flight of ideas

(Matagal-tagal na ‘to sa drafts folder ko…kailangan na i-evict! )

The first restaurant we visited for the Davao Food Appreciation Tour was Tadakuma Japanese Restaurant.

It was raining when we got there, but it was warm and cozy inside the resto.

I eat Japanese food, but I’m not too fond of sushi and sashimi. I was also concerned with Markku since he’s not really into Japanese dishes as well. But, I was happy to see that the food they served included more of the “normal cooked Japanese meals”

From all the dishes served my favorites were the Sukiyaki, the Yakisoba, and the fried rice.

The Sukiyaki’s soup was so tasty and the beef was so tender.

I love the Yakisoba noodles, which I hardly order in other Japanese restos I go to. (Probably because I’m more fond of the “instant Yakisoba” ) Unfortunately I didn’t get to take a picture of it.

We were also served with Gyoza, one of  Tadakuma’s best-selling dishes. I think the secret is in their sauce.

We also tried the Atuyaki, a savory tofu dish. It was different, but also yummy.

And of course, a Japanese meal is not complete without my favorite California Maki (well, MY Japanese meal )…

…and fresh sashimi

I also enjoyed this bean sprout dish, but I’m not sure what it’s called though.

Overall, I enjoyed lunch very much. Using chopsticks to eat didn’t stop me from eating a lot.

I also appreciated the green tea they served for us. I’m not fond of tea because of its usual bland taste, but it was very refreshing to the palate after the meal.

So, If you’re in Davao and you suddenly crave Japanese food, just head on to the Damosa Business Center and visit Tadakuma.

Arigato-gozaimasu to Tadakuma for the wonderful lunch they served us.

The 2009 DFAT was brought to us by Davao Delicious and Davao Foodie.

…So the first thing I did during the holy week break was clean my room.

While cleaning my room I had several realizations:

1) I am a “sentimental basurera“. I try to keep everything, all the trash things that I can put meaning to. I realize that it’s nice to look back and remember things, but I don’t always need another dust collector to remind myself about it.

2) My room reflects my state of mind. When I’m preoccupied with something, busy or worried, my room is usually a mess. When I start cleaning up, I’d become more focused and relaxed about things. It’s also not impossible though that it’s the other way around, all the disorder in my room prevents me from having decent rest, which leads to a tired, confused state of mind the next day.

The first two realizations led me to realization number 3, my take on why cleanliness is really next to godliness.

Everyday our we get little knick-knacks from the hustle and bussle of our lives. We take home smiles, nice conversations over coffee, and great accomplishments from work. But we also can’t avoid that long line at the MRT, the bad news we see on the newspaper, or our long list of tasks to do that wouldn’t end. At the end of the day most of us would have brought home problems for dinner and worry, worry, worry.

Sometimes we don’t notice that our hearts and minds get filled with so much clutter that we forget the right things to do. Instead of meaningful reflection, we dwell on emotional trash and life’s excess baggage. We forget what’s really important in our lives and sometimes even forget to pray.

Cleanliness is next to godliness, but it is a clean heart and mind that would make us closer to God.

Just about a month ago, my Uncle Mar was diagnosed with cancer. Upon diagnosis, the cancer was found in 3 separate parts of his intestines. The doctors wanted to perform surgery immediately to remove the affected parts and prevent the cancer from spreading to the rest of his body. Unfortunately, he had pneumonia that time and can’t be operated on until his pneumonia gets cleared, so he stayed at home and took his medications. Two weeks ago he got confined because he was throwing up a lot and was experiencing severe abdominal pain.

It was only last Sunday when I saw him again. He was in the hospital bed, and I immediately saw that he lost a lot of weight. Pain was evident in his face, even if he tried his best to hide it. To make it harder, he was coughing a lot, and that exerted pressure on his stomach, causing even more pain.

It was an awkward and depressing situation, but I managed to smile and tell him, “Isipin mo na lang Uncle, nag-workout ka, sobrang sit-ups kaya masakit ang abs mo.”

That was a week ago, waiting to get rid of pneumonia so the doctors can proceed with his surgery. No one was prepared for what was going to happen next.

Sadly, the doctors found out that the cancer has reached his bones. I just found out earlier that the “bones” they were talking about was part of his spinal column. I also just  found out that my uncle cannot move his legs now because wherever the cancer is in his spine, it’s hitting a nerve.

