I YEARNED, I PRAYED, I WAITED.

And it was worth all the wait.

To my Mr. Awesome, thank you for the gift you gave me today - the one shown in the picture below and the gift of trust.

I couldn't imagine how hard it was for you to open up like that. I promise to take good, if not better, care of your heart for as long as I'm alive.

Pangga, my love letter for you. I wrote it on my own handwriting for a more personal touch. ^_^

People may raise their eyebrows in skepticism of what we have right now. I know. I understand. I cannot blame them. I was a non-believer once. At these times, who would believe it anyway? After all, the only concrete evidence of this happening is when you experience it yourself.

But above all this, what matters to me now is that we have each other and we chose to face the challenges ahead together. I didn't know what I was looking for until I met you. I believe that this year, my stars have fallen into place.

Ram, I'll never get tired of telling you this: Thank you very much. I love you. From here to the moon and back.

CLOUD NINE

And I fell for him like a suicide on a bridge. 

To my Mr. Awesome, being caught off-guard with your surprise today is an understatement. I didn't know that when you asked me on my favorite color that it would come in a huge flower arrangement. 

And with a tear-jerking message. I feel like I'm the luckiest girl alive. I am not sure what I did to deserve someone like you.

Ram, thank you very much. I love you. From here to the moon and back.

The Science of Gastronomy - Week 1

Okay. So I'm taking an online class at Coursera, offered by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, entitled 'The Science of Gastronomy'. We're currently on Week 1 and I decided to write a post every week to share my progress and thoughts. And this time, I solemnly and fervently promised myself that this will be one of the courses that I will finish until the end.

I've been on Coursera since last year, signed up on numerous subjects and only finished one (Computer Science 101). I know, that is not something to be proud of. Sad. Disappointing on my part. Everytime a subject begins, I kept on telling myself 'I will finish this. I will finish this', something that I am so used to saying to myself that these repetitive words seemed to have no motivating effect at all. I don't even want to offer some lame explanations, ehemm, excuses, if I may say.

But here I am, serious this time. Deadly serious. I will really.... (okay, enough of this self-talk!)

Let's get into action.

Week 1 Assignment 1: Sensory-specific Satiety

We were given 4 meals to choose from, and I chose MEAL B (9 crackers and 1 chocolate at last).

Just checking if I followed the correct Meal Plan.

My chosen meal. MEAL B: 9 crackers and one chocolate. ^_^

We were instructed to eat one piece at a time, each with a 3-minute interval and rate the pleasantness of the food, from 1-10, with 10 being the most pleasant and 1 as the least pleasant.

Here are my results:

1st  cracker : 9

2nd cracker: 9

3rd cracker:  8

4th cracker:  8

5th cracker:  7

6th cracker: 6

7th cracker: 6

8th cracker: 6

9th cracker: 5

10th cracker: 10!!!!

I am not so fond of crackers to begin with. I can only eat 1 pack, which contains 3 crackers each. Hence, the 9 rank for the first one. On the 3rd cracker, I noticed that the 'taste' is decreasing, or rather,  it's not as good as the first two crackers that I've eaten. By the 5th, I was already bored! Hahaha...

And by the 6th, 

I asked myself, 'When will this end?'

And then it occurred to me, maybe I can drink water too? Atleast to help me swallow those tiny bits of crackers that's stucked inside my mouth (and teeth). But the instructions didn't specify anything about eating other food that's not included in the plan, even if it's just water. So I trudged on until the last cracker. When the time for me to eat the chocolate came, boy, was I so glad! I gave it a whopping rating of 10, not just because it's one of my favorites, but also because its taste offered me a different and pleasant flavor, a 'refreshing' taste from the blandness of the crackers that I've been munching previously.

So there goes your sensory-specific satiety. Pretty straightforward experiment, right?

WEEK 1 ASSIGNMENT 2: TASTE MAP

This one's familiar to me and to you probably. I haven't really memorized the exact areas where we can taste sweetness, sourness, saltiness or bitterness better so it's worth exploring. And I think the results will be interesting too! Not just for me but for my online classmates also.

