Ika-35 Sampung Mga Daliri, atbp.

My family and I watched the Ika-35 Sampung Mga Daliri, atbp. of the Conservatory of Music of the University of Santo Tomas (UST). The main reason: my nephew was part of the Guitar Ensemble. I believe this musical event is staged every two years (except during the pandemic) and this year, it was held at the Newport Performing Arts Theater.

Ika-35 Sampung Mga Daliri, atbp.: Pagdiriwang ng Musikang Pilipino

This was actually a special year because it is the 80th anniversary of the UST Conservatory of Music. The theme: Pagdiriwang ng Musikang Pilipino.

The show included voice faculty, the UST Symphony Orchestra, the UST Wind Orchestra, the UST Jazz Ensemble, the UST Guitar Ensemble (which my nephew was a part of), the UST Rondalla, Coro Tomasino, Liturgikon, the Chorus class, the Music Theatre Ensemble with alumni, and other faculty and students of the UST conservatory of Music.

As always, what I love about Sampung Mga Daliri, atbp. is that it always features a fantastic repertoire. Because this year's theme was Pagdiriwang ng Musikang Pilipino, all the music played was local. One of my favorite segments was "Sa Dating Sinehan" which featured a medley of songs from Filipino movies. I wish there was a recording of it that I could watch again because it was beautiful and the song selection was topnotch.

My nephew was once again a performer at the show. He was also part of the 33rd and 34th shows but this year, he had a bigger role in that he actually performed twice. First, he played guitar together with the UST Guitar Ensemble as they shared the stage with the UST Rondalla to perform a lovely medley of Filipino folk songs. I loved this segment as well, not only because my nephew was performing, but also because I do love Filipino folk songs.

The UST Guitar Ensemble and the UST Rondalla playing Filipino folk songs

He then performed again in the grand finale. Wow! As I had written in past blog posts, he is a member of the Sibol Guitar Octet, which is the core performance group of the UST Conservatory of Music Guitar Ensemble. As such, their group played guitar in the closing segment of the Ika-35 Sampung Mga Daliri, atbp. The grand finale - Patriotic Medley - was very inspiring and uplifting as many artists and musicians shared the stage and performed many nationalistic Filipino songs, including the always powerful and evocative Bayan ko.

I managed to find my nephew among the performers on stage both times. It was really such a proud moment for our family! Not only did we get to enjoy incredible performances and beautiful music from the entire event but we got to appreciate the fact that my nephew was on stage, including at the grand finale. Awesome!

Grand finale: Patriotic medley

The show finished quite late in the evening and by then, almost all restaurants in Newport were closed. Thankfully, Brotzeit was still open. I've eaten at Brotzeit several times in the past but I think everyone else in my family hadn't yet. Thankfully, everyone enjoyed the food and my mom even said that it was great that we got to try German cuisine for a chance.

Congratulations to UST and to my nephew for a very successful ika-35 Sampung Mga Daliri!

Talisay The Garden Cafe

My friend Raych was in town so naturally, our group of friends met up for dinner one evening while she was in town. Raych asked us for suggestions of good places to eat in the Quezon city area and our friend Bett suggested that we try Talisay The Garden Cafe, a Filipino restaurant in Maginhawa. I'm glad we met up and ate here because it was the perfect venue to catch up with great friends over great food.

Talisay The Garden Cafe

Before I get to the food, I have to say that I loved the design of the place. Being named Talisay the Garden Cafe meant that there would be an al fresco dining area in the garden which was very lovely.

Al fresco dining in the garden

One side of the restaurant has high glass windows so people dining inside can still see and feel the garden vibe.

The main dining area is very spacious inside, with comfortable seating and a lot of space between tables.

And there is also another dining area at the back that can accommodate large groups. I love how they built this dining section around a tree that they protected with glass rather than cutting the tree down.

A tree at the back of the room

Now on to the food. We ordered on a lot of dishes that evening. The Lumpia Fresca (P280) was unique in that it had sauteed singkamas (or jicama) wrapped in an ube crepe and served peanut sauce. I don't think I've ever had lumpia with an ube-flavored wrap before so this was a first.

