Nine West started their end of season sale this week. Visit your nearest stores now. To locate a store in Australia, click here: Nine West locations.
I’d like to share with you a checklist I’ve created in order to help me organize my menu whenever we host a party at home.
I used to have a one-dimensional Menu Checklist but in the course of organizing parties and events in the past years, I have improved my Menu Checklist to a three-dimensional one. Here’s the menu checklist I used for my Husband’s birthday party this year:
This checklist is just a simple table format in a Word document. My checklist consists of three columns: (1) FOOD, (2) To buy and (3) To Do. You may also add a fourth column that says “Person Responsible” if you have a big family and you’d like to delegate a task to each member. In our case, there’s only my Husband and I for now and we always share the tasks between the two of us.
Under the Food category, I have subsets that lists our Appetizers, Mains, Desserts and Drinks. In my To Buy category, I list down the ingredients I need to buy at the grocery store. In my To Do category, I write down what needs to be done and when it should be done. If you noticed that some of the things listed here have been strikethroughed already, it means it has been bought or accomplished.
This checklist has proved to be very helpful for me and the Husband. We posted this on the fridge a week prior to the event and we refer to it to make sure that we’re right on track when it comes to the party preparations.
I hope this will help you in time for the Christmas parties ahead or in case you will be hosting a party in the future.
“Up”, the recently shown venture from Pixar, is an endearing tale of a 78-year old man named Carl who succumbs to the call of great adventure in order to fulfull a lifelong dream. The biggest surprise of his life was discovering too late that an optimistic 8-year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell has joined him in his quest to reaching Paradise Falls. And so the thrill begins as Carl and Russell met exciting and funny circumstances along the way before discovering some of life’s greatest lessons.
I had no expectations when I saw this film and I was greatly in awe as the story and some life lessons unfold before me:
Marriage is an adventure (I was surprised that this cartoon movie is actually a love story! :)) and the journey of everyday is more exciting and fulfilling when the couple work as a team. It is also up to the couple to make their life as happy and fun as possible even thru challenges and disappointments.
If you have a dream, make it come true. Even if there are delays and things you need to prioritize in the meantime, there is no need to lose faith in yourself. You sometimes forget about it too and that is okay. Trust me, FATE will somehow make you remember. Whatever reason or excuses you may have, it will not matter anymore as long as you make it come true sooner or later.
Take care of each other. You may be with your husband/wife, son/daughter, parents, siblings, relatives or friends. Or you can even be with a stranger at one point in your life. Always remember that there is a reason why you are with that someone and you have the responsibility to look out for each other.
We all have something to learn from each other. Every person is a blessing in our life because we all have something to impart to each other–an encouraging thought, a positive advice, a lending hand, a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear…a smile.
Life is an adventure. Love it, enjoy it, cherish it…savour every moment. Love deeply, have friends, help other people, travel and explore. Never take the small things for granted.
I know this blog post is too late to encourage some of you to watch it in the cinemas. But this may be useful if you have plans of buying the movie’s DVD as this is very much worth your time and money. I highly recommend that you see it.
Personal Note: My Husband and I watched this movie on 17th September 2009.
This year’s Floriade’s theme was Mind, Body and Soul which aimed to rejuvenate visitors to Canberra’s flower festival. Some of the featured flower beds were Clouds, Water Drop, Music for the Soul, Family and Friends, Love, Yin and Yang and Sunlight.
Our experience this year was quite different compared to last year’s. This year, we had moments of hits and misses.
The Flower Beds…most of it a miss, some of it a hit.
The flower beds weren’t as spectacular compared to last year although for first timers, they would find the festival amazing nevertheless. For my friends and us (Husband and I) who had seen last year’s, we were quite disappointed that the flower beds weren’t as rich as before. One thing we noticed was that there weren’t that much tulips and most of the garden fillers were just green plants instead of small flowers.
However, there were some flower beds which were still abundant in flowers such as the Sunlight flower bed (see photo above) and they were still beautiful backdrops for photo ops.
Individual Flowers…a hit and a miss.
Due to the dust storm and heavy rains that’s been happening in NSW and Canberra, it damaged most of the flowers. Almost all the flowers had red stains due to the dust storm. Photographing individual flowers took a little more patience in finding the not-so-damaged ones.
The Canberra weather…a hit and a miss.
