eh? I caught the tail-end of some news on tv....the octopus predicted the outcome of a World Cup game? abah..daig pa si Madam Auring...it must be the tentacles :-)

Batanes Teaser: Abad

Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge

Brgy. Chanarian-Tukon
Basco, Batanes
Philippines

Hotel at background, "parenthood" on foreground.

Camera used: Fujifilm Finepix S602Z point and shoot

Fundacion ng Fundacion Pacita

One thing you will surely notice is the profusion of stones and boulders and rocks around Batanes.

I was looking at Fundacion Pacita from a distance and noticed construction material set a little further away.

Stones and a coral or two thrown in make up a lot of the old stone houses in this island, so that "stone houses" and "Batanes" are practically synonymous.

* Camera used:
GE's G3WP waterproof point and shoot
edited for text

Batanes Teaser: Valugan Beach (Circles)

Valugan Beach in Batanes is best viewed during sunrise.

We woke up at quite early to watch the sunrise from the Valugan (or Chanpan) Boulder Beach.

This picture was born out of a whimsy...since the beach is characterized by boulders and large round stones weathered by the strong Batanes tides, and my umbrella had colored circles...

After a while you will hear the sound of stones being rolled over by the waves crashing impetuously unto the rocky shore...

* Camera used:
Fujifilm Finepix S602Z point and shoot
Edited for text and contrast

Batanes Teaser: Fundacion Pacita

June 24, 2010

Although we were not able go beyond the foyer because it was fully-booked due to guests, we were kindly given permission to wander the grounds.

What a lovely place to stay in...

Taken at ~

Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge
Brgy. Chanarian-Tukon
Basco, Batanes
Philippines


Camera used for this photo: GE's G3WP

Just got back from Batanes, and I am a prime example of what graduated filters look like. *Grin*

Its been ages since I last tasted Crabtree & Evelyn's jams and fruit preserves. Yesterday their nearest store advised me to try again today, and lucky me, they had a few jars of strawberry and blueberry jams. So here I am with those jams, English tea and a bunch of orange cookies and stem ginger biscuits. Bye-bye budget, hello afternoon tea!

I heard good things about Merrell brand of shoes so I bought one of their "water pro" ones. I must be so used to Crocs because while the new shoes were really comfortable on my arch and heel...for the first time in my life, even with socks, my left toes had blisters resulting from wearing rubber shoes...hehehe!

Eiga Sai 2010 this July

Start:	Jul 1, '10 05:00a
End:	Jul 11, '10
Location:	Manila, Philippines

Wheee! its that time of the year again...and thanks to Marie (ellafitz) for reminding me of it!

to think before I used to go with my fellow J-Club members who were diehards...

+++++
July 1 - 11 (Shang Cineplex Cinema 4, Shangri-La Plaza, EDSA, Mandaluyong City)
July 23-25 (Gaisano South City Mall, Davao City)
August 3-8 (Ayala Center Cinema 4,Cebu City)
August 18-21 (UP Film Institute, Diliman, Quezon City)
+++++

Now on its 12th year, “Eigasai,” which literally means ‘film festival’ once again proudly presents the much-awaited contemporary Japanese films beginning on July 1 at Shang Cineplex Cinema 4 to open the month-long festivity.
++++

here is the link to the schedules in different venues:

http://www.jfmo.org.ph/articles_arts-and-culture/film_festivals/arts_and_culture_film_festival-eigasai-screening-schedule.php


I wonder which films would be recommended as must-see?

Who can help me? Is Breeze soap powder still being sold here in Manila? if yes, where? am running out of my hoarded treasure...

What Big Cat am I?

I saw this on Ted's site...so had to try it out...

You Are a White Tiger

You have a strong individualistic streak. You are unique and outspoken. You have firm ideas of right and wrong. You will stand up for your unpopular beliefs with pride. You believe that learning the truth is important. Even if it's ugly, uncomfortable, or awkward. You give it to people straight, and you expect them to do the same. You can't stand ambiguity of any kind.

What Big Cat Are You?

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

Ms. G's Bread Pudding Adventure

Description:
Bread Pudding is thought of as an old fashioned dessert that had its humble beginnings in 13th century England. It was first known as a "poor man's pudding" as it was made from stale leftover bread that was just moistened in water, to which a little sugar, spices and other ingredients were added.

I remember I cut and paste this before from a post of Ms. G when I asked her how to make bread pudding and I don't want to lose it so am sharing it again here...