So I prepared 4 solutions for this one.

A - Salty solution (salt + water)
B - Sour solution (vinegar + water)
C - Sweet solution (sugar + water)
D - Bitter solution (coffee + water)

I am supposed to put cocoa powder for the bitter solution but since it's not readily available to me, I substituted it to coffee instead.

The instructions also say that you have to have a partner to drop the solution to your tongue. You're not supposed to know the solution that's being tested. But because I am working alone, I cannot help but know the solution that's being tested beforehand. Sorry prof. :( I know there shouldn't be any biases on an experiment but it's something I cannot control. Besides, I think the most important point for this experiment is to know which areas of your tongue tastes these flavors strongly. :)

Here is the summary of my results:

As you can see, bitter and sour taste buds dominate at the back of my tongue, Area A. Also, I tasted sweetness equally on both A and D. Area B is for the salty taste buds. And for Area C, no flavor can be detected strongly. 

Can I be right on this one? I am doubtful (hehehe) of my findings. But we will see. I'll find out soon enough, when my classmates' data will be collected and collated by the end of this week, together with mine.

So, see you next week. I'll let you know if my 'experiments' have some degree of accuracy. Hahaha.

Do you want to join the fun? It's not yet too late. Click on this link and sign up: https://www.coursera.org/course/scigast.

MY HEART SPEAKS

What do I know of marriage?

What do I know of commitments and vows made before God?

I cannot tell you how it is to choose someone to spend the rest of your life with. I cannot tell you how your life will change after that. I cannot share to you how it is to live with that someone, bear his offspring, make a family and build a life together. But here's one thing I am damn sure of: It is something to be TREASURED. To be HONORED. To be PROTECTED. At all cost.

I often wonder, what makes people turn the other cheek and betray his own family? How can they willingly enter into marriage and break that promise later on? What does that make? MARRY FIRST, BETRAY LATER?

To say I feel indignant is an understatement. A myriad of emotions - from anger, disappointment to sadness - is sweeping over me. (In fact, I'm trying to control the urge to swear profusely here.)

I can never understand the logic behind these actions. Sure, there are reasons, reasons only morons and cowards have the ability to come up with:

• I felt lonely (really?) and she was the one there for me. (Your spouse would have been there for you too if you just told her about it.)
• We already had problems from the beginning. (Then why did you marry in the first place?)
• We just fell out of love. (Marriage requires falling in love many times, you idiot!)
• I didn't know it was this hard. (Oh, please!)
• I love her/him. This is different. (Hmmmm, of course it is different! The difference is that you cheated your way to get to her/him!)

I think the only reason worth considering is when your spouse is either abusing you or that he/she is a psychopath (like a killer who buries his victims in the basement). Undeniably, there are really those that are amazingly good in hiding their true colors and unleashing it only when you are married already. Of course, who would stay in this kind of relationship where you are treated like less than human?

It all starts with this: TEMPTATION. We all get tempted, sure, there's no denying that. It's fine to appreciate the beauty, to see the thoughtfulness of others' actions, to recognize the good in others but to deliberately seek out their company (in private) is crossing the line. To pretend that you are a single man with no obligations is a serious irresponsibility. I don't want to sound too preachy or too self-righteous here but my point is, if you just unwaveringly take a stand and not lose sight of what's important in your life, then you will not have any problem at all. You will know how to handle these situations.

Yes, you took a risk in marrying that person (even after months or years of knowing each other). You can argue that there is always a level of uncertainty in relationships. Fact is, you can never be sure. But why, oh why, that you have look for it in another person? Why seek someone else's 'loving' embrace? If what you feel for that person is true love, 'truer' than what you have for your spouse, then show some respect and decency by giving her what she deserves. Spare her the humiliation and scandal. Do not dump on her the mess you created. Treat her like how a woman should be treated. And oh, the same goes to your spouse too.

'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.' - Corinthians 13: 4-7