A V Happy Day

Valentine's day will always be a special occasion for me and the husband. Never mind that others say it's only a marketing strategy to get people spend money. For us, we really don't care. Valentine's Day will forever be special in our hearts. Back in college, the UP Feb Fair always landed on the week of Valentine's day. I suppose the Student Council (or tradition) thought that Feb Fairs will be more fun if there's an occasion around it. Looking back, we had wonderful Valentine's day celebrations since our college years. It was one of our much awaited occasions.

And today was no different. It was made very special by Ryan, as always.

Not wanting to get stuck in traffic as tomorrow is a work day, We had lunch reservations instead at Il Rustico Restaurant in Rydges Plaza Hotel. It was my pick, and I chose it because I promised Ryan long, long time ago that I will bring him there one day so he can taste their delectable pizza and pasta. Il Rustico was once a glorious restaurant praised for its authentic Italian servings. But Time Out Magazine had been harsh on them since 2007. Despite the poor reviews, we still gave them a chance. I know they deserve so because I've been there last November when i underwent training, and my dining experience was great.


I didn't expect that the husband would still bother to get me flowers, but he did. On the way to the resto, we passed by Oleander, our trusted florist, and he picked up the flowers he ordered for me. I just stayed in the car and waited for my surprise. Normally, he would have them delivered to my office, but today being a weekend, he opted to pick them up himself and hand them over to me. The bouquet was so lovely I was grinning from ear to ear :D




Afterwards, we went straight to the restaurant to have lunch. Our reservation was at half past twelve, but since we came early (12 noon), we were the first customers for the day. We had the resto to ourselves for a good half an hour before people started coming in. We were supposed to try their salads but stopped ourselves when we were served warm bread and their famous baked garlic for appetizer. I ordered Baby Penne pasta with grilled prawns served in olive oil based cream sauce while the hubby went for the pasta special of the day - Spinach Pasta with asparagus, smoked salmon and cherry tomatoes. It was my first choice but since I'm pregnant, I decided to go for a safer option. We also ordered Capricciosa pizza which we didn't finish because we're stuffed silly so we took the leftovers home for merienda. For dessert, hubby had Tiramisu, which I wasn't able to taste, too because it had coffee liquor in it. I told him he has to take me back there after I give birth!






The food we chose didn't disappoint - they were delectable up to the last bite. I don't know why they were given bad reviews by the magazine.I  suppose it's because compared to other Italian Restos in town, theirs is perhaps the most affordable you could find. Our bill was the same as eating at any family resto here, but food, service and ambiance were way better. It's sad that people here measure the restaurant by its bill, not by its taste.


My happy Vday didn't end there. Being the preggy that I am, I tend to doze off in the afternoon during weekends. When I woke up, this greeted me in the hallway:
I cannot thank the husband enough! He knows I've been wanting to get a bigger LCD TV for the longest time, and now it has finally come true! Last Christmas, I didn't ask for a gift from him because he already gave me an expensive ring on our anniversary. I wasn't expecting a present such as this on Vday. I feel so loved!!

Hon, you've outdone yourself yet again. Thank you so much for making this day special for me! I love you to the moon and back!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Spread the LOVE! :)

Our Macau & HK Family Trip – Day 1

(super delayed post!!)

For the first time ever, my whole family traveled together outside the country. It was a shame my bro-in-law wasn’t able to come with us though. Nonetheless, the trip was fun & exciting!

Day 1: flight to HK then ferry to Macau

We arrived at the Centennial airport for our 7:00 am flight. We were so hungry we made do with coffee and ensaymadas from Goldilocks. While waiting to board, we took a few snaps at the airport.

Thank God we were fed at the aircraft! Breakfast was ok – better than nothing. smooth flight, too. Clear blue skies so we had very minimal turbulence. The little miss enjoyed her first airplane ride.

I got keyed up when I started seeing islands 10 minutes before we landed…I missed HK so much!

After going through the immigration and picking up our pieces of luggage from the conveyor belt, we proceeded to the nearest Travelex to have some currencies exchanged. We also bought our airport express passes, which was a good deal -- thanks to the guy at the counter! We had one way free from the airport to any of its designated stop and unlimited MTR rides on all lines (except for mainland China) for 4 days.  No need to top it up! I just forgot how much we paid for each Octopus card (I kept calling it Oyster card remembering how much MTR was patterned to UK’s Underground), but I remember it was a lot cheaper and economical. 

After getting off at the Central Station in HK Island, we went to the Shun Tak Centre to take the Turbo Jet to take us to Macau. Ferry ride was ok, except for the dizzying part when the ferry’s still docked.

Upon arrival to Macau, we took two taxis to take us to our hotel. Hotel Beverley was a budget hotel, but their rooms were pretty big. For the price we paid for the rooms inclusive of breakfast, it was quite a steal! More importantly, it was a walking distance to Sao Paolo, which was great because we didn’t have to take any shuttle or transpo to get there.

All throughout our trip, I was in charge of the arrangements and the map reading. While we were trying to find a place to dine in on the way to Sao Paolo, we stumbled upon good ‘ole Mc Donald's. Since we arrived in HK, my niece was pointing at every Mc Donald's outlet her eyes laid on so we gave in to her request and munched away happily at her place to be.

