April Fools Day

Five months since my last post (seven months in blogger).

That’s a really long one. Four months of grueling work and one month dedicated entirely to vacation.

A year has passed since the Great Tohoku Earthquake.

It’s spring once again. Third time.

Time does fly.

 

I’m currently working on my time management. I still want to do a lot of things. Experience new stuff. Have fun. Be a good mom. Be a good engineer.

So, here’s to another fresh start.

Hoping for the rest of 2012 to be great.

 

Note: Thinking of deleting my blogger account. Too much bitterness. But still, thinking.

561-Node-075 and 21 Guns

I really have no clue at all how to check outputs.
Yes I can do a final check on my own work, but checking somebody else’s work is a different story.
So, this current situation brings me the wonderful World Wide Web (again).
And I am so inspired right now from these female travel bloggers:

http://justwandering.org/

http://thepinaysolobackpacker.com/

http://www.pinaytraveljunkie.com/

I wanna get back to blogging!!!
I’ve read somewhere that it would take 21 days of continuously doing something to make it a habit.
So, here’s a list of things I would want to be doing habitually:

1. Sleep at around 11-12 in the evening and wake up at 6-630 in the morning.
2. Do hula hoops for 15-30 minutes (morning or evening).
3. Blog (of course, the main reason for this entry).
4. Jog for 30mins-1hr (even if it’s just in the room, it’s fine with me)
5. Do yoga or pilates 3-4 times a week.
6. Listen to Pimsleur (probably while doing the hula hoop –> multi tasking!!!
7. Photography 21 (Take, post process and post one picture a day, for 21 days)

I would’ve wanted to list down more but I think I have to accomplish these ones first before moving on to more tasks.

So here’s to 21 days of discipline.

(Series runs from 16th of October 2011 to 5th of November 2011 the day I get better, although I could start with Photography 21 and blogging tomorrow. Ü)

?????!!!

Pumped Up Kicks :)

This blog will be up and running again (since when was it even up and running???).

Anyways, I would really love to share experiences, secrets, options to make travel cheaper.
For now it’d be mostly about Japan.
Yokohama to be exact.
A little bit of Tokyo.
And a slice of beautiful Kyoto and neighbor Osaka.

I have dozens of pictures of really great food, cooked or bought.
Western or Eastern cuisine.

And not to forget, photos!
For now, edited photos (edited in terms of color) are in Tumblr.

http://ammelina.tumblr.com

Photos are still photos in Facebook. ;(
Have to fix and organize Acer so that I could start post processing pictures and hopefully, printing them out too.

Happy Weekend!

Themes

 

 

 

 

looks too wild (even for someone like me)

 

 

 

 

too chocolatey formal…

 

 

 

 

 

second choice.

 

 

 

 

tab type titles – not my thing.

 

 

 

 

pink but too plain…

 

 

 

 

too girly and expensive!

***

current theme is the cutest.

Chicken Inasal

Being away from the city I grew up in is driving me nuts. I miss my home,  my family there, my friends, the cool jeepneys, fresh air (not so much for now since I’m in an unpolluted place), small and nice boutiques, relatively lower cost of living and really good food.

Food.

Which brings me to Friday LO. It was Romeo’s 27th and of course, where else would we be having lunch.

Hard Rock! Japanese inspired American goodness in a plate.

Here’s the Chef Special last Friday: Honey Grilled Chicken

 

 

 

 

This tasted like chicken inasal. It was so good I could’ve finished another plate of this.

And when I finished eating, I missed Bacolod chicken inasal so much. No frills grilled chicken. Soy sauce, kalamansi and vinegar.

Yum!

Reformat…

…Redesign.

This blog has been inactive for a couple of months already.
And considering that I’ve posted only four entries so far, I have to make a few changes to make this work.

To start with, will edit previous posts.
Next, foodfunfoto to feature my current assignment here in the Land of the Rising Sun.
If I happen to arrange all my drafts, maybe I would be posting a few backlog entries.

Cheers to all!

Nihon Bucket List

Instead of pretending to be finishing this line list, I will just make an entry to this blog.
I am so boooored at what I’m doing and so are my Japanese colleagues (person to my left sighing heavily).
But well, someone has to do this kind of work.

Anyways, I have 8 weeks left in my stay here in J.
Unless of course RPLC will push through which will prompt my extension here.
Or unless I get extended for this current boring project (yey homeleave by mid-June!)

There are still a lot of things going through my mind.
Places to see, food to cook and eat, drinks to mix, memories to make.
I am still enjoying and loving this sort-of freedom for now.
Not that I don’t love my life back there in the Philippines.
I do love my life, my Sophia, my family.
And I want to be with them, especially with Sophia.
But I’ll soon be a full-time mom when Sophia starts school.
And my weekends will be focused on her (or my activities and then I bring her along. Hehehe).
That’s why for now, I am focusing on myself.
Learning, discovering, enriching.

And because of this, I started to make my own Bucket List.
Note that some items are just wishful thinking due to money constraints.

***

100 Things to Do/Try Before Leaving Japan

Wait, I checked my list and the title was Nihon Bucket List.
And the first 10 items were all about buying so I rearranged a bit.

