Yellow Roses

Sister and I were in the Lung Center weekend market again yesterday, and I didn't want to get sick once more, so I told myself I should be aware of what I was doing and drinking. I decided to stop taking too much pictures and concentrate more on the reason why we were there.

We got to buy what mom asked us to buy, but sister wasn't able to buy a pair of shoes she needed for today. It was a pleasurable day at the market despite the rainshowers, and I think I am getting addicted to this market! Not only do we get to eat delicious foods, we were also able to exercise (walking around the place for more than three hours)!

While we were looking for the stall that sells chicharon (pork rind cracklings), we passed by the plants section and this bunch of yellow roses and decided to take a picture of it. Sister gave me the "eyes" and I said I will just take a picture of it and I promised that we will carry on with the market tour. =)

Fact: among all the roses, this is my favorite color.

Taken using Canon Powershot A580, manual mode -- macro, no flash.

*** Jenn ***

Edit:

This blog has been one of the featured blogs in Weekend Snapshot! Wow, I am so happy about that. Thanks, thanks! Great start of the week for the shutter happy me!

Barbecue

First time to join La.Pi.S! I am excited to join this meme because it's Philippine based. I was supposed to join in last week, but then we were having electricity problem because of the typhoon, so I decided to join this week instead. I am more excited to join because this week's topic is all about grilling.

Barbecue is one of my favorite foods. My sister often applauds me for my efforts because she said she cannot really go through the process of grilling -- from marinating to preparing the grill to the actual grilling itself. I love eating barbecues because the drippings that goes to the coal and the smoke coming from the coal gives the barbecued meat that distinct delicious flavor. My favorite is the chicken inasal.

This picture was shot yesterday when I went to the Salcedo Village weekend market in Jaime Velasquez Park, Makati City. I am so tempted to buy even just one stick, but I already ate some food so I passed this one up already. But, I already tasted the barbecue here and even if it's 35 pesos per stick, I still consider it a great buy because the stick is long and the meat is lean. Next week, I will be there again to attend the event sponsored by the South African embassy. Maybe next weekend I will be able to grab a stick...or two! =)

*** Jenn ***

Hot Chick

This picture was taken on the same day as the picture I shared last week. After the goat herding, we relaxed a little bit before walking to the tobacco farm for some pictures. As I got up, I was surprised to see this pink chick walking along the yard. I asked my Aunt Lorie about it and she said in the public schools, there were some vendors who raffles the chicks off to the students. A student will pay 1 peso for a chance to pick a paper in the canister. If the student (or anyone for that matter) picks paper with a mark, he/she will win one chick.

Now why pink? Well, according to my niece (cousin Lorraine's daughter), there were lots of colors to choose from and she chose pink. =) I think the chicks were dyed to make it look as if the chicks really were of different color. The only thing is that the chicks don't really live long enough to become adult chickens. Maybe because of the dye or maybe because they were too young to be separated to their moms, I don't know.

Cute as they can be, I am not in favor of this trade because the raffle can get really addictive so it makes the kids spend much of their allowances just so they could take home a chick.

*** Jenn ***

Bright

One of the best things in celebrating new year's day is thru fireworks and doing all sorts of noises. A Chinese custom said that doing such drives away the bad spirit and dark memories of the previous year. Here in our house, we don't really do fireworks and firecrackers because we've had bad experiences about it (we've bought defective products on some occassions), so we just welcome the new year by shouting, or putting some coins in a tin can and shake it. Sometimes, we buy some horns and blow it, or just make use of anything to create noises. =)

This picture was shot using my cell phone when we welcome 2008. That's our neighbor Daniel, who, instead of pinning the roman candle firework on a tree or something sturdy, he decided to nail it on a long piece of wood and paraded on the street as the roman candle spinned. His mom went berserk (he might get injured), but oh well, kids will be kids.

*** Jenn ***

Religion

I am a Catholic, and so are all of the members of my paternal family. I know this religion is being attacked constantly due to different reasons, but no matter what happens, I will always be a Catholic. In one of the tours I have had, the guide said that, "to be a Filipino is to be a Catholic." I agree with him.

This is the Baguio Cathedral at 5:30 in the morning. I intendedly shot this picture for the Sony Ericsson Topshot contest, but sadly didn't win. In that contest, people are asked to submit a photo captured by a cell phone. Although this shot didn't win, I am extremely proud of this photo because I was able to capture the whole cathedral and the image of Christ's crucifixion, and I used cell phone!

Photo shot using Sony Ericsson K800i, set to twilight landscape, no flash.

Happy weekends everyone!

