Day 249 - Garlic Potatoes

I was planning on going to SSS Diliman in Quezon City today because I finally had the approval of my application form from SSS Las Pinas, but I changed my mind because of the transport strike. Instead, I went to Quezon City to see The Lincoln Lawyer, play DotA, and foodtrip with my best friend E, who was only too happy to see me completely clueless in his turf. It was sort of his revenge for all the times I made him go to Alabang, which is kind of my turf.

Anyway, The Lincoln Lawyer was so-so. The twist at the end (or more like halfway) was okay, but I think it had too many characters and too much dialogue. Plus, what the heck happened to Josh Lucas? He was such a cutie in Sweet Home Alabama. In this movie, his face and role were more or less forgettable.

I played DotA for the first time and E told me about the basics. It made me realize how much of a non-gamer I am because despite the cool graphics and pretty entertaining (and easy) gameplay, I totally sucked and I just didn't get why it's as addictive as most gamers say it is.

On the way home, we passed by some food establishments and I'm going to go ahead and say that E and I really have different tastes. We both wanted a snack, but I bought a cupcake, and he bought a bowl of garlic potatoes, which is the food that's in the picture. They were both delicious, but in a completely different way. I'm actually not even sure if this qualifies as "foodtripping" because I think the cupcake shop and the garlic potato shop have been there for quite some time, but forgive me, SM North is about 50 kilometres from my house.

Day 248 - Government Office

Ngayong araw na ito, ako ay nagpa-approve muna ng SS ID Application (SSS Form E-6) sa SSS Servicing Branch na malapit sa aking tirahan o pinapasukang kompanya dahil ayon sa SSS Diliman, magpupunta lamang ako sa SSS Diliman Branch kapag approved na ang E-6 at kukuha na ng appointment para sa SS ID Data Capture. Bow.

Day 247 - White Cheddar Popcorn

I love eating popcorn almost as much as I love watching movies. Lucky they go together!

This is the bag of White Cheddar Popcorn that E bought for me from Taters because we watched Sucker Punch in ATC today. The movie didn't suck as much as I expected it to, but it still wasn't great and I liked it as much as I liked Watchmen, which is to say I didn't. But I liked the soundtrack, and I still enjoyed the experience of watching it because how can I not when I have white cheddar popcorn on my side?

Day 246 - Blue Green / Aquamarine

I complained to my mom about our boring white towels so when we saw that towels were on sale at S&R Department Store, we bought different colored ones. She said that we should assign towel colors to the people in the house and I chose this blue green or aquamarine for mine. Maybe it's an uncommon color, but I like it so if you're ever thinking of giving me towels as a gift, please buy them in this color. Thank you! :)

Day 245 - View from the Starbucks

We had a sleepover at my friend's house Saturday night because we went to a DLSU Alumni Dinner that I knew would run late. She gave me breakfast before leaving but I felt a bit too timid to eat a lot so I stopped by Starbucks Madrigal on my way home. This is the view from one of the chairs on its second floor. I love eating breakfast at Starbucks. :) It was around 9:30AM when I took this photo.

Day 244 - Dress Research

My sister's wedding is coming up so my mom and I went to the dressmaker today for research. We have no idea what to wear or what type of dress to look for even. We pretty much just showed up and asked the dressmaker what we should be doing. She gave us magazines to look through and swatches of fabric to choose from. Of course, the decision is still up to my sister and we couldn't really make up our minds right then and there so we just took pictures of the pages with dresses that we liked. This is one of them.

Day 243 - Afternoon Sun

Stuffed toys on my bed slightly yellow because of the afternoon sun shining through my window. I'm biased of course, but my room is my favorite room in our house because the sun's so bright here in the afternoon. :) (No post-processing/camera effect was done on this photo. It's really that yellow!)

Day 242 - April

I printed out a page of a calendar for April 2011 so I have a hard copy where I can mark the schedule of my sister when she comes to visit next month. She's not going to stay for a long time so we want to make the most of all the days that she's here.

Day 241 - Chocolate Sale!

A supermarket near our house had a sale yesterday, so naturally my mom and I went and I bought chocolates! I could probably complain about the annoyingly long line at the counter where I had to wait for 45 minutes before my turn (I'm not even a little bit kidding), but I think all the chocolate is worth it so, no complaints here! :) If I can travel 40 kilometers for cake, waiting 45 minutes in line for chocolates is a walk in the park.

