Hopia Combi, anyone?

I’ve always loved Hopia.. eversince I was a little girl, I already knew that Eng Bee Tin and Poland hopia were the best.  My Dad used to bring us to their main branches in Quiapo and we’d get our hopia still warm.

Eng Bee Tin’s hopia is actually available at the Filipino store for $1.99 per pack of 4 (!) and one of the things one of my dear friends, Elvie, made sure to send me to take home to New York was a pack of hopia assortments from Eng Bee Tin. 

I didn’t know they now have the so-called HOPIA COMBI, and one of the better ones is the Ube/Pastillas combination which is just heavenly.  Half and half of each as a filling, and it’s neither too sweet nor bland, ever so soft and the hopia just melts in your mouth — literally!  Try it if you haven’t yet..

The Hoopla about THE DA VINCI CODE

It’s time for people to just mull about this a moment and sit down to take a deep breath.  While I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to watch THE DA VINCI CODE now that Alan and I cannot watch movies together since one of us has to always keep tabs on Angel, several factions all over the globe are up in arms against the showing of the movie.

Press Secretary Eduardo Ermita was even featured by the local CBS Channel here in New York declaring the movie as blasphemous.  (I always take notice when the Philippines manages to find itself in the local news here.. sikat!)

I read the book and did the Da Vinci Code tour in Paris.  I think what we must keep in mind is that the book is a work of fiction.  While it is based on some independent research which purports to have factual basis, all these are just hypotheses or theories which are for the reader to accept as truth or take with a grain of salt.

The faithful should not feel threatened if they are confident in the strength of the spirituality of their flock.  Incredible as the theory may sound, the suggestion that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene had actually been husband and wife and had started a family line that exists to this day is just another one of those ideas that makes one stop and think, but does not move one to reconsider the crux of one’s faith.

The controversy surrounding the ideas espoused in Dan Brown’s thriller are only fanning the flames of curiosity further.  That bodes well for the author, but not necessarily for those who are opposing all that the book stands for.  Me, I’m taking it with a grain of salt.  I’m there to be entertained.. period.

 

So much difficulty with Goodbyes

I think I may have written here in a previous post how one of my favorite quotations happens to be about goodbyes.. but let me write that down here again just to make my point: 

“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes.  Meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”

— by the ever famous Anonymous

I have never been very good at goodbyes.  While I am not the weepy type, I do tend to get very emotional about it.  These days I am haunted by my last goodbye with my father in Manila, and more recently, the tearful goodbyes between Angel and me at daycare.  It doesn’t get any easier — and the image sticks in my heart and mind.

Yet goodbyes are a fact of life.  Sometimes we do them without issue — without pain.  Other times, we protest violently yet have no choice.

I just let out an audible sigh.  Never easy.  But I look forward to the “meeting again” part.. the thought of it alone makes my heart smile.