Recollecting My Life On The Road as of September 22, 2019

December 23, 2003

In April, we drove to Marriott Fairfield in Napa Valley, CA and stayed at the Marriott,  and celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. We had a nice room with Jacuzzi and on the ground floor. We went to the pool in the morning while me was at the gym first to do my weights. Then, later joined my husband by the pool. I didn't really swim but listened to my music and studied my French.

We were at the hotel for two nights and three days basically to unwind and break away from our life in the city. We mostly read our books on iPad. I forced myself to review my French lessons. Hubby was much on his readings and listening to podcast. When you look at us, we are just this simple and quiet couple, savoring our time together. No complexities, no demanding needs. Just the time in our hands to enjoy  each other's company. And I think that it is good, right? It was our quiet way to celebrate our marriage. We ate out all the time and for the last night, we ordered online and had the food delivered into our room. We were just lazy and almost were in the midst of a jet lag even at this point in time.  It was also during  this month for the year 2019 that I last colored my hair and decided to go cold turkey. It has been five months and my grey are over two inches long!


Third week of May, we flew in to Texas in Houston and visited my girlfriend Delia and her spouse Charlie. We mostly just slept, ate, went out to dine a few times, sleep then flew back to San Francisco. We begged off our friends to just let us rest because we were still jet lagged with all our travels. We were in Western Europe in March.

Charlie and Delia, me and husband

June, we were just home. Relaxing and doing things domestically like going to church on Sundays and twice a week, we were at the cafes or had lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant, Mexican place and or the  Argentinian restaurant. 

July, my girlfriend from Guam, Arn, visited me and we met up in Union Square and had at the Cheese Cake Factory.

Arn, my close friend from Guam

It was at this time that Arn first saw my growing grey hair and she didn't like it. In the end, I didn't care and just own it. It's my hair, after all and  it's my decision.

August, we flew to Portland, Oregon then drove to the beach in Lincoln City with my in-laws. This is our annual summer break where we just laze around the the cabin, reading, crafting and going to the  beach as well as doing some trips to the craft stores and casino to eat and enjoyed the boomers' breakfast, enjoyed the seafood nights and played some slots.

September, this is current, we are preparing for our 4-month trip to the
Philippines come October 5th. We will continue working on the house, do the painting, the yard and garage and install blinds, etc. I will hook up with my friends once the work is all done and invite them perhaps for an afternoon of fun. We will return here again on February 05 then early March, we fly to Norway where our cruise starts, to see the Northern Lights. I will try to record my events in Manila. We might do a side trip to Cambodia and or Vietnam.


November, my girlfriend Arn and her partner Mike are visiting us.

December, Olivier is flying out from Bangkok to spend his early Yuletide with us.

Overall, all three guests will stay in our home in the suburbs. After that, well, Christmas will just be around the corner and the new year comes in!

Just another continuity of my travels in 2019

Just a recap:

Mid MARCH 2019 for over two weeks we cruised to the Mediterranean region. Netherlands,  France, Monaco, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Spain. We were all over the Western Europe. I love it. It was hubby's second time in Europe so now he has the feel being a “frequent flyer." Yeah.

It used to be that Barcelona was my favorite city. But that changed when we were there. Lots of graffiti. The La Rambla had no "living artists" that they were famous for. An enormous amount of migrants selling beer on the street made it intimidating for most visitors to roam the streets of Barcelona last spring.


We were in Monaco and visited places. Our Viking Ocean cruise liner, Viking Star was nice. Costly as it is known to be the "high end cruise line"  but it was so worth it in terms of every penny spent on it. Gourmet dishes were served, fabulous ship, exciting excursions and its superb staff catered to our needs to the maxim. Couldn't get better than that!

We flew back from Venice so filled with warm memories of that magical city! It was like going back to time. No source of transport except for the "water taxi." 

Our trip to the airport was memorable. Hubby hired a limousine type water taxi for a costly amount of over 150 Euro so we had the exclusive use of this that you see with American actor George Clooney in it whenever he is in Venice.

