Shame on You, hindi yan Tourist Attraction!

The nerve!!!!

Nakuha nyo pang magpose dyan sa resulta ng kaengotan nyo?!

Kayo naman mga gels, konteng respeto at kahihiyan naman...

** Thanks cheftonio for the pics...

Police and SWAT looked incompetent during the Hostage Taking

Ay nako.. totoo naman talaga... mukha silang tanga. lahat sila pumunta sa harap ng bus, nung may pumutok sa harap, dapa lahat! pati lahat ng taga swat.. tapos, lipat sila lahat sa likod at dun naman nagbasag ng salamin.. nung may pumutok sa likod, dapa ulit sila lahat.. tapos, lipat sa may pinto, sa gilid.... ni hindi nga nila alam na may emergency door yung hinayupak na bus eh! kahit si Ted Failon gigil na gigil na dun sa emergency door na yun.. kulang na ngalang eh kumuha sya ng megaphone mula dun sa newscenter ng abscbn at isigaw nya sa mga pulis na may emergency door.

hahay.. saan ba kasi kayo nagte-training ha? sino nagtuturo sa inyo na ganyan ang gawin? mas magaling pa yata mga teenagers sa inyo na naglalaro ng computer, baka may strategy pa!

kaloka.

O baka kasi puro kayo ganito kaya wala kayong magawang matino?!

At 13 weeks, 4 days (with Photo)

yeah, got crazy. took these shots while I was in the office waiting for 8:30 in the morning.

And yes, I honestly believe some of the bulge at the upper part of my tummy is due to my gaining weight. lol! The baby's contribution is just at the lower part of my tummy, just above the pants... :)

OB Visit and Maternity Clothes

They're not exactly the typical maternity clothes we used to see our moms and others wear. I really don't want those. Lol! Good thing there was an ongoing sale in SM Cebu and spent more than 30 minutes finding the "design" that somehow doesn't make my eyebrows rise.

Luckily, I found 3 upper pieces, one that just looks a bit like an ordinary shirt, and 2 blouses that I can use in the office. they're quite comfortable since they're a bit big. Got them from Additions and Mama Care brands in SM department store. I also managed to find a pair of pants that fit me nicely. It has an elastic band at the waist so when the time comes, it can still fit.

Before heading to SM we went to my OB, Dr Cyd Raagas of Visayas Community. Good thing there really was no t a lot of people lining up at her clinic. She's only "by appointment" on Saturdays. So we went in, chatted a little about how we're doing, how we're feeling, etc. and then she said she'd want to check on the baby's heartbeat. So she asked her assistant to get the doppler so she can listen in.

It works like an unltrasound, only it just lets you hear the heartbeat, you can't see anything. So she started moving the mic around my lower tummy and was starting to look a bit worried or surprised or something that she still can't locate the baby's heart. For a few brief moments Dr Cyd and Tom heard the heartbeat but it was very faint, only means they were pointing the mic at a wrong location. Dr Cyd moved the mic around more and said that maybe the baby was hiding at the inner parts of my uterus that's why it's hard to locate. But even before she got frustrated, my baby finally cooperated and let us hear the most wanted sound for the day. True enough it was very clear and strong - this is when Dr Cyd said the baby might be a girl since she has a strong heartbeat. It sounded so solid already, more like an adult, only faster. The doctor said the baby's heart was going about 140 beats per minute. She was being technical, we were just elated and excited. Tom's face was so lighted up, you can mistake him for a Christmas lamp.

So our next visit will be next month. I'm also lying low on salty foods and junk foods. Darn. Anyway, I just had too, or else my feet will look like an elephant's. And I also had to take note of what I intake. The doc said I have to be careful since diabetes runs in our blood, and also just to prevent being hypertensive before giving birth. Hohum. Guess we'll have to buy more veggies now.  :)

My WANNA EAT Cebu Experience

"I want pizza. Hmm, Brasco."... "Brasco?" Tom flashed a questioning look. Here he goes again, he can't remember where the heck to go. "It's in Wanna Eat. IT park, remember?!"

My last update about my pregnancy is that there are a lot of smells that I can't stand. Somehow tomatoes and tomato sauce got included in that list a few weeks back, and garlic too, but I was surprised to find out that there's one kind of pizza that doesn't make me cringe - Brasco. Brasco is just one of the brands carried by Wanna Eat Cebu, an all-in-one food tripper's heaven located in IT park (Cebu City).

