Manila, April 2010 in Pictures

Here's my most recent trip to Manila in pictures.

First meal, headed to Glorietta from the airport and had a meal from Savory. This cost me no more than SGD4 with noodles (Lomi) on the side.

My family with Chill.  Staying at home is good since food is in abundance.

Adorable Arianna!

Met up with Oliver where we had a simple lunch at Max's.

Daing na Bangus

Em-J and I also ate at Via Mare where I had adobo flakes.

With Oliver's new manager, Badette and Analyn at Icebergs.

Philippine mangoes are simply the best, courtesy of the hotel.

Books are definitely much cheaper.

Accompanied Rhommel to UP, this is the place where he went to have his documents photocopied, the Campus Pharmacy. To his credit, none of us saw the sign till much later.

After enduring the heat, he treated us out to probably one of the most popular restaurant within the campus, Chocolate Kiss.

We also met up with Choy who treated us to one of the most delicious meals I've had the entire trip. We ate at Cafe Provencal which has been a long time favorite. I just never veered away from ordering our usual Ceasar Salad sandwich.  The salad alone was well worth the trip. Too bad we ate it all up before I got the chance to take a picture.

I actually wasn't able to take lots of pictures. I really need to get myself a decent point and shoot since the camera that we have now is a bit of a hassle to bring along.

Scream 4

I can't wait!!!

Click.

Chicago

Two Sundays ago, right after it's opening night, I catched the matinee performance of Chicago. It's from the same company that's bringing Cats over to Manila (and they're charging an arm and a leg for that). Too bad Chicago doesn't have Lea Salonga. Though I enjoyed the show, I found it a bit lacking. The actress playing Roxy was not endearing. I liked Velma better. The dancers were all very good but the entire show doesn't have much razzle dazzle.

7 Things: Kristin Chenoweth

Spent my morning listening to Kristin. Watch the video below and wait for her sing.

Frozen Yogurts

Frozen Yogurts are all the rage back in Manila. Let me just say that I'm a fan and lest Jencarps and her minions accuse me of being a "Yellow Mango" wannabe, I have been a fan way back when it was just Yogurbud. I had to go all the way to Podium just to have my fix. It's quite different now with them stores a dime a dozen. I'm not complaining though, the convenience and the healthy competition are sure to benefit us consumers.

Selle and Portia checking out the newly opened Lulu Belle at Power Plant.

During my trip last year, Rhommel introduced me to White Hat. I loved it more than I loved Yogurbud and Lulubelle. It's expanding quite rapidly too, in Glorietta alone, Jencarps and I saw two very busy outlets.

Jencarps and I didn't have froyos at White Hat though. We met up at Glorietta to try Tutti Frutti. What sets it apart from the rest is the self-serve style, no fixed price (since they charge you per ounce) and a lot of different yogurt flavors. It's like a yogurt wonderland. You have full control over how much you put in your cup, you mix and match to your heart's content. It's easy to go overboard though and end up paying too much. At 20 pesos per ounce and roughly about 8ounces per cup, it would average at about 140 pesos without toppings. 

The different flavors were so good, I had to get myself another cup after an hour of walking. 

Over at Shangri-La, I tried the much talked about and newly opened Golden Spoon. 

I wasn't so impressed with my first order, vanilla malt with caramel sauce. The sauce was really hot and they immediately poured it over the yogurt which they must have forgotten was soft serve. I received a cup of melted goop and the caramel flavor also overpowered the taste of the yogurt. 

Seeing that it must have been my poor choice of combination, I went back the next day and tried the dark chocolate flavor. It was good, nothing spectacular. I would still return if I was craving for a non-fat ice cream not yogurt.  

Over Too Soon

A trip to Manila has always been one that most overseas foreign workers look forward to. I can say that I'm a bit lucky because it's just a few hours away from where I'm based and thanks largely to budget airlines, airfare has been very affordable.

