"Two words"

I stumbled on this video of Lea Salonga's wedding when I was searching for the movie soundtrack of Mulan. I saw the ABS-CBN special three years ago and was truly wowed by her wedding vow. She didn't just say it, she also sang it.


Last Thursday was mine and A's third wedding anniversary. I will always have the same words like Lea-- "I do."

For those who never heard of her before, (really, are there some?) she is a Filipina who is behind the singing voice of Disney's Mulan, Princess Jasmine, among others. She's also the original Kim of Miss Saigon.)

P.I. in pics (last part)

PALAWAN

Where to eat:

I'm glad the tricycle driver insisted we try eating at Kalui. It was lunchtime when we arrived in Puerto Princesa from Cebu so I told him to take us to Chowking if they had one. His answer was to ask me and A if we liked seafoods. That was my mission in life during the whole trip, to gobble tons of them. "Well then please try the best seafood restaurant in our town," he said. And so we did. And we were so glad we did.

Spicy clam soup is served for free during lunch and dinner. This poor prawn eventually landed in A's stomach. Kalui is open daily except Sundays.

Another must visit place in Puerto is Kinabuchs Bar and Grill very near Kalui (upper right pic with me looking like a native mushroom myself). Puerto Princesa has virtually no night life and the only place, aside from the perennial videokes, where you can hang-out is at Kinabuchs. Great food and live bands are their selling points.

Where to go:

Butterfly Garden- you can hire a tricycle to take you to this place. I forgot how much the entrance fee was but foreigners are asked to pay more than the local tourists. Talk about discrimination in another form.

Crocodile Farm- is quite far from the center but you can drop by Butterfly Garden first then head to this farm or the other way around. The very helpful tricycle driver who insisted we eat at Kalui offered to tour us around Puerto the whole afternoon for Php 500.00. He helped us so much without ripping us off. (Note: 1 USD-Php 45-46)

Sabang Beach and Underground River- the same driver recommended us to get a guided tour package from Topstar. He said it's the most reliable and the cheapest, and of course, he was right. The package was for Php 1,200/pax, all inclusive. Sabang is awesome, the kind of place which you'd like to visit again and again.

What to do:

Island-hopping. Honda Bay is relatively near the city center. You can get a package from travel agencies like Topstar to go island-hopping there for PhP 900.00 all inclusive. It includes boat rentals, lunch, pick-up and drop off at your hotel. We opted to go independently because Topstar didn't have a tour scheduled for that day. The greatest thing about Puerto Princesa is the tour packages, boat rentals, etc, are somewhat regulated by the local goverment complete with a receipt. In most parts of the country expect to be ripped off if you're traveling with a foreigner.

Above pics: 1 and 2. A hammock in Panda Island. Not a single soul is at the beach.
3. How Snake Island got its name. It looks like a long snake during low tide.
4. A resort under construction. This wasn't a planned stop but on our way back to Honda Bay A still wanted to explore more. Fortunately our guide knows the owner of this island so we were allowed to roam there freely.

Palawan made it to the very short list of the places in P.I. that I truly truly heart. My only regret was we were not able to go to El Nido. We were suddenly tired of traveling to different places in barely four weeks, and we thought we could only go to El Nido from Puerto by land. It's a 9-10-hour trip, so we were told. We only learned there are SEAir flights twice or thrice a week from Puerto when we were about to board our flight back to Cebu. Maybe next time we are in P.I. we'll finally be able to visit El Nido and its much talked about natural grandeur.

Templates and tennis

I'm so bored with my template but have no time nor patience to do something about it. I don't do pink much but the other colors blogspot offers are too unappealing to even deserve a second glance. Sigh.

Anywho...

What an afternoon it was yesterday at Sazka Arena. The match between Federer and Berdych was so thrilling. First two sets were on tie-breaks. Berdych played brilliantly but of course it was not enough to crush Mr. Swiss down. Federer won three sets to love. This guy is so great at tennis I can only wildly guess he probably sold his soul to the devil. Either that or the universe is gay and has a serious crush on him.

The deciding match was played by Stepanek against Warwinka. If Stepanek would win then he would secure C.R. a place for the World Group next year. Just when he was close to locking it in the third set, he started badly cramping and called for a medical time-out. It was so emotionally excruciating to watch him limping back to the court, but he pulled it off in a tie-break which sent the crowd roaring and the Swiss team packing.

Oh I so love tennis and I so loved that match.

Davis Cup Weekend

Yesterday we dashed off to Sazka Arena from work to watch the one and only Roger Federer play against Radek Stepanek. Prague is host to Davis Cup's World Group play-off between Czech Republic and Switzerland. The match was predictable at first-- Federer won the first two sets without much sweat, but Stepanek made the match more entertaining when he beat the world no. 1 in the third set; 7-6. Federer finished the match in the fourth set in another tie-break.

The Czechs cheered hard for their own though they knew that beating Federer was wishful thinking. To his credit, Stepanek fought hard to the end, earning the loudest cheer from the crowd after the match.

I can't wait for tomorrow. Federer will play against Czech's number one, Tomas Berdych. I'm sure it will be one h of a match.

MG2

The text below is in Surigaonon. This vid is most requested and much awaited by my elementary batchmates so I specially uploaded this for them.



