Kwentong Kengkay

Setyembre 5, 2008

What’s a great birthday gift to a fellow mom?

Filed under: Done That,Mom Bares — kengkay @ 1:24 hapon

It didnt take me a long time to decide what to give a new found friend, also a stay-at-home-mom, for her 40th birthday. Nope, she doesnt like jewelries nor does she love perfumes. She would rather wear comfortable clothes and shoes that doesnt bite; and she’s got her favorite mommy bag already.

And, so I’ve decided to give her a special mommy day. A day off from home. With the help of my husband, we printed a special invitation for her to spend a day in a far away city with me (not too far away but far enough for her to escape household chores).

When she read the invitation, she was so excited. The husband, was excited for her, too especially since we didnt really inform them our destination. And so I guess, our gift is a success, judging from their reaction.

Actually, we invited her small daughter, too; as I would be bringing both girls with me. That way, they could play together and we moms could talk and window shop and do whatever we could do as long as the girls would let us. of course. She would have to leave her small son with the dad, at least, some sort of break, right?

So, that invitation was fulfilled last Wednesday. We picked them up before leaving the car at home to walk to the train station near us. Despite the rain, we had a great time. The kids got busy, the moms busier!

It was something else. Actually, it is also a first time for me to have someone, except for the girls and my husband, while in the city. A different experience walking with someone and exchanging notes on clothes and shoes and a little household chats (just cant get away from those). A different experience dining out and taking our sweet time in between bites. A different experience checking things out and dawdling all we want.

I guess, I gave her a gift and yet, she gave me back a gift, too. Those moments of mommy talks. I’m sad to say, I only get those mommy talks mostly when am blog hopping (well, not really so bad, but, oh, you know what I mean :D ) It is different when it’s face to face!

Who wants to join me in the city next time :D

Agosto 26, 2008

Viva Cala Mesquida

Filed under: Been There,Done That — kengkay @ 2:15 hapon

Our last minute vacation, despite the flight delay, was really a very relaxing one.

For one week, we stayed only within our resort, Viva Cala Mesquida Aparthotel in Mallorca, Spain; it is after all an all-inclusive package (why not take advantage) :D Actually, we wanted to take a short trip after a few days of being stuck in our resort, but the bus leaves very early and the trip back would be too late; renting a car is void as both my husband and I didnt have our driver’s licences with us :(

Anyway, there are a lot of things to do and ‘not to do’ around the resort. You could see us in and out of the restaurant for our meals; carrying drinks and snacks from the bars into our pool lounges; swimming, relaxing and playing around the pool area; strolling around the shops and the beach area, stepping into our hotel room to take a break, dress up and sleep. Accompanying the girls to the kiddie disco every night (yes, every night!) and sometimes, watching the night shows if the kids arent too tired to stay up late.
This is how the hotel facade looks like. This is indeed, a very large complex of hotel. They even have an exclusive club which is located in front of the beach; there are always two show stages simultaneously playing different programs every night, there are more than four swimming pools ( I stopped counting at four), there are more than four restaurants, and loads of facilities and activities lined up to keep everyone from babies to adults, busy.

This is the pool area, I took this photo from the restaurant which is located a few floors up. See the ever present lifeguard in white? He’s watching over those lounge chair grabbers, hehe. It is fun to stay around the pool around as there’s water activities for both kids and adults alike. Everyday, my husband and I took part in the late morning water aerobics — before grabbing our plates for our buffet lunch.

This is the beach area, you would see the hotel compound in the background. The rent of the lounge chairs and a beach umbrella is way too much, 4.25 euro per lounge chair for a day use; and we used those things for almost 2 hours only!

That’s our view from our balcony. The beach area and the dune. Nice, noh?
The sunrise. Taken before 7 am from our hotel’s balcony.
And here are the girls, who as usual, dont want to go back home anymore :D

Agosto 25, 2008

Reservation Stress

Filed under: Done That,Expat Blahs,Girls' High — kengkay @ 10:34 umaga

Okay, okay, we’re back from our one week vacation in Mallorca, Spain. And yet, am talking about stress?

Well, let me tell you — the vacation was great. Viva Cala Mesquida Aparthotel is a kid-friendly hotel. The place of Cala Mesquida is a quiet corner of Mallorca. The service and the amenities in the hotel are wonderful and food and drinks are overflowing, the whole day and almost the whole night, too.

What really bothered me is the reservation. Nope, we are booked and confirmed at the hotel; our flight, though late, is okay. The reservation I am talking about is finding enough lounge chairs for us four around the swimming pool area.

And that is where the real stress begins. Early in the morning. One must wake up at 8 am to have the best place under the sun — complete with lounge chairs enough for the family and enough parasol so that it wont be too hot under the sun.

