Siglo Suites at The Gramercy

The original plan was for my friends and I to have wine night at home. I had a few bottles of wine that I got over Christmas and I really wanted to enjoy them but I didn't want to drink them by myself LOL. We initially agreed on a venue and a date that I recommended but after all the arrangements were made, I realized I had another commitment. Yes, on the same night that I recommended. We ended up changing the plan and we instead decided to stay overnight at a three-bedroom suite in Siglo Suites at The Gramercy.

view of the living area and a bit of the dining area from upstairs

I wrote previously that it took 1 1/2 hours for me to get checked in. Obviously I was in a foul mood the moment I got into the room. Thankfully, it was really nice and I think that helped improve my mental state. The 3BR suite is a loft with one bedroom on the bottom floor and 2 bedrooms upstairs. Each bedroom has a queen-sized bed. The suite has three bathrooms (the two rooms upstairs have direct bathroom access), a laundry room, and a good-sized kitchen with a big refrigerator. There are also seven small balcony areas.

view of the city at night from one of the seven balconies

As I also mentioned previously, there is direct access from The Gramercy to Century City Mall on the 2nd floor. We decided to have dinner at Le Petit Souffle because I told my friends that I really wanted to have dessert there. I ended up having a double souffle evening. For my main course, I ordered the Japanese Beef Curry Souffle. It looked really appetizing and it did taste good but I think I prefer Japanese curry with rice than in a souffle.

Japanese Beef Curry Souffle at Le Petit Souffle

For dessert, I was tempted to try a different souffle from the one I had before but I decided to still order the Valrhona Guanaja Souffle again. Thankfully, it was still as amazingly good as I remembered it.

Valrhona Guanaja Souffle

The rest of the evening was spent enjoying wine and playing games. This was the first time I recall having a Barolo, which I bought from a friend of mine who had lots of good wines at home but had to dispose of them because she was moving to another country. I knew that the Barolo is reputed to be one of Italy's best wines so despite it being on the expensive side, I decided to get one bottle for myself. Thankfully, it lived up to the hype and I enjoyed it. On the gaming side, we started out with Splendor in the afternoon. In the evening, we played Exploding Kittens with the Imploding Kittens expansion and Codenames Philippine Edition before going a bit more high tech and playing Jackbox.

Funny thing: I got stressed out checking in then again when checking out. I was told upon check-out that there was a missing hair dryer. They said there was supposed to be one hair dryer per bathroom but upon checking, one bathroom was supposedly missing a dryer. Obviously, none of us took anything. Thankfully, someone took a video of the entire place, including all the rooms, and the shot of one of the bathrooms showed that there was no hair dryer there. I showed this to the reception and they finally checked me out. Whew.

Given the not-so-great experience I had during check-in and check-out, I guess the question is, would I stay here again? I think I would. I just need to make sure I sort out where to park because as I mentioned in a previous post, there are no cheap parking options when checking into Siglo Suites. I guess the positive side of having a challenging check-in was that I got free parking at the basement as compensation. :)

21 out of 27

After my major board game buying spree last year, I now have a total of 27 main board games. I also have 7 expansions for 5 of my games (2 expansions for Istanbul, 2 expansions for King of Tokyo, and one each for Potion Explosion, Scythe, and Splendor). As soon as I got to 27, I promised myself not to purchase new games until I've played all of the games I currently have (or okay, play at least 90% of the games I have). I just did a count and I realized that I have now played 21 of my 27 base games, which puts me at 75%. That's quite good, considering that most of these were purchased only last year. The percentage is not too good when it comes to my expansions though; I have so far only played 2 of the 7.

My plan now is that each month, I should play at least one of my unplayed games or expansions. Last month, it was Valeria Card Kingdoms. This month, it is Tokaido. I have actually played Tokaido many times before but I hadn't played the game that I bought. That is, until the game night we had at Denise's house. We played it at the end of the evening so that we could wind down with an easy game that doesn't require a lot of thinking (I find Tokaido to be enjoyable and even relaxing to play). There were seven of us at Denise's place that night and we got to play quite a few games, including Istanbul with my Letters and Seals expansion (this allowed me to go up to 2 out of 7 in my expansions list). I also got to play Azul for the first time. Most of the evening was spent explaining the rules of, and playing, Terraforming Mars and Scythe. Scythe is really one of my favorite games right now, and the fact that I have never won in all the games I've played means that I really like it for its game play and not for my success in playing it. :)

Istanbul with the Letters and Seals expansion (photo courtesy of my friend Jovan)

Pretty much the same group played Scythe the week before, during the game night at Cla's place. The target that night was to play either games we had that we hadn't played yet or that games we wanted to play that we hadn't played yet. JM bought his Scythe months ago and hadn't played it yet so it was the priority game that night. Because the rules are a bit complex, it took a while for people to get the hang of it. By the time they did, the game was ending so we decided to play it again the following week at Denise's to maximize the learning and so people could enjoy it a bit more. Cla also suggested that we play Concordia, which I had played before with Jovan and Myna but we played it incorrectly so Jovan wanted to play it again. I also got to play a couple of quick two-player games. One of them was Onitama which is like chess and the other was Patchwork. As aesthetically pleasing as the Patchwork game is, I actually like Onitama a lot more.

The cool thing about this last month was that I also got to play Clue for the first time since may high school days. (Technically, it was my first time to play Clue because the game I played as a teenager was Cluedo although the only difference is that apparently the game is called Clue in North America while it is called Cluedo in the rest of the world). For some reason, I had actually been thinking about getting a copy of this game recently because I wanted to play it again. When my ex-teammates and I had our reunion, some of the folks suggested that we bring games. I brought Splendor and Monopoly Deal and my friend Case brought Sushi Go Party and Clue. Talk about a very interesting coincidence. We naturally ended up playing Clue first and I actually won both games that we played. I gotta say, I still really enjoy this game.

