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. :)

Day 131 - The Old House

This is the house my dad grew up in. They sold it years ago so we don't know anymore who lives in it, and we weren't able to go inside. But my dad says that at least, from the outside, save for the growth of the plants, it looks pretty much the same.

I wonder how strange it feels for my dad to see "his" house and not be able to go inside. I've only lived in one house my entire life and I can't imagine other people living in it.

Day 130 - Candles

Today I went with my parents on a road trip to Naga City in Bicol, where my dad grew up. We got there around 3PM (Thanks to my dad's scary fast driving), and after checking in to the Bed and Breakfast (Señor Enrico), we went to the Basilica Peñafrancia to catch the 5PM mass.

After the mass, we bought some candles outside the church and placed them here.

BTW, this and the next 3 photos were taken using my brother's Nikon D90. He lent it to us for our trip to Bicol. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to use it so the setting was on Automatic the whole time. Still, the pictures look pretty good, and reminds me how you don't need to be a professional to take good pictures when your camera is an SLR. But, going into further detail with that story will make this entry too long. My opinion on non-photographers owning SLRs is for another day. Hehe.

Day 129 - Nap Time

I went to visit my friend X and my godson A today. We watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on DVD while snacking on a Greenwich Cheese Overload Pizza. I missed them a lot. A is so much fun and X is one of the few people I can talk all day with about Harry Potter. :)

Halfway through the movie, A fell asleep on the couch. That's his school bag beside him, he was showing it to me earlier that afternoon. He's 4 years old now (just turned 4 last August) and is in Pre-School (Nursery).

Day 128 - Cheese Puffs

Because we passed by the grocery store yesterday without my mom, I was able to buy a bag of Cheetos Cheese Puffs. Having assigned today as "Pig Out Day" (for no reason), I took a picture of what the cheese puffs look like inside the bag. Yummy.

Day 127 - Happy Birthday Papa!

FAMILY - 1: (L-R) My brother J, me, Dad, and Mom (My sister isn't present in the picture because she lives in New Zealand)

My dad turns another year closer to 60 today. I really don't know his age exactly because we don't count birthdays anymore. The fun is in celebrating, not in knowing how old you are, right? ;)

So today Ate E and I went to SM Southmall to buy birthday presents for him. And then we went to Alabang Town Center, which is a few kilometers away, just to buy him this cake (Concorde, from Sugarhouse) because I think the cakes in Red Ribbon and Goldilocks (the 2 bake shops in SM Southmall) have significantly deteriorated in quality and are therefore very very not yummy. And you know me, I'm willing to travel for delicious cake. I hope that Sugarhouse will not sell out because unfortunately, it's currently the only bakeshop in Metro Manila that I trust. (OK, Bizu is good, too. But it's too expensive.) If you have any other suggestions, please tell me. I love cake. :)

This photo was taken just before we ate the cake. You can see part of our kitchen and the hallway to the rooms of our house in it. As you can see, we are true Filipinos--we have a wooden carving of The Last Supper in our dining room. Hehe.

Day 126 - Except for Emergencies

Today I went with my dad to RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) somewhere in Alabang, to get a medical certificate for him (he got bit by our dog a few months ago, it's not major). I took this picture while he was in line to the window where you request for documents. It's the door beside said window.

I wish I could've taken more photos of the place, though. It seemed like a perfect set for a horror movie. The hallways were dark, the doors are painted this old shade of green, lights were flickering, and there was even construction going on in some parts, providing those creepy industrial sounds. Also, it's located in one of those pockets of land in the still strangely developed side of Alabang, surrounded by grassy hills. I think if we'd gone there at night, I probably would've been scared.

Day 125 - Gift Wrapper

From time to time, my mom would ask me to giftwrap some stuff, usually during Christmas, but also throughout the year whenever there's a birthday or a baptism, or whatever other occasion. I don't really mind. I've grown to like giftwrapping, and sometimes entertain the thought of learning the art form for real. For now though, I'm content with knowing the basics.