At the Marco Polo International Airport in Italy, it was fantastic.  We were able to rest at the lounge  and eat ssince we have this VIP AMEX credit platinum card that enable us to utilize it at airport lounges around the world that honors it. We flew back to San Francisco in love with life. And with each other and that matters most.

Travelogue in 2019 and the Emergence of Spring, My Favourite Time of the Year!

We arrived from Manila to San Francisco on February 12th. Then, our eyes just kept rolling until they felt so heavy that we were gone in deep slumber. Nonstop. We were just sleeping infinitely for a time. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. It went on and on like forever was here. Oh! I don't know. We were just jet lagged and sleeping at odd hours of the day and barely making it at hours when decent humans were up. We were mostly cuddled up in bed. Like the two old farts we are. LOL! As for our meals, our yearning varies from time to time and our hours were erratic. Welcome to super jet lag time!

Around two, three weeks later, we were still down tired like zoombies. Flying from Asia to North America was tough on us. The body clock and sleep pattern took a toll on us. So, our bed was our safe refuge. Soft, comfy, hi-tech. Remote controlled and with a massager. It's a winner! Sleeping was our weapon to counter fatigue. When you travel on a different zone and come back on another one, that's when  your body clock gets screwed all up.

What was next?

Lounge chairs at Munich International Airport.

MARCH 10th, in the afternoon from North Beach, we headed off to San Francisco International airport via Uber. We used our AMEX PLATINUM perks. 200 bucks allowance annually for Uber ride. So why not?
Our long haul flew straight to Munich, Germany via Lufthansa Airline. Inside the aircraft, nostalgia hit me.

Nostalgia hits me, suddenly...

"Funny, the last time I flew with this airline was when I was at the peak of my travel and teaching years."

"Aboard this German airline on my way return to Bangkok after a Christmas holiday, I was asked by the stewardess to make a board announcement to inform everyone that upon reaching Bangkok and we were touched down, passengers were  requested to leave the aircraft. I said it all in English and Tagalog. Shortly, I was baffled and thrilled. Incidentally, there was a man from my school who was there as well and he heard me did the voice over. Later, as we were getting off the aircraft, he teased me."

Smoking area in Munich's airport

"Wow, wow, wow. You really are something!" He quipped. 

"The airline gifted me with two big bottle of red wine and white one. And I remember that time quite vividly because stewardess had to assist me in holding my luggage because my hands were full. Two gigantic wine bottles adorned my hands! She helped me up until I passed by the security check and ready to get my luggage at the carousel. Twenty three years later, it still holds fond memories for me."

MARCH 11th- husband and I arrived in Munich, it was evening. Our connecting flight was in Barcelona via Lufthansa as well.  Long story short, as we headed to get a Cabify (Barcelona's version of LYFT and UBER), I noticed that we were missing our luggage. For crying out loud, we just had our carry on bags with us so we had to come back at the third floor and get our luggage at the carousel which husband gladly did. Then, we were. at our hotel in Spain.

Life On The Road

2018

My 60th birthday at the Steak House in
Fairfield, CA

This year has passed by so quickly. It was hectic. Major. I am trying to recollect how it was for me. Let's go by the month of the year:

January, I turned sixty. OMG!

February, busy time. Our business was about to close and get sold.

March, business sold! Husband flew to Yuma, Arizona and met up with his brother and sister who has a vacation house there. He decided, my love, to opt for an early retirement and this was his way with celebrating his choices. So, off he went and used our mileage for the trip.

April, husband and I went on a Pacific coast cruise via Princess Cruise. 

May, we cruised to the Alcatraz Island. We won these two tickets for this event which was costly by the way during the "North Beach Meet and Greet with the San Francisco Police and Fire Department"  raffle. Then, we flew in to Jamaica with my in-laws for an all-inclusive vacation. 

 

June, husband and I hosted Olivier, my French friend. Then we all flew in to Vegas. That was tiring, fun, hectic and memorable!

July, we flew to Amsterdam. Stayed for four days there ahead of our cruise then joined the batch via our first Viking River Cruise. It was a long time at the sea, like 19 days. Then, left Romania for the UK. Stayed on for couple of days then flew back to SFO.

August, we were in Lincoln city at the beach by the Oregon coast.

