Guess what I did last Saturday --

This is what I did in the morning:



And this is what I did that evening:



I was supposed to process our visa for Japan but decided at the last minute to let my aunt's travel agency handle the processing for us.

Which meant I had a ticket to Cebu --

And a chance to spend the day with one of my most favorite people in the world -- my cousin. ^_^

I arrived at around 930 and my cousin's hubby picked me up at the airport. We went to Banilad Town Center where we met my cousin and my nephew at Gymboree.

She then took me pasalubong shopping at Leona's (for their AMAZING Carrot Walnut Loaf) and Cafe George (for their ADDICTING Banana Loaf).

Lunch was at Spice Fusion. It surprised me that my cousin's hubby asked us to make reservations, considering it was lunch -- but when I tried the food and saw the crowd coming in, I understood the need.

Must, must try: The Roti (I actually ordered 2 and brought it back to Iloilo), the super crunchy Singapore Chicken and everything else on the menu.

My cousin and I spent the early part of the afternoon at their house and we just talked while I figured out how I was going to bring home all of my purchases (on Go-Lite) --

This was my favorite part of my visit -- I got to catch up with my cousin and was able to ask for her thoughts on some concerns I have. (My cousin is really great about giving advice.)

Our last stop was Fullybooked where I promised myself that I would only buy 3 books (1 for me, 1 for my sister and 1 for Johann) -- I ended up buying about 6 books. Hahaha!

Then it was time to go back to the airport for my flight home.

BEST DAY I've had in a while.

* * *

This is how much I've changed --

I pride myself with being good about time.

I'm always arrive promptly at events and whatnot.

For my trip going, I arrived at the airport at 815am for a 905am flight and was the last person to check in.

For my trip coming back, I arrived at the airport just in time for the last call for confirmed ticket holders on my flight. (The porter helping me with my box had to run to the counter to tell them not to close.)

* * *

And, yes --

Johann and I have tickets to Tokyo in September.

Just in time for the Tokyo Game Show.

We're also going to Tokyo Disneyland and Sega Joypolis.

And, yes -- I am gloating. =^_^=

Betterworld Books Buyback offer --

Betterworld Books is one of my favorite online shops. I've find Hard-to-find and Out-of-Print titles here at very good prices and I love the flat shipping rate ($3.97 to international destinations.)

I recently checked their website and found an interesting new development -- Betterworld Books now has a Buyback policy -- you can sell your books to them! (They'll even pay for shipping if you're selling more than 3 books.)

Unfortunately, the offer is only available in the US. ~sigh~

I hope they expand this and open it to countries outside of the US.

Clickety click here for more information.

While you're at it, check out their books!

A wonderful book meme --

Got this from Julie --

Childhood Favorites:

I read a lot of Nancy Drew growing up. (One of our older cousins gave us her entire collection when she visited us.)

Also a lot of encyclopedias. One of my best memories of childhood is my mom leaving the most current catalog of Reader's Digest books and let us pick 2. My siblings would deliberate on which 2 books we would get and we ended up with gems like: How Was It Done?, When, Where, Why and How It Happened, The Story of Jesus, etc.

We also read a lot of comics. I remember my uncle sending us the Mile High Comics catalog (back when they were printing them) and told us to pick one each. We weren't picky back then -- we didn't mind getting grab bags because we just wanted to have a lot of comics to read. ^_^

Believe it or not, I didn't get into Sweet Valley and Sweet Dreams until I was in high school.

Comfort Reading (to which i return again and again)
1. Possession by A.S. Byatt
2. Tuesdays with Morrie <-- which I read every New Year's Eve
3. Reader's Digest issues (old and new) <-- laughter really is the best medicine ^_^
4. Little Women <-- but not so often. I just think about it (especially Beth's dying scene) and I get misty-eyed.
5. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
6. Worried All the Time by David Anderegg
7. Suddenly Silver by Lynn Johnston

Best I've Read in the Past Year
Apologies ... this list will contain romance novels and comic books because that's what I've been reading mostly ...
1. Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas <-- she's an interesting writer though -- she's Asian-American and English wasn't her first language.
2. The Umbrella Academy: Dallas by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba
3. How to Eat by Nigella Lawson <-- I read this one a few years back and decided to re-read it. I love her. >_<
4. Anna Godbersen's Series: The Luxe, Rumors, Envy ... can't wait for the next one!
5. Mary Balogh's Simply Series <-- didn't like her the first time I read her. But this series was very good. ^_^
6. Tempted by his Kiss by Tracy Anne Warren <-- read this a few days ago. Amazing! Can't wait for the next installment.
7. My youngest brother's dissertation proposal <-- it was choppy and I helped him edit it and his proposal was approved (not because I edited it ha. The topic is very interesting). (Made me feel good knowing that I still had a bit of the teacher in me. =^_^=)

Non-fiction Faves
1. Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour
2. Nigella Lawson!!!
3. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester


Ones which I've only pretended to read in their entirety
1. Ulysses by James Joyce <-- was supposed to read this for my compre -- read the first five chapters and then made a big show of flipping through the rest of the book
2. The Republic by Plato
3. Siddharta by Herman Hesse <-- was supposed to read this for a class. Don't know how I managed to get through that paper and test without having actually read the book

Strangely have never picked up
1. JRR Tolkien <-- but I am not a fan of fantasy (or SF)
2. Gabriel Garcia Marquez <-- I've only read 2 short stories
3. Haruki Murakami <-- one of my husband's favorite authors. I've only read Sputnik Sweetheart and 1 short story
4. Philip Pullman <-- I tried to read him ... but I couldn't understand it. T_T

So, I kinda won the lotto (NOT the grand prize) --

I did get 3 of the 6 numbers, which means I won ... 100 pesos!


