Lipat bahay

I’d like to thank everybody who wished me well! I am feeling better, feeling a little weak though from the lack of food these past few days! But not too weak to blog [yes, rico, not too weak to blog]. And for now, I just want to share something important with everyone.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking of moving to a new home. And the i.ph downtime the past few days has been the deciding straw.

So please do visit me at bahay ni kumareng grace.

See you there!

[Although I’d still be keeping kumarenggrace.i.ph, this  new site will be my main home from now on.]

It’s great to be back!

It’s been so long since I have updated this blog! Add to the fact that i.ph was down from Wednesday to Sunday, I have been sick from Friday up to now.

I like hospitals. I like the scent, the lights, the rooms. But I like it when it is someone else  who is sick and when that someones sickness in not life-threatening. I remember when I was a small girsl, whenerver we had to visit someone, I would come immediately. I loved going around hospitals and discovering whatever there is in their halls. [I loved going to the nursery!]

When it comes to me, though, I avoid going to hospitals. I hate going to doctors! I hate taking medicines! So when I got sick this weekend, I drank, would you believe, only 2 biogesics for the fever! However, last  night, because the fever wasn’t subsiding, coupled with the fact that I have no other  “sickness” like colds or cough [fever is just a manifestation of a sickness; it is a symptom, not a sickness] plus our neighbor is in the hospital lfor duenge, I gave in to go to the hospital to have my blood checked.

Result: I had high WBC. So no duenge. I am still running afever though. [On the bright side, I lost weight, which is just timely because we are going to be measured this Saturday for my sister’s wedding!].

Although I am sick, it is great to be back! And I wish you all a happy week!

Happiness for KG is…

February 14 was a special day for Odette, who turned 30 that day [he! he! kailangan pa ba sabihin yun?]. I’m so happy because she informed me [or sort of reminded me] that the deadline for her birthday giveaway was still on the 28th! Ooohhh, the prizes she will be giving away are so nice! [Anyway, I don’t know what I’m so excited about since I’m soooo unlucky at “raffles”. I’ve never won…not even once! Nonetheless, I wanted to do the post since this is an interesting one.]

What we had to do was simple: write on what makes us happy through our senses [except the sense of sight, as per Odette]. I tried my best to reflect on this because we rarely get to think about things that make us happy…especially those small things we smell, feel or touch, hear, and taste makes out heart jump. Believe me, when you get to think about it, you will realize that happiness can also come in small packages. And when you get to realize this, you will also feel that there are so many reasons to be happy! Try it, close your eyes and try to think about your sense of smell…what makes you happy through it? Your ears? How about your sense of taste and touch?

So what makes me happy?

•  Hearing Wendy’s voice on the phone.
• Lending an ear to a friend who needs someone to talk to.
  
• Hearing the rumbling of waters, such as a river flowing or the waves of the sea
• Compliments from other people
  

• Th smell of freshly cut grass.
• The smell of Wendy’s kili-kili, both before and after taking a bath!
• That Christmas smell

•  Eating gelato in Italy (I was soooo happy)!
• Kwentuhan with family and friends
• Laughing my heart out
• Eating chocolate
• Complimenting others and saying nice things to or about other people

• Holding a loved one’s hands
• Lying on soft, cold sheets when it is cold
• Relaxing massage
• Carrying a newborn baby
• Hugs

Oohhh….Stop me please! I can go on and on and on! I am a person who becomes happy even with the simplest things! Mababaw ang kaligayahan ko! But you know what? I believe that that is how life is supposed to be lived.

Have a great week everyone!

I can’t see you…

I remember having a blast listening to a radio station a couple of days ago because their topic was such an interesting one:

What would you do if you were invisible for 24 hours?

The answers were quite amusing, like taking revenge on an enemy,  going to places they were not allowed to go to before, or making pranks on friends.

As for me, I’ve had my answer to this long before I heard these DJs talk about invisibility, because I’ve thought about being invisible before and what I would do.

If I would be very, very honest [and I mean very], I would go to my favorite stores and take all the things I couldn’t afford to buy even if they were on sale. I would just leave a peso for each item so I wouldn’t call it stealing. I could say I just bought them on bargain, a big, big , big bargain! Ha!!

How about you, what would you do if you were invisible for 24 hours?

Happy Sunday everyone! [Yes, it’s a Sunday and I’m thinking of pseudo-stealing! Gosh! Bad KG!]