Ingredients:
3 pcs old big size pandesal broken up into pieces (or 6 slices loaf bread)
6 whole eggs (beaten)
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar (add more if you want sweeter)
dash of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract lemon zest or drops of lemon extract to taste
1/3 cup raisins (optional if you do not like raisins)

Directions:
Instructions from Ms. G -

Just throw them in all together and mix.
Line a llanera (or any ceramic deep dish) with melted butter.
Pour in the mixture (be sure it does not go over an inch below the rim). Steam for at least 30 minutes or until done using Nona's tusok-tusok system, hehe.

I enjoy making bread pudding because it is always an adventure. The results are different, every time, because it depands what kind of bread you use.

btw, Ms. G also said to try using calamansi (Philippine lemon) peel - cut them into fine pieces then add them to the mixture. It adds a subtle flavor to the dish.


picture from the internet

IMglish

some popular ones for reference culled over the net...
although most of them I don't use also as we also have lots of similar-looking acronyms in other industries and at work...

AAK                             Asleep at the keyboard
AAR8                           At any rate
ADAD                           Another day, another dollar
AFAIC                         As far as I’m concerned
AFAIK                           As far as I know.
AFK                             Away from computer keyboard
AJSIL                           Age/Sex/Location
ASAP                           As soon as possible
ATM                             At the moment
ATW                            Around the web
AWGTHTGTTA           Are we going to have to go through this again
AYT                             Are you there

B                                  Back
B4N                             Bye for now
BBL                              Be back later
BBS                             Be back soon
BC                               Because
BCNU                         Be seein’ you
BTDT                           Been there, done that.
BFF                             Best friend forever
BFN                             Bye for now.
BFN                             Boyfriend
BFN/IB4N                    Bye for now
BG                               Big grin
BIL                               Boss is listening
BITD                            Back in the day
BMG                            Be my guest
BOTOH                        But on the other hand
BRB                             Be right back
BTDT                           Been there, done that
BTDTGTTSAWIO        Been there done that, got the t-shirt and wore it out
BTW                            By the way
BYKT                           But you knew that

CD9                             Code 9: Parents nearby
CID                              Consider it done
COZ                             Because
CSL                             Can’t stop laughing
CU                               See you
CUL or CUL8R             See you later

DETI                            Don't even think it.
DQMOT                       Don't quote me on this.

EBCAK                         Error between chair and keyboard.
EBKAC                         Error between keyboard and chair.
EG                               Evil Grin
EOM                            End of message
EWIW                         For what it’s worth
EZ                                Easy

F2F                              Face to face.
F2T                              Free to talk
FAQ                             Frequently asked questions
FOAF                          Friend of a friend.
FWIW                          For what it's worth.
FYI                              For your information.

G2G                             Got to go
GAL                             Get a life
GD&R                          Grinning, ducking and running.
GE                               Girlfriend
GGN                            Gotta go now
GJ                                Good job
GL                               Good luck
GMTA                          Great minds think alike.
GOL                             Giggle out loud
GR8                             Great
GRT                             Great
GTG                            Got to go
GW                               Good work

H8                                Hate
HAK                             Hugs and kisses
HAND                         Have a nice day
HB                               Hurry back.
HHOK                          Ha, ha, only kidding.

IAC                              In any case
IANAL                          I am not a laywer, but...
IAE                               In any event
IAW                              In accordance with.
IC                                 I see
IDC                              I don’t care
IDK                              I don’t know
ILY                               I love you
IM                                Instant Message
IMCO                           In my considered opinion.
IMHO                           In my humble opinion.
IMNERHO                    In my never even remotely humble opinion
IMNSHO                      In my not so humble opinion
IMO                             In my opinion.
IMPOV                         In my point of view
IOW                              In other words.
IRL                               In real life

JIC                               Just in case
JK                                Just kidding
JTLYK                         Just to let you know
JOOTT                        Just one of those things.

K                                  Okay
KK                                Okay, all right.
KIS                               Keep it simple
KIT                               Keep in touch
KPC                             Keeping parents clueless.

L8                                Late
L8R                              Later
LBH                             Lets be honest
LOL                              Laughing out loud
LOL                              Lots of luck
LMAO                           Laughing my ass off. 
LMIRL                          Let's meet in real life.
LYLAS                          Love ya like a sister.

