Barangay Election 07

I almost missed to take part in the latest elections. I decided to take a cat nap after lunch but ended snoozing for a full hour. My mom woke me up and she was saying something like we are going to miss the elections because the precints will close at 3pm. I jumped off my bed and immediately took a shower and in a jiffy I am spiffy :-D My mom's pretty excited with this whole Barangay elections business... she knows most of the people running for office. She has her favorites and the names of these annointed people were like a mantra that she chants to me and my brother for more than a month already! On our way to the school my mom was in her elements... greeting people... waving... and I have to tug her with more vigor lest we really miss to cast our vote.... my wristwatch shows that it is already 30 minutes past 2pm. The elementary school building housing the precints were teeming with people..mostly volunteers/poll watchers of the candidates. They were wearing either red, blue, green, and yellow shirts the colors of their respective candidates. The floor was dusty and littered with flyers and empty styrofoam containers that probably contained lunch of the volunteers. After a couple of minutes me and my mom casted our vote. We made a quick detour at Jollibee for some take out burgers and fries. We found my dad waiting for us at the porch and I wheeled him inside... we munched and mom amused my dad with her latest tales... after an hour my dad asked me to wheel him to their bedroom... my mom joined him and after a couple of minutes they were both sound asleep.

By the way I voted in favor of my kindergarten classmate and mommy approved Popoy for Barangay Captain :-) and he won...... Mabuhay si Kapitan Popoy!

Buffalo Rules!

Watch this awesome video guys....

Weekend Wanderers

A couple of days ago Joan asked me over the phone if I would like to join her, Cat and Father Dane to a road trip to Quezon. She said that we are going to Ugu Bigyan's.... I muttered to myelf ...hmmmm.... that place sounds familiar.... then I realized I just read about it in Sunday Inquirer Magazine... it is one of the "Top 10 Awesome Restaurants of the Philippines." So without hesitation I signed up for the road trip :-)

Joan suggested that we should sleep at her place the night before our trip because we need to hit the road very early in the morning. So we met in Shangri-la around 4pm and Cathy requested that we go to Greenhills because she would like to buy a bogus bag that she will bring to France.... along with the bag all the three of us ended buying Pashminas as well.. I bought two for my mom so she can have something to wrap around with when she feels chilly inside the church ;-) Jong bought some as her pasalubong for her friends in the US when she goes to Illinois and NY on the third week of this month. After more than three hours of shopping... we decided to dine at Via Mare Cafe... as if the dinner was not enough we dropped by at a Supermarket on our way to Joan's place and bought aligue and white wine. As soon as we reached Joan's place she immediately whipped up a pasta with aligue sauce.....uncorked the wine ... then we watched Cathy's wedding video.

Joan warned us that we need to hit the road before 6am but we only managed to sleep around 2am. Nevertheless, Cat and I saw no problem with it as we both intend to sleep inside the car during the whole journey :-) We were like zombies when we woke up a little past 5am however we quickly dashed to the bathroom for a quick shower. A little past 6am we were already at Father Dane's seminary to pick him up. Father Dane was considerate enough to give as a huge bar of chocolate knowing fully well that we haven't had breakfast yet.... hahahahaha. SLEX was a mess... the on going construction renders the super highway almost useless. Surprisingly we were able to reach Ugu’s Pottery Garden Restaurant in Tiaong, Quezon a little past 8am despite the SLEX traffic.

This place is really nice.... there are so many huts where you can just lay back and read a book... or sit back relax and just let the time pass by.... or you can also place a reservation and have lunch at one of the huts for dining. We went to this place primarily to buy potteries... well Joan actually... she bought I think almost 7 thousand pesos worth.... Cat also had a few thousands worth.. and I a few hundreds worth :-) I think Father Dane knew that they're having a very rare 30% discount sale hence we went to this place. He is the one who frequents the place. There is a wide variety to choose from.... all shapes and sizes... ornamental... kitchenware... etc.

When we noticed that it was already almost 10am, we informed the Ugu people that we wished to place a reservation for lunch. Unfortunately they have to decline our reservation because they can't accomodate us anymore! So if ever you decide to come to this place I strongly advise that you place a reservation at least one day in advance. According to Father Dane..... Ugu Bigyan is the one personally cooking the food.... and probably the reason why they were quite unflexible with last minute reservations. We just waited for Joan to finish her business with her loads of purchase then we headed towards San Pablo, Laguna which is just a few kilometers away.

