Brunei: Day 2

The initial plan was to get up early and take a bus ride to Seria to see the Brunei oil fields. Unfortunately, my stomach didn't seem to agree with something, or everything, I ate the night before. My mom and I had more or less the same savory items in the Radisson buffet (including the baked mussels) but I ate more than twice as much as she did. Plus I had a truckload of dessert. I guess all that food turned my stomach upside down. I certainly felt it when I woke up. So much so that I barely ate any breakfast. My mom and I scoured the city center for a pharmacy but the only one available was still closed. We ask around and ended up in some store managed by Pinoys that actually sold Imodium. Thank God! However, by the time we got back to the bus terminal, there were no air-conditioned buses available to Seria. And since the trip to the oil fields takes 2 hours (during which time my stomach might act up again), we decided to just go to the Empire Hotel and Country Club, which was a lot closer and had a lot of restrooms ready for use. 

My Lonely Planet book on Brunei highly recommended a visit to the Empire Hotel and Country Club, and upon arrival, my mom and I understood why. The place was lavish, with its very high ceiling, multi-tiered lobby, and massive columns. Some of walls were made of glass so you could look out onto the beach, the pool area, and the beautifully landscaped grounds. My mom remarked that the columns made the hotel look like a monument in Rome so she wasn't surprised when I told her that they imported the marble from Italy. 

We decided to have lunch in the hotel lobby (or well, the 2nd tier of the lobby as the 1st one served mainly coffee and dessert). I had buffet again (this one cost about BND31 I think, or about P1000, still cheap for a hotel buffet!) while my mom, who was still full, decided to just get a sandwich. I still couldn't eat - I skipped all the seafood - so I ended up having a few bowls of soup and a lot of bread along with a few other solid items. Once we were done eating, we decided to take a few photos inside the hotel. This piano was set up right next to the lunch area. 

It was drizzling on and off when we were there so the moment it stopped raining, we decided to head out and take some pictures in the pool and beach area. 

At around 3 P.M. we head back to the city center but not before taking a few more snapshots inside the Empire Hotel. One of the most interesting pieces we looked for was a camel made of Baccarat crystal and gold. My book said the hotel carried two of these pieces, one in the lobby and the other in in their biggest and most expensive suite, and that each of these camels was worth US$500,000. It wasn't ostensibly huge so I am not sure about the accuracy of this piece of trivia, but I took a photo anyway. :) 

The plan was to hit Kampong Ayer (the water village) once we were back in the city center but once again, the rain started pouring heavily. So we make another adjustment in our plans and head to The Mall (right next to the Rizqun Hotel) instead so my mom could look for more souvenirs. We lucked out earlier in the day because one of the shops in the Empire Hotel actually sold a lot of souvenirs that were not available elsewhere and they were nicer and cheaper than similar items we saw in the city center. But of course we needed to get more. :) We managed to buy a couple of items in The Mall, including jogging pants for both my nephews, before heading back to our hotel. We wanted to catch the last bus back so we didn't have dinner in The Mall anymore (the last bus was at 7pm and we felt it might be tough to get a taxi due to the weather). Since it was raining quite heavily, we decided against eating in the city center. we ended up buying bread and peanut butter in the convenience store at the ground floor of our hotel and eating in our room (our hotel was quite basic and didn't have any room service). Despite the stomach problems and heavy rains that caused us to change our plans a couple of times, we still managed to make the most of it. We still had one day left in Brunei. More on this in my next blog post.

Brunei: Day 1

Two things about Brunei: (1) it's officially an Islamic state with a strong and rich Muslim culture, (2) due to the abundance of oil, it is a very rich country, with the 4th highest GDP in the world. Given this, it's not surprising that two of the must-see sights in (or around) the capital Bandar Seri Begawan are mosques: The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque and the Jame'asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque. These were the first two places we went to see.

The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque is right smack in the city center and was within walking distance of our hotel. We got there at around 11:30 A.M., giving us enough time to go inside (prayers start at 12 noon so the doors of the mosque would be closed to visitors at that time). The exterior of the mosque is stunning, with its golden domes (the main dome is made of pure gold!) adding a touch of extravagance to the pristine white walls.


Visitors are not allowed to take photos inside, which is too bad because I would have loved to take a picture of the dazzling Venetian mosaic that can be found in the interior of the main dome. Anyone who enters needs to put on an Islamic robe.


This "boat" that stands right next to the mosque is replica of a 16th century mahligai barge.


We headed to the Yayasan complex, which is just across the road from the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, to have lunch before walking over to the bus terminal in Jalan Cator. There we got on a bus that took us to the second item on our itinerary that day: the Jame'asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque.


This mosque was built to commemorate the 25th anniversary of His Majesty the Sultan's reign. Naturally, this landmark just absolutely takes your breath away. We first caught a glimpse of it on our way from the airport to the hotel and it was spectacular in the evening lights. During the day, it was just as awe-inspiring. The first thing that hits you is the scale of it. I mean, it's just so massive, and the four minarets that surround it seem like giant soldiers keeping watch.


There was no one at the entrance of the mosque so my mom and I got a bit confused about the whole process since no one could tell us which parts of the mosque we could visit and which were off limits. But as luck would have it, a small private tour was going on when we got there, and the tour guide who wanted to make sure we followed protocol invited us to join them (for free haha). Once again, no photos are allowed inside. Such a shame because once we entered the main prayer hall, my jaw just dropped. It was beautiful! The thing that drew my attention the most was the massive golden chandelier in the center of the hall.

We took a bus back to the city center before walking to the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. We went to the church in the morning and learned that masses on Sunday were held at 7:30 A.M, 9:30 A.M (both of which we missed) and 5:30 P.M. So we made it just in time for the late afternoon mass. The good thing for us was that the ceremony was held in English.


On our way home, we decided to swing by the Sheraton Utama Hotel (or the Radisson) to have dinner since the two restaurants in our hotel were both under renovation. We figured the Radisson would have a good restaurant with a buffet dinner and we were right. The buffet dinner was "only" 26 Brunei Dollars or about P800, which is actually really cheap for a hotel buffet. The fact that it came with refillable coffee made it an even better deal!


I ate way too much food to compensate for the exhaustion and lack of sleep (I was working like crazy leading up to the trip) and I got a very bad lesson in overeating. I'll talk more about this in my next blog post.

Holiday in Brunei

It's always an interesting experience when visiting a country for the first time. So when my mom asked me if I wanted to travel with her to Brunei on holiday (Cebu Pacific had an airfare sale - as they often do - and the flights to Brunei were even cheaper than domestic flights), I jumped at the opportunity. I didn't know what was there to see in Brunei at the time, but it didn't really matter. I always keep a very positive and open outlook when traveling to a new destination and this always allows me to connect to new cities and countries I visit. I was sure the same would be true in Brunei, and it was.

We stayed in the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, and made sure we got to see as many of the sights during our trip. There aren't a lot of landmarks and tourist attractions and the city isn't too big, which means that spending a few days here will allow you to see all the key tourist spots without having to rush from one place to another. Some highlights of our trip:

Jame'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque


Kampong Ayer Water Village


Empire Hotel and Country Club


More about my trip to Brunei in the next few blog posts. :)

Nelly's "Just a dream"

I heard this song while driving and it got stuck in my head that I just had to search for it the moment I was online. Didn't realize Nelly could come up with music like this. It's such a beautiful song with great lyrics. Definitely my current favorite!


video uploaded in youtube by user ChannelMusicHD

Out of the doldrums

With a couple of back-to-back wins, Liverpool have finally moved out of the relegation zone! After their defeat against Everton, I didn't have much hope for the squad anymore. But two wins in a row - aginst Bolton and Blackburn - have given Liverpool enough points to land right smack in the middle of the league table. If they keep up this form, maybe they can move back up to the top of the league where they belong.

