Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Tea Cup
I didn't like tea before. But ever since I started going to Canada, for some reason, I ended up loving tea. Loving it so much that tea has become my water all day long. My usual drink were either earl grey's or the tea from Starbucks. I used them up because they were in a pouch. So no loose leafs there. And then one day, a colleague brought a huge stash, a ton of variety teas! There were so many different flavors, I didn't even know which one to choose. But the problem there was that they were loose leafs, and well, we don't want loose leafs in our drinks.
And thus, my other officemate, got me this:
A very very nice tea cup.
And the nice thing about it is that... look below, it has built in filtering system!
So technically, there are three parts to this cup: the cover, the filtering device, and the cup body. And what's even better is that you can remove the filtering and reseal the cup with just the cover and the body. Isn't it sooo cool?
Oh, and you won't notice it in the cup itself, but it's actually glass inside, and plastic or some other material outside. Which means, even though the tea is way hot, you won't feel it in your fingertips.
Beautiful isn't it? It makes tea taste better for some reason.
And thus, my other officemate, got me this:
A very very nice tea cup.
And the nice thing about it is that... look below, it has built in filtering system!
So technically, there are three parts to this cup: the cover, the filtering device, and the cup body. And what's even better is that you can remove the filtering and reseal the cup with just the cover and the body. Isn't it sooo cool?
Oh, and you won't notice it in the cup itself, but it's actually glass inside, and plastic or some other material outside. Which means, even though the tea is way hot, you won't feel it in your fingertips.
Beautiful isn't it? It makes tea taste better for some reason.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
annoying take 2
We have an event tomorrow at the office where we can showcase our own cooking to different people. This event's been ongoing for the past three years and this year, we decided to join the event! As everyone might know, I'm not really a kitchen person, and so when we decided to join, I thought that maybe, I can prepare my mom's very very delicious leche flan. It's not the usual very creamy leche flan, which I don't like. I like it a bit thicker that the usual. And my mom's recipe is the best.
And so to prepare for this, I did a trial run of my leche flan last Monday. The result was a good old tasty leche flan but it had some flaws - it's not as soft as I wanted it to be. Perhaps this could be because it might have been cooked a little too much, and too high heat. But all in all, it tastes really good.
Since the event is tomorrow, I was going to prepare a new set of leche flan tonight again. The plan of action was, lower heat this time. I was excited to do that when my K.I.A. teammate (same one from my previous post) had to meddle in the affairs and wanted to change the recipe. Add this, add that. Whatever. I told him I didn't want to change the recipe but he insisted. While he was cracking the eggs (while changing my recipe), I left his side and went back to work in my laptop. And then he kept on calling me to help him out then out of my annoyance, I told him "No, recipe mo na naman iyan eh!" Haha... maldita noh. Sobrang inis.
I saw my landlady's reaction. I think she didn't know how to react because she probably knew I was annoyed. Strike 2 na ah. In two days!
Anyway, I still hope his leche flan is good. Because if it's not, I'm not going to say I made that. lol!
And so to prepare for this, I did a trial run of my leche flan last Monday. The result was a good old tasty leche flan but it had some flaws - it's not as soft as I wanted it to be. Perhaps this could be because it might have been cooked a little too much, and too high heat. But all in all, it tastes really good.
Since the event is tomorrow, I was going to prepare a new set of leche flan tonight again. The plan of action was, lower heat this time. I was excited to do that when my K.I.A. teammate (same one from my previous post) had to meddle in the affairs and wanted to change the recipe. Add this, add that. Whatever. I told him I didn't want to change the recipe but he insisted. While he was cracking the eggs (while changing my recipe), I left his side and went back to work in my laptop. And then he kept on calling me to help him out then out of my annoyance, I told him "No, recipe mo na naman iyan eh!" Haha... maldita noh. Sobrang inis.
I saw my landlady's reaction. I think she didn't know how to react because she probably knew I was annoyed. Strike 2 na ah. In two days!