I think Wanna Eat Cebu just opened recently, since it was just a few days ago when we actually stumbled upon it while looking for a place to eat where I won't gag because of the odors and whatnots. It looks like a mini-food court and carries a really wide variety of choices for an individual, a couple or even a group. I personally think the main "attraction" of this place is that a lot of possible food choices are covered by just one place, as I mentioned a few statements ago, it's a food tripper's heaven. They have grilled meats, rice-based meals, even halo-halo, all these are housed under their MyJoy brand. Pizzas, pastas and tacos are with Brasco, and if you want to have coffee and/or chocolate (both yummy!) for your after dinner chikahan, then Butterbean is there to indulge you. For kids and "feeling-kids", fruit shakes are also available if you don't want to have sodas or regular juice. So if you're out with a group and you're about to spend an hour or so deliberating where you want to eat because no two of you can't make up your minds on what you want for dinner (even lunch!) then Wanna Eat must be your first choice. You can continue arguing with yourselves while you're inside. Lol!

Anyway, so why do I like Wanna Eat's Brasco? Because it doesn't reek of the smells that pregnant women might detest. I know because the moment the pizza was served I started sniffing it out. (It's a weird habit, I know. But even before I got pregnant I really do try to smell my food first.) That's why I know it doesn't smell or stink. We ordered the Brasco specialty, the Brasco pizza. And a slice of it looks like this:

And there's Tom, barely able to speak from eating his slice. Don't worry, we didn't have soda, that's Wanna Eat's specialty too, blended Iced Tea.

Another noticeable thing is that when the pizza has cooled down a bit, the oils from the sauce and the meat doesn't float right up the whole thing, unlike some pizza stores I know. Ingrid (the owner) also told me the meatballs in the Brasco pizza were from their very own recipe. Lucky, because the meat also doesn't smell at all. Of course, I rarely rarely eat pizza without hot sauce, so I dropped a very generous serving of that on my slice too.

After having the pizza, you can't help but to think about eating something sweet, I guess because of the colors inside Wanna Eat. Chairs and tables were of fuschia and yellow green, which on my opinion, subconsciously reminds you of cotton candy. We ordered their Mango Buko Pandan instead of halo-halo because I was afraid my tummy won't hold in that much anymore. Hmm, lovely. The mangoes were just ripe and the cream wasn't to overpoweringly sweet. Perfect even for those on a diet. Or for "sensitive-tummied" people like me. Hehehe!

You might want to try it out tonight or tomorrow or on Friday night, especially now that Wanna Eat Cebu has special promos for their customers. They have the Belly Many promo which boasts of increasing discounts when your order of their grilled pork belly also increases. I just forgot how much the discounts were but it works like this: if you order 1, let's say the price is at hmm, 69 pesos. (It's an example so don't bite my butt over the figures if they differ in actual, ok?) If you order 2 instead of 1, you'll just pay 59 pesos each. And if you order 3 instead of just 2 or 1, you'll just pay 49 each. Something like that. So it's really very advantageous if you order more than 1. This type of progressive discounting is also available for their halo-halo. So if you're craving for that, might as well go there now.

So there, I've actually managed to pin down one of my cravings, pizza. But not any type of pizza. Just like my mom was having cravings specifically for Manager's Choice of another pizza brand when she was pregnant with me, I think I'm craving for Brasco pizza. I'll bug Tom about it again tonight. Lol!

Oh and before I forget, if you're out and about doing freelance work, just want to check your emails while or after eating, or just feeling the urge to update your status message and need Wifi, it's available there in Wanna Eat. Charging or plugging in your power cords is free for the first hour, they'll be charging a very minimum fee for the succeeding minutes, so better be good on time and battery management. Lol! And yes, Sodexho is accepted.  :)

No Longer a DOFOLLOW Blog

I shifted back to being a nofollow blog. And I sincerely think that Blogger should have a spam blocking mechanism with their comments or a way to block a certain user from ever trying to comment again because I have this really annoying blog reader that uses Chinese characters in his/her username and sometimes in the beginning of his/her comment. And every time I see the email notification that I got that comment again, my blood usually boils and if I could just see that person, I'd strangle him/her.

