Feel the vern

A few days ago, I had a stupid and unfortunate accident in the kitchen. I burned a part of my right arm. Major ouch-o.

I was trying out this recipe for no-bake choco oatmeal cookies from married2chocolate.com. As I was stirring the boiling chocolate mixture, I mishandled the spatula. It slipped and made a big splash – right into my arm. I immediately ran to the bathroom for some toothpaste remedy, and only then did I realize it wasn’t just a small, simple burn. It was about 3-inch long and 3/4-inch wide. There was peeled off skin. Toothpaste was no match for it.

So there I was, thinking what’s the first aid treatment for burns like it while I placed my arm over running water and stopped myself from panicking. I realized I had no idea at all. A quick call to the hubby made me remember about the condo clinic upstairs. I rushed to the clinic, with my wallet, phone and house keys on one hand, and a small towel draped over the bruised arm.

When I reached the clinic, I was greeted by a woman (who I believe is the receptionist) and a man sitting behind the small pharmacy counter. She said something in Bahasa, I told her I only speak English. Turned out she didn’t speak English, and neither did the man. Good thing there was a guy patient at the waiting area who kindly did the translation.

He said she was asking what caused the burn, if it was water or oil. I replied sheepishly, ‘Umm, hot chocolate.’ He laughed a little and said, ‘What?’ Admittedly, my reply did seem weird. With a small laugh, I quickly explained I was making a hot chocolate mixture for cookies.

The lady recep pulled out an ointment from the pharmacy and again said something to me, which the guy translated. ‘She says you don’t need to see a doctor for that kind of burn, you just need to put ointment.’ And so I told the lady, ‘I went here because I didn’t know what to put on it.’ Like duh.

She gently applied the ointment to the burn as I flinched on my seat and gave me two tubes of the ointment (Bioplacenton, which contains placenta extract.. hmm). After that, I went back home to finish my cookies. I almost ditched it, but I remembered I intended to surprise Leoby and the boys with the cookies. They turned out really yummy, thank you very much. (I added choco chips for extra chocolatey goodness.)

The burn (which I told my sister I’m calling ‘Vern’ from now on) still damn stings every now and then, not to mention makes bathing and finding the right sleeping position difficult. I vowed not to go out of the house until it’s healed – except when I need to buy food – because putting gauze on it is such a hassle and removing it is no walk in the park either. Vern is a pain.

I’m beginning to think Leoby is right – I am turning into a klutz. (Fyi, this is my second major accident since we came here; the first one was a foot sprain which left me incapacitated for several days. In between are minor bruises, scalds and burns from bumping into the table, slipping in the bathtub, wrongly picking up a hot pan, etc). My friend Berns says creative cooks seem to have a collection of burn scars on their arms, an example of which is her mom. (Thanks my dear for putting me at the same cooking level as your mom. I’m not worthy, really!)

Ultimately, the lesson here is I have to be more careful. And to learn more about first aid. I hope to keep that in mind, long after the Vern stops burning.

A-we

This happened the other night; I didn’t want to cook dinner (because I was going to eat alone) but I was also too lazy to go down to the mall. I craved for burger, so I decided to call the mall’s customer hotline to ask for burger chain A&W’s delivery number.

Operator: Selamat malam! Mal Taman Anggrek. (Good evening! Mall Taman Anggrek.)
Me: Hello! Can I ask for A&W’s delivery number please?
Operator: Apa? (What?)
Me: Phone number of A&W please.
(Muffled voice, seemed like she covered the mouthpiece.)
Operator 2: Malam! Mal Taman Anggrek.
Me: Hello, yes, I want phone number of A&W please.
Operator 2: Sorry?
Me: Phone number.. A&W.. A&W restoran (restaurant)?
(Phone was passed again.)
Operator 3: Malam!
Me: Hello. I ask for A&W phone number.
Operator 3: Sorry, A and W?
Me: Yes, restoran. A and W. The one in Level empat (four)?
Operator 3: Ahh…. A-We.
(She then proceeded to give the number).

So now I know A&W is called A-We here (‘we’ with a short e, not ‘we’ as in us). Nice.
Too bad, though, no one was picking up the phone when I called, so I was forced to go down to have dinner and savor my burger.

Do you hate Mondays?

