A Few Seconds of Sunlight

Sometimes, to me, there are days that seemed to drag on, hours that seemed to never pass, minutes that disappears, seconds that seemed to play tricks on you, times that fogs your memories; making it almost impossible to see the silver lining behind those big, dark clouds and uncertainties that leave you nothing but doubt. It is at this point that when you could think of nothing to cheer you up anymore and things had gone completely wrong that a ray of sunlight suddenly lit up, makes you smile and let you forget all your worries just for a little while. A laugh from a child, a chat from a friend, a warm smile for a greeting and a simple thank you for everything. These are my few seconds of sunlight bathed on a tired and weary day.


Good night people. A stressful day on a Manila Day.




Stranger Passing-By
SP-B/06/24/13

Independence Day Vacation

After a three-week straight of work, it's good to finally have a day off especially when it's a holiday. Goodby stress, goodby work, goodby pressure and hello couch/bed/food and fun. So, here goes.

"Mga anak, makinig kayo mabuti. Noong buwan ng Hunyo ika-12 ng taong 1898, idineklara ni Emilio Aguinaldo ang kalayaan ng ating bayan sa mga kolonya ng Espanyol. Doon narin iniwagayway ang ating pambansang watawat. At yoon na ang naging Araw ng Kasarinlan o ang Araw ng Kalayaan..."                     - from the stories of dear Lola Tasyang  : )

The Philippines Independence Day was celebrated every 12th of July. Filipinos would go to parks, watch parades and have a great salo salo afterwards; and that is exactly what we did, a great big salo-salo.
 
Menu for this day: Grilled Chicken, Pancit Canton and Four Season Gulaman juice.

It was our first time to actually grill in the open with live charcoals and all. It turned out great and even better than we had expected. Marinating of the chicken proves to be the most crucial point and calamansies help add that Mang Inasal taste. Starting up the charcoals is actually harder than it looks, promise. Good thing, we got some help from some good samaritans.

Almost done grilling the chicken

The Grilling Place

Finished products

The heat and coals underneath

Four Season Gulaman Juice. Cheers!

Grilled Chickens sa Kaldero

After a hot and hard day of grilling, it's nice to cool down and have some fun with family and friends. So, Upwords me, baby! : )

Battle of the Brains

UPWORDS!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.




Stranger Passing-By
SP-B/06/14/13

Refresh, Rewind, Relax and Recall... Yeah!

Last night was so much fun! It had been educational, relaxing and a great time for group-bonding (ooh, it rhymes). We had been invited to attend a symposium on Hepatitis at the Crowne Plaza in Ortigas and yes, I'm back to working my bones off again 24/7 (exaggerating, of course). I felt I was really a part of something when they asked me to participate in the event. The repertoire started with the usual opening ceremonies and when speakers started their lectures, we learned a great deal of knowledge about Hepa A, B, C and D. The event was organized by the Abbot Lab.; a company specializing in medical researches, to promote their new and developed product or assay in determining HCV. Last night, I felt like a health professional but today, I felt like a real Med. Tech. Being able to brainstorm and debate on the topics that were discussed last night really boosts my confidence level. We talked about how some patients were being misdiagnosed because of lack of confirmatory tests performed, how important HBVDNA is, the effects of vaccines and how it can affect the virus (which is very confusing), the mutations on proteins that were perfectly accomplished by the virus, the sensitivity and specificity of the assay, the occults and the carriers and how HDV can turn out negative in HbsAg (the key diagnostic test of HepaB). It was such an experience being able to learn, debate, brainstorm, share jokes and laugh with my fellow colleagues. The share-jokes-and-laugh part begun when the speaker's lecture sounded more like a thesis complete with its feasibility studies and computations that totally made no sense to me... shhh. and when their slides looked like they copied and pasted from each other and the font size was no more larger than 10 in Calibri style. Oh, how they hurt my eyes.   O.o


Doodling, table napkin folding, tea and sandwiches, lectures and friends...




Stranger Passing-By
SP-B/06/04/13