A long Weekend to Reflect

Thank you all for the prayers you have extended to us, we were on our ngarag moments last weekend, but we did found the time to enjoy ourselves while doing the printing of graduation stuffs.

We had a deadline to beat, and are supposed to deliver the programs by 4pm today. But thanks God for HIS all-time love, we were done with the prints at exactly 8 last night. Finally, we can already have good sleep.

And now it's Holy Week, a time to reflect and pray, and to count the blessings God has bestowed upon us. For me and my family, bonding time and a satisfying rest awaits. May you all have a
spiritually productive Holy Week.

But wait, while browsing the net today for some Holy Week Quotes, I managed to find some really funny beliefs during this week, and I laughed out loud when I read this one.

Dru – "My mom said wounds during Good Friday will remain fresh forever. Imagine my panic, having been circumcised a week before Good Friday, crying and willing the wounds to heal in 6 days."

May ganyan pala? Do you have more to share?

Have a safe Holy Week.
To God be all the glory, honor and praise!

Busyness Ever

March is here, and as always during these times of the year, we are extremely busy with graduation stuffs. We have been in this line of business for years and years already, and although we wanted to surrender because of the hectic and toxic way to deal with this, we need extra income so we grab the opportunities that come.

Our clients have been with us for long, and by word of mouth, our services have been marketed from schools to schools already. Hence, my busy life. I am busy and was not able to drop by your sites. Worse, from today till the 30th are our ngarag days.

I will read your posts after I am done with all this stuffs. Imagine, it's 10,000 pages to print! And we are not even halfway - deadline is Sunday! Waaaaah! Cross your fingers for me, please!

Red Trellis Asian Food Cuisine - a Seafoods Haven

Crabs and shrimps, and everything is fine!


The last time I craved for crabs was last month, and the last time that I fully craved for crabs is because of Barlies' seafoods and crabs experience.

Last Wednesday night was a blast. Hubby and I were invited by the Maestro, Bariles himself to join them at Red Trellis, a fancy fine-dining restaurant just 5 minutes away from our house. We always pass by the resto but was too busy to even drop by and check the place.

Walking in, the cozy but light atmosphere amazed me. Trellises in red abound and the romantic lighting made my visit definitely not my last.

Please click images to enlarge.

There's a small pond with koi fishes bridging you to the kitchen where delectable aroma of seafoods and other Asian foods are being cooked to excellent taste. Tables in red, and waitresses in kimono made me think it was one Chinese or Japanese restaurant, but no, I was wrong. It was one Asian food cuisine we have entered into.

Waiting for us inside was the owner, Mr. George Sandoval who immediately ushered us towards our table. He was excited to let us taste-test the newest offering in their menu. Of course, I was more excited.

And I definitely did not stop myself from gasping an OMG when the crabs and the food were served.

First off, the black rice. Cooked in squid ink, without the squid taste, this black rice is a winner!

Black Rice in Squid Ink

Yummy beef tenderloin, hubby's favorite!

And the crabs! this one's another winner, oh! in fact all those served were all winners!

Typhoon Shelter

There were two huge crabs, one at 1.2 kilograms, and another at more than 700 grams. Soaked in garlic marinade, with spices and herbs, one look and your brain will scream in delight! My tastebuds told me it was perfectly delicious! The marinade and the spicy garlic is there, that is, to normalize a shooting blood pressure.

The unbroken hard shell covers 4 parts of the fatty irresistible crab flesh. One thing you'd love to do on a typhoon? Eat and be merry, hence the perfect name, Typhoon Shelter.


This one's the additional menu, it's called tamarind shrimp. And this is the one that we're checking out. It is a little sour with its tamarind taste, a perfect match to win over the crab taste. The tamarind sourness was actually not met according to the owner. He said they were still trying to experiment on this menu, and as to how it will gustatorily please tastebuds. For me though, a little more of the tamarind taste would be sufficient. I'd even rather have this unchanged since the kids will just love the taste minus the sour it will give.

