Wrong Day

Against our better judgment, we went to Trinoma today on a whim.  We had a list of errands that we had planned, but given the long weekend, we decided to postpone them until the first working day of next week.  We got dressed and decided to go watch Twilight.    I expected parking to be tough, and as I made the turn inside the mall driveway, I looked at the carpark and noted that most of the floors were full.  I drove up to the fifth floor, and we found a convenient space.  It was near the Landmark entrance and near the carpark exit.

We decided to buy movie tickets first, then head to Sizzling Pepper Steak for a late lunch.  This is what greeted us at the movie level.

We fled.  As quickly as our feet can carry us away from this crowd.  Five cinemas showing Twilight and one cinema showing Bolt resulted in the mayhem.

Sizzling Pepper Steak was a lot quieter even though most of the tables were full.  We quickly perused the menu and decided to order the Shrimp and Saikoro kiddie meal (it had rice, and we wanted to taste the tempura and Saikoro beef), Herbed Chicken Steak, Demi Hamburg Steak a serving of rice and drinks.

 

This was my bottomless Iced Tea and the drink that came with the kiddie meal.  Cute. :P

 

The Shrimp and Saikoro kiddie meal.  Fit for a grown up. 

  

The Demi Hamburg Steak (not really sure about the name)

My Herbed Chicken  Steak.  (couldn't get a closer picture because of the smoke and heat)

It was yummy!  We enjoyed this meal and we felt that we got our money's worth.  

 

Clean plates.

We decided to delay dessert a bit, and walk around. We kept to the less populated floors, and only ventured to the lower floors when we decided to have our dessert.

Taho at Mann Hann

We may have come at a wrong day, but we certainly had a satisfying meal.

Nards' Gift

Nards and I accompanied Beng to greenhills today.   She bought a Nokia E-something.  I can't remember the number, all I know is that it's so high-tech.  So much so, that Beng declares that the phone is too smart for her.  It has this cool (not to mention driver-friendly) feature because it actually tells you the name of the person who's calling.  Galing no?  (Although it pronounced my name wrong -- ey-gi, not a-gi.)

With the cellphone purchased, we went to ortigas as well to go to Megamall.  I had to go to Johnny Air Megamall to pick up the books I bought from Ebay. I cannot thank Nards enough for this gift.

 

When I was three years old, one of the books that Mama read to me was Pippa Mouse. Somehow it got lost over the years. I’ve forgotten about it, until a few weeks ago, when I was searching for some books on Amazon and I saw the new version of Pippa Mouse.

I ran a search for the vintage 1976 copy that Mama bought before and it was no longer in print. The only ones selling it were libraries and the cheapest was $21! I searched for it on Ebay, and I found a mother who was selling her children’s old books. Pippa Mouse came in a box of six Yearling Books for $4+. Although the box was worn and taped up, the books were in pristine condition. I just had to have it! But I couldn’t use my credit card because I had the numbers changed and the new one hasn’t arrived.

Nards heard me fretting and wailing over my laptop. He quickly purchased it, and had it delivered to Johnny Air in New York. It was then shipped to their branch to Megamall where I paid for the shipping from the US to the Philippines. Total cost, including cost of the books and shipping from Illinois to New York, was Php1,300+. Fairly reasonable, and so so so worth it.

I was almost in tears when I read it again. I was hit with sweet warm memories of Mama reading it, and her excitement and joy when I started reading it out loud when I was three and a half years old. Seeing all the illustrations was pure nostalgia.

Makes me wonder how I lost that book in the first place. Anyway, I have another copy. I’ll make sure it doesn’t get lost.

Thank you Honey!

Blissful Cup

It's so  delightful when you open the fridge after a long day, and you spy an orange packet that's wedged between a bag of lemons and last night's leftover pasta.

After spending about twenty minutes savoring a blissful cup, I finally got my inspiration for my holiday cookie menu.  (My sister's work colleagues at Trend have been clamoring for the list.)  I'll definitely keep the peanut butter chocolate chip there and I'm adding fudge drops (chewy chocolate cookies stuffed with chocolate chips).   I'm not so sure about chocolate chip cookies, and I'm definitely thinking about making truffles.

I'll finalize the recipes I'll use and I'll tack the baker's math conversations on the kitchen cork board. 

Excited for Coraline

I saw on Neil Gaiman's blog that the trailer for Coraline is now out.  I'm so excited to see this film!



As my sister says, "Gaiman never fails.  Never disappoints."

I'm greedily going through the Coraline website (passwords provided by Neil.)

Bella Swan is only Second to Me

...on being the world's biggest klutz.

