my husband would love these :) his favorite characters clowning around.

kyot!

**

and i bet he would give this a thumbs-up too!

our cable provider suddenly stopped showing our beloved series for unknown reasons! grr. so pardon all these images if you don't get it. it's a withdrawal symptom.

check!

our weeks of potty-training had paid off! yes, you read that correctly -weeks.i know some parents probably did it successfully in a few days, but our baby took her time.

it's been almost a week since she started going to the potty on her own, alerting us if she wants to make wee-wee.and it's the third day now that she's making poo-poo (sorry for the toddler language) in the toilet.oh we are so happy! she only wears nappies only at night now.oh, our baby is really growing up.

and just a snippet of our daily conversation:

me: baby, do you want to invite anyone to your party?
baby: yes, B-I-N-G-O! (as in spell out pa ha)
hahahaha! (For the clueless - Bingo is the dog's name in a popular nursery rhyme)

**

this is how i see my lil' one.kyot and feisty!

babyisms

i think our baby is witty :-)

aunty j (looking at baby's watch): what time is it?
baby:  time to go out!

**

me: please say pardon, instead of "what?"
baby: who is pardon?

**

and my favorite...

baby (to me): i want to love you.

**

awww...

baby's expressions

i'm curious where baby is getting all her favorite expressions now.

just some examples:

oh my god
oh my dear
that's a good idea
(and my favorite) whoopsie daisy

it's just so cute hearing these from her!we are not a british household, and so baby must be getting these expressions from her nursery. or maybe from some of her playmates?

her playgroup is a mini united nations - an italian-filipino girl, two french girls, a canadian girl and a south korean boy. plus a bunch of kids coming from several arab countries like lebanon and syria.

she's already added the arabic slang words "shuhada" (in tagalog, ano ba yan? sorry, i can't find a proper english translation!) and "kalas" (finish) to her vocabulary.

and her deutsch has improved a lot after a month-long holiday in germany with oma and opa.

she still has to catch up with her filipino, though.

we have a linguist in the family, and we could not be any prouder!

things i'm grateful for: al ain!

this year is a very busy one for my husband, so a staycation in the uae comes as a blessing for us.

it was sort of a pat-in-the-back gift for ourselves as we managed to keep the household sane as nanny went on three-week holiday.

so amidst summer camps, weather in the 40s, sicknesses, work duties, we emerged triumphant!

we got ourselves a good hotel deal, and off we went to al ain, an oasis in the desert.

it was a very-much needed boost.

don't you just love mini-holidays? they make you anticipate of lovelier things to come!

Never mock another person’s dreams...

To do anything well, you must first care. Passionately. And be enthusiastic. Be hungry. Stay hungry. Be proactive. Do more than your job description. In fact, create your own job. Understand that receiving criticism is the quickest way to improve. And that sometimes being fired, or not getting what you want, is absolutely the best thing that could happen. Be a team player. Give credit where credit is due; ‘we’ is always stronger than ‘I’. But if something goes wrong, take responsibility, stand up and be counted. Love your life outside work – it’s the only way to stay sane, and that’s more important the higher up you go. Know your physical limits, but never stop dreaming. Never mock another person’s dreams. Don’t be a quitter. If you believe you can do something, you’ve already done the hard part. Be curious. Stay curious. Rules are overrated but respect is everything. Play for win/win scenarios. Don’t ask permission to succeed, just get on with it. If something hasn’t been done before, it doesn’t mean it’s not possible. In short, dream, believe, do! But be prepared to work bloody hard, over and above expectations. Never cheat. Don’t gossip. Have a moral code. Enjoy the ride. The aim is to screech to a halt when you finally get to those pearly gates and say wow, what a blast! Not oops, I forgot something.

-from the Editor's Letter (Elle Decoration UK)

precisely, ms. nora

gratitude

i have a lot of things to be grateful for today...

1. i was able to spend the day at ferrari world in abu dhabi with three dear friends without splashing a lot of moolah.don't hate us, but we were able to get in by paying 25 dirhams each (around 250 pesos). we paid for just 10% of the actual price which is at 250 dirhams (2,500 pesos)! really, really appreciated this promotion.

as a result of this, we were able to ride the world's fastest rollercoaster! more on that later :-)

2.free dinner! i got invited to a dinner which i readily accepted. it was at this asian-themed restaurant in dubai marina called chinese village.it was free because we used a lot of groupon vouchers :-) and oh, the food was great.

