Have you ever gone out on a date wherein you did not really feel like eating? I mean you enjoy your date and the whole night but you just feel stuffed?
Hubby and I do feel that way from time to time. And during those episodes, we skip TGIFriday's, Italianni's, etc. and look for places that offer light food.
One good find is Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
They are not full during dinner time. That means less noise.
They serve breakfast all day so I had the toast with jelly, butter and fruit preserves. It came with either hot or iced tea. All for a little less than Php150. Good price considering the size of the bread.
Hubby tried the sandwich selection. Sorry, forgot what he ordered... I think it was the Chutney Chicken. He liked it a lot. Price was less than Php200.
An even better find was Chuck's Deli, located at the Piazza. You might easily miss it because it is at the side directly in front of Market! Market!.
Place was quite small. Around 6-7 tables inside plus 3-4 outside... but diners get the feel of a New York eating place.
They have selections for the indeed hungry -- the loaded Ground & Pounder burger...
...to the pretenders (the trying-hards to lose weight).
Here's my Pilgrim Half, which has roast turkey meat and cranberry jelly. I like the idea of having cranberry in my meat. The ordinary becomes extraordinary!
And this is hubby's Buffy Half -- buffalo chicken, coleslaw and garlic sauce.
Pair them with Cherry Coke! YUM.
But before grabbing the slabwiches, sanitize your hands via the free alcogels that you will see on each table. Good thinking, owner!
Here's our bill.
After this phase, it is back to EATING a lot for us. We will probably give that loaded burger a try sometime soon.
February is really my month. Aside from the major life celebrations (which I will write about later), I went to my very first Sarah Geronimo concert.
Because I am a true blue fan, I bought the Patron VIP at Php4,000.
Got the tickets way back in December because the nearest area would normally get sold out after a few weeks. Talk about being excited.
It was a long wait. Then finally, February 12 came and it was one of the best days of the month for me.
Before entering the coliseum and while waiting for officemate, Liz.
Here is Liz beside the Sunsilk banner, inside Araneta.
At the concert area. There was a big screen.
Our seats (Row S) were, unfortunately, still far. It was a little disappointing but we forgot about it during the concert.
A shot of the whole stage. It seemed smaller than how we see it on TV. I like the big heart!
Concert started an hour late. Here is a shot of the coliseum around 1 1/2 hours before the show... was filled to brim half an hour later.
(The waiting time would have been a breeze if not for an irate man and his date. He was throwing out expletives because the show was late, while the date was supporting him in his cause. They did enjoy the concert and were even dancing at the end of the show. Weird.)
Sarah, during her opening number while wearing her opening dress. Lovely! And the shoes were super nice, too!
Now, with Martin.
Concert gown no. 2 + the yummy Gerald Andersen. They are shooting a movie together.
While singing Firework by Katy Perry, with fireworks and all. This was my favorite number of the night.
Outfit no. 3 while doing a K-pop number. K for Korean!
Martin, when he went so near our row.
Sarah while singing the hurting inside songs. Second favorite number was the Almost Over You by Sheena Easton rendition.
After the concert. Here is the heart I was talking about... isn't it cute?
The Sarah G concert-goers: me, Liz and Nova.
Martin was indeed the Concert King because he was an all-out and damn funny performer. Sarah sounded so much better than TV and she was just stunning. It was a heck of a show so I will definitely not miss a Sarah concert in the years to come.
Happy Birthday, cousin Crissy!
Happy Birthday, cousin Joel!
Here's to a fabulous day and a fabulous year.
I have crossed over. I have graduated from the Academy of Coaches and Longchamps awhile ago.
I have just enrolled to Gucci University and would be happy to explore the others. Not very soon. I will get there.
A closer look.
It's a 'Gucci charm' medium top handle bag with interlocking G charm.
The love affair begins.
Hubby is not exactly an expert photographer but he has talent so being the supportive wife that I am, I always encourage him to continuously develop this arty side of him.
We got him a basic digital SLR camera and another lens so he could practice. Apart from that, he also joined a Digital Photography 101 class conducted by the Alcove Perspective -- a photography group under the Filipinas Heritage Library. These were all 2 years ago so I surmised (and this turned out to be true according to him) that he kind of lost a lot of things he learned from the class including his fascination with the mahalia (read: expensive) gadget.
