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/><category term="holiday break" /><category term="novels" /><category term="money" /><title>mj dot com</title><subtitle type="html">the lighter side of family and personal life</subtitle><link rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/" /><link rel="next" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25&amp;redirect=false&amp;v=2" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><generator version="7.00" uri="http://www.blogger.com">Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>281</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/mjdotcom" /><feedburner:info uri="mjdotcom" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><feedburner:emailServiceId>mjdotcom</feedburner:emailServiceId><feedburner:feedburnerHostname>http://feedburner.google.com</feedburner:feedburnerHostname><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;D0EEQnsyfSp7ImA9WhRaEkU.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-2989769492003590348</id><published>2012-02-15T08:00:00.085+02:00</published><updated>2012-02-15T08:00:03.595+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-02-15T08:00:03.595+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="movies" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Donnie Yen" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="chinese" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="review" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Ip Man" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Yip Man" /><title>Movie Watch: Ip Man</title><content type="html">&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GBPfCZQ4YaQ/Tx8m2DhQcBI/AAAAAAAAA0o/ZktkhIBrdy4/s1600/220px-Ipmanposter02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GBPfCZQ4YaQ/Tx8m2DhQcBI/AAAAAAAAA0o/ZktkhIBrdy4/s1600/220px-Ipmanposter02.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ip_Man_(film)"&gt;Borrowed Photo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I remember my eldest's first reaction when I told her that I had bought this DVD. "IP Man? Is this movie about&amp;nbsp;an IT guy? Something similar to The Social Network?"&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;If you had any such idea akin to my eldest above, rest assure that Ip Man is not some&amp;nbsp;hacker&amp;nbsp;trolling the internet. Take it out of your mind now. Ip Man is wonderfully written and if you watch it with an open mind, it will even surprise you.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The movie has been in circulation since 2008. But I only stumbled upon the movie recently when a Chinese friend&amp;nbsp;recommended that we watch it. I was not&amp;nbsp;the least bit&amp;nbsp;skeptical&amp;nbsp;in purchasing my own copy of the movie&amp;nbsp;because&amp;nbsp;most of the Chinese movies that I've watched with my family have not failed me yet. They've enjoyed most of the movies&amp;nbsp;even if they could not understand a single word said and could only&amp;nbsp;follow the subtitles.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Ip Man is an autobiographical look at the life of Yip Man, a&amp;nbsp;martial arts&amp;nbsp;grandmaster who later became the mentor of the famous Bruce Lee. The movie follows Yip Man's life in China and&amp;nbsp;the hardship that followed during the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. He uses his knowledge and mastery to survive and in the end, after defeating a Japanese leader in a public martial arts fight, he gave hope to the Chinese people to break free from the&amp;nbsp;abuse of the Japanese.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The&amp;nbsp;storyline seems simple enough but it is beautifully portrayed and&amp;nbsp;narrated. Donnie Yen, a Hong Kong actor, represented Yip Man with such subtlety. His mannerism, poise, in fact, his whole demeanor&amp;nbsp;depicted that grandmasters do not need big muscles to be great men.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The DVD I had did not come in English and was only available in Cantonese with English subtitles. But you know what? The family enjoyed it. Hubby was really blown away with all the&amp;nbsp;action scenes.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;So if you want a night in and a good movie, go and borrow this DVD at your local rental shop now. You won't regret it.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-2989769492003590348?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/vrhcMwc68aY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/2989769492003590348/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=2989769492003590348&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/2989769492003590348?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/2989769492003590348?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/vrhcMwc68aY/movie-watch-ip-man.html" title="Movie Watch: Ip Man" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GBPfCZQ4YaQ/Tx8m2DhQcBI/AAAAAAAAA0o/ZktkhIBrdy4/s72-c/220px-Ipmanposter02.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/02/movie-watch-ip-man.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CE8ER30zeip7ImA9WhRaEUw.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-4370885944452536579</id><published>2012-02-13T08:00:00.076+02:00</published><updated>2012-02-13T08:00:06.382+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-02-13T08:00:06.382+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="sightsee" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="tourist" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Cape Town" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="travel" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="VTT" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Table Mountain" /><title>VTT Postcard - Cape Town - Table Mountain</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;One of the biggest uncertainty when it comes to visiting Cape Town is its weather. It is fickle and often goes from one extreme to the next with no warnings. More than normal, Cape Town has windy conditions that prove too hard to handle.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Because of such, I have been advised by many friends to not waste any time. When the sun is up and shining and the weather is glorious, do what you want to do before the weather turns.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-elqYdDp3TuI/TxZ37Vg9oaI/AAAAAAAAAxo/Ot7KgqPkHh0/s1600/406555_349249021754307_100000076363863_1497015_1441106985_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-elqYdDp3TuI/TxZ37Vg9oaI/AAAAAAAAAxo/Ot7KgqPkHh0/s400/406555_349249021754307_100000076363863_1497015_1441106985_n.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Top of our list to see in Cape Town was of course, the majestic Table Mountain. It had recently won top honours for being part of the New 7 Wonders of the World.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GtYRsLSPxp4/TxaAT1Y39oI/AAAAAAAAAyA/Q1NXD5sUj6o/s1600/409297_10150460929960108_616635107_9268342_545991378_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GtYRsLSPxp4/TxaAT1Y39oI/AAAAAAAAAyA/Q1NXD5sUj6o/s400/409297_10150460929960108_616635107_9268342_545991378_n.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
So on our first day of sightseeing, we left around 9am to go up the mountain. The queue alone was unbelievable. We keep forgetting that it was December and Cape Town, like any tourist spots all over the world, is jampacked with tourists. We queued for 2 long hours until we got to the top of the mountain. It was an experience to ride up the cable that rotated so it could give the people a 360 degree view of the city from above.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QnQyI-9vqs4/TxaAPesvHoI/AAAAAAAAAxw/lPxM0g4q8Hs/s1600/390814_10150460924175108_616635107_9268297_548553159_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QnQyI-9vqs4/TxaAPesvHoI/AAAAAAAAAxw/lPxM0g4q8Hs/s400/390814_10150460924175108_616635107_9268297_548553159_n.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;When we got to the top, the views on all sides&amp;nbsp;were magnificent. We tried to capture most of it on&amp;nbsp;camera but I don't think any amount of pixels can truly describe how beautiful the scenes were.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Table Mountain&amp;nbsp;did not disappoint. In fact, it had exceeded expectations.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tImpjC3g_M4/TxaAQ9OorHI/AAAAAAAAAx4/29rZkkFMDTg/s1600/408205_10150460931735108_616635107_9268349_734634277_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tImpjC3g_M4/TxaAQ9OorHI/AAAAAAAAAx4/29rZkkFMDTg/s400/408205_10150460931735108_616635107_9268349_734634277_n.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
We enjoyed lunch in the restaurant situated atop the mountain. After 2 hours of roaming around, we decided to descend. It took another hour to queue down. We officially got off the mountain around 3pm.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It was too late for the next sightsee so we called it a day.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Website: &lt;a href="http://tablemountain.net/"&gt;Table Mountain Aerial Cableway&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-4370885944452536579?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/fkLxbnnp-uM" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/4370885944452536579/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=4370885944452536579&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/4370885944452536579?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/4370885944452536579?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/fkLxbnnp-uM/vtt-postcard-cape-town-table-mountain.html" title="VTT Postcard - Cape Town - Table Mountain" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-elqYdDp3TuI/TxZ37Vg9oaI/AAAAAAAAAxo/Ot7KgqPkHh0/s72-c/406555_349249021754307_100000076363863_1497015_1441106985_n.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/02/vtt-postcard-cape-town-table-mountain.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;Ck8EQn88eCp7ImA9WhRbFkU.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-466013926101312490</id><published>2012-02-08T08:00:00.003+02:00</published><updated>2012-02-08T08:00:03.170+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-02-08T08:00:03.170+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="recording" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="studio" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="singing" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="bucket list" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Rolling In The Deep" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Adele" /><title>Record Me, Rolling In The Deep</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4-iThFuoW88/TxhLZ0J9ZdI/AAAAAAAAAyI/Hqm23jve1Yg/s1600/408660_10150457164665108_616635107_9255499_564318046_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4-iThFuoW88/TxhLZ0J9ZdI/AAAAAAAAAyI/Hqm23jve1Yg/s400/408660_10150457164665108_616635107_9255499_564318046_n.