IRL update
As Armand wraps up his classes/workshop, he's getting busier and I find myself busier too. So much so, that I haven't updated many things, including my planner and my blogs.
This goes to show that when there is much activity in real life, the virtual worlds must patiently wait in the sidelines.
The highlights of the past two weeks are, at best, cheap thrills. But they still make life at bit more interesting.
1. Back to cooking
In an effort to save, we have to eat out less. When you're cooking for such a small family, it's so convenient to cop out and go to a nearby mall or eatery. But you spend at least twice the amount of staying in and cooking. So our solution: Splitting the cooking. M, Th, Sat are Armand's days. T, W, Fri are mine. We decided on this based on his class sched. And, well, we've been mildly successful at this attempt. You can only cook after all if you've planned your menus and done your food shopping (thus,these are tasks we need to master as well). So simple, really, but we get lazy. We did well the first week, and I got to try out new recipes which did pretty well, if I must say so myself.
By the second week, we ran out of food because we were too busy to grocery shop the second week. Thus we discovered:
2. Jonas, the inventor of pares
We were actually on our way to Hap Chan in Ali Mall, when we spotted this restaurant when we got sidetracked by its claim, "“A Fastfood Restaurant with a Conscience.” I think Armand actually went on to read the entire history of the place which said something about them being the ones who invented the ubiquitous pares dish. I, on my part, got curious about a pares eatery in the middle of a mall. For P85, you get a hefty serving of rice paired with beef stew (hence, "pares) with a tiny bowl of beef broth on the side. For P95, I order the special version, the one with isaw, or intestines. We've been there already about four times, taking Armand's mom's and nieces for quick bites. The taste test: Matthew snubbed his usual siopao choice for the pares dish.
3. Spreading the love for Heroes
Our nieces Coco and Misha were in the compound for the week while their parents were away. Well, we had Coco more because Misha was busy with summer school and volleyball varsity. We've been egging her to watch Heroes, and while we watched the second-to-the-last episode one night, she finally caught the bug. She had a private marathon viewing of the series. She's got some ten more episodes to go though. (Coco, we have the season finale already!)
4. Writing Workshop
My friend and colleague, Niña, had an invitation to hold a workshop about feature writing and she asked me to tag-team with her. It was a half-day event slated for last Saturday morning. While she has had experience holding seminars and workshops for a previous company, this was my first. Thankfully, I've had a hand in teaching before, and the subject was something close to our hearts. We barely had three hours to make a difference in our workshoppers, but I think we did some good. It was certainly an interesting experience to be thrusted in the role of an "expert" and I even have a plaque to show for it!
5. The Crew is going global
Or more like, the Crew is leaving the country one by one. It seems that every year, my friends are moving to greener pastures. I can't blame them; the circumstances in the Philippines can be downright pathetic sometimes. When the opportunity arrises for you to give your family a bright future, it's a no-brainer to go for it. At last count, we have 1 in Germany, 3 in the US, 2 in Australia (plus 1 more very soon). That's not to count the 1 we have in Boracay. Like Binky said, we really have to make time to meet up now.
6. Multiply madness
In his family's history, Armand is the Photoshop-ing prankster. In a few days, he got into the mood to create some new and funny images of his family that he posted on his (private) Multiply account. Well, sorry, the rest of us wanted to repost them so we did. You can view the craziness here.
There are three more in the pipeline, and they should be debuted soon. I helped of course, putting to use our dynamic of conceptualizer/researcher (me) and artist (him).
7. Matthew speaks
He's starting to verbalize already. It sounds like gibberish most of the time but we've caught a few precious words and phrases: "tiger," "there," "am" (for lamb") and "this is daddy's shoes." There's more but I need to ask Armand to update this list. He also does several kinds of growls to match the sounds of a dinosaur, a lion and a tiger. He says "aw aw" for dog and "owww" for cat. He also "reads along" sometimes to his books, like when he says "goww" when reading Goal!
---
There's work of course, but I must keep mum about this until we're ready to unveil. I think the second half of the year has much waiting for us. Every day is a step closer to our goals. It's something that keeps me sane in between the chores and the insane summer heat (which has skyrocketed our electricity bills, by the way).
