Sans Rival in Dumaguete

Being the sweet tooth that I am, I made sure I visited the famous Sans Rival Cakes & Pastries in Dumaguete. In fact, I actually visited this place on five of the six days I was there, including right before I flew back to Manila LOL.

There are at least two Sans Rivals that I saw, although two of them are next to each other. The main one is Sans Rival Bistro which is right along Rizal Boulevard at the corner of San Jose street (and on the side of the Bistro along San Jose Street is a smaller Sans Rival take-out shop). There is also another one inside Robinsons Place Dumaguete. I was able to visit both.

As I visited this place quite a few times, I was actually able to try many desserts. One of them was the Date and Walnut Dacquoise (P94/slice, P650/whole cake). It was a unique dessert that I hadn't seen anywhere before so I made sure to try it. Unfortunately for me, I think the slice I got was a really old one since the meringue was already tough and very chewy and the dates were really hard. When I shared this with some other people who had tried this dessert, they said that it was supposed to be really good and it was their favorite. I guess that means I have to try it again if I have a chance.

Date & Walnut Dacquoise

The Choco Cream Banana Cake (P79/slice, P420/whole cake) is ideal for people who enjoy bananas in their dessert and who love chocolate.

Choco Cream Banana Cake

I also tried the Mango Mousse Torte (P73/slice, P480/whole cake). It was good but it'd probably not something I would get again since there are other mango-based desserts that I absolutely love such as the Mango Torte of Dulcelin. There are also other desserts in Sans Rival that I enjoyed more so I would probably go with those instead.

Mango Mousse Torte

The silly thing is that I didn't take pictures of my two favorite desserts that I tried here: Cookie Monster and the Frozen Brazo. Cookie Monster is a really good chocolate cake while their Frozen Brazo is actually prepared with vanilla ice cream. If I get to revisit this place, I would probably order these two again.

Of course, this place is known for its sans rival and silvanas. However, since we do have House of Silvanas in Manila which serves these two same items, I decided to try other items that are not served here. (The owner of House of Silvanas is the granddaughter of the owner of Sans Rival; read more here).

*****

Update: apparently, Sans Rival has now opened in Manila. A facebook post went viral, sharing that Sans Rival from Dumaguete opened a branch in Glorietta 4 near Food Choices underneath the escalator leading to the cinema. That is actually the same spot occupied by House of Silvanas. My guess is that House of Silvanas will be rebranding to carry the name of its mother company since that same facebook post was edited to say that two more branches of Sans Rival are opening in Manila: one in Shangri-La Mall and another one in Robinsons Magnolia. These are the exact same malls where House of Silvanas has shops. I guess Sans Rival is the more well-known brand so it makes sense to leverage its popularity.

Dumaguete

The first time I visited Dumaguete was almost a decade ago when I attended the wedding anniversary of a friend. It was a very short trip - I think it was only from Friday to Sunday - and because my friends and I were asked to perform some songs during the church ceremony and at the reception, most of our time that weekend was spent rehearsing. As such, I didn't really get to go around the city as much as I wanted. I told myself then that I would return but I never got around to it. That is, until recently when I went on a business trip to Dumaguete.

Unfortunately for me, the schedule of my trip was not ideal. I had a weekend engagement prior to my trip so I needed to take the latest flight on Sunday. I then had an event on Friday night so I had to take the late afternoon flight from Dumaguete back to Manila. I would have wanted to spend an extra day or two before and/or after my business trip but there wasn't time to do it this trip. Still, I did get to experience the city a bit more this time around. This included a long walk along Rizal Boulevard, one of the main streets in Dumaguete which runs right next to the sea.

Rizal Boulevard

This lovely view of the sea, or Tañon Strait to be exact, gives Dumaguete a lot of its charm and appeal. Tañon Strait is the expanse of seascape between Dumaguete and Cebu and it is the largest marine protected area in the country.

Tañon Strait

I also got to revisit Silliman University, which is one of the oldest in the Philippines. It is consistently ranked among the top universities in the country. I wasn't able to take good pictures of the school since we could only visit it after work, during which time the sun was already about to set, but I did manage to take a couple of photos of the very beautiful Silliman Hall before sunset...

Silliman Hall in Silliman University

...and after.

