Steffi Graf as Smurfette!

My favorite tennis player of all time, Steffi Graf, has really gotten into the spirit of Halloween. I would never have imagined Steffi dressing up as Smurfette (and even sporting blue body paint!) but she pulled it off exceedingly well.


Stefanie Graf on WhoSay

To quote Steffi: "We always have a great time on Halloween celebrating with friends and family trying to outdo each other with creative costumes. Here I am as Smurfette for this year's party."

Gotta do better than this..

0-0 against Swansea. That's not good. Liverpool are currently 6th place in the Barclays Premier League table. While I'm still a fan (you'll never walk alone!), it's been tough to be a Liverpool supporter these last few years, when a top 4 finish has no longer been a given. I'm hoping they can find their form soon and start winning more matches - including their next big fixture against Chelsea on November 20.

Broccoli, Walnut, and Mushroom

Oh man, this is crude but it made me laugh. :)

photo from Pictures and Jokes

Kvitova wins the WTA year-end champioships

Petra Kvitova definitely has the makings of a future #1 and multiple slam winner. She showed her wares earlier this year when she took out Maria Sharapova in the Wimbledon final for her first Grand Slam title. And despite a lackluster performance during the American hardcourt season (which is surprising, because her power hitting is perfect for faster courts), she backed up that first Slam title by besting the rest of the top players and winning the WTA year-end championships. Way to go!

Kvitova is now ranked #2 and is only a few points behind Caroline Wozniacki. Both of them have won 6 tournaments this year but Kvitova did win Wimbledon and won the 5th biggest tournament of the year so has a claim to being this year's best female tennis player. A strong showing early in the year could give her the top spot. We know she has the goods. The only question is if she has the desire. I hope she does. And I hope she starts winning more titles and more slams and gets to #1.

Free Starbucks: 2 in a row

It's been a while since I got lucky one of those free tall-beverage lucky receipts that are randomly generated when you make a purchase in Starbucks. I think it's been about 2 years since my last free coffee.

Well, just this last week, I bought coffee in Starbucks - I must have been the last customer of the day since that Starbucks was about to close as I rushed in - and just as the cashier punched in my order, a really long receipt came out of the register. Free coffee on my next visit! Cool. :)

So what's cooler than free coffee? How about two of them? I claim my free coffee a few days later and the day after that, I get another coffee in Starbucks. Guess what? I get another free coffee receipt. Wow! So I don't get any free coffees in a couple of years then in a span of a week, I get two of them. Not bad!

(An attempt at) exercising at home

I work Europe shift most of the time, so by the time I'm done working, the gym I go to is already closed. I could in theory exercise before going to work, but I am often exhausted by the time I hit the sack so I normally wake up just in time to rush to my first meeting at work. Hence, no more trips to the gym for me. Not good!

So I've looked into youtube to give me a couple of quick workout options at home. For a high intensity full body work-out, check out the burpee:


video uploaded in youtube by charliejames1975

Given my current stress levels, I figured some basic yoga might also be helpful. Esther Ekhart has a series of yoga-for-beginners videos (I find her voice to be incredibly soothing). I've tried doing following her yoga-for-beginners parts 1 and 2 and you do break into a sweat even with the basic stuff. Here's her part 1 video:


video uploaded in youtube by user yogatic

Hopefully I can manage to go through either exercise on a regular basis.

Federer drops to #4

It has been more than 8 years - back in 2003 - since Roger Federer was not ranked in the top 2. However, the rise of Novak Djokovic this year shook things up in the tennis world, knocking both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal out of the top spot. With Rafa winning the French Open and getting to the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open, he has produced enough solid results to keep him at #2. Which means Roger dropped to #3.

What I didn't see coming was Andy Murray's own surge that took him to #3 in the rankings. He lost his way a bit early in the year after losing to Novak in the Australian Open. But he found his form quickly enough and managed to reach the semifinals in the remaining three slams (losing to Rafa in all of them). While he hasn't broken through in a slam just yet, Murray took advantage of the top 3 slowing down during the Asian swing and won 3 tournaments - in Thailand, Japan, and China. It was this last win in the Shanghai Masters that pushed him past Federer in the rankings and securing a #3 ranking. Roger Federer at #4? That's definitely not something we are used to seeing, but I guess it was bound to happen at some point.

Trying to make the world a better place, one tree at a time

It was only a couple of years ago when I attended my first tree-planting activity. Since then, I've co-organized two of them at work, the more recent one happening this October.

The one I co-organized last year had about 50 volunteers. This year, we were hoping to have 150 but almost half backed out so instead we ended up with close to 80 participants. While it isn't as good as what we initially set out to achieve, it's still a bigger activity than the one we had last year.

We partnered yet again with Haribon Foundation for this event. When we got to the venue, Haribon gave us a brief overview of their ROAD to 2020 program. Tanay, Rizal has become a prime tree planting spot ever since Ondoy because Tanay and its nearby areas were significantly impacted by the Ondoy floods. Of course, given how hilly Tanay is, it made for an interesting trek from our assembly point to the actual tree planting area.

Before we started, a guide gave us instructions on how we should plant the seedlings. This was a lot more physically challenging than last year's event because the heat in the days leading up to our activity left the soil very dry and hard so we needed to crumble them with our hands (or even pound the tough soil with rocks or our shoes) before putting them back into the holes in which we placed the seedlings. The degree of difficulty of course made this activity even more rewarding for the volunteers.

Thankfully, we didn't have to dig holes into the ground. Haribon had already ensured that the holes were prepared and the trees placed right next to each hole. Bamboo markers were placed right next to each hole to make it easy for us to spot them. We gently remove the plastic bag that the seedling had been placed in, put it into the hole, and add soil into the hole to make the ground more or less level and ensure that the tree is stable. Once this is done, the plastic bag from which we took the seedling will be stuck onto the bamboo marker. This will help Haribon identify which trees had been planted so they can take good care of them and ensure proper seedling maintenance and cleaning.

We were supposed to plant 2000 trees that day and we were more than halfway when we were told that we needed to pack it up because rain clouds were approaching. And true enough, a few minutes later, the rains fell. It wasn't heavy rain but it was enough to drench us moderately on our trek back to our buses. By the time we got back into our buses, the rains had abated but the trail was now too slippery. So our tree planting activity officially came to and end. We still managed to take a few more post-rain photos...

While we may not have successfully planted out goal of 2,000 seedlings because our work was rudely interrupted by rain, it was still a very successful event with the volunteers being pleased about the experience. And heck, 1,000+ trees is nothing to sneeze at! We are planning an even bigger activity next year so I can't wait for that. :)

Ethan and Jenna out

Nineteen seasons in and I'm still a fan of The Amazing Race. Possibly the most high profile team to join this year's contest is the tandem of Ethan and Jenna. Both of them won their respective seasons of Survivor (Ethan won Africa and Jenna won The Amazon) and have since become a couple. Ethan has been very open to the public about his battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a type of cancer and I was hoping that he and Jenna would do well in The Amazing Race.

Unfortunately, despite finishing 4th in the first leg (which turned out to be a non-elimination one), they ended up placing 10th out of 11 in the next leg. While that is normally a good thing, in this case, the bottom two teams were eliminated. So just like that, Ethan and Jenna's run comes to an end.

It would have been great for the two of them to stay in the show a lot longer and share the unique experience of traveling the world and being exposed to different cultures. In any case, I do hope that Ethan eventually wins his battle with cancer and that he and Jenna continue to have a wonderful post-Survivor (and now post-Amazing Race) life together.

Get well soon, Adele!

This is bad news. Adele is suffering from a vocal cord hemorrhage which has led her to cancel the rest of her 2011 tour dates. This will allow her to rest her vocal cords and hopefully get her voice back in shape.

Hope Adele gets better soon. It would be such a loss to the global music industry if we don't get to hear her sing soon.