Nihon Bucket List
1.    Sunrise/sunset at Mt. Fuji/Hakone/Osanbashi.
2.    Wear a Yukata during the Hanabi.
3.    Bar near Bandobashi (Point One) or Motomachi.
4.    Visit a tattoo shop in Motomachi.
5.    Eat at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant (3-5).
6.    Buy lens (second hand) at Shinjuku (Nikon Store).
7.    Buy an acoustic guitar at Ochanomizou.
8.    Converse in Nihonggo.
…

List to be continued…

Have a blessed week everyone!

Giligan’s Island

I miss Pinoy food.

And I will miss Anna, a constant foodtrip buddy who’s going to Singapore to be with the one she loves.

This entry is dedicated to her.

When we were cadets/newbies/freshies in JPhil, craving for food was constant.

McDonald’s during 3pm breaks described how desperate we were at times to eat.

For dinner, since we didn’t have much, we usually head to Giligan’s Island (ATC/Festival Mall).

They served good food for reasonable prices.

Although I hear many rants from my mother that she doesn’t like the food there, I still continue to patronize it.

 

This garlic chicken is Anna’s favorite.

And gawd! I miss sisig.

They also have good sizzling gambas.

I’m still looking for other pictures I have of Giligan’s food ’cause I know there are a lot.

Completion parties, birthdays, anniversaries, videoke and drinking sessions are usually held here.

And I look forward to eating there again when I get home.

Inception

Before I continue to rant on about food, I had fun the other week, Wednesday night.

I was sick. I got sick Monday morning. Thanks to Starbucks and McDonald’s caramel sundae over the weekend.

Tuesday, it got worse.I was really tired from commuting, going to my Tita’s place after work and then to the bus station. Waiting for the train for about 45 minutes and the rain didn’t help either.

It didn’t end so well with me getting nauseous just a couple of minutes away from North Avenue station.

And then it happened (what I did was shameful but I guess only two persons noticed, the persons on my left and right).

Anyways, I decided to “skip” work the next day.

I was feeling good though and was really hopeful I’d feel better by 1700hrs. I had a date at Rockwell, 1900hrs.

No seriously, I considered watching the premiere of Inception with my Tita, her two daughters and landlady and her son a date.

It was a date with Leo(nardo Di Caprio). Or Jo(s)e(ph Gordon-Levitt).

Yes I admit that I’m a big fan.

But I’m going to talk about the movie and not about my obsession.

Inception was really great. Aside from the fact that the artists were my personal favorites (+ Ellen Page – Juno, Whip It!; Cillian Murphy – Red Eye), the story was good and the effects were brilliant.

I mean, yeah we all experience dreaming in our dreams. But to dream in a dream while dreaming??

Or to dream that you are dreaming in a dream, all this while dreaming? (What?!?!)

And of course, working (earning money) while dreaming. We wouldn’t have to spend 8 hours sitting down, pretending to be doing something of great importance. For a 5-minute sleep, you could spend one whole day in slumberland doing lots of things.

I believe the movie was one of a kind, different and was not a stereotype. Acting was really good, effects were brilliant, shifting of scenes made sense and punchlines were really cool.

I give Inception a big 10/10.

***

Arthur: Quick, give me a kiss.

Ariadne: They’re still looking at us.

Arthur: Well, it was worth a shot *smirk*.

***

P.S.

Where was I when they shot in Tokyo?

It was 2009 so I was most probably here in Metro Manila.

 

Happy Wednesday everyone!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Page

Four Months Later

After exactly 4 months since I created this blog, I am posting my very first entry.

Food 101:

I used to just eat at home. The closest thing I did to cooking was wash the rice and fry (and eventually burn) eggs. Cooking at McDonald’s, for me, is not real cooking since it’s all just standard procedures.

In June of 2007 (that’s like 3 years ago), I was reviewing for the November 2007 board exam. I moved in an apartment in with my sister, my ex’s brother and my ex’s brother friends. It meant that I had to clean often, wash my clothes and yes, cook.

On weekends, we would sleep over at my Tita’s house, just down south of Metro Manila. She was into the whole cooking thing since she had two kids who went to school (they left her no choice). I would ask her how to do this and that and I would also text or call my mom asking about recipes. I had to cook. I didn’t want my body to depend on carinderia and tapsilogan meals (although the latter served good fried rice and eggs).

When I tried cooking, including preparing ingredients, I wouldn’t last one week without a cut in my finger. But I still tried, making guinea pigs out of my sister and our other housemates. At times they would say that it was good (they were probably too hungry to even notice the taste .

I continued to (try to) cook as I moved in to our company dorm in February of 2008. Preparation time would take me up to 2 hours and by the time i finish cooking, my batchmates are already complaining.

I guess I’ve improved in my speed and in the type of food I cook. I could cook dishes for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I could serve pasta, red sauce and either with meat or seafood. They would taste good or bad at times but it doesn’t bother me that much. I will continue to improve.

***

Food #1

Chicken Curry

Curry Chicken originated in India and was introduced to the rest of the world throughout history.

-Wikipedia

This supposed-to-be-spicy-but-sometimes-not-spicy food is one of my all-time favorites. All you need are:

garlic

onion

chicken (of course)

curry powder (preferably dissolved in a small amount if water)

potatoes

carrots

coconut milk

bell pepper

Saute garlic, onion and chicken until oil comes out.

Add a little water.

Bring to a boil.

Add carrots and potatoes.

Simmer.

Add bell pepper.

Serve.