Royal Botanic Gardens

It was a cool sunny day yesterday so I went jogging at the Royal Botanic Gardens during lunch, well actually, it was more of brisk walking. I haven't had any exercise for a very long time so I want to warm up before I start running. I'm trying to shed some pounds off hoping to attain the body I had before I got married. Well, okay, I know I need more than jogging but sometimes it's hard to go on diet especially when your hubby cooks so good. I actually look forward going home from work and see what Nat cooked for dinner and he never fails to impress me that I end up getting more servings and a bigger tummy. I hope that by August when Nat comes back from Manila from his 2 month study (Nat & Maku are flying end of June), I have lost 10lbs. I just hope I don't end up eating at McDonalds.

Here are some pictures taken at the Botanic Gardens when my parents came last year.

Maku enjoyed sitting on the branch of a very old tree but daddy wasn't.

With the Opera House as the background

Look how old the trees are

So nice to go walking on a fine sunny day

Lolo R enjoyed taking Maku for a walk.

This is the path where I jog. Water, greens and fresh air, a perfect place to relax or have a picnic.

There are trackless trains that run daily between the Botanic Gardens Cafe and the Queen Elizabeth II Gate near the Sydney Opera House. Fees are: Adults $10, children $5.

Nat's turn - thoughts of a full-time dad

After more than a month of being a full time dad, I have to say that no amount of business school training would have ever prepare me for this role. I have had my fair share of managing people, managing multi-million peso projects, beating very strict credit report deadlines, speaking to corporate big-wigs, analyzing financial data, .... yada, yada, yada, but I honestly have to say that managing both a house and a 20-month old son takes the cake !
In my life as a corporate slave (no pun intended), I had to make decisions which would result in the survival or financial viability of a project, of a department much more of a company. That was then, fast-forward to today, all my analytical prowess takes the back seat as I have to make decisions based on my son's survival. What food to give him, how many times I should change his nappies ('pampers' in the PI), what television shows he should and shouldn't watch, what medications to give him in case he catches the flu...well those sort of things.
Trivial as it may sound but for someone who has been immersed in the corporate nebula for more than ten years, all these child-caring basics have sounded alien to me until the birth of our little (well, he's not as cuddly and serene as before) bundle of absolute joy. One other important thing full-time fatherhood has taught me is personal time management. Sure I was a sucker for work-related deadlines but I confess to being the exact opposite when it came to either personal or family time. I now have to wake up in the morning ahead of Maku and do all my personal business so by the time he opens his eyes, I am all set for the day. Otherwise, I wont be able to take a bath till mid-morning when he's taking a nap. It is simply amazing how my mom did it ! Having three kids to care for and kept such a big house spic-and-span (we grew up in my maternal grandparents' home which was a huge house) is simply...'awe-inspiring'. My day is relatively full of challenges, one of which is what meal to give Prince Maku which he would ultimately finish. You see, our toddler likes to spit-out food which doesn't go very well with his palate and my mission everyday (which I am compelled to accept) is to prepare something much to his liking. Trial and error has resulted in (a) alot of leftovers for the fridge or (b) daddy having to finish them all up. But who's complaining? As long as the little person likes what I prepare and finish it to the last morsel, I can shout to high heavens in ecstasy (which isn't very often, trust me)!
I am also a self-confessed neat freak. I like my button-down shirts wrinkle-free, my handkerchiefs neatly folded, my white undershirts, collared shirts, and crew necks segregated and neatly staked and folded in the same widths, my shoes likewise segregated by office/leather, casual sneakers, running shoes, golf shoes, etc. So for those of you who have toddlers of their own can comprehend where I'm coming from. Life has been a whirlwind when Maku arrived, much more now that he can get his own toys and play with them wherever suits his fancy and scatter them from here to Timbuktu (oh, and did I mention that he indeed has a separate play area for this specific purpose?)! I have been patient in tidying-up after he's decided to move on and do some other stuff (like messing up the kitchen's utensil drawer) and I tend to do this each and every time he messes up which makes me think about changing my strategy....let him play with all his toys during the day and teach him to put everything in their proper places before going to bed. It may sound like a very nice idea, but on second thought, being the smart kid that he is, I might (just might) end up doing this myself (patigasan nalang siguro).
Ah well, C'est la vie ! as the French say. It is not and never will be my intention to complain, in fact I consider this more of a personal accomplishment rather than a burden. For a word as ubiquitous as child-caring, I do believe a have earned some brownie points.