Lumpia Fresca

We also ordered the Croquetas (P350). These breaded fried potato croquettes are stuffed Jamon de Talisay.

Croquetas

Their Palabok Negra (P745) is their version of paella version but they replace rice with rice noodles. It is still cooked in squid ink sauce, giving it that black color, and has shrimp, squid, and smoked fish.

Palabok Negra

The Seafood Platter (P1250) had grilled swordfish steak, baked mussels, and Cajun spiced shrimp and having it on our table felt like we were in a fiesta.

Seafood Platter

I only recently got to try Chicken Pianggang (P460) - at Lore - and Talisay also has this Sulu dish on their menu. This grilled chicken cooked in burned spiced coconut sauce is really good!

Chicken Pianggang

Their Malunggay Pasta with Kohol (P420) is like their version of pasta. It is homemade fresh malunggay pasta with native escargot (or simply put, snails) and malunggay coconut cream sauce. It was really good.

Malunggay Pasta with Kohol

As if all that food wasn't enough, we still managed to find room for dessert. I ordered the Orange Cashew Cake. My friend tried this cake before and she said she really liked it although I did think that the orange soda flavor was a bit artificial. It was still enjoyable overall.

Orange Cashew Cake

My friends shared the Dark Chocnut Chocolate Cake...

Dark Chocnut Chocolate Cake

...and the Cassava Cheesecake. (I missed out on taking note of the prices of these cake slices).

Cassava Cheesecake

Talisay The Garden Cafe is a really great find. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a good place to eat in Quezon City, especially in the Maginhawa area. I would certainly love to eat here again.

Talisay The Garden Cafe
https://www.facebook.com/TalisayGardenQC/
Address: UP-Village, 44 Maginhawa, Diliman, Quezon City, 1101 Metro Manila
Phone: (02) 8293 9077

International Dance Day 2026

For the second year in a row, I watched a couple of International Dance Day shows at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit Makati. This year, I saw the Folk Dance gala night on Thursday and the street dance gala night on Friday. (I would have also wanted to watch the ballet performance on Saturday night but I had a conflict.)

I really love the Folk Dance gala. For me, there is something deeply evocative and soul-stirring whenever I see Filipino folk dances, especially when they are performed well. I enjoyed this year's show immensely as I did last year's. This time, I tried to get a program before the show started so I could better appreciate the dances being performed. However, there seemed to have been some printing issue and we were told that the programs would only be available during the intermission. So the moment we got to the intermission, I headed out and checked if the programs were there and indeed they were. I of course got a copy.

Curtain call of all the performers of the Folk Dance Gala

All of the dances were great! The show featured 11 performances from 10 groups (one group performed twice). Check out this next video for the highlights from the Folk Dance Gala:

 

video uploaded in YouTube by CPATOfficial

One of my favorite performances was from Sindaw Philippines Performing Arts Guild. According to the program, "this dance is inspired by the culture of the Subanon people, portraying the journey from planting to a bountiful harvest." The finale of their performance was a spectacular dance that was like tinikling but on a more massive scale. There were multiple sets of dancers jumping skillfully between multiple sets of bamboo poles being clapped together, and these multiple sets of dancers and bamboo-clappers were moving across the stage and changing formations throughout the dance. My description doesn't do this performance any justice and I wish I could find a video of it. It was absolutely sensational dazzling to witness!

Musicians and Philippine instruments at the Folk Dance Gala

Another favorite of mine was the Philippine Normal University Kislap Sining Dance Troupe who performed a Muslim suite dance entitled "Bangsawan" which means nobility. This performance finished with singkil, which I always love seeing because of its drama, its power, and its impact. But the Pang-Apir, or graceful fan movements, was also extremely memorable. This dance had women in brightly colored outfits and vibrant fans dancing with very elegant and undulating movements. It was breathtaking to watch.

The next evening, I made my way to the Samsung Performing Arts Theater again, this time to watch the Street Dance Gala Night.

