too red) & only insisted on eating brown frankfurts (if there was no other "real" ulam). 

What?? It's red! Something's not right!

Now that I have come to terms with the reality that I can no longer eat whatever I want without suffering consequences, I've realized that I should be more discerning when it comes to what I eat (and how much, huhu), and that, yes, I do need to exercise.  I REFUSE to go on any sort of diet - I love food too much - for fear of breaking down and binge-eating because I'll end up feeling deprived and kawawa. So, exercise it is.

Back in Singapore, jogging was my exercise of choice, and I enjoyed it.  I'd go run with my officemates every Tuesdays or Thursdays (both if we were preparing for the annual JP Morgan run), and I would look forward to it because it was alone time where I could think or just enjoy the peace and quiet (and tree-watch).  Here in Manila, for some reason, I find it exceptionally hard to find time and energy to jog.  To be honest, I'd also find excuses like it's too polluted, it's unsafe, so I never really got back into my groove.

After months of laziness and kabochogan, J & I decided to make the best of the monthly association dues we pay and use the condo gym.  At first, I only used the stationary bike half-heartedly, and never really hard enough to make me sweat in that let's-burn-fat kind of way.  I know I'm not yet at that point where I'm maximizing my workouts (naks, plural), and I have no delusions of being a gym rat (don't people say exercise is addicting? I'm still waiting to get addicted!), but a little physical activity is better than no activity, for sure.

The thing is, 3 times in the past 2 weeks that J & I had gone to work out, there's this guy who, the moment he steps in the already kulob gym with everyone sweating and huffing away, completely contaminates the air with...I don't know, B.O.??  He hasn't even started sweating! The first time it happened, he was there first and it was so bad that J & I decided to abort our workout mission and we ended up eating out instead.  Fat = 1, fitness = 0.  The succeeding encounters, we were at the gym first and thought, what a hassle if we cut our session short just because of the smell!  Solution: we continued to work out, outside the gym (thank goodness the guards let us!).

Toxic!

I am absolutely certain that we will share the gym with him again and I will just continue to bring my work out outside hehe.  Applause for the committed!

On another note, J & I wondered out loud if we ever get stinky enough to offend nearby people (like in elevators or similarly enclosed spaces).  I wisely said we would each tell the other if we reeked - that's what spouses are for!

Bali: Day 2

We decided to take a half day tour on our second day in Ubud, since we anticipated sleeping in and waking up late hehe.  We spent the morning exploring hotel grounds and having a leisurely lunch in a random restaurant by the street.  

Discovered the second pool!

Lunch at the Tropical View Cafe...
sounds like somewhere in the PH too, eh?

Other activities included napping (like cats!) and watching a Taylor Swift special on cable haha.  Oh, we also visited nearby silver shops to ask if they did repairs...one of the brand-spanking new opal earrings broke after Jason wore it -__-  Long story short, our tour guides were able to accommodate our request to go back to the silver shop, & my earrings were promptly replaced. Huzzah!  Will keep my earrings out of husband's reach.

Our first stop was Taman Ayun temple, situated in sprawling grounds with a fountain, a landscaped garden, a cock fighting arena with seating, and the inner temple area.

Taman Ayun

I enjoyed our walk here, even overcoming my fear of heights and going up one of the viewing structures (okay fine, there were rails to hold on to but it was still a big deal for me).

Rails! So smart!

There was something spiritual about the place, and I felt it as I looked with wonder at the multi-storied roofs of the temple structure.  Admittedly, I did start referring to the buildings as "Edna Mode".

See the resemblance?

Interestingly, there was a sign outside that says menstruating women are not allowed to enter.  I wondered if there had been women who ignored this sign and still went in (after all, they weren't going to get bodily checked, right?), but of course it all boils down to respect for other people's culture and beliefs.  How awful though, travelling all the way to a new place only to be turned away!

Strickly!

After our temple tour, we were taken to a coffee tasting place, where we proceeded to try out drinks like Bali coffee, ginseng coffee, ginger tea, lemon grass tea, and coconut coffee among others (all for free!).  Visitors had the option of tasting Luwak coffee, but at a fee of IDR 50,000 (approximately Php 211).

Yoga and Buka...had to remind myself that "coffee" was in there somewhere

J & I are not coffee drinkers (although I would take the occasional cafe mocha) but we ended up leaving with their Coconut Coffee - it was a toss up between that or the Red Ginger Tea!  I wanted to get the Lemongrass Tea too, but J said it tasted like candy :-p

We ended the tour with sunset at Tanah Lot, a temple that sits on a rock formation in the ocean. 

Tanah Lot

At the base of the island, it is said that (poisonous!) holy snakes guard the temple from evil spirits.  We entered a shallow cave to view one of the holy snakes.

Small but terrible? And holy!

After the holy snake viewing, we proceeded to get ourselves blessed with holy water (avail!).  A man dressed in white robes touched a pestle (of mortar and pestle fame) dipped in holy water on my forehead, then placed a frangipani bloom behind my left ear while another man pressed bigas (rice) on the wet mark left by the pestle.  I'm not sure what the significance is but perhaps it has something to do with prosperity, which is what bigas is known for here in the Philippines?

