Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Awwwww....ang ganda!!!

Fabulous Finds: Bagoong Club Resto

"Bagoong Club tayo."

I couldn't believe my ears. It was the missus uttering those 3 beautiful words that I've longed to hear for quite some time now. We had ran out of places to eat at the Tomas Morato area on our Saturday dinner after Mass when she finally decided to give us an opportunity to try Bagoong Club Resto just off Tomas Morato.

"Baka naman puro bagoong dyan!" she would say whenever we passed by the place. I was really intrigued to eat there especially when my officemate, GP, had already been there to try and made nice comments about the place. It made me want to eat there more. "Someday, I'm going to eat there," I said. Who would've known that two Saturdays ago, that would be the day.

Bagoong Club Resto didn't disappoint. We ordered the Seafood Binacol, Kalderetang Baka and Dila, and Lechon Sisig ----ang sarrrrap!

The menu is all local food but slightly different. It's like Gerry's or Dencio's with a twist.

You got to try it!

Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Hmmm, I didn't really like this.

Race Review: JG Summit Employees Run

This was the very first orgranized race conducted inside Heritage Park. With runrio.com overseeing the race, the 5km route would comprise two loops while the 10km would have 4 loops. With an entrance fee of P250, it came with the standard racebib and a cool singlet with the JG summit colors.

I have to admit that running 4 loops would seem monotonous. But that changed when the gun sounded. The last time I ran inside Heritage Park was during the Autoreview 10k and that was only 1 loop since it was only part of the Mckinley "killer" route. Running 4 times around Heritage Park was a "killer" in itself since it had its share of steep and slow inclines and descents.

I was aiming for a more respectable finish versus my 69mins PR ---but failed. I managed to arrive 72mins, my worst performance yet. But at least I got to beat our company CEO and 2 other VPs to the finish. That's me below reaching the finish line with our CEO and 1 VP a good distance behind, hehehe.

This Sunday is another run at Heritage Park: the company sportsfest. No registration fee so definitely I'll run this one, lalo na that I want to improve on yesterday's dismal run. 10k again so I hope to do better.


Great organization of the race although I heard two officemates who ran 5k made 3 loops instead of two (runners or organizer's fault? hehe).

Goodbye Michael

I felt sadness for Lucas when I heard Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest yesterday. Lucas, by the influence of the 2 bugoys last year, had learned to idolize MJ and his songs and moves. He'd always insist on playing his favorite MJ songs in the car (imagine playing Beat It over and over again from our house to Lolo's house, grabe). He's memorized the tunes (and lyrics, although not clearly) to Beat It, Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, Dangerous, They Don't Care About Us, and Black or White. He doesn't like Thriller ever since he saw the MTV on Youtube. Got scared with the monster make-up I guess. At Owa's smooth bedroom floor, Lucas has learned to moonwalk in his own cute way. MJ had definitely become Lucas' 1st idol.

Below is one of Lucas' favorite MJ YouTube videos (aside from the Beat It MTV):

He's too young now to realize that MJ had passed away but I'm not. Again, seeing a high profile celebrity die had made me wonder again on my life, on how I'm living it now, and on how will I be able to face death when the time comes. I hope I'll be ready to answer to my Maker when that day comes.

Life is short so I have to continue striving to live it right.

Btw, my all-time favorite MJ song is Billie Jean in case you want to know.

Madagascar 2 (2008)

Funny, especially King Julian!

The First(?) Laiya 10k

It was the day before our department's planned summer outing in Coco Grove Resort in Laiya, San Juan, Batangas when I thought of a crazy plan: why not run 10k along the main road of San Juan in the morning? This, of course, after hours of drinking the night before the run.


MP, AQ, DB, and BE all agreed it was a crazy plan but, addicted runners as we are, we all turned up for the 4-hour trip the next day with our running shoes and gear in tow.


Friday night was the usual drinking spree of Sanmig Light and Grand Matador Brandy. I sneaked off to my bed at around 1:15am. The drinking spree ended at 3am with AQ, BE and MP still there. I felt since we all slept late, it would be bad for us to wake up early for this run.


Nevertheless...the phone's alarm clock rang at 6am.


I woke up trying to fight the laziness to go back to bed, and put my running gear on. I woke up the rest of the gang and, surprisingly, they all donned their gear as well. MP brought his Nike hydration belt since there'll be no water station to assist us on this trip. And so, at 6:30am, the first(?) Laiya 10k began.


We had to pass through about a 400m dirt road off the resort just to get to the main road. We setup our stopwatches and my NSTB and off we went on a 7min/km pace.


This was everyone's first here so we had to watch out for dogs (fortunately there were none who took interested on our sweaty legs). Bystanders were in awe as well since they saw these 5 (stupid) guys destroying a completely relaxed vacation away from Manila.


"Running team kayo?"


"Kaya mo pa abutan yun!"


Those were some of the chants we got from them which was quite new to me since I don't encounter cheering when I run races at The Fort.


At the 5km turnaround point, we all went to our preferred paces: MP and DB zooming off, BE increasing a little, while AQ passed me to run his pace. I remained on my pace although I started slowing down to about 8min/km (haaay, maling strategy na naman). I later found out from MP that the 7min/km pace that I started with was too fast for a warm-up pace.


The route back was a killer in terms of slow inclines and turns. But it was all worth it.


Towards the 7km mark, I saw BE covering the back of his neck with his palm since the sun started to shine already. Good thing I wore my trusty cap and switched it a la Robin Padilla to cover the back of my neck. Ayos.


BE started to get thirsty so he had to make a stop at a roadside carinderia in which the tindera obliged to give him water from their cooler. It was about 9km at this point. He zoomed off when I told him the remaining distance.


I clocked in last at 1:12 when I reached the finish. All of us tired but smiling towards our way back to the resort. It was a great run. It was now time to go have our breakfsat buffet and hit the beach to relax.


Saraaaaaap!

Btw, the NSTB for this race can be found here.