My first win: Mrs. Peacock in the Conservatory with a Candlestick

I also finally got to play Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. I had been really interested to play this game for a while now since I keep hearing about it from friends. The cool thing about this game is that it has a cooperative game element to it in that all players need to defeat the Mastermind and the rest of the villains and this can only be done by working together. However, at the end of the game, there will still be a winner based on who amassed the most points. We played the X-Men expansion and we fought against the Dark Phoenix and we unfortunately lost. I now really want to play Legendary again, and hopefully beat the Mastermind.

Hopefully, when I write about my board gaming in March, I will already be at 22 out of 27. :)

February hodgepodge

One of the most interesting (and stressful) experiences I had this month was emceeing a company-wide event. I used to get asked to host a lot of weddings of my friends and also some company events but prior to my Christmas party emceeing stint last December, I can't really recall the last time that I acted as an event host. I am guessing someone from HR saw me during that Christmas party and thought I did a good enough job that they felt I would make a good host. My involvement was aligned with my leadership team so I couldn't really say no. :) The tough thing about this assignment was that our president is an exceptional public speaker and I was told that he has very exacting standards. That I was told this shortly before my emceeing stint didn't make it easier. :) It also didn't help that I only got the script two days before the event, and even then there were still a lot of changes being made.

In the end, I thought I did an okay job. I started out extremely nervous and my boss noticed that my hand was actually shaking during the opening spiel. I stuttered a couple of times. I also forgot to read the credentials of one of our speakers because our president asked my to add something to his introduction and because I had to do a sudden ad lib, I was so distracted that I accidentally skipped an entire paragraph in my script. It was also quite stressful because throughout the day, we had to keep making adjustments to the program. For instance, the conversation during some of the Q&A segments were so dynamic that they had to be extended, which meant a last minute change in the program. Of course, each time we had to make adjustments, we had to ad lib, which also meant that I had to stay mentally sharp throughout the day. And given that there was a theme in our event, I had to come up with ways to tie everything together and make sure that everything I said was still in line with the overall messaging that the event organizers wanted to deliver. I do think that I did pretty well in my segues. After the event, a lot of people were congratulating me and my co-host after for a job they felt was very well done, but in my honest opinion, I thought I did just okay (or maybe above average at most).

What made this event even more stressful was the fact that I had very little sleep leading into it and it ran for almost 11 hours. We started shortly after 8am and finished at almost 7pm. It also didn't help that I had a very bad shaving mishap on that morning. Because I was in a rush that morning, I accidentally shaved off my mole under my lip. In fact, it wouldn't stop bleeding for about 3 hours. Thankfully, it stopped shortly before I went on stage. (Yes, I know, this is pretty disgusting LOL.) Despite me shaving off my mole, you can still see it now. Or part of it. I guess I only accidentally took out the outer layer.

On to more positive things. I finally got to finish reading City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte. I started reading it several months ago but I stopped once I started my new job. With board gaming dominating most of my free time, I didn't get around to finishing it until the long Chinese New Year weekend when I decided to spend the afternoon at a cafe so I could enjoy some good coffee while finishing my book. I still have about seven books that I haven't read yet, so the question now is which one I read next.

I also had quite a few reunions with some really good friends. The first one was with the first team that I managed. I'm quite happy that despite the fact that these people reported to me for a few years, we ended up developing pretty good bonds with each other that until now, we still organize get-togethers. In fact, I got to spend time with Jhen for the first time since she got married in 5 years. I also got to see Dennis again and the last time I saw him was almost 7 years ago. This evening also involved playing quite a few games, which I will write more about later.

I also spent a night in Siglo Suites at The Gramercy with my local travel buddies (I will write more about this evening in a separate post). This was my first time staying here and I do believe that of all the rooms I've booked, this is arguably the best-looking one. There is also direct access from Gramercy to Century City Mall. The downside of this stay though was that I had to wait for 1 1/2 hours to be checked in. They did offer me to stay in another room until my proper room was prepared but I declined it because they said my room would be ready in 30 minutes. The problem was that after 30 minutes, I was told it would take another 30 minutes. And after that, it took another half an hour to finally get things sorted out. They did offer my free parking to compensate for my very long wait time. Note that if you book a room in Siglo Suites at The Gramercy, there is no free parking. Parking at the basement is dependent on availability and even then, it will cost P40 for the first couple of hours and P10 for every succeeding hour PLUS a fixed P200 fee. Overnight parking in Century City Mall is even worse; you have to pay P500 PLUS the hourly rate.

View from Siglo Suites at The Gramercy

I also attended the baptism of the son of my friend and ex-teammate Magnus. The church ceremony was held at the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice in UP. It was quite nostalgic being in UP again for the first time in years. The guests then proceeded to Dencio's in Capitol Hills. Several of my ex-teammates were there and it was great catching up with them.

Finally, I had dinner with Gary and Winnie in XO46 at Estancia Mall. I hadn't seen them both in years so I am very happy that I finally got to spend an evening with them. To make the evening even better, Anna was in town. Mitch was also unable to join us in XO46 but she invited us to have coffee and dessert at her place because her sister Myra (whom I haven't seen in ages as well) was in town and she and her family had dinner at Mitch's place. It was too bad we met up on a weeknight because people had to retire relatively early but it was really great catching up with everyone.

Elha sings Chandelier in Little Big Shots

I first saw Elha Nympha perform Sia's Chandelier on the US version of Little Big Shots hosted by Steve Harvey. I was completely blown away by her performance (as was Steve Harvey and pretty much everyone else who saw it). I'm guessing her video reached France too and the people there must have been equally impressed because Elha was asked to guest on the French version of Little Big Shots too. Watch her performance on that show:


video uploaded by Little Big Stars FR

She's a few months shy of turning 14 years old and yet her control, composure, and power are absolutely stunning. She has backed up her win the second season of The Voice Kids Philippines with consistently amazing performances over the last two years. I wish Elha continues to develop her incredible talent and that she reaps even greater success in the future.

