Buhay Coke Party Ulit! (Announcement of Winners)

Naalala mo ba ito?



Or nainggit ka dahil absent ka last June?

Well...

Time to party again!

What: Buhay Coke Vlog Contest Announcement of Winners Party
When: August 8, 2008, Friday, 6:00 p.m. onwards
Where: Taste Asia at the Mall of Asia
Wassup?: Announcement of winners and just simply to parteeh the Taste Asia way!
How: Register here.

There's room for 500 people! So kindly spread the word too!

Healthy Shabu Shabu 101

Candy Hwang, owner of Healthy Shabu-Shabu explained during dinner that shabu-shabu has its beginnings from the time of Genghis Khan. It was war time and they wanted to be able to feed soldiers in a fast, economical and nutritious way. Fast forward to the present and here in Manila, Candy Hwang has set-up several branches of her "Healthy Shabu-Shabu" restaurant.

It was a different experience for me. I have to admit I almost never prepare my own food (unless it's just a sandwich) and it is quite rare to see me in front of a stove (I'd rather bake!), so seeing the hot pot and all the raw ingredients actually made me nervous. I was quite hungry as well and was worried that I might end up burning my food!

I did not have to worry after all since eating the shabu-shabu way isn't as hard as it looks. Here's my video blog about the experience:



Experience Healthy Shabu Shabu at any of its following branches: Powerplant Mall, The Podium, SM Mall of Asia, Robinsons Galleria, SM North The Block, Alabang Town Center, Robinsons Midtown and Shangri-la Plaza Mall. For inquiries please call (632) 627-3721 or 672-3290.

High School Live Oh My High School Life!

My high school life could be described with the following keywords (and some thoughts about it):

blue and white uniform (donated all of it during graduation)
tin-grin button pin (always had it pinned on my uniform)
C.A.T. (arggghhh! hated it!)
physics, geometry, biology (still a mystery to me!)
spaghetti (my daily grub)

I haven't seen most of my high school classmates though. I still hang-out though with my high school barkada, but haven't seen my other classmates for the longest time. The opportunity presented itself when my forever lab-partner called me up to remind me to show up for lunch since our student council president (and class president) was arriving from the US.

We were a small group, but it was definitely fun to see my classmates again. So many things do happen after high school and we couldn't help but kid each other with the question, "What happens to the student council president after high school?" Hehehe... that question was answered during lunch and if you're from 4A, sorry na lang amiga absent ka eh!

Here's the small group of Kulasas (and an import from college and SOs) who had lunch at Chi's Brick Oven Kitchen:


And here's a glimpse of the dessert we had:


See more of the sumptuous meal we had over at Lakwatsera Ako.

I Love OPM!

OPM stands for Original Pilipino Music and I have been pledging my undying love for it since I started this blog. Music actually seeded my friendship with Sweetie (yihee!). The first time I met him almost two years ago he was sharing his experiences about his website as a technopreneur. Who would've thought eh?

Anyway, we became really great friends when he invited me to attend Christian Bautista's album launch. It was really a surprise for me to finally meet someone who shared the same passion for Filipino music and well the rest is history. I've been tagging along in some of the album launches he's been attending (as PA! PA = personal angel hehehe) and I thought we'd gone full circle when we attended the launch of Christian Bautista's newest album, "Captured". Here he is singing the carrier single "The One Who Won My Heart".



I've been to a number of album launches, but I have to admit that I think I'll never stop being a fan and there are really a number of talented Filipino artists that deserve to be known and recognized, like Reuben Laurente.

Reuben Laurente used to be part of a popular group, but he eventually decided to go solo. He also recently launched a new album entitled, "Heart Blends". I've heard so many good things about him, but it was my first time to hear him sing when we attended the launch at Hardrock Cafe. We missed a couple of songs, but luckily reached the part where he was singing really popular songs like "All at Once", "Could it Be I'm Falling in Love", and "Out Here on My Own". He also did a duet with Anna Fegi and I thought that their rendition of "I Honestly Love You" was pure, crystal and unadulterated. (I bought a CD during the launch and I absolutely love all the songs in it! I'm glad we went back upstairs to purchase a copy.)

