Amazing Christmas Light Show and Fireworks Display by Tom BetGeorge

I subscribed to Tom BetGeorge on YouTube a while back and I always look forward to the dazzling light shows he puts on display every year at his house during Halloween and Christmas. This video he published this Christmas - a lights and fireworks display programmed to Noel (He is Born) by Tommee Profitt (with Stanaj on vocals) - just absolutely blew me away! Check it out:

 

video uploaded in youtube by Tom BetGeorge

Tom's shows have always been incredible but while the ones I had previously seen always impressed the heck out of me and pumped me up, none of them moved me in the way that this video did. It starts out solemnly and poignantly then in the second half, it builds up into a scintillating and inspiring finale. Maybe it's the combination of the music, the lights, and the fireworks - I think this is his first show that involved fireworks - that did it for me. Someone commented that this show made him ugly cry and I can understand that. It is just so powerful. 

Hope you enjoy this video as much as I did. Happy Holidays everyone!

Holiday Hodgepodge

Merry Christmas everyone! It's been a great season that I have very fortunately gotten to spend with a lot of my family and friends. Of course, Christmas was spent with my family. This was our first Christmas without Nanay so I thought it would be good to celebrate with some food that she would normally prepare when she was younger: molo and lumpiang shanghai with its special sauce. Nanay shared her recipe for these dishes with our family friends who are excellent cooks (in fact, they have a catering business) so I ordered these dishes from them. They told me not to pay for it anymore so I instead gave them some Bake Cheese tarts. I added a few more dishes from House of Lasagna and Dulcelin. I also decided to try their 10" Cacao Con Leche Cake, which is a chiffon and chocolate cake enrobed with Callebaut chocolate ganache, Dulce de Leche and Crispy choco pearls. I really liked this cake!

Cacao Con Leche cake from Dulcelin

I also got to celebrate with many of my colleagues and friends. My ex-team at work had dinner at Caerus in Podium. My current team had lunch at Mary Grace. Our entire department had our Christmas party at The Giving Cafe. My FGTC board game group had a game night at Linden. I also had brunch with some high school friends at SA Southbank at Estancia Mall. That was my first time to eat at SA Southbank and I ordered their Chicken and Waffles. It was really good! 

Chicken and Waffles from SA Southbank at Estancia

Christmas is also the time when many people fly back to Manila to celebrate the holidays with their families. Marj arrived from Australia and I joined her, Karla, and Ian for lunch at Din Tai Fung in Uptown Mall. Ian suggested a coffee place in Mistukoshi but it was full so we instead had our caffeine fix at Bizu. It's been a while since I had dessert at Bizu and one of my favorites - Roca - wasn't available (not sure if it's no longer on the menu) so I opted instead for their Samba cake. It was still good.

Samba solo cake from Bizu

I also met up with my friend Che, who flew in from Singapore in Prologue Greenhills. I had just had their Croque Madame a few weeks ago so this time, I decided to order two items from the menu: Buttermilk Fried Chicken...

Buttermilk Chicken from Prologue

...and Potato Gnocchi. That was a lot of food so I didn't order dessert anymore and I took home half of my chicken dish. It was great catching up with Che it was really great to know what she's been up to since I saw her last. 

Gnocchi from Prologue

I also started watching Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia on Christmas Eve and I've been sort of binging it the last few days. This show has been in My List for a while now and I'm happy that I finally started it because I'm really enjoying it. There are 56 episodes and I might just finish everything in early January. That said, to complete my Trollhunters viewing experience, I want to watch the 3Below: Tales of Arcadia and Wizards: Tales of Arcadia series after that then wrap things up with Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. Cool. At least I am getting to watch more shows on Netflix now.

For the first time, I purchased Bath and Body Works items online. Ads about the Bath and Body Works Christmas sale kept popping up on my feed and many of their items had a 60% discount, which was huge. Shipping was free for a minimum purchase of P1500. I had been meaning to get some candle so I felt that this was the perfect opportunity to get a few. I ended up buying four, which meant that I qualified free shipping. Cool!

Three-wick candles from Bath and Body Works

Christmas parties weren't the only celebrations I attended. I was asked by Cha (she's technically my aunt but I'm several years older so I never call her tita hahah; instead, she calls me 'kuya') if I could be the ninong of her son Pio and I naturally agreed. For his Christening, I got him a seahorse stuffed toy that glows and plays relaxing lullabies and soothing ocean sounds. Cha told me later on that it became Pio's favorite toy. Cool!

