Harvest Time

I was born and raised in the congested city of manila. My wish of having a nice garden and to experience life in the farm is just in my head. But being here in germany for eight years change my life's perspective.

Germany is a beautiful country because of its vast nature and greenery. Yesterday, i have the opportunity to experience harvesting fruits called mirabelle plum at my best friend's garden. Joy had a green thumb and aside from nice flowers, she also had plants and trees that produced fruits and vegetables. She also make marmalade or jams out of the fruits she harvested.

Black Forest Trip

The Black Forest in Germany is one of the best places to explore some of the natural beauty the country has to offer. This forest acquired its name due to a large concentration of pine trees which causes it to look quite dark from a distance. Additionally, the nearby mountains can cast their shadows over the valleys and further serve to darken it.

With mutti's last day of visit, we marked the day by driving to the black forest and its just like driving to Baguio with its zigzag road leading to the mountain. We first visit the hotel Bareiss which is one of germany's best where we have our lunch.

On the way down, we stopped at the ruined monastery and the chapel. It's colder up there and our summer attire is not the best outfit for walking to the nearby waterfalls.



On the way home, mutti bought some wines, a present for her best friend and son Klaus, when she returned to Koln tomorrow.

Elections

The 17th German federal election is scheduled for 27 September 2009 and will be held to elect the members of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany. It is the final and most important election in what is called a Superwahljahr (super election year). Election here in Germany is more peaceful and organized because of poll automation.

As millions of Filipinos are looking forward to the coming May 10, 2010 elections, candidates are now making their presence felt in billboards and also on social gatherings. Actually its my birthday, so millions of my countrymen will exercise their rights, they will go out not to attend to my celebration but to vote.

Photo credits-Pinoy Herald

Donating Old Clothes

For dirk and me, donating old clothes to charity is a great idea for many reasons. You will feel good knowing that needy families can get good use out of our old clothes. It's also a great way to re-organize our closets and drawers. It takes a little bit of our time to go through our clothing and prepare it for donating, but it is well worth the effort.

Donating old clothes can be especially helpful to society as people who need affordable clothing often have access to donated clothes. Here in Germany, the red cross group put plastic bags in our mailbox with pick up schedule. For me, i just drive to the nearest drop point if i have clothes for donation.

Some charitable agency also placed pail in each houses for old clothes and shoes.

Beating the Heat

While browsing around offenburg the other day, i came accross these german kids taking a refreshing bath in the small fountains. That's their way of beating the heat, the temperature that day is around 40 grad.

After my small shopping, i proceeded to Lalaine, a friend who celebrated her birthday the day before. She requested us to return because of the leftover lechon and cooked it to make lechong paksiw.

TESA Offenburg

Together with Dirk, yesterday we have a short visit at TESA Offenburg, SE’s largest production location worldwide. Seventy percent of the products manufactured in Offenburg go on to be used as industrial products in such sectors as the automotive and electronics industries.

The remaining products are intended for private consumers; these include the famous tesafilm, tesapack, and tesakrepp, as well as the useful, multipurpose duct tape line and other adhesive tapes. But the reason why we go there has nothing to do with any tapes, we just bring the ordered relyenong bangus to Thomas, a TESA sub-contractor and husband of Mabel.

The Van and Mommy Moments

While my daughter is driving on the way to southforbes, she noticed something on the plate number of the van in front of her.

The vehicle's plate number RBP 788 has some connection with her.

RBP - Rose Belle Paala (her name)
7 - She was born on December 7
8 - Her wedding date is February 8
8 - Her only son's bday is April 8

She had no work that day and take advantage to have a mommy moments with kim

Though she's busy, she also finds time to attend to kim's school activities

Our Retirement Haven

In five or six years time, we're going to be relocated in the Philippines. Our soon to be finished house already reached 90 percent funtionality. To live in our country is a mutual major decision for dirk and me. For the past years, Philippines becomes an ideal tropical haven for retirees because of the low cost of living.

It's my first time to blog about our retirement house but i'm doing so because i'm proud of what our contractor accomplished. It's a german technology house because of its highly insulated walls. Doors and windows came from here, roof tiles in malaysia, toilets in korea, insulation materials in the US, granite in china, etc.

Our terrace is 60 square meter complete with native sofa set, dining table and a kitchen. We're going to entertain our guests in the terrace rather than the living room.

our kitchen and living room which is 85 sq.m.

Longganisa and Tocino

These are two of my favorite foods. Longganisa is a Philippine sausage like chorizo, flavored with indigenous spices. Longganisa making has a long tradition in the Philippines, with each region having its own specialty. I also like the hamonado which is just a little bit thinner than longganisa. Last week, a friend gave me 10 pieces and it really tastes good. These foods fits my lifestyle because they are easy to cook.

Tocino, on the other hand is a cured meat product and it is usually made out of pork and is similar to ham and bacon although beef is also used. It is often reddish in color and has a sweetish taste. These foods frequented my lunchbox during the good old days.

Our New Gadgets

Last week, dirk bought three new electronic toys. The first is my Samsung S5230 GT touch screen phone which is subtle in appearance and very compact in dimensions. In addition, the stylish device makes it relatively easy to operate. The intuitive operation of the very responsive touch screen allows for easy handling of this mobile phone. I like it very much because it also comes complete with Facebook, MySpace and YouTube widgets, which is sure to appeal other social networkers.

The second toy is our very slim and light Sony Vaio laptop. The VAIO NS series notebook is easy to handle and great for on-the-go computing. The NS series notebook is designed to impress with its simple and contemporary appeal.

The third is our Sony e-book reader. The slim and relatively lightweight screen requires no backlight and is easy to read in bright environments. It is also capable of storing thousands of electronic book. It's good for my small eyes and i don't need anymore my reading eyeglass.

Belle's Management Training

My daughter requested me to blog about her basic management training at Mcdonalds. It was held at Mcdonalds head office in Makati and was attended by managers and future managers of one of the biggest fast food chain in the country.

Hopefully they can apply whatever they learned from the 5-day training.

(Above picture)My daughter is the third from left

Family Friends

Tomorrow, the Filipino Service is going to pick up our balikbayan boxes. So, i drive to the city for my last-minute shopping where I saw some family friends. I also buy some toys for my grandchildren and house decors for our retirement house.

The couples are a picture of happiness.

Friends and the City

Now i can feel the peak of summer here in Germany. It's so hot and humid and the rashes in my skin is now visible. It's a nightmare because of my skin allergy. But the sun scare doesnt stopped me from visiting my friends and browsing around the city. I just do some window shopping, i have to control my shoppingitis.

We visited Grace at her place and have dinner together.

A Productive Week

Finally, the window that we ordered a month ago at Hela is now finished. Dirk miscounted the number of windows of our retirement house so we're busy the past days preparing it for shipment to the Philippines.

The window was more or less 70 kilos and its good that a family friend, Michael König was kind enough to lent us his company truck.