Chicken Joy Too!

The first time I wrote an entry of the same title, it was about my relatives teasing me on how Baby is going to miss one-half of his childhood. What with his being deprived of the taste and aroma of the primary staple food of today’s modern kids – Chicken Joy. This was in reference to our being vegetarians and our wanting to raise Baby to be one as well.

In that past entry, I wrote about how it would ultimately be Baby’s choice in the end but how we, as parents would try to instill in him the value of being vegetarian. And of course, we’re really hoping he’d turn out to be one…

I think I wrote that entry when Baby was barely 6 months old. Fast track that to about a year later and here I am writing about the wonder and “joy” of Baby’s having his first taste of chicken.

Yup! It was such a horrifying experience for both Bolo and I. But it was something we found truly amusing also.

There had been instances wherein teasing friends and family would goad Baby into eating meat. There were countless of them in the past. In all instances, Baby passed the test with flying colors. He would take one look at what is being offered him and then ignore it completely. In all cases, I would find myself sighing in relief and literally swelling with pride hehehe In my mind, I have taught Baby well and it seems to me I am successful in raising a vegetarian-from-birth Baby.

But I guess being surrounded with food – vegetables and meat alike, Baby have a choice. It’s totally different I guess if you’re really hungry and you have right in front of you a piece of chicken that smells quite nicely.

Our flight to Manila was awfully delayed. It was totally unexpected. We came prepared though and have with us some instant oatmeal porridge for Baby. But I guess it did not have much appeal to him that night.

When we were informed that dinner will be provided and found out it’s going to be Jollibee’s Chicken Joy, Bolo and I did not join the others in queuing up. It was chicken anyway. On the last minute, I urged Bolo to get one so we could feed Baby the rice. We could not have him without supper. And so he did. He got us some drinks as well.

And so we laid it down in front of us. We looked around for some co-passengers whom we think we could offer the chicken to without being offended or anything. Those who were seated close to us were mostly elderly. It was obvious that one, big piece of chicken was enough for them. We scouted for some who would appear to still be wanting some.

It was a bad idea to wait though. While Bolo was feeding Baby his fifth spoonful of rice, laced with the gravy that goes with the chicken, Baby grab a hold of the chicken and took a bite. Bolo and I were horrified. And well, dismayed. It’s such an overreaction I know but I felt as if I was kicked right in my stomach. All my dreams of raising Baby a vegetarian flew right out of the terminal’s window that very instant. I was that OA hehehe But I was greatly amused too. When Baby took another bite, we grabbed the camera and documented the whole experience.

When Baby spat out the chicken (yes, he did!) I was so beside myself with glee hehehe Of course we were still concerned that Baby might go hungry and so would have welcome his having to eat the chicken. But as selfish as it may sound, I was really glad he did not like it at all :)

I hope I’m not going to have another entry of the same title detailing how Baby finally enjoys his chicken meal… Heaven forbid! :)

Sleepless in Sea... of Documents

Feeling light-headed. Nope, it’s not so much out of giddiness but rather due to lack of sleep. Slaved over a report till 3:00 AM this morning. I wasn’t even finished yet at that time. I was down to the very last session, wrapping up the documentation. I tried to write some more but my eyes seemed to have a mind of its own. Try as I might, it refuses to open well enough for me to see the screen of my computer decently. And so I slept.

Woke up a little before 6 AM and it’s straight to the computer for me. I finished the documentation part and then proceeded to tabulate the pre and post assessment results. Next came the course evaluation itself. It’s what I’d call the “dirty-job” part of technical writing – having to manually – encode 1 by 1 – each item in the assessment form. I love the analysis part. I thrived in the challenge but I’m normally not used to doing the tabulation all by myself. (tongue in cheek hehehe)

So it’s quite refreshing really to be doing everything on my own… it’s teaching me a great deal about patience… and humility haha! I must admit though I’m such an unwilling student hehehe There are times I would feel irritation at the thought of having to tackle admin jobs. I just don’t have the inclination for it.

But ah.. dislike it I might, I know I had to take on the job, learn my lessons fast so I could move on to the next. The sooner I get the message and learned the lesson, the sooner I’ll be over it. And that goes not just to doing and changing my attitude towards admin tasks…

In A Moment

“Into this very moment everything converges –

my past, my present, my future…

Into this very moment, I bring with me the mistakes I’ve made, my failures,

my successes, my potentials, my plans, and all that I could become… “

I sat there, meditating, listening to the above commentary and it hit me full force – every moment is indeed precious. Everything that I am and all that I could become is packed into every moment that I find myself in. Such a powerful knowledge this… such wisdom…

And instead of words flowing out of me in torrents – which is usually the case when some realization would hit me – here I am driven inwards, seeking the solace I know I could find within me… so I could reflect more fully amidst the silence.. as I make that connection to the One source of wisdom, of love and of peace…

Second Try: Look-A-Like Meter

Not quite convinced with the earlier attempt and the result that Baby look a lot like me than his Tatay by 10%, I tried another picture of Baby and got an even more "unconvincing" result haha! Anyone who sees Baby could readily tell he's a carbon copy of his Tatay or so they tell me :) So I wonder why this result :p

Look-A-Like Meter

Late Post

Super busy these days with a lot of things going on. But anyway, I was cleaning up my files when I came across the video and picture below of some past ukay rendezvouz we had. Cute :)

Novena

The clock in the lower-right corner of my monitor reads, “1:24 AM.” I started working on the lay-outing of the modules for PLSD sometime around 10:30 PM. I’m not even half through yet. There are still lots of things that still needed to be done, not to mention reports to finish. But anyway, I intend to finish everything before the scheduled writers’ writeshop, come end of this month.

