Each day, I never fail to thank God for gifting me with a beautiful and loving wife and two amazing sons. I just couldn't ask for more and could not figure out how I deserved all these wonderful blessings...

31 October 2007

Kuya Carlito's Birthday at Cucina

Last 9th of July, Kuya Carlito, husband of my wife's sister celebrated his nth birthday with us at Cucina, an Italian restaurant at Mariott Hotel in Deira, Dubai. He works for a cargo plane maintenance company here in Dubai but most of his time are spent during cargo flights in unpredictable schedule, time wise and destination wise. He is always out of reach and when he calls he would be in some other country except U. A. E. His last birthday dinner with us was one of those rare opportunities of enjoying his presence.






We chose Cucina as venue for the dinner, because we have already known its mostly kabayan service staff. We were regulars here during Bubot's infanticipation of Diego because she was constantly craving for their special carbonara pasta. And it was the first time for the staff to see and touch Diego as a born baby! Another reason is the free flowing house wine for only a bottle's price ( shhhh, their manager doesn't know, he he he he he ). Apart from the free birthday cake from the restaurant, the staff also sang a "Happy Birthday " song in Italian, at that!




30 October 2007

Meeting Batman


Since the time he learned to watch the boob tube, Derico has always been fascinated with Batman as one of the members of Justice League cartoon series. This was reinforced when he saw the Batman movies on dvd played by Val Kilmer, George Clooney and even Michael Keaton. Further reinforced when he saw on the big screen the Batman version of Christian Bale. He likes everything Batman and you will see the bodies of evidence from his toys, clothes, shoes, socks, coloring books... practically all his possessions!

So, he could not contain his excitement, when one weekend at the Mall of Emirates sometime last year, he accidentally met " Batman" at the dvd shop. Naturally, he grabbed that chance to be photographed with his idol...



Just this year, he saw the last movie about Spiderman and marvelled at his new idol and repeatedly uttered that familiar line in the movie , " awesome!". Since then, his new acquisitions have veered away from the usual black, grey and dark blue tones but shifted to red and blue Spiderman stuff.

29 October 2007

Mark Gian

On the second day of this current month of October, the clans of Santiagos (my wife's) and De Dioses ( my wife's brother in law's ) received another welcome blessing in the form of this cutest little bundle of joy named Mark Gian. My sister in law, Mary Grace, gave birth through caesarian section her 4th son and our nth nephew at Manila Medical Center.

Mark Gian is all delicate and fragile an infant can be, but there's his Kuya Luigi along with his two kuya " angels", Benedict & Matthew, who will be around to protect and take care of him...

19 October 2007

The Stones Are Leaving Plantation


Our construction manager, Mr. Lee Stone and his fiancee Michelle ( wedding bells set next month) concluded their last working day in Plantation Equestrian Community Project Site with a party held at the site's Filipino Kitchenette. Anton prepared pancit canton and grilled tilapiya. Michelle, herself, prepared adobo as spicy as her and fruit salad as sweet and creamy as her as well...





As in any party, there were singing, dancing and drinking! The crowd was mostly Filipino, except for Tom, a Briton just like Lee and Tom's wife Sway, a Thai. The party mood was generally upbeat to romantic but have become emotional towards the end when Michelle began to cry and others eyes followed suit...That was when everybody was singing "Farewell" a filipino song in english about friends saying goodbye in pursuit of everybody's respective dreams.





Although it was the Stones' last night with Plantation, I am pretty sure it will not be the last time for us to witness their awesome and super sweet chemistry. After all, Fujairah, their next home base, is just a few hours drive away...







16 October 2007

Eid Mubarak!


After a month of sun up fasting and sun down feasting, the observance of Ramadan by our Muslim brothers culminates into a three day celebration called Eid Al Fitr. As dictated by sighting of crescent moon, this Islamic year's Eid started on October 12. The celebration is very much akin to our Christmas not only because of the festive mood, sumptuous food and people strutting in their finery but most specially the gift giving tradition. And , of course, everyone is wishing each other " Eid Mubarak" or Happy Eid.



On the second day of Eid, we had a party at our flat in Al Ghusais, attended by my colleagues in Plantation Holdings and some good friends. We have feasted on the food prepared by Tracy ( carbonara pasta), Oman (marinara), Bubot ( chicken spaghetti ), Albert ( extra hot bicol express) , Mike ( grilled fish and squid ), Jacq ( fruit salad), Leslie ( cakes ) plus the nuts from the local roaster and of course the booze, he he he he. As in any Pinoy party, everybody, well almost everybody, took turns in singing with the videoke. And that includes Derico.
Some people danced. We were also very lucky to have convinced a colleague from Athens, Miss Laliga to pair with our chef cum dance instructor Oman . I did a swing number with Bubot. She chachaed with Oman. Tracy and her friends also danced alternately because of the limited space.













The celebration was flavored with sweetness by some guest lovebirds led by Lee & Michelle, Gilbert & Sharon, Rey and wife, Diane & Eric, among others...





Although most of us had to work the next day, we stayed up late and concluded the party at about two in the morning.
















10 October 2007

Bench Products

Stephen, my former supervisor at Bench - Suyen Corporation ( Bubot and I met in this company as officemates ), and the longest standing Creative Manager, visited their Dubai outlets last month. We had some kind of a mini reunion in our flat with other former Bench colleagues, Julie and Mel who are also based here. Although, we were tired after having negotiated a 2 hour traffic from his hotel in Bur Dubai to our place in Al Ghusais, we have somehow relaxed and had fun with all the stories Stephen had delivered from Pasay City, Philippines ( Bench Head Office ) to Dubai, U. A. E.

It felt good to look back after all of these years.






07 October 2007

Fighting Cancer



My former high school classmate Rowena, or more fondly, Enh, sent me an email about some facts on cancer which I think is worth sharing. She is presently based in UK with her family. Read on...



1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person'slifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumours.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental,food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow,gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver,kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections andcomplications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains,seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans.Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts)and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine.Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence,Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.






05 October 2007

Fireworks at Jumeirah Beach

Forwarded through email by my Kumpareng Gilbert, here are awesome photographs of the fireworks display during 2007 New Year's Eve on the beach areas of Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Beach Hotel and Madinat Jumeirah.