Old Dogs, New Tricks?

the saying seems to be true. old dogs can't be taught new tricks particularly if the old dog is stubborn & flat out refuses to listen to reason. almost got into a fight but i refused to stoop low so i left it at that.

*EDITED 5/29: got an apology of sorts. good! i was informed that the temper isn't so good and to excuse the attitude yada yada... hopefully, it won't happen again. not everyone is patient & understanding & if i were caught on a bad day, i would've shown my horns as well.

A Little Piece of Home

last night's dessert was luxurious thanks to our colleague who has a pantry stocked with pinoy goodies & a supplier from tay ninh who provided 2 huge jackfruits.

halohalo never tasted THIS good! all the caloric intake was very well worth it. made me miss home a little less...

Sanity

in my opinion, living in a foreign country selling cheap dvds will, most likely, turn a normal person into a couch potato hoarding the latest movies & tv series. he/she will be an expert in the latest shows & will even have suggestions on what others should & shouldn't watch. he/she would even have a collection up for lending. pathetic? i think not.

for me, that's how i cope. that's how i keep myself sane & at the same time have a tight grasp of the "real" life i left behind. i think a lot of people will agree.

so, my rountine is, i check irfree to see what the latest dowloads are. then, i download like crazy in piratebay, mininova for english titles, and d-addicts for asian titles (i don't normally do this nor do i encourage it. it's borne out of desperation. promise!). last night, i couldn't (& don't uderstand why) download in d-addicts. a "404-not found" window pops up. so imagine how frustrated i was. already end of the season for most of the english titles i look forward to then THIS!

so, i googled and found: mysoju, my treasure... where you can watch asian series & movies online! no need to download & wait & waste space in my laptop! oh my!

saturday night will be a looooong night

THE Plan

while watching house last night, out of nowhere, rendon faced me to him and said:

"o ganito plan ko walang kokontra"
"ipon muna ako then papakasal tayo. para hindi naman masabi ng parents mo na wala akong kwenta"
"tapos of course help mo ako sa wedding then angpao na makukuha natin, wag na natin hatiin into 2. if malaki laki yung amount, buy na tayo house. if hindi ganun kalaki, downpayment muna tayo"
"tapos work pa tayo dito para ipon ulit. ok? walang kokontra. ano tingin mo?"

O-K... hehe! he has a plan =)

Better Late Than Never

2 months after my best friend from oz sent me a package, i finally got a notice from the post office that it has arrived! we were both losing hope but vsip buu chien saved the day!!!



feeling super excited, i asked the driver to get the package for me but no! no substitutes in getting packages darn! i have to get it on my own aiya!

with dread, i went. i was expecting the post office to either be a jungle or having half comatose employees moving so slow it would take forever to get 1 package. i was proven wrong!!! the service was quite efficient & the girl knew how to speak english ("pass-poh!" with her hand extended).

then she handed me a package crawling with ants (the sweets weren't hermetically packed + 2months travel time with weather changes ruined them). eeep! sige na ok lang yan... at least the package arrived unscathed with extras hahaha!

thanks, best! *hugs*

Heaven

i had my fix last saturday. *yummy! tulo laway*

crab spring rolls & a bowl of sibut

grilled shrimps & 1 pc deep fried soft shelled crab (the other 3pcs already in our tummies)

tamarind crab

after the hurricane left

another hole in a wall place with no aircon & purely vietnamese crowd. the waitress handed us a menu with pictures only hahaha! thank god for that. if not, we'd be walking around dragging her with us, pointing to other diners' food! spent 600k dong (1800pesos) for everything. will definitely go back again for another crab fix hehe!

-- Quan 94 (Add: #94 Dien Thien Hoang, Dakao Ward, District 1)

Ultimate Craving

the picture above is my idea of food heaven. (picture borrowed from noodlepie)

i'm afraid i'll literally get sick with anticipation.

saw an advert in the newspaper about this crab-fest in some hotel. the cost will be around $38 plus tax & servce charge per person. after adding everything up (came up to a total of around $45), we (mike, rendon, i) decided to splurge on a crab-fest in some sidewalk eatery instead. of course, i wanted it to be perfect... the best crab experience in hcm so i researched... and found the perfect perfect place to eat!!! (courtesy of noodlepie's website) unfortunately, noodlepie wrote that entry when i was still in limbo of what to do with my life which was around 2004 so i wouldn't know if the place is still alive.

so we called. when asked if they still serve crabs, i've never heard a sweeter "yes" my whole life! (eventhough in reality she was screaming "CO! CO!" -- yes in vietnamese). oooooohhhhhh!!!!! can't wait. *hungry*

Evil

a friend sent this email yesterday. just went through a few seconds & closed the window immediately. how can such evil reside in people? how can they wake up each morning & look themselves in the mirror after doing that? don't they have their own loved ones? have they no conscience at all?!

i don't wish this to happen to anyone. not even to the most hideous person on earth & beyond.