Trick or treat

Trick-or-treating is now an annual family tradition and this year was no different. My mom and I took my nephews to a Plants vs Zombies-themed activity although you didn't have to come as either a plant or a zombie to join - CJ had a Scream-type mask to complement his hooded skeleton outfit while Ciera had a scary pumpkin mask that matched his pumpkin costume.

Before the event proper, we were told that several zombie stickers were scattered around the assembly area. We were tasked to find stickers that had numbers written on the back since these corresponded to prizes. I found one and my mom found one (two actually but the other one she found had no number) so that meant each of my nephews got a prize.

The set-up was similar to the Amazing Race in that you had pitstops but, as the emcee kept emphasizing at the start of the event, it wasn't a race. Each pitstop required a very easy and quick-to-perform task so while there were a lot of kids, no one had to wait very long for their turn. After completing each task, the kids would then get their share of goodies.

Our first pistop required the kids to dribble a mini basketball with their non-dominant hand then shoot the ball into a basket. The second pitstop required kids to pop a balloon with a pin while they were blindfolded (they were assisted by a marshal). The third pitstop required the kids to score two goals by kicking a football past a goalee. There was also a photo booth, a giveaway stop, free food at the food booths, and a Plants vs Zombies themed show before the raffle.

I had never played Plants vs. Zombies before but my nephews told me I should. So the next day, I did. And I've completed it, too. I now have a gold trophy to show for it LOL.

French Baker 50% end-of-day sale

I finally got to try the 50% off French Baker end-of-day sale. Joyce was in Ortigas and we met up for dinner in Pancake House in Megamall. We left at around 9:15pm and I was walking with Joyce to the taxi stand when we passed by the long queue in French Baker. Neither of us were in a big rush to get home, and Joyce said she loves bread so we decided to fall in line and enjoy the 50% discount on French Baker items.

I ended up buying a cinnamon roll, two ham and cheese croissants, a chocolate cake, a brownie, and a chocolate chip cookie. All for P153. Pretty good. I've had the cinnamon roll and ham and cheese croissant before, but it was my first time to try all the chocolate items. The brownie and cookie were okay (definitely worth it at under P25 each!) but the cake which I got for P42 (originally P84) was actually quite good. I'm now thinking when I can go to the end-of-day sale again. :)

Opportunistic comeback

Fernando Alonso started the F1 season well by winning the first race in Bahrain. Then it seemed the Red Bull team just took over, with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel taking 7 of the next 11 races. Then it seems things went Alonso's way. Webber and Vettel were leading the drivers championship at #1 and #2 respectively, but their inability to finish the last race in Korea have allowed Fernando Alonso to be in a fantastic position to win end the F1 season above everyone else. He has now won 5 races this season, including 3 of the last 4, and has an eleven point lead over Webber (Vettel is a further 25 points behind). Should be interesting to see if Red Bull (or even Lewis Hamilton, who has now gone ahead of Vettel with a 2nd place finish) can force the issue in the last two races and overcome Alonso's superb form.

Reunion in Burgos Circle

My friends Suzanne and Nenen have both been based in the US for the last several years but they make it a point to visit the Philippines every year (or every other year). Since we don't get to see them a lot, we always catch up with them whenever they are in town. So on Friday night, Joh, Raffa, Me-ann, and I had dinner with Nenen and Suzanne in Cafe Juanita in Burgos Circle.

It was a night filled with fun and very positive energy. A lot of catching up, a lot of stories, a lot of laughs, and a lot of food! There were only six of us but we over-ordered - I think we got about 7 or 8 dishes - and so it's not surprising that we all got stuffed silly. I kept telling people it felt a 'fiesta' with people enjoying the night in front of a massive spread of really good Pinoy food. Peegee and Randee swing by for a bit since they had other plans that night and couldn't join us.

We decided to move to another place for dessert and coffee. I suggested Sugarhouse but apparently it closes at 10pm so we decided to have our caffeine fix in UCC Cafe instead. Despite being full, the six of us decided to share a couple of desserts with our coffee or tea. It wasn't long before Mike followed and joined us for the remainder of the night.

That was Nenen's last night in Manila but Suzanne will still be here 'til the middle of November so we agreed to have a "game night" before Suzanne leaves. Mike had been wanting us to play 'Settlers of Catan' which I had played once with Ching and the other folks when I was in Mind Cafe in Singapore (I specifically call out Ching 'coz she won that game and wiped the floor with us all LOL). It's definitely a night I'm looking forward to. :)

"One Song Glory" by Adam Pascal

"One Song Glory" from Rent of my favorite songs from a musical and I don't think anyone tops Adam Pascal singing it. Here's a different version of the songs, accompanied by piano instead of a full band. Equally great in my opinion.


video uploaded in youtube by user thatbrianboy

Merseyside derby disaster

Liverpool's horrific season continues as they are topped by rivals Everton in the first Merseyside derby this year. 0-2. 2nd from the bottom (and only ahead of Westham because of goal difference). Even getting new owners hasn't changed their luck. Maybe they should just sack the manager.

Keeping busy

When I say busy, I mean on virtually all fronts. Professionally, I haven't had a workload like this since about 4 1/2 to 5 years ago. On top of that, my CSR organization peaked in terms of projects - a Habitat for Humanity build on September 4 and another one on October 9, a strategic planning workshop with the Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED) on the July 31-August 1 weekend and another one on September 11-12, an International Coastal Cleanup project on September 25, and three upcoming projectes: a teacher training with GILAS on Oct 27, a tree planting activity on November 13, and another workshop with ACED on Nov 20-21. And since I celebrated my birthday recently, I had a lot of get-togethers with friends, most recently dinner with Mitch, Ferg, Joyce, Iona, JP and Aya in Cafe Juanita in Kapitolyo and then dinner with Joh, Raffa, Me-ann, and Mike in Conti's in GB2 the night after. That's a lot! I got tired just writing all that LOL.

While my schedule has been really hectic, I can't really complain though. I don't think I've ever been as successful juggling so many things at the same time. I am due for a holiday soon though, and I may just take a few days off a couple of times before the end of the year to make sure I don't burn out. After all, I am a bit too old to be averaging 4-5 hours of sleep a night. :)

500

Hey hey! After 5 1/2 years I finally reach blog post #500! :) Pretty cool milestone. I have managed to post a bit more in the last few months despite my massively busy schedule so let's see whether I can keep that up. If I can, blog post #600 shouldn't be too far away. :)

Wall Street 2: Money never sleeps

My friend David was in Manila for a week and we met up on Sunday to watch "Wall Street 2". David says that since he got married and had kids, he never gets to watch movies anymore since all his time is devoted to his family so whenever he's in town, we make it a point to watch a movie. A few of his colleagues were also in town and since they didn't have anything to do, they joined us.

