My last shot at a long-standing dream?

I checked out the tennis page on CNN Sports Illustrated the other day as I do often. And I was stunned by the piece of news at the top of the page:

"Agassi, Graf to rally first under Wimbledon roof"

My eyes widened and I immediately clicked on the click to read more about the article. Apparently, Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi will play an exhibition - dubbed "A Centre Court Celebration" - along with Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters in Wimbledon on May 17. Holy crap!

The event is being staged in order to test the playing conditions in Wimbledon Centre Court with the new roof and air management system. Wimbledon starts in end-June and I guess the organizers of this most celebrated of tennis tournaments want to gauge how things will be in Centre Court once the roof in place. That way, there won't be any surprises, and any problems with the playing conditions can be identified weeks before the tournament starts.

I have actually watched Steffi Graf play live once - an exhibition match against Kimiko Date in Tokyo, which was part of Graf's farewell tour in late 1999-early 2000. But I have always wanted to see her play in a Grand Slam event. Obviously, I didn't have the cash at the time Steffi was playing so I never got a chance to watch her compete. And this exhibition isn't exactly a Grand Slam event, but it will be played in the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon. Considering that Steffi is retired and no longer plays competitive tennis, this really is the next best thing.

What's more, she will be playing with her husband Andre Agassi as well as Henman and Kim Clijsters. I have actually supported and rooted for all these players at some point in my tennis fandom so it'll be great to get to see all of them share the same court (Wimbledon Centre Court!!) and play with/against each other.

Tickets will be sold at 10am UK time on March 12, and I will hope that I am lucky enough to get a ticket. If I do, I will figure out some way to fly to London. My pockets aren't exactly bursting at the seams with money and there is a global financial crisis right now so frivolous spending should be kept at a minimum, but this has been a dream of mine for such a long time now and another opportunity like this may never come again so it'll definitely be worth it.

Falling Slowly (from the movie "Once")

Here's a very beautiful song called "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.


video uploaded in youtube by user FoxSearchlight

This song never really got into the mainstream but it's claim to fame is that it won an Oscar for Best Original Song in 2007, beating out music from "Enchanted" and "August Rush". It never gained popularity here because the song is not really mainstream and the film "Once" wasn't shown here. I first learned about the film when my friend Michele suggested to me that I watch it, saying that I would most likely enjoy the music in it. My friend Chari got it for me as a birthday gift last year and I've listened to it (especially this song) a lot of times already. I also got the DVD of the film, although I have yet to watch it.

Miscellany

Liverpool just drew against Man City last night, which now means that Manchester United are seven points ahead of them and sitting pretty at the top of the league table. I don't want to throw the towel in just yet, but I don't want to be bitterly disappointed either so I'm going to hope for the best but expect the worst. Well, not really the worst. The worst would be if Liverpool to drop from 2nd place. I would be gutted if that happens.

*****

After five trips to the Oscars, Kate Winslet finally nabs the best actress trophy. I was hoping that Meryl Streep would pull an upset but I do have to say that I am still quite happy for Kate as she does deserve to have at least one Oscar - I mean, this was her sixth nomination! I especially love the bit in her acceptance speech where she says "I think we all can't believe we're in a category with Meryl Streep at all." I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that Hollywood will realize that Meryl will return to the winner's circle at least one more time.

I was really happy too that Sean Penn for the best actor trophy. I had a feeling that if there would be any upset, it would be in this category. Mickey Rourke had been winning every other award, and I felt that Sean Penn deserved some recognition for his portrayal of Harvey Milk. I do feet for Mickey Rourke though because I'm not sure how many other chances he will get to be nominated (this was Penn's fifth nomination and second Oscar).

