Who Would've Thought...

...that my brother's picture would be posted on the website of special olympics!?! pang showbiz! hahaha!

can't grab the picture but here's the link. picture #7 of 20 =)

it's a tribute to dads on father's day. here's the caption of the pic:


Tatay

I am Jorge Sandiego of Special Olympics Philippines. To my left is my son, Dacki. To my right is Andrew (my brother!!!), an athlete from our chapter, who calls me "Tatay", the Filipino word for "father". This picture was taken when we sent a team to a powelifting event Manila. Both boys also compete in badminton. I never regret any moment when they call me "Tatay". Happy Father's Day to all "Tatays".

cool, yeah??? =D

Strike an Animal Pose!

yup! i'm back to doing yoga after 6 months of hiatus. so, so, so, so happy!!!

i remember the 1st time i attended, the teacher asked me to reach my toes. i bargained saying i can only reach my calves.

she asked us to do rapid lamaze breathing (to work the abs), i wonder if i'd developed almoranas since it's not my abs contracting & expanding hihi!

then, there was this breathing exercise thingie... teacher told us to sit in our most comfy positions. backs straight, eyes closed, relax & just follow her instructions.

teacher: right in, left out
me: doing as told
teacher: right iiiiiinnnn.... HOLD YOUR BREAST!
me thinking: WHA!?
so i cheated, took a peek. hold your BREATH naman pala e...

we do a combination of hatha, vinyasa, ashtanga. out of the 19 poses found below, i'm proud to say that i can do 14 poses *yey*! of course i'm limited to doing the easy ones. the more difficult poses reserved for maybe a year later hehe!



noticed that most of the poses are named after animals. this reminded me of the jacky (ie?) chan movies i used to watch (dragon stance! monkey!) (in the movies, jacky chan would always shout the next move he's going to execute. is this wise? if i were the opponent, i'd anticipate his moves & snuff him out easily hehe!)

anyway, plus point to going back to yoga is that rendon will be attending with me hihi! now i have someone who will push me when laziness prevails!

happy bonding (to us) ;)


-- Yoga Secret Club (Add#1: 70 Truong Quoc Dung Street, Ward 10, Phu Nuan Dist.)
(Add#2: 42 Huynh Khuong Ninh St., Dakao Ward)

Off to Mekong We Went

... last sunday. it was fun but really tiring. left pham ngu lao 830am to come back 6pm. it was pretty well worth it but hoped that the river isn't so murky. however, that's the signature of mekong. murky waters because of the mud/clay bed.

per our guide, mekong is the largest river which connects 5 countries (laos, vietnam, thailand, cambodia, china). there are 13 municipalities in that area. we went to the famous ones which are my tho & ben tre.

i'm no swimmer. i freeze & sink if my feet can't touch the floor anymore. i know how to float but unfortunately, i can only float with my face downwards. no help if our boat suddenly sinks right? so, imagine how scared i was when it started raining & the waves were getting strong & people were transferring from the right side of the boat to the left! i was grabbing the life jacket (under our seats) but was too embarrased to put it on hehe!

angry clouds

anyway, the rain stopped a few minutes after we docked on our destination. there we saw how rice paper & coconut candy were made, how honey was harvested, listened to traditional music in vietnamese (eep! ate & drank tea & talked to each other instead), rode a horse driven cart, rode a small boat (fits only 4 people) through a channel lined with palm fronds (pictures below).

a sunday very well spent. *satisfied*

Air Mail or Surface

i was looking for the cheapest way for some stuff to reach my mom's hands asap. known courier companies quoted sky high prices (courier fee 2x more expensive than the actual worth of the package). seeing as i don't have much of a choice & being happy with the previous service rendered, i have decided to utilize vietnam's postal system (vnpt).

of course, growing up in the philippines, i was expecting (yet again!) zombies with lead appendages attending to the customers. sometimes said zombies are too busy eating butong pakwan & chatting with each other to actually do customer service. OR! they'd throw me a huge book to look for the price myself. OR!!! this is a classic... they'd refuse to lend packaging tape or even a pen because these items are being sold!!!! hahahahaha!

there are several companies to choose from inside the post office ranging from the trusted courier companies to the not so known ones. there are also quite a handful of services being offered. they have snail mail, air, flower delivery, moneygram, etc. nice!

so there i was at the hcm post office shaking in my slippers worrying about getting the same treatment. luckily, none of those fears materialized. the postal place employees were efficient. when i asked for prices for my package to reach home, they actually told me how much it would cost & how long it would take to reach the destination! they even provide boxes & secure the boxes with tape (for a minimal fee of 20,000 dong - 60pesos). interesting. no hassle in paying, no queues anywhere. heaven! now the main challenge is if it gets to the philippines on time.

only thing is, they asked me to fillout a form which asked if i wanted to send my package by air or "surface". is this really the term for snail mail i wonder... of course i chose air (which will take 2 weeks if lucky... 3 weeks at most, never arrive - worst case scenario)

vnpt, please don't fail me now...

Edited: yes the package DID arrive 2 weeks later! woohoo! kakahiya... when my mom went to post office in the phils to retrieve the package, the post office employee didn' want to hand her the package asking for a bribe! A BRIBE!!! hay! my mom told him "personal po yan. hindi na kelangan dagdagan ng 'tax' "-- eep!

Hobbies Won't Make Men Go Astray

or so i was told. hopefully it's true. the D90 should last him a lifetime, right? RIGHT!?!

rendon's been taking pics of anything & everything since he got his D90. been bugging me that he wants to buy macro lens, extension tubes, landscape lens, tripod, etc. hello! magipon muna! langya yan... my egg cells can't wait any longer; camera accessories can! hahaha! joke lang... but
of course jokes are always half meant hihi =P

anywho... he joined a photographers' club here, Snappers United. (eh?) (shhh! i know! haha) they went to binh cuoi park last sunday to test their skills. here're pics taken by rendon using D90 with 18-105mm vr.

nothing too spectacular but , still, for someone owning the camera for less than a month, kudos are in order for taking nice shots =)

Quest for the Yummiest Banh Xeo in Saigon

i've been having a craving for banh xeo (vietnamese crepes with bean sprouts & shrimps & slices of pork) dipped in their universal sauce of fish sauce with lemon, sugar, chilies. now, due to the success of last time's crabfest, i decided to consult noodlepie's website for recommended places. he said 46A Banh Xeo has the best stuff so i wrote down the address & even drew the map (back of business card scanned) so we won't get lost.

we were in dong khoi so we decided to walk to the eatry seeing as how we're near notre dame anyway. we walked & walked & asked for directions & given the wrong directions 2x & had to backtrack & asked again & walked & walked & what the *bleep!* 30mins later, we're still walking!!! (turns out i got the church wrong in my sketch. hihi!)

anyway, our rumbling tummies forced us to take a cab. the place still looked like the same as noodlepie's pic (taken 2005). only we went there at night.

of course we ordered the house specialty. 2 huge ones came out and a plate of cha gio. both food were oily with the taste of rancid coconut oil. darn it! for the banh xeo, the meat & shrimps got lost in a sea of bean sprouts. the cha gio was overcooked & were a little on the tough side. quite difficult to bite & chew. it was quite expensive as well! 184,000vnd for 2 banh xeo, 1 plate of cha gio, 2 tiger, & 1 khong do.

what a HUGE letdown! will never ever go back again.