Silliman University at night

Our co-worker John took us inside Silliman one night and brought us to Bossing's Tempura, which I think is kikiam fried in batter. It was actually quite good and addictive and if I wasn't going to have dinner that night, I would have ordered a lot more. There are five different sauces, ranging in spiciness for 1 (not spicy) to 5 (very spicy). I didn't want to cause any stomach problems so I only tried up to level 3. :)

Bossing's Tempura in Silliman

Speaking of dinner, while I was in Dumaguete, I got to eat in a lot of good restaurants that offered a variety of cuisines. I had a team dinner in Lab-as, where we feasted on very good Filipino food and a bounty of fresh seafood. I also had a Mexican meal in Mooon Cafe. My co-worker John also pointed out a lot of restaurants that he said were good. He also mentioned about some places where we can get good lechon. I guess Dumaguete is a really good place to go on a food trip. I didn't really take a lot of pictures of the restaurants we visited apart from Sans Rival (which I will write about separately) and Casablanca, which is just a stones throw away from Sans Rival along Rizal Boulevard. Casablanca serves European fare and while I was initially thinking of getting either the schnitzel or the cordon bleu, the waitress recommended the Hunter's Platter, which includes pork medallions, chicken, and sausage and is served with a side of potatoes. All this for only P360. Wow! I ended up ordering it and I gotta say, I absolutely loved it. (I reckon a similar dish in Manila will cost at least P600).

Hunter's Platter in Casablanca

If I had more time, I would have loved to explore Silliman University and the rest of the city center on foot. I would also love to visit Red Rock or Pulangbato Falls and maybe even nearby Siquijor. While I did miss a chance to see more of the natural wonders in the area, I did get to see some great views from the mountains of Negros.

There's really a lot that one can do in this beautiful city. If I get to go on another business trip here, I hope I can spend a few days during the weekend to experience more of Dumaguete.

FEU win UAAP Street Dance Competition

I wasn't able to watch the UAAP Street Dance Competition when it aired a few weeks ago but I found that FEU won the championship, ending the stranglehold that DLSU and UP had on this event (DSLU and UP had won three titles each, an even split of all six previous competitions held). In fact, when I saw the scores, FEU had more than a 6-point lead over DLSU in 2nd place which had less than 1-point lead over UP in 3rd place. I decided to search for the FEU performance and I gotta say, it's pretty awesome. Check out their championship-winning performance here:


video uploaded in youtube by Albert Fulgencio

Congratulations FEU Dance Company!

Quality time with friends

The great thing about my new job is that for the first time in more than half a decade, I am working normal hours again. By that, I mean an 8 to 5 or 9 to 6 shift, and not midshift or the European shift as I had grown accustomed to in my previous job. This new daily schedule has allowed me to hang out with my friends a lot more recently.

My kumpare Raffa celebrated his birthday in Buca di Beppo on a Tuesday night. Despite it being a weeknight, all of us ex-colleagues who are still based in Manila were able to go. Interestingly enough, I just realized that while half of us were still working for the same company a year ago, we were now all working in different places. What a difference a year makes. Our venue proved to be a good one for us too since the food was pretty good. It was also quite heavy; we ordered two pasta dishes and two pizzas and there were 10 of us but somehow we weren't able to consume everything we ordered. I actually wouldn't mind eating here again. You can't really go wrong with good Italian (or American Italian) food.

My friend Myna also turned a year older this month and naturally, we celebrated her birthday by having game night. I arrived late in the evening due to a conflict and I had very little sleep the night before but I made sure to still go. I got to play Legendary again - two rounds in fact - but we lost both games. It was frustrating. I didn't realize it was so hard to beat the Mastermind in Legendary. In fact, all three times I've played it, we haven't been close to winning. I guess I need to play this game more times so I can finally experience beating the Mastermind, even if I don't score an individual win. I also got to play Dinosaur Island, a game that was only recently released via Kickstarter. It was fun to play and it kinda gave me a bit of a Dungeon Petz vibe (Dungeon Petz is one of my favorite games). I'm looking forward to playing this again.

I also spent a weekend in Pansol with my ex-teammates. When I met up with them for dinner late last year, we started discussing a possible out-of-town trip this summer. While initial plans included Subic, Tagaytay, and even Pagsanjan Falls, we ended up going to Pansol, which I guess is the cheapest and easiest option for us. Apart from catching up with people I used to see almost everyday, the other highlight was the steady stream of food that came out of the kitchen, thanks to Mykel and Nat.