Too bad though, Reuben's leaving next week to be a `featured artist' in a cruise and his album does not have a distributor yet. I'll check though where you can get the CD and will update this post once I get more info.

Robotics!

This is a pubic service announcement for my alma mater.

What: DLSU ROBOTICS CAMP
Inclusive Dates: August 2, 9 and 16 (Saturdays)
Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Venue: Room G401 Gokongwei Building, DLSU, Taft, Manila

Categories:
Level 1 - Elementary Grades 5 to 7 students
Level 2 - High School students
Level 3 - College students and hobbyists

Other details and to register please visit the CEC website.

The Big Three-Oh!

One of the things a lot of women fear is getting old! When I was a kid I always teased my Ate that she was olddd! Our age difference is 16 years, so when I was 4 she was already 20, in college and I would always tease her, "Ate you're old!!!" And I guess because of that I dreaded the time that I would be in my 20's. And sad to say that whole decade for me just seemed to be oddly disastrous.

When I was about to turn 30 I welcomed it with open arms. I even had an all-pink party to celebrate it. To me turning 30 signified a whole new chapter in my life. I firmly believed that the tide was going to change and everything was just going to be better. And I was right! I thought it wasn't possible to have the best of both worlds. I always thought that I was lucky with work, but unlucky with love. But with much prayer and faith everything just eventually evened out.

So I can honestly say I'm very happy to be in my 30s already! But!!!

But with all the joy came a lot of realizations and I had to do a lot of adjustments.

1. Metabolism - I used to be able to gulp down a Big Mac + large fries + McSpaghetti + large Coke every single day of the week WITHOUT gaining weight. Now that seems just to be a legend. I was barely a hundred pounds when I celebrated my 30th birthday, but now... but now the automatic 10 pounds they said you gain from where I work now has permanently resided in my thunder legs and now I have love handles!

2. Agility - So I'm not really malikot nor athletic, but I used to be able to move around faster, go malling for hours, but I am no Energizer Bunny anymore. I have to rest in between boutique hopping and I used to be able to hop from one province to another easily. I just can't be up and running like I used to. Sad fez.

3. The Youthful Look - When I was in my late 20s I was always mistaken to be a college student! And I guess as the years passed and I took on more responsibility at work my look turned into "so you're 28 na?" Well at least it's still a few years younger than my age now, but I have just simply aged! Noooo!!!

4. Fashion - I was never really daring with what I wear. Make it standard, plain and simple and I'll wear it (think t-shirt and jeans). I also need my best friend to remind myself to fix myself up. There are things though that don't fit (by look) anymore when you are in your 30s. But I still like Mickey Mouse and other cartoon character stuff so I don't really care.

5. Gimmicks - Unlike in my 20s when I just couldn't seem to plant my feet in just one place, now I prefer to stay home. The yellow-urine-like liquid doesn't attract me anymore and I prefer quiet dinners, coffee over going to rowdy, jampacked places. Actually, the couch + me-laptop + a DVD movie is more appealing now.

But I have to be honest, at some point I guess I allowed myself to just wither away. Everything was running smoothly in my life and I felt I didn't need to push any farther. BUT! I got a huge scolding from my best friend (that's the story behind this video) and that got me up and about. I went through retail therapy (a.k.a. shopping) and kinarir ko ang pag-Ponds! And the past two weeks I could help but smile (and be kilig) over these comments -

A college department head, "You are obviously an alumna of this school, you're so kikay!"

A taxi driver after asking me what I was going to do at MOA, "O ma'am! Akala ko maglalakwatsa lang kayo, kala ko college ka pa!"

My cousin who's just a year older, "Bruha ka! Bakit ikaw ganyan pa rin itsura mo eh ako nanay na nanay na!"

Sweetie, "Di kita nakilala. I thought you were someone else!" and then he gave me a bouquet of flowers. I felt like a beauty queen!

And my all-time favorite -

A high school principal, "Alumna from high school 19xx? Oh I thought you just graduated last year!"

There's hope for me after all!

A Fishy, Fishy Day at the Manila Oceanarium

Read more about it at Lakwatsera Ako.