A lot of people could barely speak English in Macau so it was quite a challenge to ask for simple directions. We tried to seek help in finding the road that leads to Sao Paolo and Senado Square, but none of the staff of Mc Donald's understood what I meant. It was funny though because when we walked further down the road of where McDonald's was, we finally found what we were looking for. Sheesh! Good thing I trusted my instincts!

After walking around and checking out the sights, we walked a little bit more until we found ourselves in a bus stop. I asked the inspector who was stationed in the bus stop for the bus number we needed to hop on to reach the Venetian Hotel. Because of his difficulty communicating with me, he just led us to the nearby bus stop and asked the driver to drop us at our destination. Bless him for being very nice!

As soon as we got to the hotel, we wandered around the premises and later on had dinner at their food court. We had noodles, of course! I just had to share with hubby as I didn't have any appetite.

After tiring ourselves from all the walking, we dragged ourselves to the shuttle depot, rode the complimentary shuttle to the pier and took another short bus ride to return to our hotel. My sisters and i took some pictures outside the hotel before we retired for the night.

That concludes our day 1 trip recap. Be back for more of our day 2, 3 & 4 stories! Please bear with me as I sort through more than 1,500 photos :)

The "Hers" Desk

when we move to our new flat next month, i am going to invest on this:


A new workstation for me :)
Yes, after careful thought, I decided it’s high time I get a new workstation for myself. I am having difficulties using our current one - it’s too small, I hate the pull out drawer for the keyboard & the drawers look rickety. Plus the chair we are using isn’t comfy. It’s giving me unwanted backaches!

This set is reasonably priced and I like that it looks so clean. Now I can finally have a special place for Amanda, my Freecom external HD, hubby’s 1 terrabyte external HD, external speakers and other stationery that come in handy. I just have to get a new Mighty Mouse as it had already conked out several times despite the change in batteries.

I hope this fits the corner where I intend to position it. The week after next, we will be stopping by the building to work on the measurements before we order any additional furniture that we will be purchasing.

Wondering where Ryan would be doing his work? In our living room :) He just assembled a new PC which he’ll use as an entertainment PC for downloads and other what have you’s. He got himself a wireless keyboard & mouse that he can use once the we get the coffee table as his desk. And his screen -- the 32” LCD TV.

Pregnancy Updates

On Wednesday last week, I had my nuchal translucency screening at the Fetal Medicine Center in Dubai Healthcare City. It was a test to find out the risk of the baby having down syndrome. All in all, it was a pretty easy procedure. The sonographer just measured the fluid behind baby’s neck and checked whether it has a nasal bone. They also took a couple of vials of blood from me, and both test results were merged to come up with a final result. Thank heavens the results came out normal! The official results in paper came in last Monday afternoon and my risk was in a ratio of 1:16905.

I’ve had screening for like 5 times already since I conceived, and this most recent one is my favorite of all. Know why? Because I got to find out the gender of the baby. The sonographer told me that it’s 90% accurate, but I already had the same feeling the moment I learned I was expecting.

Although Ryan wasn’t with me during the screening as he had to be at work, he didn’t miss much because the entire 7-minute sonogram was saved in a DVD. As soon as we got home, the Dad-to-be eagerly watched the video and was so happy to see that baby is doing fine.

So here’s the first video of our little angel. Let me know what you think about the baby’s gender, alright?

Lunching In

Since I found out I’m expecting, I’ve become very conscious of the food that I ingest and fluids that I intake. I do away with prohibited food – anything raw, soft cheeses, shellfish, deli, sweets & other junk food. I do my level best to eat cereals in the morning with pasteurized milk for a good dose of calcium. I also monitor my intake of fluids: at least a liter & a half of water a day and a glass of pasteurized orange juice. On weekends,I ask the hubby to squeeze oranges for me ‘cos I just love it’s natural flavor!

I was told by my brother-in-law to avoid eating out as much as possible. He suggested that I should only eat home-cooked dishes to make sure that the food I eat was prepared properly. So when we got back to Dubai, hubby & I made extra effort to prepare healthy dishes to pack for lunch. And today, these are what I had in my lunch box:



That’s Beef Broccoli (sans the oyster sauce) & a cupful of Jasmine rice. To keep the broccoli’s flavor, I steamed it separately. For snacks, I brought a medium sized navel orange and a Kellog’s Rice & Wheat Cereal Bar with yoghurt flavor topping. Since I get frequent hunger pangs at work, I stocked up on Nestle Fitness Whole Grain Cereals with Fruits and a bottle of full cream pasteurized milk in our pantry. As our company promotes wellness to its staff, we have lots of fruits like granny smith, fuji apples & bananas which we can grab anytime we like so I get a good dose of fruity goodness everyday.

It is a challenge though when hunger strikes you when you’re on your way home. Our travel time is around 45 minutes each day so by the time the clock hits 5:45 pm, my stomach grumbles ever so loudly. I haven’t found a solution to this yet (other than stopping at the nearest fast food & grab a quick bite) so if you have any suggestions, they’re more than welcome.