Day 36 - On the Grass, Under the Trees, Beside the Mall

Today I tagged along with my friends D&M (and G, who is not in this photo because he was also asleep, but behind me) all the way to Tarlac for a gig. We got there really early so we could explore the area, but because this is still the Philippines, we ended up just hanging out at the mall. It is a pretty cool mall, though. Not at all concrete-y, but grassy and breezy and, because we traveled around 150km to get here, it was mostly impossible not to fall asleep once we'd found a place to sit/lie down.

Day 34 - #LuisOni Wedding

I'm not quite sure if L intentionally put me at Table 9 at his and O's wedding reception because he knows that 9 is my favorite number. I am very sure, however, that he intentionally put me at a table with these people as J and J are my bestest friends in the whole wide world. A also in pic because he and J are married now and I guess that makes him one of my best friends, too.

Day 30 - Coffee and Cigarettes

For breakfast today, I had coffee and bread, while my friends had coffee and cigarettes. I'm very, very anti-smoking, but very, very pro-coffee. So... Coffee brings people together? Yes? Hooray!

(My friend M (and perhaps others, too) would argue that smoking brings people together, too. Fine. Maybe it does, but in my opinion, coffee is a much more delicious way of making friends.)

Day 28 - Too Many Feelings, Not Enough Chairs (Part 2)

So after the gig, we all went to Z&K's place as it's near DITO. There were so many of us, the only way we could fit in their house was by sitting on the floor. And nobody complained.

This is one of the things I love about Philippine culture--that camaraderie is more important than most other things. Z&K knew perfectly well that their house wasn't built to accommodate such big groups, but they welcomed us all the same. And they were such great hosts, too, letting everyone know where the restroom was and offering us all water and other things they could find in their fridge. I had a really nice time. :)

Also: The blog title is something my friend C said when she and some friends were at my house and some of us had to sit on the porch the chairs outside were too few. It seems no house ever has enough chairs for when a lot of people come to visit. And feelings are always too many. :P

Day 27 - Outside Looking In

Today, M and I watched our musician friends play at DITO: Bahay ng Sining in freakin' Marikina. LOL. Anlaaayo lang. But! We were able to make it because our friends D&M2 were kind enough to give us a ride. Yey.

So much drama during this night, and not just because of the short drama films that played in between the music acts. But anyways, this is M doing a dramatic pose at the semi-famous blue door of DITO. She's depicting how we want to be artists, but can't, and so we're currently just watching artists from a closed door with some glass panels that are somewhat covered by posters. #Drama

This was a really nice place, though, and I sure wouldn't mind going to it again for an art event I like, if it were nearer the South. :P

Also: It's my 2nd time in Marikina, yo! Congratulations to me!

Day 24 - Old and New

The title of this post is Old and New as in this photo, I'm with new friends (and one old one), but we are hanging out in my house, which is something I usually do with old friends.

Then again, everyone here has been in my house at least twice already, so...

Day 22 - Music and Friendship

I know it looks like one of them is singing to the other, but really, sleepersecond's just asking Paincake Patrol a question and both of them are "kind of" drunk.

Also, they are two of the most determined musicians I know. I would say that they are talented, but I know they don't like that term and prefer to be known as determined and industrious instead. So there. Insert more positive adjectives here. Their music is awesome.

Listen to Paincake Patrol here. Listen to sleepersecond here.

Day 21 - Rainbow Cake

I didn't have to go to work today and it was the last day that my mom's voucher for Ace Water Spa was valid so I asked my friend J (who also didn't have work today) to come with me to the North*. As the activities in Ace Water Spa are guaranteed to make you hungry, I think it's lucky that it's in Kapitoylo, this area in Pasig where many interesting restaurants are located.

In this photo, J is smiling as bright as the rainbow cake in front of her, because we love cake and rainbows. :) We are in Epic Cafe where they have interesting cakes, yummy coffee, and cycling equipment for some reason. Anyway, it was my first time here and it's one of those places that makes me wish I didn't live so far away from it. I only felt that for a moment, though, because of course, as soon as I got home, I remembered how much #ILoveTheSouth. LOL. 'Eh 'di ako na loyal. :P

*Note: Anywhere I need to pass through the Skyway to get to, I already consider as "The North." Yes, that includes Makati and Taguig. (Pasig, in this case.)

Day 15 - Paincake Patrol in the House / in the South

My friend Paincake Patrol booked a gig in the South so my friend M and I were obliged to attend. Kidding! We really like his music and enjoy going to his gigs and were quite thankful that he finally had a gig in the South so it wasn't too difficult for us to go and see him. In fact, we just walked to this venue after having dinner at my house. Fun Sunday night!

