Mauie Flores

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The Swine Flu pandemic is presently affecting countries of Mexico and the United States. Although there are still no reports of confirmed Swine Flu patients here in the Philippines, the scare has already spread among our countrymen and has already affected the hog industry. Almost everyone is avoiding eating pork these days because of this flu strain. From what I watched on the news last night, the Dr. Tayag of the Department of Health advised everyone that the Swine Flu is transmitted by an airborne virus. That simply means that it is spread through the air we breath. Therefore, one way of being protected from contracting the disease is to cover our nostrils and mouths especially around people who cough and sneeze. The department also advised everyone to wash their hands or to cleanse them with alcohol or antibacterial gel.

My son and I had our free influenza vaccine from Sanofi Pasteur just before February. Somehow, I feel assured that we will not contract the disease. The Vaxigrip vaccine that was administered to us fights symptoms of this Type A H1N1 virus. Should we be infected by the Swine Flu, the vaccine can make the illness milder and make us well faster.

Swine flu is a common illness among hogs. In fact, it doesn't affect them so much. It's when the virus is transmitted to humans that complications arise. Symptoms of the Swine Flu include ever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue just like when one has the usual flu. Diarrhea and vomiting are also associated with the Swine Flu. Complications like pneumonia and respiratory tract failure may lead to death.

To know more about the Swine Flu, you may visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site here.

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The downside of going on vacations is the weight gain. Believe me!

A few months back, I started a brilliant plan of going three times a week to the gym to shed the 15 pounds that just wouldn't go through diet alone. I walked-ran the treadmill for 30 minutes at a speed of 6 and an incline of 12 each visit. I attended the dance classes, worked on various machines, and lifted weights every other day. I was doing progress until Christmas vacation came.

Come on, don't tell that you didn't overeat last Christmas! There's something about the season that made me forget. I found an excuse to skip gym classes and eat out with friends and family. There were so many parties to attend to. Add to the fact that it was my sister-in-law who cooked the sumptuous food that we had.

After that, work beckoned. I had so many worksheets to do and new students came rushing in preparation for their entrance exams. Going to the gym, and even just walking in the morning, became a thing of the past.

I know, there's no one else to blame but me for still being plus-sized this summer. I am working on it. I succeeded before and I know I can do it again. No, I won't take weight loss pills. I just need to go back to my daily grind.

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I almost totally abandoned Twitter just a month after I signed up. Well, one of the reasons why I have chosen Plurk over Twitter is that I can update my plurks through PhPlurk. When I started with Twitter back in July, I can still send mobile twits through phtwitter. Two weeks after that, Twitter decided that they cannot allow free sms updates anymore from other countries outside US and Canada. Another reason is that I liked Plurk's timeline style of updating. The responses are also more organized and most of my plurks end up like chatting with my plurkmates.

Just recently, I got back to twittering all because of my love for Chico and Delamar of RX 93.1's The Morning Rush. It's a routine for me to catch them on air from 6 to 10 in the morning. Since they opened their lines to Twitter a few weeks ago, I found it more convenient to greet them or post my responses to the daily Top Ten through twittering. In fact, yesterday, I twitted my response to "The Top Ten Moments When A Family Member Embarrassed You" and Chico got to read it on air!

Hollywood celebrities are using twitter, too. Below is a dNeero conversation about this.




I enjoyed reading Oprah's twits but I will need to find more courage before I can send her a twit. I heart Oprah! Who's your favorite twitting celebrity?

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This is a nice tag and I was tagged by Earth.

Here are the rules of this tag:

1. Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you can’t go into your closet and pull out your favorite purse! We want to know what you carried today or the last time you left the house.
2. List how much it cost. And this is not to judge. This is for entertainment purposes only. So spill it. And if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, we’d love to hear it.
3. Tag some chicks. And link back to this post so people know why the heck you’re showing everyone your bag.

So, here goes...

This blue Burberry leather shoulder bag was a gift from my sister-in-law, Dulce, who is based in the United Kingdom. Since this is a gift, I do not know how much it costs.

