Ready to rumble... for fantastic food...

Yesterday was a day of double celebration.

In the late morning, it was for the wedding of fellow museum docents/friends Zuraidah and Red.

After lunch, I headed to Potong Pasir for the birthday party/celebration of good friend JoAnn.

JoAnn, along with girl friends Jackie and Sugar, prepared a sumptuous boodle fight style feast for the very lucky few of us. Hehe!

The star of the feast was a roast pork belly courtesy of Sugar's business Lechon Nation. In addition to the lechon, there was grilled squid, grilled pork and chicken, sambal prawns, pancit, grilled bangus and tilapia, okra and talong and so on. Just thinking about the fantastic food we had yesterday makes my mouth water again. Hehe!

Without a doubt, I know that that meal was one of the best meals I've ever had here in Singapore.

I spent the rest of the afternoon up until evening with them. It was a tiring but a very great Sunday.

Really grateful to be invited to two great celebrations of two good friends.

Happy weekend indeed...

Similar to yesterday, today was a rather long day. Haha!

The difference, the significant difference, is that today didn’t require as much brain work as yesterday. Hehe! :P

I still woke up at 530 which was way before my alarm (which was 645!). Haha! I stayed in bed for about an hour. The reason for that was a Korean friend whom I met more than a decade ago finally found the time to check his Facebook account and accepted my friend request. We ended up chatting on FB for an hour or so. Hehe!

The convo had to be cut short though as I needed to prep to go to church. Today, I went to the Blessed Sacrament Church at Commonwealth Drive. It was a rather nice church. The service was quite good.

Following Mass, I grabbed a quick bite at a nearby kopitiam before making the journey to the East.

If my activities yesterday were all centred around the city, today’s activities were all in the East.

First stop was Aljunied. I realised I have time to kill so I brought my Japanese school materials and did some homework and reading at the Geylang East library. It’s my first time at this library and I really like it. In particular, I liked the Quiet Reading Room. It was quite spacious and more importantly, it really was quiet. Hehe! I only had a little over an hour to kill. Uhm, I only managed to finish one assignment and do a quick memorisation exercise of verbs and adjectives. Hehe!

Close to 1PM, I took the train to Paya Lebar where I met up with PG Boy, his best friend and Mon for lunch. I suggested we try the Peranakan place at the new building at Paya Lebar. Seeing the building made me realise how long I’ve never been to the eastern side of the island. Haha!

The lunch was pretty okay. We had the bueh keluak, rendang, otah otah, ngoh hiang, chap chye, cendol, and bobochacha. The food was pretty decent. Hmm, I still prefer Ivin’s and the Peranakan place over at Joo Chiat.

Last on my agenda today was a post-birthday picnic for Mr. Lim. He suggested a picnic and our friend Des suggested to have it at Pasir Ris park. I will admit it. I thought it was very far and it is very far. However, I knew Mr. Lim would drive. Add to that the fact that the gathering was for his birthday and that I haven’t seen Des and Justin for quite some time. I invited Miru to come along with us and I’m glad that he was free to join us.

Mr. Lim picked up me and Miru at Lorong Chuan and drove to planet Pasir Ris from there. It only took us about 20 minutes or so to reach the place. While parking, Des and Justin already arrived since they live nearby.

It was a nice picnic. Des and Justin prepped chicken wings. Miru and I brought egg tarts, mini-pies, chips, and cupcakes. Mr. Lim brought a nice drink and some desserts.

The place was so relaxing because it was right by the sea and the park was not crowded at all. We found our spot and just sat there for a good two hours to eat, chitchat, and people watch.

I reached home two hours ago and have just been relaxing. Hehe! Thankfully, I can wake up around 7 tomorrow and still be on time for work. Yay!

Thank you, Lordy, for a wonderful weekend!

Birthday month 30-day writing challenge: Day 1....

It's October! :)

It's the start of the final quarter of the year. It's my favourite of the month of the year. It's my birthday month! Haha!

