Todos Los Series

It's November 1 today. It means holiday!

Yesterday, i was "planning in my mind" what-to-do for the holiday:

threw the things i don't need, check the receipts/bills, and budget for the month of November, iron some clothes, check a lot of stuffs inside my personal box (kung anu-ano lang na abubot), and look at our reminder board for things i need to be reminded of. Too many things to do and take the holiday as my chance. But, here i am, having my detective/law tv series-marathon, doing nothing, but watch and bond with my hub and kids. I peeked at facebook around 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Not a usual thing for me. I mean, i always check FB first thing in the morning. The heck, it's a holiday! Be it a real non-working day. Do nothing and take this luxury of just enjoying my whole day and savoring "turon" (banana fritter) for a bountiful snack, forgetting the diet word. 

I'm of course an avid fan of the CSI series, NCSI, Criminal Minds, Bones, Cold Case & The Mentalist.

There's a channel here called "Giallo" (italian word for mystery) in which offers 24/7 a lot of detective stories.  I don't care if some were old episodes, anyway, i love these kinds of shows. I'm always fascinated of the courtroom scenes and stories. I wonder what's it's like to be a lawyer or a detective. Having taken a major in BS Psychology, i could have pursued law or medicine. Must be a tough job. A friend of mine who graduated business administration and worked in Saudi Arabia for years decided to go home, built a pastries/bakery shop, a pharmacy store, and studying law. He told me, he must be crazy to take up law. Anyway, he's still surviving now. Hope he graduated in time. It's not easy to be a father of 5, manage business and study law as well. 

Anyway, before our tv complain of an over heat, i write this one to be a breather. The kids are watching in the other room their fave cartoon series, so i would savor longer my holiday. this "The Nine" is a real mystery, and it's a "to-be-continued" series, so i'm gonna watch this before i felt asleep. Tomorrow is a working day again. (sigh)

HAPPY ALL SAINT'S DAY!

Party of Five

I am the happiest person in the world right now. Finally reunited back home: our two "first" shots. i have no long words for now...just "COMPLETE".

Pack-All-You-Want Challenge

9 more days...(from the time of this writing)

it has been 5 long years that i haven't been back home. time flies so fast!

i still have my son (4 year old then) with me the last time i took an airplane. now i got another kid, my 2 year old daughter to fly with. i always take it as "a challenge" everytime i travel. i need to beat the "nausea" or the "vomitting effect" each time i take a ride. be it a car, bus, or plane. i haven't took any ship, so i can't say i am seasick. train is the only thing i can successfully travel without having been nauseated. i always utter to myself "successful!" when i got home in one piece & normal state of mind.

i'm used to taking Lufthansa airline every time i went for vacation. yeah, i know, it's expensive! but, that's the point, you have that "more"confident feeling of going home safely and soundly, without having too much hours for stop overs. Why not try Singapore this time? It's now a hit among Pinoy workers when going home. Wouldn't hurt. Nice schedule: leaving 1pm from Milan, arriving 1pm in Manila the other day. cool! since it's vacation season, you have to book in advance to have a good plane price. We paid in cash since last March.

850euro each- for adults
750euro each - for kids

we got the total of 3,200 euro plus the taxes

luggage allowed: 40 kilos each, 7 kilos hand carry

Now, how do i pack the luggage?

That's the challenge. When you got kids with you, it seems you need to bring your "home".

As they always say, "travel light". Darn it. When you're from Europe you got to use that 40 kilo privilege. sayang naman. =)
4 persons x 40 kilos = 160 kilos, plus some hand carry bags. yes, i can!

i can put every angle of my house =)

we got 5 big luggages waiting to be packed. i did my checklist of what to put, what to bring, mga pasalubongs and abubot. i might need 10 luggages!
sa huli, for sure, me maiiwan pa! =)

"unahin yung mga padala..."

Jaki: (translated in english) "Mamma, can i bring all my PSP games?"
Me: Ok, only few ha, only your faves.

Jaki: "this, this, this...oh this...."(almost 10 psp)
Me: bring 5 will you?
Jaki: (sigh..) ok..but can i bring some playstation cd's, i can play back there. i will use kuya CJ's...
Me: nope, you can't.it's PAL system here, NTSC back home..your cd's will not play there.
Jaki: (sigh)...silence....I got an idea Mamma!...pack my tv!
(my hub and i laughed)

---
while we're packing the luggages the little Zendra is "pesting" on the chocolates.

"Zen..alis dyan! madedeform 'yang chocolates, hay naku!" (that's me howling) =D

now, she's packing her hello kitty mini luggage and get to her own affair.

