Christmas Cheers from Cebu City

Dec 24, 2007 - 11:50 pm:

I had written a nice, long blog....  

Then Mozilla Firefox encountered an error and I lost it all -
pictures, words, and thoughts...
oh well....c'est la vie...

at Lai Garden, SM Cebu

So I'm keeping to the short version

(which has the very basic recent photos taken yesterday and today and of course the thoughts that I wish to convey) .

In the final run, this is what I would just be saying -

at A Taste of Mandarin, Gaisano Country Mall, Cebu

From my dear dad and mom -  Nene and VK                                                                                                                                                                       

and my good ole Russian friend Stoli -

who is keeping me company while I surf,

(dad is snoozing and mom is cooking the prawns - yummy fave - for noche buena)

                       

"Merry Christmas!!!"

from an island in the Pacific

- Cebu City!

at my work table

Here's to the best Christmas ever!

*hic, hic, hic*

 (that was Stoli, not me!)

- Posted on Dec 24, '07 11:56 PM for everyone

Haynaku sa haiku...

Its been a long, long while since I ever wrote anything literary...I think I've forgotten that part of my life way back when I was a teenager.

Back in high school at STC (St. Theresa's College), words were powerful, fun and were something I wasn't comfortable muttering out loud since I had a tendency to speak very fast - jumbling my speech since my mouth couldn't catch up with what I thought I wanted to share. Still, I enjoyed English subjects and didn't shirk my duty as a student when we had to turn in our random written formal and informal theme assignments.

During college at CIT (Cebu Institute of Technology University), words were superflous, unimportant, and fleeting to me...except when they became part of a computer program. 

One didn't think about diction, rhythm, rhyme or the resulting impact on the heart and thoughts on people who read one's scribbles. One only had to think of logic and reason and syntax although structure was important in a way. I left behind my habit of reading classics and novels, and concentrated on poring over lines and lines of code. Debugging was some thing I enjoyed..especially if it was other people's programs.

Did you ever see this comic strip featuring a programmer-applicant and his interviewer? 

The latter said the programmer was superlative in Cobol, Pascal, Fortran and C (during my time, those where some of the languages we gave instructions to the computer!)  It was just too bad the applicant was "lousy" in English. Sometimes I feared being lumped into a particular segment of software developers - tolerably good in coding and logic; and tolerably passable in English.

Now and then, I become nostalgic, and I wonder wistfully whatever happened to the copies of the bunch of poems, stories, anecdotes I had submitted in our English classes more than 2 decades ago. I liked limericks, I liked puns. I enjoyed breaking into Walt Whitman's "O Captain, my Captain! our fearful trip is done;" once in a while. I enjoyed a little bit of Shakespeare and a little bit of Robert Browning. I read Canterbury Tales in the loo. Ok, so I read Nancy Drew too.

I enjoyed various pieces of works but it wasn't something I put a whole lot of my mind into. Some people could ponder and ruminate about great works and I? I was content just standing by and listening slash reading these words. At worst they floated like a wavering ghostly figure past my ears...at best they left a very subtle footprint on my cerebral cortex. Pfft!

I write this now since I had the urge to type about something I felt 10 minutes ago. I felt I missed going 

back to scribbling words on random pieces of paper and sticking them in various places. I wanted to write haiku at 2 in the morning, because when prompted, I can only remember one I wrote during my high school graduation...maybe because it meant something personal to me then. 

Since life at that point seemed to be complicated and exciting, full of various adventures and trails unknown. I wanted to express how I thought all the years of schooling (and waking up early!) culminated at last in that grand transformation. I was a young lady primed to go into the world of....college.

That haiku went this way -

green caterpillar,

spinning a silver cocoon....

metamorphosis!

At this moment though, I just want to randomly write more 5-7-5 lines because my work nowadays seem so far away from any creative leaning. I feel like I am slipping...into a world of contracts, timelines, milestones, engagement margins - everything is so cut and dried! so... so...blah! Hmm...how descriptive of me...is that the best adjective I can come up with?

Wait-a-minute!..I am determined! Before I sign off, I must come up with one haiku! Maybe that will jump-start my brain. Maybe that will get my creative juices flowing. Maybe that will balance out my mind? Or maybe I can just say ..never mind the 5-7-5-7-7...just write the darn thing before your muscles lock in this position in front of your laptop!