October being a special month to me, I thought I'd challenge myself and write a blog entry every day.

Thankfully, a simple Google of 30-day blog challenges ideas and I was led to this site that has a bunch of blog/writing challenges. Haha!

I chose one, which I thought was easy to do.

So now, we begin with Day 1: Write some basic things about yourself.

That's easy.

I was born in the late 70s. Haha! My birthday is 22 October. That makes me a Libra. But since my birthday is on the cusp of Libra/Scorpio, I believe I also tend to display characteristics of the latter. I'm the eldest son. I have two younger brothers, who are both living in the Philippines. I was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. I've spent three decades of my life living in our home in Quezon City. In 2011, I decided to do a radical change with my life so I moved to Singapore after I got a job. For the past four years, I have been working in the publishing industry. Prior to that, I've spent more than a decade in Corporate Communications/Public Relations. I've had two exes. Each relationship lasted for four years. I love where I am right now. I just wish I could make long-term plans and not have to worry about where I'll be every two years. Hehe!

A huge part of me believes in volunteerism/social responsibility/being involved. I believe that if people had a bit more of compassion for the next person, the world will be a better place. I know it's tough but I hope. That being said, I'm an idealistic realist.

What else? I like musicals. I like cheesy movies. I like desserts. I like the beach.

I want to get married one day.

HBD, RKGreg and my other Mom...

There were five people I know who celebrated their birthday yesterday.

Of the five, two are people who I really, really care about and consider to be very important in my life.

One is RKGreg, the significant other of MkSurf8. I've written about them a few times and how I'm a huge fan of the RKGreg/MkSurf8 love team (sounds very Young Love, Sweet Love. Hehe!)

I don't think I've ever written about RKGreg as a person and as a friend.

So, here goes...

If he were a TV series, his show title would be Everybody Loves RKGreg or maybe Friends. Seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if he was voted Friendliest Guy of the Class by his secondary school classmates or university batch mates. The number of times we've been on a trip or we hung out somewhere, RKGreg would either know someone or he would easily make new friends. He's very easy to talk to and he's got the friendly/good guy vibe going for him. Of course, it helps that he has this resemblance to a Filipino actor named Zoren Legaspi. Haha! RKGreg, it's your birthday so you get to have your ego stroked. Haha! Kidding! As a son and as a brother, he would have also probably been awarded the Good Conduct award when he was in school. The few times that we talked about his family, I could say that he's the kind of guy a mom would be proud of.

Recently, he made the big move to Singapore. If my move took three years in the making, his was what? Six years? More? But I'm really glad that he's now here. It wouldn't hurt the island to have one more happy and friendly Filipino.

Happy birthday, RKGreg!

The other very important person celebrating a birthday is my other mom - Tita Ching. Aka Mrs. Aragon. Aka the mom of my best friend, Tey.

I don't recall the time I met Tita Ching, but I can say that I'm happy to be a part of their family and to be one of her "adopted" sons for close to two decades now. Tita Ching is well-loved and very popular among our (mine and Tey's) colleagues because of her amazing culinary skills. Tey's birthday is always an event everyone looks forward to because we all get to have a taste of Mrs. Aragon's cooking. To me, another reason why I love her is she is someone I can count on to pray for me. Sometimes, I wonder if anyone prays for me while I pray for everyone - from the Pope to the Philippine and Singapore leaders to my work colleagues to my friends and my family (LOL!). And then, I remember Tita Ching and how I know that she always has me in her prayers. Every so often, I would give her a call just to ask how she's doing. When I was going through the difficult period of losing my Dad last year, Tita Ching was one of those who gave me words of strength. I am really blessed to have two mothers in this life.

For her birthday, I asked for Tey's help to buy a bouquet of flowers for her. Tey sent the photo above. I also gave Tita a call when I got home and we got to have a wonderful chat.

One of my dreams is to be able to go on a holiday with my Mom, Tita Ching and Tey. Hopefully, it will happen this year.

