My Coffee Love

If there is one thing that I can't live without....its the black, liquid love of mine....MY COFFEE. I love coffee. I have a very serious relationship with the brew. I like it strong, with a bold flavor leaning on the bitterside and not the acidic type. The intoxicating aroma...the bitter sweet taste...the rich deep black with and almost goldish hint....the entire act of preparing the brew to the actual sitting and enjoyment of the coffee....i love it all.

I have used several coffee contraptions. I had the traditional coffeemaker; the espreso machine ( given to me by my dad coming from his vacation in the US); the old fashioned coffee percolator; the itallian bialetti stove top espresso maker (I bought it from Bacchus in Makati Shangri-la---it had a sad and bitter ending. One day I decided to bring it to the office...to maximize espresso consumption-- So I set it up over the stove...and then I was called to attend to a phone call....afterwhich I proceeded to doing some paperwork and office stuff----OMG!!!!!! MY BIALETTI---ON THE STOVE!!!-----What horror it was to see the handle falling-off, as is it was melted and the metal all charred!!!! CHARRED!!!!!---and no one to blame but myself! It was heart breaking...I felt awful); moving on... a Vietnamese coffee contraption which I bought when I had a vacation in Vietnam (I fell in love with their cape...they used the steeping method using a tin metallic contraption that you place on top of a cup. It gave a very strong and flavorful brew but the downside is that you have to have patience with it---its takes a while before you all the water passes through so at times the coffee is not that hot anymore...they serve it with sweet milk); and now I use this....

a Bodum french press, which I bought from Starbucks Gb3....

They say that the french press gives the best brew among all coffee extraction method. You simply place the coffee grind inside the pitcher (Remember to have the beans ground specifically for french press use. This is because if you use a fine grind, it will all pass through the wire mesh, thus you end up with a muddy cup of coffee.

I used the beans given to me by a friend, which are actually from Vietnam. I had them ground at the local Starbucks. They set it at 10 for a coarse grind...

Pour very hot but not boiling water.....

I like to mix first it to make an infusion....

and I allow it to steep for about 4-5 minutes before pressing.

I don't like to get grinds in my coffee because I like to finish it off to the last drop! This is why I do a final filtering in my mug.... hehehehe

I add little cream and brown sugar..or I take my coffee black....whichever way...its always worth all the time and effort.

Photos from Lasa Manila

Lasa Manila at the ground floor of The Podium

Bagoong Rice, with slices of green mangoes

a meal by itself...

Pinaputok na Kesong Puti

A great appetizer! It has a sliver of green bell pepper in each roll and served with a refreshing tomato salsa...eat it while still hot! hahaha

Baked Tahong

Sisig

...great with plain rice! Their version, I find very flavorful =)

Belly-licious

is very delicious! hahaha The skin is crispy like chicharon and the meat still tender.

Crispy Pata

the best dish...probably because its FREE!!!! ;P hahaha Good and crispy and the serving portion is just right for 4 people

The best part...the dessert..........

Suman at Manga

Lighty toasted suman served with succulent mangoes and a pot of sugar ...May I suggest they serve it with a pot of warm chocolate eh for dipping for that extra umph!!! not to metion calories!hahahaha Doesn't the most sinful things taste most heavenly??? =)

Buco Pandan

Tiers of pandan jelly and coconut cream...

I should set an appointment for a general check up, first thing monday morning! After the McDonald frenzy last friday that went on untill saturday breakfast.....I was on a pork fest for lunch and dinner!