Good thing the Alcove is composed of an intelligent bunch of people, they kept the contact details of their ex-students in the 101 classes. Hubby was invited to a Photowalk Challenge! And since he is sweet, he invited me to join, too.
It was something new and kind of interesting so I said yes. I do have an artistic side so I am always open to different avenues of expressing it. Plus, I did not need a digital SLR, just a point and shoot would do.
The Photowalk Challenge required participants to go around Makati and take pictures of a list of subjects. The list had 22 challenges so this meant submitting 22 photos to the judges.
Jay Alonzo, a professional photographer, provided some words of inspiration to the participants before the challenge was kicked off.
Armed with my point and shoot Canon camera (which is 4 years old!!!), I joined hubby and WALKED from the Ayala Triangle to Greenbelt, Glorietta, and back.
Here are my finished products. 17 out of 22.
It was very tiring as I don't really fancy walking. Aside from that, it was drizzling every now and then. Not my kind of activity but I did enjoy the challenge so I am up for another one next year!
After shooting was judging time. We had dinner courtesy of Via Mare. And there were lots of raffle draws. Hooray! I won an Olympus raincoat!!!
But judging entries from 90+ contestants ain't that easy, so the waiting time was tooo long.
Good thing we waited... because hubby was one of the 10 consolation prize winners!!! My iPhone got discharged, my digicam, too, so I can't show the awarding ceremonies.
Here are his two best shots in my book. He has not lost his touch after all.
Challenge: Photograph a lady with an umbrella.
Challenge: Photograph "The Pin" at the Ayala Museum
For more information about Alcove, please check out their website here.
Found a new addiction recently -- doing my own pedicure.
I am doing Pilates once every week. Most of my Pilates-mates have their toe nails colored so I kind of felt more insecure about my unpolished nails AND fat toes.
In my crusade to better looking toes, I had to find a good set of nail polish.
I first tried the products of the suking manicurista at my hubby's hometown. They were either Bobbie or Caress. Lasted a week without chipping (pwede na!). The gloss though begins to fade after around 3 days.
Then, I tried Caronia with me doing the pedicure. Goodness, not even 3 days! Probably, it was largely due to the applicator (read: me) but still I will not stick with the brand.
And then, Marianne told me about Sally Hansen and The Face Shop products. They last long and easy to apply. She added that these two brands will not make your nails yellowish. Sally was way beyond my budget for a nail polish so I went to The Face Shop. Got the hot pink polish and tried it on the next day...
After more than a week (approaching two actually), colors were still intact and glossy!!!
I got to change it very soon cause the growing (and uncolored) parts are starting to show.
Bought one more color (a pearly green shade), plus, the nail base coat. Here they are with my hot pink one.
No more insecure feet!
Next week, everything will be official -- I am back to doing reporting. After almost 5 years. In the finance world, this is crunching the numbers and making a report out of them. Yes, I will soon be spending hours in the office month by month, ensuring all adjustments are passed and breaks are cleared.
You see, my ex-assignment was a start-from-scratch to a fully operational global process. It deals mainly with finance architecture and because of the fast-paced culture of my employer, we do both projects and operations at the same time. It was indeed a up and down ride so I credit my ex-assignment for the the maturity that I have now.
And to pay homage to my ex, I am listing down some of the notable learnings that I will carry for the rest of my career.
- You can work well with a person even if you don't see him or her. You don't even have to be in the same timezone. My former big boss is in London, one expert in London, too. One more expert is in Sydney. And the Manila team coordinates with a team in Tampa, which is literally at the other side of the earth. We burned the phone lines most of the time just to coordinate. See my overused office phone below.
- I learned to be a good time manager. With my little boy, hubby, and the household, I still managed to join conference calls at night. See my typical daily outlook calendar below.
- Managing a team zaps the energy out of you and it's hard work but it does make you a better person. The hardest decisions I made in my career were not about me but about other people.
- You don't have to love your job to good at it. And I would probably end up not loving any other job for a long time because my greatest dream is to become a historian. With whatever job you have, you need to not hate it. Your energies should be focused on the long term goals you have set for yourself.
It has been almost a month since I started drifting away from my ex. I am officially missing my old job but it was indeed time to move on and hop on another bus.
See you around, ex! Cheers!
