My Filed 2014 Planner

Look what my friend brought for me straight from the Philippines.  It's the Filed 2014 planner.  It's my first time to use this planner and I think I am going to enjoy it up to the last day of 2014.

Filed is different from the usual boring planners that we have in stores.  It comes in two colors, black and white.  I chose the white planner so that I can still customize the cover.

Free pen bandolier

It comes with a free pen bandolier where you can put your pens.

Tag

January

2014 Resolutions

On the first few pages, you can jot down your 2014 resolutions.  Now it's up to you whether to stick to those or not.  A color chart is also included.  One color will represent how you felt that day then you can put it in a chart.  At the end of the year you can look back and see how your year went.

Color Chart

It has a monthly as well as a weekly planner.

Weekly planner

At the end of the planner, there is a page where you can jot down the movies that you'd like to watch, list the restaurants that you plan to dine in, books to read and places to visit.

Movies to Watch and Restaurant to try

Books to Read and Places to See

Wait there's more, there's also a monthly expense tracker.

Expense Tracker

At the very end of the planner, there is a craft pocket where you can keep your receipts, stickers, etc., and of course a page muncher is included, which you could also customize, and will serve as your bookmark.  Most of all, it's very light and small, and will fit almost any bag.  Did I say that it's also cheap?  It's worth approximately AED 50 only.

Muncher

With the Filed planner, your inner artistic ability will come out.  Too bad it's not available here in the UAE.

Late Post: McDonald's Fun Day

I am pretty sure that only a few of us know that McDonald's Khalidiya holds a "Fun Day."  How did I know?  Well, my family was dining in one time and one of their staff approached me and asked me if she could have my phone number and told me that they will call me for if they will hold one.  They are also posting an announcement near the cashier a few days before the event.  The staff called me approximately after three months and informed me that they are going to have that event.  However, due to my super hectic schedule, we weren't able to go.  

Just a few weeks ago, I received another call from them saying that another Fun Day will be held.  This time around, I decided that I should take my kids there.

So what's in store for the kids who are going to participate?

The event was only good for two hours, but I assure you that not a single second will be wasted.  They have like about five parlor games, singing and dancing, and of course the opportunity to have your pictures with one of their mascots.  Aside from these, their games come with prices!  But hey, do not expect prices like the ones given on TV shows.  The prices are mostly the happy meal toys from the past, and the kids loved it.

Special awards are also given like the "Early Bird Award," "Best in Art," "Most Active," "Best Dressed," and so on.

At the end of the Fun Day, the kids will also be given certificate of participation for the said event.

Did I have to pay for it?  Well, not really.  I only needed to purchase two happy meals for my kids to be able to join the Fun Day, meaning I only had to pay AED 20 for all of these!  Believe me, it was really worth it.  The kids had fun and their tummies got filled up, too.

I am looking forward to more Fun Days at McDonalds.


McDonald's Khalidiya
Zayed the First Street, Opposite RAK Bank
Khalidiya, Abu Dhabi
Telephone number:  (02) 6666065

The Christmas that was and the New Year that will be

I celebrated my last Christmas in the Philippines in 2007.  Since then, I have been celebrating Christmas abroad here in the UAE.  Christmas back home is different.  It is more fun in the Philippines as they say.  However, having lived in a foreign country for almost 10 years, I have learned how to adapt well and accept things as they are. 

UAE has been very accommodating to Christians like us in this special occasion, which I am very thankful of.  However, Christmas is not a holiday here, it is just an ordinary day.  This means we had to work on Christmas day.

So we celebrated Christmas without my better half, as he had to work night shift on that day.  We just had our usual Noche Buena and gift giving for the kids and attended Christmas day mass the day after.

The kids had all sorts of gifts from friends - toys, clothes, etc.  I wasn't really expecting anything on Christmas, but I received the best gift so far.  My daughter made this "notebook" from scrap.  I think she had the idea from our usual craft activities during the weekends.  He just put whatever she thought was cute and helpful and made this special notebook just for me.

My daughter's Christmas gift to me

New Year's Eve was a little bit different.  I asked my husband if he could file a day off on that day so that we are complete in welcoming the New Year.  Fortunately, his big boss gave him a go so we celebrated the New Year with the whole family, Charlile included :)

 Obviously, all of us wore green as they say it is the lucky color for the year of the wood horse.

