10 Cardinal Rules To Remember If You Go To Downtown Cebu

       

          In as much as I would like to say/write to dress as a local, it would be funny in the sense that even locals don't dress accordingly as the location demands. I am referring to downtown Cebu here. Though it's comprised of different streets that intersect including Colon Street, it is locally known as Colon, a hub of different activities and interests. You could never say you have been to Cebu without visiting this part of the city. A warning though, it's notoriously known for petty crimes.

          Colon, pronounced as Koo-lon, is one busy and crowded place. Besides the business establishments in the area, it is also teeming with street peddlers(legal or not), students(since it's within the university belt), tourists, and mixture of shady characters. By shady characters, I meant swindlers and snatchers. Because it's crowded with the constant flow of traffic(vehicles and people alike), the police authorities have a difficult time pursuing criminals. Also far ahead is the Carbon Market which is as busy as Colon Street. It's another place where you have to activate your alert level in case you choose to go there. Carbon Market by the way, was part of my itinerary I briefly mentioned in my previous entry (Get up, Get out, Fear not). Though I know my way in and around the area, I could never be too careful. Even locals fall victim to pickpockets and the like, how much more if you are first timer.

          So to protect yourself from falling the same fate as the others, here are few tips to hopefully ensure your safety and help you walk in Colon unscathed with your pride and possessions intact. I don't say they're foolproof but so far I never had incident of bag slashing or losing of valuables.

1. Dress to blend in.
          By this, I meant dress down and leave your fancy dress at home. Dress casually and dress in something that does not make you conspicuously stand out.

2. Dress not just for comfort but also for safety.
          You define your own comfort, that's a given. They come in any form, in whatever you fancy as comfortable; a pair of jeans, shorts, skirt, dress, sleeveless top, etc. Men have no problem with this actually. But with women it's different. There are incidents of "accidental" brushing of intimate parts and exposed skin such as the legs and upper arms. If you don't want it to happen to you, it's best to wear a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

3. Don't wear your bling or minimize it.
          Some people just love wearing all their jewelries whether they're in shining gold, glittering silver or sparkling diamonds. I get that part in which you feel bare without your accessories because they become a part of you. But please, don't wear them in downtown Colon. They're attractive to snatchers. Without you knowing it you're being trailed only to be mugged when they have the chance at less crowded spots. Also for women, don't wear dangling earrings if you don't want your flesh to be torn apart by snatchers.

4. Wear a sling bag.
          Don't carry a backpack or knapsack. You would be surprised how some snatchers are quicker than the others you would not notice your bag being opened and emptied while you're walking. Place your sling bag in front of you where you can see the zipper or buttons or whatever lock it has.

5. Don't bring a lot of money.
          Bring only the amount required to buy the stuff you need and stash it where you feel is safer.

6. Separate your loss coins from your bills.
          That way you don't have to empty your pocket's contents when all you need are coins. Don't tempt the snatchers and swindlers by displaying your wad of bills in public. If your bills are not thick, you can fold them and put them in the secret pocket of your jeans.

7. Turn off your phone or put it in silent mode. 
          Any phone models or gadgets are attractive to snatchers. If you could, don't take them out from your jeans or bags. But also take note, it's not advisable to put your phone in the pocket of your jeans, especially if you're wearing tight ones. It's likely to fall off besides making it easier to be snatched. Be mindful of strangers "accidentally" bumping on you because some of them will feel your pockets for the prospective loot and some have companies few yards ahead that will do the dirtier work of pointing sharp objects, e.g. knife or ice pick, at you and robbing you.

8. Please don't, for your own sake, look ignorant.
          Even if it's your first time in the area, feign like you know the place and know where you are going. Look with your eyes without moving your head from side to side, which is a clear indication that you're looking for something or a place. If you're lost, ask someone you think can be trusted, like a security guard or saleslady or policeman if you see one around the area.

9. It helps if you speak the dialect/language.
          People warm to strangers who speak the dialect or language. It means you try to blend in, to be understood and to understand. It also prevents you from getting duped since you can follow the conversation.

10. Bring an ID with you.

          This is actually for the worst case scenario. In case something will happen, you'll be identified.

