Saving for the Honeymoon

Us getting married is the happiest day of my life. And the biggest expenditure, too. No matter how hard I had tried to be really anal about the budget, there were just those things that took us by surprise (or more like a storm, I'd say). Like getting that chartered tourist bus, or the additional chairs, the additional food, etc. I justified in my head, that since our wedding was a destination thing and I didn't want to get stressed, I just had to let go.

So here I am again, with the honeymoon budget. Melvene and I wanted the trip to be memorable, comfortable and more special than our usual trips. So the task: to balance out cheap and expensive. Something in between would be nice. From the experience of preparing for the great love trip, here are some things to remember if you want to save some stash. Extra shopping money, yes?

• Scout for cheap airfares. Don't you just love these airline promos? We got our Hong Kong ticket 70% off! You get deals for booking way early. Like for this trip, I started booking some 8 months ago. It does pay to be the early worm.
  
• Book early. Not just for flights, but for accommodations as well. For some hotels, they offer 15 to 20% off their rates if you book months ahead.
• Don't go through a travel agent. Well, this will work for people who enjoy planning. I do! I had quoted with one and here's the scenario: If I let a travel agent book our ticket, it would have cost 50% more. But if you'd be so stressed about it, then go with the agent. There's just no point of being stressed during the honeymoon!
  
• Use a honeymoon registry. A friend of mine did this since they didn't need anything for their house, and the couple really wanted a grand trip to Hawaii. For us, we still did the normal registry thing, but the dollars that we got from the wedding, we agreed that it will go to our honeymoon budget.
• Don't look too far. To save up, instead of going to the US, we opted for two countries nearby: Hong Kong and Singapore. We haven't been out of the country together so anywhere, would be a grand time anyway. We also went to Baguio and Cebu a month ago.
• Know what's important. I guess the first thing to do really is to sit down and talk with your partner about your honeymoon ideals. Like for me, I'd rather not fly fancy, but a better hotel is up at my happy list. Other people might want the hotel buffet. But we'd rather not (after too much holiday calories). And Melvene, he just wants to see the Universal Studios at Singapore, and still go to the gym during our trip.

So maybe what's most important is having this great time together, enjoying and discovering things as a couple. Knowing more about the other half, and having these lovely memories to look back to. If these are what the trip's all about, then everything else - airplane food, the legroom, the feather pillows, white sheets, the tour bus - are the frills and are not the things to lose sleep and hair over. They will come in second. The relationship, that comes in first.

Laundry for Starters

Yesterday, our washing machine was finally delivered, a happy wedding gift.

And yesterday was also our house warming, and farewell party for our very good friend Pia, who flew in from Canada to be at our wedding. After the chicken, ice cream and wine, Pia gave me a 101 on using the washing machine, which I really appreciate since I haven't even tried using one before.

Some tips:
1 Sort clothes accordingly: super white, white with a bit of color, light-colored items, dark-colored items (red, brown, navy blue, and black). Sort out delicate items such as undergarments (whites, light-colored, really colored). Towels in another pile.

2 Read the manual.

3 Read the instructions on the detergent box.

4 Option to put in liquid softeners and bleach for the super white pile. Put in bleach before you throw in clothes.

5 Make sure pockets are empty of stuff. Zip up the zippers.

6 Before shooting in the dirty laundry, start up the washer. The sequence: turn on the machine, the detergent, then the clothing.

7 The level of the water should be equal to the laundry load.

8 After the wash, open up the damp clothes then smooth them out before putting them in the spinner.

9 Don't throw in too many articles in. It won't clean as much you'd want them to.

10 Do a pre-soak for heavily-stained items.

Hah! This should be fun!

It Ain't Gonna Get Fixed

As most couples would nod in agreement, marriage is a compromise. Yes, there are things that I can do well, and things he can do well. I for one, like to plan ahead. I do the scheduling of our activities, the paperwork, the filing, the budgeting while Melvene abhors it. My husband, on the other hand, is very good with people. He's the one who gets to raise up our household concerns to the plumbers, the electricians, the security guards. He even does the normal haggling. Thank God because really, it's not my thing. I cook, he washes the dishes. I prepare the bills, he prepares the laundry.

Though, one thing I had figured out during our almost 5 years as a couple, is that Melvene is not the tinkering kind ergo anything that is electronics-related is way beyond him. And beyond me! So when the TV or the computer ain't working, both our faces go blank. I mean, really blank.