Kim Fajardo finds her long-lost uncle

This is such an amazing story. A post about a man named Alfred wanting to go home to Batangas went viral on social media. It was noticed by the family of Kim Fajardo, the setter of the National Team and F2 Logistics and the ex-setter of the DLSU Lady Spikers. She then posted this on twitter:

My tito has been missing for more than 3 decades now. This morning, our family saw this on Facebook. Tama name and province niya and kamukha niya relatives ko. Hoping he's my tito. Please help us look for him. Umikot na kami ng Commonwealth earlier pero wala. Thank you so much. pic.twitter.com/Ooh8rYWzpQ

— Kim Fajardo (@kimfajardo9) February 5, 2018

After more than three decades, could her family have found their long-lost relative? The next day, she then tweeted this:

We finally found him this afternoon. Confirmed, he’s Tito Fredie. Kasama na namin siya ngayon after 32 years. Maraming salamat sa lahat ng tulong, especially to Anna, who posted on Facebook. Thank you for all the prayers!

— Kim Fajardo (@kimfajardo9) February 6, 2018

I can't imagine what the parents of Alfred must have felt after losing him and after 32 years, I'm guessing they never thought they would ever find him again. This reunion with Tito Fredie must have been tremendously powerful and bittersweet. While social media has its cons, it's great to witness the amazing miracles that can happen when it is used positively to help make a difference.

Super Blue Blood Moon

This extremely rare event was a trifecta of lunar phenomena. The first, most common, one is the supermoon, which is when the moon is closest to the earth so it looks bigger and brighter. The second is the blue moon, which is simply the second full moon in the same month. The third is the rarest: a lunar eclipse. This happens when the earth is exactly between the sun and the moon. As such, the moon falls completely behind the earth's shadow, at which point is gets its red color, hence the name blood moon. As such, January 31 allowed the world to see the Super Blue Blood Moon.

I actually almost missed it. I saw something about a the moon on social media earlier that day but I didn't pay attention to it. So I was busy sorting stuff out at home when my friend sent a message to our chat group and said that the moon was really beautiful. I commented that I kinda felt too lazy to get out of the building to look at it (I couldn't see it from my window) so he sent a photo that he took using his phone and the moon looked distinctly red. I don't recall ever seeing the moon red and I was instantly excited. I immediately headed down and looked at the moon and it was indeed beautiful.
 I'm not sure when we will experience the next Super Blue Blood Moon- some say in 150 years, some say in 20 - but I am pretty happy that I got to see it this time around.

Kuh Ledesma covers "Unchained Melody"

This version of Unchained Melody is actually the first one I heard. My dad had a cassette tape of Kuh Ledesma's album Feeling which includes her song Help Me Forget and 10 covers. It wasn't until a few years later when Ghost came out that I discovered the original by the Righteous Brothers. Listen to Kuh's take on this beautiful song:


video uploaded in youtube by sokuhro

I have always loved, and still love, Kuh Ledesma's voice. It's distinct and instantly recognizable, effortless, soothing, and has such a gorgeous and pleasant tone. She still is one of my favorite Filipino singers. Listening to this brings back memories of the late 80s when I used to play this cassette a lot. I wish it gets re-released as a CD or digitally so I can listen to it again. For now, I guess youtube will have to do.

Bake Cheese Tart now in the Philippines

Bake Cheese Tart from Hokkaido opened in Manila recently. I got to try this cheese tart during a recent trip to the mall and I have to say, the hype is real. :) It is on the expensive side but it is oh so absolutely worth it!

I learned about Bake from my friend who told me that she doesn't really like Pablo but she loves Bake. When I saw Bake at the mall, I remembered that conversation o I decided to buy one. It is expensive at P95 per tart but the moment I took one bite, I knew that it was P95 very well spent. It was so unbelievably good!

It was so good in fact that I got 7 more boxes. 3 for me and my family and 4 to be given as birthday gifts (I had planned to get my friends something else for their birthdays but after trying this cheese tart, I knew immediately that it would be a much better gift than my original plan LOL).

As I mentioned, one cheese tart is P95. A box of 6 is P540. The box that they put the cheese tarts in is also pretty cool because the bottom level pulls out of the box.

Considering how good this cheese tart is, I am surprised there was no queue when I was there. This is currently my favorite dessert and I will certainly have more of this in the future. There are two branches in the Philippines now, one at the Podium Mall and one at Power Plant Mall.

Bake Cheese Tart
https://ph.cheesetart.com/
The Podium: 18 ADB Ave, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong, 1550 Metro Manila
Power Plant Mall: R2 Level, Power Plant Mall, Lopez Drive, Makati, 1209 Metro Manila

Australian Open 2018

We're just at the first Grand Slam event of the year and already, records continue to shatter. Roger Federer and Caroline Wozniacki were left standing after the dust settled, holding aloft the men's and women's singles trophies.

And so it is over. After two weeks of upset and drama, a fortnight of toil and sweat, the tennis circus is packing up its tents and leaving town.

What will we remember from AO2018? https://t.co/bUgNh0byUj#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/rrgHyEttRt

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 28, 2018

While both were champions, there was a stark contrast between their wins. This was Roger's 6th trophy in Melbourne, tying him with Novak Djokovic and Roy Emerson for most men's Australian Open titles (and with Novak for men's titles during the Open era). Even more mind-boggling - this is Roger's 20th Grand Slam singles title. That is just absolutely incredible!