Jenson Button wins the Japanese Grand Prix

Congratulations to Jenson Button for winning the Japanese Grand Prix! He didn't start in pole position but managed to take top honors, besting Fernardo Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. This was a tough race, with only 2 seconds separating the top 3 drivers.

After Button's banner year in 2009 when he drove for the now-defunct Brawn GP, I thought he would never really figure prominently in races again. And given that he is driving for McLaren with the very high profile Lewis Hamilton, I also figured he would end up playing second fiddle to the 2008 Formula One World Champion for the most part. However, after 2009, he was able to win two races last year and three more this year (he also won in Canada and Hungary). He's eclipsed Lewis in most races this year - despite the fact that Lewis has done a better job in qualifying - and he finished in the podium in 9 out of 15 races so far. That puts him in a solid position to end up in 2nd place this year (Sebastian Vettel has just been driving on a completely different plane from everyone else this year). Hopefully, JB can continue to drive well and win more races for the remainder of his career.

Kathy and John's wedding

Kathy is one of the most interesting people and unique individuals I know. So when she got married to John (actually, she got married to him in Holland earlier but they of course needed to have a Philippine leg of their wedding for the folks here who couldn't fly to Europe), it was no surprise that their wedding would be different and very memorable.

First off, Kathy's wedding dress wasn't your traditional white gown. It was a take on the traditional Filipino 'terno' complete with butterfly sleeves. Also, similar to her sister Ching's wedding (Ching is also a really good friend of mine), the UP Singing Ambassadors performed during the church ceremony as well as during dinner. Their performance in the small chapel overlooking the Taal lake was just otherworldly so we had to force ourselves not to clap since it was a church ceremony and not a concert. Yet.

The most unique bit though was when everyone was asked to step outside the chapel for the traditional group photos with the newlyweds. Instead of doing it at the altar, we had it next to a specially decorated jeepney! The couple even asked those of us who could to go on top of the jeepney. This was really one of the most unique moments ever in a wedding that I attended.

photo courtesy of Joel H. Garcia

We headed to the clubhouse for the reception. We were served drinks and cake as we waited for dinner to be served. Dessert before the meal? Only in Kathy's wedding. :) I have to say though that the cake was absolutely delicious! It was so good I was tempted to eat a lot more but I needed to make room for the main meal. :) The cake-cutting ceremony actually happened before the reception officially started. The wedding cake was in the shape of a ship out at sea, to commemorate the place where John and Kathy met for the first time. Before the took a slice out of it, they lit the sparkler attached to one end of the cake. Cool! Champagne was served as the wedding toast was done shortly after the cake was cut. We were then asked to head to our tables as the program commenced.

After a couple of very heartfelt speeches, we were asked to get food from the massive buffet. Every item in the buffet was amazing and I just truly wished I had three stomachs so I could eat a lot more food. And on top of the cake I had earlier, there now was a huge spread of other desserts. Given that John is Dutch, the buffet had a few European-themed items like Hungarian Goulash and Sacher Torte. My mouth is watering as I think back to those great items. Free-flowing wine was served to the guests and the waiters even left a bottle on each table.

The UP Singing Ambassadors performed for the crowd yet again, and this time we didn't hold back on the applause. A few people, including myself, even gave them a standing ovation once their performance was done. They sang a stirring rendition of Sunrise, Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof) for the father-daughter dance and it was moving to see both Kathy and her dad very emotional. The choreographed first dance almost didn't happen as John ended up with a knee problem from all the kneeling he had to do in church but they managed to do it. Probably one of the most memorable moments during the wedding was the speech given by Kathy's yaya. I swear, Kathy's yaya gave one of the best speeches in a wedding I have heard. Part roast, part tribute, it had all the elements of a great speech. And it was delivered very naturally. (I actually started thinking about my own Mama Guading as I listened to Kathy's yaya speak...)

The reception ended at around 9pm (and I was so tempted to ask to take home leftovers haha). Some of the folks there were planning to head out for more drinks but it was a Sunday and I had work the next day so I had to beg off. Regardless, it really wasa truly memorable of two great people. Congratulations, Kathy and John!

Joint birthday dinners with friends

Three different sets of friends. Three different sets of joint birthday celebrations.

The first one was with my high school circle of friends (the one I've had for the longest time). Michele's birthday is four days ahead of mine so every year for several years, we've celebrated together. Michele said that Iona wanted to have a good steak so she suggested Mamou. However, I had three discount vouchers for Marciano's which I recently purchased for birthday celebration purposes and since Marciano's also had steaks, I suggested it instead. Michele said she had never eaten there before but had been wanting to so our venue was set. Given that Anna and Lia are both not Manila-based anymore, the rest of the gang and their families who are in the country were all present: Michele, Fergus, Aidan and Rory; Iona, JP, and Aya; and Joyce (she didn't bring Trigo with her). We ended up over-ordering since Aidan and Rory apparently had eaten a bit and Ferg didn't stay with us for most of dinner because he wanted to catch the Liverpool-Everton derby which was on that night (he ended up spending most of the evening in National Sports Grill). I took home all the leftovers but I do have to say the food and selection in Marciano's is pretty good, and the portion sizes can definitely fill you up.

A week later, I had a joint birthday celebration with Bett and Chari. Both of them have birthdays in October but since our circle of friends from the first company I worked for still meet up every few months, we ended up with the tradition of celebrating our birthdays together. Jette lives far up north and has difficulty going home so we usually have dinner somewhere in the QC area to make it easier for her to commute home even late in the evening. As such, we picked Romulo's in the Tomas Morato area as our celebration venue. Ric and Lany (and Bett's husband Pikes) joined us. I've blogged about Romulo's before and I really do enjoy the food here. Plus, the service and ambience are great. The only problem that night was that they ran out of a lot of dessert items, including their Lava Rock chocolate dessert. I ended up getting cheesecake instead while my friends got the crispy suman sa latik.

The next day, I celebrated my birthday with my co-Yaminoys Anj and Meg. Emmy suggested that we have dinner in Zao in Serendra and since Anj and Meg had no objections to this resto, we ended up celebrating there. It had been several months since I was out with my Yaminoy friends so it was great to see them. Joining Meg, Anj, and myself that night were Emmy, Marie, Lea, Beck, and Eliza. Unfortunately, Yam and Belle were out of the country and Fred was in Davao so they couldn't join us. Apart from catching up, our conversations that evening inevitably covered a lot of entertainment-related topics such as reality TV and TV shows in general, concerts, musicals, and artists and celebrities. And how could this be a Yaminoy without talking about Elliott Yamin? He released another album earlier this year - Gather 'Round - which is sold exclusively in Japan. I don't have that album, but I did get a copy of his previous (non-holiday) album Fight for Love. It contains what I think is his best song to date, "Know Better". Check it out!


uploaded in youtube by user Abliga8

X Factor USA: Stacy Francis sings 'Summertime'

Ten seasons of American Idol have past and I still believe that Fantasia's performance of Summertime back in season 3 is one of the best moments in AI history. However, this performance of Stacy Francis of the same song on X-Factor USA just blows my mind. What a voice!


video uploaded in youtube by user ArtistsOnline2

The range, the control, the power, and the emotion make this absolutely extraordinary. Factor in the back-story of how her father died the first day she arrived at X Factor bootcamp and you can see exactly why her performance was so emotionally charged. She was flat in a couple of those unbelievably high notes but really, it wasn't all that relevant. I hope Stacy Francis makes it far in the show.

Going through my Ipod part 2

In August of last year, I decided to start listening to every song in my ipod (read about part 1 here). There are currently 5212 songs in it. (I've purchased several CDs since then that I haven't added to my ipod yet.) More than a year later, I have yet to listen to everything at least once. While you'd think that I should already be done by now, I guess I don't get to listen to my ipod all that much now. My schedule over the last year has been peppered with meetings so not much chance to work while listening to music.

