My version of squash curry

I decided to try out Mitam’s recipe for squash curry.  Please check out her site, The Unofficial Cook, for the recipe.

 Let the onions, garlic, ginger and curry powder cook slowly.  (Haha…pasensha na, the pot looks old.)

Add the coconut milk and the squash.

 Bring to a boil and let it simmer.

Unfortunately, her version looks a whole lot better than mine.  Hahaha…mine doesn’t have a good presentation.  But believe me, this dish tastes great.  Next time I make this dish again, I’ll probably add chilis though.  I have a penchant for hot dishes.  Thanks to Mitams for the recipe!

What am I most thankful for?

I’m sure by now you’ve all heard about the discovery of the planned terror attack against Heathrow airport. (Read more about this here) Boy, I can just imagine that the U.K. and U.S. authorities must be heaving collective sighs of relief until now because of this discovery. Terrorists were in the “final stages” of a plot to simultaneously blow up as many as 10 jets leaving Britain for the U.S., sending the planes and thousands of passengers into the Atlantic Ocean. I could not even fathom the destruction and the psychological damage that such a terror attack could instill.

(scene at the LA airport after tightened securities are enforced)

In view of this development, I decided to come up with a list of five (5) things that I’m most thankful for. None of the gooey “I’m so thankful for the air we breathe and the food we eat” stuff. This list features the things that I’m thankful for – despite an unfortunate incident that happened in the past. Feel free to make a list of your own. Here it goes…

(1) I’m thankful that I’m still alive. Sheesh! I know what you’re thinking. I just said none of the gooey stuff, right? Read on first before judging. I’m thankful that I’m still alive, despite the mild stroke I had at the age of 29. Yes, folks, a mild stroke. Fortunately, the stroke was reversed immediately and I was able to return to work after a month and a half of rest. This experience changed my outlook in life. I’m more appreciative of the people around me. And I know that even though my family is undergoing some difficulties right now, I am still thankful because I get to experience these things with them. Any problem is surmountable as long as we pray and help one another.

(2) I’m thankful that my mom is still alive. No folks, my mom did not undergo a stroke or a heart attack. I do not want to dwell on the fact that my dad and brother passed away already. While their demise caused untold grief and heartache in our family, I cannot change the fact that they’re already at peace with our Creator. I want to celebrate life. I want to celebrate that I still get to spend time with my mom, my sister and her family and my husband.

(3) I am thankful that I’ve found my soul mate. I do not regret that I went through several heartaches in the past. These experiences have molded me into becoming the person that I am now – more appreciative of my husband and more understanding of the differences between a man and a woman. I’m not saying that I’m perfect. I am still unreasonable sometimes (haha…just ask my husband). But I’m thankful that I made those mistakes with other people in order to prepare me for my relationship with my husband now.

(4) I am thankful for the lessons I learned in joining past badminton tournaments (I joined a grand total of 4), even though I was not able to win in these tournaments. (Note: I was about to win in the third tournament that I joined, however, this was the time I had the mild stroke. Napurnada pa.) The experiences I gained and the lessons I’ve learned made me discover my inner self. Sorry folks, I am not the competitive type. I enjoy the journey more than the destination. But don’t you get worried for my sake, I still hope to win at least a single tournament before I hang my racket up for good.

(5) Finally, I am most thankful that it’s Friday once more! Hahaha…Four days of stress-filled work days are worth it. When Friday comes, there’s just something in the air which soothes me and tells me that nice things are going to happen in my life this weekend. After all, I get to spend the weekend with my family.

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” – taken from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran.

A Badminton Story – My first badminton experience

For those who are hooked on badminton, can you still remember the first time you played this sport?

I can still remember that day.  The year was 2001.  Badminton was not in vogue then and there were only a few courts in existence: Rizal Badminton Hall, Villamor, Crame, Aguinaldo, Bonifacio, Club Filipino, to name a few.  I was working at the Supreme Court (SC).  Eric, my friend and officemate, had been convincing me to play with their group at the CA (Court of Appeals, beside SC) badminton court for some time already.  I did not want to play the sport since I thought it was just a game for kids and I was more interested to play tennis.  (Previous post on this topic) 

Anyway, most of my friends in the SC were playing badminton already, and some were even hooked.  So in order for me to spend more time with them, I had to play also.  If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  My first racket was a Prince racket, but definitely for beginners.  It cost less than 1,000 pesos (approx. US$20).   

I walked up the hot and stuffy stairs to the 4^th floor of the CA Bldg. where the court was located.  My outfit was an old t-shirt and sweatpants.  I did not even bring water as I was not expecting to break out into a lot of sweat.  The game looked easy enough.  I had no expectations whatsoever. I had no idea that when I took the first swing with my racket, I was on my journey to a new dimension in my life.  Haha…sounds melodramatic. 

Anyway, I enjoyed my first game.  However, observers surely noticed from our stance (we stood and ran like children running loose in the park) and swing (we looked like we were playing palo sebo…hahaha…a local game where a blindfolded person would swing a bat, trying to hit a pot filled with candies and other goodies) that we were just beginners.  It did not matter to us.  My friends and I would break out into fits of laughter, especially when we would miss certain shots.   

