ThE DeNTal AeStHetic Clinic

10 days in Waikiki (day 3): Golden Sunrise Photo Tour

October 17, 2018

Woke up at 4:30 early in the morning for an early pick up of 5:30 to catch the sunrise at sandy beach. Crazy? yeah ! to some but not to me, why waste time, I won’t be in Hawaii forever 🙂

Rise and Shine!

This is a perfect tour for a female solo traveler who loves to take photos everywhere! Who doesn’t? Well ? If you are reading this, you’re guilty ! 🙂

Nope? alright I did not say anything.

I don’t drive so this tour was a triple treat! I got a transport, a friendly professional photographer and a lot of tips for taking a scenic places in Oahu. Perfect combination indeed!

Sandy Beach located at south shore of Oahu, located between Hanauma Bay Nature preserve park and Makapuu’u point on the East.

Lisa was bubbly and pleasant to talk with, we were only two, so that’s even make the tour better, all women 🙂 I’m glad I took two lenses with me a 50mm and 18-105mm lens. Lisa advised to use the 18-105mm lens. I hesitated for a while because I like the images that comes out with 50mm, I feel it’s more sharper but at the end, I followed what she told me. She gave me a tri-pod to use and I asked , should I use polarizer? Nope! and why they asked me to bring it anyway 🙁

What is circular polarizer? What does it do?

It cuts glare, when shooting water – ok no need for it bec it’s only 5 am and it’s still dark.
for the Sky, it changes the color significantly, rotating the polarizer can make it dark or light blue

There’s no amount of bright sunlight yet so it won’t create an impact if I use polarizer. Got it!

1/80 F11 ISO 400

1/100 F11 ISO 400

Alright, I set up my camera and again..it was acting up, I look at Lisa camera (Canon) we have the same setting, aperture priority mode we tried F5,F8, F11 , my camera (Nikon) doesn’t give the same outcome. One tip I learned in this tour is about Exposure compensation setting.

Adjusting the Exposure Compensation can add drama to the scene or add more brightness to the scene. I was in Aperture priority mode, so adjusting the exposure compensation will adjust the shutter speed. By the way, my Cam D90 has little button on top with a positive (+) and negative sign (-) by pressing on it and moving the main dial to right or left will change the exposure compensation setting.

Makapu’u Point Lookout

As the sun rises up, we moved to Makapu’u point located just off Kanalianaole Highway on Oahu southeastern tip.

“Rabbit Island” the Mañana island is across the Makapu’u look out point. Does it look like a rabbit head? I was told it was once inhabited by introduced rabbit after a rancher released them there.

Waimanalo Beach approximately around 3 miles long of white sand, I can sit here for the whole day, doing nothing , go home relaxed and re-energized. Perfect place to have a beach stroll and eat cold pizza 🙂

The beach is backed by iron wood trees which provides a lot of shades.

I forgot to ask questions about photography, I just took photos here and there…enjoyed the sun and shades, the sweeping of the breezy air gave me goose bump , remembering my friend who recently passed away.

After Waimanalo, we headed to see the Ko’olau mountains, actually we didn’t hike to the mountains, we just saw it on the road.. the Ko’olau range – dormant fragmented remnant of the eastern or windward shield volcano of Oahu

sunrise18-1-23 — Ko’olau range photo taken by me and edited

The long trip leads us to Kalapawai market for breakfast. This has been in Kailua since 1932.

To get to a more panoramic view of the Ko’olau cliffs, we headed to Nuuanu Pali lookout – is a site of deep historical significance, the battle of Nuuanu 1775 where King Kamehameha I, won the struggle which lead to the unity of Oahu under his rule.

Before we end the 5.5 hrs. trip we went to Tantalus lookout, it’s long winding road through the lash of Manoa, sometimes steep inclined on the way to the top!

sunrise18-1-30 — Pu’u Ualaka’a State Park

And that was the end of the tour, forget the settings and enjoy the scenery 🙂

A wonderful day!

Cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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10 days in Waikiki : (day 2/2) Hawaiian Style Cooking Class

October 16, 2018

Aloha!

Oh yes! After photography class and roaming around the park, It’s time to have a Hawaiian style cooking class !

It was a 3 hours home cooking experienced hosted by Linda in her lovely home far from the hustle and bustle of Waikiki. I was greeted by “bacon”, so amazing to have seen and touched a domesticated pig! Adorable!

We were in a group of four, the kitchen and ingredients were all assembled and ready. While we were learning all the recipes, Linda gave us some stories, and information about Hawaiian culture, stuffs etc. It was like, cut-talk-hand me-talk-mix-talk-cook- and a lot of more talk-and eat of course! It was so indulging and I enjoyed every minute of it.

First thing in the menu? SPAM MUSUBI of course! So popular in 7/11 or abc stores. Two years ago, my friend taught me how to make it but I want to learn more. It was exciting to know it was included in the cooking class. It gives me a lot of memories.

Spam Musubi – is a popular snack or lunch in Hawaii. So easy to make and easy to pack as well. It is composed of grilled or fried spam sandwich in between with a pack of rice or a variation of different ingredients, the scrambled egg could be in the middle of the rice and the spam is on top of the rice. We sprinkled furikake, salt, fried onions, add some slices of avocado and wrapped it in with nori sheets.

Next popular dish is POKE – is a diced raw fish served as either an appetizer or for main dish. My sons love it so much but honestly, I don’t eat raw food and poke is not on my dream list. This is my very first time to prepare and eat Poke.

We prepared three kinds of POKE: Spicy Tuna Poke, Shoyu Poke and Hawaiian Style Poke

Spicy Tuna Poke

Ingredients:

1Lb Ahi Tuna, cut into 3/4″ cubes

1/4 cup mayo

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp shoyu (soy sauce)

1 tsp Alae red salt to taste

1/4 to 1 tsp Ichimi (ground japanese chili)

a few drops of chili oil to taste

1 TBL tobiko or Masago

Mixed all ingredients together well and serve with sliced scallions on top.

Hmm, checked out my photos below 🙂 I don’t need a caption to prove that I am a first timer in POKE!

And while we were enjoying the Poke preparation, the COCONUT BUTTER MOCHI was already in the oven. We mixed all the ingredients ahead of time, so the sweets was hot and ready for dinner. baking time : 45 mins to 1 hr.

Coconut Butter Mochi

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 cups shredded coconut

1 box mochiko flour

1 stick of unsalted butter,melted

1 can of evaporated milk

Coconut Shrimp

Ingredients:

12 large shrimp, deveined, peeled to the tail and skewed

3/4 cup panko

1/2 cup flaked coconut

flour for dusting

2-3 eggs, lightly beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Tips: roll in the FLOUR – EGG – PANKO/COCONUT mix

Ladies, I recommend this experience if you are traveling solo, in here, you meet new friends, learn how to cook few dishes and have an enjoyable dinner! drinks were on the house 🙂

Cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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10 days in Waikiki (Day 2): Expert Photographing Tips in Waikiki

October 16, 2018

I have two days before the ADA convention starts so I decided to meet Nicole, a family and wedding photographer in Honolulu, to get some professional tips in photographing. We met at the entrance of Honolulu Zoo at 7:30 in the morning, I found Nicole already waiting for me, I readily like her the first time we say hello, soft-spoken and polite.

I have the classic Nikon D90 and a 50mm lens (1:1.8G). I noticed Nicole have a Canon and 50mm lens (1:1.4G). Mine was a handed down Cam from my eldest son which coincidentally his first camera and was bought from Honolulu year 2009 🙂 yep! brand new, if I am not mistaken D90 came at the later part of 2008 replacing D80. At first my Cam didn’t cooperate well, huh! after all the blurry photos I’ve been getting was not from my hand but rather from the camera itself 🙂 Isn’t it D90 has a built-in auto-focus motor? I know…I can hear you..all excuses huh! She suggested that I should maybe tune it up or just buy the body, anyway I already have a good lens with me. Carrying this big camera was also heavy, hmmm maybe I should just consider buying an Iphone X. what do you think?