I'm currently on song # 4,506 which means I still have about 700 songs to go. By my count, that's about 35 hours of listening left. My upcoming trip to Korea should trim that down by at least 10 hours. I'm pretty sure that I should be able to go through my entire playlist before the end of the year. :)

Birthday gifts

Every year, my birthday wishlist consists of CDs or DVDs. This year, I wanted only one CD. Since a lot of my friends were asking for my wishlist but I didn't really have any, I ended up getting a bit of a mix of gifts. Some of the stuff I got:

• Power Hits 2011. It's the only CD I wanted to get and my best friend decided to get it for me because he feels I need to update my ipod with more recent music LOL. It includes 'Super Bass' by Nicki Minaj, 'Telling the world' by Taio Cruz, and 'Party Rock Anthem' by LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett and Goonrock. I've been listening to this CD over and over again.

• Torta Delos Reyes. One of my favorite desserts (you can get it from Aristocrat).
  

• Wine. I got three different bottles of red wine. Perfect because I sometimes tend to open a bottle at home and drink a glass or two before going to bed. I don't drink the whole bottle in one sitting so I keep the rest of the wine in my ref for a few days until I consume it all. I'm sure it doesn't taste as good and the quality is no longer preserved, but since I'm the only one who drinks it, I don't really care. :)

• The Spa Gift card. A few friends pooled their resources together to give me a gift card to The Spa. Definitely something I need right now given my stress level and crazy work hours.

• An Adidas Climacool sports shirt. It's one of those quick drying shirts that are perfect for sports or situations where you expect to sweat a lot, like outreach activities or out-of-town trips.

Pretty cool that a lot of the stuff I got are things I enjoy or will definitely use. This, even without having my traditional wishlist. Thanks to my family and friends!

An afternoon in John and Yoko

I have saved a lot on my birthday this year because of all those restaurant discounts that I purchased from online deal sites. I decided to celebrate with my family in John and Yoko in Greenbelt 5. I love this resto and got a few discount vouchers there. I was initially thinking this wouldn't be enjoy a meal with my family because my grandparents aren't really adventurous when it comes to food but I realized that John and Yoko has a very wide menu that features a lot of teppanyaki items which I am sure everyone would enjoy.

Since I was ordering for everyone, I decided to pick a few items that I had been wanting to try there, such as the Salmon Wasabi Cream Sauce (or in Sumo Sam; the two restos are owned by Marvin Agustin and they share almost the exact same menu with items priced the same. I think this is just Greenbelt's way of marketing their malls in a way that makes you think that restaurants there are not found anywhere else.) Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, including my grandparents who I was initially concerned about.

I was initially thinking of ordering dessert there but unfortunately they did not have any coffee. So I paid the bill and we headed to Cafe Breton where I got my coffee fix. We also shared a couple of crepes (my grandfather loves mango and he really enjoyed the La Pinay we ordered). We decided to hear mass in Greenbelt since we were already there. It was late afternoon when we headed back home.

It was a really good birthday spent with my family and I'm especially happy that I was able to bring them to a new place that they enjoyed.

The Avengers

I can't wait to see this in May 2012! I hope it lives up to the hype...


uploaded in youtube by user 16dylan2

Baby bottle brush

The plus side of using tumblers when purchasing coffee is that I reduce my use of paper cups. (And before you say that using reusable mugs actually saves trees but wastes water, it is important to note that to produce one paper cup, you actually need not just paper but energy and water as well, so you end up using about the same amount of water washing a tumbler as you do using a paper cup. Check out the sustainability is sexy site for more info on using reusable mugs. But I digress... :))

The flipside is that it's really difficult to wash a tumbler just because you can't get your entire hand in and your fingers are not long enough to reach the base. What I have been doing all this time is using a spoon to force my sponge into the base of the tumbler to clean it. But it's just such a cumbersome process.

I tried looking for a sponge with a handle that I could just slot into the tumbler to clean the base but I couldn't find one. Then, an idea. A baby bottle brush! LOL So I now have a baby bottle brush to clean my reusable tumblers with. Never thought I'd be purchasing baby products for personal use. :)

UP wins the 2011 UAAP Cheerdance competition!

Congratulations to the UP Pep Squad for winning the 2011 UAAP Cheerdance competition! UP has been a top contender in this competition for several years now, winning 7 times (second only to UST's 8 titles). But in all cheerdance performances I have seen over the years, this is truly the one has taken things up a few (several?) notches. Check it out!


video uploaded in youtube by user onnybengan

While a lot of other cheerdances in this year's tournament or even in the past display a similar level of athleticism, UP just leaves everyone behind with their speed which was just absolutely astounding. You haven't caught your breath yet from the awe of one stunt when suddenly the squad is showcasing another breathtaking stunt. It was one 'wow' moment after another. Add that to the uniqueness and difficulty of their routine, and you have a champion that is definitely head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

Congrats, UP! :)

Animal haven

For the last few year - or has it been several already? - we have been taking care of one cat at home. There used to be a lot more of them but we realized we couldn't take care of all of them well enough so my brother gave all but one to a friend of his. My nephews named our cat Petal, and for the most part, she has been our only family pet. Recently, however, my grandparents' dogs gave birth, and both my nephews wanted a puppy each. So now we have Petal the cat and our two dogs, named Cheetah and Wolf.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was parking my car, I saw Petal and was horrified to see that she had a deep, nasty wound in her neck. It was so bad that some of the skin was hanging from her neck. My brother knows a veterinarian so I told him to take our cat to the vet the next day. Unfortunately, it's impossible to keep a stray cat still and with Petal moving in and out of the house, my brother couldn't bring her to see a vet. A week later, Petal's wound was still deep and it didn't look like it was healing. I was deeply worried now that infection would set in and she would die, and while I know that pets do have to die at some point, I just didn't want her to die this way. I immediately drove to a nearby vet to ask them if they did home visits, but they said it would be better for me to bring our cat there since they would most likely have to administer antibiotic through a needle or something, and with our cat always moving in and out of the house, there was no guarantee she would be home if the vet did a house visit.

So I rush to the mall and looked desperately for a cage. I found one in Animal House that cost P1,400 but I couldn't find any other cage so I decided to get it. The next day, my brother texted me while I was at work to say that he was able to bring Petal to the vet. She was sedated and given an antibacterial bath, and the vet prescribed a pretty expensive ointment (the vet said it can also be used for people, actually). When I finally saw Petal a week after, her wound was almost fully healed. Thank God!

I later on found out that my cage helped save the life of one of our puppies and helped the other one get better. It was that same week when we took Petal to the vet that our dogs may have eaten something that caused them to be sick. Cheetah must have eaten more of it because he was a very active dog and one night, he just looked completely despondent, almost near-death. My brother was able to bring Cheetah to the vet as well using my cage and he was given three injections that got him back to full health. Wolf, on the other hand, just seemed to throw up a bit and was given just one injection.

A week or two later, someone dumped a kitten next to our house. As we didn't really have the capacity to take care of another animal (much less keep a newborn kitten away from two dogs that might rip it apart), we kept the kitten in the same cage for a night before my brother brought it to one of his friends.

So while that cage may have cost P1400, the fact that it was used to save the life of two or our pets, helped the other get better, and was used to bring another animal to a place where it would be taken care of, I am happy I bought it and it was well worth every cent.

International Coastal Cleanup 2011

The International Coastal Cleanup happens every year on the 3rd or 4th Saturday of September. It is organized internationally by Ocean Conservancy, and given that the Philippines' coastline of 36,289 kilometers is the 5th longest in the world, it makes sense for Filipinos to be involved.

video uploaded in youtube by oceanconservancy

I organized/joined my first International Coastal Cleanup last year. It was good, but given that it was our first time organizing this activity, we left it to the resort - which was partnered with Ocean Conservancy - to outline the schedule of activities. As it turned out, our cleanup effort lasted only 20 minutes and even in that time, we managed to fill 7 garbage bags with trash that we picked up along the beach. We decided then that the actual clean-up effort in our next International Coastal Cleanup (i.e. this year) would last a lot longer than that. And it did.


