Valencia in 8 hours.. A memorable day trip..

As you may know by now, I am a foreigner living in the beautiful country of Spain. I am happy and content with my life here in Spain but everytime there is an opportunity to meet up and touchbase with family, relatives, friends and former colleagues who are visiting Spain, I get all giddy and excited and I do my best effort to see/meet-up with them.

My excitement was painted all over my face when I found out that my youngest brother who currently works as a photographer in an international cruise line is going to Spain. 

After evaluating their Spain itinerary,  Valencia was the most feasible option as it can be reached via the high speed train, travelling time is bearable for a day trip and train fare is fairly reasonable. My vacation leave was approved and I purchased my train ticket. The only downer was that my precious son was unable to join us due to school commitments. 

The much awaited day happened and I reunited with my youngest brother. I took the earliest train trip and arrived safely in Valencia, Joaquin Sorolla train station. From there I took a cab that took me to the Valencia Port. 

The moment I stepped out of the cab, my brother and I were locked in a very tight embrace. Nothing beats that typical , familiar warmth of siblings love. Hehehe

I was given the opportunity to tour the cruise, my first time. We went to the top deck and we were blessed with a beautiful weather and an awesome panoramic view of the port and the city. 

Afterwards, we went to tour the old, historic part of Valencia city center. We went to the Mercat Central which boasts of its beautiful dome. We also explored the Valencia Cathedral, there is an entrance fee of 8€/head to see the Cathedral and its museum. We also went to visit the Plaza de la Reina, Plaza de la Virgen and did some shopping for my baby brother.

We moved around in taxi, as I was panting and exhausted hehehe old age and it wss practical, as we have limited time.  The taxi drivers were very helpful. There is a minimum rate of 4€ for the shortest distance. 

We had lunch in an Asian Restaurant which I found in Trip Advisor. My brother was craving for Filipino dishes and this restaurant, Tuktuk Asian Streetfood Restaurant in Valencia is located in the city center, in Gran Via. It serves a fusion of Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese food. It was economical, service was great and food was delish!!

The intense, jampacked, beautiful day came to its end, my brother had to go back to cruise for his calltime and I had to catch my train back to Madrid. 

Thank you Valencia for this beautiful and memorable trip. Thank you to  my brother who organized my tour in the cruise, to his colleagues and bosses who were kind to me and to my brother (when you are far from home and your love ones, your colleagues become your friends and sometimes your family), to my husband and son for the love and support and to You my Savior, My Lord, for your mercy, healing grace and blessings.

It was indeed a beautiful day and trip. 

 Valencia Cathedral

 Mercat Central Valencia - locals and tourists shop here.. a snapshot of the mercat's (mercado, market) dome

 Brother dear and I in the topdeck area of the cruise ship

 Brother and I in Tuktuk Asian Village Resto in Gran Via, city center of Valencia

In Plaza de la Virgen

 Shots of Valencia city center

Shots of Valencia city center

The Amateur cook in me.. Peach Cobbler

Cooking is therapeutic for me. It relaxes me and strengthens my meditation, mindfulness goals and it just helps me be me... 

This peach cobbler recipe is from Guy Feiri. I saw it from Food Network. It was really mouth watering and easy to prepare. 

Here it goes.. 
Complexity: Easy
Preparation and Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
Peach cobbler base:
1 medium sized caned peaches, drained
A dash of cinnamon
Cornstarch and water
1/2 cup flour
1 Medium sized lemon, extract the lemon juice

Crunch topping:
1 cup oats
Raisins (the original recipe has cranberries)
Butter, room temperature
Cinnamon
Walnuts, crushed

Procedure:
1. Mix all the ingredients to prepare the peach cobblet base. Add
2. in a separate bowl, Mix all the Ingredients for the crunch topping
3. Place the peach cobbler base in a pan and put on top portion ofthe crunchy typing
4. Put in the oven for 20 minutes
5. Add the rest of the crunchy topping and put back in the oven for another 15minutes. 

Best served with vanilla ice cream but in our case, we used frozen low fat yogurt. Hehehe

Ready to serve!!! Enjoy!!!  Thank you!!!! 

 Peach Cobbler Base

 Crunchy topping

 Ready to go to the oven

Ready to eat!!! 

Road to Wellness.. Challenging week for me...

I feel like crying right now.  I am feeling down.  Today is Thursday, 4th day of the work week. And I just took my anti anxiety pill for the 3rd straight day.  And this is eating me up. 

Not my photo. Taken from kdrama fever. 

I have a prescribed anti-anxiety medication that I take on cases that I feel that the attack is just too much.  It does not reset me but the prescribed medication is there to calm me.

