30 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE - DAY 26

Who do you admire and inspire

Oddly this topic of the 30 day blog challenge does not inspire me enough for me to give it more thought. I mean the topic title sounds "bitin". (Who do you admire and inspire? Inspire whut?! A better way to word this is: Who do you admire, question mark. Or. Who do you inspire to be, question mark. Or. Who is your inspiration, question mark.)

And because I am a snotty little bitch person, I refuse to participate and give a serious answer.

Haha. Who am I kidding? My OC part of me would not allow.

Who is it that I admire? Who do I inspire to be?

J.K. Rowling, because she used words and created a whole new universe. She inspires me to continuously write and dream.

Bo Sanchez because he makes me want to succeed more so I can help others more. Because of him I firmly believe that the ultimate purpose of wealth is to love others.

Conan O' Brian. He taught me that it's okay to fail. Have a bad day. Choose the wrong decision. Fail quickly. Recover quickly and just keep reinventing oneself.

I am sure there are so many more famous people noteworthy mentioning but because of my Korean food high now, my brain refuses to function. (Just finished "Wednes-date" with hubby, I craved Korean and ate plenty.) #palusotlang

All of the writters of other blogs that I love (see right side of this page). They inspire me to continue this hobby even though no one really cares. Bitter melon. Bitter gourd. Bitter Ocampo. Bitter lang. Haha!

People who I love the most. They know who the are. I admire them and they inspire me.

30 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE - DAY 25

A favorite photo

The moment I saw him, I was speechless.

He is: Too. Cute. For. Words.

So thank God for pictures. =)

To know more about the 30 day blog challenge, click here.

30 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE - DAY 24

About your childhood

Childhood is pretty much a blurr to me. There was nothing earth-shattering about it. Like if I were to summarize it in five words it would be: sun, books, play, siesta and kuya germs. Wait that was six.

Lemme share to you some snippets of weird / hillarious / silly anecdotes that happened to me when I was still young and very innocent:

True Story #1
Me and my yaya were watching Maalalaala Mo Kaya (TV show, english translation: I wonder if you will remember?) and the story revolved around a person with leprosy. As a young child I believed that was the worst tragedy that could happen to a person. So, I asked my yaya: How will someone get ketong (leprosy)?

Yaya answered, if you are eating on a plate and you're eating squash and chicken and the two touched each other. The horror! I didn't sleep that night worrying what if any of my family member commits this sordid mistake and thus will contact leprosy.

True Story #2
My very first idol as a child was Ms Carmi Martin (yes, of The Dick and Carmi show). One playmate was like bullying me or taunting me for something and I proudly declared: When I grow up I'm going to have the body of Carmi Martin with big boobs and all. I'm going to get rich and famous and I you shall kiss my feet! (I was a weird kid. hehehehe. Only the big boobs and rich part came true. Haha.)

True Story #3
I joined the girl scout in Grade 1. I had visions of grandeur that we will be planting trees, helping out people in the slums, going to mining areas and save miners, get rid of all the trash in the streets, etc. etc. I didn't sleep the whole night because of excitement. Imagine my disappointment when during the first day all we did was to study how to "properly" fold our girl scout scarves! I told my mom I am not coming back to the meeting as it "did not meet my expectations" of saving the world. My mama was so pissed I tell you. The complete girl scout uniform she bought me remained unused until this day. Haha.

True Story #4
Me and my neighborhood friends played "Spirit of the Coin". We believed that the coin was really possessed. We buried it in the back lot of our house. For months I was suspicious of all the coins I was seeing. I would only use paper bills to buy from our suking tindahan. No amount of threat or coercing from my mom could break my resolve.