The choice of movie came by default since Wall Street 2 was practically the only movie that seemed interesting enough to watch. None of us had seen the first one that came out back in the 80s and is a cult classic (the line "Greed is good" becoming one of the all-time movie quotes classics) so we had no basis for comparison, but this second installment was really good.

The film is set against the American economic crisis that happened a few years ago and it tries to depict how things turned out the way they did (although who's to say what is fact and what is fiction - this is a movie after all). The most interesting thing I learned is "moral hazard" or the situation wherein the
person who has your money is not responsible for it.

It's a really good movie and the cast did a great job. I personally felt that Josh Brolin and Carey Mulligan stole the scenes they were in. It was also nice to see Charlie Sheen - who was with Michael Douglas in the first film - make a cameo appearance. Don't be surprised if after watching Wall Street 2, you feel like going out and investing in the stock market. The ending was conveniently positive but with my crazy workload that brings with it a lot of stress, a feel-good movie is definitely good. :)

Republiq night

Another birthday celebration, but this time not mine. Tim had a two-part celebration last weekend: we had drinks in Izumi in Burgos Circle before heading to Resorts World to party in Republiq. It was my first time in Resorts World (cool place) and also my first time in Republiq (cool club). We ended up partying until around 3am. After a really long week last week, it was great to unwind and let loose! :)

This song was played three times - once by each of the 3 DJs featured that night. Great song that definitely gets you in the mood. :)


video uploaded in youtube by user MrNewRNBmusic

Liverpool in the doldrums

It was supposed to be a very promising season. Gerrard and Torres both stayed in the team. They signed Joe Cole. And Rafa Benitez left after a miserable last season.

Seems though that they were better off with Benitez. Now Liverpool are practically at the bottom of the barrel. Several matches into the season and they have one win to show for themselves. One win! This from a team that was battling for the premier league title a couple of years back. Even Dirk Kuyt has had to apologize to the fans for their horror show. I'm not sure what it will take to turn things around, but they better do it fast.

Birthday lunch in Adarna

I celebrated my birthday with my family in Adarna Food and Culture restaurant along Kalayaan. I've eaten in Adarna a couple of times before so I knew that my family would enjoy it here. Just like La Cocina De Tita Moning and Romulo's, Adarna is a house-turned-restaurant that offers very good Filipino food so it was a perfect place to celebrate with my family.

The ambience plays a big part in the overall experience in Adarna. The interior is filled with Filipino memorabilia such as framed celebrity photos and news clippings that are decades old. The service was excellent and it didn't take long for the food to arrive. I was really pleased with our selection of dishes. My favorite dish was the Piassok, a dish from Sulu that consisted of beef chunks cooked slowly in smoked coconut cream and spices. It was beautifully flavored and the beef was very tender. Our waitress told us it was their bestseller, and I can completely understand why.

The great thing about the dishes here are the interesting combinations. We ordered the Tagalog Pochero with Roasted Eggplant Dip, and it is recommended that you eat the pochero beef with the dip. The combination of the sweet beef and the tart eggplant was perfect. The same is true for the Grilled Pork Chop with Salsa Monja. The Batanes yellow rice had a hint of ginger which wasn't overpowering. And the Camaron Rebosado had a unique olive oil-based sweet-and-sour sauce which I haven't seen elsewhere.

It just sucks that I forgot to take photos of the food! Need to make sure I sort out another trip here sometime soon and blog about it, but this time with pictures. :) The only downside to Adarna is that they don't accept credit cards, so you need to make sure you have cash ready when you visit. (I did appreciate the fact that they informed me about this when I called to make a reservation. At least there were no surprises.)

After lunch, my nephews wanted to watch 'The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole". My brothers and my aunt couldn't join us so I drove to Shangri-La Mall to watch the movie with my nephews, my mom, and my grandparents. This movie really caters to kids - I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to adults unless you were taking children to see it. However, it did provide several good lessons to my nephews. It had themes like not giving up and trying your best even after you fail. It also showed that even if you are small, you can still succeed against immense odds (and bigger opposition) if you use your brain, train hard, and have a lot of heart.

Missing out on Singapore F1

Can't believe it's been a year since I watched my first Formula One race in Singapore. I decided I would watch it on TV this year - had to save up on money and the timing of the race didn't sync up well with my deadlines. It was an interesting race with Fernando Alonso winning again and moving him up to second in the drivers championship, past Lewis Hamilton who got involved in a tussle with Mark Webber that left his car out of commission. Webber still stays at #1 in the drivers championship with his 3rd place finish, and with Vettel placing second, he leapfrogs Jenson Button into overall 4th.

There are four races left this season but anything can still happen. Only 25 points separate the top 5, and when you consider that anyone who wins a race gets at least 7 points more than everyone else, it's still anyone's championship. And while it will be tough for Ferrari to win the constructors championship, their outside chance make it an interesting three-way at the top, along with Red Bull and McLaren-Mercedes. Should be a fun rest-of-the-season!

International Coastal Cleanup Day

Every year, the world celebrates International Coastal Cleanup Day, a global event led by Ocean Conservancy similar in concept to other global events like Earth Day and Earth Hour. International Coastal Cleanup Day normally falls on the third Saturday of September, but this year it was on September 25 (the 4th Saturday of the month).

Our Corporate Social Responsibility group at work felt that this would be a good event to support, given that the Philippines is an archipelago with more than 36,000 kilometers of coastline. So we organized a trip to Balai Anilao in Batangas and got about 50 volunteers from work to help in the cleanup efforts. If budget wasn't a constraint, we would have had a lot more participants actually - we sent out a call for volunteers at 2:45pm on a Friday afternoon and within 20 minutes, more than 80 people signed up.

On cleanup day, we arrived at 9am after a 135-km drive from Manila to Anilao that felt even longer due to the traffic. We were then split in two groups - the shoreline cleanup team (most of us were in this group) and the dive cleanup team. After the briefing, everyone went to work. Garbage bags were distributed and people started picking up as much trash as they could.

It was really interesting to see what kind of items were collected. Apart from the expected plastic bags, food wrappers, and drink bottles, we picked up an old knapsack, a syringe (God knows what that was used for...), a toothbrush, and a Magic touch liquid eraser. We also saw a whole lot of "pair-less" footwear. I don't know if it's because people lost one and tossed the other on the beach or if people got drunk and unintentionally while on the beach and lost half their footwear in the process.

The coast fronting Balai Anilao isn't very long but with a team of about 40 people sweeping through the shore, we filled seven large garbage bags in less than an hour. I didn't even realize there was that much clutter on the beach! Then came the garbage analysis - we went through the trash collected to count the different items we had. The information gathered would then be submitted to Ocean Conservancy for processing.

Once we were done, it was time to relax and enjoy the resort. The buffet lunch was really good - I had two massive servings LOL.


To officially close the event, we distributed certificates of participation and volunteer shirts to everyone there. We were lucky that we didn't get rained out considering that it had been raining a lot recently, at least in Manila. It was a successful event that the participants truly enjoyed - even if it meant getting dirty. The Philippines apparently has been the second biggest participant (next to the US) in this event every year since it first joined so it's nice to know that we were involved this year. It's definitely something to look forward to in 2011.

Surprise birthday party

My friends threw me my first-ever surprise birthday party. It was a joint surprise birthday party for me and Tim actually since his birthday is just a few days after mine. While some surprise parties tend to fail since the people involved figure things out somehow, I really didn't pick up on it, even when I ran into another friend Aldwin going into Hai Bar LOL. I guess I just really had so many things on my mind as my workload in the last few weeks has been intense. In fact, I didn't even want to go to my surprise party (which would have been a disaster haha).