I found this very interesting article in this month’s issue of Readers’ Digest (Asian edition, November 2009, under Health Smart, page 15):

Ditch the Monday blues
Lazy weekend sleep-ins may bring on the Monday blues. Research suggests that the slump we feel at the beginning of a new week may come down to our weekend sleeping habits. Professor Leon Lack from Adelaide’s Flinders University has found that sleeping in an extra two hours on weekends delays the body clock by 45 minutes. This means you are less sleepy on Sunday night, leaving you tired the next day. “If you’re catching up on lost sleep, it’s better to have a brief nap during Saturday or Sunday rather than sleeping in very late,” says Lack. “If you do oversleep, get outside and into the sun as early as possible.”

Beat the Sleep Lag
> Avoid the weekend “recovery”. Get eight hours of sleep each weeknight.
> Set a sleep-in limit. Go to bed earlier on a Saturday night and keep your sleep-in short. “Wake no later than an hour past your weekday rise time,” says Lack.
> Get out into the sun. “Even if you’re late to bed, still get up within an hour past your weekday rise time,” says Lack. Bright light resets your body clock. “Get out into the sun and have a midday nap instead.”

This would seem hard to digest for most people (even for someone like me who currently doesn’t worry about another coming work week but dislikes Mondays just the same) because we’re all no strangers to weekend sleep-ins. And we don’t feel the slightest guilt about it. Who looks forward to Mondays, anyway?

But if you think about it, this article definitely makes a lot of sense. Following the same weekday wake up time on weekends makes sure our body clock doesn’t get screwed up. Getting eight hours of sleep each night of the whole week helps big time, too. But of course, we don’t live in a perfect world and most jobs, not to mention social engagements, deter us from achieving that. Plus the warmth of our beds and the softness of our pillows and sheets are enough reasons to pull us back to slumber…

Still, it’s worth a try. It really takes a brave, unfaltering and committed soul to un-hate Mondays. If you are one, kudos to you! If you’re determined to become one, I salute you even more!

By the way, FYI, to all fans of Reader’s Digest out there, did you know RD Asia (English Language edition) has a new editor? She’s Dora Cheok. I learned she’s Singaporean and was previously the News editor – Asia Pacific of CNBC.com before taking on the RD post. I’ve always enjoyed reading the Editor’s Note of previous editor Jim Plouffe, which is always the first thing I read whenever I get a copy of RD. Now I’m looking forward to reading Dora Cheok’s monthly notes and understanding a fellow Asian woman’s views about Asia and life in general.

back to school!

I’m going to be a student again!

Since we became based here, I began to think of going back to school so I can make good use of my downtime. Choosing a school and a course was somewhat challenging. I thought of studying here, but the available English programs are so limited. I then decided to go for distance learning. My good friend and college thesis partner, Berns, inspired me to pursue online studying because she herself is taking up an online course and she said she finds it rewarding.

I spent days researching credible online schools and courses – Penn Foster, University of Phoenix (which is darn expensive, by the way), among others. I was bent on studying pre-school teaching or child psychology or something along that line. I also considered taking up a course on teaching English, since it seemed like a feasible choice for a new career here. Sigh, if only I could study culinary or pastry arts!

After careful consideration, I chose to go back to my alma mater – University of the Philippines. Good thing there’s the UP Open University (UPOU), which offers distance education. I must admit I suddenly became hesitant to take on a full program/degree, mainly because a little voice in me said I might not really have the guts to commit to it wholeheartedly and finish the whole thing. (I know, I know, that sounded like I’m scaredy-cat.) I wasn’t able to fight it off, and so before I chicken out totally, I decided the wisest thing to do is to try one subject for now. My subject of choice: Online Teaching and Learning. Why? Because it sounds like fun!

I received the e-mail from UPOU just the other day saying my application to become a non-degree student was approved! Big YEY! And I get to use my old student number, which is cool, although it kinda made me feel old. Haha!

It’s enrollment time for the incoming semester this week, and I have three more days to accomplish all the forms, do the payment and submit everything back to them. That’s quite easy, considering all those crazy things we had to go through back in college. I kinda miss the adrenaline rush from waiting for CRS (Computerized Registration System) results, getting in line for hours just to get a slot for that highly demanded subject, and chasing after professors and department heads for approvals and signatures. It leaves you high-strung at the end of each day of the enrollment period (which, for most, can go on for days), but it’s one of UP’s ways of teaching you to be patient, creative, patient, resourceful and patient.

