Why? I’m thinking ahead. I know its not much but having some sort of security, a pension to look forward to when I reach the age of 60, medical, disability,calamity, and death benefits and a whole lot of other benefits. You can also avail of loans like business, housing and calamity loans..

When I was working I was a member and had regular contributions. You only need to have at least 120 months of contribution to be eligible for those benefits. But when I stopped working, I was just too negligent to continue but now I’ve decided to pick up where I left off. I was thinking it will be hard to do now that I’m living abroad, but thankfully banking facilities make it much easier. Now I could just pay monthly through BancNet’s Online Banking Facility.

It’s just another form of saving and I’m glad I’m making it..

Are you an OFW or you simply want to become an SSS member? Just checkout their website for more info.

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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I decided to do my gadget buying in Manila, and I was actually torn between three choices, a Lenovo S10-3 Premium Mini, a Samsung N150P, or an Asus EEE-PC 1005P. What won in the end? The Asus EEE-PC and why I picked that? I loved how it looked, the overall look is sleek. I also fell for the really nice touchpad and comfy comfy keypads. It already came with Windows 7 plus 250 GB hard disk memory. It was good buy for its price.  I got it for $490 (about Php 21,900) and since I paid in cash, I got myself a free optical mouse, a keypad protector, a headset, a 4GB USB storage device, and a slip case.

It comes in white, pink, midnight blue and black but of course, I picked the black, why? Hehe so when it gets dirty I don’t see the dirt much lol!

I was also supposed to get an Asus Portable DVD+/-R/RW External Drive or a Nokia Mobile Phone to be claimed in ASUS World in Megamall, but I was just so pissed to go there a couple of times and they keep saying they don’t have a stock until the promo claiming period was over. I was disappointed with Asus about this.

But anyway, the netbook was really nice, a great thing to lug around. It has a really long battery life, about 8-9 hours based on my experience, but they did say if you’d be able to use it for at least 11 hours if you maximize the battery and I do wonder how I could do that hehe..

When we got back here in Phnom Penh though, Hi-ace took a liking for it. It’s a tiny thing and very light so he reckons it’ll be better to bring it with him instead of his own laptop. So, now I’m stuck with Hi-ace’s Acer laptop, but I don’t really mind. I rarely use it anyway now that I’m back together with my desktop. Hayyy, what do you know, I guess I’m that old fashioned

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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Another one of my father’s specialties – Ginataang Santol. What’s in it? Santol pulp, ground pork, coconut milk, and lots of chili. Okay, just the mere mention of santol makes me drool.

This is a typical Bicolano recipe and one of my favorites. When its season for santol we usually have this a few times a week. And I was quite lucky last June-July-August we have a lot of santol fruit around.

And how to make it? I only have a vague idea, lol! I was too busy waiting for it to be cooked to pay much attention. Would you believe it was still being cooked and I already had a plateful of rice with me? Anyway, dad usually saute garlic, tomatoes first, then he adds the pork, then the santol. Then the coconut cream is added, salt to taste then the chili.. And oh, he said when shredding the santol pulp, you have to make sure you don’t make it a few hours before cooking it and to soak it in water, otherwise it’ll turn really dark..

I wonder when I could have this again? **sigh** On a side note, this made me think what is ‘Santol’ in English? According to Wikipedia, santol is also referred to as ‘wild mangosteen’. Interesting!

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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Camarines Sur Water Sports Complex is also just two hours drive while Caramoan peninsula in Camarines Sur can be reached in half-day. So, we didn’t really need to go on long trips to get the swimming my daughter wants to have during our vacation.

Another great discovery we made is that spring and pool resorts are popping out everywhere! This is a good news specially since it does encourage more active tourism and it provides jobs and us a great variety of place to enjoy. Here’s one very near our house – Springzone Resort in San Jose Malilipot Albay. We could get there in less than 15 minutes! Went there early morning so there’s less crowds and Chinks had a happy time splashing around. The water though is from the spring so its really really cold and just perfect to cool you down.

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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For the next two days, I’m staying in the house coz I’m badly sunburned and even the best face cream or sun block could not do much to keep the sun burns at bay. My mom, me and my cousin have plans to do something like a cooking fest, its just too bad my brother is not here to sample the cooking. I remember he is always willing to be the guinea pig for our kitchen experiments.

Before long, I have to pack our stuff again, were leaving for Manila on the 8th, and we have two days to visit friends based in Manila and also to do a bit of malling. I’m crossing my fingers and praying for good weather when we fly to Manila. I’m a bit paranoid about flying when its so rainy and foggy and besides I’m with Chinks!

