How My Jaw Dropped on the Floor

I've been here for a week now (with 26 days left before packing my bags home), and my mind doesn't seem to have settled here yet. Looks like my mind didn't board with me on those planes heading here in Canada. And with the bad, bad desire to be in Manila in the soonest time possible, I tried keeping things Manila-esque close to me.

The closest thing authentically from Manila would be those that I read from publications in Manila. And the best stop for me would be the Philippine Daily Inquirer. And upon opening the lifestyle section, I think I wanna go kill someone. Go figure:

"CHRISTMAS Day. At the back of an SUV. My friends and I had decided to drive to Tagaytay for dinner. While our car braved through the traffic, my friends were laughing and shrieking about Jiff's exploits with someone who had a very inappropriate piercing. It was a fun conversation, one I would have otherwise joined; but I was too busy learning how to make takoyaki with Cooking Mama."

-- lifted from Super!

But then again, I love this gal a lot.
And I think I would go kill anyone who'd dare lay hands on her.

Okay, nagulat lang ako. :D
Moving on.

Margarita please..
Isang pitsel!

Back to school.. in the Kitchen, Task #1: Salmon

Gone are those days when I would wake up early in the morning where I don't have to drag myself out of bed to attend a class.. on a Saturday morning (discounting the 10 instances where I tried pulling it off almost a year ago by enrolling myself in French class).

That all changed when the opportunity to attend a very inviting and (I think) interesting course came my way -- Cooking.

Last Saturday, I was given an opportunity together with some of my friends Jason, Giles, Fifi and Ruby to attend a Discovery Course offered by the one and only Center for Culinary Arts (CCA).

Just a brief background, CCA's Kitchen Discovery Course was initially exclusive and is a pre-requisite course to all those students who want to apply in any of CCA's diploma courses. It is a course geared towards verifying your interest in culinary arts. Building on that mantra of "discovery", they started offering it to the public to better introduce them to what culinary arts could do for them.

This was one perfect excuse to go back to school, for a day.. and get the chance to choose the best classmates I think I ever had at this day and age -- my friends.

 

******

 

Me and my friends met up at CCA at around 9am. A short registration and attendance check, and we were on our way to our classroom to begin:

The 8-page material we would be working on
for the entire day.

A couple of brief self-introductions broke the class' ice and Chef Menoy Gimenez. "toque-ed" away with his lecture. Chef grouped us into 3 groups and were given the task to go over our recipe for the morning and discuss amongst ourselves how we were going to proceed. I was lucky to be grouped with Jason and Giles but later realized that we might end up with boils in hands or maybe ruin our recipe since neither of us can be called domesticated in terms of um.. cooking. Good thing though, we were with Ian, who's a mom of five, has a good working knowledge on our battle for morning --

Caramelizd Salmon with Orange-Shoyu Glaze
with Sautéed Mixed Vegetables, Soba Noodles
Lemongrass Beurre Blanc, and Balsamic-Soy Reduction

Chef Menoy "toque-ed" says food should be:
Clean, Zen-like, Appetizing

We were grouped into three: The cooks (Left),
The students (Bottom), The Newbies (top)

We the newbies were trying to figure out
our strategy for our mouthful recipe.

To add a little more pressure, we were led to the kitchen into our working tables and were given the goal to prepare and complete our recipe before 12noon, just in time for lunch.

GULP! Ito na ang lunch natin? =( Galingan natin teammates!!

I felt like I was in a pressure cooker -- prepare and come up with an EDIBLE product by morning's end.

Chef Menoy demonstrates how to cut
vegetable shillings correctly.

Our vegetable shillings cut to perfection.
They ain't cooked yet, but they already
look tasty.