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Another&amp;nbsp;item on&amp;nbsp;my bucket list achieved!&amp;nbsp;I am chuffed.&amp;nbsp;Just over&amp;nbsp;a month ago, I got my lifelong dream to record my first ever song in a recording studio. And was it an experience of a lifetime! I tell you, it was truly a magical moment.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;A few months ago, the offer came up on Groupon to buy an hour of studio time at a relatively cheap price. I grabbed at the chance. After all, who knows when this kind of deal was gonna come up again?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I booked my studio date way ahead although I had not chosen my track at the time. I was debating on going with an old ballad or a new one, fast or slow song, etc. And I just couldn't decide. Left it for the time being.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;In the end, I chose "Rolling In The Deep". Of course, the song "Rolling In The Deep" is not my own song entirely. The song is made famous by Adele and is one of my fave songs at the moment. I chose it on the night before I was to go to the studios after watching an Adele concert. I chose it because I felt that I really, really liked the song. And I liked it that much to want to hear how I sounded in it.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The studio time went without a hitch. I sang the song acapella at first so that the sound engineer could normalise my voice. Sang it a second time with the track to hear how my voice jelled with the song. And sang it a third time as the final product.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I'm no idol but I am proud of myself. Not just because the recording&amp;nbsp;turned out quite&amp;nbsp;decent, coming off something like an Americanised Adele. I am proud that I even dared and eventually achieved another one of my dreams. It's a good feeling. I will never stop reaching for my dreams now, most definitely.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;For a sample of my attempt of rolling in the deep - here's the &lt;a href="http://soundcloud.com/mj-rodriguez/my-attempt-of-rolling-in-the"&gt;link&lt;/a&gt;. Tell me what you think.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-466013926101312490?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/bi2Y0tEzQCM" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/466013926101312490/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=466013926101312490&amp;isPopup=true" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/466013926101312490?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/466013926101312490?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/bi2Y0tEzQCM/record-me-rolling-in-deep.html" title="Record Me, Rolling In The Deep" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4-iThFuoW88/TxhLZ0J9ZdI/AAAAAAAAAyI/Hqm23jve1Yg/s72-c/408660_10150457164665108_616635107_9255499_564318046_n.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/02/record-me-rolling-in-deep.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;AkcEQn88cSp7ImA9WhRbFU0.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-5718538979831817557</id><published>2012-02-06T08:00:00.006+02:00</published><updated>2012-02-06T08:00:03.179+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-02-06T08:00:03.179+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Cape Town" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="travel" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="VTT" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Table Mountain" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="holiday" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="South Africa" /><title>VTT Postcard - Cape Town - Intro</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PwQprROk_Rk/TxZl3i5Cg7I/AAAAAAAAAxY/NOFaxmiYlFo/s1600/381111_10150460939075108_616635107_9268383_2015023865_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PwQprROk_Rk/TxZl3i5Cg7I/AAAAAAAAAxY/NOFaxmiYlFo/s400/381111_10150460939075108_616635107_9268383_2015023865_n.jpg" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Yep! December 2011 marked the&amp;nbsp;month when we eventually went frolicking to South Africa's mother city, Cape Town. It is quite shameful to say that in all our years in South Africa, this was our first visit to the place. But we were not disappointed. Cape Town lived up to its name as a top tourist destination in South Africa.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Cape Town is located in the south-western&amp;nbsp;tip of South Africa. If you were coming from Johannesburg, like we were, it was a good 16 hours of straight driving, one way. Even with hubby and me, alternating on the wheel, we decided that it would be best and safer if we stopped over somewhere and rather just spend 2 days of driving with occasional stops. We were there for a good solid week anyway. And we&amp;nbsp;got to spend New Year's there.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Although&amp;nbsp;Cape Town is one of the big cities in South Africa, it was far removed from the fast-paced life and buzz of Johannesburg. Cape Town had vibe and mellowness at the same time. The beaches and the scenery weren't&amp;nbsp;bad additions to the equation.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;In the next few weeks, I'll be showcasing Cape Town in all its glory....well, the ones that we got to see anyway. One week for Cape Town was not enough. I reckon we needed a month to properly take it all in.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I'd like to invite my readers to take this trip with me to the Mother City again, week by week. You never know when you'll get the chance, but it will definitely be on top of your list of future possible destinations if you have not been there yet.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;On a convincing last note, recently, Table Mountain was voted as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. Table Mountain is a mountain right gobsmacked in the middle of the city, towering over Cape Town. Enticing enough?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-5718538979831817557?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/JllnW7bf_rg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/5718538979831817557/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=5718538979831817557&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/5718538979831817557?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/5718538979831817557?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/JllnW7bf_rg/vtt-postcard-cape-town-intro.html" title="VTT Postcard - Cape Town - Intro" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PwQprROk_Rk/TxZl3i5Cg7I/AAAAAAAAAxY/NOFaxmiYlFo/s72-c/381111_10150460939075108_616635107_9268383_2015023865_n.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/02/vtt-postcard-cape-town-intro.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DEcERXc6eCp7ImA9WhRbEEo.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-1899790671209749784</id><published>2012-02-01T08:00:00.002+02:00</published><updated>2012-02-01T08:00:04.910+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-02-01T08:00:04.910+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="headhunted" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="wanted" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="work" /><title>I'm On A Head Hunt</title><content type="html">It's nice to feel wanted. It's nice to feel needed. It's nice to feel special.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I am not bragging although this post could come across like it. In my lifetime (35 years and counting), I have had this experience 4 times. And out of the 4, 2 were successful placements. It's basically a Cinderella fairy tale story set in the business world.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;One of my headhunting&amp;nbsp;stories started when I was&amp;nbsp;approached by a person for a meeting. She went on to tell&amp;nbsp;me that they were looking to hire somebody for their company. She was the owner of the company and she needed THAT person&amp;nbsp;to have&amp;nbsp;knowledge and experience in the industry before.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;She&amp;nbsp;used the internet as her tool, and apparently I was spurted out by Google when searched. She found my LinkedIn profile (yes, I have one of those) and saw that I was in&amp;nbsp;close vicinity. She figured there was nothing to lose and looked up the company that I was currently working for, phoned the company up and got through to me.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;She made her pitch and of course, being human, it piqued my interest. I agreed to go through an interview process with the other key individuals within the company.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I don't think the outcome&amp;nbsp;matters for&amp;nbsp;very much (not in this post anyway). But the mere fact that a person made all that effort was really something. Like I said, it's nice to feel that you&amp;nbsp;stood out&amp;nbsp;enough among the masses to have captured somebody's attention. If I did not get the job, it was definitely worth the thrill of being sought.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Do you feel the same way? What are your headhunting experiences?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Note to reader: I did get the job and I am hoping that it is the right move for me. I start today.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-1899790671209749784?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/sPZ2MCzad2Y" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/1899790671209749784/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=1899790671209749784&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/1899790671209749784?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/1899790671209749784?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/sPZ2MCzad2Y/im-on-head-hunt.html" title="I'm On A Head Hunt" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/02/im-on-head-hunt.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CUUFQXk_fyp7ImA9WhRUGU0.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-3554417068479422193</id><published>2012-01-30T08:00:00.006+02:00</published><updated>2012-01-30T08:00:10.747+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-01-30T08:00:10.747+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="diet" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Weighing In" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="lifestyle" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="habit" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="eating habits" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="breakfast" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Kelloggs" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="All Bran flakes" /><title>Weighing In: Guess Who Got It All</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNJdo5QrUzg/Tt8w4t277NI/AAAAAAAAAwo/fNoaEcuEHwE/s1600/DSC01390.