Well, here goes nothing - let's give it a shot then - it is not as if I was aspiring to become an award-winning writer...I just need another outlet once in a while so I can find my swing.

first raindrop trembles

poised on a withered leaf-tip..

falling on a frog -

slide and disappear into...

the cracked lips of thirsty Earth.

In tribute to my love of frogs, the rainy weather we are having and last but not the least, here's to Mother 

Earth!

- Nov 22, '07 3:14 AM

Japanese-Cook-Wannabe, Entry # 1

Nov 1, '07 3:36 PM for everyone

Yesterday, I finally visited the out-of-the-way Japanese grocery/sushi bar I had noticed at least 6 months ago. This was tucked into the corner near Landmark and Park Square's parking area/jeep terminal lot.

Alas and alack, I found out that they were doing the "all-items at  50%" since Park Square is going to be torn down and replaced by a hotel. October 31 was their last day! What a waste that I didn't know about it earlier or else I could have found a way to cart home the Japanese rice, sake, and other ingredients.

As it was, I was partially satisfied to finally find the pink thingie (I call it that in my mind, but which is I think what is known as a"Sakura denpo"), used in the kani salad during that Jap food fest, as well as a couple of Japanese snacks e.g. Green tea pretzels, spicy seaweed strips, and Japanese pancake to name a few.

Anyway, it has now inspired me to share a series on Japanese food - whether I am the cook, the eater, the researcher; whether its about preparation, etiquette, eating etc.; whether I am expounding, cutting and pasting from articles, quoting verbatim or rattling my head off foolishly - it will be anything goes my way style.

Today, there will be two simple topics for me to write about.

I. Japanese cooking flavors

Saltiness, sweetness and sourness. Obvious, ne?  ("ne" is like an expression in Nihonggo..like "di ba"?)
The listed flavours above can be produced by using in tandem or individually the following basic ingredients:

• soy sauce (I hear the japs may be pronouncing this as soy-sosu hehehe)
• Japanese rice wine or "sake"
• miso (soya bean paste which has been fermented)
• mirin (variant of sake with sugar)
• sea salt
• caster sugar
• last but not least, dashi (Japanese stock produced from dried bonito...or dried kelp)

II. Eating Etiquette

Chopsticks or "o-hashi" is a Chinese invention that has been assimilated into the Jap culture. While I will not attempt anymore to describe here the correct way to hold them, let me share with you some of the basic principles of etiquette in eating Japanese food with or without chopsticks.

1. Do not spear your food with chopsticks (sashi-bashi).

2. Do not use your chopsticks to pull a dish toward you or push it away from you (yose-bashi).

3. Do not hold your chopsticks over a dish while deciding what to eat (mayoi-bashi).

4. Never pass food between chopsticks. This mimics the Buddhist practice of handling the bones of the dead (hashi-watashi). Urgh.

5. Unless you are a lefty, use your left hand to hold the rice bowl and your right hand to use your chopsticks to scoop up the rice.

6. Japanese noodles can be slurped with much enthusiasm while holding the noodles between your chopsticks. But Japanese soups should be sipped with uhm...a little less enthusiam :-)

7. If you are in a formal situation, do not eat food directly from a large, communal dish. First place food from the large dish into the small dish provided for your portion and then take food from that.

And so I bid you a fond itadakimasu! (いただきます)! 

(This is uttered before eating as it is like thanking God for the food that you have received or at least thanking the person who prepared the food you are now about to eat.)

3 day weekend, snooze or...?

Aug 27, '07 11:18 PM for everyone

August 2007 had meant two 3-day weekends...one on August 20 and another on August 27. And what did I do on those exciting long weekends?

Well....*taps chin thoughtfully*...aside from watching "Ratatouille", and doing the routine grocery-shopping (am on a bagel diet these days because as Chiara would say I got infected with tamaditis) and the weekend chores - and the unavoidable tv-watching and internet-surfing (at least on my first 3 day weekend)...well...nothing else except trying to erase my eyebags by catching up on more sleep.

True, I suffered from a pesky migraine starting Saturday morning last week (probably brought about by too by too much drinking of hot choco since Thursday)...but I admit, quite shamefacedly, that I only managed to rouse myself on August 27 to go out. I kept getting held back by Skycable!

