The Killers Live in Manila!

The Killers finally made it to Manila! Last Thursday, they performed live at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and I was there to witness their amazing concert.

My friend Beck and I got Patron tickets, and since this was the standing area - or mosh pit as I would like to call it - we got there at around 6:30 P.M. to make sure we could be as close to the front as possible. Even then, there was already a pretty big crowd in front of us by (there were probably about 10-12 rows of people in front of us). The opening act, Sandwich, performed a few songs at around 8 P.M., and it was around 9:30 P.M. when the Killers finally took the stage.

I remember being very disappointed when they cancelled their Asian tour back in January 2010. (Lead vocalist Brandon Flowers unfortunately lost his mother to cancer in February 2010 and the tour was cancelled so he could be with his mother in her last days.) More than three years later and finally, The Killers make it to the Philippines. Brandon even said so, telling the audience "Mabuhay! Sa wakas, The Killers are here" or "...are in Manila" and adding "thank you for not giving up on us." It was definitely worth the long wait.

The concert was perfect for their fans as their repertoire consisted of their best and most popular songs from all their albums. They opened with Mr. Brightside which caused the crowd to go into a frenzy. I will say that I was annoyed that everyone in the crowd was singing along to that song - and not very well! LOL - and I couldn't hear Brandon very well. But of course that was expected. Apart from that, they performed Smile and Somebody told me from Hot Fuss, Bling (Confessions of a King) and Read my mind from Sam's Town (which I think is my favorite album of theirs so far), and Spaceman and Human from Day and Age. I don't have their Battle Born and Sawdust albums but they did some songs from those two as well. (Check out their full set list here.) Of course, the concert featured Brandon's keyboard that is set-up as the lightning symbol in their Battle Born album.

While I can't be completely sure, I think The Killers were pleasantly shocked that the audience that night knew and loved all their songs, even the less popular ones that weren't released. When the audience immediately recognized For reasons unknown during the intro and started to cheer, Brandon said "You know this one?" And when they followed up that song with From here on out, the audience once again cheered wildly and Brandon said with a massive grin on his face "You know this one too?"

I will say that Brandon Flowers has become one of my favorite lead vocalists of a rock band. He has an amazing voice: powerful, clear, unique, and instantly recognizable. On top of that, he performs with a fiery passion that comes straight from the heart and the gut. That his performance level is matched by the rest of the band makes for an incredible show.

Once The Killers "closed" the concert with All these things that I've done and the band cleared the stage, the clamor for an encore was astounding. Chants of "We want more" and loud cheers filled the Araneta Coliseum and people even started singing again the anthemic "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier" line from All these things that I've done. The band finally came back on stage and treated everyone to an amazing encore that included Jenny was a friend of mine and When we were young.

By the time the lights were all turned back on and the crowd made its way to the exits, I had been standing already for more than five hours. Needless to say I was tired and I had lost my voice but it was all worth it. I'm now in kind of a state of withdrawal, listening to their albums that I have to relive my excitement. I don't know what the odds are that they will return to Manila to perform, but I certainly hope I can see them in concert again.

UP places 2nd in cheerdance

It was bound to happen at some point, but I was hoping the UP Pep Squad could match UST's 5-championships-in-a-row from 2002 to 2006 before they eventually lost the title. Unfortunately, they got dethroned by a hungry NU and ended up in 2nd place. Nevertheless, UP maintained its unprecedented streak of having a podium finish in eighteen consecutive UAAP Cheerdance competitions. They got hit by a couple of major falls but overall, it was still a pretty good and entertaining routine.


video uploaded in youtube by TheABSCBNNews

(Sidenote: the DLSU Animo Squad had the best costume and props hands down, although the quick-change of UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe was pretty impressive too.)

UP clearly looked disheartened with their loss but hopefully they can bounce back and get back to their championship ways next year. Good job, UP Pep Squad!

Pinoy youtube sensation on Ellen

Aldrich Lloyd Talonding was invited by Ellen a few months ago to perform in her show after she saw a video of him performing "Dance with my father" on youtube. Somehow her message reached him as he and his cousin James (who plays the guitar while he sings) made it to "Ellen" a few days ago. Check it out here:


video uploaded by MrNoypistuff

Aldrich has an amazing voice, with great control, power and expression. (He also speaks English quite well and apparently he did practice his English before flying to the US.) What makes this performance more moving and what gives it even more meaning to him now is the fact that he actually did lose his father last June.

Fantastic job, Aldrich and James! And thanks a lot to Ellen for providing many Filipinos a global platform on which to perform.

Charice in the Guinness Book of World Records

Charice makes global news as she has been listed in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. She was 20 years and 150 days old when she mentored KZ  Tandingan, who won the the first season of the X Factor Philippines in October last year. This means that Charice is the youngest winning judge in any X Factor franchise globally. I don't know if there will be other X Factor shows that feature a younger judge in the future but I do hope Charice can keep this record for a while.

Way to go, Charice!

The Wildflour Croissant-Donut

One of the most popular items in the foodie world at the moment is the "Cronut" (although I understand that the word "Cronut" has pending trademark applications filed in the US and internationally by Chef Dominique Ansel and as such shouldn't be applied to any donut-croissant hybrids). Cafe France, Krispy Kreme, and Le Coeur de France all have their version, but it was Wildflour that seems to have started the trend in the Philippines. I had dinner there late last week with my friends, and while we were having coffee after an exceedingly heavy meal, a waitress approached us, telling us that they still have cronuts available and asking us if we wanted to try it. It's very difficult to get a cronut in Wildflour and even if you order in advance, it'll take a few days before you can get your order. So when the chance presented itself, we decided to get two cronuts.

The verdict? It's good. But when I had my first taste, I wasn't particularly sure yet if it lived up to the hype. When we had a slice each that evening (you can see one cronut missing a portion in the picture above LOL), we were all absolutely stuffed and we had just consumed a slice of salted chocolate cake that was really good. At that time, I felt that the cronut was overrated.

However, several hours later, I ate the rest of the cronut that we partially consumed while still at the restaurant (I took home both cronuts we ordered) and it tasted a lot better and didn't seem as overrated as my first bite. Even the day after, the other cronut still tasted good. I will say that the Wildlfour cronut is miles better than the Cafe France one.

So after thinking about it, I will say that the Wildflour croissant-donut is actually pretty good (albeit a bit greasy) and I wouldn't mind having one again. It is not cheap at P120 but it sort of lives up to the hype. That said, I surely won't wait in line for a long time for it nor make an effort to order several days in advance.

Rafa wins the US Open!