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNJdo5QrUzg/Tt8w4t277NI/AAAAAAAAAwo/fNoaEcuEHwE/s320/DSC01390.JPG" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;A heathy breakfast really goes a long way. It's a shame I only discovered this late in my life. I used to skip breakfast and lunch when I was in my 20's and now I am suffering, changing my eating habits and lifestyle.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;One of the new&amp;nbsp;habits that I've incorporated in my life is to eat breakfast everyday.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I used to eat Kellogg's All Bran flakes daily. But nowadays, I eat breakfast on the way to work, so I prefer food that are easily held by one hand. I only get to eat it occasionally on weekends.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;My normal breakfast would comprise of my one fruit (the banana), one starch (40g all-bran), and 125ml low fat milk.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I'd jokingly mention that this was my cardboard breakfast but in truth, I do enjoy my All Bran more than other cereals.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;What is your favourite breakfast?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-3554417068479422193?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/BCwqhrYmGKU" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/3554417068479422193/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=3554417068479422193&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/3554417068479422193?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/3554417068479422193?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/BCwqhrYmGKU/weighing-in-guess-who-got-it-all.html" title="Weighing In: Guess Who Got It All" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNJdo5QrUzg/Tt8w4t277NI/AAAAAAAAAwo/fNoaEcuEHwE/s72-c/DSC01390.JPG" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/01/weighing-in-guess-who-got-it-all.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0UERX85fCp7ImA9WhRUFEo.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-6524547674467994903</id><published>2012-01-25T08:00:00.003+02:00</published><updated>2012-01-25T08:00:04.124+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-01-25T08:00:04.124+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="vampire" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="horror movies" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="movies" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Let Me In" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="review" /><title>Movie Watch: Let Me In</title><content type="html">&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-44O6_TkESaA/Tt8nAvuSj5I/AAAAAAAAAwg/ChECE_-hKgg/s1600/220px-Let_Me_In_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-44O6_TkESaA/Tt8nAvuSj5I/AAAAAAAAAwg/ChECE_-hKgg/s320/220px-Let_Me_In_Poster.jpg" width="215" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Me_In_(film)"&gt;PHOTO BORROWED&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="color: red;"&gt;Beware: Written for pure enjoyment&amp;nbsp;and spoilers are included.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I recently spoke about the Box Office and how much of a wonderful innovation it was.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;One of the first movies&amp;nbsp;we rented through &lt;a href="http://boxoffice.dstv.com/"&gt;Box Office&lt;/a&gt; was Let Me In. To tell you frankly, I happened to just stumble upon&amp;nbsp;it&amp;nbsp;while looking through the movies that were on offer at &lt;a href="http://boxoffice.dstv.com/"&gt;Box Office&lt;/a&gt; at that time. The movie came highly rated on &lt;a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/let_me_in/"&gt;RottenTomatoes&lt;/a&gt; and as I'd been on a rampant lookout for a good horror flick,&amp;nbsp;I&amp;nbsp;thought I'd give it a try.&amp;nbsp;The&amp;nbsp;film&amp;nbsp;does not star popular actors and is off the beaten track when it comes to the horror genre but is definitely highly enjoyable.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I convinced the family by showing them the trailer and although &lt;a href="http://boxoffice.dstv.com/"&gt;Box Office&lt;/a&gt; categorised this movie as a drama, you can clearly gather from the movie trailer that it was definitely not just that.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Owen, who leads a&amp;nbsp;lonely life - being bullied in school and neglected by his divorced parents. He then meets Abby, a 12-year-old girl, who recently moved into the same complex that Owen stays in. They form an unusual friendship.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;However, Abby and her "dad" lead a secret life. At night, Abby's dad would go out and kill local residents to collect blood for Abby, who is actually a vampire. One night, the attempted abduction of a victim goes wrong and Abby's dad is captured by the police. To avoid recognition and a possibility of a connection back to Abby, he poured acid on his face. Later in the hospital, when he is visited by Abby, he encourages her to kill him.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Abby is left all alone now to fend for herself. One night while out with Owen, she shows her vampiric self when Owen suggests that the two do a blood pact together. Once calmed, Owen confronted Abby where she admitted that she was indeed a vampire. Owen also discovers that Abby's dad was not her dad at all but was actually a man that Abby knew since he was a boy.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Towards the end of the movie, Abby comes back and saves Owen from the school bullies that have been hounding him. Owen accepts Abby for who she is and runs away with her.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The film was very haunting and very sad in the end, knowing that Owen's life and fate would turn out, most probably, like Abby's "dad".&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;If you haven't seen this and are in the mood for some mental scaring, this is definitely worth the watch.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Let me in...and tell me what you think.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-6524547674467994903?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/pllW_7jPYNw" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/6524547674467994903/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=6524547674467994903&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/6524547674467994903?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/6524547674467994903?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/pllW_7jPYNw/movie-watch-let-me-in.html" title="Movie Watch: Let Me In" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-44O6_TkESaA/Tt8nAvuSj5I/AAAAAAAAAwg/ChECE_-hKgg/s72-c/220px-Let_Me_In_Poster.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/movie-watch-let-me-in.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;AkMEQ3s7fSp7ImA9WhRUEkQ.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-1142830570390325468</id><published>2012-01-23T08:00:00.004+02:00</published><updated>2012-01-23T08:00:02.505+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-01-23T08:00:02.505+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Year of the Dragon" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Dragon" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Chinese Zodiac" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="chinese culture" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Chinese New Year" /><title>The Dragon Lady Gets Her Year</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Yep, that's right! I am a dragon. And I am a dragon, through and through. No, don't be silly now. I don't breathe fire. But all the other good things that they say about dragons, those qualities I'd like to think I have.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ULBBjfSngH8/TvBPPHocv5I/AAAAAAAAAxE/SwGWVIpYsx0/s1600/chinese_astrology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ULBBjfSngH8/TvBPPHocv5I/AAAAAAAAAxE/SwGWVIpYsx0/s200/chinese_astrology.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ULBBjfSngH8/TvBPPHocv5I/AAAAAAAAAxE/SwGWVIpYsx0/s1600/chinese_astrology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;" unselectable="on"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Dragons, being mystical and the mightiest of all the signs in Chinese zodiac, are considered to be&amp;nbsp;dominant and ambitious. They are full of vitality and strength. These traits lead to successes in life. The Dragon is also a symbol of power and wealth. (Okay, I'm still working on this "wealth" part.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;This year will be another Year Of The Dragon as we celebrate Chinese New Year today. I can hardly wait what the year will bring.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I know it seems silly to be believing in this stuff but that's just the way I feel. I've always believed that dragon years are especially lucky, and luckier for dragons. I don't know why I believe this though&amp;nbsp;because there's no&amp;nbsp;evidence this is true. I can't recall having anything big&amp;nbsp;happening in my life during the dragon years. All I know is I've had it good.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
And I'm really proud and lucky to be a Dragon. Any other dragons out there?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-1142830570390325468?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/Ab2YGIssyzg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/1142830570390325468/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=1142830570390325468&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/1142830570390325468?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/1142830570390325468?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/Ab2YGIssyzg/dragon-lady-gets-her-year.html" title="The Dragon Lady Gets Her Year" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ULBBjfSngH8/TvBPPHocv5I/AAAAAAAAAxE/SwGWVIpYsx0/s72-c/chinese_astrology.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/dragon-lady-gets-her-year.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DEMERXg6fyp7ImA9WhRVGEs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-5206496718568498912</id><published>2012-01-18T08:00:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2012-01-18T08:00:04.617+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-01-18T08:00:04.617+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="movies" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="DSTV" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Box Office" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="HD PVR 2P" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="blog material" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="movie rentals" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="video releases" /><title>DSTV Box-Office</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dR_V19mS3hU/TtvBPY_j9iI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/o7dyxfgkpQQ/s1600/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dR_V19mS3hU/TtvBPY_j9iI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/o7dyxfgkpQQ/s200/Untitled.png" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
