Attack of the body... wash?

I have gotten a few bottles of body wash over the last couple of years, usually as Christmas gifts. I realized I had five bottles already but I always felt it was such a hassle to use. That is, until my friend told me that I should use a luffa sponge. When he told me that, I was like, that is so obvious, why didn't I think of that before? LOL So one day during the Christmas break last year, I headed to Body Shop to look for luffa. I ended up getting what apparently is called a bath lily haha. This is what it looks like:

Photo from the Body Shop USA website.

Over the last few months, I've been using my bath lily with my body washes. I've finally consumed one of the five and I've almost fully used up the second one. I reckon I might be able to get to the end of the year before I use up the remaining bottles I have. Cool. At least I get to save on soap. :)

Don Quixote in CCP

Ballet Philippines staged 'Don Quixote' in the CCP Main Theatre. My mom wanted to see it and asked me if I wanted to join her. I thought a shot of culture would be good LOL and I have always been impressed with ballet dancers so I decided to watch it too.

The night started off poorly though in that we didn't realize it coincided with Taylor Swift's concert in MOA. Don Quixote was scheduled to start at 8pm and we left Makati at around 6:40pm. That would normally give us more than enough time to get to CCP and even have some food before the show started, but the hordes of people heading to MOA caused major traffic in the metro. We got to the main theater at around 8:10pm and I was really worried that they wouldn't let us in until the second act but thankfully that wasn't the case. As it turns out, dozens of other people were also late - a lot of them arriving up to several minutes after we did - so we missed just a few minutes but still got to see most of the first act.

Thankfully, it was only a few minutes that we missed. As I entered the theater, I was greeted by a brilliant set filled with dancers dressed in vibrant, striking colors. What is truly amazing about ballet dancers is their supreme ability to appear so light and effortless on stage despite the fact that what they do takes incredible strength and effort; how those women manage to dance en pointe is beyond me! The ballet is an interpretation of the novel by Miguel De Cervantes, and its lead characters are the young lovers Kitri and Basilio. Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza are supporting roles (in fact, these two characters don't dance at all). The final grand pas de deux of the two lead characters is utterly spectacular and after seeing it, I can understand why it is one of the most popular duets in ballet history.

One of the reasons why my mom wanted to see this ballet was because it was headlined by Candice Adea, who recently brought pride to the Philippines by winning a silver medal in the 2010 International Ballet Competition. Candice wasn't performing on the night we caught the ballet though. I did think that her alternate, Katherine Trofeo, did a stellar job, together with Jean Marc Cordero who played Basilio. Since my mom didn't get to see Candice Adea perform, I will be checking up on other Ballet Philippines performances. Hopefully I can bring my mom to see another ballet headlined by Candice.

Taxi receipt

I just got my first receipt from a normal taxi cab here in Manila. I think that enabling taxis to issue receipts to their customers is a good development. The downside to this is that taxi fare costs about 30-35% more than it did before. However, I have always felt that taxi drivers earn too little; with a P600-800 and a 24-hour shift every other day (I struggle working 16 hours a day), their take-home pay allows them to just barely scrape by. So I think it's good that taxi drivers have a shot at earning a better living.

Fantasia wins a Grammy!

Congratulations to Fantasia for winning a Grammy Award - her first - for best female R&B vocal performance. Adam Lambert and Carrie Underwood were also nominated but Fantasia is the only Idol alumna who won, which is surprising since she seems to have been under the musical radar in recent history. It's quite good to see some good things happen to her now - she is also going to play Mahalia Jackson in a film about the life of the amazing 'Queen of Gospel' - especially after her troubled life that has even led to her suicide attempt a short while back.

Her Grammy was given for the song 'Bittersweet' from her third album. You can check out the song here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day featured the fourth consecutive year that our band club at work organized a harana or serenade service. People could pay us a small fee to serenade someone else, normally at the person's work station (which normally gets their colleagues all excited and wondering who may have made the harana request) or we bring the 'target' to some other place where we won't bother other people who are working. A huge amount of requests came in and we raised quite a lot of money, all of which go to charity.

Bruno Mars' 'Just the way you are' was this year's top song request. It was requested by dozens of people, and I myself had to sing it a whopping 11 times! I'm surprised that I made it through the entire event without losing my voice coz 'Just the way you are' is incredibly tough to sing. And I had to sing several other songs on top of it. Needless to say, I was relieved when it was over haha.

My personal favorite song request was 'Falling in love' by Taio Cruz. I didn't know this song until someone requested it, and while learning it I thought it was a great song. Very difficult to sing though, so it took a lot of effort and practice to perform it. In the end, I was really happy that I discovered a really good song and that I actually got to sing it.

Here's the acoustic version of 'Falling in Love' by Taio Cruz:


video uploaded in youtube by user 34Harnik34

If you wanna check out Taio's original album version, click here.

Singapore: Day 3

A trip to Marina Bay Sands was reserved for our final day in Singapore.

Before making our way to this fairly new hotel in Singapore that was featured in the most recent season of the Amazing Race Asia, we were treated to a lion and dragon dance in the lobby of our hotel during breakfast (this was part of the Chinese New Year celebrations). I went out to take some photos, during which time the lion started throwing fruits and vegetables from its mouth towards the crowd. I caught a ponkan which apparently means I will have good fortune this year. Cool!

Marina Bay Sands has become popular because of the Sands SkyPark at the roof of the hotel which offers amazing views of Singapore.

My nephews even took in the views through a couple of telescopes (it costs $1 to use the telescope for a few minutes).

Hotel guests are allowed to go to the Skypark and swim in the negative edge pools for free. (Note: I think most people call these infinity pools, but I have been told that an infinity pool is one that gives the illusion that it stretches out into a larger body of water. The ones here are more appropriately called negative edge pools since they don't meet the definition of an infinity pool but they do give the impression that they are missing an edge.)

Guests can pay $20 ($14 for kids below 12, $17 for senior citizens) to visit the SkyPark. We can't use the pool, though, and we are allowed to see only a portion of it. We made the most of it by taking lots of photos.

Before heading back to our own hotel (we had a late afternoon flight), we took some photos at the Sands lobby. This being the year of rabbit meant lots of giant rabbit designs all over Singapore, and I took a photo of my grandparents with these golden rabbits.

I guess seeing the Marina Bay Sands pool made my nephews want to go swimming. We had some time to spare (thankfully, our hotel gave us a late check-out time of 2pm) so once we got back to the Royal Plaza on Scotts, my nephews hit the pool for about half an hour.

We got cleaned up and had a late lunch in The Canteen in Shaw Centre (which was right next to our hotel). This restaurant provides a wide variety of Asian and Continental food. A lot of the reviews in the link I provided are quite negative but my family and I thought the food was pretty good and reasonably priced (the service was also decent). We then headed to the airport for our trip back home, but not before buying a few items in the duty free shops at the airport.

