Day 179 - Boat Ride

On our second day in Bataan, we took a boat ride to a nearby "white sand beach" and "cave". I used quotation marks because the sand on the beach wasn't really that white (it was more golden brown) and I know that from this picture, the cave behind me looks quite big, but actually it's more like a hole in the wall. But I'm not really complaining. I'm happy to have taken the boat trip as it was at least something else to do (because looking at old houses can get a little, well, old) and look! Clear water! :D

P.S. Photo was taken by my cousin B (but using my camera).

Day 178 - My Parents Are Weird

For the last 2 days of 2010, my family went for an overnight trip to Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar, a resort in Bataan, which features old style Filipino houses. I suppose I could've picked one of the many pictures of said old houses, but this was just too funny (for me anyway) not to post.

During dinner time, we watched the cultural presentation of the resort staff at the "plaza", which was outdoors. When it started to rain, my parents used the cloth napkins from the dining tables to cover their heads. We all eventually moved back into the restaurant, but not before I got this shot.

For more pictures of the place, see my dad's multiply post.

P.S. My brother is weird, too.

Day 177 - More New Stuff for the New Year

I finally redeemed my Starbucks 2011 Planner today. Got the velvet one because they were all out of the wood kind. It's OK. I like the velvet one, too. See here for a longer commentary.

Day 176 - Old Phone, New SIM

Following this, I have finally upgraded my cellphone's SIM card. After 10 years. The lady at Globe (my cellphone service provider) even sorta laughed at me for having held on to my 10-year-old SIM card. I don't think she believed me about how old it was until she saw my actual SIM card and noted that the serial number on it started with "0200". The serial numbers of the SIM cards now are at "4200". What can I say? I hang on to material things.

Actually, it is kind of remarkable how my 0200 SIM card has survived the test of time. When my phone fell into the ocean in 2005 (4 years after I got it), my phone was ruined, but my SIM card was not. I've changed my cellphone unit twice since that time, and still my SIM card remains functional. If only Globe didn't deactivate some functions of the older SIM cards (like international roaming) and therefore force me to get a new one, I'd probably have the same SIM card for the next 10 years, provided nothing bad happens to it/me.

Also, in case anybody's curious, I've been using the same cellphone unit for 3 years. You'll see from the picture that it's all worn out because the color's faded on some keys. Now, if only changing cellphone units was the same as changing SIM cards (which is for free, BTW)...

Day 175 - Santa Claus?

Wearing red? Check. Giving gifts? Check. Big belly? Check. Beard? Sort of... So, check. My dad has officially become Santa Claus. Hehehe!

Today is Christmas Day! I went to my grandfather's house in Makati and celebrated (in other words: ate a lot) with my family. We exchanged gifts, sang oldies on the Magic Mic and made funny faces to make the new baby in the family (my cousin's daughter, she's 9 months old) laugh. More details in my main blog.

P.S. Because I'm such a loser, I wasn't able to take any pictures on the 24th. Sorry about that. It's just that... My nieces and nephews in the Christmas party that we went to then were so noisy and hyperactive that I forgot all about taking pictures. -_-

Day 174 - Friends and Gifts

(Click on image for full view.)

I went to meet and exchange gifts with my oldest and closest friends today at Greenbelt 2 in Makati. We had dinner at Cyma (Greek food!) and dessert at Bizu (where these pictures were taken). To entertain ourselves while waiting for our chocolate cake and coffee, we decided to take a picture of each of us with our gifts. To be even more entertaining (at least, in our opinion) we decided that the person with the gifts wouldn't be the one the gifts are from. So clockwise -- that's J3 with the gifts from J2, me with the gifts from J1, J2 with the gifts from J3 and J1 with the gifts from me (Pulburon! Previously mentioned in this entry.) Confused? I am, too, sometimes. You see, my three closest friends have names that all start with the letter J. Actually, two of them have the exact same name (granted, spelled differently, but basically the same). But, that's the craziness of the world for you.

P.S. Hindi naman ako mahilig sa collage. Hehe. It's just that there are always a lot of pictures during the holidays. It's difficult to choose just one.

Day 173 - Anatomy of a Family Christmas Photo

(Click on photo for full view.)

First: Gather round your family members. You do this by yelling "O picture na! Picture na!" Some people think that the louder and more annoying their voice is, the more effective this "call" is (I think not, but maybe that's just me).

Second: Find a spot near the Christmas tree.

Third: Make yourselves fit, no matter how many you are, and how small the area around the Christmas tree is.

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the actual photo of all of us on the stairs, because, well, because I was holding my camera while I was sitting in the middle of everyone and it was too difficult to move (or breathe). But I did take pictures while we were trying to fit ourselves in the staircase, while sitting down, and while we were getting out. I took a photo of the "photographers", too (That's the photo on the bottom, 2nd from left). Can you count how many cameras there are?

Edit (1/4/2011): As my cousin has uploaded the pictures from their camera, you can see the finished product of this photo here.

Day 172 - All Wrapped Up

ONE DOWN - the first batch of Christmas gifts to give for the first of the family Christmas parties. There are two to go.

Ever since my sister moved to New Zealand, I'd been the one to wrap the gifts that our family gives to relatives on Christmas. I'm not as good at gift-wrapping as she is, but my mom doesn't really have a choice as I'm the only one left whom she can assign this task to.

These are for the Christmas party at my aunt's house in Pasig. They're not a lot, but maybe my mom will give me more gifts to wrap tomorrow, you know, a few minutes before the party. We're usual victims of the last-minute thing.

Day 171 - Stop, Look and Listen

I was really in a hurry to meet with my friends for dinner, but there are just some things that make you stop, look, listen and maybe forget everything else.

At first I thought it was just a random band because they were singing Christmas songs, but then the last line of the song was suddenly "tulad ng dati..." and I was so happy to realize that my it was my favorite OPM band, The Dawn, who was at the middle of Glorietta performing. And Jett Pangan (vocalist) and I were both wearing red that day, too. (Haha! Ang babaw ko talaga!)

Anyway, I watched them perform around 3 more songs before I finally went to meet my friends. And when I saw them they told me that before they went to our meeting place they stopped and listened to a few songs of The Dawn, too. Awww, I love my friends who have the same taste in music as I do.

P.S. I know I always say that I'm a Rico Blanco fangirl, and I love his and Rivermaya's songs to death, but when talking of OPM bands and not vocalists/song writers, The Dawn is really my favorite. :)

Day 170 - Pulburon

I think the easiest way to save money during Christmas is to make your own gifts instead of buy them. Unfortunately for me, the only thing I can make is this -- pulburon. But I guess it's really not that unfortunate since these are delicious anyway. How can you go wrong when you put flour, milk, butter and sugar together?

Day 169 - My First Gift

The gift surrounded by the Christmas toys is the first Christmas gift I received this year and it came from someone I never expected would give me a Christmas gift -- my classmate in my Nihongo class.

It's unexpected because my classmates and I aren't really that close. I mean, we only see each other once a week, and for only 3 hours each time. Also, all of us in the class are so shy that we hardly ever talk to each other (really almost never) unless we're doing something class-related. It's actually kind of funny. All of us in the class are girls (even our teacher) and we all seem to just not like talking much, so we're pretty quiet, even (or especially) when the teacher's not around. We make ourselves busy by reading our books or anything else really, except talk to each other. Honestly, it's really my kind of class. :) And way better than my last set of classmates who were so "close" that they felt the need to ostracize the new students (namely me and 3 others).

Anyway, it was such a happy surprise when my classmate A handed me the gift. It makes me feel like there's hope for humanity yet (Is this proof that I'm overdramatic or what?) because it's possible that people who barely know you can still be so nice.

Day 168 - Coins for Carolers

Caroling season has begun! Or, it's supposed to. I still haven't heard actual carolers though. Is it me or are there less and less kids in our village who are interested in making extra money during the holidays? Granted they'll only get a few coins per house, but when I was a kid, by the end of 10 days, my friends and I would've collected about P80 each, which, you know, is pretty big for a kid back then.

Anyway, we're at least prepared if ever carolers come by our house. These are the coins we put near the front door. They're not much now, but maybe my mom will put in more when this supply runs out.

Day 167 - Christmas Coffee

Because I am a social loser, even at home, you're unlikely to see me in the living room or the kitchen (public places, you know). I just stay in my room, and bring everything I need so I wouldn't always need to go out.

This is my Starbucks Christmas mug that I bought around December of 2 years ago, and it's what I use to bring water/coffee into my room. It's placed on the small shelf beside my bed, because that is one of the few flat, solid surfaces (aside from the floor of course) in my room.

Day 166 - Bago Ang Belen

OK, so 'yung mga piyesa hindi bago. Pero bago 'yung bahay kubo nila. As you can see here, this is the aftermath of the making of the belen house, courtesy of Ate M. Ang galing niya, marunong siyang gumamit ng itak at magtirintas ng dahon ng niyog!

These were eventually sweeped up after the Belen (Nativity Scene) house was finished. I was going to post a picture of the belen itself, but I want to save that for another day.

Day 165 - Graduation

(L-R) Kuya, Papa, Mama, Tita, Pinsan, Lolo

Today is my brother's graduation day. He now officially has an MBA. Since I already talked about this in my main blog, I won't go into detail about it anymore here and just post a link to that blog:

Happy Family Day

P.S. Day 165! Only 200 days to go and I will have completed my project! :D

Day 164 - Christmas Choir 2

I will now assume that SM malls have a choir perform Christmas songs at least every Saturday for this and last month. This is another one that I had a chance to watch/listen to today. They're pretty good. :)

I actually took a video of the song they performed after I took this shot (sadly they didn't sing a Christmas song on their next number, Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika, but they did have dance steps) but the video from my cellphone sucks (as do the pictures, actually). I really shouldn't forget to bring a proper camera when I go out of the house next time.

Anyway, I was a bit more fascinated with this choir as opposed to last time, because this choir had more people in the audience. Or maybe that has something to do with the time, because this performance was around 6PM. The other one, I took that photo around 3PM.

P.S. I'm sorry I skipped a lot of days. There's just not much to take pictures of at home.

Day 163 - Mutt in Boots

Admittedly, that is not the best title for this picture. I was going for a parallel with "Puss in Boots" except that it's for dogs, but I guess it doesn't work when you make changes like that. But I can't think of any better title right now so that'll have to do.

Brigham's got himself new shoes! My mom bought him shoes in the hopes that he can walk better, see he's got a birth defect -- one of his feet doesn't have toes, so it gives him sort of a limp. It's not major, though. But we hope these shoes can help anyway. Plus, they're very cute shoes.

BTW, I caught him yawning! Doesn't he look so weird? :P

Day 162 - College Campus

I don't want to say what I went to my old college alma mater for today because people will probably ask me about it later on, but you can probably figure it out if you're privy to the "world". What other reason is there to go to De La Salle University in Manila on the first weekend of December when you're not/no longer a student there?

I took this photo when I was on my way out. I didn't love the DLSU campus much because I always think that college campuses should be more like the UP Diliman campus with big football fields and lots of trees, but it does have its merits, like this area. It's not clear here, but there's a small amphitheater on the left, and the big tree that you see there, it's got wind chimes on it such that when the wind blows while you're walking under it, it sounds real nice. :)

Day 161 - Christmas Party!

Because I'm now an ex-employee and have no office Christmas parties to go to, I volunteered for the Christmas party to come to me. Haha! :P

These are my friends from the office I used to work in. They went to my house after the company Christmas party to exchange gifts and play board/card games. Lots of fun. :)

P.S. The company Christmas party was actually last night, but they got to my house at around 1AM today and stayed here 'til 9AM so this counts as my photo of the day for December 4 Saturday and not Friday night.

Day 160 - Birthday Party!

Another one of my godsons, J celebrated his 2nd birthday today. :) And because I wasn't able to stay at his party last year, my friend/ex-teacher Miss L insisted that I stay this year. But she must've sensed that I'd have nobody to talk to seeing as all the guests were her friends and relatives and co-teachers (none of whom I'm close to) so she gave me the role of photographer. So I wouldn't be bored. I fully embraced my role, which is why I'm so close to them here while they were singing the Happy Birthday song.

P.S. Special appearance by Captain Shakey. Or his name Captain Shakey's?

P.P.S. A Shakey's birthday party isn't bad at all. :) The food was two different kinds of pasta -- red and white sauce, mojo potatoes, garlic bread, and fried chicken. And it's unlimited, too. :) Way way better than the Jollibee/McDonald's birthday parties with the styrofoam containers.

Day 159 - Day Before December

I don't know when you're supposed to start putting up Christmas decorations. For other households, it's pretty early, around September-October. As for us, we usually start today, the day before December.

That's a picture of the not-yet decorated Christmas tree in our living room. I think... it's our 3rd Christmas tree that we've bought. The first was plastic with detachable leaves, the next was a bit bigger, which we gave to my grandfather because his Christmas tree got stolen (or something, we're not really sure what happened to it. One day it was just gone). And we weren't even supposed to have this if I hadn't complained and whined like a spoiled brat about how we just can't not have a Christmas tree in the house.

Afterwards, this tree was decorated with orange/gold/bronze Christmas balls, ribbons, and Santa Claus stuffed toys at the bottom. Maybe that'll be my photo of the day next time. :)

Day 158 - Painting the Roof Red

New activity!

To save some money, my mom decided to not to hire professionals to paint our roof (it's not that hard to need professionals for it). Instead, Ate E, Ate M and their friend were assigned the job (they were still paid, but of course it's way cheaper than what a professional would've asked for). And so I got to help. They assigned me this part because it's at the least dangerous area of our roof. Isn't that thoughtful?

It was fun. :) Of course, I can say this because I was actually only painting for an hour and a half, and on this flat strip of roof, too. Ate M and Ate E were the ones who did the hard stuff. But I like to think I was able to help even a little bit.

Day 157 - College Friends

Today is M's birthday. To know which one she is, she's the one who's dressed like it's her birthday. Hehe. Although she's actually always well-dressed, so even on normal days, the three of us pretty much look like this still.

Anyway, they're only two of my friends from college. But I've actually very few friends from college so this is already 50% of our barkada. I never knew I'd miss college days (because college wasn't all that fun for me), but I do miss my friends. :) I'm really happy that M decided to invite us over to her house for her birthday. We hardly ever see each other anymore.

Day 156 - Textmates

I went to ATC today to meet with a friend. While waiting for her, I went to Starbucks. These were the people sitting across from me. I wonder if they're texting each other? Probably not, but anyway, they looked kinda funny.

Day 155 - Peering Out

Sometimes (actually very rarely), I go "jogging" at the park in front of our house in the morning. Our friendly dog always wants to come with me when he sees me leaving but he can't really go outside without his leash because he might get lost, and I can't really bring him because he's too heavy for me to control. And so he makes me guilty by sticking his nose out this space under our house's gate, this look of longing on his face.

Day 154 - Welcome Spring

Yet another item at our house. Am I treating our house too much like a tourist destination, taking pictures of every corner or novelty item? That's because I'm here all the time and so I've forced myself to think interestingly of things that I see everyday.

This is a sign in our garden. We don't really have Spring season in the Philippines, but we have the decorations for it. What, that's not weird.

Day 153 - Cleaning House

This is Ate E cleaning the porch with soapy water, a broom, and water coming out from that sprinkler thingie. It's the most exciting thing that happened today.

P.S. One of my favorite things about our house -- this red brick wall. They're fake bricks, but I think they look great.

Day 152 - Candy Christmas Tree

This is the Christmas tree displayed at SM Southmall today. I don't know if its only there for a program or if it's their decoration for this year. Anyway, candies!

Day 151 - Rooster on the Radio

Sometimes I just find the strangest things in the house.

Day 150 - 7 Part 1

Is it strange that when I woke up today, the first thing I thought of was that it was finally possible to see the seventh Harry Potter installment -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One)? The first thing I did today was turn my computer on and check the times it was showing at the mall. I was so eager to see it, I didn't even realize how expensive it was. -_- Lucky I got the Citibank coupons and got a P100 discount. And there's no use crying over spilled milk, so I will just convert the cost to US Dollars because that would mean that I got to watch the movie for only $5. Everything in life is just a matter of perspective anyway.

As for my opinion on the movie, well, just go to my main blog for that. :)

Day 149 - Stars and Chimes

The first Christmas decorations of our house are these orange stars that we put above the porch outside. I don't know why we put them up so early. We usually put decorations on the first day of December. I think it's because our house is feeling a little jealous. Our two neighbors have already put up their Christmas decorations for the year, so we figured we should put them up, too.

As for the wind chimes, well they've always been there. At least for the past 12 years or so. My mom loves them.

BTW, the orange stars are homemade. Ate M made them with ordinary glue, barbecue sticks and orange plastic. Looks professional 'eh?

Day 148 - Toy Soldiers

Why are toy soldiers considered as Christmas decorations? What do they have to do with Christmas? Is it because of The Nutcracker? Anyway, it's the main decoration for Ayala Malls this year. These are the ones at the entrance of Greenbelt 5 (obviously) but I also saw some soldiers at Glorietta and at ATC.

I went mall-hopping with my friend J today. We started at Greenhills where she picked up a toy she ordered, then passed by Megamall, Glorietta, and I was picked up by my mom at Greenbelt. You'd think that the same stores would be in all these malls and that we only needed to go to one to get everything we needed, but they really actually have different things to offer. Hence all the hops.

Day 147 - Why pay when you can climb?

So, there are several ways to watch a Manny Pacquiao fight here in the Philippines. You can pay your cable company extra to get it on your TV, buy a ticket to the theater that has it (e.g. SM Cinemas), go to a gymnasium/town hall near you where the government officials have set-up screens, eat at a restaurant with a TV (but they'll be charging you at least P200 more than your regular bill because they'll pay to get the Pacquiao match on their TV), or be ingenious like these guys, and just watch the TV of the restaurant from outside. You will have to go to great lengths to do that, though.

As you can see, they've climbed trees and electrical posts to look in the spaces between the gates of the restaurant, just to get to watch the Pacquiao match. Talk about wanting to watch TV. I wonder if this happens to people in other countries as well, when they really really want to watch something. Would they exert the same effort as these guys did?

We passed by this restaurant on our way home from the cemetery. We knew the Pacquiao VS Margarito fight had already started when we saw this. But we didn't watch the match until the delayed telecast, when we already knew (from information on the internet) that Manny Pacquiao had won. I don't know about you but I actually like watching contests better when I already know who the winner is. I'm not a big fan of getting nervous. And though I'm not a boxing fan who really cares about all this, I still think that it would be sad/disappointing if Manny Pacquiao had lost.

Day 146 - Starbucks at Christmas

I don't know what year the "fad" started but for the past ones, it's been a tradition of Starbucks to reward their customers with Starbucks Planners if they buy at least 18 drinks during Christmas season. This is a picture of the drink I ordered today (Caramel Cream Affogato) and the booklet to which the baristas put a sticker on to indicate how loyal a customer I am.

I used to have more enthusiasm for this "promo", but I'm not happy about the Christmas drinks this year. It seems there's a conspiracy to keep the Christmas drinks that I hate--Praline, Toffee Nut, and Peppermint, and get rid of the ones that I loved--Gingerbread and Dark Cherry. At least in the previous years, at least one or the other (Gingerbread or Dark Cherry) was available. But now, they're both gone and so I don't think I'll be able to collect enough stickers this year. Which is just as well because I'm planning on saving money anyway, and I'm actually not too impressed with the planner design for 2011.

Still, you never know. So I'll keep my options open.

Day 145 - Santa Claus and Manny Pacquiao

TV in the mall attracted a crowd because it was playing reruns of Manny Pacquiao's matches. It's just a coincidence that the Santa Claus decoration is facing the TV, but the thought of Santa Claus watching a Manny Pacquiao match amuses me. Look at his face, he's so happy. :) And his arms are raised as if to cheer for the people's champ. Hehe!

The country has Manny Pacquiao fever right now because he has a match this Sunday (11/14). And of course, Christmas fever as well, because it's November already. Can't wait for both.

Day 144 - Project Bus Tickets

I don't remember why but when I started taking the bus regularly to go to school in college, I kept all the bus tickets I got during my freshman year. (If this isn't proof that I'm a hoarder, I don't know what is.) I think I maybe had some kind of project in mind that involved using them, but lost the idea over the course of time.

Anyway, today I found one of my stock unused notebooks lying around and noticed that its cover had some dirt on it, so rather than try and save its original appearance, which I don't think I could've anyway because it was already ruined by the dirt, I decided to cover it up using these bus tickets that had been waiting in my drawer since 2001.

I rode the bus practically everyday then so even after covering this notebook with these tickets, I still have a bunch left over. Maybe I'll use them for my next notebook. Or if I ever remember my original project idea that made me collect them in the first place.

Day 143 - Pet Love

I should've realized that this was Day 143 so I would've come up with a romantic entry. Because you know, 143. Although 143 isn't actually specific to romantic love, so I guess putting this picture of our dog is just fine. We love him too, anyway. :)

This is our dog Brigham, currently taking his bath, assisted by Ate E. It's his first bath after he got anti-rabies and de-worming shots last week. Anyway, doesn't he look happy on the second picture (right-top)?

Day 142 - The Last Hour of Rock

Today is the last day of my favorite local radio station. Actually, the only radio station I really really liked. Okay, so I listen to other radio stations too, and for the past few years, the DJs on this station haven't been all that great, and so I haven't been listening to it that often, but... I used to always feel comfortable knowing that whenever I get sick of the mainstream songs that are so easy to get sick of, there's always that station on the edge of the FM spectrum, that plays rock.

But now, mainstream has won again. 107.5 will stop playing rock music, and NU107, the home of nurock, will be no more. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do without this radio station. This is where I first heard the songs that would become my favorite songs. This is the station that made me love music.

I couldn't think of anything to take a picture of today, because this day has been all about listening to the radio. So, my picture of the day is a screenshot of NU107's Live Access website. As you can see, there's a crowd inside the studio, and there are over 3000 people viewing the live stream (there's normally only around 100 or less). The jocks are saying their goodbyes and playing the best rock songs ever.

I think I'm going to cry, too.

Day 141 - Christmas Choir

After my class today, I stopped at SM Southmall to pay my cellphone bill, but wouldn't you know it, the Globe* office there is currently undergoing renovation so I ended up just watching this choir perform Christmas songs in the middle of the mall. Talk about having Christmas just around the corner, the malls aren't just playing Christmas songs anymore, they're actually having live performances of it. I didn't catch their name, but they were pretty good.

*Globe - cellphone service provider

Day 140 - Corn and Carrots

First: I should stop taking pictures of food, really. But sometimes, there really are no interesting subjects (that I can think of ).

Second: This is a picture of my lunch today. I'm trying to lose weight so I'm only eating vegetables today. I'm hoping that this diet works, but since I'm naturally a pessimist and always think that bad things happen to me (because they do), I don't have a very good feeling about it.

Day 139 - SET Solitaire

My sister gave me the SET deck as a gift. :)

Unfortunately, I've no one to play with. Only my family knows how and everyone is really busy. So I play it alone, with the delusional hope that it'll make me smarter somehow.

Anyway, if you know how to play, come around and let me know so I won't have to play solitaire. How many sets can you find from this sample? I only found 2.

Day 138 - Groceries on Grass

We went to South Supermarket today. As you can see, they've gone "environment friendly" and have changed their bags from plastic to paper.

I appreciate their effort, although it's not the best thing you can use to carry cans in, especially when you're taking the jeep to go home afterwards. By the time we got to the house, one of the bags we were carrying was completely torn, and these groceries just fell on the grass. Lucky we were already home by then. Can you imagine how it would've been if the bag had torn while we were still in the jeepney, or while we were crossing the street? I can, but I don't want to.

Day 137 - Bye Bye Blackfish

While the tank was being cleaned, we put our pet fish in this tub. If you met them before, you'd know that they're missing one black goldfish (apparently the goldfish specie has members that are black in color, despite their name). That's because he (she? how do you know when a fish is a boy or a girl?) died last week. :(

It's a shame. He was my favorite, not just because he looked different and so was easy to distinguish from the others, but because he was also the one who behaved the most differently, from swimming backwards to laying upside-down while asleep. I didn't actually see how he looked when he was dead, but that's a good thing. I don't like seeing dead animals. Even if they are fish, who I'm not particularly attached to anyway.

Day 136 - Craving Chicken

The best part of Max's Restaurant menu, IMHO. BTW, look, they actually have "chicken sisig". I wonder what that tastes like.

During the roadtrip back from our Bicol trip, my mom kept talking about how we would stop over somewhere in Quezon to eat dinner at Max's Restaurant. Unfortunately, before we got to any area with a Max's Restaurant, we were too hungry, and so ate dinner at the first food establishment we saw instead, which was Jollibee. Not that there's anything wrong with Jollibee, it's just that we were already thinking of Max's chicken for several hours.

Days later (that's today), my dad and I still hadn't gotten Max's chicken out of our minds, and so after mass, we went and ate dinner there. It's a total indulgence -- my budget conscious mom just conveniently happens to be out of the country today, and I think my dad wanted my brother to miss out on something since he passed on going with us to church.

P.S. Today is Halloween. But I didn't even realize it until I wrote this and looked at the date on the calendar. Obviously, that means we didn't have any Halloween celebrations or anything. I did see Facebook posts of my friends who went to parties in costume, though. It made me feel like an outsider, like I'm from a parallel world where Halloween doesn't exist and so I find it strange that there are people who actually make a big deal out of what they're wearing today.

Day 135 - Merienda

PALITAW AT LINGA - Yup, the Tagalog word for sesame seeds is "linga". Who knew?

Would you believe it if I told you that it was only after college that I found out that not all households serve merienda (afternoon snack)? OK, so maybe I knew it all along because of course, not all households have the same eating habits, but it was really only a few years ago when I was talking with my officemates about food that I talked about how we usually had merienda on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and they told me that that's not a practice in every household. And once more I was reminded of how lucky I am that my family likes to eat. :)

Anyway, I took a photo of our merienda today because it's one of my favorites. But actually, I like almost all merienda food - bananacue, kamote cue, turon, bico, etc.

Day 134 - Red Velvet

Today is the 31st Wedding Anniversary of my parents. Congratulations to them!

To celebrate, we ate steak, turbo chicken, ice cream, and cake. I wanted this Red Velvet Cake from UCC but since it's too small (as you can see, it can fit in the plastic box that you normally use for cake slices), we went to Red Ribbon to buy a bigger one. Chocolate Fudge. Still not as good as Mer-Nel's Chocolate Cake, but good enough. I can't wait for the next occasion so we can pig out again. :)

BTW, you can't see the usual dining room wood table underneath because I took this photo while I was in our kitchen, where the counter top is white tile. Why was I in the kitchen, you ask? That's because I was hiding out. Cakes like these aren't for sharing ;) hehe!

P.S. I skipped some days again. I just completely forgot about this project the past 2 days! @_@ Plus, my body clock is playing tricks on me again, waking me up at night and making me real sleepy during daytime.

Day 133 - Legaspi City

The bird flew into the shot at just the right time. It was totally coincidental. :)

This is the view of Legaspi City from Ligñon Hill where my dad and I tried the zipline. :) On the other side is a view of the Mayon Volcano, and I would've posted that, except the clouds were blocking the view again. :( I'm kind of sad that nearly all the times I've been to Bicol, Mt. Mayon has always been covered by clouds. OK, so I was able to see it last night, and there were no clouds then, but it was nighttime, so it still wasn't clear. Oh well, I guess that just means I have to go to Bicol again and again until I see it.

P.S. This is the last of the photos taken with my brother's Nikon D90. It's back to my point and shoot and cellphone cam tomorrow.

Day 132 - Kalabaw ng Cagsaua

We passed by the Cagsaua Church Ruins today. That's the site where the most famous pictures of the Mayon Volcano (the icon of Bicol province) are taken. Here's a sample:

Image from http://www.hawaii.edu/cps/maycag.html

But because that picture is too common already, and when we went there, clouds were blocking the view of the volcano anyway, I'm choosing to post this picture of a carabao instead:

We found him (or maybe her, but for some reason I think all carabaos are male) outside the "official" area of the church ruins (that is, wala pang bayad 'pag tumigil ka sa area na'to kasi hindi mo pa kita ang Cagsaua Ruins), beside these rocks and some ponds. Some of his friends were bathing in the ponds and I took pictures of them, too, but they were too submerged in the water so you can't actually see them clearly.

Anyway, I think carabaos are some of the friendliest animals on the planet. I don't really know though because I've never been really close to one. But I've only ever seen them resting or helping people, so to my mind they're very nice and friendly. :)