Taho nga!

I had a big taho craving today.  Several blogs posted a few interesting taho quick fix recipes but I decided to follow the recipe from "Panlasang Pinoy". It is very easy to make!  I didn't make my arnibal though but used maple syrup instead. The key ingredient is the soft or silken tofu and the tapioca balls. I boiled the tapioca balls for about 1 hour then put in on top of the silken tofu that I heated in the microwave then poured a generous serving of maple syrup and I have my taho! Brilliant! Yummy!

Bestfriends

50 things to do before I die

On 8/28/09, in a moment of introspection, I listed the 50 things I wanted to do before I die.  It's only 50 because I couldn't find enough things to extend the list to 100. Now, barely 2 years later, I halved that list!  Here are the stuff that I still need to do:

1. Go to Egypt and see the pyramids;
2.Write a bestselling novel;
3. Own my dream house;
4. Tour the Philippines;
5.Learn German;
6. Learn French;
7. Learn to drive;
8. Be 42.0 kilos;
9. Get a Master's degree;
10.Dye my hair blond;
11. Run a marathon;
12. Get toned abs;
13.Stay in a really expensive hotel for a weekend;
14. Go around the world for a year;
15. Adopt a homeless child;
16. Offer a college scholarship grant;
17. Ride a camel ;
18. Have a nude artistic photograph of myself;
19.Own a house on the beach;
20.Go to Thailand;
21.See the Grand Canyon;
22.Plant a tree;
23.Own a Mercedes Benz;
24.Get an MBA;
25.Cut my hair really short;
26.Travel around Europe in a mobile home.

Plus, I got a tattoo! It was not on my list but I mentally added it.  It was 51st on my list. See:

Bohol Beach Club

 

If you have time to go to only one island in the Philippines, I would definitely recommend Bohol.  I  love Bohol.  I think it has the best of what the Philippines have to offer. For our second trip to Bohol, we wanted some peace and quiet so we decided to stay in Bohol Beach Club instead of Alona Beach.

The beachfront of Bohol Beach Club is very photogenic.  The sand is white though not as fine as the sand in Boracay. The resort is quite exclusive so it is quite peaceful to rest on the beach.

The resort offers diving, kayaking, and free glassboat rides!  In Kenya, we paid 35 dollars per person for the glass boat ride and we saw 1 brain coral.  In Bohol Beach Club, the glassboat ride was free and they took us to their wonderful house reef  just a few meters off the beach. The reef was full of beautiful colorful coral and fish . That was a highlight!


My only problem with the Bohol Beach Club was that their rooms were not so nice. Their avid use of fluorescent lights did not do the rooms any favor aesthetically.  I would suggest using less fluorescent lighting and more soft yellow lights. I am all for energy conservation but energy saving bulbs come in different hues too. The white tiles in the bathroom made the room feel quite cheap. On the positive side, the garden was beautiful, the pool was great, the food was good.

Since we were busy learning how to dive.  It was only during our last day that we realized that we can go out of the resort to eat.  Immediately next to the resort is a public picnic place where there are stalls that offer grilled treats.  There is also the Dumaluan Beach Resort nearby with a pretty decent restaurant.  We spent 6 days at the Bohol Beach Club, even though they have 3 restaurants, I got tired of it that I was very glad to go somewhere else to eat.

Bohol Beach Club -http://www.boholbeachclub.com.ph/

Bengal Cats

What breed of cat looks like a leopard, barks like a dog, and loves water? Answer: Bengal Cat! They are a relatively new breed of cat that came about by cross breeding a house cat with an asian leopard cat. I am so in-love with them! I first saw them at the Animalia in St. Gallen last weekend.

Below is an Animal Planet documentary about this wonderful breed of cat:



We are on our way to getting ourselves one. If you also want one, here is the link of the club of reputable Bengal cat breeders in Switzerland: http://www.igbengal.ch/IGB_ZuechterCH.php

Memorable Photos: Trump Tower in Chicago

Filipino Accent Tutorial by Mike Bustos

This is really good. So true.

