YumBox Bento lunchbox

My mini-ME is not a picker-eater but she wants to eat food in small portion. I tried to find a lunchbox where we could provide her with variety of food while in school but not lucky enough to find them in Dubai. I chance upon the YumBox on the internet but it is not available here either. My friend from the US is scheduled to come home to the Philippines last September 2015. We were chatting online when I suddenly remembered how I wanted to get the YumBox lunchbox. I ordered from the YumBox website and arranged the delivery to her home address in the US. After only a few days she already received the items without hassle.

From Philippines, my other friend's brother is coming back to Dubai from his vacation. Haha! Imagined the travel time of my YumBox! From US to Philippines, from Philippines to Dubai. I was so happy to received them just a few days ago considering my waiting time, but its all worth it as Bella loved her Yumbox and insisted on eating on them even at home. 

I got the Lavande purple and Pink Lemonade from their New 2015 Pastel collection.

The Lavande purple has 6-compartment food tray. Includes exterior box and circus illustrated tray. Five 1/2 cup portions of the key food groups plus dip/treat well. The good thing about it as well is we can pack wet food like yogurt and dips (not water though). This is ideal for toddlers-age 8.

I also chose the Pink Lemonade from their 4-compartment food tray collection which is a 3 cup volume: One 2 cup sandwich/salad-friendly section, two 1/2 cup servings plus a 1 oz. dip/well treat. This one is ideal for kids and adults.

I can mix and match trays and Exterior boxes with the 2015 Paster Collection. Although the previous models are not compatible with it. 

I also ordered the YumBox insulated cooler bag. It is a spacious and sturdy insulated polyester tote bag with removable shoulder strap. This can carry 2 Yumboxes in a flat or side position where you can also add drinks and snacks and other cold packs. 

Its PVC-free, BPA-free, Phthalates-free. Only wipe to clean. 

Its quite big yet for Bella to carry to school. The Yumboxes fits standard sizes totes so we will use her current punchbag.

I am planning to use the bag for breastmilk ones Baby Uno is out and I am back to working.

All the best

My Pregnancy Update

I will be quick with my post. Remember my previous entry were I said that I will be having my glucose tolerance test? After I arrived, they took my urine and blood sample, I had a 70 as fasting baseline. Then after I drank the solution, they took my urine sample 5 minutes before 1 hour, at exactly an hour after, they took another blood sample and the result was 148. I thought that was the end of it. This was the procedure I remembered I had with my mini-ME in St. Luke's Hospital. But then, they asked me to wait for another hour again as they will be taking another urine and blood sample. To my surprised, I wasn't feeling hungry at all, maybe because of the extremely sweet glucose solution and they allowed me to sip water as well. I don't know if this will have an effect with my result but I checked from the internet and found out that this is alright. Anyway, my result was 121 after 2 hours.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what all those results were. I just do my own research from the internet and based from it, I passed the GTT. It was really difficult to come up with this decision. You may be wondering why I am doing this. You see, after 2 days of the test, I was scheduled to see the OB at the clinic, however, it was a different doctor this time as the one usually seeing me was on leave. I wasn't very impressed with this one though. She kept asking the same questions all over again and because of language barrier, I had to ask her to repeat what she was telling me. She also had me ultrasound and she wasn't even saying anything at all. 

And the matter that really got me frustrated was when the Doctor ordered another Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT). I explained to her that I already had it a few days back and she wasn't even listening to me. She pointed my name on the computer monitor and ask me if it was my name, I said yes. She pointed at my record folder and asked me again if it was my name and of course, I said yes again. I was feeling really stupid by what she was doing. She said there was no record of procedure but I really don't want to go through the same fasting for 8 hours because of some error so I insisted that I already had it. Then the nurse may have heard our conversation so she went inside and I repeated myself again. Good thing, the nurse said that she will check in the laboratory and asked me to come with her. When we went there, the Filipina nurse recognized me and vouched that I already had the test. The result, that the Doctor wasn't seeing ,was already in the system so she printed the result and gave it to the nurse. There was also another test that she wants me to go through and both of them were saying that the Doctor is known for ordering tests that wasn't on the package. They advice me to  see the previous Doctor I was seeing as she will be back by end of the month. 

