Foods-To-Eat List: Christmas 2010 in the Philippines

After three long years, we will finally be going back to Philippines to celebrate Christmas! It's been a while so here are some food items that I want to eat once we get home:

"Star Bread" or Putok -- yep, miss the good ol' putok / star bread made in our local bakery, accompanied with Coke which I consume every afternoon. Though I'd probably pass on the Coke this time around...

Halo-Halo -- whether it's the halo-halo on the streets or the halo-halo in Chowking or Razon's, it's way better than anything they have here.

Red Ribbon's Salisbury Steak -- very yummy! Love the sauce on top of that luscious salisbury steak! Mmmmmmm...... Steeeeeaaaak..... :))


KFC Gravy -- yep, there's KFC in Singapore, but there's NO gravy! And no spoon and fork either! Yep, I miss the bottomless gravy we love and enjoy at KFC! Maybe I'll order some chicken too.....

Pampanga's Best's Pina Ham -- I used to sell some of this in my last job back there... Well, there's really no reason not to like it. It's cheaper than the traditional Christmas hams, but is very very tasty. A lovely alternative if you're on a tight budget.

Hen Lin's Siomai -- One of my favorites, going way way back in gradeschool. I remember when the local Park and Shop was still open and the "food court" area had a Hen Lin stall which sells 4pc of Siomai for 16 pesos. Then there's the calamansi/lime and the chili! Ah good times... Anyway, the only thing that's changed is the cost. And the fact that Park and Shop closed down a long time ago...


Smokey's Chicago Dog -- One of the reasons I love watching movies so much! Perfectly cooked hotdog on bun. Pickle relish. Bacon bits. Onions. Sauce -- not sure if it's just meat sauce or chili sauce? Plus a healthy serving of ketchup and mustard! Now, all we need is a move to watch...

Ah yes... Good times... :)

Merry Christmas!

Just a short note to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The reason why I stayed up late

Or why my body clock broke down again.

After our Malacca trip, I didn't sleep the whole night. I just spent the night watching over this beautiful sight...

The living room brightened up by the Christmas tree.


Closeup of the Christmas tree.


Closeup of Angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Christmas along Orchard Road

Our wedding anniversary stay in Quincy Hotel wouldn't be complete withoout a trip down Orchard Road. Although we didn't have enough time and energy to stroll down the entire length of Orchard Road -- there's simply too much to see -- we did get to see the best of the malls along Orchard Road have to offer.

Paragon


Tangs


A Tangs Late Night Shopping Owl :)


Inside Wheelock's Place atrium area


Wheelock's Place indoor Christmas tree


Ion's Christmas tree


Che's closeup on Ion's Christmas


Ion's Christmas Tree - Closeup from Below


Us through one of the Christmas Balls


Inside Ion's Christmas tree


Across from the Ion tree


Across the Ion tree - The Shaw House


Along the Orchard Road sidewalk - near Wisma


That's the last... our feet are aching by this time, crossing the streets, taking pictures, and chasing Nite Owls :). Obviously, we need to revisit the Orchard Road for more pics. :)

If you're down, watch this: Star ng Pasko

And here comes another feel good song from ABS-CBN. Their official Station ID for Christmas 2009.

Just what we need to lift our spirits after everything that happened the past months.

Star ng Pasko
Performed by: ABS-CBN Artists

Kung kailan pinakamadilim
Ang mga tala ay mas nagniningning
Gaano man kakapal ang ulap
Sa likod nito ay may liwanag

Ang liwanag na ito
Nasa ‘ting lahat
Mas sinag ang bawat pusong bukas
Sa init ng mga yakap
Maghihilom ang lahat ng sugat

Ang nagsindi nitong ilaw
Walang iba kundi ikaw
Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko
Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko

Tayo ang ilaw sa madilim na daan
Pagkakapit bisig ngayon higpitan
Dumaan man sa malakas na alon
Lahat tayo’s makakaahon

Ang liwanag na ito
Nasa ‘ting lahat
Mas sinag ang bawat pusong bukas
Sa init ng mga yakap
Maghihilom ang lahat ng sugat