Curtain call of all the performers of the Street Dance Gala

You can check out the highlights here:

 

video uploaded in YouTube by CPATOfficial

There were a total of 9 groups that performed that evening. Unfortunately, there was no program. However, I did note down the name of every crew. They were, in order of performance: Vpeepz, Upeepz, Eleven 11, Armada, Mixed Nuts, UNRVLD, Femme MNL, Manoeuvres Ignite, and V3. The vibe of the street dance gala is different from the folk dance gala. For instance, cheering and applause during a dance is normal if not encouraged (in most other dances, applause is usually reserved after the performance). Once again, the dances were all fantastic. I loved the song selection that Mixed Nuts used in their number. My favorite performance may actually have been the first one from VPeepz, which had a chef/cooking theme. I loved everything about it! Apparently, this was the same routine they performed at the World of Dance Philippines 2026, for which they won first place. So I guess it makes sense that I loved it because the World of Dance Philippines judges did too. Here is a video of that performance:

 

video uploaded in YouTube by Official World of Dance

I'm really happy that I got to see a couple of gala nights from International Dance Day this year. Hopefully, this becomes an annual thing for me now.

Bonus: Tanaw-Laya Exhibit

While at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater, I passed by an exhibit called Tanaw-Laya, the 2nd National Persons Deprived of Liberty Art Exhibition. All the pieces on display were created by persons deprived of liberty or PDL. (This phrase was coined to avoid the negative stigma attached to terms like prisoners or inmates and to ensure that their human dignity is kept intact.)

This exhibit was made possible by many sponsors and groups, including The Bagong Buhay Group of Artists or BAGA. This collective was founded by former persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) and they use arts, such as painting and other crafts, and public exhibitions to help in the rehabilitation of PDLs.

I spent some time admiring the art here. I felt that every piece had a strong point of view. It made me wonder if the people who made them had created art before becoming PDLs or if they found their artist self through this journey of restorative justice. Either way, the paintings on exhibit were amazing.

Hopefully, art can be life-changing and truly rehabilitative for these  PDLs. 

 

Hapag ng Kulay: A Food, Arts, and Crafts Mini-Bazaar

I attended another art exhibit - Hapag ng Kulay - which was staged this April to celebrate Buwan ng Kalutong Pilipino or Philippine National Food Month. Artworks from several artists were on display and because it was Buwan ng Kalutong Pilipino, the theme of every painting was food, making it a really interesting showcase.

Hapag ng Kulay exhibit at LRI Design

I learned about Hapag ng Kulay from watercolor and coffee artist Yeye Calderon. I acquired one of his paintings recently and since then, we have met and become connected on social media. He posted about this exhibit, saying that there would be a special one-day event on April 18 that would include a mini-bazaar with food, an art class by Maryrose Gisbert, and art demo by Yeye himself. Many of the participating artists would also be there that day. I thought it would be a great opportunity to see Yeye Calderon in person again and to see him run a coffee painting demo. It would also give me a chance to meet a lot of other artists and see their work too so I decided to go.

Hapag ng Kulay mini-bazaar on April 18

I initially thought of just passing by but I ended up spending almost the entire day there. I arrived shortly before noon (I had a heavy brunch before I arrived). The pastel art class of Maryrose Gisbert was scheduled at 1pm. I was invited to join the class but I politely declined, saying that I was planning to leave soon. But as it turned out, I didn't leave. So at some point, Maryrose told, "you're still here, why don't you just join us?" but I still declined because there were already so many "students" there and all the tables were already full. Still, it was wonderful getting to see all those people create a pastel still life painting of some fruits.

Artist Maryrose Gisbert giving an art class on the use of pastels

Yeye's coffee painting demo started at around 3pm. He talked about the kind of coffee he uses, saying that he prefers to use instant coffee although he has also worked with brewed coffee in the past. He also told us that ideally, when you work with coffee or watercolor for that matter, you want to wait for the previous layer to dry before painting on top of it. But because this was a demo and we only had a limited time, he couldn't do that and he had to paint new layers even when the previous one was still wet. (I think the final demo painting still looked great despite this.) Someone in the audience asked him how he knows when the painting is done and ready. He said, you just know and feel it when you see it. The painting looked awesome at the end of the 1-hour demo, drawing much applause from the audience, but the next day, he posted a photo of that same painting that he continued to refine after the session.