It's a chance to spend some time with family and friends. A chance to stock up on canned goods and processed meats that are distinctly Filipino. A vacation is never complete without a stop to the grocery to get that tender juicy hotdog, tocino, longganisa and even tinapa! As for me, Cow Label and a tin of biscuits (how probinsyano) are always in order.

The trip did go by in a breeze. Seems to me that Choy and I were still enjoying our seats with extra leg room en route to Manila and now here I am, back at my desk, working.

No matter how long the vacation is, it's never enough. There's always something to do, getting that very affordable foot spa or massage, meeting up with friends or sometimes even as simple as laying in bed listening to the familiar and sometimes annoying sound of tricycles and jeepneys roaring by.

It's over too soon but I'll sure be back.

Back

I'm back from my vacation. Sorry Selle, I wasn't able to drop by Makati last Friday for our Chili Peppers fix. :(

24 Season 8 Ep 15, 16

I had a full day yesterday. After work, I needed to go to the embassy to pick up my renewed passport and get myself an OEC. On top of that, I had two back to back calibration sessions from 8pm - 10pm, and of all days, today is the day that 24 decides to air a 2-part episode mid-season. How am I gonna squeeze that in?




Thanks to uber fast internet, I managed. I downloaded the first episode in less than 5 minutes. 
Hassan willingly sacrifices himself. Jack informs Chloe that the general ordered a covert operation. The general and Rob Weiss are both apprehended. CTU manages to track down Hassan and Tarin's vehicle. Dana alerts Tarin that CTU is on to them. Tarin transfers Hassan to another vehicle and crashes his car. Jack finds his cell and traces Dana as the mole. Dana is apprehended. She wishes to talk to Jack in exchange for valuable information.
Dana tells Jack of Samir's location in exchange for her immunity. She wants Jack to handle the operation to avoid any more screw-ups. Hassan refuses to follow Samir's orders. They start uploading the feed of Hassan hostage via internet. Jack and Renee arrive on the location but they're too late. Hassan is already dead. 
My recap is very elementary. I just have to say, I loved the episodes!

Good Friday 2010

Friday, I think this is the first time that all of us are on holiday. Some of us are working at contact centres so some have been required to work on legal holidays on previous occassions. As such, we all decided to have an early start. Eli booked tickets for us to go watch a movie at 2am Friday morning. We all took a nap and headed out to Woodlands to catch the screening of Clash of the Titans.

I vaguely remember watching the original film back in high school and trying desperately hard to read Edith Hamilton's Mythology.

The film was okay, I actually liked it. I just felt that the final battle scene which they were building up on was a little too short. Likewise, Medusa was Scorpion King fake which was a bit disappointing but overall it was entertaining and fun.

We got home at around 5 am, we slept a little and woke up in time for breakfast that Clarice prepared. We then got ready to go to Expo where three major events are happening. The Megatex sale, book sale and the John Little sale.

When we got there, we had a quick lunch at Burger King before heading to the John Little sale. It was not as crowded as I expected so it was not as stressful. It took us about 2 hours to check out everything on sale and about 30 minutes more queueing for the counters.

I left Clarice and Em-J and headed to the book sale just one hall down.

It might not be obvious in the picture but it was a pretty big hall with table after table of books. I was having a difficult time trying to figure out how to go about it to ensure that I get to cover each table. However, unlike last year, the selections available were not as many. When Clarice, Em-J and Eli got to the book sale, I told them to queue since it was really really long, encircling half the hall. When I finished pouring through all the books, we were still barely half way. I assumed it would take an hour more to get to the counters so I decided to just leave my stash behind. There's always next year.

We then went to the Megatex sale. Unlike the other two, this one was pretty crowded and very noisy.

Since they don't have BlackBerrys which Em-J wanted to check out, we took a look around and quickly headed out.

While we were deciding which route to take to quickly take us home, Clarice had the brightest of bright idea to head to far away Queenstown so she can get her some bags. So to complete our day, we still went there. By the time she finished, we were all too tired to still take the train so we took a cab home. I would think it's quite a productive day. My wallet's just a bit sad.