past time | Insights of Over 30-something mom

15 minutes

By: cherry

20-04-2012

Ok, 15 minutes may not seem like a lot of time for most people, but for a mom every minute counts. That’s one shower. One bowl of pasta cooked. One article written. You would be surprised at the ton of things one can do in a quarter of an hour. So now I’m obsessed with this 15-minute thing. I want to use every fifteen minutes to my advantage. And to top that obsession, I’m making a list of things I can do if I have 15 minutes to spare. And here I’ve come up with an initial list:

Fix the closet or de-clutter whatever’s messy.
Make a weekly to-do list.
Clean out my bag. Throw out misplaced receipts, candy wrappers, tissue etcetera.
Decide on what to have for dinner and prepare grocery list.
Call and talk to friends but I doubt one conversation would only take 15 minutes so be prepared to spare a bit more time for this.
Take a quick shower.

I’ll add more in the coming days. And just so you know, this post only took 15 minutes to finish.

feels like summer

By: cherry

23-02-2012

past time, reviews

It truly feels like summer now. The aircon has been on for hours now. So good luck to my electricity bills next month and more luck to my pockets as I’m pretty sure it will be empty as soon as I receive my bill. Why is it so hot here in Manila? Why can’t Manila be more like Hong Kong or Korea in terms of weather? Don’t get me wrong. I love my country and its people. We’re a good bunch. Hong Kong people are cold as their weather. They’re calloused and thick as their skin that can bear the coldest of weather. What am I talking about here? I’ll tell you all about it next time. In the mean time, I’m hoping our clubhouse has already set up hayward pool pumps for the indoor pool. I so want to swim and stay in water this whole summer.

summer tunes

By: cherry

26-01-2012

Car Travel, past time, personal, travel, vacation, weekends

Nothing like summer tunes to make you whole again. Do you agree? And with summer tunes are images of road trips, family reunions, picnics and the beach. It’s impossible not to associate summer with music. So what’s your summer song? Mine is the Ocean by Led Zeppelin with the fantastic guitar playing of no other than Jimmy Page. It makes me wonder what type of guitar he used to play with. Was it peavey cirrus because he’d never use low quality guitars? Anyway, summer’s just around the corner and I can’t imagine anything better than Ocean blasting in my car with my hair loose, the warm air blowing in my face, and the promise of a spectacular view of sun, sand and the blue sky.

I can’t wait for summer.

hurried pace

By: cherry

30-10-2011

emotions, MG, past time, personal

Have you ever noticed how adults always walk in a hurried pace? Me included. I don’t know why others do but I’ll tell you my reason. I walk with purpose or so I think coz even without purpose, I walk fast or faster. It’s as if time is catching up on me and I’d lose precious minutes or chances if I walked slow. It’s weird but that’s the only reason. It’s not like I’ll be late for an interview for one of those Veterinary Assistant Jobs or I might just miss my ride if I walked any slower than 1000 steps a minute.

This is what I miss about being a kid. As my kid and I were strolling at the mall earlier this afternoon, I kept saying to her to keep up the pace to which she answered after my nth reminder, “Where are we going?” That stopped me. Because we were going nowhere. We were supposed to window shop and just pass the time. I was just so used to this hurried pace that I forgot that I had my kid with me who just wanted to enjoy my company while we walked and held hands.

I should really try to walk leisurely more often. Aimless busy-ness and fast-paced lifestyle are not doing anyone any good. And I’m quite sure that if I keep this up, I might lose the experience of having a little girl with me who enjoys my company and just wants to pass the time.

small world

By: cherry

29-10-2011

family, movie, past time, personal

We’re supposed to go out of town but we can’t figure out where to go. It seems we’ve been to all the interesting places here and around Luzon. Flying out is out of the question. We don’t have the budget for that yet. And staying in a hotel in the city seems impractical. Who does that? I have a house in the city with nice enough air-conditioning, food I can get through delivery or my kitchen, DVD marathon courtesy of my new Sony Bravia and a very comfy bed. So you see why I think it’s impractical to choose staying in a hotel in the city over going out of town. I would rather use the money to purchase a new oven or that michael kors watch. So I’m afraid we’ve run out of places to go in this side of the world. It’s funny. I think it’s true that we live in a small world.

spa day

By: cherry

17-08-2011

me, past time, personal

Yesterday I didn’t notice I wore two different slippers. One was grey and the one beige. You couldn’t actually see the difference because they were both covered with dirt unless you looked closely. Then I realized something….I was dead tired. Dead tired and having no time to check every little thing.

I’ve been at it this whole week. Partly because of MG’s exam and driving around town to and from her school and bringing her to her tutor, waiting, cooking, driving again. Story of my life this week. So today, I scheduled a 2-hour tutor session for her so I can have alone time and go to the spa and get a massage.

