These Days

I met my long-time UP dorm friends for lunch yesterday.  We haven't all been in one place for a long, long time so I was looking forward to catching up with everyone. We had lunch at Lorenzo's Way in Greenbelt 5, which I picked based on reviews from Munchpunch .  Great food and service, although the portions were smaller than expected.  The waiter quoted 3-4 and we think they're just good for 2-3... We had the Bamboo Rice, Coco Loco Prawns, Rosemary Chicken and the Hickory Ribs meal (a bit tough).  The taste winners for me were the rice and prawns and my fresh dalandan shake.  Unfortunately, I did not take photos of the food because we were all ready to dig in once they were served. So enough about the food.  That really was just a backdrop to the meeting.  Anne, who's based in Taiwan, is in the country for a few days.  We also met her fiance for the first time.  They're getting married in Singapore next month.!  Yayan returned f...

Milestone for the parents! Last Tuesday, Richard and I attended our very first parent-teacher conference at Neil's school.  It was our first time to talk to his teachers in detail about how he is doing in general and the results of his semestral learning assessment.  Of course, I want to hear a good report but was also keeping an open mind to all sorts of feedback. Truth be told, I was a little anxious leading up to the day.  I have gone through countless performance reviews at work but this is more nerve-wracking!  I must remember that he is only 3 and this is pre-school.  Keep everything in perspective.=) The gist.  He did excellent on reading, counting, identifying colors and shapes.  He likes outdoor play and can manage the playground equipment by himself.  He can improve on being more conversant and answering questions from teachers, also dexterity with his hands.  He likes individual activities vs. groups but is starting to get m...

Our family has a pretty regular weekend schedule.  On Sundays, we usually attend church service at 8AM.  We would always be at a loss of what to do afterwards.  It's too early for lunch and most stores are still closed.  So we usually just go back home for lunch and siesta, then head back out in the afternoon/evening for groceries.  I thought it would be best if do groceries right after church so that the rest of the day is errand-free. S&R in Bonifacio Global City is on the way from church to the house and that makes it an ideal place to do groceries.  I long wanted to check it out.  Last Sunday, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to get a membership and see if we can make this new schedule work. S&R is a bulk-shopping establishment similar to Costco in the US.  In fact they had Kirkland products there so maybe they are affiliated.  I think the prices are just a little bit more expensive than in the US I suspect due to taxes...

Last of the 3-week preaching series in church entitled Blueprint: Discovering God's Intended Design 3. Week 1: In God's Image Week 2: In the Garden Week 3: In the Lead This week's topic, In The Lead, is all about the role of men, i.e. being the head.   Pastor Jeff shared a CNN article ' Why Men are in Trouble ' and I believe it is the reality for a lot of men these days.  I agree that men need to step up, but to what exactly? Authority Genesis 2:15, 19-20 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. God delegated man to take care of the garden and gave him the authority to name the ...

More art exposure on Saturday after the visit to Yuchengco Museum in the morning. Em and I chanced upon Martin Honasan 's exhibit at the Power Plant Mall entitled Digging in the Dirt .   We were on our way to meet Neil and Richard after watching The Three Musketeers.  The movie was free (work-sponsored) and I was glad I did not have to pay for it, not even for Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovovich.  'Nuff said. Ok, back to the art.  Here are a few photos from Digging in the Dirt: Great work inspired by Bible passages.  I did some digging and found that this exhibit has ended yesterday, October 23.  So cool that we were able to see it even without planning to.

Em and I spent Saturday morning at the Yuchengco Museum.  It's in RCBC Plaza, my office building and even though I see it everyday, it's only last weekend that I stepped inside the museum.  The main exhibit which runs until the end of this month is entitled Rizalizing the Future and it pays homage to our national hero Jose Rizal on the occasion of his 150th birthday this year. If you haven't brushed up on your Philippine history in a while (me!), going to a museum is an excellent way to re-ignite interest in the events and people of the past.  I needed this reminder about how astounding Jose Rizal was as a person.  He was privileged, remarkably intelligent and talented, excelled in so many areas and yet was astutely in touch with the realities of his less privileged countrymen. There were a lot of artifacts from Rizal's life like his prayer book, certificates, his violin, the 'tampipi' where his manuscripts were kept, etc.  There were also tribute pie...

