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The money shall come. (Maybe even checks in the mail!)
The email I'm waiting for will have positive feedback beyond my wildest dreams
My good friends Gretch and Jay shall get their wishes this year and
We shall receive a big surprise before the year ends. :)
Check out the book for yourselves and let the secret work wonders in your lives as well. : )
http://www.thesecret.tv/home.html
Noel and I decided to try the newly-opened Il Pirata restaurant in Eastwood City.
It's a different dining experience, giving you a feel of being on board a pirate's ship complete with the whole pirate crew, pirate-themed plates, a huge bubbling cauldron of pirate's stew (I suppose that's what it was) at the entrance of the restaurant and a gaudy golden tiled pirate ship ceiling.
Noel had a portobello mushroom gnocchi (this is a potato based hand-made pasta with creamy tomato sauce)
and we shared a portobello mushroom pizza.
Both were not bad, especially the pizza. I had my usual staple, Spaghetti Alle Vongole. But this was the first time I noticed the al dente cooking of noodles here which I liked very much. Noel bought some dessert at the newly-opened Dairy Queen and then we caught the last show of Ratatouille- more food involved! The movie was adorable! It made us want to go back to Paris... even if Remy (the main rat) made me cry, I don't think the movie changes my original feeling towards rats in general...
We had a lovely dinner just in time to celebrate Pef's bday (which is today). Newly opened Ristorante Maurizio along H.V. Dela Costa is a cozy place that serves excellent Italian food. We had Pizza alla Diavola (with chili sausage slices), and 3 pastas: Noel had linguine with tartufo (truffle) sauce and mushrooms, Pef had a similar pasta but hers was ravioli stuffed with spinach and I had an olive oil based spaghetti with shrimp, broccoli and a touch of pepporoncino. (little red chilis) The owner, Maurizio, goes around from table to table checking on everyone. He even gave us a city map of Makati! Hahaha! (Maybe for Tov who he might've assumed was foreign)
It was like we were back in college again, laughing over silly things (Pef trying to sing the jingle of what she thought was called Brandy 45- hahaha! and Tov doing his Borat impersonations) although this time we also talked about work, and we could afford to eat better. : ) Tov treated us to a bottle of wine that cost more than our whole dinner! For dessert we had panna cotta (too cheesy though) and 2 heavenly scoops of gelato: nocciola (hazelnut) and zabaione (tiramisu-like) It was great being just us 4 again.
Ristorante Maurizio is at 138 H.V. Dela Costa St., Salcedo Village Makati City. For reservations call 750-7817 or fax 750-7891 Although try to take a driver if you can or carpool, parking is a bit tricky in that area.
Yesterday at work, my friend and co-teacher Tebs came into the lounge telling us about the cutest little girl who was sitting in the reception area with her parents. We were curious so we stepped out for a peek. She was the sweetest little girl, about 2 or 3 years old with curly dark blonde hair. (She even looks like the picture above!) Such a smiley, behaved little thing. We were all cooing. Haha!
When her parents finished with their business, they headed out the door and she stopped to smile and wave at me. It was strange but I she seemed like an angel who was telling me: "It will all be all right. He knows." It made me feel light and happy. And when I went back into the lounge to share this with my friends, a few of them laughed and some looked dazed. But I felt comforted. God does know. :)
How do you smile and be happy for so many someones when the very thing those someones have seemingly called into their lives so easily is the very thing you have been wanting so bad (it drives you mad) yourself? And when moments arise that you seem to have conquered all the scary monsters, there are days when you are almost back to square one.
Here's a photo checklist of what to do in Tagaytay Midlands when you're in a 4-room house with your crazy family
First to do: Test out the jacuzzi- how many can we pack in?
Befriend a bat or two
Snack on your faves:
Abuelita's Marshies
Cheetos Twisted Puffs! (mine)
Play mini mahjong
Play solitaire (that's our Abuelita- I hope to look as good as her at 93!)
Do a dance solo (that's my Dad)
Have zany dance contests
Cram Cousins on the Couch
Took this from my good friend Jay's site. Watch out for the Filipino flag. If this doesn't move you to tears...
On most of our bus rides, they were showing the LIVE EARTH concerts happening simultaneously across 7 continents. It was really moving to see all these people joining together, that I'd literally be watching it with teary-eyes. I hope it's not too late. Some simple tips to be found here and here
on how we can all contribute. The ad clips are still playing in my head: "This could be good. Hey you."
Just got back late afternoon yesterday from our 4 day trip to Sing. We're exhausted as anything and poor Noel had to go to work already today and pick up our car from the casa. (It was being serviced the whole time we were away) We were very lucky to have a lovely place to stay, Plaza Mitzi. (who offered her flat to us while she's back here in Manila on vacay)
It was choc-full of eats and shopping sprees- my head was always spinning and I'd have guilt pangs because of all the wonderful commercialism in Singapore. We arrived during the time of the Great Singapore Sale. We went crazy in IKEA- never mind that our feet and arms were killing us. (Noel said we wouldn't need a cart so our arms were stiff from carrying all our greedy hands could grab hold of- mostly bed linen.)
Meal time usually meant some type of spicy fare. The teppanyaki table is really one of our faves: you have the option to choose beef, scallops, shrimps, etc. and it comes with a nice hot bowl of steamed rice plus generous amounts of bean sprouts and what looked like spinach.
our teppanyaki meal
Our good friend Jolet and his wife Christina treated us to our first Chili crab meal at the No Signboard Seafood resto in this wonderful mall called Vivo City. We had ice cream at Ben Jerry's afterwards. :)
at No Signboard Seafood Resto
Ben & Jerry's!!! (Noel had cookiedough and I had coffee! coffee! buzz! buzz!)
Noel and I returned to Vivo City the next day for more shopping (I reserved a pair of Aldo shoes in a mall nearby) and for a hearty lunch at Noel's favorite, Marche'.
Our last day, we started off in Raffles City Mall, where Noel found a lovely fine dining Thai resto called Patara for lunch. We had a scrumptious green mango salad with softshell crab, asparagus and scallops sauteed in garlic, prawn cakes and black olive rice with shredded chicken. FANTASTIC!
Whatta spread!