Tickle your taste buds - Kare-Kare

Photo Credits from Kamayan

Living in Pampanga for the past two years has had a great effect on my diet. This is because a lot of them are such good cooks that you just can't resist to try something new to you.

Coming from Mindanao and a fan of veggies, certainly coming here was drastic since the place I live in doesn't really favor eating leafy greens. But I can't complain.

My partner's father cooks the most delectable Kare-Kare for my palate.

He cooks this pork hind/front legs into this tenderness that it almost melts in your mouth, it has peanut sauce, vegetables, and shrimp paste. Mouth-watering. Just Yum!

Spoiler: It's not advisable to eat it all you can.

Respect Life In All Forms

I have seen pictures like this and it never fails to make me feel sad.

I am an animal lover through and through, and seeing this again brings back those sad memories about cats I find then and now in some nook and cranny areas, trash cans and other dumps.

You see, in my country, animals are not fairly treated much like America.

 Here, though not all, they are treated like things that they can discard as easy as a crumpled paper.

I have seen my share of cats and kittens in garbage dumps, sometimes well enough, more often, they are in worst shape that I can only take them home with me to die with a little dignity. I try my best to treat them with what I have, taking them to a local vet for advice and some medication to administer.

This image makes me empathize for this feline, it needs comfort, and companionship. It needs a home.

I hope that more people will teach their children to respect animals no matter how small or big or what they are. These children when taught earlier, will grow to also teach their children. Respect is just a relative word. It doesn't really matter who it is you are giving it to. 

Countless times my life has been saved from being ruined all because of these furry creatures. If only people would understand how it feels like to have someone to love and care for.



In memory of all my furry friends.

Ador. Both eyes are blind from glaucoma.

Monet and me

Amiga and her kitten

Bogart

Heybie and pitpit

From Left to Right: Jaguar, Pitpit, Kaging, Papots, Heybie, Seydie

Papots on my exam day

Monet and Papots

Sam's First Steps

Today is the day that Sam officially walked on his own. Yay! I couldn't resist taking a video of his first steps.

 

Here's my little man, all too eager to walk it off.

Even if he appears to be sleepy and tired, this did not stop him from trying over and over.

Sam starts here with Ate Rissa.

Sam follows Rissa around.

Circling around the garage.

one, two, three march!

Taking a rest

When he gets tired, he reverts back to crawling.

Taking a rest again...

After an hour or so of walking, it only took him less than 5 minutes to doze off. Bless his heart.

Room in Ruins

I think my child is out to get me. He drives me crazy as much as I love him to bits! My partner is the same, they must have talked about this stuff when I am out.

No matter how much time and effort I put in organizing our room, it ends up to its DISORGANIZED state EVERY DAY!

They must have a mind of their own.

Our closet

1. I take the time to arrange this on a daily basis, but my partner just pull whatever it is that he needs and he DOESN'T arrange them back! UGHHHHHHH!

What do you say about this?

2. Courtesy of my partner, he only needs to get the deodorant, so tell me, how did he do it to make it look this way? Tell me?

The other culprit

3. Now this one here is another story, since he is a little child, can't express himself in a way that is comprehensible to me, he in return will throw away things on the floor or whatever that takes his fancy.

I am filled with a day full of pick-me-ups, pick-this-up and pick-that-up things, toys and whatevers. 

The toy drop

Carrying my tool box with my DMC threads

Walking along

Deciding to stay in one corner

 

There goes my DMC threads..sigh

Okay, I'm gonna leave you guys for a moment. I have a room to clean after. 

Shoe Fetish!

I am sooo in love with shoes ever since even if I can't wear anything beyond 3 inches because I think they will eventually kill me a minute at a time.

I found one over the net earlier and I so love the designs wishing that I can wear them!!! Oh God Bless FASHION!!!

Isn't it dandy?

Ah, my eyes!

How many outfits can you make out with these?

This one is my favorite.

My head is running with so many ideas with what kind of ensemble I would be able to put up with just one pair. I am even thinking of buying one, and pray the hardest that the shoes wouldn't kill me.

Which one is your bet? CHOOSE!!!!!

On Friends and Fears

If you have met me, say 5 years ago, you would say I am somewhat a different person now than I was then. I was edgier, always angry, depressed though not necessarily in that order.

No insults would roll of my back. Every stupid remark will be rewarded with sarcasm enough to shut the person their whole life before they would even think of insulting me again.

Looking back now, I can smile about how I played my life then. I was a b*tch in a magnitude I cannot even contemplate.

Why was I like that? I was lonely, and afraid. I still am in so many ways, but I cannot show them that. I have to cover my weakness with all those walls for them not to be able to get through me. 

Now that I am older, a little sensible, when I see people with their friends and have fun no matter what their age, I feel a tinge of envy. I want to have those in my life but it seems too late. I don't know where to start. All I have left in me is my anger, my loneliness.

 I tried to befriend other people, slowly showing them a glimpse of who is the real me. Instead, I got rejected, unaccepted and cast out from their lives. They cannot accept the real me. It is sad and painful. I try to hide the pain and act nonchalant about everything, but the truth is it drives me crazy to be in this hellhole of my life.

I want connection and relationship with other people, not just animals. I tried thinking what would it be like to befriend me. Sure I am difficult because I am straightforward kind of person, but once you get past that, you can have an ally for life, provided that you are also loyal.

To this day, after all that adventure of looking for a friend to trust, I am back to my shell. For the meantime wondering and searching if there is this one REAL person who can stand up to me and will stand up for me and with me.

I fear that I will grow old alone and aloof. I have my son, but he too will one day wander and leave me and I will be alone once again. All this is really depressing and makes my heart ache so bad.

I wonder when this kind of misery will end.

Tough Journey

After deciding to stand up and speak out for myself, I didn't have the word TROUBLE in mind. It was more of breaking free from what binds me in this horrible feeling of being enclosed in a tiny space. But I guess my stance was different.

Ever since declaring that, I have gotten in two fights in less than a month. Both involved a screaming match, stare down, walk-outs from those who cannot accept the truth or wouldn't face it, and a drunkard who couldn't face me and live to tell the tale of his ill will for me. 

It wasn't a useless match. They just couldn't accept that I have changed. That I am no longer the one that they can trample on and be silent in one corner. The me that they're seeing right now, is my old self that wanted to come out long time ago. This is who I am. I don't mind a relentless pursuit for truth, a determined personality to know and I cannot accept half-truths and outright lies about me.

I actually feel better about myself now that I have come out of my shell. No longer this walking time bomb that forebodes to explode anytime when pushed too far.

Somehow, I see myself now somewhat like a bamboo tree, bending together with the wind when there is a storm brewing but steadily stands up after it has wind down.