Oh yes, I’m going to be a student again! I feel giddy all over! I think I want to buy new notebooks and pens and highlighters. Maybe a new bag and shoes, too?

U2: One love, one life

Today, at 11:30am (25Oct, 8:30pm Pacific time), U2 made history with the live webcast of their 360° Tour concert at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasedena, California. For free on Youtube!

I watched it with Leoby, my sister Fruti, who’s in Canada, and my bestfriend Joey, who’s in the Philippines. We joined the thousands of lucky, lucky fans who were at Pasadena, and the millions all over the world (on different time zones!) who stayed tuned on Youtube. How cool is that?

Almost two and a half hours of mind-blowing, goosebumps-inducing musical performance. It was totally beyond words.

screenshot c/o Fruti!

And there are two replays of the full concert immediately after the live stream. Superb!

Thank you, U2! Thank you, Youtube! Rock on!
One love, one life.

ginger mishap

Grocery shopping is one of my favorite activities. I find it very relaxing. And while I always bring a grocery list with me, I often allow myself to go through each aisle to check out what’s new or get an inspiration for my next menu. I try not to be tempted by promos or discounts, but an extra chocolate bar or bag of chips won’t hurt once in a while, right?

Luckily for us, there’s a grocery store located inside the mall just below our condo. Ten levels down, to be exact. We just take the elevator down to our tower’s lobby, then walk to the other elevator which takes us to the mall itself. The best part is, you can bring your grocery cart up to your condo tower’s lobby!

During my first trips to the supermarket, I realized what would be the biggest challenge in my grocery shopping – figuring out those grocery shelf tags in Bahasa Indonesia. The produce, seafood and meat don’t have English translations on the tags/labels. And while I can distinguish between parsley from celery, or alimango (mud crabs) from alimasag (blue crabs), there are some foods I just can’t recognize or tell apart by mere sight, like fish or meat cuts. And while I would want to ask the supermarket people for help, most of the time they can’t understand/speak English. So the guess-what-vegetable-this-is game is way more fun.

For instance, a few weeks ago, I was going to cook ginataang hipon (shrimp in coconut milk – one of Leoby’s favorites!). After getting shrimps, kangkong and siling haba (finger chilis), I looked for ginger. There were only two types of ginger-looking crops on the shelf, and they were labeled kencur and laos. Kencur was browner and smaller than ginger, while laos had a pinkish tinge to it and more obvious horizontal lines on its surface. I thought maybe they were just local versions of ginger. I picked kencur since it looked more like ginger.

As I prepared for dinner, I was in for a surprise after I peeled off the kencur’s skin. It had a whiter, a bit tougher flesh and a distinct, menthol aroma, which kinda reminded me of those green ointments you slather on when you have muscle pain. It had a very different smell from ginger. Uh-oh, I thought. I didn’t have time to go down to the supermarket again. Should I go on and use this, and just pray it won’t mess up the dish?

Oh yes I did. To my relief, it didn’t really taste that differently as I thought it would. Maybe the coconut milk downplayed its methol flavor. I really don’t know. Leoby didn’t even notice until I told him about my little mishap. We finished the entire dish that dinner, so all’s well that ends well.

I Googled it after dinner, and guess what? Kencur, laos and ginger are indeed relatives. They are all members of the rhizome family. Ginger is locally known as jahe. During my next trips to the supermarket, I vowed to find jahe. But much to my dismay, jahe proved to be elusive for the next couple of days. Which meant that I had to forget for a while my craving for tinolang manok (chicken ginger stew). Either they don’t stock up on ginger, or it’s really a must-buy around here that it runs out fast as soon as it hits the shelf.

Good thing my luck was better on my most recent grocery shopping – I found jahe! The picture below shows ginger (left) and kencur (right). Don’t they look so much alike?

According to Cook’s Thesaurus and this other helpful site called Merry’s Kitchen of Indonesian Cuisine and Recipes:

Kencur, aka lesser galangal, is an Indonesian rhizome with a camphor flavor, and should be used sparingly.
Laos, aka galangal, is tougher and has a sharper flavor than kencur.
Ginger, aka jahe, has a pale yellow flesh and a sweet yet pungent flavor.

In which dishes should they be used? That’s something I have yet to find out

changing passports

Last Wednesday, after more than a month of waiting, I got my new passport. Goodbye manually-scripted (green) passport, hello machine-readable (maroon) passport!