My dad too for sure would suffer a bit of separation anxiety so were propping him up from now on about our leaving. I remember last time we left it was really hard for him and he could hardly sleep for a week and I’m hopping he’d be a little used to us coming and going. My mom though is okay and besides she has something to look forward to coz next year she’ll be visiting us in Phnom Penh!

Hmmm, I can’t imagine our Pinas vacation is almost over, it was good but we do have to get back to reality. I’ve relaxed a bit here and for the past weeks have been relatively stress free so I’m all set to work and take on whatever the next few months dishes out on me. I also miss Hi-ace so I’m eager to go back to Phnom Penh..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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We were invited for dinner, and lol! I’ve already forgotten how much food is prepared during fiestas! I sure ate a lot and judging by the photos we took (hehe I won’t ever post it here..) I feel like I’m already balooning like mad. I’m pretty sure someone would mention reading quicktrim reviews to me.

Grrrr, that’s something I don’t really enjoy when taking vacations here! Either they tell me I should get an 8-5 office job, which I easily rebutt by saying, Thank you, but I’m doing quite well freelancing and really I even earn more than a bank manager hahaha.. or simply telling me I got so fat already!! I know I’m chubby and all but hell, people can really rub it to your face and they do so insensitively. And most who told me I’m huge are mostly those who aren’t thin either. Lol! If anything else, I’m now more inspired to lose weight and when I do, I promise to come back and seek out those who told me off and parade my thin self around.

Haha obviously, too much eating in fiestas is making me delusional..More later..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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From late 2009 till the first quarter of 2010 we were worried for him coz his PSE levels were higher than normal, an indication that his prostate cancer might be returning. Another worry was added when his blood sugar was running up and his diabetes was getting worse. From then on, it was a routine of constant doctor visits, tests, meds and vitamins.

What’s more difficult, my mom says is that since he reasons he’s old already, there are times that he feels wearisome, that he doesn’t want to go through medications and doctors and well just live it out. He could also get really stubborn and refuse to take meds with reasons ranging from, he forgot, to medicines are expensive or simply because he doesn’t want to.

Thankfully, he seems to have weathered the bit of storm and when we arrived he’s looking well. The most recent lab results for his prostate and diabetes are also good. Right now, we are insisting on him taking regularly his health supplements and eating healthy. But sometimes, there really is no reasoning with someone so stubborn and at times I can’t fault him for being like that.

He tells us he is old already. If he goes, he doesn’t have any regrets except that he’d like to see a few more grandchildren, my daughter Chinkee being the only one…Hmm, I envy him I think. Someday, when I’m old, I want to feel the same contentment, the same courage to face what will come..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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My mom though has this really cute collection of small cactuses and I just can’t get enough snapping photos. She also placed them on old tree roots, an ingenious idea if you ask me and it makes an interesting display.

I’ve been helping a bit with gardening and I must say I think I inherited the green thumb and its a good way to exercise. I’m thinking I won’t be needing diet pills to burn extra calories..

I just wish I could have my own garden back in Phnom Penh..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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I’m in Bicol, Philippines right now and of course, I’m taking advantage of my vacation here to gorge on scrumptuos Filipino food! Thankfully, I don’t even have to go out of my parents house to sample really good food. Papa is a really really good cook and he’s been indulging us with family favorites the past few days. It’s just no wonder I already have in mind to check apidexin reviews coz for sure, my weight the next few days will make the weighing scale groan out..

Anyway, here one Papa cooked for lunch the other day. Native chicken dinuguan with papaya and pineapples. It was really really yummy! And no, I dunno how to make it, though I observed him burning the grated coconut before squeezing it for its juice to give it a distinctive taste… I guess Iwas too preoccupied with eating it to ask how its made.. hehe =)

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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I have loads of photos but they’ll have to wait till I’m back to Phnom Penh before I could upload it. Internet connection here is really bad it’ll need a few hours to upload one photo and though I could easily go to Legazpi for faster connection, I’m just too lazy to do that. I also still need to sort it all out but I’m just in the mood to practice procrastination..

More later..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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Then we took a plane to Manila, stayed a day and thank God I was too tired to go malling otherwise it’ll be another bomb on my wallet! Haha this vacation is starting to get costly, I keep wishing I have some rfid blocking wallets to keep me from spending too much! Anyway, after staying with my brother for a day, we flew again to Legazpi to my parents house. Then after resting for a day, I flew back to Manila to do a gazillion errands. I’m just halfway through it and tonight I decided to give myself sometime to browse the malls and shops..

