So Yummy! Let's Eat!

American Thanksgiving Holiday

Last year of November "Tatay Tony" told us in his e-mails that he was very busy as a Chef in Arizona USA preparing for the Holiday. I thought it was the preparation for the coming Christmas Season. After it he mailed me again that the busy days were over because the Holiday was already celebrated. Big question flashed my mind? "It was still November and the holiday was over?" I really had to ask him what holiday was it. Now, I can relate to this grand thanksgiving holiday and I know that Americans will be celebrating it again this coming Thursday.
I also searched more about this Thanksgiving that the Americans were Celebrating
Beginning with George Washington in 1789, annual presidential proclamations had declared the last Thursday of November as the Thanksgiving date. However, in 1941, a United States Congressional declaration officially designated the fourth Thursday of November as the date of the Thanksgiving holiday.
To my American friends may you enjoy your celebration. God Bless America!

My TTS friends Mommy and Madi with  good friend Hootin Anni want us to join this great TTS Meme.

Randy Newman: You've Got a Friend In Me Lyrics

Songwriters: Newman, R;

You've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me
When the road looks rough ahead
And you're miles and miles
From your nice warm bed
You just remember what your old pal said
Girl, you've got a friend in me

When we were Grade Six

Today!

You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
When the road looks rough ahead
And you're miles and miles
From your nice warm bed
You just remember what your old pal said
Boy, you've got a friend in me
Yeah, you've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
If you've got troubles, I've got 'em too
There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you
We stick together and can see it through
Cause you've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me

Some other folks might be
A little bit smarter than I am
Bigger and stronger too
Maybe
But none of them will ever love you
The way I do, it's me and you
Boy, and as the years go by
Our friendship will never die
You're gonna see it's our destiny
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me

Thursday Theme Song #8

It's Thursday again! Time to jam and sing our favorite Theme Song with your lovely photos. TTS is hosted by Mommy and Madi sponsored by Hootin' Anni. Grab the link now and post your favorite song with your lovely pictures.

DION AND THE BELMONTS
Teenager In Love

Each time we have a quarrel
It almost breaks my heart
'Cause I'm so afraid
That we will have to part

Each night I ask the stars up above
Why must I be a teenager in love

One day I feel so happy
Next day I feel so sad

I guess I'll learn

To take the good with the bad

'Cause each night
I ask the stars up above
Why must I be a teenager in love

Each time we have a quarrel
It almost breaks my heart
'Cause I'm so afraid
That we will have to part

Each night I ask the stars up above
Why must I be a teenager in love

One day I feel so happy
Next day I feel so sad
I guess I'll learn
To take the good with the bad

'Cause each night
I ask the stars up above
Why must I be a teenager in love

I cried a tear for nobody but you
I'll be a lonely one
If you should say we're through
Well if you want to make me cry
That won't be so hard to do
If you should say goodbye
I'd still go on loving you

Each night I ask the stars up above

Why must I be a teenager in love

I cried a tear for nobody but you
I'll be a lonely one
If you should say we're through
Well if you want to make me cry
That won't be so hard to do
And if you should say goodbye
I'd still go on loving you

Each night I ask the stars up above
Why must I be a teenager in love
Why must I be a teenager in love
Why must I be a teenager in love
Why must I be a teenager in love

For more of TTS click here:

Christmas Decor from Recycled Materials

Christmas is in the air. Everyone seems so busy getting stuffs for decoration. We can reuse, recycle dump materials for our decoration. We do not only save money but also we help in promoting the campaign on "Saving Mother Earth".

This decor is made from recycled materials!

See the board where the decors were pasted is part of an old ceiling fan. The green leaveswere from an old decor and the red cloth  ribbon was also taken from old clothings!

Linking this entry to: Mellow Yellow Monday,  Mary's Ruby Tuesday
                                     

Blogging His Visit to Pinas 3rd Day

3rd Day Friday morning

Nice morning, it rained last night. I finally found out what that yelling in the street is. At all hours there is a water seller who walks up and down the streets yelling “water, water” over and over. When does this guy sleep? It is absolutely incredible what people sell. There are more entrepreneurs here than in the US . Cell phones, playing cards, water, T shirts, all kinds of construction supplies, every kind of supplies for anything, girlie bars, juice bars, fresh fruit, magazines, cigarettes, gum, anything and everything.