This was definitely a wonderful holiday that was made more memorable by the fact that four generations of my family got to visit another country.

Singapore: Day 2

We went to the Singapore Zoo on day 2. Initially we were thinking about going to the Night Safari as well, but we decided against it because we would have to wait 1 1/2 hours between the time the zoo closes at 6pm and the Night Safari opens at 7:30pm. I read that kids don't enjoy the Night safari it as much as the zoo, which has bigger animals and provides several opportunities to interact with some of them so the zoo, it was.

There's a lot to do here, from watching shows to interacting withe the animals during feeding or animal encounters, but some of them go on at the same time so I had to select which ones we had to prioritize. I was hoping for us to get there by 1pm so we could catch the first afternoon feeding trail but we got there at around 2pm. We did catch the tail-end of this trail, which included the white tigers:


and the pygmy hippos.


We managed to catch a couple of interactive feeding sessions, too. The first one was with the giraffe:


and the second was was with kangaroos.


You have to pay extra to feed the animals ($5 per person for the giraffe and $5 per group for the kangaroos) but the proceeds are used for conservation efforts. Speaking of, during our afternoon snack break, CJ asked for some spare change so he could make a donation to the Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund.


Of course, it wasn't all about animal feeding. :) We also got to see a lot of the animals, like zebras, white rhinos, and other big cats. What's great about the Singapore zoo is that a lot of the animals are not kept in traditional cages. Instead, the enclosures are surrounded by thick bushes, so you feel closer and more connected to the animals. I especially love the orangutan area which is actually open and allows the orangutans to roam freely about the zoo.

There are several animal encounters but the one we really wanted to do was the elephant ride. This is done twice a day, from 1:15-2:15pm and from 4:30-5:30pm. Can't recall how much the ride costs ($18 I think) but my mom and nephews got on the elephant. I didn't join them since I had been on one before and I wanted to take photos. My grandparents were told that, for safety reasons, they couldn't get on.


We caught one show - the Splash Safari at 5pm - where we watched Stan the sea lion do a lot of really cool tricks before we left the zoo. The luckiest break for us was that while waiting for the bus that would take us to the MRT station, a different bus called the Orchard Express drove up. It costs $4 for adults and $2 for kids but it goes straight to Orchard and in fact it's second stop is right in front of the Royal Plaza on Scotts! There were only 3 or 4 other people in the bus as we headed back to our hotel so it felt like we rented a private vehicle (with a lot of leg room) for only $20. That was really cool!

My grandparents were tired to they stayed in the hotel room while the rest of us headed out to Suntec City. My mom wanted to visit the Fountain of Wealth, which was listed by the Guiness Book of World Records in 1998 as the biggest fountain in the world.


We got there during the laser and music show but our main purpose of visiting was to gain some good luck by walking around the fountain three times while touching the water at all times. The guard told us that people would be allowed to walk around the fountain at 930pm, so we decided to have some dinner and ice cream first. We were probably the last people who went around the fountain that day.


Our final stop for the night was the Merlion Park. We were told it would take about 20 minutes to get there on foot so we decided to have a nice evening stroll. Along the way, we caught a glimpse of a wonderfully lit Marina Bay Sands.


We went through the Esplanade (brought back memories of F1 back in 2009) By the time we got to the Merlion, my nephews were already really tired so we just took a couple of photos.


One more tourist stop the next day then we head back to the Philippines. More on our last day in the next blog post.

Singapore: Day 1

Universal Studios was our main purpose of traveling to Singapore so headed there on our first day out.


It was a Sunday so we heard mass first. My friends Che and Anna directed me to veritas.org.sg and catholic.org.sg where I was able to get info on mass schedules. We caught the 1030am mass in the Church of the Sacred Heart on Tank Road. After the mass, we walked over to the bus station in Dhoby Ghaut and caught a double decker bus to Vivo City.

My nephew CJ loves crab and my family enjoys Chinese food so we had lunch in No Signboard to make sure that our experience would include enjoying some of the dishes Singapore is known for. Chili Crab - a Singapore classic - is too spicy for my family so we had the Ginger and Spring Onion crab instead. We also ordered the Crispy Cereal Prawns (another SG classic), sweet and sour pork, noodles, spring rolls, and yang chow fried rice. It was more than enough for all six of us and cost about SG$150 (or about $25 per person). Which was a pleasant surprise since I was told to expect about SG$50 per person for a meal here.

The main event that day was of course Universal Studios Singapore. My grandmother, mom, and CJ took the Sentosa Express but my grandfather and other nephew Ciera wanted to ride the cable car so they could enjoy the amazing view.


Once we arrived, we were greeted by a lot of characters from Universal studios like Kung Fu Panda,


Frankenstein,


and Woody Woodpecker.


My nephews didn't fancy the carousel ride in Madagascar so we moved on to Far Far Away for the Shrek-themed attractions.


We got on Enchanted Airways, a mini roller coaster ride that was actually a lot more fun and thrilling than I expected it to be considering its size. We also tried the Shrek 4-D Adventure and the Donkey Live show.


Most of our time in Universal Studios was spent in The Lost World. My nephews wanted to try the Amber Rock Climb. You need to pay an extra fee if you want scale the wall filled with fossil and skeleton designs that double as hand and footholds. Both my nephews enjoyed it so much though that they climbed the wall twice. They actually have the photos and certificates to prove that they got to the top! :)


It was getting dark by the time we finished at the Amber Rock Climb so I didn't have time to get on the Canopy Flyer since it was more important for us to try the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure. Getting splashed and soaked while on a raft that goes through a river ride lined with awesome animatronic dinosaurs is a lot of fun! So much so that as soon as the ride was over, we got on it again. :)

Due to Chinese New Year, operating hours were extended from 7pm to 9pm which gave us an opportunity to get on one more ride in Ancient Egypt.


My mom and my grandparents decided to go shopping for souvenirs since it was almost closing time. Meanwhile, I took my nephews on the Revenge of the Mummy, an indoor roller coaster that plunges its passenger into total darkness. We got a copy of the coaster photo and it was so funny to see my horror-filled face and my eyes shut tight while both my nephews seemed fairly comfortable and even had their eyes open during the ride LOL.

The shops were still open so I went through the shops along Hollywood to get some souvenirs myself. It was already past 9pm so we decided to stay for the fireworks display at 930pm. It was a great way to end the night.


The taxi queue in Vivo City was horrifically long so we decided to just take the MRT - thank God our hotel was just right next to Orchard Station! - and since we all hadn't had dinner yet, we had a really late meal in the 24-hour McDonald's just outside our hotel. Gotta say, the decision to stay at the Royal Plaza on Scotts due to its location was paying off.

