Sunday with another crazy family

I spent a good chunk of Sunday with the Jojo L and Family. We started off at Rockwell Bazaar (disappointing), then did the usual rounds of going to a health food store (rice dream!), hardware (light bulbs!), and the grocery (apples!).

For drinks, we went to L'entrecote at Burgos Circle. I would like to return because they have adopted the concept of only serving one dish: steak and fries. This is something I last had in Geneva; and the restaurant owner kindly explained that the idea actually originated there in the 40s before it moved to Paris in the 60s.

The restaurant has to learn how to communicate this concept better though. Some eaters in our party were taken aback with the menu: that's it? where are the other plats?

I can imagine that from a inventory management point of view, steak and fries as the only main dish has its benefits. :)

We had dinner at the nearby restaurant, Just Thai. Nothing special.

We noticed that these new restaurants in Burgos Circle really need to up the ante on service. L'entrecote took more than 20 minutes to process a senior's discount. Orders in Just Thai took 45 minutes to arrive. And in BOTH, just outside their doorstep, were flies, bugs and mosquitoes. Jo quipped that it feels like we're eating in a construction site.

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Watching J and his dad interact is always interesting. I didn't notice the bad service so much because I was talking to them the whole while. The conversation was the usual fare with this particular Tito: UAAP basketball, politics, investments. .

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Today was the boss' birthday. My tummy is lined with cebu lechon, dinuguan, pancit, puto and turon. All eaten during merienda time. Dinner is off for me.

I spent time again at the Farm, this time not eating so much toxic food. It appears that when people do some outdoors work, they won't to return inside and eat something necessarily ultra fatty. That being said, we had 3 chocolate champorado to go with our rice and meat dinner. Simple and good times right.

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Vin passed by, and we shared a beer at Distillery Jupiter. There was a little space for me and Vin to stand and drink. The place is usually mobbed by people who are on their way, coming from Fiamma. Young, slightly clueless, but I tried not to be too judgmental. Heck, I'm 10 years older than all of them. Vin had Stella I had Hoe.

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Decided to stay in Makati for the weekend; there's work to be done.

realization

I realize that I have to write things, but I cannot express them all in the view of the public / semi-public eye.

The Farm

After the euphoria of the Wed Night proposal, I couldn't merely stay inside on Thursday Night. I asked Kage to meet up perhaps for a drink. She asked me, if I would like to spend some time at "The Farm" instead.

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Kage has been talking and tweeting about this place she visits regularly. Some people think that she's taking long rides to Tagaytay, but really, she's just going to a good friend's house in San Lorenzo. It's about a 5 minute walk from the edge of Greenbelt 2.

The backyard is huge. The once upon time pool now contains aruwana. The other animals who live here are a rescued turtle and a Jack Russel. This place grows micro-melons (!), cherry tomatoes, peppers, basil, and other herbs I forget about. The backyard has four bee hives, in boxes. This place harvests honey for goodness sake.

The main area of the house is an open area that serves as living/dining room kitchen cum play area, garden tools, gadgets, lego, books, blow torches. It's a bachelor pad of Iron Chef meets Mythbusters meets Clean House.

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There's Detox, which is one way of describing of how I like to eat some days, and there is Retox, which describes how we ate that night. It takes effort to make some retoxificating food. It's not just about a bag of chips and a lot of alcohol. White bread + butter + processed cheese + processed ham + honey is good retox food. This is something you may want to feed a starving man. But imagine someone making a 'croute', baking in a turbo broiler the same ingredients I just described but making layers of it, then topping the whole pan with four fresh eggs. Ridiculous.

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We talked a lot and laughed around the table that night. Now it makes me think that I will want to start entertaining at my place. That's part of the reason why today, I'm going to buy a table/chairs. We're going to need more places to sit.

Quiz Night Proposal

I have to get in an entry on one of the most epic quiz nights ever, if not the most. Prior to last night, the biggest thing that ever happened to quiz, I would say, is the walk off battle between Maynard and Verge in 121 Allegro Pasong Tamo. This my friends has since been topped by the surprise marriage proposal by Phil to his girlfriend Mia at Capriciossa in Connecticut, Greenhills.

 I was sitting next to Mia as Phil read out the quiz "question". People started cheering and clapping to the ultimate question of the night: Mia, will you marry me?

It was just so right. I felt privileged to had been there and seen it up close. This is how proposals are done. And the fact that it was shared to so many at one time, made it very special. The question now is: how is this going to be topped next Wednesday?!?

Congratulations to two amazing people: Phil and Mia.

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Yesterday also was the birthday dinner of good friend "Diva". Oil-fest. Chicken Rice. Lechon. Jap Chae. Crepe cake with chantilly. Mango Torte. Diva's salad was the only thing that could even begin to neutralize things. :)

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Augusts seem to be eventful in Manila. August-September 2009 was tragedy after tragedy. The stars perhaps are aligning different for our city this year.

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Things seem to be going well with my new flatmate.

Strawberry Jam

Just a quick morning entry, to preserve the moments in my mind, before the work week comes in full force. It was an eventful weekend that flew by.