And may I say that the opening act from Hugh Jackman was incredible! I thought for a second he wasn't going to be given a standing ovation but there was just some delay. :) That performance is worthy of some award too (maybe an Emmy or a Golden Globe? LOL)

*****

Okay this bit of news is a week old but Rafa Nadal managed to increase his lead over Roger Federer by reaching the finals of the ATP tournament in Rotterdam. It could have been an even bigger lead had he won, but he ended up succumbing to a knee injury and losing in three sets to a very in-form Andy Murray. Unfortunately he loses a bit of his lead over Federer because he had to withdraw from Dubai due to his injured knee. Roger withdrew from the same event due to a back problem, but since he lost in the first round last year, he doesn't have any points to defend.

I do hope Nadal gets enough rest and strengthens his knee soon. The clay court season is coming up and he has a whole horde of points to defend. It would be absolutely great if Rafa can win the French Open this year. If he does, it will be his fifth in a row. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that...

My third Habitat for Humanity build

I first volunteered for Habitat for Humanity almost a year ago. I joined the corporate social responsibility club we have at work a little more than a year ago, and on March 23 last year, we had our first trip to a Habitat for Humanity site, where volunteers moved hollow blocks and cement mixtures from one place to another, allowing skilled workers to focus on the actual house building rather than on the smaller stuff.

Since then, I've gotten really involved in this corporate social responsibility (CSR) club, so much so that I've been elevated to initiative head. I have three other co-heads (great people with whom I really love working) and it's amazing that our CSR initiative now has the full support of our country management. we now have projects and programs meant to contribute in the areas of environmental sustainibility, economic development and philanthropy, and educational achievement.

Last Saturday was our first company-wide activity for the year: another build for Habitat for Humanity. We had over 60 volunteers participate and it was great. There was a lot more work to be done this time around. we were broken into four groups. although two of the groups ended up merging. The first group painted the steel components of the roof. The second group poured the cement mix into the walls, and the third group, which I was in, did all the heavy lifting - hollow blocks, sand, and cement mix.

Of all my three trips to a Habitat build, this was probably the one where I had the most fun. Mainly coz we had more volunteers than in the past. But also because we were involved in the latter stages of house building so you could more easily see progress. my group moved enough cement mix to allow the builders to complete three floors in three different houses. It was amazing to see really, and I think as the day wore on we actually got faster and faster with respect to moving the cement mix. It was also great seeing how much higher the walls had gotten due to the great work of the volunteers pouring the cement mix into the hollow block walls. There were so many roof components that were fully painted by the end of the day.

This was also the first time that we all had name tags (I guess we have learned from past experience as well). And seeing the name of the person standing next to you made it so much easier to make new friends.

Of course, considering the fact that I haven't had any exercise in a long time, I feel like I've been beaten up today. My back (upper and lower), biceps, shoulders, and even legs feel extremely sore, almost like I was beaten up LOL. unfortunately, I wasn't able to hit the spa today to get a massage, so I plan to get one tomorrow instead. Nevertheless, all the pain is worth it. Not only did we get to help build houses, I also got to meet a lot of new people.

Of Movies and Music

Over the weekend I realized that I had bought several DVDs that I haven't watched yet so I figured I should start watching some of them. Didn't really have enough time to watch everything though. I did get to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". It was okay (good enough to watch but it wasn't 'wow'). Definitely darker than some of the previous ones. I was expecting thought that a specific lead character was going to die in it. And when this character didn't die, I thought that they maybe "sanitized" the film version so that people don't start hurling things at the wide screen. So I texted my friend who I know is a huge HP fan and she told me that this character dies in the next film.

I also got to watch "Borat" and it definitely lived up to all the expectations of hilarity. It bordered on political incorrectness (or maybe it even crossed the line) but in a way that made you feel how utterly insane it is to be bigoted i.e. you were more laughing at the stupidity of the jokes and the person making them rather than at the target of the jokes. There were definitely several very memorable moments in the film - I was driving earlier today and remembered one of the scenes and I started chuckling in the car. It really is such a crazy movie, and definitely worth seeing. Just make sure you are ready for some crudeness and lewdness and slapstick beyond compare.

