Sagada: Sumaguing Cave

We arrived in Sagada at around 7am. The first part of our itinerary was a trip to the Sumaguing Cave, but before heading there, we had a quick breakfast in Salt and Pepper then checked into St. Joseph Resthouse, our accommodations for the next two nights. At around 8:30am, we make our way to the cave.


What to wear: sandals or slippers that provide good traction and a quick-dry shirt and board shorts as you will get wet. If you can, bring a head lamp, but it's not necessary as the guides all have powerful lanterns. The guides will also suggest that you give your cameras to them so they can take pictures of you as you go through the cave.

I didn't get the memo and wore a cotton shirt and shorts and my slippers didn't provide the best traction. :)

The Sagada guides give us some basic instructions and tell us that our spelunking adventure can be split up into three parts. The first part involves the descent. There's a basic trail you follow heading down the cave but you have to be a bit careful because the bat guano makes the path quite slippery in some parts. As there are no handrails, you really have to hold on to the rocks sometimes (so yes, unless you are wearing gloves, you will end up with bat poop in your hands. :))


The second part begins once the descent is complete. The guides ask us to leave our footwear before going further, but this is no problem since at this point, the jagged rocks are replaced with smooth stones that are surprisingly not slippery at all. There are a lot of interesting rock formations in this area, some of which have been given pet names by the locals. Here, we are sitting on the 'turtle':


and here, our tour group sits right in front of the 'curtains'. (It's too bad we only have a photo up close to the 'curtains' since I've seen fantastic photos of a wider shot of this area of the cave.)


The final part of Sumaguing cave adventure is pretty much the 'action' section. You will need to crouch if not crawl,


wade through waist-deep water, and use ropes to make your way through certain parts of the cave.


While this trip may seem daunting, it is also a lot of fun and not nearly as impossible as it may seem. My mom made it through just as easily as anyone else, which I thought was just amazing because some of the people we were with were not even half her age. I've been through a cave once before but it was more like a nature hike. Sumaguing Cave stands out because it offers a lot of physical challenges and great photo ops that keep you excited and entertained.

Sagada!

I've been wanting to go to Sagada for a while now but it's not exactly the easiest place to visit. It's about a 10-11 hour drive from Manila and once there, you need to get involved in a lot of physical activities like trekking and spelunking. My family normally stays in Manila during Holy Week. However, my mom saw that Tripinas was offering a Sagada tour that would leave Manila on Wednesday night and return on Saturday night and we felt that this was a good opportunity for us to see one of the best places in the country without having to take any days off.

Some highlights of our Tripinas tour were a trek across the Banga-an rice terraces,


a visit to the Bomod-ok Falls,


spelunking in the Sumaging Cave,


a nature hike in Echo Valley...


...to see the Hanging Coffins,


and a trip to the Banaue Rice Terraces!


I will be sharing details of my amazing trip over the next few blog posts, but suffice it to say that despite the extremely long and uncomfortable drive, this trip to Sagada (with a very quick side trip to Banaue) was definitely worth it.

Rio and Taio Cruz's "Telling the World"

Kid movies seem to have been a big part of my life recently. I watched Rango and Hop in the cinema. I also caught TMNT, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Flushed Away on DVD. But I did promise my nephews (again) that I would take them to watch Rio. So that's what I did.

Rio was pretty entertaining overall. It has a pretty good storyline, fun characters, a nice mix of humor and romance, and great music. I found it really interesting that the antagonist was a vicious and incredibly strong cockatoo named Nigel who sported an English accent. The fact that the film i set in Brazil make a lot of the scenes colorful and vibrant. The music definitely adds another dimension to the film.

I discovered Taio Cruz's song "Telling the World" as it played during the end credits and I was hooked. It's probably my favorite current song (I'm thinking now whether I should get his album since I enjoy a lot of his other songs including 'Dynamite' and 'Falling in love'.)


uploaded in youtube by TaioCruzVEVO

I hope I can get to perform this song in some future event at work. It's a catchy and uplifting song with some pretty cool instrumentation. Add a few dancers performing with us and it the overall performance could be well-received by the audience.

