Maligayang pasko sa lahat!

Currently in the Philippines for a short Christmas vacation with my family.  

Christmas is truly family time.  There's no other place to spend this holiday season except here.

A blessed Christmas to all and a prosperous New Year!

A roasting success story

Roasted native chicken was my maiden attempt at oven roasting.  I chose Jamie Oliver's recipe here and stuffed the bird with fresh herbs (rosemary and thyme), one whole pricked-all-over lemon, and salt & pepper.  Baby potatoes, carrots and tomatoes were placed under the chicken to soak up the roast juices then made gravy with the pan drippings.

I felt like I won the lottery that night, everyone loved it!  It actually wasn't enough, the adults have to temper ourselves so the kids can have more of the meat.  It was sooo good that I got repeat orders.  They want duck next, yes duck!

Chose this video for the simplest roast duck recipe.  I didn't have fresh herbs that day so did some substitutions (onion, garlic, ginger and lemon) which turned out pretty well as it removed the duck smell and lessened the duck taste.

The family is now requesting more roasted meals for our weekend meals.  Another bucket list item completed this year!

Chicken and duck :)

Crashed!

My work laptop crashed last Thursday.
The IT guy returned it with zero files.
Heart broken as the Paris/Rome pictures are all there, as well as other family pictures. 
Last backup I did was June.
A hard lesson to back up at least once a month.  I better put it in the calendar reminder.
Sad...sad...sad...

Rome - Day 8

We started the day with a trip to the Bioparc Zoo for Sarah's enjoyment.  The zoo turned out to be such a letdown, with sad and tired looking animals and not so nice facilities.  Singapore Zoo was much better in our humble opinion.

We couldn't get a taxi so we just walked outside the zoo and stumbled upon the National Museum of Modern Art.  We went in primarily to cool ourselves in the air conditioned interiors but found it to be a surprisingly nice find, seeing a few Van Gogh and Monet artworks. 

Hopped on a bus back to the apartment and found a nearby pizzeria for lunch.  We had a rest in the apartment before heading to Piazza Navona for more sightseeing and dinner.  There was a mime/clown performing in front of the outdoor restaurant at Piazza Navona so we got a free show!  Bought a souvenir painting in the piazza before heading home.

A quick pass through at the Bioparc Zoo

Inside the National Museum of Modern Art, Sarah found a friend

Enjoyed cooling down inside the museum

Very good sculptures and lifelike paintings

Van Gogh and Monet artworks

We found the museum to be a surprisingly good (unplanned) find.

Dinner at Cafe Domiziano right in front of the Fountains!

Night lights make the piazza very much alive well into the night.

Post Haiyan

It’s been almost 3 weeks since Supertyphoon Haiyan devastated Central Luzon in the Philippines.  It was heart wrenching to see how my countrymen' family, friends and livelihood were washed away by the super storm. 

I sent out an appeal for financial help to my colleagues as I wanted to help in any small way.  I was overwhelmed by their response and support, collecting quite a sum of RM3400 (~P47,000). I sent our donation to marketmanila.com who's family and crew were doing  relief aid to Northern Cebu victims.  My husband and I preferred to help through this private group as we felt they were more trustworthy than corruption-tainted local officials.  And true enough, Marketman and crew were able to deliver relief aids much faster than the local officials, providing much needed rice, canned goods, noodles and water to the disaster victims. 

There's a tremendous amount of work to be done to bring order to all the affected provinces and my country is very grateful to all nations who've helped and still helping restore life back to normal.  My government also has to seriously look into how they prepare and respond every time natural disasters (volcanic eruption, earthquake, typhoons, erosion) strike my beloved country. 

Busy long weekend!

November 1st - Halloween Family Disco at G Hotel.
Ravi, Sarah and I attended a family disco Halloween party organized by Spiral Synergy Events.
Sarah got scared of the monsters in costume and the dark bar.  It took a while before she got comfortable enough to dance and have fun.

Halloween family disco at G Spot

November 2nd - Deepavali
Made our first ever 'kolam' or 'rangoli', an Indian folk art meant for welcoming Hindu deities.  We did it primarily for festive and decorative purposes, rather than its religious meaning.  Ravi's cousins family, several colleagues and a couple of my friends were our Deepavali guests. 

'Kolam' or 'rangoli' at the apartment entrance

Deepavali guests

Deepavali kolam at G hotel, our own and at Straits Quay

November 3rd - The Gruffalo
Sarah and I watched the children's play The Gruffalo at Stage 2 Penangpac, Straits Quay.  Ravi waited for us at one of the bar restaurants, where we had our dinner after the play.

Sarah shots at Penangpac Stage 2

Rome - Day 7

Most of the day was spent taking the short 2-hour flight to Rome, Italy.

Bought 2 boxes of macarons from a mini Ladurée stand at the Paris Orly airport; fast service as there were just 2 customers before us.

We were provided with airport lounge tickets from Ravi's Singapore Airline mileage card but was highly disappointed with the food served.  We picked a few mini-sandwiches and headed fast to the deli-style stores for better tummy fillers.

As mentioned in this post, the Rome apartment was better.  We settled in for a bit before we explored the neighborhood.  The apartment location was very near the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica.  There are lots of gelatarias, cafes and souvenir shops around;  the metro, bus and taxi stations are also nearby.

Sarah and I had a lot of gelato on this trip, they were all good!

Happy we found one at the airport!

Busybees inside the plane

Clockwise from top left: Sarah with her OJ; yummy pizza; Sarah performing during the metro ride; outside the Old Bridge gelataria; how busy it was inside the Old Bridge gelatria; walk back to the apartment

Clockwise from top left: Father-daughter moments; Sarah singing during the metro ride; tasted vino during dinner; another scoop of gelato

HRH staycation

Last September, we had a weekend staycation at Hard Rock Hotel at Batu Ferringhi.

