Today I saw my photo in the Paulo Coelho Virtual Exhibition. 🙂

Paulo Coelho will be exhibiting photos of his readers, with their favorite Paulo Coelho book, at the Frankfurt Book Fair to celebrate 1 Million copies sold.

Other than “Alchemist” and “Zahir”, my latest favorite book of his is “Brida”, a story of a woman’s quest to find her Soulmate.

Some my favorite quotes from the book:

“Everyone finds their Soulmate, Brida.”

“At some point in our lives, we all meet our Soulmate and recognise him or her…If I were not a Magus and couldn’t see the point of light about your shoulder, it would take a little longer for me to accept you, you would fight for me, and one day I would see the special light in your eyes. However, the fact is I am a Magus, and it’s up to me to fight for you, so that all my knowledge is transformed into wisdom.”

“People give flowers as presents because flowers contain the true meaning of Love. Anyone who tries to possess a flower will have to watch its beauty fading. But if you simply look at a flower in a field, you will keep it forever, because the flower is part of the evening and the sunset and the smell of damp earth and the clouds on the horizon.”

“But how will I know who my Soulmate is?” …”By taking risks…by risking failure, disappointment, disillusion, but never ceasing in your search for Love. As long as you keep looking, you will triumph in the end.”

Click, click, click!

For my entry: http://picasaweb.google.com/paulocoelhocovers/VirtualExhibition2#5244293865482273650

See other photos here: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/virtual-exhibition/

…because I don’t need another person or any material thing to complete me.

…because I will never be too dependent on anyone.

…because I never want anyone to feel the burden or guilt that they need to make me happy.

…because even if married, I’m still my own person and I’m grateful my husband respects that about me.

…because I don’t depend on anyone or anything just to be really really happy.

…because even if I love too much or too many people, I never forget to always love myself too.

…because I know my self-worth and that doesn’t depend on anyone’s judgement.

…because I’d rather say “I complete Me.”

Sunday was Picnic-Barbeque Day!!!!

Finally, the sun was shining on Sunday morning and so we celebrated Father’s Day at the park! Yipeee!

Note: Australia celebrates Father’s Day every September.

Together with the Balilos, we arrived at Prospect Reservoir Park at 10:30am and started the barbie. We barbequed Pork, Steak and Sausages. The others arrived a little after 12:30pm, just in time for lunch.

This was us with cousins Lawrence, Kirsha, Rachel and Patrick.

We ate lots of food (we also KFC and Chicken Pistachio…and I had Ice Cream!), drank wine, we played badminton, ran around, played with kids, lie down on the grass and enjoyed the sunshine, and took photographs. It was such a beautiful day, very relaxing. It felt very Spring.

Happy Father’s Day to the Dads 🙂

We were the youngest couple…the smallest family in the group. Compared to what my Titos and Titas have all been thru since they migrated here, we felt like babies.

All of us before going home.

6 September 2008, Rendon’s Place

We were supposed to have a picnic at Stanwell Park but we had to cancel and just stay indoors last Saturday.

First things first: the barkada has a name—KOLOKOYS, thanks to Gary, who made a yahoogroup address for all of us and named us that. 😉 I love it because it sounded happy, naughty and fun…just the way we are.

And oh how we love celebrations. This weekend, we celebrated Father’s Day in honour of Daddy Gary and Daddy Richard.

Gary is daddy to Jiona while Richard is daddy to soon-to-be born Baby Girl Gerardo (who is still inside Mommy Rache’s womb).

We also celebrated Chris’ birthday in advanced and we finally got to wear our party hats!!!

It’s Chris’ first birthday here in Sydney and I would like him to feel really really special by making sure he gets to celebrate his birthday with our friends.

Hilda and Evan made it! Hilda was sick since Thursday but we’re so happy to see her when she arrived well into lunch.

Finally, a complete KOLOKOYS group photo.

Celebrations with KOLOKOYS wouldn’t be complete without yummy food. Here’s what was on the menu:

My Impromptu Adobo. Hilda was supposed to cook Adobo but since she called in sick, I cooked Adobo at the Rendon’s Place (we were there early). I haven’t cooked Adobo in a looonggg while, it’s my mother’s specialty so I seldom cook it in our Taytay home, but for the love of our tummys, I had to cook it. The Kolokoys liked it though it wasn’t perfect, so thank God! 🙂 Will definitely cook it more often now especially that I miss my mom’s Adobo.

I also baked Chicken Meatballs.

Rache’s Itlog na Maalat.

Our desserts…Krispy Kreme c/o Ara.

and of course Chris’ birthday cake.

Drinks and wine c/o the Redublas and Rendons. Hilda and Evan bought Chicken Asado. No more photos, I was busy eating and drinking hehehe.

Thanks to Tom and Ara for accommodating the group’s “gatecrashing”–instant party inside the house hehehe. And thanks everyone for the great company and for making Chris’ advanced birthday party special. See yah all when the Redublas are back from Manila (Happy trip guys, pasalubong namin ha? hehe).

One of cutest gifts that Chris received for his birthday…he was awarded the most amazing smile of this lovely little girl.

We never leave home without having breakfast. But sometimes, when we arrive in the City, we–okay let me take that back–I am hungry already. This Friday was one of those days.

Usually, we eat at this cafe beside the The Marque Hotel, however this time, we tried this cafe near the Immigration Office called Henry’s .

Their Big Brekkie (a.k.a. Big Breakfast) is only AUD$10.00. With that you get a cup of coffee, 2 toasts, 2 eggs, 4 bacons, a sausage, a hash brown and a siding of tomatoes and salad. Great value for us as these big plate is good for me and the husband.

Our Big Brekkie

Good morning baby!

Borrowed Chris’ Latte (I try not to drink coffee during weekdays)

We finally found a place where we can have decent but cheap breakfast :). We also plan to hang out at Henry’s after work one of these days. We looked at the menu and they serve pizzas. We’d like to give it a try especially that the place looks cozy for an afternoon when we feel like unwinding after work.