Sports roundup

A new tennis record has been set. Rafael Nadal has won the Monte Carlo Masters title for the 7th year in a row. No other male player in the open era has won a tournament seven times, much less in a row. This is his first title of the year, and it's great that he finally snaps his losing streak in tournament finals (he lost his last three, twice against Djokovic and once against Federer). Hopefully he repeats his 2010 success on clay and sweep all the tournaments he plays, including the French Open.

***

Sebastian Vettel finally gets beaten in Formula One this season. A strategic mistake on the part of Red Bull allowed Lewis Hamilton to clinch a win in the Chinese Grand Prix and move up to second. The performance of the race for me, though, belongs to Mark Webber who went from 18th all the way to a 3rd place podium finish. It's unfortunate that Jenson Button briefly held first place for a few laps but ended up in 4th.

***

While Liverpool may not make it to the top four in the Barclays Premier League and thus miss out on a Champions League spot next season, they are at least generally doing well against the top 3. They beat Chelsea and Manchester United recently, but were in danger of losing to Arsenal after they conceded a late goal. However, by some miracle, they snagged a penalty late into injury time which they converted, giving them a 1-1 draw. Even if they don't finish in the top four, at least they are ending this season strongly. Hopefully, that gives them momentum leading in the 2011-2012 season.

SYTYCD Season 7

There's a dearth of dance-related reality TV shows on now. Starworld features Got to Dance UK as well as Live to Dance (the American version of Got to Dance which stars Paula Abdul). A lot of my friends really enjoy this show. While it is a great show that displays amazing talent, my favorite dance reality show is still 'So you think you can dance' (SYTYCD).

AXN picked up SYTYCD and has shown all the recent seasons, from season 4 all the way to the most recently completed season 7. Season 7 is different from all the past seasons in that it features all-stars or contestants from past seasons who have been standout performers in their particular style: contemporary, hip-hop, jazz, or ballroom. When the current season's contestants pick out a dance style to perform, they get partnered with the all-star for that particular style.

Unfortunately, practically every recent video of SYTYCD on youtube has disabled embedding. So here are links to some of my favorite routines this season:

Robert and Allison's contemporary number - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnguqsMQmg4 (jump to 0:53 to skip the intro). It's choreographed by Travis Wall who was Allison's co-contestant in season 2. I know Allison was looking forward to working with Travis so it's perfect that they get to do this number which was one of the best performances of the season. I do think Allison completely outdances Robert in this.

Alex and Twitch's hip-hop number - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLtSfYX8tJk.This is probably the most fun routine on the show I have ever seen! It's choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon to the song 'Outta your mind' by Lil Jon and LM*AO)

Adechike and Comfort's hip-hop routine as choreographed once again by Tabitha and Napoleon to Alicia Key's Fallin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5McyQQ29X5A. This is probably one of the most powerful hip-hop numbers I have ever seen. I would never have thought hip-hop could evoke such strong emotion.

Billy and Ade's contemporary number, choreographed by Stacey Tookey - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BePGx_KjvmM. Check out Ade lifting Billy at 2:43! Ade is one incredibly strong man!

Alex and Allison's contemporary dance number to Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah' (choreographed by Sonya Tayeh) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B03TjhI40aQ (jump to 0:49 to skip the intro)

Pasha and Anya's hot ballroom number which they themselves choreographed - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjb57Zex5SM. Pasha and Anya were both all-stars this season, with both of them being contestants in Season 3. They actually auditioned together but never got to be partners on the show, or at least never got to perform ballroom on the show, so the producers thought it would be great entertainment to have them perform together. And it certainly brought down the house!

I love the whole all-star set-up because (1) it brought back Allison, who is probably my favorite contestant of all time, and who got to perform in some of the most memorable numbers this season, and (2) because it brought back a lot of amazing dancers who all seem to have grown and improved since they were contestants on the show. What I didn't like this season was how the judges judged. It was clear who their favorites were and the pimping was reminiscent of AI. I especially disliked the judges' blatant favoritism and what seems to be a combined dislike of Adechike, who was dissed and picked on so many times this season (in contrast to Jose and Robert for instance who had just as many technical flaws as Adechike, if not more, but who were rarely given any grief).

