Busy side walks

it's couple of days to go before Christmas and i'm just lucky to be on leave so I get to celebrate Noche Buena like every one else. A vacation is just really rare these days due to work engagements and I hate working during holiday season, it can get so lonely. Moving on, the night seemed longer than usual so I read somewhere about winter solstice. 

Winter Solstice...

Winter Solstice officially started last Sunday so I wasn't surprised when it's freakin' six in the morning yet it feels like it's past after midnight. If there's Summer Solstice then there's Winter Solstice.

Bad Food, Bad Service...

My sister and I went to Grumpy Joe for an early lunch sort of at eleven in the morning and to our dismay it was still closed so we had no choice but to eat out someplace else. Our feet led us to 50's Diner along Leonard Wood. It was way different compared to years ago when my family went there. It was all cramped up, poorly lit, there was this miniature cockroach creeping up the wall and the worst, their service was horrendous.

We ordered strawberry milk shake, baked macaroni and spaghetti. The strawberry milkshake came in quick however, the macaroni and spaghetti were served after almost an hour. We were pissed off but tried to keep our calm because we were both starving. Their staff were so sluggish like walking zombies and wouldn't even hand you over the menu onset unless you ask for it.  Alas our food was served after waiting in vain and yes it tasted spoiled and awful. My baked mac tasted stale and worse than 711's pasta on the go, it seemed like it was cooked the day prior my oh my.  We didn't even finish the whole plate because even the toasted bread didn't taste edible enough, it tasted expired. We took off as soon as we could. What a waste of money we told ourselves. Imagine paying almost P500 for 2 pax for a not so delectable meal? It was such a waste. I wonder what happened to 50s Diner? I hope they fix this crappy service they have because people are not wasting away their good money on expensive diners with awful food and bad customer service. 

Cleanse...

I know that the holidays is a festive season but, let's not also forget to infuse veggies in our holiday menu. Salad in a Jar is becoming really popular nowadays so I decided to give it a whirl.

How does it work? Stuff it in with the dressing first or wet ingredients followed by your choice of protein. It can be steamed chicken, egg or tuna or whatever meat you wish to add. Last but not least, the dry ingredients, cheese, raisins etc. Very easy to prepare and guilt free. 

posted from Bloggeroid

A Time To Take Time

I came across this blog and read about Witty Will Save The World's "Relax, Puso Lang Yan Malayo sa Bituka" Planner 2015. I read that Mt. Cloud is the only place that sells the quirky planner where I'm at. It was much more expensive though compared to purchasing one online (450php + shipping through Facebook vs. 520php book store price).  I thought, I'm not willing to wait 4-5 days just for a planner while I could grab one myself so I went ahead and visited Mt. Cloud. 

Mt. Cloud is a cute book store downstairs from Casa Vallejo. They also sell cute key chains, fridge magnets and stamps at the counter.

beware: the 'hot sauce'
is really HOT.

Grumpy Joe
Leonard Wood

The place can be a little cramped up and  you have to climb the quite steep stairs to get to Grumpy Joe as it's on the 2nd floor. They serve their iced tea in mason jars which was cute plus the food is good. I tried their Combo meal A (Spaghetti in red sauce, fried chicken, a slice of pizza and french fries). The pasta was alright, the fried chicken and fries were really good, a must try. It was affordable as well because the combo meal was just around 140php if I'm not mistaken, the raspberry iced tea for 75php and the blueberry cheesecake cost 140php per slice. Nevertheless,  it was worth coming back to because we enjoyed the food despite the bad online reviews lol. 

posted from Bloggeroid

R&R

 I promise to blog more often to de-stress and so here I am.Work is not so busy due to the holidays which is such a breather. I think I really should have that much needed R and R. I love vacations because I get to read more often and watch more movies.

Recharge.

I just finished reading Neil Gaiman's Fortunately, the Milk e-book and yes I realized it was a children's book due to the cool illustrations. As expected, it was filled with drawings so I think I really picked the wrong book from the bookstore lol. I was deceived by its quirky book cover. Nevertheless, t'was pretty entertaining.

The story went like this, the kids were left home with the Daddy and they ran out of milk for the cereal (for the kids) and milk for the tea (for the Dad). The Dad bought one from the nearest grocery but he was eventually kidnapped by aliens. He met Stegosaurus, wumpires (vampires), a talking volcano etc.

My brain turned lopsided and thank God the weirdness ended sooner than I expected. The book contained just few pages thus it's finished even before I realized. It was crazy really. I just then realized upon skimming through the credits that Neil writes books for kiddos as well. Oh now I know hehe. I loved The Ocean at the end of the lane seriously and I didn't know his queer imagination extends to kids books.

