Hello Tuesday!

Good morning everyone? How's your week going so far? Do you feel what I feel? Once Monday is over, it feels like the days are just going so smoothly, more relaxed and peaceful. Any plans you have instored or are you still feeling lost not knowing what to do with the rest of the next 11 waking hours you have on your hands?  Or you may have a full schedule but still feels like this gloomy wet and windy weather is somehow affecting you? Bored, or lonely? First and foremost, these are two different words with two different meanings and if my education and experience of the English language serve me right, without looking into a dictionary right now just to get this off to your mailbox right away, bored means there's nothing for you to do at all when there are so many things that you can do when in fact, you may start juggling for which to do first. Let's make it simple people and speak in layman's term for now ok. So going on with lonely, well, you may have a full schedule and a fulfilled life with a lot of loving people around you but loneliness somehow creeps in, trying to get you off balance and next thing you know, you just feel empty inside! Sorry, I am not trying to remind you of that feeling. I just want to tell you that sometimes, all you need is to do the deed in order for you to fill that emptiness. Say, are you missing someone or something right now? When was the last time you heard from this person or - when was the last time you've seen them.? Do you have a phone at least to get it going? Or maybe an email address? I never planned on writing what I write here. It's the initial act of signing in and opening my New Post that get me going. In fact, I am so late for work that I need to end  this but I thought I might inspire someone out there to have a really good day today and accompany them to their journey of the day by telling them that we have all the power to choose what we need to do and what we want to feel. If we choose so, we also are responsible to make it work or not and just us, nobody else. Have a good day. And peace be with you. And remember, there is sunshine above those clouds!!!

Hello there weekenders!

Fall is almost over here in the north. I will miss this colorful view outside our place. Can't wait for Christmas to come! What are you planning this Holiday Season? Anyone?

It has been very quiet here since I got up 2 hours ago and I  am loving it. Don't you just like the whole space to yourself once in a while? just listening to your own breath and the only noise in the background is the ticking of the clock and the motor running in your fridge? I don't even miss the washing machine for some reason. Usually getting up on a Saturday would involve starting up some laundry piled up during the week , furthering that, everything that has been planned over the week should finally be accomplished. Feels like going back to work again on a Monday, only difference is work at home and you only have two days to finish off. Ok, let me rewind from the beginning. ... oops! phone starts ringing. So much for the quietness.

Anyways, for those of you, our friends and families who have been trying to get hold of us, you can always leave us a comment here as you wish. My blog is still a work in progress and very slowly learning new things each day, and I hope I set the settings right this time (thank God for a genius instructor I found on-line: Ms. Shimelle Laine from Europe). I can say that out of all the professional instructors I met in my lifetime, she is the most genius, most generous, most kind and helpful and very talented one. The first time I attended her classes on line was only last year at 2peas in a bucket and I was so impressed that she not only taught us the main topics of the class but she added a lot to it that you can't even imagine. And every question I had, she has the answer and I don't know where she gets her ingenuity, but she is, be it craft, baking, photography, etc.... If anyone of you out there would like to try blogging, her on-line class is on-going right now and if you are a Christmas fanatic, she has this Journal Your Christmas class offered every December which I finally signed-in to. The other beauty of taking her classes is you can always go back the next year and you don't have to pay anything other than the first time you sign-in so you get fresh, new ideas over and over again. And I pray to God that she will keep teaching while she can or I don't know what to do without her now that she got me hooked. So let me get off the computer now and start digging into my stack. I'd better prepare for this Christmas class because I am so looking forward to finishing another thick album which I can share with you during your visit. How about that? I feel like playing some Christmas carols now that we are talking about it and maybe think of decorations? Is that too early? I don't think so. Back in the day when I was younger in Philippines, come September, we'd get excited to start playing Christmas carols with our vintage long playing album records and even radios would play the ever classical Christmas songs we still listen to in season. So why not? I just want to think about the good ol' feeling of Christmas advent and that's all there is to it folks. As much as I feel alone and missing the family back home, I'm still hopeful that we all have that ol' Christmas feeling within us. Peace.

Remembrance Day

Today we commemorate the soldiers who have fallen and the sacrifices of the men and women who fought for our freedom and peace; and all those who are still fighting today, we thank them. As one of the speakers in Ottawa said in the ceremony this morning, we pray to God that one day, we can proclaim the end of the war. Here are some pictures taken on our visit in Victoria, BC at the ceremony last year.......

