1 Week Vacation

I love the Eid holidays.  Our company allows us to have a break for a few days.  Time to have R and R.  I've spent most time of the week going to the gym, going shopping and bonding with Lauren.  I've gone doing ukay ukay with Elouisa one time somewhere at the Industrial Area.  Now I know where I can buy some flee market bargains to practice for my sewing escapades (that is if Mars will buy me the sewing machine soon). Mars also goes to the gym everyday, goes for some intermittent duties at the hospital and of course accompanying me to do the groceries.  I didn't notice that vacation is almost over.  Tomorrow is the first day of resuming for duty as well as back to the 8 hours duty.  I hope I'll have the energy to start work again.  How nice it is to just be at home and doing whatever I wish to do.

Lauren is walking all over the house now.  I can't see her crawling anymore.  She likes following me around the house and when she reaches me, she extends  her arms to me and wants to be carried.  She's becoming heavy now and I can't stand to carry her anymore for a long time.  She gets upset if she sees me going away from the room.  Mars jokingly say that I am the mother goose and I have a duckling following me around.  I recently bought 3 posters for Lauren.  She knows where to point if I ask her "Where is the dog, cat and the telephone".  She knows also where to point if she is asked where is her hair, head, eyes, nose, ears, teeth, tongue, tummy and toes.  She knows all of them on most of the times that she is in the mood.  But if not, she'll just point to some of the body parts and ignores the rest.  She has 8 of fully erupted milk teeth (4 up and 4 down) now and 4 molars are crowning to come out soon.  My little Lauren is growing very fast day by day.

So goes my 1 week vacation.  Next vacation will come around 16th of November for the Eid Al Adha.

Gym

At last after 4 years, I finally stepped inside the gym once more.  Mars and I enrolled in a 3 months membership at the Swiss Belhotel gym here in Doha. We have unlimited access to the gym inclusive of the machines, sauna, steam room and the pool.  It was my first day yesterday and I had fun familiarizing myself with the different machines.  I was checking which machine should I or shouldn't I be using because of my SIJ dysfunction.  I will stay away from those which I think will harm my back as well as will put too much strain on it.  I will be very careful not to overdo the exercises.  Afterall, I am there at the gym just for fitness purposes.  I am considered underweight and therefore won't need to lose weight.  I will just do exercises that would strengthen my core muscles hoping the my back problem will go away.  As for Mars, he really wants to lose weight and to change from his sedentary lifestyle into something which involves some activities.  

We hope that this is the start of a better healthy lifestyle for me and hubby.  Aside from that, there's another thing to list among the things that we both can do and enjoy together. 

Daddy Gorio

I was very lucky to have experienced the joy of having a grandfather.  I can't help but miss the old times my sisters and I spent at our province during weekends and vacations.  Our daddy always made it a point that we enjoy our stay there and also taught us a lot of things about life in general.  He used to provide for us our abong-abong (make shift tents) where me and my sisters play bahay-bahayan.  Early mornings, he taught us to pick up the fallen leaves and branches from the trees and gathering them underneath the tall mango tree to burn.  Another times, he taught us how to take care of our  pets and prepare for their meals.  He instilled in us the love of animals and nature.  Maybe, he unconsciously taught us also the value of reading.  He reads Bannawag-the Ilocano magazine which I grew up seeing it always at my daddy's house.  Infact, I also read and enjoyed the stories published. All the things we did with him were all seen as happy moments.  He sometimes lost his temper but we knew how to stay away from his way once he lost it.  The good thing about his "muryot" episodes was that it passes quickly.  Once finished lashing out his sermons, he became silent and soon he is pacified again.  He had the habit of ending all his sermons with the syllable "si or C", which my sister Tetet, would tease him, "daddy, ag-D kayo metten ah, kannayon la nga C" (daddy, say D, this time, you just always say C).  Yes, my sister Tetet had a special bonding with daddy.  She was the favorite since she knew how to deal with him.  She was the one who patiently cleaned the tough nails of daddy, pulled his uban (white hair) and slept by his side at night.  

Today is the birthday of my dear daddy.  Wherever you are now, I know you are at peace and happy.  I pray that you are happy seeing what your grandchildren has become.  I regret that my dear daughter didn't have anymore the chance to see you.  But you live in us daddy, someday when she's old enough to understand, she'll know you through my stories about you. I promise to impart to her all the lessons I learned from you.  Happy birthday daddy, we love you.

10 Tricks for Improving Your Memory

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Ramadan almost over...

Almost over....just a week to go, and our normal working hours will be back to normal.  Aside from that, I won't be having any evening duties which ends until 10 pm.  Whew! Hopefully everything will just be fine on the last week.  If the Eid will fall on Thursday, then the clinic will be closed on that day.  Either way, since I will be coming tomorrow for my Saturday duty, then definitely I will be off on Thursday.  I'm blogging about this to remind me just in case I forget what were the events that transpired which I need to ask for my colleagues' in lieu of duties.  First, Samah owes me one afternoon duty and I will ask Wafa later on who owes me for this coming Sunday's duty.

So what will be our Eid Holiday plans...come what may...most probably we will just be bumming around the house, visit some friends and maybe just stroll around Doha.  Wish that I can spend the holidays in the Philippines..