Minced pork with lettuce and fried sotanghon

When I first tasted this menu, it was when we were invited to have lunch at another fine dining resto here in the city, however, I did not know the name of the menu and how it is eaten that I barely took notice of the taste.

Red Trellis offers this menu with such nice spicy minced pork on top, munched while placing the fried sotanghon enclosed in a piece of fresh lettuce leaf, and with a sweet sauce to equalize the spice and the bland taste of the fried sotanghon.

Feasting!

And whoa there! To finally gobble up everything, Red Trellis has got Slurpee! A nice brain freeze will surely come your way.

Kudos to Sir George for a very homely atmosphere inside Red Trellis plus the excellent Asian food! Thanks for the invite Sir Avel.

Crabs at P90 per 100 grams. Red trellis is located at Tiongson St., Lagao, Gen. Santos City. For orders and reservations, call them up at (083) 302 - 2722. Sir George will surely be pleased in accommodating you, he even personally goes around each table asking how you are settled in his place.

Red Trellis: ★★★★★

King Crabs, Anyone?

1.2 kilos of crab? Di nga?

Yes, there's even a 2.2 kg crab. That big! And uberly delicious and yummy and everything your salivary glands will tell your brain how it tasted.

Please wait for the post! For now, drool, baby, drool! Busy pa ang beauty ko!

Sprite Story #1

Everything is just lovely with Sprite. He makes kids happy, and is the new source of entertainment for the kids. I love how he makes my kids giggle and laugh. He is the new JOY-giver at home.

We just bought him stuffs, a bag of dog food, a chewy bone, and we gave him a ball to play with. he is just 2 months old yet and we have to bring him to the vet for vaccine shots. I might as well bring the kids along so they can talk to the vet as how to raise dogs.


Do you have pets too? What pets do you have?

Enjoy your stay with us, Sprite.

Kalilangan 2010 - Kadsagayan Street Dancing

Honoring the Past,
Understanding the Present,
Embracing the Future

Kalilangan is derived from the rootword “Kalilang” which means festivities, jubilation and celebration. It is a Maguindanaon word which connotes unity and gathering of leaders, tribes, and families.

Kalilangan celebrates colors, ethnicity, thanksgiving. There's actually more that depicts Kalilangan, and we here in General Santos City celebrates Kalilangan for a lot of reasons we are thankful for. It is also the 71st Foundation Anniversary of General Santos City. And I am so proud to say that I celebrated this year's Kalilangan with awesome friends and visitors.

In the afternoon of Feb 27, just after lunch, our group headed to the streets. And awesome colors awaited us in Pioneer Avenue.

Bariles taking colorful shots of the street dancing.

Colorful costumes, drumbeats, heart-pumping drumrolls and huge musical instruments paraded the street. Awesome noise surrounded the air. The heat of the sun never stopped us from enjoying the chants and the ethnic music. We cannot keep ourselves from dancing to the beat of each lyre, and the gongs.

The contenders for Kalilangan 2010 were awesome. Most of them were kids as young as Grade 2 and up to high school. Contenders came from different municipalities of Southern Mindanao, some from as far as Parang, Maguindanao and Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat. Malapatan of Sarangani Province also participated.

Excitement galore! Everybody was enjoying despite the scorching heat.

Still smiling while being baked under the heat of the sun.

Dancing in the street, chanting "Kalilangan, Manayaw ta sa dalan."

I was actually with Gensan bloggers and travel bloggers Dong Ho, Scud, Lawstude and Jonee who arrived in the morning timely enough for the Kadsagayan Street Dancing Contest. However, upon arriving at the venue, we immediately separated ways as the whole Pioneer Avenue was filled with awesome colors and participants that their eyes were fully satiated and out went their cameras. I was not able to locate them until after the first round of the contenders passed through the clock tower. We didn't get to have a pic in the street. =( Was not even able to meet my hubby in the street as he was busy taking shots as well.

with Gensan blogger friends

with Bariles

Another shot of this tribe gave the hubby a winning shot.