I had to renew my passport because 1) I wanted it amended to my married name, and 2) I didn’t want to risk encountering problems with the old passport since there’s news that manually-scripted passports will be a thing of the past by April 2010, as per international civil aviation requirements. It’s actually confusing, because according to the DFA website, green passports are valid until the stated expiry. BUT then there’s the risk that by 2010, some countries have the prerogative not to allow foreigners with manually-scripted passports into their territory.

I got curious if other countries are doing the same, that is, discontinuing the use of handwritten passports. I did some research and found out that:
* In Namibia, handwritten passports were phased out in February 2009. A signed government memo instructed all Namibians to surrender such passports and apply for the machine-readable ones.
*Barbados has extended its program of issuing machine-readable passports to its embassies and consulates overseas in June 2009. What’s noteworthy is that, according to the government decree, this is being done in order to comply with the international civil aviation requirement that all travellers should have MRPs by November 2010. And their MRPs are valid for 10 years!
* Handwritten Bhutanese passports were already phased out after 31 December 2007.

So, should Filipino green passport holders have theirs changed asap? Seems like it boils down to personal choice, because if you go by the statement made by DFA, then you can opt to use your green passport beyond April 2010. Just pray you won’t experience any problem in future immigration checks in other countries.

My green passport will expire on February 2012 but, even if I didn’t have to have it amended, I would still have chosen to have it renewed now. Yes, I have to shell out three times more moolah by having it done through the Philippine Embassy here, not to mention wait for at least a month to receive it, but if that would mean being spared from future hassle or embarrassment when visiting another country, then so be it.

Anyways, like I said, it costs more to apply for/renew a passport when you’re abroad. I’m sure the same goes for all Philippine embassies around the world. Here in Indonesia, passport renewal costs Rp600,000 (roughly Php2,800) for the machine-readable passport and Rp720,000 (roughly Php3,400) for the new e-Passport. What’s the diff? Again, according to the official DFA press release, the new e-Passport contains a microchip that bears the essential details of the passport holder, making it more secure and tamper-free. The maroon MRP meets the minimum requirements of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards, while the e-Passport is the world standard when it comes to travel documents. The Philippines is now among more than 60 countries worldwide that use e-Passports. But rest assured, the maroon MRPs are still globally recognized and accepted.

So why didn’t I go for the new, more high-tech passport? When I think about it now, it was because when I was asked which among the two I prefer, what kept going through my head was in the Philippines, the MRP costs Php500, while the e-Passport is at Php950. Add Php250 if you wanted it expedited and wait for 7 days, instead of 14. I asked the Embassy official assisting me which is the better choice in her opinion, and she said either is okay. And so I went with the maroon one – get a new passport, save some cash. Yeah, I think I held on to my Rp120,000 in the hopes that I can buy that watch I was eyeing. (No watch purchase happened, by the way.)

I realize it might not have been a smart move. Oh well. I can always have it changed to the e-Passport next time. At least I can say I have a collection of (almost?) all the passports issued by the Philippines: the older brown one (my first passport), the green one, and now the maroon MRP. Soon, the e-Passport!

the big move

On May 2008, Leoby and I made the big leap, leaving our comfort zone and moving to Singapore. We managed to get good jobs and have our first taste of independence. Fast forward to March 2009, another big leap was made – after 5 years of going steady, we finally tied the knot And come May, we were off to another country again. This time we were headed for Indonesia, to Jakarta specifically.

The decision to move to Jakarta didn’t come easy. First-world vs. third-world, efficient transpo system vs. cabs-all-the-way, English speakers vs. not-so-much English speakers, Ikea vs no-Ikea (yes, it did matter!) – those were just some of the things we had to consider, mull over, and digest over and over until we agreed on what may be our most sensible choice yet. We are to leave Singapore, move back home for just a couple of days (until our papers/visas are fixed, that is), and pack our bags to the brim once again for a new adventure.

So here we are, four hours away from our homeland, not just getting familiar with and immersing ourselves in a new culture, but more importantly, starting our life together as a, well, married couple. On top of that, I’ve decided – with Leoby’s blessing, of course – that I will stop working full-time in the meantime. And it was, is, and will always be a welcome break for me.

That’s basically the whirlwind year we had. Exciting as it was, we realize that that year’s behind us now. And what else is there to say but ‘Hello Jakarta! Hello married life!’