Friday was Neil's last school day for the semester and they had to come in costumes for pageant. We were remiss in getting him a new costume this year so we recycled his costume from last year.  Go green!  His Perseus costume was a DIY project lovingly done by Richard and me.  It actually fits him better now. =) Waiting for the show to start. They were made to walk on stage and a runway.  While the point-and-shoot is pretty fast at shooting, it takes a while to process a shot.  There's a lag before you can take the next one so I only have 2 photos of Neil on the runway and they're not very good. :( Lesson learned.  Bring the SLR next time. The kids watched The Flintstones after the pageant while votes for best in costume were being tallied.   A boy in Jack Sparrow costume and a girl in a pumpkin suit won the awards.    They were made to walk the runway again after getting loot bags, which was great because I get anoth...

Next to Normal  was the first and only show I've seen on Broadway.  I visited New York in November last year and my good friend Joel recommended this play very highly.  It was his treat and we got great seats to great show.  Next to Normal won the  2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  Atlantis Productions adapted this play back in March so Richard and I watched it on his birthday.  It had a rerun recently, which Em was able to watch with her friends. So I've seen Next to Normal twice, 2 different cast in 2 countries.  Seeing it for the first time on Broadway was a really wonderful experience.  The overall production and the cast were outstanding.  Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley (real-life husband and wife) played the lead roles Diana and Dan Goodman.  Marin Mazzie delivered a very intense and emotional performance that made you understand and appreciate bipolar disorder.  Yup, that's the theme but I will say no more about it...

This is what life is like lately... I get up before 7AM, even if I go to bed anywhere between 1AM and 3AM.  Yup, I can never sleep in because it's too bright and my housemates are up and about.  My sleep has suffered lately because we are rushing important tasks at work and I can't predict what time I can leave for the day. Mornings are all about Neil getting ready for school.  Bath and breakfast needs to be done by 8AM.  Typically, Richard will drive him and yaya to school in the mornings, but on Wednesdays, I take them via taxi because Rich leaves early (number-coding).  Then I get a few hours of personal time, which is occupied by QT, chores, bath,  exercise, Internet,  cooking food for lunch/dinner (by 10AM) before I head out and pick Neil up at 11:30AM. We would have lunch at home and then I take my nap before going to work at 3PM (or as soon as I can muster enough willpower to get out of bed).  I have been struggling with gett...

Rich, Neil and I watched Seussical the Musical last Saturday.  I saw the deal on Groupon for 50% of the tickets and Em offered to pay for all of us.   Thanks, Em! I always want to have Neil experience new things and this was his first musical ever.=)  He has seen Cats several times at home and he really likes it, even singing the songs and imitating dance moves. So I knew he will like the format and our biggest challenge might be how to keep him in his seat for the duration of the show. Ticket redemption started at 2:30PM and I really wanted to go early to get good seats but it would just be Neil and me because yaya took the day off and Richard had training until 3PM.  So, we decided to just wait for Richard and hope we can still get good seats, at least adjacent ones. As expected, there was a very long line for Groupon redemptions, but seats have been pre-assigned so there was no need to get there early.  Ours were on the fourth row.  Cool! ...

Part 2 of VCF's 3-week series entitled Blueprint: Discovering God's Intended Design. Week 1: In God's Image Week 2: In the Garden Week 3: In the Lead Genesis 2:8-15 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden ; and there he put the man he had formed.  Garden - connotes a pleasant place Eden - literally means 'delight' Man was put in a delightful place. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All kinds of trees -> abundance Grow out of the ground -> place in naturally blessed Pleasing to the eye -> beautiful Good for food -> enjoyable 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.  Having a river through the garden means that it is spacious, adequate and enough. 15 The LORD God took the man and p...

These are very busy days at work... It was my 2nd year anniversary on October 12 and I only remembered 2 days later.  Happy anniversary to me! It is difficult to feel upbeat today because I am just tooo tired.  I've had very little sleep in the last couple of weeks and today is especially a struggle because I wasn't able to take a nap before going to work (my usual sleep catch-up time).  Neil was awake way into his normal sleeping time and it was impossible to get the sustained peace and quiet I need for a nap... Okay, back to perspective.  These are busy days but productive days as well.  We are just rushing some codes and reports for a very important conference which will happen in a week.  After that, things should be back to normal.  And before we know it, the 4-day weekend will be upon us.  I am looking forward to that, even if the only worthwhile things I do are spend time with family and catch up on sleep. Here are a few noteworthy st...

Our team had dinner at John and Yoko in Greenbelt 5 last Monday.  We were more than 25 people in the group and it was to welcome 2 new people to the team. This is my first time eating at John and Yoko.  I pass by the place often but I just don't find the dark interiors inviting and I'm not really into contemporary fusion restaurants.  However, it was already decided so I just looked up reviews to find out what people recommend on the menu.  I read some negative feedback, including mentions of food poisoning (which also happened to a colleague).  There were positive reviews as well but I was still cautious. My side of the table decided to order as a group.  We had the Big in Japan and There Goes My Diet.  Each order was supposed to be for 4 persons but it didn't seem like enough food, based on the pictures. We were wrong.  The actual plates were huge!  I think they're 2x2 ft (my hand for scale).  If you want variety, I recom...

Last Sunday, Em and I had a sister date at Greenhills.  I haven't shopped there in over a year and I was looking forward to finding good stuff. But first, lunch at Le Ching.  They have upgraded the interiors, a huge improvement from my first visit back in college.  I love their spareribs rice topping so I ordered that again.  Sad to say, the meat was tough this time.:( The hakao wrapping was too thick for my liking.  Em had better luck with the fish and tofu in taosi sauce.  Given the abundance of food choices in Greenhills now, I will think twice before going back. Then it was time for shopping/walking. Greenhills is the hub of all things uso .  A lot of the shops sell similar clothing so you could get bored by the sameness if you're simply browsing.  Angry Birds, anyone?  There are also lots of low-quality items and knock-offs BUT you will also find shops with unique merchandise and those are worth going back to.  I ...

Iligan City is my home town.  I was born and raised there.  I moved to Manila for college and stayed here for career and family.  Even if I have been away from Iligan for years, I still consider it home.=) Anton of Our Awesome Planet visited Iligan recently and wrote a 2-part blog on my city.  Check it out! The Best of Iligan - Part 1 The Best of Iligan - Part 2 I hope you get to learn more about my home and consider a visit. =) Ma. Cristina Falls

The current preaching series in VCF is entitled Blueprint (Discovering God's Intended Design) and will run for 3 weeks.  It will answer the question on what it means to be created in God's image and it's purpose is to help us understand Biblical manhood that result to change in mindset and produce positive impact in relationships, the community and the nation.  Week 1: In God's Image Week 2: In the Garden Week 3: In the Lead Creation Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image , in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. tselem - Hebrew word, meaning shadow, translated as image.   Imago Dei - image of God The designer gets to define the purpose of his crea...

Photo from Things We Forget The news of Steve Jobs' passing made for a sad Thursday morning.  After years of battling cancer, his body gave out and we are left with an irreplaceable void in the world... Thank you, Steve, for your vision, creativity, positivity and inspiration.

Shangri-la Mall.  I haven't been here in years.  Dinner at Tokyo Tokyo. This is the best we could do.  Family portrait. Carousel. Playing the piano, before we were told it was 'bawal.' Toys R Us Sunday, haircut # 7. Christmas window display.