Goodbye 2009!

I just want to wish everyone a happy new year as we welcome 2010 with open arms.

As for me, I'm off to a place that I miss terribly.

Cheers, everyone! See you all again soon!

A Joyous and Meaningful Christmas to Everyone!

Just random things to share in this post:

We were given this marble cheesecake from The Cake Club by Diamond Hotel and found perched upon the cake as if it were their platform a band of happy bears and a snowman staring up at us with hopeful smiles on their faces.

Happy 91st birthday, my lovely grandma! I wish I can become half as good a cook as you are!

The only ensaymada that I like also by The Cake Club with Sumibi coffee and Grassy, an iced coffee topped with vanilla ice cream

One of my goals in 2010 is to learn how to use and take good pictures with a DSLR.

My rare attempt at comedy:

Merry Christmas to all!

Friday, I Love You!

I love Fridays and I'm certainly not alone on this. I can feel the energy and excitement vibrating through the walls of our office whenever Friday rolls around, as if there is always a cause for celebration.

I especially love this day when I know I've been productive throughout the workweek like I had been this week. Thank you, Lavazza coffee, for making sure that I stayed alert and focused. Tomorrow, I will celebrate my productivity with coffee from Starbucks or CBTL.

We're now into the fourth week of our Kris Kringle, and so far I have received two Starbucks GCs, the November issue of Preview, and a bubbles toy gun which can produce giant bubbles. Today, I got the December issue of Preview! (Great job, colleague, as it's out of stock yet again in Fully Booked the last time I looked.)

Agot looks amazing at 43, but the dress and boots have got to go! And so does the hairstyle! I loved the grunge/rock&roll look, but I'm ready and very, very excited to see what's new for 2010, which is just 20 days away!

One of the perks of being around a group of girls is having a reason to dress up or down. Today's theme is "dress differently." The idea began as "dress weirdly," a post-Halloween plan to dress up in costumes. But because of office policies, the security manning the lobby would never allow us to even set foot in the building when we dress up as say, Helga Pataki [from Hey Arnold!] as one of us originally planned to, so we were forced to alter the theme to just, well, "put on something you don't normally wear" day.

As my office attire is limited to plain shirts and very feminine black skirts, I chose to go androgynous, literally. I dug up a very old and very dear (and very faded) pair of black semi-skinny pants and paired it with one of my dad's shirts with the sleeves rolled up. I also pulled my hair back into a high, tight bun instead of letting it down to cover the sides of my face as I usually do. Finally, I ditched my thick red glasses to avoid looking like a hippie grandma.

My very unsuccessful self-portrait - I have forgotten to take a pic of my outfit again

(and still not driving myself to anywhere)

After working non-stop for the past five days, I can't wait for the lazy and slow weekend ahead, and that's why I love you, Friday!

Loot From The Queen

Thank you, Queen J, for all the wonderful stuff you bought for me. And thanks to my parents for agreeing to bring home 2 shoe boxes and 3 paper bags of cosmetics, magazines and other things. I think my stuff occupied half of their luggage.

By special request, I got 2 Nylon magazines (October 09 and November 09 issues) and the Dec/Jan issue of Teen Vogue with Dakota Fanning on the cover. I love that Nylon is always fresh, young and inspiring. I've always been a fan of Dakota Fanning, and I can't believe she's all grown up now at 15! After seeing her on Teen Vogue's cover, I couldn't resist asking Sis to get me this issue of Teen Vogue even if it's one of their thinnest issues ever! (Teen Vogue is available here in Fully Booked but it's much cheaper in HK.)

This morning I discovered that we now have Nylon here in Fully Booked. Maybe we've always had it here and I just didn't know about it. It's stuck between men's magazines, and I had to avoid including a really nasty Maxim Philippines cover in my pic!

I saw these 9 Wests while shoe shopping last week. I think that pointy pumps will never go out of style, and they always look smart even if they come in a metallic purple shade like this one.