The nurse and I went back to see the Doctor again, the nurse, told her that she already had the result of the test. She was already attending to another patient so she wasn't paying much attention to me anymore. The nurse told her to delete the order on my result and to my dismay, she said - "If I remember". How disappointing. Maybe she wasn't aware I was there. The nurse asked if I can go already and without even seeing my result, she said yes.

The nurse told me to get another appointment already and reminded me to see the previous Doctor. Good thing, when I asked for the next appointment, the Admin said, without me saying a word, that she will schedule me back to Doctor... (sorry, I don't want to name names). And I was relieved. 

I am still hoping I made the right decision on the Hospital I chose. 

All the best,

Latifa Hospital and then some

Its been awhile since I found out that I was pregnant with Baby #2. Just like my first, I had to go through the phase of morning sickness. Its probably tolerable this time around but I am still not one of the lucky ones who enjoy pregnancy that much especially the first trimester. As far I can remember, the worst part was over for the 2, 3 and 4 month of my pregnancy, I was still throwing up yellow bile until my 5th month though and 6 month was way better. 

From my previous post, I was choosing between Mediclinic City Hospital (private) and Latifa Hospital (government), the maternity package was almost the same but I decided on the latter. I was hesitant choosing a government hospital at first, but after weighing the pros and cons, I decided to go for it.  I read from my research that their hospital is well-equipped and their NICU was so far the best.

The ante-natal package of AED 5000.00 is a prerequisite to give birth in Latifa Hospital. We went straight to the hospital to register during my early stage of pregnancy, but they will refer you to the government clinic near you to register  and pay the package. You need to be at least 4 months pregnant to be able to register.

The administration can be a little gruff and I sometimes get frustrated as there are some who is still not familiar with the coverage of the maternity package. We were asked twice, on two different occasion, to pay for some tests that is already included in the package. Appointments at the hospital were usually about an hour as well. Its a no frills experience but the OB, midwives and nurses in Mankhool Health clinic were very supportive and detailed. 

I am on my third trimester and so far everything in my pregnancy is doing fine except a small fibroid  outside my uterine wall and a 4 kilos weight gain between 5 weeks interval of appointments. I was a little worried as I never had these issues with my first pregnancy. 

I also had my glucose tolerance test recently, were I had to fast for 8 hours. They took my blood and urine sample when I arrived and asked me to drink an extremely sweet and concentrated glucose solution. I had the 75-gram or the two-hour test. They took my urine and blood every hour for 2 hours.

I will have my next appointment and see where I am at. I am hoping no more hiccup will come. 

By the way, on a lighter note, did I mention, we will be having a boy this time? Yey! My OB was like, I don't have to tell you the gender, he is already showing himself.

All the best,

The First Test

I, We, think, I'm Pregnant with baby no. 2! 

How's that for an introduction? I've been sitting for a few minutes now and still can't decide how to start this entry. Although, Far-ouT and I decided that it is still early to tell anyone (except my friend no1else) about the good news. Since I don't think anyone from my family and close friends are actually reading my blog, I decided to spill it out here first. 

I've done the first test this morning. I just want to check before I went for a training. I do dragon boat paddling, by the way.  Nevertheless, even when the pregnancy test showed 2 pink lines, I decided to go ahead with my sports. I don't want to feel that I am again limited with what I normally do. 

Taaadaaaaa!

Some says that the home pregnancy test is accurate but I'm only a week's delayed from my period, that's why we are planning to have another test the following week just so to see if it will have the same result.  Maybe I would still doubt the second one though, I guess the only thing that would really make me believe is if I will missed my period for a month and a visit to the doctor.

It was again a planned pregnancy since last year, my mini-ME will turn 6 this coming June and its time for her to have a sibling. We started trying last February 2015 and it would really make us happy if indeed Baby number 2 is on the way. My mini-ME was born in the Philippines but this time we are considering giving birth in Dubai to save ourselves of some hassle. My company is only allowing 45 days maternity benefit and as you know, I need to book my flight before reaching my 8 months of pregnancy. If would only  be longer, I would still prefer to give birth in my home country. 

Anyway, I have considered several hospital and now choosing between Latifa Hospital and City Hospital. I would still be doing a lot of homework, I am all for my safety and my baby.

That would be all for now and I think you will now hear from me henceforth.

