A Gastronomic Experience

It was a Monday afternoon when hubby told me that we would be having dinner at the newly opened Tong Yang at SM Fairview. Since Tong Yang is in a buffet set-up, I decided not to eat snacks for that afternoon and reserve all that space inside my tummy (if there's still) for dinner. Oh and the best thing about it is that it will be a dinner treat by my SIL, Mei. (sweet!)

So I was a bit late when I reached the mall and they were already complete when I got there. I took the task of marketing - getting raw food and ingredients from the buffet table while hubby, the Iron chef for the night, took over the shabu shabu pot and the grill pan. Well, I think I ate everything that they offer - sea foods, meat, dim sum, noodles, ice cream and halo-halo. Now I need to run 10k for this :) And we were all having fun that our dinner ended till almost closing time.

On getting fit

The main reason we got into running was to get in better shape or just be fit and healthy. But for this year, I noticed that most of the race organizers have increased the registration fee into almost twice the previous fees. So now, we will only choose the worthy races to join and maybe join as bandit runners (haha!) But good thing, we went back on playing our previous sport, the Badminton.

Badminton became the most popular sport in the Philippines for some time. Badminton courts have sprouted all over the metro and everyone got hold of their own rackets. But today, I think, running has overthrown the said sport. So many people got into running and joining marathons. And I think, because of that, those race organizers decided to increase their fees, talk about law of supply and demand..

Good thing, my friends Flory and Cel invited us to play badminton again. It was really fun and exhausting too. I hope we'll be doing this on a weekly basis :)

First run for 2010

We were supposed to join the PSE Bull Run for this weekend but when I saw the registration fee of this "Go for green" run, I immediately convinced my running friends to just switch into this race. Good thing, they all agreed. Well for a hundred peso fee, they really must! haha!

We left home a bit late since Jared suddenly woke up when we're about to go and we had to make him go back to sleep before heading off. Luckily, we arrived at the venue when it was still dark and the race hasn't started. In fact, it started about 15 minutes later than scheduled. Their reason was they were waiting for the sun to shine (yeah right).

Anyway, Gibo arrived a few minutes after us and people went all over him like he was a celebrity. He was so cheerful to everyone and also to my hubby whom he greeted with a handshake hehe!

Back to the race, it started differently with a countdown and not a gunstart (maybe because of the gun ban haha!) My sister Tin was with us and it will be her first time. After 7 or 8 minutes in the race I saw her behind me and she suddenly tripped. She couldn't walk after but there was a good man (a runner too) who lifted her up and took her to the sidewalk area. He also asked for assistance to help us get to the start/finish line. Few minutes after, an ambulance arrived and picked us up. It's just odd that they did not clean Tin's wound or they thought it was too small for a treatment.. And when we were dropped off at the finish line, a free goto was waiting for us. We ate it while waiting for Cel and hubby.

It's sad that I was not able to finish my first run but good thing my sister wasn't that hurt and she's now okay.

the two finishers but weren't able to eat the free goto haha!

Thanks to my friend Cel for the photos :)

Play school

It was Jared's first day at play school last weekend. We enrolled him to develop his social skills by interacting with classmates and teachers and also to give him the idea of how it is going to school. We chose the MSA play school in SM Fairview as it was the most accessible and the only one that has that play camp thing. Unfortunately, he has only 2 classmates and were both girls.

At first, he was so shy, really shy - he wasn't talking or even answering to his teacher's questions. But after a while he somehow got the hang of it, I saw him talking and playing with the 2 girls. We cannot hear them because we're outside the classroom but good thing the dividers are made up of glass so we can still watch them. Their activities were reading a book, doing some artwork, coloring, and learning the red color and the circle shape.

And while Jared was in his class, we sneaked out for a while to try the 6 minute video in 4D which was also located inside the mall. We chose the roller coaster video which was good and feels close to riding a roller coaster. Perfect for my hubby :)

Balikbayans

2 of my friends who were both living in another country have come home for a holiday vacation here in PI. That's why Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year because it's when you get to meet a lot of friends and have a lot of parties.

So I met up with my friend Maan with her husband Rex along with another two high school friends. It was set in the early afternoon because Cel & Lorie have appointments at night. Anyway, we had a nice dinner at Shomal which serves Persian cuisine. I had the chelo beef kebab solo and it was good and the rice was super yummy. Didn't know that rice can be that tasty. And the best thing about it is it was free! Thanks Maan! :)

And another one night out with Chelle and the gang (first one for 2010!). Started with coffee while waiting for the two late comers (you know who you are! haha!) Then we had dinner at Cyma, Trinoma - a restaurant that serves greek food. I thought that we will just have dinner so H and I agreed to go home together after dinner. But everyone was bitin so we decided to go to Guilly's at Tomas Morato(with H). Too bad hubby and I had to leave early (yeah bummer) because we're leaving for Batangas at 4am the following day. But still I had lots of fun! fun! fun!

Happy New Year!

I know this post is so overdue as I've been busy with lots of things. Anyway.. we (my family) spent the New Year's eve with my family (family I was born to) - my mom and 2 sisters. It had always been that way - Christmas with H's family and New Year with my family.

I spent a lot of time cooking for the New Year's dinner along with my sisters. We all enjoy cooking and trying out different recipes. Unfortunately, one dish turned out to be more on the salty side and another one got a little burned in the oven. Good thing, mom cooked also so we still enjoyed the New Year's menu :)

Jared was so active until midnight even if he just had an hour and a half of nap in the afternoon. It was like his first time to celebrate the New year since he slept before 12 midnight on last year's celebration.

A few minutes before the countdown, we all went outside of the house to watch our neighbor's fireworks. We did not buy our own fireworks because I think it was just a waste of money when we can watch for free :)

Now I'm thinking of my new goals for this year.