Saturday, Saturday ( I Am Looking For A Copy Of Libertine’s Destiny)

Yeay, even if the rest of the week are not that busy, weekends I think are still the best. Even if Jovy and Josef work from home, midweeks are quite a little bit toxic than weekends. Time to relax and pamper yourself drinking tea and  applying Jeju Aloe Ice on your skin, savouring the ice cold lotion. It is better applied when it is cold.

I am still reviewing my earlier posts. I am in the middle of 2015  and I am definitely enjoying reading them again –  the days spent with Nate picking calamansi and staying in  the garden, the quiet days  and blissful nights of reading, time spent discovering new books, conversations with  friends, glimpses at Facebook etc.

Last Thursday night, I told Fr. Pao that it was like I had my own segment in their program Interaktib.  I contributed three random excerpts from my blog and they collated it before reading on air. I remember Brother Ed saying “eto na ang quotable quotes”. Haha! I  am also enjoying their show, pampatanggal stress talaga, lots of laughter coupled with news of our Catholic faith.

Previously, I blogged about this. Until now, I am looking for a copy of P. Anciers’ Libertine’s Destiny. I read it when I was in college. The Humanities Section of UST had only one copy and it was always out. Every time a student returns it, there is always another student who would like to borrow it. I should have looked for a copy long ago and bought one too. It is no longer in circulation. Even a reading group at Goodreads is on the lookout for this particular book. All I remember is that it was  set during WWII.   Has anyone of you read it previously? It was serialized long ago in a  women’s magazine here.

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Thank God Its Saturday

It rained yesterday until last night. It’s the first rain we experienced this year. It is still cloudy outside and a bit cold. It’s that kind of drizzle that makes streets slippery. We have to bring two umbrellas in going to the  wet market for our twice-a-month marketing. Surprisingly, vegetables from upland Baguio are cheaper than some veggies that come from nearby provinces here. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, French beans and lettuce are so fresh.  I bought a head of broccoli, gonna mix it with penne pasta, bits of ham and cream of mushroom as sauce.  Try it, it is pretty yummy 🙂

Remember this? It’s the one I made from our left-over Christmas ham more than a year ago.

One thing good about February is the cold weather  here.  We call it hanging amihan ( Northeast monsoon or trade winds). No storms, no low pressure area, just cold weather usually at night and early in the morning. The perfect time to stay in bed a little late.  And sipping a hot cup of coffee or tea makes the morning perfect too. Add that to our famous pandesal. Pandesal is the quintessential bread roll of the Philippines. You can use any kind of spread – peanut butter, cheese, sauteed corned beef, scrambled eggs, margarine, liver spread or even sardines.  Am I making you hungry? 

Josef and I dropped by Jollibee before going home from the market. We had the usual breakfast meals, half cup of fried rice, hotdog, poached egg and hot  choco for him while I ordered my favorite  longganisa  with poached egg and a steaming cup of coffee.  We brought home some breakfast too for Mom and Jovy.

Longganisa breakfast meal at Jollibee.

I love Saturdays. I love weekends. Next Saturday Nissa’s family and our good friend Fr. Aly are coming over for lunch. Looking forward to seeing them again. Thinking of what to cook. I already bought something for adobo, laing and pancit canton. Nissa usually brings roasted chicken or pork barbeque. Gonna buy more veggies on Friday for vegetable salad.

Don’t you just love weekends?

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Thank God It’s Saturday

The truth is I felt so lazy to blog or even make comments on posts on my reader feed. So sorry for that blogging friends. I just got engrossed reading, updating our  Catholic page on FB since I won’t be around for three days probably to visit Nissa at the UST Hospital for her surgery next week.

Nissa’s  family, Josef and I had lunch at T.G.I Fridays at Robinson’s Galleria this afternoon. It was so nice bonding with the family again.  I was amazed at how Nate looks now. He is not exactly fat but in Tagalog, you call it “bumilog”. Nissa took care of taking some photos of us.

Nate coloring some pics provided by the restaurant while waiting for our food.

Typical Nate post.

They call this flat bread but it tasted  and cooked like pizza.

Their platter consisting of sausage, chicken, garlic fried rice, coleslaw, baked ribs and mac and cheese with French bread on the side.

Pasta with shrimps

We also ordered a vegetable salad topped with calamare, a big burger for Obet and bottomless ice tea for all of us. It was all so sumptuous and yummy.

Two peas in a pod?

And the family photo. Look at those smiles.

Nissa is finally scheduled to check in at the hospital on Monday. This is a little late celebration of her promotion as Manager of the bank where they both work.

I love weekends  and I love Saturdays.

 

 

 

 

 

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One Saturday Afternoon

We were gathered atop the bed. The two were toying with their cellphones. Nissa was looking for sites and hotel, Obet  was updating the apps for his phone.

