In solidarity with my colleagues at Avatar Media, here's my list of ten things I want to accomplish in 2010: Wear a tankini. Which implies I must lose weight and stay fit and healthy. I hope to accomplish this by May 2, 2010, the date of a planned island tour. Buy a netbook. Save money. Budget efficiently. Do not create a new blog. I already have too many blogs on my own and I have several others that I am maintaining. I need to focus more in maintaining the ones I currently have. Read 5 books. Last year, I spent most of the year just re-reading books I have already read. Must read more. Attend dance classes. Last year, I made a goal of attending culinary classes and I would like to think that was a major success. This year, I want to re-kindle my love for dancing, learn new skills, and stay fit. Travel around Mindanao. Must visit at least 3 places. I want to travel but don't have much budget. Plus, I think Mindanao is a really great place to explore. Organize at least 4 events. The Davao Bloggers and the Avatar Media Team both have a lot…
Category: family
Starting the New Year
I began the new year with this status message on my Facebook: Happy New Year! May 2010 be kinder, more fruitful, and more productive for all those who deserve it. A toast to beauty, truth, happiness, peace, and love! May we all get what we deserve. ♥ But here's how I really spent the last days of 2009 and first days of 2010... I was frantically busy in the kitchen cooking and baking stuff for my family and friends, most challenging of which was preparing the Noche Buena for the Abellas. Main dish was steak, served with a cheese platter, sashimi, mashed potatoes, gravy, and blue cheese sauce. I also prepared my famous beef stew and tiramisu for the Joses. And the pastry kitchen? I spent hell in it for four days... brownies, cheesecakes, chocolate cakes, OH MY! I also spent a lot of time with my classmates. Both my high school and grade school batchmates had 10 year shindig things. I was able to attend my grade school batchmates' party. I was able to re-connect with a lot of old friends. Had a fun time reminiscing. But I missed our HS batch's grand thing at Eden. I was too…
Happy Birthday Daddy!
I have two dads. My biological father, Papa, passed away when I was 5. I barely knew him. My other dad, is my father's brother-in-law who raised me until I was 9 years old. ANYWAY... Daddy celebrated his birthday on December 13. But we had his birthday celebration on December 14. I prepared Paella Alla Majorcana and Beef Stew for the dinner. I cooked the beef stew flawlessly but I almost failed with the paella coz there was just too many seafoods and the rice didn't cook on time. Daddy liked both. Mommy liked the paella a lot. :) Brian and Aimee bought sugarless chocolate cake from their friend. It was very nice. (The polo of the figure looked a little girly though.) And it was very yummy. Didn't notice that it was sugarless. It was an intimate dinner. A nice way to celebrate Daddy's birthday. It was worth the effort and pressure of cooking the nosebleed inducing dishes. Happy birthday Daddy! :)
Frantic Night
Yesterday afternoon, we received word that my maternal cousin Mark needs blood donations in case he needs a blood transfusion since he has dengue fever. He has a O+ blood type which is a universal donor, but cannot receive other blood types. My relatives exhausted all means possible, including contacting our family friends who are somehow working for Red Cross Davao. Luckily, we were able to acquire enough units for him. In the evening, we became more panicked because the platelet count of his dad, Tito Jing who also has dengue fever, dropped significantly. Thing is Red Cross Davao is NOT OPEN 24 hours and there are no stocks of O+ Platelet Concentrate anywhere in Davao City. My cousin, a doctor, called all hospitals in the city to ask if they have any. One the Davao Regional Hospital/Davao Medical Center had one. We needed eight more units. We even called up Tagum (a nearby city) hospitals to check if they have any. They didn't. We called up all our relatives and friends in the medical profession. We felt so helpless. We are a big family, and people often joke us that we're related to everybody in Davao City. And we…
It Was a Good Night
I had a feeling it was not gonna be perfect but that it was gonna be a good one. And I was right! CACS Davao Skills Batch 9: Cucina Nueve's Legacy Buffet was a good one. ;-) We were a bit harried and chaotic during the few hours from closing the kitchen and transferring the food to Linmarr Apartelle, but everything before and after that was done well. Not perfect but more than good enough. The food was on time, save for the last minute preparations and presentation of the sashimi and maki. (Apologies to my groupmates coz I wasn't able to fully help out with the Cold Kitchen.) And everything looked delicious. There were some kinks here and there but there weren't a lot of complaints regarding the food. Must commend the yummy Waldorf Salad, the superb Chicken Florentine, the tasty Roast Beef and the sinful pastry spread. TWO THUMBS UP! Kasali pati big toes!!! The program was not boring (I hope) and the tarpaulins and videos I made were nice. And the music we played were good enough for the lulls. What made the dinner really beautiful was the very, very, very elegant and bonggang-bonggang set-up by Sul…
Rally
Last night, I saw on my cousin Mae's Facebook status message that one of her dogs died. I have never been a dog lover but I was somehow affected and saddened by the news. The story of how Rally became my Mae's dog is so quaint and unique. And he has been with my cousin for 11 years since. Mae shared her story on FB: Rally has been a dear friend and companion for several years now. He became a part of our family last April, 1998...Lemme share to you his/our story. My dad was running for VM for the 1998 elections. It was the peak of the campaign period since election day was just a month away. One sunny morning, my dad, brothers, and an entourage attended a rally a few blocks away from our house, on their way back, a mixed breed jap spitz/ chinese poodle/whatever dog followed them all the way to our house. He got inside our garage area and sat on the white wooden bench outside our house. He was as white as cotton and as cute as cupcake (cute ba ang cupcake? ah basta..that's the best way I'd describe him). I even remember my…