My Cup of Tea

How to say it when you are in the Philippines Never use the term "Kung Hei Fat Choi" When you are in the Philippines, according to ABS-CBN news reported by Willard Cheng, the most appropriate greeting to utter to the Chinese community is " Kiong Hee Huat Tsai". It is a Hokkien greeting which means " congratulations and wishing you prosperity" . Hokkien is one of the local dialects spoken in China.  Why " Kiong Hee Huat Tsai" is more appropriate to utter than " Kung Hei Fat Choi "? It's because most Chinese-Filipinos  came from the Fujian province of China who spoke Hokkien. Great Taipans, Lucio Tan, Henry Sy, John Gokongwei, are just some of the Chinese immigrants who spoke Hokkien.  " Kung Hei Fat Choi"  is a Cantonese term. Cantonese is a Chinese local dialect widely spoken in Hongkong, Macau and Guangdong, China. It was believed that Cantonese from Hongkong displayed the greetings "Kung Hei Fat

So it's the Year of the Black Water Dragon . I am not really into astrology. I just read it for amusement then dismissed everything afterwards. This year, after reading what ARIES people like me would expect in terms of career (I did not read what is written about "love" because I am no longer obsess with that sort of thing), wow, I read something very interesting: "With Pluto still pulling rank in your career sector, your star continues to rise over the course of the year in your chosen field. Of course, with Capricorn involved, this is not without hard work. After all, your stamina is noble. When Pluto and Uranus reach their exact square in June, you'll be confronted with the culmination of a quest for radical change that began in summer 2011. Use the momentum of the first quarter of the year to launch your major projects, since Pluto will turn retrograde between April and September, causing a forced slowdown and re-evaluation of your priorities.

I am having a new year countdown now. The clock sets at 12:00 noon. So before the Year of the Water Dragon makes a grand entrance, I want to spend a little time thinking and looking back what are the best and worst things I witnessed and experienced in 2011. BEST THINGS: 1.   Blessings - I received lots of blessings this year. Some of the things I fervently asked for the past three years were granted by God. I am always in excellent health condition and none of my parents or siblings got ill. The power of prayers really works. So keep praying. I received good income from my online job too! 2. Travel - I was able to go to the Monastery of the Benedictine monks in Bukidnon during our retreat, such a wonderful place to visit. The environment is so cool and quiet, strongly reminded me of my life in the province. Was able to visit the popular tourist spots of my home province: Enchanted River in Hinatuan and Tinuy an Falls in Bislig.  3. Cool Environment - The surroun

Email this to a friend Oh how I wish life is always like this.  Beautiful.Calm.Quiet.Terrific. The soothing morning air gently rustles through the plants and I love watching the sweet sunshine rays shimmer like magical silver thread beyond the leaves of the trees.  I woke up quite late this morning, so I bounced hastily and went downstairs then walked outside the kitchen and paused for a moment and looked up at the magnificent horizon, breathed deeply and savored the coolness of the surroundings then moved back to the kitchen sink and washed the kettle.  I love it when the environment is peaceful and quiet. No unnecessary noise. No dragging of feet. No shouting. And I love staying in my room during holidays because it feels like I have all the freedom. Drift to sleep whenever I could, listen to soft music, write stories, update my blogs, read books and sketch stuff in my drawing pad. Contrary to what I felt in the past about my future (where I constantly fre

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the birthday of Mother Mary! I'll going to attend the mass at the Cathedral this 5:00 pm. Last night I finally finished my report in financial management but still I cannot afford to enjoy the day and be relaxed because there are still more paperworks to do before the semester ends. With all the pressure and tension in life, one of  my longings now is to hop in a quiet vacation either in a countryside or in a beach to unwind, relax and feel the sweetness and tranquil surroundings of the mother earth. There's nothing more rewarding in life than being in a quiet and relaxing place with nothing but trees, fresh air and soothing music of the waves and the birds. But since money is just so terribly rare (hehe), all I can do now is just list the places I want to visit in the future.  Well, hopefully I can really travel even just around Asia first, then maybe Europe (I'm greatly fascinated with Tuscany and Cornwall

Christmas Season in the Philippines kicks off in the month of September and no other countries in the world celebrate Christmas as wonderful and as joyful as the Philippines. Love, unity and happiness are truly felt, there are lots of reunions and gatherings to catch up lost times with family and friends, talking about good things in life...and lots of foods prepared in the table on  Noche Buena (Christmas eve) and Media Noche (New Year's eve). This is my happiest season of the year because of so many wonderful memories. I had a very happy childhood in the province and Christmas and New Year celebrations were fantastic back then. Now, I want to relive it once more by going home this December. Except for Christmas 2009 where I had terrible and painful December memories (it was the time I felt so useless, unattractive, more like a garbage particles), all Christmas celebs in my life were amazing. Christmas carolling in the neighbourhood with my friends and siblings and going to