After church today, we went to visit him in the hospital again. We were singing hymns of how Jesus will heal all pain and sickness, when I felt how sad I was. I tried not to cry, but I couldn’t help it. By the time my dad finished leading us all in prayer, tears already filled my eyes. I look up and saw my cousin Ronald silently weeping with his arm wrapped around his dad. Ronald is an only child, and has been apathetic about his dad’s condition until he cried this afternoon. My uncle’s eyes were misty, but he was trying to be brave in front of us.  My Auntie Lina (my dad’s sister) was not crying (probably because she has cried too much) but you can see in her eyes the anguish she feels.

I remember a quote I read when I was in fifth grade. It was a classroom decoration placed above the blackboard.

“God places tears in our eyes to put a rainbow in our hearts.”

As I was wiping my tears away, I realized that no matter how tragic things are turning out to be, there are things that have not changed — our faith, and the Lord’s promise. All the tears in our eyes now will be gone, but the Lord’s promise, his rainbow  in our hearts will remain and that will keep us strong.

My Uncle and Auntie have decided to push through with the surgery on my Uncle’s intestines within the next week. They are also going with the doctor’s plan to treat my Uncle’s spine with local radiotherapy. We don’t know the prognosis yet, but we’re hoping for the best.

Please help me pray for my Uncle and his family.

POSTSCRIPT (May 28, 2009):

On my way to work this morning, I couldn’t have heard a better song…

“…even if there is pain now, everything will be alright, for as long as the world still turns there will be night and day…there’s a rainbow always after the rain”

My uncle, Mardonio Bernardo, passed away this morning. Cancer claimed his physical body, but ’til the end his soul never stopped rejoicing with the Lord.
While we grieve for his lost, I know that angels are singing out a song for the life that he lived for Christ, our Savior.

…Markku and I had a photoshoot with my college batchmates.

I’ve been putting off the task of editing and compiling the photos from that shoot for so long that Marge (our model) has already gone to Brazil (for work) and is now back in Manila; Miel (our baby model) has turned one ; Angge (one of the photographers during our mini photoshoot) has now ventured into glamour photography; and Mello (who was single then) now has a boyfriend.

So here I am trying to finish editing the pictures so I can give a copy to Marge and Mina (Miel’s mommy) when we meet for lunch on Monday.

I’ll leave you with a few shots I took that day:

Mina is my college batchmate in UST. She’s now married to her long-time boyfriend Jon.

They now have a cute baby girl, Miel.

Marge is another batchmate of mine. She’s one of the few I met during enrollment before we started our first year in UST BS Psychology.

She’s one of the prettiest and smartest girls in class.

Angge and Mello are best friends and also college classmates of mine. All of our surnames start with the letter “B” so we get seated close together most of the time.

Angge has been into photography since last year and we actually had this photoshoot to prepare Marge for more shoots, as Angge’s photo buddies want to get her as a model.

Mello is my pinaka-makulit na seatmate, and I love her very much for that.

And this is how Markku looked like during that shoot.  He kinda looks different now (I think) so just imagine how long ago we had the shoot already.

Good thing, this thing will be off my list soon.

Since my brain is not producing any words to type a blog entry with, I’m just going to post a photo of…

Soriano, one of my favorite cats, when he was a baby kitten.
My mom named him after our street address, after he braved to cross it.
He’s in cat heaven now.
I miss him.

I will challenge myself to write more. Period.

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer. –Barbara Kingsolver

It was supposed to be a FOOD appreciation tour.

March 13 to 15 2009 marked year 2 of the Davao Food Appreciation Tour, aptly named Davao FAT or DFAT. This tour is an offshoot of the Davao Food Trip organized by the local bloggers of Davao. Now it’s bigger and better with 7 sponsor restaurants who let the DFAT 09 participants taste and explore Davao in very special, yummy way.

I wasn’t aware of what DFAT was, until Markku and I saw Jay, Aileen, Jayvee, Juned and Fritz in a blogger event in Manila. We found out from them that there were still open slots for the tour and urged us to join. I was hesitant at first, not being sure if I can take a leave from work for two work days (March 13 and 16), until Winston told us about the longest Zipline in Davao (and in Asia) that was part of the tour.

That did it for me. The next thing I did was ask permission from the bosses if I could take a leave from work, and with their go signal, we booked our flight to Davao!