Nissa said, “I wonder if it is better to go to Hongkong’s Disneyland or to Malaysia’s Legoland on Nate’s birthday”.

I told her, “why don’t you ask your cousin who lives in Singapore”?

“It gives me an idea”, she said.

Eventually, she asked Nate what he prefers, Legoland or Disneyland. he readily answered he likes to go to Legoland. He is fond of Lego toys. He has several sets of them given as gifts. If they book a trip to Singapore, Malaysia’s Legoland is just an hour away and the fare is reasonable. I am pretty sure, Nate would enjoy the latter considering there are lots of amenities too where both adults and kids can enjoy.

Nissa is seriously planning a foreign trip for  Nate’s 7th birthday for November instead of giving a party. He is at that age where he remembers what he did in all the places they’ve been to lately. I guess, he has reached more places in his first six years than I have in the last ten years.

“I’am gonna have a blog”, he seriously said.

I laughed and asked him, “you mean a vlog?”

“The videos Nonna”. Nissa has lots of stored videos in her lovely phone. I told him they need a vlogging camera to take more. He just smiled at me and said, “okay”, as if that is already a given. Kids sometimes take everything for granted, haha 🙂

 

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Sunday Is For Blogging

Did I just say that?

Yes I know, Sunday is for relaxing. For the first time in so many weeks, I attended an anticipated mass last night after doing the laundry late in the afternoon. So  Sunday is free, apart from the usual task of watering the plants (it’s still like summer here), doing a little cleaning here and there and preparing breakfast for Mom and me. Mom attends  mass on television because she can’t walk that far when the car isn’t here.

Yesterday was another family day for us. Nissa, Obet and Nate came over  to join us for lunch, late celebration of Josef’s birthday the other day.  We just had food delivered and I bought two kilos of ready to fry chicken mix at SM Ortigas City. I went earlier to Medical City to get the result of my lab for Vitamin D deficiency and to visit my doctor.  Thank God, everything is normal. Even my blood pressure is in the normal range. Still have to go back maybe in two weeks to have labs again, re: fasting blood sugar and urinalysis.

Nate got tired of his old toys here so he re-arranged his books and read some of them. I am pretty amazed, he could read now. He and his dad played frisbee together in the garden then later on picked calamansi for them to bring home. Nate was so happy they gathered more than a kilo of it.

Bonding time with family is priceless no matter how you spend it together. What is important is the presence of each other. It is nice to be updated on what is happening in their jobs, how hard it is sometimes to cope with so much work.

Oh, I remember, I’ll be going out in a few hours to redeem my  free  boxes of pizza and mojos from Shakey’s. A  P3,000+ spend in one purchase entitles you to one redemption certificate which you will just have to show at the food chain. It’s courtesy of Bank of PI. I am entitled to three redemption for the three purchases I made earlier  between March 22, 2019 and June 22, 2019. Hooray!

Have a blessed and fruitful  Sunday everyone. Happy week ahead.

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Saturday Escape

Josef, Jovy and I went to SM City East Ortigas to have a hair cut for Oreo. His fur is getting thick so it needs to be trimmed again. For the second time, we tried the summer cut and  he looks so neat in it.  He is always happy when we are at the mall because he could run around in a cool place. He always position himself in front of the car’s air vent when we are traveling. Once he is cool enough, he sleeps on Josef’s back.

While he was having a hair trim, the three of us went to Shakeys to have a late lunch. I’ve forgotten how crispy their chicken was since it was so long ago since I’ve eaten here. It reminds me that I still  have a coupon for free pizza courtesy of BPI. Next time I’ll visit the mall, I’ll gonna exchange it for a hot plate of mojo.

We dropped by the Candy Corner. All items are sold by the grams and they are so expensive. They have different fruit flavors coated in chocolate, almond candies in dark chocolate, wiggly gummies and licorice. Would you believe that I got curious about the taste of licorice so we bought some? I only used to read it in my books about England and Ireland.  Josef has his own favorite candy flavors.

It is nice sometimes to go with the kids, they are fun to be with. Jovy bought some Lotto scratch cards just for the fun of it and she exchanged two cards with two more.  The other day, she said she won P160.00 pesos…haha 🙂

We went home exhausted but happy. As usual, it was so hot outside. It doesn’t look as if the rainy season is coming.

Happy weekend everyone.

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Saturday Joys

Yes, it is another family day with just Nissa, Nate and Oreo for company. Josef has an overtime work today.

I am simply amazed by  Nate’s appetite nowadays. He is a little chubby compared to the last time we saw each other during his graduation in kindergarten.

