Fabulous Finds: In-Yo Fusion Restaurant

This was indeed a great find! Nothing beats the romantic, quiant venue coupled with great food located in the Katipunan area. We ordered the pumpkin soup for starters. Afterwhich, we were given kalamansi sherbet to prepare our tastebuds with the upcoming entrees. And the main course did not disappoint. The missus ordered the US Hanging Tender Steak while I ordered the Smoked Local Halibut.

We capped off the evening with coffee and Trio of Creme Brulee (Original, Espresso, and Chocolate) for dessert.

Highly recommended.

Crush

Remember David Archuleta, the runner-up from the last season of American Idol? Well, his song "Crush" has been getting a lot of radio air-play these days, particularly at RX. It kinda grows on you.

Nice!

About Another Boy

Well the results are in after the missus and I went to her ob-gyn last Saturday. It's going to be another boy for me and the missus! The putotoy was clearly seen after a long time of scanning by the ob-gyn.

Whether it was a boy or a girl, it didn't matter much to me. But having another boy, wow, it was a pleasant surprise.

He will come out sometime in the 1st half of January 2009. By then I would have to rename my boy's blog from "About A Boy" to "About Two Boys."

iPhone 3G

This is just so damn expensive. With the exclusive tie-up with Globe Telecom, it erases any chance of my current company to get prototype iPhones for internal testing ---and my own testing too.

This would've been a great birthday gift for me but the 30-47thou tag price is just too much for my own good. Sigh, taya na lang muna ako sa lotto.

Viral

I'm still recovering from a flu that I got the other Sunday. Short of an endemic, it has hit the missus, my boy, my sis-in-law and her son, my dad, my sisters, my officemates, etc.

The doc at the Medical City says it may have been caused by the changing weather (hot and then cold or vice-versa), causing our bodies to catch-up in adjusting to the temperature.

This particular flu virus(?) may be the strongest one I've had yet, causing me to have chills, never-ending cough and cold, and panghihina. This resulted me to take 3.5 days sick-leave last week.

The only good side to this flu was that I've lost a little weight (yey!) kase nga madalas walang gana kumaen. Hopefully by end of this week I'm fully recovered.

Ultraelectromagneticnight!

My sis and I were already inside the Patron area at around 7:20pm, just right for the 8pm once-in-a-lifetime gig. The steel partition between VIP and Patron was about 4 meters from where we were standing but in between that 4 meters was a sea of people who've made an earlier arrival than us. Well, at least we get to hear everything in stereo instead of just sitting outside the concert venue.

8:00pm. The video screen on the stage flashed a big yellow "10:00" on blue background and started counting down. THIS would have to be THE longest 10-minutes of my life. As every minute ticked down, the crowd would uncontrollably express their excitement that it was near, shouting and hoo-ing out loud.

And then, it was zero hour. THE moment all 60,000 of us were all waiting for. The Eraserheads reunion had begun. Below was the 1st (and last) set of that Ultraelectromagneticnight:

1. Alapaap
2. Ligaya
3. Sembreak
4. Hey Jay
5. Harana
6. Fruitcake
7. Toyang
8. Kamasutra
9. Kailan
10. Wag kang matakot
11. Kaliwete
12. With a Smile
13. Shake Your Head
14. Wag mo nang Itanong
15. Lightyears Away

To Ely, Marcus, Raymund, and Buddy, we hope to see you again on one big stage such as that of 08.30.2008 and hopefully, share us the rest of your wonderful (wonderful!) music.

Lakbayan

I was able to find this interesting website from Chico's blog (Strange Fruit). It was interesting to know that I've never gone around the Philippines that much.

Case in point: Boracay. I think among my family and friends, I'm the only one who hasn't stepped foot on that summer paradise.

My Lakbayan grade is C-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

That Beautiful Machine

We were all set up to go to KL for the 4 day weekend a few days back. The car I rented was a NAZA RIA, a local version of the Kia Carnival. This should be enough space for 5 adults, 2 kids and 1 infant to go around KL and Genting Highlands.

The day we arrived, the car-renter said that the guy who rented the RIA has not returned. He proposed to rent me another car which he thinks would easily fit the same amount of people.

Enter THE #2 SUV of my dreams (#1 being the BMW X5): the Nissan MURANO.

In my 3 1/2 years working in Malaysia, I've always had a crush on the Murano. I see it often: at the traffic intersection, the highways, the parking lots. I've even had this feeling that this car was following me, sort of enchanting me to buy one and ride on it. But it was a hefty (hefty!) price tag that kept us apart. Eventually, I had to let my dream of riding one go.

Fast forward to last Saturday, seeing the Murano cruising towards me in front of the Petronas Twin Towers was nothing short of a magical reunion. It was the right time and place for us to meet again, this time with me on the driver's seat.

My moment with the Murano lasted only for 48 hours but I was able to drive it on one of the best roads in the world. I drove it to Sunway and even as far as Genting Highlands, averaging speeds of 60 to 110 kmh, it was an invigorating feeling having to drive that beautiful machine.

The dream of owning a Murano (or an X5 for that matter) will forever be a dream for me. But those 2 days driving a Murano, it's going to last me quite a while.

Fabulous Finds: Reyes BBQ

Here's my favorite lunch nowadays: BBQ Bangus at P90.00 each. Rapsa!

Long August Weekend

Well it's official! August 18 and 19 are non-working holidays for me! August 18 due to Ninoy Aquino's death anniversary and 19th for QC day.

Yehehes! I'm really looking forward to this since I've finished all my paid VLs last Feb when we went to the US (which I'm still craving to go back to every now and then).

For this long weekend, the missus has planned us a holiday in Malaysia.

KL here we come!