We had our usual media noche, but compared to the previous years we didn't make it grand.  We only had enough for the whole family and a few friends.  As a tradition, I asked my children to jump a couple of times so that they will grow tall and scattered some coins for luck and prosperity throughout the year.  We also had the 12 round fruits and 7 dried fruits on the table.  And while Dubai was having the grandest NYE celebration ever, Abu Dhabi was - blah!

Looking back, 2013 was full of ups and downs, failure and hope.  I have lost some and I have gained some.  Life is like this.  It's always bittersweet.  It could never ever be a bed of roses.  I know this New Year, I will have a lot of challenges along the way, a lot of changes and new beginnings.  I am looking forward to a better New Year, but along with it I am preparing to face the future trials that it may bring and equipping myself with faith, prayers, love and hope. 

Craft Activity: Christmas Gift Bows

'Tis that time of year once again.  CHRISTmas, as we all know, is the day when we celebrate the birth of our Savior.  Along with this, it has always been a tradition of Christians to exchange or give gifts during this season, especially for kids.  Having had too many "inaanak" (godchildren), I had to buy each one of them their gifts as well as gifts for my own kids and my friends, too.  

To cut on costs, I decided to make my own gift pompoms out of old magazine pages.  This will help me lessen the expenses on the wrapping and gift presentation.  

I consulted Mr. Google on how to do one, and I was surprised on how easy it was and I am going to share it with you.

Materials needed are:

• Old magazine pages
• Glue
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pen

Here's how to do it:

First, measure and mark the magazine page into nine strips about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut each strip.  The first three strips will be left at its full size.  For the next three strips, cut 1 inch off the top and for the last three strips, cut 2 inches off.  Take one leftover strip, about 2 inches, and glue it to form a loop.

Take one strip and divide it in half lightly.  Loop one end to the center and twist it to one side and glue it.  Loop the other end to the center and twist it the other way and glue it as well.  Make sure that after looping both sides, the strip will give you a somewhat number 8 appearance.  Loop the remaining strips.

Take the first three longest strips first and glue them together to resemble something like an ampersand.  Do the same thing to the remaining two sets and arrange them into a flower shape and secure with glue.  

Fill the center by placing the leftover strip of paper in the middle.  Secure the loop with a glue.  

There you have it - your DIY gift bow.  A practical way of giving your gifts an extra touch.

Late Post: Abu Dhabi Science Festival

As a mom, I want my kids to be involved in every activity there is possible.  One of these activities that my kids went to was the Abu Dhabi Science Festival.  The festival ran from November 14 to 23.  The main festival was at the Du Forum in Yas Island.  However, there was also a mini-festival held at the Abu Dhabi Corniche East Plaza for those who will not be able to go to Du.  These are one of the times that I was really thankful that we live just opposite the Corniche Beach because whenever there are events like this, we just need to cross the road and not worry about parking or traffic at all.

Abu Dhabi Science Festival

There were many activities that the kids loved doing.  We were welcomed with bubbles near the entrance of the festival.  The just beside the bubbles corner was a scale that you need to balance by shooting basketballs on each side.  My youngest enjoyed this activity, as he really loves basketball!

Balancing balls

 There were many musical instruments that were on display and with which the children had the chance to play.  They had drums of all sizes.

Drums

 There was also this giant xylophone, which you could literally sleep on.

Giant xylophones

 The metallophones, which you had to hit with a slipper to be able to produce sounds.

Metallophones

 For the wind pipe to produce sound, you have to wind up a lever for some time.  It was actually kind of difficult for my little boy to do so a little help from mommy did the trick.

Giant wind pipe

You can also check how fast you react on something.  Lights will blink from this board and you have to hit the square that lit up as fast you could.  The more you hit, the better you performed!

How fast do you react

There was also an area where kids will be taught how to make a kite.  It was really so educational, as I also learned how to make one myself.  I was a kid of the 80s, but I haven't been able to make or fly a kite.  It was such a delight for me to see that my kids are actually doing something that I haven't done while I was a kid.