Before, I'd get stressed about it, thinking that men should know how to fix things. But this man, my man, is just not fitting the given description. It's not as if he's not trying to put in the red, yellow and white sockets into the TV. It's just not his thing, the way that it's not my thing either. I've learned to let go and understand that the TV won't get fixed today. I've learned to be grateful for our strengths and to thank him for trying.

Thoughts on Baguio Beans

I bought a bunch of Baguio Beans at Save More Sikatuna the other day, really not knowing what to do with them. I've been lamenting on the thought until finally I had decided to cook them this morning. So I opened my laptop and googled in 'cooking string beans.' Popped out too many recipes: buttered, with garlic, baked, with cheese, with wine, the Italian way, the Spanish way, ginisa, and the list goes on. Blah blah blah.

Ah, and for the sake of being geeky, the scientific name for baguio beans is Phaseolus vulgaris. Hahaha.

So I decided to make use of the other things inside the fridge: mushrooms and potatoes. I don't know what to call this recipe. So for the lack of words (or the abundance of them), I'll call this the... (drumroll here)

Heidi's Bean-Mushrooms-Potato Surprise
2 cups of string beans
2 cups of shitake mushrooms (mixed with pepper and teriyaki sauce, ziplocked in the fridge overnight)
2 medium potatoes
pepper, sugar, salt, sage, chili to taste
1 red onion
5 garlic cloves
1/4 cup of water
olive oil
2 tsps black bean sauce

1 Heat olive oil. Put in the garlic, then the onion.
2 Throw in potatoes and string beans, throw about for 5 mins.
3 Put in the mushrooms, black bean sauce, black bean sauce. I put in some water because the black bean sauce began sticking on my pan. Ugh.
4 Then I continued tossing them, pepper, sugar, salt, sage and chili to taste. Make sure to say it's done before the veggies get mushy.

I'm sure there's a better way to prepare this. Hahaha.

Arroz A La Cubana

I consider myself quite lucky. The other day, I sat down with husband Melvene and told him straight up that I do not receive any gratification whenever I wash dishes but I do enjoy cooking.

No, I'm not that really a kitchen person, or a chore person for that matter. Growing up with maids has its perks, but not particularly helpful especially when you're about to start making a home for yourself. I'd say I'm a seasonal cook. I would then cook when I felt like it, maybe 10 times in a year. Yes, I know, that seldom. For the turnaround, these past 4 days, I've been waking up to cook for me and my husband - breakfast, lunch, dinner. Not that I'm complaining. Because really, I'm just grateful that I'm not washing the dishes.

So here's my first stint in cooking Arroz A La Cubana, which means Cuban rice. But this is a Spanish dish: white rice, egg, banana, and tomato sauce.

Arroz A La Cubana
1 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion
1/4 kilo ground beef
2 tomatoes
200g tomato sauce (I used Del Monte)
1/4 cup raisins (soak this in water)
2 tsp liquid seasoning (I used Knorr)
3 saba bananas
Sunny fried eggs
salt, pepper, sugar to taste

1 Throw in garlic then onions in a heated pan. Then the ground beef until the color changes. Put in potatoes then cook for 2 mins. The tomatoes and tomato sauce for another 3 mins.
2 Shoot in the raisins, add the rest of the ingridients. Then simmer for 10mins.
3 On a separate pan, I fried the saba and the egg.

It took me around 30 mins to do. Pretty easy promise. Oh pardon the egg. I'm still trying to work my way around the induction cookpan. :)

Now that everything's new

This is weird, but the idea of having this blog came from a dream. I don't have any idea how it all came to me, but when I woke up, I knew I needed to make this blog. Weird, I know.

I guess I have this need to write down all these new experiences. I just got married last December 17, and now my husband and I are living at our new pad, sitting on our new furniture, using our new utensils, sipping on our new mugs fresh from the box, a gift from my sister.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to feel at this point. The relatives had left, the Christmas parties, over. The white presents had been opened. And we're both left trying to put things into place and establishing where to put what: microwave, red throw pillows, the trash, the bottle of dried basil leaves.

Dreadful is a word that comes to mind. But here's another one: adventure. Now, that definitely is a better description of what's to come. So cheers, to the new things to come. Now, where did I put that new wine glass?