Family trip to Singapore

I took my family to Singapore recently. We stayed there for three days and three nights - the initial plan was to do two nights only but based on flight schedules, I felt we needed an extra day to have a more enjoyable trip. I've done a lot of traveling in my life but this is the first time I went to another country with four generations of my family, which is really cool.

Another first for me in this trip was being able to see the inside of the cockpit of our plane. I asked one of the flight attendants if my nephews could check out the cockpit and she said that we could once the plane landed. So upon landing, we waited for everyone to alight from the plane and the flight attendant gave us a few minutes inside the cockpit and allowed us to take a few photos.


I decided to book rooms in the Royal Plaza on Scotts. My friend Me-Ann recommended this hotel because of its free mini-bar and free coffee (Nespresso!!) and its location is perfect (it's a 3-minute walk from the Orchard MRT and has a 24-hour McDonald's and 24-hour Starbucks right outside). Both of my grandparents are more than 80 years old so location was a key consideration when deciding where we would stay. Also, my grandfather doesn't really want to travel anymore - he wanted to bail at the last minute but decided it would be a waste of plane fare and a Universal Studios ticket - so I wanted to make this trip as comfortable as possible. Plus, the cost of the room is very reasonable for a 5-star hotel in Singapore. Here's a photo of our hotel lobby:


With a group like ours, it would be extremely difficult to see more than a couple of sights per day, so we selected just a few places to visit that my entire family could enjoy. Here is what our itinerary looked like:

Day 1 - Universal Studios
Day 2 - Singapore Zoo, Suntec City, and the Merlion
Day 3 - Marina Bay Sands (for the view)

I'll be writing more about our trip in the next few blog posts.

Nadal wins Laureus Sportsman of the Year

The Laureus Awards are like the Oscars of the sporting world. They are given annually to athletes from all sports who achieved excellence and had unparalleled results in their respective fields. Among the awards given out are:

• Sportsman of the Year
• Sportswoman of the Year
• Team of the Year
• Breakthrough of the Year
• Comeback of the Year

This year, by winning three of the four major titles in 2010 and becoming the youngest player ever to achieve a career Grand Slam, Rafa Nadal was given the Sportsman of the Year award. Congrats Rafa!!

He was nominated for Sportsman of the year once before - in 2009 for his stellar performance in 2008 (winning the French Open, Wimbledon, and the Olympic gold all in the same year) but lost out to Usain Bolt. He also has one Laureus trophy already, when he won newcomer of the year in 2006, but that obviously doesn't compare to the top prize.

He may have lost in the quarterfinals of the the Australian Open this year (a painful loss because he was on track to win his 4th Grand Slam title before being sidetracked by injury), but it's nice to see his historic 2010 recognized with a Laureus.

*****

While we're at it, congratulations to Novak Djokovic and Kim Clijsters for winning the Australian Open. This is Novak's 2nd slam and 2nd Australian Open crown. Kim has now won 2 Grand Slam titles in a row, and has four overall. Kim's immense success after returning from retirement is truly spectacular. She arguably has better results now than she had in the first incarnation of her career, winning 3 Slams after she returned to the tour (as opposed to her solitary US open before she went into her first "retirement").

Chelsea signs Fernando Torres

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Liverpool's been having such a horrible season this season that the odds of its stars leaving for other clubs have skyrocketed. So when striker Fernando Torres was signed by Chelsea, it wasn't a surprise. The inevitability didn't take away any of the sting, though. If Torres moved to most other clubs in the Premiership or even to another league, it wouldn't have been as bad. Unfortunately it had to be to one of the four clubs that I would have wanted him to move to the least. I guess Chelsea are a title contender now and Torres wants to win a trophy so it's a logical move. You can't really fault a player for that, but it's not pleasant for the fans of the club he leaves behind.

Even more interesting is the fact that immediately after the transfer, Liverpool and Chelsea, now armed with the Spanish striker, would be facing off. Result? Liverpool 1, Chelsea 0. Brilliant. :)

Wellness

A global wellness campaign was started recently at work, and the Philippines was one of the pilot sites due to the strength of our employee engagement program. To officially kick off this campaign, we organized a big wellness launch. Several booths that catered to different aspects of overall wellness were set up and employees were invited to check everything out.

We organized a program - complete with celebrity host - that had several interesting segments, including a Laughter Yoga portion. I was kinda forced to join it along with about 8 other people because no one else would haha. I have to say it was extremely weird laughing with less than a dozen other folks while the entire audience was looking at us as if we had all just escaped from an insane asylum! Nevertheless, I have tried to incorporate what I learned from it in that whenever I feel stressed, I try to force myself to smile and even laugh. I guess it sort of works. I'm sure it would work a lot more if I commit to it more fully.

The most interesting thing I tried was the physical fitness booth that featured a lot of cardio equipment, some free weights, and the TRX. The program included a contest on who can complete the most atomic push-ups on the TRX. What is an atomic push-up, you ask? Check out this video to see.


video uploaded in youtube by user FitnessAnywhere

Oh man that is not easy, even if the guy in that video makes it look like a piece of cake! I actually tried it once the contest was over and I managed just do a couple. To be fair though, I did several other ab exercises before trying the atomic push-up, including a difficult ab exericse on the TRX followed by a few ab exercises using a medicine ball and then the kettlebell so when I tried the atomic push-up and completed the crunch, my abs really hurt!

Oh, and what is a kettlebell, you ask? Well, check out this video:


video uploaded in youtube by user ElektraKnight

When you look at this exercise, you won't think that it's an ab workout. But try it with a 20kg kettlebell and you will definitely feel the burn in your lower abs. Even a few days after our event exercises and my abs still feel like they are torn LOL. Note to self: lower intensity next time. :)

Pinoy Food and "International' Visitors

My friends John and Amy Donaldson decided to visit Manila post-Christmas. Me-Ann organized dinner and, as is often the case when you have Pinoy folks (in this case, Amy) returning to the Philippines, we chose to eat in a place that serves Filipino cuisine. We ended up having dinner in Sentro where we ordered their Corned Beef Sinigang and Pinoy Osso Bucco, among other things.

The next night, I met up with Svein, my Norwegian friend who lives in Singapore, in Bonifacio High Street. One of his friends was getting married and they decided to have their stag weekend in Manila, but he got in earlier than everyone else. He said he wanted to have Pinoy food so I thought of taking him to Abe but it was full when we got there. So for the second night in a row, I had dinner in Sentro. And for the second night in a row, I ate Pinoy Osso Bucco. But that is my favorite in that resto and I wanted Svein to try it. We also ordered a prawn dish which was good but it was the Osso Bucco that Svein really enjoyed. After our dinner, we headed to Burgos Circle to have a few beers. I took him to Distillery (it wasn't a Friday night so it wasn't crowded) since I knew he'd enjoy the beer selection there then we moved to Rue Bourbon to have a few more drinks before calling it a night.

