Rides and Adventure: Awao Falls

 

A week ago, we were invited by hub’s nephew for a ride to Awao Falls, Monkayo. For them, rides is basically about motorcycles, uniform attire, convoy and just plain fun. So, without hesitation, hub said yes.

The ride to Awao Falls was about 3 to 4 hours. But it took us more than that since we had short stop overs for refuelling, breakfast, water break and detour. The detour was mainly because of the high water level of the creek making it impossible for us to cross because it was overflowing from the rainfall the night before. So, it took us a total of 4 to 5 hours max because of the delay of at least 45 minutes to an hour.

We started travelling between 4ish to 5ish in the morning and arrived at around 10ish in the morning. Detour road was kind of rough, limestone and rocks were kind of big.

Yet, once we arrived at the destination, the hard part we had to go through during travelling was well worth it.

The purpose of this post is to share with you photos of Awao Falls. And tell you that God is indeed amazing!

Awao Falls’ whole view

The gang of motmoters from Davao City

20 KPH in uniform

360 degrees clip of Awao Falls

By the way, for motorcycles, fuel cost was about ₱600.00, entrance was ₱30.00 per head and cottage was around ₱200.00. Food and drinks are not included. I suggest you bring your own food and drinks since it’s difficult to find a decent sari-sari store and/or karinderia.

Oh, and as for the creek experience, we bravely took it on our way home. It was really shorter, believe me! It saved us at least 30 minutes, the least.

Here are video footages of our creek adventure:

Going home was easier, one would just wonder why. But no matter how hard the road was going to Awao Falls, it was really worth it!

After sales service by GGM: Cowboy Town, Resto, Bakery and Shoppe

2 weeks ago, we had the chance to travel to Cowboy Town, Impasug-ong, Bukidnon because of work: maintenance and servicing of 1 unit Conti Compact CC100 and 2 units of BDG 300 grinder.

Parking area view of Cowboy Town

Conti Compact CC100 and BDG 300 grinders

Travel from Davao City was about 4 to 5 hours, vehicle speed at 60 kph to 80 kph.

Impasug-ong local tourism spots in 1 map

After settling in for a few minutes, we were able to check out their resto.

Bukidnon is known for its vast Agricultural Land where Rodeo is one of the top sports the locals enjoy

The place was literally nice and cozy. It’s located along the highway which can easily be seen by cars and according to their staff, most of their dine in guests are travellers.

Anyhow, after a few minutes of looking around and talking to the head barista of the history of the machine, our technicians started diagnosing, servicing, replacement of parts and maintenance.

After the hard part was done, we proceeded to check if the machine was already operational: heated it up, extracted a few shots of espresso and requested the in-house barista to make a latte.

Servicing the grinders came last since these machines are easier to diagnose. Technicians learned that 1 unit was operational while the other unit was defective.

Technicians then proceeded to diagnose it, calibrated the grinders and it was running and in good condition after a few minutes.

After finishing up the servicing and maintenance, technicians, of course, needed to have a photo op with the services units in the background.

Servicing wrapped up at 4 PM.

We, then, were welcomed with a free overnight stay at a local inn courtesy of the owner of Cowboy Town. We were actually lucky enough because there was a local celebration in their town.

What’s best was that we were able to enjoy street food!! The ones we missed during our younger days.

And more street good the next day after a good night’s rest!

We were also able to witness the rodeo parade and some of its competition before we headed home.

The rodeo parade

And boy, did we have a chance to have photos with one of the stags! So fun!

It was indeed one of those “work and leisure” in a package.

Complications

Dear Papa Jesus,

Growing up in a Catholic community, we were taught that things happen for a reason. That they may be called as fate, destiny or lessons which we have to go through in this life. The reason, we may not know until we get older. 

I just honestly feel sad Papa Jesus. Especially for my dad and, moreso, my mom.

See, when I came into this world, I was introduced to the complications within a family. That we don't live in a normal family setup like what we read in the books and what most of us dreamed of.

Our grandparents are from the Land of the Rising Sun. Our grandpa came to the Philippines way ahead than our grandma. He was engaged in logging and worked his way to where he was before he passed. Throughout his years in the logging industry, he travelled to different places in Mindanao, had his share of experiences in different industries, saved and had several children from his Filipina partner. 

