Day 35 - Alabang Sunset

"I love this place. I take pictures of this place during sunset!" K said when I asked him if he was going to miss working in Alabang.

"Me, too!" was my reply.

And as you can see from this picture, there is a reason why.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 222 - I Heart LiaCom!

Today I went to a mini-high school reunion brought about by my former classmate posting a caricature of our Senior Year class in Facebook. I talk about this more here.

Anyway, here's the 7 of us who came. I should note that they're not people I'm close with, not even when we were in high school, but I had fun with them anyway. I don't know why but somehow I think that if I went to a reunion of my classmates in college, (save for the few ones who became my close friends) I wouldn't have had as much fun. Not to mention that the venue would probably be far away from my house, which will make me at least 50% less interested in going.

We are in Oyster Boy in Westgate, Alabang in this picture. I love Alabang, though I'm a little worried. We were the only ones in the restaurant, and it was Saturday night. Is Westgate about to close?

Day 220 - The Last One

ERASERHEADS AND SUGARFREE - I think it's strange that Ebe Dancel (Sugarfree vocalist) wears an Eraserheads t-shirt just after I established in my mind that they (Sugarfree) were the band that replaced the Eraserheads.*sigh* Great things will always come and go I guess. Of course, during the gig people kept joking about a reunion concert. Well, the Eraserheads had one, so I guess maybe Sugarfree can have one, too. :)

Awww... Why do bands break-up anyway? I mean, I know why, but... Why?? T_T

I took this photo just after the Sugarfree set finished at 19 East (bar/restaurant in Sucat, Paranaque). E and I went to the stage to take photos with the band, and successfully cornered bassist Jal, but drummer Kaka magically disappeared, and we just could not get Ebe to pose with us because too many people were asking for his picture and his autograph, such as in this picture. But E and I stayed late (waiting for my brother to pick me up) and found the band members again outside, with less people around them. So we still got to take pictures with them. Yay!

Anyway, this post is titled The Last One (Yeah, I got the idea from FRIENDS. So what?) because the gig at 19 East is the last of the Sugarfree Farewell Bar Tour. Although the actual last gig will be on March 1, but it's in Eastwood in Quezon City, so yeah... I'm not going. I don't even know where Eastwood actually is. -_- But I'm happy that two of their last 5 bar gigs are in the South. :)

Day 209 - Valentine Flowers

On my way home from the Sugarfree gig (why yes, it was already morning of the next day when I went home), I passed by the Alabang Public Market and saw these. I love how places transform to cater to whatever event is coming up. During Christmas time, a lot of stores that sell toys or Christmas lights materialize in markets. Now that it's just one day before Valentine's Day, these flower shops which usually just sell daisies and other boring flowers that look like they're for funerals, have these cheery rose bouquets. So romantic / exploitative of people's sentimentality!

Day 208 - The Last Few

One of my favoritest OPM bands (they were my replacement for the Eraserheads!), Sugarfree, is breaking up (sort of, the lead vocalist is leaving). Hence, we're all adjusting our schedules to catch their last few gigs. Lucky one of them is in Parañaque, which is near where I live, and even luckier, I actually have friends who want to see their last few performances as well.

So, K, M and I along with K's brother and his girlfriend went to Pap's Place in Better Living Subdivision today to watch Sugarfree. I nearly cried when they sang Burnout. Not only is it one of my favorite songs, it's also totally emotional.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture. I took this using my cellphone because I didn't bring my camera. But another camera flashed at just the right time and shed light on the band, which is why they're visible here. My other pictures came out too dark.

I will miss them so much.

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 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 141 - Christmas Choir

After my class today, I stopped at SM Southmall to pay my cellphone bill, but wouldn't you know it, the Globe* office there is currently undergoing renovation so I ended up just watching this choir perform Christmas songs in the middle of the mall. Talk about having Christmas just around the corner, the malls aren't just playing Christmas songs anymore, they're actually having live performances of it. I didn't catch their name, but they were pretty good.

*Globe - cellphone service provider