A few days ago someone came by selling crabs, they were fish out from the river in our barangay. They were sold for P20.00 per dipper and since there’s only small left in the pail, the seller gave it all to us.  They got a lot of crabs when it rained and the water came down from the mountain, they prepared traps for the crabs.

The crabs were cooked first in a hot wok without adding water or anything. Then they were cooked in coconut milk with papaya and moringa leaves as garnishes. This dish is really superb, I can’t stop myself from eating a lot of rice,  any food cooked in coconut milk is really my weakness.

Ingredients:

Crabs, garlic, , salt, moringa leaves, papaya, coconut milk, turmeric

Procedure:

1. In a large pot put the crabs and add the coconut milk from second extract of grated coconut
2. Add the garlic, salt, turmeric and pepper and let it simmer
3. Then add the papaya, as well as the coconut milk from the first extract of the grated coconut
4. Cooked it for few minutes, and when it is nearing to be cooked add the moringa leaves
5. Serve with steamed rice, enjoy!

Shopping for second hand clothes when they are on huge sale is one of the things I enjoy the most, it is somehow therapeutic for me. We normally do it in well-knows surplus shop but a few months ago we decided to go to a smaller surplus shop because they were on sale that day. While looking around the surplus clothes a kitten passed by, the sale lady picked it up and when she put it down I picked it up and give it a touch. The sales lady then asked me if I want to bring the kitten home,  I check it first if the kitten is a male or female since we already have a lot of kittens at home we have adopted from the street.

The kitten was a male, so I have asked if the owner is giving it away, the sales lady replies yes just asked his “Kuya” but we told her she should do it for us since we don’t know his employer so she did, and the surplus shop owner gave it to us and we bring the kitten home.  I named him “Kat-kat” derived from the surplus shop’s name, Kat-kat Ukay-Ukay.

Kat-kat is such a playful kitten, he plays a lot from wires to rags. On his first three weeks at home, it was a pain to teach him where to litter. He keeps doing it in my father’s room below the cabinet and speakers, I almost give up cleaning his smelly poop. We decided not to let him in during the night because we noticed he just do littering inside at night, and during the day he did it in the sand but Kat-kat is such an intelligent cat when he found a way how to get inside by following the older cats but his ways didn’t change he still poop inside because it seems he is so lazy to go outside but when my father built windows in his rooms and Kat-kat grow a bit older he already learned to do his business outside. What a relief that was!

These past few months I have been scratching my skin, it is really disturbing but I can’t stop it. I’ve suspected this tiny bumps where cause by tiny ants brought by the wet season, but it is not frequently raining anymore and I am still scratching from left to right. I don’t want to think worst but maybe my problem is not insect bites anymore, maybe it is already psychologically (lol). I can’t stop myself scratching especially when I have nothing else to do or while I am thinking something; I already cut my fingernails so the scratch won’t be infected.

Anyway, that is kind of worst thinking but I am not the only one being affected at home, so I still believed the itchy tiny red hard bumps in my skin were brought by insects from the rice fields since the grains are being harvested, having mentioned of being harvested there is a possibility too that they were from the dust of grains being winnowed, or maybe from birds that always lingering in our roof top or maybe from our cats who frequently stay inside our home and even sit in my lap or sleep beside me but the thing is I bath these cats from time to time. The more I look at my skin, it looks like hives but I don’t know where am I allergic, maybe to our shampoo, laundry soap,  food I ate or maybe it is really from the dust of the grains from the field.

The other night, I can’t take it anymore so I have asked my mother and sister to drive me to town so I could buy ointment for itching and insect bites. Since I have no more extra money next time so I bought two sachets right away for ₱36.00 each ($0.94). The cream wasn’t good at my skin itch but with ant bites it works fine, I have to apply many times before the itchiness subsides. Maybe the insect bite cream I have bought from Europe will be more effective but too bad it wasn’t available here.  Together with the Calmoseptine cream I also use coconut oil to treat my skin itch.

Well, having an itchy skin is really an irritating and uncontrollable sensation that makes me want to scratch to relieve the feeling and I know it wasn’t good at all to scratch my skin because it may  result to infected wound and leave marks to my skin but it is hard to stop.