My grandma who was left in China, on the other hand, bore a child but passed because of complications. She, then, decided to adopt, and that was our dad. When she arrived in the Philippines, she had 3 more: 2 of whom were born from her and another 1 was from her sister whom she adopted as her own daughter.

Fast forward, my grandpa had a total of 11 children. My dad and aunt who is residing in Manila are adopted, 2 from their "bloodline" and 7 from the other wife.

Why am I telling you these? To be frank, Papa Jesus, I don't really give a shit where each one of them came from. I grew up and learned that they are family. They are supposed to be "family". Families should stick together through thick or thin, good or bad, happy and sad times, yet, sad to say, we are left out. Always had been left out yet we didn't complain.

Declarations to people that we are part of the family will remain as declarations. We know better.

I honestly feel sad for dad. He really deserved better if not the best. He was robbed of life, of time. To be frank, Father, I don't even feel that any of them gave him the respect he deserved. Again, as what we were taught many times, we may not know the reason, but I pray that we could at least know the reason why we need to give them the respect that I'm not sure they deserve.

In all honesty, Father, I can now understand why mom wanted to leave this City and go back to her sisters in Manila. And she probably just couldn't because we, her children, won't. 

So, for now, we're stuck in a situation where family shares with us through story telling their moments as "family" while we, as always, didn't know anything of. 

By the way, Papa Jesus, these are just my sentiments and I honestly am not after any invitation from them. Never did expect anything from them. Never felt a twinge of anger nor jealousy when I see pictures from different occasions they hold.

It's alright, though. All's still well.

Love, Sweepz

A furmom's experience

I now know how it feels to be a furmom. I now know that it's possible to be scared over small conditions and complications and the feeling of paranoia while spilling a million tears because my thoughts would go way beyond my imagination even when people assure us that everything will be okay.

We brought Nana to Davao Emergency Veterinary Hospital between 4:30 AM and 5:30 AM early today. She was pregnant, estimated 62 days since the 1st contact with Yogi, and started having her contractions after we had dinner yesterday at 7:30 PM. 

Her contractions were normal and I promised to myself that I would help her deliver her babies. Her 1st puppy, a female, came out at around 9:30 PM. I thought things would really be a breeze since I assumed that just like us, the 1st is usually the hardest while the rest would be easy peasy. I was wrong.

The 2nd wave of her contractions started 2 hours after she let out her 1st pup, just an estimate. Khyle, who just came home from work as a part-time barista was with me while we were doing video calls with Angeli, his girlfriend, and Jai2, his twin's girlfriend, helped me with Nana so I would be able to keep my eyes open all throughout Nana's ordeal.

At around 2:00 AM, we noticed that her contractions were coming in faster but no puppy was coming out during that time. However, we were able to see a sign of the 2nd puppy's paw a little after 2:00 AM but her contractions decreased. That was, in my calculations, 4 hours and 30 minutes from her 1st birth. Beforehand, I was able to read that normally, the interval time between 2 dogs is around 30 minutes to 2 hours, 3 hours being the longest. Now, I was already starting to get worried about her situation and called on my husband, Tata, and told him that we need to bring her to the vet or she might not survive.

We decided to bring her to the Davao Emergency Veterinary Hospital, one of the hospitals for furbabies which is open 24/7. Luckily, we were able to arrive on time. If it we were a minute too late, all would be nothing.

Doctor Karen, the doctor on duty at that time, was able to help us assess Nana's situation calmly even when the emotions we had were wildly and weirdly mixed. She got Nana into surgery after assessing her in less than 30 minutes. We were really lucky to land on Dr. Karen.

While waiting for the most tormenting thing to be over when you have a patient, her promise that surgery will take about 30 minutes to an hour, estimated, materialized.

Thankfully, Nana is now recuperating. She bore 4 puppies, 3 females and 1 male. 1 female wasn't able to survive but still, I believe, God is a miracle worker. Doctors and anybody who has a big role in any event are God's instruments to make things better. 

First, I can't thank Papa God enough. This made us stronger and what came out are better furparents. Secondly, I am grateful for Dr. Karen. I wasn't scared and was confident that Nana will pull through because of her. Thirdly, we are lucky that Davao Emergency Veterinary Hospital is available to every furparent, 24/7. Their skills, expertise and compassion to every fur-family is immeasurable. This is the reason why I highly recommend them. Pricesare reasonable. Of course, this definitely is equal to the love they give to their profession and the care they give to their patients.