He/she may actually think I don't get what he/she is trying at all. And you're absolutely wrong. I've been using the internet for quite a bit already, and so I know if you're trying to embed adult/pron sites in the URLs linked to several dots and periods within your comment. I'm not stupid. I'd rather think you should just stop because I'd never share PR with you or any of your porn sites. I hope and pray that you understand the meaning of this blog not being a dofollow blog anymore so you'd just stop annoying me with your stupid comments.

On my 10th Week

My apologies for not blogging more often, but I was just in the pits in the last weeks - feeling tired and sluggish, not understanding what I'm really feeling, things like that. And up until now, I still don't understand myself most of the time. But here are some observations I've made during this whole "trip"...

MORNING SICKNESS

1. Most of the time I just want to stay in bed, or wake up late. BUT....I also don't push it because when I do so, I feel more tired and nauseated.
2. First few times I noticed that I'm nauseated is just about a few minutes after waking up and standing. It was really a hard time. I couldn't read the bible so well without feeling really vomit-ty.
3. First 2 or 3 weeks of my morning sickness episodes, I always always to keep everything in. Yeah, yucky. But I was thinking I didn't want to just lose all the things I managed to eat and drink during the first half of the day. Oh how I was very wrong.
4. The more I kept everything in, the sicker I felt. The vomit-ty feeling stayed with me throughout the day! Sometimes even at night, so technically I can't call it morning sickness anymore. It was a whole day event. And my husband and myself termed it as "the baby is playing with bubbles".
5. The more baby played with the bubbles, the more I felt the urge to finally let it go. And voila, one morning I just went straight to the bathroom and felt my stomach go inside out. Tom went up to the room so he won't hear anything. ;)
6. After that, I almost always set appointments with our lobby toilet once in the morning and once in the afternoon for one straight week. Today, luckily, no episodes yet. Yipee!

YUCKY SMELLS

1. After answering curious people that I still haven't found any odor or smell annoying yet (except for those I already do, I have a very sensitive sense of smell even before I got pregnant), it all started. I couldn't stand the smell of our shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, facial wash, etc. All of which were organic and smelled of fruits. I just can't stand it so we had to buy new ones. 
2. I absolutely hate the smell of raw meat and fish. I can't even stay near the meat section of the grocery store long enough to pick meat. My stomach just does somersaults.
3. I now hate the smell of my own deodorant. lol!
4. If you're Pinoy, your familiar with Mang Inasal. I can't even pass by their resto without feeling crazy. Same thing with the smells from all roasted chicken stands and outlets. Grrr!
5. Our office smells weird. And I can't help but notice that I feel cramped and gasping for air everytime I'm there.
6. I also cannot be near dried fish that's not yet cooked. Especially when it's still on the frying pan.
7. There's also something about tomato sauce and garlic together. There are some types of spaghetti recipes that I can't devour now because of a distinct smell.
8. Same goes with some viands with sauces and still, that smell I can't describe.
9. Milk. Something that my husband is scolding me for. I can't help it! The smell and the memory of the taste of milk just makes me weak and vomit-ty. Same goes with some fruits like mango, ripe mango, I think.

SOME GOOD THINGS

1. Something that calms down my tummy is the combination of soy sauce, vinegar and chili. Yummy.
2. Kamias with salt.
3. Singkamas with vinegar and salt.
4. Steamed rice. The ones you find in Dimsum restos/stores, it's a rice in a bowl swimming in some kind of sauce that has pork and peas.
5. Beef chowfan (of course, from Chowking) with siomai or lumpiang shanghai and vegetable soup (which Tom also loves).
6. Meat, for it to be appealing to me, should already be cooked when I see it. Also I shouldn't see or smell it while its cooking. :)
7. Fries and vanilla ice cream. Plain vanilla ice cream.
8. Smell of coke. Just because I can't drink it. Hohum.
9. kwek kwek. Or hard boiled quail eggs, peeled, and coated with orange-y flour and then deep fried. With it's sauce of course, vinegar cooked with onions and other spices.
10. Iced tea. Any kind of iced tea.
11. Chocolate or chocolate milk drinks. Also soya milk I like.
12. Meat roll with ketchup. Meat roll here is like baked siopao.
13. and of course... Chocolate!

So far, that's it. At least for now...  ;)

And oh, before I forget. The baby is fine. His, or her, heartbeat is now normal. So far there are no immediate concerns based on the last ultrasound. So far, we're both generally doing well... Thanks everyone for the prayers!  :)