Nards is always wary whenever I am in the kitchen holding a knife.  I really don't blame him.  Initially, he was alarmed every time he heard a loud noise followed by my cry of pain.  When it became to frequent, he'll still run to my side to assess the damage I've done to myself, nurse me and cuddle me but the element of surprise is no longer there.

That all changed last night.

Although there was no panic (he never panics), there was an edge to his voice as he ran to the kitchen and asked me with an alarmed voice what happened.  I was in crying in pain, my fingers burned from the deep cuts, that I couldn't answer his question.  I couldn't tell him that I was slicing lemons for our glasses of Cokes; and the lemon (slippery little bugger) just shot out of my hand as the knife came down, and that my finger got sliced instead of the lemon.

I was freaking out.  The blood was continuously flowing, I dripped on the white kitchen floor.   Nards instructed me to put my cuts under running water.  It still wouldn't stem; our bathroom sink was spattered all over the place (it was a forensic masterpiece).  And the pain caught me off-guard.  I'm so used to cuts and bruises, and I didn't anticipate the degree of pain a deep cut would give me.  I was howling the whole time I was in the bathroom. 

Nards took a large glob of cotton and pressed it down on my open wound, and taped it just to stop the bleeding.   It slowed down the bleeding, but didn't totally stop it.

 

Ang salarin: Lemon Coke.  Notice the glob of cotton taped on my finger.  It was still bleeding at this point.

After a while, Nard fashioned a little splint from a cotton bud that he cut in half.  He put a proper bandage on the cut and added the splinter.  He's such a boyscout no?  

 

Wedding Details

Just a few wedding details. Sorry to be doing this piece-meal. There are a lot of photos to process.

"We're going to the chapel and we're going to get married...."

 

The bride, the groom and the maid of honor.  (Beng's Unazukin)

 

This thing weighed a ton!

Mine was the heavy-weight.

 

Mama wove a red and gold crystal rosary (which she made) on our cord.  She gave us her bible too.

 

My taray headpiece.  Originally sewn on the veil.  But Lara pinned it to my hair instead.

 

Happy the Yoda bequeathed the rings

 

They told me to remove my anklets.. but I didn't.  Shhhhh.

 

Yep, Nards got away with these.

 

Our table numbers

 

Our favors: little purses (sewn by Phanie) and stuffed with yema

 

Photobooth + Sharpies + scissors + tape + guestbook = FUN!!!

Photo credit: Markku & Hana

Christmas Gift Idea

Look what my sister got me!

 

 

 

It's cute and it's functional.  Definitely, a good Christmas gift idea. :)

Papa's Birthday

One of my sister's laments was that she wasn't able to get a piece of our wedding cake from Estrel's.  So I promised her on Papa's birthday that we'll get him a birthday cake from Estrel's. 

Papa cooked ribs, mushroom soup, buttered vegetables and mashed potatoes.  Everyone ate heartily, and the bottle of red wine was sipped as quickly as it was poured.  After that hefty main course, we had caramel cake from Estrel's topped with a large scoop of ice cream.

 

A very cozy birthday dinner party for Papa

 

This cake is soooooo good.

Overcast

It started out as a sunny Sunday.  I was surprised when I looked out the balcony and saw this.

 

There goes our plan to go biking.

 

Rain started to pour, and we had to close the balcony door.

 

Yep, we're definitely staying in.

Sanuk

After my love-hate relationship with Crocs (and even as I'm about to buy another pair), I'm quite ecstatic to discover Sanuk.  I got this pair from SM MoA but they're also available at Res Toe Run in Trinoma.  They're so comfortable.  It's as if I'm wearing nothing.

 

 

Sweet Tooth

We walked up and down High Street and Serendra looking for a place to get dessert.  Nards and I agreed that we should try something that's not found in our immediate vicinity, so we initially ruled out Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Friday's, and mag:net.  There were some places that looked interesting but not interesting enough (Krispy Kreme - just thinking about it is giving me a toothache - *shudder) so we wound up with Coffee Bean (again!).

   So much for trying new things! Hehehe.  

I had Toblerone Cheesecake

 and Nards had -- I forget but it's not as good my cheesecake.

I was trying the macro shots on his G7.  It was frustrating for me since I was used to the ease and versatility of a DSLR.  But I got the hang of it, so annoyingly simple, I was dumbfounded that I didn't figure it out earlier.

Meet Skankina.  (hehehehehe.)  She's actually a character from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.  We got her at a Bandai Gashapon in Toys R' Us.

 

She's really this tiny thing.  I wanted to take a photo of it with our Unazukins but it seems so scandalous to put something so skanky next to something so cute and wholesome.

 

Did I mention we devoured those wedges in the blink of an eye?