Cherished Memories Archives | Page 3 of 29

January on Ibyangram

9 February 2014 Ibyang Sanchez 0 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, Deep Thoughts, Ibyangram, The Married Life, Travel

Ibyang + Instagram = Ibyangram

While my instagram photos are shared on my twitter page and sometimes on my tumblr and fb page, I would like to have a monthly dump of ibyangrams on AWCL too. It is thru instagram that I share everyday moments and random finds. I use instagram as my real time mini-blog. Every end of the month, I’ll be choosing a couple of photos from my instagram and share it here because I have something more to say about a certain ibyangram.

My January was about milestones and celebrations. Other than welcoming the new year, the Husband and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, my birthday and the lunar new year. The year’s first month is always about knowing how truly blessed and how enormously grateful we are for a having a good life together. We know this everyday but rings very true on special occasions.

We’ve gone back to our daily grind of routines. It wasn’t that hard to come back to work because I went straight into it on the second day of the year. The start of the year looks promising. Our January was occupied with the things we care about and we’re very inspired that it will stay that way the whole year.

Here are some of the things that made up my January….

First day at work. Enjoying the silence of my office so I celebrate with a strong cup of UCC Blue Mountain Coffee & Speculaas cookies for morning tea.

Brought the Husband to work so I treated him to an Eggs Benedict brekkie. On the other hand, I had Eggs & Toast with Bacon.

First Friday mass at St. Mary Mackillop’s Chapel. Said a special prayer for my parents who are celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary today.

I found a piano and when I sat down, I realized that I’ve forgotten how to play and that made me sad.

My version of Laing composed of Kangkong leaves, light coconut milk and shrimps.

Stir-fried Ampalaya with scrambled tofu and egg. One of our favourite meals at home.

Shared a Club Sandwich with the Husband during our dinner meeting/travel planning.

Making good use of the our phone’s calendar in scheduling travel itinerary. We note the train we’ll get on, its schedule & other information for easy reference.

Late lunch at Grill’d: Chicken Caesar Salad, Chips & Beef Burger.

Tea time! Chocolate shakes and some Churros at Chocolateria San Churros.

Storm Trooper Cake and Star Wars Cupcakes in celebration of our friend’s birthday.

Will travel. Will write. A wall in Coco Cubano that showcased vintage items.

A Yukata Kimono and a pair of Geta (Japanese wooden footwear). These are old gifts I treasure from a cousin who lived in Japan for a few years.

Anniversary dinner at TGIFridays.

Happy 7th year to us! 🙂

Baked Kale Chips. I snack on these in the afternoon or partner it with soup during dinner.

Hubby’s workmate got us some treats from her Japan travel. It’s like she read my mind! Grateful she got us my favourite Kit Kat Sakura Matcha.

A happy Ibyang Day! Happy birthday to me! 🙂

Australian Open dinner! Korean Fried Chicken & Dokkboki from TwoTwo and a thin-crust pizza I made which consisted of Hungarian Sausage, Ham & Onion. On TV is the Federer vs Nadal semi-finals.

Nespresso Self-Serve System. Coffee shopping made easy.

What an apt coincidence that the latest Nespresso magazine features Tokyo.

Birthday celebration with family. They got me a pretty Sleeping Beauty cake! 🙂

Baked Eggs with Chorizo, Beans & Sourdough Toast. Birthday breakfast courtesy of Coco Cubano.

Peanut Butter Besos. A yummy concoction of chocolate and peanut butter. So good!

Happiness is a surprise catch-up with a dear friend from Melbourne!

Happy Seollal! Sae Hae Bok Mani Ba Deu Seyo! 새해 복 많이 받으세요! Celebrating the lunar new year with Wagyu Chuck Steak & Udon.

I hope your start of the year was just as fun and filled with good memories. 🙂

Happy Ibyang Day! :)

22 January 2014 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, Deep Thoughts, Milestones, The Married Life

Today is Ibyang Day! 🙂

As a treat to myself, I took the day off from work, stayed home, read a good book and took a long nap. Right now I’m watching Australian Open on TV while I reply to greetings from loved ones. As a bonus, the Husband stayed home with me too (he was supposed to work but changed his mind this morning) and he made coffee for me…twice!

To everyone who remembered and sent good thoughts my way, THANK YOU! I’m blessed and grateful you are part of my life.

