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...