HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI HOMECOMING

High school alumni homecoming is one of the things I look forward to every year. Although at many times personal circumstances didn’t allow my attendance to the said event, I still feel that, by looking through pictures posted by batch mates in social networking sites, it more than enough transports me to the time when we were still in high school. Physical attributes may have changed a bit, but the smiles and antics are still there, all too familiar from each and every person I see on the photo.

This year, our batch turned ten from the year we graduated in high school. Yes, we have reached that far! Fifteen years more to go and we’ll be hosting the homecoming! Yikes! Hosting such event is so big a responsibility I can’t imagine how we’d do it! Our tenth year from graduation prompted me to attend this year’s homecoming. I thought, after my last attendance in 2009, it’s time to reconnect with my high school again and just be young, wild and free. Chos! Never was a time that I didn’t enjoy any previous homecoming. It was always loaded with fun, laughter, antics, bantering, ‘chismis’ and booze, and shared with the homegrown friends.

But this year’s quite different. I’d like to say that this is the first homecoming where nary a hint of boredom was felt. No one thought of ‘change venue’ because we had a super great time! Whoever from the host batch 1987 who thought of inviting The Bloomfields to entertain us for the rest of the fellowship night should be given a warm resounding round of applause from all of us. I am not kidding. He/She deserves it. Of course, we also have to thank the host batch as a whole, because if not for the cooperation of each and everyone, they would not had been able to come up with a bigger budget and we would not had been able to have The Bloomfields there. In hindsight, their scrimping on food was okay because it was compensated with a great band and six thousand bottles of beer. Thank you SNC HS Batch 1987, The Bloomfields and San Miguel Brewery.

The Bloomfields

We went up and down the stage a number of times and I always had a hard time going down because of my 4-inch heels! Mirisi LOL

And at times I couldn't take it anymore I took off my shoes and danced barefoot. LOL

After the fellowship,we decided to go to our batchmate's bar but it was jam-packed so we just sat down on the other side of the road. Homegrown inom,with the motorboats and sea as backdrop.

We went on to finish the case of beer that we managed to sneak out of the venue while others went to buy every Surigaonon's favorite: barbecue sa Pier

Beer has taken over my sense of balance that I kept on leaning on my friend's shoulder. Pagkabug-at na uyo!Apil lawas! HAHAHA

Beer has finally took over and had me feeding the fish very early! HAHAHA 'Lex,gunita ako kamot kay basin matabog ako sa dagat.' HAHAHA Thank you everyone for the super great weekend. See you next year!

DIY Ring Box

I've been going around the city for months now looking for a ring box where I can store my fancy rings and yet I haven't seen one that is for sale.I thought of making my own ring box but I didn't have a smaller box. What I have are shoe boxes that are too big and does not have the aesthetic value for a ring box.

Last Saturday,after we had lunch with our Cebu friends,I tagged along with Bambi and Kylie to their grocery shopping for stuff to bring back to Singapore.The nyors are so generous, they gave me a box of chocolate and a tub of pistachio ice cream .

On Monday,while eating lunch alone,I remembered the box of chocolate that I put in the fridge.I took it out and ate one bar.I realized it was not a good idea to put the chocolate inside the fridge as it becomes so hard to bite into, my teeth are complaining.I transferred them to a glass jar and left the box on the table thinking I could still use or do something about it. When I returned to the kitchen hours after to wash the dishes,I examined the box again and jumped out of excitement with the DIY project thought that came to mind.



That is the right one for my ring box!



Want to see the outcome? Say please! HAHAHA



Here it is,my ring box made from a chocolate box!

Can you see the brand name?Can you guess what chocolate box is that? :)
It's not yet 100% done.I ran out of double-sided tape and I haven't had the time to go out and buy one. :D Nevertheless,I'm already happy the way the DIY turned out.I'm so proud of myself! Naturaaaaal!

Want to know how I did it? Here's how.