The King of Clay has extended his domain to the hard courts. Rafael Nadal wins the US Open trophy for this second time in his career, beating Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Rafa by the numbers:

• Major title #13. Nadal is now on solo 3rd place in the all-time men's list, behind Federer (17) and Sampras (14)
• Tour-leading 10 titles, reaching the finals in 12 of the 13 tournaments he's played
• 22-0 on hard courts this year. Hard court title count: 1 major, 3 masters. Impressive!
• 60 wins, 3 losses in 2013
• #1 in the ATP Race to London, and will be more than 3000 points ahead of Novak
• First person since Andy Roddick in 2003 to win the Montreal Masters, Cincinnati Masters, and the US Open all in the same year
• First person since Roger Federer in 2007 to win the US Open Series and the US Open, which meant that Nadal takes home $3.6 million in prize money. Wow!!
• Grand Slam title count: 8 on clay court. 3 on hard court, and 2 on grass

photo by Clive Brunskill (Getty Images)

It was a strange (and stressful!) match, with its share of highlights and momentum swings. Rafa was dominant in the first set before Novak found his form in the second set and started playing incredibly well for a set and a half. The third set proved immensely crucial. Rafa was playing catch up mode for most of that set, with Novak up a break early before Nadal leveled things a few games later. The turning point had to have been that ninth game. Djokovic was up 0-40 with three break points. If he won that, he would have served for the set and have gone up 2 sets to 1. Instead, Rafa fought back, went up 5-4, then opportunistically took advantage of the break point he earned in the next game to win the set. Just like that, Novak lost steam and it was all Rafa in the fourth and final set.

This win now means that Nadal has beaten Djokovic six times in their last seven matches. It's a huge turnaround from 2011, when Novak was near-invincible and beat Nadal seven times in a row. Nadal now leads their head-to-head 22-15 and they have split their Grand Slam final meetings 3-3.

*****

On the women's side, Serena won her 17th Grand Slam title, beating Azarenka in straight sets. Serena is head and shoulders above the rest of the women and while she is 31 years old, she is playing as consistently well as she ever has (I'd say she is playing just as well if not better than she did when she dominated in 2002-2003). While Steffi Graf will forever be my favorite player, I wouldn't be surprised if Serena equals or even surpasses Graf's Grand Slam count.

*****

If Rafa Nadal plays enough tournaments for the remainder of the year and does decently well in them, he will almost certainly reclaim the #1 ranking from Novak Djokovic. When the rankings are updated on Monday next week, Rafa will be only 120 points behind Novak and with no points to defend the remainder of the year, the #1 ranking is within reach.

Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major

I heard this soul-stirring piece composed by Johann Sebastian Bach while watching an episode of the now-defunct Emily Owens MD. I loved it so much that I noted down its title and searched it on youtube. (Thank God for youtube and the internet!) Check it out here, performed by Denise Djokic.


video uploaded in youtube by cbcradio3

There's just something about a cello's sound that is so powerful and moving. It perfectly matches the melody of this hauntingly beautiful piece.

Buffet lunch

One of my friends, Joyce, felt bad for me earlier this year when I was having severe stomach problems and could barely eat anything that she gave me a voucher for a lunch or dinner buffet in Heat, one of the restaurants in Edsa Shangri-La Hotel. Somehow I wasn't able to use it until today. I woke up a lot earlier than I normally do during weekends and I ate some of my leftovers from the night before for breakfast at around 7AM. By noon, I was feeling really hungry so I thought the timing was perfect for me to have a buffet meal.

Not surprisingly, I ended up eating a lot. When I finally laid out all my plates of food in front of me, I thought for a second I wasn't going to be able to eat everything. Somehow, I did. :)

And as if all that wasn't enough, I followed up my main meal with a plateful of dessert.

The buffet comes with coffee or tea but no softdrinks or iced tea (a can of softdinks or refillable iced tea here costs a whopping P220+ after tax and service charge). Needless to say, I was absolutely stuffed after my meal and I didn't eat again until several hours later. Thanks to my friend Joyce for the awesome buffet!

Can't Hold Us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton

This is my current favorite song. (In case you're wondering, Ryan Lewis is the producer. Ray Dalton is the guy whose impressive vocals you can hear throughout the song.) "Can't hold us" also has an amazing music video and, according to wikipedia, "shooting took place for three months, in 6 continents and 16 different shoots." Check it out here:


video uploaded in youtube by Ryan Lewis

It's no surprise then that "Can't hold us" bagged trophies for Best Cinematography and Best Hip-Hop Video in the recently concluded MTV Music Awards.

Family Weekend Celebration

To celebrate the birthday of my nephew, I used my ensogo voucher to book a 2-bedroom suite at Fraser Place in Makati for my family. Since my nephew had taekwondo (and had to be accompanied there by my brother), my other nephew had a school event, and my mom had work, I checked in with my grandmother "Nanay" ahead of everyone else. We all got together by around 6 PM and we decided to go to nearby Relish at Ponte for dinner. This restaurant never fails to deliver and once again, we all enjoyed our food.

We opted not to get any dessert from Relish because earlier that day, I used another ensogo voucher to get a Marjolaine cake from Sugarhouse. Only a couple of us had a slice of cake once we got back to our Fraser Place room (although once we got home the next day, most folks had a slice and only a small portion of the cake was left). My nephew and my brother headed to the swimming pool while everyone just chilled and watched TV. It was a relatively calm night and most of us were asleep quite early.

After checking out the next day, we had lunch at Heaven & Eggs Rockstar in Glorietta 4 since my nephew loves the shoestring potatoes there. We noticed that they had banana bread and raisin bread on sale there from Baguio Country Club and Nanay seemed interested in the banana bread but she felt it was too expensive, which each loaf costing P200. I decided to get her one loaf anyway and we were pleasantly surprised when, with her senior citizen discount, we ended up paying just P142. Not bad.

After lunch, we spent some time in the mall to go shopping for gifts for my nephew. That way, he could choose the stuff he wanted. I ended up getting him a Ninjago Lego set while my mom got him a jacket and a shirt. Clearly my nephews are getting older because in the past, they would always ask for toys but now they are also interested in clothes.

I was supposed take Nanay to the cemetery to visit Tatay but it started raining very heavily so we had to cancel those plans. I ended up just bringing everyone home then passing by the mall to get some food for our dinner. (I managed to a lot of free food because of my credit card charge slips!) We then headed to church to catch the early evening mass.