If you would notice, we were in jackets that day (we were in winter clothes!). Simply because it was between 5-10 degrees and really, really windy. It was rain and shine that day, meaning, one minute it would be raining and then it would be sunny the next. Para kaming nakikipag-hide and seek kay Haring Araw.
The Food…a hit!
The foodie that I am, trust me to find the yummiest food in any event and I will surely find it. Upon entrance to the Floriade, I smelled the fragrance of sweet donuts so I followed my senses and found this little amazing and cute Honey Donut Puffs.
I loved it! It was easy to eat and the sweetness was just right. Later in the morning, there was a horde of people waiting in line just to have a taste of these donuts. Good thing, we were there early.
The rides…a hit!
One of the things we weren’t able to do last year was to get on a ride. Since my godson Caleb is toddler now, Jackie and I bought tickets to the Tea Cup Ride so Caleb can experience it. The funny thing was Jackie was more scared of it than Caleb while I laughed all throughout the ride, just enjoying and having fun. In fairness to Jackie, the ride was kinda dizzy hehe.
The Lotus Lounge…a hit!
This place was our respite from all the wintry weather we experienced at the Floriade. The Lotus Lounge had this cozy ambience and thanks to the heaters they provided, this place turned out to be the best place to rest from all the walking we did in the morning. This was where we had hot chocolates while we gave our legs a rest.
Shopping…a hit!
A hit because I found this cool, innovative bags made by a Japanese designer based in Hobart. The brand is called Sashiko Design. I will share with you the designer’s details in another entry.
Lunch at the Park-ing Lot (hehe)…a hit!
We could have had lunch at the festival. We could have had lunch at the Canberra’s City Centre. But despite the crazy weather that day (we knew beforehand that we will be experiencing rains), we insisted on bring pot luck and eat at the park…in our case, at the parking lot hehe. We all shared a very yummy menu: Bopis, Menudo, Adobo and Itlog na Maalat (Salted Egg). And because it was raining during lunchtime, we had to improvise. Ginawa naming Jolly-jeep ang sasakyan nila Jackie hehe. It was one funny and memorable lunch.
Stopover at Bakery of Goulburn on the way home…a hit!
Our Floriade trip won’t be complete if we don’t have a taste of The Bakery of Goulburn’s delicious meat pies. This also became our stopover on our way back, but a long stopver as we took our time savoring our meat pies and coffees and talked some more.
This year’s Floriade may have had a couple of misses but we are grateful that we had the company of our friends who made our trip to Canberra worthwhile, memorable and enjoyable. And even if the festival wasn’t as spectacular as last year, this gave us the chance to enjoy other stuff at the festival other than just the flowers and flower beds. Yes, the flowers may be the main event of the festival, but there is more to the festival than that.
For more photographs, please check these links:
26 September 2009 – Floriade 2009
Some Tips:
1. Floriade is an event in Canberra, Australia every Spring that runs for 5 weekends (usually starts on the 2nd week of September). To know more about the Floriade before going there, check out its website: http://www.floriadeaustralia.com
2. Wear sunblock even if it’s cold and cloudy. Even if the sun isn’t shining, you must protect yourself from UV rays. And don’t forget to bring your sunglasses too!
3. Bring a jacket. Whenever you are going to Canberra, always bring a jacket with you. Weather can be unpredictable and when it’s cold in Canberra, it can really be cold.
4. Bring an umbrella. You’ll never know when it’s going to rain.
5. Be early so (1) you can get a parking spot and (2) you can enjoy the festival more when there’s not much people yet.
6. Check out Canberra’s weather forcast via http://www.weather.com.au/act/canberra
7. Check out the stalls that sell local produce–they sell at a lower price during the festival.
Even if I don’t live in the Phils and haven’t totally experienced Ondoy’s rage, I feel like I’ve been traumatized too. Everytime I text my parents back home, I always ask whether there are rains or if the sun has come out already. Para lang akong humihingi ng update ng weather sa Phils palagi ngayon. And no, I don’t trust the weather reports of Pag-asa that much. I think regardless of the weather reports, we can only believe up to a certain extent but we always have to BE VIGILANT ALWAYS.
Last night, my Husband and I watched TV Patrol online and it weakens my heart to see the aftermath of the tragedy that happened. Sa bawat kwento na sinasalaysay ng reporters, parang nahuhulog ang puso ko.
According to reports (click this please) there might be two tropical depressions to hit the Phils in the coming days. I’m sharing these prayers below so we can all pray now in the hopes to alleviate or re-direct the storm that may pass by the Philippines again.