Where to go this summer?

For weeks we have been wondering where to go this summer. Being in the heart of Europe, one can easily go somewhere around the continent especially now that aside from being an EU member, CZ is also a part of Schengen. The big question is not how, but where to go?

We will be tagging A's parents with us this time, that is if Tatka could bear it to part with his beloved cats for at least a week. It will be our way of saying thank you to them for everything they are and everything they have done for us. We thought of Switzerland, of its picture-perfect mountains and lakes, of the Alps. And once we'll be there, why not head for Italy, too?

Then, I remember "Cool." I'm sure all of you have seen this Gwen Stefani music video. I love her vids, this one in particular because of the picturesque place where it was shot. I immediately googled it and found out it was shot at Lake Como in Italy. Great, Como is actually near the Swiss border! Then again, traveling by car may be exhausting for the parents.... Hay pastilan....

Anywho, enjoy this glossy vid.

New obsession

It's not really new. Food has always been one of my loves. The most amazing thing, even for me, is how I eat almost ten times a day and still remain a skinny bean.

Anyway, this new obsession is the Indian restaurant at the top floor of Palladium mall. (Palladium is a newly opened mall by Namesti Republiky.) It's called "ChanChala." It has a nice ambience and of course, great food. We had lunch there for the first time on my birthday and we got hooked right away. I love spicy food. Thai, Indian or any cuisine that guarantees chilli on each dish, you can surely count me to gobble it with gusto.

"ChanChala" and its staff also know customer service, something that is virtually non-existent here. This, coupled with great food and great ambience, makes me hooked maybe for life.

Tea for me

Paranoia is my middle name when it comes to popping pills. You cannot make me take one unless I'm almost unconcious from pain or practically moving in the bathroom or, well, you get the point. I don't know, I just don't trust these little white objects that promise instant relief. You can't really tell what they contain. I feel like each time I pop them in my mouth, I kill some cells in my brain and I'd be brain dead soon.

I turn to tea to ease discomfort or to shoo the pain out of the door. At least I know they are just leaves and no other twenty thousand chemicals mixed in them. These three kinds of tea in the picture above have a special place in our cupboard as I use them often:

1. "Medovkova"- or Melissa herbal tea. There was a time last year when I suffered from insomnia. I was sleeping only two hours a day for two weeks straight. My boss told me to drink this tea three times a day and voila- insomnia was history! I still drink it when I have trouble sleeping and it always works.

2. "Heřmankový" or Camomile. This is good to settle any upset stomach or to ease menstrual pain. If you suffer from dysmenorrhea, (I can't believe I spelled this out right without checking Ms. Webster first haha) this is the tea for you.

3. "Migrenan"- It's obvious it means migraine. For me, migraine is the flag bearer of discomfort department. I have it too often especially before or after my period. This tea is a concoction of several herbs that include melissa and even dried nettle. I drank this during the weekend because I had a nasty migraine again. After several mugs, I felt better.

So there. Take tea if you're paranoid about pills like me.

Feeling (not) good

There are two songs that alternately play in my head when I'm feeling good; U2's Beautiful Day and/or Kevyn Lettau's Sunlight. I call them my feel good songs because they do play on cue when I feel fantastic about something in me or around me. Today I had to summon all positive energies to hear them. Not my day. I don't hear anything. Not a single chord.

I've been having this splitting migraine since yesterday. I woke up with the right side of my head throbbing with intense pain. I knew immediately this was the kind which would pull me down to the couch the whole weekend. Still I wont give up without a fight. I've uploaded one song below to convince myself it is indeed a beautiful day.



Speaking of U2, there are rumors that they will have a concert in Manila sometime in October. I wish they would have a concert here in Prague asap. I'd be the first one to dash for a ticket. Oh well, right now I could only wish this migraine would leave me in peace.

Baking mishaps

The kids and I baked carrot cake at school last Wednesday afternoon. I brought my own round pan but the crazy thing about this pan is it leaks a bit if I didn't use an electric mixer for the batter. True enough, it started dripping the moment I put it in the oven. This oven, by the way, is a character. It looks like it belonged way back to the jurassic age. Small, stained, scratched and rusting, it certainly had seen better days. It still works, which is what matters, but a single drip from the batter landing on the sooting wire at the bottom would mean smoke coming out from the oven.