I am hobbyist in photography and I would like to learn how to use it in manual setting. I always consider myself as a beginner in DSLR (digital single lens reflex)camera. My son would always like to note that having a good camera is one thing but to have an eye and a story is another thing , of course this is not his words, I just gathered my interpretation of what he told me. However, being in a right place and point the camera in the right direction and at the right time with emphasis on lighting will give a good if not better photos. Right?

Maybe 🙂

Anyhow, let’s talk about the ‘Exposure Triangle”

ISO – measurement of a digital camera sensor’s sensitivity to light

Aperture – the size of the opening in the lens when taking the picture

Shutter speed– the amount of time the shutter is open

Hence, its early in the morning and we’re outside, my ISO was set at 200. It was a beautiful day, from the zoo , we walk towards Waikiki beach. My aperture was set at F2.8 and F5 depending on what I want to achieved. My camera was acting like crazy so Nicole told me to set it to Aperture priority.

So, if it was cloudy or dark, I would increase my ISO to 400 or 800 or even higher. The higher the number, the more it is sensitive to light but the images would be higher in grain or noise.

Aperture is the “F’ or F- stop or F/number. My camera was set to aperture priority, so the shutter speed is automatically chosen by the camera. When I choose F2.8, the opening of the lens is bigger, the smaller (shallow) the depth of field (DoF) meaning only a part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be blurry. I love to take photos of flower so this was a good tip for me, I can focus on the petals and the rest of the parts like leaves are fuzzy. If I want to have a bigger focus I will increase to F5 or F11 and all the images will be clear resulting to a bigger (wider) depth of field.

Before we end the one hour walk, Nicole was able to figure out what was the problem with my camera and as I walked home, I tried many settings. Hence, it’s a 50mm lens, I have to move closer to my subject to get a clearer image.

Though it was a short meeting, I totally enjoyed the company and the experienced having to walk with a professional photographer like Nicole.

Ladies, if you would like to know more about Nicole click here

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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10 days in Waikiki (day 1) Airbnb

October 15,2018

It was a long flight from Jeddah to London to Chicago to Los Angeles and finally to Hawaii. How many hours?

From Jeddah to Heathrow (5 hrs) to Chicago (9hrs) to LA (5hrs) to Honolulu (5hrs) total= 24 hrs plus lay over , roughly a total of 36 hrs! WOW:-)

I arrived around 12 noon in Honolulu, I decided to take a shuttle bus (USD 16) instead of Uber taxi (USD 32), it was an easy ride to airbnb. Yep! I got airbnb at Hawaiian Monarch Hotel (USD 85/day) not bad, the photos in the app looks exactly as it is. It is only a 10-15 min walk to Hawaiian Convention Center – venue for the ADA (American Dental Association) annual meeting, the reason why I flew 36 hrs from Jeddah. Omg!

I familiarized myself around the area checking how long it will take me to the venue, shall I wear high heels or flat shoes? Trying to gauge my pace and at the same time looking where is the nearest grocery stores etc. It is a good location after all, there is 7/11, Abc store, restaurants, hotel, spa and shopping malls. I don’t have to take a taxi, everything I need is just around the corner. Good choice!

The place is also secured with a lock key card, no one can get in the elevator without it. There is security guard 24/7 a small gym a coffee shop and a small breakfast resto at the lobby. The studio is good for two people, it’s clean but I found the floor sticky so I texted the owner and she did address my concern immediately, cleaning the floor twice. Pretty neat huh! The studio is equipped with a small Fridge, microwave, iron and ironing board, towels ,basic kitchen wares and a lot more!

