Seeing a Monitor Lizard

If you see a Monitor lizard in a zoo, reservation park, or in the jungle, I'm sure you won't be surprised. But if you see one lurking in your neighborhood in the city, would you be surprised? I bet you would.

I was actually finishing some of my clothes designs on the staircase that day. When suddenly my elder brother, Kakah Haneef shouts. "Look! Theres a big lizard!!"

As I rushed down the stairs, everybody crowded by the door. My eyes made no mistake when I saw the Monitor lizard. When it spotted us, it ran slowly into the garden and went up the fence leading to our neighbor, Mrs. Mastura's house.

Two days later, it was seen wandering in the middle of the street. Upon seeing it, the carpenters who were renovating the house in front of us caught it. One of them got hit by the lizard's tail on his hands. They said they were going to eat it for supper. It is said to taste like chicken...

That night, we smelt something simmering... It smelt delicious!

Along came some shouts, "Faster, catch it! Don't let it get away!", from them.

We found out the very next day that the Monitor lizard had escaped to the canal. It was because one of the carpenters made a hole in the sack for the lizard to breath (LOL!), and the lizard grasped its chance to escape. The carpenter on the other hand, got a wound on his face from the lizard's tail when attempting to catch it again...

I'm glad that it's free!

-Wassalam

Turning my Barbies into Hijabis

Assalamu Alaykum.

I was looking at my Barbies one afternoon. I was already tired of seeing them with low necklines, very low-cut gowns, and really tight-fitting clothes. So I thought, how about a change?

The last time I thought about this was 3 years ago. But the idea passed from my mind because I had a lot of things to consider first. Particularly time... Because that was the same year we officially started our homeschooling so I had to consider my studies first.

It was a pleasant day. All my siblings had gone for their afternoon rest. For some reason, I didn't feel like resting. So I brought the sewing kit to the balcony where I wouldn't disturb anybody. And started my work...

The first one I made was what I call, "The Red Lady". This one made things very easy because it's body was slimmer than the usual Barbies and was flexible. I took some red cloth from my closet and started sewing. After a series of stitching and pricking, Alhamdulillah, I was done with the first one.




I made the Barbie's clothes in the design of a red Kameez.

For the second one, i didn't know where I got the idea for the clothes.
The hijab style i made for it was the tucked-in hijab. This one was originally a ballerina doll. This was the one I meant with the "Low Necklines" thing.

When I finished, it was like i could hardly recognize it. And by this time, my younger siblings had wakened already. It was already Asr. Time to clear up and continue tomorrow...




:::Day 2:::

The very next day, I resumed my work.

This was the most difficult one so far. Just as I planned, the style of the doll's hijab was the 'Turkish Hijab'. It was also my favorite style.

My pricks from the day before had not completely healed yet. And I was getting as many pricks as I had the last time.

And... Taadaa!! Here it is...




I can't wait to show them to Amah and Inah when they arrive home!!

Wassalam...

The Circle of Frogs

Rainy season comes again, and the frogs are back from their mysterious disappearance. They come and go in the grounds of the elementary school. They are usually on the parts that flood when heavy rains create mini-ponds for them.

After reading Qur’an and breaking our fasts in our Grand auntie’s house, we started our way through the dark, cold, rainy night. So it was a good thing we all brought our own jackets.

Our village used to be green mountains, wide rice fields, and fertile valleys. The government just reclaimed the area for houses and streets. Our Grand auntie’s house was located near the top of this mountain, and the elementary school at the foot.

By the time we reached the gate of the school, we heard a mysterious yet beautiful sound coming from the school grounds. At first, I thought it was from the school building. But when we heard one of them croak, we knew right away that the sound came from frogs in the mini-pond. They emitted a sound from their throats which sounded like “All~ah…” repeatedly. Then Kakah Imran told us about one of the shows in the ‘National Geographic’ channel featuring frogs.

After the frogs say “All~ah…” for 5 times, the goats answer too!

It occurred to us that they must be happy that the rainy season is back and they are thanking Allah s.w.t. for it.

We realized then that we were moving really slow and that the rain was getting strong again.

So we set on our way home again.

Chocolate Sauce

This blog is about Chocolate Sauce.

Chocolate sauce is mostly made with dark chocolate. For me, it makes it more exciting with it..
Baking chocolate does it. But I prefer tablet or 'tableya' as it's commonly known.

The second ingredient is butter.. mmmm...
Now things are getting more exciting. Butter and dark chocolate mixes well. And tastes very good!!

And the last is condensed milk.

A double boiler is usually used for making chocolate sauce. But I use a simple cauldron for it.

First put the chocolate and let it melt,
Then put the butter next and stir them up.
And finally the condensed milk...

Keep on stirring until they blend. And make sure to use a wooden spoon as much as possible.
It would be very hard to clean a metal spoon with warm hardened chocolate at the tip. And it mixes well with a wooden spoon too.


There!!

And oh!! Here's the recipe if you're interested..

