Trick or Treat...

That's the husband...he was a zombie on their office holloween party. We were too desperate on choosing what character would he be and he finally decided to be a zombie.

With my little make-up skill, voila! I created a monster...rawr! I'm glad you guys love it! Till next holloween!

Holloween...Cauayanon Style: "Treat-and-more-Treats!"

"Kalag-Kalag" is how we Ilonggos call holloween. From the word "Kalag" which is the direct translation of soul or spirit.

As for the repeatition of the word, my guess is that our ancestors might have playfully repeated the word, to sugarcoat the "scare" that it implies and to make it sound more festive . (Somebody please enlighten me on this?)

In the Philippines we celebrate holloween every 1st of November otherwise known as the "All Soul's Day".(ohhhh, I smell wonderful chidlhood memories again)

When I was a kid, every "kalag-Kalag" my family used to visit my mother's hometown in Cauayan, Negros Occidental to pay a visit to my grandmother Consing's tomb and other relatives who passed-away.

A usual "November 1st" goes like this: In the morning, my titos (uncles) would go to the cementery to tidy-up the my grandmother's tomb for the visitors while my titas and my mother are at the kitchen making all these classic sticky rice menus that I would never trade for any gourmet meals in the world. It is a Filipino belief that these sticky rice delicacies will keep the family more closer for every year that comes.

In the afternoon, the neighborhood becomes quieter as everyone heads to the cementery. To light candles, say prayers and offer flowers to dead loved-ones and relatives and be back at home before dawn.

Until a few years back when I blogged about this on Friendster, I realized Cauayanons do have their own version of "trick or treat". However, it was more of a "Treat and more Treats!". My cousins, me with my parents, titas or older cousins would go to a relative's home and yell outside their doors "mangalag-kalag kami!" (we want to celebrate holloween).  Of course, being hospitable as we are, the host gladly let us in for the treats. However, those are not m&m's, hershey's, skittles nor any candy, nope!...it was waaayyy better!

We get warm milk, Taho (ginger tea),  suman, valenciana, ibos, bihon - except for the bihon, these are sticky rice cooked in different ways. (Ask Mr. Google, he knows a lot about this). Then laughters, stories -- ghost stories then fills the table until its time for you to visit another home. You could go to as much homes as you want, as long as you still have room to fill your stomach coz you have to eat once you went in someone's house. Indeed that's lotsa treats!

I hope that this is still being practiced today as this is one rare practice among Filipinos. Happy Holloween everyone! 

Renewed.

I am so into fall right now. 

I have been all over Vancouver and taking pictures everywhere as the city transforms into a beautiful red-yellow-orange-gold pallet. The greens are disappearing bit by bit.

Talking about green, I got my renewed passport last Tuesday. I am officially and finally sparing myself from the embarrassment of having a (still) handwritten and no chip passport (yey!). No more funny smiles and stares every time I present my country's "emblem".

Funny how this goes with the season....and so the green one shall go as it should. -- haha!

I'm just glad that before I let it go, it did served its one sole purpose why I dragged my a$$ off to DFA Manila about almost 5 years ago albeit it took a while to have it stamped with "that visa". It was all worth the detours during that dormant time of 4 years and 7 months. 

dirty pages of my old passport

 Well, to you my old green pal, this is not goodbye,  I just have these new blank pages to be stamped on.

indeed green is out, red is in.

  

::091811::Frenic Turns One::

So, it's been a year and things just breezed through, we barely felt that a year has gone by. This is by far the best day of our lives. Though it wouldn't be as special had it not for the people (yes, you are one of them!) who have been supportive of me and Eric and for that we will be forever grateful!

Here's a "lil' sumthin-sumthin" I made of the year that was. Enjoy!   

Free digital greeting card personalized with Smilebox

Rewind....

Today last year:: Sept 5 2010::

We just got back from Cebu for our China visa which didn't happen because green Philippine passport holders exiting from Philippines are suspicious (just my resentful theory) hence fall honeymoon in China  was cancelled and Plan B became the new Plan A and that is  to split the Honeymoon into 2 parts. Krabi, Thailand will be destination 1 and Canada is destination 2

So anyway, we just went back to Bacolod and resumed whatever preparations that has to be done for the big day, China dreams were crushed but who cares, it's the wedding that matters most...

Here are some little snapshots:

Meeting Albert's family in Mactan. He is Eric's highschool barkada.

Also went to see Abby Girl, after  9 years! Time flies!

on our way back to Bacolod

The day after Cebu...back to my "yellow" folder again and my Maid of Honor...

Booked: Committed.

(Eat. Pray. Love Part 2)

I was finally able to groom (aka plastic cover) my new book last weekend. It's been squatting on my bureau for 4 weeks now and haven't been removed from its bag since.

 (I love the smell of books by the way. Preferably the old-tanned-paged ones. It makes me feel like a reader full of wisdom. Sadly I am just a reader.) 

So I had my "me-time" with its fresh-off-the-shelf smelling pages this morning on my way to work and continued on my way home. Guess what, my (supposedly) slow reading has brought me to a quarter of its inch-and-a-half thickness with about size 8 fonts. 

What I thought was going to be a month-long reunion with Liz Gilbert might quickly end up for about 3-4 days (some good things just doesn't last, do they? what an unjust life huh?). Anyway, the first 2 chapters are quite wordy—I’m still digesting whether it is “wordy good” or bad kinda wordy. I don’t know but I am hooked so this must be something. 

As the “ordeal” Liz and Felipe got into was Romeo & Juliet-like, only the Capulets were the Homeland Security and the Montagues were the Australian government but no feuding is involved. This time Liz's and Felipe's destination is Vietnam and Thailand (finally Liz and I had a common ground. Yey!) and the rest of Southeast Asia except Philippines. Anyway, I won’t say much except – just go grab a copy!

This obviously isn’t a book review. This is just me “booked”.

Ellen Degeneres is my Julia Child.

I am very much inlove with the movie Julie and Julia. In the movie Julie Powell's kitchen "fairy godmother" was Julia Child, she cooked because of Julia. Well,  I crack jokes because of Ellen Degeneres. No Ellen blogs though....just this one...or maybe once in while. A not-regular-and-no-deadline of some sort.  Julie Powell already did that with Julia Child...I know Julie, I don't like the idea either, so "unyummy".

It's been two years since I've watched Ellen show on TV. The Ellen Degeneres show is not being aired here in Singapore. I don't know why. Thanks to YouTube at least I get to see clips on the Ellen TV. 

Here are my top 5 most fave segments *drumrolls* 

NUMBER 5

NUMBER 4

NUMBER 3

NUMBER 2

NUMBER 1

I have been watching these over and over and still makes me laugh like crazy. Makes me wonder if given a chance to ask Ellen one question what would it be? ___________________. Seriously! I have no idea. How about, if there's one thing I wanna tell her what would that be?__________________. Am I  kidding me??? Could not think of any either! 

Six years of "keyboard tapping" huh? But couldn't type a few words to ask or tell Ellen. Impressive.