It was a great but full weekend, and I just realized that most of my weekends recently have been quite full. I got sick recently and had to take a few days off of work and go to the hospital to see a doctor. Thankfully, this coming weekend is going to be a relatively relaxed weekend for me so I will take full advantage of that.

June archive

While looking through my June 2013 blog archives, I realized I couldn't see most of my June posts. Only four entries were visible, and I realized I have no "previous" button in my blog to allow me to see previous posts. Since I don't know how to set up a "previous" button yet, I will use this to list down the links to all my June posts to help me find them if/when I want to.

June 1 - Trying out a couple of new places
June 2 - Shakey's V-League
June 3 - Allison Holker and Derek Hough back on DWTS
June 5 - Kimstore!
June 6 - Photobook party
June 7 - Tree Nursery Activities at Haribon's Buhay Punlaan
June 8 - Jhen and Jay's Wedding
June 9 - Madness by Muse
June 10 - Nadal wins a record-setting 8th French Open title
June 11 - Early Father's Day Celebration
June 12 - Happy Philippine Independence Day
June 13 - Catching up
June 14 - From Russia with Love
June 16 - Moscow: Kremlin and Red Square
June 18 - More Moscow Sights
June 21 - The Moscow Metro
June 23 - The Golden Ring: Sergiev Posad
June 25 - The Golden Ring: Vladimir and Suzdal
June 28 - St. Petersburg: Peter and Paul Fortress

The Spectacular Cecile Licad

So this post is almost two months late but last June 29, I took my mom to watch Cecile Licad perform in CCP in her concert aptly called "The Pianist's Pianist". The first time I saw her perform live was when she shared the stage with Lea Salonga and Lisa Macuja in last year's The Legends and the Classics. This time, the spotlight was just on her.

photo from www.philippineconcerts.com

It was a brilliant show that demonstrated Cecile's genius with a piano. She was backed up by the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra with Gerard Salonga as conductor. Her repertoire included two pieces from Hungarian composer Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Totentanz. She also performed three encores. One of her encores was Manchega, a lively piece by American composer Gottschalk. This video is of a performance in 2003 of the same song:

video uploaded in youtube by tiklado07

As we stepped out of the theater, we noticed what seemed like a meet-and-greet area by the staircase. We confirmed that it was, so I told my mom to fall in line to get an autograph. Thankfully we were quick about it because as soon as my mom got in line (she was around the 4th or 5th person from the front), a whole horde of people queued up right behind her.

The biggest shame about my experience was that I organized and attended a tree planting event earlier that day in Real, Quezon and I had only one hour of sleep. As such, I ended up dozing off for a short period of time in the first half of the show. Damn! Thankfully, the food and coffee I had during intermission gave me enough energy to stay fully awake in the second half. I do recall that as soon as I got home, I fell asleep almost immediately and slept for 14 straight hours! Talk about being massively tired. Hopefully, I get to watch another of Ms. Licad's brilliant performances in the future.

Movie-watching

While I haven't seen a movie in a few weeks, I did get to see a lot of films in the middle months of the year.

Pacific Rim
There are some holes in the story, the script could be better, and it comes with a fair share of cliches. However, the effects were superb and it was a thoroughly entertaining summer blockbuster. After all, you can't go wrong when you have giant robots battling giant alien monsters to save the world. :)

Monsters University
I thoroughly enjoyed this prequel of Monsters, Inc. I loved seeing how the friendship between Mike and Sully developed and it was great to see how they learned and combined to be the top-rated scaring team later in their careers. In true Pixar-Disney style, the story is brilliantly done and the character development is well-executed.

Now You See Me
I probably liked the first half of this movie more than the second half. This premise of this film is that four magicians combine to pull off massive crimes. I found myself at the edge of my seat early on, wondering what was going on and what was going to happen next. But at some point I started to feel that the magicians all just seemed too great and the FBI too inept. Then again, in the grand scheme of things, I guess it all made sense in the end. To quote my friend Ced, this movie seems like a cross between Ocean's Eleven and The Prestige.

Despicable Me 2
Strangely enough, while I did still enjoy this animated sequel, it somehow didn't live up to the hype as much. The minions were of course great fun to watch but there were a couple of scenes where I felt the production was just trying to milk the entertainment value of these cute and loveable creatures a tad too much. I think the first one was much better.

Man of Steel
From a conceptual standpoint, I didn't find much difference between this reboot and Superman Returns. Both movies try to show Superman in a different light to make audiences understand him better and relate to him more. However, there is one thing about Man of Steel that really rubbed me the wrong way: Superman didn't seem to care about who gets hurt or how much damage results from his monumental battle with General Zod and other members of his army. Superman should have attempted to bring Zod up in the air miles away from everyone else instead of going at him toe-to-toe inside the city, thus causing a lot more damage to a city already in ruins.

There were some movies I wanted to see but missed, like World War Z, White House Down, Fast & Furious 6, and The Wolverine. I guess I will just have to wait for the DVDs to come out or for these films to be featured on HBO or Star Movies.

Nadal wins again!

What a year this has been for Rafael Nadal. On Sunday, he defeated John Isner 7-6 7-6 to win the Cincinnati Masters. Congrats, Rafa!

photo from https://www.facebook.com/ATPWorldTour

This is the first time Rafa won this title, and it also means that he has now gotten to the finals of all nine Masters 1000 events at least once. Just how great has this year been for Nadal? Here are the numbers:

• 1st time to win the Cincinnati Masters
• #2 ranking on Monday as Rafa moves past Andy Murray who will drop to #3
• 3 hard court Masters 1000 titles this year.
• 4th player in history to win the Canada-Cincinnati Double (Andy Roddick last did this feat in 2003)
• 4 consecutive Masters 1000 tournaments this year
• 5 Masters 1000 titles in 2013, tying the record set by Novak Djokovic in 2011
• 26 Master 1000 titles in his career, the most of any player in history.

While no one else has more success on hard courts this year than Nadal, he isn't a lock to win the US Open which starts next week. Djokovic is still the #1 players in the world and is always a threat while Andy Murray is the defending champion. Roger Federer, who drops to #7 his week (his lowest ranking in more than a decade), gave Rafa a tough match in Cincinnati, as did Berdych and Isner. Del Potro is also doing well. Hopefully, Nadal's solid wins on hard court this season give him enough confidence to do well in, or even win, the last major event of the year.

Traffic ticket

Such a hassle that I'm out P2000. My fault really. I was driving in Bonifacio Global City rushing for a 10AM appointment and for some strange reason, the traffic was horrible. I was at an intersection needing to turn left but stuck behind a lot of other vehicles. When the traffic light was green for cars going straight ahead and turning left, the cars in front of me were still not moving. I thought that maybe there was something preventing them from going straight, so since I needed to turn left, I moved out of my lane to get past them.

