first half of February 2012

021112

My post-graduation lunch was supposed to be at Spiral (Sofitel) but we weren't in the mood to pig out/attack the buffet. Instead of suffering from a food coma that afternoon, I dragged the fam to Chelsea Market Cafe since I was craving for my favorite sandwich...

I know y'all must be sick of me posting photos from Chelsea but I can't help it! 

My all-time favorite, their organic grilled vegetable sandwich.

Apple-peach cobbler

❧

Definitely one of those places where I can eat alone without caring about what others might think. The waiters know me for that. Sad, but I actually enjoy concentrating on my lunch on a typical weekday. 

❤

When on break from school...

There's meals during meetings, and more schoolwork.

Feb 27 (Sunday)- endured hours of manning a paint booth alone inside True Value (Rockwell) for my practicum.

I was supposed to be a "color expert". It was really a drag but I got to hand out my cards to two people (WOW is that an achievement) who asked if I did consultations. Uhh, why not? IDs are paid at least Php 500 an hour for that.

Had dinner with dad right after...

March 2 (Wednesday)- After school, the first meeting of the night was with my groupmates for Business of Interior Design... They had dinner at Cafe Mary Grace and I sat with them to fix all the material we needed on my laptop...

Ayen's

Pia's

Toni's

Meeting #2- Joined the rest of the officers (total of 13) plus our course adviser. We had our first meeting ever & went home half an hour past midnight! And to think a lot had to pass major plates that morning... I'm the youngest among the officers and most of them have jobs aside from school... You really drive yourself nuts in our school because of the quarterm system and raising of funds for the exhibit. Sleep, what sleep??? Pass me some concealer for my eye bags!

March 3 (Thursday)- I was totally a zombie since I didn't sleep after coming home from the meeting... I had to prepare all presentation material for our BID class. I ended up napping before presenting our initial concept during Interior Design 3 (Restaurant Design) and woke up during our turn. Good thing our professor liked our concept, plans and boards!

Pia and I celebrated by having dinner at Chelsea. SI didn't feel like eating a lot, so I had some truffled green pea soup. Pia had some mac n' cheese off the kids' menu.

♥♥♥

Friday- didn't have classes but still had to go to school to get briefed/rehearse for the alumni homecoming with the other officers.

Saturday- PSID alumni homecoming (will prolly post photos)

Sunday- sorta chill. Had to edit, send out e-mails, do plates, church. etc. (that's another blog post)

♥♥♥

It's weird how my week becomes crummy when I don't get to run. I get more hyper when I work out but that also means I have to get a decent 6 hours' worth of sleep. Mum says I'm killing myself slowly with this pattern of sleep-deprivation with exercise. I can't really do anything about the serious case of insomnia that runs in the family. I work better at night anyways... I don't know what's keeping me going but I'm just going to stick with "It's the vegetarian thing, you should try it!" Take it from Jenna.

As soon as I finish school, I swear I'm gonna get as fit as I was the last time I had a long break- sleep and being stress-free definitely made all the difference. I'm going to continue hoping that my holiday appetite won't come back anytime soon. (HAHAH YOU WISH, RALEENE!)

*EDIT: don't worry guys, I really do try to sleep when I get the chance to. And if I get zero sleep, i don't torture myself by working out for 2 hours. LOL

I am boring myself here... Thank goodness for pretty food pics. Thank you friends for ordering yummy things! xx

♥

the send-off

Melander from ALDO.

Huge sale on all the shoes and I wanted to buy some non-sale items, but didn't really fall in love with any of the styles cos they lacked my size or didn't have them in the color I wanted. Ended up buying these from the sale rack- which awesome since I needed everyday sandals with a bit of a heel. Too bad they didn't have them in black (which I know I'll never get sick of), but I'm getting into browns again anyways.

His meal. Softest piece of meat EVER.

Best Greek salad in the city.

Says he's determined to keep the faux hawk. mkayyy.

I miss mine terrrrrribbbblyyyyy. ☹

No more pics with the beau til he gets back from America. That's about... a year from now? Okay- I'd like to think that we're not really the pair to camwhore and take photos together so much when we actually get to hang, so I guess the only time I post photos of him here is when I actually get to photograph him or reflections of us. Never really got the hang of asking people to take our picture. And since we've been in this long distance thing since the beginning, I think we still look awkward when we pose together.

Well. I think too much about our own photos. Sad... But [this] is an exception. You can see how my poor little smile looks. And the tasteless stamping/framing was intentional (I'm trying to save my ass) just to give justice to the level of cheesiness we succumbed to. We're getting there, yeah?

My week has been uneventful since I've put my nerd glasses on, but next week will be awesome.

