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We were secretly waiting for Kulinarya to re-open and when it did, we were there. I love the cozy new interiors, the contrast and the wall graphics were actually spoons and forks, love it. Now, we were ready to have a taste of Kulinarya.

This is really how it usually goes when we're waiting for our food. Less talk to endure the wait. But after a few spoonful of carbohydrates, that's when the conversation starts.

For the record, I don't want to give too much credit on how strange my daughter's brain works -- in a good way though. Here's the thing, I've never known anyone YET who could outwit her. And I'm not talking rocket science, just general knowledge for a 9 year old and plain old wit. In that category, Kiara would be up in the running for a smart ass girl.

When she would get all intimidated with someone -- especially someone older, even at the point when she would want to disagree she would deal with it like a lady should -- smile. But at the back of her mind there's one big heated debate going on.

Jason: Where did you get your brain fixed?

Kiara: My grandfather's a neurosurgeon, but thankfully my brain doesn't need any fixing. Why does your brain need any fixing?

Jason: See! That's what I'm talking about! You should train me to be all alert in any given situation.

Kiara: Why so?

Jason: When I'm in an argument, my brain just stops working and I go all quiet. And when it's done I go: "Damn, I should have said this..."

Kiara: *face is all lit up* Me? Trainer? OK, here's the thing, when it comes to facts and general information, you should act like a sponge. Absorb it for future purposes. But when it comes to an argument, you should be like a Ping-Pong player, throw it back and hope that the opponent can't catch up.

Jason: Unbelievable! Spoken like a 90 year old, not a 9 year old!

Janiz: What? Don't look at me.

Jason: This was all because of you! You made her like this! Is this your science project? An experiment maybe??

Janiz: Is that a bad thing now? I just exposed her to whatever I have and everything is all up to her.

Jason: Aristotle? Plato? Is that you?

Janiz: I like that, but no, we're not.

Kulinarya

Concourse Level, Rockwell Powerplant, Makati

I've been tweeting about it; how much I'm not into the whole Christmas thing this year. I just wish it could go away or that I can press skip in a remote and proceed to the next episode. I wanted so badly for that. Or I could sleep in through the whole holiday season and wake up when all the spirit of Christmas is gone. I wanted to extradite myself somewhere so I won't screw up someone else's Christmas. I'm not always like this, I used to get excited about Christmas. I guess not this year. But for the sake of my daughter, I'll try to pull this one off. Although just the thought of it makes me want to puke.

Kiara:I love Christmas mom. Everybody seems to be nice, the lights are "ahmazing", the city's all lit up.

Janiz: Yeah yeah. They're consuming too much electricity.

Kiara: *dagger stare* Mom! That's not the point.

Janiz: I know, sorry baby. I don't want to ruin your Christmas.

Kiara: So we'll do "Simbang Gabi" again this year?

Janiz: Yeah, that's the only thing I wanted to do this Christmas.

Kiara: Oh mom, why so down?

Janiz: I don't know. Christmas is not my thing this year.

Kiara:It's ok, at least you're still looking forward to the dawn masses. I guess that's what's important you know, not the gifts, not the lights.

Janiz: Did I tell you how brainiac and brilliant you are?

Kiara: Yeah, more than a million times.

I rarely eat in Italian restaurants when I'm with Kiara since her appetite runs low when we talk about pizza and pasta. But tonight will be an exception since we think we've tried out all possible restaurants in the area.

One good thing about just having Kiara for the night is that we get to talk about a lot of things. She just wont stop blabbering about school and her friends. She was telling me about the news reporting they're doing.

Kiara: I'm so excited about it mom! It was supposedly a usual news reporting, like the group would be standing in front of the whole class and deliver news. But of course our group had an executive producer so we did spice it up a little.

Janiz: Executive producer?? Who?? What do you mean?? I'm a little confused here. Isn't this just another school thing?

Kiara: Yeah it is.

