Christmas and Carmageddon

Christmas is arguably the biggest holiday celebration in the Philippines. We have become world-famous for our very long celebration of Christmas that starts in September and lasts until early to mid January.

Christmas in Greenbelt

It makes for a very festive time, especially from early December (or even late November) to early January when people schedule get-togethers with family and friends. And colleagues, of course. Speaking of, we had our company Christmas party in early December and it was provided a great venue to spend time with teammates without having to worry about work, at least for a night. We initially wanted to have our photo taken as a group at the designated photobooth but the line was extremely long so we decided to have our photos taken at the many bright and beautifully decorated Christmas trees at Solaire North, where our party was held. Naturally, I had to have my solo photo taken too!

Colorful Christmas at Solaire North

Our department Christmas party was held a week later at a venue that was about a 15-minute walk from our office. It was memorable for so many reasons. I somehow won best male costume. Our theme was the 1980s and I wore a Menudo-style outfit that I had worn before. My friend Vei, whom I have known now for a really long time since we worked together many years ago, won best female costume. We were then asked to dance on stage and the funny thing is, people might have thought that us dancing together on stage would embarrass us in the way that the new hire dance numbers during Christmas are like a painful rite of passage that rookies have to endure but for us it was the opposite; we were game and excited hahaha. We both sort of knew some popular Pinoy choreography from the 80s so we asked the DJ to play "Shake Body Dancer" and "Rico Mambo", both of which had dances that were popularized by Maricel Soriano. Finally, I won a pretty decent raffle prize: P1,000 worth of Starbucks GCs. Cool! Oh, and my prize for best costume was a P2,000 GC at Uniqlo. Awesome! I had been needing to get a new pair of shorts and some new socks and underwear so this prize was perfect for me.

My best costume prize: a Uniqlo GC

I mentioned that our department Christmas party was held quite near the office and that worked out well for me because it meant I could just leave my car at work and walk to our Christmas party venue, which I did. Because, while Christmas is mostly festive and celebratory, it also comes with a massive downside: horrendous traffic. Carmageddon is video game released in 1997 but it now also used as a term to describe proverbial doom brought about by too many cars on the road. It is such a smart play on words and an appropriate description of how gnarly and horrific things get on the city streets during the Yuletide season. Metro Manila already has one of the worst traffic situations in the world and the holiday season aggravates it significantly. Case in point: on my way to Estancia in early December to join some ex-colleagues for Christmas dinner, I got stuck in traffic along Pioneer and my ETA according to Waze kept on adjusting to a later time. It took me maybe 30 minutes to get through that relatively short stretch of road. Horrible!

This 12 minute jam turned into a 30 minute jam

Thankfully, a few of my other get-togethers recently were for brunch or lunch, meaning that traffic was not too bad yet. I met up with my friend Jenn at Crepe Glazik and with my friend Eliza at Watami in Shangri-La Mall. My Christmas board game night with FGTC was held in the evening but it was at my friend Myna's house which is not too far from where I live and the traffic to get to her place is thankfully not bad. And while we are on the topic of my board game night, I finally won a game for the first time in a while: Spots. It's a cool and cute game, especially if you love dogs, and it's easy to learn and quick and relatively easy to play. (There's also a lot of luck involved so my win was most likely due to luck than to strategy haha but I will take whatever win I can get!)

Playing and winning Spots

One other evening get-together I had was with my previous work team at Osteria Antica in Podium. We chose this place because none of us had eaten there yet and we had all been interested in it, even before it got its Michelin Selected status. What I didn't know is that Osteria Antica is actually the rebirth of Wildflour Italian. The place was full when we arrived and we didn't have a reservation but they did have a table outside so we took it. It was really dark outside without a lot of light sources so I couldn't take good photos of our food haha. Still, we really enjoyed our dinner here.

Dinner at Osteria Antica

My recent experience getting stuck along Pioneer for about half an hour or so has left me thinking whether I want to start declining invites for evening Christmas get-togethers in the future so I can avoid getting badly stuck in traffic. Still, I do find that at least for now, the pros outweigh the cons so I may still keep trying to brave Christmas Carmageddon to meet up with friends. (Ask me again a few years ago if that's still how I feel haha.)

Prologue in Rockwell

You know you're getting older when many of your get togethers are now brunches and lunches instead of dinner and drinks haha. My friends and I hadn't seen each other in a while so we agreed to have brunch at Prologue in Rockwell.

Prologue in Rockwell

It's not my first time eating at Prologue. In fact, I had eaten at two of their branches a few times already - Rockwell and Greenhills - but I hadn't written about this place in detail yet. I thought that maybe now, I should. 

We decided to order multiple dishes for us to share. We had the Moules Mariniere, which is kinda like the Belgian dish Moules et Frites or mussels and fries.

Moules Mariniere

We wanted to have some pasta so we ordered Pancetta Carbonara, which is prepared with Iberico pancetta and a sous vide egg.

Pancetta Carbonara

Since we were having pasta, we thought we'd also get Pepperoni Pizza to go with it.