♥

gloomy days, sunny dispositions.

August 6 (Friday)- Club Republiq @ Resorts World

Mosh & I

with Pia and Ianna

August 07 (Saturday)- Chelsea Market & Cafe + Cultural Center of the Philippines + Manor Superclub

"Chelsea Greek" salad

mom's salmon

some pasta with sausage/meatballs

Banana Cream Cake

sugar-free tiramisu

outside the theatre after watching the classic, "CATS"

August 8 (Sunday)- Word Community Church + Chelsea Market & Cafe

Getting interviewed after performing for "An Unstoppable Force" at the Word Community Church.

Cookie Dough Cheesecake (Chelsea Market & Cafe)

Every Filipino's childhood fave- ChocNut!

yummy risotto balls

*Since I sold my LX3, the ff. photos were taken using the Canon Ixus 130... I'm pretty impressed with the clarity!*

Started my weekend by having lunch at Chelsea Market & Cafe for the nth time, but went to their new-ish branch at the Podium (which is nearer to my place). Tried out new dishes with mum and Paulo and enjoyed their food, as always! Then at night, we headed to Republiq for our first "Soiree"/Friday experience which was tons of fun! They played hip-hop during Fridays and the crowd was... younger.

Got to watch Tekken last Saturday (I'm not gonna comment any further, LOL) then rushed to the Cultural Center of the Philippines to watch the classic CATS musical. It was really long but enjoyed it so much. Was very proud to see the only Filipino, Lea Salonga, sing our favorite tune from the play (Memory). Went to Attica and then Manor with the guys shortly right after.

Sunday wasn't quite as "lazy" as I wanted it to be. Got up early and had brunch with the guys, then went to Greenhills and joined my family at Chili's before going to the Word Community Church, where a Christian convention called "An Unstoppable Force" took place. It's a 3-day event and our church was involved, so we were asked to perform during the first day. Had so much fun as usual, plus got positive feedback about our music. YAY! :) Mum and brother had to leave after our first song to catch their flight to Cebu, though. Had dinner with father at- you guessed it-Chelsea. Lovely way to end my weekend!

Mum and I are now contemplating on whether or not to fly to Singapore to shop for gadgets. Three days away would be perfect. Just got word that the no-plan 32gig iPhone 4 was being sold for SGD $1088 (Php 36,259)- loads cheaper as opposed to the ones being sold here for Php 60,000 since the units are not from Globe/Apple (hasn't been officially launched/released here yet). I also have to buy the Panasonic Lumix LX5. Pre-ordering one here would cost me Php 33,000 (USD $735) and its retail price is supposedly only USD $500+. I'm REALLY appalled at these price differences, so I think buying them from Singapore during a quick vaca would be better. Hope this trip pushes through and my schedule permits. But for me, it would be better if someone else could buy them (during their SG trip) since I really can't afford to sacrifice days, leaving my work/school work here in Manila. Hmm... Hopefully we can find someone to do just that...

We gon find you, we gon find you.

Riz was envious of Cholo's drumset!

Pogo, the most hyper-active Jack Russell Terrier!

bathroom wall!

Rizzie's shoesiez

They now serve their bread with some vinaigrette + olive oil on the side! (the garlic's still my fave, though)

Pea soup for Riz

herbed onion soup for me

Duck and the most heavenly risotto ever! (Rami and Yatim's dish)

Rizza's grilled organic vegetable salad (half of which I ate)

my Chelsea Greek salad (the cheese was the best!)

I had two servings of this.

I've wanted one of these since 2007.

Sunday

Inez invited us over to her condo since she wanted to make a video for Riz and I using one of our originals. It was hella fun, random and surprisingly fast! When we got to her place, we just sorta decided to wing it and did whatever in front of her camera while blasting our music and singing to it at the same time (lip-syncing is lame-o). We then tried to shoot at the penthouse but the guards stopped us (boo). Headed to Cholo's unit instead and shot the rest of the scenes there. Heard a couple of his original tracks which made Riz go on her usual fangirl mode again (his recordings are seriously awesome). He invited us to do a collab with him- woooh! Can't wait!

Attended Church Simplified and then celebrated Riz's victory (for that Green Giant FM DJ hunt thing at her school!) by having a hearty dinner at Chelsea Market & Cafe with Rami and Yatim. Had the obligatory frozen yogurt run right after!

------------------------------------------------------------

Some shots from Red's 21st birthday bash at 1Esplanade the night before (Saturday)

Thanks for the ride, Ianna! And thanks to Pia for being our human GPS :))

With the birthday boy! Already smashed when we got there :)

"cousins"!

Now that the weekend's over, we're lookin forward to the next one (as usual)...

:)