..ooops, enough of writing for now =)

i will dish myself if i missed a thing to put in the luggage. see yah around.

stucked

it's a rainy monday! it means we're stucked in the house.

will i survive?

four years to wait

this is our house back home.

every year, the pahiyas festival in my hometown, lucban, quezon has different route. for 2010, it's our street's turn again after four years.

my sis-in-law bheng and my brother ron at the gates

up at the balcony, from L-R, my son CJ, my brother Tato, my nephew Igi and a guest

night shot. my sister made some "fake kipings" (made of scraps and spray paints). no one notices the difference when some were mixed with the real kipings.

one of the arangyas (kiping chandeliers)

i truly missed this event...

bathroom's a wreck

we had just changed the flush knob of our WC (water closet) more than a month ago because it doesn't close well. the water keeps on running all night and it made our WC yellow. i think we paid 100euro for the labor and new flush knob. anyway, about a week ago, my hub noticed a leak coming from the wall, so he guessed the tube inside is the problem. my hub's right.

we had an appointment today around 9am. the italian plumber is punctual (as they always do). he said, he has to remove the tiles to change the whole tube. so be it!

the problem is, they have no tiles the same as ours. hmm? any solution to that?

plumber at work

my daughter zendra keeps on going inside the bathroom and so curious about that flame thing. he said we'll pay about 125euro. we'll see about that when the labor's finished.

now where do i pee?

looking back

maybe it's the honking of the jeeps or tricycles. maybe it's the smell of the fish ball or banana-q. or .. maybe i'm just homesick! living away from home often times gives me that urge to go home and experience the things i was used to. it has been a long time i'm living here and i only had 3 vacations during those 15 years. whew! i can't help but look back...

it was one of the cold days of february 1995, -2°C of temperature, i remember -- when another filipina sneaked up on me while i was standing in queque at questura (foreigners' bureau). it was five o'clock in the morning and, probably i'm the 400th person on the line! "how long have you been standing here?" asked the filipina who'd just arrived. "well, i've been freezing out here since five o'clock", i replied. she just shook her head and said, "it's hard to be an immigrant here, isn't it?", she added followed by a deep breath while travelling her eyes to the diffferent nationalities in line. her name is haydee and she had just arrived. the office will be opened at 8:30 am, so while waiting for our turn to get ourselves an appointment in applying for permit of stay here in italy, we passed our time sharing experiences of living in the fast-phased city of milan.

when i first came here back in 1994, i felt like a little kid wondering about all the new things i see -- the places, the people, the foods, etc. i asked myself "how could i possibly live in this strange place?" i simply panicked, but told myself "it's all right, everything's gonna be fine".

i think everyone who first got here experienced the way i did. being a stranger - i'm expected to be a little stupid. i mean, being stupid is the pattern, or the norm, because you don't know what everything is all about. i can exist on the level for weeks or months without reprimand. together with hundreds, i'm granted broad freedom and immunities. i can go on taking pictures, wearing what i want, looking haggard...

i can do walking around dazed, squinting into fold-out maps...i don't know how to talk to people because most of the italians don't know english language, i don't know how to get anywhere, what ticket to buy for travelling; don't know what the money means...whew! all those things made me feel stupidly funny!

it's just nice watching the italian people around. i was amazed of their blue, green or gray eyes; their mannequin looks; the blond hairs and towering heights. but the adolescent ones were much to notice. i keep seeing teenage males wearing enormous pants the two or three teenagers could occupy. pants that a clown would probably refuse to wear. the young men wear these pants so low, so that the waist is about knee level and pants' butt drags on the ground. what i want to know is how do they buy these pants? do they try them on to make sure they don't fit?

for teenage girls, they wear a lot of earrings, maximum of 6 pairs each ear, plus one or two on their nose. i wonder how do they manage them? contrary to the big pants, girls wear the so-tight fit ones and with a low waist cut letting the people see their navels. i even see some bald headed teenage girls, or long-haired guys. what had happened to the teenagers now?

whew! totally, some kind of wanders when you're not home and had grown up with the conservative environment and society, filipino culture, which mainly based on traditional values.

but, that's just the way it is. being far from home, you tend to miss all! the culture, the way of living at least "normally" compared to a strange country. life could be good here. with a good-paying job, you can even buy things you want, as you never did in your own home. sometimes, i tend to wish i could live here: having high standard of living and the comforts. but, i certainly love my "real home", the philippines where i grew up.

My family and friends are all there, and i can't trade it for something else...

domestic disasters

Bummer no. 1

i'm not used wearing wrist watch at home. a lot of times i put it inside my pocket when i'm dressed up. it's one of my "memory gap"days. i forgot to check it inside my jeans pocket and there it was...helplessly soaked in the washing machine!

still steamy inside. tic..toc..tic..toc. breathing...she'll survived.

Bummer no. 2

"Hurricane Zendra" was on the loose while i'm busy at the kitchen. this happened to be her brother's fave books when he was a toddler. his brother is too keen in keeping his books alive and well. he will be quite devastated to see this book torn into pieces by her little sister. i'm ready for my son's preach. sigh.