As it turned out, there was an officer at the intersection controlling the traffic and he asked me to stop. Damn. I ended up getting a ticket for a counterflow violation. To make matters even just that more difficult, I had to get my license in Bicutan. Ugh. The "icing on the cake" was the fact that my violation actually required me to pay P2000. That certainly hurt. Oh well. Just need to make sure it doesn't happen to me again.

Dinner at Opus

A couple of months ago, I purchased a Deal Grocer voucher for food at Opus Restaurant and Lounge. I had been there a few times before but only for drinks. However, a friend of mine told me that the food there was superb and that I should try it. It is quite expensive there so when I saw a discount voucher at Deal Grocer, I decided to give it a go.

I ordered the U.S. Angus Beef Wellington (P980) which pretty much used up the full value of my voucher. However, it was money well spent as I was absolutely blown away by it. The beef was perfectly cooked and the pastry was just that right mix of soft and crunchy that matched perfectly well with the meat. There was some kind of filling or marinade between the beef and pastry that elevated the flavor profile of what already was a fantastic dish. I took a photo before diving in but the picture doesn't do it any justice.

U.S. Angus Beef Wellington

I was initially thinking of ordering dessert but by the time I got through my meal, I was stuffed. Note that I was served some bread while waiting for my meal (even the bread was incredibly good!). I'm now hoping that another discount voucher for Opus becomes available because I really want to go back there again and try more items in the menu. That U.S. Angus Beef Wellington is one of the best meals I've ever had.

U.P. Streetdance Club win Bronze at the World Hip Hop Dance Championship

Congratulations to the U.P. Streedance Club who took home third place in the recently concluded World Hip Hop Dance Championship in Las Vegas. They competed in the Megacrew division and apparently they also won bronze last year in this competition organized by Hip Hop International. Check out their 2013 award-winning performance here:


video uploaded in youtube by OfficialHHI

Way to go, U.P. Streetdance Club!

Busy Saturday

Weekends are supposed to be a time to relax and re-energize. Somehow that didn't happen last Saturday. I started out being late for a lunch party for Majel's children in Windmills & Rainforest. Majel and her family are based in Singapore and since it was a long weekend over there, they decided to come home to throw a party for the baptismal of her youngest and to celebrated two belated birthdays of her other two kids. It has been a while since I've seen Majel so it was good to catch up with her.

The party ended shortly before four so I had some time before my early dinner to get a haircut. The last time I got one was in April, a whopping four months ago! I keep telling myself I should have haircuts more frequently but somehow I never manage to get it done. :)

I ended up arriving at Stockton Place in Legazpi Village a few minutes before 6pm, making me early for dinner. As it turns out, I still wasn't the earliest there. Aries and his family overestimated the traffic last Saturday and somehow ended up in Makati at around half past five. Everyone else got there a bit late so it allowed me to catch up with Aries, who has been living in the UK for a while now.

I have to say that the food in Stockton Place is good but overpriced and the portion size is really small. I was initially planning to order the Crispy Pork Belly (P650) but when Aries and Audrey decided they were going to order it, I changed my order to the Poached Chicken (P550). Good move on my part because, while the portion size of my chicken wasn't huge, the pork belly was tiny! P650 for one strip of pork belly was a bit shocking, and while Aries shared his dismay, I was just thinking "thank God I changed my order". :) The steak that Lala, Kermin, Jed, and Ods shared was pretty good although you are required to order at least 800 grams of the steak so their steak cost about P3600. I'm not sure I'm all that interested to try Stockton Place again.

I had to leave just shortly after Letlet and Gosh arrived. Their plan was to head over to Jed and Ods place to watch the Gilas Pilipinas game versus South Korea after dinner. Unfortunately, I was double booked that night since I was also organizing a despedida at 8pm so I had to say goodbye at 7:30 before making my way to Centerstage in Makati.

My friend Basil was about to be assigned abroad so I gathered the troops to give him a proper send-off. And what better way to do that than through karaoke? I had a Deal Grocer voucher for a room in Centerstage that was perfect for us to use, especially since it's been ages since we all spent the night singing our lungs out in a videoke bar. I booked the room at 8pm and told Mari, who was one of the first people there, that my voucher was valid for five hours. She said that she thought five hours was too long and I disagreed. As it turned out, I was right. :) The fact that there were a few people there that night whom we haven't seen in a while meant that there was a whole lot of catching up to do amidst the singing. Before we knew it, it was already 1am and we were paying the bill.

As we were heading out, we all realized we were hungry and I told people jokingly we should go to IHOP which is open for 24 hours during the weekend. People then started saying "I haven't been there yet." Apparently, out of the dozen of us there, only three of us had been to IHOP before so we decided to go there for a post-karaoke meal.

Despite the very long and tiring day, I got home feeling quite energetic. Maybe it was because I got to spend some really good time with a lot of good friends and even seeing some people whom I haven't seen in a while. Or maybe it was the sugar rush from my IHOP meal. :) Whatever the reason, it was definitely a memorable day.

Pistachio Sans Rival from Delize

I promised myself last Christmas that I would try the Pistachio Sans Rival from Delize at some point soon. It took several months but I finally got to place an order for this highly rated dessert for my mom's birthday celebration.

The verdict: it definitely lived up to the hype. It has just the right ratio of butter icing and chewy meringue layers, and generous sprinkling of chopped pistachios gives this delicious dessert a unique twist. As is the case with any sans rival, though, the main difficulty in eating it is getting a slice without ruining the rest of the cake. :) (Make sure you use a serrated knife; a bread knife will definitely not work!)

The Pistachio Sans Rival from Delize costs P950 and you have to order it at least two days in advance.

Delize by Jill Sandique

Address: 33 Sunrise Drive, Cubao, Quezon City

Tel: 721-7022

Mobile: 0922-826-2673

Rafa Nadal wins in Montreal

Rafael Nadal reasserted himself as the best player of 2013 by winning the Rogers Cup in Montreal. Congratulations Rafa!

photo from www.atpworldtour.com

Nadal won his 8th title of the year, more than any other male player, and he has now reached the final of 10 of the 11 tournaments he has played. (The only tournament he competed in where he failed to get to the final was Wimbledon where he had a shocking loss in the first round.) This is also Rafa's 25th ATP Masters 1000 title, improving the record he already holds.