I also like the gold version!

The next item is probably one of the best items I got from Queen J because first, they're from the much-awaited collaboration between Jimmy Choo and H&M and second, Queen J lined up for hours to get these during the worldwide launch on November 14th.

These are definitely not the kind of shoes that I would typically wear, but I'm thrilled to have something different to spice up my very small shoe collection.

I'm excited to wear these and instantly add 4 inches to my height!

And the pièce de résistance:

It's perfect and so easy to use! I used it to take the pics above. This is Queen J's surprise parting gift for me and I've been waiting for it for months. Queen J knew I'm not a phone person and would never get myself an iPhone so she got one for me!

You're the best, Queen J! *XOXO*

Long Weekend

"What are you going to do during the weekend? Work?" I was asked before we all headed home on Friday night.

For the record, here's a list of how I spent my long weekend.

1. Sleepover with JT which included the usual:

- Gossiped until it's almost dawn

- Watched a movie (Into the Wild) which we only watched towards the end where it got exciting because we were busy chatting (see above)

- Ate junk food - Friday night junk food fest included spicy Korean instant noodles, Chips Ahoy White Fudge Chunky (my current favorite over chewy Chips Ahoy), and Oishi's wasabi potato chips, which I think is really, really good for locally made potato chips (Oishi's doing a great job, especially with their Marty's vegetarian chicharon, yum!)

2. Shopped for a new pair of shoes for work - Terribly boring black faux crocodile skin pumps with rubber soles for comfort. According to Queen J, they're like granny shoes because of the croc skin and rubber soles.

3. JT and I got haircuts - This was very reminiscent of our high school days when we used to get our haircuts together at David's Salon. We don't go there anymore for fear of reliving our bad hair days.

It was a choice between Henri Calayag or Park Jun. Both are tried and tested by friends, but Park Jun got better reviews. Park Jun, a Korean franchise, is pricier than Beauty Brick (Mr. Shin's salon) or Tony and Jackey. Because we were not willing to shell out for the creative director (P 1,200), we both settled for the style director Ms. Katie Kim (P 800). We learned that Ms. Katie just arrived from Korea so she's still having a hard time expressing herself in English. With the help of her colleague, we were able to relay to her most of what we wanted to be done with our hair.

I think I was apprehensive from the beginning about getting a haircut from a new hairdresser. I was also missing Hair-Do's Daisuke-san, who totally understood how to cut my hair which has natural curls in them. I ended up asking for a trim, and a trim was what I got.

After my haircut from Daisuke-san in July (left) and after my haircut from Ms. Katie

4. New Balance Power Run - This is the first fun run I joined since the 10k I ran for my running class in uni, where I did really poorly. I'm quite proud I finished 5k in 36 minutes because at some point within those 36 minutes I could barely feel my legs and thought that my lungs would give out. And I thought that I could finish the race in half an hour or less! Haha

Proud finisher!

5. Work - for half an hour maybe?

6. Movie marathon - and I'm still not halfway through with all the movies I borrowed from everyone

The long weekend is almost over. Tomorrow, I'm back to donning stiff office attire and sitting on an uncomfortable chair. No, the long weekend is never long enough.

Who Is the Groo Grux King?

Christmas is here! I can smell it in the air and taste it in Starbucks' Toffee Nut Latte. Thanks to our office kris kringle with personal wish lists rather than broad categories, I got 2 Starbucks GC's as I, well, wished.

Lately, I've grown tired of shuffling through songs in my iPod and finding a lot of songs that I now hate listening to. So I made a trip to Astrovision without doing any prior research in a quest to find something new. I based my search on the covers and ended up with the following:

Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King by Dave Matthews Band

This looks a little creepy but I liked the saxophone intro and the booklet with more artwork and lyrics, a huge factor in choosing a CD when I was younger. I found out that in Astrovision you can request to listen to a CD just like in HMV! except that Astrovision doesn't provide earphones for your own private listening so I had to ignore the sales person who assisted me as she bopped her head along with the music.

and...

