Claire Bear's Thoughts

I love prawns!!!

Yesterday, I was craving to eat one of my favorite dish which is batter-coated prawns or more know as camaron rebosado. And then I remembered I have prawns in our fridge so I hurriedly searched the net for the camaron rebosado recipe and pleaded Dennis that we pass by the grocery store so I could purchase the rest of the ingredients which are almost all baking aids.

I just love to cook and my biggest fan is my husband. Whatever I cook and serve on the table, maskin kabalo ko na walay lami, he would always say "Lamia Lab oy!"

Now, this would be my first attempt in cooking camaron rebosado but the procedures are real easy so I didn't really have a hard time preparing it. And this time, I can now conclude that the best marinating ingredients for fried food are only salt, pepper, vetsin and calamansi juice. For just about 30 minutes only since the calamansi juice is real strong.

In fairness to me, my camaron rebosado looked like it came from the restaurant! ^_^ I so love myself...

Yesterday, before heading home from our Sunday family day, we passed by the new Merco at Cabaguio Avenue. I invited Dennis to grab a bite first before going home since we haven't had our lunch yet.

Upon entering, we noticed that they used a reefer van for this branch which they just fully painted in white so it looked really clean. And they installed these red lamps above the tables which looked very attractive against the white walls. It was a tiny diner but several families were coming in and out so I guess, Merco is a part of their lives just like it has been with mine.

As a kid, I could still remember that my parents would bring me and my siblings here every chance they get to treat us with pizza and ice cream. Then, feeling super rich na kami when we dine at Merco. It has been one of Davao's best for many decades now and even until present, it has never ceased to satisfy Davaoenos. Many still comes back for more of their pizza, ice cream shakes, sandwiches and lots more. What I love most here though and I don't think I'd stop loving it, is their German Hotdog which, despite the fact that it's so simply prepared, but is so juicy and tasty. And I love it best with their tomato catsup on it (dunno what brand it is though.)

Yesterday, after enjoying our family-sized Four Seasons Pizza, German Hotdog, and Strawberry and Mango Ice Cream Shakes, I shared to Dennis and Pia my childhood memories of this place and how it became part of my family. And now, I'd still like it to be part of ours.

Last Friday, July 19, was Fojie's despidida party and we agreed that they'd sleep at the house afterwards and we'd watch Prom Night. Rey decided to come along as well. So after getting drunk at Light Repast, we headed first to Star Mart's Coffee Plus to get some hot coffee and by 2:30 AM, we went home.

I grew up in the province and at a time where in our municipality (Maniki, Kapalong), the trisikad has not been even discovered yet, thus people has to walk wherever they want to go. Then, my favorite playmate was my Manong Raddy (my older brother), and I was kinda boyish then so wherever he'd go, I'd kept following him. What we most love doing together was catching huge frogs in our neighbor's pond...we'd let go of the frogs though.

I have to say we were lucky as kids cause we got to play all kinds of games which kids of these days no longer do (I don't think they even know how to play those kinds of games.) Our favorites were bulan-bulanay, dakpanay (habulan), taguanay (taguan), patintero, piko, holenay (marbles), tumbang preso, taguanay tukog sa yuta, palupad tabanog (kites), and syempre, playing shatong or syatong (chato in Tagalog).

This blog is all about how to play what I really miss playing....shatong!

Number of players: 2 teams with at least two players but you can play it as singles as well

Equipments:

* lots of open space (land) so you can dig an elongated shallow hole

* 1 long stick (about a foot and a half long and at least half an inch in diameter)

* 1 short stick (about 5 inches long and at least half an inch in diameter)

Mechanics:

THE CHANCE OF THE OPPONENT TO PLAY BASE. At the start of the game the base player places the short stick horizontally across the hole and position the long stick in the middle of the short stick and hits the latter as strong as he/she can to the direction of the opponent. If the opponent is able to catch the short stick, the base player loses the chance to advance further with the game and give the base to the former.If the opponent is unable to catch the flying short stick, he/she then collects the short stick and positions himself/herself to where it landed and throw it to the long stick placed horizontally on the hole. Hitting the long stick will give the opponent the chance to play the base.