The streets are surprisingly clean; street sweepers come by at night and clean. These are not machines but men who work for the sanitation department and they sweep the streets by hand with a broom. My dentist has a cook and two dental assistants that live with her and her husband.

The girls that work for the dentist are in their early twenties except for the maid/cook who is 17 years old. The employees live there as well. They only get one day off every two weeks but do get the run of the house. They are not allowed in the office area and cannot watch TV in the waiting room after they are finished for the night. The waiting room has HBO.  They work from 6:00am to 9:00pm and get their room and board. They are only allowed to leave in pairs; never by themselves. None of the girls are allowed to have boyfriends. The reason is for security purposes. Men target maids to gain access to the house. They can’t be charged with burglary if they didn’t break in but were invited in. The law is very flexible in Manila . When a motorist is stopped on the street for a traffic violation, the individual pays the cop. The traffic police get to keep a third of what they bring in. I have seen two Makati police checkpoints set up on the route I was walking on. They decide, and who knows what the criteria is, to set up and then they start asking for ID and fines. The Makati police get to keep some of the fine also but they make most of their money by setting up foreigners. In an open air restaurant a police informer will give an unsuspecting foreigner a small packet of drugs, and then the police will arrest him. It costs between 20,000 and 80,000php to get free. That’s about $400 to $1600 USD. 

Almost everyone sells something, and so polite and cheerful. Yesterday as I was walking back to the hotel I saw a taxi driver pull over and give a poor beggar some food. This is compassion from people who are only just a little bit richer. Taxi drivers don’t make much; I went across town in a taxi for 60php about $1.10 USD. Some little kids begging on the corner were the worst. Their parents were across the street, watching to see how much money they brought in. I guess under these circumstances they have to do what they have to do.

There was some kind of a political demonstration yesterday in Makati . Traffic is horrific anyway but this was 10 times worse. The last thing I want to do is become involved in internal political issues. There was also a local demonstration by the fire department in favor of the opposing side, where they drove through the town with Philippine flags attached to the fire engines. Economic conditions are pretty bad, social conditions are bad, not very bad but bad enough. The men treat the women like trash; more on this later. Lots of gays and lesbians..

Today is Independence Day in Makati . I haven’t been out there yet but I am sure that it will be a nightmare as usual. I can’t wait to leave and go to Mindanao , to Cagayan de Oro. St. Illian’s Inn is the hotel I am staying. It’s located in the slums but, everything else looks the same. What do slums look like? It is a nice hotel, old but well maintained. The cook is excellent, the food is great! I had calderata last night that was outstanding. Perfect marriage of flavors and spicy too! The room is clean and comfortable, has a TV which I don’t watch, newspapers every morning, breakfast at 6:00am. It is cheap too, only 1750php a night($37.00USD a night).

Friday

Today the dentist told me he couldn’t get the anesthetic that I need. Yesterday the dentist gave me the standard anesthetic and I passed out, my blood pressure dropped to 60 over 40 from 140 over 80 in one minute. Very scary indeed! So since I couldn’t get the work done there I left her office, went back to my hotel, checked out, went to the airport and flew to Cagayan de Oro. I stepped from the hell of Manila into the heaven of being with Nona. She is even more wonderful in person than online. She and her family picked me up at the airport and took me to their home. I am staying in the church, in the guest bedroom.  

