Archive for December, 2007

Worry-free Travel

December 20th, 2007
{ 2 Comments }

Traveling should be relaxing and fun. I love to travel but I am really poor at planning, making the limited travel opportunities I got, less enjoyable. It is cool to be spontaneous but I worry a lot so I prefer having carefully-planned travels.

It would really be great to prepare the travel necessities – flights, transportation, and hotel in just a few clicks! There is no need to visit lots of websites. In Hotel Reservations, they provide detailed information on every hotel and every flight of your choice! To make your preparations smoother, I recommend their vacation packages.

If I ever get to travel again, I’ll definitely book everything here.

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Reviews

Christmas Tags, Oh Christmas Tags

December 17th, 2007
{ 2 Comments }

I love doing memes, especially Christmas memes! So I grabbed this one
from Sandier Pastures:

What is your favorite Christmas gift?
A pillow or bolster with Tweety printed on it.

What is your best memory of Christmas?
When my father was still working in a company in Iligan City, we go to the company’s Christmas party. All of those parties were one of my happiest memories as a child. But I couldn’t forget that party when my parents gave me the tin tea set. I actually caught my mother wrapping it
and I thought she’s giving it to a goddaughter. My father also joined the Christmas Carol Contest that time. I was so proud watching him with his colleagues. I could still remember what they wore: red shirt and Santa hat.

Depending upon where you live, do you have a hot or cold Christmas?
Before coming to a place that has winter, I thought that Christmas in the Philippines is a bit cold! In my hometown, the temperature on December to January drops to 18-25C. Normally, we have 24-33C. I know it’s lame but it’s already enough for me to wear a jacket.

What do you prefer in a tree? Fake or real?
We never had a real tree so I couldn’t really tell. But I’d like to try having a real one in the future.

What is your favorite Carol?
“Christmas In Our Hearts” by Jose Marie Chan and his daughter.

What is your favorite Christmas Dinner?
Anything… as long we have the following: my mother’s spaghetti and macaroni, plus pork
liempo from Tita Fanny’s restaurant.

Do you wear a Santa hat at Christmas?
For the first time, I wore Santa hat during last year’s Christmas party with the Filipinos here in Osaka.

Have you ever seen Santa delivering gifts?
Yes, in the movies.

I am tagging: Rollchan, Yeiweifang, Jon, Florence, Setsu and Fortuitous Faery.
__________________________________________________________________

Lizeth tagged me to list down my “inaanak”. I must admit that this was a tough one…
1. Francis – I was 17 years old when he was baptized
2. Anique
3. Caloy
4. Chris’ daughter (sorry Chris, I forgot her name…)
5. My cousin’s son ( forgot the name again…)
6. Ate Mercy’s daughter (forgot the name again…)

My godchildren to be:
7. Keira Alexis, my younger brother’s new-born angel
8. Aday’s daughter (forgot the name!)

I have always been very, very poor at remembering names. I just hope the parents would remind me. Shamefully, I wasn’t able to attend even a single baptism of these angels.

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Meme

Rantings of a Frustrated Mother

December 17th, 2007
{ 5 Comments }

Since I had my parents subscribe to broadband internet connection, I make it a point to talk to my family, especially Shaynna, every night. Of course nobody would chat with me for 3 hours straight. Shaynna usually drops by, say hi and play with me by exchanging emoticons, then rush out to play, then “play” with me again.

Technically, I am only just a family member who does nothing but rant or call out if I need someone closer to the microphone. Well, that’s the closest I could get to my home.

A while ago, some cousins were customizing their Friendster account, while I was just listening to what’s happening on that other side of the planet. For a fleeting moment, I felt something bad would happen to my baby but just ignored it. A minute later, I heard a violent crying… yes, it was from Shaynna. Nobody saw what really happened but my parents panicked because there was blood gushing out of Shaynna’s mouth. A few minutes later, Shaynna calmed down and told me that she hurt herself. I tried my best to hold back my emotions… I wanted to appear strong …

I couldn’t prevent these little mishaps but it would be a lot different if I am there to console her. Just hug her and do everything to lessen the pain… I miss Shaynna so much. I miss a lot while she’s growing up, that sometimes I doubt if taking a job away from her is really the best thing to do.

Being a “long-distance mother” is really tough… and it hurts a lot. But for now, I think the best thing to do is to look forward to that day when I could take Shaynna with me wherever I go. I just hope and pray that it would happen soon while the pain is still agonizingly bearable…

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Sentiments

Future Blog Plan

December 17th, 2007
{ 4 Comments }

Before I started out this blog, I have been trying out dozens of free web hosts. I have always enjoyed trying out different page layouts and selecting colors that best suit me. Above all, I want to have a complete reign of this virtual home.

Now, that this blog is already more than a year old, I have plans of migrating to my very own domain. I still don’t know when to take this step but I have started my search for a good web host which offers a plan that is within my budget. And I must admit, this quest is very tough.