Dreaming Europe! ^______^ With the never-ending case assignments in the graduate school and boring life in the office, I am contemplating to escape temporarily to a far away place. I'm feeling exhausted and worn-out that dreaming to be in a quiet, magnificent and tranquil surrounding seems to be a perfect idea to remove the clutters in my mind. I struggled hard to make my day in the office lively and vibrant to save what is left for my energy but towards the end of the day, weariness was all over my system, so tired that my stomach grumbled terribly at midnight. I did not eat much for the past weeks, my appetite seemed shut and my thoughts flown somewhere. So many worries, concern and disappointments lodged inside my brain. Worries about what's coming-ahead, fear of acquiring dreaded disease and certain frustrations felt like blaring machines deep inside. So to avoid burying myself deeper into emptiness, I made an effort to dream wonderful things beyond definition----g

Time flew so fast...posting an entry "First day of June" seems like yesterday and now I am posting "Last day of June"wow it seems like the earth is rotating faster than expected hehehe..but I love it because it means I will be finishing my masters degree soon and I am free to spread my wings and explore the other side of life. Personally, I am happy with the way my life run at the moment. I finally stop thinking why I am welded in one corner unnoticed, I know time will come for me to shine. Since early this year, I promised myself not to entertain self-defeating thoughts any more, there are lots of things in life that's beyond my control and I never dreamed to focus on that, instead, I want to look on the other side of the road plenty of wonderful things. Classes in the graduate school have just started and with it, comes so many requirements, assignments, project proposal and lots of paper works, but I assured myself I can make it! I still have 21 unit

Finally it's June. Another school year. How time flew so fast! But I love it because it brings so many advantages in life, never mind the age, I want to age gracefully.lol! This Saturday I and a classmate will be going to AdDu for the enrolment, my God!I just realized that I am now in my second year in MBA. It feels like only yesterday that I was deeply troubled whether to attend the graduate school or not. Well, I enjoyed my last two semesters, I was able to meet new friends, new people, I learned new things in life. I was able to build dreams again for myself and regained my self-confidence.  But then there are still worries that cannot be erased by time and overflowing self-confidence, like..uhmm...worries of what's-coming-ahead now that my life is still swinging back and forth. Yesterday, I searched topics for effective antioxidant supplements because I wanted to replace the current supplements I am taking, but I was surprised to find out that I got the right su

Pink Tulips! Pink brightens my day, even how terrible the events of the day is, if I see Pink it erases all the pressure and tension I felt, it makes everything perfect, the environment seems young and glowing again. So inspiring! Among the flowers of nature I see, it's pink Tulips that allure me. When I saw the bed of spring Tulips at Alnwick Garden's site, my eyes gleamed with gladness. So sweet and tender to emotion. Pink Tulips evoke happiness and youthfulness, very relaxing and soothing. Like a soft breeze of the morning air and the gentle hush of the quiet night that lulls you to sleep. I always love Pink Tulips! Maldives! Aerial view of Maldives. Image from visitmaldives.com Dreaming to travel to Maldives..hahaha!What a spectacular place to spend a relaxing vacation. If there's one Asian country I would love to visit, it's definitely Maldives, with its ivory and sweet-sugary beach, sparkling blue and turquoise water, tropical surroundings, p

For the past years since adopting the habit of scribbling thoughts and emotions in my journal   (even online), I’d noticed that I often talked about grief, about misery, about my loneliness and pain in life. I seldom write about happiness, blessings and contentment, as if the keyboard won’t cooperate if I would not write something about agony and resentment. Why I became so hostile and ungrateful about my existence? As if God totally abandoned me? While reading the book about Anne Frank , it came to my senses that I am still very lucky to live in an era where there are no more torment and horrors of wars brought by fascism and insecure people like Hitler, in an era where technologies provide relief of tramping to the library flipping books about history. Though earthquakes and other terrifying calamities hammered other countries, I am living in an environment where natural disasters rarely happen. Thank God! So now I will begin writing about joy, about how blessed I am to

Happy New Year! Contrary to what I had plan earlier, I didn't return home because I've so many school task to do: case analysis, journal critiques and endless class reports. While I spent Christmas alone in my boarding house, I was able to spend New Year with my good friends who welcomed me in their house with open arms, they preferred terrific foods and we spent the whole evening in talking. I am very optimistic I could accomplish priorities this year, I am confident God will grant all my request this year, if not all, then some of it. I hope I am more lucky in the year of the metal rabbit.

Two days more to go and 2010 will bid goodbye...next year is not only another year but ANOTHER DECADE ...oh gosh! so what now?? Am I going to start counting how many fine lines revealed every time I laughed or cry? No. In fact I don't have any fine lines visible in my skin surface yet. My healthy lifestyle helps a lot. My biological clock is not ticking so fast, in fact it is not entering red zone yet. Last Night, I started writing everything I want to accomplish next decade. Contemplating again what my future looks like. Where my life is heading. I didn't come home this Christmas, contrary to what I'd planned earlier this season. I have so many task to do. I spent everyday, since December 23, writing case analysis and journal critiques for my marketing management subject in the grad studies. I want to finish the 20 case studies, assignments, journal readings in order to free my schedule next January and February because I will going to start working on a home-ba