Janiz: So who's this executive producer? And what's it for?

Kiara: (Straightens her back) You're now looking at THE executive producer. *cough*

Janiz: LOL So out of the many roles you take, you weren't contented and wanted to add another title huh?

Kiara: (Smiling and nodding at the same time.) Yup. I wanted our group to be a cut above the rest. Every group did the same thing over and over. So I came up with the idea of doing a reproduction of exactly what you see in the news.

Janiz: So, executive producer huh? You came up with that?

Kiara: It's appropriate for the role I take right?

Janiz: Yeah, and it's brilliant. *mwah*

Everyday is just a new experience with Kiara. Life they say is a road you take, but motherhood is like a side street I took that I wanted to be in for the rest of my journey.

After dinner we were glad that my brother joined us. He was not his usual self since his iPhone was stolen when he took the MRT with his friends. *sigh*

Cibo

Ground Floor, Powerplant Mall, Rockwell, Makati

My brother plans to pull an all-nighter. So it's coffee to go. But when I was trying to convince him to buy at the grocery instead. My daughter gave me that look and said,

Kiara: I wanna do the vendo thing.

Janiz: It's the same thing Kiar.

Kiara: No it's not. The coffee may be the same, but the experience is different.

Janiz: LOL except that you won't be having coffee young lady.

Kiara: I'll keep that in mind. I'll have hot choco instead.

I don't know what happiness this machine does to my kid. But it does make her ecstatic at some point, then when she got her hot choco, it seemed like the best hot choco she ever had. Talk about experience huh?

You know when they say, you can find something amazing in unexpected places? Happened to us. Nothing miraculous or life changing, but a simple satisfaction to our palettes. Going to Greece is on the top of my list, and I love Greek food, but you seldom get to have them around. So you can just imagine how we were when we found this place. So? Let's Go Greek!

We all ordered the same thing because no one would give in and back down. We didn't regret doing so coz the flavors just brought us to a different place. Greece, without the hefty price tag.

Kiara: If you were to travel, what places would you choose?

Janiz: I'm a believer in local tourism. I believe that Filipinos have under appreciated the beauty of the Philippines. We have so much to offer, yet we all still remain to be tourists in our own place.

Kiara: Yes, I do know that and I totally agree with you. But besides the Philippines, where would you choose?

Janiz: It totally depends Kiar. I have different categories.

Kiara: What category exactly?

Janiz: Like you know how much I love art. For the meantime, I've buried it deep within me. But someday somehow, I'll have my own pilgrimage to these birthplace of civilization and art.

Kiara: What are these particular places?

Janiz: I will say this in order. China, Egypt, Greece, Rome.

Kiara: I love Greece! I love their myths. I've been reading a lot about them.

Janiz: How'd you find them?

Kiara: Interesting at most. I would like to believe that those were true.

Janiz: *grin* Believe whatever you want to believe, just be mindful of reality. I don't want others to think that I have a whacked up child who lives in the world of the unreal. Ok?

Kiara: Maybe you do have a whacked up daughter. LOL

Go Greek

Food Choices, 3/F Glorietta, Ayala Center, Makati

This clearly shows how backlogged I am. I just realized that this was taken during Halloween. Explains the spider on top of the doughnut. We are so "matakaw"! That cold dessert was never enough for us so we hit old timer Dunkin' Donuts.

It was actually my brother who was the master of this craving. And there another sugar infested treat for all of us.

And we still had room for doughnuts to go.

Let's give those belly it's much needed rest.

After that heavy weight meal, our tongues were just screaming for dessert. When we saw most of the little kids bringing these little cups, I swear I felt like I drooled -- just a little. Then I turned to my daughter,

Janiz: Lulubelle?

Kiara: I was supposed to say the same thing!

Janiz: What can I say, great minds think alike.

Kiara: Well on my part, there wasn't so much thinking going on. It was merely sugar rush.

Janiz: Hush up Kiar, don't give me that hypothetical non-sense.

