New Year, New Shoes

Thank God the japanese take New Year seriously, at least we can celebrate one normal holiday (coz we had to work during Christmas). We have almost a week off and free from work related stuff! That is why I was so excited to make my first Buena Noche, I didn't mind the very strong wind and the drizzle of snow(masakit pala tumama sa mukha ang snow) while I biked to the nearest grocery to get some ingredients. Added bonus to my bravery was most of the things in the store was on sale! I was able to buy 300g of ground pork for Y70, half a kilo of fresh strawberries for Y147 (that usually costs Y400-Y700) , Beef meat for Y350, 5 bell peppers for Y200 (believe me that's already on sale, I'm not sure why bell peppers are always expensive anywhere) and 4 carrots for Y100.

I made Pork Embutido and Beef Mechado for the main course. I highly recommend the Mechado recipe I got from here! It's delicous! I followed the recipe to the T and just added sugar and cheese to suit my taste. Hubby kept reheating the Mechado leftover until there was none left. About the embutido, well I love all embutidos, so I'm not the best judge for that, but I gave some to our Pinoy kapitbahays as New Year gift, and they are still alive and never called in for some complaints so I guess I did a pretty good embutido.

The best part was, I made my first ever cake! Emphasis on the word "made" coz I didn't bake it. I just bought a ready made chiffon cake, powdered whip cream which I just mixed with milk and vanilla. And Loaded it with lots and lots of strawberries inside. When I was piping the frosting, I realized I have no calling at the pastry department. I just couldn't make a decent shape so I just asked our housemate Jhen to do the honors in decorating after I painstakingly covered the cake with icing. (ang hirap pala!). I also bought a ready to use pencil icing (it's just a pastic shaped into a pencil with colored pink icing inside) which I intended to use for lettering. But the cold weather froze the icing inside that made it so hard to write with. So ended up writing "Hapi 8" instead of "Happy New Year 2008". My sweet toothed Hubby finished the cake faster than New Year to finish.

my first ever cake

After dinner, Hubby and I went to Canal City to see the New Year countdown, but because of the bad weather it was canceled. So we just walked around showered with snow, and my feet was kept warm with my new boots Hubby bought for me as a New Year gift. Yes, I finally found a pair of boots that fit my big "bagtak". Actually, I already gave up the search when yesterday after mass, while walking around Tenjin, Hubby and I passed by a shoe store that was on sale. Where I found this pair that according to the price tag originally costs Y9500 then dropped to Y5000, then to Y3000 until Y2900 when I found it! It fits so great and so comfortable to walk on. It feels sexy wearing them. =)

"look ma, boots and skinny jeans that fit!"

Happy New Year indeed.

Toxic

I thought it was over, but last friday a major issue on our project came out that had us migrate our application to the latest JXTA version. Any developer would know how pain in the ass migrating at the last minute is. So we ended up going home at 7 am on Saturday.

Slept at 8 am then woke up at 1:30 pm to prepare for the xmas party, buti na lang our housemate Jen has enough initiative to boil the quail eggs while we were sleeping. See, every house should bring a home cooked food at the party and we thought of bringing Quail Egg Surprise and Fruit Salad. It was the easiest thing I could cook.

It was Hubby and me's teamwork mode once again(that's what we usually do when we there's somethings we have to accomplish in so little time). I listed the things that he should do and buy then off he went to get them plus our kriss kringle babies' gifts. Aside from the real kriss kringle gifts, he has to buy our "something warm" and "something funny" that we failed to give before the party because I left and lost those that I bought 2 weeks ago in the grocery (ga-second lang jud ko ni Claire sa pagkakalimtanon). While I stayed at home to cook and planned some "gimiks" for the party. All that we had to do before the party starts in 3 hours. Buti na lang there is Lex who is willing and efficient in last minute must-dos, like I had to delegate to him the prizes and the prizes were really nice and naka wrap pa!

The Quail Egg Surprise was a success despite making Jen rush to Joe's condo (mga 6 buildings away) to get his eggs este extra eggs when we got short of it. But Hubby was running late, it was an hour past his ETA and still no sign of him. I was getting worried coz I might not have enough time to wrap the gifts. The thought of giving a gift poorly wrapped or just tossed in paper bag was horror for me (yes, I'm very OC with the presents that I give)

I was so ready to strangle him, but when he finally arrived, all my wrapping worries disappeared when I saw the gifts in their pretty paper bags. With plastic pa, coz it was raining that night. Oh I completely forgot there that I was in Japan! where stores could put your gift in a more beautiful bag when you tell them it's a gift. They make sure that in any weather, your gifts will be presented beautifully. Hubby had to bike them for 30 minutes under the rain, but when he came home, it was still in perfect shape because of the waterproof-plastics carefully wrapped around them. Sugoi jud yah!


Plus Hubby got nice "somethings" stuff, nicer than those that I lost and they were just not "hundred yensies". Buti naman at hindi kuripot ang aking mister at may taste rin.

All in all it was a fun party even if everybody crammed in preparations and crammed like sardines in Marj's small unit.