All the best,

Manga Sushi

After seeing the deal in Groupon, I immediately send a private message to 2 of my colleagues who also love Japanese food and without further ado, we availed of the AED 99 for assorted Platter at Manga Sushi and right after getting the voucher, we set the date. 

We were all excited to dine in Manga Sushi because of the impressive food, adding to it is the unique manga-themed restaurant, fun atmosphere and the quirky costumes of servers were very kawaii. 

The use of a chopstick is not something I look forward to, as I am still not confident of using them.but is a challenged I always try to conquer. 

We had a complimentary Entrée. The veggies is a little sweet and sour to the taste and the small amount of it is just right. I don't want to get full before the main dish comes. 

The package comes with 2 soups and 2 salads


The 2 salads are Seaweed Salad

and Seaked Salmon Salad

The soups that we ordered were:

Tomato Lobster Miso

and Miso Shiru

We had 2 servings of the sushi platter: Manga Sushi Moriawase with 18 assorted, sashimi, maki, nigiri

I chose to have a Cola during binge eating to get that Big Burp!

My colleagues ordered hot tea for their meals.

We split equally the seafood platter and had 3 different la vergüenza,  so we decided to draw lots to get the best of the 3. 

I got the Alimasag. 

After the Happy Tummy Experience, we agreed to drive around town and went to Box Park, these are literally made up of an eye catching line-up of 220 shipping and industrial containers of various colors on a 120,000-meter stretch along Jumeirah on Al Wasl Road.

These containers have 44-high end F and B outlets and retails stores. Some of it were designed to change lights during the night.

It is nice a night out once in a while.

All the best,

The Do's and Don'ts of Business Writing

I finally gotten over with my love and hate relationship with Facebook and made peace with Social Media. Although, I am still against people who does unnecessary shoutout about their lives but its their pages so when I see people who's use to this kind of practice, I immediately remove these notification from my own news feed without offending them of blocking. At least they wouldn't know what hit them.

Moving forward to a more sensible matter to discuss, our office conducted a training for all of us in the office about business writing.  We had 2 batches. The first batch was arranged last 22 February. I was on the first Sunday of March. It was a good way to start the month.

To top it all, I finally made a conclusion that I didn't like the content of the topic. I mean, I was looking forward to it and then, at the end of the session, I was like, that's it? It left me more confused than ever on how you property addressed clients in a situation. 

Lets say for example, the trainer is saying that internal clients are more important than your external clients.  For me, this doesn't apply in all department in the company. In a service provider industry, especially as a Customer Service, you expect other departments to do their jobs whilst you, concentrate on providing Customer Satisfaction at all times with your external clients, because this is your job in the first place. Let the Human Resources Department handle the internal clients. Let the Management solve internal conflicts.

Nevertheless, I learned at least a few basic words not to use in a business correspondence:

• But 
• However
• Unfortunately
• I hope - is a dangerous word

In a business letter, below are the Dos:

• Use Bullet points to highlight the important matter
• Always go straight to the point
• Provide solutions

It was a very basic training of business writing. It was more of a team building as we were requested to know more about our colleagues, and even built free standing houses made of newspaper and scotch tape.

Venue of the training was in HardRock cafe in Deira. They have a conference room where we also had our Annual Party. The training was from 9:00 - 5:00 so still no distraction from loud music

They started the music around lunchtime already but we barely hear it from close door and windows.

The best part of it is, Lunch is free. I ordered this huge servings of burger and fries

By the way, we had some colleagues all the way from Doha, Qatar as attendees.

At the beginning, we were told that coffee and tea are complimentary, I was like strike while the iron is hot -  so I ordered one cup of coffee and one cup of latte and still planning for more...

But then, It was later announced that we had to pay for the drinks as it was not part of the package.  The trainer repeated this several times (nuff already). I guess he was concerned, we will all run away  and he will have to pay for it.  Eventually, towards the end of the session, the company had no choice but to cover the expenses as well (Har! Har!). We finally heard the end of it. 

Looking forward to more trainings in the future. I will end this entry with a quote: 

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin. 

All the best,

Excuse This Post: I am struggling with Facebook

I am struggling right now. With Facebook. I can't help but raise my eyebrows or roll my eyes every time I read someone else's shout out, negative shout-out for that matter. Let me make a disclaimer first.  Facebook is fun, it gets you connect with people in your life, families, friend, old colleagues, neighbor, etc. I, too, am guilty of posting hateful statements, happy thoughts, and even updating my daily activities with people who I don't know if at all care at some point. But Facebook posts also have negative effects on us. It becomes a place for saying something bad in an indirect and unpleasant way. A form of subtle manipulation, in a backstabbing manner. 

