Cookfest !!!

Easy: Yesterday was a fine day but I didn't swim coz I had to bring Irene to Laco for a Cookfest. Apparently she was volunteered to represent Karen's class for a cookfest in celebration of Nutrition Month (July). How somebody concluded DH is a fantastic cook is anybody's guess. DH was tasked to cook pancit. Not exactly her specialty but... Well that's them at the right with another parent who cooked spaghetti. The Home Economics kitchen at the school is rather spacious. They've got lots of utensils but only one gas stove worked. So the parents had to make do with sharing burners.

After about an hour, the pancit is all done. The bilao and the banana leaf ensemble made it look really presentable. They had a couple of bilaos at the kitchen and someone cut banana leaves from the school's garden. There's the finished product at the right and that's Karen's adviser. Why so much? Well, the food will be shared with Karen's classmates of course. A dish was left for the judges and then there's the requisite portion for the faculty.

Kainan na!!! Finally, merienda time for the classmates at the classroom! Some classmates prepared juice drinks and the whole affair looked like a feeding program! Overall it was a fun activity. They said the pancit really tasted good! Of course it's good, DH cooked it! It was tiring, esp for Irene who slaved the previous night away to precook the ingredients. But seeing people enjoy the food made it all worthwhile and fun! Ahhhh... the sacrifices we parents make.

There's this schmuck at the pool who always showers with the shower curtains open. Now I don't have problems with public showers but those stalls have curtains for a reason. He showers full blast in his underwear and gets the floor on the walkway all wet. And to think he works there. I could only assume that he hasn't outgrown his childhood fear of the "mumu" so he keeps the curtains open. Today was easy coz I'm still feeling the pain in the right knee. The funny thing is, I only feel it on the flutter kicks but not on breaststroke kicks. I have a feeling that the dolphin kicks this week triggered this. I could still do flutter kicks but I'd just have to use the thighs more and not stress the knee.

Another Bum Knee?

Easy: Another easy workout coz I had to rush today. Had to rush coz parking is limited at the office. They decided to dig up some of the parking slots to improve the drainage. I realized today that my right leg did most of the power kicking. During Dog Paddle, I felt a sudden sharp pain in my right knee. It went away but there were certain leg positions, like when pushing back the foot, where I felt it again. Hope it's temporary and will go away. Last thing I need is ANOTHER bum knee.

Some Tips

Easy: It was cold and quite a big downpour yesterday so I didn't swim. I was still aching a little over my stiffneck so that sealed it. I guess the rule of thumb excuses for not swimming are: rain/ thunderstorms, illness or injury. Because of the rain yesterday, the pool water today wasn't as warm and so I wore a swimcap. Those are my present swimcaps on the left. The Voit is a lot more comfortable (and cheaper!) than the Speedo. The Speedo seems tighter.

Tip: To do navigation or sighting on the Elemback, be sure to get a gulp of air first and then hold it - then do your sighting. Otherwise your chest sinks and so does your head. Another tip: when jumping into the pool, be sure to jump with your feet CLEARING the deck. Otherwise you could easily scrape your foot or toes like I did this morning.

Today I did a couple of lengths of dolphins just for warming up. I retrieved a Php1 coin from the pool floor to add to my kitty. Yesterday was a holiday for some people (SONA). Treasure is now at Php17.25.

Swimming at Ricardo's

We went to Ricardo's Swimming Pool at Cerhil, infront of St. Scholastica's Academy in Pampanga. There's no work and school for Metro Manila on Monday coz of SONA. The water from the pools was very nice when we came - bright bluish crystal clear! The pic at the left was taken at the kiddie pool. There were a couple of slides here but the kids didn't use them much. The water surface's height was just right for Renz.

The pool at the right is the bigger adult pool. I estimate it to be roughly 8m by 12.5m and the deepest end is 5 ft. The shallow end is maybe 3 ft. My swims here looked fast coz of the smaller size of the pool and its smaller tiles. The tiles just seemed to whiz by! I did my regular strokes. That's Irene at the bottom wearing my Voit swimcap. The pools have this dolphin images at the bottom that appear moving and life-like from above. They're a little unnerving though if you see them underwater especially if you're accustomed to just white tiles and lane lines.

Left is a shot of the kiddie pool from the top landing of the adult slide. See Sandra prancing into her Swan pose ala Synchronized Swimming. That's Renz at the bottom doing his "Fotoman" (a made-up superhero with a Power Ranger character) impersonation. There weren't anybody else who swam except for a few other kids and a rowdy gang. There were lots of people though who were mostly cooking and eating. There was a heavy downpour around noon and we promptly left at 12:30.

