A couple of weeks ago,I went out to see the gummybears. What was supposed to be a short meeting in a coffee shop inside a mall turned out to be too short we ended up transferring to a different venue where we looked for food and eventually settled until the wee hours.We had so much to talk about,their recently concluded 10-day SEA vacation,our other friends Bambi and Kylie's vacation from work in Singapore,our other friends and any random topic we could think of but alas,we were so sleepy and George has still work to do so we called it a night.

I thought that I'd be able to sleep the moment I arrived in the apartment but no,I wasn't able to enter until an hour and lots of mosquito bites later!

I knocked on the door and called on my sister from the window but she wasn't responding.I tried calling her but her phone's unattended,I can't seem to get connected.I was almost on a panic mode when I realized the need to pee,but I managed to hold it longer.I knew she had duty on that day so she's supposed to be on her way to school before 6 o'clock. It was already three o'clock in the morning when I arrived. I figured that I only have an hour or so to wait since she's usually up by four o'clock.

nagkuris-kuris nalang intawn ang bata aron malingaw.

-

Moral of the Story: Uli sayo,sayo's buntag! HAHAHA

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. :)

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.