This win moves Rafa up to #3 in the rankings and increases his lead atop the Race to London (which counts only the points earned so far in the year). The most significant match he played during the tournament was a hard-fought semifinal match against World #1 Novak Djokovic that had to be decided in a third set tie-break. After losing to Djokovic in Monte Carlo, Rafa has now beaten Novak twice in a row. This also means that after seven straight losses against Novak in 2011, Rafa has now won 5 of their last 6 matches.

Nadal has now won the two hard court tournaments he played this year (both of which are Masters 1000 events) and he hasn't lost on the surface yet. Hopefully this is a good sign for him going into the US Open which starts in couple of weeks.

Family celebrations

A couple of days over the last week were spent celebrating some important family dates. Last weekend, my family and I went out to celebrate my brother's birthday. I had a couple of options for our dinner venue but people kind of got stuck in bad traffic. Since my nephews wanted to watch Pacific Rim, we headed to Superbowl in Glorietta 4 about an hour before the last full show would start. As it turned out, my brother and my nephews agreed to just watch the next day. In any case, we all hadn't eaten in Superbowl in a really really long time so it was good for us to enjoy a meal here again.

We passed by Krispy Kreme after dinner so I could get some coffee and because one of my nephews really wanted a Krispy Kreme donut. I ended up getting a half dozen because my grandmother saw the wide selection of donuts and she ended up wanting to try three of the flavors. As if that wasn't enough, I also used one of my Ensogo vouchers to get a New York Cheesecake from Sugarhouse. And since good things come in threes, to round out our dessert take-home loot, my brother also got a box of Gigi cupcakes. I don't know exactly which flavors I got to try but they were good; I definitely wouldn't mind having more of those.

This weekend, since Friday was declared a public holiday, my family got together again, this time to celebrate the birthdays of my mom, my grandfather "Tatay" who passed away more than a year and a half ago, and Mama Guading, who also passed away in 2011 just a few days before her birthday. I was unable to join the rest of my family when they went to the cemetery to visit Tatay since my mom just called me on Friday morning to let me know what the plans were.

Instead, I met up with them in Alba Restaurante Español in Polaris Street in Makati for a really late lunch. We missed the lunch buffet since we got there at close to 2pm. But that turned out to be a good thing because my mom had only ever tried the buffet in Alba so our birthday lunch for her was the first time she got to order a few à la carte items.

We passed by Papa John's along Jupiter Street to get some pizza before paying a visit to Mama Guading's family. My grandmother "Nanay" also brought cassava cake from Don Benito's. We spent some time catching up with Yaya Isot, Mama's sister. She told us that part of the cemetery where Mama's remains are kept was about to be demolished but thankfully it isn't Mama's section so there is no need to move her ashes. We shared some stories and memories about both Mama and Tatay before leaving.

The rest of the evening was spent in Shangri-La Mall which recently underwent some pretty major renovations. A couple of new wings were opened recently: North and East so we spent some time just walking around, checking out the new shops and restaurants. By the late evening, we had dinner in Balboa, an Italian restaurant at the East Wing. I thought the food here was pretty good.

It was a great long week of celebrations and remembering. That we got to experience a few familiar things and a few new things together as a family made our collective experience even better.

Madz ’89 - The Reunion Concert

Last Sunday, I watched the reunion concert of the legendary Batch 89 of the Philippine Madrigals (back then, they were still called the University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers). The Madrigals are generally hailed as one of the best, if not the best, choral groups in the country. I've seen them perform live before and they definitely lived up to that reputation. Thankfully, my friend Pia asked me if I wanted to watch with her because I wouldn't have known about the show otherwise.

The 1989 batch is one of the choir's most decorated, winning every competition in which they participated. Their list of awards is impressive:

• First prize - International Kammerchor Wettbewerb (Marktoberdorf, Germany)
• Two First Prizes - VIII Festival International De Musica De Cantonigros (Spain)
• First prize - Festival Choral Internacional de Neuchatel (Switzerland)
• Two First Prizes - XXVI Internationaler Chor Bewerb Spittal An Der Drau (Austria)
• Three First Prizes - XXVIII Concorso Internazionale Di Canto Corale (Gorizia, Italy)

The reunion concert started a bit past 7pm and Madz Batch 89, despite not having performed together as a choral group in what must be decades, demonstrated exactly why and how they earned legend status. In true Philippine Madrigals tradition, they all performed while sitting down in a semi-circle and had no conductor. And as if the degree of difficulty wasn't high enough, none of the same voices sat next to each other. Incredible! In the first half of the show, they performed classical and competition pieces that showcased their technical mastery and brilliant artistry. They wowed the audience with an impressive selection of madrigals. They performed songs that received critical acclaim during their competition days, including Trauergesang by Mendelsohn and Gloria by Ryan Cayabyab (who was actually in the audience with us).

The second half of the show featured more mainstream music. They delivered very memorable renditions of OPM classics such as Ikaw ang lahat sa akin, Sana'y wala ng wakas, and a surprising and exceedingly entertaining Beeh... Buti Nga. Their repertoire also included a couple of Beatles classics - Let it be and Yesterday and their final encore of the night, Italian Salad, had everyone laughing (check out the first soloist in this link, amazing range and control!!). While I still think back to so many of their incredible performances, my favorite of the night is probably their heart-stirring rendition of L'important c'est la rose by Gilbert Becaud. Here is a video of their August 3 performance of this song:


video uploaded in youtube by kesowantstolearn

Now that I think about it, it's still probably a toss up between L'important c'est la rose and Let it be. And maybe Italian Salad for entertainment value. Then again, why do I need to decide which one I enjoyed the most? The important thing is that I enjoyed all their songs! :) So in the interest of being equal opportunity, here's a video of their Let it be performance the night that I watched (Aug 4):


video uploaded in youtube by kuangchien

While Madz Batch 89 is one of the most awarded in the choir's history, the biggest shame is that due to budget issues, they couldn't return to Europe the next year to compete in the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in Tours, France. This competition, which is widely considered to be the most important in the choral circuit (i.e. the Olympics of choirs), is open only to the grand prize winners of the six member European choral competitions in the previous year.

The Madrigals did eventually win the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing. Twice. In 1997 and then again in 2007. They are the first choir in the world to win the European Grand Prix twice. The Madz have also been recognized globally outside the choral competition environment. In 2009, the Madrigals were designated as a UNESCO Artist for Peace. A year later, they received the prestigious Guidoneum Award 2010 by the Fondazione Guido d’Arezzo in Italy. According to Foundation President Francesco Lusi, the Madz were honored  “for the artistic and choral promotion activity that they carried out after they won the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in 2007.”