One day at a time. And what do you know, we're midyear already!
This goes to show that when there is much activity in real life, the virtual worlds must patiently wait in the sidelines.
The highlights of the past two weeks are, at best, cheap thrills. But they still make life at bit more interesting.
1. Back to cooking
In an effort to save, we have to eat out less. When you're cooking for such a small family, it's so convenient to cop out and go to a nearby mall or eatery. But you spend at least twice the amount of staying in and cooking. So our solution: Splitting the cooking. M, Th, Sat are Armand's days. T, W, Fri are mine. We decided on this based on his class sched. And, well, we've been mildly successful at this attempt. You can only cook after all if you've planned your menus and done your food shopping (thus,these are tasks we need to master as well). So simple, really, but we get lazy. We did well the first week, and I got to try out new recipes which did pretty well, if I must say so myself.
By the second week, we ran out of food because we were too busy to grocery shop the second week. Thus we discovered:
2. Jonas, the inventor of pares
We were actually on our way to Hap Chan in Ali Mall, when we spotted this restaurant when we got sidetracked by its claim, "“A Fastfood Restaurant with a Conscience.” I think Armand actually went on to read the entire history of the place which said something about them being the ones who invented the ubiquitous pares dish. I, on my part, got curious about a pares eatery in the middle of a mall. For P85, you get a hefty serving of rice paired with beef stew (hence, "pares) with a tiny bowl of beef broth on the side. For P95, I order the special version, the one with isaw, or intestines. We've been there already about four times, taking Armand's mom's and nieces for quick bites. The taste test: Matthew snubbed his usual siopao choice for the pares dish.
3. Spreading the love for Heroes
Our nieces Coco and Misha were in the compound for the week while their parents were away. Well, we had Coco more because Misha was busy with summer school and volleyball varsity. We've been egging her to watch Heroes, and while we watched the second-to-the-last episode one night, she finally caught the bug. She had a private marathon viewing of the series. She's got some ten more episodes to go though. (Coco, we have the season finale already!)
4. Writing Workshop
My friend and colleague, Niña, had an invitation to hold a workshop about feature writing and she asked me to tag-team with her. It was a half-day event slated for last Saturday morning. While she has had experience holding seminars and workshops for a previous company, this was my first. Thankfully, I've had a hand in teaching before, and the subject was something close to our hearts. We barely had three hours to make a difference in our workshoppers, but I think we did some good. It was certainly an interesting experience to be thrusted in the role of an "expert" and I even have a plaque to show for it!
5. The Crew is going global
Or more like, the Crew is leaving the country one by one. It seems that every year, my friends are moving to greener pastures. I can't blame them; the circumstances in the Philippines can be downright pathetic sometimes. When the opportunity arrises for you to give your family a bright future, it's a no-brainer to go for it. At last count, we have 1 in Germany, 3 in the US, 2 in Australia (plus 1 more very soon). That's not to count the 1 we have in Boracay. Like Binky said, we really have to make time to meet up now.
6. Multiply madness
In his family's history, Armand is the Photoshop-ing prankster. In a few days, he got into the mood to create some new and funny images of his family that he posted on his (private) Multiply account. Well, sorry, the rest of us wanted to repost them so we did. You can view the craziness here.
There are three more in the pipeline, and they should be debuted soon. I helped of course, putting to use our dynamic of conceptualizer/researcher (me) and artist (him).
7. Matthew speaks
He's starting to verbalize already. It sounds like gibberish most of the time but we've caught a few precious words and phrases: "tiger," "there," "am" (for lamb") and "this is daddy's shoes." There's more but I need to ask Armand to update this list. He also does several kinds of growls to match the sounds of a dinosaur, a lion and a tiger. He says "aw aw" for dog and "owww" for cat. He also "reads along" sometimes to his books, like when he says "goww" when reading Goal!
---
There's work of course, but I must keep mum about this until we're ready to unveil. I think the second half of the year has much waiting for us. Every day is a step closer to our goals. It's something that keeps me sane in between the chores and the insane summer heat (which has skyrocketed our electricity bills, by the way).
One day at a time. And what do you know, we're midyear already!