whoah!

the influx of things that i wanna do suddenly overwhelmed me.

you see, i have TONS of things in my to-do-list that i've put on hold ever since i went to law school. i was under the impression back then that i have all the time in the world to do all those stuffs after i graduated, pass the bar, become a successful lawyer and a happy home-maker.

(bah! none of those things happened--well except for the graduating part--it did occur! i really have an LLB after my name. but as for the rest, im still slowly trying to attain each goal one day at a time. taking things my way, for a change!)

as i have experienced, plans have a way of changing. priorities have a way of re-arranging. goals were set and re-set. if i follow my initial plan, i'd still be stuck on the first one and that's it.

now (finally!) life is catching up on me...its as if im on a race with time! so many things i needed to do, so little time left (or so, i feel!)

i have a lot of things that i want and NEEDED to do... and sometimes these things overwhelm me, just like now.

here are some of my to-do-list:

1) TRAVEL. i've been slowly but surely on my way to achieving this goal. it sure helped that i'm working now so i have money to spend. traveling aint cheap (even if you try to get all those promo fares and cheap hotels) you still need to shell out some doughs!

2) BAKING. eversince i baked food for the gods back when i was second year in high school. i knew i wanted to do baking. i told myself that baking is in my blood just because my granpa was a baker (hopefully, i will live up to his name and not ruin it!hehe) i've been tinkering with things in our kitchen these past few weeks making cheesecakes, pies and flans. i also intend on attending short baking courses. in fact, i have three baking courses lined next month! (i really REALLY hope i can attend all three! yey!)

3) PLAYING GUITAR. i wanted to learn how to play. i had my first guitar when i was in grade 6 but only learned a few chords...eventually i have forgotten them! i've had 3 guitars all-in-all in my entire life but most of them were borrowed, got destroyed and never found their way back to me. for more than three weeks now, i've been having a free online guitar tutorial (via youtube) and i now know how to play terrified by kara dioguardi (i shall post this conquest once i have a guitar!). yesterday i was really REALLY trying to negotiate with myself into buying one--i've been using my nephews and now that he's not around i have no guitar to play with! darn! i need a budget for this. not really too expensive since i'me still a newbie!

4) LEARN GERMAN LANGUAGE. why german language you might ask, this is because most of my uber "close" relatives are based in germany. i have cousins, aunts, uncle, nephew and other distant relatives there who somehow managed to build a family with a german, czeck and other european nationals hehehe. and most of them ONLY speak german, although my cousin and aunt speaks filipino, waray and english and my nephew understand filipino and english, it is still hard to communicate with them (the young ones i mean) especially when they come over and visit philippines. plus i intend to visit them one of these years, thats why the need to know the language! hahaha

5) LEARN SPANISH OR FRENCH LANGUAGE. unlike german language where i see the "NEED" to learn it by heart, these two languages i would love to learn solely because they intrigued me. learning french and/or spanish would definitely feed my romantic side because i find those languages utterly romantic! :D

6) PHOTOGRAPHY. i just need a GREAT camera and i'd be fine. im not really into those ISO or apperture thingy. i just want to capture life on film! i've been doing that but a great picture sometimes means an expensive gadget!

7) ART LESSONS. i shall be posting my works of "art" sometime in the next few blogs, just so you have an idea of what i do in my sparest of time. hehehe. i have no formal training hence the desire to have one! :D doodling, sketching soothes me and calms me... gives me a much neede break from harsh realities and crazy schedules!

8) GET A SPORT. i am not a sporty person, but that doesnt mean i dont want to try... i want to try tennis since we already have rackets (my dad used to play tennis as a hobby) .
9) BE PHYSICALLY FIT. i know i need to keep my schedules in order and find time to improve myself. i plan on solving this pretty soon! atleast i have those once-in-a-blue-moon yoga thingy! hehehe

there are so many things more i needed to accomplish...and these are just the ones on top of my head... cant wait to see them all done and experience them all! yey!



eager yet overwhelmed,

prettytwistedchick

BANOFFEE PIE!!!

once again, i answered the call of the kitchen and whipped up acouple of pies...

i just made my first attempt at banoffee pie! Yum-oh!

My taste-testers--aunt, mom, bro, cousins gave a two –thumbs up!!! despite the fact that i wasnt able to decorate it enough, to make it more appetizing (due to lack of choco drizzle thingy and toffee), the taste more than make up for the presentation...hehehehe

here's how i made it...

