Great Start to the Year

It's only been a month since the new year started but I'm extremely thankful that a lot of great and wonderful things have already happened. First, the holiday get-togethers have continued. My high school friends and I met up early in the month at Mitch's place. We wanted something different so we agreed to have Korean food. Mitch set up a grill at the middle of her dining table so we could have a samgyup experience. We also ordered other dishes such as Korean fried chicken and fish cakes. It was a really good lunch but we all enjoyed it so much that we forgot to take a photo of our wonderful table spread! I was inspired by this meal that soon after that, I decided to order Korean food for lunch with my family one weekend. I ordered beef bulgogi and fish cakes (plus mixed vegetables, which isn't really Korean) from FoodTray2Go, chicken from 24 Chicken, and a tub of Kimchi that I bought from a Korean store. My family enjoyed it! This time, I made sure to take a photo.

Korean lunch at home

I also met up with my ex-teammates for our post-Christmas dinner at Sichu Malatang at The Podium. It was my first time eating at this hotpot restaurant where you select the ingredients of your dish, the level of spiciness, and thy prepare it for you. I quite enjoyed my food, which was very flavorful, and I wouldn't mind eating here again in the future.

Dinner at Sichu Malatang

I also got a couple of packs of Honey Butter Almonds from Korea. My friend went to Korea in December and I asked him if he could buy me some packs of honey butter almond and he said he could. I got this pack, with the brand BT21 (which according to BT21 Wiki "is a brand project of LINE Friends Corporation in collaboration with BTS".) The packaging is pretty cute and honey butter almonds can be quite addictive. While I originally planned on paying for it, my friend said that he was just giving it to me as a Christmas gift. Cool!

BT21 Honey Butter Almond

I also had a couple of board game nights this month. The first one was with FGTC to celebrate Jovan's birthday. I brought my Champions of Midgard game and the more I play this game, the more I enjoy it. I think it's in my top 5 favorite games right now. Rocky and Tobie also brought their Buffet Boss game, which is a dexterity game which requires you to place food-shaped pieces on top of each other. My set-up toppled over at some point so I didn't have a very tall structure in the end but while this game can be quite stressful haha, it was still enjoyable.

Buffet Boss

Shortly after that, I met up with my other group where we got to play another new game, Fit to Print. This game does tend to be a bit stressful as well when you end up getting too many articles, photos, and ads that don't fit on your newspaper page or if you didn't get enough of them and you end up with so much blank space. I didn't do very well at this game either haha.

Fit to Print

My family also celebrated my nephew's birthday at Vertis North. I was thinking he might enjoy Botejyu with its wide variety of Japanese food options but we ended up having lunch at Dean and Deluca instead. My nephew didn't really have a cake preference so I decided to get a crepe cake from Papermoon because aside from my mom, I don't think anyone else in my family has tried this delicious cake before. It was quite expensive but it was also a special occasion.

Papermoon Crepe Cake

Finally, I finished watching all 56 episodes of Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia. What a ride that was! It really has been a great year so far. Hopefully, my good fortune continues and January sets the stage for an amazing 2024.

Jannik Sinner Wins His First Grand Slam Title

Congratulations to Jannik Sinner for winning his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. He defeated Daniil Medvedev in a hard-fought 5-set match where he came from behind after being down two sets to love (the score: 3-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-3). Jannik has been the in-form player of the ATP tour recently so winning his first major isn't that surprising. He's always been a superb player, with many touting him early in his career as the next big thing, but something seems to have clicked in his head in the last couple of months because instead of being "just" a regular top 10 player, he now seems to be challenging for the top spot in tennis. If he maintains this level of play and stays consistent, I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes ATP #1.

I have to say though that I felt bad for Daniil Medvedev. This is the second time he lost a Grand Slam championship after being up 2 sets to none. In fact, it's the second time it's happened in the last three years. However, this time, he seemed less dejected about the loss. I think he knew that his best chance would be to close out the match as quickly as possible because he had spent an average of four hours per match leading to the final. After the final, Daniil emerged with the record for the most time played at a single Grand Slam event: 24 hours and 17 minutes. He played four 5-setters - including three consecutive ones in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the finals - and two 4-setters. His plan to win quickly looked like it was going to work as he controlled the first two sets but Sinner eventually found his footing and his game and Daniil seemed to eventually run out of gas.