McDo breakfast does seem to have a great satiety value. My sisters and I stayed full through lunchtime. We went to podium around 330pm and had a late lunch at LASA Manila. They serve delicious Filipino fare with a twist. I was first introduced to this resto by my very good friend Shawie (a college kabarkada of mine). When our friend Ros went back to Manila from Boston (she moved there a few years after colloge to take up her Masters). Shawie suggested we take her there...and we were all very delighted with our dinner then. So, I recommended this resto to my sisters for our usual saturday lunch outs and has become one of our favorites. It has become some sort sisterly ritual to eat lunch together every saturday primarily because there is no school for Nikki. So we went there and had their sisig, which was really good and flavorful; the belly-licious...which was like lechon kawali served with their own lechon sauce. The pork was very crispy yet still tender and falvorfull. The skin was crunchy as chicharon! But I think they had better used the good ol Mang Tomas sarsa ng bayan sauce! hahaha I'm not really a fan of pork. In general I go for chicken, seafood, beef and lastly pork. I don't know what came over us, but this lunch turned into pork frenzy! Pork sisig, lechon kawali and to top it off the waiter told us we were given a FREE (yes FREE) order of crispy pata!!! The waiter asked "are you going to avail it now or on your next visit?" ....we looked at eachother and cried out---"bring it on!!!!" hahahaha.....A top from all that, we ordered the pinaputok na kesong puti, it was cheese sticks....very similar to the one I had with Sal at Dorset, however the version at Lasa was served with a light tomato salsa, which I find rather refreshing. We also had baked tahong. Are we hungry or are we hungry???? hahahaha Oh and Bagoong rice to boot! What better accompaniment for porky viands than....rice with more pork! hhahahaha. I prefer plain and so does my sister Nikki, so we ordered that as well. The bagoong rice was served with sliced green mangoes on the side and topped with binagoongan pork. I think you can have this as a meal on its own. The baked tahong was ok but nothing special. It was a very satisfying meal. And what to do when you're already full to the brim??? Eat some more! So on to dessert my sisters headed. Nikki ordered the buco pandan and Bogey had the suman at manga. Their version of the buco pandan was not the usual fruit salad style I usually encounter. They served it in tiers of pandan jelly and coconut-cream layer. The serving was big and it was good as well, though it fell behind Nikki's standards for good buco pandan. She likes it the traditional way, I guess, because it cooler and cramier and you get a good ratio of cream to jelly in every spoonful---how precising! hahahaha Their's was a bit on the dry side. As for the suman at mangga...my sister Bogey declared it a winner! The suman was crisped on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. It was served with fresh mangoes and a small pot of sugar for dipping the suman. I was good. Desserts with contrasting of temperature (warm suman...cool mangoes) and flavor always wins me over . Bogey just engoyed the suman as she loves rice cakes! hahahha

And the McLove goes on...

Just when I thought I've had enough of McGoodFood already....I have these for breakfast! How about a Longanisa meal with coffee??? Hahahaha Ah yes! The McDonald-ing seems to go on a streak! I woke up kinda late this moring...around 630am (apart from my usual 5-530am morning rise) so I wasn't able to have breakfast at home. NormallyI have coffee, whole-wheat toast with butter or eggs on the side. Today on the other hand, I had breakfast McDo with my sisters. It happens to be the most favorite thing of my sister Nikki. She always gets 2 breakfast MEALS! Yes 2! This morning she ordered one Pancake meal with OJ and an egg McMuffin meal with cold Milo! hahahaha I remember one time when we were in Greenbelt one Saturday morning as well, she was making "kulit" me to get McDo breakfast.NOTE: This was after she had a breakfast of baked mac and cheese before we left the house. So we went and she got the MEGA breakfast meal which comprised of 2pcs longanisa, 1 omelette, 3 sausages, garlic rice, 2 pcs pancakes oh and OJ....she finished them all to the last morsel I tell you...I was in awe on how she managed to do that. Ah the kids these days! But don't be mistaken though..you might be thinking she is obese or something....my sister Nikki is skinny as hell!!! hahahaha Well..high fat, high protein in the diet works I guess ;P Or maybe because when it comes to real home cooked healthy food she eats tine a mice!

No more McDo please..not for the next month I hope! Jollibee naman! hahahaha

Pa-pa-ra-pa-pa....luv ko to!

Ahhhhh....the end of another work week! I finished-off the last leg of my office tasks with a meeting in Greenhills, which ended up rather early around 4-ish. So I headed to Vmall to hang with my friend Oliver at his store, Gadget Geeks. We manned the store and joked around till about 7pm! We were waiting for Ven and Chi so we can all go together to our friend Ackee's birthday bash... at wherelse.....MCDO GREENHILLS!!!! =) Ackee..is the barkada of the shobe (younger sister) of my friend Oli. She is a nice bubbly girl who just adores the color pink...she wore a ruffly pink blouse with a matching, equally ruffly pink bag..her cake was pink, her give awyas were all in pink and she even asked us all to wear pink (though most of us didn't...but her barkada did! hahaha...sorry girl its hard to impose outfit colors on older people!hahahaha ;P) So when we got there, it was almost 830pm...we were all famished! You can just imagine how much we anticipated and appreciated the McSpaghetti and Chicken, Hamburger, soda and Hot Fudge Sundae served to us! McDonald's food tastes its best when ingested in an empty stomach! hahaha Hooooray for the McParty and to McAckee! hahahahha Thank you!

