To my fellow kababayans in Sydney who are still qualified to vote, you still have a few days left before 31 August. Visit and register at the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney (Level 1, Philippine Center, 27-33 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney NSW 2000, see map here), weekdays from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Don’t forget to bring your passport and a photocopy of your passport which will be attached to your registration. According to my Husband, the registration process only takes a few minutes.
To know more about it, please read below…
OVERSEAS VOTER REGISTRATION FOR 2010 PHILIPPINE ELECTIONS
06 January 2009 – The Philippine Consulate General in Sydney will conduct the registration of Filipino Overseas Absentee Voters (OAV) for the 2010 Philippine national elections for president, vice president, and senators. The OAV registration period is from 1 February 2009 to 31 August 2009. The registration schedule at the Philippine Consulate General will be from Mondays to Fridays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except declared public holidays.
The OAV registration is necessary for overseas Filipinos who are first-time overseas voters, have changed country or state of residence since the last Philippine elections, or did not vote in the last two national elections.
Filipino citizens and dual citizen Filipino-Australians domiciled in New South Wales will register at the Philippine Consulate in Sydney and those in the other states and territories of Australia at the Philippine Embassy in Canberra.
To qualify as an overseas voter, the Philippine citizen must be at least age 18 years old on 10 May 2010, and reside or work outside of the Philippines. Parties who are not eligible are those who lost or renounced their Filipino citizenship or declared excluded by Philippine courts for rebellion, insurrection, or violation of the Philippine firearms law, among other offenses.
The overseas voter must register at the Philippine foreign mission where he will vote in May 2010. Registration must be done in person, because the voter’s biometric data (facial features, fingerprints, and signature) must be digitally recorded. OAV registrants must present their Philippine passport or seaman’s book (in the case of seafarers) at the Consulate.
Filipino overseas voters in Australia will cast their votes during a one-month period from 10 April 2010 until 3:00 p.m. Philippine time of 10 May 2010. They may cast their ballot either personally at the Consulate or by mail.
An earlier statement of the Consulate announced that OAV registration would start on 1 December 2008, but the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) set the start to the new date. [source]
Tips
What you need:
6 large onions
2 medium-sized green bell peppers or 1 large green bell pepper
6 large ripe tomatoes
1 bunch of celery with leaves
1/2 head white cabbage
4 carrots
1 litre Tomato Juice
Salt, Pepper to taste
What you need to do:
1. Chop vegetables and place inside a pot.
2. Pour in water and tomato juice. Add salt and pepper.
3. Boil for 10-15 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
Notes/Tips:
1. For those wanting to lose weight, the diet calls to eat only this soup for seven days.
2. The recipe above is good for 20 servings. You can put smaller portions in containers and store them in your freezer.
3. A caution of warning: this soup makes one gassy.
4. Diet or not, this is a great tasting soup. I’ve never really went on a diet with just this–and I never really go on a diet per se (I think I’d really die if I only eat this or go on a diet hehe). But I love having this soup because of the yummy veggies in it and I’ve always been fond of eating tomato-based soups. I eat this together with any daily meal: as a compliment to our main dish during lunch or dinner. Or I sometimes have this soup during afternoon snack.
5. This is a very healthy soup as the veggies in it are good sources of antioxidants which aids in getting rid of toxins in the body. This is also good if you want to burn calories, hence the name “fat burning soup.”
6. One of the things I notice whenever I eat this is that my skin has a healthy, rosy glow.
Thank you to Toni of Wifely Steps for sharing her Fat Burning Soup recipe and for letting me publish it here in my blog.
Most of us are not so eager to back to work on Mondays, especially when we had so much fun over the weekend. And to add to that, we almost always feel that weekends are never enough–I couldn’t agree more. How I always wish that weekends would just go on forever.
So what do I do in order to start my week on a positive note and be more excited about it? Other than following my tips on ‘How to Get Along with “Monday”‘, I make a list of all the good things I was grateful for the weekend that passed, I call it “My Weekend’s Happy List”.