INGREDIENTS:

1 butter (melted)
1 pack crushed grahams
1 condensed milk (caramelized to make as toffee!)
whip cream
3-4 ripe bananas, sliced

PROCEDURE:

crust:
1.) mixed melted butter and crushed graham, spread on the bottom of a tin. CHILL!
toffee:

2.) boil cans of milk for 2-2.5 hours. LET IT COOL! (better to make this ahead of time…)

(CAUTION: BE SURE THE CONDENSED MILK TINS ARE FULLY SUBMERGED IN THE WATER AT ALL TIMES OR ELSE YOU WILL BE CLEANING THE CEILING!)

3.) when things are cooled down, spread the toffee over the graham base
4) slice up a couple of ripe bananas and put it on top of the toffee
5) topped with whipped cream
6) grate some choco or drizzle with melted choco and left over toffee
7) CHILL (or serve it right away)

TIP: one can boil up a load of tins of condensed milk. once they're cooked, they will keep safely for months...save energy, fuel and TIME the next time you make a banoffee pie!


sweet-tooth,
prettytwistedchick

animalistic appeal

growing up, i've always been surrounded by animals (literally and figuratively haha!). i grew up with my dad grooming and breeding fighting cocks... (sorry in as much as i hate to use the words "dad" and "cocks" in one sentence this one is inevitable... thats how they termed it in derby and not fighter rooster!)

i remember when we were young and my brother and cousins would play, one of the consequences for the "loser" is to count all the chickens --young and old-- that surrounds our place... if im not mistaken, i counted around 79ish?!? hahaha

I've had pet rabbit, white with brown spots; an iguana i named igi-boy or "iguating"; bunch of fishes in the aquarium; a parrot from my lolo named pikoy and a dog named chi-chi, who died of breast cancer sometime in 2008.

so my natural fondness in animals and pet-alikes was really because of having been born in a "pet-friendly" family... and the likelihood to take some pics of them is not a remote possibility!

ta-daaa!
 

acrobatic oliver
here is oliver. i was the one who named him. actually at first i named him "Jasmin" out of a character in a soap opera that i was watching, later on i found out the he's not a she, but a HE! so jasmin's partner in the soap was named Oliver, hence his name. this shot is him doing some acrobatic moves on top of a roof.

brooding time
this one is choco, my mom's dog. when he was young nobody wants to adopt him coz he's notthe furriest nor the cutest among the bunch of puppies chichi gave birth to. my mom ends up with him and she loves him to bits. here, he looks as if he's brooding over how he'll get out of that chain. he hates being tied to something coz he was used to roaming around the house.

caged chichi
this is chichi, my one and only dog and she's the nicest one we ever had! whenever she gets out of the house, she struts her stuff like a queen and she doesnt bite nor bark at anyone. anybody can easily take her away. my aunt saw her roaming around the church one day and chichi followed them..nobody claimed chichi when my aunt asked around for her owner. i ended up adopting her. she passed away last 2008. :(

who's scared now?
rambo, my brother's dog. true to his name, this one is real mean! he once bit me coz i wanted him to go back inside the house. in this pic, he's afraid of the camera flash while i'm afraid that he will suddenly throw himself up on me and bite me. so it seems that he was hiding from me and i from him..weird, huh?!?

where's salem?
salem, our black cat. i named him as well. inspired by the cat of sabrina, the teenage witch! hehehe. he's sooo black that you can hardly see him in this pic!

lonely birdie
one day, i was testing my camera and i saw this bird as he poised himself up on the electricity's cable wire. i was thinking that if it rained that time, he'll surely be one toasted birdie.

mayas outside my window
when i was about five years old, somebody told me that by the year 2000 there will no birds flying outside the house nor will i hear them chirping. so from that day onwards, i always get some chicken feeds from my dad's stock and i leave some "food" for any birds to eat outside my window. my deed must have paid off since i can still take this pic and its waaaay past year 2000!

lost butterfly in the city
i was dining with a couple of friends when i saw this butterfly right outside the window. he looked so lost, and less vibrant! hehehe

do you have pets?
prettytwistedchick

lost a bet...gained a pound!

learned my lesson the delicious way---


NEVER MAKE A BET WITH A PERSON WHO HAS A GOOOD INTUITION ADDED WITH A FACT OF HER 100% LUCKY STREAK...(if you like to call it that!) as evidenced by all her winnings from NBA and WORLDCUP GAME BETS she made!


a bet was made just to "lighten" the mood this morning which i immediately accepted... a pizza treat if a certain event happened.... consequently i lost! i'm tired of pizza hut, shakeys and yellow cab and my friend suggested Jugno's Monster Pizza. I googled there site to get their number as well as to choose from the variety of their selection.

then came the delivery guy...