I don't mean you need only to posts the good things in life. But I see some posts of hate towards people, a husband, a boyfriend, a mistress, an enemy. What do you get from revealing your most intimate feelings to the world? Do you feel relieved after posting your family problems? Do you think people will even care if your husband is having an affair? Or that you need money? or your pet died? or that you cut yourself? Or how you criticize people because you think you are superior? How far can you go exposing your life to strangers. Why do you want people to know just how miserable your life is right now? 

Why do you even post your prayers to God for heaven sake or Thanking Him for all your Blessings in a post? This is beyond connecting to social media. 

I hope these people will realize the limitations of technology. Abusing the benefit of what we are enjoying is not good. Use it sparingly.

Now I know a lot of you will argue with me. You'll say, its my Facebook account, its none of your business what I post. I understand that we run our own lives. Its fine with me. We are all entitled to our own opinion, you have yours, I have mine. And I say, you are a sad case. So now, Ignore me. 

Carluccio's Italian Restaurant

Its never too late to post a Valentine's entry, right? And since tomorrow would be the last day of the Love month, let me share with you where Far-ouT took his Vdates:

The common beliefs is that Italians invented Pizza so the first thing that comes to mind is Italian Pizza since Italy's version of the dish, is the one we are familiar with - tomato, cheese and other toppings and seasonings. But its origin goes back to ancient times. which I prefer not to go further. 

Moving forward, We dine in at Carluccio's in Dubai Mall. 

Far-out ordered Focaccia  - Home-baked Ligurian bread made with extra virgin olive oil, with balsamic vinegar for dipping. Unfortunately, they don't serve complimentary bread so we had to order  from their Stuzzichini (small Italian plates)

My mini-ME's meal was from the Kids Meal of course, Pasta Alla Puttanesca with apple juice and garlic bread, but we requested the server to separate the pasta sauce,  I don't know where it started but just like how she refuse to use tissue, Bella doesn't like the red sauce at all.

My choice were from their set-meal for Valentines. From the Primi (first courses) Zuppe

I was on the safe side this time so I ordered something familiar to my taste. Lasagna Tradizionale - layers of egg pasta with tomato, ground beef and lamb and béchamel sauce. I made a note to myself that I am not a fan of Italian Pasta. I don't know, maybe its just me. 

Pizza is nothing impressive as well. Prosciutto - Thinly sliced long-cured Parma ham with half a ball of Buffalo mozzarella and a drizzle of olive oil

At least the desserts were fine. Nothing can go wrong with chocolates right? Dolce Di Cioccolato - A warm chocolate pudding based with almonds and kahlua and served with vanilla ice cream.

Still a lovely lunch. But we decided this would be the first and last though.

Happy Valentine's Day!

All the best,

A Farewell At The Warehouse, Le Meridien

February is almost ending, I have few entries more for the Love month. I will start of with see you someday...

As the saying goes, nothing is permanent in this world but change or better yet, let me rephrase that: Some people come into our lives and quickly go, some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts and we are never, ever, the same. 

How do handle changes? Is it difficult for you to get along with new people? I think for me, I am susceptible to separation anxiety, I don't easily open myself to anyone and so I hate when people leave, friends or colleague who became part of of your life one way or the other. But life is like that so instead of wallowing to the feeling, I let myself go to another direction. I remembered, my mom once told me, I'm emotionally unresponsive, I believe she's right somehow. Its better that way - we cannot always hold on to things or people. I don't let my guard down most of the time.

Enough of the heavy, I just actually want to share with you a farewell party we had in Warehouse, Le Meridien. Great Food, Creative Drinks and Fantastic music!

For AED 220/pax, we enjoyed array of food buffet paired with International beers or wine at the European style cafe bar and garden

Photocredits to my colleague, Sylvia (her Iphone6 is better than iPhone 5)

It was a fantastic night. I want to say THANK YOU! to the most amazing and coolest boss who taught me a lot in her 2 years of stay. I will not say goodbye, I believe that's one of the bullsh*tiest words ever invented, because maybe, someday we might bump into each other again.

All the best,