I also recently got the order I placed in Amazon. I had it delivered to my friend John who lives in the US and when my other friend Me-ann went to the US for a business trip, she was able to get my amazon delivery from John and bring it to Manila. Part of the package included Damien Rice's "O", Bell X1's "Music in Mouth", The Editors "An End has a Start", Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below", and Sennheiser CX-300-B Earbuds. I managed to load all those CDs to my ipod before I went to Bangkok last weekend but I haven't really been able to digest the entire albums. Mostly I listened to the songs I already knew from these albums. Today however I got to listen to the Bell X1 album in its entirety and boy am I glad I picked up that album. It's amazing! Every song is at the very least good. And all the songs tie up nicely together, giving the album a very strong identity. It's not available in the Philippines, so if you are interested, you can get it from Amazon.

I've gone halfway through the album of The Editors and it's pretty solid as well. It's always great when you have friends who recommend great music to you (and it's even greater that a lot of the songs in these albums are on youtube so I can sample it before I decide to get the album). In any case, I'm really pleased with my recent CD purchases. And my noise reduction earphones are pretty cool too!

Bangkok Dangerous

No, I don't mean the movie (I was told that the film, which starred Nicolas Cage, was not very good). I mean the actuall city where I spent a long weekend last week.

I've been to Bangkok twice before, but on both occasions I never really got to go around. The first time was for work. I was there for four days but it was mostly long days that were capped off with team dinners. The only place I got to visit was MBK (the mall) to do some shopping. The second time I got to visit Bangkok was by chance. I was flying from London (was on holiday there) to Vietnam (straight to a project kick-off) on September 11 2001, the day of the terrorist attack on the US. As I landed in Bangkok to catch my connecting flight to Vietnam, I was told by the ground crew that my boss had called them to tell me that I needed to stay in Bangkok until our company travel ban was lifted. It was lifted early the next day, but that meant I spent one night in Bangkok. Again, not enough time to see anything.

That definitely was not the case last weekend. I met up with my friend Tim, who has been to Bangkok and Thailand so many times already that he was the perfect tour guide. Our time was spent going around the city with Tim showing me the many interesting sites and bringing me to some really good restaurants to have some great food. I had never been in a tuktuk before so we made sure that I get to ride in one.

We also met up with some friends of Tim and even made a few new friends. Some of these new friends we made took us to an extremely cool night spot. Apparently, it was the house of the owners of MBK - they decided to convert part of their house to a hang-out place. The weather was beautiful, which was really good because this hang out place was outdoors. We spent a few hours here just chilling, drinking wine and rum coke and having shisha (strangely enough, it was my first time to try it, despite it being available in so many places in Manila). After that, Tim and I headed to a club to have a few more drinks...

Probably the most interesting photo I took during the trip was right before we hit the club. Talk about your king of the road (and check out the tail light - literally...)

It was really more like a chill weekend than a dangerous one LOL. Bangkok is definitely a very interesting city. I wouldn't mind paying it another visit, although if I had to go to Thailand again, I'd opt for a trip to the islands like Koh Lanta or Koh Samui.

Barely scraping through

I was in a club last Saturday while Liverpool were playing Portsmouth. They very barely got through. Once again, Torres saved the day with his late goal in added time. But I have to say that Portsmouth lost that game more than Liverpool won it.

I have to say I'm glad that they got through that match. They were in danger of losing. Portsmouth were up a goal twice. And with them losing recently to Everton in the FA Cup (man, that was painful), I was really scared that Liverpool were on their way down. So this win was really good for them. Hopefully it will jump-start a revival. They are still 5 points adrift of league leaders Man Utd so they need to be in their best possible form the rest of the season.

Sesame Street Classic: Flower

If you watched Sesame Street a lot a few decades ago, then you might find this youtube video just as nostalgic as I did. It is a simple yet powerful video of a flower, with Antonio Vivaldi's Guitar Concerto in D Major, 2nd Movement playing in the background:

video uploaded in youtube by user mstatz

I found this video a couple of years ago when I was still based in Sweden. During that time, I spent a lot of time searching for interesting videos on youtube and at some point found myself searching for Sesame Street videos.