With the purchase of our new DSTV HD PVR 2P, came along DSTV Box Office.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Box Office is a new service offered by DSTV where subscribers are offered movie rentals at the comfort of their own home. What this means is that you don't need to visit your local rental video shop to get to watch the latest video releases.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;With this new innovation, I am really loving the PVR even more. Which gave me an idea further for possible blog material. I thought I'd preview some of the movies the family rents from time to time. Not that it's gonna be the latest but it will work out to be some sort of review/aftermath analysis. So watch this space!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Like Box Office says, "never miss out on another blockbuster&amp;nbsp;again"! To find out more, visit &lt;a href="http://boxoffice.dstv.com/"&gt;Box Office&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="color: red;"&gt;Disclaimer: Neither DSTV nor Box Office paid me&amp;nbsp;to write&amp;nbsp;this post.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-5206496718568498912?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/6h0EI6JmTJU" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/5206496718568498912/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=5206496718568498912&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/5206496718568498912?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/5206496718568498912?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/6h0EI6JmTJU/dstv-box-office.html" title="DSTV Box-Office" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dR_V19mS3hU/TtvBPY_j9iI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/o7dyxfgkpQQ/s72-c/Untitled.png" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/dstv-box-office.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CUEEQXo_cCp7ImA9WhRVFkQ.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-9046340745578115442</id><published>2012-01-16T08:00:00.006+02:00</published><updated>2012-01-16T08:00:00.448+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-01-16T08:00:00.448+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="creativity" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mommy experience" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="drawings" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="arts" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="sketches" /><title>My Kids And The Arts</title><content type="html">&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MNvCh6mQQAo/TxALe3TWphI/AAAAAAAAAxM/yrGYFaNhF4Q/s1600/IMG01756-20111026-2101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MNvCh6mQQAo/TxALe3TWphI/AAAAAAAAAxM/yrGYFaNhF4Q/s320/IMG01756-20111026-2101.jpg" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;Sample of MZ's drawing: counting the days&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;My kids are brimming with creativity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My eldest simply loves sketching and my youngest just&amp;nbsp;can't stop drawing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Their&amp;nbsp;imaginative sides have got me questioning how they got started in art in the first place. I'm&amp;nbsp;a "figures" person&amp;nbsp;and hubby is more mechanical, so to have kids that could give Rembrandt a run for his money is quite surprising to say the least.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I'm proud and I hope that when the time comes, they'll be doing (work with) something they really love. And that's all a mother can ask for!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dBBduCr9DXI/Tt8cJNnu8CI/AAAAAAAAAwY/8vzwtJbPS2k/s1600/CCI20111207_00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dBBduCr9DXI/Tt8cJNnu8CI/AAAAAAAAAwY/8vzwtJbPS2k/s320/CCI20111207_00000.jpg" width="262" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;Sample of Missy's drawing: Daisy Duck&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-9046340745578115442?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/MyNH27O8k6M" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/9046340745578115442/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=9046340745578115442&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/9046340745578115442?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/9046340745578115442?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/MyNH27O8k6M/my-kids-and-arts.html" title="My Kids And The Arts" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MNvCh6mQQAo/TxALe3TWphI/AAAAAAAAAxM/yrGYFaNhF4Q/s72-c/IMG01756-20111026-2101.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-kids-and-arts.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0EEQ3s8eip7ImA9WhRVEks.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-342406347946703181</id><published>2012-01-11T08:00:00.001+02:00</published><updated>2012-01-11T08:00:02.572+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-01-11T08:00:02.572+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ice cream" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Häagen-Dazs" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="ice cream brand" /><title>Häagen-Dazs And Me</title><content type="html">&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nJFtvdrvklE/TsT7G8bDOaI/AAAAAAAAAuU/lenDFs62c3s/s1600/IMAG0145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nJFtvdrvklE/TsT7G8bDOaI/AAAAAAAAAuU/lenDFs62c3s/s200/IMAG0145.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Häagen-Dazs.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;That was all I could remember of my first dreamy experience with Häagen-Dazs.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I could not even remember the name of the ice cream flavour I had just now. Lucky I took a picture of it to remind me. All I could think of was "Häagen-Dazs. Häagen-Dazs. Häagen-Dazs." as this exhilerating, silky&amp;nbsp;caramel-flavoured frozen delight washed down my tongue and throat. I had conjured up this image of an old man, searching the desert for water, just&amp;nbsp;as if I had been searching for the perfect ice cream and found it. The Häagen-Dazs effect has just hit me.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I seem to remember there were also bits and pieces of nuts as I dug into my small cup although like the flavour name, this particular nut&amp;nbsp;is lost in my mind.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I just knew. I had to have another one.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Häagen-Dazs is a brand of ice cream established in 1961. Contrary to what I thought were German origins, Häagen-Dazs was actually established by Jewish-Polish immigrants who used foreign branding making the name Scandinavian in American eyes. (&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A4agen-Dazs"&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: red;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclaimer: Häagen-Dazs did not pay me for this post. Although I wouldn't mind if they sent me a pint bucket of ice cream. Any ice cream flavour will do. :-) Häagen-Dazs, are you there? Can you hear me?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l1vxGoWc44A/TsT7RVtNiLI/AAAAAAAAAuc/MsYVKE2jqlk/s1600/IMAG0146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l1vxGoWc44A/TsT7RVtNiLI/AAAAAAAAAuc/MsYVKE2jqlk/s200/IMAG0146.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;My Häagen-Dazs&lt;br /&gt;
unknown ice cream flavour&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-342406347946703181?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/9vll1xeOoLY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/342406347946703181/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=342406347946703181&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/342406347946703181?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/342406347946703181?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/9vll1xeOoLY/haagen-dazs-and-me.html" title="Häagen-Dazs And Me" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nJFtvdrvklE/TsT7G8bDOaI/AAAAAAAAAuU/lenDFs62c3s/s72-c/IMAG0145.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/01/haagen-dazs-and-me.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;Ak8ESXwzeSp7ImA9WhRVEEU.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-8324327133760537723</id><published>2012-01-09T08:00:00.001+02:00</published><updated>2012-01-09T08:00:08.281+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-01-09T08:00:08.281+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="abundance" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="wife experience" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="meaning" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="dance for bread" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="according to hubby" /><title>"Abundance" According To Hubby</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;When they say that your partner gives&amp;nbsp;you meaning, I'm pretty sure they were talking about my hubby right there with the best of them. He always cracks me up whenever&amp;nbsp;we have&amp;nbsp;some debates around the house with regards some English&amp;nbsp;words, and then&amp;nbsp;he decides to put his little spin on them.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In today's post, I just wanted to share this&amp;nbsp;play on words hubby did a few weeks ago.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I was reading a forecast of the new year's horoscopes when I mentioned a word that my eldest didn't fully understand.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Eldest: "What is abundance, ma?"&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Daddy: Abundance is&amp;nbsp;a dance performed when you are hungry and craving for bread. A-bun-dance.&amp;nbsp;Also known as "&lt;em&gt;sayaw ng tinapay&lt;/em&gt;" in Tagalog, which literally translates into "dance for bread".&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-8324327133760537723?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/6C8WZ-p24os" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/8324327133760537723/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=8324327133760537723&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/8324327133760537723?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/8324327133760537723?