Out of the Blue

I was born in Manila, Philippines on September 13th of 1986.

Now you know, but you'll have to compute for my age hehe. I like the year I was born, in the Chinese Zodiac I am a Metal Tiger~ *rawr* (my brother is a chicken LOL)

My mom says I was born during a troubled age when tanks roam free in the streets and the whole country suffered under a dictator in the capital of Manila. They said that the hospital lost electrical power while she was giving labor to me. Not that I caused it or anything, it was a really troublesome era in my country. =__=;;

I'm a premature, menopausal, blue baby.

I was born a few weeks earlier than my expected delivery date, and my mom gave birth at such an old age. Probably that's why I was so small when I came out... you could fit me in your two hands! And being a blue baby (actually it was yellow, then blue, then violet), I was immediately sent to an incubator. My mom was sent home earlier than I did, and she came to visit everyday making sure I'm still alive.

Well I grew up okay anyway, I'm pretty lucky I guess. I've heard that menopausal babies either becomes really stupid or very smart...

Not to brag or anything~ Gahahaha!

Necktie Birthday Party

As it is the first day of my 3-Day Vacation and also my birthday, let's start with Saturday.

Nothing really happened much during the day. In fact, everyone was out and I was left alone at home doing chores. The friend who promised to come didn't, so the plan to go to Omiya was out. I just went out to buy the foodstuff for the dinner later that night and made the preparations for the chocolate pudding.

After a few hours later when the sun went down...

My friends began to come trickling back from whence they came, and the place started to get lively as people wailed that they're hungry and have no energy to help. Well I can't cook a feast by myself, so I told them they could either help me or go to sleep.

I guess they weren't sleepy.

In fact, rolls of chicken sushi began to mound up on plates. There were also roasted and fried chicken, candied fruits, and other bountiful dishes that filled the tables. Someone even went into the trouble of buying a cake. All while I was in the kitchen cooking the carbonara. Actually, they were rushing me with the pasta so much, that I forgot to add cornstarch and made some kind of "carbonara soup" instead. Still quite a fun dish overall.

With the cooking done, we turned up the music, turned down the lights, grabbed some plates, and went into some photo-shooting frenzy. Donning on neckties I wear for work, we dubbed it the Necktie Birthday Party while posing in front of the cam and doing some wacky shots. Good thing someone owned an SLR, I don't think regular cameras would work with such dark lighting and fast movements.

We ate, laughed, danced, and posed some more. Much so that we went past midnight and drained all our calories. It was like our own private disco club, minus the awkward strangers. We were on our own fun little world and it was the best.

The gifts came later and I got some chocolate rice balls, a Tokyo Dome mechanical eraser thingy, a mousepad, and of course the cake. By that time, everyone was already half-asleep, and I was left to clean out the room and put away the dishes.

Tired, content, and overflowing with happiness, I ushered the people back to their homes, closed the door, rolled out my futon, and went into a dreamless sleep. I didn't have to blow a candle to have my wish come true.

Thank you guys, that night was awesome. Happy birthday to meee~!

Happy Birthday to Me~!!

Tonight, while waiting for midnight, my friend and I watched a dramatic Japanese romance movie. Not having popcorn or any snacks available at home, I decided to prepare some corn soup. I added some flair with a bit of garlic powder, butter, an egg, and melted in a slice of mozzarella cheese.

But right before the movie started, we found the soup a bit too... soupy. It was a delicious yet perfectly ordinary soup. So I grabbed some slices of loaf and broke it to bite size pieces, I let it soak in the soup, and voila, a filling supper you could eat quietly that's not too grand to steal away your attention from the show.

By the time the movie ended, it was nearly 12. But not wanting to waste time, I figured that maybe I should go and try to make some custard following BadAunt's recipe. If all goes well, I'll go and proceed to make a bigger batch by tomorrow.

This is my first time to cook custard, and I'm a bit uncomfortable with the lack of some ingredients. I decided to improvise and use bitter chocolate instead of vanilla extract to give it flavor.

I got worried when I was constantly stirring yet it was still quite watery. Was on the verge of adding a spoonful of cornstarch when I find that stirring began to be difficult. The custard's now a custard.

It worked!

The chocolate melted very nicely and the texture was velvety smooth. The smell was heavenly. I ran out of the kitchen holding my finished product when my friend shouted, "HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAYYY!!!".

12:00 AM

We danced around a bit while I kept on stirring the still hot custard (don't want the eggs to suddenly get lumpy). And then we got tired. Then sleepy. Then they went back to their houses and I was left stirring the warm pan of deliciousness. Actually, I felt warm all over.

Later when the sun's up, another friend will be arriving from another town (with a promise of bringing a cake). We'll start buying food and cooking stuff for the party. And now that I'm feeling confident about my recipe-guided cooking ability, I think I'm going to try making some egg carbonara. Wish me luck!

Happy 1st Birthday Dad!

Today is the first time that we celebrated my dad's official birthday! And all along we thought he was born on the December 30th. >__>;

It all came to be on the day my mom decided to get my dad's official birth certificate at the National Statistics Office. Since our government is quite new (politically speaking), problems with official documents and stuff are the norm.

As my cousin had once remarked, the town halls here have been burned down at least once for some reason or another; the municipal hall where my dad's official records were kept was obviously not an exception. Add that to the fact that it was waaaay out in the province between the rice paddies and mountain ranges, then his birth certificate would be very hard to get indeed~

Although my grandpa insists that he got the birthday correct and that the records were wrong (my grandma's gone... so his word is the only thing we could hold unto). And being registered late, the town hall burned down, documents lost and only pulled out just now does seem to explain a lot why there's a mysterious discrepancy.

I know that it's hard to imagine to grow up knowing that you've been blowing candles on the wrong day every birthday, but I guess it has to happen to someone someday right?

So... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! You'll really have a lot more birthdays to come (twice a year in fact), don't get too old too fast now okay?

Feb's Belated Feast

Just when my medical is now just a couple of days away, all the February birthday celebrants in the office decided to buy tons of food for the whole project to feast on. *cries* We were told of what had happened with the previous batch's medical as they were checked right after the holidays; high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar levels, with chunks of cholesterol and other nasty stuff that's sure to prevent us from entering Japan.

Well I still have a day or so to normalize my body, so I dove in with the crowd and started grabbing anything edible within reach. I wasn't able to try all of the available dish laid out, but I managed to take quite a lot!





Clockwise from top left: Spaghetti, Pancit Malabon, Barbecue, Pichi-pichi, Sansrival Cake, and a Choco Roll in the center.




For those who aren't familiar with Pancit Malabon, here's a definition from Wikipedia: Pancit Malabon is a type of pancit, or stir-fried noodle dish, which originated in Malabon City, Philippines. It has a yellow-orange color due to a sauce that includes fish sauce and shrimp paste. Its toppings draw heavily from the fresh seafood that is available in the area and may include fresh shrimp, squid, oysters, and hard-boiled duck or hen eggs, as well as pork. Trust me, it's delicious~

And pichi-pichi is a sticky ball of sweet gooey stuff covered in coconut shreds. I only took two, hurrah for self-restraint!

It is obviously decided that I have to do a rigorous exercise just to lay off whatever fatty substances that crept into my body. I did a 30-minute crazy dance routine to the sound of the Hairspray movie's OST, but it probably just burned off only the spaghetti...

I wonder if a round-trip up and down the staircase would take care of those pichi-pichies~