The show, fittingly and nostalgically set in the UP Abelardo Hall, was part of their 50th anniversary celebration which kicked off last June. It also served as a tribute to National Artist Andrea O. Veneracion, the founder of the Madz who passed away last July 9. I couldn't get enough of the show that once it was over, I got their CD that was on sale at the auditorium entrance. It was an absolutely incredible, almost spiritual experience and I'm really glad I got to be part of it.

A night in Burgos Circle

My friend Suzanne came to Manila almost a couple of weeks ago for her mother's 80th birthday celebration. She invited us to join her mom's party a few folks were unable to go. While there, we decided that we should meet up one more time while she was still in town and since Suzanne hadn't been to a videoke bar in ages, we said it would be good for us to re-live our karaoke days when we all still worked together.

So we met up last Friday night. Suzanne, Joh, Raffa, Me-Ann and I had dinner in Jozu Kin. It was the first time I ate there and I actually thought the food was really good and not overly priced. Peegee and Randee passed by to say hi. After dinner, we walked over to Beat Karaoke (located just above Serenitea). We got the medium room which I guess is good for up to about 8 people and costs P720 per hour. The rates here are per room per hour and not per person, making it relatively cheap. However, it's a basic set-up. You can search for songs by title or artist but this facility is a bit tedious as you can only type in the first letter then you have to keep scrolling down. There is a big book where you can look for songs by title and then just key in the corresponding number to cue your song choice. It's not as sophisticated or user friendly as other videoke bars like Music Match and Centerstage but we survived. :)

We ended up singing a good selection of oldies and new songs. Probably the evening's most memorable number was my duet with Suzanne of "Just give me a reason". Definitely not easy to sing LOL but it was a whole lot of fun. :) We capped off the night with some drinks at Serenitea (Suzanne said she hadn't tried Serenitea yet) before parting ways. It was definitely a fun night with great friends.

Remembering Mama Guading

It's hard to believe that it's been two years since Mama Guading passed away. I remember exactly where I was when I found out. I was with my friends Doms and Zaza outside a boardroom in our office waiting to called so we could provide top management with status updates on our Corporate Social Responsibility program. I then got a text from my mom. "Patay na si Mama" she said. I could barely focus. No, actually, it seemed surreal. I think it took some time for the reality to sink in. The days - no, weeks - after that were some of the saddest of my life.

Here's the post I wrote almost 2 years ago on the 9th day of Mama Guading's passing. She would have turned 75 birthday this coming Sunday if she were still with us. We miss you, Mama.

The Little Singers of Monaco visit Manila

Okay so this post is a few weeks late but I still wanted to write about this experience. I can't remember how I learned that the Little Singers of Monaco would be performing in the Philippines. I think my mom mentioned it to me and maybe I also saw it in Martin Recommends. Either way, I decided to take my mom to watch it on July 13 in Greenbelt 5 (they had three other performances in Metro Manila). The fact that the show was free encouraged us even more to watch.

The Little Singers of Monaco including the Philippines in their 2013 Asian tour and this was actually the first time they visited the country. The group is composed of 28 singers ranging in age from 10 to 18. The show last for about 75 minutes, during which time they performed several classical pieces from legends like Bach and Mozart, as well as folk songs from Monaco.

Their most recognizable number was perhaps "Un homme et une femme" (a man and a woman). Once the audience realized that they knew this song, they almost in unison gave a very encouraging albeit not-perfectly-timed applause (of course they were so excited to hear something they knew that they couldn't wait until after the performance to clap hahaha). See if you can recognize this song yourself:

video uploaded in youtube by PHILAT7

It was a great show and it's impressive to think how well these kids perform and harmonize despite their age. The fact that they have to act as ambassadors of Monaco to world as they go from country to country makes what they do even more impressive. I don't recall any song of their being sung in English but the audiences gave them a well-deserved standing ovation after their show which clearly indicates that music is a universal language and that talent and hard work will always be appreciated and applauded. Hopefully they come to the Philippines in the future.

Random act of kindness

So I was at McDonald's and I ordered a large coffee to go. The lady at counter told me that they had to brew a new pot and it would be about a five minute wait. At the same time, two large coffees were served to the guy standing next to me. Apparently he got the last two cups of coffee before a new pot had to be brewed. And apparently he also heard my conversation with the lady at the counter. Because out of the blue, he and I have a discussion that sort of goes like this:

Him: Why don't you just take this one cup and I'll wait for the other one? (referring to one of the two cups he just got served)
Me: (quite surprised) Are you sure?
Him: Yeah. I'm staying here with my friends anyway so I don't mind waiting for the next cup. I also know it won't take 5 minutes.
Me: Wow, okay, thanks a lot!

It's not often that a stranger performs an unexpected act of kindness so it definitely made my day.

Thought-provoking experiment on racism

This video made its rounds on social media recently. I saw a version of this experiment on Oprah a couple of decades ago and it shocked how quickly people can learn to discriminate against other people who are different from them. I didn't realize until recently that this experiment, developed and run by diversity expert Jane Elliott, has been around since the late 1960s.


video uploaded in youtube by LudwingMedia

This experiment is so powerful that it will take an entire dissertation for me to write about what my thoughts on it. Instead, let me quote/paraprhase one of the top comments posted on this video by guardian3847:

At 1:30, Mrs. Elliott begins a study that will be talked about for years.
At 3:00, she re-creates segregation and racism in her classroom.
At 7:45, she flips the entire class on their heads.
At 10:00, Jane Elliot shares a very profound discovery.
At 11:43, the students learn something that the world is still struggling to.

Amazing.

Full weekend

This last weekend was pretty full but pretty good. Things kicked off when I went to Puyat Sports Superbowl in Makati Cinema Square (the bowling lanes, not the Chinese restaurant :)) with four of my good friends from work: Pia, Kat, AJ, and Mark. We all joined our group's bowling team and given that most of us hadn't played in a year (I, in fact, hadn't played in about 4-5 years or more!), we felt it was necessary for us to get some practice games in before the official tournament. For someone who hasn't played in years, I think I did quite well. My scores were 121, 120, and 100. Clearly I had gotten tired by the third game, but nevertheless, I still averaged about 113 per game. Still lots of room for improvement but not a bad start.

Apart from getting to play bowling and the fantastic company, another highlight of the evening was having a pizza dog from Magoo's. It's probably been like a decade since I last had a pizza dog from Magoo's and I just really love it haha. I remember saying "na-miss ko 'to" to Kat said "mukha nga" hahaha.