ACKEE'S PRETTY IN PINK CARE BEAR CAKE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLFRIEND!!!!!

After devouring and enjoying our McMeals...it was time for some McGames! We

were given party hats, which as you can see here..the boys really had fun playing with. It seemed like we were all ten again! We played lots of games like care bear puzzle making....boys versus girls....boys won! Can you believe that?! But our nice boys gave us girls there prizes anyway...a deck of carebear cards! hahaha KAYA SIGURO BINIGAY@! bwahahaha No..no...no our boys are really nice guys....Oli, DENNIS este Venice, ELMER a.k.a. Warren, PETER Chi and Matthew =). There was a bring me contest and several relay games which we all enthusiatically joined.

Here is my friend WARREN ELMER, a 28 yr old guy...in a BATMAN mask made from a McParty HAT that he so dutifully cut out with the aid of Oli's nifty swiss knife!

Talk about maturity ei?! hahaha....Add a little drag there.... that's ma man da man! hahahaha

We played almost every game (that helped burn-off all the McFat) and got to take home lots of nice care bear stuff!!! I got a nice pink bag, pencils, candy, cards all in pink!!!!! hahahahah.

After that highy energetic kiddie party..we went on to Little Asia at Promenade to meet up with Jowi and her friends for a...err... more appropriate activity for people our age. Back tracking on my chemistry...Alcohol is in factm a fat solvent. With this in mind, I therefore conclude that it be a logical act to go on a drinking spree after a fatty meal! hahaha And so we did or rather they did. I really don't drink beer and I rarely enjoy drinking alcoholic beverages (maybe because I dont take it well) I can only handle 1 serving of Absolut7--make it 2...and zonk@#! ---I'm out! Passed out that is! My friends had a few rounds of beer....just water for me please! As we capped the evening off.

Thank God Its Friday talaga!!!

I love mornings =)

I usually wake up rather early in the mornings. No matter how late I sleep the previous night, I still end up waking up around 5am! On good sleep days my eyes open up 4am or 3am!!!! So what do I do so early in the morn'? After the usual brushing of the teeth..washing the face...I head straight down to the kitchen and fix myself a mug o'java! Right now I am altering the use of a french press, which I bought from Starbucks Gb3..and a vietnamese coffee contraption (which employs the steeping method of brewing). I think I'll make a separate blog on that =) Sometimes I do my baking in these wee hours of the morning. I used to make whole wheat pan de sal, regular pan de sal, bake brownies or beer bread! My fave things to bake in the morning. Do you think its just lovely to wake up smelling the aroma of freshly baked pan de sal? I say its wonderful =)...and with coffee brewing on the side...any day would really start ot great! At times I got into the streak of whipping up breakfast extravaganza...fried rice (and I vary them with garlic sinangag, longa-sinangag, bagoong fired rice, yang-chow u name it....) eggs, corned beef n hash, tocino, logganisa, tuyo...whatever I find in the pantry or ref!

The picture above is my night table in this morning! That is the book I'm reading now...I blog about it when I finish it..I'm far from half way! hahaha My mug of coffee. I did something really disgusting with that. To sweeten it up...well...er....I put Duphalac ;P yahahahahaaaaa! I know, I know....please forgive the craziness of the act! Its that This week I am taking this medicine...for I suffer from chronic---you know what---but that's another story. Anyways, I take about 30ml of it in the morning. I find it really, really sweet! Its like honey or viscous sugar syrup. Its probably because it is a lactose derivative. So while making my coffee this morning...I had this crazy idea---why don't I add my medicine in my coffee!!!--since its sssoooo damn sweet I just won't add sugar!---'ting' (the idea bulb went) ---and so there you go...vietamese style coffee ala Duphalac! hahahaha It tasted good actually. ...hmmm should have done this days ago and made my medicine taking more palatable! hahahaha Gross!!! gross!!! I know ;P hahahaha

Saturday on a Tuesday???....