Happy birthday, Tita Ching!

HBD to my favourite Singaporean guy...

Yesterday was the birthday of Melvin - my first Singaporean friend and my favourite Singaporean man (hehe!).

I can't believe it's almost three years since we've met each other through a common friend, Francis. I met Francis through Ian during those days when I still did dragon boating.

The first time I met Melvin was during a trek at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Being a newbie in Singapore, I wanted to meet people, explore the island, know as much as I could about my new "home."

Francis told me he was going for a hike at Bukit Timah, which was still unknown to me then. Hiking? In Singapore? That was the last thing on my mind. I've always associated the island with high-end shops, designer stores, non-stop shopping. That just goes to show how limited I knew about Singapore then. Three years laters and I'm proud to say I know a whole lot more now. Hehe.

Going back to Francis, it was not difficult for me to tell him that I wanted to join him being the morning person that I was/am.

So my very first nature walk in the island was Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Bukit Timah railway, which ceased operations around that time.

Francis left for the UK soon after.

Melvin and I stayed in touch. Who knew that our one-time meeting would turn into a friendship brought together by a love for the green side of the island? Hehe!

Thanks to Melvin, I've explored places around the island, a few of my Singaporean colleagues never even knew existed.

From Pulau Ubin to Sungei Buloh, from Bukit Timah to Punggol Promenade, from Labrador Park to Macritchie, yup, we've pretty much covered almost all the nature parks around the island.

The other thing I'm grateful for for Melvin is that he is proud of his heritage and he is keen to share about the local history and culture. It didn't take long before we expanded our adventure walks from the forests to the heritage sites.

I've been to the Istana with him. We've done the Bukit Brown Cemetery walk twice. He's still planning a trip to the Southern isles.

Mama met him when she came here for her holiday. He drove us around and brought us to the usual tourist place and the not so touristy places.

So yeah, a huge chunk of what I know of and what I have seen around Singapore is all thanks to Melvin.

I'm planning a surprise birthday lunch for him this Saturday. Thankfully, a bunch of our friends are free to go. Yay!

Happy birthday, Melvin!

PG Boy's birthday...

So last Sunday was the birthday of PG Boy…

Similar to his past two birthdays, I decided to surprise him by decorating his room. Thankfully, he has always been going on business trips days before his birthday. That would always give me time to prepare the birthday surprise.

This year, I thought of involving his friends and my friends in the surprise. Several weeks ago, I sent a message to his group of friends and asked them to send a photo of them holding a Happy Birthday sign. Of course, first to reply and send his photo was Derek. Haha! It’s so him. Following him was Nigel and that wasn’t a surprise, too. The rest of the people in the group sent their photos a few days/ a week later but I’m really happy to have gotten photos from them.

It was much more easier with my group of friends. Hehe! I sent a group to the SG-MNL group chat and they were very quick to respond. Rich, Edsel and Vic even sent a number of photos for me to choose from. These guys are not in the creative industry (well, Richie’s work still requires a lot of creativity) for nothing. I sent a request too to my other SG group chat and I was very happy to have received photos from them, too. My best friend Tey sent a photo from the US. My good friend Bernice who was on holiday in Manila also sent a photo. I feel so blessed to have really awesome friends!

A day before PG Boy’s birthday, I brought the photos to Sunshine Plaza to have them printed. I decided to go for A3 size to occupy the entire wall of PG Boy’s room.

In the evening, I headed to PG Boy’s place for the project. Unlike the old place where I have my own key and it’s easier to get into the house, PG Boy’s new place has a gate that needs a keycard. I dun have a keycard to the unit itself. But anyway, I was glad that Gav was more than willing to help me get into the house. I also asked for the help of Tipz to help me put up the posters. I’m glad that he was free to help out because it made the job easier. Thanks, Tipz! :D

Sunday afternoon. PG Boy and I arrive at his place from the airport. I was excited to see his reaction when he sees the photo wall. We enter the house. Gav was there doing his laundry. We chitchat quickly and then proceeded to his room. I let him go in first. He turns on the light.

