Previously Unposted Date Pix

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at SM MoA (with The Contessa and Sadrina, tho' not in the picture). (Nov. 2)

Trinoma Mall (Nov. 8)

Bolt 3D screening at Gateway Mall (Nov. 29)

Xmas'ed Out

As backlogs (or BcLogs) go, mine's been backed up like a constipated sumo wrestler.

The day before Xmas Eve I had a late dinner w/ Eileen at Cyma in Trinoma. She got me a gift while I gave back some of her DVDs. Not the fairest Kris Kringle exchange, I know...

First Xmas with Liza, both Eve and Actual. For the Eve we first had a light dinner at her house, where I presented gifts to her mom (stereo) and dad (really nice umbrella). For her part she gave me Fuji apples branded w/ various icons like Xmas trees, Santas and even some "I Love You" signs. Turns out they were done by placing stickers on the apples a month before harvest.

At my place there was an actual party, so we ate even more, from BBQ to lechon and tasty chicken pie, although she preferred the pork soup and Chinese fried chicken. Popsicles for dessert (twin for me, pinipig crunch for her). Ate Penny was nice enough to write up for me a request for an X-ray to check out my shoulders, w/c have been aching for some time now. Save for one family I managed to get groups portraits for almost all the guests. Mine were even gracious enough to have Liza included in our shot.

And for the first time I had someone else help and participate in making my annual Xmas Clone Card (see result in previous blog entry). Previous experimenting w/ night photography helped make up for last year's cut-and-paste disaster.

I slept around 4AM, only to be awakened 5 hours later by Liza asking me to attend morning mass w/ her and her folks. This event I was sorely tempted to sleep and skip over, but she used the "3M Phrase" ("Mean so much to me"), so for the first time in several forevers I found myelf in a church w/o any previous wedding or baptism ceremony arranged, and before lunchtime. On the plus side Liza joined me at my place for the latter. Mmm, leftover chicken pie...

After lunch we all rested a bit, then headed to SM MoA to brave the traffic jams and the mall crowds, the likes of w/c I hadn't seen since the last 3-Day Sale at SM North EDSA. In the midst of looking for someplace to eat Liza decided to play Poke Your Partner's Private Parts in Public. Far be it from me to refuse this kind of challenge.

While it didn't help she was making up the scoring rules as we went along, in the end I gave up trying to earn points and just did it for sh*ts and giggles. She still insists I lost when she gave herself 2000 points for biting my finger in front of my brother Wilson, who was seated across the table from us at Fish & Co. (Don't worry, he wasn't looking. I think.).

After the early dinner we spent some time in Fully Booked, where Liza bought more vampire books and got me the paperback edition of Bob Woodward's State of Denial. Afterward we made the unfortunate decision to walk all the way to Tom's World in the South Wing to look for the kids, only to find out everyone was at Haagen-Dazs back North. I tried to take her mind off the long walk back by offering to carry all her things and telling her expensive servings of ice cream are better than queuing at Starbucks.

At The Dazs she sampled whatever flavor she could. The servers forgot my double scoop order entirely, so I ended up sharing Liza's caramel apple crumble and choco-choco chip combo. Everybody went home late again, but I had to keep her books in storage as she doesn't want her folks to find out she went on another book buying binge. :)

Premature THIS

Happy Holidays, Y'all!

Settled In

After a week of long-time-no-see (Tuesday business meeting w/ Mindstorm Media at their QC office to discuss producing the c3Maxx video doesn't count), Liza and I are now more or less (ok, more) getting used to the weekend "liaisons" (Euphemism Device activated). And Saturday afternoon was all liaison. :) We groomed ourselves silly for the occasion. She brought the bread and cheese, I brought peanut butter and grapes. After that mini-picnic we still had enough of an appetite for dinner at Teriyaki Boy Ortigas (though she doesn't wanna go back because of the taste). Washed the bad taste away w/ a nightcap at Starbucks AshCreek, where at the parking garage I handed her her Xmas present. She gave me a black 2008 Starbucks Planner.

The Sunday afternoon "liaison" was just so she could get outta thes house and avoid any impending lectures about Life by her Mom. Although when I dropped to pick her up she wasn't ready, so I spent some time bonding w/ Auntie Sally by way of helping decorate their Xmas tree and speaking to her in Fukien Chinese whenever possible.

