Home Alone Sunday

Do you think alone is lonely? 

I'm alone this Sunday, Jim is off with the boys for a lunch-merienda-dinner reunion with the former office guys, a one-to-sawa kwentohan (re-tell and laugh over all the jokes from way back when);  my daughter and her family is having their own weekend bonding time and it's  my maid's day off.  Even our son and younger daughter abroad are quiet; no iMessage, pictures or FaceTime this weekend.  

But I am not lonely being alone. 

After mass with Jim early this morning, an hour with my maid in the market to get our weekly supply of veggies and fish, and one load of clothes in the washer, I was finally alone.  The first order of the day was to "get polished!", I was at the beauty parlor in a breeze.  

The parlor was full as early as half past ten but I made an early appointment so I was attended to right away.  I wanted to be out of there before noon so I could watch a noontime show at 12.  My beautician who always do my feet is an expert, unfortunately, the one she chose to do my fingernails is new, so it took her quite awhile.  I was patient until it was 10 minutes before noon, so I had to prod her to hurry up. 

I brought lunch to our room so I could watch the noontime show.  I was also anticipating to watch a movie afterwards so I did not even had time to nap. 

The noontime show was good and the movie was even better, though it was something Jim would never enjoy, so it was good that I was alone and not bore him.

The last highlight of the day was the grand finals of the Voice Kids.  Jim and I have been watching this from the start.   On the Sing-offs, Jim pitied Joshua because his mother left them so he voted through text and was surprised when he got a reply saying thanks and his entitlement to a 15% discount for a single item purchase at H&M, the company that provided the wardrobe for the contestants.   Of course, our 11-year-old granddaughter is interested in that. 

As we watched the contest every week, our hearts went all out to these kids determined to win especially the deprived ones.  We hope that the experience has not been traumatic for those who were eliminated as the contest progressed; instead it should serve as a challenge to master their trade.  Some shared their sad life stories: either they are homeless, part of a broken home or abandoned by a parent.

And the winner is......JOSHUA!  

The 3rd Grand Champion of the Voice Kids in the Philippines. His wish was to have his mother back home and he believes that if he wins, his family will be reunited . 

He was coached by Lea Salonga, dubbed in the Philippines as the Broadway Diva, though it is good to remember especially for us Filipinos that Lea Salonga is internationally acclaimed both as a Laurence Olivier and Tony Awardee for her theatre performances In the US and London. 

I had a quiet and restful day, exactly what a Sunday should be.  Hope your Sunday is just as well, if not better. 

Banana Heart Prepared Two-way

I'm not going anywhere today,  I'm still sick, my cough and colds have recurred though I'm feeling much better.  But even if I'm sick, I'm not one to be seen lying in bed or just sitting down.  So I thought I'd cook something that is appealing to my taste today since I remembered the banana heart that is ripe for the picking in the adjacent vacant lot.  Jim said it is okay to get it, since nobody is there, it will just go to waste anyway. 

Yesterday was terrible, I had a headache, I didn't want to read and I couldn't taste anything.  Even my favorite KFC that Jim had delivered was not appealing.  I could only appreciate pineapple-mixed juices and santol fruits, peeled, pressed in sea salt kept in the refrigerator. Preserved like this will last a week. 

Let me share my version in preparing banana heart. 

Two-way banana heart: one way sautéed banana heart in vinegar (adobong puso ng saging); another way is preserving banana blossoms for adobo and pata Tim recipes. 

Preparation: 

Remove the matured outer covering until the tender portion. 

Take away the more matured blossoms for drying but use the tender ones for the adobo. 

These are the outer, matured blossoms.

Remove the core (match-stick-like) portion and the plastic-like membrane of each blossom.

Look at this, I pulled out what is to be removed without totally detaching it.

Do you see what is to be removed?

One way: adobong puso ng saging

Chop the banana heart into thin slices making sure to separate the blossoms as you slice so the stick and the plastic part can be removed. 

Chop, dredge with salt and set aside.  

Squeeze the bitter liquid and wash three times to remove salty taste. 

Sautee this with garlic, onions, bay leaf, cinnamon, sugar, one pork bouillon, pepper and vinegar.  Add 1 to 2 cups of water if you want more soup.  

Here's the adobong puso ng saging. 

The other way:

Blanch the matured blossoms after removing the stick and plastic. 

Blossoms laid out on a pan to sun dry.

These will be used in my chicken-pork-adobo; Jim won't eat adobo without  banana blossoms. 

I enjoyed the sour taste of the banana heart, I had it for lunch with the remaining KFC pieces. Yum!

The Artwork For Our Dining Room

Finally, I was able to come up with an artwork that Jim and I like for our dining room wall.   I have been wanting to put up something there but I just couldn't find one that I love to look at whenever I take my meals.  There are two walls; 

one is bare

The other holds a local painting, below it is a buffet table flanked by two Thai multi-colored glass lamps.

