Can't Wait for WOFEX

I am psyched about WOFEX 2008.

What is WOFEX?
It's an annual event "dubbed as the Ultimated Food Show Experience". This year, it will once again be held at the World Trade Center starting August 6 to August 9. There are new and innovative products and food-related inventions in the said exhibit, not to mention countless free food tasting.

The Ultimate Tip
Last year, my boyfriend and I went on the first day and bought a box of treats. By the last day, my mom and I returned to the same stall and they were selling it "Buy one, Take one". Learn from my experience - wait until the last day, but be early because somebody else might take advantage of the deals and exhaust all the stocks before you do.

Online Diva

I was tagged by walkonred. Thank you.

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The button is a Flair created by Litzie.

Rule:

1. Post the button in your blog.
2. Please link back the person that gave the button to you.
3. If you have more than one blog, please post this to all of your blogs so your other blogs can be listed to the master list too.
4. You need to pass the button to at least 4 people that you think are also divas in any way.
5. Come back here and leave your post url so you can be added to the master list and help increase our rankings.
6. Please add to the list below a reason why you love being online all the time.

Online Divas:
1. All Merging in the Path of My Life
2. My Big Picture
3. Walk on Red with Me
4. Supah MaMa Wannabe
5. The Stories of a Now SAHM
6. When Mom Speaks
7. Kathycot Cooking With a Twist
8. Home Sweet Blahhhs

Reasons why I am an Online Diva:
I don't really know, maybe it's because I'm fairly adept with the internet and enjoy spending my time doing things online.

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I am tagging all of my online friends. You know you're an online diva.

Curried Chicken Salad

My aunt from England gave me a recipe called "Curried Chicken Salad" which she downloaded from Delia Online. She told me it was relatively easy to prepare and that it could be modified to suit my dad, who happens to be a vegetarian. My aunt also did some tweaking and substituting in the recipe which delivered an equally tasty and flavorful treat.

According to her, Curried Chicken Salad could also be called as the "Coronation Chicken", which was initially prepared for the royal banquet of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Below is my aunt's slightly modified recipe of Delia's Curried Chicken Salad.

1 level tablespoon curry paste (or 2 dining spoon curry powder)
2 medium ready to eat roast chicken (or 2 lb cooked leftover turkey or chicken)
3 oz. (75 g.) whole blanched almonds (or chopped nuts)
5 fl oz (150 ml) mayonnaise (better with caramelized onions)
3 fl oz (75 ml) natural yoghurt
2 tbsp mango chutney, with any bits of mango finely chopped
3 oz (75 g) raisins
3 oz (75 g) dried ready to eat apricots, quartered
1 bunch spring onions, sliced thinly, including the green parts
1 x 120 g bag baby leaf salad
1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
salt and freshly milled black pepepr

Preheat oven and toast almonds for 8 minutes. (Just as long as it doesn't burn up, it's fine) Let them cool for a couple of minutes, then roughly chop them.

Strip the meat from the poultry, discarding the skin and bones. Cut the meat into bite sized pieces and place them in a mixing bowl.

In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise, yoghurt, curry paste and mango chutney.
Pour the sauce over the chicken.

Next, add the raisins, apricots, 3/4 of the salad onions and about 2/3 of the almonds. Mix everything together throughly, taste and season, cover and chill until needed.

When ready to serve, place the salad leaves in the base of a serving dish and spoon the chicken over the top, heaping it up to give it some height.

Scatter the reserved salad onions and almonds and the coriander leaves on the top.

(Note: Rather than making the mixture into a salad, we also toasted some bread and treated it as a filling; it was equally good.)

I Don't Like You Mommy

I found this clip in YouTube and completely adored it.

Shoe Size Tag

I was tagged by Maicel, thank you. :D

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What’s your shoe size? Are your feet the same size as your mom’s feet? How about your sister’s feet? Can you borrow shoes from each other?

My current shoe size is 8 and a half for ladies, and a size 6 for males. Being Chinese, my grandparents would often make fun of me because of its large size. They blamed it on the fact that I didn't wear closed shoes often enough which caused my feet to swell to such a magnanimous size. My grandma, aunts and even cousins sport a size 5 to 6.

This being the case, it's much difficult to find a fitting pair for me whenever we travel to other Asian countries as most shoes, especially the gorgeous ones, are designed for smaller feet.