***i havent seen pizza that big. TRULY A SIGHT TO BEHOLD!***

the downside is, the delivery took about 2hours (which they informed me before hand) It was delicious! plus at the amount of Php519 (for the pizza alone) definitely made my pockets and tummy HAPPY! i ordered a 20inches mixed flavored pizza!

***beef and mushroom-all vegie-jugno's moster pizza-jamaican ye'mon***--for delivery try calling 531-3756 or 534-0573--


***doesnt this make you literally drool in anticipation?!? ***

bon apetit!

prettytwistedchick

SkyLove

I love clouds…

Oftentimes I find myself doodling those fluffy thingy…Clouds have a way of giving me hope for the future.

I remember when I was young, (I’m sure you all played this game before) when we gaze upon the sky and start looking for cloud formations and come up with craziest things ever... a bear, a boat, a dragon...numerous formations found!
---I love those days.

The ideas are infinite.
The possibilities are limitless.
What lies ahead is within grasp of our capable hands.

That’s what I feel when I look at the sky--the realization of how vast the world really is and so many possibilities waiting to be experienced----that I HAVE TO EXPERIENCE!!!
*sigh*

I left the house with a feeling of sadness and I still am having a gloomy day today. It doesnt help that I got soaked under the rain this morning on my way to office. Must be a sign of a crappy day ahead---hope not!
I wish for a good day ahead (this is probably just a wishful thinking…still I wish for it to happen!)
darn! I’m getting emo...
looking for cloudy blue skies today,
prettytwistedchick

angled vision

things that caught my attention....

lunchtime already, and still no peeps around?? i'm getting suspicious with this resto!


love the lighting alignment...
the order must've been taking uber long for me to notice such things haha!


view of the pillar


strong winds


worm's eye view

needs some intense cheering up! :(

what i really, REALLY, hate is letting someone down.

i'm a people-pleaser kinda gal despite the fact that the "norm" would want us to follow want will make us happy regardless of others, i go the extra mile of trying to please everyone at the expense of my own happiness... i'm just that kind of a person.

today, after having been sleep-deprived and worn out due to the one and a half day of "SERIOUS" working in the office and having finished one Starbucks venti cafe mocha (which i ordinarily order in tall or grande!) and one large KrispyKreme hot mocha (which i ordinarily order in medium) without any solid food intake from 6.30am to 6pm (i'm kinda slightly imitating/practicing Ramadan--nope i'm not a Muslim, actually i'm a Catholic but i just want to experience a bit of what they're doing--that's why the deviation from their no-anything-intake from 4am to 6pm)... i've made a crucial decision of going home early (like around 2pm) and hit my much-missed bed for a well-deserved sleep!

but even before i reached my house i saw some missed calls and text messages--in my phone--from work asking for a copy of a draft that is due two days from now. dont get me wrong, i wouldnt leave the office knowing a task is unfinished. i am already done with my two back-to-back-deadlines actually...but only one was typewritten, the other one is written by hand in sheets of paper (which i normally do). i thought i have tomorrow morning to type it down and still be able to turn it in around lunchtime--still a day ahead of deadline. BUT as they called me, i found out that they are asking for the missing draft. I PANICKED! I lied to my friend who accompanied me on my way home, Posh, saying i'm not worried when she asked me if i was worried... but if she knew me well enough she'd know that I AM! i texted my boss (too chicken to make a call!) saying that the paper will be on his table first thing in the morning for his evaluation. BUT he replied and said that the people in Israel (the Israel-counterpart of our office) is asking for the draft. i have no idea that Israel would ask for that one since i just turned in the one due 3days from now.

More panic came my way!
How in the world will i be able to send the draft in written in papers to Israel today???