Anyway, I still hope his leche flan is good. Because if it's not, I'm not going to say I made that. lol!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
annoying
I find it annoying when people ask you something, you've already done it, and then you'd learn later on that they'd ask another one again to do it. I find it either a waste of my time, or even a lack of trust.
Take for instance what happened earlier.
My teammate has been asking me to ask our manager in Manila about the possibility of extending the vacation leave for onshore members. I did this. I sent an email, went online last night to try and catch her in communicator. Unfortunately, she didn't reply to either my emails or even my messages in communicator.
Ok so here's my teammate, asking me about that again. So I told him, I have asked, sent and email, but got no reply. But I assured him that I will followup.
Then the next thing I know, he goes and talks to my other team lead, asking her if she can ask our manager in Manila about the same thing he just asked me to do, and which I did!
The reason why I knew about it because this teammate of mine forwarded that inquiry to me. Asking me to do it.
Isn't that annoying? You do what you're asked to do. And it's not like it's my fault that I haven't gotten any response and yet, for some reason, I feel stupid that this teammate of mine don't have the trust to even consider my reply to him - that I'll followup on it again. Mababaw sa kung mababaw, pero it's definitely annoying.
You know, I don't mind if it's something that really needs to be confirmed or validated by another person. For example, I made a change in the code, we want someone to code review it for validation right? Or for newspapers, magazines, they usually have fact checkers for the articles written.
Maybe I'm just pissed off and stressed today. Perhaps, I wasn't in a good mood earlier that's why I'm pissed off over such a small thing.
Take for instance what happened earlier.
My teammate has been asking me to ask our manager in Manila about the possibility of extending the vacation leave for onshore members. I did this. I sent an email, went online last night to try and catch her in communicator. Unfortunately, she didn't reply to either my emails or even my messages in communicator.
Ok so here's my teammate, asking me about that again. So I told him, I have asked, sent and email, but got no reply. But I assured him that I will followup.
Then the next thing I know, he goes and talks to my other team lead, asking her if she can ask our manager in Manila about the same thing he just asked me to do, and which I did!
The reason why I knew about it because this teammate of mine forwarded that inquiry to me. Asking me to do it.
Isn't that annoying? You do what you're asked to do. And it's not like it's my fault that I haven't gotten any response and yet, for some reason, I feel stupid that this teammate of mine don't have the trust to even consider my reply to him - that I'll followup on it again. Mababaw sa kung mababaw, pero it's definitely annoying.
You know, I don't mind if it's something that really needs to be confirmed or validated by another person. For example, I made a change in the code, we want someone to code review it for validation right? Or for newspapers, magazines, they usually have fact checkers for the articles written.
Maybe I'm just pissed off and stressed today. Perhaps, I wasn't in a good mood earlier that's why I'm pissed off over such a small thing.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Theme of the week: Gym and Shopping
Last week's theme was shopping and gym.
Those are the two things I "majored" on last week.
Gym
Went to the gym 4 times (actually three times only, the fourth was going on a 5k run in Central Park). I don't know why my friend and I just suddenly became so obsessed about losing weight. Perhaps it's because history tells us that we gain so much when we're here. Case in point. This is my fifth time over here in Canada and 4 out of 5 times (5th is right now), I gained a few pounds of weight when I went back to Manila. So this time around, we're focusing of killing off that pattern, and go the other way, be more fit and ready when we get back to Manila.
For the past weeks, we've been religiously going to the gym 3-4 times a week. My friend and I were both frustrated because we are killing our butts off in the gym, but we feel like there's no weight difference. But as I was reading through some articles off from the web, one article I read mentioned that we need to stop thinking about losing weight, but focus on fitness instead.
Yes, now that I think about it. I have better sleep these days. I don't get tired as much, and I'm not as cranky as I usually am especially with work being stressful these days. I'm attributing this better "mood" and lifestyle to having better fitness. And as long as I fit into those pants I love wearing, then I'd just have to maintain my fitness. No more worrying about numbers, instead worry about overall body feeling/state.