Inside my bag are the following items:

1. My gold and black wallet that contains all my ATM cards, credit cards, IDs, rewards cards, and health insurance card;

2. My cellphones. One is the Sony Ericsson K750i that I have been using for almost four years now. The other one is my dual sim TV phone;

3. My only "make-up" as of the moment, Pond's Beauty Color Powder, as I am having a skin asthma attack because of this changing weather;

4. Hair Doctor comb;

5. A small spritzer of Cleene isoprophyl alcohol;

6. A small spritzer of my Bath & Body Works Pleasures Night Blooming Jasmine Body Splash;

7. Biolink Tea Tree Oil Feminine Spray;

8. Pilot G-Tec C3 black pen;

9. Facial tissue and wipes;

10. My pink and brown 3-fold umbrella;

11. Brown "Jackie O" shades,

12. Mentos gum; and,

13. Metformin (my oral anti-hypoglycemia medicine) and Advil for migraine.

I am now tagging Abbie, iMom, and Sassy Mom. Have fun girls!

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Our satellite cable tv subscription started this noon. I have been waiting, and ranting, for this since we moved here in Cainta. We cannot sign up for the usual cheaper cable TV subscription because the local cable service provider does not want to invest in the installation of cable wires in our village. We needed to have more residents before they go in.

This is a gift for Rap because he's missed Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network for almost two years now. Our smart boy wished for this as a reward for the awards he received this year. The bigger boy, my husband, is also happy. He's a movie buff and now he'll get his regular treats from HBO, Cinemax, and Star Movies. Of course, I am happy too that I will get to watch the latest Oprah episodes and not the delayed ones shown on Studio 23. I will also be able to watch Discovery Travel and Living channel again and start daydreaming of visiting historic hotels and art galleries.

Now, all I need is to buy a wireless router so I can finally work downstairs while watching cable TV!

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My sister and brother-in-law are celebrating their first wedding anniversary tomorrow. My sister, who is a year older than me, called us up today to inform us of a swimming party for the family tomorrow at the village clubhouse in my parents' village. I was half-glad that they thought of celebrating this milestone with the whole family. On the other hand, I would also understand if they set off to some place private.

My sister and brother-in-law has been together since we were in college. I was so elated when they finally decided to get married that I even got myself involved in the preparations for the wedding.

On their special day, I am wishing for more happiness and marital bliss. I also pray that God will guide them every single day like how He did in our marriage. I wish for them to have more financial blessings for them to start investing on assets and investments like health and life insurance policies. (Go ahead brokers, give them your free insurance quotes NOW, hahaha!) Lastly, I am praying for a neice or a nephew from the two of them. So far, the only babies in their home are four-legged creatures with tails! Seriously, I wish them all the best!

Bebs and Uj, welcome to your second year!

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One of the major financial adjustments I make during the month of April is the allotment of funds for our annual insurance payments. This year, with the global recession and the obvious downfall of most insurance companies in the industry, we felt worrisome. My husband is having second thoughts about continuing the payment of his pension cum accident insurance plan. He fears that there may come a time when the insurance company will close even before the time when our investment has reached maturity. When that happens, all of the payments we have made will have gone to waste.

I am torn between his fear and my feelings over the payments we have already made in the past three years. We only have two years to go. If we quit now, we can have a refund but, for sure, that will just be a small fraction of the money we have already invested in the insurance program.

We do not actually need the pension and accident insurance because my husband's company has the best insurance coverage for its employees and the employees' dependents. We signed the contract because the agent is a very close relative and we cannot let him down. A mortgage protection life insurance could have been a better choice. Still, if it were just up to me, I will still continue with the payments. I have already kept a portion of our monthly budget for that, anyway.

What do you think? Should we continue with it or not?

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One of the good things in having a male house helper is that I get to have the convenience of not hiring an extra hand when it comes to home construction work. This summer, since I declared my self-imposed teaching leave, I decided to focus on what needs to be done in our home. We have been here for almost two years now and, thankfully, we have managed to take a breather out of our whopping moving in expenses. I have already planned our budget for the month and it showed that I can use a portion of the extra moolah for home renovations. Jun, our househelper for over ten years already, is excited with the project.

