the weekend

Is it really Sunday night already?

It feels like the weekend literally just flew by.  Hours plonked down on the couch watching tv, finishing Season Four of Grey’s Anatomy (yes, I’m awfully late), surfing the Net – and getting annoyed yet again at my webhost (for my mom’s company, that is) – hmm.. making lumpiang shanghai, polishing off a couple of slices of pizza.

Yeah, that was pretty much my weekend. And with a little bit of work on the side thrown in of course, because that’s just how my work is. It invades personal time unabashedly, unashamedly.

I seriously want to take a holiday. The question is, how can I fit in everything I need and want to do with the amount of leave days that I have?

New York New York

I’m sooo craving for the New York New York sandwich from Almon Marina! I used to have it all the time, especially when I used to go to Fitness First in WestGate. And I can’t have it now because  Manila is thousands of miles away.

*sigh* That’s the downside of being away from home. No matter how good you have it here, home will always offer more. Not just food, mind you, but the comfort that being in your home turf can bring. The familiarity of everything you know just gives you confidence. And I think you’ll only fully realize it once you’re away.

I think it’s part of human nature to want to go away, start anew, try a new life. But being home – nothing can beat that.

Blank days

How sad is it that the only events on my Gmail Calendar are the days marked for my news duty? This February, so far, the only thing I have to look forward to are two alternating weeks of duty, three days of which I’ll be waking up at four AM so I can be picked up by our company van at 5 in the morning.

On the upside, I like doing morning news because 1) duty finishes at 10 am (whoopee!) and 2) it pays an extra $14.50 a day. And when money’s tight, any extra income is good.

Speaking of money, I’ve been tasked to collect money so we can buy toto tickets for the hongbao draw. Hongbao draw = $10 million pot. Hope we get lucky! And this *lucky* assignment was given to me because during a mahjong game with my friends/colleagues, I had beginner’s luck. Heh. Hope that holds for toto as well!

Meanwhile, I’m so glad for this weekend. It’s time to veg out and pop in the season finale DVD of Grey’s Anatomy (sad, I’m only on season four).

I need a break.

How to tie a shoelace

Oh the irony of it.

I just attended a workshop here at work, and one of the activities (to test how we can write short sharp stories) was to explain, in forty words or less in a language that even a child can understand, how to tie a shoelace.

Just to explain: I don’t know how to *properly* tie a shoelace. I just tie it any which way, and it always ends up being untied soon after. When I was in high school and I was wearing shoes with laces, my best friend would tie my shoelaces for me, and now that I’m married, my husband would do it.

Otherwise, I try to find sneakers with Velcro straps.

And yet, apparently, after this exercise, i could explain how to do it the best. *snickers*

Maybe it’s like what they say..those who can’t do, teach.

3 years

Our third anniversary as a married couple is coming up, and I’m wondering what we can do to celebrate it.

On the one hand, this is a special day and I’d like to splurge. On the other hand, since money is a bit tight, I’d still like to rein in the expenses.

So I’m trying to find something to do that will be both special and won’t break the bank. Got a few more days to think!

Is it wrong that one of my main motivations to go to work before 9 am is to buy my breakfast sandwich which gets sold out if I get there too late?

Pesto and hummus

A week ago, I bought a blender, thinking I’d make some pesto and hummus. And this weekend, I finally got around to doing it!

Yesterday’s experiment was hummus. Got chickpeas from Giant, tahini paste and lemons from FairPrice, and voila. I made the mistake of putting too much in the blender though..it was around 3/4 full, and it took me so long to blend it, and I ended up having too much hummus. It doesn’t taste the same as the one I love from Cafe Med, but I suppose it’s close enough.

I used it to make grilled chicken tortillas, and my husband loved it! The last time we had tortillas, I used Tostitos medium salsa and grated Kraft cheddar cheese, which was pretty nice as well. But yesterday’s was pretty nice too.

And today, we bought some crackers from the supermarket and used it properly, as a dip. Yum yum.

I also bought spinach from FairPrice to make pesto. I know, I know..pesto is traditionally made from basil, but our supermarket always seems to be out of stock of basil whenever I go, and I remembered that you can also make pesto out of spinach. So with the pine nuts already at hand, I was all set to go.

After pulsing it in the microwave, I mixed it with my spaghetti and prawns, and it was really nice. My husband thinks I’m on a roll. Heh.

Overheard

I was standing beside two Pinoy guys on the train today, when this middle-aged lady started squeezing her way past to get to a ‘better’ position on the crowded train.

Guy 1: Nababad trip ako sa mga sumisiksik ng ganyan, wala na ngang lugar.

Guy 2: Oo nga eh.

Guy 1: Pero ilang beses na din ako nasabihan, pag lumapit ako sa pinto para bumaba. Sabi sa akin, “Can’t you wait till the door opens?”. Sagot ko: “What do you expect me to do? Fly?”

Haha, that just made me want to snicker. Pinoy humour talaga.

Funny lang, because they were talking about basketball – apparently Guy 1 plays basketball in a league here in Singapore. And he was saying something about how intense guys can get. Then they started talking about PBA players..and heh, they were talking about players I used to watch when I was a kid too! Distrito, Jawo, Caidic, Jolas…haha.

Six months

It’s been half a year since I started working. I’ve made friends, I’ve been part of multiple numbers of projects, been madly coding (note: not programming – just popping in articles for our portal), gone home at midnight, and…well…just the life of an average working girl.

I can’t believe it’s already been that long, actually. Six months of one-hour commutes each way to go to and from work. Since we don’t have a car, it’s buses and trains for me!

Two bright spots in the past six months was when I went to Hong Kong with my family in June, and when my parents came over for my birthday in August. I’m still hoping I can go home for Christmas this December. *sigh*

But yeah…six months. And counting

I get it!

Yes, I definitely get that I’ll be starting work on Monday.

And this is because in the past two days alone, I’ve gotten four calls and one email from HR, reminding me of this fact. Come to work at 9 am, go straight to HR, bring passport, check.

I don’t know who’s more excited, them or me! Haha, as if I’m important enough for them to be excited about.

It’s the last few days of freedom…tonight will be spent learning mahjong! My friend and her husband will be coming over and we will take advantage of the mahjong set and table that our landlord left here in our flat. Wahoo!