A few days later, my mom, nephews and I had lunch with Tita Gail in Romulo's. Tita Gail has been living in Canada for as long as I can remember and returns to Manila every couple of years or so. She was staying with a friend in the Tomas Morato area so it made sense for us to eat in Romulo's so Tita Gail could eat some good Pinoy food without having to travel too far away. We ordered the Flying Tilapia with three sauces and the Bagnet Pakbet, among others. And for dessert, we ordered the suman and both my mom and Tita Gail got something from the cake display.

There is always something very comforting about eating Filipino food, and enjoying a meal with family and friends - especially those who have not had Pinoy food in a while - makes the whole dining experience even better.

Playing for Change: "Imagine"

A John Lennon masterpiece performed around the world by 'Playing for Change'.


video uploaded in youtube by user fooj

Click here to read more about Playing for Change.

Shopping spree

I recently realized that a lot of my clothes are already showing the wear and tear of being tossed into the washer-dryer dozens of times. It's not very often that I head out and buy more than a couple of shirts at a time but my wardrobe needed an upgrade so I decided to go on a shopping spree. The result? 8 new shirts and new pair of jeans. Plus a pretty big credit card bill. :)

Finally! Toy Story 3!

I somehow missed watching Toy Story 3 while it was on its movie run. Which was unfortunate because a lot of my friends who saw it say that it’s their favorite animated film of all time. A lot of people I know who saw it actually bawled their eyes out. I told myself I’d just go out and get the DVD once it is released.

While looking around for gifts during the Christmas holidays, I saw that the Toy Story 3 DVD had in fact already been released. There were two versions – one with full features and the other aptly marked as “Just movie”. “Just movie” means you just stick it in your player and once it loads, it plays the movie automatically (no menu, no special features). I figured I didn’t need any special features so I decided to get the “Just movie” version of it at half the price. The only downside was that it wasn’t the widescreen version (which means that the sides of the film are chopped off to make it fit in a traditional TV). It kinda annoyed me that there would be parts of the movie that I wouldn’t see, but it was a minor thing that didn’t truly take away from my overall enjoyment of the film.

Photo from the Toy Story 3 wikipedia page

And enjoy it, I did. Toy Story 3 is indeed a brilliant movie. It has the right combination of comedy, drama, and suspense to keep audiences, both young and old, entertained from start to finish. The trademark of any Pixar film is its ability to get viewers emotionally involved in the stories of the lead characters, and Toy Story 3 is no exception. It warms and wrenches the hearts of the audience by dealing with powerful themes such as letting go and moving on, abandonment and friendship. One of my friends even told me that months after watching Toy Story 3, she finds herself thinking about it and being so totally moved by it.

While I absolutely loved the movie, I am probably one of the few people who didn’t shed a tear watching it (I do know another friend of mine who said she absolutely loved it but didn’t cry either). Maybe it’s because I see no logical option other than Andy leaving his toys behind as he goes on to college. And maybe it’s because I know his most beloved toys including Woody, Buzz, and Jessie will always be with each other and there is no real abandonment in having them all together. Of course, only the unfeeling would not feel a tug in their hearts when Andy experiences difficulty as he lets go of Woody and when he unknowingly grants all his toys their wish as he plays with them one last time before driving off to his new life. Most people have this scene as their favorite. I on the other hand am more deeply moved by the part where the toys are about to be dropped to their deaths in an incinerator. To see the frightening desperation and futility of their attempts to survive turn into a fearful yet courageous acceptance of their demise was utterly gut-wrenching. The emotion is so raw, powerful, almost disturbing, and it makes their ultimate triumph pure and incredibly uplifting.

To lighten the intensity of the last few scenes and make sure audiences can still leave the theater with a smile on their faces, Toy Story 3 changes its tempo in the closing sequence and end-credits as it shows how the lead characters have successfully adjusted to life post-Andy, and how life has been made better for the other toys in Sunnyside Day Care.

It took more than a decade for Pixar to put in a follow-up to the first two installments, but the long wait was worth it. It may not have brought tears to my eyes, but Toy Story 3 definitely ranks up there as one of the best animated films I've ever seen.

Pia in Manila

Pia, who is now based in the US, came home to the Philippines in late December. She was in Davao with her family during most of the Christmas break, though, so she was unable to join us during our get together in Joh and Raffa’s house. She told me that she would be in Manila for a few days in the 3rd week of January, so I tried to gather those of us who were still in town for dinner with Pia (a lot of the folks based abroad like Hannah, Che, Pau, and Gi had already left). We decided to meet up in the Glorietta area and Pia wanted to have dinner in a new place. I couldn’t think of a new place in that area but I did realize that we had never eaten as a group in East on the 2nd floor of Rustan’s Makati so I suggested it as a dinner venue and everyone agreed.

I've been to East a couple of times before but those visits were circa 2005-2006 so I couldn’t remember what I ate there or what was good. I agreed to split a maki dish with Me-Ann but that would obviously not be enough for me so I decided to get a bowl of noodles as well. Later on I wished I ordered something else since I realized I wasn’t in the mood for noodles haha. In any case, it was once again great enjoying a meal with my friends Pia, Me-Ann, Raffa and Joh. Coffee in UCC Café followed after. Mike called us at around 8:30 PM and asked if he should still join us but he heard everyone else’s laughter and noise in the background and decided he wanted a piece of that LOL. So we all agreed to wait for him and he arrived about half an hour later.

We stayed out for about an hour more but it was early in the week so we couldn’t really afford to stay out to late yet again. (Maybe in our younger years we could all have partied ‘til late night and then still got up early the next day LOL). Too bad some of our other friends in town couldn’t join us but it was a great fun night nonetheless.

"She has no time" by Keane

This is my favorite Keane song from their 'Hopes and Fears' album.


video uploaded in youtube by user FRLKEANE

Not only is it a well-written song with a hauntingly beautiful melody but it also features some amazing vocals.

Rafa vs Roger version 2011

Rafa Nadal's 5-match winning streak over his main rival Roger Federer was snapped when Federer found the form he had been missing for most of 2010 and beat Nadal in 3 sets to claim the year-end ATP Tour world Finals. This meant he prevented Nadal from claiming the "Career Super Slam" (a career Grand Slam + an Olympic Gold + Year-end finals - it's just this last one that Rafa is missing). These two tennis legends then faced off in a two-leg exhibition series in December to raise money for charity. The first match was held in Switzerland while the 2nd match was held in Spain and they both won the match played on their home soil.

The tennis calendar was kicked off this year with another exhibition in Abu Dhabi, where Rafa and Roger squared off yet again in the final. While this was a non-bearing match, unlike their charity series, I would bet that both players wanted to win this match so it was great to see Nadal win on a surface that favored Federer. To do it in straight sets without being broken made the victory even sweeter. I hope this is a sign of great things to come in 2011.

