She gave me chills and made me cry

I was looking for some clips to inspire me going back home. However, I stumbled upon a few clips of Charice Pempengco which gave me chills and moved me to tears without even realizing it. She is "small but terrible" and I was completely blown away by her talent. I know this clip is over 9 minutes long but you have to see for yourself both performances. Para sa atin po ito, mga kababayan ko sa buong mundo. Tangkilikin ang sariling atin:

More news about Charice - HERE.

Germophobe

I'm not this super squeaky-clean strict person (I'm quite lazy tbh... ooppps ) but I'm paranoid with germs.

I always stock up the bathrooms and the kitchen with anti-bacterial cleaning sprays, creams, handwash and wipes. In my purse, I always carry anti-bacterial wipes and anti-bacterial gel. Whenever we go out, I don't drink anything at least half an hour before and I always send Elijah to go for a wee before heading out so that, fingers-crossed, we won't need to use public restrooms. (But my son is like a factory of wee because he always needs to go almost every hour!) Anyways, if my son needs to use a public loo, I don't touch the door handles with just bare hands but with a tissue. If the loo has got no disposable toilet seat paper, I cover the seat with either paper towel or toilet roll. Then, I'd use another towel to flush. If there's no anti-bacterial handwash in the public loo, no problemo! because I have some in my purse. I never put my purse down on any floor whether at home or at public places. I'd shout at Sean whenever he puts my purse down. You never know what's on the floor of restaurants, restrooms and shops. Even Elijah has learnt to disgust dirt so now he always wash his hands too whenever he sees or thinks his hands are dirty. He knows well that germs are sickening. I am very careful in the kitchen as well. I don't trust anyone (not even Sean) to keep the kitchen worktop, chopping board, kitchen utensils, pots and most especially, food to be germ-free. So yeah this is how paranoid I am about germs. I don't even let Sean anywhere near me if I know he's got dirty hands. He's got to wash with anti-bacterial liquid soap first! This is just the gist of it all. Anyways, a segment on Rachel Ray show prompt me about this subject. On the show, they featured a mother of 4 who is a self-proclaimed germophobe. I don't know who's worse - me or her - but one of our differences is that she puts down her purse on public floors even in the restrooms. ewww!!!

So they did tests and these are what they found on the purse: Pantoea: "This is associated with urinary tract infections and intestinal infections. Some of the places you might find it might be on a park bench. Definitely not something we want to carry home and put on our kitchen counters."

E.Coli: “This is an organism that is found in animal and human feces, definitely not what we expect to find on a purse, and can be quite dangerous. Some of the strains have been deadly.

Yeast: "They can cause oral infections, yeast infections in adults. We might find it on a park bench if it's wet, particularly in a shaded area."

Staphylococcus: “Could be dangerous if it happens to be an antibiotic resistant form of staff. It can cause some pretty serious infections."

Acknowledgment: Rachel Ray Show www.rachelrayshow.com

Superman

There are loadsssssss to sort! I don't know which one to pick first! (well, I never really know which is which because somehow I get attached to all our stuff and it's hard to say goodbye because they're mine!) :P Our objective this time is to get rid all of our furnitures and hopefully most of Elijah's toys. We will put up all our furnitures for sale through e-moo. However, it's gonna be a lot of hardwork though convincing him to give away his toys because he kept insisting that he loves all of them. When we told him that we are going to give his old toys to kids who doesn't have toys and that will make them happy, he looked as if he thought about it and sort of agreed. Inaudibly, he said, "Okay" and added, "but not my favourite toys!" Well, I'm not giving away his superman because I believe that one is a limited edition. :P bbl

"BF Card"

I think this clip is reallllly funnnny. I "stole" it from this blog: KHarvee. I PMed him though, and I hope he doesn't mind. ;) , shockwave-flash@http://embed.break.com/NDkzMDg1" href="http://embed.break.com/NDkzMDg1" id="">

http://view.break.com/493085 - Watch more free videos Anyways, here's what I think lads... I know it's annoying but sometimes that's what it takes to get guys to stay away and keep their "hands off" ^.~ I used to do that before too... "brag" about my boyfriend. Nowadays, I just need to raise my left hand to slap the annoying guys ... ooopps I meant, to show off my wedding ring. ^.^

Filter Keys

Earlier, I was messing about with my blog template while watching "Dinner:Impossible" with Chef Robert Irvine (pictured on the left - who has been 'dropped' and been replaced for "embellishing" his culinary background - but I love him so I will miss him terribly ; ; ). So anyways, my eyes were glued on tv while my finger was on 'shift' key, then I heard a "bleep" and this popped on my screen: Somehow, I accidentally hit 'enter' key without reading thoroughly the message. Consequently, FilterKeys were kept turned on. This means keys were scrambled e.g. pressing CAPSLOCK = lower case, pressing alt+tab will tab from right to left, number keys are reversed too and so on. In times like this, solution is right at the tip of the fingers. So, I did a quick search how to solve this and yup, I found the answer. I did the short and quick solution: "pressing 2 shift keys at the same time" and it did the magic. If others experience the same, click and follow this GUIDE for more permanent remedy: bbl