I don't know this man but thank you for being my mowdel!

With frangipani in my hair and rice granules stuck to my forehead, I said a prayer of thanks to Papa G, for this wonderful new experience with J, my forever travel partner and love of my life.  What a birthday salubong!

Biyukukung Suites & Spa

For our first 2 days in Ubud, we decided to stay in this quaint little hotel called Biyukukung Suites & Spa (thanks, agoda!).  Since our tour guide and driver picked us up from the airport, we had no trouble finding it. Check-in was a breeze, with sips of their welcome guava juice in between.  J fell in love with one of the (yes, there were 2!) pools, largely because of the frangipani (kalachuchi* for us) tree looming beautifully over it.

*This flower was everywhere!  Shops would sell it too as hair accessories, so I assumed it was their national/local flower.  When I asked Made though, he said they didn't have one.  Google confirms it IS frangipani - I'm confused now but in any case, very pretty!

Our home in Ubud

Our room was a loft, with a spacious sitting and lounging area out front, overlooking rice paddies.  When you enter, the first thing you see is the sink and the bathroom, which is designed to give you the feeling of showering outdoors: stone walls complete with moss and little plant life, see-through roofing that lets the sunshine (and rain, thanks to one cut-out square) in, and pebbled flooring, good for avoiding nasty slips.

Room amenities

To get to the room, you have to go up a flight of stairs, which I thought was cumbersome, especially if you find you need to pee at night.  Also, because of the "open" way the bathroom was constructed, we could hear our next-door neighbors showering or (worse) pooping! Haha!  All this was fine, thanks to free wi-fi!

Breakfast choices were limited to Western (pancakes / toast / pastry with eggs, coffee or tea) or local (fried rice with egg, fried noodles - like pansit, or fried noodle-rice...which turned out to be bihon!), both choices come with orange juice and a fresh fruit platter of bananas, watermelon, and melon.  On the first morning, I chose something curiously called "jaffle" - which was like empanada filled with crushed banana.  Fried noodles for me the next day! :-)

Good morning! J's fried rice with egg on the right and my kawawa jaffle on the left

The location was good though, since we could walk outside to restaurants or convenience stores.  The roads in Ubud though are quite narrow, so be careful unless you want to be run over by super speedy motorcycles!

Too bad I wasn't able to try their spa service, but the amenities look promising.

Spa - they offered 50% discount since we were hotel guests

More Bali posts to come! :-)

Bali: Day 1

J surprised me with a much-needed vacation for my birthday...to Bali!  I have a lot of things to be grateful for, but I think having the sweetest, most thoughtful husband is on top of the list!

We woke up super early on Tuesday to drive to the airport, with lingering traumatic memories of our failed Macau trip where we missed our flight because of inexplicably horrendous traffic.  Luckily, we made it to the airport without incident and checked in, no problem!  The flight takes approximately 3 hours and 50 minutes so we were able to nap on the plane (yay, no other seatmate!)

Bali view from our plane

Smart thinking on J's part, asking our tour guide from Bali Surf Advisor to pick us up directly from the airport and diving straight into our tour for the day.  Saved us some money we would've spent for a taxi!  Our tour guide, Made (pronounced "Mah-dey"), and driver Wayan, picked us up and off we went to start our Ubud Village Tour.

Bali: Land of Dinky! (APV)

Ubud is a town in Bali that is considered one of the main arts and culture centers.  Our tour started off by visiting batik makers (I usually like buying a scarf/shawl as a souvenir, but in this case, J & I though USD 25 was a bit steep (kuripot alert)! Solution: have them batik-ify (?) the shirt I was already wearing mwahaha!), a silver factory and showroom (where J bought me my first opals!), and local painters.

Artsy fartsy

It was lovely seeing the locals produce such beautiful things that showcased their identity and culture as a people and at the same time, brought pride and recognition to their town.  J & I, throughout the tour, would exclaim how we could totally do the same thing!  How great would it be if our unique Filipino traditions also attract tourists from all over?  Very world-class!

One of our must-do items on our travel itinerary was to eat Babi Guling at Ibu Oka in Ubud.  From my research, Bali seems to be known for two dishes: babi guling, or suckling pig, and crispy duck.  Since we didn't have breakfast on the plane and chose to sleep, we were getting kind of hungry and asked Made if we could stop by somewhere to eat.  J mentioned our desire to try babi guling so they took us to Ibu Oka (this was not the branch in front of Ubud Palace though where Anthony Bourdain ate - I'm hoping the taste is the same).  Babi guling is basically pig stuffed with a lot of herbs and vegetables like turmeric, lemongrass, kaffir, chilis, cassava leaves, among others.  They even threw in what looked like chicharon bulaklak and a small piece of black sausage that I think was something offal-y (I ate it all, by the way).  It was spicy and savoury, but coming from the Philippines where we have lechon, it didn't feel very new to me.

