Gifts to the Philippines

March 12, 2015 by feyma

A big reminder to any traveler!

It’s been a big news here right now about a lady (Mary Jane) from here in the Philippines was on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking a 2.6 kilo grams of heroin. Supposed to be she was just asked by a friend to carry that stuff for her. She must trusted that friend so much to carry that stuff for her. She’s paying the big price now (and her family too) for not asking the friend of what’s inside the package and for not opening the package in-front of the friend.

The family especially her kids begged the president here in the Philippines to help. I think right now the Indonesian government hold off the execution by firing squad because of the appeal of the Philippine government. The Philippine government hopes that the Indonesian government will sentence her to life imprisonment. Her 2 kids even traveled to Indonesia to visit her. I guess she was in jail already from early 2010.

Mary Jane in Court

Honestly, I’ve seen reality shows on TV about “Locked Up Abroad”. Really its similar to Mary Jane’s situation. Most of them, they were locked up for life, some were sentence to death. Others were also let go and sent home to the country they’re from. But it’s really seldom that will let go in jail just a few years, most of them were in jail for 10 or more years before they get freed.

I’m just hoping for the best for Mary Jane. If she’s innocent I hope she will get justice she mostly deserved. For the sake of her family especially her kids. But if she’s guilty, well, she should also be locked up I guess like those others. I know it’s hard, but she has to pay the consequences of her actions. I’m sure the person that sent that package probably washed her hands already and let Mary Jane be the fall guy. That would be hard on her, her freedom was taken in just a blink of an eye. I’m not sure if she’s being naive or just being stupid or being force to do it. Do you know of someone having similar situation with Mary Jane. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

I can really see Bob’s point before whenever we went home here for a visit here in the Philippines. If a friend would ask us to bring something for their family here. Bob would always tell me to get my friend’s stuff and we will be the one to pack in our suitcase. That we would not accept any sealed package that we don’t know what’s inside. Luckily my friends shared the same thoughts.

Now that Aaron is getting ready to go to the States soon. We are also telling him not to bring or even touch any package from anyone he will be meeting at the airport. We even told him to not be watching someone’s backpack or luggage at the airport (I guess just use common sense). He told us that he will be traveling light. He just wants a small backpack safely for his documents and a pair of clothes, extra shirt or two, maybe to change during the flight. He already talked to his Granny to prepare for a clothes shopping when he gets there. He told her that he is not bringing lots of stuff. He just doesn’t want to be hanging around too long time at the luggage claim area.

Good luck to everyone that’s traveling. Stay safe!

March 5, 2015 by feyma

Shopping: It’s more fun in the Philippines!

When I was growing up in the province of Malapatan, Glan (South Cotabato then, became Sarangani Province now), my mom would want to buy something for the household she goes to Dadiangas then (called GenSan now). The only big stores I mean like a small mall, at that time was Kimball Plaza (I think built in late 70’s), it burned down around 2002 and Datu Complex. I think Datu Complex was closed around that year or two after that too. Before the sad event, people were just so happy shopping there. Going to those places when I was a kid the place its always jam-packed. Just think about it, since that’s the only few malls in town. The people that were shopping there were the people from the nearest towns like Marbel, Polomolok, Kiamba and the other side of the bay Malapatan, Glan and the smaller towns, and of course the people of GenSan.

At around Mid 90’s, GenSan was the boom town and too many malls were being built. KCC was built and it’s packed with people that the business were in retail (geared more for sari-sari store). Now KCC built one of the fancy mall in GenSan “The Veranza Mall”. It’s really like the annex of the KCC mall. SM GenSan, I think is the nicest SM mall that’s built in Mindanao. It used to be GenSan was quiet after sundown. Nowadays as if the city never sleeps. I’m happy that GenSan improved a lot.

Felcris Centrale – A brand new mall in Davao

I could say the same thing with Davao city. When we first arrived here to live in 2002, Davao just had a few nice malls. Its a bit better than GenSan I should say . It’s just simple malls not fancy at all. It used to be that the small neighboring towns comes here to Davao city to shop. Nowadays, those little towns have malls of their own already too like Toril, Tagum and Panabo. Living here for a long time now, I can say that no need for us to be going special trip to Manila if you don’t really need a super fancy stuff. You can almost find anything you want here. If your wife want expensive and branded stuff you can almost always get that here, I think. If she wants those super expensive bags or shoes that the famous people use, then you might have to go to Manila, HongKong or other Asian countries. It’s not a problem too for flight, some airlines now fly from other cities here in the Philippines to other Asian countries.