I solved the problem by getting rid of the wire rack and using the rectangular baking pan for support. I was about to give myself a pat on my shoulder when I realized it would take time for the cake to be done this way especially the middle part. What the heck, I'll put it over the wire rack again in a while when it has hardened a bit, this I told myself. That's exactly what I did except that when I put the wire rack with the pan on it, the right edge got dislodged. To my horror, almost half of the still liquid batter was spilling all over the bottom! Sure enough, the entire school was right away profused with smoke. It was everywhere even when we opened almost all the windows to let the fresh air in.

Then the school's caretaker rushed inside with this wild look in her eyes. She was yelling something like "where is it, where is it?" in Czech. Where is what? In her barrage of words I only caught one that sounded like electricity and got it. She thought the school was on fire! I shook my head and tried to tell her in my elementary Czech that there was no fire but there was no stopping her from running around the room desperately looking for the faulty wire. I stood in the kitchen waiting for her to come and calmly opened the oven when she did. Next thing I knew, she was bursting in hysterical laughter.

In between fits of laughter she told me the teachers from upstairs were alarmed of the smoke and called her to check. When I told this to A, he said it would have been really something if one of the teachers called the fire brigade and they would come to hose the school down with water. I'm glad all the drama didn't end this way.

Despite everything, our carrot cake still emerged near perfect and was a hit among everyone who tasted it.

Lesson learned

Are you a shopper who can't wait to get out of the store? I am. I don't even bother getting my receipt sometimes much less bother looking at it. I always dash off from the counter and out of the store in record time.

The other week I was mechanically shoving my groceries in a plastic bag when I glanced at the screen. Waitaminute, how come there were two boxes of fiber crackers listed when I only had one? And three cans of spicy sardines? I only had two! I groped for words in Czech and told the lady of her mistakes. She had to call somebody to help her delete those items.

On the bus on my way home, there was this nagging feeling that I was still a bit ripped off. I scanned the receipt and there it was-- "Norsky salat" for 25kč. I have no idea what it was and it certainly was not in my bag. Too late for me to complain, but for sure there wont be a next time for this. Now I monitor the screen like a hawk because hmmm, you'll never know.

Raine

I'm suddenly having thoughts of Raine. They say I have her smile. I remind them of her. But I'm just me, a reminder of her.

Beautiful, perfect Raine. In my eyes she was everything. Freckles and all. Though maybe she loved too much.

Raine swinging me up in the air. Days spent in total abandon. Laughters mingling together. Running around fields of gold in Tabon-tabon.

Then, calachuchis... In the end, was it worth the living and the loving? Or the color tangerine? I know I promised her birds of paradise, even storms and thunder.

I'm having thoughts of Raine. Pens, tongues, papers-- they wont be enough, but I can bring her back by just closing my eyes.

They say I'm like her. I blink, I'm unsure. My world crumbles every now and then, but everyday I try. I try to be like Raine.


Tomorrow is my Mom's 18th death anniversary. I was in my teens when she passed away. I used to doodle or scribble something about her to deal with it. This was one of those scribblings which I found in, where else, but the journal I gave to A many many years back.

The largest malls in the world

One of the very first few things I noticed when I moved to Prague was the size of its malls. I was expecting "megamalls" like in PI but was either relieved or disappointed to realize malls here are like smaller department stores back home. I don't like big malls and malling but when I shop, which is once in a technicolor moon, I'd like to find everything in one place.

So this question struck me as really funny. You know, when you are from the third world and you move to the so called first world, it's expected to be at the receiving end of stupid questions. I've been asked if PI is where cannibals still live, or if we catch mice and make adobo out of them for dinner. I don't get offended though, I just marvel at how ignorant we people tend to be at times.

Anywho, the funny question I'm talking about is, Do we have restaurants in the Philippines? I don't exactly remember what my answer was but I think it was something to this effect; Last time I checked we had millions of them. Maybe it was too much for the ignoramus to believe but I couldn't care less. A fact is a fact, something that can't be changed-- same as ignorance by choice.

What does this have to do with the title of this post? I just found out today that among the 10 largest malls in the world, Philippines has three of them. I bet there are restaurants at least in one of them, wouldn't you think so? :)