Couple 'O New Trunks

Easy day and some Dolphins: Elementary Backstroke is just so, so relaxing. Sometimes my mind just drifts as I see the various wisps of clouds above and the occassional plane passing by. Since I remembered it's been a loooong time that I haven't done dolphin kicks, well I tried them again today. Surprisingly, I don't feel any awkwardness at all. And during the whole workout, there wasn't any soreness at the back. I guess I need to push the turns. Mental Toughness! Focus on completing laps without resting. Just do the damned turns!

Finally here's a picture of the swim trunks I now have. I had to bring and wear my old crappy cotton/ polyester trunks yesterday at the pool just so I could have this picture taken! That old cotton trunks of mine doesn't wear well when wet. The cotton material just cling too much to your skin when you get out from the pool and it can get embarrasing. Anyway, the two shorts at the left are what I use regularly. The top one is very old and faded but tough, ToUgH, TOUGH! I think it's made of some nylon material probably invented by some deceased Nobel-prize winning scientist. I just might use it for 10 more years coz I don't see them being sold anywhere anymore. I alternate it with the one at the bottom left. They're both SnS brand. The 2 ones at the right (Nautilus brand) I got on sale from Market Market. They don't look as stretched out as the ones on the left coz they're new.

Septic Blues

Hard: Why do I feel that my sidestroke isn't getting the distance that I used to get? Don't I gliiiide enough? Is the kick lacking? Am I too impatient? I practice my sidestroke kick at a pool corner just to be sure I do it right. I just don't know if I actually do it. Coz I feel the top leg doesn't move too much forward. If it does, it breaks much streamline. It's the lower leg that "whips" the kick.

After the morning swim, I proceeded to inspect the work being done on the septic tank. Jerry, his kid Jericho and another guy were at it. Wheewww, needless to say, it was gross. To most of us, the work is really dreadful. You don't know the kind of diseases you could contract by working near, around and inside a filled-up septic tank. I paid Php5,000 for the job which, in total was done in less than a day (broken in 2 days). Well, I think the quality of work was worth it. There's no better guy I think to do the work other than Jerry coz he built it! I took some pictures of the cleaning to study the septic tank's structure just for my reference. But I'd rather not post those pics here. Yup, this is just one of the things a landlord does. It isn't all just waiting and collecting the rent!

Market (Market) Day

Easy - T-E-P: After waiting last Saturday, we learned that the Septic Guy (sorry, for lack of better word) wasn't available again yesterday, Sunday. I was so upset and disappointed that I finally decided to go shopping with the family at Market Market. What can I say, I just needed to release the stress and make the most of the day. Besides, we read on the papers that they had a sale there for the entire weekend. So off we went with Gay, Mama and Beng.

There are so many blogs I see that feature all these fancy, exotic dishes with tongue-twisting names (read: expensive) they've had in all the fancy-dancy restaurants they've been too. The blogs show photos of the food and facade/name of the restaurant and the details of the food as well like they were copied verbatim from the menu! I think they should be paid by these restaurants for free advertising.

Well, I'm not to do that myself, coz there's nothing really fancy in what we had at Market Market which wasn't a fancy place either (take a hint from the name, will ya?). It was just rows and rows of food stalls. Anyway, shown at the left is some of what we had: Inihaw na Hito, Adobong Pusit, some seaweeds (Ar-arosep is what Irene calls them) with bagoong, diced onions, mangoes and tomatoes.

Fried shrimps served in a small kawali which I thought was cute. See the pic at the right. They're simple local dishes but they were sooooooo goooooood !!! I guess food there is really good in the first place coz it was so damned hard to get seats.

Why did I even want to go to Market Market, swimmingwise? Well, I thought I could buy some new trunks, caps and goggles. Well, it turned out I only bought Nautilus swim trunks - both on sale for < Php150 each. Speedo sells these kind of trunks (same material from what I can feel) for Php900+ each !!! What's up with that, Speedo? The caps of the Voit brand weren't discounted much. Besides, I hardly use caps in the pool I go to. I'll post a pic of the trunks when I got time.

I digress too much. I went to the pool today after the Septic guy, Jerry, gave an estimate for the job. In the pool, there was debris (mostly leaves) everywhere. I guess it was a windy day yesterday. I moved lanes between laps and found a Php5 coin. Ha! Another coin-diving session yesterday I suppose. My treasure chest has now Php16.25 worth of coins! I just love it when I spot these sunken treasures!