Yeye Calderon doing a coffee painting demo

I left the exhibit at around 430pm but before I left, I somehow ended up getting something from practically every booth there. I purchased another painting from Mr. Calderon. It was small and relatively inexpensive, considering that it was already framed. Given its size, I felt I could easily slot it in somewhere on my walls at home.

My new painting from Yeye Calderon

I also purchased food from another booth. From yet another, I bought a couple of postcards. These were postcard versions of paintings by one of the artists there. I also got a fridge magnet version of another artist's painting of a bird.

Booths at the Hapag ng Kulay mini-bazaar

I also bought another relatively small painting from Arvin Yanuario. He said that it was a live painting that he made of the docks somewhere along Manila Bay. I had been thinking recently that there was a part of my kitchen wall that would look much better with a painting and efven before I got to this exhibit, I decided I wanted to place a predominantly blue painting there. When I saw this painting of Arvin, it felt like the right one to put at that spot at home. So I got it.

My new painting from Arvin Yanuario

As a gift for my purchase, Arvin gave me a Hapag ng Kulay mug that had his art printed on it. Cool!

My new Hapag ng Kulay mug

Technically, there was one booth that I didn't buy something from immediately. But that was because the painting I wanted, which was from one of the artists of that booth, had already been sold. I did talk to that artist who said I could commission a painting from her. I got her contact details so now I just need to sort things out.

Some of the artists of Hapag ng Kulay

My visit to Hapag ng Kulay turned to be a brilliant decision because I had a lovely and very relaxing time there. It was wonderful getting to meet and talk to so many amazing artists and even purchase some paintings from a couple of them. Art really does make life a lot better.

Blast from the Past: World of Survival and Age of Dinosaurs

After all these years, I got reunited with two very important parts of my childhood: complete World of Survival and Age of Dinosaurs sticker books!

World of Survival and Age of Dinosaurs

I had written before during my family's safari trip to Kenya that my brothers and I had always been huge fans of animals. We had so many books about animals as kids and we always went through the animal sections of the encyclopedias that we had at home. When I was in grade school, Figurine Panini released a sticker book called World of Survival. This book shared a wealth of knowledge about hundreds of different animals from all over the world. However, the pages of this book only included the information and details about the animals but not their pictures. People would then have to do blind buys of sticker packs to collect stickers of these animals.

The African Plains spread in World of Survival

My brothers and I all bought our fair share of stickers. Naturally, at the start, it was quite easy to fill our book with stickers. However, as we got close to completing it, we got more and more duplicates. They way to manage this was to trade stickers with our classmates and friends. This actually makes the sticker book completion journey a community experience.

The back page shares a comic strip on sticker swapping sprees

When we got close to completing our book, my mom helped us out. I'm not sure what she did but she was able to source the stickers that we still didn't have. It took some time and a lot of effort to put this book together but we finally did it. I guess being actively involved in completing our World of Survival sticker book made me more attached to it. This was such an important part of our childhood, as I'm sure it was to many other people my age.

The Philippine eagle is featured in one of the spreads

Shortly after that, Figurine Panini released another sticker book with the same set-up: Age of Dinosaurs. I think all kids - and maybe even adults? - have some kind of fascination with dinosaurs, which is probably why every Jurassic Park/World film was successful, if not wildly successful. Naturally, my brothers and I collectively worked to complete our own Age of Dinosaurs book.

The Age of Dinosaurs

I especially love the sections of those books where one photo requires multiple stickers to be completed. Naturally, there was some effort to apply these stickers very well because no one wanted the stickers to be crooked or misaligned. But it was always an achievement every time we completed one of these multi-sticker image sets.

