QC Trash

It's not really surprising, but I was surprised just the same. Filipinos are Pinoys, wherever they are. Many of us just leave our trash behind as if we always expect some other people to take care of them.

As I have written a few pieces ago, the Quezon Memorial Circle is undergoing a lot of facelifting, including new concrete picnic tables, trash bins, decorative fountains and park benches. But the old bad habits, like all other bad habits, do not die easily.

Park-goers enjoy sharing their early morning coffee and breakfast on the picnic tables, but some just leave their refuse behind without regard for others who will use the same picnic tables.

My dad, who is twelve years shy of his centenary, insists that this is due to the fact that Good Manners and Right Conduct is no longer a vital component of early education, unlike the school system during the American period. Quite a long time ago, of course.

But there must be something to what he is saying - if you were taught and you learned early how to dispose of your trash properly - you will most likely do the same thing the rest of your life.

GMRC is part of what I refer to as the 5 Rs of basic education - Responsible Citizenship, along with Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmeric and Research.

Come to think of it, these are the 5 Rs of lifelong education.

Choco Castle

You must have seen it if you have passed through D. Tuazon in Cubao near the old LVN Studios. It's the castle, or at least a place that looks like a castle, and seems like made of blocks of chocolate.

It is supossed to be the Castle of Baking and Confectionary Arts, a culinary school established in 1995 by Annie Carmona-Lim, a pastry chef and entrepreneur, based on a posting in Wikipedia.

Chef Annie started commercial baking in 1977. She trained in local culinary schools and opened a homebaking business. Then she took a course in Master in Cake Decorating and in Gumpaste and Pulled Sugar Technique at the Wilton Cake Decorating School in Woodridge, Illinois.

She also attended the Culinary Institute of America in California, where she studied the making of European pastries, chocolate fundamentals and flavor dynamics. Later, she studied Chocolate Manufacturing and other confectionery skills in Solingen,Germany.

She also opened Chocolate Lovers Incorporated, a retailer and wholesaler of baking and confectionery supplies.

I am sure that Chef Annie is doing very well, not just on the basis of her "castle" but simply on the fact that very few people can resist Hersey's or M&M or Cadbury or even Goya.

I am probably one of the few.

Garbanzos

By itself, minus its halo-halo cousins, chickpeas may be considered the preferred ingredient. There’s a small study which indicates the efficacy of chickpeas or garbanzos in lowering cholesterol levels in the human body.

As reported in Real Age, one useful site in the Internet, people who ate roughly 25 ounces of chickpeas per week for 12 weeks (3 months) showed an improvement in their total cholesterol levels compared with the times when their diet did not contain any for 4 weeks.

Surprisingly, even their insulin levels also improved, while losing a small amount of weight, without dieting or exercise. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen garbanzos in Sta. Lucia, my neighborhood talipapa, although I have spotted canned garbanzos in my favorite grocery. I wonder if this will register the same results.

Researchers speculate that the fiber, protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids in chickpeas should get the credit for the lower cholesterol results. Garbanzos is also a great source of vitamins, minerals and polyestrogens.

Here’s more: sesame seeds also help fight high cholesterol. They are tiny but rich and nutty and they lower cholesterol by keeping our intestines from absorbing the stuff. They contain an antioxidant known as lignan which is found both in the seeds and in sesame oil, a regular occupant in my cupboard.

Sesame seeds also contain a powerful antioxidant that may play a role in blocking cancer. We can make a chickpea puree and mix it with tahini, a paste made from sesame seeds. The chickpea puree is called hummus. First time I heard about it but it is supposed to be good as spread on pita bread or whole-wheat crackers or even as a dip for fresh vegetables.

You can bet your last centavo that hummus will be on my kitchen on the weekend.

Created Equal

We seldom believe that all men and women are created equal. It is obvious that some are richer than others, taller, fairer, more articulate, more artistic, more this and more that. This reality is undeniable.

But now, meet the equal opportunity employer - TIME - best evidence that all men and women, indeed, are created equal.

Someone said that each of us has exactly the same number of hours and minutes each day. Even if you have all the money in the world you can't buy more time. You may be the greatest scientist but you cannot invent new time.

The dismal fact is that you cannot save time to spend for another day.

Time, they say, is amazingly fair and forgiving. Although you may have wasted so much time in the past, you will still surely have an entire day tomorrow.

Success in life depends upon how we use our time wisely, how we plan and how we set our priorities. They say that time is worth more than money so if you kill time you are actually killing your chances of success.