It was set up as Cesar's celebration after taking the medical board exams (or at least, one of the stages - apparently there are a few). I had initially agreed to go but the day before the party, I told Walter that I might not be able to make it because I was so tired and was starting to feel sick. So when Walter started texting the final plans that day and telling me that they were on their way to meet me, I felt quite annoyed that they didn't even bother to ask me whether I would be joining them or not. Apparently, they could sense that I wasn't in the mood as we had dinner in Little Tokyo.

We arrived in Hai Bar at close to 11pm. There, we ran into Aldwin who was also about to go in. Tim even asked him what he was doing there, and he just said that he was Walter's guest. Strange that even then, I didn't suspect something was going on LOL but in my defense, neither did Tim. :) In fact, I was so spaced out that when I got in and everyone there - Jesse, Mark, Clarisse, and CY - all said "Happy Birthday" and presented me and Tim with a shot each, I still didn't get it. It was only when Walter asked me if I was surprised that it dawned on me - oh wait, this is actually for me (or well, me and Tim)! Talk about your brain not working...

So what started out as me being displeased at the fact that I was practically forced into a night out turned into a real fun surprise party. I'm definitely thankful to have friends who'd spend all that time and effort organizing something like this.

Despicable Me

I promised my nephews recently that I'd take them to watch "Despicable Me". I've heard really good reviews about the movie so I made sure we caught it while it was still showing in local theaters. It certainly lived up to the hype.

As is the case with a lot of animated films in recent years, "Despicable Me" is as entertaining to kids as it is to adults. It's not often that you have a villain as the protagonist in a film and Gru, the main character, is as despicable as villains come. At least initially. But when Gru's supervillain status comes under threat early in the story, an interesting series of events triggered by Gru's attempt to steal the moon lead him to three orphans Margo, Edith, and Agnes who become a very positive influence in his life.

The switch from villain to hero isn't instant, and it's a well-defined and careful process of character development that has the audience relating to and rooting for Gru, even when he is still trying to steal the moon. Its this growth in Gru's character and his increasing involvement in the lives of Margo, Edith, and Agnes that provide a lot of heartwarming moments in the film. This is complemented by the many fun and funny scenes that provide entertainment for the whole family and have audiences laughing out loud.

I felt only one thing missing by the end and that was the lack of resolution with respect to Miss Hattie's Home for Girls. I really wish we could've seen Miss Hattie get her comeuppance for the way she treated the children in the orphanage. But this little blip aside, "Despicable Me" is a really good movie and is worth seeing, even if you don't have any kids in tow. I'll certainly be getting the DVD when it comes out.

Little Asia Dinner in The Piazza

My friend Mike, who has been living in the US for the last 6 years, is in Manila right now. We haven't seen him in a while so we decided to meet up over dinner. I noticed that there is a Little Asia in The Piazza at Venice, McKinley and I love that resto so I suggested we meet up there when Joh asked for dinner suggestions. Joh had been wanting to try the restos in The Piazza for a while so the dinner venue was set.

Joining the dinner were myself, Joh, Raffa, Peegee, and Mile. A lot of time was spent catching up and talking about current and upcoming plans - both career-wise and personal. The food of course was really good. The group favorite: Vietnamese Crispy Spareribs with Garlic. It was a weeknight so we didn't stay out too late. We are supposed to meet up again some time soon to celebrate my birthday and I'm obviously looking forward to hanging out with them again.

Rafa on top of the world

Rafael Nadal finally completes the career Golden slam! Despite rain on Sunday that forced the final to be played on Monday, Nadal beat current world #2 Novak Djokovic in four sets to claim the US Open crown. This was an incredible achievement on so many levels:

• He is only the seventh man in history to complete a career Grand Slam. That is, winning each of the four Grand Slam titles (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open) at least once in his career.
• He is only the third man to do this in the Open Era. It's amazing to think about this because some of the greatest tennis players in history - Sampras, Borg, McEnroe, Lendl, Connors, Wilander, Edberg, and Becker - were unable to achieve this rare feat.
• With his Olympic Gold back in 2008, Rafa also joins Andre Agassi as the only two men to have won all four slams plus the Olympic Gold medal. The only other player in history to achieve this feat is Steffi Graf (who of course won all four slams + the Olympic Gold in the same year - 1988!)
• Rafa now has 9 Grand Slam titles. This puts him in 7th place all time. Two more slam titles will put him on equal fourth, tying him with Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver.
• This win also assured Rafa of ending the year #1.

I am hoping Rafa can win a few more slams in his career and maybe end up with at least 12-13 Grand Slams. But even if he doesn't, his strong results in the last 6 years have now placed him firmly among tennis' elite. I do hope he doesn't stop at 9 though. In fact, an Australian open title in January would be incredible. Coz that would mean he'd win a non-calendar Grand Slam. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that. :)

An early baby shower

Anna was in town this weekend so we decided to all meet up and have a very early baby shower for Joyce, who wasn't due for 3 more months. We decided to have our celebration in Mitch's place and while the initial plan was for Joyce's other close friends would join us, most folks backed out in the last minute so it ended up being just us.

Mitch asked Joyce what food she wanted and Joyce said pasta and salad. So we ended up having salad with three different dressings, really good lasagna, and chicken. Plus the mango tart I got from Conti's. Anna ended up being really late because she got pulled into a family gathering but Mitch's sister Myra and her family were there too. Myra and Iona are both very strong advocates for breast feeding and are experts on it, so a lot of the talk over dinner was on how best to accomplish breast feeding.

Anna joined us around 10pm and we decided to share gifts then. I didn't get Joyce a gift yet because I didn't know who would be there and what she might have gotten from other people. In any case I still have three months to get Joyce a gift so no rush. Maybe I will just combine her birthday gift, Christmas gift, and baby shower present and get her something really big and cool. I will just have to wait for her registry.

"Dakota" by The Stereophonics

Discovered this tune a while back. Awesome song by an awesome band.


video uploaded in youtube by user candchaoz

Food trip Friday

Thank God Friday was a holiday! I probably worked more than 50 hours in the four working days of the week, pulling an all-nighter from Wednesday to Thursday to make sure I met all my crazy deadlines (which thankfully, I did!) so it was great to unwind on Friday and enjoy a lot of great food with great friends.

Walter, Tim and I started the day off in Ongpin. Our first stop: Masuki. We shared a big bowl of mami and had one order of siomai (2 pieces) each. Their siomai is about twice the size of normal siomai and tastes really good and their mami ranks up their as one of the best I've ever had.

We initially wanted to have asado rice rolls and dimsum in Waiying but the place was full so we tried another resto a couple of blocks away. I can't recall the name of the place though. Aside from ordering asado rice rolls, we got hakaw, mushroom siomai, and sio long pao. I liked the hakaw but everything else was just okay. I'd probably try another place in the area if I want to order the same food we had there.

I was planning to get hopia from Eng Bee Tin before leaving China Town but we were a lot closer to Salazar Bakery (practically right next to it, actually) so I bought my hopia there instead. We then left Ongpin and headed to Makati.

