I went how to Samar over the weekend to see my parents, siblings and realtives.  It was a bit of an effort going there for you will have to ride a ferry for 2 hours the ride a bus for 4 hours just to get to my hometown.  A lot has changed over the year that I was there.  I guess that was what becoming a city is about.  But going there was definitely worth it for I get to see how my love ones are doing and I also get some time off thinking about how and where will I get my meal for the day and how high the prices are these days for I just gave the money to my mom and let her buy whatever she wants to prepare for lunch and dinner.  Not seeing how much I spent on a pack of pasta or whatever sort of lowered my stress level.  You see when I am here in Cebu, I would usually go to shops with promotional products (meaning they sell products with discounts or products with freebies) when I go shoppping.  Why?  To save money of course.  Call me cheap but I guess that’s just how you would feel when you spend hard earned money.

I didn’t realize how important life insurance is in the US until I saw an episode of Oprah on taking care of one’s finances.  On that episode her guest specialist scolded a couple for the wife has no job, the kids doesn’t have health insurance and the dad doesn’t have a life insurance.  You might say so what if they don’t have an insurance?  I guess the guest was a bit concerned about waht will happen to the kids if something happens for the couple has a very large debt.  Like what if the dad died.  Who will take care of his family when he’s gone?  I don’t know how a person qualifies for a life insurance there but in the Philippines, you will have to go through an extensive health examination before you get a policy.  If things are the same in the US then I wonder how Oprah’s guest will react on a no exam life insurance?  I guess she will be handing out pamphlets and forms to everyone she meets and make them get a policy from a company who offers it just to make sure everybody is insured.   Thinking about the discussion that I listened to in that episode, it made me think to get a policy now.  You know just to make sure that everything will be in place if ever something happens.

One of my favorite chefs in the world is Wolfgang Puck.  He is from Austria and learned how to cook from his mom (like me! hehehe).  I saw him once on the Lifestyle channel and I loved his recipes right then and there.  They are simple to do and they taste really good.  He is one of the celebrated chefs in Hollywood and owns a chain of restuarants.  He has a website which I love to visit for you can find a lot of recipes there that you can make at home.  One thing that I like about chefs like Wolfgang is their love to share information.  He loves to give out tips that will make cooking easier for those who are adept in cooking and those who are just starting out alike.  You can find some of these tips on his website as well. One of the recipes that you will find online is his pancake recipe which he also loves to serve to his kid.

Play is a great way to teach kids and develop their imagination.  I don’t know if you’ll agree with me but some kids get to learn what they want to be when they grow up by playing games.  When I was growing up, we didn’t have PSP or XBOX then so I would usually play with my cousins.  And since we didn’t have that much toys to play with, we would make our own toys.  The boys will make there own slingshots and toy guns using bamboo sticks and wet paper while the girls and the less violent boys would play “bahay-bahay”.  One of the favorite games that we love to play is building a small community were some kids would have a small business like a restaurant while the others will take on the consumer role.  Before the game starts, we would collect candy wrappers for our play money, collect small pieces of vegetables in the market which we use in the restaurant and gumamela flowers which we chop up and use to color and thicken the water that we use as palamig (a local term for juice in the Philippines). I remember being one of the kids who chops the vegetables into smaller pieces and cooks it on our make shift stove (we use a lamp as a stove and a tin can as our pan). And since we don’t have a lot of toy plates to play with, we would use softdrink caps and crowns as plates and crowns. Hmmm… I guess that’s the reason why I love to cook, dream of becoming a chef and own a restaurant.

Project Runway winner Christian Siriano

Christian V. Siriano is the designer that our dear fashioistas should watch out for. Or should I say one of their most sought after designers? He’s only 22 year old but he had proved so much that it is just right that he should be given a space in the fashion world. I remember the first time that I saw him was on Season Four for Project Runway where they were asked to make clothes out of Levi’s jeans and make them into a new outfit. Seeing what he came up with, I knew that he’s really good and it turned out the judges of the program agreed with me (not that my opinion counts). During the show, a lot of people are in doubt if he’ll be able to pull it off ( I guess it’s because of his age… you know how some people are, they tend to associate age with experience, skills and talent. sheesh…) but he proved them all wrong. Now at the age of 22, he had designed clothes for fashion icons and big celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Heidi Klum, Dayna Devon, Kimberly Clarke, Eve and am sure the list goes on and on.

Below are some of his creations and if you want to know more about Christian, his works and how to order visit his site at http://www.christianvsiriano.com. Am sure you’ll love him even more.

Christian and his works...

Never had this feeling for a while now but sheesh… I’ve never been this bored for months. It’s like everytime I wake up I have a lot of things going in my mind that I didn’t know what to do first. But it all changed when my rest day changed. Shoot! When my rest day was on a Saturday and a Sunday, when I get home on Saturday from work, I open up my computer, blog hop and post a blog. Sleep until 3 AM the next day check in with the TLs about my team, go to church at 5AM then do more blogging, watch tv, sleep, go to the mall and sleep some more. When I wake up on Monday, I do some blogging, go to sleep, wake up and go to work. Some kind of a life huh? I know it’s not much but trust me, I never got bored. But now, my goodness, I went out yesterday to see Weng but when I got home after creating a post I went to sleep. No tv. No malls. Grrr… Now I woke up and I don’t have anything in mind. Which is kinda wierd because by the time I got back from Manila, I always have my work in mind even on a weekend… Oh-oh… Now that’s worrying me… And I guess that’s the reason why I feel bored. I don’t have any plans of action when I get to work tonight… Whoah…

Hmmm… I wanna have a song for each week… Let see…  For this week, I encourage you guys to listen to this song by a band from the Philippines named Bamboo, which happened to be my favorite band in the Philippines!

bamboo-these-days

I watched Ghost Whisperer of Jeniffer Love Hewitt (season 1 and 2) and I finished it last Thursday (which is why I went to Hiatus Weng) and it made me wonder.  Do ghosts really exist?  Or are there people who can really see ghosts or are they just being delusional?  Huff!  I guess I could never know the answer to that question!  Cause even if somebody will come up to me and say that they can see ghosts, I can never prove it for I can’t see ghosts or spirits or the dead. 

Now I remember the night when Lorelie asked me to accompany her to their room in Alegre Beach resort because there might be ghosts there I told her that I know there’s none for I can’t see one.  But I accompanied her anyway because she’ll be alone in the room and we wouldn’t know when her room mate will arrive.

have you heard of the song here in my home?  It’s really nice so I added a link where you can view it.  Just click on the link: here in my home - malaysian artistes for unity see the video and hear the music.