MAKING A SCORE. If the opponent unable to get the two chances: catching the short stick and hitting the long stick, the base player then advances to the next stage of the game. The short stick is placed across the hole. The long stick dug in the hole positioned at the center of the short stick and hit the latter towards the opponent. The opponent gets the chance to play the base if he is able to catch the flying short stick. If not the opponent collects and positions himself/herself where the short stick landed and throw it to the base player. The base player then hits the short stick. The count starts measuring the distance where the short stick landed using the long stick if it is hit single, if double the short stick is used for the measurement. Hitting the short stick triple counts double the measurement. If the short stick landed near the hole and could not measure one count of the long stick, the opponent gets the chance to play the base.

THE CHANCE TO MAKE MORE SCORES. Advancing the game to another stage, the short stick is placed on the hole in slant position. The base player hits the tip of the short stick making it fly up on the air then hit it again to the direction of the opponent. The higher the short stick flies, the better the chance to hit it double or triple. The opponent will get the chance to play the base if he is able to catch the flying short stick. If not the count measuring the distance where the short stick landed is instituted using the principle of single, double, triple hit. If the short stick landed near the hole and could not measure one count of the long stick, the opponent gets the chance to play the base.

THE PUNISHMENT: While holding the sticks (the short and the long) one in each hand, winner will bat the shorter stick as far as he/she can. Loser then will shout SHAAATONG.... while running from the base to where the stick landed. If the loser takes a breath before reaching the destination then back to the base again.

DETERMINING THE WINNER. The sum of the measured distance in advance stage of the game determines the winner. The player who gets the least score will get the chance to enhance his/her vocal chords shouting shaaaaaaaaaaaaaatoooooooooooooooooooong.

One of these days, I'll surely teach Pia how to play this game so she'd experience how enjoyable it is.

A friend e-mailed this to me just this morning and I liked it a lot and so I am posting it here to share to those who can relate....

To All of Us Who Were Born in the 1950's, 60's and 70's

First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us. While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, ate isaw, and didn't worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at wala pang gulong.We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads, sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats, or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na).

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711 (minsan straight from the faucet or poso). We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contracted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, drank raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank sofdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we weren't sick or overweight kasi nga...

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso, habulan at taguan. No one was able to reach us all day (di uso ang cellphone, walang beepers). And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street, only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (sewage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPODs, no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters... WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words... masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo... ang sasabihin sa iyo... beh buti nga !We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. We were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.We had to live with homemade guns gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband, sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan... pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.

We made up games with sticks (syatong), and cans (tumbang preso) and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay. Paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala yang mga childhood depression at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tignan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO's, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who've had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.

And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn't it?!

PS - The big letters are because your eyes may not be able to read this if they were typed any smaller (at your age).

Yesterday was payday so we decided to treat ourselves with some good food and we chose to eat at Gerry's Grill. I was with Aileen, Fojie, Ben, Darryl and Lyzel. It's my only second time to eat here so I'm still not a master as to which dishes are best.

We ordered Inihaw na Pusit, Kalderetang Baka, Sizzling Sisig and Tahong Ala Pobre at first but when the food was served, we concluded it ain't enough so we ordered an additional Kinilaw and Adobo Shreds. Good thing I haven't tried all these yet. For my beverage, I ordered Sago and Gulaman which was very refreshing.

The restaurant really has unique touches to their dishes, making a really simple dish into something different. But I would also have to say it's kinda expensive for me and in little servings. But I was amazed seeing schoolers eating their lunch there because it meant they could afford eating there. How large are their allowances, anyway? I can still remember when I was in college, my mom would just give me 400 buck as my weekly allowance and definitely I wouldn't be able to afford eating at Gerry's with that much of amount only. Ang swerte ng mga kids ngayon...as in bonggang-bongga!! Oh well, it's their parent's problem and not mine....^_^

In fairness, all the food tasted great. I particularly liked the adobo shreds, real crunchy and tasty and of course, my sago and gulaman. Well, as to my recommendation, they have lots of good food. Just don't go there without enough money in your wallet.

"Take a trip down the aisle you'll never forget."