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/6C8WZ-p24os/abundance-according-to-hubby.html" title="&quot;Abundance&quot; According To Hubby" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2012/01/abundance-according-to-hubby.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CkcERHc7fip7ImA9WhRXFk8.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-6577247213468115560</id><published>2011-12-23T08:00:00.002+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-23T08:00:05.906+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-23T08:00:05.906+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="trip" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="break" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="travel" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="2012" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="holiday break" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="blog material" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new year" /><title>Holiday Break</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;It seemed just a few weeks ago that I had my study break and now I am off on a holiday break.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;This year, the family has decided to embark on a trip to a local destination. I don't want to mention the place yet so I can provide a little excitement and suspense for the posts when they appear on my blog.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I must say, this year's trip is very well deserved. It has been a great year, even better than the last. I am really looking forward to next year because I know it can only be better than this year's.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Don't worry, my dear readers. I will be back soon enough. I just need to gather blog materials. And have some ho-ho-ho!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;2012, here we come!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-6577247213468115560?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/cexq3Q1hP8c" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/6577247213468115560/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=6577247213468115560&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/6577247213468115560?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/6577247213468115560?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/cexq3Q1hP8c/holiday-break.html" title="Holiday Break" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/holiday-break.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DUUFQns9eCp7ImA9WhRXFEk.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-4165786461198346899</id><published>2011-12-21T08:00:00.011+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-21T08:00:13.560+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-21T08:00:13.560+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="advent calendar" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="present" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mommy experience" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="gift" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="christmas" /><title>Counting The Advent Days</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0G4WHOE_Bdw/Tu8AA0j8LjI/AAAAAAAAAw0/9HxPmBaAV8M/s1600/DSC05130.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0G4WHOE_Bdw/Tu8AA0j8LjI/AAAAAAAAAw0/9HxPmBaAV8M/s320/DSC05130.JPG" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
I decided that since Missy has started counting big numbers, it would be kinda cool for her to count the days 'till Christmas. To help her, we've bought her a chocolate advent calendar. Basically, for every day that passes in December, she opens one block (the date is printed outside the block) and eat a small chocolate that's hidden neatly inside the block.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I think this is quite a novel idea to get Missy excited for Christmas. The advent calendar counts up to the 24th. On the 25th, she won't be opening up a chocolate block, instead she'll be opening her Christmas presents.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Here's hoping that she'll love counting....and love her presents!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FV1yvCvkMIA/Tu8AO6M66iI/AAAAAAAAAw8/1DKTFxg41HU/s1600/DSC05129.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FV1yvCvkMIA/Tu8AO6M66iI/AAAAAAAAAw8/1DKTFxg41HU/s320/DSC05129.JPG" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-4165786461198346899?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/OHU2_-2epPg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/4165786461198346899/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=4165786461198346899&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/4165786461198346899?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/4165786461198346899?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/OHU2_-2epPg/counting-advent-days.html" title="Counting The Advent Days" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0G4WHOE_Bdw/Tu8AA0j8LjI/AAAAAAAAAw0/9HxPmBaAV8M/s72-c/DSC05130.JPG" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/counting-advent-days.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DkMFQXk-fSp7ImA9WhRXEko.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-6284409814205148882</id><published>2011-12-19T08:00:00.019+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-19T08:00:10.755+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-19T08:00:10.755+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="bike" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="upgrade" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="bicycle" /><title>Missy Gets A Cycle Upgrade</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Missy has had a bicycle since she was the tender age of 4. She used to ride it around our complex and play with the kid next door. But since she has not been riding it for a while, I thought this phase was over.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Recently, kid-next-door came over with a new bike and asked Missy to play with her. Imagine my surprise when I saw the 2 kids riding around the complex - neighbour kid had a brand new bicycle and my child was riding her wheel fit for a 4-year-old. What shame!&amp;nbsp;Missy was literally slouching while riding her bike. What a neglectful parent I am!&amp;nbsp;To think that this bicycle would last her throughout early to middle childhood and pre-adolescent years!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
A week later, we decided to buy Missy her due - a&amp;nbsp;brand new bicycle. Certainly an upgrade!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yp5gNJy3KXE/TspQ5YqIwBI/AAAAAAAAAvg/y37CmIyVNRg/s1600/DSC04871a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yp5gNJy3KXE/TspQ5YqIwBI/AAAAAAAAAvg/y37CmIyVNRg/s320/DSC04871a.jpg" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-6284409814205148882?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/Vj1fgk8h9ho" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/6284409814205148882/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=6284409814205148882&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/6284409814205148882?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/6284409814205148882?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/Vj1fgk8h9ho/missy-gets-cycle-upgrade.html" title="Missy Gets A Cycle Upgrade" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Yp5gNJy3KXE/TspQ5YqIwBI/AAAAAAAAAvg/y37CmIyVNRg/s72-c/DSC04871a.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/missy-gets-cycle-upgrade.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;C0AHQ34_eip7ImA9WhRQGUo.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-8086107410800506082</id><published>2011-12-15T19:55:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-15T19:55:32.042+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-15T19:55:32.042+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mommy experience" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="drain" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="tooth fairy" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="pipe" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Mommy Moments" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="brushing" /><title>Tooth Fairy Down The Drain</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;No, we did not just kill the Tooth Fairy.&amp;nbsp;But in our little story, it could've gone bad but we've managed to keep believing in her for a few more years.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;My youngest, aged cutely at around 7 and a half, came to me crying the one night. She was busy brushing her teeth when one of them accidentally fell&amp;nbsp;down the drain as she was brushing. Take note that this is the age when teeth are brittle and highly likely to fall off. I tried to console her with a very adult approach of "these things happen" and told her to just sleep it off.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;She found it hard to relax and kept thinking on about the tooth. She was worried that since her tooth is now somewhere at the bottom of the drain pipe, the Tooth Fairy might try and look for her tooth. Missy, knowing that the Tooth Fairy can't swim very well, thought that&amp;nbsp;the Tooth Fairy might drown in her search. That would be the end of the Tooth Fairy and Missy would have been the cause of it all. Horror of horrors!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Mommy then explained that the tooth will not stay at the bottom of the drain. Instead, it will get washed away into the rivers and the seas and the oceans. But how will the Tooth Fairy find the tooth then, asked Missy? Mommy had to explain that Tooth Fairies have tooth radar and they are instantly drawn to fallen teeth. When the Tooth Fairy finds the tooth, she will then visit and leave some pennies.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ngzik5g81tE/TsToOPxyBvI/AAAAAAAAAuM/Ybri96JO3LI/s1600/CCI20111116_00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ngzik5g81tE/TsToOPxyBvI/AAAAAAAAAuM/Ybri96JO3LI/s320/CCI20111116_00000.jpg" width="246" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Missy, still unsure if and when she was gonna get money for a missing tooth, took her plight to her older sister. Oldest suggested Missy write a&amp;nbsp;note to the Tooth Fairy explaining what had happened.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;"Dear Tooth Fairy, my name is Missy. I was brushing my teeth and my tooth fell into the drain. I hope you can find it and give me money in my shoe. Thank you. Love, Missy."&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;And true to form, the Tooth Fairy listened. The note was gone the next day. And there were some&amp;nbsp;pennies left for Missy in her slippers. :-)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Note to readers: Wondering why she leaves her&amp;nbsp;teeth in her slippers? See my&amp;nbsp;previous post &lt;a href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2010/10/tooth-fairy-comes-to-town.html"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shared with all the other lovely moms at &lt;a href="http://www.mommyjourney.com/"&gt;Mommy Moments&lt;/a&gt; this week. Especially our hostess, Chris, who celebrates her birthday today!