1) 180 g semisweet (dark) chocolate
2) 90 g butter
3) 125 ml condensed milk

I hope you could come and taste my chocolate sauce...
But don't forget to bring a loaf of bread!! hehehe

My "KNIVES" Experiences

Knives! What comes to the minds of people when they hear this word? Those sharp, scary, shiny, stainless steel things. When used in a movie it is usually seen stained with blood from a victim of someone evil. Hmmm...
But let us set this things aside first and let us come to our little peaceful kitchen.

The first time I saw the collection of knives in our kitchen, I thought they were cool. Those were the times when I watched our helper before, Ate Beth cooking.
I wasn't allowed to touch and play with them during those times because they said, "It was DANGEROUS." I was 5 years old then.

When I was 8 years old, I was allowed to touch and use already. I still remember my Auntie's warning then... "Just DON'T play with it." And with my small piping voice, I answered, "Okay."

But my major experiences with these stainless steel objects was when I was 11 years old. Those were the times when they started teaching me how to cook...
Then came the cuts in my fingers, mostly in my index finger or my thumb.
"OUCH!!"
Although I started slicing onions and tomatoes. More cuts came as I started slicing carrots, cabbages, and chayotes. Especially if they were to be sliced into bite-size.

Of all the wounds I've had, I guess the worst is the one I have right now, and I'm 14 years old. It happened on Wednesday, July 15, 2009, while I was slicing cabbage for chicken soup. My left thumb was probably hidden underneath. As I was about to finish slicing it... "Tsak." "Ouch!!"

And there I've done it. I made a wound accidentally that cuts not only through my epidermis, but also through some of my tissues as well... Erm...
It happened during the week when we went to our Grandauntie's house to read the Qur'an from 3-6 pm.
"And Oh! How the wound bled, It made part of our sink red."
I went to read the Qur'an with a white gauze, and came back with it fully stained with bl**d. ;)

-Wassalam

The Ancestral Martelino Building

Assalamu Alaykum... I'm going to tell you about the ancestral Martelino Building and those who lived there.

The ancestral Martelino building was owned by our great grandparents, Lolo Gaudiosa and Lola Ditas. My grandmother, Ombo Ellen and her siblings were 7 all-in-all. So their parents worked really hard to let them go to college. The house occupied one whole block in the commercial district of Kalibo. It had 7 bedrooms. Each bedroom was as big as the 2nd floor of our house! Four kids can fit in just one bedroom there… Under the house, there was a bomb shelter. Ombo Ellen told us that whenever the bombings started, Lolo Guding and Lola Ditas would gather everybody and go down to the bomb shelter. They would go out only when bombings ended. These bombing happened because they lived during the time of World War II.

The Martelino were a family of singers and musicians… Lolo Guding used to own an orchestra before. And Lola Ditas was a brilliant singer. Ombo Ellen recalls the time when their parents taught them how to sing and play the piano for one hour! Everybody was in one room playing the piano and Lolo Guding and Lola Ditas would guard them until they reach one hour! Sometimes they add 15 to 20 minutes more so they can get their fingering. Ombo Ellen told us about her mother teaching her how to play the piano one day:

One day, Ombo Ellen was called by her mother, Lola Ditas to a room and was instructed to play the piano for one hour to get her fingering. Whenever she makes a mistake, Lola Ditas would either spank her hands with a stick or let her repeat what she’s playing all over again..
She sometimes played the piano crying. Especially when her mother lets her play for 15 – 20 minutes more after a tiring hour of practicing and she would cry saying
“Ayoko na, ayoko na!”…. Hehehehe..

Ombo Ellen said this was also the reason why she was strict about our mistakes when she taught us the fingering… She would let us repeat the ‘DO RE MI’ everytime we make mistakes. But this is no match compared to how strict Lola Ditas was before.

Lola Ditas died at the age of 42 years because she fainted and bumbed her head in the cement while watching her sister being put in the coffin… That was the first time their family had deaths of two people after 1 hour and a half… Inah said Ombo Ellen has a picture together with her sibling with two coffins in the background…

Then Lolo Guding re-married when he was 72 or so… Now, Ombo Ellen and her siblings have three half brothers… Then Lolo Guding died at the age of 93… Zakiran was the only one who saw Lolo Guding. And they had a good time together.

----------------------------------------------
Here is a list of all of them
(except for the 3 half brothers because I don’t know who they are yet):

Lola Cynthia,
Lolo Dito,
Lolo Rex,
Ombo Ellen,
Lolo Gil,
Lolo Cristine, and
Lola Lilith
-----------------------------------------------

All of them are in Seattle right now. Except for Lolo Rex and Lolo Cristine who are in Aklan, and Lolo Dito who is in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. Lola Cynthia died already.

The Martelino Building is now divided into 7 parts. One for each of them.

Ombo Ellen wants us to go there the next time we visit Aklan… And she will try to bring a keyboard so that we can practice more in our fingering… It’s good to know she’s not that strict. But I won’t take it for granted…

The next time we visit Aklan, she said we might stay longer because we have a lot of things to learn and a lot of things to see…

Wassalam…

The Day A Mango Fell On My Head

What?! A mango fell on your head?! Yes it's true.. And I'm going to tell you about it.

