Mina and Everyone's Ruined Vacation (aka The Trip to the North)

 

The main reason why I rushed back to Manila was because of the long weekend and pre-birthday plans my family had. Despite of the few unfinished business I left back at Legazpi, which I don't want to think about right now, I set my flight the day before the start of the long weekend. I was ecstatic because (1) I was stuck in a routine schedule back at the province for almost a year and (2) a break from all the maturity issues is what I really needed. My grandparents were a little worried about my flight - they always are. That time though, a storm is currently wrecking havoc in the north part of the country, and you can imagine what the reactions of extremely worried grandparents are. It was ridiculous and cute at the same time since we live in the south, but they always say, "You'll never know".

Mina was the name of the storm and she ruined everyone's long weekend. People were looking forward to the much needed rest and family time they have planned since the announcement. We were one of the hopeful ones, waiting for the sun to at least peek out. He never did. What the heck, we still headed for Baguio. It was rainy and gloomy and foggy and wet and extremely cold.

We stayed at this transient condo-house that was pretty decent (and a colorful one too). We weren't able to do much on the first day since the rain and fog terrorized the place. I sat all day at the living room and played Pottermore. Like any other day, I know. Around 5pm the power went out and voila! instant candle light dinner! Breakfast for dinner, my mother's terrific idea. We went to the mall earlier for lunch and to do some grocery shopping, so we had food with us. It was freezing cold so my mom, sister and I pulled the bed together and huddled in a tight cuddling group. Teehee!

We were all bored. Forgive us. 

Soon-ish.

Long weekend post coming soon.

I'm working on my mom's Mac right now and it doesn't have Photoshop. Since I'm not a Mac person, I don't know how to install the program properly (*wink*wink) without the help of my uncle. I keep on forgetting to ask him. So, my photos have to wait for a while before you can see them. The set does need a bit of editing since I stupidly set the color mode to Soft and forgot to lower down the ISO from 1600. It made everyone look pale. 

I finally have something to post under the "Adventures" / "Travel" tag. 

Making Things

In today's edition of What Have You Done Today?, I will talk about how my first try in making a guacamole dip failed and how this new layout came about. Dun dun dun...

I tweeted a few weeks ago about our abundance of Avocados at home. My lola came home from the market one day with bags of Avocados. She says she's craving for an Avocado-Banana salad. A few days after, our Avocado tree in our backyard garden finally started bearing fruits. So there. I'm sick of eating the salad over and over again. Though the salad is scrumptious, I can't help but think what are the other things you could make with Avocados. I thought of one thing: Guacamole dip.

I've always wanted to know what a Guacamole dip taste like. I saw one episode of 90210 during one boring afternoon. The barkada went to Mexico for spring break and this chick, Silver, gorged on her nachos and guacamole dip while making sex sounds. Was it that good? (Yes, I know she was doing the sounds on purpose). Haha. Forever the curious kid, I googled a decent recipe and stumbled upon this one from SimplyRecipes. Without knowing what it tastes like, I searched through our kitchen for the ingredients and started to do the dip business.

It tasted like salsa. The Avocado kind of acted as the tomato sauce and it's distinct flavor didn't really stand out. Haha. I didn't follow the right proportions anyway. I also improvised almost half of the ingredients. I squeezed about 3 medium-sized Calamansi into the mixture and put too much tomatoes and onions. I also didn't have proper nacho chips.

This is the second time I've done this. Last year, I tried making Ddukbokki and it tasted like crap. I also didn't know what the Korean dish actually tastes like so I can't compare it with anything. Even if I had something for comparison, I'm pretty sure the one I cooked will still taste like crap. I assumed Dduk (rice cake) is like a palitaw, so I tried making my own Dduk. It was gross.

You might have noticed the new layout...

Of Packages and Today's Events

Today is a pretty wicked day, thanks to these two wonderful packages I got from the courier. I know these are the type of things that should go into Ang Kartero (which, by the way, I haven't updated for a while). I still had half of my allowance in my account and thought, what the hell, I'll treat myself for enduring 6 months of the professional world. First one is from Fikafikafika which is owned by the lovely Liarnie and the latter is the order I got from Human Heart Nature.

The packaging is amazing. Never have I opened such a wondrous parcel (no offense to my mailpals, but this one tops it all). I want to re-seal the whole thing and open it up again just to feel that burst of something. I got the July-August issue of Frankie magazine from the shop, as well as a subway map postcard set. Usually with online sellers nowadays, it's all straight-up business talk, but it was such a joy talking to Liarnie. She's a fellow snail mail enthusiast and we exchanged a few e-mails about our frustrations about our local postcards. If only more people still supported the snail mail business...

Here is Celine enjoying her The Little Prince notebook that was included as a freebie. I mentioned to Liarnie that my little cousin wanted one of those Le Petit Prince set of notebooks; I asked her if she could inform me when she has stocks of them again. But now, see, she gave her one as a freebie!

You could go to Fikafikafika.com and see what adorable things Liarnie has for you. Also, as far as I know, she's one of the few people (or the only one, I think) who sells Frankie locally. So if you're a fan of the Aussie  magazine, check her shop out.

And now, on to today's edition of "What Have You Done Today?"