And the rest, as they all say, is history. From the moment we landed in Davao, to our morning trip to Samal Island, to our Japanese lunch at Tadakuma (Itadakimasu!), to our secret trip to Lachi’s (but we still knew about the antique sewing machine in the Davao Museum ), to our real scheduled dinner at Lachi’s (cue mouth watering!), to a hopping coffee experience at Kangaroo Coffee Company (they offer the famous coffee from the coffee beans Civet ‘s poop), to my first upside-down Zipline Adventure (yeah!), to the sweetiest proposal ever , to a sumptuous lunch at Pepper and Peppers (I love that Iberian chicken!), to a walk with the crocodiles at the Crocodile Park (we saw a whole other bunch of animals too!), to a fine dinner at Mamu’s (and a sneek peek at their very romantic rooms!), to my second and third adik attempt at the Zipline, to a quick pasalubong trip at SM Davao (I love SM!), to a hearty lunch at Cafe Andessa (and me gulping down that heavenly iced tea of theirs), to another pasalubong trip at Aldevinco, to a view of Davao’s “skyline” (not!) at Jack’s Ridge, and to a very “active” game of Paintball (and a run to the tiangge for new fresh clothes that don’t stink), to a sidetrip to Cafe Firenzo (and a mmmm-hmmm pictorial with Ate ), to an Italian dinner at Spirale, to that throat-wrecking good time at K1 Videoke, to that speedy boat ride to the wonderful Kembali Coast, and the relaxing hobie-kat ride, to a mad dash to the airport (congrats to Jeff who caught the flight), to another (last na!) pasalubong stopover for fruits, all of these together with our enjoyable stay at Arturo’s Bed and Dine (and all those breakfasts we didn’t miss) ending in another race against time to the airport, which we won against our plane that came 2 1/2 hours late (boo!).

All of these happened in one weekend (i thought it was a month!). Now, it’s over, but it still feels so real even when I’m back in Manila, all because of the very warm and accommodating Davao bloggers — Blogie (punong-abala), Andrew (ultimate driver), Chattee (dakilang photographer PA), Ria (ultimate Lachi’s girl) and Migs (um…the voice over? ), and a bunch of new (and old) blogger friends from Manila — Jay and Aileen (the sweeties!), Jayvee (narcoleptic), Juned (the grandfather…este godfather), Fritz (camphone paparazzi), Jenny (the single and very available political blogger), Maki (who’s happier now yey! ), Jeff (zipline fail man zipline S-man), Manolo (the explainer), Arpee and Noreen (Marco-Polo-ers), the generous sponsors of DFAT (thank you for the wonderful, wonderful food!), and Markku (my one and only pangga) of course

So why did I drop the word FOOD in my title? Simply because this trip became more than food appreciation. It was an appreciation of Davao as a City, of the Davao bloggers, of LOVE and FRIENDSHIP and of FUN, FUN, FUN!

Until the next Appreciation Tour!

The 2009 DFAT was brought to us by Davao Delicious and Davao Foodie.

**Hindi masyadong halata na excited ako sa post, pasensya na…hehehe
Watch out for upcoming photos and posts in line with this trip.

One of the cutest kids in church.
Now I miss those santan flowers.

I took the photo with Markku’s very new 85mm, f/1.8 lens. Woohoo!

Last February 19, 2009 at Le Souffle at The Fort, Ipanema launched it’s Gisele Bundchen Seeds Collection.  The collection’s theme — SEEDS, emphasized the role of seeds that grow into trees, maintaining the balance of our rainforests.

Together with the launch of this new collection was the presentation of an eco-friendly project, “Walk the Green Mile”. It’s a walkathon project partnered by Haribon Foundation and ELRO Commercial and Industrial Corporation, exclusive distributors of Ipanema flip-flops. Every purchase of Ipanema flip-flops will allow you to participate in this  advocacy. Not only that, part of the money from these Ipanema purchases will be given to Haribon’s ROAD to 2020 projects, the aim of which is to plant and grow more trees in 1 million hectares of our local rainforests (some of which are very badly deforested…tsktsk) until year 2020.

I’ve once participated in a tree-planting activity in the Ipo Dam watershed, and it reminded me of the irony of how fast people cut down trees, and how long it takes for a new tree to grow in its place. Not only that, statistics show that only 10% of the trees planted during these activities will survive and grow. Imagine how much help our forests need to heal, and you can help in many ways.

I’m not really the type of person who would buy an expensive pair of slippers, but I’ve been using the Ipanema GB Seeds Thong Fem for a week now going to the office (Thank you Ipanema!) and it’s super comfortable! (I can definitely walk a long distance wearing those) So it’s actually a wise buy. And with them supporting an advocacy so important to our lives, why not?

So for those who want to join in this cause, and be fashionable at the same time, let’s Walk the Green Mile on March 21, 2009. Registration opens at 3:00 pm at the parking lot near Le Souffle, and everyone starts walking at 5:00 pm.

The hope of a big change comes in a small seed. Be part of this change.

Btw, I wasn’t able to take photos during the launch, but Markku did

Wala lang, di ko lang maisip na kulot na ulit ako…hahaha =P