1.Have your materials ready first.

2.Measure the height of the box.Cut a paper that is of the same measurement of the height.Set aside.

3.Decide on where you would want to make a cut on the box.Take the measurements,draw a line and slice through it using a cutter.(By this time,the box is cut into two,the top part which would be the cover should be smaller than the bottom part.)

4.Paste the paper(from instruction #2 )on the inner sides of the box.This will help keep the top part/cover of the box from falling.

5.Cover the bottom part of the box with a gift wrapper of your choice.

6.If you want to have a window on your ring box,draw a rectangle and slice through it with a cutter. (I was lucky the box that I used had its top part open so it saved me more time and effort.) If you like to keep your box 'closed' ,then it'll save you time and effort too! :D

7. Once you have the 'window' ,trace and cut an acetate that is bigger than the window's size. Seal the acetate and the box together from the inside with the help of the double-sided tape.

8.Cover the top/cover with the wrapper of your choice.

9.Take the measurement of the styropor.Trace a cutter through it.This is going to be the part of the ring box that will secure the rings. Wrap it with a fabric of your choice or whatever you fancy.I cheated on this part.HAHA.I didn't know how to make it look and function like normal ring boxes do and I was already too tired from figuring it out I wanted it to finish soon.What I did was I covered the styropor with a fabric and traced/sliced through the covered styropor 3 lines that will serve to secure the rings. Good thing I was using a pin-stripe design fabric,so it was easier to 'trace' a line. HAHA.

Materials

box
styropor
acetate
gift wrapper
paper
fabric
double-sided tape
glue
cutter
scissors
ruler
pencil


I hope you learned something from this DIY.I had so much fun from doing it albeit the tedious effort of taking the closest-thing-to-perfect measurements.And,by the way,the box was from my good ol' trusted Cloud Nine chocolate of Jack'nJill.

Definitely,I am on cloud nine. :)

All I Want For Christmas

Generally,I do not ask for gifts on Christmas or on any general occasion because:1. I hate to ask and not have it and 2. I hate receiving it from someone I secretly don't like.Also, I do not like receiving gifts because:1. It might be something I don't like and 2. I'm not good in hiding displeasure.Besides,I have this weird feeling that if I'm getting what any random person on the same occasion is getting,that means I'm not special enough that the gift was not thought of.

This Christmas though will be different. I will not just ask for a gift, but anyone who is willing to give me what I want will be assured that I will love it with all my heart whether or not I like you. No need to fret, for I will not be asking for a high-end gadget nor a house or a car! I'd still appreciate it if you'd give me those but those are not what I want! I want nothing but to receive a letter and/or postcard on Christmas. It doesn't need to be fancy,I just want it to be handwritten! :)

A lot of you may be asking,why do I want a letter and/or postcard for Christmas? Why can't I ask for something that doesn't need a lot of effort? Please read paragraph one again to refresh your memory.Haha! Seriously, with almost everything shared on Facebook,Twitter and all the other social networking sites, I can not help but wonder, what else is there that wasn't shared? Well,because I wanna be iba, I want to have an update from you that's not shared with the 'public', those that you call friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter. And,it's been ages since the last time I received a letter and a postcard. I don't trust my memory with this but I think the last letter that I received was from UP which informed me that I didn't pass the UPCAT.I didn't even get to open the envelope at first,I just peeked through the window and saw that common rejection statement "we regret to inform you" blahblahblah. That was heartbreaking! (In retrospect, I would not have met those strangers I now call friends if I passed the exam.) And for the postcard, I only have two,both of which I got in 2002 from my Ninong Lalo. I thought I was gonna get a lot more from him but it stopped.Also,I'm thinking of continuing my mother's post stamp collection. So receiving a letter and/or postcard would also mean I'd get a stamp.It's like hitting two birds with one stone.