3.a pleasant brunch with my husband.there is this restaurant called thyme near to our place.we always passed by it, and we always said we would try it one day.so we had a chance to finally try it, and oh boy, were we pleasantly surprised! the interiors were great, the staff were friendly and the food was just right for a pleasant brunch.

4.hearing my baby's voice on the phone.she is in germany now for a holiday with her oma and opa.i felt a bit guilty when she started crying, but we don't really have a choice :-( it IS scorching hot in dubai now.talk about 40-50 degrees.baby is an outdoorsy girl, and she would just be miserable if she were here, stuck in our flat.at least in munich she can run around farms and parks, and improve on her deutsch :-)

that's why i can totally relate to this.

friday also marked the start of ramadan in the uae.here's a blessed ramadan to my muslim friends.

and to the universe, here's a little note for you :-)

Some of Nora Ephron's Her Best Lines

by The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nora Ephron's characters were highly verbal and hyper-analytical. They had a head for the absurd and a heart for romance. But above all, they were funny.

The big New Year's Eve speech Crystal delivers to Ryan at the end of "When Harry Met Sally ...." This is vintage Ephron in a nutshell.

"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

From 1998's "You've Got Mail," which Ephron wrote and directed, when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are walking through a farmer's market ruling out the people they won't date.

Hanks: "I could never be with someone who likes Joni Mitchell. 'It's clouds illusions I recall/I really don't know clouds at all.' What does that mean? Is she a pilot? Is she taking flying lessons? It must be a metaphor for something but I don't know what it is."

The last lines of "You've Got Mail," after all the gesturing and posturing, the sabotage and mistaken identity, they meet in Riverside Park and Ryan finally realizes that Hanks has been her secret email pal all along.

Hanks: "Don't cry, Shopgirl. Don't cry."

Ryan: "I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so badly."

 From 1993's "Sleepless in Seattle," which Ephron also wrote and directed. Tom Hanks' son has called into a late-night talk radio show for him. As he explains what was so special about his late wife, Ryan is listening in her car across the country.

"Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they just meant we were supposed to be together. And I knew it. And I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home, only to no home I'd ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like ... magic.

gratitude

things i am grateful for today...

1. bubble baths

2. baby just finished her spring term at her nursery. her teacher sent us all her artworks that she had accumulated for the past three months. it's a delight perusing them!

3. kid-friendly brunches. we celebrated father's day with a family brunch in mazina at the address hotel in dubai marina. there were a lot of activities for the wee ones - face painting, nintendo gaming, bouncy castle jumping. there were also a variety of food choices, from asian to british fares. i am so thankful that we can enjoy this.

4. breakfasts where it is 40 degrees outside, but inside you get this view. whoa, thanks ski dubai!

these might be trivial for most of you, but i am really, really loving the universe now.

gratitude

i've read somewhere that keeping a gratitude journal is one way to enrich one's life by appreciating what you have and by actually getting rid of envy as you are already grateful of what you have.

i am starting a gratitude list of three things i am grateful for. knowing myself i am not sure if i can keep this daily. when there is a boost of overwhelming gratitude, i will surely write my thank-you's to the higher-ups.

from the mundane to the huge ones, expect me to write them down! i actually had posts already tagged as "things i am grateful for," but these mostly focused on our trips together as a family and as a couple.

i'm hoping, though, that this will not just be a simple counting of blessings, but that this will make me appreciate life more, and be aware of the positive aspects in my life. the secret is in motion? :-)

so here goes...

things i am grateful for today...

1. i am grateful that mr t and i wake up to this amazing view everyday!



2. i am grateful that mr t only feeds us healthy stuff :-) he even makes an effort to decorate the food!

3. i am grateful that baby is thriving in our community.

***

so universe, here's a massive...

music

i am in senti mode today.

and i also struck gold with finding these music gems.

this video is something that i wished i was part of. it's nostalgic, and it makes me want to go to the vatican again.

http://youtu.be/ghdmveZdhR0

i found this next video through tiborce's blog, and it makes me reminisce about my high school/college days. gawd,  I miss my friends.

http://youtu.be/JocM61FVZy0

and this one makes me really, really wistful.

http://youtu.be/ldXFxtqKGmU

best lyrics ever.

so, so you think you can tell heaven from hell,
blue skies from pain.
can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
a smile from a veil?
do you think you can tell?
and did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
hot ashes for trees?
hot air for a cool breeze?
cold comfort for change?
and did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
how I wish, how I wish you were here.
we're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
running over the same old ground.
what have you found? The same old fears.
wish you were here.

it's june!

i can't believe it.it's already june, and i've just finished posting about our christmas holidays.