I got confused really..on what day it was yesterday. I was set to meet up with Jackie, a friend of mine from way back highschool, to get something. She called me up a little before lunch and asked me if we want to make it a lunch thingy. I had a generally free schedule for the day anyways so I said we could have a leisurely lunch out. She picked me up from the office around 1130am and we headed to the Hearts of Mary and Jesus Parish in Times area then we headed on to Shang mal, because I wanted her to try CYMA. Unfortunately CYMA was packed and we were asked if we could wait 10 minutes to be seated. Our grumbling stomachs didn't allow us to wait and so we just settled to eat at Penang. It wasn't really settling, I think Penang has good Singaporean food...I like their roti canai. We ordred the Satay appetizer and shared half an order of Bagoong rice. They really have big servings there that even our half order of Bagoong rice was too much! We were so full after. We shopped around and chatted. I was able to buy a pair of ring toed shoes from Celine, owned by a good friend of mine (thanks dear Joy for the discount!) Here they are...

my foot! ;P

I love wedge shoes..they're nice and comfy yet still fashionable! I adore the print on the wedge and insole! =)

Around 4pm we headed our to Miriam Katipunan to fetch Jack's sis...then I went back to the office to drop off my stuff and we then proceeded to Nai Loft---my favorite nail spa! They have great service and the place is nice and comfy. Itjust feels right to get a pedi to go with my new wedg-e nalang hahahahha ;) After our foot pampering we went to Starbucks Morato for some java jolt. I had a cappuccino, non-fat, extra hot with extra shot por favor!!!! (my usual) and Jack opted for a mocha with EXTRA WHIP! (eeeewwwwwee! Sorry but I HATE whipped cream =/ ) and a walnut brownie. My friend War came in about half an hour and joined us for a while untill Jack had to go home.

So War and I fetched our friend Elaine, who just happens to live near the area. Famished...we deliberated on where to satiate our hunger. The verdict--NP Kopi Tiam located at the edge of horseshoe cornering Crame. I think its a spin-off from the ol North Park. Its somesort of a chinese coffee shop cum chinese/korean/japanese short order restaurant cum patisserie! hehehehe Me and Elaine shared a chicken teriyaki-wanton noodle soup and War had the seafood bibimbop. I didn't like the noodle soup at all!!! It was like watered down chicken teriyaki with hard boiled egg, noodles and dumplings and I did NOT fancy the combination. Warren was the winner here! His bibimbop was really good. We ended up eating off spoonfulls from his bowl! hahaha...We had a little karaoeke thing goin on then...they were playing 80's/90's music on the back drop so me and War sang along....it was raining then...it rained harder when we did! hahahah Elaine got a little lost somewhere in the sing-songy situation...its because she is not familiar with most of the songs playing ! Next time girl, we do your time! hahaha

What a Sat --err--Tuesday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BRUKI KAT!!!!

KATHERINE!!!!!!

Yesterday was a special day...for it was the birthday my dear darling friend KAT! I woke up early...around 4:45am...and I was very excited to whip her up a batch of Cocoa-Walnut brownies with Fudgy Frosting! And so I did! But since I haven't bought my digicam yet...no pics of it for now. Its soo easy to make I was done before 6am! Actually, I was really planning on baking her my Chocolate Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting. This friend of mine is really fond of the choco-bon at Cinnzeo. But when the last of it's shop closed up (I think it was the one in Pearl drive) she was ranting to us on how she missed the chocobons. With that in mind..I made her these as a birthday present....

.....and I was soooo happy that she really loved them! hahahha I made a chocolate dough of the cinnmon roll....put lots of butter, cinnamon sugar and chocolate morsels in the roll. As frosting, I made a cream cheese one...to contrast the chocolately bun! These are very soft rolls unlike the commercially available ones...=)

