Power(less) Lunch at Casa Armas

My lunchgroup at work is composed of 16 people from different offices in our company. We have a reserved table at the executive dining room and whoever is available for lunch would just eat at our table. We call ourselves the "Powerless Table" (the opposite of a Power Table), but truth be told, we have a couple of top executives in the group. From time to time, we go out for lunch and our choice last week was Casa Armas at the Podium.

We had several "tapas": gambas, baked mussels, beef tapa and chorizo. And then we had the paella marinera and the paella valenciana, lengua , callos and the chuleton (angus steak). It was a delicious and very filling meal, but we enjoyed the chika more!

We then had dessert and coffee at Cafe Breton where we shared a number of crepes.

Barkada Reunion Part 5

(Pictures from DL and RL's camera)

Mom and Tina's Bakery Cafe was tonight's venue for our get-together. The place was the perfect setting for a relaxed evening with best friends. The adults occupied a long table while the kids had the couches. DW and family will be leaving on Friday and this is our last evening with them. E ordered the roast beef while I ordered my favorite beef stew. I know, I should have tried something different, but I played it safe again (yeah, yeah, BORING!) Everyone had dessert after, E tried the chocolate cupcake while I had the frozen strawberry walnut torte.

Again, it was a great evening with friends... wish we could do this more often...

Barkada Reunion Part 4

DL , our barkada from the US, arrived last night with her husband RL, while RW and family will be leaving to go back to Hongkong in the afternoon, so we had to meet for brunch today. We decided on Bizu at the Promenade in Greenhills. Bizu, being a French cafe, had a wide selection of omelettes and crepes, but E and I, being true pinoys, opted for their beef tapa and corned beef dishes with egg, fried rice and coffee (quite pricey at P295, but we agreed that the service was good and the ambiance was very nice).

DL thoughtfully brought us pasalubong of a Milano Series fuschia and neon green make-up/accessories bag, and inside were CO Bigelow's Mentha lip tint (in a mint green tube) and Cinnamint mentha lip shine (in a fuschia tube). Talk about color-themed pasalubong:-) Also, there were foot spa and body spa sachets. Can't wait to try them.

Freedom!!!

After 10 years, our home is finally fully paid! We've never felt so relieved and excited. E promised me that we will celebrate this event before we seriously get down to really saving for the rainy day...

This brings to mind memories of our first few years of marriage when it was so hard to make those mortgage payments because it would eat up half of our paycheck, not counting the income tax. So you can just imagine what was left of our paycheck: 100%-32% for tax-50% for the home mortgage. But everything was so worth it. We have a lovely home and we paid for every bit of it through our hard work and determination. Life's never been this good.

Barkada Reunion Part 3

(Apologies for not having a photo of the barkada, I forgot my camera and my camera phone is busted! Am still waiting for my friends JoeyZab and DW to send me pictures. Pictures and banner are from the website http://www.cymarestaurants.com/)

RW, our barkada who is based in Hongkong, is now in town and so the barkada had another get-together. So of the three overseas barkada, two are already in Manila. Our choice for the evening, one of our most favorite restaurants: Cyma (6F Shangri-la Mall, Tel. No. (632)6373090). E and I have eaten in this restaurant a couple of times but have only tried maybe 3 to 4 dishes because it was always just the two of us. This time, since we were a big group, we ordered a number of the chef's recommendations: of course our favorite Roka Salata (green salad with sundried tomatoes, candied walnuts,shaved parmesan with traditional greek vinaigrette), the appetizer sampler (Pikilia),Spinach and Artichoke fondue, Chicken, pork and vegetable souvlaki (Greek shish-kabobs), Baby clams angel hair pasta, Baby back ribs, and Paidakia (char-grilled lamb ribs). Iced tea and lemonade are refillable.

Everything we ordered were delicious. My personal favorites would be the salad and the baby clams pasta. Prices, inclusive of drinks, taxes and service charge amounted to about P491 per person. Considering that we still had take home, this is really value for money.

We had a great evening, it was mostly about remembering the good old college days and updating each other about our lives.

Day Off in Tagaytay

RC, E's cousin and one of our hosts in New Jersey last January (read about RC and New Jersey here), is here for a short vacation. We decided to take him to Tagaytay together with his mom Tita B and E's parents. We had to take the day off because RC had a very hectic schedule and only had today free.

We had lunch at Josephine's. We thought there would be a lunch buffet, but unfortunately the buffet (both breakfast and lunch) is only on weekends. We had a delicious Filipino meal nevertheless: sinigang na bangus belly, filipino salad with bagoong, grilled seafood, crispy beef tadyang, crispy pata and fried tawilis. We then had dessert outside to enjoy the Tagaytay air.

For coffee, we went to Cafe Breton at the Cliffhouse. The Cliffhouse has several well-known restaurants such as Fire Lake Grill, Buon Giorno and Massimo's. We'll try those next time.

Inside Josephine's for lunch
Al fresco dining for dessert at Josephine's overlooking Taal Lake and Volcano
The view from Cliffhouse
Coffee at Cafe Breton

The Bike Club

This is our growing Bike Club. What better way to stay healthy than be with your dearest friends and their families! Join us every weekend at the UP Academic Oval.

