Baking Tools Mini Haul and Treats for Doggies

Been busy but it's been fun.

I decided to surprise my Mom yesterday after we parted ways. Her hobby is baking and she enjoys baking cakes for the weekend and taking orders from her office mates for functions, birthdays and some special events. Her craze lately is the buco pie.

But she has been complaining about not having an oven thermometer to use at home. I think she has trouble with the dials and reading on the thermostat in the oven when it becomes too warm. She also says that most of the baking supply stores here in Zamboanga don't have good oven thermometers. Another problem, our big whisker seems not to cooperate with her whenever she whisks cream and the buco pie filling. I know it's too old and it needs to retire from the many years it has served the kitchen, so she expressed desires of having to replace it soon.

Luckily, I decided to go to do a pit stop at Mindpro grocery to pick up some yoghurt yesterday afternoon and I spotted an oven thermometer and a nine-inch whisker. Good thing I had enough money in my wallet and decided to surprise my Momsy, this month being Women's International Month and all.


And she was delighted to have these brand new tools for her baking.

 ( 9-inch wire whisker at Php80 from Mindpro grocery)

(Oven thermometer at Php258 also from Mindpro grocery)

And I got these chew toys for the puppies at home. Total cost (or damage) is about Php200 from the Pet Grocery in Campaner Street. 

It might be too early for Mother's Day but Mama just did some pagpaparinig that she wants a Lazy Susan for her cake decorating someday. This will require some participation from Papa. He eats all of the baked goods anyway. 

Happy Thursday to everyone! I will be blog hopping soon! =p

Marchas de las Mujeres

For the International Women's Day Celebration, women employees of all local agencies joined in the parade from City Hall to Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Stadium.

Purple filled the streets:

(Purple ribbon round the hat)

 (Purple knitted scarf)

(Purple polka dot umbrella)

(Purple pop art graphic on shirt)

 (Purple sprinkle effect on pink collared shirt)

(Purple striped cardi)

(Purple flats)

 (Purple and white balloons)

(And more balloons)

(Purple flags)

I found myself waking up at 5:30 in the morning because my Mom and her office mates were required to join the parade. And there I was, also wearing purple, marching next to my Mom. And I was the obedient photographer-daughter.

(Mommy and her friends from work)

So I tagged along with my Mommy and her office mates. She told me that all of her lady-friends attended the parade and left all of the men and feeling-lady in their admin building, and that her friends will be bargaining for a day-off, today being Women's International Day and all. Hehehe.

But the walking from City Hall to the JEM Stadium did us some good exercise. The weather was humid although the weather forecast last night said that there will be scattered rain showers.

Of course I had to split and return to our studio after getting some video support for our footages, the material will be aired on the weekend news segment this Saturday, and Mom and her friends will be waiving at the camera (talk about biased).

This is all for today. Maybe tomorrow I can share a little something from the piece I wrote this morning.

Happy International Women's Day ladies! =p

The Subanen Dance

I was part of a media tour hosted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development here in our region, last November, where media practitioners from various outfits get to visit indigenous villages in some municipalities up north. In the municipality of Leon Postigo where their sources of income are farming and fishing, some native Subanens can still be found. Some of these Subanens have been recipients of the government's social pension and poverty alleviation programs. To express their gratitude, they have prepared a Subanen Dance for us, with a gong providing the rhythm in the background. 

One of the touching moments to experience is for the native Subanens to express their gratitude through their traditional dances.

The dance has been performed in many rituals like christenings, weddings and other major festivities in the area. 

The gong is being sounded at a corner, some more Subanens dressed in their cultural attires have also come to say "thank you".

The Next Queen of Heaven

The Book

Another bargain find from my online book supplier, I had this reserved immediately.

I remember seeing a copy on display at Powerbooks, at their branch in Mall of Asia. I didn't have some extra cash for the purchase, and left it there, walking away with a little regret. Reviews and pictures of the book cover kept appearing in some websites I frequent, and so, it could not completely be erased from my mind. It's another creation by Gregory Maguire, one of the authors I follow regularly-and here he has introduced a varied style in his writing.

The book just arrived by mail, along with other copies I purchased. And the moment it arrived, I had to discipline myself to finish whatever it was I was working on before I lifted a single page to read.

There it is, right on top of my messy pile of journals, papers, notebooks and lists.

The Style

Based on Maguire's past works I have read (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister) I still have my eyes on Matchless, and have not yet read Mirror, Mirror, his style with The Next Queen of Heaven has shifted from the traditional storytelling to the hilarious, contemporary tone. The dialogue is fitting, with ample referencing, and the book is sprinkled with generous doses of stubborn teenagers, (subtly) conflicting religious congregations and eccentric characterization.

However, as a past reader and active follower of  Maguire, I have to say that this novel is quite a departure from his melancholic, dramatic tone from his previous bestsellers. He is an expert in the field of converting the antagonist to the protagonist, as in the case of Wicked (now a Broadway musical hit), where the hardships and tumultuous childhood of Elphaba has stayed with the readers even after years of its publication. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister also did its work as it stole the hearts and imaginations of its readers by way also of its attention-grabbing title.

In the author's note, Maguire apologizes for the setting and vernacular (its being quite a surprise to readers who already know his writing style) by saying "Forgive me for my trespasses", so I will take it as a fair warning.

Is this still a worthy read for the Holidays then? I would have to say yes. But I still long to go back to the magical world of Wicked and the rest.

Dedication from the book

"For those who keep singing and for those who keep silent"

The Setting

It is Year 1999 and Thebes, New York is gearing up for the New Millennium, strange things happen. Single mother and dutiful churchgoer Leontina Scales has been hit hard on the head by a statue of Our Lady (of I forgot) and the rest of the characters catch up with life the best as they could. Hidden conflicts and perspectives of different religious congregations are revealed, as you read between the lines and more silliness brings the book to light.

Here, a singing group fighter against AIDS, Tabitha has a crumbly relationship with her mother, high school girls talk about the school slut who happens to have been stalking them, a list of eccentrics can be found in the town called Thebes, and women have the right to call their ex-husbands "was-bands".

Mothers still know how to embarrass their daughters in a music store. (Thumbs up to Mommy Leontina!) 

The Author

This is Gregory Maguire, whom I have met through Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Gregory Maguire is an American author, whose novels are revisionist retellings of children's stories (such as L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into Wicked). He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979-1985. In 1987 he co-founded Children's Literature New England (a non-profit educational charity).

Maguire has served as artist-in-residence at the Blue Mountain Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Hambidge Center. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

His "wicked" signature

Other Books by Gregory Maguire

The Wicked Years

• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
• Son of a Witch
• A Lion Among Men
• Out of Oz

Other books

• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
• Mirror, Mirror
• Lost
• What the Dickens: A Rogue Tooth Fairy
• Matchless: A Christmas Story