*If you have something to add, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this blog or in Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegirlinrippedjeans

Get up, Get out, Fear not

So I was out for another exploring adventure in my city, Cebu City. You know, no matter how many years you have lived in the city, and how many times you've walked your way everyday in the same streets, always, there's something worth noting. I maintain that every walk is an adventure. But Marcel Proust said it eloquently, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

As always, I was garbed in my usual comfy and trusted( I was thinking about emergency, e.g. running in case I'd get into a compromising situation where I have to run, literally, for my life) attire of jeans, shirt, and sneakers. I had to do away with my ripped jeans for the day's sojourn because I had to do an errand first that involved getting inside a school premises and needed to look human. I wished I was in my "street" fashion though, because it always made me feel like I belong anywhere and one with the street people. When I have my head wrapped and thoughts organized on how I revere my ripped jeans, I'll write another think piece it truly deserves, that's a promise. Oops, sorry for digressing.

I had to be honest, I felt fear. My day's itinerary involved taking pictures for my other blog (if you recall the "journey" I mentioned in my earlier entry Should I follow the rules, or follow my intuition?... that was it), which meant asking strangers for permission to take photographs, going to areas I seldom frequent, and meeting "unlikely" people. But what I feared the most was the safety of the camera I was carrying. It was not mine. It's a family use, but the burden of losing it while it's in my possession was beyond horrific. It's a Canon EOS 1000D. Yes, it's an old model, but just the same, it's not mine.

Did you ever feel an overpowering fear that it threatened your objectives and paralyzed you? I felt that, even before I stepped out from the house. Time and again, Facebook was my saving grace. Or rather, what I read from there made me shoved my fear down my throat and did what I had to do... and I would like to share them with you. Here:

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do."

and;

But most important of all, and always I seemed to forget was to ask for guidance and surrender my fear to my Jesus. Just to be clear of controversy since religion is a touchy topic, you can do so with your Allah, or Buddha, or yourself(if you believe in none), it does not matter. What mattered is don't give in to fear because it will make you accomplish nothing.

I did realize as well that when the drive to reach your dream and make things happen is strong, it reduces fear into significant size. And this my friends, allows you to focus into accomplishing things with vigor and determination.

We Are Never The Same Person After We Are Broken

Few months ago I broke my left foot's third toe. I was walking along the flooded street one rainy night to fetch my sister with umbrella, grumbling and irritated, because doing so took me away from chatting with online friends. Not to deny my annoyance, it made me slipped my mind that the road was uneven and the part near the traffic light where I had to cross had an uncovered hole. Maybe I miscalculated my steps. Maybe by some cosmic revenge of karmic gods or goddesses because I was doing the task halfheartedly, they let my foot fell in the hole, breaking my toe and part of the metatarsal bone(the bone between the toe and ankle).

The circled part's the broken toe and part of the metatarsal.

So for a month I wore a cast which limited my movements and made some things difficult to do. Taking a bath was painstakingly grueling, with the foot needed to be wrapped in layers of fabric before putting it in a plastic bag and sealing it with adhesive tape around the leg and elevating it on a chair to prevent the water from seeping in. Living everyday with an impediment was demanding. To stay positive and to cheer myself up, I did every task as a hurdle I had to perform with the best that I had and challenged myself to succeed, while vowing  as some sort of future penance, to do the things (like running) I had not done before the accident. So my thoughts were just directed towards healing, getting better, and walking on my two feet again literally.

Look! I was a gladiator.

On some days I found myself plummeting into sadness being confined at home. But I found an encouragement through a post from my cousin's Facebook. It said:

"CULTIVATE OPTIMISM". – The happiest people do not live with a certain set of circumstances, but rather with a certain set of attitudes. They have the ability to manufacture their own optimism. No matter what the situation, the successful diva is the gal who will always find a way to put an optimistic spin on it. She knows failure only as an opportunity to grow and learn a new lesson from life. People who think optimistically see the world as a place packed with endless opportunities, especially in trying times." 

A month after, the cast was off. The broken bone healed, but the toe was never the same again. It's slightly distorted at the base, curved downward like an obtuse angle turned upside down. It protruded whenever I flexed my foot and never flattened whenever I pressed all of my toes on the shoe or slipper I wore. It hurt every now and then when it's strained from too much walking or running. The result of the clumsy and expensive accident became a little inconvenient that I have to bear for the rest of my life.

