work lunch

work lunch, originally uploaded by Soyy.

When I'm at work the whole day, I usually bring my own lunch. Rice is painstaking, when I only have one hour to prepare in the morning. It should be a treat but the only other kind of food I can think of to go with it (one that doesn't need 15 minutes to prepare) is tuna with pureed tomato and loads of black pepper.

If only I could make paksiw the Surigaonon way...
If only I could make paksiw the Surigaonon way that doesn't whiff off vinegar and garlic...
If only I could just...

But I don't have a choice, unless I go back to my mother-in-law's house to feast on her baked tuna and cheese and some other sorts with only 5 minutes to spare before going back to work again.

So I make do with this concoction of raw vegetables. (Cheese was added after I took this photo.)

And my stomach started to rumble soon afterwards.

And I still have 3 hours to go before home time!

move!

move!, originally uploaded by Soyy.

Morning. School day.

Wake up the children, give them breakfast, bundle them up and deposit them to school or nursery.

Then, parents will go straight to work. Whole day.

Afternoon.

Leave work, pick up the children, take children to after-school activities, ie, music lessons, karate, swimming, etc., take children home, give them supper/dinner.

After eating, plonk them in front of the television.

Bath time, then off to bed with a story.

Good night, children!

Morning. School day.

Start again.

Whew!

Sadly, this is a reality in most families in the west. There might be conversations among the family members but it is mostly about questionning the children what they've been up to the whole day and telling them off. What did you do today? Oh, don't do that! That's not good!

Fortunately, these children don't know what they missed because that's the only lifestyle they know. Physical contact is less because they don't even sleep with their parents.

So what's the point of having children then if they're just dragged around to fit the work and lifestyle of the parents?

Unfortunately, most parents don't have a choice. Either they work or not survive at all in this ever-materialistic world.

What a pity!

Under siege

When I opened BBC News 24 this morning, something familiar on the screen caught my attention. Not the soldiers and some Asian-looking civilians behind them but the building. From the voice over, I knew that it was a hotel in Manila under siege. I then realised that it was the first floor balcony of the Manila Peninsula in Makati where we stayed for a few days in route to England a few years ago. So what's going on?

And was it really necessary to ram a tank inside the hotel lobby? More here.

Christmas madness

I have finished my Christmas shopping for presents except for one, the important gift for the parents-in-law. K and I already have an idea what to buy but we're putting it off for a bit until the real shopping madness begins... or until we can't anymore think of other alternatives and be convinced without a shadow of a doubt that what we are about to purchase is the best ever present that could make the parents-in-law's heads nod for approval.

For several days, the whole clan discussed what suitable presents to buy for Zak and Lewis. Catalogues have been passed around, ideas ricocheted, a list of what-not-to-buy made, and finally, finally, we settled for just one thing: that the boys will only receive ONE gift each. One. Not one and a bit, but ONE.

Four Christmasses and Zak had been barraged with presents left and right. His joy seemed to lie in opening the presents and not in appreciating the contents.

So all three families in the clan contributed an amount of money towards the presents. Instead of opening several boxes during the Christmas morning and after Christmas dinner, the boys will open only ONE box, after Christmas dinner, and that's it. One toy each. No chocolates. No sweets. Just one box each from Father Christmas.

And before we dive into our Christmas pudding and buckets of coffee, we will go out for a brisk walk and enjoy the cold Christmas air (I heard the forecast for Christmas day is RAIN). If it does rain, as it's the only thing to be expected now anyway, I'll just prepare loads of microfibre cloth to wipe the rain off my eyeglasses.

Now that won't be madness for sure.

Zak on his 5th birthday

Zak on his 5th birthday, originally uploaded by Soyy.

On the 30th of October

our lovely big Zak

turned 5!

Difficult decision

It's been a very hectic week.
Not because we were too busy with work, oh no, we never do such thing.

We took long walks in the countryside. The fun is not in the walking but in coming home in our heavy boots and smearing out carpet with mud and dead leaves.

The not-so-all-terrain-buggy (with Lewis in it) collapsed while I manoeuvred
it onto a wooden bridge.

My father-in-law ended up dragging the 6-kilo damaged buggy and a 15-kilo toddler.

We spent the rest of the week trying to figure out whether to try to fix or simply throw it away and buy a new one.

We still haven't decided yet.

That's how hectic the week is. Uggh! Difficult, isn't it?