Other parts of Mindanao malls were being built too. I’ve seen it advertise on TV or the malls here they showed of the branches they have all over the Philippines. For sure Gaisano Malls dominates Visayas and Mindanao. Here in Davao, we have few Gaisano malls (2 here in the downtown Davao, 2 in Toril, 1 or 2 in Tagum, 1 in Panabo). The main Gaisano here in Davao city, they improved that mall a lot to compete with the other malls. Now we have 2 SM malls herein the city. Here in Davao, just near to our house we have SM mall, NCCC mall, S & R Membership Store and the new one now that were just opened a week or two ago. It’s from Felcris. They also own Chimes mall. Their brand new mall is called Felcris Centrale.

Most malls have grocery stores, department stores, appliance center, restaurants, post office and other shipping courier, pet shops, bakery, payment center for your house bills, banks, ATM machines, government offices, play area for the kids, riding train for the kids, conference rooms, theaters and many more features.

Really shopping nowadays got even better. If you have the hang of it, use the internet to shop. You don’t have to fight the traffic. Send it to your place. Use LBC courier, they almost ship to any place in the Philippines. That I know because we use them for shipping for our business.

Have fun shopping!

February 26, 2015 by feyma

Paella & popcorn shrimp: with my little touch in it!

Just a few days ago we celebrated Bob’s birthday. As a tradition in our household we would ask the celebrant what would they want to eat for dinner. Bob told me that he will think for a few minutes, then he remembered the recipe he really likes that we saw on MKR (My Kitchen Rules Australia) show. Well, he then decided that he wants paella, we saw one of the contestant there cooked seafood paella. I had to make other food too because some of my kids would not eat seafood.

Bob, asked me if I think it would be easy to make paella. The recipe in the MKR was a little bit complicated. So I told him I will look it up in the internet for the recipe and let him know. I then told my daughter Jean and my niece Glenda that it’s Paella and popcorn shrimp for dinner. Jean is not really into seafood that much too. But since Dad wants that menu she’s happy to help me out.

Paella

I found a few good seafood paella recipe in the internet. I cooked the one that I know the chef. Good thing most of his ingredients I can find it locally. Few ingredients that I was lucking was the saffron and the Spanish rice. I’ve seen saffron on some stores here but they don’t have this time. My niece went all over the place and can’t find it. Maybe the “No shipment” and “The no stocks” is here again for sure. For the rice I just substitute with Japanese rice. It works out good too. For the clams I used mussels instead, since that’s what Bob preferred. Since it’s hard to get lobster in the market, plus its a bit expensive, I just put more of the prawns then. The calls for Spanish chorizo and it really adds flavors. I marinate the chicken with the spices the chef recommended, but he marinated his chicken for an hour. I marinated my chicken with the spices for half a day. The flavor were really good. At the end, I followed what he said to turn up the heat for 40 seconds to give toasted rice bottom, its called socarrat (dukot in Bisaya). You can really find good paella recipe that your family will enjoy and that will also suits your budget. If some of the ingredients were expensive, find some local substitute from your local grocery stores.

With the other recipe the popcorn shrimp. I made the batter from scratch. I even made my own heavy cream. Thank goodness for the google. Both recipe I tweak to suit more to our own taste. I think it works really good for us. Bob and us in the house seems to like it and so did our friend Bebe.

Talking about the popcorn shrimp. It’s rally a simple recipe too. I made some of the spices and save the rest for the next time uses. The popcorn shrimp on the other hand, we had to used small shrimp. The downside to it, the cleaning and deveining of the shrimp was a bit of work (we had to devein prawns for paella and shrimp for popcorn shrimp. But at the end its all worth it though. Everyone that likes seafood in our house loves it. I made some ingredients out from substitution. I saw heavy cream in the store. It not worth the money for me because I just need 2 tablespoon.

If ever you want the recipes of the paella and the popcorn shrimp that we made, Just let me know, I’m happy to email them to you.

Good eating you guys!

February 19, 2015 by feyma

Coming home for a visit!

I was talking to a friend tonight. She called me up since we haven’t seen each other for quite awhile. Both of us were just so busy lately. Also since my cell phone I lost all of my contact numbers.. I thank God for FB and email, I am still in contact with some people even though I don’t have their number.

Anyway, she was telling me that whenever her daughter and son-in-law visit the Philippine again, she wants us to get together. Her daughter lives now in the US. She married a law enforcement officer from the mid-west in the USA if I remember. I sometimes corresponds with her daughter especially if her mom comes over to visit us.

Back home, with a Balikbayan Box

My friend mentioned that her daughter will not be bringing that many gifts (fondly called pasalubong here). The daughter is a bit worried because she has so many friends to see but not much time to see them. My friend told her daughter that, she would rather have her and son-in-law here than the pasalubong. The daughter will not be staying long here since the husband just allowed short vacation (less than 2 weeks). The daughter said that they will not be going places, she just wants to hang out at their house and be with her mom and dad and her siblings. I told my friend that I understand those sentiments.