Will a time machine make any difference?

Dust 'em Cars

Inspite of my frequent visits to the Quezon Memorial Circle, I haven't seen them or even noticed them. Maybe it's because I never expected to find these electric cars in such place, much less to ride them for P30 per hour.

But there they were. I stumbled on all four of them in some obscure corner of the park. I did not know how I should react to such "discovery" realizing that, indeed, there they were but they were all in a state of disrepair and gathering dust.

The park administration must have thought about them as models for environment-friendliness. And rightly so. But it seemed that they suffered from "maintenance fatigue" and have all been "retired" behind a net enclosure. So sad.

In fact, dumped behind the four electric vehicles were two electric bikes which have also seen their days. I wonder why all these environment-friendly vehicles were all left for dead?

The Taguig City government, if you noticed lately, has fielded a number of modern-looking electric tricycles in the Fort area. People in the Fort seem to have caught on them, especially now that there are a number of interesting places in the former army camp.

Even the Makati City police is using electric patrol cars which I often see at the Market!Market! area. Of course I don't recall having seen any electric vehicle on the road. Maybe it doesn't feel "macho" to drive one since it does not make much noise and probably does not provide the "feel" of power.

But I am really sad that the four electric vehicles at the QC Memorial Circle have met their untimely end. I will not mind if one of these is "donated" to me so I can resurrect it and show it off in EDSA.

I don't really care about not being "macho". It's all in the mind, stupid!

Mega Atrium

I have heard much about it but it was only a few days ago when I had the opportunity to see it. This is the latest "pakulo" of SM Mega Mall - the Mega Atrium - a modern-looking additional wing to the area which connects Building A to Building B.

The area is mostly signature shops and classy-looking dining places. I informed the wife of my whereabouts and she readily accepted my invitation to join me for a simple dinner.

We wanted to try the delicious pizza in Amici again but the place was full so I suggested that we try Kimono Red for some sushi, sashimi or sukiyaki. But the wife was not in the mood for a chopsticks dinner - she wanted to have her fill.

So we ended up getting a nice table at Chef's Quater which serves a fusion of Asian dishes. We agreed on baked salmon with mayo-wasabe sauce as our centerpiece dish. The fish was not really excellent and I am not really sure whether it still had the expected Omega-3.

We had a similar dish at Conti's in Tri-Noma a few days before and it was not easy to fight the urge to compare one cook's creation with another's. Anyway, the salmon dish was gone in a jiffy - we were really hungry.

The bill came and the total figure was not really that bad, although the wife, who had to foot the bill again, decided that her credit card should come in handy. It did because I only had loose change for the parking fee in my pocket.

The pizza in Amici will wait for another day.

Star Tollway

Some nights ago, I got a call from the office with the instruction that I should proceed to Batangas City the following day to attend a symposium on the maritime sector at the Lyceum of the Philippines University.

I have recently been re-designated as focal person for the maritime industry so this assignment fell on my lap.

I had to leave rather early to try to make it to the 9am program, realizing that I had to consider the morning traffic in EDSA and the traffic to Batangas City along the old highway.

Luckily, the early EDSA traffic was not so heavy so I managed to get to the South Expressway some half and hour ahead of my expected schedule. Construction work in the Expressway was still in progress, although this did not significantly affect the pace and flow of vehicular traffic.

I exited the Expressway at twenty before ten and prayed that the road leading to the Star Tollway would be a bit forgiving. I was not disappointed. I reached the Tollway in a breeze.

I was hoping that I could get to the Lipa Exit in fifteen minutes so I floored my accelerator and kept at an almost constant 100 kph which is the allowable speed limit. Then I got the surprise of my life.

While I used to turn right to the Batangas City Exit, the directional signs indicated that vehicles bound for Batangas CIty should stay on the innermost lane. I did and found out that the Tollway had been extended, up to what point, I was not sure.

I sent an SMS to Provincial Director Al who dutifully informed me that I was on the right track and that he would be waiting for me as soon as I got out of the Tollway. It ended in Batangas City thus cutting my travel time possibly by about half an hour.

PD Al and I made it to Lyceum at half past ten, only to realize that we were somewhat in the tail end of a half-day symposium. Unexpectedly, I was suddenly called to speak before an audience of about 200 people, so I gave them my usual maritime "piece" in about 15 minutes.

Perhaps, the next time I go to Batangas City the South Expressway and the Star Tollway will be one contiguous highway. Not a bad dream!