Cure for Mondays

Dell Inspiron replaces practical mom's Old Boy

Old Boy Desktop finally succumbed to years of use (and subtle abuse) and died a natural death last August (old news it is). When I was about to begin working on a manuscript one morning, it suddenly crept in to me. There it was again, the silence that haunted me when Old Boy refused to boot months back. Was it old age that kept him from strutting? All I could see was a dark screen staring back at me. So I sat there waiting for him to end the tragic taunt and allow me to start working. In my case, time is gold and I don't mean it in a poetic sense. Time is something I don't have and can't have until both kids are on their own. The last time I checked “that time” is quite far into the future. For now, my everyday life looks something like this: kids+hubby+home+work. Work outside my domestic premise gets accomplished whenever I get a break from both kids. When does that happen to mothers, really?

After checking, rechecking and restarting several times, Mr Young declared Old Boy dead at 8:04, August 23, 2012.

What now? I have a writing job that won't allow me to use paper and pen for submissions. The world fell apart, and it is with shame that I admit it resembled the sleazy "Twilight Saga" drama.

That drama ended too quickly though and I was back as Maria Von Trapp singing “Climb Every Mountain” when Mr Young came home with a lovely, fiery red surprise. He was keeping it for our anniversary but tragedy happened and we had no choice but to bump off August and let September slide in.

Red it is
My new Inspiron 13z (N311z) is in a fiery red color that I absolutely love. If you're thinking of purchasing a laptop for yourself, you might consider getting this one. Well, unless you hate red as much as I love it. Find a comprehensive full length review by Vincent Chang of CNET Asia here. The only difference is that mine has a 6GB memory. Too much for my needs really, but I'm not complaining.

CNET Asia will cover whatever question you might have about Inspiron. If you're a mom like me who releases the words “how much” pretty much the same way that Zeus released the Kraken, then I should tell you that the price of Inspiron will not upset you. SRP is at USD684 (roughly around PhP 28,700+).

Attika, our baby Santa

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, by Frances Beldia

art criticism

Homeschool Event: National Museum Week

One of the perks of homeschooling is being able to work around a freer schedule. Of course, it helps to have a loose list of things to follow everyday but it doesn’t have to be monotonous that it would drive the kids to boreland (and me to cuckooland).

A homeschooling activity that I would like to highlight for this month is the National Museum Week. I find that the best way to let Cole, my ten- year- old homeschooler, learn about the greatest Filipino artists written in our history is to bring him to the National Museum of the Philippines and allow him to immerse in the works of Vicente Manansala, Juan Luna and Fernando Amorsolo. He can have as much time as he needs to absorb their works and ask as many questions as he can. This way, he won’t be staring at a school book with small pictures of paintings printed on newsprint like most of us did in grade school and high school. It is the experience of having to see the paintings themselves that will allow him to appreciate the artists, their works and hopefully, details on their style and temper. For the latter, I’d have to take his lead to know if he’s ready to talk about such things. If not, the getting-to-know-you stage is already a giant step into both the Philippine arts and history.

The other things that I can’t wait for Cole to see (I actually think “to experience” is a better term) are the sculpture gallery featuring the works of some of our National Artists like Graciano Nepumuceno, Isabelo Tampicino, Guillermo Tolentino and many others.

There’s also the “Kaban ng Lahi”, a gallery of archeological treasures and “Pinagmulan”, a display of items from pre-historic Philippines.

There’s a lot more to see at the National Museum of the Philippines. I confess, I have a lot of learning to do myself when it comes to Philippine history and so this trip will be parallel learning for Cole and me. I attended the Visual Literacy and Art Criticism Workshop in U.P. Diliman last summer. I obviously did not become a genius at it overnight (maybe never) but it did open gargantuan doors of learning for me. One of the requirements of the workshop was to write a review of an art work chosen from the Vargas Museum. Our mentors found it bizarre that I chose Severino Fabie's “A Man With a Newspaper" but it allowed me to sleep soundly on that decision. So mote it be.