I find it very interesting what kind of emotions I feel while watching this clip. Obviously it brings back so many memories of when I was a kid. I find the simplicity of this clip to be very powerful. Showing us the different parts of a flower in great detail makes you realize how easy it is for us to overlook the many tiny fragments of beauty that can be found in things that we take for granted because they are always there. And the music! Leave it to Vivaldi to create a masterful stroke of beauty with this incredibly emotive piece.

It's unfortunate that there is no DVD currently available of all these old Sesame Street clips coz I would certainly get one. I'm pretty sure that thousands of other people also would.

A great sporting day

Not only did Rafa Nadal win the Australian Open but Liverpool also snap their 4-game winless streak by beating Chelsea 2-0 in Anfield. It was Torres' two goals both scored in the dying minutes of the match that gave Liverpool the win. They are still two behind Man Utd (who also have a game in hand so they could go 5 clear) but at least they didn't fall back even further behind.

Nadal wins Grand Slam title #6!

Rafa Nadal wins the 2009 Australian Open, beating Roger Federer in 5 sets 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2. Woo-hoo!! :)

photo courtesy of the Australian Open website.

Some interesting figures:

• Rafa now leads Roger in their head to head, 13-6
• Rafa also leads Roger in their Grand Slam final head to head, 5-2
• Rafa has won the five matches they played against each other
  
• This is the first time Nadal has reached the final of a Grand Slam event played on hard court
• Nadal's career five-set record now stands at 12-3. Clearly, he's not a guy you'd want to get into a fifth set against.

The level of play was not as high as in their Wimbledon 08 clash but it was just as tense for the most part. Federer was not at his best, which was good for Nadal because he seemed a step slower and marginally weary, most likely due to his 5 hour 14 minute semifinal match against Fernando Verdasco. A lot of people, including myself, thought that Nadal would not be in good enough physical shape after that. A colleague even commented last Friday, as the Nadal-Verdasco match got into the 5th set, that Federer would kill whichever of the two he ends up meeting. How wrong she was!

Nadal now has 6 Grand Slam titles. And he's only 22. When Federer was 22, he had 1 Grand slam title (Wimbledon 2003). And with Federer amassing a multitude of records already, it's interesting that with this win, Rafa actually achieved something Roger has not - win a Grand Slam event on three different surfaces (grass, hardcourt, and clay).

Of course, the question is how many years Rafa can play at this level. His style of play is so physically demanding that it won't be easy for him to have the longevity that other tennis legends have. But I guess it doesn't really matter. With 6 Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces and a #1 ranking, he is assured of a place as one of the best tennis players in history. He may not be the greatest ever. But he certainly is the best right now.

Congratulations, Rafa! :)

Keeping my fingers crossed

So I've just recently been told that my band Still Oz may start gigging again. After 8 months of not gigging, I'm hoping that this pans out.

So while I wait for news on whether we land another series of gigs, here's a video of us performing U2's "With or without you" from our gig last May:

Joaquin's first birthday party

I attended Joaquin's first birthday party earlier today. Actually, I didn't just attend it, I hosted it. I didn't have my clown costume and make-up or my magic tricks with me though. ;) Joaquin is the son of my friend Myra, whose wedding I also hosted (so I'm guessing she thinks I'm a pretty good emcee LOL).

There was a lot of good food and we had a few party games - one for the kids, one for the babies (2 and under), one for the adults, and one for the yayas. But the main event was a Gymboree program - Myra and her husband Jun got Gymboree to set up a play area and to organize a 1 hour program for the kids. It was a really good program that allowed the kids to be fully engaged and even had their dads and moms participate.

Towards the end of the party, we showed a really cool AVP of Joaquin's photos. You have to really admire Myra and Jun for documenting Joaquin's first year in photos. We closed the program with the cake/candle blowing and with everyone singing "Happy birthday".