October, we drove for a few days in Fairfield, CA and relaxed, read, ate and had some spa time on our own.

Arrival photo with my siblings. We have not been homefor 7 years. So it was a bitter sweet reunion with them.

November 28^th, we flew in to the Philippines after seven years of absence. Met with my Javier family and extended ones, the Ocampos. We spent Christmas and New Year there as well. Major work repair was done in my inherited house from my mom. It is in the suburbs. About this time, too, I also applied for a senior citizen discount card which was great! Now I have a 29% discount on food and 5% on basic food supplies like milk, rice and cooking oil. The only hassle is I had to carry this set of large booklets associated with the senior discount card and the card is so huge that it won't fit inside my wallet! But other than that, I enjoyed the perks it provided by.

Regarding our Manila vacation:

I did not contact any of my girlfriends to let them know we were coming home because husband and I were clueless on what to expect once we touch down in the Philippines. It has been a long seven years since our last visit there. Relationships changed and as a family each of us have our differences.  So, counting all these, we were not sure of what to expect. Good or bad, we were there for the family because we are family. All we wanted to do was rest. But it didn't go that way.

There were huge problems concerning the house that needed our immediate attention, like the infestation of termites that gave way to us loosing some furnitures, bedroom doors, etc. So barely a week after our arrival, we were thrown into the lion's den and started to work with our contractor, electrician, plumber, mason, carpenters, vertical blinds installer, and piano tuner. It was a major disaster and the house had to be repaired immediately. We slept in the bedroom but once the construction started, we moved to the living room in favor of a bigger bed that we bought at the mall. It was challenging being there.  The construction and repair finished around the second week of January 2019. On the third week, we flew to Thailand and spent nine days there. Another week came by and we rested back into our abode. Then, it was time to fly back to San Francisco. That fast! And we thought November to February was a long holiday. It ended up to be a working holiday filled with stress and difficulties.

Emilie, my youngest sister, playing the piano after a heart dinner 

December: we spent Christmas with Ballon's family. Present were me and husband, Emilie's family and that's it. The boys had other plans and were not present.

2019

My Javier Family enjoying some time after our hosting of their first American bbq.

January 13th, I turned 61. Another OMG! Husband and I hosted an American barbecue at our house in Manuela 1, Las Pinas. We bought a Charbroil barbecue from the US and had my family to enjoy the real "American bbq" party. We bought all the chips, bread and beef at SM Southmall. It was an afternoon of fun!

Chiara's photograph of the hamburger her Uncle Jeff was bbq'ing.

Good bye photograph taken three days before our flight to the US

Chiara and Muriel on a duet on the baby grand piano.

 

Ruamrudee International School, Bangkok, faculty reunion

Emily, left and Weena,center with Claire

Claire, center, with husband and I

January 19^th to 26, we were in Bangkok and visited Oliver and my old RIS chums. I did meet my comadre Emily whom I have not seen for many years. And my close friend's daughters, Was and Ween.

Boni, on my left, taken at SM Bacoor

February 6th, met up with Boni, close friend and college chum whom I have not seen for many years. A professional violist at the symphony orchestra in the Philippines, she retired a few days prior to our hook up. It was a sweet reunion for us both!

February 9th, we had our Javier family potluck, three days prior to our flight back to San Francisco.

February 12^th, we returned here in the USA. And up until now, I am still jet lagged!

My siblings and I with dear husband

Then, in two weeks, we fly to Spain for an ocean cruise via Viking Ocean Cruise which starts four days later. We will be gone for 19 days and we will be back in the USA via Venice, Italy. After which, I have no clue on where to go next except that we have one trip that always bring us to Oregon, our summer get away place. 

Now during the waiting process of our next destination, I shall toil the soil of my pots and plant something new and care for the old ones. This is me at 61!

Just Hanging Around, Waiting To Be Found

 Bulgaria, August 2018

Gee, is that me, really? Wanting and waiting to be found? Maybe. LOL! Seriously, I am waiting the arrival of my husband who has been gone for the 15^th day tomorrow traveling across the USA with his buddy. He left on September 30^th and arriving on the October 15^th , Monday.  I can’t wait to see this Little Boy and vice versa! We have kept in touch via facetime and text with Apple technology. So it doesn’t really feel like he had gone forever to Never-Neverland!

