Family lunch at Romulo's

Romulo's is a fairly new restaurant in the Tomas Morato area, located at the corner of Scout Tuason and Scout Dr. Lazcano. It is owned by the family of Carlos P. Romulo offers really good yet affordable Pinoy cuisine.


My family had lunch here a few Sundays ago as a belated Father's Day celebration. My grandfather was unavailable during Father's Day itself so we scheduled a trip to in Romulo's a week after.

I really like the ambience. It's really cozy and comfortable and the decor and color scheme make you feel quite at home. The service is also quite commendable, with waiters very quick to customer needs.


(Side note: My friend Anj recently told me to include food photos when I write about restaurants I visit so here's my lame attempt at a food blog LOL. Notice how most of the shots are out of focus - everyone was so hungry that I just took quick pics of the food as they arrived without constructing the shots properly. :))

Some of our favorite items were the Flying Tilapia with three sauces (sweet chili garlic, honey bagoong, and pickled ampalaya in soy vinegar),


the Ginataang Hipon sa Kamias,


and the Bagnet Pakbet.
Other menu items we ordered: Lengua, Pork Belly Humba, Bangus Belly, and Sisig Rice. We also had some dessert to cap off our wonderful meal. We ordered two items (actually we ended up ordering two of each since my nephews enjoyed them): for local Pinoy flavor, we ordered the Suman (check out the cool presentation)


And for some international flavor, we also ordered the Lava Rock (really good chocolate cake ala mode).


Most of the items we ordered were in the P200-300 range, so for the ambience, great food, and excellent service, that's really good value for money. Hopefully, I can enjoy another meal in Romulo's soon.

Spain!

Spain finally live up to expectations and won the World Cup! It was a difficult and very physical match that required extra time, but in the end, it was a solitary goal that got Spain their first ever World Cup trophy. It was also nice to see Rafa Nadal joined the Spanish squad in their celebration.

In other World Cup-trending topics, Paul the Octopus has a perfect 8-for-8 prediction record. He correctly selected the winner in all 7 matches played by Germany (including the battle for 3rd) as well as the final World Cup match between Spain and England.

***

Up North, Mark Webber wins another Grand Prix - this time in Silverstone - with Lewis Hamilton placing second. Jenson Button had a horrible qualifying round, landing him in 14th place, but he moved up really nicely and managed to place a very decent 4th. Hamilton and Button remain at #1 and #2 in the Drivers Championships respectively, but Webber overtakes Sebastian Vettel to go up to #3. It should be interesting to see how Red Bull Racing plan out the next race in Germany, which is Vettel's hometown.

Picnicking in La Mesa Eco-Park

Aya, the daugher of my friends Iona and JP, turned 2 early last week. The celebration was held earlier this afternoon in La Mesa Eco-Park. Iona and JP invited a few of their friends to join them for a picnic in the park. I know I went to La Mesa Dam as a kid but I don't have any clear memory of that, and I haven't been there since.

I made a mistake getting the picnic venue though. I went into the La Mesa Dam entrance which is about 15 to 20 minutes away from the Eco-Park entrance so I was pretty late getting to the party. I also didn't pay attention to the invitation details that indicated the picnic was supposed to be potluck but luckily the other folks brought a lot of food. The trending topic of the afternoon was the chicken-pork adobo terrine that Rambie brought. Apart from being really good, it also got people into a discussion of what exactly a terrine was - some of us like myself had heard of the term but didn't know exactly what it was until this afternoon, others had never heard the word before lol (a terrine is a French forcemeat loaf that is served at room temperature; similar to a pâté, a terrine uses more coarsely chopped ingredients).

To complete the birthday party, Iona and JP also brought a big chocolate birthday cake complete with a #2-shaped candle that Aya blew out after we sang 'Happy birthday'. We still stayed for about an hour after to share more stories and catch up. Joyce was also there, and while she had already shared a lot of stories with me the night before (I had dinner with her, Janice, and Sep in Sango!), we hung out for only about an hour so there were a lot more stories to share. Iona also mentioned this really nice cafe in Masinag that she suggested we try some time soon.

The downside to what was a really fun afternoon was the fact that JP had to fix a flat tire in the rain. The jack in their car didn't work very well but thankfully I had a really good one in my car. It took a while to replace the flat with the spare - during which time JP and I talked about how much we hated flat tires LOL - but at least everything got sorted out.

Marathon pictures

Thanks to Photovendo, I have pictures from my last marathon! Here's one of my favorite ones:

You can check out my marathon for a cause blog to see more photos taken of me during the run.

Rafa wins again!

Rafael Nadal didn't play at his best, but he didn't need to. He swept Tomas Berdych in straight sets to win the Wimbledon trophy last Sunday. His win by the numbers:

• 2nd Wimbledon title
• 2nd Grand Slam title this year
• 2nd time he has completed the elusive French Open-Wimbledon double
• 8th Grand Slam title in his career. He now has the same number of slam titles as Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl.

Nadal now has an almost 4000 point lead over current #2 Novak Djokovic, which gives him a very good chance of ending the year #1. He now has his sights set on winning the US Open, the only Grand Slam event where he hasn't made an appearance in the finals yet. If he can maintain his form and remain healthy, he might have a chance of completing the career Grand Slam. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

My seventh marathon for a cause. Can you believe it?

It wasn't the easiest 42 kilometers by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it took me a lot longer to complete this year's marathon compared to my previous six runs. But I finished it. And with that, I managed to raise what is now more than P50,000 for PGH. Woohoo!

You can read more about my 7th marathon for a cause here. Thanks again to all my family and friends for all the support, encouragement, and generosity! :)

Wimbledon stunner

Who would've guessed it? After reaching the semifinals or better in 23 consecutive Grand Slam events, Roger Federer has now lost in the quarterfinals in both the French Open and Wimbledon this year. Both times, he lost to a big guy with a big game - Robin Soderling hit him off the court in Roland Garros and Thomas Berdych took a page off Robin's book and did the same to Federer on Centre Court in Wimbledon.

This loss, as well as Novak Djokovic's advancement to the semifinals, means that for the first time since 2003, Roger Federer will be ranked outside the top two. When the rankings officially come out on Monday, Rafa Nadal will remain at #1 while Novak Djokovic goes up to #2, bumping Federer off to #3. Given that Roger started the year off with his 16th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and was one win away from eclipsing Pete Sampras' men's record of 286 weeks at #1 (his loss to Soderling meant he is a week shy of equaling Pete), this turn of events is stunning.

I guess even Fed himself was stunned and was not that ready to deal with a loss, as evidenced by his not-so-gracious post-match interview. I guess you could argue that most great champions need to have that arrogance to stay at the top of the game, but what he said and how he said it was just a bit too distasteful for my liking.

Should be interesting to see how the rest of the season goes. I would be thrilled if Nadal can defend enough points until the end of the year to remain #1 at the end of the year. Would be even better if he manages to win Wimbledon (or the US Open!) along the way.

Inauguration

Almost 2 months after the May 10 elections, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III becomes the 15th president of the Philippines.

I only caught part of the inauguration though. I had my place cleaned (I used to clean my own place then I realized it it was just better use of my time and effort to pay a few hundred bucks for maid service so that's what I do now) and since that took a couple of hours, I decided to have my car washed as well. There was a TV at the carwash and so I actually caught part of Noynoy's speech while I was there.

A lot of promises were made in that speech and while I don't know how much of it will be actualized, I am hoping for the best. The thing we have to remember though is that change or improvement in our way of life doesn't come just from one person or one government but from everyone. The best thing for us to do really is to figure out how we can contribute and to do our share.

Clear path to the title

Wimbledon seems to be copying the French Open. At least in the women's draw. The semifinals features two unseeded players as well as the woman currently ranked #21. This isn't the group of women you expect to see in the final four. Except it also features current #1 Serena Williams who seems to be in unbeatable form at the moment.