time does pass when you are a working mom. no offense to the sahm's, i know you are doing one heck of a job.and i salute you for that.but to each his own naman, di ba?

baby has started with nursery.and it is going ok,so far.at first she did not want to go and actually proclaimed she disliked it.but after two weeks,she suddenly decided she liked it.

her school reports are positively glowing with praises.so she must really love it, and we are not just imagining her love for education.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011 and new year's 2012

i'm very, very choosy when it comes to friends.that's why i only have a select few of them.they are the ones who have been with me through thick and thin (and i for them!), who know me inside out, who love me (i hope so!) warts and all.

so i also consider it a blessing that i get to "inherit" mr t's close friends. they are a lovely bunch of people, and although we may not speak the same language, our bond with mr t brings us closer together.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 20121

we have been to garmisch a few times before. i've written about it a lot of times, and i am going to write another post about it as i like that place so much!

baby's godmother, l, lives in garmisch so that's why we always have a reason to visit.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

we are very thankful for the chance to see vienna in its christmas glory and to marvel at bratislava in its quirkiness, but it is always a blessing to come home to somewhere familiar...

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

so...bratislava...

i'm still amazed at how much our little family had so much fun in this historical town.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

who would have ever thought i would set foot in eastern europe? it seemed so far-fetched, but we did it. bratislava in slovakia is just an hour away by train from vienna. we took this opportunity as god knows when we would ever have this chance again.

we set off early.early being 930 in the morning.

just a li'l intermission

50 reasons it's great to be a tourist (cnngo.com) by Duncan Forgan

 

If you hate them, you need to join them.

With their worldly sophistication, cheap fisherman pants and penchant for being smiley all the time, tourists are a much-hated group.

But before you laugh too hard at the lost look in their eyes, or mock too much the clattering chaos of their attempts to board the roof of a minibus with five bags and three cameras swinging from their torsos, understand this: they don’t care.

They’re having the time of their life. And we all know why. Being a tourist is awesome.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

after a few hours of basically doing nothing at the cafe we ventured out to one of the most beautiful palaces i've ever seen - the schloss belvedere.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

the next day we went to the kalke village where we saw the radical works of mr t's favorite artist - hundertwasser. there is a colorful block of flats that add so much character in the area.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

the adjoining schonbrunn gardens are arranged in french style. as we visited right smack in the start of winter, the shades were either in brown or grey. however i got enthralled of this seemingly sad combination of colors.

teehee

i know, i just promised that i am going to post more updates.hopefully i can keep that promise!

we just got back from an amazing holiday in the philippines!

truly, it's more fun in the philippines nga!

promise!

sorry for the lack of posts! mommy duties come first before blogging duties - my poor baby was sick for almost a week.she is ok now, thank god.talkative and bibo as ever.
you should be reading more posts in the coming days.promise! haha.

meanwhile, i am leaving you with these feel-good stuff. you know, just to keep us going!

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

"yes, it's more than a little twee in places, but how can this festival ever be anything but? a few glasses of orange-peel-scented grog and you start to appreciate the work that goes into those little gingerbread houses with their snowy roofs and tiles made out of sweeties; the heart-shaped cookies and oranges stuffed with cloves; the extraordinary array of glass baubles and musical boxes. this is also where you come for paper plates of sharp shredded cabbage and slender sausages, twists of bread dough and slices of spice cake, paper bags of chestnuts fresh from the roaster, baked potatoes and mugs of steaming wine.

vienna, it would see, is made for christmas.." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

it was a blessed christmas day!

our christmas day morning was spent playing with baby's gift from oma and opa - a train set!

how could we not take advantage of  a beautiful, sunny day? it was a very ideal day to go walking around...the schonbrunn palace!

things i'm grateful for:

"it is difficult not to warm to a city that smells of baked apples.strands of white fairy lights hang across the narrow streets like falling snow caught in lamplight.the bells of stephansdom chime deeply, and every now and then there is the ghostly clatter of horses' hooves on cobbles.the shop windows, when they are not full of curiously sinister antique dolls, are glistening with caskets of sugar plums and chocolate fir cones.vienna, icily cold and smeling of sweet spice, is like walking into a christmas card" - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

and what a christmas card it was! vienna certainly delivered in its promise of christmas glory.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

"...a twinkling, sugar'n'spice city that seems just made for this season..." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

'twas the day before christmas.

we thought to take it easy as the shops will close early, but how can you take it easy in one of the most beautiful cities in the world?

when you would just take off from a tram and be greeted by this? (no, not the in-your-face coca-cola banner)

hey mr t and baby t

http://youtu.be/K480BTMTpvo

happy birthday and happy hearts day.

xoxo.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

so i would never have imagined that this narrow street led to a full-grown christmas market! the stalls spread through narrow streets and backyards of spittelberg, with all the works! brilliant!

and somebody was also lurking!