Well, I don’t have much to write currently since I am just trying to kill the time in front of my PC while resting my feet underneath my office table. I was standing for a long time in the kitchen. It's gets too busy out there when the rhythm gets me!

I just finished baking the "cherry pie" for this guy and prepped the ribs in bourbon sauce for our dinner. You see, we are both on low carb diet for about five years now but for tomorrow's dinner, we will forget that carbs and sugar are not supposed to be good for us but eat them all, haha! What for? Where fore rejoice? We are celebrating our reunion, my dear one's homecoming!

I'll be roasting the ribs in my rotisserie and serving the pie! No wine for the two of us. We have to take care of our hearts. Yeah, old age is here. Better do it right or we go downhill, right? We don't want to do that as we still have our travel plans until the end of 2018 and 2019. We are booked to travel globally.

Ah... Life is too good to be wasting it.

We are old, so we value our time.

Well? This is all for now. But I will try to update a bit more than what I got here in the next few days, ok? Just can't do much these two weeks as I had been indisposed. So there! "Au revoir pour mantenant, d'accord" (Good bye for now, ok? translated from French).

COURTNEY HADWIN- A Surprisingly Young Talent and a Thunderbolt of a Performer at America's Got Talent 2018

COURTNEY's Youtube VDO 

Courtney singing, "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" 

COURTNEY's got the voice, looks, stage presence and TALENT. The moment she first went on stage at AGT 2018 to audition and sing, she was a "live wire!" And at once, she metamorphose from this timid of a girl into a surprisingly powerful performer like a pro! She is a natural and has no inhibition once she is on stage and hits the keys! Doesn't she remind you of JANIS JOPLIN, MICK JAGGER and JOE COCKER? It's like COURTNEY is the embodiment of the talents of these famous rockers!!! And yet, she carries out her own individuality as a singer! She utilizes the stage and she is up into her rhythm! Her performance on stage always squeezes out that high energy level of performance that a great artist does once on stage! She is amazing! I haven't seen anyone like her in years! She is beautiful and even has the natural look of the rocker of the 60s: slim, energetic and with long, fine straight hair! Honestly, while singing her first song at AGT, I told my husband that, she is my bet for this year's AGT 2018 and that she is going to win it! When HOWIE MANDEL hit the golden buzzer, I had goose bumps! I was cheering and watched it again like 5 times later! Why? Because, you know talent when you see one! I have a music degree and worked for decades with adults and kids with varying talents. COURTNEY has the voice, volume control, tonality, timbre and dynamics which sums up the whole of a what great performer must have! She nailed it once at the audition; second during the elimination; and definitely, she is going to rake it in when the judges, one of them, do hit the golden buzzer! She will have a lightning and a thunderstorm of a performance in the finals! And mark my words, record deals will come knocking on her door and she would make the loudest buzz online as the greatest discovery of this century!!! Break a leg, COURTNEY HADWIN! You are the best!

BIAGGI LUGGAGE IS NOT DURABLE

pizzicatto56

Handle is broken*

This is my entry in my Instagram Account today:

• pizzicatto56#biaggi_luggage I used this BRAND NEW BLUE, SIZE LARGE, BIAGGI LUGGAGE on a #vikingrivercruise in Eastern Europe last month. When the cruise porter brought this luggage to my state room, one of the 2 handles was pulled loose at the stitching (where one end of the handle strap was attached to the top of the bag). In the middle of my cruise, I got so stressed dealing with this broken #biaggi_luggage. I hand-stitched it and tucked the broken handle in the front pocket (to stop any further damage) during the duration of my cruise. Check how short is the length of the handle inside. Surely it will break easily! My husband had emailed BIAGGI’s CUSTOMER SERVICE and its CEO, STEPHEN HERSH to no avail. FYI, this is the 2nd instance that a BIAGGI LUGGAGE I own had broken due to its poor product design. The first one was a zipper issue at the bottom of the luggage. Will #biaggi_luggage do something about this or not? And just when you thought that you got the “perfect luggage” for your travel needs and find out it isn’t at all- well then, that’s when the problem begins. This manufacturer doesn’t seem to care about the consumer who thought that warranty coverage works; and that “customer service” is important and integral part of its success or failure, ultimately. 🤔#biaggi_luggage I need answers if you care!