Ala wai canal – is an artificial waterway in Honolulu. Hawaiian monarch Hotel is just adjacent to it. A lot of people walk and jog along the area. There is a rowing team that practice almost every afternoon, though the water may not be as clear, it’s a good place to just sit for a while, instead of staying inside the hotel.

After an hour walk, I decided just to stay in bed and tried to sleep to regained my energy. I wish! but I couldn’t, it’s an emotional roller coaster first day for me.

Ladies, stay tuned for the next nine days 🙂

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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10 days in Waikiki, Hawaii

Coming soon!

– American Dental Association Annual Meeting

– Hawaiian Cooking Class

– Photography Class

– Hiking

– Airbnb

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

Burrow Cafe at Antipolo Bee house – a review

When I was searching for a simple venue to my son’s wedding last month, I came across this Bee house. The couple would like to have simple wedding, so I thought maybe a rustic theme would be appropriate for a simple casual lunch reception. The bride refused because the path going to the cafe is a bit steep for her to use high heels.

So after the wedding, we checked it out and it’s true, it will be difficult not only for her but also to other adult – aging 🙂 guest hahaha and one … would be ME!

Burrow Cafe is located at Beverly Hills, Antipolo, there’s a 20 pesos fee at the entrance of the subdivision.

I was imagining, the ceremony would have been in the garden and then go down to the dungeon and crushed all the dragons so everyone can have their meal ! hahaha just kidding 🙂

The place is refreshing, surrounded by a lush of green, a different ambience, definitely this is the place you want to checked out after a long day in the city,however it depends on what are you looking for.. a cool place or a good food?

Definitely the place is cool but after having a five course lunch in Tahanan Bistro, I say the food in Burrow Cafe did not meet my expectation. The food was presented neatly but taste is just not to my liking.

This place is good for a change and if you want to keep in touch with nature but doesn’t want to get out of manila by plane, you can always go to their backyard , you’ve got to go down few more steps and wet your feet at the fresh water running through a river stream.

Burrow cafe – 113 Beverly Hill Ave.,beverly Hills Subdivision, Antipolo City, Philippines

Ladies, want to have short adventure? and who knows.. maybe you will be lucky that your taste bud matched the taste bud of their chef 🙂 , will never know until you try!

Oh by the way, the cafe is closed every Monday and Tuesday.

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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The wedding based on “KISS” principle

DSC_0421 (1) — done by the bride @theabakescupcakes

September 27, 2018

lets just go.
get on a bus, a plane or a boat.
away from here.

let’s get out of here and celebrate whats ours.
not theirs.

no rings. no complications.
just what its meant to be.
simple.

it’s not the next step. not marriage.
just a promise.
not to the law, not to the universe.
just us.

it’s not a piece of paper, its not the rings
it’s what I gave you from the very start

respect, trust and patience

so lets just go
away from here
where we can celebrate the way its meant to be
we can go anywhere

you and me

– written by Edge Suarez

The couple would like to have a very simple civil wedding which I would say based on “KISS” principle. KISS – Keep it simple and selected or splendid! (i just made this up)

Who is the groom? yep! my eldest son Edge 🙂 click here

yep! I screwed up, I took a blurry wedding photos 🙁

Who is the bride? Thea! click here

Yep! She did her wedding cake, simple with Edge in her mind, He loves her red velvet cake.

There is no bridesmaid and flower girl but of course, I have my youngest son who became the ring / bible bearer plus he is also the best man 🙂 all in one! The guest includes the family and closest friends of the couple. Pastor Glen officiated the ceremony at Tahanan Bistro in Antipolo.

Photo credit: Kevin Suarez

It’s ok not to come home ma, just be at our grand wedding in Hawaii!

