a good friday morning at mulgoa

my body knew i needed to get up early. and so, at 3:41am, even before the cock crowed (and of course, there's no such thing around the apartment we live in), sleep left  me with no choice.

the morning was still very young but the clanging in the kitchen had started. the oven was set to pre-heat. the frozen spinach, defrosted. the puff pastry, thawed by the brewing warmth in the room. soon enough, the spinach and ricotta quiche aroma filled every corner. it's done and it's time to start the day.

i would never want anything more than a freshly baked quiche in the morning

i woke up francis. then kaela. i checked my phone to confirm that lichelle, our friend, would make it.

the trip to mulgoa lasted for 33 minutes. it is a place frequented by catholic devotees to celebrate holy week by doing stations of the cross. the parking was still not packed. it was a chilly and dismal morning that i was half regretful that i didn't bring a jacket.

nevertheless, the mission to reflect on Jesus' suffering still carried on. above all else, it was the most important task of the day. i thanked the moment. it is not always that i get to re-learn and refresh my memory of what happened during that fateful day of Christ's ordeal to redeem us sinners.

the light drizzle signaled the end of our short journey.

God is good all the time. all the time, God is good.

walking back to the car after the stations of the cross to enjoy a good bite of our quiche

payday fun

after my appointment with the chiropractor, francis met us at george street. it was our usual customary once-a-month lunch after the payday. all month-long, francis would cook our meals. only once would we go out. it's something i look forward to (not intending to downplay francis' skill to cook because he's really good at what he is doing!).

francis chose to try "kanzo", a japanese stall tucked in the dingy sidestreet of parramatta. he enjoyed his order of sashimi platter and asked for another round of sushi and sashimi. the rice with seaweed and pork flakes (i think) was also exceptional. i was disappointed with the ramen, though, replacing the usual tamago with boiled egg and the soup that didn't pull off the authentic taste of japanese cuisine. the lunch was fairly ok and comes with a reasonable price.

 appetizers: salad with seaweed sauce and miso soup

sashimi platter

 

baby chicken roll

 beef ramen

another round  of sashimi and sushi

satisfied customers

after lunch, kaela and kitt went home and i went to the library to borrow some magazines.

on my way home, i realized that gap was on sale and i shopped for a few articles as part of our christmas shopping for pinas. as usual, francis and i didn't buy anything for ourselves. why is it so appealing to buy for others but not for ourselves? probably, clothes are not really our thing!

before i got tempted to buy the whole westfield mall, i came home, half-tired and happy.

leveraging on my depleting energy, i still baked red velvet cupcakes for snacks and served them at 6pm (that's right, 6pm!).

when the sun set down, i was already lethargic to move.  the movie "p.s. i love you" capped the night.

i capped it with tears :P

scarecrow nanay

in most nights, kaela and i are enjoying drawing on the paper-lined wall.

this time, we agreed to draw her hands. then a shirt. then i said,  "ok, let's make it like olaf... with a hat". then the pigtails.

kaela grinned at the perfection of our work.

nanay and kaela's masterpiece

i told kitt before we slept that it scared me to look at the drawing at night. it's disturbing how the broad smile with lonely eyes would work together. it reminded me of a scarecrow.

the next day, francis asked me to come home early. he claimed kaela missed me.

apparently, she walked towards our sketch, pointed mightily and blurted out, "nay, nay". and kissed it.

that sealed it. i look like a scarecrow then.

apple-picking at mt. tomah

mt. tomah is an hour away northwest of parramatta within the blue mountains region. it was sunday and at 20°C, it was a lovely day to pick apples. bogusia (or "bo" for short) and monica (bo's friend) joined us for this trip. this is the first time in two years of staying together with bo that we shared an outdoor activity. we are always busy making different plans for the weekend - i.e. our plan is usually to stay home and  bo's is always to mountain-climb.

we reached pine crest orchard at 10am.we are amongst the early birds and we took pride of having had a bit of chit-chat with the lady manning the the front shop of the farm.

the orchard has a wider range of apples apart from the typical kinds we see in the grocery shop. normally, supermarkets prefer produce that they can sell all year round. hence, some variations are not seen in the market. some of them were really worth trying especially while they are still in season.

jonathan, jonagold and quince are some of the apples that are rarely sold in supermarkets

we tried some of the apples we've never had before:

golden delicious. very juicy and sweet.

jonagold. a breed between jonathon and golden delicious. sweet, yet not as juicy as golden delicious.

quince. with velvety and fibrous skin, slightly sour with a hint of lemon.

