My favorite at The Buzzz: Malunggay (Moringa) Ice Cream

You should try this one too. The ice cream has personality: sweet, textured and with a hint of herb. And because they are using the real malunggay, it sure is nutritious.

My favorite at The Buzzz: Bread Pizza

Herb bread topped with cheese, tomatoes and tomato sauce and petals of flowers. Yummy!

We do more police work than the police

Having been spent for weeks because of major activities, I lay wasted on my bed in Batuan waiting for a much needed sleep to come. The Sandugo trade expo and our batch reunion a week before the Sandugo had me literally dying for sleep.

But just as I was about to enter the REM stage, my sister suddenly turned all the lights on and asked me to come out. Everyone was shouting.

It turned out, my sister in-law saw someone other than his husband inside their home, a burglar perhaps, somebody unwelcome courtesy of her alcoholic husband who also happened to be my brother. My drunk brother went out of the house without bothering to close the doors and some alien saw the opportunity. In a small town like Batuan, it is not rare if everyone knows someone is selling her fat pigs. Fat pigs mean fat cash. My sis in-law sold three.

Equipped with flashlights, Tatay and I went around the vicinity and searched for the intruder. We scanned the backyard, noticed the bags taken outside and did not touch them for fear of tampering evidence. We even scan the neighboring houses to see some unusual activities going around. Our neighbors saw someone running like hell. We know it was the intruder. Although we know that he has been long gone, we wanted everyone to feel secure.

We interrogated our sis in-law when we came back. From the time she heard the doors in the rooms being opened and closed to the time she saw the man about to enter the master bedroom. She told us she could not remember the face but she was sure the man wore a camouflaged shorts and a sleeveless shirt. In the backyard a red slipper we believed was owned by the intruder was placed along with the bags and the make-up kit that looked like a secure cash vault he rummaged around before fleeing. I took pictures.

The police arrived, an interesting event since it was already past one in the morning. Knowing Batuan is just a small town, police presence in the wee hours is very rare. My sis in-law told us she texted the police. Wow.

But the “wow” moment faded right when they went inside the house. They just asked a question or two, looked outside and said they will resolve the matter during office hours. That was all.

I was expecting a more CSI approached. But they did not even bother searched the place. They looked at the bags like they were useless evidence of the intrusion. No poking, no searching for clues. It was Tatay who pointed the flashlights on the scattered things because they did not bring any. They did not ask if my sis has a clue on the identity of the intruder. They did not ask details. It was my sis in-law who was guilty of babbling some unsolicited review of the events that happened. They neither said a yes or no or whatever. I wondered if they listened at all. The police was gone in less than two minutes.

The police did not make us secure. One of them was wearing a pair of camouflage shorts and a sleeveless shirt.

She is...

Shocking advertisement (Parental Guidance Needed)

photo grabbed from Hay!Men

Update on Jollibee's Beef Mushroom

I went back to Jollibee (this time at Boulevard, Capitol Area) and ordered the same beef mushroom and try it again so that my disappointment would be erased. (See my previous blog: Jollibee's 39ers is a disappointment) Sadly, the said food has not changed my dismay. In fact, the mushroom has a distinct sourness on them, a sign that they have been opened and exposed for a longer period.

This is the picture of what I've ordered.

Viva España!

Spain won the FIFA World Cup today! Congratulations! This is their first World Cup trophy.

But I preferred Netherlands for a simple reason- they were the underdogs. And for their orange uniforms, too. Don't ask me. Just like playing football where making a score would sent fans and teams to heaven, my preference for orange is just like that.

To all Filipino fans who made vigil til the wee hours towards morning, congratulations for surviving.

Picture grabbed from watchfifasoccer.blogspot.com and Facebook

Isa pang hirit: Noynoy's Inauguration

Is that Kris dancing? Actually no. That's the Wowowee dancers with defunct Willie during heydays. The inauguration of the 15th President of the Republic of the Philippines was like that TV show- Wowowee. Without grace.