In her past 5 matches, Serena has not dropped a set and has hit an incredible 73 aces (that's about 15 aces per match or 7 aces per set)! She is also on track to break the women's record for most aces hit in a Grand Slam singles event (the record is currently held by Martina Navratilova). It's highly unlikely that any of the remaining women can beat Serena on grass which means the younger Williams sister is almost certain of hoisting her 13th Grand Slam trophy on Saturday. This will move her past Billie Jean King (who currently has 12) to solo 6th place in terms of most Grand Slam singles titles won, and right behind Navratilova and Chris Evert who both have 18.

Marathon #7

It's that time of year again. The Milo Marathon will be held this Sunday, July 4. Less than a week left!


You can read more about my marathon for charity here. Wish me luck!

What a shame!

England have been bundled out of the World Cup by Germany, who beat them 4-1. But while Germany were clearly stronger team and deserved to go through, it's just unfortunate that Frank Lampard's goal did not count when in fact it very clearly crossed the goal posts.

You could argue that it wouldn't have made a difference - Germany had that match in their grip and were controlling the game. However, the incident happened at 2-1 with Germany ahead by just one goal. If Lampard's goal counted, it would have been 2-2 and could have been a different ball game all together. Unfortunately, the goal didn't count. And I am sure the frustration of remaining a goal behind would have been a factor in how the rest of the match turned out. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered in the end. But it would have been so much better if the whole incident didn't happen, because then the result would not have had any what-ifs attached to it.

(I guess England aren't new to this, considering they lost to a Maradona-led Argentina in 1986 because of the infamous 'Hand of God'. I've been told though that England won the WC in 1966 against Germany because at 2-2, England officially scored a goal that apparently didn't cross the goal posts. Oh well. Hopefully there are less controversial moments in the next World Cup.)

The longest tennis match in history

History is made. The longest tennis match in history was just completed in the first week of Wimbledon. John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.

You read that right, 70-68! With the 5th set in Wimbledon played out with no tie-break, both players kept on holding serve until Mahut, who had to serve 65 times to stay in the match, was finally, sadly, broken. This was one of those matches were you just wish that neither player had to lose.

Not only is this the longest match in terms of games played (138 games in just that final set, and 183 games in total!) but also in terms of duration. The entire match took a whopping 11 hours to complete, and this was played over 3 days. Players have won Grand Slam titles spending less time on court than that. The 5th set alone lasted 8 hours, and is longer than the previous record-holder (which lasted 'only' 6 1/2 hours). In fact, when Isner and Mahut resumed play on the third day at 59-all, they still had to play 18 games in more than an hour to determine the winner. That's the exact same number of games played and about the same amount of time in the Kim Clijsters-Maria Kirilenko match.

I've read an article which indicated that the last set is more akin to the scoreline in a basketball game than on a tennis court. I don't think I will see a tennis match last longer or have more games than this, so it's great that I got to watch history be made.

Movie-watching

I've been really busy lately and while I've missed a few films that I really wanted to see (most notably Shrek Final Chapter), I've still managed to find my way to the movie theater a couple of times in the last month.

'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' is a really enjoyable movie to watch. The pace at which the story unfolded and the way that the premise and the conflict were resolved kept me thoroughly interested. The action sequences and the visual effects framed the plot perfectly and the characters were interesting and well-portrayed. I've heard people say that the ending was a bit odd or off, but I thought it wrapped things up pretty nicely.

Sticking to the theme of popcorn blockbusters with great action sequences and a good cast is 'The A-team'. The movie briefly reminded me of 'The Italian Job' in that a betrayal early in the film sets the stage for the rest of the storyline to develop. While I guessed who the masterminds were as well as how the lead cast would get out of their final entanglement, watching how the A-team would handle the assignments they were given and the predicaments in which they got caught definitely made for great entertainment.

23 by Jimmy Eat World

Here's another great song which I discovered by watching One Tree Hill. It's called 23 by Jimmy Eat World.


video uploaded in youtube by user Angeless

3 hours on a treadmill

This is definitely a personal record. I've been training for my next marathon for some weeks now, and since June 14 was a public holiday, I decided I would go for a long run on that day. The ideal situation would be for me to have run outdoors but I had time limitations that day. So I ended up running on the treadmill for three hours. And may I see, that was the most boring training run I've ever had!

The worst of it was that while running, the power went off! Twice! First time it happened was almost 1 1/2 hours into my run. The lights go off and the treadmill does a dead stop, so I nearly fall off. The generator kicked in seconds after, and so I get back on. But after about 12 minutes, the power returns so they turn the generator off and switch back to the normal power supply. Which meant another dead stop in complete darkness. My momentum was massively thrown off after that but I'm still pleased I managed three hours of running. My next long run will be on Saturday, so I will try to do a long run outdoors.

Sports round-up

Another McLaren 1-2. Lewis Hamilton wins the Canadian Grand Prix with Jenson Button moving up a few places from his starting position to finish 2nd. This second McLaren 1-2 in a row puts the team firmly ahead in the Constructors Championship as Hamilton moves to the top of the Drivers Championship with 109 points and Button stays close behind with 106 points. Hopefully Jenson can snag another win in the upcoming European Grand Prix.

*****

Some major upsets in last week's grass court tournaments across Europe. Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, and Roddick were all upset early. Nadal lost in the quarterfinals to Feliciano Lopez, who snaps a 5-match losing streak to Nadal, while the other three lost the round before).

Lleyton Hewitt pulls of a surprise himself by upending Roger Federer, snapping an even longer 15-match losing streak to the current world #2. The last time Hewitt beat Federer was back in 2003 as well.

And it's good to see that Li Na wins the Aegon Classic, defeating Maria Sharapova. This isn't really an upset since Li Na is ranked higher than Sharapova but it was nice to see more Asian success in the women's tour.

*****

The World Cup is in full swing but I have yet to be enraptured in all the event buzz. I've seen a couple of matches - UK vs. USA, Germany vs. Australia - but I haven't been as into it as I was in previous World Cups. I think Liverpool's miserable results in the last football season have left me with a distaste for the sport, at least in the short term. I am still hoping that England win though, coz it would be awesome to see Steven Gerrard lift the World Cup trophy as England Captain.

An afternoon in Virlanie Foundation

It's always great to spend some time with orphans and street kids and try to bring them some joy and entertainment, even if it is only for a couple of hours. On Friday, I organized an orphan event with kids aged 3 to 8 in Virlanie Foundation. (I organized a similar event for my department in Virlanie last year, but for kids aged 9 to 14).

We were planning to start at 1pm but settling down and volunteer arrival took some time so it was almost 2pm when we started. As expected, I hosted the event LOL, and I realized when we got there that it was a bit of a mistake for us not to have brought a microphone! Thankfully my booming voice was big enough to ensure everyone there could hear me. :) I kicked things off with a game of 'Bring me'. With only a few prizes though, it became a bit difficult to explain to some kids that they just had to try again in the next round or the next game to win something. So after a few rounds or 'Bring me', I switch to a simple relay. We split the kids into four groups, and the members of the winning group all won a prize (at least 7 winners was better than 1 or 2 per 'Bring me' round). We were supposed to have one more game - longest breath - but since we were an hour late, I decided to jump straight to our last game of pass the ball.

My idea for 'pass the ball' was that we'd have the kids pass a ball around while music was playing and when the music stopped, whoever was holding the ball would be eliminated. But as I explained the rules, I suddenly felt horrible since each round, one kid would be very disappointed (it was tough enough to tell kids in previous games that they had no prizes, much less to eliminate kids one at a time). I then realized this would be the perfect opportunity to distribute the loot bags under the guise of a prize. As each kid was eliminated, we'd hand them their loot bag. It was a really good move as some of the kids actually wanted to be eliminated so they could get their "prize".