There was an old movie of Sly Stallone (Escape to Victory in Cinemax), Midsommer Murders (on Hallmark), two Star Trek movies (I love Star Trek), CSI Las Vegas, The Da Vinci Code, and then a drama about a father and his estranged daughter (quite a long title so I forgot)..and so on and so forth.
...but weirdly, no anime...because my fave supplier in Glorietta for this is not there anymore. Oh dear, and they still owe me replacements for defective disks (Evangelion movie and a couple of Card Captor Sakura as well as GetBackers). The last series I bought from them was "Flame of Recca"...and ..its being shown on Animax..but as usual...in corny English dialogue. Bleargh!

I forgot that I was supposed to exchange a defective USB mouse, and that I had only 1 chicken egg in my ref. I just went out with no goal in mind. I just happily rambled about the household sale in Landmark...and the main thing which caught my eye is the item below. *sigh*

My shopping gene is dormant these days...but I found the wind chime amusing and conveniently forgot that I am not supposed to put holes or hooks (unless they be temporary ones) on my walls or ceiling. I finally found another use for the water sprinkler spout. Hopefully the fish chime would not be drenched ....ever!


And then! And then I find when I finally checked on Multiply tonight...that it would have been a great treat to just transport myself to Tagaytay and tuck myself in the corner of Sir B's and Ms. G's home...and eat pork binagoongan or whatever was on their table. *sighs again* ah well....next time!

Tagged: Random facts about la gatita

Aug 19, '07 3:38 AM

I almost missed this..but whadda ya know? I got tagged by MeAnn..so here I am.....I will try my best to post something na di masyadong scandalous..or masyadong boring *grin*  I am unsure though if these are known or unknown facts to the readers..so..patience my dears!

The problem though..kc na-tag na yata lahat yung mga religious and consistent bloggers na multipliers sa network ko..so what do do about tagging other people? (tagged na sina Ms G, Sir B, Chiara, Pearl, Nona, Jack, BNK, Faith....ubos na...naku..)

Here are the rules (acc to Garp ba?) ~

1.) In the 8 facts about [name], you share 8 things that your readers don't know about you. At the end, you tag 8 other bloggers to keep the fun going. Each blogger must post these rules first.

2.) Each blogger starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3.) At the end of the post, a blogger needs to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

4.) Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Uno:

Although I love cats in pictures, stories, movies etc...I have never had a pet cat!  Takot kc ako maging allergic sa cat hair... I had dogs of various breeds, fishes like the common goldfish and the intelligent arowana (she got to be about 22 inches long too, while the other was a shorter 10 inches), hamster, rabbit, chickens, ducks, goat, doves, parrot, mynah...etc..but no el gato or el gatita...*mewls piteously*

Dos:

Until now, I still enjoy reading romance stories like Mills and Boone, Silhouette, Harlequin.....but only if its free reading at National Bookstore...hehehe...I do not buy them now, but I feel very fond of them because when I was in elementary and high school, these formed a large percentage of my reading fare. I guess I improved my english by reading these stories...but I blame them for my being quite romantic and idealistic also..parang naghahanap ako ng knight in shining armor in those days... (I admit there were a couple of Barbara Cartlands thrown in once in a while..there was this one novel of hers which had a devil-worshipping cult..honest!..it was made into a tv-movie...hinanap ko yon para lang mabasa ko....)

Tres:

I am scared stiff of BIG, GARGANTUAN, GIGANTIC, hairy spiders. Blame it on seeing a movie during my very young, impressionable years  - a horror film featuring these *shivers* arachnids blownup to house-size...BUT...I love playing with the cute "kaka"  as we call them - the little spiders young boys put in (posporo) matchboxes and engage in these little fights...

Cuatro:

I've got a very sensitive nose...a whiff of smoke from somebody who smoked in a room? Even 2 hours later I can sense it and complain about it...thats why I hate cigarette smoke..and I try to not linger in a room which has strong smells..even if its a US$ 10K  branded perfume..I either feel dizzy or have a migraine after inhaling strong scents..

Cinco:

As long as I am sleeping and not woken up by noise or movement, even if its as chilly as the inside of a refrigerator in the room I am sleeping in and I don't have a blanket covering me - my body is toasty-warm when I wake up. It is as if when I am asleep I am shielded from mosquito bites and cold air.....my parents told me that when I was a baby all cute and cuddly in my crib, I'd throw a tantrum by stomping my feet on my crib if my lordly slumbers were interrupted because the electric fan (which was usually facing my crib and not rotating around) would be turned off or away from my body....I like cold weather...as long as di nag snowstorm...

