Hit the mark

On a Saturday morning, I rang up my colleague. Something felt wrong. I asked him what time he slept the night before. The answer shocked me. Although I poke fun at him at work to the point of being called mean, he is my best friend in Malaysia and his state of being affects mine in a big way. We are almost each other's personal shrinks. I had to talk to him, but he was being elusive. There was only one thing I could think of.

"Let's play archery."

Up close, I look like I'm doing well. But actually, I was doing it wrong (which I only realized when I was almost out of arrows). Can you guess which target is mine?

If I were to open a mall business in Manila, I'd try an archery range. It's something you'd do with you friends,  like bowling or ice skating. With the number of TV series and movies with archery, it shouldn't be difficult to market.

After six

London, 2006

Vientiane, 2012

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. N'est-ce pas?

I was so happy to see Helene again after more than four years. We hope to bring the ex-housemates together for a reunion in Asia next year. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be in Japan.

The last two weeks

The past two weeks have been packed. After returning from Phuket two Sundays ago, the following day was reserved for hanging our exhibit, which opened the day after. The next days were marked by interviews of several VIPs, rockeoke, a football tournament, eating out with friends at meetups and joint birthday celebrations, receiving an accumulation of flowers, and discovering new places (Banchetto, Midnight Mercato and Tian Di). Interestingly enough, still no alcohol was involved. And at some point I completely stopped taking photos. Now all I want to do is to paint, sleep and play Dragon Age 2. Seriously.

Men of the week

I'm in a cybercafe (with no coffee) at Sta. Lucia East Mall. Why on earth am I here? There's no Internet at home and I have work to do.

When I stepped out in a t-shirt and jeans, my neighbor commented, "Masang-masa ka ngayon." Just trying to blend in. It's not a good time to wear a dress.

Shout-outs to the guys who populated my week in front of screens:

1. Mark Zuckerberg. Because the theatrical trailer of The Social Network is out and he needs some love from Facebook users.

2. The much loved, hated and parodied Old Spice Guy, Isaiah Mustafa. He's on a horse (and a boat). On a bike. On a boat (again). Talking to Ellen, Rose, Alyssa (x4), mrskutcher, Guy Kawasaki Perez Hilton and more than 100 other people. Responding to your voicemail. Silver fish hand catch!

3. Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon Levitt, for making Christopher Nolan's intelligent but cringe-inducing over-scored film bearable.

4. To C, R, K and N. A few words from you are enough. Thank you.

We are all students

house mates and schoolmates

students and teachers

The big weekend

yes, the header is for real

Chinese New Year/ Valentine's Day weekend was steady. Two consecutive days of Manila Philharmonic Orchestra. Eating out with family and friends.


"That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's what it's really about, isn't it?....Company!"

Dearest Will and Nikka...

May your marriage, like these slabs, be as malleable as clay, as strong in the face of fire as they were, and as hot as the kiln in which they were made.

"wave" 14 x 6.8 x 2.6cm

"fishbones" 14.7 x 5.8 x 2.3cm

Designed and Formed by me
Glazed and fired by Hadrian Mendoza
on the slopes of Makiling, Laguna, 2009

You know you're in a small city when...

Coming into Cagayan de Oro from the airport, the van passed by Xavier University. That reminded me of S, a CoMundus alumna who was in London a year before me. I had never met her, but she was my contact on Facebook, so I knew how she looked like (from the photos) and that she taught at XU. I did not have her mobile number, so I thought, nevermind.

That evening at Limketkai Center, I saw a familiar face. I waved at her. S recognized me. We exchanged numbers and planned to have dinner two nights later, on my return to the city.

The night of our planned meeting, I had just come from an awful boat trip, where I got very sick. Though I wasn't up for a night on the town, I dragged myself to dinner.

Værsgo.


How about that?

D said the same thing happened to him in Guam. He had planned to meet two of his friends who lived there, but something went wrong with his Internet connection and they weren't able to schedule a meeting. He ran into both of them at the mall.

It's a small world after all.

Remembering, on Facebook

Before I hibernate for a few days, I thought I had to share this with you.

When I found out that you could tell Facebook about departed users, I knew I had to do it. A college friend passed away last year and though we weren't close, it bothered me that there was quite a bit of information that you could see on his Facebook page. I filled out the form, which I was able to accomplish as most of the required information was available on his profile page. Facebook emailed me to confirm. I don't know how they verify the information, but I hope they did.

Now, instead of seeing all of my friend's actions and information tab, all I can see are wall posts and the usual sidebar with friends and basic info.

Yorick Wilks brings up points about only contacts being able to add tributes and having Facebook executors. We'll see how this works out, in time.

Steeg

A very long day: home-SM North EDSA-Cavite-Antipolo-Ortigas-home. But I love long roadtrips for the conversations. Priceless.

Uploading the exhibit invitation soon.

Backtrack: the calm before the storm

The week before Ondoy, in pictures.

sexist school announcement?

breaking the pot of sampaguitas: the opening of The Ring of Fire

The First Southeast Asian Ceramics Festival at the Ayala Museum

Edru Abraham and KONTRA-GAPI with Nathan Azarcon, Mark Escueta and Ira Cruz

the first time I saw my former London housemate in Manila

dinner with the parents at Ebun Greenbelt 3

fried catfish with buro (fermented rice)

pica-pica at M Cafe Greenbelt 4 with my mentor (after meeting the gallery boss)

cake and afternoon tea with the birthday boy, Secret Recipe Shangri-La Mall

Lunches with Londoners

Two teacher friends, both former London schoolmates, were in town for summer break.

Lunch #1
The gaffe: taking a seat in Mary Grace, then promptly moving to Conti's in Trinoma.
The food: light salad for her, tofu steak (delicious) for me. Pinoy sorbetes and suman later.
The drink: pineapple shake, supposedly a house specialty
The conversation: a bad production at the National Theatre, Romeo and Juliet at the Globe, Overseas Absentee Voting, Taiwan, Kuala Lumpur, travel, travel, travel
Time elapsed: almost three hours, including waiting for photos to develop

Lunch #2
The gaffe: waiting for each other in different branches of Powerbooks. Finally met and settled on Kitchen at Greenbelt 3
The food: Black Eye (squid pasta) for her, clam pesto pasta for me. Our hearts were set on dulong pasta, but it was not available.
The drink: bottomless pandan iced tea (sulit!) for both of us. It's like sago't gulaman with neither sago nor gulaman, but still quite good
The conversation: going backstage at The Phantom of the Opera, Masai Barefoot Technology, Wimbledon, Kota Kinabalu, Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage, travel, travel, travel
Time elapsed: three hours sitting down

After these lunches, I was on a high having these independent women, dedicated teachers and passionate travelers as friends. What a wonderful world we'd have if there were more of them.

X-deal*

My big lil sis D (younger in age but ahead by Ateneo batch) asked me to give a talk to her Freshman English classes. In return, I got treated to lunch. Four cheese pizza and Charlie Chan pasta? Why not?

*exchange deal

AJSS Grand Reunion

You know you're old when...

your batch is lumped with everyone from the time the program started in the 1960s

this is the first time you set foot into Leong Hall

oh no!

There were seven of us from Batch 32 who attended, fairly decent given that a lot of our batchmates are abroad. During the picture taking, the young ones clearly had a different bonding experience. Group hug? Ummm, no. But I wish Fr. Nemy was around.

At the roofdeck, we had dinner while the Blue Symphony played for us. Then there were games (Human Bingo and Jeopardy). We weren't into that so much. As I said, it has something to do with age.

In the AJSS exhibit, there was only one sportsfest photo from our batch. Clearly, we need to get together more.

P.S. I had a severe tummyache the following day which forced me to have bed rest. Did anyone else have trouble, too?

Clarice and the collection

Thirteen years ago, I met her at the Southeast Asian Institute for the Deaf. We became penpals. We wrote each other in the runic alphabet. Then she studied in New York and came back to teach and work as an interior designer. I studied in London and came back to work as a writer. We met again last week.

Clarice is deaf. But that doesn't stop up from communicating with each other. Despite her hearing impairment, she strives to live a regular life. It's always an uphill climb, but she has done remarkably well.

We just had to do this.


She's getting married next month and will move to Australia soon after. I promised to attend the wedding and to keep in touch. She inspires me to make good use of all that I have been given.

===

The Aranaz Rags 2 Riches limited edition collection displayed at Greenbelt 3 stops you in your tracks.

The bags are handmade by Payatas women; the newspaper dresses were designed by SoFA students and big-name designers. Ganda!

The anti-Valentine

Di na ko bitter about a long-lost love, pramis.

An IM chat with my friend M, who was then going through some rough times.

M: I've given her far more than I've given ---. You have no idea how much crap I had to tolerate.

M: And to have it just handwaved?

M: Wow.

E: look, let it out, but not on her

E: rant all you like now

E: but don't pass it on to her

M: I know.

M: That's why I'm talking to you.

Right. But that's ok. He was there for me when I needed someone to talk to post-breakup.

He also sent me the link to this: whackyourex.com

Nothing like something violent and gross to "manage your anger safely", eh? "Cheaper and funner than therapy", alright. If that's your kind of thing, there's more of Doodieman out there.

===

[Updated 10:11am] On a more serious note...

As a rule, you should not hurt, spurn, reject or break up with someone before Valentine's, Christmas and the person's birthday (or yours). It's cruel and the karma will get catch up on you. But sometimes you can't help it. It has to be done.

Why a lonely girl breaks hearts and spirits, I do not know. I really do not know.

The English touch

I sent out a bunch of Christmas cards and got two back--unsurprisingly, from my English hosts. Politesse! From the way they address the envelope to "Miss" in their wide, curly handwriting, to the way they start their letters:

Sweet. (Sorry for the orientation. Picasa's fault.)

Two years ago

Image stolen from L's FB. I believe this is Copenhagen Stroeget with friends from France, Lithuania and Finland. Note to self: no more oversized coats!

It's my mom's birthday again. The anniversary of my eyes. So much new life.

Eliseo's @ Areva, MMLDC

Hello and goodbye again to B, who was kind enough to give me a DVD of his film (on rotation again on CinemaOne). I missed the last time he was in town, so I made sure I saw him the past week.

In an effort to escape the color-coding scheme (a misnomer as all Metro Manila residents know), we went up to the hills of our wonderful city, Antipolo.


As a balikbayan, he found it harder to make the trek down because there are new cafes where you can hang out instead of going to the capital to chill and take advantage of free wifi. We did not, however, go to such cafes. We went to Eliseo's, the restaurant at the Areva Pavilion of the MMLDC on Sumulong Highway. I had never been there before, though I studied at a nearby school. (Or perhaps I had been when it was still Valdez Farm...can't recall).


I ordered the Kani-Unagi salad (P145), which tasted good, just as expected. B thought the serving was small for the price.


I had Iced Latte (P85), which I thought was reasonable for all that cream. B was sure he ordered mango cheesecake but there was only strawberry cheesecake (P110) which was more of cherry cheesecake with strawberry syrup. Not a lot of cheese there, so it was forgettable.



There are more food choices on the menu. I'll definitely come back to try them. It's the kind of place you'd want to have a family lunch on a Sunday.

B in his lucky shirt

It was rainy, so it was no exploring that day. But the place is the kind of verdant, rolling landscape that's peaceful and relaxing. MMLDC is available for a wide range of events from conferences and seminars to teambuilding, weddings and debuts to other recreational activities. There's even a residence hall. The aviary is supposed to be quite good. And there's a fancy jeep called The Shuttle, which does just that: go round and round the area.

Marciano's @ Greenbelt

Marciano's is Italian cuisine by way of New York. It is one of the restaurants actor Marvin Agustin co-owns. The atmosphere of the place is great because of the interiors: mirrors, chandeliers, curtains, grey chairs with attitude.

The large servings are good for sharing, so they aren't very pricey if you choose well. I didn't note all of the names of the dishes. For appetizer, we went for mussels and clams served with bread in a heady soup. I was pretty sure there were more empty shells that actual shellfish. But I like the serving bowls.

We had risotto with pancetta. It looks like arroz caldo, but it was so rich, I knew I was eating more oil than I should in a week. Good at first, but umay-tastic. To think that four of us shared this.

Tried pizza with quail eggs, artichoke and arugula. It seemed healthier than Manhattan Meatlovers.

Jim and Jme with Pork Pavarotti. Should they rename it now that the tenor has lost weight since the tenor lost weight before he died in 2007?

We were the last to leave the place. I'm just glad the staff didn't bug us!