Here are some of the happy moments I had over the weekend:
Friday afternoon tea with my friend Cathy. This was an overdue reunion and finally, we found the time to catch up. Like me, she moved here to start a new life and a family. I’m so grateful I have someone from my childhood who lives here too (we attended the same school from elementary to high school). And a great bonus is that we live in the same area–we’re practically neighbors, yay!!!
It was great catching up with her…great to hear updates about our other friends from school and at the same time, there were a lot of remisning of the good old days. Made us miss our high school days *sigh*.
We had a chocolatey meryenda feast at Max Brenner and shared a plate of Tutti Frutti. I had my usual Max Brenner Cappuccino.
Breakfast with plurkmates/twitmates Jo and Pen on Saturday morning. Other than chitchatting via plurk and twitter and sharing stories via our blogs–yes, we never seem to get enough haha–we also enjoy hanging out in the flesh, even if it meant getting up early on a Saturday morning (instead of sleep in) to have breakfast together.
A trip to the park. Isn’t it relaxing to hang out at the park and be surrounded by lovely green and blue sceneries? I love going to the park all the time but on some weekends, our schedule does not allow us to. This weekend, my husband and I were fortunate to be able to hang out with friends as well–double fun!
Sunny weather on a winter’s day. So what do kids do when the sun is up? We play!!!! Other than play out in the sun, I’m always grateful for sunny weather on weekends because it is a big help to dry out the laundry.
Our laptop is now working!!!! After a year of “hibernation”, thinking that our laptop is dead (and in need of serious repair), lo and behold, the husband tried turning it on on Sunday afternoon and it worked! Holy guacamole 🙂
So there, a few of the happy highlights of my weekend.
What my Weekend’s Happy List does to me:
On days when I need cheering up, I open the pages of my journal and draw inspiration from my Happy Lists. I maintain a journal as well and it is there that I write down my Happy Lists–I have an Everyday Happy List and a Weekend’s Happy List.
Thinking about the happy moments of my weekend makes me more enthused to go to work on Monday. Since I started cherishing my weekends more, I seldom go to work on Monday unhappy and “un-ready”. It helped me overcome “Monday-itis syndrome”.
It made me look forward to another weekend with a smile.
Sometimes, I still have unsatisfactory and challenging moments during my weekend. But when I start counting the more favorable blessings that I’ve encountered over the weekend, the good always outweighs the bad.
So what about you? What’s in your Weekend’s Happy List?
The Aroma Festival 2009 on 19 July 2009 is one my favorite festivals in Sydney solely because it is for coffee, tea and spice lovers.
I’ve missed this event for the past two years and this year, I just had to witness the unfolding of this festival even for only just a quick visit.
The festival was held at the Rocks in Circular Quay where you can also conveniently find two of Australia’s famous landmarks: The Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. On a winter’s day, we were lucky to have a glorious sunny weather on Sunday, made hanging out in the city a more hassle-free experience.
As soon as we arrived at The Rocks at 9:30am, we were greeted with numerous stalls that opened early. According to the website, the festival is only from 10am-5pm. But since the Husband and I had another engagement to attend to by lunchtime, we decided to leave home early and just have breakfast at The Rocks.
All the stalls were classified in four regions: The Continent, The Latin Quarter, The Oasis and The Orient.
The Rocks prepaped a map (see my photo on the upper left, that’s me holding a map on my left hand) so one can easily find their favorite stall/s.
The place was abuzzed with lots of people already by 10am. Each stall had several onlookers and people are lining up a queue to order what-have-yous from their stall of preference.
As for me, my first stop was at a stall that offers Barista Classes. Some of you may not know it, but one of my dreams is to learn more about coffee. Since last year, I’ve been wanting to enrol in a Coffee School and learn how to make coffee the “Barista way”. Like any other dreams, I’m still waiting for the right moment to pursue this and of course, buy my dream coffee machine. For now, I’m happy learning thru websites and making inquiries with a couple of coffee schools.
Most of the coffee schools at the festival offered good discounts on their classes, books and DVDs. So if you’re interested to enrol in one of their classes and buy their books/DVD, be ready to pay right there and then in order to avail of the discounts.
