Happy New Year

A very happy New Year to everyone and the hope that the new year will bring the best for all. and wonderful blessings.

The Temptations - Give Love On Christmas Day (Gordy Records 1980)

This is one song we all grew up listening but the Jackson 5 version or the original version. The words
really describe what is the most important gift which is love. Everybody needs love not only on Christmas but everyday. so today and everyday, let us try to give love to family, friends and everyone else.

Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

To everyone have the best Christmas with or without your family.

Door prize

and aboutA while back I posted that I won a prize when I was shopping in Vancouver. The store had mailed it and a few days ago I received it. Just in time for Christmas baking. It was really nice and useful.

And about two months ago, I bought an air fryer and we have been doing all kinds of chicken wings recipes and they turned out really well and not greasy as no oil is used to cook anything. On New Year's Eve I might try onion blossom.

Here is the first recipe of wings I did, just simple salt, pepper and garlic and was yummy.

A very sad news

The holidays is usually a time of happiness and enjoyment celebrated with one's family. Two days ago, I was informed that my ex mother-in-law passed away. She was 88 years old. It is always very sad when death happens during the holidays season. She had shoulder surgery due to cancer and was starting to recuperate when she had a heart attack. She was brought to the hospital and they resuscitated her even though I heard she did not want it. But they also found out that she developed an infection and I guess that was very painful so maybe this was a blessing.

The whole family was relieved though sad and they realized she won't be suffering anymore.
To the whole family I offer my deepest condolence. Rest in peace, Cecilia

The Legacy of An Adopted Child - Conclusion

In the last 3 years there was hardly any communication with him. He was seriously involved with this girl and they kept breaking up and making up. And the girl got pregnant. The one time he called was to announce this. But the relationship has become really bad and physical. They had a baby girl born November. It is sad to say that I have not seen the baby except one picture on my younger son's phone. I had sent them 2 big bags of present and a crocheted blanket and even my sister made a nice baby blanket. But there was never a thank you.

About a year after the birth of the baby, there was a serious fight and the police was involved and he was given restraining order. But after sometime both of them ignored the order and lived together until another serious altercation and he was charged. Now he is facing serious charges. He does not see the baby anymore according to his father. The baby is now 2 years old.

About the same time, the orphanage from where we adopted him got in touch with him saying his birth mother is requesting to communicate with him. At first he did not know what to do and did not reply but later, he communicated with him. The birth mother communicated with his father to ask what was his childhood like. Then she requested to connect with my younger son although there was never any communication with him. I do not know who else she was communicating but there was never a request to communicate with me. I knew that it would not happen and never expected it.

A few days ago, my former husband told me that he lives very close to where I live. I have managed not to let him know where I had been living. He has a new girl friend. I do not know if there is still communication with his birth mother. I was told she wanted him to fly to the Philippines but at this time it is not possible for him to do that. The birth mother mentioned to my ex husband that she may travel to the Philippines.  I also found out that he has also communicated with his birth father who works in UAE.

When we adopted my only hope was that it would turn out ok. But I was also realistic that there have been a lot of cases where it has not turned out well. I have no regrets and deep within me, I believe that I have done my best and that is all I can do. He is an adult now and whatever or whoever he turned out to be was mostly his decision. And we are all responsible for any action we have taken.

Daayre Lyric Video - Dilwale | Shah Rukh Khan | Kajol | Varun Dhawan | K...

Daayre means boundaries in English. Boundaries in love that sometimes
separates us from loved ones. I like the song the first time I heard it. Enjoy.

The Legacy of an Adopted Child - Part 5

As he reached his late teens. the problems got worse that sometimes I thought I know the police staff very well. I felt that even the home was running out of solutions to his problems. I never did have communication with him at this time. And I had told my former husband that I have prepared myself that one day the police would knock at my door and give me a really bad news. And about this time I was diagnosed with a very serious illness. So I was concerned for my health and his father was the one dealing with him and even he at this point was really getting frustrated.

When he was in his early twenties, it looked like he was improving that he called me and told me that he understood why I was so hard on him. At that point I felt a bit relieved that maybe things would work out for him. He had a job though he did not finish high school and he was still in French immersion. Things seems to be up and down and he still did not understand social consequences and still thinks he knows everything. When he speaks about his plans, they were so grand that sometimes I wonder if he has delusions of grandeur. He still has problems waking up and that is the usual reason why he would lose his jobs.