"at the going of the sun in the morning, we will remember them...", speech from this morning ceremony.

Saturday Breakfast

Good Morning Saturday!

What better way to start the weekend morning but with a good breakfast, all deliciously done and beautifully prepared for you. We don't go out much except on some occassions when we both don't have the energy to cook after a hard day's work. And usually my dear honey would do a very nice gourmet breakfast enough to feed the neighborhood. Since I came to his place the first time during our dating period, it was established that he'd be the breakfast chef of the household as soon as he served me his beautiful eggs benedict topped with Hollandaise sauce and a homemade fruit salad all handmade by him. Yummm! And yes, he still does the same , in fact, he's a better chef each time he takes charge of the kitchen. Anyways, for today we thought we'd have somebody else to do that for us. So we went to this place called Herons Restaurant which is more known by the locals as the Bayside. A lot of people enjoy their Sunday brunch or the Continental on other days but the menu is always fascinating to look at and scan. So since we eat a lot of what was on the menu at home, we thought we'd have their "smoked salmon benny" for a change. Parksville is a little bit limited as for places to go for breakfast, but this one sure satisfied our pallette. We have our favorites from one place to another and we can usually tell if they had a change of chef or not. Herons used to have this great chef working for them for years and I am so happy that he finally decided to go on his own although you can only have lunch and breakfast and only on weekdays because they do catering on the weekends. I am very lucky to have them just across the street from where I work so if anyone of you out there would like an inexpensive bowl of "homemade" soup  with a bun, Stewarts is the place to go and he does a good variety of sandwiches -creatively homemade! Here are some teases for you and the view from the window where we sat down at Herons this morning. Enjoy!

Hmmm.... yummy!

The beautiful view from our table.

Out in the patio. Nice seating in summer.

The Parksville Beach.

See the Beachclub building behind?

What are you having for breaky?

Thank God it's Friday!

TGIF! Time to celebrate-yoo hoo! Honestly, all I've been doing for the last 3 days - and I've used the same line the whole time-  "I'm still catching up". It used to be easy when I was a bit more organized back in the days when I was single? And now I could have the flu to credit to all the catching up I've been doing. It's like the cough I had- can hardly breath sometimes and everything feels like a marathon. Three days ago was even more like a misery: my first day at work after the flu ( and a bit of the cough that I would control myself from having while I'm  with people at work),  and my co-worker who made all things possible for me to finish everything on my desk at the end of the day is gone to Arizona for the whole month! Whaaaa!!!!!!! Emails from clients were all urgent that I had to tackle, like it or not; trades needed to get done and followed-up before noon; I don't think I even had my normal breaks for lunch; phone calls had to be made and bosses needed help left and right. Thank God it's Friday and if there's anything I've learned from this experience is to stay healthy and don't get sick-ever! But who would know? You may be the healthiest person around but in reality, you are only human and bound to get sick from something else if it's not from your own un-healthy living. Anyways, work in the office is back to normal and it's Friday man. Let's forget about work. My first cooking day too since my flu, thank you to my very understanding honey. Now he can enjoy one of his fave dinners tonight that I make for him once in a while. For those who can't figure out what to serve for dinner, you can't go wrong with chicken adobo. There are so many ways to cook this recipe but this is the most common way they do it in Pampanga and if you like onions, you can also add lots of it and I believe in the power of ginger and it's always a must for me when I cook chicken. Occassionaly, I'll do it the Bicol way where they add coconut milk and chillies and that's when you feel like filling up and sweating at the same time.

Oh, and some more catching up to do on the weekend is my class at Blogging for Scrapbookers and my scrapbooking. You don't want to see what's on the floor and the table in our dining room right now except for the photo below. Just to give you an idea of what I am learning from my craft right now. Not that I am an expert which is why I take all these classes. Although I am so far behind, at least I can have other things to do when the flu strikes back again. I just hope that's it for at least the next two years coming up.

To my beloved family and friends, stay healthy and be happy. Let  us all celebrate the weekend around us ok. LOve LOts....

The Best Things In Life

I won!