Nevertheless, I still love the show and will continue to watch it. I do wonder if season 8 will still feature the all-star format, and if so, which all-stars will they bring back.

A birthday and a movie

My grandmother celebrated her birthday this weekend and so my family headed over to their house for lunch. I got a large mango torte from Dulcelin because I was sure they would enjoy it (after all, they love the mango torte in Conti's and the mango walnut torte in Mom and Tina's). As is always the case, the food was overflowing and I stuffed myself silly again.

The week before, my nephews said they wanted to watch 'Hop' so I promised to take them. Since 'Hop' had already been showing for about 1 1/2 weeks, I knew its stint in the local theaters would only last a few more days. So I took my nephews to see it.

'Hop' is a fun movie for kids. Good visual effects, lots of cute and lovable characters, several fun and funny moments, and a simple story about having dreams and interests that are different from what your parents, or dads in particular, want for you that revolves around the universal theme of wanting to make your parents proud.

Here's a pretty cool 'Hop Featurette' showcasing Phil, the chick who can't stop from dancing, and Taio Cruz's smash hit 'Dynamite'.


uploaded in youtube by user HoptheMovie

DVD buying

I'm probably one of the few people I know who still goes out to buy CDs and DVDs (most other people just download music and movies). I haven't purchased CDs in a while, but I do tend to grab a DVD every now and then. Movie tickets cost about P200 now and a lot of DVDs tend to go on sale and end up in the price range of about P125 to P299 so whenever I miss a movie in the cinema that I really wanted to watch, I sometimes pick up the DVD.

So recently, I picked up 'Mission Impossible 3' and 'Pathology'. I tossed in a couple of other older movies, including 'I am Sam' and 'The Day After Tomorrow'. While looking for movies, I saw a couple of old Pinoy movie classics - 'Bona' and 'Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos' (both of which star the original superstar Nora Aunor). I know these two are brilliant films, so I decided to buy them as well. I now have a few DVDs of Pinoy movies from the golden age of Filipino film (the 1970s to early 1980s) - I also have 'Ina, Kapatid, Anak' and 'Tatlo, Dalawa, Isa'. I hope I have time to watch them all soon. :)

Running again

I have this bad tendency to rush my marathon preparation almost every year. To avoid another crash-course, I decided to kick of my preparations a bit earlier this year and start running again in April. I am starting slow, and covering only a short distance, but hopefully I can slowly build my strength and endurance better over the next couple of months leading to this year's marathon.

Djoko on a hot streak

Novak Djokovic started this year in amazing fashion, notching his second Australian Open title and thus becoming a multiple grand slam title winner. Not wanting to rest on these laurels, Djokovic has used that AO win to build momentum and steamroll past everyone else. In fact, he has yet to lose a match in 2011. His 24-match winning streak is the best start to a year since Ivan Lendl won 29 consecutive matches to kick off 1986 (McEnroe holds the men's record with a staggering 39 wins before his first loss in 1984). This streak includes three wins over Roger Federer and, unfortunately, two over Rafael Nadal as well.

(That those two wins over Rafa came in finals of Masters tournaments are rather awful for any Nadal fan like myself, but its good to know that Rafa remains immensely competitive on hard courts, especially when you consider the fact that hard courts are Novak's best surface.)

Djokovic's amazing 2011 has allowed him to firmly supplant Roger Federer as world #2. He's now nipping at the heels of Rafa, who is ahead of Novak by less than 4000 points but has a ton of points to defend over the clay court season leading to Wimbledon. Hopefully Rafa can defend most, if not all, the points he won between April and July and thus remain at #1.

"Tonight" by FM Static

I had to learn this song last Valentine's Day for our 'harana' activity in the office but no one requested it so it ended up being shelved. It's a really difficult song to sing and if you listen closely, you will notice that vocalist Trevor McNevan has incredible breath control (he takes very short and light breaths and has really long phrasing in the second verse)! Nevertheless, I was looking forward to singing it since it's a good song. Who knows, maybe we I still get the chance to perform it as some point in the future.


video uploaded in youtube by user xaace

F1 season begins

The Formula One 2011 season kicked off with the Qantas Australian Grand Prix. Picking up from where he left off last season, Sebastian Vettel blazed ahead of the pack and won the race ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Renault's Vitaly Petrov. With 18 more races in the season, it should be interesting if both Vettel and Red Bull Racing can build on their 2010 success and win both the drivers and constructors championships this year or if Hamilton and McLaren, or someone else for that matter, can steal the show.