Seis:

My cycle of cleaning mi casa is like a seesaw....there are days or months where its so organized, even the spices are arranged alphabetically - with matching price and date bought, and the CR is smelling like lysol or orange all the time..but there are also days that only a computer can keep track of how each item got organized...because its all bedlam! no rhyme or reason whatsoever.  It really depends on my mood. I can be as OC as the next OC in this group, but I can be as disorganized as the next person. The only thing which is regular is my dishwashing, garbage-throwing and laundry.

Seite:

I dislike the color yellow. Before, it used to make me want to puke...but now I am not like that anymore. My fave color is RED....it can be seen in the number of red-colored clothes I have in Cebu....but I also like black....and black turtlenecks were a stable of my wardrobe before....but since its a tropical country, I don't wear black that often because I am the type of person who sweats very easily. Drat it. I sweat like a pig...*sweatdrops*

Ocho:

I don't have a big appetite *innocent look*...I just like eating and tasting different food...honest! its just that.....I just forget that I'd already eaten a lot when I'm deep in conversation with friends....

Finito....

P.S. will see if I can tag these friends and be successful -

1.  Manang K (kaiyen)

2.  PD (princess diana)

3. EmeraldJecko (shirluv)

4.  Mickey (or si Jack kaya? di ko kayo nakikita, date kayo ng date kasi)

5.  Dyaneen (Janine...well actually si Claire {sintclaired} nilagay dito originally pero alam ko tamad yang batang yan mag post...hanggang tinggin lang yan usually hehehe)

6. Evangeline Logon (eslogon)

7. Ruela

8. Doreen

21 years have passed by like a drop of rain

August 12, 2007 (Sunday)- After watching a movie murder whodunit on cable and taking a long-distance call from Cebu...I trooped downstairs on the building where I currently live and I met up with waiting-for-more-than-15-minutes Paul Sy - an old friend, college classmate/batch mate (CIT, Computer Science pioneers) and a fellow Cebuano...who I've known way back in nineteen eight six. 

I first came across Paul when he was knee high to a grasshopper (hmm....maybe not knee high?.....maybe its better to say that he was as tall as the grasshopper?).

And I can certainly remember his shenanigans and idiosyncrasies which drove other people mad during our teenage years, even his love-team-mate in our class..hehehe...ah...nostalgia anyone?

Everything was simpler then and we were all incorrigible teasers...I remember a question I asked him during summer classes - "Paul Sy, are you going to take up Pol Sci?" *ignores glare from said guy*

He had arrived from Hong Kong (or maybe another country in Asia) a couple of weeks ago, and said he'd like to meet up with me in Makati so he could drop off something for me ... uhmm... 'pasalubong' ? Of course I will be generous enough to receive it.....enough said *grin*. I tried to get in touch with other classmates I had in Manila to see if they could also come over....

It makes me sad that my college batch mates and I who are in Manila never get to see each other together at the same time..

- Aug 17, 2007 1:16 AM

K-10.

Thanks to Faith...eto na at yung mga 'K"...pano kaya maging picture yong kembot-kembot to the left? hehehe

Not in any particular order ....ready, set...go!

KASTANYAS as we call it in dear old Cebu, otherwise known as chestnuts. The sight and smell of roasted kastanyas during Christmas is enough to make me very nostalgic and wish it was Chirstmas every day of the year.

KEROPI - an ode to the toad...I mean...frog...ay...ang cute-cute (kawaii as the Japs would say) niya...kagaya ni KERMIT, THE FROG.It is not easy being green, but he's got the good life.

Almond na KISSES chocolates is just one of my favorite sweets to eat.

However, I also like bestowing the honest-to-goodness kiss on my favorite people....*tsup!*

My 1st ever favorite hero -KENSHIN Himura from "Rurouni Kenshin" also known as "Battousai"....the hitokiri (assassin) from the Japanese war between the Ishin-shishi and the Shinsengumi - what's not to love about him?

