I started writing when I was 8. My mom got me a journal where I could rant (prob so I won't be an annoying brat). I stopped writing for 8 years until the pen and then later on the keyboard called on me again. I blog because I like writing and that's just about it. Hope you get inspired though... Bite the apple!
I love cheese, so fresh from Legaspi City I went straight to the opening of Cafe 5845 at the Mall of Asia (it's just beside Cabalen/IMAX). Cafe 5845 is a project of Kraft Eden Cheese and Magasaysay Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts (MIHCA). It is the result of the Guiness World Record event where Kraft and MIHCA made 5, 845 unique-cheese based dishes last December 2009.
Ï love the "Cheese Dynamite" dish. I am not a fan of eating sili (chili) but this one was stuffed with cheese and coated with breading (not sure about the right term, but like tempura). I was apprehensive that it would be spicy, but was assured by the food server that it wasn't. I loved it from the first bite (I wish Kraft would come out with the recipe!). (Sorry forgot to take a photo of the dish).
The cafe will have a different menu everyday and will be open only until end of August. Price is also very affordable so your one hundred pesos will get you a snack and a drink already. Tip: bring a fan since the venue is open-air.
Here's a couple of the dishes that were served during the opening:
Cafe 5845 is located at the SM Mall of Asia North Living Seaside Boulevard area (facing Manila Bay/SM Hypermarket side). It's in between Cabalen/IMAX/Friday's and Don Henrico's.
Last Saturday I was invited to attend an event by Jollibee at Mall of Asia and since I wanted to be a mall rat for that day I decided to go. I had no idea what to expect when they said that we should just go to Haagen Dazs near the Atrium area. There was no set-up at the activity area so we thought it was going to be a mob scene. So we ate yummy ice cream and waited.
It was more than a mob scene, watch this -
A very interesting way to market Jollibee virally don't you think? I thought there was just going to be a few kids dancing and was totally surprised with the number of kids dancing to different tunes. Three hundred teens converged to do the 4-minute dance number choreographed by Whiplash and directed by Mark Reyes. The short "show" was indeed amazing to watch :)
My best friend's in town! And after having a hearty lunch at home where we pigged-out on Dad's yummy mustasa dish we headed to Mall of Asia. My best friend was quite excited to see MOA since he's been holed up in Cebu the past few years.
It was a surprising afternoon though since I found myself in the middle of a Tantra gamers eyeball! I'm used to meeting with bloggers, Plurkers, people who Twit and generally online web addicts, but not gamers. I wasn't only a noob, I did not know anything about what they were talking about. I've been stuck playing PacMan and have not progressed since I was a kid so I just listened to them talk shop. They were such good sports though and were generally a lot like bloggers during meet-ups, makukulit and friendly. They also liked the fact that I took lots of photos.
So we ended up hanging around till dinner and gave my best friend the MOA tour. We wanted to get on the tram but it was filled with people, missed the boarding time for the Manila Bay Cruise, so we just walked around and took photos.
The marching band in their spiffy-for-Chinese-New-Year attire.
The globe!
And just before dinner I'm glad we managed to watch the pyro display since it was very much different from all the others I saw last year. The fireworks did not just come from the barge this time, but some went off from the mall building. It was awesome. (Oh and I had some tokneneng/kwek-kwek while watching, it was so yummy!). (Sorry for the dismal photo, I was too engrossed watching the show.)
Walking around we also saw these aired balls with kids tumbling around in them. They looked a lot like Moo (my hamster) when he would play in his hamster ball. Sweetie and Darwin wanted me to try it out since I passed the weight limit. I chickened out teehee.
I realized that I have not really been going out since November last year and MOA was just the perfect place to spend a day with my best friend =)
A few years ago when I went to see my doctor he asked me what kind of exercise I do. I said in a sheepish, little voice, "Malling." He didn't quite get what I said since he's Singaporean and well I didn't speak up so he asked again and then I said in a louder voice, "Malling."
And then he said, "Very good." I was quite pleased with myself coz he agreed that the exercise I was doing was good for me. Who would've thought? was my balloon thought. We were half-way through my check-up when he asked again what exercise I did and then he paused when I said, "Malling" and he said, "Malling? Malling? What's that?" It was my Kuya who explained that I normally just walked around the mall to go window shopping on weekends as my exercise.
My doctor burst out laughing and then promptly scolded me. LOL.
Is there such a thing as being "zen" in a mall? My good friend Juned keeps reminding me to relax and just "be zen" since he knows I've been quite stressed lately. So yesterday I brought the kids (Miguel and 2 nephews) to the Mall of Asia. Miguel was scheduled for a lesson at the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Center while his cousins didn't want to go with their Mom and sisters to Glorietta. So I was in-charge of three boys yesterday.