The next thing that happened surprised me.

He did not notice the photo wall at all! Seriously!!! I had to nudge him to look at the wall and that’s when he saw it and we both just laughed out loud. How he could not have noticed the wall I have no idea. There was no way he could miss it. Sheesh! I thought it was really funny.

In the evening, I had a second surprise. PG Boy’s best friend picked us up around 5:30 and we drove to Bukit Timah Rd. I’ve been to Bukit Timah area a few times but it was my first time to drive around Old Holand Rd neighbourhood. It’s a different world! Lol! Think Forbes Park or Dasma!

Anyway, we went to Violet Oon’s Kitchen for PG Boy’s birthday dinner. I couldn’t decide on which buffet place to take him so I just decided to bring him to some special place instead. I thought it was a good choice. Violet Oon’s serves Peranakan food. Some of the reviews say that the food is overpriced. Maybe. But for the event itself, I thought it was just right. I enjoyed the dessert - Pulut Hitam with ice cream - very much!!! I can have a serving all to myself. Haha!

From Bukit Timah, PG Boy’s best friend dropped me off at Buona Vista station while they drove back to the East. The third surprise was when PG Boy got back to his place. I bought him a book on LKY which he said he wanted to read. I got at a very good price at a very good place. Will write about it next.

PG Boy was surprised to see the book. I hope he reads it. Hehe!

Happy birthday, PG Boy! Now, what should I do for your birthday next year?!

Happy birthday, Tey!

Today is the birthday of one of the people I love, love, love the most - Tey.

Our friendship began in 1996 when we were both freshies of the BA OrCom program of UP Manila. But our friendship really grew after uni when we were both in the real world, so to speak.

We've seen each other through so many things - group presentations, finishing uni, starting relationships, ending relationships, gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight again (hehe!), losing loved ones, discovering new places and so on.

When your friendship with someone is now seventeen years (and still counting), you know that it's definitely it's a friendship for life.

I feel blessed to have that kind of friendship.

Happy, happy birthday, Tey! :D Thank you for being there all the time. Love you very, very much!

Birthday decors for PG Boy...

With a few more leaves to use up, I decided to take the afternoon off.

I was thinking how I'd be able to decorate PG Boy's room for his birthday tomorrow without him being at home and it seemed like this afternoon was the only good opportunity I have.

So by noontime, I left work and headed to PG Boy's place to put up the decors. Last year, I placed balloons and some drawings I made. Hehe!

That turned out to be a good surprise.

 This year, I thought of printing fake magazine covers to go with a Happy Birthday banner. It took me about an hour to put the whole thing up. I'm meeting him later for a birthday dinner with his friends.

Hopefully, we'd be out until late. That way, it'll be his birthday by the time we get back. Hehe!

We'll see. We'll see. :)

Thank you!!!

It's been a good day! :)

Really, really grateful for the people who took the time to greet via Facebook, Path, Twitter, Instagram, iMessage, WhatsApp. Thank you, thank you! :D

Felt the extra love today!

Haven't done one of this in awhile...

Because October is my fave month, I'll try to post more. Hehe!

Got this from here.

1. Pick your birth month.
2. Strike out anything that doesn’t apply to you.
3. Bold the ones that best apply to you.
4. Copy to your own blog.

OCTOBER: Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them. Loves to take things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn’t pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care of what others think. Emotional. Decisive. Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchy and easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair. Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

Although I have to say a lot of the traits do sound familiar. Hahaha! :P

If you're keen on doing it, you can find the complete birth month list here.

Loooong Saturday...

Saturday was one very loong day.

Dim sum lunch

Day started with a dim sum lunch with Ho, Widdy,  Andi and Pg Boy at the Royal China at Raffles Hotel.

