Consequences of Eating Street Food

This Christmas is going to be well-remembered ---for the wrong reasons. I had forgotten all about Lucas' sensitivity to eating street food by mistakenly handing him a bite of street siomai and a sip of gulaman. The consequence was a "painful tummy" coupled with LBM these past few days (plus a trip to the ER), causing us not to enjoy Christmas Day to the full.

As the missus had said, street food nowadays is not as hygenic as it was when we were kids. The air, the water, it's just all different now so there should be extra care when purchasing food from street vendors.

He's doing a little better now except for occasional stomach pain. Hopefully he's all well tomorrow.

Hay, street food. Never again!

Kaya Natin Ito MTV

It must've started with We Are The World and Don't They Know It's Christmas Time. I'm such a sucker for collaborative songs like these.



The message DOES come across. Great job to all who contributed to this song. Galing!

You're right. Kaya natin ito!

World Vision

I got this from my inbox today. It's good to know that even on our own small way, somewhere in our country there's this one kid that my family is helping financially to fulfill her schooling.

Truly, it's better to give than to receive.

World Vision website is here in case you're interested.

12.11.2009 - Random Thoughts

I've just redecorated my blog layout. Like it? I hope so.

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The new condo's 99% done except for some minor stuff. We'll probably have our first weekend overnight stay there next week.

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I'm writing this post around 4am. Yup, nightwork again. Company's pushing for a lot of upgrades just before the Christmas holidays so that means some of the work needs my supervision. Hopefully this morning's work (2 actually) is all successful.

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One of my top people is leaving this month. Pirated by another local company. Sigh...I guess that's life. I know my team will cope eventually but it's the transition that's going to be hard.

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Matteo's gonna turn 1 next month. Wow, time sure flies fast!

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Rank 800+?!?!?!

It's been a while since I blogged here at LHM. Much of the fault has been due to my current passion which is running. Then, there's Facebook, an easier way to "micro-blog," if there was such a term.

The result? An 800+ (and dropping) rank in Topblogs.ph. Before my LHM hiatus, I was in the top 200.

Hmmm, I better start posting here again. My "fans" might be missing me. Hehe.

Thankful

"So what's your birthday wish?" the missus whispered last night as the clock neared 12midnight.

I kidded her with the usual answers showbiz people would say on Sunday afternoon shows like "Sana more hit movies" and "Yung mga nangeentrega sakin eh sana tumigil na" and "Continued success in my career." Hehehe.

Honestly, I can't think of any coz right now, I got all that I need: a loving & patient wife, two wonderful boys, a great job, and a bowlful of loving friends and family.

Maybe I do have a wish: I wish that my life will continue to be as happy as it is right now.

Thank you Lord.

Dow now at 10,000

This is a good sign for the global economy. Just about every investor in the world is looking at the DJ index and breaking the 10,000 barrier after a long recession is a very bright sign of recovery.

I hope this triggers the bull market para makabawi na uli tayo.

Go go go!

Management (2008)

Cuuuute. :)

Kimi Dora

It's been quite some time when I experienced a lot of people laughing/giggling inside a movie house. Thanks to Kimi Dora, a non-hyped film starring Eugene Domingo who rightfully so deserves top-billing.

Sobrang nakakatawa!

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The Hangover

Funny! You should watch it!

FHM Party 2009

To my bestman RS who's migrating to New Zealand this month, these pics are for you.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.


Sayang, hindi ka na namen makakasama ni Berto and Oliver sa mga mala-ganitong event. Anyway, marami namang tupa at baka sa NZ.

Kris Aquino's Eulogy

This made tears roll down my face. It's a reminder that not only Tita Cory was our President, but she was a mother, a pillar of hope and strength for her children.

Weight Loss Update: The Verdict

After taking up running last March and eating oatmeal-only weekday dinners, I've finally decided to have my blood tested for lipid profile yesterday. I've given it 4 months as recommended by my highschool batchmate who's a doctor to take the said test after all the hard work has been put in to see my progress.

Well, after 4 months, here's my blood test results:

All have improved! WOW! Tenkyu LORD!!!!

As you can see, dramatic improvements in my cholesterol, LDL, and Triglycerides although the cholesterol still needs tweaking.

The only issue with this is that since my employer had to change health-companies this year, the interpretation of the normal range for these tests differ from one laboratory to another. Only the cholesterol normal-range is the same for both labs. Thus, I can't really say if my HDL had improved since if I use the Medicard's normal-range, I'm still low on good cholesterol.

But still, it's a big improvement. Moreover that I've lost 11 lbs since January. The loss actually accelerated sometime March when I started running so I strongly believe that it has greatly helped (coupled with the missus' imposed oatmeal-only weekday dinners) in my weight loss goal.

It's still a long way until I reach 152 lbs ---my ideal weight to reach normal BMI for my height. I hope to achieve it by end of this year in time for EG's biggest-loser contest final weigh-in.

Yup, I'm still gunning for that Zoom Kobe IV prize for the biggest loser. :)

I Love You Man (2009)

Nice movie. Ganda ni Rashida Jones.