He has become so street smart that he could be evicted from the place he was staying, he has friends he could sleep for a few days and once he told us that one night he spent it at a Tim Horton's that was open 24 hours. His brother at one time saw him at a station of LRT. Once he called to wish me Happy Easter and Happy Birthday. There was a time, he was homeless and I had let him stay at my place but the lies and his attitude made it impossible to continue this arrangement and that was the start of the no communication. That was more than 3 years ago. By then he was around 27 or 28 years old.
It is also sad that he had unfriended his brother on Facebook. And this was also the time he was seriously involved with a girl and made his life start to go downhill again.

Christmas baking

I usually do a lot of different kinds of baking for Christmas but for this year, I just baked a few batches just to give away. I do not eat a lot cookies even during Christmas and being diabetic I try not to have too many temptations around in the kitchen. Also I have three friends who have moved out of Edmonton due to retirement so less friends to give cookies to.

This year I have made all cookies and no bars. It was convenient since I froze the dough and just took them out today and baked them. I guess I am getting old and not as adventurous in terms of trying out new recipes.

Here are four of the batches I did. I also baked this regular cut out sugar cookies. I forgot to take pictures as I was busy setting up our new dining set and assembling our new tv stand which I am proud to say I did all by myself.

Flowers

A while back I posted flower arrangements our Operations Manager brought to me every week. Before the end of the summer season, we went over to where he gets the flowers. The garden belongs to his ex mother -in-law. Since he had just bought a new house, his garden is not as prolific as was on his old house.

He is close to retiring and I am sure I will miss the flowers. Here are some pictures I took.

As you can see this dahlia is bigger than my face.

Legacy of an Adopted Child - Part 4

After the move to Alberta, we noticed he was having a hard time controlling his anger and also not realizing or knowing the consequences of his actions. We had consulted social worker to ask for suggestions to handle him as he started not wanting to go to school. We noticed also his problem of not being able to wake up even with all the alarms and us physically waking him up.

One day, I was reading an article in our city newspaper and there was this item about Attachment Disorder. I continued reading it and realized that the the symptoms of this disorder he was showing.
When his problems got worse, we talked to a psychologist and our family doctor and mentioned about this disorder. At that time, it was not very well publicized and we contacted someone in the US regarding this. And so begin all the tests and meetings with professionals. In the meantime, he was getting worse that I was scared he would hurt his younger brother as he had started to be physical with him. When it got worse that I was really worried about safety, we had to make the decision to get Social Services to have temporary custody of him. It was the most difficult decision.

I was told that he did not want to have any more communication with me and his brother and we respected that. That Christmas, was the first time he came home but that turned into disaster, so by Christmas day, he was back at the residence.

At this time, even the staff at the home was having difficulty dealing with him. Now it was really getting serious that I am now considering giving up parental rights to him. And when I finally had to do that, I went to court and once it was over, I cried all the way home. My lawyer called later that day to check if I was ok.

For a while I told my husband I do not want to hear any of the news about him as I was getting so upset and it was affecting my health. That was also the time, our marriage ended. It was just a lot of differences between us regarding how to deal with his problems. It was also at this time that our son had other serious problem. Police also got involved with some of his problems. This time around, Social Services had permanent custody of him.

Christmas is upon us.....

It seems like Christmas is coming too soon. I have seen a lot of nice Christmas decoration on office lobbies except ours. I don't know if it has something to do with the owner who is Jewish. But our lobby at my residential tower is decorated really beautifully and simply.

I don't decorate my suite too much now but I might take a picture later once I have done a bit of decorating. I have taken this coming Friday off to do my Christmas baking and finalize what we will have for Christmas Eve and day dinner. 

As we have been celebrating by ourselves as we are so far away from family and friends, it has become a quiet and relaxing few days. I know this year we will watch a lot of movies as we bought a big screen tv - 65" 4K HUD.

Company Christmas Party

On the weekend of December 2-4 was our company's Christmas party. Our head office is located in Vancouver and the party was hes there. I work in the Edmonton office so they flew us to Vancouver and put us up to the closest hotel to the office and the party venue. It was just a very expensive 5 course meal at an Italian restaurant downtown.

The party was over at 9:30 and some of us went for a walk. Since I have bruised bone, I only went for a few blocks and went back to the hotel while catching pokemons on the way. Unfortunately I only caught 1 pokemon I don't have on my pokedex.


The next morning we walked to go for breakfast and the rest went to Granville Island. I stayed and walked the waterfront and went to some stores. There was a kitchen store called Cook Culture and I bought a few small items. The staff asked me to write my name and email to enter a raffle. Lo and behold three days later I received an email letting me know I won an Emile Henry ceramic baking set which they have mailed to me since I had to let them know I am from Edmonton.

I only took a few pictures on the water front.