Name a movie that begins with 'R'

I'll give you two: 'Red Riding Hood' and 'Rango'. I got a chance to watch both these movies recently, which is great given that my workload has been immensely hectic. I wanted to see 'Red Riding Hood' because I found the trailer and the concept really interesting, while 'Rango' had a really high rating from critics in Rotten Tomatoes so I thought I should go see it as well.

Strangely enough, my reactions to both films were quite the opposite of the ratings they got from both critics and general audiences. I though 'Rango' was just okay. The story was good and the animation was fantastic. In fact, it is probably one of the most well-animated films I have ever seen, and the man in that scene where Rango talks to the Spirit of the West looked so real that it had me - and still has me - wondering if the man is real or animated. Nevertheless, I wasn't as entertained by it as other people who have seen it. I guess that might be partly due to the fact that I've never really been a fan of Westerns.

On the other hand, I found 'Red Riding Hood' really entertaining despite the film being panned by critics and most other viewers who watched it. I liked the fact that this werewolf film got its inspiration from, and built its story around, a fairy tale from which it took its title. It took several elements from the classic children's story - from the big bad wolf to the grandmother and her house to the actual red hood - and weaves all that into a murder-mystery framed against a love story. I wasn't necessarily inspired by the romantic angle and I correctly guessed who the werewolf was early on. Despite this, I liked the drama, the tension, and the conflict in 'Red Riding Hood', and I thought the period setting, along with the stunning cinematography and visual effects, made it a really good watch. When I think about it, though, I think the solid performances from the cast, specifically Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, and Julie Christie (who played the grandmother) truly sold the film.

I still tend to miss a lot of movies that I want to see (example: Adjustment Bureau). Hopefully I can find time to visit the cinema more often.

Amazing Race: Kids Edition

CSR, or Corporate Social Responsibility, has been a really huge part of my life these last 4 years. I currently lead the CSR initiatives of my entire company and also of my department. Obviously, the company-wide efforts are more major and our department works on supporting this. However, once in a while, our department organizes our own CSR activities to provide opportunities for more employees to volunteer and to enhance organization-building.

Last March 19, the CSR team of our department organized an event for kids from the Children's Joy Foundation. We fetched 35 kids from their home in QC and took them to the La Mesa Eco-Park. Our activity was inspired by the reality TV series 'The Amazing Race' - five teams composed of kids and adult volunteers had to go through six different tasks before making their way to the pit stop. As such, we named our event "Amazing Race: Kids Edition". All tasks were all simple enough for the kids to do and were designed to maximize interaction and cooperation among the kids and the volunteers. The final task each team had to complete was putting together a simple jigsaw puzzle.

After all tasks were complete, food was served and prizes and loot bags were given to all the kids. I put together the loot bags and made sure that they had items that would help aid in the learning and development of the kids. As such, the loot bags contained pens, pencils, colored pencils, a notebook, modeling clay, an eraser, a sharpener, a small toy, and some biscuits. That way, they could enjoy these items even weeks after our event which would make the impact of our event more long-lasting than just on that day. Before we left La Mesa Eco-Park, the kids surprised us with a beautiful song number that expressed their gratitude to us and left a few volunteers teary-eyed.

It took a couple of months of planning, organization, and execution to pull off this event but in the end, it was a massive success. The 57 volunteers was the most we've ever had for a CSR event for our department and on our way home, I overheard a lot of kids say this was the most fun activity they ever had. One of the adult supervisors from Children's Joy Foundation sent me a text message thanking us and saying this was the first time the kids attended something like this and it made them truly happy. I'm just happy that I have the opportunity to be involved in efforts to give back to the community.

Lucky year?

In early February, I managed to catch a ponkan during a Chinese New Year lion dance while I was in Singapore. Apparently that meant I would have a lucky year. Well, it looks like I'm going to get even more good fortune.