When we arrived I was curious why there were a number of policemen, security guards, a medical team and a lot of people lined up outside of the Adidas store. After seeing a couple of posters we found out that Gilbert Arenas, a NBA player, was going to visit the Adidas store. I shuffled the boys away from the store since there were a LOT of people and I was quite scared that I might lose one of them to the crowd. Anyway, after lunch we got to about a foot away from him and I caught him on video! Here it is -
The boys thought that the experience was "Really cool Tita!" I was quite pleased with myself after that compliment. After that I left them at the SM Science Discovery Center. I had about 3 hours to myself and I actually didn't know what to do. So I went malling. I walked and zipped in and out of different stores. I've been so used to having someone with me whenever I go to the mall and the experience of just going wherever I wanted to go without anyone in tow was quite refreshing.
At some point, of course, my feet got tired. So I debated with myself whether I was going to go to the spa or get a magazine and hang-out at Kopi Roti. I did neither since Time Zone was just in front of me and the Simpsons pinball machine was beckoning me to play a couple of games. I indulged myself and was quite pleased about my game. My feet were still killing me after the game. I decided already on heading towards Booksale, but then the tram stopped right in front of me. So I jumped in and for the next 15 minutes I just enjoyed observing people walking around the mall. I think the other people in the tram found me quite weird since I was busy taking photos and I guess I looked pretty happy with what I was doing.
That 15-minute tram ride actually relaxed me a lot. After I got off the tram, I got a magazine at Booksale and parked myself at Kopi Roti. I bidded my time at the coffee shop before I went back to pick-up the boys. I had nothing to worry about anyway since they had a grand time at the center.
I should window-shop more often then. (And stay offline on weekends). LOL.
Thank God it wasn't so hot today since we brought around Manila our Davao blogger-friends, Andrew, Ria, Winston, Blogie and Migs. Here was our itinerary:
The Binondo Round - walked around Quintin Paredes, the Binondo Church, Ongpin, and then around Reina Regente (?) then back to Savory. We had an interesting lunch at the Estero.
Intramuros - drove around for a bit until we settled at the San Augustine Church (my patron saint!) where we witnessed 3 weddings in the 2 hours we were there. Went around the museum as well.
Manila Bay Cruise - who would've thought of taking a cruise at Manila Bay? Well we did and we had so much fun taking photos.
Mall of Asia - ended up having merienda at Razon's (yummy halo-halo!) and then we tried to look for the non-existent Giligan's at the San Miguel Bay Park. We ended up having dinner at Gerry's Grill (most of us wanted sisig!) and we were joined by AJ, Benj, Jeff and Fritz. (Uyyy... sino bagong love team sa blogosphere? meron ba?).
Juned Sonido was the official tour guide. (Thanks so much Juned!).
I hope I got the spelling right... I've been seeing so many versions of it all over town and I don't know which one is right and I'm all messed up too on how to pronounce it.
Yesterday was another dizzying, hectic day packed with loads of events and activities and this has effectively sunk me even further down my blogging backlog. I'm at least a month behind. I'm pretty excited though to share everything that transpired yesterday:
(1) Getting Over Stage Fright even further. I've never been to Aliw Theater and I never dreamed that my first time would be for a speaking engagement. My parents thought I was holding a concert! LOL. Photo by Sweetie.
Yup that's me speaking in front of a couple of thousand students. Never in my wildest dreams believe me.
(2) Meeting Happy Slip. I always look forward to Christine's videos because it's funny and entertaining. I've influenced quite a number of friends (and students!) to watch her as well and I was glad to meet her yesterday at the Yehey.com and Department of Tourism sponsored meet-up at Mag:net cafe at Bonifacio High Street. Too bad I had to leave immediately, I had an appointment with times <28> people hehe. Special thanks to Jonas, sensya na I couldn't be of more service yesterday (I wasn't feeling well din).
(3) Fireworks at the Mall of Asia. What's new year without fireworks? Before heading to the last event of the day we dropped by MOA to grab a bite and realized that there was probably going to be a fireworks display. It was my first time too at the San Miguel Bay Walk.
(4) Guji Lorenzana. Guji is a new artist being managed by Lucas Records and he recently launched his album "Without Your Love". At his video launch last night at 19 East, Guji shared that he is a Fil-Am and before coming to the Philippines (due to a broken heart) he auditioned for American Idol 3.