Still Night, Still Light by Au Revoir Simone

This one reminds me of Norah Jones and Yael Naim but their cover is anything but lovey-dovey and optimistic. Is that a werewolf under a full moon???

"one day do you think we'll wake up

in a world on its way to getting better

and if so

can you tell me

how"

- Dive In, DMB

Hello Hmm-Hmm

We are all living in the same city now, but it still takes 6 months for the three of us to get together. Is it because of hmm-hmm, who always seems to be unavailable because of her mountains of readings, busy doctor-to-be schedule, and frequent trips to her home in the province where she always hides out when her nose is not buried in the said readings. For all I know she spends more time FB-ing than actually reading. [Just kidding, you know I'm very supportive of you right? :D] But it doesn't really matter now because last night the three of us were all there, plus one.

I narrowed down our choices last night to Felix, Thai Patio and Usso (the French-Italian resto with no name) in Greenbelt 5. By unanimous decision, we went Thai, but next time, I want to try Felix and Usso, too.

Thai Patio is no authentic Thai food place but I appreciate that it has a lot of vegetarian choices, always a plus for me. I liked the vegetarian pad thai the most--the noodles are firm, the sauce, sweet with a hint of spiciness, and the marinated tofu and sliced mushrooms (fresh and not canned), very tasty. The stir-fried mixed mushrooms with garlic was also yum, but the vegetarian pineapple fried rice, not really.

Afterwards, we looked for a place to play rock band in GB without success so we proceeded to eat some dessert in Manila Peninsula. We, the girls, all said no to Pen Pals. After all, four people should not be forced to eat 20 scoops of ice cream. We shared the yoghurt ice cream, 99% fat free but still incredibly creamy, and Belgian chocolate fondue. It was so dark in the lobby with all the dim lights that it felt like a mini bonfire.

The sun is always shining in Manila Pen. See you all again soon.

Coffee on the Go

Something new brought to us by URC, makers of C2 iced tea: Coffee Twist Iced Black Coffee, Classic flavor. It's a ready-to-drink bottled iced coffee with syrup. I find it a little too sweet, but I think it's yum for P 14.

It also comes in orange flavor, which I haven't tasted yet.

Enjoy!

Meeeh Likeyhhh

In Le Divorce, Isabel Walker (Kate Hudson) received a red crocodile skin Hermes Kelly from her French lovah. I think it's a truly beautiful bag and looks chic whether it is carried as a handbag or slung on the shoulder, but the crocodile skin looks rather stiff.

(image: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/ledivorce/)

This Parisian's Kelly on the October issue of Lucky Magazine is a far more youthful and understated version of the bag. The leather is soft, the color, low profile and matches the gold hardware perfectly.

Food for Thought

The recent typhoons brought environmental issues to the forefront right here in Manila. Damage to our environment is not anymore a cause for concern in the near future but a problem that has reared its ugly head here and now.

Nowadays, lunch hour in the office doesn't go by without the recent calamities, along with environmental issues that caused it, being brought up.

So how can everyone help save the environment without taking on too much responsibility all at once? No need to wait for smart cars to become available in the mass market, this effort can be too expensive at present and may take a few more years to become a viable solution.

The simplest way is to try being a vegetarian. Of course, deciding to turn vegetarian doesn't have to be a lifetime decision right away. One vegetarian meal at a time is all it takes to start helping save this environment. According to http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp "Eating 1lb. of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV 40miles."

For more facts, features, links to other websites and documentary trailers on the environment, visit:

http://www.leonardodicaprio.org/

The solution need not be complicated nor expensive, and you can start helping right away. Try being a vegetarian for a day.

Starting with these tasty choices, salad and pizza from Kulinarya in Powerplant:

Drool-worthy

This is the future of shopping:

http://www.net-a-porter.com

An online shop featuring the latest in fashion, straight from the runways. Net-a-porter offers same day delivery in UK and the US, talk about a fashion emergency. No need to buy, just view the items to get an update on what's new. But after looking at Net-a-porter's online magazine, you may just be tempted to whip out your credit card and make a purchase.