No!! a big NO! I won’t miss this one! no matter how simple it is, it’s not about signing that marriage contract, It is not about whether its simple or grand, it’s about witnessing the day you take your bride, stepping to another stage of life, your future and the future of your own family. I was not able to attend your college graduation and a lot of important occasions in your life but I won’t be an absentee on this one 🙂

It was for me a mixed emotions, I am happy you are marrying the love of your life, I am happy that I will have a daughter I call my own but I also feel sad that I will take a second lead in your heart , mom has to step back to give way to your wife. But it was a short sadness, a thought for a second because I know you found a woman who will also take care and love you and accept me as her mom too. Now, I have both of you and of course your brother Kevin. Wow! Our family is getting bigger 🙂

” It is not all just love, I believed there’s more to it than just loved and be loved in return. there must be respect, trust and patience, I promise to give you that”

– edge

Yes, love is not enough to become one, marriage is not a security to grow old together , God gave us heart to feel, to love one another, He gave us brain to know what is right and what is wrong, He gave us heart and brain to respect, trust and have patience to one another. Marriage is not all glitters, it has its own flaw, it is a continuous struggles, of hard work to make it through, it is not for one but for the two of you. One should know when to apologized if wrong and one should be accepting and forgiving, whoever is at fault should not forget to straightened out what went wrong. “Sorry” is nothing if you don’t mean it. Both have to give 100 percent of themselves because I believed marriage is not fifty-fifty, you give yourself wholeheartedly and should remained that way.

” being perfectly imperfect,today I commit my life to you, I promise to love you wholeheartedly no matter what”

–thea

Photo credit: Ken Mariano

To my dearest Edge and Thea,

Please take care of each other, give your hundred percent to this relationship and may you be blessed with children who would love you the same. I wish you all the best and whatever dream you may have to each own , don’t forget you are a team. Work for “Us” and not for “I”. For being “one” is stronger than being apart. Remember to compliment each other and not to be weary of the flaw of one. Help each other to grow, guide each other and never forget how you started, keep the respect and trust and love will bloom even more.God bless you both!

KISS – keep it safe and secure

I love you.

mom

40 days my dear father

we miss you a lot, we love you dearly RIP

HiYop

Two days after the funeral, we headed to Pandan – north of Catanduanes, (around 96 km from the capital town of Virac) dropped our niece who is working there as a Nurse and of course to lighten our spirit and get some fresh air after an emotional drained from losing our dear father. It was a nice view along the way .

The road to Pandan was great, a little more time, all the road will be concrete and a 360 road trip to the island of Catanduanes will be feasible and fun!

Pandan has a total of 26 barangays, and one of the most scenic and highest point is Hiyop 🙂 for a while, I thought what is Hiyop ? is it hayup? meaning “animal”? hahaha I know it sounds like 🙂

On our way back, we passed by another beautiful sight, overlooking the sea.

We also passed through a beautiful farm, that serves organic food like “farm to table” but were not lucky, it was not operational at the time of our visit.

a small bamboo bridge to get into the house

Ladies, look what I got ? All the thorns from the weeds (not sure what the name of the plant) senior moment! hahaha I’ll let you know when I remember 🙂

Cheers,

Jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

It’s never the right time

“When your father dies, say the Irish

You lose your umbrella against bad weather “

I realized no matter how I said to myself, “I’ll let you go”, It was not easy… I was preparing myself long time ago, when you had an accident, I prayed to God that if ever it’s your time, to take you away in peace, I rather see you leave than suffer. That was 13 years ago!

Now that you’re gone, I thought I was ready but no! I think no one will be ready in time of death. No one!It’s never the right time.

I thank you so much papa, you’re such a wonderful father to all of us. You taught me so much… to be fearless and hard-working. You will always be my inspiration, my rock and my soul. I miss you so much , rest in peace and know that you will always be my superhero!

Thank you everyone who came and stayed with us, thank you for those who sent their condolences and financial contributions. Thank you for your thoughts, for your time and comfort. Thank you everyone , your expression of sympathies profoundly touch our heart.

DR.EXEQUIEL M.MARIANO

APRIL 10, 1923 – AUGUST 6, 2018