Sakura Buffet

The recent weekend is binge full!

Woke up to a lot of Facebook messages of people who are dying to eat and get out of their houses. After numerous wall to wall comments, lunch buffet at Sakura was a done deal.

Eating in a buffet restaurant has a secret in maximizing what you pay: you have got to PACE YOURSELF! Slowly but surely.

Open atrium is kind of hot for a lunch date w/ friends at Sakura in Laila Gallery but we don't mind as it's worth it!

My first serving: Corn & Chicken soup (should've gotten the Miso!), Crab Salad, a salad that has avocado in it, a tiny glass that has raw fish in it, and sushi.

Second servings consists of maki's and rolls =D and loads of shaved garlic!

Third serving is a little conservative as by this time i'm super full!

Fourth serving is finally desserts!

At 10 KD per person excluding drinks, it's kind of steep but if done right, people will have their money's worth. My only regret is that I saw the Teppanyaki's and Yakisoba's last. I got blinded by the maki's

and sushi's

and tempuras!

Below are what the others ate in all it's food porn glory.

Sakura Xpress
Now conveniently located
at the Kuwait's best address....
Laila Gallery in Salmiya

Choose from Sushi, Sashimi, Tempura or Teriyaki...
The Classical & The Passion-able fusion dishes created by
our own Japanese Chef Akio Miyajima.

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in an atmosphere of elegance & exquisite comfort
combined with personalized service....

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Sakura is your ultimate destination for a true dining experience....

Fabulous Food at Fantastic prices!
Daily Happy Hours
Lunch 12:00 noon to1:00 pm & Dinner 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
(Two 4 One - Buy one get one Free from our sushi selection)

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Filipinos in Kuwait unimpressed by Aquino's first state address � Kuwait Times Website

Filipinos in Kuwait unimpressed by Aquino's first state address � Kuwait Times Website

Published Date: July 27, 2010
By Ben Garcia, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Filipinos in Kuwait were largely unimpressed by their country's new president's first State of the Nation Address (SONA). Philippines President Benigno Aquino III delivered his first, keenly anticipated address yesterday at the opening of the 15th congress. Since then, several online bloggers have questioned the new administration's failure to include anything in the address about overseas Filipinos in general or the administration's plans to avert the exodus of hundreds of Filipinos who travel abr
oad seeking greener pastures outside the Philippines on a daily basis.

Around 11 percent of the country's total population of 96 million are currently working abroad and are reportedly helping to keep the Philippines' economy afloat during periods of economic trouble such as the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the 2008-09 global economic downturn. In 2009, the amount of $17.348 billion was sent to the Philippines by Overseas Filipinos, highest among prior years, or an increase of more than 10 percent on the 2007 figure.

One Filipino community leader in Kuwait, who asked to remain anonymous because in the beginning he was a loyal supporter of its new leader, was disappointed at the president's failure to mention any plans for the Filipino workers abroad. "What I was expecting from his first SONA was his great programs to help OFWs. Why are people like us working abroad? Because we have no job opportunities back home," he said. "We need him to say that his administration is committed to creating new jobs for OFWs, so that w
e can cut, if not stop, the exodus of Filipinos abroad, especially domestic helpers. Unfortunately, he ignored OFW subject and spoke only about his predecessor's mismanagement thing, and other subjects, but not the OFWs. Maybe, just like his predecessor, he wanted Filipinos to go and work abroad; it's not a good start.

There are currently around two million Filipinos working in the Middle East, with more than half this number engaged in menial jobs, many working as domestic helpers. Some of these domestic workers are mistreated and are given refuge by their embassies before being sent back home or re-deployed to similar jobs.

I am a teacher and have been working here because back home, we have low salaries for public school teachers," one male teacher at a local Philippine school told the Kuwait Times. "I want him [President Aquino] to increase teachers' salaries and provide more benefits in order for us to live decently and provide for our families,.