The third is the window 

This side is facing the kitchen. 

Since my decluttering, I wanted to be true to my shopping ban (at least on decor and kitchen items); so I have been racking my brain, looking for something I already have to put on that wall.   I was picturing different scenarios in my mind hoping to find the right one from the frames in our storage shed.  

I also knew that our family photos won't work (I still have a lot in store), even the framed sketches of Europe landmarks didn't seem right.  I wanted something different and unique but I wanted to stick to zero shopping. 

Sometime ago a DIY article showed how to frame colorful shower curtains that is big enough for a blank wall, but I didn't feel like putting up a framed shower curtain on our dining room wall. 

Recently I was fixing my closet and came upon my collection of ethnic and hand-woven cloths; and ---viola!

"This is it!"

I brought out everything and let Jim help me choose which one will be framed; we wanted bright and happy prints.

and we came up with this; simple, practical and unpretentious (at least to us).

Fortunately it matched our framed Egyptian hand-painted papyrus artwork, including a similar unframed one I found among my collection.  I had that framed the same way, sandwiched between two glass pieces. 

Here, take a look at this wall now; is it okay?    I spent for framing the other artwork but no regrets, it is an exception to my shopping ban because it makes me happy. 

Our Singapore Trip Is Ineffable!

I wouldn't say that we're  "back to reality" as others often say when they get back from vacation, but yes, we're home, happy and inspired to go back to our routine after seeing our children once again.   

Our 5 days of bonding and building memories with our son and younger daughter with their families in Singapore was not a dream, they are as real as we know and feel; an awesome experience that is difficult to describe;  "there are no words to express.....", we often say but I learned that there's a word for that,  "ineffable".  When we feel or experience something we find difficult to describe, the word is ineffable.  

On the flip side, it is always good to be home and sleep on our own bed. I missed snuggling under my double-king-size-soft-and-smooth-light-as-a-feather fleece blanket. 

Whenever we visit, our children always go out of their way to entertain us, alternately taking off from work so someone can bring us around.  They are constantly asking where else we want to go, what we need to shop or what we want to eat.  

They always bring us to new places, eating out is always a new experience, a novelty except the American Club which we never fail to go to. Our Singapore visit is never complete unless we go there.  It is a nice family place and I love the Union Bar where people get a quick bite after work and watch the latest games on tv.  But what I like there are the bottomless popcorn, sung sung peanuts and potato chips they  serve free along with our drinks. 

 

We spent a lot of time with our 2-year-old grandson to get better acquainted with him and for him to know us well.  When we go out and he is buckled up on his car seat in our son's Audi, he starts his roll call: 

"papa" and glances at the front passenger seat; 

"Dada", who is driving

"Nana", he then looks my way 

"Mei-mei", to his Mom who is between us in the back seat. 

"--kas", that's him. 

If the car goes fast and looks like we come too close to the car in front of us, he'll say "oh ..oh...."

When he says "excuse", you have to get out of his way. 

We even toured his school:

We posed at the entrance of Mind Champs

Inside his classroom with his best friend Luke. 

We stayed in our son's condo where our younger daughter and her husband live close by, just a few blocks away that it is convenient for them to come by every night for dinner.  

Baking is my daughter's passion; on the first night, 

she brought this banana up-side down cake; the next night, it was a mushroom quiche, but we failed to take a picture, so sorry, but it was yummy, our grandson loved it.  

This moussaka generously topped with cheese baked to just-the-right-golden-brown color was served on our last night along with the pizza and pasta. 

When we slept over at her condo one night and we dined at Toast Box.

This was taken at Capitol Piazza, near Marina Bay Sands. Our son-in-law is not in the picture, he was busy checking out our reservation when we posed at the restaurant facade. 

Our lunches were always in a new restaurant we've never been to,  except on Sunday when our daughter prepared lunch in their condo. 

We've been at Dempsey before but not in Chopsuey restaurant. The food was basically Chinese with Asian fusion.  I loved the crispy beef with orange sauce, I'd like to try that at home sometime soon. 

Our daughter brought us to the restaurant of celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay at Marina Bay Sands.  

I ordered quinoa salad and Jim ordered the duck for starters.

This is my braised ox cheek and on the right is Jim's baked fish while the one above is my daughter's roast duck with salad greens.  

The food was great, though the chef's food repertoire is generally salty for our taste that we urgently needed a latte afterwards. 

This vacation is exactly the kind of break we needed. As our usual practice, we both messaged our children from the airport: 

"Thank you so much for this wonderful vacation, your time and attention as well as the sumptuous meals, we had a great time".  I messaged.