Once the game was done, we distributed the food (pasta and barbecue) and juice drinks. I also played my "Kung Fu Panda" DVD so the kids could watch it while eating. I made sure that the prizes from the games would either be interactive toys (such as kiddie badminton sets or jack stones) or creative stuff (I found a cool Toy Story whiteboard which came with its own whiteboard marker and eraser). The loot bags contained a lot of creative stuff too - educational coloring books, crayons, modeling clay, pencils, an eraser and sharpener, a drawing book, and a small toy (I also included a Hello wafer bar and a small container of Stik-o).

As it turns out, the choice of prizes and loot bag contents seemed to be perfect since half of the kids there who didn't want to watch the movie started playing with their prizes or using the contents of their loot bags. This also provided a lot more opportunities for interaction between the adults and kids - you could see so many of the kids and adults sprawled on the floor either coloring their coloring books or designing lots of cute and clever things with their clay or playing jack stones. It was really great to see!

We wrapped up about 10 minutes past 4pm (which was around the time the movie finished) and. while it was difficult to part with the kids, we left with a feeling of joy. Two hours with these kids from Virlanie is nowhere near enough, but it's definitely better than nothing. I do hope that we were able to leave the kids not only with items that can help them socialize with other kids and develop their creativity and imagination, but also with memories from a really fun and fulfilling afternoon. I know that the volunteers will all have great memories of this wonderful afternoon.

"Stay" by Michelle Featherstone

Another great, haunting song I discovered by watching One Tree Hill. This I think was played in final episode of Season 1.


uploaded in youtube by user SoulTheWhale

The King of Clay is back!

And in style! Rafael Nadal wins the French Open title this year, beating Robin Soderling in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. Some details that make this win even more amazing:

• With this win, Rafa returns to the #1 ranking!
• This is Rafa's 5th French Open title. Only Bjorn Borg has won it more times (6)
• He now has 7 Grand Slam titles, the same number of slams (singles, that is) that John McEnroe and Mats Wilander have
• He hasn't lost on clay so far this year
• Since the Madrid Masters becoming a clay court event last year, Rafa holds the distinction of winning three clay court Masters titles and the French Open in the same year
  
• He didn't drop a set en route to the title for the second time in his career (he also managed this rare feat back in 2008)
• And while this isn't as important, Rafa avenged his loss in last year's French Open 4th round to Soderling
• He also becomes the first player to qualify for the year-end championships
  

Since Nadal didn't play in Wimbledon last year, he's bound to keep the #1 ranking until after Wimbledon. Here's hoping that Rafa can carry his success on clay into the grass and hard court seasons. Would be great if he can win Wimbledon and end the year #1 again.

*****

This also marks the first time since the French Open 2004 that Roger Federer didn't win or lose to eventual winner of a Grand Slam event (he lost to Soderling who lost to Nadal). So two of Roger's streaks were snapped in this year's French Open. If it's any consolation to Roger, I don't think he will ever see these two streaks broken in his lifetime. I don't even think anyone will come close.

French Open stunner

Roger Federer is out of this year's French Open, losing to Robin Soderling in 4 sets. So while Roger is unable to defend his Roland Garros title, the most significant piece of news attached to this result is the fact that his streak of getting the semifinals or better in Grand Slam events has finally ended at 23. Imagine that. 23 consecutive Grand Slam events of getting to the semifinals or better. To put this achievement in perspective, the second longest semifinal appearance streak among men belongs to Ivan Lendl, who got to 10 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals. Unbelievable!

In any case, Roger's quarterfinal loss also means that Rafa Nadal will regain the #1 ranking if he wins the French Open. He's on court now against Almagro who is putting up a good fight, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Rafa can end the claycourt season in style by winning his 5th French Open title and going into Wimbledon with the #1 ranking.

*****

Serena Williams had a matchpoint but lost to Samantha Stosur in the quarterfinals. This means that the winner of the women's title at the French Open this year will be a first time Grand Slam winner. Jankovic, Dementieva, Stosur, and Schiavone. Should be interesting to see which one of them bags home the title. (I'm hoping it's Dementieva...)

Massive weekend

My family went to Bicol over the weekend. Unfortunately I wasn't able to join them because I had two friends in town. Ben, my English friend who lives in Singapore, was in Manila to join his Aussie mates in an Aussie rules football tournament on Saturday, and Dino, now based in Canada, was in Manila to enjoy the Philippine summer. I don't get to see Ben and Dino a lot so I decided not to join my family in Bicol.

As expected, alcohol factored into my weekend. A lot. I hung out with Ben and some of his Aussie friends on Friday night and had a lot of beers before meeting up with my friends Walter, Tim, Basil, and Cesar in Burgos Circle for more drinks. On Sat night, I met up with a lot of my college friends, including Dino, for the "Senior Edition" of one of our org's annual activities - Vice Night. :) Of course, we weren't as crazy as we used to be so it just involved drinks (lots of them), food, and a whole lot of catching up. Some of the folks I saw that night were people I hung out with a lot in college but haven't really seen since then. After our party, I header over to Encore to join Ben and his other friends.

So it isn't much of a surprise when I was sluggish practically the entire Sunday. Thankfully I didn't have a headache on either day. It was a great weekend though, where I not only got to hangout with Ben and Dino but also got to catch up with a lot of other friends and also make new ones.

MacLaren 1-2

What a shocker. Red Bull Racing were on course for another Red Bull 1-2 finish and Mark Webber on his way to a third win in a row. But instead, in a surprising incident with his teammate Sebastian Vettel, everything goes wrong. During the 41st lap, Vettel tries to overtake Webber and manages to take the inside line and edge ahead. But somehow he turns into the right and Webber doesn't budge, which leads to a Red Bull collision leaving Vettel out of the race and Webber dropping to third.

The gates were now wide open for Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, who opportunistically snatch 1st and 2nd respectively. There was a lot of excitement a few laps later when Button makes a run for the lead and takes it temporarily before Hamilton fights back. The two cars came dangerously close to one another at the turns but didn't do a repeat of the Webber-Vettel debacle earlier in the race.

This result allows MacLaren to edge ahead of Red Bull in the Constructors Championship by a single point. It also gives Hamilton his first race of the season and allows Button and Hamilton to narrow the gap with current drivers championship leader Mark Webber. Should be interesting to see what happens in Canada two weeks from now.

Allison returns to "So you think you can dance"

Season 7 of 'So you think can dance' will be an All-star season, with 12 past contestants rejoining the cast. I'm especially looking forward to the fact the all-stars include Allison Holker from Season 2, who is one of my favorite contestants from the show. Here's the season 7 preview:


uploaded in youtube by user FoxBroadcasting

The new format will feature 10 new contestants performing with 12 SYTYCD all-stars. Instead of the previous process where contestants were paired with each other and each pair picks a dance style to perform out of a hat, the 10 new contestants will pick one of the 12 all stars to perform with. I don't know if it'll be shown in one of the cable channels here, but AXN is currently airing Season 5 (it aired Seasons 6 and 4 previousl) so maybe after that, they will show the All-star season. I'm really looking forward to it.

My new health regimen

Around November to December of last year, I kept getting sick. I'd have tonsillitis one week and be on antibiotics, then once the tonsillitis cleared, I'd have pharo-laryngitis which required a completely different set of meds. I'd be heading to the clinic every week and at one point, my blood pressure was pretty low. My CBC results indicated I was anemic so my doctor advised me to start taking vitamins that are high in iron content. I went to the drugstore to compare different multivitamins and I decided to start taking Centrum.

However, Centrum doesn't have very high Vitamin C content. I figured that if I was getting sick all the time, I needed more Vitamin C. And antioxidants. So while in the supermarket, I stumble upon Berri, a brand of juice that has a lot of vitamins. One of the variants, breakfast juice with antioxidants, had 150% of the required daily allowance of Vitamin C, while another variant, breakfast juice with fibre, had 200% of the Vitamin C RDA. So while it wasn't all that cheap, I figured that drinking one glass of Berri a day along with Centrum would help me get healthier.

