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.