On Tuesday, I took it because I felt so uneasy and my heart was palpitating a lot.  On Wednesday (yesterday), I was okay but I got so overly distracted with one meeting after the other, loud voices, people talking at the same time that I cannot concentrate at all.. In the end, I took another pill.  And today, I was presenting, and it started well but in the course of the presentation, maybe because I spoke fast again, my heart starting pounding and accelerating.  And I was unable to relax from then.  I had to leave the meeting 2x and even had to request my line manager to answer some questions on my behalf.  I took half of my anti anxiety pill which took effect immediately.  

This has been a challenging week so far.  I am sad why this is happening more frequently and why I am unable to deal with it correctly.  I understand that this is a process and I have to consistently breathe, breathe and experience breathing.  But I was unable to do it while I was going through the attack stage.  I am feeling black, blue and beaten.  I embrace the sadness that is engulfing me right now and eventually I will move on.  

Not my photo. Taken from the internet.  

I am writing this down to alleviate the pain and the sadness that I am feeling inside.  I am very grateful for my line manager who has been so super understanding with me and my condition.  This pains me a lot because I am an excellent trainer, I have great presentation skills and it has happened 3x that I got strong palpitations during important meetings.  I know I will get over this, will recover.  I just have to be patient, consistent and to believe that I can overcome this. 

At this point I feel like crying and I know crying helps me gets rid of these negative emotions... In spite of this, I close my eyes and I still feel the unwavering love of my God and of my family and friends and the support of my workmates. 

Not my Photo. Taken from the Internet... 

This is just a test, a challenging phase and I am hopeful that I will get over this.  

Thank you my Lord and my God.  And thank you to you for reading this and for understanding my feelings through this post.  Take care!!! 

The Amateur cook in me: Mother's day edition: French toast for breakfast and Lemon chicken for lunch

Today, May 06, 2018, we are celebrating Mother's Day in Spain. I can only surmise that most families are going to dine out so I decided to treat my husband and my son to homechilled meals. Hehehehe after all, cooking requires time and dedicating time, to my personal standards, is a big sign of how much to love a person. Hihihihi

So for this Mother's day 2018, we enjoyed homecooked French Toast for breakfast and Lemon Chicken for lunch... 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE EQUALLY AMAZING, HARDWORKING, LOVING, SANE THOUGH SOMETIMES FEELING LOST AND OVERWHELMED (LIKE ME) AND HEALTHY MOMS!!! LET'S HAVE AN AMAZING DAY!!! 

FRENCH TOAST 
Complexity: Easy
Preparation and Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
6 slices, portions Of bread
Half cup of milk
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter

1.  Mix the eggs, cinnamon, milk and vanilla extract. 
2.  Heat the pan with butter.
3. Dip both sides of the bread on the liquid mixture and sear on the pan.
4. Cook until golden brown. Ready to serve... 

LEMON CHICKEN - I used Rachel Ray's Lemon chicken recipe in Food Network as basis and I added my personal twist by adding sliced lemon...

Complexity: Easy
Preparation and Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
3/4 kilo chicken breast, sliced
Flour
Lemon curd
Butter
Vinegar
Water
Lemon
Olive oil

Procedure:
1.  Slice the chicken breast and coat with flour. 
2. Heat the pan, pour olive oil and cook the chicken. Just half cook the chicken. Remove the chicken. 
3. Pour vinegar on the pan and water to mix all the flavors from the chicken. 
4. In a separate pan, heat water and mix the lemon curd and add 6 slices of lemon. Mix until it is well incorporated.
5. Pour the lemon curd-water mixture into the pan where thechicken was initially cooked. Add thechicken. 
6. Com until the lemon curd sauce texture is thick. 
7. As Rachel Ray had stated, look at that glaze!  Hahaha
DELISH!! MASARAP! COMIDA RICA! 

It´s NOT just about the Money...

I am at this stage in my life where I value peace of mind, tranquility and work life balance.  I understand that we work in order to improve our lifestyle, pay off our bills, save some money for the rainy days and of course for professional growth and satisfaction. 

While a good and just earning is important, at this point in my life and in this age, where we are privileged to enjoy the benefits of technology such as working remotely, cost efficient measures such as video and voice conferences, salary or compensation is not just the monetary value that we receive in our paycheck.  Compensation, for me, is the complete package of financial remuneration, professional and career advancement through opportunities such as training and "emotional salary" tied up with the company´s culture, commitment of trust, openness and other benefits such as work from home.  

