THE AIRPLANE HAS UNVEILED FOR US THE TRUE FACE OF THE EARTH.- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Ruther will be leaving for Narita Airport bright and early tomorrow morning. His flight is at 930am and he has to be at the airport 3 hours before departure. It takes an hour to get to Narita (in Tokyo) from Yokohama so that means, he has to leave the house at 5am!! He'll have to be awake by 4am!! My poor sweetie... I hope he'll be able to get some rest on the plane. It'll be a 4-hour trip to Manila. He promises to call once he's landed. He knows I'll probably worry if I don't hear anything from him. Well, he's right. I'll really miss him these 4 days he won't be around. But I know he deserves this break. He works really hard for us and has been away from home for almost 2 years. So, I hope when he comes back he'll be refreshed and feeling like a new man. =D

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The packing is almost completely done. Ruther will be bringing home some of the boys' clothes (the summer clothes) and some of the stuffed toys we've accumulated over our stay here. He's only allowed 20 kilos so he didn't want to bring stuff that were too heavy. In the luggage are also the chocolates and some souvenirs he bought for his family back home. He'll be bringing a small stroller to hand carry. He was asking me this morning if I had a small bag where he could put his cellphone, iPod, Nintendo DS and the camera. I didn't. I told him I'll just check Daiso today and see if I they had small messenger bags.

I was thinking last night, in a month, we will be doing the same thing: packing for home. Only this time, it will be the boys and I who will be leaving Ruther. I just don't know how I'll be feeling then. I suppose it would be close to feeling depressed. Sigh...

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I made Binagoongan for Ruther's baon today. He loves meat and chicken dishes so it's pretty difficult to come up with something he'll like to eat (although I DO ask him to eat healthy once in a while). I don't mind preparing this though. It's quite easy to make and well, the ingredients are available here (of course, we had to buy the bagoong at the Filipino store). =D I'm sharing the recipe with other Binagoongan lovers out there:


PORK BINAGOONGAN (good for 2 people)

1/4 kilo pork, cubed (you could pre-boil so it's tender already)
1/4 C bagoong alamang (or less if you prefer it to be less salty)
1 small onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 ripe tomato, chopped
2-3 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp sugar (or adjust to taste)
oil for frying


In a pan or skillet, fry pork for a few minutes over medium heat. Add the garlic, onions and tomatoes. Saute for 5 minutes. Add the bagoong, vinegar and sugar. Mix well and allow to simmer. Lower the heat. Check from time to time and if the mixture gets too thick, you can add a tsp of water at a time.