renewed friendship

April 4-7, 2012.  My April started with a reunion of sorts with highschool classmates Anilee, Jane and Christy.  Anilee and Jane live a couple of hours away from each other and together with Jane's hubby Teph & son Basti they drove from Bakersfield, CA to spend a few days with us.  Jane's family recently moved from New York to California and it would be our first meeting since our Maryland trip in 2009.  Anilee, however, visited me 6 months ago to celebrate my birthday.  It would be fun seeing them again!

   

Golden Gate Bridge from different angles on a

beautiful spring day (no fog at all!) - April 5, 2012

A week before our reunion, Jane got sick and had a couple of visits to the ER but despite that was stubbornly determined to go on with the road trip.  The weather wasn't also cooperating -  the Bay area was soaked in heavy rain (with thunderstorm and hail in some areas) but miraculously the sun showed up on the day they arrived. 

The next day we headed to San Francisco hoping for a fogless day so we can take great photos (importante ang pictorial!).  If you live in San Francisco or ever been there, you know that your worst enemy in enjoying the view and taking great pictures is the fog.  Fortunately for us, the majestic Golden Gate Bridge can be viewed from any angle in high definition ALL DAY.

We crossed the bridge and savored it from different viewpoints, had lunch at the iconic Mel's drive-in, drove down the crookedest street and ended our day at Pier 39 where we met up with another HS classmate Christy who resides in Hercules.  Christy and Jane haven't seen each other for 21 years (since highschool graduation) while the last time i saw Christy was in college (mid-90s)... it would be our first time to meet here in the US.  Very exciting! The moment we saw each other we exchanged warm embraces and stories as if not a day went by since the last time.

We had early dinner at Bubba Gump while reminiscing the good old days and excitedly babbling about the series of events that all brought us here.  Listening to everyone's stories made me realize that just like the famous line from the movie which is the theme of the restaurant, i have to agree that life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get!  

Thanks to facebook, we are pretty much updated with each other's  present lives so we had less "catching up" and more time to laugh, enjoy the sites and take pictures.  Still, a few hours with Christy wasn't enough... i hope to do it again soon!

For now we are truly happy and thankful for the time we had together.  Who would have thought that two decades after high school we would all find ourselves reunited here when back in the days we only read about San Francisco through pocketbooks/romance novels and imagined that we were here and knew it very well?  Ahhh... life is full of surprises!

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Basti also celebrated his 9th birthday last Friday and Anilee and I managed to set-up a yellow-themed party for him while Jane dozed off hehe... Basti has grown so much since the last time I saw him and it's a joy seeing him get along well with my son.   Kudos to Jane and Teph for all the patience and hard work, you guys are blessed with a happy healthy smart kid the same way that Basti is blessed to have you in his life. 

Happy Birthday Basti! soar high and dream big. anything is possible!

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Welcome to my Bright Yellow Kitchen

Finally i have found the time to migrate my food and recipe posts to another website dedicated solely to anything related to food - random kitchen experiments, tried and tested recipes, our favorite family dishes, online recipe finds, restaurant reviews, unforgettable meals, sinful desserts, food presentation, filipino cuisine and more.  I don't claim to be an expert in cooking or baking but my newly-found enthusiasm to improve my skills in this department is too big to ignore.  As they say, "never too late (or too old) to learn a new skill."

Through the years i have kept recipes from old magazines and handwritten food-stained, torn and faded notes of my go-to recipes.  Sometimes when I crave for mama's home cooking I make an overseas call so she could give me step-by-step instructions.  More often than not, I stumbled upon a great recipe online and when it's time to make it again, I couldn't recall where i found it.  Very frustrating!

But no more fretting now because all these will be in my food blog.  I'm doing it for my personal easy access and also to share with my family, friends and random readers.  If you don't find me here or in facebook, then you know where i am: in my My Bright Yellow Kitchen.

Let's share the food and the love.  See you there!

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American Idol (here we go again...)

I couldn't count how many times i've promised myself never to watch this show again!  Throughout its entire history, this show has given me nothing but heartaches..from Bo Bice to Adam Lambert to last year's Thia Megia (although i didn't really expect her to win anyway).  It's just very frustrating when you have emotionally invested on a contestant, watched him/her perform every week only to be eliminated not because of  poor performance but mainly because of popular votes.  Fortunately for me i never reached the point of really voting for my favorite...just couldn't imagine seeing my hard-earned money fritter away.

So anyway last night while surfing channels i ended up watching (you guessed it!) American Idol.  Last night's show revealed the top 10 and the 3 wild card contestants selected by the judges to make up the top 13.  Before watching it the only thing i knew was that there is a Filipino-American contestant who can sing really well and a guy who's a native of San Jose, CA.  Now i know their names:  Jessica Sanchez and DeAndre Brackensick.

Jessica made it to the top 10 without much drama.  She was the first of the girls to be called along with that cute girl Hollie.  She's 16 years old from San Diego, CA.  I think she looks like the younger and darker version of Sarah Geronimo, an extremely talented and very popular singer/actress in the Philippines.

DeAndre, a 17-year old Oak Grove High School senior in San Jose however, wasn't in the top 10 but was given another chance to fight for his life and made it to the last spot. 

Hmmm... will they both make it all the way to the finals? Let's see.  And yes, American Idol, you got me hooked again!

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