Yellow Areca Palm Fruits for my Mellow Yellow #2

 I took these photos from a distance at our condo, where there is a coconut and orange orchard. There is also a small area where these areca palms are grown. According to Wikipedia, the Areca nut is the seed of the Areca palm (scientific name Areca catechu), which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of East Africa. I googled for Betel Nut which I thought is its name but even wiki says it is erroneously called as that.

While fresh, the areca fruit's husk is green and becomes yellow when ripe. Wikipedia says, areca nuts are chewed with betel leaf for their effects as a mild stimulant, causing a mild hot sensation in the body and slightly heightened alertness, although the effects vary from person to person. The effect of chewing betel and the nut is relatively mild and could be compared to drinking a cup of coffee.
For more interesting Mellow Yellow Monday  posts, click here.

Is Eat-All-You-Can Healthy?

Buffets abound in Thailand where food is so cheap. There's the 99 Baht (about $3.0) eat-all-you-can where you can enjoy grilling or cooking anything that you want such as chicken, pork, shrimps and wide varieties of vegetables. For desserts, you may choose from the enticing array of fresh fruits and local "kanom" (desserts) or local home-made ice-cream. But my favorite buffet is Sizzler as I can savor its cream of mushroom soup and irresistible salads.

You may want to order just salads including soups, noodles, fruits, desserts and a toast for only 149 baht (about $4.0). But if you order their main dish, you get all these for free. It has healthy choices of vegetables and fruits and great selections of salads such as Waldorf, Asian Potato, Roasted Pumpkin, Vegetable Pesto and many more.

But to answer the question, is it healthy to eat buffet? To me, it depends. Most people I've asked think that when they go to dine at a buffet, they want to get the value of their money by binging on lots of food as much as they can. They go home bloated and the bad thing is some go sleep right away. For sure, this is not healthy as it will punish the digestive system and push the kidneys too much to filter the unwanted wastes especially if you eat too much fatty and cholesterol-loaded food especially meat, seafood and even salads. 

Salad may sound healthy but not at all. Yes, the vegetables are healthy but the dressings do the tricks making the taste so good but remember that the more tasty the food is, the more it is loaded with fats and cholesterol. So, don't get deceived with the enticing salads camouflaged as healthy food. The more dressing such as mayonnaise it has, the more unhealthy it is. Don't binge too much on these palatable salads disguised as healthy food. Instead, binge more on naturally prepared food such as fresh fruits and vegetables without dressings. So if I fascinate to dine at Sizzler, this is what I eat more to make me feel full right away and avoid binging on too much salads, which I love so much.

The main point is, eat moderately even in buffets.

Early Christmas Treat at the Home of World-famed Manny Pacquiao

 Yehey, I won again!!! It's my second joining and winning in a blog contest since I started blogging last August. The first time, I won free tickets for the Air Supply Concert Live in Gensan, with the same contest setter.  This time I won the Ultimate Greeting Contest set again by Bariles on the 2nd Blogoversary of his Gensan News Online Mag (GNOM). This multi-awarded blog keeps us informed about the developments of our hometown, the very progressive and beautiful city of the world-famed boxer Manny Pacquiao - Gensan. I got a silver prize, a dinner for two at this  posh restaurant, Grab A Crab, which I really wish to visit when I go home. And I'm going home very soon so I'm gonna dine there for FREE!!! Isn't that great for early Christmas treat? The prize won't be that much for others but for me, it's a great reward for just enjoying my greatest hobby (my addiction!) - blogging and reading other blogs like GNOM which I always follow.

Load of thanks, Bariles, for the endless contests you've been organizing for bloggers to enjoy. And to my prize sponsor, Mr. Michael Wee of Grab A Crab, thank you very much.
(I took the screen shots of these photos from GNOM. You may want to click this link for better view on the original post by Bariles himself.)

Ruby Tuesday #1: A haiku

Red palm fruits

Stunning brightly

against the dominant greens.

Red and green!

Christmas colors at misty morn

In nature's perfect harmony.

I appreciate any interpretation of this simple haiku.   

You may want to read other interesting entries of Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet.

My first Mellow Yellow Monday entry

As I was taking out my 6-month old baby to the park for a kiss of sun rays through the trees this morning before work, I spotted this really beautiful yellow butterfly on a bright yellow flower. What a perfect first entry for Mellow Yellow Monday!

And here's another one with a touch of gold fully spreading its wings as it sips the nectar of these yellow flowers.
Click here for more MYM posts.

Cool fountains here and there

The cooling fountain and the clear, blue sky
on a lovely Sunday morning
Cheering up the family bonding
taking a walk together at a park nearby.

Behold the ripples!

Circling the sparkling fountain

Coconuts, palms, shrubs, trees and flowers around

All so refreshing to the passersby.

This one at Suanthon Park's entrance

Small but in a perfect shape

Greeting the joggers and families

Even the lovers and friends.