Chef Menoy lectures the class in the most
interesting way -- beside a knife and a boiling pan. ;)

Giles prepares the Balsamic-Soy reduction
sauce of our dish

While Laarni marinades our salmon in a
ginger-sichuan peppercorn-OJ mixture

On other hand, Jason and Ian prepared the
Lemongrasss Beurre Blanc sauce of our dish

After marinade, our salmon got a sugar-pepper
treatment on top (meat side) to get that sugar-crusted
look and taste

In between pans, and while waiting for our
sauce reductions to finish, we can't help
but satisfy some of the camera whores in us.
(L-R) Ian, Laarni, me, Giles and Fifi.

Jason points out to Laarni which
side of the fish needs more frying.

Unlike any other instance where you would want to receive all the credit you can get, in this class, I lowered my expectations and at least hoped to hear and know that what we did was edible enough to be eaten. :D

Chef Menoy wrapped up and gave his evaluation in the dishes the different groups produced. For some of us who were first timers, not bad. The dish was really tasty and really good.

I love how the color of the vegetables compliment the color and the taste of the sugar-crusted salmon on top. This just brought my confidence level a notch higher and I can't wait to attempt and cook this on my own! :D

Next stop, dessert.

Holy Week 2008

It was a little reminiscent of a trip I had a month ago, I was on the car with some friends -- Chrie, Fi, Francis and Giles -- driving south at 3am in the morning to meet up with Rollie and his family.

The only difference was that the metro was more like of a ghost town than an urban jungle. Well, what would you expect, it was Good Friday.

Imagine this, the metro was so empty that our drive from Bicutan exit up until the Petron Gasoline station in SLEX only took 10 minutes!! I initially estimated 30, but according to the display in Francis' car, we covered that much in 10 minutes.

We arrived in Anilao a little past 6. And the first thing we did was grab a pillow and head off to bed to catch up on some precious sleeping time -- most, if not all of us, haven't slept yet.

As soon as we woke up, we started doing our "rounds", photo op rounds on our side of the beach and retreated back to bed to get some more sleep.

Children playing on the raft near
the resort we were staying on

At Nightfall, things started picking up. People started acting weird from the super charge they got from their (almost) all day sleep.

Francis singing his heart out

After the sun has completely set, you would see the little lights from a distance. Clustered and distant lights would inspire one thing -- long exposure shots..

The other side of the beach at night

Group shot less Fifi

It pretty got creepy when we started capturing ghosts on film sensors..

A ghost appearing beside me

Chrie apparently felt the ghost and freaked out

The ghost didn't really creep us out. Hence, we continued enjoying the night more with our camera, the darkness and the LED light in our hands. And what did we get? Light paintings..

 
An angel on earth **

 
The devil wears yellow, go Cory! **

 
A street fight **

 

__________
** Camera sponsored by Chrie, Colorsplash flash sponsored by Francis,  LED light sponsored by Rollie, Craziness by everybody

Gallery: Anilao, Batangas

Plagued with boredom and left with nothing else to do during the long Holy Week break, we (Chrie, Fifi, FG, Giles and me) invited ourselves to go join Rollie and his family for a weekend in Anilao, Batangas.

Yes, but of course, this is all but an excuse for us to meet up and fill up our calendar similar to what Pam, Jill, Ruby (and J?) did with theirs since we all didn't get the chance to plan something else for the long break.

While Pam and Jill trotted and ransacked the streets and shops of Hong Kong, and while Ruby scoured the province of Dumaguete for um.. men, we were in Batangas enjoying not only each other's company but as well as the beach sea, fantastic food, and of course the unparalleled hospitality of Rollie and his family..

Thanks Rollie!

Gallery: Up, Up and Away!

Two weekends ago, me and some of my friends hatched a plan to head out north of Manila to have a Weekend of Everything that Flies in the 12th Hot Air Balloon Festival

For most of us, it was going to be our first hot air balloon festival. You can just imagine how excited we were to see those hot air balloons rise to the air. I have already planned the pictures in my head that I have yet to compose on site. I was d*mn excited..

Since we weren't staying somewhere close to Clark Field, Pampanga, we had to meet up really early (say about 3 am) and drive up before the balloons take off between 6-8 in the morning.