I can't really say I'm all that healthy now, but so far this year I haven't gotten sick for prolonged periods of time yet (knock on wood...) I'm guessing that my new health regimen has something to do with it. I'd sometimes drink Harvey Fresh apple juice (apple juice is known to be high in antioxidants and has good vitamin C content too) or Del Monte Fit 'N Right (which has 100% RDA of Vitamin C and L-Carnatine which is supposed to help burn fat LOL) instead just so I don't get tired of drinking the same juice all the time. All these drinks and the vitamins impact my budget for sure but if it helps me stay healthy, it's definitely worth it.

A tribute to Simon Cowell

I never thought it would happen, but some of my favorite idol contestants were on the same stage to pay tribute to Simon Cowell, who was making his final appearance on American Idol as a judge. Check it out:


video uploaded in youtube by user AmericanBestTalent

I loved seeing Fantasia, Bo Bice, Elliott Yamin, and Melinda Doolittle on the same stage at the same time. It's just too bad that they had to sing a sucky song LOL. (I do wish, though, that Tamyra Gray, Anwar Robinson, Camile Velasco, and Mandisa were also there.)

American Idol will definitely not be the same without Simon Cowell.

Allergy

Is it the heat? The stress? Or my new fabric conditioner? I can't really tell. But about a couple of weeks ago, I started to getting rashes every evening. Sometimes I'd have the rash on my legs, other times on my arms, and other times I'd have it on my back.

I wasn't sure if it's because of the intense Manila heat. However, it has been intensely hot the last several weeks already and my allergies only started appearing a couple of weeks ago. So it can't just be the heat.

Could it be my new fabric conditioner? I had to buy a new brand recently coz I haven't been able to find my previous brand in months which leads me to think it's been discontinued. But if it is the fabric conditioner, why does the rash only come out at night? I mean, the clothes I wear to sleep are washed using the same fabric conditioner so I should have an allergy when I wake up as well.

Stress maybe? But I've had several patches of tough work this year and I've never had the allergy up until the last two weeks.

So if it isn't any of these things, then what could it be? Well, my conclusion is that maybe it's the combination of everything. In any case, after getting an allergy again one night, after about a week and a half of this, I decided to take a Clariting which helped my rash subside.

The strange thing? After that one Claritin, I no longer get an allergy each night. I'm not a doctor so I have no idea how to explain all this. But I am happy that I'm not getting rashes night anymore. :)

"Untold" by Pete Francis

Here's a really good song from Pete Francis called "Untold".


video uploaded in youtube by user jramster1144

I watched an episode of One Tree Hill recently (I haven't really been watching this series much anymore) and in that eppy, a lot of cool and interesting songs were featured. It made me remember the great songs I discovered by watching this show. 'Untold' was featured back in Season 1 and I've been a fan of this song since then.

Jollibee on Glee (with spoilers)

So I'm watching the latest episode of 'Glee' on ETC and I see this scene were Artie gets off his wheelchair (a 'daydream' sequence, apparently) to perform the 80's hit "Safety Dance". Which kinda shocked me since I always thought that Artie used a wheelchair in real life. As I continue to watch, I quickly realized the surprises weren't over. "Jollibee" makes a cameo!

You can easily make out the big Jollibee sign at the top right of the screen just behind Artie and the rest of the crowd. It comes up a few times. Apparently the scene was shot in Eagle Rock mall in Los Angeles.

Was the product placement intentional or not? Some folks have opined that the "Safety dance" scene is reminiscent of the Jollibee flash mob promotional stunt done in SM Mall of Asia last year. Whatever the case may be, it really was a pleasant surprise to see the biggest local fast food chain on one of the biggest US television shows this year. :)

Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 has been such a major box office hit so far and it's still raking in millions as I write this but it took me two and half weeks to find my way to the cinema to catch it. I watched it on Sunday night with my mom and one of my nephews. I have to say, though, that apart from the action sequences - the one in Monaco and the one at the end - it was a bit of a let-down. I actually thought it was kinda boring. Considering that the action sequences really kicked ass and were so entertaining to watch, it was a pity that there weren't enough of them.

Record-breaking victory

What an incredible win! Rafael Nadal beats Roger Federer with a score of 6-4, 7-6 in the Madrid Masters final. Why was that win very significant?

• It is Nadal's record 18th Masters 1000 title. Andre Agassi held that record previously with his 17. Roger Federer is only two titles behind with 16 so Roger could still take that record, but he is about 5 years older than Nadal.
• Rafa's win also moves him back up to #2 in the rankings, which is just in time for the French Open. He is now assured of being seeded second which will hopefully bring Rafa a better draw.
• He has now also won all three Masters titles on clay in the same year, the first time anyone has achieved this feat.
• Rafa's head-to-head against Roger Federer now stands at 14-7.
• He has a perfect 15-0 record on clay this year.

I don't want to think Rafa is a shoo-in for his 5th French Open title given that last year, Rafa was the red-hot favorite leading up to Roland Garros before losing to Robin Soderling in the fourth rounbd. Howver, his results on clay this year should definitely give him back a lot of the confidence he lost last year. Hopefully Slam #7 for Rafa is just around the corner.

An evening in Burgos Circle

Of all my sections in high school, it was my third year class that seemed to bond and get along with each other the best. Because of that, we had more than our fair share of get-togethers and parties, even when we weren't classmates anymore. We probably met up last as a section in our first few years in university. So it was pretty cool that we - or well some of us at least - got together again on Friday night.

We were planning to have dinner in Henry's (by Good Earth) in Burgos Circle, but apparently there was a private party there that night so we moved to Mile Hi Diner. Nine of us made it - myself, Jan, Mico, Lawrence, Flo, Tricia, Elaine, Jackie, and Mitch - which is about a third of our section size. Not bad considering it's been nearly two decades since we sat in the same classroom for an entire school year. Needless to say, walking down memory lane played a great part in our evening conversation. We stayed in Mile Hi up until they started playing Barry Manilow songs - which we took to be a hint that we needed to go rather than a reflection of our age lol - and had drinks or dessert and coffee in Rastro (their creme brulee was really good but their cocktails are so-so), where we stayed until it closed.

Apart from Mitch, Elaine, and Jan (who I keep running into in different gimmick places in Manila lol), I rarely get to see everyone else who was there that night so it really was awesome getting to catch up. I also think it's really cool that I've been meeting up with a lot of different sets of friends in recent weeks. I do have a few more friends coming to Manila in the coming weeks, so my social calendar in May is starting to look pretty good. :)

The Trilogy!

I got it! I finally got it! The Star Wars Trilogy on DVD!

And by Trilogy, I mean the original trilogy - 'Star Wars' (A New Hope), 'The Empire Strikes Back', and 'Return of the Jedi'. I knew Ray was coming to Manila in April so I ordered this DVD box set from Amazon a couple of months back and had them delivered to him so he could bring them to the Philippines (instead of me paying for the expensive international shipping costs).

I'm sure a lot of people who are used to the impressive visual effects of recent years will find these original versions clunky and uninspired, but these films used special effects that were ahead of their time. These are probably the films I have watched the most - maybe Return of the Jedi more than any other film - so now that I have the DVDs, I'll surely end up watching them a ton more.

(And despite the fact that people generally regard 'Return of the Jedi' to be the worst of the trilogy, it's still my favorite. :))

Halalan 2010

I feel bad. And ashamed. I wasn't able to vote. My name was deactivated in the Comelec list. Apparently I didn't vote in the last two elections. I know for sure I voted in National elections in 2004 and I missed the National elections in 2007 because I was in Sweden. So I thought it was just one election I missed. But I forgot about the Barangay elections in October 07. So two consecutive elections missed means my name was no longer in the list of voters in my precinct. Sucks big time! But well, it was my fault for not figuring things out better.

