Last Saturday I went out with Anna, Iona, and Joyce in Gateway, the supposedly cool new place to be in Cubao (Mitch and Ferg were still touring Europe so they couldn't be with us). It actually wasn't bad, and it makes Cubao a more interesting place to hang out again.
I actually started the day off with a meeting with Ray and Jay at Ray's unit in Ortigas. Topic was the future of Bukas Sarili since Stanford accepted Ray's application and he will be leaving for Palo Alto in end-July.
After that I headed to Robinson's Galleria to look for running shoes. The running shoes I have, the ones I used for my marathon last year, are a bad fit and when I run more than 10km in them I end up getting very bad blisters (as I did when I ran the marathon last year). I couldn't find any in Robinson's Galleria so I decided to go to Shangri-la Mall and look for shoes there. I couldn't find the running shoes that were recommended to me by www.roadrunnersports.com (I'm flatfooted so I need to find shoes with motion control) so I looked for another similar shoe and ended up with New Balance 765, which was on sale actually. I haven't been able to run in them yet, though, (I have to remind myself to buy thick running socks - Thorlo - tomorrow so I can run on Sunday).
I was then supposed to meet with the gang there at around 7pm for dinner but when I had purchased my running shoes and had nothing better to do in the Ortigas area, I decided to head to gateway early and check the place out.
It's actually quite cool. Greenbelt-looking, albeit with a bit less space to move around in. Some of the shops and restos there are quite high end so we know which market Gateway is trying to pull in. I discovered that there was a Columbia shop there. Columbia is an outdoor activity and sports store (I guess similar to Northface), which has these hmm light-weight, 'dri-fit'-type 'convertible' pants - you know, the pants that have a zipper at the knee area to allow you to use them as either long pants or shorts? I am kind of on a budget right now so I figured I wouldn't buy them just yet. Maybe in July before I take two weeks off for vacation.
I then met up with Anna who was looking for a wedding gift for Gary and Winnie, and we subsequently met up with Joyce and Iona. We were planning on having dinner in Cibo, although I really wanted to eat at Taco Bell since Gateway is the only place in the Philippines with a Taco Bell. Unfortunately for me, Iona had already eaten there and didn't really like it. Anna suggested we try Pizza Hut Bistro because the menu had items that were not sold in any other Pizza Hut. I had this tortellini dish and also ordered the chicken popcorn pizza (which is currently one of my favorite pizzas around). Pretty good meal. We then capped off the night at Coffee Bean.
All in all not bad. Gateway is a bit cramped when you compare it to Greenbelt, Powerplant and Shangrila mall, but I wouldn't mind going there. The extra bonus you get there is that they have valet parking (pricier but at least you don't have to worry about looking for parking).
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