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.mommyjourney.com/category/mommy-moments" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="mommy moments" src="http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr71/mommyjourney/mommymoments.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-8086107410800506082?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/49mzV1XVGzg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/8086107410800506082/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=8086107410800506082&amp;isPopup=true" title="4 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/8086107410800506082?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/8086107410800506082?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/49mzV1XVGzg/tooth-fairy-down-drain.html" title="Tooth Fairy Down The Drain" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ngzik5g81tE/TsToOPxyBvI/AAAAAAAAAuM/Ybri96JO3LI/s72-c/CCI20111116_00000.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>4</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/tooth-fairy-down-drain.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CEMERno7fyp7ImA9WhRQGEk.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-4977922919880853647</id><published>2011-12-14T08:00:00.122+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-14T08:00:07.407+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-14T08:00:07.407+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="strawberry farm" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Tangaroa" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="peaceful" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="getaway" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="strawberries" /><title>Picking On A Strawberry</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;As there are real budget constraints when it comes to family trips, I am always on the lookout for things we could do as a family that won't cost a lot of money. We'd usually do one big&amp;nbsp;holiday spree in a year and the rest of the time, it would be small excursions here and there just for family bonding.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;On a recent occasion, the family had the opportunity to pick strawberries on a farm. I actually heard about this place from a friend of mine last year but the strawberry season was already&amp;nbsp;over so I could only try it out this year. The strawberries finally came in season early October. And&amp;nbsp;on one good, sunny Sunday, I dragged the family&amp;nbsp;for a trek&amp;nbsp;to &lt;a href="http://www.tangaroa.co.za/"&gt;Tangaroa Strawberry Farm&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The &lt;a href="http://www.tangaroa.co.za/"&gt;Tangaroa Strawberry Farm&lt;/a&gt; is situated less than&amp;nbsp;one and a half&amp;nbsp;hours away from Johannesburg. It is actually in the North West province on your way to Hartebeespoort Dam. I was actually nervous that we might have gone all the way there for nothing. But I was wrong.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Although the strawberries had a dry spell this year, there were enough strawberries to give the whole family some enjoyable, quality time. As the strawberries were not in abundance, we were advised to pick and eat them within the farm. The whole "pick and eat" deal was for the experience rather than anything else. But I've heard that on a good season, you are able to buy the strawberries that you've picked by the kilograms.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;There were even some mulberry trees nearby. Funny, showing my ignorant side, I thought strawberries grew on trees, hahaha. I was very mistaken as the rows of strawberry plants reminded me of&amp;nbsp;garden patches.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lV2obuHwWzk/TspH8V9wVmI/AAAAAAAAAuw/9SUKnJFL9ZY/s1600/DSC04805.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lV2obuHwWzk/TspH8V9wVmI/AAAAAAAAAuw/9SUKnJFL9ZY/s320/DSC04805.JPG" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;Picking the strawberries&amp;nbsp;on the&amp;nbsp;patch&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sy9ZMumQd2o/TspIRG78BtI/AAAAAAAAAu4/vZtv3CifIpg/s1600/DSC04814.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sy9ZMumQd2o/TspIRG78BtI/AAAAAAAAAu4/vZtv3CifIpg/s320/DSC04814.JPG" width="210" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;Getting into the spirit of picking and eating&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;There were some mulberry trees too.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9slhqxxJi_4/TspI7n1y2TI/AAAAAAAAAvI/iTeCWX74CR0/s1600/DSC04833.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9slhqxxJi_4/TspI7n1y2TI/AAAAAAAAAvI/iTeCWX74CR0/s320/DSC04833.JPG" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;Wow! These black mulberries really look like blackberries!!!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;After our little picking rendezvous, the family decided to stay on the farm for lunch. There was a restaurant by the parking lot and we had their specials of Chicken Schnitzel. For desserts, we had their specialty - the Stawberry Cheesecake.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r2Y76Qaan2o/TspLW6C8DdI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/yXSDfqMy2SE/s1600/321587_10150346611555108_616635107_8826734_1992125482_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r2Y76Qaan2o/TspLW6C8DdI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/yXSDfqMy2SE/s320/321587_10150346611555108_616635107_8826734_1992125482_n.jpg" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
You might ask what happens at &lt;a href="http://www.tangaroa.co.za/"&gt;Tangaroa&lt;/a&gt; when the strawberries are out of season? The&amp;nbsp;farm doubles up as a spa and offers weekend getaway accommodation for people who want to take a break from the city all throughout the year.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The whole farm setting was serene,&amp;nbsp;what&amp;nbsp;with the restaurant by the lake and&amp;nbsp;ducks swimming around. It was truly a nice, peaceful&amp;nbsp;timeout for the family.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;For more information, visit the &lt;a href="http://www.tangaroa.co.za/"&gt;Tangaroa website&lt;/a&gt;. Entrance to the farm costs R50 (around $6 - $7) each person, young and old.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-4977922919880853647?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/GBftG_-LqwM" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/4977922919880853647/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=4977922919880853647&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/4977922919880853647?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/4977922919880853647?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/GBftG_-LqwM/picking-on-strawberry.html" title="Picking On A Strawberry" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lV2obuHwWzk/TspH8V9wVmI/AAAAAAAAAuw/9SUKnJFL9ZY/s72-c/DSC04805.JPG" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/picking-on-strawberry.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;A0EER30_cCp7ImA9WhRQFks.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-774233523043044702</id><published>2011-12-12T08:00:00.003+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-12T08:00:06.348+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-12T08:00:06.348+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="natural doctor" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="blood analysis" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Weighing In" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="medicine man" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="herbalist" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="weight loss" /><title>Weighing In: Blood Analysis</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Well, there's no better compliment than the one I recently got from a visit to&amp;nbsp;the herbalist and natural doctor. (Who incidentally my hubby kept calling "The Medicine Man").&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I scheduled to have&amp;nbsp;a live&amp;nbsp;blood analysis done. I thought this was the moment of reckoning. I had been on a weight loss diet for a while now and have started eating healthily. Even stomaching green leafy vegetables which I've never touched all through my life until recently. I really think that it is always good to know if there is something wrong with you so you are able to fix the situation before it becomes any worse. Plus I wanted to see the fruits of my labour.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I am very chuffed to announce that&amp;nbsp;the results were good. These were how my blood cells looked although this photo is not mine.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RHmcR33vlOg/Ts-pTZjjeqI/AAAAAAAAAvw/YWcfO2-D7dw/s1600/Live_Blood_Cell_Healthy_Blood.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="265" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RHmcR33vlOg/Ts-pTZjjeqI/AAAAAAAAAvw/YWcfO2-D7dw/s320/Live_Blood_Cell_Healthy_Blood.png" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.therisingsun.ca/Live_Blood_Cell_Analysis.htm"&gt;PHOTO NOT MINE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;My blood cells were very healthy&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;well-oxygenated. Which prompted&amp;nbsp;the doctor&amp;nbsp;to ask if I was&amp;nbsp;a vegetarian.&amp;nbsp;I was floored. My diet was obviously paying off. Although I might not be losing the weight much now, I've still got good blood cells to show for it.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;In the words of&amp;nbsp;Mr Medicine Man, my blood was in stellar condition. And so was I, after receiving that news!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-774233523043044702?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/yyygdrpP8Yw" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/774233523043044702/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=774233523043044702&amp;isPopup=true" title="1 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/774233523043044702?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/774233523043044702?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/yyygdrpP8Yw/weighing-in-blood-analysis.html" title="Weighing In: Blood Analysis" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RHmcR33vlOg/Ts-pTZjjeqI/AAAAAAAAAvw/YWcfO2-D7dw/s72-c/Live_Blood_Cell_Healthy_Blood.png" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/weighing-in-blood-analysis.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DUYMQnk_fSp7ImA9WhRQFE0.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-3051549852516033440</id><published>2011-12-09T07:06:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-09T07:06:23.745+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-09T07:06:23.745+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mommy experience" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Mommy Moments" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="badge" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="academic" /><title>Missy's Epidemic Badge</title><content type="html">&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mcjZGeCaBHg/TsOubTg0SdI/AAAAAAAAAuA/DqvMzKQ_nzo/s1600/IMAG0137+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mcjZGeCaBHg/TsOubTg0SdI/AAAAAAAAAuA/DqvMzKQ_nzo/s200/IMAG0137+%25282%2529.jpg" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;No, it's not a Girl Scout thing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My youngest recently got a school badge for her academic results.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