in my water: substituting lemon for quince

kaela enjoyed walking around the rough terrain than picking apples. she touched every kind of surface there was. at the end of apple picking, she knew two new vocabularies - butterfly and duck. truly, first hand experience is best when teaching children.

taking a picture with an apple tree

 tatay's vision of his orchard paradise came to life in this photo!

 boohh! scaring you with a scarecrow

with kaela's ciocia bo and ciocia monica

picture before leaving pine crest.

we spent our lunch at blue mountains botanic garden along with our cfc family. it was a pleasant afternoon to devour four different home-cooked adobo (we didn't coordinate obviously who would bring what), sinigang and roasted pork. i guess my stomach stretched out like i'm pregnant after that lunch.

cfc family

it was a relief taking a walk around the park after what seemed to be like a prisoner's last meal. the warm surrounding and the windy afternoon was enticing anyone to stop and have a siesta but of course, everyone's looking forward to driving home and have a rest before starting the week the following day.

kaela with ciocia bo

we enjoyed our day-trip activity. we wish to have more of this event from time to time. totally a good day to tip the scale to living a normal life.

state of mindfulness, cut short

i had a high chance of going out this afternoon after a busy morning, but i didn't. sometimes, i think of staying out of the house in saturday afternoon as sacrosanct. i have to break it today, though. i grabbed the just-baked banana loaf in the kitchen and my favorite english breakfast tea (despite the high temperature outside) and settled myself on the dining table.

i've got many things lined up to do but at least for now, i want to respect the moment by giving myself a rest. it's a treat to be in communion with your spirit, free from any demands. away from the crowd. just me alone and my thoughts. this state of mindfulness doesn't pass by very often. i need to inhale it, savour it and let it penetrate my being. that by itself is sufficient to recharge, to have enough energy for the rest of the day.

the air from the fan is enough to break the heat. the noise in the background are the symphony of car horns, the caws of the crows and the laundry machine. the afternoon beckons for a nap. yet, i'm too selfish (or selfless) to give in to it. i want to stay awake and let the hours slowly pass by.

..... until the little one popped out of the room... and headed towards my direction. it's time to go back to a more true-to-life mindfulness with lots of screams and negotiations ;-)

up and happy

beaching at maroubra

my stubbornness brought us to maroubra beach.

i packed all the stuff we needed before kitt and kaela woke up. i boxed the leftover food so we didn't have to buy lunch outside. it was all planned well. except that kitt didn't know the plan.

as expected, kitt was so unwilling to go out of the house. i was itching and dying to leave. by all means. i coaxed him to go to maroubra. i've never been there. we've never been there.

still unmoved by my lovingly coerceful way, it's time to shift to plan b.

i said if he didn't want to go, kaela and i would just commute. things started happening. i tried to hide the glint in my eyes.

 you see, plan b was not to commute. it was to get tatay to drive us to the beach.

we reached the beach in one hour after missing a few turns in the city.

the smell of the salty water was incomparable to our daily routine. totally a relief to my sinusitis. i squinted at the beach when i removed my sunglasses. it's amazing to watch how the sea impregnates the waters and the bulge that releases its stress to the shore. it's a magical place.

 but nanay, i don't want to go to the water!

kaela was not fond of the water. she's still scared of the regular splashes. i brought her pail and shovel to keep her calm. they didn't. in the midst of being busy with the sand, i leaned on a blue bottle jellyfish at the shore. talk about karma for being insubmissive!

we didn't stay for so long but just enough to get a good dose of sun, sea, sand and the waves.

a happy wife is a happy life. true that.

when we came back home, kaela and i took a nap. it's so refreshing for a sunday afternoon!

mr. max brenner and us

it was scorchingly hot outside.

kaela and i had to run an errand before the household prayer meeting. despite the heat, we made a side trip to church street, hoping to stroll around eat street and enjoy some free acoustic music. we were disappointed. i realized it was past 3 o'clock in the afternoon  and the event was over.

i was quick to decide to go to the library instead. another hope turned sour. it's already closed.

opposite the library is the parramatta station where max brenner coffee shop is located. i'm not a fan of branded coffee shops but one dissappointment that led to another plus the hot weather prompted me to reckon, "why not"?

i ordered flat white and brownie with ice cream. kaela had her usual comfort drink - milk.

the coffee was nice but the fudgy brownie with chocolate syrup was just too sweet for me. at least, the vanilla ice cream compensated for the sugary dessert.

 beating the heat with these

 

we hang out for a few minutes. taking selfies. watching the bus and cars passed by the busy parramatta street. it's our priceless moment.

lounging at max brenner

did we beat the last wave of summer heat? oh, it couldn't be better!