Bedside Read

when i was small, a visit to the mall will not be complete without going into the bookstore, refusing to leave without getting at least 1 book & eating fries & milk shake at mc donald's. i could and still can spend 1 whole day or more in bookstores browsing but too much of an el cheapo to buy. i usually scour second hand bookstores for titles i'm interested in hehe! or libraries but that was during university days when the library was well stocked.

since books are uber expensive nowadays & having limited titles available in a foreign country, i'm so thankful for colleagues who have books to share! because out of sheer desperation, i also read books which i won't normally buy for myself and widen my knowledge & interests (or so i'd like to believe).

the book i'm crazy about right now is twilight by stephenie meyer. as i said in my previous entry, i watched the movie & was disappointed with the choice of lead actor. it was a mistake to watch the movie prior to reading the whole series. i now see edward as james pattison. only half kilig now darn it!

the book is very well written with just the right amount of kilig so as to not appear disgustingly mushy. it relieves the "night in shining armor saving the damsel in distress" emotion in me. i had to close the book when i read sections wherein my heart will twist with pain & happiness & frustration & tenderness & all other mixed feelings related to first love. then open it again looking forward to parts wherein i would feel that again. cringe haha! some things make you feel young again. this is one of them. *happy wistful sigh*

Travel Bible

came upon tripadvisor back when i was planning our cambodia trip. personally, it's the ultimate traveller's source of no holds barred info. it exposes the dirty secrets of not so good places & allows you to discover true gems through others' experiences.

that's part of reason why i contribute reviews. in my mind, followers of this website will appreciate any feedback to help them plan & choose wisely. altho never in a million years have i thought that someone will contact me because of a review i did. so imagine my surprise when i received an email asking about this hotel i stayed at & did a review on. hihi! mababaw but it made me happy & appreciated.

Cooking & the Pissed Off Cook

since rendon & i cook to have more quality time not just in front of the tv, the company cook has been ignoring me. she was insulted that we prefer to cook our food to her cooking. i explained & have someone translate that it's not her but she still ignores me. whatever. should not care because rendon & i are happily showing off to each other what we can cook with limited ingredients.

i cooked fusili with garlic-onion-hotdog-spaghetti sauce with ricotta and he, garlic bread. we only had 1 frying pan, plastic bag used as chopping board, 1 small knife, stove, and toaster. cool right? can't wait for our next cook off :)

aesthetically challenged fusili

Out of Desperation

rendon was sick yesterday. now, in my family, when we're sick, mom would always cook chicken soup for us. well, i didn't have that so i have to be creative.

i've never been a cook, hated handling raw meat or fish, cried when i tried to chop off the sharp "nose" of shrimps before cooking, tried baking chiffon cake but ended up with something resembling tikoy... no matter how awful my cooking is, my family has always encouraged me. they would eat what i cook/bake no matter how awful it would taste. one time, my mom & dad (on 2 separate cooking sprees, had indigestion but they never complained! i just saw them took kremil-s hahaha!)

so, anyway, back to my attempt yesterday.

i only had the following:

3 bowls water
1 pc white onion
10 pcs lobster balls
1 pc pork (leftover only - 6 inches long cut into 3)
1 can corn kernels
salt, pepper, pork cube

boil onions & pork in water & corn kernel juice. add a little pork cube to taste. add lobster balls & corn kernels to broth when pork is tender. add salt & pepper as needed. bring to a boil. serve. this is also good as an egg drop soup just scramble 1 raw egg in a bowl. ladle the hot soup and stir.

aesthetically, it failed but the taste was good!!! rendon had 3 bowls. no need to say anything more.

success! *proud*

Marked My Territory... Twice!

really! i did! the way dogs mark their territories hahahaha! i never thought i'd undergo this ever in my life but there it was... so nasty

the picture on the left is the happy-just started trekking-still so energetic me. unaware of the length of travel ahead.

the tiger chil out trek was harsh! by my standards anyway. it would be a good idea for the company to add this to their description: 17kms of never ending trails. will go up and down 3 mountains, numerous hills, will cross 3 streams, will walk through 2 coffee plantations, will see 2 waterfalls (one of which is the Tiger Waterfalls), and will visit a minority tribe (Chil tribe). the tour normally lasts for 5-6hours but for people experiencing early onset of rheumatoid arthritis, the trek will finish after 8hours, if we're lucky.

the last sentence would be the perfect description for me.

8am, rendon & i trekked with 2 french women & a guide. everybody had their packs (rendon with 3liters of water, raincoat, extra shirts, umbrella, camera) on their backs save for me. apparently, rendon had an invalid with him. not yet halfway and my legs were like logs. they had minds of their own refusing to walk, complaining they're too tired already. i swear!

i asked the guide for a shorter route but he said once you go in, there's no getting out. oh my. by 12nn we reached the top of the highest mountain. we had our lunch there. of course the weather wasn't so cooperative as it rained and fog was all over! everybody was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the beauty of the mountain. me, i was cursing myself for agreeing to this trip in the first place. later on, i was praying we won't slip and die in the middle of nowhere!!!

so on we went. for every 50 steps i take, i was asking the guide "are we there yet?" and him seeming to not understand bec his answers vary from "i do this trek 2x a week" to "my mountain is beautiful". great. so i had no real information as to where we were exactly and how long before we reach the jeep again!

by 3pm, we were maybe 4-5kms away from the jeep *YEY!* i know i said my legs were numb before but now, the numbness has spread to my arms & even up to my lips! me and my bright ideas... poor rendon had to carry me 2 cross 2 streams and down some paths! it was horrific!

and then it was over by 5pm. hallelujiah! i realized a lot of things along the way.

1. i was never a goat or a mountain climbing animal in my past life
2. 5 year old sneakers are for show only not for hiking
3. 4 tablets of alaxan is not enough to make me feel my legs again

the almost dead-arthritic-after trekking me

"No more trekking for you ever!" -- guide

as if!