Luckily, I found http://www.webhostingchoice.com . By just entering the monthly cost, setup fee, the disk space I desire, and/or the bandwith, my option is narrowed down! The results page does not only display the web host name, but so are other key details like rating, disk space, database, and operating system. It’s now easier to compare the web hosts! I think I already made my choice…

This post is sponsored by Web Hosting Choice.

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Blogging, Reviews

Photo Hunt: Small

December 14th, 2007
{ 13 Comments }
Didn’t have much time to browse through my pictures so I’m showing you this “small/mini” Tokyo:

Miniatures of the places near Tokyo Tower
I wanted to take a picture of the small Tokyo tower but my cellphone’s camera couldn’t zoom in enough.
Please see the post about these miniatures HERE.
As always, thank you very much for dropping by. Enjoy your Christmas preparations!
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Japan: exposed, Photohunt

What If?

December 14th, 2007
{ 9 Comments }

This was a pre-Christmas tag from Rolando, then Sani just recently tagged me with it.

What are the 5 gifts you would buy for yourself this Christmas, if you had unlimited income?

Unlimited, you say? So here goes not just my Christmas wishes but these have been my dreams…

1.) Sponsor anyone’s education if he/she deserves it. Better yet, establish a good university and provide free education. I have many relatives in mind who dream of finishing college but due to financial constraint, they don’t go beyond high school, then marry at an early age. Sadly, this cycle has been going on for years and I want to make a difference.

2.) Establish a company and employ anyone deprived of chances to have a better life, regardless of their educational background. I would also offer opportunities to help them improve their skills and education.

3.) Settle the land issues of my relatives, divide the land accordingly, and construct apartments for them. But, I require them to pay me back, not for money reasons. I just want them to become better persons.

4.) World tour with my family.

5.) Host an international Bloggers’ Conference!

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Christmas, Meme

Thursday Thirteen #5

December 12th, 2007
{ 5 Comments }

Time to self-inflict homesickness again, so I scanned through my memory bank for 13 gifts that I could still recall receiving. Truth be told, I haven’t received much “material” gifts from parents and family members because we didn’t really practice buying gifts for family members. But the love our parents shower us is just priceless. My brother and I used to make Christmas cards for our parents.

I have 3 godparents and they live far from my hometown, so it was hard to collect gifts from them. Thankfully, the godmother who lives in Cebu had something for me almost every Christmas, giving little Shiera something to look forward to at this time of the year.

(1) My only godfather gave me a pair of garnet earrings on my first Christmas. But I didn’t get to wear that until I had my ears pierced when I was 9 years old.

(2) I was about 5 years old when my auntie-ninang (godmother & aunt) asked me to choose between a bracelet and a necklace. Without hesitation, I blurted out that I wanted both. She laughed and gave me both!

(3) An aunt was an ukay-ukay merchant. One Christmas day visit, she told me to dig to my heart’s content and gave me the pretty blouse and skirt that caught my eyes. I loved rummaging through a huge pile of ukay-ukay and I still do.

(4) Christmas 1998, my parents gave me a toy tea set. Everything was tin-made – so extraordinary compared to my usual plastic toys, so I kept it hidden for months instead of playing with it. Unfortunately, my little sister found the hiding place and lost many of the little tin cups. I cried for hours.

(5) I think I was 9 years old when Ninang Lanie, my godmother from Cebu, sent a yellow dress. The dress was so pretty that I always wore it to church almost every Sunday.

(6) The following year, Ninang Lanie sent me another really pretty pink dress and I wore it to the year-end ceremony. At that time, grade 5 girl students were required to wear pink dresses. I didn’t wear the dress before that ceremony so that I could still consider it as new.

(7) When my father was still working in Saudi Arabia, his one-month vacations were usually from May to June. He went home one Christmas and gave me a Swatch wristwatch. That was the only Swatch watch I ever had. Now, I don’t even have a wristwatch!

(8) Christmas 2001: my first Christmas away from home. I was terribly homesick and was desperate to receive a card from my family. When I opened my mailbox, I got a card from Florence! She was just next door and yet she chose to surprise me by dropping that in my mailbox. My family sent me a card but it arrived days after Christmas.

(9) Christmas 2001: Ting’s gift arrived days earlier. She was in Tokyo, Florence and I were in Kagoshima. She sent me a very cute, silver bookmark through the company’s inter-office mail.

I could no longer recall any more gifts, so allow me to include here the gifts I got from Kris Kringle and from the companies I’ve worked for:

(10) When I was with company #2, I got 2 Friends VCDs, through Kris Kringle. I wish I could buy all the seasons in DVD in the future.

(11) Guia, from company #3 gave me a Bench lipstick – her gift for our Kris Kringle’s “something sexy”. I think that was my first lipstick. I always wear lip gloss only.

(12) Companies in the Philippines usually give out Christmas goodies to their employees. When company #3 gave us those Noche Buena food basket, I had to store the ham in the office’s refrigerator until the night I left for my hometown.

(13) Company #4 gave us Rustan’s Gift Certificate. I used that to buy stuffs for Shaynna and my family.

How about you? Can you still recall many, if not all of the Christmas gifts you received in your whole life?