So from wedding singer and emcee to children's party emcee. Makes me wonder what's next LOL.

Streep Snags A SAG!!!

I did not expect it to happen. And apparently, neither did Meryl Streep. But the Screen Actors Guild honored Meryl with a Screen Actors Guild award for best performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her brilliant performance in "Doubt".

Meryl has a history of being nominated but not winning. The only awards she has won in recent years have been Golden Globes and it hasn't been for her work in dramatic roles but for her comedic or musical performances. In fact, her last and only Oscar for best actress in a lead role was in 1982 for "Sophie's Choice". That is almost three decades ago.

Kate Winslet's double victory in the recently concluded Golden Globe's cemented her as a frontrunner for the best actress trophy at the Oscars. And with the Oscar awards nominating her for only one award instead of two as she has been in both the Golden Globes and the SAG awards, one can't help but think that the Academy is priming her for a win by preventing its voters from being distracted with two nominations. It is her role in "The Reader", for which she won as best supporting actress in both the SAG awards and Golden Globes, that nabbed her a best actress nomination in the Oscars, and not her role in "Revolutionary Road" which seems to have been snubbed.

Winslet's too good an actress to not have an Oscar so I won't feel that bad if Kate wins. After all, she has been nominated 6 times now and has never won. But I would be really happy if Streep, who has now been nominated a record 15 times, can finally break her Oscar jinx and win her second best actress Oscar (and third overall).

I did read recently that Katharine Hepburn won 3 of her 4 best actress Oscars in her 60s and Streep turns 60 in a few months' time. So if she can't win this year, maybe the Academy will reward her again real soon.

Three down, four to go

Rafa Nadal has breezed through his first three matches in the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the calendar year. So far, he's been in incredible form, losing an average of only two games in each set that he plays. If he keeps playing at this level, he has a very good shot at winning the AO. Hopefully his form doesn't run out.

*****

What the hell is wrong with Roger Federer?? He's supposed to be an ambassador of tennis and yet he starts a completely unprovoked word-war with world #4 Andy Murray.

It all started when Fed was asked what he thought about British odds-makers putting Andy Murray, currently #4 in the world. as equal favorite to win the title. Fed apparently didn't take to well to that, scoffed at the idea, and said that with no Grand Slams to his belt currently, he could not be considered a favorite. (Read more here.) Funnily, it wasn't Murray who declared himself the favorite. And funnier still, British odds-makers aren't the only ones who think Murray has as good a chance as anyone else for winning. Fred Stolle, the Australian Tennis great who now does commentary work, has said that he believes Murray is a favorite. This is obviously based on his recent form. Andy has beaten Nadal the last time they played, Federer the last three times they played, and Novak Djokovic the last two times they played. That's not even counting the exhibition during which Murray beat both Roger and Rafa back to back. Clearly, Andy Murray has the best record against the Big 3 right now.

As a response to these remarks from Federer, Murray saying "Well, I mean, I don't have a problem whether I'm a favorite or not. You know, I guess Roger would prefer to be favorite himself. That's absolutely fine."

And now Roger has made more comments, saying that he would take on Andy Murray in a best-of-five match any day (Read more on Roger's challenge here).

And to make matters worse, Novak Djokovic has joined in the fray, remarking that he should be more of a favorite than Andy based on rankings (Novak's remarks here.) I guess the current #3 in the world, who choked in this two opportunities early this year to take the #2 ranking away from Fed, doesn't like being left out of the spotlight in discussions of title favorite either.

I just don't understand why Federer, who is supposed to be such an even-keel polite and upstanding ambassador of the sport, would start a word war with the new kid on the block. He doesn't have anything to prove, so he should care less as to who some people think is the favorite to win a tournament. I guess maybe he's so used to being worshiped and feared by everyone in tennis that when someone declared that they don't fear playing against him, he considers it disrespectful. Apparently, Murray is also at a loss to understand why Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were put out by his status as Australian Open favourite (read more about this here).