(http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/02/technology/net_a_porter.fortune/index.htm)

Place your cursor over an item to get a glimpse of how it looks when worn as part of an outfit.

Enjoy!

Quote of the Day

"It is no way to live, to wait to love."

- Valentino Achak Deng, What Is the What by Dave Eggers

What's in That Cup?

At Php32, this brewed coffee from Mister Donut probably has the best value for money. It tastes better than the coffee from McDonald's and Jollibee, and for me it's even better than Starbucks brewed coffee. Put 2 packets of cream and 1 packet of sugar for the best taste. On another note, Mister Donut now uses the more environmentally friendly paper, as opposed to styrofoam, cup.

The Madness Equation

Freaky late night movie + outdoor market the morning after = madness from lack of sleep

The movie was District 9. The execution was quite original. Even the outer appearance of the aliens, prawns as they were referred to in the movie, was a new take on the alien concept, but I found the giant, rusty, metallic, cockroach-like creatures really freaky.

Dinner at Zuni in Greenbelt 5 was snooze-inducing. Despite having a full-page vegetarian menu, which to me meant the dishes would be promising because this restaurant gives importance to vegetarian patrons, my Trio Risotto failed to evoke an ooh-la-la moment. My order, which consisted of red and brown rice with boiled mushrooms, carrots and celery, was more appropriate under the description of tasteless rice pilaf than risotto. I've been a vegetarian for four months now. Surely, vegetarian dishes need not be this boring!

Compared to the risotto, I liked this Php 120 vegetarian combo my mom found in the Legazpi market this morning a whole lot more. For vegetarian dishes, it is very easy to tell which dishes are laden with salt and MSG and which ones are fresh and naturally tasty.

Pasta salad, roasted potatoes with dill, lentil with yogurt sauce (not in picture) and couscous. Yum!

My dad and I were hungry and impatient so while my mom went ahead to look for other vegetarian choices, Dad and I settled for this vegetarian longganisa, skinless, which was just in front of us when we were looking for something to eat. The stall also sells barbeque, java rice, and plain rice, all vegetarian. The tasty longganisa would have went very well with a mountain of plain rice.

While many of the same stalls set up in both the Salcedo market on Saturdays and the Legazpi market on Sundays, the latter offers more ready-to-eat dishes than the former. I personally prefer the Salcedo market which has a simpler layout than the maze-like Legazpi market.

This morning I tried a Strawberry Yogu, a creamy, almost unsweetened yogurt popsicle that had strawberry chunks in it at Picole, a stall that sells healthy ice pops. It was pretty good.

Starbucks was the only coffee shop near the Legazpi market. To avoid a repeat of my previous Starbucks catastrophe involving an overly sweetened drink, I decided to try the new DARK ROAST blend. I got an Iced grande sugar-free vanilla dark roast coffee jelly latte. It turned out to be a really good choice, in fact, a must-try. Hoorah! Just a note, the new coffee jelly is more like pudding; it is softer and less chewy than the old coffee jelly.

While we were in Starbucks, we saw two Korean children watching videos contentedly on each of their own laptops. Times are surely a-changing. When I was their age I only toted a Sweet Valley paperback with me to pass the time.

Me while waiting for F and J last night. I got these shoes last year. I noticed that oxfords are still in the fall/winter lines this year (http://www.style.com/vogue/voguedaily/2009/06/the-verdict-is-in-the-new-flats/esquivelfeet/) so I celebrated the coming of the -ber months by taking my shoes out for a spin. My old colleague called them witch's shoes, which they kind of are because of the slightly pointy toe. My next target is a pair of flat patent leopard print Repetto oxfords. Or maybe a pair of plain ones will do.