Project Number One is the construction of shelves in the storage area under the staircase. In the past, I had constantly teased Rap about making him sleep in the storage room under the staircase just like Harry Potter. We haven't installed shelves in the storage area because we prioritized other things that needed to be done. So, in a year's time, the storage area became full of knick knacks that already needs some organizing. I also felt the need of having a closet for our shoes and the storage area is the most likely candidate. We decided that it will then be a shoe closet cum storage area.

Because of the home renovation projects that we are starting this summer, we have to stick to our plan of limiting our weekend getaways and just make do with less expensive alternatives.

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When my husband underwent an extracorporeal shock wave lithrotipsy last March 31, I realized that it's time to make a drastic change in the diet of the whole family. I have always focused on my own diabetic diet which I have gotten used to. I usually prepared food that is good for me thinking that it should also apply to my family's health. I was the only person in the household who needed a special diet, that was before my husband's kidney stone event. Now, I also need to adjust our diet so he can avoid having kidney stones again.

Although my husband's doctor did not prescribed a specific diet for him, I thought of avoiding high oxalate foods in our diet. As I did my research, I discovered that oxalate is linked with the formation of stones in the kidneys. High oxalate foods include spinach, meat, beans, green pepper, chocolate, tea, peanuts, softdrinks, wheat bran, and salt.

Along with restricting high oxalate foods in our diet, I also became aware of the need to increase our fluid intake especially during this summer season. We totally banned soda during the start of this year. I started to avoid soda products after I received my medical exam results that showed I was having a proteinuria problem. Instead of soda, we have more fruit juices now (not the sweetened ones). We also started to shy away from mineral water and have distilled water instead. I read that the body's supply of calcium should only come from foods like dairy products and not supplements. Excess calcium in the body goes to the kidneys and may form into stones.

I am still in the process of making our menu. So far, it has been trial and error as I have read conflicting researches on what is allowed and what is not.

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We went around Naga City's centro yesterday and checked out the appliance centers in town. We needed to buy some new stuff for my mother-in-law. My sister-in-law has finally moved in to their newly acquired home and most of the appliances from my mother-in-law's home was theirs. She needed a refrigerator and a gas stove of her own. Initially, we planned to go to the only Abenson branch which is inside the LCC Mall where we can avail of a 0% 12-month installment using our credit cards. SM City Naga will open up in May and there's no other bigger mall around.

We ended up going to the the local appliance centers we did not see our trusted brand in Abenson. We opted to pay in cash instead of using our credit cards. Some local appliance centers do accept credit cards but no installment options. The people here do not credit cards just in case because the stores have their own installment programs. There's a credit investigation process in the application program so we did not avail of that either.

The store where we went to, Multi-brand, is near the plaza along Elias Angeles Street. We are able to buy a 5 cubic feet Condura refrigerator, 2 desk fans, and a 2-burner gas stove all for 12,500 pesos. Of course, there was some haggling involved courtesy of my well-trained-in-China-haggler-of-a-husband. Now all Mama needs is a new tv stand because we brought home our 21-inch extra television set for her use.

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I am still here in the province having an impromptu, but nevertheless much needed, vacation. Life here in the province is refreshing. Although Naga City is a busy city these days because of the Lenten season, we are fortunate that our relative's place is away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

My sister-in-law cooks the best food as usual. She planned the menu a few days before we finally decided to push through in going home. She designed a menu that will be kidney-friendly since my husband is still recuperating from his kidney stone shockwave therapy. We also had the chance to go around the centro and try out authentic Bicolano dishes and local restaurants because it's my brother's first time to be in the city.

The downside of this vacation is the weight I gained in a matter of 4 days. My cheeks are already plump in the pictures and the siren is sounding off in my brain. Uh-oh! There should be a serious work out after this when we return to Manila. I think I should start brisk walking in the morning again. I resolve to not take any diet pills. Even the best appetite suppressant in the market won't work for me if I don't do some serious exercise.

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