I'm Going Home (maybe for GOOD this time) with my boys, of course :) ... back to the "Pearl of the Orient Seas"

It has been a decade since I left Philippines to work in Saudi Arabia. Coincidentally, Sean arrived there too just a few days earlier than me to work for the same company. Yes, our life-long journey together started in Saudi (but the best and happiest reminiscence didn't start from there because I consider living there a nightmare -don't ask! that's a different chapter I don't want to talk about... yet). We consider ourselves now as expert "movers" because we've moved (fasten your seat-belts before take-off!) from Saudi Arabia to Hong Kong to Canada to England to Bermuda. And, in between, a few weeks in Ireland, Switzerland and maybe others that I can't recall at the moment. Nonetheless this time, it's gonna be a 'big move' because we are finally going to settle down... in my homeland, Philippines a.k.a. "Pearl of the Orient Seas". For a week, we've been waiting for my husband's written offer from Manila and it arrived this morning. So, the inevitable has come: organizing, sorting and packing for umpteenth time! Fingers-crossed, we won't need to do this again because we 'plan to finally settle down' especially for the sake of our fast-growing son. I haven't told my family yet because I don't want them to get too excited and I wanted to be sure first. As I told Sean to cease from mentioning it to anyone until we have in our hands the 'offer'. On the contrary, I'm not really sure how to feel about this. A decade living in other countries and approximately 6 visits in between, my emotion about going back home is mixed up of excitement, anxiousness, bafflement and such. It's actually indescribable feeling while reminiscing about the past and putting together things that has been said and done, good or bad, happy or sad moments. I better start organizing and sorting then. bbl

Silent Cry of a Mother

A couple of hours earlier, Elijah and I were chatting to Nanay (my Mother, who is currently working in Jubail, Saudi Arabia) through webcam. The last time Nanay and I saw each other in person was 8 years ago when she visited me in Al Khobar (segue: the only time she met Sean - when we secretly arranged for a meetup at a shop under the nose of the security. In Saudi, it's against the law to interact with opposite sexes. That's entirely different story but I will write about it next time.)

I have a child of my own now and I can't last being away from him so I know how much she truly missed me and my sisters. She was very disappointed too that when she went home last year, we weren't there. I just said that it was wrong timing for us to go home. So, the only best thing we could do was 'IM' with her and my sisters. Almost everyday when she was there in the Philippines, she was crying because we weren't all together. I can't do anything because I'm miles away and have to be strong for my own son and not weepy.

If I could, I would do something for us 3 sisters and our mother to be together. However, we have our own lives now to worry about. Maybe when I'm much older and my son shuts his door on me and work abroad, I will fully understand Nanay's sorrow for her daughters.

Anyways, as usual we tried to keep her entertained (well, Elijah was making faces and stuff, and sang for her "You're Beautiful" on American Idol ps3). However, all these were not enough to keep her happy. She was sulking that I won't even bother to show my face on webcam. I did sometimes let her see me in my miserable state (my hair wasn't brushed and I wasn't really in the mood to be jolly; and anyways I never want my face on cam because I prefer to stay behind it and be the family photographer or videographer. Although, of course, as seen on this page, I have photos which a proof that I occasionally let my family to take.)

As we were saying our good nights to Nanay and right before I signed off, I noticed that she was crying and must have been crying silently because she stopped talking for awhile and was just typing her messages. I felt bad that she was depressed and that I was causing it.

I know that no matter how many times we'd say 'I love yous' through messenger, it's not enough. Nonetheless, I hope that distance only separate us all physically but not in our hearts.

This rose is for you, Nanay.

Cassava Chips

Finally, I can start posting after a whole night's work of searching for the best blog site and setting up this blog. Almost given up on this template but I kept coming back for it. I'm a 'Diva' so I must use this DIVAlicious theme. ^.~

I'm not quite done yet so please bear with me if my blog will keep changing ;) (hehe I hope I'll be done posting before the maintenance so I'll make it short and sweet [while eating cassava chips]) ^,^

As you can see, I'm proud of my family so I'm showing off photo of the happy Quance family (me, Sean and Elijah) which was taken by my sister, Joy in Manila 2 years ago during our visit. :) More family photos will be posted soon!

Anyways, hopefully this is gonna be my "home" to share my thoughts, share daily adventures with my family and a lot more (e.g. being a woman, cooking recipes, parenthood, etc.) in random order.

Cheers!