Tuesday, July 29, 2008

I did not know it's called plantains!!!

I prepared arroz ala cubana (naks, feeling pro!) for my husband today. I missed cooking; he missed eating (real food). He told me that it’s delicious and that it’s far better than his favourite if not for the missing “free soup” offered by the food place where he eats it.

I thought I’d write about it because since I stopped working, it was only today that I did not break my promise that I will serve good food at the table. Hahaha. I’m guessing that my friends are not surprised.

I’m doing some recipe search and just now, I found out that saba is plantains in English. I did not know that!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

0.5 hp is not enough...

Before my husband and I got married, I already had several day dreaming sessions of sleeping in an airconditioned room. I would normally request for a morning schedule when the summer time comes so that I am inside the airconditioned office when the sun is high. Not all boarding houses have very good ventilation, especially if you only pay Php1,200 per month.

When I finally got hold of the marriage certificate that says on it, “live together in a house, just the two of you” (you also find it funny? I think it is.), I tried to convince (or coerce, just ask him which word is more appropriate) my husband to get an aircon unit. We did not have cash to buy one but I was ready with the plastic card that swipes smoothly and commands the cashier to say “you may take home your appliance” after you sign a piece of paper. We asked around and we searched online for information as to what size or power rating we should get for the size of room that we have. We were renting an apartment in Quezon City then. It was a small room, so we decided to get a .5hp.

I was so happy. I did not have problems even if I was at home during the time of the day when global warming is at it’s peak. I did not smell bad in the morning. It was fantastic.

When we moved to our house last April, we started smelling the familiar smell that we smelled in Cubao every morning before we finally owned an aircon. The .5hp aircon does not have enough power to give us the same comforable sleep anymore. The room is almost twice the size of the apartment.

Things that I learned...

1. When you make good and right buying decisions, you save money.
2. When you made a “not so right” buying decision, you also save money (somehow, by finding ways to justify the error. hahahaha).

Note1: The house we bought has a lot of big windows. It’s not too hot and we
don’t need an aircon badly (at least during the rainy season).

Note2: We saved almost a thousand pesos from our electric bill when we stopped
using the aircon (not because we don’t want to use it but because it
can’t make the room cool enough.)

See, even after we realized it was not the best decision, we still found out a lot of good things from that experience.

Next time, we’ll be more careful. We plan to sell the unit and hopefully save enough for a bigger aircon before the next summer arrives.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

maybe I should start writing about...

Should I start writing about my new career... the full-time-mom's career (hehehehe)? Or the changes in my activities as a member of the "world's best mom society" (beat that!!!)? Or maybe the amazing progresses I discover each day as I watch my baby grow? Or the challenges of financial planning (in layman's term, budgeting and the resounding "RESOURCES LOW!!" alarm)?

Why not? I don't have a lot of things to do anyway... Not busy taking care of my baby boy (now that he's learned some 4 or 5 tricks and counting). Not busy with cleaning the house. Not busy with preparing our food. Not busy with fixing the bed every morning. Not at all busy washing the clothes (this only takes one whole day to do... hhehehe). Not busy making our budget fit our needs (huh!!!! this one is tough!). Not a lot, right? I figured I should have enough time to write and read. Agree?

Despite my "not at all busy" days, I wish to make this spot, my spot. A place where I can pour everything... those that I want to flush out of my system, and those that I wish to contribute to yours (one way or another).