Not only is he the fiercest and most deadly man-killer of all, he also an excellent cook and does the laundry too. Kaya siguro am just spoiled na...I have him as my ideal man...hahahaha! Not too tall though, and he's taken to wearing a fuchsia gi...but darlings, if you saw him the OAV..*faints*

KYOU KARA MAOU (God Save Our King) is one of the newer animes I favor today. Granted, its all "bisshies" or "bishounen" meaning they feature guys who can make you drop your clothes and run nekked to them....and may hints of shounen-ai or boy love (imagine, na engage yung Demon King to a guy who is the younger brother of his beloved godfather, dahil sinampal niya, ano yon?) but its really hilarious as a comedy. There's magic and surprisingly the story is also not that bad...*gush* ang gwapo-gwapo talaga nila...call me shallow..but my heart goes pitter-pat...

KITTENS - need I explain? need I elaborate?

Also known as baklava, the KATAIFI is also part of my sweet tooth list of victims....mwahahaha! This is defined as a Greek pastry made from shredded phyllo dough and filled with walnuts. When served it is often topped with honey. This pastry can also be served as a topping for other desserts, such as custards and yogurts.

I'm including this in my list coz its funny sometimes thinking about it. I used to wonder if I could change my name to something more out of this world. But, have you ever experienced people keep on calling you by another name? I've gone thru this less than 8 times in my whole life..but I've noticed that after I've introduced myself as "Catherine Herrera", they keep on calling me either "Kristine" or "Katrina"...was it because I spoke my name too fast? Last night, I got called in a phone conference as Katrina..complete with rolling rrrrss....so now...I've resigned myself to liking these names too...

Introducing my female Jap spitz...the last of the Mohicans - KOBEY is her name.

Unfortunately I can't find my picture of her..so this will have to do..its still a jap spitz pup...and since all puppies look the same...well, she did look like this when she was younger..honest!

Last but not the least, one of my fave forbidden books - the KAMA SUTRA.

I say forbidden because during my college days, I had no idea what it was...and was just hoping for a glimpse of it

(it wasn't in our dusty library...well I could hope...but...)

When I had money to spare (after I got a job), I brought one from a book club...

sadly though, it was all text...*grin* no pictures...darn it!

- Jul 3, '07 2:51 PM

Full June 2007 Weekends 2/2

     

The last weekend of June 2007 is not over, but again on Friday I received an unexpected call, I had posted in an album here some pictures I had taken during my first ever Enchanted Kingdom trip, way back in 1995 if I am not mistaken. Yes, surprises of surprises, Nina - my dorm mate and friend who, along with Frank accompanied me to EK, was in town and proposed meeting each other that night. Since I had a scheduled gimik with Dingdong and some ex-officemates, I had to move it to a Saturday.

 

Supposedly we were going to Zirkoh at Greenhills (?) but it didn't push through.

Too bad since I had egged on Janine (ex-officemate who provided the "Do You Know" song link) to go to our former office. Since the plan was scrapped, I did not go anymore to Ortigas..but Dingdong said that the plans changed and that he and his girlfriend, plus the friend of his gf, planned to have dinner and see Transformers. Coolness!

I was going to see Transformers the next week with some officemates, but hey, this gave me a good excuse as any to go ahead. They popped at Bubba Gump at around 11:15 pm, I joined them for dinner (Makati is really small, I even saw a couple of my current officemates there)  and at 1 am, we trooped to Greenbelt 3, where I had the time of my life watching on the big screen all the beloved characters. Ah..it would be great to have that Camaro on my side anytime...*Sigh*  At 4 am, with eye bags and bleary eyes, I said goodbye to Dingdong and his Pam...and to her friend Jackie. 

It was amusing to realize that Nina and her sis-in-law Manichel, both of whom I would meeting for brunch in 6 hours, would also be from Pagadian, the same as Dindong's Pam and Jackie. I revisited Pagadian by asking them during dinner (and nibbling on Shrimp Shack Pasta with delicious feta cheese and medium-sized shrimps) if the tricycles were still the same (tilted by 45 degrees, you felt like you were to zoom off the planet 

 

when you rode one); if Hotel Camla where I stayed was still there, with Sunburst restaurant with its delicious beef tapa was still around; if there were still live crabs being sold at the airport, and if the restaurant named Tru Lab, which was sitting in the middle of a fishpond was still merrily serving its customers good fresh seafood (btw, the letters in Tru Lab stand for something.....which I have forgotten...but I think it was for a cooking method, ingenious eh?)

