St. Joseph Church (Zamboanga City)

10th church stop. Before we head to the west side of the city, we decided to pass by the churches at downtown. So we included St.Joseph... though I don't feel any attachment with the church (as much as i have with Fort Pilar and EAAB chapel), this is where me and my siblings were baptized.... i can also remember Christ the King celebrations where my mom drag us here to join the procession and mass after... i can vividly remember the chaotic getting of the snacks haha...that really stuck with me... that's why years later, when i go to St.Joseph church not during the Christ the King day, i find myself amused at how peaceful and serene the church compared to my association of it with the chaos i get to experience during childhood...

more St. Joseph church photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

lemon garlic pasta

this is my latest pasta craze... :-) i'm the kind who kept on cooking the same pasta recipe discovered over and over until i grow tired of it... hehe 

i can't remember where exactly I got the idea for a lemon-garlic pasta... but I think i've tried it or seen it in menus of one of pasta restos in Manila before... and since my discovery of lemons being sold at La Tienda here in Zamboanga, this pasta with lemon garlic sauce had become my usual...

for this batch i've used our newly harvested prawns sauteed with fresh basil leaves as my topping... although the pasta and the sauce is already good as it is... i guess, it's that Filipino thing that always make me look for something to top my pasta.

more photos and lemon-garlic pasta recipe after the jump. :-) Please click "Read more"

Fort Pilar (Our Lady of the Pilar Shrine, Zamboanga City)

9th church stop. (i'm still struggling to complete my Visita Iglesia series despite Holy Week's 1week ago already hehe). Fort Pilar is my go-to church here in Zamboanga (UP Chapel's the one for me in Manila)... here's where i pray for my heart's wishes and say my super duper thank you's to Him. :-) basta it's my serenity place... 

this is the only outdoor Catholic church in Zamboanga. These concrete pews and those plants underneath it, it's been there for as long as I can remember... I remember back when we were kids, me and my sister would play on the leaves while the mass is on-going (typical kids hehehe)... we play-pretend it can tell us how much blood we have (???) haha! we would press one leaf on our arm then check on how much portion of the leaf darkened... less darkening means you're anemic and an almost darkened leaf means you're highblood! hahaha my gash! where did that come from?!?!?! hahaha

some more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

happy big birthday kuyapots!!!

to the kuya who 

• made me and the other kids in the neighborhood climb our guava tree and play Star Trek, play-pretend that the guave tree's our version of the Enterprise hehe...
• made me play baril-barilan and even made us one wooden gun each(with bottle caps as bullets) and made the whole neighborhood our battlefield
• made me eat leaves of "batuan"... well he and my other crazy cousin
• helped me catch HUGE grasshoppers in the grassy portion of Zambo's runway (the bugs are for my science project hehe)
• made me join him fly kites in Zambo's runway (yep, that was part of our playground before... hehe well, at least we declared so), and made me run when there was an AirForce car going towards us kasi nga bawal ang kites sa runway! haha
• made me pick up used bullets in EAAB's firing range after school
• made me join him pass by EAAB's motorpool after school and play there (outdoor stuff and Nintendo... because we don't have one at home nyaha!)
• made my school artworks... because i suck big time in doing anything artsy before and he was like our (me and my sister's) art god! hehe
• taught me how to ride the bike
• was more excited about me going to highschool.... he taught me algebra summer before my first year... which made me feel like algebra's just a piece of cake nyaha!
• spoiled me with bookstuff when he was in the academy
• locked us up (kuyapangets, baduday and me) in one room for chika galore after not seeing each other for months (kuya in the academy, me in manila, baduday in zambo)
• freaked me out when he said they'll be staging a coup... 
• freaked me out some more when he was texting me while they were in Oakwood, giving me instructions what to do should worst things happen... all that while im taking my pre-board exam! nyaha!
• made me look forward to cooking weekends inside his jail hehe...
• made me experience Cavite!
• despite all the things he had gone through remained that sweet kuyapangets namin... 

all these and more kalokohan before... suuuper thank you!!! happiest birthday kuyapots!!! you made our childhood more fun with all your crazy stuff! i'm glad you're not the strict kuya, but one who just let us be while giving those pangaral side comments subtly... you made us grow on our own while keeping watch... and it's making me smile seeing the way you handled us is the same way you're handling chuchay now... she'll grow up fine for sure... 

we're (me, mamang and baduday... and now alyn and chuchay) the luckiest girls in the whole wide world because we have you! :D 

yihee! ipagpatuloy ang kasentihan! haha! 

lotsa love kuyapots! happy birthday!!! mwah!!