Luckily, we arrived on time. As a matter of fact we arrived and as Ruby coined it,  "madilim, malamig, at walang balloons."

Without sleep and armed with all but the last jolt of sugar rush from a nuggets meal we ate before we left, we watched the early morning sky get decorated for a few breath-taking minutes with balloons that we could only dream of touching and riding.

How Hard Can Ironies Get?

It has been weeks since my friends have constantly asked pleaded me to join them in Boracay this coming Valentines. It was a perfect plan if not for the pending Vacation Leave I have filed two weeks ago. I never heard anything from it, thus I considered it denied.

Today, without making a follow-up on the status of my request, I have learned that my vacation leave has been granted. Imagine how my heart jumped knowing I could join Pam and the others in Boracay for 4 days in Nami, with a yacht ride in the agenda.

But there was a kicker.

Yesterday, despite my current condition (I had a running nose which never stopped err.. dripping with snot), I decided to tidy up my room. I then remembered to look for the good amount of money that I placed somewhere in my mess so that I could keep it properly.

To my dismay, I can't remember where I placed the friggin' money! It was 12 midnight and I had this urge to turn my room upside-down to look for that money!! But to no avail, I didn't find my money. I decided to sleep it off thinking I might remember where I placed it.

The sun went up and down.. still no freaking memory where I placed the money.

Now, I do have management's blessing to go on a vacation on Valentines. I just dunno how I am supposed to do that without any funds in my hands. Bummer.

 

*****

 

bea: sayang giff!
bea: check your labada
bea: or maybe you used it na, and you just forgot
bea: was it cash?

giff: yes, it was cash.. hay.. 2 days na ako naghahanap

bea: you can also pray to St. Joseph
bea: when you lose things.
bea: maybe it might come up, or then, you just might remember where you put it.
bea: or used it.

 

Ok. Now, I gotta pray for lost money to come back.. :(

There's a lot to be thankful For

Some days, I forget to look around and fail to see the joys that surround me. Most of the time, I have been so caught inside of me that I have deliberately received when I was expected to give.

As the year comes to a close, and I usher in the new one, let me highlight the things that have painted a smile on my face.. the things no matter how small or how big I am thankful that they have come my way..

 

JANUARY
... I was the official photographist (LOL) for the family's annual reunion.
... Pretty much in a hiatus from my barkada. I have decided to disappear and try to find myself. In the long run, I have found not just myself but someone else -- RED, whom I was able to call as my own.

*****

FEBRUARY
... The team that I work with in the FIRM launched it's so called English Hour which was so optimistic with its goal of providing a venue for the team to practice the language.
... Photography started to take its toll on me as I started buying additional accessories for my SLR-like camera, the Canon S3 IS. Yes, I was starting to get hooked in an addiction that I never new would be one of the most exciting things that happened to me.

*****

MARCH
... Barkada hiatus that I have bestowed on myself pretty much ended when I decided to show up in one of their gigs over at The Room Upstairs
... Mozzie started playing in places around the metro and thus started by life as an official Mozzie Groupie.

***** 

APRIL
... I got the chance to spend my Holy Week for the first time in Bangkok, Thailand together with some friends from my previous project engagement. Not only did we brought home some memories, one of my friends brought back an actual engagement for herself. :)

... The project that I was working for in the FIRM decided to organize a summer outing. With my trusty S3 IS becoming the official camera of the event. LOL.
... I met for the first time.. Her all hotness, Jill -- "Good stuff, huh!"
... I got introduced into the world of lomography through DPI's exhibit of LakbayLomo.

*****

MAY
... First time in months that I got the chance to talk to RED after we broke up.
... I got my German loot bag from Cel, containing nothing less of what can be considered as wholesome.
... First movie night with Jill -- Shrek 3
... Met Ram whom I didn't know dated J some time ago. :D

... Met Ruby whom later became known as Pok or Poksie when paired with me.
... Rendezvoused with Pam over at the Ayala Museum as she finishes her race for the Nokia Soul of Manila event.

