We appreciate the very warm welcome you gave to us on our pilot issue. And we're happy to hear from some of you who emailed back. Your comments and contributions are priceless! We are working on making space in our newsletter so that we can publish some of them.


With much gratitude,
Pinoy Secrets Team

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Ingredients :

• 12 egg yolks from fresh eggs
• 2 big can evaporated milk
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

There are many sites which offer free SMS to mobile phones in the Philippines like
www.cbfsms.com , www.smsbigfoot.com , www.1rstwap.com , www.sms.ac
. Another site,
www.fonetastic.com

, offers 5 free texts per day. However, the one that tops the list in this arena is the ever popular Chikka.com.

Wherever you are in the world, you can use Chikka Txt Messenger to send text messages directly to cell phones in the Philippines, the U.S., Japan, or Thailand at no cost. Your recipients can easily text back to your PC with no need for additional downloads or procedures. And when they text you back to your Chikka account you can have their messages forwarded to your mobile phone so you won't miss any messages while you're away from the PC

Chikka is a Pinoy slang for small talk. Not surprisingly so, Chikka Asia Inc of Chikka.com, is based in Ortigas, Metro Manila. Their goal is to serve overseas Filipinos who rely on Chikka for communcation with friends and loved ones who in turn "text back" at the standard SMS charge of only P 2.50(4 cents) per message, instead of the usual PHP10 or PHP11 (20 cents) when they text to a mobile phone abroad. The Filipino market has found the PhP10 charge (20 cents) too steep considering that a call to the US is only $0.40 per minute (Php23). When 2 text messages is equivalent to a one-minute call, the average Pinoy would rather call! No wonder Chikka culture was eagerly accepted by the Filipino market.In fact, by having a Chikka account, you are actually doing your Pinoy friends here a favor by allowing them to keep in touch at a lesser cost.

Aside from overseas texting, the Pinoy market utilizes the Chikka account to save on the local rate of one peso (2 cents) per text. Since it supports 320 character text messages, which is equivalent to 2-3 messages for some phones. More importantly, sending to multiple recipients is not as tedious and costly since one can simultaneously send an SMS reminder to, say,a barkada of 10 friends or group of 12 in a family for free.

You need not have a date on Valentine's day to have a Valentine. Unlike the commercial sense of the word, Valentine's is not just about hearts and flowers and some romantic mood. It is all about celebrating the spirit of love and courage that is in our hearts and in the hearts of friends and loved ones.

History speaks of Saint Valentine, a priest in Rome in the 3 rd Century during the reign of Emperor Claudius II (Claudius the Cruel) who banned marriages in Rome in order to lure unmarried volunteers to military service. He believed that if men weren't married , they would not hesitate to leave their wives and families to embark on lengthy expeditions.

In the name of love, young men and women continued to get married in secret. All it took was a willing priest like Valentine who would solemnize the exchange of whispered vows. He was eventually discovered and condemned to death. While in prison awaiting his execution, supporters would come to the jail with flowers and notes. Finally, on one fateful day of February (yes, the 14 th) that he was to be executed, he wrote one of his most ardent and brave supporters a note of thanks for her friendship and loyalty and signed it, "Love from your Valentine."

In its truest sense, Valentine's is about that: celebrating the love, friendship, loyalty and courage of people who has helped us or has kept our spirits high over the years. A note of thanks for them for this season would suffice and a handful of flowers would surely be delightful!

As signs of the deadly disease Meningococcemia slowly disappear, Baguio City, Philippines summer capital, opens its doors again to foreign tourists and suburban visitors..and it seems funny signs have not ceased from propping up in the Philippines summer capital:

A signage in the neighborhood grocery says: "FRESH FROZEN CHICKEN SOLD HERE"



on window of a restaurant in Baguio: "WANTED: BOY WAITRESS"

on a delivery truck: "NOT FOR HERE"

For the romantic Pinoys, gift-giving on Valentine's Day has always been a process which involves surveying for a gift idea, canvassing, analyzing then going through the whole process again whenever someone objects to the gift idea. Other than the birthday gift, there is no other annual gift-giving tradition that requires so much thought and consideration.

So here is a guide to giving Valentine's gift to a recipient back home:

1. For Her
2. For Him
3. For Our Mothers
4. For the little Girl
5. For A friend

Particularly on Valentine's, the Language of Roses speak aloud since one may receive many variety and colors of roses and it helps to know how decipher what messages these roses bring.