I am surfacing from this experience as a much better fur-mama. I love Nana with all my heart. I even pray that when time comes, we would go together. But, I'm pretty sure that God always has His plans for each one of us. 

A sentimental mom's thoughts

 A while ago, I sent a "sad face" emoticon to one of my twin sons to a picture he posted on his socmed from the concert they attended for Kadayawan. It was by accident as I was supposed to send a love emoticon for the picture. I feel happy that he was able to enjoy the moment where his a-i and I shared finances for him to be able to witness the event. Half heartedly, I was sad because he was enjoying this life with his friends and girlfriend instead of us. But such is life. 

As the song goes "and children get older, I'm getting older too", which makes me feel sentimental every time I get the chance to listen to this song. 

To be honest, I would like to think that we'll be okay, and for sure I'll be okay when time comes because the people that we love the most will be taken cared of the way we took care of them. That, I'll be ok knowing that my kids will be compensated with the love that we gave them, if not a 100%, 80% at least. This is honestly the reason why I love my sons' respective girlfriends, yeah, sad to say, they already have girlfriends. 

I pray though that what we lack, they will search, most especially the relationship with Christ. But nevertheless, I'm okay. We'll be okay. 

Thankful, grateful and blessed

I had always been declaring to everyone who ask of my age that I am 21. Well, not that I'm no good in Math but I just stopped counting since then. I prob'ly should say that I'm still stuck in that era. Forever 21.

I had always felt grateful, thankful and blessed for all the things that come my way even bad ones. Who knew that the bad ones kept us strong and going.

Anyhow, I think it's high time that I share some of the things I had learned along the way. So, here goes:

1. Everything is not about you. - whatever you hear, don't be paranoid. Even if it's about you, act as if it doesn't matter. Learn the art of "kiber". To be honest, I think I had already mastered this. So, even if someone says that I'm dumb, i just let them think of me that way so I can make the next move by evaluating everything that needs to be evaluated and act on it like a thief in the night.

2. Friends are the worst enemy. - I, honestly, am not implying that I have one but I had an encounter with a friend over something petty and I must say that it wasn't worth it at all. Yet, it's not a mistake to make boundaries. If and when friends made one mistake, be cautious about it. If you see a lot of red lights, end it, it's not worth your self respect.

3. Respect and love yourself. - This should always be the case. Before you can spread goodness from within, you should be content that no one, not anyone, can take away the respect and love you have for yourself. 

4. Never compare yourself to others. - True that we have our own hurdles. Some may be similar but it is and won't ever be the same to anyone's. We were brought into this world unique. Even a ruler, if you look at it through a lens that can zoom a million times better than what we have now, a straight line traced through a use of a ruler compared to the same straight line traced through the same ruler is not and will not be the same. Even fingerprints are unique, no matter how many millions, billions and trillions of people there are on earth, it won't be ever be duplicated.

5. You have a loyal friend. - no matter how hard the problems are, trust that there will be someone who will be willing to listen to your sorrows and may be with you through it. If you're lucky, you'll find them in no time. 

6. Have faith. - Have faith that all of these will have an end to it. After all, everything is temporary. God sees every struggle we go through, every decision we make, every good and bad thing we do. Religion alone can't save us but having faith, hope and love, can. Oh, and also remorse.

Be good and kind to whoever and whatever. Remember always that there is karma... and, it is a b*tch..

Peace out.

Latte Art: Frustrating

I may be posting a lot about coffee from hereon and share what I will learn about the coffee industry.

As a beginner in this industry, please don't take it against me if there will be a lot of mistakes that I'll be going through. My only consolation is that I will learn and I'm quite sure that it'll be a lot.

But for today, allow me to express my frustration over my nth attempt in doing latte art through this video. You may click the word video to see how frustrating it has been.

So, now, I'm taking the afternoon off to vent off the frustration somewhere. No more coffee for the rest of the day. 

So, cocktails anyone?

Coffee is definitely life

It took me a couple of months to a year to find the industry that I want to grow old to and that's the coffee industry.

I am an avid drinker of coffee but only limited to those instant ones. Never did I realize that there's more to it than just buying a stick, some cream and sugar which I had been drinking at least twice a day.