It's probably one of the best dim sum places in the island. The place is great, and the dim sum is priced reasonably. For the eight (?) dim sum plates we had yesterday, we just had to pay $14 each. Not bad. We had carrot cake, siew mai, cheong fun, char siew buns, hakkao, yam puffs. These are the ones I can remember. Hehe!

It was my second time to eat at Royal China. The first time was last December for one of the many Christmas lunch get-togethers I had. Hehe!

The first one was a good experience. This one wasn't so much. While the food was still as awesome, the service was painfully slow. We all had no idea why.
However, something wasn't right that afternoon. The dim sum arrived late.

Ho got very impatient and very frustrated. The four of us were very nervous as he began scolding the wait staff. Hehe. Good thing I couldn't understand Chinese.

But I think it was necessary in this case. The wait staff were moving at a very glacial pace, and the orders just took a long time to arrive. Seriously, how long does it take to prep siew mai and hakkao?! Hehe!

La Cage at Esplanade

From Raffles Hotel, it was a quick drive to Esplanade for the main event of the afternoon - the La Cage Aux Folles.

Thankfully, Singapore is a very tiny country so it's quite quick to rush from one place to the next.

I had a feeling that I already saw La Cage back in Manila. Because I remember watching a play with Topper Fabregas in it, and the story line was the same. I was right. Gay Birds, the Manila adaptation of La Cage, was staged back in 2007. Sheesh! So long ago!

I don't remember much from the Manila show. The Singapore show was awesome when it came to the set design, the lighting and the costumes. With all the feathers used for the costumes, I was waiting for PETA to storm into the theater screaming about animal rights. Hehe!

What's also nice about the show was that it was given a local flavor. Something that was also done in the Manila production. If you've been living in Singapore and have been reading the local dailies, you would understand most of the jokes. What I didn't understand were the scenes with the Ah Beng and Ah Lien that were spoken in Chinese (Hokkien or Mandarin, I have no idea. Haha!) Thankfully, Pg Boy was there to somewhat translate.

E's birthday dinner + party

The show ended close to 6PM. We headed to Raffles City for another engagement - E's birthday dinner. We were quite early so hung out first at TCC. Around 7 plus, we headed to Marche where E and the rest of the gang were. Pg Boy didn't get to join anymore because his sister was in town. Ian, the guy who introduced me to E, Pg Boy and their group, was there so I was really glad to see him.

I ordered the roasted chicken crepe. If I didn't have a half a sandwich earlier, I would have really enjoyed the food. For just $15, I got three stuffed crepes plus a side salad. It was worth it.

After dinner, we all headed to the Grand Hyatt in Orchard where the party carried on. Originally, Ian and I were planning to stay only until 1120. I wanted to catch the last train, and so did he. But it turned out to be a very fantab night that I ended up staying until 2 plus in the morning. Hah! I decided to go ahead and head back. I had the breakkie with Melvin this morning and if I was set on going to that breakkie, I definitely had to leave already.

Guess what? The cab fare wasn't as bad. I thought it would be more expensive. Cab fare came out $20. It was much cheaper compared to cab fare from Tanjong Pagar. Hehe!

So that's how it was. Looooong Saturday. But def fun.

Surprise birthday lunch for Melvin...

The other highlight of Saturday was the surprise birthday lunch for nature-tripping buddy Melvin.

I dunno if he was really surprised (LOL!), but I'm glad we had a celebration for him. Plus, I was able to try a new place - Jerry's BB@ & Grill - in the far, far away place that is Sengkang. Hehe!

After the morning walk, we drove to Sengkang to have lunch. We were quite early for the restau, so we decided to just check the area first. That's when Desmond and I agreed on how we'll do the surprise thing. Hehe!

I told Melvin that Pg Boy and I won't be joining them for lunch because I had other plans. We said goodbye and Pg Boy and I headed the other way.

