For the love of Books!

I am Manila International Bookfair's frequent visitor.

For two reasons -- I love to be surrounded with books, and second -- it's the time of the year when books are sold for great great discounts!

I first learned about MIBF back in two thousand three. My friends and I attended it at the SM Megatrade Hall where I bought my very first leather-bound NIV Bible, and some books by Max Lucado.

I returned in two thousand seven with a group of faculty members from the academy, that time it was at the World Trade Center where I scoured books about Sciences for our Library... I remember we were all treated for a hearty lunch at KFC courtesy of a book company.

Then again in two thousand eight, and nine, and ten at the SMX Convention Center. I missed last year's MIBF because I was preggers.This year, since we have no classes for two days because of the ingathering and no classes will be disrupted, all faculty members is allowed to go..So at seven-thirty am, a busload of teachers and students <members of the Booklovers club> left for SMX Convention Center. We came to the place about thirty to forty-five minutes earlier than its opening time which is still at ten am... so we took chances for some picture taking...

here's Ma'am Bosito who's as goofy as....

ME!

one click...

isa pa...

isa pa ulit...

isa pa ulit

paulit ulit?!

By ten am, the hall opened, and we each had gone our own ways...Due to a very limited budget <I'm buying for my office' collection>, I had to be very wise in choosing -- reference book materials published abroad costs thousands of peso pesoses! grr. So, I hopped from one booth to another, choose for the ones I like, and then reserve! reserve! reserve!

By noontime, I got into the FULLYBOOKED booth, and found practically most of the things I wanted, which made me realize that this bookstore is better than NBS -- collections wise.. hehe... And then this---

this costs 5K!

this costs five thousand plus, minus twenty percent off, which makes it four thousand plus na lang... I flipped over some pages, read some reviews, browsed some topics, put it back on the shelf, got it back again -- hay, I was in a dilemma. This book would mean everything to the practice of my profession, but then again, if I buy this as a reference material for my office, this would be the only thing I'd be able to buy! I told you I'm on a limited budget. I thought of checking with the University Library if they have a copy of this...but! I don't want to borrow, I want this to become a personal companion...

Just as I was deciding, the husband texted and he said he's coming over so we could have lunch together... I talked to one of the salesladies, and told her to reserve the book for me. Maybe, after lunch I could make up my mind....

The husband came, and we looked for a place to dine, and chose -- Chef de Angelo which offers an Eat All You Can Buffet for only One Hundred and Seventy-Five Pesos! We checked for the menus -- there's two types of pasta, mushrum soup, garden salad, rice, chicken salpicao, and mixed veggies...we thought it's sulit, so we both go for that Eat All You Can!!!

<for the record, Chef de Angelo was the place -- of --- 'the day he met my mother'!> so that's another significant place for us.

Even if I always end up giving mini lectures on dining and eating-out etiquette, I don't mind spending a lifetime dating him.

Obviously delighted! I like Italian dishes!

No sharing na, kung no sharing!

After lunch, we headed to the department -- SM Baby Co to be exact to buy things for our little boy <whom we sorely miss>...At first I thought of buying only a pair of Sabbath clothes for his dedication... but we ended up buying fifteen items!!! I thought my frugal husband would complain... but he was even the one who told me to buy this, and that...

By three pm, I was back at SMX, my husband who also has a forgotten love-affair with books wanted to come in, but he had to be in school for their three pm Week of Prayer session.

I went back to FullyBooked booth... and, I knew it! I will buy the Counseling book, and use my personal money to buy for some other books that I like. Never mind if I go over the budget, I figured out I can have my personal money reimbursed, and justify why I need that book so badly. I bought two other books from Fullybooked which cost seven hundred plus, and four hundred plus respectively.  Then I went to CSM booth <Christian Strengthening Ministry> which is being managed by Baptists. The sell all their books for only a hundred pesos <as in everything 1OO! parang bargain lang>-- including books by foreign authors Smalley, Chapman, La Haye, Sala, and others.. plus other local authors such as Ed Lapiz, and my UP Prof -- Dr Grace Koo. I bought Dr Koo's book entitled "Raising Wise Dads, Moms, and Kids" which now occupies our bedside table.

I spent Five Thousand Eight Hundred Forty -- that's for the school's books, and two hundred ten pesos -- for children's books. All that, for the love of books! And there are some more books which I still hope to buy soon, or sometime... like this one --

this costs around four hundred fifty five

or you <readers!> could probably give that one for me as an early Christmas gift! <wink, wink>

at the end of the day, nothing can be more delightful than coming home and seeing this bundle of cuteness

who is obviously more delighted for the mere fact that mommy splurged for him!!!