We left Manila around 5am. But while it took us about 3 hours to get to Anilao last year, our trip this year was shorter by almost an hour because SLEX now connects directly into the Star Tollway. A couple of the organizers from last year were still involved this year, and since we now knew better, we made sure that we were given a couple of hours to cleanup - an hour before lunch and another hour after. Our venue this year was Planet Dive and they actually split us into six teams - Blue A and B, Red A and B, and Green A and B. In the morning, all B-teams cleaned up the resort coast while all A-teams were brought by boat to nearby shores to collect garbage there. The teams swapped cleanup sites in the afternoon. This increased the scope of our trash collection efforts and made it a lot more interesting for the volunteers. This also meant that we collected a lot more garbage than we did last year. Probably about 5-6 times more!


The cool thing this year was that we were given a couple of villas to rest in and since I had very little sleep the night before - maybe just under 2 hours! - I managed to get a about an hour's worth of rest after lunch. It was a great experience and hopefully, next year, we can mimic this year's success, if not exceed it.

0 for 6. Ouch.

This is incredibly demotivating. Both to Rafael Nadal and to all his fans, including myself. While Rafa did get to the final of the US Open for the second year in a row, he was unable to stop the juggernaut that is Noval Djokovic. This means that Novak has now beaten Rafa six straight times. All of them in finals.

There are a few of positive things that Nadal and his fans can take away from this. First, he was able to reach the final of the USO again. This was considered the most difficult slam for Rafa to win because it came relatively late in the year, during which time Nadal was often succumbing to injuries or a loss of form, and because the surface made it easy for big-hitters to take massive swipes at Rafa's high bouncing balls. For him to reach the final again means he has now figured out how to play on this surface.

Second, the last 3 times they played, including the Wimbledon final, Rafa seemed to fold meekly against Novak when things got a bit tight. In the US Open final, so many games went to multiple deuces, and Rafa fought really hard in all but a scant few of them, despite him ending up on the losing side of a lot of those tightly contested games. If he wasn't mentally ready to fight, that match would've have gone 4 hours.

Third, we know what he can work, or re-work on: his serve. That match could've gone his way if he managed to clock his serve at the 120s like he did last year. Instead, his serve failed him several times, and he must've averaged about 105 mph. If he can somehow regain his add 15-25 mph to his serve, he will prevent his opponents from teeing off on his serve and putting him on the defensive immediately.

Finally, despite the pain that that loss, Rafa bounced back in Davis Cup where he completely thrashed both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet in two very easy straight sets wins. Most other people who would have suffered 6 straight devastating losses to their new nemesis would not have had the nerve to get back on court and whip the living daylights out of two top players.

Here's hoping that Nadal can take away a lot of positive things from that loss and help him regain some confidence when facing Novak Djokovic. I do wish someone in Nadal's camp can remind him that Martina Navratilova once beat Chris Evert 13 straight times but Evert eventually figured out how to win against Martina again and won a few more slams after that terrible losing streak. Hope Nadal can turn the tables a lot more quickly than that.

10 years since 9/11

Everyone who was cognizant at the time remembers where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001. I am no exception. I was actually in a plane flying from London to Amsterdam when the first tower was hit, and I was in the Schipol airport in Amsterdam when the second plane crash into the second tower and when both towers collapsed.

It was a surreal experience. I went to the UK on a 10-day holiday as gift to myself for completing an incredibly difficult project that left my sleepless for many a night over 6 months. I was supposed to have a business trip in Vietnam on September 12 but I wanted to maximize my holiday so my plan wast to fly straight from London to Ho Chi Minh. I was pretty relaxed and still buzzing with excitement from my first international trip that was purely for leisure when I arrived in Schipol airport from Heathrow for my stopover.

When I got there, all TVs in the airport were showing a building with smoke coming out of it and everyone there was watching. At first, I thought it was some movie or TV show but it quickly dawned on me that this was actually happening in Manhattan. It was while I was in Schipol airport that I saw another plane crash into the second tower. It was unbelievable! And scary. I started thinking about those global domination movies were a lot of major cities are attacked at the same time and I worried that maybe Amsterdam would also be attacked. My stopover was supposed to be for only about an hour but all flights were delayed so I was still in the airport when both towers collapsed. It was beyond belief.

When I reached the Bangkok airport - my second stopover - someone from the airport was holding up a sign with my name on it and told me that my company had called them. Apparently, my company had put a travel ban in place so everyone had to stay where they were. That meant I had to stay in Bangkok for the night. My boss informed the next day that I could fly again, but since our business trip to Vietnam was postponed due to the travel ban - it was our entire team flying there - I now had to return to Manila.

I still recall media being filled with news related to 9/11 weeks after that horrific event. And now, 10 years later, the families of everyone who was impacted by this unimaginable act of terror return to Ground Zero to celebrate the memory of their loved ones. I can only hope and pray that we see less suffering in the world brought about by war or acts of terror.

Don't stop me now: Mime version

Who would've thought a mime version of one of my favorite Queen songs would be so entertaining? :) Check out this awesome video.


uploaded in youtube by user BBC

Advanced birthday celebration

Since a lot of folks were still in town shortly after Steph and Tim's wedding, I decided to have a really early birthday dinner with everyone. Joh's birthday celebration a few weeks before in Zong gave me the idea to look for vouchers online that I can use. I spotted a pretty cool deal in ensogo.com.ph: 50% on food in Little Asia so I decided to treat my friends to a birthday dinner in Little Asia in The Piazza in McKinley Hill.

It was great celebrating with a lot of my friends - Steph and Tim, Suzanne, Joh and Raffa, Alvin and Doray, Hannah, Mike, and Me-ann (it could've been more but Peegee got sick so he and Randee couldn't make it and Chris had to bring his son to the doctor so he and Shar couldn't make it either). I can't recall the last time we had that many people from our circle of friends present in my birthday celebration. For some folks, it was their first time in Little Asia and they thought the food was really good (something the rest of us already knew). Suzanne, Tim, Steph, and Nenen (who couldn't join us because she was in Bacolod) gave me a National Geographic book on travel ideas as a gift. I'm looking forward to reading it and getting a few more ideas on places to visit.

It was raining so we decided to stay in The Piazza after dinner. We opted to have coffee and dessert in Old Vine. The problem was that a lot of their dessert options were not available that night. I picked what was probably my 4th choice - can't remember what it was though - but the important thing was the fact that I was with great friends.

photo taken from my friend Tim's camera

It's a good start to my birthday celebration season. And thanks to online deal sites, it'll be slightly more economical for me, too. :)

Steph and Tim get married

My good friends Tim and Steph got married and it was a really good wedding on a lot of levels. Obviously, it's great to be part of a wonderful celebration of love and commitment, especially when the union is between two good friends. Second, the evening served as a reunion of folks from my previous company. I saw a lot of people whom I haven't seen in ages like Mabel, Romy, Eugene, Patrick and Quennie. Naturally, a lot of our circle of friends were there, including folks who flew in from the US like Suzanne and Nenen and those who flew in from Singapore like Hannah and Alvin.

It was also a unique wedding for me in that for the first time, I choreographed a wedding dance. No singing for me this dance. :) A few months before the wedding, Tim and Steph emailed me saying that they wanted their reception to open with a dance number that would include themselves and their entourage. It would take the place of the traditional entrance and introduction of the secondary sponsors leading up to the grand entrance of the couple. Tim told me that he had always wanted to do something like this for his wedding so he was a bit upset that Glee featured such a dance number during the wedding of Finn's mom and Kurt's dad which led to several couples doing the same thing in their wedding receptions.

Tim said that they wanted to use the same song - 'Marry you' by Bruno Mars - but he wanted me to create different steps and not copy the ones on Glee. Knowing that there would not be a lot of time to practice, I figured I would come up with fun steps that would be very easy for the entourage and Steph and Tim to learn. We had a couple of practices before the event and also practiced in the reception venue a couple of hours before the program started. In the end, it turned out to be a fun number, although I have to say the party poppers didn't pop at the right time and they sort of fizzled. Nevertheless, it was still pretty cool and I'm happy that I was able to do this for Steph and Tim.