🇦🇺 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
🇫🇷 🏆
🇬🇧 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
🇺🇸 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆#RF20 #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/Mbz8OeoFKY

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 28, 2018

Caroline, on the other hand, finally won a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. She beat Simona Halep in the final. Both players had been ranked #1 - Halep was #1 coming into the tournament and Wozniacki was #1 several years ago - but neither of them had won a Grand Slam event. In fact, both previously had a strong enough case for best female player never to have won a major title. We knew one of them was going to shake that title off. The winner would also be ranked #1 after the tournament. As it turned out, it was Wozniacki.

A maiden Grand Slam title that meant so much to both players could, sadly, only belong to one. And it belongs to you, @CaroWozniacki.

Full match report: https://t.co/MineDnDZvC#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/cvNidRWwc1

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 27, 2018

But let's talk about Roger Federer again for a bit. Not only is his Grand Slam haul of 20 the best among the men by a decent margin, it is only 3 short of the women's open era record held by Serena Williams and 4 short of the overall record held by Margaret Court. People have been talking about how Serena may eclipse Margaret's record and here you see Roger knocking on that door. Is he going to end his career with the most Grand Slam titles by an invidual, whether male or female? It will be interesting to see how the rest of his career pans out (and that of Serena's too as both of them are within arm's reach of that all-time record).

January Get-togethers

My friend Jesse was in Manila for the Christmas holidays but she didn't have time to meet up in December. As such, we decided to meet up in early January while she was still in the Philippines. She wanted to meet up in BGC and she asked for Filipino restaurant recommendations so I suggested Locavore and she very readily agreed. Basil hadn't tried Locavore before and as he tried the Lechon and Oyster Sisig and the Sizzling Sinigang, he thought it was so good that he wanted to schedule our next visit to Locavore already LOL. After dinner, we went on over to Casa Italia (this combination of dinner in Locavore and coffee and dessert in Casa Italia is really a favorite of mine) where we all had gelato.

A couple of weeks later, I met up with my friends Mike, Reb, Martin, and Jane for a late lunch in Greenbelt. Martin had just arrived in Manila and was jetlagged so he suggested a late lunch since he might not have the energy for dinner and interestingly enough, a late lunch schedule worked best for everyone since Mike had work that morning and Jane was also sorting out some errands earlier that day. I suggested that we meet up in Bizu since I miss the food and dessert in this place. There was a whole lot of catching up since it had been ages since I got to hang out with all of them together. I had initially planned on ordering one of Bizu's solo cakes like their Samba or Roca but when I saw the Chocolate Souffle on their menu, I decided to order that instead. :)

Finally, Nenen and Suzanne came home to Manila since Nenen was celebrating a milestone birthday and she wanted to do it with her family and friends in Manila. We ended up dining in Your Local in Legaspi Village. This was the first time our group was meeting up over dinner in a place other than BGC so the change in scenery was quite refreshing. :) Your Local only has two dessert options but they said we could order coffee and dessert from Yardstick which was right next to it - I guess they have the same owner/s or they have some sort of tie-up? - so I ended up getting a salted caramel waffle and coffee from there. Our set of friends are scattered across Asia and North America - a lot are based in Manila and in Singapore and a few are in the US and in Canada - and in the last get-together, it was discussed that we should have some kind of grand reunion somewhere in the world. We continued this conversation over dinner while celebrating Nenen's birthday and while the options that were narrowed down are not the cheapest international options, we had some time to save up for it. :) I do hope it pushes through; if (when?) it does, it will be awesome.

Meryl Streep gets Oscar Nomination #21

Another year, another record broken. Meryl Streep continues to add on to her own record of Oscar acting nominations as she once again gets recognized for her performance in The Post. This is her 21st acting nomination, and her 17th for Best Actress. Hopefully, The Post gets shown in the Philippines so that I can get to see her performance (the film is also nominated for Best Picture so it should be good viewing).

photo from https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-post

Meryl is almost certainly not going to win since Frances McDormand has been winning all the awards so far for her performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri but I'm still amazed at the fact that she still keeps getting nominated. Her first nomination was in 1978 for the Deer Hunter and she won her first Oscar (for Best Supporting Actress) the year after for Kramer vs. Kramer. After that, she has been nominated at least 4 times in each decade. She had 6 nominations, all for best actress, in the 1980s. That remains to be her most recognized decade. However, the current decade, 2010s, is coming close. She has 5 nominations so far and one win, and there are two more years left.

I actually recently got several of her older films on DVD (I need to catch up to the times and set up a Netflix account or something since DVDs are now quite outdated LOL). These include The French Lieutenant's Woman, Silkwood, The Deer Hunter, and Manhattan. I need to make sure I get to see this films in the near future.

My first game night of the year

I had my first game night of the year last weekend. I also got to play a couple of games for the first time. One of them was my own game, Valeria Card Kingdoms. I bought it several months ago but I hadn't had the chance to play yet so since I was organizing this game night, I told my friends that my only request for the night was to play this game. :) The instructions are relatively easy and game play is relatively short - the box suggests that takes 30-45 minutes to play but obviously, it took us longer than that given that it was our first time - but it is really enjoyable. I am pretty sure I will be playing this game many more times in the future.

Valeria Card Kingdoms (photo taken by my friend Cla)

I really like the artwork of this game (photo taken by my friend Denise)

The other new game I played is The Game. This is a cooperative game but unlike most other coop games where one or two expert players can become a bit too dominant, this one requires everyone to be fully involved. The goal is to be able to play all of the cards, meaning that there are no cards left in the stacks and none in any of the players hands. In our first round, we got a dirty win, which meant that we had less than 10 cards left to play. Surprisingly, in our second round, we actually won. Cool! I kinda want to get my own copy but my current promise to myself is that I won't get any new games until I play all the games I've bought (but maybe for this one, I will make an exception).

The Game

I got to play two other games that night. The first one was Steampunk Rally which I had played with almost the same set of people. It's a really cool game to play when there are many of you since up to 8 players can play it (the only downside is that the more players there are, the longer it takes to finish the game LOL). It was past 1am when we finished playing and by that time, most of the folks left. Only four of us remained and we decided to end the night playing Splendor (without the Cities of Splendor expansion). We played a few rounds before calling it a night.

