This Side of Heaven... where angels love to tread!

I tried not to talk of where I work but since my workplace is near the ocean, I thought that it would be nice to share photos to show-off. Now how many people can boast of being near the sea and always having that great view from their office window. Though my office is not one of the lucky ones to have a view of the outside but the pay-off is great especially during the summer months when we are able to take a walk and enjoy sun, the breeze, the smell of the ocean walking with friends/officemates or just by yourself (a walking meditation). I will add more to these as soon as I am able to actually walk around the campus. In the meantime, enjoy these photos:

Life has different ways of telepathically connecting you to people. Friday night my husband reminded me of a number that appeared in our caller ID and thought that it might have come from one of our very close friend who lives in British Columbia, Canada. I checked the number and it did had a BC identification but I was not really sure that it was our friend, Malou Arico-Pucovsky, who called. So I re-dialed the number and I got this telemarketing company. I didn't make the conversation long enough for them to convince me of buying something from them.

However, the next day, I got an email from my BC friend, Malou, who requested the recipe to a dessert that I made years ago, when she visited our family here in Massachusetts. It's funny because she thought that it was my husband who made it since most people know that it is him who is the cook in the family and yours truly is just the "sous chef"(always the sous chef, never the chef!). And since most friends are also aware of my culinary handicap, they just assume that my hubby does all the work. Not one to drown my inadequacies in the kitchen with "take outs", I have made some improvements on myself thru the years and have learned to cook and bake a little.

I have learned especially here in the US of A that in order to be able to get a taste of Philippine cuisine, one has to learn to make it yourself especially if you don't live in California, New Jersey and New York where there is a huge community of resident Filipinos thus spawning businesses that would cater to Filipino taste buds and cultural styles.

Everytime, we get a chance to visit my sister-in-laws and brother-in-law in Jersey City, New Jersey, I always make a point to shop for Filipino stuff (mostly food anyways) to my husband's consternation. It truly is a long drive from Massachusetts to New Jersey so I better make up for it.

But anyway, my friend requested for the cassava cake recipe which I am sharing here with you all. My Aunt Ofie who lives in Ohio was the one who taught me how to make this and she in turn got the recipe from Nora Daza's "Let's Cook with Nora" cookbook which is called Cassava-Bibingka. This dessert is so easy to make and also worth the time to make.

Cassava Cake Recipe(ingredients here are doubled to fit a 9 x 13 inch pan/pyrex dish):









Custard Topping:

1 can condensed milk
6 egg yolks
2 tsps vanilla

















































*Thanks to daughter Karrol for making the cassava. My hubby took the photo of the finished product and arranged the placemats in such a way that it look like a flower. Nice, ha?

This video has been going around the net for sometime now. If you still haven't seen it yet, you will be fascinated and amazed by the dance. I myself was glued to the screen because I didn't want to miss anything. This link will better explain who Guan Yin is and what the "thousand hands" stand for.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome new members who signed up with my buddymap: Felimar Rosario-Guzman (Chesapeake, VA), Tina Suelto (Davao, Philippines) and Gem Caldwell (Brisbane, Australia).

If the TV show "Grey's Anatomy" have their own Dr. McDreamy, then the world of alternative medicine has its own ADAM mcDREAMyHEALER.


Saturday, May 5th 2007, I finally met Adam also known as the "Dreamhealer". Together with my husband and mother, we attended his workshop held at the Sheraton Hotel in Newark , New Jersey. Anybody interested in energy healing would know who he is or would have heard about him. He is a remarkable young man and I would say that in today's spiritual age, he represents a different side of healing modality. For most of us, the only healing processes we know about are the doctors, nurses, hospitals, pills, etc. that we have encountered. However, other healing processes are slowly making its way back to the public's consciousness and it has peaked the interest of people looking for other ways to cure themselves; spiritual healing, crystal healing, naturopathy, allopathy, etc.

Remarkably, these are not new ways of healing but has been practised hundreds even thousands of years by our ancestors and was only pushed back or ignored after medicine evolved in a totally different direction. However, because of certain setbacks that are now being experienced with our modern medical practices more and more people are looking back and doing their own research thus becoming more knowledgeable towards their own healing processes.

Adam practices and teaches "energy healing". Energy healing is working with the energy field in order to balance or align what is otherwise an imbalance energy field which can subsequently create illness or disease if not corrected.

Anyone interested to learn more about Adam and his work would be better off if they read his books. He has published 3 so far:












He also has a DVD which is a very good companion to the books that he has since it will give you a better idea of how to go about with your visualizations which plays a very integral part of the healing process. It has also captured the essence of his teachings thus making it a very valuable tool for him and for the individual learning how to heal themselves.



Since Adam with the help of his family tries to lead a normal life, he has figured out a way to help more people without sacrificing his own personal needs and desire to live life to the fullest and not be tied down with major responsbilities. Hey! we can't blame him... he's only 21 years old and still needs to live. By giving out workshops, he would be able to personally reach out to more people and guide them thru the process of visualizations that will help them with their healing. He constantly reminds the audience that they should be proactive in their own healings so as to facilitate the process.

Right now, he is a college student studying "Molecular Biology". This goes to show that this young man is serious about his gifts and is trying to use it in such a way to benefit humanity in the best way that he can; by helping them help themselves...

It was indeed a wonderful experience to watch a traditional and truly unique puppet show from Vietnam. This was hosted by the Asian-American Studies Program at UMass-Boston last April 26, 2007 and performed by the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. What was truly unique about this puppet show was that it was staged on "water". Of course, most of us are familiar with puppet shows done on a wooden platform/stage, behind a tarp or curtain like shadow puppets, puppets being pulled by strings or standing on poles or sticks.

Reading the brochure that they provided, it is mentioned that water puppetry started in the Hatay province. This particular show was brought by Chu Luong who has been working hard to bring this art around the world as a way of showing people Vietnam's way of life.

For several minutes, everyone watching was transfixed on the water stage and we all became like eager children watching our first animated show. The show depicted Vietnam's way of life; their day to day activities like farming, fishing and they also tell stories of their favorite myths and legends.

Every country have their own way of sharing their culture to the world whether it be in songs, music, dance, and story-telling. It is my hope that there will be a way to share this unique puppet theatre to a wider audience to gain more exposure and interest. This will surely beat the other entertainment experiences that our kids are being bombarded with nowadays.

I hope that you enjoy the pictures.

2007 - Vietnam's Water Puppets