God Want Me To Tell You...

What he had told me.

It shall be well with you this year.
No matter how much your enemies try,
this year they will not succeed.
You have been destined to make it and
you shall surely achieve all your goals this year.
For the remaining months of the year, all your agonies will be diverted and victory and prosperity will be incoming in abundance.
Today God has confirmed the end of your sufferings, sorrows, and pains because HE that sits on the throne has remembered you.
He has taken away the hardships and given you JOY.
He will never let you down.
I knocked at heaven' s door this morning, God asked me... My child, what
can I do for you?
And I said, Father, please protect and bless the person
reading this message... God smiled and answered... Request granted.
If you believe, just by reading and sharing and praying you have succeeded .
Be Blessed and walk in the knowledge and assurance that God is about to
turn some things around in your life.
God Bless!

A Touching Story from Someone Who is Always Busy

I got this wonderful e-mail and it's something I want to share with everyone, it's something inspiring, it picked me up when I was down. A lot of us rarely read forwarded message, but I do. I hope you read on and pick something to change your gloomy mood if you are in one like I was. It's very touching.



A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.
SON: "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

DAD: "Yeah sure, what it is?" replied the man.
SON: "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?"
DAD: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.

SON: "I just want to know.. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"
DAD: "If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour."
SON: "Oh," the little boy replied, with his head down.

SON: "Daddy, may I please borrow $10.00 ?"

The father was furious, "If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behaviour."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.
The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?
After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that
$10.00 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
"Are you asleep, son?" He asked.
"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier" said the man.
"It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $10.00 you asked for."
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. "Oh, thank you daddy!" He yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

"Why do you want more money if you already have some?" the father grumbled.
"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied.
"Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?

Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you."
The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.
It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.

Do remember to share that $20.00 worth of your time with someone you love.
If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days.
But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family.

My Happiness Haven will temporarily be inactive until the author finds jher happiness again or at least find something happy to write about. Peace everyone. Be happy!

I Eat Bone Marrow and Exotic Filipino Cuisine

Recently, I had dinner at the Spiral of Philippine Plaza Hotel as always they never fail to overwhelm me with the wide selection of International cuisine served on their buffet. Whatever your fancy, they have it. Indian, Italian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, and Western dishes, that is.
What’s mind-boggling though is that Filipino cuisine was not included on the menu! To think that the hotel is in the Philippines, it kind of disappoints me but I know that Filipino cuisine hasn’t penetrated the selection or line-up of International cuisines (yet!).

I had on my plate, for that dinner, steaks, mashed potato, kebabs, teriyaki, sashimi, mixed vegetables, and some I couldn’t name except for my culinary curiosity to taste them. The wide selection of deserts had me all gaga and didn’t bother of the calories it could add up to my weight (as if I care counting carbs!).
Despite the BIG dinner I had, I still wasn’t satisfied though. Why? I didn’t have my RICE! Don’t laugh I am dead serious.

Rice is one of the staples in Filipino smorgasbord!

Do you watch Fear Factor? I was watching a re-run about a challenge to eat gross things, included in the list was Balut (almost hatched duck egg). The white male appeared struggling and disgusted over what he was taking in his mouth, almost wanting to puke! It’s like it’s the worst he ever tasted compared to the maggots and other creepy crawlers he ate before that! Duh!

FYI for him I guess, and all non-Philippines native, balut is a favorite by a number of Filipinos specially paired with the ole reliable beer during a drinking session!. Because of this love for this peculiar chow we Filipino’s like a restaurant serving only balut cooked in different ways was established here in the Manila.

I just want to stress, different strokes for different folks. RESPECT I guess. People in the world have different ways, culture, beliefs and recipe and everyone should keep this in mind. If you don’t like what I put on my plate for all I care, just let me have my peace and satisfy myself.

I am very much annoyed when people, especially those who dine with me on the same table, but gross out over what I eat. Common courtesy and ethics! Besides, I am not feeding you this one so beat it!

I couldn’t agree more with Celine Lopez comment in her column at Philippine Star this weekend over her abhorrence over the claim made by a celebrity chef in GQ magazine claiming Crispy Pata (deep-fried pigs trotter) as his discovery and unexpected masterpiece! Mr. celebrity chef we had that over centuries in our fiesta foods!

I also remember an incident while I was devouring an order of Bulalo (beef bone-marrow soup), lechon kawali (deep-fried pork belly with the skin and fat!) when this group of foreigners looks over glancing at my dish of bones and fats as if I am a sick person, probably I looked like Hannibal Lecter for them!

Well guess what? I LOVE salty, oily, fatty, sweet delicacies and most Filipino do!
Maybe I should make as my personal advocacy to campaign for Filipino dishes to penetrate the International cuisine line-up. If the Thais were able to make it why not us?

Filipinos in general, have an adventurous palate. We love dishes and foods that we can enjoy on the dinner table with our loved-ones without worrying over the calorie counts, fats, and cholesterol and sugar.

Filipino food is flat out strange and like foreigners usually utter “you will never know what you will get! Every dish is a surprise, like Sinigang, Laing, Adobo, Pinakbet, Bagoong, Pancit, Pinapaitan and the most loathe by non-Filipino Dinuguan (coagulated pig blood!). We only eat spaghetti, which is sweetened here in the Philippines, hamburgers, and fries as our snack. But we also have our versions of snaks (merienda) like bananacue, kamotecue (caramelized deep-fried banana and sweet potato) bibingka (rice cake), puto't kutsinta, palabok, etc.!

This is just among our famous recipe, a culinary selection and medley of acquired taste made with TLC! Chow!

Best Cities in the World to Live

If you have the hand to choose a city to live where would you choose? What are the considerations for you to select a place for you and your family to settle down? Definitely I’d suppose some of the most important factor would be safety, cleanliness and easy access to place of work, study, transportation and to practice your faith.

A well renowned consulting firm in the world, Mercer Consulting, has compiled again the result of their study for the best places, particularly cities around the world, to live. They based it on detailed assessments and evaluations of 39 key quality-of-living determinants, grouped in the following categories:
• Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement, etc)
• Economic environment (currency exchange regulations, banking services, etc)
• Socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom, etc)
• Health and sanitation (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution, etc)
• Schools and education (standard and availability of international schools, etc)
• Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transport, traffic congestion, etc)
• Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure, etc)
• Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars, etc)
• Housing (housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services, etc)
• Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)

Out of the 600 cities worldwide, 3 cities from Switzerland, 4 from Germany, 3 from Canada, 2 cities from Australia and New Zealand made the top 20 roster.

Here they are according to rank: Zurich (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria), Geneva (Switzerland), Vancouver (Canada), Auckland (New Zealand), Dusseldorf (Germany), Munich (Germany), Frankfurt (Germany), Bern (Switzerland), Sydney (Australia), Copenhagen (Denmark), Wellington (New Zealand), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium), Toronto (Canada) , Berlin (Germany), Melbourne (Australia), Luxembourg (Luxembourg) , Ottawa (Canada), and Stockholm (Sweden).
Surprisingly none of the cities in US made it to the top 20 and the highest-ranking U.S. city is Honolulu, Hawaii at 28. Paris (33), London (39), and New York (49) didn’t even make the top cut.

Read more about this study here to find out where your city or country ranks. Aside from the best places they also have a list of the safest places to live.