Anyways, it's good to see that for the most part, the first national computerized election in the history of the Philippines is going well. There was some violence that led to death (I still dream of the day when there is no more election-related violence) and a lot of cases where the machines didn't work. The lines were also incredibly long - people waited for hours before getting to vote - but it's great to see that the election turnout was still a pretty good 75%.

The great thing about the elections being computerized is the fact that the tallying of the votes is miles better than it was before. It hasn't even been 12 hours since the precincts were closed and about 70% of all votes have already been counted (unofficially though, but it means the official count shouldn't take anywhere nearly as long as it used to).

Hopefully, I sort out my registration status between now and the next election. Gotta make sure that my voice - however small - is heard.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

This Sunday was probably the first mother's day in recent years that my family didn't go out. This was driven mainly by the fact that my grandparents went to the province for the elections. So my mom and I ended up just going to church and then eating out after. We had dinner in Il Padrino Coffee and it was pretty cool because they offered a 20% discount on food items because of Mother's Day.

There was a small massage place next to Il Padrino so my mom decided to pamper herself and get a massage 1 1/2 hour treatment (for only P500! And it was traditional Pinoy 'hilot' so it really relieved the tension and tiredness in her muscles.) So while she was getting her massage, I ran some errands like buying food for Monday (so we wouldn't have to cook) and getting the dry-cleaning. I returned to Il Padrino to have coffee and tiramisu while waiting for my mom's massage to be done. Nice quiet calm day. Not a lot of these in recent weeks so I'm thankful. :)

*****

I caught the awarding ceremony of the Spanish GP when I got home, and it's nice to see that Jenson Button managed a 5th place finish and still stays atop the Drivers Championship. Hope he gets another good result - maybe a win? - in Monaco next week.

More catching up

This time, it's over Mexican food. Che arrived in Manila about a week ago to attend a wedding so we ended up having dinner tonight in Agave in Bonifacio High Street. Che had never eaten there before so she wanted to try it, and the menu is pretty reasonably priced so I was definitely okay with it. I woke up really late today which threw my schedule off, and this meant I was about 40 minutes late for dinner. When I arrived, everyone else was there: Che, Hannah, Raffa, Joh, Steph, and Me-ann who had to leave shortly after I arrived because she just got in from a business trip abroad and had to head home ASAP.

When I got there, Hannah had just eaten half of her burrito and didn't want to polish off the rest of it so she gave the remaining half to me. I was planning to order either a burrito or an enchilada, but since I had half a burrito already, I decided to order the pork carnitas. Thankfully my free half-burrito was good because the pork carnitas was not such a good choice. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't the P240 I paid for it. I should've just ordered an enchilada lol.

Didn't really matter because it was the company that I was after. And as is always the case when I hang out with these guys, it was a lot of fun talking about anything and everything, and catching up on stuff. Raffa and Joh had to leave after about an hour and a half, so the rest of us decided to have coffee in Coffee Bean to cap the evening and catch up a bit more.

Most of us will be hanging out again in a couple of weeks because Me-ann is organizing a McDonald's birthday party for her nephew. Should be fun.

Catching up over Korean Barbecue

Ray flew back to Manila for the elections, but his schedule in Manila was so hectic that it was tough to find time to meet up. So when Marga organized dinner in Ye Dang Korean Restaurant in the Metrowalk area on Wednesday night, I definitely made myself available.

It was really good catching up with Ray and with everyone else there who I rarely get to see. Someone even commented that despite most of us being in Manila, we only manage to get together whenever Ray is in town, which was funny but (sadly) true. The World Cup is coming up in a few weeks though so there have been talks about getting together to watch some of the good matches together. (Not totally sure though if I'm up to it as the matches will be played at around 230am local time!)

To make the evening complete, the food in Ye Dang was also really good. The food was actually prepared Korean Barbecue style, which means it was being cooked in our tables by our waiters. I asked Marga how she learned about this place and she said that since Ray wanted to eat in a new place, she asked her uncle and he recommended Ye Dang. The owner is Korean so the food is definitely authentic.

A fun night complemented by good food. I have to say that a positive bonus to the elections on Monday is that a few of my friends who are now living outside the Philippines are coming home. I am supposed to meet up with a couple of other people in the long weekend who are here to vote as well so I am certainly looking forward to that.

Rome title #5!

Congratulations to Rafa Nadal for winning his 5th Rome Masters title in the last 6 years. This was a record-equalling win as he now has 17 Masters titles tying him with Andre Agassi who won 17 Masters Titles in his career.

It was a bit scary for a moment as Rafa was under pressure in the semifinals against Ernests Gulbis, who eliminated Roger Federer in the second round. Thankfully Rafa scraped through that match. In the final, he was tested in the first set by compatriot David Ferrer and kept things even after 8 games. But the two rain delays worked in Rafa's favor, who dropped only 3 games after the first rain delay to win the match 7-5, 6-2 and with it, his fifth Rome Masters title.

So after 11 months with no trophy, Rafa finds his footing once again on his favorite surface and wins two major clay-court events, racking up a 10-match winning streak. There is one more major event on clay before the French Open - Madrid - but it is still not sure whether Rafa will play in that tournament or not. I personally prefer it if Rafa skips Madrid to ensure he is fully fit for the French Open, but I will trust that he and his team make the right decision with respect to his match play.

Elliott Yamin back on Idol Gives Back

It's great to see Elliott Yamin back on American Idol. And once again, he makes a special appearance on Idol Gives Back, returning to Angola. This time, he goes there with Kara DioGuardi. Check out the video here.


uploaded in youtube by user dacrowe

I missed this when it was shown on TV so it's only now that I got to see it. The background music being played is Elliott's song called "Doorway" which is available as a bonus track when you purchase his full album "Fight for love" on Itunes.

Belated Happy Earth Day!

This is coming in late but a belated Happy Earth Day to everyone!

I would've posted this earlier but the week of Earth Day was one of the busiest I've had this year so far. Our corporate social responsibility organization at work had been planning and organizing a charity run for months, and one of our two beneficiaries is the environmental NGO Haribon (the other is Kythe, an NGO that helps pediatric patients). These two NGOs were our beneficiaries in last year's charity run and we decided to keep them as beneficiaries this year. Since we knew already that the run would be in support of Haribon, we scheduled the event on April 24, around the same time as Earth Day (April 22), making it our official Earth Day event this year.

I also thought it would be a good idea to get Haribon to give an environmental talk as part of the Earth Day celebration. We invited employees who were interested to learn more about what Haribon does and what we can do to help the environment. To make sure that all interested parties could attend these talks, I organized one session in each of our three office sites. The talks turned out to be really good. One of the most interesting things I learned is that people who drive, jet-set, and use a lot of electrical appliances and equipment like air conditioners and computers need to plant nineteen (19) trees a year to compensate for the carbon footprint they leave behind. (So it seems I still have a lot of catching up to do!)

Interestingly enough, I've been learning a lot more about how to care for the environment better in the last few weeks. Our Earth Hour campaign back in March led me to do some research on ec0-friendly products since we wanted to give special prizes out to a couple of Earth Hour participants. We ended up buying stuff from Echo Store. If you check out their website, you will see that their products are environment friendly, sustain marginalized, indigenous and creative communities, support poverty alleviation programs, are created with fair labor practices, are animal-friendly, and express Filipino design excellence. They have a store in Serendra and a smaller one in Podium.

The environmental sustainability focus area of our CSR org is now working on doing research on proper waste disposal. Hopefully we can identify partners that correctly dispose of different types of waste - i.e. food waste, cans, plastic bottles, paper, and electronic waste - and work with them. Not sure if our research will amount to anything but if I do learn something useful, I'll post it here.

"Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap

This song is called "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap. This particular video includes the lyrics so you can appreciate the poetry while enjoying the music.


uploaded in youtube by user LaterDayzz

If it sounds familiar, it's because the bridge (or well I think it's the bridge lol) was used prominently in Jason Derulo's monster hit 'Whatcha Say'. I actually discovered 'Hide and Seek' while listening to 'Whatcha Say' on youtube and I've been a huge, huge fan of it ever since.

I can't be totally sure what the song mean as these kinds of lyrics can always be interpretated in a variety of ways. But a lot of people tend to agree that it's about a relationship that has ended - maybe even a marriage ending in divorce - due to someone cheating. Whether or not this is correct, the song is definitely very well written and the use of the vocoder to add multiple harmonies using Imogen's own voice makes this piece very unique.

A lot of fans of this song hate the fact that 'Whatcha Say' sampled it and ruined it for them or that a lot of people sometimes think that 'Hide and Seek' sampled 'Whatcha Say' (instead of the other way around). I can understand the displeasure of these fans but on the plus side, if not for Derulo, I most likely would not have discovered 'Hide and Seek' and would've been deprived of appreciating this incredibly beautiful song.

The drought is over!

Finally! After 11 months of quarterfinal, semifinal and final appearances without a title, Rafa Nadal finds his feet on - what else? - clay and wins the Monte Carlo Masters for the 6th time in a row. So not only does Rafa finally win a tournament, but he tied or broke a couple of records along the way. He is now tied for the record of most Monte Carlo titlesand holds the record for most Monte Carlo titles in a row. On top of that, he now holds the ATP record for winning a tournament the most years in a row in the Open Era. That he lost only 14 games en route to the title - and I think this is also a tournament record in terms of least games lost - gives me hope that he is now back to his winning ways. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he reclaims the French Open a few weeks from now.

To add to the good news, Jenson Button wins his second F1 race this season. It's only the fourth race so far so his two wins now put him ahead in the drivers championships.

Now I just hope Liverpool manage to beat West Ham at home. If that happens, it'll be another perfect sporting weekend. :)

ETA: So Liverpool did beat West Ham 3-0. Awesome.

Bills, bills, bills

So I met up with my friends Mitch, Joyce, and Iona and among the many things we discussed while catching up was the fact that Mitch's electric bill apparently increased by about 50-60% from the previous month. Iona said that apparently, this isn't an isolated case as everyone has had to deal with having to pay 50-150% more than they did in the previous month for electricity.

When I got home, my bill was waiting for me. And just as we had discussed, I now had to pay about 150% more than I did in March. Not good news. I don't know if this now means electricity will continue to cost this much, or whether things will go back to normal some time soon. In the meantime, I guess I just have to start saving more. Cheaper food and less gimmicks, here I come! LOL

Birthday celebration

Happy birthday to my lola! Normally, Nanay as we call her celebrates her birthday in their house, but this year, it was decided that we would celebrate by having dinner in Tita Ace's house. And boy was did we have a massive dinner. Tito Sandro bought lumpia ubod while Tita Ace prepared grilled chicken, fried fillet dory, and lengua. My grandparents and Tita Tuds brought lumpia and a cake, while I brought bread pudding from La Cocina De Tita Moning (I had to pick it up from the resto in San Rafael the day before, but I was immensely pleased that I managed to find my way there without getting lost after driving there only one before). It's too bad that Tito Lito, Troy and Tracy weren't there to complete the extended family, but it was a really good celebration. Needless to say, I switched to 'baboy' mode yet again and stuffed myself.

Which reminds me, I really need to get back to the gym soon as I am now heavier than I have ever been in the past. I was able to go to the gym fairly regularly in early March but I have gotten so busy the last few weeks that I am unable to find time for the gym. I have been working to get my schedule cleared out next week though, so hopefully by then I can start getting fit again (and getting ready for my 7th marathon which will most likely be in March).

High school reunion

I met up with Ed, one of my really close friends back in high school, last Thursday night. It was his first time back in Manila since 2004 and Thursday night was apparently the only day he could meet up with us since the rest of the time would be spent with his family or on out-of-town trips. So Joyce and Suzanne made an event of it and organized a batch reunion so Ed could get to see as many of our high school batchmates in one night.

It didn't start out all that well actually, and I almost didn't make it. Dinner was supposed to start at 7pm. But I had so much work to do last week and with Friday being a holiday, I ended up working until around 815pm. Suzanne's email, which I read very briefly earlier in the week, indicated that dinner would be in Abe so I rush to Serendra hoping traffic wouldn't be too bad. Thankfully it wasn't so at 8:45pm, I text Joyce to say that I had just parked in The Fort and would be walking over to Abe. Joyce then calls me and tells me that I was in the wrong place and that dinner was actually in Abe Trinoma. Whaaaat?? I was so busy this week that I didn't pay enough attention to the details of Suzanne's email and it slipped my mind that there was more than one Abe in Metro Manila!!

I was so tired and stressed out at that point and was ready pass on dinner (I figured I could try to meet up with Ed some other time before he flew back to Canada) but Ed talked to me on the phone and convinced me to still follow. I arrive in Trinoma shortly past 10pm. A few folks left shortly after I arrived - after all, it had been almost 3 1/2 hours since dinner started - and so about 9 or 10 of us were left behind. It was kinda good though, because the smaller crowd meant that I could catch up with Ed and everyone else there a bit more.

We stayed in Abe until midnight which was about an hour past closing time I think so I told Joyce to leave a big tip. We then stayed outside for about 15 more minutes until Ed's brother arrived to pick him up. It kinda sucked that I was late and ended up in the wrong venue but I was really glad that I still joined them coz it allowed me to take a really fun trip down memory lane and catch up with really good friends.

Legion of Extraodinary Dancers

I saw the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers perform last night on season 6 of "So you think you can dance" and was so impressed by them that I just had to dig up the video on youtube. Everything about this number is sensational. Check it out!!


uploaded in youtube by user RickeyTVX

Wow. Just, wow.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The long weekend is over but I hope you had a great Easter celebration. I certainly did.

First, my mom and I took my nephews to Shang Mall to attend their Easter event. The plan was for us to leave at around 1030-11am so we could have lunch in the mall but I got up late so we ended up getting there a few minutes past 1 pm (the event was from 1 to 4pm, although registration was from 1 to 2pm). The good thing was that there all participants had free hotdogs, pork choplets, fries, popcorn, ice cream and cotton candy. So at least my nephews got to eat when we got there. There were a few games at 2pm then the magic show of Lou Hilario started after the games. At 3pm, we left the magic show to go around the mall for the Easter Treasure Hunt, which was really like Trick-or-treating since we were given a map to the shops where we could get goodies. We made our way back to the venue by around 3:40 to get the giveaways before heading to the cinema area where we had 4pm tickets for Clash of the Titans.

The cool thing about the Shang Mall is that they have new digital cinemas which means that there were a couple of 3D cinemas (Clash of the Titans and How to train your dragon were both on 3D) whereas most other places have only one 3D theater. While our tickets cost P320, it came with free popcorn and softdrinks so the tickets here were actually cheaper than in other cinemas. The movie itself was good (although i think it would be just as good to watch it on 2D - I didn't think being on 3D added much value to the film-viewing experience), and it made sense for us to watch it since my nephews have recently gotten into mythology.

After watching the movie, we headed over to Quantum so my nephews could play some arcade games. We spent most of the time on the bowling game which earned us a lot more tickets. We combined our newly-earned tickets with the 400 or so we already had from before, which left us with 626 tickets. My nephews used up about 520 of them to get prizes so we still have 106 left that we can use next time.

We then heard Easter mass and then headed home where we had dinner - I bought yang chow fried rice and lemon chicken from Flavors of China and sisig from Sisig Hooray on the way home.

