Day 33 - My InstaGift

So back in February, our manager issued a Valentine's Day challenge--we have to write the cheesiest love poem ever. And in the grand tradition of me winning Valentine's Day contests, I won again! :D

This is my prize. Gift certificates to SM. I will use it to buy myself a dress for my friend's wedding on Saturday.

As for my cheesy love poem... I may or may not post it here or on my main blog. I'll just put up the link here later in case it does make it online.

Day 23 - Nag-break Lang

I don't know why there are now Grab booths inside malls. I suppose you can book rides from here? Or receive packages? I wanted to ask, but as you can see, the person who's supposed to be here was on break.

Day 349 - Teriyaki Boy Again

I don't think we meant for it to happen. We certainly never established that Teriyaki Boy is our favorite restaurant, because it really isn't. But for some reason, it's the restaurant that we've eaten at the most. And at its different branches, too. Is it because we're both picky with food (and by we, I really mean just me) and Teriyaki Boy is one of those rare things that we agree on? (And it seems to have a branch everywhere we go.) Although, I did end up eating 3/4 of this Sesame Maguro order by myself. E ate most of the chicken teriyaki instead.

P.S. Fifth movie (since getting back from NZ) today! Too bad The Three Musketeers kinda sucked. I think it's because I still keep thinking that Orlando Bloom should be the hero. :P

Day 348 - Parking Festival

So today I went to a pre-employment physical examination. Yup, you read that right. And yes, it means what you probably think it means.

Anyway, this is the parking lot at the back of Festival Mall. It's the view from Fukuya, my now 2nd favorite Japanese restaurant in the Philippines (only because I haven't really explored Little Tokyo all that much). The first one being Tempura, though that one's really mainstream.

Day 347 - Fourth on the Fifteenth

It would've been better if this was the fifth movie that I saw since I got back from NZ so the title would the "Fifth on the Fifteenth", or if maybe I watched this movie yesterday so that it would be "Fourth on the Fourteenth", but what are you going to do? Things happened in this way.

Anyway, this is my movie ticket for Real Steel, which I watched today with my best friend E at my favorite mall in the world, Alabang Town Center. I already pasted it on my planner before I took a photo of it. It's an OK movie, if you're a kid. Predictable of course, but has some funny moments and at least it's better than the Transformers franchise. The stories are different, I'm only comparing because they've both got robots. Or wait, Transformers technically has aliens. Whatever, some sort of mecha.

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!

Day 344 - Strawberry Shortcake

We were supposed to watch Rakenrol today, but the storm prevented us from going to the very remote mall where it was playing. So my friend K and I consoled ourselves with this strawberry shortcake from Bigby's at Megamall. Lucky it tasted really yummy.

Day 304 - Fiction / Non-Fiction

I took a photo of the wall at Whitcoulls, New Zealand's "National Bookstore" while waiting for Z&E as they were buying lottery tickets. We had just come from the supermarket, and you can see part of the cart in this photo.

Day 295 - Old Bank Arcade

One of the reasons why I'm not too fond of SM Malls is because they're so boring. White walls and shops without character. This Old Bank Arcade in Wellington City is really something. Tell me you don't like shopping in a place like this. Even when you're not buying anything, at least you're seeing something pretty. Look at that ceiling decoration. :)

Day 271 - Mini-Reunion

Oh how busy our lives have become. We can't even get complete attendance, let alone go on a summer outing. :( Actually, we have Christmas parties in March and birthday celebrations 3 months after ones birthday, too. I don't know why everyone else in our lives is more prioritized, but maybe it's because we know that we'll always be there for each other no matter what? I'm being too sentimental.

This is me and 2 of my college friends, X and G. The cute little boy is X's son (my godson!) A. He's turning 5 this August.

Anyway, we all ate lunch @ Tempura in ATC today (one of my favorite restuarants, despite their betrayal) and had some Serenitea. Happy day with my happy friends. I wish we lived closer to each other (X lives in Laguna, G in Makati, and our other friends who aren't in this photo--M, G2 and R live in Makati, Manila, and Singapore (!)) and had more free time.

Day 269 - Ayala Center

I went to Makati for a dentist appointment today and walked to Ayala Center before going home. I passed by this sign on Ayala Avenue. It's pretty cute and I guess it helps the foreigners (who we all know are Ayala's target market) find the mall, not that that's difficult, considering it's the biggest mall there is in Makati.

The background is the too crowded with cars Ayala Avenue and one of the oldest (but still posh) hotels in the country, The Manila Peninsula.

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 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 196 - ATC Garden 2

While waiting for my friends J and J, I sat on one of the benches at the outdoor part of Alabang Town Center, which has a playground, trees, some water fountains and where the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is located (you can't see it here, it's on the other side). I call it ATC Garden because I don't know what its official name is. Anyway, it was a beautiful day -- no rain, but not too sunny, and just the right amount of clouds. :) I took this photo around 4PM.

(And shortly afterwards, two nuns approached me, handed me a camera and asked me to take a photo of them. Maybe they're from the north and it's their first time in ATC?)

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 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 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 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 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.