Since there were about a dozen of us during the evening, we split in two groups and three other games were played by other people while I was playing Valeria Card Kingdoms, The Game, and Steampunk Rally - Clank, Orleans, and Bears vs. Babies. I haven't played Bears vs. Babies yet so hopefully I get to play it at some point in the future. I have another game night coming up really soon and I'm looking forward to it. :)

Happy 2018!

Happy new year, everyone! As I always do at the start of each year, before I jump into 2018, I will take some time to look back at what happened in the previous year.

I gotta say, what a year 2017 was. Let's start with the highlights. We celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday. I treated my family to an incredible French feast at Zucchini's to celebrate the birthdays of my mom and my brother. My high school batch got together for a grand reunion. I visited Marcia Adams with two of my closest friends from high school. I got to meet up with a whole lot of my friends during the year. There were also a handful of weddings: Eman and Mia, Mike and Reb, Jef and Diane, and Geop and Ana. It was in this last wedding that I experienced being a wedding ninong for the first time.

While we are on the subject, 2017 also proved to be a year of many firsts and many new things. For the first time in more than a decade, I moved to a new company. I also got a new phone and started using apps like uber, waze, fb messenger, viber, and foodpanda for the first time. Apart from visiting some restaurants like Zucchini's and Marcia Adams for the first time, I also got to try and enjoy the ensaymada and cheese rolls of Segovia's Cakes and Recipes. I also made my first purchases at Estrel's and Tim Horton's. I went to my first art exhibit opening: the Small Wonders Exhibit by Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan. I watched my first live professional volleyball match - the finals of the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino conference. I got a new aircon. I set up my cooking stuff and purchased new cookware. I got a new chest of drawers.  I replaced my old, broken down washing machine with a new one before the year ended. And while we're talking about getting some stuff sorted out in my life, I finally updated my SSS, Pag-ibig, and Philhealth. I also finally got my SSS UMID.

2017 was also the year of geeking out big-time. I got Voltes V shirts (plus a free Voltes V umbrella) from Giordano and Star Wars shirts from Folded & Hung. I watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi wearing one of my new Star Wars shirts. :) I successfully escaped the Star Wars-themed Rebel Resistance room in first-ever Mystery Manila experience. I continued to have game day/nights throughout the year and I went from participant to contributor, getting my own horde of games and bringing some of them to the game nights I attended. I started 2017 with only 4 games and ended it with 25. And that's not counting expansions. Wow.

I didn't travel abroad again but I got to do a bit of local traveling. Apart from a few trips to Tagaytay, I visited Baguio for the first time in a couple of decades. I also revisited Bacolod after going there a couple of years ago and in this trip, I got to enjoy an afternoon at the Tawhai Floating Bar in Lakawon.

I am also thankful that I got to see some great shows this year. I braved the crowds, the heat, and being on my feet for 10 hours just to watch Coldplay perform live at the SM MOA grounds. I got to see West Side Story for the first time and Wicked for the second time. I also saw the Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra twice: once during a free concert in Glorietta and the second time at their Ayala Museum concert right before they left for Austria where they won second place in the Summa Cum Laude International Music Festival.

There were also many sporting highlights that made the year even more special for me. Nadal won his 10th French Open title, his 10th Monte Carlo title, his 10th Barcelona title, and he ended the year #1. Mika Reyes was named Miss Volleyball, won her first individual award as second best middle blocker during the All Filipino Conference in which her new team, the Petron Blaze Spikers, emerged as champions. She followed that up with a first best blocker individual award in the PSL Grand Prix where Petron placed second. The DLSU Lady Spikers won their second women's volleyball championship in a row, with Majoy Baron being hailed MVP. Dawn Macandili continued to gain honor with a 2nd best libero at the Asian Women's Volleyball Championship and another best libero award during the PSL Grand Prix where her team, F2 Logistics, won the championship.

The reason I continue to blog and write mainly about the positive stuff that I experience is that it makes it very easy for me to see all the amazing things that happen in my life and for which I should be very grateful (and I truly am). I really love this personal tradition I started many years ago of starting the new year by looking back at the highlights of the previous one. I have now written more than 1500 posts in almost 13 years of blogging. Hopefully I can keep doing this because I do find it quite rewarding.

First-time Wedding Ninong

Two of my good friends, Geop and Ana, tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony in Angelfields. Interestingly enough, I was just there the previous weekend for Jef and Diane's wedding. Even more interesting was the fact that for the first time, I was a principal sponsor at a wedding. :)

Congratulations and best wishes, Geop and Ana! #ChuAna

A post shared by Christian Pobre (@xtn_on_ig) on Dec 10, 2017 at 12:04am PST

Clearly, I am now at that age where I get asked to be a wedding ninong. :) But unlike most wedding ninongs and ninangs, I was in the photo of the couple with the principal sponsors and also in the photo of the couple with their friends. Cool! In fact, the wedding videos of the couple included some pics of us hanging out. :)

Another first experience for me was getting seated at the presidential table. My seat was marked by a name card, which I ended up keeping for sentimental purposes. :) This also meant that I didn't have to go to the buffet tables since food was served to us at our table. The food was really good and I guess it comes as no surprise that I ended up overeating.

Their wedding was also like a reunion of sorts, with many of our ex-colleagues there. I got to catch up with many of my friends that night.

The reception was also a lot of fun. Apart from the awesome photos and videos, there were some great musical numbers, not only from the band but also from a few relatives of the couple. It was also amazing that the host actually managed to get everyone to stand up towards the end of the wedding. This led to a big group photo taken with all the guests.

As I told both Geop and Ana, I am truly honored that they asked me to not only part of their wedding but also take on an important role. Congratulations and best wishes, Geop and Ana!

