Two Lessons That I Learned on Mother's Day

This does not have anything to do with mommyness or family.  This is more um, fashion-related.  In fact, this is another shoe disaster.  Heehee!

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Last Sunday, I decided to wear an old pair of flat shoes that's been sitting quietly at the bottom of my shoe boxes.  Now, this trusty old pair and I have been through a lot.  I wore these shoes when Richard and I went apartment hunting on my first trip to Bangkok.  It's quite an old pair; I bought them from Rustan's ATC two or three years ago.  But, like with any other shoe, it had to take a backseat when I eventually bought new ones.

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So last Sunday, I wore them again.  But as I was walking to our seat at the back of the church, my right foot felt a little weird.  Once we were seated, I checked the shoe but I didn't find anything unusual. Moments later, I realized that the bottom of my right shoe looked different from the bottom of my left shoe -- the sole was about to come apart!  Oh gosh!  Silently, I was panicking.  What if the shoe comes apart during communion?  That would be really embarrassing!  So I prayed that my shoe will remain intact at least until after the mass.

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I survived the mass and lunch without any shoe mishaps, but when we were in the car, my shoe finally gave up.

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She gave up, just like that :(

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Good thing I had rubber bands in my bag.  I had them there to use for Aly's chopsticks because we were planning to eat in a Japanese restaurant a couple of weeks back.  I'll tell you all about that rubber band - chopsticks thing once we've tried it on Aly.  So what I did was, I tied a rubber band around my shoe so it looked like this:

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My rubber band-ed shoe.

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Imagine I had to walk in the mall in those!  It gets worse: when we arrived at the mall, I really, really needed to pee!  My family and closest friends would know that when I say I need to pee, I really mean business because I can't hold it any longer.  As in now na!  I had to walk fast, but I couldn't because if I did, my shoe would totally be wrecked and that would be the end of me.

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After what seemed like ten years, I made it to the toilet.  We bought my FitFlops (photos were taken at the FitFlop booth, by the way, in case you're wondering why the carpet's green) so I can walk normally and went home.  The end.

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So what are the two lessons that I learned in Mother's Day?

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#1 - It's good to have a couple of rubber bands in your bag.  You will never know when they will come in handy;

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#2 - If you plan to wear an old pair of shoes, it would be very wise to check each and every inch of the shoe before you head out the door.  When in doubt, bring an extra pair or do not wear them at all.

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My Last Attempt at Baking Chocolate Cake

This is the third time that I baked a chocolate cake. The first one was a birthday cake for my brother Jof, the second one was a batch of cupcakes for Ria's birthday. The problem is not really with the cake itself -- I use Heny Sison's recipe so how can I go wrong with that? -- it's just that I can't get the frosting right! I follow the recipe and the directions down to every single cup, teaspoon, drop, comma, period, etc...but the end product that I get is always nowhere near the one that Heny Sison made in our class! Arrggh!! My first fudge frosting became stiff like fondant, and the second one was not perfect as well. And the third one? We'll talk about that later. For now, take a good look at these pictures because this will be the last time that I will be baking chocolate cake. Ever.

Notice the layered ones? These babies are no bigger than 3inches in diameter. I sliced the top of the cake to make them even, cut the excess with a cookie cutter, then I dipped the cutouts in melted white chocolate. Candy sprinkle decoration by Alyannah.

As I was saying, this is the last time that I will bake chocolate cake. Why? Because still I can't get the fudge frosting right! The first batch of frosting that I made for this was a complete disaster! After whisking and stirring the milk and chocolate mixture for more than an hour, I decided to take a shower while waiting for it to cool. When I got back, the frosting became solid! As in rock hard. I had a hard time cutting it with a knife! So I tried another recipe and this time the frosting was spreadable. But that's it! I will not attempt to make another chocolate cake again. The cake itself is easy to make, but the frosting is a different story. It's a time-consuming and laborious process which makes driving from Tagaytay all the way to Shell Magallanes for a box of Polly's chocolate cake a lot easier than baking the cake myself!

Buti na lang something good came out of this frosting thing. For my second attempt, I had to make a dash to Central Plaza to buy the ingredients and I discovered this:

1-kilo chocolate bars for only THB145 (dark chocolate) and THB 170(white choco). Super cheap!

I used the dark chocolate one (blended with cream) for the frosting. The white chocolate one...well, I bought it because I love white choco so haven't used it yet. For now, it will keep me company when I have my chocolate cravings. Hehe!

The Hidden Talent of Thai Women

They say that when you're at the mall, you can tell if a woman is a local or a foreigner just by looking at her shoes because Thai women wear heels while foreigners and tourists wear sandals or flip flops. How these women manage to walk around the mall in high heels still baffles me. It's a talent! Seriously, it's like going to the gym in heels! At least for me, because I consider shopping as a form of exercise. Come to think of it, it is my only exercise. Ha!