Joan and Father Dane suggested Kusina Salud and to my delight is also included in my venerable :-) Sunday Inquirer Magazine 's "Top 10 Awesome Restaurants of the Philippines" The place has an aviary and pretty decent garden... we opted to have their buffet which cost only 399++ per person ... drinks not included. We really had more than our money's worth... with the variety and quantity of food at the buffet table... there's a pinoy salad bar with paco, itlog na pula, tomato, eggplant, .... etc. There's also a wide array of very Pinoy salad dressing to choose from... bagoong alamang, bagoong balayan, kalamansi, vinegar...etc.

There's a wide variety of food to choose from..... after gobbling my salad I immediately headed to the place where they were grilling pork barbecue and tilapia... being a legitimate jologs that I am.. and the smell of grilled pork is like an enchanting aroma that reverberates sinful sensation from my nostrils to hypothalamus .... I immediately picked 3 skewers of pork barbecue... I also had "laing" which had a very unique creamy texture and slivers of gabi. I also noticed the adobong kalabaw.... but opted not to have it.. I couldn't bear the thought of eating our national beast of burden... It's just me really... Joan said it was pretty good though. There were a lot more food on the buffet table but the 3 skewers of barbecue really made me full to my stomach's brim. I did not even bother to have a taste of their purple ginataang bilo bilo for dessert....

We decided to stretch our legs a little after the heavy lunch.... and Kusina Salud has pretty wide stretch of garden that will allow you to walk and enjoy the flora... After a couple of minutes we decided to head back to the metropolis... Upon reaching Manila we made a detour to the video enclave that sells foreign flicks... I reached home around 8pm and found 8 humongous crabs on our dinner table.... yummy :-)

Loot of the Week!

Whoa! I bought a hardbound illustrated film script of Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask. The original price is 1,750 bucks and I got mine for only 500 bucks... woohooo!!!

Fun Friday

Phoebe and I were going to meet her friends Chatchie and Lexi to foray at Quiapo for some precious videos. The meeting place was at Jollibee between the church and Mercury Drugs after lunch . We get off the Carriedo station and started walking to the direction of the Quiapo Church. There were quite a lot of people because it was the first Friday of the month..... and many devotees of the Black Nazarene were there to hear mass. When we got to the plaza in front of the church we started to survey the area to look for the Jollibee in between the church and Mercury Drugs. After some minutes of craning our neck and squinting under the 12 noon sun we finally found the Jollibee restaurant.... it was located at the 3rd floor of a building at the left side of the church. There we found Chatchie waiting for us.... we waited some 15 more minutes... before Lexi arrived...while waiting I took some snapshots of the devotees below.... they already spilled at the side of the minor basilica... because there were so many devotees hearing mass.

When Lexi arrived we immediately proceeded to the video enclave.....We spent more than 2 hours and loads of money scouring the area. Afterwards we decided to head to Cubao for dinner... good thing there is the LRT2 line.... the commute from Quiapo to Cubao only took us a couple of minutes. We had our dinner at Hap Chan... as usual it was a very dependable resto for a decent chinese food and it is very affordable. After our sumptous dinner we decided to stretch our legs and head towards Cubao-X (Marikina Shoe Expo)... there is an attempt since last year to revive the place and turn it into some eclectic mix of art galleries, shops, and cafes.


The first shop that we visited was a store carrying mostly graphic novels.... Frank Miller's, Neil Gaiman's, etc... Actually I found a graphic book of Neil Gaiman's Stardust and I promise myself to comeback and buy myself a copy before Neil's visit here in the Philippines this coming November. I really need to save myself money to be able to buy this book because it is quite expensive.... donations accepted :-) The person who owns the place and tending the shop was a young man possibly in his late 20's.... and he was very engaging to talk with. He really knows his merchandise and his shop is definitely a good source for hard to find graphic novels.

The next shop we entered was Heritage... the place is filled with Filipinianas... and I tell you the place is filled with various artifacts, curios, trinkets, publications, prints, artworks, sculptures., etc. The collection also comes from various circa such as pre Spanish, Spanish, Japanese, American, 60's, 70's, and even 80's. Looking at the various artifacts and whatchamacallits is such a source of fun and even information. You can find yourself lost with amazement with the various things you will find in this shop.