"Kalilangan is a noble tradition. It is a compleat work of art nourished and nurtured by a rich cultural heritage that has withstand the test of time from generation to generation."

Kalilangan in our city is being celebrated every third week of February.

Kalilangan 2010 - Lakan and Lakambini

I was late, the show was already starting when I came, but nonetheless I was awed at the result of the long nights of rehearsals these candidates suffered.

For the Kalilangan, we have the Lakan at Lakambini ng Heneral Santos, while it's the ever infamous Miss Gensan whenever September comes for the Tuna Festival.

I cannot give you a good description on how they performed but I was surprised at how beautiful these ladies are, and how macho these Gensan guys are.

The lovely Filipiniana gowns were designed by an international designer to the name of Johnny Abad. Admittedly, these are the gowns that i would love to fit, they really are sexy.

The contenders in their lovely gowns and colorful barongs.

We have been trying to behave ourselves, at times, when there are pageants like this, I usually cannot keep my mouth shut. But this time, I behaved. The fact that our university has a candidate, I was actually praying she'd make us proud. She did not, though I was satisfied with her answers, still she did not make it.

A bet of mine won instead. Happy still that the beauty of the General ladies are being discovered. We have beautiful women here, count me in!

Congratulations to the Kalilangan festival director! You made me proud to be a General. Thank you again Sir Orman for the photos!

Kalilangan 2010 - Car and Bike Show

Kalilangan started off with this Car and Bike Show at Robinson's Place, General Santos City. To my surprise, I cannot take my eyes off some of the lovely wheely things I have seen. The kids were also surprised at how grand these cars and bikes looked. These cars drive my mind back to those good old days.

But there are also those who are much into the future, as they are called futuristic cars with enhanced dashboards and nice steering wheels, to the gigantic rims and tires. Ahh, so much for mechanical stuffs. But these babies, sing to me: Baby won't you ride my car?

First off, the bikes.

They look oldies but naturally goodies. I can only imagine my grand dad hovering in the streets with this bike. Cool.


There were only a few of them as the show was basically put up for cars. And for those who are into these stuffs, drool baby, drool.


I bet you have seen much much better cars than these, but they are the cars which can only be found nearing and passing by the city streets. The owners are car collectors and some of these items are their babies which are worth much.

Mustang my eyes! This maroon Mustang is the apple of everybody's eyes in the place. Maybe because it was a first to be displayed, or we have just feasted our eyes on a vintage Mustang.

Maroon Mustang

Nice Subaru, yes? Such monster. I'm thinking of Incredible Hulk because of its color.

Dashboard awesomeness!

This Dodge reminded me of Bella Swan and her truck. If I can drive, will I want this truck? Maybe not, maybe yes. For a girl, i think this will be one big attention-seeker.

Nah, I don't know how to drive, yet! But I am waiting for the right time to get my hands on the wheel. I can only practice driving here inside the subdivision but I still want professional help in guiding me in the street.

But these are really awesome transpos, so cute, so majestic, so brute. You ask me what I really wanna drive, and I will still answer you with the car that's been my long time crush, a brute Toyota Prius!

So please Toyota, get those accelerators functioning well! You're entangled because of those.

More Kalilangan posts soon!

Thank you Sir Orman for all the photos used in this post.

Kalilangan Teaser

You very well know that I'm busy. Yes, I am. That's because every year during March, I and hubby accept on the side jobs doing layout designs for graduation printing needs.

It's actually a tough thing to do because we are employed during the day and works double during the night. We have been doing this for years already and even without marketing strategies, our clients already know whom to contact when this season comes.

Nevertheless, I will not forget that I owe you my Kalilangan 2010 Festival experience. This year's Kalilangan is by far my most exciting. But then again, patience is a virtue. So I ask you to be patient until such time I gather my thoughts and pics, and I will surely share to you how we Generals celebrated our Kalilangan Fest.

Did I make you smile with this pic? I hope I did.