A Filipina housemaid, who also currently calls Kuwait home, said that if she had an opportunity to earn decent money back home, she wouldn't have come to work in the Middle East. "I would love to stay with my family, of course," she said. " The way I look at the new administration, I think, it's the same as his predecessor, no good plans for us.

While there are many Filipinos in Kuwait who still hold out hope for the new leader's potential, they want action rather than just words: "For me as his supporter, either we [the OFWs] were mentioned [in the SONA] or not," said another Filipino citizen currently working in Kuwait. "I would love to give him a chance to prove himself to the Filipinos. I will hold him accountable for all the promises thrown around during his campaign. He is a man and so I know he can prove himself to 96 million Filipinos.

Filipina maid inherits millions from Singaporean employer - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Filipina maid inherits millions from Singaporean employer - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

SINGAPORE-- A devoted Filipina maid inherited six million Singapore dollars (more than four million US) from her late employer after more than 20 years of service, a newspaper report said Wednesday.

"I am the luckiest maid in Singapore, with or without the money," the 47-year-old single woman -- identified only by the pseudonym "Christine" -- told the Straits Times in an interview.

The maid refused to be named in public for fear of possible threats to her life in the impoverished Philippines, where wealthy people have been kidnapped for ransom and some killed by their abductors.

The windfall, including cash and a luxury apartment near the Orchard Road shopping belt, came from the estate of her employer Quek Kai Miew, a medical doctor and philanthropist who died last year at 66.

The maid had also taken care of the doctor's late mother, and was told that she would be a beneficiary of her employer's will when it was drawn up in 2008.

"There were no secrets between us. I was not surprised at all when she told me how much I was going to get," the maid recalled.

"Christine" was devastated when Quek died a year ago, as the two were inseparable, and temporarily moved in with the doctor's nephew for solace.

"It was heartbreaking for me as I saw more years with Doctor Quek than with my own mother. I would break down every time I thought about her. I could not be by myself," she said.

"I was always beside her. Wherever she went, I was with her."

The maid, who is now applying for permanent residency in Singapore, said her newfound wealth had not changed her lifestyle.

"I do not really think much about the money I got. I just live my life as I did before, and not as a rich person," the maid, dressed simply in a blouse and slacks with short-cropped hair, was quoted as saying.

"I am still who I was before. I cannot behave differently because I have money now. Even my Filipino maid friends here still treat me the same."

Nearly 200,000 foreign maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, work in affluent Singapore, which has a population of five million.

American Eagle on Sale

When American Eagle opened at the Avenues Mall, like the GAP store, I didn't venture in because I know the prices are going to be inflated like crazy.

The thrill of a good bargain hunt is my ultimate high and regular priced items aren't good enough for me unless it's really a must have.

I am lucky enough to be in Kuwait where prices are ridiculously high but when they go on sale the prices are slashed into tiny little pieces. Sale prices here are so good that it's incomparable to the sale prices in the Philippines to the point that I'd rather buy my vacation outfits/shoppings/ pasalubongs from here rather than there especially with the high street brands like Zara, Mango & Aldo.

Digressing again, as usual. Anyways couple of weeks back, a family friend was gushing on how crazy the sale at American Eagle is and it's an absolute must to go.

So I did and got these;

True enough, the prices are low. Not crazy low but low enough to justify it as a good buy.

AE Bermuda Pants for only 3 KD. Regular price would be thrice as that.

AE Floral Cami for only 2 KD. Regular price was I think 5 KD

AE V neck tees for 2 KD each. I went to AE twice on the same week to get 2 more of these V neck t-shirts plus a shirt for my brother.

Men items are higher compared to women items. Supply and demand ratio I guess.

AE Camouflage Midi shorts for 3 KD

A total of 15 KD (the sister also coerced me in buying her a tank top) for all of the above mentioned is what makes a good shop-a-holic. Not that I am one, just saying =)

If they are still on sale by the end of this month, I might go back there to buy some more shirts to stock up on Christmas gifts!

How To Take 13 Thousand Steps But Might Not Succesfully Burn Any Calories

I'm not a very competitive person but I hate losing.