KOUIGN-AMANN BY CHEFSTEPS.COM

KOUIGN-AMANN by Chefsteps

My close friend, Olivier, a French man, is arriving tomorrow night and will be staying with me and dear husband for about two weeks.

Last week while we were chatting online, I promised to bake him his native pastry, Kouign-Amann when he visits us this time. It is supposed to be his "birthday cake" as his natal day was last June 7th. I tell you, this is harder to do than baking a wedding cake! It takes 3  days to do it and my patience is reaching the ceiling. But when I think of how delicious this pastry tastes and how my good friend and dear husband love it, it is all worth every bit of my effort!

So, I have prepared the dough yesterday evening, Tuesday. Today is Wednesday and I laminated it at around 2 PM. Then the day after tomorrow on Friday for breakfast, I am baking it.  Ta-da!

I live in a tiny flat in San Francisco (because the rental cost is astronomical) that I have to make way to doing a trade off as far as baking and cooking are concerned. 

For the welcome dinner for Olivier, I am serving "baby back ribs" so this means that I am using my gas oven for this. Thus, I can't bake the Kouign-Amann afterwards because it needs a cool environment to process the pastry well. This is the problem in living in a studio. Yes, it is all so cute and cozy but whenever the temp of the oven or stove goes high, the fire alarm goes nuys, too. Ayayay! And yes, once it gets warm in my flat, this would affect the kneading process f the laminated dough's butter (it would melt while the thin layers of flour would start to break out). Plus,  the dough will stick to the melted butter and when lifted, or folded, it will get disintegrated. As you see, this is how serious to do this pastry. It is a hard one so to speak!

o0o

My first Kouign-Amann is a success!

Last year, after Olivier left in mid April 2017, I was so invigorated and inspired to learn to do this recipe (as if he got me into a spell to learn it), I got so glued to reading several recipes online in my desire to learn to bake this French pastry. One that stands out for me was the recipe provided by the two bakers who are actually scientists from Netherlands. As it is, I am aware of their website because they sell baking gadgets from Germany online and it was from them where I bought my pastry dough. I really did read it like a novel. Going back and forth, thinking of it night and day as I was salivating and imagining the taste, the endeavor (big time), etc. At the back of my mind, I was screaming, "What the heck, I will attempt to do this! And when I am in my creative process, my mojo works for me. Anything/everything goes! I will learn it! Do it! Finish it! Produce it!" And that exactly was what I did. After it was done, I sent Olivier the photos and he was amused with me (as always). "You are so creative!"  He would say.

Taste Test:
First, the aroma is buttery, sweet, caramel-y.

Second, my husband loved it and ate 4 pieces of this wondrous French pastry in one sitting and then again had 3 more before he went to bed. I had as much as he had,too! Now this tells you on how good this pastry is, and I passed the test!

If you are interested, read on and click the link at Kouign-Amann- Weekend Bakery

But the easier version is from KOUIGN-AMANN by Chefsteps

I will upload the photos of my baking of this recipe on Friday. Meanwhile, this was the montage of what I baked last April2 7, 2018. Enjoy!

Would you know my name?

Tears In Heaven- Eric Clapton

"Tears in Heaven" is a song by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings, from the 1991 Rush film soundtrack. In an interview with Sue Lawley in 1992, Clapton said of the song, "There is a song that I’ve written for a movie, but in actual fact it was in the back of my head but it didn’t really have a reason for being until I was scoring this movie which I did a little while ago and then it sort of had a reason to be. And it is a little ambiguous because it could be taken to be about Conor but it also is meant to be part of the film."^[2] Conor, Clapton's four-year-old son, fell from a window of a 53rd-floor New York apartment owned by his mother's friend on March 20, 1991. Clapton arrived at the apartment shortly after the accident.^[3]