She was really proud to show it off, even calling it her "Epidemic" badge :-) Tee-hee.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JBT7wIgL01k/TspCJKkXD1I/AAAAAAAAAuo/aPkmw65w5ZE/s1600/DSC04870.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="120" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JBT7wIgL01k/TspCJKkXD1I/AAAAAAAAAuo/aPkmw65w5ZE/s200/DSC04870.JPG" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Of course, the meaning of epidemic is not totally lost on me. An epidemic of Missy. Sure. It can happen. We are all &lt;em&gt;suffering&lt;/em&gt; from it.&amp;nbsp;Especially now that she's in that cute age of speaking her mind and saying whatever.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Spreading childhood cuteness at &lt;a href="http://www.mommyjourney.com/"&gt;Mommy Moments&lt;/a&gt; this week.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.mommyjourney.com/category/mommy-moments" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="mommy moments" src="http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr71/mommyjourney/mommymoments.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-3051549852516033440?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/DSqTy5DtQZQ" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/3051549852516033440/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=3051549852516033440&amp;isPopup=true" title="8 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/3051549852516033440?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/3051549852516033440?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/DSqTy5DtQZQ/missys-epidemic-badge.html" title="Missy's Epidemic Badge" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mcjZGeCaBHg/TsOubTg0SdI/AAAAAAAAAuA/DqvMzKQ_nzo/s72-c/IMAG0137+%25282%2529.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>8</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/missys-epidemic-badge.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DUEERHk-fip7ImA9WhRQEk4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-7633227611667946395</id><published>2011-12-07T08:00:00.003+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-07T08:00:05.756+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-07T08:00:05.756+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mommy experience" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="art project" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="chocolate bars" /><title>A Big Bite Of Sinful Delights</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;My eldest recently had a school art project where she had to produce a bigger version of her most loved chocolate bar.&amp;nbsp;The "chocolate"&amp;nbsp;needed more complexity&amp;nbsp;than the project looked. She had to have the right watercolours, size, texture.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The whole class got into the project. And the results were amazing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eSGqSaRC9WU/TsOr36sSZ5I/AAAAAAAAAt4/suX2z5r7Xes/s1600/374338_10150354971333790_553648789_8227433_585010259_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eSGqSaRC9WU/TsOr36sSZ5I/AAAAAAAAAt4/suX2z5r7Xes/s320/374338_10150354971333790_553648789_8227433_585010259_n.jpg" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;MZ with her gigantic choc bars!&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
My eldest was ecstatic with the "bars" as you can see from this pic!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Can you just imagine us having all these goodies bigger than super size? Simply sinful!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-7633227611667946395?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/5CzM6TnvVh4" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/7633227611667946395/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=7633227611667946395&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/7633227611667946395?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/7633227611667946395?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/5CzM6TnvVh4/big-bite-of-sinful-delights.html" title="A Big Bite Of Sinful Delights" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eSGqSaRC9WU/TsOr36sSZ5I/AAAAAAAAAt4/suX2z5r7Xes/s72-c/374338_10150354971333790_553648789_8227433_585010259_n.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/big-bite-of-sinful-delights.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;Dk8ER3g_fSp7ImA9WhRQEEs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-4705144420510403409</id><published>2011-12-05T08:00:00.032+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-05T08:00:06.645+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-05T08:00:06.645+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mommy experience" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="birthday" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Spur" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="birthday party" /><title>The Spur Birthday Experience</title><content type="html">So my daughter's birthday wish came true. Aint' that a good feeling?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
We celebrated her birthday yesterday and it went off without a hitch. It was great fun!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;They ordered their food and played around the jungle gyms, mini-ferris wheel and swings&amp;nbsp;and trampolins. They sang around the birthday cake and my child got to blow her&amp;nbsp;candles.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Hubby and I, together with my eldest daughter and her boyfriend, were the adults manning the kids. We had&amp;nbsp;15 kids on our hands. They were really a handful.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;So now it's official, Missy is 8!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p3zWV0MeVXE/TtuycIBvxaI/AAAAAAAAAwI/61IIeKbjIL0/s1600/IMG_2566.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p3zWV0MeVXE/TtuycIBvxaI/AAAAAAAAAwI/61IIeKbjIL0/s320/IMG_2566.JPG" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;Oops, only half the candles went out. Time for another blow...&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-4705144420510403409?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/0MKOaDhCBdg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/4705144420510403409/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=4705144420510403409&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/4705144420510403409?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/4705144420510403409?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/0MKOaDhCBdg/spur-birthday-experience.html" title="The Spur Birthday Experience" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p3zWV0MeVXE/TtuycIBvxaI/AAAAAAAAAwI/61IIeKbjIL0/s72-c/IMG_2566.JPG" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/spur-birthday-experience.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DEcCQ3g6cCp7ImA9WhRRGE4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-8533318611843039248</id><published>2011-12-01T20:08:00.001+02:00</published><updated>2011-12-02T16:27:42.618+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-12-02T16:27:42.618+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="party" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mommy pressure" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="mommy experience" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Mommy Moments" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="birthday" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Spur" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="invitations" /><title>Mommy "Pressure" Moments</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;﻿﻿﻿﻿Boy, has my youngest laid it on thick! There is no bigger pressure in the world than mommy pressure.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;﻿﻿My youngest had a school project a few weeks ago where she had to create a birthday invitation. She brought it home and showed it to me. Quite the right timing as well as&amp;nbsp;her birthday was coming up.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;﻿&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9VZixKSFca8/TtjfwoHOlyI/AAAAAAAAAwA/p3hY2jJzNBY/s1600/CCI20111202_00001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9VZixKSFca8/TtjfwoHOlyI/AAAAAAAAAwA/p3hY2jJzNBY/s200/CCI20111202_00001.jpg" width="165" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;Sample of Missy's invite&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;span style="color: red;"&gt;"A birthday invitation: You are invited to Missy's 8th birthday at the Spur on 5 December from 8:00. Please bring your costume."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I felt a slight pang of guilt. I have not given her a proper birthday party in the last few years. I felt scrutinised with some&amp;nbsp;other type&amp;nbsp;of peer pressure as my youngest looked at me expectingly. But of course I knew my youngest was not&amp;nbsp;doing anything at all. The&amp;nbsp;feeling was all in my head.&amp;nbsp;I was ashamed&amp;nbsp;in thinking that I've been depriving her of a birthday celebration befitting a young kid&amp;nbsp;her age.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The next day I was on the phone to her venue of choice, the Spur.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The Spur is a South African steakhouse, specializing in steaks and grills. What was nice was that the Spur catered for kids' birthday parties. They had&amp;nbsp;jungle gyms and a computer room/entertainment area for the kids to play in.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I was very lucky to have been able to book the venue the Sunday noon before my child's actual birthday, which was on a Monday. I think I would have been crushed&amp;nbsp;more than her if I had not been able to book, knowing of course that I should have arranged this long ago.