I went to see this movie yesterday and I really didn't have any great expectations on it but just as I heard the first song from Sophie, I fell in love with it right away and totally left me wanting to go to Greece!

Ever heard of Rainbow Brite? ^_^

Mattel's Rainbow Brite is a very popular cartoon show from the 80's. Then, like the Stawberry Shortcake dolls, Rainbow Brite dolls were heavily marketed in various sizes and forms. Its market also included books, games, videos, furniture, and home accessories.

Rainbow Brite and her friends have these pets called "sprites." Each sprite has a different color.

Now what is this blog about?

The picture attached is my stuffed red sprite given to me by my dad when I finished Grade 1. That was on year 1987. Every after recognition, my dad used to bring me to the mall and award me with a toy. That time, at the age 8, I chose Romeo, the red sprite which is Red Butler's pet in the Rainbow Brite show.

Now, I'm already 29 years old which makes my spite more than 2 decades old. I just realized this recently. You see, I kept my toy in a box for so long and just last month, I was digging on my old stuff and found my sprite. I had it cleaned and gave it to Pia. It made me really happy that I was able to pass on to Pia something from my childhood. I told Pia how old my toy was and that she should also take care of it the way I did. Who knows, she would also might be able to pass it on to her child? (I wonder how it'd look like by that time???) ^_^

We were traversing KM 1359 of Malungon road towards Sarangani Province on July 10, 2008 at around 8:30 AM, when suddenly, the Lancer's clutch, despite the persistent attempts of my boss, wouldn't engage. If he wouldn't step on the brakes, the car would move backwards and the situation was really panicky since we were at a steep hill at that time and was actually an accident prone area. And did I mention we were actually stuck on a winding road? OMG!

My boss immediately called his wife who owns the car and asked what could possibly be wrong with her car. She called some mechanic contacts and let them talk to my boss for the symptoms. My boss also tried calling Roadwatch but to his dismay, since out of Davao rescues aren't free, he was quoted a large Php 5,000.00 worth for towing only! Whew! The solution was his wife will be bringing some mechanics who bought the possible spare parts that'll be replaced. And so, we will have to wait for almost 2 hours for them.

Huge trucks ad buses were passing us every minute and regardless that it was a blind curve, it didn't seem to matter to the truck and bus drivers because they were still on high speed. There was this one bus who was in full speed and was stupidly trying to overtake another bus on that curve and it was actually headed towards us. I thought I'd die at that instant cause I was on the passenger seat and the bus was getting really close to our car. Luckily, I'm still writing this blog.

Apparently, the waiting took so long and Aileen and I were getting bored and hot. At last, Ma'am Emmy arrived with the mechanics but then again, according to them, it might take 4 hours to repair the car. We couldn't just leave Ma'am Emmy out there so we waited until the car gets fixed. The waiting was terrible! Just imagine we were amidst dusty bushes and trees (more like a dusty jungle) and nowhere to sit. We couldn't sit in the car cause it was intensely hot that time already. And worse, I was about to pee in my pants. So what I did was borrowed Aileen's sweaters, covered myself with it and peed at the bushes. ^_^ Another thing that contributed to our discomfort was there was this group of bees that kept on flying around us and irritatingly buzzing near my ears. And there were these black ants also who chose to attack the rock I was sitting on leaving me tiringly standing while waiting.

It was just morning and there were so much bad luck already...I wonder if Aileen's the jinx??? Peace Ai!

At around 2:30 PM, finally the car got fixed. Kudos to the mechanics who, with limited tools and exposure to the intense heat of the sun, disassembled the machine, replaced the clutch plate and assembled it back to a better condition.

Finally, we are again on our way to Sarangani Province. Luckily (at last), the client suggested that we take the rest of the day to relax so that we'd have clear heads the following day.

July 4, 2008 (Friday) - I had a petty quarrel with Dennis and I wanted to get even (mean me!) and since my officemates were supportive of my drama, 4 of my girls joined me for the night. It was some night!!! I totally had a blast!!!