I was in church last Sunday but there were no more seats inside so I stood outside, underneath a tree. Then, SPLAT! Something fell on my shoulder and when I look at it, I see bird droppings. Ugh! I had to clean the droppings with what I think was dirty water from a large water container in the restroom (there was no running water from the faucet) but it was the lesser of two evils. I made sure to get cleaned up right after mass. It is said though that having bird droppings fall on you is a sign of good luck. I guess my luck is already starting to show. The droppings could've fallen on my hair and not on my shirt. :)

Big eating

Food seems to be such a big part of my life nowadays. A lot of it. Started out with a buffet lunch in Heat on Saturday with my high school friends. Lia, Ferdie, and their son JC were in town and were staying in Edsa Shangri-La hotel so they suggested we just have lunch there. Joyce, Anna, Mitch and Aidan (plus Ferdie's sister) and I joined them and feasted on the wonderful spread of food in Heat. I think the buffet costs about P1,250++ which I felt was a good price for the quality and variety of food there, but lucky for us, Lia and Ferdie took the bill.

Immediately after lunch, I walk over to CPK in the Shangri-La mall to attend Lexi's first birthday party. Raffa and Joh always have really cool parties for their kids, and this was no exception. They had a kid-friendly puppet show with a whole variety of very colorful and entertaining puppets and someone who made the most clever and unique "balloon animals". They also prepared more than enough food for all the guests. I was still full but managed to have some pasta, pizza, and salad.

Later that night, I had dinner with Tim in Empire Deli in the Piazza in McKinley Hill. We opted to split a burger (50/50 I think it was called because it is a split between beef and bacon and it was pretty sizable) and a salmon dish. I had Eggs Benedict in Empire Deli before and I thought it was pretty good. The burger and the salmon were equally delicious. Looks like I will have to try the other items on their menu soon.

On Monday night, Joyce organized a night out with Lia and Ferdie since they were leaving in a few days. The initial plan was to go to Music Match in Ortigas Home Depot but a lot of people backed out at the last minute so it ended up being just Lia, Mitch, Joyce, and Iona (minus Anna who had already left for SG). Mitch suggested we just have dinner in her house and as is often the case, she prepared a lot of food, including lasagna. I love Mitch's lasagna, and I ended up stuffing myself silly with it plus a lot of the other dishes there.

I've said it before and I'm saying it again, I need to start hitting the gym again to make sure I don't start gaining too much weight. Its all talk right now, though, so I need a lot more discipline to make sure I lead a healthier lifestyle despite my very busy schedule.

Junior MasterChef Australia

One of my favorite TV shows now is Junior MasterChef Australia. I find cooking shows interesting to watch because (1) I love food haha and (2) it's amazing to see people's creativity and what they can come up with in a kitchen and under time pressure. So when you see kids ages 8 to 12 put together dishes that look like they can be served in a top-level restaurant.

The cool thing about this show as well is that the judges are very positive in their critiques without being patronizing to the kids. It would be so easy to overpraise the contestants because they are so young, and obviously you do get to hear a lot of compliments given out for fantastic dishes. And obviously, the contestants are still in their pre-teens so it doesn't make sense for the judges to give out scathing critiques. Instead, you get to hear the judges provide very constructive feedback to help the kids improve, like "if you had a bit more time and kept the pastry in the over a bit longer, it would've been perfect." The show really does maintain a very positive atmosphere and it focuses on the actual talents and output of the contestants. I wish more reality TV contests would take their cue from Junior MasterChef.

"Never miss a beat" by The Kaiser Chiefs

Ace tune from an ace band! And the video is pretty cool too. :) video uploaded in youtube by user LiberationMusicAus

Liverpool beat Man Utd!

Liverpool are not having a good season right now and the odds are slim that they make the top 4 and get into the Champions League next season. Still, this season has had a couple of high points. Beating Chelsea back in Feb was one of them. Thumping Manchester United is another. Woo-hoo! It was a convincing 3-1 win, with Liverpool the dominant team throughout the match. Man Utd managed to score a consolation goal at the 92nd minute but this result is a truly great result for Liverpool. While they may not have been stellar against lesser teams, they've managed quite well against the top tier teams. I just wish they could display a bit more consistency throughout the season. If they played this way most of the time, they'd be near or at the top of the league.