Blogging His Visit to Pinas 2nd Day

Bad day today! Today I thought I would walk to the dentist office. No big deal, it was only three or four miles, but the streets were never meant for pedestrian traffic. The sidewalks are actually only curbs, and only 12 inches wide and in many places, simply don’t exist. On my way there I found a totally cool outdoor market and walked through it in amazement. There was raw meat and fish not under refrigeration being cut and sold to anyone who asked. Unbelievable amounts and varieties of fruit and veggies. I was only able to identify half of all I saw. I walked almost to the end of the market before I realized that the people in the market did not want me there. It was the strangest feeling! No one said anything to me and no menacing behavior but the feeling was unmistakable. It wasn’t that they hated me or wanted to harm me, I just wasn’t welcome. I turned around and walked out of the market. While I was there I saw another variety of police. I have seen so many kinds of police. There are the Makati city police, traffic police, the barangay police, peacekeepers, and sewer police. The people love uniforms, it’s incredible the number and kinds of uniforms. It’s not that they have uniforms, we have uniforms. Its that they take their uniforms seriously. Secretaries have uniforms.

There are all these cute little kids begging on the street. 4 and 5 year olds with hardly any clothes on, just breaks my heart but they work for the crime syndicate and turn in their begging money for food. The taxi drivers have been having a hard time finding the hotel, even with a map. How do these guys get jobs if they don’t know the city? Everybody is nice, there is no road rage, no yelling, no flipping other drivers off, its amazing! Today I had the best Japanese food I have ever had in my life. Everything was very fresh and it all tasted like it was supposed to.

My 6th Thursday Theme Song

Do you want to sing and dance you favorite Music? Post them now here at Thursday Theme Song with the generosity of Mommy and Madi and of course hosting this is Hottin' Anni! Come jam with us!

When you're alone
And life is making you lonely,

You can always go downtown
When you've got worries,
All the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know, downtown

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go
Downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown, no finer place for sure,
Downtown, everything's waiting for you
(Downtown)

Blogging His Visit to the Philippines 1st Day

My dear Tatay  Tony wanted to blog his experiences when he visited the Philippines last June 2009 but he don't have enough time for blogging so he requested me to post it for him.

I came into Manila this evening aboard Asiana Airlines after flying almost 22 hours. What a great airlines; they treated me like gold. The seats were very comfortable and the food and drinks plentiful. I pity the poor folks who flew here in steerage; stacked in like sardines in the back of the plane. Many thanks to Tony Jo for giving me the tickets as a gift; she booked me round trip in business class!

I am staying in a small hotel in the city of Makati , which is a suburb of Manila and contains the main business district for Metro-Manila. The hotel is nice by the standards of a third world country, is very reasonably priced and lies on a quiet back street on the edge of the slums. It is clean, has air conditioning, and a small coffee shop. The hotel looks old and inside it looks like it is about 50 years old and has had numerous repairs, but everything works. I brought two cable locks and lock my suitcases to my bed each day when I leave. The cases are locked but if anyone really wanted to take them they could. My hope is that this is a deterrent and so far this has worked. I receive a daily subtle request for tips in the form of a short note from my room cleaner telling me what a great job he/she is doing and asking for feedback. 20 pesos is considered to be a satisfactory room cleaner tip but I give them all of my change at the end of the day. The conversion of pesos to the dollar is about 49 pesos to the dollar.

 My room was up a short flight of stairs that was glassed in on one side and open to the interior on the other. At the top there was a nice balcony with artificial plants in a container attached to the balcony hand rail. The hotel had six floors that could be reached by a circular staircase that didn’t look all that stable and my curiosity wasn’t great enough to find out what the other floors were like.

Today I woke up before the wake up call from the front desk. I couldn’t bring my alarm clock because the Philippines are on 240volts instead of 120 like the states. I had asked for a wake up call at 9:00am but they called at 8:30am. This is one of the fun little quirks that happen here in Manila where time walks to the beat of a different drummer. I found it is useless to complain about the little stuff and its all little stuff. A few social rules for the Philippines : never get angry, always smile, and don’t argue with anyone especially the police.

Breakfast was two eggs over easy with rice and Filipino chicken sausage. Very different to my palate, not the flavors I was expecting from the sausage, more like Chinese sausage and certainly not like American sausage.

The only downside is its location, on the edge of the slums. The hotel staff told me to stay on the main streets and avoid the endlessly twisted back streets and alleys. I am depending on God for guidance in all my choices and this one seems good so far.

