CFC @ 10

The moment we arrived at the hall, we can already sense the subtle stress that is slowly building up in the air as the organizers were trying to polish some glitches 10 minutes before the program was supposed to start. Everyone was running a bit late, which didn’t help at all. Even honey and I, who were the designated hosts for the event arrived 10 minutes before the event started instead of an hour before. Weeks of anticipation and thorough preparation are now to be executed.

At twenty minutes past one in the afternoon, ten minutes behind schedule, honey and I took center stage and officially started the much awaited program in celebration of Couples for Christ – The Netherlands’ tenth year anniversary. The activities for the day were divided between the conference that would take place in the afternoon and the awarding ceremony and party in the evening. For the conference, organizers invited speakers from Vienna (Austria), Paris (France) and of course someone from the Netherlands. The speakers were able to capture the attention of the listeners with their inspiring talks as well as animated stories. They were quite effective in encouraging not only the members of the organization but also the leaders of the group to continue to strive and remain faithful in their service to the community. The conference was completed by celebrating the mass.

The awarding ceremony took place immediately after dinner. Several people from the community were recognized for their invaluable contribution to the organization for the past couple of years. And the rest of the evening was party! Party! Party!

True enough, in the middle of everyone’s busy lives, it is awe-inspiring to meet people who are able to devote a portion of their precious time and effort to undertake projects that helps not only a community that they belong in but also try to help others as well. It is an honor, for honey and me to have been witnesses to this joyous occasion for CFC the Netherlands.



To the leaders and members of CFC, Congratulations and more power, may God be praised!

Moral of the Story

It has become a part of our weekends to meet up with our friends from CFC and last week it was our turn to host the dinner for them. The moment I woke up, I thought it was the perfect day to have friends over since we had a great weather. Thinking that I had all the time in the world and not wanting to miss the warm sun, Honey and I spent most of the day shopping and strolling. When we finally went back home, it was already 3pm and we realized we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. So we feasted on a salad with fried chicken strips dressed with balsamic vinegar. It was a refreshing meal for a hot day.

Immediately after lunch, I made my way into the kitchen and started preparing the ingredients for the simple meal I was planning to whip up. I still felt that it was too early so I took my own sweet time. I was quite excited to make the dessert coz I recently bought muffin moulds which were on sale so I started by baking the blueberry muffins and blueberry streusels cake. Initially, I only planned on making muffins but Honey requested for the cake so I obliged. Since I was planning a very simple dinner of chop suey and fried pork slices, after I have thrown the desserts in the oven I took my time in organizing my kitchen first clearing up all the ingredients that I have used, rearranged my plate cabinet and admired the desserts cooking in the oven and since I already seasoned the meat earlier that day, I started boiling some quail eggs, I peeled off some tiger prawns and I started to cut, dice and slice the vegetables and fried them up a bit while frying the pork slices on the side. In the middle of cutting and dicing and slicing, the doorbell rang. I stop midway of throwing another batch of vegetables in the wok to look at the time. OMG! It was already 6:45pm and our friends have started to arrive. I still needed to fry the rest of the meat slices, fry up some veggies, slice the prawns, shell the quail eggs and make the sauce. I started to panic so I paused and inhaled a deep breath. I thought to myself “don’t worry, the guests will not eat immediately, they will chat first and would want some drinks and by that time you’re done cooking.” So I welcomed our guests to our home and Honey entertained them while I try to speedily cook the rest of our meal.

In the end, everything turned out fine, I managed to cook the entire meal right after our guests have finished with their aperitif. It actually turned out perfectly coz the vegetable dish was served straight out of the stove top, it was warm, crisp and cooked just right and the meat dish was also fresh out of the frying pan. All of us enjoyed the meal, our friends particularly liked the dessert.


Moral of the story, learn to look at your watch once in while especially if your hosting dinner.

Family Day

There is nothing harder than to leave your family behind and live in a far off country miles and oceans apart from them. That was one of the biggest difficulties Junfer and I faced when we moved here in Amsterdam. Initially, both of us were so excited. Who wouldn’t be? A newly wedded couple living in a totally new country with a new culture and atmosphere to boot, what more could we ask for? But still, there are a lot of times when homesickness would be creeping on our nerves that is why we couldn’t be more thankful when someone invited us to join the Couples’ for Christ Community. Not only did we gain friends and acquaintances but we also found people who we now consider short of being siblings.