Workout
Last Saturday, I did a full body workout, following the exercise plan my trainer from Manila gave me. And holy cow it worked so well, specific areas in my body which I really worked on for that day ached! But that's aching in a good way. On weekday workouts, I usually just hop on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and then depending on the day, I focus on one area at a time. The only area that gets exercise regularly are my abs.
And now I'm up to this state wherein I'm adding exercise as part of my lifestyle already. I think a lot of people gave up on exercise because they didn't look at it as part of a lifestyle, but instead, looked at it as extra work that needs to be done. I am hoping that when I get back to Manila, I will be able to maintain this lifestyle.
Shopping
I've been making excuses of the need to go on a shopping spree because I left of couple of items back in the east coast - a couple of shirts, pant, etc. That's a good excuse to go buy new things right?
So in line with yet, another tradition that my friend and I do every time we're here, is that we go to the Roots outlet store in Grandview to buy ourselves some new stock of clothes. Well, at least I just ended up buying three shirts - two for me and one for my nephew. And spent a total of around 40$ all in all. Not bad if you compare it to Ronald, who spent almost a 100 dollars during that 1.5 hour window of shopping.
And that was last Thursday.
Last Saturday, we went to an outlet store area in Queensborough for one reason - to go to a Best Buy store to get Ronald's laptop fixed. Since we had to wait for an hour or two before he gets it back, we decided to walk around and see the goods out there. Of course, I couldn't resist and I ended up buying something else again.
Now yesterday, Sunday, we went to Costco and Walmart to stock up on some items that we'd like to send back to the Philippines. This time around, I did spend more that what I was planning to spend. But the difference is that, most of these things aren't for me. They're for my family back home. I bought chocolates, pistachios that my Dad loves and my mom's annual supply of Dove soap!
All in all, in a span of 4 days (Thursday to Sunday), I've spent close to two to three month's worth of my budget for miscellaneous expenses. But you know what, it's so much fun to do so! It's about time I reward myself with items I can really use (although I just did reward myself with a vacation last end of April). After all the shopping spree (though I feel like I want to do more!), the next few weeks will probably be slower paced weeks for us, meaning, less shopping for us.
As my mom always says, you need to enjoy the fruits of your labor, and I just did that last week, and I won't mind doing it again and again and again. :)
Those are the two things I "majored" on last week.
Gym
Went to the gym 4 times (actually three times only, the fourth was going on a 5k run in Central Park). I don't know why my friend and I just suddenly became so obsessed about losing weight. Perhaps it's because history tells us that we gain so much when we're here. Case in point. This is my fifth time over here in Canada and 4 out of 5 times (5th is right now), I gained a few pounds of weight when I went back to Manila. So this time around, we're focusing of killing off that pattern, and go the other way, be more fit and ready when we get back to Manila.
For the past weeks, we've been religiously going to the gym 3-4 times a week. My friend and I were both frustrated because we are killing our butts off in the gym, but we feel like there's no weight difference. But as I was reading through some articles off from the web, one article I read mentioned that we need to stop thinking about losing weight, but focus on fitness instead.
Yes, now that I think about it. I have better sleep these days. I don't get tired as much, and I'm not as cranky as I usually am especially with work being stressful these days. I'm attributing this better "mood" and lifestyle to having better fitness. And as long as I fit into those pants I love wearing, then I'd just have to maintain my fitness. No more worrying about numbers, instead worry about overall body feeling/state.
Workout
Last Saturday, I did a full body workout, following the exercise plan my trainer from Manila gave me. And holy cow it worked so well, specific areas in my body which I really worked on for that day ached! But that's aching in a good way. On weekday workouts, I usually just hop on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and then depending on the day, I focus on one area at a time. The only area that gets exercise regularly are my abs.
