A Little Project (Cont'd)

Don't you remember when you were little, you used to just love, love playing with sand? When I was a kid, all my playmates would go crazy over a mountainload of sand and gravel whenever there's house construction in the neighborhood. 

I get senti watching my kids play with their little titos and titas, so I allowed them and left the scolding to the old people. 

Can you tell from the carpenter's size how big this bathroom is? You can fit a party in here. 

My bro-in-law helping out.

Here's how it looks like when I left. I bought about 110 piece of 40x40 large tiles in light blue for the walling, and dark blue for the flooring. I have yet to see how this turns out. More on the next post!

A Little Project

I have just come back from a three-week trip to Bicol. I tugged along my youngest, Matt, on a long journey to reach the town of Castilla in Sorsogon. I have since served as photographer to a local JS prom, went to some "sayawan" on weekends where all the young town folk gather to see some chics, went swimming numerous times to a nearby natural cold spring pool, had a fun day at Cagsua ruins, and made many trips to Legazpi, Daraga and Sorsogon cities on chores. I have yet to go to Donsol for sighting whale sharks and Matnog for some white-sand island hopping. I'll reserve that for another post.

I have an ongoing project (and hopefully, only until today because I want the hardware bills to stop, seriously) on my husband E's house, we're adding a new bathroom to the house. And I made sure it's gigantuar. Scrimping on space made little sense in the province, and I know a lot about that living in the city.

The house is proudly a product of husband sweat and tears from a loan from his previous employer. It is still unfinished, just the bare to house the family. It is modestly sized, with a nice, spacious living room great for kids. Someday, this will be cement-finished, will be sparkling with new paint, an extended dining area at the back, extra rooms and a nice, big balcony.

Okay, I might as well show you how it's made.

Did I miss facebook? Na! Hahaha.

After fixing markers on where and how the bathroom should look like, I had a local tambay dig a hole for us for P700. First we dig a hole. It was about 10-12 feet high.

Yup, this is where all the yucky, gross things go. Things we don't want to see or smell. Hahaha.
Then, support is installed along its sides to make sure the soil doesn't cave in. Hollow blocks and iron rods were put in place and left to dry. Afterwards, bamboo shoots and plywood were placed to hold support for the cement finish on top of the septic tank. And voila!

Sorsogon Baywalk

After the tsunami scare that hit the shores of Sorsogon, and the tragedy that befell Japan, I realized that there is no better place for my kids to be than with us. We have thought many times about sending the children to school in Legazpi City in Albay because of cheaper yet quality education in E's old school, St. Agnes Academy. With all the global occurrences these past months, I have since changed my mind. I need to look around soon. Marco's soon to be in Kindergarten and Miggy might as well attend nursery since he's gonna be lonely at home without his kuya. Since I was going back to Manila the next day to attend to some business, I brought the kids with me to the city and made a quick trip to the baywalk. It was chilly and dusky, the wind was strong and the waters were brisk. Regardless of whatever the sea looks, my children are always, always happy to see some water. 

Miggy is not feeling well but put up a happy face, he's been complaining that he's "pilay." And Marco didn't take the cool wind too well, he ran a fever when we came home, along with a running nose. 

An Early Birthday Present

I fell in love with it when I first saw it on the display shelf three weeks ago. When I got back from Sorsogon, I had a feeling this was going to happen... Look what greeted me when I came home! 

Isn't she lovely?

Super happy bunny! Can't wait to use it!

Birthdays can be grand. :) Thanks to my dear husband E for this awesome, beautiful surprise! 

Guess where I'll be...

Where there are big blue crabs...

Where there are pristine, white sand beaches...

Where there are century-old Spanish churches...

Where this is the only mall in the city...

Where there's a big, grumpy volcano...

Where there are lots of pain-in-the-ass pili nuts...

Last clue. Where there are whale sharks.

Stay tuned!

From Farm to Fridge -- Is Going Vegan the Solution?

In the last century, we have seen the exponential demand for food sources in answer to a dramatic population explosion. This paved the way to commercial farming by large-scale and multinational companies. I have read somewhere that meat used to be an expensive, once-in-a-while luxury. It is not an everyday fare like how it is now. Today, it's almost an indispensable commodity. As market demand grew, there came the need to discover more consistent and advanced methods of mass-producing animal products. Farm animals are given steroids, antibiotics and food designed to enhance their body mass to more than nature has designed them for. Some are genetically modified from birth, as they are engineered to simply become "products." As a result, most of the chemicals are passed on to humans who eat them, hence diseases like cancers, skin diseases, high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, etc. Which raises the question, is banning meat the right thing to do? Like what this video suggests, "you may want to explore a vegan diet."