My mom has big feet though, but she's a size 10 so her shoes would often fall off my feet whenever I would try them on. My younger sister, on the other hand, seems to wear a smaller size than I do. Both my mom and sister's feet are wide since they wear slippers more often (according to my grandparents) so having slimmer feet makes it difficult for me to wear either. :(

Post a picture of your latest shoe buy.

This is a pair from Bandolino, which my mom and I bought a couple of months ago. I was doing my job interviews almost everyday back in May that my business shoes finally gave in, compelling us to purchase a new pair. Ironically, I never got to use it as one of my target companies accepted my application.

Jenny and Belle
SAHMdom and Beyond
The Journey Continues…
Mommy Talks
The Shopaholic in Me
A Sweet Taste Of Life
Motherhood in a Nutshell
Home Sweet Blahhhs...
{Your Blog Here}

Tag the number of women of your shoe size, i.e. size 5 = tag 5 friends. Don’t forget to drop a line in this blog when you’re done.

What are your sizes?

Sheng, Carol, Maricel, Madelyn, Ner, Liz, Jenn, Pretty Me.

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My Top 12 Music for August

* For the last song, I would just like to clarify that I'm not siding with any candidate; it's just that I can't help it, it's really a catchy tune.

1. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
2. The Honey Sisters - Cry Baby
3. Michael Giacchino - Speed Racer
4. Isley Brothers - Summer Breeze
5. Aliya Parcs - Seasons of Love
6. Jaheim - Never
7. Mary J. Blige - Just Fine
8. Police - De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
9. Regina Spektor - The Call
10. Joss Stone - Super Duper Love
11. Elton John and LeAnn Rimes - Written In the Stars
12. Obama Girl - I Got A Crush on Obama

"David Cook in Manila"

I first learned about this in Carol's blog, and apparently I am hyped up and brimming with enthusiasm. The simple fact that he will be going to Manila for his first post-AI show is completely crazy (in a good way, definitely).

I would likely be salivating the moment his plane lands down Philippine soil. For now, I'll just be trying to tame and contain the tingles of excitement that is electrifying my entire body. (And yes, I am completely aware that there'll be thousands of other girls who are equally happy (that's an understatement) that he's coming here).

Thank you Carol! :D

Thank you God!

Call the US for Free

Being in a long distance relationship, with me here in the Philippines while my boyfriend is in the United States, together-times are very difficult to arrange. Sure technology provides many ways to chat, even with the existence of Skype and other free Messenger programs, I cannot deny how difficult it is for the both of us to tolerate our distance. Conversations often have to be scheduled ahead of time to accommodate concerns as date and time differences; at the same time, random calling is highly discouraged, especially when I was still a student and wasn't earning anything to pay for expensive long distance transactions.

It often baffles many of our peers how we managed to stay together despite this enormous obstacle. I cannot answer the question as well - I guess, it's simply the fact that we have both made a personal promise to remain in the relationship, because we are truly in love, no matter how difficult or unglamorous it may appear to be. In line with this conviction, my boyfriend has constantly found ways and means to compensate for our physical division - as calling me during my free hours almost daily, waking up early in the morning to be able to chat with me and the like.

Image is from http://www.techchee.com

Recently, for our third anniversary, he purchased a MagicJack for me. It is a USB device that assigns one's computer with a telephone number in the state of one's choice (in the United States). Because of this, I can call him wherever he may be without needing to pay anything. At the same time, he can easily call me while I am at my computer.

The only things needed are: the MagicJack, a computer, a good internet connection, a telephone or a headset with mic. Once all these items are put together, one can call numbers in the United States or Canada for free, regardless of one's geographic location.

Thank you, honey.

Thanks For Being My Friend

I would like to thank Carol for this tag.. Hugs

Since I'm relatively new in the blogging community, I'm tagging everyone on my list.. Thank you for accepting me :D

Resto Dilemma

China is the ultimate post-college destination for many Filipino Chinese graduates, who can afford some more lax time in order to brush up their Chinese communication skills. After almost a year of studying in China, my friends are now arriving home, rekindling dimming friendships.