Maybe next week I'll make some for her. Anyway...goin back...Sal and I planned to surprise her that evening. I went to National bookstore Annapolis to have a balloon bouquet made, but unfortunately they could not accommodate me that time because none of the staff present knew how to make them then. It started to rain aroung 4pm and I proceeded to National bookstore Q.Ave. Luckily they knew how to make the balloon bouquets. I picked a lilac colored big balloon with floral prints and had smaller pastel colored balloons aroung tied up in a bunch. (I wish I had a camera na!!!--grrrrrrrrrr...I'll get one today I swear!). I had my sisters dropped me off at UCC tomas morato to wait for Sally and mang Dino (the driver). I had a UCC blended coffee...read my Sophie Kinsella book (I'm reading The Undomestic Goddess) as I waited ..and waited...and waited...Sal was caught in traffic! She finally got to meet me around 8pm already! We were famished then and decided to get Mcdo take out. So we got to Kat's house almost 9pm! Kat and her family were halfway through dinner, I think, when we knocked on the door. Sal and I felt quite shy to barge in with our surpirse....when we got in Kat was all..."Oh my goshhhhhhh....." and we felt really good that she was happily surprised~hahaha...a few moments later a group of people was by the door...it was her friends from UP MBA...they came to surprise her as well!!!! Surprise of surprises! The evening turned into an instant party! We had dinner again....coffee...had great laughs and conversations. We headed home around midnight...all in high spirits but most importantly we made our friend's day extra special. She texted us how thankful she was and happy that evening...I slept with a smile =)

Happy Birthday Kitty!

Photos for yesterday's post...

Fresh red Plums...looks like Plums are in season!

My friend Sal...Fruit picking at The fruit Store, while wating for out shakes...

Dorset coffee....well maybe just the cup! hehehe I'll definitely remember to take photos first before gobbling up the food! hahaha

Classic Filipino Cuisine….

Last Saturday my sisters and me went to shang mall to have lunch at C2 Classic Cusine. We had pan seared Tilapia with coconut emulsion, chicken pastel and aligue rice! I the Tilapia was nice and crisp and I like the shoestring potato fries garnished on top. I found the coconut sauce a bit bland tasting though. I had to splash on come seasoning to give it and umph! Hehehe. My sister Nikki enjoyed the chicken pastel very much. We capped or lunch by sharing a tablea tiramisu with Spanish chololate sauce.


Late in the afternoon, I went to Greenhills and met up with my friend Oli at his shop. We planned on having dinner with his beloved Dang and several of our other friends. But as the situation called for at that moment, I decided to shop around for a while…I bought nice cork wedged black-strapped shoes =) (to give my friend couple some quality time…hehehe) To cut a long and complicated story short…I hanged-out instead with my friend Stephen at UCC. I had a kani-shrimp sandwich along with my coffee…uhhhh..I really really wish I had a digi cam along! The cam of my V3, unfortunately gives lousy photos when posted on the net (but don’t get me wrong! I adore my black razor! It’s slim and compact and I love it! Hahaha) It’s only now that I have started blogging that I feel the dire need to own a digicam!!! No I want a digi cam!!!! Ok so back to my story….I had a very nice time with my friend that I totally lost track of time! I was supposed to meet up with Nikki, Doc and War!!! They got to Peri-peri chicken arnd 10ish pala! Hahaha. So Stephen and me met up with them there----they were admist their ‘merry making already’ hahaha…everyone all rosy and happy; P hahahah…. So we ended the night there and headed home around 130am or 2.


A Tale Of 3 Coffee Shops…

Sunday mornings are devoted for morning walks with Sal and Kat. Kat was still a bit under the weather, so it was Sal and I again---champions of breakfasts! Crusaders of walks and “reynas” of tiangges! =D The time was set 7 am! I was super “sabog” when I got there. The guard was just about to open up the chains that surrounded the parking space. One of the major reasons I like this place, aside from the good food and coffee, is the big parking space. Sal arrived in about 10 ten minutes. She brought me a small bag filled with colorful ponytails =) SOOooooo nice! Thanks girl! We shared the shrimp omelet with cream sauce, grilled chicken with scrambled eggs, some buttered toasts and a side order of cheese sticks with yogurt dip. We liked the cheese sticks, which had a sliver of red bell pepper inside. Sal liked the dip and I preferred ketchup with it. It reminded me of a favored recess food when I was still in highschool. Cheesesticks, which had more wrappers than cheese that, and I dip in in ketchup! At UFC ketchup pa! Not tomato basically because---yun lang ang available sa canteen! Hahahha yuck ba? Well not for moi! I used to love that. The shrimp omelet was really good. I had some chopped walnuts in it, which gave a crunchy dimension to the saucy shrimp-y-ness. I find the cream sauce a bit too much though. It made the omelet too rich tasting. Next time, we better have ‘em hold the cream! Hehehe I love DARK toasted bread. I like my bread with a crunchy and toasted to golden brownness! So that is why we had our toast sent back for further browning! The grilled chicken with scrambled eggs was good too and of course the coffee =) I love coffee! If there is one thing in the world that I know I can’t live without –is this black liquid love of mine! =) By the time I remembered to take photos of our me…we already polished everything up! Ganyan kame ni Sal! Good girls talga we finish our food to the last morsel. Pag may natira---food must be bad! Hahahahah…So I just share with you the photo of what was left of our breakfast---empty coffee cups!