It was a pleasant way to enjoy the weekend. Saturday after lunch, my nephew Anthony picked me up from the hotel and we drove around and I wanted to get special items from a Filipino bakery but they did not have it.

The only frustrating part was our flights were delayed both ways. This was my second flight on WestJet and I don't know if I will fly with them again.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

It is that time of the year when we remember all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect us and so we could live free. Two summers ago I watched the funeral procession for the Edmonton cop who was killed in line of duty. It passed on our street so we went down to watch it and it was sad and you can ladies in tears. Police from all over North America were there.

Early last year on January 25, I saw on the news channel from the Philippines about the massacre of an elite commando unit in the south of the country. It all had to do with Muslims and the problem the country had with them and this has been going on for decades. I remember when we were still in the Philippines and my mother was offered promotion but we had to move to the south. We were scared and I believe we told her we will not be moving as we were scared of the Muslims.

So today I would like to remember the members of this elite group now better known as SAF 44 or Fallen 44. They were members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Forces. When I was reading the news, I realized that these commandos were just the same ages as my two sons.

I offer my sympathy to their families as they left wives, children, parents, brothers and sisters and a few future children. There were wives who were pregnant at that time.

I saw two tributes for them and I am attaching it to this post. One had pictures of them and you will notice how old these guys were. For some reason I can;t attach the tribute with pictures of the oung commandos. They range in age from 26 to 38, most of them were under 30 years old.

This is a video of the return of the commandos. a day of mourning in the Philippines. The bodies were flown back to Manila in 3 C 130 planes.

The Legacy of an Adopted Child - Part 3

December 1986.... a few weeks before Christmas, my husband and brother -in-law travelled to the Philippines to pick up the baby. Our friends and relatives commented that two guys will have to handle the baby and finalize the adoption process. I was 5 months pregnant and the doctor did not approve of me travelling at this stage. I stayed home and prepared the nursery and all the stuff we needed and all the things to be done as it was also very close to Christmas.
Both guys were so busy with the closing of the adoption process that a relative of my brother-in-law was hired to take care of the baby. I was told over the phone that it was a very active 18 month old baby. Two days before Christmas they got back with the baby. It was a joyous day and since we live in a small city, it seems everyone knew.

And yes, he was a very active baby. At one point, I did not know how to handle him. My father was most excited and he would come and visit and help. He would play with him and teach him how to say words in English. He used to watch Sesame Street and being in Canada there is French part in the show. He was interested in French that when it was time to go to Kindergarten, he would end up going to the French Immersion side of the Catholic school. At a very young age we noticed how he can pick up new things easily. He can assemble toys we would buy him but we noticed too that he got quite upset if he can't do it right the first time. At the age of six we enrolled him in karate to learn discipline and he was really good at it that when we left  North, he was getting close to getting his black belt.

Once we moved to Alberta, in a quiet suburb close to Edmonton he was enrolled in French immersion in a French school. We noticed too about his problem controlling his anger. But he did very well in school. 

Pondering about Retirement

When I turned 50, I used to think about being close to retirement or wondering if I would retire early. But as I got closer to 60, I wondered if I should retire early and now that I am very close to retirement age, I am scared to retire because I think and feel that I will be bored.

At work they had asked me if I will retire and I had told them that I believe I will continue to work. If my health will dictate that I need to stop working then I will retire.

I know people who retired and now they are back in the workforce. Most of them say they got bored. And some are so busy after they retired, they are harder to catch than a pokemon. 

I thought of things I can do but it does not interest me. Yes I can volunteer, travel or just take it easy. With what is happening in the world now, it is a bit scary to travel but I still have a list of places I want to visit. For now, I feel that I still like to go to work even though at times I feel like...oh it would be nice to be retired. But that only lasts for a few days.

Downtown Living

When we moved to Alberta from the North, we lived in a city which is just next to Edmonton. I used to drive to Edmonton for work and at first I did not mind it. In the winter time it was hard especially when we get a lot of snow. Then we moved to Edmonton and it was closer to work and most of jobs I had, I worked in the same building which is very convenient. I had a job I took and I could move downtown, which I did not really like at first. I thought about the noise, the homeless and all sorts of things. But it grew on me and I must admit I like the convenience of it. I can walk to the grocery store, pharmacy, theaters, my dentist, eye doctor and to work. There are restaurants, pubs, coffee shops and diners of all kinds of cuisines. Now I don't think I can go back to the suburbs.

Just last week when I was out for my walk I took again pictures of the different things I see.

That is the Provincial Legislature on the top, one of the fountains on the grounds and another big planter close to the government centre.

I remember this water feature on the Legislative grounds, a while back we would walk at lunch time in our flip flops and we will wade here and enjoy the cool water especially on a hot day.

