A time to stop and play

Last Sunday, my daughter made a very odd request… at 7 pm (considered the oras de peligro) moreso since we just arrived from our nearby province in Pampanga and I was right smack in the middle of getting our Sunday dinner ready… she was holding her ceramic tea-set in her hands and she asked (oh so pitifully) that we play for I haven’t played with her in ages!!! I was quite about ready to brush her off and tell her to go play computers instead with her brother when I stopped, took a step back and told her sweetly to wait a bit until nanay finishes cooking and then we can play…she jumped in glee and I will never exchange that joyful expression in her face for anything else in the world. After a time, I felt she was getting a bit impatient … I was too but I had to let the adobo simmer for awhile… I told her to wash the tiny cups and saucers and even the teensy plates first so it would be clean for us to use real food and drinks in. By the time she was through washing and drying, dinner was ready! And so I had my niece finish up preparing the dinner table… while I set off to play teatime with my daughter. While we were drinking mango juice (not tea) in her teensy cups, and ate mini puto and kutsinta which fit perfectly in her tiny plates, I took advantage of her good mood and fed her dinner (rice and chicken adobo) at the same time. You see this daughter of mine is one very difficult child to feed ---remember that TV commercial with the mom doing all sorts of tricks just to feed her child, well I’ve done all that and so much more… I gave her vitamins and appetite stimulants; made her meals pleasing to the eye; hid carrots and other veggies in omelettes and ground meat patties; fed her milk and cookies and healthy sandwiches as snacks… but she still ends up looking terribly undernourished. So totally unlike her kuya whom we (almost always) had to pry with a crow bar from the dinner table! So I guess the moment she asked me to play teatime with her… I decided to hit two birds with one stone – well, make that three birds – one, I was able to fulfill a little girl’s wish to have a teatime party; second, I was able to feed her dinner without much of a fuss and; third, I was able to spend some precious bonding (and even relaxing!) time with my daughter…something which we might just make a regular habit every weekend.

KITCHEN MISADVENTURES 10 – Sweet and Sour fish

This is another dish that has become a family favorite, particularly the hubby’s. I got the recipe from my favorite food blogger (Connie Veneracion) You will find two recipes of sweet and sour fish in her archive and they’re both delicious… the procedure is basically the same you fry the fish first (any kind of fleshy one will do). Then you mix all the ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce (vinegar, tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper) and cook over low heat. Finally, you stir-fry the vegetables (ginger, onions, carrots, bell pepper) and assemble everything together – place the fried fish on a platter, top with vegetables and then pour the sauce all over the fish and vegetables. Serve while hot!

LOOKING FOR A SECOND JOB

For the past month, I got busy searching for a second job…I searched websites to try part-time work for online tutors, medical transcriptionists, editors, blog-writers and I found a few possibilities. In fact, I went so far as to send out my resumes to some of them but only a few of them replied back. And those that did I did not find so desirable pa…either the place was too far for me to make the commute or the time slot they had available did not fit my schedule because it would interfere with my work here at the office. But why do you think I need another job when I am already doing well in my job here and in fact, I just got regularized (at last!) after three years here at my new office and fourteen years in the government service! Imagine that… I wasted so much time! Six years from now I could be eligible na sana for early retirement! But as it is now, I have to wait until 2029 – I’ll be about 58 years old by then! Oh no! But that would be fine…I guess, I am just glad that I got to be regularized after all and I have to thank my new bosses for that! You see the reason why I need another job is because the finances lately have not been meeting up. Well, I have been used for quite some time that the hubby’s salary is almost always used up in loans for the kids’ education or maybe some other things/renovations for the house. But for me…it’s a different story… I have always been used to having ‘other’ sources of income like in my old job at the PNP I used to work as a writer, co-editor, and what-have-yous for the organization journal/magazine. Then, there was a time that I worked as media officer for an NGO of legislators so I had two jobs then so I figured I could still wing it this time. But I guess the circumstances are different – I am a bit older now and most of the companies particularly the tutorial jobs for Koreans were looking for younger applicants, especially those that just graduated. I even went for an interview for two companies that did decide to call me…and both times, the Filipino manager accepted me but said they hoped I won’t look my age when I get interviewed by the Korean bosses. They even lied for me and said I was just thirty-five but then too bad that they never called me back so I guess I wasn’t believable enough for the Korean boss huh? Meanwhile, the writing jobs are too difficult because it would require me to write a certain number of articles per day and I don’t think I can do that anymore because there may be times when I have a full workload at the office and thus I may not be able to fulfill my obligations… So, I guess I will just have to keep looking elsewhere…weekend jobs na lang sana para I won’t be so tired every night. Meanwhile, I’ll have to make a few budgetary adjustments na lang muna to make ends meet…I will have to make the kids (and the hubby too!) realize that our money isn’t like it used to be and so some penny pinching efforts have to be made collectively. I just hope this works…Good luck to me!