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past time

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

celebrity club

 

celebrity club

 

celebrity club

 

celebrity club

 

celebrity club
celebrity club

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.

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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.

 

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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
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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.

 

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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

 

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

 

oily facesNice 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.=(

 

Bien Bautista in action

 

There was also pabitin for the kids.

 

Christmas Carolers

 

Pinoy Henyo

 

and they couldn’t guess the magic word=)

 

MG with Tita Tanya

 

 

 

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Last week after having lunch at Antonio’s in Tagaytay, I decided to visit my sister and her kids in Laguna.  It was just a 45-minute drive from Tagaytay to Sta. Rosa and traffic was light.  My sister was still sleeping when we arrived so my niece and I had enough time to plan a night swimming.  We knew where we would go.  We knew what we’d bring—chips, drinks, towels, swimsuits, dinner.  In fact, we brought everything except the dog, oven and bridesmaid dresses.   Of course, as soon as my sister woke up we left immediately.  All my sister had to do was brush her hair, her teeth and wash her face.  Everything was taken care of by me and my niece.   When we arrived at Ponderosa, we had the pool all to ourselves.   Imagine that.  The last time we went night swimming was summer last year.  There were a lot of people and we just had one part of the pool.  It was also fun but not as fun as this time.  We talked and laughed without a care in the world.  No one would hear us, anyway.

It rained a bit that night signaling an end to a great bonding time with family.  I hope we could do this more often.

 

Ponderosa
 

ponderosa
 

night swimming
 
night swimming at ponderosa
 

racks at paseo sta rosa laguna
 

ponderosa
 
 

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The fact that the days are longer and I don’t need to be in my best outfit during summer, I absolutely love the fact that Easter treats are readily available wherever.  We can just go to a restaurant and expect easter treats being offered to any family who’s too busy to make easter eggs or bunnies.  We’re one of those families, if you don’t already know.

But I would love to, even just once, make easter eggs or any easter treats from scratch just like the ones below.

 

pink cupcakes from scratch

sprinkles on cupcakes

choco easter egss

 

If you want to try the recipe for the cupcakes, you can find it right here.

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