<-- look at set B of my lotto ticket

I know it's such a small amount but I'm thrilled that I finally got some of the numbers correct. (Considering it's 49 numbers. The odds are astounding!)

Sayang nga e -- I could've gotten 4 numbers right if I had chosen 28 instead of 27. ^_^

* * *

It's all in the packaging --

Been meaning to post this for a while now -- but Johann and I stumbled upon an interesting bag of chips a few months back.



It was actually the flavor that caught my eye and it was only later that we discovered that it was locally made by Oishi.

It's the same size as Kettle Chips and only slightly smaller than the Lays/Ruffles chips but it was way, way cheaper. (I think it was about 50 pesos for the bag.)

While in line to check out, the woman behind me asked me where I got the bag. (The packaging is very eye-catching.) And I told her where we found it but warned her that it seemed to be the only bag left.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to taste it -- by the time we decided to open the bag, Anya was around and I was breastfeeding. (I was worried that the wasabi might find its way into my milk and annoy the little one.)

Johann thought it was good -- but not something one person can eat alone.

Interesting article --

8 Toxic Personalities to Avoid

Best pasalubong! --

Our friends just came back from Spain. They dropped off some pasalubong for us -- the usual stuff for the kids -- fun activities and knickknacks.

This is what they got for us --



SMURF Marshmallows!!!



Insane cuteness!!! >_<

The problem is, I don't know if I want to eat them.

Or how --

I'm thinking, smores.

* * *

Coming home --

One of my favorite memories is about chocolate cake --

Every time we came home from school (in Manila), my parents always fetched us from the airport. (No matter the time of day or how busy they were -- they'd always be there at arrival area to welcome us home.)

There'd also be a chocolate cake in the back seat that my dad picked up from Carlo's bakery on the way to the airport.

It wasn't the fanciest cake -- but it was delicious and it was the perfect way to welcome us back to Iloilo.

Carlo's closed years ago and I've (un)consciously measured all other chocolate cakes against it and, as expected, most other cakes fell short.

Early this year, we discovered the Carlo's was reopening and the first thing I thought of was chocolate cake.

It took us 5 months to eventually go there but we finally made the trip last Thursday.

And they had the cake!



And it was just as amazing.



My sister and I were eating it together and we felt the same way -- it felt like coming home. (We are home. ^_^)

Even Johann, who is very particular about his chocolate cake (he likes it fudgy and not spongy; he likes the icing to be of a particular consistency and not too thick; etc.) loved it.

When my dad came home and saw the cake, he said, "It's bigger now, isn't it?"

But it made him smile -- (too bad he can't eat it anymore.)

And it made all of us happy. ^_^

Found! Really cute blog! --

It's called "Notebook of Handmade" --

I'm small! --

...to tall men I'm a midget, and to short men I'm a giant; to the skinny ones I'm a fat man, and to the fat ones I'm a thin man.
- The Phantom TollBooth

I've always been amused by how my body was made --

I've always hovered between a size 10 to size 14 (and I wish I could go down a size or two.)

My eyes are too big and my mouth is too big. When I would have my makeup done, the makeup artist would always do the "minimizing trick" on my lips.

And, my feet are big too. Especially now -- my feet grew a bit with each pregnancy and now I'm in-between sizes so it's very hard for me to buy shoes.

I'm big where I should be small ...
And I'm small where I should be big!

Drawing blood has always been a major chore -- I have very small, very thin veins. The lab techs usually have to call their "seniors" to extract my blood. This last OGTT, they had to get blood 5 times from the same arm (my left arm) because they couldn't find veins thick enough to poke with an injection on my right arm. (There have been times when even the senior lab techs had to draw the blood from my hand because the veins there are thicker.)

I also have a small cervix -- which is why I had to deliver Seth via CS because his head wouldn't fit!

I also have small teeth, which explains the gap between my two front teeth. All of my siblings dreaded getting their wisdom teeth because those would crowd their existing teeth (they all had their wisdom teeth pulled out). In my case, the dentist was actually praying that they would come out big so that they could push my teeth and close the gap. (My wisdom teeth are small-ish and no such pushing occurred.)

I also have small ears!

I recently renewed my passport and had such a hard time getting the photo part right. The new passport requirement is that both ears should be visible. I had tucked my hair behind my ears and smoothed my hair down by clipping it (at the back so that it wouldn't be visible in the picture). The photographer tried several times and my ears just wouldn't show!

As a last resort, she rolled several strips of paper and tucked those on my ear so they would stick out a little.

And that's how I got my passport photo taken. ^_^


(My blog entry about The Phantom Tollbooth)