And now I'm up to this state wherein I'm adding exercise as part of my lifestyle already. I think a lot of people gave up on exercise because they didn't look at it as part of a lifestyle, but instead, looked at it as extra work that needs to be done. I am hoping that when I get back to Manila, I will be able to maintain this lifestyle.
Shopping
I've been making excuses of the need to go on a shopping spree because I left of couple of items back in the east coast - a couple of shirts, pant, etc. That's a good excuse to go buy new things right?
So in line with yet, another tradition that my friend and I do every time we're here, is that we go to the Roots outlet store in Grandview to buy ourselves some new stock of clothes. Well, at least I just ended up buying three shirts - two for me and one for my nephew. And spent a total of around 40$ all in all. Not bad if you compare it to Ronald, who spent almost a 100 dollars during that 1.5 hour window of shopping.
And that was last Thursday.
Last Saturday, we went to an outlet store area in Queensborough for one reason - to go to a Best Buy store to get Ronald's laptop fixed. Since we had to wait for an hour or two before he gets it back, we decided to walk around and see the goods out there. Of course, I couldn't resist and I ended up buying something else again.
Now yesterday, Sunday, we went to Costco and Walmart to stock up on some items that we'd like to send back to the Philippines. This time around, I did spend more that what I was planning to spend. But the difference is that, most of these things aren't for me. They're for my family back home. I bought chocolates, pistachios that my Dad loves and my mom's annual supply of Dove soap!
All in all, in a span of 4 days (Thursday to Sunday), I've spent close to two to three month's worth of my budget for miscellaneous expenses. But you know what, it's so much fun to do so! It's about time I reward myself with items I can really use (although I just did reward myself with a vacation last end of April). After all the shopping spree (though I feel like I want to do more!), the next few weeks will probably be slower paced weeks for us, meaning, less shopping for us.
As my mom always says, you need to enjoy the fruits of your labor, and I just did that last week, and I won't mind doing it again and again and again. :)
Friday, May 6, 2011
Bones
One of the many reasons why I love watching Dr. Brennan in the tv show, Bones.
Dr. Brennan: Can you sign? Cause we'll need to communicate with her.
Lawyer: Yes, but as of yet she hasn't responded and who are you?
Caroline Julian: Dr. Brennan is the best forensic anthropologist in the country.
Dr. Brennan: World.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
grocery shopping
For some reason, I like going to the grocery store. I may not necessarily buy anything, but just browsing around is fun. If I had my own place and I cook my own food, maybe I'll love grocery even more!
There are two major grocery stores on our way home so for the past two days, we've been dropping by there to check things out. First was at London Drugs where I was supposed to buy some toiletries but forgot all about it because we ended up browsing for a gift to give to our landlady during Mother's day. And then the following day, we dropped by Safeway because a friend informed us that you have to check the store every now and then for nice deals - and we've been wanting to buy Kraft Dinners to bring back home (they're almost the same price with the ones they sell in Manila, but if you get a deal here, it's way cheaper). And lo and behold, we did find a deal. Buy one get one free! So we ended up with two boxes each, 2 dozen Kraft dinners in total!
The Chocolate flavored Lucky Charms was a surprise because the last time I ate one of these was way back 2008. I haven't been able to find one again since. It's not available to all grocery stores. I heard it's just available to a very few select stores so when I saw one of the shoppers holding that box, I dashed to the cereal isle and looked for this at once. Thus, I couldn't resist and grabbed myself two to bring back home to Manila! These, however, were not on discount. A bit pricey but what the heck, I want them!
My friend and I were talking and this only means one thing, that we need to send a balikbayan box home because these are too heavy to fit into our luggages. Which may be good for me too because I always bring a lot of items back home and I am usually stressed out packing trying to fit everything in the luggage. Usually, half of the items I bring back home aren't for me anyway! And just coming back from Toronto, I have quite a bit of stuff to bring home for some relatives. So this balikbayan box may not be such a bad idea. Gives me more reason to shop though.
