Day 9 - Pot Luck + Cooking in Our Kitchen

Yum! Don't they all look yummy? They all were. :)

So, technically, this was our dinner for Saturday night, but eating these extended until the wee hours of Sunday morning so I think it's fine to use this pic as my January 24 picture.

I hosted a farewell party for a dear, dear work acquaintance who will be returning to his hometown (forever!) in a few days. Since he's been our personal chef for the past four years we've known each other, we requested that he cook us something on his farewell party. He decided to make a chicken dish (it's the one on the lower right of the photo). He deboned it and everything. It's chicken stuffed with feta cheese, spinach and pâté de campagne, whatever that is. The sauce is a combination of orange and mango juice + my grandfather's Martini and chicken bone er, essence, I don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, it was really, really good.

So that he wouldn't have to cook so much stuff, I decided it would be a pot luck event so our friends brought the other dishes. X brought the macaroni salad, which she made herself, too. The liempo on the upper right of the photo was brought by B. And the creamy garlic potato dish was made by me. All dishes received good reviews. Hooray! We are successful foodies!

R brought red and white wine and our desserts, from C and M, were J.Co donuts and Frozen Brazo de Mercedes.

Day 8 - At Your Local

For lunch today, my former officemates and I decided to eat at Your Local, a hipster-y restaurant in Makati. I ordered their salmon dish and I must say I enjoyed it very much. :) A bit pricey, but that's Makati for you.

Afterwards, we went to Glorietta and bought ice cream from Manila Creamery, which makes artisinal gelato, which made for a very hipster day, culinarily speaking. ;) After having ice cream, I bought another dessert item--Sweet Surrender, a variant of the frozen brazo de mercedes from the outlet of The Suite Life by Ange, also in Makati. And then I got a ride from Uber to get home in time to prepare for a farewell party for one of my work acquaintances. Not a bad Saturday indeed.

Day 7 - Cousins

My cousins M and G are here from Germany, but because they're staying at my aunt's house in Quezon City and have plans to go to the beach and other places out of town, I was only able to see them today, when they stopped over this restaurant near my office on their way back to my aunt's house from Flow House Manila where they tried surfing on the wave machine. They won't leave the country until the end of the month, but since I have overtime work on Sundays and I think they'll be out of town during all the weekends they're here, I think this shall be the only time I see them during this trip of theirs to Manila. Hopefully I get to go to Germany soon and see them there. :)

Photo taken by my brother with whom they surfed at Flow House Manila and also doubled as their driver for the day. :P

Day 6 - Post-Christmas Post

My sister did send these out before Christmas. But because the Philippines is the Philippines, and she lives so far away, I wasn't able to get my hands on this parcel until today. And I had to go to the post office to claim it, too. Why is our postal service so weird?!

Anyway, I'm glad these Christmas cards are here now. I don't think my relatives will mind that they're late. Anyway, these twins are cute enough to wait for. ;)

Day 5 - Red and Black Fish

In 2012, I bought a "coloring book for grown-ups" at the Kinokuniya book store during my 3-day trip in Singapore. I loved it a lot but never thought to take pictures of the pages I've accomplished, I didn't consider them accomplishments big enough to take pictures of to share on Facebook.

Three years later, all the book stores in all the world have many different kinds of these coloring books, there are apps similar to it, and so many people on Facebook are posting pictures of pages they've colored. It's officially become a fad. So... If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Not that I tried to beat 'em.

Anyway, I took a photo of this page to show it to my friend K who was the one who gave me the coloring book this page is from. It was his birthday gift to me last year and I have to say, I am enjoying it a lot, despite it being all trendy and mainstream now.

Day 4 - Brunch

Today, I went with my mom to pay some taxes. And because that is an extremely boring activity, afterwards, we treated ourselves to brunch at Vanilla Cupcake Bakery. This sickly sweet girly interiored restaurant. And as my mother is my mother, here she is on a business phone call. At brunch. On a Saturday. #NoRestForTheWicked

In case you're wondering what we ate, she had the chicken tocino dish and I, the rib eye steak. Both were yummyummyummy. :) We had their chocolate cake for dessert (not in photo), and it was okay. I still prefer their cupcakes, though.

Day 3 - What is it with you and dragons?

meatlug on my desk

"What is this?" K said, picking up the small dragon figurine that was sitting next to my computer monitor.

"It's Meatlug," I said. "From How to Train Your Dragon 2."

He shook his head and gave a small laugh. "What is it with you and dragons?" he asked.

"What? Can't I like dragons?" I said defensively. "And Japan?" I added, even more defensively. "You know, I've always been interested in these things, I don't know why people are only noticing now," I said.

Except, I totally know why people are only noticing it now, but it's unfair anyway. It's not my fault that somebody I know happens to be Japanese and is kind of named after a dragon. That's just sheer coincidence.

Day 2 - Assessment Test

a page from one of the assessment tests

Today I went to two language institutions to take assessment tests to determine which of their programs I should enroll in. And both of them told me the same thing: Your level is neither here nor there. We can't include you in a class.

Apparently, my level is too high for a beginner's class, but too low for an advanced one. Which isn't to say that I can't study at their institution anymore. It's just that I would have to enroll in their one-on-one program, which is at least three times more expensive. So one of the teachers told me to not enroll anymore. "Just study on your own and find a language partner to practice conversations with," she recommended.

Well, isn't that what I'd failed to do in the first place and that's why I looked for language institutes near my house? Why are problems most of the time ultimately circular?