Spa

So it’s ok to wear mismatched slippers from time to time just as long as I can take a day off or in this case a 2-hour off.

hunger games

By: cherry

06-08-2011

books, past time, weekends

Truth be told I had some really grand plans for the weekend. Well, life got in the way or more like laziness got in the way. I’ve never been known to follow plans, anyway. So what the heck. I’ll do what I feel like doing at the moment which is to finish the two books I’ve been meaning to read two days ago. I’m the last book of the Hunger Games series and I can’t wait to know what happens to Peeta, Gale and Katniss. I would love for Katniss to end up with Peeta. I don’t know. I love Peeta’s character more. Katniss is one lucky girl no matter who she ends up with. I hope not in the hands of President Snow as that would be most tragic ending. Perhaps after reading the two books, I would need to have my eyes checked. With all the reading and staying in front of the computer, my eyes deserve a pair of designer reading glasses.

whew

By: cherry

15-07-2011

MG, past time, weekends

Yeah, that’s the word I was looking for. Whew! This has been a very busy week. I need some R&R this weekend. It had been all about MG this week and I’m in need of ME time ASAP. Notice the acronyms? That’s how tired I am that I can’t even type the whole words.

How was your week? Busy, I bet. I envy you if you answered differently. Mine was all about, projects, assignments, long tests and quizzes. I never realized Grade 1 could be so demanding. I remembered having fun during my first grade. MG’s school load is crazy. The weekend is not even enough to recuperate from the flurry of school activities my 7 year old and have to contend with 5 times a week.

So this weekend, there’d be no lessons, no notebooks and pencils and no PANTIGIN and Rehiyon. NO, no, no. I’d postpone helping her with weekend assignments until the last hour before we go to sleep on Sunday. That’s it. Just one hour to school and 47 hours of R&R.

photo via onpapermagazine.com

kindle

By: cherry

26-06-2011

me, othere, past time

I need inspiration from time to time or something new for a change. I have not been doing one of my favorite past times lately. No, it’s not wearing hip hop clothing in my spare time.=) It’s actually reading. In fact, it has been months since I last finished a book from cover to cover. Yeah, there were many times when I’d open a book, read a few pages then forget about it as soon as something comes up. Something can range from blogging, cooking, child care to something as trivial as sleep or plain laziness. That’s why I need something new to get me out of this temporary recess. Like an inspiration or perhaps time is just what I need which is quite a luxury nowadays. We’re always busy. I’m always busy. I never run out of things to do. Yes? Story of my life.

So when my Kindle arrived two Saturdays ago, I knew I’d be back in the arms of my true love. Reading. Nothing makes me more ecstatic than when two of my favorite things in the world come together. Reading and technology. In this case, reading and Kindle. Brilliant.

I have it with me always.

During the storm Falcon, I ws able to finish one book and I’ve started on a new one. So what books have I downloaded so far?

Just finished reading Plague of Coins which is really about Judas Iscariot being immortal and living amongst us and how he has to retrieve the coins he got as payment for betraying Jesus. This would be his redemption and would earn him a ticket to Heaven. Something like that. It was actually a breeze to read and quite entertaining. I can’t wait for the sequel.

I’ll start reading The Hunger Games as soon as I’m finished with this post so I’ll end this now and spend some time with my awesome Kindle.

reunion

By: cherry

22-05-2011

friends, meme, othere, past time, personal

Every year, my former officemates/friends and I organize a mini-reunion before Christmas. Actually, we try to do it before Christmas but more often, we meet after because we are all moms and we’re busy and we do everything. Yeah, that’s the only reason. Last year it was held in Tanya’s house in Bicutan and we managed to meet twice. She just recently had the whole house renovated and she wanted to show us the “finished” product. The kitchen looked awesome and the TV room with the huge projector wall screen was a hit with the kids who watched Tropic Thunder and Fast & Furious. Well, that at least kept them busy. So the adults chit chatted, drank wine and ate nachos. Then I noticed that no one was smoking. I didn’t know that my smoker friends finally gave up the habit a long time ago. Yep, two years and counting. I was so proud of them. Imagine that. They used to smoke one pack a day and here they were, smoke-free. They later told that smoking on e cigarette helped a lot. It kept the addiction at bay without going cold turkey.

We all had fun. We even played Pinoy Henyo. It got even more fun when a group of semenaristas serenaded us and when we had an impromptu photo shoot by no less than the “Master”. I’ll let you guess who it was or just take a look at the photos below.

MG and I with Bien Bautista

We were all giggling coz we were not used to being art directed and by no less than the “master” himself…

Nice shot but we weren’t prepared for this. Like I said it was an impromptu photo shoot sans makeup and powder. Geez, I always have the oiliest face.=(