Now, the opportunity has come to indulge in this industry and I really have learned a lot ever since we started. Oh joy! And ever since we started, I can now literally take in a dose of espresso and mind you, no sugar to really test my palate of the uniqueness of different varieties and origin of the beans we have.

Anyhow, a part of this experience in this industry is sharing with you our softly opened company, KETTLE AND SHAKER INC.

Kettle and Shaker Inc., located in the heart of Davao City, is a Mindanao wide distributor of the following products:

CONTI ESPRESSO MACHINES

from Monaco

DALLA CORTE ESPRESSO MACHINES

from Italy

LONGBEACH PRODUCTS

SIGNATURE TEA

COFFEE BEANS

Local and Imported

Can be customized with customer's logo

You may want to follow Kettle and Shaker Inc.'s facebook page to see more of its products and services.

Rough and tough times

I rarely write these days. And when I do think about it, it's always sad thoughts that would really be written. And this is not an exception.

I have these friends from when I was very young. I literally grew up with them since their father used to work for my grandparents when we were still little. 

They are going through a rough and tough time the middle part of this year. 

Her daughter and a niece of my bestfriend succumbed to cancer last week. She was just 11. 

Early today, I learned that their brother passed away. Not even a week after his niece passed.

It's difficult to understand why people have to go through rough and tough times. Especially now that the pandemic is still here, it will be easier for people to get depressed and friends cannot visit friends to personally condole with them.

My friend Cliff Berning

I have a friend whom I haven't met personally. His name is Clifford Berning. I call him Cliff. We met online more than a decade ago through this yahoo mail forwarder group composed of Expats who were interested in visiting the Philippines, asking questions of it and getting different information of the Filipinos, the food and the country itself.

I can remember vividly how our friendship started and it was at the wrong foot. We argued on a lot of things especially of his impression with the Filipino women. We would constantly exchange conversations on Viber, him being his usual sarcastic self, telling me that Filipino women are dependent and very practical on a wrong point view (which means asking for money, spending it and giving it away even to extended families) and me proving to him that he was wrong and shouldn't generalize his impression of the Filipinas.

Over the years, the exchange of messages brought our friendship to a deeper level. Conversations became less annoying. We were able to tolerate and accept each other's frankness. And, we learned from each other's experiences as well. 

We would talk of almost anything: weather, jobs, money, Jesus, religion, life, family, vacation, economy and whatnots. Yet most often during these conversations, Cliff would bug me with finding him a woman to marry and he would stress over and over of the "list of qualities" that I should look for before introducing him to some woman. To which I always tell him that he has really high standards and it's very difficult to find someone with all the qualities he is looking for. Viber exchanges like these were constant and they kept on coming until the middle of this year. 

About a week ago, I was ready to introduce him to a friend so I created a chat group and started the conversation. However, his reply was really unusual and it made me suspicious that there was something wrong with him. Just a few days ago, I found out that he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. When he told me, he was still in the hospital. 

He was already discharged as of this blog writing but his speech and his movements has already deteriorated. He mentioned the need of a wheelchair for a walker cannot sustain him anymore. After he was discharged, he fell off thrice in one day and had difficulty bringing himself up after falling. He lost a lot of weight already in just a span of a week, from 126 kgs to 95 kgs as of yesterday. 

He is currently in Chang Mai, Thailand and will most likely stay there permanently. His doctor discouraged him of traveling back to the USA because of the risk of a seizure attack. 

I am sharing this to you to raise money for his medical expense. Chemotherapy is the next step for his treatment. He underwent radiation already. 

I am also sharing his Go Fund Me Page. You can click the words underlined and it will direct you to the page itself where you can make a donation. 

Please help me share his page as I am hoping it will be able to reach his family and friends who can help my friend Cliff. Thank you in advance.

Shattered Dreams

Yes, I had been procrastinating for a few years.
After coming home from a 5 months trip, I couldn't find the inspiration to write a new blog entry.

I felt like I hit a wall, a really hard wall, when hub talked me into agreeing that it was time to go home after our 2nd try at extending our visa. 
It was as if my dream of living in another country ended after having the chance to actually blend in and learning what it was like to live in a totally different place where the culture, people, lifestyle, cost of living, and what's not are the opposite of what we were used to.