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Christmas, Thursday Thirteen

Erased from the face of Google Search

December 12th, 2007
{ 8 Comments }

A friend asked for the URL of this blog so I just told her to search for “shiera” in Google. I was pretty sure that she could find me in the first page of the search results but days later, she told me that she didn’t find me in Google. I tried the search and true enough, my blog didn’t appear in the first 20 pages, and I have a very bad feeling that my blog won’t get listed even in the 1000th page.

So, it finally happened to me. I’ve came across articles about Google blocking blogs who have sponsored entries. Since I have but a single entry, I knew I was not far from being extinguished from Google search.

I’ve experienced having my favorite websites blocked at the companies I’ve worked for, but I didn’t know that having my blog banned feels a lot weirder.

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Blogging

Irreplaceable

December 11th, 2007
{ 14 Comments }

It’s been more than a year since I left. It’s been a year since I’ve been trying to adapt, but many Philippine condiments are still irreplaceable. Take soy sauce for instance. I’ve been trying to use Kikkoman, but the food I’ve cooked were almost bland, causing me to lose my appetite. Or is it just because I’m no good at cooking at all?

Anyway, Idel took me with her to a Filipino store somewhere here in Osaka and I splurged in a bottle of spiced vinegar, Silver Swan soy sauce, shrimp paste, and itlog na maalat (salted duck egg)! Now, my appetite’s back and I’m afraid I’m gonna gain back my extra baggages! I’ll deal with that one later. For now, I’m gonna enjoy my Filipino-tasting dishes.

Here’s the Filipino store we visited. Even in Japan, it’s still unmistakably a Pinoy sari-sari store:

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Food, Things I love

Strong Woman

December 7th, 2007
{ 17 Comments }

I got her face shape, her smile and her voice, but I could never compare to her courage and strength. My mother has a really bubbly personality, that you couldn’t guess she had a very rough life.

Her father died when she was 8 years old. Because of the tragedy, her mother broke down and became incapable to care for her family. Being the eldest, she took upon the responsibility of scouring for food and taking care of her siblings: a 5 year-old, a 3-year old, and a 6-month old baby. Being a baby herself, she was undeniably incapable of caring for a baby, so their youngest died a few months later.

When her mother finally recovered, they moved to another place and served a once-prominent family for food and shelter. One time, her mother’s friend lent them a piece of land and they built a house out of scraps and coconut leaves. She wanted to continue her studies so she left her mother’s nest and worked for one teacher to another, her tasks ranged from writing lesson plans to doing the house chores. This continued until she finished high school. All through the years, her little brother and little sister tagged along their mother wherever the tide swept them.

She got a college scholarship but even so, she wasn’t able to find someone willing to finance her other scholastic needs. She was left with no choice but to take up jobs from establishments and well-off relatives. She then met my father. Life was still rough – she had a miscarriage and her first live-born child died a week later because of prematurity and lack of money for hospitalization.

To make the story short, my brother, sister, and I came to their lives. While working together to attain what’s best for their young family, both she and my father tried to finish their studies. She’s always dreamed of becoming a grade school teacher but numerous pressures made her decide to quit college and devote her life to being the best mother that she could be.

She’s sweet, caring, patient, understanding, no vice (if you wouldn’t call being habitually late a vice ^-^), the list would go on. She is still very imperfect, she has lots of flaws, but to me, she’s the best mother in the whole world.

Words can’t fully express how grateful we are for having you as our
mother. Thank you very much for being you.

Happy Birthday, Mama Conching.
We love you very much!

*The picture was taken 27 years ago, of my mother teaching me to walk. :)

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Family

Photo Hunt: Long

December 7th, 2007
{ 24 Comments }
These are just short spans of the very LONG hiking trail at the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine in Kyoto. This shrine is dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. The 4km trail is covered with thousands of these orange torii (gateways), offerings made by worshippers – this explains those markings on the toriis.

Uphill


Downhill
The trail stretches to the top of the Inari-san hill. Good thing we went there early autumn last year. It took us almost 2 hours to cover the whole trail.
Here’s Kagz and Me, near the main gate of the shrine:
By the way, have you seen Memoirs of a Geisha? Remember that part where young Sayuri ran through a path covered with orange gates? That was in Fushimi Inari Taisha.
Wishing you all a very long and nice weekend. Thank you for dropping by!
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Photohunt, Sightseeing in Japan

We Should Have

December 7th, 2007
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Aunt Kris became mentally incapacitated since she was ten years old. From then on my grandmother patiently took care of her, with the occasional help from her siblings who happened to live next door. As my grandmother grew older, it became a lot more difficult for her to take care of my Aunt Kris. We never thought of sending her to a medical institution to take care of her in our stead because we heard many unpleasant feedbacks regarding such institutions. Plus, we thought that would cost a lot.

Because of those factors, we never thought of how the in-house care affected my grandmother and everyone else. Our major mistake was on not seeking more information on care homes. We should have sought out advise on how to deal with Aunt Kris. We would have known that care homes could be easy on us financially. That would have at least took some pressure off my grandmother.

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Family, Reviews
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