Earthquake hits the UK

I thought I felt something moving while I was working on my computer drafting my most recent post on my Pinoyborian blog. It continued for sometime and then I heard our master bedroom door making a noise. I stood up and my wife called out as she was woken up by the tremors, too. It was a surreal experience as I thought there were no earthquakes in the UK. In my homeland, the Philippines, you would expect it to happen regularly (although we pray against it happening) as we are located in the so-called Ring of Fire.

My personal experience on earthquakes happened in 1990-1991 when that series of catastrophic earthquakes hit the Philippines. I was still then a university student. The first time it happened I was sitting in a concrete bench by the roadside just whiling my time away when I feel the bench moving sideways. I thought to myself this cannot be happening as the bench was concrete. I stood up and look at the school building behind me and saw students running out screaming. I then felt the tremors and everything I saw blurred. It did not last long in real time I suppose but at that time it was long enough. It scared me.

The second time it happened (during the same year) I was watching a movie with my brother in the balcony at that. Then tremors started in the middle of the show, people scampered to get to the door (I'm sure there were minor injuries during the melee) but I held my brother back. I said to him, "wait for it to stop and the door is quiet clear then we go out". When the movements stopped off we go and out of the moviehouse. It was a lousy movie anyway - I do not remember it now.

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Cean turns 5

Our eldest son celebrated his fifth birthday last Monday 18 February. Coincidentally, my father turned 70 on the same day. The party, however, was held two days later at our house. It was attended by friends and their family from the Filipino community in Peterborough.

Social event

Birthday celebrations are a common way of socialising among us Filipinos here in Peterborough. Aside from catching up on each other's lives (sharing stories, problems and triumphs), attending such an event is a huge welcome relief from a hectic life of work and family. This is most specially true during these winter months. The weather is very cold and the skies dark and gloomy that all you want to do is stay inside and sulk.

Initially, we have only wanted to celebrate Cean's birthday with a few close friends. However, as the date gets nearer we have invited more people than we have planned to do. As hosts, the preparation was not easy - it never was, so swore our friends who came to the party and have played hosts themselves in the past.

Pinoy food
My wife is an excellent cook, if I should say so myself. I, however, is rubbish on such things but tried making it up by preparing all the ingredients (well, almost all). She hated doing it because she has very sensitive hands. Preparations started as early as the previous week by buying the canned ingredients and some decorations. It became quite hectic as the day gets nearer.

On the eve of the party, which was the start of wala'y tulogay (literally 'no sleeping'), the two main events were preparing ingredients and cooking that lasted until the wee hours of the morning the next day. Of course, there were the occasional disruption by cries of Mummy and Daddy by the little ones who were sleeping upstairs. On the party day, preparations are still ongoing up until during the party itself.

What could be more Pinoy in a birthday party than the food? Adobong baboy, lumpia shanghai, pansit canton, spaghetti, stir fry vegetables (carrots, broccolli, flat peas and bell peppers) and the piece de resistance, Daisy's bistek Tagalog done with a Bol-anon twist, were the main courses eaten together with the equally important kan-on (boiled rice). For dessert, there were biko (similar to kakanin), saging turon (plantain fritters), buko fruit salad and refrigerator cake.

Our son is very much into cars so a redhot racing car-shaped birthday cake it has to be. Bought at the local Sainsburys, it was a "moist sponge cake filled with delicious buttercream and raspberry jam, covered with soft icing and edible decorations." I have to say it was a delicious cake and the children seemed to have enjoyed it as well.

Birthday celebrant
In the run up to the party day, Cean was very excited and talks a lot about it. He is a very shy boy so the party is our way of exposing him to lots of different people and for him to socialise with other children. Unfortunately, when the big day came he was poorly with chest infection after he arrived from school. We did not realise until later on in the night that he was running a high fever. That explained his lacklustre behaviour when he came down after changing into his birthday clothes and greeted his visitors. After the customary singing, candle blowing and picture taking he politely begged off from the revelry to go upstairs and quitely played with his PlayStation (PS) 2 console. His favourite at the moment is any Hot Wheels game.

It did not stop the rest of us from celebrating though. The house was literally packed full with adults and children. The former were huddled up in small groups and swap stories while the latter were busy playing down- and upstairs with their balloons and whistles. Some children were enjoying Cbeebies and Nick Jr 2 shows. Later on, there was the very Pinoy idea of entertaining guests - Magic Mike singing by the adults. It was a very happy event and I am quite certain that everybody had a great time.

Cean had received a lot of gifts - birthday cards, money, shirts, trousers, a picture frame, a PS2 game and even another birthday cake. Through this article let me express my family's heartfelt thanks to our friends who came and gave gifts. Your presence was more than enough and the presents came unexpected but greatly appreciated by us and especially Cean, as a great bonus.

More pictures
There are more pictures to enjoy in my Friendster and Multiply accounts. Additionally, my relatives can check on our Geni family tree site.

Learn and earn with Moneyblogger

I am very new to blogging. I came across it while surfing the internet. After a bit of researching about blogs I decided to create one myself. My first blog was created in October 2007 from a social networking site popular with fellow Filipinos. I only did one post in it since I discovered Blogger, which I prefer to use.

I like Blogger because of the opportunity to earn money from my blogs (I have two at present and two still in the planning stage). Earning from blogging? Now that caught my attention when still researching about the topic. I thought to myself, that is a good incentive to motivate me to pursue this hobby. Yes, it is a hobby for me as I have a day job that pays me well enough. But greedy as I am, I want to earn more money!

Seriously, I was intrigued with the idea of earning money from sharing my thoughts and views on life to the rest of the world. Although making money is not the main reason I got into blogging I cannot discount the fact that it is a motivating factor. If I earn from my blogs it will make my wife happy, too! She is not too keen on me spending late night hours on the internet. She wants me rested and sleeping the night away instead. Understandably so as I have to bond with my young sons when I arrived from work; not to mention, too, the chores awaiting me at home!

Anyway, I did a Google search on the topic of earning from blogging and I came across Moneyblogger. It was very timely to come across it as I have just started blogging without any knowledge about computer programming. Moneyblogger "is a year long project started in October 2007 with a simple aim - to see how much money you can really make from blogging." Although it was about how to earn from blogging, the added value to me is that I also learn some of the 'basics' on creating a blog e.g. how to write the About Me page.

So far, Moneyblogger has proven to be indispensable to me as it is helping me a lot. I always refer to it if I want to improve on my blog. Whether I will earn money from my blog is not on my mind now. If it comes, it will be a great bonus. For now, I am happy just blogging my thoughts and views and whatever caught my fancy, to the world. And did I mention that by posting about Moneyblogger I have a chance to win an iPod Nano. How's that for a bonus!

I am the Filipino of the Year 2007

Yes, you read it right. I was given the award by one of my favourite newspaper columnist, Philippine Daily Inquirer's Conrado de Quiros. Intrigued? Aghast? Then go and read his column about me.

Warm Welcome

This blog is generally about how it is to live in the UK from a Pinoy family's perspective. There will be focus on our integration into British culture and also about the the vibrant Filipino community in the city of Peterborough and neighboring places.

The blog's name is a combination of the words Pinoy, the informal name we Filipinos like to call ourselves (similar to Brits for British), and Peterborian, a native of Peterborough.