The bottom right of this spread features a set that requires six stickers to complete

I'm just really happy that I finally found our World of Survival and Age of Dinosaurs sticker books. I actually tried looking for them a while back but I was unsuccessful. I thought that maybe over time, we had lost them. So I have my decluttering journey to thank for unearthing these fantastic, knowledge-filled treasures from our childhood. It does make me wonder, would today's kids enjoy putting together sticker books like these? Maybe not, but who knows?

The next step for me now is to re-read and enjoy these sticker books that I read so many times as a kid.

My Decluttering Journey Part 3

I am quite paranoid when it comes to disposing of items that contain personal information: bank statements, credit card bills, and medical test results, among many others. And yes, I see a bit of the irony that I write a blog and share a lot of information about myself while being this paranoid. That said, in this blog, I get to choose what I share and what I don't share inwhat I write, and it's that choice that makes the difference in my opinion haha. In any case, it is for this reason that I purchased a shredder many years ago, so I could efficiently tear up pieces of paper that I felt contained information that shouldn't be made available to others. Unfortunately, as I was about to use it, I realized it wasn't working anymore. Ugh! So I decided I had to purchase a new one. I didn't need a fancy, high-tech one so I just got the least expensive one I could find from Office Warehouse. 

My new shredder

The thing is, I have so many sheets of paper to get rid of. There are credit card statements from credit cards I no longer have, such as AIG, Metrobank, and my company Amex and Caltex cards. I also have old checks that were processed by the bank; apparently, my bank used to return to me via snail mail all the checks I wrote that had been successfully claimed and I still had them all. I also kept all these BDO bill payment slips for bills payments I made through BDO, such as my AIG and Eastwest Bank credit card which had a payment option through BDO. This was, of course, prior to the ease of paying online bills through Gcash. Still, I somehow never tossed out any of these slips and I amassed a ton of them over the decades. Then there are all the bank statements since my bank used to send me a physical copy of my statement regularly.

I also decided to get rid of almost all of my physical bills. After all, almost all entities now send billing statements electronically. I also just realized I still had physical bills of service providers I stopped using ages ago, specifically Destiny Cable and Bayantel. Finally, I also decided to shred all my work documents that I somehow still have, such as printed-out training materials and notes I've taken. I guess I'm really taking to heart all those company privacy rules that say that confidential company information should not be shared to anyone outside the company.

The interesting thing is, I'm so paranoid about this that even when I throw out all these shredded strips of paper, I still take an extra, unnecessary step: I separate each batch into a different bag and I toss them out into the garbage on different days. I really don't need to do this because it's not like there's anyone out there who plans on piecing together my trash like they do in the movies, when someone is trying to uncover secrets that have been shredded. I'm not really that important haha. Still, this is the process I've established for myself and I'm sticking to it hehe.

Shredding results

I'm nowhere near done because I don't want to overburden my shredder with too many sheets on any given day because the motor might conk out so I have a limit on the amount of papers I shred on any given day. That said, I have gone through maybe half of my stack now. Great progress!

Dinner Reunion

My friend Eugene moved to the US after we graduated high school. It took more than a decade after that before we saw each other again. He now visits the Philippines a bit more frequently, probably once everyone 1 to 2 years so we get to connect more often. But you know what they say great friendships: even after you haven't seen each other in a long time, the moment you do, you just pick up from where you left off. And that's exactly what happened when Eugene came back to Manila for a short visit. Our friend Mitch hosted dinner with Eugene and to make the night extra special, she prepared paella and ordered cochinillo from Jajaooh's. Wow! Needless to say, it was a very festive Spanish dinner.

Jajaooh's Cochinillo

What made our dinner even more memorable was that Mitch also invited our HS classmate Rose. Rose, Eugene, and I were actually classmates twice - during freshman year and again during senior year. This may actually have been the first time that Rose and Eugene spent time together since we graduated high school. It was truly a wonderful evening filled with fantastic food, great wine, incredible conversation, and wonderful reconnection. It's said that the friends you make in high school will be your friends forever. I guess this evening proved that. And I'm terribly grateful to have made friends who have continued to be part of my life years after we first met.