The Legacy of an Adopted Child - Part 2

The year was 1984...my husband (now ex) and I travelled to the Philippines to attend my grandmother's funeral. While there, we met a few of my college friends and at one of these meetings, the topic of adoption was brought up. At that time I had been married for 11 years and never got pregnant. At another meeting, a close college friend talk to the nuns at the college I attended and suggested to us to visit this one particular orphanage. We did and had a very informative conversation with one of the nuns. After coming back from the trip, we decided to call Social Services in our city and got more information about international adoption.

After a few months of talking and getting more information, we finally decided to apply for international adoption. So we started filling out forms and getting documents and having home study done, applying for security and police clearance. A year later, our application was approved, now it is choosing the child we would raise. I believe we were offered a cute baby boy but with heavy heart we had to decline for medical reason. Then another baby boy was suggested and I remember very well that one of the nuns had mentioned that he looks a bit like me so it is a good match. After reading all the information they sent us, we decided to go for this baby. In August of 1986, we finally signed all the documents. At one point in time, the nuns asked what will I do if I get pregnant while the process is going on and I replied we would still go through the adoption. In September of that year, I was doing exercises with a friend of mine and I complained about soreness in my breast and she said...You are pregnant! I said I could not be. To make long story short, I went to see my doctor and he confirmed that indeed I was pregnant. A few months later, while I was on my regular check up, he wanted to do another ultra sound as he told me that he is concerned that I could be carrying twins. When I told my husband this, his comment was...oh we have to get two cribs. I screamed at him, and said gosh you are worried about two cribs, I am scared of how we would take care of 3 babies. It felt like I was carrying triplets.

Netflix and Bollywood

About 3 years ago, my son subscribed to Netflix. He enjoyed watching the shows, tv series, documentaries and indie movies. Last year I decided to try and watch Netflix. I was interested in the documentaries about travel and cooking and military documentaries. I also enjoyed watching indie and international movies. One night while going through all the international movies, I decided to watch a movie from Bollywood. I have watched a French movie before and it was very interesting. The only thing is I had to get used to subtitles which I am very good at now after watching all kinds of movies. The movie I watched was Jab Tak Hai Jaan. It's a romantic movie and the story was quite interesting. After watching that and a few more, I had been watching Bollywood movies. I have my favorite star and I just choose the movies I think would be good. A former office mate of mine was kind of making fun of me. But I just told her, it's my entertainment like yours is going to the casino and losing money. I listen to some of the songs too, before I would kind of laugh at the movies because there is an interesting scene and all of a sudden they are in an exotic place singing and dancing. The nice thing is they shoot in different parts of the world so you see what the country looks like.

Here is a video of one of the songs and it was shot in Iceland. Enjoy.

Update....Pokemon Go

I am now Level 14, it was a lot slower than the first week as I have been encountering the No GPS signal found which makes it hard to catch or load balls. I just walk and sometimes I do not even try to catch any pokemon where there is no GPS. I have done every tip on internet and it does not help. 
On my walks to different areas of downtown I decided to take a few pictures of planters outside different buildings. After September 10, I will walk by the new Rogers Place which is our new arena in downtown and take pictures.

Here are some of the few pictures of planters. Now, I can post pictures. Just this weekend I was trying to upload videos and it won't play on my blog so I will try and find out why. I also have posts done waiting for videos to upload and work.

Flowers

Every summer since I started with this company, I get fresh flowers for my desk from our Operations Manager. He loves to garden and has collection of dahlias. He brings them on Mondays and would last the week or bring them on Thursday and I take it home to enjoy for the weekend. Lately he has brought some gladiolas as well.

Here are two arrangements I did with the flowers he brought last week. They lasted for about a week.

Legacy of an Adopted Child - Part 1

This is the title of a poem given to us by the nuns at the orphanage where we adopted our oldest son. It was printed in a nice paper and the letters were blue. The author is unknown. 

Once there were two women,

Who never knew each other

One you do not remember,

The other you called mother.

Two different lives

Shaped to make yours one.

One became your guiding star,

The other became your sun.

The first gave you life

And the second taught you to live it

The first gave you a need for love,

And the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality,

The other gave you a name.

One gave a seed of talent,

The other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions,

The other calmed your fears.

One saw your first sweet smile,

The other dried your tears.

One gave you up- -

It was all that she could do

The other prayed for a child

And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me

Through your tears,

The old age question 

Through the years:

Heredity or environment

Which are you a product of?

Neither, my darling--neither

Just two different kinds of love.