7th Year: Seven Things We Are Grateful For Today

20 January 2014 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, Couples Reflections, Deep Thoughts, The Married Life

Seven years ago, we said “Yes!” to a lifetime adventure called Marriage.

Seven things we are grateful for today:

Our faith in God and the values that we share.

How much we adore each other. That after all these years we have remained in love and still find each other’s ways cute and adorable. That we are still cheesy and make an effort to surprise each other.

That we are the best of friends. There’s magic in being the best of friends with your partner. We just have so much fun! Also, there’s so much respect that goes into a relationship when you treat each other as friends.

That we have family and friends that support and love us. Our life together has been blessed by wonderful people around us.

We are blessed in lots of ways, everyday and always. Married life isn’t always rosy but at the end of each day, there will always be something/s to be grateful for.

We share our passion for the things we love: travel, photography, food, books and writing.

Our hopeful dreams and positive outlook for the future. Brought about by a few challenges through the years, time has taught us to be resilient together. As a team, we learn our lessons and move forward together.

-o0o0o-

Seven years…what a great milestone. Thank you dear Husband for seven wonderful years. 🙂

Ramen Burgers, The Hightlight Of Our Night Noodle Markets Adventure

4 January 2014 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Aussie Life, Cherished Memories, Food, Photography

I have a thousand food and travel experiences in 2013 that I’d like to share and this month, I plan to do just that. So here’s what I planned to do. I will publish these 2013 experiences in real time but in a few days, I will archive the posts in its correct month. If you’d like to find a certain topic, you can always type in what you’re looking for via the search engine on the top left of this blog.

October is Good Food Month in Sydney and one of the foodie events we always visit is the Night Noodle Markets. The Husband and I saw this as an opportunity for my Mom to also experience this event.

The highlight of our Night Noodle Markets experience is trying out the Ramen Burger. I’ve read about this kind of burger which came out in America (a link was sent to me by a tweetheart) and has piqued the interest of us here in Australia. A Ramen Burger is basically a burger with noodles as the bun.

I found the queue to getting the Ramen Burger at On Ramen. The line was long. And the wait longer. At one time, all of us waited in silence as the staff announced that they’re not taking orders because of too much demand but we can still wait in line. So we waited. My expectations were low but since I was there and I had time to spare, I stayed in line.

I ordered two kinds of Ramen Burger: Pork Belly Burger and Beef Burger. Both came with salad and a few slices of watermelon. Beef and pork belly were good! It was juicy and flavourful. The pork belly has a bit of spice so I immensely enjoyed it. The noodles as bun was messy and a bit oily, which was not a surprise. The Husband, my Mom and I shared these two burgers.

The beauty of food festivals is getting to try other dishes from different vendors. We usually get dimsums and spring rolls.

And then we bought Ippudo’s Pork Belly Pork Buns so my Mom can try it. These pork buns are love. A must try when you encounter Ippudo.

The lanterns they set up on the entrance to Night Noodle Markets served as an attraction to everyone. Lots of people taking photos of and with the lanterns.

The Night Noodle Markets 2013 turned out to to be one of our memorable ones because we got to share it with my Mom.

2014, Of Hellos and Wishes

2 January 2014 Ibyang Sanchez 5 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories

Our wish for 2014 is for all of us to have an abundant home filled with love and laughter. We wish numerous days of fun adventure, learning experiences, dreams coming true and smiles in our heart. We hope 2014 will be a year where we can shine brighter and be more hopeful. May it be a year of possibilities and accomplishments. 🙂

It’s always in the New Year that I make an extra effort in coming up with food on the table. This year we had Baked Ham topped with caramelised apple, Pancit Bihon, Panettone Cake and Fruit Salad. It was surrounded by 13 different fruits.

To make it more festive, we brought out a bottle of Scarlett Bubbles, a marriage of rose and raspberry juice made by Tamburlaine Organic Wines.

At 11:30pm, we lighted the Prosperity Candles that my mom sent us. Each candle symbolises various aspects of life:
Red for Life
Blue for Peace
Yellow for Good Spirit
Green for Money
Pink for Health
White for Brightness
Violet for Material Wealth

The candle that melts the quickets symbolises the good fortune that the New Year will bring followed by the rest. In our case, the smallest candle was Pink, then came Yellow, Blue, Violet, Red, White and Green.