First, we had a company bash at Marina Tuna and there were so much food and all were fresh seafood..but of course, Marina Tuna serves the best seafood in town. Bossing ordered Sinigang na Mata ng Tuna, Sizzling Swordfish, Calderetang Swordfish, Crispy Buntot, Inihaw na Pork Ribs, and Steamed Pompano. Whew! I got so full so I stood up from my chair and checked out their aquariums of sharks, lobsters, and clown fishes. Unepectedly, while I was enjoying their aquariums, Mayor Duterte arrived at the restaurant and occupied the table just right beside me. I was kind of starstucked since it was my first time to see him in person, real close that is. I did not even manage to greet him a good evening. Silly me.

Right after dinner, after some debate on where to go next, Fojie, Aileen, Paula and Reynosa stayed to be with me and we ended up at Fagioli... a cafe from GenSan. What I love most about this cafe is their comfort room, I could stay in it forever with different scented hand soaps and lotion to moisturize your washed hands with. And it smells real good with poppouri scents filling the place. We ordered Mango Cake, Decadent Choco and Coffee Crunch for dessert and Mocha Fagiogrinata and Cookies and Cream Fagiofrappe to go with it. Again, all were sinfully delicious!! We spent our time there laughing while trying to decide where to go next. Just sitting there and laughing took my blues away already. My girls are just as silly as me.



Later, around 10:30, we decided to go home since raindrops are starting to fall but since Paula has to go to a convenience store first, we headed towards Damosa Gateway to look for one. And then, we passed by this resto where there are 2 gay standup comedians singing...Just by looking at them from outside seemed so much fun so we decided to hang out. Indeed, it was so much fun and luckily, in one table someone was celebrating his birthday and decided to pay for our orders!! Such luck!!! Daniella and Mika just made our night, they even invited us to sing with them on stage, our chance to feel just like singers. We stayed until 2 AM. We will definitely go back to that place.

When we went out, the rain heavily poured so we were stock right outside Light Repast (the name of the bar by the way), and since it's just fronting MCDonald's, we ran towards McDo, ordered some hot choco and passed the rest of the night there just talking and talking and talking. We were already sleepy but we just kept on talking. At 5:30 AM, we decided to head home to get some sleep.

Thanks Paula, Fojie, Aileen and Rey for keeping me company in my moments of drama and for making me laugh. Lab you guys.

Thursday, July 3rd - - After a heavy lunch in the office, we headed towards Tata Benito's a Whole Latte Love Coffee Club to try what they have to offer. I've been passing this place ever since it opened but never got to try it and so I talked my officemates into tyring it with me. It's actually walking distance from our workstation, nevertheless, due to the intense heat of Mr. Sun, we hopped in a jeepney.

Monday, June 30th - - My good friend, Ate Doris, called me just before lunch time and asked if I'm free to eat lunch with her. It's been quite awhile since our last lunch date so I said sure. When I got down from the office, she was busily transferring something from her X-Trail's backseat to the compartment. And just then, I remembered she just had a new baby girl, three weeks ago to be precise, so I asked her, "So who's watching over baby Nikki now?" And she simply said, "Andyan sya o, sa harap."

So I peeked on the passenger seat and sure thing, Nikki was there, all cuddled up in her baby basket soundly asleep. I just couldn't help but laugh. Nikki is just less-a-month old and she's already, in my own words, "laagan!" Such a cutie that baby...

After some discussion on where to eat, we ended up choosing Red Moon. It'd be our second time in this place.

That day, we were the only customer in Red Moon. It seems lately, F. Torres is not at all crowded during lunch time so we didn't have any trouble looking for a parking space. We settled in our huge black couches and trying to decide what to have. I opted to order Beef Rice and Ate Doris had Pork Asado Rice. We also ordered Black Gulaman for dessert. As usual, the waiting ain't that long and so we digged on our bowls right away not using the provided plates anymore.

The rice bowls were nicely and invitingly plated. You can see for yourself with the pictures provided.

The Beef Rice was really delicious with lots of spices in it. I tried Ate Doris' Pork Asado as well and it was equally delightful. It has broccoli in it also. I'd say I recommend both dishes. We ended our meal sharing a glass of black gulaman. I liked it also since it's not like other black gulamans that tastes like medicine.

We enjoyed our meals while chatting about funny stressing moments in taking care of babies. A good meal is always more enjoyable when shared while having good conversations.