Happy Birthday Nards!

And because you've been a good boy all year, you get a new pair of shoes.

 

And because there was an available pair in my size....

Lace up!  We're going out to celebrate!

Cupcake from Carrots

Sansrival Cupcake.  Yum.

House Arrest

I am now on house arrest.  Nards is keeping a watchful eye because my cough has worsened.   I am once again a permanent fixture on the sofa for most of the day, alternately sipping lagundi and oregano tea, drinking meds every six hours, eating citrusy fruits and sleeping.

Sounds like I'm bored out of my skull, but I'm not.  My sister lent me a book she recently bought.

I'm afraid, it's not a compilation of the stories we all heard during bedtime stories, but the real unadulterated version as written by the Grimm brothers.

Click to Enlarge

Remember how the glass shoe was too small for Cinderella's stepsisters?  I bet you didn't know that in the original version, the stepsisters cut off their toes and sliced off their heels in their bid to be the Chosen One.  And that after the supposed "happily ever after," the stepmother and the stepsisters were pecked to death by pigeons.

I love it.

I'm alternately reading this with another Peter Mayle book:

It's funny and it's full of sarcasm.  Even Nards likes it.  (That's why I have to alternate it with the Grimm book, because Nards and I are taking turns with this one.)

My iPod has also provided ample entertainment.  (A perfect companion for sick people.)

Nards downloaded Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  It was written and produced during the writer's strike early this year and was aired only on the internet and made available on iTunes.  It's now one of my favorite films.  It's quirky and funny and very-well produced.   Neil Patrick Harris is really talented.

 

I also watched the two Christmas Charlie Brown movies.

 

And listened to holiday music from the Starbucks radio. (Hooray, it's free! Starbucks normally charges a hefty sum to stream their radio. It's actually cheaper to get their Php150++ coffee if you want to hear their radio. Ridiculous.)

I have to get well soon.  Nards won't allow me to go out of the house until I'm feeling better.  And I just HAVE to see the lego show at High Street before it packs up.

My Brother's Gift

My brother gave me bath gels from The Body Shop for Christmas.

 

I love TBS products.  It's not tested on animals and the company is environmentally-conscious.  Mitzie and I have been long time fans since college, when it was launched in the country.   I still remember that their cosmetic line was then called Colours.

What made me more delighted was this tag:

 

Isn't that neat?

Bah. Humbug.

 

That's my sister.  Not me.  She spent Christmas Eve and the early hours of Christmas on a hospital bed, with an intravenous needle attached to her left hand.  My parents and (my furious--another story regarding insensitive doctors at the first ER) brother were with her.   Nards and I were twiddling our thumbs at the house waiting for updates, watching the first season of Six Feet Under.

I'm happy to say that it was nothing serious.  They got back home at 5AM, and after everyone had a couple of hours of sleep, it was back to normal.

Drive Thru

I've sworn off McDonald's after watching Super Size Me.  I have no excuse, but we were stuck in really bad traffic and we were getting pretty ravenous.   The double arches loomed high on our right side and our bellies overrode all the ingrained fear of cholesterol, obesity, hypertension and diabetes.

I don't know how long this has been going on but I was highly entertained by the new (to me, anyway) drive thru system.

 

I ordered through the speaker on this box.  I didn't give the screen much thought.

 

Until my order appeared on it.  It's so convenient, it compensates for the sometimes horrible communication device.  Plus, I can see how much I need to pay right away.  

Now I wonder what other stores have this system? :)

Enteng and Jessie Get Hitched

The invitation said 3PM. We were coded, we got caught in traffic because of a fender bender on Quezon Ave, and I was frantic behind the wheel. It was a photo finish: we entered the gates of Intramuros a few minutes shy of 3PM.

We parked at Casa Manila, where the reception will be held, and walked to the Cathedral.  We made it just in time; because the beautiful bride was about to enter the church.
 

 

 

It was a lovely ceremony, solemn and moving. 