I cooked fried chicken wings and spaghetti for lunch.  He ate three fried chicken wings, a little rice and a plate of spaghetti. Shared a bar of chocolate with Nissa later,  then King Crab crackers plus  two bottles of Mogo Mogo. Then a few hours  ago, he said he was hungry again. Nissa cooked some eggs and hot dog...kain ulit siya with fried rice. WOW.  He even finished the bowl of fried garlic rice a little later.

Nissa said, “tumaba siya ano Ma?” He does not want that word “mataba” (fat), he frowned at both of us.

Ah, I said, “malusog”.

“Malusog is mataba din”, he told us.

“No“, I said. Malusog means healthy.

We weren’t able to take pictures because both of us were busy talking while Nissa took a nap. I told him about the snake I saw a few days ago and he told me about the big snake he saw at the zoo. He even remembers that time he soiled his Pampers while they were in the car. We were laughing while he was making “kwento”.

Nissa is really so thoughtful. Got more “pasalubong” from her – two bottles of Nivea Body Milk, Jeju Aloe Ice Soothing Gel and Novena pamphlet to St. Camillus de Lellis (Patron of the sick, nurses and hospitals) with a handkerchief prayer attached. They are so lucky, they always get to see visiting relics at the Manila Cathedral.

Thank you Sang, love them all!

And Saturday is always a thrill when Nate is here.

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Saturday Delight

Yesterday was another  lovely family day. Played with Nate, gave him a bath and picked calamansi for them to bring home.

When  he got bored with his meager toys here, he suggested that we open the PC so he could play. He knows how to play Bejeweled and when he hits the target and see the word  Excellent, he claps his hands and points to the  scoreboard.  He asked me to open Warcraft and StarCraft but I told him those were not for little boys like him. It is only his Ninong Josef who play the games.  I showed many photos that I took previously and those which Nissa forwarded through messenger. He was happy.

He tinkered with my tab, finally finding the camera and took shots of Nissa sleeping on the bed. I erased most of them because they were not in focus and so blurry. Before they left, I took a few shots not being aware that  he set it to video. So we had so many one minute and fifty seconds video shots while he was making faces in front of the camera. Naughty, naughty Nate.  He ended saying “Do you like it Nonna”?

I asked him about school and his classmates. He said that he brings lunch to school because his class ends at 11:20 am.  When his classmates noticed it, they also brought their  own.  “Girls are not allowed“, he told me, meaning it is an all-boys class.

I promised to buy  him some marbles to play with next time he visits and toy soldiers too, he added. He brought with him a big transformer car but could not  make it  go because the batteries were not charged properly.  So we just converted it to a big robot.

The happiness of a child sometimes lie in simple things.  They don’t need really complicated toys to make them happy. It was another wonderful day, another day to cherish.

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Saturday, Saturday

Another family day.

What a lovely Saturday it turned out to be. Nate and I played together. Just  hearing  his unrestrained and loud laughter, seeing the happy smile on his face, listening to  some of his stories about school – priceless moments.

We create  memories.

When he saw the bedroom with new curtains and  freshly changed sheets, he said “Wow“. but that was followed by these words.  “Our bedroom is lovelier”.  Nissa and I just laughed.

While mom, my son-in-law and  Nissa  took an afternoon nap, Nate and I busied ourselves with his  assorted toys.  He brought along his newly bought scooter  and asked me if we could go out.  The sun was hot so we didn’t.

 

There is really no dull moment when I am with Nate.  The day is complete even if we only spent  a few hours playing together.

Nissa brought me several issues of Metro Home magazines which she bought at a book sale two weeks ago.  She bought a pair of each seven editions for both of us. Lovely.

Before they went home, Nate visited the garden.  He loves picking kalamansi,  unfortunately the fruits are still so small.

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Saturday On My Mind.

Childlike faith focuses on our Heavenly Father – not on our fears. 
Viva! Pit Señor, Santo Niño!

Wrote this on my wall today at Facebook.  The Sto. Nino  fiesta is a feast  celebrated in the Philippines every third Sunday of January.

As I’ve said in my previous post,  yesterday was a family day for us. We went to Tondo  to celebrate fiesta with them early.  It was a day full of laughter and sharing. Nate surely knows how to entertain.  He brought out some of his toys. Josef and I enjoyed playing with him and his go-kart and his set of beyblades.  It really feels good to act and play with a child once again.   Sometimes, we need these light moments, allowing ourselves to be young once more, enjoying the same activities of a little boy and  laughing  our hearts out in enjoyment.   We only see each other once a month so every time we do, we make use of the time just being happy.

Nissa prepared  pork sinigang sa bayabas. (soup made with pork and flavored with fresh guavas). Yes, we also use fresh guavas  for our  sinigang.  Mixed with gabi (taro root)  and water spinach, it was a yummy dish. Her mother-in-law cooked embutido and  prepared fruit salad and leche flan  for dessert. We brought along bibingka (rice cake).

It is really such a joy to spend another Saturday with the family.

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