Category: personal

bizu!

A Sunday lunch date to mark our 23rd month together! I’ve never eaten at Bizu before but I’ve been dying to try their desserts.

This restaurant’s highly recommended. Good value for your money.

Three Dips and Baguettini. Munchpunch says this appetizer’s good for 4 persons, but let’s just pretend we didn’t see that.

French Onion Soup. Looks messy but this is heavenly.

My entree: baked sole with artichokes. The artichokes were cooked perfectly. My knife just cut through them like butter. Though J chastised me for not taking note of all the components (potatoes, capers, prosciutto). Also: this is from watching too much Hell’s Kitchen.

I really loved J’s order. I’ll definitely get this next time: Butter-Poached Salmon with Pommery.

For desserts, we just went ahead and ordered the chocolate soufflé. Rich and creamy and we couldn’t finish it. Heh.

But I think that’s just because we had the Strawberry Shortcake first.

I loved it! I thoroughly enjoyed this lunch.

Now for our second anniversary next month, we’re thinking that instead of checking into a hotel or traveling, we’ll just eat at a nice restaurant. (We’re also trying to save money.)  Mamou? Mariott Cafe? The Stock Market? What would you recommend?

Drinking on our 23rd month together. I got to his place after work last night, and dinner (chicken with cheese, onions, and bell peppers on a baguette – I wolfed it all down and forgot to take a picture) was already waiting for me. You’re the sweetest. Here’s to more gin (tequila later into the night) + pineapple juice + grenadine + potato chips + Hell’s Kitchen nights together.

Now regarding work: its often tiring, and draining, but strangely enough, I’m happy. I’m actually having fun. I genuinely like the people I work with, and I know how rare that is and I’m thankful for it.

I’d probably be bitching and moaning again come Monday, but whatever. It’s the weekend, and I can look at everything through my happy lens! Cheers, all.

under the storm poetry anthology launch

September 2 at the Ayala Museum. Thanks to Ian for guiding us haha!

Got held up at work so unfortunately I missed a huge chunk of the event, but J and I got there in time to meet up with Charles, Jordan, Lyza, and Tin (who sassed the waiters at MCafe for being so goddamn slow). Met Eva for the first time, and forgot to tell her that I loved this poem of hers. Met Richard Bolisay for the first time (oo kailangan full name haha) and saw Gian again. And it was wonderful to see Andrea! So sabaw I forgot to ask for autographs. I would love to round up all of these lovely people in one corner of this city and just talk and drink – that would be nice, yes?

Read my poem, “Crime Scenes“. I was a member of a writing organization in college that regularly held poetry readings, but I’ve never read a poem before. Yep – never. So of course I was nervous and frightened but people said it was okay. Not too painful? Beautiful. I listened to Andrea’s recording of my reading (probably coming soon on YouTube now on YouTube, thanks to Andrea and Kate) and boy, did I hate my voice haha. Next time I’ll just make someone else read my work.

I regret not being able to arrive earlier, though. Bitin! But at least I got the chance to stay, even for a short while.

Again, thanks to editors Joel and Khavn for letting me be a part of this.

Photos from Jovie Angelica Dayon.

editor khavn de la cruz

the 61st palanca awards night

In 2009, I didn’t even think of having my hair did or applying make-up because hair and make-up takes two hours at least and I was feeling lazy. In any event (graduation, awards nights, book launches, work days), all I use are: eyelash curlers, pressed powder, blush-on, lipgloss and lipstick, a comb. I don’t know how to apply eye make-up, and even if I did, I don’t know how to make it last. I have this habit of touching my eyelids and turning smokey eye make-up into a pair of smokey smudges.

This year, I asked J if he could ask his sisters to do my make-up for me. I really just wanted to make my eyes pop out. For the pictures! (Whatever else!)

V and V were kind enough to agree. (V & V already sounds like a salon. They should put up one! Where they can also sell pastry!)

The makeover worked so well that my father gave a start when I reached our table the night of the event, hehe.

Blast from the past!

My parents:

My date! Howee.

Natasha Gamalinda and Rosmon Tuazon (who won 2nd Prize for Tula) were sitting at our table, but I didn’t recognize them! I thought Facebook would be able to help me in moments like this. Thank you Natasha for introducing yourself, and hope I’ll get the chance to see you guys again. (Oh my god I hope the two of you didn’t see me eating like a pig haha.) Congrats to your future hubby, Natasha! :)

Got a picture with the Alfars while waiting for the event to start. Congrats to Nikki for bagging the first prize for Short Story for Children, and Dean for sitting as chairman of the board of  judges for the Short Story category!

Always lovely to see the Spec Fic crowd. :)

With Aste, Grand Prize winner for the Short Story category. (And my boss! Ha!)

Food, then the usual staging of one of the winning dulang isang yugto.

This is Remi Karen Velasco’s “Ondoy: Buhay sa Bubong”. Hilarious!

Fooling around while waiting for the awarding to start.

Guest of honor is F. Sionil Jose.

Here’s the complete list of judges and winners. Congrats to everyone!

And of course, after the event, photo-op sa stage! Parang graduation lang!