MIRL                            Meet in real life
MorF                            Male or Female 1
MOS                            Mom over shoulder
MTFBWU                     May the force be with you
MYOB                          Mind your own business.
MWA                            A kiss (the sound of "mwa.")

N2M                             Not too much.
NALOPKT                    Not a lot of people know this.
NBD                             No big deal
NE                               Any
NIH                              Not invented here.
NMU                            Not much, you?
Noob                           “Newbi” - someone who is a novice
NP                               No problem
NRN                             No response necessary

OIC                                            Oh, I see.
OMG                           Oh my God!
OTOH                         On the other hand.
OTP                            On the phone.
OWTTE                        Or words to that effect

P911                            Parent emergency
PAL                              Parents are listening.
PAW                            Parents are watching
PCM                            Please call me
PEBCAK                      Problem exists between chair and keyboard.
PEBKAC                      Problem exists between keyboard and chair.
PIR                              Parents in room.
PITA                            Pain in the ass.
PLBCAK                       Problem lies between chair and keyboard.
PLBKAC                       Problem lies between keyboard and chair.
PLZ                              Please
PMJI                            Pardon my jumping in.
POC                             Point of contact
POS                             Parent over shoulder.
POV                             Point of view
PRW                             Parents are watching.
PTG&LI                        Playing the game and loving it.

Q                                  Question

RL                                 Real life.
ROFL                            Rolling on the floor laughing.
RSN                              Real soon now
RUOK?                         Are you okay?

S2R                              Send to receive
SFETE                            Smiling from ear to ear
SIT                                Stay in touch
SOZ                              Sorry
STFU                            Shut the f*** up!
SUP                               What's up?
SYS See you soon

TANSTAAFL               There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
TIA                                 Thanks in advance.
TMTH                           Too much to handle.
TTFN                           Ta, ta for now (goodbye).
TTT                              Thought that too.
TTYL                             Talk to you later.
TU                                 Thank you.
TY                                 Thank you.

U                                      You
U2                                   You too

W/E                                  Whatever
WB                                     Welcome back
WFM                                Works for me
WTG                                Way to go
WTH                                What the hell?
WU                                  What’s up?
WYGOWM                       Will you go out with me?
WYSIWYG                       What you see is what you get

XOXO                              Hugs and kisses

Y                                      Why
YT?                                   You there?
YW                                    You are welcome

ZZZ                                   Tired or bored

I hope they don't go overboard with the sponsored links here in Multiply...

El DÍA E at INSTITUTO CERVANTES

Start:	Jun 19, '10 09:00a
End:	Jun 19, '10 1:00p
Location:	Manila, Philippines

On this day they will organize and Open House featuring exhibits, kite flying and a photo contest as well as a series of fun cultural activities about the Spanish language.

My backup is taking so long...I've already read a novel, had 2 phone conferences, cooked my dinner, washed up, posted a blog..and its still 83% finished.....but it is a necessary thing to do and one which saves you a lot of aggravation in the future. So friends and friends, make sure to backup regularly!

Cat's crazy toast

I was hungry but I didn't want to cook anything which would take me more than 5 minutes, preparation time included.

So tonight, after my last phone conference, I decided to just scrape over whatever I could get my hands on instead of going to sleep hungry (with my soul wandering around while I was asleep and overturning pots and pans - or so my mom says....no kidding!)

Ticking off on my fingers, I knew I had the basics: eggs, milk, butter, sugar...and a loaf of Gardenia's high-calcium milk bread...which incidentally was 1 day over its expiry date. Hmmm....

The easiest answer was of course French toast.While bread pudding was doable (I didn't have any raisins or calamansi juice though) it would take a while as I would need to steam it..and it was already past 10 pm...grrr....and no dinner yet.

So I gathered (without counting or measuring them out meticulously) all of the basic ingredients for French toast and started off. The reason I am putting them here instead of in the Recipes section is that well, it all went by in a blur and not at all organized like I usually do for my recipes.


+++++++

My ingredients for tonight's dinner:

stale bread, preferably thick slices of it
native chicken eggs, whisked
a few tablespoons goat's milk
a teaspoon or so of goat's milk powder
a few drops of vanilla extract (the dregs in my small bottle)
a couple of dollops of cream (for a richer taste)
dash of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
teaspoon of brown sugar
a pat or two of butter

honey
peanut butter
blueberry jam

Simple instructions:

Try to find a basin which is more flattish than a bowl so that you can comfortably dip your bread pieces in it without bending your bread out of shape.