Back to Sinner, another one of the highlights in his path to the finals was his semifinal win over Novak Djokovic. I have to mention this because prior to 2024, Novak had never lost the Australian Open after getting to the semifinals. The previous ten times that he made it to the semis, he went on to win the tournament. While Novak's semifinal win-streak has been broken, he still hasn't lost an Australian Open final.

On the women's side, Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended her title, making this her second Australian Open trophy and her second Grand Slam championship. She achieved this without dropping a set the entire tournament, which is the first time this has happened here since Serena Williams did it in 2007. Aryna's successful title defense also makes this the first time it has happened since Victoria Azarenka won back-to-back titles 11 years ago. This really is an incredible result for Aryna and if she can remain consistent, it will be interesting to see how many more majors she can win.

I also can't blog about a Grand Slam event these days without writing about my current tennis idol, Diede De Groot. Once again, she added to her staggeringly impressive achievements by winning the women's wheelchair singles. Again. This is her fourth consecutive Australian Open title and her sixth one in seven years. It is also her 14th major title in a row, with her last loss coming at the French Open 2020. I'm not even counting her wheelchair doubles results yet! I will run out of space if I keep writing about this so please check this link to see her astounding career statistics. She truly is a legend!

Congratulations to Jannik, Aryna, and Diede!

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

I finished reading Rules of Civility at the end of 2023, making it the second book I read last year. It was given to me as a gift two Christmases ago after I put it in my Secret Santa wishlist. I requested it because I enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow, written by the same author Amor Towles.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Rules of Civility tells the story of Katey Kontent, a bold, street-smart, and ambitious woman who gets thurst into the political and manipulative world of upper class society in New York in the 1930s. It's not hard to root for Katey, who relies on her good sense and astute ability to read people (for the most part) to find her way. Along her journey, she encounters many compelling characters, including Tinker Grey, a wealthy and charming banker whom she meets by chance at a bar on New Year's Eve.

It's a really engaging book, partly because the characters are fleshed out very well and partly because Katey's path is full of unexpected twists and turns, made even more complicated by the relationships she has with the people around her. Arguably the biggest plot twist comes in a bit earlier than I anticipated, mainly because in most plots, these revelations usually come close to the end. There's a moment in the book that I found to be quite heartbreaking and the ending left me with a bit of a lingering sadness, but I always find these evocative stories to be the best and most memorable ones.

I really do enjoy the books of Amor Towles that I read because he creates such interesting characters and weaves riveting stories. I have one more of his books - The Lincoln Highway - which I hope I get to read some time this year.

Welcome 2024!

Happy New Year! As is our family tradition, we celebrated New Year at home. I brought lots of food and my family heard mass together.

New Year Mass

Looking back, I have to say that 2023 was for the most part an amazing year. The highlight was me being able to take my mom and my nephews to Japan. We visited Osaka (with side trips to Kyoto and Nara) and Tokyo. It was my first international trip since the pandemic started and it was also the first time my nephews traveled abroad as adults. It was a fantastic and very memorable trip.

I also got to enjoy many restaurants, a lot of them for the first time and many of them with my family, including La Spezia, Half Saints, Escolta, Azadore, and Old Manila. I finally got to try Toyo Eatery with my friends. I discovered St. Louis Cafe, which I ended up visiting multiple times throughout the year. I also revisited many of my favorite restaurants, such as Old Swiss Inn and Bizu.

More highlights: I watched Hamilton with my family. At work, I got two new Scrum Certifications: Professional Scrum Master and Professional Agile Leadership: Evidence-Based Management. I had a bit of Swedish nostalgia as I visited Ikea Philippines and remembered my short stint in Sweden many years ago. I had a very efficient and pleasant car registration experience at QCIS. I got to play more of my previously unplayed board games. I read two books: Under the Whispering Door and Rules of Civility (which I still have to write about about).

I also finished the personal project that I started during the pandemic: writing throwback posts about trips I took before I started my blog. I finally got to write about my travels to Mt. Pulag, Tuguegarao, and Mexico. Cool!

Of course, it wasn't all positive. I lost some really important people in my life last year, including my grandmother whom we fondly call Nanay. Two of my cousins also passed on: Maricel and Via.

Still, I am very thankful that I continue to have wonderfully amazing and enriching moments with my family and friends. Hopefully, 2024 will be another great year. Cheers!