It was around 10pm when things finally settled down, and since my nephews and I went swimming on Black Saturday, I was utterly exhausted by the end of the long weekend. But I wouldn't have it any other way, it was definitely worth it

Frost/Nixon

I just recently watched the Oscar-nominated film 'Frost/Nixon' and I must say, if you have a chance to see it, go see it!

I got a DVD of Frost/Nixon either last Christmas or on my last birthday since I put it in my wish list and one of my friends - I believe it was Anna - gave it to me. I hadn't gotten around to watching it in the last few months because whenever I watch smart, intellectual and critically-acclaimed films, I need to be in a specific frame of mind to enjoy it. If I haven't properly psyched myself to watch these kinds of films, I may end up not fully appreciating them which I don't want to happen.

So I finally watched my 'Frost/Nixon' DVD and it was incredible! We all know how the film would turn out in the end but the way the plot unfolded and the pace at which it did, amidst all the conflicts and difficulties faced by the characters and how Frost and Nixon ended up getting into a stunning duel, kept me totally engaged from start to the very powerful climax. There is no question that Frank Langella got into character as his portrayal of Nixon was immensely brilliant and definitely deserved an Oscar nomination (if not a win) for best actor (just too bad he was up against Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke) but the rest of the cast, led by Michael Sheen as David Frost, were all stellar as well.

'Frost/Nixon' exceeded my expectations, and given that it had so many positive reviews from critics and regular viewers alike, my expectations were already high to begin with. It's certainly one of the best films I have seen and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Good news for a change

It's been a while since I my favorite athletes and sports teams all had positive results in the same weekend.


First, Jenson Button finds his way back to the top of the Formula 1 podium with a great win in the Australian Grand Prix. He had the 4th fastest qualifying time, dropped to 7th after the first corner, then was bumped a notch down to 8th after his teammate Lewis Hamilton passed him early in the race. But Jenson made a judgment call to change his tires early, which turned out to be the single most crucial decision made in the race. This tire change turned out to be the right move since he ended up driving faster than anyone else at that point and he moved up the ranks quickly to 2nd. The brake problem that caused Sebastian Vettel - who had been leading the pack halfway through the race - to drop out led JB to take over and he never looked back.


(I feel really bad for Vettel though. This was the 2nd time that he had pole position and was ahead for most of the race but lost out due to issues with his car.)

Second, Liverpool win! This season, my favorite football team have been struggling horribly, and are now in great danger of being out of the top 4 and thus lose a slot in next season's Champions League. But they kept their very slim hopes of a top 4 finish alive by beating Sunderland 3-0 last Sunday. Their fate is out of their hands are Tottenham have a good lead over them as well as a game in hand, and Man City have two games in hand. But given that Liverpool wins this season haven't come as frequently as they have in the past, a 3-0 victory is very welcome.

Finally, Rafa Nadal makes it past his opening match in Key Biscayne. While this was an opening match which Rafa should easily win, it was against David Nalbandian, an ex-top 5 player who has won 2 out of the 3 matches he's played against Rafa and has won 8 times against the mighty Federer. When David won the first set of their match 7-6, I thought Nadal was in deep trouble. As it turns out, Rafa managed to lose only 4 games the rest of the match for a good win, allowing him to even his head-to-head against the Argentine and move through to the round of 16. (And now that he's beaten his countryman David Ferrer, he is through to the quarterfinals where he will be playing against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga).

Here's hoping Easter weekend will be filled with good news as well. Who knows, it could bring Nadal have another title, JB another trophy in Malaysia, and Liverpool another win. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :)

Justin Timberlake is Da Bomb!

Wow. What a concert! I joined about 80,000 other people last Saturday night in the SM Mall of Asia grounds to watch the Shock Value II concert of Timbaland featuring JoJo and Justin Timberlake. And needless to say, I was not disappointed. That this was a benefit concert meant to raise funds to help victims of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng just made this whole event all the better.


It didn't start out all that well. The show, which was slated to begin at 8pm, kicked off at 9:45pm, almost 2 hours late. Most of the emcees were next to useless - only Sarah Meier seemed to have read her cue cards before getting on the stage and didn't read from them as she spoke. The band only started their sound check past 9pm. And the front acts - Q-York and the Philippine All-Stars - might have gotten better reception from the audience if people hadn't been standing for hours and weren't tired from waiting. Thank God it wasn't too hot and it didn't rain.

Check out the massive crowd!

But when the show started, it was awesome! Timbaland stepped on stage and performed some of his hits like "The Way I are", "Oh Timbland", and "I'll never be the same" and matched it with a great visual/light show:


After an hour of rocking his beats and getting the crowd going, he introduced JoJo who joined him on stage to perform their song "Lose control". JoJo then sang her biggest hit to date, "Too little, too late".


As it turns out, those were the only two songs that JoJo would perform. The DJ then started playing some songs to keep the momentum going, including "Ayo Technology" (I thought they would perform this live). When Timbaland returned on stage, he started to tease the crowd which, by that time, couldn't wait for Justin Timberlake to appear. Timbaland started singing bits of "Apologize", one of my all-time favorite songs, and as he does, Justin, who was still somewhere backstage, started singing along with him, causing the noise level from the crowd to go up several notches (I just really wish JT and Timbaland performed this song fully!). When Timbaland started his light show again, the face of JT came up and this drew even more mad cheers.


So when JT finally took the stage, the crowd went berserk. He initially shared the stage with Timbaland, performing a lot of the upbeat songs from his FutureSex/LoveSounds album like "Love Stoned", "What goes around, comes around", and "My love".


One of the coolest moments of the concert was when Timbaland beatboxed while JT sang a re-arranged version of his hit "Cry me a river". I found this performance on youtube (uploaded by user urfoolingmyleeg), check it out:

uploaded in youtube by user urfoolingmyleeg

He also accompanied himself on keyboard and performed a couple of tracks to slow things down.


Of course it didn't stay that way as he closed the show on a high note by performing more of his massive hits with Timbaland. And just as the show was about to end, JT came out to say "I've retired this song but f*ck it, I love you all so much" or something to that effect and then performed "SexyBack". As the Ticketworld website promised, Justin did perform at least 8 songs (I think he must've done 10?). Frankly, just his half of the show was worth the price of the ticket!

There was a lot of talk in late 2008/early-2009 that Justin Timberlake would have a concert in Manila in 2009 but it never happened, so it's great that he came here as a guest in Timbaland's concert. To be quite frank though, and I'm sure even Timbaland knows this, the real drawing power of this show was Justin. I'm sure most - if not all - of the 80,000 people were there to see JT perform live. And he certainly delivered.

Here's hoping that Justin Timberlake stages a full concert here in Manila as the main artist (and not just as a guest). Now THAT would be truly awesome!

Lights off, Earth On

Let's join the rest of the world and turn off our lights during Earth Hour 2010 at 8:30pm on Saturday, March 27.


For a little bit of inspiration, check out this official Earth Hour video (Manila is featured at 2:30 :))


video uploaded in youtube by user earthhour2009

Errands

I've been working a whole lot recently so when one of my projects was completed last Friday, I decided to take a few days off and just spend some time away from the office. I had a lot of errands to work on so I figured I would sort some of them out during this time.

One of the things that had been pending for a while was getting my SSS ID. I went to the SSS Main office in East Avenue a few months back to get the form, but I didn't have enough time then to fall in line so I made my way back there yesterday at around 11am. When I arrived, I was given number 1281. As it turns out, they were just serving numbers 921 to 925. So about 260 to go LOL!

The good thing was that SSS had a lot of several service counters and the evaluation process didn't take more than a few minutes on average. So they would normally call the next 5 numbers every few minutes. SSS doesn't have a lunch break - there are relievers who take over - so by around 1230 my number got called.