Along the way, I decided to drop by Becky's Kitchen. I've tried the Cherry Walnut brownies from Becky's Kitchen a few times before when people would give them as gifts to my mom and I think they are great. I figured that since we had time, I would find out where along Bautista Street Becky's Kitchen was located and buy my first ever brownies from there. We were given a queue number once we got in which I found to be quite weird since there were very few people there. My number gets called shortly and as I start placing my order, the crowd in the shop tripled in size. Their numbering system all of a sudden made perfect sense. :) I got my half-box of brownies and we headed out.

For our next stop, I suggested we go to Earle's Delicatessen in Greenbelt 1. I tried this place for the first time with my mom and brother in Columns when we watched Master Class and thought it was extremely good value for money - the sandwiches which cost P120-150 were hefty and didn't scrimp on the fillings, the grilled sausages cost only P50-80 if you dine in (they cost about P20-30 per 100 grams if you buy it raw - in Rustan's supermarket, the sausages cost P35-50 per 100 grams), and the brewed coffee at P48 is quite good.

When I suggested Earle's Deli, Walter remembered that he wanted to try The Spud Diner by Potato Corner in Columns which was next to the Earle's Deli there. So we went to Columns instead. We set up base in The Spud Diner - Walter and Tim shared the Italian Job and the Crazy Spudster while I ordered Shepherd's Pie. I asked the cashier if it was okay to bring food from other restaurants in and she said it was, so I ended up ordering brewed coffee and a grilled Bavarian Cheese Smokies sausage from Earle's Deli. Apparently the Crazy Spudster was pretty good and the Italian job not so much. But my Shepherd's Pie matched perfectly with my Bavarian Cheese Smokies!

Our mid-afternoon snack was quite heavy but we still managed have dinner at around 730pm. We were planning to spend the night drinking in Distillery so we decided to eat somewhere in Burgos Circle. We ended up in Cantinetta, which is one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Manila. I've eaten here a few times before and in each visit, I always order the same thing - the Tartufo, which is pasta in truffle cream sauce with prosciutto. I absolutely love this dish! While most people normally drink white wine with pasta, I had a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon with mine. An expensive dinner but it's not often I go on this kind of food trip so I decided to go crazy with it. :) And boy did I love my food!!

Distillery was full that night so we ended up downing a bottle of Absolut Citron in Izumi instead, this time with a couple more friends joining us. Once the bottle was gone, we moved to Hai Chinese Restaurant and Bar, where we ordered their Bar Chow Sampler along with the drinks we had.

A really long day with a lot of driving and a lot of money out, but there was a lot of really good food too. That I got to hang out with really good friends who enjoy food just as much as I do made it even better. Hopefully we get to replicate this day in the future.

Saving more paper cups

After discovering that I can save P5 by using my Starbucks tumblers when buying coffee in Starbucks, I decided to try and use reusable mugs when buying coffee in other places. The most logical place for me to try this first was the 7-11 at the ground floor of my building. I decided one day to bring a reusable mug to 7-11 and used it for my brewed coffee purchase. My mug was roughly the size of a medium cup (P45) but I got charged only P35. Pretty cool!

I brought my mug to Figaro as well. I have this fairly tall mug that matched their 16 oz coffee and I asked them to use that for my order. I didn't get a discount but at least I get to save another paper cup.

Old show a new favorite

I've recently rediscovered Criminal Minds on Fox (channel 50 on Skycable). I used to watch this show during my short stint in Sweden but it wasn't showing on any of the channels I had here in Manila. Either that or I could never catch it while it was airing.

I recall being disappointed when Skycable replaced Fox Crime - which had all three CSIs and The Practice - with Fox. At the time, there weren't a lot of shows on Fox which I enjoyed apart from The Simpsons, but now they are showing a lot of Criminal Minds (specifically season 4). I'm getting to watch a lot of it and I'm finding this show compelling once again. It's a heavy theme actually but there's a lot of triumph in it. What makes it even more interesting to watch is that different episodes don't always follow the same format - sometimes the antagonist is revealed early on and sometimes you don't find out who the perpetrator is until the show is close to the end.

There's also a new channel on Skycable - Universal on channel 33 - which shows a lot of the different Law and Order franchises. SVU (Special Victims Unit) remains to be my favorite one. With Fox and Universal added to the Skycable roster, there are now more shows to keep me entertained.

Blacksoup Cafe + Artspace

If you're looking for a cozy restaurant that offers good, affordable food in the Quezon City area, you might want to try Blacksoup Cafe + Artspace. I saw this resto a few months ago and thought it was quite interesting. So when I had dinner with my friends Tim and Basil and Tim wanted to try something new, I suggested this place.

A big part of Blacksoup's appeal its unique interior: quirky decorative pieces, musical instruments, and tables displaying different pictures and photographs all combine to provide an artsy yet cozy ambience. When we were there, the film Bicycle Thieves was being projected onto the far wall, making our dinner a lot more interesting.

And of course the food. Blacksoup Cafe + Artspace offers menu items that are inspired by traditional Filipino fare, such as the laing pasta and mango turon.

Laing Pasta

Mango Turon

If you want something other that local cuisine, you can try some of their other dishes like the chicken with basil and cheese stuffing. You can also check out menu of the day for more options.

Chicken with Basil and Cheese Stuffing

Meal prices range from P100 to P150 so we went crazy and ordered five dishes. Apart from the items mentioned above, we also ordered the aligui pasta, the pasta ala victoria, and the salmon from the daily menu. Their coffee is pretty good and costs only P35 if I recall correctly. You can check out their menu here. Good prices, good atmosphere, and good food. That's a solid combination in my book, and it makes this place definitely worth a visit.

Blacksoup Cafe + Artspace is located in Unit G Maginhawa Bldg, #154 Maginhawa Street, Sikatuna Village, Quezon City. You won't see it along the road if you are driving along Maginhawa, so instead, look for Crave Burger and park in that area. Go through the short walkway right next to Crave Burger into the building complex behind it. Blacksoup Cafe + Artspace has a facebook page if you'd like to read more about it.

Hitting the treadmill again

It's been 2 months since I ran my marathon-for-a-cause and mentioned in a previous post, I haven't been able to run since then. That is, until today. I finally got to hit the treadmill again using my new running shoes. Since I haven't had any exercise in two months, I decided to go low-intensity and ran only 3 kilometers. It felt incredible flexing my running muscles again and breaking a sweat. I just need to regularly hit the gym 3-4 times a week. Not only will that keep me healthy but it can help me bring down my finish time in next year's marathon. And maybe lose some weight along the way. :)

What a bad start

The Barclays Premier League started a couple of weeks ago. With the Liverpool featuring old stars Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres and new players like Joe Cole, my hopes were high that the team would do better this season.

Unfortunately, things haven't panned out the way I hoped. With a draw against Arsenal, a bad loss to Man City, and only one win coming against West Brom, Liverpool are sitting sadly in 13th place!!! That's 13th out of 20, which is a sorry place to be in for one of the biggest clubs in the BPL. Of course it's only the start of the season and it's only a 5-point difference between 13th and 1st, but you always want to get off on the right foot and Liverpool didn't do that.

Here's hoping things change soon and Liverpool start notching more wins and moving up the league table.

Record

So I now have a new record in terms of blogging: 28 blog posts in the month of August. That is the most number of posts I've made in a single month since I started my blog more than 5 years ago. So cool!