Keeping house

I've been staying in my place now for more than 5 years and I guess at some point things are bound to break down and need maintenance or repair. My flat is no exception. First to "go" was my bathroom sink. It started to get a bit clogged and I tried to de-clog it myself by pulling out stopper and clearing all the stuff that had accumulated there over the years. The only problem was that when I pulled out the stopper, a tiny piece of the pop-up assembly fell into the drain which prevented the stopper from popping up when I needed it to. I had to ask for a plumber to come in and fix it LOL.

Second was my microwave. It stopped working. Thankfully Whirlpool do home service so I didn't have to leave my house for them to take a look. Apparently my microwave keypad was broken and needed to be replaced. Cost including labor would be P1200++. Ouch. But well I guess that's better than buying a new microwave. So I had the defective keypad replaced a few days later.

Then I had to have my washer-dryer cleaned. I found that out when I went to use it one day and realized that the fabric conditioner I put into the tray in my last wash was still there. I had LA Germania service (which once again does home service) check out my washer-dryer and they said that my machine needed cleaning. It would take a week so I made sure I washed all my laundry before having them pick it up. They returned it the week after - cleaning cost P1,850 but I was thankful for the P500 discount since the quoted maintenance cost was P2,250 - and it was great to see my machine cleaning and drying my clothes better than it has in the last couple of years.

I also needed to replace a couple of light bulbs and have my aircon cleaned. So all in all a lot of stuff in my house that needed some sorting out. Took quite a big chunk out of my paycheck but it is nice to have things in order again.

My new iPod Touch

The major project I completed with dozens of other people at work a couple of months ago was a huge success, arguably our biggest success last year. It was a incredible effort but the great thing about it was that everyone who worked on it got a pretty snazzy gift. I was one of the dozen or so key contributors, and all of us ended up getting a 32Gb iPod Touch. Cool! I haven't been able to set it up yet, though. Hopefully, I manage to do that in the next few weeks. After all, it'll be a lot easier to use than my current iPod.

"Bartender" by Dave Matthews Band

One of my favorite DMB songs.


video uploaded in youtube by user mrneonshuffle

The song is a bit long but I love the passion in this song, especially when Dave wails from around 5:43 to 6:50. Awesome!

Black Swan

Natalie Portman received a whole lot of rave reviews for her performance in "Black Swan" so I wanted to see it. Needless to say, she did not disappoint. And neither did the movie. I know the film plays out in a ballet setting but apart from that I didn't really know what else the story was about. I would never have thought that you could create a very powerful psychological thriller with this classical dance as a backdrop, but "Black Swan" does just that.

Ballerinas move so effortlessly and appear so light on their feet that they can give casual viewers the false impression that what they do is so easy. It's not, and this film does an excellent job of making the audience understand the superhuman physical demands required of ballet dancers. It also showcases the intense emotional and psychological strain along with the sacrifice and rejection that they and their loved ones have to go through as they build their careers and attempt to land leading roles. "Black Swan" manages to combine all these ingredients with superb editing, cinematography, and acting to create a thriller that leaves the audience feeling the same sense of paranoia and claustrophobia that Nina, the lead character played by Portman, feels.

I do have to say that Natalie Portman absolutely deserves every accolade and award she received for her role in this film. She actually performed some of the ballet moves herself (a dance double performed the more difficult routines), and just for that degree of difficulty, she merits an Oscar. But it is her emotionally intense, textured, and ultimately believable portrayal of a troubled ballet dancer that makes this an absolute master class. She successfully and effectively combines vulnerability with ruthlessness, repression with desire, calculation with compulsion, and perfection with self-destruction. Nina's closing line, "I felt it - Perfect - I was perfect", applies just as easily to Portman herself.

"Black Swan" has truly dark and ominous themes that make this movie disturbing yet powerful. While it doesn't make for easy viewing, it is a truly amazing film - one of the best I have seen in recent years - and is definitely worth watching.

Another birthday in Adarna

Last year, I took my family to Adarna Food and Culture to celebrate my birthday and everyone really enjoyed the food and the ambience. So to celebrate my brother's birthday, we decided to have lunch here again.