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I told my youngest that night.&amp;nbsp;We worked on her birthday invitation. The real ones this time. She was ecstatic. And for a little while, mommy pressure was off until the next load :-)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Have you ever felt precious mommy pressure moments?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This post is shared&amp;nbsp;with &lt;a href="http://www.mommyjourney.com/"&gt;Mommy Moments&lt;/a&gt; this week.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.mommyjourney.com/category/mommy-moments" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img alt="mommy moments" src="http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr71/mommyjourney/mommymoments.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-8533318611843039248?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/2OygCDKp_l4" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/8533318611843039248/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=8533318611843039248&amp;isPopup=true" title="8 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/8533318611843039248?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/8533318611843039248?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/2OygCDKp_l4/mommy-pressure-moments.html" title="Mommy &quot;Pressure&quot; Moments" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9VZixKSFca8/TtjfwoHOlyI/AAAAAAAAAwA/p3hY2jJzNBY/s72-c/CCI20111202_00001.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>8</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/12/mommy-pressure-moments.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CE8ESX0yeip7ImA9WhRRFk4.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-6233904307602707275</id><published>2011-11-30T08:00:00.000+02:00</published><updated>2011-11-30T08:00:08.392+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-11-30T08:00:08.392+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Multichoice" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="DSTV" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="HD PVR 2P" /><title>The DSTV HD PVR 2P</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Wowowee! Almost every single letter in the title of this post is in CAPS. It feels like the words are being screamed at you: "Hey, you! Look at me! I'm new and great!"&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;And just like the maddening words, the HD PVR 2P impressed.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;This decoder/PVR model&amp;nbsp;has been out for a while now, actually since May 2010. But the family only plucked up the courage to do the purchase now. In truth, I probably forgot to mention that our old DSTV decoder (a very old model who shall not be named) conked out on us one evening. This simple event took us right back to the Middle Ages where sticks and stones had to be used to create fire. I had visions of kids jumping up and down on the bed and hubby cooking up&amp;nbsp;batches of stews and steaks all for entertainment...I knew we could not go on without satellite TV for the next 24 hours.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The HD PVR 2P is a smaller (cheaper) version of the HD PVR. As the name states, it works well with other&amp;nbsp;HD (High Definition) equipments, like TV, DVD players, etc. It lets you watch a channel and record another at the same time. It also lets you connect a second decoder to the PVR&amp;nbsp;and be able to watch a second channel at another TV (this is called the ExtraView)....at a small extra fee, of course.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;So far, I have been delighted with my purchase. So delighted that I've also bought a DSD1131 decoder to play as my second decoder. I had some "fun" connecting the ExtraView as well, but that's probably good enough for another post.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;So if you're thinking of&amp;nbsp;christmas gifts to oneself, this won't be a bad choice at all. Affordable too. For more, visit &lt;a href="http://www.dstv.com/"&gt;DSTV&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MsmRTdAoUOA/Tqlz_HwcrzI/AAAAAAAAAs0/VhM5z-U_Kig/s1600/hdpvr_2_decoder_remote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="148" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MsmRTdAoUOA/Tqlz_HwcrzI/AAAAAAAAAs0/VhM5z-U_Kig/s320/hdpvr_2_decoder_remote.jpg" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-6233904307602707275?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/Re8d6_Qhp5s" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/6233904307602707275/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=6233904307602707275&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/6233904307602707275?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/6233904307602707275?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/Re8d6_Qhp5s/dstv-hd-pvr-2p.html" title="The DSTV HD PVR 2P" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MsmRTdAoUOA/Tqlz_HwcrzI/AAAAAAAAAs0/VhM5z-U_Kig/s72-c/hdpvr_2_decoder_remote.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/11/dstv-hd-pvr-2p.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;CkcER3s8cCp7ImA9WhRRFEs.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-9181981958503553536</id><published>2011-11-28T08:00:00.030+02:00</published><updated>2011-11-28T08:00:06.578+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-11-28T08:00:06.578+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="break" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="back" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="exams" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="blogging" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="studies" /><title>I'm Back, I'm Back....Yes, I'm Back</title><content type="html">&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;So the storm of examinations is finally over on my side. After going through a gigantic, last-minute&amp;nbsp;cramming session, the day came and passed and the CIMA P2 exam was over.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Good or bad result, it was definitely something. I would like to say that I'm confident about the outcome. But I never am sure when it comes to these things. When did we get to the stage of studying where we can't even determine if the answer is definitely correct? My studies nowadays normally says that if you&amp;nbsp;are able to explain and show how you got to your answers that&amp;nbsp;you will get marks for it anyways. Odd, a "definitely maybe" answer. LOL.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;One thing that is not a "definitely maybe" is that I am back to blogging. Yes, of course, until the next set of exams again. But that's sooo many months from now. I do need the study break every now and then.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Now that the storm has "temporarily" passed, it is time to turn my attention to serious matters of motherhood and to the quirky life on the African continent.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Watch out! I'm back with a zing.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-9181981958503553536?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/EYO9pVQUpdM" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/9181981958503553536/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=9181981958503553536&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/9181981958503553536?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/9181981958503553536?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/EYO9pVQUpdM/im-back-im-backyes-im-back.html" title="I'm Back, I'm Back....Yes, I'm Back" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/11/im-back-im-backyes-im-back.html</feedburner:origLink></entry><entry gd:etag="W/&quot;DUUER3o7fCp7ImA9WhRTEU8.&quot;"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4951277423011418651.post-5645376491847876824</id><published>2011-11-01T08:00:00.007+02:00</published><updated>2011-11-01T08:00:06.404+02:00</updated><app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-11-01T08:00:06.404+02:00</app:edited><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="break" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="exams" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CIMA" /><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="sabbatical" /><title>Taking A Sabbatical</title><content type="html">&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jEkIpJ7-KC8/Tq2bcK1ORjI/AAAAAAAAAtA/r-BrYB41Z8M/s1600/sabbatical.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jEkIpJ7-KC8/Tq2bcK1ORjI/AAAAAAAAAtA/r-BrYB41Z8M/s1600/sabbatical.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://madness--crosswordandotherwise.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html"&gt;PHOTO NOT MINE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;As my CIMA exam approaches, I have to, once again,&amp;nbsp;take a pause&amp;nbsp;in my normal blogging life.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;I have less than a month to revise the work that we've done for the semester and am really hoping that I pass Performance Management first time. Like I said on a previous post, I am &lt;a href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/10/unpreparedness-come-undone.html"&gt;slightly unprepared&lt;/a&gt; but still hoping for the best.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
My blogging sabbatical should not last more than a month.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
So I guess I'll see you guys on the other&amp;nbsp;end of November :-) Till then.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4951277423011418651-5645376491847876824?l=mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mjdotcom/~4/Cb95mT_xYlA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/feeds/5645376491847876824/comments/default" title="Post Comments" /><link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4951277423011418651&amp;postID=5645376491847876824&amp;isPopup=true" title="0 Comments" /><link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/5645376491847876824?v=2" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/4951277423011418651/posts/default/5645376491847876824?v=2" /><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mjdotcom/~3/Cb95mT_xYlA/taking-sabbatical.html" title="Taking A Sabbatical" /><author><name>mjrodriguez</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/14727117575218479732</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" width="29" height="32" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sOyykzkG61Y/TJpwfeJQsBI/AAAAAAAAAOA/y_dGkZtYpD4/S220/DSC01139.JPG" /></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jEkIpJ7-KC8/Tq2bcK1ORjI/AAAAAAAAAtA/r-BrYB41Z8M/s72-c/sabbatical.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://mjdotcom-mjrodriguez.blogspot.com/2011/11/taking-sabbatical.html</feedburner:origLink></entry></feed>