I’m feeling HOT, HOT, HOT

I’m feeling H-O-T…no, not the hot as in I’m feeling drop-dead gorgeous HOT! It’s just that this post is hot-off-the-grill! I attended this event just this morning!

Second, it is the 14th Hot Air Balloon Festival that we are talking about…

My friends and I, plus Wendy, started the day reaaalllly early and left Parañaque at 4 am [4 am, for goodness’ sake! Everyone is still asleep!]! Anyway, it was a good thing because we had to be there are 5:30 am, and there was still absolutely no traffic, so we were at Clark before 6:00 am. Just in time!

[How to go to clark from Metro Manila: take NLEX and exit at Dau, which is the farthest exit. Upon exiting Dau, the road to Mabalacat is to the left. When you reach a dead-end in the road, which is a busy intersection, turn left; the right turn leads to Tarlac. Just go straight then turn right going to Clark. You’ll see the gate to your left. Easy!]

When we arrived, just in time, some of the balloons were already set up, whereas others were just starting. There were so many hot air balloons, around 20. And they were all beautiful!

This festival is held every year in Clark. Some participants [from all over the world] are companies, just like the Yellow Cab and Nescafe Balloons, whereas others are private individuals who bring their own balloons to fly.

One, by one, they took flight. Some of the bigger balloons took some time to set up. These balloons land somewhere else.

What makes these balloons go up? According to wikipedia:The heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant since it has a lower density than the relatively cold air outside the envelope. So there has to be heat, which comes from the flames bursting every now and then! Gosh, if these people do this all the time, I wonder how they don’t get Mesothelioma! 

Such a nice view…the flames bringing the balloon up slowly! [I soooo love this shot!]

Braving the more than 100 km to Clark was sulit for this reason alone. The balloons were a sight to behold [I am such like a child…babaw ng kaligayahan]! In addition, there were exhibits from the AFP and the navy. We got to see real guns [different types, different sizes], fighter tanks, fighter jets [even the bombs they use, including the ones that follow the aircraft], helicopters,  and a lot, lot more! I got to carry a gun…super bigat! People can also ride the The jets and tanks…cool! You can also interact with the soldiers and get to ask them questions. Boy, I did learn a lot!

Best of all, all these for just PhP100! I’ll be back next year…and I’m bringing my toy-gun-loving nephew who wants to be a soldier! He! He!

Here’s the Web site for the Philippine Hot Air Balloon Festival for those who want more information: www.philballoonfest.net!

[Note. I hope you like the pictures. I just realized that ever since I bought my camera, I haven’t shared my shots with you. So I tried my best here!]

 *****! 

Postcript: As it is the day of “love” tomorrow, and I don’t mean just the romantic love, I am sending you this shot. I don’t know why,  but when I took this picture, I thought of love…maybe because of the way the balloons are positioned so close to each other, as if love was in the air!

 Happy Hearts day and happy weekend everyone!

 All the love from kumareng grace!

[Un]Forgotten childhood treat: Haw Flakes

Haw Flakes.

I don’t even know it that’s the name of the food or a trade name. Basta when you say “Haw Flakes,” we all know what that is. Which child of the past generation hadn’t experienced “playing” with Haw Flakes in the following manner:

Playmate: Body of Christ

You: Amen

[the playmate then puts the Haw Flakes on your tongue]

Once, we even took it to the next level and decorated moving pods to resemble a small chapel, with chairs and everything, and of course, with a priest [and we were all girls playing then].

And don’t you notice that we play this when we are actually not yet eligible for communion? When you reach that age when you take that real first communion [12 I think], because you can get the real thing, you stop eating Haw Flakes with that “Body of Christ” dialogue.

Regardless, most of us have had our “first communions” using Haw Flakes.

Those who can relate, raise your hands; those who cannot, I wonder what kind of childhood you had.

Have you ever…

Here’s a short tag post from jetty, just a quick backtrack of my history:

1. Have you ever been on TV? No.

2. Have you ever sung in public? Yes, but in a group When we were in high school, we always had a class singing contest.

3. Have you ever dyed your hair blond? No. And I have no dream of even trying.

4. Have you ever eaten frog legs? No, but I’d like to try.

5. Have you ever received a present that you really hated? Not hated…I just didn’t like them [just like jetty does]. Honestly, I give them to somebody else. Better that  someone else uses it kesa masayang sa akin.

