hello again!

dear ZJ,

thanks for another update. altho i can't say much about rafael nadal's tennis prowess, one thing's for sure, he is a great player at his age. you wouldn't be rooting for him if he wasn't. i can sense your excitement even all throughout your post, :)

over here, the weather is still nonforgiving, it's almost the peak of summer and the heat is really on! you will literally sweat buckets even after a cold bath or shower. apart from that everything is quite normal, as it is.

well, there will be for now.
take care, always.

have a great day!
sam

Hola!

Hello, Sam. I know I promised to write you right away but circumstances did not allow me to. Well, you know me, I’m easily distracted! Hah.

 

So anyway, if you look at my last post, you will see that it was written last year in the same month (hehehe) and the content was, of course, all about tennis. Hah, it’s no mere coincidence. It is the middle of the clay season in tennis at this time, and of course, I could not miss a single match of my boy Rafael Nadal. He won at the Barcelona Open just last Sunday, his 6th title in Barcelona, beating his compatriot David Ferrer. What a feat for this boy – at 24 years old, he is the second youngest player in the Open era to have won 6 titles or more in two events. The other week, he also won the the Monte Carlo finals – his 7th title.

I hope you don’t get bored when I blabber about tennis. So how are you these days? Did you go anywhere during the Lenten season? I miss the traditional things we Pinoys do during the Lenten. Did you go to the beach? I miss the beach, I miss Kep! It’s been almost a year since we last went there. His schedule won’t allow us, always busy with school. If there was a window of opportunity (finally!) then almost always something would come up. It is better for us to not make plans at all as it’s guaranteed to be broken anyway.

That’s all for now from me here. Oh, by the way, we have a webcam installed and I want to share it with you. The view from that webcam is exactly what I see in one of my windows. If you like to see what’s the weather like, or what’s the traffic like on my side of the world, just click this link and you’ll find out :)

Ciao, amiga. Till next post. Mwah.

 

Cheers,

Zarah

to you, dear bff...

hi zj,
thank you for this new template...and the time to chat, too. guess we can never really have the best of all worlds (i am taking about the climate here, it's super hot). over there, it is too right?

so how is life goin? me, im just here, doing freelance jobs - and doing the errands at home, too. it's just mom and i here, and mostly it's quiet time for me. thanks to the internet, i get to reach olut to the big world out there.

these will be for now.

labs,
sam

The tennis clay season is now on!

Dear Sam,

I'm so glad to see that you have been up and about again. That's great!

By the way, I am sorry for being quiet for a long while. You see, I thought that when I resigned from work that I'll be able to spend more time blogging. Not!

You see, I am now a stay-at-home-wife. And with that comes the home-making responsibilities that I need to attend to. Where before I used to tackle needs researches of the community, now I make sure that our needs at home are met. Before I make budget plans for community activities, now I handle our monthly financial budget. So difficult especially now with current inflation and world crisis! So of course I make sure I get what we need without burning our pockets!

But one thing that hasn't changed at all is my love for sports! Be it team sports or any individual sports, especially tennis, I never fail to check out the sports program listings on TV for anything that catches my fancy. And do you know what, I always check out who's good looking, who's hot, or, in the case of tennis, I look out for the player who has the nicest outfits in the tournament. I kind of get curious how and where non-sponsored players get their outfits,too.

It's the clay season again in the world of tennis and my favourite player Rafael Nadal has just won the Monte Carlo Rolex Tournament in Monaco - a historic sixth consecutive title! What a feat for the man from Mallorca. I was actually looking forward to Rafa playing in the Barcelona Open but I was disappointed when I saw in his website that's he decided not to. Of course I felt bad, but he himself knows what's important. I guess he is really preparing for the Roland Garros French Open tournament to avenge his loss last year. So, no tennis action going on for Rafa in the next weeks... There are lots of footie matches on TV but, honestly, football doesn't interest me at all, I guess I'll have to check other offerings over ESPN and other sports channel on cable TV.

Perhaps the cheer-dance competition (on ESPN) will have to do now. These cheer groups have fantastic costumes I wonder who designs them.

Anyways, this is all for now. It's the weekend again so I hope you'll have a good one :D

hi, bff!

dear zj,

thanks for your messages. have read, received and kept them in mind, yey! am so lookin forward to your visit any time, so that we can go "make pasyal" and have lots of Eats!!!

excuse me for not bein able to go online because the 'net isn't quite readily accessible nowadays. hmmm, i'm startin to wonder if that is also the case over there from your place.

ps. kindly send my regards to R.

see you real soon.

tc, always.

ciao, bella.

Dear ZJ,

Here’s an update to my much delayed sequence to MY FAVE SPICE: PEPPER.

POPCORN – (Unknown YET Original Recipe)
6 quarts popped popcorn
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Place popcorn in a large bowl and set aside. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda; mix well. Pour over popcorn and stir until well-coated. Pour into two greased 13-in. x 9-in.x 2-in. baking pans. Bake, uncovered, at 250 degrees F for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely. Store in airtight container or plastic bags. Yield: 22 servings

My random take: in a microwave oven, dry corn popcorn poppin’ it up galore. Add a teasepoon of pepper – red, black, white or powdery form. Enjoy and munch: TEASEPOON POPCORN FOR REESE ‘TEASPOON’ WITHERSPOON a.k.a LEGALLY BLONDE LIPSTICK (for AVON.com)

SUNFLAKES BY FRANK ASCH from the book entitled SING A SONG OF POPCORN EVERY CHILD’S BOOK OF POEMS de REGNIERS / Scholastic Hardcover
FOUR SEASONS BY UNKNOWN from the book entitled SING A SONG OF POPCORN EVERY CHILD’S BOOK OF POEMS de REGNIERS / Scholastic Hardcover
pepper mill (my fave spice maker)

PEPPER VARIETIES: buttery, salty, spicy, sweety, dry, organic, fresh, produce, red, green, yellow, chillies, jalapenos, etc.

Love,
Sam ini

A slice of yum!

Dear Sam,
So finally, I was able to post this for you. The first phase of my consultancy work is already done, and right now, while waiting for the second phase to commence, I am enjoying the spare time through food tripping! Remember, last week I promised to keep a slice of my own version of carrot cake for you. So here it is - lovingly made from scratch! Oh, I am so proud of myself! *lol*

I used two medium-carrots, wheat flour, baking soda, a little bit of sugar, oil, vanilla and an egg. Blend them all together, place in a baking pan and chuck it in the pre-heated oven for an hour or so... et voila -

Out came this rich, moist carrot cake. I topped it with a frosting made from egg white and icing sugar. So here it is... eat it while it's warm. Perfect with a cup of coffee. Enjoy!

Love,

Z

P.S. I'll take your offer of a baking marathon when I go to Naga City sometime in the future!