Merienda...don't judge! :-D

Our next agenda was a visit to the Monkey Forest, where our tour guide said there are three different monkey clans (gangs, more like!) who get into fights whenever trespassing occurs.  I wouldn't want to be there when that happens!  As it were, there were no gang wars while we were there, but it was common to hear a sudden shriek from a female tourist, followed by frantic walking/running to get away from an overly friendly/curious monkey.  There was also some pilfering of water bottles (they even drink from it immediately, as if to say "haha LOSER") and one monkey jumped on an unlucky tourist's backpack to swipe his sunscreen (when he decided he didn't like the taste of it, he proceeded to unscrew the cap and merrily splatter the contents on the pavement. Tsk tsk). Setting my past experience with monkeys aside - I'm looking at you, monkeys from Phuket's Monkey Island!, I didn't think there was anything spectacular about the Monkey Forest in Ubud, although I did think the inner temple was pretty.  Maybe if you're REALLY into monkeys.

Warning sign in front, look at that monkey fly (mini heart attack),
passing by a group of monkeys, inner area 

Next up was the Ubud Palace.  When we arrived, there was a flurry of activity, according to Made, because of preparations being done for the death of the king's relative. Locals were there, gathering bamboo, cutting out colorful paper, and performing all sorts of carpentry to ready what looked like a wooden stairway to heaven (of sorts hehe!).  Made said the dead relative, I assume in some sort of coffin, will be raised up and burned!  Imagine that!

Ubud Palace

All throughout our drive that day, and finally in Ubud Palace, I noticed that a lot of statues were wrapped in black and white checkered cloths.  Apparently, the black and white represents the balance between or co-existence of good and evil.



Will fit right in!

Source: Google Images

The final stop on our day tour was the Tegalalang Rice Terrace.  I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't been to any of our local rice terraces, but somehow, I feel that what we have is more beautiful and breathtaking than the one we saw in Ubud (it's more fun in the Philippines!).  J, being the mountain goat that he is, went on to explore Tegalalang, even trekking all the way behind the facade facing the restaurant/tourist standing point (nothing to see there as that part wasn't as well maintained).  I stayed behind and chatted with a local woman selling batik bedsheets and little knick-knacks carved out of cow bone.

Colors + green

An interesting tidbit we learned during our first day in Bali concerns the naming convention they practise.  They receive a name based on birth order.  Firstborns are named Wayan, second Made, third is Nyoman, and fourth is Ketut.  If you happen to be fifth, you go back to being called Wayan and the process continues!  Also, there is no distinction between male and female - there could be a girl Wayan and a boy Wayan!  Sometimes, they add I Wayan to refer to a male and Ni Wayan for a female. Shout-outs to my brother Wayan and sister Nyoman haha!

Separate post to follow on our hotel! ^_^

My Mom Superwoman

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing moms in my life, but most especially to my mumsy, who I really think has superpowers.

I love you!

Birthdays & Babies

This just made me chuckle

I often wonder if it's always the case that a person's favorite month is the month s/he was born.  I've never really tested out this theory...hold on.  Okay, I just asked J what HIS favorite month is and he said "December, of course".  Interesting.  I can't say for sure that I have one ultimate favorite month (they all seem to have their own winning characteristics, don't you think?), but whenever I think of May, my mind instantly conjures up images of flowers (spring?), pastel prettiness, and anything girly (maybe because May = girl's name?).  I don't know, like good things are about to happen ^_^

I think flowers are prettiest in May...biased?

So I'm turning a year older this month and I can almost hear J's undergrad LM crowd going "oh, that's so old" - the perils of hanging out with the early 20's bunch.  Well, I don't really blame them because I used to think it was such a big deal, turning the big 3-0.  Maybe that's because of all those movies/TV shows/books where someone who's about to turn 3 decades older suffers through life dilemmas and a sudden questioning along the lines of "what is my purpose? what am I doing with my life?".  To be honest, I'm not experiencing any such earth-shattering anxiety, thank goodness.  Occasional back pain, maybe, but no life crisis here, thank you very much.

Must drink more milk?

The only thing that's probably making me pause is the fact that my biological clock is ticking and I feel like now is still not the right time for me to have kids (when is it ever the right time, anyway huh?).  As I get older, of course, I feel the pressure of starting a family.  The onset of previously mentioned back pains doesn't make me feel better either.

Yes, eggs are pink and wear old lady hats and spectacles

Other than that, I feel nothing but gratefulness - for the blessings that have come my way and for the lessons I've learned (sometimes painfully), and eagerness - for all the even better things to come.  

So many reasons to celebrate

Anyway, when the time comes that J and I welcome a new addition to our family (and no, not a dog this time), I'm sure we'll be okay because we have an awesome support system in our family and friends.

Of course I'm kidding. Maybe.

P.s. Happy birthday to my dad, who shares the same birthday as me and who would let me blow out all the candles on his birthday cake!  I pray for your continued good health!