The girls had a rockin' good time in the kids room of the Lil Rock Suite Courtyard.  Aside from the king size bed, the suite has an adjacent kids room which has a single bed with a pullout, headboard bookshelves, several stuffed toys and two big bean bags (Reena's fave).  It opens up to a courtyard with a mini playground which became Sarah's happy place.

The girls enjoyed the room so much, we ended up staying indoors till night time.  We ordered room service for dinner.  Then a quick walk at the lobby to check out the lobby lights and take some snapshots before crashing in.

Afterwards a good breakfast at the Pizzeria, we changed to swimwear and stayed in the poolside till our late checkout.  Throughout the day, I took a few laps while Ravi minded the girls.

This is our second staycation, and we had a rockin' time once again!  

Sister moments

The girls enjoyed the kids room a lot!

Walking out in the beach front during sunset.

A few shots at the lobby at night.

Reena photos

Sharing a strawberry milkshake and enjoying the pool

They sure had fun!

My two girls - Reena and Sarah

It surely was Hard Rock fun!

   

Sarah - 2 years Q3 update

My tutu tot before her class started

Quarterly faves.

1. Nail polish.  Learned from her mother and sister, enough said.

2. Water color. She enjoys water coloring so much, she wouldn't want to play outdoors!

3. Modeling compound.  We've been enjoying making fruits, animals, food and lots more.  I got her some good quality stuff (minus the steep price tag of Play Doh!) at Young Ones, a local school supply shop.   We make sure she washes her hands really well after every clay session.

4.  "It's dangerous!" and "oh my god" are what we hear from her lately.

Biking...with training wheels.

This month, Sarah finally got enough leg power to pedal her bike.  We'll give her a year or two to master the steering and pedalling before we take off the training wheels.  For now, she's happily cruising at the hallways and the playground area.

Fewer of these bad boys - vomit and constipation, hurray!
Vomiting has been a constant thing with her, with cries and coughs as trigger points.  Her pediatrician said she'll outgrow it, and it seems to be as lately the vomit monster has not been showing up.  As for the other villain, we've been giving Sarah daily doses of blended fresh fruits plus natural laxatives and probiotics.  She's passing motion almost daily, which is a big improvement from her previous once-in-3-days schedule.

She's starting to say the darndest things, here's a few:
1. When I scold her when she's being naughty, she'll quip "Mama, don't angry Sarah" then followed by "Sorry Mama, sorry."
2. While on Skype with my family, I asked Sarah to show her toys to her cousin Sofi.  She immediately gathered her toys around and said,  "Sofi, don't take Sarah's toys, it's dangerous!"

3. "Daddy, close the door."  After her father did, Sarah said, 'That's right."
4. Once when Sarah was having a mild diarrhea, our househelp asked her, "How's your tummy now Sarah?" and she replied, "My tummy's nice."  Throughout the day Ann asked her the same question.  Finally Sarah has had enough and said, "Ate Ann, stop asking!"
5.  Ravi ate the wantan mee I bought for Sarah.  Sarah turned to her father and said, "Daddy, don't eat my noodles next time k?  Daddy eat the spicy noodles, don't eat my noodles k?" :)

Sarah's street performances in Paris

I have a future star in the making, at 2 years and 7 months old!
Sarah danced through two street performances.  No prodding from me at all, she just went in front and started her cute dancing.  Indulge this stage mom, why don't you :)

Her first 'performance' was at the Fontaine Saint-Michel with a couple of tap dancers.   The second one was in front of the Opera Garnier, where a Russian guy was singing while playing his guitar.

Sarah tap dancing at Fontaine Saint-Michel.

 Her interpretative dancing in front of the Opera Garnier :)

Paris Day 6 - our last day!

Our last morning, Ravi wanted more sleeping time so Sarah and I wandered off the City of Lights on our own again. 

First stop was at the Opera, then to the Louvre Museum grounds.  We went back to pick up Ravi and we all went to the Tuilleries Gardens.  We used a local bus to drive through Champs Elysees Avenue before stopping at the Arc de Triomphe.  This time we walked underground to the Arc de Triomphe itself and explored it a bit more.

A quick taxi back to the apartment and we bid adieu to our last night at Paris.
Paris, je t'aime!

The Paris Opera was in the middle of a busy road, right above the Opera metro.

The Grand Staircase, the Grand Foyer (which reminded me of the Hall of Mirrors in Palais Versailles) as well as the paintings on the ceilings were all wonderful feasts for the eyes.

Behind us is the Grand Staircase.

View from the balcony.  The entrance to the underground metro is in front of the white truck.

My little ballerina trying out her poses with the greats.

At the Grand Foyer, which rivals Versailles' hall of Mirrors.

Sarah on the rightmost preparing to do her interpretative dance (in a separate post!)

We took a bus to the Louvre Museum and missed the stop.  We got off at the next bus stop and walked back to the Louvre.

Happy girl!

Taken by a friendly stranger/tourist.

My Sarah girl :)

Enjoying the Louvre grounds

Happiness with the doves.

The skyline above the famous Louvre.

Fun for the little girl at the Tuilleries Garden fair.

Found a bird feather on the grass and was amused with it for quite sometime.

Feeling Parisiens - sitting, reading a book, enjoying the late afternoon :)

Back to the Arc de Triomphe

Looked down at the brass plates at the Arc de Triomphe

Close up shot of the Arc de Triomphe before we headed back to the apartment.