When I went out last Wednesday to workout in the nearby M2 gym I was surprised to see snow in the ground and even blurted about not knowing that there is snow fall.  My husband who’s with me told me it snowed at night which I regret because I was not able to see the first snow fall this year.

So when it snowed yesterday, I didn’t let go of the chance not taking photos of the ground.  When my husband go to school, I walked with him thinking he can snapped few photos of me in the snow but I was not lucky because he was in hurry. So I just snapped photos around and went to bus stop, I went to downtown to buy frozen chicken breast at the Korean Mart.

Instead of going down in the bus station stop I went down at Miranda Hotel and walked to the nearby park to take some photos and have some adventure. I walked around for few minutes before walking down to the bus terminal.

The snow fall was heavy, every one around me has umbrella and all I got is a camera.  I went directly to Korean Mart to buy the chicken and went straight to bus stop, while waiting I decided to buy  잉어빵 (Bungeoppang) it is a sweet snack sold in the street in the shape of fish (carp), made of flour and bean paste. While waiting I tinker my phone and got an email from my husband telling me to buy donuts from Dunkin Donuts if I am still in downtown and if I am already at home ignore it.  So I waited until I got my order and walk back to bus terminal, there’s a Dunkin Donuts in the terminal it is nearer to buy there than going to the Dunkin Donuts near Watsons.

When I went inside the Dunkin Donuts I was overwhelmed because they have a lot of flavors unlike the one near Watsons where they only have few flavors and it is always the same thing every time I visited the shop. I immediately took a tray and started to pick the donuts I desired. My husband asked me to buy a dozen but I bought 6 more additionally using my own money of course, my husband will not be happy if I go overboard on what he asked.

I went back to bus stop and luckily within few minutes bus #8 arrives, the bus is full and the entire trip is quite slow because of the snow in the road.

As I have blogged a few days ago I bought EyesMobile prepaid card at an Asian Store even though I don’t know how to use it, it should not be my first time if I didn’t return the prepaid card I bought a month ago in Itaewon. Yeah right, when my husband and I went to Seoul to eat lunch as a birthday treat for me I also took the chance to buy load at the phone store in  Itaewon exit 3.  I was handed a prepaid card, while waiting for the train and looking to the card configuring how to use it, I realized that there’s really no way I can use it so I run quickly to exit 3, luckily I was not charged again on my subway card.

When I reached the phone store I am literally chasing my breath and I can’t speak so I just do sign language and create sounds. I think the older male felt slighted and told me to speak because he can understand English. So I did, and after which I was gasping for air, releasing the pressure in my chest.  Haha, anyway the load was sent directly to my mobile phone after the young female call someone.

The other day, I decided to use the prepaid card but I don’t know how to activate the card number so I dialed the Customer center for foreigners (080-807-1234) written at the back of the card, I pressed 2 for English and so on. I was able to speak to Customer Representative and share my ordeal, I was asked if I want a  recharge, I replied yes and was asked for my mobile number twice because I took long time to respond as I am digging for my card number in my wallet.

One thing I learned from calling the customer service is they call load as recharged.  In the Philippines we normally call it load or reload, now I learned that if I dial the customer service again I will pressed 2 for English and then pressed 1 for recharged.

What is amazing living in Korea is you just wake up one day and there’s already a church in your neighborhood.  Last Friday, when I look outside our balcony this is what I see, men busy fixing something  at the nearby building where NKIDS English School was situated, M2 Gym was also in the ground floor of this building.

When I zoomed my camera to see what’s happening or what’s new store/club they are working, I was surprised to know it’s  a church, Good Neighbor’s Church as it reads.

When we go to the gym that night they are still busy fixing something in the rooftop and when we went out everything is ready, the cross is well lighted up, definitely the church is ready for service/mass soon.

When my husband came home from his work he immediately informed me that there’s  a truck selling roasted pork  along the curve, and giving me a hint if I like treating him for something. Of course I know I have too so I dressed up and went down to buy roasted pork for ₩5,000 but when I reached the truck the guy asked me if I want to buy “ocheonon or manon” I told him “ocheonon” but he wants me to buy “manon” as it was bigger than my choice.

Oh well, I decided to buy “manon” ₩10,000 because the latter one is quite small and it is probably not enough for my husband’s appetite. The pork is quite ok but not that great as “lechong baboy” in the Philippines or what we called roasted pig. The sauce is a bit salty and read in color, at first I thought it was spicy but it was not.

We are living in a day and age where inquiries and investigations are happening on a large percentage of food products, and, quite often, many items found in foods are proven to be detrimental to the health of the consumer. But with all of this information surrounding us, it can be harder to understand what we should be avoiding. In this article I will be providing you with a short list of products commonly found in dog foods that you may not have known about but that are dangerous for your dog:

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)

These substances are rare, but are incredibly dangerous. They have been listed as ‘cancer causing compounds’ by the World Health organization but still somehow manage to find their way into dog foods.

Tetra sodium pyrophosphate

This causes diarrhea, sickness and weight loss, and as I am sure you know, this can lead to a large number of other problems – it’s only a matter of time before your dog becomes critically ill after prolonged exposure to such products.

Propylene glycol

This product is a preservative typically used in antifreeze, yet somehow a large number of dog foods still contain this ingredient. Can you imagine eating antifreeze yourself? No? Then why is it acceptable for your dog?

Ethoxyquin

Commonly used as a stiffening agent in synthetic rubber and pesticide. It is currently under investigation due to links to liver and kidney cancer, yet it still works its way into our dog’s foods.

