Braiser Catering's PCJ Bazaar

Last November 21-23, Martin and I were fortunate to have partnered with friends (para hati-hati kami sa gastos sa booth, wehehe) for the Presentation of the Child Jesus's Annual Christmas Bazaar. This is our second Braiser Catering bazaar, first is our parish's Marian Bazaar in Tahanan Village. We are selling our famous bazaar dishes: Fish n' Chips and Shepherd's Pie. Each costs 100 pesos and 120 pesos, respectively. Together with Hubert's Buko, Prutas, Atbp. and Trina's Dessert First, we will be at PCJ until December 7.

Below are some photos of our set-up and of course Martin and I during the bazaar. It is sweltering hot in the afternoons but is manageable come night time. Thank goodness Martin has the right tools for a bearable stay throughout the 10-hour ordeal, haha!

This is one of Braiser's best-sellers: the crunchy and delectable
Fish and Chips! Served with Heinz ketchup and
tartar sauce. Yum!

My love sweating it out at the booth! Haha!
Don't you think our little booth is cute? :) And
most especially, filled with yummy-tasting food!

And here we are smiling even if it was
hot in the booth. Pogi ng boyfriend ko, yes!
Pogi na, ang galing pa magluto! :)

Ralph Waldo Emerson's definition of success

How do we know if we have succeeded? Emerson tells it so.

Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

I was first introduced to this poem of Robert Frost by my intellectual father at the age of 12. At first I could not understand why he was being emphatic and passionate about it, as if his own life's conviction is reeking out of his pores while reciting the lines of this poem, especially the last stanza . I couldn't understand. I didn't understand.

For years I have come across the same poem occasionally. Now that I'm 28, as I traveled more uncharted roads than the normal office-based 28-year old, I am learning to appreciate more this poem. Perhaps with the kind of exposure I have in terms of traveling around the country, meeting and seeing different tribes/people... I am blessed to have seen, touched, heard, smelled, and tasted a lot. A LOT. A lot of people, places, food, feelings, emotions, plights, battles, conflicts, politicking, pakikisama, pakikitungo, illness, diarrhea, dehydration, bad accommodations, surots, ill-fitting boots, rain, cold weather, burning sun, harassment, taunts, saltwater, freshwater, seafood, exotic animals... You name it, more or less I've experienced it. But if there's one thing I have not experienced, that is being left by the plane! I may be late in many things but I haven't been left behind by a plane... YET. Hahaha.

I find these experiences rewarding because not everyone gets to experience this kind of "raw-ness" when it comes to work. I am very fortunate that my job lets me do things that I love while being paid for it. It's like being a rock star or an actor/actress: getting paid to do the things you love doing. Though not all the time it's oh-i-love-my-job feeling. I also get stuck in many problems concerning work. But I believe with the right set of people management skills and time management, many things become manageable. Difficult yes, but still manageable.

Anyway, here's the poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken.

image from http://marksrichardson.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/road-less-traveled.jpg

My early loves

I guess I am one of those kids who, at an early age, had been subjected to many summer classes. I had taken classes on music, dance, art, and sports. My parents believed in cultivating the latent talent of a child and honing it to become a full-blown feat. I am thankful to my parents for all the summer schools they sent me to. I learned a lot and it made me develop my personality and character.

My ultimate love was, and still is, DANCING. I loooove ballet! I excelled in it! I started dancing at the age of seven, wherein I was categorized under Grade 1 level in Academy One. After some time, I reached Grade 3 level in the same dance school. Unfortunately, ballet is such an expensive lesson to learn and my family needed to focus its financial gains on things that really mattered to me and my brothers' development. Hence, I stopped. However, as I matured, I went back to dancing and learned the styles of Latin Jazz, Modern Jazz, Pole Dancing, Hip Hop, and Ballroom. I also had some occasional Belly Dancing lessons. But dancing caught up with my schedule and forced me to stop. Again.

My second love was painting. I learned painting at the Luna Art Workshop at the age of 11. I first started with pastel painting and have completed the course. Next summer, I dabbled in oil painting. Again, I finished it but I wasn't able to continue it because I became busy with other stuff and I started to lose interest in the arts. Though I still appreciate beautiful art greatly, having been trained in the sciences for more than a decade now, my right brain suddenly forgot how to draw and paint, haha! No, REALLY, as in!

My third love, and surprisingly the thing I'm still good at, aside from sports, is MUSIC!!! I took up piano lessons at a tender age of four and continued it again at the age of ten. We have a very nice piano at home, we have two actually: a Roland music synthesizer with keyboard and a Roland electric piano, like the Clavinova model of Yamaha. Prior to this we had a Trebel upright piano at home. So, having access to these wonderful instruments, my piano playing was cultivated. I may not be a super expert on it, but I can get by with my pieces. I took up voice lessons too at  the age of eight. And my talent was further cultivated when I joined our church choir in 2000 and I am still part of our church choir until now.

When we moved out of Tahanan, the Roland clavinova was neglected for almost three years as the space in the condo did not allow the piano to be accessible for playing. And so it just sat there not being used. It was sad. But just recently, when Diko flew to UAE for a nice work opportunity, the condo acquired a vacant space that allowed the piano to be accessible!! And I am so HAPPY that after three years I can tickle the ivories again!! Yehey! Just to show you what our Roland looks like:

Oh I missed you so much Roland!!!