I was proven wrong.  I was so exhausted after 2 games that I had to stop.  I needed water.  Fortunately my friend brought lots of water and gave me some.  I went home very exhausted…and very satisfied.  I finally found a new sport that I really loved.   That sealed my fate…I got hooked on badminton.  Who knew that this sport would introduce to my future husband?     How about you? 

Got any badminton stories of your own?     

Lutong Pinoy

(Note: For non-Filipinos reading this entry, the title of my post means “food cooked the Filipino way.”)

I was feeling quite lazy this morning, I just wanted to lie in bed and sleep the whole day. But since today is Sunday, it was my turn to cook our meal. Hmmmm … what to do … what to do.

I looked at the refrigerator and searched for ingredients. I wasn’t feeling particularly creative today, I just wanted to prepare something quick and easy. I saw a pack (1 kilo) of jumbo hotdog. I decided to try out a very simple meal which I saw in some turo-turo. “Turo-turo” literally means “point-point” referring to a small cafeteria selling various meals catering to the C-D-E crowd where customers can just “point” to whatever meals they want to eat. The meals are supposed to be cheap, hence, turo-turo owners must be able to come up with simple meals which consists of cheap ingredients and are easy to cook so as not to consume a lot of electricity/LPG.

But I digress. I cooked the pack of hotdogs first, then sliced it and set it aside. Then in a wok, I heated 2 tsps. oil and sautéed some minced garlic and sliced onions. Once the onions became transparent, I put in some chicken liver. After a minute or two, I put the sliced hotdogs and 400 g. of tomato sauce (I used the UFC brand which is kinda sweet since Filipinos are not used to the traditional tomato sauce and prefer the sweet kind) and 2 cups chicken broth (plain water will suffice). I added some salt and pepper to taste. Finally, I put in 5 chopped chilis (the relleno, inferno hybrid or the elephant trunk type…not too hot) to give it some kick. Here is the finished product.

Believe it or not, my nephew and nieces loved it! Ubos na ubos. What Filipino child/pre-teen can resist any dish containing hotdogs? Hahaha! Uhhm, by the way, I have a confession to make. I cheated. I was too lazy to cook some more so I asked Manang Anita to cook nilagang baka (beef and vegetable soup) and fried tofu.

With the rising costs of energy and gasoline, people from walks of life, and not only Filipinos, must come up with ways on how to survive on a very limited budget.

Lunch at Cafe Breton

Yesterday, my friend invited me to have lunch with her at Café Breton located in
Greenbelt. I readily agreed as it has been a long time since I ate at Café Breton.

When I used to work at the Supreme Court, my friends from work and I would eat at the Malate branch of Café Breton. We had to wait for this branch to open at 6 P.M. since we, as government employees then, were out of the office at exactly 4:30 P.M. (haha…those were the days)

Fortunately, this branch of Café Breton is open during mall hours.

Here is a yummy picture of what my friend ate (Blueberries and Cream – surprise! there are 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream inside)

And here is a yummier picture of what I ate (Le Magnifique – with nutella, whipped cream, nuts and bananas)

Yummy! There’s nothing like a chocolatey dessert to pick up a tired spirit.

Badminton 101 : Proper leveling – the heart of every tournament

In my opinion, the heart of every badminton tournament lies in the proper leveling of the participants.  Leveling is a procedure in a tournament whereby players are required to go to a certain venue and asked at random to play with other players in order for the organizers to ascertain their level in the tournament. Of course leveling is only done for tournaments at club levels.  There is no need for leveling in tournaments of international calibers since these are “open” tournaments (i.e., no leveling and players can be pitted against anyone, even against members of the national team.) 

I have seen many tournaments fall flat on its face due to misleveling.  I hope I don’t give you the impression that other aspects are not important as well, e.g., having an experienced and well-versed tournament director, proper organization, having competent umpires and linesmen, sizable quantity of participants, good venue and proper lighting, excellent time management, etc. All of these factors are equally important.  However, if misleveling occurs, either due to favors being granted to friends of the organizers or sandbagging, the reputation of the tournament becomes tainted and players will steer clear of such tournaments in the future.   

Sandbagging occurs when, during the leveling of the tournament, the players deliberately do not play well in order to be placed in a level much lower than their actual level.  This is being done by certain players in order to ensure that they win in their particular level.  Sandbagging is unavoidable in every tournament and cannot be totally eliminated.  However, if this happens on a wide scale in a tournament, then tongues will start wagging and the reputation of the tournament becomes at stake. 

I have seen at least a couple of tournaments in the past wherein there was a wide scale of misleveling and sandbagging.  These tournaments (whose names I will not mention) have not been staged since.  (One time wonder lang kumbaga.)   