Christmas reunions

Christmas, and consequently the entire month of December, is a time for meeting up with as many of your family and friends as possible so you can celebrate the holidays with them. Technically, I already had my first two Christmas reunions in the last week of November/first week of December. After those two, the next one, my company Christmas party, was the first of a massive succession of parties and get-togethers. During this event, for the first time in a long time, I actually won a minor prize during the raffle: a P500 Starbucks Gift Card. Cool. :)

A few days later, I joined my college friends for dinner and wine at Cav with Weng, who was home for a few days. It was in this trip that we learned that Cav would be closing right before Christmas. That's quite sad considering that I had many fun trips to this awesome place. Lala, our resident wine expert, chose the wines for our group but I also made a few trips to the wine "vendo machines" to try their other selections. I also ordered a shrimp dish for my dinner.

A few more days later and I met up with my friends from my second job. We had dinner at Kushikatsu Daruma in Uptown Mall in BGC. It is known for its kushikatsu or Japanese skewers of fried meat and vegetables. There are lots of signs that remind people not to double dip in the sauces which are really good. I also liked the bright interior and the fun vibe of the place. After dinner, we moved to Paper Moon for coffee and mille crepe cakes. (I really do love this place.)

I was double-booked a couple of nights later. First, our department at work celebrated our own Christmas party. As a new hire, I helped organize the event with the other new hires and I was also asked to emcee and to sing. It's been a while since I emceed and sang at an event but it turned out quite well. I also won a bottle of wine during our raffle. Cool! After the party, I headed over to Marriott in Pasay to meet up with my friend Tim and his fiancee Janice. It's been about a year I think since I saw them last and they were only free to meet up that evening because they were heading to Tagaytay for 3 nights before Tim had to leave for the UK so I made sure to meet up with them.

A couple of days later, I joined my high school friends for our Christmas get-together at Aruga in Rockwell. It was the first time that we had a holiday staycation. Mitch brought their Ticket to Ride: Europe game which they hadn't played yet. I also had never played it before (I had only played the original and the Asia versions) but I was familiar enough with it that I was able to teach everyone else the rules. It was really interesting and the most challenging Ticket to Ride I've played. After the game, we shared stories until the wee hours of the morning before calling it a night.

On Christmas day, I had lunch at my uncle's house where my extended family on my father's side had our annual reunion and celebration. We didn't plan anything on my mother's side - we had just had dinner at Tita Ace's several days earlier to commemorate the death anniversary of my grandfather and I guess that served as our Yuletide celebration - so my mom and I visited my grandmother and we had a simple dinner get-together.

The next day, I met up with my boardgaming friends at Ludo in Makati. I missed the bigger game night we had earlier in the month due to illness so I'm happy that I got to play before the month and the year ended. Unfortunately for us, Ludo closed early that night so we were only able to play one long game and one quick game. The long game was Terraforming Mars. It was my first time playing this highly rated game and it was indeed pretty good. I ended up in 2nd place, only one point behind Jovan.

After that, we had time for a very quick game: Rhino Hero (giant edition). There's a smaller, playing card-sized version but the game we played was massive. The gameplay is kind of like a reverse Uno Stacko since you keep on adding to the stack. The tower we built was really tall so we had to stand on our chairs towards the end of the game. We realized that if we play the giant edition, we have to stack it on the ground and not on a table. :)

The following evening, I met up with my college friends for dinner at Cafe Madrid in Estancia Mall. Considering that it was a weeknight, it was cool that a lot of us were still able to make it. I believe this place is owned by Terry's Gourmet so the food was pretty good, as expected. Unfortunately, I had to leave relatively early because I was already running on fumes and I still had work the next day.

Finally, a couple of days later, I joined my friends from our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) org in my previous company for our Christmas get-together. We wanted to meet in BGC so I suggested Mogu. As it turned out, in our entire group, I was the only one who had eaten there before. I was glad that I suggested this place because everyone enjoyed what they ordered. For dessert and coffee, we moved to Larry's Cafe, where I ordered a souffle (I thought it was just okay).

Amazingly, a few tables away from us were my high school batchmates who were having their own mini-reunion. Kog and his wife Ina were there and I hadn't seen them since I had dinner at their place in Singapore in the middle of last year. Once my CSR friends left, I joined Kog and our other batchmates until we called it a night at close to 1am.

Obviously, it was a very busy few weeks of December and just writing about it now kinda wiped me out. :) I do have more friends that I am meeting up with in January. While it is quite exhausting to have so many get-togethers, I have to say that I am really fortunate and very grateful that I have so many great people in my life who want to celebrate the holidays with me.

Liza Soberano tops list of Most Beatiful Faces of 2017

Congratulations to Liza Soberano for being hailed by TC Candler as the Most Beautiful Face of 2017. This is the third time Liza makes this annual list that TC Candler has been publishing since 1990. She was ranked 6th in 2015 - the first time she made the list - and moved up to 2nd last year. Check out the full list in this video from TC Candler (jump to 9:50 to go straight to the top and see Liza):


video uploaded in youtube by TC Candler

It's amazing that Liza topped this global list which, for its first 20 years, was topped by Caucasian women. The last four years have been more international and diverse, with Nana from South Korea and Jourdan Dunn, who in 2008 was the first black model to walk a Prada runway in more than a decade, being hailed as most beautiful. It's great that this year, someone from the Philippines is #1. Congrats Liza! Well deserved. :)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

This post is late but as a Star Wars fan, I can't not write about this. I watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi on it's opening day and I absolutely loved it!

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is amazing!!! #starwars #thelastjedi #ihavetowatchitagain

A post shared by Christian Pobre (@xtn_on_ig) on Dec 13, 2017 at 8:52pm PST

SPOILER ALERT!!! Please stop reading now if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to be spoiled.