Aside from the great food, for which I had more than one serving since the others in my table couldn't eat all that they were served, I also ended up leaving with a prize. I got a mini-box of Godiva chocolates as well as a USB drive for correctly answering when Tim's birthday was.

A lot of food, laughs, catching up, and good fun. This was certainly a great wedding and I am happy I was a part of it.

"No Good Deed" from 'Wicked'

This is a song I just discovered while listening to my newly purchased original Broadway cast recording CD of 'Wicked'. This song is called 'No good deed' and is performed by Idina Menzel in her role as Elphaba, the 'Wicked Witch of the West'. It's fast becoming one of my favorite songs from a musical.


uploaded in youtube by user kikki5183

It's such a powerful and emotional song and I absolutely love how expressive Idina's voice is here. No wonder she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for this role.

*****

'Wicked' the Musical is going to run in Singapore from December 7, 2011 to January 29, 2012. I wonder if I should head on over to SG just to watch it. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someone can bring this musical to Manila...)

Discount voucher king :)

With my birthday coming up soon, I realized that I should start investing in online discount vouchers so that I end up with significant savings. After checking out many of the deal sites online, I decided to get 20 vouchers from Little Asia, 7 vouchers from John and Yoko, 3 vouchers from Marciano's, and 6 vouchers from Barbara's in Intramuros. While this may seem like a lot (36 vouchers in all!), I did a quick check of all the sets of family and friends I celebrate with during my birthday and this is actually just the right amount.

I decided to count the vouchers I have purchased online and right now, it stands at 108. Wow! I'm not sure anyone else I know has purchased this many. I do however get to use practically everything that I purchase. Of the 37 vouchers I bought that have already expired, I used all but one of them. (And the one I missed was P175 so it was one of the cheapest deals I bought.) That is a pretty solid batting average. :) I guess it helps me that I purchase vouchers from restaurants that are really close to where I live or work, or from my favorite places to eat. Makes me now wonder how quickly I can get through the rest of the vouchers I have. :)

Check out these sites!

http://www.cashcashpinoy.com/
http://www.beeconomic.com.ph/
http://www.ensogo.com.ph/
https://www.dealgrocer.com/
http://www.metrodeal.com/
http://www.localroam.ph/
http://www.megadeals.ph/
http://www.crazydeals.ph/
http://www.buyanihan.com/
http://www.pakyaw.com.ph/

Missed movies

Clearly, the recurring theme here is my crazy workload. It keeps me from doing a lot of things I enjoy doing. Like exercising. Or sleeping. Or watching movies. I think the last movie I caught in the cinema was Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. Prior to that, I had a good run at the cinema, being able to watch X-Men: First Class, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Super 8.

Unfortunately, things got a bit crazier from July onwards and I haven't been able to go to the movie theater anymore. There are a lot of films I wanted to see like Hangover 2, Green Lantern (yes, this flick was panned by critics and viewers but I still wanted to see it), Captain America, and the last Harry Potter movie. Guess I just have to wait 'til the DVDs come out. Or for those films to be shown on HBO or Star Movies or something.

Jam-packed weekend

It was a really busy Thursday to Sunday, but despite it being totally exhausting, it was certainly a lot of fun. I had maybe 2 hours of sleep on Wednesday night (or well, Thursday early morning) before heading to Batangas for our leadership development seminar. It was a really good session that provided some key insights on how to use different influencing styles in different circumstances. Unfortunately, while the rest of the folks there just chilled out the rest of the evening, I had three meetings to attend. That, combined with the difficulty - nay, impossibility! - of getting connected, left me on my phone and my laptop from about 6:30 until 11:30pm. Almost everyone was asleep by the time my last meeting ended, so I capped off the evening with a glass of wine before going to sleep.

Thankfully I had a good rest that night since the next day was the teambuilding event of our department - all 800 of us! Or well, maybe just 600-700 since not everyone attended. It was a full day but thankfully I was assigned as a game marshal which meant I didn't need to around the resort all afternoon trying to compete in the different games. The downside was that, unlike almost everyone else, I didn't know what the different activities were and I couldn't relate to the stories most people were sharing about how much fun or tough certain games were. I begged off of the band performance because I was incredibly busy - first time ever I didn't perform in a teambuilding event - but I did participate in my team's dance number during the evening program LOL. The after-party was probably the highlight of the event, with everybody just letting loose and having fun.

Too much alcohol combined with dehydration and a few hours sleep usually equates to a hangover, which is what I had when I got up at 8am the next day. This did not bode well for me since it was the championship of our volleyball tournament at work. Thankfully, I was on the bench for the entire game but it was good for me to be there to provide moral support for the team. It was a very, very tight contest, with both teams splitting the first two sets. It was then down to the fifth and last set and unfortunately, we weren't able to clinch it, narrowly losing the set 12-15.

I got cleaned up after our game then I headed to Hotel H20. I got a discount voucher for an aquarium room in Hotel H2O from ensogo.com.ph and since it was my nephew's birthday, I thought it would be good for us to stay there overnight then visit to Manila Ocean Park early the next day. The see-through restroom was not very family-friendly - we had to tape my nephews' raincoats to the glass doors to give everyone a bit more privacy - but the aquarium was a big hit with my nephews as I expected.

my nephews named this puffer fish 'Fatty' and it was their favorite in the aquarium

We got up early on Sunday morning to have breakfast before cleaning up and checking out of our room. By the time we headed to Manila Ocean Park, the queue was quite long but it was still manageable. It was my first time in Manila Ocean Park, and despite it being smaller than some of the other similar parks in HK and SG, it is still worth a visit. The entrance fee is also pretty affordable.


When we were there, I actually got so pissed off with everyone using flash photography so I actually told a lot of violators to turn off their the flash. I am sure everyone I scolded was muttering under their breath or thinking to themselves, 'who the hell does he think he is?' but since the flashes were stressing out the fish, I didn't care what they thought. And at the end of the day, no one really spoke back to me when I told them to follow the rules. LOL I'm crazy!

look ma, no flash!

By the time we left Ocean Park, the queue was incredibly long. Our plan of staying overnight in Hotel H20 to ensure we got to the Park early really worked out for us! On our way home, my mom bought a few souvenirs from the shop as well as an Angry Birds' board game as a gift for my nephew. Thankfully, it was a long weekend, with both August 29 and 30 (Mon and Tue) being declared non-working holidays. So even if I was really tired, I knew I had a couple of days to regain my equilibrium.

Amazon purchases

I've had quite a few items in my Amazon shopping cart for the longest time - possibly more than a year, 2 even - so when I had a friend agree to bring a whole lot of those items to Manila for me, I purchased a lot of the items immediately.

I just got my package of stuff and it includes the following:

1. Miss Saigon (Original London West-end Cast recording) CD
2. The Phantom of the Opera (Original London West-end Cast recording) CD
3. Les Miserables (Original London West-end Cast recording) CD
4. Wicked (Original Broadway Cast recording) CD
5. Masters of the Universe DVD (this is an old 1987 live-action movie starring Dolph Lundgren which is based on the cartoon series 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe')
6. Panda and the Magic Serpent DVD (an old Japanese cartoon, I watched this as a kid and I somehow felt sentimental recently so I thought of buying it, am guessing I will most likely not enjoy it LOL but it was worth then nostalgia :))
7. 100mL Bulgari Blu cologne (it cost about half the price in Amazon when compared to how much it costs here so I just had to buy it online)
8. 100mL Aqua Quorum cologne (this cologne is no longer available in Manila - or if it is, I don't know where to get it. It's the first cologne I ever bought and started using and I like its scent so I thought I'd buy it online)
9. The Back Room CD by The Editors. I have their other CD (An End has a start) and I really like their music so I thought I'd get their other album.
10. 21 CD by Adele.