Last Hoorah

Summer in Hong Kong is drawing to an end. As summer's last hoorah, it was hotter than ever in HK with the temperatures rising up to 33 degrees C, as if the summer season were trying to make up for all the rains and typhoons during June and July. So the best remedy was to hang out in shopping malls to enjoy the free A/C, which was turned up to extra cold.

I noticed that retail stores are always on sale now ever since the financial tsunami last year. The winter sale season started as early as December 1st of last year, 3 weeks earlier than usual, and lasted until the end of February. The summer sale season started so early, on June 1st, that by June 30th, the official start of the sale, most stores had slashed the prices of items to half of the original price. Now, as the -ber months are looming ahead, most retail stores are still on sale as they try to discard the remaining pieces from the previous season. This situation makes buying anything at full price pretty much unreasonable.

One of my favorite places to dine in nowadays is Shanghai vegetarian restaurant Kung Tak Lam located on the 10th floor of the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay. I ate here before I became a vegetarian and loved their food even then. The food here is not heavy on seasoning and spices as is the case in many vegetarian dishes, the place is brightly lit, not crowded at all, and has a harbor view, and the service is impeccable. Many monks come here to dine, too, because all the dishes do not contain any garlic or onions.

My top 2 favorites are the pine nut and seaweed rice (HKD 48) and sweet and sour fake pork (HKD 88), for which mushroom was used as substitute. So far, I have not been disappointed in any of Kung Tak Lam's dishes yet. Kung Tak Lam also serves dim sum from 11am to 5pm; my favorite is the siumai.

This sweet and sour "pork" is crunchier than most real sweet and sour pork dishes.

Finally, Kung Tak Lam has a lunch set on weekdays for only HKD 45. Another affordable option is the Dan-Dan Mian or Sichuan Spicy Noodles, vegetarian style, very yummy at only HKD 28.

At long last, I finally found a boutique that imports Cath Kidston bags from UK. I tried to Google the bag in HK but the search only yielded pages in Chinese. Lately, I noticed many HK-ers toting a Cath Kidston, much like the Harrod's shopping tote phenomenon in 2005. When I saw a woman carrying one in the grocery, I gathered up my courage and asked her where she got hers. She told me that she bought her Cath Kidston in UK; luckily, she knows where to get it in HK!

Zazie Store (Shop 208) is located in Laforet, a mini shopping mall beside Giordano across Sogo, along East Point Road.

I ended up getting the biggest tote. The picture posted in my previous entry is only a book bag which is flat. The small handbag version of the big tote is also cute but the pattern I like is not available in the small size.

I also got Mom a purse with a metal clasp, which she is crazy about.

And the piece de resistance of my recent purchases is this item I came across by accident. Japanese jewellery 4°C collaborated with Sanrio to come up with a line of gold Kitty pieces. The pieces are so tiny, I thought it was a line for children, but the sales personnel assured me that it is for adults. What struck me are the clarity and cleanliness of the lines and dots on Kitty's face and the ribbon made from coral.

While having dinner at rbt in Causeway Place, I was blown away by the loudness of this B-bag. It was huge, fire-engine red, and has big gold hardware. I asked for her permission to take a photo of her bag which I liked a lot and discovered that she got it in China for 500yuan. Wow! It looked so real!

Trying to get a full paparazzi shot of the bag without success. The shop sells all sorts of knick-knacks. Given the sky-high rent of HK retail stores, the current trend among shop owners nowadays is to divide the rent among many different tenants. Anyone who has something to sell can get a box and display their wares in the box. During the whole course of my fast-food dinner, the foot traffic in this shop was non-stop. Some items sold here include mini flat-irons with fun prints like zebra lines, sunglasses, toys, accessories, displays, etc.

As closing, I use my MacBook for all my post entries as well as editing the layouts of my blog. When I checked my blog using an IBM laptop running on Windows, the font and pictures came out in a different size from my original configuration. I'm not quite sure how to fix it, but if my blog appears distorted, it's not supposed to look that way..I think.