Today, I just have to use all ounce of will power to show who's the master of the universe my body.

I'll make this lazy bones realize who's the boss by taking steps that will not stop when the counter hits 10,000.

The great plan started good enough with a McDonald's breakfast but since sisterblister was so gung ho on sleeping until after lunch time, I had no choice but to eat eggs, smoked pepperoni & rice.

My great ability to justify everything saved me from declaring it a self control failure. I figured all those starch/ carbs I've indulged in is highly useful for the body to process and withstand the on coming assault it's going to face.

Turns out, I have great reasoning power because guess what? I WIN!

Yes that's 13,439 steps!

Some people would say, hey that's easy. Maybe for you but for me, there's nothing easy about walking 45 minutes on the treadmill on different pace (4 to 7 speed) just to take the first 5,000 steps.

It's not easy for my feet and for my wallet when I have to walk around The Avenues mall for 4 hours and a half enduring aching feet.

The remaining 8,000 steps was incurred from checking out stores. Which isn't easy because all frigging stores in that mall was on sale!

I want to learn how to play Monopoly. Or Pictionary. I haven't played either. Ever since.

These kids were jamming it at the Fantasy World (which oddly enough according to a very noisy bird is also a name for a strip club in Florida =))

They're playing the miniature electric guitars and air drumming. They look cool for 10 year olds.

When the counter hits 7,000 I decided to reward myself with Johnny Rocket's Oreo & Cream Malt plus Cheese Fries

Full and ridden with guilt, I've decided to do what I do best on a weekend at the mall. Check out more stores.

New Look was on a buy 1 take 1 special offers. Didn't see anything I like enough to buy.

H&M was also on sale but the tee's that I like wasn't so I had to pass.

Blistersister got excited when she saw that Oasis has a buy 1 take 1 promo.

Go Sports is still on sale. Last week, I got my brother a Sanuk shoes for only 8 KD! Original price was 18 KD.

Which is perfect because by that time my feet was starting to hurt from all that walking. Don't judge me for being great at justification and for what I did next

I bought a pair of FitFlops! See the benefits here. It was only 8 KD from original price of 21 KD therefore I am the goddess of everything on sale and justification. Rest your case.

Looking for a arm sleeve extension, we ventured inside Debenhams that's also on sale.

The search didn't last long. Starbucks was very inviting.
We took a break from all that shopping, had our frappucino's (mine is always tall coffee frap coz study shows more than that is 500 calories worth of evil) and read free magazines.

We saw the advert of The Sorcerer's Apprentice and decided we want to watch it. After 4 failed attempt of booking our seats at the Avenues, we finally found free seats at Al Kout

The movie was on at 7:45. Al Kout is 45 minutes away on a 120 KPH. We figured we can get there on time even though it's already 6:50

Thinking we had enough time, we went in the Lacoste store. It's also on 40% crazy sale!

That orange shoes was grabbed at a sale price of 16 KD only from the original price of 20 something KD.

We could've made it on time if only this didn't happen
That resulted to half an hour's bumper to bumper crawling traffic because these people had nothing better to do but gawk at an accident or a hanging steel.

At 8:10 we were still looking for parking slot so when we finally found one, we ran (giving me additional aerobic steps count!) and munched on Nachos while trying to understand the movie that we were twenty minutes late in.

It was a good movie in a I-also-want-that-superpower kind of thing.

So yes, I had an awesome today. Not only did I achieve my goal but I was also able to incorporate it with fun and a little bit of side tracked shopping.

The question though is, with all that walking, have I burned enough calories meriting me to lose some pounds this week if I continue, considering all that food I just ingested? Ah, guess I'll never know.

Gotta sleep. Tomorrow's another 10K adventure!

10,000 Steps A Day

I thought it would be easy. I said, 10,000 steps a day? Piece of cake!

Damn. I hate it when I get to prove myself wrong.

Seriously wrong. And I don't even like cake!

