Movies, Netflix, and Disney+

Wicked

I absolutely love the musical so I wasn't sure whether the movie version would do it justice. Thankfully, it absolutely did! It is such a fantastic film. Its run time is 2 hours and 40 minutes long and it's only the first act so one could think that it might be dragging or too long but it didn't feel that way. It was fast-paced and incredibly engaging. People had all been talking about the "Dancing through life" scene which was explored more here in the movie and I have to agree, it was very powerful. I had written about how much I love Wicked before and all that still holds in the film version. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande both killed it in their respective roles as Elphaba and Glinda and I am definitely looking forward to part 2.

The Wild Robot

This was an enjoyable movie and a good way to relax and get away from the daily stress of work. I kinda like how the Wild Robot becomes a part of island that it finds itself in and builds relationships with the animals there, including one goose in particular. It was a good film with a lot of positives. While I somehow didn't connect with the characters in a way that I do with some of my other favorite animated films, there were quite a few scenes there that did make me cheer.

On Netflix, I finally watched my first k-drama: Itaewon Class. I decided to watch this because a couple of my friends said that they actually prefer this show to Crash Landing on You, which is like the gold standard among k-dramas. As it turns out, I am NOT the target market of Itaewon Class haha. I like the permise, the story, and the many twists and turns for the most part but there is one particular character in it - a protagonist at that - that I strongly disliked. I think my dislike for that character soured my enjoyment of the show haha. I now need to find time to watch Crash Landing on You.

On Disney+, I am finally caught up on 9-1-1, which is one of my favorite shows. I'm quite happy that on its current 8th season, the latest episodes become available on Disney+ almost immediately after they are released in the US. Cool! The show is on a winter break right now and the second half of season 8 will start in March. I can't wait!

I also finally finished all eight seasons of Castle. I started watching this show because I knew it was a light and fun crime-fighting show so it would be easy to watch and help me relax. That said, I am now in my Criminal Minds phase, a show which is certainly not light and fun haha. I used to watch Criminal Minds when it was still being shown on cable - it hasn't in a long time - so now that I have access to its first 17 seasons, I thought I would start watching it. I am now in season 9 and I still love this show.

My recent trip to Kenya also reminded me that Disney+ includes National Geographic so I started watching animal and wildlife shows. One series I had just completed is a show called Savage Kingdom. As its name suggests, it shows the brutal war that predators in Africa wage against each other. It can be tough to watch but it is really well made and watching this show really reminded me of my family's safari adventure in Kenya.

Rafa Nadal Retires

It's the end of an era. Rafa Nadal, my favorite male tennis player of all time, played his last professional tennis match at the Davis Cup.

Gracias Rafa, for everything ❤️💛#DavisCup #GraciasRafa #Rafa pic.twitter.com/zpoenLcXel

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) November 19, 2024

To be honest, I didn't feel too sad about his retirement, probably because I kinda knew it was coming. He's been dealing with really injuries his entire career but recently, it has taken much longer for him to return after getting injured and matches and wins were fewer and further between. In fact, he barely played in 2024.

While I wish Nadal won more majors (including a 15th French Open), I kinda love the fact that my two favorite tennis players - him and Steffi Graf - both ended their career with 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Cool!

I do wonder wonder if there will be some special tribute for him at Roland Garros in 2025. I read that he was asked about being given one when he competed at the French Open but apparently he declined, saying that there would be an opportunity for this some other time. I don't know if this was because Rafa was still thinking of competing in 2025 or not. Nevertheless, I'm hoping they invite him back this year even as a retired player and thy do something really special for him.

Farewell Rafa! May you have a good life after your retirement. Vamos!

Talabar Kitchen and Cafe (with a side trip to Half Saints)

My friends and I were going to meet up for lunch in some other resto in the Tomas Morato area. But Morato is notorious for its difficult parking situation. I was first to arrive at the restaurant but there were absolutely no parking slots available anywhere nearby and if I had difficulty looking for parking, then so would my other friends. I did remember one of my friends in that group recommend Talabar Kitchen and Cafe so I decided to check that place out. When I arrived, there were a lot of available parking spaces. I decided to switch our lunch venue to Talabar and told my friends.

Talabar Kitchen and Cafe

While this wasn't our original plan, it turned out extremely well. They serve really Filipino food, sometimes with a unique twist to it. We ordered several dishes including Sizzling Beef Sinigang (P650),

Sizzling Beef Sinigang

Black Calamari (P340),

Black Calamari

Crispy Pata (P1,450) which is so tender that you can cut through it with a popsicle stick (I think Livestock popularized the use of a popsicle stick to cut into crispy pata to demonstrate its tenderness),

Crispy Pata

and Vegetable Binagoongan (P370).

Vegetable Binagoongan

The food was really good and very flavorful so I understand why one of my friends recommended it. It's also decently priced when compared to other similar Filipino restaurants. Apparently they market themselves as "The First Premium Oyster Bar in Quezon City" but since no one in our group were big fans of oysters, we didn't order them. Talabar also has an xxtensive drinks menu and they are open til 1Am on most days (until 3AM on Fridays and Saturday), this could be an ideal place to hang out and unwind in the evening. The big bonus for me is that they have lost of parking space in the complex. If you run out of parking, I think you can also park along the road.

Oyster display

If you are looking for good Filipino food in the QC area where parking is not going to be a big problem, I recommend Talabar Kitchen and Cafe.

Talabar Kitchen and Cafe
https://www.facebook.com/talabar.ph
Address: Grandia Place, Mother Ignacia Brgy, Diliman, Quezon City, 1103 Metro Manila
Phone: 0962 046 4914

*****

After lunch, we moved to Half Saints to have dessert and coffee. It's only a block away and we thought it would be nice to try two different places. Here, we ordered the Ruby Chocolate Pistachio Tart (P300),

the Merci Buko Cream Puff (P285),

and the 64% Dark Chocolate Tart with Himalayan Pink Salt (P290).

I had eaten here before but this was the first visit for some of my friends so I was happy they got to try it. I will say that I was a bit gutted that they no longer have the Queso de Bola and Paprika Lava Tart on their menu. I had that in my last two visits to Half Saints and it was my absolute favorite item here.

Trip to the Beach

For the first time since I went to Cebu back in 2022, I found myself at the beach. This time around, it was for an office team building event which was held at Acuaverde Beach Resort in Batangas. It's been ages since I last went to a Batangas beach and this was my first time in Acuaverde. Thankfully, the weather was great when we were there.

My first trip to the beach in more than two years

I actually haven't been on an out-of-town team building in a long time. We obviously didn't have face-to-face team buildings during the pandemic and we had our first face-to-face one last year. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend that because I had a personal emergency. It was good spending time with colleagues who are also friends in a non-work setting.

Acuaverde Beach Resort

One of the highlights for me was that our team was declared overall champion of the games, much to my surprise because none of us in our team were feeling competitive and we actually played the first game very badly, ending up in last place haha. I guess you could say it was a come-from-behind victory for us because we started in last place and ended up in first. The evening socials were a lot of fun too with lot of food and drinks and a crazy karaoke night. At some point, it felt like it was my concert because I probably sang half of all songs that night haha. Please note though that it wasn't my choice. Many times, someone would put a song in the queue but they wouldn't sing it and I ended up singing all those songs that no one wanted to sing haha.

I was originally not a fan of having our team building event in a beach, 3 hours away from Metro Manila but in the end, I was happy we did especially given how stressful things have been at work. There's really something relaxing and restorative about being at the beach.