We arrived at the end of spring when the cherry blossom trees started saying goodbye while slowly fading away.
Landing at Christchurch and experiencing the really cold breeze made us realize that the clothes we brought might not be suitable for the weather.
The 7 to 8 hours travel to Nelson left us mesmerized to the beautiful mountain view along the way where you can see them covered with snow.

Yet, hub wasn't used to the quiet life and even labeling New Zealand as the land of "The Walking Dead". 
The sun would shy away from the sky at between 8 and 9 in the evening.
Waking up early at 4 and having coffee at the garage in jogging pants, sweatshirts and jackets and still feeling really cold while our bodies slowly adjusted to the 10 degrees temperature was something new.

There weren't too many people and cars in Nelson.
Most of them would turn in at 5-ish or 6-ish.
People roaming around the street can be counted by one's fingers. 
This includes the patients walking inside the aged care, some naked.

Malls open at 7 in the morning and closes at 5 in the afternoon.
Yet, going to the grocery, buying chocolates on sale, ice cream, bread and finding a dollar's worth of either pork skin, pig's head, pig shank, beef shank, chicken liver and chicken gizzard found at the dog food section was pure happiness to us.

Walking, riding buses, and walking some more to get to different destinations was always welcoming and comforting even if I wasn't used to it back home.
Walking became our daily routine everyday after breakfast and dinner, talking and laughing at our experiences in the land where we were strangers.
Feeding ducks at the park and lakes was also one of the activities we always look forward to, wishing we could just grab one or two to cook for dinner.

We had a chance at applying for jobs, taking calls and interviews online yet not one was a match made in heaven.
Hiring process took a lot of time, over 3 months, and our time was quite limited.
And, even though it wasn't meant for us to land a job in NZ, it was an experience that was worth learning from.

When the days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and the time to finally go home has arrived, there's that "sepanx" and empty feeling inside after realizing that a lifelong dream which was in your hands has already started to fade away.
And that feeling of failure after realizing that you're not going to get something that you had always dreamed for your family sets in was heartbreaking. 
My dream for my family was gone, in other words, shattered.
Worse of all, going home without a job to go back to was something to worry about.

But then I realized that closing a chapter isn't really the end. 
Closing a chapter just means that it was time to open a new one.

After 2 years, I realized that coming home wasn't so bad after all.
We had a taste of living the New Zealand dream even for a little while.
Our family's relationship became better.
After coming home, I was blessed with a new job and I must say the pay was better than the old one.
The experience we had taught us a lot: patience, adjustment, anger and frustration management, to name a few.
But we are still blessed.

The dream might have faded away but we can always start a new one.
Maybe... Maybe one day I will be able to reach it.
If it wasn't meant for me to reach it, maybe, it's meant for my children.
There's hope. :)

Harbour City: Dimsum Yum!

I am not what you call a regular blogger nor am I someone who creates one to swoon friends, acquaintances or strangers to support or buy stuff. But dang, I must say that this resto is one of those that you need to dine in and tick off from your bucket list.

To start off, I’m 100% Chinese... but I am one of those who would make use of one of the lyrics from a certain song that “Chinese food makes me sick” as a life quote.. If it weren't for the hubby who loves Chinese cuisines, I wouldn't really be one of those people who would go pick out a Chinese restaurant on an ordinary day. HOWEVER, I must say that this is one of those rare times that I would recommend a Chinese resto to friends or even acquaintances and this is the Harbour City Dimsum House.

Harbour City, as far as I know and as far as the powers of my taste buds can tell, is located at SM Lanang, in the heart of Davao City (to be honest, I rarely go out and check out food establishments which I can say is a must try). We went there at the spur of the moment when mom mentioned going to SM to find something to eat for snacks.

So, while walking around after parking at the basement, we decided to go to Harbour City... AND, we tried these:

Pai Kuat

Pork and Seafood Spring Rolls

Chili Pork and Shrimp Siomai

Bacon Siomai

Fried Shrimp Balls

Steamed Hakao

 

Garlic Pork

We also tried their Beef Sate and Yang Chow Fried Rice. Too bad, we weren't able to take pictures of it.

Well, the food experience at Harbour City Dimsum House, I must say, is a 8 out of 10 for me just because they ran out of halo halo at that time.

By the way, you can click on the picture for a much better view.