The next shop we entered is quite colorful... the name of the shop speaks for itself "Vintage Pop" so as expected there were lots of items from the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's... This is a pop culture collectors' haven. Looking at the items on display brings back fond childhood memories. The owner was even there and gladly answers inquiries.

The next shop we entered was Halo.... the place is on their first day of soft opening. And I tell you the owners of this cafe/resto is the most friendly and accomodating host I have ever met. Just look for Ces.... then again you don't have to look for her ....she will definitely greet you once you entered their cafe and really make sure that you get the coffee or slice of cake that you want immediately. The nice thing about Halo is that all they serve is organic... they even have a vegetarian burger....nah not the TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) variety... it's made of something else and it is very filling. Their cakes and patries are all sugar free .... the coffee they serve came all the way from Bohol...

After all the walking that we did our feet finally started aching...we dont have to look far because right next door is a brightly lit cafe "Happy Turtle". The decor was fantastic.. they have two big aquariums mounted on the wall and an aquarium in the counter. They serve coffee, tea, fruit shakes and cakes. I decided to have fresh strawberry shake....and dude it is really fresh.. not the creamy milk shake with a tinge of flavor that you'l find in most cafes these days... The place is really such a treat to sip coffee or fruit shake ....because the aquariums dude... they really RAWKS! especially the turtles... watch the video I recorded and embedded in this blog to see what I mean.



The shops here are usually open between 6pm until 9pm... I am a bit tired of going to posh shopping places like the Bonifacio High Street in Serendra... well... hmmmm... not really... but you see... Cubao-X is a definite welcome change... the owners are very accomodating... and the place has a lot to offer... there were some art galleries and cafes that we have yet to visit... plus there's also the ever dependable Bellini's if you are into authentic Italian food at a very affordable price.

Kitchen

Yesterday was the third time for the Monday Marauders to meet however because of the changes in her working schedule at a call center our friend Alma was not able to join us. Cathy texted me earlier if we are still pushing thru with the supposed date because aside from the fact that a fourth marauder is not available the weather is not actually good. Its been raining for a couple of days already and yesterday seems to be no different from the previous days. But because I still have to go to the metropolis anyway and return the CDs I borrowed from my former Quorum colleagues at Eastgate in Mandaluyong I told her that we should still push thru with our date. Besides, I don't want to have a rainy days on Mondays always gets me down moment.


So my first order for the afternoon is head to Eastgate and meet with my former IT colleagues. We met a week earlier to pay respect at the wake of my former boss' father and our former colleague Helen's wake. This time I will just return the music CDs I borrowed and engage in some small talk. I always enjoy getting in touch with my former colleagues...afterall I've spent almost 9 years? with them day in and day out. I love my former Quorum colleagues and I have a lot of respect for them they are not only an intelligent bunch of people they are also very hardworking. I went inside their 3rd floor office quarter past 4 in the afternoon. Jing said that she will treat us for dinner.... unfortunately I have to decline the offer because I have to meet the other Marauders. Time passed so quickly and before I knew it the time on the wallclock strikes 6pm and I have to bid them goodbye.

Unbelievable but my trip from Eastgate which I think is less than 1Km away from Galleria took one whopping hour! So as expected Cathy and Joan were already waiting for me at the restaurant.....

The first thing that I noticed was the water that they serve in this restaurant... they put it in a big bottle with mint leaves inside..The water tasted minty :-)



Joan's food was served first... a few minutes before I came....she did not touch her food and waited for me to arrive.... sweet.... Anyways the adobong pusit tasted great... you know this is the kind of food that I prefer home cooked... but amazingly they did a pretty good job... It somehow have a different taste. flavor, and texture to it.


Cathy don't want to have anything heavy hence she opted for a fried salmon dumpling? and ceasars salad. The salmon tasted great I had two pieces and the wrap was crunchy and the salmon was not overcooked. The salad have some twist though...not your typical ceasars salad...which Cathy did not like. I on the other hand liked the twist... I find the inclusion of pesto a welcome treat... something different.


I on the other hand had "Barbie's Cue" it was a skewer of pork, vegetables, shrimp, and sausage.. and it tasted great! very yummy!

Cathy and Joan did some shopping... so what else is new? They seem to be buying clothes every week...unbelievable... and expensive clothes at that... women.