Pepperoni Pizza

We also ordered Beef Burgundy, which is Wagyu beef cheek cooked in red wine.

Beef Burgundy

Despite eating a lot of food already, we still had a bit of room for dessert. We ordered the Ube Halaya, which looked really pretty.

Ube Halaya

We also had the Dulce De Leche Cheesecake.

Dulce De Leche Cheesecake

Aside from the great food, what I also like about Prologue is all the art on display on the walls. (The Greenhills branch also has some really cool and interesting art.)

Art display on the walls of Prologue

Prologue in Rockwell is located at the ground floor of Aruga Serviced Apartments. It is bright and airy, with a lot of natural light coming in, making it a very comfortable and relaxed space. Aruga is right across the street from Power Plant Mall, across the street from Amorsolo Drive.

Prologue Rockwell
https://www.instagram.com/prologue.ph
Address: Aruga by Rockwell, Waterfront Dr, Rockwell Center, Makati City, 1200 Metro Manila
Phone: 0960 525 4640

Reunions and Rustan's Retail Therapy

I recently had a couple of reunions with some ex-colleagues who are now based in the US. My dear friend Amy was in Manila for work, which was a bit surprising since her work didn't normally bring her to Manila and she would usually come here on personal trips to visit her family. Her schedule was packed but thankfully, we managed to find a common time. She was staying at Shangri-La The Fort so I suggested that we could head over to One Bonifacio which has many restaurants. We ended up having dinner at Ramen Nagi because Amy loves Japanese food and ramen seemed like a good idea. We didn't have a lot of time together that night because Amy had a work meeting later that evening but it was truly awesome being able to catch up with her after many years. It was also pretty cool to see the Christmas decorations at the lobby of Shangri-La The Fort where I had my photo taken hehe.

Christmas Tree at the lobby of Shangri-La The Fort

I also got to have dinner with two other ex-colleagues - Suzanne and Nenen. We had dinner with our other friends and ex-colleagues in L' Opera in BGC. It's been a few years since I last saw them both so there were many stories to share that evening. Nenen is celebrating a milestone birthday in a couple of years and she already invited us in advance haha. I think she might be celebrating in her hometown so that means all the attendees might travel there to celebrate with her. If so, that would be great since our group had been trying to plan an out-of-town trip for a while. In fact, we were all supposed to travel to Cebu in the summer of 2020 but those plans had to be abandoned because of the global pandemic. L'Opera has been around for a while - it was originally in Makati before moving to BGC - but I think this might have been the first time I dined here. We shared steak and pasta and capped off the evening with dessert. The restaurant is on the expensive side but the food is really good.

Steak at L'Opera in BGC

My recent visits to Rustan's seem to have triggered some kind of shopping bug as I made a few more purchases here recently. First, I bought a couple of shirts from National Geographic. I didn't even realize that National Geographic actually has clothes. This brand is quite expensive but when I was there, they had several shirts that were 50% off making them a lot more affordable. I decided I wanted to get one shirt for myself then I thought I'd get one more shirt that maybe I could give as a gift in Christmas. In the end, I decided to keep both shirts haha.  The cool thing about National Geographic is that, as the tag indicates, "every purchase helps support the global nonprofit National Geographic Society in its work to protect and illuminate our world through exploration, research, and education." I really love the shirts I got. They fit me well and the fabric is soft and comfortable but doesn't feel too fragile. They are a bit expensive - less so because of the 50% discount - but I'm really happy with this purchase.

I also bought a new pair of Sledgers shoes at Rustan's because my favorite pair of black leather shoes were already too worn and needed to be replaced.

My new Sledgers

As it turned out, when I bought these shoes, there was a promo that if you spend at least P1,000, you get a free butter beer gift. Cool!

Free butter beer!

They don't make them like they used to

Two of the most awesome things in my wardrobe are these two leather belts from Marithe Francois Girbaud. What's makes them so cool is that I've had them for more than two decades already. Wow!

My Marithe Francois Girbaud belts

I bought them a long time ago. I first bought the black one and realized I really liked it. So soon after that, I also bought the brown one. I tend to use a black belt more often so you can see a lot more wear and tear on it. I love the fact that these belts fit me even as my weight and waistline have gone up and down. It seems the length of these belts and the range of the belt holes have allowed me to wear them both at my thinnest and at my heaviest, at least in the last 20 years.

The other great thing about them is that despite me using both very regularly for more than two decades, they haven't broken, snapped, ripped, or have parts of them get detach. In fact, they have significantly outlasted a lot of other leather belts I bought over the years. So at least in this case, they really don't make them like they used to. I truly wasn't expecting them to last this long when I bought them so it's such a pleasant surprise that they have.

Sourdough Cafe in Proscenium

My ex-colleagues and I had a mini-reunion over dinner at Sourdough Cafe in Rockwell. When we were trying to figure out where to meet, I remembered a photo that a friend of mine posted. She was having lunch with her friends and the restaurant they were at looked really nice. I asked her where that was and she told me it was Sourdough in Rockwell. I suggested this place to my friends and we all agreed.