Being a working parent, it does not matter if you are the mom or the dad, there are days that you have school commitments to attend to.  And of course, the proud parent in us would not want to miss that opportunity.  Or in cases that we have medical appointments or personal errands to attend to, a work from scheme always comes in handy.  Of course, we must not forget that WE ARE PROFESSIONALS and WE HAVE THE COMMITMENT TO DELIVER AND GIVE OUR 100% PERFORMANCE and CAPABILITY TO OUR COMPANY. 

As part of Spain´s commitment to work life balance and to the importance of raising a family, a parent who has a kid, until the kid is 8 years old, can actually request for jornada reducida (literally means shortened schedule), where the parent can work straight for 6 or 7 hours a day, no lunch break, instead of the typical 8 or to whatever time hours.  This comes with a catch though; there is a salary cut that corresponds to the hours that you do not work.  Nonetheless, this is a good and legal approach to create an environment conducive for rearing a family.  I took the jornada reducida scheme until my son was 4 years old. 

The important thing is as we expect our company to provide a culture of trust, we should be trust worthy professionals as well.  I work from home and I am thankful for that.  But I can guarantee and my results/outputs reveal that even on the days that I work from home, my integrity as a professional is not compromised - I deliver, I show my outputs, I attend my meetings and I am accessible (except of course if I am on a medical appointment).  

True to my form, money is important and there are important things that money cannot buy and that is where the emotional salary comes in.  It gives me the relief and the peace that I do not have to be juggling from one place to another to attend to commitments other than work.  And that´s why I say it is not just about the money and I hope we are all able to enjoy this privilege without being subjected to scrutiny.  We all deserve to be trusted as we trust as well. :)  

Thank you. 

 *** Not my photo. Photo taken from the internet.  Thank you. 

 *** Not my photo. Photo taken from the internet.  Thank you.

                    *** Not my photo. Photo taken from the internet.  Thank you.

Road to Wellness: Eres Tu... Soy Yo..

Hoy, he estado con mis medicos (psiquiatria y psicologo) para la revision de mi ansiedad/angustia. 
En las charlas que he tenido con ellos, me quede con frases y consejos que comienzan con ERES TU... Son frases y consejos buenos e impactante... 

- Eres tu (tu mente) que salta las alarmas aunque estas en un momento de tranquilidad.. Es el poder tu mente (cuando le hice la pregunta por que la ansiedad, a veces me pilla en momentos de tranquilidad). 

- Eres tu que haces el esfuerzo para controlar las reacciones sobre la ansiedad (me dijeron cuando les comente que con todo lo que estoy haciendo, mindfulness/estar en el momento, respirar conscientemente, etc, me estan ayudando aprender reaccionar).  

- Eres tu que trabajas para quitar hierro sobre el tema de ansiedad; ensayas tu mente para educarle que es solo un momento de alarma y que no va a pasar nada, absolutamente nada. 

- Eres tu que conscientemente haces el trabajo de conseguir tiempo para meditar, hacer yoga, tranquilizarte.  

- Eres tu capacidad de adaptar y afrontar la situacion que haces conocer las sintomas y a partir de alli, lo controlas.  

A pesar de las sesiones con ellos, mis terapias de sacrocraneal, spas/masajes y acupunctura, toma de pastilla puntualmente, ellos, me dijeron que realmente, esta en mi mente y que YO PUEDA superar esta etapa, poco a poco, sin agobiarme.  

Dicho esto, me doy cuenta del poder de nuestro mente y la importancia de cuidarla, para generar buenos recuerdos y asegurar que esta sano.  La mayoria de nuestro tiempo pasa volando con todas las cosas que tenemos que realizar y no nos damos cuenta de la importancia de descansar, vivir el momento. 

Con todo lo que mis medicos me dijeron hoy, voy a añadir una cosa.. ERES TU (SOY YO), con mi fe, con mi valentia, con mi optimismo y mi paz interior que voy a superar esta etapa y que todo va a influir en mi vida en una manera natural y con fluidez.. Lo creo y lo hare.  So help me God!!!

 ***Not my photo. Taken from the internet... 

 *** Not my photo.  Taken from the internet... 

*** Not my photo.  Taken from the internet.. 

The Amateur Cook In me.. Homemade Beef Shawarma, Greek Yogurt Garlic Sauce and Guacamole

To celebrate May 1, international labour day, we did a handful of work at our home sweet home, organizing, de-cluttering, practicing the Japanese's 5S methodology for sorting.. And after organizing, sorting for a good 4 hours, we rewarded ourselves with delish homecooked lunch meal... Beef Shawarma, Greek Yogurt Sauce and Homemade Guacamole.. 