At 10 am that day, I blearily looked at my cellphone since I had asked Nina to give me a "miss call" (so that I would be able to wake up to meet her)...*guffaws* We three met at Greenbelt 1 at Delifranz, where we were also talking animatedly about previous roomies and the life we had after we left the dorm. Her sis-in-law was training to be an officer at BPI Head Office, and I had the idea of asking her about loans since I was interested in slaving away for a condo of mine here in Makati. After two years of paying rent, I finally realized I would be staying a little longer in Manila..so I made the decision.

We finally decided to have lunch, and I dragged them to Italianni's, where we had penne fergure and a classic pizza along with grape fruit shake, a soda and iced-tea.

. 

I remembered that Italianni's had a P500 discount coupon for a P1K meal, but I had given it to Dante when I met him for lunch earlier that month...so I had to content myself with the 20% discount card. btw, they will be changing that card effective July 15, 2007 - it won't be transferable anymore.

We continued reminiscing over the other roommates we had, and we were surprised when our waitress Mavy spoke to us in Bisaya...hahaha! another Bisdak in Manila. We introduced ourselves to her, by saying Tuguegarao, Pagadian and Cebu while pointing to each girl separately. Mavy, was a very nice waitress and gave us very good service, and even took our picture posted somewhere on this page. 

Nina is quite talkative while Manichel was quieter. A variety of subjects were bounced back and forth, and we giggled as girls are wont to do.  

We swapped phone numbers, and since I was planning to visit a couple of brokers that day, I first went off to doze for a couple of hours more then came back to visit a broker we girls had passed by when walking back from Italianni's.

I talked to two brokers. While Ayala development is really good if you want to invest, for the life of me I could not really appreciate the location of their Columns. I text-ed Sir B, who agreed with me that it wasn't the best of locations (corner of Pasay Road or known as Arnaiz and the Amorsolo street, which is already Makati Cinema Square).  The Residences showcase was on the top of Greenbelt 3. Unfortunately, no studio units were left in the first tower, and its only the third tower which has 9 units left...and just thinking of the price made my eyes spin for a little while.

After visiting showplaces for The Columns (another Columns is at the back of RCBC Plaza, and this is the only one which can really use the address of Ayala  since its at the corner of Buendia and Ayala Ave)...and The Residences, both Ayala development projects, I finally succumbed and went back to Bizu, where I bought a variety of macaroons and munched on them happily all the way back home since I didn't want to think of the debt I would be racking up. Oh well, another day, another weekend...and its July 2007 coming up the corner.






- Jul 1, '07 3:30 AM

Full June 2007 Weekends 1/2

Aside from weird working hours trying to catch people not only in Asia, and Europe but also NA and goodness knows where else, I actually had a much better June 2007 than I expected. There were some difficult times (not related to work) but all in all, not a bad month I should say, especially since some rains did fall and helped cool a little bit the baked earth or asphalt of Makati.

The beer party at AIM for the new batch of hopeful MM students (batch 2008) is one affair that I try to never miss.

Not only is it a good way to see a couple of my batch mates, it is also an easy way to keep in touch with the MM network and AIM professors. In fact, come to think of it, it seems to be always three people of the MM05 who pops out without fail, one of which is constant...yep...me!

This year it was Jobet (lawyer) and Shan (marketing) who were the familiar faces. Sir B didn't show up (he probably was swamped with work and since his birthday was coming up - he could be excused), and neither did Cathy and her husband Navneet.

In the picture somewhere on this page (if the links still work),  Professor Gavino is sitting beside me...and on the other bench are Shan (red shirt) and Jobet.

I still got to meet with the assistants Queenie (in light blue) and Weiss who were always very nice and helpful to me, even now when I am out of the august halls of the AIM dorm and campus.

Queenie was tipsy with a couple of tequila shots..and I left the party shortly after the picture was taken but had to come back afterwards after checking the email at the library and finding out that Jasper (my MM classmate who is in Singapore) wanted me to meet up with his best friend (a guy I saw at his wedding but whose face I could not remember anymore).

Apparently, Jasper was sorry that he had to miss the party since he longed for the occasional beer and talk during these activities. Nakaka-miss ang Pilipinas daw...

