Busy Saturday

Weekends are supposed to be a time to relax and re-energize. Somehow that didn't happen last Saturday. I started out being late for a lunch party for Majel's children in Windmills & Rainforest. Majel and her family are based in Singapore and since it was a long weekend over there, they decided to come home to throw a party for the baptismal of her youngest and to celebrated two belated birthdays of her other two kids. It has been a while since I've seen Majel so it was good to catch up with her.

The party ended shortly before four so I had some time before my early dinner to get a haircut. The last time I got one was in April, a whopping four months ago! I keep telling myself I should have haircuts more frequently but somehow I never manage to get it done. :)

I ended up arriving at Stockton Place in Legazpi Village a few minutes before 6pm, making me early for dinner. As it turns out, I still wasn't the earliest there. Aries and his family overestimated the traffic last Saturday and somehow ended up in Makati at around half past five. Everyone else got there a bit late so it allowed me to catch up with Aries, who has been living in the UK for a while now.

I have to say that the food in Stockton Place is good but overpriced and the portion size is really small. I was initially planning to order the Crispy Pork Belly (P650) but when Aries and Audrey decided they were going to order it, I changed my order to the Poached Chicken (P550). Good move on my part because, while the portion size of my chicken wasn't huge, the pork belly was tiny! P650 for one strip of pork belly was a bit shocking, and while Aries shared his dismay, I was just thinking "thank God I changed my order". :) The steak that Lala, Kermin, Jed, and Ods shared was pretty good although you are required to order at least 800 grams of the steak so their steak cost about P3600. I'm not sure I'm all that interested to try Stockton Place again.

I had to leave just shortly after Letlet and Gosh arrived. Their plan was to head over to Jed and Ods place to watch the Gilas Pilipinas game versus South Korea after dinner. Unfortunately, I was double booked that night since I was also organizing a despedida at 8pm so I had to say goodbye at 7:30 before making my way to Centerstage in Makati.

My friend Basil was about to be assigned abroad so I gathered the troops to give him a proper send-off. And what better way to do that than through karaoke? I had a Deal Grocer voucher for a room in Centerstage that was perfect for us to use, especially since it's been ages since we all spent the night singing our lungs out in a videoke bar. I booked the room at 8pm and told Mari, who was one of the first people there, that my voucher was valid for five hours. She said that she thought five hours was too long and I disagreed. As it turned out, I was right. :) The fact that there were a few people there that night whom we haven't seen in a while meant that there was a whole lot of catching up to do amidst the singing. Before we knew it, it was already 1am and we were paying the bill.

As we were heading out, we all realized we were hungry and I told people jokingly we should go to IHOP which is open for 24 hours during the weekend. People then started saying "I haven't been there yet." Apparently, out of the dozen of us there, only three of us had been to IHOP before so we decided to go there for a post-karaoke meal.

Despite the very long and tiring day, I got home feeling quite energetic. Maybe it was because I got to spend some really good time with a lot of good friends and even seeing some people whom I haven't seen in a while. Or maybe it was the sugar rush from my IHOP meal. :) Whatever the reason, it was definitely a memorable day.