Finally, my friend Mari returned to the Philippines after her US assignment so we decided to have dinner at Wangfu in Ayala the 30th. I suggested it because I wanted to enjoy their Salted Egg Prawns again (and I did). We spent the rest of the evening at Starbucks (although I surprisingly didn't order coffee; instead, I got ice cream from Emack & Bolio's right next to it). Mari had a second get-together that evening so we called it a night at around 11pm. There was talk of having another game night since Basil has a game that we still haven't played so hopefully we get to catch up again soon.

Playtaste by Gaming Library

Gaming Library recently celebrated its 7th anniversary. Along with this milestone, the owners also launched Playtaste, a new board gaming place housed in Spectre Manila. This is a more intimate version of DyceNDyne (which unfortunately closed a couple of years ago). Playtaste was created by Gaming Library, Spectre Manila, and Comic Odyssey and it carries some games for sale (not the full Gaming Library selection, but I'm guessing that if you order in advance, you can pick up your purchase here). There are also some open games that you can play while you are there.

Since DyceNDyne closed, I wanted to support this new board gaming community so I spent one Saturday evening here. Playtaste doesn't have proper meals in its menu but they do have finger food and drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. A lot of my board gaming mates are good friends with the Gaming Library owners, including Kat who was with me that afternoon/evening that I visited Playtaste. JM also joined us for a couple of hours. We were the only guests there that evening so we got to play games with some of the owners of Gaming Library. Cool!

Most of the afternoon and evening was spent playing new games. I say mostly because I started the afternoon playing Azul. My first Azul experience was not so great because the rules were being explained as we were going through game play so I ended up getting massive penalties for making wrong moves twice. This time around, I had a good idea of how to play, and would you know it? I actually won! With a pretty good score too. Cool!

Azul

We were then introduced to Rocky Road a la Mode, which is kind of like a cross between Splendor in terms of scoring and getting free resources (plus it has bonuses that resemble the nobles in Splendor) and Tokaido in terms of board movement (the player behind everyone else gets to move first). It's fun, relaxing, and quick and easy so we ended up playing it twice. I won the first game and ended up in a tie for 2nd in the second game.

Rocky Road a la Mode

We also played Unstable Unicorns, which I is kinda like Exploding Kittens in terms of game play. But unlike Exploding Kittens where players get knocked out of the game one by one, Unstable Unicorn gets played by everyone until someone plays his or her 7th unicorns (that player wins). You'd think this would be quite simple but as it turned out, it was taking quite a while so we reduced the target to 5 unicorns and even then we played for longer than we initially anticipated.

I ended the evening playing GKR: Heavy Hitters, a game which was recently released on Kickstarter. (I think it is not yet available for sale anywhere else.) To quote my friend Cla who saw the picture I took of this game, it looks like Scythe on steroids LOL. And I guess it does. :) Heavy Hitters is a direct conflict game and I don't usually do well in these kinds of games since combat tends to stress me out LOL. I tried to compensate by making the first move and attacking someone but this early aggression backfired and I ended up losing quite badly. Still, it was very interesting to play. I do think it is better for four players than for three. Its name - Heavy Hitters - is also quite appropriate because it is quite a massive and heavy game. :) It makes me wonder how much it will cost the moment it becomes publicly available.

GKR: Heavy Hitters

Kat and I already discussed when our next visit to Playtaste will be. I'm hoping that I get to play with some of the Gaming Library owners again since it is always great to play with people who absolutely love and enjoy board and tabletop gaming

Playtaste
https://www.facebook.com/playtastegl/
https://www.gaminglib.com/
2nd Floor 916 Luna Mencias, Brgy. Addition HillsMandaluyong, Philippines
For table reservations, call (02) 725 3066
Operating hours: Sunday to Thursday - 1 to 10PM, Friday to Saturday - 11AM to 12MN

From Now On from The Greatest Showman

In my previous post, I talked about how much I love the music and the production numbers of The Greatest Showman. None moreso than From Now On which comes out close to the end of the film. If you don't want to be spoiled, you might want to skip watching this video but if you've seen the film and want to see it again or you are looking for a reason to watch the film, check this out.


video uploaded in youtube by Stark Productions

Not only is the dancing perfectly on point and tremendously well-executed, it is performed with such life and energy and passion. It's like the entire cast erupted in unbridled joy. I enjoyed watching all the earlier production numbers in The Greatest Showman but it was this scene that I immediately wanted to see again. And again. And again. (And now, thanks to this video, I have. :))

Movie Watching 2018

It took a while before I finally found myself at the movie theater this year but when I did, I ended up watching one film after another in quick succession. In fact, I watched three movies in a span of three days. Thankfully, everything I saw was really good.