1. Crack the eggs open one at a time and beat 'em black and blue *grin*

Seriously though, when combining two or more eggs, I try to open and put them in separate containers because sometimes one of the eggs you might end up with is not that fresh. Try making home-made mayonnaise and finding your 20th egg which you just dropped into your main bowl of eggs as being rotten and you will cringe at the waste.

2. Add the milk and cream to your beaten eggs. Mix 'em up good and then add a few drops of vanilla extract or maybe if you don't have it..then just get some drops of vanilla flavoring.

3. At this point, since I love goat's milk, I added the milk powder I had as well as the brown sugar. I then sprinkled the cinnamon and nutmeg into the liquid mixture.

You may skip the brown sugar or milk powder if you like. Since all I had was salted butter, I knew my creation would probably end up a bit saltier than I would have liked so I wanted to balance out the flavor.

4.  I first toasted my bread to get them a little more brown and dry. Then I dipped the slices (I cut them half since I didn't want too soggy a bread) into the mixture I made.

5. Meanwhile, my non-stick frying pan had already a couple of pats of butter, and was heating up evenly. You can forgo butter if you have a non-stick pan..but well, isn't butter just delicious when it also flavors a little bit of your toast?

Take your soaked bread and fry them in your pan until both sides are a nice golden brown.

6. Serve immediately.

I tried mine with a dribble of honey, a spread of peanut butter and a flick of powdered sugar. All separate toasts of course *grin*

Happy breakfast ...I mean..dinner!

Image somewhere on this page is from the internet as I had already eaten my concoction.

Note though that there are a lot of variations of french toast...so am sure any experiments you might have (and I high encourage you to do so) will be a lesson for your palate....*Cat looks for ginger and mango to add to french toast next time*

Recent interest: children's books. I'm going to try reading the "Mortal Instruments" series in order to see if its enough to hold my interest even at my age :-)

I enjoy Lady Gaga's songs and music videos, even those which are marked with a warning as "explicit". However, I confess it was the first time my eyebrows were raised to the heavens when I saw her complete "Alejandro" music vid.

Teaser: Where in Palawan would you be starry-eyed with starfishes?

Answer:
Star Fish Island, Honda Bay
Palawan, Philippines
09° 54.056N   118° 47.745E



6th of March, 2010
Cat with Keen and Sam (left to right).

Thumbsuck

I was going through the pictures I had taken in my Bantayan trip with Mommy Loy and Tito Rudy during this year's Cuaresma...when I paused at one taken without the model's permission *wink*.

Sadly, I can't remember the name of the baby though I know he was related to our host's family.

Him sleeping it off without a care in the world while sucking his thumb was utterly adorable to my jaded eyes. My mom had reminisced one time about my sleeping habits as an infant and told me I also dropped off to sleep without care, but would demandingly and angrily bang my foot on my crib's wall if the electric fan wasn't on full blast and focused on yours truly.

This time, the fan was on (Holy Week is almost always hot in Bantayan), and the baby was in his chair, awake while the adults conversed over his head.

After a while though, I saw him literally falling asleep with his thumb in his mouth. He kept on leaning and listing to the side like a sailboat being buffeted by a wind heralding a storm.

When we left, he had stopped listing at 48 degrees East of Bantayan Island, but still had his thumb as his sleeping partner.

Sand-digging dog

The culprit and the victim after the fact (we let bygones be bygones and became friends by this time) -->


Well, here's a little warning for my fellow travellers - if you do go to Sabang beach in Palawan, you can be sure there are dogs of all shapes and sizes on the wide expanse of that beach.

There I was, trying to relax and have my siesta that lazy afternoon with the sea singing its lullaby when I was abruptly almost thrown off from my gently-swinging hammock.

Rats and double-rats!

There was a sudden onslaught of gritty grains on my hair, face (thank goodness I wasn't snoring with my mouth open to the elements) and chest.

Why was it raining sand when the sky was bright cerulean blue?
For that matter..hmm...why was it raining sand at all?

Turns out, these beach dogs take a respite from the heat by digging the sand to get to the somewhat moist and cooler layer below.

And...dognabbit...they don't care who gets caught in the crossfire between the hot sand and the erm...hot dog - even if you are 2 inches from the fight zone.

Pffft! *spits sand out of the mouth and snorts through nose*