We quickly rushed to Jane's Cake Station to get the birthday cake. It's my first time to buy a cake from this place, and I must say it's goooood. The store sells just two kinds, I think - chocolate cake and durian cake.

From Jane's Cake Station, Pg Boy and I walked further away from Jerry's. We waited a bit until Desmond messaged that he and Melvin were back in the restau.

Pg Boy and I walked back to the restau. We borrowed a lighter from an uncle to light the candles, and then we started singing Happy Birthday as we entered the restau.

The good thing about that day was that there weren't too many people yet, so it wasn't too humiliating to sing. Also, Jerry's seemslike a small, private restaurant where birthday lunches (dinners) are usually held so what we did was a regular thing for them.

I think Melvin was really happy to see that he had a cake, and that he got to blow the candles.

We enjoyed a hearty lunch of salad, chicken wings, roasted chicken, baby back ribs and pulled pork. It was quite a good lunch, which was capped with slices of the rich, chocolate cake.

As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, Melvin is a Singaporean friend who is also my nature-hiking buddy. We met through rowing team mate Francis. Before Francis left for London, I went with him on a hike to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Melvin joined us.

That was the start of it.

Since then, Melvin and I have been going on several hikes and walks to explore the "green" side of Singapore. Really glad to have met the guy because I know more of the country that has adopted me thanks to him.

Happy birthday, Melvin!

Jane's Cake Station
265 Jalan Kayu
Tel: 6481 1322
Monday to Saturday - noon to 6pm
Sunday & public holidays - noon to 4pm
Closed on Wednesday

Jerry's BBQ & Grill
277 Jalan Kayu Singapore
Tel: 6484 0151
Opening Hours: Daily | 12pm – 10pm 
http://www.jerrybbq.com

Happy birthday, Carlo Pogi...

Today is the birthday of Carlo, one of my very good friends back in Manila.

To many, he is known as the graphic artist/creator of the superhero ZsaZsa Zaturnnah. The graphic novel has gone a long way since it was published several years ago. It's been made into a movie. It's been made into a musical. It has been cited in studies.

I've known Carlo during the days that he was still conceptualizing ZsaZsa (or if I'm not mistaken, even before that.)

We met through one of the really popular online forums in early 2000. After an EB (gad, EB! Who still uses that term?) with other fellows from that online forum, we totally hit it off and have been good friends since then.

Carlo belongs to that group of friends of mine who I see just one-on-one. He's this guy who I can talk for hours and hours, telling him what's really inside my head and now worry about being judged. The same goes for him. Our favorite spot is anywhere there is coffee. Usually, it is Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. But before that, it was Dome at Shangri-la Mall. Hehe!

I can't remember the last time I saw him, but I definitely met up with him to tell him that I'm moving to Singapore to try it out here.

Thanks to Facebook, we still get to keep in touch. Plus, I get to be up-to-date with what's happening with his projects, including the much awaited release of another issue of ZsaZsa Zaturnnah.

We haven't had those conversations that we used to have in Manila but I'm sure that he is still one of the friends I can run to whenever I feel like talking to someone.

I know it. He is just one of those people who you know would still be around for you, even when everyone else has already left.

So my dear Carlo Pogi, happy, happy birthday to you! I may not be in Manila, but do know that I remembered you on this very special day of yours.

Biggest hugs, and as you used to say...

"You are loved."

The big 3-0 was big on different emotions... haha!

The day I said hello to the big 3-0 was an assortment of emotions. Haha!

I was happy, tired, frustrated, annoyed, shocked, sad.

Oct. 22 was the opening of an exhibit at SM City Iloilo showcasing the terracotta pieces made by some kids of a Gawad Kalinga village our company adopted. Ilonggo artist PG Zoluaga trained and continue to be a mentor to the kids. My assignment was to supervise the mounting of the exhibit. It was a simple setup, nothing new to me, except for the fact that it was in Iloilo and I was coordinating things from Manila. Because of certain policies, I couldn't get an Iloilo-based supplier.