Yesterday has given me empirical evidence that on a normal working day, I only take approximately 2500 to 3000 steps. That's a typical 15 hours daily activity.

That means, I only burn 70 KCal a day. That is if I don't shove any food in my mouth the whole day.

I think this is what my mother meant when she said I lead a very sedentary lifestyle.

Walking Style II

Seven years ago, I arrived here in Kuwait 40 pounds overweight on my 5'4 frame.

My mother who was in the beauty industry at that time took it upon herself to save me from drowning in my own fats.

Name it, I've gone through it when it comes to weight loss.

• 2004 was the year where they hired a personal aerobic trainer for me at the same time nagging me to go down the building gym everyday.

• 2005 was the year where I'm obligated to walk our dog for an hour or so around the neighborhood and It was also the year for Xenical.

• 2006 was the year for more laxative teas, walking, spa slimming treatment and occasional work out at The Palms Hotel.

When I came back for the first time since in the Philippines I lost just about all of the 40 pounds. I even did some modeling stint. That made my mama very happy.

When I came back to Kuwait after a wonderful vacation, I gained back almost half of what I lost.

And so the yo-yo diet begins again.

• 2007 was Hydroxycut, walking, laxative teas, erratic eating habits and on/off working out at the Marina Hotel gym.

• 2008 was the most intense!I actually achieved my desired weight. How did I do that? Well, I lost my job & no one was hiring as it was in the midst of the recession, I was also in a bad break up so instead of wallowing up in self pity and tears ( I did a for awhile K =)) but enough is enough) so I had nothing else to do but work out twice a day. I'm so lucky that the Parentals are so encouraging when it comes to weight loss that they voluntarily paid for my membership at Crowne Plaza Kuwait.

I did nothing for 6 months but wake up, go to the gym, come back home to eat a little and pass out the sofa, wake up, go to the gym, come back home and pass out. I loved it! I felt so good I even forgot about my broken heart.

Then it was time to go back to the Philippines again for visa issues. I swear that country ruins my health! Kidding. I stayed there for the remaining 6 months of 2008 where I did nothing but BINGE. Drink, eat, sleep, party, travel and sometimes a mixture of everything. In fairness I did buy a gym membership during my stay in Davao but I only used it for a day. That's how bad the temptation in that country is. Hello free unlimited rice!

• 2009 was back to Kuwait year and where I also received the couch potato year award. Settling in to new house, adjusting to new work environment and lugging all those fat just made me even more lethargic.

Oh did I mention I have hormone problems? I totally do. I don't get periods like regular people does. I had to induced it with contraceptive pills. Doc said it's one of the reasons why I retain all this so cholesterol so much.

• 2010's first half was spent the same as 2009 oh except that I'm not heart broken anymore like 2008 coz Mr. Pagong finally committed after 5 long years & I'm not broke anymore (slight na lang) coz I finally paid up all debts mine or passed on to me.

First half of 2010 was lethargic because well... I have no excuse except that I just got lazy and tired and everyday it doesn't suit well with me.

So on remaining half of 2010 I'm changing all that. I started last June but admittedly it was still erratic. One week I'm all intense on the treadmill the next I hardly gets up from the couch. I've become so adept in this losing weight cycle and so knowledgeable in all things diet & calorie counting that I can actually justify why I cheat.

Look! One of those sporadic intense work outs last June.

Mostly, it's all about last supper.

I've never been this heavy since I first came here and it scares the shit out of me. Aside from the fact that I'm 7 years older than I was which makes it harder to lose weight, I'm also feeling numbness in my left side from my head to my toes. Seriously. So I become a hypochondriac, run to the doctor where I'll just be told to do a little exercise & that there's nothing wrong with me except my weight and my ability to sit on a chair/couch in front of a computer for hours on end.

It's scary and I have to start doing something about it. Like now. Oh, it's 11 p.m. so tomorrow then.

I live in a house where a room full of gym equipment and a swimming pool is waiting for me to abuse. I really have no excuse except that I'm very unmotivated not to mention lazy.