Day 14 - Pre-school Friends

Today my pre-school friends and I had lunch and an "art session" at Designer Blooms Cafe in Alabang. It was to celebrate my friend J's birthday. We ate at around 12:30 p.m. and started coloring pages of the booklets J gave us at around 1:30 p.m. We thought we were going to finish everything by 3 p.m., but lo and behold, by the time any of us thought to look at a clock it was already 5:30 p.m. And we only noticed because it was starting to get dark outside. I love how time flies when you're having fun with your friends. I also love that I've been friends with these ladies since I was 6 years old. :)

Day 12 - Some New Friends

Tonight was a little strange for me as I actually went out to a bar with some friends. And not in the South. :P This was taken at The Bourn Food Station on Taft Ave., Manila. And sure, it was near the university I used to go to every day, but when I was going to school there I hardly ever went out. I honestly can't recall a time that I went out at night during the time I was in college. Okay, maybe once, to a poetry reading, and it was actually for extra credit. LOL. As much as I would like to say that I was a nerd, I don't have the grades to back that up so I'm just going to say that I was really poor and lazy.

Anyway, with me here are M, who is an old friend by now, E, whom I met last year and M2, whom I met just a few weeks before this photo was taken. I know I always say that I hate meeting new people, but I really only mean that when I meet crappy people. :P When I meet people like M, E and M2, I do think about rescinding that statement.

Day 10 - Pasinaya 2016

The line to see the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra was so long, M and I could only get seats at the very top of the theatre. Hence, this very difficult and then turned out to be mostly worthless shot :P But I think our smiling faces are still able to convey some of the emotions we felt during this day. I say some because we felt a lot of emotions this day. A whole lot. Just ask me about it if you see me personally if you'd like to find out why. ;)

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 364 - Paellyeah!

New friends = new activities!

Today we had a paella party because we're now friends with K and his hobby, apparently, is cooking for others. Talk about a great hobby! :D

So this is me and a few of my new officemates in the dining room of my house, because we live in the middle of the Muntiparlas area and I guess that makes it the most ideal place for a party that involves people from those places. And, my parents are fine with having people over anyway. They even played Flamenco music because it suddenly became a Spanish-themed party with the paella and all.

BTW, crazy eyes expression on my face is due to my dad's corny jokes (that I've heard way too many times before!) during the taking of this picture.

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Ako nang umabot ng 2 years sa 365 days project. Sorry na! Ang hirap mamili ng pictures and... I only have 1 more to go! How do you choose a picture that's good enough to be the last one?

Day 363 - First Out of Town Trip of the Year

With my new friends and one old one, I went to Baguio and Sagada. This is my first out of town trip of the year, but I'm hoping there will be more. I'm hoping I can budget enough money for more. But let's not talk about that yet. Instead, let's talk about how this was such a fun dinner. We ordered the "Inihaw Platter" and it only cost us about P150 each. That includes the yummy garlic rice. This was our first dinner during this 4-day 3-night trip, and I have to say, it was a really good start. :)

Day 354 - 1110111211

No, the title of this post isn't binary. (Hence the #2 in it.) It's just that way because the last 3 days seemed to have meshed into just one very long day for me.

It really started on Thursday night when E asked me to join their paintball game on Friday morning. I said yes and because my shift in my new office ends at 5am, as soon as I got home, I just took a shower, threw some extra clothes in a bag and headed for Quezon City, where the paintball venue, La Mesa Eco Park, was. I know, it's so far, but I've never tried paintball before and I did have nothing planned for 11-11-11. And okay, going to the north is not that bad, as long as you have a good reason to go there.

Anyway, after the paintball game (which our team won!), we had lunch at SM Fairview. And it was my first time to step into SM Fairview ever. I never thought I'd ever see that mall, but you never really know where life's going to take you. And I know, going to a different SM branch is hardly a significant event in someone's life but, ano ba, mababaw lang ako.

After lunch, E and his officemates still had to work so after a quick shower at C's house, which is only a 5-minute drive from their office (Thanks so much C!), we went to their office, where I took this photo of them working. They looked like this for the next many hours, only slightly changing when they had a meeting and when we all ate dinner. So this was more or less how they looked from 2PM til midnight.

And after midnight, we decided to just sleepover at C's (Thanks so much! Again!) because it was too late to head 40km to the south.

We left C's house at around 7am on 11-12-11 and I got back home around 9am and only really slept properly at 12nn. So, yeah. November 10, 11 and 12, was one long day for me. Enjoyable of course, but still really long.

Day 351 - Walking the Highway

Of course, it's way more inconvenient to take the bus compared to driving your own car to places, but how else do you get photos like these?

Having your own car has its merits, in fact it's got a lot of merits. But I honestly don't mind public transportation at all. Especially when I'm with my friends, then it really doesn't matter if we have to walk along the highway in flip flops while carrying backpacks.

Day 346 - Four = Four

For some reason, it didn't occur to us to just hand the camera to someone else so that we could get one picture with all four of us in it. No, the idea we came up with was to pass the camera around so that we'd have four photos, which are basically the same, except that they are taken by each of the four of us. Is that strange? I can't really tell because my best friends and I have always been this way. Hehehe!

Day 345 - After Dinner Alcohol

3rd consecutive day to go out since I got back! Hindi naman halata na na-miss ko ang friends ko? :P Although this time, we also met up because the girl on the left of this photo D, was in Singapore for the last year and a half and she wanted to see us all again now that she's back in the Philippines. And because these are my friends from high school, our meetup was @ Alabang. Hooray for geographically convenient friends! :D It's why we didn't mind drinking alcohol on this occasion -- our houses are so near this place!