Life, Day by Day

When I was in my 20's, the concept of change was something abstract in my mind and in a way it still is, because more often than not, it is something that does not always happen in one go.  More commonly, it often occurs in stages and is intangible and you only feel that something is changing but the impact of the change can only be seen much later. There are many people, things, standards or even concepts of the world , that are important to us and some of these, we feel like we cannot live without.  When something happens and we are forced to let go of what is important to us, we all go into crisis mode.  I have yet to meet someone who doesn't do that. So how do we avoid all the stress of life changing experiences?  I realized that the easiest way to let go of things is detachment ...but that is only as far as "things or objects"  are concerned, because when talking about detachment, I do not want to put people in the same category a...

When I was a little girl, I remember seeing deer heads mounted on the wall of my grand-uncle's house in Bacolod. His sons were avid hunters, but I felt it was a cruel sport and thought it was quite distasteful to decorate your living room with the poor dead animals. Since I did not go to their house often, I never really thought about it until many years later when I read about the endangered Visayan white spotted deer that used to roam the Visayas region but now was indigenous only to Panay and Negros. It has been reported in 2009 that only about 300 of these beautiful animals have survived in Negros. Looking at the pictures, the images of those mounted deer heads flashed back in my mind and I realized that my uncles were among the many who are responsible for their severe drop in numbers.

Life continues to be a rollercoaster ride for me and my family. We make plans but change happens, and for life to go on, we must know how to cope and deal with it.  A long time ago someone told me that change isn't bad...it just means that we grow up.  I did not understand then what exactly he meant by that, but as I grew older...and wiser, I finally did.  That somehow there is always been something good that comes out of change and important life lessons learned.  I will have another birthday tomorrow and with it, I celebrate the changes in my life.

The Philippines is a country with unending sunlight and so, one would think that Vitamin D deficiency would be uncommon. Surprisingly, it's not.  A local study on the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency commissioned by Unilab , found that 7 out of 10 Filipinos living in major cities in the Philippines are Vitamin D deficient.  Because of these findings, Unilab launched Forti-D , the first available single-ingredient Vitamin D in mainstream drugstores in the Philippines.

An Advent wreath is a wreath made up of various evergreen leaves with four candles that are lighted in the weeks of Advent to symbolize the light that the birth of Christ brought into the world. The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent.  Traditionally three of the candles are purple, the color of kings and symbolizes prayer, penance, preparatory sacrifices and good works undertaken at this time. A rose-colored candle is used to mark the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) as a time to rejoice over the closeness of Christmas and the coming of Christ. The successive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord’s first coming into the world and the anticipation of His second coming in the final judgment.

Finally after years of hoping and waiting, my favorite doughnut brand Krispy Kreme is coming to town just in time for Christmas!  Now I don't have to ask friends or family coming back to Bacolod from Manila to bring me my favorite glazed doughnut. The Bacolod shop will be their 60th store in the country and will open on December 6 at SM City Bacolod North Wing Expansion. The shop will be a hotlight store which means that once you see the hotlight sign come on, you’re sure that you will get that melt in your mouth doughnut freshness that Krispy Kreme is known for! 

Quan Delicacies has been my source of Ilonggo and other native Filipino food for the last twenty years or so. I can still remember the excitement I felt when they opened their first self-service restaurant besides the Bacolod Doctor's Hospital.  When I was taking my graduate studies in La Salle, I would take lunch there and later, they opened another restaurant in La Salle Avenue which was even more convenient because of the bigger parking space. And so when the Negrense Blogging Society, Inc was invited for food tasting of their newer products, I was happy to go.