The Greatest Showman

photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Showman

I watched this film because of word-of-mouth. I didn't really know about it until I kept seeing my friends heap praised upon it on social media. Thankfully I did see it because I thoroughly enjoyed it. While it is supposed to be based on the life if P.T. Barnum, a lot of liberties were taken and it is not historically accurate. I will also say that the story is quite light and the character development was a bit thin. So why did I love this movie? It's the music and the production numbers. Not only are the songs catchy, some of them are downright anthemic. Never Again has been covered so many times by singers who want to showcase their vocal talent. This is Me was nominated for Best Song at the Oscars for its inspirational message of strength and courage and accepting and being proud of for who you are. Rewrite the Stars has such a pop appeal that I've heard it many times on the radio already. My personal favorite though is not one of the common favorites among people. From Now On is sung close to the end and is about forgiveness and redemption, and it has a gospel feel to it that makes your heart soar. While the music alone would have been enough, the production that accompanies each song just take the experience to the next level. The soundtrack has been playing in my head since I watched the film and I desperately want to find a karaoke bar where I can sing songs from the movie. :)

The Post

photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_(film)

As a Meryl Streep fan, there was no way I was going to miss The Post. The fact that she was nominated for her 21st acting Oscar for her performance in this film made me want to see it even more. While it seemed like a bit of a cerebral political drama during the first half, it became almost edge-of-your-seat suspenseful as it started building up towards what I felt was one of the most critical moments of the film. I won't spoil you by telling you what it is, but I have to say that Meryl absolutely sells that scene. This movie gave me the same vibe I got watching Frost/Nixon many years ago. I guess I'm not the only one who loved it since it was also nominated for Best Picture at The Oscars. While the film is set in the mid-1960s, it highlights the criticality of freedom of the press, which is just as relevant today as it was back then. The line "The free press was to serve the governed, not the governors" resonated with me a lot and I wish more people understand this concept and fight to uphold to it.

The Shape of Water

photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Water

Because it was Oscar season this month, it was natural for many Oscar nominees to be shown at the movie theaters. The Shape of Water had been reaping a lot of awards and the sea creature element made me very curious to see it. As expected, this film, which took home a few Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Guillermo Del Toro, was a well-crafted and beautiful piece of storytelling. I will spoil you a bit here and say that it is a love story (although I guess you can kind of figure that out from the movie poster) that is strange and thrilling and suspenseful and romantic. The lead actress, Sally Hawkins, puts in a scintillating performance and really makes you feel for and relate to her character, despite the very unusual and unique circumstances in which she finds herself. I will say though that while I found this film to be tremendously good and satisfying to watch, it's not something I would have thought would take home an Oscar Best Picture trophy. Still, it is definitely worth seeing and I do recommend it.

Black Panther

photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_(film)

Of all the films I watched so far this year, Black Panther is the only one that came out in 2018 (the other three came out in 2017 and in fact, all other three were nominated for Oscars). I think it is incredible to see a black superhero in a leading role. The fact that he is joined by a black cast in a film that celebrates black culture and pays homage to Africa makes it even more groundbreaking. While I can attempt to write about the value of this film, I will instead direct you to this article by Time on how Black Panther marks a major milestone. Apart from its cultural significance, it is also a really good superhero movie with fantastic action sequences, good storytelling, and well-written and well-developed characters that you can't help but root for. Here's a bit of trivia: Black Panther is currently the highest ranked Marvel movie on Rotten Tomatoes in terms of critics score.

