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

One day more to go and 2011 will finally bid goodbye and now we will be entering the year which most fake visionaries, including one movie, predict the world will meet its tragic end. Of course most Catholics, including me, dismissed it as pure hogwash!Baloney! I am unfazed with all those signs they claimed, (yahoo news even published one article about these signs like global warming, strong solar flares affecting communication, giant asteroids closely passing dangesrously to earth, pole shift, strong volcanic eruptions, tsunami, typhoons, etc.) maybe we are just being abusive to the mother earth, prompting terrible calamities, hammering the world constantly with disastrous occurrences.  But anyway, though I firmly believed the mother earth would never come to an end, I could not deny the fact that global warming is happening, but this does not mean we will going to perish next year, I think global warming is a reality as the earth ages.  When I returned home last Christm

I greatly admired the late beloved Pope, John Paul II, he was such an inspiration and considered him as a perfect role model in my life. Since he died last April 2005, not a day goes passed without thinking about him, his influence, compassion, kindness, deep humility, his unique devotion to Catholic faith, and how he had shaped the world with his crusade about solidarity, unity and peace. He was considered as one of the most effective God's messengers of peace ever sat in the throne of St. Peter. He strongly opposed liberal theology, abortion and any form of destruction of human life. He was the first and only Pope who visited Mosque and Synagogue. During World War II, he worked as a laborer in the quarry maintained by Nazi and helped many Jews escaped from death, thus, he was very familiar with sufferings and sacrifices which helped him carried out his mission effectively as Vicar of Christ. Pope John Paul II, according to an interview with his biographer, Georg Wiegel by Ti

I just attended (with Juvy) the Christmas party of Beauche International Dealers at Grand Menseng Hotel last December 17, 2011 (4:00-8:00pm) and very amazed with the unique generosity of the company's CEO, Mrs. Che De Los Reyes, she is also the incumbent mayor of Carmen, Bohol, such a very inspiring woman. It was a fantastic gathering of the beautiful people of Beauche. The function hall was turned into a magical environment of glitters swathed in pink and crystals. They hired a disc jockey to handle the program. The "sinag tala" dancers entertained us. The search for Mr. and Miss Beauche highlighted the party.  I and Juvy were both amazed on how kind and generous Mrs. De Los Reyes is, because aside from the fact that the event had no registration fee (just imagine the tag price per head in a hotel reception, there were more or less 150 guests), everyone who attended received fantastic give aways, lots of home appliances were given in a raffle draw. Dinner time

When one of the items in your Wishlist at Christmastime becomes so real! Burberry bag replica  Descriptions: Light tartan design with two metallic leather handles and nickel buckles, top zip closure with a  patent trim and one interior zip pocket and two interior patch pockets. In 2008, I became extremely fascinated with Burberry bags because of its very unique feminine, sophisticated and delicate tartan design. Tartan, a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multicolours , is closely associated with Scotland, one of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom, because it is often used as part of a Scottish kilt, a knee-length skirt. British male royals often seen wearing a Scottish kilt when they are in Scotland.  What made me more fascinated with Burberry brand is the fact that it is one of the companies which hold a Royal Warrant from Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain and her son and heir, Prince Charles, the Prince