I was actually gunning for one post a day but August has been one of the busiest months I've had this entire year so I missed out on a couple of days. Despite that, I still manage 10 more posts than my previous record of 18 (back when I was stationed in Sweden). I may still go for a perfect record of one post a day in a month, but I may rest a bit first. :)

Second Wind

Happy National Heroes day to all Filipinos!

I was very thankful for this holiday as it gave me an extra day off which brought with it some much needed rest. Last week I was averaging 5 hours of sleep a night so thankfully I was able to get more than 8 hours of sleep every night of this long weekend.

The extra day off also allowed me to finally drop by Second Wind, the running store I've been meaning to visit for a while now. With running being very popular in the Philippines, a lot of running stores are coming out of the woodwork. Probably the most popular one is Runnr in Bonifacio High Street. When I went there a few months ago, I ran on the treadmill to have my gait analyzed. It's such a cool concept where they can look at how you run and suggest the best running shoe for you, but I was very turned off when after my gait analysis, they offered me the most expensive running shoe! It made me feel like the gait analysis was useless because whatever the result, they would've sold that shoe to me.

So when my friend Alvin told me about Second Wind and how the folks in that store actually give you several options with different price ranges, I felt it was a much better option.

And true enough, it was. When I arrived, the guy there, Neville Manaois, asked me a few questions - how often do I run, what distances do I normally cover during training, what running shoe did I use before, etc. He then took a look at my foot and at the sole of my flip-flop to see where the wear-and-tear was. He mulled over the information for a bit then asked for a few pairs of shoes to be brought out - one Asics, one Brooks, and one New Balance. I try them all on and they all feel pretty good and I said, "I don't know which one to choose!" He then told me that I should just opt for the cheapest one, the Asics Gel 1150, which was a couple hundred pesos cheaper than the Brooks pair and more than a thousand bucks cheaper than the New Balance pair. So after buying my Nike cross-trainers the other day, I now have a pair of Asics Gel 1150 running shoes:


Listening to Neville explain what shoe I needed (apparently I needed stability; all this time I had been using shoes that provide motion control) along with the pluses and minuses of each shoe which he knew by heart made it clear to me how much of a running expert he was. The fact that he suggested I pick the least expensive pair also gave me the impression he was more interested in ensuring that I have an overall good running experience instead of earning more money from me. Needless to say, I stepped out of Second Wind with one of the best purchasing experiences I've ever had.

Second Wind has two branches: one in Teacher's Village and one in Ortigas Home Depot. If you need new running shoes, I suggest you visit one of these two stores:

Second Wind QC
88 Maginhawa Street, Teachers Village QC
Tel No. 7992089

Second Wind Pasig
Ortigas Home Depot. Julia Vargas Avenue. Pasig
Tel No: 9140283

Operating hours:
Monday – Friday: 11am - 7pm
Saturday: 12nn - 6pm

Food trip

Got to try three new restaurants over the last four days. Stuffed myself while I was at it. :)

*****

On Thursday night, I had dinner with my friends Walter and Tim in Charlie's Grind and Grill. The original restaurant is located in Kapitolyo but they opened a new branch along Ortigas avenue (Greenhills side) and that's where we went for our meal. I've read good reviews about the food here but I have to say I was a bit disappointed since the food didn't live up to expectations. The buffalo wings were so-so, the fish in the fish and chips didn't seem very fresh, and the meatballs in the meatballs marinara on pasta was a bit too soft and mushy. The chili fries was the best thing we ordered that night.

Of course, Charlie's Grind and Grill is supposed to be known for its burgers and we didn't have one so I will make sure to try one of their burgers (like the Black Angus burger or the Shroom burger which I really want to try) or their cheese steaks in my next trip.

*****

I met up with my friends Joh, Raffa, and Me-ann on Saturday night. We hadn't seen each other for a while - probably since Lexi's baptism! - and since Joh just celebrated her birthday recently, it was a good time for us to meet up. I've been meaning to try Mr. Jones in Greenbelt 5 and when Joh told me it had also been in their to-try list for a while, our venue was very quickly set.

It was a very good choice too! All four of us enjoyed the dishes we ordered. I had the Big Mama's Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf, Me-ann ordered the Wicked Truffled Mac 'n' Cheese, Joh had the 1/2" Thick Double-Smoked Bacon and Eggs, and Raffa ordered the US Beef Ribcap Tapa and Garlic Overload. And the serving sizes are pretty big! We all wanted to have dessert after our meal but there just wasn't any room left after. Even hours later when I was in Reserve having drinks with other friends I still couldn't eat anything.

*****

We celebrated my nephew Ciera's birthday on Sunday. The initial plan was for us to have dinner in La Maison Café in Greenbelt 5 but there was some kind of function there when we arrived so we had to switch restos. So we went down one floor and had a celebration meal in Restaurante Pia Y Damaso. The cuisine is mainly Filipino (or Colonial Filipino as I've read) and we ordered a lot of it: Beef Shortribs Rioja, Chicken Pastel, Tapang Usa, Pork Belly with Chorizo and Chickpeas, and Lengua Sevillana. We also ordered paella, catfish adobo, and snails (i checked the online menus and couldn't find the "official" names of these last three dishes). It was my other nephew CJ who actually ordered the snails which definitely proves that my nephews don't have the same food preferences as most other kids their age (or even most other adults for that matter!)

The desserts were also quite exceptional. Ciera ordered the ube macapuno cake, my grandfather ordered Pepay the Dancer's halo-halo and shared it with my brother, CJ tried some kind of leche flan-type dessert (can't remember what it was called), and I ordered both Sisa's Dementia and Ibarra's Kiss for everyone else to share. I absolutely loved the last two chocolate-based desserts and it went perfectly with the really good coffee they had there.

*****

The only downside to this food trip is that I tried three new restos but took no photos hehe. Maybe next time I have a camera with me the next time I get to visit these places.

My new cross-trainers

I haven't had any exercise in almost two months (the last time being my marathon last July 4!!). I've been having some cash flow problems recently so I didn't want to make a big purchases (by big, I mean items that cost a couple thousand bucks) until I got my finances sorted out, and since I broke my running shoes during the marathon, I couldn't hit the gym until I got myself a new pair.

With all the extra inches I'm gaining around my waist, I decided to start weight training again and alternate it with running and hopefully get back to a much more desirable level of fitness. I've read that you aren't supposed to use running shoes for anything else except running, so I figured I needed cross-trainers as well.

I saw this really cool pair of Nike cross-trainers in the Nike shop in Powerplant but it cost almost P5000 so I didn't want to buy it then. Which was a smart thing to do because I saw the same pair in Toby's Sports in Megamall. Toby's is currently having an anniversary sale (started last August 13 and runs until September 19) and the pair I wanted, the Nike Air Trainer 1 Low SL Men's training shoe, was on sale at 30% off! I decided to get it then and there. This is what my new shoes look like (it's the same model but I have a different color):


The only problem now is that I am really liking my new trainers and I don't want to mess them up by using them for working out LOL. Maybe I can just start using my Nike Frees for my trips to the gym and I can use my new trainers as my new casual shoes. :)

Going through my Ipod

My old-school 30 Gb Ipod has been with me for more than 3 years now and I have about 20 Gb worth of music in it. However, I tend to listen to my favorite albums, favorite artists, or favorite songs only, so there are still hundreds or maybe even thousands of songs in my Ipod that I haven't listened to even once.