My hubby and my son enjoyed this meal. Happy May 1st to all!!!

Complexity: Easy
Preparation and Cooking time: 1,5 hours

Ingredients:
Beef Shawarma
3/4 kilo beef tenderloin, cup into small strips
Soy sauce
Pepper
Onion
Ginger
For serving:
Pita bread
1 medium sized tomato, diced
1 medium sized cucumber, diced
1 medium sized onion, diced

Greek Yogurt Sauce
Greek Yogurt No sugar
Garlic finely chopped
Water

Guacamole
1 role avocado
1 lemon/lime
1 tomato, thinly sliced
1 Medium sized onion, finely chopped

Procedure:
1. Marinate the  beef. Mix the soy sauce, pepper, ginger and onion. Marinate to a minimum of 4 4 hours or overnight.
2. Put the beef marinate cover with aluminum foil in the oven for 20 minutes. 
3. After 20 minutes, get it and pour the marinate extract in a bowl. Put back the beef, this time without the aluminum foil cover, in the oven and let it cook for another 20 minutes. 
4. Greek yogurt. Mix the Greek yogurt and garlic. Add a little bit of water to get the liquid texture. Mix until all ingredients are properly incorporated. 
5. Guacamole:  Mash the avocado, squeeze the lemon or lime, add the finely chopped tomato and onion. Mix until all ingredients are properly incorporated. 

Ready for serving. Enjoy. 

Bienvenido Mayo 2018 y Muchas gracias Abril 2018...

Wow!!! and in a blink of an eye... we are now celebrating the 5th month of the year!!  Welcome May 2018!! Please be kind and good to us, as we face our daily activities.. 

(not my photo.  Downloaded from the internet).  

And to you April 2018, I thank you for (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):   

1.  The beautiful first week that we spent in my motherland (Read related post: My holiday in the Philippines) ... Memorable, precious, unforgettable moments that have left an indelible mark in my life.  At times, when I close my eyes, I still feel the very fresh memories of embracing my family in the Philippines - my mom, my siblings, my nephews!! 

2.  Our family jetlag mode upon arrival, that made us to finally visit and enjoy La Rollerie in Atocha, Madrid. Absolutely delish and moist cinnamon roll, bagels and English breakfast combo served by friendly staff!! 

3.  Letting me survive this April in the office.  Do not get me wrong.. I LOVE MY JOB and I APPRECIATE A LOT MY WORKMATES and MY LINE MANAGER!! As in!! I am truly grateful for them. But at times, the very busy schedule, the demands of family and work all together, leave me at a state where I am quite physically, mentally and emotionally drained.  So I am thankful that I am able to survive the demands of my work.  I LOVE YOU WORK! Hahaha hahahaha 

4.  I am getting better and I am still desiring to be back at shape!!! hahahaha I am able to resume my Friday afternoons with my son.  During the month of March, I was marred with some health setbacks and busy schedules at work.  But I am very committed to preserving my mother and son Friday rituals!! 

5.  Health is getting better!! 2nd month that I did not take my strong pill for migraine because migraine attacks have significantly reduced!!! I ELIMINATED COFFEE FROM MY DIET and IT ABSOLUTELY HAS BEEN BENEFICIAL TO MY HEALTH!!!  I have been maximizing my evenings and have been spending a great deal of my time doing my meditation/Finding my Silence and basic yoga positions.  THESE HAVE ALSO BEEN BENEFICIAL TO MY HEALTH.  
My sacrocraneal and acupuncture sessions are going great and HAVE ALSO HELPED IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF MY HEALTH.  

 (not my photo.  Downloaded from the internet).  

 (not my photo.  Downloaded from the internet).  

                                                  (not my photo.  Downloaded from the internet).  

6.  Thanks to my colleague/workmate for introducing me and egging me to watch La Casa de Papel! Hahaha I finished the series.  And I am so in love with the Professor!! His character is so tranquil yet scheming. hahahaha And how he opted for the resistance; to get all the money that he wanted without being violent!! Ole to you Professor Sergio Marquina! And thanks as always to my hubby, the biggest love of my life who accepts me as I am and for tolerating the child/the teenager in me... ALWAYS!!!   I love you forever my sweetie!!! 

 (not my photo.  Downloaded from the internet).  

 (not my photo.  Downloaded from the internet).  

(not my photo.  Downloaded from the internet).  

Having said these, I look around and I know that I/we have so many to be thankful for.  Let´s do our best to be the best positive versions of ourselves. Spread the good vibes!!  Thank you April 2018 and Welcome May 2018!!! 

                                                 (not my photo.  Downloaded from the internet).