After that very satiating meal…we proceeded to going about out morning walk. We chatted. window shopped until finally the stores opened up. We had a pit stop at our favorite fruit shake shop…The Fruit Store. They sell fresh fruits, crepes, fondues and great shakes! The shake selection varies on the fruits in season. That morning I opted for a papaya-melon and Sal had the plum-banana. Plums seemed to be in season. There were a variety of red and black plums. I have never really tried fresh plums. I took a sip of Sal’s shake---I tasted more of banana! Hehehehe But it was good. When I had a vacation in boracay a year ago the papaya-melon was my favorite at Jonas. But The Fruit Store don’t put milk in the shakes so its don’t quite resemble the Bora version. Nonetheless, out thrists were indeed quenched and got full with it…at hindi na kame nakapag lunch)

Hunting in the Greenhills tiangge wasn’t as fun for us at it would have been. The previous week, we shopped in 168 mall, so we couldn’t buy anything in Greenhills since almost ALL of the items there were from 168 and of course we know the REAL price of the items! But still we don’t falter…and so we scrimmaged and scrimmaged until we were able to hunt for stuff with a good deal. I got yoga pants! Just a pair…but still triumphant at 150 bucks! Not bad. I remembered I had to scout fot a digicam. We saw the CANON ixus izoom. It caught my eye because it came in PURPLE! I love purple =) My pen is purple, my Oral B Arctica is purple, I bought an ID tag in purple…and a soapdish! Hahahha. I still haven’t made up my mind…so I let it hang over my head first.
We went to National bookstore in Anapolis bought some stuff and headed to DEC to buy some goodies to bring home. I bought ube hopia for my shobe shoy (she loves ube) and black mongo for me and my other sisters. Not to forget my dear Father, I got him Chinese kikiam! Hahaha SO that was that. Sal and me parted ways. I remembered I had to drop off some stuff at my friend’s office in Wilson. Its ‘padala’ for my dear dear friend lotte in DC. On my way home I saw this familiar styro icebox with the label “HOT MONAY W/ CHEESE (HMC)” Eureka! Hot monay with cheese is the new merienda option to be found in UP. During my time this wasn’t avaible….but during the past months of walking in UP…we met the HMC! Its warm bun like sweet bread and eaten with a slice of paper-thin cheese. As I tell my shobe—it ain’t HMC if its not thinly sliced QUES-O cheese! Hahahaha Isn’t it just wonderful to enjoy the simple treats like this? When I got home, I yelled out to my shobe—“M Home---SHOBE!!! I HAVE HMC!!!!!” With a blink of an eye she devoured it. My friend Holden fetched me in a few minutes and we headed to UCC in tomas morato. I was yapping to him about my day asking his opinion about the canon digi. He brought me home around 5-ish and when I passed through the kitchen…no sign of HMC! Hahaha Around 7 pm my friend Michael fetched me and we had dinner at Katre. It’s a Mediterranean restaurant tucked away on the side of the Afredo’s building, beside D’ Marks Pizza. It was a rainy evening and the place was packed! I saw several show biz personalities come in…Fanny Serrano…Gina Alahar…Pinky de Leon…Lorna and Rudy Fernandez. Baka may pres-con? I thought to myself hahaha. For dinner I had the pan-seared tuna with squid ink risotto topped with seviche and with cranberry pesto puree. It was really good. To end the evening we had coffee at bang. I personally, am not fond of like their coffee blend, so I just settled for the good ol Americano.