Day 240 - Treasure Check

At Pamana Restaurant where we had lunch today, they put the checks in a small wooden treasure chest. Isn't that cute? :)

Day 239 - Breakfast at Tagaytay

Mmm... Coffee....

My mom is attending a conference in Tagaytay this weekend, and my dad and I saw that as an excuse to have breakfast at Bag of Beans, a coffee shop/restaurant in Tagaytay that I've always wanted to try but never had the chance.

This is a picture of my cup of their house brewed coffee, which is very delicious indeed, but a bit too strong for my taste. I had to ask for extra milk :P

Still, nothing beats delicious breakfast with delicious coffee in a place with good ambiance and nice cool weather. I think Tagaytay is actually my favorite out of town place that's near the city. I only kind of forgot about it recently because it became too popular and you know me, I hate it when things I like become popular. Hehe.

Day 238 - How to Wait at the Train Station

There are no benches at the train station to prevent homeless people from staying in it (I'm assuming). Hence, when people wait for trains, they find a post to lean on and sit on the floor. They look kind of funny.

I took this photo as my dad and I were waiting for the train we were going to take to get back home after attending to some matters in Makati. We didn't sit on the floor, because we weren't really that tired, and all the posts on our side of the tracks were already taken anyway.

Day 237 - Butter

Oh look, another food item for my photo of the day. How refreshing. -_- Anyway, this is my favorite butter. And I took a picture of it because I thought the rings were cool. They were made by the lid, and you'll only see them when you've newly opened the can.

Day 236 - Photo ID

Everything is just too expensive now. Or, everyone's got their own camera now. So instead of going to the photo studio to have an ID picture taken, I looked for a white background at home (namely the door) and took photos using my own camera. I think the photos came out okay. Of course, I still have to go to the photo studio to have them printed because my printer doesn't have colored ink, but at least I got more shots than the 2 that those studios normally only give.

Day 235 - Gabbie's Day Out

My 6-year-old nephew G wanted to try out for his school's football team so my cousin Ate N asked my brother, who used to play for our high school's football team, to help him practice. I and our other cousin tagged along because, well what else is there to do on a Sunday afternoon?

It was a lot of fun. Since he's 6 years old, we didn't really have to take everything seriously, so we pretty much just ran around, kicked the ball to different directions and had G chase us. :P

It was such a strange moment, though. Like something out of an advertisement for something family-oriented. I mean, the only thing we lacked was a picnic basket. Thanks much to the currently empty lots at Bonifacio High Street for making it possible. You can't really find a lot of grassy areas in the city, hence my initial thought that playing football with your 6-year-old nephew just isn't something that happens in real life.

Well, here's something negative to think about: it's kind of sad to think that perhaps this very spot we were playing on will be the location of a building (or worse, a parking lot) next year, or maybe even later this year. So maybe we need to go there more often before it's gone. I think we all need the exercise anyway. ;)

Day 234 - Sweet Heart

Cheesiest title ever. But it's apt for this photo. It's a heart-shaped leche flan! :)

This was the dessert for our dinner tonight at my cousin Ate N's house. We were there for her birthday. Happy Birthday Ate N!

Day 233 - Sa Mga SS ID Applicants

In other words:

Utang na loob, 'wag na 'wag kayong magpupunta sa SSS Diliman nang wala pang approval ng SSS ID Application mula sa SSS Servicing Branch na malapit sa inyong tirahan. Lalung-lalo na, kapag ang inyong tirahan ay sa Las Piñas.

I guess you can pretty much guess what happened to me today.

And if you have ideas that you think could've improved my situation, keep it to yourself. I pretty much already made a fool of myself trying to convince the people in Diliman to allow me to freakin' file my application there instead of go all the way back to Las Piñas just to get an appointment to Diliman. But alas, it was to no avail.

I'd be more upset, except, on my way home I heard about the earthquake in Japan and suddenly this whole SSS thing became way irrelevant.

Day 232 - Shoe Chandelier

It felt like a different experience to go to the mall today because I was looking for something quirky that could be my Photo of the Day. I took pictures of a bunch of stuff but this one takes the cake. It's a shoe chandelier! I don't even know if there are actual lights in that fixture or if it's purely decorative. Oh well.

