Dear Fridah

Dear Fridah,

You know I love you and that you collect Barbies but can you please buy me this? Please pretty please?

Ain't she pretty for me?

Adorable Hershey's  sash.

I will forever be grateful to you. You know I do not like Barbie and could care less about chocolates but there is something about Barbie and Hershey's together. My birthday was last October but Christmas is 43 days away.

xoxo... I know you love me too. Kisses!

In Barbie's name,

Bads

My personal pet peeves

In between eating my adobo, checking facebook updates and getting hold of Hubby, I am compelled to share to you my pet peeves. As in... annoying stuff that could easily evaporate my good mood. We all have our own little ways and views, but what in the name of God, is that perfume? Lemme start! By the way, this is in no particular order.

1. Did I say I hate STRONG perfume?  The reason perfumes have spray ( or roll ons ) honey, is because you apply SPARINGLY! If it was meant to be poured, believe me, they would put screw caps. Are we clear on this?

2. I hate people who do not RSVP. Be it invites, phone calls, messages, voicemail and the likes. All you gotta do is respond! Be it... " So sweet of you to invite me,  I will definitely be there.", or "No way I am coming to see you , Bitch!", or if you are really avoiding the person, revenge is the way to go... call back when you know you can leave a voicemail yourself and say whatever!

3. I do not like annoying people who thinks they can broadcast their lives through the wonderful innovation called  phone. "Hi, are you sure? Are you at the mall yet? No, I am still here at  Stop and Shop. I need to buy sanitary napkins and buy Tinactin for my husband." Do I really need to know you are having your menstrual visit and that your husband have alipunga? ( for my non Filipino readers, athlete foot). Goodness gracious. I will let you in on another  great innovation... text messaging. Try it sometimes when you feel like telling whoever, your most recent  rhinoplasty has gone bad. Seriously, do you really need to talk so loud like I need to know?

4. I hate it when someone always look over on my computer screen or what's on my iPhone ( or blackberry to some) . Guess what, you can ask me, do not hurt yourself by twisting and bending too much just to see what I am typing. I call these people, "Leanovers". If you need to lean over to see the screen, don't! Gosh, your eyeballs are falling off from its peripheral socket!

5. Bad breath. Bad breath. Bad breath.

6. Kids wearing adult clothes? Please! Do not adulterate your children. Believe me, you would not want them adulterate themselves later, why would you now? It is not cute. It is not cute. It is not cute. The mall is not the place for role playing, neither is the church or the local grocery shop! Mother daughter matching is good, but daughter wearing mother's, big NO. Worse is, mother wearing what her daughter should wear. Micro mini is not good at 50, even if you have Tina Turner legs. You understand me? Are we good here?

7. I hate it when waitstaffs refer to everyone as "you guys". Whatever happened to " Are you ready to order?" I would take that anytime than, " you guys ready?" I know it may sound cool and new but if want to be youguys for the night, i would stay home and youguys my kids, know what I  mean, you guys?

8. I hate it when someone presumes ( or assumes) THAT i AM STUPID BECAUSE I have an accent! Yes, I have an accent but I am not stupid. Recently, Kevin Freedman ( yes, man, I will blog about it every chance I get), thought I was stupid, I asked him to spell his name for my job and he said K (8 seconds) E, another 8 seconds V, V as in Victory,  I, yet another 8 seconds N. Ke-Vin! Ke-vin! After that he murmured, "stupid" and hanged up the phone. I called him back and I gave him the lecture of his life. All my life, being Promdi ( from the province), Manilenos think my Tagalog is so "matigas". Yeah, it must be! I am Ilocano, why, can you speak Ilocano the way it should be? I thought so! Lesson... it is okay to think it sounds funny, even cute when someone has  an accent  but never assume that because of it,  he/she is stupid. That may very well be the case but more often than not, it isn't.

9. I hate it when people brag too much because of their titles. Atty. Soman Do, Engr. Mali Kaman, Dr. Taran Tado and the likes. The same thing goes with Legal Officer 3, Management Trainee4 (whatever level that is, trainee ka pa rin!). I understand, use these official designation with business and official communications. When writing to your friends, please use your personal email unless necessary! I respect and admire achievement but to brag it to me, get lost. It takes more accomplishments if that is the case. Better yet, let me discover it myself, isn't it grander when I say," I didn't know you were a rocket scientist, wow!" I think I should delete number 9. Should I? Delete, delete not.