*****

JUNE

... Finally met Marge Francia from one of Mozzie's gig over at the room upstairs.
... Got introduced to Mark Parlade for the first time despite his constant attendance to Mozzie's gigs.

... I started learning French from the FIRM's language programs
... I set foot for the first time in Palawan

*****

JULY
... Hangged out in Manila Pen with Pam, and everyone else as we started at her as she devoured one giant bowl of ice cream. :D
... Got into a real date for the first time after my break up with RED.
... I got the chance to see after a long time, some friends from theatre in a house warming party where two of 'em tried hatching plans in joining PBB.
... Mozzie trots around the metro for gigs, with of course the groupies.
... I met and saw for the first time Francis play who was Mozzie's sessionist but soon became their new guitarist.
... I got Simpsonized.

*****

AUGUST
... I conquered my first mountain -- Mount Pinatubo

Photo courtesy of Ruby

... Got officially introduced to the world of lomo through Crap Shoot
... I officially got christened as gipsterph when I joined LomoManila.

Photo courtesy of Fifi

Photo courtesy of Rollie

... Went on my first lomo trip in Tagaytay.

Photo courtesy of Jill

... My team decided to go on it's most anticipated team building -- Enchanted Kingdom. Huh?!

... I bought my first DSLR -- Nikon D40x, which i sooo love right now.
... A lomo trip to China Town with Chrie, Fifi, Francis and Anna
... Planned not to plan anything for my birthday but instead got a surprise from my lomomanila family.

*****

SEPTEMBER
... Took part of LomoManila's Shoot From the Hip

... Went on a lomo trip with some friends in Intramuros
... Watched the UAAP Cheerdance competition in a box seat with Jason
... Tagged along Mozzie as they graced the opening of Porch (previously Motorsports Alley)
... Pam, Jason and I played as celebrity stalkers as we raided A.S.A.P. to accompany Tita Tess, Fifi and Chrie's mom, fulfill her dreams of meeting Piolo.

... Went on a lomo trip with LomoManila in Tanay, Rizal

*****

OCTOBER
... Celebrated Jason's Birthday
... I set foot for the first time in the paradise island of Boracay.

... Groupies supported Mozzie while they played for Tobleron's Thank You Day

... We surprised and celebrated Pammy's Birthday

... Jill, Pam, Fifi and I started shooting for our CimenaLomo Project
... The project I was working with in the FIRM decided to hold a Halloween activity for the kids.

*****

NOVEMBER
... Celebrated Rollie's Birthday
... Lomo shoot in UST campus with Pam, Jill and Francis
... Shaved my head for the first time.. ever!

Photo courtesy of Chrie

... LomoLove Too opening in Black Soup, Cubao-X

Photo courtesy of Jonas

... Took Part in Rock Ed's Sunday Silence at sunset

... CinemaLomo 2007 launches with EXPIRED as one of its entries.
... Mozzie's EP Launch over at Xymaca

*****

DECEMBER
... Lomo Palooza at Cubao-X

... Supported Gab in Parokya ni Edgar's album launch

... Got stationed at the Cubao MRT Station for Rock the Riles '07

... Supported LomoManila's Rock the Riles Exhibit

... Mozzie's Thank You Day Dinner

Photo courtesy of Chrie

... My project's Christmas Party
... Christmas dinner with old project mates

... Mitch's Shower
... LomoManila's Year Ender Party

... Surprised and Celebrated Fifi's Birthday

 

This year started slow. But it turned out to be one hell of a ride towards the end. My schedule may have been a little screwed up. But it was all worth the sleepless nights and the time-haggling I had in the office. It was one wonderful year that has come to pass. I do wish and pray that the next will be more than, if not the same like that of 2007.

I got fat. I got thin. I got stressed. I relaxed. I laughed. I cried. I walked. I ran. I flew. I lost some people. I met some new ones. I loved. I broke. I stood up.

Man, I'd do everything all over again.
Cheers to the life I had in 2007!!