Our dinner last night

If my best cousin, Krisan, is the domestic goddess, I'm her exact opposite. Since we moved to Sydney, I have somehow learned to do some household chores like ironing, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, etc. But I don't know whyI wasn't blessed with the talent in cooking, don't get me wrong, my mom is a good cook and i actually miss her cooking! Last night, I offered to cook dinner for a change. Nat, the chef in the house, asked me to do minced pork sa misua. I have no idea on how it's cooked so he briefed me for a while then he left me and went inside our room to play with Maku. So when dinner was ready, Nat took a sip of the soup, and he had an odd look on his face and asked me how much fish sauce I put. Well, I poured a lot, not just tablespoons! Sobrang alat daw! So binalik nya sa pot and added more water, i think 2-3 cups of water yata nilagay nya. I had it as my baon today and I still find it a bit salty. Lesson: Wag ako iiwanan sa kitchen mag-isa unsupervised and/or i should always follow a recipe book. Oh well! I should do more practice - i mean lots of practice!

Day Cares

It's Maku's 1st day today at the daycare centre, and I'm a bit scared leaving him there for the whole day without me or Nat.

I visited a number of day cares the past weeks, and it was very hard to find a good one – the slots fill up so fast and it takes a year for some centres to have vacancies. At the age of 20 months, Maku speaks very limited words – Daddy, Mama, ish (fish), sh (shoes), nat-nat are some of the words he can say, and it worries us a lot. Although it’s normal for boys to be delayed in speech, our GP suggested that we bring him to a day care at least once or twice a week, so that he may get encouraged to talk and learn to socialize with other children. We enrolled Maku for 1 month, every Tuesday and Friday. Good that they are offering the 1st 2 weeks free, otherwise, it would cost us $640 for those 4 weeks. I just really hope and pray that he will pick up new words and be able to say them.

Our Boracay holiday

After one year in Sydney, Nat & I flew back to Manila in March for our much-awaited vacation. We decided to stay in Boracay for a few days since it's been 4 years since our last visit. Boracay is much different now, more resorts, more restaurants and we can't even recognize the exact place where Nat has proposed to me (wala pa kasing resort kung san sya nag propose that time e). Since we are bringing Maku with us and we've heard a lot of good feedback about Discovery Shores, we decided to book their junior suite.

We very much enjoyed their junior suite room, with the complete entertainment system: plasma TV, DVD player and iPod dock, you'll never get bored. A pitcher of very cold pandan juice, a jar of cookies, dried fruits and a platter of sweet treats were waiting for us. We also got a personal welcome note and a straw beach bag with bottles of lotion, sunblock and clay masque.

We were led by our personal butler to our room and as soon as we got in, Maku practically inspected every nook and cranny of the room. The butler also took pictures of us as their souvenirs.

We arrived the hotel at almost 1pm and we we're so hungry already so we had lunch at The Sands.

Maku enjoyed the sand better than the water. He didn't like the pool, much more the beach.





For dinner, we went here...



I ordered for beef gyros and hummus

while Nat had lamb souvlaki.

We had breakfast (brekkie in OZ) at The Sands the following morning. The buffet breakfast came with the package which likewise lived up to our expectations. After breakfast, we enjoyed the complimentary foot bath at the comfort of our room.

We had Jonah's pizza, choriburger, and their very famous milkshakes for lunch. For dinner, we just settled for chicken and rice from Baliwag since we were craving for a local dish. Unfortunately, we moved our flight to an earlier schedule the next day, as in leave the resort at 6am, because Maku got very sicked though it doesn't show in this picture.