Am just glad that Rafa has remained more logical than his contemporaries and defended Andy Murray and his "AO favorite" status, saying "When you win Cincinnati, when you win Madrid, when you win Doha playing against Federer, playing against Roddick, you are ready to win a grand slam". (Read Rafa's defense of Murray here.) Well said.

Losing ground

With two draws in their last two premiership matches, including one very painful one to Everton in Anfield!!! - Liverpool have now dropped to second in the premiership. Man U is now top of the league. Historically, they have always done extremely well after Christmas and Liverpool haven't so I am a bit worried but I am hoping Liverpool can regain their composure and finish do really well the rest of the season.

They have a chance to redeem themselves against Everton next week during their 4th round clash in the FA Cup this Sunday. I'm really hoping for some good news. Good luck Liverpool!

A fun-filled and meaningful holiday season

So it’s been a couple of weeks since the Christmas season concluded, and as is the case with most people, things get really hectic during this period. The same is true for me, what with all the parties and get-togethers and stuff. But the fact that the government declared a whole host of public holidays meant that I got to spend a lot of time with my family during this time. I also got to spend a very meaningful day in a home for the aged.

My friend Ginger invited me to this Christmas party she was organizing for ANAWIM, a home for the aged in Rizal. She knew I was into socio-civic activities because we talked before about Bukas Sarili and she made a donation to PGH during one of my previous marathons for a cause so she thought I might be interested to join. I had nothing planned that day so I decided I would go. Ginger hired some Dance Instructors to dance with the folks there. It was quite unfortunate that some of them had bad hips or bad knees and could no longer dance but everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. We also had volunteers do some impromptu singing (yes, I was one of them). Food was served to everyone and once the program was over, we spent some time talking to the folks while Ginger and her relatives worked on printing the photos they took during the event (they brought a photo printer with them! I was impressed!) – that way we could leave actual (and not digital) photos with them to remind them of the wonderful day we had. It was awesome!

A couple of days later, I took my family to Tagaytay. We spent a night in Taal Vista – it was my first time to stay there and it was a really nice hotel with a great view of Taal Lake and Taal Volcano. We had lunch in Josephine’s before checking in to the hotel and immediately upon checking in, my nephews ask me to take them to the pool. I told them it was really cold but they insisted. They seemed to enjoy being in the really cold water but once they got out 20 minutes later, they were shivering like crazy. We turned in quite early that night and got up early the next day so that we could go to Taal Volcano. My grandparents just stayed at the Yacht Club to wait for us as we made our way to the volcano. We all went on horseback (and what was very interesting was that my nephew CJ had a 12 year old kid as his guide – can you imagine to pre-teen kids riding a horse all by themselves?) on our way up to the crater.

I had never seen in before and it was beautiful! Definitely worth a trip.

The boat ride back was actually a lot of fun as well because the lake was very choppy and we got splashed quite a bit LOL. We make a quick stop in Good Shepherd to buy ube and strawberry jam and stuff before making our way back to Manila.

And to wrap up the Christmas season, we celebrated CJ’s birthday with lunch in Mom and Tina’s before spending the rest of the afternoon in Ark Avilon Zoo and Fun Ranch in Tiendesitas. My brother had taken my nephews there before but I had never been. The great thing about this zoo is that it is interactive – kids can feed several of the animals there like rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, goats, and fish. They also have some animals like Orang utans, snakes, and cockatoos that you can have a photo op with.

It was late afternoon when we got to Fun Ranch so my nephews just got on a couple of rides – the boats and the bump cars before we head home. We did make one quick stop in Eastwood to get CJ the Bakugan that he dropped into the drain a week before.

I was knackered by the time the holiday season was over actually – in fact, I must have averaged less sleep during those two weeks than I do during work days LOL. But I’m not complaining. It was definitely a great Christmas season.