Before we left the festival, I decided to buy CoffeeSchool‘s Coffee Art Book and DVD for only AUD$20.00. I’ve already read thru the book and it’s user-friendly and the instructions are easy to follow. I’ve yet to watch the DVD. I plan to see it this coming weekend.
After a few minutes of wandering around, following our senses–smelling aromas here and there, we finally decided that we should have breakfast.
And this was breakfast!
Yummy little pancakes with chocolate syrup and strawberries and cream we bought from the Dutch Poffertjes stall.
All the yummy little pancakes were fresh from the pan. Nothing spectacular with the chocolate syrup (just the normal ones we can get from the supermarket) but the fresh strawberries and cream on top made a big difference to the whole ensemble. Since the little pancakes were bite-sized, it was easy to eat them while we wandered around.
Now that we’ve got breakfast on our hands (literally!), the quest for coffee began. We found ourselves at the Grinders Coffee Square and availed of Grinders Coffee’s AUD$2.00 coffee.
I ordered my favorite Long Black coffee (a.k.a. as Cafe Americano) while the Husband indulged himself with a Latte. Loved the smell and taste of their coffee. I learned that Grinders Coffee started being popular in Melbourne (the coffee capital of Australia) and is now gaining the thumbs up all over Australia.
With every coffee purchase, you get to try their bite-sized biscuits. The Husband and I came back twice for their biscuits. Went deliciously well with their coffee.
With breakfast done and coffee in our hand, we decided to walk back to the train station as we needed to be on our way to our next agenda. However, another coffee stall caught my eye.
I made a quick dash to Mokador‘s stall and ordered a cup of Capuccino. It was one of the richest coffee I’ve tasted. I love it.
And yes, that’s how I ended our short but sweet rendezvous at The Aroma Festival 2009: with a cup of coffee in each hand! 🙂 I’m such a coffee fiend, I know…and I love it. I’m passionate about my coffee and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Hot tips:
1. Be early. The Aroma Festival in Sydney only happens once a year from 10am-5pm. We were there at 9:30am and there were lots of people already. When we left at around 11am, it was hard to explore the place, less room for walking…and the queue in every stall is doubling up by the minute.
2. Check The Rocks website to know what’s instore for you when you get there. The website also had a list of participating stalls and their respective promos/discounts for the day.
3. Take public transport if it will seem more convenient for you. There are road closures during festivals in the city and parking may be a problem as well.
4. Be ready for the possible big crowd–and all other concerns related to it. My only wish last Sunday was that hopefully next time, they’d make this a 3-day event, or even a 2-day event. Since it was only a 1-day festival, of course, everyone will come flocking in just to witness the event. It was hard to appreciate every stall and its products when all you can see are people swarming around it.
5. Enjoy the great discounts. Coffee is only AUD$2.00/cup. Lots of discounts from every stall for their products like coffee, coffee machines, tea, etc.
All photos (except for the 11th and 12th photo) in this article are taken by Chris Sanchez.
I found this book in the middle of 2006, at a time when i was planning my wedding, psyching myself to becoming a wife and needing some inspiration from i-don’t-know-what.
This was heaven-sent to me, like manna from heaven (hallejuah!). I was in need of answers and comfort, especially that my mom and my support system were in Manila. When i read this book, I immediately felt a certain peace that what I was going thru was normal, that I wasn’t alone, and that almost all women go thru what I’ve gone thru and what I’m going thru right now.
This book became a bible of sorts for me. The author has compiled everything you need to know of women’s experiences before, during and after marriage.
When i read the book before my wedding, I knew it was worth it.
When i got married and was back here in sydney, and was getting confused regarding marriage stuff (read: adjustment period) I had to read some parts of it again, it was doubly worth it. It became my reference book!
This book is definitely a bride’s* bestfriend.
Contents include:
- surviving the wedding
- sex after the honeymoon
- second thoughts
- wedding cake freezer burn
- becoming your mother
- screaming about money
- screaming about in-laws
- maintaining your identity
- being blissfully happy despite it all
*the author’s definition of a bride is an engaged or newly married woman.