Friends with Money

A movie about four friends and the parallelism of thier individual lives. Jennifer Aniston plays Olivia, whose character embodies the epitome of a wretched middle aged single woman...having a pathetic job with no love life that is topped off with an obsession with a married man and a fling with a jerk! Catherine Keener plays, Christine, the unhappy wife of a stone hearted co-screen-writer husband. Then there is Jane (Frances McDormand) is the designer friend, married to a man who has to concede in accepting his true sexual orientation. And lastly, Frannie(Joan Cusack) with a seemingly happy and prosperous life but still struggles on with emotional distress of marriage and parethood. It is a sad movie about the ugly facets of life and tells about how being married and materially sufficied does not equate to happiness and contentment.

AHhhhh..what can I say after watching this movie?? Gosh ---that's sad! I didn't like the way in the end when Olivia succumed to dating this sort of loser guy who turned out to be a rich bum---was this supposed to be her saving grace???? For having been obsessed with a married man, who doesn't want to have anything to do with her anymore, then falling off dating this loser trainor Franny set her up with who isn't into her...then this?? Oh my! After seeing this movie...one would neither want to be married nor single!!! So rich or poor, married or single...we end up unhappy ei?! All the other friends have unhappy lives... Jane, filled with angst and married to a fag...Christine bound to an uncaring husband. In totally all their lives were miserable in their own way. (Maybe I should watch this movie again...I might have missed the ray of light they might be depicted here hehehe...or maybe not!) I say, we can end up this way if we choose to. I think life is how we make it. Single or married, rich or poor, if we decide to be satisfied and contented with what we have then we can be happy.

Is happiness really just a state of mind? I ask everyone out there...Oh just don't watch this movie please!!!

Coffee at UCC

After a hard workday, ruffled by the Pasay MMDA, I went home and practiced yoga. I find that among all forms of exercise, Yoga is the most relaxing, both for the body and mind. I feel more limber, though not thinner (hehehe) and I feel energized after my workout. I had coffee with my friend Holden at UCC Tomas. I like their coffee, though I find the house blend a bit too weak for my taste. I prefer strong and bold brews and mostly I like espresso based hot coffee preparations. Among I had a fun and relaxed time, chatting and all. (I borrowed the picture from the internet..hope the owner doesn't mind =) )

Caught Again

GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! I GOT CAUGHT AGAIN!!!! I was driving back to the office from at meeting at SM MOA...as I was traversing the road heading towards edsa..I think I was crossing Baclaran...or whatever road that maybe....where there are lots of busses and MMDA's...the buses and cars were all cramming up the intersection and just as it was my turn to cross...RED!....Ayun! Huli ako!!!! grrrrr@####!!!! There were lots of cars beside me then ....it was that kind of moment when your car is gently creeping through traffic and it was as if it was a "trip to jerusalem" game, when the music stops and suddenly your the only one without a chair??!!! for this moment I was the only one (well not really...there was another truck caught as well) left in the middle of the intersection! Geeeeeezzzz!!!! I soooo hate that! Hay but anyway...I "managed" to easy my way out of the situation. Maybe its my fault that I wasn't being careful ... oh well...I'm just glad to be back here in the office.

Relaxed Day

Yesterday was a relaxed day for me. I met up with two of my good friends, War and Elaine at UNO restaurant around lunchtime. UNO, is one of my favorite restos in Tomas Morato. I adore their sourdough bread, baked fresh daily! It’s a meal on its own for me. I came rather late because I had to drop off my sis at her Ortho at St. Luke’s, so I was rather late for lunch and settled for coffee, which was a good strong brew! War didn’t have work that day—San Juan day! Unfortunately, a holiday is no good when all of your friends have work! Hahaha Too bad man! ;P

After work I just stayed home and did a little belly dancing and practiced yoga. I tried to read in bed but dozed off after 2 pages! Hahahaha..

(please note photo was borrowed from the internet)

Catching up on my Weekend!

