Through thick & thick(er)

I have never really stopped to think of how blessed I am when it comes to friends. Today was like a bolt of lightning, hitting me smack in the face making me realize how truly rich I am with wonderful, gracious, loving and most of all funny friends. No, there was no big or life changing event that happened, it was as simple as reading an FB post from one of the closest friends I have ever had (who I now realize I truly and utterly miss!) about something as trifling as a song and a cassette tape (OMG, we’re still talking about cassette tapes, how ancient are we?!?), which by the way is still missing after 10 years! Reading that post made me realize how wonderful those times were and how I’m going to cherish those memories forever (elk! another cliché – but its really true!).

I, for one, am not the type of person who collects friends by the dozen, I’m the sort who doesn’t have a lot but the ones that I keep are treasures, gems whose worth can never be equalled. And maybe because of the same FB post that I’ve read which triggered this realization, I am currently missing a particular group of friends. My college kadas, The Goddesses and Fidel. Oh, we were such a wacky bunch!

I vaguely recall how we bumped into each other, some of them I’ve met on my first year in the University, still neneng and totoy looking. But our friendship and group solidified on our sophomore year. We laughed and cried together, we failed and triumphed together. I know we will all smile each time we think about that afternoon in the manggahan when one of them took my ID as they always do and ran with it and collided with a coconut tree smack in the face! (haaay Ms. Hum!) What about those nights (and overnights) we spent while we were finishing our thesis. And who could forget Ms. Jollibee and her smile (I wonder how she is by the way). Oh, and what about those nights when we stood vigil in front of the VPs office to fight and claim the cum (and magna for Ms. Hum) laude medals that we almost lost due to technicality.

We may have chosen our own paths in life now, we may have different priorities as before. Months or even years may fly without us seeing each other, we may have gained (I doubt if anyone lost) a couple of pounds or so and we may now have our own families or about to go there, but I know in my heart we know that the bond of friendship remains. And no matter how much more time passed by, we’ll always be the Goddesses and Fidel.

Goddesses and Fidel, reunion in Paris na!!!!

Oasis of flowers

One of the most popular destinations here in Holland during spring is the Keukenhof. Honey and I have been planning to visit this well known garden for the longest time but somehow, the two months that this garden is open slips by so quickly that we never managed to squeeze in a chance to drop by.



L, a friend of mine since the good old auditing days, was here over the Easter holidays so honey and I grabbed the opportunity to finally see for ourselves what everyone was raving about. At first, honey was not sure how to get there but when we saw the cars starting to file up, we knew that we were in the right direction. After seeing all the cars headed towards Keukenhof, I thought it’s gonna be crazy and we’re not going to enjoy because of the huge crowd, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Even before we enter the garden, the field painted with various colours was already a site to behold. Keukenhof, which also means kitchen garden, is now on its 60th year and is situated at an area that used to be a hunting field where herbs are also planted for the kitchen of Jacoba van Beieren’s castle, thus the name. via.



I have never seen more flowers in my entire life. Tulips, lilies, daisies, amaryllis, roses, different types of orchids and so much more flowers whose names I’ve never seen before are all there in one garden. No wonder people are enamoured by this garden, it’s like a piece of paradise with its magical colours and cool breeze. I can imagine this place as an awesome venue for weddings, even prenuptial pictorials.



I am so looking forward to coming back next year, maybe even prepare a picnic basket so that we can stay longer in this oasis.

Weekend Frenzy

via

At five in the afternoon last Friday, I was already envisioning myself lounging on the sofa reading a book or watching my favourite TV series while having snacks or staying in bed until late morning. By eight in the evening, I saw my dream of a relaxed weekend slowly fading right before my eyes. I realized that I had to make a birthday cake for a friend’s daughter’s birthday the next day coupled with the fact that honey was not feeling too well that night and so I wanted to make him a comforting dinner. The moment I stepped into the house, I put on my favourite apron and started labouring in the kitchen hoping that I’ll finish everything, latest by midnight. We had dinner by around nine in the evening, I gave honey some paracetamol and tucked him into bed. I continued to work on my cake and managed to clear everything by quarter to twelve, I’m so pleased with myself, right on time.

