Happy Birthday!

To my dear papa..i love you so much!

To my dad on his day,
Of whom I am a living will:
May your happiness fulfill
Your goodness, as is just and right.
Deeds are seeds upon the night
As wind and wonder have their way,
Delivering the destined light

- J. Marques.-

Summer strawberry

summer strawberry
Originally uploaded by jhtongson.

Summer has finally arrived. Vacations and a lot more would be something that's on our mind. It's a great time to play in the sun and of course enjoy the sweet strawberry shake after beating the heat! Summer strawberry as i call it, it becomes one of our favorite fruit in this season.It's sweet taste is just so refreshing and it smells just so good...can even be used as air freshener!There could be many ways to liven up your summer with this sweety frutti strawberries!

here are some recipes:

SUPERB STRAWBERRY SHAKE

1/2 c. fresh strawberries (or frozen unsweetened)
1/2 c. skim milk
sugar(to taste)
1 tsp. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend at high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. If using fresh berries add 3 ice cubes to make thicker shake. Serve immediately.

STRAWBERRY ORANGE BREAKFAST SHAKE

2 c. strawberries
1 c. orange juice
1 c. skim milk
1 (8 oz.) carton lemon low fat yogurt

Clean and cap strawberries. Place in blender. Add orange juice and milk. Blend until smooth. Add yogurt. Blend on low speed until mixed. Pour into chilled glass. Yield: 5 glasses with 97 calories per 1 cup.

You'll really love this!yum yum!

Tree of Life

See that coconut behind me?that cost 0.60 euro per piece in Venice.It really amazes me how this very abundant fruit in our place and often just discarded cost this much.This really might be because of its scarcity in europe or even unavailable, and most importantly,this fruit is very good for the health.It improves digestion and can increase the body's metabolic rate - and it improves healthy cholesterol while reducing unhealthy cholesterol.

Coconut tree is regarded as tree of life because from its roots to the tip of its leaves...there can be many uses for it. I love coconut so much..from "buko juice" to "butong" thats how we call it in Mindanao, a young meat of buko, and dishes with coconut milk. It makes me think how lucky we are in the Philippines whose "Buko" is such so abundant and we can even eat it without cost..libre lang!Another great blessing from God for us in the tropical countries.

Life's lessons

Tuesdays with Morrie
(Mitch Albom)

This book really helps me a lot. It eases my boredom away and it leaves many important points in life. This story is a series of lessons a former (and now current) student has with his teacher (and now mentor) about facing one's death and living one's life. The author, Mitch Albom, is an award-winning sports columnist with the Detroit Free Press. A chance encounter propels Albom, guiltily and fearfully, to the bedside of Morrie Schwartz, his sociology teacher at Brandeis University nearly twenty years ago. [This chance encounter occurs electronically--Albom saw Morrie speaking about dying from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) with Ted Koppel on the Nightline television program].

A lot about life has been said but sometimes there are many important ideals that often discarded and that has been rediscovered and unfold in this book.One of the things that really lingers in my head is the thought of "once you learn how to die,you will learn how to live".Is it the thought that we may pass in this world without being able to do the things that we should have done."Maybe death is a great equalizer,the one big thing that can finally make stranger shed a tear"..it seems like a voice that told me to care for others,Why wait for the time that you'll be dying before knitting a beautiful relationship.TWM reminds me of the most essential things in life, creating a culture that best suits you..not a culture that dictates us to be greedy and always longing for something that is beyond our grasp and is not essential in life.Trying to chase what we don't have would just make us feel that we are inadequate and not just good enough.Morrie was not a religious and the fact that he was even agnostic during his younger years,but the end of it all..as he waited for his dying moment,he finally have accept God. GOD...the only way to life."The only way make a peaceful dying is to make peace with living".It's almost interchangeble. A lot of things has been said... a series of lessons in life that is worth keeping and living.A must read perhaps!

lost

It's been almost a month that i never joined the german class in jerome's office. I just love to stay home lately and do nothing. I never made some reviews on the past lessons that we had.Now i have the animation to attend and I was like definitely lost when i heard the passive form in present,past and past perfect. I just need to refresh those things. But anyway as we go on I was like back and ready to learn once again. It pushes me really to have a more serious disposition in learning all these stuff. I know this is not easy and at the same time not as hard, i only need a determination and develop my interest to learn. It's not something that i just like i guess but i need to at the same time. I need this for my daily duel in this foreign land. The language is really well structured but really just hard. well..well.. i need to get started again. Learn new words and say it often. I think i have to broaden my selective thinking and include the german language as one of the important points. Maybe try this at home with my lovey dovey...really???We've been trying this for so long but just work for a few minutes...and here we go,the vernacular takes place ..hehehe.Seriously, Ab sofort muß ich deutsche Sprache wirklich erlernen...egal,was passiert!!!

