The Lone Sunflower

While hubby had to do the grocery at Gaisano Mall, I headed to Centrio Mall particularly to Rustan's Supermarket with a purpose to get a pack of rolled oats and a bottle of olive oil. The moment I entered Rustan's a lone sunflower in a plastic pot stands among the pretty cut flowers for sale.

I knew I had to take a photo of this ever gorgeous flower, I hurriedly took out my smart phone and captured a closer shot of the flower while the guard was looking at somewhere else. Just a snap has been enough, and I hurriedly left the spot before the guard had noticed

Monday Mellow Yellows, Macro Monday 2

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Zamboanga's Best: Curacha

Two weeks ago, I, together with my boss + 1 colleague went to Zamboanga City (which is also my hometown) for a business trip. Even before the scheduled trip the two of them had always talked about trying out the well-known Curacha in Zamboanga. Of course, as one of the locale in the only Latin City of Asia suggested for a lunch at Alavar Restaurant. 

   

from my instagram

Curacha (not the babaeng walang pahinga) is actually a local Chavacano name of a crustacean with cross breed of large sea crab and lobster characteristics.  Also known as the spanner crabs or red frog crabs, and are only found in the deep waters of Jolo. The Tausugs of Jolo call these sea creatures as “Kagang Pamah”, it has red-orange color which stays the same even when cooked. 

There are different ways to cook Curacha but the best one I tried is the "curacha with alavar sauce". Just like what we devoured at Alavar Seafood Restuarant in Tetuan, Zambonga City, at P700-P1000 per serving (defending of size) and is already goof for 2-3 persons.

I also remember my big brothers made the same dish when we visited them years back in Zamboanga City, we just bought the crab at the flea market and cooked it with the alavar sauce. Yep! Frozen “alavar sauce” are also sold per kilogram, so you can enjoy the same dish at your very home.

Food Trip  Friday

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InstaPic: Fusion Bolt

One of the items in my wishlist is a tablet preferably a Samsung Tab, unfortunately my budget can't allow it. Then here comes other brands joining the tablet market, claiming high-end technical specifications almost the same as other popular brands but at a lower price.

Cherry Mobile had released the first ever Quadcore tablet from a local brand, the Fusion Bolt. At a tag price of P3,999.00 you will enjoy the following specs;

• Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean
• 7-inch HD IPS Display, 1280×800 resolution, 216ppi
• 1GHz quad-core Actions Semiconductor ATM7025 processor
• Vivante GC1000+ GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage
• expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• WiFi
• 2-megapixel main camera
• VGA front camera
• microUSB v2.0
• miniHDMI slot
• Super HD 2160p video support
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 4000mAh Li-Ion battery

The gadget was unavailable when we first searched for it two weeks ago. I left my mobile number in one of their stall here in the city and last week I got a message that two units were already available. Without second thought, hubby and I hurriedly went to Lim Ket Kai and purchased the white CM Fusion Bolt. 

I'm not a hard core gamer nor hubby, all we needed is a tablet that is capable of playing children educational applications for our son to watch, an ebook reader and can play avi movies + read SRT files (for Korean series). I actually was able to play nonstop video for 4 hours before the battery had emptied.

Having this gadget at a price affordable for people like us who want to be techie-techie but with no budget, Cherry Mobile Fusion Bolt is way too enjoyable and already satisfying for us. 

Wednesday Whites

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InstaPic: February 6-13, 2013

February 6, 2013 - At 1:00PM Hubby called up and asked us if it's possible for us to be at Malaybalay Bukidnon before night time. His father was in death bed and probably waiting for his grandchildren to arrive. But our car's two tires were dilapidated and very unsafe for long driving. I brought the car for a tire change first, and at 5PM we're still in CDO.

We postponed our trip the following day (February 7, 2013), because I'm not familiar with the Bukidnon highway. It was my first time to self-drive from Cagayan de Oro City to Malaybalay, Bukidnon. It took me 3-hours to reach our destination, considering the unfamiliarity and road conditions.

 

The weather was good and the clouds were neat, I asked Joy my son's yaya to take pictures of the clouds using my mobile phone.

Our little prince was having a rest in one of the bargain boxes of Gaisano Malaybalay, while I'm selecting/buying white t-shirts to be used by the immediate family during the burial.

Because according to the oldies, we're not allowed to take a bath at the house were the wake is. So every morning we went to husband's older brother house to take a bath. The little one was so busy playing around with the unhusked rice grains.

 

 

Unhusked rice grains were also being dried at the back of my parents-in-law's house. The little one loves to play with them.

The house was full-packed with mourners, family, relatives and friends. No matter what these two little boys were peacefully sleeping inside the room.

After the burial, we left Cabanglasan at 11:45AM February 13, 2013 and headed straight home to Cagayan de Oro City. I was the one driving again, because hubby had to stay for a while until the 9th day. I needed to report to office the following day, I had no choice but to self-drive.