They all acknowledged that they also enjoyed our company. 

"Thanks for the visit, come more often, your grandson is becoming so attached.  The five days went so fast, suddenly your visit was over.", my son replied.  Our daughter replied in pretty much the same tone. 

We had a grand time, now I'd say it again, it was ineffable!

Our Lunch Was Served By Two Robots In Singapore.

Whenever we arrive in Singapore, it is more beautiful than ever.  Changi airport alone is a tourist spot on its own, that's why everytime we go back home we make sure to be at the airport earlier to give time for a meal and sight-seeing around.

When we arrived three days ago, we found the trek to the immigration counters took longer, they made some changes to the route due to yet another renovation.  We didn't mind though, the sights along the way was colorful.  

The tarmac has a thick, new carpet and the wall is artistically designed with lights.  Even the airport-pick-up guy my son always call on to get us was on time holding up his iPad where Jim's name was boldly written. Thanks to my son, we don't have to queue for a cab, if he had no work, he usually comes to get us. 

When my son was in Manila two weeks ago, he told me to research where we want to go to during our next visit. The last time we were in Singapore, we visited gardens and ate at Artichoke Cafe. This time, I couldn't  find a garden restaurant with good reviews so I gave up my search.  On the plane coming to Singapore, I happened to browse through Mabuhay magazine, the Philippine Air Lines in-flight magazine.  There was an article about robots' possible participation in the F & B indunstry and the Rong Heng Seafood restaurant was mentioned having acquired robots as part of their service crew.  

"Where do you want to go and what do you need to shop?", my son asked on the day we arrived. 

"I want to get a wristband for my Fitbit zip, then drop by H&M to pick up two blouses for my granddaughter.  But if it's ok, I want to see the robots serving food at Rong Heng Seafood restaurant".

The area looks deserted and the buildings look like old warehouses; I learned later that the place is busy in the evenings.  We saw a robot with a red apron at the entrance while the manager welcomed and ushered us in. 

We ordered our meal and it was served immediately.  First a robot wearing a colorful scarf named Mary, brought our crispy squid appetizer. The robot said in Mandarin:  

"Your food is here, please enjoy".  

Then a human waitress transferred our food to the table. 

Shortly after, came Robot Lucy with our chicken fried rice with salted fish. 

Later, robot Mary brought the steamed bamboo clams 

Next is the steamed garopa was brought by robot Lucy.

And finally, our kailan prepared two-way; one way is crispy with dried anchovy while the stalks were sautéed in oyster sauce. 

When I search on line for the Rong Heng Seafood a write up mentioned that the owner thought using the robots saves him from hiring more staff, the robots can do a 24-hour shift, they don't take vacation and medical leaves;  they don't demand days off and over-time pay.  One robot cost about $15,000, while a waiter's annual salary is about twice as much. These robots are manufactured in China using Japanese technology. 

Aside from the help the robots provide, their main role as I see it is to attract customers for the novelty of it.  But I thank my son just the same for bringing us there.  With the exception of the crispy squid which tasted like they just sautéed the commercially preserved ones; the steamed fish and bamboo clams both in soy couldn't be fresher.  Would I go back there? I doubt it, there are other seafood restaurants where I can get more value for money, but definitely by word of mouth, many will go and see the robots since this was just started in February this year. 

Who Wants To Walk With Me?

My son got me a Fitbit zip two years ago.  Since then, I've been walking everyday that it became my daily activity with Jim.  We walked at a Mall right behind our village gate.   We even enjoyed cooling down at Starbucks afterwards; that was until we moved to a new place in May last year. 

Since the move, I've been busy with decluttering and fixing the new home that I practically stopped walking.  I miss chilling out at Starbucks, reading a magazine while I sip my green tea frap.  Then my walking became erratic, my enthusiasm wained, for awhile I even stopped wearing my Fitbit.

One night early this month I suddenly got a message on Fitbit; a certain TG invited me to be her friend.  To be Fitbit friends means you compare notes and share your accomplishments; like having someone walking with you, but physically absent; the friend maybe thousands of miles away in another country.  

I suspected that TG is my younger daughter so I messaged her.

"Are you TG?", I asked. And she replied:

"Yes, I am TG, I just got a Fitbit Alta", and along with the reply she sent me a picture of the black band.  So I scrolled back to Fitbit.com and accepted her friend request. 

This is gray, my daughter got the all black. 

I wanted to have more friends,  "the more, the merrier", right?  So I checked my contacts and found  only three with a Fitbit; my son, my younger daughter "TG" and a former colleague, Trina.  I didn't want to disturb my son but I sent a friend request to Trina who accepted immediately.  Unfortunately she's not active at the moment so that leaves only TG and me, which is rather lonely.  In spite of that however, I couldn't resist a challenge; especially if it is good  and will benefit me.  The next day I put on my Nike and Fitbit again and aimed to meet my daily goal of 10,000 steps.