There was a curious thing hanging from the ceiling. Is that a hat?

Socrates would approve!

We left while they were doing the church pictorials. The driveway in front of the Cathedral was packed. There was another wedding after Enteng's and Jessie's. And the party for the next wedding were crowded around the church doors, and the next bride in her stretch limo was causing traffic up and down the streets.

There were a lot of wedding guests getting lost in Intramuros that day. As we were walking back to Casa Manila, we saw this formally garbed couple grab a pedicab towards San Agustin Church. I saw them earlier at the Cathedral and left quickly as soon as they saw Enteng and Jessie. They presumably went to the wrong wedding.

We met a nice couple who teaches in Ateneo at the reception.  We had a long extensive discussion about photobooths.  Ahehe.

 

Our competitor.  Heeheehee.

 

 

Cheers to the happy couple!

Namamasko Po!

So it's a very quiet Sunday evening for Nards and I. I was reading the last two chapters of Breaking Dawn, while he was surfing. The silence was broken by a shrill and aggressive (almost angry) collective voice of children down the street singing Sa May Bahay Ang Aming Bati. I was startled by the volume. We were five floors up and we could hear them, caroling the house next to our building.

We paused to listen as they massacred this over-used Filipino Christmas song (repeating the same stanza as they went through the houses down the street) and accompanied themselves with homemade tambourines; after which they imperiously knocked (think six little fists banging furiously demanding attention) and screamed, "namamasko pooooooo!!!" The "po" annoyingly elongated. Followed by bam! bam! bam! of their hands on the gates. This phrase was repeated over and over until the unfortunate homeowner either gave in and dispensed a few coins; or they shooed them away angrily.

"Egad. Those are rabid carolers," I remarked. Nards agreed. "They seem to be the kind who marks houses that gives money, and rallies all the neighborhood kids to go there and dish out one miserable stanza of a Christmas song and demand payment."

"Aren't you glad you live in the building with a guard at the lobby?"

"Oh yes!"

If you think about it, this type of caroling is a mild form of extortion. They sing sooooo bad, and rankle you to death until you breakdown and give in.

Good Finds at Ikea

We were about to leave a shop on Kamias and I impulsively went to the Ikea outlet store a few meters away.  I've been meaning to pass there for the longest time, especially after our disastrous bridal registry at the other local ikea store.   The place is small and crammed with their items but I was delighted to hear that they've opened a bigger one in Katipunan ave.  (The address is in their website.)

Nards and I had no plans of buying anything there, but we couldn't help ourselves.

 

This was the lamp I wanted, originally.  Useful...

But I got this instead.  

A must for avid readers like us.  This lamp splits into two.  (If you look at the base closely, it has two: one for the reading lamp and another for the room lamp.)  It came in a box that was the size of a shoebox - I got such a kick out of it!

I remember Mitzie telling me to get the ice cream scented candle from the store, so I got one.  It's smokeless and is good for 30 hours.  The nice lady at the store told me to just burn it for half an hour at the most in a day.  It leaves the room smelling like freshly baked cookies and vanilla ice cream.

On a totally different note, I think my mouse is dying. 

Fly Me To The Moon

 

"Hey! Come on out to the balcony! Look at this!"

I put down my book and rushed out. "What is it?" I asked.

"Look, it's Jupiter and Venus! Aligning with the moon!"

"Owaw! That's awesome! I remember when I was in third grade Mars and Venus aligned too. There was a large red glowing orb and a large yellow orb hovering above our rooftop. Sayang those two are far away."

"Okay, which one is Jupiter?"

"The small one!"

Nards said, "very good! How did you know that?"

"Earth science, third grade." He chuckled.

"You do remember everything."

After a few minutes, Nards sat before his computer and I went back to my book.

"Hey, it's on the discovery website. The whole Jupiter, Venus and moon convergence."

"Cool."

He took a photo of the convergence so I could blog about it. Hopefully, we can take a better photo tomorrow.