Saturday and Sunday’s activities all happened at warp speed. I finished icing my cake, honey and I attended a dinner party on Saturday which ended at way past midnight, I cooked jam right after the party (until now that I’m writing this, I still don’t know what came over me to be cooking jam after midnight), I cooked a dinner for a dozen people for Sunday, host a dinner party at home on Sunday night, I’ve managed to try my hand on a Singaporean style tartlets from a recipe a colleague gave me and top it all off, I managed to spend time with my orchids, do some shopping and take some photos (to serve as evidence of how busy I was over the weekend hehe).

Looking back at all the things honey and I did over the weekend, I am not surprised that when my alarm clock buzzed this morning, I almost didn’t want to get out of bed and had to peel myself very slowly off the sheets and get ready for work. Weekends really come and go so quickly, I think I need another two more days to recuperate from all the weekend frenzy. ;-)

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

In my mind, I have believed that two of the most important things in a relationship are fidelity and respect, maybe not as high on my list as love and devotion but would definitely be in my top five. I firmly believe that you cannot say that you love someone without being faithful or respectful of him.

Over the weekend, a friend of my invited me for lunch, she said that she needs to vent out her frustrations with his hubby. Being the dutiful friend, I obliged. From what I heard from all her stories, her main issue with her hubby is respect. It’s nothing major really, simple stuff that sometimes, when we get overly familiar with someone, we tend to ignore. I believe when it comes to respect, not just the grand gesture counts, actually I think with respect, the littlest of things add up to more.

Ok, I know she is a friend so I have a tendency to take her side but I just have to agree with her when she asked me if it’s too much to ask not to be ignored when she talks no matter how angry his husband is. I just feel that its common decency, when someone asks you a question, the most civilized thing to do is respond. No matter how angry you are, you simply don’t let go of your respect for the one you love.

I know that being with someone, no matter how much you love that person, is sometimes tough. When I got married, I knew that it will not be always a bed of roses. But no matter how tough it gets, both of you simply must make an effort, no matter how big of an effort it is, to not loose your love and respect, at the peak of a heated argument, for that person because in the end, when everything has calmed down, the regret of having disrespected the one you love will linger. I have a rule, when I fight with someone I love, I try to keep it clean, no matter how hard it is, I try to stick with the issue at hand and be level headed. Then again that’s just me.

Honest Scrap Award

After days of complete neglect, I finally had a chance to come back to my blog and a pleasant surprise welcomed me back, a comment from Niko saying that she has gifted me with a blog award, Honest Scrap Award. From what I understand, this award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant. Thanks Niko this is such a wonderful surprise!

So what does this blog award entails? A receiver is entitled to post the nifty icon on top. You also have to (an absolute must!), choose seven other bloggers, (and to quote the instructions from Niko’s blog) “improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are, if you don’t have 7 friends”. Include in the list the links to their blogs and whoever is chosen should be informed by leaving them a comment in their blog informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog”. Finally, the receiver should enumerate 10 honest things about themselves.

Now, about the ten random things about myself….

1) I absolutely love books, any kind of books. I love to savour the smell and texture of paper as I leaf through the pages. I can sit still and be quiet for hours as long as I have a good book with me.
2) I love to travel, but I’ve realized that I only enjoy travelling immensely if I’m with honey, otherwise, the travel downgrades to an OK experience.
3) One of the drinks that I absolutely loved in Singapore is the soya milk with black jelly… yummy!
4) I am not a fruit person.
5) I prefer dogs over cats.
6) I am starting to develop a fondness for orchids, maybe because all the orchids we received as gifts last year for our house warming party are still blooming with vibrant flowers that definitely lighten up our home.
7) One of my most favourite ornaments in our home is the water fountain at the corner of our dining room, its so soothing.
8) My most uber favourite dessert would be blueberry cheesecake.
9) I’m a morning person and during weekdays, I have to be in bed by 10:30pm.
10) I love, love, love pajamas….