The next day, I drove all the way to Las Pinas to visit Suzanne at her house. It was actually her mother's 80th birthday celebration which is why she came home from the US. Since she wanted to see the gang while she was here, she invited us to join her. I woke up pretty late on Saturday - around 1pm I think - so I arrived at Suzanne's house at around 3pm. Alvin and Doray had already left but Raffa and Joh were still there. I came just in time too because the buffet was about to be packed up already. Suzanne was going to be here for about a week more so we agreed to meet up again for either bowling or karaoke (or both). I haven't been out with this set of friends doing bowling or karaoke in ages so I am definitely looking forward to next weekend when I get to spend time with all of them again.

After resting a bit at home, I then joined my colleagues for the birthday party-cum-despedida of Eman, who was leaving for another company. There were about 20 of us there, and we had a whole lot of drinks that kept us in good spirits the entire night. I brought a bottle of Absolut Citron and a partially consumed Russian Standard vodka but there were a lot of other bottles there and we actually didn't get to consume everything. We also brought a portable karaoke mic with us, making sure we were all entertained.

Sunday was a bit of a calmer day as I just spent the evening with my family. After my nephew's Tae Kwon Do class, I took him and my mom to Pino Resto Bar along Jupiter for an early dinner before hearing mass then heading home. Before that, however, I went to the Smart Araneta Coliseum to get concert tickets. I'm watching The Killers on September 26 with my friend Beck and One Republic on November 6 with my other friend Meg. The Killers were supposed to perform here in the Philippines a few years ago and I remember buying my ticket already when they cancelled due to a personal family emergency. I'm crossing my fingers that this concert finally pushes through (they are going to be in Singapore a few days before their concert here because they are slated to perform in the Singapore Grand Prix). I'm definitely looking forward to watching these two concerts.

Live version of "Angels or Devils" by Dishwalla

I first learned about this song by Dishwalla when I was still gigging with my band years ago but it was on one of the more eclectic radio stations that I heard this live version which completely blew me away. This acoustic rendition completely outclasses their recorded version and I think this may be one of my favorite vocal performances of any rock or pop song ever.


video uploaded on youtube by mrmikebeaton

Normally, I like full band performances a lot more than acoustic versions but this just has to be an exception. Lead singer J.R. Richards' voice is just absolutely astounding and superb here and his expression and emotion gives me chills. Not sure what led me to search this version recently but since then, I have been listening to it over and over again.

Two weeks after Wimbledon

Wimbledon, the third tennis major of the year, concluded two weeks ago but I was still in the middle of blogging about my trip to Russia and I didn't want to interrupt it. Anyway, big tennis fan that I am, I thought I would be amiss if I didn't write about it, no matter how late. So here are some of my thoughts:

First, I am extremely pleased that Andy Murray won. The pressure on him to win in Wimbledon has been immense, being a Brit playing in a country that hasn't had any homegrown success on the men's side since Fred Perry won the Men's title in 1936. (Let us not forget, however, that Virginia Wade from the UK won the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles title in 1977.)

Andy has been in the top 4 for many years now and I have always felt that if he had played in another era, he would have won a few major titles already. Unfortunately, he plays in the era of two of the greatest ever (Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal) and of another who is likely to join them on their lofty pedestal (Novak Djokovic). Don't look now but of the "big four", Andy is the one who is holding two Grand Slam events at the same time. Plus the Olympic title. That he became a multiple Grand Slam event titlist on home soil makes this victory even more meaningful.

Here's a though: on the men's side, every Grand Slam event this year been momentous. Andy Murray becomes the first Brit to win Wimbledon in 77 years. Before that, Rafa Nadal won his 8th French Open title, the only time any man has won 8 singles trophies from the same major event. And to start off the year, Novak Djokovic became the first man to win three consecutive Australian Open titles.

While most people were massively shocked by Rafa Nadal's first round loss, somehow I wasn't. Or well, not so much. I could see during Roland Garros that Rafa was getting fatigued, and it seemed like he was just running on adrenaline after winning more matches than anyone else this year. Too bad it happened in Wimbledon. The good news is that he didn't really have a lot of points to defend. Also, despite that early loss, he has still won more points this year than any of the other men and he remains on top of the race to London.

Personally, I think it is Roger's Federer's second round loss to Sergiy Stakhovsky that ranks as the biggest shock of the tournament. This loss snapped Roger's streak of 36 straight Grand Slam events where he got to at least the quarterfinals. That is happened in Wimbledon which he won last year and on Centre Court where he has raised the trophy 7 times before is even more shocking.

Not far behind though is Serena Williams' loss to Sabine Lisicki. Williams lost the first set to Lisicki before putting on a master class in power tennis in the second set and jumping out to the 3-0 lead in the third. Given how well Serena has been playing this year and how far ahead of the rest of the pack she seems to be, it seemed crystal clear what the final result would be. And when Serena had multiple breakpoints to go up 5-3 and serve for the match, most people would have expected the match to end a few minutes later. Instead, Sabine took a page out of Serena's book and fought back come from behind to win.

Of course, Sabine was overwhelmed with "stage fright" or big-match pressure in the final and couldn't overcome Marion Bartoli, who won on her second chance at the Wimbledon title. Big congratulations are in order for Marion, whose unorthodox style of play and quirky behavior make her really interesting to watch.

Massive, massive props also to the Bryan Brothers who have won a non-calendar Golden Slam in doubles, by winning four in a row (from the US Open last year to Wimbledon this year) plus the Olympic title. (The only true Golden Slam was won by Steffi Graf back in 1988 when she won all major titles plus the Olympic gold all in the same year.)

This last Wimbledon has to be the overall most eventful and dramatic major tennis tournament in a really long time. So many stunning early-round losses, significant results, and shocking sexist comments from TV broadcasters. I'm definitely looking forward to the US Open to see how things pan out for the top contenders.

Russia: Travel Tips

Before I get into the tips, here's a quick summary of all my blog posts about my incredible trip to Russia.

From Russia with Love
Moscow: Kremlin and Red Square
More Moscow Sights (Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Tretyakov Gallery, Church of St. John the Warrior, Gorky Park, Cosmonautics Memorial Museum, Vernissage Market, Kremlin at Izmailovo, and Arbat Street)
The Moscow Metro
The Golden Ring: Sergiev Posad
The Golden Ring: Vladimir and Suzdal
St. Petersburg: Peter and Paul Fortress
St. Petersburg: Fantastic Walking Tour (Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood, Kazan Cathedral, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Nevsky Prospekt, Alexander Column at the Dvortsovaya Ploschad, Field of Mars, and other)
The Hermitage
Palaces Around St. Petersburg (Catherine Palace, Pavlovsk Palace, Peterhof Palace and Gardens)
More St. Petersburg (including the Alexander Nevsky Cemetery)
Russian Ballet
Russia: Final Thoughts
Russia Travel Tip: Navigating the Moscow Metro
Russia: Travel Tips

Walking next to the Neva River

A tourist visa to Russia is expensive (about P7000 for a normal visa and P9000 to rush it) but it is surprisingly easy to secure. All you need is to fill out the form and pay. No bank statement, no certificate of employment, no personal appearance.