Now, I am able to play my classical and jazz pieces again!!! Wheee!!! It gave me such joy and that feeling of nostalgia when I sat there, reading my pieces. Gosh, I'm really very thankful to my parents for their passion and capability to send me to summer art classes! Thank you Ma and Pa! I love you both. :)

Mabuhay ang musika!

Some Wedding Gown Information

So being an eager beaver about the biggest event to take place in my life, even if it's more than ten months away, I've collated some information I've found over the internet. This will serve as one of my references when THE DAY comes.

Some reminders to consider before buying a wedding gown.
But personally, to save up on our budget, I am SERIOUSLY considering either renting or borrowing or buying a second-hand wedding gown. Since I'll just use it once and I don't have any younger siblings, perhaps my idea will be that of a sound judgment.

The different necklines of a wedding gown. I don't think I'll have a problem with choosing a neckline since I already have a long neck and nice (or so I think) shoulders. The problem I'm foreseeing is my lower torso. I'm a pear-shape type of body so a ball gown might be the best cut for me.

This is so 2013. Haha! Regardless, wedding gown cuts/styles have rarely changed over the years. The important part is to choose what is the BEST style and cut for you.

Martin and I are going for the lilac/lavender/purple/violet and grey hues for our motif. This may be a good peg. But it's still incomplete. Will look for more pegs.

Less than 11 months to go...

This may be somewhat premature to write about and it's my first time to open it in public but I just want to document my experience on how it feels like to think/discuss about settling down with the person you love in the entire universe!

Anyway, here's how it started:

i love this man!

A couple of months back, I found Martin to be WEIRD. Why? Because he suddenly transformed into this SUPER SWEET, SUPER CARING, REALLY MATURED --- from a snotty perspiring boy to a well-dressed GQ-type of man (take note: MAN) --- person that can't seem to stop expressing his love for me in various ways. He constantly calls me when I'm on field work and in in the office, he texts me more often now compared before, the way he expresses his love is overwhelming to the point I even doubt his actions! Haha! I keep on asking Martin, "ano bang nakain mo? may sakit ka ba? what's with the sudden change?" And he told me in a simple manner, "wala, tumanda lang ako, naging mature." And true enough the boy matured! Because the boy is now a man ang peg! Hahaha!

And so while I was basking in my Love's incandescent love, he suddenly broached the idea of getting MARRIED! And can you just imagine the look on my face, with my mouth gaping wide open with my chin dropping to the floor and my eyes becoming dilated like a cat's pupil in the dark!!! Homaygad may higad! As in NGANGA na lang! 

So after ten hours, 14 minutes, 52 seconds of being kilig, we started talking about our future life and plans together! Haaaaay, pag-ibig. And of course the most important part was letting our parents know! Well, it's short of being super formal like pamamanhikan ang peg but both of us have pitched the idea to our parents and they seem to have accepted it, DOUBLE YEY!!! :)

Now, we just have to wait and plan for the remaining 10 months and be formally engaged with the diamond ring on my left ring finger and the asking permission from the tatay and nanay of the bride-to-be. Wow! I can't believe I am already talking about this! Haha! This is perhaps one of my life's wildest dreams: getting married! Yeheeeeey! :) :) :)

I am very thankful to God because He has greatly blessed me to be marrying the man who loves me deeply and genuinely cares for me. I was really shocked with the way how Martin improved in the past months! He has grown into a mature person despite his relatively young age (relative to my age! :-\ ) and has started to discuss with me how he sees our future together, imagine that! Eto talaga somewhat hard for me to believe and accept sometimes, 'yung tingin kong mas mature pa sa akin si Martin sa ibang aspeto ng buhay! Trulagen iyan! Hindi ako makapaniwala, I cannot and do not accept! Hahaha!

Our relationship has indeed evolved through the years. Hindi ako makapaniwala. It was a real struggle in the beginning: Martin and I had multiple BIG, as in BIIIIIG, fights in the early years of our relationship that resulted in MANY, "o ano, break na tayo??" scenarios; our first nine months together, the formative years, were spent being in a long-distance relationship; our age gap issue got magnified ten times that resulted in many more fights. It was difficult. Really.

But in the end, all our fights and arguments paid off. I believe that for a relationship to become stronger, couples should engage in arguments and discuss the root cause/s of relational issues. Problems should not be swept under the rug but rather, like cards, be put out on the table and see whether your hand (the relationship) will win or not. Some couples tend to dismiss their "petty" issues with each other with a shoulder shrug and bottle them all up. Chances are, this so-called petty issues will fester and eventually poison the relationship. Hence, COMMUNICATION IS VITAL in any relationship.

I am very happy that Martin and I have a THRIVING communication with each other. Aside from being boyfriend/girlfriend, we are also each other's sounding board, best friend, deepest-darkest-secret keeper, confidante, teacher, and critic. But of course, before achieving this level in the relatinoship, it needed copious amounts of patience, understanding, sincerity, humility, and love. We tried to work on these traits and true enough, it paid off. :)

To my life's partner, we have less than 11 months to go before we truly say, "I do". I love you!!! :)