Some other snippets

• In grade 2 I was absent for 1 day at school because I had a pimple and I was too embarrassed to go to school
• My first ever suitor was when I was in grade 1, he gave me a piggy coin bank for Christmas (I threw it in the trash for fear of getting pregnant)
• In grade 1 my teacher entered me in a Quiz Bee contest. I assumed it was Sibika (because this was the subject I was most good at). Imagine my horror of horrors when on the day of the contest itself I found out it was Math Quiz Bee. I bombed and that ended my quiz bee career.
• My first dream was to become an SM saleslady or cashier. My mom crushed this dream to bits when she refused to buy me a cash register toy. (Up until this day I still throw a longing look to those cashier toys.)
• The night before field trips, Christmas parties and class officer election I cannot sleep (because I am very very much excited!!!)
• My two ultimate favorite shows back then was Baywatch and MacGyver
• My favorite artist was The Prince

There so much more. But I have no more time haha. I have to get to work now. Let's have coffee and swap childhood stories one of these days, shall we? Childhood is the best. I don't think I will ever did outgrow that phase.

Read other entries for the 30 day blog challenge here.

30 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE - DAY 23

A letter to my parents

Dear Dadda and Mama,

Thank you for having all five of us. It sure was a happy and exciting life in our own little cozy house. You did not raise me a perfect person but you made me feel so accepted early on. This gave me the confidence to form deep and loving relationships with all my friends and my now husband.

Your love remains to be most precious gift you both have given me. And of course thanks for sending me to school. There, I learned how to write, how to express myself, to become a leader and to be tolerant of others.

Overall, it was a balanced, tough, and happy life. I grew with a hunger to succeed. And at the same time I realized that there are far more important things in this world than money. I grew with dreams both realistic and grand.

Dadda, I will never forget when you borrowed a HUGE plastic Philippines map from PAGASA when I joined a newcasting contest when I was in Grade 5. There I was so nervous because I'm the next to perform when I saw you came in the auditorium with a humongous map in tow. I gave the performance of my life because you never let me down when you said I will have the coolest map for the "weather report" part. You were always there dad, thank you.

Mama, you taught me how to cook. You always made me feel beautiful. You showed me a great example of what unconditional love is. I don't think anyone could love me as much as you have. You made every little accomplishment I did in this life a big deal for you. And because of you, I am the person I am today.

Stay young. I love you both very much.

From,
Ate Love

30 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE - DAY 22

Your current relationship

I was once convinced that it would just be him and me all the way. Early on, I accepted the fact that a kid might not be around. We were having a great deal of difficulty in conceiving. And do not judge me on my next statement... but during that time of uncertainty, I was okay with that fact. Just him and me. Bumming around in this life, just him and me.

(I love our child to the moon and back. I've realized now how much light one person can actually put into someone's life. Our child Elijah is one lucky miracle that we both get to experience. Everyday I am grateful. Everyday he becomes more and more adorable in my eyes.)

But back to my guy. We were never the hugsy, kissy type. You could leave us alone in an island and we'd be fine. We would never drive each other insane just because we've already known each other that long. We already had epic fights but nothing that lasted more than 4 hours. Several times, we both love becoming two strangers on a foreign land and pretend that we do not need anyone except for us.

I always tell my friends that love is supposed to be easy. It is not complicated. It is as normal and exciting as a sunrise. It is as effortless and extraordinary like a perfect Sunday morning. Love, is not difficult. (By easy meaning, the dynamics between the two of you is both easy and natural. Nothing has to be faked or done with an effort. Things around you can get a helluva’ complicated like problems and wars, aliens, spaceships – I can’t think of a more suitable complications please forgive me. But see, all of these are outside phenomenon. What remains simple and true is the two of you.)

I am taking little steps to become a better wife each day. Not because he wants to. But because he's giving me the boost that I need to keep on growing. Lastly, I am truly grateful that ours is a relationship filled with laughter.

Everyone’s love is a beautiful story. Believe me when I say that ours is not one for the books. It is ordinary. It is everyday. It will not launch a thousand ships. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

To hubby, thank you for the friendship, your warmth and for all the ordinary every day’s we've spent (they were the best days for me so far).