Let's make a kite

My youngest attempted to fly the kite with the help of his father.  He was really into it and did not stop until he was able to make the kite fly in the sky.  I can say that for a first timer, he was actually good. 

Flying a kite

 The kids also had the opportunity to see the stars and the moon through a telescope.  They were really surprised and amazed on how different the moon and starts looked like compared to what they usually see in their coloring books.

Telescope

This was the fun part for me.  For one night, the kids became archeologists, which is another frustation of mine.  They were asked to dig in a sandpit and look for treasures, study those finds and make an estimate of how old the treasures were.  My kids were actually competitive with each other and each wanted to find more than the other.

Archeologists for a night

 At the end of the activity, they were also given this certificate stating thay they have been a "digger" for a day.

UAE digger

 Finally, they also had the chance to see and learn how simple levers work.

Levers

We should always make a conscious effort to expose our children at this young age to activities that would catch their interest.  Kids are like a sponge.  They are able to absorb knowledge by seeing and observing first hand.  It is always good to expose your children to a variety of experiences.  One will never know how these exposures can influence their choices in life in the future.

Dinner Buffet: Gems Restaurant at Cristal Hotel

My colleagues at work and I were looking for a place to celebrate Christmas together.  In our department, we are only eight so we cannot afford to celebrate it grandly as our number is limited.  So we decided to just have a buffet dinner and luckily we found a promo from Groupon for dinner buffet at Gems Restaurant in Cristal Hotel.  It was so cheap!  We only had to pay about 60 AED per person.

Christmas Tree 

Last Friday, we paid the restaurant a visit.  Cristal Hotel is located near Madinat Zayed Souk and New Medical Center.  The hotel was spotless.  It was really clean and inviting, taking into account that it is not located in one of the posh areas in Abu Dhabi.

Gems Restaurant

There were only a few Christmas decors in the resto to remind you it's the holiday season, but hey I am in an Arab country so having a few Christmas decors is better than having none at all.  I was surprised when we got in as the restaurant was literally empty.  So when a restaurant is empty, it only means one thing - food is terrible.

Bread and soup station

Erasing that thought on my mind, I went ahead to their bread and soup station.  Sady, I wasn't convinced by the bread/ornament arrangement and didn't even try a piece as it didn't look good for me.  There were two choices for the soup.  Based on my and my colleagues' review, soup was F-A-B!  Seriously, I could sit there and savor the soup the whole night.

My soup

Then we head off to the salad bar.  The selection was limited.  There were a few premade salads, mostly tuna based, and a few greens and dressings.

Salad bar

I had a couple of greens and tuna with Cesar's dressing on it.  I also tried their Thai beef salad.  The flavor was great, but the beef was as hard as rubber.  

My salad plate

There were also some appetizers such as spring rolls, samousa and fries, but I did not try any of those and couldn't give any feedback.  However, based from my colleague who tried their samousa with vine leaves, she said it was awful.

More appetizers 

On their main course, they had beef, chicken, fish, veggies, and rice, where they provided two dishes each.  There was nothing exceptional about their dishes, but their menu is far better than the one I had at Sofitel.

Mains

Mains

I only had a cut of chicken with spinach, a spoonful of rice, fried fish and veggies for my main course.   It was okay.  I also noticed that for their fried fish, they did not offer any tartar sauce to go with it, so I only put yoghurt instead.

My entree plate

This was the fun part.  Their dessert selection was divine.  The choices were not that much, but everything was fantastic especially the panacotta, chocolate pudding and Madagascar cake.  They also had the coconut cake, which I did not try, but was awesome according to my colleagues.

Desserts

Note that rinks are not included in this buffet.  You have to order separately for your drinks.

My dessert plate

I have been to Gems previously and I can say that they had much better choices before than what they offer now.  However, looking at the price we paid, it was a great deal after all.  The dishes weren't like the ones at Rosewater or Ingredients, but hey Gems Restaurant was still able to fill my tummy big time for AED 60 only.


Gems Restaurant 
Cristal Hotel
17th Floor
Muroor Road, 4th Street
Madinat Zayed, Abu Dhabi
Telephone number:  (02) 652-0000