My Voting Philosophy

Voting has always been quick and easy in my precinct. I don't remember experiencing a time when queues are long and disorganized.

I suppose it also helps that I already knew who to vote for. I take these things seriously, as a person who firmly believes that education must be this country's number one priority. If we want to kick the corrupt monkeys out of the system, everyone must be educated. Everyone must learn to vote wisely.

As for the rest of my philosophy:

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Mother's Day at Bono Tei

I had been thinking of a mother's day anecdote for a few weeks now but it's a shame that I've run out of time (need to do a bit more research before elections). Anyway, we opted to have dinner at Bono Tei in BF Parañaque. I swear, whenever we pass by this place, the parking is always packed! So we were lucky enough to have come at a lean hour (the guests came in droves as soon as we were seated).

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Tokyo Tempura

Met up with yet another one of my former students today. He was a member of the so-called "Gokusen Class" back when I was handling them. For those of you who are not familiar with the anime, Gokusen was about this teacher in an exclusive school, who was assigned to a class of delinquent boys. That was how I would describe the section of Mickey Wieneke. Mickey, though, was probably one of the rarest students who would be in class 15 minutes before I arrived (and to think I'd always be 15 minutes early back then), so he always got a bonus point for it.

Fast forward several years later, and he is now in this ebi tempura business:

Tokyo Tempura was actually a spin-off of his dad's business Jap-OK! Instead of a full-blown restaurant, however, the concept is quite similar to those shomayans (xiu mai food carts) you see in malls and MRT/LRT stations.

When he first posted about this business in Facebook some time back, the locations of his stalls were in Quezon City. Very far. Thank goodness he expanded!

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Homemade Cold Busters

For some reason, me and a few of my friends picked up this strange sore throat/colds/fever combo in the last week. Must be the weather. In any case, here are a few preventive and curative measures you can prepare at home.

If you're experiencing the onset of colds (I woke up with a really itchy throat and the next day, I began to experience postnasal drip), you can combine 1 teaspoon honey and 1/4th teaspoon cinnamon and take it.

For best results, use organic raw honey. And this is not recommended for children below the age of 2.

For prevention, I took a cue from my friend Imee Ramos Garcia.

She posted about this "vitamin water" on Facebook and I tried it immediately (even though it's more like a cure than prevention in my case). My concoction is a little different from hers, though.

I sliced strawberries, lemon, lime and cucumber and dropped them into two pitchers of water. I then added mint and coco sugar. Just a bit. I still wanted my water to taste like water and just with a little hint of flavor.

Let these fruits set for 2 hours before drinking. Consume within 24 hours. She was absolutely right about it being refreshing and not overpowering like some powdered orange juice.

The drink is cold but I'm actually feeling a bit of improvement. I don't have the sniffles anymore.

But gosh this weather! Like my cousin (make-up artist Rae) said, it's like a Katy Perry song: cannot decide if it's gonna be hot or cold.

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The Red Velvet Experiments

As requested by a few of my readers, I would like to share the recipe of my red velvet experiments. Actually...the pancakes, the makeshift cake and the cupcakes all came from the same batter. Unfortunately, not all of them met expectations.

First, the disclaimer: I am not a baker and I know baking requires precision. I'm the kind of person who would just estimate the amount of ingredients to use depending on my taste.

Second: This experiment came about because I hate chocolate cake but LOVE red velvet, which is basically a kind of chocolate cake. I had looked up various recipes to find out what makes it different and...well, apparently, it has vinegar.

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