Doubt (2008)

Great film. A must watch.

Are You F*cking Kidding Me?

The missus and I have been discussing lately Facebook and how it has entered into our everyday lives. It has enabled us to get updated with our friends & relatives as to how they are doing at a certain moment ---provided that they update their status. How their kids are, what's he/she doing at the moment, where they are, what movie did they watch, etc. etc.

But when is it too much? Surely, I don't need to know if a friend is about to eat breakfast, or lunch, or dinner. I don't need to know or care if he's about to sleep, or if he just woke up and got online, or offline.

Further, I don't need to know if you're aching to have a gf or bf. Or how mad you are at the world right now because it rained. Some things are just too personal to write on Facebook with all your friends, relatives, and officemates reading.

That's why the blog was invented. So that you can shell out your angst and disgust out there in the Internet wilderness, where no one THAT YOU KNOW needs to be informed.

To end, here's Kate Miller-Heidke with the Facebook song. Hilarious!

Angel's Kitchen

It's a quaint fine-dining restaurant located along Connecticut Street in Greenhills. The ambience is cool to the eyes, with the food great as well. The crowd seemed to be from the high-end, which should've made us prepared for what our total bill would be.

I ordered the Pakbet Rice with Lechon Kawali......ANG SARAP! The missus ordered fish and Owa ordered the beef roast ---both good as well.

The drawback of this place is that it's expensive. Dinners with the missus and Owa never reached P1,700++ but this one did.

But I'll definitely come back for the Pakbet Rice with Lechon Kawali anytime!

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.

Training Program for 21k

My long-term goal for running is to at least have finished a half-marathon. In particular, I would like to run (and finish) a half-marathon by next year's Condura Run which I hope would have an exciting route similar to last March wherein the runners traversed the Skyway. It was truly an amazing site to see 21k runners approaching the finish line and being given their finisher's medal (not a shirt, mind you, but a medal).

I would like to be one of those (elite) runners come Condura Run 2010, hopefully to conquer the Skyway as well. No need to chase a PR since finishing the whole 21k will be a major feat in itself. Something to add on my "been there, done that" list.

I've been browsing around on the 'net for possible 21k training programs and I chanced upon an article on coolrunning.com. Has anyone tried following these training programs and successfully managed to finish their target race?

Bedtime Stories (2008)

Nice popcorn movie. Classic Adam Sandler.

Fabulous Finds: Chef's Bistro

The missus and I've been wanting to try Chef's Bistro ever since we saw it a few months back just off Tomas Morato. Last Saturday evening, we were already going for Chinese but then decided to give Chef's Bistro a try since anyway, the missus hasn't failed yet in trying out the places to dine.

When you enter the place, you'll find yourself looking up to appreciate the works of art hanging above the walls.

They have a brief menu going thru the usual courses. The missus a.k.a. "pumpkin soup connoisseur" ordered the usual soup and I had the seafood chowder. Both tasted great.

For the main course, I ordered the salmon. I was quite disappointed since the white wine was only on a per bottle basis. So the usual seafood dish that I order was accompanied by Coke Light that night. The salmon tasted well especially with the green pistacchio sauce.

The missus ordered the porkloin which tasted good as well.

Owa, my mom-in-law, got the Bistro Red Pasta, a hefty serving I might add.

Desserts listed are all crepes so the missus ordered butter and sugar, the same crepe she orders at Cafe Breton.

In summary, Chef's Bistro serves great food with average price. A fabulous find, indeed.

Angels And Demons

Great plot. Not bad. The missus and I almost got teary-eyed in the last scene.

Watch it.

Race Review: Mizuno 10k

After days of rain, the sun had greeted all the racers yesterday morning at the starting gate of the Mizuno 10k. The 15k racers had left a little before 5:30am since I saw the lead pack when I was heading for the BHS parking lot.


I pinned my racebib and headed to the corral where I met Obet, an old football buddy in DBTI. He was running the 5k and said he usually averages below 30mins which has improved his game. He encouraged me to come back and play every Saturday again but since I live far from Makati now, I told him I'll just try one of these Saturdays.


There were a lot of 10k runners compared to the Autoreview 10k I joined 2 weeks ago. Each of them stretching and warming up to the leader at the podium giving instructions as I entered the corral. Being a Japanese company, it was only right that the starting gun be triggered by one of their nationals (and probably big bosses here).



It was 5:55am when the gun fired. Wow, so far so good.


My learnings from the Autoreview 10k have been put into this Mizuno 10k. First, I went to the CR twice before heading to the starting gate so as not to embarass myself from going to a resto helplessly looking for a place to pee. Second, I adjusted my playlist such that the first 5k will play slow to middle tempo songs while the second half would play my usual upbeat tunes. This coincides with my strategy to have a good pace throughout the race.


Time to beat: 69mins.


The race route is similar to the BOTAK 10k last month except that on the way back from the Buendia flyover, we turned right towards Rizal avenue and traced the route back. BOTAK 10k went straight from Buendia flyover towards Serendra past Market2x.