On June 11 (Monday), which was swapped for the official June 12 Independence day by GMA, I met up with people I formerly worked with in Ortigas. Dante, our QA guy who now works in Makati treated me to lunch at Sugi. Thanks to him I had my first taste of parsley tempura - a dish I was really curious about since Ms. G had looked for it in vain the night she and Sir B treated me to dinner. It was the first time I ate tempura without thinking about the calories and fats...thanks to the parsley!

Dante and I talked and talked (hey, he is a Gemini if I am not mistaken) and after patting our stomachs, I treated him to a different kind of iced tea and my fave macaroons at Bizu's while we continued talking on a variety of subjects: money, realty, Ayalaland, condos, love-life, career, food, his company, cellphones, computers etc.

The last time I had a taste of the heavenly macaroons at  Bizu when my MRR (thesis) adviser Professor Coloma gave a boxful to me as a gift. It is still as yummy as ever!!

Unfortunately I completely forgot I had my smaller camera in my bag due to the sight of so much beauty..I mean food..in front of me during the whole shebang that I was not able to take a picture of us after gorging ourselves, which was still going on 4 hours after we started talking.

Daryl (I sometimes call him fondly as Daddy Daryl), who was my team lead for a couple of assigned software projects, and who is working for another company in Ortigas met up with me later that night in Shakey's Ortigas. Oh, my goodness...another Gemini! How amusing.

We talked and ate and talked and ate since he was famished, after playing Dota no less...tsk..tsk...and at his age too!

It was his birthday and he had so many debts to pay to me, I wonder if he could ever get himself out of the hole he had dug!

See, I used to tell him that for every bug I saw in his programs he had to treat me to merienda and since he was "game" well...too bad I was a good bug catcher *ehem*. Subjects we touched on included the food (it seems to be always a common topic in my conversations with people), his kids and his wife (who was due to return from the US..and he was excited about her and of course the pasalubongs), his work at the company where another developer of mine also had moved earlier to.

After a while, another ex-officemate of ours and also one of my lead developers dropped by at Shakey's and munched off the remaining pizza. The two of us listened to Gio expound on how it was progressing in the company Daryl and I had left..but after a while, we really had to be shooed off by the waiter *grin*.

Luckily, Starbucks at Emerald Ave was still open and so we walked over there. They had drinks, I did not..since I was stuffed to the brim at that point. Lately, I have been able to control my appetite during night times, so my stomach has adjusted its growlings.

To their credit, they did offer to buy me something to drink (aaah! its so nice not to be the boss anymore..that way you can always sit back and wait for them to offer, unlike before, when you were expected to fork over the money hahaha!). More talking till around 2 plus in the morning, where this time, it was the Starbucks' guard who marched us off the premises. Oh the shame of it *grin* but time really flies when you are with friends...

Middle of one week, if you will recall, I attended the Japanese film festival Eiga Sai at Shangri-la Mall, Although the picture we took of the initial party was blurry and incomplete with the members of the J-club (Japanese club), I will include it here since I had really enjoyed Kamikaze Girls.

Two Fridays ago, after attending my first origami session with some officemates, I got a totally unexpected call, saying to come over, again to Ortigas and this time it was Congo Grill at El Pueblo (?), where apparently somebody had the outrageous idea of treating people out to dinner/drinks and good ole chikahan. I don't know what Gio had for lunch or breakfas that day, but it certainly turned out lucky for us....*prays to the good Lord to have him do the same thing again hehehe*

There was another invitation at an earlier hour - a despedida for an officemate of ours who was going to be working in Singapore, but since I had a phone conference on Friday (as usual!), I made the choice of going to Ortigas - if the guys would not mind my being late.  Since they could start on Congo Grill's famous dish - the sizzling sisig - without me...it was all I could do to not drool in the taxi while thinking wistfully of the dinner plans.

Since I was in a rush and Friday is such a bad time for Makati in getting taxis etc. I totally forgot my camera (hence no pictures inserted in this blog of that particular occasion), and a good thing too, as some guys (whose name I will kindly not mention anymore but they know who they are!) got a little bit tipsy and provided some hilarious moments.

Gio, Sam, Dean and Redgie were drinking merrily and again there were topics which were funny, topics which were touchy, topics which were inane, and topics which..well, are fodder for spirited discussion especially if mixed with beer and pulutan.

I really should not get into a discussion with guys who have been drinking beer for quite a while..but then, its so nice needling them, I just can't help it!

- Jul 1, '07 2:05 AM