the merry month of may

Next month, I have 3 reasons to celebrate.
Tomorrow (1st of May) will be my 5th year of employment with the company I’m working in.
The 19th will signify this blog’s 1st birthday.
And the 27th will mark our (hubby and me) anniversaries: 6 years as boyfriend and girlfriend, and 3 years as husband and wife.
Plus there's Mother's Day on the 8th.
So, since this month will be a month of celebrations for me, I have decided to be positive and only blog about good stuff for the next 31 days (not everyday, but when I do blog)...at least, I’ll avoid posting anything negative, any rants, or exasperations that I might experience.
Let’s hope I hold true to my word.

going back to carino's

Yesterday was the 27th of the month, so as part of our monthly tradition, we ate out.
We had planned to go to Wafi City so that we could also watch their Lights and Sounds Show after dinner at Planet Hollywood, but since Caila had a slight fever (maybe due to another tooth coming out), we opted to have dinner at Carino's located at the back of Deira City Centre. They have branches in BurJuman and Dubai Festival City, but we specifically chose this branch because this is where hubby and I had our first date on the 27th of May almost 6 years ago.

vacation tickets...check!

Even though our vacation is in the last quarter of the year, as early as now, we’ve bought our tickets to the Philippines. That’s me, hubby, Caila and her nanny.
The reason of our early purchase is because the fares are still cheap.

our jigsaw genius

She can complete a jigsaw puzzle!
It took her about 20 minutes to put the 24 pieces together all on her own. Ok, I admit I helped a bit, but only by telling her what to look for; she figured out everything else herself.

max's is coming soon to dubai

Yup, Max’s is going to open up their first branch here in Dubai.
Hubby and I first heard the news last month from our friends in CFC, and a while ago, I saw one of our friends in FB sharing a link to their page.

hello kitty and a proud mommy moment

Last Tuesday, we went to BurJuman to watch Hello Kitty and her friends perform.

Caila, who always has to go into a Sanrio or Hello Kitty store if she sees one in the mall, was, of course, excited to see “Kitty.” Fortunately, being a weeknight, there weren’t that many people at the venue, so we were able to get a place with a good view of the stage.

the archers shoot down the eagles!

Hubby, Caila and I, together with our friends Ces and Pia, enjoyed a ringside view of the action yesterday. It was so exciting! The scores were very close. Now I have an idea how intense it feels to watch a UAAP game between the two rivals. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me start from the beginning...

ateneo and la salle to play in dubai

OMG! OMG! OMG!

I just read in the news that the Blue Eagles and Green Archers will be having a game against each other here in Dubai tomorrow!

happy 70th birthday, mama!

It’s Mama’s 70th birthday today, and unfortunately, out of her 4 children, only Kuya Boyet (who’s already in the Philippines) was able to be with her. You see, her eldest son (Kuya Boy) works and lives in Papua New Guinea with his family, and they couldn’t go home this time because they’ll be migrating to Canada before the end of the year and they need to save up for that.

modern alphabet taught in nursery

I received this in my e-mail some time ago, and just thought to share...

Thank goodness A is still "apple" =)

iceland in the desert

My family and my Filipino Mafia colleagues (and their families) went to Iceland Water Park in Ras Al Khaimah yesterday, and we had a blast!

Weeks before, we were invited by our friends Humprey and Sheryl because they were given group discount vouchers. The normal rate is Dhs150 (for adults) and Dhs100 (for children), but we just had to pay half-price (small kids like Caila went in free). We heard that they were going to increase their rates to Dhs225 soon, which was their original rate when they opened, but we’re not sure if it was just a rumor going around. Anyway, of course we didn’t want to pass up the opportunity, and it would be a good bonding experience for us, so we made plans to go on one of our non-working Saturdays (which was yesterday).

they're here in dubai!

Thanks to Wow Pinoy, West Zone, and Lulu Hypermarket, I can indulge in my favorite junkfood.
It was my first time to see the Reese’s products, the Pik-a-Pop and the Jujyfruits here in Dubai; and the last time West Zone and Kabayan sold Nesvita was more than a year ago, so you can imagine how excited I was when I saw these on the shops’ shelves. We definitely hoarded (around 2 packs per product).

a pain in the butt neck

For two days now, I’ve been having problems with my neck.
Yesterday morning, I woke up with a stiff neck, hurting so much that I had to ask hubby’s help to get me out of bed. I thought it would go away after my shower, but I ended up having to endure it the whole day. I could barely turn my head to the left without having to turn my entire body (and even when I did, it still hurt).

they finally fit!

Remember my sacrifices for lent? Well, it has definitely given me good results so far.
Last week, I happened to pull out a dark blue pants suit out of my closet which I haven’t worn for I-don’t-know-how-long because I can never close the buttons without my tummy seeming to want to burst out.

sports brings international cuisines to the workplace

Because their country won the 2011 Cricket World Cup, our Indian colleagues ordered pizza and cake for everyone at the office yesterday. And today, they gave a celebratory lunch for all of us. It was a purely Indian feast: chicken biryani, mutton biryani, nawaabi subz salad, hara salad, haryali salad, papad, roti tandoori, paneer tikka masala, and subzi makhanwala. Unfortunately, the biryanis were too spicy for me so I had to settle with the papad and tandoori...I became an instant vegetarian. I didn’t mind; I’m not into Indian food anyway. Good thing I had brought my own food from home just in case.