Finally, I got my Spotify Wrapped results. My top song for 2023 was Megalovania by Toby Fox. My top artist was Beyonce. My Spotify profile is Vampire, which means that I like to embrace a little darkness in the music I listen to. Apparently, I listen to emotional, atmospheric music more than most.

My Spotify Wrapped

I took some time off from work to end the year so while the weeks leading up to Christmas were extremely hectic, I'm glad I was able to wind down and chill out in the last few days. I'm also really happy that I got to meet up and spend quality time with my family and friends.

Another Scrum Certification!

After getting certified as a Professional Scrum Product Owner and then a Professional Scrum Master, I am now also certified in Professional Agile Leadership: Evidence-Based Management.

This certification came unexpectedly, right before the end of the year. The agile group at work organized Evidence-based training for employees that included certification and there was still an extra seat in the class. The Agile lead asked me if I was interested in this training. Fortunately for me, it was scheduled on a day that I surprisingly had no meetings which is an absolute rarity so I immediately jumped at the chance to get more training.

I tend to get stressed out (or pumped up? LOL) when I know that a test is coming up so as soon as it became available, I took it immediately. Thankfully, I passed! The next step now is for me to apply what I learned to the work I do, especially in relation to strategizing and managing my team.

The Christmas Celebrations Have Begun

It's still a few weeks before Christmas but I already attended a few Christmas parties and get-togethers. The first one was held on the last Saturday of November, when I met up with one of my board gaming groups. We realized that most of us already had full weekends in December so we agreed to meet up as close to Christmas as possible. We got to play a few games but one new game that I got to try was Mille Fiori, which Cla really wanted us to try. It was fun to play, but maybe what added to my enjoyment was the fact that I won haha. 

Mille Fiori board game

Shortly after, we had our company-wide Christmas party. Maybe because it's hard to find an available venue that can fit us all in December but for the second year in a row, our Yuletide celebration was held in late November. It was a costume party and different departments were encouraged to have a theme. Our department decided to come in minions attire. I decided to buy a costume from Lazada a couple of weeks before the event and while I was worried that it might not arrive on time, it did. The challenge though was that it was a jumpsuit with a zipper at the back. I had to ask colleagues to help me zip it up everytime I had to use the toilet hahaha. Maybe the next time I wear it, I will attach a string or something to the end of the zipper to make it easy for me to zip myself up or down.

My Minions Costume

I met up with my friends Martin, Jane, and Mike on December 8, which was a holiday so we agreed to make the most of the extra day off. I made some suggestions and everyone agreed to meet up at Breakfast at Antonio's (Robinsons Magnolia branch). I had just eaten there a few weeks ago but I didn't mind eating there again. This time, I had the Housemade Bacon Roesti. This dish has changed since I enjoyed it the first time several years ago. While I enjoyed the previous recipe more, this one is still good.

Housemade Bacon Roesti at Breakfast at Antonio's

The next day, I met up with my ex-colleagues at Prologue in Rockwell. I had eaten there before and I really liked their Croque Madame so I decided to have that one again. I also ordered dessert. Their Banana Pumpkin cake called out to me, mainly because I don't think I've ever had that kind of a cake before (and I actually do like pumpkin-flavored desserts). I gotta say, I quite enjoyed it.

Banana Pumpkin cake at Prologue

I'm really happy that I have already gotten to celebrate the holiday season with a lot of really important people in my life. I'm certainly looking forward to more get-togethers and reunions in the coming weeks.

Old Manila at the Peninsula

Old Manila is a fancy restaurant at the Peninsula Manila. I've been told the food here is really good but it is on the expensive side so I hadn't been able to try it. That is, until recently. Because of my Manila Pen membership, I had a voucher that gave me 50% off on their set menus for a group of exactly four people. I decided to take my family there one night.

Old Manila

The requirement to use this voucher is that all four people in the party have to select from the same set menu (there are three). Each set menu has two options each for an appetizer and a main course. We decided to go with the third menu because the main courses of this option were the ones that appealed to us the most. Before dinner was served, we were given an amuse-bouche. Because this wasn't on the menu, I can't remember exactly what we had. All I can say is that we really liked what we were served.

amuse-bouche

They also served us some bread. The wait staff said that they are famous for their olive tapenade bread so that's what we have and OMG it was amazing! I can completely understand why it is so popular. We loved it so much that when the wait staff offered us more bread, we each took one more.

Bread selection

There were two choices for appetizer: Crab and Green Bell Pepper Ravioli served in a bisque with peas, espuma, and roasted peanuts...