Tomorrow, I will be meeting with one of my closest buddies for a just-like-the-old-days dinner (not that we usually go out for dinners at non-fast food chain restos). Now, with so much indecision, I am faced with a dilemma of where we could actually dine out. We have already narrowed our choices to two (quite expensive) restaurants:

Kozui

or
Katre.

Anybody cares to offer an opinion?

Eat My Feet, Fish

A couple of days ago, a special feature flashed while I was watching the news. With the surge of personal wellness products and exercises, comes something quite novel, called the Fish Spa. The Garra rufa, also called doctor fish, eats one's dead skin leaving the healthy skin underneath to glow. Usually, this treatment is given to patients experiencing psoriasis, but is growing popularity for catering to one's vanity and relaxation demands.

Note: These are not my feet.

I am interested, hope this idea comes to the Philippines soon.

Wikipedia:
"In 2006, doctor fish spa resorts opened in Hakone, Japan, and in Umag, Croatia, where the fish are used to clean the bathers at the spa. There are also spas in resorts in China, such as Hainan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia."

Why So Serious??

A little too much Brokeback created a madman. Health Ledger has completely transformed the joker from an inane, hysterically laughing maniac into a dark and cunning strategist, more horrific and threatening than any joker I've ever encountered in the big screen. A green sick mind puppeteering a complicated web of tactics, manipulating Gotham city and its citizens with his own twist of macabre insanity, the joker is truly Batman's perfect nemesis. As he had said in the movie, they compliment each other and are destined to chase each other off in a never ending game of cat and mouse for the rest of their tainted lives - for "What happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object?" - time stands still between the two where an everlasting but never winning tug of war would likely commence.

The performance of his life time, Heath Ledger's magnum opus as the joker is remarkable and absolutely brilliant. As licks his lips and slurs his words in a teasing but chilling sing song way, I cannot help but agree that he had completely changed how people see the Batman foe.

Contrasted against Tim Burton's surreal and fantastic production, the new Batman episodes side on a more realistic and angled edge. Jack Nicholson, the man who had played the role of Joker did not seem very supportive of the new changes, as he says in his November interview, "They kind of drove the franchise into the ground. Tim Burton's a genius. He had the right take on it. That's why I did the movie." Nevertheless, his sentiments were, thankfully, not share by the rest of the world, as "Dark Knight' sets weekend record with $155.34M".

Extremely quick-paced, the movie somehow requires audiences to be quite attentive to catch the fast scene changes, the witty conversations and discourses (most of the best lines are by the Joker) and the nerve whacking action coupled with unimaginable plot twists. Christian Bale's performance was noteworthy, but nothing compared to Heath Ledger's.There were a couple of "huh?" scenes but nonetheless, the movie was a smashing hit in my chart.

Btw, did Harry Two-Face really die?

Earthquake Today?

There's been a big rumor that a catastrophic earthquake is prophesied to shake the Philippines today, June 18, 2008, with a great number of people perishing in the said event. The email has been in circulation for a while now, if you haven't read it, or have deleted it.. here's a copy I found online.

It's almost 9 pm...

And nothing has happened.

Still waiting..

There are enough problems happening right now that another scam is not needed soon. I'm sure some cataclysmic event (whether worldwide or personal) is happening somewhere, or may happen in the succeeding days, months and years - those are inevitable. Trying to foresee the future is a risky business and that would often lead us to misjudge a lot of things, to live life by unconfirmed shadows of what may be.

I guess, it's better to live each day to the fullest whether or not a big bad calamity is about strike, knowing you have given the best that you possibly can offer than waiting and expecting a prophecy (good or bad) to come true.

Quiz Rocket

I found a website called QuizRocket where you can find "fun personality quizzes, funny quizzes, and fun tests." Among the quizzes are "Who should you vote for?" (McCain or I got a crush on Obama), Punk Quiz, etc. Of course I couldn't resist answering a couple of tests.. Enjoy!

Love Quiz by QuizRocket.com Fun Quizzes!
MySpace quizes | Love Quiz | Fun quizzes

Hon, look! I'm "in love with you".. as if we need a quiz to prove that! haha

Opportunity

Being selective is not a fault, but when it becomes unreasonable, maybe we should try to reassess our standards. Not everything will measure up to our ideals, and sometimes we would have to adjust to what is available to us.

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"You don't have to love what you're doing,

you just have to learn to appreciate the opportunity."