Pristine ears are not pierced. Turning 5 years old this December, she is the only girl in my home town who has no earrings. My mother kept on asking what keeps me from beautifying my daughter by piercing her ears and buying a cute stud to decorate it. After all, in the Philippines, it is a norm for little girls to be pierced at a very young age. I had my ear pierced when I was barely two months old. God, I bet I really screamed much that time!

Living in Japan, I was surprised to see school girls with  not pierced ears. My mother in-law and her mom don’t wear earrings too. I asked M why and he said it is not in their culture to mutilate body parts. What a word. So we went on with our lives with the ear piercing issue out. Pristine never questioned me about it because all her classmates don’t wear earrings(in her school in Japan). Everything was peaceful until…

We travelled to the Philippines for vacation and she noticed that everyone her age has a bling in their ears. She started to ask me why she has none and that she wants too. Here in Dubai, school children from different nationalities (except Japanese) all have their ears pierced. The “why I have none, mom?” inquisition accelerated on a daily basis.

I bought earrings at Claire’s in Japan during our vacation there. The ones you can clip on your ears! They had sizes for children so I bought two. She was delighted! She and a newly found bestfriend, Melody wore it for more than an hour and gamely posed for pictures:

Melody’s dad is British and believes that having her ears pierced should be a decision Melody should make for herself (pretty much the statement M said about Pristine too). But look at them, they both looked so cute with the little shiny blings on their ears!

But after a while, they both came to me and asked the clip earrings to be removed. When I took it off, it left a mark on their ears, a clear mark that looks really painful! The clip part was heavily etched on their ear lobes - but they didn’t complain. See they were even smiling in the photo!

On our way back to Dubai, Pristine was starting to get bored with the long flight. We flew from Narita (Tokyo) to Hong Kong for 4 hours then waited for almost 2 hours at the airport then the 9 hour flight to Dubai. She is a great traveller. I never had any trouble travelling long distance with her. So amazing since she is just 4 and I expected tantrums and lots of spilled food or worse, toilet mishaps. Nothing, we had no such episode of things like that. Such a darling.

Anyway, back to the getting bored stuff. She was asking me a lot of times if we are about to land or not and I kept saying no, not yet, sweetie. Then she would open the cabin window cover to look out. Night has fallen.

the always happy girl is a little bit bored

Pristine: Look mom, it’s night already!

Me: Yeah, that means we’re almost there! (we were scheduled to land at 8:30 pm and I told her we’ll land at night since she has no inkling of time yet, only day and night)

Pristine: There’s a star, there’s a star!

Me: (looking at the starless sky) Where? Where?

We were seated in the wing section of the plane and able to see the whole plane right wing right outside our window.

Pristine: There, mom! (Pointing to the tip of the plane wing - a light is blinking) The star is following us!!

After a looong absence, I’m going to participate in Aloha Friday once again. I was on a long vacation and the time difference is keeping me awake at 1 am and so I blogged and got hungry! This is the reason why staying up late is not good - you get the temptation to eat! Anyway, my question this week is:

What do you do/eat when you get hunger pangs in the middle of the night?

It’s so rare to find me awake beyond 11 pm so I haven’t really had trouble what to do or eat in the middle of the night. But since I got back from vacation, I had been sleepy (and in bed) at 9pm and awake just before midnight so I stacked up on fruit yoghurt in the fridge.

Aloha Friday is a weekly posting all in the spirit of fun and relaxation. No heavy, brain-stormed posts, just ask a simple question for readers to answer in the comments. Visit the Aloha Friday HQ @ An Island Life.

Our vacation is over and we’re back! Now we’re ready to tackle the laundry, sort out the souvenirs, hide away the travel bags, think about going back to work and school. Pristine and I had been away for over a month, spending time in Japan and in the Philippines.

We had fun but we also had rough patches in our vacation. She got sick while we were in the Philippines (2 days before my brother’s wedding) and had to be rushed to the emergency at 3 am. I was so afraid because we don’t have a car and it was so difficult to find a taxi or any means of transportation at the dead of the night. Since gasoline prices have risen, taxis have stopped operating after 12 midnight in my home town.