To solve that problem, I bought this

Omron Walking Style II Step Counter

This way, I will have a daily goal as well as a weekly goal. Lose a pound or two a week by walking.
The Omron step counter does what other people are supposed to do used to be - my gym mate.

Anyway, if I want to lose all these
I have got to sleep early so I can wake up early.

Wish me luck!

10 Words To Help Motivate You To Exercise

10 Words To Help Motivate You To Exercise

Since we like to keep it a cinch and emotive here at Everyday Tweet, here's 10 simple words to inspire you to workout:

health

lean
advantage
endorphins
boost
Lalanne
hawt *
strength
kickass
reward
fitalicious*

health

*modern meaning "sexy or hip", 50's acronym: having a wonderful time.

*fit + delicious

Dynamic Dymo!

When I was a kid, my parents would draw a sun and a moon to my right and left socks respectively to let me know which side goes to where.

But that's not what Dymo does.

Dymo takes me to that place where I am free to label anything and everything I can get my hands on in different embossed colors.

That place is a very happy place.

When I found the Dymo label maker at Ace Hardware Shuwaikh, I can't stop grinning and can hardly wait to go home and play

and practice for perfection

and victimized my Qou Vadis Memoriae 2009-2010

and vandalized the laptop.

The result of a trigger happy Mackie.
It felt... liberating!

When the blistersister came home after work, she took one look at the amazing dymo, left the room and then came back to spend an hour labeling her mobile phone.

The dynamic Dymo is soooooooo pretty like Ken and Barbie.

Ice Skating in Kuwait

One of the best days of my life in Kuwait happened yesterday.

It started late and very hot enough when a group of friends decided to try ice skating under the very humid Kuwait weather.

Before I proceed though, a little disclosure, I didn't even try getting my feet in those skates and unto that rink. Bruises, dislocated shoulder and getting my fingers sliced off is not in my agenda of fun.

Ice skating costs 1.500 KWD per person with free very painful pair of skating shoes. Good thing the my sister warned most of us that those free shoes hurts like hell so they opted on renting a good one for .750 Fils.

Ice skating would also cost you a lot of bruises and a whole lot of help from friends.

Coz you're definitely going to fall flat on your butt

or on your side that will give you a shoulder fracture if you're unlucky
so yes you definitely need your friends around to pull you up and do it all over again.
Stand up, take a step and split. LOL!

Secretly, I wanted to learn to skate since I saw the first "Cutting Edge" movie. They're so graceful and it looks like a lot of fun. Toe pick!

The skating rink is located at Kuwait City. I can't exactly give you the right address but if I'm not mistaken it's near the Discovery Mall and McDonalds.

So yeah. Toe pick!

Photos: Selma Royo Yap

Good Times

Next year, when I'm back in the Philippines, I'm definitely going to re-read this blog to remind me that I actually had fun here.

My day ended pretty late or early depending on how you look at 3 a.m. when I tweeted

the best kind of day is the one where unplanned activities takes form like Ice Skating (I didn't skate! Afraid to fall =P), Cooking+Habhab at home (Sinigang na Shrimp,Fried & Crispy tilapia, baked chicken & Filipino spag),whiskey & overnight swimming.

The day started at the Skating Rink, then a "bit" of shopping of American Eagle stuffs at the Avenues where they have crazy sale all over and since everyone was so hungry but can't think of where and what to eat, I invited everyone at the house.

We immediately ran to Carrefour to buy the ingredients and went home.

Apparently it takes 5 people and a Japanese Chin to make a delicious spaghetti - Filipino style. It involved condensed milk and salt but strangely enough it's very delish!

The tilapia fried into it's crispy perfectness.

She crabs cooked just the way we liked it.
and Yaya Gina's new recipe. Baked chicken with potatoes, tomato sauce and bell peppers.

When everyone's burping with full stomach, card games and swimming ensued!

My night ended up at 3 a.m. but it's all good because heck, a night full of food, laughter, gossip and people jumping in a pool until the wee hour of the morning is so worth it.