chewy brownies..

Made brownies today. Sorry about the pictures. I take really bad ones. But this recipe really is a winner. Enjoy baking :)

You will need:

350 mg Dutsche semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup of butter

3 eggs

1-1/4 cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla

nuts (optional)

Melt together butter and half of the semi-sweet chocolate chips in super low heat. Add in 3 eggs, flour and sugar. Mix well. Add the rest of the chocolate chips, vanilla and nuts. Place in a lined 7 x 10 rectangular baking pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

My Favorite Things - St. Ives Lotion

Was thinking of blog ideas and came up with wanting to share my favorite things, kinda like one of Oprah's segments in her show.

So for my first entry I would like to share my love for this St. Ives Cucumber-Melon Lotion. Coz you see, I am not blessed with the softest skin so everytime I feel my skin are tight and dry, I make it a point to dab on lotion and this lotion -- gosh -- it just spells F-R-E-S-H-N-E-S-S.

Also, its one of those lotions where it does not leave a greasy feel. The moment you feel youve scrubbed and spread just enough lotion, it dries up but still leaves your hand feeling soft.

This lotion just feels and smells ohhhhh soooo heavenly. I just love it.

photohunt - sports

I hope Im right when I thought of this as a sport. Anyways, this photo was taken at the entrance gates of Grand Circuit Raceway at the Tomorrowland Park Area at Tokyo Disneyland. This was actually one of the rides I marked when I was making our itinerary (along with Haunted Mansion) - turns out it was closed for the day for renovations. Oh well!

remembering tommy

Oh my gosh! I'm so back from whatever limbo I've been in. With what actually were two months of very rich kwentos going on in my life, became the most quiet of all.

Sometimes, words just aint enough to express what you truly feel.d


Iniweyz, one of my missed kwentos was that my nephew passed away because of dengue while we were still away. All was so sudden. My dear nephew suffere and gone because of the complications of dengue in just one week. I was waiting for my sister every minute to YM me details of his condition and experienced calling from a payphone at a train station to send words of love when he was in a coma - like a movie I swear - wish it was!! Sooo hard!!

Crying alone in an environment who does not share the same amount of grief as a family would was very very hard. They shared but they can only go as far as saying condolence - just not as much as you think a family would. You know what I mean. Its just hard to keep your smiling face to friends when just moments ago, you were reminiscing on past times with the departed.

I tried to write about this two days after my nephew passed away but I just cant go on so I stopped. I wrote:

"...two days ago, I lost my dear nephew to dengue. He passed away at the tender age of 17. This is a first to me - death of a family. No words can describe the grief and the longingness that I feel right now. Memories coming back one after the other with only tears to combat it with..."

So hard. Death is such the most painful.

To you Tom, I know you are in a much better place now but the whole family is going to miss you soooooooooo much! We love you dearly.

turning japanese - twin liner bus

looks more like a train to me ;p

turning japanese - parking area for bikes

One of the things that amazes me most as I experience life here in Japan is their use of bikes. Bikes here are used by everybody --- to the office goers, stay-at-home moms, kids, and of course those health buffs. Bikes also are registered in city halls - and I mean complete with certifications and all that paper proofs that it belongs to you.

From where I grew up, bikes are used only for recreation or for a morning or late night exercise, but here its like its equivalent to a car. I can see beautiful petite Japanese woman (oops! too much admiration..hehehe) wearing skirts, no wait, "mini"skirts to go to work; and sometimes guys in their coat and ties as well.

And what made me think that bikes REALLY are so much a part of Japanese' daily life. They have parking areas for bikes as well.

These parking areas are situated near train stations so people who uses the train to go to work leave their bikes there. And after work and train travel again back, they can just hop in to their bikes and head on home, since there is no tricycle that could take them to short distances like in ours ;p

orange bike is hubby's

Its gonna cost you though. When we left hubby's bike in the parking area and have been gone for 6 hours, it cost us 100 yen (50 pesos approx.). They have this vendo look-a-like machine (which i forgot to take a picture of) that computes how much you are supposed to pay by just keying in the parking lot number. And you can't cheat and just pull out your bike without paying the fee. It locks your bike until the machines says you've paid (cool hi-tech Japanese). Not bad eh? considering you have been super stressed from work and quite sleepy on the train ride - a bike ride can be quite invigorating.

photohunt - entertainment

As usual, always late with the posting of the photohunt.

Last Saturday's theme is entertainment. Picture showing my daughter popping bubble wraps bringing entertainment to an otherwise boring day.