"Star Wars" - An A Capella Tribute to John Williams

My friend Pia sent me a link to this video and it blew me away. Check it out. I think you will be equally impressed:


video uploaded in youtube by user 9JohnJace13

The video was created and performed by Corey Vidal. Not only is the video impressive in how the harmonies were created but Corey actually sings really well (and has a very wide range!). Another interesting thing about this video is that the tribute to Star Wars here are the lyrics and storyline of the song. He doesn't sing to the tune of the Star Wars theme at any time. Instead, he sings to the tune of movie themes which John Williams also composed (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Indiana Jones, E.T., and Jaws).

It was nominated for a CBS people's choice award for favorite youtube video (it didn't win though) and if you watch it, I think you will agree that it deserved the nomination.

Wrapping up the wedding season

So, wedding season for 2008-2009 is almost over (okay, that comment makes me sound like Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn from the Wedding Crashers LOL). I’ve been to three more weddings in the last month. I have one more wedding to attend (well, more like a wedding reception since Tricia and CJ have wed civilly already and they are just preparing a reception so they can celebrate as a couple with all their friends) but here's a quick recap of the ones that I attended in the last few weeks.

My friend Stelz got married to her husband Norman in San Agustin Church last December, a couple of days before Christmas. She had asked me and a couple of my ex-colleagues Mark and Rose to play some songs during the wedding ceremony (Mark played the guitar and Rose played the keyboards and did backing vocals as well). We performed “I offer my life” during the offertory, “Lead me, Lord” during communion, and four songs during the pictorial session: Kenny Lattimore’s “For you”, Martin Nievera’s “Never Say Goodbye”, Gary Valenciano’s version of “How did you know” and Edwin McCain’s “I’ll be”. I was also supposed to sing Gary V’s version of “I will be here” and Rose was supposed to sing “You” by the Carpenters but there wasn’t enough time. Here’s a video of me singing “I’ll Be”:



The reception was also held in Intramuros, just a block away from the church, and it was great because I got to see and catch up with a lot of other ex-colleagues, a lot of whom I haven’t seen in a long time.

And since good things come in threes, I headed back to San Agustin church a week and a half later to attend Maileen and Nick’s wedding. The church ceremony was at 2pm and there was a mini-reception in Barbara’s afterwards to keep people entertained before heading to the dinner reception in – get this – the Metropolitan Museum. It was the first time that I attended a wedding set in a museum and I thought it was an absolutely brilliant idea. My friends and I got there at 5pm and spent our time walking through the museum and being in awe of the amazing art there. But of course it wasn’t just the venue that made it memorable. The speeches were great, the wine was really good (and free-flowing!), and I got to catch up once again with old friends, including Maileen whom I haven’t really seen a lot of recently. It was cool that I got to dance with her as well during the reception because we used to be dancing partners in college during our Indakan days.

Finally, I attended the wedding of Kuki and MJ a couple of days ago in Fernbrook. It was my first star-studded wedding (Kuki and MJ have a lot of very good friends in showbiz). I won’t go into detail on who was there since Kuki and MJ might not appreciate the name dropping haha. But suffice it to say that my duet partner Shasha and I were not pleased by the fact that we had to sing almost immediately after a couple of very seasoned performers who both sang really well LOL. We sang “All I ask of you” from the Phantom of the Opera. In any case, we seemed to have pulled it off decently well and not embarrass ourselves in the presence of all those showbiz people haha. But at the end of the day, MJ and Kuki were happy with our song and that is really the most important thing.

This also means that I have now sung in 26 different weddings and wedding anniversaries. For a non-professional wedding singer, I’d say that’s a whole lot. I am now seriously considering talking to some wedding coordinators to see if they are in need of an extra wedding singer LOL. After all, with the current global financial crisis, I could do with the extra pocket money.

Game night

I think part of the idea for Game Night came from the fact that when Suzanne and Nenen came to Manila a month and a half ago, they distributed their Christmas gifts to us and most of us got Cranium games. When we had our Christmas party, we started talking about meeting up again in early January to have a game night, where we get to play the different games we got. That concept finally came to fruition yesterday when Pia, Che, Tim, and I paid a visit to Raffa and Joh's house.