True to being one big happy community, CFC-Amsterdam Chapter had their barbeque party in celebration of its annual Family Day last Saturday. It was one fun event sans the awful Amsterdam weather that persisted the entire day. Through the help of the big tents that were erected, the barbeque party was a big hit. There were games for the kids as well as for the adults that gave an extra kick to the event. It also helped that everyone participated and not a single person declined when asked to join a game. For me, the highlight of the entire event was the volleyball match that took place late afternoon when the rain decided to stop and the sun finally decided to join in on the fun even just for an hour or two. The organizers even conducted a videoke contest where the portable Magic Sing Microphone would be the judge. Guess what, out of all the contestants, the winner was the only Dutch who joined in. HAHA.


It was a cozy afternoon, people chattering the entire afternoon, feasting on good food, catching up with old friends that they haven’t seen in a while. It was a simple affair and yet everyone had fun. This was one party that was worth the effort of making 80 pieces of pandesal for. Honey and I will definitely look forward to next year’s Family Day

Older Generation

Yesterday after going to church, Junfer and I were invited to attend a surprise 50th Birthday party for one of our co-members in CFC. While we were waiting for the celebrant, Junfer and I were sitting at the end of the table close to the teens (sons and daughters of other couple friends also invited at the party) when one of them asked about Junfer’s mobile phone. I was just observing there discussion, not even having a remote intent of joining a discussion that is to tech savvy for my own liking, when one of the teen’s mobile phone rang to the tune of one of Linkin’park’s songs (title of the song eludes my memory). After the phone call ended Junfer commented “I like that song of the Linkin Park.” The reply of the teenager actually made me laugh, he said “Ah talaga kuya you know Linkin Park”. Moments later, Junfer turned to me grinning and asked, “Are we really that old for them to think that I don’t know Linkin Park?” That even made me laugh harder.

Funny as it really is to me, it also made me think. Are we in the process of becoming the older generation? Are we in the phase where the music that the teenagers listen to would sound Greek or more so annoying to us? Are we moving to the older, reprimanding click that the teenagers refer to as the age group that doesn’t understand them? Are we getting old?

In all fairness, I have known Linkin Park way back in college. I have listened to their songs and liked quite a few of them. Aside from that, I don’t recognize any new band that the younger people are listening to right now. I am also not sure if that is tantamount to the fact that I am getting older or is it just because I prefer to watch movies rather than listen to music. I also am not fond of hanging out at noisy bars to drink, but then again, even when I was in college or while I was working in Manila, I don’t frequent clubs or bars simply because I feel that’s not my kind of socializing. And as to reprimanding the teens, even when I was a teenager myself, I have observed that my age group is composed of tons of different personalities. There are those teenagers who have fun and act out their age appropriately and there are those teens that act so obnoxiously under the disguise of a teenager having raging hormones but in reality are teenagers who are lacking the guidance as to having good manners and proper conduct. I still feel the same way now. I still find some teens act better than others, like for instance this morning on my way to the office, a teenage boy was banging the metal trash bin in the bus every 10 minutes or so, (not even throwing anything in the bin, he just finds it amusing to bang the bin) and he was having a conversation with some girls sitting opposite him in a shout like manner and when his mobile phone rang, everyone could hear his conversation simply because he was shouting and he has put his phone on speaker mode. What’s the deal with that? I also can’t help but wonder if that question from the teenager to Junfer was triggered by the fact that we are friends with his parents thus making him think that we are of the same generation, in which case age wouldn’t have mattered at all but affiliations. I have just realized that the group of friends we have accumulated when we moved here belong to a much more mature age group than that of Junfer and I belong to. I think this has also influenced the outlook we project on their kids.

Maybe I shouldn’t be even thinking of moving on to the older generation because from what I have observed, teenagers of today, specially in this part of the world, are in so much hurry to grow up and if they maintain this pace, certainly they will catch up with our generation.

In the end, I think that music, personality, maturity and most other attributes are not dictated by age group or clicks. I may like a different genre of music or I may like to hang out with a particular group of people or I may find the behavior of some people not parallel to my liking but I believe that these are not influenced by how old they are but rather of what there persona are. I believe that quality, characteristics and interests of each person are not influenced by age group but rather a choice they make for these are impacted by one’s individuality.