As such, I recently decided to make sure I go through every song in my Ipod. I started listening to songs in alphabetical order (by song title) a couple of weeks. I don't get to listen to my ipod everyday, but when I do, I probably listen to it for about 2-5 hours. Given that, I'm still at songs starting with letter 'B' (the last song I heard was 'Built to last' by Melee). I reckon I still have close to 400 hours worth of songs to listen to before I'm done! LOL

Anyways, here's one of the most played songs in my Ipod: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's extraordinarily soulful version of "Over the Rainbow". I never thought a song accompanied only by a ukulele could move me!


video uploaded in youtube by user mountainapplecompany

(Oh and if this arrangement sounds familiar, it's because this version was covered by Jason Castro while he was on American Idol and was also performed by Mr. Schuester and Puck in Glee.)

Meeting up with Ching and John

My good friends Ching and John were in town for the weekend. I got a text from John on Friday to inviting me to meet up that same night but unfortunately I was already booked pretty much the entire weekend. Thankfully, they were in town until Thursday.

I managed to have dinner with them in Kabisera by Dencio's on Monday night. It was actually sort of a family dinner - having dinner with us were Ching's parents and her sister Kathy who is also a really good friend of mine. But I guess since Ching and John didn't have a lot of time in Manila, they decided to extend the invitation (two other friends of theirs, Millie and Cy, also joined us that evening) to make sure we got to see each other while they were here.

It was really good catching up with them while they were here since it was several months since I saw them last. I also found out that Kathy is getting married next year - she has been engaged for a while but they now have a wedding date. She asked me if I could sing in her wedding and of course I said yes. She also asked me if I would mind singing along with the UP Singing Ambassadors and I told her that she shouldn't be asking me that question - rather, she should be asking the Singing Ambassadors if they were okay singing with me LOL.

It was a good night but obviously there wasn't a lot of time to catch up. Hopefully, I get to see Ching, John, and Kathy again some time soon. Maybe during the Christmas holidays.

Family time

Sunday is family day for me, as it is for most people. One of my relatives, Auntie Toots, was in Manila for a week so we had an extended family dinner in Uncle Albert's house (funny I call them Auntie and Uncle since they are both actually in the same generation as my grandparents. So I fetched my grandparents, my mom, and my nephews and we drive to Makati where Uncle Albert and Auntie Isabel live. Tita Jill and Tito Allen were also there along with their two kids. Extra tables were set up in the living room area to accommodate us all and as soon as we arrived, dinner was served.

Naturally, our dinner consisted mainly of Filipino food for the benefit of Auntie Toots and Uncle Amor who don't get to eat local cuisine very often. We had pansit malabon, Ilonggo-style lumpiang ubod, barbecue, and steamed crabs, among other things. My nephew CJ especially enjoyed the dinner since he loves crabs - he ended up having three whole ones! For dessert, we had mango cake and ice cream.

After dinner, my second cousins played some music to provide some post-meal entertainment. Nicolas played the violin while Mikaela played the piano. My grandfather and Uncle Albert then took over and played the piano and violin, respectively. It was around 930pm when we decided to call it a night since my nephews still had school the next day. Auntie Toots and Uncle Amor were staying in their friend's house and since it was along the way, we dropped them off.

It was a tiring night for sure as I had to drive all over the metro (twice!) but I really wouldn't have it any other way as it is such a joy to be able to take my family out every weekend.

Psycho Killer by Talking Heads

Had a dream that our band org at work performed this song in a company event. Would be cool if we eventually do as this song is so kick-ass! Not sure though if we'll ever be allowed to sing a song about psycho killers LOL.


video uploaded in youtube by user paulharris1967

If this old school rock tune sounds familiar to you, it might be because a slower and much more haunting cover version of this song was used in the TV series "Dexter". Either that or you have watched Dilana sing it in Rockstar Supernova.

Road(block) to the US Open

Rafa Nadal has never really had much success after Wimbledon. The fast hard courts in North America seem to be his bane, and they continue to remain his Achilles heel as he is ousted in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters by Marcos Baghdatis. That this is the first time Baghdatis has beaten Nadal is not a good sign, but Rafa did lose to Feliciano Lopez in the quarterfinals of the event before Wimbledon this year and it didn't matter. Hopefully, he can find the form that gave him two Grand Slam titles this year and finally win the only Slam title that's missing from his trophy cabinet. It's a tall order but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed...

Visiting PGH

My 7th marathon for a cause was completed a little more than a month ago but it normally takes a few months (or more) to collect all the pledges. I've collected about P30,000 so far - half of the total pledges - so I dropped by PGH to make a partial donation.

Due to a lot of after-the-fact pledges that came in after July 4, my marathon-for-a-cause will rake in almost P70,000 for the PGH internal medicine wards. There are still a whole lot of pledges that need to be collected (which reminds me, my friend Anna who now lives in Singapore will be coming to Manila in a couple of weeks so maybe my "pledgers" based in SG can send their donations through her...). But dozens of people will receive medical assistance from these funds so all my efforts to run, raise funds, and collect pledges will be absolutely worth it. :)

Moving on

I was surprised to find out that Melina Kanakaredes won't be returning to Season 7 of CSI New York. Stella Bonasera, the character she plays, is my favorite in the series and it will be unfortunate not to see her with the rest of the gang anymore. Apparently, it was her choice not to return after 6 seasons. Her contract was up and CBS was offering her a new deal but she decided not to renew.

She will be replaced by Sela Ward when the first episode of season 7 starts on September 24. The dynamic is certainly going to change, but CSI Las Vegas managed to successfully introduce Laurence Fishburne, who replaced William Peterson (Gil Grissom). So I am certain things will turn out just fine in CSI New York.

Awesome mash-up of 2009 hits

I heard this back in early 2010 and I heard it again recently on 92.3. It's a really cool mash-up of hits from 2009 Created by DJ Earworm. Check it out:


video created by djearworm

Hard court season

Andy Murray won the Rogers Cup title on Sunday, and notched three firsts along with it: (1) he won his first title of 2010, (2) he beat both Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer in the same tournament for the first time (he did this feat last year but it was in exhibition), and (3) he becomes the first man to defend the Rogers Cup since Andre Agassi did it in 1995. While I am disappointed that Rafa lost, I still have high hopes that he can find his stride on the hard courts in the next few weeks and finally break through in Flushing Meadow and notch his first US Open title.

On the women's side, Kim Clijsters saves three matchpoints to beat Maria Sharapova in Cincinnati. This is Kim's 3rd title this year, and it's quite interesting since Cincinnati is where she made her comeback last year. This come-from-behind title victory must give Clijsters a lot of confidence going into the US Open, which she has won twice before.

Belated birthday presents

I wasn't able to get my mom and my brother a gift for their respective birthdays, so I made sure that the next time I would see them (which was the Sunday after their joint birthday celebration), their presents would be ready.