Maayong Gabii!!! (That’s how you say good evening here in Davao). I know, I know I’ve been quite amiss and the coordinators have been following-up about this event.
The first 168 bloggers are in! SM Hypermarket has promised we’ll have another event for those who did not make it to the first 150 (but you know about the Pareto principle right? If you know what I mean…).
This is sure to be a fun, fun night!!! Jayvee and Sorsi have volunteered to be the night’s host. Please don’t forget to bring your blogger cards! It will surely bring lots of link-love and traffic! And aside from hooking up with new friends, who knows you just might win in the raffle!
See you guys on July 3, 2007, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.,at Taste Asia (beside SM Hypermarket) at the Mall of Asia. Taste Asia is located at the ground floor beside the SM Hypermarket (at the right side when you are the globe).
How to Get to Mall of Asia:
(1) Commuting? Take the MRT and get off at the farthest point at the South (EDSA/Taft). There are jeepneys there that would take you to the Mall of Asia. You can also take the bus going towards Pasay/MOA.
(2) Bringing a car? Just go straight Southbound on EDSA. Straight, straight and then just straight, you’ll then see the Mall of Asia globe and that’s where it is!
I always wondered how ice skaters could glide ever so gracefully on thin metal strips on slippery ice. I watch in awe whenever I get the chance to view competitions on TV. And I was simply awestruck when I watched an ice hockey game in the US last year.
You see, I couldn't even balance myself properly on a balance beam, much less stand up straight on roller skates. I remember getting all bruised up when I was 16 and my friends strapped on roller skates on my feet in Tagaytay. It was a disaster. I stuck it out with skateboards eversince.
I don't see myself as the super adventurous type, but I like trying out new things. So last night at the invitation of a friend who plays ice hockey, wobbly legs and all I wore the stinky ice skates and got on the ice.
First and foremost, the skates were heavy, stinky and it was difficult to stand on dry ground on it. It felt like I was on stilts. But I told myself I had to be brave since I brought Miguel along. How would you be able to teach your sheep if you don't know how to graze the land yourself? So, it was a challenge. I had to motivate myself and inspire Miguel to follow suit.
It was a liberating experience indeed. I was so surprised that we managed to go around the rink (holding on to dear life at the edges), but at least we managed to stand on ice without falling on our fannies and got to glide along a few meters at a time.
And methinks I'll be going back to Mall of Asia soon to try it out again.
Maybe I can still become a figure skater after all. Hmmm... NOT!
Mabel woke me up promptly at 9 a.m. for our holiday lakwatsa at the Mall of Asia. We went there to check out some furniture at Our Home. I was sorely disappointed coz I thought it was a huge showroom. Mabel and I suddenly missed the huge Ikea building in Singapore where I bought 2 cool lamps. Geeezzzz, I should visit the upcoming Manila FAME International show later this month.
I was still feeling stuffed from the food binge in Pampanga and an after movie, late night dinner at Giligan's last night, but Mabel was hungry so we hunted for a new place to dine at. Mabel wanted to eat rice so Sbarro and Mexicali were out of the question (thought I would've wanted to eat some chicken enchilada). So she chose Chaikofi. The resto serves different types of Asian food like Sate Ayam (chicken) and Sate Babi (pork). the Dutch Chicken looked yummy, but I was still quite full so I just had a chicken sandwich. Mabel said the pork barbecue she ordered tasted like the ones she's been having at Malaysia. The chicken sandwich I got? My gawd at PhP95 pesos I could make myself. And they didn't have soda! (I'm off my failed soda sacrifice). Aaarggghhh.
The place was quite spiffy though with it's yellow booth seats, fresh flowers and bossa nova background music. I would've been impressed, but the cold welcome we got from the order taker (yup, you have to go to the counter and pay as you order... so not sowsi), miffed me. Buti pa McDo, you always get a smile when you order. Now that's warmth.
I'm no food connoiseur. I just like eating and it doesn't take much to make me happy. Eighteen pesos grilled hotdogs at Cafe Nemoso gives me a high. The seven pesos each barbecue at the kanto is dinner for me, but when you pay 95 pesos for a home-made sandwich a smile and basic courtesy goes a long way (ayan lumabas tuloy pagka-kuripot ko!). Hehehe. Bitter! Bitter!
I love cheese, so fresh from Legaspi City I went straight to the opening of Cafe 5845 at the Mall of Asia (it's just beside Cabalen/IMAX). Cafe 5845 is a project of Kraft Eden Cheese and Magasaysay Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts (MIHCA). It is the result of the Guiness World Record event where Kraft and MIHCA made 5, 845 unique-cheese based dishes last December 2009. 