Visiting Joyce and her new baby

Joyce, who has been one of my closest friends since high school, gave birth to a healthy baby boy the day before Christmas. The gang was planning to visit her sometime between Christmas and New Year but as it turned out, she stayed in Bulacan for about a week after she left the hospital. When I called her up, she told me that we can all just meet up when she is back in Manila in the first week of January. Anna was still in town so we decided to visit Joyce and her baby in the middle of the week after work to make sure we were all there (or at least, those of us in Asia – Lia is in the US). Iona, JP, and Aya headed straight to Joyce’s place while Anna and Mitch hitched a ride with me. Anna wanted to hit two birds with one stone so she also invited our other high school batchmate, Norman, so she could catch up with him before she left for SG.

I gave Joyce my combined gift (birthday, Christmas, and baby shower): a whole stack of baby diapers which she told me she needed most. Joyce already had a whole cabinet full of infant diapers so a couple of our other friends who have a lot of experience with kids suggested that I get the next smallest size since the baby would grow to the next size by the time Joyce’s went through her entire stock of infant diapers. It was our delayed Christmas party as well so I gave JP and Aya their gifts. I didn’t get one for Iona yet since she asked for a belt and I couldn’t really find a good one.

We had pizza and pasta delivered from Brooklyn Pizza. A couple of other folks from high school, Gerald and Jon, also joined us. Joyce still had chocolate cake from Conti’s so we had that for dessert. We stayed for a couple of hours, catching up and hearing Joyce’s stories about how life is with a new baby. Unfortunately, it was a weeknight and people had to get up early the next day so we had to call it a night by around 10pm. Nevertheless, it was still good to see everyone, especially now that there was a new addition to the gang.

Happy 2011!

Happy 2011 to everyone! I am sure this new year will bring with it a lot of great new experiences, but before I fully get immersed into it, here's a quick look back at some key moments in 2010.

Family
Family time is important so I am happy to have spent a lot of time with my family. From our trip to Intramuros, to my birthday lunch in Adarna, to our wonderful Christmas celebration together, I can't help but be extremely pleased that four generations of my family have so many great experiences together.

Friends
From all the parties and reunions with friends, to trips to bars and clubs like Distillery, Republiq, Encore, and Hai Bar, to the game nights with different sets of friends, the year definitely brought a lot of quality time with friends too.

New places
I visited two new places this year. I wrote extensively about my trip to Brunei in November, but I also had a local trip earlier in the year, to beautiful Bolinao in Pangasinan. I'm happy that despite my incredibly busy schedule this year, I was still able to take a couple of holidays and visit new places.

New experiences
2010 marked the first time in my life that I was given a surprise birthday party, and it was great! I also started consciously bringing my own mug or tumbler to coffee shops so they could serve me coffee in reusable containers and reduce my usage of paper cups. I had a picnic in La Mesa Eco-park for the first time for Aya's birthday. I also discovered, played, and completed Plants vs. Zombies (albeit after the initial craze). My blog has also never been busier, with a total of 156 posts in 2010. For me, that's a lot! :)

Food
It's quite surprising but last year was the first time that I went on a food trip all over Metro Manila. I also got to try a lot of new restos, like La Cocina de Tita Moning, Ye Dang, Blacksoup Cafe and Artspace, Romulo's, Cav, Hangover, Charlie's Grind and Grill, Earle's Deli, Mr. Jones, Restaurante Pia y Damaso, and Panciteria Lido. Toss in a couple of new dessert finds in Dulcelin and Kitchen's Best and mix in trips to some of my favorite restos and you could say that 2010 definitely brought a lot of joy through food.

Arts and Music
A lot of my more cultured experiences came in the middle of the year within a span of one month: Cats in July, and Panasadiyaw and Master Class in early August. I didn't get to watch any concerts this year (I would've if The Killers' concert was not canceled). Some of my favorite personal performances include getting to perform "Dynamite", "Club can't handle me", "Don't Stop Believing", and "Somebody to love". A first for me was getting to rap in front of a crowd - I bungled up both "Billionaire" (slightly) and "Empire State of Mind" (lost the timing and missed one entire line LOL) but at least I can now say that I have rapped in front of a big crowd. :)

Sports
Manny Pacquiao cemented his place in history by beating Antonio Margarito, making him the first boxer in history to win ten world titles in eight different weight divisions (he earned the record with a title in his 7th division, so this just puts more space between him and everyone else). Nadal also made the record books by being the youngest person to achieve a career grand slam, and his wins in the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open put him head and shoulders above everyone else. Kim Clijsters stakes a claim to one of the best career comebacks ever as she wins her 3rd US Open and 2nd after coming back from retirement.

Helping out
I ran my 7th marathon for charity, while at the same time building our corporate social responsibility at work even more. We strengthened our partnerships with ACED, Haribon, GILAS, Habitat for Humanity, and Virlanie Foundation and organized activities like tree planting, Habitat builds, orphanage visits, and a Coastal Cleanup.

Here's hoping that 2011 brings more fun, experiences, and quality time with family and friends.

Kog and Ina's wedding

One of my friends from high school and college, Kog, married his now-wife Ina in Singapore earlier in the year and they decided to have a church wedding in the Philippines on December 30 so they could celebrate with their family and friends who are here. A few of us from high school - Anna, Topher, Lilia, Rodrigo, and myself - headed to Lipa where the ceremony would take place. Anna was asked to give the first reading while Topher was one of the secondary sponsors so it was important for us to be on time. The invitations said 3:30pm but it actually started at 4pm, which was good for us because we would've been late if it started on time. In fact, we just barely made it!

The wedding ceremony was held in The Church of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. It is located next to the Malarayat Golf and Country Club which is where the reception was held, and at some point during the ceremony, the priest encouraged us to recommend this church to other people planning to get married, a plug which I thought was a bit weird and out of place for a wedding hehe. Another funny tidbit during the sermon was when the priest asked Kog what the heart is for and he answered "to pump blood" hahaha. I am trying to think now, and I guess I am a scientist like Kog and would have most likely given the same answer (yes, I say scientist and not nerd ;)). There was no photo op at the altar with friends (it was all family and relatives), but an opportunity presented itself for the five of us invitees to head over to Kog and Ina and have our picture taken with them while we were still in church.

The reception included a lot of good food and a lot of really good wine. It was too bad that I was driving all the way back to Manila that same evening since there was a lot of wine and I could have had maybe a few bottles if I didn't have to drive. The program included variations to the traditional bouquet and garter toss. I can't really recall how the bouquet toss was executed, but for the garter toss, all the bachelors were split into pairs. Each person was then pitted against their partner in a game of hula hooping - the person who could hula hoop longer would be excused. I lost the first round to Rodrigo but I managed to win the next round, which meant I didn't get the garter.