There are two major grocery stores on our way home so for the past two days, we've been dropping by there to check things out. First was at London Drugs where I was supposed to buy some toiletries but forgot all about it because we ended up browsing for a gift to give to our landlady during Mother's day. And then the following day, we dropped by Safeway because a friend informed us that you have to check the store every now and then for nice deals - and we've been wanting to buy Kraft Dinners to bring back home (they're almost the same price with the ones they sell in Manila, but if you get a deal here, it's way cheaper). And lo and behold, we did find a deal. Buy one get one free! So we ended up with two boxes each, 2 dozen Kraft dinners in total!
The Chocolate flavored Lucky Charms was a surprise because the last time I ate one of these was way back 2008. I haven't been able to find one again since. It's not available to all grocery stores. I heard it's just available to a very few select stores so when I saw one of the shoppers holding that box, I dashed to the cereal isle and looked for this at once. Thus, I couldn't resist and grabbed myself two to bring back home to Manila! These, however, were not on discount. A bit pricey but what the heck, I want them!
My friend and I were talking and this only means one thing, that we need to send a balikbayan box home because these are too heavy to fit into our luggages. Which may be good for me too because I always bring a lot of items back home and I am usually stressed out packing trying to fit everything in the luggage. Usually, half of the items I bring back home aren't for me anyway! And just coming back from Toronto, I have quite a bit of stuff to bring home for some relatives. So this balikbayan box may not be such a bad idea. Gives me more reason to shop though.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Niagara Falls
Traveled all the way to Toronto for my annual vacation!
From Mississauga, Ontario, we went to... Niagara Falls!
Went to Niagara Falls last April 24, 2011. It's just around an hour and a half to two hours away (via car) from Mississauga (where my aunt lives in Ontario). It's actually my second time already, but we went there again because my cousin Kat has not been there yet.
And it's still breathtakingly beautiful.
Niagara Falls is actually right by Canada and US border. But if you're standing in Canadian soil, you have the better view. If you're in US soil, you don't have much of a view. You're probably closer to the falls but there's no view!
And then we went to this central district where there are a ton of places to see. Of all things here, I decided to go inside the Guinness Book of World Records.
Unfortunately, for the 13 dollar entrance, it wasn't worth it as much because a lot of the displays I thought were pretty old already. It's not as updated as it should've been. However, at least I was able to size myself up against the tallest man ever! I didn't even reach his waist!
The Niagara Falls area all in all is really really pretty. I'd love to live here. But I was told that the winter could be hard. Just look at the falls and just imagine how cold it would be during the winter season! We, who are used to warm climates might just find it a bit too hard to stay put here. But nonetheless, I would still brave the cold just to see this magnificent piece of natural architecture!
Next stop... Cornwall, Ontario... and then Quebec City, Quebec!
From Mississauga, Ontario, we went to... Niagara Falls!
Went to Niagara Falls last April 24, 2011. It's just around an hour and a half to two hours away (via car) from Mississauga (where my aunt lives in Ontario). It's actually my second time already, but we went there again because my cousin Kat has not been there yet.
And it's still breathtakingly beautiful.
Niagara Falls is actually right by Canada and US border. But if you're standing in Canadian soil, you have the better view. If you're in US soil, you don't have much of a view. You're probably closer to the falls but there's no view!
And then we went to this central district where there are a ton of places to see. Of all things here, I decided to go inside the Guinness Book of World Records.
Unfortunately, for the 13 dollar entrance, it wasn't worth it as much because a lot of the displays I thought were pretty old already. It's not as updated as it should've been. However, at least I was able to size myself up against the tallest man ever! I didn't even reach his waist!
The Niagara Falls area all in all is really really pretty. I'd love to live here. But I was told that the winter could be hard. Just look at the falls and just imagine how cold it would be during the winter season! We, who are used to warm climates might just find it a bit too hard to stay put here. But nonetheless, I would still brave the cold just to see this magnificent piece of natural architecture!
Next stop... Cornwall, Ontario... and then Quebec City, Quebec!
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