Anyway, things started to go crazy by late Tuesday afternoon. We were supposed to ship the boxes and display panels to Iloilo, but our courier said they won't be able to do so because of the volume weight. Sea freight was an option but they weren't sure of the schedule.

I was already playing all sorts of scenarios in my head on the repercussions of this whole situation if I postponed, but I tried to keep things together and tried to figure how to solve the issue.

Things went well. I found a supplier who was super, and even with just one day to fabricate everything, my supplier was able to bring in all the panels and boxes and everything else that I needed by ingress time of Wednesday night.

There were more challenges along the way though. Uhm, I had difficulty with the work permit and I almost got into a heavy argument on the morning of my birthday because of some policies by an exhibit partner.

Despite everything, the exhibit happened. An opening reception was held in the afternoon and among those who attended were the vice-mayor, a councilor, some GK partners and colleagues.

What was most important for me was that the kids were happy with the exhibit. Most of them couldn't believe that they were having an exhibit. That was something for me, because I'm so used to mounting these exhibits that I sometimes forget how big of a deal it might be to our partners.

So despite being tired and with just a couple of hours sleep, I was happy that (almost) everything happened smoothly.

The past few birthdays have been spent with kids of YWCA. This year, I didn't get to organize one because of work. Still, I'm happy because the exhibit with the kids sort of became my birthday celebration this year. Haha!

Aside from the happy and exhausted feelings, there was also shock and sadness. Around lunchtime, I received a call from Manila. An officemate called to tell me that my best friend Tey rushed home because something happened to his father.

It was the phone call no one should ever receive. I called Tey, and I'm glad that we got to speak briefly. I feel bad though because I couldn't be there for the time that a really good friend needed someone. I'm just thankful that Tey has many friends who supported her at that difficult moment.

What a weird week. I started the week going to the wake of the dad of my college classmate Len, and I ended the week with visiting the wake of the dad of Tey. I hope there won't be any more wakes soon.

When I got back to Manila and things were starting to have order, I told Tey, "I had no idea which emotion to focus on during my birthday. I was tired and stressed. I was happy. I was sad." And we just both laughed at it.

There was really no one major celebration. I didn't have time to organize one big get-together for people I know. What happened was more of random several separate meet-ups with some close friends, although I haven't seen other close friends yet. Uhm, I also treated myself to a few small and simple things and that was it.

The reality that I'm now 30 still has to sink in properly. Haha!

Cowboys and cowgirls for a day... Hehe!

Saturday turned out to be a really fun day.

In the morning, the PA gang trooped to Shakey's Araneta Center to join the 1st birthday celebration of Basti, the adorable son of colleague Grace.

The party had a cowboy/barnyard theme. Leave it to the PA gang to rise up to the challenge by coming all dressed up. Hahaha! Really good birthday celeb. Happy birthday, Basti.

From Araneta Center, we headed to Eastwood to treat ourselves to some Red Mango. I've tried the Yoh-gurt Froz at Hobbes, White Hat at Rustan's, and another one at Rockwell, but I have to say Red Mango tops them all. Yum, ah! Wonder where the other branches are.

I rarely go to Eastwood, because it's quite far from my house, but I really am liking the Eastwood Mall very much. Kind of reminds me of Podium. Good lineup of stores, and it's not that crowded. Woohoo!

And I had more reason to love it more because I got to buy a pair of Kenneth Coles at half the price. Woot woot! My very first Kenneth Cole. Hehehe! There was another pair I wanted to get, but I had to remind myself of an upcoming trip. Hehe! So instead, I just got this reusable tote which had a really nice print, "Use me again and again and again. I'm used to it." Hahaha!

Was supposed to meet with Carlo for our get-together, but decided to cancel already since I had a feeling that the morning affair would become a whole-day activity.

I missed Toby's spinning, but it was okay because I still got my endorphin rush from the PA gang. And all that walking and carrying those shopping bags could probably be considered a workout already, yeah?!