I felt I ran better this time since I learned to maintain my pace past the 5k. Further, the slow elevating incline of the Buendia flyover was "panis" this time since I slowed my pace on the way up, passing by panting walking runners who might've not considered the killer incline on their way back (which was the case for me during Botak 10k).


I accelerated my pace on the last 500meters since I saw my watch at 1:07. Damn! That meant I won't be able to beat my 69mins PR. But still I sprinted since at least I could stay within my current PR of 69mins.


I made it to the finish line at 69mins 40secs. Well, to please my efforts, the NSTB app recorded the distance at 11.13kms at an average pace of 6:15. So, if I were to proportion that to a 10k exact distance, my time would be 62mins. Ok na rin yung 69mins if you look at it that way. Hehe.


I think one downside of this race was that the Gatorade booth was mayhem. There was no queue to get a bottle of Gatorade so you have to squeeze in to get one. This was opposed to the finisher shirts booth which had queues for different mens and womens sizes. Nice shirt btw!


I uploaded my race stats to the Nokia Sports Tracker Beta website which you can see here. It was nice to see that my pace is improving so I hope in my next 10k I'll be able to beat my PR.


My next race? It'll be a company run hosted by JG Summit for all JG companies. It's gonna be on June 28 in Mckinley Hill (another hilly route) and I'll be running the 10k. A week after that, it's another 10k company run (sportsfest) at Mckinley Hill again.

For now, I'll be thinking of playing football in the next raceless two weeks.

Below-Zero Conversations

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27 Dresses (2008)

Maganda na sana pero it failed me in the ending. But I'll forgive it since Katherine Heigl starring.

Pwede na rin.

Sizzlin' Pepper Steak

Sizzlin’ Pepper Steak opened their branch at Robinson’s Galleria a few weeks back. Since I was starting to run out of options on where to have my lunch, I decided to enter their resto and try the food.

Well, the rice is sprinkled with black pepper with a round of sliced beef on the side on top a sizzling plate.

Masarap naman.

Race Review: AutoReview 10k

All my official funruns, 3 5k and 1 10k, were staged at The Fort with Boni High Street as the Start/Finish mark. I've been accustomed to the route except for my 1st 10k which included traversing the Kalayaan flyover up to Gil Puyat Avenue and back.

The AutoReview 10k race route which was to begin and end at Mckinley Hill, was my first at the said venue. It was only me and DB this time, with DB running the 5k since he said he wasn't able to prepare for a 10k race.

The race route was very challenging as seen in my NSTB elevation/speed chart below. Yup, the NSTB worked beautifully, i.e. the map, charts, and other info were completely displayed on my profile which, btw, you can view through this link.

As I said, the route was very challenging with its constantly changing elevation. The race distance measured 10.27kms as per my NSTB. Officiating and water stations were very good as well although I wished for more freebies after the race. The only freebie I got was a 10% discount coupon at the Blade store.

The only major downside to this race were the hosts on stage. The booboo was that they let the 5k runners run first before the 10k participants. This shouldn't be, especially nowadays that we experience sunrise as early as 5:30 to 5:40am. To add to the irritation while we were waiting for the 5mins wait time before the start, this one host was really into it ---really! He was in love with the mic so much that kulang na lang eh kainin nya yung mic. I think the guy was a frustrated DJ (or announcer sa karnabal or something) since he kept on talking and talking. We were all scared that he might lose track of time and forget that the 10k runners still haven't started.

The best description of the host came from one of the foreigners who joined the race (which I think was an American based on his accent) who said to his friend after, "We went inside Heritage Park and it would've been great if we had all that cloud cover but the guy up there on the stage seemed to have diarrhea of the mouth so we all started late!"

Aside from that above mishap, generally I enjoyed the race. I clocked in at 70mins ---1min slower than my Botak 10k since I had the CR problem again at the starting line. I think I wasted 2mins hoping that the McDo and Starbucks CRs were open but unfortunately were not. At the end of the race when I went to relieve myself, di naman pala ganun karami. I think it's psychological. Next time next time....

I think I also need to improve on my pacing. Based on the NSTB chart, I was pacing well up to 5-6kms but started dropping after that until the 9th km. I think I need to reprogram my strategy since it's still meant for 5k. Hinahataw ko unconsciously after the 5th km. Dapat siguro pinace ko pa din until about the 8th km, tapos dun pa lang dapat humataw.

I believe what I did right on this race is that I warmed up by jogging about 100-150meters before the race. That woke up my forever wake-up-late-then-feels-painful left calf muscle kase hindi nagwarmup. I think I should do the same in every race from now on.

My next race? If our company sportsfest gets postponed on June 7th (8.8kms in UP), I'd probably join the Mizuno Run 10k, a revisit to the Kalayaan floyver route.

Btw, I weighed 168 lbs after the race. ;-) 16 more pounds to go before I reach normal BMI. Sana tuloy2x na!