On arriving in the Phil I changed some American cash into pesos, at the airport. It was easy I just handed them the cash and they gave me the pesos. The next day I needed to change my dollars into Philippine pesos so I went to the Philippine Land Bank. Whoooeeee, what a huge mistake! They made me jump through all kinds of hoops and sign over my first born child, just to change over a $100 bucks. Never again! After this nightmare I always changed over dollars at the numerous money changers located in the malls.

Today was my first appointment with the dentist and my first experience with Manila taxis. On the way to the dentist (about 3 miles) I only screamed in terror twice. The driver and everyone else on the road all have death wishes. This isn’t transportation it’s a test of nerves in the game called “chicken.” Cars, taxis, buses, jeepneys,  and these little motorcycle driven transports all try to squeeze into the same space at the same time. Pedestrians walk in the middle of the street to cross, prisoners on work release sell everything you can possibly imagine in the middle of traffic, beggars and motor cycles are everywhere. It is chaos! My driver actually managed to find about twenty five feet of open space and promptly floored the car. My hands were gripping the seat so tightly that I felt the worn fabric starting to tear and my face had the rictus of the newly dead. Within seconds he had to brake sharply and we missed a couple of pedestrians and a motorcycle by a hair. Meanwhile this road warrior was giving me a running commentary on something but I couldn’t completely understand his broken English, and frankly didn’t care. I just wanted to get there in one piece.

I meet the husband of the dentist. This guy is one of those people that have an opinion about everything. He is a Brit that has lived in Manila for the last 30 years and knows the city well. After my checkup he takes me sightseeing in Manila . His driving is even worse than everyone else’s but I have turned my safety over to God and rest in His protection. We arrive at the Mall of Asia in one piece.

The Mall of Asia is the third largest mall in the world. We spend three hours here looking at various shops, but even if I had three weeks and spent 12 hours a day, every day looking at the mall and it’s adjoining shops and attractions it would not be enough time to see it all. There is even a road that runs through the center of the mall complex.

First day of great day experiences. Hope you'll stay until all experiences during Philippine visit be posted!

Tatay Tony Merrill, (left ) supporting my mother- who can tell she is sick and undergoing
hemodialysis ?

Watery Wednesday

Enjoying the sight. One of the beautiful spot that  Boholanons are proud of. The beautiful river where floating restaurants wait for visitors to dine while the tiny waves and the current of the river sways the ferry boat back and forth loaded with dinning sets and delicious food. An experience one should not missed while visiting Bohol.
We inquired how much per head to dine in the "eat all you can". The price is right for a worthwhile  and once in a lifetime experience. But we were in a hurry to visit all scenic spots in the Island of Chocolate Hills during that day so we can catch up the trip back to Cebu that same day! We were not able to experience that restaurant at my back.

A scene to behold. Panglao River Floating Restaurants

Follow Me Back Tuesday

Indeed this has became one my favorite Meme since I found it! I can win more friends and followers. Thanks to the hosts:   Survey Junkie, Little Yaya's, Review Retreat, Boobies,BabiesAndABlog  with todays host: Meagan from Publix Coupon Queen.

 How F.M.B.T Works

• Follow all 4 Hosts & Guest Host - Spots 1-5   leave a comment w/ link so we can follow back ( only leave a comment that you follow if you actually follow )
• Snag our button & make a F.M.B.T. post. 
• After you post use that link to add your blog to the hop along with blog name  

( NO BLOG HOPs & GIVEAWAYS PLEASE  ) These entries will be deleted.

• Follow the blogs you like & Follow Back who follows you

United Nation Costume for Mellow Yellow, Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday

  

    Children are gifts from the Lord, that is why whenever our kids perform though they were  not the best performer we take pride of their accomplishments. We are proud to say, "that's my girl or my boy!".

   My kids wore their costumes during the United Nations Culminating Program in their schools. They looked so pretty cute on their costume. See them so you would agree with me.

Hannah as an Iranian.

My youngest dancing a Hawaian Dance with her Costume

This is Ate Juwella in her Japanese Costume.

     If maybe there are much time to make on line shopping or finances permits we could get costume from Fancy Dress Balloon Bizarre for UK and Shopzilla for US .

I am linking this to Mellow Yellow Monday, Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday.