The Killers Live in Manila!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UP places 2nd in cheerdance

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


video uploaded in youtube by TheABSCBNNews

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

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

Pinoy youtube sensation on Ellen

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


video uploaded by MrNoypistuff

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

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

Charice in the Guinness Book of World Records

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

Way to go, Charice!

The Wildflour Croissant-Donut

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

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

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

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

Rafa wins the US Open!

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

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

photo by Clive Brunskill (Getty Images)

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

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

*****

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

*****

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

Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major

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


video uploaded in youtube by cbcradio3

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

Buffet lunch

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

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

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

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

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

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


video uploaded in youtube by Ryan Lewis

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

Family Weekend Celebration

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

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

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

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

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

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

June archive

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

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

The Spectacular Cecile Licad

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

photo from www.philippineconcerts.com

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

video uploaded in youtube by tiklado07

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

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

Movie-watching

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nadal wins again!

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

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

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

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

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

Traffic ticket

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

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

Dinner at Opus

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

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

U.S. Angus Beef Wellington

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

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

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


video uploaded in youtube by OfficialHHI

Way to go, U.P. Streetdance Club!

Busy Saturday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pistachio Sans Rival from Delize

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

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

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

Delize by Jill Sandique

Address: 33 Sunrise Drive, Cubao, Quezon City

Tel: 721-7022

Mobile: 0922-826-2673

Rafa Nadal wins in Montreal

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

photo from www.atpworldtour.com

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

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

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