I have been having a blast listening to all my new CDs and I am mostly satisfied with my purchases. My only regret is getting Adele's 21 CD. And no, it is not because I don't like her music. In fact, I totally love this album! The regret here is that when I purchased '21', Adele's CDs were not available in Manila yet. And after making the purchase, it became available here. While the price in Amazon and in Manila is the same, the album here has 3 bonus tracks, including a live performance of 'Someone like you'. Argh! I guess I will have to get another copy of Adele's CD. I reckon the bonus tracks will be worth the price of the CD anyways LOL.

Christine Bianco channels the Divas in "Tomorrow"

Check out Broadway artist Christine Bianco singing 'Tomorrow' from the musical Annie.



Not only does she have an incredible voice but she also does an amazing job mimicking Broadway and music legends: Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Bernadette Peters, Celine Dion, Kristen Chenoweth, Julie Andrews, and Eydie Gorme. This performance is truly brilliant. :)

Medical exam results are in. Uh oh.

I just had my annual physical exam recently and unfortunately, the results are not good. It seems that I am anemic and my cholesterol level is high, among other things. This is the first time that I have negative results in my annual physical exam. Crap.

It seems that my issues here are more diet-related than exercise (although of course exercise is always necessary to remain in good shape). Apparently I need to eat food that is rich in iron and low in sodium and fat. I also need to drink a bit more milk as my calcium level is low. Yikes. If I didn't have enough motivation to get healthier before, these not-so-good medical exam results have just raised an alarm flag. Time to start living more healthy!

Rest in Peace, Mama Guading

My family is in mourning as our long-time helper, Mama Guading, passed away last August 5. She was with us even before I was born so she is truly part of our family. 

Life will forever be different without Mama but I take solace from the fact that she did have what I think was a good life with us. She reached the good age of 72 years, although it does hurt a bit more that she passed away shortly before her 73rd birthday. We used to celebrate her birthday with my mom's and my grandfather's - and in the last few years, with my cousin's as well - and I will miss her lumpia with its special sauce and her molo soup, which were staples in any family feast. I will also miss the giniling she used to cook for dinner, the fried banana with sugar she would prepare for merienda, and the ice candy she would make and sell to students of the school across the street from my grandparents' house. She had her own room with its queen-sized bed - my brother and I used to share that bed with Mama whenever we'd stay in my grandparents' house as kids - and more than a decade ago, we got a TV for her room.

Most importantly, she was deeply loved by our family. And she loved us back. I think back to the numerous times when I was sick as a kid and she would take such great care of me. I will miss seeing her walk through our gate whenever she would visit because we needed an extra hand at home. Or seeing her tend to her plants and trees in my grandparents' backyard. I will miss her strong, vibrant and distinct voice, and the way she would say my name: Chris-YAN. I will miss her kind face and her honest eyes. She may not be a candidate for Miss Universe, but to me she will forever remain one of the most beautiful women in my life.

She was truly a part of my family, and I still find myself reeling from sorrow in the many quiet moments that I think about her. A friend of mine told me that I should try not to think about her but it is a great disservice to Mama if I try not to remember just because it makes me feel sad. She devoted her entire life to the well-being of my family and made sure we were comfortable and taken care of. The least I can do now is to always keep her in my mind and in my heart. I am dedicating this song, "In loving memory" by Alter Bridge, to our beloved Mama Guading. The first line of this song is very appropriate to what I would like to tell Mama: "Thanks for all you've done".

   

uploaded in youtube by user LuisCArenas  

Eternal rest, grant unto Guadalupe Nabayra, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon her. 

May she rest in peace. 

We love you and miss you, Mama Guading. You will always be in our hearts. :(

Family birthday

It's that time of the year again when my family celebrates the joint birthday of my mom and my grandfather. We were supposed to celebrate my cousin's birthday as well but unfortunately he had exams the coming week so he was unable to join us. The initial plan was to have lunch at my grandparents' home but we ended up just going out. I was thinking of bringing my family to Cafe Juanita in Burgos Circle but we left home quite late so it was around 1:30pm when we got to Edsa. Since we weren't sure if Cafe Juanita was open for lunch even in the mid-afternoon, and since everyone was quite hungry already, I decided to take my family to Lugang Cafe in Connecticut (Greenhills) instead.

I had eaten in Lugang Cafe once before with my high school friends and I thought the food, especially the xiao long bao, was pretty good. The ambience makes dining here even a more pleasant experience. As we were eating, we saw this humongous dessert called the Bellagio Breeze, which is kinda like a towering Taiwanese version of our local halo-halo. My nephew was interested to try it so we ordered it despite all of us being quite full from our meal. We actually had a couple of celebrity sightings while we were there - in the middle of our meal, we saw Ruffa Gutierrez head into some kind of function room with a lot of other people, and as we were going through dessert, we saw Miguel Zubiri and his family head out of the restaurant (apparently they were dining on the second floor).

We headed to Powerplant mall after our hefty lunch and after going around the mall a bit, we caught the 4:45 mass. Everyone was still pretty full from our late lunch so we decided to skip dinner and just head home. Since my cousin couldn't join us, we stopped by Red Ribbon and my grandmother got an ube cake which we brought to my cousins house.

Throughout the day, I ended up playing some of the CDs that I had just purchased, including Nina Simone, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and my 'Unforgettable' compilation CD (which featured classics and standards from legends like Nat "King" Cole and Ella Fitzgerald). As I expected, my grandfather was extremely pleased with the music I played, saying stuff like "this is the kind of music I like" or "this was the music in my younger days".

I ended up forgetting to give my mom the two GCs I got her from The Spa; the fact that my nephews just got one puppy each recently had left my mom stressed out all the time cleaning up after them so I felt that a few trips to the spa would help. I also had just a light meal in the evening since I was still quite full from the heavy late lunch earlier in the day. All in all, another great day spent with the people I love.

No Marathon-for-a-Cause this year

This is the first time since 2003 that I was Manila-based yet unable to run my annual marathon-for-a-cause. (The only time I didn't run was when I was working in Sweden back in 2007.)

Knowing that the annual Milo Marathon is usually held in July, I attempted to train back in May. I did manage to run a few times a week for a couple of weeks but then work got in the way. When I learned in early June that this year's Milo Marathon was scheduled on July 31, I realized that, given my inability to train and the fact that I am in poor physical shape, I would be risking my health (and even possibly my life!) if I forced myself to run 42km. It can be argued that I successfully ran marathons in the past with little training, but the difference is that I wasn't as busy or stressed out before as I am now. I am at my all-time heaviest and, apart from my weekly volleyball games, I have not had any real regular exercise.

Hopefully I can get things in order at work so that I can start running again. Not just for charity but for my own well-being.

Libero

I played the role of libero for the very first time in my life in my volleyball game today. According to wikipedia, a libero is a player specialized in defensive skills who cannot block or attack the ball when it is entirely above net height. When the ball is not in play, the libero can replace any back-row player, without prior notice to the officials. This replacement does not count against the substitution limit each team is allowed per set, although the libero may be replaced only by the player whom they replaced.

While the libero is generally the most skilled defensive player on the team, my assignment to this role came about because most of the other players in my team are much, much better attackers than I am LOL. Since our attackers have to jump a lot to either block or spike, the team felt a libero was needed to give at our attackers some rest each time they rotated to the backline.

The bad thing about the libero, apart from the fact that you cannot attack the ball, is that you cannot serve either. Interestingly enough though, I ended up playing a lot in each of the three sets we played so the fact that I never served is not really bad given the amount of time I spent on court.

Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós

This song was written years ago but I only discovered it recently, though a friend of mine. The lyrics are Icelandic (Sigur Rós are from Iceland) but while you may not understand the words, it's still a great song to listen to. Check it out. :)


video uploaded in youtube by user hollowpapa

Takoyaki in Hana

I love takoyaki and Hana in Little Tokyo offers some of the best in town.