How does one avoid misleveling during tournaments?  I asked my husband this question since he is the expert in this matter and not me.  According to him, the leveling must be conducted by an acknowledged expert who will notice the various nuances in the acts of the participants.  To clarify, the players may not win the game during the leveling but the “expert” will see how the players handle the rackets and shuttlecocks and will be able to at least differentiate a beginner from an intermediate player.  An additional deterrent should be the length of the games during the leveling period.  The “real strokes” of the players will most likely show if they play the full 1 or 2 sets instead of a shortened set.  There are other telltale signs which can be recognized by an expert but I’d rather not mention them all here for fear that a “sandbagger” reading this blog might be able to pick up hints. 

I hope that organizers keep these things in mind to make future tournaments at least tolerable, if not enjoyable.

My very first meme…

I got tagged by my friend Toe in Cambodia with my very first meme. This is a nice way for my newfound friends in the blogosphere to get to know me better. Anyway, so here goes…

SIX WEIRD THINGS/HABITS ABOUT MYSELF:

1. Whenever I walk on the streets/pavements/sidewalks, I try to avoid stepping on the lines. This is pretty normal behavior for kids, but kinda weird when you see a thirtysomething still doing it.

2. I love to dip bananas either in bagoong (alamang) or in adobo sauce. The sweetness of the bananas combined with the saltiness of either the bagoong or adobo sauce is just to die for.

3. I have an obsession about my hair. I was born with very wavy hair. As a kid, I would would put all kinds of pins on it to make it presentable. When I was in college, I discovered the magic of the salon and I started having my hair chemically straightened. Then, I started having “relaxing” treatments during the time I was in law school. I was so obsessed with having the “straight hair” look that I would spend an hour and a half blow drying my hair straight even though I hadn’t finished reading all the assigned cases. Hahaha…I was really obsessed with my hair. Nowadays, I still have my yearly “rebonding” or “relaxing” treatments. But I’m not as obsessed now as I was before. What brought on this attitude change? Simple. I got married. Now, my hubby is stuck with me no matter how wavy my hair becomes, especially with this rainy season in Manila which just exacerbates the curls.

4. I am not an insomniac but I go to sleep at around 2 to 3 in the morning. I do not have a perfectly good explanation for this kind of behavior. We do not have kids yet and as much as possible I do not bring home my work. It’s just that life is short and I want to read as many books as I can and watch as many interesting television shows and movies as I can. Of course I can only do this at night when we get home from work. Unfortunately, my husband is a light sleeper. He really gets annoyed because he is already in deep sleep and probably in dreamland already at this time and he would wake up because I could not go to sleep without hugging or embracing him.

5. I have trouble learning new/additional languages. I don’t know what chemicals are in my brain which makes me an idiot when it comes to learning another language. I can only speak Filipino and English. That’s it. I grew up studying in a Chinese school and my father is Chinese but I can only speak a grand total of 4 sentences (more or less) in Chinese Mandarin. I really have trouble understanding Chinese even when I was surrounded with a whole class of Chinese-speaking students. When I started working, I had the bright idea of learning another language…Spanish this time. So I enrolled in Instituto Cervantes which was then located in Leon Guinto St. in Manila. I took Saturday classes for more than 2 years. In fact I think I reached Level 9. But aside from the occasional Spanish words which just happens to be the same in the Filipino language, my know-how in Spanish is the same as that of someone who just reached Level 1. Pathetic! All those years of studying Chinese and Spanish down the drain.

6. I have an adopted half-brother in China which I probably will neither see and nor hear from again. Most of my friends don’t know this about me. My father and his wife (not my mom, by the way) decided to adopt a boy (actually, when he was adopted, he was probably around 23 years old already, so I could hardly categorize him as a boy) because they do not have a son. We all know how important it is in the Chinese culture to have a son who will carry on the family name and take care of the family business. Anyway, I got to see him a grand total of 2 times, first when we visited him in China and the second time was when he visited us in the Philippines. We never heard from him since my father passed away almost five years ago. And since you all know my trouble with speaking Chinese and my adopted brother doesn’t speak a single word of English, I do not foresee any possibility of us establishing contact in the future because of the language barrier. Besides, none of us knows his address in China. Hmmm…but all hope is not lost. Remember The Joy Luck Club?

Ok. That’s it. I decided not to tag anyone since I do not have a lot of friends yet in the blogosphere.

Thank God it’s Friday!

I just want to shout to the world “THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY!” No more drafting of letters to client, no more conferences to attend, no more reports to make…time to enjoy!

If you notice the title of my blog – “OF LAW AND BADMINTON” – it announces in itself that this blog is supposed to be about the law and about badminton. However, you will notice that so far I have only written about badminton, the weather in Manila, recipes and even make-up. No posts about the law…yet. I attribute this to the fact that since I am a practicing lawyer by day, I am too exhausted about my job to talk about it during my “blog” time. Grabe … .nakakasawa na.

This preoccupation to talk about everything else besides work would manifest itself whenever my hubby picks me up from work. Our talks in the car would begin by him asking how my day went. I would usually answer by telling him that everything went OK. Then I would excitedly ask him how his day went. He is, by the way, a badminton coach and former national champion here in the Philippines. I would want him to tell me EVERYTHING about his day. How his day went is definitely more exciting than my day at the office.

Anyway, weekend’s here! No work for two (2) days. Yehey! I am so excited. Hope you get to enjoy your weekend too!