What I do find interesting though is that while critics generally tend to agree that The Last Jedi is really good, audiences seem to have massively mixed reactions. On Rotten Tomatoes, as of this writing, 90% of critics rated the movie positively while only 49% of audiences did. Seriously??? I've generally stayed away from the negative critiques because I don't t really want my enjoyment of the film to be tainted but of the few negative remarks I've seen, I realized that most of the people who were disappointed in the film had certain expectations that the movie didn't meet because its story took a different path.

For instance, people felt let down that Kylo Ren didn't turn full good side, because they felt it would have been such a unique twist in the story. Other felt that Luke, as the last Jedi, should have been more willing to put himself out there and that he should have faced Kylo Ren and the First Order instead of mentally conjuring a hologram of himself. I guess this is the challenge that a megafranchise such as Star Wars faces: fans have grown so heavily invested in it that they end up having a sense of ownership and practically expect Star Wars to cater to how they think the story should flow. My cousin shared this meme that cleverly depicts this (unfortunately, no source was listed so I am unable to provide it):

Obviously, I disagree with many of these detractors. In fact, the reasons they dislike the film are almost the exact same reasons I love it. First, while it would have been cool to have Kylo Ren turn to the good side, I found his conflict in Episodes VII and VIII to be one of the most compelling storylines in this latest trilogy and its unpredictable nature makes for even greater potential. Adam Driver who portrays Kylo Ren put in such an incredible performance and you could really see and feel the continued anguish going on in his head. Also, I felt that Luke generating his hologram was a first - we've never seen a Jedi use this power before - was an incredible display of Luke's immense power.

What I also liked about The Last Jedi was how it was not very predictable (to me, at least). A large part of it was because of how the Star Wars franchise set it up through its two most recent films. In The Force Awakens, Han Solo was killed and in Rogue One, the entire lead cast was killed. Because of this, viewers aren't quite sure which character is going to be killed off next. This uncertainty keeps audiences at the edge of their seats. For me, given how the plot was unfolding, I thought that General Leia, Finn, and Rose would all die. I thought that Rey would turn to the dark side. I thought Vice Admiral Holdo was a traitor. And I also got really worried that Kylo Ren would kill Luke. As it turned out, none of these happened.

There were also many awesome moments that made me want to cheer loudly in the movies theater. (In fact, a large portion of the audience did, but I was seated at the side and most of the people sitting around me were not as vocal nor demonstrative of their appreciation so I just cheered in the inside. :)) Obviously, one of the biggest scenes was at Snoke's throne room when Rey and Kylo Ren fought together against Snoke's guards. I also loved it when Leia showed her ability to use of the force to save her own life after being blasted out of her ship. I loved Yoda's reappearance and the fact that he was able to use the force to generate a lightning bolt (apparently, generating force bolts is a power not limited to the Sith). The audience also cheered when it was revealed that Luke was generating a hologram to face The First Order. I also loved that scene at the end when the little kid showed that he could use the force.

One of the saddest things about The Last Jedi is the knowledge that Carrie Fisher has passed away and that this was her last film. In fact, because of this, I thought they would actually kill General Leia off. They almost did. But she was alive at the end of the movie, escaping The First Order with a small band of resistance fighters. On some level, General Leia's survival in this film makes things a bit sadder, because she could have still been a part of Episode IX but we know we won't see her there anymore. Towards the end of the film, when Luke (or his hologram) meets Leia, he utters the line "No one's ever really gone" and I couldn't help but think how prophetic that line was. Of course, that dedication that flashed during the credits - In loving memory of our princess, Carrie Fisher - was quite moving.

I will let the naysayers criticize this film as much as they want but for me, it is up there among the best. As is always the case with all Star Wars films, I really want to see it again. And I am sure I will be getting the DVD when it comes out. (Or maybe I should just start subscribing to Netflix).

Star Wars shirts from Folded & Hung

Naturally, I had to get new Star Wars shirts in preparation for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. :)

Voltes V shirts a few months ago. Now I got new Star Wars shirts from Folded & Hung. I'm such a nerd LOL. #StarWars #foldedandhung #FHstyletrooper #cantwaitforthelastjedi

A post shared by Christian Pobre (@xtn_on_ig) on Nov 30, 2017 at 5:17pm PST

Full week

The week started when I had dinner and drinks with Maileen, who was in town to celebrate her grandmother's birthday. Our evening started out over dinner at Museum Cafe in Greenbelt 5 before we moved to the lobby of New World Renaissance hotel (which I had written about in my previous post).

The next evening, I had a reunion with some of my ex-colleagues, who were having a very advanced Christmas celebration. Apparently, they couldn't find any other common date in December so they decided to have it in end-November instead. Mia very generously hosted the party at her beautiful home and she prepared a beautiful feast that included roast beef and baked salmon that could rival that of Conti's. After dinner, we started the exchange gift by making use of some kind of white elephant exchange gift app. (I was actually told that I had to bring an exchange gift only on that day LOL so I decided to swing by Fleur De Lys along Tomas Morato to get some florentines and brownies.) I ended up getting Saporito Gourmet Salted Egg Potato Chips and Sofia's Jar lengua de gato. Unfortunately, I had an early start the next day so I couldn't stay too late but it was really great seeing everyone again, especially since I hadn't seen most of them in months.

On Friday, I met up with my friends from my first job. The last time we saw each other was earlier in the year when Raych was in Manila but what made the evening more special was that almost every Manila-based person was able to join us, including Bett and Lany, both of whom I hadn't seen in a while. As it turned out, Anna was also in town so she could join us too. Since Chari lives far south and Jette lives far north, we opted for Ortigas. Jette requested some place that is easily commutable so I suggested we have dinner somewhere in Shangri-La mall. Bett wanted to try Zao and everyone agreed so we finally had out venue sorted out. :) Our dinner started quite early - Chari and I were there before 630pm - so a couple of hours later, the mall was still open and we had time for dessert. At first, we were thinking of just having dessert in Zao because people wanted to try their mille crepe but unfortunately, it wasn't available that night. Since people suddenly had a craving for mille crepe, we went to Paper Moon instead. We stayed there until the mall closed. This was probably the biggest gathering we've had in a while and the longest time that we spent with each other.