The restaurant, owned by Beth Angsioco and Giney Villar, offers customers incredibly delicious Filipino food with a bit of a twist, so you can be sure that the menu items here are unique. To complete the wonderful dining experience, the ambience is Filipiniana, from the furniture and decor,


to the table settings,


to the interesting memorabilia that you can find all around the restaurant.


Our reservation was at 12:30pm and I got there before everyone else to make sure the food was ready by the time my family arrived. I wanted to take photos of the food but I forgot to bring my camera so I had to settle once again for my phone cam (hence the poor quality). I will say that my pics don't do the food justice at all. Among the items I ordered are the Pancit Molo (P140), Minanok na Talong (P155), Grilled Pork Chop with Salsa Monja (P185), Pancit 1913 (P295), Sinanglay na Tilapia (P185), and Batanes Yellow Rice (P150):


One of my favorite dishes here is the Piassok (P335), an exotic Sulu dish of beef chunks cooked slowly in smoked coconut cream and ten spices until tender. The beef is tender and the sauce is exquisitely rich without being overpowering. I can't get enough of it!


My family loves shrimps, so we got two shrimp dishes: Rellenong Sugpo (P280), prawns stuffed with pork, shrimp, and vegetables rolled in butter and fried to a golden brown, and Camaron Rebosado (P366), deep-fried shrimp which is perfect for kids. Both dishes are served with what I think is an olive oil-based sweet and sour sauce. We also ordered the Adobong Batangas ala Adarna (P240), which is a brilliantly flavored version of the classic Pinoy dish.

From front to back: Adobong Batangas ala Adarna, Camaron Rebosado, and Rellenong Sugpo.

For dessert, my nephews had ice cream while for everyone else I ordered the Platanillos con Mangga (P165), Adarna's version of the mango crepe. I also got three cups of Batangas Brewed Barako (P165) and Rico Tsokolate (P100), a rich Batangas hot chocolate drink. My grandparents initially said they were stuffed but I told them to just try the dessert. As it turned out, both my grandparents loved the Platanillos con Mangga and the Rico Tsokolate, and they managed to consume most of it. Unfortunately, by this time I was enjoying the meal so much that I forgot to take photos. :P

Lunch service ends at 2pm but we extended a bit past that time. My nephews, mom, and brother played Chinese checkers and sungka while my grandfather played some music on the piano.


I had dinner here again a few days later with my high school friends Joyce, Iona (with JP and Aya), and Mitch (with Ferg, Aidan, and Rory) and I must say this is really one of my favorite restaurants. The only drawback is that Adarna doesn't accept credit card payments so you need to make sure you have enough cash with you. Nevertheless, it is excellent value for money and definitely worth visiting over and over again.

Adarna Food and Culture
119 Kalayaan Avenue, Diliman, Q.C.
Telefax: 926-8712
Mobile: 0917-961-8113
Email: adarnafoodandculture@yahoo.com

Wine, wine, and more wine...

I was thinking of a gift I could give a friend of mine and I decided that a bottle of wine might be a good idea. While looking in Rustan's Supermarket, I noticed there were a lot of inexpensive wines there. Since I'm a big fan of wine - or red wine more, specifically - I told myself that I would get a bottle every so often, especially since there are a lot of choices that won't burn a hole in your pocket.

Some bottles I've tried include Hardy's from Australia (P299), Santa Carolina Premio from Chile (P215), and Two Oceans from South Africa (P345). I enjoyed all three of these. I did try another wine, Pays D'Oc from France I think (P289), but I thought it didn't taste good at all. I also got a bottle of Manta Merlot from Ralph's Wines and Spirits (P350).

I've heard that a glass of wine each day is healthy so I guess it's good practice for me to get a bottle every so often. Then again, maybe not, since I don't stop with just one glass whenever I have wine. :)

The Three Tenors: Teen Edition

Check out this video of Il Volo singing a modern, upbeat version of the classic "O Sole Mio".


video uploaded in youtube by IlVoloVEVO

These kids are amazing! Their voices are so strong and fully developed despite the fact that their ages range from 15 to 17. They appeared on the popular Italian talent show “Ti Lascio Una Canzone” and won the competition easily. Hearing them perform, I can easily understand why.

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. :)