Hey, are you intrested in reading the rest of my entries of the 30 day blog challenge? Please click this one.

30 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE - DAY 21

Your fears

I fear a lot. It's one of my AFI's (AFI = Areas of Improvement). Sometimes too much fear can be equated with lack of trust. I would like to trust reaaaallly. But I just get too paranoid all the time.

My fear ranges,

To serious ones:

- Loosing a loved one

- Not being healthy enough for me to see Elijah grow

- Loosing any of my five senses

To the common ones

- Heights (a little bit)

- Public humiliation

- Enclosed musty places

- Rats (big wet ones and the small scurrying ones)

- Flying ipis

- Budul-budol or dugo-dugo gangs

To the weird/silly ones

- Being caught naked in public (who doesn't)

- Waking up one day and realizing I am already a "Beleiber"

- Spandex becoming fashionable (once again!)

- Tomato seeds
- "Sadako"

- etc. etc. etc.

I have lots more actually but I am afraid to expose myself to much. :P

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Come back tomorrow for the rest of the 30 day blog challenge.

30 DAY BLOG CHALLENGE - DAY 20

A hobby of yours

In life I've made a couple of bad decisions. I hit the wrong turn when I shouldn't have. I said a few words (this happens all the effin' time) before thinking. Jumped too soon without testing the waters. Bought some really stupid stuff. Decided too early or sometimes too late. Miscalculated steps and caused me hours or sometimes days of agony. I've trusted too much and sometimes too little. Okay so the point is, I'm human. Mistakes are part of my nature.

One area in life I am perfect though, is cooking. I'm not saying every dish is perfect all the time but all of them come out pretty good. I even amuse myself by this phenomenon.

Bad things could happen: oops I've put too much soy sauce, forgot to put the bay leaf, left the beef too long in the pressure cooker, I didn't measure the sugar, I burned the pasta (true story I tell yah)... what the hey, it doesn't matter because the dishes still come out a-maziiing!

I don't know what's with me and food we just gel. So most of the time when I feel stressed and wrong about life I just go to the kitchen, cook something, and my existence gets validated all over again. Haha.

Fine, fine I know I sound really mayabang (boastful) but you know, say whatever you want, cooking is one thing I am sure I am good at. I get my inspiration from whatever it is that's available in our kitchen. I cook whatever and whenever. I have a notebook of handwritten recipes which I will give to my sister as a gift on her wedding day. (Is that corny or what? Whatever. I think it's the most precious thing I have.)

Must be the genes. Could be the training from my mom. I've been cooking since grade 5. I have shared a few of my cooking adventures in this blog here and here. And I've posted quite a few pictures of my dishes in facebook. Last Sunday, I did a kitchen experiment which I called Spaghetti el Diablo. Haharhar. (Must be said with the "evil" laugh included.) So good you will pee in your pants! Kidding. :P

It was sweet from the fresh tomatoes, herby from the basil, spicy from Indian red pepper flakes and savory from the yummy meatballs. See the picture below and some other pics I grabbed from facebook.

Spaghetti el diablo topped with cheddar cheese

Sweet and sour pork liempo

Crispy cream dory fish fingers
with herbed garlic mayo dip

Herbed roasted lemon-garlic chicken thighs with
rustic potatoes, carrots, red onions and green beans

Lechon Kawali with green mango & red egg side salad

Fusilli in lemon cream sauce with cherry tomatoes,
baby arugulla, broccoli and sweet ham

Homestyle buttered chicken chili wings

Chicken Piccata with parmesan crust
lemon and garlic honey mayo

Autralian Beef T-bone steak and
Spaghetti with chunky tomatoes and sausages

Nacho Grandre with beef, cheese and onion topping

Anyone else out there like me? Please never stop cooking to your heart's (and stomach's) content.


Read the rest of my entries for the 30 day blog challenge here. =)