There were too many what ifs. What if I patiently waited for the rain to slow down and the water to lower down before I walked on, or, what if I was in my usual clear self and focused on what I was doing or where I was going, would the accident have happened? What if, the chain of events; the rain, the flood, the irritation, the hole; were prelude of the accident that meant to happen. What if, for another reason entirely, maybe at different time or circumstance, the toe was still meant to be broken and I had to go through the same ordeal.

But the thing was, it was neither the timing that struck me the most nor the cosmic design that some things were meant or not meant to happen. It was how the flow of life encapsulated in one incident. One night. One moment. One mistake. One fall. Some pain. Some lessons. Some healing. One incident that somehow was parallel to life, only, in a smaller dimension.

Every minute of everyday, life presents opportunity that demands the right to make a choice whether it's right or wrong. But who knows if it's right or wrong? The thing that matters the most is how we stand with our choices. The significance of the choice can only be felt as the events unfold. Some of our choices catapulted to series of successes, happiness, and triumphs. While some dragged us to misery after misery, heartbreak, desolation, and hopelessness.

But then again, the aftermath of a choice leads to another choice. To make things better, to never sit on our laurel, to never settle after a victory, or to remain there, basking on the soon to be historical glory, or to rise above the challenge of being at the bottom, to pick one self up after a defeat, to move on, or to try again.

No matter how many choices we make in our lives, always, the result is how we become after that. But note this, every time after we're broken for calling some bad shots, we find ourselves in a better and higher place. We're never the same person again.

To Celebrate Earth Day: 13 Cool, Creative, And Innovative Ways To Recycle Plastics And Other Discarded Materials

April 22 is International Mother Earth Day. It's celebrated annually around the world to raise consciousness on the pressing environmental issues and how to protect the only planet we have. In our small ways we can take part in saving Mother Earth, starting from home. As our obligation as inhabitants of this planet, the very act of saving it should take root from within us. Can you imagine, if each of us has the same intent, the impact it has to our world in a bigger scale?

The price of progress is high; pollution, global warming, depleting natural resources, displacement of people to pave way for infrastructures, and garbage. We can't solve the problems all at once, but we can do so one step at a time. For one, we can recycle plastics to lessen the garbage.

Plastic (due to their relatively low cost, ease of manufacture, versatility and imperviousness to water*) is widely used. But since it has a slow decomposition rate after being discarded as trash, it presents a problem to garbage disposal. Burning is not an option, though it's still practiced, because it contributes to the thinning of the ozone layer while adding to the problem in global warming. Thus, anywhere in the world, the echoing call for recycling.

In celebration for the Earth Day, here are 13 cool, creative, and innovative ways to recycle plastics and other discarded materials at home and in our community. (Except for the two photos at the bottom, all photos are courtesy of Google images.)


1. As building material (in replacement of hollow blocks... and this one really blew my mind):

                         

2. Use as replacement for pots:

3. As a vase and party decor:

4. As a broom:

5. As candy or nuts bowl: 

6. As pen/scissor/pencils stand/holder:

7. As make-up storage:

8. As art material:

9. As house decors (whether it's Christmas or not):

10. Tin caps as jewelry:

11. Tin cans as storage:

12. As bags: 

13. Foil packs as pillow stuffing:

Oh, here's a tip I learned from a friend a long time ago, and though it's not much, it impacted me in a way that it became more than a habit. It became a way of life. When you are outside and you have a piece of trash with you, e.g. empty foil packs of biscuits and "chichirias" or snack foods, but can't find a trash bin, you can roll it and do the overhead knot to compress (the idea is to save space) the garbage and put it in your bag until you can find a trash bin. Here:

The possibilities are endless. All it takes is creativity, imagination, and the will to be part of a greener earth. Anytime is a good time to start.



______________
* Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic

I tried cooking dumplings, and I failed.

The first time I had tasty dumplings was in Tainan, Taiwan. It was so good, the taste left an impression in my mind forever. I still remember the heat, the goodness of the sauce, and how it was fried perfectly, that it felt like I had a soulful connection with the cook. Lol. (Dumplings are abundant in Taiwan. If you want to visit the country and like the food, then you have no problem with unfulfilled craving.)