I still have a lot to say about letters but I will have to end this now lest I bore you.Haha! So please,please,please be my Santa this Christmas and give me what I want! A handwritten letter and/or a postcard and you'll make me the happiest kid on earth! Thank you!

P.S. I'll love it more if you write in cursive. :)

Yo Yos

Any idea what these are?

These are what you call Yo Yos. I don't know why it's called such.In fact I only knew about its name just recently when I told my Lola that I have this little project going on. According to Lola,Yo Yos or Yo Yo Quilts were popular during the 1950s or 1960s. I'm not really sure though as that detail escapes me now.But I did remember Lola saying that she first saw Yaya, her mother-in-law, making Yo Yos and she just followed suit. There was a surplus of fabrics that time so that Yaya bought fabrics in bulk and made lots of Yo Yos. Lola thought that it would be a good pastime to be making Yo Yos.

So this is what I've been doing lately. Lola was right. It makes for a good pastime esp. for the unemployed me. HAHA.

I have a lot of clothes that I have not been using because they are now too small for me or is already damaged from frequent use.That's where I got my fabric.Most of them either have plain colors or floral prints. One of those is that green pants that you see in the picture.Practical tip: To save you money and (future)space for your cabinet, I think it's best if you rummage through your clothes and see what are those that you can't even remember the last time you wore it or if you ever got the chance to wear them at all.Time to let it go, pack rat! HAHA.

Here's How to Make Yo Yos


Materials Needed:

fabric/old clothes
scissors
seam ripper or blade
pen
mini-cd
thread
needle

1. For old clothes: You need to rip the seams first so you will have an easy time drawing circles on the fabric.

2. You need to decide how big you want your yo yo so that you can decide what round object you'll use to trace the circle. In my case,since I want it small,I used a mini-cd. (Finished products are only a bit bigger than a Php 1 coin.Get the idea?)

3. Trace as much circle on the fabric. It is best if you start at the seam side so that much of the fabric is utilize. This is the easiest part.

4.Once done, cut the fabric.

5. Knot the thread and sew.Run a stitch round the fabric. Once you have done that,pull the thread slowly so that you pull together the fabric to its center. Knot the thread.

That's how yo yos are made.So easy,right? :) This project is time-consuming though. I only make an average of 30 yo yos in 2 hours. I still have a lot of yo yos to make for my quilt! HAHA Now, excuse me as I go back to my little project. :)

Poor Man's Spaghetti

My sister E and I had poor man's spaghetti for dinner. Haven't had this for a long time. Gaaaaahhh, I missed this although I have to say that this poor man's spaghetti is one of the items on my long laundry list of food.Poor man's spag is palatable,best served with hot steam rice,but I rarely crave for it---because first I don't like the strong smell of canned sardines,second it leaves a strong smell to the cutlery and especially to your mouth that you want to brush your teeth forever and third it reminds me of days when we used to always eat it because we're poor. FYI we are still poor but we now have a lot of options since my siblings and I appreciate veggies now. LOL.

Living away from home is quite stressful for a number of things. One,and I will only be talking about this item since I think this post is getting a lot of side stories,is deciding what to eat or what to cook.So when I asked my sister what she wants to eat, since we always eat what she wants to eat lest I deal with Little Miss Grumpy again, she answered "Sardinas na may Odong!" followed with a big smile. Yes you read it right. Poor man's spaghetti is only sardinas na may odong! I just made it a bit classy. HAHAHA. Gotcha!

By the way, I first heard about the term Poor Man's Spaghetti from my Boy Scouts of the Philippines friends when in 1998,during the peak of our boy scout and girl scout days, I asked them what they prepared and cooked during their training camps. I thought how great their troop masters were because they were allowed to prepare such and how unlucky for us girl scouts because we had vegetable overload.Then came the aka sardinas na may odong.HAHAHAHA.Jukir (Another side story :p)

So as the name suggests, poor man's spaghetti is very affordable and easy to prepare. Here's my sister's recipe:

1 can(155 g) of Seňorita Sardines in Tomato Sauce
2 small packs of El Seňorito Odong Noodle Soup
1 medium size onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of oil

Cut the onion and garlic in whatever you like,we had it in dice.Sauté onion and garlic.Put in the sardines,let it simmer.Throw in the odong and make sure you don't overcook it.You can always throw in up to 5 small packs of odong.