According to a columnist at The Manila Times: "What transpired on June 30 was not a presidential inaugural but a veritable pop concert, with musicians and stars belting out numbers on stage and inadvertently demeaning the very occasion itself. The musical numbers of the aging Apo Hiking Society, Christian Bautista, and the perennially-rambunctious Ogie Alcasid were out of place at the Quirino Grandstand and better suited for the 'after party' at Quezon Memorial Circle."


"But perhaps most disappointing was Aquino’s inauguration speech itself, which sounded more like a campaign lecture than a Presidential address," Cunanan added.

More can be read by clicking on this link- Buddy Cunanan's Politics of Course 

You may also read this comprehensive analysis of the Wowowee-like spectacular that was Noynoy's inauguration: The Wowowee Inauguration and Noynoy's Speech.

Picture grabbed from ABS-CBN.com

I am OC

I know if people would mess my things, especially at home. I can't help but rearrange things that are askew when I see them. Even if they are not mine. I wipe tables in restaurants when they are wet or something messy is splashed on them.

Lately, upon my transfer to another apartment to save rental costs, I could not help but notice that the bathroom is, hmmm, quite messy, to say the least. Of all the places in a home, it is the bathroom we called CR that I got my impression on the household.

After five days of tiptoeing around the CR, I could no longer contain my irritation. If I would not clean them, nobody would. Or that was the cleanest my housemates could get.

Armed with muriatic acid, strong cleaning powder and two brushes, I attacked the CR for almost an hour, scrubbing the walls and floors and toilet bowl until they were shining white. Even if the fumes literally suffocated me right there inside. I gasp for air once in a while.

My prize? Really painful blistered hands that I had a hard time navigating the mouse of my computer.

Whew! So much for OC-ness.

Jollibee's 39ers is a disappointment

I rushed to Jollibee this afternoon because I haven't had my breakfast and lunch yet. So many things to do yet so little time. When you are in a rush you tend to choose fastfoods which would give you its type of service- fast.

I was intrigued actually at Jollibee's 39ers because of its price. Lunch (or food, specifically, since they serve them anytime of the day) for only 39 pesos is quite a competitive price knowing how things have soared. And beef at 39 only?

But when I finally got my share of beef mushroom, I was quite disappointed. (The picture above is much more tempting than the one I have, even more generous.) I could not tell what kind of flavor they wanted to project. Of course it was not boeuf bourguignon but it was not beef adobo either. The beef was rubbery and bland, the dwarf mushrooms were salty. That was the only interesting thing to happen when I chew on them. Bland and salty and rubbery.

But what would you expect of 39 pesos nowadays?

Picture grabbed from mommydiary.net who claims her Jollibee beef mushroom was good.

Home maker, law breaker

Here are some of USA's weird laws concerning your home and how you should manage it. Funny they are still existing today. I find them pretty unusual but nobody may have the guts (despite their so-called freedom) to question them, hence, their existence up to this day. Weird Americans!

1. Forget about using a dish towel in the state of Oregon or in Minneapolis. Letting china air-dry is the only allowable way.
2. In Florida, you're in trouble if you shatter more than three dishes per day, or chip the edges of more than four cups and/or saucers. If you get your kicks tossing plates, don't try it from any window above the ground floor of a house or apartment in Freeport, Illinois.
3. In Kansas, you can't stack plates more than eight high.
4. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, doesn't legislate what you can do with your rug outdoors, but indoors, it's a crime to sweep dirt under it.
5. California requires "housewives" to boil their dust rags or risk jail time.
6. Donkeys may not sleep in bathtubs in Brooklyn, New York. In Arkansas, it's alligators that aren't allowed in the tub, while in South Carolina, it's horses.
7. Don't try giving the twins a bath in Los Angeles, where it's illegal to wash two babies at once.
8. You're one toe over the line if you dip it into the bathtub before 10 p.m. in Piqua, Ohio.
9. Lawmakers in the state of Virginia and in Canton, Ohio, must not want their citizens to bathe: Indoor tubs are against the law. Don't head to Portland, Oregon, for relief, either. While you can have an indoor tub there, you’ll have to use it while wearing "suitable clothing…that which reaches from the bather's neck to his knees and completely covers the body."
10. You can be cited for "dozing or snoozing" in the tub in Detroit.
11. You may not sleep in, or on top of, a refrigerator in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
12. You can't sleep with your shoes on in North Dakota.
13. You can't snore with the windows open in Massachusetts.
14. In Iowa, a man can bar his mother-in-law from his home without explanation.