I still have that piece of paper in mint condition and I have given a copy to my son when I believed he could understand the meaning of the poem and might help him deal with his adoption.

Excellent Customer Service

After my post on bad customer service, I have this post to balance my experience with two companies. One is Wireless Wave where we ended up upgrading our phones. As soon as we got to their kiosk on the second floor of West Edmonton Mall, we saw they do Fido phones. And we also saw that the phone is $400 which is what is on their website. The two guys right away asked what we wanted and upgraded our phones without any hassles and even saved us money on our plans. They also suggested tips on how we can request Fido to waive reconnection fees. All in all it was a pleasant experience. They even transferred my data to the new phone. We also got accessories for our new phones.
The other company where I get excellent customer service is Shaw Cable for our internet, phone and cable. Every time I call for some information or technical support I always get superb customer service. They are all patient, helpful and giving tips on how to save on my bundle. Just today I went to their store and picked up a new WiFi modem so we can get internet 150. When I got home I had problems with the modem and called and of course very helpful. I got all my devices connected to my WiFi as the guy asked me to try and do it all while he was on the phone with me. So now I am all set and now we have super fast internet.
Since I have not been blogging for a while, and have a new phone, I am relearning how to post my pictures. I have drafts of post waiting to upload my pictures and since this is a long weekend I will try to get that done. So bear with me with my no picture posts for a short while.
Thank you again to Wireless Wave and Shaw Cable for very excellent customer service.

Have a great long weekend every one. Thanks for stopping by.































































excellee

Kindle Fire HDX

This device really really sucks. I bought mine two months after it was released. Since it was fairly new, there was not a lot of reviews. It worked for a long time and then all of a sudden, started losing sound. I went on internet to look for solution and found a few that worked. Then nothing I do would solve the problem. I tried to find a number to call Amazon. Nothing, no phone number anywhere I looked at. Finally I emailed and it says there that they would reply on 24 - 48 hours. Now since this Kindle Fire is only good as ereader or checking my email, I will just blog about it and next would be Amazon depending on how they handle my complaints. I'm not buying anything from them, maybe just free books or games since those are the only things I can do with this now useless crappy device. So it will be back to using my laptop now.

A really bad customer service

About a month ago, my son and I went to the Fido store at Kingsway mall. We were going to upgrade our phones. The Asian girl who was there had attitude to start with. I wanted to upgrade to Samsung S7. I had talked to Fido CSR over the phone and was told it was $400.00 but I had to get a different plan. I have almost $200.00 in Fido dollars. Before going there I checked online and it is $400. When we got to the store, we saw it was $700 so I asked why the difference. This Asian girl told me that maybe I did not understand what Fido told me over the phone. I said I  checked online and it is the same price. Then she told me that I should call customer service. I was then wondering why she would not check it herself. She then told me that I should just get S6. And that S7 is a very expensive phone. I told her I want the upgrade to S7 and why would I pay more if it is advertised at $400. My son noticed I was getting exasperated and that we should just go. But just as we were leaving, this ignorant girl told me that my son and I should decide who should talk to Fido so that we could be understood. I was so upset that before leaving I noticed she had this very long pointed fake nails. I wanted to say ...oh by the way your claws match your personality to a T. But I just did not want to go down her level. Of course, I complained to Fido and I have made sure I have told everyone not to go to that particular store.

Pokemon Go

I never thought that I would do a post about any games. But here I am doing one now. My friends, family and co-workers know I walk a lot. I walk to work, during lunch time and doing our bank deposits which is 18 city blocks. I also walk at night after supper. When a friend and I were walking one weekend, I was intrigued when I found out she is playing Pokemon Go. So when I got home, I downloaded the game and the start of my journey as a Pokemon Go player. I got a few tips from my son and learned from Google websites. My daily walk now is more interesting and if I catch a few nice pokemons, I'm happy. I started August 13 and today I'm on level 9 which I think is good. I don't think I will do the arena and battles. I just want to catch rare pokemons and collect super balls or eggs. The ironic part is that I could  catch pokemons just standing from my balcony which I think is the lazy way. At night is the best time. I even caught 2 pokemons while in bed and two sitting on the couch. Well, that's my Pokemon Go post. I might update once in a while. Have a great weekend everyone!

Hello, I'm back

Well, after more than a year of break, I decided I will get back to blogging. There are times when I wanted to vent or tell a funny incident or some sad news and write but I just did not feel like blogging. A lot has happened and slowly I will be able to get the energy. I almost have forgotten how to do this so I'm relearning how to do this again. A friend asked me last week if I was still blogging and told her no but I'm thinking of doing it again. So let's see what happens. 

Thanks for stopping by.