By the way, the Manila International Bookfair runs until tomorrow... i have more free tickets, pm me if you like. I don't have pictures inside the hall because I was busy -- reading! hehe

BABY'S DAY OUT Part 2

After mind museum we had a quick lunch at Jollibee which was just right there at the lobby, then we headed off to Manila Ocean Park.

I have always wanted to visit Manila Ocean Park.  For the past years, I had hoped that the Student Government would choose it as a field trip destination, but students always opted to go somewhere far <oo nga naman, Manila can be visited anytime kasi...> For this year, however, students thought to give MOP a try.

I just learned that Manila Ocean Park has several areas, each with different entrance rates.  The main area was actually the Oceanarium, but students who have been there said that it's just a small, rather short tunnel of glass of fishes, and it's not really that nice, they said.... and so we chose their latest attraction which is THE TRAILS TO ANTARTICA. It has three main parts -- the Penguin Exhibit which showcases live Humboldt penguins in their natural antarctic habitat. Johann loved watching those little penguins flapping their happy feet... maybe because he thinks he actually looks like them, hehe; the next part is the ice slide <which had no ice when we visited> where visitors can have a "salbabida sled ride experience." I didn't get to try that because I was carrying Johann... but i heard my companions well-out hooray on that slippery inclined plane... must be fun; the third part is the Snow Village -- Johann was not allowed to get inside because the guy there said it's really cold, and it sure was ffffrrrrrreeeezzzzzzinnnnng.We were given jackets before we entered a small snowy room that looked like an appropriate background scene for the song Frosty the Snowman. There's nothing to do there except dance in the snow, and pose for pictures. We did not stay long, it was really cold you'd get frostbite.

with kuya ted

johann's fascinated with the dolphins

that's inside the snow village...brrrr

posing to the tune of frosty the snowman....

see! i told yah... he's startruck with those happy feet!

BUT. We're not choosing it as one of our I-T. We think it's not worth it... it's probably good for smaller groups, but for five hundred plus students... they will just crowd the small area and do nothing since there are only three things to do inside. Personally, i think it fell short of my expectations.

 I still want to go back to MOP, though.. to visit the Oceanarium, experience some fish spa, or maybe... enjoy a night with my family at the H2O hotel... that's just hoping for now... hubby's very frugal, i'm not sure if he'd allow us to spend for that.

After MOP, we went to MOA, visit the NSDC, and the Robot Zoo. We had the chance to visit NSDC during its first opening... I liked it before... I don't know what happened to it now... it should have gotten better in five years time... but it got worse.  The Robot Zoo features animal robots. Cool for kids.

Before we headed home, we got to ride the MOA eye...since it was past class hours, my husband came to join us. Unfortunately, the bulinggit was not allowed to ride with us... it might be dangerous for the little one daw... so it was just me and hubby with some kids inside the cubicle. When we got down, we thought we should have brought Johann up there... it's not scary naman pala.

Baby's day out just confirmed one truth about my bulinggit -- he loves to be anywhere but inside the house! He's more behaved and controllable when he's outside than when he's inside... mana mana lang talaga!

After getting off the MOA eye... feeling sorry that Johann was not able to join us up there.

BABY'S DAY OUT

I had to join an ocular tour for our field trip. At first, I was hesitant to come with the group because I am still not comfortable being away from my johann for the whole day.  I was happy my co-adviser understood my dilemma so she arranged for johann, and our student helper to come with me. Yey! Actually, my husband could also come with us, but he was full schedule on Tuesday so he just joined us on our last itinerary.

So packed with 4 six ounces of milk (he could drink straight from me in case that would not be enough), 4 diapers, 1 hood, 1 shirt and shorts (for changing in case he gets sweaty), wipes, alcohol, and teether, plus stroller (which we did not get to use, actually), and my babywearing gears -- we rode the van to Manila!