I also bought myself a netbook yesterday and I was just ecstatically happy coz I had perfect timing! Asus had a back to school promo and I got a whole lot of freebies, cash discount! Really really good value for my money!

One thing, I could say, Manila is as I remember. Crowded, chaotic, hard on the wallet if you stray in malls, and I just love people watching here. Lots of yuppies with bold fashion sense. =) Glad I’m back though I’m missing Phnom Penh too..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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My father just loves to cook and he just pampers us daily with delicious food. I guess that’s why he keeps saying he doesn’t have any right to complain if people living in his house all bear a bit of resemblance to humpback whales.

Thank God, Chinks settled in nicely. She’s in Bicol right now and I’m here in Manila. Flew here last Sunday, did a lot of errands, met friends I really really missed and now I’m doing some shopping errands for Hi-ace. I’m just taking a breather when I saw this net cafe and I thought why not check on my blogs. Tomorrow, I’m flying back to Legazpi and hopefully I could get a day or two of rest without traveling or doing anything..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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• Eat Jolli hotdog and Burger Steak. I never thought I’d miss these, but I’m craving this really badly.
• Go to Divisoria for some fabrics! I’m itching to have a lot of clothes sewn and to try making some bags myself.
• Go to Quiapo for crafting materials.
• Shop like mad.
• Shop more..
• Go malling. I miss Greenbelt, Glorieta and Megamall..{I don’t miss Robinson’s though, I always get lost there lol!}
• Visit my friends, Ihls, Chie, Alphs and see their cutie kiddos.
• Visit my college buddies, and join a fiesta.. I’m quite lucky with the timing, its fiesta in two of my friends town this July so I could join! It’s been like 10 years since I’ve been to a fiesta and I think Chinks would enjoy that..
• Eat all flavors of pizza in Sbarro
• Have some Krispy Kremes or GoNuts Donuts
• Buy a lot of DVD’s
• Have a Coke Float in McDonalds
• Watch a movie in big screen for a change.

Oh, and I just noticed, my list is all about eating and shopping lol! nothing new really..

As it is I have a lot of chores to do too..

• Apply for another copy of my school transcript of records since I lost my copy and I’ll be needing to start school again.
• Get all docs I need to have for school
• Shop for all things Hi-ace needs. He swears he cannot survive without a barong. He had dozens already and he asked me to buy him a couple more sets for work and have it sewn by his favorite tailor in my province. {He’s not that demanding, isn’t he?}
• Take care of some banking things.
• Check my parents car’s insurance, if its current. I should be looking for the cheapest auto insurance so the payments will be more manageable;
• Buy a netbook, a portable DVDRW drive, an external hard disk, a case for my old laptop hard disk so I could still use it.
• Have a check up with my OB-Gyne.
• Have my mole checked and if it’s possible to remove it by laser, remove it then.
• And that’s just the start of it..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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I’m from Bicol, Philippines where not a day goes by without at least one viand cooked with coconut milk. That we like ‘ginataan‘ is an understatement..Thankfully, all things I need to cook my ginataan is readily available here in Phnom Penh.

Here’s one I made a few weeks ago.. Pumpkin, chili leaves, crab and dried fish cooked in creamy coconut milk..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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Because I thought I managed to save our photos from Kep from being lost when my PC was reformatted.. That’s what I thought. I have two hard disks, one containing my OS/Programs and the other one for data. When I reformatted the drive for the OS all things in my data disk was not affected so I was ecstatic that I wouldn’t be losing any important data save for the bookmarks in my browsers.

But last night when I was about to post more photos of Kep, I couldn’t find it! I was ready to tear my hair out when I remembered I didn’t save it to my data disk but on my main disk. I was in a hurry that time coz we were leaving for Siem Reap..

What else can I do? Nada.. I’m just so frustrated..but I’d rather not deal with it so I just decided to get excited.. How does one induce excitement? Easy for me.

Then excited..

I simply thought about our impending one-month vacation to my home province- Albay, Philippines! Yipeee..I really, really miss the place and mostly my parents. We’ll also be taking a lot of side trips so I’m so excited. Chinks is also looking forward to it. She has a lot of ‘pet chickens’ there and she said she’s excited to count them already..