Source: www.thisoldhouse.com (including cartoon)

Holysmut: God invented porn

Indulging in Bohol: Sparadise

Judy and I headed to Body and Sole to have a much needed massage, a treat to ourselves because we've been working even on weekends. But to our dismay, Body and Sole was full and it was already past 9 in the evening so they would be closing in an hour. Yes, the people of Tagbilaran is nowhere to be seen way past nine in the evening during ordinary days. Ordinary means no festival or fiesta. Tagbilaran is a dead city after 10 o'clock.

But beside Body and Sole was Sparadise, another addition to the mushrooming clean massage centers in Tagbilaran, thanks to the reinforced tourism industry that was started by Cong. Rene Relampagos and Gov. Edgar Chatto. I would like to emphasize the CLEAN word because so many massage parlors in Manila and Cebu were used as prostitution dens. Believe me, I have experience.

Anyway, Sparadise (Door 1, Sun Avenue Building, Gallares Street; telephones 038.501.9756; 0929.884.9217) was a good find actually. They offer facials, foot spa, body massage and detox (whatever was that I did not ask). They specialized in traditional hilot (you will undergo steaming first called toob in Bohol) but we could not avail of it because we were told they have to prepare for at least an hour before the therapy.

My masseur was a small guy (I forgot his name, I'm sorry) with powerful hands. He used reflexology in his treatment. It was good, although for those not used to reflexogy, you might find it painful and uncomfortable. Full body massage would cost you 250 pesos an hour.

With wellness now in the dictionary of Tagbilaranons, I hope they would maintain it that way- clean and healthy. Of course, this Sparadise was nice and clean and the masseurs/masseuses very professional. I highly recommend it.

Meanwhile, if you want to try something extraordinary- try this: Acupuncture.

Pic grabbed from mynewsletterbuilder.com

Dear Mr President

I know some of you will bash Gibo instead upon reading this short blog for reasons I really do not know. Yes it is time to move on. But first let me share you this letter to President Noynoy Aquino beautifully written by Oya Arriola, a British embassy employee:

Dear Mr President:

Knowing your comfort zone is well and good. Having the courage to step out of it to do what must be done is what fulfills destinies.

I don't really care about how you decide which barong to wear on your proclamation. I need to know that you have vision beyond the 30th of June.

Whether you keep smoking or quit the habit is none of my concern. Whether you have the political will to deliver your promised reforms is.

I am not interested in whether you're getting married within the next six years. I want to see that you can build working coalitions to govern effectively.

It doesn't matter to me that you choose long-time buddies to be part of your Cabinet because you feel at ease with them. I'd like to know that you choose your team because you know they can deliver.

It's all the same to me if you choose to live in Malacanang or Times Street. Where your heart lies and whose interests you protect will spell the difference to me.

Well said. Enough of trivialities.

More readings from The Wall Street Journal on Aquino's promises-
> Noynoy's Philippine Promises 
> Aquino's Graft Probe Sparks Fears for Economy 

Picture grabbed from raissarobles.blogspot.com

Second round

I was wondering where would our meeting be since they called the place STK near Capitol area in Cebu. When we got there, to my amazement, it was Paolito's Seafood House (link: my previous blog about this place ) they were talking about. And I was so glad I was able to come to that place again.

I wonder this so small a place could be deceiving. The area near the foyer was quite full and there were twelve of us. We were shown to the back area. Before finding our table, we passed by two more rooms already full of diners. I called our room the Music Room because most of the decorations there were vintage musical instruments.

I was again amazed at how the twelve of us, full to the brim, as in very full, was able to pay only just around 3,000 pesos rounded off. It was actually 2,600+.

As usual no leftovers could be seen.