Life’s Ideas

We had been planning to go on a trip to the United States by early spring of 2009. I had to get a US visa before then so I booked an interview with the US embassy in Vancouver through the internet. Vancouver is very far from Regina and there was no direct flight to go there. We had to get a connecting flight via Calgary or Winnipeg. We decided to make the most of the trip since we really had to spend a lot of money going there. My husband decided to renew his Philippine passport also although he still has two months before its expiry because the nearest Philippine embassy to us is Vancouver also.

We then contacted our friends from there and asked if we could meet with them. We also wanted to get some advice from them on accommodation, dining and what places to visit. We just booked our hotel and rent-a-car online.

We flew in from Regina and picked our rented car at the airport. We then checked in our hotel and went shopping for some items. Later in the day, we met with a friend at the Sears, just a few blocks away from our hotel. We exchanged stories while I bought some clinique cosmetics.

We left for the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was already dark when we got there. The park was open during evenings. The place was full of lights and buzzing with energy. From Capilano we had dinner at Moxie’s Grill and parted from there.

The next morning, we went to Vancouver Aquarium. The place is not so big but you can see a lot of unique animals there, including the beluga whales, spotted seals, dolphins, sloth, marmosa, turtles, stingrays, birds and many species of sea plants. They also feature a wide array of frogs and toads.

Then the day of my interview came. My husband accompanied me to the embassy and waited at the nearest Starbucks while I went on with my interview. The waiting in line took a while but the interview only took three minutes. The consul then told me to wait for my passport and visa in the mail within the next five days. Then we went to the Philippine Embassy to renew his passport.

We had lunch after the interview and before dark, we went to Harbour Center and took the elevator to the Harbour Lookout at the 50th floor. The lookout has a 360° panoramic view of the city. We took a lot of pictures with the city lights. We also went to Canada Place for the nightly light show. From there, we had dinner of sumptuous seafood at the famous Carderos restaurant.

Planning on a trip today is very convenient because of the internet . Using it as a resource is always to our advantage.

Tags: beluga, calgary, Canada Place, capilano, capilano suspension bridge, Carderos restaurant, clinique, dolphins, frogs, Harbour Center, Harbour Lookout, internet, light show, marmosa, moxie's grill, passport, philippine passport, regina, seals, sears, sloth, spotted seals, starbucks visa, stingrays, suspension bridge, toads, turtles, US Visa, vancouver, Vancouver Aquarium, whales, winnipeg
Posted in Travels|Vacations | No Comments »

There are many non-food items that I consider as staples in my kitchen. I always feel that life is more difficult without them around. Life nowadays is so much easier than a few years before. Products are getting better and better and new products are always in the market. We have seen how technology works and that is why we are so drawn to it whenever it has something new to offer us.

I’m going to share my top ten kitchen consumables. Some of them are needed for food handling and preparation and the rest are for maintenance and clean-ups.

1. Ziploc bags – Mine comes in 2 sizes, the small and large. There is also the single and double zip. I usually use the double zip for food in the freezer. I try to use them more than once. I wash them after every use, dry and keep them for future use. I only throw them aways when they look really very crumpled.

2. Aluminum foil – I use this mainly for cooking and baking. I wrap embutidos, wrap roasted meat after baking to seal in freshness, line baking pans to catch the drippings and use this as stove pan liners.

3. Cling wrap – This is very useful for refrigerator items. I usually repack store-bought meats with this. I wrap my sliced watermelons and cover bowls and food containers with this.

4. Parchment paper – This is said to be the modern baker’s dream come true. I use this to line my baking pans and even wrap food when baking and steaming. It protects baking utensils and makes food removal easy.

5. Wax paper – I use this for the storage of my make-ahead meals like dumplings and siomai. I line my food containers with wax paper before placing siomai and cover the top with it again so it remains dry. Also you can stock pile the siomai and use the wax paper as separator for each layer.

6. Toothpicks – I use toothpicks to test the doneness of my cake and brownies and to hold together cabbage rolls and the like.

7. Kitchen Tissue – Among the many uses of this is to absorb drippings from fried food, wipe dry anything and wipe clean all kinds of kitchen messes.

8. Garbage bags – Aside from keeping the garbage, I also use this to store items in the stockroom that just needs protection from dust.

9. Coffee filters – I can’t make coffee without this.

10. Mr. Clean Eraser bar – This makes cleaning simple, you simply wipe the dirt off. You can clean microwave ovens, stove top, tables and walls with this. It saves me a great deal of time.

There you go, my top ten kitchen must-haves. I don’t wait for me to run out of these things, I usually have at least two units of each on stock. They definitely make my life less stressful.

Tags: consumables, kitchen, non-food
Posted in Health and Home | No Comments »