Aircon Woes Again

Well this sucks. Less than a year after I had problems with my previous aircon, I started having issues with my new one. A few days ago, I noticed that there was water dripping from the dropped ceiling behind my aircon. It was a very light and intermittent drip so I thought I could wait a few days until the next Saturday for it to be looked at. The problem was that one night, right before I was about to sleep. the dripping got significantly heavier, almost like water from a faucet. It dripped for just a few seconds but enough water came out to fill a mug. I had our on-shift engineer inspect my aircon and ceiling and he said that there is most likely a leak in the drain causing water to collect inside my ceiling. I got really worried that my ceiling would collapse, and my aircon along with it.

I decided I couldn't wait a few more days for my scheduled repair. I asked our engineering department to help me influence the aircon repair service to find time to repair my unit. I also called them myself. After a few calls and some begging on my part, they were able to send a couple of people to check the problem. The problem is that the only way to find out what was going on was to cut big holes in the ceiling. They confirmed that my aircon was not properly attached to the drain, resulting in a leak. Thankfully, they were able to do the repair later that afternoon.

The sucky thing about this is that I lost a day of work, had to pay for the aircon repair service, and I now have to pay for the restoration of my ceiling. I guess I will just try to focus on the positive and that it could have been a lot worse; at least my ceiling didn't collapse. And I got to help people earn a living.

Dawn Macandili honored as Ms. Volleyball 2017

Ms. Everywhere is Ms. Volleyball!

MS. VOLLEYBALL at the PSA Awards: Dawn Macandili pic.twitter.com/N8OWhv5qQz

— The Score (@TheScorePH) February 27, 2018

Congratulations to Dawn Macandili for being awarded Miss Volleyball 2017 by the Philippine Sportswriters Association. Dawn continues to set records as she once again becomes the first libero to receive this honor which has traditionally been given to scoring players.

DAWN MACANDILI:

From Batangas’ Potential Star
To De La Salle Zobel recruit
To Juniors’ Best Libero
To Gohing’s heir apparent
To UAAP’s Best Receiver
To UAAP’s Best Digger
To UAAP’s Best Libero
To Asia’s Finest Libero

From Miss Everywhere
To Miss Volleyball 2017 pic.twitter.com/GGM0JXpX8U

— Dawn ➳ Macandili (@MissEverywhere_) March 4, 2018

Of course, this award is very well-deserved. Macandili was part of the DLSU team that won the UAAP Women's Volleyball trophy, and she also took home the Best Receiver award. She was also awarded Best Libero at the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix, where she helped F2 Logistics win the championship.

Have you heard of Dawn Macandili? A libero for Philippine national women's VB team, she's the 2nd Best Libero during the 2017 Asian Women's Champ. She was also the first libero in the PH to receive an MVP plum during the 2016 PSL All-Filipino Conference. #RisingVolleyballStar pic.twitter.com/J3Q8mjkmLf

— Asian Volleyball (@avcvolley) January 19, 2018

For me, though, it was Macandili's international exposure that was the highlight of her 2018. She joined the Philippine National Team at the SEA Games where the Philippines placed fourth. She also joined the  at the AVC Asian Senior Women's Championship, an event where the Philippines competed against Thailand, South Korea, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. Despite playing in a league that included some of the best players in the world, Dawn received the 2nd best libero award in that event. Amazing!

Congratulations, Dawn! You definitely deserve to be called Ms. Volleyball 2017.

No Need to Argue by The Cranberries

I got a cassette tape of "No Need to Argue" by The Cranberries back in the mid-90s and it immediately became one of my favorite albums. Until now, it still is. While this second album of The Cranberries features a couple of their most popular songs such as Zombie and Ode to My Family, I actually love it even more for the songs that weren't released. One of which is Daffodil Lament, which was chosen by fans as their best non-single song. Listen to it here.

While I do agree that Daffodil Lament is brilliant, my favorite is actually the title track No Need to Argue, which is the last song on the album. Actually, this is my all-time favorite song of The Cranberries. You need to bump up the volume or listen to it with earphones or headphones on since it is a bit of a quiet song but it is that softness that makes it haunting and impactful.


video uploaded by ukmachinehead

If you get the chance, listen to the entire No Need to Argue album as it really is special. I am posting this now as my own personal (and very late) tribute to Dolores O'Riordon, the lead vocalist of The Cranberries, who passed away on January 15 this year. RIP, Dolores.

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.