Anyway, that was seven or eight years ago. I never had the chance to cook them and never had the desire to cook them, until, I saw the recipe from one of my mother's food magazines. I felt the jolt. I felt the kick in the gut for something awesome to happen and it's calling me to make it happen. Hah!

Enough of the drama. So here's the recipe, in case you want to try it in your kitchen:

Please don't mind the penmanship. I swear I work hard to make it better.

It was supposed to be a Japanese gyoza or dumplings. But when I was in the supermarket, the cost of buying the mirin (glutinous rice wine for cooking) and sake was a suicide to the wallet. Since it was an experiment, I had to forgo the two ingredients. My dumplings seemed to taste just fine according to my siblings. But I can't help but wonder how it would have tasted with the mirin and sake in it. One day, when I can afford it... Oh, a small bottle of mirin was less than Php 200, but the sake that I found was over Php 500! I had been to different stores looking for the sake alone, but only from that store I found what I needed. Walking away from the shelf was heart wrenching. Lol.

For the record, I followed the instruction. Don't be overwhelmed, just combine everything.

The tricky part was the folding of the dumpling wrapper with the filling. Some of the wrappers' edges were torn when I tried to peel them off from the stack. Because of that, I had shorter space to work on with the folding on some of the wrappers. Anyway, to summarize the process (if you can't read my handwriting, lol):

1. Place a heaping teaspoon of the mixture in the center of the wrapper.

2. Moisten half of the wrapper's edge with water.

3. Fold wrapper over to enclose filling, and pinch the edges together to seal.

4. Chill for 30 minutes. But if you're hungry, forget chilling.

Dumplings can be fried or steamed. But I suggest to fry them first for few minutes for the nice brown color on both sides, and then steam them to fully cook the meat (if you have meat dumplings like this one). But whatever works for you and whichever saves time, it's fine. 

What are dumplings without the sauce? So:

For the dipping sauce:

Just combine: 3 tbsp dark soy sauce

                       1 1/2 tbsp vinegar

                       2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

                       1 tbsp sesame oil

                       1 tbsp chopped green onions

                       2 tsp chopped garlic                   ----- Mix well.

Happy cooking!

This is how my dumplings looked like. Lol. Looking forward to my second attempt and save my pride!

You can browse the internet for the recipe for a better and clearer version.

Should I follow the rules, or follow my intuition?

That was a question Nik Sharma, a scientist turned pastry chef, asked to himself. I came across his story in Yahoo news and was inspired by his guts to give up a stable career to pursue his lifelong dream of cooking. I got to browse his blog, A Brown Table, and it's filled with recipe entries complemented with dark and moody pictures of his adventures in the kitchen. It turned out that besides being the chef, he was his own photographer! What made his pictures stand out was that he highlighted the motions. You can see for yourself how every pouring, whipping, spreading, and the like, had been emphasized in his photographs, as you browse through his blog. Just to give you the preview of what you will see in his blog, here are some pictures from Nik Sharma's A Brown Table:

                         

The drama in the pictures. The story they tell. Beautiful, aren't they? Not to mention that they're about food, this foodie enthusiast died... and live again. Food and art... what could possibly turn ugly?


Why him in my blog?

Good question. By sheer coincidence, meeting him for the first time (weird that I say that without actually meeting him in person, but I do hope you get my drift, yes?), inspired me. His story is pushing me, and telling me I am in the right direction as far as my dream is concern.

I am about to embark on a journey that I know will take a lot of work. I can see the frustration ahead. I can feel the excruciating pain of moving forward while being hold down by woes that I know are inevitable. I am aware of my lack of resources, e.g. money and humans. But the thing is, it filled my mind since the idea gave birth to itself. I'll update about it, and the progress as I go along. For now, I tell you, the idea was complicated at first, but with the constant thinking of how to make it work, it becomes better and more viable to be executed, in my opinion at least. I pray for focus and strength!

Funny thing happened, or more of coincidences, or some more boost of confidence, perhaps? After I read about Nik Sharma's story, I opened another link which brought me to quotes by famous and successful people. The one that struck the most is this:

    

Good luck. To. Me. And God, help me!