Ay-ay si Clarence, grabe man magpakiay-kiay. Lupos ako kay di mak gani mahibayo mag swing. Pila kaha ini kabuyan na pomraktes? Kalaong nak amo nay modaug sa Best in Talent, na ija gajud mabutang an Brgy. Embarcadero sa mapa kay tiaw mo di Venus nan outfit? Pero nalupos paman gihapon sa pakurog-kurog ni Febe pagkanta. Pero si Rodel gajud an winner bagan dinhi na parte. Intawon an toyab na walang kamalay-malay, na igo da unta mag assist sa make-up artist ni Clarence, imbira pa gajud para makig duet sa ija? Ingka bayran ba kaha ini nan talent fee?

Na hala, pipol, enjoy! Hinaut unta di ini makit-an sa ila mga bata kay basin magduda unoy tinuod na gender nan ila papa.

That week

Didn't I say that there was a week I was like a woman possessed in the kitchen? I was beating, whipping and mixing as if these activities were the sole purpose of my existence. I wonder if A was happy I was finally off my undomestic goddess gown, or was he extremely horrified at the thought that he had to eat everything I baked? I have this suspicion it was the latter. Good thing there was this timely baby shower for Tekla and A was spared of having to eat all these:

Finally I baked my first blueberry muffins. This is another easy recipe courtesy of the internet which I tweaked a bit. I finally found baking cups of the right size at Hypermarket-Chodov after searching high and low for them for days. Then last night, while we were at Interspar for something else, we saw like a gazillion of them in all different sizes and colors. Really, the universe has a sense of humor that I sometimes don't find funny.

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups fresh/frozen blueberries
2 teaspoons sugar, for topping (optional)

-Preheat oven at 375F or 175C.
-Cream together butter and sugar.
-Add egss and mix well. Stir in milk.
-Combine dry ingredients and add to the mixture. Stir to combine.
-Gently fold in blueberries.
-Fill greased muffin cups or paper about 2/3 full.
-Sprinkle tops with little sugar. (optional)
-Bake for 20 minutes.

Note: You can also use canned blueberries. I only had a cup of frozen blueberries the second time I baked it so I mixed it with canned ones instead. There's no difference in the taste, only the muffins are bluer than these ones in the pic.

P.I. in pics (part 3)

PANGLAO ISLAND, BOHOL

Bohol has always been one of my favorite places in the Philippines. It has everything you can feast your eyes upon-- hills, beaches, waterfalls, caves-- you name it, Bohol has it. The people are sunny and chirpy. You ask one for directions and the entire barrio will be glad to help you. Its being so accessible from Cebu is a plus. I simply heart Bohol along with Surigao and Cebu.

Panglao is its answer to Boracay. This was my third time there but the first two were spent in Dumaluan Beach where on my second stay I had difficulties in maneuvering my kayak and almost hit an entire family with it. It's open to the public though Bohol Beach Club is off limits to non-guests. However, one can pay for the entrance for you to use its facilities and it's also consumable. I remember Dumaluan having places devoid of people, but this time when we dropped by, it was teeming with them we had to go somewhere relatively quieter; Alona Beach. It's more or less 3kms. away from Dumaluan and it's far more expensive than I thought.

When I say expensive, I mean it by Filipino standard. July is off-peak season in P.I. but the cheapest double room we found at Alona Beach was still for Php1,600. Breakfast consisting of toast, butter and jam with your choice of instant coffee or juice is for Php150. I guess this means it would cost twice more during the peak season. Of course, if you have dollars and euros to burn, these prices don't really count. (1 USD- Php45 or 46)

At Alona Beach, the sea is crowded with boats like these all the time. These boats will take you to the neighboring islands of Pamilacan where you can go dolphin and whale-watching, and to Balicasag which is considered one of the best diving spots in the country. Boat rental for a day ranges from Php 2,000- 5,000.

These girls were all smiles while selling fresh fish, fruit and veggies. Notice the blue fish? It's called parrot fish but seriously I've never eaten it or heard anybody ate it all my life. I thought they were just for aquariums? But what do I know about them except the fact that fish used to be my daily diet?

Alona Beach at dusk. These coconut trees were heavy with thousands of birds (I'm not sure what kind) settling in for the night.

Wow, brownies!

I was like a woman possessed two weeks ago. I was baking like there was no tomorrow. I baked blueberry cake, and before all slices were eaten by the unfortunately appointed (or forced) lone consumer that is A, I noticed the bananas in the cupboard were close to rotting -- I had to bake banana bread as well. Still I was driven by unseen and unknown forces in the kitchen to bake some more. I decided to try my hands in making brownies.

I found an easy recipe from southernfood.about.com. I think I´m beginning to really love this website. The recipe is called Nutty Brownies because of the walnuts. I had to substitute them with roasted cashew, though. There wasn´t a single walnut available at the grocery near our place. When I had my first bite I thought I had to lessen the cocoa next time because it kinda made the brownies bitter. I was wrong though-- I´m not a lover of chocolates and coffee, hence the initial reaction. I noticed they taste better after a day or two, and it´s good to pair them with my ever favorite green tea.

NUTTY BROWNIES

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa, unsweetened
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (or cashew)

- Cream butter and sugar until well blended. Add vanilla and eggs; beat until light and fluffy. Add cocoa, mixing in well. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking powder; add to the creamed mixture and stir until well blended.

- Stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or cashew). Spread in a buttered and floured 8-inch square pan. Sprinkle with remaining chopped nuts. Bake at 350°F or 180C for about 25 minutes. Cool in pan then cut in squares. Makes about 16 2-inch brownies.