Now it’s quite tough to choose just 7 bloggers give this award to because ever since I devoted a significant amount of time blog hopping, I have admired a lot of blogs along the way. Here are 7 of my favourite blogs (in no particular order):

1) Pulse - this is a blog I hop to everyday, if I can, I find all the entries informative and really entertaining.
2) Wifely Steps - this blog’s posts are witty and funny and very entertaining.
3) Witsandnuts - I find it easy to relate to her entries having lived in Dubai/Abu Dhabi for a while. Her posts bring back fond memories
4) This Randomness - this blog is so candid and homey.
5) Mrs G - this is where I found a lot of informative stuff specially when it comes to running my own home.
6) Everything but the Kitchen Sink - this is one very entertaining blog and a cute baby also helps a lot.
7) Fit4All - I’ve browsed through this site and found the entries refreshing.

Knots are getting tied

Last week has been one hell of a busy week. I was buried with tons of reports to produce for month end, quarter end, year end and all possible fiscal-period-end anyone could ever think of. This is why I’ve been slacking on my blog for the past couple of days.

This morning, when I finally got to read my personal emails, I was stunned, there were several emails from several friends updating me about the status of their wedding preparations. All of their weddings are happening this year. How could I have not noticed how many of my friends are getting hitched this year? Six of them to be exact, 4 of which are very, very close friends (of honey’s and mine). All of them invited us to be a part of their celebration but how on earth would we manage to go back to Manila at least three times this year? When I told this to my sister, she said, “your age group is really the marrying age, that explains why you have lots of friends getting married in a year.” I can buy that explanation. One of my best friends, actually, she’s also one of the bride-to-be, told me that maybe, there are a lot of our friends getting married this year because according to feng shui, this is a good year for a year-of-the-rooster born to get married, which most of the people born in 1981 would be. I can buy that as well, coz I know a lot of people consulting feng shui before tying the knot.

Whatever reason it may be, honey and I are looking forward to a very festive and momentous year for a lot of our friends. I am so excited to see all of them get married as I’m sure they were when they attended ours. Since we decided to celebrate honey’s birthday this year in Manila, we’re sure to be able to attend to two weddings which happen in the same week, what joy! Birthdays and weddings are perfect combinations after all. Now, we have to make a crucial decision, what other month are we going back to Manila? Ninuninuninu…. We really have to decide soon if we want to save on ticket costs. One of the disadvantages in living far from home, you have to choose some important dates, you can’t be there in all.

Charming City of Ghent

I really love it when we have friends coming over to visit, it’s the perfect excuse to revisit places and rediscover cities that you have been to before. Honey and I visited Brussels, Ghent and Bruges during Christmas break last year, however, since our hotel was located in Brussels, we only spent a couple of hours exploring the very charming city of Ghent which was in no way enough to cover what the city has to offer. Our home was running on very tight schedules this past couple of weeks since we’ve been having families and friends visiting us. As exhausting as it was, we all had a great time and of course a perfect alibi to revisit Ghent.

Together with our friends L and M, we planned a road trip to Paris stopping at Ghent to have at least half a day to explore the city before we continue our journey. After two hours on the road, we entered the Ghent city center and our friends were really impressed with the architecture that greeted us. We proceeded to St. Baafsplein where a couple of popular buildings are located. We entered the St. Baaf’s Cathedral, which has its origin in a chapel founded in 942.
The Cathedral is a monument of gothic architecture, it houses a museum of sculpture, carving wrought iron work and paintings. Just outside the cathedral is the Square of St. Baaf where one can see the general view of Belfort and the Hall Towers.
Adjacent to the square are rows of shops selling hand-made Belgian truffles and pralines. Boy did we have fun in those rows and rows and rows of heavenly chocolates.


While walking through the city center, we stopped by a waffle shop and bought ourselves some Belgian waffles coz no visit in Belgium is complete without sampling this treat.
We also had a chance to shop, of course that was inevitable, there were three of us girls and the shops were like calling on to us to come and enter and shop, haha.

It was really fun to have another chance to explore the historical streets of Ghent. Definitely worth the stop.