1/30 lunch

It was the first lunch that the four of us (me, greg, dadat, & joep) had together since moving in few weeks ago. It was sure fun to prepare food for all. I wasn't prepared to cook for four people, in fact, I have not considered it not until when we were grilling the pork bbq skewers on our little "pogon" outisde our place. Without any other viand planned, I decided to prepare tortang talong. Joep on the other hand is not fond of eating vegetable, so the eggplant dish had to be palatable on his first try. I try to prepare vegetable on Sunday also to encourage them to eat healthy choices aside from all-protien and fatty diet. The pork bbq was an experiment. We borrowed the recipe from Greg's brother. I used the measuring cups I got from last Christmas, this is to make sure that I have my own marinade proportions for future reference, in case I have to make adjustment on the flavor. After saying our graces, the moment came when the experimental dish was put to the test - it taste a little closer to the LCC pork bbq that is very popular back in my hometown. Yes! I feel that the marinade had to be adjusted though to improve the taste and I can't wait for the next weekend that I would have to try it out again. This time, I would have to make the slices bigger. Hehe.. The way the pork was tied up into the sticks didn't seem too appealing, so the EC must be implemented on the next production. 

Xenon AX 100 2.1

My new fad this January is the new set of speakers that I bought for a very conservative price, a peso short to make it a 4-dig. Anyway, I am not very particular of the technical specs. I just listened to how it sounds when watching a movie or simply plugging in to an mp3 player. Yeah, it sounds goood. The first product I tried was pretty shakey after turning the volume full. The second one on display that I liked was was the last stock, so after hearing that from the salesman, I did not hesitate and lined up instantly to pay for it. I could not wait to go home after that. If I can only apparate like the witches do I would, hehe.. The first song I played was Michelle Branch & Santana's I'm Feeling You.. I was feeling everything right there and then, danced like nobody's watching. My roommate joined to celebrate that moment and Greg was busy fixing the connections for the LPG burner. He was determined to use the burner that night, so it was okay that he did not care to join. :D

Heavy rain

A 30-minute heavy rain hit the city this morning. It delayed my plan to come in arouind 8:30 AM. Timing in 15 min before the tardy mark isn't bad considering the conditions from outside. Some of my colloeagues were not able to make it. We took the longest route coming from home to the office. The popular route that we always take had knee-high water gush. Our neighbors were very kind to us and gave us advise which path to take where water was conquerable. They really know their place well. I thank them for their good deeds. With the heavy rain, we couldn't just wear our office foot wear instead we had to wear slippers all the way, eww! It is a better idea though than soaking your shoes as well. So when we finally got to our floor, we rushed to the comfort room and washed clean our foot on the sink. The scene was funny to look at but it's better clean than sorry.

Salty and sour

Fish cooked in vinegar, salt and some spices, paired up with cold rice or what we call "bahaw", hmm.. this is what I had for lunch. We have a stove at home but I did not bother to heat it up. I wanted to eat it like the old days. I always enjoy eating such viand when I get home at the end of the day. Today was different. I forgot to bring my lunch with me so I have to go home. I copied the recipe the way Cebuano cook their version of "pinaksiw na isda", known as "inun-unan" in Cebu. Negrenses cook it with toyo to put color on the dish. But I kinda liked how vinegar and salt taste now. It is something new to my mouth buds and I love it. 

Moving out, Coming in

Two bedrooms, one bathroom, big kitchen and dining area & a living room - this will be our new home on the 20th. Me and my housemates (Greg, Dadat, and Jeoff) got a good deal from our landlord/ lady to rent their ex-flat on the 2nd floor of the same building for a conseravative price. The deal was unexpected to think that they are not considering the place for a  lower price of 10K. They know us as good tennants, very sensible ones and particularly keen about cleanliness. The reason that prompted us of transferring is our frustration towards our boardmates. Every day is a constant adjustment when it comes to cleanliness maintenance & the unauthorized use of our stuff that is placed outside of our rooms. First of all, you don't use the things that are not yours w/o permission. Second, you are suppose to help clean the common area because you contribute to entropy generated outside your room. We are very much excited to move out of 3Fand to enjoy the serenity that is waiting in our new home.

siesta stories

going for my 2nd cup
my headache has been going on for 2 days already. this happened after my swimming activity in abellana last saturday. it's been heavy since i got off the pool, took the shower and blah blah. the point is, i've not recovered from being dizzy yet. i never gone more than one cup a day for more than a month already and now i'm back with 2 dose of caffeine per day. i hope this does not continue for the whole week. but i still plan to go swim on saturday, i feeel that it'll wash the heavy feeling away i have now. as if i am not too excited to do my laps again, i bought swim cap and cheap goggles that will keep my eyes comfortable the whole time for this weekend. 


wgc post xmas party 
this friday, i'm meeting up with some of WGC members. we never got the chance to have the xmas party before everybody went home for the holidays. it's just reasonable to have the event at the early week of january and it is important that it has to be payday week. as for my part, it's not 13-28 anymore.. so i had to do with the leave conversion that i had left for 2010. 


novena at sto.nino
last year was memorable because it was my first time. this year will be different, we hope to be ready for the rain, for the long walks, stands, for the near-stampede situation, for the hair-raising praising, the waving, balloons, nature calls, hunger, thirst, and anything that is there if you are going to join the novena and the mass in honor of the Child Jesus. 


street dancing parade
in my 5 years in cebu, i missed only one year of taking the street from ayala to mango. it was exhausting at the end of the day. the day should not end until you watched the fireworks in the sports complex or in ayala. i have always preferred to witness the one in ayala, it was much easier to ride your way back to mactan (when I was still renting there) and now it is much more convenient for me because I rent just around the bush.

Bad cat

Monday is always a difficult day to get up in the morning. I woke up from the rumbling keys that opened our room. It was Greg and his usual routine getting food from the fridge and cook for his breakfast. He asked me where I placed the fish paksiw because he could not find it. The casserole where I cooked the fish was outside, empty. I was still caught between my forgotten dream and the fish that I prepared the day before. I know I cooked it of course but I could not seem to remember transferring it into a food container. When I checked the casserole, it had 1 pc of sliced tomato and 1 fish bone. Then we thought "bad cat" and bad me for dismissing the thought that we have little friends all over the place, climbing the roof, messing up the other room's trash can if they put food waste in it. It was a waste and I felt bad that I could not go back to sleep anymore at 6:45AM.  Still I laid back in my bed, waited for my alarm clock until 7:30 but still was thinking about the fish and the bad cat. It will be something I will learn from. Revenge would be nice but then - it was just one hungry cat.

4th day of the year 2011

Hi! Today is the 4th day of 2011 and I am making this blog my first for this year. 2010 did not hand me this year that easy by giving me a fever to carry on the new year's eve! Thank you very much. What do I have lined up to do for this year? First off, Palawan on February, my niece's birthday on April, see my sister back from UAE on May... possible trip to Leyte on December or early January of 2012 to attend a wedding, yey! No plans for the other months I've not mentioned  but I am really trying to cut off my travel for this year, you'll never know when rainy days come, or worse, stormy days, haha.. This was a good year for me I can say that. I hope it was for you too. 

-ooops! I was suppose to post this on my estoryah blog, not on WGC's...