Prawn Crackers, anyone?

Where else did Kyle get his appetite for crackers and chips? Of course, from his father! Look at his pictures and you bet he grabs the bowl to get the chips and gets mad when you get it from him. The prawn crackers were given as free appetizers at Flavors of China. We had to request for a refill because Kyle can’t get enough. He’s lucky his kuya was sleeping in the stroller while he enjoyed nibbling the chips. If not, it’s gonna be a riot because Kuya is also a chips addict.

My Top 10 Halo-halo List

Not only during summer that I am craving for Halo-halo, smoothies or anything with ice. Actually, it’s a whole-year-round favorite. My food tripping always include dessert and this will be the first time I’ll share my favorite desserts (cakes will be taken in another blog post later).

Most of the items in the list are already popular and you must have tried them in one of your regular visits to the malls. Here’s Irmee’s top ten Halo-halo/Ice Desserts:

10. Green Mango Shake

9. Mais Con Hielo (Try Goldilocks’ with Ice cream for only 39 pesos)

8. Quickly Taro with all-in (P55)

7. Jollibee Frost Blends Strawberry – this is the latest addition to Jollibee’s desserts, ok din ang Moch but I like the Strawberry more, can be compared to Strawberries and Cream of Starbucks :)

6. Jollibee Saba con hielo – (P27)

5. Chowking Halo-halo with Ice cream (P60)

4. Razon’s Halo-halo (P65)– Pampanga’s product also known for its Pancit luglug. I love Razon’s even if the ingredients are not that many. The ice is so “pino” and you can distinguish the taste of Macapuno and Leche Flan from the rest. A bit pricey for only few ingredients but I guess it’s the ice you’re paying for.

3. Flavors of China’s Buco Pandan Sherbet (P55)

2. Little Quiapo’s Halo Halo Special (P90) –



According to my mom, Little Quiapo has been there eversince. It’s a popular hang-out way way back so I was not surprised when I went to the BF branch with my officemates, most of the customers are seniors or balikbayans with seniors hahaha. Aside from their Kare-kare and Sinigang na Hipon, I love their Halohalo. Theirs was placed in a very tall glass overflowing with ingredients. It’s challenging my appetite, I thought I could not eat it all. “Pwede na ksi sa 2 persons ang isang tall glass.” Just looking at it, I feel already satisfied. “Ang sarap tingnan, parang ayokong kainin”. But I didn’t let the ice cream melt, so I grabbed my spoon and started mixing…and eating. For 90 pesos their special Halohalo is super sulit!. The ingredients are innumerable and delicious! Sarap Balik-balikan!

1. Flavors of China’s Halo-Halo Sherbet (P70) – Since it’s a sherbet it’s the closest thing to ice cream. You can’t see the ice shavings because there’s no ice but creamy foam that is so delectable. This is what makes the halo-halo from FOC stand out from the rest. For me, this is the best! You gotta try it to believe it. Happy Eating!

Grey’s Anatomy – a series to watch

I couldn’t sleep last Saturday night and I found myself watching the season ender episode of Grey’s Anatomy. I think I already saw one or two episodes but it didn’t made an impact on me as Prisonbreak until today. It’s only now that I really paid attention and learned about the characters. Knowing me, I’d easily fall for Izzie and Derek but later while watching the Season 1 DVD from episodes 1-10 (Good thing, my sister Wendy has a copy), I’ve learned to love the character of Meredith Grey – the smart and hot (like me hahaha ) intern where the story revolves. The other characters are equally good and almost funny. George is the secret admirer of Meredith, who is also her roommate and sometimes, you could think of as gay. Izzie the tall and sexy model-turned-doctor who is too attached to her patients, Cristina Yang, the Korean intern who would do anything to scrub or do the stuff in the OR and Alex, the hunk but shallow intern who is always teasing Izzie. Of course, the resident and attending doctors characters – Dr. Bailey, Dr. Shepherd (Derek – Meredith’s lover) and Dr. Burke makes every episode as exciting as Derek and Meredith’s relationship.

I can’t wait to finish the whole DVD and start with the second season where I first left off. I remember the nights I’m watching ER with the same setting. It’s a different feeling watching a hospital scene where in reality, I’d faint at the sight of blood and hate the smell of hospitals. I remember the only time I stopped watching ER was when George Clooney retired from the show. In the these episodes, he fell in love with nurse Gloria who later became a doctor too. Hmmm, hospital romance is exciting indeed it got me hooked.

Achilles meets Batista

I was surprised to see Monette and her family at Festival Mall. We were taking pictures of Achilles and Aloysius in the kiddie rides when I saw a familiar face and true enough, it was Monette, my only girl officemate aside from our boss at IT department of my previous employer. My inaanak Batista was there. It was my first time to see him. “Ang laki na niya! At mabuti na lang hindi nagmana sa ina, etchetera etchetera hehehe” Good thing, we brought digital cameras with us so we took pictures. I’m really glad to see Monette there. She’s been to Japan for months now and our communication is through email and YM lang. I didn’t notice that she gained weight until yesterday. Hahaha and me hitsura ang papa ha….Marlyn, you’ll die with envy..