So this month I started walking again and found that I have to walk in the morning and afternoon or go to the mall after my morning walk to make 10,000 steps daily.  

Because of my enthusiasm, I earned this badge last July 15, 2016. 

Last December, I got a Serengeti budge for walking the equivalent 807 lifetime kilometers, the distance of Serengeti-one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.

On March 23, 2015, I earned the Hawaii badge for walking the equal distance of the Hawaii archipelago-including all major islands.

On November 12, 2014, I earned the London Underground badge for having walked 402 lifetime kilometers, equal to the length of the world's first underground railway.

I earned the Penguin March on September 22, 2014 that is: 112 lifetime kilometers I walked equivalent to the distance that the annual trip emperor penguins make to their breeding ground. 

My very first badge earned by having walked 42 lifetime kilometers from the time I started using Fitbit. 

I earned this badge 45 times for having walked 10,000 steps in a day.

From the time I had my Fitbit, I walked 5000 steps within a day and earned this badge 180 times. 

Fitbit does not only record the steps but also other forms of exercise. It can even guide us to lose or gain weight, we set a goal and choose how fast we want to do that and it will tell how long to reach that goal.   It tells us the number of steps daily, how much calories to eat and  liquid to drink. By logging food intake, it will show the calorie equivalent of each and adds up as we log.  

So come on friends, get a Fitbit today and start walking with me, even if we don't lose weight, we benefit from the exercise. 

Wow! Did I make that plug?  Maybe I'll charge Fitbit, lol. 

Facelift Or Mind Lift, Which One At 71?

Since I turned 50, I have been constantly reading and learning  aging experiences and elderly views.  The very first book I read was a gift from my assistant on my 50th birthday: 

Reflections on Midlife, subtitled: 

"Are you too young to read this book?"

Preoccupied with work and taking care of family earlier, I must have forgotten myself for awhile there that this awareness came too late for me.  Anyways,  I'm not that obsessed with looks, I just want to appear presentable and thoroughly cleaned up.   If I were more conscious, could I have delayed my physical aging? I wonder. 

From books, blogs and articles on aging, many say that 30 is a dreaded age because that's when looks gradually start to fade.  They compare the ages 21 and 40 and claim that these two stages even out.  While one still possesses that innocent look, the fresh and wrinkle-free face coupled with tireless energy; at age 40, still young-looking enough but matured, the change is already obvious on the face and the entire body,  but easily passable; yet the wisdom and experience gained outweigh the physical beauty.  Yes, at age 40, most parts of the body start going down, really!  Someone even said of herself, "Why, it used to be a well-shaped butt, but not anymore!". 

Yay! I am not 40 anymore but I'll take my body anytime!  With thanks! It's also the only body I've got and yes, it's still a healthy body; no maintenance medicine whatsoever, just vitamins.  I had my laboratory tests recently and my doctor said that anything high there could be managed with the proper diet. 

As I start the second year of my eighth decade this week, I look at it with great possibilities and I know no boundaries.  But let me tell you, any attempt to make myself look younger is not one of them.  I'd rather look forward to another year full of love, adventure and purpose.  It is really a precious privilege to be alive, I am happy to live to this day, a blessing not enjoyed by many. 

In this modern age when most of the entire world are obsessed with anti-aging creams, liposuction, enhancement,  botox and facelift,  I'd rather put my money on mind lift.  And why not?  Aging is beyond our control no matter what we do to camouflage it; but the mind on the other hand is continuously growing and will flourish to a certain age as long as we work the brain to keep it going. 

 I have a fairly good attitude about aging, but sometimes, when I look at the mirror, I am often confronted by the question, 

"where had the years gone?"; but when sense dawns, I accept the inevitable; the craw lines around the eyes, the wrinkles, the thinning gray-to-white hair, the arms looking like crepe paper and the folds on the neck.  But I say that looks aren't everything. 

On the flip side, I am proud of my wisdom and the experiences I gained through the years, something I wish I had at 21.  If I had those, could I have made better choices that made a difference in my life today, like a fuller life perhaps?    Nevertheless, I do not despair, there is still time, right?   And who says there is a limit to achieve our goals at an advanced age?  

I am happy though with what I am and with what I have.  I love the life that I found at 71.   My time-rich life after decluttering and living a simple life allows me to indulge more on my passions and pay more attention to my family. 

It's so easy to get lost in this digital-age jungle; where we could miss the chance from having a meaningful, happy and abundant life if we don't watch what we're doing.   Nowadays we are frequently barraged with new things, new ideas and discoveries that eat our time and attention that often distract us from what really matters.  It's a good thing though that I know what I want and what to do for the remainder of my life.