This particular gift is for one of the kids of my mom's officemates, I think. It's for a baptism. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I no longer remember what's inside it. -_-

P.S. Apologies for the quality of the picture. I didn't have much relevant things to do today so I just took a photo of the first thing I saw when I went out of my room with my camera.

Day 124 - Paper Cranes

Our lesson in Japanese class today was about giving and following instructions. So our sensei taught us all how to fold paper cranes. I already knew how to make them, but apparently there are two kinds of origami cranes--one for decorative purposes, and one, that you can pull on its tail and the wings will flap. These are the kind that flap their wings. The white one is the model one that our sensei folded, and the blue is the one that I folded, with the help of a classmate, Orange-san (that's her real name. really).

BTW, I took this picture in our classroom. The wood in the picture is a partial view of my desk.

Day 123 - Rainy View

INTERSECTION - between SM Makati and Glorietta, Intercontinental Hotel at the background

I went to my former office to tie some loose ends today *wink* and went to Glorietta afterwards to pass the time before going to dinner with my friends. Since it was the middle of the work day that I was there (around 3PM), I was able to get a seat by the window at the mall's food court. This was my view.

It was raining at the time and I actually fell asleep for a couple of minutes. You know what they say about how rain makes you want to sleep. :P Luckily, I didn't sleep that long, or I might've lost my phone or worse. Who accidentally sleeps at a public place, really!? And I was alone, too. So, nobody was there to wake me up or anything.

Day 122 - Burglar Books

6/11 - My small Lawrence Block collection. I'm lacking 4 books from the series--they're 11 in all. And there are actually 2 short stories, but one is only available in audio (and they don't sell them here) and the other can only be found in a short story collection book (which they also don't sell here)

On my 17th birthday, my friend J gave me The Burglar in the Rye as a gift. Because I read at a glacial pace, I was only able to read it when I was already 19. Looking back, I really should've read it right away, so it might've been easier for me to collect the series. You see, after reading it, I liked it a lot, and so decided that I wanted to collect the whole series, there are only 11 books anyway. Unfortunately, Lawrence Block isn't that famous a writer here, and I think that after the first wave of importing his books, the book stores have stopped. Hence, I was only able to easily buy in the book store, 2 books (The Burglar in the Library, The Burglar who Thought He was Bogart). The rest of these, I found only from concentrating real hard in the small Used Books Store at the train station*. I'm happy because I only got them for P50 each (because you know, they're old), but I kind of wish there was an easier way to find them. Actually, it's taken me 6 years to find these 3 books (Burglars Can't Be Choosers, The Burglar in the Closet, The Burglar who Traded Ted Williams), but I'm optimistic that the other 4 (The Burglar who Liked to Quote Kipling, The Burglar who Studied Spinoza, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, The Burglar on the Prowl) will turn up in a book store somewhere, or that maybe one of you would be kind enough to buy them in Amazon.com for me. :)

The main character of this series, Bernie Rhodenbarr, is (obviously) a burglar. But what's great about him is that he's not a "bad guy". Although he does steal things for a living, he's actually a nice guy who defends the innocent, and is sort of a gentleman. He takes women out on proper dates and stuff. Also, he has a day job--he owns a book store. So really, the burglar thing is more of a personality quirk that you kind of forgive him for.

As for the mysteries, the books (all of them so far) actually follow a pretty consistent formula--Bernie plans on robbing a certain place (an apartment, usually) but when he gets there, the item of interest is already gone, and there is a dead body in its place. Naturally, the police will assume that he's the murderer, since he was at the crime scene, and so he has to do some sleuthing to prove his innocence. It's basically the same plot in every book, but what makes it fun to read are the real life drama Bernie has, separate from the sleuthing and burglary, and well, I'm just a sucker for mysteries.

P.S. These were the books in question that I was looking for when I found the slippers I mentioned in Day 119.

*It's MBC Books at the Ayala MRT station.

Day 121 - Elephant Door Stopper

Exactly as the title says, this is an elephant door stopper. And as you can see from the photo, part of my white door can be seen. It's very small but actually quite heavy, so that it can stop the door when elements like the wind are forcing it to close. Anyway, we have several of these, one for each room. The one my brother uses is a turtle, I think. And there's another one that looks like a dog. They're pretty cute. :) My mom bought them in Tagaytay. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the store that sells them.

Day 120 - To the Patch of Green

Entrance to the DLSU Manila Football Field, Velasco Building (where Engineering classes are held) at the background

I went back to my college alma mater today. It was to watch a Japanese comedy, Rakugo, recommended by my Japanese language teacher. Since I'm no longer a student there and had no alumni card, I had to register myself at the gate, like the regular non-Lasallian folk. I don't mind. I never really identified myself as a Lasallian, anyway.

It's not because I had a horrible time in school. I made great friends in college, and I'm still pretty close with them until now. It's just that, I've never really felt at home there. For some reason, I feel like the DLSU Manila Campus doesn't have too much of a personality. There are no secret, quiet corners where you can be alone and ponder about life, or something. I know I'm sounding strange, but it just was never a comfortable place for me. Also, I only studied there for 3 years, and that's a pretty short time. At least, in my point of view, considering that the school I went to before college, I studied in for 13 years. I really want to write about this more, but maybe I'll post that in my main blog.

For now, I'll tell you that I took that picture on my way out of the campus. I read somewhere that the football field will soon "give way to buildings and classrooms" so I thought I should take a picture of it now, even if this photo shows just a small patch of green of the field. But this news actually illustrates my point of how I never warmed up to this campus. I don't know about you, but I've always thought of a concrete jungle, which DLSU now seems, as a place that stifles creativity.

Day 119 - Old/New Slippers

In my quest to find some books, I managed to find an old pair of slippers that has been in storage so long that I forgot that I actually had them, so they remained unused until today. The timing was perfect, because my other pair that's just like this one (except that it's maroon), which I'd been using, has just recently become unusable. It's serendipity. :)

Day 118 - Movie Schedules

I watched The Town today with my family at ATC. My brother wanted to watch it because it was given a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. I don't agree with them, though. After seeing the movie, I think 95% is too high a score. Sure, it's a bit impressive that Ben Affleck co-wrote the script and directed a fairly entertaining and unique movie, but... at 95%, I would expect a movie to blow me away, like Inception-level*. But it wasn't like that. It was closer to The Departed, (or maybe I'm only thinking that because they're both set in Boston), but I still think The Departed is better, and not just because Leonardo DiCaprio's Boston accent is way more believable than the strange sounding words coming out of Ben Affleck's mouth. Oh well, to each his own, and at least I liked it better than From Paris with Love (I'm only bringing this up because it's also about criminals and cops).

BTW, (haha I almost forgot to say something about the photo!) this is a photo of my dad and my brother, looking at the movie schedule board outside the cinemas. There's a short description of each movie beside its schedule and I guess that's what my dad is reading.

*While writing this, I decided to check out Inception's rating at Rotten Tomatoes and lo and behold, it got only 79%. WHAT IS UP with that site?!

Day 117 - Formerly Dead Center

GLORIETTA GROUND FLOOR during an electronics expo

Have you ever seen a busier photo (at least, in this blog)?

I don't know why, but I remember that this area of Glorietta (a mall in Makati), used to be called the Dead Center. Maybe because it was at the center of the parts of Glorietta (Glorietta 1 - 4)? Anyway, whatever the reason, it's certainly not dead now, and it's actually no longer the center either.

Eversince the explosion on Glorietta 2 last 2007, half of the mall has been closed for renovation. So now, only Glorietta 3 and 4 are left. I'm assuming that when the newly renovated areas are up and running, then these "old" wings will be renovated, too. But who knows when that'll be? As of now, it seems that the formerly Glorietta 1 and 2 areas will be under construction for a while. From what I've seen of it from the window of the mall earlier, they haven't finished putting the frame of the new building yet.

Day 116 - Pin Hole Experiment

I was playing around with the functions of my camera and found out only now what the "Pin Hole" function under "Magic Effects" meant. That there would be a black shadowy border on your pictures. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a more interesting subject at the time, so I settled on this.