If you are a takoyaki fan, you need to make your way to Little Tokyo along Pasong Tamo and visit Hana. A set of six costs P120 but the takoyaki is authentic and really good.

Maid service bungle-up

I got a maid service to clean my place recently. Back in the day, I used to do my own cleaning until I realized that (1) maids can do it better and more quickly than me, (2) I actually give more people jobs when I hire a maid service, and (3) it's just an overall more efficient use of my time to get someone else to clean my place.

The only problem was that my maid service broke one of my glass candle holders. They told me they will replace what they broke - they even took a picture of the similar candle holder - but the only problem is that this was purchased years ago and I'm not sure that it is still available. They may end up finding something similar but it won't be exactly the same. While it will certainly throw off the symmetry I have in my pad, I guess I can just look at this as adding personality to my home by having mix-and-match decorative items LOL.

Time to replace my phone

I think I need to get myself a new mobile phone. My current one, a Sony Ericsson K770i, doesn't seem to be working properly anymore. There are times when it just keeps hanging and rebooting, other times people can't seem to reach me even if my phone is on, and sometimes I can barely hear the person I'm talking to on the phone. While this phone has been with me for just about 2 1/2 years, I think I may have dropped it too many times that I've worn it out faster than any other phone I've had in the pst.

My last two phones have been Sony Ericsson (prior to this, I had the K750i) so I'm tempted to stick with the brand. However, my main problem with these phones is the charging. The slot where you put the charger tends to degrade a bit easily (especially when my sweats gets in it and mucks it up). I'm personally not a fan of phones with a lot of functionalities so I don't necessarily want to get an IPhone. I may have to switch back to a Nokia (I was a Nokia user prior to 2006). I took a quick look at a Nokia store and I'm thinking about getting a C3, C5, or X3.

The main thing I like about my Ericsson phones though was the fact that they have this pretty powerful light. It helps when ordering food or drinks in dimly lit restaurants. Funny that most people look at really edgy and cool features when getting a phone while I look for one that has a good light LOL. I'm such a dinosaur. :)

Denz's bday

My friend and ex-colleague Denz celebrated his birthday at home, similar to what he has done each of the last few years. He invited me along with several of our other friends, and while a lot of people confirmed that they would go, it stormed very heavily that day. This resulted in most people backing out at the last minute. Shobie was there with Rodski but when the rains started pouring, she got concerned that the roads would be flooded so she left promptly. This meant that the only person I knew who was still in the party was Denz. I decided that I hadn't seen Denz in more than a year so even if I didn't know anyone there and despite the heavy rains, I would still go.

I got to the party a bit late because I had a volleyball game early that afternoon. Thankfully, there was a whole lot of food when I got there (as is always the case whenever Denz celebrates his birthday). I ended up having getting about three platefuls of food which means I ate more calories than I burned during our one-hour game LOL.

I stayed in the party for about an hour, listening to everyone else belt out standards and oldies over the Magic Sing and getting in a bit of airtime myself LOL. Too bad our other friends weren't able to make it or stay around. Nevertheless, it was great catching up with Denz. He says his party next year will be massive since he's celebrating a milestone year so I am looking forward to that.

Varekai!

Varekai is amazing!!! I watched it with my mom and needless to say we were blown away. I have seen other Cirque du Soleil shows on TV before so I knew what it was about but it's different seeing something like this live so when I saw the Varekai commercials on TV, I knew I had to watch it.

The ticket prices were not that accessible but I saw some front row seats still available in the second-cheapest section so I ended up getting those even if they cost more. I mean, it's not everyday you get to watch a show like this. (In any case, the show was definitely worth the price!) I think it's great that Cirque du Soleil actually brought their own tent because it gave the show a very authentic feel to it. The vendors with popcorn and hotdogs walking all around added to the great atmosphere.


Of course, all that accounts for nothing unless the show lives up to the hype. And it certainly did! Those Cirque du Soleil artists have nerves of absolute steel and are in perfect physical condition! Just watching them do a stunt is exhausting, so I can't even begin to imagine what it feels like to do what they do and to prepare for it! A lot of the stunts were so dangerous and extreme that it was sometimes tough to clap because you were holding your breath too much and were worried that someone could get seriously injured. There was one stunt, in the Icarian games act, that wasn't completed successfully, but the audience was very supportive and cheered the artists to give them encouragement despite the miss. Here's a video of that sequence (the stunt they were unable to complete is at 5:57 to 6:14).


video uploaded in youtube by user Icarusangel27

There were quite a few comedic moments and slapstick bits with the clowns and faux magician, but I felt they are sort of needed because when something is as intense as this show, you need enough light moments to balance things out and to catch your breath. I've heard from people who have seen other Cirque shows comment that the stunts are not that original, but I don't see a difference between watching "unoriginal" but spectacular stunts with listening to your favorite song or re-watching a good movie. I can listen to my fave songs dozens of times in a row or more, so if someone can swing from a hoop while using just the back of their neck to hang on to it while dangling several meters in the air, I think I can watch that over and over again too. :)


I really hope that Cirque du Soleil found this trip to the Philippines quite profitable. I would absolutely love to have more of these shows brought to Manila for more Filipinos to enjoy.

Sick again. And a couple of sad but brilliant films.

My crazy schedule recently has left me working a lot of long nights in the last few months, and it finally caught up to me. I woke up one Tuesday morning with a terrible headache and a painful throat. I could barely get out of bed, and even after I tried getting a couple more hours of sleep, I was still in a lot of pain. It was the same story the next day. I couldn't even turn on my laptop to set up my automatic out-of-office replies to tell people I was out sick.

Since I was practically bedridden, I decided to just put on a couple of DVDs that I had for a already but haven't been able to watch. Unfortunately for me, the two films I selected are both not the ideal choices for someone who is sick. One was "The Kite Runner" and the other was "Atonement".

(Spoiler alert: I will be taking in some detail about the plot of these two films so if you haven't seen them and don't want to be spoiled, please stop reading here.)

Don't get me wrong, both films are brilliant and very deserving of the rave reviews they got and the awards they won or were nominated for. However, the thing about these two films is that both of them have a lack of redemption in at least some of the main characters, and that somehow makes them difficult and depressing to watch.

Take Atonement for instance. There is a lot of sexual tension building up between the two leads, Robbie and Cecilia (played by James McAvoy and Kiera Knightley), and when they finally openly admit to the attraction for each other, their love is cut short by Cecilia's sister Briony, who is secretly in love with Robbie. Rather than lose Robbie to her sister, Briony accuses him of raping her cousin and he is subsequently sent to prison. Robbie is then given the choice of staying in prison or becoming a soldier (the film is set in World War II) and he chooses instead to fight in the war. He and Cecilia, who has now become a nurse, manage to meet briefly before their lives are forever parted by war, a war which ultimately leads to their tragic and separate deaths.

The Kite Runner is just as, if not more, depressing. It is set mostly in Afghanistan and the lead character, Amir, is the son of a wealthy man named Baba. His best friend, Hassan, was the son of their servant. Despite the difference in class, the two best friends are inseparable up until a gruesome event: Hassan is molested and raped by some bullies. Amir, who witnesses it, does nothing to stop it and is consumed by guilt to the point that he drives Hassan away. When the Russians invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father are forced to flee to the US where their lifestyle changes dramatically - Baba now works in a gasoline station and Amir studies in a community college and works part-time in a flea market. Once Amir graduates and then marries his love interest Soraya, Baba passes away from a terminal illness. It's at this point that Baba's closest friend, Rahim Khan who is now living in Pakistan, asks Amir to pay him a visit. Rahim Khan tells Amir that Hassan is actually his brother from a different mother. Hassan eventually got married and had a son but both he and his wife were killed by the Taliban, who also take his son away. Amir successfully attempts to take Hassan's son away from the Taliban and then brings him to the US to live with him and his wife.