So how do you avoid such products? The best way to ensure your pet isn’t being subjected to them is by buying a high quality food. Often, these products find their way into cheaper foods because they are a cheaper alternative to the more expensive safer versions. Whilst I can appreciate that times are hard, I would advise that well-known brands such as James Wellbeloved Dog Food, Hills Dog Food and Royal Canin dog food. They are a little more expensive, but this is because they contain all of the good stuff that your pet needs to be healthy, rather than using cheaper alternatives that will do your dog a lot more harm than good.

My husband and I bought a new scale when our old one stop working despite of having a new battery. Our new scale is solar power and we are hoping we can use this longer. What confuses me though when I weigh myself at home my weight is less than when I weigh myself in the gym. It has 1 kilogram difference so I don’t know which one is right, well I guess scales has different weighing system.

Anyway for your own information there are different scales according to its uses, there are food retail scales that can be used for food, fruits and in the kitchen, weight bathroom scales for fitness and infants, industrial scale for shipping, medical and laboratory scales and special scaled that are used for wrestling and weighing jewelries.

This is unplanned but I went to downtown today after seeing that I was already paid and my money is ready for pick-up in Western Union. I took the bus #28-1 from Shinha-ri because it stopped right in front of the Icheon bus terminal where IBK (Industrial Bank of Korea) have moved.  I just crossed the street and went inside the bank, their new location is bigger and wider than their old location which is quite smaller.  There are also lot of windows/teller now compare than before. Anyway I get a number and in just seconds my number was already called, I informed the teller what I need “Western Union” she immediately thought I am going to send  but I told her “claim/pick-up” showing her a piece of paper, my passport and ARC.

The teller asked me Google upon seeing the piece of paper? I was given a form to fill-up and in just few minutes I got my money from Mr. G (Google).  This is my second time to received compensation from displaying ads on my blogs. The first time was two year ago, haha! Well it is better than nothing, isn’t it?

Anyway after I claimed my money I walked to the bus stop just across the back of bus terminal  and as a treat to myself I went inside the Asian store to buy some sardines (again),  corn snack, corn bits or whatever you may call it.  When I first received my compensation from Mr. G, I have boughts dumplings from Mandu shop.

The other day I went to downtown to do overseas transfer from my husband Korean account to his account in Canada.  I can’t do anymore excuses not to do it because I have done it once, the bank was not full so I took the chance to get new bank book as his bank book was already finished. I am able to get one but of course not able to sign the bank book as my husband’s owns it.  Transferring money overseas is easy I can do it in the ATM machine in just few clicks.  After transferring money overseas I went to the family owned supermarket to buy frozen chicken breast and headed directly to bus stop, I went to Asian store just beside it and bought some Filipino treats on my husband’s permission, I already asked him before going to downtown to let me spend ₩10,000 of goodies in-exchange of not buying groceries (for me) on shopping day.

I only bought few sardines, water turnips and pancit bihon. I also look for prepaid card and I was glad to find EyesMobile prepaid card because it only means I don’t need to go to Itaewon just to buy  a load. I bought one prepaid card for ₩10,000 despite the fact that I don’t know how to use it, I just thought I’ll figure it out when I already need to use it.  The EyesMobile prepaid card can only be used in Korea, US, Japan, China, Russia, Mongolia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Honestly, I would like to buy a card that I can use to call Philippines but I can’t find a TNT prepaid card, and I am not sure if I  can use the other cards in Korea so I just stick to Eyes Mobile because the sim card that was given to me when I bought a phone is also EyesMobile plus my friend had told me that when I buy a load I should tell that my card is EyesMobile because there are different type of load/card.

Read more: Using EyesMobile Prepaid Card

When I shopped a week ago for my weekly supplies I just bought a package of chicken and few potatoes. I adobo the chicken I thought it will take me a week to consume all of it, well maybe yes but my husband help himself to my pot of adobo so I was left without food to eat in few days aside from eggs.  Being bored for eating eggs everyday I tried different way of cooking from frying, boiling and scrambled eggs.

I would like to cook sauteed bitter melon with egg but there’s no bitter melon in our fridge so instead I used zucchini it was left over from the vegetable soup I have cooked few days ago.

Imagine this: sparkling red carpet premiere of a promising family movie starring everyone’s favorite actors of the present. A well-groomed, shiny coated canine who is the real star of the movie, such as the golden lab who played Marley in ‘Marley and Me’, or Richard Gere’s co-star in ‘Hachiko: A Dog’s Story’. Now, imagine if they had a little ‘accident’. Imagine if they weren’t in the best of health…

If you have ever slipped – yes, slipped – in dog poo, you will know that it certainly is not pleasant and you feel like hunting down the dog owner and banning them from your local area until their dog’s bowel movements are back to normal and their ‘business’ can be scooped and bagged as normal. I know if my pug ever got diarrhea again, I would ask some unsuspecting friend to take little Mathilde on a walk to save myself the embarrassment whilst I rush to the vets to book an appointment. Last time, it was the result of too many treats surreptitiously given to her under the table by my friends at Christmas (it’s not just humans that get fat in the winter season). Ultimately, neither Mathilde nor I were very happy.

Of course, it isn’t the end of the world. Canikur tablets are very effective as an anti-diarrhea treatment, which are palatable and chewable. Containing probiotics, prebiotics and a special binding agent, they work together to support intestinal function ensuring your dog’s body fluid balance is normalized. In the case of an emergency, however, Pro-Kolin+ may be a better choice as it is designed to settle diarrhea quickly and safely. Plus, it is beef flavored so my pug, like many other pooches I’m sure, would easily eat it.

For a long term aid, Hill’s Prescription Diet I/D is for dogs suffering with gastrointestinal disorders that can be painful and prolonged if left unattended. Dog lovers want the best for their canine companions so address the ugly stuff is just as important as cuddling. I/D encourages symptom reduction of vomiting, flatulence, constipation and diarrhea, all of which would be the biggest embarrassment on that spotless red carpet…