The program ended at around 9pm and we ended up hanging out with Kog and Ina and Kog's siblings. I was happy my barong lasted the entire night (I wore my only decent barong a couple of weeks ago during Reg's wedding and it hadn't been washed yet by the time Kog's wedding arrived, and my other barong had a ripped sleeve so I kept it together with scotch tape and it somehow did the trick haha). Discussions invariably went to tennis talk, which is of course always interesting because Kog, Ina, and his entire family are extremely pro-Federer and of course I am pro-Nadal haha. We did manage to keep discussions quite civil haha so no fireworks. :) Anna and I had to leave at around 10pm unfortunately so we had to say goodbye but it was amazing that we got to celebrate with Kog on one of the most important days of his life.

Another dessert find: Mango Torte from Dulcelin

During my get-together with Bett, Chari, Jette, and Anna in Omakase and Jack's Loft, discussions invariably turned towards food. Bett said that one of the best desserts she's had is the Mango Torte from Dulcelin. I decided to get one and bring it home to my family for Christmas, and I do have to say, it definitely lived up to the hype!

photo from the official Dulcelin website.

This delectable dessert has mango balls and cream on a crust of (what I think is) cashew brittle. The quality of the ingredients and the contrast in textures makes the Dulcelin mango torte absolutely perfect! Needless to say, it didn't last very long when I brought it home.

Address: 36 Times Street, West Triangle, Q.C.
Tel: 374-2165 or 67
Mobile: 0917-535-2592

There are a few other branches that you can find in their official website. They don't have a restaurant and they don't deliver, so you have to pick up your order. They do have a lot of mango tortes ready as they know this is their best seller so you can just drop by and make your purchase without pre-ordering.

Parties galore

The Yuletide season always brings with it a whole lot of reunions, parties, and get-togethers. The scheduling is always difficult but since I don't want to miss anything, I try to influence the dates by sharing my calendar upfront and getting my friends to agree on a date ASAP (I then start blocking off dates one by one, making sure there are no conflicts). I guess I've been in the corporate world too long and it has influenced even how I plan Christmas parties with my friends LOL but hey, it's effective in that I get to attend virtually every gathering.

The first was karaoke night in Chicago KTV in the Metrowalk area on the 17th. A couple of my batchmates from high school - Ezra, Jay, and Marlon - were in town so Joyce organized a party with them. More than a dozen folks showed up and it was fun catching up with everyone, especially Ezra who was a good friend of mine back in HS (I remember our McDonald's birthday treats with Eugene and Ed).

The next evening, I joined my friends Walter, Tim, and Basil for dinner in Galileo Enoteca. I had been there once, years ago with my friends from work, and frankly I was expecting to return there a lot sooner than I did. I remembered this restaurant when we were thinking of venues and when I suggested that we have dinner there, everyone agreed. We ordered three set menus - with each of us picking a different pasta - and one pizza so that we could have a bit of everything and enjoy a bit more variety. The meal was good and so was the red wine that came with it.

A couple of days after, I headed to Raffa and Joh's house for the reunion of my circle of friends from work. We had a few folks from Singapore in town - Che, Hannah, Alvin, Pau, and Gi - and of course the Manila contingent was there - Me-Ann, Mike, Chris, Shar, and of course, Joh, Raffa, and myself. Once again, it was a festival of food, with the pritchon taking centerstage. Pritchon has now become a staple of our Christmas reunions and interestingly enough we noticed that the quantity served to us is not as large as it used to be (chalk it up to inflation). I was in charge once again of dessert and this time I brought another one of my favorites - the Torta De Los Reyes from Aristocrat. Everyone thought it was really good and Me-Ann said she always looks forward to the desserts I bring. Oh the pressure LOL! Now I need to make sure I bring really good cakes and sweets whenever we have parties in the future. After dinner, we had our white elephant exchange gift where I got a really cool tumbler set from Starbucks.

The next evening was karaoke night (again) in Chicago KTV (again LOL) with almost 30 other members of our band club at work. This was our Christmas celebration and it was a perfect way to cap the year, especially after the time and effort we put in to prepare for our gigs earlier in the month. It was a good mix of old members and new, and the great thing about the evening was that everyone got along really well.

On Thursday, I met up with my friends Bett, Chari, Jette, and Anna (unfortunately, Ric and Lany couldn't join us) for dinner in Omakase in Il Terrazzo in Tomas Morato. This Japanese resto seems to be a favorite among a lot of my friends since it offers a lot of good food and the prices are quite reasonable. After dinner, we walk over to Jack's Loft for coffee and dessert.

And finally, I met up with Anna, Mitch and Ferg, and Gary and Winnie in Mitch's house for dinner. I was assigned to bring dessert yet again - I decided to bring a whole Chocolate Obsession cake from Kitchen's Best - and it was very well received. I stuffed myself yet again on lasagna, chicken, and barbecue. Ferg then served us all some wine and coffee. Christmas really is the time to stuff yourself silly LOL.

I still have two more Christmas party to attend. First, I'm meeting up with my college friends in a couple of days. The other get-together with my HS and college friends Mitch, Anna, Iona, and Joyce has to wait a bit because Joyce just gave birth and won't be able to meet up until after the New Year. Once again, a really hectic but fun-filled Christmas season, with a couple more get-togethers to look forward to (specially seeing Joyce's new baby :)).

Christmas with the family

Christmas is a time for family. This year was not an exception. We celebrated Christmas by having a wonderful dinner in my Tita Ace's house. We planned to go to Enchanted Kingdom on Monday which is a bit of a long drive from home so I suggested that we just stay in a hotel in Makati. So on Sunday, my family, including my grandparents, checked into the New World Hotel, which pretty good room packages during Christmas and was thus significantly cheaper than a lot of the other top hotels in the area.

Before checking in, we went to the Piazza in Upper McKinley Road to have lunch in Little Asia. We headed there because my mom saw in the newspaper that there was a Venetian exhibit of and other Italian cultural items in the Piazza that was on every Sunday so we were hoping to catch it. Unfortunately, the exhibit was no longer on display that Sunday. It was still good, though, since my family got to visit a new place and we had a really good meal.

We got to the hotel late in the afternoon and I promptly took my nephews to the swimming pool. We spent about an hour in the pool before cleaning up in time to hear the 730pm mass in Greenbelt. We then rushed to the Rustan's toy section since I hadn't gotten my nephews Christmas gifts yet and this way, they could choose their gifts. CJ's birthday was coming up so I got him a NERF gun as a combined Christmas and birthday gift. I got Ciera a Kung Zhu hamster and a Beyblade launcher. We had dinner in Heaven and Eggs before walking back to our hotel for a good night's rest.