We kicked the night off with "breakfast for dinner" - Joh and Raffa prepared a breakfast menu that consisted of pan de sal with kesong puti, bacon, daing na bangus, spam, chicken longganisa, and fried rice, and egg (I think I'm missing something). We had orange juice along with our dinner. And for dessert, we had chocolate chip pancakes and coffee. Not sure whose vision it was (Joh? Pia?) but in any case, it was an awesome dinner and we all ended up getting pretty stuffed.

Now that we had sufficient energy reserves to last us the entire night, we headed on to play the different games we had. We started off with a three-round American Idol game on Wii. Che and Tim had never played it before and Che really wanted to try it. It was a lot of fun and the judges comments provided a lot of entertainment, and in the end, Raffa took the title.

We moved on to Che's game - Whoonu. The objective of the game is to pick a card that you think describes the other players the most. I won't get into all the details of the game since I don't want to make this blog post too long LOL. Raffa won this game again, but I do have to say that my cards never seemed to be any good. (I know, excuses, excuses...)

We then moved on to Tim's game - Hoopla. I won't even attempt to explain how this game works as it is a lot more complex than Whoonu LOL but the objective here is that all players, as a team, have to make the other players guess the content of their cards using a variety of different techniques. You play against the time, and when you try to guess 32 cards in 15 minutes, it can get pretty intense. We actually lost the first time we played (we had 2 cards remaining when time ran out) but the next round we played we won.

Pia brought with her a "Princess Bride" game, which is kind of a strategic game. The goal is to get to the castle by using tactic cards to overcome your path cards. Joh, Tim, and I all ended up one move away from victory and it was essentially Pia's call on who would win - it would either be me or Joh as she had one block card which she could use on any other player. The winner of this game is, well, undefined, since Pia blocked Joh allowing me to win but Pia apparently got confused and didn't realize I was going to win as well (she thought I would just end up blocking Tim instead of stepping forward to the castle LOL). Doesn't really matter who the winner was though so I guess we can call it a Joh victory. :)

Our next game was mine - Humdinger. Probably the simplest game, you need to make your teammates guess the song written down on your card by humming it. We didn't know a lot of the songs, but it was pretty fun.

We closed out the night with Wii fit games, which ranged from skiing and snowboarding to football headers (I bust my gut laughing in this game!) to catching fish on an chunk of glacier. The most tiresome of all the games we tried though was the hula hoop game. I was actually sweating after my second attempt at it. If you play a few rounds of this game each day, I'm pretty sure you'd get a good cardio workout each time.

It was a really fun night for all of us. I'm guessing there will be a part 2 sometime soon.

Holding steady at the top

Halfway through the season and Liverpool still remain at the top of the English Premier League. This is great news! Apparently, the last time Liverpool were top of the league after Christmas (which was 1987), they went on to win the league. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the same thing happens this year. It won't be easy though. There's finally a bit of breathing room now between Liverpool and Chelsea - 3 points, if you can call that breathing room, but they used to be up by just a point. Man Utd are 7 points adrift in 3rd place, but they have two games in hand. If they win both those matches, they end up just one point. In any case, it should be a very interesting season.

And while we're on the subject of sports, Rafa Nadal just bludgeoned his way past Fabrice Santoro 6-0, 6-1 to get to the Round of 16 in the Exxonmobil Open in Doha, his first tournament of the year. This is an excellent start to the year for Nadal, and hopefully he can keep this kind of form the rest of the tournament and open 2009 with a title.

I also recently caught the 2008 New York marathon on cable and I was very pleased to see that Paula Radcliffe won her 3rd New York Marathon. I find it quite unfortunate that she is the world record holder in the women's marathon with a time of 2:15:25 (that is less than half the amount of time it took me to run my fastest marathon ever LOL) and yet hasn't won an Olympic gold. It would be great though if she finally breaks through and wins top honors in London 2012.