But overall, we were very satisfied with the service of Discovery Shores. You will really feel pampered with the staff bringing you fresh towels, folding your clothes, fixing your stuff when you go for a swim, and passing around refreshments and some pika-pika. The 24 hour service was worth the price we paid for. If ever we go back to Boracay, definitely, we will stay again at Discovery Shores. Hopefully, our family can join too. Maybe I better start saving so I can treat them for a holiday in Boracay.

Cheeky Cooking Team Building

I am celebrating my 8th year with the company in June! I can't imagine I've stayed with the company for that long already, I hope I get a good raise and more certs!

The company organized a team cooking for all employees celebrating their anniversaries from April - June. This was actually more fun than the usual dining out in a fine restaurant. We got to the place by our privately hired bus and we were greeted by the chefs of Cheeky Group. They served us wines and appetizer to start off then showed us some basic ways of chopping and ran through each recipe.

I was assigned to do the asparagus with glazed pecans and blue cheese.

The chef poured some malibu on the shrimp.

Presenting the meals we cooked...

After all the chopping, cooking, washing, setting up the tables, of course, we ate and enjoyed all the hard work we've done. The food were good. I hope we can have another one next time.

Apartment Hunting

Time flies so fast. Same time last year, Nat & I were still looking for an apartment or better known as condo unit in PI. We searched for rental properties thru realestate.com and domain.com . Unlike in Manila, real estate brokers go out their way to sell/lease out their properties while here in Sydney, the property agents are medyo walang pakialam. The demand is too high, there can be many applicants for one unit & inspection time lasts for only 15 minutes . During our apartment hunting period, there was a time when we have to line up to see the unit and twice the property agent didn't show up. Rental rates are quoted weekly and are either paid fortnightly (which is every other week) or monthly (computed as weekly rate/7*365/12). The nearer the suburb to the city, the more expensive kahit luma na yung buildings. But generally, rental rates in Sydney are very expensive and prices keep on going up.

The suburb where we live in, north of the city, is an hour commute to the city which I have somehow gotten used to already. In a way, it's better because I can spend the hour reading books (which i borrow from the library), solving sudoku, or reviewing our monthly expenses (which almost always gives me a headache afterward) unlike in the Philippines, I spend an hour driving which makes me feel more tired after a 10-hour work. Our apartment's location is very accessible and convenient as it is just 5 minute walk to the mall and less than 10 minute walk to the train station. Last year, a 2 bedroom, 2 toilet and 1 covered car space apartment in our suburb costs about A$350-A$380/wk. After a year, the rate has gone up to A$400-A$440/wk. Rental rates are cheaper in the west where most Filipinos are. For A$400/wk unit in the north, you can already rent a 3-4 bedroom house in the west. Most people say that's it's a bit 'unsafe' in the west so we're a bit hesitant to move there. We don't want to come home with our TV gone or our car's window broken. And with our friends living in the north, we decided to stay in the same suburb.

our dining room

our kitchen

our living room

Almost Winter

It was freezing this morning. The temperature was at 8°C and I can't imagine how cold it would be come winter. Like the US, Australia has four seasons: Summer is from December to February; Autumn from March to May; Winter runs from June to August; and Spring is from September to November. Winter is already showing its ugly head and it has been getting colder in the mornings and nights. The morning chill certainly obligates me to wear a coat before leaving the house. In the afternoons though, the temperature is a bit more bearable, much like Baguio during Christmas. A light sweater will do just fine, but most of the time I really don't feel the need to wear one whenever I have lunch at the park (which is practically across the street from my office). A dab of sunblock before going out during the day is still a must though because the UV rays are still pretty intense - but ironically, you'd hardly feel any burning sensation because of the ambient temp (naks ! thanks to hubby for that word!). As the temp drops to a single digit at night and well into the wee hours of the morning, we still have to have the heater on even with the thick blankets (a 'comforter' in the PI is called a 'Doona' in Oz) we use. Good thing, there isn't any snow in Sydney!