5 Most Common Issues in Contraception

Estrogen pills may be used by both men and women for different reasons, but even with regular use in women to try to alter their fertility patterns, mistakes can nonetheless be made in birth control methods.



1. Not Using Protection

This can be one of the biggest mistakes. Men who don't use condoms are at a remarkably higher risk of making women they sleep with pregnant. This contraceptive mistake happens either because many the younger generation engaging in sex do not understand the importance of using protection or they just don't want to use condoms since the sensations to them don't feel as stimulating and pleasurable. But this is sometimes a very costly error in case a couple is looking to avoid getting pregnant.



2. Forgetting to Adopt Birth Control Pills

Some women never obtain a prescription for contraceptive pills in the first place, and some do but forget to take them. This can pose a critical hazard to an intelligent birth control approach between couples. These pills have to be taken on a regular basis, usually in the exact same time on a daily basis. If not, the chances of effective contraceptive are severely diminished and the ease of getting pregnant becomes greatly magnified. It's really not a wise decision to miss taking these prescribed pills.



3. No Intrauterine Devices

Some women want to take their chances at conceiving a child by not only not using protection or contraception pills but by also never getting an IUD from their gynecologist. This is an immature technique of looking at birth control since IUDs are so effective at preventing pregnancy. While they are not 100% effective by any means, they're still an outstanding birth control choice for women of most any age who are sexually active. Plus, they can be applied inside a woman in a short doctor's visit and also the procedure is completely painless and relatively inexpensive too, so there should be no reason why women make this wrong birth control decision.



4. Using Inefficient Withdrawal Method

Withdrawal of the erect male organ is among the worst birth control methods ever invented. It almost never works since the temptation for the male is to continue to keep his penis inserted inside female at the point of orgasm and ejaculation. This mistake is so costly to an incredible number of girls and women of nearly every age.



5. Having Sex During Most Fertile Time

One of the worst birth control mistakes is for a woman to engage in sexual practice during her most fertile times of the month. That is not very logical. It makes little sense, yet it's done on a regular basis, mostly by younger ladies, who might not have a full understanding of exactly how the fertility and pregnancy processes are associated.



About the writer: B. Coon has a degree in Gynecology and blogs for the www.estrogenpills.org website, her personal hobby blog she uses to deliver free information on estrogen pills.

Contraception

During lunch with my colleagues we talk about a lot of different topics. A few weeks ago, I told them about my misconceptions about contraception when I was a teenager and this shocked them a lot. Filipino teenagers get their information about sex solely from their friends. Most of the time the information is total crap. Maybe 1 or 2 of my highs school classmates got pregnant in the first year of university and each year a few more succumbed.  By the time we finished university, about 50% of my high school classmates had a child or got someone pregnant.  Some were forced to marry early and some even stopped studying. Not surprisingly, most of these marriages did not work and ended up in separation.  Since we don't have divorce in the Philippines, it was very difficult to correct this mistake.  It was such a pity because we were supposed to have good futures as we were supposed to be the "scholar ng bayan"! No matter how intelligent we were supposed to be, we were ignorant about sex because we didn't have any kind of proper sexual education.  This ignorance really messed up a lot of our lives.  The problem was, since we were not supposed to be having sex, adults did not think it was necessary to inform us about it.  Going to the gynecologist for a pill prescription was out of the question as the doctor would probably call our parents. The only option to get information was to listen to other  ignorant teenagers about contraception.

Imagine that it was a common belief in my time that if you drink aspirin (some other variation of this legend says you should drink coke with it) after sex, you won't get pregnant.  It was said that it is better of course if you drink a lot of aspirin.  If you bleed then there would be no baby.  Gosh! Aspirin is a blood thinner.  It's crazy to overdose on it for contraception purposes. Even if I didn't try the aspirin method myself, I know for a fact that drinking aspirin won't prevent pregnancy.  Maybe, it can kill you but it is not a form of contraception.

Since politicians and the church are still arguing about the RH bill, I thought it is a good idea to post some pointers about safe sex and contraception here. So when Betty Coon asked me if she can guest blog about contraception, I said yes immediately.