10. I do not like fake people. Fake friends. Fake smiles. Fake, fake fake! You may not like me but at least I am real. WYSIWYG! Pretentious! I laugh loud, that is another person's pet peeve, I'm sure but do not say otherwise. Say it. In my face. Straight. It is better.

I can add more to this list but for now, this is it! Now, boys and girls I need to submit some paper works so I can claim back my Bernadette A. Llaga, MT(H) ASCP designation that expired September 2009.

Writer's block

I'm on it! Actually, I am trapped!  What happened to writer's diarrhea?

KC

KC is growing! Here are a few shots I took last Sunday!

She is sweet and very dedicated to school. She likes to draw and design, role playing as a teacher. I think she will make a great teacher!

This is my Aparri, my hometown

Feeling nostalgic maybe because of my sister's recent visit here in COLD Boston, I am writing about my little coastal town of Aparri. Growing up there, you never spend time alone. It was a real community. Looking back now, I am amazed on how  little things can make me happy. I am talking little things. Like, just walking in the hot sands to the beach, flying homemade kites, playing" turumpo", playing under the rain, climbing the "lugo" tree, playing "sungka" and my favorite... just plain hide and seek.

Turumpo

Turumpo is made of wood, a tiny a cone-shaped toy that can be made to spin.

Homemade kite or saranggola. Since we were poor, ours was made of plastic grocery bags, some bamboo and "sinulid" or nylon. 

Here are Aparrianos playing sungka. Photo courtesy of adegarcia@wordpress.com.

Mind you, this is the real one. In the full moon, dark night and vast neighborhood to roam and hide. You see, in my little paradise, you can still see the sky, as bright as it should be, without any sky pollution... you know, those annoying satellites, too many airplanes hovering and giant billboards. I love taguan or hide and seek. It is so much fun! Then you can go to sleep soundly after that.

"Tagu taguan, maliwanag ang buwan" ( Hide and seek the moon is bright). Tama ba?

Oh, the joy of childhood. Our little fishing village seems to be extra  special too. We are surrounded by water! We have the Cagayan River, touted as the longest river in the Philippines and the China Sea. Our town's unofficial slogan is " Where the River meets the Sea."  Aparri delta boasts a windy experience because here in Aparri, lies the Cagayan River's mouth. If you choose serene swimming in a river, go! If you want the rough waves of the ocean, you can too! It is a paradise for water babies like me. In fact, it is the favorite stop for the summer of the whole province! No one can make that claim in the whole Cagayan! Although it does not have white sand beaches, it has these grayish, fine granular characteristic, and the beach line seems to go on and on. If  I am not mistaken, only in Aparri can you find gakka, little edible shells where you just pour hot water, little bit of salt and presto! A yummy treat!

Water breakers

Always a pleasure to walk in these sands, you never know what you will find.

...beautiful sunset. you shoud see the sunrise! heavenly!

You would always see fishermen take a walk to scout the waters. For some reason, they have the skills to know when it is good to go fishing.

 And here, my friends is gakka, the male variety. i have yet to discover it's scientific name!

This is the way commercial gakka catchers do it. Me? I just wait for the waves to  pull back, press my foot on the sand, if I see a tiny hole, presto... gakka!

The colorful bancas. We call them barangay--- ba-ra-ngay!

My family happens to own bancas for fishing purposes. This brings me to what makes me so happy I was born there! I love seafood!  I love seafood! Did I say, I love seafood? I do! We always get the freshest catch of the day. Swordfish, shrimps and tanigue abound. In fact, Hubby was grossed out when he saw me eating what we call the "jumping salad". It's fresh shrimps, still alive and jumping, pour sugarcane vinegar, chilli ( siling labuyo) and a dash of salt. Eat! I super duper love it. Same goes with squid salad. We make ours simple. Slice squid into bits including the head part, vinegar, siling labuyo, and onions!

The "pusit" in Aparri is delicious, chewy but not rubbery and a hint of sweetness. They change  colors too. For real! Depending on how light strikes, it's purple, bluish, reddish and array of colors abound.

We use these "sili" to flavor anything!

Prawns are the variety most likely to be available in Aparri. My sisters and I love eating little shrimps as our "jumping salad". Eating it this way we inherited from our Tatang!

Busy weekend

Lotsaa things went on this weekend. I know I have a lot to talk about.  A lot of messages from FB, more notifications and tons of voicemail. I will be right back in to regualr programming maybe in a day or two. Meanwhile I leave you  with this cute Madonna audition  video for Fame in1982. Yes, my dear... Madonna auditions!