She was ok after a few days and regular round the clock nebulizing so she was able to make it to my brother’s wedding and shone as a flower girl. She loved her dress and heely shoes. Who knew stores are now selling girl’s shoes with a little bit of heels! Although absent at the rehearsals, she made it to the church altar without tripping or falling out of the entourage line.I am proud of my girl.

She’s pouty and not smiling at this photo - a rare thing since she always have a smile-ready face every time. But she missed to nap that afternoon and the heavy head dress was slipping in her head, the hot afternoon weather starting to activate the itchy prickly heat in her back and most importantly, the long wait for the program to start started to make the toddler patience bucket full.

A couple of days ago, Pristine complained of pain in her molars. WTH!? We have been brushing her teeth and practicing oral hygiene since the first tooth came out. What went wrong? Her father has not experienced toothache ever so naturally he was shocked.

I checked the tooth today and found a small dark colored patch, located in between her two molars. It looks like it’s really tooth decay in action! I just hope the pain will not bother her until we go back to Japan then we’ll go to the dentist as soon as we can.

Pristine and I are in my parent’s house in the Philippines and enjoying ourselves, doing uhmm, nothing. Right, nothing. I am basically a homebody and every time I’m back for vacation (which happens at least once a year on the average) all I do is rest, meet a few friends but mostly, just rest at home. It’s my sacred time spent on sleeping, chatting with my family and staring blank at walls in between.

Most of my friends are either working and living outside of the country or out of reach (I don’t know how to contact them). All of my close friends, except one are not in town so I don’t really go out that much. Besides, I see an awful pattern whenever I see people I know: they always comment on how “big” I have become, which is very annoying. I know I had been really thin before I left my town 12 years ago and have gained a lot of weight during those years but do they really have to shove it in my face every single time?

I have been going to the gym for the past months and had some progress but it was just wasn’t enough! I guess I live in a town with ultra skinny people. Honestly, one of the reasons I don’t go out and meet the not-so-close friends is that it’s so tiring to go out and meet them and just take home a really bad comment. I am so affected by it, I know, my bad but still.

My question for anyone reading: Do you go out and meet your friends whenever you visit your old home town? (granted you’ve been living away from it)

On our long haul flight from Dubai to Hong Kong on our trip to Japan, Pristine wanted to open the cabin window cover.

P: Mom, can we see what’s outside?

Me: No, not now, we can’t see anything right now.

(Ignoring me and still trying to open the cover. The sun is just starting to rise in East Asia.)

Me: No, don’t! You’re not listening to mama, are you deaf? I said, we can’t see anything right now.

(This might sound harsh but I really told her in a very gentle way…)

P: We can’t see anything? Are we blind?

We are finally leaving for our summer vacation tonight. The day I had been dreaming about for the past 12 months is finally here. Everything is packed - I am packing light, so light it seems that I’ll just go over the back fence to grandma’s house! Since M won’t be travelling with us. I only have my own arms and shoulders to carry one backpack, one handbag and push a stroller.

I am excited with this trip. Pristine had been counting down to this day too. We would always talk about how many nights left before we go “fly” in the sky. We’re going back to Japan after 21 months (the first since our relocation to Dubai) and I am excited to reacquaint her with the sights and the language!

When I blog again, I’ll be in Tokyo. Have a great week, whoever is reading this!

Aah, Saturday morning, past 8 am and I am still in my sleep wear? When was the last time I was like this? Maybe not in years!

My leave officially started today and for the next 45 days, I will wake up without thinking about work six days a week. Woo hoo! Normally I work from Saturday - Thursday, yes, including your normal weekends so it’s such a welcome break for me to stay in bed longer and spend the day the way I like it.

This is the time of the year when temperatures soar up to 123F here in Dubai. I workout in the gym but what’s the temperature got to do with it, since I’m working out indoors? Nothing, so I thought too. But after doing my gym time, I take a shower and that’s when the hellish experience begin.

The water coming out of the shower could cook an egg. I swear! Water tanks are located on top of buildings and when it’s too hot during the day, the water coming out when I turn on the cold valve is so hot I feel it can scald my scalp. One hour of sweating then I take the shower only to sweat more! It was enough to scare me from going to the gym. I have skipped going there since last week. I feel dizzy with the hot water.