That day was my first time to knit... And I was doing so when it happened.

Zakiran was talking to his friend, Ajran was in the kitchen making a dip, and there I was, in the hammock, knitting, so absorbed with what I was doing when suddenly...

BOOG!!

There went the mango...

"Ouch!!", I cried.

It rolled to the bridge after it fell on my head.... And Oh!! It was big!! It was approximately 5 inches long and 3 inches wide... (Gosh)

Ajran was already by the door when it fell and she couldn't stop laughing. She then exclaimed, "Ang tigas pala ng ulo mo Kakah Haleema..."

LOL!!

Zakiran was also laughing then. So I just joined in the laughter.

Now I know how (Sir) Isaac Newton felt when the apple fell on his head while he was studying about gravity. But I think I got something much worse. The apple was very small compared to the mango that fell on my head, and it fell from one of the highest branches of our tree..

(OUCH!!!^^)

But no matter how painful it was, I didn't cry... Alhamdulillah it was such an experience.

Sky Journey

Assalamu Alaykum. This essay is about the things that happened during our flight to Aklan…

When we boarded the plane at 11:30 am, the first thing I did was to pray. After that, I looked out the window. The airport was really designed to be an international one. It used to be an abandoned building and now it is one of the most known airports in the Philippines. It might also be known in other countries by those foreigners who come here for a vacation.

The airport was very big and had a clear and wide glass window facing the runway so you could see the airplanes fly… I used to watch airplanes fly from that window for more than 2 hours, and now I am the one who’s going to fly. Then after 15-20 minutes, the airplane started to move. It stopped at 13 kph for 10 minutes, then suddenly flew up at 18 kph, which made it a bit harder for all of us to get acquainted with the pressure.

The plane was still slanted until it straightened when we were more than a thousand feet in the air. But before it became straight, I saw the houses, malls, other business buildings and cars. As we went farther, I saw everything like a map. The only difference was that this view of Metro Manila was moving. And I thought, “How busy this city was!”.

During the flight, I saw a lot of things. Fishing boats, big and small islands… One of the islands I saw was shaped like a curled fish. Another one was very steep. It must’ve been very hard to climb there. Then the airplane went higher until all I could see underneath were clouds. When I looked up, all I could see were some cirrus clouds. If you look up further, you could see that the earth was really round. Or maybe egg shaped..

When we were already near Aklan, after 30 minutes of flying, Cebu Pacific attendants gave some games. It is the only airline that gives games and they are known for that..

Then the airplane started to fly down. It started turning from right to left, which allowed everyone to have a glimpse of the green city of Kalibo. Full of mountains, rice and corn fields, ponds, and best of all, it gave us a very nice view of the Aklan river. The river was very wide, but it seemed to have dried up a little.

We landed at a very rural looking airport. It was a nice one. When I asked Lolo Ed what time was it already, he said it was already 12:35 pm. We took some pictures in the airport first.

12:45 pm as I recall was the end of my sky journey. It ended the moment I stepped out of the airport.

Going To Aklan

Assalamu Alaykum…

Last March 20, we went to Aklan. We left the airport at 8:30 am. The check-in finished at 9:05 am. We waited at the check-in counter for about 20 minutes. Then we proceeded to the next counter where you pay your terminal fee. The fee was 200.00 pesos each so all in all we paid 1400.00 pesos. Then we went to the part where we put our things in the second x-ray scanner. The first one was at the entrance. In this second scanner, you are required to remove your shoes too! Maybe it’s because more bad people hide weapons on their shoes already. Lol…

Then we proceeded to the waiting area. On our way, we stopped by a corner so that those who wanted to pee could go to the CR.. While waiting for the others, a fellow Muslimah asks where and how could she get to “Gate 119” (It was a long way to that gate from the corner where we were). So Inah told her to go straight ahead.

Then all of us went to Gate 119 because that was also where we would wait our flight. We waited for 3 very exhausting hours… I think it was just because the three of us were very excited. Until it was time to board the plane. Zakiran kept on asking Inah, “That’s our plane already, right?”. It was very funny to see the way they carelessly threw your baggage to the airplane.. Ombellen’s painting which had a note “Handle with care” in it was about to be thrown just like the others until the man saw everyone looking. So he simply dropped the painting slowly…

All the things I experienced during this flight is what I call, our Sky Journey…

When we arrived at the airport of Kalibo, we were greeted by the sight of green trees everywhere, fresh air, and the smell of the sea. It was really a province!

Lolo Rex and Lolo Cristin were waiting outside the airport and Auntie Melrose arrived after a few minutes to take us home.

The house was big enough to accommodate 7-10 people. It wasn’t really small, I’m just used to seeing a big house I guess.

Our days in Aklan were full of fun! And we were always with our cousins…

Feeling shy, Playing, Pillow fighting, Swimming, and the last thing they all did, was being sad because we only stayed there for 4 days. They were already making some reasons for us to stay.. But I guess it was already late. So they said, the next time we go there, we should stay longer…

Wassalam…