I'm back, baby! (or I won, I won at last)

Look what arrived in the mail this morning...

After a whole year of not winning anything, I won a raffle for an overnight stay for 2 at Taal Vista Hotel courtesy of blogger Nina of Just Wandering.org! And the best thing about it is that it was free! No purchase needed, no subscribing to a newsletter or group buying site, just leave a comment and hope for the best! Best of all, Nina sent the gift certificate to me at her expense!

Honestly, I thought my lucky streak had ended with the iPad2 but I just kept on joining and hoping against hope. Actually, I did win a notebook and a ballpen from a Starworld twitter promo but I have to go all the way to Pasig to claim it so I didn't get it, but I didn't reject it either. Like Oprah says, "Don't block the blessings!"

Here's hoping I win some more this year because 2013 is turning out to be a very lucky year!

Maybe I will buy some lotto tickets after all...

Previously in Manila...

Ayala is determined to thoroughly change its landscape and remove all the old landmarks that I used to know. After remodeling Quad/ Glorietta 1 , they have closed down Park Square 1. So say goodbye to Wendy's, Magoo's Pizza and all those little shops that sell cellphone accessories... I swear anyone who has been gone for even a year will get lost in Glorietta.
This was shot from the new location of National Bookstore, which returned to Glorietta 1.

In other news, I was looking for children's books for my Kuya Rocel's kids in the US and found this gem: Ako ay isang mabuting Pilipino by singer/songwiter Noel Cabangon. It's about what every Pinoy should do to help in nation building. It's also written in Filipino AND English. Plus, it features illustrations by Jomike Tejido and they are exqusite paintings on banig as canvas! This will definitely be my giveaway book for my nephews next Christmas!

And finally, here's my mom's version of Chili shrimps, a variation of the Singaporean Chili Crabs. We got this from a Del Monte recipe booklet and I convinced my mom to try it out.
You just saute some garlic, onion and ginger strips then add the shrimps, 200 grams tomato sauce, gata/ coconut milk and siling labuyo/chili.  Finally, stir in one egg. It was heavenly! Mama did not like the coconut milk though. Too savory, for her. Methinks it's funny coz she grew up in Quezon, which is coconut country. Nagsawa siguro! Anyway, you can opt to take out the coconut milk if you don't like it to be too creamy/coconutty. It's still good.