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 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. ;)