The Philippine National Museum is located at P. Burgos Drive in Manila and is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm. Phone Number: (02) 527 1215

Admissions are free on Sundays. However, in celebration of the national Museum Week, the entrance fees are waived for the whole month of October. Yes, everyone gets to go in for free!

Here's a table of the National Museum's regular fees for your future reference

Individual	Fee (PHP)
Student	30.00
Senior Citizen	80.00
Adult	100.00
Groups of 50 or more
Students	25.00
Senior Citizens	40.00
Adults	80.00

cure for mondays is a WOMEN'S BLOG, BEST HOMESCHOOL WEBSITE, FAMILY ISSUES BLOG, HOMESCHOOL PROBLEMS, SOCIALIZATION, HOMESCHOOL QUOTES, INSPIRATION, MANILA MOMMY BLOGGER, SAHM, ASIAN HOMESCHOOLER, homeschooling activity, homeschool event, kid activities, field trip, homeschooling outdoors, up diliman, philippine national museum

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, by Frances Beldia

Cure for Mondays

Halloween 2012: Hotel Events in Manila

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, by Frances Beldia

beef barbecue steak

Trickey’s champion Charbroiled Burger

You have to admit that the best burger you’ve ever tasted was the one made by a woman in your family.

Sometimes you think you've found the best burger and try to stay loyal to it until you trip into a burger joint that completely changes your mind. After days and days of heavy rain, I wanted to go out and get a feel of the world outside.

I have a friend who says that if you live along C5, everything in that very long stretch is “just down the road”. So thirty minutes later we were all at Tiendesitas.

There’s a good number of food stalls at Tiendesitas that promise delectable food from different places in the Philippines. It does have a cultural feel to it, yet it’s also an event hall with a live band and a huge space for people who want to unwind with a bottle of beer--or half a case of it. I saw three people who were ready to pass out at two p.m.

Where there’s beer there’s cigarette smoke so we had to find a spot that was “almost far” from both because we had the kids with us.

The farthest stall happened to be Trickey’s and boy was I glad! To begin with, the service was good and the waiter made sure we had everything we needed unlike in other places where you’d have to constantly ask for things like ice or table napkins or whatever.

What makes a good burger?

It only takes a few things for a burger to make it to the to-die-for list. But I warn you, this is only according to me.

# 1 - No extenders. As soon as you bite into your burger you should instantly be catapulted to that heavenly spot in your brain that makes you forget all of the other burgers you have tasted in the (recent) past. According to a chef I interviewed a few years ago, the perfect patty has no extenders because they affect the tenderness, the juiciness and they alter the overall taste of the burger. Besides, if your quarter-pounder is not made 100% of the sinful all-meat ingredient, you’ll know it.

# 2 – It doesn’t drown in mayonnaise and ketchup. I’ve had burgers that tasted sour in a bad way--like the chef put too much mayonnaise or too much ketchup or too much of both combined on the bun... then accidentally left the patty to burn in the kitchen. A burger is not a burger unless you’re ready to make your patty the star of the show.

# 3 – Nothing wilted in the bun. If the tomato and the lettuce aren’t as fresh and happy as they should be then I’d rather wait for the next harvest.

# 4 – It brings back memories. Cheesy as it may sound but you have to admit that the best burger you’ve ever tasted was the one made by a woman in your family. Mine was by my Aunt Esme Judy. Whenever I bite into a really good burger, it would bring me back to those summer barbecue lunches we had in her backyard in Bohol. Her homemade burgers were divine.

# 5 - Patty perfect. But what they put in the patty or how they do it, I don’t want to know. I have surrendered to the fact that a good burger will never come from my kitchen.

Charbroiled burgers take some time to prepare, which is okay because it's definitely worth the wait.

All that I mentioned above make up the charbroiled burger of Trickey’s. For a very reasonable price, you’re guaranteed a very happy meal!

Here are the stuff that we tried. I may have gotten too "busy" so I forgot to take a photo of the Deluxe burger that my mother had.