While it is a positive ending - Amir manages to save Hassan's son from the Taliban - I can't get over the fact that Hassan was raped as a kid, driven away by his best friend, and when he manages to have a family of his own, his son is taken away and is killed. I keep thinking how Hassan's last thoughts before dying were that his son would be taken by the Taliban and how hopeless he must have felt when taking his final breath. The fact that Amir is not even able to tell Hassan directly that he is sorry for driving Hassan away makes it even worse.

Despite the timing of me watching these two movies not being the best because I was sick, I am happy that I did get to watch both them. Two thumps up and definitely worth watching.

Linkin Park perform "Rolling in the Deep"

Didn't expect this one bit. But Linkin Park do a fine job of covering Adele's "Rolling in the Deep". Chester is one awesome vocalist.


video uploaded in youtube by linkinparktv

Disappointment

Rafa Nadal lost the Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic. It was his 5th straight loss against the Serb who has now also replaced Rafa as the #1 ranked player in the world. I'm gutted.

It's a horrific result for any Nadal fan. The sad thing about it is that his recent losses to Novak have been mostly mental. In the Wimbledon final, he was holding serve very well up until 4-5 when all of a sudden he suddenly lost the plot. I thought Rafa would go down without a fight after losing the second set 1-6 must but when he managed to break Novak early in the 3rd set and held on to that break to win a set, I thought he could at least get into the right frame of mind to put up a fight as he normally does against everyone else. Unfortunately, it was the same story in the 4th, with Rafa holding his own up until the tail end of the match where his fight seemed to all but disappear.

It's frightening to think that Nadal's asset throughout his career has been his unmatched mental strength and belief that he can win any match, even when he's down. Rafa now needs to find a way to get back his focus and figure out a way to beat Novak. I just hope he figures it out sooner rather than later.

Belated Father's Day celebration and an Arcade afternoon

My family wasn't able to go out during Father's day because of scheduling issues so our celebration came a week later. My mom initially thought of having lunch somewhere in Intramuros but it took my family a while to get ready in the morning so it was almost 1pm when we left home. As such, I suggested that we have lunch in Cerchio instead. Cerchio located in the Tomas Morato area has the same owners as Romulo's Cafe and offers similar cuisine so I thought it would be perfect for my family.

I reckoned that since we would get there at around 1:30pm, there would be more than enough tables available and I didn't need a reservation. Sure enough, only a few tables were occupied when we got there so we were seated imediately. We were all quite hungry by the time our order arrived so I didn't even bother taking snapshots to put up in my blog but the food was really good! Despite the size of our meal, we still managed to have coffee and dessert after. You could tell that the owner of Romulo's and Cerchio is the same because both places have excellent service. Cerchio also has a pretty cool patio area on the second floor which seems to be a perfect place to chill out with your friends over a few drinks in the evening.

After lunch, we headed to Shangri-La mall because my grandma wanted to watch the movie of Sam Milby and KC Concepcion (can't remember the title). I was thinking of taking my nephews to watch Green Lantern but when we got there, Green Lantern wasn't showing for another 1 1/2 hours. I offered to take my nephews to watch Super 8 instead but neither of them were interested. My mom wanted to watch it and since she doesn't have a lot of opportunities to watch, I suggested she go see it and I would just take my nephews to Quantum while everyone else went to the cinema.

So we go to Quantum and I purchased P100 worth of tokens before realizing that a lot of the games that we normally play there - like the one where you drop a ball and bowling - were both not operational. There weren't a lot of games available so we just used up our tokens on whatever games felt interesting enough to play then I told my nephews we should just check out Power Station.

It was a pretty good move because Power Station had both games that were not available in Quantum. Plus, it has this 'Go Go Balls' game that was soooo much fun to play. Each game had four levels that would test different skills like accuracy and speed. The great thing about this game was that all three of us - me and my two nephews - could play the game at the same time. In fact, the more people playing it the better because more balls would be thrown at the screen. We had so much fun playing it that we played it a few times (no one was in line so it wasn't like we were unfairly hogging it. :)) This is what Go Go Balls looks like:


video uploaded in youtube by user saintfun0140

By the time we were done playing, both movies had finished. We got some Dippin' Dots for my nephews and I bought a box of silvanas from House of Silvanas before we headed home. Strangely enough, I'm the one who actually wants to go back to Power Station so we can have another crack at the Go Go Balls game LOL.

Octavia on Got to Dance UK

This has to be one of the most expressive 7-year old dancers I have seen. Other talented children have come out on shows like Got To Dance and Live to Dance and they may perform with better technique and choreography, but Octavia's expression, in both her face and her movement, is something that I rarely see in other kids. Check it out.


video uploaded in youtube by user GotToDanceSky1

Mercato Night

I had been hearing about Mercato for a while now but up until recently I hadn't been able to visit. Apparently, if you are fond of going on food trips - which I am, as evidenced by my ever-growing waistline - you need to make your way to Mercato during weekend nights.

So I was out having a whole lot of drinks with my friends one Friday night when we realized we were all quite hungry after asking for the bill. Someone suggested we go to Mercato and since a couple of us hadn't been there yet, we all very quickly agreed to grab a late night snack there before heading home.

We got there and I sort of felt like a kid in a candy store. So many food items to choose from! Caught up in the excitement of being in Mercato for the first time, I ended up ordering 5 or 6 pieces of takoyaki, 8 dumplings, lechon baka, and hmm I am sure I ordered one more thing but I somehow can't remember what it was LOL. I probably ordered twice as much as everyone else (not combined, of course LOL). The alcohol (plus the fact that it must've been about 5 hours since my last meal) made me really hungry and I managed to wolf everything down in a really short period of time haha.

I probably packed in an extra 3 pounds that night but it was a really cool experience having a whole variety of pretty good food at your fingertips. Writing this now actually makes me want to pay Mercato another visit soon.

*****

On a separate note, I still haven't tried Banchetto, which came before Mercato and is located in Ortigas. Maybe next time I can tell my friends to get drinks in the Ortigas area and then we run over to Banchetto to have our post-midnight snack there.

600

This is my 600th blog post since I started my blog a little more than 6 years ago. I'm still averaging about 1 blog post every four days. Not bad! Hope I can continue to keep my blog going for at least another 600 posts. :)

"Love you more" by Sunscreem

Old song but I felt like digging it up on youtube and listening to it.


Video uploaded in youtube by user revenant7605

Light saver

In the spirit of being more eco-friendly, even by just a bit, I made my first purchase of an energy-saving light bulb recently. In the past, whenever I needed a new light bulb, I would get the traditional incandescent light bulbs because I preferred yellow lighting at home and virtually all energy-saving bulbs I saw were white light. That is, until I busted another light bulb recently.

Ever since we started a campaign to reduce the use of paper cups at work, I've been trying to be a bit more environmentally conscious. So when my light got busted, I decided to look for an energy-saving one that emitted yellow light. I went to the supermarket and found the Panasonic Light Capsule.

After installing it, I thought it wasn't as bright as I wanted it to be. But apparently, after having the light on for a short while, it starts getting brighter until it resembles a 150-watt bulb. Wow!

It's about 3-4 times more expensive than a regular bulb but it is supposed to last for about 10,000 hours - longer than your average incandescent bulb - and it saves energy. Another small step in trying to be more eco-friendly.

Quick Delivery 2121212

I recently got a complimentary copy of a Quick Delivery (2121212) booklet. I didn't use to pay attention to this before but ever since I got the booklet (you don't need it since you can check out their website), I've realized that it's pretty handy to have because it contains the menus of a whole array of restaurants and you just need to dial one telephone number when placing an order from any of them. The drawback is that you have to pay Quick Delivery an extra P10% but that's a fee I'm willing to pay for the service they provide.

Ever since I got this booklet, I've ordered from Bon Chon Chicken, Gloria Maris, and Sentro. I've tagged Cyma and 101 Hawker Food House as potential restos to order from next, and I'm quick excited about it. Obviously it doesn't take a lot to please me LOL.

Read more about Quick Delivery here.