After the Saturday morning cleanup, met with Mafster, Binx, Mahar, Mia and Kai for lunch in the market. We had dessert afterwards at La Cuisine and had the most delicious chocolate souffle I've ever had. Maf got all wistful that she was working so much, and could not spend more time this sort of thing, hanging out with friends.

Rested in the afternoon, before heading out to a pre-climb meeting at McDo near the Q.Ave MRT. Not my favorite Mcdo. And I seem to end up meeting there during raining nights. Probably will be climbing Mt. Nagsasa and heading to Nagsasa cove late August. It's with a new group of people, and they generally seem okay and nice. There will be a river crossing that potentially could happen before the crack of dawn based on the current IT. This could be a problem: dark and water. We'll see how this gets resolved.

From there proceeded to meet with Namee at Route 196 to watch the Mico Happy Bear Players. Diego Mapa (?) was doing some mixing (and I did like some of his material), followed by Twisted Halo (music from another era, thought not too far away), Ang Bandang Shirley (good), then Ciudad of course. They played 19+ songs. I was pooped though so could not stay longer than 5+ songs.

I was supposed to catch a morning run at McKinley hill, sponsored by our firm, but my dad got one of his middle of the night nosebleeds and I thought that I wouldn't be high-tailing it somewhere at 5am -- made the snap decision that I wasn't going anywhere for the time being; plus, it was the perfect excuse for me to sleep in some more after the relatively late night.

Lunch was a big piece of ham that Pops had bought in Santis. I really don't see why we would eat out. Let's just buy some good products from stores and prepare/cook it ourselves. We eat much better for much less.

Vinny texts during lunch that he is bored. Gica and I headed to Makati to: buy DVDs, buy a router, watch DVDs, play the piano, eat junk food, play Dog Monopoly, and have a few drinks. Somewhere in the middle David joins us and makes proceedings more fun.

Got to bed and snooozed.

The Winds That Blow

Thought I'd put a photo today -- something calm. This was taken earlier this year in Concepcion. It's a river very near which passes around our farm.

Last night, I went with Sim to a not very calm party. Annual AMCI (mountaineering) acquaintance party. The theme was "service". Everyone was dressed as someone who would provide service: Starbucks barista, butcher, taho vendor, construction worker, delivery boy, masseur, mamasan. I went as a painter. The party was held, as usual, in Pedro's warehouse in Pasig. Special guest performers were Lady Gagita and Flush and the Toilets. Yes, sometimes I go to these types of parties.



One jamaican patty, pinch of lechon, two beers and two vodka sprites later, I was in an ok buzz. I met a number of the 2KX batch, and they were interesting. I'm not sure yet though about how they handle alcohol. For one thing, a few of their do-able guys ended up making out with some seriously mingen girls. I could only guess this was 'coz they were beyond smashed. I had a serious mis-read that night -- someone I had a 'vibe' from, ended up doing the MOMOL mid-conversation. . .okay, I guess some things cannot wait. Another thing, just before we left to head back to Makati, Sim and I witnessed a bit of a shouting confrontation just outside the warehouse. Drama.

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Today it is clean-up day and moreso than the usual. New flatmate coming in this week, and everything has to be ready. I did mention that it was a Japanese guy right? There's a spot where the rice cooker will be placed.

We Built Our Own World

It was a gathering of a core group of college friends. Jojo, J-an, Vincent, Aileen, Lala and me. We still hang out with each other after all this time. I think we will all know each other for a long time. We have to take care of ourselves so that we're there for each other for a while.

We ate at Mamou (poor service tonight) and then had some wine at D'Vine. We talked about different things, but mostly about people. On a selfish note, I am so glad that Lala's house in Fuego is almost done. We're already dying to go there and get smashed. I broached the idea of my birthday on the 9th and they agreed to go. . .

Our friends are very important. More important than many other things.

Army of Me

I have a workmate whom I enjoy working with. It all began when we were grouped together in a work seminar, and she essentially took charge in the direction of our presentation. Recently, she's been helping our team develop a functional work plan. What a blessing it is that she's around. She provides value to our team, and I don't have to explain myself 17 times.

It is also slightly shocking because it means that until this point I have not gotten the peer support that perhaps I should be getting.

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Today is Day 3 of me inadvertent vegan life. My last entry was about some revelations I had because I was starting to cook differently. Really who sautes in water. But there are a few more things I've discovered, which is a result of just eating different things, and being used to different tastes:

1. Tofu is creamy (I know, I know, DUH right)

2. Walnuts are sweet

3. You can eat just fruit for breakfast and not starve come 11am.

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I was reading some blog entries from 7, SEVEN, years ago. Life then was more . . . glamorous (?), interesting (?). The difference perhaps is that today everyday I do is out of my own pocket. So maybe that is progress. My blogging / journal style has not changed significantly over all these years. . .

1. Few things are grosser than over-steamed bok choy.

2. If you eat more bland food, you understand how flavorful a tomato actually is.

3. There are recipes out there that ask you saute vegetables in WATER (culture shock moment)

4. Apple juice is a horrible flavor enhancer in salad dressings.