Merry Christmas from Rowland Heights

                                    

Merry Christmas

2013 Highlights 

This year is a year of changes for the Michails:

Greg moved from banking to mortgage and Chris is now a lawyer. 

Our house underwent modernization and now has a splash of color and chrome.

Angelica and Sobhi changed scenery (vacation time) – Las Vegas, Cancun, Chicago and a grand Mediterranean Cruise. The Chicago trip gathered the whole family (Sobhi, Angelica, Greg, Susan and Chris) and the Mediterranean cruise was a reunion trip with Sue, Adel, Mary, Sobhi and Angelica.

Sobhi’s hair style keeps changing as he goes through various treatments. Thank God for the good care he gets from the UCLA medical group and the love, prayers and help of family and friends.  He is well, though moving a bit slower at times.  

We look forward to 2014 and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

 

 

Aogashima Island (Philippine Sea)

I saw this picture last night while navigating a site called " Impressive Places" on FaceBook.  The label "Aogashima Island in the Philippine Sea" meant that anything Philippine related excites me. I shared the post with my FB friends as well as the BCHSIAA ON Chapter and the BCHS Class 62 FaceBook accounts.

Contrary to my first impression, this island is anything but Philippine owned.  Here are the facts I gathered.

Aogashima Island is in the Philippine Sea, a population of 205 (2009 census), is owned and administered under the Hachijo Subprefecture of Tokyo Metropolis (resource: Wikipedia).

Island is formed out of an active volcano crater, last eruption 18th Century.  This place is definitely habitable and has defined trails and sights leading up to town of Aogashima.  Entire population lives on a small part of the Island (see upper right hand side of the picture above), where buildings such as the General Store, School, Church are located.

(Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/izuyan/sets/72157626606763266/with/5668659161/)

Island is accessible by a helicopter ride or by ferry. To get to the island, take a ferry from Takeshiba Port or plane from Haneda in Tokyo to Hachijojima; then charter a boat or helicopter to Aogashima. Tokyo flight to Hachijojima approx US$320 roundtrip;  Helicopter ride to Aogashima from Hachijojima approx US$120.  Suggested best time - summer.

Alternate Site for an X'mas Holiday (as hinted by Gali Munar):

Timeline Photos By: foto

One of the toughest hiking points - Hiking Huayna Picchu- Machu Picchu- Peru

50+ Yrs of Friendship & Counting

My friends are fearless!  Amidst sleet and snow we plowed ourselves to meet halfway between our residences @ Orfus Road and Dufferin in Toronto.

We laughed at this particular bi-annual meeting, as it was calendarized; email messages exchanged since Thursday; even our mobiles & mini gadgets were busy reminding us of this event.  In anticipation of this celebration amongst friends, Amy wearily snored the night away, after a busy Sunday of volunteerism to give back to the community [[a BCHSIAA Ontario project]].  I, on the other hand, had a sleepless night... I was ahead of schedule @ 3:00am!

For those of you who have not met Sonia in Baguio, we met her @ UP Baguio in 1962 just as freshman year began.  Fresh out of Baguio City High School leaving behind old friends, we picked new friends and chose well, to keep them  51 years & counting! Sonia is a treasure to keep !

To all our high school friends, Amy and I keep counting back the years.  Without notice to our YOA [to keep you guessing!], we counted 122 years between the two of us and a lot of tall  "kimchi"  stories to tell !

White Hair, Gray Hair, Bottled Hair, It says it all!

Comments:

Anonymous     December 11, 2013 at 11:42 PM

From: Charles Kellawan
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 6:01:08 AM
Subject: Re: New Post - 9 December 2013

Isn't it wonderful that you three are so close for so long and are looking forward to more of the same with new twists and surprises along the way? Thanks for sharing your joys ... it reminds me that I know you three too and for just as long.

Elsie (Blando) Kellawan

Anonymous     December 13, 2013 at 5:41 PM

We could have been a quadruplet and roared away with tales to share; do come up to Toronto and
be a gourmet to places around here. Nagimas ti mangan ---- ethnic-wise! Enjoy seeing our escapades on any of the blogs. Aurora and Sonia here in Canada are a real blessing and joy

Ahmee

$ 4.99/lb Disappointment !

My sisters (Lin_Nette) favor the Dungeness crabs over the "Blue" crabs.  It took a long time of convincing for me to try it today. An advertisement for a fantastic crab delight in China enticed my craving for crabs. I emailed my FaceBook travel consultant friend, Ursule Yu (Easy Tour China), based in Guilin.  She suggested that I wait and get a taste of the Chinese version of the Crab delight.  I waited, but did not find any during our travels. The notion that they are plentiful in months ending with an "ER" (September, October, November, December), does not seem to hold true any longer, as I look forward to the full moon each month to no avail. 

Today, I saw an ad for Dungeness Crabs on sale @ $ 4.99/lb and literally flew over at this particular store

Hurried home to steam it and pounced on it soon as I took it out of the stove.  Ania ngay?, idi awanen diay legs before the Photo-OP !  Looked at the picture and those sorrowful eyes just did it for me!

A plateful of CRAB minus the legs !
 ( to enlarge -click 2X on pic)  

NAH!!! I continued to break the shell, thinking, that I could finish the whole thing in one sitting.  I do not like the fishy smell on my hands when handling this, reason why I decided to sit/finish it once and for all!

Guess what?  I felt a little dizzy going into the 2nd round, so, I decided that it was too much crabbing !!! I remember my mother used to stop us from eating too much crab meat back home. Now, I seem to get it right!  I had to take a teaspoonful of honey (a cure for everything.... kano!),  just to ward off whatever was making me dizzy.   I am OK as of this writing, but, the "fate" of the left over crab is still pending... if you do not see a follow up post, it went strait to the "G" file.

Final thoughts?.. back to blue crabs when I see them...Dungeness does not conviince me! It probably is good for the "ready to eat" canned crab meat, as it was easy to peel; meat pulls off easily and stays in shape!

To my friends who are "Dungeness" fans... continue to enjoy !!! When I come to visit, invite me and I will partake in your "crab" specialty with delight!

US Thanksgiving Feature

Without Permission, I took it upon myself to share this Thanksgiving Photo (Sorry Judge, I got carried away and did not get your permission, baka mat-maturog ka pay! after all the football on TV)

Messing with Lolo while he is sleeping…"Smell my feet Lolo"

 

The caption on the Photo was also copied from original post on FaceBook !!!

Look... Who's working!

You think one 62'er is listening?  She is getting ready to stuff herself !

While Amy, the Host is running to serve coffee, tea & cookies,  she manages to get her binder, drops it on the floor as she hurries to remind the committee members of deadlines... Kudos to you and Thank you for hosting such a big merienda cena, it takes care of early dinner !!!

@ Amy's Residence - venue for the BCHSIAA, Ontario Chapter Planning Committees' meeting for the upcoming 20th Anniversary Celebration (Chapter's inception) to be held October, 2014.  To "ALL" our neighbor chapter members USA, we invite you to come and celebrate with us!