A boy awaits
for the water to stop flowing
to run across
that he won't get wet.

'Tis a cool sight to behold
amidst the crowded city's hustles and bustles 
Even tourists at Siam Paragon are waiting
to capture an image when the waters fully rise.

Does the bare-footed lady make it or miss it?
As she gambles even if she gets wet
Running across at the wrong time
She doesn't mind as long as she's refreshed from heat.

Now, which one is your fountain?
(I took the first three photos at the 63 acre Suanthon Park between our condo and my university. I captured the last three at Siam Paragon on the the busy Sukhumvit Road in downtown Bangkok, where "farangs" (foreigners) usually flock.

Getting together with Pinoy community in Bkk

Last Saturday, dear hubby served as "ninong" in a child dedication or to Catholics called as christening. As becoming now a common practice to hold the dedication on the child's first birthday to be more practical on one-time spending for such a memorable event, our friends here in Bangkok (Bkk) also do the same. So the celebration for both the dedication and the birthday of our dear Parsley, the second daughter of our neighbor friends, was held last Sunday. Dear hubby wasn't only a ninong (godfather or sponsor) but also a chef. He cooked the specialties he is known for here and back home - kaldereta (beefstew) and pinapaitang kambing (goat's liver and other internal organs).

                                          Kids first!

Well, it's good that we have such a growing Pinoy community in here with kids around. What life would be overseas if there's no salo-salo (get-together) during occasions like this? So we're not missing the kaldereta, adobo, kare-kare, pancit, lumpia, tinolang native chicken,  buko (young coconut meat) salad, kakanin (native desserts) and other Filipino food as we share them here with kababayans during special occasions or even if we just feel like getting together. Most of all, we keep our Filipino traditions and culture not just in terms of food but also of the joy of sharing, bonding and helping each other which we want our children here abroad to keep.

When technology becomes bane

I felt so devastated last night upon learning that a hacker accessed my Facebook (FB) and Yahoo accounts to scam my friends. The scammer chatted with my FB friends showing herself on the webcam with my baby. How could he/she do that? Maybe by stealing some photos from my Facebook or elsewhere? I don't even update it. He/she is such a skillful deceiver! He/She asked for e-load of small amount at first promising that she would send the payment in 2 days. When my friends said they could not send any e-load, she instead proposed that if they wanted to make money, she could give as much as 50% profit to their money if they could send the amount of PhP50,000 Globe and Smart e-load right away. So that amount would become PhP75,000. in just a matter of 2 days and that 75k would be sent to my friends through Western Union knowing that I'm abroad.
One of my friends who really trusts me completely believing that it was me she chatted with sent the asked amount. Yesterday, as she could no longer reach me through the given international roaming number and my FB and her link with me through Yahoo was also placed in the Ignore List, sent a comment to my blogsite. That's the time that she confirmed that it wasn't me. She now feels so stressed and so do I.
One thing I discovered about my FB account is that, anyone can change its password. It's not secured. I wanted to deactivate it but I couldn't. A prompt said, "You can log in using your old email address and password to reactivate it". But even if it's secured, for evil hackers, they can still access anything they want.
This is when technology becomes more of a bane than boon. So, beware of any identity thieves lurking in the dark to hunt their next preys! Be wary of giving out any personal information. Verify a million times before granting anything valuable. Oh, I'm now becoming paranoid to whom I interact with via cyberspace!
P.S. Please spread this information around to save the next modus operandi victims.

What it takes to be addicted to blogging

Yes, I've finally got this! It's a great weekend treat. After blogging for just a quarter, I'm rewarded with PR2 and got reviewed by blogged editors with a rating of 7.7 (very good). I was about to lie low due to my very demanding job these days as I'm still coping with loads of backlogs after my 90 days maternity leave. Moreso, with a newborn babe to spend my golden time to, doing other things like blogging (especially for a newbie like me who still has a lot to learn and explore) is just for those blessed with ample time. But blogging is such an addicting habit. Once you're into it, like being addicted to smoking you can't just stop. And seeing a 0 (as in zero!) PR was such a challenge to me so I had to work harder even in exchange of my very precious sleeping and resting time. I thought I would just make it as a pastime but now it turns out to be more than that- it's not only eating up my time - it's eating me up actually as I think about it everywhere I go, hahaha! So I always have my camera with me, making me improve my photography skills and my keenness to find something interesting in just anything around. More importantly, it makes my mind very active all the time brainstorming ideas for my next posts. No dull and wasted moments at all! So it's totally wholesome for me.
Let me take this chance then to thank my encouragers for getting me into this wholesome blogging addiction - Gleenn and scribbler. Were it not for their great help and encouragement, I would have quit long time ago. Of course, I  also owe my dear actively-involved virtual friends for their support - dhemz, kandi, dorothy, jinky, cookie, chris, faye and the rest. I'm growing in blogosphere because of you, guys. I'm always grateful to all of you and to all readers out there.