When I got there, I was told that my SSS ID is apparently flagged as temporary because I didn't submit my birth certificate before. What's even crazier is that their system indicates that my SSS ID had already been released. I really don't remember getting my ID LOL so either it was released before and I didn't get it or I lost it. So my next steps now are to submit my birth certificate in the Makati office then return to the Main office to submit an affidavit of loss or an affidavit of non-receipt, then re-submit my SSS ID form. What a mess! LOL

Strangely enough, I wasn't upset or pissed off about the whole thing. Maybe being on leave and not running after deadlines made me a whole lot calmer than I normally am. In any case, I headed to Pasig to look for the L.G. Collins office to get a new remote control for our TV - the one we have now still works but really needs to be replaced. When I called them, they said the remote would cost P888 but when I got there, I just had to pay P532. Not sure how that happened but I ended up having an extra P356 that I had already parted with mentally.

With this "extra cash", I drove to Diao Eng Chay - or DEC as I call it - in Wilson to buy a half-dozen chicken pies. My friend Michele introduced me to their chicken pie back in high school and until now I still crave for it every now and then (I've eaten two of the six since, and I'm sure I'll eat one more today LOL). I decided to get some siomai and hakaw as well. The hakaw was so-so but the siomai was great!

I was also planning to have my microwave fixed - it had been broken for a really long time as well - but as it turns out, Whirlpool does house visits so the repairman came to my place last Saturday morning to fix it. It finally works!

So while I didn't head out of town during my leave, it's been very productive so far. My life surely feels in a bit more order than it did a few days ago. :)

Agassi vs. Sampras 2010

For at least a few minutes, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It's the type of drama you expect to see on some reality TV show or talk show that thrived on conflict and intrigue.

Except it was happening on a tennis court. Even more surprising is the fact that Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, two of the greatest players to ever hit a tennis ball, were involved. Check this out:


Uploaded in youtube by user shakendagrass

This doubles match was part of the Hit for Haiti event. A lot of money was raised when part 1 was held during the Australian Open. All players were given microphones so that they could provide real-time commentary on their own match and engage in friendly banter. This seemed to really hit the mark the first time around that they decided to do it again for part 2.

Unfortunately, Andre and Pete got into a who-can-say-or-do-something-more-below-the-belt pissing contest that the entire crowd (and now, the entire world) witnessed. Not good.

The bad blood must've started when Agassi came out with his book and accused Sampras of being dull and lacking inspiration. And of being a poor tipper. So Andre saying "You always have to get serious, huh Pete?'' during this exhibition match seemed to push Pete's buttons one too many times, leading Pete to mock Andre by imitating his pigeon-toed walk. Andre then made a comeback by once again saying Pete was a poor tipper. The atmosphere got so negative that Roger ended up saying "This rivalry is intense, man. I mean, Rafa, start. Do something" to try and diffuse the tension a bit.

You could argue that champions locked in an intense rivalry for the better part of their careers would always have a competitive streak against each other even after they both have retired. But there is really no excuse to behave like spoiled brats who couldn't care less about airing their dirty laundry in public. That these two players, who are supposedly class acts and who have traditionally shown a high degree of respect towards one another, would conduct themselves so poorly during a charity event just makes this even more cringe-worthy.

The good news is that despite this intensely awkward moment, the event managed to raise 1 million dollars for the benefit of earthquake victims in Haiti.

Congrats, Manny!

Manny Pacquiao retains his Welterweight crown by beating Joshua Clottey in their fight in Arlington, Texas billed as The Event.

Photo from Telegraph.co.uk

While Pacquiao didn't win by KO or TKO, but his win was just as dominant. He threw more than 3 times as many punches (1231 to Clottey's 399) and he landed 246 of those (as compared to Clottey's 108). He won the fight in a unanimous decision with a scorecard of 120-108, 119-109, and 119-109.

Congratulations, Manny!!!

Five years

Happy 5th anniversary to my blog! :)

Can't believe I've been blogging for five years. I have now posted 391 times, which means I average about one blog post every 5 days. I read through my older entries recently and it's a lot of fun to recall the different things I experienced and the thoughts and opinions I had in the last 5 years. Hopefully I can maintain this for another five. :)

A fantasic family dinner in La Cocina de Tita Moning

My mom had been wanting to try La Cocina De Tita Moning for some time so when we realized that my lola had never been to Fort Santiago in Intramuros, my mom decided that the family take a trip to Old Manila so we could hit two birds with one stone. We decided to go last Feb 14, which made for a great Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year celebration. This is the second of two blog posts about this day and it will be about our dinner in La Cocina de Tita Moning.

La Cocina de Tita Moning offers its guests a wonderful and unique fine dining experience with its combination of rich history, great food, and excellent service. It is located in the Legarda Ancestral Home in the San Miguel District of Old Manila. The house was built in 1937 and this is where Dr. Alejandro Legarda (son of Filomena Roces Legarda) lived with his wife Ramona Hernandez Legarda and their four children.


Ramona Hernandez Legarda, or Tita Moning as she was fondly called, was known for hosting lavish parties and treating her guests to gastronomic delights that she cooked up in her own kitchen. Shortly after she passed away in 1999, her family decided to open the doors of their home to the public by converting it into a restaurant and serving family recipes that Tita Moning used to cook for her family and guests.

Our experience that night began in the patio where we relaxed under the moonlight sipping on sangria and iced tea.


Once we had polished off our drinks, we were escorted by our tour guide Edel to the main entrance of the Legarda Ancestral Home where our dinner would be served. She talked about the history of mansion and how it was called home by members of the Legarda clan since 1937. The Legardas had a lot of interests and hobbies, and the memorabilia they collected have been put on display in the different rooms of what is now a personal family museum.

Among the rooms we toured before dinner were the Antique Camera Room (Alejandro Legarda was a member of the Camera Club of the Philippines and his camera equipment are on display here)


and the Antique Radio room (Dr. Legarda was also a member of the Philippine Amateur Radio Association, and this room showcases his old radio equipment).


We toured all the different rooms and you can read more about them here.

We finally made our way to the dining room where dinner was served on heirloom china, glassware, and silverware that Tita Moning actually used in the past.


La Cocina serves Spanish-Filipino cuisine, and you must choose a menu twenty four hours before arriving. What gave this place an even more unique, homely feel was that the main courses were brought to us by servers on serving trays. We could get as much as we wanted, and once we cleaned out our plates, the servers returned with the trays in case we wanted seconds (or thirds).

I can't recall our menu in detail - I think we had lengua, a pork dish, and a fish dish, fresh ubod, and paella - but the food was superb! We had queso de bola cheesecake and bread pudding for dessert, and while I'm a big fan of cheesecake, the bread pudding was the big winner. It's definitely a must-try!


Our dining experience is made even more memorable by the fact that the La Cocina Staff is made up of people who have been serving the family for years. One of our servers, Tining, is the La Cocina assistant and she joined the household in 1971 - almost 40 years ago! You can read more about the La Cocina staff here.

Before we left, we had our photo taken in the living room that is decorated with several paintings from very important Filipino painters such as Juan Luna and Felix Ressureccion Hidalgo.


It was interesting to note that we had four generations in our family that night - my grandparents, my mom, me and brother, and my nephews - so it was a perfect match to our venue that has been in existence for more than 70 years.

This dinner was definitely an incredible experience, and celebrating it with my family made it even more special. While the menu costs a minimum of P1500++, it's definitely worth trying at least once (or once in a while, if your wallet can handle it). La Cocina de Tita Moning takes fine dining to a whole new level by providing guests with an extraordinary experience that you can't get in any other restaurant.

As lunch and dinner in La Cocina are strictly by reservation, you can check out their website FAQ for more details.

La Cocina de Tita Moning
Address: #315 San Rafael Street, San Miguel District, Manila
Telephone Number: (+632) 7342146 / (+632) 7342141
Facsimile Number: (+632) 7342141
Mobile Number:
- from Overseas : +639175383490 (look for Suzette Montinola)
- from Manila: 09186551040
Email address: talktous@lacocinadetitamoning.com