We got up early the next day in time for breakfast before going to Enchanted Kingdom. What greeted us was a huge mass of people waiting to get in. Which automatically meant that the entire amusement park would be teeming with people trying to get on the rides. The waiting lines for the popular rides were immensely long, probably averaging 1 1/2 to 2 hours, if not more. Ciera managed to get on one of the kiddie rides before we moved to the Ferris wheel where we waited for more than an hour for our turn. After that, we queued up for the Go Karts but apparently kids needed to be accompanied by adults which my nephews were not too thrilled with so we skipped it. In the end, we were all too tired to get on any of the rides after that so we just went shopping for EK stuff.

We left at around 7pm had some comfort food in Razon's in the Technohub to cap the night. A tiring long weekend but it certainly was time well spent with the family.

"A Dustland Fairytale" by The Killers

Pretty cool song from 'Day and Age', the fourth album of The Killers.


video uploaded in youtube by user FuRryyX

The KFC Double Down

My new addiction - the KFC Double Down:

photo from the KFC double down wikipedia entry

Apparently, KFC marketed the Double Down heavily during the Pacquiao-Margarito fight back in November, but since I didn't get to watch it (I don't really like watching boxing 'coz I always feel bad for the loser so I just caught the tail-end of the fight and didn't see a lot of the advertisements). Which explains why the lines in KFC were so long shortly after the fight, although my friends told me that the double down was always unavailable at the time.

I had my first Double Down a week or so after that because I was in line in KFC and noticed that there were a lot of them available. And I loved it! Two chicken fillets sandwiching bacon, cheese, and mayonnaise. Not the healthiest option but, as I tell my friends, it can't be that much worse than a 2-piece chicken meal with rice. (Or well that is what I tell them LOL I am sure the cheese-mayo-bacon combo is unhealthier than rice. :)) Anyways, since that first Double Down, I've probably had maybe a dozen more. Yikes! I guess when I start putting on the pounds, I know what the culprit is.

The wedding singer is back :)

Not exactly sure how long it's been since I last sang in a wedding, but my friend Reg just got married and she asked me to sing during the reception. She didn't know exactly which song she wanted me to sing so she asked me to suggest songs. She also asked me to provide a few duet recommendations since the band they hired to play during the reception had a female lead vocalist and Reg was thinking it might be a good idea for us to sing a duet.

I go through the songs I had performed before plus a few others that I knew I could do and felt were appropriate for a wedding. I toss in a couple of duets, shorten the list, and send it to Reg so she could go through it and make her selection. She told me she wanted me to sing 'Bless the broken road' by the Rascal Flatts. I ask her if she wanted me to sing anything else, and she said that her fiance-then-husband-now thought 'Angels brought me here' was a good song. Interesting song choices as there were the exact songs that Raffa and Joh asked me to sing in their wedding a few years back. Reg said she would ask the band to learn the songs but she asked that I prepare a CD with karaoke versions of these two songs just in case the band couldn't play them.

I made a silly mistake though in that I forgot to print out lyrics of my songs. I was pretty confident about singing "Angels brought me here" but I had only sung "Bless the broken road" once ever in my life and I messed up the lyrics of the second verse then. I got all the words right when I was practicing at home but when I ran through the song during my practice with the band, I forgot the words to the entire second verse. That psyched me out quite a bit and true enough, when I performed the song during the actual program, I blanked out! I start just mumbling random words and humming and it was horrible LOL. I managed to get through the rest of the song without any further incident, and my "Angels brought me here" took off quite well (especially the big high note in the final chorus). Of course my friends there were saying it was all right but that's how friends are hehe. Oh well, just need to be sure I do much better next time.

Big project done!

Wow. It took several months of hard work, including a few months of really long, stressful days and massive issues. But in the end of it, everything turned out great.

The entire project team was called together to be in the same meeting room to discuss the findings. It is rare that you get everyone involved in a project all in the same room, but since everyone had put in so much blood, sweat, and tears into it and this was 'D-day', attendance was at the top of everyone's priority list. The room was packed! Even our big bosses were there.

Each component of the project was discussed during this findings presentation, but everyone in the room was really just waiting for the overall findings. When we were finally told that the project was a success, the whole room erupted in unbridled joy! More than a few people shed some tears. And while it can be argued that it's a bit extreme for anyone to cry about work, if you put in so many hours and go through unparalleled stress to get something done, you can't help but be emotionally invested in it. The icing on the cake is that the completion of our project right before Christmas means I don't have to worry about anything work-related while I'm on my holiday break. That's just absolutely brilliant. :)

Kitchen's Best: New dessert find!

Powerplant has a thing called the "Baker's Dozen" where a lot of of stalls that sell bakery items like cakes, pastries, and other sweets are set-up temporarily in the Concourse during the months leading up to Christmas and also at other times of the year. I'm a big fan of desserts but rarely purchased anything from there. But one day, I was there and wanted to have a simple chocolate dessert so I looked around. It was a bit hard to decide but in one stall, I saw a news article that said that this particular chocolate cake made the Best Desserts list of Manila Bulletin in 2008. A slice was P95 - which I felt was reasonable - so I decided to get one. As soon as I tried it, I understood completely why it made the list. It was absolutely delicious!!

The store is Kitchen's Best Home Patisserie and the cake is Chocolate Obession. I initially planned on eating only half the slice and saving the other half for later in the day (you know, trying to reduce my sugar intake hehe) but I ended up gobbling the whole thing in one sitting. It was that good!

photo from the official Kitchen's Best facebook page

This cake is very moist and rich, and it fully deserves its name 'coz I wanted to eat another slice immediately after polishing off the one I got. I made sure to get another slice the next time I was in the mall. I lucked out too - I purchased a slice about 15 minutes before the mall closed and the salesperson (I guess she was the owner or someone related to the owner) offered me a second slice for an additional P5 only. That was P100 for two slices! I had to ask the salesperson twice to make sure and when she confirmed it, I didn't even think twice. :)

You can order Kitchen's Best for delivery via 2121212 (QuickDelivery.ph). Here's a link to their menu. You can of course dine in the restaurant, too.

Address: Unit 5B Bldg B, Karrivin Plaza 2316 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati
Telephone: 843.3847, 381.8518
Mobile: 0917.896.6248

I'm putting this place on my list of must-visit restos. Looks really promising.

Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn": Mime version

This is a really funny video from years back.


video uploaded in youtube by Legendkiller05

The guy's name is David Armand and he does such a great job with his miming, from the hilarity of his actions to the precision and timing of his execution to his incredible facial expressions. Apparently this performance of 'Torn' got so much buzz that he ended up performing it live with Natalie Imbruglia. Check this out and pay special attention to Natalie from the 2:35 to 3:18. She is so cool! :)


video uploaded in youtube by GHENCEA14

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

I guess you could say I'm sort of a fan of the Harry Potter series. Definitely not as big a fan as a lot of other people who have not only watched all the films but have read all the books too. In fact, I have not read any of the books. I think that's the reason I didn't really like this latest film in the series.