 - 

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Concepcion (Zamboanga City)

8th church stop. since moving from the west to east coast of the city we will somehow pass by the Cathedral (well at least based on our route) so despite our goal to visit new churches we included it in our visits. 

The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Concepcion in Zamboanga is one of the most photographed churches in the city, well for obvious reasons... so i will just be sharing photos from a regular church-goer's point of view (except for the photos from the supposed choirs' area on top of the spiral staircase hehe)

view from one of the center pews where we would usually sit when we attend mass here.

how the altar looked like from the top of the spiral staircase (in the area where i'm assuming was intended for choirs)... I'm actually intimidated by the grandness of the Cathedral now, honestly i like the feel of the old Cathedral more. The Cathedral now just makes me feel the power of the church (oh this religion thing is another issue for me which i don't intend to include in this post). But despite being eaten up by the grandness of it now, I still love the high ceiling and the huge arcs on it... 

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

happy 0.5yo birthday my siopao!

we went back to the beach!!! supposedly for Easter but we know how the beach around here is during that day so we decided to go back on the last holiday before workweek starts... and right on it's our little siopao's 6th month!!!

it was just a little family gathering... my parents and my inlaws... plus hubby's cousin that i was able to bond during her review here in Zambo... we went back to La Vista del Mar, we were there around 8am beating everyone else so we can enjoy the resort's crowdless atmosphere.

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more"

San Antonio Maria Claret Parish (Canelar, Zamboanga City)

7th church stop. This is also my first time to see Claret church... :-) I remember taking entrance exam for Claret high school some yeaaars ago hehehe but i don't remember seeing the church hehe.

more photos after the jump. Please click "Read more".

Our Lady of La Naval Chapel (Phil Navy, Zamboanga City)

6th church stop. Another church from my past! My papang used to work in the Philippine Navy's base here in Zamboanga. And this is the chapel inside the base. We would spend Saturdays of our summers in this base playing at the beach and we were even taught how to swim by their frogmen... :-) 

I will always associate this chapel with Easter!!! because there were several Easter sunday spent here... I can still remember how excited I am for the easter egg hunt right after the mass! I always end up with just white eggs (not good enough for any price hehe). But I can vividly remember this particular boy in his pambahay shorts and slippers who would come to the chapel only in time for the egg hunt... and he gets the most number of eggs because he would even dig up the turtle's egg in one of the mini pools inside the base! oh how i hate him back then... i wonder where that kid is now....

I think they have made renovations in the chapel already... because i'm trying to recall how it looked like before because this one seem to look new... 

the charm of this place is that cute little chapel feel and the sea breeze!!! it's just a few steps from the base's beach! 

We stayed here longer than we did in other churches during this visita iglesia... it's chillax with the sea breeze! oh how it brings a million childhood memories just being in that place. :-) soooo many beautiful happy memories. :-) 

I forgot to mention in my San Roque church post that at the time we were doing our visita iglesia we noticed that there was no other doing it, most people seem busy with the preps for the afternoon church activity. However, we bumped into a family who's doing the same visita iglesia as us... we met them at San Roque church... and later we both shared smiles when we saw each other again here at the Naval Base chapel. :-) I guess, Visita Iglesia is still not a popular practice here in Zamboanga.

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Our Lady of La Naval Chapel

Naval Station, Zamboanga City

Visita Iglesia Zamboanga

April 21, 2011

Wesmincom Chapel (Zamboanga City)

5th church stop. from San Roque we were thinking where to go next... i suggested we try going inside Wesmincom (formerly known as Southcom), because we can visit 2 chapels there... good thing we were allowed to get inside, they're usually strict specially if they are on red alert. we first visited Southcom chapel because it is the nearest from the base's main entrance.

i don't have memories of this chapel because i never get to attend mass here except for my twin nephews' christening... but this chapel is special to my parents because they got married here. :-) it looks big in their wedding photos but the chapel is just small when you get there. :-) but i love the chill feel of the chapel. probably because of the huge tree beside it.

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Wesmincom/Southcom Chapel
Wemincom, Upper Calarian, Zamboanga City
Visita Iglesia Zamboanga 
April 21, 2011

San Roque Parish Church (Zamboanga City)

4th church stop. This is also my first time to see San Roque's church... i love how each church we went to has its own character... this one feels the most friendly for me... i don't know why, but that's how i feel when we got there. 

It looks big from the outside, and a lot bigger once you enter... It also has a big courtyard... very spacious inside and out. :-)

church's facade...

this is the site that will welcome you once you step at the entrance...

more photos after the jump....Please click "Read more"