It’ll be a month of catching up with my parents, eating a lot of Bicol foods (laing and bicol express, here I come!), daily swimming or walking near the beach (our place is just a few minutes away from the beach), doing some gardening (err really sitting down on Mama’s outdoor cushions and reading books, while she does the gardening bit), catching up with friends.. Just lazy activities like these with people I really miss makes me really excited..

Mama and Papa has a huge garden.. Keeps them busy and healthy..and us, a place to laze around..

One more month to go…

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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So how come I had been feeling nauseous and anxious since this morning? And no its not an effect of prenatalvitamins or too much caffeine. I guess I had just been deluding myself that I don’t give a damn about who gets to lead my country anymore. The truth is, I am concerned. I am a Filipino, my daughter is a Filipino. No matter how many times I tell myself, I’ve stopped caring already, but I really do care about what happens to my country. So, here I am so tense and anxiously waiting..

I promised myself before I won’t write about politics, because I know next to nothing about it. So I’m not going to talk about personalities here. This is simply about my feelings about the fate of my country.

Today is election day in the Philippines, where Filipinos have the chance to be heard by the ballots that they cast. Do I have faith that this would turn out to be an honest election? I have severe doubts. Politics in the Philippines can be dirty. Automated? I want to believe the voice of the Filipinos will be heard, I want to believe that this will happen. But is that really possible? When everyone wants to be in power, everyone wants a share of the spotlight.

And I think its not just the politicians who are corrupt. Corruption and greed has established a culture of some people waiting for which candidate will give the biggest dole out and selling their votes to them. Of course, those who win the election would want to recoup what they invested, so it turns into a cycle. A vicious cycle of corruption..

Some Pinoys also have this belief that only one person is needed to turn around and give them a better future. Some even have this fanatical faith in some politicians and they go on yakking that they are the only hope of the country. Yes, we need a leader but I think what’s most important is that we do something to help and to do it together.

I think going with what Henry Ford have said will do us a great deal of good..

Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success.

Is there any hope for the Philippines and the Filipinos?  I want to believe that there is indeed hope.

You’ve gotta have hope.  Without hope life is meaningless.  Without hope life is meaning less and less. – author unknown

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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Photo taken from my mom’s fern garden, Albay, Philippines

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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Photo courtesy of my relatives in Bacacay, Albay, Philippines. The sign at the back ‘Pamibi sa Getsemani’ translates to ‘Praying in Gethsemane’

The Philippines has very strong Catholic traditions and the Holy Week is one of the most anticipated events in our country. In most towns there are a lot of religious activities and one of which is the procession. Life-size images statues depicting the last days of Jesus Christ are shown during the week. Our family takes care of the “Agony in the Garden” scene and this image statue has been handed down from several generations of our ancestors already…

You can view more photos of the previous years Holy Week Procession on my photos page.

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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• August 25, 2010 -- Wordless Wednesday 11: Doodles for Mommy (6)
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This is a really fabulous deal since its applicable to all destinations and also on Fun Tours Packages and Hotel Plus bookings.

Cebu Pacific flies to 14 international destinations – Hong Kong and Singapore , Osaka, Incheon, Pusan (via Cebu), Taipei, Macau, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh and Jakarta. It also flies to over 30 domestic destinations.

Hurry and book now! Bookings can be done online, through www.cebupacificair.com or call the reservation hotlines at (02) 7020-888 or (032) 230-8888.

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Everyday from my hometown in Bacacay I would travel to my school in Legazpi City and Mayon Volcano is always in the background, a familiar scenery.  It’s just there, and there are times it gets easy for me to ignore it, but there’s no denying its beauty. And awesome power.

My father used to tell me stories about eruptions in the past when residents near the base of Mayon would know when eruptions are imminent. In times where volcanology is a science at its infancy, warnings and safety products almost unheard of, these residents relied on warnings given by nature. Wells would dry up, the smell of sulfur getting stronger, wild animals coming down from the slopes, all signaling for residents to relocate – the ever subtle Mayon is getting ready to unleash its fury.

Oftentimes Mayon Volcano would erupt subtly. Perhaps that is why its name was taken from the Bicol phrase – “Daragang Magayon” meaning beautiful maiden. It seldom erupts with strong and violent explosions. Just recently, Mayon Volcano woke up again and  went on to display some really subtle, picturesque but dangerous eruption. Now that I’m living in Phnom Penh, I could just content myself with watching this on the news and checking out videos on the net.

Found this clips really so awesome ..

A video shot along Padang, Sto. Domingo, Albay. A small where previous lahar flows from the volcano has totally leveled and left almost like a ghost town..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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