I’m telling my friend that when I used to visit here with Bob and kids, I usually just stay with my Papa & Mama at the house. My dad was so sickly. The whole 3 weeks that we took our vacation here, during daytime me and Chris stayed at the house. Bob and my siblings would go to town to buy stuff needed and our groceries. We paid big money for our fare not to hang out with other people but with my parents. To be honest, I was happy that we let Chris stay a lot at my parents house. It really made my dad happy. Few months after my dad saw Chris, my dad passed away. Next visit same thing me and the kids stayed with my mom, hang out with her. Even sometimes Bob went to see friends we stayed behind.

Anyway, my friend’s daughter is kind of worried that her friends might get upset/hurt that they will not be getting any pasalubong. They’re trying to save some money for something too that’s important to them. I told my friend to tell her daughter that “if she really has true friends with gifts or without they should be happy seeing her and the husband”. My friend said too that she’s telling her daughter that they will just buy little things from here to give. My friend didn’t really care that lots of people here likes the product that come from abroad. I said if it’s given, be happy with it.

I also told my friend if your daughter really is worried, another options for her daughter to do would be slowly buy stuff now and send balikbayan boxes almost the time they come here and just store at her parents house and they will open it when they arrive. The daughter will be coming for a visit before Thanksgiving in the States this year. So they still have time to send balikbayan boxes then.

Really Bob, our kids and I will be happy seeing the daughter of our friend and her son-in-law. I saw her daughter when we were just new here from the States. Really that was over 10 years ago already.

February 12, 2015 by feyma

Our baby has babies!

Well, almost over a year ago I wrote about that we had new baby in the house. The name of that baby was Blue. Our helper got her from the ditch (canal) here near the house. Well just 10 months from we found her she gave us 5 kittens. The runt kitten died the next day. Blue didn’t feed her properly, really she abandoned him. We tried to feed him, but no luck. He was really weak. I never thought we will get kittens this early. We did have a female kitten before and it took awhile for me to have them taking care of (spayed) because they didn’t show signs to have it taking care of right away. Well, Blue was just different I guess.

We joke here at the house that we feel that Blue was a victim of a teen pregnancy. Firstly, she got pregnant early, then she just doesn’t know how to take care of her kittens at first. I guess sometimes now too. She gave birth a little over 3 weeks ago. Not the best mom ever. We also joke that she’s having postpartum depression. She would be in with the kitchen like just staring at something and sadness in her eyes. We’re giving her special attention while her babies were sleeping. We would cuddle her and rubbing her head or tummy. She’s close to Bob, Jean and Chris. She will leave her babies and stay in our bedroom to be on Bob’s lap and be cuddled. She will stay with me once in awhile. A lot of times we just bring her babies to our room and let her stay there until time for us to go to bed.

Blue is something else. When she gets nervous she will lay down/step on her babies, or she’s trying to hurt them by biting hard. It’s not the carrying kind of bite, its really hurting them. Sometimes she will bite the legs of her kittens. My kids will help her when time for feeding the babies. I bought those little bottles for the animals. She really gets nervous when she heard her babies made sounds. She thinks that they’re crying. We felt that her kittens are getting bigger and bigger everyday. We tried to feed Blue more, she feeds active 4 kittens now, we let her drinks lots of milk too.

By the way, we are naming her kittens in honor of Pope Francis visiting the Philippines. Blue give birth the 2nd day of Pope Francis arrival in the Philippines. The first born name is Pope (the easily recognized kitten), the other names are Francis, Tina (short for Argentina, where the Pope came from), Yolly (For Yolanda, Pope Francis visit the PI for the Yolanda victims), last was Jorge (unfortunately Jorge died, he was the runt). Jean, Chris, my niece Bebe and our helper Joy helped Blue during the birth. They even made record of what time every kitten were born. I’m proud of them for helping Blue and staying up late until she was done with the last kitten.

When they were born Pope was the biggest one. Now he’s the runt. He is the one also that easily recognized. He’s the one that had Blue’s color of hair and with some white on him. To be honest we had to put tag with the other 3 kittens. It’s so hard to recognized them, they had the same color of hair all over their body and the same size. For the record we are giving them away. We already had 4 cats in the house. I’m trying to convince everybody here in the house that we don’t need a cat anymore. I think it’s going to be hard to give them away. We are giving them to friends that we know. I want to give them to people that will take good care of them. But in all honesty, I might give the older ones and keep the 4 kittens. NOT…