See,easy as 1,2,3. :) And we only spent less than Php 30.00!

We had the perfect dinner,perfect for the windy & rainy night,perfect for the budget. HAHA.

And here's the bonus.

Buyad and Chokolate



P.S. Did you notice the brand names? Laysho!

ICED-GEM CHOCO BISCUITS

Familiar? Not familiar?

This is the biscuit of our time. This is what reminds me so much of my childhood---happy childhood.

I remember this as the biscuit that my siblings and I loved to have--- what with the combination of biscuit and icing. There is just something so delightful about having a plain biscuit with an icing. And a colorful icing at that! Every time my older sister and I reminisce about the old days we always include the Iced Gem Biscuits as one of the things that made us happy. It was not only a favorite but a biscuit we all loved to have during typhoons.

Typhoons frequently visit Surigao at the time when we were still in kindergarten. It was during those times that our roof was still made of nipa shingles. So whenever weather advisory would say that a typhoon is coming and is going to hit our province, Mama would make sure that we’d be able to survive the ordeal should it last for days. She’d list down the items that we all need to have and made sure we had it even before the typhoon hits our province----sort of an emergency or survival kit. So alongside dry cell, candle, matchstick, instant noodles and what have you she’d also buy this iced gem biscuits. Call it unadulterated innocence but typhoons are one of the things we looked forward to during those days. Typhoons meant abundant supply of the said biscuit. I think about it now and I can only shake my head.

Anyways, I don’t know what happened but we lost track of the biscuit when we reached grade school. We never looked for it maybe because we were introduced to other existing biscuits, say Jolly Sandwich or Rebisco Strawberry Biscuits or Presto Creams. We simply forgot about the biscuit we only loved. If it did stop making and distributing at that time, we wouldn’t really know.It was only in the later years when my older sister and I thought about it. We searched for it in every store in the province but we couldn’t find a single pack. We conceded. We thought that maybe the company lost revenue and decided to just stop.

I was in Cagayan de Oro City from 2002-2007 for my college education. I no longer remember the exact date or year as that detail already escapes me now, but one day while I was walking and passing through each aisle in a supermarket (which by the way is one of the things I love doing!)I saw a familiar pack of biscuits---a pack of biscuits that had me make a second look. Lo and behold, it was the Iced Gem Biscuits! I couldn’t contain my happiness that day that I immediately grabbed two packs and went straight to the cashier. Right after I paid the items I opened it and devour on the biscuit that I missed so much. I felt like I just reunited with an old pal! I gave some of it to my dorm mates and classmates but not without a background story and a wide grin. And it was the start of my frequent visits to that supermarket.

I did not tell my siblings about it because I wanted it to be a surprise. During the school break that followed after the ‘reunion’ I brought home packs of the iced gem biscuits. When I showed it to them I saw in my sister the delight of having seen the biscuit again. She can only say, ’Hala Leng, paborito man ini nato! Haman nimo nakita?’ (Leng, this is our favorite! Where did you find this?) Mama can only smile at the thought. I realized then that it was only me and my sister A who had a vivid memory of the biscuit. My brother barely remembers it, D does not remember and neither does E because she was still unborn at the peak of our love affair with the biscuit. But my siblings C,D and E love the biscuit anyways.

And that was the start of the rekindling love affair.

I am now in a different city but I must have been this good to be able to find the biscuits here. HAHA. I still buy a pack or two from time to time whenever my feet leads me to the store. And at times I buy more of it to bring home for my siblings, nieces and nephew.