Finally!!! I have long been a blog lurker, and now at long last, I have mustered up the courage to put up an online journal =) Congratulations to myself! Hahahha

So here we go¦

Let me start by sharing my weekend mini escapades~ My good friend Didi and I, attended a baking demo at Nestle, Rockwell, hosted by my favorite food blogger Ms. Lori Baltazar of dessertcomesfirst. I almost didn't make it because of some work schedule mix-ups¦but with luck and good friends by my side I was there! Hahaha I was all worth it! I learned a lot from the demo. We were asked to bring some of our baked goodies to share. Didi brought her blueberry cheesecake, and I decided to bake brownies with creamy fudge frosting---Alas! My brownies didn't make the demo because we decided to give it to our nice friend who was kind enough to drive us to power plant. We took home more stuff than we actually brought there. It was a great experience =)

After the demo we shopped around power plant and waited for our other friends for dinner, which so greatly turned out to be a spur of the moment Tagaytay trip! WOW! Talk about instant change of atmosphere! Hahahha It was great. Dinner at Leslie's and a night cap of coffee. The drive home was even better we had an iPod-oke thing goin' on! Singing along to 80's OPM! Hahaha! I don't really know how I know so much lyrics to a LOT of OPM oldies...we had a blast!!!... so who cares! Hahaha Thank you to Didi, Edmund and Holden =)

On Sunday mornings, I usually go walking in U.P. with 2 of my great college gal pals, Sal and Kat. Unfortunately, Kat wasn't able to join us because she was not feeling well, so Sal and I decided to have breakfast at Dorset Coffee at Connecticut Greenhills and go walking around the shopping center. And so did we! We shared a breakfast of Shitake Mushroom omelet and Spicy Hungarian sausage with buttery toasts and a side order of Taro chips. I'll learn how to put pics here so next time I can put food photos! Hahaha I just love pictures of food..don't you? Anyhooos...after walking we proceeded to 168 mall!!! Yes! Divisoria on a Sunday is great! We bought lots of good cheap stuff! I only spent around 1,500 bucks and had hordes of simple basic shirts, shorts and what-have-you-s. After our contemptible shopping spree, we headed on to Binondo! We had very late lunch at this somewhat carinderia type Chinese fast food. Kinda reminded me of Pho2000 in Vietnam! Hahaha. Food was good and affordable. We had kiampung with pork asado, 1 pc stuffed calamares thingy and misua. Then we went hopia store hopping. We visites Holand, Eng Bee Tin and this other hopia store (I forgot the name), bought different varieties of hopia to bring home. I told my friend, "Sal, labo ng ginagawa natin, bili tayo madame hopia here when they're all avaible naman sa mga grocery!" hahaha ;P what the hell..it was fun doing it in Binondo. So we bought some more food to take home to our families and headed back to white plains. I got home around 6:30 pm! Whew! Been out from 6am till 630pm but my day didn't end yet. Not just yet. My good college buddy Dr. Elpo asked me a favor. Akala ko naman ano yun....fill up his US visa application form lang pala! Hahaha So he fetched me aroung 730pm and we had coffee at Cafe Breton in Morato. I love their Cafe Au Lait! After neatly filling out the Visa form we headed home. What a day!


Ahhh....but the weekend seemed to spill through Monday! Afterwork Mike (my dear friend and ultimate shopping buddy) and I went to Shang Mall to hunt for his TOASTER! Hahaha He wanted an old fashioned toaster-not the oven toaster type. Can you guys believe appliance stores hardly stock up on these babies? Failing on our mission, we went to CYMA at the 6th level for dinner. It was our first time to dine at this Greek resto and it was great. We had htipiti (I'm not sure if I remember the name right), which was like a creamy dip made with feta cheese served with toasted pita wedges---delicious! For our main we just shares a chicken kebob that turned out to be the best I have tried so far. The chicken was cooked just right ...moist, tender and flavorful. To cap our evening we headed on to the Fort to go to Jills and listen to a band. I am not a real alcohol drinker, I tell you. Alcohol has a bad effect on me but then now that I am older I am training myself to be able to hold my drink! Hahaha So I had a Currant 7..which I sipped slowly.....I was fine...no buzz.....chat chat....listen to music....ordered a mango daiquiri.....sip..chat..chat.....ZONK!#@!!! Hahahha Oh my! my head suddenly lost it's neck and just fell! I couldn't hold my head up!....so home we headed on. Poor Michael, I slept the whole ride home. Sorry Mike! No more drinking for me next time! Better stick to my java! hahahha