Based on all conversations I've had with people, I noticed a trend. People who read the book felt that the movie stayed true to it quite well, and as such they enjoyed the film. However, those who didn't read the novel such as myself were left with no clear basis to understand the story and felt that it moved along too slowly, at least for the first half. I guess it was my fault as I actually missed watching the Half-Blood Prince, which meant I was didn't know a few key elements of the storyline. Like the fact that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were looking for the locket because it was a horcrux that they had to destroy in order to beat Voldemort. In fact, it took about half the film before I realized that was what they were doing.

I have to say that the plus-side to all those walking-around scenes was the great cinematography. Seeing those amazing scenery shots took away some of my boredom LOL. The story did pick up towards the end though, which built up my interest to see the final installment of this film franchise. (To make sure I can keep up with the story, I guess I should try to see the Half-Blood Prince first. I have a few months though 'til Part 2 of the Deathly Hallows comes out so it should be very doable. :))

Duncan and David in town

Two of my closest friends, Duncan and Amy, recently moved from the US to Singapore because Amy got an assignment there. While their stint in SG won't be for more than a year or two, it makes it easier for us to meet up. This definitely was the case when Duncan had a business trip to Manila for a few days.

The cool thing was that our other friend, David, who had been to Manila quite a few times since he moved from the UK to Brisbane, was also going to be in Manila for the same event. Naturally, we made sure to all meet up while we were in the same city. The last time I recall all of us being in the same place at the same time was in Seoul back in 2001!!

We ended up hanging out in Handlebar, which wasn't surprising since we were with David, who always has dinner and/or drinks there every time he is in town. We were joined there by Ozaki-san and Seki-san, both of whom I had also not seen in years! Both Duncan and David were flying out early morning the next day and I still had a truckload of work, but that didn't stop us from having more than our fair share of drinks LOL. We did a lot of catching up, and both Duncan and David proudly showed us pictures of their really cute kids on their phones. Speaking of phones, Duncan showed David 'Plants vs. Zombies" on his iPhone and got David playing the game for a few minutes. Later in the night, an all-girl band started playing some old-school rock songs. There were three of them - one on the drums, one on the bass, and one on lead guitar - but the coolest thing was that the vocalist was the one on the drums!

It was a fun night and but before the second set of the band started, David said we better get a move on (I think they both had to be up at like 430am the next day). Hopefully there will be another opportunity for all of us to hang out again while Duncan is still here in Asia.

Christmas performances

Christmas means office parties. Which also means programs with musical performances. So yeah, you guessed it. I got to sing again. A couple of times.

The Christmas party of our department was on December 2, Thursday. I initially signed up to sing 'Magasin'. It's my favorite Eraserheads songs by a mile and I was so psyched to perform it (would've been the first time I got to perform an OPM song in an office event too). However, we were asked to perform Taio Cruz's 'Dynamite' to officially open the evening proceedings. The band assigned that song to me since they felt that it was a song I could pull that off well and since both songs would be performed one after the other (Magasin was the last song of the lead-up to the event proper), it made sense to have someone else sing the Eraserheads song. Too bad! Thankfully, I love Dynamite too so I was at least trading one song I love for another. The fact that it was current and very lively helped set the mood for the party, too.

'Dynamite' by Taio Cruz:


video uploaded in youtube by user stirYzer

I sang one more party song that night - 'Club can't handle me' by Flo Rida - at the end of our final set which came after the program was officially closed, but by that time, most of the folks were outside getting drinks so we were left with a fairly small crowd partying with us inside. Didn't matter, this was practice since we needed a dry run for 'Club can't handle me'. Why? Coz we were performing it the next night live while the dance group performed along with us. We needed to get it down pat to make sure our timing and all our cues were perfect to make sure the dancers wouldn't miss a beat.

The Christmas party for the entire office was held the next night, on December 3, Friday. I was initially supposed to sing a lot of songs, including a Beatles medley a Jay Sean medley. But the lack of preparation time led us to drop several of these medleys. I also begged off a couple of other songs, like singing back-up in 21 Guns and joining the A Cappella performance of Teenage Dream, since my workload was the most intense is has ever been in years.

Nevertheless, I still got to perform two songs apart from our reprise of "Club can't handle me" (which turned out to be a great performance, what with our collaboration with the dancers). The first was the original version of "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. It was someone else's idea to put this song in our play list but I was asked if I could sing the male part in what was supposed to be the Glee version of the song. However, as the band spent time learning the song, they felt it was better to do it in the original Journey key, which for most males is very hard to sing with all its high Bs and even the C#s. I was doing well with it during practice but my unbelievable work load left me with an average of 4-5 hours of sleep leading up to the event so I had tonsillitis that night. Some extra rest the night before and a lot of Kamillosan (and most likely adrenaline as well) helped me get by. It wasn't the cleanest performance but I think it was generally acceptable.

Don't Stop Believing by Journey:


video uploaded in youtube by blobb54

My last performance that night was the Queen medley with the rest of the vocalists. I sang back-up in 'We are the champions' and 'We will rock you' and had solo parts in 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. But what made my day was performing 'Somebody to Love'. Finally! I told my bandmates that I had been wanting to sing that song for years but never had the opportunity 'til now. My voice was a bit hoarse and it wasn't my best performance, but the important thing was that I got to finally do it. Who knows, maybe there will be another opportunity for me to sing that song with a clear voice in the future. :)

Ciera's First Communion

My nephew Ciera had his First Communion last Saturday. Unlike my other nephew CJ's ceremony which started in the early afternoon, this one started early morning. Unfortunately, it always takes a while to get people ready in the morning, and as such we ended up around 10 minutes late. This meant that Ciera missed the entrance into the church but in the overall scheme of things, it was okay.

The ceremony was held in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cubao. It wasn't in the main cathedral, actually, but in one of the more intimate chapels. I took on the official photographer role and managed to take a few good shots, including one of Ciera accepting the Host for the first time.

CJ has an excellent memory and still remembered we had a celebratory meal in Red Crab along Tomas Morato after his Communion, and he suggested to Ciera that he select Red Crab again as our celebration venue for his own Communion. Apparently CJ's influencing skills are pretty good as Ciera asked us to have an early lunch there. We actually arrived about 10 minutes before they were supposed to open but they decided to turn on the stoves for us a bit early. My nephews wanted chocolate drinks which were not available in Red Crab, but there was a Starbucks a block away and our waiter allowed us to bring in stuff from Starbucks which I thought was pretty cool.

So now both my nephews are able to receive Communion which should make it easier whenever we go to church on Sundays since I will now bring both of them with me during that part of the mass.