Sourdough Cafe in Proscenium, Rockwell

When I got there, I have to say, it does really look nice. It's also very photogenic.

Inside Sourdough Cafe

The food is pretty good too. I ordered the Prawn Risotto which was very flavorful.

Prawn Risotto

We also shared a tartine. (I can't recall which one it was though, it might have been the Beetroot Cured Salmon.)

Tartine

For dessert, I ordered the Apple Crumble Cheesecake. I selected this because it an interesting flavor and I'm glad I did because it was really good!

Apple Crumble Cheesecake

As I mentioned, Sourdough Cafe in Rockwell is really beautiful. It just looked very sleek, chic, and tastefully decorated.

Even the restroom is really interesting, with its really cute and quirky wallpaper.

I'm quite happy that my friends and I got to try this place. I definitely recommend it and I hope I get to enjoy a meal here again soon.

Sourdough Cafe Proscenium Rockwell
Located in: The Proscenium Retail Row at the Plaza
Address: 2nd floor, Proscenium Retail Row, Makati City, Metro Manila
Phone: 0917 158 9463

Dionne Warwick tops my 2025 Spotify Wrapped

Spotify Wrapped results have come out and the iconic Dionne Warwick was at the top of mine. The reason: Dionne's concert One Last Time in Manila last January. After that show, I build a playlist of her music that I listened to frequently. As a result, my top Spotify artist in 2025 is Dionne Warwick. I am in the top 0.04% of people who listened the most to her globally. Wow!

My top song: Alfie by Dionne Warwick. She also occupied the top 2 spots of my top 5 songs for 2025, with Promises, Promises being ranked #2.

My other top artists include - in order - Maki, Florence and the Machine, Chappell Roan, and Roland Dyens. This is the second year in a row that Maki makes my top 5. Florence and the Machine is the only artist who has consistently been in my top 5 since I started listening to music on Spotify. Roland Dyens is a French classical guitarist and composer and he rounded out my top 5 because I added his entire Suite Polymorphe (movements I through VIII) after my nephew performed some of these movements with his guitar group during the Kaliwa't Kanang Kalabitan: Guitar Ensemble Festival last August. I must have listened to Roland Dyens a whole lot in the last three months since he leapfrogged several other artists to make it to my top 5.

My top artists list shows that I am quite eclectic when it comes to music, listening to different genres from different generations. March 11 was apparently my most diverse day where I listened to 18 genres in 132 minutes. That's a little more than 7 minutes per genre. When you think that the average song runs for about 4 minutes, 7 minutes per genre would indicate that I listened to an average of a little less than two songs per genre that night. Wow!

Another interesting day was October 16. While I started listening to trance music, a genre I love to this day, I ended up listening to mostly classical music that day, which also turned out to be my biggest music day of the year. (I am a bit incensed that Spotify identified Moonlight Sonata as being Rousseau's when it is actually from Beethoven!)

Not surprisingly, my listening age is 77 hahaha. Spotify says that I was into music from the early 60s and that I'm an old soul.

Finally, and this is not a surprise, it seems I listen to music that gives me and other listeners good vibes.

I always look forward to my Spotify Wrapped. My results have varied from year to year but one thing has remained: the diversity of the music I listen to. It will be interesting to see if any of my top songs or artists in 2025 will make it to my top lists in 2026.

My comfort show isn't my comfort show anymore

9-1-1, a TV drama series about first responders and cops that used to be on Fox but is now on ABC, has been one of my favorite shows for a while now. I started watching it in its second season but I was able to watch Season 1 through reruns. Now, the show is on its 9th season. I love the characters and their family dynamic. Seeing them go through a lot of stuff individually and as a group has made me quite emotionally invested in them and in the show as a whole.

I've been following 9-1-1 quite religiously for years because it was my comfort show. By that, I mean that no matter what kind of deadly situation the lead characters had to face, they always came out of it alive. A bit worse for wear but still alive.

Which is why the death of Captain Bobby Nash, the head of Firehouse 118 and the father figure of everyone there, was a very bewildering and unpleasant twist that I felt kind of goes against what I believe is the grain of the show. While I can't speak for everyone, the appeal of 9-1-1 to me is that for the most part, it makes you feel good after watching it. You might go through an emotional roller coaster with high highs and low lows, and this can sometimes span multiple episodes, but after all of it, you see everyone triumph over adversity. Bobby's death does not feel like a triumph over adversity. Worse, the family dynamic of the firehouse has been permanently altered for the worse.

Bobby was actually killed off in the previous season (8) and the 9th season already premiered in October. When I learned on X (previously Twitter) that Bobby died, I actually didn't watch any of the remaining episodes that season. I only recently decided to start watching again because I realized I am still invested in the rest of the characters and I still want them all to have amazing and interesting arcs and (fictional) lives. It just sad that a very integral part of the 118 is no longer around.