6. Have you ever walked into a lamp post? Yes…not looking!

7. Have you ever cooked a meal by yourself for more than 15 people? For my birthday 2 years ago, I cooked for around 12 people sa office. Does that count?

8. Have you ever fallen or stumbled in front of others? Yes…more than once!

9. Have you ever done volunteer work? Yes…numerous times…and I love the feeling!

There, I don’t have a brain that works like a laptop memory, so I had to rack my brain hard to search for the answers. It was fun, though! Thanks Jetty!

Meet our puppies

For a family who does not really like animals or pets [unless you count the fish and two turtles, which have all died], we have many puppies in our home…33 to be exact.

These are Wendy’s Puppy in My Pocket collection…little dogs that can fit in, yes, your pocket.

Wendy and her friends love playing with her Puppy in my Pocket [a spin-off of the Polly Pocket that I know most of us are more familiar with]. With all the houses and structures that come with the collection, they have made a small community out of the 33 puppies, one villa, one house [complete with aluminum fence installation], one restaurant, one castle, and one Newborn Nursery [yes, where those puppies are born]. It’s one product of good imagination and excellent role-playing [they have “teachers,” “priests,” “couples,” etc]! I can only marvel at the things these kids can think of when playing with these puppies!

Here’s a complete group picture in their “castle”…one of the many attractions in “Puppy Town”

And yeah…these kids do have wide imagination! One day, although it was all for play, their community was all too close to real life. I noticed that some [more than half] of the puppies were lying on an old newspaper sheet. When I asked them why, the kids answered.

Ay, there was a big tsunami AND a tornado! These are all the dead dogs!

[Poor dogs, they came across a fictitious calamity, and they die! Tsk! Tsk! And to think that we [Wendy and I] were thinking of venturing out to Kitty in my Pocket, and here she and her friends were killing off puppies! Hey, we have room for a lot more!]

Two puppies having a date on top of the “castle”

Anyway, what is weird, though, is that at the start, I totally had no interest in these puppies. But as time went on, I also found them cute! I even found myself drifting to the toy department when I go to a mall to see what was new! He! he! Well, at least, I still get to have dogs for pets!

Aren’t they cute?

[Un]Forgotten childhood treat: cotton candy

Besides the “Kwentong Pinoy” that I try to post every now and then, I also thought of trying to post some of the childhood treats I remember from MY childhood days, not a few years ago [yeah right!!], which I bet all of you will be able to relate to. Some things that would light up my days when I was a kid. These could be small stuff, as you know how it was when we were kids! [I mean, we would get excited over bugs and steel buildings for goodness sake!] To start off, here’s something my officemate brought a few days ago [it has been years since I ate one!]:

For all we know, even before there was the “melts-in-your-mouth” M&Ms, the good old cotton candy was already there, which melts as soon as you place it in your mouth without you doing anything. I doubt anyone of us hadn’t heard [or tasted] cotton candy when we were kids. After all, they had this even in peryas, for 5 pesos each [yun nga lang, puro hangin].

Different colors, same sweetness! Still a treat to me today! Yummmm….

Remind me again why we’re doing this

It has been a year.

Contrary to what other people think, blogging is not as easy as getting jobs in Austin. And contrary to what nonbloggers think, although bloggers CAN write about anything, we DO NOT write about anything. Thinking about what to share to other people in the Internet is certainly not easy, not to mention the time anergy we spend for each post. Yet, there are many reasons why I choose to continue blogging. Top on my list, and the reason why I started the whole thing, is to be able to help and inspire other people even in a very small way. When people ask help regarding travel, I always reply with a smile on my face and my heart, because I know I have the opportunity to help someone. This is the reason I continue to blog up to this day.

It is also inspiring, then, to receive awards from co-bloggers. At least, it is one indication that you are doing something right and are on the right track. At least, all the hardwork [yes, it is hard work!] paid off.

This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion is brilliant.*

I know it’s super late, but thanks kayni and garando. And if I may be honest, you two also deserve the award. And if I may be more honest, most on my blog roll will also get the award.

So let’s keep blogging and inspiring each other!

*With this award, the recipient should write 10 honest things about himself/herself…but I I'’ve done this a lot of times already. In the near future, when you are not sick and tired of knowing and discovering something about me anymore, I will post my list.