I saw this at Landmark in Makati.

Day 231 - The Books to Prove It

So as of today, I am officially working from home. And I have the books to prove it. As in, these are the books that are on loan to me from the company so that I can do my work at home. Oh, and I'm supposed to take care of them and not tear any pages yadda yadda yadda.

Day 230 - Best Starbucks Ever!

Some people say that Starbucks is overrated. I say, who cares? So many things are overrated and underrated and if you're not the person who's responsible for whatever is over or underrated, then those ratings shouldn't matter. I like Starbucks because I like coffee and I like the coffee that they sell in Starbucks. Admittedly, it's expensive, but also admittedly, it's way more delicious than the 3-in-1s you can get in the supermarket. And besides, today is still one of the days that Starbucks has the free upsize promo (!!!) which explains why I have my very first grande White Chocolate Mocha.

I took this photo from my seat at the corner of the 2nd floor of the Starbucks Drive Thru which has somewhat recently (I think it's less than a year old) opened at The Fort, Taguig. And maybe the Starbucks in Baguio or Tagaytay look better (I've never been to either), but at least for Metro Manila, this branch definitely takes the cake as the best branch ever, so far, in my opinion. I mean, when I sat on that chair and looked out the window and looked at the surroundings, my first thought was "Can I just sit here all day?". Seriously, they get a thousand points for ambiance. Too bad I had to leave to go to work after a few hours there, and The Fort is so far from where I work/live. But I will definitely look for a way to come back.

Day 229 - Photobooth Fun!

My niece is 1 year old now! :D So of course, we had a big party to celebrate it. And what are parties without photo booths nowadays?

These are me, my brother and our cousins on my mom's side. Believe it or not this is already 67% of the total population of us cousins on my mom's side. The only ones missing are my sister who is in New Zealand and our other cousin who hadn't gotten there yet when we took this photo. We took this before all the other guests arrived and he was late, so... It's his loss. Hehe! :P

Day 228 - Papa and Pizza

My mom asked me and my dad to go to the bank today to take care of some financial matters. Pretty boring, until I realized that the bank was a very short distance away from Yellow Cab Pizza. And I convinced my dad to buy pizza for lunch! :D This is him while we were waiting for our pizza to arrive.

P.S. I realized today that it's pretty good to take pictures inside Yellow Cab Pizza. The lighting is bright (and therefore just right), plus they have those awesome background stuff on the walls.

Day 227 - Ginger and Teriyaki

I met with E after work today, and because my work now ends at 9PM, we were famished by the time we actually saw each other. He was craving for noodles so we went to Teriyaki Boy in Glorietta 3 to have ramen. Lucky they're open until 10PM. Anyway, that explains the Teriyaki Boy placemat in the background of this photo.

As for the candy, E gave me this after our meal, which I think he did as a joke because it did not taste good. I like spicy food, but the kind of spicy that ginger is, I really don't agree with. I took a picture of it so you all will know to stay away.

Day 226 - Tokyo Cafe

Today I went to SM Megamall in Ortigas to pick up a reward that we got from Asia Miles :) It's a basketball, which isn't exactly our first choice for a reward but that's the reward that's available to Asia Miles members in the Philippines. Is that proof of the popularity of basketball in the Philippines or what?

After claiming the reward, I went to eat at Tokyo Cafe. The food was pretty good, but as with most restaurants, everything was overpriced. But I had a good time eating, so... And also, I think the coaster is cute. It's so minimalist Japan. :) The ring was made by my lemon iced tea.

Day 225 - Did you cry during Casablanca?

So there I was studying a book for English learners and one particular picture caught my eye. See the drawing for #3 Did you cry during the movie? The girl is watching Casablanca! There's Rick, Victor Laszlo, Captain Renault and even the airplane in the background. :) I don't think there was actually a scene that looked exactly like this in the movie, and it's too bad Ilsa didn't fit anymore, but that's okay. It's still obviously Casablanca.

It surprised me because the pictures in these books are usually generic and don't make references to pop culture, because you're supposed to focus on the sentences/grammar (I'm assuming), but maybe the artist for this couldn't resist? Or is Casablanca the go-to movie when you want to refer to one in a textbook?

It's so cute. :)

P.S. Apologies for the very poor quality of this photo. I used my cellphone camera, and I don't think it's meant to take pictures like this.