melancholy

I just felt so sad 'bout what's happening now in my dear country. Seems like no one learns the mistakes from the past. Still no unity and still facing this grave poverty. Seems like a telenovela that most filipino love to watch..unending tragedy and full of desolation.I just hope it would also end the way telenovela's often do.Successful and triumphant.More often than not, there's only a thin line that separates the real good intentions of governance or just mere politicking. But i'm not loosing hope.. I know this beautiful and God fearing country will soon rise and stood up for the truth, fight the impediments and make this once a beautiful place to live in. I know it sound so ironic that seems i speak like i'm there and i'm feeling the pain and have the tactual sensation of the aggravating situation. But believe me even if you are far away but you still have left your heart in your country,the feeling is more pathetic..Just being a filipino by name but was never there for your country.I could only hope and pray for the best.

Pocahontas

This might be a movie for sometime now,but still, it feels good to watch it again.Rain has just stopped us from strolling around the city and keep us from staying home.Circumstances that lead us to watch this great movie..Pocahontas.It might be departing from its historical accuracy..but it moves me in some ways.It reminds me of the materialism that this world possess and the sense of reality thats within us.The theme song "COLOURS OF THE WIND" says it all.

COLOURS OF THE WIND

You think I’m an ignorant savage
And you’ve been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don’t know?
You don’t know...

You think you own whatever land you land on
The earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know ev’ry rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a strange
You’ll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain
Can you paint with all the colours of the wind
Can you paint with all the colours of the wind

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun-sweet berries of the earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they’re worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never end

How high does the sycamore grow
If you cut it down, then you’ll never know

And you’ll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper-skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountain
Need to paint with all the colours of the wind
You can own the earth and still
All you’ll own is earth until
You can paint with all the colours of the wind

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

-Max Ehrmann-

How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning-

Game Cube

The first time I arrived here in Germany..it's already winter time,and snow has started to fall.My dear hubby told me that we'll gonna go on rowing..???I really don't get it.Rowing during winter time?He calmly answered "yes. Having no idea that what he's talking about was the rowing game in Monkey Ball-a gamecube game.So as he started to set up the game cube..I finally understand what he's talking about.I don't see this things in the Philippines,or maybe I'm just really outdated in these kind of stuff.

I started to enjoy this party game..with the Monkey Ball and later the warioware became more interesting.What i like about this game is that it never pushes hard on you.Simple rules.A game where you just can relax,you can play the game without thinking at all.No strategies to learn..just play.Later, we exchanges games from my hubbies colleague.There the Mario party came and a lot more.

What's more interesting now is the "Konga pak".It's like drums but more of a game.You play while enjoying the music.A game really for 3 years old - up i guess.It's a whole lot of fun.It may be intended for a very young age but people like my age could enjoy it too,just like i do,or perhaps I'm just a little peculiar..that's why i like it.(hahaha)

Star wars fever

Starwars has finally have its 3rd episode on its prequel.Trying to refresh the other episodes..we had it marathon for a week,after we watched the "The revenge of the Sith" in the cinema..locating the vcd's for the episodes 4,5,6 and eventually borrowed dvd's for the episodes 1 and 2 were the next thing that we did.This seems to be totally crazy,but a lot of fun of course.I'd love to be crazy sometimes and it could rejuvenate me somehow.

Yoda was never really cute in its appearance but i like this character so much.His bizarre way of speaking the english language made it more beauteous and his being sagacious made him an important character.

Starwars has just became so special because of its staying power.Decades may passed but this movie would still be loved by many.It really has an appeal to almost all walks of life. I just look forward for the next episodes to come and of course be able to enjoy this movie once more.Next would mean an episode 0 or 7,whatever i just don't care..as long as its starwars!!love it!

My love

CIMG0076
Originally uploaded by jhtongson.

Your presence made my life a springtime
who made a song like that of a chime
Your tender voice drips like music
hush in my ear with the sound so perfect.

As flowers grow in the garden each day
and so my love for you today
nourishing and nurturing the flame
this love of ours will be the same.

Wind may blow in all direction
trying to steal my affection
But in you my love i trust
and promise you this love will last.

You are a God sent to my life
And I'm so delighted that I'm your wife
May i can bring a light to our home
As we journey life and roam.

-joe ann-