Onli in d Philippines

Motorcycles in Dumaguete City

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:42:59 PST

One can find hundreds of motorcycles plying the Dumaguete City streets. Seemed it is the primary means of transporation in the area with both gender driving the vehicle. The photo was taken in front of Lee Super Plaza where motorcycles are closely parked in two lanes.

Kwek-Kwek

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:12:46 PDT

Ever watched Super Inggo? Kwek-Kwek is Pareng Budong and Pareng Jomar's favorite food. Filipinos are really fond of street foods and one of it is Kwek-Kwek. Kwek-Kwek is made of either hard boiled egg, "penoy", or "balut" that is coated with a mixture of flour and food coloring and then deep fried. It is eaten with thinly sliced cucumber and hot and spicy native vinegar. This street food can be found in almost all streets in any place and sometimes serves as a good snack for every Filipino who loves eating this thing. I haven't tried the Balut Kwek-Kwek though but I usually eat the penoy or the hard boiled egg.

Busy

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:28:32 PDT

It's been weeks since I last updated this blog. I have to give way for my wife to use the pc and work on her blog. What else can I do but to wait for my turn. Most often than not, I can only use the pc when she's having a nap, cooking or doing the laundry and those times were all consumed playing Need For Speed, surfing the net for updates, etc. Lately, I qualified for an online job so it eats up my time doing online coding. Hence, no time for blogging. Anyhow, will be try to update here if I can.

New look, new name

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:29:19 PST

I haven't posted any the past days. I've been busy looking for some templates that suits my choice but after copying the codes and pasting it in the html editor of my blog, it is so disappointing that the change could not be implemented due to errors in the code. For an html genius, it would be easy to find the error among all the the codes but for me, it will take me forever to figure out. Anyway, I finally decided on what template to use. Even the title of my blog have changed to match with the template.

Lost

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:04:19 PST

We're literally lost in a place unfamiliar to us (me and Crislyn) early this morning. I accompanied Crislyn for her final interview with the president of Cotabato Sugar Central Co., Inc. in the sister company's plant (Davao Sugar Central) in Guihing, Davao del Sur. It's the earliest interview I heard. Her schedule is 6:30AM. It's so early considering that we will be travelling more than an hour to get there not to mention our travel time from house to the overland terminal and the waiting time for the bus to depart. Whew! What a sacrifice but I don't want her to go there alone either.

To be able to get there on time, we woke up at 3:30AM, get prepared and left the house an hour after. The bus' estimated time departure is 5:25 and the earliest time we will reach Guihing is 6:30. Obviously, we will be late for the interview. I know how important this is for Crislyn to be on time or earlier than the schedule because it's the president that will be interviewing her (will it be the initial or the final interview, she shouldn't be late because it's unprofessional. It's better that she'll be waiting for the interviewee, not the other way around).

During the travel, she was so silent. She didn't even say a word. I presume she's praying that we will arrive the site just on time for her turn or she'll pass the interview. I did not interrupted her moment. She seemed to be calm but I know she's nervous. I recalled when she relayed her experience during the interview with the Gen. Manager. She's so frustrated because she was not able to express herself well. According to her, even for simple question, she hardly grasped the right words to say and elaborate her answers the way she wanted it to be delivered. To comfort her that time, I told her that the GM will not only consider how she perform in the interview but will put more weight on her experiences and her skills. I know that's her concern now and I prayed she'll be able to make it the way she wanted it to be.

We arrived Digos City 15 minutes past 6AM and rode a bus going to General Santos City. I told the driver's assistant to drop us at Guihing. Upon reaching a vast banana plantation on the left and mango orchard on the right, I guess we're already in Guihing but I waited to reach the transport terminal. Crislyn told me to ask the person beside me if we'll be going to pass by Guihing public market and the guy said we have passed by Guihing already (so, that's the result of not having signs along the road for the travelers to keep track of where they are already). Well, we have no choice but to get off the bus and ride a public utility vehicle back to Guihing. We told the driver to drop us at Guihing public market. After almost 5 minutes, we are already passing by some stalls but we didn't thought it's the public market. To make the story short, again, we are lost for the second time. I know Crislyn wanted to fret but she maintained her composure. She's already late! Somebody from the company called her up earlier asking where she is already. Finally, we were able to ride a tricycle going to the plant and reached our destination after a couple of minutes. She was relieved that the first interview session is not yet finished and she arrived with ample time to relax herself.

Sikat Ang Websaytko!

First horseback riding

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:08:27 PST

This is taken during my very first horseback riding experience....

April of 2007, my high school batchmates and turned couple Eunice and Johanns who are residing in Cebu flew to Davao to attend the burial of Eunice' relative. We haven't seen each other since August of 2001 and we took the opportunity to spend some time with them. One of the places we visited is the famous Eden Nature Park. The name itself speaks of it's location....up in the mountains of Eden, Toril, Davao City. The park is surrounded with lush greeneries, gigantic pine and other trees, different flower species, and animals.

I just had my very first horseback riding at Eden. At first because I am afraid that I might fell but after a while, I learned to relax.

After horseback riding, we had trekking around the park(without a guide) up and down the slopes under the trees...whew! It's a good exercise for us and a great experience bonding with nature.

McDonald's...love ko to (I love it)!

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:39:07 PST

I know I should patronize Jollibee because it is a home-grown fastfood chain but I like McDonald's more. I find consistency in the quality of their services, food handling and preparation, and most of all, their products. One of my most favorite McDo product is the McSpaghetti for its sauce and firm pasta...and one good thing is...I can request "extra, extra sauce" to enjoy more my spag. Aside from their spaghetti, I like their McFlurry, dipping the french fries in it. My wife loves McDo's french fries a lot because it tastes real potato, not sweet potato and the Burger McDo for its "lasang Pinoy" patty.

My wife, who used to work with McDonalds is very familiar with how the products are handled and prepared following the standard procedures. Thus, we are confident that all foods served are 100% safe and clean.

Ilocano Tongue

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:26:08 PST

I really have difficulty learning the Ilocano accent. My wife is half-blooded Ilocano and she's teaching me some Ilocano words but I cannot get the accent. It's really different from Visaya or other vernaculars. When I was still courting my wife, I bought an English-Ilocano dictionary just to learn some basic words. I remember sending her an SMS in Ilocano before and she was shocked where did I get my vocabulary. Now, I'm still learning the basics so that I can communicate with my wife's relatives in their own dialect. As of the moment, what I can only utter is my favorite.... "manganen or mangan tayon" which means let's eat, "kabsat" meaning brother, and "napintas" or beautiful.

Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:58:39 PST

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Pinakurat

noreply@blogger.com (ace) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:37:57 PST

Everytime I and my wife, Crislyn, goes to the grocery, she asks me (as if begging) to buy "Pinakurat" (a brand name of vinegar) and I always say no to her because I'm very particular with the price. All those times, I think it's not practical to buy a vinegar more than twice the price of the other brands. I stood firm with my decision not to buy the vinegar until such time when we visited a friend in Cagayan de Oro after our trip in Camiguin Island early last week. I got to taste "Pinakurat" as a dip in the grilled fish. The vinegar doesn't taste like others. It's far beyond other brands because it doesn't taste so acidic. It's a naturally fermented vinegar from coconut nectar (or Tuba in tagalog) with hot pepper and other spices in it, a proud product of Iligan City. Now, I told Crislyn to buy Pinakurat when we'll go to the grocery.