1. Red Roses: beauty
2. 3 red roses: I love you
3. 5 red roses I love you very much
4. 12 -24 red roses I love you abundantly
5. Pink Roses pink blush implies admiration
6. 3 pink roses I'm in love with you
7. 12-24 pink roses I'm crazy about you
8. Yellow Roses : signify happiness
9. 3 yellow roses I like you
10. White roses purity, innocence, silence
11. 3 White Thinking of you
12. Red and White Roses means unity
13. Deep pink Roses gratitude and appreciation

• Our very own Tsokolate made with American brands of semi-sweet chocolate chips: simmer 1 cup *full cream milk with ½ cup semi sweet choco chips until melted and mix an egg yolk . Add Carnation condensada to taste
  
  *Either a cup of regular milk or Bear Brand milk will work fine
  
  The best cheese and crackers for the Pinoy taste buds: Kraft Cheddar or other favorite cheeses and our very own Sky Flakes or blue skies
• Try our very own Jack & Jill Cheese Curls with a glass of Tropicana Orange juice. Great combination.You'll never have this luxury in the Philippines! Promo Price .59c
• The fruity smell inside most of the cars you find in the Philippines?? Place a can of Shaldan in your car and drive on with fond memories of the times of your life. Promo Price $1.99
• Craving for Thailand's special soup Tom Yum Gong? Add some chili & lemongrass to a moderate amount of Knorr Tamarind mix as a soup base to create that Pinoy Tom Yum Gong soup Promo Price .99c

• Chinese New Year is on Feb 9 and 2005 is the year of the Rooster. A lot of Tikoy exchange will be going on in many Chinese communities. Everyone is encouraged to eat Tikoy for this sweet & sticky delicacy signifies togetherness and a good life. And of course, no Chinese tradition is complete without partaking noodles to signify a Long and prosperous life. Either pancit canton, misua or the authentic Chinese Vermicelli is the most appropriate for this occasion.
• Virgin coconut oil is 50% lauric acid of which the only other source is mother's milk. The human body turns this fatty acid turns into an antiviral and anti bacterial agent that can destroy lipid-coated virus such as influenza, herpes, and HIV. It does not contain oxidized cholestorol that causes heart disease or strokes hence a good alternative to butter and cooking oil.

As you may have noticed, headaches was not a major concern of our Pinoy ancestors who have been known to have a laid back attitude. But over the years, the Pinoy lifestyle has changed. Moreso, Filipinos who work or study in First World countries have quickly adopted the fast-paced lifestyle of their host countries. And so we are now plagued with the same ailments.

You experience a throbbing pain on one part of your head but sometimes it is not throbbing pain but just sore pain in the back of your head. Is it just a headache or is it migraine? Is there a difference? Why does it matter if popping an Advil or Tylenol or other over the counter painkillers would zap it?

Determining the type of headache is important because it is a reflection of your health. Such symptoms may be the first sign of serious health problems or an immediate result of your bad habits and lifestyle. Of course, knowing the causes can help you prevent it. No one wants the inconvenience of habitual headaches.

Headache is a more generic term for all sorts of pain affecting the head while migraine results from excessive dilation or contraction of the blood vessels of the brain. Headache can feel like any kind of pain but having a migraine, in particular, means that you feel a throbbing pain in a certain part of your head.

Any number of things can trigger either headache or migraine in a susceptible individual ( that is, one who suffer from nutritional deficiencies or have very unhealthy lifestyle). This includes stress; tension;, allergies; constipation; hormonal imbalances, smoking.

Headaches can be an immediate reaction to coffee consumption; eyestrain, hunger; anxiety sinus pressure; muscle tension; temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome; trauma to the head; the use of alcohol, drugs, or tobacco; and exposure to irritants such as pollution, detergents, rubber, plastic, fragrances and other chemicals. On the other hand, migraine may be caused by external factors such as changes in barometric pressure, sun glare, flashing lights, or personal habits such as lack of exercise, too much or too little sleep, and emotional changes. Sometimes, migraine is a symptom of liver malfunction.

Knowing the cause of the headache is the first step in preventing it. Although a Pinoy's home remedy like White Flower (which unlike painkillers, have no side effects) works like a charm at the onset of a headache, nothing beats taking preventive steps to eradicate headache altogether.

Here is a list of common headaches and their causes:

• Hangover headache Migraine-like, with throbbing pain and nausea

Causes : Alcohol causes dehydration and dilation of blood vessels in the brain.
• Caffeine headache Throbbing pain caused by blood vessels that have dilated.

Causes : Caffeine Withdrawal
• Eyestrain headache Usually bilateral, frontal pain

Causes : Eye muscle imbalance; uncorrected vision; astigmatism.
• Hunger Headache strikes just before mealtime due to low blood sugar and muscle tension

Causes : skipping meals, stringent dieting
• Menstrual Headache Migraine-type pain usually during , shortly before or after menstruation or at time of ovulation

Causes : hormonal imbalance, variation in estrogen levels
• Sinus headache nagging pain over the sinus area usually accompanying a blocked sinus or sinus infection

Causes : allergies, esp food allergies, infection
• Fever headache accompanies fever due to inflammation of blood vessels of the head

Causes : infection and hi fever
• Hypertension headache Dull, generalized pain affecting a large area of the head and aggravated by movement or exertion.

Causes : Severe high blood pressure.
• Tension headache Constant pain, in one area or all over the head; sore muscles with trigger points in neck and upper back; lightheadedness, dizziness.

Causes : emotional stress, anxiety, depression, anger, poor posture, certain food allergies
• Common Migraine Severe throbbing pain, often on one side of the head; nausea; vomiting; cold hands; dizziness; sensitivity to light and sounds.May be accompanied by numbness in arms or legs, smelling of strange odors, hallucinations

Causes : Excessive dilation or contraction of blood vessels of the brain due to external factors and personal habits discussed above

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