*** Jenn ***

Triple Dessert

Our family don't normally order desserts whenever we eat out. For us, a dessert is not really that important, as is just a "waste of money," for the only thing we can get from desserts would be added sugar. Sometimes, what we do if we wanted to eat desserts is to just buy a coned ice cream from the kiosks in the mall and it would only cost us about 10 pesos. =)

When I celebrated my 28th birthday last May, I asked mom if we could order dessert, for a change. Pizza Hut has this three-in-one dessert called dessert sampler that consist of a chocolate lava cake, mango pannacota and sundae. We decided to order this one instead because if we order this one by one it would cost a lot compared to ordering it as a whole.

I loved the chocolate lava cake and the sundae, but the mango panacotta I didn't like much. I guess I am not much into milky desserts and I am not really into mangoes that's why I didn't like it. On the other hand, my sister loved the panacotta. Hehehehe... one man's set of taste buds certainly is different from that of the other man's.

This picture is shot on macro (no flash) using Canon Powershot A580 digital camera.

*** Jenn ***

Pag-Aaral (Schooling)

Talagang hindi makukumpleto ang ating pag-aaral kung walang aklat na gagabay sa atin. Maging ang ating mga guro ay kumukonsulta sa mga aklat upang ang mga impormasyong ituturo sa atin ay tama. Noong ako ay nasa elementary at highschool, 'di ko problema ang aklat dahil agaran iyong mabibili sa eskwelahan, ngunit nang mag-college ako, naranasan ko pang magpunta sa iba't-ibang lugar para lamang mahanap ang aklat na kinakailangan ko.

Sa totoo lang, namamahalan ako sa mga aklat kaya hindi ako nasanay magbasa ng aklat. May mga aklat na gustong-gusto kong basahin, ngunit hindi ko naman mabili sapagkat wala akong sapat ng pera upang mabili ang mga iyon. Sa tingin ko, isa rin iyon sa mga dahilan kung bakit ang mga kabataan ngayon ay hindi nahilig magbasa ng aklat.

Kuha ang litratong ito sa Powerbooks (Serendra). Dumaan kami ng kapatid ko doon upang hanapin ang magasin na ipinapahanap ng aming tiyahin at sinamantala ko na rin ang pagkakataon upang mabili ang aklat na pitong taon ko ng nais bilhin ngunit 'di ko mabili sapagkat noong una ay 'di sapat ang baon ko at noong magkaroon na ako ng sapat na pera, wala naman akong sapat na oras upang sumadya sa malalaking bookstore para lamang mabili iyon. Ang aklat? "The Greatest Miracle in the World" ni Og Mandino.

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English Translation:

Schooling is never complete without books. Even our teachers consult books so that the information we get is accurate and true. When I was in elementary and high school, I got no problem with books because it is readily available in the school, but when I entered college, there were times that I had to check different bookstores just so I could find one book!

Truth be told, I find books expensive that's why I don't read that much books. There are a lot of books that I wanted to read, but cannot own because I always don't have enough money to buy those books. I guess this is also the reason why kids and youths nowadays aren't widely read.

This picture was taken in Powerbooks (Serendra). My sister and I dropped by the bookstore to check if the magazine our aunt asked us to buy is available, and I also took the privilege to buy this book that I so want to own for 6 years now, but cannot buy it back then because my allowance is just enough to sustain my food and fare, and now that I have enough money, I don't have time to drop by the big bookstores just to buy it. The book? "The Greatest Miracle in the World" by Og Mandino.

*** Jenn ***

W for Watermelon Shake

I love watermelon shake! Among the fruit shakes and smoothies, this is my all-time favorite! So when the crew from Italianni's ask me what drink I wanted and heard the magic words, "watermelon shake," I ordered it right away!

The watermelon shake served in Italianni's was great. It wasn't that sweet, and although it's more watery than icy, I loved sipping through my big, tall, glass! I have no idea how much this one cost because it was a "food on the house" thing, but I don't think I would dare ordering this one again because I know it would be very expensive (hahahaha).

Although this is my favorite shake, I think I only had a taste of this drink two times this summer. The first one was the melon-watermelon shake I ordered in Fruitas and then this. How weird, eh? I recently learned that watermelon has lots of sugar, so I was trying not to eat too much of it. I actually didn't buy even a slice of watermelon this summer! I guess that even if there are certain foods that we consider our favorites, we all should know how to draw the line.

*** Jenn ***

Brownout!

The weekend (especially Sunday) left us with nothing to do because of there was no electricity from 6 in the morning 'til 10 PM! *** Full story can be read here *** This particular picture was taken around 4:30PM, while we were preparing for our late lunch / early dinner. We only had one big candle on our dinner table because we didn't want to waste that much candles -- we weren't sure if the electricity would take long before it came back.

I took this one using our digital camera (Canon Powershot A580) in manual mode: no flash, colors on vivid. Thanks for dropping by.

*** Jenn ***