Good Morning Thursday;

I woke up so early in the morning with this urge to get up. It's when my mind starts working and I feel like I have already accomplished so much that I get so exhausted after a while. It's part of my brain exercise and honestly, I feel tired now that I have been up for more than an hour and wished I stayed in bed in the first place. But before I loose the thoughts, one of the things I had on my brain list was to make sure I'd  send someone out there in Burnaby, in Langley, Richmond and around the States a really big hug and lots of kisses. You'd be glad that I am not there physically with you right now because of the flu I have been thru these last few weeks. November always reminds me of special people like you  who are celebrating their special days in their lives so if I don't get hold of the phone at the right time to sing for you, here's to you: Myla B.(my very pretty friend at KP), Linda (my lovely sister-in-law), Al and Ken (my beloved bros-in-law), Vany (my very good friend back in High), Lukes and Dodge (my dear friends, classmates and neighbors), Randy (of course), Arnel (my dear bro in PI) and to all who are celebrating their birthdays, anniversaries, any special events this month-- Oh, HAPPY DAY TO ALL OF YOU!

we are thinking of you always in all ways- Kevin and Nancy.

Photos of the Olympic Torch Relay in Parksville

This is actually taken out of our TV screen during the first relay in Victoria last week.

The Coke Bottling Company truck and behind is the RBC truck.

The RCMP and police force in their bikes and cars.

The Torch itself with his lucky holder and the Olympic Torch team.

A closer look of the man....

One last shot.

My Olympic Torch: Coca-cola is it!

Last look of the Relay at the Park...

The Event at the park by the beach, sponsored by the City of Parksville.

Hope to see you in February, 2010 at the Olympics in Vancouver, BC, Canada. For more information, please see the official website linked above. Thank you for joining me today.

Olympic Torch Relay

Yesterday should have been the best time to post this article for so many reasons: One is because it was the actual day when the people of Parksville, gathered and waited before nine in the morning out in the streets of the Island Hiway. Maybe for most of us it was unusual to get up so early on a Sunday morning and thank God for DST that time had fallen back again so it felt  more like it was 10. Secondly, it was just the perfect temperature, the perfect climate for runners to sweat it out and Mr. Sun has been shining upon us with a big smile and great anticipation to witness another historical event that would mark Parksville as one of the first ever places that the Worldwide Olympic Torch could ever touch since it arrived from Greece to Canada (Victoria, BC) last week. Thirdly, with a combination of regret for not making it on the list of runners and gladness for not making it on the list because of my tortured weeklong flu, I finally got out of the house for the first time and be part at least of the viewers to celebrate this very emotional event. Besides, it was only a block away from our house and you can see the streets with lights, and people waiting with so much anticipation to be near the TORCH. There was no excuse really not to be out there and enjoy this whole event than mocking over this dry endless painful cough that's been keeping me off work for two weeks now. And again, who would want to miss this very beautiful sunny Sunday morning that could possibly bring us hopes and maybe strike a magic in our hearts and minds that not even the worst flu, may it be the swine or H1N1, could ever ruin it for us hopefuls.

Yesterday was just perfect. My honey and I tried taking a few pictures of the street next to our place while waiting for the parade to start. I kept myself settled on the corner of both streets just in case I miss it on one end, I still have the other end covered. Cops passed by with their lights then more cops on their bikes then another set of cars with colorful lights and it seemed like forever. Finally the trucks of sponsors (Coke and RBC)came with more happy gestures. My honey told me to high-five with the girls representing COKE Bottling Company and so I did. With surprise in my hands, I was so happy I did because I didn't expect that the lady would hand me a bottle of Coke with all the Red color of the Olympics and details drawn around it. Of course I took pictures of it and who knows, one day this tiny bottle would worth a fortune?! So after my own short moment of the relay, it's time to pick up and concentrate. We still had to wait for a few more semis to pass by until finally the wait was over. There it was, the guy with the torch in his white uniform with members of the torch surrounding him, guarding him. And there in his hand, was the torch brightly lit up in flame. It was 9:27 in the morning, 7 minutes behind schedule... then my camera says it was 9:28 when he actually passed in front of me, beside me and passed me... So many of us were busy with our cameras that I didn't hear many people cheering for this poor guy but I know, he'd be fine. I'm sure he's more  proud than any of us there to be running the torch around and his family waiting to cheer somewhere in the park.

We went home after but it was so sunny that we decided to proceed to the park where the City of Parksville was holding a short ceremony but then on our way, they were already on their way out of the park. We did capture that moment. We captured the whole event in our lenses (my honey brought his video too), in our memories, in our busy lives. And in honor of my first day of class with Shimelle at blogging for scrapbookers, I am trying to document today what would have been the perfect article of yesterday. Perfect ice breaker for a month long absence since I created my own blog. Pictures to be posted soon and hope to share more of the Olympics with you as I go on in February to volunteer during the Games Time.