This is the pillow I put on my chair in the office where I used to work. It was a Christmas gift from the guys in our team. All the other girls had one, but the designs were different. I don't remember the text on the other pillows, though.

Day 115 - At Play

Unlike our old dog (I still miss her sometimes :( ) who wasn't too sociable and was content with watching TV, our new dog Brigham (he's a little more than 6 months old) loves people and running around. I used to play with him a lot when he was a puppy (and therefore very small--I could carry him with one hand). Sometimes he would stand up on his hind legs and start pawing at me, which was cute when he could only reach my knees, but now that he's grown, he can reach past my waist, and so, I'm a little bit scared. Sometimes it's a source of fun around the house:

Me: Ang laki na ni Brigham. Nakakatakot na.

Brother: Ah, oo. Para sa'yo.

Fine. So I'm not the tallest person in the world. Whatever.

Anyway, I managed to take this snapshot because Brigham was preoccupied playing with my dad. Maybe next time I'll post a clearer and nearer picture of him, if he doesn't scare me first.

Day 114 - Acacia Avenue

One of the streets in Madrigal Business Park, Alabang

I went to the bank with my dad today, so I could pay my credit card without penalty from the bank (because asking money from my dad is penalty enough, from the world). Anyway, as I was waiting for him in the car, I took this picture of the street we were on. Believe it or not, this is already the "business district" of Alabang. In the middle of the day. See how busy it is? Or rather, how not busy it is? At least, compared to Makati.

How I love this quiet (for the time being) place.

Day 113 - From the Dream Bookstore

Oh, how I wish I was rich. Or if not, then I wish the bookstores in the Philippines would have more interesting books. I'm glad such a place as Amazon.com exists, because it has everything, but it's just too darn expensive that I can only order stuff like this once in a lifetime.

It's actually my very first time to order anything from Amazon. I've purposefully avoided browsing through that site because I know things are expensive, but I couldn't resist this book. I've wanted to read it since college, but have had no luck when I searched for it in the library or any bookstore in this country. Hence, I turned to the power of the internet. And now I will pay the price, literally. Oh, well.

I got this in the mail today, which is a bit strange since I only ordered it last September 20, and the e-mail from Amazon said that it wouldn't come until October 22. I guess that's their strategy--lower your expectations so when your order comes "early", you'll be pleased. In fairness, it works. :)

Day 112 - Egg Hunt Ending

The games of Mattera Matibay 4 ended with an Egg Hunt. The team who found the most number of relevant eggs (because the other eggs were only decoys and therefore not counted--you can tell which egg was a decoy and which was relevant by reading the names written on the eggs) would win. But because we were all so equally matched, all 3 teams found one relevant egg each, and the final score was a three-way tie. So the organizers came up with an "emergency" tie breaker, which our team (Blue) won. :) Congratulations to us! :D

As for the eggs we found, we cooked them for breakfast. I took this picture just before I threw these broken shells and discarded carton in the trash.

Day 111 - Mattera Matibay 4

Oh, I can say a lot of things that I didn't like about the job I quit 3 months ago, but it would definitely not include working with these people. :)

Today we had our 4th teambuilding event, which is a fancy way of saying "team outing", because it's not exactly a real teambuilding (Case in Point: I'm still included, even though I haven't been an employee of the office since July). We've called it "Mattera Matibay", after our office team name, which starts with the word "matter". Talk about bonding experiences. We have these teambuilding events out of our own pockets and we organize them ourselves, too. I'm usually one of the organizers, and therefore not a participant of the games, but we changed it up a bit this time and had the boys be the organizers (that's why they're wearing matching jackets).

The rest of us, all girls, were split into 3 teams -- Blue, Gray, and Red. As you can see, we're wearing our team colors. :)

One of us, R couldn't stay overnight. We didn't want her not to be in the picture, so we took the "traditional" group pic tonight, instead of the usual Sunday morning.

In case anyone's curious, we're at one of the (many) private resorts in Pansol, Laguna. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the name of the place. But if you really want to know, leave me a message and I can ask one of the organizers.