It’s been raining again these past few days in my side of the world. I like it actually because it’s cold at night and I don’t have to turn on the air conditioner anymore. What I don’t like is our house is now showing signs of aging… rain water is dripping from the ceiling. But it’s really no biggie my dad is already fixing it. Our house is going to be 14 years old on December. It’s already old but it’s still beautiful to me. My parents tried their best to invest their money in our house so they don’t have to get a mortgage life insurance anymore. My dad is very keen in taking care of our house. He loves decorating it with Italian goodies, he already repainted most of the walls inside, and he even keeps a garden that looks like a small secret garden. It’s really beautiful. And I actually love our village. Public vehicles are not allowed inside so the village is quite and peaceful and it’s safe for the kids to play on the streets. Below are a couple of photos of my dad’s garden.

The first photo is a gate leading to his mini workshop and it is on the right side of the second photo. The second photo is the view from the main door of our house. I’d sometimes like to just sit there, read a book and drink some coffee.

I’m almost always in front of my computer and when surf the net I often bump into blogs featuring cool websites that they bump across every Wednesdays. I think it’s a cool idea and since I’m always on the lookout for something interesting to write about in this blog I’d also be doing Website Wednesdays. I’d be writing about websites that I’ve surfed, how I came across that site, and what I like about it.

For my first Website Wednesday, I’d be featuring Billboard Music Chart. I’m sure you’re all familiar with it. The reason why I came across the site is because I’m currently organizing my MP3s and I wanted to include the title of the albums my MP3s came from and what year it was originally released. I thought doing this would be boring but no… I actually learned a lot from it. As I searched for a particular song, I also read about interesting facts about the artists that I’ve never known before. And browsing through the site reminds me of other songs that I’ve already forgotten about. It’s really interesting and very helpful with my organizing. So for all music lovers out there like me, visit Billboard Music Chart and don’t forget to bookmark it!

My dad and I went to Tayuman the other day to get a set of Cerwin Vega speakers from his kumpadre. He’s slowly upgrading our home entertainment and he gave our old set of speakers to my uncle. I actually like the new one because the bass is not too loud and everything is balanced. But what I really like to have a home theater. Yeah that’s what I’m going to build when I get rich… a home theater complete with lazy boys, projector, red velvet curtain, home theater popcorn machines and soda vending machine. I’m sure my dad will love it and he’ll be pretty excited setting it up. I would also put up a microphone on the stage, the big old fashioned ones, because my love just loves to sing and so that we can have fun when we have visitors. I hope I’ll be able to do all of this for him soon.

Let’s talk about one of my favorite drinks, shall we? Baileys Irish Cream, which was first introduced in 1974, is an Irish whiskey and cream based liqueur, made by R. A. Bailey & Co. of Dublin, Ireland. Baileys is made of whiskey, cream, chocolate, vanilla, caramel and sugar. Yummy!

Here are a few ways to enjoy Baileys:

BAILEYS OVER ICE
Recipe (quantities are for one serving)
Step 1: Drop three large ice cubes into a tumbler
Step 2: Pour over 50ml of Baileys
Step 3: Serve with friends

BAILEYS SHAKEN WITH ICE
Recipe (quantities are for one serving)
Step 1: Fill a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice
Step 2: Pour in 50ml of Baileys per person
Step 3: Shake vigorously
Step 4: Strain into your Martini glasses
Step 5: Garnish with a dusting of chocolate or cocoa powder

BAILEYS LATTE
Recipe (quantities are for one serving)
Step 1: Take your coffee mug or coffee glass
Step 2: Pour in 20ml of espresso coffee
Step 3: Add 50ml of Baileys
Step 4: Fill with steamed milk
Step 5: Decorate the top with froth
Step 6: Sprinkle over the chocolate shavings

BLENDED BAILEYS
Recipe (quantities are for one serving)
Step 1: Drop 2 large ice cubes into your blender (that’s 2 per person)
Step 2: Add 50ml of Baileys per person
Step 3: Blend until completely smooth
Step 4: Pour into your tall glasses

BAILEYS CHOCOLATINI
Step 1: Drop several ice cubes into a shaker.
Step 2: Pour over 50ml of Baileys, 10ml of Smirnoff No.21® Vodka and 15ml of Chocolate Liqueur.
Step 3: Shake together.
Step 3: Strain drink into a chilled Martini glass.

BAILEYS CRUSH
Recipe (quantities are for one serving)
Step 1: Wrap some ice cubes in a clean tea-towel
Step 2: Ensure the ice is securely wrapped and hold the bundle over a stable surface
Step 3: Crush the ice cubes by striking the bundle with a rolling pin or heavy utensil
Step 4: Pour the crushed ice into a large glass
Step 5: Pour over 50ml of Baileys

BAILEYS IRISH MARTINI
Step 1: Drop some ice cubes into a shaker
Step 2: Pour over 50ml of Baileys
Step 3: Add 20ml of Bushmills Original Irish Whiskey
Step 4: Add 10ml of strong cold coffee
Step 5: Shake vigorously
Step 6: Serve in a Martini glass

BAILEYS COFFEE
Step 1: Prepare some fresh coffee in a coffee mug
Step 2: Top up with steaming hot milk
Step 3: Pour in 50ml of Baileys

* Cocktail recipes were taken from Baileys.com

If you’re a little short on cash and still want to enjoy almost the same great taste of Baileys, you can try the tambay mixed up version called Ginacolait. Simply mix up gin, Magnolia Chocolait (chocolate milk drink), condensed milk and voila… your own inexpensive version of Baileys. Enjoy!

My youngest nephew loves playing with cars. Just give him a toy car and he’d be preoccupied with it for hours. Actually, he loves anything that has a car in it, even if it’s just a photo or a brochure, as long as there’s a car in it he’ll take a look it. For Christmas, I’m planning to give him a model rocket or model airplane to see if he’ll like it also and so that he’ll have more varieties in his toy collection. Of course his favorite animated movie is Cars. He has two DVD copies of cars, the first one is already scratched up a little so we bought another one just in case it won’t play anymore.