I’m tired but I sure feel happy remembering how Bolo, despite being tired from all his work all day, patiently sat beside me to pray today’s novena. I knew it wasn’t really his cup of tea, given his background. But seeing him all patient and solicitous as he recited the novena with me, I knew he was really doing it for me. It’s enough to make me feel that surge of gratitude again. I am loved in full measure and I am grateful for that.

Green Eggs and Ham; Pinangat and Pili Nut; Pompano and Crabs too!

(Attempting to come up with catchy “dr. Seussy” rhymes but failing miserably hehehe)

Yup, I’m back! The Legazpi trip went well, as expected. On our last two days though, there was a typhoon. Thankfully it was just signal no. 1. Our flight back to Manila was awfully delayed though that we got so bored from being stuck at the airport too long.

Although I did not expect it at all, the Manila leg of the trip proved to be very satisfying. Well, I was never fond of Manila, no pun intended. I guess it’s just that I’m not much of a “city girl” really. My ideal travel would be to go some place where it boasts of a very rich and fascinating culture; or where I’ll be close to nature; or both.

I’m not much of a mall rat either so… But ah, imagine my delight when in some obscure bookstore in what they say is the biggest mall in the city, I came face to face with the biggest collection of Dr. Seuss books that I’ve ever seen. Well, I do exaggerate. But really, I’ve been to lots of bookstores and book sales and each time I would ask if they have some of Dr. Seuss’ work, they would only have one or two. Almost always, it’s “The Foot Book” and I already have a copy of that.

I bought a total of eleven “Bright and Early” books, eight of which by Dr. Seuss. Imagine that. The first thing I found was a copy of “O Say Can You Say.” When I came across, “Green Eggs and Ham," I almost shrieked out loud hehehe I’ve always wanted to have a copy but never found one. So imagine how I felt when I found a copy that is real neat and shiny, and on a sale yet.

I was also able to buy, “Raising a Son: Parents and the Making of a Healthy Man” by Don and Jean Elium that is proving to be such a good read. To date, I’m yet at page 16 and I’ve had had several insights already.

The books cost me most of my allowance money. I wasn’t even able to buy Bolo anything. When I got home and saw Baby shouting in delight and really excited at seeing so much books, I knew that it was all worth it. He was really beside himself. He tried to carry the books all at once and kept shouting, “Book! Book!” He was really endearing to watch.

Another interesting experience I had in Manila had something to do with food. When I think about food and travel, it is always Gen. San that comes to mind, owing to their fresh seafood at such low, low prices. These days, I also think fondly of Legazpi. I’m afraid “pinangat” and “kinunot” won me over. I’m not much of a “gata-person.” We rarely prepare viands with coconut milk at home while we were growing up. But we love spicy food so it’s no wonder if I took to Bicolano cuisine immediately.

Now, here comes Manila. The real reason why we had to stay there longer than we should is because we had to wait for one of the writers who is arriving in Manila only that Sunday evening. So we couldn’t meet until then. At first, we intended to just hold the meeting at “Chowking.” Really funny. But we were not really that particular about the venue and the food. It was the meeting that was most important. Besides, none of us are really that picky with food. But somewhere along our coordinating for the meeting we were told that a really “important” person is going to join us too. So we kind of thought of a more appropriate place to hold the meeting.

We usually hold our meetings on the hotel where we are billeted. In this group’s case, it is always over at Sulo. This time though, we were billeted a lot closer to the airport. And the restaurant of the hotel wasn’t exactly what we’d think appropriate so we agreed it had to be somewhere else. The ever resourceful me, I asked the taxi driver who took us to Mall of Asia that morning for a restaurant he could recommend for a meeting. Somewhere closeby and not exactly that pricey. Hehehe The taxi driver huh? But yeah, they ought to know these things. But anyway, he referred us to the “seaside” strip over at the Macapagal Highway (The most expensive highway ever constructed according to the Book of Guinness Records”) But anyway, I digress again.

The strip was totally a treat. The concept is that there’s a series of resto’s there and somewhere in the middle of it is a fresh seafood market selling, well, seafood of all kinds. The customers get to do the marketing and then they choose from among the restaurants there where to have the fare cooked. The resto’s cook them for a fee, depending on the per kilo and the kind of cooking that is preferred. If it’s just steaming, its at around Php 120 only but for a more fancy dish, they could charge up to 300. I guess it depends on the other ingredients that would have to be added. Actually, it’s cheap, considering it’s in Manila where food is usually quite pricey.

So there, that was how my recent travel experience went. I have another travel lined up for end of this month and on November. I couldn’t say I do not look forward to them but I’m not exactly excited about them either as it would take me away from Baby again for some time. What I’m certainly looking forward to is a travel of a leisure kind with family and friends… Hopefully, soon…