For my mom, I got an orange shirt from Liz Claiborne. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to get because I wasn't sure about the size. That orange Liz Claiborne shirt caught my eye immediately since it was slightly sporty but had a classic style and cut, which means I didn't have to worry about it being age-appropriate. The problem was that the smallest size for that shirt was PS (or small) which seemed a bit too big for my mom. The Liz Claiborne shop in Shangri-La mall was on sale and I saw a few sale items that were PP (or XS) which I felt was the correct size. The catch was that if for some reason I got the size wrong, it would become a problem since sale items can only be exchanged with a different size and color (but still the same style). Since sale items had broken sizes, the right size might not be available anymore. I had to ask the staff about their exchange policy a few times (non-sale items can be exchanged with anything, including bags and even sale items, for up to 30 days as long as they are in good condition and you still have the receipt). I finally decided to get my original choice - the orange shirt. I figured that if it turned out to be too big, my mom could exchange it for other items in the shop that she could actually try on (a GC that can be used in Liz Claiborne was the more logical choice but I felt an actual shirt is was more personal). As it turns out, the size was just right for my mom. Cool!

For my brother, I got a dark blue shirt from Team Manila. I've window-shopped in Team Manila several times before and they have really great graphic designs. Unfortunately, their semi-fitted shirts don't seem to agree with my bulging belly LOL so I haven't bought any shirts there for myself. However, my brother is leaner than I am so I thought a Team Manila shirt would fit him perfectly. And as it turns out, it did.

Cav night

I always passed by Cav Wine Shop every time I'd go to Bonifacio High Street, and I always wanted to try it but I never did. That is, up until the Friday night. My friends and I wanted to try a wine bar so I suggested Cav. It looks like a pretty expensive place and we didn't want a big spending night, so I decided to drop my friends off first so they could take a look at the menu while I waited outside in car. They decided the menu seemed reasonable so I parked my car and followed them.

One major downer - the corkage! There were a lot of wine bottles that cost under P600 which made my friends decide that Cav was worth trying, but if you order a wine bottle under P1,500 and drink it in the restaurant, you have to pay a corkage fee of P300. It's written in the fine print at the bottom of each page of the wine list so my friends didn't notice it when looking at the menu and deciding that we hang out there, but at least the waiter informed us about the corkage before ordering. It momentarily doused our enthusiasm and so we decided to stick to the cheaper wines (I was looking at a more expensive bottle initially). In any case, I figured that a bottle of wine in most places costs about P700-800 or more, so we didn't pay more than what we would've spent if we ate somewhere else.

The thing that made my night, however, was the Cav card and the "wine vendo machine" (that's not the actual name - I'm just calling it that lol). The system: the wine vendo has a pretty good selection of red and white wines and you can get a taste, a half-glass, or a full glass of any of these wines. You slot your card into the machine, put your glass under the wine you have chosen, select the amount you want to have, and press the button. The card automatically gets credited and you have your wine. You pay for the total amount credited to the Cav card once you ask for the bill.

If you decide to get just a taste, it can cost as low as P35 although it really is just a few sips. However, this system worked perfectly for me because I wanted to try a lot of different wines. Even the more expensive wines that cost around P1400++ per bottle had tasting options that cost about P80-90.

One of my favorites was the Belnero Castelo Banfi Sangiovese 2006, but it was a bit too pricey for my wallet (P80 per tasting). My other favorite that night was the Salmon Creek Pinot Noir 2008 from California, and it turned out that a bottled of the Salmon Creek was "only" P660. I enjoyed it so much and thought it was priced decently that I decided I would bring a bottle of it home with me.

image from http://www.snooth.com/image/salmon-creek-pinot-noir/

I ended up tasting about 6 or 7 more different wines, some of them good, some of them great, and one of them tasting awful LOL (I absolutely hated the Errazuriz Chardonnay 2009! Thank God I had only a few sips of it LOL). Add to this the bottle I got for myself, the two bottles my friends and I shared there, and the salpicao I ordered (it tasted so good with the red wine! LOL) and it's not surprising that my tab that night was really high!! I have been working my ass off the last few weeks, though, so I can consider this to be my prize to myself haha. My friends in fact said it was so nice to see me enjoying myself a lot, like a kid in a candy store LOL.

While I would rather they didn't have that whole corkage thing, there are still enough relatively inexpensive wines in the menu. And the Cav card set-up is, for me, worth trying again. I will have to save up for another trip here, and maybe I need to eat a lot before going there so I won't have to order any food from the menu, but I would certainly like to pay Cav another visit.

Fantasia commits suicide?

This is such sad news. Fantasia Barrino, winner of American Idol season 3, overdosed on aspirin and other pills at home. Police seem to believe that Fantasia attempted suicide although her manager claims it wasn't.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gx7zmkgB1gcpX4OcEuNOXEvJ9I8wD9HHJO5G0

The talk of the town is that Fantasia's alleged suicide attempt was brought about by an affair she had with Antwuan Cook, a married man. To make this episode in her life even sadder, she might now be sued by Antwuan's wife Paula.

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/celebrities/2010/08/14/15023186-wenn-story.html

The good news is that Fantasia was released from the hospital.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/idolchatter/post/2010/08/fantasia-released-from-hospital/1

Hopefully she gets past all the issues that trouble her. Fantasia has never had an easy life, even after winning AI. But I do hope she can focus on her daughter, her family, her work, and even her fans, which should be more than enough reason for her to stay alive and remain healthy.

Salt

I've heard good reviews from people who have seen 'Salt' so I made my way to the cinema to see it. It certainly lived up to the hype. The action was great, the fight scenes cool, and the fact that the movie starred Angelina Jolie ensured that it would have more than its fair share of guys in the audience. :) Jolie definitely has the tough action woman role down pat - what with Tomb Raider and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I can't imagine a lot of other women in Hollywood being able to pull of these kinds of roles (although Scarlett Johansson comes to mind...)

While it has all the ingredients to make it your typical action blockbuster, story-wise, its not all that typical. It had three pretty major twists, the first of which was especially surprising. That it came at a point where I was starting to think that this movie would follow in the footsteps of other films that involve hunting down the central character ensured that the film would keep me interested.

All in all, 'Salt' is really good action movie that should provide movie-goers with a good time.

10-year old Opera singer in America's Got Talent

OMG, I saw this clip on youtube and I was blown away. Close your eyes and you wouldn't believe it was coming from a 10-year old!!


video uploaded in youtube by user AmericanBestTalent

Big birthday bash

August is birthday time in my family. I was planning to take my family - including my grandparents - to Adarna for lunch. I had to put that plan on hold though because my grandparents decided to have dinner in their house to celebrate the birthdays of my brother, my cousin, my mom, my grandfather, and their household help who has been with the family for decades (we actually call her 'Mama Guading'). My nephew's birthday isn't until a few weeks for now but we celebrated it as well.

I know my grandparents like the Mango Tart in Conti's so I decided to pick one up on my way to dinner. As expected, there was more food than all of us could eat - pansit malabon, lumpia, chicken, kare-kare, paella, and a few other items. We had a lot of dessert too - apart from my Conti's mango tart, we had ice cream, an ice cream cake, and a birthday cake.

I'm still planning to bring my family to Adarna, but since my nephews have exams next week, we'll probably do it two weekends from now.

Nadal and Djokovic team up

Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic join forces as a doubles team and enter in the draw in the Rogers Cup in Toronto. This is the first time that the top 2 players in the world teamed up in doubles since Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe played together on the same side of the court. That was 34 years ago. (Roger Federer dropped to #3 in the world for the first time after Wimbledon. It's quite strange to talk about the top 2 players in the world and not include Federer.)

Nadal and Djokovic, however, ended up losing in their debut performance. While the result was not as good as their fans would've liked, it will be interesting to see if they decide at some point in the future to play doubles together in a Grand Slam event. That would certainly draw a huge amount of attention to doubles.