Bummer no. 3

"Typhoon Zendra" hit again! she pulled my printer's cover! there was nothing else i can do.

when you have a one-year old at home and a mother with memory gaps, chances are domestic disasters are inevitable. just get ready with scotch tapes, glue and whatever, to fix the tragic consequences.

Almost Three Years!

three years ago, we're just renting before at the next building on the 7th floor. of course, what i missed on our rented place is the top view when you're out of the balcony. this is one of my fave hub's shots during those times. he actually caught a rainbow.

when you said "house" in milan, it's actually condo type homes. we are on the fourth floor now (in another building).

here in our owned place, there's no real view at all. neighboring buildings and garage (when you look outside our balcony. see the pix up)

this is the main corridor. this is what it looks like when we bought the place. the former owner left some stuffs.

this is it now. sort of gallery with framed pix & my son's drawings.

the shelf behind that flower vase is for jaki's gormiti & bionicle collection. "parang museum"

anyone who notices the big framed pix of my hub and former president FVRamos asked, "si Ramos talaga 'yan?"of course he is. we met him at frankfurt, germany, on the same flight."

(then)

(now)

nothing much have changed here, except we painted the walls mint green.

when we bought this house, it wasn't new..so it was offered to us with a humble price (i guess). it costed us 167,000euro! too much fortune on that, right?

the nice italian lady will be getting married, that's why she's selling her (inherited) house. looking at the paperwalls, i can sense that she lived her life here since she was a baby. the wallpaper's design had said it all (baby mint green with baby designs). i haven't had the chance of really talking to her. just saw her twice.

the empty chair stole my attention. for me, she left this chair maybe because it symbolizes her--being part of this house. good memories are hard to forget. and remind us that everywhere we go, we always tend to leave a memory behind, good or bad.

well, we still have this chair down in our basement. don't know why we're still keeping it?

this is where that chair stands before. now it's my pc corner.

time just flies too fast. it's been three years!

...and still paying the bank

movie marathon

sometimes my hub doesn't have work on tuesdays, so he just stays home. he's not so much into "going-out" like other guys who used to go out when no work. off-day like this, it means he's the one who'll bring our son in school, and i still can laze around the house in pajamas. our daughter zendra is still sleeping, so i quickly had a shower before she wakes up. she knows now how to escape from her crib. risky!

hub was back and we ate breakfast. he's in the mood to clean up the house, so i make myself comfortable watching David Letterman Show. what a queen am i. hahaha. it's almost 10am! i told my hub, let's be crazy, let's watch movies! it's my idea to double task too. watching while ironing. "gabundok ang plantsahin"(too many clothes to iron) at least there will be no "wasted time".

we're not so much of movie theather-goers here. english films were always dubbed in italian, so sometimes it's inevitable they will dub the scripts literally. though i can understand more of italian than english slang now, i still prefer the original language.

Film Number 1: Angels & Demons

i have watched Da Vinci Code and i thought, this could be a sequel. dan brown's novels are always packed with fascinating historical tidbits and mysteries that there is a constant need to inform the reader. the film is somewhat diabolical (hence the title demons). after the pope's death, an antimatter bomb somewhere in Vatican threatens the conclave of cardinals who are meeting to elect the papal successor. the movie is filled with amazing details about galileo, michael angelo and other scientists. i have come to know about the white fumes (when a pope is elected). didn't know that! most of the time, the actors speak italian so i exerted no effort to watch the film. i just wonder for dan brown's other novels, would it also be tom hanks playing the lead role?

time for prawn crackers. we got no popcorns in the house. i'm not a popcorn fan.

Film Number 2: Law Abiding Citizen

Jamie Foxx is an oscar and a grammy award winner. this film must be something. it's my first time to see gerard butler. i haven't seen the movie 300. i found "law abiding citizen" so thrilling, although some scenes are so violent. imagine a rich and intelligent man taking over the city? he was hurt and furious because his wife and daughter were brutally murdered. he technically plan everything outside and inside prison. but, of course, jamie foxx as a district attorney is smarter than him. "you can never fight fate"...

---lunch time ---

Film Number 3: The Informant

what was mark whitacre (matt damon) thinking? at first i can't understand the movie plot...but as the movie goes...i can sense lot of lies from the leading role, mark. this is based on a real story of a highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in US history. from mark's ever-changing account (he stole over 11 million dollars or so), to his cooperation with the FBI and threatens the ADM (archer daniels midland) where he worked as a bio-chemist, it becomes impossible to decipher what is real and what is mark's active imagination. from one story to another, he has answers to everything...lies and facts. of course, the truth will always set you free. so he was imprisoned.

it's almost 4pm!

time for me to dress up for work. hub and zendra were also ready to go out. they will head to the park and get jaki in school at 4:30pm.

(picture taken @ our building's corridor)