Commuting in the Philippines

Navigating the Philippines' potholed, polluted streets can be a challenge. Learning the ropes about our public land transport system can be even more puzzingly frustrating. Speeding drivers, road rage, miscalculated change, the loss of personal space, sweat and smell and even cuckling chickens and the occasional robbery/holdup - that's part and parcel of public transport every commuting Filipino has accepted as the norm. (once in a few years there's also a bus or train blast - just like what recently happened to an airconditioned passenger bus this month). But commuting has its little joys and pleasures too (saying, squeezing tight beside a cute guy! haha) Decades of riding tricycles, jeeps, buses, and trains can reveal more about the Metro (and the rest of the country too) than riding in comfortable, sterilized private cars will do.

photo from pinoypandesal.blogspot.com

Want to know the trick to commuting in the Philippines? Read more about it here.

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Cardillo Heaven

I just managed to recreate my favorite aunt's fish cardillo recipe... and it was just heaven! Takes me back 15 years ago when I would eagerly watch and wait while Auntie Ellen cooks and serves the steaming hot dish to me and my famished cousins (well, not so famished really, more like hungry after 5 hours straight of playing outside ;p)

(photo taken right after making cardillo...yum yum yum!)

Cardillo is one of my favorite dishes because it is tasty, healthy, and very easy to prepare. Plus it has lots tomatoes and eggs in it... two of my favorite foods ever :) You can read my five-step guide to making sumptuous fish cardillo here.

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Beauty and the Breast

I'm currently doing some (geeky paper/research/statistical study) work on common societal perceptions to the female breast. In other words, how do people in different culture perceive and value the aesthetics of the female mammary glands? It seems like there is quite a disparity between female breast perceptions across the Atlantic - while going topless is quite commonplace in a lot of European countries there are still a lot of taboos associated with exposing your breast in the American public.

(Photo credit)

I've compiled some stuff that I've posted online - it's about the factors that affect breast size and shape. You can read it here. I don't want to go into value judgments on the breast yet, as it's quite complicated with so many factors to consider (culture, religious belief, exposure to mass media, etc.) :-p

Anyway, what's interesting is that apparently wearing a bra can actually weaken breast support by making the supporting ligaments atrophy. These ligaments weaken through disuse until they eventually lose function. Of course, doing strenuous exercise or sports without a bra is equally damaging (and painful - ouch!) to your breast support structure. The solution? Wear decent bra support when exercising or doing sports, or when your breasts are heavy with milk during pregnancy and childbirth - but go au naturel on your chest the rest of the time.

(Photo credit)

Wearing tight, ill-fitting bras, on the other hand, can cause serious damage to your circulation as it cuts off lymphatic channels. It can even crush your chest area abnormally, too.

To be honest, rt's actually quite liberating - physically and in a way, culturally - to go around the house not wearing a bra. For someone who grew up in a relatively conservative, Catholic country like me, it will however take some serious guts to go out of the house bra-less. *sigh*

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