Hazel Ceej

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I used to ask my own mother that question, and now it's my turn to answer it. The thing is, I do not always have a ready answer, and most of the time I cast a sheepish glance at the dining table often helplessly and mutter something like, 'let's see...' or 'pass me my phone please, we're ordering food' or worse, 'get dressed; we're going out for dinner.' What's for Dinner, Mom? has definitely better answers. This printed book presents bulk cooking: the secret to a successful kitchen career. Author Lorrie Flem shows you examples to follow, explains methods you can adapt and plans you can execute to help you produce nutritious meals for your family at regular intervals without losing your sanity or feeling tethered to a rope due to time constraints. Biblical references and quotes on food injected into the contents of this book triggered nostalgia for home.  The Homemaking Tips from the 1800s appealed to the hi...

Monday, June 11th was CJ's first day in first grade and the next day I was still on the phone, hungry for updates. My foremost concern was how did he find and take it. Any friends? The first day, I was told, they did mostly orientation stuff. What I liked hearing best of all was that CJ found a friend and behaved just fine. "Oh, that's good," I said to the Grandma. "Who is that kid?" Like any mom I am interested to know who are my child's friends. CJ's new school friend, I found, is a transferee student from Cebu. "Looks like a smart kid," Grandma observed, "he and CJ hit it off quickly as they have one thing in common - they both speak English." Apparently, CJ's English language training has benefited him. And I have yet to 'unboggle' my mind about all this talk of local dialects in Philippine schools being adapted as medium of instruction , translations to English, and back to conversational lingo. Sometimes it seem...

Thailand's wine-making industry has come a long way.... Vineyards across three distinguished wine-making regions now produce quality wine. CNN GO These vineyards are found in Khao Yai , the South of Bangkok, and Northeast Thailand . Wine tours are available. In Hua Hin Hills visitors can tour vineyards in a way you  normally can't in Burgundy or Tuscany: riding on an elephant.  En route to the sunflower fields in Saraburi , we passed by this vineyard and made a quick stop. We didn't expect to see such a charming spot of the Thai countryside, but we're glad we did.  I call this our tour serendipity . ABC Wednesday

Thailand's wine-making industry has come a long way.... Vineyards across three distinguished wine-making regions now produce quality wine. CNN GO These vineyards are found in Khao Yai , the South of Bangkok, and Northeast Thailand . Wine tours are available. In Hua Hin Hills visitors can tour vineyards in a way you  normally can't in Burgundy or Tuscany: riding on an elephant.  En route to the sunflower fields in Saraburi , we passed by this vineyard and made a quick stop. We didn't expect to see such a charming spot of the Thai countryside, but we're glad we did.  I call this our tour serendipity . ABC Wednesday

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="172" caption="E.D. Leavitt, Physician, Butte, Mt (Photo credit: Butte-Silver Bow Public Library)"] [/caption] Is your doctor fat, thin or just right?  HealthDay Reporter Randy Dotinga didn't actually say fat or thin in his Medicine Net report. He called them ' chubby' doctors , and that they could be bad for your health . How? Yes, I asked the same question . Possible reasons derived from a new study are: a doctor with extra pounds to his weight may be unlikely to advise patients to shed excess weight overweight doctors who responded to a survey say that they are less likely to talk to their patients about weight control even doctors of normal weight aren't prone to talking about  weight loss to their heavy patients It doesn't seem far from the pot calling the kettle black . Study author Sara Bleich of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says "you can't lo...

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Garuda as national symbol of Thailand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"] [/caption] Due to a previous school experience in Thailand that CJ had when he was 3, we relaxed adherence to schooling tradition and let him take his time at kindergarten in the Philippines.  But two weeks ago he turned 8 and from the info that the Grandma got from his K1 teacher, CJ would be in K2 next. K2? At 8? Time for horribly expensive overseas phone calls again. Things could sometimes be downright opaque with long-distance parenting. I know though that CJ lacks learning motivation despite surprising shows of reasoning that under his circumstances I never thought he would be capable of. Thanks to DepEd guys-slash-close friends Vi and JL who shared what they know upon which I based my decision to sort out CJ's grade level. JL alerted me to the K+12 basic education program that kicks off this year. That certainly bear...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sunrise over Stonehenge on the summer solstice, 21 June 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] Experienced an ughten recently? Ughten , an obscure word, means morning twilight , according to The Phrontistery . The last time (and first time in 19 years) I was awake in an ughten I was observing photographers mounting their high tech, high-powered cameras in front of Cambodia's Angkor Wat.  They were waiting to capture sunrise there. Here's wondering if I could stand the cold in a Stonehenge ughten.