I have a couple photos with my father’s mouth open, because he kept talking while the pictures were being taken. Worried na baka hindi raw masama yung Palanca logo sa likod. Haha!

With Ricky Davao, chairman of the board of judges for Dulang Pampelikula. Mr. Davao asked me, “Bakit hindi mo i-try mag-screenplay?” Well! Challenge –

no, not accepted. It’s too hard. /whine

Anyway this picture made my father really, really happy.

The cast of “Ondoy” with the author herself. :)

Of course we need to have our photos taken with Cai Cortez! “We’re big fans of Septic Tank!” said I, and she replied, “Na-enjoy niyo yun? Kahit wala akong linya?!” Winnur.

A wonderful night.

long weekend

I have to say that in the four years I’ve been a member of the workforce, this is the first time I’ve experienced a long weekend due to the holidays. Sweet deal, except that a storm came. This always happens. I plan to see my parents on a particular weekend, and a storm makes landfall. Every. Single. Time.

I had to wade through knee-high waters to get home. But despite the storm and the flood, our pet chicken is alive and well! And she’s been giving us eggs! On Monday night my mother added them to the giniling! The eggs were yummy! I don’t know why I keep telling you about this fucking chicken but this is exciting!

Anyway. Flood. Nothing new here.

The bright side: 1) no work 2) it’s cold inside the house as opposed to hellishly hot 3) I was able to just relax and read and watch movies.

Ex Machina is created by Brian K. Vaughan (the same guy who wrote Y: The Last Man) and Tony Harris. I finished reading all of the issues early this morning (around 1 am) and I’m still thinking about it today. Ex Machina features Mitchell Hundred, a civil engineer who receives powers from an unknown device that exploded at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. The device gives him the power to talk to machines. After becoming a victim of a robbery, he decides to fight crime as The Great Machine, sort of like the goofy equivalent of the Iron Man. On 9/11 he stops one of the planes, allowing the second tower to survive the attack. Later on, he is voted Mayor of New York.

Vaughan loves devastating endings, doesn’t he? He gives you humor and hope until you start thinking that hey, maybe a happy ending is possible for these poor characters, then boom, a sudden dip until everything crashes. And I love it. I am devastated right now, but I love it.

I saw too many movies! Info overload!

Drive Angry is one of those redneck-y action films that I thought I’d hate but I end up loving. It’s a fun ride. (Pun!) Favorite character: William Fichtner as The Accountant.

Saw a lot of comedies: Hall Pass, No Strings Attached, Bad Teacher. All perfect for lazy afternoons. Go with No Strings Attached, if you just want something cute.

The Beaver. Huh. I have to say that when I saw the movie poster, I was confused

and the title made me laugh, but this is directed by Jodie Foster and I still somehow trust Jodie Foster (even if Mel Gibson is in the lead). I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve never seen depression and mental illness presented in such a simple, effective, disturbing way. BUT: wouldn’t this work better if it were less serious? More black humor than drama, with maybe Steve Carrell as the lead? Guess we’ll never know.

My brothers did not like Super 8, and I think I understand why. Super 8 as an adventure, as a coming-of-age tale, is adorable and pitch-perfect, but as a mystery monster movie, it’s 90 minutes of meh.

 

But I liked it. For some reason it reminded me of Eerie Indiana. (I miss that show.)

So how’s your long weekend?

big toys for the big boys

When J got his iPad I knew at once that I’d like my own tablet- for reading comics and books, for surfing the Net, for playing Fieldrunners HD. Noble needs. The iPad is too big for me and I have a hatred for iTunes (I don’t understand why updating your files has to be so goddamn complicated), so I got a Galaxy Tab. Smaller and simpler to use. You can plug it in as a USB device, or you can buy a card reader and a microSD and put stuff in there – no need to sync to just one computer. Cheaper, too. J found it on Amazon, for $339 (Wi-Fi only).

Also loving the free camera apps. This one’s made via ActionSnap and temporary insanity.

For more app recos, go visit Kate’s geekgasmic entry. In addition to her list, I recommend:

  • Yahoo! (The Tab comes with the Gmail app, but I also have a Yahoo account)
  • eBuddy Messenger (Again, the gadgets comes with the GTalk app, but I use eBuddy for YM)
  • For games: Robotek HD and Glow Hockey and your usual Angry Birds
  • PDI Digital (because the pages look so good on the screen, and I need my daily news)
  • Facebook
  • Aldiko and FBReader (for your ebook needs! FBReader can read mobipocket)

J also got a new laptop, refurbished and marked down to around P30K. The same model, brand-new, goes for P50K, so this is a pretty sweet deal.

Our thanks to J’s mom and sisters for letting us use their credit cards to buy things online! :)

* * *

Oh! And finally bought some nice lotion. Leyende I’ve been looking for you for forever!


Bought a dress for the awarding in September. Too short and doesn’t look at all “semi-formal”, ha. I’ll wear it with the (gray?) boots I already have. I will probably look like I’m going to a bar. (And I don’t even go to bars.) Oh dear, how to make it work. Maybe I’ll wear a damn blazer over it. Ang chaka na lang, haha!