I replied and suggested a solution to my boss by volunteering to send it via email (since i am already home) , but he declined and said he'll probably do it himself. :(

now i'm sad coz i disappointed him! :(

i hate the feeling of incompetence! :(

i feel that i let him down, which i did... :(

sad... sad... sad...

now, i cant go to sleep knowing someone is disappointed because of me.
now i hate my bed!
how i wish i could turn back time and didnt go home early.
but i cant undo time. darn!

i just want to go back to office...


sad girl in the corner,
prettytwistedchick

STRESS-BUSTER

***CoffeeLove***

back-to-back-to-back deadlines, weekly family bonding, friends get-togs (this is how we shortened get-together), lovelife (if there's any nearby haha), keeping abreast with my studies (if I ever intend to do any--or find the time to squeeze this in--and continue what i have started in the first place) and ME-time...

..add these all up and the sum will be a HUUUUUUUGE STRESS!

a manifestation would be eyebags, pimples and for me,reddish-all-over-body-signs of allergy! (which i hate!)

i knew i would be having a hectic week ahead with two deadlines (make it three by wednesday!) at the end of the week which i intend to finish before submission date (give or take a day or two).

thus, as part of the "battle-preparation" i fueled myself every morning with these energy boosters!

for monday morning, i bought Starbuck's hot cafe mocha--VENTI!

for tuesday morning, i had KrispyKreme's hot mocha--LARGE!

its nighttime now and i can still feel the caffeine running through my veins!

UPDATE:day three: another deadline was set especially for today...opted for a different kind of caffeine-fix...cola! although i did had a coffee (made by me) early in the morning plus plenty of water!!!

energized,

prettytwistedchick

point-shoot-expose!!!! (PUNDAQUIT, ZAMBALES)

as i was rummaging through my other blog (the one i intended to delete this coming weekend), i came across some snappies of my friends and i during schoolbreak at our friend's hometown in zambales.

during the vacation, we went to this beach called Pundaquit. It is a fishing village in San Antonio Zambales which boast some good dive sites, friendliest people and yummiest food! when i went there i saw lots and lots of fishing boats all lined up along the shore. This one is near Camara Island, Capones Island and Anawangin Cove.

Prior to us hitting the beach, a local fisherman warned us about the beach itself. He said that we shouldn't go far from the shore if we weren't expert divers because underneath that prestine blue water is a cliff. (As if i would go even a foot from the seashore! i'm not a swimmer, in fact, i have no idea how to swim at all!!!)

(ZAMBALES March 26-29 2006)


***can i just say that i really REALLY love sunsets... :D


***a sight to behold


***facing the China Sea







*** this makes a verrrry good vacation---GREAT COMPANY!!!




taking one step at a time,

prettytwistedchick

NON-TRADITIONAL LECHE FLAN

every year, i am tasked to prepare my "non-traditional" leche flan for noche buena and media noche. its non-traditional coz instead of using egg yoke alone i added the egg white (...i find it such a waste if i'll use only the egg yokes since i dont make use of the whites for anything else) AND instead of using condensed milk i used an evaporated milk. :D






INGREDIENTS:

(approx)
for every 5 eggs = 1.5cup of sugar = .5 tsp of vanilla= 1 big can of evaporated milk

***here i use 3 cans of milk and 15 eggs...the rest do the math (refer to approx above hee hee hee)


PROCEDURE:

FLAN MIXTURE

***whisk some eggs in a bowl, add some vanilla, dont forget to add the sugar


***pour the milk then do the mix, mix, whisk, whisk, mix, whisk COMBO :D


1) mix all ingredients. (MIX 'EM VERY WELL!)
2)after mixing the whole thing (meaning no more remnants of the eggs and sugar) put it in a blender (give it some pulse to make it even more well-mixed!hee hee) set aside (put it in the ref).

SUGAR MIXTURE

3.) for the caramel (the "arnibal" on top of the flan), prepare them in a separate containers. about 2-3 tbsp of sugar per container.
4.)slowly heat it over the oven top using some gadgets (spoon and kitchen pliers---yes i have one, especially for flan-making!). set aside.

**i use what i call "shocking" technique wherein, after i get my desired sugar "texture", i dip the bottom of the container in a clean cold water to stop the cooking process and not burn the caramelized sugar :D

NOTE: be careful in manuevering the flan containers since the sugar mixture is pretty PRETTY HOT!! may cause some serious burn!

5.) pour in the "flan mixture" to the s cooled container.
6.) put it in a double boiler for 45 mins-1hr
7.) let it cool first before putting it inside the ref (patience is a virtue!). its good to let it chill in the ref overnight ...






*you can add lemon/orange zest to the "flan mixture" or whip cream on the leche flan when serving... that's it pancit!



sweet-tooth,
prettytwistedchick