Peterhof Palace and Gardens

Despite this, you may want to do a bit more research on how to get a visa. We had to go through a travel agent because apparently, you need some kind of voucher from a Russian entity that the travel agent will secure for you. Because we went through a travel agency, our hotel bookings were also coursed through them. As such, we had to settle for the hotels suggested by our agency rather than my preferred hotels based on my research on Trip Advisor.

Cosmonautics Museum

Not a lot of people speak English in Moscow but hotel receptionists normally can. As such, if you plan to buy train tickets from Moscow to St. Petersburg (or anywhere), I recommend telling your hotel receptionist what you want to buy and having them write it down in Russian/Cyrillic. This should hopefully help you get the tickets you need. (It is quite different in St. Petersburg though, where a lot of locals can speak English. Maybe because there are so many tourists who travel here from Finland that people have tried to learn English to help them communicate better with tourists.)

Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood

In Moscow, intercity train tickets can be purchased at the train terminal behind Komsomolskaya metro station. You can purchase tickets with a credit card. Make sure you bring your passport with you when you buy tickets. It's also advisable to keep your train tickets with you until you leave Russia.

Komsomolskaya Metro Station

Moscow metro stations don't have the English names written anywhere. As such, it's strongly recommended to try and learn the Russian alphabet. Also, metro maps are normally available at your hotel reception and they have the English name of each metro station on them next to the Russian name. Make sure you get a good map to help you go around.

Bas-relief on the pedestal of the Alexander Column

If you are a relatively experienced traveler and are good with maps, you might be better off buying a Lonely Planet book and visiting some of the sights in Moscow and St. Petersburg by yourself with no tour guide. Looking through all the tours we took, I think I may still have taken almost all of them except for Peterhof, because that tour lasts only four hours. Since it is easy enough to go there with no guide (via hydrofoil from the dock near the Hermitage), it would be better to visit Peterhof by yourself and spend more time in the palace and gardens, looking at all the fountains. You don't need a tour at the Hermitage but our guide shared a lot of great information so I think it's still recommended to take a guided tour if you don't mind spending a bit more, then just lingering in the museum after the official tour is over.

The Pavilion Hall in the Hermitage

I would definitely recommend getting on a private car tour to Vladimir and Suzdal since it is about a 4-hour ride away. Three Whales is your best option because it's a lot cheaper than other similar tours and their guides are great. The Three Whales Sergiev Posad tour is also good value for money, especially for groups of up to 6 people so the cost per person is lower.

Trinity Cathedral in Sergiev Posad

Souvenirs are significantly cheaper along the Golden Ring (Sergiev Posad, Vladimir, and Suzdal) than in Moscow. In Moscow, souvenirs are also quite cheap along Arbat Street and Izmailovo Market. Of the places we visited, St. Petersburg has the most expensive souvenirs. (A souvenir shirt in Moscow costs 250-300 rubles; in St. Petersburg it is 400-450.)

Tsar Cannon at the Kremlin

The hotels we stayed at were: Arbat Hotel in Moscow and Hotel Moscow in St. Petersburg. You can read about my reviews of both of these hotels on Tripadvisor. Links: Arbat Hotel review and Hotel Moscow review.

The State Bedroom in Pavlovsk Palace

Different cathedrals, museums, and other places of interest are closed on different days. As such, when you try to plan out your itinerary, check out when these places are closed and schedule your itinerary accordingly.

Inside St. Basil's Cathedral

When planning to watch a ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre, buy tickets early. I think tickets are available for purchase online up to a few months in advance. Based on experience, it's easier to get tickets for shows at the Mariinsky Theatre.

The Mariisnky II

Finally, Russia is an absolutely fantastic country. It'll be an expensive holiday so save up for it and go for a visit (probably during spring or summer so that it isn't too cold). You won't be disappointed.

Russia Travel Tip: Navigating the Moscow Metro

Aside from the alphabet barrier, getting on the Moscow metro can be slightly confusing specifically when it comes to the line interchanges. Transferring metro lines on these interchanges threw me off a few times, so here's one important note: pay close attention to the station names. On some interchanges, the metro station name is the same on both the intersecting lines (this is true sometimes on the brown/circle line). But in most cases, the names of the stations on the same interchange but on different lines are still different. To illustrate, here is a map of the Moscow metro (English version):

Moscow Metro map from www.moscow.info

A couple of examples of interchanges that feature the same station name on both lines: Kievskaya applies to the all stations on the brown-blue interchange.

It's the same with Belorusskaya on the brown-green interchange.

However, in some cases, the names of stations on different lines in the same interchange are different. For instance, the brown-purple interchange features stations with different names: Krasnopresnenskaya on the brown line and Barrikadnaya on the purple line.

Or let's look at the much more complicated lime green-red-orange interchange where you have Christye Prudy (red line), Turgenevskaya (orange line), and Sretensky Bulvar (lime green line).

I got confused by this a few times because I'd sometimes end up looking for the wrong station name at the interchange. Case in point. Let's say I was going from Kitay-Gorod (purple line) to Mayakovskaya (green line).

The shortest path is to take the purple line going towards the "left" of the map, then switch to the green line at the purple-green interchange. I saw that the station before Mayakovskaya is Tverskaya so while on the purple line, I incorrectly thought that I would get down two stations later at Tverskaya. But remember, at that point I was still on the purple line. So in this case, the station on the purple line where I had to alight was actually Pushkinskaya. Only when I get to this station would I switch lines at the purple-green interchange to Tversakaya on the green line.

Did that make sense? Hopefully it did. The same also applies to the less-complex St. Petersburg metro.

St. Petersburg Metro Map from
 http://www.saint-petersburg.com/transport/metro/map/

I wanted to include this in my Travel Tips post but then I realized it was becoming too long so I thought of writing a special blog post dedicated to navigating the metro. Most of the time, I managed to figure things out before I got completely confused. In any case, when on the metros in Russia, make sure to pay close attention to the correct station names, especially at the interchanges. Next post: Travel tips.