Chocolate Mille Crepe and Coffee at Paper Moon

The long, full week ended the next day when I went to Tagaytay for two special occasions. The first was Me-Ann's birthday. It was a full day event, starting with brunch at Bag of Beans in Twin Lakes before we would go to Sandari Batulao to hang out and spend the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately, I ended up being massively late for brunch, not only because I woke up a bit late but also because of a horrific driving mistake. Since I was already running late, I checked waze to see how long it would take for me to get to Twin Lakes - waze estimated two hours - so I messaged everyone that I would get there by noon. Unfortunately, by entering Twin Lakes in waze, I was directed to the Twin Lakes community at the bottom of the crater instead of at the top which is where Bag of Beans is. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem except that the route from the bottom to the top can only be traversed on foot or by tricycle and it is impassable to cars and larger vehicles. The kicker was that the only way to get from where I was to Bag of Beans was by going all the way back, a one and a half hour trip. That was just about as long as my drive from Manila to Tagaytay!!! By the time I got to Bag of Beans, half the group had gone home. Me-ann had ordered for me before I got there so my food was ready when I arrived. I was absolutely famished and I ate everything pretty quickly. It was close to 2pm when we headed to Sandari Batulao where the rest of us spent a lazy afternoon enjoying each other's company and having great conversation. Alvin and Doray brought their kids and later that afternoon, Alvin and his kids all went swimming.

Sandari Batulao

I left at around 4:30 to get ready for my second event in Tagaytay: the wedding reception of Jef and Diane. I booked a room at Lee Boutique since I knew I would be tired from the long drive and the long day (plus, I wanted an easy way to get ready for the wedding). The reception was held at Angelfields. It turned out to be a bit of a reunion as well since Jef and Diane were ex-colleagues and I was seated at a table with many of our other ex-colleagues such as Karen, Kat, RJ, Julie, and Jojo and a few other ex-colleagues whom I hadn't seen in years, like Walter, Melvin, and Mshel. It was a beautiful and well-prepared and well-executed program - Diane's outfit change for her dance number with Jef was one of the many highlights - and it was shortly before 10 that the program ended. Most people left immediately but RJ, Julie, and I stuck around until pack up because Jef asked us to. :) That gave us an opportunity to catch up with each other and also with Jef and Diane once things had calmed down.

I checked out once I got cleaned up after waking up and I immediately headed over to Breakfast at Antonio's to have their Home-made Bacon Roesti, which is one of my favorite dishes and which I have and enjoy in most of my trips to Tagaytay. I wanted to try something else from Breakfast at Antonio's so I ordered their Croque Monsieur to go so I could eat it for lunch. I have to say, this sandwich is tremendously good too!

Breakfast at Antonio's Home-made Bacon Roesti

On the way home, I had to pass by a few places to get pasalubong for my family. I made three stops. The first was in Rowena's to get pineapple tarts. The second was in Good Shepherd to get ube jam. The third stop was in The Original Buko Pie Bakeshop to try their buko pie. I've been told that it is better than Colette's which is what I usually get. Now that I've tried it, I think I personally still prefer Colette's which is a bit sweeter but people who find Colette's too sweet should try The Original Buko Pie instead.

The Original Buko Pie can be found at the Caltex Station along Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay road.

Hotel lobby nights

I don't really recall the last time I hung out at a hotel lobby with my friends. So it's quite interesting that towards the end of last month, I ended up spending a relaxing evening at two different hotel lobbies in just a little more than a week.

First, I had coffee and dessert at the lobby of the Manila Peninsula with Myna and Mitch. We had a game night in Makati and we wanted to hang out somewhere first before heading home. We initially thought of going to Coffee Bean or Starbucks but the ones we drove by were all closed. Myna suggested that we just go to the Manila Pen lobby and Mitch and I agreed. When we got there, I decided I wanted to have ice cream since they have some pretty cool ice cream creations at the Pen. I didn't want something too decadent so I ordered Berry Berry Much, which has raspberry sorbet, strawberry cheesecake ice cream, and forest berry compote and is topped with fresh berries. It was good but I did find it a bit too tedious to have to deal with the many seeds of the fresh raspberries. :)

It turned out to be an amazing evening because it's not very often that I get to chat about more personal stuff with my gaming friends since we normally just play games and talk about geeky stuff. :) It was a wonderful experience and I am glad that we decided to chill somewhere before heading home.

A little more than a week later, I ended up spending another calm and quiet evening with my college friends at the lobby of the New World Renaissance Hotel. Maileen was in town - it's been a few years since we saw her last - but she was only available to meet up on Monday night. As such, only Letlet, Lala, Anna, and I were able to join her. She was meeting up with a friend along Pasay Road much later in the evening so after dinner at Museum Cafe, we decided to hang out somewhere close to where she needed to go. I suggested the lobby of New World Renaissance Hotel since I knew it would be open until quite late and everyone agreed (Havana would be open too but that is place is too noisy for us).

We ended up ordering a bottle of wine that we all shared. (Anna also got sans rival.) We asked Lala to make our wine selection since she was the expert in our group. She ended up choosing Esser Pinot Noir. It was pretty expensive (which was to be expected given that we were at a hotel) but at least our wine was good. :) Despite it being a Monday evening, there was a whole lot to catch up on so we ended up staying with Mai until close to midnight.

Spending an evening at a hotel lobby isn't the budget-friendly option but it's nice to treat yourself to something a bit more luxurious every now and then. Hotel lobbies have such a relaxing and elegant atmosphere that it does make for a perfect venue for chatting and catching up with great friends.