Heavenly Trip - Thrilling Trip

Our daughter's first school field trip was scheduled on December 1, 2006. Lilia and I decided to come along with her. The part of the trip that I was excited most was the tour inside the Gardenia Bread Plant in Laguna. There they produce bread virtually untouched by human hands. I saw their facility once on TV and the enormous cooling tower that bridges the baking process ang packing process amazed me. I want to see it live! But with the threat of typhoon Reming doing a typhoon Milenyo act moved the field trip to December 9, a Saturday, and Gardenia does not accept plant tours on weekends. The great cooling tower, conveyors lined with hot bread and the fragrance of freshly baked bread - I won't experience it anymore, waaah!

Mental note: join a future field trip wherein Gardenia is one of the stops.

The bus left school at 7:00 AM and we headed for Tagaytay. The first stop was the Adoration Convent of Divine Mercy more commonly known as the Pink Sisters Convent. The whole compound was calm, cool and silent. Places like this always make me feel relaxed and as if my prayers become more powerful and reaches heaven faster. It's like being in the SLEX or NLEX of prayers to heaven.

The sisters of the convent wear rose colored habits (thus the name pink sisters) in honor of the Holy Spirit and symbolizes their dedication to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. They adore the Blessed Sacrament by praying 24 hours a day - everyday. They have convents in the Philippines, United States, Europe, South America, Africa, India and Indonesia and accepts intercessory prayer for the needs of all. Prayer requests can also be submitted in their website. Hi-tech diba?

This is where former president Corazon Aquino prayed with the sisters and finally decided to run for president. GMA also frequents this place.

Jesus Christ

Mama Mary

These tree stumps surround Mama Mary and can be used to sit down and pray

Beside the Pink Sisters Convent is the Angels' Hills Retreat and Formation Center. They can accommodate 400 to 450 participants at one time. Convention halls and conference rooms with seminar equipment are available.

Next stop was Residence Inn to see their mini zoo.

This super cute creature was there to welcome us with open hands.

Hannah was terrified with snakes and she was crying really hard when we had this picture taken.

From the left: Joznic, Katrina, James, Yona and Hannah

Aha! Finally, a civet, an Alamid. Now I know what its poop looks like (see the yellow thingy with black center in the inset). Why do I want to know what its poop looks like? Hehehe, brace yourself and read this.

Other animals they have are snakes, pythons, rodents, rabbits, monkeys, flying fox, goats, llamas, tigers, peacocks, chickens, deers, crocodiles, ostrich, bear and more I can't remember. But no elephant or giraffe.

But for our daughter and her classmates, nothing beats a big play pen situated in the cool Tagaytay ridge overlooking the beautiful Taal Volcano.

By noon we headed to Enchanted Kingdom as the final stop of their field trip (waaah, really no Gardenia Bread Plant tour). They just kept running and running, hand in hand, without waiting for us grownups. No thrill ride or hi-tech rides like Rialto, Rio Grande Rapids, 4D theater, Wheel of Fate, Flying Fiesta, Anchors Away and Space Shuttle. Just them running around and around and a lot of Santa Claus.

This was Hannah and Yona's thrill ride. They held hands all throughout with our daughter giving strength and assurance to her dear classmate.

Happy faces: Our daughter Hannah and her friend Katrina

Milk break after kilometers of running

A picture with Bobby Andrews, the celebrity story-teller of the day.

People waiting in line for the Jungle Log Jam. This ride was also a no-no so all I did was take creative shots of the flowing water.

We stayed in Enchanted Kingdom up to 8:00 PM

A ride in an adrenalized Grand Carousel. Grabe! My eyes popped out. Great thrill!

'Eto pa o, the Flying Fiesta in normal mode and in hyper-drive at night.

Bye!

Potpot And The New Chick in Town

There's a new chick in our town. Chick - short for chicken - chicken inasal to be exact.I first fell in love with it in Bacolod Chicken Inasal when they opened a branch in Paseo de Santa Rosa near Laguna Technopark. “Inasal” translates to “inihaw” in Tagalog and “grilled” in English. They then opened a branch a few kilometers away from our village. Unfortunately the volume of poeple eating there was not enough to sustain the franchise so it closed. The closest chicken joint is KFC. Jollibee and Mc Donalds are also there with their own chicken (kanya kanyang manok). But I want my neighborhood chicken inasal! Then came the newest chicken joint in our town. From across the shores of Bacolod and over the northern-most tip of the land of Guimaras - Mang Inasal of Iloilo. Google! este Yahoo! pala, pwede ring Yehey!

Mang Inasal is the famous barbeque fast-food chain from Iloilo.Their tag line: "Laging mabilis, laging masarap, laging abot kaya." Their mission: "To be the number 1 barbeque fast food chain in the Philippines."

Paa (grilled chicken thigh) with plain rice wrapped in banana leaves

Paa with garlic rice

Does anyone know why chicken inasal have yellow juice coming out of it?

Sizzling sisig with mayonnaise and kalamansi.

Open wide!

Atay (grilled chicken liver)

Sarap!

What about Potpot? Well, Potpot's full name is PotDog.

If you like fish balls, try what PotDog offers. My family became aquainted with PotDog when we attended Negosyong Pinoy in SM Megamall last month. Their balls are no ordinary balls. No fish balls here. They have crab claw, lobster ball, potato slice, hotdog puff, crab egg, prawn ball, crispy siomai, crablet, seafood veggie, shark's fin siomai, cuttlefish ball and squid nugget. Oks di ba!

Chewy yummy lobster balls

We bought one frozen pack and enjoyed more of it at home.

Fried siomai and seafood veggie are also yummy. We'll try the others next time.

ATM Robbery

I received this tip. If it is true, the police maybe able to help if they're fast enough.

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your PIN number in reverse order. For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you. This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is seldom used because people don't know it exists. Please pass this along to everyone possible.

Take care.

Lots of thanks to Eyna for helping clear this out all the way from Germany! The tip above is not true. See Eyna's comment for links about this legend.

HICAP-HGA Christmas Party 2006

HICAP-HGA had their early Christmas Party at last. See our own version of the Oscars, hot games, prizes, an awesome band and lots of happy faces.

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