Here in Switzerland, parents give their teenage children condoms themselves.  This is not to encourage them to have sex but to prevent them from contracting AIDS or getting pregnant.  The fact is, young people do it anyway whether we can admit it to ourselves or not.  What we should do is educate our children about it.  Actually, in doing that,we demystify sex and maybe even achieve to teach them abstinence.  Why is it so bad to teach teenagers about sex?  Gosh, I am not asking for a practical demonstration of the Kama Sutra but only lessons about how to protect themselves against STDs and unwanted pregnancy.  Will that really be so titillating?

I hope bloggers who support the RH bill will post more materials about sex education.

7 Bataan barangays follow Ayala Alabang, pass own RH laws

I am reposting this article from Inquirer.net.  I think this just shows how the Catholic Church can easily manipulate the common mind. Prohibiting condoms (making people get prescriptions for condoms is the same as prohibiting it) is a crime!  If I would be a lawmaker, I would pass a law that would make it mandatory for government officials to "pass" an IQ test.

7 Bataan barangays follow Ayala Alabang, pass own RH laws
By Tonette Orejas
Central Luzon Desk
First Posted 04:59:00 03/28/2011

Filed Under: Family planning, Local authorities, Legislation

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Seven barangay councils in Balanga City in Bataan province have enacted ordinances similar to the controversial Ayala Alabang ordinance that bans the sale of contraceptives in its locality without a doctor’s prescription.
The local law allows only the Catholic Church-sanctioned natural family planning methods to be discussed in village health centers.
First batch
Barangays Puerto Rivas Lote, Puerto Rivas Ibaba, Puerto Rivas Itaas, Cupang Proper, Cupang West, Tortugas and Tanato became the first batch of villages in the country to follow the lead of Barangay Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa City in the Catholic Church-led campaign against House Bill No. 4244, or the proposed Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011 (RH bill).
Protect rights
Catholic Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga said the barangay captains gave copies of the ordinances enacted from March 16 to 25 to Mayor Jose Enrique Garcia III before the closing of an anti-RH bill rally attended by some 10,000 people in Balanga City on Saturday night.
“We signed a covenant where we promised to protect the lives of our constituents—including the unborn,” Tortugas Barangay chairman Victor Baluyot said by telephone on Sunday.
Santos said he was happy that village leaders made “prol-ife ordinances.”
“These reveal the unity and harmony between the church and government and we are working hard for the protection of life,” he said.
Result of forum
Asked why the village councils passed ordinances that were almost a replica of the Ayala Alabang ordinance, Santos said that might have been the result of a forum he organized on the request of barangay leaders where the lecturers were from the Ayala Alabang council.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is campaigning hard against the RH bill which is currently being discussed in Congress. The CBCP on its website encourages village officials to “defend their positions against the RH bill by enacting ordinances that would protect the sanctity of life, especially of the unborn.”
Fear of extinction
“Kinopya po namin (We copied the Ayala Alabang ordinance),” Puerto Rivas Ibaba Barangay Captain Manny Bustamante said by telephone.
“Ayaw po naman namin na lumiit o mawala ang susunod na henerasyon sa aming barrio (We don’t want the population in our village to shrink or be gone),” Bustamante said. His village has almost 5,000 residents.
The city government is expected to deliberate on the controversial ordinance.
Earlier, the Muntinlupa City Council put the Ayala Alabang ordinance on hold and remanded it back to the barangay, reminding village officials to brush up on human rights laws.
Unconstitutional
“The right of any individual to access contraceptives and family planning methods deemed illegal in the barangay ordinance, yet allowed by the Department of Health, may constitute a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution,” the city council had said in its letter to the barangay.
Catholic educator and constitutional legal expert, Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas S. J., denounced the ordinance as likely unconstitutional, adding that it was a crude “attempt by a sector of the Catholic Church to instrumentalize the power of the state to impose Catholic belief on all others.” With reports from Elmer Kristian Dauigoy, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Romulo O. Ponte, Inquirer Southern Luzon