Pasko na talaga... =D

Busiest

These has been one of the busiest days of my life, work schedule has been so hectic to catch up with the Dec 20 release plus this project is not an easy one. Since this is a research and development, it requires a lot of tinkering with some Java open source libraries to ensure a very, OA sa ka-secured communication that could really push your patience to the limit. Ugh, thinking about it makes me puke.

Because of this, I am so way beyond my expected holiday preparation schedule. I haven't even shopped for gifts to my friends, decorate the house with xmas trimmings, learn new recipe for our first Noche Buena and I have completely abandoned organizing the Christmas Party for our small pinoy community here. Good thing, someone was responsible enough to carry over the job at the last minute.

I haven't even seen a single popular Christmas illumination here in Fukuoka. I have lost track of time that I was surprised to know it's only less than a week til the big day.

But good thing that today, the worst is finally over. We have solved the major problems and working for its release. I can finally (I hope) concentrate on the holiday, albeit a bit late. I hope no big issues will come up so Hubby and I can go with the rest of the gang in Huis Ten Bosch(mini-Amsterdam theme park) in Nagasaki this friday (or is it saturday?) where our agency is taking us for a treat (all expense paid!). We are going to watch fireworks and illuminations. At last I can finally enjoy the little christmas air this country could provide.

I'm so excited!

I was walking around Canal City and the place was on its usual Sunday festive mood. As I was looking on to the new Chrismas decors, this loud ringing of bells instantly caught my attention because it never stopped and each sound was accompanied by children's shrill. I followed the sounds and it lead me to the open area between the cafes which they turned into a playground. They put up these small bellhouses.. or a little bahay kubo with big chimes or bells that children can make melody or noise with. Those bellhouses around the giant christmas tree reminds me of a puto bungbong stall during misa de galio. No matter how grand the decorations around you or the exciting christmas sales (like 70% off in GAP!)... nothing can come close to a Philippine Christmas and you really can't help but miss it.

But I enjoyed watching the children play though, like how could they horse with the water when it's too cold. Oh well, it sure is fun to be a child.

Something Made

While hubby was still having overtime, I grabbed this chance to buy his christmas present because I would definitely need a lot of time to choose and decide and concentrate because men are just too difficult to buy presents for. After an hour and a half in the store, I went to 100 yen shop to buy wrappers and ribbon before I went to McDonald's to grab dinner for Hubby.

As soon as I got home, I started wrapping the gift. Oh I just love wrapping gifts! especially now that 100 yen shop is flooded with cute wrapping stuffs. Anyways, I realized I forgot to buy a gift tag so I squeezed some creative juices so I could find ideas on how to make one from things we have at home. Then I found this shiny silver box of XXXXX(bwehehehe =p), with a clean white inner side and cut it to form a card. We also have this free magazines from stores where I found these cute anime drawings. So to make my card more interesting I cut out these cartoons and pasted them on my card. And for the finishing touch, I shaped what remained from the silver box into tiny squares and scattered it on the card. Of course to emphasize love, I formed a very small heart from the red paper in the magazine.

Tada! a shiny, comical gift tag that doesn't cost a penny.

From (toot) with Love

(backview of the package) ano kaya? ano kaya ang laman?!

Last night when I came home, I was surprised to find a package on the dining table, colorful but a bit worn, when I checked it I was happy to see my name on it. It was for me and it came from my VPAL mommy! It really put a smile on my tired face. I wanted to tear it open immediately but we had a rule to open it on Christmas eve, so I just content myself from pinching, pressing, shaking, guessing and even tearing it a bit to have a little peak. I was like light years ago, when I find my gifts under the chrismas tree and everyday until Christmas eve was like torture for me. Unlike my brothers who had very low emotional quotience, I survived each year without tearing them open before Christmas. I'm not sure how well I'll do this year though, I don't think I still have that patience anymore.

This might be my one and only wrapped gift this year because for sure Hubby will just take me shopping for my christmas gift (he is just not fond of wrapping gifts) so I think I will have to wait til the 24th or else there won't be any to open.

To my mommy, whom I cannot tell yet coz the others still have not gotten theirs, whatever's inside... thank you! I commend your postal service for a job well done because the package came earlier than expected. =)

To my baby, I wish your gift will not get lost in transit with the holiday traffic already starting. Seeing how worn the package from my mommy turned in, I will post your gift's picture here so you will know how it originally looked like...

for my baby, wrapped with love

Lease of Life

What a relief, papa just came out of a successful surgery and now nursing in his recovery room. Added blessing was his doctor told us he found a stone in his pantog (ano nga ito sa english?) during the operation and took the initiative to blast it to pieces so we won't have to pay for another separate operation. His personal impression on the tumor was benign but we still have to wait for the biopsy result to be more sure. I hope everything will turn out well.

Dr. Escudero was not an accredited doctor of papa's health insurance that is why they won't cover the procedure to our frustration. We thought of changing doctors but he has been my dad's surgeon ever since and he couldn't be confident to trust his health to anyone else. But it turned out to be the best decision. I may have a poor xmas this year coz I have to pitch in to the cost but if everything will be okay, it will be a very happy christmas.

Thank you Lord for this another miracle.