Ang nagsindi nitong ilaw
Walang iba kundi ikaw
Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko
Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko

Kikislap ang pag-asa
Kahit kanino man
Dahil ikaw Bro, dahil ikaw Bro
Dahil ikaw Bro
Ang star ng pasko

Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko
Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko

Ang nagsindi nitong ilaw
Walang iba kundi ikaw
Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko

Ang nagsindi nitong ilaw
Walang iba kundi ikaw
Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko

Ang nagsindi nitong ilaw
Walang iba kundi ikaw
Salamat sa liwanag mo
Muling magkakakulay ang pasko

Dahil ikaw Bro, dahil ikaw Bro
Dahil ikaw Bro
Ang star ng pasko!

Go Pinoy!

More Christmas tree pictures

Since I've been working night shifts the past few days -- well, erm, nights actually -- Che continued working on our new Christmas tree. Quite amazing how one item can spruce things up a bit -- referring to the big snowflakes decorating the tree.

She took some more pictures which is posted in her blog here.

Building our Christmas Tree '09

After two years in Singapore, this is the first time that we're building our own Christmas tree. This is also the only time that I remember that we ever made a Christmas tree during Halloween! :)) Hehehe...

Here are some shots of our Christmas tree building last night...





And that's just the beginning! It starts with a tree, then some more wreaths, some garlands, some more decors... before you know it, it's Chrismas-y all over :)

Christmas 2008: What we've been up to...

Can't seem to find enough time to post anything here. I'm either too tired from work... Or I'm too tired playing Vampire Wars! :)) Anyway, let's see what we've been doing the past week.....

A New Home....
The days before Christmas Day was very tiring for us because of the moving of our stuff from our old room to our new flat. The good thing is that our new home is only a few blocks away. The bad thing is that we have some things which are too heavy and bulky to carry -- case in point, our cabiet of five drawers, among other things. Luckily, we managed to acquire a trolley which, although quite small did the job just fine.

Transporting things was one thing. Reorganizing is another. Even after disposing a lot of stuff we don't need anymore, we still had so many things that it practically which are filling up our new home! I still can't get over the fact that we managed to stash all of these things in our much smaller room before! Maybe we have a pair of pants with bottomless pockets or a magical bag of holding somewhere. Hehehe :))

Work, work, work...
Unfortunately, though, I have work during Christmas and New Year. :( It's the sad part of being in the customer service industry AND being a newbie in the company.

Well actually, it's not that bad... I am on day shift during Christmas week, so I still managed to attend the Noche Buena with our friends here. The bad news is that I'm on night shift the entire New Year's Eve week... Which means, no food, no celebration, no fireworks... Not that there's any fireworks here... Well, actually, there are, but it's nothing compared to the "chaos" of New Year's Eve in the Philippines -- they simply can't do New Year's Eve the way we do them! So nothing much to miss really... At least that's what I tell to myself... Next year would be different! I'll make sure I get my vacation! Hehehe :))

And to top it off, I didn't get the straight four-days-off we normally would get; the Operations Manager called me up to cover for one of my colleagues who got sick. No one else was available so I thought I had no other choice. It's only later that I learned that I'm not obliged to cover for my colleague since I'm not the designated 24Hr Standby Person for this day. Oh well, just charge it to experience. I just think of it as a way of helping our team out. But next time, I know what to do. >:)

Well, there's one good thing here though: since it's the Holiday season and we are currently in a "change freeze", aside from the oocasional emergencies and emails, I have a lot of free time here at work. Where and when do you think I wrote this post, huh? :))

Watching more TV....
As per my last post, no new episodes to watch, so that's when marathon reruns come in handy. Just like this Friday: with nothing else to do, we watched the Monk Marathon in Star TV. We did not watch it straight, though. Every now and then, we switch to other channels such as TFC and AXN, so that we don't get, uhm, over-saturated with the Monk theme "It's a Jungle Out There". :)) It's actually a great show. Not sure why I didn't watch it all the time like I do with House, Heroes, and Chuck. I always find it fun to watch the not-so-perfect good guys trying to be, well, the good guys. Anyway, it's good to be able to watch the OC Adrian Monk again. That's another one in my list of favorite shows. :))

Well, in TFC I watch -- just like in Channel 2 back in Manila -- Deal or No Deal. It's only recently that I learned that they removed the cases containing more than 1M. Instead, they opted for the 5 cases containing 1M. Still a good deal -- best case scenario is if you reach the late game with all of the five 1M cases still up for grabs... Not sure if this scenario occurred already: the last two values left on the board are two 1M. Whoever get's that has got to be the luckiest guy out there!