First stop was the MIND MUSEUM in BGC -- that's short for Bonifacio Global City. The Mind Museum is the new educational field trip facility which opened only last March 2012.  I saw it featured in Kris' last April.  I must say it is the biggest, and most hi-tech science museums I've ever visited here in the Philippines... way way better than Life Museum, and NSDC.  It's quite spacious, too.  It is subdivided into five galleries -- Atom, Life, Earth, Universe, Technology. It's not a guided tour (I'm not sure if it's a good thing, or a bad thing) which means you are free to move around, read, observe, play, watch, and do whatever you want to do with more than 250 plus exhibits in three hours.  It's very interactive -- it's like getting into timezone arcade, except that it's educational and scientific.
 

baby wearing my little johann at the mind museum's lobby

with SG co adviser ma'am Nera and cute monrei :)

the ocular tour group from L-R: Matt, tedd, april, ciara, me and johann, kim, bianca, ma'am nera and monrei

my little bodyguard :)

mind museum's youngest and cutest visitor

Listening to robot aedi (that's idea read backwards) for her introduction of mind museum

The Donsol and Buntanding exhibit at the earth gallery

going up the technology gallery

The Kaleidoscope exhibit: amazing color,eh?

very observant naman ang baby ko....  The galleon trade exhibit in the technology gallery

Johann trying out the barong tagalog...

the dinosaur exhibit

that's johann's ates and kuyas

ooops! he pooped... hehe

Fascinated with the Newton's Balls at the Atom Gallery

Inside the light tunnel

Mind Museum's floor plan

Caught in the breastfeeding act! Mommy and baby both tired.

Johann was sleepy... nine to eleven am was his regular morning nap, i mean sleep... but during that time, he was awake...or he tried to be awake. He was just so fascinated with anything colorful, moving, and shadowy.

(stay tuned for baby's day out part two) meanwhile, I have to go. hehe.

WHICH MAGNUM DO YOU LIKE BEST?

For me, it has to be this!

Well, let me give you the background of why I came to that conclusion....

For the record, I had only eaten four Magnums in a span of six months...and none of them were bought using my personal money... meaning, they're "libre" <well, except for the first one> That's not a lot, right? I'm not really an ice cream person... <seriously, hehe>.

The first time I had a magnum was when I was having post partum cravings in April... That's just the time when I learned that a Magnum craze was going on <around the country, i guess>...and so I told my sister I wanted to taste one. She and my other sister had tasted it already, and so I was the only one <among us sibs> who was still clueless about magnum's promising taste..  Since I was stuck in the house with my little bulinggit day in and day out, I asked  my sister to buy me a magnum at all costs! <keber lang kahit bawal daw sa breastfeeding mom ang ice cream>. Being the obedient younger sister that she is... she obliged. It was not easy for her because she looked everywhere, and all magnums were sold out sa lahat ng seven-eleven branches near our place.  After several days, she was able to buy me one --- from Carmona!!!! O ha, sosyal ng first magnum experience ko, imported from Carmona pa...She bought me the almond flavor because that was the only one available...

What's my say? wala lang...it tastes like a regular vanilla ice cream, and a chocolate with almonds. I just like its solid packaging, and the fact that it does not easily melt, so you don't get messy when you eat it.

The second experience was when my husband and I were in a gas station near sta rosa heights, and I saw this Select outlet...the glass door reads "We Sell Magnum".  I pleaded to my husband to buy one for us <he's  not the type who buys stuff like that so I had to plead>... maybe he found me charming, my tactic worked! he agreed to buy after one or two "pilits"... Again, we bought the almond flavor because that was the only flavor available. We shared a single magnum-- that's just so poor of us, but sweet. hehe.

The third time was when two of my co teachers bought magnums, they bought five, and one was for me -- how kind of them! It was chocolate truffle naman.  Well, I liked its creaminess, chewyness, and chocolateyness....Had I not tasted the classic, this would be my bet.

And the fourth time was earlier... I was in the University store to buy tomatoes and kalamansi when a former student came... and opened the magnum freezer.  I was just right behind him because I was in line to pay for my items.  He saw me looking at him, and then he offered to give me one <nahiya, yata!> I actually declined at first but he insisted. So, I took it. And ate it right there! It was a classic -- by his random pick.

I felt a little bit guilty, though. My husband reminded me the other day that because I'm getting more plump again... I should start with a diet regimen, and stop eating between meals --especially sweets.  Well, I'm a submissive wife naman... but some things are just so difficult to resist... hehe.

And I like the classic best! I don't know... eversince I became an adult -- I shifted my preference to things which are plain and simple -- e.g. clothes, shoes, stuffs and arrangments in the house or office, lay out designs, etc.  That was even the way I wanted our wedding to be -- plain and simple...and I think we got it that way, too.

And so, surprisingly -- while I like almonds for nuts, and chocolates for desserts... for magnum, it has to be classic for me. Besides, you can never go wrong with anything classic -- it never goes out of style!

However, I still don't plan to spend money for that... because, like what my husband said -- it's not worth it...and as I told you, I'm not an ice cream person! Plain and simple like that!