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

" there is some amicable jostling among the duffel coats to get to the front of the queue (it is not easy to fight in mittens), all of us eager to get our hands on a piece of the stallholder's hot toast with its waves of molten cheese. there are few moments more perfect than the one that finds you biting into blistering cheese on toast while snowflakes fall on your eyelashes." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

we reached the neue burg wing of the hofburg.

this palace has housed one of the most powerful empires in europe, the habsburgs, starting in 1279 to 1918.

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

"vienna manages to retain the feel of an advent calendar, complete with a dusting of glitter.the christmas markets, of which half are dotted around the city, are heavy with the fragrance of freshly cut pine trees and freshly baked ginger biscuits." - observer.co.uk, nigel slater

this day was definitely a christmas market day. we started off with a simple breakfast

and trekked to the mother of all christmas markets.i mean, this must be the biggest christmas market ever!

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

i have a mental bucket list.i never really put this list into writing.i really do not know why as this is one of the main things that the secret is advocating, right? one of these days i will make that list, says the procrastinator in me and the universe will be happy and grant me all my dreams and wishes, says the believer in me.oh yes it will, adds the eternal optimist in me.schizo much? hahaha.

but i know for sure that i've always wanted to spend christmas in vienna.

why?

things i'm grateful for: christmas 2011

we left for germany on the 21st of december armed with wolly hats, jumpers, gloves and really thick coats. i was kinda giddy at this point as i was excited for baby who will see her first snow. at that time, most of europe was not experiencing any heavy snowfall so i really prayed hard for some kind of snowfall, at least.a light one will do as long as baby feels and sees it.

we were picked up by opa, and as soon as we got out of the airport there was already a trickle of snowfall! danke, i thought. baby slept in the car so she did not really see the snow hitting the windshield.i was excited as well as it was only my third or fourth time to experience snowfall!

gimme some coupons

in times of austerity, what does one with a champagne dream, but with a beer budget do? why, get a coupon book of course! mr t and i would not feel guilty eating out as it's a buy-one-get-one-for-free deal.

it's just the start of the year, but we were are able to use some of the coupons already.

delightful breakfast at bohouse - check.

fun times in fun city for baby - check.

dinner at duo - mark with a cross!they did not accept our coupon as i only ordered a salad, and the coupon states that you have to order a  main dish.boo!

and just as a wonderful surprise, my office gave us another book of coupons with equally thrilling deals!

so we now have these two thick discount/coupon books, and i do not think we will be able to use all of them.

you (and your guest) are welcome to drop by and rip off any coupon that you may fancy.

well, except the ones for fun city.unless you want to be given the evil look by baby.

hee.

tommy boy

we were able to finally watch the latest "mission impossible" film, and it did not disappoint!

the burj khalifa scenes were amazing! mr t and i wondered how could we possibly cope if we had sandstorm of that proportion?? and say what you want about tommy boy, i still think he looks good for his age considering he's already in his 50s!

A Care Bears poem for January

"Happy New Year!" the Care Bears say.

This is the month the Care Bears play

in fluffy piles of crystal snow

... sparkling in the sun's pale glow.

They glide! They slide! It's oh so nice

to skate across the silver ice!

Bears go for a toboggan ride,

then warm up by a fireside.

Inside there's cocoa in a mug--

books to read and Bears to hug.

Outside the Trees wear frozen lace.

The world's a rather fancy place.

**

awww... CARE BEAR STARE!!!

haha! such a cute poem! nicked this off from a care bears website. baby would love this. i will read this to her. meanwhile, here's another teaser...

vienna is christmas

patricia schultz was right in her "1000 places to see before you die" book. vienna IS christmas.

i would be eternally grateful that my family and i got to spend the festive season in this beautiful, graceful and charming city.

it was a joyous event.something that would be etched in my mind forever.i'm hoping that baby can live it out through our photos, and eventually travel there on her own when she's older.

so here's a teaser.

christmas and new year's stories in munich, vienna and bratislava (yes, in slovakia!) will come soon!

thank you, thank you, universe, for these opportunities.

hello 2012!

May your (coming) year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the (next) year, you surprise yourself - Neil Gaiman

please be awesome, 2012.

and oh hello, dubai.we're back!