How to Pack a Bag

It's already this weekend! Our honeymoon, that is. I'm pretty much excited! It's going to be an amusement-park-happening time with Melvene! Our itinerary is very tourist-y and filled with animals: Disney, Ocean Park, Singapore Zoo, Lion King, and Universal Studios.

Now the next major task is packing the suitcase for a 12-day trip. I'd say I'm no expert, but I think I've been around so this should be easy compared to the time I had to go off for a whole month.

• Know the itinerary. So you refrain from packing stuff you don't need, you just have to know your activities. Do you need to have swimming attire, a formal attire, a cocktail dress? If you're going to walk around New York, then ultra comfy shoes should be packed. If you're going to Micronesia, goggles please. And if shopping like a madman is part of the itinerary, pack very light so you'll have the space. And know how many days you'll be out, so you know how many you'll be bringing with you. Have contingency items for sweat-induced days and swimming days. Oh and extra underwear always comes in handy!
• Weather talk. Knowing the weather is a must. I remember packing for the US. During my younger days, I thought spring in Florida wasn't too hot. What a mistake! I brought with me jackets when I should have brought shorts! So I ended up buying stuff - stuff I should've brought.
  
• Have a bag of toiletries. This bag, I have in my room ready to be picked up whenever. So if I have a let's-go-now trip, I just look for this bag: soap, shampoo, lotion, tissue, cotton buds and balls, sunblock, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, insect repel spray, insect bite ointment, tissue, facial cleanser, makeup remover, feminine wash, sanitary napkins, pantyshields, moisturizer, toner, etc... Get the smallest pack or container. You really don't need to bring the one-pound-heavy bottle of shampoo. And the liquids, it's nice to put them inside ziplock bags so if ever they squirt out, the mess is contained.
  
• Laundry bag. I bring a laundry bag where I put my soiled stuff. So my dirty clothes won't be all over the hotel floor or won't mix up with the clean ones.
  
• Shoe bags. The soft shoe bags, I put in my shoes inside those. If ever they are dirty, they won't soil the other clothes. Inside them shoes, you can put in socks as a space-saving move.
• Easy to dry, not easy to wrinkle. I love Nike's dry fit wear! So whenever I need to wash clothes, I won't be stressing whether the clothes will dry soon. And I do pack stuff that don't wrinkle easy so I won't need to find an iron if ever it gets under other stuff. And for wrinkled items, you can leave them to hang in the shower room, steam up when you're taking a bath.
  
• Another soft bag for underwear. I don't think you should put them inside shoes. Hahaha.
  
• Heavy at the bottom. Heavy items like jeans and jackets, I place at the bottom of the bag. The ones that are delicate, I put on top.
• Roll with it. I choose to roll clothes, making them look like nice colorful cylinders. It's a super space saver move!

And some other things:

• Set limits. Before you even hop on a plane, you have to know the allowable weight of the suitcase. And stick to the limit. They charge you heftily for those extra kilos. And being on the safe limit will save you the embarrassment of opening your bag at the airport and checking which ones you can leave behind or which ones you can put in your hand-carry bag or which ones you can move to your husband's bag.
  
• Money matters. Never leave money inside the bags you check-in. I have a friend who did so, guess what happened? Gone.
• Stand out. Your bag should be different from the rest. Choose the not-usual colors perhaps? Or a unique design? If you have an ordinary black bag, you can choose to tie it with a ribbon that makes that bag easy to spot among the sea of black bags at the claim area. Once, an old guy got my bag by mistake. He almost ran home with it! Good thing we were able to stop him before he got in a cab. And trust me, it will save you a lot of waiting time. Oh, the bag tag, please don't forget.

Okay, I'm so happy and ready. Bon Voyage!

Noodle Caboodle

For the first time in my life, I cooked noodles. Not just any noodle dish, the target was a high aim at Pancit Canton. No, thankfully not the instant type. But the real one that took me almost an hour to cook.

But before I go into the details of the attempt, a joke which my husband proudly delivered on our way to a shoot a few days ago:

A priest, after saying prayers for the man on death row, asked what he wanted for his last meal.
The man said, "Pansit po father."
Then the priest asked, "Why would you want noodles? You can opt to have steak or crabs or shrimp or something more unforgettable?"
The man replied, "My mother once told me that if you eat pansit, you will have a longer life."

Laugh inserted here. Anyway, I had my husband and our masseuse be my food critics. And I got a thumbs up, yey!

PANSIT CANTON
-400g pansit canton (I used Good Life, bought from SM Save More)
-3 pcs chicken thigh fillet
-4 c chicken broth
-4 tbsp olive oil
-1 red onion
-2 tbsp garlic
-2 c snow peas
-1 carrot diced
-6 tbsp soy sauce
-1 tbsp sesame oil
-salt and pepper
-4 tbsp cornstarch
-2 c water

1 Put in oil, then garlic, then onion.
2 Toss in the chicken, half of the chicken broth, all the veggies. Simmer for 10 mins.
3 Put in the other half of the broth then the noodles. Mix up until noodles go soft on you.
4 Add cornstarch if you want the sauce to be sauce-y. Add in the sesame oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Yum!

I think liver and a bit of pork would be nice with the dish and some cauliflower if you have some.

Post Marital Blues or Bliss?

I had read in some random magazine that I'd picked up at the salon that there's this thing called PND or Post Nuptial Depression, experienced by either the woman, the man or both. From what I remember, the bride becomes depressed because she'd been dreaming of the white-washed day her whole life and the wishful oohs and aahs go kapoof once it's all over. Reality does bite. And another reason: During the wedding, she's the center of buzzing attention. But the attention does fade after and what comes next are the chores and the new responsibilities of being a wife. And of course, the in-laws, and the opinions that go with them.

For the guy, PND's set in when he's dispirited due to pressure - the need to work harder because now, it's not just about him anymore. There's another mouth to feed, there are bills to pay, and other adjustments to be made.

But on the other and brighter side of the plank, there's what they call the honeymoon stage. Where the couple goes into a lovey-dovey, gooey-sweet isolation phase. Friends and relatives are set aside. And fortunately, I never did get to experience what some urban couples go through, the monstrous PND. I'm glad to be at the happy side of the plank, where I'm just in crazy ecstasy.

I have friends messaging me, asking me about married life and how it really is, in brutal honesty. And I always answer that being married is better that what I expected it to be. And it truly is. I have to confess though that it's now really hard to get out of bed. Before, Melvene and I would be excited to hop out of dreamland so we'd get to spend more hours. Since we have a business together and that just means that we don't have to be always physically present at the office to work, we find ourselves oversleeping. And as much as possible, there's this tendency to spend a real whole lot of time together: eating, sleeping, DVD marathons, going to the mall, etc... And I do confess, I do feel like a lazy ass. I do some cooking and household work. But the drive that I had to over-work myself with my businesses ain't with me at this point.

So I had been asking: Will the world take it against me if I'm being too happy? If I'm just to0 darn blissful to work my ass off?

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of bumping into my good friend AJ, telling her about my bliss-guilt mental tortures. AJ just got married last year, and she told me I looked happy and that it's perfectly normal to experience the honeymoon bug. To my comfort, hers took six months before she realized that she needed to go back to being productive. Six months! And I'm still at my second month. Phew!

So when does the honeymoon stage end? When a kid comes into the picture? When you both start to work like mad horses like you used to? When you realize that you've been an unproductive ass? But really, does the honeymoon stage need to end?

As for me and my counting, probably I have four months to go. Or maybe not.