Saturday, January 28, 2012

Nestle Honeystars, Hotwheels and Domino's Pizza

Hubby is off to do some testing at work today so its just me and my son through this lazy Saturday afternoon.  I had not been hyper the past few days because of what seems to be a cold virus I could not seem to shake off.  I was glad I did most of the work done during the week, giving me some time to rest this weekend.  I was looking forward to just staying in the bedroom reading a book or working on some blog materials until my son saw this Nestle Honeystars commercial which featured a free Hotwheels pullback racer.  He hounded me for hours begging me to accompany him to SM Center so he can purchase the box.  I asked him if he had money, and he said he did.  He got his wallet and proudly showed me his cash, a total of P100.  Around 3pm I set aside what I was doing and told him we would go to SM Center to check out his Nestle Honeystars which he promised to consume all by himself. He was hip-hopping with joy as we walked our way to the mall.  I enjoy afternoon walks like this even when I am not feeling well.  The day was comfortably cool, felt like it was about to drizzle.  We brought our umbrella just in case it rained, I did not want my cold to worsen.  

The wonderful prize inside the box of Nestle Honeystars.
We had fun sticking the stickers on the racer.
The racer is also surprisingly fast!  My son is having so much fun with it.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Ushering the Year of the Water Dragon

Marites Allen's Horoscope Forecast
from National Bookstore
and dog sign lucky charm bracelet.
I was born under the year of the Metal Dragon.  I have come to find interest in the Chinese way of ushering in their New Year back when the much loved geomancer Paul Lau was still alive back in the 1990's.  Sadly he died in 2000 while in his hotel room at the Mandarin Oriental Manila.  Paul Lau had this certain aura in him that made the Feng Shui, the Chinese Horoscope and the Chinese New Year fun to take part in.

This year, with no definite geomancer or feng shui expert to follow I was captured by the weeklong Chinese New Year episode of Kris TV (hosted by Ms. Kris Aquino) where they tackled an assortment of ways to ward of negative energies, attract positive energy, preparations to do before the year of the water dragon steps in coupled with certain guests that are under the Chinese Zodiac sign they were discussing for that day.  I was able to watch the episode where the President and CEO of World of Feng Shui Philippines, Ms. Marites Allen guested. I particularly remember her advise to squeeze one kalamansi as hard as you can and throw it over your left shoulder over running water (river, stream, creek or whatever) to get rid of the negativity.  I was also able to watch the episode when Robert Dans guested and he did hold his stand in his prediction that Ms. Kris Aquino will have a baby girl with Coco Martin in the year of the Dragon.  There were so many matters discussed in just one week as expected as the Chinese Horoscope certainly is a vast topic to handle.


Anyway, this initiated me to do some extra preparations for the Chinese New Year. I did extra cleaning, decluttered our room, washed the blinds, got myself my special bracelet from SM Center.  Jay managed to receive money from a rich acquaintance which he shared with me and my son.  (It is just a couple of new P50 and P20 bills by the way).  We folded it into the Dragon and slid it into the angpao.  Hubby and my son also went to Binondo Jan 21 (Sat) to get Tikoy (sweet ricecake) from Eng Bee Tin.  I was supposed to join them but I still had a lot of cleaning and fixing to do.   Hmmm...I wonder if anyone bothered to ask soil from Uncle Dong's garden.

Come the day before the Chinese New Year, things were a little lighter.  We prepared lumpia and pritik (our version of tikoy wrapped in lumpia wrapper and deep fried) to be cooked in the late afternoon and early evening.  We also had penne in Filipino style spaghetti sauce.  I just found out the pasta is called penne.  We had been calling the recipe spaghetti since we did not know what its called.  Now we know.

Our fruit basket with candies and the traditional angpao.
Angpao means red packet in Min Lin.  In Mandarin it is called hongbao.
Koreans have it too and they call it Sae Bae Don.
Thanks to Wikipedia for that information.
Our special Tikoy and Hopia from Binondo's Eng Bee Tin.


Penne in Filipino style spaghetti sauce
Pritik: Tikoy wrapped in lumpia wrapper and deep fried.
In the evening, there was really not much compared to what we had during New Year's Eve (Dec 31).  Three of us changed into red shirts, my son even went as far as wearing red shorts.  We ate our penne spag, lumpia and pritiik and stayed in tune to ABS-CBN for their Chinese New Year celebration telecast from the Quirino Grandstand.  My hubby also took time to cross over to Uncle Dong next door and share some of our pritik and lumpia.  Before going to bed, my hubby placed a P20 bill in our pockets saying Kung Hei Fat Choi.

Well, Kung Hei Fat Choi everyone!!!  All the things we did were all just for fun.  We may have embraced the Chinese culture with this celebration and have come to love it, but being Christian Catholics, it is still God Almighty who is the center of our lives.  Each year changes in the Chinese culture but for us Catholics, every year is the year of our Lord.  That being said, "Zai Jian" (See you later) everyone and "Hsieh Hsieh"! (Thank you). 

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Ending 2011, Welcoming 2012

There was really no master plan as to how we would be ending 2011.  In fact, I woke up the morning of Dec 31 not knowing how to start the day.  Kalorkey!  My sister-in-law, her 2 kids and yaya arrived yesterday and would be spending the turn of the year with us.  I did my year-end reflection while walking for 1 mile (maybe more) yesterday already and today I am in a "que sera sera" mode.  What transpired through the day for me was totally a spur of the moment and they are as follows:

My sister-in-law Liza cooks up Halayang Ube na green.
Will blog about this later at Kusina ni Mudrah.
My husband and I walked to the highway outside our Subdivision
to take pictures of lechon lined up for the New Year!
The smallest lechon we saw was priced at Php7,500.
One can also purchase lechon by the kilo at Php600/kilo.

Lechon lined up for pick-up at 5:00pm.

More pigs being hauled for roasting.

Hubby cooked his ChowKing style pancit canton around 6pm.


Mudrah broils her Bebe-vack reeves. (Baby back ribs)

Dinnertime at 7pm, then prep up for the year end mass.

At the Our Lady of Fatima Parish for the 8:00pm year-end mass 


We do not have a Medya Noche (midnight meal) picture because my niece had to be brought to the hospital to be checked by a doctor for assessment on what is causing her rashes.  She was hospitalized a few days ago for fever, UTI and tonsilitis.  When they got back from the hospital, I was already tipsy after mixing the cocktail drinks.  Malibu Rum has a bad effect on me compared to Asti, Red Wine and Glenfiddich.
One of the fountains we lit up.

Lighting up the way for the New Year to enter.
Rose (extreme right) marvels at the sight of aerial fireworks display.


At 12MN, we start the Agawan ng Pera by dropping coins
from the head of the eldest member of the  family.
This is a tradition from my husband's side
and is the first time for me to witness it.
I hope we can do this every year.
Agawan ng pera!!!
No more pictures after this because I had to lie down already.  No more Malibu Rum for me ever!

Happy New Year everyone!!!