Finally we were off in a quest to find Pa's Xmas present: Bally socks. SM Centerpoint didn't have any in stock and said only the Big Branches (like SM City or Megamall) had them. I was disappointed since the Xmas traffic jams seemed to be still in full force. We drove back to Agno to rest a bit and reassess our options, i.e. do I wanna drive all the way to SM North EDSA and possibly miss the salmon dinner for 6 pairs of socks. In between thoughts I whipped up some egg-ang garlic fried rice for her, as her last meal was brunch. She ate it w/ fish leftover from lunch, while I had a ponkan.

Eventually we did go to SM City, the traffic thankfully not as bad as I thought. True to their word Bally socks were available, so we got Pa 6 pairs and Liza bought another 3 for her dad. We didn't bother checking out the newly built Annex, and instead walked to the other side of The Block (get it?) for some Bubble Tea (and cake that looked but thankfully didn't taste like a cross-section and dirt and freshly mowed lawn grass).

We drove back to Agno again, this time so I can have dinner. It was only after we watched the latest episode of The Mentalist (seated together on the freshly reupholstered couch) did I finally drive her home. Later we texted each other thanks for the company, then she said her mom was glad I "conversed with her" in Chinese. I was just glad she initiated it.

Wotta Weekend

SATURDAY: Picked up Liza early, so we could make a quick stopover to pick up our tickets for the musical Hairspray tomorrow. Robinson's Dept. Store branch was too by-the-book (as if Liza would have my credit card, receipt and 2 of my IDs for some other reason), so we hastily made up a letter of authorization while trying the NBS branch in Megamall. While driving outta there (loitered outside instead of properly parking) I caught a glimpse of (and almost ran over) old classmate Ian Howell Tan.

While she was slightly miffed at us being a little late (still haven't gotten the hang of driving around BGC), we still managed to meet up w/ her barkada (and their respective "Non-Barkada" beaus and bud, and baby) at Serendra. The girls exchanged gifts while the guys exchanged gabs.

SUNDAY: The afternoon in bullet points...

• Avoided traffic police who were looking for (according to Liza) handouts, car profiling rich-looking AUVs and failing to flag us down successfully when I was sure the light was still green. Or I swerved, but it was to avoid idiot traffic cop for moving in my path and waving suddenly. Or mebbe it was because of us wasn't wearing their seatbelt at the time, not sure, didn't stick around. As I drove past them my heart raced and all I could think of was Please don't have motorbikes to chase us with. (They didn't.) Call me crazy but I like to limit embarrassing incidents involving cops while w/ my girlfriend to once-a-never-again.
  
• Almost parked just outside Star City when an attendant approached and said the flat rate was 60 bucks(!) Fortunately I talked to a security guard who said parking inside the Star City lot was free . Eff to da You, highway robber parking dude, we outta there.
  
• At the Star Theater we ran into Wilson's boss Liza, and one of his ADMU classmates. For my part I shared Men's Room time w/ Ricky Davao.
• The layout of the place was different from what I pictured, with no real balcony area and just elevated rows. (Ticketworld website ought to show both bird's eye and side view diagrams) Freezing temperatures inside made Liza regret wearing a sleeveless blouse. Worse, they made changes to the seating arrangements and the middle aisle seats I paid for were now at the leftmost side of the theater. (By the second act we moved to the empty seats near the middle of our row.)
  
• As for the musical production itself: Good thing I saw the movie version on HBO days earlier, because I still caught the gist of the story while well-enunciated lyrics were lost on crappy sound systems. Also, no live band, so basically we watched the Minus One version.
  
• Note to Michael de Mesa: You can only drag (no pun intended) on the change-to-manly-voice joke for so long before it gets old. We already know you're in tranny mode, so live up to the feminine side of it and impress us with more dancing while wearing heels.
• Why are good American accents so hard to find in local theater nowadays? Not to sound racist but the Talalog accents were really distracting.

The real event of the evening (aside from the one that happened after the play which I won't talk about here) was the wedding reception of Chinabank Tutuban Manager Andrew Kong and his bride Aileen at Century Seafood Restaurant. Liza really wanted to go and I obliged, seeing as I was there to represent of the 'Rents, while she went in place of her mom. Five tables were allotted for Chinabank friends and clients, not that the place needed any more butts on the seats. We left the reception early enough to avail of the half-off valet parking discount (25 bucks). No wedding souvenier or lanky floral centerpiece to take home, though, the latter to Liza's frustration. Yes, she only wanted the big flower in the middle of the arrangement, but I was distacted by the other flowers that were just taped on the thinner branches.

We had a last-minute nightcap at Starbucks in Robinson's Otis. Still in formal attire, it was weird being the best-dressed couple in a coffee shop.

Not that I'm complaining. This weekend was for her, and I'm happy to serve.