The photo above was one of the delays at Bukidnon Highway because of road repairs. The irony was it was an uphill part of the highway, we stayed there for 15 minutes. My foot hurts from stepping on the brake pedal, hand brake was not enough.

At 3:22 PM, we finally arrived at the Puerto overlooking. I pulled over for a while and took a photo of the calm sea of CdeO. Yes! It's CdeO already!

I survived the 4 hour drive from Cabanglasan, Bukidnon to Cagayan de Oro City. Thankfully the weather was very cooperative.

Blue Monday

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InstaPic: Foodchain Food Trip in the Metro

A person who visits Metro Manila once in a blue moon will surely dig into fastfood chain foods that are not available in the area he's currently living. That's what we did when we had our short vacation at the Metro last week.

Because hubby had fever during our trip and had to stay at the hotel with the little one, I usually took out foods and ate them with hubby at the hotel.

On January 25 I bought half dozen original glaze donut from Krispy Kreme on our way back to the hotel after our 4-5 hours trek at Divisoria with Jefer and her sister.

SM MOA exploration was scheduled in the late afternoon of January 26, meanwhile I bought bacon mushroom burgers from Wendy's for lunch at Robinson's Place Ermita.

 

 At MOA, we had dinner at Sbarro and ordered Chicago White for me and Chicago Deep Dish  for hubby. Although Sbarro is already in CDO but hubby and I never had a chance to visit the famous Italian Pizza House.

 

 Before checking out late (I paid the hotel's late checkout charge because our flight was scheduled at 4:10PM) I bought two take-out meals of Kenny Rogers at Robinson's Place for lunch on Sunday January 27th.

So far these are the only meals we had that I was able to take photos.

Thanks to my ever reliable Samsung Galaxy S2. :)

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Girly Date at Starbucks LKK

When was the last time I've been to Starbucks? Oh crap I can't remember because that was a long long time ago.  I thought Starbucks will be one of my frequent destination after moving in Cagayan de Oro City but it turned out the other way around. We moved in in April last year and it was only last week that I have set my feet on SB Lim Ket Kai's doorsteps again.

Thanks to my friend Nice for the treat, if it's not for her I would have forgotten that SB existed in LLK area. lol.

So here's what we had on a Rainy Thursday night of January 10, 2013. 

 

 

A cup of hot cappuccino for me while Nice had a frappuccino. And that original glaze donut was an experimental order and we regretted it because it was too dry and tasteless, way too far compared to the original glaze donut of Krispy Kreme.

a share for Food Trip Friday

And by the way I bought a new SB Mug also, another addition to my collection. 

 

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5 Inspirational Quotes I Lived By

I'm joining this week's BC Blogger Meme with topic "5 Inspirational Quotes You Lived By" hosted by Rochelle and I want to share the following that I picked from these small boxes of quotes and sayings that I have bought sometime ago in Manila.

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  5

The words written on these small pieces of paper that I had photographed earlier, are very true, inspiring and should be treasured.

Join us and be part of the BC Blogger family by signing here.

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Festive Sky

The sky in Cagayan de Oro looks festive even though it rained most of the time, while celebrating the feast of St. Augustine on August 28, 2012.

SkyWatch Friday

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Sunset in the City

Capturing the sun setting in the City. 

This photo was taken using my android phone while crossing the Marcos Bridge in Cagayan de Oro City. The photo looks more interesting after it was edited using Instagram.

But I still love the original photo below with no tweaks been made. I just placed a border and had it watermarked.

taken using Samsung Galaxy S2

The sunset was indeed a magnificent sight, even with all the billboards and electric lines that block the view.

SkyWatch Friday

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Vinca or Periwinkle

All I know that this flower is called Vinca, but after blog hopping I read about the same flower in another blog, and she called it periwinkle. To clear my confusion, I had to searched the internet and had found out that this flowering plant can be called either vinca or periwinkle.

This flowers are quite abundant around the house (newly rented house), at first I wondered how this plants had multiplied. I can see them almost anywhere inside our perimeter then I realized that this plant has seeds. Hubby found a jar full of seeds at the back of the house. Although some variety can be propagated by cuttings but most of them are grown with seeds.

I wished there are other varieties available, but as of now we have the pure white and the fuchsia pink variety.

photos details:

Camera: Samsung S2 Mobile Phone

Photo Application/Editor: Instagram & Photoshop for the watermark

Sharing this photo to Water World Wednesday for the first time, Outdoor Wednesday and Wednesday Whites.

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Berry Strawberry Ice Cream

Instagram is the hottest craze in the mobile and cyber world. Everybody take and share photos using this mobile application. 

I heard so much about Instagram before but was not interested at all because I don't have an iPhone or an android phone and our home was not WIFI ready yet.

Now that I already have them, I finally have joined the craze too.. So here's my first Instagram share using my Samsung S2 Android Phone.

Want some Ice Cream?

Ruby Tuesday 2

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