And my favorite Discovery Channel show, Mythbusters! I never get to watch it on evening primetime -- usually it's because we're watching abother show in another channel. Well, during my dayoffs, I can always catch them at noon! I guess I missed a lot also -- didn't know that they replaced Iwahara with a girl -- sorry, didn't catch the name.

Christmas day itself and onwards...
Well, since there are only a few of us here left in SG -- most the others went back to Manila to spend the Holidays there -- we decided to have Noche Buena, potluck, gift-giving, etc in one place. I was the last one to arrive since I had work but still we managed to pull it off. I felt drowsy though, and I slept through most of it. :))

Also, Friday evening -- I guess since it's a weekend and everyone's still in a Christmasey mood, Cel and the gang visited us and they brought along their Magic Sing. :) Hehehe. [Note: Obviously, I didn't know at this time that I'm going to be on shift the next evening.] I was actually conscious at some point because we were really making a lot of noise; I'm not sure if we're disturbing our neighbors. Then again, it's Christmas, our time, our celebration. I don't mind them when they do all their stuff when it's their festival... I don't mind them when they make all that racket on some evenings whenever they play Mah Jongg. :)) Anyway, that's why we closed off our doors and windows anyway. :))

Play and Fun with the Laptop...
Well, I've finally signed up with Facebook, originally for the sole purpose of playing Vampire Wars. It was later when I learned that many of my colleagues -- particularly the ones who were once from Fujitsu -- are all in Facebook. :))

I also signed up for other similar games as well, but by far I enjoy Vampire Wars the most. I guess it shows, too; my character in Vampire Wars have much better stats than the other games. I have way more wins than losses and I have acquired all of the abilities and minions that are available on my current level. That's a good sign, I think; if ever you find yourself have trouble acquiring a minion or an ability, you are mostly doing something screwed up that you should not be doing. :))

Then when we can't do anything else -- i.e., we used up all of our character's energy, me and Che play a random map in Age of Mythology. Yep, the (not-so) old school strategy game. And in the newer laptops, the graphics is simply marvelous! :)) I guess it's been a while since I last played because I can't remember the build order to do a "rush" -- for the uninitiated, that's building a superior force to overpower an opponent in the early game, say, in the first five minutes. All I can remember is that you have to reach Age 2 ASAP -- that's the only age where you can actually create military units. Oh well, I don't want to look into GameFaqs or anything... I'll just play it over and over again to rediscover how that goes. :))

That's that, I guess. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

And as my shift is about to end, I'll get prepped to go back to sleep... :)

Christmas with no new episodes....

Well, it's that time of the year again in which the whole world -- or at least most of it -- is celebrating the Christmas season. Don't get me wrong, I like Christmas. I just don't like the downside of it... No new episodes...

I guess in the spirit of Christmas -- or more appropriately, the Christmas vacation -- most of the shows are taking a long break themselves. This is a severe drawback of the season for couch potatoes such as myself. :) Well, in my case, the shows that I'm gonna really miss are House, Heroes, and Chuck.

Anyway, not to worry though: this simply means it's time to get try new stuff. Maybe I'll finally do what Che always wanted me to do: join Facebook! :)) Heard of some great online games similar to the vampire game I used to play about a couple of years ago.

Of course, I can always watch some old reruns, episode marathons and whatever. I can also get in the Christmas spirit and try to enjoy the season with family -- most of whom are back in the Philippines -- and friends -- many of whom are also going back to the Philippines. :))

BTW, I'm not really in a foreboding mode; I'm just thinking out loud -- or rather writing it in print. Better let it out than keep it to myself, right? Hehehehe :))

Merry Christmas everyone! :)