Midterms Na?!?

Again, am already halfway through another term. I'm slightly panicked because I think I'm progressing much slower than before. Maybe it's because of the size of the class ( I have 50 students), and maybe it's the subject, Introductory Accounting isn't really what most Accounting and Finance teachers would be fighting over. Or maybe it's a combination of both. I just hate to leave a topic which I feel my students have not grasped well enough. If their quizzes are low, I've been willing to take it step by step with them again, until I get satisfactory scores. I suppose my responsibility really is to make sure that they understand the concepts perfectly, and I'll make sure they do!

We Love Food

New Orleans at Bonifacio High Street

An update on our most recent food adventures:

New Orleans at Bonifacio High Street with my family. We had the rockefeller oysters and the barbeque ribs with jambalaya rice. Good food, and most importantly, excellent service. We'll definitely be back.

Italianni's at Bonifacio High Street is turning out to be one of our favorite restaurants. We've been there twice in the past month. We would always have the Sicilian Chicken Salad, but a recent discovery is the Mussels Lombardi (mussels cooked in white wine, olive oil, garlic,parsley and oregano).

If you love Thai food and are not picky on ambiance Som's Noodle House on Algier St.,Barangay Poblacion in Makati (otherwise known as Rockwell gilid, as it is just on the fringes of Rockwell) is a must. E and I love their Tom Yum Soup, Bagoong Rice and Red Beef Curry. Al fresco dining is on the street, though they have an airconditioned area. All the above plus a serving of Spring Rolls and 2 bottles of Coke Sakto cost us P500. We had most of the red beef curry, half the spring rolls and half the bagoong rice as take home. Not bad, P500 for two meals for the both of us.

My good friends in the office and I always go to Pancake House whenever we feel like eating out. Our favorites would be the tacos, the taco salad, tocino with rice, pan chicken and waffles. We went twice in a span of two weeks!

I had lunch with my friend PZ, who just came from the States and so kindly brought home some things for me, at Good Earth in Metrowalk. Their Kung Pao Chicken is still the best, but I was a bit disappointed with their Popoy's Delight (steamed fish fillet in a brown sauce). Their Good Earth Fried Rice is still good though.

My Sister T's Birthday at Bellevue Hotel

My sister T celebrated her _th birthday by treating us to buffet lunch at the Bellevue Hotel Coffee Shop. I love this place, it's very quiet, and they had live piano music all throughout lunch. Diners also have a choice of doing a full or a light buffet. A light buffet would just be soup, salad, appetizers and dessert, while the full buffet would include the main dishes. I just had the light buffet and it was well worth it. Their appetizer spread had my favorites salmon sashimi, smoked salmon and fresh oysters, plus cold cuts like parma ham and smoked tanguigue. Their bread and cheeses were also good. By not having the full buffet, I missed the roast beef and lamb, but it's ok, I really enjoyed my salmon and oysters. Thanks T! Happy birthday, we pray for your happiness always and success in everything you do.

Family Picture
My favorite niece and my favorite sister
"I love ice cream!!!"
The birthday girl and her hubby

Another family picture

One Year and 154 Posts

It's been one year since I started this blog. Yup, time really does fly. It's been a great way to keep track of what goes on in our lives. It has also been a great way to keep a travel diary, as well as a fun way to keep track of all the calories I've consumed. At least now, when somebody asks me why I've gained so much weight, I can just point them to this, then they'll understand perfectly!

Seriously, I think it's a great way to let important people in our lives know what E and I have been busy with without really bothering them. They can just look at the blog when they're not busy, and they'll already know what we've been up to. Of course, those who are not interested need not know anything about our lives, because reading our blog is entirely their choice:-)

Most importantly, I think I've tried to be as faithful to the original intent of this blog (as I've written here), which is to document all the things that I am thankful for and all the things I still strive for, and that this will also be about my life as a career woman, a college teacher, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt and of course as a friend. Hopefully, I have been able to share parts of myself to those who read this.

A big plus for readers would be to read reviews about anything under the sun: restaurants, shopping, things for the house, travel, food, lifestyle, entertaining, TV shows, and just about anything!

It's been a great year with all of you, looking forward to another year!

Biking Fun in U.P.

My good friend PZ joined E and I for this afternoon's biking. PZ was way more fit than I am, but we still had so much fun anyway. After biking, we spent some time relaxing and enjoying the U.P. Sunken Garden, something we did not do during our college days.

Barkada Reunion Part 2

Dinner this time was in Florabel at the Podium. We've heard so much about the place but E and I have never tried it (we were a bit intimidated, and we weren't sure what to order). Turns out it's the perfect place for an intimate dinner, and it's fine dining at its best. Our greatest discovery is the seared tuna and spicy tuna sashimi salad which E and I shared. I had the Crispy Dory and E had the prawn and chorizo pasta, which were both good. DW let us taste her order of Wagyu steak with Foie Gras, wow, it was heavenly, and of course, sinful.

It was a great dinner of catching up, with SC and husband TC sharing their stories of Greece, complete with slideshow presentation, and PZ sharing her stories of her very short trip to the US.

DW surprised us by treating us to this wonderful dinner, thanks DW!