Weekend at La Marea

To test and practice Aloy if he has not forgotten his lessons, we went swimming at La Marea. Of course, the whole family was there. This is Achilles second time to be in a pool. We were very excited and since it was near our place we were there in a few minutes. The place is not for public use, only the La Marea residents and guests of residents can use the La Marea Club facilities. We thank Jom for sponsoring us. The weather was not too hot and there were only a few people there mostly kids, so we enjoyed our swimming. Aloy has found new friends – Diego and Matthew who was also having swimming lessons there. We had the whole gazebo to ourselves so picnic was fun. Before we went home, we had tripping at the new phase the La Marea Gardens and Trails. We had fun viewing the latest model houses. Aloysius kept on telling us that he wanted to live there! With the kind of community and the feeling that you’re really close to nature, how I secretly wished that too. Of course, Aloy is only after the swimming pool, playground and his new found friends. We went home before lunch.

Aloysius’ graduation from swimming

Finally, Aloy finished his swimming lessons. We attended the graduation and witnessed how Aloy carry out his newly learned skills. At first, I was disappointed because from what I saw, I’m not sure if I can leave Aloy alone in the water. Later, I realized that his lessons only covered the breathing (bubbles), flutter kick and gliding thus the basic strokes were not yet included. From the brochure handed out to me, the program he attended is only for toddlers and the one with more advanced strokes is for 6 years and old and above.

After learning from the coach that Aloy is comfortable in the water and not crying or afraid unlike some of his classmates, I was already contented. Still, I’m proud of my son even if he only wants to play and not pay attention to the coach. He is still too young to be serious about swimming. Maybe later, my future Eric Buhain will be awakened. Hehehe. Expecting too much again. 

And the credit goes to...

I was glad I was not there at Appenzeler for the celebration of our company’s Information Security Management System or ISO 27001certification. If not, I would have walked out on them. I don’t know if it was intentional but the opening remarks is enough to make any member of our group belittled. True, it was a concerted effort and everybody deserves to be congratulated but singling out BTS is too much. There were many policies made for BTS and most system requirements came from them but if it were not for the efforts of our guys to guide and required from them (I bet they’re clueless on ISMS), the BTS group was like a lost sheep without a shepherd. Hello! Whatever our department (and even the Project Manager) did to make the certification possible is now forgotten.

I don’t want to rant again about my work, but I can’t help but express unfair treatment that I and perhaps my co-workers received (but they’re just insensitive about it).

And why am I blogging about this? Maybe I expect too much or I’m reading too much management books particularly Customer-Focused Quality by Hinton/Schaeffer which says about how to champion quality –

“We want to accomplish meaningful things in our life that make a difference, we want to be recognized for our accomplishments and we want to be complimented for a job well done. This is likely to be true as long as people have feelings and are driven by a sense of accomplishment.”

Aloysius - Ready to swim

For this summer, we enrolled Aloy in Eric Buhain's Swimming Program for kids at Alabang Metropolis. We were all excited, especially Aloy that we bought him a complete swim gear, a suit, speedo goggles and arm floater (kickboard to follow). Today, he already learned the exercises/stretching before swimming and breathing in and under water. I hope he'll be an Eric Buhain too.

Easter Fun Day!

Our weekend is not complete without going to the mall. Since today is Easter Sunday, there are many activities lined up for kids which my two boys really enjoyed. We went to Alabang Town Center to check out the Pony Ride. On the way to the concierge where we got the tickets for the Pony Ride, we passed by the playground where the horses are located. The kids got very excited upon seeing the horses and they can’t wait to join the other kids waiting in line. Even Kyle was excited, squirming his legs and wanting to get out of the stroller while we’re waiting. Finally, it was our turn and I told the attendants that Miggy will go first so that the little boy will see how brave his kuya is. It was Miggy’s second time to ride a horse, the first time was in Tagaytay on Wendy and Cart’s wedding weekend and he’s already familiar with horses. I feared about Kyle because it’s his first time but when I put him on the horse and put his fingers on the leash, he did not cry. I guess he was curious and just looked at the horse. When it was time to move, I told the attendant to just smile at the baby so he would not cry. Much to my surprise, he did not cry when he sees us. Kuya Miggy was also very happy to see Kyle on a horse and keep on cheering him during the rounds. That’s not all, we got candies and balloons after the ride. It was sure fun! The pictures below tells them all.

Rest on Lent

We had a long weekend during lent. It was an opportunity to rest and reflect. We enjoyed spending time with our kids most especially teaching Aloysius about God and how to pray. It started when he asked who are Muslims and why they have a different God? What a question from a 5-year-old and a tough one for me. I had to come up with an answer that is understandable to him and one that he won’t forget. I had to pray for this and God revealed that I should read the bible with Aloysius. Although we read to him bible stories once in a while, I haven’t really read to him the very first verses – the creation. From there he was able to learn about God the creator. Eventually, the 3 persona was introduced – God the Father, The Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. I told my son that when he grows up he will find out the answer to his question but right now, it is important that He knows about our God – our living God, the Bible and how he should talk to God thru Prayer. This is how I learned how to pray and shared it with my firstborn. 1. P-raise and worship God. Remember how Holy and Faithful God is. 2. R-epent – Ask forgiveness for all the bad things thought, said or done 3. A-tone – set the mind to God-likeness. 4. Y-earn – for all you wish for in accordance to God’s will. I was relieved when I heard Aloysius pray in the sequence that I though him. I reminded him that it is not only during bedtime that he should pray but also before eating, whenever he is afraid or facing a problem and seeking God’s help or guidance because D\God is always there for him as he has always been to me. Thank you God, I entrust my son to you.