Kiara: Alright. Now hush me up with one cup of Lulubelle please.

Janiz: No problem brainiac!

Like I've posted here before, of all the ice cream flavors, Vanilla is just a cut above the rest -- well, that's what my daughter thinks. She loves other flavors like strawberry, chocolate, bubble gum, cookies and cream, etc. But Vanilla is just on the top of her list. And here I am again with the Facebook survey my daughter posted on my wall.

Q: "If Janiz Jardiolin-Lo was an ice cream flavor, what would she be?"

A: ''Vanilla. . . ''

Awww. She's just the sweetest. She melted my heart, yet again. Like a cup of Vanilla ice cream in freezing temparature.

Kids are the greatest, they're the sweetest thing on the planet. Not even the sweetest dessert can equal or top that.

Saturdays are not always fun, it can be a complete trip to boredom. So that's when good food and big meal comes in. We're that type that eats when we're happy and eats even more when we're down. We were in a battle of where to eat because almost every restaurant is packed. We all agreed to have Sumo Sam, and promised to be a little more patient for any probable wait. So there, we ended up having dinner really late.

I can't tell you just how many times these iPhone app has saved me. We were not in speaking terms at that time, not that we had a fight or something, but we were all too hungry to even talk.

And my daughter of course was too absorbed that she couldn't care less how she'd look in the actual pictures.

I just want to share this, it's a little off topic but I am currently teary-eyed with what my daughter has posted in my Facebook. You know the whole survey thingy? She did a couple but one particularly drew my attention and the question was:

Q: "If you had never met Janiz Jardiolin-Lo, how would your life be different?"

A: I wouldn't be here right now, 'cause she's my mom.

I was chocking up in tears. Trying to make sure nobody would see me cry, so I waited for today to just let it all out. For those who doesn't still know, I had my daughter at nineteen. And I was then having a rough time. People just won't let you get away with it that easy. I got numerous whispers judging my character and it would be a lie if I tell you now that I was cool with it then. Honestly, it brought me down. That was probably the time I hit rock bottom. Although not everyone says it in my face, but I know they wanted to tell me that it's a HUGE mistake. Taken out from morality context, it is. But I wanted to tell my daughter although it may be a "mom-dialogue cliche" but I want to say it nontheless,

"You're the greatest thing that happened to my life and if I had the chance to go back, I would definitely make the same mistake just to have you."

That's one sumo meal we had there, now time for dessert?

Every time the commercial would come up, Kiara would tell me that we should watch it. So we were there on the premier weekend. I didn't have so much of an expectation from the docu-film but I teared up quiet a few times. And when it ended the theater was filled with applause.

I was filled with so much awe and appreciation to this man. I was not a big MJ fan, but I LOVE his music non the less. And when heading out, I did a lot of mental note about the film.

1. It is indeed a great loss. This man, OWNED his title as King and I would say that he nailed it. Amen?

2. I practically lived through my existence with MJ's reign as King. He's been thrown one too many destructive titles, and so many people has been calling him gay. But this movie proved them otherwise, he's a MAN. He's soft spoken and probably looks like a woman, but he's so not gay.

3. I was amazed at his attention to musical detail. He not only knows his songs, he expects perfection from everyone he's working with. Two words: Musical genius.

4. You know when artists become diva off-screen? He was never that, instead he has a way of giving out creative non-outbursts, "This is why we rehearse."

5. He's a man with a big heart, and even on stage, he shares it with his co-performers, "It's your time to shine."

6. Before everyone else was giving out efforts to save the planet, he was already singing "Heal the world", and before everyone came out with looking into ones self, he was singing "Man in the mirror".

"Love our planet. We only have four years to fix everything or else it's irreversible."

We were so MJ inspired that we gave out our best MJ pose.

After that MJ high, we did a few rounds in Timezone before calling it a night.

 I was singing myself "Human Nature" to lull me to sleep.