One World. One Dream

The opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics will probably go down as one of the best in history. It puts big pressure on England, host of the 2012 Games, on how (if the will ever) top this.

Too bad I can't find it on YouTube. The pics here were taken from the Olympic website.

Will the Philippines finally get the gold? We all hope so.

Go Pinoy!

Pushing Daisies

I've just finished watching the first 2 episodes of Pushing Daisies and I found it quite interesting. The way the plot is presented reminded me of "Big Fish" which starred Ewan McGregor.

Addictingly nice!

Born to be wild

Imagine driving 130kmh at the SCTEX highway with this tune playing in your car.



Yeah baby!

Oh! Diyos Ko! Ano ba ito?!

I have only watched the original EHeads live once. That was during college when they guested at our fairgrounds at DB Manda during a one night concert. They were only a front-act then to Introvoys and After Image but seeing Ely, Reimund, Buddy, and Marcus play 3 songs from the Ultraelectromagneticpop! album made that a night for me to remember.

Yes I was one of those hooked to the Eraserheads phenomenon. Among their albums, I was able to collect (in cassette format):

1. Circus

2. Cutterpillow

3. Fruitcake

4. Bananatype

5. Sticker Happy

6. Natin '99

They were THE band for me at the time. So, the sudden exit of Ely from the band saddened me like any other EHead fan....

....then came this news about a one-night reunion concert at the CCP.

Oh YEAH!!!!! I hope I could land in one of those free tickets!

KIDNAP

Primetime TV (on our new Samsung LCD 32") has been limited to the missus. No thanks to ABS-CBN's lineup of teledramas (Lobo, PBB, PDA, etc.), I often resort to downloading torrents of shows I'd like to watch on our laptop. I was able to watch all seasons of the "Entourage" and "How I met your mother" ---not bad I might add. It's off-season since then so at night I often doze off easily.

But last Sunday night I was still full from our Candon, Ilocos Sur dinner of pakbet (with bagnet!) and Candon longganisa. I stayed up until I was able to see the full episode of KIDNAP, an ABS-CBN special recalling the interview-turned-KFR experience of Ces Drilon and company.

The two hour special was great, with the background music making the story-telling more chilling. I felt for Ces and her team the unfortunate ordeal that they went through. But, as Ces pointed out, it was her thirst for getting that "big scoop" that lured them to act against her superiors orders. It was her irresponsibility and probably her selfishness to get the story that lured them into being kidnapped. Remember that TV-reporter who acted similarly in DieHard-1? Well Ces definitely got more than a punch in the face after this one.

But what somehow intrigued me in this TV-special was that how come no details of the final negotiation was accounted for? On one scene, they were going to call Sen. Loren to help in the release and the next thing you know after the commercial break was that Ces and Jimmy were walking out of a private jet and later on holding a mini-presscon. Hmmm, obviously I wasn't following the details when this all transpired in the newspapers and TV. Was there really a ransom paid? I know that Mayor(?) is being questioned for getting the 30M(?) loot but who really gave the money? It couldn't be ABS-CBN, right? Hmmm...

Well Ces got a 3month suspension. But as you've seen her in the Manila-Pen incident, to this kidnapping fiasco, she might still be in the thick of things in the future. I just hope that Ces and her other media counterparts will act more responsively in the future and not put their lives at stake on behalf of their families.

Ah I almost forgot. My sis is recommending me to watch "Pushing Daisies," another hit TV series in the US. I'd better find that CD she gave me containing season 1 and bring it to the office tomorrow. (grin)

No one gets out of here alive

As you may have heard, my father-in-law whom the missus' nephews fondly call "Coco," passed away last week due to complications brought about by a 2nd stroke. It was an experience for me seeing him move from our world to the afterlife in a span of days.

I'm not a superstitious person, but, his final journey of almost two weeks started with me seeing an enormous orange and brown butterfly resting on the front porch's armrest the night before he had his 2nd stroke. With awe, I took a picture of it on our digicam for later posting. At the hospital days after, I told DR of the wonder I saw. Surprised, he mentioned that they also saw a similar butterfly on the death of one or two of his relatives. Searching the 'net, I came across other tales relating of seeing butterflies after a loved one died. Further searching showed some believe that the butterfly is the symbol of the Resurrection, a transformation from death to eternal happiness with God. Well, I do feel that Coco is now "up" there so me seeing that butterfly turned out to be a good sign.

Butterflies aside, his death had reminded me again that we are just travelers here on earth ---just passing through. That all of us, no matter the stature, will eventually be met by the world's greatest equalizer ---Death. And by all our good and bad deeds, we will be judged accordingly.

"Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives." -A. Sachs

Templates

I've been looking to change my blog template. It seems to have the same theme for several years now (wow, tagal ko na palang nagba-blog!).

But after scouring the Internet for tutorials/tips/samples on how to customize my template, I ended up with one conclusion: I am not an artistic person. Matching template colors and trying to think of burloloys to put on my blog wasn't coming up on my thoughts.

So, my dear readers, until I come up with a theme to replace my blog's template, you would have to bear for the meantime with this current template.

There is no "I" in TEAM

Well the Lakers lost today, no thanks to the Celtics' unforgiving defense. I love Kobe, who I think could be up there on the level of Air Jordan but if his teammates are not as good and balanced as the Celtics line-up, then there is no other result but a fold-up to a 39-point losing (and humiliating) margin.

Before I loved Kobe and before I loved Jordan, I loved Bird. So I guess I'm for the Celtics after all.

Congrats Celtics for a great season!

Fabulous Finds: Don Galo's

Possibly THE best tapsilog served at a dead-cheap price (P60.00).

A room with a view

Spent the weekend over at Sofitel Philippine Plaza last week with the missus and my boy. It was at a hefty price, but it was worth it ---especially with a view such as this.


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