There are ways to reserve the lounge chairs — placing your towels over them or leaving some reading materials or any personal objects on the lounge chairs. When I realized what was happening, it made me really laugh. It’s really a race every morning! Well, I dont have a problem about that, my husband and the kids were always ready to race with them :)

But at Viva Cala Mesquida, they have rules about reserving lounge chairs. When the lifeguard comes, he would look around and leave notices on the reserved lounge chairs when it looks like they are not really occupied. In that notice, the lifeguard would give you 40 minutes to occupy your places. If the alloted time arrives and the chairs are still unoccuppied? Well, he would collect all the personal items and stack them near his corner.

Imagine the shock of some people on finding their ‘reservations’ being occupied by someone else and more shock when they have to search for their personal items? Well, you wouldnt know what to expect. Sometimes some people wouldnt even know that their things were already taken away — slow reaction — not after a few hours! And others? They would shout and rummage around, disturbing the mass of people lounging around. I dont know if someone had already went as far as reporting their loss to the police.

But we never get any notices, I am proud to brag about that. Why? Because we dont really stay away from our place unless it is time to eat or to pee :) That means, we stayed mostly in and around the pool so dont ask me why I am so brown! As for those people who reserve and leave their chairs for a long, long time? I dont know why they do that…

Agosto 24, 2008

Not really ‘viva’

Filed under: Been There,Done That,It's a Headache,Sizzling Tips — kengkay @ 7:56 umaga

What else can I say? I’ve been hearing the word ‘viva’ during our one week vacation in Mallorca, Spain, thus the title :)

It was a vacation that started off with hours of waiting. Actually, not really a ‘viva’ kind of thing.

We arrived early at the airport as the kids were too excited to sit still. And then arriving at the check-in counter to learn that the flight would be four hours late! Four hours, yet we took it cooly, it is supposed to be the start of a relaxing vacation!

Anyway, we got a coupon for a free dinner at the nearby airport hotel. And although it was only 4 pm, our flight was supposed to take off at around 7 pm (meaning we’d be waiting for an 11 pm take off), we decided to ride the shuttle to the hotel. The kids needed space to play around and the airport isnt the right place.

Well, we stayed at the hotel lobby bar, paid for our refreshments and let the kids play and draw. And when it was announced that dinner’s ready, we strolled to the restaurant, had dinner — taking everything in stride. At 8 pm, I told my husband I want to ride the bus back to the airport. I simply wanted to move, you know what I mean?

The kids were being a good sport, finding something around to get them busy. But when it was already 11 pm and there’s still no announcements nor movements around… arrrgh, it is really getting frustrating. Loading time was was a few minutes before midnight — when it was announced, the passengers (who are still awake) applauded and cheered.

Well, by that time, the kids are already cranky and just wanted to sleep. Me, too!

How did we manage to keep up without breaking down?

1. The kids have with them their toys and some drawing materials to get them busy
2. We took everything in stride, joking about it
3. Looking forward to our relaxing holiday and listing out the things we would do made every waiting hours a breeze, well, almost

If you want to know what your rights are when flights are delayed, read here.

Agosto 15, 2008

To do before leaving for a last minute summer vacation

Filed under: Done That,Sizzling Tips — kengkay @ 6:29 hapon

Well, I had to emphasize ‘last minute summer vacation’ because I already had my list of things to do before leaving for a long vacation; and there is definitely a big difference.

Number one, because this vacation was really a last minute decision; thus we dont have enough time to inform people; number two because it is summer vacation, most of the people we know are already on a vacation!

And here is my list:

1. Find out who could harvest the ripe fruits and veggies in the garden. This is the most important thing this summer as our garden is really giving us a bounty of colorful fruits and veggies that couldnt wait for us to be picked. It would be a pity if we let them rot!

2. Who could water the plants? We couldnt simply rely on the rain as we also have loads of growing things in our green house. We needed someone to water the plants.

3. The mailbox should be emptied. We dont want to be opening wet mails nor we dont want important documents to be lost.

4. Cancel newspaper subscription.

5. Make sure the sump pump would be turned off when thunderstorm warnings are up. Nope, we definitely dont want to go home to a flooded house. But since our tenants would be at home most of the time, they have agreed to watch out. They should, too, as they would also be affected if anthing happened.

6. Turn off all the unnecessary switches and unplug.

7. Clean the house. Good thing we just changed our bedsheets.

8. Mow the lawn.

9. Try to pre-wash the used kitchen utensils. And leave the dishwasher a little open so that it would not stink.

10. Check that all lights are off, all windows/slides and doors closed; especially the awning should be turned to manual.

11. And dont forget to empty all the garbage bins before leaving.

12. Give our travel info to trusted individuals for our airport transfer and just in case.

Okay, Mallorca here we come!

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