Remember this?

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into Springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad.

(from the Musical – The Sound of Music)

I have a few of my favorite things that make me feel happy on the inside and no, it doesn’t include the latest tech gadgets today. I was thinking more of the “rustic, make you feel warm and cozy” type of stuff much like patintero, kite flying and playing on swing sets make you feel.

So what are some of my favorite “comfort” things:

1. Chocnut – who needs See’s or Godiva when you’ve got chocnut! The fat one of course.
2. Lugaw Tokwa – I miss the authentic probinsya lugaw-tokwa with lots of browned garlic on top.
3. Rain – not the typhoon kind or the ones that cause flash floods but I remember growing up listening to the raindrops pitter-pattering on our roof. Music to my ears.
4. Fresh bedsheets - especially when they’re cool because of the rain in #3.
5. Fishballs in UP – I’m not a UP grad but I remember going to UP with my roomate and just pigging out on fishballs and sago. I loooove it when my little fishball swells up with vinegar and the sweet and sour sauce. yum!
6. Chinese garter, tumbang preso, patintero, sipa and piko – nope. no Counterstrike for me.
7. Ice drop with munggo, keso, beans or buko – they used to make it with those metal molds.
8. Chikam – a word coined by my little girl. It’s actually, pork adobo fat cut up into little pieces and fried till crunchy before adding rice from the night before – something I learned from my dad. Singangag to the max.
9. DZFE FM – there’s something soothing about classical music. I love listening to the classics especially on a rainy day.
10. My dad’s keys with his dogtags – I miss hearing the sound of the clicking of those keys with his dogtags. Once I hear those keys, I immediately know my dad’s finally home. I miss you, daddy!

So these are some of my favorite things. How about you? Care to share what your favorite things are? Just leave a comment if you do.

coffee break ver. 1.21 - How were you like as a grade school student?

Mmmm, this one’s a bit tricky coz it’s just been like a few years ago (yikes! I mean ages ago) so my grade school memories are a bit fuzzy (overtaken by my own kids gradeschool escapades lol) but I’m still going to give it a try.

I remember chocnut and ice drop mongo and sweet corn flavor, grade 3 spelling bee, waking up to the sound of the church bells ringing telling me I’m late for school, blue and white school uniforms, daddy tying up my shoes for me, twenty-five centavo tricycle fares, nearsightedness and wrongly prescribed betty la fea glasses, climbing up our guava and camias trees (our backyard was cat tree heaven back then), holen, jackstones, pick-up sticks, sipa and piko, patintero, chinese garter with matching kung-fu shoes, field days and recognition days, a snooty science teacher who embarrassed me in front of the class (God bless her ), happiness was signal number 3 typhoons which meant no classes, martial law and bagong lipunan money… all these are snippets of my childhood. Where did gradeschool fit in? In between the cracks, I guess I didn’t do a lot of studying back then, I was sort of winging it through and quite honestly I still wonder how I got through. Speaking of chocnut I think I need to get my fix. Be back later!