Then be it.

New Read: The face on the Milk Carton, Caroline B. Cooney (Suspense/Mystery)

I have started reading this one and yes it is promising as it's a story about kidnapped kids and their photos at the back of milk cartons. I mean yeah what if the family you grew up with isn't your real family right? Anyways, it's gonna be a long read because it's sort of a five set book kinda like a sequel I guess all with interesting book covers so I will blog about them once I finished all five of them (and I promise I will) :)

I hope to have ample time to read because my brain is asking for food as she's afraid of turning sedentary.

Aesthetics.

sorry for the scare, yeah
my hair is THIS long :D

I went to Tony and Jackey (yes, the Korean hair salon) the other day to get my hair rebonded for the nth2 time. I do this every year to keep my long hair straight and shiny. I went to David's salon to compare how much they charge and I was surprised that they charge 50% more compared to Tony?? What a rip off? I mean I've had my hair rebonded at David's MANY times and they don't normally charge this much. I tried Tony and Jackey last year and I was really happy with the result because the rebond effect did not lapse until about the 8th month as oppose to David's which only last for about 6 months and my head feels really heavy after my hair endured the ironing process with David's which is the opposite at T&J's, my hair felt so light and looked naturally shiny after. I just don't get it why David's charge that much. I seriously now prefer Tony and Jackey price wise and quality wise.

posted from Bloggeroid

Hello December

Oh hello December! I promise to write as frequent as I could this month. I was just extremely busy lately due to the early Christmas shopping spree and appointment with my endocrinologist. I now have a new endocrinologist because the previous one seems to be the only one where I live thus it's such a pain setting up an appointment. 


Health is Wealth...

  

As I always say, I hate hospitals but, I am happy with my new Endoc because he answers all my questions as honest as possible. I was advised to cease taking my vitamins for the time being to see if my body will respond better to meds. Since he's an Internists at the same time, I was also advised that, I take other tests other than the usual blood test (FT4, TSH)  to also check my cholesterol level and come back after a month which I did. My blood test turned out fine, everything is normal so my only concern now is to rid off the muscle cramps and reduce any signs of hypothyroidism as it can no longer be totally eradicated. My Endoc eventually increased my dosage and advised that It's really all up to me how I would control my intake. I asked how come my muscle cramps seemed terrible whenever I am stressed out and I feel depressed at times for no reason at all. He responded that the reason behind that it's 'cuz my body is releasing insufficient hormones for my activities thus explains the depression and muscle cramps. That, I have to increase my dosage to address the lack of. I just then realized how odd my life would be from now on, I now have to gauge how many dosage (of hormone replacement meds) I have to take whilst my body is supposedly doing that job for me,  a lifetime side effect of my RAI (radioactive iodine treatment). I once stopped taking Levothyroxine without telling my Endoc but It didn't do me any good. I gained weight so fast and my muscle cramps came back plus the depression. I tried understanding my condition for as much as I could but It was really difficult without any aid from my Doctor. So far so good, I am taking my meds religiously and I have no plans of stopping because I don't want to go through the same ordeal I went through before. I really felt like an emotional wreck without my meds so I guess I shouldn't self medicate because battling against any thyroid related disorder  is serious. I think taking my meds before I go to bed did all the trick so I don't feel sleepy and tired that much during the day.

 I finally finished reading the last book from the Winterhaven Trilogy by Kristi Cook called “Eternal” (Winterhaven #3). Sorry to be such a spoiler.

Aidan, Violet and friends went to Paris after their high school graduation to celebrate and fight the bad vampires to restore the Tribunal. The battle against the bad vamps was a success except Aidan took the serum which was handed to him by Matthew (Violet's 'Megved'). Matthew perfected the serum and carefully instructed Violet that she must inject the serum to Aidan's no matter what. Violet was totally hesitant but she still managed to inject the serum to Aidan thus he resurrected, now a human being. Matthew unfortunately died. Violet was distraught with Matthew's death, he needed to die for Aidan to live. Violet in the long run met her Sabbath family and their Megved counterparts. The End. I thought, the Winterhaven trilogy was  entertaining.

photo courtesy
of google images

Next read: Another one of Neil Gaiman novels called Fortunately, the Milk. 

It's 20 days to go before Christmas...

Speaking of the holidays, My lovely make up brushes came in through mail last week! I purposely ordered a month early for Christmas as it's a reward for myself (for working so damn hard) and for my sister. It was a 12 piece brush set btw and is a good alternative for the really expensive ones. 

sunflowers for Mum :)

something for my sweet
tooth :)

Sunflowers in bloom
They're such a pretty sight to behold.