There's nothing wrong with wearing high-heeled shoes. In fact, they are one of man's greatest inventions. They add extra inches to your height, they make you feel and look sexy, they make your legs look longer and they add that extra oomph to any oufit. What more can you ask for? I used to love wearing high heels. I remember when Charles and Keith had a crazy sale in ATC years ago -- shoes for Php500-800 -- I bought five pairs! I believe that it's my duty as a consumer to take full advantage of these promos. Especially the kind that's hard to come by. Nowadays, Charles and Keith only gives 10-15% discount at most.

Then I discovered the comfort of wearing flip flops and flats. I went crazy over these too. They're perfect for shopping marathons, giving you the extra mileage vs. high heels. If you had a shoe for every activity, like rubber shoes for sports, work boots for well, working, then you must wear flats or flip flops for shopping.

Yesterday, I tried putting myself in their shoes (literally and figuratively) by going to Paragon mall in heels. I traded my beloved flip flops for my new Thb250 1-inch suede round toe shoes that I bought from Platinum Mall. As expected, my feet hurt like hell. To make matters worse, my right heel broke when we were on our way to the taxi stand. I stepped on a crack and the rubber end of my heel got stuck in it. I'm not sure if I can still have it fixed. Haven't seen any shoe repair shops here ala Mr. Quickie. Besides, it might be cheaper to just buy another pair at Platinum Mall. Again, I find myself in a situation where I'm glad I bought duplicates (have another pair in purple!). With this predicament and the taxi situation that I posted earlier, I was definitely having a moment that should be making me cry. What kept me going was the fact that these are cheap shoes (no wonder they broke that easily! Wore them only twice!).

Bye bye heel!

Bye bye shoes :(

Thai women should be admired for being able to shop in high heels. As for me, that's probably the first and last time I will be wearing heels to the mall.

The (In)Famous Bangkok Traffic

Last night, I got a taste of the legendary Bangkok traffic -- and it was worse than I imagined! It normally takes us 15-20 minutes to go from Siam Paragon to Oakwood but last night it took us an hour and a half! Average cab fare is around THB70-80 but last night I paid THB120. It was that bad.

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Worse, Yan and I had to stand in line for an hour just to get a taxi! There was a shortage of taxis at the Paragon station and the ones that were there refused to take us to Naradhiwas because of the bad traffic.

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Much worse, my cellphone battery died just when Richard told me that he'll be sending the driver over to pick us up. I asked him earlier if he can ask his driver to pick us up but they were also stuck in traffic on the expressway so I decided to take the taxi instead. At that time, I had no idea there were no taxis available (good thing I took a bathroom break before we went to the taxi stand!). After standing there for over an hour with bags of groceries on both hands (I swear I tried my best to keep my purchases at a minimum because I'll be carrying them myself, but I still ended up with four bags!), with a tired five-year old who is fast becoming impatient, I had to call my husband for an S.O.S. Luckily, he just arrived at the restaurant so he can send Sangkom over. At that moment, my phone died. It felt like one of those sad movie scenes where the forsaken lover runs after the bus or car in the rain. All the elements were there except for the lovers part: the rain, the car that won't let us in, and the feeling of helplessness.

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The drama queen in me wanted to rush back to the mall to do more shopping to make me feel better because nothing produces endorphins in the body faster than a brand new pair of shoes, but that would be crazy since the line wasn't getting any shorter. Suddenly, I heard the guard shouting "Naradhiwas" over the megaphone. It was like the heavens opened up and a beam of light shone on us -- drama queen again (guess I'm watching too much HBO and Star Movies). We finally got a taxi that will take us home! Bless the kind driver who took us in.

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Lesson: never leave home without a fully charged cellphone!

My First Laundry Disaster

Since we're posting all our firsts on this blog, I might as well include my first (and hopefully my last!) laundry disaster.

Yep, the thing that I feared the most has already happened. No, the washing machine did not explode (thank god!), but one of my shirts was almost torn into shreds.

Nabutas sya!

Here's a closer look at the damage.

So now I mourn the demise of my new (wore it only once!) Zara shirt. I shouldn't feel too bad since I got it on sale -- but that's thing! This shirt is a super rare find! I got it for only 390baht from the original price of 990baht! Good thing I bought two (this one's grey, the other one's cream). This is one instance where it really pays to buy duplicates! When I see something that I really like, I buy in different colors but only if it's cheap.

But the weird thing is, the other shirts that I washed along with it were not damaged at all. So I'm not really sure if it's the washing machine's fault or if the shirt was damaged already before I even washed it. Hmmm...