Crab and Green Bell Pepper Ravioli

...and Seared Duck Foie Gras with vegetables julienne, red cabbage, and a pepper beef consomme.

Seared Duck Foie Gras

For our main courses, our choices were Atlantic Turbot with prawns, oyster mushrooms, bok choi, potato, and ginger beurre blanc...

Atlantic Turbot

...and Australian Lamb Rack with a French potato puree, grilled green asparagus, and red wine sauce.

Australian Lamb Rack

For dessert, we were all served a unique dessert called Banana & Toffee which is served with tuille, cremeux, and rum raisin ice cream.

Banana & Toffee dessert

Our dinner included coffee (or tea, but we all got coffee). We were pleasantly surprised when we were also served some petit fours.

petit-fours served with our coffee

By the end of dinner, we were once again offered some bread. I had to tell our wait staff that we actually would have wanted to have more olive tapenade because it was so good but we were already too full. 

Olive tapenade bread

Even with our discount, the bill was still quite expensive. That said, It was a tremendously good meal and I feel that it was worth what we paid. The service was also exceptional, quite possibly the best service I've even been given in any restaurant I've been to in the world. I would need to save up for it of course but I'm pretty sure I will eat here again in the future. (I also need to find out if they sell their olive tapenade bread seaprately...)

Old Manila at the Peninsula
https://www.peninsula.com/en/manila/hotel-fine-dining/old-manila
Address: The Peninsula Manila Corner of Ayala and Makati Avenues Ground Level Makati, 1226 Metro Manila
Phone: (02) 8887 2888

My Fitbit Broke

Very sad news for me: my Fitbit conked out. It started acting up while I was in Japan. The screen started going crazy, switching from one view to another, which resulted in the battery running out even if I just charged it fully the previous evening. I was thinking if I maybe accidentally dropped some sun screen on it. Interestingly enough, after I charged it again, it sort of started working. I say sort of because tapping on my Fitbit to switch screens wasn't really working anymore. However, it was still tracking everything like my steps, my heartrate, and my sleep, which I could see on my smartphone app.

Unfortunately, a few days ago, my Fitbit stopped working completely. It was my fault. Fitbits are supposed to be waterproof and you should be able to wear it even while in a swimming pool. So I kept it on when I went swimming. Unfortunately, after just a couple of minutes in the pool, my Fitbit screen blacked out. I thought it might have run out of battery but even after charging it and trying to reset it, I couldn't get it to turn on. I guess maybe because it already had a problem to begin with, submerging it in the pool water completely broke it.

I messaged Fitbit support and they gave me some clear instructions that I followed to a tee but still, it wouldn't turn on. It was no longer covered by warranty so Fitbit wouldn't replace it anymore.

To make matters worse, Fitbit pulled out of South East Asia recently so it's no longer available here. I could ask someone in the US to buy it for me (or maybe even try buying it on Amazon) but if it's not supported in the region anymore, I decided I wouldn't make too much sense to get one anymore. (I also considered the fact that Fitbits are quite expensive.) I now need to figure out if I want to replace it with another fitness monitor, and if so, which one.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

It took a while but I finally got to read my first book in 2023: Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune.

I saw it on display in Fully Booked and the cover art (or I guess particularly the bright colors) caught my eye. I then checked the blurb at the back and this is what it said:

"When a Reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he's definitely dead. But even in death he's not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days."

It sounded really interesting so I kept it in my radar. Then last Christmas, when my friends and I organized our annual Kris Kringle activity, I included this book in my wishlist and my Secret Santa got it for me. Cool!

Under the Whispering Door is a beautiful story about redemption and love amidst despair and death. I will say that for me, it came with quite a few pleasant surprises that made my reading experience even better. 

SPOILER ALERT: skip the next paragraph if you want to read the book and still want to be surprised. 

First, its a love story. I didn't pick up on that from the blurb. I don't really remember when the last time was that I read a novel that was primarily a love story - I think it must have been when I was still in high school - but I do know it's been a while. Also, it's also an LGBTQIA+ story; in fact, it's my very first LGBTQIA++ book. Once again, I couldn't really tell that from the blurb. As a result, once I started to realize that this was an LGBTQIA++ love story, it was like a plot twist I wasn't expecting and it made the storytelling even more engaging and compelling than it already was.

***** END OF SPOILERS *****

I really enjoyed Under the Whispering Door and I'm happy that it is my first LGBTQIA+ book and my first love story in decades. Author TJ Klune has another book, House in the Cerulean Sea, that also has a very interesting, fantastical premise as well. I'm now thinking of getting that book too.